gated no new revelation, but a restatement of ethics, philosophy and spiritual science upon the understanding and practice of which all true metaphysical and psychological, no less than all true physical progress is based. And she gave the rationale, the forms, processes and meaning of spiritualistic phenomena of all kinds, and made clear the class and character of the "intelligences" of the seance room and the psychical research experimenter. There is no disorder, no confusion, no chaos or contradiction in her exposition of "spiritual phenomena." She knew what she was talking about and was herself able to produce at will, because she understood, the phenomena of the metaphysical, exactly as a genuine scientist can produce at will the phenomena of the physical, universe.

Which "revelation" will we have, the old revelation of the Wisdom-Religion, or the "new" revelation of Necromancy?

SECRET DOCTRINE TEACHINGS*

The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and its cosmogony alone is the most stupendous and elaborate system: e. g., even in the exotericism of the Puranas. But such is the mysterious power of Occult symbolism, that the facts which have. actually occupied countless generations of initiated seers and prophets to marshal, to set down and explain, in the bewildering series of evolutionary progress, are all recorded on a few pages of geometrical signs and glyphs. The flashing gaze of those seers has penetrated into the very kernel of matter, and recorded the soul of things there, where an ordinary profane, however learned, would have perceived but the external work of form. But modern science believes not in the "soul of things," and hence will reject the whole. system of ancient cosmogony. It is useless to say that the system in question is no fancy of one or several isolated individuals. That it is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity. That for long ages, the "Wise Men" of the Fifth Race, of the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm and shifting of continents, had passed their lives in learning, not teaching. How did they do so? It is answered: by checking, testing, and verifying in every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent visions of great adepts; i. e., men who have developed and perfected their physical, mental, psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost possible degree. No vision of one adept was accepted till it was checked and confirmed by the visions --so obtained as to stand as independent evidence of other adepts, and by centuries of experiences.

From the Original Edition Vol. I, pp. 272-273; see Vol. I, pp. 293-294 Third Edition.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY

LODGE

OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
DISCUSSIONS OF THE STANZAS OF THE FIRST
VOLUME OF THE "SECRET DOCTRINE."

(PART TWO)

(Concluded from March.)

The "Transactions" were compiled from shorthand notes taken at the meetings of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society, January 10th to June 20th, 1889, and later printed in pamphlet form. Copies of this pamphlet are getting rarer with every year. THEOSOPHY is therefore reprinting the "Transactions" for the benefit of present-day students. Part II consists of Stanzas II to IV of the "Book of Dzyan," upon which "The Secret Doctrine" is based. The answers to the questions were given by H. P. Blavatsky. Students not possessing "The Secret Doctrine" will find that these Stanzas are also printed in H. P. Blavatsky's “Voice of the Silence," which is owned by most students. or can be purchased, through THEOSOPHY, at the nominal price of seventy-five cents, postpaid. The first part of the “Transactions" was printed in the issues of THEOSOPHY from June to October, 1916, inclusive.

X.
STANZA IV.

Sloka (1.) LISTEN, YE SONS OF THE EARTH, TO YOUR INSTRUCTORS -THE SONS OF THE FIRE. LEARN THERE IS NEITHER FIRST NOR LAST; FOR ALL IS ONE NUMBER, ISSUED FROM NO NUMBER.

Q. Are the sons of the Fire, the Rays of the Third Logos? A. The "Rays" are the "Sons of the Fire-Mist", produced by the Third Creation, or Logos. The actual "Sons of the Fire" of the Fifth Race and Sub-races are so called simply because they by their wisdom belong, or are nearer to, the hierarchy of the divine "Sons of the Fire-Mist", the highest of the planetary Chohans or Angels. But the Sons of the Fire here spoken of as addressing the Sons of the Earth are, in this case, the King-Instructors who incarnated on this earth to teach nascent Humanity. As "Kings" they belong to the divine dynasties of which every nation, India, Chaldea, Egypt, Homeric Greece, &c., has preserved a tradition or record in some form or other. The name "Sons of the Fire-Mist" was also given to the Hierophants of old. They are certainly subdivisions of the Third Logos. They are the Fire-Chohans or Angels, the Ether Angels, the Air and Water Angels, and the Angels of the Earth. The seven lower Sephiroth are the earthly angels and correspond to the seven hierarchies of the seven elements, five of which are known, and two unknown.

Q. Do they, then, correspond to the Races?

A. They do. Otherwise where would be the intellectual Races with brains and thought, if it was not for these hierarchies that incarnated in them?

Q. What is the distinction between these various Hierarchies? A. In reality these fires are not separate, any more than are the souls or monads to him who sees beyond the veil of matter or illusion.

He who would be an occultist must not separate either himself or anything else from the rest of creation or non-creation. For, the moment he distinguishes himself from even a vessel of dishonour, he will not be able to join himself to any vessel of honour. He must think of himself as an infinitesimal something, not even as an individual atom, but as a part of the world-atoms as a whole, or become an illusion, a nobody, and vanish like a breath leaving no trace behind. As illusions, we are separate distinct bodies, living in masks furnished by Maya. Can we claim one single atom in our body as distinctly our own? Everything, from spirit to the tiniest particle, is part of the whole, at best a link. Break a single link and all passes into annihilation; but this is impossible. There is a series of vehicles becoming more and more gross, from spirit to the densest matter, so that with each step downward and outward we get more and more the sense of separateness developed in us. Yet this is illusory, for if there were a real and complete separation between any two human beings, they could not communicate with, or understand each other in any way.

Thus with these hierarchies. Why should we separate their classes in our mind, except for purposes of distinction in practical Occultism, which is but the lowest form of applied Metaphysics. But if you seek to separate them on this plane of illusion, then all I can say is, that there exists between these Hierarchies the same abysses of distinction as between the "principles" of the Universe or those of man, if you like, and the same "principles" in a bacillus. "There is a passage in the Bhagavad-Gita (ch. viii.) wherein Krishna, speaking symbolically and esoterically, says: 'I will state the times (conditions) at which devotees departing (from this life) do so never to return (be reborn). The Fire, the Flame, the day, the bright (lucky fortnight), the six months of the Northern solstice (dying) in these those who know the Brahman (Yogis) go to the Brahman. Smoke, Night, the dark (unlucky) fortnight, the six months of the southern solstice, (dying) in these, the devotee goes to the lunar light (or mansion, the astral light also) and returns (is reborn)."*

Q. What is the explanation of this passage?

A. It means that the devotees are divided into two classes, those who reach Nirvana on Earth, and either accept or refuse it (though never to be born again, in this Mahakalpa, or age of Brahma); and those who do not reach this state of bliss as Buddha

and others did.

"The Fire, the Flame, the day, the bright fortnight of the moon", are all symbols of the highest absolute deity. Those who

* Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 86, Original Edition; p. 113-114, Third Edition.

die in such a state of absolute purity, go to Brahman, i. e., have a right to Moksha or Nirvana. On the other hand "Smoke, night, the dark fortnight, &c.", are all symbolical of matter, the darkness of ignorance. Those who die in such a state of incomplete purification, must of course be reborn. Only the homogeneous, the absolutely purified unalloyed spirit, can be re-united to the Deity or go to Brahma.

Sloka (2). LEARN WHAT WE, WHO DESCEND FROM THE PRIMORDIAL SEVEN, WE WHO ARE BORN FROM THE PRIMORDIAL FLAME, HAVE LEARNED FROM OUR FATHERS.

"The first 'Primordial' are the highest beings on the scale of existence. The 'Primordial' proceed from 'Father-Mother.'

Q. Is Father-Mother here synonymous with the Third Logos? A. The first primordial seven are born from the Third Logos. This is before it is differentiated into the Mother, when it becomes pure primordial matter in its first primitive essence, Father-Mother potentially. Mother becomes the immaculate mother only when the differentiation of spirit and matter is complete. Otherwise there would exist no such qualification. No one would speak of pure spirit as immaculate, for it cannot be otherwise. The mother is therefore, the immaculate matter before it is differentiated under the breath of the pre-cosmic Fohat, when it becomes the "immaculate mother" of the "Son" or the manifested Universe, in form. It is the latter which begins the hierarchy that will end with Humanity

or man.

Sloka (3). FROM THE EFFULGENCY OF LIGHT-THE RAY OF THE

EVER-DARKNESS-SPRING IN SPACE THE RE-AWAKENED ENERGIES

(Dhyan-Chohans): THE ONE FROM THE EGG, THE SIX AND THE
FIVE; THEN THE THREE, THE ONE, THE FOUR, THE ONE, THE
FIVE, THE TWICE SEVEN, THE SUM TOTAL. AND THESE ARE:
THE ESSENCES, THE FLAMES, THE ELEMENTS, THE EUILDERS,
THE NUMBERS, THE ARUPA, (formless), THE RUPA (with
bodies), AND THE FORCE OR DIVINE MAN-THE SUM TOTAL.
AND FROM THE DIVINE MAN EMANATED THE FORMS, THE
SPARKS, THE SACRED ANIMALS, AND THE MESSENGERS OF the
SACRED FATHERS (the Pitris) WITHIN THE HOLY FOUR.

Q. Can you explain these numbers and give their meaning? A. As said in the Commentary, we are not at present concerned in the process, that is to say, it cannot at present be made public. Some few hints, however, may be given. The Rabbins call the Circle (or as some say, the first Point in it) Echod, the ONE or Ain-Soph. On a lower plane, the fourth, it becomes Adam Kadmon, the manifested seven and the unmanifested ten, or the complete Sephirothal Tree. The Sephiroth, therefore, are the same as the Elohim. Now the name of the latter written in Hebrew,

** Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 88, Original Edition; p. 116, Third Edition.

Alhim, is composed of five letters; and these letters in their values in numerals, being placed round a circle can be transmuted at will, as they could not be were they applied to any other geometrical figure. The circle is endless, that is to say, has neither beginning nor end. Now the literal Kabala is divided into three parts or methods, the third of which is called Temura or permutation. According to certain rules one letter or numeral is substituted for another. The Kabalistic alphabet is divided into two equal parts, each letter or numeral of one part corresponding to a like number or letter in the other part. By changing the letters alternately, twenty-two permutations or combinations are produced, which process is called Tziruph.

The footnote on pages 90 and 91 (Vol. I, Secret Doctrine),* makes my meaning quite clear.

Sloka (4). THIS WAS THE ARMY OF THE VOICE THE DIVINE SEPTENARY, THE SPARKS OF THE SEVEN ARE SUBJECT TO, AND THE SERVANTS OF, THE FIRST, THE SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH, FIFTH, SIXTH AND THE SEVENTH OF THE SEVEN. THESE ("Sparks") ARE CALLED SPHERES, TRIANGLES, CUBES, LINES; AND MODELLERS: FOR THUS STANDS THE ETERNAL NIDANA THE OI-HAHOU (the permutation of Oeaohoo).

Q. What are the "Life-Winds" in the commentary [page 961?1

A.

The Life-winds are the various modes of out-breathing and in-breathing, changing thereby the polarity of the body and states of consciousness. It is Yoga practice, but beware of taking the exoteric works on Yoga literally. They all require a key.

Q. What is the meaning of the sentence beginning "The Sparks, etc." (vide supra)?

It relates to the circle and the

A. The sparks mean the Rays as well to the lower intelligence as to the human sparks or Monads. digits, and is equivalent to saying that the figures 31415 as given on pages 90 and 91, are all subject to the circumference and diameter of the circle.2

Q. Why is Sarasvati (the goddess of speech) also called the goddess of esoteric wisdom? If the explanation lies in the meaning of the word Logos, why is there a distinction between the immovable mind and the movable speech? Is mind equivalent to Mahat, or to the Higher and Lower Manas?

A. The question is rather a complicated one. Saraswati, the Hindu goddess, is the same as Vâch, whose name means Speech and who is the female Logos, esoterically. The second question seems rather involved. I believe it is because the Logos or Word is called the incarnate wisdom, "Light shining in darkness". The *Secret Doctrine Vol. I, pp. 90-91, Original Edition; ppp. 117-118-119, 3rd Edition. 1 Secret Doctrine Vol. I, p. 96, Original Edition; p. 123, 3rd Edition.

* Secret Doctrine Vol. I, pp. 90-91, Original Edition; p. 118, 3rd Edition.