HPB-SD(ed.1) v.1 p.2 sec.13: Difference between revisions

“ {{Style S-Small capitals|There}} was neither day nor night, nor sky nor earth, nor darkness nor light, nor any other thing save only one, unapprehensible by intellect, or that which is Brahma and Pum^˙is (Spirit) and Prâdhâna (crude matter) ” (''Veda : ''“ ''Vishnu Purâna Commentary ”'') ;'' ''or literally : “ One Prâdhânika Brahma Spirit : {{Style S-Small capitals|that}} was.” The “ Prâdhânika Brahma Spirit ” is Mulaprakriti and Parabrahmam.

This is the order given in the ''exoteric ''texts. According to esoteric teaching there are seven primary, and seven secondary “ creations ; ” the former being the Forces ''self-evolving ''from the one ''causeless ''force ; the latter, showing the manifested Universe emanating from the already differentiated ''divine ''elements.

They were so “ distinguished,” but not as Irenæus gives it. The Gnostics had a superior ''Hebdomad'', and an inferior one, in Heaven ; and a third terrestrial ''Hebdomad'', on the plane of matter. Iao, the mystery god and the Regent of the Moon, as given in Origen’s chart, was the chief of these superior “ ''Seven Heavens'',” † hence identical with the chief of the lunar Pitris, that name being given by them to the lunar Dhyan-Chohans. “ They affirm that these seven heavens are intelligent, and ''speak of them as being angels'',” writes the same Irenæus ; and adds that on this account they termed Iao Hebdomas, while his mother was called “ ''Ogdoas'',” because, as he explains, “ she preserved the number of ''the first begotten and primary Ogdoad of the Pleroma.''” (Ibid. b. i, v. 2).

Ildabaoth is a copy of Manu. The latter boasts, “ Oh, best of twice-born men ! Know that I (Manu) am he, the creator of all this world, whom that male Virâj . . . spontaneously produced ” (I., 33). He first creates the ten lords of Being, the Prajâpatis, who, as verse 36 says . . . “ produce seven other Manus.” (''The Ordinances of Manu.'') Ildabaoth does likewise : “ I am Father and God, and there is no one above me,” he exclaims. For which his mother coolly puts him down by saying, “ Do not lie, Ildabaoth, for the father of all, the ''first ''man (''Anthropos'') ''is above thee'', ''and so is Anthropos'', ''the Son of Anthropos ”'' (Irenæus, b. i, ch. xxx., 6). This is a good proof that there were three Logoi (besides the Seven born of the First), one of these being the ''Solar Logos. ''And, again, who was that “ Anthropos ” himself, so much higher than Ildabaoth ? The Gnostic records alone can solve this riddle. In ''Pistis Sophia ''the four-vowelled name Ieov is in each case accompanied by the epithet of “ the Primal, or First man.” This shows again that the gnosis was but an echo of our archaic doctrine. The names answering to Parabrahm, to Brahm, and Manu (the first ''thinking ''man) are composed of one-vowelled, three-vowelled and seven-vowelled sounds. Marcus, whose philosophy was certainly more Pythagorean than anything else, speaks of a revelation to him of the seven heavens sounding each one vowel as they pronounced the seven names of the seven (angelic) hierarchies.

(I.) Mahat-tattwa creation — so-called because it was the primordial self-evolution of that which had to become ''Mahat'' — the “ divine Mind, conscious and intelligent ” ; esoterically, “ the ''spirit ''of the Universal soul.” . . . “ Worthiest of ascetics, through its potency (''the potency of that cause'') ; every ''produced ''cause comes by its proper nature.” (''Vishnu Purâna.'') “ Seeing that the potencies of all beings are under-

(II.) “ The ''second ''Creation,” “ Bhûta,” was of the rudimental principles (Tanmâtras), thence termed the elemental creation (''Bhûta-sarga''). * It is the period of the first breath of the differentiation of the ''pre-Cosmic ''Elements or matter. ''Bhûtâdi ''means literally “ the origin of the Elements,” and precedes ''Bhûta-sarga'' — the “ creation ” or differentiation of those Elements in primordial “ Akâsa ” (Chaos or Vacuity). † In the “ Vishnu Purâna ” it is said to proceed along, and belong to, the triple aspect of ''Ahankâra'', translated Egotism, but meaning rather that untranslateable term the “ I-am-ness,” that which first issues from “ Mahat,” or divine mind ; the first shadowy outline of Self-hood, for “ pure ” Ahankâra becomes “ passionate ” and finally “ rudimental ”

(V.) The ''Tiryaksrotas ''(or Tairyagyonya) creation, * that of the “ (''sacred'') animals,” corresponding only on Earth, to the dumb animal creation. That which is meant by “ animals,” in ''primary ''Creation, is the germ of awakening consciousness or of ''apperception'', that which is faintly traceable in some sensitive plants on Earth and more distinctly in the ''protistic ''monera. † On our globe, during the first round, animal “ creation ” precedes that of man, while the former (or mammal) evolves from the latter in our fourth round — on the physical plane : in Round I. the animal atoms are drawn into a cohesion of human physical form ; while in Round IV. the reverse occurs according to magnetic conditions developed during life. And this is ''metempsychosis ''(''See ''“''Mineral Monad''” ''in ''“''Five Years of Theosophy'',”

 

''p. ''276). This fifth stage of evolution, called exoterically “ Creation,” may be viewed in both the ''Primary ''and ''Secondary ''periods, one as the Spiritual and Cosmic, the other as the material and ''terrestrial. ''It is ''Archibiosis'', or life-origination — “ origination,” so far, of course, as the ''manifestation ''of life on all the seven planes is concerned. It is at this period of Evolution that the ''absolutely eternal ''universal motion, or vibration, that which is called in Esoteric language “ the {{Style S-Small capitals|great breath}},” differentiates in the primordial, first manifested atom. More and more, as chemical and physical sciences progress, does this occult axiom find its corroboration in the world of knowledge : the scientific hypothesis, that even the simplest elements of matter are identical in nature and differ from each other only owing to the variety of the distributions of ''atoms ''in the molecule or speck of substance, or by the modes of its ''atomic vibration'', gains every day more ground.

(VI). The Urdhvasrotas creation, or that of divinities ''(Vishnu Purâna Book I. chap. i.)''. But these (divinities) are simply the prototypes of the First Race, the fathers of their “ mind-born ” progeny with the ''soft ''bones. * It is these who became the ''Evolvers ''of the “ Sweat-born ” — an expression explained in Book II. Finally, the sixth “ Creation ” is followed, and “ ''Creation ''in general, closed by — 

the howling and terrific ''destroyer of human passions and physical senses'', which are ever in the way of the development of the higher spiritual perceptions and the growth of the ''inner ''eternal man — mystically, * are the progeny of Siva, the ''Mahâyogi'', the great patron of all the Yogis and mystics of India. They themselves, being the “ Virgin-Ascetics,” refuse to create the ''material ''being man. Well may they be suspected of a direct connection with the Christian Archangel Michael, the “ Virgin Combatant ” of the Dragon ''Apophis'', whose victim is every soul united too loosely to its immortal Spirit, the Angel who, as shown by the Gnostics, ''refused to create ''just as the Kumâras did. (''See Book II.'', “ ''The Mystic Dragons and their Slayers.''” ) . . . Does not that patron-Angel of the Jews ''preside ''over Saturn (Siva or Rudra), and the Sabbath, the day of Saturn ? Is he not shown of the same essence with his father (Saturn), and called the “ Son of Time,” ''Kronos'', ''or Kâla ''(time), a form of Brahmâ (Vishnu and Siva) ? ” And is not “ Old Time ” of the Greeks, with its scythe and sand-glass, identical with the “ Ancient of Days ” of the Kabalists ; the latter “ Ancient ” being one with the Hindu “ Ancient of Days,” Brahmâ (in his ''triune ''form), whose name is also “ Sanat,” the Ancient ? Every Kumâra bears the prefix of ''Sanat ''and ''Sana ; ''and Sanaischara is Saturn, the planet (Sani and Sarra), the King Saturn whose Secretary in Egypt was Thot-Hermes the first. They are thus identified both with the planet and the god (Siva), who are, in their turn, shown the prototypes of Saturn, who is the same as Bel, Baal, Siva, and Jehovah Sabbaoth, ''The angel of whose face is'' {{Style S-Small capitals|Mikael}} ( {{Style S-Hebrew|מיבַאֶל}} “ who is as God ”). He is the patron, and guardian Angel of the Jews, as Daniel tells us (v. 21) ; and, before the Kumâras were degraded, by those who were ignorant of their very name, into demons and fallen angels, the Greek Ophites, the occultly inclined predecessors and precursors of the Roman Catholic Church after its secession and separation from the primitive Greek Church, had identified Michael with their ''Ophiomorphos'', the rebellious and opposing spirit. This means nothing more than the reverse aspect (symbolically) of Ophis — divine Wisdom or Christos. In the ''Talmud'', ''Mikael ''(Michael) is “ Prince of ''Water ”'' and the chief of the seven Spirits, for the same reason that his prototype (among many others) Sanat-Sujâta,

The Rudras will be noticed in their Septenary character of “ Fire-Spirits ” in the “ Symbolism ” attached to the Stanzas in Book II. ^{There we shall also consider the Cross (3 + 4) under its primeval and}later forms, and shall use for purposes of comparison the Pythagorean numbers side by side with Hebrew Metrology. The immense importance of the number ''seven ''will thus become evident, as the root number of nature. We shall examine it from the standpoints of the Vedas and the Chaldean Scriptures, as it existed in Egypt thousands of years B.C., and as treated in the Gnostic records ; we shall show how its importance as a basic number has gained recognition in physical Science ; and we shall endeavour to prove that the importance attached to the number ''seven ''throughout all antiquity was due to no fanciful imaginings of uneducated priests, but to a profound knowledge of natural law.