written by a young Theosophist as a warning against the "Secret Doctrine" and in reference to the same subject. He had declared that if there were such companion Earths "they must be only a wee bit less material than our globe." How then was it that they could not be seen? The answer was:

".... Were psychic and spiritual teachings more fully understood, it would become next to impossible to even imagine such an incongruity. Unless less trouble is taken to reconcile the irreconcilable that is to say, the metaphysical and spiritual sciences with physical or natural philosophy, 'natural' being a synonym to them (men of science) of that matter which falls under the perception of their corporeal senses no progress can be really achieved. Our Globe, as taught from the first, is at the bottom of the arc of descent, where the matter of our perceptions exhibits itself in its grossest form....... Hence it only stands to reason that the globes which overshadow our Earth must be on different and superior planes. In short, as Globes, they are in

CO-ADUNITION but not IN CONSUBSTANTIALITY WITH OUR EARTH and thus pertain to quite another state of consciousness. Our planet (like all those we see) is adapted to the peculiar state of its human stock, that state which enables us to see with our naked eye the sidereal bodies which are co-essential with our terrene plane and substance, just as their respective inhabitants, the Jovians, Martians and others can perceive our little world: because our planes of consciousness, differing as they do in degree but being the same in kind, are on the same layer of differentiated matter..... What I wrote was 'The minor Pralaya concerns only our little STRINGS OF GLOBES.' (We called chains 'Strings' in those days of lip-confusion.)... 'To such a string our Earth belongs. This ought to have shown plainly that the other planets were also strings' or CHAINS... If he (meaning the objector) would perceive even the dim silhouette of one of such planets' on the higher planes, he has to first throw off even the thin clouds of the astral matter that stands between him and the next plane....."

It becomes patent why we could not perceive, even with the help of the best earthly telescopes, that which is outside our world of matter. Those alone, whom we call adepts, who know how to direct their mental vision and to transfer their consciousness - physical and psychic both

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to other planes of being, are able to speak with authority on such subjects. And they tell us plainly :

"Lead the life necessary for the acquisition of such knowledge and powers, and Wisdom will come to you naturally. Whenever you are able to attune your consciousness to any of the seven chords of 'Universal Consciousness,' those chords that run along the sounding-board of Kosmos, vibrating from one Eternity to another; when you have studied thoroughly the music of the Spheres,' then only will you become quite free to share your knowledge with those with whom it is safe to do so. Meanwhile, be prudent. Do not give out the great Truths that are the inheritance of the future Races, to our present generation. Do not attempt to unveil the secret of being and non-being to those unable to see the hidden meaning of Apollo's HEPTACHORD — the lyre of the radiant god, in each of the seven strings of which dwelleth the Spirit, Soul and Astral body of the Kosmos, whose shell only has now fallen into the hands of Modern Science...... Be prudent, we say, prudent and wise, and above all take care what those who learn from you believe in; lest by deceiving themselves they deceive others

for such is the fate of every truth with which men are, as yet, unfamiliar..... Let rather the planetary chains and other super- and sub-cosmic mysteries remain a dreamland for those who can neither see, nor yet believe that others can. . .

It is to be regretted that few of us have followed the wise advice; and that many a priceless pearl, many a jewel of wisdom, has been cast to an enemy unable to understand its value and who has turned round and rent us.

"Let us imagine,' wrote the same Master to his two 'lay chelas,' as he called the author of 'Esoteric Buddhism' and another gentleman, his co-student for some time-' Let us imagine THAT OUR EARTH IS ONE OF A GROUP OF SEVEN PLANETS OR MAN-BEARING WORLDS...... (The SEVEN planets are the sacred planets of antiquity, and are all septenary.) Now the life-impulse reaches A, or rather that which is destined to become A, and which so far is but cosmic dust (a "laya center") .. etc."

In these early letters, in which the terms had to be invented and words coined, the "Rings" very often became very often became "Rounds," and the "Rounds" life-cycles, and vice versa. To a correspondent who called a

"Round" a "World-Ring," the Teacher wrote: "I believe this will lead to a further confusion. A Round we are agreed to call the passage of a monad from Globe A to Globe G or Z... The World-Ring' is correct... Advise Mr. . . . strongly, to agree upon a nomenclature before going any further. . ."

Notwithstanding this agreement, many mistakes, owing to this confusion, crept into the earliest teachings. The Races even were occasionally mixed up with the "Rounds " and " Rings," and led to similar mistakes in "Man.” From the first the Master had written :

"Not being permitted to give you the whole truth, or divulge the number of isolated fractions . . . I am unable to satisfy you."

This in answer to the questions, "If we are right, then the total existence prior to the man-period is 637," etc., etc. To all the queries relating to figures, the reply was, "Try to solve the problem of 777 incarnations. . . . Though I am obliged to withhold information . yet if you should work out the problem by yourself, it will be my duty to tell you so."

But they never were so worked out, and the results were ceasing perplexity and mistakes.

never

Even the teaching about the Septenary constitution of the sidereal bodies and of the macrocosm from which the septenary division of the microcosm, or Man has until now been among the most esoteric. In olden times it used to be divulged only at the Initiation and along with the most sacred figures of the cycles. Now, as stated in one of the Theosophical journals,218 the revelation of the whole system of Cosmogony had not been contemplated, nor even thought for one moment possible, at a time when a few bits of information were sparingly given out in answer to letters written by the author of “ Esoteric Buddhism," in which he put forward a multiplicity of questions. Among these were questions on such problems as no MASTER, however high and independent he might be, would have the right to answer, thus divulging to the world the most time-honored and archaic of the mysteries of the ancient college-temples. Hence only a few of the doctrines were revealed in their broad outlines, while details were constantly withheld, and all the efforts made to elicit more information about them were systematically eluded from the beginning. This is perfectly natural. Of the four Vidyâs out of the seven branches of Knowledge mentioned in the Purânas- namely, "Yajña-Vidyâ" (the performance of

218. Lucifer, May, 1888,

66

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religious rites in order to produce certain results); "Mahâ-Vidyâ," the great (Magic) knowledge, now degenerated into Tântrika worship; Guhya-Vidyâ," the science of Mantras and their true rhythm or chanting, of mystical incantations, etc. it is only the last one, "AtmaVidyâ," or the true Spiritual and Divine wisdom, which can throw absolute and final light upon the teachings of the three first named. Without the help of Atma-Vidyâ, the other three remain no better than surface sciences, geometrical magnitudes having length and breadth, but no thickness. They are like the soul, limbs, and mind of a sleeping man: capable of mechanical motions, of chaotic dreams and even sleep-walking, of producing visible effects, but stimulated by instinctual not intellectual causes, least of all by fully conscious spiritual impulses. A good deal can be given out and explained from the three first-named sciences. But unless the key to their teachings is furnished by ÂtmaVidyâ, they will remain for ever like the fragments of a mangled textbook, like the adumbrations of great truths, dimly perceived by the most spiritual, but distorted out of all proportion by those who would nail every shadow to the wall.

Then, again, another great perplexity was created in the minds of students by the incomplete exposition of the doctrine of the evolution of the Monads. To be fully realized, both this process and that of the birth of the Globes must be examined far more from their metaphysical aspect than from what one might call a statistical standpoint, involving figures and numbers which are rarely permitted to be broadly used. Unfortunately, there are few who are inclined to handle these doctrines only metaphysically. Even the best of the Western writers upon our doctrine declares in his work that "on pure metaphysics of that sort we are not now engaged," when speaking of the evolution of the Monads (" Esoteric Buddhism," p. 46). And in such case, as the Teacher remarks in a letter to him, "Why this preaching of our doctrines, all this uphill work and swimming in adversum flumen? Why should the West . . . learn . . . from the East . . . that which can never meet the requirements of the special tastes of the aesthetics?" And he draws his correspondent's attention "to the formidable difficulties encountered by us (the Adepts) in every attempt we make to explain our metaphysics to the Western mind."

And well he may; for outside of metaphysics no occult philosophy,

no esotericism is possible. It is like trying to explain the aspirations and affections, the love and hatred, the most private and sacred workings in the soul and mind of the living man, by an anatomical description of the chest and brain of his dead body.

Let us now examine two tenets mentioned above and hardly alluded to in "Esoteric Buddhism," and supplement them as far as lies in our power.

ADDITIONAL FACTS AND EXPLANATIONS CONCERNING THE GLOBES AND THE MONADS.

must be noticed and

Two statements made in "Esoteric Buddhism the author's opinions quoted. On p. 47 (fifth edition) it is said:... the spiritual monads . . . do not fully complete their mineral existence on Globe A, then complete it on Globe B, and so on. They pass several times round the whole circle as minerals, and then several times round as vegetables, and several times as animals. We purposely refrain for the present from going into figures, [etc., etc.].

This was a wise course to adopt in view of the great secrecy maintained with regard to figures and numbers. This reticence is now partially relinquished; but it would perhaps have been better had the real numbers concerning Rounds and evolutional gyrations been either entirely divulged at the time, or as entirely withheld. Mr. Sinnett understood this difficulty well when saying (p. 140) that:

For reasons which are not easy for the outsider to divine, the possessors of occult knowledge are especially reluctant to give out facts relating to Cosmogony, though it is hard for the uninitiated to understand why they should be withheld.

That there were such reasons is evident. Nevertheless, it is to this reticence that most of the confused ideas of some Eastern as well as Western pupils are due. The difficulties in the way of the acceptance of the two particular tenets under consideration seemed great, just because of the absence of any data to go upon. But there it was. For the figures belonging to the Occult calculations cannot be given as the Masters have many times declared outside the circle of pledged chelas, and not even these can break the rules.

To make things plainer, without touching upon the mathematical aspects of the doctrine, the teaching given may be expanded and some