iii

THE

SECRET DOCTRINE:

THE SYNTHESIS

OF

SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND PHILOSOPHY.

BY

H. P. BLAVATSKY,

AUTHOR OF “ISIS UNVEILED.”

THIRD AND REVISED EDITION.

SATYÂT NÂSTI PARO DHARMAH.

“There is no Religion higher than Truth.”

VOLUME I.

COSMOGENESIS.

London:
The Theosophical Publishing Society, 7, Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C.
New York:
The Path Office, 144, Madison Avenue.
Madras:
The Theosophist Office, Adyar.
1893.

vii

Table of contents

Title pages and printed contents	... i
Preface to the First Edition	... xix
Preface to the Third and Revised Edition	... xxiii
Introduction	... 1
The Need of such a Book	... 3
The Antiquity of Documents and MSS.	... 7
What the Book is Intended to Do	... 12

VOLUME FIRST.
COSMOGENESIS.

Proem	... 31
The Oldest MSS. in the World and its Symbolism	... 31
The One Life	... 32
The Secret Doctrine—Pantheism—Atheism	... 35
“Space” in all Religions and in Occultism	... 37
Seven Cosmic Elements—Seven Races of Mankind	... 40
The Three Propositions of the Secret Doctrine	... 42
Description of the Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan	... 48

BOOK I.—PART I.
COSMIC EVOLUTION.

Seven Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan

... 55

Stanza I.—The Night of the Universe

... 67

Time and Universal Mind

... 69

The Causes of Being

... 71

The Seven Sublime Lords

... 73

The Causes of Existence

... 75

The One Form of Existence

... 77

Âlaya, the Universal Soul

... 79

Can the Finite conceive the Infinite?

... 81

Stanza II.—The Idea of Differentiation

... 83

The Absolute Knows Itself Not

... 85

The Germ of Life

... 87

viii

contents.

viii

Astral Light is not Anima Mundi

... 89

Divine Thought

... 91

Stanza III.—The Universe, a Flitting Shadow

... 91

The Universe, a Flitting Shadow

... 93

Nature’s Symbols

... 95

The Churning of the Ocean

... 97

Darkness and Light

... 99

Androgynous Deities

... 101

The Serpent Symbol

... 103

The Magical Agent

... 105

I Am That I Am

... 107

Primeval Differentiations

... 109

The Web of Being

... 111

Conscious Electricity

... 113

Stanza IV.—The Septenary Hierarchies

... 113

The Seven Mystic Senses

... 115

The Vehicle of the Universe

... 117

The Immaculate Conceptions.

... 119

The Potency of Speech and Sound

... 121

The Seven Senses

... 123

The Boundless Circle

... 125

Fire, the Great Symbol of Deity

... 127

The Stellar Sons of Light

... 129

The Divine Recorders

... 131

Stanza V.—Fohat: The Child of the Septenary Hierarchies

... 131

The Celestial Buddhas

... 133

The Theogony of the Creators

... 135

The Protean Spirit-Substance

... 137

The Correlation of the Gods

... 139

The Seven Worlds

... 141

The Antiquity of Physical Sciences

... 143

The One Flame

... 145

The Winged Wheels

... 147

Monism and Materialism

... 149

The Four Celestial Beings

... 151

The Lipika

... 153

The Ring “Pass Not”

... 155

ix

contents.

ix

The God of Man and the God of the Ant

... 157

The Day of “Come To Us”

... 159

Stanza VI.—Our World, its Growth and Development

... 160

The Mystery of the Female Logos

... 161

From No-Number to Number Seven

... 163

Were the Ancients Ignorant of the Physical Sciences?

... 165

The Sleep of the Eternal Mother

... 167

The Cosmic Plane, an Illusion

... 169

Primordial Substance, a Reality

... 171

Laplace’s Mistake

... 173

A Digression

... 175

A few Early Misconceptions concerning Planets, Rounds, and Man

... 176

Descending and Reascending States

... 177

Exchange of Life-Principles

... 179

Opinions Differ and yet Agree

... 181

The Transmigrations of the Ego

... 183

A Readjustment of Facts

... 185

Like Questions, like Answers

... 187

An Authoritative Letter

... 189

The Number 777

... 191

The Monadic Evolutions

... 193

Additional Facts and Explanations concerning the Globes and the Monads

... 193

Transfer of Life-Elements

... 195

The Monadic Host

... 197

The Elemental Kingdoms

... 199

Monads and Atoms

... 201

The Lunar Ancestors

... 203

The Fourth Globe

... 205

Man or Ape; which was First?

... 207

An Erroneous Opinion

... 209

A Master’s Letter

... 211

The Preliminary Creation of Man

... 213

The First Cause of Sin

... 215

The Codex Nazaræus repeats the Allegory

... 217

Ilda-Baoth-Jehovah

... 219

The Seven Planes

... 221

The War in Heaven

... 223

The Birth of the Worlds

... 225

The Seven Grades of Initiation

... 227

The Lost Canon of Proportion

... 229

The Origin of Devotion

... 231

The Creative Powers

... 233

x

contents.

x

Stanza VII.—The Parents of Man on Earth

... 233

One Parent Flame, Countless Flames

... 235

Teachings Contrasted

... 237

The Hierarchies of Spirits

... 239

Nature-Spirits, or Elementals

... 241

The Mystery of Being

... 243

The Ancestry of Man

... 245

The “Seven Souls” in Egyptology

... 247

The Moon God

... 249

Jehovah a Female Sephira

... 251

The Origin of Man

... 253

Dii Sunt Demones Inversi

... 255

The Immortal Root

... 257

Chaldæan Metaphysics

... 259

The True and the False Kabbalah

... 261

Occult and Kabbalistic Doctrines

... 263

Occultists and Kabbalists Differ

... 265

Spirit Alone is Helpless on Earth

... 267

The “Devourers”

... 269

The Four Dimensions of Space

... 271

Oceans of Carbonic Acid

... 273

The Great Magic Agent

... 275

Âkâsha is not Ether

... 277

Atoms are Invisible Lives

... 279

Occult Chemistry

... 281

The Fiery Lives

... 283

Man, the Shadow of his Prototype

... 285

Earth Peopled from Heaven

... 287

The “Second Advent”

... 289

Summing Up

... 290

The Upanishads

... 291

A Recapitulation

... 293

The Guiding Intelligence of the Universe

... 295

The Unity of All in Nature

... 297

The Three Universes

... 299

Matter is the Shadow of Spirit

... 301

The Yliaster of Paracelsus

... 303

Hermes Christianized

... 305

The Eternal alone is Real

... 307

A Few Occult Aphorisms

... 309

Extracts from an Eastern Private Commentary hitherto Secret

... 309

Yoga Powers

... 313

Âkâsha

... 315

Nothing New under the Sun

... 317

xi

contents.

xi

BOOK I.—PART II.
THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM.

I. Symbolism and Ideographs

... 321

The Egyptian Cat-Symbol

... 323

Magic Potency of Sound

... 325

The Mystery Language

... 327

II. The Mystery Language and its Keys

... 329

Egypt’s many Religions

... 331

The Great Pyramid Measures

... 333

The Quadrature of the Circle

... 335

Truth must Prevail at Last

... 337

Moses and the Ark of Bulrushes copied from Sargon

... 339

Occult Numbers

... 341

Identity of the Ancient Symbols

... 343

The “Satanic” Races

... 345

III. Primordial Substance and Divine Thought

... 347

Divine Thought

... 349

The Universal Illusion

... 351

Pater Omnipotens Æther

... 353

The Cosmogenesis of Manu

... 355

The Seven Prakritis

... 357

The Gods of “Genesis”

... 359

The Mystic Fire

... 361

Æther

... 363

IV. Chaos: Theos: Kosmos

... 365

The Soul of the World

... 367

The Birth of Mind

... 369

The Mystic Elements

... 371

V. On the Hidden Deity, its Symbols and Glyphs

... 373

The Gnosis of Marcus

... 375

The Great Mind

... 377

xii

contents.

xii

Symbols of the Creative Powers

... 379

International Correlation of Gods

... 381

Ancient Symbology

... 383

VI. The Mundane Egg

... 384

Egg and Ark

... 385

Lunar and Solar Deities

... 387

Fiery Serpents

... 389

The Winged Globe

... 391

Two Aspects of “God”

... 393

VII. The Days and Nights of Brahmâ

... 395

Three Kinds of Pralaya

... 397

The Reabsorption of All

... 399

A Kabalistic Key

... 401

The Coming of Night

... 403

The Return of Moru

... 405

VIII. The Lotus, as a Universal Symbol

... 406

The Ideal becoming Material

... 407

Hebrew Anthropomorphism

... 409

Brahman and Semite

... 411

The Letter M

... 413

IX. The Moon; Deus Lunus, Phœbe

... 415

The Christian Lunar God

... 417

The Physiological Key to the Moon Symbol

... 419

The “Double Womb”

... 421

An Allegory from the Zohar

... 423

Hecate-Luna the Counterpart of Jehovah

... 425

The Moon Bi-Sexual

... 427

The Dignity of Saïs

... 429

Ante-historical Catholicism

... 431

Identity of Typology

... 433

xiii

contents.

xiii

X. Tree, Serpent, and Crocodile Worship

... 434

The Serpent, the Symbol of Initiation

... 435

The Ashvattha Tree

... 437

“Sevening”

... 439

The Dual Logos

... 441

XI. Demon est Deus Inversus

... 443

No Life without Death

... 445

Theological Etymologies

... 447

The Angels Slandered

... 449

The War of the Gods

... 451

Wilson’s Criticism Criticized

... 453

The Deception of the Gods

... 455

XII. The Theogony of the Creative Gods

... 457

Jehovah not the Supreme Deity

... 459

The Primeval Theogony of the Vedântins

... 461

Synonyms of the Logos

... 463

“Female” Logoi

... 465

The Pythagorean Idea

... 467

Antiquity of the Pyramids

... 469

Cosmic Gods

... 471

Incredible, but True

... 473

The Same Idea in Confucianism

... 475

The Mystery of Blackness

... 477

God is our Higher Self

... 479

XIII. The Seven Creations

... 480

The Seven Creations of the Puranas

... 481

The Ogdoad

... 483

The Primary and Secondary Creations

... 485

Many Versions of the One Truth

... 487

The Seven Creations

... 489

Who the Kumâras are

... 493

The “Virgin Ascetics”

... 495

Importance of the Number Seven

... 497

xiv

contents.

xiv

XIV. The Four Elements

... 497

On the Elements

... 499

The Cosmic Gods

... 501

St. Paul Believed in Cosmic Gods

... 503

Jehovah, a God of the Elements

... 505

Astarte and the Virgin Mary

... 507

Physical Forces, the Vehicles of the Elements

... 509

XV. On Kwan-Shi-Yin and Kwan-Yin

... 510

Diseased Imagination

... 511

Crinolines, or the Dragon-Garb?

... 513

BOOK I.—PART III.
ADDENDA.
SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.

On Occult and Modern Science

... 517

I. Reasons for these Addenda

... 517

Forces are Devas and Genii

... 519

Light is both Spirit and Matter

... 521

II. Modern Physicists are playing at Blind Man’s Buff

... 523

“Is Light a Body or Not?”

... 525

A Selection of Contradictory Hypotheses

... 527

Actio in Distans

... 529

Cauchy’s Views

... 531

III. Is Gravitation a Law?

... 532

Gravity or what?

... 533

Jehovah, one of the Elohim

... 535

Newton then and Newton now

... 537

Perpetual Motion

... 539

Kepler’s Ideas

... 541

The Cause of Rotation

... 543

xv

contents.

xv

IV. The Theories of Rotation in Science

... 544

Contradictory Hypotheses

... 545

Scientific Aberrations

... 547

The Paradoxes of Science

... 549

Forces are Realities

... 551

V. The Masks of Science

... 552

Academical Misnomers

... 553

The Fixing of Light

... 555

What is Force?

... 557

They Agree to Disagree

... 559

The Mystic Rays

... 561

The Causes and the Effects

... 563

What is an Atom?

... 565

Chemical Gods

... 567

The Vishishthâdvaita System

... 569

VI. An Attack on the Scientific Theory of Force by a Man of Science

... 571

Dr. Richardson’s Heresy

... 573

The Spirit and Soul of Kosmos

... 575

VII. Life, Force, or Gravity

... 577

Sun-force and Earth-force

... 579

Pantheism or Monotheism

... 581

The Seven Physical Senses

... 583

The Tree of Life

... 585

What is Nervous Ether?

... 587

The Life Principle

... 589

VIII. The Solar Theory

... 590

The Heart of the Solar System

... 591

The Quintessence of Kosmos

... 593

The Original Base

... 595

Elements and Non-Elements

... 597

What is the Directive Force?

... 599

xvi

contents.

xvi

A Scientific Caduceus

... 601

Occultism in Chemistry

... 603

IX. The Coming Force

... 605

An Unconscious Occultist

... 607

Occult Mysteries and Society

... 609

Limits to Discoveries

... 611

Keely’s Ether

... 613

A Premature Discovery

... 615

What is the New Force?

... 617

X. On the Elements and Atoms

... 619

The Whirling of the Soul

... 621

The Eternal Pilgrim

... 623

Buddhas of the Three Worlds

... 625

The Crest-jewel of Wisdom

... 627

Uranus and Neptune

... 629

Cyclic Fall of the Gods

... 631

XI. Ancient Thought in Modern Dress

... 633

Chemistry and Occult Science

... 635

The Trinity in Unity

... 637

Genesis of the Elements

... 639

Puranas versus Royal Society

... 641

XII. Scientific and Esoteric Evidence for, and Objections to, the Modern Nebular Theory

... 643

Modern Science and Occultism

... 645

Forces are Emanations

... 647

Unanswerable Queries

... 649

What are the Nebulæ?

... 651

Cometary Matter

... 653

What is Primitive Matter?

... 655

The Future Synthesis

... 657

xvii

contents.

xvii

XIII. Forces—Modes of Motion or Intelligences?

... 658

Kant and Occultism

... 659

Mind in Nature

... 661

Occult and Physical Sciences

... 663

Plurality of Worlds

... 665

The Geology of Enoch

... 667

XIV. Gods, Monads, and Atoms

... 669

Who are the Blind?

... 671

The Mathematical Point

... 673

Space, Force, and Matter

... 675

Phantoms of the Mind

... 677

Atomic Souls

... 679

The Chemistry of the Future

... 681

Âryan and Western Science

... 683

Hermes or Huxley?

... 685

Leibnitz and Occultism

... 687

Spinoza and Leibnitz

... 689

The Nature of the Monad

... 691

Spirit and Matter One

... 693

XV. Cyclic Evolution and Karma

... 695

Is Man a God or a Beast?

... 697

The Swing of Karma

... 699

The Network of Destiny

... 701

Cyclic Wheels within Wheels

... 703

Karma-Nemesis

... 705

Ancient and Modern Prophecies

... 707

Astrology a Science

... 709

XVI. The Zodiac and its Antiquity

... 710

The Zodiac in the Bible

... 711

Antiquity of Zodiac

... 713

The Zodiac and the Patriarchs

... 715

The Sign of Jonas

... 717

Chaldæo-Judæan Gods

... 719

The Dragon and the Bull

... 721

xviii

contents.

xviii

Bailly’s Conclusions

... 723

The Beginning of Kali Yuga

... 725

Hindû Astronomical Methods

... 727

The Âryan Hindûs Vindicated

... 729

XVII. Summary of the Position

... 731

The Exact Science of—Negation

... 733

Forces are Gods

... 735

The Aliases of Fohat

... 737

Legend and History

... 739

VOLUME FIRST.COSMOGENESIS.

BOOK I.—PART I.COSMIC EVOLUTION.

BOOK I.—PART II.THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM.

BOOK I.—PART III.ADDENDA.SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.

See also

VOLUME FIRST.
COSMOGENESIS.

BOOK I.—PART I.
COSMIC EVOLUTION.

BOOK I.—PART II.
THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM.

BOOK I.—PART III.
ADDENDA.
SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.