creative Spirits, and one of the lower Sephiroth. He produces from himself seven other Gods, "Stellar Spirits" (or the lunar ancestors *), for they are all the same. They are all in his own image (the "Spirits of the Face"), and the reflections one of the other, and have become darker and more material as they successively receded from their originator. They also inhabit seven regions disposed like a ladder, as its rungs slope up and down the scale of spirit and matter. With Pagans and Christians, with Hindus and Chaldeans, with the Greek as with the Roman Catholics—with a slight variation of the texts in their interpretations they all were the Genii of the seven planets, as of the seven planetary spheres of our septenary chain, of which Earth is the lowest, (See Isis, Vol. II. p. 186.) This connects the "Stellar" and “Lunar ” Spirits with the higher planetary Angels and the Saptarishis (the seven Rishis of the Stars) of the Hindus—as subordinate Angels (Messengers) to these "Rishis," the emanations, on the descending scale, of the former. Such, in the opinion of the philosophical Gnostics, were the God and the Archangels now worshipped by the Christians! The Fallen Angels" and the legend of the "War in Heaven" is thus purely pagan in its origin and comes from India via Persia and Chaldea. The only reference to it in the Christian canon is found in Revelations xii., as quoted a few pages back.

Thus " SATAN," once he ceases to be viewed in the superstitious, dogmatic, unphilosophical spirit of the Churches, grows into the grandiose image of one who made of terrestrial a divine Man; who gave him, throughout the long cycle of Maha-kalpa the law of the Spirit of Life, and made him free from the Sin of Ignorance, hence of death. (See the Section On Satan in Part II. Vol. II.)

* Jehovah's connection with the moon in the Kabala is well known to students.

t About the Nazarenes see Isis, Vol. II. /. 131 and 132; the true followers of the true Christos were all Nazarenes and Christians, and were the opponents of the later Christians.

Vide supra, the diagram of the lunar ring of seven worlds, where, as in our or any other chain, the upper worlds are spiritual, while the lowest, whether Moon, Earth, or any planet, is dark with matter.

THE SEVEN PLANES.

199

STANZA VI.—Continued.

6. THE OLDER WHEELS ROTATED DOWNWARD AND UPWARD (a). THE MOTHER'S SPAWN FILLED THE WHOLE (Kosmos).* There Were BATTLES FOUGHT BETWEEN THE CREATORS AND THE DESTROYERS, AND BATTLES FOUGHT FOR SPACE; THE SEED APPEARING AND REAPPEARING CONTINUOUSLY (i). ✝

(a) Here, having finished for the time being with our side-issues— which, however they may break the flow of the narrative, are necessary for the elucidation of the whole scheme—the reader must return once more to Cosmogony. The phrase "Older wheels" refers to the worlds. or Globes of our chain as they were during the "previous Rounds." The present Stanza, when explained esoterically, is found embodied. entirely in the Kabalistic works. Therein will be found the very history of the evolution of those countless Globes which evolve after a periodical Pralaya, rebuilt from old material into new forms. The previous Globes disintegrate and reappear transformed and perfected for a new phase of life. In the Kabala, worlds are compared to sparks which fly from under the hammer of the great Architect—Law, the law which rules all the smaller Creators.

The following comparative diagram shows the identity between the two systems, the Kabalistic and the Eastern. The three upper are the three higher planes of consciousness, revealed and explained in both. schools only to the Initiates, the lower ones represent the four lower planes the lowest being our plane, or the visible Universe.

man.

These seven planes correspond to the seven states of consciousness in It remains with him to attune the three higher states in himself to the three higher planes in Kosmos. But before he can attempt to attune, he must awaken the three "seats" to life and activity. And how many are capable of bringing themselves to even a superficial comprehension of Atma-Vidya (Spirit-Knowledge), or what is called by the Sufis, Rohanee! In Section the Vllth of this Book, in Sub-section 3,

* The reader is reminded that Kosmos often means in our Stanzas only our own Solar System, not the Infinite Universe.

This is purely astronomical.

the reader will find a still clearer explanation of the above in the Commentary upon Saptaparna—the man-plant. See also the Section of that name in Part II.

* The Arupa or "formless," there where form ceases to exist, on the objective plane. The word "Archetypal " must not be taken here in the sense that the Platonists gave to it, i.e., the world as it existed in the Mind of the Deity; but in that of a world made as a first model, to be followed and improved upon by the worlds which succeed it physically-though deteriorating in purity.

These are the four lower planes of Cosmic Consciousness, the three higher planes being inaccessible to human intellect as developed at present. The seven states of human consciousness pertain to quite another question.

(i) "The Seed appears and disappears continuously." Here "Seed" stands for "the World-germ," viewed by Science as material particles in a highly attenuated condition, but in Occult physics as "Spiritual particles," i.e., supersensuous matter existing in a state of primeval

NO SHADOW, NO LIGHT.

201

differentiation." In theogony, every Seed is an ethereal organism, from which evolves later on a celestial being, a God.

"

In the beginning," that which is called in mystic phraseology "Cosmic Desire" evolves into absolute Light. Now light without any shadow would be absolute light—in other words, absolute darkness—as physical science seeks to prove. That shadow appears under the form of primordial matter, allegorized—if one likes—in the shape of the Spirit of Creative Fire or Heat. If, rejecting the poetical form and allegory, science chooses to see in this the primordial Fire-Mist, it is welcome to do so. Whether one way or the other, whether Fohat 01 the famous Force of Science, nameless, and as difficult of definition as our Fohat himself, that Something" caused the Universe to move with circular motion," as Plato has it; or, as the Occult teaching expresses it: "The Central Sun causes Fohat to collect primordial dust in the form of balls, to impel them to move in converging lines and finally to approach each other and aggregate." (Book of Dzyan). Being scattered in Space, without order or system, the world-germs come into frequent collision until their final aggregation, after which they become wanderers (Comets). Then the battles and struggles begin. The older (bodies) attract the younger, while others repel them. Many perish, devoured by their stronger companions. Those that escape become worlds."

*

To see and appreciate the difference—the immense gulf that separates terrestrial matter from the finer grades of supersensuous matter—every astronomer, every chemist and physicist ought to be a psychometer, to say the least; he ought to be able to sense for himself that difference in which he now refuses to believe. Mrs. Elizabeth Denton, one of the most learned, and also one of the most materialistic and sceptical women of her age the wife of Professor Denton, the well-known American geologist and the author of "The Soul of Things"—was, nevertheless, one of the most wonderful psychometers some years ago. This is what she described in one of her experiments; with a particle of a meteorite placed on her forehead, in an envelope, the lady, not being aware of what it contained, said:

"What a difference between that which we recognise as matter here and that which seems like matter there! In the one, the elements are so coarse and so angular, I wonder that we can endure it all, much more that we can desire to continue our present relations to it; in the other, all the elements are so refined, they are so free from those great, rough angularities, which characterize the elements here, that I can but regard that as by so much the more than this, the real existence." (Vol. III. p. 345-6.)

When carefully analysed and reflected upon, this will be found as scientific as Science could make it. even at our late period.

We have been assured that there exist several modern works of speculative fancy upon such struggles for life in sidereal heaven, especially in the German language. We rejoice to hear it, for ours is an Occult teaching lost in the darkness of archaic ages. We have treated of it fully in "Isis Unveiled," and the idea of Darwinian-like evolution, of struggle for life and supremacy, and of the "survival of the fittest" among the Hosts above as the Hosts below, runs throughout both the volumes of our earlier work, written in 1876 (See Index in "Isis Unveiled" at the words "Evolution "—" Darwin' Kapila" "Battle of Life," etc. etc.) But the idea was not ours, it is that of antiquity. Even the Punlnic writers have ingeniously interwoven allegory with Cosmic facts and human events. Any symbologist may discern the astrocosmical allusion even though he be unable to grasp the whole meaning. The great" Wars in Heaven," in the Purânas; the wars of the Titans, in Hesiod and other classical writers; the "struggles," also in the Egyptian legend between Osiris and Typhon, and even those in the Scandinavian legends, all refer to the same subject. Northern Mythology refers to it as the battle of the Flames, the sons of Muspel who fought on the field of Wigred. All these relate to Heaven and Earth, and have a double and often even a triple meaning, and esoteric application to things above as to things below. They relate severally to astronomical, theogonical and human struggles; to the adjustment of orbs, and the supremacy among nations and tribes. The "Struggle for Existence" and the "Survival of the Fittest " reigned supreme from the moment that Kosmos manifested into being, and could hardly escape the observant eye of the ancient Sages. Hence the incessant fights of Indra, the god of the Firmament, with the Asuras—degraded from high gods into Cosmic demons; and with Vritri or Ah-hi; the battles fought between stars and constellations, between Moon and planets—later on incarnated as kings and mortals. Hence also the War in Heaven of Michael and his Host against the Dragon (Jupiter and Lucifer-Venus), when a third of the stars of the rebellious host was hurled down into Space, and "its place was found no more in Heaven." As said long ago—"This is the basic and fundamental stone of the secret cycles. It shows that the Brahmins and Tanaim . . speculated on the creation and development of the world quite in a Darwinian way, both anticipating him and his school in the natural selection of species, the survival of the fittest,