It is these “Auxiliaries,” the Auphanim, the half‐human Prajâpatis,

the Angels, the Architects under the leadership of the “Angel of the

Great Council,” with the rest of the Kosmos‐Builders of other

nations, that can alone explain the imperfection of the Universe.

This imperfection is one of the arguments of the Secret Science in

favour of the existence and activity of these “Powers.” And who know

better than the few philosophers of our civilised lands how near the

truth Philo was in ascribing the origin of evil to the admixture of

inferior potencies in the arrangement of matter, and even in the

formation of man—a task entrusted to the divine Logos.

390 _Psalms_ cxxxv. 5.

391 _Psalms_ xcvi. 5.

392 Rather as Ormazd or Ahura‐Mazda, Vit‐nam‐Ahmi, and all the

unmanifested Logoi. Jehovah is the manifested Virâj, corresponding

to Binah, the third Sephira in the _Kabalah_, a female Power which

would find its prototype rather in the Prajâpati, than in Brahmâ,

the Creator.

393 Neith is Aditi, evidently.

394 The Self‐created Logos, Nârâyana, Purushottama, and others.

395 _Mère d’Apis_, pp. 32‐35. Quoted by De Mirville.

396 See _Republic_, I. vi.

397 _Harmonie entre l’Église et la Synagogue_, t. II., p. 427, by the

Chevalier Drach. See De Mirville iv. 38, 39.

398 Julian died for the same crime as Socrates. Both divulged a portion

of the solar mystery, the heliocentric system being only a part of

what was given during Initiation—one consciously, the other

unconsciously, the Greek Sage never having been initiated. It was

not the real solar system that was preserved in such secrecy, but

the mysteries connected with the Sun’s constitution. Socrates was

sentenced to death by earthly and worldly judges; Julian died a

violent death because the hitherto protecting hand was withdrawn

from him, and, no longer shielded by it, he was simply left to his

destiny or Karma. For the student of Occultism there is a suggestive

difference between the two kinds of death. Another memorable

instance of the unconscious divulging of secrets pertaining to

mysteries is that of the poet, P. Ovidius Naso, who, like Socrates,

had not been initiated. In his case, the Emperor Augustus, who was

an Initiate, mercifully changed the penalty of death into banishment

to Tomos on the Euxine. This sudden change from unbounded royal

favour to banishment has been a fruitful scheme of speculation to

classical scholars not initiated into the Mysteries. They have

quoted Ovid’s own lines to show that it was some great and heinous

immorality of the Emperor of which Ovid had become unwillingly

cognizant. The inexorable law of the death penalty, always following

upon the revelation of any portion of the Mysteries to the profane,

was unknown to them. Instead of seeing the amiable and merciful act

of the Emperor in its true light, they have made it an occasion for

traducing his moral character. The poet’s own words can be no

evidence, because as he was not an Initiate, it could not be

explained to him in what his offence consisted. There have been

comparatively modern instances of poets unconsciously revealing in

their verses so much of the hidden knowledge as to make even

Initiates suppose them to be fellow‐Initiates, and come to talk to

them on the subject. This only shows that the sensitive poetic

temperament is sometimes so far transported beyond the bounds of

ordinary sense as to get glimpses into what has been impressed on

the Astral Light. In the _Light of Asia_ there are two passages that

might make an Initiate of the first degree think that Mr. Edwin

Arnold had been initiated himself in the Himâlyan _âshrams_, but

this is not so.

399 A proof that Julian was acquainted with the heliocentric system.

400 _La Gravitation par l’Electricité_, p. 7, quoted by De Mirville; iv.

156.

401 De Mirville, iv. 157.

402 _Memoir on the Solar System_, p. 7, De Mirville, iv. 157.

403 _Essai sur l’ Identité des Agents Producteurs du Son, de la

Lumière_, etc., p. 15, _Ibid._

404 _Ibid._, p. 218.

405 Summarised from _Ibid._, p. 213. De Mirville, iv. 158.

406 May, 1855. _Ibid._, p. 139.

407 _La Terre et notre Système solaire._ De Mirville, iv. 139.

408 If, as Sir W. Herschel thought, the so‐called fixed stars have

resulted from, and owe their origin to nebular combustion, they

cannot be fixed any more than is our sun, which was believed to be

motionless and is now found to rotate around its axis every twenty‐

five days. As the fixed star nearest to the sun, however, is eight‐

thousand times farther away from him than is Neptune, the illusions

furnished by the telescopes must be also eight‐thousand times as

great. We will therefore leave the question at rest, repeating only

what A. Maury said in his work (_La Terre et l’Homme_, published in

1858): “It is utterly impossible, so far, to decide anything

concerning Neptune’s constitution, analogy alone authorising us to

ascribe to him a rotary motion like that of other planets” (De

Mirville, iv. 140).

409 _Exposition du vrai Système du Monde_, p. 282.

410 See the passage quoted by Herschel in _Natural Philosophy_, p. 165.

De Mirville, iv. 105.

411 _Loc. cit._

412 _Terre et Ciel_, p. 28. _Ibid._

413 _Œuvres d’Arago_, vol. i., p. 219; quoted by De Mirville, iii. 462.

414 “_Die Sterne sind vielleicht ein Sitz verklarter Geister;_

_Wie hier das Laster herrscht, ist dort die Tugend Meister._”

415 _Op. cit._, p. 411.

416 Whenever Occult doctrines were expounded in the pages of _The

Theosophist_, care was taken each time to declare a subject

incomplete when the whole could not be given in its fulness, and no

writer has ever tried to mislead the reader. As to the Western

“ranges of perception” concerning doctrines really Occult, the

Eastern Occultists have been made acquainted with them for some time

past. Thus they are enabled to assert with confidence that the West

may be in possession of Hermetic philosophy as a speculative system

of dialectics, the latter being used in the West admirably well, but

it lacks entirely the knowledge of Occultism. The genuine Eastern

Occultist keeps silent and unknown, never publishes what he knows,

and rarely even speaks of it, as he knows too well the penalty of

indiscretion.

417 See _The Royal Masonic Cyclopædia_, art. “Sepher Jetzirah.”

418 In the exoteric sense, the Mantra (or that psychic faculty or power

that conveys perception or thought) is the older portion of the

_Vedas_, the second part of which is composed of the _Brâhmanas_. In

Esoteric phraseology Mantra is the Word made flesh, or rendered

objective, through divine magic.

419 The secret meaning of the word “Brahmâ” is “expansion,” “increase,”

or “growth.”

420 Why not give at once its theological meaning, as we find it in

Webster? With the Roman Catholics it means simply “purgatory,” the

borderland between heaven and hell (_Limbus patrum_ and _Limbus

infantum_), the one for all men, whether good, bad or indifferent;

the other for the souls of unbaptized children! With the ancients it

meant simply that which in _Esoteric Buddhism_ is called the Kâma

Loka, between Devachan and Avitchi.

421 As Chaos, the eternal Element, not as the Kâma Loka surely.

422 A proof that by this word Éliphas Lévi means the lowest region of

the terrestrial Âkâsha.

423 Evidently he is concerned only with our periodical world, or the

terrestrial globe.

424 In the “reäwakening” of the Forces would be more correct.

425 An action which is incessant in eternity cannot be called

“creation;” it is evolution, and the eternally or ever‐becoming of

the Greek Philosopher and the Hindu Vedântin; it is the Sat and the

one Beingness of Parmenides, or the Being identical with Thought.

Now how can the Potencies be said to “create movement,” once it is

seen movement never had any beginning, but existed in the Eternity?

Why not say that the reawakened Potencies transferred motion from

the eternal to the temporal plane of being? Surely this is not

Creation.

426 _Histoire de la Magie._ Int., p. 1.

427 _Histoire de la Magie._ Int., p. 2.

428 The Vaishnavas, who regard Vishnu as the Supreme God and the

fashioner of the Universe, claim that Brahmâ sprang from the navel

of Vishnu, the “imperishable,” or rather from the lotus that grew

from it. But the “navel” here means the Central Point, the

mathematical symbol of infinitude, or Parabrahman, the One and the

Secondless.

429 _Ecclesiastes_, i. 12, 13.

430 It is probably needless to say here what everyone knows. The

translation of the Protestant _Bible_ is not a word for word

rendering of the earlier Greek and Latin _Bibles_: the sense is very

often disfigured, and “God” is put where “Jahve” and “Elohim” stand.

431 _Psalms_, civ. 2, 3.

432 To avoid misunderstanding of the word “creation” so often used by

us, the remarks of the author of _Through the Gates of Gold_ may be

quoted owing to their clearness and simplicity. “The words ‘to

create’ are often understood by the ordinary mind to convey the idea

of evolving something out of nothing. This is clearly not its

meaning. We are mentally obliged to provide our Creator with chaos

from which to produce the worlds. The tiller of the soil, who is the

typical producer of social life, must have his material: his earth,

his sky, rain and sun, and the seeds to place within the earth. Out

of nothing he can produce nothing. Out of a void nature cannot

arise; there is that material beyond, behind, or within, from which

she is shaped by our desire for a Universe.” (P. 72.)

433 Commentary on Stanza ix. on Cycles.

434 Or, read from right to left, the letters and their corresponding

numerals stand thus: “t,” 4; “h,” 5; “bh,” 2; “v,” 6; “v,” 6; “h,”

5; “v” or “w,” 6; which yields “thuvbhu,” 4566256, or “Tohu‐vah‐

bohu.”

435 Mr. Ralston Skinner’s MSS.

436 That the teraphim was a statue, and no small article either, is

shown in _Samuel_ xix., where Michal takes a teraphim (“image,” as

it is translated) and puts it in bed to represent David, her

husband, who ran away from Saul (see verse 13, _et seq._). It was

thus of the size and shape of a human figure—a statue or real

_idol_.

437 _Op. cit._, iii. 4

438 Louis de Dieu, _Genesis_, xxxi. 19. See De Mirville, iii. 257.

439 “The teraphim of Abram’s father, Terah, the ‘maker of images,’ were

the Kabeiri Gods, and we see them worshipped by Micah, by the

Danites, and others. (_Judges_, xvii.‐xviii., etc.) Teraphim were

identical with seraphim, and these were serpent images, the origin

of which is in the Sanskrit ‘Sarpa’ (the ‘serpent’) a symbol sacred

to all the deities as a symbol of immortality. Kiyun, or the God

Kivan, worshipped by the Hebrews in the wilderness, is Shiva, the

Hindu Saturn. (The Zendic ‘h’ is ‘s’ in India; thus, ‘Hapta’ is

‘Sapta;’ ‘Hindu’ is ‘Sindbaya.’ (A. Wilder)) ‘The “s” continually

softens to “h” from Greece to Calcutta, from the Caucasus to Egypt,’

says Dunlap. Therefore the letters ‘k,’ ‘h,’ and ‘s’ are

interchangeable. The Greek story shows that Dardanus, the Arcadian,

having received them as a dowry, carried them to Samothrace, and

thence to Troy; and they were worshipped long before the days of

glory of Tyre or Sidon, though the former had been built 2760 B.C.

From where did Dardanus derive them?” _Isis Unveiled_, i. 570.

440 Maimon, _More Nevochim_, III. xxx.

441 Those dedicated to the sun were made in gold, and those to the moon

in silver.

442 _De Diis Syriis, Teraph._ II. Syat, p. 31.

443 Those that the Kabalists call _elementary_ spirits are sylphs,

gnomes, undines and salamanders, nature‐spirits, in short. The

spirits of the angels formed a distinct class.

444 _Œdipus_, ii. 444.

445 _Op. cit._, xxv. 22 _et seq._

446 The ephod was a linen garment worn by the high priest, but as the

thummim was attached to it, the entire paraphernalia of divination

was often comprised in that single word, ephod. See I. _Sam._,

xxviii. 6, and xxx. 7, 8.

447 _Paganism and Judaism_, iv. 197.

448 _Op. cit._, I. vi. 5.

449 _Discourse to the Gentiles_, p. 146.

450 _De Gener._, I, II. iv.

451 See _Cosmos_, by Ménage, I., vi., § 101.

452 _Op. cit._, I. ii.

453 “The characters employed on those parchments,” writes De Mirville,

“are sometimes hieroglyphics, placed perpendicularly, a kind of

lineary tachygraphy (abridged characters), where the image is often

reduced to a simple stroke; at other times placed in horizontal

lines; then the hieratic or sacred writing, going from right to left

as in all Semitic languages; lastly, the characters of the country,

used for official documents, mostly contracts, etc., but which since

the Ptolemies has been also adopted for the monuments,” v. 81, 82. A

copy of the Harris papyrus, translated by Chabas—_Papyrus

magique_—may be studied at the British Museum.

454 And what of the “Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin,” the words that “the

fingers of a man’s hand,” whose body and arm remained invisible,

wrote on the walls of Belshazzar’s palace? (_Daniel_, v.) What of

the writings of Simon the Magician, and the magic characters on the

walls and in the air of the crypts of Initiation, without mentioning

the tables of stone on which the finger of God wrote the

commandments? Between the writing of one God and other Gods the

difference, if any, lies only in their respective natures; and if

the tree is to be known by its fruits, then preference would have to

be given always to the Pagan Gods. It is the immortal “To be or not

to be.” Either all of them are—or at any rate, may be—true, or all

are surely pious frauds and the result of credulity.

455 _Papyrus Magique_, p. 186.

456 See Maspero’s _Guide to the Bulak Museum_, among others.

457 De Mirville (from whom much of the preceding is taken), v. 81, 85.

458 See De Mirville, v. 84, 85.

459 One sees this difficulty arise even with a perfectly known language

like Sanskrit, the meaning of which is far easier to comprehend than

the hieratic writings of Egypt. Everyone knows how hopelessly the

Sanskritists are often puzzled over the real meaning and how they

fail in rendering the meaning correctly in their respective

translations, in which one Orientalist contradicts the other.

460 _Op. cit._, i. 297.

461 Book II., Commentary.

462 Bunsen and Champollion so declare, and Dr. Carpenter says that the

_Book of the Dead_, sculptured on the oldest monuments, with “the

very phrases we find in the _New Testament_ in connection with the

Day of Judgment ... was engraved probably 2,000 years before the

time of Christ.” (See _Isis Unveiled_, i., 518.)

463 De Mirville, v. 88. Just such a calendar and horoscope interdictions

exist in India in our day, as well as in China and all the Buddhist

countries.

464 See De Mirville, iii. 65.

465 _Pap. Mag._, p. 163.

466 _Ibid._, p. 168.

467 Maimonides in his _Treatise on Idolatry_ says, speaking of the

Jewish teraphim: “They talked with men.” To this day Christian

Sorcerers in Italy, and negro Voodoos at New Orleans fabricate small

wax figures in the likeness of their victims, and transpierce them

with needles, the _wound_, as on the teraphim or Menh, being

repercussed on the living, often killing them. Mysterious deaths are

still many, and not all are traced to the guilty hand.

468 The Ramses of Lepsius, who reigned some 1300 years before our era.

469 One may judge how trustworthy are the translations of such Egyptian

documents when the sentence is rendered in three different ways by

three Egyptologists. Rougé says: “He found her in a state _to fall

under the power of spirits_,” or “with her limbs quite stiff,” (?)

another version; and Chabas translates: “And the Scribe found the

Khou too wicked.” Between her being in possession of an evil Khou

and “with her limbs quite stiff,” there is a difference.

470 De Mirville, v. 247, 248.

471 Some translators would have Lucian speak of the inhabitants of the

city, but they fail to show that this view is maintainable.

472 De Mirville, v. 256, 257.

473 How can de Mirville see Satan in the Egyptian God of the great

divine Name, when he himself admits that nothing was greater than

the name of the oracle of Dodona, as it was that of the God of the

Jews, IAO, or Jehovah? That oracle had been brought by the

Pelasgians to Dodona more than fourteen centuries B.C. and left with

the forefathers of the Hellenes, and its history is well‐known and

may be read in Herodotus. Jupiter, who loved the fair nymph of the

ocean, Dodona, had ordered Pelasgus to carry his cult to Thessaly.

The name of the God of that oracle at the temple of Dodona was Zeus

Pelasgicos, the Zeuspater (God the Father), or as De Mirville

explains: “It was the name _par excellence_, the name that the Jews

held as the ineffable, the unpronounceable Name—in short, _Jaoh‐

pater_, _i.e._, ‘he who was, who is, and who will be,’ otherwise the

Eternal.” And the author admits that Maury is right “in discovering

in the name of the Vaidic Indra the Biblical Jehovah,” and does not

even attempt to deny the etymological connection between the two

names—“the _great_ and the _lost_ name with the sun and the thunder‐

bolts.” Strange confessions, and still stranger contradictions.

474 Reuvens’ _Letter to Letronne on the 75th number of the Papyri

Anastasi_. See De Mirville. v. 258.

475 The Eleusinian Fields.

476 _Fragments_, ix.

477 _De Legibus_, II. iv.

478 _Judaism and Paganism_, i. 184.

479 _Frag. of Styg., ap. Stob._

480 _De Special. Legi._

481 De Mirville, v. 278, 279.

482 _Isis Unveiled_, i. 25.

483 _Isis Unveiled_, i. 282, 283.

484 De Mirville, v. 248.

485 De Mirville, v. 281.

486 Tod’s Rajasthan, i. 28.

487 _Op. cit._, ix. iii. 28.

488 _Vishnu Purâna_, iv. i. Wilson’s translation, iii. 248‐254.

489 There were no Brâhmans as a hereditary caste in days of old. In

those long‐departed ages a man became a Brâhman through personal

merit and Initiation. Gradually, however, despotism crept in, and

the son of a Brâhman was created a Brâhman by right of protection

first, then by that of heredity. The rights of blood replaced those

of real merit, and thus arose the body of Brâhmans, which was soon

changed into a powerful caste.

490 _Des Initiations Anciennes and Modernes._ “The mysteries,” says

Ragon, “were the gift of India.” In this he is mistaken, for the

Âryan race had brought the mysteries of Initiation from Atlantis.

Nevertheless he is right in saying that the mysteries preceded all

civilisations, and that by polishing the mind and morals of the

peoples they served as a base for all the laws—civil, political, and

religious.

491 _De Off._, i. 33.

492 _Des Initiations_, p. 22.

493 _Essais Historiques sur la Franc‐Maçonnerie_, pp. 142, 143.

494 The word “patriarch” is composed of the Greek word “Patria”

(“family,” “tribe,” or “nation”) and “Archos” (a “chief”), the

paternal principle. The Jewish Patriarchs who were pastors, passed

their name to the Christian Patriarchs; yet they were no priests,

but were simply the heads of their tribes, like the Indian Rishis.

495 There is no need to observe here that the resurrection of a really

dead body is an impossibility in Nature.

496 The kings of Hungary claimed that they could cure the jaundice; the

Dukes of Burgundy were credited with preserving people from the

plague; the kings of Spain delivered those possessed by the devil.

The prerogative of curing the king’s evil was given to the kings of

France, in reward for the virtues of good King Robert. Francis the

First, during a short stay at Marseilles for his son’s wedding,

touched and cured of that disease upwards of 500 persons. The kings

of England had the same privilege.

497 See Laurens’ _Essais Historiques_ for further information as to the

world‐wide, universal knowledge of the Egyptian Priests.

498 _Des Initiations_, p. 24.

499 The word comes from the Greek “hieros” (“sacred”) and “glupho” (“I

grave”). The Egyptian characters were sacred to the Gods, as the

Indian Devanâgarî is the language of the Gods.

500 The same author had (as Occultists have) a very reasonable objection

to the modern etymology of the word “philosophy,” which is

interpreted “love of wisdom,” and is nothing of the kind. The

philosophers were scientists, and philosophy was a real science—not

simply verbiage, as it is in our day. The term is composed of two

Greek words whose meaning is intended to convey its secret sense,

and ought to be interpreted as “wisdom of love.” Now it is in the

last word, “love,” that lies hidden the esoteric significance: for

“love” does not stand here as a noun, nor does it mean “affection”

or “fondness,” but is the term used for Eros, that primordial

principle in divine creation, synonymous with πόθος, the abstract

desire in Nature for procreation, resulting in an everlasting series

of phenomena. It means “divine love,” that universal element of

divine omnipresence spread throughout Nature and which is at once

the chief cause and effect. The “wisdom of love” (or “philosophia,”)

meant attraction to and love of everything hidden beneath objective

phenomena and the knowledge thereof. Philosophy meant the highest

Adeptship—love of and assimilation with Deity. In his modesty

Pythagoras even refused to be called a Philosopher (or one who knows

every hidden thing in things visible; cause and effect, or absolute

truth), and called himself simply a Sage an aspirant to philosophy,

or to Wisdom of Love—love in its exoteric meaning being as degraded

by men then as it is now by its purely terrestrial application.

501 _Lev._, xix. 18.

502 “On,” the “Sun,” the Egyptian name of Heliopolis (the “City of the

Sun”).

503 _Book of God_, p. 160.

504 Mr. Kenealy quotes, in his _Book of God_, Vallancey, who says: “I

had not been a week landed in Ireland from Gibraltar, where I had

studied Hebrew and Chaldaic under Jews of various countries, when I

heard a peasant girl say to a boor standing by her ‘_Feach an Maddin

Nag_’ (‘Behold the morning star’), pointing to the planet Venus, the

Maddena Nag of the Chaldeans.”

505 There was a time when the whole world, the totality of mankind, had

one religion, as they were of “one lip.” “All the religions of the

earth were at first one, and emanated from one centre,” says Faber.

506 _Chips from a German Workshop_, i. 69, 70.

507 Sûrya, the Sun, is one of the nine divinities that witness all human

actions.

508 [There is a gap in H. P. B.’s MS., and the paragraph in brackets

supplies what was missing.—A. B.]

509 In _Isis Unveiled_, Vol. II., pp. 41, 42, a portion of this rite is

referred to. Speaking of the dogma of Atonement, it is traced to

ancient “heathendom” again. We say: “This cornerstone of a church

which had believed herself built on a firm rock for long centuries,

is now excavated by science and proved to come from the Gnostics.

Professor Draper shows it as hardly known in the days of Tertullian,

and as having ‘originated among the Gnostic heretics’ (see _Conflict

Between Religion and Science_, p. 224).... But there are sufficient

proofs to show that it _originated_ among them no more than did

their anointed Christos and Sophia. The former they modelled on the

original of the King Messiah, the male principle of wisdom, and the

latter on the third Sephiroth, from the Chaldæan _Kabalah_, and even

from the Hindu Brahmâ and Sarasvatî, and the Pagan Dionysius and

Demeter. And here we are on firm ground, if it were only because it

is now proved that the _New Testament_ never appeared in its

complete form, such as we find it now, till 300 years after the

period of the apostles, and the _Zohar_ and other Kabalistic books

are found to belong to the first century before our era, if not to

be far older still.

“The Gnostics entertained many of the Essenean ideas; and the

Essenes had their greater and minor Mysteries at least two centuries

before our era. They were the _Isarim_ or _Initiates_, the

descendants of the Egyptian hierophants, in whose country they had

been settled for several centuries before they were converted to

Buddhistic monasticism by the missionaries of King Asoka, and

amalgamated later with the earliest Christians: and they existed,

probably, before the old Egyptian temples were desecrated and ruined

in the incessant invasions of Persians, Greeks, and other conquering

hordes. The hierophants had their atonement enacted in the Mystery

of Initiation ages before the Gnostics, or even the Essenes, had

appeared. It was known among hierophants as the Baptism of Blood,

and was considered not as an atonement for the ‘fall of man’ in

Eden, but simply as an expiation for the past, present, and future

sins of ignorant, but nevertheless polluted mankind. The hierophant

had the option of either offering his pure and sinless life as a

sacrifice for his race to the gods whom he hoped to rejoin, or an

animal victim. The former depended entirely on their own will. At

the last moment of the solemn ‘new birth,’ the Initiator passed ‘the

word’ to the initiated, and immediately after the latter had a

weapon placed in his right hand, and was ordered _to strike_. This

is the true origin of the Christian dogma of atonement.”

As Ballanche says, quoted by Ragon: “Destruction is the great God of

the World,” justifying therefore the philosophical conception of the

Hindu Shîva. According to this immutable and sacred law, “the

Initiate was compelled to kill the Initiator; otherwise initiation

remained incomplete.... It is death that generates life.”

_Orthodoxie maçonnique_, p. 104. All that, however, was emblematic

and exoteric. Weapon and killing must be understood in their

allegorical sense.

510 _Orthodoxie maçonnique_, pp. 102‐104.

511 _Op. cit._, i. 15.

512 _Five Years of Theosophy_, p. 258. A curious question to start and

to deny, when it is well‐known even to the Orientalists that, to

take but one case, there is Yaska, who was a predecessor of Pânini,

and his work still exists; there are seventeen writers of Nirukta

(glossary) known to have preceded Yaska.

513 _La Mère d’Apis_, p. 47.

514 One just initiated is called the “first‐born,” and in India he

becomes dwija, “twice born,” only after his final and supreme

Initiation. Every Adept is a “Son of God” and a “Son of Light” after

receiving the “Word,” when he becomes the “Word” himself, after

receiving the seven divine attributes or the “lyre of Apollo.”

515 See De Mirville, iv. 15.

516 II. _Kings_, xxiii. 4‐13.

517 _Judges_, xiii. 18. Samson, Manoah’s son, was an Initiate of that

“Mystery” Lord, Ja‐va; he was consecrated before his birth to become

a “Nazarite” (a chela) an Adept. His sin with Dalilah, and the

cropping of his long hair that “no razor was to touch” shows how

well he kept his sacred vow. The allegory of Samson proves the

Esotericism of the _Bible_, as also the character of the “Mystery

Gods” of the Jews. True, Môvers gives a definition of the Phœnician

idea of the ideal sunlight as a spiritual influence issuing from the

highest God, Iao, “the light conceivable only by intellect—the

physical and spiritual Principle of all things; out of which the

soul emanates.” It was the male Essence, or Wisdom, while the

primitive matter or _Chaos_ was the female. Thus the first two

principles, co‐eternal and infinite, were already with the primitive

Phœnicians, spirit and matter. But this is the echo of Jewish

thought, not the opinion of Pagan Philosophers.

518 See _Isis Unveiled_, ii. 526.

519 Beth‐San or Scythopolis in Palestine had that designation; so had a

spot on Mount Parnassus. But Diodorus declares that Nyssa was

between Phœnicia and Egypt; Euripides states that Dionysos came to

Greece from India; and Diodorus adds his testimony: “Osiris was

brought up in Nyssa, in Arabia the Happy; he was the son of Zeus,

and was named from his father (nominative Zeus, genitive _Dios_) and

the place Dio‐Nysos”—the Zeus or Jove of Nyssa. This identity of

name or title is very significant. In Greece Dionysos was second

only to Zeus, and Pindar says: “So Father Zeus governs all things,

and Bacchus he governs also.”

520 _Ex._, xvii. 15.

521 _Phædrus_, Cary’s translation, p. 326.

522 _Life of Pythagoras_, p. 297. “Since Pythagoras,” he adds, “also

spent two and twenty years in the adyta of the temples in Egypt,

associated with the Magians in Babylon, and was instructed by them

in their venerable knowledge, it is not at all wonderful that he was

skilled in Magic or Theurgy, and was therefore able to perform

things which surpass merely human power, and which appear to be

perfectly incredible to the vulgar” (p. 298).

523 This expression must not be understood simply literally; for, as in

the initiation of certain Brotherhoods, it has a secret meaning that

we have just explained; it was hinted at by Pythagoras, when he

describes his feelings after the Initiation, and says that he was

crowned by the Gods in whose presence he had drunk “the waters of

life”—in the Hindu Mysteries there was the fount of life, and

_soma_, the sacred drink.

524 _Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries_, T. Taylor, p. 46, 47.

525 ii. 111, 113.

526 _Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries_, p. 63.

527 _Op. cit._, p. 65.

528 Quoted by Taylor, p. 66.

529 Verses 35‐38.

530 _Phædrus_, 64, quoted by Taylor, p. 64.

531 _Isis Unveiled_, ii. 114.

532 This is false, and the Abbé Constant (Éliphas Lévi) _knew_ it was

so. Why did he promulgate the untruth?

533 _Dogme de la Haute Magie_, i. 219, 220.

534 _Orthodoxie Maçonnique_, p. 99.

535 _Five Years of Theosophy_, p. 214.

536 In I. _Peter_, ii. 3, Jesus is called “the Lord Chrestos.”

537 _Isis Unveiled_, ii. 323.

538 _Buddhism in Tibet_, p. 31.

539 The Âryans replaced the living cow by one made of gold, silver or

any other metal, and the rite is preserved to this day, when one

desires to become a Brâhman, a twice‐born, in India.

540 _Op. cit._, p. 141.

541 In Ragon’s _Orthodoxie Maçonnique_, p. 105, _note_, we find the

following statement—borrowed from Albumazar the Arabian, probably:

“_The Virgin of the Magi and Chaldæans._ The Chaldæan sphere [globe]

showed in its heavens a newly‐born babe, called _Christ and Jesus_;

it was placed in the arms of the Celestial Virgin. It was to this

Virgin that Eratosthenes, the Alexandrian Librarian, born 276 years

before our era, gave the name of Isis, mother of Horus.” This is

only what Kircher gives (in _Ædipus Ægypticus_, iii. 5), quoting

Albumazar: “In the first decan of the Virgin rises a maid, called

Aderenosa, that is pure, immaculate virgin ... sitting upon an

embroidered throne nursing a boy...; a boy, named Jessus ... which

signifies Issa, whom they also call Christ in Greek.” (See _Isis

Unveiled_, ii. 491.)

542 Now called _St. Reine_ (Côte d’Or) on the two streams, the Ose and

the Oserain. Its fall is a historical fact in Keltic Gaulish

History.

543 _Orthodoxie Maçonnique_, p. 22.

544 _Op. cit._, p. 22.

545 The Christian mob in 389 of our era completed the work of

destruction upon what remained; most of the priceless works were

saved for students of Occultism, but lost to the world.

546 _Op. cit._ p. 23. J. M. Ragon, a Belgian by birth, and a Mason, knew

more about Occultism than any other non‐initiated writer. For fifty

years he studied the ancient Mysteries wherever he could find

accounts of them. In 1805, he founded at Paris the Brotherhood of

_Les Trinosophes_, in which Lodge he delivered for years lectures on

Ancient and Modern Initiation (in 1818 and again in 1841), which

were published, and now are lost. Then he became the writer in chief

of _Hermes_, a masonic paper. His best works were _La Maçonnerie

Occulte_ and the _Fastes Initiatiques_. After his death, in 1866, a

number of his MSS. remained in the possession of the Grand Orient of

France. A high Mason told the writer that Ragon had corresponded for

years with two Orientalists in Syria and Egypt, one of whom is a

Kopt gentleman.

547 _Op. cit._, iv. 462.

548 _History of Magic_, ii. 11.

549 _Neo‐Platonism and Alchemy_, p. 15.

550 _Loc. cit._

551 _Op. cit._, pp. 9, 10.

552 This Divine Effulgence and Essence is the light of the Logos; only

the Vedântin would not use the pronoun “He,” but would say “It.”

553 _Loc. cit._, _note_, p. 10.

554 _Loc. cit._, _note_.

555 See _Esoteric Buddhism_, by A. P. Sinnett, Fifth Edition.

556 See _Isis Unveiled_, Vol. I., pp. 589‐595. The “Sons of God” and

their war with the giants and magicians.

557 _Loc. cit._, _note_.

558 _Op. cit._, p. 18.

559 _Op. cit._, p. 8.

560 No orthodox Christian has ever equalled, far less surpassed, in the

practice of true Christ‐like virtues and ethics, or in the beauty of

his moral nature, Ammonius, the Alexandrian pervert from

Christianity (he was born from Christian parents).

561 _Op. cit._, pp. 3, 4.

562 Quoted by Dr. Wilder, p. 5.

563 “Mortification” is here meant in the moral, not the physical sense;

to restrain every lust and passion, and live on the simplest diet

possible.

564 This is the Neo‐Platonic teaching adopted as a doctrine in the Roman

Catholic Church, with its worship of the Seven Spirits.

565 The Church has made of it the worship of devils. “Daimon” is Spirit,

and relates to our divine Spirit, the seventh Principle and to the

Dhyân Chohans. Jesus prohibited going to the temple or church “as

Pharisees do” but commanded that man should retire for prayer

(communion with his God) into a private closet. Is it Jesus who

would have countenanced in the face of the starving millions, the

building of the most gorgeous churches?

566 _Op. cit._, p. 7.

567 _Op. cit._, p. 7.

568 _Op. cit._, p. 18.

569 The _Talmud_ gives the story of the four Tanaim, who are made, in

allegorical terms, to enter into _the garden of delights_, _i.e._,

to be initiated into the occult and final science.

“According to the teaching of our holy masters the names of the four

who entered the garden of delight, are: Ben Asai, Ben Zoma, Acher,

and Rabbi Akiba....

“Ben Asai looked and—lost his sight.

“Ben Zoma looked and—lost his reason.

“Acher made depredations in the plantation” (mixed up the whole and

failed). “But Akiba, who had entered in peace came out of it in

peace; for the saint, whose name he blessed, had said, ‘This old man

is worthy of serving us with glory.’ ”

“The learned commentators of the _Talmud_, the Rabbis of the

synagogue, explain that the _garden of delight_, in which those four

personages are made to enter, is but that mysterious science, the

most terrible of sciences for weak intellects, which it leads

directly to insanity,” says A. Franck, in his _Kabbalah_. It is not

the pure at heart and he who studies but with a view to perfecting

himself and so more easily acquiring the promised immortality, who

need have any fear; but rather he who makes of the science of

sciences a sinful pretext for worldly motives, who should tremble.

The latter will never understand the kabalistic evocations of the

supreme initiation.—_Isis Unveiled_, ii. 119.

570 _Isis Unveiled_, ii. 119.

571 See _Neo‐Platonism_, p. 9.

572 See the Code published by Sir William Jones, Chapter ix. p. 11.

573 Pliny: _Hist. Nat._, xxx. 1; _Ib._, xvi. 14; xxv. 9, etc.

574 Pomponius ascribes to them the knowledge of the highest sciences.

575 Cæsar, iii. 14.

576 Pliny, xxx. _Isis Unveiled_, i. 18.

577 “The care which they took in educating youth, in familiarizing it

with generous and virtuous sentiments, did them peculiar honour, and

their maxims and discourses, as recorded by historians, prove that

they were expert in matters of philosophy, metaphysics, astronomy,

morality and religion,” says a modern writer. “If kings or princes

desired the advice or the blessings of the holy men, they were

either obliged to go themselves, or to send messengers. To these men

no secret power of either plant or mineral was unknown. They had

fathomed nature to its depths, while psychology and physiology were

to them open books, and the result was that science that is now

termed, so superciliously, _magic_.”

578 _Op. cit._, p. 9.

579 _Op. cit._, p. 11.

580 _Hermes_, iv. 6.

581 From _Saraph_ שרף “fiery, burning,” plural (see _Isaiah_, vi. 2‐6).

They are regarded as the personal attendants of the Almighty, “his

messengers,” angels or metatrons. In _Revelation_ they are the

“seven burning lamps” in attendance before the throne.

582 Venus with the Chaldæans and Egyptians was the wife of _Proteus_,

and is regarded as the mother of the Kabiri, the sons of Phta or

Emepth—the divine light or the Sun. The angels answer to the stars

in the following order: The Sun, the Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury,

Jupiter, and Saturn; Michael, Gabriel, Samael, Anael, Raphael,

Zachariel, and Orifiel; this is in religion and Christian Kabalism;

astrologically and esoterically the places of the “regents” stand

otherwise, as also in the Jewish, or rather the real Chaldæan

_Kabalah_.

583 _Loc. cit._, xiv. 12.

584 This is one more proof that the Ancients knew of seven planets

besides the Sun; for otherwise which is the eighth in such a case?

The seventh, with two others, as stated, were “mystery” planets,

whether Uranus or any other.

585 II. _Sam._, vi. 20‐22.

586 _Judges_, xxi. 21, _et seq._

587 I. _Kings_, xviii. 26.

588 This dance—the Râsa Mandala, enacted by the Gopîs or shepherdesses

of Krishna, the Sun‐God, is enacted to this day in Râjputâna in

India, and is undeniably the same theo‐astronomical and symbolical

dance of the planets and the Zodiacal signs, that was danced

thousands of years before our era.

589 _Isis Unveiled_, ii. 45.

590 II. _Epistle_, i. 19. The English text says: “Until the day‐star

arise in your heart,” a trifling alteration which does not really

matter—as _Lucifer_ is the day as well as the “morning” star—and it

is less shocking to pious ears. There are a number of such

alterations in the Protestant bibles.

591 Again the English translation changes the word “Sun” into “day‐

spring.” The Roman Catholics are decidedly braver and more sincere

than the Protestant theologians. De Mirville: iv. 34, 38.

592 Thus said the Egyptians and the Sabæans in days of old, the symbol

of whose manifested gods, Osiris and Bel, was the sun. But they had

a higher deity.

593 Exiled from the Protestant bible but left in the _Apocrypha_ which,

according to Article VI. of the Church of England, “she doth read

for example of life and instruction of manners” (?), but not to

establish any doctrine.

594 _Cornelius a Lapide_, v. 248.

595 _Ecclesiastes_, xliii. The above quotations are taken from De

Mirville’s chapter “On Christian and Jewish Solar Theology,” iv.

35‐38.

596 Nevertheless the Church has preserved in her most sacred rites the

“star‐rites” of the Pagan Initiates. In the pre‐Christian Mithraic

Mysteries, the candidate who overcame successfully the “twelve

Tortures” which preceded the final Initiation, received a small

round cake or wafer of unleavened bread, symbolising in one of its

meanings, the solar disc, and known as the manna (heavenly

bread).... A lamb, or a bull even, was killed, and with the blood

the candidate had to be sprinkled, as in the case of the Emperor

Julian’s initiation. The seven rules or mysteries that are

represented in the _Revelation_ as the seven seals which are opened

in order were then delivered to the newly born.

597 Truly says S. T. Coleridge: “Instinctively the reason has always

pointed out to men the ultimate end of various sciences.... There is

no doubt but that astrology of some sort or other will be the last

achievement of astronomy; there must be chemical relations between

the planets ... the difference of their magnitude compared with that

of their distances is not explicable otherwise.” Between planets and

our earth with its mankind, we may add.

598 “Christ then,” the author says (p. 40), “is represented by the trunk

of the candlestick.”

599 De Mirville, iv. 41, 42.

600 De Mirville, iv. 42.

601 Notwithstanding the above, written in the earliest Christian period

by the renegade Neo‐Platonist, the Church persists to this day in

her wilful error. Helpless against Galileo, she now tries to throw a

doubt even on the heliocentric system!

602 _Stromateis_, V., vi.

603 The English bible has: “In them (the Heavens) hath he set a

tabernacle for the sun,” which is incorrect and has no sense in view

of the verse that follows, for there _are_ things “hid from the heat

thereof” if the latter word is to be applied to the sun.

604 When the hierophant took his last degree, he emerged from the sacred

recess called _Manneras_ and was given the golden _Tau_, the

Egyptian Cross, which was subsequently placed on his breast, and

buried with him.

605 The three secret names are “Sana, Sanat Sujâta, and Kapila;” while

the four exoteric Gods are called, Sanat Kumâra, Sananda, Sanaka and

Sanâtana.

606 Another Kumâra, the “God of War” is called in the Hindu system the

“eternal celibate”—“the virgin warrior.” He is the Âryan St.

Michael.

607 We give the original: “Coelestia corpora moveri a spirituali

creatura, a _nemine_ Sanctorum vel philosophorum, negatum, legisse

me memini. (_Opusc._ X. art. iii.).... Mihi autam videtur, quod

_Demonstrative_ probari posset, quod ab aliquo intellectu corpora

coelestia moveantur, vel a Deo immediate, vel a mediantibus angelis.

Sed quod mediantibus angelis ca moveat, congruit rerum ordine, quem

Dionysius infallibilem asserit, ut inferiora a Deo per _Media_

secundum cursum communem administrentur” (_Opusc._ II. art. ii.),

and if so, and God _never_ meddles with the once for ever

established laws of Nature, leaving it to his administrators, why

should their being called Gods by the “heathen” be deemed

idolatrous?

608 In one of Des Mousseaux’s volumes on Demonology (_Œuvres des

Demons_) if we do not mistake the statement of the Abbé Huc is

found, and the author testifies to having heard the following story

repeatedly from the Abbé himself. In a lamasery of Tibet, the

missionary found the following:

It is a simple canvas without the slightest mechanical apparatus

attached, as the visitor may prove by examining it at his leisure.

It represents a moonlit landscape, but the moon is not at all

motionless and dead; quite the reverse, for, according to the Abbé,

one would say that our moon herself, or at least her living double,

lighted the picture. Each phase, each aspect, each movement of our

satellite, is repeated in her facsimile, in the movement and

progress of the moon in the sacred picture. “You see this planet in

the painting ride as a crescent, or full, shine brightly, pass

behind the clouds, peep out or set, in a manner corresponding in the

most extraordinary way with the real luminary. It is, in a word, a

most perfect and resplendent reproduction of the pale queen of the

night, which received the adoration of so many people in the days of

old.” We know from the most reliable sources and numerous eye‐

witnesses, that such “machines”—not canvas paintings—do exist in

certain temples of Tibet; as also the “sidereal wheels” representing

the planets, and kept for the same purposes—astrological and

magical. Huc’s statement was translated in _Isis Unveiled_ from Des

Mousseaux’s volume.

609 Cedrenus, p. 338. Whether produced by _clockwork_ or _magic_ power,

such machines—whole celestial spheres with planets rotating—were

found in the Sanctuaries, and some exist to this day in Japan, in a

secret subterranean temple of the old Mikados, as well as in two

other places.

610 Champollion’s _Égypte Moderne_, p. 42.

611 _Musée des Sciences_, p. 230.

612 Translated by the Vicomte de Rougemont. See _Les Annales de

Philosophie Chrétienne_, 7th year, 1861.

613 _Isaiah_, lxiii. 9.

614 Chapter xii. of _Revelation_: “There was war in heaven, Mikael and

his angels fought against the Dragon,” etc. (7) and the great dragon

was cast out (9).

615 He is also the informing Spirit of the Sun and Jupiter, and even of

Venus.

616 _Dogme et Rituel_, ii. 116.

617 If enumerated, they will be found to be the Hindu “divisions” and

choirs of Devas, and the Dhyân Chohans of Esoteric Buddhism.

618 But this fact has not prevented the Roman Church from adopting them

all the same, accepting them from ignorant, though perchance sincere

Church Fathers, who had borrowed them from Kaballists—Jews and

Pagans.

619 To call “usurpers” those who preceded the Christian Beings for whose

benefit these same titles were borrowed, is carrying paradoxical

anachronism a little too far!

620 Or the _divine ages_, the “days and years of Brahmâ.”

621 De Mirville, ii. 325, 326. So we say too. And this shows that it is

to the Kabalists and _Magicians_ that the Church is indebted for her

dogmas and names. Paul never condemned _real_ Gnosis, but the

_false_ one, now accepted by the Church.

622 Sesostris, or Pharaoh Ramses II., whose mummy was unswathed in 1886

by Maspero of the Bulak Museum, and recognised as that of the

greatest king of Egypt, whose grandson, Ramses III. was the last

king of an ancient kingdom.

623 _Op. cit._, p. 422.

624 _Summa_, Quest. xv. Art. v., upon Astrologers, and Vol. III. pp.

2‐29.

625 “The principalities and powers [born] in heavenly places” (_Ephes._,

iii. 10). The verse, “For though there be that are called Gods,

whether in heaven or on earth, as there be Gods many and lords many”

(I. _Corinth._, viii. 5), shows, at any rate, the recognition by

Paul of a plurality of “Gods” whom he calls “dæmons”

(“spirits”—never _devils_). Principalities, Thrones, Dominions,

Rectors, etc. are all Jewish and Christian names for the Gods of the

ancients—the Archangels and Angels of the former being in every case

the Devas and the Dhyân Chohans of the more ancient religions.

626 Answer by Reuvens to Letronne with regard to his mistaken notions

about the Zodiac of Dendera.

627 St. Augustine (_De Gen._, I. iii.) and Delrio (_Disquisit._, Vol.

IV., chap. iii.) are quoted by De Mirville, to show that “the more

astrologers speak the truth and the better they prophesy it, the

more one has to feel diffident, seeing that their agreement with the

devil becomes thereby the more apparent.” The famous statement made

by Juvenal (_Satires_, vi.) to the effect that “not one single

astrologer could be found who did not pay dearly for the help he

received from his genius”—no more proves the latter to be a devil

than the death of Socrates proves his daimon to have been a native

from the nether world—if such there be. Such argument only

demonstrates human stupidity and wickedness, once reason is made

subservient to prejudice and fanaticism of every sort. “Most of the

great writers of antiquity, Cicero and Tacitus among them, believed

in Astrology and the realization of its prophecies;” and “the

penalty of death decreed nearly everywhere against those

mathematicians [astrologers] who happened to predict falsely

diminished neither their number nor their tranquillity of mind.”

628 _Preparatio Evangelica_, I. xiv.

629 _Ast._, iv. 60.

630 _Hist._, I. ii.

631 All these particulars may be found more fully and far more

completely in Champollion Figeac’s _Égypte_.

632 _Op. cit._, p. 230.

633 _Op. cit._, p. 230.

634 In the 1,326 places in the _New Testament_ where the word “God” is

mentioned nothing signifies that in God are included more beings

than God. On the contrary in 17 places God is called the only God.

The places where the Father is so‐called amount to 320. In 105

places God is addressed with high‐sounding titles. In 90 places all

prayers and thanks are addressed to the Father; 300 times in the

_New Testament_ is the Son declared to be inferior to the Father; 85

times is Jesus called the “Son of Man;” 70 times is he called a man.

In not one single place in the bible is it said that God holds

within him three different Beings or Persons, and yet is one Being

or Person.—Dr. Karl von Bergen’s _Lectures in Sweden_.

635 Kali Yuga, the Black or Iron Age.

636 Virgil, _Eclogue_, iv.

637 At the close of our Race, people, it is said, through suffering and

discontent will become more spiritual. Clairvoyance will become a

general faculty. We shall be approaching the spiritual state of the

Third and Second Races.

638 _Vishnu Purâna_, IV., xxiv. 228, Wilson’s translation.

639 _Op. cit._, p. 212.

640 At any rate, the temple secret meaning was the same.

641 _Asiat. Res._, vol. viii. p. 470, _et seq._

642 _Theosophist_, August, 1881.

643 Aug., 1881 to Feb., 1882.

644 _Loc. cit._, iv. 127.

645 _Theosophist_, vol. iii. p. 22.

646 The impartial study of Vaidic and Post‐Vaidic works shows that the

ancient Âryans knew well the precession of the equinoxes, and “that

they changed their position from a certain asterism to two

(occasionally three) asterisms back whenever the precession amounted

to two, properly speaking, to 2 11/61 asterisms or about 29°, being

the motion of the sun in a lunar month, and so caused the seasons to

fall back a complete lunar month.... It appears certain that at the

date of _Sûrya Siddhânta_, _Brahmâ Siddânta_, and other ancient

treatises on astronomy, the vernal equinoctial point had not

actually reached the beginning of Ashvinî, but was a few degrees

east of it.... The astronomers of Europe change westward the

beginning of Aries and of all other signs of the Zodiac every year

by about 50" 25, and thus make the names of the signs meaningless.

But these signs are as much fixed as the asterisms themselves, and

hence the Western astronomers of the present day appear to us in

this respect less wary and scientific in their observations than

their very ancient brethren—the Âryas.”—_Theosophist_, iii. 23.

647 A great deal of misconception is raised by a confusion of planes of

being and misuse of expressions. For instance, certain spiritual

states have been confounded with the Nirvâna of BUDDHA. The Nirvâna

of BUDDHA is totally different from any other spiritual state of

Samâdhi or even the highest Theophania enjoyed by lesser Adepts.

After physical death the kinds of spiritual states reached by Adepts

differ greatly.

648 This region is the one possible point of conciliation between the

two diametrically opposed poles of religion and science, the one

with its barren fields of dogmas on faith, the other over‐running

with empty hypotheses, both overgrown with the weeds of error. They

will never meet. The two are at feud, at an everlasting warfare with

each other, but this does not prevent them from uniting against

Esoteric Philosophy, which for two millenniums has had to fight

against infallibility in both directions, or “mere vanity and

pretence” as Antoninus defined it, and now finds the materialism of

Modern Science arrayed against its truths.

649 Whence some of the Gnostic ideas? Cerinthus taught that the world

and Jehovah having fallen off from virtue and primitive dignity the

Supreme permitted one of his glorious Æons, whose name was the

“Anointed” (Christ) to incarnate in the man Jesus. Basilides denied

the reality of the body of Jesus, and calling it an “illusion” held

that it was Simon of Cyrene who suffered on the Cross in his stead.

All such teachings are echoes of the Eastern Doctrines.

650 A genuine initiated Adept will retain his Adeptship, though there

may be for our world of illusion numberless incarnations of him. The

propelling power that lies at the root of a series of such

incarnations is not Karma, as ordinarily understood, but a still

more inscrutable power. During the period of his lives the Adept

does not lose his Adeptship, though he cannot rise in it to a higher

degree.

651 From the so‐called Brahmâ Loka—the seventh and higher world, beyond

which all is arûpa, formless, purely spiritual—to the lowest world

and insect, or even to an object such as a leaf, there is perpetual

revolution of the condition of existence, evolution and re‐birth.

Some human beings attain states or spheres from which there is only

a return in a new Kalpa (a day of Brahmâ); there are other states or

spheres from which there is only return after 100 years of Brahmâ

(Mahâ‐Kalpa, a period covering 311,040,000,000,000 years). Nirvâna,

it is said, is a state from which there is no return. Yet it is

maintained that there may be, as exceptional cases, re‐incarnation

from that state; only such incarnations are illusion, like

everything else on this plane, as will be shown.

652 This fact of the disappearance of the vehicle of Egotism in the

fully developed Yogî, who is supposed to have reached Nirvâna on

earth, years before his corporeal death, has led to the law in Manu,

sanctioned by millenniums of Brâhmanical authority, that such a

Paramâtmâ should be held as absolutely blameless and free from sin

or responsibility, do whatever he may (see last chapter of the _Laws

of Manu_). Indeed, caste itself—that most despotic, uncompromising

and autocratic tyrant in India—can be broken with impunity by the

Yogî, who is above caste. This will give the key to our statements.

653 [The word “Adept” is very loosely used by H. P. B., who often seems

to have implied by it no more than the possession of special

knowledge of some kind. Here it seems to mean first an uninitiated

disciple and then an initiated one.—EDS.]

654 About fifty years before the birth of Copernicus, de Cusa wrote as

follows: “Though the world may not be absolutely infinite, no one

can represent it to himself as finite, since human reason is

incapable of assigning to it any term.... For in the same way that

our earth cannot be in the centre of the Universe, as thought, no

more could the sphere of the fixed stars be in it.... Thus this

world is like a vast machine, having its centre [Deity] everywhere,

and its circumference nowhere [_machina mundi, quasi habens ubique

centrum, et nullibi circumferentiam_].... Hence, the earth not being

in the centre, cannot therefore be motionless ... and though it is

far smaller than the sun, one must not conclude for all that, that

she is worse [_vilior_—more vile].... One cannot see whether its

inhabitants are superior to those who dwell nearer to the sun, or in

other stars, as sidereal space cannot be deprived of inhabitants....

The earth, very likely [_fortasse_] one of the smallest globes, is

nevertheless the cradle of intelligent beings, most noble and

perfect.” One cannot fail to agree with the biographer of Cardinal

de Cusa, who, having no suspicion of the Occult truth, and the

reason of such erudition in a writer of the fourteenth and fifteenth

centuries, simply marvels at such a miraculous foreknowledge, and

attributes it to God, saying of him that he was a man incomparable

in every kind of philosophy, by whom many a theological mystery

inaccessible to the human mind (!), veiled and neglected for

centuries (_velata et neglecta_) were once more brought to light.

“Pascal might have read De Cusa’s works; but whence could the

Cardinal have borrowed his ideas?” asks Moreri. Evidently from

Hermes and the works of Pythagoras, even if the mystery of his

incarnation and re‐incarnation be dismissed.

655 This is the secret meaning of the statements about the Hierarchy of

Prajâpatis or Rishis. First seven are mentioned, then ten, then

twenty‐one, and so on. They are “Gods” and creators of men—many of

them the “Lords of Beings”; they are the “Mind‐born Sons” of Brahmâ,

and then they became mortal heroes, and are often shown as of a very

sinful character. The Occult meaning of the Biblical Patriarchs,

their genealogy, and their descendants dividing among themselves the

earth, is the same. Again, Jacob’s dream has the same significance.

656 He “of the Seven Virtues” is one who, without the benefit of

Initiation, becomes as pure as any Adept by the simple exertion of

his own merit. Being so holy, his body at his next incarnation

becomes the Avatâra of his “Watcher” or Guardian Angel, as the

Christian would put it.

657 The title of the highest Dhyân Chohans.

658 _Op. cit._, ii. 367.

659 “After death, the soul continueth in the aerial (astral) body, till

it is entirely purified from all angry, sensual passions; then doth

it put off by a _second death_ [when arising to Devachan] the aerial

body as it did the earthly one. Wherefore the ancients say that

there is a celestial body always joined with the soul, which is

immortal, luminous and star‐like.” It becomes natural then, that the

“aerial body” of an Adept should have no such second dying, since it

has been cleansed of all its natural impurity before its separation

from the physical body. The high Initiate is a “Son of the

Resurrection,” “being equal unto the angels,” and cannot die any

more (see _Luke_, xx. 36).

660 _St. John_, xxi. 21.

661 See the extract made in the _Theosophist_ from a glorious novel by

Dostoievsky—a fragment entitled “The Great Inquisitor.” It is a

fiction, naturally, still a sublime fiction of Christ returning in

Spain during the palmy days of the Inquisition, and being imprisoned

and put to death by the Inquisitor, who fears lest Christ should

ruin the work of Jesuit hands.

662 When we say the “great Teacher,” we do not mean His Buddhic Ego, but

that principle in Him which was the vehicle of His personal or

terrestrial Ego.

663 _Five Years of Theosophy_, New Edition, p. 3.

664 _Op. cit._, p. 175, Fifth Edition.

665 It would be useless to raise objections from exoteric works to

statements in this, which aims to expound, however superficially,

the Esoteric Teachings alone. It is because they are misled by the

exoteric doctrine that Bishop Bigandet and others aver that the

notion of a supreme eternal Âdi‐Buddha is to be found only in

writings of comparatively recent date. What is given here is taken

from the secret portions of Dus Kyi Khorlo (Kâla Chakra, in

Sanskrit, or the “Wheel of Time,” or duration).

666 The three bodies are (1) the Nirmânakâya (Pru‐lpai‐Ku in Tibetan),

in which the Bodhisattva after entering by the six Pâramitâs the

Path to Nirvâna, appears to men in order to teach them; (2)

Sambhogakâya (Dzog‐pai‐Ku), the, body of bliss impervious to all

physical sensations, received by one who has fulfilled the three

conditions of moral perfection; and (3) Dharmakâya (in Tibetan,

Chos‐Ku), the Nirvânic body.

667 _Five Years of Theosophy_, art. “Personal and Impersonal God,” p.

129.

668 Adhishtâthâ, the active or working agent in Prakriti (or matter).

669 _Vedânta‐Sûtras_, Ad. I. Pâda iv. Shi. 23. Commentary. The passage

is given as follows in Thibaut’s translation (Sacred Books of the

East, xxxiv.), p. 286: “The Self is thus the operative cause,

because there is no other ruling principle, and the material cause

because there is no other substance from which the world could

originate.”

670 In _Five Years of Theosophy_ (art. “Shâkya Muni’s Place in History,”

p. 234, note) it is stated that one day when our Lord sat in the

Sattapanni Cave (Saptaparna) he compared man to a Saptaparna (seven

leaved) plant.

“Mendicants,” he said, “there are seven Buddhas in every Buddha, and

there are _six_ Bhikshus and but one Buddha in each mendicant. What

are the _seven_? The seven branches of complete knowledge. What are

the _six_? The six organs of sense. What are the five? The five

elements of illusive being. And the One which is also ten? He is a

true Buddha who develops in him the ten forms of holiness and

subjects them all to the One.” Which means that every principle in

the Buddha was the highest that could be evolved on this earth;

whereas in the case of other men who attain to Nirvâna this is not

necessarily the case. Even as a mere human (Manushya) Buddha Gautama

was a pattern for all men. But his Arhats were not necessarily so.

671 See _Isis Unveiled_, ii., 132.

672 “Before one becomes a Buddha he must be a Bodhisattva; before

evolving into a Bodhisattva he must be a Dhyâni‐Buddha.... A

Bodhisattva is the way and Path to his Father, and thence to the One

Supreme Essence” (_Descent of Buddhas_, p. 17, from Âryâsanga). “I

am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father

but by me” (_St. John_, xiv. 6). The “way” is not the goal. Nowhere

throughout the _New Testament_ is Jesus found calling himself God,

or anything higher than “a son of God,” the son of a “Father” common

to all, synthetically. Paul never said (I. _Tim._, iii. 10), “God

was manifest in the flesh,” but “He who was manifested in the flesh”

(Revised Edition). While the common herd among the Buddhists—the

Burmese especially—regard Jesus as an incarnation of Devadatta, a

relative who opposed the teachings of Buddha, the students of

Esoteric Philosophy see in the Nazarene Sage a Bodhisattva with the

spirit of Buddha Himself in Him.

673 I. _Corinth._, xv. 36.

674 _Op. cit._, Mandala x., hymn 90.

675 Literally, “he who walks [or follows] in the way [or path] of his

predecessors.”

676 Schmidt, in _Slanong Seetsen_, p. 471, and Schlagintweit, in

_Buddhism in Tibet_, p. 53, accept these precious things

_literally_, enumerating them as “the wheel, the precious stone, the

royal consort, the best treasurer, the best horse, the elephant, the

best leader.” After this one can little wonder if “besides a Dhyâni‐

Buddhi and a Dhyâni‐Bodhisattva” each human Buddha is furnished with

“a female companion, a Shakti”—when in truth “Shakti” is simply the

Soul‐power, the psychic energy of the God as of the Adept. The

“royal consort,” the third of the “seven precious gifts,” very

likely led the learned Orientalist into this ludicrous error.

677 A Bodhisattva can reach Nirvâna and live, as Buddha did, and after

death he can either refuse objective reincarnation or accept and use

it at his convenience for the benefit of mankind whom he can

instruct in various ways while he remains in the Devachanic regions

within the attraction of our earth. But having once reached

Paranirvâna or “Nirvâna without remains”—the highest Dharmakâya

condition, in which state he remains entirely outside of every

earthly condition—he will return no more until the commencement of a

new Manvantara, since he has crossed beyond the cycle of births.

678 Tulpa is the voluntary incarnation of an Adept into a living body,

whether of an adult, child, or new‐born babe.

679 Ku‐sum is the triple form of the Nirvâna state and its respective

duration in the “cycle of Non‐Being.” The number seven here refers

to the seven Rounds of our septenary System.

680 _Buddhism in Tibet_, p. 52. This same generic use of a name is found

among Hindus with that of Shankarâchârya, to take but one instance.

All His successors bear his name, but are not reincarnations of Him.

So with the “Buddhas.”

681 [The words within brackets are supplied to introduce the following

statements that are confused and contradictory as they stand, and

which H. P. B. had probably intended to elucidate to some slight

extent, as they are written two or three times with different

sentences following them. The MS. is exceedingly confused, and

everything H. P. B. said is here pieced together, the addition above

made being marked in brackets to distinguish it from hers.—A. B.]

682 King Suddhodana.

683 There are several names marked simply by asterisks.

684 Shankarâchârya died also at thirty‐two years of age, or rather

disappeared from the sight of his disciples, as the legend goes.

685 Does “Tiani‐Tsang” stand for Apollonius of Tyana? This is a simple

surmise. Some things in the life of that Adept would seem to tally

with the hypothesis—others to go against it.

686 According to Esoteric teaching Buddha lived one hundred years in

reality, though having reached Nirvâna in his eightieth year he was

regarded as one dead to the world of the living. See article

“Shâkyamuni’s Place in History” in _Five Years of Theosophy_.

687 It is a _secret_ rite, pertaining to high Initiation, and has the

same significance as the one to which Clement of Alexandria alludes

when he speaks of “the token of recognition being in common with us,

as by cutting off Christ” (Strom., 13). Schlagintweit wonders what

it may be. “The typical representation of a hermit,” he says, “is

always that of a man with long, uncut hair and beard.... A rite very

often selected, though I am unable to state for what reason, is that

of Chod (‘to cut’ or ‘to destroy’) the meaning of which is anxiously

kept a profound secret by the Lamas.” (_Buddhism in Tibet_, p. 163.)

688 Hlun‐Chub is the divining spirit in man, the highest degree of

seership.

689 The secret meaning of this sentence is that Karma exercises its sway

over the Adept as much as over any other man; “Gods” can escape it

as little as simple mortals. The Adept who, having reached the Path

and won His Dharmakâya—the Nirvâna from which there is no return

until the new grand Kalpa—prefers to use His right of choosing a

condition inferior to that which belongs to Him, but that will leave

him free to return whenever He thinks it advisable and under

whatever personality He may select, must be prepared to take all the

chances of failure—possibly—and a lower condition than was His

lot—for a certainty—as it is an occult law. Karma alone is absolute

justice and infallible in its selections. He who uses his rights

with it (Karma) must bear the consequences—if any. Thus Buddha’s

first reincarnation was produced by Karma—and it led Him higher than

ever; the two following were “out of pity” and * * *.

690 The Universe of Brahmâ (Sien‐Chan; Nam‐Kha) is Universal Illusion,

or our phenomenal world.

691 Âkâsha. It is next to impossible to render the mystic word “Tho‐og”

by any other term than “Space,” and yet, unless coined on purpose,

no new appellation can render it so well to the mind of the

Occultist. The term “Aditi” is also translated “Space,” and there is

a world of meaning in it.

692 Dang‐ma, a purified soul, and Lha, a freed spirit within a living

body; an Adept or Arhat. In the popular opinion in Tibet, a Lha is a

disembodied spirit, something similar to the Burmese Nat—only

higher.

693 Kwan‐yin is a synonym, for in the original another term is used, but

the meaning is identical. It is the divine voice of Self, or the

“Spirit‐voice” in man, and the same as Vâchîshvara (the “Voice‐

deity”) of the Brâhmans. In China, the Buddhist ritualists have

degraded its meaning by anthropomorphizing it into a Goddess of the

same name, with one thousand hands and eyes, and they call it Kwan‐

shai‐yin‐Bodhisat. It is the Buddhist “daïmon”‐voice of Socrates.

694 Sangharama is the _sanctum sanctorum_ of an ascetic, a cave or any

place he chooses for his meditation.

695 Amitâbha Buddha is in this connection the “boundless light” by which

things of the subjective world are perceived.

696 Esoterically, “the unsurpassingly merciful and enlightened heart,”

said of the “Perfect Ones,” the Jîvan‐muktas, collectively.

697 These six worlds—seven with us—are the worlds of Nats or Spirits,

with the Burmese Buddhists, and the seven higher worlds of the

Vedântins.

698 Two things entirely distinct from each other. The “faculty is not

distinguished from the subject” only on this material plane, while

thought generated by our physical brain, one that has never

impressed itself at the same time on the spiritual counterpart,

whether through the atrophy of the latter or the intrinsic weakness

of that thought, can never survive our body; this much is sure.

699 _Vedânta Sâra_, translated by Major Jacob, p. 123.

700 Aditi is, according to the _Rig Veda_, “the Father and Mother of all

the Gods”; and Âkâsha is held by Southern Buddhism as the Root of

all, whence everything in the Universe came out, in obedience to a

law of motion inherent in it; and this is the Tibetan “Space” (Tho‐

og).

701 _Mânava‐Dharma‐Shâstra_, i. 6, 7.

702 The “God” of Pythagoras, the disciple of the Âryan Sages, is no

personal God. Let it be remembered that he taught as a cardinal

tenet that there exists a permanent Principle of Unity beneath all

forms, changes, and other phenomena of the Universe.

703 _Isis Unveiled_, i. xvi.

704 _Isis Unveiled_, i. xviii.

705 _Isis Unveiled_ i. 58.

706 _Isis Unveiled_, i. 59.

707 While they are to a great extent identical with those of Esoteric

Buddhism, the Secret Doctrine of the East.

708 _Parerga_, II. iii. 112; quoted in _Isis Unveiled_, i. 58.

709 _Five Years of Theosophy_, p. 338, _et seq._

710 Prof. Max Müller, in a letter to _The Times_ (April, 1857),

maintained most vehemently that Nirvâna meant _annihilation_ in the

fullest sense of the word. (_Chips from a German Workshop_, i. 287.)

But in 1869, in a lecture before the General Meeting of the

Association of German Philologists at Kiel, “he distinctly declares

his belief that the Nihilism attributed to Buddha’s teaching forms

no part of his doctrine, and that it is wholly wrong to suppose that

Nirvâna means annihilation.” (Trubner’s _Amer. and Oriental Lit.

Rec._, Oct. 16th, 1869.)

711 See the _Kalama Sutta_ of the _Anguttaranikayo_, as quoted in _A

Buddhist Catechism_, by H. S. Olcott, President of the Theosophical

Society, pp. 55, 56.

712 _Œdipus Ægypt._, II. i. 291.

713 Sephir, or Aditi (mystic Space). The Sephiroth, be it understood,

are identical with the Hindu Prajâpatis, the Dhyân Chohans of

Esoteric Buddhism, the Zoroastrian Amshaspends, and finally with the

Elohim—the “Seven Angels of the Presence” of the Roman Catholic

Church.

714 According to the Eastern idea, the All comes out from the One, and

returns to it again. Absolute annihilation is simply unthinkable.

Nor can eternal Matter be annihilated. Form may be annihilated: co‐

relations may change. That is all. There can be no such thing as

annihilation—in the European sense—in the Universe.

715 _Isis Unveiled_, i. 289.

716 The Secret Law, the “Doctrine of the Heart,” so called in contrast

to the “Doctrine of the Eye,” or exoteric Buddhism.

717 “Illusive matter in its triple manifestation in the earthly, and the

astral or fontal Soul (the body), and the Platonian dual Soul—the

rational and the irrational one.”

718 _Isis Unveiled_, i. 289.

719 _Isis Unveiled_, i. 290.

720 It is from the texts of all these works that the Secret Doctrine has

been given. The original matter would not make a small pamphlet, but

the explanations and notes from the Commentaries and Glossaries

might be worked into ten volumes as large as _Isis Unveiled_.

721 The monk Della Penna makes considerable fun in his _Memoirs_ (see

Markham’s _Tibet_) of certain statements in the Books of Kiu‐te. He

brings to the notice of the Christian public “the great mountain

160,000 leagues high” (a Tibetan league consisting of five miles) in

the Himâlayan Range. “According to their law,” he says, “in the west

of this world is an eternal world ... a paradise, and in it a Saint

called Hopahma, which means ‘Saint of Splendour and Infinite Light.’

This Saint has many disciples who are all Chang‐chub,” which means,

he adds in a footnote, “the Spirits of those who, on account of

their perfection, do not care to become saints, and train and

instruct the bodies of the reborn Lamas ... so that they may help

the living.” Which means that the presumably “dead” Yang‐Chhub (not

“Chang‐chub”) are simply living Bodhisattvas, some of those known as

Bhante (“the Brothers”). As to the “mountain 160,000 leagues high,”

the _Commentary_ which gives the key to such statements explains

that according to the code used by the writers, “to the west of the

‘Snowy Mountain’ 160 leagues [the cyphers being a blind] from a

certain spot and by a direct road, is the Bhante Yul [the country or

‘Seat of the Brothers’], the residence of Mahâ‐Chohan ...” etc. This

is the real meaning. The “Hopahma” of Della Penna is—the

Mahâ‐Chohan, the Chief.

722 In some MSS. notes before us, written by Gelung (priest) Thango‐pa

Chhe‐go‐mo, it is said: “The few Roman Catholic missionaries who

have visited our land (under protest) in the last century and have

repaid our hospitality by turning our sacred literature into

ridicule, have shown little discretion and still less knowledge. It

is true that the Sacred Canon of the Tibetans, the _Kahgyur_ and

_Bstanhgyur_, comprises 1707 distinct works—1083 public and 624

secret volumes, the former being composed of 350 and the latter of

77 volumes folio. May we humbly invite the good missionaries,

however, to tell us when they ever succeeded in getting a glimpse of

the last‐named secret folios? Had they even by chance seen them I

can assure the Western Pandits that these manuscripts and folios

could never be understood even by a born Tibetan without a key (_a_)

to their peculiar characters, and (_b_) to their hidden meaning. In

our system every description of locality is figurative, every name

and word purposely veiled; and one has first to study the mode of

deciphering and then to learn the equivalent secret terms and

symbols for nearly every word of the religious language. The

Egyptian enchorial or hieratic system is child’s play to our

sacerdotal puzzles.”

723 _Chinese Buddhism_, p. 171.

724 “Buddhi” is a Sanskrit term for “discrimination” or intellect (the

sixth principle), and “Buddha” is “wise,” “wisdom,” and also the

planet Mercury.

725 This curious contradiction may be found in _Chinese Buddhism_, pp.

171, 273. The reverend author assures his readers that “to the

philosophic Buddhists ... Amitâbha Yoshi Fo, and the others are

nothing but the signs of ideas” (p. 236). Very true. But so should

be all other deific names, such as Jehovah, Allah, etc., and if they

are not simply “signs of ideas” this would only show that minds that

receive them otherwise are not “philosophic”; it would not at all

afford serious proof that there are personal, living Gods of these

names in reality.

726 The Chinese Amitâbha (Wu‐liang‐sheu) and the Tibetan Amitâbha

(Odpag‐med) have now become personal Gods, ruling over and living in

the celestial region of Sukhâvatî, or Tushita (Tibetan: Devachan);

while Âdi‐Buddhi, of the philosophic Hindu, and Amita Buddha of the

philosophic Chinaman and Tibetan, are names for universal, primeval

ideas.

727 See _Theosophist_ for March, 1882.

728 The intimate relation of the twenty‐five Buddhas (Bodhisattvas) with

the twenty‐five Tattvas (the Conditioned or Limited) of the Hindus

is interesting.

729 It is curious to note the great importance given by European

Orientalists to the Dalaï Lamas of Lhassa, and their utter ignorance

as to the Tda‐shu (or Teshu) Lamas, while it is the latter who began

the hierarchical series of Buddha‐incarnations, and are _de facto_

the “popes” in Tibet; the Dalaï Lamas are the creations of Nabang‐

lob‐Sang, the Tda‐shu Lama, who was Himself the sixth incarnation of

Amita, through Tsong Kha‐pa, though very few seem to be aware of

that fact.

730 The chanting of a Mantra is not a prayer, but rather a magical

sentence in which the law of Occult causation connects itself with,

and depends on, the will and acts of its singer. It is a succession

of Sanskrit sounds, and when its string of words and sentences is

pronounced according to the magical formulæ in the _Atharva Veda_,

but understood by the few, some Mantras produce an instantaneous and

very wonderful effect. In its esoteric sense it contains the Vâch

(the “mystic speech”), which resides in the Mantra, or rather in its

sounds, since it is according to the vibrations, one way or the

other, of ether that the effect is produced. The “sweet singers”

were called by that name because they were experts in Mantras. Hence

the legend in China that the singing and melody of the Lohans are

heard at dawn by the priests from their cells in the monastery of

Fang‐Kwang. (See _Biography of Chi‐Kai_ in Tien‐tai‐nan‐tchi.)

731 The celebrated Lohan, Mâdhyantika, who converted the king and whole

country of Kashmir to Buddhism, sent a body of Lohans to preach the

Good Law. He was the sculptor who raised to Buddha the famous statue

one hundred feet high, which Hiuen‐Tsaung saw at Dardu, to the north

of the Punjab. As the same Chinese traveller mentions a temple ten

Li from Peshawur—350 feet round and 850 feet high—which was at his

time (A.D. 550) already 850 years old, Koeppen thinks that so far

back as 292 B.C. Buddhism was the prevalent religion in the Punjab.

732 A title of the Tda‐shu‐Hlum‐po Lama.

733 The twelve Nidâwas, called in Tibetan Tin‐brel Chug‐nyi, which are

based upon the “Four Truths.”

734 The Srotâpatti is one who has attained the _first_ Path of

comprehension in the real and the unreal; the Sakridâgâmin is the

candidate for one of the higher Initiations: “one who is to receive

birth once more;” the Anâgâmin is he who has attained the “third

Path,” or literally, “he who will not be reborn again” _unless he so

wishes it_, having the option of being reborn in any of the “worlds

of the Gods,” or of remaining in Devachan, or of choosing an earthly

body with a philanthropic object. An Arhat is one who has reached

the highest Path; he may merge into Nirvâna at will, while here on

earth.

735 [The Pratyeka Buddha stands on the level of the Buddha, but His work

for the world has nothing to do with its teaching, and His office

has always been surrounded with mystery. The preposterous view that

He, at such superhuman height of power, wisdom and love could be

selfish, is found in the exoteric books, though it is hard to see

how it can have arisen. H. P. B. charged me to correct the mistake,

as she had, in a careless moment, copied such a statement

elsewhere.—A. B.]

736 It is an erroneous idea which makes the Orientalists take literally

the teaching of the Mahâyâna School about the three different kinds

of bodies, namely, the Prulpa‐ku, the Longehod‐drocpaig‐ku, and the

Chos‐ku, as all pertaining to the Nirvânic condition. There are two

kinds of Nirvâna: the earthly, and that of the purely disembodied

Spirits. These three “bodies” are the three envelopes—all more or

less physical—which are at the disposal of the Adept who has entered

and crossed the six Pâramitâs, or “Paths” of Buddha. Once He enters

upon the seventh, He can return no more to earth. See Cosma, _Jour.

As. Soc. Beng._, vii. 142; and Schott, _Buddhismus_, p. 9, who give

it otherwise.

737 _Vedânta Sâra_, translated by Major Jacob, p. 119.

738 _Ibid._, p. 122.

739 _Der Buddhismus_, pp. 327, 357, _et seq._, quoted by Schlagintweit.

740 _Buddhism in Tibet_, p. 41.

741 _Jour. of As. Soc. Bengal_, vii. 144, quoted as above.

742 _Buddhism in Tibet_, p. 44.

743 They maintain also the existence of One Absolute pure Nature,

Parabrahman; the illusion of everything outside of it; the leading

of the individual Soul—a Ray of the “Universal”—into the true nature

of existence and things by Yoga alone.

744 Nirmânakâya (also Nirvânakâya, vulg.) is the body or Self “with

remains,” or the influence of terrestrial attributes, however

spiritualized, clinging yet to that Self. An Initiate in Dharmakâya,

or in Nirvâna “without remains,” is the Jivanmukta, the Perfect

Initiate, who separates his Higher Self entirely from his body

during Samâdhi. [It will be noticed that these two words are here

used in a sense other than that previously given.—A. B.]

745 The “Sacred” Books of Dus‐Kyi Khorlo (“Time Circle”). See _Jour. As.

Soc._, ii. 57. These works were abandoned to the Sikkhim Dugpas,

from the time of Tsong‐Kha‐pa’s reform.

746 _Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms_, art. “Yoga,” quoted in

_Buddhism in Tibet_, p. 47.

747 _Buddhism in Tibet_, pp. 47, 48.

748 _Buddhism in Tibet_, pp. 63, 64. The objects found in the casket, as

enumerated in the exoteric legend, are of course symbolical. They

may be found mentioned in the _Kanjur_. They were said to be: (1)

two hands joined; (2) a miniature Choten (Stûpa, or reliquary); (3)

a talisman with “Om mani padme hum” inscribed on it; (4) a religious

book, _Zamatog_ (“a constructed vehicle”).

749 _Alterthumskunde_, ii. 1072.

750 _Op. cit._, ii. 470.

751 Unless one obtains exact information and the right method, one’s

visions, however correct and true in Soul‐life, will ever fail to

get photographed in our human memory, and certain cells of the brain

are sure to play havoc with our remembrances.

752 _Chinese Buddhism_, p. 158. The Rev. Joseph Edkins either ignores,

or—which is more probable—is utterly ignorant of the real existence

of such Schools, and judges by the Chinese travesties of these,

calling such Esotericism “heterodox Buddhism.” And so it is, in one

sense.

753 That country—India—has lost the records of such Schools and their

teachings only so far as the general public, and especially the

inappreciative Western Orientalists, are concerned. It has preserved

them in full in some Mathams (refuges for mystic contemplation). But

it may perhaps be better to seek them with, and from, their rightful

owners, the so‐called “mythical” Adepts, or Mahâtmâs.

754 _Chinese Buddhism_, pp. 155‐159.

755 They certainly reject most emphatically the popular theory of the

transmigration of human entities or Souls _into_ animals, but not

the evolution of men _from_ animals—so far, at least, as their lower

principles are concerned.

756 It is quite consistent, on the contrary, when explained in the light

of the Esoteric Doctrine. The “Western paradise,” or Western heaven,

is no fiction located in transcendental space. It is a _bonâ‐fide_

locality in the mountains, or, to be more correct, one encircled in

a desert within mountains. Hence it is assigned for the residence of

those students of Esoteric Wisdom—disciples of Buddha—who have

attained the rank of Lohans and Anâgâmins (Adepts). It is called

“Western” simply from geographical considerations; and “the great

iron mountain girdle” that surrounds the Avitchi, and the seven

Lokas that encircle the “Western paradise” are a very exact

representation of well‐known localities and things to the Eastern

student of Occultism.

757 The word is translated by the Orientalists as “true man without a

position,” (?) which is very misleading. It simply means the true

inner man, or Ego, “Buddha _within_ Buddha” meaning that there was a

Gautama _inwardly_ as well as _outwardly_.

758 One of the titles of Gautama Buddha in Tibet.

759 The “Esoteric” Schools, or sects, of which there are many in China.

760 A school of contemplation founded by Hiuen‐Tsang, the traveller,

nearly extinct. Fa‐siong‐Tsung means “the School that unveils the

inner nature of things.”

761 Esoteric, or hidden, teaching of Yoga (Chinese: Yogi‐mi‐kean).

762 The “tonsure knife” is made of _meteoric_ iron, and is used for the

purpose of cutting off the “vow‐lock,” or hair from the novice’s

head during his first ordination. It has a double‐edged blade, is

sharp as a razor, and lies concealed within a hollow handle of horn.

By touching a spring the blade jerks out like a flash of lightning,

and recedes back with the same rapidity. A great dexterity is

required in using it without wounding the head of the young Gelung

and Gelung‐ma (candidates to become priests and nuns) during the

preliminary rites, which are public.

763 Chagpa‐Thog‐mad is the Tibetan name of Âryâsanga, the founder of the

Yogâchârya or Naljorchodpa School. This Sage and Initiate is said to

have been taught “Wisdom” by Maitreya Buddha Himself, the Buddha of

the Sixth Race, at Tushita (a celestial region presided over by

Him), and as having received from Him the five books of

_Champaitehos‐nga_. The Secret Doctrine teaches, however, that he

came from Dejung, or Shambhalla, called the “source of happiness”

(“wisdom‐acquired”) and declared by some Orientalists to be a

“fabulous” place.

764 It may not be, perhaps, amiss to remind the reader of the fact that

the “mirror” was a part of the symbolism of the Thesmophoria, a

portion of the Eleusinian Mysteries; and that it was used in the

search for Atmu, the “Hidden One,” or “Self.” In his excellent paper

on the above‐named mysteries, Dr. Alexander Wilder of New York says:

“Despite the assertion of Herodotus and others that the Bacchic

Mysteries were Egyptian, there exists strong probability that they

came originally from India, and were Shaivitic or Buddhistical.

Kore‐Persep‐honeia was but the goddess Parasu‐pani, or Bhavani, and

Zagreus is from Chakra, a country extending from ocean to ocean. If

this is a Turanian story we can easily recognise the ‘horns’ as the

crescent worn by Lama‐priests, and assume the whole legend [the

fable of Dionysus‐Zagreus] to be based on Lama‐succession and

transmigration.... The whole story of Orpheus ... has a Hindu ring

all through.” The tale of “Lama‐succession and transmigration” did

not originate with the Lamas, who date themselves only so far back

as the seventh century, but with the Chaldæans and the Brâhmans,

still earlier.

765 The state of absolute freedom from any sin or desire.

766 The state during which an Adept sees the long series of his past

births, and lives through all his previous incarnations in this and

the other worlds. (See the admirable description in the _Light of

Asia_, p. 166, 1884 ed.)

767 See _supra_, ii. 188, 189.

768 Wilson’s translation, as amended by Fitzedward Hall, i. 40.

769 Prâna is in reality the universal Life Principle.

770 All the uterine contents, having a direct spiritual connection with

their cosmic antetypes, are, on the physical plane, potent objects

in Black Magic, and are therefore considered unclean.

771 See _supra_, ii. Part I.

772 The Solar System or the Earth, as the case may be.

773 So are the animals, the plants, and even the minerals. Reichenbach

never understood what he learned through his sensitives and

clairvoyants. It _is_ the odic, or rather the auric or magnetic

fluid which emanates from man, but it is also something more.

774 See _supra_, i. 181, for the Vedântic exoteric enumeration.

775 See _Lucifer_, January, 1889, “Dialogue upon the Mysteries of After‐

Life.”

776 See _supra_, i, 626‐629.

777 See _supra_, i, 228, _et seq._, and ii. _passim_.

778 _Op. cit._, ii, 456, 461, 465 _et seq._

779 _Jod‐Hevah_, or male‐female on the terrestrial plane, as invented by

the Jews, and now made out to mean Jehovah; but signifying in

reality and literally, “giving being” and “receiving life.”

780 See _Notice sur le Calendrier_, J. H. Ragon.

781 See _supra_, ii. 373; and 152, _et seq._

782 See _supra_, ii. 302, _et seq._

783 _Op. cit._, ii. 81, 6.

784 See Frank’s _Die Kabbala_, p. 314, _et seq._

785 _Genesis_, ii. 7.

786 _Supra_, i. 147.

787 We may refer for confirmation to Origen’s works, who says that “the

seven ruling daimons” (genii or planetary rulers) are Michael, the

Sun (the lion‐like); the second in order, the Bull, Jupiter or

Suriel, etc.; and all these, the “Seven of the Presence,” are the

Sephiroth. The Sephirothal Tree is the Tree of the Divine Planets as

given by Porphyry, or Porphyry’s Tree, as it is usually called.

788 _Supra_, i, 147.

789 Esoterically, green, there being no black in the prismatic ray.

790 Esoterically, light blue. As a pigment, purple is a compound of red

and blue, and in Eastern Occultism blue is the spiritual essence of

the colour purple, while red is its material basis. In reality,

Occultism makes Jupiter blue because he is the son of Saturn, which

is green, and light blue as a prismatic colour contains a great deal

of green. Again, the Auric Body will contain much of the colour of

the Lower Manas if the man is a material sensualist, just as it will

contain much of the darker hue if the Higher Manas has preponderance

over the Lower.

791 Esoterically, the Sun cannot correspond with the eye, nose, or any

other organ, since, as explained, it is no planet, but a central

star. It was adopted as a planet by the post‐Christian Astrologers,

who had never been initiated. Moreover, the true colour of the Sun

is blue, and it appears yellow only owing to the effect of the

absorption of vapours (chiefly metallic) by its atmosphere. All is

Mâyâ on our Earth.

792 Esoterically, indigo, or dark blue, which is the complement of

yellow in the prism. Yellow is a simple or primitive colour. Manas

being dual in its nature—as is its sidereal symbol, the planet

Venus, which is both the morning and evening star—the difference

between the higher and the lower principles of Manas, whose essence

is derived from the Hierarchy ruling Venus, is denoted by the dark

blue and green. Green, the Lower Manas, resembles the colour of the

solar spectrum which appears between the yellow and the dark blue,

the Higher Spiritual Manas. Indigo is the intensified colour of the

heaven or sky, to denote the upward tendency of Manas toward Buddhi,

or the heavenly Spiritual Soul. This colour is obtained from the

_indigofera tinctoria_, a plant of the highest occult properties in

India, much used in White Magic, and occultly connected with copper.

This is shown by the indigo assuming a copper lustre, especially

when rubbed on any hard substance. Another property of the dye is

that it is insoluble in water and even in ether, being lighter in

weight than any known liquid. No symbol has ever been adopted in the

East without being based upon a logical and demonstrable reason.

Therefore Eastern Symbologists, from the earliest ages, have

connected the spiritual and the animal minds of man, the one with

dark blue (Newton’s indigo), or true blue, free from green; and the

other with pure green.

793 Esoterically, yellow, because the colour of the Sun is orange, and

Mercury now stands next to the Sun in distance, as it does in

colour. The planet for which the Sun is a substitute was still

nearer the Sun than Mercury now is, and was one of the most secret

and highest planets. It is said to have become invisible at the

close of the Third Race.

794 Esoterically, violet, because, perhaps, violet is the colour assumed

by a ray of sunlight when transmitted through a very thin plate of

silver, and also because the Moon shines upon the Earth with light

borrowed from the Sun, as the human body shines with qualifications

borrowed from its double—the aërial man. As the astral shadow starts

the series of principles in man, on the terrestrial plane, up to the

lower, animal Manas, so the violet ray starts the series of

prismatic colours from its end up to green, both being, the one as a

principle and the other as a colour, the most refrangible of all the

principles and colours. Besides which, there is the same great

Occult mystery attached to all these correspondences, both celestial

and terrestrial bodies, colours and sounds. In clearer words, there

exists the same law of relation between the Moon and the Earth, the

astral and the living body of man, as between the violet end of the

prismatic spectrum and the indigo and the blue. But of this more

anon.

795 Magic, _Magia_, means, in its spiritual, secret sense, the “Great

Life,” or divine life _in spirit_. The root is _magh_, as seen in

the Sanskrit _mahat_, Zend _maz_, Greek _megas_, and Latin _magnus_,

all signifying “great.”

796 _Philosophumena_, vi. 9.

797 _Nous_, _Epinoia_; _Phône_, _Onoma_; _Logismos_, _Enthumêsis_.

798 _Philosophumena_, vi. 12.

799 See _supra_, _sub voce_.

800 _The Great Revelation_ (_Hê Megalê Apophasis_), of which Simon

himself is supposed to have been the author.

801 Literally, standing opposite each other in rows or pairs.

802 _Philosophumena_, vi. 18.

803 _Op. cit._, vi. 18.

804 _Op. cit._, i. 13.

805 _Op. cit._, vi. 17.

806 _Op. cit._, i. 5.

807 _Philosophumena_, vi. 14.

808 At first there are the omphalo‐mesenteric vessels, two arteries and

two veins, but these afterwards totally disappear, as does the

“vascular area” on the Umbilical Vesicle, from which they proceed.

As regards the “Umbilical Vessels” proper, the Umbilical Cord

ultimately has entwined around it from right to left the one

Umbilical Vein which takes the oxygenated blood from the mother to

the Fœtus, and two Hypogastric or Umbilical Arteries which take the

used‐up blood from the Fœtus to the Placenta, the contents of the

vessels being the reverse of that which prevails after birth. Thus

Science corroborates the wisdom and knowledge of ancient Occultism,

for in the days of Simon Magus no man, unless an Initiate, knew

anything about the circulation of the blood or about Physiology.

While this Paper was being printed, I received two small pamphlets

from Dr. Jerome A. Anderson, which were printed in 1884 and 1888,

and in which is to be found the scientific demonstration of the

fœtal nutrition as advanced in Paper I. Briefly, the Fœtus is

nourished by osmosis from the Amniotic Fluid and respires by means

of the Placenta. Science knows little or nothing about the Amniotic

Fluid and its uses. If any one cares to follow up this question, I

would recommend Dr. Anderson’s _Remarks on the Nutrition of the

Fœtus_. (Wood & Co., New York.)

809 _Supra_, vol. ii.

810 See Eusebius, _Hist. Eccles._, lib. iii. cap. 26.

811 _De Mysteriis_, p. 100, lines 10 to 19; p. 109, fol. 1.

812 _De Mysteriis_, p. 290, lines 15 to 18, _et seq._, caps. v. and vii.

813 _Ibid._, p. 100, sec. iii, cap. iii.

814 See _supra_, i. 34; i. 4, _et seq._; ii. 39, _et seq._, and 625, _et

seq._

815 The following table lists the wave‐lengths in Millimetres, and the

number of vibrations in Trillions, of the various colours.

Violet extreme: 406, 759

Violet: 423, 709

Violet‐Indigo: 439, 683

Indigo: 449, 668

Indigo‐Blue: 459, 654

Blue: 479, 631

Blue‐Green: 492, 610

Green: 512, 586

Green‐Yellow: 532, 564

Yellow: 551, 544

Yellow‐Orange: 571, 525

Orange: 583, 514

Orange‐Red: 596, 503

Red: 620, 484

Red‐extreme: 645, 465

816 See _Five Years of Theosophy_, pp. 273 to 278.

817 _Apud Grêbaut Papyrus Orbiney_, p. 101.

818 See “Genius,” _Lucifer_, Nov., 1889, p. 227.

819 See _Voice of the Silence_, pp. 68 and 94, art. 28, Glossary.

820 The references to “Nature’s Finer Forces” which follow, have respect

to the eight articles which appeared in the pages of the

_Theosophist_ and not to the fifteen essays and the translation of a

chapter of the Shivâgama which are contained in the book called

_Nature’s Finer Forces_. The _Shivâgama_ in its details is purely

Tântric, and nothing but harm can result from any practical

following of its precepts. I would most strongly dissuade any

student from attempting any of these Hatha Yoga practices, for he

will either ruin himself entirely, or throw himself so far back that

it will be almost impossible to regain the lost ground in this

incarnation. The translation referred to has been considerably

expurgated, and even now is hardly fit for publication. It

recommends Black Magic of the worst kind, and is the very antipodes

of spiritual Râja Yoga. Beware, I say.

821 Prâna, on earth at any rate, is thus but a mode of life, a constant

cyclic motion from within outwardly and back again, an out‐breathing

and in‐breathing of the ONE LIFE, or Jîva, the synonym of the

Absolute and Unknowable Deity. Prâna is not absolute life, or Jîva,

but its aspect in a world of delusion. In the _Theosophist_, May,

1888, p. 478, Prâna is said to be “one stage finer than the gross

matter of the earth.”

822 Remember that our re‐incarnating Egos are called the Mânasaputras,

“Sons of Manas” (or Mahat), Intelligence, Wisdom.

823 It is erroneous to call the fourth human principle “Kâma Rûpa.” It

is no Rûpa or form at all until after death, but stands for the

Kâmic elements in man, his animal desires and passions, such as

anger, lust, envy, revenge, etc., the progeny of selfishness and

matter.

824 Here the world of effects is the Devachanic state, and the world of

causes, earth life.

825 It is this Kâma Rûpa alone that can _materialize_ in mediumistic

séances, which occasionally happens when it is not the Astral Double

or Linga Sharîra, of the medium himself which appears. How, then,

can this vile bundle of passions and terrestrial lusts, resurrected

by, and gaining consciousness only through the organism of the

medium, be accepted as a “departed angel” or the Spirit of a once

human body? As well say of the microbic pest which fastens on a

person, that it is a sweet departed angel.

826 This is accomplished in more or less time, according to the degree

in which the personality (whose dregs it now is) was spiritual or

material. If spirituality prevailed, then the Larva, or Spook, will

fade out very soon; but if the personality was very materialistic,

the Kâma Rûpa may last for centuries and—in some, though very

exceptional cases—even survive with the help of some of its

scattered Skandhas, which are all transformed in time into

Elementals. See the _Key to Theosophy_, pp. 141 _et seq._, in which

work it was impossible to go into details, but where the Skandhas

are spoken of as the germs of Karmic effect.

827 _Key to Theosophy_, p. 141

828 Following _Shivâgama_, the said author enumerates the

correspondences in this wise; Âkâsha, Ether, is followed by Vâyu,

Gas; Tejas, Heat; Âpas, Liquid; and Prithivî, Solid.

829 See Fitz‐Edward Hall’s notes on the _Vishnu Purâna_.

830 The pair which we refer to as the One Life, the Root of All, and

Âkâsha in its pre‐differentiating period answers to the Brahma

(neuter) and Aditi of some Hindus, and stands in the same relation

as the Parabrahman and Mûlaprakriti of the Vedântins.

831 See above, i. diagram, p. 221.

832 Anupâdaka, Opapatika in Pâli, means the “parentless,” born without

father or mother, from _itself_, as a transformation, _e.g._, the

God Brahmâ sprung from the Lotus (the symbol of the Universe) that

grows from Vishnu’s navel, Vishnu typifiying eternal and limitless

Space, and Brahmâ the Universe and LOGOS; the mythical Buddha is

also born from a Lotus.

833 See _Theosophist_, February, 1888, p. 276.

834 Sœmmerring, _De Acervulo Cerebri_, vol. ii. p. 322.

835 In the Greek Eastern Church no child is allowed to go to confession

before the age of seven, after which he is considered to have

reached the age of reason.

836 _De Caus. Ep._, vol xii.

837 _Advers. Med._, ii. 322.

838 _De Lapillis Glandulæ Pinealis in Quinque Ment Alien_, 1753.

839 See “Stray Thoughts on Death and Satan” in the _Theosophist_, vol.

iii. No. 1; also “Fragments of Occult Truth,” vols. iii. and iv.

840 _Op. cit._, ii. 368, _et seq._

841 The essence of the Divine Ego is “pure flame,” an entity to which

nothing can be added and from which nothing can be taken; it cannot,

therefore, be diminished even by countless numbers of lower minds,

detached from it like flames from a flame. This is in answer to an

objection by an Esotericist who asked whence was that inexhaustible

essence of one and the same Individuality which was called upon to

furnish a human intellect for every new personality in which it is

incarnated.

842 The brain, or thinking machinery, is not only in the head, but, as

every physiologist who is not quite a materialist will tell you,

every organ in man, heart, liver, lungs, etc., down to every nerve

and muscle, has, so to speak, its own distinct brain or thinking

apparatus. As our brain has naught to do in the guidance of the

collective and individual work of every organ in us, what is that

which guides each so unerringly in its incessant functions; that

make these struggle, and that too with disease, throws it off and

acts, each of them, even to the smallest, not in a clock‐work

manner, as alleged by some materialists (for, at the slightest

disturbance or breakage the clock stops), but as an entity endowed

with instinct? To say it is Nature is to say nothing, if it is not

the enunciation of a fallacy; for Nature after all is but a name for

these very same functions, the sum of the qualities and attributes,

physical, mental, etc., in the universe and man, the total of

agencies and forces guided by intelligent laws.

843 See _Key to Theosophy_, pp. 147, 148, _et seq._

844 Kâma Rûpa, the vehicle of the Lower Manas, is said to dwell in the

physical brain, in the five physical senses and in all the sense‐

organs of the physical body.

845 Tanmâtra means subtle and rudimentary form, the gross type of the

finer elements. The five Tanmâtras are really the characteristic

properties or qualities of matter and of all the elements; the real

spirit of the word is “something” or “merely transcendental,” in the

sense of properties or qualities.

846 See _Theosophist_, August, 1883, “The Real and the Unreal.”

847 As the author of _Esoteric Buddhism_ and the _Occult World_ called

Manas the Human Soul, and Buddhi the Spiritual Soul, I have left

these terms unchanged in the _Voice_, seeing that it was a book

intended for the public.

848 In the exoteric teachings of Râja Yoga, Antahkarana is called the

inner organ of perception and is divided into four parts: the

(lower) Manas, Buddhi (reason), Ahankâra (personality), and Chitta

(thinking faculty). It also, together with several other organs,

forms a part of Jîva, Soul called also Lingadeh. Esotericists,

however, must not be misled by this popular version.

849 The Earth, or earth‐life rather, is the only Avîtchi (Hell) that

exists for the men of our humanity on this globe. Avîtchi is a

state, not a locality, a counterpart of Devachan. Such a state

follows the Soul wherever it goes, whether into Kâma Loka, as a

semi‐conscious Spook, or into a human body, when reborn to suffer

Avîtchi. Our Philosophy recognizes no other Hell.

850 See _Voice of the Silence_, p. 97.

851 _Loc. cit._

852 Read the last footnote on p. 368, vol. ii. of _Isis Unveiled_, and

you will see that even profane Egyptologists and men who, like

Bunsen, were ignorant of Initiation, were struck by their own

discoveries when they found the “Word” mentioned in old papyri.

853 See _Theosophist_, vol. iii., October, 1882, p. 13.

854 Read pp. 40 and 63 in the _Voice of the Silence_.

855 See _Voice of the Silence_, p. viii.

856 The following notes were contributed by students and approved by H.

P. B.

857 See page 444.

858 All these “spaces” denote the special magnetic currents, the planes

of substance, and the degrees of approach that the consciousness of

the Yogî, or Chelâ, performs towards assimilation with the

inhabitants of the Lokas.

859 [If the Nidânas are read the reverse way, _i.e._, from 12 to 1, they

give the evolutionary order.—ED.]

860 [_I.e._, an Initiate, the word Adept being used by H. P. B. to cover

all grades of Initiation. As above seen, she used the words Mâyâvi

Rûpa in more than one sense.—ED.]