Chapter XXVII, “Puissance des Nombres d’après Pythagore” for what

follows. 1365 The reason for it is simple, and was given in _Isis Unveiled_. In geometry, one straight line fails to represent a perfect figure, nor can two straight lines constitute a perfect figure. The triangle is the first perfect figure. 1366 Ragon, _ibid._, p. 428, note. 1367 _Ibid._, p. 431. 1368 _Op. cit._, p. 113. 1369 Now what is the meaning and the reason of this figure? The reason is that Manas is the _fifth_ principle, and that the Pentagon is the symbol of Man—not only of the five‐limbed, but rather of the _thinking, conscious_ Man. 1370 The reason for it becomes apparent when Egyptian symbology is studied. See further on. 1371 _Ibid._, p. 114. 1372 _Ibid._, pp. 114, 115. 1373 _Book of the Dead_, lxxxviii. 2. 1374 _Philosophumena_, v. 14. 1375 See _Philosophumena_, v. 14. 1376 So is Brahma’s _fifth_ head, said to be lost, burnt to ashes by Shiva’s “central eye”; Shiva being also Panchânana “five‐faced.” Thus the number is preserved and secrecy maintained on the true Esoteric meaning. 1377 “When the Sun passes away behind the 30th degree of Makara and will reach no more the sign of the Mînam (Pisces) then the Night of Brahmâ has come.” 1378 Death of every physical thing truly; but Mâra is also the unconscious quickener of the birth of the Spiritual. 1379 Osiris is called in the _Book of the Dead_ (cxlii. B. 17) “Osiris, the double crocodile.” “He is the good and the bad Principle; the Day and the Night Sun, the God and the mortal man.” Thus far the Macrocosm and the Microcosm. 1380 _Op. cit._, p. 117. 1381 King’s _Gnostics and their Remains_, p. 297. 1382 Reflecting on the cross, the author of _The Source of Measures_ shows that this candlestick in the Temple “was so composed that, counting on either side, there were _four_ candle‐sockets; while, at the apex, there being _one in common_ to both sides, there were in fact 3 to be counted on the one side and 4 on the other, making in all the number 7, upon the self‐same idea of one in common with the cross display. Take a line of one unit in breadth by 3 units long, and place it on an incline; take another of 4 units long, and lean it upon this one, from an opposite incline, making the top unit of the 4 in length the corner or apex of a triangle. This is the display of the candlestick. Now, take away the line of 3 units in length, and _cross_ it on the one of 4 units in length, and the cross form results. The same idea is conveyed in the six days of the week in Genesis, crowned by the seventh, which was used by itself as a base of circular measure” (p. 51). 1383 From a MS. supposed to be by “St. Germain,” embodied by Ragon, _op. cit._, p. 434. 1384 It had no such meaning in the beginnings, nor during the earlier dynasties. 1385 From an unpublished MS. 1386 From St. Germain’s MS. 1387 Yet this sense, if once mastered, will turn out to be the secure casket which holds the keys to the Secret Wisdom. True, a casket so profusely ornamented that its fancy‐work hides and conceals entirely any spring for opening it, and thus makes the unintuitional believe it has not, and cannot have, any opening at all. Still the keys are there, deeply buried, yet ever present to him who searches for them. 1388 _Vishnu Purúna_, I. xv; Wilson’s Trans., ii. 29. 1389 Quoted in Gerald Massey’s _The Natural Genesis_, i. 427. 1390 With the Christians, most undeniably. With the Pre‐Christian Symbologists it was, as said, the Bed or Couch of Torture during the Initiation Mystery, the “Crucifix” being placed horizontally, on the ground, and not erect, as at the time when it became the Roman gallows. 1391 So it was, and could not be otherwise. Julian, the Emperor, was an Initiate, and as such knew well the “mystery‐meaning” both metaphysical and physical. 1392 _Op. cit._, _ibid._, p. 433. 1393 _Book of the Dead._ xxxix. Apophis or Apap is the Serpent of Evil, the symbol of human passions. The Sun (Osiris‐Horus) destroys him, and Apap is thrown down, bound and chained. The God Aker, the “Chief of the Gate of the Abyss” of Aker, the Realm of the Sun (xv. 39), binds him. Apophis is the enemy of Ra (Light), but the “great Apap has fallen!” exclaims the Defunct. “The Scorpion has hurt thy mouth,” he says to the conquered enemy (xxxix. 7). The Scorpion is the “worm that never dies” of the Christians. Apophis is bound on the Tau or Tat, the “emblem of stability.” (See the erection of Tat in Tatoo, xviii.) 1394 So have the crypts in Cis‐Himâlayan regions where Initiates live, and where their ashes are placed for seven lunar years. 1395 _The Natural Genesis_, i. 432. 1396 The Cross and the Tree are identical and synonymous in symbolism. 1397 lvii. 3. 1398 _Ibid._, 5. 1399 Sermon clx. 1400 _Vishnu Purâna_, Wilson’s Trans., iii. 174, note by Fitzedward Hall. 1401 Hence the Initiates in Greece called the Tau Γαιήιος, “son of Gaia,” “sprung from Earth,” like Tityos in the _Odyssey_ (vii. 324). 1402 Ragon, _Orthodoxie Maçonnique_, etc., pp. 432, 433. 1403 _Ibid._, p. 433, note. 1404 See the _Mahâbhârata_, _e.g._, III. 189, 3, where Vishnu says, “I called the name of water Nârâ in ancient times, and am hence called Nârâyana, for that was always the abode I moved in (Ayana).” It is into the Water, or Chaos, the “Moist Principle” of the Greeks and Hermes, that the first seed of the Universe is thrown. “The ‘Spirit of God’ moves on the dark waters of Space”; hence Thales makes of it the primordial element and prior to Fire, which was yet latent in that Spirit. 1405 See the bronze statue of Tripurântaka Shiva, “Mahâdeva destroying Tripurâsura,” at the Museum of the India House. 1406 Ragon, _ibid._, p. 433, note. 1407 There are learned Brâhmans who have protested against our septenary division. They are right from their own standpoint, as we are right from ours. Leaving the three _aspects_, or _adjunct principles_ out of calculation, they accept only four Upâdhis, or Bases, including the Ego—the reflected image of the Logos in the Kârana Sharîra—and even “strictly speaking ... only three Upâdhis.” For purely theoretical metaphysical philosophy, or purposes of meditation, these three may be sufficient, as shown by the Târaka Yoga system; but for _practical occult teaching_ our septenary division is the best and easiest. It is, however, a matter of school and choice. 1408 _Commentary_, Book ix. F. 19. 1409 Protista are not animals. The reader is asked to bear in mind that when we speak of “animals,” the mammalians alone are meant. Crustacea, fishes, and reptiles are contemporary with, and most have preceded, _physical_ man in this Round. All were bisexual, however, before the age of mammalia in the closing portion of the Secondary or Mesozoic ages, _yet nearer to the Palæozoic than the Cænozoic ages_. Smaller marsupial mammalia are contemporary with the huge reptilian monsters of the Secondary. 1410 _Æneid_, vi. 725‐729. “First [Divine] Spirit within sustains the heavens, the earth and watery plains, the moon’s orb and shining stars and the [Eternal] Mind diffused through all the parts [of Nature], actuates the whole stupendous frame and mingles with the vast body [of the Universe]. Thence proceed _the race of men and beasts_, the _vital principles_ of the flying kind and the monsters which the Ocean breeds under its smooth crystal plane.” “All proceeds from Ether and from its seven natures”—said the Alchemists. Science knows these only in their superficial effects. 1411 Compare _Descent of Man_, p. 164. 1412 Bartlett’s _Land and Water_. 1413 _Source of Measures_, p. 65. The author explains: “_Note_ that in Hebrew, _Jared_, the father of Enoch, is construed to be ‘_the mount of descent_,’ and it is said to be the same with _Ararat_, on which the cubical structure of _Noah_, or _foundation measure_, rested. _Jared_, in Hebrew, is י־רד. The root derivations are the same with those of _Ararat_, of _acre_, of _earth_. The Hebrew י־רד is _literally, in British_, Y R D; hence, in _Jared_, is to be found _literally_, our English word _yard_ (and also י־רד, for _Jah_, or _Jehovah, is rod_). It is noteworthy that the son of _Jared_, viz., _Enoch_, lived 365 years; and it is said of him, by rabbinical commentators, that the year period of 365 days was discovered by him, thus bringing, again, _time_ and _distance_ values together, _i.e._, _year time_ descended, by coördination, through the _yard_, or _Jared_, who _thus was its father_, in or through _Enoch_; and truly enough, 1296 = _yard_ (or _Jared_) × 4 = 5184, the characteristic value of the solar day, in _thirds_, which, as stated, may be styled the _parent, numerically_, of the solar year” (_ibid._). This, however, by the astronomical and numerical kabalistic methods. Esoterically, Jared is the Third Race and Enoch the Fourth—but as he is taken away alive he symbolizes also the Elect saved in the Fourth, while Noah is the Fifth from the beginning—the family saved from the Waters, eternally and _physically_. 1414 vii. 2, 3. 1415 _Five Years of Theosophy_, pp. 202, 203. 1416 _Ibid._, p. 200. 1417 Oliver’s _Pythagorean Triangle_, p. 104. 1418 _De Anim. Procr._, 1027. 1419 Oliver, _ibid._, p. 112. 1420 Reuchlin è Cabala, l. ii; Oliver, _ibid._, p. 104. 1421 In _The Source of Measures_, the author shows (pp. 50, 51) that the figure of the cube unfolded in connection with the circle “becomes ... a _cross proper_, or of the _tau_ form, and the attachment of the circle to this last gives the _ansated cross_ of the Egyptians.... While there are but 6 faces to a cube, the representation of the cross as the cube unfolded, as to the cross‐ bars, displays one face of the cube _as common to two bars_, counted as belonging to either [_i.e._, once counted horizontally, and once vertically]; ... 4 for the upright, and 3 for the cross‐bar, making _seven_ in all. Here we have the famous 4 and 3 and 7.” Esoteric Philosophy explains that _four_ is the symbol of the Universe in its potential state, or Chaotic Matter, and that it requires Spirit to permeate it actively; _i.e._, the primordial _abstract_ Triangle has to quit its one‐dimensional quality and spread across that Matter, thus forming a _manifested_ basis on the three‐dimensional space, in order that the Universe should manifest intelligibly. This is achieved by the cube unfolded. Hence the _ansated_ cross as the symbol of man, generation and life. In Egypt Ank signified “soul,” “life” and “blood.” It is the _ensouled, living_ man, the septenary. 1422 _Supra_, p. 626. 1423 Oliver, _ibid._, p. 114. 1424 _Pythag._, p. 61. 1425 Oliver, _ibid._, p. 172. 1426 _De Plac. Phil._, p. 878. 1427 See Oliver, _ibid._, p. 106. 1428 _Ibid._, p. 108. 1429 Reuchlin, _ut supra_, p. 689; Oliver, _ibid._, pp. 112, 113. 1430 Oliver, _ibid._, p. 118. 1431 _Bucolica_, Ecl. viii. 75. 1432 Philo, _De Mund. Opif._; Oliver, _ibid._, p. 172. 1433 The seven Planets are not limited to this number because the Ancients knew of no others, but simply because they were the primitive or primordial “Houses” of the seven Logoi. There may be nine and ninety‐nine other planets discovered—this does not alter the fact of these seven alone being sacred. 1434 Oliver, _ibid._, pp. 173, 174. 1435 _Ibid._, _loc. cit._ 1436 _The Natural Genesis_, i. 545. 1437 _Ibid._ 1438 In _Timæus_, iii.; _ibid._ 1439 Oliver, _ibid._, p. 175. 1440 See Section F., _infra_, “The Seven Souls of the Egyptologists.” 1441 The Seven Centres of Energy evolved, or rendered objective by the action of Fohat upon the One Element; or, in fact, the “Seventh Principle” of the Seven Elements which exist throughout manifested Kosmos. We may here point out that they are in truth the Sephiroth of the Kabalists; the “Seven gifts of the Holy Ghost” in the Christian system; and in a mystical sense, the seven children or sons of Devakî killed before the birth of Krishna by Kansa. Our seven principles symbolize all of these. We have to part or separate from them before we reach the Krishna or Christ‐state, that of a Jîvanmukta, and centre ourselves entirely in the highest, the Seventh or the One. 1442 Μοῖρα, is destiny, not “Fate,” in this case, as it is an appellation, not a proper noun. (See Wolf’s transl., _Odyssey_, xxii. 413.) But Moira, the Goddess of Fate, is a deity who, like Αἶσα, _gives to all their portion of good and evil_ (Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon), and is therefore Karma. By this abbreviation, however, _the subject_ to Destiny or Karma is meant, the Self or Ego, and that which is reborn. Nor is Ἀντιμῖμον Πνεύματος our conscience, but our Buddhî; nor is it again the “counterfeit” of Spirit but “modelled after,” or a “counterpart” (Aristoph., _Thesmophor._, 27) of the Spirit—which Buddhî is, as the vehicle of Âtmâ. 1443 _The Gnostics and their Remains_, pp. 37, 38. 1444 _Rig Veda_, iii. 54. 16; ii. 29. 3, 4. 1445 Prof. Roth (in Peter’s Lexicon) defines the Angirasas as an intermediate race of higher Beings between Gods and Men; while Prof. Weber, according to his invariable custom of modernizing and anthropomorphizing the divine, sees in them the original priests of the religion which was common to the Âryan Hindûs and Persians. Roth is right. “Angirasas” was one of the names of the Dhyânîs, or Deva‐ Instructors (Guru‐Devas), of the late Third, the Fourth, and even of the Fifth Race Initiates. 1446 _Ibid._, x. 62. 1, 4. 1447 _Ibid._, x. 90. 1. 1448 _Ibid._, x. 90. 5. 1449 _Rig Veda_, x. 113. 5. 1450 _Ibid._, i. 35. 8. 1451 _Ibid._, _loc. cit._ 1452 _Ibid._, ix. 86. 29. 1453 Only three submerged, or otherwise destroyed, Continents—for the first Continent of the First Race exists to this day and will prevail to the last—are described in the Occult Doctrine, the Hyperborean, the Lemurian (adopting a name now known in Science), and the Atlantean. Most of Asia issued from under the waters after the destruction of Atlantis; Africa came still later, while Europe is the fifth and the latest continent—portions of the two Americas being far older. But of these, more anon. The Initiates who recorded the _Vedas_—or the Rishis of our Fifth Race—wrote at a time when Atlantis had already gone down. Atlantis is the _fourth_ Continent that _appeared_, but the _third_ that _disappeared_. 1454 Compare Vishvakarman. 1455 _Ibid._, x. 20. 1, 16. 1456 Nor is this Archaic Teaching so very _unscientific_, since one of the greatest Naturalists of the age—the late Professor Agassiz—admitted the multiplicity of the geographical origins of man, and supported it to the end of his life. The unity of the human species was accepted by the illustrious Professor of Cambridge (U.S.A.) in the same way as it is by the Occultists—namely, in the sense of their essential and original homogeneity and their origin from one and the same source, _e.g._, Negroes, Âryans, Mongols, etc., have all originated in the same way and from the same ancestors. These latter were all of one essence, though differentiated, since they belonged to seven planes which differed in degree though not in kind. That original physical difference was only a little more accentuated by that of geographical and climatic conditions, later on. This is not the theory of Agassiz, of course, but the Esoteric version. It is fully discussed in the Addenda, Part III. 1457 See the enumeration of the seven Spheres—not the “Karshvare of the earth,” as generally believed—in Fargard xix. 30, _et seqq._ 1458 The seven Worlds are, as has been said, the seven Spheres of the Chain, each presided over by one of the seven “Great Gods” of every religion. When the religions became degraded and anthropomorphized, and the metaphysical ideas nearly forgotten, the synthesis or the highest, the seventh, was separated from the rest, and that personification became the _eighth_ God, whom Monotheism tried to unify but—failed. In no exoteric religion is God really one, if analyzed metaphysically. 1459 The six invisible Globes of our Chain are both “Worlds” and “Earths” as is our own, although invisible. But where could be the _six_ invisible Earths on _this_ Globe? 1460 _Vendîdâd_, S. B. E., vol. iv. pp. lix. lx., and note. 1461 See _Rig Veda_, i. 34; iii. 56; vii. 10. 411, and v. 60. 6. 1462 _Vendîdâd_, _op. cit._, p. 13. 1463 Death came only after man had become a _physical_ creature. The men of the First Race, and also of the Second, dissolved and disappeared in their progeny. 1464 _Op. cit._, p. 12. 1465 I. xxiv. 1. 1466 _Vishnu Purâna_, Wilson’s Trans., i. lxxx. 1467 As Parâshara says: “These are the seven persons by whom in the several Manvantaras created beings have been protected. Because the whole world has been pervaded by the energy of the deity, he is entitled Vishnu, from the root Vish, ‘to enter,’ or ‘’pervade’; for all the gods, the Manus, the seven Rishis, the sons of the Manus, the Indras, the sovereigns of the gods, all are but the impersonated might [Vibhûtayah, potencies] of Vishnu.” (_Ibid._, iii. 18, 19.) Vishnu is the Universe; and the Universe itself is divided in the _Rig Veda_ into _seven_ regions—which ought to be sufficient authority, for the Brâhmans at all events. 1468 _Ibid._, iii. 15. 1469 Hymn xix. 53. 1470 Vishnu is _all_—the worlds, the stars, the seas, etc. Vishnu “is all that is, all that is not.... [But] he is not a substance (Vastubhûta).” (_Vishnu Purâna_, Book II, Ch. xii; Wilson’s Trans., ii. 309.) “That which people call the highest God is not a substance but the _cause_ of it; not one that is here, there, or elsewhere, _not what we see_, but that in which all is—Space.” 1471 _Vishnu Purâna_, Wilson’s Trans., ii. 306. 1472 Therefore it is said in the _Purânas_ that the sight at night of Dhruva, the polar star, and of the celestial Porpoise (Shishumâra, a constellation) “expiates whatever sin has been committed during the day.” (_Ibid._, p. 306.) The fact is that the rays of the four stars in the “circle of perpetual apparition”—the Agni, Mahendra, Kashyapa, and Dhruva, placed in the tail of Ursa Minor (Shishumâra)—focussed in a certain way and on a certain object, produce extraordinary results. The Astro‐magians of India will understand what is meant. 1473 _Ibid._, iii. 15. 1474 Dowson’s _Hindû Classical Dictionary_, _sub voc._ “Shiva,” p. 298. 1475 _Vishnu Purâna_, _op. cit._, ii. 78. 1476 In the _Râmâyana_ it is Bâla‐Râma, Krishna’s elder brother, who does this. 1477 With regard to the origin of Rudra, it is stated in several _Purânas_ that his (spiritual) progeny, _created in him by Brahmâ_, is not confined to either the _seven_ Kumâras or the _eleven_ Rudras, etc., but “comprehends infinite numbers of beings _in person and equipments like their_ (virgin) father. Alarmed at their fierceness, numbers, and _immortality_, Brahmâ desires his son Rudra to form creatures of a different and mortal nature.” Rudra _refusing to create_, desists, etc., hence Rudra is the first _rebel_. (_Linga_, _Vâyu_, _Matsya_, and other _Purânas_.) 1478 Diti is shown to have been thus frustrated in the Dvâpara Yuga, during that period when the Fourth Race was flourishing. 1479 Notwithstanding the terrible, and evidently _purposed_, confusion of Manus, Rishis, and their progeny in the _Purânas_, one thing is made clear: there have been and there will be seven Rishis in every Root‐ Race, called also Manvantara in the sacred books, just as there are fourteen Manus in every Round, the presiding Gods, the Rishis and sons of the Manus, being identical. (See _Vishnu Purâna_, III. i; Wilson’s Trans., iii. 19.) Six Manvantaras are given, the seventh being our own, in the _Vishnu Purâna_. The _Vâyu Purâna_ furnishes the nomenclature of the sons of the fourteen Manus in every Manvantara, and the sons of the seven Sages or Rishis. The latter are the progeny of the Progenitors of mankind. All the _Purânas_ speak of the seven Prajâpatis of this period or Round. 1480 “Châkshusha was the Manu of the sixth period [Third Round and Third Race], in which Indra was Manojava”—Mantradruma in the _Bhâgavata Purâna_. (_Vishnu Purâna_, Wilson’s Trans., iii. 12.) As there is a perfect analogy between the Great Round (Mahâkalpa), each of the seven Rounds, and each of the seven great Races in every one of the Rounds—therefore, Indra of the sixth period, or Third Round, corresponds to the close of the Third Race, at the time of the Fall or the separation of sexes. Rudra, as the father of the Maruts, has many points of contact with Indra, the Marutvân, or “Lord of the Maruts.” Rudra is said to have received his name because of his weeping. Hence Brahmâ called him Rudra; but _he wept yet seven times more and so obtained seven other names_—of which he uses one during _each_ “period.” 1481 _Ibid._, ii. 231. 1482 In _Vishnu Puranâ_, Book II. Chap. iv. (Wilson, ii. 205), it is stated that the “Earth,” “with its continents, mountains, oceans, and exterior shell, is _fifty crores_ [five hundred millions] of Yojanas in extent”; to which the translator remarks: “_This comprises the planetary spheres_; for the diameter of the seven zones and oceans—each ocean being of the same diameter as the continent it encloses, and each successive continent being twice the diameter of that which precedes it—amounts to but two crores or fifty‐four lakhs.... ‘Whenever any contradictions in different Purânas are observed, they are to be ascribed ... to differences of Kalpas and _the like_.’ ” “The like” ought to read “occult meaning,” an explanation which is withheld by the commentator, who wrote for exoteric, _sectarian_ purposes, and was misunderstood by the translator for various other reasons, the least of which is—ignorance of the Esoteric Philosophy. 1483 The Phœnix, although generally connected with the Solar Cycle of 600 years—the Western cycle of the Greeks and other nations—is a generic symbol for several kinds of cycles, ciphers being taken out or more added according to which cycle is meant. 1484 See _Book of Ali_, Russian transl. 1485 The tense is past, because the book is allegorical, and has to veil the truths it contains. 1486 _Oriental Collections_, ii. 119; quoted by Kenealy, _op. cit._, pp. 175, 176. 1487 _Ibid._, _loc. cit._ 1488 _Op. cit._, xvii. 9, 10. 1489 Section VI; _Leviticus_, xxiii. 15, _et seqq._ 1490 _Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus‐Christ_, Introduction; quoted by De Mirville, _Pneumatologie_, iv. 50. 1491 See Suidas, _sub voc._ Ἥλιος. 1492 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._, vii. 56. 1493 “Menses in quinos dies descripserunt dies” (lviii. 9). 1494 Lib. i. c. 26. 1495 _Hist. Nat._, vii. 48, and _Life of Numa_, 16. 1496 _Mèm. Acad. Ins._, xvi. c. 48; iii. 183. 1497 _Voyage en Sibérie_, iii. 19. 1498 The spheres of action of the combined Forces of Evolution and Karma are (1) the Super‐spiritual or Noumenal; (2) the Spiritual; (3) the Psychic; (4) the Astro‐ethereal; (5) the Sub‐astral; (6) the Vital; and (7) the purely Physical Spheres. 1499 Adbhutam, see _Atharva Veda_, x. 105. 1500 In Hindûism, as understood by the Orientalists from the _Atharva Veda_, the three Rajamsi refer to the three “strides” of Vishnu; his ascending higher step being taken in the highest world (_A. V._, vii. 99, 1; _cf._ i. 155, 5). It is the Divo Rajah, or the “sky,” as they think it. But it is something besides this in Occultism. The sentence, _pâreshu gûhyeshu vrateshu_ (_cf._, i. 155, 3, and ix. 75, 2, or again, x. 114), in _Atharva Veda_, has yet to be explained. 1501 _Medical Review_, July, 1844. 1502 H. Grattan Guinness, F.R.G.S., in his _Approaching End of the Age_, p. 258. 1503 _Lancet_, 1842, 1843. 1504 Having given a number of illustrations from natural history, the doctor adds: “The facts I have briefly glanced at are general facts, _and cannot happen day after day in so many millions of animals of every kind_. FROM THE LARVA OR OVUM OF A MINUTE INSECT UP TO MAN, _at definite periods_, from a mere _chance or coincidence_.... Upon the whole it is, I think, impossible to come to any less general conclusion than this, that, _in animals, changes occur every three and a half, seven, fourteen, twenty‐one, or twenty‐eight days, or at some definite number of weeks_”—or septenary cycles. Again, the same Dr. Laycock states that: “Whatever type the fever may exhibit, _there will be a paroxysm on the seventh day.... fourteenth will be remarkable as a day of amendment_ ... [either cure or death taking place]. If the fourth [paroxysm] be severe, and the fifth less so, the disease will end at the _seventh_ paroxysm, and ... the change for the better ... will be seen on the fourteenth day ... namely, about three or four o’clock a.m., when the system is most languid.” (_Approaching End of the Age_, by Grattan Guinness, pp. 258 to 269, wherein this is quoted). This is pure “soothsaying” by cyclic calculations, and it is connected with Chaldæan Astrolatry and Astrology. Thus Materialistic Science—in its medicine, _the most materialistic of all_—applies our Occult laws to diseases, studies natural history with its help, recognizes its presence as a fact in Nature, and yet must needs pooh‐pooh the same archaic knowledge when claimed by the Occultists. For if the mysterious Septenary Cycle is a law in Nature, _and it is one_, as proven; if it is found controlling both evolution and _involution_ (or death) in the realms of entomology, ichthyology and ornithology, as in the kingdom of the animal mammalia and man—why cannot it be present and acting in Kosmos, in general, in its natural (though occult) divisions of time, races, and _mental_ development? And why, furthermore, should not the most ancient Adepts have studied and thoroughly mastered these cyclic laws under all their aspects? Indeed, Dr. Stratton states as a physiological and pathological fact, that “in health the human pulse is more frequent in the morning than in the evening for six days out of seven; and that on the _seventh_ day it is slower.” (_Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_, Jan. 1843; _ibid., loc. cit._) Why, then, should not an Occultist show the same in cosmic and terrestrial life in the pulse of the Planet and Races? Dr. Laycock divides life by _three_ great _septenary_ periods; the first and last, each stretching over 21 years, and the central period or prime of life lasting 28 years, or four times seven. He subdivides the first into _seven_ distinct stages, and the other two into _three_ minor periods, and says that: “The fundamental unit of the greater periods is _one week of seven days_, _each day being twelve hours_, and that single and compound _multiples_ of this unit, determine the length of these periods by the same ratio, as multiples of the unit of twelve hours determine the lesser periods. _This law binds all periodic vital phenomena together, and links the periods observed in the lowest annulose animals, with those of man himself, the highest of the vertebrata._” (_Ibid._, p. 267.) If Science does this, why should she scorn the Occult information, that—to use Dr. Laycock’s language—_one_ Week of the Manvantaric (Lunar) Fortnight, of fourteen Days (or seven Manus), that Fortnight of twelve Hours in a Day representing seven Periods or seven Races—is now passed? This language of Science fits our Doctrine admirably. Mankind _has_ lived over “_a week of seven days_, each day being _twelve hours_,” since three and a half Races are now gone for ever, the Fourth is submerged, and we are now in the Fifth Race. 1505 _Op. cit._, p. 269. 1506 See for the length of such cycles or Yugas in _Vriddha Garga_ and other ancient astronomical sections (Jyotisha). They vary from the cycle of five years—which Colebrooke calls “the cycle of the Vedas,” specified in the institutes of Parâshara, “and the basis of calculation for larger cycles” (_Miscell. Essays_, i. 106 and 108)—up to the Mahâ Yuga or the famous cycle of 4,320,000 years. 1507 The Hebrew word for “week” is _seven_; and any length of time divided by _seven_ would have been a “week” with them—even 49,000,000 years, as it is seven times seven millions. But their calculation is throughout septiform. 1508 Brahmâ creates in the first Kalpa, or on the first Day, various “sacrificial animals” (Pashavah), or the celestial bodies and the Zodiacal signs, and “plants,” _which_ he uses in _sacrifices_ at the opening of Tretâ Yuga. The Esoteric meaning shows him proceeding cyclically and creating astral Prototypes on the _descending_ spiritual arc and then on the _ascending_ physical arc. The latter is the subdivision of a _two‐fold_ creation, sub‐divided again into seven descending and seven ascending degrees of Spirit falling, and of Matter ascending; the inverse of what takes place—as in a mirror which reflects the right on the left side—in this Manvantara of ours. It is the same Esoterically in the Elohistic _Genesis_ (chap. i), and in the Jehovistic copy, as in Hindû cosmogony. 1509 _Op. cit._, vv. 70, 71, 80; _The Kabbalah Unveiled_, S. L. MacGregor Mathers, pp. 120, 121. 1510 “The Greater Holy Assembly,” v. 1,160. 1511 See _Vishnu Purâna_, I. v. 1512 It is very surprising to see theologians and Oriental scholars expressing indignation at the “depraved taste” of the Hindû mystics, who, not content with having “invented” the Mind‐born Sons of Brahmâ, make the Rishis, Manus, and Prajâpatis of every kind spring from _various parts of the body_ of their primal Progenitor, Brahmâ. (See Wilson’s footnote in his _Vishnu Purâna_, i. 102.) Because the average public is unacquainted with the Kabalah, the key to, and glossary of, the much veiled Mosaic Books, therefore, the clergy imagines the truth will never out. Let any one turn to the English, Hebrew, or Latin texts of the _Kabalah_, now so ably translated by several scholars, and he will find that the Tetragrammaton, which is the Hebrew IHVH, is also both the “Sephirothal Tree”—_i.e._, it contains all the Sephiroth except Kether, the crown—and the united Body of the Heavenly Man (Adam Kadmon) from whose Limbs emanate the Universe and everything in it. Furthermore, he will find that the idea in the Kabalistic Books, the chief of which in the _Zohar_ are the “Book of Concealed Mystery,” and of the “Greater” and the “Lesser Holy Assembly,” is entirely phallic and far more crudely expressed than is the four‐fold Brahmâ in any of the _Purânas_. (See _The Kabbalah Unveiled_, by S. L. MacGregor Mathers, chapter xxii. of “The Lesser Holy Assembly,” concerning the remaining members of Microprosopus.) For, this “Tree of Life” is also the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil,” whose chief mystery is that of human procreation. It is a mistake to regard the _Kabalah_ as _explaining_ the mysteries of Kosmos or Nature; it explains and unveils only a few allegories in the _Bible_, and _is more esoteric_ than is the latter. 1513 Simplified in the English _Bible_ to: “Is the Lord [!!] among us, or not?” 1514 Verse 83; _op. cit._, p. 121. 1515 Translators often render the word “Companion” (Angel, also Adept) by “Rabbi,” just as the Rishis are called Gurus. The _Zohar_ is, if possible, more occult than the _Book of Moses_; to read the “Book of Concealed Mystery” one requires the keys furnished by the genuine Chaldæan _Book of Numbers_, which is not extant. 1516 Verses 1152, 1158, 1159; _op. cit._, p. 254. 1517 _I Peter_, ii. 2‐5. 1518 “The Greater Holy Assembly,” vv. 1160, 1161; _op. cit._, p. 255. 1519 See pp. 445, 446, _supra_. 1520 _Op. cit._, i. 297, 2nd ed. 1521 It is. But Âgneyâstra are fiery “missile weapons,” not “edged” weapons, as there is some difference between Shastra and Astra in Sanskrit. 1522 Yet there are some, who may know something of these, even outside the author’s lines, wide as they undeniably are. 1523 This connecting link, like others, was pointed out by the present writer nine years before the appearance of the work from which the above is quoted, namely in _Isis Unveiled_, a work full of such guiding links between ancient, mediæval, and modern thought, but, unfortunately, too loosely edited. 1524 Ay; but how can the learned writer prove that these “beginnings” were precisely in Egypt, and nowhere else; and only 50,000 years ago? 1525 Precisely; and this is just what the Theosophists do. They have never claimed “original inspiration,” not even as mediums claim it, but have always pointed, and do now point, to the “primary signification” of the symbols, which they trace to other countries, older even than Egypt; significations, moreover, which emanate from a Hierarchy (or Hierarchies, if preferred) of _living_ Wise Men—mortals notwithstanding that Wisdom—who reject every approach to _supernaturalism_. 1526 But where is the proof that the Ancients did not mean precisely that which the Theosophists claim? Records exist for what they say, just as other records exist for what Mr. Gerald Massey says. His interpretations are very correct, but are also very one‐sided. Surely Nature has more than one _physical aspect_; for Astronomy, Astrology, and so on, are all on the physical, not the spiritual, plane. 1527 _The Natural Genesis_, i. 318. It is to be feared that Mr. Massey has not succeeded. We have our followers as he has his followers, and Materialistic Science steps in and takes little account of both his and our speculations! 1528 The fact that this learned Egyptologist does not recognize in the doctrine of the “Seven Souls,” as he terms our “principles,” or “metaphysical ‘_concepts_,’ ” anything but “the primitive biology or physiology of the soul,” does not invalidate our argument. The lecturer touches on only two keys, those that unlock the astronomical and the physiological mysteries of Esotericism, and leaves out the other five. Otherwise he would have promptly understood that what he calls the physiological divisions of the living Soul of man, are regarded by Theosophists as also psychological and spiritual. 1529 _Op. cit._, p. 2. 1530 _Ibid._, _loc. cit._ 1531 _Ibid._, _loc. cit._ 1532 _Ibid._, _loc. cit._ 1533 _Ibid._, p. 4. 1534 This is a great mistake made in the Esoteric enumeration. Manas is the fifth, not the fourth; and Manas corresponds precisely with Seb, the Egyptian fifth principle, for that portion of Manas which follows the two higher principles, is the ancestral soul, indeed, the bright, immortal thread of the higher Ego, to which clings the spiritual aroma of all the lives or births. 1535 _Ibid._, p. 2. 1536 _Ibid._, pp. 2, 3. 1537 _Signatura Rerum_, xiv. pars. 10, 14, 15; _The Natural Genesis_, i. 317. 1538 _Aurora_, xxiv. 27. 1539 This is indeed news! It makes us fear that the lecturer had never read _Esoteric Buddhism_ before criticizing it. There are too many such misconceptions in his notices of it. 1540 “The Seven Souls of Man,” pp. 26, 27. 1541 _Ibid._, p. 26. 1542 _The Theosophist_, 1887 (Madras), pp. 705, 706. 1543 According to _Shvetâshvatara‐Upanishad_ (357) the Siddhas are those who are possessed from birth of “superhuman” powers, as also of “knowledge and indifference to the world.” According to the Occult teachings, however, the Siddhas are Nirmânakâyas or the “spirits”—in the sense of an individual, or _conscious_ spirit—of great Sages from spheres on a higher plane than our own, who voluntarily incarnate in mortal bodies in order to help the human race in its upward progress. Hence their innate knowledge, wisdom and powers. 1544 “The Sacred Books of the East,” viii. 284, _et seqq._ 1545 I propose to follow here the text and not the editor’s commentaries, who accepts Arjuna Mishra and Nilakantha’s _dead‐letter_ explanations. Our Orientalists never trouble to think that if a native commentator is a non‐initiate, he could not explain correctly, and if an Initiate, would not. 1546 See _Chhândogya_, p. 219, and Shankara’s commentary thereupon. 1547 The editor explains here, saying, “I presume devoted to the Brahman.” We venture to assert that the “Fire” or Self is the real Higher SELF “connected with,” that is to say _one_ with Brahma, the One Deity. The “Self” separates itself no longer from the Universal Spirit. 1548 The “Supreme Self,” says Krishna, in the _Bhagavad Gitâ_, pp. 102, _et seqq._ 1549 As Mahat, or Universal Intelligence, is first born, or manifests, as Vishnu, and then, when it falls into Matter and develops self‐ consciousness, becomes egoism, selfishness, so Manas is of a dual nature. It is respectively under the Sun and Moon, for as Shankarâchârya says: “The moon is the mind, and the sun the understanding.” The Sun and Moon are the deities of our planetary Macrocosmos, and therefore Shankara adds that: “The mind and the understanding are the respective deities of the [human] organs.” (See _Brihadâranyaka_, pp. 521, _et seqq._) This is perhaps why Arjuna Mishra says that the Moon and the Fire (the Self, the Sun) constitute the universe. 1550 “The body in the soul,” as Arjuna Mishra is credited with saying, or rather “the soul in the spirit”, and on a still higher plane of development, the Self or Âtman in the Universal Self. 1551 _Op. cit._, p. 179. 1552 _Prov._, ix. 1. 1553 De Quatrefages, _The Human Species_, p. 111. The respective developments of the human and simian brains are referred to. “In the ape the temporo‐sphenoidal convolutions, which form the middle lobe, make their appearance and are completed before the anterior convolutions which form the frontal lobe. In man, on the contrary, the frontal convolutions are the first to appear, and those of the middle lobe are formed later.” (_Ibid._) 1554 _Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism_, p. 290. 1555 Series II, Vol. VI, p. 769 (Ed. 1886). To this an editorial remark adds that an “F.J.B.,” in the _Athenæum_ (No. 3069, Aug. 21, 1886, pp. 242‐3), points out that Naturalists have long recognized that there are “morphological” and “physiological” species. The former have their origin in men’s minds, the latter in a series of changes sufficient to affect the internal as well as the external organs of a group of allied individuals. The “physiological selection” of morphological species is a confusion of ideas; that of physiological species a redundancy of terms. 1556 _Op. cit._, p. 79. 1557 _Ibid._, p. 48. 1558 Nägeli’s “principle of perfectibility”; von de Baer’s “striving towards the purpose”; Braun’s “divine breath as the inward impulse in the evolutionary history of Nature”; Professor Owen’s “tendency to perfectibility,” etc., are all expressive of the veiled manifestations of the universal guiding Fohat, rich with the Divine and Dhyân‐Chohanic thought. 1559 Hæckel on “Cell‐Souls and Soul‐Cells,” _Pedigree of Man_, Aveling’s Trans., see pp. 136, 150. 1560 See _infra_, M. de Quatrefages’ _exposé_ of Hæckel, in Section II, “The Ancestors Mankind is offered by Science.” 1561 Strictly speaking, du Bois‐Reymond is an Agnostic, and not a Materialist. He has protested most vehemently against the materialistic doctrine, which affirms mental phenomena to be merely the product of molecular motion. The most accurate _physiological_ knowledge of the structure of the brain leaves us “nothing but matter in motion,” he asserts; “_we must go further_, and admit the utterly incomprehensible nature of the psychical principle, which it is _impossible to regard_ as a mere outcome of material causes.” 1562 See Hæckel’s “Present Position of Evolution,” _op. cit._, pp. 23, 24, 296, 297, notes. 1563 _Op. cit._, pp. 34, 35, 36. 1564 _Measure for Measure_, Act ii, Scene 2. 1565 _Knowledge_, January, 1882. 1566 T. Huxley, _Man’s Place in Nature_, p. 57. 1567 _Op. cit._, “The Proofs of Evolution,” p. 273. 1568 Author of _Modern Science and Modern Thought_. 1569 _Op. cit._, pp. 102, 103. 1570 _Op. cit._, ii. 12, Wilson’s Transl. 1571 _Op. cit._, p. 104. In this, as has been shown in Part I, Modern Science has again been anticipated, far beyond its own speculations, by Archaic Science. 1572 _Ibid._, pp. 104‐106. 1573 _Anthrop._, 3rd edition, p. 11. 1574 Theosophists will remember that, according to Occult teaching, cyclic Pralayas so‐called are but “Obscurations,” during which periods Nature, _i.e._, everything visible and invisible on a resting Planet—remains _in statu quo_. Nature rests and slumbers, no work of destruction going on upon the Globe even if no active work be done. All forms, as well as their astral types, remain as they were at the last moment of its activity. The “Night” of a Planet has hardly any twilight preceding it. It is caught like a huge mammoth by an avalanche, and remains slumbering and frozen till the next dawn of its new Day—a very short one indeed in comparison to the Day of Brahmâ. 1575 This will be pooh‐poohed, because it will not be understood by our modern men of Science; but every Occultist and Theosophist will easily realize the process. There _can be no objective_ form on Earth, nor in the Universe either, without its astral prototype being first formed in Space. From Phidias down to the humblest workman in the ceramic art, a sculptor has had to create first of all a model in his mind, then sketch it in dimensional lines, and then only can he reproduce it in a three dimensional or objective figure. And if the human mind is a living demonstration of such successive stages in the process of Evolution, how can it be otherwise when Nature’s Mind and creative powers are concerned? 1576 See _A Modern Zoroastrian_, p. 103. 1577 “Darwinian Theory” in _Pedigree of Man_, p. 22. 1578 _The Age and Origin of Man._ 1579 _Man before Metals_, p. 320, “International Scientific Series.” 1580 _Mr. Darwin’s Philosophy of Language_, 1873. 1581 _Cf._ his _Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism_, p. 304. 1582 _A Modern Zoroastrian_, p. 136. 1583 It thus appears that in its anxiety to prove our noble descent from the catarrhine “baboon,” Hæckel’s school has pushed back the times of pre‐historic man millions of years. (See _Pedigree of Man_, p. 273.) Occultists, render thanks to Science for such corroboration of our claims! 1584 This seems a poor compliment to pay Geology, which is not a speculative but as exact a Science as Astronomy—save, perhaps, its too risky chronological speculations. It is mainly a “descriptive” as opposed to an “abstract” Science. 1585 Such newly‐coined words as “perigenesis of plastids,” “plastidule souls” (!), and others less comely, invented by Hæckel, may be very learned and correct in so far as they may express very graphically the ideas in his own vivid fancy. As _facts_, however, they remain for his less imaginative colleagues painfully cænogenetic—to use his own terminology; _i.e._, for true Science they are spurious speculations, so long as they are derived from “empirical sources.” Therefore, when he seeks to prove that “the origin of man from other mammals, and most directly from the catarrhine apes, is a deductive law, that follows necessarily from the inductive law of the theory of descent” (_Anthropogeny_, p. 392, quoted in _Pedigree of Man_, p. 295.)—his no less learned foes (du Bois‐Reymond—for one) have a right to see in this sentence a mere jugglery of words; a “_testimonium paupertatis_ of Natural Science”—as he himself complains, speaking, in return, of du Bois‐Reymond’s “astonishing ignorance.” (See _Pedigree of Man_, notes on pp. 295, 296.) 1586 _Pedigree of Man_, p. 273. 1587 _Anthropogeny_, p. 392. Quoted in _Pedigree of Man_, p. 295. 1588 The _mental_ barrier between man and ape, characterized by Huxley as an “enormous gap, a distance practically immeasurable” (! !) is, indeed, in itself conclusive. Certainly it constitutes a standing puzzle to the Materialist, who relies on the frail reed of “natural selection.” The physiological differences between Man and the Apes are in reality—despite a curious community of certain features—equally striking. Says Dr. Schweinfurth, one of the most cautious and experienced of Naturalists: “In modern times there are no animals in creation that have attracted a larger amount of attention from the scientific student of nature than these great quadrumana [the anthropoids], which are stamped with such a singular resemblance to the human form as to have justified the epithet of anthropomorphic.... But all investigation at present only leads human intelligence to a confession of its insufficiency; and nowhere is caution more to be advocated, nowhere is premature judgment more to be deprecated than in the attempt to bridge over the mysterious chasm which separates man and beast.” (_Heart of Africa_, i., 520. Ed., 1873.) 1589 _The Descent of Man_, p. 160. Ed. 1888. A ridiculous instance of evolutionist contradictions is afforded by Schmidt (_Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism_, p. 292). He says: “Man’s kinship with the apes is ... not impugned by the bestial strength of the teeth of a male orang or gorilla.” Mr. Darwin, on the contrary, endows this fabulous being with teeth used as weapons! 1590 According even to a fellow‐thinker, Professor Schmidt, Darwin has evolved “a certainly not flattering, and perhaps in many points not correct, portrait of our presumptive ancestors in the phase of dawning humanity.” (_Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism_, p. 284.) 1591 _The Human Species_, pp. 106‐108. 1592 _Op. cit._, p. 77. 1593 Pp. 109, 110. 1594 _Op. cit._, p. 110. 1595 Of course the Esoteric system of Fourth Round Evolution is much more complex than the paragraph and quotations referred to categorically assert. It is practically a _reversal_—both in embryological inference and succession in time of species—of the current Western conception. 1596 According to Hæckel, there are also “cell‐souls” and “atom‐cells”; an “inorganic molecular soul” without, and a “plastidular soul” with, or possessing, memory. What are our Esoteric teachings to this? The _divine and human_ soul of the seven principles in man must, of course, pale and give way before such a stupendous revelation! 1597 _The Pedigree of Man_, p. 296. 1598 A valuable confession, this. Only it makes the attempt to trace the _descent_ of consciousness in man, as well as of his physical body, from Bathybius Hæckelii, still more humorous and _empirical_ in the sense of Webster’s second definition. 1599 _Ibid._ 1600 Those who take the opposite view and look upon the existence of the human Soul—“as a supernatural, a spiritual phenomenon, conditioned by forces altogether different from ordinary physical forces,” mock, he thinks, “in consequence, all explanation that is simply scientific.” They have no right it seems, to assert that “psychology is, in part, or in whole, a spiritual science, not a physical one.” The new discovery by Hæckel—one taught for thousands of years in all the Eastern religions, however—that animals have souls, will, and sensation, hence, soul‐functions, leads him to make of Psychology the science of the Zoologists. The archaic teaching that the “soul” (the animal and human souls, or Kâma and Manas) “has its developmental history”—is claimed by Hæckel as his own discovery and innovation on an “untrodden [?] path”! He, Hæckel, will work out the comparative evolution of the soul in man and in other animals. The comparative morphology of the soul‐organs, and the comparative physiology of the soul‐functions, both founded on Evolution, thus become the psychological [really materialistic] problem of the scientific man. (“Cell‐souls and Soul‐cells,” pp. 135, 136, 137, _Pedigree of Man_.) 1601 _The Pedigree of Man_, note 20, p. 296. 1602 P. 119. 1603 See “Transmigration of Life‐Atoms,” in _Five Years of Theosophy_, pp. 533‐539. The collective aggregation of these atoms forms thus the Anima Mundi of our Solar System, the Soul of our little Universe, each atom of which is of course a Soul, a Monad, a little universe endowed with consciousness, hence with memory. (Vol. I,