HPB-SD(ed.1) v.1 p.1 st.5 sl.6

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 5 Fohat : The Child of the Septenary Hierarchies, sloka 6

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the lipika.

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STANZA V. — Continued.

6. The Lipika circumscribe the triangle, the first one (the vertical line or the figure I.), the cube, the second one, and the pentacle within the egg (circle) (a). It is the ring called “ Pass not,” for those who descend and ascend (as also for those) who, during the Kalpa, are progressing toward the great day “ Be with us ” (b). . . . Thus were formed the Arupa and the Rupa (the Formless World and the World of Forms) ; from one light seven lights ; from each of the seven seven times seven lights. The “ Wheels ” watch the Ring.

The Stanza proceeds with a minute classification of the Orders of Angelic Hierarchy. From the group of Four and Seven emanates the “ mind-born ” group of Ten, of Twelve, of Twenty-one, etc., all these divided again into sub-groups of septenaries, novems, duodecimals, and so on, until the mind is lost in this endless enumeration of celestial hosts and Beings, each having its distinct task in the ruling of the visible Kosmos during its existence.

(a) The esoteric meaning of the first sentence of the Sloka is, that those who have been called Lipikas, the Recorders of the Karmic ledger, make an impassible barrier between the personal Ego and the impersonal Self, the Noumenon and Parent-Source of the former. Hence the allegory. They circumscribe the manifested world of matter within the Ring “ Pass-Not.” This world is the symbol (objective) of the One divided into the many, on the planes of Illusion, of Adi (the “ First ”) or of Eka (the “ One ”) ; and this One is the collective aggregate, or totality, of the principal Creators or Architects of this visible universe. In Hebrew Occultism their name is both Achath, feminine, “ One,” and Achod, “ One ” again, but masculine. The monotheists have taken (and are still taking) advantage of the profound esotericism of the Kabala to apply the name by which the One Supreme Essence is known to its manifestation, the Sephiroth-Elohim, and call it Jehovah. But this is

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quite arbitrary and against all reason and logic, as the term Elohim is a plural noun, identical with the plural word Chiim, often compounded with the Elohim. * Moreover, in Occult metaphysics there are, properly speaking, two “ Ones ” — the One on the unreachable plane of Absoluteness and Infinity, on which no speculation is possible, and the Second “ One ” on the plane of Emanations. The former can neither emanate nor be divided, as it is eternal, absolute, and immutable. The Second, being, so to speak, the reflection of the first One (for it is the Logos, or Eswara, in the Universe of Illusion), can do all this. † It emanates from itself — as the upper Sephirothal Triad emanates the lower seven Sephiroth — the seven Rays or Dhyan Chohans ; in other words, the Homogeneous becomes the Heterogeneous, the “ Protyle ” differentiates into the Elements. But these, unless they return into their primal Element, can never cross beyond the Laya, or zero-point.

Hence the allegory. The Lipika separate the world (or plane) of pure spirit from that of Matter. Those who “ descend and ascend ” — the incarnating Monads, and men striving towards purification and “ ascending,” but still not having quite reached the goal — may cross the “ circle of the Pass-Not,” only on the day “ Be-With-Us ” ; that day when man, freeing himself from the trammels of ignorance, and recog-

* The sentence in the Sepher Jezirah and elsewhere : “ Achath-Ruach-ElohimChiim ” denotes the Elohim as androgynous at best, the feminine element almost predominating, as it would read : “ One is She the Spirit of the Elohim of Life.” As said above, Echath (or Achath) is feminine, and Echod (or Achod) masculine, both meaning One.

† This metaphysical tenet can hardly be better described than Mr. Subba Row’s in “ Bhagavadgita ” lectures : “ Mulaprakriti (the veil of Parabrahmam) acts as the one energy through the Logos (or ‘ Eswara ’). Now Parabrahmam, is the one essence from which starts into existence a centre of energy, which I shall for the present call the Logos. . . . It is called the Verbum . . . by the Christians, and it is the divine Christos who is eternal in the bosom of his father. It is called Avalôkitêshwara by the Buddhists. . . . In almost every doctrine, they have formulated the existence of a centre of spiritual energy which is unborn and eternal, and which exists in the bosom of Parabrahmam at the time of Pralaya, and starts as a centre of conscious energy at the time of Cosmic activity. . . .” For, as the lecturer premised by saying, Parabraham is not this or that, it is not even consciousness, as it cannot be related to matter or anything conditioned. It is not Ego nor is it Non-ego, not even Atma, but verily the one source of all manifestations and modes of existence.

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the sidereal book of life.

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nising fully the non-separateness of the Ego within his personality — erroneously regarded as his own — from the Universal Ego (Anima Supra-Mundi), merges thereby into the One Essence to become not only one “ with us ” (the manifested universal lives which are “ one ” life), but that very life itself.

Astronomically, the “ Ring Pass-Not ” that the Lipika trace around the Triangle, the First One, the Cube, the Second One, and the Pentacle to circumscribe these figures, is thus shown to contain the symbol of 31415 again, or the coefficient constantly used in mathematical tables (the value of π, pi), the geometrical figures standing here for numerical figures. According to the general philosophical teachings, this ring is beyond the region of what are called nebulæ in astronomy. But this is as erroneous a conception as that of the topography and the descriptions, given in Purânic and other exoteric Scriptures, about the 1008 worlds of the Devaloka worlds and firmaments. There are worlds, of course, in the esoteric as well as in the profane scientific teachings, at such incalculable distances that the light of the nearest of them which has just reached our modern Chaldees, had left its luminary long before the day on which the words “ Let there be Light ” were pronounced ; but these are no worlds on the Devaloka plane, but in our Kosmos.

The chemist goes to the laya or zero point of the plane of matter with which he deals, and then stops short. The physicist or the astronomer counts by billions of miles beyond the nebulæ, and then they also stop short ; the semi-initiated Occultist will represent this laya-point to himself as existing on some plane which, if not physical, is still conceivable to the human intellect. But the full Initiate knows that the ring “ Pass-Not ” is neither a locality nor can it be measured by distance, but that it exists in the absoluteness of infinity. In this “ Infinity ” of the full Initiate there is neither height, breadth nor thickness, but all is fathomless profundity, reaching down from the physical to the “ para-para-metaphysical.” In using the word “ down,” essential depth — “ nowhere and everywhere ” — is meant, not depth of physical matter.

If one searches carefully through the exoteric and grossly anthropomorphic allegories of popular religions, even in these the doctrine embodied in the circle of “ Pass-Not ” thus guarded by the Lipika, may be dimly perceived. Thus one finds it even in the teachings of

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the Vedantin sect of the Visishtadwaita, the most tenaciously anthropomorphic in all India. For we read of the released soul that : — 

After reaching Moksha (a state of bliss meaning “ release from Bandha ” or bondage), bliss is enjoyed by it in a place called Paramapadha, which place is not material, but made of Suddasatwa (the essence, of which the body of Iswara — “ the Lord ” — is formed). There, Muktas or Jivatmas (Monads) who have attained Moksha, are never again subject to the qualities of either matter or Karma. “ But if they choose, for the sake of doing good to the world, they may incarnate on Earth.” * The way to Paramapadha, or the immaterial worlds, from this world, is called Devayana. When a person has attained Moksha and the body dies : — 

“ The Jiva (Soul) goes with Sukshma Sarira † from the heart of the body, to the Brahmarandra in the crown of the head, traversing Sushumna, a nerve connecting the heart with the Brahmarandra. The Jiva breaks through the Brahmarandra and goes to the region of the Sun (Suryamandala) through the solar Rays. Then it goes, through a dark spot in the Sun, to Paramapadha. The Jiva is directed on its way by the Supreme Wisdom acquired by Yoga. ‡ The Jiva thus proceeds to Paramapadha by the aid of Athivahikas (bearers in transit), known by the names of Archi-Ahas . . . Aditya, Prajapati, etc. The Archis here mentioned are certain pure Souls, etc., etc.” (Visishtadwaita Catechism, by Pundit Bhashyacharya, F.T.S.)

No Spirit except the “ Recorders ” (Lipika) has ever crossed its forbidden line, nor will any do so until the day of the next Pralaya, for it is the boundary that separates the finite — however infinite in man’s sight — from the truly Infinite. The Spirits referred to, therefore, as those who “ ascend and descend ” are the “ Hosts ” of what we loosely call “ celestial Beings.” But they are, in fact, nothing of the kind.

* These voluntary re-incarnations are referred to in our Doctrine as Nirmânakâyas (the surviving spiritual principles of men).

† Sukshma-sarira, “ dream-like ” illusive body, with which are clothed the inferior Dhyanis of the celestial Hierarchy.

‡ Compare this esoteric tenet with the Gnostic doctrine found in “ Pistis-Sophia ” (Knowledge=Wisdom), in which treatise Sophia Achamoth is shown lost in the waters of Chaos (matter), on her way to Supreme Light, and Christos delivering and helping her on the right Path. Note well, “ Christos ” with the Gnostics meant the impersonal principal, the Atman of the Universe, and the Atma within every man’s soul — not Jesus ; though in the old Coptic MSS. in the British Museum “ Christos ” is almost constantly replaced by “ Jesus.”

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the god of man and the god of the ant.

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They are Entities of the higher worlds in the hierarchy of Being, so immeasurably high that, to us, they must appear as Gods, and collectively — God. But so we, mortal men, must appear to the ant, which reasons on the scale of its special capacities. The ant may also, for all we know, see the avenging finger of a personal God in the hand of the urchin who, in one moment, under the impulse of mischief, destroys its anthill, the labour of many weeks — long years in the chronology of insects. The ant, feeling it acutely, and attributing the undeserved calamity to a combination of Providence and sin, may also, like man, see in it the result of the sin of its first parent. Who knows and who can affirm or deny ? The refusal to admit in the whole Solar system of any other reasonable and intellectual beings on the human plane, than ourselves, is the greatest conceit of our age. All that science has a right to affirm, is that there are no invisible Intelligences living under the same conditions as we do. It cannot deny point-blank the possibility of there being worlds within worlds, under totally different conditions to those that constitute the nature of our world ; nor can it deny that there may be a certain limited communication * between some of those worlds and our own. To the highest, we are taught, belong the seven orders of the purely divine Spirits ; to the six lower ones belong hierarchies that can occasionally be seen and heard by men, and who do communicate with their progeny of the Earth ; which progeny is indissolubly linked with them, each principle in man having its direct source in the nature of those great Beings, who furnish us with the respective invisible elements in us. Physical Science is welcome to speculate upon the physiological mechanism of living beings, and to continue her fruitless efforts in trying to resolve our feelings, our sensations, mental and spiritual, into functions of their inorganic vehicles. Nevertheless, all that will ever be accomplished in this direction has already been done, and Science will go no farther.

* The greatest philosopher of European birth, Imanuel Kant, assures us that such a communication is in no way improbable. “ I confess I am much disposed to assert the existence of Immaterial natures in the world, and to place my own soul in the class of these beings. It will hereafter, I know not where, or when, yet be proved that the human soul stands even in this life in indissoluble connection with all immaterial natures in the spirit-world, that it reciprocally acts upon these and receives impressions from them.” (Träume eines Geistersehers, quoted by C. C. Massey, in his preface to Von Hartmann’s “ Spiritismus.”)

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She is before a dead wall, on the face of which she traces, as she imagines, great physiological and psychic discoveries, but every one of which will be shown later on to be no better than the cobwebs spun by her scientific fancies and illusions. The tissues of our objective framework alone are subservient to the analysis and researches of physiological science. * The six higher principles in them will evade for ever the hand that is guided by an animus that purposely ignores and rejects the Occult Sciences.

The “ Great Day of Be-with-us,” then, is an expression the only merit of which lies in its literal translation. Its significance is not so easily revealed to a public, unacquainted with the mystic tenets of Occultism, or rather of Esoteric Wisdom or “ Budhism.” It is an expression peculiar to the latter, and as hazy for the profane as that of the Egyptians who called the same the “ Day of Come-to-us, ” † which

* E.g., all that modern physiological research in connection with psychological problems has, and owing to the nature of things, could have shown, is, that every thought, sensation, and emotion is attended with a re-marshalling of the molecules of certain nerves. The inference drawn by scientists of the type of Büchner, Vogt, and others, that thought is molecular motion, necessitates a complete abstraction being made of the fact of our subjective consciousness.

† See “ Le Livre des Morts,” by Paul Pierret ; “ Le Jour de ‘ Viens a nous ’ . . . c’est le jour où Osiris a dit au Soleil : Viens ! Je le vois rencontrant le Soleil dans l’Amenti.” (Chap. xvii., p. 61.) The Sun here stands for the Logos (or Christos, or Horus) as central Essence synthetically, and as a diffused essence of radiated Entities, different in substance, but not in essence. As expressed by the Bhagavadgita lecturer, “ it must not be supposed that the Logos is but a single centre of energy manifested from Parabrahmam ; there are innumerable other centres . . . and their number is almost infinite in the bosom of Parabrahmam.” Hence the expressions, “ The Day of Come to us ” and “ The Day of Be with us,” etc. Just as the square is the Symbol of the Four sacred Forces or Powers — Tetraktis — so the Circle shows the boundary within the Infinity that no man can cross, even in spirit, nor Deva nor Dhyan Chohan. The Spirits of those who “ descend and ascend ” during the course of cyclic evolution shall cross the “ iron-bound world ” only on the day of their approach to the threshold of Paranirvana. If they reach it — they will rest in the bosom of Parabrahmam, or the“ Unknown Darkness,” which shall then become for all of them Light — during the whole period of Mahapralaya, the “ Great Night,” namely, 311,040,000,000,000 years of absorption in Brahm. The day of “ Be-With-Us ” is this period of rest or Paranirvana. See also for other data on this peculiar expression, the day of “ Come-To-Us,” The Funerary Ritual of the Egyptians, by Viscount de Rougé. It corresponds to the Day of the Last Judgment of the Christians, which has been sorely materialised by their religion.

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the soul’s pilgrimage.

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is identical with the former, though the verb “ be ” in this sense, might be still better replaced with either of the two words “ Remain ” or “ Rest-with-us,” as it refers to that long period of Rest which is called Paranirvana. As in the exoteric interpretation of the Egyptian rites the soul of every defunct person — from the Hierophant down to the sacred bull Apis — became an Osiris, was Osirified, though the Secret Doctrine had always taught, that the real Osirification was the lot of every Monad only after 3,000 cycles of Existences ; so in the present case. The “ Monad,” born of the nature and the very Essence of the “ Seven ” (its highest principle becoming immediately enshrined in the Seventh Cosmic Element), has to perform its septenary gyration throughout the Cycle of Being and forms, from the highest to the lowest ; and then again from man to God. At the threshold of Paranirvana it reassumes its primeval Essence and becomes the Absolute once more.