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§§ (18) The Sons of Yoga. (19) The Sexless Second Race. (20) The Sons of the Sons of Twilight. (21) The “ Shadow,” or the Astral Man, retires within, and man develops a physical body.
- 18. The first (Race) were the Sons of Yoga. Their sons, the children of the Yellow Father and the White Mother.
In the later Commentary, the sentence is translated : —
“ The Sons of the Sun and of the Moon, the nursling of ether (or the wind) (a) . . . . . . .
“ They were the shadows of the shadows of the Lords (b). They (the shadows) expanded. The Spirits of the Earth clothed them ; the solar Lhas warmed them (i.e. preserved the vital fire in the nascent physical forms). The Breaths had life, but had no understanding. They had no fire nor water of their own (c).
(a) Remember in this connection the Tabula Smaragdina of Hermes, the esoteric meaning of which has seven keys to it. The Astro-Chemical is well known to students, the anthropological may be given now. The “ One thing ” mentioned in it is man. It is said : “ The Father of that one only thing is the Sun ; its Mother the Moon ; the Wind carries it in his bosom, and its nurse is the Spirituous Earth.” In the occult rendering of the same it is added : “ and Spiritual Fire is its instructor (Guru).”
This fire is the higher Self, the Spiritual Ego, or that which is eternally reincarnating under the influence of its lower personal Selves, changing with every re-birth, full of Tanha or desire to live. It is a strange law of Nature that, on this plane, the higher (Spiritual) Nature should be, so to say, in bondage to the lower. Unless the Ego takes refuge in the Atman, the all-spirit, and merges entirely into the essence thereof, the personal Ego may goad it to the bitter end. This cannot be thoroughly understood unless the student makes himself familiar with the mystery of evolution, which proceeds on triple lines — spiritual, psychic and physical.
That which propels towards, and forces evolution, i.e., compels the growth and development of Man towards perfection, is (a) the monad,
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or that which acts in it unconsciously through a force inherent in itself ; and (b) the lower astral body or the personal self. The former, whether imprisoned in a vegetable or an animal body, is endowed with, is indeed itself, that force. Owing to its identity with the all-force, which, as said, is inherent in the Monad, it is all-potent on the Arupa, or formless plane. On our plane, its essence being too pure, it remains all-potential, but individually becomes inactive : e.g., the rays of the Sun, which contribute to the growth of vegetation, do not select this or that plant to shine upon. Uproot the plant and transfer it to a piece of soil where the sunbeam cannot reach it, and the latter will not follow it. So with the Atman : unless the higher Self or ego gravitates towards its Sun — the Monad — the lower Ego, or personal Self, will have the upper hand in every case. For it is this Ego, with its fierce Selfishness and animal desire to live a Senseless life (Tanha), which is “ the maker of the tabernacle,” as Buddha calls it in Dhammapada (153 and 154). Hence the expression, “ the Spirits of the Earth clothed the shadows and expanded them.” To these “ Spirits ” belong temporarily the human astral selves ; and it is they who give, or build, the physical tabernacle of man, for the Monad and its conscious principle, Manas, to dwell in. But the “ Solar ” Lhas, Spirits, warm them, the shadows. This is physically and literally true ; metaphysically, or on the psychic and spiritual plane, it is equally true that the Atman alone warms the inner man ; i.e., it enlightens it with the ray of divine life and alone is able to impart to the inner man, or the reincarnating Ego, its immortality. Thus, as we shall find, for the first three and a half Root-Races, up to the middle or turning point, it is the astral shadows of the “ progenitors,” the lunar Pitris, which are the formative powers in the Races, and which build and gradually force the evolution of the physical form towards perfection — this, at the cost of a proportionate loss of spirituality. Then, from the turning point, it is the Higher Ego, or incarnating principle, the nous or Mind, which reigns over the animal Ego, and rules it whenever it is not carried down by the latter. In short, Spirituality is on its ascending arc, and the animal or physical impedes it from steadily progressing on the path of its evolution only when the selfishness of the personality has so strongly infected the real inner man with its lethal virus, that the upward attraction has lost all its power on the thinking reasonable man. In sober truth, vice and wickedness are an abnormal, unnatural manifestation, at this period of our human evolution — at least they ought to be so. The fact that mankind was never more selfish and vicious than it is now, civilized nations having succeeded in making of the first an ethical characteristic, of the second an art, is an additional proof of the exceptional nature of the phenomenon.
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The entire scheme is in the “ Chaldean Book of Numbers,” and even in the Zohar, if one only understood the meaning of the apocalyptic hints. First comes En-Soph, the “ Concealed of the Concealed,” then the Point, Sephira and the later Sephiroth ; then the Atzilatic World, a World of Emanations that gives birth to three other worlds — called the Throne, the abode of pure Spirits ; the second, the World of Formation, or Jetzira, the habitat of the Angels who sent forth the Third, or World of Action, the Asiatic World, which is the Earth or our World ; and yet it is said of it that this world, also called Kliphoth, containing the (six other) Spheres, כלכלימ, and matter, is the residence of the “ Prince of Darkness.” This is as clearly stated as can be ; for Metatron, the Angel of the second or Briatic World, means Messenger ἄγγελος, Angel, called the great Teacher ; and under him are the Angels of the third World, Jetzira, whose ten and seven classes are the Sephiroth, * of whom it is said that “ they inhabit and vivify this world as Essential Entities and Intelligences, whose correlatives and contraries inhabit the third or Asiatic World.” These “ Contraries ” are called “ the Shells,” כליפדה, or demons, † who inhabit the seven habitations called Sheba Hachaloth, which are simply the seven zones of our globe. Their prince is called in the Kabala Samael, the Angel of Death, who is also the seducing serpent Satan ; but that Satan is also Lucifer, the bright angel of Light, the Light and Life-bringer, the “ Soul ” alienated from the Holy Ones, the other angels, and for a period, anticipating the time when they would have descended on Earth to incarnate in their turn.
“ The Souls (Monads) are pre-existent in the world of Emanations,” (Book of Wisdom viii., 20) ; and the Zohar teaches that in the “ Soul ” “ is the real man, i.e., the Ego and the conscious I am : ‘ Manas.’ ”
“ They descend from the pure air to be chained to bodies,” says Josephus repeating the belief of the Essenes (De Bello Judæo, 11, 12). “ The air is full of Souls,” states Philo, “ they descend to be tied to mortal bodies, being desirous to live in them.” (De Gignat, 222 c.; De Somniis, p. 455) ‡ ; because through, and in, the human form they will become progressive beings, whereas the nature of the angel is purely intransitive, therefore man has in him the potency of transcending the faculties of the Angels. Hence the Initiates in India say that it is the Brahmin, the twice-born, who rules the gods or devas ; and Paul repeated it in
* See Vol. I. Part III., “ Gods, Monads and Atoms.” It is symbolised in the Pythagorean Triangle, the 10 dots within, and the seven points of the Triangle and the Cube.
† Whence the Kabalistic name of Shells given to the astral form, the body called Kama Rupa, left behind by the higher angels in the shape of the higher Manas, when the latter leaves for Devachan, forsaking its residue.
‡ Which shows that the Essenes believed in re-birth and many reincarnations on Earth, as Jesus himself did, a fact we can prove from the New Testament itself.
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1 Corinthians vi., 3 : “ Know ye not that we (the Initiates) shall judge angels ” ?
Finally, it is shown in every ancient scripture and Cosmogony that man evolved primarily as a luminous incorporeal form, over which, like the molten brass round the clay model of the sculptor, the physical frame of his body was built by, through, and from, the lower forms and types of animal terrestrial life. “ The Soul and the Form when descending on Earth put on an earthly garment,” says the Zohar. His protoplastic body was not formed of that matter of which our mortal frames are fashioned. “ When Adam dwelt in the garden of Eden, he was clothed in the celestial garment, which is the garment of heavenly light. . . . light of that light which was used in the garden of Eden,” (Zohar II. 229 B). “ Man (the heavenly Adam) was created by the ten Sephiroth of the Jetziric world, and by the common power they (the seven angels of a still lower world) engendered the earthly Adam . . . . First Samael fell, and then deceiving (?) man, caused his fall also.”
(b) The sentence : “ They were the shadows of the shadows of the Lords,” i.e., the progenitors created man out of their own astral bodies, explains an universal belief. The Devas are credited in the East with having no shadows of their own. “ The devas cast no shadows,” and this is the sure sign of a good holy Spirit.
Why had they “ no fire or water of their own ” ? * Because : —
(c) That which Hydrogen is to the elements and gases on the objective plane, its noumenon is in the world of mental or subjective phenomena ; since its trinitarian latent nature is mirrored in its three
* It is corroborated, however, as we have shown, by the esotericism of Genesis. Not only are the animals created therein after the “ Adam of Dust,” but vegetation is shown in the Earth before “ the heavens and the Earth were created.” “ Every plant of the field before it (the day that the heavens and the Earth were made, v. 4) was in the Earth ” (v. 5). Now, unless the Occult interpretation is accepted, which shows that in this 4th Round the Globe was covered with vegetation, and the first ( astral ) humanity was produced before almost anything could grow and develop thereon, what can the dead letter mean ? Simply that the grass was in the earth of the Globe before that Globe was created ? And yet the meaning of verse 6, which says that “ there went up a mist from the Earth ” and watered the whole face of the Earth before it rained, and caused the trees, etc., to grow, is plain enough. It shows also in what geological period it occurred, and further what is meant by “ Heaven and Earth.” It meant the firmament and dry incrustated land, separated and ridden of its vapours and exhalations. Moreover, the student must bear in mind that, as Adam Kadmon, “ the male and female being ” of Genesis, ch. 1., is no physical human being but the host of the Elohim, among which was Jehovah himself — so the animals mentioned in that chapter as “ created ” before man in the dead letter text, were no animals, but the Zodiacal signs and other sidereal bodies.
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active emanations from the three higher principles in man, namely, “ Spirit, Soul, and Mind,” or Atma, Buddhi, and Manas. It is the spiritual and also the material human basis. Rudimentary man, having been nursed by the “ air ” or the “ wind,” becomes the perfect man later on ; when, with the development of “ Spiritual fire,” the noumenon of the “ Three in One ” within his Self, he acquires from his inner Self, or Instructor, the Wisdom of Self-Consciousness, which he does not possess in the beginning. Thus here again divine Spirit is symbolised by the Sun or Fire ; divine Soul by Water and the Moon, both standing for the Father and Mother of Pneuma, human Soul, or Mind, symbolised by the Wind or air, for Pneuma, means “ breath.”
Hence in the Smaragdine Tablet, disfigured by Christian hands : —
“ The Superior agrees with the Inferior ; and the Inferior with the Superior ; to effect that one truly wonderful Work ” — which is Man. For the secret work of Chiram, or King Hiram in the Kabala, “ one in Essence, but three in Aspect,” is the Universal Agent or Lapis Philosophorum. The culmination of the Secret Work is Spiritual Perfect Man, at one end of the line ; the union of the three elements is the Occult Solvent in the “ Soul of the World,” the Cosmic Soul or Astral Light, at the other ; and, on the material plane, it is Hydrogen in its relation to the other gases. The To on, truly ; the one “ whom no person has seen except the Son ” ; this sentence applying both to the metaphysical and physical Kosmos, and to the spiritual and material Man. For how could the latter understand the To on the “ One Father,” if his Manas, the “ Son,” does not become (as) “ One with the Father,” and through this absorption receive enlightenment from the “ divine instructor,” Guru — Atma-Buddhi ?
“ If thou would’st understand the SECONDARY (“ Creation,” so-called), oh Lanoo, thou should’st first study its relation to the PRIMARY.” (Commentary, Book of Dzyan, III. 19.)
The first Race had three elements, but no living Fire. Why ? Because : —
“ We say four elements, my Son, but ought to say three,” says Hermes Trismegistus. “ In the Primary Circle ” (creation) that which is marked 
reads “ Root,” as in the Secondary likewise.
Thus in Alchemy or Western Hermetism (a variant on Eastern Esotericism) we find : —
|
||
| Sulphur | Flamma | Spiritus |
| Hydrargyum | Natura | Aqua |
| Sal | Mater | Sanguis |
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And these three are all quaternaries completed by their Root, Fire. The Spirit, beyond manifested Nature, is the fiery breath in its absolute Unity. In the manifested Universe, it is the Central Spiritual Sun, the electric Fire of all Life. In our System it is the visible Sun, the Spirit of Nature, the terrestrial god. And in, on, and around the Earth, the fiery Spirit thereof — air, fluidic fire ; water, liquid fire ; Earth, solid fire. All is fire — ignis, in its ultimate constitution, or I, the root of which is O ( nought ) in our conceptions, the All in nature and its mind. Pro-Mater is divine fire. It is the Creator, the Destroyer, the Preserver. The primitive names of the gods are all connected with fire, from agni, the Aryan, to the Jewish god who “ is a consuming fire.” In India, God is called in various dialects, Eashoor, Esur, Iswur, and Is’Vara, in Sanskrit the Lord, from Isa, but this is primarily the name of Siva, the Destroyer ; and the three Vedic chief gods are Agni (ignis), Vayu, and Sûrya — Fire, Air, and the Sun, three occult degrees of fire. In the Hebrew אזא (aza), means to illuminate, and אשא (asha) is fire. In Occultism, “ to kindle a fire ” is synonymous to evoking one of the three great fire-powers, or “ to call on God.” In Sanskrit Osch or Asch is fire or heat ; and the Egyptian word Osiris is compounded (as shown by Schelling) of the two primitives aish and asr, or a “ fire-enchanter.” Aesar in the old Etruscan meant a God (being perhaps derived from Asura of the Vedas). Aeswar and Eswara are analogous terms, as Dr. Kenealy thought. In the Bhagavad Gîtâ we read, “ Iswara resides in every mortal being and puts in motion, by his supernatural power, all things which mount on the Wheel of Time.” It is the creator and the destroyer, truly. “ The primitive fire was supposed to have an insatiable appetite for devouring. Maximus of Tyre relates that the ancient Persians threw into the fire combustible matter crying : ‘ Devour, oh Lord ! ’ In the Irish language Easam, or Asam, means ‘ to create,’ and Aesar was the name of an ancient Irish god, meaning ‘ to light a fire ’ ” (Kenealy). The Christian Kabalists and symbologists who disfigured Pymander — prominent among them the Bishop of Ayre, François de Tours, in the 16th century — divide the elements in this way : —
The four elements formed from divine substances and the Spirits of the Salts of Nature represented by —
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St. Matthew. | Angel-Man | Water (Jesus-Christ, Angel-Man, Mikael) |
| A - ω | St. Mark. | The Lion | Fire |
| E - Y | St. Luke. | The Bull | Earth |
| I - O | St. John. | The Eagle | Air * |
* To those who would inquire “ What has Hydrogen to do with air or oxygena-
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H, the Quintessence, Ἡ ΦΛΟΞ, Flamma-Virgo (virgin oil), Flamma Durissima, Virgo, Lucis Æterna Mater.
The first race of men were, then, simply the images, the astral doubles, of their Fathers, who were the pioneers, or the most progressed Entities from a preceding though lower sphere, the shell of which is now our Moon. But even this shell is all-potential, for, having generated the Earth, it is the phantom of the Moon which, attracted by magnetic affinity, sought to form its first inhabitants, the pre-human monsters, (vide supra, Stanza II.). To assure himself of this, the student has again to turn to the Chaldean Fragments, and read what Berosus says. Berosus obtained his information, he tells us, from Ea, the male-female deity of Wisdom. While the gods were generated in its androgynous bosom (Svâbhâvat, Mother-space) its (the Wisdom’s) reflections became on Earth the woman Omoroka, who is the Chaldean Thavatth, or the Greek Thalassa, the Deep or the Sea, which esoterically and even exoterically is the Moon. It was the Moon (Omoroka) who presided over the monstrous creation of nondescript beings which were slain by the Dyanis. (Vide Hibbert Lectures, p. 370 et seq. ; also in Part II., “ Adam-Adami.”)
Evolutionary law compelled the lunar “ Fathers ” to pass, in their monadic condition, through all the forms of life and being on this globe ; but at the end of the Third Round, they were already human in their divine nature, and were thus called upon to become the creators of the forms destined to fashion the tabernacles of the less progressed Monads, whose turn it was to incarnate. These “ Forms ” are called “ Sons of Yoga,” because Yoga (union with Brahmâ exoterically) is the supreme condition of the passive infinite deity, since it contains all the divine energies and is the essence of Brahmâ, who is said (as Brahmâ) to create everything through Yoga power. Brahmâ, Vishnu and Siva are the most powerful energies of God, Brahma, the Neuter, says a
tion ? ” it is answered : “ Study first the ABC of Occult Alchemy.” In their anxiety, however, to identify Pymander, “the mouth of Mystery,” with St. John the Baptist prophetically, they thus identified also the 7 Kabeiri and the Assyrian Bulls with the Cherubs of the Jews and the Apostles. Having, moreover, to draw a line of demarcation between the four and the three — the latter being the Fallen Angels ; and furthermore to avoid connecting these with the “ Seven Spirits of the Face,” the Archangels, they unceremoniously threw out all they did not choose to recognise. Hence the perversion in the order of the Elements, in order to make them dovetail with the order of the Gospels, and to identify the Angel-Man with Christ. With the Chaldees, the Egyptians, from whom Moses adopted the Chroub (Cherubs in their animal form), and the Ophites ; with all these, the Angels, the Planets, and the Elements, were symbolized mystically and alchemically by the Lion (Mikael) ; the Bull (Uriel) ; the Dragon (Raphael) ; the Eagle (Gabriel) ; the Bear (Thot-Sabaoth) ; the Dog (Erataoth) ; the Mule (Uriel or Thartharaoth). All these have a qualificative meaning.
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Purânic text. Yoga here is the same as Dhyâna, which word is again synonymous with Yoga in the Tibetan text, where the “ Sons of Yoga ” are called “ Sons of Dhyâna,” or of that abstract meditation through which the Dhyani-Buddhas create their celestial sons, the Dhyani-Bodhisattvas. All the creatures in the world have each a superior above. “ This superior, whose inner pleasure it is to emanate into them, cannot impart efflux until they have adored ” — i.e., meditated as during Yoga. (Sepher M’bo Sha-arim, translated by Isaac Myer, Qabbalah, pp. 109-111.)