HPB-SD(ed.1) v.2 p.1 st.4 sl.15: Difference between revisions

Each class of Creators endows man with what it has to give : the one builds his external form ; the other gives him its essence, which later on becomes the Human ''Higher Self ''owing to the ''personal exertion of the individual ; ''but they could not make men as they were themselves — perfect, because sinless ; sinless, because having only the first, pale shadowy outlines of attributes, and these all perfect — from the human standpoint — white, pure and cold as the virgin snow. Where there is no struggle, there is no merit. Humanity, “ of the Earth earthy,” was not destined to be created by the angels of the first divine Breath : therefore they are said to ''have refused ''to do so, and man had to be formed by more material creators, * who, in their turn, could give only what they had in their own natures, and no more. Subservient to eternal law, the pure gods could only project out of themselves ''shadowy ''men, a little less ethereal and spiritual, less ''divine and perfect ''than themselves —  shadows still. The first humanity, therefore, was a pale copy of its progenitors ; too material, even in its ethereality, to be a hierarchy of gods ; too spiritual and pure to be men, endowed as it is with every ''negative ''(''Nirguna'') perfection. Perfection, to be fully such, must be born out of imperfection, the ''incorruptible ''must grow out of the corruptible, having the latter as its vehicle and basis and contrast. Absolute light is absolute darkness, and ''vice versâ. ''In fact, there is neither light nor

In the Norse Legends, one recognizes in Asgard, the habitat of the gods, as also in the ''Ases ''themselves, the same mystical ''loci ''and personifications woven into the popular “ myths,” as in our Secret Doctrine ; and we find them in the Vedas, the Purânas, the Mazdean Scriptures and the Kabala. The ''Ases ''of Scandinavia, the rulers of the world which preceded ours, whose name means literally the “ pillars of the world,” its “ supports,” are thus identical with the Greek ''Cosmocratores'', the “ Seven Workmen or Rectors ” of Pymander, the seven Rishis and Pitris of India, the seven Chaldean gods and seven evil spirits, the seven Kabalistic Sephiroth synthesised by the upper triad, and even the seven Planetary Spirits of the Christian mystics. The Ases create the earth, the seas, the sky and the clouds, the whole visible world, from the remains of the slain giant Ymir ; but they do not create Man, but only his form from the ''Ask ''or ash-tree. It is Odin who endows him with life and soul, after Lodur had given him blood and bones, and finally it is Hönir who furnishes him with his intellect (''manas'') and with his conscious senses. The Norse Ask, the Hesiodic Ash-tree, whence issued the men of the generation of bronze, the Third Root-Race, and the ''Tzite ''tree of the ''Popol-Vuh'', out of which the Mexican ''third ''race of men was created, are all one. * This may be plainly seen by any reader. But the Occult reason why the Norse Yggdrasil, the Hindu Aswatha, the Gogard, the Hellenic tree of life, and the Tibetan Zampun, are one with the Kabalistic Sephirothal Tree, and even with the Holy Tree made by Ahura Mazda, and the Tree of Eden —  who among the western scholars can tell ? † Nevertheless, the fruits of all those “ Trees,” whether Pippala or Haoma or yet the more prosaic apple, are the “ plants of life,” in fact and verity. The prototypes of our races were all enclosed in the microcosmic tree, which grew and developed ''within and under ''the great mundane macrocosmic tree ‡ ; and the mystery is half revealed in the ''Dirghotamas'', where it is said : “ Pippala, the sweet fruit of that tree upon which come ''spirits who''