Re: The Esoteric Papers of Madame Blavatsky, by H. P. Blavat
Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 1:13 am
Part 2 of 2
The source and basis of it lie in Spirit and Thought, whether on the purely divine or terrestrial plane. Those who know the history of Simon have the two versions before them, that of White and of Black Magic, at their option, in the much talked of union of Simon with Helena, whom he called his Epinoia (Thought). Those who, like the Christians, had to discredit a dangerous rival, talk of Helena as being a beautiful and actual woman, whom Simon had met in a house of ill-fame at Tyre, and who was, according to those who wrote his life, the reincarnation of Helen of Troy. How was she "divine Thought"? The lower angels, Simon is made to say in Philosophomena, or the third AEons, being so material, had more badness in them than all the others. Poor man, created or emanated from them (see Secret Doctrine, vol. II), had the vice of his origin. What was it? Only this: when the third AEons possessed themselves, in their turn, of the divine Thought through the transmission into them of Fire, instead of making of man a complete being according to the universal plan, they detained from him at first that divine spark (Thought; on Earth, Manas); and that was the cause and origin of senseless man's committing the original sin as the angels had committed it aeons before by refusing to create. (Vide Secret Doctrine.) Finally, after detaining Epinoia prisoner amongst them and having subjected the "divine Thought" to every kind of insult and desecration, they ended by shutting it into the already defiled body of man. After this, as interpreted by the enemies of Simon, she passed from one female body into another through races and ages, until Simon found and recognized her in the form of Helena, the "prostitute," the "lost sheep" of the parable. Simon is made to represent himself as the Saviour descended on Earth to rescue that "lamb", and those men in whom Epinoia is still under the dominion of the lower angels. The greatest magical feats are thus attributed to Simon through his sexual union with Helen -- hence Black Magic. Indeed, the chief rites of that sort of magic are based on this disgusting literal interpretation of this noblest of myths, invented by Simon as a symbolical mark of his own teaching. Those who understood it correctly knew what was meant by his "Helena." It was the marriage of Nous (Atma-Buddhi) with Manas, the union through which Will and Thought become one and are endowed with divine powers. For Atman in man, being of an unalloyed essence, the primordial divine Fire (or the eternal and universal "That which was, is, and will be"), is of all the planes; and Buddhi is its vehicle or Thought, generated by and generating the "Father" in her turn, as also Will. She is "That which was, is, and will be," thus becoming male-female in Conjunction with Manas, only in this sphere. Hence, when Simon spoke of himself as the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost (see Philosophomena) and of Helena as his Epinoia, divine Thought, he meant the marriage of his Buddhi with Manas. Helena was the Sakti of the inner man, the female potency.
Now what says Menander? The lower angels, he taught, were the emanations of ENNOIA (designing Thought). It is Ennoia who taught the Science of Magic and had imparted it to him, together with the art of conquering the creative angels of the lower world. The latter stand for the passions of our lower nature. His pupils were said to "resurrect from the dead" after receiving baptism from him, (i.e., after initiation) and "growing no older," became "immortal." (Vide Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., lib. III, cap. 26.) The "resurrection" promised by Menander meant, of course, simply the passage from the darkness of ignorance into the light of truth, the awakening of man's immortal Spirit to inner and eternal life. This is the Science of the Raja Yogis -- Magic.
Every person who has read Neo-Platonic philosophy knows how Plotinus, and Porphyry especially, fought against phenomenal Theurgy. But Iamblichus, the author of the De Mysteriis, lifts high the veil from the real term Theurgy, and shows us therein the true divine Science of Raja Yoga.
Magic, he says, is a lofty and sublime Science, divine, and exalted above all others. "It is the great remedy for all... It neither takes its source in, nor is it limited to body or its passions, to the human compound or its constitution; but all is derived by it from our upper Gods" (our divine Egos, which run like a silver thread from the Spark in us up to the primeval divine Fire). (De Mysteriis, p. 100, lines 10 to 19, p. 109, Fol. I.)
Jamblichus execrates physical phenomena produced, as he says, by the bad demons who deceive men (the spooks of the seance room), as much as he exalts divine Theurgy. But to exercise the latter, he teaches, the Theurgist must imperatively be "a man of high morality and a chaste soul;" the other kind of magic being used only by impure, selfish men, and having nothing of the divine in it..... No real Vates would ever consent to find its communications anything coming from our higher Gods. ... Thus one (Theurgy) is the knowledge of our Father (the Higher Self); the other, subjection to the lower nature (of man)..... One requires holiness of the soul, a holiness which rejects and excludes everything corporeal; the other, the desecration of it (that Soul).... One is the union with the Gods (with one's God) the source of all Good; the other, intercourse with demons (Elementals) which, unless we subject them, will subject us and lead us step by step to moral ruin (mediumship). In short, "Theurgy unites us most strongly to divine nature. This nature begets itself through itself, moves through its own powers, supports all and is intelligent. Being the ornament of the Universe, it invites us to intelligible truth, to perfection and imparting perfection to others. It unites us so intimately to all the creative actions of the Gods, according to the capacity of each of us, that the Soul having accomplished the sacred rites is consolidated in their (the Gods') action and intelligences, until it launches into and is absorbed by the primordial divine essence. This is the object of the sacred Initiations of the Egyptians." (Ibid., p. 190, lines 15 to 18 et seq., caps. V and VII.)
Now Jamblichus shows us how this union of our Higher Soul with the Universal Soul, with its Gods, is to be effected. He speaks of Manteia which is Samadhi, the highest trance. (See. III, cap. III, p. 100.) He speaks also of dream which is divine vision, when man re-becomes again a God. By Theurgy, or Raja Yoga, a man arrives at (1) Prophetic Discernment through our God (the respective Higher Self of each of us) revealing to us truths of the plane on which we happen to be acting; (2) Ecstacies and Illumination; (3) Action in Spirit (in Astral Body or through will); and (4) the ruling over the minor, senseless demons (Elementals) by the very nature of our purified EGOs. But all this demands the complete purification of the latter. And this is called by him Magic, through initiation into Theurgy.
But Theurgy has to be preceded by a training of our inner senses and the knowledge of human self in relation to Divine Self. It is idle to anthropomorphize the formless, so long as man has not thoroughly mastered this preliminary study. I mean by "formless" the higher, as the lower Gods, the supermundane as well as the mundane Spirits or Beings, which to the beginners can be revealed only in colors and sounds. For none but a high Adept can perceive a "God" in its true transcendental form, which to the untrained intellect, to the Chela, will be visible only by its Aura. The visions of full figures casually perceived by sensitives and mediums belong generally to one of the only three categories they can see: (a) the "Astrals" of living men; (b) Nirmanakayas (the Adepts, good or bad, whose bodies are dead, but who have learned to live in the invisible space in their etherial personalities); and (c) Spooks, the Elementaries and Elementals masquerading in shapes borrowed from the Astral Light, generally, or from the figures in the "mind's eye" of those present, or of the medium, which are immediately reflected in their respective auras.
Having read the foregoing, students will now comprehend better the necessity of studying at first the "correspondences" between our "principles" -- which are but the various aspects of the triune (spiritual and physical) man -- and the direct roots of these -- our paradigm -- in the Universe.
In view of this, we must resume our teaching about the
Hierarchies directly connected and forever linked with man.
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Enough has been said to show that while for the Orientalists and the profane masses the sentence "Aum Mani Padme Hum" means only "Oh, the Jewel in the Lotus," esoterically it signifies. "Oh, my God within me." Yes, there is a God in each human being, for man was and will re-become God. The sentence points to the indissoluble union between man and the Universe. For the Lotus is the universal symbol of Kosmos as absolute totality, and the Jewel is spiritual man, or God.
In the last lesson the correspondences between Colors, Sounds and the human "Principles" were given; and those who have read the second volume of the Secret Doctrine will remember that these seven Principles are derived from the seven great Hierarchies of Angels, or Dhyan Chohans, which are, in their turn, associated with Colors and Sounds, for they form collectively the Manifested Logos.
In the eternal music of the spheres we find the perfect scale corresponding to the colors, and in the number -- determined by the vibration of color and sound -- which "underlies every form and guides every sound" we find the summing-up of the manifested Universe.
We may illustrate these correspondences by showing the relation of color and sound to the geometrical figures which, as explained in volume II of the Secret Doctrine, express the progressive stages in the manifestation of Kosmos.
But the student will certainly be liable to confusion if he does not remember, in connection with the Diagrams, two things: First, that our plane, being a plane of reflection and therefore illusionary, the various notations are reversed and must be counted from below upwards. The scale of music begins from below upwards, commencing with the deep Do and ending with the far more acute Si. Second, that Kama Rupa (corresponding to Do in the musical scale), as it contains all potentialities of matter, is necessarily the starting point on our plane. Further, it commences the notation on every plane, as corresponding to the "matter" of that plane. Again, the student must also remember that these notes have to be counted as arranged on a circle, and this shows how Fa is the middle note of Nature. In short, musical notes, or sounds, colors and numbers proceed from one to seven, and not from seven to one as erroneously shown in the spectrum of the prismatic colors, in which red is counted first: a fact which necessitated my putting in the Tabular Diagram the principles and the days of the week at random. The musical scale and the colors, according to the numbers of vibrations, proceed from the world of gross matter to that of spirit thus:
Here again the student is asked to dismiss from his mind any correspondence between "principles" and numbers, for reasons given before. The esoteric cannot be made to correspond with the conventional exoteric. One is reality, the other classified according to illusive appearances. The human principles, as given in Esoteric Buddhism, were tabulated for beginners, so as not to confuse their minds. It was half a blind. To proceed:
The Point in the Circle, the Unmanifested Logos, corresponding to Absolute Life and to Absolute Sound.
The first geometrical figure after the Circle and the Spheroid is the Triangle. It corresponds to Color and Sound; thus the Point in the Triangle represents the Second Logos, "Father-Mother," or the White Ray which is no color, since it contains potentially all colors. It is shown radiating from the Unmanifested Logos, or the Unspoken Word. Around the first Triangle is formed on the plane of primordial substance in this order (reversed as to our plane):
(a) The Astral Double of Nature, or the Paradigm of all Forms.
(b) Divine Ideation, or the Universal Mind.
(c) The synthesis of Occult Nature, the Egg of Brahmâ, containing all and radiating all.
(d) Animal or material soul of Nature, source of animal and vegetable intelligence and instinct.
(e) The aggregate of Dhyân Chohanic Intelligence, Fohat.
(f) Life Principle in Nature.
(g) The Life Procreating Principle in Nature. Sexual affinity on the spiritual plane.
Now this is the World of Reality. Mirrored on the plane of Gross Nature, it is reversed, and becomes on Earth and our plane:
(a) Red is the colour of manifested dual, or male and female. In man it is shown in its lowest animal form.
(b) Orange is the colour of the robes of the Yogîs and Buddhist Priests -- color of the Sun and Spiritual Vitality, also of the vital principle.
(c) The Yellow or radiant Golden is the color of the spiritual, divine ray in every atom in man of Buddhi.
(d) Green and Red are, so to speak, interchangeable colours. Green absorbs the Red because it is threefold stronger in its vibrations than the Red. And Green is the complementary color of extreme Red. This is why the Lower Manas and the Kâma Rûpa are respectively shown as Green and Red.
(e) The Astral Plane, or Auric Envelope in Nature, as it is of Man.
(f) The Mind or rational element in Man and Nature.
(g) The most ethereal counterpart of the body of man, the opposite pole, standing in point of vibration and sensitiveness as the Violet stands to the Red.
The above is on the manifested plane; after which we get the seven and the Manifested Prism, or Man on Earth. With the latter, the Black Magician alone is concerned.
In Kosmos, the gradations and correlations of Colors and Sounds, therefore of Numbers, are infinite. This is suspected even in Physics, as it is ascertained that there exist slower vibrations than those of the Red color, the slowest perceptible to us, and far more rapid vibrations than those of the Violet color, the most rapid that our senses can perceive. But on Earth, in our physical world, the range of perceptible vibrations is limited. Our physical senses cannot take cognizance of vibrations above and below the septenary and limited gradations of the prismatic colors: neither are such vibrations capable of causing in us the sensation of color or sound. It will always be the graduated septenary and no more; unless we learn to paralyze our Quaternary and to discern both with our spiritual senses seated in the upper Triangle.
Now, on this plane of illusions there are three fundamental colors, as found by physical Science -- Red, Blue and Yellow (or rather Orange-Yellow). Expressed in terms of the human principles they are: (1) the Kama Rupa, the seat of the animal sensations, welded to and serving as a vehicle for the animal soul, the Lower Manas (the colors Red and Green being interchangeable); (2) the Auric Envelope, or the essence of man; and (3) Prana, or life principle. But if from the realm of illusion, or the living man as he is on Earth, subject to his sensuous perceptions only, we pass to that of semi-illusion, and seeking in the natural colors themselves, or those of the "principles," -- i.e., if we try to find out which are those that in the perfect man absorb all others -- we shall find that the colors correspond and become complementary in the following way:
Hence the full septenary man presents the following appearance; symbolically as to the geometrical figures, and in reality as to the various colors of his principles: [4]
As seen, a faint violet, mist-like form represents the Astral man within an oviform bluish circle, over which radiate in ceaseless vibrations the seven prismatic colors. That color is predominant the corresponding principle of which is the most active in man generally, or at the particular moment when the clairvoyant perceives it. Such man appears during his waking states; and it is by the predominance of this or that color, and by the intensity of its vibrations, that a clairvoyant -- acquainted with "correspondences" -- can judge of the inner state or character of a person, for the latter is an open book to every practical Occultist.
In the trance state the aura changes entirely. The seven prismatic colors are no longer discernible. Nor are they all "at home" during sleep. For all those which belong to the spiritual elements in him (yellow, Buddhi; indigo, Higher Manas; and the blue of the Auric Envelope) will be either hardly discernible or altogether missing. The spiritual man is free during sleep and lives, robed in his highest essence, in realms on other planes, though his physical memory may not become aware of it -- in realms which are the land of reality -- called dreams on our plane of illusion.
A good clairvoyant, furthermore, who had an opportunity of seeing side by side a Yogi in the trance state and a mesmerized subject, would learn an important lesson in Occultism. He would learn to know the difference between self-induced trance and a hypnotic state as the result of extraneous influence. In the Yogi, the principles of the lower Quaternary disappear entirely, i.e., neither red, green, red-violet nor the auric blue of the body are to be seen; nothing but hardly perceptible vibrations of the golden-hued Prana principle and a violet flame streaked with gold rushing upwards from the head (where the Third Eye rests) and culminating in a point. If the student remembers that the true violet, or the extreme end of the spectrum, is no compound color of red and blue, but a homogeneous color with vibrations seven times more rapid than those of the extreme red [5] and that the golden hue is the essence of the three yellow hues from red-range to yellow-orange and yellow (vide table infra), he will understand the reason why: he lives in his own Auric Body, now become the vehicle of Buddhi-Manas. On the other hand, in a subject in a hypnotic or mesmeric trance artificially produced -- an effect of unconscious when not of conscious Black Magic, unless produced by a high Adept -- the whole set of the principles will be present, with the Higher Manas paralyzed, Buddhi severed from it through that paralysis, and the red-violet Astral Body entirely subjected to the Lower Manas and Kama Rupa (the green and red animal monsters in us).
One who comprehends well the above explanations will readily see how important it is for every student -- whether striving for practical occult powers or only for the purely psychic and spiritual gifts of clairvoyance and metaphysical knowledge -- to master thoroughly the right correspondences between the human, or the nature principles, and those of Kosmos. It is ignorance which leads materialistic Science to deny the inner man and his divine powers; knowledge and personal experience that allow the Occultist to affirm that such powers are as natural to man as swimming is to fishes.
It is like a Laplander denying in full sincerity to the catgut strung loosely on the sounding-board of a violin the power to produce comprehensive sounds or a melody. Our principles are the seven-stringed lyre of Apollo, truly.
In this our age, when oblivion has passed over the ancient knowledge, man's faculties are no better than the loose strings of a violin to the Laplander.
But the Occultist who knows how to tighten them and tune the violin in harmony with the vibrations of color and sound will extract divine harmony from them. The combination of these powers and the attuning of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm will, when combined give the geometrical equivalent of the invocation of Aum Mani Padme Hum.
This is why in the school of Pythagoras the previous knowledge of music and geometry were obligatory.
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The Roots of Color and Sound.
Further, each of the primordial Seven -- the first Seven Rays forming the Manifested Logos -- is again sevenfold. Thus, as the seven colors of the solar spectrum correspond to the seven Rays, or Hierarchies, so each of these latter has again its seven divisions corresponding to the same series of colors. But in this case one color -- that which characterizes the particular Hierarachy as a whole -- is predominant and more intense than the others.
PLATE I.
NOTE (a) -- The numbers attached to the circles are for purposes of reference only. They have no correspondence with colors or principles.
NOTE (b). -- Each of the prismatic circles corresponds to, and is the source of, the princiople corresponding in color to its widest circle: e.g., circle 1 corresponds to the Linga Sarira (violet).
These Hierarchies can only be symbolized as concentric circles of prismatic colors: each Hierarchy being represented by a series of seven concentric circles, each circle representing one of the prismatic colors in their natural order. But in each of these "wheels" one circle will be brighter and more vivid in color than the rest and the wheel will have a surrounding aura (a fringe, as the physicists call it) of that color. This color will be the characteristic color of that Hierarchy as a whole. Each of these Hierarchies furnishes the essence (the soul) and is the "Builder" of one of the seven kingdoms of Nature -- which are the three elemental kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, and the kingdom of spiritual man (see Five Years of Theosophy, pp. 273 to 278); and besides this, each Hierarchy furnishes the aura of one of the seven principles in man with its specific color. Moreover, as each of these Hierarchies is the Ruler of one of the Sacred Planets, it will easily be understood how Astrology came into existence, and that real Astrology has a strictly scientific basis.
[SEE PLATE I AND THE LINEAR DIAGRAM ON PAGE 30.]
Let us demonstrate the fact by showing the symbol adopted in the Eastern school which represents the Seven Hierarchies of Creative Powers; call them Angels, if you will, or Planetary Spirits, or, again, the Seven Rulers of the Seven Sacred Planets of our system, which is our present case. At all events the concentric circles stand as symbols for Ezekiel's Wheels with some Eastern Occultists and Kabalists, and for the "Builders" or Prajapati with us.
The student should carefully examine the Linear Diagram on the following page.
Thus the Linga-Sarira Violet is derived from the Violet sub-ray of the Violet Hierarchy; the Higher Manas is similarly derived from the Indigo sub-ray of the Indigo Hierarchy, and so on. [5] The student will understand that that the Orders and Hierarchies are named here after their corresponding colors so as to avoid using numerals, which would be confusing in connection with the human principles -- the latter having no proper number of their own. The real occult names of these Hierarchies cannot now be given.
LINEAR DIAGRAM
The student must, however, remember that the colors which we see with our physical eyes are not the true colors of occult nature, but are merely the effects produced on the mechanism of our physical organs by certain rates of vibration. For instance, Clerk Maxwell has demonstrated that any color may be imitated in its effects on our retina by properly combining three other colors. It follows, therefore, that our retina has only three distinct color sensations, and we therefore do not perceive the seven colors which really exist, but only their "imitations," so to speak, in our physical organism.
Thus, for instance, the orange-red of the first "Triangle" is not a combination of orange and red, but is the true "spiritual" red, if the term may be allowed, while the red (blood-red) of the spectrum is the color of the Kama -- animal desire -- and is inseparable from the material plane.
Esotericism, pure and simple, speaks of no personal God; therefore are we considered as Atheists. But Occult Philosophy, as a whole, is based in reality and absolutely on the ubiquitous presence of God, i.e., the Absolute Deity; and if IT is not speculated upon (because too sacred and absolutely incomprehensible as a Unit to the finite intellect) the entire philosophy is based upon its divine Powers as sources of all that breathes and lives and has its existence, not merely its being. In every ancient religion the ONE was demonstrated by the many. In Egypt and India, as also in Chaldea and Phoenicia and finally in Greece, the ideas about Deity were expressed by multiples of three, five and seven; also of eight, nine and twelve great Gods -- symbolizing the powers and properties of the Only and Sole; it was related to that infinite subdivision by irregular and odd numbers that the metaphysics of these nations subjected their ONE DIVINITY to. Thus constituted, the cycle of the Gods had all the qualities and attributes of the "ONE SUPREME AND UNKNOWABLE;" for in this collection of divine personalities -- or rather of symbols personified -- dwells the ONE GOD, the GOD ONE, that God which, as in India, has no Second: "Oh God Ani (the Spiritual Sun), thou residest in the agglomeration of thy divine personages." (Apud Gribant Papyrus Orbiney, p. 101.)
These words show the belief of the ancients that all manifestation proceeded from one and the same source, all emanating from the one identical principle which can never be completely developed except in and through the collective and entire aggregate of its emanations.
The Pleroma of Valentinus is absolutely the Space of Occult Philosophy; for Pleroma means the superior regions. It is the sum total of all the divine manifestations and emanations expressing the plenum or totality of the rays proceeding from the ONE, and differentiating on all the planes, and transforming themselves into divine Powers, called Angels and Planetary Spirits in the philosophy of every nation. The Gnostic AEons and the Angels of the Pleroma are made to speak as the Devas and Saddhus of the Puranas. The Epinoia, the first female manifestation of God, the "Principle" of Simon Magus and Saturnilus, holds the same language as the Logos of Basilides; and each of these is traced to the purely esoteric Aletheia, the TRUTH of the Mysteries. All of them, we are taught, say at different times and in different languages the magnificent hymn of the Egyptian papyrus, thousands of years old: "The Gods adore thee, they greet thee, O the One Dark Truth;" and, addressing Ra, they add: "The Gods bow before thy Majesty, by exalting the Souls of all that which produces them ... and say to thee, Peace to all, emanations from the Unconscious Father of the Conscious Fathers of the Gods... Thou producer of beings, we adore the Souls which emanate from thee. Thou begettest us, Oh, thou Unknown, and we greet thee in worshipping each God-Soul which descendeth from thee and liveth in us." (Hymn to Amon-Ra) This is the source of the assertion, "Know ye not that ye are Gods and the temple of God." This is shown in the "Roots of Ritualism and Masonry," in Lucifer for April, 1889. Truly then, as said seventeen centuries ago, "Man cannot possess Truth (Aletheia) except he participate in the Valentinian Gnosis." So we may say now: "No man can know the Truth unless he studies the secrets of the Pleroma of Occultism; and these secrets are all in the Theogony of the ancient Wisdom-Religion, which is the Aletheia of Occult Science."
H. P. B.
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Notes:
1. Meanwhile we point out for confirmation Origen's works (vol. II, pp. 362 to 368), who says that "the seven ruling daimons" (genii or planetary rulers) are Michael, the Sun (the lion-like); the second in order, the Bull, Jupiter or Suriel, etc.; and all these, the "Seven of the Presence," are the Sephiroth. The Sephirothal Tree is the Tree of the Divine Planets by Porphyry, or Porphyry's Tree, as it is usually called.
2. Magic, Magia, means, in its spiritual, secret sense, the "Great Life," or divine life in spirit.
3. At first there are the Omphalo-mesenteric vessels, two arteries and two veins, but these afterwards totally disappear, as does the "vascular area" on the "Umbilical Vesicle," from which they proceed. As regards the "Umbilical vessels" proper, the Umbilical Cord ultimately has entwined around it from right to left the one Umbilical vein which takes the oxygenated blood from the mother to the Foetus and two Hypogastric or Umbilical arteries which take the used-up blood from the Foetus to the Placenta, the contents of the vessels being the reverse of that which prevails after birth. Thus Science corroborates the wisdom and knowledge of ancient Occultism, for in the days of Simon Magus no man, unless an Initiate, knew anything about the circulation of the blood or about physiology. While this instruction was being printed, I received two small pamphlets from Dr. Jerome Anderson, F.T.S. (E.S., which were printed in 1884 and 1888, in which are to be found the scientific demonstration of the foetal nutrition as advanced in Instructions No. 1. Briefly, the Foetus is nourished by osmosis from the Amniotic Fluid and respires by means of the Placenta. Science knows little or nothing about the Amniotic Fluid and its uses. If any of our members care to follow up this question, I would recommend Dr. Anderson's Remarks on the Nutrition of the Foetus. (Wood & Co., New York.)
4. [Owing to the difficulty of representing the colors of the aura on a plane surface, and the lack of proper facilities for color-printing, the illustration here given is only approximate.]
5. Every man being born under one planet, there will always be a predominance of that planet's color in him, because that "principle" will rule in him which has its origin in the Hierarchy in question. There will also be a certain amount of the color derived from the other planets present in his aura, but that of the ruling planet will be strongest. Now a person in whom, say, the Mercury principle is predominant will be able, by acting upon the Mercury in another person born under a different planet, to get him entirely under his control. For the stronger Mercury principle in him will overpower the weaker Mercurial element in the other. But he will have little power over persons born under the same planet as himself. This is the key to the Occult Sciences of Magnestism and Hypnotism.
***
MEMORANDUM
It has become evident that, even in the Esoteric Section, there is need of regular discipline, and that members are only too ready to attribute personal motives to the Head of the Section whenever any fault or breach of Rule is pointed out to them.
Further, it is impossible for me, in my present state of bad health, to bear unassisted the whole burden of the exoteric organization of the Section.
Consequently I have determined to form a Supreme Council of fourteen, consisting of the following members, in whom I have full confidence.
The Council of fourteen will be divided into two executive bodies, one of which will exercise its functions in Europe, India and the Colonies, and the other in America.
The Council for Europe will consist of the following: Countess C. Wachtmeister, W. Kingsland, [1] C. F. Wright, W. R. Old, [2] A. W. Cobbold, A. Keightley, and B. Keightley. [3]
The Council for America will consist of the following: Mrs. J. Campbell Ver-Planck, William Q. Judge, Dr. J. D. Buck, J. Ransom Bridge, and three other persons to be selected by them and approved by me.
All matters of organization, administration and discipline will be dealt with by the above-named Council, and their unanimous decision will be final, subject to any directions which may be received from the Highest Authorities -- which, however, must be expected only on very exceptional occasions.
It will also be the duty of the Council to call the attention of members if they are apparently acting contrary to the spirit of their Pledge.
The necessity of this has been shown by the fact that in the short time which has elapsed since the formation of the Section three members have proved unfaithful to their Pledge. This is very serious, for the teaching being in their hands, it is impossible to say what use may be made of it in view of their defection. I am unable to say whether the Pledge of secrecy will be binding on them as it ought to be on every honorable man or woman to the end of their life, whether they leave the Section or not. This prevents and will prevent the esoteric explanations being as full as I should otherwise make them, for the occult solidarity of the Section is such that all the good and faithful must suffer for the fault of the bad and unfaithful.
I am in hopes that the above arrangements will relieve me of incessant anxieties and responsibilities, and enable me to devote myself the better to the occult teachings which it is my desire to impart to the members of the Section to the largest possible extent, thus utilizing the short time I have to remain with them.
Finally, I must point out to the members of the Section once again that the Pledge of inviolable secrecy which they have taken is binding for life; and that if for any reason a member leaves the Section it is obligatory that he should immediately return all documents and papers relating thereto.
Members must also make proper provision for the security of these papers in case of death or accident to themselves, and for their due return under such circumstances.
In accordance with the first paragraph of Rule 7 of the Pledge-Card, I have to notify that: Mr. T. B. Harbottle has withdrawn from the Section; the certificates of Mrs. Vittoria Cremers and Mrs. Mabel Cook (M. C.) have been cancelled for serious breach of their Pledge.
(Signed.) H. P. BLAVATSKY,
The Head of the Section.
BERTRAM KEIGHTLEY, :.>
Secretary of the E. S.
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE,
Secretary to H. P. B.
A true copy.
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Notes:
1. President of the Blavatsky Lodge.
2. Vice-President of the Blavatsky Lodge.
3. Secretary of the Esoteric Section.
The source and basis of it lie in Spirit and Thought, whether on the purely divine or terrestrial plane. Those who know the history of Simon have the two versions before them, that of White and of Black Magic, at their option, in the much talked of union of Simon with Helena, whom he called his Epinoia (Thought). Those who, like the Christians, had to discredit a dangerous rival, talk of Helena as being a beautiful and actual woman, whom Simon had met in a house of ill-fame at Tyre, and who was, according to those who wrote his life, the reincarnation of Helen of Troy. How was she "divine Thought"? The lower angels, Simon is made to say in Philosophomena, or the third AEons, being so material, had more badness in them than all the others. Poor man, created or emanated from them (see Secret Doctrine, vol. II), had the vice of his origin. What was it? Only this: when the third AEons possessed themselves, in their turn, of the divine Thought through the transmission into them of Fire, instead of making of man a complete being according to the universal plan, they detained from him at first that divine spark (Thought; on Earth, Manas); and that was the cause and origin of senseless man's committing the original sin as the angels had committed it aeons before by refusing to create. (Vide Secret Doctrine.) Finally, after detaining Epinoia prisoner amongst them and having subjected the "divine Thought" to every kind of insult and desecration, they ended by shutting it into the already defiled body of man. After this, as interpreted by the enemies of Simon, she passed from one female body into another through races and ages, until Simon found and recognized her in the form of Helena, the "prostitute," the "lost sheep" of the parable. Simon is made to represent himself as the Saviour descended on Earth to rescue that "lamb", and those men in whom Epinoia is still under the dominion of the lower angels. The greatest magical feats are thus attributed to Simon through his sexual union with Helen -- hence Black Magic. Indeed, the chief rites of that sort of magic are based on this disgusting literal interpretation of this noblest of myths, invented by Simon as a symbolical mark of his own teaching. Those who understood it correctly knew what was meant by his "Helena." It was the marriage of Nous (Atma-Buddhi) with Manas, the union through which Will and Thought become one and are endowed with divine powers. For Atman in man, being of an unalloyed essence, the primordial divine Fire (or the eternal and universal "That which was, is, and will be"), is of all the planes; and Buddhi is its vehicle or Thought, generated by and generating the "Father" in her turn, as also Will. She is "That which was, is, and will be," thus becoming male-female in Conjunction with Manas, only in this sphere. Hence, when Simon spoke of himself as the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost (see Philosophomena) and of Helena as his Epinoia, divine Thought, he meant the marriage of his Buddhi with Manas. Helena was the Sakti of the inner man, the female potency.
Now what says Menander? The lower angels, he taught, were the emanations of ENNOIA (designing Thought). It is Ennoia who taught the Science of Magic and had imparted it to him, together with the art of conquering the creative angels of the lower world. The latter stand for the passions of our lower nature. His pupils were said to "resurrect from the dead" after receiving baptism from him, (i.e., after initiation) and "growing no older," became "immortal." (Vide Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., lib. III, cap. 26.) The "resurrection" promised by Menander meant, of course, simply the passage from the darkness of ignorance into the light of truth, the awakening of man's immortal Spirit to inner and eternal life. This is the Science of the Raja Yogis -- Magic.
Every person who has read Neo-Platonic philosophy knows how Plotinus, and Porphyry especially, fought against phenomenal Theurgy. But Iamblichus, the author of the De Mysteriis, lifts high the veil from the real term Theurgy, and shows us therein the true divine Science of Raja Yoga.
Magic, he says, is a lofty and sublime Science, divine, and exalted above all others. "It is the great remedy for all... It neither takes its source in, nor is it limited to body or its passions, to the human compound or its constitution; but all is derived by it from our upper Gods" (our divine Egos, which run like a silver thread from the Spark in us up to the primeval divine Fire). (De Mysteriis, p. 100, lines 10 to 19, p. 109, Fol. I.)
Jamblichus execrates physical phenomena produced, as he says, by the bad demons who deceive men (the spooks of the seance room), as much as he exalts divine Theurgy. But to exercise the latter, he teaches, the Theurgist must imperatively be "a man of high morality and a chaste soul;" the other kind of magic being used only by impure, selfish men, and having nothing of the divine in it..... No real Vates would ever consent to find its communications anything coming from our higher Gods. ... Thus one (Theurgy) is the knowledge of our Father (the Higher Self); the other, subjection to the lower nature (of man)..... One requires holiness of the soul, a holiness which rejects and excludes everything corporeal; the other, the desecration of it (that Soul).... One is the union with the Gods (with one's God) the source of all Good; the other, intercourse with demons (Elementals) which, unless we subject them, will subject us and lead us step by step to moral ruin (mediumship). In short, "Theurgy unites us most strongly to divine nature. This nature begets itself through itself, moves through its own powers, supports all and is intelligent. Being the ornament of the Universe, it invites us to intelligible truth, to perfection and imparting perfection to others. It unites us so intimately to all the creative actions of the Gods, according to the capacity of each of us, that the Soul having accomplished the sacred rites is consolidated in their (the Gods') action and intelligences, until it launches into and is absorbed by the primordial divine essence. This is the object of the sacred Initiations of the Egyptians." (Ibid., p. 190, lines 15 to 18 et seq., caps. V and VII.)
Now Jamblichus shows us how this union of our Higher Soul with the Universal Soul, with its Gods, is to be effected. He speaks of Manteia which is Samadhi, the highest trance. (See. III, cap. III, p. 100.) He speaks also of dream which is divine vision, when man re-becomes again a God. By Theurgy, or Raja Yoga, a man arrives at (1) Prophetic Discernment through our God (the respective Higher Self of each of us) revealing to us truths of the plane on which we happen to be acting; (2) Ecstacies and Illumination; (3) Action in Spirit (in Astral Body or through will); and (4) the ruling over the minor, senseless demons (Elementals) by the very nature of our purified EGOs. But all this demands the complete purification of the latter. And this is called by him Magic, through initiation into Theurgy.
But Theurgy has to be preceded by a training of our inner senses and the knowledge of human self in relation to Divine Self. It is idle to anthropomorphize the formless, so long as man has not thoroughly mastered this preliminary study. I mean by "formless" the higher, as the lower Gods, the supermundane as well as the mundane Spirits or Beings, which to the beginners can be revealed only in colors and sounds. For none but a high Adept can perceive a "God" in its true transcendental form, which to the untrained intellect, to the Chela, will be visible only by its Aura. The visions of full figures casually perceived by sensitives and mediums belong generally to one of the only three categories they can see: (a) the "Astrals" of living men; (b) Nirmanakayas (the Adepts, good or bad, whose bodies are dead, but who have learned to live in the invisible space in their etherial personalities); and (c) Spooks, the Elementaries and Elementals masquerading in shapes borrowed from the Astral Light, generally, or from the figures in the "mind's eye" of those present, or of the medium, which are immediately reflected in their respective auras.
Having read the foregoing, students will now comprehend better the necessity of studying at first the "correspondences" between our "principles" -- which are but the various aspects of the triune (spiritual and physical) man -- and the direct roots of these -- our paradigm -- in the Universe.
In view of this, we must resume our teaching about the
Hierarchies directly connected and forever linked with man.
---------
Enough has been said to show that while for the Orientalists and the profane masses the sentence "Aum Mani Padme Hum" means only "Oh, the Jewel in the Lotus," esoterically it signifies. "Oh, my God within me." Yes, there is a God in each human being, for man was and will re-become God. The sentence points to the indissoluble union between man and the Universe. For the Lotus is the universal symbol of Kosmos as absolute totality, and the Jewel is spiritual man, or God.
In the last lesson the correspondences between Colors, Sounds and the human "Principles" were given; and those who have read the second volume of the Secret Doctrine will remember that these seven Principles are derived from the seven great Hierarchies of Angels, or Dhyan Chohans, which are, in their turn, associated with Colors and Sounds, for they form collectively the Manifested Logos.
In the eternal music of the spheres we find the perfect scale corresponding to the colors, and in the number -- determined by the vibration of color and sound -- which "underlies every form and guides every sound" we find the summing-up of the manifested Universe.
We may illustrate these correspondences by showing the relation of color and sound to the geometrical figures which, as explained in volume II of the Secret Doctrine, express the progressive stages in the manifestation of Kosmos.
But the student will certainly be liable to confusion if he does not remember, in connection with the Diagrams, two things: First, that our plane, being a plane of reflection and therefore illusionary, the various notations are reversed and must be counted from below upwards. The scale of music begins from below upwards, commencing with the deep Do and ending with the far more acute Si. Second, that Kama Rupa (corresponding to Do in the musical scale), as it contains all potentialities of matter, is necessarily the starting point on our plane. Further, it commences the notation on every plane, as corresponding to the "matter" of that plane. Again, the student must also remember that these notes have to be counted as arranged on a circle, and this shows how Fa is the middle note of Nature. In short, musical notes, or sounds, colors and numbers proceed from one to seven, and not from seven to one as erroneously shown in the spectrum of the prismatic colors, in which red is counted first: a fact which necessitated my putting in the Tabular Diagram the principles and the days of the week at random. The musical scale and the colors, according to the numbers of vibrations, proceed from the world of gross matter to that of spirit thus:
PRINCIPLES / COLORS / NOTES / NUMBERS / STATES OF MATTER
Chhaya, Shadow, or Double / Violet / Si / 7 / Ether
Manas, the higher, spiritual Intelligence / Indigo / La / 6 / Critical State, called Air in Occultism
Auric Envelope / Blue / Sol / 5 / Steam or Vapor
Animal Soul / Green / Fa / 4 / Critical State
Buddhi, Spiritual Soul / Yellow / Mi / 3 / Water
Prana, Life Principle / Orange / Re / 2 / Critical State
Kama Rupa, the seat of animal life / Red / Do / 1 / Ice
Here again the student is asked to dismiss from his mind any correspondence between "principles" and numbers, for reasons given before. The esoteric cannot be made to correspond with the conventional exoteric. One is reality, the other classified according to illusive appearances. The human principles, as given in Esoteric Buddhism, were tabulated for beginners, so as not to confuse their minds. It was half a blind. To proceed:
The Point in the Circle, the Unmanifested Logos, corresponding to Absolute Life and to Absolute Sound.
The first geometrical figure after the Circle and the Spheroid is the Triangle. It corresponds to Color and Sound; thus the Point in the Triangle represents the Second Logos, "Father-Mother," or the White Ray which is no color, since it contains potentially all colors. It is shown radiating from the Unmanifested Logos, or the Unspoken Word. Around the first Triangle is formed on the plane of primordial substance in this order (reversed as to our plane):
(a) The Astral Double of Nature, or the Paradigm of all Forms.
(b) Divine Ideation, or the Universal Mind.
(c) The synthesis of Occult Nature, the Egg of Brahmâ, containing all and radiating all.
(d) Animal or material soul of Nature, source of animal and vegetable intelligence and instinct.
(e) The aggregate of Dhyân Chohanic Intelligence, Fohat.
(f) Life Principle in Nature.
(g) The Life Procreating Principle in Nature. Sexual affinity on the spiritual plane.
Now this is the World of Reality. Mirrored on the plane of Gross Nature, it is reversed, and becomes on Earth and our plane:
(a) Red is the colour of manifested dual, or male and female. In man it is shown in its lowest animal form.
(b) Orange is the colour of the robes of the Yogîs and Buddhist Priests -- color of the Sun and Spiritual Vitality, also of the vital principle.
(c) The Yellow or radiant Golden is the color of the spiritual, divine ray in every atom in man of Buddhi.
(d) Green and Red are, so to speak, interchangeable colours. Green absorbs the Red because it is threefold stronger in its vibrations than the Red. And Green is the complementary color of extreme Red. This is why the Lower Manas and the Kâma Rûpa are respectively shown as Green and Red.
(e) The Astral Plane, or Auric Envelope in Nature, as it is of Man.
(f) The Mind or rational element in Man and Nature.
(g) The most ethereal counterpart of the body of man, the opposite pole, standing in point of vibration and sensitiveness as the Violet stands to the Red.
The above is on the manifested plane; after which we get the seven and the Manifested Prism, or Man on Earth. With the latter, the Black Magician alone is concerned.
In Kosmos, the gradations and correlations of Colors and Sounds, therefore of Numbers, are infinite. This is suspected even in Physics, as it is ascertained that there exist slower vibrations than those of the Red color, the slowest perceptible to us, and far more rapid vibrations than those of the Violet color, the most rapid that our senses can perceive. But on Earth, in our physical world, the range of perceptible vibrations is limited. Our physical senses cannot take cognizance of vibrations above and below the septenary and limited gradations of the prismatic colors: neither are such vibrations capable of causing in us the sensation of color or sound. It will always be the graduated septenary and no more; unless we learn to paralyze our Quaternary and to discern both with our spiritual senses seated in the upper Triangle.
Now, on this plane of illusions there are three fundamental colors, as found by physical Science -- Red, Blue and Yellow (or rather Orange-Yellow). Expressed in terms of the human principles they are: (1) the Kama Rupa, the seat of the animal sensations, welded to and serving as a vehicle for the animal soul, the Lower Manas (the colors Red and Green being interchangeable); (2) the Auric Envelope, or the essence of man; and (3) Prana, or life principle. But if from the realm of illusion, or the living man as he is on Earth, subject to his sensuous perceptions only, we pass to that of semi-illusion, and seeking in the natural colors themselves, or those of the "principles," -- i.e., if we try to find out which are those that in the perfect man absorb all others -- we shall find that the colors correspond and become complementary in the following way:
Violet
(1) Red .. Green
(2) Orange .. Blue
(3) Yellow .. Indigo
Violet
Hence the full septenary man presents the following appearance; symbolically as to the geometrical figures, and in reality as to the various colors of his principles: [4]
As seen, a faint violet, mist-like form represents the Astral man within an oviform bluish circle, over which radiate in ceaseless vibrations the seven prismatic colors. That color is predominant the corresponding principle of which is the most active in man generally, or at the particular moment when the clairvoyant perceives it. Such man appears during his waking states; and it is by the predominance of this or that color, and by the intensity of its vibrations, that a clairvoyant -- acquainted with "correspondences" -- can judge of the inner state or character of a person, for the latter is an open book to every practical Occultist.
In the trance state the aura changes entirely. The seven prismatic colors are no longer discernible. Nor are they all "at home" during sleep. For all those which belong to the spiritual elements in him (yellow, Buddhi; indigo, Higher Manas; and the blue of the Auric Envelope) will be either hardly discernible or altogether missing. The spiritual man is free during sleep and lives, robed in his highest essence, in realms on other planes, though his physical memory may not become aware of it -- in realms which are the land of reality -- called dreams on our plane of illusion.
A good clairvoyant, furthermore, who had an opportunity of seeing side by side a Yogi in the trance state and a mesmerized subject, would learn an important lesson in Occultism. He would learn to know the difference between self-induced trance and a hypnotic state as the result of extraneous influence. In the Yogi, the principles of the lower Quaternary disappear entirely, i.e., neither red, green, red-violet nor the auric blue of the body are to be seen; nothing but hardly perceptible vibrations of the golden-hued Prana principle and a violet flame streaked with gold rushing upwards from the head (where the Third Eye rests) and culminating in a point. If the student remembers that the true violet, or the extreme end of the spectrum, is no compound color of red and blue, but a homogeneous color with vibrations seven times more rapid than those of the extreme red [5] and that the golden hue is the essence of the three yellow hues from red-range to yellow-orange and yellow (vide table infra), he will understand the reason why: he lives in his own Auric Body, now become the vehicle of Buddhi-Manas. On the other hand, in a subject in a hypnotic or mesmeric trance artificially produced -- an effect of unconscious when not of conscious Black Magic, unless produced by a high Adept -- the whole set of the principles will be present, with the Higher Manas paralyzed, Buddhi severed from it through that paralysis, and the red-violet Astral Body entirely subjected to the Lower Manas and Kama Rupa (the green and red animal monsters in us).
* Colors: / Wave-lengths in Millimetres / Number of Vibrations in Trillions
Violet extreme / 406 / 759
Violet / 423 / 709
Violet-Indigo / 439 / 683
Indigo / 449 / 668
Indigo-Blue / 459 / 654
Blue / 479 / 631
Blue-Green / 492 /610
Green / 512 / 586
Green-Yellow / 532 / 564
Yellow / 551 / 544
Yellow-Orange / 571 / 525
Orange / 583 / 514
Orange-Red / 596 / 503
Red / 620 / 484
Red extreme / 645 / 465
One who comprehends well the above explanations will readily see how important it is for every student -- whether striving for practical occult powers or only for the purely psychic and spiritual gifts of clairvoyance and metaphysical knowledge -- to master thoroughly the right correspondences between the human, or the nature principles, and those of Kosmos. It is ignorance which leads materialistic Science to deny the inner man and his divine powers; knowledge and personal experience that allow the Occultist to affirm that such powers are as natural to man as swimming is to fishes.
It is like a Laplander denying in full sincerity to the catgut strung loosely on the sounding-board of a violin the power to produce comprehensive sounds or a melody. Our principles are the seven-stringed lyre of Apollo, truly.
In this our age, when oblivion has passed over the ancient knowledge, man's faculties are no better than the loose strings of a violin to the Laplander.
But the Occultist who knows how to tighten them and tune the violin in harmony with the vibrations of color and sound will extract divine harmony from them. The combination of these powers and the attuning of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm will, when combined give the geometrical equivalent of the invocation of Aum Mani Padme Hum.
This is why in the school of Pythagoras the previous knowledge of music and geometry were obligatory.
----------------
The Roots of Color and Sound.
Further, each of the primordial Seven -- the first Seven Rays forming the Manifested Logos -- is again sevenfold. Thus, as the seven colors of the solar spectrum correspond to the seven Rays, or Hierarchies, so each of these latter has again its seven divisions corresponding to the same series of colors. But in this case one color -- that which characterizes the particular Hierarachy as a whole -- is predominant and more intense than the others.
PLATE I.
NOTE (a) -- The numbers attached to the circles are for purposes of reference only. They have no correspondence with colors or principles.
NOTE (b). -- Each of the prismatic circles corresponds to, and is the source of, the princiople corresponding in color to its widest circle: e.g., circle 1 corresponds to the Linga Sarira (violet).
These Hierarchies can only be symbolized as concentric circles of prismatic colors: each Hierarchy being represented by a series of seven concentric circles, each circle representing one of the prismatic colors in their natural order. But in each of these "wheels" one circle will be brighter and more vivid in color than the rest and the wheel will have a surrounding aura (a fringe, as the physicists call it) of that color. This color will be the characteristic color of that Hierarchy as a whole. Each of these Hierarchies furnishes the essence (the soul) and is the "Builder" of one of the seven kingdoms of Nature -- which are the three elemental kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, and the kingdom of spiritual man (see Five Years of Theosophy, pp. 273 to 278); and besides this, each Hierarchy furnishes the aura of one of the seven principles in man with its specific color. Moreover, as each of these Hierarchies is the Ruler of one of the Sacred Planets, it will easily be understood how Astrology came into existence, and that real Astrology has a strictly scientific basis.
[SEE PLATE I AND THE LINEAR DIAGRAM ON PAGE 30.]
Let us demonstrate the fact by showing the symbol adopted in the Eastern school which represents the Seven Hierarchies of Creative Powers; call them Angels, if you will, or Planetary Spirits, or, again, the Seven Rulers of the Seven Sacred Planets of our system, which is our present case. At all events the concentric circles stand as symbols for Ezekiel's Wheels with some Eastern Occultists and Kabalists, and for the "Builders" or Prajapati with us.
The student should carefully examine the Linear Diagram on the following page.
Thus the Linga-Sarira Violet is derived from the Violet sub-ray of the Violet Hierarchy; the Higher Manas is similarly derived from the Indigo sub-ray of the Indigo Hierarchy, and so on. [5] The student will understand that that the Orders and Hierarchies are named here after their corresponding colors so as to avoid using numerals, which would be confusing in connection with the human principles -- the latter having no proper number of their own. The real occult names of these Hierarchies cannot now be given.
LINEAR DIAGRAM
THE SEVEN HIERARCHIES AND THEIR SUBDIVISIONS
VIOLET / INDIGO / BLUE / GREEN / YELLOW / ORANGE / RED
Indigo / Blue / Green / Yellow / Orange / Red
Blue / Green / Yellow / Orange / Red / Violet
Green / Yellow / Orange / Red / Violet / Indigo
Yellow / Orange / Red / Violet / Indigo / Blue
Orange / Red / Violet / Indigo / Blue / Green
Red / Violet / Indigo / Blue / Green / Yellow
Violet / Indigo / Blue / Green / Yellow / Orange
THE HUMAN PRINCIPLES
VIOLET. Linga Sarira / INDIGO. Higher Manas / BLUE. Auric Egg. / GREEN. Lower Manas. / YELLOW. Buddhi. / ORANGE. Prana. / RED. Kama Rupa.
The student must, however, remember that the colors which we see with our physical eyes are not the true colors of occult nature, but are merely the effects produced on the mechanism of our physical organs by certain rates of vibration. For instance, Clerk Maxwell has demonstrated that any color may be imitated in its effects on our retina by properly combining three other colors. It follows, therefore, that our retina has only three distinct color sensations, and we therefore do not perceive the seven colors which really exist, but only their "imitations," so to speak, in our physical organism.
Thus, for instance, the orange-red of the first "Triangle" is not a combination of orange and red, but is the true "spiritual" red, if the term may be allowed, while the red (blood-red) of the spectrum is the color of the Kama -- animal desire -- and is inseparable from the material plane.
Esotericism, pure and simple, speaks of no personal God; therefore are we considered as Atheists. But Occult Philosophy, as a whole, is based in reality and absolutely on the ubiquitous presence of God, i.e., the Absolute Deity; and if IT is not speculated upon (because too sacred and absolutely incomprehensible as a Unit to the finite intellect) the entire philosophy is based upon its divine Powers as sources of all that breathes and lives and has its existence, not merely its being. In every ancient religion the ONE was demonstrated by the many. In Egypt and India, as also in Chaldea and Phoenicia and finally in Greece, the ideas about Deity were expressed by multiples of three, five and seven; also of eight, nine and twelve great Gods -- symbolizing the powers and properties of the Only and Sole; it was related to that infinite subdivision by irregular and odd numbers that the metaphysics of these nations subjected their ONE DIVINITY to. Thus constituted, the cycle of the Gods had all the qualities and attributes of the "ONE SUPREME AND UNKNOWABLE;" for in this collection of divine personalities -- or rather of symbols personified -- dwells the ONE GOD, the GOD ONE, that God which, as in India, has no Second: "Oh God Ani (the Spiritual Sun), thou residest in the agglomeration of thy divine personages." (Apud Gribant Papyrus Orbiney, p. 101.)
These words show the belief of the ancients that all manifestation proceeded from one and the same source, all emanating from the one identical principle which can never be completely developed except in and through the collective and entire aggregate of its emanations.
The Pleroma of Valentinus is absolutely the Space of Occult Philosophy; for Pleroma means the superior regions. It is the sum total of all the divine manifestations and emanations expressing the plenum or totality of the rays proceeding from the ONE, and differentiating on all the planes, and transforming themselves into divine Powers, called Angels and Planetary Spirits in the philosophy of every nation. The Gnostic AEons and the Angels of the Pleroma are made to speak as the Devas and Saddhus of the Puranas. The Epinoia, the first female manifestation of God, the "Principle" of Simon Magus and Saturnilus, holds the same language as the Logos of Basilides; and each of these is traced to the purely esoteric Aletheia, the TRUTH of the Mysteries. All of them, we are taught, say at different times and in different languages the magnificent hymn of the Egyptian papyrus, thousands of years old: "The Gods adore thee, they greet thee, O the One Dark Truth;" and, addressing Ra, they add: "The Gods bow before thy Majesty, by exalting the Souls of all that which produces them ... and say to thee, Peace to all, emanations from the Unconscious Father of the Conscious Fathers of the Gods... Thou producer of beings, we adore the Souls which emanate from thee. Thou begettest us, Oh, thou Unknown, and we greet thee in worshipping each God-Soul which descendeth from thee and liveth in us." (Hymn to Amon-Ra) This is the source of the assertion, "Know ye not that ye are Gods and the temple of God." This is shown in the "Roots of Ritualism and Masonry," in Lucifer for April, 1889. Truly then, as said seventeen centuries ago, "Man cannot possess Truth (Aletheia) except he participate in the Valentinian Gnosis." So we may say now: "No man can know the Truth unless he studies the secrets of the Pleroma of Occultism; and these secrets are all in the Theogony of the ancient Wisdom-Religion, which is the Aletheia of Occult Science."
H. P. B.
_______________
Notes:
1. Meanwhile we point out for confirmation Origen's works (vol. II, pp. 362 to 368), who says that "the seven ruling daimons" (genii or planetary rulers) are Michael, the Sun (the lion-like); the second in order, the Bull, Jupiter or Suriel, etc.; and all these, the "Seven of the Presence," are the Sephiroth. The Sephirothal Tree is the Tree of the Divine Planets by Porphyry, or Porphyry's Tree, as it is usually called.
2. Magic, Magia, means, in its spiritual, secret sense, the "Great Life," or divine life in spirit.
3. At first there are the Omphalo-mesenteric vessels, two arteries and two veins, but these afterwards totally disappear, as does the "vascular area" on the "Umbilical Vesicle," from which they proceed. As regards the "Umbilical vessels" proper, the Umbilical Cord ultimately has entwined around it from right to left the one Umbilical vein which takes the oxygenated blood from the mother to the Foetus and two Hypogastric or Umbilical arteries which take the used-up blood from the Foetus to the Placenta, the contents of the vessels being the reverse of that which prevails after birth. Thus Science corroborates the wisdom and knowledge of ancient Occultism, for in the days of Simon Magus no man, unless an Initiate, knew anything about the circulation of the blood or about physiology. While this instruction was being printed, I received two small pamphlets from Dr. Jerome Anderson, F.T.S. (E.S., which were printed in 1884 and 1888, in which are to be found the scientific demonstration of the foetal nutrition as advanced in Instructions No. 1. Briefly, the Foetus is nourished by osmosis from the Amniotic Fluid and respires by means of the Placenta. Science knows little or nothing about the Amniotic Fluid and its uses. If any of our members care to follow up this question, I would recommend Dr. Anderson's Remarks on the Nutrition of the Foetus. (Wood & Co., New York.)
4. [Owing to the difficulty of representing the colors of the aura on a plane surface, and the lack of proper facilities for color-printing, the illustration here given is only approximate.]
5. Every man being born under one planet, there will always be a predominance of that planet's color in him, because that "principle" will rule in him which has its origin in the Hierarchy in question. There will also be a certain amount of the color derived from the other planets present in his aura, but that of the ruling planet will be strongest. Now a person in whom, say, the Mercury principle is predominant will be able, by acting upon the Mercury in another person born under a different planet, to get him entirely under his control. For the stronger Mercury principle in him will overpower the weaker Mercurial element in the other. But he will have little power over persons born under the same planet as himself. This is the key to the Occult Sciences of Magnestism and Hypnotism.
***
MEMORANDUM
It has become evident that, even in the Esoteric Section, there is need of regular discipline, and that members are only too ready to attribute personal motives to the Head of the Section whenever any fault or breach of Rule is pointed out to them.
Further, it is impossible for me, in my present state of bad health, to bear unassisted the whole burden of the exoteric organization of the Section.
Consequently I have determined to form a Supreme Council of fourteen, consisting of the following members, in whom I have full confidence.
The Council of fourteen will be divided into two executive bodies, one of which will exercise its functions in Europe, India and the Colonies, and the other in America.
The Council for Europe will consist of the following: Countess C. Wachtmeister, W. Kingsland, [1] C. F. Wright, W. R. Old, [2] A. W. Cobbold, A. Keightley, and B. Keightley. [3]
The Council for America will consist of the following: Mrs. J. Campbell Ver-Planck, William Q. Judge, Dr. J. D. Buck, J. Ransom Bridge, and three other persons to be selected by them and approved by me.
All matters of organization, administration and discipline will be dealt with by the above-named Council, and their unanimous decision will be final, subject to any directions which may be received from the Highest Authorities -- which, however, must be expected only on very exceptional occasions.
It will also be the duty of the Council to call the attention of members if they are apparently acting contrary to the spirit of their Pledge.
The necessity of this has been shown by the fact that in the short time which has elapsed since the formation of the Section three members have proved unfaithful to their Pledge. This is very serious, for the teaching being in their hands, it is impossible to say what use may be made of it in view of their defection. I am unable to say whether the Pledge of secrecy will be binding on them as it ought to be on every honorable man or woman to the end of their life, whether they leave the Section or not. This prevents and will prevent the esoteric explanations being as full as I should otherwise make them, for the occult solidarity of the Section is such that all the good and faithful must suffer for the fault of the bad and unfaithful.
I am in hopes that the above arrangements will relieve me of incessant anxieties and responsibilities, and enable me to devote myself the better to the occult teachings which it is my desire to impart to the members of the Section to the largest possible extent, thus utilizing the short time I have to remain with them.
Finally, I must point out to the members of the Section once again that the Pledge of inviolable secrecy which they have taken is binding for life; and that if for any reason a member leaves the Section it is obligatory that he should immediately return all documents and papers relating thereto.
Members must also make proper provision for the security of these papers in case of death or accident to themselves, and for their due return under such circumstances.
In accordance with the first paragraph of Rule 7 of the Pledge-Card, I have to notify that: Mr. T. B. Harbottle has withdrawn from the Section; the certificates of Mrs. Vittoria Cremers and Mrs. Mabel Cook (M. C.) have been cancelled for serious breach of their Pledge.
(Signed.) H. P. BLAVATSKY,
The Head of the Section.
BERTRAM KEIGHTLEY, :.>
Secretary of the E. S.
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE,
Secretary to H. P. B.
A true copy.
_______________
Notes:
1. President of the Blavatsky Lodge.
2. Vice-President of the Blavatsky Lodge.
3. Secretary of the Esoteric Section.