Blavatsky H.P. - Elementals: Difference between revisions

A brief examination of the part they play will prevent all future confusion in the student’s mind between the Pitris and the Elementals. In the Rig Veda, Vishnu (or the pervading Fire, Aether) is shown first striding through the seven regions of the World in three steps, being a manifestation of the Central Sun. Later on, he becomes a manifestation of our solar energy, and is connected with the septenary form and with the Gods Agni, Indra and other solar deities. Therefore, while the “Sons of Fire,” the primeval Seven of our System, emanate from the primordial Flame, the “Seven Builders” of our Planetary Chain are the “Mind-born Sons” of the latter, and—their instructors likewise. For, though in one sense they are all Gods and are all called Pitris (Pitara, Patres, Fathers), a great though very subtle distinction (quite Occult) is made which must be noticed. In the Rig Veda they are divided into two {{Page aside|191}}classes—the Pitris Agni-dagdha (“Fire-givers”), and the Pitris Anagni-dagdha (“non-Fire-givers”),<ref>In order to create a blind, or throw a veil upon the mystery of primordial Evolution, the later Brâhmans, with a view also to serve orthodoxy, explain the two, by an invented fable; the first Pitris were “Sons of God” and offended Brahmâ by refusing to sacrifice to him, for which crime, the Creator cursed them to become fools, a curse they could escape only by accepting their own sons as instructors and addressing them as their Fathers—Pitris. This is the exoteric version.</ref> i.e., as explained exoterically—Pitris who sacrificed to the Gods and those who refused to do so at the “fire-sacrifice.” But the Esoteric and true meaning is the following. The first or primordial Pitris, the “Seven Sons of Fire” or of the Flame, are distinguished or divided into seven classes (like the Seven Sephiroth, and others, see Vâyu Purâna and Harivamśa, also Rig Veda); three of which classes are Arûpa, formless, “composed of intellectual not elementary substance,” and four are corporeal. The first are pure Agni (fire) or Sapta-jîva (“seven lives,” now become Saptajihva, seven-tongued, as Agni is represented with seven tongues and seven winds as the wheels of his car). As a formless, purely spiritual essence, in the first degree of evolution, they could not create that, the proto-typical form of which was not in their minds, as this is the first requisite. They could only give birth to “mind-born” beings, their “Sons,” the second class of Pitris (or Prajâpati, or Rishis, etc.), one degree more material; these, to the third—the last of the Arûpa class. It is only this last class that was enabled with the help of the Fourth principle of the Universal Soul (Aditi, Âkâsha) to produce beings that became objective and having a form.<ref>We find an echo of this in the Codex Nazaraeus. Bahak-Zivo, the “father of Genii” (the seven) is ordered to construct creatures. But, as he is “ignorant of Orcus” and unacquainted with “the consuming fire which is wanting in light,” he fails to do so and calls in Fetahil, a still purer spirit, to his aid, who fails still worse and sits in the mud (Ilus, Chaos, Matter) and wonders why the living fire is so changed. It is only when the “Spirit”(Soul) steps on the stage of creation (the feminine Anima Mundi of the Nazarenes and Gnostics) and awakens Karabtanos—the spirit of matter and concupiscence—who consents to help his mother, that the “Spiritus” conceives and brings forth “Seven Figures,” and again “Seven” and once more “Seven” (the Seven Virtues, Seven Sins and Seven Worlds). Then Fetahil dips his hand in the Chaos and creates our planet. (See Isis Unveiled, Vol. I, pp. 299-301.)</ref> But when these came to {{Page aside|192}}existence, they were found to possess such a small proportion of the divine immortal Soul or Fire in them, that they were considered failures. “The third appealed to the second, the second to the first, and the Three had to become Four (the perfect square or cube representing the ‘Circle Squared’ or immersion of pure Spirit), before the first could be instructed” (Sansk. Comment.) Then only, could perfect Being—intellectually and physically—be shaped. This, though more philosophical, is still an allegory. But its meaning is plain, however absurd may seem the explanation from a scientific standpoint. The Doctrine teaches the Presence of a Universal Life (or motion) within which all is, and nothing outside of it can be. This is pure Spirit. Its manifested aspect is cosmic primordial Matter coeval with, since it is, itself. Semi-spiritual in comparison to the first, this vehicle of the Spirit-Life is what Science calls Ether, which fills the boundless space, and it is in this substance, the world-stuff, that germinate all the atoms and molecules of what is called matter. However homogeneous in its eternal origin, this Universal Element, once that its radiations were thrown into the space of the (to be) manifested Universe, the centripetal and centrifugal forces of perpetual motion, of attraction and repulsion, would soon polarize its scattered particles, endowing them with peculiar properties now regarded by Science as various elements distinct from each other. As a homogeneous whole, the world-stuff in its primordial state is perfect; disintegrated, it loses its property of conditionless creative power; it has to associate with its contraries. Thus, the first worlds and Cosmic Beings, save the “Self-Existent”—a mystery no one could attempt to touch upon seriously, as it is a mystery perceived by the divine eye of the highest Initiates, but one that no human language could explain {{Page aside|193}}to the children of our age—the first worlds and Beings were failures; inasmuch as the former lacked that inherent creative force in them necessary for their further and independent evolution, and that the first orders of Beings lacked the immortal soul. Part and parcel of Anima Mundi in its Prâkritic aspect, the Purusha element in them was too weak to allow of any consciousness in the intervals (entr'actes) between their existences during the evolutionary period and the cycle of Life. The three orders of Beings, the Pitri-Rishis, the Sons of Flame, had to merge and blend together their three higher principles with the Fourth (the Circle), and the Fifth (the microcosmic) principle before the necessary union could be obtained and result therefrom achieved. “There were old worlds, which perished as soon as they came into existence; were formless, as they were called sparks. These sparks are the primordial worlds which could not continue because the Sacred Aged had not as yet assumed the form”<ref>Idra Suta, Zohar, iii, 292b.</ref> (of perfect contraries not only in opposite sexes but of cosmical polarity). “Why were these primordial worlds destroyed? Because,” answers the Zohar, “the man represented by the ten Sephiroth was not as yet. The human form contains everything [spirit, soul and body], and as it did not as yet exist the worlds were destroyed.”

Far removed from the Pitris, then, it will readily be seen are all the various feats of Indian fakirs, jugglers and others, phenomena a hundred times more various and astounding than are ever seen in civilized Europe and America. The Pitris have naught to do with such public exhibitions, nor are the “spirits of the departed” concerned in them. We have but to consult the lists of the principal Daimons or Elemental Spirits to find that their very names indicate their professions, or, to express it clearly, the tricks for which each variety is best adapted. So we have the Mâdan, a generic name indicating wicked elemental spirits, half brutes, half monsters, for Mâdan signifies one that looks like a cow. He is the friend of the malicious sorcerers {{Page aside|194}}and helps them to effect their evil purposes of revenge by striking men and cattle with sudden illness and death.