HPB-SD(ed.1) v.3 ch.Notes on Papers 1, 2 and 3

The Secret Doctrine

The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy

by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

Verbatim first edition

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volume 3, section Some Papers Some Papers on the Bearing of Occult Philosophy on Life, chapter Notes on Papers 1, 2 and 3

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APPENDIX

Notes on Papers I, II, III.

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Page 436

Students in the west have little or no idea of the forces that lie latent in Sound, the Âkâshic vibrations that may be set up by those who understand how to pronounce certain words. The Om, or the “Om mani padme hum” are in spiritual affinity with cosmic forces, but without a knowledge of the natural arrangement, or of the order in which the syllables stand, very little can be achieved. “Om” is, of course, Aum, that may be pronounced as two, three or seven syllables, setting up different vibrations.

Now, letters, as vocal sounds, cannot fail to correspond with musical notes, and therefore with numbers and colours; hence also with forces and Tattvas. He who remembers the Universe is built up from the Tattvas will readily understand something of the power that may be exercised by vocal sounds. Every letter in the alphabet, whether divided into three, four, or seven septenaries, or forty-nine letters, has its own colour, or shade of colour. He who has learnt the colours of the alphabetical letters, and the corresponding numbers of the seven and the forty-nine colours and shades on the scale of planes and forces, and knows their respective order in the seven planes, will easily master the art of bringing them into affinity or interplay. But here a difficulty arises. The Senzar and Sanskrit alphabets, and other Occult tongues, besides other potencies, have a number, colour, and distinct syllable for every letter, and so had also the old Mosaic Hebrew. But how many students know any of these tongues? When the time comes, therefore, it must suffice to teach the students the numbers and colours attached to the Latin letters only (N.B. as pronounced in Latin, not in Anglo-Saxon, Scotch, or Irish). This, however, would be at present premature.

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a mantra operative.

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The colour and number of not only the planets but also the zodiacal constellations corresponding to every letter of the alphabet, are necessary to make any special syllable, and even letter, operative. * therefore if a student would make Buddhi operative, for instance, he would have to intone the first words of the Mantra on the note mi. But he would have still further to accentuate the mi, and produce mentally the yellow colour corresponding to this sound and note, on every letter M in “Om mani padme hum”; this, not because the note bears the same name in the vernacular, Sanskrit, or even the Senzar, for it does not—but because the letter M follows the first letter, and is in this sacred formula also the seventh and the fourth. As Buddhi it is second; as Buddhi-Manas it is the second and third combined.

H. P. B.

Page 439 †

The Pythagorean Four, or Tetraktys, was the symbol of the Kosmos, as containing within itself, the point, the line, the superficies, the solid; in other words, the essentials of all forms. Its mystical representation is the point within the triangle. The Decad or perfect number is contained in the Four; thus, 1+2+3+4=10.

Page 453

	Sunday.	Monday.	Tuesday.	Wed'd'y.	Thu'day.	Friday.	Sat'day.
First Quarter.	☉	☽	♂	☿	♃	♀	♄
Second Quarter.	♂	☿	♃	♀	♄	☉	☽
Third Quarter.	♃	♀	♄	☉	☽	♂	☿
Fourth Quarter.	♄	☉	☽	♂	☿	♃	♀

О.

Page 477

The difficult passage: “Bear in mind . . . . a mystery below truly,” ‡ may become a little more clear to the student if slightly ampli-

* See The Voice of the Silence, p. viii.

† The following notes were contributed by students and approved by H. P. B.

‡ See page 444.

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fied. The “primordial Triangle” is the Second Logos, which reflects itself as a Triangle in the Third Logos, or Heavenly Man, and then disappears. The Third Logos, containing the “potency of formative creation,” develops the Tetraktys from the Triangle, and so becomes the Seven the Creative Force, making a Decad with the primordial Triangle which originated it. When this heavenly Triangle and Tetraktys are reflected in the Universe of Matter, as the astral paradigmatic man, they are reversed, and the Triangle, or formative potency, is thrown below the Quaternary, with its apex pointing downwards: the Monad of this astral paradigmatic man is itself a Triangle, bearing to the Quaternary and Triangle the relation born by the primordial Triangle to the Heavenly Man. Hence the phrase, “the upper Triangle . . . is shifted in the man of clay below the seven.” Here again the point tracing the Triangle, the Monad becoming the Ternary, with the Quaternary and the lower creative triangle, make up the Decad, the perfect number. “As above, so below.”

The student will do well to relate the knowledge here acquired to that given on p. 477. Here the upper Triangle is given as Violet, Indigo, Blue, associating Violet as the paradigm of all forms with Indigo as Mahat, and blue as the Âtmic Aura. In the Quaternary, Yellow, as substance, is associated with Yellow- Orange, Life, and Red-Orange, the creative potency. Green is the plane between.

The next stage is now explained. Green passes upward to Violet, Indigo, Blue, the Triangle opening out to receive it, and so forming the square, Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green. This leaves the Red-Orange, Yellow- Orange, and Yellow, and these, having thus lost their fourth member, can only form a triangle. This triangle revolves, to point downwards for the descent into matter, and “mirrored on the plane of gross nature, it is reversed,” and appears as in the diagram following these words.

* See supra, i. 89, 90, and 95.

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colour and spiritual sound.

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In the perfect man the Red will be absorbed by the Green; Yellow will become one with Indigo; Yellow-Orange will be absorbed in Blue; Violet will remain outside the True Man, though connected with him. Or, to translate the colours: Kâma will be absorbed in the Lower Manas; Buddhi will become one with Manas; Prâna will be absorbed in the Auric Egg; the physical body remains, connected but outside the real life.

A. B.

Page 481

To the five senses at present the property of mankind two more on this globe are to be added. The sixth sense is the psychic sense of colour. The seventh is that of spiritual sound. In the second instruction, the corrected rates of vibration for the seven primary colours and their modulations are given. Inspecting these, it appears that each colour differs from the preceding one by a step of 42, or 6 × 7.

462	Red	+ 42 = 504		Third Octave of psychic colour perceptions.
504	Orange	+ 42 = 546
546	Yellow	+ 42 = 588
588	Green	+ 42 = 630
630	Blue	+ 42 = 672
672	Indigo	+ 42 = 714
714	Violet	+ 42 = 756
756	Red

Carrying the process backward, and subtracting 42, we find that the first or ground colour is green, for this globe.

–	Green	First semi-octave
42	Blue
84	Indigo
126	Violet
168	Red	Second octave.
210	Orange
252	Yellow
294	Green
336	Blue
378	Indigo
420	Violet
462	Red

The third and fourth octaves would be heat and actinic rays, and are invisible to our present perception.

The seventh sense is that of spiritual sound; and since the vibrations of the sixth progress by steps of 6 × 7 those of the seventh progress by steps of 7 × 7. This is their table:

–	Fa	...	Green Sound		First semi-octave.
49	Sol	...	Blue	”
98	La	...	Indigo	”
147	Si	...	Violet	”

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196	Do	...	Red Sound		Second Octave.
245	Re	...	Orange	”
294	Mi	...	Yellow	”
343	Fa	...	Green	”
392	Sol	...	Blue	”
441	La	...	Indigo	”
490	Si	...	Violet	”
539	Do	...	Red	”
	Etc., etc.

The fifth sense is in our possession: it is possibly that of geometrical form, and its steps of progression would be 5 × 7, or 35.

The fourth sense is that of physical hearing, music, and its progressions are 28, or 4 × 7. The truth of this is demonstrated by the fact that it is in accord with the theories of Science as to the vibrations of musical notes. Our scale is as follows.

—, 28, 56, 84, 112, 140, 168, 196, 224, 252, 280, 308, 336, 364, 392, 420, 448, 476, 504, 532, 560, 588, 616, 644, 672, 700.

According to musical science, the notes C, E, G, are as 4, 5, 6, in their ratios of vibrations. The same ratio obtains between the notes of the triplet G, B, D, and F, A, C. This gives the scale, and reducing the vibrations to C as I, the ratios of the seven notes to C are

1	9/8	5/4	4/3	3/2	5/3	15/8	2
C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C’

Reducing these to whole numbers, we get for one octave:

24	27	30	32	36	40	45	48
C’	D	E	F	G	A	B	C”

By a similar calculation we can put an octave below C’, and above C”. Writing these three octaves in line, and multiplying by seven we obtain a nearly exact correspondence with our table of vibration for the fourth sense.

MUSICAL TABLE.

FOURTH SENSE.		SCALE RATIO.	PRODUCT.
28	... ... ...	4 × 7	= 28	E
56	... ... ...	8 × 7	= 56	F
84	... ... ...	12 × 7	= 84	G
112	... ... ...	16 × 7	= 112	A
140	... ... ...	20 × 7	= 140	B
168	... ... ...	24 × 7	= 168	C
196	... ... ...	27 × 7	= 189	D
…	(... ... ...	30 × 7	= 210)	E
224	... ... ...	32 × 7	= 224	F
252	... ... ...	36 × 7	= 252	G
280	... ... ...	40 × 7	= 280	A
308	... ... ...	45 × 7	= 315	B

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musical table.

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FOURTH SENSE.		SCALE RATIO.	PRODUCT.
336	... ... ...	48 × 7	= 336	C
364	... ... ...	54 × 7	= 378	D
392
420	... ... ...	60 × 7	= 420	E
448	... ... ...	64 × 7	= 448	F
476
504	... ... ...	72 × 7	= 504	G
532
560	... ... ...	80 × 7	= 560	A
588
616	... ... ...	90 × 7	= 630	B
644
672	... ... ...	96 × 7	= 672	C

H.C.