Theos-Talk Archives (March 1994 Message tl00020)

This is by Brenda.

Thanks, Arvind, for your responses.  I just know that all the
teachers of theosophy I have met are inspirational.  No one takes
the lectern and condemns us with hell-fire.  Why do they make
theosophy so pleasing to us in speeches and books?  I guess it's
a matter of style.  Nobody carries their professional work into
friendly conversations, I suppose.

I've been looking at A TREATISE ON COSMIC FIRE (TCF) by Bailey
and found some material on the Root Races and also on the keys.
AAB gives a list that looks like this in a footnote on p. 110.

"The keys, as hinted by H.P.B., are:
     a. Psychological - S.D. II, 25, note; I, 389.
     b. Astronomical - S.D. II, 25, note; I, 389; III, 198.
     c. Physical or Physiological - S.D. II, 25, note; III, 198.
     d. Metaphysical - S.D. II, 25, note; II, 394.
     e. Anthropological - S.D. I, 389; III, 198.
     f. Astrological - S.D. II, 343.
     g. Geometrical - S.D. II, 494; III, 176.
     h. Mystical - S.D., I, 401.
     i. Symbolical - S.D., II, 561.
     j. Numerical. - S.D., II, 198."

Did anyone know that this list was here?

AAB also implies the first four as being physiological,
psychological, astrological, metaphysical, and says, like H.P.B.,
that the fifth is geometrical, and that the Jews availed
themselves of two of the keys.  This is found on p. 110 in a
footnote.  This leaves us to wonder what the sixth and seventh
keys are or perhaps they haven't been fully formed yet.  I don't
know why we need an Anthropological key if as said "The seven
keys open the mysteries, past and future, of the seven great
rootraces and of the seven kalpas."  Astronomical is just
physical, in a sense.

On p. 374 SD Vol I, H.P.B. says "While the Eastern Occultists
have seven modes of interpretation, the Jews have only
four namely, the real-mystical; the allegorical; the moral; and
the literal or Pashut. The latter is the key of the exoteric
Churches and not worth discussion. Read in the first, or mystical
key, here are several sentences which show the identity of the
foundations of construction in every Scripture."

Maybe the two keys she is speaking of, by process of elimination,
are the mystical and the allegorical (symbolical).  Moral could
possibly be interpreted as psychological.

This process has left us with only a numerical key to reason
with.  One of the ways which H.P.B. uses the numerical key is a
Kabalistic method of using numbers for letters.  I have seen at
least two versions of numerology and there are probably quite a
few more.  One version uses our English alphabet A-Z, and repeats
1-9, 1-9, 1-8 in order for each letter.  The other version I have
seen, I think by Sepharial, but I could look it up uses numbers
such as 700, 300, for key letters.  And then, of course, there's
the version in THE SECRET DOCTRINE which I have never seen put
into a system, so don't know if this is presented in its
completeness or not.

If the numerical is not a key, but really a mystical or
geometrical aid, then this would have narrowed down the ten that
AAB lists above to a more concise seven.

Here's another quick quote from THE SECRET DOCTRINE, Vol I, p.
673.  "Fohat is the key in Occultism which opens and unriddles
the multiform symbols and respective allegories in the so-called
mythology of every nation; demonstrating the wonderful philosophy
and the deep insight into the mysteries of nature, in the
Egyptian and Chaldean as well as in the Aryan religions."

If the sixth and seventh keys are still a mystery, as AAB implies
on p. 110 TCF, these semi-complete, mystical and symbolical
understandings can still be perceived, as can the Geometrical, as
corresponding to the thought that the Race as a whole is
progressing towards more abstract thinking.  The placement of the
keys in a reverse order from that which Jerry had postulated runs
nicely from the concrete to the abstract, and places
psychological fairly low on the scale, with astrological (does
this mean cosmic beings? the 3rd Race?) and metaphysical (does
this mean cosmic forces? primarily, karma?) running up the scale
nicely.

Oh well, I sure could get interested in the mystical side in THE
SECRET DOCTRINE.