The Secret Doctrine
The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
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.
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.
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
... 36
- Time and Universal Mind ... 37
... 37
- The Universal Mind and the Dhyan Chohans ... 38
... 38
- The Causes of Being ... 39
- Nidana and Maya: The Causes of Misery ... 39
... 40
- What is Darkness in Philosophy? ... 41
... 42
- Motions, the “Great Breath” ... 43
... 44
- Being and Non-Being ... 45
... 46
- The Eye of Dangma ... 47
... 47
- Alaya, the Universal Soul ... 49
- Can the Finite Conceive the Infinite? ... 51
x | x |
Stanza II. The Idea of Differentiation ... 53
Sloka 1 ... 53
- The State of Paranirvana ... 53
... 54
- The Absolute Knows itself not ... 55
... 57
- The Germ of Life was not yet ... 57
... 58
- Astral Light is not the Anima Mundi ... 59
... 60
- Divine Thought, Divine Thinkers ... 61
... 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
... 63
- The Great Vibration ... 63
... 64
- Nature’s Symbols ... 65
... 66
- The Power of Numbers ... 67
... 68
- The Blossom of the Root of Life. ... 69
... 69
... 71
- Light Emerges from Darkness ... 71
- The Logoi and the Dragon ... 73
- Noumenal and Phenomenal Light ... 75
- The Astral Light ... 75
... 77
- Deity in Space and Time ... 77
- Primeval Radiations from Unity ... 79
... 81
- Primeval Differentiations ... 81
... 83
- The Web of Being ... 83
... 83
... 85
- Conscious Electricity: Fohat ... 85
Stanza IV. The Septenary Hierarchies ... 86
Sloka 1 ... 86
- The Sons of the Fire ... 86
- The Seven Mystic Senses ... 87
... 88
... 88
- The Vehicle of the Universe — the Dhyan Chohans ... 89
- The Immaculate Conceptions ... 91
... 88
- The Potency of Speech and Sound ... 93
- The Army of the Voice ... 93
- Speech and Mind ... 95
- Nature, the Perpetual Motion ... 97
... 98
- The Ogdoad and the Heptad ... 99
- Fire, the Great Symbol of Deity ... 101
- The Stellar “ Sons of Light ” ... 103
... 103
- The Divine Recorders ... 105
Stanza V. Fohat : The Child of the Septenary Hierarchies ... 106
- The Fiery Whirlwind and the Primordial Seven ... 106
- They Produce Fohat ... 108
- The Correlation of the “ Gods ” ... 113
- Evolution of the “ Principles ” of Nature ... 119
- The Mystery of the Fire ... 121
- The Secret of the Elements ... 123
- The Square of the Tabernacle ... 125
- The Planetary Spirits and the Lipika ... 129
- The Ring “ Pass Not ” ... 130
- The Sidereal Book of Life ... 131
- The Soul’s Pilgrimage and its “ Rest ” ... 134
Stanza VI. Our World, its Growth and Development ... 136
- The Logos ... 136
- Mystery of the Female Logos ... 137
xi | xi |
- The Seven Layu Centres ... 138
- The “ Elementary Germs ” ... 139
- The Evolution of the Elements ... 140
- The Building of the Worlds ... 145
- A Neutral Centre ... 147
- “ Dead ” Planets — The Moon ... 149
... 152
- The Planetary Divisions and the Human Principles ... 153
- The Moon ... 155
- Transmigrations of the Ego ... 159
- The Septenary Chain ... 161
- Relation of the other Planets to the Earth ... 163
... 170
- The Lunar Chain and the Earth Chain ... 172
- The Earth, the Child of the Moon ... 173
- Classification of the Monads ... 175
- The Monad Defined ... 177
- The Monad Defined ... 179
- A Triple Evolution in Nature ... 181
Stanza VI.–Continued ... 191
- “ Creation ” in the Fourth Round ... 191
- The “ Curse,” “ Sin,” and “ War ” ... 193
- The Struggle for Life and the Birth of the Worlds ... 202
- The Adepts and the Sacred Island ... 207
Stanza VII. The Parents of Man on Earth ... 213
- Divisions of the Hierarchies ... 214
- Correlations of Beings ... 223
- What incarnates in Animal Man ... 233
- Formation of Man : the Thinker ... 238
- Occult and Kabalistic Pneumatics ... 243
- Akâsa and Ether ... 257
- The Invisible “ Lives ” ... 259
- Occult Vital Chemistry and Bacteriology ... 261
xii | xii |
- The Watcher and his Shadow ... 265
- Earth peopled by the Shadows of the Gods ... 267
Summing up ... 269
- The pith and marrow of the Secret Doctrine ... 269
- Hermes in Christian Garb ... 273
- Some Occult Aphorisms ... 289
- The Seven Powers of Nature ... 293
BOOK I.—PART II.
THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM IN ITS APPROXIMATE ORDER.
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
- Moses copied from Sargon ... 319
- Identity of Ancient Symbols ... 323
III. Primordial Substance and Divine Thought ... 325
- Divine Thought, or Cineritious Matter ? ... 327
- Ether and Intelligence ... 330
- The Seven Prakritis ... 335
- 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
V. The Hidden Deity, its Symbols and Glyphs ... 349
- The Gnostic Idea ... 351
- International Correlation of Gods ... 355
xiii | xiii |
VI. The Mundane Egg ... 359
- Egg-born Logoi ... 363
- The Winged Globe ... 365
VII. The Days and Nights of Brahmâ ... 368
- Human Gods and Divine Men ... 369
- The Rebirth of Gods ... 371
- The Puranic Prophecy ... 377
VIII. The Lotus as a Universal Symbol ... 379
- Exoteric and Esoteric ... 381
- The Purity of early Phallicism ... 383
- The Egyptian Lotus ... 385
IX. Deus Lunus ... 386
- A Glance at the Lunar Myth ... 387
- A Key-note to the Moon ... 389
- Copies and Originals ... 393
- The Moon Bi-sexual ... 397
X. Tree and Serpent and Crocodile Worship ... 403
- Degeneration of the Symbol ... 405
- The Seven-headed Dragons ... 407
- Dragon and Crocodile ... 409
XI. Demon est Deus Inversus ... 411
- Death is Life ... 413
- The Fall of the Angels ... 418
- Transformation of the Legend ... 421
XII. The Theogony of the Creative Gods ... 424
- The Point within the Circle ... 426
- The Logos or Verbum ... 429
- The Factors of Creation ... 432
- Identity of the Hierarchies in all Religions ... 438
- Difference between the Aryan and Semitic Systems ... 444
xiv | xiv |
XIII. The Seven Creations ... 445
- The Gnostic and the Hindu Versions ... 449
- The Seven Puranic “ Creations ” ... 450
XIV. The Four Elements ... 460
- The “ Gods ” and the “ Elements ” ... 463
- The Language of the Elements ... 464
- Pagan and Christian Worship of the Elements ... 467
XV. On Kwan-Shi-Yin and Kwan-Yin ... 470
- Kwan-Shi-Yin and Phallicism ... 471
- The Real Meaning ... 472
BOOK I.—PART III.
SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.
SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.
I. Reasons for these Addenda ... 477
- Occultism versus Materialism ... 479
- The Sabbath of the Mystic ... 481
II. Modern Physicists are Playing at Blind Man’s Buff ... 482
III. An Lumen Sit Corpus nec non ? ... 483
- The Hypothetical Ether ... 485
- Scientific Theories of its Constitution ... 489
IV. Is Gravitation a Law ? ... 490
- Intelligences or Blind Forces ? ... 493
- The Cause of Attraction ... 498
xv | xv |
V. The Theories of Rotation in Science ... 500
- Conflicting Hypotheses ... 502
- More Hypotheses ... 505
VI. The Masks of Science ... 506
- What are the “ Forces ? ” ... 508
- The View of the Occultists ... 510
- Scientific and Occult Theories on Heat ... 515
- The Atoms of Science ... 519
VII. An Attack on the Scientific Theory of Force by a Man of Science ... 523
- Ether and Atoms ... 527
VIII. Life, Force, or Gravity ? ... 529
- Dr. Richardson on Nervous Ether ... 531
- The Senses and their Action ... 535
- Too much “ Life ” may Kill ... 539
IX. The Solar Theory ... 540
- The Primordial Element ... 542
- Elements and Meta-Elements ... 546
- The Tree of Life and Being ... 549
- Prof. Crookes on the Elements ... 552
X. The Coming Force ... 554
- Mr. Keeley, an Unconscious Occultist ... 557
- Inter-Etheric Waves ... 561
- The Secrets of Sound and Odour ... 565
XI. On the Elements and Atoms ... 566
- Metaphysical Chemistry ... 569
- What are the Seven Planets ? ... 575
- The Cyclic Fall of the Gods ... 577
xvi | xvi |
XII. Ancient Thought in Modern Dress ... 579
- All-Potential Unity ... 583
- The “ Seventh ” in Chemistry ... 585
XIII. The Modern Nebular Theory ... 588
- Forces are Emanations ... 591
- What is the Nebula ?... 595
XIV. Forces—Modes of Motion or Intelligences ? ... 601
- The Vital Principle... 603
- Occult and Physical Science ... 605
XV. Gods, Monads, and Atoms ... 610
- The Gods of the Ancients — the Monads ... 613
- The Monad and the Duad ... 617
- The Genesis of the Elements ... 621
- Hermes and Huxley ... 625
- The Teaching of Leibnitz ... 627
- The Monads according to Occultism ... 632
XVI. Cyclic Evolution and Karma ... 634
- Karmic Cycles and Universal Ethics ... 637
- Destiny and Karma ... 639
- Karma — Nemesis ... 643
XVII. The Zodiac and its Antiquity ... 647
- The Jewish Patriarchs and the Signs of the Zodiac ... 651
- Zodiacal Cycles ... 656
- Hindu Astronomy ... 661
XVIII. Summary of the Mutual Position ... 668
- Science Confesses her Ignorance ... 669
- 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 Imperishable Sacred Land ... 6
- The Hyperborean ... 7
- Lemuria ... 7
- Atlantis ... 8
- The Tropics at the Pole ... 11
BOOK II.— PART II.
ANTHROPOGENESIS.
ANTHROPOGENESIS.
Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan ... 15
Stanza I.—Beginnings of Sentient Life ... 22
- Man, the Third Logos ... 25
- The Celestial Governors of Humanity ... 29
- Parent Stars and Sister Planets... 33
- Three Kinds of Light ... 35
- The Numbers of Creation ... 39
- The First War in Heaven ... 45
Two Antediluvian Astronomers ... 47
Stanza II.—Nature Unaided Fails ... 52
- The Monsters of Chaos ... 53
- The “ Double Dragon ” ... 57
- Who are the Flames ? ... 63
viii | viii |
The Chronology of the Brahmins ... 66
- The Race that never dies ... 67
- Cosmogony, an intelligent plan ... 73
Stanza III.—Attempts to create Man ... 75
- The various classes of Creators ... 77
- Man, a god in animal form ... 81
- “ Fires,” “ Sparks,” and “ Flames ” ... 83
Stanza IV.—Creation of the First Races ... 86
- Pitris of the Gods and Demons ... 89
- What Prometheus symbolized ... 95
- The Hammer of Thor ... 99
- The Divine Rebels ... 103
- Man’s Father, the Sun ... 105
Stanza V. The Evolution of the Second Race ... 109
- The Secret Work of Chiram ... 113
- The outgrowth of Races ... 117
- Leda, Castor, and Pollux ... 121
- Леда, Кастор и Поллукс ... 121
- Аллегория Кастора и Поллукса ... 123
- Jah-Hovah Androgynous ... 125
- The Jewish God-name ... 127
Stanza VI. The Evolution of the Sweat-born ... 131
- Bi-sexual reproduction ... 133
- The Virgin Third Race ... 135
- A Few Words about Deluges and Noah’s ... 138
- Various Deluges ... 141
- The Arkite Symbols ... 143
- Could Men Exist 18,000,000 Years ago ? ... 148
- Spontaneous Generation ... 151
- The Solar System in the Purânas ... 155
- Oceans of Carbonic Acid ? ... 159
Stanza VII. From the Semi-Divine down to the First Human Races ... 161
- Monads and Rounds ... 167
- A Suggestive Explanation ... 171
ix | ix |
- A Saint — Hypnotised ... 175
- Sweat-born and Androgynes ... 177
Stanza VIII. Evolution of the Animal Mammalians—the First Fall ... 180
- Archaic Zoology ... 183
- The Sin of the Mindless ... 185
What may be the Objections to the Foregoing ... 185
Stanza IX. The Final Evolution of Man ... 191
- The Hairy Men of China ... 195
- The Separation of Sexes ... 197
- Primeval Language ... 199
Edens, Serpents and Dragons ... 202
- The Garden of Eden a College ... 203
- Flying Camels ... 205
- Two Schools of Magic ... 211
- The Flying Dragons ... 219
The Sons of God and the Sacred Island ... 220
- The Magicians of Atlantis ... 223
Stanza X. The History of the Fourth Race ... 227
- The Mysteries among the Mayas ... 229
- Satanic Myths ... 233
- Mahasura and Satan ... 237
- Man, the pale shadow of God ... 243
- The curse of Vasishta ... 247
Archaic Teachings in the Purânas and Genesis ... 251
- From worm to man ... 255
- Identity of Human and Animal embryos ... 259
A Panoramic View of the Early Races ... 263
- The Natural “ Fall ” ... 267
- The Symbolism of Kronos ... 269
x | x |
Stanza X.—Continued ... 271
- The Golden Age... 273
- The Devil’s outside Humanity ... 275
Are Giants a Fiction ? ... 277
- The Seven Virgin Youths ... 281
- The Tibetan Lilith ... 285
- The Races of Men not all Human ... 287
The Races with the “ Third Eye ” ... 289
- Occult Physiology ... 295
- The Evolution of the Eye ... 299
- The Third Eye is now a Gland ... 301
The Primeval Manus of Humanity ... 307
- The Four Earlier Races ... 311
- The Esoteric Meaning of “ Fish ” ... 313
Stanza XI.—The Civilization and Destruction of the Fourth and Fifth Races ... 316
- Degeneration of Mankind ... 319
- Atlantis now Ocean Floor ... 325
- Changes of Climate ... 329
- How to Read Symbols ... 335
- The Antediluvian Buddhas ... 339
Cyclopean Ruins and Colossal Stones as Witnesses to Giants ... 341
- Living, Speaking, and Moving Stones ... 345
- It takes a God to become a Man ... 349
Stanza XII.—The Fifth Race and its Divine Instructors ... 351
- The Astronomical Dragon ... 353
- Serpents and Dragons under different Symbolisms ... 355
- The Sidereal and Cosmic Glyphs ... 357
- Our Divine Instructors ... 365
- The Origin of the Satanic Myth ... 378
- Noah was a Kabir, hence he must have been a Demon ... 390
- Легенды о Потопе ... 391
xi | xi |
- The oldest Persian Traditions about the Polar, and the Submerged Continents ... 393
- Western Speculations founded on the Greek and Purânic Traditions ... 401
- The “ Curse ” from a Philosophical point of view ... 409
Additional Fragments from a Commentary on the Verses of Stanza XII ... 423
- The Oldest Records about Atlantis ... 425
- The Doom of Atlantis ... 427
- The Races, Sub-Races, and Family Races ... 434
Conclusion ... 437
BOOK II.—PART II.
THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS.
THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS.
Esoteric Tenets corroborated in every Scripture ... 449
§ XVI. Adam-Adami ... 452
- The Cabalistic Four Adams ... 457
XVII. The “ Holy of Holies ” : Its Degradation ... 459
- Christian Symbolism ... 463
- The “ Four-faced ” Brahmâ ... 465
- The Old and the New Jehovah ... 469
XVIII. On the Myth of the “ Fallen Angel,” in its various aspects ... 475
- The Evil Spirit : Who and What ? ... 475
- The Gods of Light proceed from the Gods of Darkness ... 483
- The many meanings of the “ War in Heaven ” ... 492
XIX. Is Pleroma Satan’s Lair ? ... 506
- Jehovah’s Personating Spirit ... 509
- The Mysterium Magnum ... 512
- The Logos and Satan are One ... 515
xii | xii |
XX. Prometheus the Titan ... 519
- His Origin in Ancient India ... 519
- The Boon he Gives ... 523
XXI. Enoïchion-Henoch ... 529
XXII. The Symbolism of the Mystery Names Iao, and Jehovah ... 536
- Cross and Circle ... 545
- The Fall of the Cross into Matter ... 553
XXIII. The Upanishads in Gnostic Literature ... 563
- When Time be no longer ... 565
- The Divine Self’s Wisdom ... 566
XXIV. The Cross and the Pythagorean Decade ... 573
- Poseidon’s Five Ministers ... 577
- The Mystery of the Number Six ... 583
- The Cross and Christian After-thought ... 587
XXV. The Mysteries of the Hebdomad ... 590
- Saptaparna ... 590
- The Tetraktis in relation to the Heptagon ... 598
- The Septenary Element in the Vedas ... 605
- The Septenary in the Exoteric Works ... 611
- Seven in Astronomy, Science and Magic ... 618
- The Seven Souls of the Egyptologists ... 630
BOOK II.—PART III.
ADDENDA.
SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.
ADDENDA.
SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.
I. Archaic, or Modern Anthropology ? ... 645
- The Occult and the Modern Doctrines ... 649
- Science is Silent on every Problem ... 653
xiii | xiii |
II. The Ancestors Mankind is offered by Science ... 656
- Various Modes of Reproduction ... 659
- A Pithecoid Man Wanted ... 669
- Plastidular Souls and Conscious Nerve-Cells ... 670
- The atoms of our “ Father-Bathybius ” ... 674
III. The Fossil Relics of Man and the Anthropoid Ape ... 675
- Insurmountable difficulties for the Darwinians ... 677
- The Argument of “ Rudimentary Organs ” ... 683
- “ Epitomized History ” in the Fœtus ... 684
- The Evidence of Skulls ... 687
IV. Duration of the Geological Periods, Race Cycles, and the Antiquity of Man ... 690
- Sayce’s Sketch of Chronology ... 691
- (a) Speculations on the Age of the Globe ... 694
- The Adept-Astronomer ... 698
- The Adept-Astronomer
- (b) On Chains of Planets and their Plurality ... 699
- States of Consciousness ... 701
- Worlds mentioned in the Bible... 703
- States of Consciousness
- (c) Esoteric Geological Chronology ... 709
- Parallelism of Life ... 711
- The Two Sciences contrasted ... 713
- The Palæolithic Landseer ... 721
- Astral Man—the Solution ... 728
- The Kabalists and Science ... 730
- Parallelism of Life
V. Organic Evolution and Creative Centres ... 731
- Dhyan Chohans and these Centres ... 732
- (a) Origin and Evolution of the Mammalia ... 734
- (b) The European Palæolithic Races — whence and how distributed ... 738
xiv | xiv |
VI. Giants, Civilizations, and Submerged Continents traced in History ... 742
- A Mysterious Nation ... 743
- The Seven Sabbaths ... 747
- “ Revelation ” and the “ Secret Doctrine ” ... 748
- Druidic Stones ... 752
- Races of Giants ... 755
- Mazdean “ Seven Earths ” ... 759
... 760
- 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
- The Titans in Prison ... 776
VII. Scientific and Geological Proofs of the Existence of several Submerged Continents ... 778
- Corroborations of Occultism by Geology ... 779
- Evidence of the Flora ... 781
- Atlantis necessary to Ethnology ... 783
- Astræa falls on her Head ... 785
- Communication between South-Sea Islands ... 788
- Evidence of Language ... 790
- Ragon explains Masonic Symbols ... 795
- The End a fitting prelude to Truth ... 797
See also
- Main page for this book with general description and links.