The Theosophical Society,
The Writings of W Q Judge
W Q Judge 1851 – 96
The
By
William Q. Judge
First published 1893
Español:- El Oceano de la Teosofía
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1--
THEOSOPHY AND THE MASTERS
Chapter 2--
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Chapter 3--
THE EARTH CHAIN
Chapter 4--
SEPTENARY CONSTITUTION OF MAN
Chapter 5--
BODY AND ASTRAL BODY
Chapter 6--
KAMA -- DESIRE
Chapter 7--
MANAS
Chapter 8--
OF REINCARNATION
Chapter 9--
REINCARNATION CONTINUED
Chapter
10-ARGUMENTS SUPPORTING REINCARNATION
Chapter
11-KARMA
Chapter
12-KAMA LOKA
Chapter
13-DEVACHAN
Chapter
14-CYCLES
Chapter
15-DIFFERENTIATION OF SPECIES -- MISSING LINKS
Chapter
16-PSYCHIC LAWS, FORCES, AND PHENOMENA
Chapter
17-PSYCHIC PHENOMENA AND SPIRITUALISM
PREFACE
An attempt is made in the pages of this book to write of
theosophy in such a
manner as to be understood by the ordinary reader. Bold
statements are made in
it upon the knowledge of the writer, but at the same time it is
distinctly to be
understood that he alone is responsible for what is therein
written: the Theosophical Society is not involved in nor bound by anything said
in the book,
nor are any of its members any the less good Theosophists because
they may not accept what I have set down. The tone of settled conviction which
may be thought to pervade the chapters is not the result of dogmatism or
conceit, but flows from knowledge based upon evidence and experience.
Members of the Theosophical Society will notice that certain
theories or
doctrines have not been gone into. That is because they could not
be treated
without unduly extending the book and arousing needless
controversy.
The subject of the Will has received no treatment, inasmuch as
that power or
faculty is hidden, subtle, undiscoverable as to essence, and only
visible in
effect. As it is absolutely colourless
and varies in moral quality in accordance
with the desire behind it, as also it acts frequently without our
knowledge, and
as it operates in all the kingdoms below man, there could be
nothing gained by
attempting to enquire into it apart from the Spirit and the
desire.
I claim no originality for this book. I invented none of it,
discovered none of
it, but have simply written that which I have been taught and
which has been
proved to me. It therefore is only a handing on of what has been
known before.
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
New York, May, 1893.
CHAPTER
1
Theosophy and the
Masters
Theosophy
is that ocean of knowledge which spreads from shore to shore of the evolution
of sentient beings; unfathomable in its deepest parts, it gives the
greatest
minds their fullest scope, yet, shallow enough at its shores, it will
not
overwhelm the understanding of a child. It is wisdom about God for those who
believe that he is all things and in all, and wisdom about nature for the man
who
accepts the statement found in the Christian Bible that God cannot be
measured
or discovered, and that darkness is around his pavilion. Although it
contains
by derivation the name God and thus may seem at first sight toembrace
religion alone, it does not neglect science, for it is the science ofsciences and therefore has been called the wisdom
religion. For no science is complete which leaves out any department of nature,
whether visible or invisible, and that religion which, depending solely on an
assumed revelation, turns away from things and the laws which govern them is
nothing but a delusion, a foe to progress, an obstacle in the way of man's
advancement toward happiness. Embracing both the scientific and the religious,
Theosophy is a scientific religion and a religious science.
It
is not a belief or dogma formulated or invented by man, but is a knowledge of
the
laws which govern the evolution of the physical, astral, psychical, and
intellectual
constituents of nature and of man. The religion of the day is but a
series
of dogmas man-made and with no scientific foundation for promulgated
ethics;
while our science as yet ignores the unseen, and failing to admit the
existence
of a complete set of inner faculties of perception in man, it is cut
off
from the immense and real field of experience which lies within the visible
and
tangible worlds. But Theosophy knows that the whole is constituted of the
visible
and the invisible, and perceiving outer things and objects to be but
transitory
it grasps the facts of nature, both without and within. It is therefore
complete in itself and sees no unsolvable mystery anywhere; it throws the word
coincidence out of its vocabulary and hails the reign of law in everything and
every circumstance.
That
man possesses an immortal soul is the common belief of humanity; to this
Theosophy
adds that he is a soul; and further that all nature is sentient, that
the
vast array of objects and men are not mere collections of atoms fortuitously
thrown
together and thus without law evolving law, but down to the smallest atom all
is soul and spirit ever evolving under the rule of law which is inherent in
the
whole. And just as the ancients taught, so does Theosophy; that the course
of
evolution is the drama of the soul and that nature exists for no other purpose
than the soul's experience. The Theosophist agrees with Prof. Huxley in the
assertion that there must be beings in the universe whose intelligence is as
much beyond ours as ours exceeds that of the black beetle, and who take an
active part in the government of the natural order of things. Pushing further
on by the light of the confidence had in his teachers, the Theosophist adds
that such intelligences were once human and came like all of us from other and
previous worlds, where as varied experience had been gained as is possible on
this one.
We
are therefore not appearing for the first time when we come upon this planet,
but have pursued a long, an immeasurable course of activity and intelligent
perception on other systems of globes, some of which were destroyed ages before
the solar system condensed. This immense reach of the evolutionary
system
means, then, that this planet on which we now are is the result of the
activity
and the evolution of some other one that died long ago, leaving its
energy
to be used in the bringing into existence of the earth, and that the
inhabitants
of the latter in their turn came from some older world to proceed
here
with the destined work in matter. And the brighter planets, such as Venus,
are
the habitation of still more progressed entities, once as low as ourselves,
but
now raised up to a pitch of glory incomprehensible for our intellects.
The
most intelligent being in the universe, man, has never, then, been without a
friend,
but has a line of elder brothers who continually watch over the progress
of
the less progressed, preserve the knowledge gained through aeons
of trial and
experience,
and continually seek for opportunities of drawing the developing
intelligence
of the race on this or other globes to consider the great truths
concerning
the destiny of the soul. These elder brothers also keep theknowledge
they have gained of the laws of nature in all departments, and are ready when
cyclic law permits to use it for the benefit of mankind. They have always
existed as a body, all knowing each other, no matter in what part of the world
they may be, and all working for the race in many different ways. In some
periods they are well known to the people and move among ordinary men whenever
the social organization, the virtue, and the development of the nations permit
it. For if they were to come out openly and be heard of everywhere, they would
be worshipped as gods by some and hunted as devils by others. In those periods
when
they do come out some of their number are rulers of men, some teachers, a few
great philosophers, while others remain still unknown except to the most
advanced
of the body.
It
would be subversive of the ends they have in view were they to make
themselves
public in the present civilization, which is based almost wholly on
money,
fame, glory, and personality. For this age, as one of them has already
said,
"is an age of transition," when every system of thought, science,
religion, government, and society is changing, and men's minds are only
preparing for an alteration into that state which will permit the race to
advance to the point suitable for these elder brothers to introduce their
actual presence to our sight. They may be truly called the bearers of the torch
of truth across the ages; they investigate all things and beings; they know
what man is in his innermost nature and what his powers and destiny, his state
before birth and the states into which he goes after the death of his body;
they have stood by the cradle of nations and seen the vast achievements of the
ancients, watched sadly the decay of those who had no power to resist the
cyclic law of rise and fall; and while cataclysms seemed to show a universal
destruction of art, architecture, religion, and philosophy, they have preserved
the records of it all in places secure from the ravages of either men or time;
they have made minute observations, through trained psychics among their own
order, into the unseen realms of nature and of mind, recorded the observations
and preserved the record; they have mastered the mysteries of sound and color
through which alone the elemental beings behind the veil of matter can be
communicated with, and thus can tell why the rain falls and what it falls for,
whether the earth is hollow or not, what makes the wind to blow and light to shine,
and greater feat than all -- one which implies a knowledge of the very
foundations of nature -- they know what the ultimate divisions of time are and
what are the meaning and the times of the cycles.
But,
asks the busy man of the nineteenth century who reads the newspapers and
believes
in "modern progress," if these elder brothers are all you claim them
to
be,
why have they left no mark on history nor gathered men around them? Their
own
reply, published some time ago by Mr. A. P. Sinnett,
is better than any I
could
write.
"We
will first discuss, if you please, the one relating to the presumed failure
of
the 'Fraternity' to leave any mark upon the history of the world. They ought,
you
think, to have been able, with their extraordinary advantages, to have
gathered
into their schools a considerable portion of the more enlightened minds
of
every race. How do you know they have made no such mark? Are you acquainted
with their efforts, successes, and failures? Have you any dock upon which to
arraign them? How could your world collect proofs of the doings of men who have
sedulously kept closed every possible door of approach by which the inquisitive
could spy upon them? The precise condition of their success was that they
should never be surprised or obstructed. What they have done they know; all
that those outside their circle could perceive was the results, the causes of
which were masked from view.
To
account for these results, many have in different ages invented theories of the
interposition of gods, special providences, fates, the benign or hostile
influences of the stars. There never was a time within or before the so-called
historical period when our predecessors were not moulding
events and 'making history,' the facts of which were subsequently and
invariably distorted by historians to suit contemporary prejudices. Are you
quite sure that the visible heroic figures in the successive dramas were not
often but their puppets? We never pretended to be able to draw nations in the
mass to this or that crisis in spite of the general drift of the world's cosmic
relations.
The
cycles must run their rounds. Periods of mental and moral light and darkness
succeed each other as day does night. The major and minor yugas
must be accomplished according to the established order of things. And we,
borne along the mighty tide, can only modify and direct some of its minor
currents."
It
is under cyclic law, during a dark period in the history of mind, that the
true
philosophy disappears for a time, but the same law causes it to reappear as
surely
as the sun rises and the human mind is present to see it. But some works
can
only be performed by the Master, while other works require the assistance of the
companions. It is the Master's work to preserve the true philosophy, but the
help of the companions is needed to rediscover and promulgate it. Once more the
elder brothers have indicated where the truth -- Theosophy -- could be found,
and the companions all over the world are engaged in bringing it forth for
wider currency and propagation.
The
Elder Brothers of Humanity are men who were perfected in former periods of
evolution. These periods of manifestation are unknown to modern evolutionists
so far as their number are concerned, though long ago understood by not only
the older Hindus, but also by those great minds and men who instituted and
carried on the first pure and undebased form of the
Mysteries of Greece. The periods, when out of the Great Unknown there come
forth the visible universes, are eternal in their coming and going, alternating
with equal periods of silence and rest again in the Unknown. The object of
these mighty waves is the production of perfect man, the evolution of soul, and
they always witness the increase of the number of Elder Brothers; the life of
the least of men pictures them in day and night, waking and sleeping, birth and
death, "for these two, light and dark, day and night, are the world's
eternal ways."
In
every age and complete national history these men of power and compassion are
given different designations. They have been called Initiates, Adepts, Magi,
Hierophants,
Kings of the East, Wise Men, Brothers, and what not. But in the
Sanskrit
language there is a word which, being applied to them, at once
thoroughly
identifies them with humanity. It is Mahatma. This is composed of
Maha great, and Atma soul; so it means great soul,
and as all men are souls the
distinction
of the Mahatma lies in greatness. The term Mahatma has come into
wide
use through the Theosophical Society, as Mme. H. P. Blavatsky constantly
referred
to them as her Masters who gave her the knowledge she possessed.
They
were at first known only as the Brothers, but afterwards, when many Hindus flocked
to the Theosophical movement, the name Mahatma was brought into use, inasmuch
as it has behind it an immense body of Indian tradition and literature.
At
different times unscrupulous enemies of the Theosophical Society have said
that
even this name had been invented and that such beings are not known of
among
the Indians or in their literature. But these assertions are made only to
discredit
if possible a philosophical movement that threatens to completely
upset
prevailing erroneous theological dogmas. For all through Hindu literature
Mahatmas
are often spoken of, and in parts of the north of that country the term
is
common. In the very old poem the Bhagavad-Gita, revered by all Hindu sects
and
admitted by the western critics to be noble as well as beautiful, there is a
verse
reading, "Such a Mahatma is difficult to find."
But
irrespective of all disputes as to specific names, there is sufficient argument
and proof to show that a body of men having the wonderfulknowledge
described above has always existed and probably exists today. The older
mysteries continually refer to them. Ancient Egypt had them in her great
king-Initiates, sons of the sun and friends of great gods. There is a habit of
belittling the ideas of the ancients which is in itself belittling to the
people of today. Even the Christian who reverently speaks of Abraham as
"the friend of God," will scornfully laugh at the idea of the claims
of Egyptian rulers to the same friendship being other than childish assumption
of dignity and title. But the truth is, these great Egyptians were Initiates,
members of the one great lodge which includes all others of whatever degree or
operation. The later and declining Egyptians, of course, must have imitated
their predecessors, but that was when the true doctrine was beginning once more
to be obscured upon the rise
of
dogma and priesthood.
The
story of Apollonius of Tyana is about a member of one
of the same ancient
orders
appearing among men at a descending cycle, and only for the purpose of
keeping
a witness upon the scene for future generations.
Abraham
and Moses of the Jews are two other Initiates, Adepts who had their work to do
with a certain people; and in the history of Abraham we meet with
Melchizedek,
who was so much beyond Abraham that he had the right to confer upon the latter
a dignity, a privilege, or a blessing. The same chapter of human
history
which contains the names of Moses and Abraham is illuminated also by
that
of Solomon. And thus these three make a great Triad of Adepts, the record
of
whose deeds can not be brushed aside as folly and devoid of basis.
Moses
was educated by the Egyptians and in Midian, from
both of which he gained much occult knowledge, and any clear-seeing student of
the great Universal Masonry can perceive all through his books the hand, the
plan, and the work of a master. Abraham again knew all the arts and much of the
power in psychical realms that were cultivated in his day, or else he could not
have consorted with kings nor have been "the friend of God"; and the
reference to his conversations with the Almighty in respect to the destruction
of cities alone shows him to have been an Adept who had long ago passed beyond
the need of ceremonial or other adventitious aids. Solomon completes this triad
and stands out in characters of fire. Around him is clustered such a mass of
legend and story about his dealings with the elemental powers and of his magic
possessions that one must condemn the whole ancient world as a collection of
fools who made lies for amusement if a denial is made of his being a great
character, a wonderful example of the incarnation among men of a powerful
Adept. We do not have to accept the name Solomon nor the pretence that he
reigned over the Jews, but we must admit the fact that somewhere in the misty
time to which the Jewish records refer there lived and moved among the people
of the earth one who was an Adept and given that name afterwards. Peripatetic
and microscopic critics may affect to see in the prevalence of universal tradition
naught but evidence of the gullibility of men and their power to imitate, but
the true student of human nature and life knows that the universal tradition is
true and arises from the facts in the history of man.
Turning
to India, so long forgotten and ignored by the lusty and egotistical,
the
fighting and the trading West, we find her full of the lore relating to
these
wonderful men of whom Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Solomon are only examples.
There
the people are fitted by temperament and climate to be the preservers of
the
philosophical, ethical, and psychical jewels that would have been forever
lost
to us had they been left to the ravages of such Goths and Vandals as
western
nations were in the early days of their struggle for education and
civilization.
If the men who wantonly burned up vast masses of historical and
ethnological
treasures found by the minions of the Catholic rulers of Spain, in
Central
and South America, could have known of and put their hands upon the
books
and palm-leaf records of India before the protecting shield of England was
raised against them, they would have destroyed them all as they did for the
Americans,
and as their predecessors attempted to do for the Alexandrian
library.
Fortunately events worked otherwise.
All
along the stream of Indian literature we can find the names by scores of great
adepts who were well known to the people and who all taught the same story --
the great epic of the human soul. Their names are unfamiliar to western ears,
but the records of their thoughts, their work and powers remain. Still more, in
the
quiet unmoveable East there are today by the hundred
persons who know of
their
own knowledge that the Great Lodge still exists and has its Mahatmas,
Adepts,
Initiates, Brothers. And yet further, in that land are such a number of
experts
in the practical application of minor though still very astonishing
power
over nature and her forces, that we have an irresistible mass of human
evidence
to prove the proposition laid down.
And
if Theosophy -- the teaching of this Great Lodge -- is as said, both
scientific
and religious, then from the ethical side we have still more proof. A
mighty
Triad acting on and through ethics is that composed of Buddha, Confucius, and
Jesus. The first, a Hindu, founds a religion which today embraces many more
people than Christianity, teaching centuries before Jesus the ethics which he
taught and which had been given out even centuries before Buddha. Jesus coming
to reform his people repeats these ancient ethics, and Confucius does the same
thing for ancient and honorable China.
The
Theosophist says that all these great names represent members of the one
single
brotherhood, who all have a single doctrine. And the extraordinary
characters
who now and again appear in western civilization, such as St.
Germain, Jacob Boehme,
Cagliostro, Paracelsus, Mesmer,
Count St. Martin, and Madame H. P. Blavatsky, are agents for the doing of the
work of the Great Lodge at the proper time. It is true they are generally
reviled and classed as
impostors
-- though no one can find out why they are when they generally confer
benefits
and lay down propositions or make discoveries of great value to science after
they have died. But Jesus himself would be called an impostor today if he
appeared in some Fifth avenue theatrical church rebuking the professed
Christians. Paracelsus was the originator of valuable methods and treatments in
medicine now universally used. Mesmer taught
hypnotism under another name. Madame Blavatsky brought once more to the
attention of the West the most important system, long known to the Lodge,
respecting man, his nature and destiny. But all are alike called impostors by a
people who have no original philosophy of their own and whose mendicant and
criminal classes exceed in misery and in number those of any civilization on
the earth.
It
will not be unusual for nearly all occidental readers to wonder how men could
possibly
know so much and have such power over the operations of natural law as I have
ascribed to the Initiates, now so commonly spoken of as the Mahatmas. In India,
China, and other Oriental lands no wonder would arise on these heads, because
there, although everything of a material civilization is just now in a backward
state, they have never lost a belief in the inner nature of man and in the
power he may exercise if he will. Consequently living examples of such powers
and capacities have not been absent from those people. But in the West a
materialistic civilization having arisen through a denial of the soul life and
nature
consequent upon a reaction from illogical dogmatism, there has not been
any
investigation of these subjects and, until lately, the general public has
not
believed in the possibility of anyone save a supposed God having such power.
A
Mahatma endowed with power over space, time, mind, and matter, is a
possibility
just because he is a perfected man. Every human being has the germ
of
all the powers attributed to these great Initiates, the difference lying
solely
in the fact that we have in general not developed what we possess the
germ
of, while the Mahatma has gone through the training and experience which
have
caused all the unseen human powers to develop in him, and conferred gifts
that
look god-like to his struggling brother below. Telepathy, mind-reading, and
hypnotism,
all long ago known to Theosophy, show the existence in the human
subject
of planes of consciousness, functions, and faculties hitherto undreamed
of.
Mind-reading and the influencing of the mind of the hypnotized subject at a
distance
prove the existence of a mind which is not wholly dependent upon a
brain,
and that a medium exists through which the influencing thought may be
sent.
It is under this law that the Initiates can communicate with each other at
no
matter what distance. Its rationale, not yet admitted by the schools of the
hypnotizers,
is, that if the two minds vibrate or change into the same state they will think
alike, or, in other words, the one who is to hear at a distance receives the
impression sent by the other. In the same way with all other powers, no matter
how extraordinary. They are all natural, although nowunusual,
just as great musical ability is natural though not usual or common.
If
an Initiate can make a solid object move without contact, it is because he
understands the two laws of attraction and repulsion of which
"gravitation" is but the name for one; if he is able to precipitate
out of the viewless air the carbon which we know is in it, forming the carbon
into sentences upon the paper, it is through his knowledge of the occult higher
chemistry, and the use of a trained and powerful image making faculty which
every man possesses; if he reads your thoughts with ease, that results from the
use of the inner and only real
powers
of sight, which require no retina to see the fine-pictured web which the
vibrating
brain of man weaves about him. All that the Mahatma may do is natural
to
the perfected man; but if those powers are not at once revealed to us it is
because
the race is as yet selfish altogether and still living for the present
and
the transitory.
I
repeat then, that though the true doctrine disappears for a time from among
men
it is bound to reappear, because first, it is impacted in the imperishable
center
of man's nature; and secondly, the Lodge forever preserves it, not only
in
actual objective records, but also in the intelligent and fully self-conscious
men who, having successfully overpassed the many periods
of evolution which preceded the one we are now involved in, cannot lose the
precious possessions they have acquired. And because the elder brothers are the
highest product of evolution through whom alone, in co-operation with the whole
human family, the further regular and workmanlike prosecution of the plans of
the Great Architect of the Universe could be carried on, I have thought it well
to advert to them and their Universal Lodge before going to other parts of the
subject.
CHAPTER
2
General Principles
The
teachings of Theosophy deal for the present chiefly with our earth, although
its
purview extends to all the worlds, since no part of the manifested universe
is
outside the single body of laws which operate upon us. Our globe being one of
the solar system is certainly connected with Venus, Jupiter, and other planets,
but
as the great human family has to remain with its material vehicle -- the earth
-- until all the units of the race which are ready are perfected, the evolution
of that family is of greater importance to the members of it. Some particulars
respecting the other planets may be given later on. First let us take a general
view of the laws governing all.
The
universe evolves from the unknown, into which no man or mind, however high, can
inquire, on seven planes or in seven ways or methods in all worlds, and this
sevenfold differentiation causes all the worlds of the universe and the beings
thereon to have a septenary constitution. As was
taught of old, the little
worlds
and the great are copies of the whole, and the minutest insect as well as
the
most highly developed being are replicas in little or in great of the vast
inclusive
original. Hence sprang the saying, "as above so below" which the
Hermetic
philosophers used.
The
divisions of the sevenfold universe may be laid down roughly as: The
Absolute,
Spirit, Mind, Matter, Will, Akasa or Aether, and
Life. In place of
"the
Absolute" we can use the word Space. For Space is that which ever is, and
in
which all manifestation must take place. The term Akasa, taken from the
Sanskrit, is used in place of Aether, because the
English language has not yet
evolved
a word to properly designate that tenuous state of matter which is now
sometimes
called Ether by modern scientists. As to the Absolute we can do no
more
than say IT IS. None of the great teachers of the School ascribe qualities
to
the Absolute although all the qualities exist in It. Our knowledge begins with
differentiation, and all manifested objects, beings, or powers are only
differentiations of the Great Unknown. The most that can be said is that the
Absolute
periodically differentiates itself, and periodically withdraws the
differentiated
into itself.
The
first differentiation -- speaking metaphysically as to time -- is Spirit,
with
which appears Matter and Mind. Akasa is produced from Matter and Spirit,
Will
is the force of Spirit in action and Life is a resultant of the action of
Akasa,
moved by Spirit, upon Matter.
But
the Matter here spoken of is not that which is vulgarly known as such. It is
the
real Matter which is always invisible, and has sometimes been called Primordial
Matter. In the Brahmanical system it is denominated Mulaprakriti. The
ancient
teaching always held, as is now admitted by Science, that we see or
perceive
only the phenomena but not the essential nature, body or being of
matter.
Mind
is the intelligent part of the Cosmos, and in the collection of seven
differentiations
above roughly sketched, Mind is that in which the plan of the
Cosmos
is fixed or contained. This plan is brought over from a prior period of
manifestation
which added to its ever-increasing perfectness, and
no limit can
be
set to its evolutionary possibilities in perfectness,
because there was never
any
beginning to the periodical manifestations of the Absolute, there never will
be
any end, but forever the going forth and withdrawing into the Unknown will go
on.
Wherever
a world or system of worlds is evolving there the plan has been laid
down
in universal mind, the original force comes from spirit, the basis is matter --
which is in fact invisible -- Life sustains all the forms requiring life, and
Akasa is the connecting link between matter on one side and spirit-mind on the
other.
When
a world or a system comes to the end of certain great cycles men record a
cataclysm
in history or tradition. These traditions abound; among the Jews in
their
flood; with the Babylonians in theirs; in Egyptian papyri; in the Hindu
cosmology;
and none of them as merely confirmatory of the little Jewish
tradition,
but all pointing to early teaching and dim recollection also of the
periodical
destructions and renovations. The Hebraic story is but a poor fragment torn
from the pavement of the Temple of Truth. Just as there are
periodical
minor cataclysms or partial destructions, so, the doctrine holds,
there
is the universal evolution and involution. Forever the Great Breath goes
forth
and returns again. As it proceeds outwards, objects, worlds and men
appear;
as it recedes all disappear into the original source.
This
is the waking and the sleeping of the Great Being; the Day and the Night of
Brahma;
the prototype of our waking days and sleeping nights as men, of our
disappearance
from the scene at the end of one little human life, and our return
again
to take up the unfinished work in another life, in a new day.
The
real age of the world has long been involved in doubt for Western
investigators,
who up to the present have shown a singular unwillingness to take
instruction
from the records of Oriental people much older than the West. Yet
with
the Orientals is the truth about the matter. It is admitted that Egyptian
civilization
flourished many centuries ago, and as there are no living Egyptian
schools
of ancient learning to offend modern pride, and perhaps because the Jews
"came out of Egypt" to fasten the Mosaic misunderstood tradition upon
modern progress, the inscriptions cut in rocks and written on papyri obtain a
little more credit today than the living thought and record of the Hindus. For
the
latter
are still among us, and it would never do to admit that a poor and
conquered
race possesses knowledge respecting the age of man and his world which the
western flower of culture, war, and annexation knows nothing of. Ever since the
ignorant monks and theologians of Asia Minor and Europe succeeded in imposing
the Mosaic account of the genesis of earth and man upon the coming western
evolution, the most learned even of our scientific men have stood in fear of
the years that elapsed since Adam, or have been warped in thought and
perception whenever their eyes turned to any chronology different from that of
a few tribes of the sons of Jacob. Even the noble, aged, and silent pyramid of Gizeh, guarded by Sphinx and Memnon
made of stone, has been degraded by Piazzi Smyth and
others into a proof that the British inch must prevail and that a
"Continental Sunday" controverts the law of the Most High. Yet in the
Mosaic account, where one would expect to find a reference to such a proof as
the pyramid, we can discover not a single hint of it and only a record of the
building by King Solomon of a temple of which there never was a trace.
But
the Theosophist knows why the Hebraic tradition came to be thus an apparent
drag on the mind of the West; he knows the connection between Jew and Egyptian;
what is and is to be the resurrection of the old pyramid builders of the Nile
valley, and where the plans of those ancient master masons have been hidden
from the profane eyes until the cycle should roll round again for their
bringing forth.
The
Jews preserved merely a part of the learning of Egypt hidden under the letter
of the books of Moses, and it is there still to this day in what they call the
cabalistic or hidden meaning of the scriptures. But the Egyptian souls who
helped in planning the pyramid of Gizeh, who took
part in the Egyptian
government,
theology, science, and civilization, departed from their old race,
that
race died out and the former Egyptians took up their work in the oncoming
races
of the West, especially in those which are now repeopling
the American
continents.
When Egypt and India were younger there was a constant intercourse between
them.
They
both, in the opinion of the Theosophist, thought alike, but fate ruled that of
the two the Hindus only should preserve the old ideas among a living people. I
will therefore take from the Brahmanical records of
Hindustan their doctrine about the days, nights, years and life of Brahma, who
represents the universe and the worlds.
The
doctrine at once upsets the interpretation so long given to the Mosaic
tradition,
but fully accords with the evident account in Genesis of other and
former
"creations," with the cabalistic construction of the Old Testament
verse
about
the kings of Edom, who there represent former periods of evolution prior
to
that started with Adam, and also coincides with the belief held by some of
the
early Christian Fathers who told their brethren about wonderful previous
worlds
and creations.
The
Day of Brahma is said to last one thousand years, and his night is of equal
length.
In the Christian Bible is a verse saying that one day is as a thousand
years
to the Lord and a thousand years as one day. This has generally been used
to
magnify the power of Jehovah, but it has a suspicious resemblance to the
older
doctrine of the length of Brahma's day and night. It would be of more value if
construed to be a statement of the periodical coming forth for great days and
nights of equal length of the universe of manifested worlds.
A
day of mortals is reckoned by the sun, and is but twelve hours in length. On
Mercury
it would be different, and on Saturn or Uranus still more so. But a day
of
Brahma is made up of what are called Manvantaras --
or period between two men -- fourteen in number. These include four billion
three hundred and twenty
million
mortal, or earth, years, which is one day of Brahma.
When
this day opens, cosmic evolution, so far as relates to this solar system,
begins
and occupies between one and two billions of years in evolving the very
ethereal
first matter before the astral kingdoms of mineral, vegetable, animal
and
men are possible. This second step takes some three hundred millions of
years,
and then still more material processes go forward for the production of
the
tangible kingdoms of nature, including man. This covers over one and
one-half
billions of years. And the number of solar years included in the
present
"human" period is over eighteen millions of years.
This
is exactly what Herbert Spencer designates as the gradual coming forth of
the
known and heterogeneous from the unknown and homogeneous. For the ancient
Egyptian and Hindu Theosophists never admitted a creation out of nothing, but
ever strenuously insisted upon evolution, by gradual stages, of the
heterogeneous
and differentiated from the homogeneous and undifferentiated.
No
mind can comprehend the infinite and absolute unknown, which is, has no
beginning
and shall have no end; which is both last and first, because, whether
differentiated
or withdrawn into itself, it ever is. This is the God spoken of
in
the Christian Bible as the one around whose pavilion there is darkness.
This
cosmic and human chronology of the Hindus is laughed at by western
Orientalists, yet they can furnish
nothing better and are continually disagreeing with each other on the same
subject. In Wilson's translation of Vishnu Purana he
calls it all fiction based on nothing, and childish boasting.
But
the Free Masons, who remain inactive hereupon, ought to know better. They
could
find in the story of the building of Solomon's temple from the
heterogeneous
materials brought from everywhere, and its erection without the
noise
of a tool being heard, the agreement with these ideas of their Egyptian
and
Hindu brothers. For Solomon's Temple means man whose frame is built up,
finished
and decorated without the least noise. But the materials had to be
found,
gathered together and fashioned in other and distant places.
These
are in the periods above spoken of, very distant and very silent. Man
could
not have his bodily temple to live in until all the matter in and about
his
world had been found by the Master, who is the inner man, when found the
plans
for working it required to be detailed. They then had to be carried out in
different
detail until all the parts should be perfectly ready and fit for
placing
in the final structure. So in the vast stretch of time which began after
the
first almost intangible matter had been gathered and kneaded, the material
and
vegetable kingdoms had sole possession here with the Master -- man -- who
was
hidden from sight within carrying forward the plans for the foundations of
the
human temple. All of this requires many, many ages, since we know that
nature
never leaps. And when the rough work was completed, when the human temple was
erected, many more ages would be required for all the servants, the priests,
and the counsellors to learn their parts properly so
that man, the Master, might be able to use the temple for its best and highest
purposes.
The
ancient doctrine is far nobler than the Christian religious one or that of
the
purely scientific school. The religious gives a theory which conflicts with
reason
and fact, while science can give for the facts which it observes no
reason
which is in any way noble or elevating. Theosophy alone, inclusive of all
systems
and every experience, gives the key, the plan, the doctrine, the truth.
The
real age of the world is asserted by Theosophy to be almost incalculable,
and
that of man as he is now formed is over eighteen millions of years. What has
become
at last man is of vastly greater age, for before the present two sexes
appeared
the human creature was sometimes of one shape and sometimes of another, until
the whole plan had been fully worked out into our present form, function, and
capacity. This is found to be referred to in the ancient books written for the
profane where man is said to have been at one time globular in shape. This was
at a time when the conditions flavoured such a form
and of course it was longer ago than eighteen millions of years. And when this
globular form was the rule the sexes as we know them had not differentiated and
hence there was but one sex, or if you like, no sex at all.
During
all these ages before our man came into being, evolution was carrying on
the
work of perfecting various powers which are now our possession. This was
accomplished
by the Ego or real man going through experience in countless
conditions
of matter all different one from the other, and the same plan in general was and
is pursued as prevails in respect to the general evolution of the universe to
which I have before adverted. That is, details were first worked out in spheres
of being very ethereal, metaphysical in fact.
Then
the next step brought the same details to be worked out on a plane of matter a
little more dense, until at last it could be done on our present plane of what
we miscall gross matter. In these anterior states the senses existed in germ,
as it were, or in idea, until the astral plane which is next to this one was
arrived at, and then they were concentrated so as to be the actual senses we
now use through the agency of the different outer organs. These outer organs of
sight, touch and hearing, and tasting, are often mistaken by the unlearned or
the thoughtless for the real organs and senses, but he who stops to think must
see that the senses are interior and that their outer organs are but mediators
between the visible
universe
and the real perceiver within. And all these various powers and potentialities
being well worked out in this slow but sure process, at last man
is
put upon the scene a sevenfold being just as the universe and earth itself
are
sevenfold. Each of his seven principles is derived from one of the great
first
seven divisions, and each relates to a planet or scene of evolution, and
to
a race in which that evolution was carried out. So the first sevenfold
differentiation
is important to be borne in mind, since it is the basis of all
that
follows; just as the universal evolution is septenary
so the evolution of
humanity,
sevenfold in its constitution, is carried on upon a septenary
Earth.
This
is spoken of in Theosophical literature as the Sevenfold Planetary Chain,
and
is intimately connected with Man's special evolution.
CHAPTER
3
The Earth Chain
Coming
now to our Earth the view put forward by Theosophy regarding its genesis, its
evolution and the evolution of the Human, Animal and other Monads, is quite
different from modern ideas, and in some things contrary to accepted theories.
But
the theories of today are not stable. They change with each century, while
the
Theosophical one never alters because, in the opinion of those Elder Brothers
who have caused its repromulgation and pointed to its
confirmation in
ancient
books, it is but a statement of facts in nature. The modern theory is,
on
the contrary, always speculative, changeable, and continually altered.
Following
the general plan outlined in preceding pages, the Earth is sevenfold.
It
is an entity and not a mere lump of gross matter. And being thus an entity of
a
septenary nature there must be six other globes which
roll with it in space.
This
company of seven globes has been called the "Earth Chain," the
"Planetary
Chain."
In Esoteric Buddhism this is clearly stated, but there a rather hard and
fast
materialistic view of it is given and the reader led to believe that the
doctrine speaks of seven distinct globes, all separated from though connected
with each other. One is forced to conclude that the author meant to say that
the globe Earth is as distinct from the other six as Venus is from Mars.
This
is not the doctrine. The earth is one of seven globes, in respect to man's
consciousness
only, because when he functions on one of the seven he perceives it as a
distinct globe and does not see the other six. This is in perfect
correspondence
with man himself who has six other constituents of which only the gross body is
visible to him because he is now functioning on the Earth -- or
the
fourth globe -- and his body represents the Earth. The whole seven
"globes"
constitute
one single mass or great globe and they all interpenetrate each
other.
But we have to say "globe," because the ultimate shape is globular or
spherical.
If one relies too closely on the explanation made by Mr. Sinnett
it
might
be supposed that the globes did not interpenetrate each other but were
connected
by currents or lines of magnetic force. And if too close attention is
paid
to the diagrams used in the Secret Doctrine to illustrate the scheme,
without
paying due regard to the explanations and cautions given by H. P.
Blavatsky,
the same error may be made. But both she and her Adept teachers say, that the
seven globes of our chain are in "coadunition
with each other but not in consubstantiality." (Secret Doctrine, Vol. I,
p. 166, first edition.) This is
further
enforced by cautions not to rely on statistics or plane surface diagrams, but
to look at the metaphysical and spiritual aspect of the theory as
stated
in English. Thus from the very source of Mr. Sinnett's
book we have the
statement,
that these globes are united in one mass though differing from each
other
in substance, and that this difference of substance is due to change of
center
of consciousness.
The
Earth Chain of seven globes as thus defined is the direct reincarnation of a
former
chain of seven globes, and that former family of seven was the moon
chain,
the moon itself being the visible representative of the fourth globe of
the
old chain. When that former vast entity composed of the Moon and six others,
all united in one mass, reached its limit of life it died just as any being
dies.
Each one of the seven sent its energies into space and gave similar life
or
vibration to cosmic dust -- matter, -- and the total cohesive force of the
whole
kept the seven energies together. This resulted in the evolving of the
present
Earth Chain of seven centers of energy or evolution combined in one
mass.
As the Moon was the fourth of the old series it is on the same plane of
perception
as the Earth, and as we are now confined in our consciousness largely to Earth
we are able only to see one of the old seven -- to wit: our Moon.
When
we are functioning on any of the other seven we will perceive in our sky the
corresponding old corpse which will then be a Moon, and we will not see the
present
Moon. Venus, Mars, Mercury and other visible planets are all
fourth-plane
globes of distinct planetary masses and for that reason are visible
to
us, their companion six centers of energy and consciousness being invisible.
All
diagrams on plane surfaces will only becloud the theory because a diagram
necessitates
linear divisions.
The
stream or mass of Egos which evolves on the seven globes of our chain is
limited
in number, yet the actual quantity is enormous. For though the universe
is
limitless and infinite, yet in any particular portion of Cosmos in which
manifestation
and evolution have begun there is a limit to the extent of
manifestation
and to the number of Egos engaged therein. And the whole number of Monads now
going through evolution on our Earth Chain came over from the old seven planets
or globes which I have described. Esoteric Buddhism calls this mass of Egos a
"life wave," meaning the stream of Monads. It reached this planetary
mass, represented to our consciousness by the central point our Earth, and
began on Globe A or No. I, coming like an army or river. The first portion
began on Globe A and went through a long evolution there in bodies suited to
such a state of matter, and then passed on to B, and so on through the whole
seven greater states of consciousness which have been called globes.
When
the first portion left A others streamed in and pursued the same course, the
whole army proceeding with regularity round the septenary
route.
This
journey went on for four circlings round the whole,
and then the whole
stream
or army of Egos from the old Moon Chain had arrived, and being complete, no more
entered after the middle of the Fourth Round. The same circling process of
these differently arrived classes goes on for seven complete Rounds of the
whole seven planetary centers of consciousness, and when the seven are ended as
much perfection as is possible in the immense period occupied will have been
attained, and then this chain or mass of "globes" will die in its
turn to give birth to still another series.
Each
one of the globes is used by evolutionary law for the development of seven
races,
and of senses, faculties and powers appropriate to that state of matter:
the
experience of the whole seven globes being needed to make a perfect
development.
Hence we have the Rounds and Races. The Round is a circling of the seven
centers of planetary consciousness; the Race the racial development on one of
those seven.
There
are seven races for each globe, but the total of forty-nine races only makes up
seven great races, the special septennate of races on
each globe or planetary center composing in reality one race of seven
constituents or special peculiarities of function and power.
And
as no complete race could be evolved in a moment on any globe, the slow,
orderly
processes of nature, which allow no jumps, must proceed by appropriate means. Hence
sub-races have to be evolved one after the other before the perfect root race
is formed, and then the root race sends off its offshoots while it is declining
and preparing for the advent of the next great race.
As
illustrating this, it is distinctly taught that on the Americas is to be
evolved the new -- sixth -- race; and here all the races of the earth are now
engaged in a great amalgamation from which will result a very highly developed
sub-race, after which others will be evolved by similar processes until the new
one is completed.
Between
the end of any great race and the beginning of another there is a period
of
rest, so far as the globe is concerned, for then the stream of human Egos
leaves
it for another one of the chain in order to go on with further evolution
of
powers and faculties there. But when the last, the seventh, race has appeared
and
fully perfected itself, a great dissolution comes on, similar to that which
I briefly described as preceding the birth of the earth's chain, a