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Overview
The Secret Doctrine, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's masterwork on the origin and evolution of the universe and humanity itself, is arguably the most famous, and perhaps the most influential, occult book ever written. Published since 1888 only in expensive, two-volume editions of some 1,400 pages, it has long eluded the grasp of modern readers- until now.
This single-volume edition, abridged and annotated by historian and Theosophical scholar Michael Gomes, places the ideas of The Secret Doctrine within reach of all who are curious. In particular, Gomes provides a critical sounding of the book's famous stanzas on the genesis of life and the cosmos- mysterious passages that Blavatsky said originated from a primeval source and which form the heart of The Secret Doctrine. Gomes scrupulously scales down the book's key writings on symbolism to their essentials, and offers notes and a glossary to illuminate arcane references. His historical and literary introduction casts new light on some of the book's sources and on the career of its brilliant and elusive author, one of the most intriguing personages of the nineteenth century.
At once compact and representative of the work as a whole, this new edition of The Secret Doctrine brings unprecedented accessibility to the key esoteric classic of the modern era.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781101108604 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 07/23/2009 |
| Sold by: | Penguin Group |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 288 |
| Sales rank: | 600,053 |
| File size: | 353 KB |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Michael Gomes is a historian, author, and the librarian at the New York Lodge of the Theosophical Society. He is one of today's most respected writers on esoteric movements, as well known to readers of occult and esoteric literature as to students and scholars of modern religion.
Read an Excerpt
COSMIC EVOLUTION.
In Seven Stanzas translated from the Book of Dzyan.
STANZA I.
1. The eternal parent wrapped in her ever invisible robes had slumbered once again for seven eternities.
2. Time was not, for it lay asleep in the infinite bosom of duration.
5. Universal mind was not, for there were no Ah-hi to contain it.
4. The seven ways to bliss were not. The great causes of misery were not, for there was no one to produce and get ensnared by them.
5. Darkness alone filled the boundless all, for father, mother and son were once more one, and the son had not awakened yet for the new wheel, and his pilgrimage thereon.
6. The seven sublime lords and the seven truths had ceased to be, and the Universe, the son of Necessity, was immersed in Paranishpanna, to be outbreathed by that which is and yet is not. Naught was.
7. The causes of existence had been done away with; the visible that was, and the invisible that is, rested in eternal non-being-the one being.
8. Alone the one form of existence stretched boundless, infinite, causeless, in dreamless sleep; and life pulsated unconscious in universal space, throughout that all-presence which is sensed by the opened eye of the Dangma.
9. But where was the Dangma when the Alaya of the universe was in Paramartha and the great wheel was Anupadaka?
STANZA II.
1. . . . Where were the builders, the luminous sons of Manvantaric dawn? . . . In the unknown darkness in their Ah-hi Paranishpanna. The producers of form from no-form-the root of the world-the Devamatri and Sv‰bh‰vat, rested in the bliss of non-being.
2. . . . Where was silence? Where the ears to sense it? No, there was neither silence nor sound; naught save ceaseless eternal breath, which knows itself not.
3. The hour had not yet struck; the ray had not yet flashed into the Germ; the Matripadma had not yet swollen.
4. Her heart had not yet opened for the one ray to enter, thence to fall, as three into four, into the lap of Maya.
5. The seven sons were not yet born from the web of light. Darkness alone was father-mother, Sv‰bh‰vat; and Sv‰bh‰vat was in darkness.
6. These two are the Germ, and the Germ is one. The Universe was still concealed in the Divine thought and the Divine bosom. . . .
STANZA III.
1. . . . The last vibration of the seventh eternity thrills through infinitude. The mother swells, expanding from within without, like the bud of the lotus.
2. The vibration sweeps along, touching with its swift wing the whole universe and the germ that dwelleth in darkness: the darkness that breathes over the slumbering waters of life . . .
3. Darkness radiates light, and light drops one solitary ray into the mother-deep. The ray shoots through the virgin egg the ray causes the eternal egg to thrill, and drop the non-eternal germ, which condenses into the world-egg.
4. Then the three fall into the four. The radiant essence becomes seven inside, seven outside. The luminous egg, which in itself is three, curdles and spreads in milk-white curds throughout the depths of mother, the root that grows in the depths of the ocean of life.
5. The root remains, the light remains, the curds remain, and still Oeaohoo is one.
6. The root of life was in every drop of the ocean of immortality, and the ocean was radiant light, which was fire, and heat, and motion. Darkness vanished and was no more; it disappeared in its own essence, the body of fire and water, or father and mother.
7. Behold, oh Lanoo! The radiant child of the two, the unparalleled refulgent glory: Bright Space Son of Dark Space, which emerges from the depths of the great dark waters. It is Oeaohoo the younger, the He shines forth as the son; he is the blazing Divine Dragon of Wisdom; the One is Four, and Four takes to itself Three, and the Union produces the Sapta, in whom are the seven which become the Tridasa (or the hosts and the multitudes). Behold him lifting the veil and unfurling it from east to west. He shuts out the above, and leaves the below to be seen as the great illusion. He marks the places for the shining ones, and turns the upper into a shoreless sea of fire, and the one manifested into the great waters.
8. Where was the germ and where was now darkness? Where is the spirit of the flame that burns in thy lamp, oh Lanoo? The germ is that, and that is light, the white brillant son of the dark hidden father.
9. Light is cold flame, and flame is fire, and fire produces heat, which yields water: the water of life in the great mother.
10. Father-Mother spin a web whose upper end is fastened to spirit-the light of the one darkness-and the lower one to its shadowy end, matter; and this web is the universe spun out of the two substances made in one, which is Sv‰bh‰vat.
11. It expands when the breath of fire is upon it; it contracts when the breath of the mother touches it. Then the sons dissociate and scatter, to return into their mother's bosom at the end of the great day, and re-become one with her; when it is cooling it becomes radiant, and the sons expand and contract through their own selves and hearts; they embrace infinitude.
12. Then Sv‰bh‰vat sends Fohat to harden the atoms. Each is a part of the web. Reflecting the "Self-Existent Lord" like a mirror, each becomes in turn a world.
STANZA IV.
1. . . . Listen ye Sons of the Earth, to your instructors-the Sons of the Fire. Learn, there is neither first nor last, for all is one: number issued from no number.
2. Learn what we who descend from the Primordial Seven, we who are born from the Primordial Flame, have learnt from our fathers. . . .
3. From the effulgency of light-the ray of the ever-darkness-sprung in space the re-awakened energies; the one from the egg, the six, and the five. Then the three, the one, the four, the one, the five-the twice seven the sum total. And these are the essences, the flames, the elements, the builders, the numbers, the arupa, the rupa, and the force of Divine Man-the sum total. And from the Divine Man emanated the forms, the sparks, the sacred animals, and the messengers of the sacred fathers within the holy four.
4. This was the army of the voice-the divine mother of the seven. The sparks of the seven are subject to, and the servants of, the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh of the seven. These "sparks" are called spheres, triangles, cubes, lines, and modellers; for thus stands the Eternal Nidana-the Oeaohoo, which is:
5. "Darkness" the boundless, or the no-number, Adi-Nidana Sv‰bh‰vat:-
I. The Adi-Sanat, the number, for he is one.
II. The voice of the Lord Sv‰bh‰vat, the numbers, for he is one and nine.
III. The "formless square."
And these three enclosed within the are the sacred four; and the ten are the arupa universe. Then come the "sons," the seven fighters, the one, the eighth left out, and his breath which is the light-maker.
6. Then the second seven, who are the Lipika, produced by the three. The rejected son is one. The "Son-suns" are countless.
STANZA V.
1. The Primordial Seven, the First Seven Breaths of the Dragon of Wisdom, produce in their turn from their Holy Circumgyrating Breaths the Fiery Whirlwind.
2. They make of him the messenger of their will. The Dzyu becomes Fohat, the swift son of the Divine sons whose sons are the Lipika, runs circular errands. Fohat is the steed and the thought is the rider. He passes like lightning through the fiery clouds; takes three, and five, and seven strides through the seven regions above, and the seven below. He lifts his voice, and calls the innumerable sparks, and joins them.
3. He is their guiding spirit and leader. When he commences work, he separates the sparks of the Lower Kingdom that float and thrill with joy in their radiant dwellings, and forms therewith the germs of wheels. He places them in the six directions of space, and one in the middle-the central wheel.
4. Fohat traces spiral lines to unite the sixth to the seventh-the crown; an army of the Sons of Light stands at each angle, and the Lipika in the middle wheel. They say: This is good, the first Divine world is ready, the first is now the second. Then the "Divine Arupa" reflects itself in Chhaya Loka, the first garment of the Anupadaka.
5. Fohat takes five strides and builds a winged wheel at each corner of the square, for the four holy ones and their armies.
6. The Lipika circumscribe the triangle, the first one, the cube, the second one, and the pentacle within the egg. It is the ring called "Pass Not" for those who descend and ascend. Also for those who during the Kalpa are progressing towards the great day "Be with us." Thus were formed the Rupa and the Arupa: from one light seven lights; from each of the seven, seven times seven lights. The wheels watch the ring. . . . .
STANZA VI.
1. By the power of the Mother of Mercy and Knowledge-Kwan-Yin-the "triple" of Kwan-shai-Yin, residing in Kwan-yin-Tien, Fohat, the Breath of their Progeny, the Son of the Sons, having called forth, from the lower abyss, the illusive form of Sien Tchang and the Seven Elements:
2. The Swift and Radiant One produces the Seven Laya Centres, against which none will prevail to the great day "Be-with-Us," and seats the Universe on these Eternal Foundations surrounding Tsien-Tchan with the Elementary Germs.
3. Of the Seven-first one manifested, six concealed, two manifested, five concealed; three manifested, four concealed; four produced, three hidden; four and one tsan revealed, two and one half concealed; six to be manifested, one laid aside. Lastly, seven small wheels revolving; one giving birth to the other.
4. He builds them in the likeness of older wheels, placing them on the Imperishable Centres.
How does Fohat build them? he collects the fiery dust. He makes balls of fire, runs through them, and round them, infusing life thereinto, then sets them into motion; some one way, some the other way. They are cold, he makes them hot. They are dry, he makes them moist. They shine, he fans and cools them. Thus acts Fohat from one twilight to the other, during Seven Eternities.
5. At the fourth, the sons are told to create their images. One third refuses-two obey.
The curse is pronounced; they will be born on the fourth, suffer and cause suffering; this is the first war.
6. The older wheels rotated downwards and upwards. . . . The mother's spawn filled the whole. There were battles fought between the Creators and the Destroyers, and battles fought for space; the seed appearing and re-appearing continuously.
7. Make thy calculations, Lanoo, if thou wouldest learn the correct age of thy small wheel. Its fourth spoke is our mother. Reach the fourth "fruit" of the fourth path of knowledge that leads to Nirvana, and thou shalt comprehend, for thou shalt see. . . . .
STANZA VII.
1. Behold the beginning of sentient formless life.
First the Divine, the one from the Mother-Spirit; then the Spiritual; the three from the one, the four from the one, and the five from which the three, the five, and the seven. These are the three-fold, the four-fold downward; the "mind-born" sons of the first Lord; the shining seven.
It is they who are thou, me, him, oh Lanoo. They, who watch over thee, and thy mother earth.
2. The one ray multiplies the smaller rays. Life precedes form, and life survives the last atom of form. Through the countless rays proceeds the life-ray, the one, like a thread through many jewels.
3. When the one becomes two, the threefold appears, and the three are one; and it is our thread, oh Lanoo, the heart of the man-plant called Saptasarma.
4. It is the root that never dies; the three-tongued flame of the four wicks. The wicks are the sparks, that draw from the three-tongued flame shot out by the seven-their flame-the beams and sparks of one moon reflected in the running waves of all the rivers of earth.
5. The spark hangs from the flame by the finest thread of Fohat. It journeys through the Seven Worlds of Maya. It stops in the first, and is a metal and a stone; it passes into the second and behold-a plant; the plant whirls through seven changes and becomes a sacred animal. From the combined attributes of these, Manu, the thinker is formed. Who forms him? the seven lives, and the one life. Who completes him? The five-fold Lha. And who perfects the last body? Fish, sin, and soma.. . . .
6. From the first-born the thread between the Silent Watcher and his Shadow becomes more strong and radiant with every change. The morning sun-light has changed into noon - day glory.. . . .
7. This is thy present wheel, said the Flame to the Spark. Thou art myself, my image, and my shadow. I have clothed myself in thee, and thou art my Vahan to the day, "Be with us," when thou shalt re-become myself and others, thyself and me. Then the builders, having donned their first clothing, descend on radiant earth and reign over men-who are themselves. . . .
Thus ends this portion of the archaic narrative, dark, confused, almost incomprehensible. An attempt will now be made to throw light into this darkness, to make sense out of this apparent non-sense.
COMMENTARIES
on the seven stanzas and their terms, according to their numeration, in stanzas and slokas.
STANZA I.
1. "The Eternal Parent (Space), wrapped in her ever invisible robes, had slumbered once again for seven eternities (a)."
The "Parent Space" is the eternal, ever present cause of all-the incomprehensible deity, whose "invisible robes" are the mystic root of all matter, and of the Universe. Space is the one eternal thing that we can most easily imagine, immovable in its abstraction and uninfluenced by either the presence or absence in it of an objective Universe. It is without dimension, in every sense, and self-existent. Spirit is the first differentiation from That, the causeless cause of both Spirit and Matter. It is, as taught in the esoteric catechism, neither limitless void, nor conditioned fulness, but both. It was and ever will be. (See Proem pp. 2 et seq.)
Table of Contents
Introduction xvii
The Need of such a Book xix
The Antiquity of Documents and MSS xxiii
What the Book is intended to do xxviii
Volume First. Cosmogenesis.
Proem 1
The Oldest MSS. in the world and its Symbolism 2
The One Life, Active and Passive 3
The Secret Doctrine-Pantheism-Atheism 5
"Space" in all Religions and in Occultism 7
Seven Cosmic Elements-Seven Races of Mankind 9
The Three Postulates of the Secret Doctrine 10
Description of the Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan 14
Book I.-Part I Cosmic Evolution.
Seven Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan 21
Stanza I The Night of the Universe 27
The Seven Eternities 28
"Time" 28
The Universal Mind and the Dhyan Chohans 29
Nidana and Maya: The Causes of Misery 29
The Great Breath 33
Being and Non-Being 34
The Eye of Dangma 36
Alaya, the Universal Soul 37
Stanza II The Idea of Differentiation 40
The Absolute knows Itself not 41
The Germ of Life was not yet 43
The Universe was still concealed in the Divine Thought 46
Stanza III The Awakening of Kosmos 46
The Great Vibration 47
Nature's Symbols 49
The Power of Numbers 50
The Logoi and the Dragon 54
The Astral Light 56
Primeval Radiations from Unity 59
The Web of Being 61
Conscious Electricity: Fohat 63
Stanza IV The Septenary Hierarchies 63
The Sons of the Fire 63
The Vehicle of the Universe-the Dhyan Chohans 65
The Army of the Voice 68
Speech and Mind 70
The Ogdoad and the Heptad 72
The Stellar "Sons of Light" 75
Stanza V Fohat: The Child of the Septenary Hierarchies 77
The Fiery Whirlwind and the Primordial Seven 77
They Produce Fohat 78
The Correlation of the "Gods" 82
Evolution of the "Principles" of Nature 86
The Mystery of the Fire 87
The Secret of the Elements 89
The Square of the Tabernacle 90
The Planetary Spirits and the Lipika 92
The Ring "Pass Not" 93
The Sidereal Book of Life 94
The Soul's Pilgrimage and its "Rest" 96
Stanza VI Our World, Its Growth and Development 97
The Logos 97
Mystery of the Female Logos 98
The Seven Layu Centres 99
The "Elementary Germs" 100
The Evolution of the Elements 100
The Building of the Worlds 102
A Neutral Centre 105
"Dead" Planets-The Moon 106
Theosophical Misconceptions 108
The Planetary Divisions and the Human Principles 109
The Moon 110
Transmigrations of the Ego 113
The Septenary Chain 115
Relation of the other Planets to the Earth 116
Explanations Concerning the Globes and the Monads 121
The Lunar Chain and the Earth Chain 123
The Earth, the Child of the Moon 124
Classification of the Monads 125
The Monad Defined 126
The Lunar Monads-the Pitris 127
A Triple Evolution in Nature 129
Stanza VI Continued 136
"Creation" in the Fourth Round 136
The "Curse," "Sin," and "War" 138
The Struggle for Life and the Birth of the Worlds 144
The Adepts and the Sacred Island 149
Stanza VII The Parents of Man on Earth 151
Divisions of the Hierarchies 152
Correlations of Beings 159
What incarnates in Animal Man 166
Formation of Man: the Thinker 169
Occult and Kabalistic Pneumatics 173
Akasa and Ether 182
The Invisible "Lives" 183
Occult Vital Chemistry and Bacteriology 185
The Watcher and his Shadow 188
Earth peopled by the Shadows of the Gods 189
Summing Up 190
The pith and marrow of the Secret Doctrine 193
Hermes in Christian Garb 202
Some Occult Aphorisms 205
The Seven Powers of Nature 208
Book I.-Part II The Evolution of Symbolism in its Approximate Order.
I Symbolism and Ideographs 219
Emblem and Symbol differ 221
Magic Potency of Sound 223
Mystery Language 225
II The Mystery Language and its Keys 225
Egypt's many Religions 226
The Jews and their System 228
Moses copied from Sargon 233
Identity of Ancient Symbols 236
III Primordial Substance and Divine Thought 238
Divine Thought, or Cineritious Matter? 240
Ether and Intelligence 242
The Seven Prakritis 248
The Mystic Fire 249
One Tree of Knowledge 251
IV Chaos-Theos-Kosmos 251
The Union of Chaos and Spirit 253
The Birth of Mind 254
V The Hidden Deity, its Symbols and Glyphs 257
The Gnostic Idea 259
International Correlation of Gods 262
VI The Mundane Egg 265
Egg-born Logoi 269
The Winged Globe 271
VII The Days and Nights of Brahmâ 273
Human Gods and Divine Men 274
The Rebirth of Gods 275
The Puranic Prophecy 280
VIII The Lotus as a Universal Symbol 282
Exoteric and Esoteric 284
The Purity of early Phallicism 286
The Egyptian Lotus 287
IX Deus Lunus 288
A Glance at the Lunar Myth 289
A Key-note to the Moon 291
Copies and Originals 294
The Moon Bi-sexual 296
X Tree and Serpent and Crocodile Worship 303
Degeneration of the Symbol 304
The Seven-headed Dragons 306
Dragon and Crocodile 308
XI Demon Est Deus Inversus 309
Death is Life 311
The Fall of the Angels 315
Transformation of the Legend 318
XII The Theogony of the Creative Gods 320
The Point within the Circle 322
The Logos or Verbum 325
The Factors of Creation 327
Identity of the Hierarchies in all Religions 331
Difference between the Aryan and Semitic Systems 337
XIII The Seven Creations 337
The Gnostic and the Hindu Versions 340
The Seven Puranic "Creations" 341
XIV The Four Elements 349
The "Gods" and the "Elements" 351
The Language of the Elements 352
Pagan and Christian Worship of the Elements 355
XV On Kwan-Shi-Yin and Kwan-Yin 357
Kwan-Shi-Yin and Phallicism 358
The Real Meaning 359
Book I.-Part III Science and the Secret Doctrine Contrasted.
I Reasons for These Addenda 365
Occultism versus Materialism 367
The Sabbath of the Mystic 368
II Modern Physicists are Playing at Blind Man's Buff 369
III An Lumen Sit Corpus NEC Non? 370
The Hypothetical Ether 372
Scientific Theories of its Constitution 373
IV Is Gravitation a Law? 375
Intelligences or Blind Forces? 378
The Cause of Attraction 382
V The Theories of Rotation in Science 384
Conflicting Hypotheses 386
More Hypotheses 389
VI The Masks of Science 390
What are the "Forces?" 392
The View of the Occultists 393
Scientific and Occult Theories on Heat 397
The Atoms of Science 400
VII An Attack on the Scientific Theory of Force by a Man of Science 404
Ether and Atoms 408
VIII Life, Force, or Gravity? 409
Dr. Richardson on Nervous Ether 411
The Senses and their Action 415
Too much "Life" may Kill 418
IX The Solar Theory 419
The Primordial Element 420
Elements and Meta-Elements 424
The Tree of Life and Being 427
Prof. Crookes on the Elements 429
X The Coming Force 431
Mr Keeley, an Unconscious Occultist 434
Inter-Ethcric Waves 437
The Secrets of Sound and Odour 441
XI On the Elements and Atoms 442
Metaphysical Chemistry 444
What are the Seven Planets? 449
The Cyclic Fall of the Gods 451
XII Ancient Thought in Modern Dress 452
All-Potential Unity 456
The "Seventh" in Chemistry 458
XIII The Modern Nebular Theory 460
Forces are Emanations 465
What is the Nebula? 466
XIV Forces-Modes of Motion or Intelligences? 471
The Vital Principle 471
Occult and Physical Science 474
XV Gods, Monads, and Atoms 478
The Gods of the Ancients-the Monads 481
The Monad and the Duad 484
The Genesis of the Elements 487
Hermes and Huxley 491
The Teaching of Leibnitz 493
The Monads according to Occultism 497
XVI Cyclic Evolution and Karma 498
Karmic Cycles and Universal Ethics 501
Destiny and Karma 502
Karma-Nemesis 508
XVII The Zodiac and its Antiquity 509
The Jewish Patriarchs and the Signs of the Zodiac 513
Zodiacal Cycles 517
Hindu Astronomy 521
XVIII Summary of the Mutual Position 527
Science Confesses her Ignorance 528
Materialism is leading Europe towards a catastrophe 533