SECTION LI. THE “DOCTRINE OF THE EYE” & THE “DOCTRINE OF THE HEART,” OR

THE “HEART’S SEAL.”

Prof. Albrecht Weber was right when he declared that the Northern

Buddhists

Alone possess these [Buddhist] Scriptures complete.

For, while the Southern Buddhists have no idea of the existence of an

Esoteric Doctrine—enshrined like a pearl within the shell of every

religion—the Chinese and the Tibetans have preserved numerous records of

the fact. Degenerate, fallen as is now the Doctrine publicly preached by

Gautama, it is yet preserved in those monasteries in China that are placed

beyond the reach of visitors. And though for over two millennia every new

“reformer,” taking something out of the original has replaced it by some

speculation of his own, still truth lingers even now among the masses. But

it is only in the Trans‐Himâlayan fastnesses—loosely called Tibet—in the

most inaccessible spots of desert and mountain, that the Esoteric “Good

Law”—the “Heart’s Seal”—lives to the present day in all its pristine

purity.

Was Emanuel Swedenborg wrong when he remarked of the forgotten, long‐lost

Word:

Seek for it in China; peradventure you may find it in Great

Tartary.

He had obtained this information, he tells his readers, from certain

“Spirits,” who told him that they performed their worship according to

this (lost) ancient Word. On this it was remarked in _Isis Unveiled_ that

Other students of Occult Sciences had more than the word of

“spirits” to rely upon in this special case: they have seen the

books

that contain the “Word.”(750) Perchance the names of those “Spirits” who

visited the great Swedish Theosophist were Eastern. The word of a man of

such undeniable and recognised integrity, of one whose learning in

Mathematics, Astronomy, the natural Sciences and Philosophy was far in

advance of his age, cannot be trifled with or rejected as unceremoniously

as if it were the statement of a modern Theosophist; further, he claimed

to pass at will into that state when the Inner Self frees itself entirely

from every physical sense, and lives and breathes in a world where every

secret of Nature is an open book to the Soul‐eye.(751) Unfortunately two‐

thirds of his public writings are also allegorical in one sense; and, as

they have been accepted literally, criticism has not spared the great

Swedish Seer any more than other Seers.

Having taken a panoramic view of the hidden Sciences and Magic with their

Adepts in Europe, Eastern Initiates must now be mentioned. If the presence

of Esotericism in the Sacred Scriptures of the West only now begins to be

suspected, after nearly two thousand years of blind faith in their

_verbatim_ wisdom, the same may well be granted as to the Sacred Books of

the East. Therefore neither the Indian nor the Buddhist system can be

understood without a key, nor can the study of comparative Religion become

a “Science” until the symbols of every Religion yield their final secrets.

At the best such a study will remain a loss of time, a playing at hide‐

and‐seek.

On the authority of a Japanese _Encyclopædia_, Remusat shows the Buddha,

before His death, committing the secrets of His system to His disciple,

Kâsyapa, to whom alone was entrusted the sacred keeping of the Esoteric

interpretation. It is called in China _Ching‐fa‐yin‐Tsang_ (“the Mystery

of the Eye of the Good Doctrine”). To any student of Buddhist Esotericism

the term, “the Mystery of the Eye,” would show the absence of any

Esotericism. Had the word “Heart” stood in its place, then it would have

meant what it now only professes to convey. The “Eye Doctrine” means dogma

and dead‐letter form, church ritualism intended for those who are content

with exoteric formulæ. The “Heart Doctrine,” or the “Heart’s Seal” (the

Sin Yin), is the only real one. This may be found corroborated by Hiuen

Tsang. In his translation of _Mahâ‐Prajnâ‐Pâramitâ_ (_Ta‐poh‐je‐King_), in

one hundred and twenty volumes, it is stated that it was Buddha’s

“favourite disciple Ânanda,” who, after his great Master had gone into

Nirvâna, was commissioned by Kâsyapa to promulgate “the Eye of the

Doctrine,” the “Heart” of the Law having been left with the Arhats alone.

The essential difference that exists between the two—the “Eye” and the

“Heart,” or the outward form and the hidden meaning, the cold metaphysics

and the Divine Wisdom—is clearly demonstrated in several volumes on

“Chinese Buddhism,” written by sundry missionaries. Having lived for years

in China, they still know no more than they have learned from pretentious

schools calling themselves esoteric, yet freely supplying the open enemies

of their faith with professedly ancient manuscripts and esoteric works!

This ludicrous contradiction between profession and practice has never, as

it seems, struck any of the western and reverend historians of other

peoples’ secret tenets. Thus many esoteric schools are mentioned in

_Chinese Buddhism_ by the Rev. Joseph Edkins, who believes quite sincerely

that he has made “a minute examination” of the secret tenets of Buddhists

whose works “were until lately inaccessible in their original form.” It

really will not be saying too much to state at once that the genuine

Esoteric literature is “inaccessible” to this day, and that the

respectable gentleman who was inspired to state that

It does not appear that there was any secret doctrine which those

who knew it would not divulge,

made a great mistake if he ever believed in what he says on page 161 of

his work. Let him know at once that all those Yû‐luh (“Records of the

Sayings”) of celebrated teachers are simply blinds, as complete—if not

more so—than those in the Purânas of the Brâhmans. It is useless to

enumerate an endless string of the finest Oriental scholars or to bring

forward the researches of Remusat, Burnouf, Koeppen, St. Hilaire, and St.

Julian, who are credited with having exposed to view the ancient Hindu

world, by revealing the sacred and secret books of Buddhism: the world

that they reveal has never been veiled. The mistakes of all the

Orientalists may be judged by the mistake of one of the most popular, if

not the greatest among them all—Prof. Max Müller. It is made with

reference to what he laughingly translates as the “god Who” (Ka).

The authors of the Brâhmanas had so completely broken with the

past, that, forgetful of the poetical character of the hymns and

the yearning of the poets after the Unknown God, they exalted the

interrogative pronoun itself into a deity, and acknowledged a god

Ka (or Who?)... Wherever interrogative verses occur the author

states that Ka is Prajâpati, or the Lord of Creatures. Nor did

they stop here. Some of the hymns in which the interrogative

pronoun occurred were called Kadvat, _i.e._, having Kad or Quid.

But soon a new adjective was formed, and not only the hymns but

the sacrifice also offered to the god were called Kaya, or

“Who”‐ish.... At the time of Pânini this word acquired such

legitimacy as to call for a separate rule explaining its

formation. The Commentator here explains Ka by Brahman.

Had the commentator explained It even by Parabrahman he would have been

still more in the right than he was by rendering It as “Brahman.” One

fails to see why the secret and sacred Mystery‐Name of the highest,

sexless, formless Spirit, the Absolute,—Whom no one would have dared to

classify with the rest of the manifested Deities, or even to name during

the primitive nomenclature of the symbolical Panthenon, should not be

expressed by an interrogative pronoun. Is it those who belong to the most

anthropomorphic Religion in the world who have a right to take ancient

Philosophers to task for even an exaggerated religious awe and veneration?

But we are now concerned with Buddhism. Its Esotericism and oral

instruction, which is written down and preserved in single copies by the

highest chiefs in genuine Esoteric Schools, is shown by the author San‐

Kian‐yi‐su. Contrasting Bodhidharma with Buddha, he exclaims:

“Julai” (Tathâgata) taught great truths and the causes of things.

He became the instructor of men and Devas. He saved multitudes,

and spoke the contents of more than five hundred works. Hence

arose the Kiau‐men, or exoteric branch of the system, and it was

believed to be the tradition of the _words_ of Buddha. Bodhidharma

brought from the Western Heaven [Shamballa] the “Seal of Truth”

(true seal) and opened the fountain of contemplation in the East.

He pointed directly to Buddha’s heart and nature, swept away the

parasitic and alien growth of book‐instruction, and thus

established the Tsung‐men, or Esoteric branch of the system

containing the tradition of the heart of Buddha.(752)

A few remarks made by the author of _Chinese Buddhism_ throw a flood of

light on the universal misconceptions of Orientalists in general, and of

the missionaries in the “lands of the Gentiles” in particular. They appeal

very forcibly to the intuition of Theosophists—more particularly of those

in India. The sentences to be noticed are italicized.

The common [Chinese] word for the esoteric Schools is _dan_, the

Sanskrit _Dhyâna_.... Orthodox Buddhism has in China slowly but

steadily _become heterodox_. The Buddhism of books and ancient

traditions _has become the Buddhism of mystic contemplation_....

The history of ancient schools springing up long ago in the

Buddhist communities of India _can now be only very partially

recovered_. Possibly some light may be thrown back by China upon

the religious history of the country from which Buddhism

came.(753) In no part of the story is aid to the recovery of the

lost knowledge more likely to be found than in the accounts of the

patriarchs, the line of whom was completed by Bodhidharma. In

seeking the best explanation of the Chinese and Japanese narrative

of the patriarchs, and the _seven Buddhas_ terminating in Gautama,

or Shâkyamuni, it is important to know the Jain traditions as they

were early in the sixth century of our era, when the Patriarch

Bodhidharma removed to China....

In tracing the rise of the various schools of esoteric Buddhism it

must be kept in mind that a principle somewhat similar to the

dogma of apostolical succession belongs to them all. They all

profess _to derive their doctrines through a succession of

teachers, each instructed personally by his predecessor, till the

time of Bodhidharma, and so further up in the series to Shâkyamuni

himself and the earlier Buddhas_.(754)

It is complained further on, and is mentioned as a falling away from

strict orthodox Buddhism, that _the Lamas of Tibet are received in Pekin

with the utmost respect_ by the Emperor.

The following passages, taken from different parts of the book, summarise

Mr. Edkins’ views:

Hermits are not uncommonly met with in the vicinity of large

Buddhist temples ... their hair being allowed to grow unshorn....

The doctrine of metempsychosis is rejected. Buddhism is one form

of Pantheism on the ground that the doctrine of metempsychosis

makes all nature instinct with life, and that that life is the

Deity assuming different forms of personality, that Deity not

being a self‐conscious, free‐acting Self‐Cause, but an all‐

pervading Spirit. The esoteric Buddhists of China, keeping rigidly

to their one doctrine,(755) say nothing of the metempsychosis, ...

or any other of the more material parts of the Buddhist system....

The Western paradise promised to the worshippers of Amida Buddha

is ... inconsistent with the doctrine of Nirvana [?].(756)... _It

promises immortality_ instead of annihilation. The great antiquity

of this School is evident from the early date of the translation

of the _Amida Sûtra_, which came from the hands of Kumârajîva, and

the _Ku‐liang‐sheu‐King_, dating from the Han dynasty. Its extent

of influence is seen in the attachment of the Tibetans and Moguls

to the worship of this Buddha, and in the fact that the name of

this fictitious personage [?] is more commonly heard in China than

that of the historical Shâkyamuni.

We fear the learned writer is on a false track as to Nirvâna and Amita

Buddha. However, here we have the evidence of a missionary to show that

there are several schools of Esoteric Buddhism in the Celestial Empire.

When the misuse of dogmatical orthodox Buddhist Scriptures had reached its

climax, and the true spirit of the Buddha’s Philosophy was nearly lost,

several reformers appeared from India, who established an oral teaching.

Such were Bodhidharma and Nâgârjuna, the authors of the most important

works of the contemplative School in China during the first centuries of

our era. It is known, moreover, as is said in _Chinese Buddhism_, that

Bodhidharma became the chief founder of the Esoteric Schools, which were

divided into five principal branches. The data given are correct enough,

but every conclusion, without one single exception, is wrong. It was said

in _Isis Unveiled_ that—

Buddha teaches the doctrine of a new birth as plainly as Jesus

does. Desiring to break with the ancient Mysteries, to which it

was impossible to admit the ignorant masses, the Hindu reformer,

though generally silent upon more than one secret dogma, clearly

states his thought in several passages. Thus, he says: “_Some

people are born again_; evil‐doers go to hell [Avitchi]; righteous

people go to heaven [Devachan]; those who are free from all

worldly desires enter Nirvâna” (_Precepts of the Dhammapada_, v.

126). Elsewhere Buddha states that “it is better to believe in a

future life, in which happiness or misery can be felt: for if the

heart believes therein it will abandon sin and act virtuously; and

even if there is no resurrection [rebirth], such a life will bring

a good name and the reward of men. But those who believe in

extinction at death will not fail to commit any sin that they may

choose, because of their disbelief in a future.” (See _Wheel of

the Law_.)

How is immortality, then, “inconsistent with the doctrine of Nirvâna?” The

above are only a few of Buddha’s openly‐expressed thoughts to his chosen

Arhats; the great Saint said much more. As a comment upon the mistaken

views held in our century by the Orientalists, “who vainly try to fathom

Tathâgata’s thoughts,” and those of Brâhmans, “who repudiate the great

Teacher to this day,” here are some original thoughts expressed in

relation to the Buddha and the study of the Secret Sciences. They are from

a work written in Chinese by a Tibetan, and published in the monastery of

Tientaï for circulation among the Buddhists

Who live in foreign lands, and are in danger of being spoiled by

missionaries,

as the author truly says, every convert being not only “spoiled” for his

own creed, but being also a sorry acquisition for Christianity. A

translation of a few passages, kindly made from that work for the present

volumes is now given.

No profane ears having heard the mighty Chau‐yan [secret and

enlightening _precepts_] of Vu‐vei‐Tchen‐jen [Buddha _within_

Buddha],(757) of our beloved Lord and Bodhisattva, how can one

tell what his thoughts really were? The holy Sang‐gyas‐

Panchhen(758) never offered an insight into the _One Reality_ to

the unreformed [uninitiated] Bhikkus. Few are those even among the

Tu‐fon [Tibetans] who knew it; as for the Tsung‐men(759) Schools,

they are going with every day more down hill.... Not even the Fa‐

siong‐Tsung(760) can give one the wisdom taught in real Naljor‐

chod‐pa [Sanskrit:(761) Yogâchârya]: ... it is all “Eye” Doctrine,

and no more. The loss of a restraining guidance is felt, since the

Tch’‐an‐si [teachers] of inward meditation [self‐contemplation or

Tchung‐kwan] have become rare, and the Good Law is replaced by

idol‐worship [Siang‐kyan]. It is of this [idol‐ or image‐worship]

that the Barbarians [Western people] have heard, and know nothing

of Bas‐pa‐Dharma [the secret Dharma or doctrine]. Why has truth to

hide like a tortoise within its shell? Because it is now found to

have become like the Lama’s tonsure knife,(762) a weapon too

dangerous to use even for the Lanoo. Therefore no one can be

entrusted with the knowledge [Secret Science] before his time. The

Chagpa‐Thog‐mad have become rare, and the best have retired to

Tushita the Blessed.(763)

Further on, a man seeking to master the mysteries of Esotericism before he

had been declared by the initiated Tch’‐an‐si (teachers) to be ready to

receive them, is likened to

One who would, without a lantern and on a dark night, proceed to a

place full of scorpions, determined to feel on the ground for a

needle his neighbour has dropped.

Again:

He who would acquire the Sacred Knowledge should, before he goes

any farther “_trim his lamp_ of inner understanding,” and then

“with the help of such good light” use his meritorious actions as

a dust‐cloth to remove every impurity from his mystic mirror,(764)

so that he should be enabled to see in its lustre the faithful

reflection of Self.... First, this; then Tong‐pa‐nya,(765) lastly;

Samma Sambuddha.(766)

In _Chinese Buddhism_ a corroboration of these statements is to be found

in the aphorisms of Lin‐tsi:

Within the body which admits sensations, acquires knowledge,

thinks, and acts, there is the “true man without a position” Wu‐

wei‐chen‐jen. He makes himself clearly visible; not the thinnest

separating film hides him. Why do you not recognise him?... If the

mind does not come to conscious existence, there is deliverance

everywhere.... What is Buddha? _Ans._ A mind clear and at rest.

What is the Law? _Ans._ A mind clear and enlightened. What is

_Tau_? _Ans._ In every place absence of impediments and pure

enlightenment. These three are one.

The reverend author of _Chinese Buddhism_ makes merry over the symbolism

of Buddhist discipline. Yet the self‐inflicted “slaps on the cheek” and

“blows under the ribs” find their pendants in the mortifications of the

body and self‐flagellation—“the discipline of the scourge”—of the

Christian monks, from the first centuries of Christianity down to our own

day. But then the said author is a Protestant, who substitutes for

mortification and discipline—good living and comfort. The sentence in the

Lin‐tsi,

The “true man, without a position,” Wu‐wei‐chen‐jen, is wrapped in

a prickly shell, like the chestnut. He cannot be approached. This

is Buddha—the Buddha within you,

is laughed at. Truly

An infant cannot understand the seven enigmas!

SOME PAPERS ON THE BEARING OF OCCULT PHILOSOPHY ON LIFE.

NOTE.

Papers I. II. III. of the following were written by H. P. B. and were

circulated privately during her lifetime, but they were written with the

idea that they would be published after a time. They are papers intended

for students rather than for the ordinary reader, and will repay careful

study and thought. The “Notes of some Oral Teaching” were written down by

some of her pupils and were partially corrected by her, but no attempt has

been made to relieve them of their fragmentary character. She had intended

to make them the basis for written papers similar to the first three, but

her failing health rendered this impossible, and they are published with

her consent, the time for restricting them to a limited circle having

expired.

ANNIE BESANT.

Paper I. A Warning.

There is a strange law in Occultism which has been ascertained and proven

by thousands of years of experience; nor has it failed to demonstrate

itself, almost in every case, during the years that the Theosophical

Society has been in existence. As soon as anyone pledges himself as a

“Probationer,” certain Occult effects ensue. Of these the first is the

_throwing outward_ of everything latent in the nature of the man; his

faults, habits, qualities or subdued desires, whether good, bad or

indifferent.

For instance, if a man be vain or a sensualist, or ambitious, whether by

atavism or by karmic heirloom, those vices are sure to break out, even if

he has hitherto successfully concealed and repressed them. They will come

to the front irrepressibly, and he will have to fight a hundred times

harder than before, until he kills all such tendencies in himself.

On the other hand, if he be good, generous, chaste and abstemious, or has

any virtue hitherto latent and concealed in him, it will work its way out

as irrepressibly as the rest. Thus a civilized man who hates to be

considered a saint, and therefore assumes a mask, will not be able to

conceal his true nature, whether base or noble.

THIS IS AN IMMUTABLE LAW IN THE DOMAIN OF THE OCCULT.

Its action is the more marked, the more earnest and sincere the desire of

the candidate, and the more deeply he has felt the reality and importance

of his pledge.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

The ancient occult axiom, “Know Thyself,” must be familiar to every

student; but few if any have apprehended the real meaning of this wise

exhortation of the Delphic Oracle. You all know your earthly pedigree, but

who of you has ever traced all the links of heredity, astral, psychic and

spiritual, which go to make you what you are? Many have written and

expressed their desire to unite themselves with their Higher Ego, yet none

seem to know the indissoluble link connecting their “Higher Egos” with the

One Universal SELF.

For all purposes of Occultism, whether practical or purely metaphysical,

such knowledge is absolutely requisite. It is proposed, therefore, to

begin these papers by showing this connection in all directions with the

worlds: Absolute, Archetypal, Spiritual, Mânasic, Psychic, Astral, and

Elemental. Before, however, we can touch upon the higher

worlds—Archetypal, Spiritual and Mânasic—we must master the relations of

the seventh, the terrestrial world, the lower Prakriti, or Malkuth as in

the Kabalah, to the worlds or planes which immediately follow it.

OM.

“OM,” says the Âryan Adept, the son of the Fifth Race, who with this

syllable begins and ends his salutation to the human being, his

conjuration of, or appeal to, non‐human PRESENCES.

“OM‐MANI,” murmurs the Turanian Adept, the descendant of the Fourth Race;

and after pausing he adds, “PADME‐HUM.”

This famous invocation is very erroneously translated by the Orientalists

as meaning, “Oh the Jewel in the Lotus.” For although, literally, OM is a

syllable sacred to the Deity, PADME means “in the Lotus,” and MANI is any

precious stone, still neither the words themselves, nor their symbolical

meaning, are thus really correctly rendered.

In this, the most sacred of all Eastern formulas, not only has every

syllable a secret potency producing a definite result, but the whole

invocation has seven different meanings and can produce seven distinct

results, each of which may differ from the others.

The seven meanings and the seven results depend upon the intonation which

is given to the whole formula and to each of its syllables; and even the

numerical value of the letters is added to or diminished according as such

or another rhythm is made use of. Let the student remember that number

underlies form, and number guides sound. Number lies at the root of the

manifested Universe: numbers and harmonious proportions guide the first

differentiations of homogeneous substance into heterogeneous elements; and

number and numbers set limits to the formative hand of Nature.

Know the corresponding numbers of the fundamental principle of every

element and its sub‐elements, learn their interaction and behaviour on the

occult side of manifesting Nature, and the law of correspondences will

lead you to the discovery of the greatest mysteries of macrocosmical life.

But to arrive at the macrocosmical, you must begin by the microcosmical,

_i.e._, you must study MAN, the microcosm—in this case as physical science

does—inductively, proceeding from particulars to universals. At the same

time, however, since a key‐note is required to analyze and comprehend any

combination of differentiations of sound, we must never lose sight of the

Platonic method, which starts with one general view of all, and descends

from the universal to the individual. This is the method adopted in

Mathematics—the only _exact_ science that exists in our day.

Let us study Man, therefore; but if we separate him for one moment from

the Universal Whole, or view him in isolation, from a single aspect, apart

from the “Heavenly Man”—the Universe symbolized by Adam Kadmon or his

equivalents in every Philosophy—we shall either land in Black Magic or

fail most ingloriously in our attempt.

Thus the mystic sentence, “_Om Mani Padme Hum_,” when rightly understood,

instead of being composed of the almost meaningless words, “Oh the Jewel

in the Lotus,” contains a reference to this indissoluble union between Man

and the Universe, rendered in seven different ways, and having the

capability of seven different applications to as many planes of thought

and action.

From whatever aspect we examine it, it means: “I am that I am”: “I am in

thee and thou art in me.” In this conjunction and close union the good and

pure man becomes a God. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he will

bring about, or innocently cause to happen, unavoidable results. In the

first case, if an Initiate (of course an Adept of the Right‐hand Path

alone is meant), he can guide a beneficent or a protecting current, and

thus benefit and protect individuals and even whole nations. In the second

case, although quite unaware of what he is doing, the good man becomes a

shield to whomsoever he is with.

Such is the fact; but its how and why have to be explained, and this can

be done only when the actual presence and potency of numbers in sounds,

and hence in words and letters, have been rendered clear. The formula,

“_Om Mani Padme Hum_,” has been chosen as an illustration on account of

its almost infinite potency in the mouth of an Adept, and of its

potentiality when pronounced by any man. Be careful, all you who read

this: do not use these words in vain, or when in anger, lest you become

yourself the first sacrificial victim, or, what is worse, endanger those

whom you love.

The profane Orientalist, who all his life skims mere externals, will tell

you flippantly, and laughing at the superstition, that in Tibet this

sentence is the most powerful six‐syllabled incantation and is said to

have been delivered to the nations of Central Asia by Padmapâni, the

Tibetan Chenresi.(767)

But who is Padmapâni, in reality? Each of us must recognize him for

himself, whenever he is ready. Each of us has within himself the “Jewel in

the Lotus,” call it Padmapâni, Krishna, Buddha, Christ, or whatever name

we may give to our Divine Self. The exoteric story runs thus:

The supreme Buddha, or Amitâbha, they say, at the hour of the creation of

man, caused a rosy ray of light to issue from his right eye. The ray

emitted a sound and became Padmapâni Bodhisattva. Then the Deity allowed

to stream forth from his left eye a blue ray of light, which, becoming

incarnate in the two virgins Dolma, acquired the power to enlighten the

minds of living beings. Amitâbha then called the combination, which

forthwith took up its abode in man, “_Om Mani Padme Hum_,” “I am the Jewel

in the Lotus and in it I will remain.” Then Padmapâni, “the One in the

Lotus” vowed never to cease working until he had made Humanity feel his

presence in itself and had thus saved it from the misery of rebirth. He

vowed to perform the feat before the end of the Kalpa, adding that, in

case of failure, he wished that his head should split into numberless

fragments. The Kalpa closed; but Humanity felt him not within its cold,

evil heart. Then Padmapâni’s head split and was shattered into a thousand

fragments. Moved with compassion, the Deity re‐formed the pieces into

_ten_ heads, three white, and seven of various colours. And since that day

man has become a perfect number, or TEN.

In this allegory the potency of SOUND, COLOUR, and NUMBER is so

ingeniously introduced as to veil the real Esoteric meaning. To the

outsider it reads like one of the many meaningless fairy‐tales of

creation; but it is pregnant with spiritual and divine, physical and

magical meaning. From Amitâbha—_no colour_, or the _white glory_—are born

the seven differentiated colours of the prism. These each emit a

corresponding sound, forming the seven of the _musical scale_. As

Geometry, among the Mathematical Sciences, is specially related to

Architecture, and also (proceeding to Universals) to Cosmogony, so the ten

Jods of the Pythagorean Tetrad, or Tetraktys, being made to symbolize the

Macrocosm, the Microcosm, or man, its image, had also to be divided into

ten points. For this Nature herself has provided, as will be seen.

But before this statement can be proved and the perfect correspondences

between the Macrocosm and the Microcosm demonstrated, a few words of

explanation are necessary.

To the learner who would study the Esoteric Sciences with their double

object: (_a_) of proving Man to be identical in spiritual and physical

essence with both the Absolute Principle and with God in Nature; and (_b_)

of demonstrating the presence in him of the same potential powers as exist

in the creative forces in Nature—to such a one a perfect knowledge of the

correspondences between Colours, Sounds, and Numbers is the first

requisite. As already said, the sacred formula of the far East, “_Om Mani

Padme Hum_,” is the one best calculated to make these correspondential

qualities and functions clear to the learner.

In the allegory of Padmapâni, the Jewel (or Spiritual Ego) in the Lotus,

or the symbol of androgynous man, the numbers 3, 4, 7, 10, as synthesizing

the _Unit_, Man, are prominent, as I have already said. It is on the

thorough knowledge and comprehension of the meaning and potency of these

numbers, in their various and multiform combinations, and in their mutual

correspondence with sounds or words, and colours or rates of motion

(represented in physical science by vibrations), that the progress of a

student in Occultism depends. Therefore we must begin with the first,

initial word, OM, or AUM. OM is a “blind.” The sentence “_Om Mani Padme

Hum_” is not a six‐ but a seven‐syllabled phrase, as the first syllable is

double in its right pronunciation, and triple in its essence, A‐UM. It

represents the for ever concealed primeval triune differentiation, not

_from_ but _in_ the ONE Absolute, and is therefore symbolized by the 4, or

the Tetraktys, in the metaphysical world. It is the Unit‐ray, or Âtman.

It is the Âtman, this highest Spirit in man, which, in conjunction with

Buddhi and Manas, is called the upper Triad, or Trinity. This Triad with

its four lower human principles, is, moreover, enveloped with an auric

atmosphere, like the yolk of an egg (the future embryo) by the albumen and

shell. This, to the perceptions of higher Beings from other planes, makes

of each individuality an oval sphere of more or less radiancy.

To show the student the perfect correspondence between the birth of

Kosmos, a World, a Planetary Being, or a Child of Sin and Earth, a more

definite and clear description must be given. Those acquainted with

Physiology will understand it better than others.

Who, having read say the _Vishnu_ or other _Purâna_, is not familiar with

the exoteric allegory of the birth of Brahmâ (male‐female) in the Egg of

the World, Hiranyagarbha, surrounded by its seven zones, or rather planes,

which in the world of form and matter become seven and fourteen Lokas; the

numbers seven and fourteen reäppearing as occasion requires.

Without giving out the secret analysis, the Hindus have from time

immemorial compared the matrix of the Universe, and also the solar matrix,

to the female uterus. It is written of the former: “Its womb is vast as

the Meru,” and

The future mighty oceans lay asleep in the waters that filled its

cavities, the continents, seas and mountains, the stars, planets,

the gods, demons and mankind.

The whole resembled, in its inner and outer coverings, the cocoanut filled

interiorly with pulp, and covered externally with husk and rind. “Vast as

Meru,” say the texts.

Meru was its Amnion, and the other mountains were its Chorion,

adds a verse in _Vishnu Purâna_.(768)

In the same way is man born in his mother’s womb. As Brahmâ is surrounded,

in exoteric traditions, by seven layers within and seven without the

Mundane Egg, so is the embryo (the first or the seventh layer, according

to the end from which we begin to count). Thus, just as Esotericism in its

Cosmogony enumerates seven inner and seven outer layers, so Physiology

notes the contents of the uterus as seven also, although it is completely

ignorant of this being a copy of what takes place in the Universal Matrix.

These contents are:

1. _Embryo._ 2. _Amniotic Fluid_, immediately surrounding the Embryo. 3.

_Amnion_, a membrane derived from the Fœtus, which contains the fluid. 4.

_Umbilical Vesicle_, which serves to convey nourishment originally to the

Embryo and to nourish it. 5. _Allantois_, a protrusion from the Embryo in

the form of a closed bag, which spreads itself between 3 and 7, in the

midst of 6, and which, after being specialized into the Placenta, serves

to conduct nourishment to the Embryo. 6. _Interspace_ between 3 and 7 (the

Amnion and Chorion), filled with an albuminous fluid. 7. _Chorion_, or

outer layer.

Now, each of these seven contents severally corresponds with, and is

formed after, an antetype, one on each of the seven planes of being, with

which in their turn correspond the seven states of Matter and all other

forces, sensational or functional, in Nature.

The following is a bird’s‐eye view of the seven correspondential contents

of the wombs of Nature and of Woman. We may contrast them thus:

(1) Cosmic Process: The mathematical Point, called the “Cosmic

Seed,” the Monad of Leibnitz; which contains the whole Universe,

as the acorn the oak. This is the first bubble on the surface of

boundless homogeneous Substance, or Space, the bubble of

differentiation in its incipient stage. It is the beginning of the

Orphic or Brahmâ’s Egg. It corresponds in Astrology and Astronomy

to the Sun.

Human Process: The terrestrial Embryo, which contains in it the

future man with all his potentialities. In the series of

principles of the human system it is the Âtman, or the super‐

spiritual principle, just as in the physical Solar System it is

the Sun.

(2) Cosmic Process: The _vis vitæ_ of our solar system exudes from

the Sun. Human Process: The Amniotic Fluid exudes from the Embryo.

(_a_) Cosmic Process: It is called, when referred to the higher

planes, Âkâsha. Human Process: It is called, on the plane of

matter, Prâna.(769)

(_b_) Cosmic Process: It proceeds from the ten “divinities,” the

ten numbers of the Sun, which is itself the “Perfect Number.”

These are called Dis—in reality Space—the forces spread in Space,

three of which are contained in the Sun’s Âtman, or seventh

principle, and seven are the rays shot out by the Sun.

Human Process: It proceeds, taking its source in the universal One

Life, from the heart of man and Buddhi, over which the Seven Solar

Rays (Gods) preside.

(3) Cosmic Process: The Ether of Space, which, in its external

aspect, is the plastic crust which is supposed to envelope the

Sun. On the higher plane it is the whole Universe, as the third

differentiation of evolving Substance, Mûlaprakriti becoming

Prakriti.

Human Process: The Amnion, the membrane containing the Amniotic

Fluid and enveloping the Embryo. After the birth of man it becomes

the third layer, so to say, of his magneto‐vital aura.

(_a_) Cosmic Process: It corresponds mystically to the manifested

Mahat, or the Intellect or Soul of the World. Human Process:

Manas, the third principle (counting from above), or the Human

Soul in Man.

(4) Cosmic Process: The sidereal contents of Ether, the

substantial parts of it, unknown to Modern Science, represented as

follows. Human Process: Umbilical Vesicle, serving, as Science

teaches, to nourish the Embryo originally, but, as Occult Science

avers, to carry to the Fœtus by osmosis the cosmic influences

extraneous to the mother.

(_a_) Cosmic Process: In Occult and Kabalistic Mysteries, by

Elementals. Human Process: In the grown man these become the

feeders of Kâma, over which they preside.

(_b_) Cosmic Process: In physical Astronomy, by meteors, comets,

and all kinds of casual and phenomenal cosmic bodies. Human

Process: In the physical man, his passions and emotions, the moral

meteors and comets of human nature.

(5) Cosmic Process: Life currents in Ether, having their origin in

the Sun: the canals through which the vital principle of that

Ether (the blood of the Cosmic Body) passes to nourish everything

on the Earth and on the other Planets: from the minerals, which

are thus made to grow and become specialized, from the plants,

which are thus fed, to animal and man, to whom life is thus

imparted.

Human Process: The Allantois, a protrusion from the Embryo, which

spreads itself between the Amnion and Chorion; it is supposed to

conduct the nourishment from the mother to the Embryo. It

corresponds to the life‐principle, Prâna or Jîva.

(6) Cosmic Process: The double radiation, psychic and physical,

which radiates from the Cosmic Seed and expands around the whole

Kosmos, as well as around the Solar System and every Planet. In

Occultism it is called the upper divine, and the lower material,

Astral Light.

Human Process: The Allantois is divided into two layers. The

interspace between the Amnion and the Chorion contains the

Allantois and also an albuminous fluid.(770)

(7) Cosmic Process: The outer crust of every sidereal body, the

Shell of the Mundane Egg, or the sphere of our Solar System, of

our Earth, and of every man and animal. In sidereal space, Ether

proper; on the terrestrial plane, Air, which again is built in

seven layers.

Human Process: The Chorion, or the _Zona Pellucida_, the globular

object called Blastodermic Vesicle, the outer and the inner layers

of the membrane of which go to form the physical man. The outer,

or ectoderm, forms his epidermis; the inner, or endoderm, his

muscles, bones, etc. Man’s skin, again, is composed of seven

layers.

(_a_) Cosmic Process: The primordial potential world‐stuff becomes

(for the Manvantaric period) the permanent globe or globes. Human

Process: The “primitive” becomes the “permanent” Chorion.

Even in the evolution of the Races we see the same order as in Nature and

Man.(771) Placental animal‐man became such only after the separation of

sexes in the Third Root‐Race. In the physiological evolution, the placenta

is fully formed and functional only after the third month of uterine life.

Let us put aside such human conceptions as a personal God, and hold to the

purely divine, to that which underlies all and everything in boundless

Nature. It is called by its Sanskrit Esoteric name in the _Vedas_, TAT (or

THAT), a term for the unknowable Rootless Root. If we do so, we may answer

these seven questions of the _Esoteric Catechism_ thus:

(1) Q.—What is the Eternal Absolute?

A.—THAT.

(2) Q.—How came Kosmos into being?

A.—Through THAT.

(3) Q.—How, or what will it be when it falls back into Pralaya?

A.—In THAT.

(4) Q.—Whence all the animate, and suppositionally, the

“inanimate” nature?

A.—From THAT.

(5) Q.—What is the Substance and Essence of which the Universe is

formed?

A.—THAT.

(6) Q.—Into what has it been and will be again and again resolved?

A.—Into THAT.

(7) Q.—Is THAT then both the instrumental and material cause of

the Universe?

A.—What else is it or can it be than THAT?

As the Universe, the Macrocosm and the Microcosm,(772) are _ten_, why

should we divide Man into _seven_ “principles”? This is the reason why the

perfect number ten is divided into two: in their completeness, _i.e._,

super‐spiritually and physically, the forces are TEN: to wit, three on the

subjective and inconceivable, and seven on the objective plane. Bear in

mind that I am now giving you the description of the two opposite poles:

(_a_) the primordial Triangle, which, as soon as it has reflected itself

in the “Heavenly Man,” the highest of the lower seven—disappears,

returning into “Silence and Darkness”; and (_b_) the astral paradigmatic

man, whose Monad (Âtmâ) is also represented by a triangle, as it has to

become a ternary in conscious Devachanic interludes. The purely

terrestrial man being reflected in the universe of Matter, so to say,

upside down, the upper Triangle, wherein the creative ideation and the

subjective potentiality of the formative faculty resides, is shifted in

the man of clay below the seven. Thus three of the ten, containing in the

archetypal world only ideative and paradigmatical potentiality, _i.e._,

existing in possibility, not in action, are in fact one. The potency of

formative creation resides in the Logos, the synthesis of the seven Forces

or Rays, which becomes forthwith the Quaternary, the sacred Tetraktys.

This process is repeated in man, in whom the lower physical triangle

becomes, in conjunction with the female One, the male‐female creator, or

generator. The same on a still lower plane in the animal world. A mystery

above, a mystery below, truly.

This is how the upper and highest, and the lower and most animal, stand in

mutual relation.

Diagram I

1st—Macrocosm and Its 3, 7, or 10 Centres of Creative Forces

[Illustration: Triangle with A B C]

A. B. C. The Unknowable

A. Sexless, Unmanifested Logos

B. Potential Wisdom

C. Universal Ideation

[Illustration: Circle with a through g]

a. Creative Logos

b. Eternal Substance

c. Spirit

a. b. c. This is Pradhâna, undifferentiated matter in Sânkhya philosophy,

or Good, Evil and Chaotic Darkness (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas),

neutralizing each other. When differentiated, they become the Seven

Creative Potencies: Spirit, Substance and Fire stimulating Matter to form

itself.

D. The Spiritual Forces acting in Matter

2nd.—Microcosm (the Inner Man) and his 3, 7, or 10 Centres of Potential

Forces

[Illustration: Circle with 1 through 6]

(ÂTMAN, although exoterically reckoned as the seventh principle, is no

individual principle at all, and belongs to the Universal Soul; 7 is the

AURIC EGG, the Magnetic Sphere round every human and animal being.)

1. BUDDHI, the vehicle of ÂTMÂ.

2. MANAS, the vehicle of BUDDHI.

3. LOWER MANAS (the Upper and Lower MANAS are two aspects of one and the

same principle) and

4. KÂMA RÛPA, its vehicle.

5. PRÂNA, Life, and

6. LINGA SHARIRA, its vehicle

I. II. III. are the Three Hypostases of ÂTMAN, its contact with Nature and

Man being the Fourth, making it a Quaternary, or Tetraktys, the Higher

self.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. These six principles, acting on four different planes,

and having their AURIC ENVELOPE on the seventh (_vide infra_), are those

used by the Adepts of the Right‐Hand, or White Magicians.

3rd.—Microcosm (the Physical Man) and his 10 Orifices, or centres of

Action

[Illustration: Circle with 1 through 10]

1. (BUDDHI) Right Eye

3. (LOWER MANAS) Right Ear

5. (LIFE PRINCIPLE) Right Nostril

7. The Organ of the CREATIVE LOGOS, the Mouth

8. 9. 10. As this Lower Ternary has a direct connection with the Higher

Âtmic Triad and its three aspects (creative, preservative and destructive,

or rather regenerative), the abuse of the corresponding functions is the

most terrible of Karmic Sins—the Sin against the Holy Ghost with the

Christians.

2. (MANAS) Left Eye

4. (KÂMA RÛPA) Left Ear

6. (LIFE VEHICLE) Left Nostril

7. The Paradigm of the 10th (creative) orifice in the Lower Triad.

These Physical Organs are used only by Dugpas in Black Magic.

In this diagram, we see that physical man (or his body) does not share in

the _direct_ pure waves of the divine Essence which flows from the _One in

Three_, the Unmanifested, through the Manifested Logos (the upper face in

the diagram). Purusha, the primeval Spirit, touches the human head and

stops there. But the Spiritual Man (the synthesis of the seven principles)

is directly connected with it. And here a few words ought to be said about

the usual exoteric enumeration of the principles. At first an approximate

division only was made and given out. _Esoteric Buddhism_ begins with

Âtmâ, the seventh, and ends with the Physical Body, the first. Now neither

Âtmâ, which is no individual “principle,” but a radiation _from_ and _one

with_ the Unmanifested Logos; nor the Body, which is the material rind, or

shell, of the Spiritual Man, can be, in strict truth, referred to as

“principles.” Moreover, the chief “principle” of all, one not even

mentioned heretofore, is the “Luminous Egg” (Hiranyagarbha), or the

invisible magnetic sphere in which every man is enveloped.(773) It is the

direct emanation: (_a_) from the Âtmic Ray in its triple aspect of

Creator, Preserver and Destroyer (Regenerator); and (_b_) from Buddhi‐

Manas. The _seventh_ aspect of this individual Aura is the faculty of

assuming the form of its body and becoming the “Radiant,” the Luminous

Augoeides. It is this, strictly speaking, which at times becomes the form

called Mâyâvi Rûpa. Therefore, as explained in the second face of the

diagram (the astral man), the Spiritual Man consists of only five

principles, as taught by the Vedântins,(774) who substitute, tacitly, for

the physical this sixth, or Auric, Body, and merge the dual Manas (the

dual mind, or consciousness) into one. Thus they speak of five Koshas

(sheaths or principles), and call Âtmâ the sixth yet no “principle.” This

is the secret of the late Subba Row’s criticism of the division in

_Esoteric Buddhism_. But let the student now learn the true Esoteric

enumeration.

The reason why public mention of the Auric Body was not permitted was on

account of its being so sacred. It is this Body which, at death,

assimilates the essence of Buddhi and Manas and becomes the vehicle of

these spiritual principles, _which are not objective_, and then, with the

full radiation of Âtmâ upon it ascends as Manas‐Taijasi into the

Devachanic state. Therefore is it called by many names. It is the

Sûtrâtmâ, the silver “thread” which “incarnates” from the beginning of

Manvantara to the end, stringing upon itself the pearls of human

existence, in other words, the spiritual aroma of every personality it

_follows_ through the pilgrimage of life.(775) It is also the material

from which the Adept forms his Astral Bodies, from the Augoeides and the

Mâyâvi Rûpa downwards. After the death of man, when its most ethereal

particles have drawn into themselves the spiritual principles of Buddhi

and the Upper Manas, and are illuminated with the radiance of Âtmâ, the

Auric Body remains either in the Devachanic state of consciousness, or, in

the case of a full Adept, prefers the state of a Nirmânakâya, that is, one

who has so purified his whole system that he is above even the divine

illusion of a Devachanî. Such an Adept remains in the astral (invisible)

plane connected with our earth, and henceforth moves and lives in the

possession of all his principles except the Kâma Rûpa and Physical Body.

In the case of the Devachanî, the Linga Sharîra—the _alter ego_ of the

body, which during life is within the physical envelope while the radiant

aura is without—strengthened by the material particles which this aura

leaves behind, remains close to the dead body and outside it, and soon

fades away. In the case of the full Adept, the body alone becomes subject

to dissolution, while the centre of that force which was the seat of

desires and passions, disappears with its cause—the animal body. But

during the life of the latter all these centres are more or less active

and in constant correspondence with their prototypes, the cosmic centres,

and their microcosms, the principles. It is only through these cosmic and

spiritual centres that the physical centres (the upper seven orifices and

the lower triad) can benefit by their Occult interaction, for these

orifices, or openings, are channels conducting into the body the

influences that _the will of man_ attracts and uses, _viz._, the cosmic

forces.

This will has, of course, to act primarily through the spiritual

principles. To make this clearer, let us take an example. In order to stop

pain, let us say in the right eye, you have to attract to it the potent

magnetism from that cosmic principle which corresponds to this eye and

also to Buddhi. Create, by a powerful will effort, an imaginary line of

communication between the right eye and Buddhi, locating the latter as a

_centre_ in the same part of the head. This line, though you may call it

“imaginary,” is, once you succeed in seeing it with your mental eye and

give it a shape and colour, in truth as good as real. A rope in a dream

_is not_ and yet _is_. Moreover, according to the prismatic colour with

which you endow your line, so will the influence act. Now Buddhi and

Mercury correspond with each other, and both are yellow, or radiant and

golden coloured. In the human system, the right eye corresponds with

Buddhi and Mercury; and the left with Manas and Venus or Lucifer. Thus, if

your line is golden or silvery, it will stop the pain; if red, it will

increase it, for red is the colour of Kâma and corresponds with Mars.

Mental or Christian Scientists have stumbled upon the _effects_ without

understanding the _causes_. Having found by chance the secret of producing

such results owing to mental abstraction, they attribute them to their

union with God (whether a personal or impersonal God they know best),

whereas it is simply the effect of one or another principle. However it

may be, they are on the path of discovery, although they must remain

wandering for a long time to come.

Let not Esoteric students commit the same mistake. It has often been

explained that neither the cosmic planes of substance nor even the human

principles—with the exception of the lowest material plane or world and

the physical body, which, as has been said, are no “principles,”—can be

located or thought of as being in Space and Time. As the former are seven

in ONE, so are we seven in ONE—that same absolute Soul of the World, which

is both Matter and non‐Matter, Spirit and non‐Spirit, Being and non‐Being.

Impress yourselves well with this idea, all those of you who would study

the mysteries of SELF.

Remember that with our physical senses alone at our command, none of us

can hope to reach beyond gross Matter. We can do so only through one or

another of our seven _spiritual_ senses, either by training, or if one is

a born Seer. Yet even a clairvoyant possessed of such faculties, if not an

Adept, no matter how honest and sincere he may be, will, through his

ignorance of the truths of Occult Science, be led by the visions he sees

in the Astral Light only to mistake for God or Angels the denizens of

those spheres of which he may occasionally catch a glimpse, as witness

Swedenborg and others.

These seven senses of ours correspond with every other septenate in nature

and in ourselves. Physically, though invisibly, the human Auric Envelope

(the amnion of the physical man in every age of life) has seven layers,

just as Cosmic Space and our physical epidermis have. It is this Aura

which, according to our mental and physical state of purity or impurity,

either opens for us vistas into other worlds, or shuts us out altogether

from anything but this three‐dimensional world of Matter.

Each of our seven physical senses (two of which are still unknown to

profane Science), and also of our seven states of consciousness—_viz._:

(1) waking; (2) waking‐dreaming; (3) natural sleeping; (4) induced or

trance‐sleep; (5) psychic; (6) super‐psychic; and (7) purely

spiritual—corresponds with one of the seven Cosmic Planes, develops and

uses one of the seven super‐senses, and is connected directly, in its use

on the terrestro‐spiritual plane, with the cosmic and divine centre of

force that gave it birth, and which is its direct creator. Each is also

connected with, and under the direct influence of, one of the seven sacred

Planets.(776) These belonged to the Lesser Mysteries, whose followers were

called Mystai (the veiled), seeing that they were allowed to perceive

things only through a mist, as it were “with the eyes closed”; while the

Initiates or “Seers” of the Greater Mysteries were called Epoptai (those

who see things unveiled). It was the latter only who were taught the true

mysteries of the Zodiac and the relations and correspondences between its

twelve signs (two secret) and the ten human orifices. The latter are now

of course ten in the female, and only nine in the male; but this is merely

an external difference. In the second volume of this work it is stated

that till the end of the Third Root‐Race (when androgynous man separated

into male and female) the ten orifices existed in the hermaphrodite, first

potentially, then functionally. The evolution of the human embryo shows

this. For instance, the only opening formed at first is the buccal cavity,

“a _cloaca_ communicating with the anterior extremity of the intestine.”

These become later the mouth and the posterior orifice: the Logos

differentiating and emanating gross matter on the lower plane, in Occult

parlance. The difficulty which some students will experience in

reconciling the correspondences between the Zodiac and the orifices can be

easily explained. Magic is coëval with the Third Root‐Race, which began by

creating through Kriyâshakti and ended by generating its species in the

present way.(777) Woman, being left with the full or perfect cosmic number

10 (the divine number of Jehovah), was deemed higher and more spiritual

than man. In Egypt, in days of old, the marriage service contained an

article that the woman should be the “lady of the lord,” and real lord

over him, the husband pledging himself to be “obedient to his wife” for

the production of alchemical results such as the Elixir of Life and the

Philosopher’s Stone, for the _spiritual_ help of the woman was needed by

the male Alchemist. But woe to the Alchemist who should take this in the

dead‐letter sense of _physical_ union. Such sacrilege would become Black

Magic and be followed by certain failure. The true Alchemist of old took

_aged_ women to help him, carefully avoiding the young ones; and if any of

them happened to be married they treated their wives for months both

before and during their operations as sisters.

The error of crediting the Ancients with knowing only ten of the zodiacal

signs is explained in _Isis Unveiled_.(778) The Ancients did know of

twelve, but viewed these signs differently from ourselves. They took

neither Virgo nor Scorpio singly into consideration, but regarded them as

two in one, since they were made to refer directly and symbolically to the

primeval dual man and his separation into sexes. During the reformation of

the Zodiac, Libra was added as the twelfth sign, though it is simply an

equilibrating sign, at the turning point—the mystery of separated man.

Let the student learn all this well. Meanwhile we have to recapitulate

what has been said.

(1) Each human being is an incarnation of his God, in other words, one

with his “Father in Heaven,” just as Jesus, an Initiate, is made to say.

As many men on earth, so many Gods in Heaven; and yet these Gods are in

reality ONE, for at the end of every period of activity, they are

withdrawn, like the rays of the setting sun, into the Parent Luminary, the

Non‐Manifested Logos, which in its turn is merged into the One Absolute.

Shall we call these “Fathers” of ours, whether individually or

collectively, and under any circumstances, our _personal God_? Occultism

answers, _Never_. All that an average man can know of his “Father” is what

he knows of himself, through and within himself. The Soul of his “Heavenly

Father” is incarnated in him. This Soul is himself, if he be successful in

assimilating the Divine Individuality while in his physical, animal shell.

As to the Spirit thereof, as well expect to be heard by the Absolute. Our

prayers and supplications are vain, unless to potential words we add

potent acts, and make the Aura which surrounds each one of us so pure and

divine that the God within us may act outwardly, or in other words, become

as it were an extraneous Potency. Thus have Initiates, Saints, and very

holy and pure men been enabled to help others as well as themselves in the

hour of need, and produce what are foolishly called “miracles,” each by

the help and with the aid of the God within himself, which he alone has

enabled to act on the outward plane.

(2) The word AUM or OM, which corresponds to the upper Triangle, if

pronounced by a very holy and pure man, will draw out, or awaken, not only

the less exalted Potencies residing in the planetary spaces and elements,

but even his Higher Self, or the “Father” within him. Pronounced by an

averagely good man, in the correct way, it will help to strengthen him

morally, especially if between two “AUMS” he meditates intently upon the

AUM within him, concentrating all his attention upon the ineffable glory.

But woe to the man who pronounces it after the commission of some far‐

reaching sin: he will only thereby attract to his own impure photosphere

invisible Presences and Forces which could not otherwise break through the

Divine Envelope.

AUM is the original of Amen. Now, Amen is not a Hebrew term, but, like the

word Halleluiah, was borrowed by the Jews and Greeks from the Chaldees.

The latter word is often found repeated in certain magical inscriptions

upon cups and urns among the Babylonian and Ninevean relics. Amen does not

mean “so be it,” or “verily,” but signified in hoary antiquity almost the

same as AUM. The Jewish Tanaïm (Initiates) used it for the same reason as

the Âryan Adepts use AUM, and with a like success, the numerical value of

_AMeN_ in Hebrew letters being 91, the same as the full value of

_YHVH_,(779) 26, and _ADoNaY_, 65, or 91. Both words mean the affirmation

of the being, or existence, of the sexless “Lord” within us.

(3) Esoteric Science teaches that every sound in the visible world awakens

its corresponding sound in the invisible realms, and arouses to action

some force or other on the Occult side of Nature. Moreover, every sound

corresponds to a colour and a number (a potency spiritual, psychic or

physical) and to a sensation on some plane. All these find an echo in

every one of the so‐far developed elements, and even on the terrestrial

plane, in the Lives that swarm in the terrene atmosphere, thus prompting

them to action.

Thus a prayer, unless pronounced _mentally_ and addressed to one’s

“Father” in the silence and solitude of one’s “closet,” must have more

frequently disastrous than beneficial results, seeing that the masses are

entirely ignorant of the potent effects which they thus produce. To

produce good effects, the prayer must be uttered by “one who knows how to

make himself heard in silence,” when it is no longer a prayer, but becomes

a command. Why is Jesus shown to have forbidden his hearers to go to the

public synagogues? Surely every praying man was not a hypocrite and a

liar, nor a Pharisee who loved to be seen praying by people! He had a

motive, we must suppose: the same motive which prompts the experienced

Occultist to prevent his pupils from going into crowded places now as

then, from entering churches, séance rooms, etc., unless they are in

sympathy with the crowd.

There is one piece of advice to be given to beginners, who cannot help

going into crowds—one which may appear superstitious, but which in the

absence of Occult knowledge will be found efficacious. As well known to

good Astrologers, the days of the week are not in the order of those

planets whose names they bear. The fact is that the ancient Hindus and

Egyptians divided the day into four parts, each day being under the

protection (as ascertained by practical magic) of a planet; and every day,

as correctly asserted by Dion Cassius, received the name of the planet

which ruled and protected its first portion. Let the student protect

himself from the “Powers of the Air” (Elementals) which throng public

places, by wearing either a ring containing some jewel of the colour of

the presiding planet, or else of the metal sacred to it. But the best

protection is a clear conscience and a firm desire to benefit Humanity.

The Planets, The Days of the Week and Their Corresponding Colours and

Metals.

[Transcriber’s Note: This table was a wide pull‐out insert into the book,

with more columns than modern readers can display. It has been reformatted

into several tables of more manageable width.]

These Correspondences are from the Objective, Terrestrial Plane.

Âtman is no Number, and corresponds to no visible Planet, for it proceeds

from the Spiritual Sun; nor does it bear any relation either to Sound,

Colour, or the rest, for it includes them all.

As the Human Principles have no Numbers per se, but only correspond to

Numbers, Sounds, Colours, etc., they are not enumerated here in the order

used for exoteric purposes.

_NUMBERS_ _METALS._ _PLANETS._

1 and 10. Physical Iron. Mars. The Planet of

Man’s Key‐note. Generation.

2. Life Spiritual Gold. The Sun. The Giver

and Life Physical. of Life physically.

Spiritually and

esoterically the

substitute for the

inter‐Mercurial

Planet, a sacred and

secret planet with

the ancients.

3. Because Buddhi is Mercury. Mixes with Mercury. The

(so to speak) Sulphur, as Buddhi Messenger and the

between Âtmâ and is mixed with the Interpreter of the

Manas, and forms Flame of Spirit (See Gods.

with the seventh, or Alchemical

Auric Envelope, the Definitions.)

Devachanic Triad.

4. The middle Lead. Saturn.

principle—between

the purely material

and purely spiritual

triads. The

conscious part of

_animal_ man.

5. Tin. Jupiter.

6. Copper. When alloyed Venus. The Morning

becomes Bronze (the and the Evening

_dual_ principle). Star.

7. Contains in Silver. The Moon. The Patent

itself the of the Earth.

reflection of

Septenary Man.

_NUMBERS_ _THE HUMAN _DAYS OF THE WEEK._

PRINCIPLES._

1 and 10. Kâma Rûpa. The Tuesday. _Dies

vehicle or seat of Martis_, or Tiw.

the Animal Instincts

and Passions.

2. Prâna or Jîva. Life. Sunday. _Dies

Solss_, or Sun.

3. Buddhi. Spiritual Wednesday. _Dies

Soul, or Âtmic Ray; Mercurii_, or Woden.

vehicle of Âtmâ. Day of Buddha in the

South, end of Woden

in the North—Gods of

Wisdom.

4. Kâma Manas. The Saturday. _Dies

Lower Mind, or Saturns_, or Saturn.

Animal Soul.

5. Auric Envelope. Thursday. _Dies

Jovis_, or Thor.

6. Manas. The Higher Friday. _Dies

Mind, or Human Soul. Veneris_, or Friga.

7. Linga Sharîra. The

Astral Double of

Man, the Parent of

the Physical Man.

_NUMBERS_ _COLOURS._ _SOUND._ MUSICAL

SCALE..

1 and 10. 1 Red. Sa or Do.

2. 2 Orange. Ri or Re.

3. 3. Yellow. Ga or Mi.

4. 4. Green. Ma or Fa.

5. 5. Blue. Pa or Sol.

6. 6. Indigo or Dark Da or La.

Blue.

7. 7. Violet. Ni or Si.

In the accompanying diagram the days of the week do not stand in their

usual order, though they are placed in their correct sequence as

determined by the order of the colours in the solar spectrum and the

corresponding colours of their ruling planets. The fault of the confusion

in the order of the days revealed by this comparison lies at the door of

the early Christians. Adopting from the Jews their lunar months, they

tried to blend them with the solar planets, and so made a mess of it; for

the order of the days of the week as it now stands does not follow the

order of the planets.

Now, the Ancients arranged the planets in the following order: Moon,

Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, counting the Sun as a planet

for exoteric purposes. Again, the Egyptians and Indians, the two oldest

nations, divided their day into four parts, each of which was under the

protection and rule of a planet. In course of time each day came to be

called by the name of that planet which ruled its first portion—the

morning. Now, when they arranged their week, the Christians proceeded as

follows: they wanted to make the day of the Sun, or Sunday, the seventh,

so they named the days of the week by taking every fourth planet in turn;

_e.g._, beginning with the Moon (Monday), they counted thus: Moon,

Mercury, Venus, Sun, _Mars_; thus Tuesday, the day whose first portion was

ruled by Mars, became the second day of the week; and so on. It should be

remembered also that the Moon, like the Sun, is a substitute for a secret

planet.

The present division of the solar year was made several centuries later

than the beginning of our era; and our week is not that of the Ancients

and the Occultists. The septenary division of the four parts of the lunar

phases is as old as the world, and originated with the people who reckoned

time by the lunar months. The Hebrews never used it, for they counted only

the seventh day, the Sabbath, though the second chapter of _Genesis_ seems

to speak of it. Till the days of the Cæsars there is no trace of a week of

seven days among any nation save the Hindus. From India it passed to the

Arabs, and reached Europe with Christianity. The Roman week consisted of

eight days, and the Athenian of ten.(780) Thus one of the numberless

contradictions and fallacies of Christendom is the adoption of the Indian

septenary week of the lunar reckoning, and the preservation at the same

time of the mythological names of the planets.

Nor do modern Astrologers give the correspondences of the days and planets

and their colours correctly; and while Occultists can give good reason for

every detail of their own tables of colours, etc., it is doubtful whether

the Astrologers can do the same.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

To close this first Paper, let me say that the readers must in all

necessity be separated into two broad divisions: those who have not quite

rid themselves of the usual sceptical doubts, but who long to ascertain

how much truth there may be in the claims of the Occultists; and those

others who, having freed themselves from the trammels of Materialism and

Relativity, feel that true and real bliss must be sought only in the

knowledge and personal experience of that which the Hindu Philosopher

calls the Brahmavidyâ, and the Buddhist Arhat the realization of

Âdibuddha, the primeval Wisdom. Let the former pick out and study from

these Papers only those explanations of the phenomena of life which

profane Science is unable to give them. Even with such limitations, they

will find by the end of a year or two that they will have learned more

than all their Universities and Colleges can teach them. As to the sincere

believers, they will be rewarded by seeing their faith transformed into

knowledge. True knowledge is of Spirit and in Spirit alone, and cannot be

acquired in any other way except through the region of the higher mind,

the only plane from which we can penetrate the depths of the all‐pervading

Absoluteness. He who carries out only those laws established by human

minds, who lives that life which is prescribed by the code of mortals and

their fallible legislation, chooses as his guiding star a beacon which

shines on the ocean of Mâyâ, or of temporary delusions, and lasts for but

one incarnation. These laws are necessary for the life and welfare of

physical man alone. He has chosen a pilot who directs him through the

shoals of one existence, a master who parts with him, however, on the

threshold of death. How much happier that man who, while strictly

performing on the temporary objective plane the duties of daily life,

carrying out each and every law of his country, and rendering, in short,

to Cæsar what is Cæsar’s, leads in reality a spiritual and permanent

existence, a life with no breaks of continuity, no gaps, no interludes,

not even during those periods which are the halting‐places of the long

pilgrimage of purely spiritual life. All the phenomena of the lower human

mind disappear like the curtain of a proscenium, allowing him to live in

the region beyond it, the plane of the noumenal, the one reality. If man

by suppressing, if not destroying, his selfishness and personality, only

succeeds in knowing himself as he is behind the veil of physical Mâyâ, he

will soon stand beyond all pain, all misery, and beyond all the wear and

tear of change, which is the chief originator of pain. Such a man will be

physically of Matter, he will move surrounded by Matter, and yet he will

live beyond and outside it. His body will be subject to change, but he

himself will be entirely without it, and will experience everlasting life

even while in temporary bodies of short duration. All this may be achieved

by the development of unselfish universal love of Humanity, and the

suppression of personality, or _selfishness_, which is the cause of all

sin, and consequently of all human sorrow.

Paper II. An Explanation.

In view of the abstruse nature of the subjects dealt with, the present

Paper will begin with an explanation of some points which remained obscure

in the preceding one, as well as of some statements in which there was an

appearance of contradiction.

Astrologers, of whom there are many among the Esotericists, are likely to

be puzzled by some statements distinctly contradicting their teachings;

whilst those who know nothing of the subject may perhaps find themselves

opposed at the outset by those who have studied the exoteric systems of

the Kabalah and Astrology. For let it be distinctly known, nothing of that

which is printed broadcast, and available to every student in public

libraries or museums, is really Esoteric, but is either mixed with

deliberate “blinds,” or cannot be understood and studied with profit

without a complete glossary of Occult terms.

The following teachings and explanations, therefore, may be useful to the

student in assisting him to formulate the teaching given in the preceding

Paper.

In Diagram I. it will be observed that the 3, 7, and 10 centres are

respectively as follows:

(_a_) The 3 pertain to the spiritual world of the Absolute, and therefore

to the three higher principles in Man.

(_b_) The 7 belong to the spiritual, psychic, and physical worlds and to

the body of man. Physics, metaphysics and hyper‐physics are the triad that

symbolizes man on this plane.

(_c_) The 10, or the sum total of these, is the Universe as a whole, in

all its aspects, and also its Microcosm—Man, with his ten orifices.

Laying aside, for the moment, the Higher Decad (Kosmos) and the Lower

Decad (Man), the first three numbers of the separate sevens have a direct

reference to the Spirit, Soul and Auric Envelope of the human being, as

well as to the higher supersensual world. The lower four, or the four

aspects, belong to Man also, as well as to the Universal Kosmos, the whole

being synthesized by the Absolute.

If these three discrete or distributive degrees of Being be conceived,

according to the Symbology of all the Eastern Religions, as contained in

one Ovum, or EGG, the name of that EGG will be Svabhâvat, or the ALL‐BEING

on the manifested plane. This Universe has, in truth, neither centre nor

periphery; but in the individual and finite mind of man it has such a

definition, the natural consequence of the limitations of human thought.

In Diagram II., as already stated therein, no notice need be taken of the

numbers used in the left‐hand column, as these refer only to the

Hierarchies of the Colours and Sounds on the metaphysical plane, and are

not the characteristic numbers of the human principles or of the planets.

The human principles elude enumeration, because each man differs from

every other, just as no two blades of grass on the whole earth are

absolutely alike. Numbering is here a question of spiritual progress and

the natural predominance of one principle over another. With one man it

may be Buddhi that stands as number one; with another, if he be a bestial

sensualist, the Lower Manas. With one the physical body, or perhaps Prâna,

the life principle, will be on the first and highest plane, as would be

the case in an extremely healthy man, full of vitality; with another it

may come as the sixth or even seventh downward. Again, the colours and

metals corresponding to the planets and human principles, as will be

observed, are not those known exoterically to modern Astrologers and

Western Occultists.

Let us see whence the modern Astrologer got his notions about the

correspondence of planets, metals and colours. And here we are reminded of

the modern Orientalist, who, judging by appearances credits the ancient

Akkadians (and also the Chaldæans, Hindus and Egyptians) with the crude

notion that the Universe, and in like manner the earth, was like an

inverted, bell‐shaped bowl! This he demonstrates by pointing to the

symbolical representations of some Akkadian inscriptions and to the

Assyrian carvings. It is, however, no place here to explain how mistaken

is the Assyriologist, for all such representations are simply symbolical

of the _Khargakkurra_, the World‐Mountain, or Meru, and relate only to the

North Pole, the Land of the Gods. Now, the Assyrians arranged their

_exoteric_ teaching about the planets and their correspondences as

follows:

Diagram II.

_Numbers._ _Planets._ _Metals._ _Colours._ _Solar

Days of

Week._

1. Saturn. Lead. Black. Saturday.

(Whence

Sabbath,(781)

in honour

of

Jehovah.)

2. Jupiter. Tin. White, but Thursday.

as often

Purple or

Orange.

3. Mars. Iron. Red. Tuesday.

4. Sun. Gold. Yellow‐ Sunday.

golden.

5. Venus. Copper. Green or Friday.

Yellow.

6. Mercury. Quicksilver. Blue. Wednesday.

7. Moon. Silver. Silver‐ Monday.

white.

This is the arrangement now adopted by Christian Astrologers, with the

exception of the order of the days of the week, of which, by associating

the solar planetary names with the lunar weeks, they have made a sore

mess, as has been already shown in Paper I. This is the Ptolemaic

geocentric system, which represents the Universe as in the following

diagram, showing our Earth in the centre of the Universe, and the Sun a

Planet, the fourth in number.

And if the Christian chronology and order of the days of the week are

being daily denounced as being based on an entirely wrong astronomical

foundation, it is high time to begin a reform also in Astrology built on

such lines, and coming to us entirely from the Chaldæan and Assyrian

exoteric mob.

But the correspondences given in these Papers are purely Esoteric. For

this reason it follows that when the Planets of the Solar System are named

or symbolized (as in Diagram II.) it must not be supposed that the

planetary bodies themselves are referred to, except as types on a purely

physical plane of the septenary nature of the psychic and spiritual

worlds. A material planet can correspond only to a material something.

Thus when Mercury is said to correspond to the right eye, it does not mean

that the objective planet has any influence on the right optic organ, but

that both stand rather as corresponding mystically through Buddhi. Man

derives his Spiritual Soul (Buddhi) from the essence of the Mânasa Putra,

the Sons of Wisdom, who are the Divine Beings (or Angels) ruling and

presiding over the planet Mercury.

In the same way Venus, Manas and the left eye are set down as

correspondences. Exoterically, there is, in reality, no such association

of physical eyes and physical planets; but Esoterically there is; for the

right eye is the “Eye of Wisdom,” _i.e._, it corresponds magnetically with

that Occult centre in the brain which we call the “Third Eye”;(782) while

the left corresponds with the intellectual brain, or those cells which are

the organ on the physical plane of the thinking faculty. The kabalistic

triangle of Kether, Chokmah and Binah shows this. Chokmah and Binah, or

Wisdom and Intelligence, the Father and Mother, or, again, the Father and

Son, are on the same plane and reäct mutually on one another.

When the individual consciousness is turned inward, a conjunction of Manas

and Buddhi takes place. In the spiritually regenerated man this

conjunction is permanent, the Higher Manas clinging to Buddhi beyond the

threshold of Devachan, and the Soul, or rather the Spirit, which should

not be confounded with Âtmâ, the Super‐Spirit, is then said to have the

“Single Eye.” Esoterically, in other words, the “Third Eye” is active. Now

Mercury is called Hermes, and Venus, Aphrodite, and thus their conjunction

in man on the psycho‐physical plane gives him the name of the

Hermaphrodite, or Androgyne. The absolutely Spiritual Man is, however,

entirely disconnected from sex. The Spiritual Man corresponds directly

with the higher “coloured circles,” the Divine Prism which emanates from

the One Infinite White Circle; while physical man emanates from the

Sephiroth, which are the Voices or Sounds of Eastern Philosophy. And these

“Voices” are lower than the “Colours,” for they are the seven lower

Sephiroth, or the objective Sounds, seen, not heard, as the _Zohar_

shows,(783) and even the Old Testament also. For, when properly

translated, verse 18 of chapter xx. _Exodus_ would read: “And the people

saw the Voices” (or Sounds, not the “thunderings” as now translated); and

these Voices, or Sounds, are the Sephiroth.(784)

In the same way the right and left nostrils, into which is breathed the

“Breath of Lives”(785) are here said to correspond with Sun and Moon, as

Brahmâ‐Prajâpati and Vâch, or Osiris and Isis, are the parents of the

natural life. This Quaternary, _viz._: the two eyes and two nostrils,

Mercury and Venus, Sun and Moon, constitutes the Kabalistic Guardian‐

Angels of the Four Corners of the Earth. It is the same in the Eastern

Esoteric Philosophy, which, however, adds that the Sun is not a planet,

but the central star of our system, and the Moon a dead planet, from which

all the principles are gone, both being substitutes, the one for an

invisible inter‐Mercurial planet, and the other for a planet which seems

to have now altogether disappeared from view. These are the Four

Mahârâjahs,(786) the “Four Holy Ones” connected with Karma and Humanity,

Kosmos and Man, in all their aspects. They are: the Sun, or its substitute

Michael; Moon, or substitute Gabriel; Mercury, Raphael; and Venus, Uriel.

It need hardly be said here again that the planetary bodies themselves,

being only physical symbols, are not often referred to in the Esoteric

System, but, as a rule, their cosmic, psychic, physical and spiritual

forces are symbolized under these names. In short, it is the seven

physical planets which are the lower Sephiroth of the _Kabalah_, and our

triple physical Sun whose reflection only we see, which is symbolized, or

rather personified, by the Upper Triad, or Sephirothal Crown.(787)

Then, again, it will be well to point out that the numbers attached to the

psychic principles in Diagram I. appear the reverse of those in exoteric

writings. This is because numbers in this connection are purely arbitrary,

changing with every school. Some schools count three, some four, some six,

and others seven, as do all the Buddhist Esotericists. As said

before,(788) the Esoteric School has been divided into two departments

since the fourteenth century, one for the inner Lanoos, or higher Chelâs,

the other for the outer circle, or lay Chelâs. Mr. Sinnett was distinctly

told in the letters he received from one of the Gurus that he could not be

taught the real Esoteric Doctrine given out only to the pledged disciples

of the Inner Circle. The numbers and principles do not go in regular

sequence, like the skins of an onion, but the student must work out for

himself the number appropriate to each of his principles, when the time

comes for him to enter upon practical study. The above will suggest to the

student the necessity of knowing the principles by their names and their

appropriate faculties apart from any system of enumeration, or by

association with their corresponding centres of actions, colours, sounds,

etc., until these become inseparable.

The old and familiar mode of reckoning the principles, given in the

_Theosophist_ and _Esoteric Buddhism_, leads to another apparently

perplexing contradiction, though it is really none at all. The principles

numbered 3 and 2, _viz._: Linga Sharîra and Prâna, or Jîva, stand in the

reverse order to that given in Diagram I. A moment’s consideration will

suffice to explain the apparent discrepancy between the exoteric

enumeration, and the Esoteric order given in Diagram I. For in Diagram I.

the Linga Sharîra is defined as the vehicle of Prâna, or Jîva, the life

principle, and as such must of necessity be inferior to Prâna, not

superior as the exoteric enumeration would suggest. The principles do not

stand one above the other, and thus cannot be taken in numerical sequence;

their order depends upon the superiority and predominance of one or

another principle, and therefore differs in every man.

The Linga Sharîra is the double, or protoplasmic antetype of the body,

which is its image. It is in this sense that it is called in Diagram II.

the parent of the physical body, _i.e._, the mother by conception of

Prâna, the father. This idea is conveyed in the Egyptian mythology by the

birth of Horus, the child of Osiris and Isis, although, like all sacred

Mythoi, this has both a threefold spiritual, and a sevenfold psycho‐

physical application. To close the subject, Prâna, the life principle,

can, in sober truth, have no number, as it pervades every other principle,

or the human total. Each number of the seven would thus be naturally

applicable to Prâna‐Jîva exoterically as it is to the Auric Body

Esoterically. As Pythagoras showed, Kosmos was produced not _through_ or

_by_ number, but geometrically, _i.e._, following the proportions of

numbers.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

To those who are unacquainted with the exoteric astrological natures

ascribed in practice to the planetary bodies, it may be useful if we set

them down here after the manner of Diagram II., in relation to their

dominion over the human body, colours, metals, etc., and explain at the

same time why genuine Esoteric Philosophy differs from the astrological

claims.

_Planets._ _Days._ _Metals._ _Parts of _Colours._

the Body._

Saturn. Saturday. Lead. Right Ear, Black.(789)

Knees and

Bony

System.

Jupiter. Thursday. Tin. Left Ear, Purple.(790)

Thighs,

Feet and

Arterial

System.

Mars. Tuesday. Iron. Forehead Red.

and Nose,

the Skull,

Sex‐

function

and

Muscular

System.

Sun. Sunday. Gold. Right Eye, Orange.(791)

Heart and

Vital

Centres.

Venus. Friday. Copper. Chin and Yellow.(792)

Cheeks,

Neck and

Reins and

the Venous

System.

Mercury. Wednesday. Quicksilver. Mouth, Dove or

Hands, Cream.(793)

Abdominal

Viscera

and

Nervous

System.

Moon. Monday. Silver. Breasts, White.(794)

Left Eye,

the

Fluidic

System,

Saliva,

Lymph,

etc.

Thus it will be seen that the influence of the solar system in the

exoteric kabalistic Astrology is by this method distributed over the

entire human body, the primary metals, and the gradations of colour from

black to white; but that Esotericism recognizes neither black nor white as

colours, because it holds religiously to the seven solar or natural

colours of the prism. Black and white are artificial tints. They belong to

the Earth, and are only perceived by virtue of the special construction of

our physical organs. White is the absence of all colours, and therefore no

colour; black is simply the absence of light, and therefore the negative

aspect of white. The seven prismatic colours are direct emanations from

the Seven Hierarchies of Being, each of which has a direct bearing upon

and relation to one of the human principles, since each of these

Hierarchies is, in fact, the creator and source of the corresponding human

principle. Each prismatic colour is called in Occultism the “Father of the

Sound” which corresponds to it; Sound being the Word, or the Logos, of its

Father‐Thought. This is the reason why sensitives connect every colour

with a definite sound, a fact well recognized in Modern Science (_e.g._,

Francis Galton’s _Human Faculty_). But black and white are entirely

negative colours, and have no representatives in the world of subjective

being.

Kabalistic Astrology says that the dominion of the planetary bodies in the

human brain also is defined thus: there are seven primary groups of

faculties, six of which function through the cerebrum, and the seventh

through the cerebellum. This is perfectly correct Esoterically. But when

it is further said that: Saturn governs the devotional faculties; Mercury,

the intellectual; Jupiter, the sympathetic; the Sun, the governing

faculties; Mars, the selfish; Venus, the tenacious; and the Moon, the

instincts;—we say that the explanation is incomplete and even misleading.

For, in the first place, the physical planets can rule only the physical

body and the purely physical functions. All the mental, emotional, psychic

and spiritual faculties, are influenced by the Occult properties of the

scale of causes which emanate from the Hierarchies of the Spiritual Rulers

of the planets, and not by the planets themselves. This scale, as given in

Diagram II., leads the student to perceive in the following order: (1)

colour; (2) sound; (3) the sound materializes into the spirit of the

metals, _i.e._, the metallic Elementals; (4) these materialize again into

the physical metals; (5) then the harmonial and vibratory radiant essence

passes into the plants, giving them colour and smell, both of which

“properties” depend upon the rate of vibration of this energy per unit of

time; (6) from plants it passes into the animals; (7) and finally

culminates in the “principles” of man.

Thus we see the Divine Essence of our Progenitors in Heaven circling

through seven stages; Spirit becoming Matter, and Matter returning to

Spirit. As there is sound in Nature which is inaudible, so there is colour

which is invisible, but which can be heard. The creative force, at work in

its incessant task of transformation, produces colour, sound and numbers,

in the shape of rates of vibration which compound and dissociate the atoms

and molecules. Though invisible and inaudible to us in detail, yet the

synthesis of the whole becomes audible to us on the material plane. It is

that which the Chinese call the “Great Tone,” or _Kung_. It is, even by

scientific confession, the actual tonic of Nature, held by musicians to be

the middle Fa on the keyboard of a piano. We hear it distinctly in the

voice of Nature, in the roaring of the ocean, in the sound of the foliage

of a great forest, in the distant roar of a great city, in the wind, the

tempest and the storm; in short, in everything in Nature which has a voice

or produces sound. To the hearing of all who hearken, it culminates in a

single definite tone, of an unappreciable pitch, which, as said, is the F,

or Fa, of the diatonic scale. From these particulars, that wherein lies

the difference between the exoteric and the Esoteric nomenclature and

symbolism will be evident to the student of Occultism. In short,

kabalistic Astrology, as practised in Europe, is the semi‐esoteric Secret

Science, adapted for the outer and not for the inner circle. It is,

furthermore, often left incomplete and not infrequently distorted to

conceal the real truth. While it symbolizes and adapts its correspondences

on the mere appearances of things, Esoteric Philosophy, which concerns

itself pre‐eminently with the essence of things, accepts only such symbols

as cover the whole ground, _i.e._, such symbols as yield a spiritual as

well as a psychic and physical meaning. Yet even Western Astrology has

done excellent work, for it has helped to carry the knowledge of the

existence of a Secret Wisdom throughout the dangers of the Mediæval Ages

and their dark bigotry up to the present day, when all danger has

disappeared.

The order of the planets in exoteric practice is that defined by their

geocentric radii, or the distance of their several orbits from the Earth

as a centre, _viz._, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon.

In the first three of these we find symbolized the celestial Triad of

supreme power in the physical, manifested universe, or Brahmâ, Vishnu and

Shiva; while in the last four we recognize the symbols of the terrestrial

quaternary ruling over all natural and physical revolutions of the

seasons, quarters of the day, points of the compass, and elements. Thus:

Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter.

Morning. Noon. Evening. Night.

Youth. Adolescence. Manhood. Age.

Fire. Air. Water. Earth.

East. South. West. North.

But Esoteric Science is not content with analogies on the purely objective

plane of the physical senses, and therefore it is absolutely necessary to

preface further teachings in this direction with a clear explanation of

the real meaning of the word Magic.

What Magic Is, In Reality.

Esoteric Science is, above all, the knowledge of our relations with and in

Divine Magic,(795) inseparableness from our divine _Selves_—the latter

meaning something else besides our own higher Spirit. Thus, before

proceeding to exemplify and explain these relations, it may perhaps be

useful to give the student a correct idea of the full meaning of this most

misunderstood word “Magic.” Many are those willing and eager to study

Occultism, but very few have even an approximate idea of the Science

itself. Now, very few of our American and European students can derive

benefit from Sanskrit works or even their translations, as these

translations are, for the most part, merely blinds to the uninitiated. I

therefore propose to offer to their attention demonstrations of the

aforesaid drawn from Neo‐Platonic works. These are accessible in

translation; and in order to throw light on that which has hitherto been

full of darkness, it will suffice to point to a certain key in them. Thus

the Gnosis, both pre‐Christian and post‐Christian, will serve our purpose

admirably.

There are millions of Christians who know the name of Simon Magus, and the

little that is told about him in the _Acts_; but very few who have even

heard of the many motley, fantastic and contradictory details which

tradition records about his life. The story of his claims and his death is

to be found only in the prejudiced, half‐fantastic records about him in

the works of the Church Fathers, such as Irenæus, Epiphanius and St.

Justin, and especially in the anonymous _Philosophumena_. Yet he is a

historical character, and the appellation of “Magus” was given to him and

was accepted by all his contemporaries, including the heads of the

Christian Church, as a qualification indicating the miraculous powers he

possessed, and irrespective of whether he was regarded as a white (divine)

or a black (infernal) Magician. In this respect, opinion has always been

made subservient to the Gentile or Christian proclivities of his

chronicler.

It is in his system and in that of Menander, his pupil and successor, that

we find what the term “Magic” meant for Initiates in those days.

Simon, as all the other Gnostics, taught that our world was created by the

_lower_ angels, whom he called Æons. He mentions only three degrees of

such, because it was and is useless, as we have before explained, to teach

anything about the four higher ones, and he therefore begins at the plane

of globes A and G. His system is as near to Occult Truth as any, so that

we may examine it, as well as his own and Menander’s claims about “Magic,”

to find out what they meant by the term. Now, for Simon, the summit of all

manifested creation was Fire. It was, with him as with us, the Universal

Principle, the Infinite Potency, born from the concealed Potentiality.

This Fire was the primeval cause of the manifested world of being, and was

dual, having a manifested and a concealed, or secret, side.

The secret side of the Fire is concealed in its evident [or

objective] side, and the objective is produced from the secret

side,(796)

he writes, which amounts to saying that the visible is ever present in the

invisible, and the invisible in the visible. This was but a new form of

stating Plato’s idea of the Intelligible (_Noêton_) and the Sensible

(_Aisthêton_), and Aristotle’s teaching on the Potency (_Dunamis_) and the

Act (_Energeia_). For Simon, all that can be thought of, all that can be

acted upon, was perfect intelligence. Fire contained _all_. And thus all

the parts of that Fire, being endowed with intelligence and reason, were

susceptible of development by extension and emanation. This is our

teaching of the Manifested Logos, and these parts in their primordial

emanation are our Dhyân Chohans, the “Sons of Flame and Fire,” or higher

Æons. This “Fire” is the symbol of the active and living side of Divine

Nature. Behind it lay “infinite Potentiality in Potentiality,” which Simon

named “that which has stood, stands and will stand,” or permanent

stability and personified immutability.

From the Potency of Thought, Divine Ideation thus passed to Action. Hence

the series of primordial emanations through Thought begetting the Act, the

objective side of Fire being the Mother, the sacred side of it being the

Father. Simon called these emanations Syzygies (a united pair, or couple),

for they emanated two‐by‐two, one as an active, and the other as a passive

Æon. Three couples thus emanated (or six in all, the Fire being the

seventh), to which Simon gave the following names: “Mind and Thought;

Voice and Name; Reason and Reflection,”(797) the first in each pair being

male, the last female. From these primordial six emanated the six Æons of

the Middle World. Let us see what Simon himself says:

Each of these six primitive beings contained the entire infinite

Potency [of its parent]; but it was there only in Potency, and not

in Act. That Potency had to be called forth [or conformed] through

an _image_ in order that it should manifest in all its essence,

virtue, grandeur and effects; for only then could the emanated

Potency become similar to its parent, the eternal and infinite

Potency. If, on the contrary, it remained simply potentially in

the six Potencies and failed to be conformed through an image,

then the Potency would not pass into action, but would get

lost,(798)

in clearer terms, it would become atrophied, as the modern expression

goes.

Now, what do these words mean if not that to be equal in all things to the

Infinite Potency the Æons had to imitate it in its action, and become

themselves, in their turn, emanative Principles, as was their Parent,

giving life to new beings, and becoming Potencies _in actu_ themselves? To

produce emanations, or to have acquired the gift of Kriyâ‐shakti.(799) is

the direct result of that power, an effect which depends on our own

action. That power, then, is inherent in man, as it is in the primordial

Æons and even in the secondary Emanations, by the very fact of their and

our descent from the One Primordial Principle, the Infinite Power, or

Potency. Thus we find in the system of Simon Magus that the first six

Æons, synthesized by the seventh, the Parent Potency, passed into Act, and

emanated, in their turn, six secondary Æons, which were each synthesized

by their respective Parents. In the _Philosophumena_ we read that Simon

compared the Æons to the “Tree of Life.” Said Simon in the

_Revelation_:(800)

It is written that there are two ramifications of the universal

Æons, having neither beginning nor end, issued both from the same

Root, the invisible and incomprehensible Potentiality, Sigê

[Silence]. One of these [series of Æons] appears from above. This

is the Great Potency, Universal Mind [or Divine Ideation, the

Mahat of the Hindus]; it orders all things and is male. The other

is from below, for it is the Great [manifested] Thought, the

female Æon, generating all things. These [two kinds of Æons]

corresponding(801) with each other, have conjunction and manifest

the middle distance [the intermediate sphere, or plane], the

incomprehensible Air which has neither beginning nor end.(802)

This female “Air” is our Ether, or the kabalistic Astral Light. It is,

then, the Second World of Simon, born of Fire, the principle of

everything. We call it the ONE LIFE, the Intelligent, Divine Flame,

omnipresent and infinite. In Simon’s system this Second World was ruled by

a Being, or Potency, both male and female, or active and passive, good and

bad. This Parent‐Being, like the primordial infinite Potency, is also

called “that which has stood, stands and will stand,” so long as the

manifested Kosmos shall last. When it emanated _in actu_ and became like

unto its own Parent, it was not dual or androgyne. It is the Thought

(Sigê) that emanated from it which became as itself (the Parent), having

become like unto its image (or antetype); the second had now become in its

turn the first (on its own plane or sphere). As Simon has it:

It [the Parent or Father] was one. For having it [the Thought] in

itself, it was alone. It was not, however, first, though it was

preëxisting; but manifesting itself to itself from itself, it

became the second (or dual). Nor was it called Father before it

[the Thought] gave it that name. As, therefore, itself developing

itself by itself, manifested to itself its own Thought, so also

the Thought being manifested did not act, but seeing the Father

hid it in itself, that is, (hid) that Potency (in itself). And the

Potency [_Dunamis_, _viz._: _Nous_] and Thought [_Epinoia_] are

male‐female. Whence they correspond with one another—for Potency

in no way differs from Thought—being one. So from the things above

is found Potency, and from those below, Thought. It comes to pass,

therefore, that that which is manifested from them, although being

one, yet is found to be twofold, the androgyne having the female

in itself. So is Mind in Thought, things inseparable from each

other which though being one are yet found dual.(803)

He [Simon] calls the first Syzygy of the six Potencies and of the

seventh, which is with it, Nous and Epinoia, Heaven and Earth: the

male looks down from on high and takes thought for his Syzygy [or

spouse], for the Earth below receives those intellectual fruits

which are brought down from Heaven and are cognate to the

Earth.(804)

Simon’s Third World with its third series of six Æons and the seventh, the

Parent, is emanated in the same way. It is this same note which runs

through every Gnostic system—gradual development downward into Matter by

similitude; and it is a law which is to be traced down to primordial

Occultism, or Magic. With the Gnostics, as with us, this seventh Potency,

synthesizing all, is the Spirit brooding over the dark waters of

undifferentiated Space, Nârâyana, or Vishnu, in India; the Holy Ghost in

Christianity. But while in the latter the conception is conditioned and

dwarfed by limitations necessitating faith and grace, Eastern Philosophy

shows it pervading every atom, conscious or unconscious. Irenæus

supplements the information on the further development of these six Æons.

We learn from him that Thought, having separated itself from its Parent,

and knowing through its identity of Essence with the latter what it had to

know, proceeded on the second or intermediate plane, or rather World (each

of such Worlds consisting of two planes, the superior and inferior, male

and female, the latter assuming finally both Potencies and becoming

androgyne), to create inferior Hierarchies, Angels and Powers, Dominions

and Hosts, of every description, which in their turn created, or rather

emanated out of their own Essence, our world with its men and beings, over

which they watch.

It thus follows that every rational being—called Man on Earth—is of the

same essence and possesses potentially all the attributes of the higher

Æons, the primordial Seven. It is for him to develope, “with the image

before him of the highest,” by imitation _in actu_, the Potency with which

the highest of his Parents, or Fathers, is endowed. Here we may again

quote with advantage from the _Philosophumena_:

So then, according to Simon, this blissful and imperishable

[principle] is concealed in everything in potency, not in act.

This is “that which has stood, stands and will stand,” _viz._,

that which has stood above in ingenerable Potency; that which

stands below in the stream of the waters generated in an image;

that which will stand above, beside the blissful infinite Potency,

if it makes itself like unto this image. For three, he says, are

they that stand, and without these three Æons of stability, there

is no adornment of the generable which, according to them [the

Simonians], is borne on the water, and being moulded according to

the similitude is a perfect and celestial (Æon), in no manner of

thinking inferior to the ingenerable Potency. Thus they say: “I

and thou [are] one; before me [wast] thou; that which is after

thee [is] I.” This, he says, is the one Potency, divided into

above and below, generating itself, nourishing itself, seeking

itself, finding itself; its own mother, father, brother, spouse,

daughter and son, one, for it is the Root of all.(805)

Thus of this triple Æon, we learn the first exists as “that which has

stood, stands and will stand,” or the uncreate Power, Âtman; the second is

generated in the dark waters of Space (Chaos, or undifferentiated

Substance, our Buddhi), from or through the image of the former reflected

in those waters, the image of Him, or It, which moves on them; the third

World (or, in man, Manas) will be endowed with every power of that eternal

and omnipresent Image if it but assimilates it to itself. For,

All that is eternal, pure and incorruptible is concealed in

everything that is,

if only potentially, not actually. And

Everything is that image, provided the lower image (man) ascends

to that highest Source and Root in Spirit and Thought.

Matter as Substance is eternal and has never been created. Therefore Simon

Magus, with all the great Gnostic Teachers and Eastern Philosophers, never

speaks of its beginning. “Eternal Matter” receives its various forms in

the lower Æon from the Creative Angels, or Builders, as we call them. Why,

then, should not Man, the direct heir of the highest Æon, do the same, by

the potency of his thought, which is born from Spirit? This is

Kriyâshakti, the power of producing forms on the objective plane through

the potency of Ideation and Will, from invisible, indestructible Matter.

Truly says Jeremiah,(806) quoting the “Word of the Lord”:

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou

camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee,

for Jeremiah stands here for Man when he was yet an Æon, or Divine Man,

both with Simon Magus and Eastern Philosophy. The first three chapters of

_Genesis_ are as Occult as that which is given in Paper I. For the

terrestrial Paradise is the Womb, says Simon,(807) Eden the region

surrounding it. The river which went out of Eden to water the garden is

the Umbilical Cord; this cord is divided into four Heads, the streams that

flowed out of it, the four canals which serve to carry nutrition to the

Fœtus, _i.e._, the two arteries and the two veins which are the channels

for the blood and convey the breathing air, the unborn child, according to

Simon, being entirely enveloped by the Amnion, fed through the Umbilical

Cord and given vital air through the Aorta.(808)

The above is given for the elucidation of that which is to follow. The

disciples of Simon Magus were numerous, and were instructed by him in

Magic. They made use of so‐called “exorcisms” (as in the _New Testament_),

incantations, philtres; believed in dreams and visions, and produced them

at will; and finally forced the lower orders of spirits to obey them.

Simon Magus was called “the Great Power of God,” literally “the Potency of

the Deity which is called Great.” That which was then termed Magic we now

call Theosophia, or Divine Wisdom, Power and Knowledge.

His direct disciple, Menander, was also a great Magician. Says Irenæus,

among other writers:

The successor of Simon was Menander, a Samaritan by birth, who

reached the highest summits in the Science of Magic.

Thus both master and pupil are shown as having attained the highest powers

in the art of enchantments, powers which can be obtained only through “the

help of the Devil,” as Christians claim; and yet their “works” were

identical with those spoken of in the _New Testament_, wherein such

phenomenal results are called divine miracles, and are, therefore,

believed in and accepted as coming from and through God. But the question

is, have these so‐called “miracles” of the “Christ” and the Apostles ever

been explained any more than the magical achievements of so‐called

Sorcerers and Magicians? I say, never. We Occultists do not believe in

supernatural phenomena, and the Masters laugh at the word “miracle.” Let

us see, then, what is really the sense of the word Magic.

The source and basis of it lie in Spirit and Thought, whether on the

purely divine or the terrestrial plane. Those who know the history of

Simon have the two versions before them, that of White and of Black Magic,

at their option, in the much talked of union of Simon with Helena, whom he

called his Epinoia (Thought). Those who, like the Christians, had to

discredit a dangerous rival, talk of Helena as being a beautiful and

actual woman, whom Simon had met in a house of ill‐fame at Tyre, and who

was, according to those who wrote his life, the reincarnation of Helen of

Troy. How, then, was she “Divine Thought”? The lower angels, Simon is made

to say in _Philosophumena_, or the third Æons, being so material, had more

badness in them than all the others. Poor man, created or emanated from

them, had the vice of his origin. What was it? Only this: when the third

Æons possessed themselves, in their turn, of the Divine Thought through

the transmission into them of Fire, instead of making of man a complete

being, according to the universal plan, they at first detained from him

that Divine Spark (Thought, on Earth Manas); and that was the cause and

origin of senseless man’s committing the original sin as the angels had

committed it æons before by refusing to create.(809) Finally, after

detaining Epinoia prisoner amongst them and having subjected the Divine

Thought to every kind of insult and desecration, they ended by shutting it

into the already defiled body of man. After this, as interpreted by the

enemies of Simon, she passed from one female body into another through

ages and races, until Simon found and recognized her in the form of

Helena, the “prostitute,” the “lost sheep” of the parable. Simon is made

to represent himself as the Saviour descended on Earth to rescue this

“lamb” and those men in whom Epinoia is still under the dominion of the

lower angels. The greatest magical feats are thus attributed to Simon

through his sexual union with Helena, hence Black Magic. Indeed, the chief

rites of this kind of Magic are based on such disgusting literal

interpretation of noble myths, one of the noblest of which was thus

invented by Simon as a symbolical mark of his own teaching. Those who

understood it correctly knew what was meant by “Helena.” It was the

marriage of Nous (Âtmâ‐Buddhi) with Manas, the union through which Will

and Thought become one and are endowed with divine powers. For Âtman in

man, being of an unalloyed essence, the primordial Divine Fire (or the

eternal and universal “that which has stood, stands and will stand”), is

of all the planes; and Buddhi is its vehicle or Thought, generated by and

generating the “Father” in her turn, and also Will. She is “that which has

stood, stands and will stand,” thus becoming, in conjunction with Manas,

male‐female, in this sphere only. Hence, when Simon spoke of himself as

the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and of Helena as his Epinoia,

Divine Thought, he meant the marriage of his Buddhi with Manas. Helena was

the Shakti of the inner man, the female potency.

Now, what says Menander? The lower angels, he taught, were the emanations

of Ennoia (Designing Thought). It was Ennoia who taught the Science of

Magic and imparted it to him, together with the art of conquering the

creative angels of the lower world. The latter stand for the passions of

our lower nature. His pupils, after receiving baptism from him (_i.e._,

after Initiation), were said to “resurrect from the dead” and, “growing no

older,” became “immortal.”(810) This “resurrection” promised by Menander

meant, of course, simply the passage from the darkness of ignorance into

the light of truth, the awakening of man’s immortal Spirit to inner and

eternal life. This is the Science of the Râja Yogîs—Magic.

Every person who has read Neo‐Platonic Philosophy knows how its chief

Adepts, such as Plotinus, and especially Porphyry, fought against

phenomenal Theurgy. But, beyond all of them, Jamblichus, the author of the

_De Mysteriis_, lifts high the veil from the real term Theurgy, and shows

us therein the true Divine Science of Râja Yoga.

Magic, he says, is a lofty and sublime Science, Divine, and exalted above

all others.

It is the great remedy for all.... It neither takes its source in,

nor is it limited to, the body or its passions, to the human

compound or its constitution; but all is derived by it from our

upper Gods,

our divine Egos, which run like a silver thread from the Spark in us up to

the primeval divine Fire.(811)

Jamblichus execrates physical phenomena, produced, as he says, by the bad

demons who deceive men (the spooks of the séance room), as vehemently as

he exalts Divine Theurgy. But to exercise the latter, he teaches, the

Theurgist must imperatively be “a man of high morality and a chaste Soul.”

The other kind of Magic is used only by impure, selfish men, and has

nothing of the Divine in it. No real Vates would ever consent to find in

its communications anything coming from our higher Gods. Thus one

(Theurgy) is the knowledge of our Father (the Higher Self); the other,

subjection to our lower nature. One requires holiness of the Soul, a

holiness which rejects and excludes everything corporeal; the other, the

desecration of it (the Soul). One is the union with the Gods (with one’s

God), the source of all Good; the other intercourse with demons

(Elementals), which, unless we subject them, will subject us, and lead us

step by step to moral ruin (mediumship). In short:

Theurgy unites us most strongly to divine nature. This nature

begets itself through itself, moves through its own powers,

supports all, and is intelligent. Being the ornament of the

Universe, it invites us to intelligible truth, to perfection and

imparting perfection to others. It unites us so intimately to all

the creative actions of the Gods, according to the capacity of

each of us, that the soul having accomplished the sacred rites is

consolidated in their [the Gods’] actions and intelligences, until

it launches itself into and is absorbed by the primordial divine

essence. This is the object of the sacred Initiations of the

Egyptians.(812)

Now, Jamblichus shows us how this union of our Higher Soul with the

Universal Soul, with the Gods, is to be effected. He speaks of Manteia,

which is Samâdhi, the highest trance.(813) He speaks also of dream which

is divine vision, when man re‐becomes again a God. By Theurgy, or Râja

Yoga, a man arrives at: (1) Prophetic Discernment through our God (the

respective Higher Ego of each of us) revealing to us the truths of the

plane on which we happen to be acting; (2) Ecstacy and Illumination; (3)

Action in Spirit (in Astral Body or through Will); (4) and Domination over

the minor, senseless demons (Elementals) by the very nature of our

purified Egos. But this demands the complete purification of the latter.

And this is called by him Magic, through initiation into Theurgy.

But Theurgy has to be preceded by a training of our senses and the

knowledge of the human Self in relation to the Divine SELF. So long as man

has not thoroughly mastered this preliminary study, it is idle to

anthropomorphize the formless. By “formless” I mean the higher and the

lower Gods, the supermundane as well as mundane Spirits, or Beings, which

to beginners can be revealed only in Colours and Sounds. For none but a

high Adept can perceive a “God” in its true transcendental form, which to

the untrained intellect, to the Chelâ, will be visible only by its Aura.

The visions of full figures casually perceived by sensitives and mediums

belong to one or another of the only three categories they can see: (_a_)

Astrals of living men; (_b_) Nirmânakâyas (Adepts, good or bad, whose

bodies are dead, but who have learned to live in the invisible space in

their ethereal personalities); and (_c_) Spooks, Elementaries and

Elementals masquerading in shapes borrowed from the Astral Light in

general, or from figures in the “mind’s eye” of the audience, or of the

medium, which are immediately reflected in their respective Auras.

Having read the foregoing, students will now better comprehend the

necessity of first studying the correspondences between our

“principles”—which are but the various aspects of the triune (spiritual

and physical) man—and our Paradigm, the direct roots of these in the

Universe. In view of this, we must resume our teaching about the

Hierarchies directly connected and for ever linked with man.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Enough has been said to show that while for the Orientalists and profane

masses the sentence, “_Om Mani Padme Hum_,” means simply “Oh the Jewel in

the Lotus,” Esoterically it signifies “Oh my God within me.” Yes; there is

a God in each human being, for man was, and will re‐become, God. The

sentence points to the indissoluble union between Man and the Universe.

For the Lotus is the universal symbol of Kosmos as the absolute totality,

and the Jewel is Spiritual Man, or God.

In the preceding Paper, the correspondences between Colours, Sounds, and

“Principles” were given; and those who have read our second volume will

remember that these seven principles are derived from the seven great

Hierarchies of Angels, or Dhyân Chohans, which are, in their turn,

associated with Colours and Sounds, and form collectively the Manifested

Logos.

In the eternal music of the spheres we find the perfect scale

corresponding to the colours, and in the number, determined by the

vibrations of colour and sound, which “underlies every form and guides

every sound,” we find the summing‐up of the Manifested Universe.

We may illustrate these correspondences by showing the relation of colour

and sound to the geometrical figures which(814) express the progressive

stages in the manifestation of Kosmos.

But the student will certainly be liable to confusion if, in studying the

Diagrams, he does not remember two things: (1) That, our plane being a

plane of reflection, and therefore illusionary, _the various notations are

reversed and must be counted from below upwards_. The musical scale begins

from below upwards, commencing with the deep Do and ending with the far

more acute Si. (2) That Kâma Rûpa (corresponding to Do in the musical

scale), containing as it does all potentialities of Matter, is necessarily

the starting‐point on our plane. Further, it commences the notation on

every plane, as corresponding to the “matter” of that plane. Again, the

student must also remember that these notes have to be arranged in a

circle, thus showing how Fa is the middle note of Nature. In short,

musical notes, or Sounds, Colours and Numbers proceed from one to seven,

and not from seven to one as erroneously shown in the spectrum of the

prismatic colours, in which Red is counted first: a fact which

necessitated my putting the principles and the days of the week at random

in Diagram II. The musical scale and colours, according to the number of

vibrations, proceed from the world of gross Matter to that of Spirit thus:

_Principles._ _Colours._ _Notes._ _Numbers._ _States of

Matter._

Chhâyâ, Violet. Si. 7. Ether.

Shadow or

Double.

Higher Manas, Indigo. La. 6. Critical

Spiritual State,

Intelligence. called Air

in

Occultism.

Auric Blue. Sol. 5. Steam or

Envelope. Vapour.

Lower Manas, Green. Fa. 4. Critical

or Animal State.

Soul.

Buddhi, or Yellow. Mi. 3. Water.

Spiritual

Soul.

Prâna, or Orange. Re. 2. Critical

Life State.

Principle.

Kâma Rûpa, Red. Do. 1. Ice.

the Seat of

Animal Life.