HPB-SD(21c)

The Secret Doctrine

The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy

by

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

सत्यात् नास्ति परो धर्मः । “ There is no Religion higher than Truth.”

21-th century edition (based on first edition, 1888)

Table of contents

ix

ix

Preface

... vii

Introduction

... xvii

The Need of such a Book

... xix

The Antiquity of Documents and MSS.

... xxiii

What the Book is intended to do

... xxviii

VOLUME FIRST.
COSMOGENESIS.

Proem

... 1

The Oldest MSS. in the world and its Symbolism

... 2

The One Life, Active and Passive

... 4

The Secret Doctrine — Pantheism — Atheism

... 6

“ Space ” in all Religions and in Occultism

... 9

Seven Cosmic Elements — Seven Races of Mankind

... 12

The Three Postulates of the Secret Doctrine

... 14

Description of the Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan

... 20

BOOK I.—PART I.
COSMIC EVOLUTION.

Seven stanzas from the Book of Dzyan

... 27

–––––––

Stanza I. The night of the universe

... 35

Slokas: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Sloka 1

... 35

The seven eternities

... 36

Sloka 2

... 36

Time and Universal Mind

... 37

Sloka 3

... 37

The Universal Mind and the dhyan chohans

... 38

Sloka 4

... 38

The causes of being

... 39

Nidana and maya: the causes of misery

... 39

Sloka 5

... 40

What is darkness in philosophy?

... 41

Sloka 6

... 42

Motions, the “Great Breath”

... 43

Sloka 7

... 44

Being and non-being

... 45

Sloka 8

... 46

The eye of Dangma

... 47

Sloka 9

... 47

Alaya, the universal soul

... 49

Can the finite conceive the infinite?

... 51

x

contents.

x

Stanza II. The idea of differentiation

... 53

Slokas: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Sloka 1

... 53

The state of paranirvana

... 53

Sloka 2

... 54

The Absolute knows itself not

... 55

Sloka 3

... 57

The germ of life was not yet

... 57

Sloka 4

... 58

Astral light is not the Anima Mundi

... 59

Sloka 5

... 60

Divine thought, divine thinkers

... 61

Sloka 6

... 61

The universe was still concealed in the divine thought

... 61

–––––––

Stanza III. The awakening of kosmos

... 62

Slokas: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Sloka 1

... 62

The universe, a flitting shadow

... 63

Sloka 2

... 63

The great vibration

... 63

Sloka 3

... 64

Nature’s symbols

... 65

Sloka 4

... 66

The power of numbers

... 67

Sloka 5

... 68

The blossom of the root of life.

... 69

Sloka 6

... 69

Sloka 7

... 71

Light emerges from darkness

... 71

The logoi and the dragon

... 73

Noumenal and phenomenal light

... 75

The astral light

... 75

Sloka 8

... 77

Deity in space and time

... 77

Primeval radiations from unity

... 79

Sloka 9

... 81

Primeval differentiations

... 81

Sloka 10

... 83

The web of being

... 83

Sloka 11

... 83

Sloka 12

... 85

Conscious electricity: Fohat

... 85

–––––––

Stanza IV. The septenary hierarchies

... 86

Slokas: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Sloka 1

... 86

The sons of the fire

... 86

The seven mystic senses

... 87

Sloka 2

... 88

Sloka 3

... 88

The vehicle of the universe — the dhyan chohans

... 89

The immaculate conceptions

... 91

Sloka 4

... 88

The potency of speech and sound

... 93

The army of the Voice

... 93

Speech and Mind

... 95

Nature, the Perpetual Motion

... 97

Sloka 5

... 98

The Ogdoad and the Heptad

... 99

Fire, the great symbol of deity

... 101

The stellar “Sons of Light”

... 103

Sloka 6

... 103

The divine recorders

... 105

–––––––

Stanza V. Fohat : The child of the septenary hierarchies

... 106

Slokas: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Sloka 1

... 106

The fiery whirlwind and the primordial seven

... 107

No man — no god.

Sloka 2

... 107

They produce Fohat

... 108

Theogony of the creators

... 109

The protean spirit-substance

... 111

The correlation of the “gods”

... 113

Manifested symbols

... 115

Sloka 3

... 116

The antiquity of physical sciences

... 117

Sloka 4

... 118

Evolution of the “principles” of nature

... 119

The mystery of the fire

... 121

Sloka 5

... 122

The secret of the elements

... 123

The square of the tabernacle (the real meaning of the tabernacle)

... 125

The dragons of secret wisdom

... 127

Sloka 5

... 129

The planetary spirits and the lipika

... 129

The ring “Pass Not”

... 130

The sidereal book of life

... 131

The god of man and the god of the ant

... 133

The soul’s pilgrimage and its “rest”

... 134

The soul’s pilgrimage

... 135

–––––––

Stanza VI. Our world, its growth and development

... 136

Slokas: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Sloka 1

... 136

The logos

... 136

Mystery of the female logos

... 137

xi

contents.

xi

Sloka 2

... 138

The seven layu centres

... 138

From no-number to number seven

... 139

The “elementary germs”

... 139

Sloka 3

... 140

The evolution of the elements

... 140

Were the ancients ignorant of the physical sciences?

... 141

The sleep of the Eternal Mother

... 143

Sloka 4

... 144

The cosmic plane, an illusion

... 145

The building of the worlds

... 145

Primordial substance, a reality

... 147

A neutral centre

... 147

The moon is not dead, but only sleepeth

... 149

“Dead” planets — the Moon

... 149

Nature can never cease

... 151

––––––– A few early theosophical misconceptions concerning planets, rounds, and man

... 152

Descending and re-ascending states

... 153

Diagram I. The planetary divisions and the human principles

... 153

Exchange of life-principles

... 155

The Moon

... 155

Opinions differ and yet agree

... 157

Septenary division in different Indian systems

... 157

Transmigrations of the ego

... 159

A re-adjustment of facts

... 161

The septenary chain

... 161

Like questions, like answers

... 163

Relation of the other planets to the Earth

... 163

An authoritative letter

... 165

Priceless advice, neglected

... 167

The seven branches of the tree of knowledge

... 169

––––––– Additional facts and explanations concerning the globes and the monads

... 170

The mystery of the moon, unveiled

... 171

Diagram II. The Lunar chain and the Earth chain

... 172

The Earth, the child of the Moon

... 173

The classification of the monads

... 175

As above, so below, is the law

... 177

The Lunar Monads – the Pitris

... 179

A triple evolution in nature

... 181

Man, the oldest son of the earth

... 183

The man, or the ape; which the first?

... 185

An erroneous opinion

... 187

A Master’s letter

... 189

–––––––

Stanza VI. – Continued

... 191

Sloka 5

... 191

The preliminary creation of man

... 191

“Creation” in the Fourth Round

... 191

Sloka 6

... 192

The first cause of sin

... 193

The “curse,” “sin,” and “war”

... 193

The codex repeats the allegory

... 195

Ilda-Baoth-Jehovah

... 197

Sloka 6 – Continued

... 199

[The comparative diagram of seven planes]

... 200

No shadow, no light

... 201

The struggle for life and the birth of the worlds

... 202

The birth of the worlds

... 203

Seeing sound, hearing colours

... 205

Sloka 7

... 205

the tree from which the adepts grow

... 207

The adepts and the Sacred Island

... 207

The sacred island

... 209

The sons of wisdom

... 211

–––––––

Stanza VII. The parents of man on Earth

... 213

Slokas: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Sloka 1

... 213

Divisions of the hierarchies

... 214

One parent flame, countless flames

... 215

Teachings contrasted

... 217

The hierarchies of spirits

... 219

Correlation of beings

... 221

Sloka 2

... 222

The mystery of being

... 223

Spirit falling into matter

... 225

The Egyptian system

... 227

Many streams, but one source

... 229

Sloka 3

... 231

The differentiation of the “One”

... 231

What incarnates in animal man

... 233

Dii sunt demones inversi

... 235

Sloka 4

... 237

The immortal root

... 237

Sloka 5

... 238

Formation of man: the thinker

... 238

Chaldean metaphysics

... 239

The true and the false Kabala

... 241

[Diagram of human principles]

... 242

Occult and Kabalistic pneumatics (doctrines)

... 243

Occultists and Kabalists differ

... 245

Spirit alone is helpless on earth

... 247

Matter, life and substance

... 249

The four dimensions of space

... 251

The great Archæus

... 253

But why slander the Indian hierophants?

... 255

Akâsa in not ether

... 257

Atoms are invisible lives

... 259

Occult vital chemistry and bacteriology

... 261

Paracelsus died too early

... 263

xii

contents.

xii

Sloka 6

... 264

Man, the shadow of his prototype

... 265

The Watcher and his shadow

... 265

Sloka 7

... 265

Earth, peopled from heaven (by the shadows of the gods)

... 267

–––––––

Summing up

... 269

The first chapter of creation

... 269

Occultism in the Upanishads

... 271

The pith and marrow of the Secret Doctrine

... 273

The nature of the celestial men

... 275

Many bodies but one soul

... 277

Hermes, or Aristotle?

... 279

Matter is the shadow of spirit

... 281

Paracelsus anticipated Tyndall

... 283

Hermes in Christian garb (christianized)

... 285

Alone the eternal is rest

... 287

Some Occult aphorisms

... 289

Occult aphorisms

... 291

The seven powers of nature

... 293

Universal illusion

... 295

Nothing new under the sun

... 297

Men welcome error, and crucify the truth

... 299

BOOK I.—PART II.
THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM IN ITS APPROXIMATE ORDER.

I. Symbolism and ideographs

... 303

Emblem and symbol differ

... 305

Magic potency of sound

... 307

Mystery language

... 309

–––––––

II. The mystery language and its keys

... 310

Egypt’s many religions

... 311

The Jews and their system

... 313

Piazzi Smyth and Petrie disagree

... 315

Truth must prevail at last

... 317

Moses copied from Sargon

... 319

The cross, a phallic symbol

... 321

Identity of the ancient symbols

... 323

The impartiality of scientific denials

... 325

–––––––

III. Primordial substance and divine thought

... 325

Divine thought, or cineritious matter?

... 327

The universal illusion

... 329

Ether and intelligence

... 330

Ether, as its noumenon

... 331

What Manu says of this

... 333

The seven prakritis

... 335

Darkness, is light

... 337

The mystic fire

... 339

One tree of knowledge

... 341

–––––––

IV. Chaos—Theos—Kosmos

... 342

The union of chaos and spirit

... 343

The birth of mind

... 345

The mystic elements

... 347

–––––––

V. The hidden deity, its symbols and glyphs

... 349

The many are one

... 349

The Gnostic idea

... 351

The Egyptian version

... 353

International correlation of gods

... 355

Ornithological symbols

... 357

xiii

contents.

xiii

VI. The mundane egg

... 359

Whence our figures?

... 361

Egg-born logoi

... 363

The winged globe

... 365

The Scandinavian logos

... 367

–––––––

VII. The days and nights of Brahmâ

... 368

Human gods and divine men

... 369

The rebirth of gods

... 371

The dissolution of the egg

... 373

Archaic symbolism

... 375

The Purânic prophecy

... 377

–––––––

VIII. The lotus as a universal symbol

... 379

Lotus and lily

... 379

The exoteric and the esoteric

... 381

The purity of early Phallicism

... 383

The Egyptian lotus

... 385

–––––––

IX. The Moon, Deus Lunus, Phœbe

... 386

A glance at the lunar myth

... 387

A key-note to the Moon

... 389

The time periods

... 391

Copies and originals

... 393

Solar-lunar worship in the church

... 395

The Moon, bisexual

... 397

The dignity of Saïs

... 399

Ante-historical Catholicism

... 401

Identity of typology

... 403

–––––––

X. Tree and serpent and crocodile worship

... 403

Degeneration of the symbol

... 405

The seven-headed dragons

... 407

Dragon and crocodile

... 409

The mystery of the seven thunders

... 411

–––––––

XI. Demon est Deus inversus

... 411

Death is life

... 413

Theological etymologies

... 415

The angels slandered

... 417

The fall of the angels

... 418

The war of the gods

... 419

The deception of the gods

... 421

Transformation of the legend

... 421

The deception, an allegory

... 423

–––––––

XII. The theogony of the creative gods

... 424

Myth is oral tradition

... 425

The point within the circle

... 426

The creative logoï, androgynous

... 427

The one is known by the many

... 429

The Logos or Verbum

... 429

The female logoï

... 431

The factors of Creation

... 432

The Pythagorean idea

... 433

Antiquity of the pyramids

... 435

Cosmic gods

... 437

Identity of the hierarchies in all religions

... 438

Incredible, but true

... 439

The same idea in Confucianism

... 441

The mystery of blackness

... 443

Difference between the Aryan and Semitic systems

... 444

God is our higher self

... 445

xiv

contents.

xiv

XIII. The seven creations

... 445

The order of the evolution

... 447

The six stellar gods

... 449

The Gnostic and the Hindu versions

... 449

The seven Puranic “Creations”

... 450

Many versions of the one truth

... 451

The seven creations

... 453

Creations continued

... 455

Who the kumâras are

... 457

The patron-guide of Israel

... 459

–––––––

XIV. The four elements

... 460

On the elements

... 461

The cosmic gods

... 463

The “gods” and the “elements”

... 463

The language of the elements

... 464

A confession of science

... 465

The fighting gods

... 467

Pagan and Christian worship of the elements

... 467

Prayer is often sorcery

... 469

–––––––

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

... 470

Diseased imagination

... 471

Kwan-Shi-Yin and Phallicism

... 471

The real meaning

... 472

Snobs, or dragons?

... 473

––––––––––––––

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

I. Reasons for these addenda

... 477

Mutual position defined

... 477

Dual nature of the sun

... 479

Occultism versus Materialism

... 479

The sons of light

... 481

The sabbath of the Mystic

... 481

–––––––

II. Modern physicists are playing at blind man’s buff

... 482

No agreement among scientist

... 483

–––––––

III. An lumen sit corpus nec non ?

... 483

The metaphysics of physical science

... 485

The hypothetical ether

... 485

Scientific imagination

... 487

The physical “phantom”

... 489

Scientific theories of its constitution

... 489

–––––––

IV. Is gravitation a law ?

... 490

Gravity or what?

... 491

The triple sidereal force

... 493

Intelligences or blind forces?

... 493

Newton then and Newton now

... 495

New bottles for old wine

... 497

The cause of attraction

... 498

Chronic negation

... 499

xv

contents.

xv

V. The theories of rotation in science

... 500

Contradictory hypotheses

... 501

Conflicting hypotheses

... 502

Scientific aberrations

... 503

The paradoxes of science

... 505

More hypotheses

... 505

–––––––

VI. The masks of science

... 506

Academical misnomers

... 507

What are the “forces?”

... 508

The fixing of light

... 509

The view of the Occultists

... 510

What is force?

... 511

They agree to disagree

... 513

The mystic rays

... 515

Scientific and occult theories on heat

... 515

The causes and the effects

... 517

The vicious circle

... 519

The atoms of science

... 519

Chemical gods

... 521

Suggestive allegories

... 523

–––––––

VII. An attack on the scientific theory of force by a man of science

... 523

Dr. Richardson’s heresy

... 525

We disagree

... 527

Ether and atoms

... 527

–––––––

VIII. Life, force, or gravity?

... 529

Mysterious sun fluid

... 529

Sun-force and Earth-force

... 531

Dr. Richardson on nervous ether

... 531

Pantheism or monotheism

... 533

The seven physical senses

... 535

The senses and their action

... 535

What is nervous ether?

... 537

The life-principle

... 539

Too much “life” may kill

... 539

–––––––

IX. The solar theory

... 540

The heart of the solar system

... 541

The primordial element

... 542

The quintessence of kosmos

... 543

The original base

... 545

Elements and meta-elements

... 546

Occult chemistry

... 547

Monads and atoms

... 549

The tree of life and being

... 549

The caduceus of life

... 551

Prof. Crookes on the elements

... 552

True signs of the times

... 553

–––––––

X. The coming force

... 554

Divine, infernal, or terrestrial force?

... 555

Mr. Keeley, an unconscious Occultist

... 557

The first-born of ether

... 559

Inter-etheric waves

... 561

A premature discovery

... 563

The secrets of sound and odour

... 565

–––––––

XI. On the elements and atoms

... 566

Metaphysical chemistry

... 567

Pantheism versus materialism

... 569

The diamond heart

... 571

The crest-jewel of wisdom

... 573

What are the seven planets?

... 575

The cyclic fall of the gods

... 577

xvi

contents.

xvi

XII. Ancient thought in modern dress

... 579

Antiquity our great master

... 579

A chase after the primal matter

... 581

All-potential unity

... 583

The “seventh” in Chemistry

... 585

Puranas versus Royal Society

... 587

–––––––

XIII. The modern nebular theory

... 588

“So far shalt thou go...”

... 589

Forces are emanations

... 591

Unanswerable queries

... 593

What is the nebula?

... 595

The meta-elements of physical science

... 597

The nebular theory a romance

... 599

–––––––

XIV. Forces—Modes of motion or intelligences?

... 601

Hermes and Kant

... 601

The vital principle

... 603

Occult and physical science

... 605

Plurality of worlds

... 607

The geology of Enoch

... 609

–––––––

XV. Gods, monads, and atoms

... 610

Which of the two is blind?

... 611

The mathematical point

... 613

The gods of the ancients — the monads

... 613

Space, force and matter

... 615

Phantoms of the mind

... 617

The monad and the duad

... 617

The monad of Leibnitz

... 619

The chemistry of the future

... 621

The genesis of the elements

... 621

The genesis of atoms

... 623

Hermes or Huxley?

... 625

Leibnitz and Occultism

... 627

The teaching of Leibnitz

... 627

Spinoza and Leibnitz

... 629

Maya and mahamaya

... 631

The monads according to Occultism

... 632

The wheels of life

... 633

–––––––

XVI. Cyclic evolution and karma

... 634

The roots and causes

... 635

The swing of karma

... 637

Karmic cycles and universal ethics

... 637

The network of destiny

... 639

Destiny and karma

... 639

Cyclic wheels within wheels

... 641

Karma-Nemesis

... 643

Ancient and modern prophecies

... 645

Astrology a science

... 647

–––––––

XVII. The Zodiac and its antiquity

... 647

The Zodiac in the Bible

... 649

The Jewish patriarchs and the signs of the Zodiac

... 651

The sign of Jonas

... 653

Chaldeo-Judean gods

... 655

Zodiacal cycles

... 656

The dragon and the bull

... 657

Bailly’s conclusions

... 659

The beginning of kali-yug

... 661

Hindu astronomy

... 661

The eye of Taurus

... 663

Hindu astronomical methods

... 665

The Aryan Hindus vindicated

... 667

–––––––

XVIII. Summary of the mutual position

... 668

The exact sciences of — negation

... 669

Science confesses her ignorance

... 669

No void possible

... 671

The aliases of Fohat

... 673

The gods of Egypt

... 675

Materialism is leading Europe towards a catastrophe

... 675

–––––––

N.B. — The Index and Glossary will be found at the close of Volume II.

VOLUME SECOND.

vii

vii

Preliminary notes

... 1

On the archaic stanzas, and the four prehistoric continents

... 1

The lemnos-born kabiri

... 3

The secrets of Kouyunjik

... 5

The imperishable sacred land

... 6

Hyperboreas and Lemuria

... 7

Atlantis

... 8

Pre-tertiary giants

... 9

The tropics at the pole

... 11

–––––––

BOOK II.— PART II.
ANTHROPOGENESIS.

Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan

... 15

–––––––

Stanza I.—Beginnings of sentient life

... 22

Slokas: 1, 2, 3, 4

Sloka 1. The Lha, or Spirit of the Earth

... 22

The action of the Great Breath

... 23

Man, the Third Logos

... 25

Man’s dual and triple nature

... 27

Sloka 2. Invocation of the Earth to the Sun

... 27

The celestial governors of humanity

... 29

The horses of Sukra’s car

... 31

Parent stars and sister planets

... 33

The “seven” mystery

... 35

Three kinds of light

... 37

The numbers of Creation

... 39

The emanations of Ain-Soph

... 41

Adam-Adami

... 43

Sloka 3. What the Sun answers

... 44

The first war in heaven

... 45

Sloka 4. Transformation of the Earth

... 46

Narada and Asuramaya

... 47

–––––––

Two antediluvian astronomers

... 47

The mirror of futurity

... 49

What the earth-whirl produced

... 51

–––––––

Stanza II.—Nature unaided fails

... 52

Slokas: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Sloka 5. After enormous periods the Earth creates monsters

... 52

The monsters of Chaos

... 53

Sloka 6. The “Creators” are displeased

... 55

Unaided physical nature fails

... 55

Sloka 7. They dry the Earth

... 57

The “Double Dragon”

... 57

Creation of divine beings in the exoteric accounts

... 58

The bodies of Brahma

... 59

What the Gnostics say

... 61

Sloka 8. The forms are destroyed by them

... 63

Who are the “Flames”?

... 63

Sloka 9. The first great tides

... 64

Sloka 10. The beginning of incrustation

... 65

Divine will becomes Eros

... 65

viii

contents.

viii

The chronology of the brahmins

... 66

The Race that never dies

... 67

The various pralayas

... 69

Scientific self-complacence

... 71

Cosmogony, an intelligent plan

... 73

–––––––

Stanza III.—Attempts to create man

... 75

Slokas: 11, 12, 13

Sloka 11. The Descent of the Demiurge

... 75

The secret of the fall of the angels

... 75

Sloka 12. The lunar gods ordered to create

... 75

Sloka 13. The higher gods refuse

... 77

The various classes of creators

... 77

The living spiritual fire

... 79

Man, a god in animal form

... 81

“Fires,” “sparks,” and “flames”

... 83

The son of Yah

... 85

–––––––

Stanza IV.—Creation of the first races

... 86

Slokas: 14, 15, 16, 17

Sloka 14. Creation of men

... 86

Man not created perfect

... 87

On the identity and differences of the incarnating powers

... 88

Pitris of the gods and demons

... 89

Sloka 15. They are empty shadows

... 90

Seven classes of pitris

... 91

A grand apocalyptic metaphor

... 93

What Prometheus symbolized

... 95

The trees of life

... 97

The hammer of Thor

... 99

The divine babe, Agni

... 101

Sloka 16. The Creators are perplexed how to create a Thinking man

... 102

The divine rebels

... 103

Sloka 17. What is needed for the formation of a perfect Man

... 105

Man’s father, the Sun

... 105

Bath-Kol, daughter of the Voice

... 107

–––––––

Stanza V. The evolution of the Second Race

... 109

Slokas: 18, 19, 20, 21

Sloka 18. The Sons of Yoga

... 109

The tabula smaragdina

... 109

The shells of Sheba Hachaloth

... 111

The secret work of Chiram

... 113

Sons of Yoga

... 115

Sloka 19. The sexless Second Race

... 116

The outgrowth of races

... 117

The blastema of science

... 119

Sloka 20. The sons of the Sons of Twilight

... 120

Sloka 21. The “shadow,” or the astral man, retires within, and man develops a physical body

... 121

Leda, Castor, and Pollux

... 121

The allegory of Castor and Pollux

... 123

The Divine Hermaphrodite

... 124

Jah-Hovah androgynous

... 125

Seth our progenitor

... 127

The Jewish God-name

... 129

–––––––

Stanza VI. The evolution of the “sweat-born”

... 131

Slokas: 22, 23

Sloka 22. The evolution of the three races continued

... 131

The swan and the egg

... 131

Bi-sexual reproduction

... 133

The virgin Third Race

... 135

Egyptian belief

... 137

Sloka 23. The second race create the third and perishes

... 138

A few words about deluges and Noah’s

... 138

What the flood means

... 139

Various deluges

... 141

The Arkite symbols

... 143

The Jewish Noah and the Chaldean Nuah

... 145

Agreement of dates

... 147

Could men exist 18,000,000 years ago?

... 148

How old is humanity?

... 149

Spontaneous generation

... 151

Aristotle denied heliocentricism

... 153

The Solar system in the Purânas

... 155

The sleight-of-hand of science

... 157

Oceans of carbonic acid?

... 159

–––––––

Stanza VII. From the semi-divine down to the first human races

... 161

Slokas: 24, 25, 26, 27

Sloka 24. The higher creators reject in their pride the forms evolved by the “Sons of Yoga”

... 161

A suggestive stanza

... 161

Creators and sub-creators

... 163

To the moneron the creator

... 165

Monads and Rounds

... 167

Monogenism or Polygenism

... 169

Sloka 25. They will not incarnate in the early “Egg-born”

... 171

A suggestive explanation

... 171

Sloka 26. They select the later androgynes

... 172

Sloka 27. The first man endowed with mind

... 172

The sons of kriyasakti

... 173

ix

contents.

ix

A Saint — Hypnotised

... 175

Sweat-born and androgynes

... 177

The birth-days of the dhyanis

... 179

–––––––

Stanza VIII. Evolution of the animal mammalians—the first fall

... 180

Slokas: 28, 29, 30, 31, 32

Sloka 28. How the first mammals were produced

... 180

Men, the progenitors of animals

... 181

Archaic astrology

... 183

Sloka 29. A quasi-Darwinian evolution

... 183

Archaic zoology

... 183

Sloka 30. The animals get solid bodies

... 183

Sloka 31. Their separation into sexes

... 184

Sloka 32. The first sin of the mindless men

... 184

The sin of the mindless men

... 185

–––––––

What may be the objections to the foregoing

... 185

The darwinists mistaken

... 187

Naturalists inventing links

... 189

–––––––

Stanza IX. The final evolution of man

... 191

Slokas: 33, 34, 35, 36, 37

Sloka 33. The creators repent

... 191

Sloka 34. They atone for their neglect

... 191

Sloka 35. Men become endowed with minds

... 191

The cause of degeneration

... 191

The boneless race

... 193

The hairy men of China

... 195

The separation of sexes

... 197

Sloka 36. The fourth race develops perfect speech

... 198

Primeval language

... 199

Sloka 37. Every androgynous unit is separated and becomes bisexual

... 201

The transformation of the Earth

... 201

–––––––

Edens, serpents and dragons

... 202

The garden of Eden a college

... 203

Flying camels

... 205

Kircher’s dragon

... 207

Cobras as symbols

... 209

Two schools of magic

... 211

The seventh son of the seventh son

... 213

Buddha’s great mountain

... 215

“Mythical” monsters a reality

... 217

The flying dragons

... 219

–––––––

The “Sons of God” and the “Sacred Island”

... 220

The continent of the gods

... 221

The magicians of Atlantis

... 223

Cock and bull hypotheses

... 225

–––––––

Stanza X. The history of the Fourth Race

... 227

Slokas: 38, 39, 40, 41, 42

Sloka 38. The birth of the fourth, Atlantean Race

... 227

Sloka 39. The sub-races of the fourth humanity begin to divide and interblend; they form the first mixed races of various colours

... 227

The moon-coloured race

... 227

The mysteries among the Mayas

... 229

Satanic myths

... 231

Holy Satan

... 233

The shadow of God

... 235

Mahasura and Satan

... 237

Theological snuffers

... 239

“Principles” explained

... 241

Man, the pale shadow of God

... 243

Satan, a centripetal force

... 245

The curse of Vasishta

... 247

Scientific anthropology in the Purânas

... 249

Answers to objections

... 251

–––––––

Archaic teachings in the Purânas and Genesis. Physical evolution

... 251

Mr. Gladstone kills Genesis

... 253

From worm to man

... 255

The contradictions of science

... 257

Identity of human and animal embryos

... 259

Nature is uniform

... 261

–––––––

A panoramic view of the early races

... 263

Millions of years hence

... 263

Bailly and Faber

... 265

The natural “fall”

... 267

The symbolism of Kronos

... 269

The races in Greek mythology

... 271

x

contents.

x

Stanza X.—Continued

... 271

Sloka 40. The superiority of the Atlantean over other races

... 271

Sloka 41. They fall into sin and beget children and monsters

... 271

Sloka 42. The first germs of Anthropomorphism and sexual religion. They lose their “third eye”

... 227

The Golden Age

... 273

The Devil’s outside humanity

... 275

–––––––

Are giants a fiction ?

... 277

The giants

... 277

Christendom is idolatrous

... 279

The seven virgin-youths

... 281

The serpent of eternity

... 283

The Tibetan Lilith

... 285

The races of men not all human

... 287

–––––––

The races with the “third eye”

... 289

Th “third eye”

... 289

Mazdean symbolism

... 291

Angels called birds

... 293

Occult physiology

... 295

The cyclops, no myth

... 297

The evolution of the eye

... 299

Evolution of root races in the fourth round

... 300

The odd eye is now a gland

... 301

The third eye is now a gland

... 301

The number of monads is limited

... 303

The law of retribution

... 305

–––––––

The primeval manus of humanity

... 307

The seven and fourteen manus

... 307

The blinds of exotericism

... 309

The four earlier Races

... 311

The esoteric meaning of “fish”

... 313

The inner man in the Zohar

... 315

–––––––

Stanza XI.—The civilization and destruction of the Fourth and Fifth Races

... 316

Slokas: 43, 44, 45, 46

Sloka 43.  The Lemuro-Atlanteans build cities and spread civilization. The incipient stage of anthropomorphism

... 316

Presentments of truths

... 317

Degeneration of mankind

... 319

The Hindu symbolization

... 321

The magis in the days of Krishna

... 323

Atlantis now ocean floor

... 325

On foot across the oceans

... 327

Changes of climate

... 329

Sloka 44. Their statues, witnesses to the size of the Lemuro-Atlanteans

... 331

Pre-historic statues

... 331

The old continents

... 333

How to read symbols

... 335

The mystery of easter island

... 337

The antediluvian Buddhas

... 339

–––––––

Cyclopean ruins and colossal stones as witnesses to giants

... 341

The materialism of the Bible

... 341

The “rocking-stones” in Europe

... 343

Living, speaking, and moving stones

... 345

Universal witnesses

... 347

It takes a god to become a man

... 349

Sloka 45. Lemuria destroyed by fire, Atlantis by water. The Flood

... 349

Sloka 46. The destruction of the fourth race and of the last antediluvian monster-animals

... 349

–––––––

Stanza XII.—The Fifth Race and its divine instructors

... 351

Slokas: 47, 48, 49

Sloka 47. The remnants of the first two races disappear for ever. Groups of the various Atlantean races saved from the Deluge along with the Forefathers of the Fifth

... 351

Sloka 48. The origins of our present Race, the Fifth. The first divine Dynasties

... 351

Sloka 49. The earliest glimmerings in History, now pinned to the allegorical chronology of the Bible, and “universal” History slavishly following it. — The nature of the first instructors and civilizers of mankind

... 351

The “Great Dragons” and serpents

... 351

The astronomical Dragon

... 353

Serpents and dragons under different Symbolisms

... 354

The Naasenian Gnostics

... 355

The sidereal and cosmic glyphs

... 356

The two mystic poles

... 357

God and nature anthropomorphized

... 359

Who were Enoch and the others?

... 361

The poles, the “heavenly measure”

... 363

Our divine instructors

... 365

The various Noahs

... 365

Hermes in astronomy and elsewhere

... 367

What the priests told Herodotus

... 369

A universal corroboration

... 371

Wheat brought down by the gods

... 373

“Sons of god” perfect and imperfect

... 375

The fallacies of the two churches

... 377

The origin of the satanic myth

... 378

The secret of the Dragon

... 379

The theft of Rahu

... 381

The gods, the facets of one gem

... 383

The builders of the material world

... 385

Who first created woman?

... 387

Jehovah Ophiomorphos

... 389

Noah was a kabir, hence he must have been a demon

... 390

The flood legends

... 391

xi

contents.

xi

The oldest Persian traditions about the polar, and the submerged continents

... 393

The legends of Iran

... 393

Esoteric chronology

... 395

The Persian Phœnix

... 397

The arctic continent

... 399

The unreachable land

... 401

Western speculations founded on the Greek and Purânic traditions

... 402

Orientalists in the wrong box

... 403

Future continents, symbolized

... 405

The puzzles of antiquity

... 407

The “curse” from a Philosophical point of view

... 409

The ancient and the modern man

... 411

The travesty of Prometheus

... 413

Christ connected with Epaphos

... 415

The mistake of Arrian explained

... 417

Was Æschylus initiated?

... 419

One of the functions of Zeus

... 421

–––––––

Additional fragments from a commentary on the verses of stanza XII

... 423

The oldest records about Atlantis

... 425

The doom of Atlantis

... 427

Shadowy mementos of the past

... 429

Mistakes of the egyptologists

... 431

Theories of a self-made adept

... 433

The races, sub-races, and family races

... 434

Illustration of the Races

... 435

–––––––

Conclusion

... 437

Modern science mistrusted

... 439

A wholesale denial

... 441

Paradoxes of science

... 443

The coming new Race

... 445

–––––––

BOOK II.—PART II.
THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS.

Esoteric tenets corroborated in every scripture

... 449

The Vedas written by initiates

... 451

–––––––

§ XVI. Adam-Adami

... 452

“Nabathean Agriculture”

... 453

Many views of many minds

... 455

The Cabalistic four Adams

... 457

–––––––

XVII. The “Holy of Holies” : its degradation

... 459

The “God” sub rosâ

... 459

What was the circle-dance

... 461

Christian symbolism

... 463

The “four-faced” Brahmâ

... 465

The etymology of “sacrament”

... 467

The old and the new Jehovah

... 469

The craft of the rabbins

... 471

The Elohistic and Jehovistic texts

... 473

–––––––

XVIII. On the myth of the “fallen angel,” in its various aspects

... 475

A. The Evil Spirit : who and what?

... 475

The genesis of the Devil

... 477

God and Devil, both Metatrons

... 479

Fraudulent translation of the Bible

... 481

Vedas, once universal

... 483

B. The gods of light proceed from the gods of darkness

... 483

The sons of eternity

... 485

The shadows of the shadows

... 487

The one passive deity

... 489

The Zohar on the fallen ones

... 491

C. The many meanings of the “war in heaven”

... 492

The real meaning of the Cherub

... 493

Various names for initiates

... 495

Traces of pre-historic strifes

... 497

Allegories on the “war in heaven”

... 499

Sarpas — serpents — nagas

... 501

The myth of Bel and Merodach

... 503

The sacredness of the serpent

... 505

–––––––

XIX. Is Pleroma Satan’s lair ?

... 506

The living devils

... 507

Jehovah’s personating spirit

... 509

Akâsa, the “Mysterium Magnum”

... 511

The Mysterium Magnum

... 512

Mind, the quickening spirit

... 513

The logos and Satan are one

... 515

Baresma, the divine twig

... 517

xii

contents.

xii

XX. Prometheus the titan. His origin in ancient India

... 519

The poetry of modern orientalists

... 521

The boon he gives

... 523

Greek ideas misunderstood

... 525

The six brothers of Krishna

... 527

–––––––

XXI. Enoïchion-Henoch

... 529

Who invented writing?

... 529

The adept dies but to live

... 531

What Enoch is, esoterically

... 533

St. Augustine and Enoch

... 535

–––––––

XXII. The symbolism of the mystery names Iao, and Jehovah

... 536

The Jews alone the heirloom of Jehovah

... 537

A grotesque verse explained

... 539

The antiquity of the cross

... 541

A personal, is a finite god

... 543

A plagiarism by Pascal

... 545

A. Cross and circle

... 545

Variations of the symbolism

... 547

“Guha,” the mysterious

... 549

The Rishis and the Pleiades

... 551

B. The fall of the cross into matter

... 553

The degradation of the symbol

... 553

The law of retribution

... 555

The primitive cross

... 557

Its early significance

... 559

The meaning of the crucifixion

... 561

–––––––

XXIII. The Upanishads in Gnostic literature

... 563

The seven thunders

... 563

When time be no longer

... 565

Truth between two contrasts

... 567

The divine Self’s wisdom

... 569

The antiquity of the Kapilas

... 571

–––––––

XXIV. The cross and the Pythagorean Decade

... 573

The Gnostics and Pythagoras

... 573

The three sciences

... 575

Poseidon’s five ministers

... 577

The puzzles of symbolism

... 579

The master mason's grip

... 581

The mystery of the number six

... 583

Seeming contradictions

... 585

The cross and Christian after-thought

... 587

Man, the reviler of god

... 589

–––––––

XXV. The mysteries of the Hebdomad

... 590

A. Saptaparna

... 590

The meaning of the double triangle

... 591

Spiritual and physical correspondences [Diagram of human principles and principles of physical nature]

... 593

Noah, an aspect of the creator

... 595

[Diagram of human and cosmic aspects or principles]

... 596

Noah in a new dress

... 597

B. The Tetraktis in relation to the Heptagon

... 598

The roots of things

... 599

The music of the spheres

... 601

The septenary demonstrated

... 603

C. The septenary element in the Vedas

... 605

The Vedic teachings

... 605

The seven earths and the seven races

... 607

The Zoroastrian septenary

... 609

D. The septenary in the exoteric works

... 611

The septenate in the Puranas

... 611

Who are the maruts?

... 613

The doom of continual rebirth

... 615

Persian symbology

... 617

E. Seven in astronomy, science and magic

... 618

The cycle of the Naros

... 619

Various cyclic calculations

... 621

The septenate in physiology

... 623

The hairy symbol

... 625

The number seven in chemistry [periodic table]

... 627

The seven priests of the Zuñis

... 629

F. The seven souls of the egyptologists

... 630

The sidereal seven

... 631

[Table of esoteric Indian and Egyptain names for human principles]

... 632

The “principles” in the Egyptian metaphysics [Diagram of Kabala and Heiroglyphics]

... 633

Man, the parent of all the mammals

... 635

An allegory in the Anugîtâ

... 637

The allegory explained

... 639

Hypnotism is — Satanism

... 641

––––––––––––––

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

I. Archaic, or modern anthropology?

... 645

The new masters of Protestantism

... 645

The fallacies of modern scientists

... 647

The occult and the modern doctrines

... 649

An exchange of mutual compliments

... 651

Science is silent on every problem

... 653

The one unpardonable sin

... 655

xiii

contents.

xiii

II. The ancestors mankind is offered by science

... 656

An unverified charge against the ancients

... 657

Various modes of reproduction

... 659

Where are the “missing links”?

... 661

Proofs of our “noble descent”

... 663

Mr. Huxley applies an “extinguisher”

... 665

A walker or a climber

... 667

A pithecoid man wanted

... 669

Plastidular souls and conscious nerve-cells

... 670

Hæckel creates souls

... 671

The meaning of soul with Hæckel

... 673

The atoms of our “father-bathybius”

... 674

–––––––

III. The fossil relics of man and the anthropoid ape

... 675

A. Geological facts bearing on the question of their relationship

... 675

Dryopithecus, the missing link

... 675

Insurmountable difficulties for the Darwinians

... 677

Materialism is puzzled

... 679

B. Western Evolutionism: the comparative anatomy of man and the anthropoid in no way a confirmation of Darwinism

... 680

Huxley calls the darwinists to order

... 681

The darwinists and their opponents

... 683

The argument of “rudimentary organs”

... 683

“Epitomized history” in the Fœtus

... 684

Reversion from the wrong end

... 685

C. Darwinism and the antiquity of man: the anthropoids and their ancestry

... 685

Grant Allen’s illusions

... 687

The evidence of skulls

... 687

[Diagram of mammals in Fourth Round]

... 688

The incubus of ethnology

... 689

–––––––

IV. Duration of the geological periods, race cycles, and the antiquity of man

... 690

Professor Sayce sketches out chronology

... 691

No agreement between scientists

... 693

A. Modern scientific speculations about the ages of the globe, animal evolution, and man

... 694

Materialists at logger-heads

... 695

Mivart’s billions of years

... 697

The adept-astronomer

... 699

B. On chains of planets and their plurality

... 699

States of consciousness

... 701

Worlds mentioned in the Bible

... 703

Who are the kings of Edom?

... 705

What Flammarion tells us

... 707

C. Supplementary remarks on esoteric geological chronology

... 709

Seceders from Darwinism

... 711

Parallelism of life

... 711

[Comparative table for scientific hypotheses and esoteric theory for geological periods]

... 711

The two sciences contrasted

... 713

The sufficiency of the “animalists”

... 715

One salvation for science

... 717

Between two voids

... 719

The palæolithic landseer

... 721

Entrapped by the reindeer

... 723

Strange confessions of science

... 725

No “missing link” anywhere

... 727

Astral man—the solution

... 728

Palæolithic man, a caligraph!

... 729

The kabalists and science

... 730

–––––––

V. Organic evolution and creative centres

... 731

Still greater difficulties

... 731

Dhyan chohans and these centres

... 732

The “to be or not to be” of science

... 733

A. Origin and evolution of the mammalia: science and the esoteric phylogeny

... 734

Conjectures are not facts

... 735

Ungulate mammals [diagram]

... 735

The unity of type

... 737

B. The European palæolithic races. — Whence and how distributed

... 738

Africa in Europe

... 739

A tardy admission

... 741

xiv

contents.

xiv

VI. Giants, civilizations, and submerged continents traced in history

... 742

A mysterious nation

... 743

Remarkable “coincidences”

... 745

The seven sabbaths

... 747

“Revelation” and the “Secret Doctrine”

... 748

The ape later than man

... 749

Darwinians reject the truth

... 751

Druidic stones

... 752

Still more astounding contradictions

... 753

Races of giants

... 755

Paganism and Christianity agree

... 757

The Mazdean view of the “seven earths”

... 759

A. Some statements about the sacred islands and continents in the classics, explained esoterically

... 760

Who, or what will be denied next?

... 761

The heirloom of Atlantis

... 763

The god-bearing land

... 765

The power of names

... 767

The sons of Cœlus and Terra

... 769

Southern and Northern Atlantis

... 770

Niobe and her children

... 771

The cycles of time

... 773

Who were the nephilim?

... 775

The titans in prison

... 776

Mythology built on history

... 777

–––––––

VII. Scientific and geological proofs of the existence of several submerged continents

... 778

Corroborations of Occultism by geology

... 779

Tradition as true as history

... 781

Evidence of the flora

... 781

Atlantis necessary to ethnology

... 783

Astræa falls on her head

... 785

Ingenious explanations

... 787

Communication between South-Sea Islands

... 788

Hæckel for once is right

... 789

Evidence of language

... 790

Final and irrefutable evidence

... 791

Recent suggestive discoveries

... 793

Old masonic symbolism

... 795

Ragon explains Masonic symbols

... 795

The prologue to esoteric truth (the end a fitting prelude to truth)

... 797

––––––– INDEX.

See also

• Main page for this book with general description and links.
• Changes made to this edition.