Filename: +quot;RC1007.TXT+quot; Source: +quot;Blavatsky + the Secret Doctrine+quot; by Ma

Filename: "RC1007.TXT"
Source: "Blavatsky & the Secret Doctrine" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 181]

   A curious fact in connection with images of books as seen in the astral 
light is that the text sometimes appears reversed as if held before a mirror.
With a little practice it becomes easy to read words, as the context and 
general sense prevent mistakes, but reading figures correctly is more 
difficult. Sometimes Madame Blavatsky forgot to reverse them, causing much 
trouble and annoyance to herself and others. For example, if she wrote to a 
friend asking him to verify a passage on page 341 of a certain book, the 
answer might come back that the passage could not be found there, or that 
there were not that many pages in the book. Looking the matter up it was 
invariably found in such cases that H.P.B. had forgotten to reverse the 
number. So (to take the same instance) it should have been 143 instead of 341. 
After a time, her correspondents discovered this, and then easily corrected 
such mistakes themselves.

   Another noteworthy circumstance in connection with the writing of "The 
Secret Doctrine" was that if Madame Blavatsky ever wanted definite information 
on any subject, it was sure to reach her in some way, either in a letter from 
a friend, in a newspaper or a magazine, or in the course of casual reading of 
books. This happened with such frequency and appositeness that it could not 
be explained on the basis of coincidence. Whenever possible, she used normal 

[PAGE 182]

means, so as not to exhaust her powers. In the early days of the Society, she 
had not been prudent in this, and afterward she felt the effects.

   One day there came a temptation in the offer of a large yearly salary if 
she would write for the Russian newspapers. She might write on any subject she 
chose, occultism included. Here was a primise of comfort and ease for the 
remainder of her days. Two hours a day would be ample to satisfy all demands 
on her time. But she said, "To write such a work as`The Secret Doctrine', I
must have all my thoughts in that direction, to keep in touch with the 
current. It is difficult enought as it is, hampered as I am with this sick and 
worn out old body, and it would be impossible to change the current back and 
forth from "The Secret Doctrine" to newspaper writing. I have no longer the 
energy left in me. Too much of it was exhausted in performing phenomena." 
When asked why she did these things when she must have known that she was 
wasting her strength and it would have been much better if no phenomena had 
been connected with her work, she answered, "Because people were continually 
bothering me. It was always,`Oh, do materialize this,' or ' Do `let me hear 
those astral bells' and so on, and then I did not like to disappoint people, 

[PAGE 183]

so I acceded to their requests. Now I have to suffer for it, and moreover, at 
the time the Society was started it was necessary to draw people's attention, 
and phenomena did this more effectually than anything else could have done."

   Granted, then, that phenomena were necessary at that time, the mischief lay 
in the fact that, once introduced, they were difficult to get rid of when they 
had served their purpose. All came eager to have their curiosity gratified, 
and if disappointed, went away in great wrath and indignation, ready to 
denounce the thing as a fraud. So in her anxiety for the welfare of the 
Society, poor H.P.B. continued the work, knowing that she was squandering her 
vitality. Thus she almost literally gave her life blood for the good of the 
organization.

   After the Society was fairly well established came the opportunity to have 
ease and comfort for the rest of her days. Can we realize what that meant? 
Picture Madame Blavatsky in her dingy little apartment with but one bedroom, 
which she shared with the Countess Wachmeister. In that obscure old German 
town she was virtually an exile among a foreign and unfamiliar people. Here 
she toiled at her desk twelve to fourteen hours a day, and was often in the 
most straitened circumstances. Then came the offer from the newspaper. She 

[PAGE 184]

could write about anything she pleased, and receive a salary that would place 
her far beyond the pale of want--all for about two hours a day of her time. 
Seemingly it would involve only a small sacrifice of time; but H.P.B. knew 
better. She knew that she could not write for newspapers and write "The 
Secret Doctrine" also. Unflinchingly she wrote the letter declining the 
offer, and thus added another to the long list sacrifices she had already 
laid on the altar of the Society and of humanity. 

   From Wurzburg, Madame Blavatsky went to Elberfield, where she stayed with 
Madame Gebhard. Here it seems that little if any work was done on "The 
Secret Doctrine", owing to the fact that she fell and sprained her ankle. 
Her kind friends nursed her tenderly, but recovery seemed to be slow. Her 
sister and niece were sent for, and with them she went to Ostend, from which 
place she wrote to the Countess Wachmeister: 

   "Yes, I will try to settle once more at my `Secret Doctrine' but it is 
hard. I am very weak. I feel I am ungrateful. But then gratitude has ever 
been shown in ancient symbology to reside in people's heels, and having lost 
my legs how can I be expected to have any?" Later she wrote: "My poor legs 

[PAGE 185]

have parted company with my body. I am now as legless as any elemental can 
be, and I do not know a soul in Ostend; not a solitary Russian here but 
myself, who would rather be a Turk and go back to India, but I can't, for I 
have neither legs nor reputation, according to the infamous charges of the 
S.P.R."* 

   Soon afterwards, the Countess Wachmeister again joined H.P.B. They had a 
number of visitors from England, Germany, and France, Ostend being easy of 
access from these countries. Madame Blavatsky wrote steadily, though her 
health was very poor and she frequently fretted, as evidenced by the following 
extract from one of her letters in which she says, "Because lies, hypocrisy 
and jesuitism reign supreme in this world, and I am not and cannot be either, 
therefore I seem doomed. Because I am tired of life and the struggle with that 
Stone of Sisyphus and the eternal work of the Danaides, and I am not permitted 
to get out of this misery and rest because I am one too many on this earth, I 
am doomed."

   This state of mind was probably occasioned chiefly by the extremely poor 
health which soon after came to a crisis, when she was stricken with kidney 
trouble. The Belgian physician said that she could not live long, and in her

-------------------------------------
*--The Society for Psychical Research

[PAGE 186]

despair the Countess telegraphed to Dr. Ashton Ellis, one of the London 
members of the Theosophical Society, who immediately came to Ostend. He held 
out no more hope than the Belgian doctor. Both were agreed that they had never 
known a person with kidneys so severely affected to live so long.

   It seemed as if "The Secret Doctrine" would not be finished--at least not 
by H.P.B. Anxious and sorrowful were the hearts of those who surrounded her. 
The grief of the Countess Wachmeister became so great that she went into a 
swoon. She recovered, and continued to be almost constantly at the bedside 
of the sick woman. Awakening one morning after a short sleep, she was 
surprised to see Madame Blavatsky sitting up in bed, looking calmly at her. 

   "Countess, come here!"

   The Countess obeyed, asking: "What is the matter, H.P.B.? You look so 
different."

   She replied, "Yes. Master has been here. He gave me my choice--that I 
might die and be free if I would, or live and finish "The Secret Doctrine". 
He told me how great would be my sufferings, and what a terrible time I 
would have before me in England (for I am to go there) but when I thought of 

[PAGE 187]

those to whom I shall be permitted to teach a few things and of the T.S., to 
which I have given my heart's blood already, I accepted the sacrifice." 

   She then called for some breakfast and to the surprise and joy of her 
friends, got up and went into the dining-room, where later she received a 
lawyer and the American Consul, who had come to superintend the making of her 
will. One may imagine the change of expression which came over their faces 
when, instead of coming into the presence of a dying woman, they found Madame 
Blavatsky sitting in her armchair seemingly in the best of health. Thus once 
more the specter of death was thrust away and H.P.B. had taken another lease 
on life.

   The next visitors were Dr. Keightley and Mr. Bertram Keightley of London, 
who bore urgent invitations to Madame Blavatsky to come to London. To this she 
finally consented. The Countess left Ostend for Sweden, and shortly H.P.B. 
journeyed to London, where with the Keightleys she occupied a small cottage 
called Maycot. Here the manuscript of "The Secret Doctrine" was finished. It 
made a pile three feet high when it was given to the Keightleys for 
correction of syntax, punctuation, and spelling. The Keightleys found that 
it was not written in a consecutive manner, and outlined a plan of 
rearrangement which was approved by Madame Blavatsky. The entire manuscript 
was then typewritten. 

[PAGE 188] 

   Just before this work was finished, H.P.B. and her friends moved to 17 
Lansdowne Road, Notting Hill, London, where they were joined by the Countess 
Wachmeister and others, and there was established the first Headquarters.

   It was first arranged to have "The Secret Doctrine" published by Mr. 
George Redway, who was publishing "Lucifer", the magazine which had been 
founded a short time before by H.P.B., and which has since been called the 
"Theosophical Review", but as his proposal was not financially satisfactory, 
and a friend of Madame Blavatsky's offered to furnish the money, an office 
was taken in Duke Street, London, the primary object being to enable the 
Theosophical Society to derive the utmost benefit from her writings. 

   Of the further history of the writing of "The Secret Doctrine" there is 
little to be said, though several months more of hard work were necessary 
before it was finally ready for the press. H.P.B. read and corrected two 
sets of galley proof, then a set of page proof and finally a revise in 

[PAGE 189]

sheet correcting, altering and adding until the last, with the result that 
the printers' bill for corrections alone amounted to $1,500. 

   Such is the story of "The Secret Doctrine"--a story which, like the book 
itself, is derided by the majority of people, notwithstanding its 
authentication by many persons of sound reason and blameless life. As in the 
case of Copernicus and others, some day the world will wake up and find that 
this much abused woman was right. Will a monument be raised to her? Who 
knows? Whether it will be or not, the fact remains that in "The Secret 
Doctrine" itself and in the affection with which its author is regarded by 
every student who has been helped by her is a monument more lasting than 
marble or bronze. For, though the Masters were the actual authors of the 
work, let us not forget that it was the zeal and devotion of H.P.B. which so 
excellently qualified her as an instrument for their use; and but for that 
zeal and devotion we might not today possess the greatest of modern works on 
occultism--"The Secret Doctrine". 

[PAGE 190]

   We have traced the history of "The Secret Doctrine", from the time when 
H.P.B.'s Master gave her the plan, until it was printed and given to the 
world. Now study the plan upon which it was constructed, and try to catch a 
glimpse of the teachings contained within its several volumes. 

   When we contemplate the range of subjects dealt with in this work--a range 
bounded only by the universe--it is at once apparent how fragmentary must be 
any outline. The content of "The Secret Doctrine" cannot be taught in one 
lecture not in a hundred lectures, even though such a lecture course were 
given by the most learned exponent. The work is a mine rich in priceless 
gems of occult knowledge. Perseverance and intuition are the pick and shovel 
by the diligent use of which we may become possessed of these jewels of 
great price. A truth discovered by ourselves stays with us after we have 

[PAGE 191]

lost a dozen other truths explained to us by others. If therefore we can be 
induced to dig within "The Secret Doctrine" for ourselves, we shall profit 
more than if someone were to explain to us every teaching contained within 
its covers. 

   A cursory reading will prove a potent emans of bewildering the mind, as 
before us whirl demons and devas, Dhyan Chohans and Kumaras, yugas and cycles, 
satyrs and fakirs, adepts and alchemists, Manus and monads, in a continuous 
phantasmagoria. To be of value "The Secret Doctrine" must be studied. Just 
as Theseus, who entered the labyrinth of Crete to do battle with the 
Minotaur, was gudied out of the maze by the thread of Ariadne, so the 
student should fix his mind on one subject, and plunge boldly into the maze 
to do battle with the Minotaur of ignorance. If he persists, and holds tight 
the golden thread of intuition, he will be sure to bring out the priceless 
gem of knowledge of the subject; and by his toil he will have made it part 
of himself--a possession never to be lost. In this way he may spend days in 
search of a small point, but when he understands that point, he will know 
thsat the time was well spent. When at last he has extracted as far as he is 
able the information contained in "The Secret Doctrine", there dawns upon 

[PAGE 192]

his mind a conception of the truth. I cannot describe the exultation I felt 
at that first view of that truth, and how I meditated on it and admired it 
as I saw it dovetail into all the general philosophies. 

   It should be remembered that the work which we are considering is not by 
any means the whole of the esoteric philosophy possessed by the Masters of 
Wisdom, but only a small fragment of its fundamental tenets. The teachings 
of "The Secret Doctrine", however fragmentary and incomplete, do not belong 
to the Hindu, Zoroastrian, Chaldean, or Egyptian religions; nor to Buddhism, 
Islamism, Judaism or Christianity exclusively. The book contains the essence 
of them all. Originating from the same source, all are in these volumes 
resolved into their original elements, out of which every mystery and dogma 
has developed and become materialized. The aim of the work is to show that 
Nature is not a fortuitous concurrence of atoms, to assign to man his 
rightful place in the scheme of the universe, to rescue from degradation the 
archaic truths which are the basis of all religions, to uncover to some 
extent the fundamental unity from which they all sprang, and finally to show 
that the occult side of Nature has never been approached by the science of 
modern civilization. 

   When an architect starts to build a modern skyscraper he first prepares a 

[PAGE 193]

solid foundation; upon this he rears the massive steel beams to form the 
skeleton of the building. This skeleton is then clothed in walls and floors of 
concrete, terra cotta, and other materials. A system of steam-pipes like 
arteries carries heat to every room. Its nervous system is an intricate 
network of electric light and telephone wires, while in the basement throbs a 
steam engine, driving an electric generator. The result is an organic whole 
pulsing with life.

   Somewhat similar was the procedure of the Masters of Wisdom who built the 
monumetal structure of occult knowledge which we are considering. A Mohammedan 
writer says, "In the assembly of the day of resurrection the sins of Kabak 
will be forgiven for the sake of the Lust of the Christian Churches." 
Professor Max Muller replied, "The sins of Islam are as worthless as the dust 
of Christianity. In the day of the resurrection both Christians and 
Mohammedans will see the vanity of their religious doctrines. Men fight about 
religion on earth. In heaven they shall find out that there only one true 
religion." In other words, "There is no religion higher than truth." Upon this 
foundation of truth was raised by the Masters of the Wisdom of the Ages the 
skeleton structure of the "Book of Dzyan", a Senzar manuscript of vast 

[PAGE 194]

antiquity, about which have been gathered all that was good and true in all 
the world religions, cemented by occult knowledge, and ornamented with old 
symbols and myths. These were the more beautiful for being deprived of the 
scale of materialism which for ages had covered them. The result is the 
congeries of transcendent philosophy contained in "The Secret Doctrine". It 
may be asked: where are the arteries of steam pipes, the nervous system of 
electric wires, the steam engine, and the electric generator to vitalize the 
building? These the student must himself supply by making it part of 
himself, by taking it into his own life. In proportion as he does this will 
be the life it has for him, its measure and its limit being his devotion to 
its ideals. 

   "The Secret Doctrine" establishes three fundamental postulates. The first 
is the existence of an omnipresent, eternal, boundless and immutable 
Principle on which all specualtion is impossible, since it transcends the 
power of human conception and can only be dwarfed by any human expression or 
similitude. It is beyond the range of thought, unspeakable and unthinkable. 
This Be-ness is symbolized in "The Secret Doctrine" under two aspects: on 
the one hand is Absolute Abstract Space, representing base subjectivity--the 

[PAGE 195]

one thing which no human mind can either exclude from any conception or 
conceive of by itself. On the other hand is Absolute Abstract Motive, 
representing unconditional consciousness. This latter aspect is also spoken 
of as the Great Breath, the One Reality. The Absolute is the field of 
absolute consciousness, or that essence which is out of all relation to 
conditioned existence, and of which conscious existence is a conditioned 
symbol; but once we pass in thought from this absolute negation (to us), 
duality supervenes in the contrast of Spirit (or Consciousness) and Matter. 

   Spirit and Matter are to be regarded not as independent realities, but as 
symbols or aspects of the Absolute, which constitute the basis of conditioned 
being, whether subjective or objective. Considering this metaphysical triad as 
the root from which proceeds all manifestation, the Great Breath assumes the 
character of precosmic ideation. It is the fount of force and of all 
individual consciousness, and supplies the guiding Intelligence in the vast 
scheme of cosmic evolution. On the other hand, precosmic root substance is the 
aspect of the Absolute which underlies all the objective planes of nature.

   The manifested universe is pervaded by duality, which is the very essence 
of its existence as Manifestation. But just as the opposite poles of subject 
and object, spirit and matter, are but aspects of the One Unity in which they 
are synthesized, so in the manifested universe there is that which links 
spirit to matter, subject to object. This something--at present unknown to 
Western speculation--is called by Eastern occultists "fohat". It is the 
"bridge" by which ideas existing in the divine thought are impressed on 
cosmic substance. 

   Thus from spirit or cosmic ideation comes our consciousness; from cosmic 
substance come the several vehicles in which that consciousness is 
individualized; while this substance in its various manifestations is the 
mysterious link between mind and matter, the principle vivifying every atom.

   The second fundamental postulate of "The Secret Doctrine" is the 
existence of eternity in toto as a boundless plane--periodically the 
playground of numberless universes which are incessantly manifesting and 
disappearing. This postulate is the absolute universality of that law of 
periodicity, of flux and reflux, ebb and flow, which physical science has 
observed and recorded in all departments of nature. An alternation such as 
that of day and night, waking and sleeping, life and death, is in fact so 
common, so perfectly universal and without exception, that it is easy to see 
in it one of the fundamental laws of the universe. 

[PAGE 196] 

   The third and last of the basic postulates of "The Secret Doctrine" is 
the fundamental identity of all souls with the universal Oversoul, the 
latter being itself an aspect of the Unknown Root; and the obligatory 
pilgrimage of every soul through a cycle of incarnation. These souls or 
sparks are the Sons abiding from everlasting, from the beginning of the 
creative age in the bosom of the Father. They are to be made perfect through 
sufferings. Each soul is truly equal to the Father as concerns its Godhead, 
but inferior to the Father as concerns its manhood, and each is to go forth 
into matter in order to render all things subject to itself. The soul is to 
be sown in weakness that it may be raised in power, thus escaping from the 
limitations of a static Logos, enfolding all divine powers, ominiscient and 
ominpresent on its own plane, but unconscious on all other planes. Its glory 
is to be veiled in soul-blinding matter in order that through experience, 
the soul may become omnisicent and omnipresent ON ALL PLANES, repsonsive to 
all divine vibrations instead of to those on the highest planes only. The 
pivotal doctrine of the hidden wisdom admits of no privileges or special 
gifts in man save those won by his own soul through a long series of 
metempsychoses and reincarnations. 

[PAGE 197] 

   Such are the basic conceptions on which "The Secret Doctrine" rests. It 
would not be fitting here to enter upon any defense or proof of their 
inherent reasonableness, nor can I pause to show how they are contained--
though too often under a misleading guise--in all systems of thought or 
philosophy worthy of the name. Once the student has gained a clear 
comprehension of them and realized the light they throw on every problem of 
life, he finds that they need no further justification. 

   The history of cosmic evolution as traced in the Stanzas of Dzyan may be 
regarded as the abstract algebraic formula of that evolution. Hence the 
student must not expect to find there an account of all the stages ands 
transformations which have occurred between the beginnings of universal 
evolution and our present state. To give such an account would be as 
impossible as it would be incomprehensible to men who cannot grasp the nature 
of even the plane of existence next to their own. The Stanzas, therefore, give 
an abstract formula which can be applied to all evolution--to that of our tiny 
earth, to the chain of planets of which our earth forms one, to the solar 

[PAGE 198]

universe to which that chain belongs, and so on, in an ascending scale until 
the mind reels an is exhausted in the effort to understand.

   The seven Stanzas of the first volume represent the seven terms of the 
abstract formula to which they refer, and describe the seven great stages of 
the evolutionary process mentioned in the Hindu philosophy as the seven 
creations, and in the Bible as the days of creation.

   Stanza No. 1: describes the condition of the Absolute One during the 
interlude between cosmic manifestations and before the first flutter of 
reawakening activity. A moment's consideration will show how difficult it is 
to describe such a state. Since it is a state of Absoluteness per se, it can 
possess none of the specific attributes which serve to describe objects in 
positive terms. Hence the state can be suggested only by negatives involving 
all the most abstract attributes  which men feel rather than conceive as the 
remotest limits attainable by their powers of conception. We are informed by 
the Stanza that: 

   Stanza No. 1: "The eternal parent wrapped in her ever invisible robes had 
slumbered once again for seven eternities. Time was not, for it lay asleep in 
the infinite bosom of duration. Universal mind was not, for there were no

[PAGE 199]

Ah-Hi to contain it. The seven ways to bliss were not. The great causes of 
misery were not, for there was no one to produce and get ensnared by them. 
Darkness alone filled the boundless all, for father, mother and son were once 
more one, and the son had not awakened yet for the new wheel, and his 
pilgrimage thereon. The seven sublime lords and the seven truths had ceased to 
be, and the Universe, the son of Necessity, was immersed in Paranishpanna [the 
Absolute], to be outbreathed by that which is and yet is not. Naught was. The 
causes of existence had been done away with; the visible that was, and the 
invisible that is, rested in eternal non-being--the one being. Alone the one 
form of existence stretched boundless, infinite, causeless, in dreamless 
sleep; and life pulsated unconscious in universal space, throughout that All-
presence which is sensed by the opened eye of the Dangma [the inner spiritual 
eye of the seer, or the Third Eye]."

   Stanza No. 2: describes a stage which to the Western Mind is so nearly 
identical with the first that to explain the difference would require a 
treatise in itself. A grasp of what it contains can be obtained only through 
the intuition and higher faculties of the student. Indeed, it must be 

[PAGE 200]

remembered that all the Stanzas appeal more to the inner faculties than to the 
physical brain:

   "Where were the Builders, the luminous Sons of Manvantaric Dawn? * * * The 
producers of form from no-form--the root of the world--? * * Where was 
silence? Where the ears to sense it? No, there was neither silence nor sound; 
naught save ceaseless eternal breath, which knows itself not. The hour had not 
yet struck; the ray had not yet flashed into the Germ; the Matripadma [Mother-
Lotus] had not yet swollen. * * * The universe was still concelaed in the 
Divine thought and the Divine bosom."

   Stanza No. 3: describes the reawakening of the universe to activity after 
rest. It depicts the emergence of the monads from their state of absorption 
within the One. Thus begins the earliest and highest stage in the formation 
of worlds. The term "monad" may apply to the vastest solar system and the 
tiniest atom. Says the Stanza: 

   "The last vibration of the seventh eternity thrills through inifinitude. 
The mother swells, expanding from within without, like thge bud of the lotus. 
The vibration sweeps along, touching with its swift wing the whole universe 
and the germ that dwelleth in darkness. The darkness that breathes over the 

[PAGE 201]

slumbering waters of life. Darkness radiates light, and light drops one 
solitary ray into the mother-deep. The ray shoots through the virgin egg, the 
ray causes the virgin egg to thrill, and drop the non-eternal germ, which 
condenses into the world-egg. * * * Father-Mother spin a web whose upper end 
is fastened to spirit--the light of the one darkness--and the lower one to its 
shadowy end, matter; and this web is the universe spun out of the two 
wubstances made in one. * * * It expands when the breath of fire is upon it; 
it contracts when the breath of the mother touches it. Then the sons 
dissociate and scatter, to return into their mother's bosom at the end of the 
great day, and re-become one with her: * * *"

   Stanza No. 4: shows the differentiation of the germ of the universe into 
the septenary hierarchy of conscious Divine Power which is the active 
manifestation of the one supreme energy. They are the framers, shapers, and 
ultimately the creators of all the manifested universe in the only sense in 
which the name Creator is intelligible. They inform and guide it. They are 
intelligent beings who adjust and control evolution, embodying in themselves 
those manifestations of the one Law which we know as the Law of Nature. This 
stage of evolution is called in mythology the Creation of the Gods, but it is 

[PAGE 202]

not a creation of gods in the sense in which creation is generally understood 
in the West, but as a reawakening into activity of Beings who have acquired 
their transcendental intelligences in former universes.

   Stanza No. 5: "The Primordial Seven, the First Seven Breaths of the Dragon 
of Wisdom, produce in their turn from their Holy Circumgyrating Breaths the 
Fiery Whirlwind."

   The stanza describes the process of world formation; first, diffused cosmic 
matter, then the fiery whirlwind--the first stage in the formation of a 
nebula. This nebula condenses, and after passing through various 
transformations froms a solar universe, a planetary chain, or a single planet, 
as the case may be.

   Stanza No. 6: indicates the subsequent stages in the formation of such a 
world, and brings its evolution down to the fourth period--corresponding to 
the period in which we are now living.

   "* * * He builds them in the likeness of older wheels, placing them on the 
Imperishable Centres. How does Fohat build them? He collects the fiery dust. 
He makes balls of fire, runs through them, and round them, infusing life 
thereinto, then sets them into motion; some one way, some the other way. They 

[PAGE 203]

are cold, he makes them hot. They are dry, he makes them moist. They shine, he 
fans and cools them. Thus acts Fohat from one twilight to the other, during 
Seven Eternities. * * * Make thy calculations, Lanoo, if thou wouldest learn 
the correct age of the small wheel. Its fourth spoke is our mother. Reach the 
fourth "fruit" of the fourth path of knowlkedge that leads to Nirvana, and 
thou shalt comprehend, for thou shalt see."

   Stanza No. 7: "Behold the beginning of sentient formless life. * * * The 
one ray multiplies the smaller rays. Life precedes form, and life survives the 
last atom of form. Through the countless rays proceeds the life-ray, the One, 
like a thread through many jewels. * * * The spark hangs from the flame by the 
finest thread of Fohat. It journeys through the Seven World of Maya. It stops 
in the first, and is a metal and a stone; it passes into the second and 
behold--a plant; the plant whirls through seven changes and becomes a sacred 
animal. From the combines atteibutes of these, Manu, the thinker is formed.

   The 7th Stanza continues the history, tracing the descent of life down to 
the appearance of man, thus ending the description of comsic evoltuion as 
found in the first volume.

[PAGE 204]

   For a graphic summary of the teaching of "The Secret Doctrine" on the 
cosmogony of the system of worlds to which we belong, it would be difficult 
to improve upon that given in an old commentary on the Book of Dzyan. "Eight 
houses were built by Mother [Space]. Eight houses for her Eight Divine sons 
[planets]; four large and four small ones. Eight brilliant suns, according 
to their age and merits. Bal-i-lu (Marrtanda) [the eighth sun, the sun of 
our solar system] was not satisfied, though his house was the largest. He 
began (to work) as the huge elephants do. He breathed (drew in) into his 
timach the vital airs of his brothers. He sought to devour them. The larger 
four were far away; far, on the margin of their kingdom (planetary system). 
They were not robbed (affected) and laughed. Do your worst, Sir, you cannot 
reach us, they said. But the smaller wept. They complained to the Mother. 
She exiled Bal-i-lu to the center of her Kingdom, from whence he could not 
move. (Since then) he (only) watches and threatens. He pursues them, turning 
slowly around himself, they turning swiftly from him, and he following from 
afar the direction in which his brothers move on the path that encircles 
their houses. (`The sun rotates on his axis always in the same direction in 
which the planets revolve in their respective orbits.' astronomy teaches 
us)." 

[PAGE 205] 

   If there is anywhere a plainer and more graphic exposition I should like to 
know it. Modern astronomy also explains this phenomenon, though in some points 
it differs. The occult doctrine rejects the hypothesis (born of the nebular 
theory) that the seven great planets have evolved from the central mass of the 
sun--at least, of our visible sun. The first condensation of cosmic matter 
took place around a central nucleus, its parent sun, but according to the 
occult teaching, the sun merely detached itself earlier than the others, as 
the rotating mass contracted, and is their elder brother and not their father.

   Each of these seven planets in its turn is again associated with six other 
planets. Such a group is called a planetary chain. Each of these chains froms 
a field of evolution for a certain number of monads or souls. There are 
further subdivisions, but we need not be concerned with them here.

  Evolution of these monads progresses through a series of manifestations on 
one or more of these chains, and, just as this earth is the fourth and most 
material planet of the seven globes which are the field of its special system 
of evolution, do does this whole chain of worlds occupy the same place in the 

[PAGE 206]

larger scheme to which it belongs; that is to say, the life impulse which is 
now cycling through this present period of evolution had its beginning long 
anterior to it. There have been three such periods of evolution before this 
one, and there will be three after this one has passed, before objective 
manifestation once more returns to the bosom of the Infinite for a period of 
rest.

   Our own little earth and its human inhabitants are given due 
consideration in the second volume of "The Secret Doctrine". To understand 
it is by no means the simple task which one might suppose when viewing the 
pictures representing the creation story in some of the old cathedrals of 
Europe, where God appears much as a Nuremburg toymaker, hanging the planets 
in the firmament, or sitting cross-legged on a table with  a large pair of 
scissors beside him, sewing coats of skin for Adam and Eve. 

   We understand also that the geological constitution of the earth cannot be 
accounted for by the six-day or any other creation theory, for if God created 
the world as thus set forth, we must also suppose that he twisted the strata, 
stored the fossils between, scooped out the valleys supposed to have been made 
by glaciers, and caused the marks of erosion by water all for His own glory 

[PAGE 207]

and for the mystification of man.

   "The Secret Doctrine" teaches that the fire-mist which eventually 
condensed into what is now our earth originally covered an area so large 
that it enveloped the moon. The latter was heated to such an extent that it 
was softened to the consistency of mud; its water and air were converted 
into steam, and when the fire-mist contracted, the atmosphere and water 
followed the new center. When the earth had cooled sufficiently, the 
enveloping fire-mist condensed into our present water and air, until at the 
time when the life-wave reached the earth from Mars in the course of the 
present round, the earth had cooled so much that the water had become tepid. 
About this time, the first of the four great continents--which existed 
before the earth assumed its present topography--appeared in the region now 
known as the Arctic. 

[PAGE 208]

   Before going any further, it is necessary to understand the central 
position of our earth in the whole plan of evolution. During the preceding 
three and one-half rounds, the monads have been veiling themselves more and 
more in matter. On the earth in our present round, the nadir of materiality 
was reached by all kingdoms in the middle of the fourth race. We, being in the 
fifth sub-race of the firth root-race, are just beginning to slowly raise 
ourselves out of matter. We are the prodigal sons who went into a far country 
to gather experience, and having gone as afr as we could, are now returning 
home to our Father--who be the pouring out of Intelligence has met us a long 
way off, and is now conducting us to our own spiritual home.

   The general plan of human evolution on the globe is briefly this: seven 
distinct root-races were destined to evolve a certain principle or sense. In 
this way, the four races which preceded us developed hearing, touch, sight, 
and taste. We have developed smell. The sixth and seventh root-races are to 
develop astral and mental clairvoyance respectively. They will also develop 
spirituality. We are developing intellectuality; our predecessors developed 
desire. Each of the seven root-races divides into seven sub-races, these again 
being subdivided. The evolution of each root-race takes place under the 
guidance of a special teacher, a great spiritual entity who incarnates in that 
race as ruler and lawgiver.

   Each root-race evolves on its own continent, which is destroyed when that 
evolution is finished, water and fire being used alternately as agents. The 
archaic names of these continents are many, but to avoid confusion "The 
Secret Doctrine" uses the names most familiar to Western readers. The first 
continent it calls the Imperishable Sacred Land. The reason for this name is 
that this continent is the only one whose destiny it is to last throughout 
the whole of our stay on this chain of globes. It was the cradle of the 
first man, and will be the dwelling of the last divine mortal Chaya as a 
repository for the future seeds of humanity. 

   This sacred land has in its center Mount Meru, whose roots are in the 

[PAGE 209]

Himalayan chain; from the peak of this sacred mountain--which forms the axis 
of the earth--there is a continuous flow of magnetic current, whcih spreads 
over the whole globe, re-entering it at the south pole. Thence it goes to the 
Holy City of Shamballah (the heart of the earth) in the Gobi Desert, where it 
is purified by the Masters of the Great White Lodge, and sent back to Mount 
Meru at the north pole. Around the sacred mountain, like leaves of the lotus, 
are seven promontories. On these were born the seven sub-classes of the 
first race, says the "Book of Dzyan": "The great Chohans [Lords] called the 
Lords of the Moon, of the Airy Bodies. `Bring forth men, men of your nature. 
Give them their forms within. She will build coverings without. Males-
females will they be.' * * * They [the Moon-gods] went each on his allotted 
land: seven of them each on his lot." 

   Concerning anthropogenesis, "The Secret Doctrine" teaches: (1) the 
simultaneous evolution of seven human groups on seven different portions of 
our globe; (2) the birth of the astral bdoy before the physical, the latter 
body being molded in the astral form; (3) the priority of man in this round 
to the animals, the monkeys included. This last teaching is in accord with 

[PAGE 210] 

the second creation story in the Bible; also with other books. 

   On the Sacred Imperishable Land were created by the Lords of the Moon chain 
the first race--large, shadowy, ethereal beings floating hither and thither. 
It may be asked, why call them human? For the same reason that a human fetus 
is called human, when for the first eight weeks it si indistinguishable from 
the embryonic dog. The method by which these beings reproduced was to throw 
off their astral counterpart, which in time could throw off another, each 
inferior to his father. This provides the explanation of the varying stages of 
humanity, for such inferior beings were ensouled by enferior entities. This 
race did not die, but was clother with the second race. The latter, after 
the type had been definitely established, was led to what "The Secret 
Doctrine" calls the Hyperborean continent, the promontories of which 
stretched from the North Pole to the south and west. In the days of Homer 
the Greeks spoke of it as a blessed land beyond the reach of Boreas, the god 
of winter, and of the hurricane--an ideal country, where nights were short 
and days were long. 

   On this continent lived the second-race men, ensouled by the second great 

[PAGE 211]

host of monads which had come over from the Moon chain. Although having the 
general form of men, the individuals of this race were gigantic jellylike 
creatures who floated over the surface of the earth, as directed by passing 
desires. The features were undefined, there being no eyes, ears, or mouth. 
They received impressions through and were guided by two centers of force, the 
so-called thrid eye (which has become the pineal gland) and an organ which has 
developed into the spleen. They were potentially bisexual, and reproduced 
their species in the same manner as the first race. The second-race men were 
boneless--which accounts for the fact that geologists have found no fossils in 
the three lower strata.

   During the later secondary period the waters receded, and land appeared in 
the areas now covered by India, China, Australia, Africa, the Pacific Ocean 
and Northern Europe. This was the vast Lemurian continent, to which the great 
Lemurian race was led by its Teacher. This was the first race to receive the 
outpouring of intelligence.

   The mode of reproduction was changed three times during this period. Says 
the "Book of Dzyan": "Then the second [race] evolved the Egg-born, the 
third. * * * The egg of the future race, the Man-swan of the later third. 
First male-female, then man and woman." Today embryology teaches that man is 
born from the ovum; that in the third month the fetus is bisexual; then one 
sexual organ becomes dominant, the other remaining rudimentary but never 
disappearing. The body of the third root race man became firmer, and its 
shape changed until it was man as we know he was--a giant twelve to fifteen 
feet tall, with a dark yellow-brown skin, long lower jaw, flat face, eyes 
far apart, the head sloping upward and backward. He had no forehead; the 
hair was short, the back of the head bare, probably for the greater 
convenience of the third eye. Arms and legs were much longer in proportion 
than ours. His heels projected back, so that he could walk backward. 
Certainly he was not too engaging a person. We can sympathize with the souls 
who were guided to such bodies for incarnation, and excuse them for 
refusing. 

   During this age the animals appeared, and separated into sexes before 
man. Up to this stage, man had remained (as the "Book of Dzyan" puts it) "an 
empty, senseless shadow." Then came the time when he was to receive the 
priceless gift of mind. To accomplish this three classes of souls came down 
to birth. 

   The first were the Lords of Venus, who, though not belonging to our 

[PAGE 212]

planetary chain, sent to this earth--their adopted child--great teachers who 
taught and guided infant humanity. To them we can give thanks for the fact 
that we are now about one round in advance of what we otherwise would have 
achieved. These Lords established the Great White Lodge, which has existed 
ever since, and from which have been sent all the great Teachers of humanity. 
Originally the Lodge was not for the benefit of evolving humanity--which for 
ages was not to be qualified to tread the path of initiation--but for those of 
the Lords of Venus who had not reached the highest stage of initiation.

   The other two classes are described as the Sons of Wisdom and the Sons of 
Night. Of these the Sons of Night refused to create. Those who entered became 
sages; on those who did not procreate, the curse was pronounced. They will be 
born in the fourth suffering, and causing suffering. 

    Thus was a part of humanity left narrow-headed and mindless. Of them the 
"Book of Dzyan" says: "And those which had no spark took huge she-animals 
unto them. They begat upon them dumb races. Dumb they were themselves. But 
their tongues untied. The tongues of their progeny remained still. Monsters 

[PAGE 213]

they bred. A race of crooked red-hair-covered monsters going on all fours. A 
dumb race to keep the shame untold. Seeing which, the Lhas [the spirits, the 
Sons of Wisdom] who had not built men, wept, saying: `The Amanasa [the 
mindless] have defiled our future abodes. This is Karma [retribution]. Let 
us dwell in the other. Let us teach them better, lest worse should happen. * 
* * Then all men become endowed with Manas [mind]." 

   Some of the fourth race men who had mind, however, did the same--and here 
is the explanation of "The Secret Doctrine" regarding the anthropoids. They 
are not our ancestors--as is assumed by the evolutionists--but an offshoot 
of the human race. They are the only animals now on the globe which will 
develop human astral forms in the seventh root-race, and will be definitely 
human in the fifth round. 

   There is still another class, of which one division incarnated during thr 
later third and the other during the early fourth round. They had advanced too 
far on the Lunar chain to be reborn on the earthly chain during the preceding 
stages, and came into incarnation for the first time on this chain. These are 
the last of the monads who inhabited the Moon chain.

[PAGE 214]

   From the seventh sub-race of the third race the Teacher who was to develop 
the coming fourth race singled out those who were to form the nucleus, and led 
them to that great see-ground for humanity--the Imperishable Sacred Land--
where he segregated them, says the "Book of Dzyan", two by two, on the seven 
zones, and imbedded in their forms potentially the qualities to be developed 
in the coming races. Meanwhile great cataclysms rent the continent, and 
Lemuria as such disappeared, ages before the tertiary period. In its place 
rose Atlantis, the fourth continent, destined to become the seat of a 
civilization which in many ways excelled our own. Its rulers were divine 
Priest-Kings. It was indeed the Golden Age; alchemistry was used to produce 
gold for use in the arts and to ornament their houses and buildings. 
Superphysical powers were a common possession. 

  When the divine pilots tried the experiment of relinquishing the helm to see 
if man himself would be able to guide the ship of humanity, this was all 
changed. "Then the Fourth [race] became tall with pride. We are the kings, it 
was said; we are the gods. They took wives fair to look upon. Wives from the 
mindless, the narrow-headed. They bred monsters. Wicked demons, male and 
female. * * They built temples for the human body. Male and female they 

[PAGE 215]

worshipped. Then the Third Eye acted no longer. They built huge cities. * * * 
They built great images nine yatis high, the size of their bodies. Inner fires 
had destroyed the land of their fathers. The water threatened the fourth. The 
first great waters came. They swallowed the seven great islands." Such is the 
Story of the degradation into which fell the class which the BOOK calls the 
Lords of Night, or the Dark Faces, in contradistinction to the Sons of 
Wisdom, or Lords of the Dazzling Face. "The Secret Doctrine" tells the story 
plainly: 

   "And the `great King of the Dazzling Face', the chief of all the Yellow-
faced, seeing the sins of the Black-faced, was sad. He sent his air-vehicles 
to all his brothers-chiefs (chiefs of other nations and tribes) with pious 
men within saying `Prepare, arise ye men of the good law, and cross the land 
while (yet) dry. The Lords of the storm are approaching. Their chariots are 
nearing the land. One night and two days only shall the Lords of the Dark 
Face (the Sorcerers) live on this patient land. She is doomed, and they have 
to descend with her. The nether Lords of the Fires (the Gnomes and fire 
Elemntals) are preparing their magic Agneyastra (fire-weapons worked by 
magic). * * * They are versed in Ashtar (Vidya, the highest magical 

[PAGE 216] 

knowledge). Come and use yours (your magic powers, in order to counteract 
those of the Sorcerers). Let every lord of the Dazzling Face (and adept of 
the White Magic) cause the Viwan of every lord of the Dark Face to come into 
his hands (or possession), lest any (of the Sorcerers) should by its means 
escape from the waters, avoid the rod of the Four, (Karmic deities) and save 
his wicked (followers or people). May every yellow face send sleep from 
himself (mesmerize?) to every black face. May even they (the Sorcerers) 
avoid pain and suffering. May every man true to the Solar Gods bind 
(paralyze) every man under the lunar gods, lest he should suffer or escape 
his destiny. * * * The hour has struck, the black night is ready, etc., 
etc.'" The waters arose and covered the valleys from one end of the earth to 
the other. So perished Atlantis and came into being the story of the deluge. 

   From the fifth sub-race of the fourth root-race, the original Semitic, had 
been chosen by the Holy Vaivaswata, the Teacher of our fifth root-race, the 
families who were to be the ancestors of the coming race. The Teacher led 

[PAGE 217]

them northward to the Sacred Imperishable Land, where with loving care he 
instilled into them the potential characteristics of our present humanity. 
When ages had passed, he led them again southward to Central Asia--the land 
which has risen in place of the doomed Atlantis. Already the continents had 
taken essentially the forms in which they now exist. From Central Asia 
proceeded the different migrations. The first sub-race, the Aryan, went 
southward to India. The second, the Aryan Semitic, peopled Arabia and Syria. 
The third, the Iranian, led by Zarathustra, journeyed to Persia. The fourth, 
the Keltic, led by Orpheus, settled in Greece, Italy, France, Ireland, 
Scotland, and England. The fifth, the Teutonic, occupied Central Europe. 

   What does "The Secret Doctrine" say about the future? The land-body now 
known as North America will be consumed by fire. In its place will arise a 
new continent which will be the home of a spiritual people. This will be the 
sixth root-race, the nucleus of which is being evolved right here, under the 

[PAGE 218]

Stars and Stripes. In that race, function will be restored to the pituitary 
body and the pineal gland, which have been inactive since the degradation of 
the fourth race. These two glands are not merely--as science says--two horny 
warts covered by sand, but two very important organs temporarily out of use. 
They are the keys to the spiritual worlds, which will in that race be opened 
to all mankind. The granules with which these bodies are covered are absent 
in children under seven and in congenital idiots. Weak-minded people have 
but few. This race will be male-female and the sympathetic nerve will 
develop into a second spinal cord. They will be a beautiful, spiritual and 
mighty people. Yet this race with its continent will also pass away, to give 
place to the seventh and last of our root-races. 

   The people of this last race will dwell on a land to the south of us, there 
evolving to a state transcending our present understanding. Mental clairvoyance 
will be possessed by all; the two spinal cords will merge into one, and man 
will be sexless. Then will come the time when the life-wave will once more 
leave our earth to conquer other worlds.

   Such is the sublime plan to which we belong, as outlined in the first and 

[PAGE 219]

second volumes of "The Secret Doctrine". The third volume consists of a 
miscellaneous collection of paprers published after the death of the author. 
As the years pass, the truth of the statements in "The Secret Doctrine" are 
being gradually vindicated. As the knowledge of students grow, their 
admiration and reverence for their great teacher becomes more profound. With 
but few and unimportant exceptions, everything which is to be found in the 
voluminous literature of modern occultism has been available in "The Secret 
Doctrine" ever since its publication. In the work is food for the heart and 
for the intellect--a system of thought and knowledge which, if we will but 
study it and put it into our lives, can make us wise unto salvation. 

[PAGE 220]

                    APHORISMS FROM MAX HEINDEL'S WRITINGS: 

   As our body is the visible garment of the invisible ego, so does the 
visible fire clothe the true inivisible fire. Fire and the ego are both 
spirits and both manifest under analogous laws.

   A good memory is one that forgets the faults of others, but remembers the 
lessons. 

   A small man is always anxious for a big position because he feels that the 
position will confer dignity and prestige upon him, but there are ninety-nine 
chances that he will disgrace the position. A big man dignifies any position, 
big or little, by the efficient way he handles it.

   No matter how high that ideal seems or how far below it we feel, Saints 
have realized it. They were men, and what man has done man can do again.

[PAGE 221]

   THE LOST WORD--You cannot say it unless you have first learned to live it.

   PRAYER is magic incantation, but unless your life is a prayer, you will 
never get the answer. 

   When you have set your goal, never harbor a thought of fear or failure, but 
cultivate an attitude of invincible determination to accomplish your object 
despite all obstacles, holding the thought of success constantly.

   The Black Grail feeds on evil, while the Holy Grail feeds on Love. If evil 
did not exist the powers of darkness would starve. 

   Prayer is like the turning on of the electric switch, that does not create 
the current but simply provides a channel through which the electric current 
may flow. In like manner prayer creates a channel through which the divine 
life and light pour itself into us for our spiritual illumination.

   There is but one safe way to develop our latent faculties. No matter what 
anyone may say to the contrary, experience will prove that attainment to 
spiritual powers depends upon purification and unselfish aspiration; and that 

[PAGE 222]

is what the mysteries taught in olden times.

   Nature is the symbolic expression of God. She does nothing gratuitously, 
but there is a purpose behind everything and every act. 

   It is one thing to go out in the mountains where there is no one to 
contradict or to jar upon our sensibilities and keep our poise; but it is 
another thing entirely to maintain our spiritual aspirations and keep our 
balance in the world where everything jars upon us; but when we stay on this 
path we gain a self-control which is unattainable in any other manner.

   When we work and pray, and make our lives a living prayer for opportunities 
to serve others, then all earthly things will come of their own accord as we 
need them, and they will continue to come according to the degree that they 
are used in the service of God.

   A great and wonderful allegory is written in cosmic characters in the sky. 
It is also written in our own lives, and warns us to forsake the fleeting life 
of the material and to seek the eternal life of God.

[PAGE 223]

   There can be no contradiction in nature, therefore the heart and mind must 
be capable of uniting. To indicate this common ground is precisely the purpose 
of this book; to show where and how the mind, helped by the intuition of the 
heart, can probe more deeply into the mysteries of being then either could 
alone, where the heart by union with the mind, can be kept from going astray, 
where each can have full scope for action, neither doing violence to the 
other, where both mind and heart can be satisfied.

   The Founder of the Christian Religion stated an occult maxim when He said, 
"Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall 
not enter therein." (Mark 10). All occultists recognize the far-reaching 
importance of this teaching of Christ, and endeavor to live it day by day.

   If, having knowledge and choice, man ranges himself on the side of good and 
right, he cultivates virtue and wisdom. If he succumbs to temptation and does 
wrong knowingly, he fosters vice.

   In service is the only true greatness. Yet no matter how efficiently we may 
serve, if we glory in our services, that self-glory is our only reward.

[PAGE 224]

   It should be our aim to think little of that which we do, to esteem 
ourselves as nothing, for no matter how well we work, none of us are able to 
serve God worthily even for one single day. So HUMILITY in service should be 
our chief end and aim. The more thoroughly we can attain to that ideal, the 
smaller we are in our own eyes, the greater shall we be in the sight of God.

   It is always easy to get people to do big things, where they are bolstered 
up by the dignity of the position. Lots of little men can always be found to 
fill the conspicuous places, for this man enjoys to have everybody bowing 
before him, but it takes a BIG MAN to do the little things, the things which 
are called menial, which are not menial for the personality dignifies the 
task.

   No matter what people say to us or about us their words have no intrinsic 
power to hurt. It is our own mental attitude towards their utterances which 
determines the effect of their words upon us for good or ill. Paul, when 
facing persecution and slander, testified that, "None of these things moved 
us."

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