In short, Kabalistic Astrology, as now practiced in Europe, is the semi-esoteric secret science, adapted for the outer and not for the inner circle. It is, furthermore, often left incomplete and not infrequently distorted to conceal the real truth. While it symbolizes and adopts its correspondences on the mere appearances of things. Esoteric philosophy, concerning itself preeminently with the essence of things, accepts only such symbols as cover the whole ground, i.e., such symbols as yield a spiritual as well as a psychic and physical meaning. Yet even Western Astrology has done excellent work, for it has helped to carry the knowledge of the existence of a Secret Wisdom throughout the dangers of the Medieval Ages and dark bigotry up to this day, when all danger has disappeared.

***

"'It is written,' said Simon in his ......., 'that there are two kinds of AEons having neither beginning nor end, issued both from the same Root -- the invisible and incomprehensible Potentiality -- named Silence [Sige.] One of these [series of AEons] appears to us superior to the other. This one is the "Great Intelligence" [Universal Mind, or divine Ideation] of all things; it rules all and is male [it is the Mahat of the Hindus). The other is much inferior, for it is [manifested] Thought, the great female AEon: these two kinds of AEons, intercommunicating with each other, form and manifest the intermediate [the middle sphere, or plane], the incomprehensible Air which has neither beginning nor end'."

***

Esotericism, pure and simple, speaks of no personal God; therefore are we considered as Atheists. But Occult Philosophy, as a whole, is based in reality and absolutely on the ubiquitous presence of God, i.e., the Absolute Deity; and if IT is not speculated upon (because too sacred and absolutely incomprehensible as a Unit to the finite intellect) the entire philosophy is based upon its divine Powers as sources of all that breathes and lives and has its existence, not merely its being. In every ancient religion the ONE was demonstrated by the many. In Egypt and India, as also in Chaldea and Phoenicia and finally in Greece, the ideas about Deity were expressed by multiples of three, five and seven; also of eight, nine and twelve great Gods -- symbolizing the powers and properties of the Only and Sole; it was related to that infinite subdivision by irregular and odd numbers that the metaphysics of these nations subjected their ONE DIVINITY to. Thus constituted, the cycle of the Gods had all the qualities and attributes of the "ONE SUPREME AND UNKNOWABLE;" for in this collection of divine personalities -- or rather of symbols personified -- dwells the ONE GOD, the GOD ONE, that God which, as in India, has no Second: "Oh God Ani (the Spiritual Sun), thou residest in the agglomeration of thy divine personages."

***

The member desiring to ascertain whether another person belongs to the E.S. will first say “Dhyani” to which the person addressed (if a member of the E.S. will reply “Pura”. The questioner must then say “Satri”, to which the reply will be “Asoph”.

***

The "Inner Lodge" of the Dzyan is the name by which the Master's Lodge in the inner Lamasery is known. All the adepts, chelas etc. in that part of the country are known among Lamas as Dzyan-pas. The "we" does not refer to me but to myself & staff. -- Secretary chosen by Council -- besides which, you W.Q.J. as the Chief & only agent of the "Dzyan" in America have to add your signature under mine on each Charter. The Charters may be prolix & high faluting -- perhaps, but they were written out by High Masons those of the Horus Lodge & Rosicrucians.

***

In the affairs of the Theosophical Society and of the E. S. there is an important cycle which comes to a conclusion in about ten years. It is broadly mentioned in the Key to Theosophy from p. 304 to 307.
The law is that the Adepts work with men (of the Caucasian race) directly and in large masses during the last twenty-five years of every century, and then stop for seventy-five
years, beginning again in the fourth quarter of the next century.

***

An examination of the method pursued by our teacher, H. P. B., shows that since she is not permitted to give out the complete teaching, nor to make known even a perfect outline of the doctrine on any one plane, she omits such parts and mixes up the remainder to a  certain extent, like the pieces of a child's puzzle. For were she to state all that she gives out in its correct relation and order, we could readily fill in the gaps ourselves, and men would thus obtain knowledge, and therefore power, on the occult side of nature, before their moral natures were fitted for the trust. Therefore she conceals the clue by removing the pieces of the puzzle from their proper context, and so obliging us to have recourse to the light of intuition in order to restore them to their proper places in the perfect scheme.

***

Those willing and anxious to be our "enemies on the other side of the river" have fiercely assailed our teacher. They see only her personality, but they feel blindly the truth that blinds and binds where it cannot liberate and enlighten. They think that by bringing her into discredit and disgrace they will prevent the truth from appearing. They are unaware of their own motive because blinded by self-interest. If you touch their purse or their profits, or the creed or scheme under which they work, they hang their banners on the outer wall, and the sound of war is heard in their streets.

Try to imagine one the center of an angry mob bent on his destruction. They are deaf to every appeal; they drown his voice by their cries of vengeance, -- human beings, yet tigers, thirsting for blood. Imagine a human being thus at bay: his soul like a mirror; a focus for every surging wave of passion and every impulse of murder. "Away With him!" "Crucify him!" "Kill him!" Read the story of Hypatia, torn limb from limb by howling demons in the garb of priests, stifling humanity, and profaning at every breath the name of Christ. For fourteen years H. P. Blavatsky, a nervous, sensitive woman, has been the center toward which have poured from every direction these waves of hatred, of misrepresentation, of slander, and of ridicule. From churchman and scientist hatred and ridicule alike, and now from spiritualists the most unreasoning blind hatred from any. Have any of these answered her arguments or disproved her propositions? No, they have simply abused her.

***

In spite of the emphatic manner in which H. P. B. speaks of the Auric Egg, it does not seem to have received as much study and thought at the hands of Esotericists as it deserves. Philosophically, its importance lies in the fact that it is the "principle of individuality," since it is only in virtue of the limiting function of the Auric Egg that man can be said to possess any individuality whatever, whether on the physical or any higher plane. For the Auric Egg is the abstract root, the germ of all limitation and finiteness, i.e., of that distinction between units which we term individualization. All the principles in man differ in no respect from their macrocosmic prototypes except by being enclosed in the Auric Egg, and were that ever to cease to exist, the "principles" that compose us would merge back into the general stock, and we should cease to have any existence as individuals. It is this function of the Auric Egg which would seem to be pointed at in the beautiful Buddhist simile for the attainment of Nirvana, -- "the dewdrop slips into the shining sea." This shows that Nirvana is attained not, as some think, by the annihilation of the individuality, but by its indefinite expansion. In other words, when Nirvana is attained, the Auric Egg, the boundary of the individuality, expands until its limits become coextensive with those of "Brahma's Egg" -- which last is the particular Universe on which that individual has been performing his cyclic pilgrimage.

***

To be in Svarloka is to be completely abstracted on this plane, leaving only instinct to work, so that on the material plane you would behave as an animal. Yogîs are known who have become crystallized in this state, and then they must be nourished by others. A Yogî near Allahabad had been for fifty-three years sitting on a stone; his Chelâs plunge him into the river every night and then replace him. During the day his consciousness returns to Bhûrloka, and he talks and teaches. A Yogî was found on an island near Calcutta round whose limbs the roots of trees had grown. He was cut out, and in the endeavour to awaken him so many outrages were inflicted on him that he died....

The student, who is not naturally psychic, should fix the fourfold consciousness in a higher plane and nail it there. Let him make a bundle of the four lower and pin them to a higher state. He should centre on this higher, trying not to permit the body and intellect to draw him down and carry him away. Play ducks and drakes with the body, eating, drinking and sleeping, but living always on the ideal.

***

H.P.B said that thought should be centred on the highest, the seventh, and then an attempt to transcend this will prove that it is impossible to go beyond it on this plane. There is nothing in the brain to carry the thinker on, and if thought is to rise yet further it might be thought without a brain. Let the eyes be closed, the will set not to let the brain work, and then the point may be transcended and the student will pass to the next plane. All the seen stages of perception come before Antahkarana; if you can pass beyond them you are on the Mânasic Plane.

Try to imagine something which transcends your power of thought, say, the nature of the Dhyân Chohans. Then make the brain passive, and pass beyond; you will see a white radiant light, like silver, but opalescent as mother of pearl; then waves of colour will pass over it, beginning in the tenderest violet, and through bronze shades of green to indigo with metallic lustre, and that colour will remain. If you see this you are on another plane. You should pass through seven stages.

When a colour comes, glance at it, and if it is not good reject it. Let your attention be arrested only on the green, indigo and yellow. These are good colours. The eyes being connected with the brain, the colour you see most easily will be the colour of the personality. If you see red, it is merely physiological, and is to be disregarded. Green-bronze is the Lower Manas: yellow-bronze the Antahkarana, (Page 582) indigo-bronze is Manas. These are to be observed, and when the yellow-bronze merges into the indigo you are on the Mânasic Plane.

On the Mânasic Plane you see the Noumena, the essence of phenomena. You do not see people or other consciousnesses, but have enough to do to keep your own. The trained Seer can see Noumena always. The Adept sees the Noumena on this plane, the reality of things, so cannot be deceived.

In meditation the beginner may waver backwards and forwards between two planes. You hear the ticking of a clock on this plane, then on the astral—the soul of the ticking. When clocks are stopped here the ticking goes on on higher planes, in the astral, and then in the ether, until the last bit of the clock is gone. It is the same as with a dead body, which sends out emanations until the last molecule is disintegrated.

There is no time in meditation, because there is no succession of states of consciousness on this plane.

Violet is the colour of the Astral. You begin with it, but should not stay in it; try to pass on. When you see a sheet of violet, you are beginning unconsciously to form a Mâyâvi Rûpa. Fix your attention, and if you go away keep your consciousness firmly to the Mâyâvic Body; do not lose sight of it, hold on like grim death.

***

If we could remember our dreams in deep sleep, then we should be able to remember all our past incarnations.

***

The Manas can pass its essence to several vehicles, e.g., the Mâyâvi Rûpa, etc., and even to Elementals which it can ensoul, as the Rosicrucians taught. The Mâyâvi Rûpa may be sometimes so vitalized that it goes on to another plane and unites with the beings of that plane and so ensouls them. People who bestow great affection upon animal pets are ensouling them to a certain extent, and such animal souls progress rapidly; in return such persons get back the animal vitality and magnetism. It is, however, against Nature to thus accentuate animal evolution, and on the whole is bad.

***

QUESTION No. 1. -- "What are the Pitris?" ...

Note. -- This question was -- with rare exceptions -- very badly answered. A large number of Esotericists simply replied, "I do not know," or, "I am not very clear," -- a confession of ignorance which no one, after a year of study, should have been obliged to make. An Esotericist has the duty of right-thinking as well as right-living, and a lamentable want of study is shown in most of the papers. It is wholly impossible to give more advanced teaching to those who are not even familiar with the broad outlines of the doctrines given to the world in the Secret Doctrine. Even the Notes on the Secret Doctrine, given monthly in Lucifer, would have enabled Esotericists to answer this question.

Q. (2) -- "What is Kama Rupa?" ...

NOTE. -- Many students answered this question by merely translating Kama-Rupa into "body of desire" -- an answer that could have been given by any outsider who had picked up a Theosophical publication dealing with the seven principles. Only a very small minority stated that the Rupa was formed after death -- a fact which seems to imply, that great majority of Esotericists have not taken the trouble to read the third Instructions. Such gross ignorance as the the confounding of Kama-Rupa with Kama-Loca is also shown in some of the answers. The mistake in some cases was probably due to the acceptation by the students of Mr. Sinnett's classification, without any analysis. Kama-Rupa must be included in the classification, because potentially it exists, although it is not concentrated or collected into a definite form until death breaks up the body. This may be understood in the same way as when we say that in such-and-such a man's body there are so many ounces of carbon, which, however, we know will not reveal themselves as carbon until released from the other elements.

Q. (3) -- "What is the difference between the Higher and the Lower Self?" ...

Note. -- Scarcely any avoided a confusion between the Higher Self and the Higher Ego. Some fell into the most hopeless blunders, showing that they had no clear ideas of the septenary constitution of man. Serious mistakes were also made as to the meaning of the "Lower Self;" one wild guess identifying it with the Auric Egg. Yet every Esotericist has invoked the Higher Self, and ought surely to have taken the trouble to make clear to himself what it was he invoked.

Q. (4) -- "What is the Astral Light?" ...

Note. -- That the Astral Light contains the record of earth was generally stated, although one student informed his surprised teacher that the Astral Light was the divine spark within us. This particular student is required to study more and think more. Few, however, understood the relation of the Astral Light to the earth as its Linga Sarira.

Q. (5) -- "Give reasons for joining the E.S."

Note. -- This question was, on the whole, very well answered, the replies showing earnestness and sincerity.

Q. (6) -- "What Theosophical book do you consider has most helped you?"

Note. -- If the books named are carefully studied, knowledge will be rapidly acquired.

Q. (7) -- "What is Occultism; and what do you consider to be Practical Occultism?" ...

Note. -- Badly answered. Hardly anyone had caught the central idea of Occultism.

***

The real Head of the Esoteric Section is a Master, whom H. P. Blavatsky is the mouthpiece for this Section. He is one of those Adepts referred to in theosophical literature, and concerned in the formation of the Theosophical Society. It is through H. P. Blavatsky that each member of this Section will be brought more closely than hitherto under His influence and care if found worthy of it. No student, however, need inquire which of the Masters it is. For it does not matter in reality; nor is there any necessity for creating one more chance for indiscretion. Suffice it to say, such is the law in the East.

Each person will receive in the way of enlightenment and assistance, just as much as he or she deserves and no more; and it is to be distinctly understood that in this Section and these relations no such thing is known as favour -- all depends upon the person's merits -- and no member has the power or knowledge to decide what either he or another is entitled to. This must be left to those who know -- alone. The apparent favour shown to some, and their consequent apparent advancement, will be due to the work they do, to the best of their power, in the cause of Universal Brotherhood and the elevation of the Race....

The Masters can give but little assistance to a Body not thoroughly united in purpose and feeling, and which breaks its first fundamental rule -- universal brotherly love, without distinction of race, creed, colour or caste, i.e., the social distinctions made in the world; nor to a Society, many members of which pass their lives in judging, condemning, and often reviling other members in a most untheosophical, not to say disgraceful, manner.

For this reason it was decided to gather the "elect" of the T.S. and to call them to action. It is only by a select group of brave souls, a handful of determined men and women hungry for genuine spiritual development and the acquirement of soul-wisdom, that the Theosophical Society at large can be brought back to its original lines....

Disappointment is sure to come to those who join this Section for the purpose of learning "magic arts" or acquiring "occult training" for themselves, quite regardless of the good of other people less determined. Abnormal, artificially-developed powers -- except those which crown the efforts of the Black Magician -- are only the culmination of and reward for, labors bestowed unselfishly upon humanity, upon all men, whether good or bad. Forgetfulness of the personal Self and sincere altruism are the first and indispensable requisites in the training of those who are to become "White Adepts" either in this or a future incarnation....

Let every member know, moreover, that the time for such priceless acquisition is limited. The writer of the present is old; her life is well-nigh worn out, and she may be summoned "home" any day and almost any hour. And if her place is even filled up, perchance by another worthier and more learned than herself, still there remain but twelve years to the last hour of the term -- namely, till December the 31st, 1899. Those who will not have profited by the opportunity (given to the world in every last quarter of a century), those who will not have reached a certain point of psychic and spiritual development, or that point from which begins the cycle of adeptship, by that day -- those will advance no further than the knowledge already acquired. No Master of Wisdom from the East will himself appear or send any one to Europe or America after that period, and the sluggards will have to renounce every chance of advancement in their present incarnation -- until the year 1975. Such is the Law, for we are in Kali Yuga -- the Black Age -- and the restrictions in this cycle, the first 5000 years of which will expire in 1897, are great and almost insuperable....

To achieve this, the attitude of mind in which the teachings given are to be received is that which shall tend to develop the faculty of intuition. The duty of members in this respect is to refrain from arguing that the statements made are not in accordance with what other people have said or written, or with their own ideas upon the subject, or that, again, they are apparently contrary to any accepted system of thought or philosophy. Practical esoteric science is altogether sui generis. It requires all the mental and psychic powers of the student to be used in examining what is given, to the end that the real meaning of the Teacher may be discovered, as far as the student can understand it. He must endeavor as much as possible to free his mind, while studying or trying to carry out what is given him, from all the ideas which he may be impressed upon him apart from the words in which they are clothed. Otherwise, there is constant risk of his ideas becoming colored with preconceived notions as those of the writers of certain otherwise excellent works upon esoteric subjects who have made the occult tenets more subservient to modern Science than to occult truth....

 Repetition of statements or gossip derogatory of others must be avoided. But condemnation of crime, of social evils and corrupt systems of every description, in the abstract, is a duty of every "Fellow." Above all, the duty of every member is to fight against cant, hypocrisy, and injustice in every shape....

If a member, whether falsely or truly, asserts that he has received letters of communications from Masters, unless directed to divulge the same, he will ipso facto, cease to derive any benefit from the teachings, whether the fact be known or unknown to himself or to others. A repetition of such offence gives the Head of the Section the right to expel the offender in discretion. In every case where a member shall receive a letter or communication purporting to come from Master or Masters, and which directs the divulgation of its contents or a part thereof, the same before being divulged shall be communicated to H.P.B. directly, if the recipient is in Europe, to William Q. Judge, if in America, and to Col. Olcott, if in India, for transmission to the said H.P.B. For deception is easy, and, without great experience, members are not able to decide whether such a communication is genuine or not....

No member shall pretend to the possession of psychic powers that he has not, nor boast of those which he may have developed. Envy, jealousy, and vanity are insidious and powerful foes to progress, and it is known from long experience that, among beginners especially, the boasting of, or calling attention to, their psychic powers almost invariably causes the development of these faults and increases them when present....

No member of this Section shall belong to any other body, association, or organization for the purpose of mystic study or occult training (Masonry excepted), as this would interfere with their progress in the Eastern Esoteric Teachings....

It is not the individual or determined purpose of attaining oneself Nirvana, which is, after all, only an exalted and glorious selfishness, but the self-sacrificing pursuit of the best means to lead our neighbour on the right path, and cause as many of our fellow creatures as we possibly can to benefit by it, which constitutes the true Theosophist....

In consequence of the different rates of progress of members, it has been found necessary to form an inner circle of Esotericists, who are deemed to have progressed sufficiently to receive more advanced teaching than those of the outer circle, and who are accordingly pledged to secrecy even as regards other members of the E.S. as well as conforming to a stricter mode of life.

***

The Esoteric Section, its qualification 'of the T.S.' notwithstanding, does not represent the latter, and in future it will drop the additional words altogether. From the very beginning its second rule stated, that the 'Esoteric Section has no official or corporate connection with the Exoteric Society' (see Lucifer of October, 188[8]). Henceforth it will be called 'the Esoteric School of Theosophy'.

***

I telegraphed to wait three days for this proposed change and again that "new name is the same as the one of Butler." This means that the name "Esoteric School of Theosophy," is precisely the title adopted by the infamous Hiram Butler affair for their school in which they had and have pupils, and get and get money in it for the rot they give out. They are not out of existence, as Butler when hunted out of Boston went to California and there has more followers and carries on his trade in the same way. It seems to me that to adopt his name is the very worst possible fate that could come to the E.S. Besides I cannot see the necessity for any change of name. If it is from a desire to cut the E.S. off from the T.S. that will not accomplish the end, for the reason that you can never do so, as every one still will think it a part of the inside work of the T.S. as long as you are alive and stay in the Society. And why there should be any wish or desire to cut the E.S. off from the T.S., I cannot see, and as all members of the E.S. have first to be F.T.S. it cannot be done without a complete and unnecessary back down. For another reason also and that is, that you have distinctly shown over and over again that the object of the E.S. is to strengthen and support the T.S., and as a fact it has already done so and has been of the very greatest benefit to the Society. Why then should any unnecessary distrust be created by altering the name?...

I would like also to call attention to the mass of stuff in the way of pretty but useless decorations put on the matter which has just been gotten out on the press. It is a jumble of everything, from gods acting as mortals to assortments of snakes out of place, and used with other symbols with which they never had any unity or correspondence. Is it not, and has it not always been a grievous thing to mix the symbols? And are they not all mixed up on this new title page? There is the two pillared hall, and then a style of pillar that has nothing to do with that hall; and then snakes who never appeared in that hall by any chance for they belonged to another degree; then there is the winged globe which truly belongs to the two pillared hall but not in the form taken in your seal which is for another purpose, and represents a different thing; then there is the hindu symbol with the sanskrit letters in the centre -- this certainly has nothing to do with the two pillared hall; then, and least of all, there is on the top a whole line of snakes with balls on head across the top, and they were never used in a mere apprentice degree: other sorts of snakes and other objects have place there. In fact it is all mixed up, and, while very well drawn, has no place whatever in the E.S. at this time, judging from what I have learned. I make bold to give these views because I am sure you in person did not make these up for use, but that someone else has made them who has not a real acquaintance with the use and meaning of the symbols....

Referring again to the pictures. Look at the initial word and say if anyone ever heard of a god representing reincarnation dressed as one and, being osirified, has the right to the crown of both upper and lower Egypt? It does not represent silence at all -- it attempts to show reincarnation but fails of its object. My practical opinion is that for the present section of the E.S. the less there is of these ornaments and symbols the better and the more unmixed the effect on the members.

***

Georges Caminade (d'Anger), Paris, has resigned from the E.S., stating that he has burnt his papers. He has since openly joined Papus (Geraud [Gerard] Encausse), the editor of L'Initiation and La Voile d'Isis, who has been publicly expelled from the T.S. for foul slander and persistent injury to the Society and its members in France.

***

Knowing moreover, that accusations of plagiarism, want of method and inaccuracy, are now being made and will in the future be brought against her literary work, we make the following statement for the benefit of all Fellows of the Theosophical Society and for the information of others:

H.P. Blavatsky's writings, owing to her imperfect knowledge of English and literary methods, have been invariably revised, recopied or arranged in MS., and the proofs corrected, by the nearest "friends" available for the time being (a few of whom have occasionally supplied her with references, quotations, and advice). Many mistakes, omissions, inaccuracies, &c., have consequently crept into them.

These works, however, have been put forward purely with the intention of bringing certain ideas to the notice of the Western world, and with no pretension on her part to scholarship or literary finish.

In order to support these views, innumerable quotations and references had to be made (in many cases without the possibility of verification by her), and for these she has never claimed any originality or profound research whatever.

***

"Let not the Fruit of your Karma be your motive; for your Karma, good or bad, being one and the common property of all mankind, nothing good or bad can happen to you that is not shared by many others. Hence your motive, being selfish, can only generate a double effect, good and bad, and will either nullify your good action, or turn it to another man's profit.... There is no happiness for one who is ever thinking of self and forgetting other selves."

***

In the eyes of truth and nature, no one organ is more noble or ignoble than another. The ancients considered as the most holy, precisely those organs which we associate with feelings of shame and secrecy: for they are the creative centres corresponding to the Creative Forces of the Kosmos.

The Esotericists are therefore warned that unless they are prepared to take everything in the spirit of truth and nature, and forget the code of false propriety bred by hypocrisy and the shameful misuse of primeval functions, which were once considered divine -- they had better not study Esotericism.

"OM," says the Aryan Adept, the son of the Fifth Race, who with this syllable begins and ends his salutation to the human being, his conjuration of, or appeal to, non-human PRESENCES.

***

[S]ince a key-note is required to analyze and comprehend any combination of differentiations of sound, we must never lose sight of the Platonic method, which starts with one general view of all, and descends from the universal to the individual. This is the method adopted in Mathematics -- the only exact science that exists in our day.

Let us study Man, therefore; but if we separate him for one moment from the Universal Whole, or view him in isolation, from a single aspect, apart from the "Heavenly Man " -- the Universe symbolized by Adam Kadmon or his equivalents in every philosophy -- we shall either land in black magic or fail most ingloriously in our attempt.

Thus the mystic sentence, "Om Mani Padme Hum," when rightly understood, instead of being composed of the almost meaningless words, "O the Jewel in the Lotus," contains a reference to this indissoluble union between Man and the Universe, rendered in seven different ways and having the capability of seven different applications to as many planes of thought and action.

***

Let those, I say again, who feel themselves too much the children of our age to approach the many mysteries which have to be revealed, in a truly reverential spirit, even though references be made to such subjects and objects as are deemed improper and, to use the correct term, indecent, in our modern day -- let such abandon these teachings at once. For I shall have to use terms and refer, especially in the beginning, to the most secret organs and functions of the human body, the bare mention of which is certain to provoke either a feeling of disgust and shame or an irreverent laugh.

It is such feelings which have invariably led the generations of writers on symbology and religions, ever since the day of Kircher, to materialize every natural emblem and ideograph in their impure thought, and finally to sum up all religions, Christianity included, as phallic worship. It is quite true that ever since the days of Pythagoras and Plato the exoteric cults gradually began to deteriorate, until they debased the symbolism into the most shameful practices of sexual worship. Hence the horror and contempt with which every true Occultist regards the so-called "personal God" and the exoteric ritualistic worship of the Churches -- be they Heathen or Christian. But even in the days of Plato it was not so. It was the persecution of the true Hierophants and the final suppression of those mysteries, which alone purified man's thoughts, that led to Tantrika sexual worship and, through the forgetting of divine truth, to BLACK MAGIC whether conscious or otherwise.

***

The mathematical Point, called the "Cosmic Seed," the Monad of Leibnitz; which contains the whole Universe, as the acorn the oak. This is the first bubble on the surface of boundless homogeneous Substance, or Space, the bubble of differentiation in its incipient stage. It is the beginning of the Orphic or Brahma's Egg. It corresponds in Astrology and Astronomy to the Sun.

***

It has often been explained that neither the cosmic planes of substance nor even the human principles -- with the exception of the lowest material plane or world and the physical body, which, as has been said, are no "principles," -- can be located or thought of as being in Space and Time. As the former are seven in ONE, so are we seven in ONE -- that same Absolute Soul of the World, which is both matter and non-matter, spirit and non-spirit, being and non-being. Impress yourselves well with this idea, all those of you who would study the mysteries of SELF.

***

Meanwhile we have to recapitulate what has been said. (1) Each human being is an incarnation of his God, in other words, one with his "Father in Heaven," just as Jesus, an Initiate, is made to say. As many men on earth, so many Gods in Heaven; and yet these Gods are in reality ONE, for at the end of every period of activity, they are withdrawn, like the rays of the setting sun, into the Parent Luminary, the Non-Manifested Logos, which in its turn is merged into the One Absolute. Shall we call these "Fathers" of ours, whether individually or collectively, and under any circumstances, our personal God? Occultism answers, Never. All that an average man can know of his "Father" is what he knows of himself, through and within himself. The soul of his "Heavenly Father" is incarnated in him. This soul is himself, if he is successful in assimilating the divine individuality while in his physical, animal shell. As to the spirit thereof, as well expect to be heard by the Absolute. Our prayers and supplications are vain, unless to potential words we add potent acts, and make the aura which surrounds each one of us so pure and divine that the God within us may act outwardly, or, in other words, become as it were an extraneous Potency. Thus have Initiates, Saints, and very holy and pure men been enabled to help others as well as themselves in the hour of need, and produce what are foolishly called "miracles," each by the help and with the aid of the God within himself, which he alone has enabled to act on the outward plane.

(2) The word AUM or OM, which corresponds to the upper triangle, if pronounced by a very holy and pure man, will draw out, or awaken, not only the less exalted potencies residing in the planetary spaces and elements, but even his Higher Self, or the "Father" within him. Pronounced by an averagely good man, in the correct way, it will help to strengthen him morally, especially if between two "AUMS" he meditates intently upon the AUM within him, concentrating all his attention upon the ineffable glory. But woe to the man who pronounces it after the commission of some far-reaching sin: he will only thereby attract to his own impure photosphere invisible presences and forces which could not otherwise break through the divine envelope. All the members of the Esoteric School, if earnest in their endeavour to learn, are invited to pronounce the divine word before going to sleep and the first thing upon awakening. The right accent, however, should be first obtained from one of the officers of the E. S.

AUM is the original of Amen. Now, Amen is not a Hebrew term, but, like the word Halleluiah, was borrowed by the Jews and Greeks from the Chaldees. The latter word is often found repeated in certain magical inscriptions upon cups and urns among the Babylonian and Ninivean relics. Amen does not mean "so be it," or "verily," but signified in hoary antiquity almost the same as AUM. The Jewish Tanaim (Initiates) used it for the same reason as the Aryan Adepts use AUM, and with a like success, the numerical value of AMeN in Hebrew letters being 91, the same as the full value of YHVH, 26, and ADoNaY, 65, or 91. Both words mean the affirmation of the being, or existence, of the sexless "Lord" within us.

(3) Esoteric Science teaches that every sound in the visible world awakens its corresponding sound in the invisible realms, and arouses to action some force or other on the occult side of nature. Moreover, every sound corresponds to a colour and a number (a potency spiritual, psychic or physical) and to a sensation on some plane. All these find an echo in every one of the so-far developed elements, and even on the terrestrial plane, in the Lives that swarm in the terrene atmosphere, thus prompting them to action.

Thus a prayer, unless pronounced mentally and addressed to one's "Father" in the silence and solitude of one's "closet," must have more frequently disastrous than beneficial results, seeing that the masses are entirely ignorant of the potent effects which they thus produce. To produce good effects, the prayer must be uttered by "one who knows how to make himself heard in silence," when it is no longer a prayer, but becomes a command. Why is Jesus shown to have forbidden his hearers to go to the public synagogues? Surely every praying man was not a hypocrite and a liar, nor a Pharisee who loved to be seen praying by people! He had a motive, we must suppose: the same motive which prompts the experienced Occultist to prevent his pupils from going into crowded places now as then, from entering churches, seance rooms, etc, unless they arc in sympathy with the crowd....

He who carries out only those laws established by human minds, who lives that life which is prescribed by the code of mortals and their fallible legislation, chooses as his guiding star a beacon which shines on the ocean of Maya, or of temporary delusions, and lasts for but one incarnation. These laws are necessary for the life and welfare of physical man alone. He has chosen a pilot who directs him through the shoals of one existence, a master who parts with him, however, on the threshold of death. How much happier that man who, while strictly performing on the temporary objective plane the duties of daily life, carrying out each and every law of his country, and rendering, in short, to Caesar what is Caesar's, leads in reality a spiritual and permanent existence, a life with no breaks of continuity, no gaps, no interludes, not even during those periods which are the halting-places of the long pilgrimage of purely spiritual life. All the phenomena of the lower human mind disappear like the curtain of a proscenium, allowing him to live in the region beyond it, the plane of the noumenal, the one reality. If man by suppressing, if not destroying, his selfishness and personality, only succeeds in knowing himself as he is behind the veil of physical Maya, he will soon stand beyond all pain, all misery, and beyond all the wear and tear of change, which is the chief originator of pain. Such a man will be physically of matter, he will move surrounded by matter, and yet he will live beyond and outside it. His body will be subject to change, but he himself will be entirely without it, and will experience everlasting life even while in temporary bodies of short duration. All this may be achieved by the development of unselfish universal love of Humanity, and the suppression of personality, or selfishness, which is the cause of all sin, and consequently of all human sorrow.

***

ATMAN is no Number, and corresponds to no visible Planet, for it proceeds from the Spiritual Sun; nor does it bear any relation either to Sound, Colour, or the rest, for it includes them all.

***

For, let it be distinctly known, nothing of that which is printed broadcast, and available to every student in public libraries or museums, is really esoteric, but is either mixed with deliberate "blinds," or cannot be understood and studied with profit without a complete glossary of occult terms.

***

In Diagram II, as already stated therein, no notice need be taken of the numbers used in the left-hand column, as these refer only to the Hierarchies of the Colours and Sounds on the metaphorical plane, and are not the characteristic numbers of the human principles or of the planets.  The human principles elude enumeration, because each man differs from every other, just as no two blades of grass on the whole earth are absolutely-alike. Numbering is here a question of spiritual progress and the natural predominance of one principle over another.

***

But the correspondences given in our Instructions are purely esoteric. For this reason it follows that when the planets of the solar system are named or symbolized (as in Diagram II) it must not be supposed that the planetary bodies themselves are referred to, except as types on a purely physical plane of the septenary nature of the psychic and spiritual worlds. A material planet can correspond only to a material something, Thus when Mercury is said to correspond to the right eye it does not mean that the objective planet has any influence on the right optic organ, but that both stand rather as corresponding mystically through Buddhi.

***

... and the Soul, or rather the Spirit, which should not be confounded with Atma, the Super-Spirit ...

***

Now, Mercury is called Hermes, and Venus, Aphrodite, and thus their conjunction in man on the psycho-physical plane gives him the name of the Hermaphrodite, or Androgyne.  The absolutely Spiritual Man is, however, entirely disconnected from sex. The Spiritual Man corresponds directly with the higher "coloured circles," the Divine Prism which emanates from the One Infinite White Circle; while physical man emanates from the Sephiroth, which are the Voices or Sounds of Eastern philosophy.

***

As said in the Secret Doctrine, since the fourteenth century the Esoteric School has been divided into two departments, one for the inner Lanoos, or higher Chelas, the other for the outer circle, or lay Chelas. Mr. Sinnett was distinctly told in the letters he received from one of the Gurus that he could not be taught the real Esoteric Doctrine given out only to the pledged Disciples of the Inner Circle.

***

In Plate I, it will be seen that the principles numbered 3 and 2, viz: Linga Sarira and Prana, or Jiva, stand in the reverse order to that given in Diagram I. A moment's consideration will suffice to explain the apparent discrepancy between the exoteric enumeration, as printed in Plate I, and the esoteric order given in Diagram I. For in Diagram I, Linga Sarira is defined as the vehicle of Prana, or Jiva, the life principle, and as such must, on the esoteric plane, of necessity be inferior to Prana, not superior as the exoteric enumeration in Plate I would suggest.

The coloured part of the Plate is profoundly esoteric, but the old and more familiar exoteric enumeration has been used to force upon the attention of the student the fact that the principles do not stand one above the other, and thus cannot be taken in numerical sequence, their order depending upon the superiority and predominance of one or another principle, and therefore differing in every man.

***

[E]soteric philosophy, which concerns itself preeminently with the essence of things, accepts only such symbols as cover the whole ground, i.e., such symbols as yield a spiritual as well as a psychic and physical meaning....Esoteric Science is, above all, the knowledge of our relations with and in divine magic, inseparableness from our divine Selves -- the latter meaning something else besides our own higher spirit.

***

[I]n order to throw light on that which has hitherto been full of darkness, it will suffice to point to a certain key in them. Thus the Gnosis, both pre-Christian and post-Christian, will serve our purpose admirably.

There are millions of Christians who know the name of Simon Magus, and the little that is told about him in the Acts; but very few who have even heard of the many motley, fantastic and contradictory details which tradition records about his life. The story of his claims and his death is to be found only in the prejudiced, half-fantastic records about him in the works of the Church Fathers, such as Irenaeus, Epiphanius and St. Justin, and especially in the anonymous Philosophumena. Yet he is an historical character, and the appellation of "Magus" was given to him and was accepted by all his contemporaries, including the heads of the Christian Church, as a qualification indicating the miraculous powers he possessed, and irrespective of whether he was regarded as a white (divine) or a black (infernal) magician. In this respect, opinion has always been made subservient to the Gentile or Christian proclivities of the chronicler.

It is in his system and in that of Menander, his pupil and successor, that we find what the term "magic" meant for Initiates in those days.

Simon, as all the other Gnostics, taught that our world was created by the lower angels, whom he called AEons. He mentions only three degrees of such, because it was and is useless, as explained in the Secret Doctrine, to teach anything about the four higher ones, and he therefore begins at the plane of globes A and G. His system is as near to occult truth as any, so that we may examine it, as well as his own and Menander's claims about "magic," to find out what they meant by the term. Now, for Simon, the summit of all manifested creation was Fire. It is, with him as with us, the Universal Principle, the Infinite Potency, born from the concealed Potentiality. This Fire was the primeval cause of the manifested world of being, and was dual, having a manifested and a concealed or secret side. "The secret side of the Fire is concealed in its evident (or objective) side, and the objective is produced from the secret side," he writes, which amounts to saying that the visible is ever present in the invisible, and the invisible in the visible. This was but a new form of stating Plato's idea of the Intelligible (Noeton) and the Sensible (Aistheton), and Aristotle's teaching on the Potency (Dunamis) and the Act (Energeia). For Simon, all that can be thought of, all that can be acted upon, was perfect intelligence. Fire contained all. And thus all the parts of that Fire, being endowed with intelligence and reason, are susceptible of development by extension and emanation. This is our teaching of the Manifested Logos and these parts in their primordial emanation are our Dhyan Chohans, the "Sons of Flame and Fire," or higher AEons. This "Fire" is the symbol of the active and living side of divine Nature. Behind it lay "infinite Potentiality in Potentiality," which Simon named "that which has stood, stands and will stand," or permanent Stability and personified Immutability.

From the Potency of Thought, Divine Ideation thus passed to Action. Hence the series of primordial emanations through Thought begetting the Act, the objective side of Fire being the Mother, the secret side of it being the Father. Simon called these emanations Syzgyies (a united pair, or couple), for they emanated two-by-two, one as an active, and the other as a passive AEon. Three couples thus emanated (or six in all, the Fire being the seventh), to which Simon gave the following names: "Mind and Thought, Voice and Name, Reason and Reflection," the first in each pair being male, the last female. From these primordial six emanated the six AEons of the Middle World. Let us see what Simon himself says: "Each of these six primitive beings contained the entire infinite Potency [of its parent]; but it was there only in Potency, and not in Act. That Potency had to be called forth (or conformed) through an image in order that it should manifest in all its essence, virtue, grandeur and effects; for only then could the emanated Potency become similar to its parent, the eternal and infinite Potency. If, on the contrary, it remained simply potentially in the six Potencies and failed to be conformed through an image, then the Potency would not pass into action, but would get lost"; in clearer terms, it would become atrophied, as the modern expression goes.

Now, what do these words mean if not that to be equal in all things to the Infinite Potency the AEons had to imitate it in its action, and become themselves, in their turn, emanative principles, as was their parent, giving life to new beings, and becoming Potencies in actu themselves? To produce emanations, or to have acquired the gift of Kriyasakti, is the direct result of that power, an effect which depends on our own action. That power, then, is inherent in man, as it is in the primordial AEons and even in the secondary emanations, by the very fact of their and our descent from the One Primordial Principle, the Infinite Power, or Potency. Thus we find in the system of Simon Magus that the first six AEons, synthesized by the seventh, the Parent Potency, passed into Act, and emanated, in their turn, six secondary AEons, which were each synthesized by their respective Parent. In the Philosophumena we read that Simon compared the AEons to the "Tree of Life." '"It is written,' said Simon in the Revelation,  that there are two ramifications of the universal AEons, having neither beginning nor end, issued both from the same Root, the invisible and incomprehensible Potentiality, Sige (Silence). One of these [series of AEons] appears from above. This is the Great Potency, Universal Mind [or Divine Ideation, the Mahat of the Hindus]; it orders all things and is male. The other is from below, for it is the Great [manifested] Thought, the female AEon, generating all things. These [two kinds of AEons] corresponding with each other, have conjunction and manifest the middle distance [the intermediate sphere, or plane], the incomprehensible Air which has neither beginning nor end'." This female "Air" is our Ether, or the Kabalistic Astral Light. It is, then, the Second World of Simon, born of FIRE, the principle of everything. We call it the ONE LIFE, the Intelligent, Divine Flame, omnipresent and infinite. In Simon's system, this Second World was ruled by a Being, or Potency, both male and female, or active and passive, good and bad. This Parent-Being, like the primordial infinite Potency, is also called "that which has stood, stands and will stand," so long as the manifested Kosmos shall last. When it emanated in actu and became like unto its own Parent, it was not dual or androgyne. It is the Thought that emanated from it (Sige) which became as itself (the Parent), having become like unto its image (or antetype); the second had now become in its turn the first (on its own plane or sphere). As Simon has it:

"It [the Parent or Father] was one. For having it [the Thought] in itself, it was alone. It was not, however, first, though it was preexisting; but manifesting itself to itself from itself, it became the second (or dual). Nor was it called Father before it [the Thought] gave it that name. As, therefore, itself developing itself by itself, manifested to itself its own Thought, so also the Thought being manifested, did not act, but seeing the Father, hid it in itself, that is, (hid) that Potency (in itself). And the Potency (Dunamis, viz: Nous) and Thought (Epinoia) are male- female. Whence they correspond with one another -- for Potency in no way differs from Thought -- being one. So from the things above is found Potency, and from those below, Thought. It comes to pass, therefore, that that which is manifested from them, although being one, yet is found to be twofold, the androgyne having the female in itself. So is Mind in Thought, things inseparable from each other, which though being one are yet found dual."

"He (Simon) calls the first Syzygy of the six Potencies and of the seventh, which is with it, Nous and Epinoia, Heaven and Earth: the male looks down from on high and takes thought for his Syzygy (or spouse), for the Earth below receives those intellectual fruits which are brought down from Heaven and are cognate to the Earth."

Simon's Third World with its third series of six AEons and the seventh, the Parent, is emanated in the same way. It is this same note which runs through every Gnostic system -- gradual development downward into matter by similitude; and it is a law which is to be traced down to primordial Occultism, or Magic. With the Gnostics, as with us, this seventh Potency, synthesizing all, is the Spirit brooding over the dark waters of undifferentiated Space, Narayana, or Vishnu, in India; the Holy Ghost in Christianity. But while in the latter the conception is conditioned and dwarfed by limitations necessitating faith and grace, Eastern Philosophy shows it pervading every atom, conscious or unconscious. Irenaeus supplements the information on the further development of these six AEons. We learn from him that Thought, having separated itself from its Parent, and knowing through its identity of Essence with the latter what it had to know, proceeded on the second or intermediate plane, or rather World (each of such Worlds consisting of two planes, the superior and inferior, male and female, the latter assuming finally both Potencies and becoming androgyne), to create inferior Hierarchies, Angels and Powers, Dominions and Hosts, of every description, which in their turn created, or rather emanated out of their own Essence, our world with its men and beings, over which they watch.

It thus follows that every rational being -- called Man on Earth -- is of the same essence and possesses potentially all the attributes of the higher AEons, the primordial seven. It is for him to develop, "with the image before him of the highest," by imitation in actu, the Potency with which the highest of his Parents, or Fathers, is endowed. Here we may again quote with advantage from the Philosophumena:

"So then, according to Simon, this blissful and imperishable (principle) is concealed in everything in potency, not in act. This is 'that which has stood, stands and will stand,' viz: that which has stood above in ingenerable Potency; that which stands below in the stream of the waters generated in an image; that which will stand above, beside the blissful Infinite Potency, if it makes itself like unto this image. For three, he says, are they that stand, and without these three AEons of stability, there is no adornment of the generable which, according to them [the Simonians], is borne on the water, and being moulded according to the similitude is a perfect and celestial (AEon), in no manner of thinking inferior to the ingenerable Potency. Thus they say: 'I and thou [are] one; before me [wast] thou; that which is after thee [is] I.' This, he says, is the one Potency, divided into above and below, generating itself, nourishing itself, seeking itself, finding itself; its own mother, father, brother, spouse, daughter and son, one, for it is the Root of all."

Thus of this triple AEon, we learn the first exists as "that which has stood, stands and will stand," or the uncreate Power, Atman; the second is generated in the dark waters of Space (Chaos, or undifferentiated Substance, our Buddhi), from or through the image of the former reflected in those waters, the image of him, or It, which moves on them; the third World (or, in man, Manas) will be endowed with every power of that eternal and omnipresent Image if it but assimilates it to itself. For, "all that is eternal, pure and incorruptible is concealed in everything that is," if only potentially, not actually. And "everything is that image, provided the lower image (man) ascends to that highest Source and Root in Spirit and Thought." Matter as Substance is eternal and has never been created. Therefore Simon Magus, with all the great Gnostic teachers and Eastern philosophers, never speaks of its beginning. "Eternal Matter" receives its various forms in the lower AEon from the Creative Angels, or Builders, as we call them. Why, then, should not Man, the direct heir of the highest AEon, do the same, by the potency of his thought, which is born from Spirit? This is Kriyasakti, the power of producing forms on the objective plane through the potency of Ideation and Will, from invisible, indestructible matter.

Truly says Jeremiah, quoting the "Word of the Lord"; "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee"; for Jeremiah stands here for Man when he was yet an AEon, or Divine Man, both with Simon Magus and Eastern Philosophy. The first three chapters of Genesis are as occult as what is given in Instruction No. I. For the terrestrial Paradise is the Womb, says Simon,  Eden the region surrounding it. The river which went out of Eden to water the garden is the Umbilical Cord; this cord is divided into four Heads, the streams that flowed out of it, the four canals which serve to carry nutrition to the Foetus, i.e., the two arteries and the two veins which are the channels for the blood and convey the breathing air, the unborn child, according to Simon, being entirely enveloped by the Amnion, fed through the Umbilical Cord and given vital air through the Aorta.

***

As many Esotericists have written and almost complained to me that they could find no practical, clear application of certain diagrams appended to the first two Nos. of Instructions, and others have spoken of their abstruseness, a short explanation is necessary.

The reason of this difficulty, in most cases, has been that the point of view taken was erroneous; the purely abstract and metaphysical was mistaken for, and confused with, the concrete and the physical. Let us take for example the diagrams on page 48 of Instruction II, and say that these are entirely macrocosmic and ideal. It must be remembered that the study of Occultism proceeds from Universals to Particulars, and not the reverse, as accepted by Science. As Plato was an Initiate, he very naturally used the former method, while Aristotle, having never been initiated, scoffed at his master, and, elaborating a system of his own, left it as an heirloom to be adopted and improved by Bacon. Of a truth the aphorism of the Hermetic Wisdom, "As above, so below," applies to all esoteric instruction; but we must begin with the above; we must learn the formula before we can sum the series.

The Diagrams and Plates are intended to familiarize students with the leading ideas of occult correspondences only, the very genius of metaphysical, or macrocosmic and spiritual Occultism, forbidding the use of figures or even symbols further than as temporary aids. Once define an idea in words, and it loses its reality; once figure a metaphysical idea, and you materialize its spirit. Figures must be used only as ladders to scale the battlements, ladders to be disregarded once the foot is set upon the rampart.

Let the Esotericists, therefore, be very careful to spiritualize the Instructions and avoid materializing them; let them always try to find the highest meaning possible, confident that in proportion as they approach the material and visible in their speculations on the Instructions, so far are they from the right understanding of them. This is especially the case with these first Instructions and Diagrams, for as in all true arts, so in Occultism, we must first learn the theory before we are taught the practice.

***

Enough has been said to show that while for the Orientalists and profane masses the sentence, "Om Mani Padme Hum," means simply "O, the Jewel in the Lotus," esoterically it signifies "O, my God within me." Yes; there is a God in each human being, for man was and will re-become God.

***

Our principles are the Seven-Stringed Lyre of Apollo, truly. In this our age, when oblivion has shrouded ancient knowledge, men's faculties are no better than the loose strings of the violin to the Laplander. But the Occultist who knows how to tighten them and tune his violin in harmony with the vibrations of colour and sound, will extract divine harmony from them. The combination of these powers and the attuning of the Microcosm and the Macrocosm will give the geometrical equivalent of the invocation "Om Mani Padme Hum."

***

The real occult names of these Hierarchies cannot now be given.

***

The student must, however, remember that the colours which we see with our physical eyes are not the true colours of occult nature, but are merely the effects produced on the mechanism of our physical organs by certain rates of vibration. For instance, Clerk Maxwell has demonstrated that the retinal effects of any colour may be imitated by properly combining three other colours. It follows, therefore, that our retina has only three distinct colour sensations, and we therefore do not perceive the seven colours which really exist, but only their "imitiations," so to speak, in our physical organism. Thus, for instance, the Orange-Red of the first "Triangle" is not a combination of Orange and Red, but the true "spiritual" Red, if the term may be allowed, while the Red (blood-red) of the spectrum is the colour of Kama, animal desire, and is inseparable from the material plane.

***

Esotericism, pure and simple, speaks of no personal God; therefore are we considered as Atheists. But, in reality, Occult Philosophy, as a whole, is based absolutely on the ubiquitous presence of God, the Absolute Deity; and if IT itself is not speculated upon, as being too sacred and yet incomprehensible as a Unit to the finite intellect, yet the entire philosophy is based upon Its divine Powers as being the source of all that breathes and lives and has its existence.

***

Let the dreadful possibility of losing one’s “soul,” not a rare occurrence, and vouched for, moreover, by the experience of a long series of seers and clairvoyant teachers, become known to all.

***

“Up and onward for evermore!”

***

The truths revealed to man by the "Planetary Spirits" (the highest Kumaras, those who incarnate no longer in the universe during this Mahamanvantara), who appear on earth as Avatars only at the beginning of every new human race, and at the junctions or close of the two ends of the small and great cycle -- in time, as man became more animalized, were made to fade away from his memory. Yet, though these Teachers remain with man no longer than the time required to impress upon the plastic minds of child-humanity the eternal verities they teach, their spirit remains vivid though latent in mankind. And the full knowledge of the primitive revelation has remained always with a few Elect, and has been transmitted from that time up to the present, from one generation of Adepts to another. As the Teachers say in the Occult Primer: "This is done so as to ensure them (the eternal truths) from being utterly lost or forgotten in ages hereafter by the forthcoming generations." .... The mission of the Planetary Spirit is but to strike the key-note of Truth: Once he has directed the vibration of the latter to run its course uninterruptedly along the concatenation of the race to the end of the cycle, he disappears from our earth until the following Planetary Manvantara. The mission of any teacher of esoteric truths, whether he stands at the top or the foot of the ladder of knowledge, is precisely the same: as above, so below. I have only orders to strike the key-note of the various esoteric truths among the learners as a body. Those units among you who will have raised themselves on the "Path" over their fellow-students, in their esoteric sphere, will, as the "Elect" spoken of did and do in the PARENT BROTHERHOODS, receive the last explanatory details and the ultimate key to what they learn. No one, however, can hope to gain this privilege before the MASTERS (not my humble self) find him or her worthy.

***
In the Book of Rules I advise students to get certain works, as I shall have to refer to and quote from them repeatedly. I reiterate the advice and ask them to turn to the Theosophist of November, 1887. On page 98 they will find the beginning of an excellent article by Mr. Rama Prasad on "Nature's Finer Forces." [The references to "Nature's Finer Forces" which follow, have respect to the eight articles which appeared in the pages of the Theosophist and not to the fifteen essays and the translation of a chapter of the Śaivâgama, which are contained in the book called Nature’s Finer Forces. The Śaivâgama in its details is purely Tântric, and nothing but harm can result from any practical following of its precepts. I would most strongly dissuade a member of the E.S. from attempting any of these Hatha Yoga practices, for he will either ruin himself entirely, or throw himself so far back that it will be almost impossible to regain the lost ground in this incarnation. The translation referred to has been considerably expurgated, and even now is hardly fit for publication. It recommends Black Magic of the worst kind, and is the very antipodes of spiritual Râja-Yoga. Beware, I say.] The value of this work is not so much in its literary merit, though it gained its author the gold medal of the Theosophist, -- as in its exposition of tenets hitherto concealed in a rare and ancient Sanskrit work on Occultism. But Mr. Rama Prasad is not an Occultist, only an excellent Sanskrit scholar, a university graduate and a man of remarkable intelligence. His Essays are almost entirely based on Tantra works, which, if read indiscriminately by a tyro in Occultism, will lead to the practice of most unmitigated Black Magic. Now, since the difference of primary importance between Black and White Magic is the object with which it is practised, and that of secondary importance, the nature of the agents used for the production of phenomenal results, the line of demarcation between the two is very, very thin. The danger is lessened only by the fact that every occult book, so called, is occult only in a certain sense; that is, the text is occult merely by reason of its blinds. The symbolism has to be thoroughly understood before the reader can get at the correct sense of the teaching. Moreover, it is never complete, its several portions each being under a different title and each containing a portion of some other work; so that without a key to these no such work divulges the whole truth. Even the famous Sivagama, on which "Nature's Finer Forces" is based, "is nowhere to be found in complete form," as the author tells us. Thus, like all others, it treats of only five Tatwas instead of the seven in esoteric teachings....

Knowing that some of the members of the E.S. try to follow a system of Yoga in their own fashion, guided only by the rare hints they find in Theosophical books and magazines, which must naturally be incomplete, I chose one of the best expositions upon ancient occult works, "Nature's Finer Forces," in order to point out how very easily one can be misled by their blinds.

The author seems to have been himself deceived. The Tantras read esoterically are as full of wisdom as the noblest occult works. Studied without a guide and applied to practice, they may lead to the production of various phenomenal results, on the moral and physiological planes. But let anyone accept their dead-letter rules and practices, let him try with some selfish motive in view to carry out the rites prescribed therein, and he is lost. Followed with pure heart and unselfish devotion merely for the sake of experiment, either no results will follow, or such as can only throw back the performer. But woe to the selfish man who seeks to develop occult powers only to attain earthly benefits or revenge, or to satisfy his ambition; the separation of the Higher from the Lower Principles and the severing of Buddhi-Manas from the Tantrist's Personality will speedily follow, the terrible Karmic results of the dabbler in Magic.

***

As the lower man is the combined product of two aspects: physically, of his Astral Form, and psycho-physiologically of Kama Manas, he is not looked upon even as an aspect, but all an illusion.

***

There are several reasons why only five Tatwas are given in the Hindu systems. One of these I have already mentioned; another is that, owing to our having reached only the Fifth Race and being (so far as Science is able to ascertain) endowed with only five senses, the two remaining senses that are still latent in man can have their existence proven only on phenomenal evidence, which to the materialist is no evidence at all. The five physical senses are made to correspond with the five lower Tatwas, the two yet undeveloped senses in man, and the two forces, or Tatwas, forgotten by Brahmans and still unrecognized by Science, being so subjective, and the highest of them so sacred, that they can only be recognized by, and known through, the highest Occult Sciences.

***

 Ether, whatever modern Science makes of it, is differentiated Substance; Akasa, having no attributes save one -- SOUND, of which it is the substratum, -- is no substance even exoterically and in the minds of some Orientalists, but rather, Chaos, or the Great Spatial Void. Esoterically, Akasa alone is Divine Space, and becomes Ether only on the lowest and last plane, or our visible universe and earth. In this case the blind is in the word "attribute," which is said to be Sound. But Sound is no attribute of Akasa, but its primary correlation, its primordial manifestation, the Logos, or Divine Ideation made WORD, and that "Word" made "Flesh." Sound may be considered an "attribute" of Akasa only on the condition of anthropomorphizing the latter. It is not a characteristic of it, though it is certainly as innate in it as the idea "I am I" is innate in our thought.

***

Now, the science of Hatha Yoga rests upon the "suppression of breath," or Pranayama; to which exercise our Masters, are unanimously opposed. For what is Pranayama? Literally translated, it means the "death of (vital) breath." Prana, as said, is not Jiva, the eternal fount of life immortal: nor is it connected in any way with Pranava, as some think, for Pranava is a synonym of AUM in a mystic sense. As much as has ever been taught publicly and clearly about it is to be found in "Nature's Finer Forces." If such directions, however, are followed, they can only lead to black magic and mediumship. Several impatient Chelas, whom we knew personally in India, went in for the practice of Hatha Yoga, notwithstanding our warnings. Of these, two developed consumption, of which one died; others became almost idiotic; another committed suicide; and one developed into a regular Tantrika, a black magician, but his career, fortunately for himself, was cut short by death.

The science of the five breaths, the moist, the fiery, the airy, etc., etc., has a twofold significance and two applications. The Tantrikas take it literally, as relating to the regulation of the vital, lung breath, whereas the ancient Raja Yogis understood it as referring to the mental or "will" breath, which alone leads to the highest clairvoyant powers, to the function of the Third Eye and the acquisition of the true Raja Yoga occult powers. The difference between the two is enormous. The former, as shown, use the five lower Tatwas; the latter begin by using the three higher alone, for mental and will development, and the rest only when they have completely mastered the three; hence, they use only one (Akasa Tatwa) out of the Tantric five. As well said in the above stated work, "Tatwas are the modifications of Swara." Now, the Swara is the root of all sound, the substratum of the Pythagorean music of the spheres, Swara being that which is beyond spirit, in the modern acceptation of the word, the spirit within spirit, or as very properly translated, the "current of the life-wave," the emanation of the One Life. The Great Breath spoken of in volume I of the Secret Doctrine is ATMA, the etymology of which is "eternal motion." Now while the ascetic-chela of our school, for his mental development, follows carefully the process of the evolution of the Universe, that is, proceeds from universals to particulars, the Hatha Yogi reverses the conditions and begins by sitting for the suppression of his (vital) breath. And if, as Hindu philosophy teaches, at the beginning of cosmic evolution, "Swara threw itself into the form of Akasa," and thence successively into the forms of Vayu (air), Agni (fire), Apas (water), and Prithivi (solid matter), then it stands to reason that we have to begin by the higher supersensuous Tatwas. The Raja Yogi does not descend on the planes of substance beyond Sukshma (subtle matter); while the Hatha Yogi develops and uses his powers only on the material plane. Some Tantrikas locate the three Nadis: Sushumna, Ida and Pingala, in the medulla oblongata, the central line of which they call Sushumna, and the right and left divisions, Pingala and Ida, and also in the heart, to the divisions of which they apply the same names. The Trans-Himalayan school of the ancient Indian Raja Yogis, with which the modern Yogis of India have little to do, locates Sushumna, the chief seat of these three Nadis, in the central tube of the spinal cord, and Ida and Pingala on its left and right sides. Sushumna is the Brahmadanda. It is that canal (of the spinal cord), of the use of which physiology knows no more than it does of the spleen and the pineal gland. Ida and Pingala are simply the sharps and flats of that Fa of human nature, the key-note and the middle key in the scale of the septenary harmony of the principles, which, when struck in a proper way, awakens the sentries on either side, the spiritual Manas and the physical Kama, and subdues the lower through the higher. But this effect has to be produced by the exercise of willpower, not through the scientific or trained suppression of the breath. Take a transverse section of the spinal region, and you will find sections across three columns, one of which columns transmits the volitional orders, and a second a life current of Jiva -- not of Prana, which animates the body of man -- during what is called Samadhi and like states.

He who has studied both systems, the Hatha and Raja Yoga, finds an enormous difference between the two: one is purely psycho-physiological, the other purely psycho-spiritual. The Tantrists do not seem to go higher than the six visible and known plexuses, with each of which they connect the Tatwas; and the great stress they lay on the chief of these, the Muladhara Chakra (the sacral plexus), shows the material and selfish bent of their efforts towards the acquisition of powers. Their five Breaths and five Tatwas are chiefly concerned with the prostatic, epigastric, cardiac and laryngeal plexuses. Almost ignoring the Ajna, they are positively ignorant of the synthesizing pharyngeal plexus. But with the followers of the old school it is different. We begin with the mastery of that organ which is situated at the base of the brain, in the pharynx, and called by Western anatomists the Pituitary Body. In the series of the objective cranial organs, corresponding to the subjective Tatwic principles, it stands to the Third Eye (Pineal Gland) as Manas stands to Buddhi: the arousing and awakening of the Third Eye must be performed by that vascular organ, that insignificant little body, of which, once again, physiology knows nothing at all. The one is the Energizer of WILL, the other that of Clairvoyant Perception....

When a man is in his normal condition, an Adept can see the golden Aura pulsating in both the centres, like the pulsation of the heart, which never ceases throughout life. This motion, however, under the abnormal condition of effort to develop clairvoyant faculties, becomes intensified and the Aura takes on a stronger vibratory or swinging action. The arc of the pulsation of the Pituitary Body mounts upward, more and more, until, just as when the electric current strikes some solid object, the current finally strikes the Pineal Gland, and the dormant organ is awakened and set all glowing with the pure Auric Fire. This is the psycho-physiological illustration of two organs on the physical plane, which are, respectively, the concrete symbols of the metaphysical concepts called Manas and Buddhi. The latter, in order to become conscious on this plane, needs the more differentiated fire of Manas; but once the sixth sense has awakened the seventh, the light which radiates from this seventh sense illumines the fields of infinitude. For a brief space of time man becomes omniscient; the Past and the Future, Space and Time, disappear and become for him the Present. If an Adept, he will store the knowledge he thus gains, in his physical memory and nothing, save the crime of indulging in Black Magic, can obliterate the remembrance of it. If only a Chela, portions alone of the whole truth will impress themselves on his memory, and he will have to repeat the process for years, never allowing one speck of impurity to stain him mentally or physically, before he becomes a fully initiated Adept.

***

the only eternal and living reality is that which the Hindus call Paramatma and Parabrahma. This is the one ever-existing Root Essence, immutable, and unknowable to our physical senses, but manifest and clearly perceptible to our spiritual natures. Once imbued with that basic idea and the further conception that if it is omnipresent, universal, and eternal, like abstract Space itself, we must have emanated from it and must, some day, return into it, and all the rest becomes easy.

If so, then it stands to reason that life and death, good and evil, past and future, are all empty words, or, at best, figures of speech. If the objective universe itself is but a passing illusion on account of its beginning and finitude, then both life and death must also be aspects and illusions. They are changes of state, in fact, and no more. Real life is in the spiritual consciousness of that life, in a conscious existence in Spirit, not Matter; and real death is the limited perception of life, the impossibility of sensing conscious or even individual existence outside of form, or, at least, of some form of matter. Those who sincerely reject the possibility of conscious life divorced from matter and brain-substance, are dead units. The words of Paul, an Initiate, become comprehensible. "Ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God," which is to say: Ye are personally dead matter, unconscious of its own spiritual essence, and your real life is hid with your divine Ego (Christos) in, or merged with, God (Atman); now has it departed from you, ye soulless people. Speaking on esoteric lines, every irrevocably materialistic person is a dead MAN, a living automaton, in spite of his being endowed with great brain power. Listen to what Aryasanga says, stating the same fact:

"That which is neither Spirit nor Matter, neither Light nor Darkness, but is verily the container and root of these, that thou art. The Root projects at every Dawn its shadow on ITSELF, and that shadow thou callest Light and Life, O, poor dead Form. (This) Life-Light streameth downward through the stairway of the seven worlds, the stairs of which each step becomes denser and darker. It is of this seven-times-seven scale that thou art the faithful climber and mirror, O, little man! Thou art this, but thou knowest it not."

***

Now, it is in the power of the human Ego to chase away the shadows, or sins, and multiply the brightnesses, or good deeds, which make these impressions, and thus, through Antaskarana, ensure its own permanent connection, and its final reunion with the divine Ego. Remember that the latter cannot take place while there remains a single taint of the terrestrial, or of matter, in the purity of that light. On the other hand, the connection cannot be entirely ruptured, and final reunion prevented, so long as there remains one spiritual deed, or potentiality, to serve as a thread of union; but the moment this last spark is extinguished, and the last potentiality exhausted, then comes the severance. In an Eastern parable the divine Ego is likened to the Master who sends out his labourers to till the ground and to gather in the harvest, and who is content to keep the field so long as it can yield even the smallest return. But when the ground becomes absolutely sterile, not only is it abandoned, but the labourer also (the lower Manas) perishes.

***

[E]arth is Avitchi, and the worst Avitchi possible.

***

There is, however, still hope for a person who has lost his higher Soul through his vices, while he is yet in the body. He may be still redeemed and made to turn on his material nature. For either an intense feeling of repentance, or one single earnest appeal to the Ego that has fled, or best of all, an active effort to amend one's ways, may bring the Higher Ego back again. The thread of connection is not altogether broken, though the Ego is now beyond forcible reach, for "Antaskarana is destroyed," and the personal Entity has one foot already in Myalba; yet it is not entirely beyond hearing a strong spiritual appeal. There is another statement made in Isis Unveiled (loc. cit.) on this subject. It is said that this terrible death may be sometimes avoided by the knowledge of the mysterious NAME, the "WORD." What this "WORD," which is not a "Word " but a Sound, is, you all know. Its potency lies in the rhythm or the accent. This means simply that even a bad person may, by the study of the Sacred Science, be redeemed and stopped on the path of destruction. But unless he is in thorough union with his Higher Ego, he may repeat it, parrot-like, ten thousand times a day, and the "Word" will not help him. On the contrary, if not entirely at one with his higher Triad, it may produce quite the reverse of a beneficent effect, the Brothers of the Shadow using it very often for malicious objects; in which case it awakens and stirs up naught but the evil, material elements of nature. But if one's nature is good, and sincerely strives toward the HIGHER SELF, which is that AUM, through one's Higher Ego, which is its third letter, and Buddhi the second, there is no attack of the Dragon Apophis which it will not repel.

***

The Earth, or earth-life rather, is the only Avitchi (Hell) that exists for the men of our humanity on this globe. Avitchi is a state, not a locality, a counterpart of Devachan. Such a state follows the Soul wherever it goes, whether into Kama Loka, as a semi-conscious spook, or into a human body, when reborn to suffer Avitchi. Our philosophy recognizes no other Hell.

***

Now, letters, as vocal sounds, cannot fail to correspond with musical notes, and therefore with numbers and colours; hence also with Forces and Tatwas. He who remembers that the universe is built up from the Tatwas will readily understand something of the power that may be exercised by vocal sounds. Every letter in the alphabet, whether divided into three, four, or seven septenaries, or forty-nine letters, has its own colour, or shade of colour. He who has learnt the colours of the alphabetical letters, and the corresponding numbers of the seven, and the forty-nine colours and shades on the scale of planes and forces, and knows their respective order in the seven planes, will easily master the art of bringing them into affinity or interplay. But here a difficulty arises. The Senzar and Sanskrit alphabets, and other occult tongues, besides other potencies, have a number, colour, and distinct syllable for every letter, and so had also the old Mosaic Hebrew. But how many of the E.S. know any of these tongues? When the time comes, therefore, it must suffice to teach the students the numbers and colours attached to the Latin letters only (N. B. as pronounced in Latin, not in Anglo-Saxon, Scotch, or Irish). This, however, would be at present, premature.

The colour and number of not only the planets but also the zodiacal constellations corresponding to every letter of the alphabet, are necessary to make any special syllable, and even letter, operative. Therefore if a student would make Buddhi operative, for instance, he would have to intone the first words of the Mantra on the note mi. But he would have still further to accentuate the mi, and produce mentally the yellow colour corresponding to this sound and note, on every letter M in "Om mani padme hum"; this, not because the note bears the same name in the vernacular, Sanskrit, or even the Senzar, for it does not -- but because the letter M follows the first letter, and is in this sacred formula also the seventh and the fourth. As Buddhi it is second: as Buddhi-Manas it is the second and third combined.

***

To the five senses at present the property of mankind, two more on this globe are to be added. The sixth sense is the psychic sense of colour. The seventh is that of spiritual sound.

***

Psychic vision, however, is not to be desired, since psyche is earthly & evil.... A psychic's vision is that of one coming, as it were, into a lighted room, & seeing everything there by artificial light. When the light is extinguished, vision is lost. Spiritual vision sees by the light within, "the light hidden beneath the bushel" of the body, by which we can see clearly & independently of all outside. The psychic seeing by an external light, the vision is coloured by the nature of that light.

***

10. Why is the violet, the colour of the Linga Sarira, placed at the apex of the , whom the Macrocosm is figured as , thus throwing the yellow -- Budhi -- into the lower quaternary?

(Ans.) It is wrong to speak of the "lower quaternary" in the Macrocosm. It is the Tetraktys, the highest, the most sacred of all symbols. There comes a moment when, in the highest meditation, the Lower Manas is withdrawn into the Triad, which thus becomes the Quaternary, the Tetraktys of Pythagoras, leaving what are the Quaternary as the Lower Triad, which is then reversed. The triad is reflected in the Lower Manas. The Higher Manas can not reflect itself, but when the Green passes upwards it becomes a mirror for the Higher; it is then no more green, having passed from its associations. The psyche then becomes spiritual, the Ternary is reflected in the fourth, & the Tetraktys is formed. So long as you are not dead, there must be something to reflect the higher Triad; for there must be something to bring back to the waking consciousness the experiences passed through on the higher plane. The lower manas is as a tablet which records the things seen in trance.

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Reason is a thing which wavers between right & wrong; but Intelligence (Intuition) is higher, it is the clear vision. To get rid of Kama Rupa, we must crush all our material instincts ("crush out matter"). "The flesh" is a thing of habit, it will repeat mechanically a good impulse as well as a bad. It is not the flesh which is always the tempter, in nine cases out of ten it is the Lower Manas which, by its images, brings the flesh into temptation.

***

The Dhyan Chohans are passionless, pure, & mindless; they have no struggle, no passions to crush.

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The Great "Why." The reason of all evolution is the gaining of experience. The Dhyan Chohans are made to pass through the "schools of life": -- "God goes to school."

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Form: Form was on different planes, & the forms of one plane might be formless to dwellers on another. The Kosmocratores build on planes in the Divine Mind, visible to them, though not to us. The principle of limitation -- principium individuationis -- is Form; this principle is Divine Law manifested in Kosmic matter, which in its essence is limitless. The A.E. is the limit of man, as Hiranyagarbha of the Kosmos.

Kriyasakti: The first step towards the accomplishment of Kriyasakti is the use of the Imagination. To "imagine" a thing is to firmly create a model of what you desire, perfect in all its details. The will is then brought into action, & the form is thereby transferred to the objective world. This is creation by Kriyasakti.

***

The influences of the Moon are wholly psycho-physiological. It is dead, sending out injurious emanations, like a corpse. It vampirises the earth & its inhabitants, so that anyone sleeping in its rays suffers, losing some of his life-force. A white cloth is a protection, the rays not passing through it, & the head especially should be thus guarded. It has most power when it is full. It throws off particles which we absorb, & is gradually disintegrating. Where there is snow the moon looks like a corpse, being unable through the white snow to vampirise effectively. Hence snow-covered mountains are free from its bad influences. The moon is phosphorescent.

***

H.P.B. began by saying that we ought to know the correct meaning of the Sanscrit terms used in Occultism, & should learn the Occult symbology. To begin with, we had better learn the correct esoteric classification & names of the fourteen (seven, &c., &c.) & seven (sapta) Lokas found in the exoteric texts. These were given in a very confused manner, & were full of blinds.

***

Further explanation of the same Classification: --

1. Auric, atmic, alayic sense, or state; one of full potentiality, but not of activity.

2. Buddhic, the sense of being one with the Universe; the impossibility of imagining itself apart from it.

(It was asked why the term Alayic was here given to the Atmic, & not to the Buddhic state? Ans: -- These classifications are not hard & fast divisions. A term may change places according as the classification is exoteric, esoteric, or practical. For the Inner Group the effort should be to bring all things down to states of consciousness. Buddhi is one & indivisible really; it is a feeling within, absolutely inexpressible in words. All cataloging is useless to explain it.)

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Blue: H.P.B. could not say why blue was the colour of the earth.

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Little finger: The greatest phenomena are produced by touching, & centring the attention on the little finger.

***

The Body: The flesh, the body, the human being in his material part, is -- on this plane -- the most difficult thing to subject. The highest Adept, put into a new body, has to struggle against & subdue it, & finds its subjugation difficult.

***

H.P.B. remarked that the Group should come to some common understanding, to some standard of agreement. She was anxious to give us facts which would lead us to practical knowledge, but could not do so until we all understood in the same way the instructions already given.

***

The Masters' bodies are illusionary, & hence do not grow old, become wrinkled, etc.

***

The work of the student: The student who is not naturally psychic should fix the fourfold consciousness on a higher plane & nail it there. Let him make a bundle of the four lower & pin them to a higher state. He should centre on this higher, trying not to permit the body & intellect to draw him down & carry him away. "Play ducks & drakes" with the body, eating, drinking, & sleeping, but keeping always in the ideal.

***

Thought & Action: Thought arises before desire; the thought acts on the brain, the brain on the organ, & thus desire awakes. It is not the outer stimulus that arouses the organ. Thought therefore must be slain ere desire can be extinguished. The student must guard his thoughts; five minutes thought may undo the work of five years, & though the five year's work will be run through more rapidly the second time, yet time is lost.

***

The occultist should train himself to receive & transmit, along the line of the seven scales of his consciousness, every impression -- or impressions -- simultaneously, he who reduces the intervals of physical time the most has made the most progress.