Theos-Talk Archives (March 1996 Message tl00009)

STANCOM5.TXT
 From a text supplied by Eldon Tucker
Converted to ASCII by Alan Bain
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Editorial note:

With the commentary on STANZA V, Eldon's text has moved into an
area where detailed checking has not yet been possible.  In
adapting his text I have had to use my own discretion in a few
instances, as I do not have the same 1888 edition that he worked
from, but the later 1895 third edition revised.  The
dissimilarities are not, in essence, that great, but the order
of sentences has occasionaly been changed, and what are
footnotes in 1888 become incorporated in the main body of the
text in many instances by 1895.  Later editions are different
again.  Alas! there is no "Standard Edition" of ~The Secret
Doctrine~.  However, I have little doubt that all that is of
importance is in these texts, and just as with any other
treasure trove, we will probably have to dig for it.

Also, I have adopted the same simpler approach used in the
uploads of ~The Key to Theosophy~ so that original emphasis by
means such as italics (of which there is an abundance, to say
the least) have been lost for the sake of providing, within a
reasonable time-frame, a searchable and readable text.

For thos who want "purity" I regret that they will have to
search out and obtain a printed copy of the version they
require, be it 1888 or the later six-volume "Adyar" edition.

It's a tough life :-)
------------------------------------------------------------

STANZA V. - Fohat: The Child of the Septenary Hierarchies

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 (a).

COMMENTARY.

(a) This is, perhaps, the most difficult of all the Stanzas to
explain. Its language is comprehensible only to him who is
thoroughly versed in Eastern allegory and its purposely obscure
phraseology. The question will surely be asked, "Do the
Occultists believe in all these 'Builders,"Lipika,' and 'Sons of
Light' as Entities, or are they merely imageries?" To this the
answer is given as plainly: "After due allowance for the imagery
of personified Powers, we must admit the existence of these
Entities, if we would not reject the existence of spiritual
humanity within physical mankind. For the hosts of these Sons of
Light and 'Mind-born Sons' of the first manifested Ray of the
UNKNOWN ALL, are the very root of spiritual man." Unless we want
to believe the unphilosophical dogma of a specially created soul
for every human birth - a fresh supply of these pouring in
daily, since "Adam" - we have to admit the occult teachings.
This will be explained in its place. Let us see, now, what may
be the occult meaning of this Stanza.

The Doctrine teaches that, in order to become a divine, fully
conscious god, - aye, even the highest - the Spiritual primeval
INTELLIGENCES must pass through the human stage. And when we say
human, this does not apply merely to our terrestrial humanity,
but to the mortals that inhabit any world, i.e., to those
Intelligences that have reached the appropriate equilibrium
between matter and spirit, as we have now, since the middle
point of the Fourth Root Race of the Fourth Round was passed.
Each Entity must have won for itself the right of becoming
divine, through self-experience. Hegel, the great German
thinker, must have known or sensed intuitionally this truth when
saying, as he did, that the Unconscious evolved the Universe
only "in the hope of attaining clear self-consciousness," of
becoming, in other words, MAN; for this is also the secret
meaning of the usual Puranic phrase about Brahma being
constantly "moved by the desire to create." This explains also
the hidden Kabalistic meaning of the saying: "The Breath becomes
a stone; the stone, a plant; the plant, an animal; the animal, a
man; the man, a spirit; and the spirit, a god." The Mind-born
Sons, the Rishis, the Builders, etc., were all men - of whatever
forms and shapes - in other worlds and the preceding
Manvantaras.

This subject, being so very mystical, is therefore the most
difficult to explain in all its details and bearings; since the
whole mystery of evolutionary creation is contained in it. A
sentence or two in it vividly recalls to mind similar ones in
the Kabala and the phraseology of the King Psalmist (civ.), as
both, when speaking of God, show him making the wind his
messenger and his "ministers a flaming fire." But in the
Esoteric doctrine it is used figuratively. The "fiery Wind" is
the incandescent Cosmic dust which only follows magnetically, as
the iron filings follow the magnet, the directing thought of the
"Creative Forces." Yet, this cosmic dust is something more; for
every atom in the Universe has the potentiality of
self-consciousness in it, and is, like Science and the Monads of
Leibnitz, a Universe in itself, and for itself. It is an atom
and an angel.

In this connection it should be noted that one of the luminaries
of the modern Evolutionist School, Mr. A. R. Wallace, when
discussing the inadequacy of "natural selection" as the sole
factor in the development of physical man, practically concedes
the whole point here discussed. He holds that the evolution of
man was directed and furthered by superior Intelligences, whose
agency is a necessary factor in the scheme of Nature. But once
the operation of these Intelligences is admitted in one place,
it is only a logical deduction to extend it still further. No
hard and fast line can be drawn.

STANZA V. - Continued.

2. THEY MAKE OF HIM THE MESSENGER OF THEIR WILL (a). THE DZYU
BECOMES FOHAT; THE SWIFT SON OF THE DIVINE SONS, WHOSE SONS ARE
THE LIPIKA,* RUNS CIRCULAR ERRANDS. HE IS THE STEED, AND THE
THOUGHT IS THE RIDER (i.e., he is under the influence of their
guiding thought). HE PASSES LIKE LIGHTNING THROUGH THE FIERY
CLOUDS (cosmic mists) (b); TAKES THREE, AND FIVE, AND SEVEN
STRIDES THROUGH THE SEVEN REGIONS ABOVE AND THE SEVEN BELOW (the
world to be). HE LIFTS HIS VOICE, AND CALLS THE INNUMERABLE
SPARKS (atoms) AND JOINS THEM TOGETHER. (c).

[*The difference between the "Builders," the Planetary Spirits,
and the Lipika must not be lost sight of. (See Nos. 5 and 6 of
this Commentary.) ]

(a) This shows the "Primordial Seven" using for their Vahan
vehicle, or the manifested subject which becomes the symbol of
the Power directing it), Fohat, called in consequence, the
"Messenger of their will" - the fiery whirlwind.

"Dzyu becomes Fohat" - the expression itself shows it. Dzyu is
the one real (magical) knowledge, or Occult Wisdom; which,
dealing with eternal truths and primal causes, becomes almost
omnipotence when applied in the right direction. Its antithesis
is Dzyu-mi, that which deals with illusions and false
appearances only, as in our exoteric modern sciences. In this
case, Dzyu is the expression of the collective Wisdom of the
Dhyani-Buddhas.

(b) As the reader is supposed not to be acquainted with the
Dhyani Buddhas, it is as well to say at once that, according to
the Orientalists, ere are five Dhyanis who are the "celestial"
Buddhas, of whom the human Buddhas are the manifestations in the
world of form and matter. Esoterically, however, the
Dhyani-Buddhas are seven, of whom five only have hitherto
manifested,* and two are to come in the sixth and seventh
Root-races. They are, so to speak, the eternal prototypes of the
Buddhas who appear on this earth, each of whom has his
particular divine prototype. So, for instance, Amitabha is the
Dhyani-Buddha of Gautama Sakyamuni, manifesting through him
whenever this great Soul incarnates on earth as He did in
Tzon-kha-pa.(2) As the synthesis of the seven Dhyani-Buddhas,
Avalokitoswara was the first Buddha (the Logos), so Amitabha is
the inner "God" of Gautama, who, in China, is called
Amita(-Buddha). They are, as Mr. Rhys Davids correctly states,
"the glorious counterparts in the mystic world, free from the
debasing conditions of this material life" of every earthly
mortal Buddha - the liberated Manushi-Buddhas appointed to
govern the Earth in this Round. They are the "Buddhas of
Contemplation," and are all Anupadaka (parentless), i.e.,
self-born of divine essence. The exoteric teaching which says
that every Dhyani-Buddha has the faculty of creating from
himself, an equally celestial son - a Dhyani-Bodhisattva - who,
after the decease of the Manushi (human) Buddha, has to carry
out the work of the latter, rests on the fact that owing to the
highest initiation performed by one overshadowed by the "Spirit
of l'Buddha" - (who is credited by the Orientalists with having
created the five Dhyani-Buddhas!), - a candidate becomes
virtually a Bodhisattva, created such by the High Initiator.

[*See A. P. Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism," 5th annotated
edition, pp. 171-173.]

[(2) The first and greatest Reformer who founded the
"Yellow-Caps," Gyalugpas. He was born in the year 1355 A.D. in
Amdo, and was the Avatar of Amitabha, the celestial name of
Gautama Buddha.]

(c) Fohat, being one of the most, if not the most important
character in esoteric Cosmogony, should be minutely described.
As in the oldest Grecian Cosmogony, differing widely from the
later mythology, Eros is the third person in the primeval
trinity: Chaos, Gaea, Eros: answering to the Kabalistic En-Soph
(for Chaos is SPACE, "void") the Boundless ALL, Shekinah and the
Ancient of Days, or the Holy Ghost; so Fohat is one thing in the
yet unmanifested Universe and another- in the phenomenal and
Cosmic World. In the latter, he is that Occult, electric, vital
power, which, under the Will of the Creative Logos, unites and
brings together all forms, giving them the first impulse which
becomes in time law. But in the unmanifested Universe, Fohat is
no more this, than Eros is the later brilliant winged Cupid, or
LOVE. Fohat has naught to do with Kosmos yet, since Kosmos is
not born, and the gods still sleep in the bosom of
"Father-Mother." He is an abstract philosophical idea. He
produces nothing yet by himself; he is simply that potential
creative power in virtue of whose action the NOUMENON of all
future phenomena divides, so to speak, but to reunite in a
mystic supersensuous act, and emit the creative ray. When the
"Divine Son" breaks forth, then Fohat becomes the propelling
force, the active Power which causes the ONE to become TWO and
THREE - on the Cosmic plane of manifestation. The triple One
differentiates into the many, and then Fohat is transformed into
that force which brings together the elemental atoms and makes
them aggregate and combine. We find an echo of this primeval
teaching in early Greek mythology. Erebos and Nux are born out
of Chaos, and, under the action of Eros, give birth in their
turn to Aether and Hemera, the light of the superior and the
light of the inferior or terrestrial regions. Darkness generates
light. See in the Puranas Brahma's "Will" or desire to create;
and in the Phoenician Cosmogony of Sanchoniathon the doctrine
that Desire,???, is the principle of creation.

Fohat is closely related to the "ONE LIFE." From the Unknown
One, the Infinite TOTALITY, the manifested ONE, or the
periodical, Manvantaric Deity, emanates; and this is the
Universal Mind, which, separated from its Fountain-Source, is
the Demiurgos or the creative Logos of the Western Kabalists,
and the four-faced Brahma of the Hindu religion. In its
totality, viewed from the standpoint of manifested Divine
Thought in the esoteric doctrine, it represents the Hosts of the
higher creative Dhyan Chohans. Simultaneously with the evolution
of the Universal Mind, the concealed Wisdom of Adi-Buddha - the
One Supreme and eternal - manifests itself as Avalokiteshwara
(or manifested Iswara), which is the Osiris of the Egyptians,
the AhuraMazda of the Zoroastrians, the Heavenly Man of the
Hermetic philosopher, the Logos of the Platonists, and the Atman
of the Vedantins.* By the action of the manifested Wisdom, or
Mahat, represented by these innumerable centres of spiritual
Energy in the Kosmos, the reflection of the Universal Mind,
which is Cosmic Ideation and the intellectual Force accompanying
such ideation, becomes objectively the Fohat of the Buddhist
esoteric philosopher. Fohat, running along the seven principles
of AKASA, acts upon manifested substance or the One Element, as
declared above, and by differentiating it into various centres
of Energy, sets in motion the law of Cosmic Evolution, which, in
obedience to the Ideation of the Universal Mind, brings into
existence all the various states of being in the manifested
Solar System.

The Solar System, brought into existence by these agencies,
consists of Seven Principles, like everything else within these
centres. Such is the teaching of the trans-Himalayan
Esotericism. Every philosophy, however, has it own way of
dividing these principles.

[* Mr. Subba Row seems to identify him with, and to call him,
the LOGOS. (See his four lectures on the "Bhagavadgita" in the
Theosophist.)]

Fohat, then, is the personified electric vital power, the
transcendental binding Unity of all Cosmic Energies, on the
unseen as on the manifested planes, the action of which
resembles - on an immense scale - that of a living Force created
by WILL, in those phenomena where the seemingly subjective acts
on the seemingly objective and propels it to action. Fohat is
not only the living Symbol and Container of that Force, but is
looked upon by the Occultists as an Entity - the forces he acts
upon being cosmic, human and terrestrial, and exercising their
influence on all those planes respectively. On the earthly plane
his influence is felt in the magnetic and active force generated
by the strong desire of the magnetizer. On the Cosmic, it is
present in the constructive power that carries out, in the
formation of things - from the planetary system down to the
glow-worm and simple daisy - the plan in the mind of nature, or
in the Divine Thought, with regard to the development and growth
of that special thing. He is, metaphysically, the objectivised
thought of the gods; the "Word made flesh," on a lower scale,
and the messenger of Cosmic and human ideations: the active
force in Universal Life. In his secondary aspect, Fohat is the
Solar Energy, the electric vital fluid,* and the preserving
fourth principle, the animal Soul of Nature, so to say, or -
Electricity. In India, Fohat is connected with Vishnu and Surya
in the early character of the (first) God; for Vishnu is not a
high god in the Rig Veda. The name Vishnu is from the root vish,
"to pervade," and Fohat is called the "Pervader" and the
Manufacturer, because he shapes the atoms from crude material.*
In the sacred texts of the Rig Veda, Vishnu, also, as "a
manifestation of the Solar Energy," and he is described as
striding through the Seven regions of the Universe in three
steps, the Vedic God having little in common with the Vishnu of
later times. Therefore the two are identical in this particular
feature, and one is the copy of the other.

[*In 1882 the President of the Theosophical Society, Col.
Olcott, was taken to task for asserting in one of his lectures
that Electricity is matter. Such, nevertheless, is the teaching
of the Occult Doctrine. "Force," "Energy," may be a better name
for it, so long as European Science knows so little about its
true nature; yet matter it is, as much as Ether is matter, since
it is as atomic, though several removes from the latter. It
seems ridiculous to argue that because a thing is imponderable
to Science, therefore it cannot be called matter. Electricity is
"immaterial" in the sense that its molecules are not subject to
perception and experiment; yet it may be - and Occultism says it
is - atomic; therefore it is matter. But even supposing it were
unscientific to speak of it in such terms, once Electricity is
called in Science a source of Energy, Energy simply, and a Force
- where is that Force or that Energy which can be thought of
without thinking of matter? Maxwell, a mathematician and one of
the greatest authorities upon Electricity and its phenomena,
said, years ago, that Electricity was matter, not motion merely.
"If we accept the hypothesis that the elementary substances are
composed of atoms we cannot avoid concluding that electricity
also, positive as well as negative, is divided into definite
elementary portions, which behave like atoms of electricity."
(Helmholtz, Faraday Lecture, 1881). We will go further than
that, and assert that Electricity is not only Substance but that
it is an emanation from an Entity, which is neither God nor
Devil, but one of the numberless Entities that rule and guide
our world according to the eternal LAW OF KARMA. (See the
Addendum to this Book.)]

The "three and seven" strides refer to the Seven spheres
inhabited by man, of the esoteric Doctrine, as well as to the
Seven regions of the Earth. Notwithstanding the frequent
objections made by would-be Orientalists, the Seven Worlds or
spheres of our planetary chain are distinctly referred to in the
exoteric Hindu scriptures. But how strangely all these numbers
are connected with like numbers in other Cosmogonies and with
their symbols, can be seen from comparisons and parallelisms
made by students of old religions. The "three strides of Vishnu"
through the "seven regions of the Universe," of the Rig Veda,
have been variously explained by commentators as meaning "fire,
lightning and the Sun" cosmically; and as having been taken in
the Earth, the atmosphere, and the sky; also as the "three
steps" of the dwarf (Vishnu's incarnation), though more
philosophically - and in the astronomical sense, very correctly
- they are explained by Aurnavabha as being the various
positions of the sun, rising, noon, and setting. Esoteric
philosophy alone explains it clearly, and the Zohar laid it down
very philosophically and comprehensively. It is said and plainly
demonstrated therein that in the beginning the Elohim (Elhim)
were called Echod, "one," or the "Deity is one in many," a very
simple idea in a pantheistic conception (in its philosophical
sense, of course). Then came the change, "Jehovah is Elohim,"
thus unifying the multiplicity and taking the first step towards
Monotheism. Now to the query, "How is Jehovah Elohim?" the
answer is, "By three Steps" from below.

[* It is well known that sand, when placed on a metal plate in
vibration assumes a series of regular curved figures of various
descriptions. Can Science give a complete explanation of this
fact? ]

The meaning is plain.* They are all symbols, and emblematic,
mutually and correlatively, of Spirit, Soul and Body (MAN); of
the circle transformed into Spirit, the Soul of the World, and
its body (or Earth). Stepping out of the Circle of Infinity,
that no man comprehendeth, Ain-Soph (the Kabalistic synonym for
Parabrahm, for the Zeroana Akerne, of the Mazdeans, or for any
other "UNKNOWABLE") becomes "One" - the ECHOD, the EKA, the AHU
- then he (or it) is transformed by evolution into the One in
many, the Dhyani-Buddhas or the Elohim, or again the
Amshaspends, his third Step being taken into generation of the
flesh, or "Man." And from man, or Jah-Hova, "male female," the
inner divine entity becomes, on the metaphysical plane, once
more the Elohim.

The Kabalistic idea is identical with the Esotericism of the
Archaic period. This esotericism is the common property of all,
and belongs neither to the Aryan 5th Race, nor to any of its
numerous Sub-races. It cannot be claimed by the Turanians,
so-called, the Egyptians, Chinese, Chaldeans, nor any of the
Seven divisions of the Fifth Root Race, but really belongs to
the Third and Fourth Root Races, whose descendants we find in
the Seed of the Fifth, the earliest Aryans. The Circle was with
every nation the symbol of the Unknown - "Boundless Space," the
abstract garb of an ever present abstraction - the Incognisable
Deity. It represents limitless Time in Eternity. The Zeroana
Akerne is also the "Boundless Circle of the Unknown Time," from
which Circle issues the radiant light - the Universal SUN, or
Ormazd(2) - and the latter is identical with Kronos, in his
Aeolian form, that of a Circle. For the circle is Sar, and
Saros, or cycle, and was the Babylonian god whose circular
horizon was the visible symbol of the invisible, while the sun
was the ONE Circle from which proceeded the Cosmic orbs, and of
which he was considered the leader. Zero-ana, is the Chackra or
circle of Vishnu, the mysterious emblem which is, according to
the definition of a mystic, "a curve of such a nature that as to
any, the least possible part thereof, if the curve be protracted
either way it will proceed and finally re-enter upon itself, and
form one and the same curve - or that which we call the circle."
No better definition could thus be given of the natural symbol
and the evident nature of Deity, which having its circumference
everywhere (the boundless) has, therefore, its central point
also everywhere; in other words, is in every point of the
Universe. The invisible Deity is thus also the Dhyan Chohans, or
the Rishis, the primitive seven, and the nine, without, and ten,
including, their synthetical unit; from which IT steps into Man.
Returning to the Commentary (4) of Stanza IV. the reader will
understand why, while the transHimalayan Chackra has inscribed
within it, ~triangle, first line, cube, second line, and a
pentacle with a dot in the centre, and some other variations,
the Kabalistic circle of the Elohim reveals, when the letters of
the word Alhim or Elohim are numerically read, the famous
numerals 13514, or by anagram 31415 - the astronomical (pi)
number, or the hidden meaning of Dhyani-Buddhas, of the Gebers,
the Geborim, the Kabeiri, and the Elohim, all signifying "great
men," "Titans," "Heavenly Men," and, on earth, "the giants."

[* The numbers 3, 5, and 7 are prominent in speculative masonry,
as shown in "Isis." A mason writes: - "There are the 3, 5, and 7
steps to show a circular walk. The three faces of 3, 3; 5, 3;
and 7, 3; etc., etc. Sometimes it comes in this form - 753/2 =
376 x 5 and 7635/2 = 3817 x 5 and the ratio of 20612/6561 feet
for cubit measure gives the Great Pyramid measures," etc., etc.
Three, five and seven are mystical numbers, and the last and the
first are as greatly honoured by Masons as by the Parsis - the
triangle being a symbol of Deity everywhere. (See the Masonic
Cyclopedia, and "Pythagorean Triangle," Oliver.) As a matter of
course, doctors of divinity (Cassel, for instance) show the
Zohar explaining and supporting the Christian trinity (!). It is
the latter, however, that had its origin from the [triangle] of
the Heathen, in the Archaic Occultism and Symbology. The three
strides relate metaphysically to the descent of Spirit into
matter, of the Logos falling as a ray into the Spirit, then into
the Soul, and finally into the human physical form of man, in
which it becomes LIFE.]

[(2) Ormazd is the Logos, the "First Born" and the Sun.]

The Seven was a Sacred Number with every nation; but none
applied it to more physiologically materialistic uses than the
Hebrews. With these it was pre-eminently the generative number
and 9 the male causative one, forming as shown by the Kabalists
the "or otz - "the Tree of the Garden of Eden," the "double
hermaphrodite rod" of the fourth race. [This was the symbol of
the "Holy of Holies," the 3 and the 4 of sexual separation.
Nearly every one of the 22 Hebrew letters are merely phallic
symbols. Of the two letters - as shown above - one, the ayin, is
a negative female letter, symbolically an eye, the other a male
letter, tza, a fish-hook or a dart.] Whereas with the Hindus and
Aryans generally, the significance was manifold, and related
almost entirely to purely metaphysical and astronomical truths.*
Their Rishis and gods, their Demons and Heroes, have historical
and ethical meanings, and the Aryans never made their religion
rest solely on physiological symbols, as the old Hebrews have
done. This is found in the exoteric Hindu Scriptures. That these
accounts are blinds is shown by their contradicting each other,
a different construction being found in almost every Purana and
epic poem. Read esoterically - they will all yield the same
meaning. Thus one account enumerates Seven worlds, exclusive of
the nether worlds, also seven in number; these fourteen upper
and nether worlds have nothing to do with the classification of
the septenary chain and belong to the purely aethereal,
invisible worlds. These will be noticed elsewhere. Suffice for
the present to show that they are purposely referred to as
though they belonged to the chain. "Another enumeration calls
the Seven worlds - earth, sky, heaven~ middle region, place of
birth, mansion of the blest, and abode of truth; placing the
'Sons of Brahma' in the sixth division, and stating the fifth,
or Jana Loka, to be that where animals destroyed in the general
conflagration are born again."

[* We are told by a Kabalist, who in a work not yet published
contrasts the Kabala and Zohar with Aryan Esotericism, that "The
Hebrew clear, short, terse and exact modes far and beyond
measure surpass the toddling word-talk of the Hindus - just as
by parallelisms the Psalmist says, "My mouth speaks with my
tongue, I know not thy numbers" (lxxi., 15)B. The Hindu Glyph
shows by its insufficiency in the large admixture of
adventitious sides the same borrowed plumage that the Greeks
(the lying Greeks) had, and that Masonry has: which in the rough
monosyllabic (and apparent) poverty of the Hebrew, shows the
latter to have come down from a far more remote antiquity than
any of these, and to have been the source (!?), or nearer the
old original source than any of them.]

This is entirely erroneous. Our learned brother and
correspondent judges apparently the Hindu religious systems by
their Shastras and Puranas, probably the latter, and in their
modern translation moreover, which is disfigured out of all
recognition, by the Orientalists. It is to their philosophical
systems that one has to turn, to their esoteric teaching, if he
would make a point of comparison. No doubt the symbology of the
Pentateuch and even of the New Testament, comes from the same
source. But surely the Pyramid of Cheops, whose measurements are
all found repeated by Professor Piazzi Smythe in Solomon's
alleged and mythical temple, is not of a later date than the
Mosaic books? Hence, if there is any such great identity as
claimed, it must be due to servile copying on the part of the
Jews, not on that of the Egyptians. The Jewish glyphs - and even
their language, the Hebrew - are not original. They are borrowed
from the Egyptians, from whom Moses go this Wisdom; from the
Coptic, the probable kinsman, if not parent, of the old
Phoenician and from the Hyksos, their (alleged) ancestors, as
Josephus shows in his "Against Apion," I., 25. Aye; but who are
the Hyksos shepherds? And who the Egyptians? History knows
nothing of the question, and speculates and theorizes out of the
depths of the respective consciousness of her historians. (See
Isis Unveiled, vol. II., p. 430-438.) "Khamism, or old Coptic,"
says Bunsen, "is from Western Asia, and contains some germ of
the Semitic, thus bearing witness to the primitive cognate unity
of the Aryan and Semitic races"; and he places the great events
in Egypt g,000 years B.C. The fact is that in archaic
Esotericism and Aryan thought we find a grand philosophy,
whereas in the Hebrew records we find only the most surprising
ingenuity in inventing apotheoses for phallic worship and sexual
theogony. (See Hindu Classical Dictionary.) Some real esoteric
teaching is given in the "Symbolism." He who is prepared for it
will understand the hidden meaning.

STANZA V. - Continued.

3. HE IS THEIR GUIDING SPIRIT AND LEADER. WHEN HE COMMENCES
WORK, HE SEPARATES THE SPARKS OF THE LOWER KINGDOM (mineral
atoms) THAT FLOAT AND THRILL WITH JOY IN THEIR RADIANT DWELLINGS
(gaseous clouds), AND FORMS THEREWITH THE GERMS OF WHEELS. HE
PLACES THEM IN THE SIX DIRECTIONS OF SPACE AND ONE IN THE MIDDLE
- THE CENTRAL WHEEL (a).

(a) "Wheels," as already explained, are the centres of force,
around which primordial Cosmic matter expands, and, passing
through all the six stages of consolidation, becomes spheroidal
and ends by being transformed into globes or spheres. It is one
of the fundamental dogmas of Esoteric Cosmogony, that during the
Kalpas (or aeons) of life, MOTION which, during the periods of
Rest "pulsates and thrills through every slumbering atom"*
(Commentary on Dzyan), assumes an evergrowing tendency, from the
first awakening of Kosmos to a new "Day," to circular movement.
The "Deity becomes a WHIRLWIND." They are also called Rotae -
the moving wheels of the celestial orbs participating in the
world's creation - when the meaning refers to the animating
principle of the stars and planets; for in the Kabala, they are
represented by the Ophanim, the Angels of the Spheres and stars,
of which they are the informing Souls. (See Kabala Denudata, "De
Anima," p. 113.)

[* It may be asked, as also the writer has not failed to ask,
"Who is there to ascertain the difference in that motion, since
all nature is reduced to its primal essence, and there can be no
one - not even one of the Dhyani-Chohans, who are all in Nirvana
- to see it?" The answer to this is: "Everything in Nature has
to be judged by analogy. Though the highest Deities (Archangels
or Dhyani-Buddhas) are unable to penetrate the mysteries too far
beyond our planetary system and the visible Kosmos, yet there
were great seers and prophets in olden times who were enabled to
perceive the mystery of Breath and Motion retrospectively, when
the systems of worlds were at rest and plunged in their periodic
sleep."]

This law of vortical movement in primordial matter, is one of
the oldest conceptions of Greek philosophy, whose first
historical Sages were nearly all Initiates of the Mysteries. The
Greeks had it from the Egyptians, and the latter from the
Chaldeans, who had been the pupils of Brahmins of the esoteric
school. Leucippus, and Democritus of Abdera - the pupil of the
Magi - taught that this gyratory movement of the atoms and
spheres existed from eternity. Hicetas, Heraclides, Ecphantus,
Pythagoras, and all his pupils, taught the rotation of the
earth; and Aryabhata of India, Aristarchus, Seleucus, and
Archimedes calculated its revolution as scientifically as the
astronomers do now; while the theory of the Elemental Vortices
was known to Anaxagoras, and maintained by him 500 years
13.B.C., or nearly 2,000 before it was taken up by Galileo,
Descartes, Swedenborg, and finally, with slight modifications,
by Sir W. Thomson. (See his "Vortical Atoms.") All such
knowledge, if justice be only done to it, is an echo of the
archaic doctrine, an attempt to explain which is now being made.
How men of the last few centuries have come to the same ideas
and conclusions that were taught as axiomatic truths in the
secrecy of the Adyta dozens of millenniums ago, is a question
that is treated separately. Some were led to it by the natural
progress in physical science and by independent observation;
others - such as Copernicus, Swedenborg, and a few more - their
great learning notwithstanding, owed their knowledge far more to
intuitive than to acquired ideas, developed in the usual way by
a course of study. (See "A Mystery about Buddha.")

[* "The doctrine of the rotation of the earth about an axis is
taught by the Pythagorean Hicetas, probably as early as 500 B.C.
It was also taught by his pupil Ecphantus, and by Heraclides, a
pupil of Plato. The immobility of the Sun and the orbital
rotation of the earth were shown by Aristarchus of Samos as
early as 281 B.C. to be suppositions accordant with facts of
observation. The Heliocentric theory was taught about 150 B.C.,
by Seleucus of Seleucia on the Tigris. - [It was taught 500 B.C.
by Pythagoras. - H.P,B.] It is said also that Archimedes, in a
work entitled Psammites, inculcated the Heliocentric theory. The
sphericity of the earth was distinctly taught by Aristotle, who
appealed for proof to the figure of the Earth's shadow on the
moon in eclipses. (Aristotle, De Coelo, lib. II., cap. XIV.),
The same idea was defended by Pliny (Nat. Hist., II., 65). These
views seem to have been lost from knowledge for more than a
thousand yearsB."]

[(Comparative Geology, Part IV., "Pre-Kantian Speculation," p.
551, by Alex. Winchell, LL.D.).]

By the "Six directions of Space" is here meant the "Double
Triangle," the junction and blending together of pure Spirit and
Matter, of the Arupa and the Rupa, of which the Triangles are a
Symbol. This double Triangle is a sign of Vishnu, as it is
Solomon's seal, and the Sri-Antara of the Brahmins.

STANZA v. - (Continued.)

4. FOHAT TRACES SPIRAL LINES TO UNITE THE SIX TO THE SEVENTH -
THE CROWN (a); AN ARMY OF THE SONS OF LIGHT STANDS AT EACH ANGLE
(and) THE LIPIKA - IN THE MIDDLE WHEEL. THEY (the Lipika) SAY,
"THIS IS GOOD" (b). THE FIRST DIVINE WORLD IS READY, THE FIRST
(is now), THE SECOND (world), THEN THE "DIVINE ARUPA (the
formless Universe of Thought) REFLECTS ITSELF IN CHHAYALOKA (the
shadowy world of Primal form, of the intellectual) THE FIRST
GARMENT OF (the) ANUPADAKA (c).

[That Swedenborg, who could not possibly have known anything of
the esoteric ideas of Buddhism, came independently near the
Occult teaching in his general conceptions, is shown by his
essay on the Vortical Theory. In Clissold's translation of it,
quoted by Prof Winchell, we find the following Resume: - "The
first Cause is the Infinite or Unlimited. This gives existence
to the First Finite or Limited." (The Logos in His manifestation
and the Universe.) "That which produces a limit is analogous to
motion. (See first Stanza, supra.) The limit produced is a
point, the Essence of which is Motion; but being without parts,
this Essence is not actual Motion, but only a connatus to it."
(In our Doctrine it is not a "connatus," but a change from
eternal vibration in the unmanifested, to Vortical Motion in the
phenomenal World)B" From this first proceed Extension, Space,
Figure, and Succession, or Time. As in Geometry a point
generates a line, a line a surface, and a surface a solid, so
here the connatus of a point tends towards lines, surfaces and
solids. In other words, the Universe is contained in ovo in the
first natural pointB the Motion toward which the connatus tends,
is circular, since the circle is the most perfect of all
figuresB The most perfect figure of a MotionB must be the
perpetually circular, that is to say, it must proceed from the
centre to the periphery and from the periphery to the centre,"
(Quoted from Principia Revum Naturalia.) This is Occultism pure
and simple.]

(a) This tracing of "Spiral lines" refers to the evolution of
man's as well as Nature's principles; an evolution which takes
place gradually (as will be seen in Book II., on "The origin of
the Human Races"), as does everything else in nature. The Sixth
principle in Man (Buddhi, the Divine Soul) though a mere breath,
in our conceptions, is still something material when compared
with divine "Spirit" (Atma) of which it is the carrier or
vehicle. Fohat, in his capacity of DIVINE LOVE (Eros), the
electric Power of affinity and sympathy, is shown allegorically
as trying to bring the pure Spirit, the Ray inseparable from the
ONE absolute, into union with the Soul, the two constituting in
Man the MONAD, and in Nature the first link between the ever
unconditioned and the manifested. "The first is now the second"
(world) - of the Lipikas - has reference to the same.

(b) The "Army" at each angle is the Host of angelic Beings
(Dhyan-Chohans) appointed to guide and watch over each
respective region from the beginning to the end of Manvantara.
They are the "Mystic Watchers" of the Christian Kabalists and
Alchemists, and relate, symbolically as well as cosmogonically,
to the numerical system of the Universe. The numbers with which
these celestial Beings are connected are extremely difficult to
explain, as each number refers to several groups of distinct
ideas, according to the particular group of "Angels" which it is
intended to represent. Herein lies the nodus in the study of
symbology, with which, unable to untie by disentangling it, so
many scholars have preferred dealing as Alexander dealt with the
Gordian knot; hence erroneous conceptions and teachings, as a
direct result.

The "First is the Second," because the first "cannot really be
numbered or regarded as the First, as that is the realm of
noumena in its primary manifestation: the threshold to the World
of Truth, or SAT, through which the direct energy that radiates
from the ONE REALITY - the Nameless Deity - reaches us. Here
again, the untranslatable term SAT (Be-ness) is likely to lead
into an erroneous conception, since that which is manifested
cannot be SAT, but is something phenomenal, not everlasting,
nor, in truth, even semi-eternal. It is coeval and coexistent
with the One Life, "Secondless," but as a manifestation it is
still a Maya - like the rest. This "World of Truth" can be
described only in the words of the Commentary as "A bright star
dropped from the heart of Eternity; the beacon of hope on whose
Seven Rays hang the Seven Worlds of Being." Truly so; since
those are the Seven Lights whose reflections are the human
immortal Monads - the Atma, or the irradiating Spirit of every
creature of the human family. First, this septenary Light; then:
-

(c) The "Divine World" - the countless Lights lit at the
primeval Light - the Buddhis, or formless divine Souls, of the
last Arupa (formless) world; the "Sum Total," in the mysterious
language of the old Stanza. In the Catechism, the Master is made
to ask the pupil: -

"Lift thy head, oh Lanoo; dost thou see one, or countless lights
above thee, burning in the dark midnight sky?

"I sense one Flame, oh Gurudeva, I see countless undetached
sparks shining in it."

"Thou sayest well. And now look around and into thyself. That
light which burns inside thee, dost thou feel it different in
anywise from the light that shines in thy Brother-men?"

"It is in no way different, though the prisoner is held in
bondage by Karnza, and though its outer garments delude the
ignorant into saying, "Thy Soul and My Soul."

The radical unity of the ultimate essence of each constituent
part of compounds in Nature - from Star to mineral Atom, from
the highest Dhyan Chohan to the smallest infusoria, in the
fullest acceptation of the term, and whether applied to the
spiritual, intellectual, or physical worlds - this is the one
fundamental law in Occult Science. "The Deity is boundless and
infinite expansion," says an Occult axiom; and hence, as
remarked, the name of Brahma." There is a deep philosophy
underlying the earliest worship in the world, that of the Sun
and of Fire. Of all the elements known to physical science, Fire
is the one that has ever eluded definite analysis. It is
confidently asserted that Air is a mixture containing the gases
Oxygen and Nitrogen. We view the Universe and the Earth as
matter composed of definite chemical molecules. We speak of the
primitive ten Earths, endowing each with a Greek or Latin name.
We say that water is, chemically, a compound of Oxygen and
Hydrogen. But what is FIRE? It is the effect of combustion, we
are gravely answered. It is heat and light and motion, and a
correlation of physical and chemical forces in general. And this
scientific definition is philosophically supplemented by the
theological one in Webster's Dictionary, which explains fire as
"the instrument of punishment, or the punishment of the
impenitent in another state" - the "state," by the bye, being
supposed to be spiritual; but, alas! the presence of fire would
seem to be a convincing proof of its material nature. Yet,
speaking of the illusion of regarding phenomena as simple,
because they are familiar, Professor Bain says (Logic. Part
II.): "Very familiar facts seem to stand in no need of
explanation themselves and to be the means of explaining
whatever can be assimilated to them. Thus, the boiling and
evaporation of a liquid is supposed to be a very simple
phenomenon requiring no explanation, and a satisfactory
explanation of rarer phenomena. That water should dry up is, to
the uninstructed mind, a thing wholly intelligible; whereas to
the man acquainted with physical science the liquid state is
anomalous and inexplicable. The lighting of a fire by a flame is
a GREAT SCIENTIFIC DIFFICULTY, yet few people think so (p. 125).

[* In the Rig Veda we find the names Brahmanaspat? and
Brihaspati alternating and equivalent to each other. Also see
"Brihad Upanishad"; Brihaspati is a deity called "the Father of
the gods."]

What says the esoteric teaching with regard to fire? "Fire," it
says, "is the most perfect and unadulterated reflection, in
Heaven as on Earth, of the ONE FLAME. It is Life and Death, the
origin and the end of every material thing. It is divine
'SUBSTANCE.' "Thus, not only the FIRE-WORSHIPPER, the Parsee,
but even the wandering savage tribes of America, which proclaim
themselves "born of fire," show more science in their creeds and
truth in their superstitions, than all the speculations of
modern physics and learning. The Christian who says: "God is a
living Fire," and speaks of the Pentecostal "Tongues of Fire"
and of the "burning bush" of Moses, is as much a fire worshipper
as any other "heathen." The Rosicrucians, among all the mystics
and Kabalists, were those who defined Fire in the right and most
correct way. Procure a sixpenny lamp, keep it only supplied with
oil, and you will be able to light at its flame the lamps,
candles, and fires of the whole globe without diminishing that
flame. If the Deity, the radical One, is eternal and an infinite
substance ("the Lord thy God is a consuming fire") and never
consumed, then it does not seem reasonable that the Occult
teaching should be held as unphilosophical when it says: "Thus
were the Arupa and Rupa worlds formed: from ONE light seven
lights; from each of the seven, seven times seven," etc., etc.

STANZA V. - Continued.

5. FOHAT TAKES FIVE STRIDES (having already taken the first
three) (a), AND BUILDS A WINGED WHEEL AT EACH CORNER OF THE
SQUARE FOR THE FOUR HOLY ONESB.. AND THEIR ARMIES (hosts) (b).

(a) The "strides," as already explained (see Commentary on
Stanza IV.), refer to both the Cosmic and the Human principles -
the latter of which consist, in the exoteric division, of three
(Spirit, Soul, and Body), and, in the esoteric calculation, of
seven principles - three rays of the Essence and four aspects.:
Those who have studied Mr. Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism" can
easily grasp the nomenclature. There are two esoteric schools -
or rather one school, divided into two parts - one for the inner
Lanoos, the other for the outer or semi-lay chelas beyond the
Himalayas; the first teaching a septenary, the other a six-fold
division of human principles.

 From a Cosmic point of view, Fohat taking "five strides" refers
here to the five upper planes of Consciousness and Being, the
sixth and the seventh (counting downwards) being the astral and
the terrestrial, or the two lower planes.

(b) "Four winged wheels at each cornerB.. for the four holy ones
and their armies (hosts)"B.. These are the "four Maharajahs" or
great Kings of the Dhyan-Chohans, the Devas who preside, each
over one of the four cardinal points. They are the Regents or
Angels who rule over the Cosmical Forces of North, South, East
and West, Forces having each a distinct occult property. These
BEINGS are also connected with Karma, as the latter needs
physical and material agents to carry out her decrees, such as
the four kinds of winds, for instance, professedly admitted by
Science to have their respective evil and beneficent influences
upon the health of Mankind and every living thing. There is
occult philosophy in that Roman Catholic doctrine which traces
the various public calamities, such as epidemics of disease, and
wars, and so on, to the invisible "Messengers" from North and
West. "The glory of God comes from the way of the East" says
Ezekiel; while Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the Psalmist assure their
readers that all the evil under the Sun comes from the North and
the West - which proposition, when applied to the Jewish nation,
sounds like an undeniable prophecy for themselves. And this
accounts also for St. Ambrose (On Amos, ch. iv.) declaring that
it is precisely for that reason that "we curse the North-Wind,
and that during the ceremony of baptism we begin by turning
towards the West (Sidereal), to renounce the better him who
inhabits it; after which we turn to the East."

[* The four aspects are the body, its life or vitality, and the
"Double" of the body, the triad which disappears with the death
of the person, and the Kama-rupa which disintegrates in
Kama-rupa.]

Belief in the "Four Maharajahs" - the Regents of the Four
cardinal points - was universal and is now that of Christians,
who call them, after St. Augustine, "Angelic Virtues," and
"Spirits" when enumerated by themselves, and "Devils" when named
by Pagans. But where is the difference between the Pagans and
the Christians in this case? Following Plato, Aristotle
explained that the {greek} term was understood only as meaning
the incorporeal principles placed at each of the four great
divisions of our Cosmical world to supervise them. Thus, no more
than the Christians did, do they adore and worship the Elements
and the cardinal (imaginary) points, but the "gods" that ruled
these respectively. For the Church there are two kinds of
Sidereal beings, the Angels and the Devils. For the Kabalist and
Occultist there is but one; and neither of them makes any
difference between "the Rectors of Light" and the Cosmocratores,
or "Rectores tenebrarum harum," whom the Roman Church imagines
and discovers in a "Rector of Light "as soon as he is called by
another name than the one she addresses him by. It is not the
"Rector" or "Maharajah" who punishes or rewards, with or without
"God's" permission or order, but man himself - his deeds or
Karma, attracting individually and collectively (as in the case
of whole nations sometimes), every kind of evil and calamity. We
produce CAUSES, and these awaken the corresponding powers in the
sidereal world; which powers are magnetically and irresistibly
attracted to - and react upon - those who produced these causes;
whether such persons are practically the evil-doers, or simply
Thinkers who brood mischief. Thought is matter,* we are taught
by modern Science; and "every particle of the existing matter
must be a register of all that has happened," as in their
"Principles of Science" Messrs. Jevons and Babbage tell the
profane. Modern Science is drawn more every day into the
maelstrom of Occultism; unconsciously, no doubt, still very
sensibly The two main theories of science - re the relations
between Mind and Matter - are Monism and Materialism. These two
cover the whole ground of negative psychology with the exception
of the quasi-occult views of the pantheistic German schools.

[* Says the scholarly Vossius, in his Theol. Cir. I. VII.:
"Though St. Augustine has said that every visible thing in this
world had an angelic virtue as an overseer near it, it is not
individuals but entire species of things that must be
understood, each such species having indeed its particular angel
to watch it. He is at one in this with all the philosophersB For
us these angels are spirits separated from the objects whereas
for the philosophers (pagan) they were gods. 'Considering the
Ritual established by the Roman Catholic Church for "Spirits of
the Stars," the latter look suspiciously like "Gods," and were
no more honoured and prayed to by the ancient and modern pagan
rabble than they are now at Rome by the highly cultured Catholic
Christians.]

[* Not of course in the sense of the German Materialist
Moleschott, who assures us that "Thought is the movement of
matter," a statement of almost unequalled absurdity. Mental
states and bodily states are utterly contrasted as such. But
that does not affect the position that every thought, in
addition to its physical accompaniment (brain-change), exhibits
an objective - though to us supersensuously objective aspect on
the astral plane. (See "The Occult World," pp. 89, 90.)]

2) The views of our present-day scientific thinkers as to the
relations between mind and matter may be reduced to two
hypotheses. These show that both views equally exclude the
possibility of an independent Soul, distinct from the physical
brain through which it functions. They are: -

(I.) MATERIALIS, the theory which regards mental phenomena as
the product of molecular change in the brain; i.e., as the
outcome of a transformation of motion into feeling (!). The
cruder school once went so far as to identify mind with a
"peculiar mode of motion" (!!), but this view is now happily
regarded as absurd by most of the men of science themselves.

(2.) MONISM, or the Single Substance Doctrine, is the more
subtle form of negative psychology, which one of its advocates,
Professor Bain, ably terms "guarded Materialism." This doctrine,
which commands a very wide assent, counting among its upholders
such men as Lewis, Spencer, Ferrier, and others, while positing
thought and mental phenomena generally as radically contrasted
with matter, regards both as equal to the two sides, or aspects,
of one and the same substance in some of its conditions. Thought
as thought, they say, is utterly contrasted with material
phenomena, but it must be also regarded as only "the subjective
side of nervous motion" - whatever our learned men may mean by
this.

[In the Egyptian temples, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, an
immense curtain separated the tabernacle from the place for the
congregation. The Jews had the same. In both, the curtain was
drawn over five pillars (the Pentacle) symbolising our five
senses and five Root-races esoterically, while the four colours
of the curtain represented the four cardinal points and the four
terrestrial elements. The whole was an allegorical symbol. It is
through the four high Rulers over the four points and Elements
that our five senses may become cognisant of the hidden truths
of Nature; and not at all, as Clemens would have it, that it is
the elements per se that furnished the Pagans with divine
Knowledge or the knowledge of God. While the Egyptian emblem was
spiritual, that of the Jews was purely materialistic, and,
indeed, honoured only the blind Elements and the imaginary
"Points." For what was the meaning of the square tabernacle
raised by Moses in the wilderness, if it had not the same
cosmical significance? "Thou shalt make an hangingB of blue,
purple, and scarlet" and "five pillars of shittim wood for the
hangingB four brazen rings in the four corners thereofB boards
of fine wood for the four sides, North, South, West, and EastB
of the TabernacleB with Cherubims of cunning work." (Exodus, ch.
xxvi., xxvii.) The Tabernacle and the square courtyard, Cherubim
and all, were precisely the same as those in the Egyptian
temples. The square form of the Tabernacle meant just the same
thing as it still means, to this day, in the exoteric worship of
the Chinese and Tibetans - the four cardinal points signifying
that which the four sides of the pyramids, obelisks, and other
such square erections mean. Josephus takes care to explain the
whole thing. He declares that the Tabernacle pillars are the
same as those raised at Tyre to the four Elements, which were
placed on pedestals whose four angles faced the four cardinal
points: adding that "the angles of the pedestals had equally the
four figures of the Zodiac" on them, which represented the same
orientation (Antiquities, I. VIII, ch. xxii.).

[* Thus the sentence, "Natura Elementorum obtinet revelationem
Dei," (In Clemens's Stromata, R. IV., para. 6), is applicable to
both or neither, Consult the Zends, vol II., p. 228, and
Plutarch De Iside, as compared by Layard, Academie des
Inscriptions, 1854, Vol XV.]

The idea may be traced in the Zoroastrian caves, in the rock-cut
temples of India, as in all the sacred square buildings of
antiquity that have survived to this day. This is shown
definitely by Layard, who finds the four cardinal points, and
the four primitive elements, in the religion of every country,
under the shape of square obelisks, the four sides of the
pyramids, etc., etc. Of these elements and their points the four
Maharajahs were the regents and the directors.

If the student would know more of them, he has but to compare
the Vision of Ezekiel (chap. i.) with what is known of Chinese
Buddhism (even in its exoteric teachings); and examine the
outward shape of these "Great Kings." In the opinion of the Rev.
Joseph Edkins, they are "the Devas who preside each over one of
the four continents into which the Hindus divide the world."Each
leads an army of spiritual beings to protect mankind and
Buddhism. With the exception of favouritism towards Buddhism,
the four celestial beings are precisely this. They are the
protectors of mankind and also the Agents of Karma on Earth,
whereas the Lipika are concerned with Humanity's hereafter. At
the same time they are the four living creatures "who have the
likeness of a man" of Ezekiel's visions, called by the
translators of the Bible, "Cherubim," "Seraphim," etc.; and by
the Occultists, "the winged Globes," the "Fiery Wheels," and in
the Hindu Pantheon by a number of different names. All these
Gandharvas, the "Sweet Songsters," the Asuras, Kinnaras, and
Nagas, are the allegorical descriptions of the "four
Maharajahs." The Seraphim are the fiery Serpents of Heaven which
we find in a passage describing Mount Meru as: "the exalted mass
of glory, the venerable haunt of gods and heavenly choristersB.
not to be reached by sinful menB. because guarded by Serpents."
They are called the Avengers, and the "Winged Wheels." Their
mission and character being explained, let us see what the
Christian Bible-interpreters say of the Cherubim: - "The word
signifies in Hebrew, fullness of knowledge; these angels are so
called from their exquisite Knowledge, and were therefore used
for the punishment of men who affected divine Knowledge."
(Interpreted by Cruden in his Concordance, from Genesis iii.,
24.) Very well; and vague as the information is, it shows that
the Cherub placed at the gate of the garden of Eden after the
"Fall," suggested to the venerable Interpreters the idea of
punishment connected with forbidden Science or divine Knowledge
- one that generally leads to another "Fall," that of the gods,
or "God," in man's estimation. But as the good old Cruden knew
nought of Karma, he may be forgiven. Yet the allegory is
suggestive. From Meru, the abode of gods, to Eden, the distance
is very small, and from the Hindu Serpents to the Ophite
Cherubim, the third out of the seven of which was the Dragon,
the separation is still smaller, for both watched the entrance
to the realm of Secret Knowledge. But Ezekiel plainly describes
the four Cosmic Angels: "I looked, and behold, a whirlwind, a
cloud and fire infolding itB also out of the midst thereof came
the likeness of four living creaturesB they had the likeness of
a man. And every one had four faces and four wingsB the face of
a man, and the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face
of an eagleB" ("Man" was here substituted for "Dragon." Compare
the "Ophite Spirits."*)B" Now as I beheld the living creatures
behold one wheel upon the Earth with his four facesB as it were
a wheel in the middle of a wheelB for the support of the living
creature was in the wheelB their appearance was like coals of
fireB" etc. (Ezekiel, ch. i.)

[* The Hindus happen to divide the world into seven continents,
exoterically as esoterically; and their four cosmic Devas are
eight, presiding over the eight points of the compass and not
the Continents. (Compare "Chinese Buddhism," p. 216.)]

There are three chief groups of Builders and as many of the
Planetary Spirits and the Lipika, each group being again
divided;; Seven sub-groups. It is impossible, even in such a
large work as this, to enter into a minute examination of even
the three principal groups, as it would demand an extra volume.
The "Builders" are the representatives of the first "Mind-Born"
Entities, therefore of the primeval Rishi-Prajapati: also of the
Seven great Gods of Egypt, of which Osiris is the chief: of the
Seven Amshaspends of the Zoroastrians, with Ormazd at their
head: or the "Seven Spirits of the Face": the Seven Sephiroth
separated from the first Triad, etc., etc.

[* The Angels recognised by the Roman Catholic Church who
correspond to these "Faces" were with the Ophites: - Dragon -
Raphael; Lion - Michael; Bull, or ox - Uriel; and Eagle -
Gabriel, The four keep company with the four Evangelists, and
preface the Gospels.]

They build or rather rebuild every "System" after the "Night."
The Second group of the Builders is the Architect of our
planetary chain exclusively; and the third, the progenitor of
our Humanity - the Macrocosmic prototype of the microcosm.

The Planetary Spirits are the informing spirits of the Stars in
general, and of the Planets especially. They rule the destinies
of men who are all born under one or other of their
constellations; the second and third groups pertaining to other
systems have the same functions, and all rule various
departments in Nature. In the Hindu exoteric Pantheon they are
the guardian deities who preside over the eight points of the
compass - the four cardinal and the four intermediate points -
and are called Loka-Palas," Supporters or guardians of the
World" (in our visible Kosmos), of which Indra (East), Yama
(South), Varuna (West), and Kuvera (North) are the chief; their
elephants and their spouses pertaining of course to fancy and
afterthought, though all of them have an occult significance.

The Lipika (a description of whom is given in the Commentary on
Stanza IV. No. 6) are the Spirits of the Universe, whereas the
Builders are only our own planetary deities. The former belong
to the most occult portion of Cosmogenesis, which cannot be
given here. Whether the Adepts (even the highest) know this
angelic order in the completeness of its triple degrees, or only
the lower one connected with the records of our world, is
something which the writer is unprepared to say, and she would
incline rather to the latter supposition. Of its highest grade
one thing only is taught: the Lipika are connected with Karma -
being its direct Recorders.

[* The Jews, save the Kabalists, having no names for East, West,
South, and North, e&%$;; the idea by words signifying before,
behind, right and left, and very often confounded the terms
exoterically, thus making the blinds in the Bible more confused
and difficult to interpret, Add to this the fact that out of the
forty-seven translators of King James I. of England's Bible
"only three understood Hebrew, and of these two died before the
Psalms were translated" (Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia), and one may
easily understand what reliance can be placed on the English
version of the Bible. In this work the Douay Roman Catholic
version is generally followed.]

The Symbol for Sacred and Secret Knowledge was universally in
antiquity, a Tree, by which a Scripture or a Record was also
meant. Hence the word Lipika, the Writers or Scribes; the
Dragons. symbols of Wisdom, who guard the Trees of Knowledge;
the "golden" Apple-Tree of the Hesperides; the "Luxuriant Trees"
and vegetation of Mount Meru, guarded by Serpents, Juno's giving
Jupiter, on her marriage, a Tree with golden fruit, is another
form of Eve offering Adam the apple from the Tree of Knowledge.

STANZA V. - Continued.

6. THE LIPIKA CIRCUMSCRIBE THE TRIANGLE, THE FIRST ONE (the
vertical line or the figure I.), THE CUBE, THE SECOND ONE, AND
THE PENTACLE WITHIN THE EGG (circle) (a). IT IS THE RING CALLED
"PASS NOT, FOR THOSE WHO DESCEND AND ASCEND (as also for those)
WHO, DURING THE KALPA, ARE PROGRESSING TOWARD THE GREAT DAY "BE
WITH US (b)B. THUS WERE FORMED THE ARUPA AND THE RUPA (the
Formless World and the World of Forms); FROM ONE LIGHT SEVEN
LIGHTS; FROM EACH OF THE SEVEN, SEVEN TIMES SEVEN LIGHTS. THE
"WHEELS WATCH THE RING.

The Stanza proceeds with a minute classification of the Orders