HPB-SD(ed.1) v.1 p.1 st.2 sl.4

The Secret Doctrine

The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy

by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

Verbatim first edition

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volume 1 Cosmogenesis, part 1 Cosmic Evolution, stanza 2 The Idea of Differentiation, sloka 4

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ed.1 • rus

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the secret doctrine.

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STANZA II. — Continued.

4. Her heart had not yet opened for the one ray to enter, thence to fall as three into four in the lap of Maya (a).

(a) The Primordial Substance had not yet passed out of its precosmic latency into differentiated objectivity, or even become the (to man, so far,) invisible Protyle of Science. But, as the hour strikes and it becomes receptive of the Fohatic impress of the Divine Thought (the Logos, or the male aspect of the Anima Mundi, Alaya) — its heart opens. It differentiates, and the three (Father, Mother, Son) are transformed into four. Herein lies the origin of the double mystery of the Trinity and the immaculate Conception, The first and Fundamental dogma of Occultism is Universal Unity (or Homogeneity) under three aspects. This led to a possible conception of Deity, which as an absolute unity must remain forever incomprehensible to finite intellects. “ If thou wouldest believe in the Power which acts within the root of a plant, or imagine the root concealed under the soil, thou hast to think of its stalk or trunk and of its leaves and flowers. Thou canst not imagine that Power independently of these objects. Life can be known only by the Tree of Life. . . .” (Precepts for Yoga). The idea of Absolute Unity

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astral light is not the anima mundi.

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would be broken entirely in our conception, had we not something concrete before our eyes to contain that Unity. And the deity being absolute, must be omnipresent, hence not an atom but contains it within itself. The roots, the trunk and its many branches are three distinct objects, yet they are one tree. Say the Kabalists : “ The Deity is one, because It is infinite. It is triple, because it is ever manifesting.” This manifestation is triple in its aspects, for it requires, as Aristotle has it, three principles for every natural body to become objective : privation, form, and matter. * Privation meant in the mind of the great philosopher that which the Occultists call the prototypes impressed in the Astral Light — the lowest plane and world of Anima Mundi. The union of these three principles depends upon a fourth — the life which radiates from the summits of the Unreachable, to become an universally diffused Essence on the manifested planes of Existence. And this quaternary (Father, Mother, Son, as a unity, and a quaternary, as a living manifestation) has been the means of leading to the very archaic Idea of Immaculate Conception, now finally crystallized into a dogma of the Christian Church, which carnalized this metaphysical idea beyond any common sense. For one has but to read the Kabala and study its numerical methods of interprctation to find the origin of that dogma. It is purely astronomical, mathematical, and pre-eminently metaphysical : the Male element in Nature (personified by the male deities and Logoi — Viraj, or Brahmâ ; Horus, or Osiris, etc., etc.) is born through, not from, an immaculate source, personified by the “ Mother ” ; because that Male having a Mother cannot have a “ Father ” — the abstract Deity being sexless, and not even a Being but Be-ness, or Life itself. Let us render this in the mathematical language of the author of “ The Source of Measures.” Speaking of the “ Measure of a Man ” and his numerical (Kabalistic) value, he writes that in Genesis, ch. iv., v. 1, “ It is called the ‘ Man even Jehovah ’

* A Vedantin of the Visishtadwaita philosophy would say that, though the only independent Reality, Parabrahmam is inseparable from his trinity. That He is three, “ Parabrahmam, Chit, and Achit,” the last two being dependent realities unable to exist separately ; or, to make it clearer, Parabrahmam is the substance — changeless, eternal, and incognizable — and Chit (Atma), and Achit (Anâtma) are its qualities, as form and colour are the qualities of any object. The two are the garment, or body, or rather attribute (Sarira) of Parabrahmam. But an Occultist would find much to say against this claim, and so would the Adwaitee Vedantin.

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Measure, and this is obtained in this way, viz. : 113 × 5 = 565, and the value 565 can be placed under the form of expression 56^.5 × 10 = 565. Here the Man-number 113 becomes a factor of 56^.5 × 10, and the (Kabalistic) reading of this last numbered expression is Jod, He, Vau, He, or Jehovah. . . . The expansion of 565 into 56^.5 × 10 is purposed to show the emanation of the male ( Jod) from the female (Eva) principle ; or, so to speak, the birth of a male element from an immaculate source, in other words, an immaculate conception.”

Thus is repeated on Earth the mystery enacted, according to the Seers, on the divine plane. The “ Son ” of the immaculate Celestial Virgin (or the undifferentiated cosmic protyle, Matter in its infinitude) is born again on Earth as the Son of the terrestrial Eve — our mother Earth, and becomes Humanity as a total — past, present, and future — for Jehovah or Jod-he-vau-he is androgyne, or both male and female. Above, the Son is the whole Kosmos ; below, he is Mankind. The triad or triangle becomes Tetraktis, the Sacred Pythagorean number, the perfect Square, and a 6-faced cube on Earth. The Macroprosopus (the Great Face) is now Microprosopus (the lesser face) ; or, as the Kabalists have it, the “ Ancient of Days,” descending on Adam Kadmon whom he uses as his vehicle to manifest through, gets transformed into Tetragrammaton. It is now in the “ Lap of Maya,” the Great Illusion, and between itself and the Reality has the Astral Light, the great Deceiver of man’s limited senses, unless Knowledge through Paramarthasatya comes to the rescue.