Theos-Talk Archives (March 1996 Message tl00010)

of Angelic Hierarchy. From the group of Four and Seven emanates
the "mind-born" group of Ten, of Twelve, of Twenty-one, etc.,
all these divided again into sub-groups of septenaries, novems,
duodecimals, and so on, until the mind is lost in this endless
enumeration of celestial hosts and Beings, each having its
distinct task in the ruling of the visible Kosmos during its
existence.

(a) The esoteric meaning of the first sentence of the Sloka is,
that those who have been called Lipikas, the Recorders of the
Karmic ledger, make an impassible barrier between the personal
EGO and the impersonal SELF, the Noumenon and Parent-Source of
the former. Hence the allegory. They circumscribe the manifested
world of matter within the RING "Pass-Not." This world is the
symbol (objective) of the ONE divided into the many, on the
planes of Illusion, of Adi (the "First") or of Eka (the "One");
and this One is the collective aggregate, or totality, of the
principal Creators or Architects of this visible universe. In
Hebrew Occultism their name is both Achath, feminine, "One," and
Achod, "One" again but masculine. The monotheists have taken
(and are still taking) advantage of the profound esotericism of
the Kabala to apply the name by which the One Supreme Essence is
known to ITS manifestation, the Sephiroth-Elohim, and call it
Jehovah. But this is quite arbitrary and against all reason and
logic, as the term Elohim is a plural noun, identical with the
plural word Chiim, often compounded with the Elohim.* Moreover,
in Occult metaphysics there are, properly speaking, two "ONES" -
the One on the unreachable plane of Absoluteness and Infinity,
on which no speculation is possible, and the Second '- One" on
the plane of Emanations. The former can neither emanate nor be
divided, as it is eternal, absolute, and immutable. The Second,
being, so to speak, the reflection of the first One (for it is
the Logos, or Eswara, in the Universe of Illusion), can do all
this. It emanates from itself - as the upper Sephirothal Triad
emanates the lower seven Sephiroth - the seven Rays or Dhyan
Chohans; in other words, the Homogeneous becomes the
Heterogeneous, the "Protyle" differentiates into the Elements.
But these, unless they return into their primal Element, can
never cross beyond the Laya, or zero-point.

Hence the allegory. The Lipika separate the world (or plane) of
pure spirit from that of Matter. Those who "descend and ascend"
- the incarnating Monads, and men striving towards purification
and "ascending," but still not having quite reached the goal -
may cross the "circle of the Pass-Not," only on the day
"Be-With-Us"; that day when man, freeing himself from the
trammels of ignorance, and recognising fully the
non-separateness of the Ego within his personality - erroneously
regarded as his own - from the UNIVERSAL EGO (Anima
Supra-Mundi), merges thereby into the One Essence to become not
only one "with us" (the manifested universal lives which are
"ONE" LIFE), but that very life itself.

[* The sentence in the Sepher Jezirah and elsewhere:
"Achath-Ruach-Elohim-Chiim" "denotes the Elohim as androgynous
at best, the feminine element almost predominating, as it would
read: "ONE" is She the Spirit of the Elohim of Life." As said
above, Echath (or Achath) is feminine, and Echod (or Achod)
masculine, both meaning ONE t This metaphysical tenet can hardly
be better described than Mr. Subba Row's in "Bhagavadgita"
lectures: "Mulaprakiti (the veil of Parabrahmam) acts as the one
energy through the Logos (or 'Eswara'). Now Parabrahmam, is the
one essence from which starts into existence a centre of energy,
which I shall for the present call the LogosB. It is called the
VerbumB by the Christians, and it is the divine Christos who is
eternal in the bosom of his father. It is called Avalokiteshwara
by the BuddhistsB. In almost every doctrine, they have
formulated the existence of a centre of spiritual energy which
is unborn and eternal, and which exists in the bosom of
Parabrahmam at the time of Pralaya, and starts as a centre of
conscious energy at the time of Cosmic activityB." For, as the
lecturer premised by saying, Parabraham is not this or that, it
is not even consciousness, as it cannot be related to matter or
anything conditioned. It is not Ego nor is it Non-ego, not even
Atma, but verily the one source of all manifestations and modes
of existence.]

Astronomically, the "Ring PASS-NOT" that the Lipika trace around
the Triangle, the First One, the Cube, the Second One, and the
Pentacle to circumscribe these figures, is thus shown to contain
the symbol of 31415 again, or the coefficient constantly used in
mathematical tables (the value of pi), the geometrical figures
standing here for numerical figures. According to the general
philosophical teachings, this ring is beyond the region of what
are called nebulae in astronomy. But this is as erroneous a
conception as that of the topography and the descriptions, given
in Puranic and other exoteric Scriptures, about the 1008 worlds
of the Devaloka worlds and firmaments. There are worlds, of
course, in the esoteric as well as in the profane scientific
teachings, at such incalculable distances that the light of the
nearest of them which has just reached our modern Chaldees, had
left its luminary long before the day on which the words "Let
there be Light" were pronounced; but these are no worlds on the
Devaloka plane, but in our Kosmos.

The chemist goes to the laya or zero point of the plane of
matter with which he deals, and then stops short. The physicist
or the astronomer counts by billions of miles beyond the
nebulae, and then they also stop short; the semi-initiated
Occultist will represent this laya-point to himself as existing
on some plane which, if not physical, is still conceivable to
the human intellect. But the full Initiate knows that the ring
"Pass-Not" is neither a locality nor can it be measured by
distance, but that it exists in the absoluteness of infinity. In
this "Infinity" of the full Initiate there is neither height,
breadth nor thickness, but all is fathomless profundity,
reaching down from the physical to the "para-para-metaphysical."
In using the word "down," essential depth - "nowhere and
everywhere" - is meant, not depth of physical matter.

If one searches carefully through the exoteric and grossly
anthropomorphic allegories of popular religions, even in these
the doctrine embodied in the circle of "Pass-Not" thus guarded
by the Lipika, may be dimly perceived. Thus one finds it even in
the teachings of the Vedantin sect of the Visishtadwaita, the
most tenaciously anthropomorphic in all India. For we read of
the released soul that: -

After reaching Moksha (a state of bliss meaning "release from
Bandha" or bondage), bliss is enjoyed by it in a place called
PARAMAPADHA, which place is not material, but made of Suddasatwa
(the essence, of which the body of Iswara - "the Lord" - is
formed). There, Muktas or Jivatmas (Monads) who have attained
Moksha, are never again subject to the qualities of either
matter or Karma. "But if they choose, for the sake of doing good
to the world, they may incarnate on Earth." The way to
Paramapadha, or the immaterial worlds, from this world, is
called Devayana. When a person has attained Moksha and the body
dies: -

"The Jiva (Soul) goes with Sukshma Sarira(2) from the heart of
the body, to the Brahmarandra in the crown of the head,
traversing Sushumna, a nerve connecting the heart with the
Brahmarandra The Jiva breaks through the Brahmarandra and goes
to the region of the Sun (Suryamandala) through the solar Rays.
Then it goes, through a dark spot in the Sun, to Paramapadha.
The Jiva is directed on its way by the Supreme Wisdom acquired
by Yoga.(3) The Jiva thus proceeds to Paramapadha by the aid of
Athivahikas (bearers in transit), known by the names of
Archi-AhasB Aditya, Prajapati, etc. The Archis here mentioned
are certain pure Souls, etc., etc." (Visishtadwaita (Catechism,
by Pundit Bhashyacharya, F.T.S.)

No Spirit except the "Recorders" (Lipika) has ever crossed its
forbidden line, nor will any do so until the day of the next
Pralaya, for it is the boundary that separates the finite -
however infinite in man's sight - from the truly INFINITE. The
Spirits referred to, therefore, as those who "ascend and
descend" are the "Hosts" of what we loosely call "celestial
Beings." But they are, in fact, nothing of the kind.

[* These voluntary re-incarnations are referred to in our
Doctrine as Nirmanakayas (the surviving spiritual principles of
men).]

[(2) Sukshma-sarira, "dream-like" illusive body, with which are
clothed the inferior Dhyanis of the celestial Hierarchy.]

[(3) Compare this esoteric tenet with the Gnostic doctrine found
in "Pistis-Sophia" (Knowledge=Wisdom), in which treatise Sophia
Achamoth is shown lost in the waters of Chaos (matter), on her
way to Supreme Light, and Christos delivering and helping her on
the right Path. Note well, Christos with the Gnostics meant the
impersonal principal, the Atman of the Universe, and the Atma
within every man's soul - not Jesus; though in the old Coptic
MSS. in the British Museum Christos "is almost constantly
replaced by "Jesus."]

They are Entities of the higher worlds in the hierarchy of
Being, so immeasurably high that, to us, they must appear as
Gods, and collectively - GOD. But so we, mortal men, must appear
to the ant, which reasons on the scale of its special
capacities. The ant may also, for all we know, see the avenging
finger of a personal God in the hand of the urchin who, in one
moment, under the impulse of mischief, destroys its anthill, the
labour of many weeks - long years in the chronology of insects.
The ant, feeling it acutely, and attributing the undeserved
calamity to a combination of Providence and sin, may also, like
man, see in it the result of the sin of its first parent. Who
knows and who can affirm or deny? The refusal to admit in the
whole Solar system of any other reasonable and intellectual
beings on the human plane, than ourselves, is the greatest
conceit of our age. All that science has a right to affirm, is
that there are no invisible Intelligences living under the same
conditions as we do. It cannot deny point-blank the possibility
of there being worlds within worlds, under totally different
conditions to those that constitute the nature of our world; nor
can it deny that there may be a certain limited communication*
between some of those worlds and our own. To the highest, we are
taught, belong the seven orders of the purely divine Spirits; to
the six lower ones belong hierarchies that can occasionally be
seen and heard by men, and who do communicate with their progeny
of the Earth; which progeny is indissolubly linked with them,
each principle in man having its direct source in the nature of
those great Beings, who furnish us with the respective invisible
elements in us. Physical Science is welcome to speculate upon
the physiological mechanism of living beings, and to continue
her fruitless efforts in trying to resolve our feelings, our
sensations, mental and spiritual, into functions of their
inorganic vehicles. Nevertheless, all that will ever be
accomplished in this direction has already been done, and
Science will go no farther.

[* The greatest philosopher of European birth, Imanuel Kant,
assures us that such a communication is in no way improbable. "I
confess I am much disposed to assert the existence of Immaterial
natures in the world, and to place my own soul in the class of
these beings. It will hereafter, I know not where, or when, yet
be proved that the human soul stands even in this life in
indissoluble connection with all immaterial natures in the
spirit-world, that it reciprocally acts upon these and receives
impressions from them," (Traume eines Geistersehers, quoted by
C. C. Massey, in his preface to Von Hartmann's "Spiritismus.")]

She is before a dead wall, on the face of which she traces, as
she imagines, great physiological and psychic discoveries, but
every one of which will be shown later on to be no better than
the cobwebs spun by her scientific fancies and illusions. The
tissues of our objective framework alone are subservient to the
analysis and researches of physiological science.' The six
higher principles in them will evade for ever the hand that is
guided by an animus that purposely ignores and rejects the
Occult Sciences.

The "Great Day of BE-WITH-US," then, is an expression the only
merit of which lies in its literal translation. Its significance
is not so easily revealed to a public, unacquainted with the
mystic tenets of Occultism, or rather of Esoteric Wisdom or
"Budhism." It is an expression peculiar to the latter, and as
hazy for the profane as that of the Egyptians who called the
same the "Day of COME-TO-US,"(2) which is identical with the
former, though the verb "be" in this sense, might be still
better replaced with either of the two words "Remain" or
"Rest-with-us," as it refers to that long period of REST which
is called Paranirvana. As in the exoteric interpretation of the
Egyptian rites the soul of every defunct person - from the
Hierophant down to the sacred hull Apis - became an Osiris, was
Osirified, though the Secret Doctrine had always taught, that
the real Osirification was the lot of every Monad only after
3,000 cycles of Existences; so in the present case. The "Monad,"
born of the nature and the very Essence of the "Seven" (its
highest principle becoming immediately enshrined in the Seventh
Cosmic Element), has to perform its septenary gyration
throughout the Cycle of Being and forms, from the highest to the
lowest; and then again from man to God. At the threshold of
Paranirvana it reassumes its primeval Essence and becomes the
Absolute once more.

[* E.g., all that modern physiological research in connection
with psychological problems has, and owing to the nature of
things. could have shown, is, that every thought, sensation, and
emotion is attended with a re-marshalling of the molecules of
certain nerves. The inference drawn by scientists of the type of
Buchner, Vogt, and others. that thought is molecular motion,
necessitates a complete abstraction being made of the fact of
our subjective consciousness. (2) See "Le Livre des Morts," by
Paul Pierret; "Le Jour de Viens a nous c'est le jour ou Osiris a
dit au Soleil: Viens! Je le vois rencontrant le Soleil dans
l'Amenti." (Chap. xvii., p. 61.) The Sun here stands for the
Logos (or Christos, or Horus) as central Essence synthetically,
and as a diffused essence of radiated Entities, different in
substance, but not in essence. As expressed by the Bhagavadgita
lecturer, "it must not be supposed that the Logos is but a
single centre of energy manifested from Parabrahmam; there are
innumerable other centresB and their number is almost infinite
in the bosom of Parabrahmam." Hence the expressions, "The Day of
Come to us" and "The Day of Be with us," etc. Just as the square
is the Symbol of the Four sacred Forces or Powers - Tetraktis -
so the Circle shows the boundary within the Infinity that no man
can cross, even in spirit, nor Deva nor Dhyan Chohan. The
Spirits of those who "descend and ascend" during the course of
cyclic evolution shall cross the "iron-bound world" only on the
day of their approach to the threshold of Paranirvana. If they
reach it - they will rest in the bosom of Parabrahmam, or the
"Unknown Darkness," which shall then become for all of them
Light - during the whole period of Mahapralaya, the "Great
Night," namely, 311,040,000,000,000 years of absorption in
Brahm. The day of "Be-With-Us" is this period of rest or
Paranirvana. See also for other data on this peculiar
expression, the day of "Come-To-Us," The Funerary Ritual of the
Egyptians, by Viscount de Rouge. It corresponds to the Day of
the Last Judgment of the Christians, which has been sorely
materialised by their religion.]


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