The Secret Doctrine

The text opens with a title page identifying the work as The Secret Doctrine, Volume II, subtitled "The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy," by H. P. Blavatsky, author of "Isis Unveiled." The motto reads "There is no Religion higher than Truth." The volume is titled "Anthropogenesis" and lists three publishers: The Theosophical Publishing Company in London, William Q. Judge in New York, and The Manager of The Theosophist in Adyar, Madras, dated 1888. A copyright notice states the work was entered according to Act of Congress in 1888 by H. P. Blavatsky. A dedication addresses all True Theosophists in every country and of every race, noting that they called the work forth and for them it was recorded. The remainder of the span is a table of contents for Volume II, which comprises three parts: Part I, Anthropogenesis, containing Preliminary Notes on the Archaic Stanzas and the Four Prehistoric Continents, followed by Stanzas I through XII with associated sections; Part II, The Archaic Symbolism of the World-Religions, containing sections XVI through XXV; and Part III, Addenda: Science and the Secret Doctrine Contrasted, containing sections I through VII.

The text opens with a quotation from Shakespeare: "Gently to hear, kindly to judge." It then addresses the custom of calling Theosophical teachings "Esoteric Buddhism," identifying a double mistake: limiting Theosophy to Buddhism, and confounding Gautama's tenets with the broader doctrines of "Esoteric Buddhism." An eminent Pali scholar is cited as having stated the volume contained "neither esotericism nor Buddhism." The esoteric truths are said to have ceased to be esoteric upon publication. The present volumes are described as raising only a small corner of the veil, and no one, not even the greatest living adept, could promiscuously give out the concealed teaching. The writer states that "Esoteric Buddhism" was presented to her as a completed volume and she was unaware of the spelling issue. A distinction is drawn between "Buddhism" (Gautama's system) and "Budhism" (Wisdom, from the Sanskrit root "Budh," to know). The "Wisdom Religion" is declared the inheritance of all nations. The writer claims prior knowledge of the material in "Esoteric Buddhism" and notes that a considerable part of the philosophy was taught in America before Isis Unveiled, to two Europeans and Colonel H. S. Olcott, by three teachers: a Hungarian Initiate, an Egyptian, and a Hindu. Etymology is discussed: Adi Budha as "Supreme Wisdom" used by Aryasanga; the distinction between Bodha, Buddha, and Buddhi; and "Bodhi" as a trance state called Samadhi. Esoteric philosophy is said to reconcile all religions, prove the necessity of an absolute Divine Principle, and refuse to accept man-made gods. The Buddha's public teachings are described as limited to moral and physiological aspects, with hidden Truths reserved for Arhats initiated at the Saptaparna cave near Mount Baibhar in Rajagriha. The teachings are said to have been corrupted upon transplantation to China, Japan, Siam, and Burmah. The Buddha is identified as a Kshatrya and disciple of the Dwijas, his Secret Doctrine differing in no wise from that of initiated Brahmins. The "Soul Doctrine" and the misinterpretation of Nirvana as annihilation by Chinese scholars are noted. A class of pseudo-scientific literature based on Sanskritist researches is criticized for giving outward form in place of inner meaning. The Book of Dzyan is stated to be unknown to European libraries, while the main body of Doctrines is found scattered through Sanskrit MSS. The text then describes esoteric schools beyond the Himalayas claiming possession of all sacred works since writing began. It relates that, since the destruction of the Alexandrian Library, the Brotherhoods have searched for and destroyed works dangerous to the mysteries, with the last manuscripts in India secured during Akbar's reign. Subterranean crypts in lamasaries and a hamlet along Altyn-Toga are mentioned as hiding places. The disappearance of ancient texts is illustrated by the case of Lao-tse, whose 1,000 works have reduced to a handful of pages unintelligible without commentaries, and by the Chaldean Scriptures, of which only doubtful fragments by Berosus remain, having passed through the hands of Eusebius, who is accused of mutilating and forging.

The text states that the Rig-Veda is not correctly understood because the Brahmanas require a key the Orientalists have failed to secure. Buddhist literature is incomplete: despite 333 volumes of Kanjur and Tanjur, nothing is truly known of Lamaism, and translators interwove their own commentaries. The original Buddhist Canon comprised 80,000 or 84,000 tracts, of which only 6,000 remain; the text questions whether they are lost for Buddhists as well. Buddhist Arhats began their exodus as early as 300 B.C. and reached China in 61 A.D. when Kashyapa went at the invitation of Emperor Ming-ti. The text argues the Orientalists do not allow for the possibility that texts are lost only for the West. The public may be sure that students of ancient religions have very few data yet dogmatize regardless. Egyptian religion remains far from fully disclosed despite standing monuments and papyrus rolls. The professor declares a "truly historical basis" has been gained despite ignorance of primitive religions. The text criticizes the use of phonetic laws to deny connections between gods, citing the example of Maia as mother of Mercury, Buddha, and Jesus. Conflicting Vedic chronologies among scholars show the lack of historical basis. A Cinghalese priest assured the writer that important Buddhist tracts were stored in inaccessible places. Swami Dayanand Sarasvati assured members of the Theosophical Society of the same regarding Brahmanical works.

The text opens with a quote attributed to Max Muller about believing in the ancients; the writer states she loves them and transmits what she has received. She bears no malice toward those who reject her testimony, as they view truth from different standpoints. The teachings are drawn from oral and written sources, based on Stanzas from a people unknown to ethnology, in a tongue absent from philology, from a source repudiated by science. Rejection is expected; in the twentieth century, scholars will recognize the teachings antedate the Vedas. The text cites the Vedas' earlier derision as precedent. A reference is made to "Isis Unveiled," where one turn of a key was given; more is explained in these volumes. In the Twentieth Century, a disciple may be sent by the Masters of Wisdom to give final proofs of Gupta-Vidya. The work requires a volume of introduction, and statements must be warranted by authorities including ancient philosophers and Church Fathers. An illustration compares the reader to a tourist at the border of terra incognita. Volume III will recapitulate principal adepts and the downfall of the mysteries. The reader is asked to attend to the millennium divided by the year One of the Nativity, which served as a signal for bulwarks against old religions. Efforts to obliterate the Secret Doctrine failed; manuscripts were burnt and monuments destroyed. Both Christianity and Islam won proselytes at the point of the sword. A quote from Faigi Diwan is followed by Max Muller's reply, culminating in the motto "There is no religion higher than truth," adopted by the Theosophical Society. The Secret Doctrine is not a version of "Isis Unveiled" but a corollary to it, giving detailed Cosmogony and the evolution of four preceding races. The "very old Book" referenced in "Isis" is identified as the parent volume from which Kiu-ti, the Siphrah Dzeniouta, the Sepher Jezirah, the Shu-king, the Puranas, and the Pentateuch are derived; it was taken down in Senzar from Divine Beings in Central Asia. The book stops at the beginning of the Kali Yuga, 4989 years ago at Krishna's death. Another book, as old as the Black Age, contains prophecies; Volume II is nearly ready. Origen, Synesius, and Clemens Alexandrinus are said to have been initiated. The Immaculate Conception is identified as a disfigured addition from the Secret schools. The days of Constantine marked the last turning-point. The writer addresses slanderers who accused her of invention and plagiarism, quoting Montaigne's "nosegay of culled flowers." The text closes by explaining why certain subjects appear in the Introduction, and references a law of probabilities in the archives of the French Academy.

An archaic manuscript of palm leaves is described. Its first page shows a white disk on a black ground, representing Kosmos in Eternity; the next shows the same disk with a central point, denoting the dawn of differentiation. The circle represents divine Unity; its plane is the Universal Soul, on which Manvantaric manifestations begin. The One Life is described as eternal, omnipresent, and periodical, its attribute being the "Great Breath," perpetual motion. Leucippus is cited as maintaining that Space was filled with atoms in ceaseless motion; Epicurus and Lucretius added affinity. Occultism identifies the One Existence as a living FIRE witnessed by Light, Heat, and Moisture. Intra-Cosmic motion is eternal; cosmic motion is finite and periodical. A quoted passage describes the alternating passive and active states of the infinite Essence (the Days and Nights of Brahma) and the expansion and contraction of the Divine essence as out-breathing and inhalation. The archaic symbols are then traced in sequence: plain disc, disc with point (first differentiation), point becoming a diameter (Mother-Nature), diameter crossed by a vertical line (mundane cross, third root-race), disappearance of the circumference (fall into matter, fourth race), cross within a circle (pure Pantheism), circle divided by a horizontal line (feminine creative Nature), the tau (glyph of the third root-race), its evolution into the sacr', the Egyptian emblem of life, the sign of Venus, and the Svastica separated from its circle (purely phallic). The five-pointed star reversed is given as the symbol of Kali Yuga. Parabrahmam is then defined as not a God but the Supreme as Cause; the Pantheists refuse to attribute creation to an Infinite Principle. Narayana on the waters of Space is transformed into the manifested Logos. Space is described as neither void nor fulness but both, and as "the Seven-Skinned Eternal Mother-Father." The esoteric Senzar Catechism identifies Space as that which was, is, and will be. The God of human dogma is rejected as a human fabrication. The Occultist accepts revelation from finite Beings, not from the Unmanifestable ONE LIFE, and regards the Adi-Sakti as philosophically a Maya.

A certain view does not prevent belief in a principle for one Mahamanvantara nor the practical application of Akasa as radiation of Mulaprakriti. The oldest religions—Indian, Mazdean, Egyptian—share one esoteric root; the Chaldean follows, lost except in disfigured Sabeanism; the Jewish religion follows, esoterically in the Kabala, exoterically in Genesis and the Pentateuch as allegorical legends. Read by the Zohar, Genesis 1–4 is a fragment of the World's Cosmogony; in symbolical disguise a nursery tale; as prologue to Christianity a cruel revenge by the Rabbis. The Occult Catechism: what ever is (Space, eternal Anupadaka), what ever was (Germ in the Root), what is ever coming and going (Great Breath)—three declared one: Space. The One: unbroken Circle without circumference, boundless plane manifesting a diameter during manvantaric periods, indivisible point, Vertical and Horizontal, Father and Mother. The Breath proceeds from without inwardly when everywhere, from within outwardly when nowhere; expands and contracts, producing Manvantara and Pralaya. Hot Breath is the Father who devours the many-faced Element's progeny; Cool Breath the Mother who conceives, forms, brings forth, receives back. Seven Cosmical Elements: first four physical, fifth (Ether) semi-material, last two beyond human perception; all modifications of the ONE Element, not even Akasa but the Source. The Stanzas treat only the Cosmogony of the planetary System after Solar Pralaya; Universal Kosmos teachings cannot be given, as not even the highest Dhyani-Chohans have penetrated beyond boundaries separating Solar systems from the "Central Sun." Three fundamental propositions: (a) an Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, Immutable Principle beyond human conception, symbolized by abstract Space and Abstract Motion ("The Great Breath"); (b) Eternity of the Universe as boundless plane, periodically playground of numberless Universes, governed by law of periodicity; (c) fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over-Soul, and obligatory pilgrimage of every Soul through the Cycle of Incarnation. A summary list: the Absolute (Parabrahm, SAT), the unmanifested Logos, Spirit-matter (LIFE, Purusha and Prakriti), Cosmic Ideation (MAHAT). Fohat is the link between Spirit and Matter, the "bridge" by which Ideas in Divine Thought are impressed on Cosmic substance. After Pralaya, the first to re-awaken is the plastic A'kasa, Father-Mother. The Eastern trinity synthesizes in pure divine abstraction; the orthodox Christian anthropomorphizes. Hiranyagarbha, Hari, and Sankara are the three hypostases of formation, preservation, and destruction. The creative god is regarded by the Eastern philosopher as "false apprehension." At this stage of re-awakening, the sacred symbolism represents the Universe as a perfect Circle with the root point in the Centre. The Western Kabala in the hands of Christian mystics ignores this sign, though it appears in the Zohar; the sectarians instead show the "Union of the Rose and Cross," whence the name Rosicrucians derives.

The text discusses the Rosicrucian symbol of the Pelican feeding its seven young as a direct outcome of the Eastern Secret Doctrine. A footnote notes that Spencer reflects an aspect of old esoteric philosophers. The text explains that Brahma (neuter) is called Kalahansa, the Eternal Swan, and that it is Brahma (neuter), not Brahma the Creator, who is Hansa-vahana. The terms Brahma and Parabrahmam are used for familiarity to Western students and correspond to the one, three, and seven vowelled terms for the ONE ALL. The text then provides a skeleton outline of the seven Stanzas. Stanza I describes the state of the ONE ALL during Pralaya, which can only be symbolised in negatives. Stanza II is so nearly identical to the first that it must be left to intuition. Stanza III describes the Re-awakening of the Universe and the emergence of Monads. Stanza IV shows the differentiation into the septenary hierarchy of Dhyan Chohans, the active manifestations of the One Supreme Energy. Stanza V describes world-formation through nebula and Solar Universe. Stanza VI brings evolution to the fourth great period. Stanza VII traces the descent of life to the appearance of Man. A note explains that the Stanzas are given in modern translation, with extracts from Chinese, Tibetan, and Sanskrit versions of the Senzar Commentaries. The text states that Sanskrit as now known was not spoken by the Atlanteans. Non-Theosophist readers are invited to regard the work as a fairy tale or hypothesis.

The text opens with a heading identifying Part I, Cosmic Evolution, and Seven Stanzas translated from the Secret Book of Dzyan. An introductory passage describes the primordial state: neither aught nor nought existed; the One breathed breathless by itself; darkness veiled all; the germ burst forth from fervent heat. The passage asks who knows the secret of creation and addresses Eternity as that which was before foundations were laid. Stanza I describes the Eternal Parent slumbering for seven eternities. Time, Universal Mind, and the Seven Ways to Bliss were not. Darkness filled the boundless all; Father, Mother, and Son were one. The One Form of Existence stretched in dreamless sleep. The text asks where the Dangma was. Stanza II asks where the Builders were: in the unknown darkness. Neither silence nor sound existed. The Seven Sons were not yet born; the universe was concealed in the Divine Thought. Stanza III begins with the last vibration of the seventh eternity. The Mother swells; darkness radiates light; one ray drops into the Mother-Deep and causes the Eternal Egg to drop the Non-Eternal Germ, which condenses into the World-Egg. The three fall into the four; the luminous egg curdles. OEOHOO is one. Darkness vanishes. The Radiant Child emerges. The Father-Mother spin a web whose upper end is fastened to Spirit and lower to Matter; this web is the universe. Svabhavat sends Fohat to harden the atoms. Stanza IV addresses the Sons of the Earth, instructing them that there is neither first nor last. It enumerates the Nidana, or OEOHOO, with its numerical structure including the Adi-Sanat, the Voice of the Lord Svabhavat, the Formless Square, the Sacred Four, the Arupa universe, the Seven Fighters, and the Lipika. Stanza V describes the Primordial Seven producing the fiery whirlwind, which becomes Fohat. Fohat calls the innumerable sparks, forms the germs of wheels, and places them in six directions and one in the middle. The Lipika circumscribe the triangle, cube, and pentacle. The Rupa and Arupa are formed: from one light seven lights, from each seven times seven. Stanza VI states that by the power of Kwan-Yin, Fohat calls forth Sien-Tchang and the seven elements, produces the seven Laya Centres, and seats the universe on these foundations. At the fourth, the Sons are told to create their images; one third refuses, two obey. A curse is pronounced; this is the first war. Battles are fought between the Creators and the Destroyers. The text addresses Lanoo, asking him to make calculations. Stanza VII describes the beginning of sentient formless life. The spark journeys through the seven worlds of Maya: it is first a metal and a stone, then a plant, then a sacred animal. From the combined attributes of these, Manu the Thinker is formed. The Builders descend on radiant Earth and reign over men. The text closes with a note stating that this portion of the archaic narrative ends here, described as dark, confused, and almost incomprehensible, and that an attempt will now be made to throw light into this darkness.

The text presents commentaries on verses 1–7 of Stanza I. Verse 1: Parent Space is the eternal cause of all; its invisible robes are the mystic root of matter. Spirit is the first differentiation from the causeless cause. The Robes represent the noumenon of undifferentiated Cosmic Matter, called Mulaprakriti by Hindus. The Seven Eternities comprise a Manvantara within a Maha-Kalpa of 311,040,000,000,000 years. The number seven is symbolically central; on the plane of matter, 3 is masculine and 4 female. Verse 2: Time is an illusion produced by the succession of states of consciousness; the present is a mathematical line dividing future from past. A bar of metal dropped into the sea illustrates how persons and things present only a cross-section of their total selves. Verse 3: Mind is the sum of states of consciousness under Thought, Will, and Feeling. During Pralaya it remains as a permanent possibility. The AH-HI (Dhyan-Chohans) are spiritual beings who serve as vehicles for divine thought and will, compared to an army. Verse 4: Seven paths to the bliss of Non-Existence existed not because the Universe was empty. The twelve Nidanas are causes of being based on the four truths of the Hinayana System. The Hinayana and Mahayana schools teach the same doctrine in reality. Maya enters all finite things; existences are like shadows from a magic lantern. Verse 5: Darkness is the unknown source of light, the eternal matrix. Light and darkness are interchangeable. The Father-Mother are male and female principles in root-nature; the Son is the Universe. During Pralaya, Karana is alone. Brahma symbolizes Spirit, Soul, and Body. Verse 6: The Seven Creative Spirits correspond to the Hebrew Elohim. Only four Truths have been given as humanity is in the Fourth Round. Paranishpanna is absolute perfection at the close of a Maha-Manvantara. The Universe's appearance and disappearance are the Great Breath's outbreathing and inbreathing. A Master calls Past, Present, and Future "clumsy words." Verse 7: The causes of existence include metaphysical causes, chiefly the desire to exist. The conversion from metaphysics to physics is analogous to steam condensing into water and freezing into ice. Eternal Non-Being is the One Being, the noumenon underlying all phenomena.

The text opens with an analogy between impalpable gold atoms in auriferous quartz and the relation of noumenon to phenomenon: the miner cannot see the gold but knows it gives the quartz its value. The miner, however, knows what extracted gold looks like, whereas the common mortal cannot conceive of reality separated from Maya. The Initiate, possessing lore from numberless generations of predecessors, directs the "Eye of Dangma" toward the essence of things where no Maya has influence. The teachings on Nidanas and the Four Truths are noted as of greatest importance here but secret. Stanza I, verse 8 is then quoted, describing the "One Form of Existence" as boundless, infinite, causeless, in dreamless sleep, with Life pulsating unconscious in universal space, sensed by the "Opened Eye" of the Dangma. A note explains that modern thought tends toward a homogeneous basis for different things—biologists seek protoplasm, chemists protyle, science a force underlying electricity, magnetism, and heat. The Secret Doctrine carries this into metaphysics, postulating a "One Form of Existence." The Sanskrit term is given as Prabhavapyaya, glossed by a commentator as the plane whence origination emerges and into which resolution occurs. It is distinguished from the "Mother of the World" translation of Jagad Yoni, which FitzEdward Hall renders as "Material Cause of the Universe." In its secondary stage it is identified with the Svabhavat of the Buddhist philosopher. The text asserts that Buddhism was "evoked" and upreared on the tenets of the Secret Doctrine, on which the Upanishads also rest, citing Sri Sankaracharya. A second note explains that dreamless sleep is one of seven states of consciousness in Oriental esotericism, applied allegorically to the Universe. Stanza I, verse 9 asks where the Dangma was when the Alaya of the Universe was in Paramartha and the Great Wheel was Anupadaka. A lengthy note discusses Alaya as Anima Mundi, periodic in nature, one with the Dhyani-Buddhas, and mergeable by a man strong in Yoga. The Yogacharyas and Madhyamikas are contrasted on the meaning of Paramartha: the former hold only relative truth (Samvritisatya) exists on this plane; the latter teach absolute truth (Paramarthasatya). The note then asserts that esoteric philosophy teaches everything lives and is conscious, and that Alaya in the Yogacharya system is both Universal Soul and Self of a progressed adept, citing Aryasanga. The text argues that Anaxagoras was a propagator, not inventor, of the concept, which in India was called Jivatma before 500 B.C. Hegel's "Unconscious" and the "Absoluter Geist" of von Hartman are contrasted as falling short of the Absolute. The Finite cannot conceive the Infinite; the Occultist says the Hegelian idea applies to the awakened MAHAT but never to the Absolute. The Archaeus is identified as the same "Father-Ether" localised. A final note explains Anupadaka as "parentless," designating the Dhyan-Chohans, the Manushi-Buddhas who have merged into Atma-Buddhi, and the Universe in its formless condition before being fashioned by the "Builders."

The text presents Stanza II of the Secret Doctrine with commentary. Verse 1 asks where the "Builders, the Luminous Sons of Manvantaric Dawn" were; the answer is that they rested in the Unknown Darkness in their A H-HI (Chohanic, Dhyani-Buddhic) Paranishpanna, as Producers of Form from No-Form, the Devamatri and Svabhavat, in the bliss of Non-Being. A footnote identifies the Builders as the real creators of the Universe, called the "Watchers" of the Seven Spheres. Another footnote defines Paranishpanna as the Absolute, equated with Paranirvana, and distinguishes conscious from unconscious being, noting that without Paramartha the condition is extinction. An analogy of an iron ball heated by the sun illustrates the difference. A further footnote identifies Devamatri as "Mother of the Gods," Aditi, or Cosmic Space. Verse 2 asks where Silence and the ears to sense it were; the answer is that there was neither silence nor sound, only ceaseless eternal Breath (Motion) which knows itself not. A footnote discusses the Eastern psychological idea that things can cease to exist and still BE, using chemical combination as an analogy, and applies this to the condition of the Universe during the "Nights of Brahma." Another footnote explains the "Breath" as applied to the spiritual aspect of Cosmogony, otherwise replaced by Motion, identifies the One Eternal Element as Space co-existent with duration, matter, and motion, and states that Brahma is the instrumental rather than ideal Cause. A passage then argues that the "Eternal Breath which knows itself not" because Infinity cannot comprehend Finiteness, and that Absolute Consciousness contains the cognizer, the thing cognized, and the cognition all in itself. Verse 3 states that the Hour had not yet struck, the Ray had not yet flashed into the Germ, and the Matri-Padma had not yet swollen. Footnotes explain the Germ as existing in the centre of every atom, and the Padma as a symbol of the dual creative power, with Fire as Father and Ether as Mother, and as a symbol of the Kosmos and man. Verse 4 states that Her Heart had not yet opened for the One Ray to enter, thence to fall as Three into Four in the Lap of Maya. The commentary explains this as the Primordial Substance becoming receptive of the Fohatic impress of the Divine Thought, the Three transforming into four, and identifies this as the origin of the mysteries of the Trinity and the Immaculate Conception. The Kabala and Aristotle's three principles are invoked, and the male element is described as born through, not from, an immaculate source. Verse 5 states that the Seven Sons were not yet born from the Web of Light, and that Darkness alone was Father-Mother, Svabhavat. A footnote identifies Svabhavat as the "Plastic Essence," the Buddhistic concrete aspect of Mulaprakriti. Verse 6 states that the Two are the Germ, the Germ is One, and the Universe was still concealed in the Divine Thought and the Divine Bosom. The commentary clarifies that "Divine Thought" does not imply a Divine thinker, and that this idea forms the origin of allegories about "Sons of God" born of immaculate virgins.

The text presents the Commentary on Stanza III, verses 1 through 7. The commentary on verse 1 explains the "Seventh Eternity" as a division of indivisible duration into unconditionally eternal Time (Kala) and conditioned Time (Khandakala), with Mahat as first-born of Pradhana (Maya). It contrasts esoteric teaching with Adwaita and Visishtadwaita Vedantism, holding Mulaprakriti self-existing while Mahat is a phantasm reflected from the Absolute Nirguna (Parabrahm). The "last vibration" is attributed to eternal Law governing the "Days and Nights of Brahma." The Mother's expansion is development of subjectivity into objectivity, not increase in size. Manvantara is defined as "between two Manus," fourteen per Day of Brahma of 1,000 Mahayugas; each Manu is a personified "Thought Divine," and Fohat causes ideal prototypes to descend through all planes. Verse 2's commentary identifies the "germ that dwelleth in darkness" with the Pythagorean Monad and connects the "breath of Darkness" to Narayana, personification of the Breath of the unconscious All. The Waters of Life are equated with the vacuum containing latent Spirit and Matter, recalling Democritus and Leucippus. Verse 3's commentary interprets the solitary ray as Divine Thought impregnating chaos, the Virgin-Egg as eternal abstract Egg-ness, and the Mundane Egg as a universal spheroidal symbol; the Golden Egg is associated with seven natural elements per the Vishnu Purana. Verse 4's commentary distinguishes conventional glyphs from Sacred Numbers in the Book of Dzyan and Kabala, quoting Balzac on Number as Entity. The "curdling" is explained astronomically as the Milky Way and occultly through the churning of the Ocean of Milk, relating to a period before the earth's formation and connecting to the "War in Heaven" legend. Verse 5's commentary renders Oeaohoo as "Father-Mother of the Gods" or the septenary root with triple pronunciation; the Root is Sattva, the Light the fecundating Spiritual Ray, the curds the first differentiation appearing as star-stuff. Verse 6's commentary holds Darkness the one true actuality and basis of light, Light matter and Darkness pure Spirit, and discusses Lucifer as originally the "Luminous Son of the Morning" transformed by the Church into Satan. Verse 7's commentary addresses Lanoo, a student, identifies Oeaohoo the younger with Kwan-Shai-Yin, and explains the numerical progression Eka-Chatur-Sapta-Tridasa (thrice ten, alluding to the 33 Vedic deities).

The text explains that the first manifestation, Oeaohoo ("the Son of the Son"), is the Logos containing the Seven Creative Hosts (Sephiroth). Kwan-Shai-Yin is identified with Avalokiteshwara, an androgynous deity; some Chinese sects represent him with female attributes as Kwan-Yin, patron of Thibet and Puto. A footnote states that higher gods of antiquity were androgynous, citing Zeus, Venus, Apollo, Brahma-Vach, Osiris, Horus, and the Logos in Revelation. Section (b) identifies the "Dragon of Wisdom" with the One (Eka/Saka) and with Jehovah (Echod). The Dragon is an old glyph for Astral Light and Wisdom of Chaos; archaic philosophy traced both Good and Evil from pure Light condensing into Matter. Early Christian fathers degraded the Dragon into the Devil via Zoroastrian influence. The serpent symbolized divine Wisdom, Regeneration, and Immortality across traditions. Pymander appears to Hermes as a Fiery Dragon and speaks of himself as the Nous, the germ of thought, the Son of God. The "Sea of Fire" is the noumenal Light, first radiation from Mulaprakriti. Fohat, Cosmic Electricity, electrifies and separates primordial matter into atoms. Section (c) identifies the serpent with the Hebrew letter Teth (value nine) and with Hermes' teaching on separating subtile from solid. The Esoteric Doctrine reconciles Zeno, Heracleitus, Anaximenes, and Thales. Stanza III, verse 8 asks where the germ and darkness are; the answer is "the White Brilliant Son of the Dark Hidden Father." The concealed Principle is called "That" (Tad), "Kalahansa," or "Kali Hamsa." Hamsa decomposes into "I am he" or "he is I," expressing the identity of man's essence with god-essence. The same doctrine appears in the Kabala via the pronouns Hoa, Atah, Ani. The Hansa allegory of separating milk from water represents spirit from matter. Esoterically, Brahma is Kala-Hansa and the Ray is Hansa-Vahana; the symbol represents the universal matrix for the Logos. Appearing as Narayan/Swayambhuva, it penetrates the Mundane Egg and emerges as Brahma or Prajapati.

The text states that He is Purusha (spirit) and also Prakriti (matter), and that Prajapati becomes the male Brahma only after separating into Brahma-vach (female) and Brahma-Viraj (male). Stanza III, verse 9 declares that light is cold flame, flame is fire, fire produces heat, heat yields water, the water of life in the Great Mother (Chaos). A note explains that the terms "Light," "Fire," and "Flame" were adopted by translators from the vocabulary of old "Fire philosophers" to render archaic terms, and that all such terms are correlations of electricity on our plane. Electricity is called the ONE Life at the upper rung of Being, and Astral Fluid at its lowest. The text explains why light is called "cold flame": primordial matter before its emergence is neither hot nor cold but of its own special nature, and heat and cold are relative qualities pertaining to manifested worlds. The four primal natures of the first Dhyan Chohans are "Akasic," "Ethereal," "Watery," and "Fiery," answering to gases defined as Parahydrogenic, Paraoxygenic, Oxyhydrogenic, and Ozonic. Stanza III, verse 10 states that Father-Mother spin a web fastened above to Spirit and below to Matter; this web is the Universe spun from the two substances made in one, which is Swabhavat. A note references the Mandukya Upanishad's spider-web analogy and Goethe's verse on weaving God's garment. Verse 11 states the Web expands under the breath of Fire and contracts under the breath of the Mother; the Sons dissociate and scatter, returning into the Mother's bosom at the end of the Great Day. A note discusses the pulsatory movement, the paradox of heat from refrigerative contraction, cites Professor Newcomb and Professor Winchell on a body getting hotter as it contracts from cooling, and concludes the Stanza is more scientific than modern science. Verse 12 states that Swabhavat sends Fohat to harden the atoms, each of which reflects the Self-Existent Lord like a mirror and becomes in turn a World. A note explains that Fohat hardens by infusing energy, scatters himself while scattering matter, and impresses the ideas of the Universal Mind upon matter.

Stanza IV, verse 1, addresses the "Sons of the Earth" to listen to the "Sons of the Fire," declaring there is neither first nor last, all being one number issued from no number. Note (a) explains that "Sons of the Fire" are deities presiding over Cosmo-psychic Powers, citing the Bhagavatgita's bright and dark paths. The Pitris are lunar deities who created physical man; the Agnishwatha and Kumara are solar deities, "fashioners of the Inner Man," evolved from Primordial Fire. Fire is Aether in purest form, distinguished as triple (Formless) or Septenary (manifested). Note (b) states the Absolute is "No Number" and every manifested thing is part of a larger whole issuing from the unmanifested Absolute. Verse 2 states the speakers descend from the Primordial Seven and are born from the Primordial Flame. Note (a) identifies the Primordial Seven as the direct emanation of the first Sacred Four (Tetraktis), proceeding from Father-Mother, while the other Quaternary and Seven proceed from the Mother alone. The first Primordial are the highest Beings on the Scale of Existence. Verse 3 describes the Dhyan Chohans springing from the Effulgence of Light, with numerical groupings (One from the Egg, Six and Five; Three, One, Four, One, Five), and lists Essences, Flames, Elements, Builders, Numbers, Arupa, Rupa, and the Force or Divine Man. From the Divine Man emanated Forms, Sparks, Sacred Animals, and Messengers of the Pitris. Note (a) identifies 1065 as the value of the first-born, connecting it to the name of Jehovah in the Kabala. Note (b) identifies 31415 as the numerical hierarchy of the Dhyan-Chohans, equating it to pi, and discusses the androgynous nature of the primordial Being. Note (c) states that the "Sacred Animals" correspond to the signs of the Zodiac. Verse 4 calls the Dhyan Chohans the "Army of the Voice" and the "Divine Septenary," naming their sparks as Spheres, Triangles, Cubes, Lines, and Modellers, and identifies the Eternal Nidana as the Oi-aha-hou. Note (a) connects this to the mystery of Sound and Speech, quoting P. Christian on the potency of the spoken word, and references a dialogue in the Anugita between Speech and Mind before the Self of Being.

The text opens with an allegory in which Sarasvati (Speech) dwelt between the Prana and Apana winds. She ran to Prajapati with the Apana; the Prana reappeared and nourished her. Speech never speaks after hard exhalation; the noiseless is superior to the noisy. Speech produced by the Prana transforms into Apana, assimilates with the Udana, and dwells in the Samana. The mind is distinguished as immovable; Speech as movable. The allegory is stated to root the Occult law prescribing silence on secret things. The chapter explains Pranayama. Hatha Yoga is said to be discountenanced by the Arhats. The story demonstrates the connection between Intelligences and every sense or function. The claim of seven senses in man is corroborated in chapter vii on Pratyahara. The Brahmana names the seven sacrificial Priests: nose, eyes, tongue, skin, ear, mind, and understanding. Mind claims supremacy over the others. Spiritual mind takes no cognisance of the senses in physical man. A quarrel of the senses about superiority is referred to the Brahman as arbiter; the answer declares all are greatest in their own spheres. One unmoving Breath is the Self, the Synthesis of the Seven Senses. Cosmic matter scatters and forms itself into elements grouped into the mystic four within the fifth element, Ether. The ancient Commentary describes the Mother as the fiery Fish of Life who scatters her spawn; the Breath heats it; grains form curds; lumps coalesce, detach, and assume spheroidal form; Motion becomes the whirlwind. Stanza IV, verse 5, presents the Adi-Sanat (One), the Voice of the Word (One and Nine), and the Formless Square, enclosed within the boundless circle as the Sacred Four and the Arupa Universe. Then come the Seven Fighters, the One rejected (the eighth), and his Breath, Bhaskara. The One Rejected is the Sun. Aditi bore eight sons; she approached the gods with seven and cast away the eighth, Martanda. Bal-ilu breathed in the vital airs of his brothers; the larger four were unaffected; the smaller wept; the Mother exiled him to the centre, where he feeds on her sweat and refuse. The text rejects the hypothesis that planets evolved from the Sun's mass, teaching the Sun merely detached earlier and is their elder brother. The planets are called the Heavenly Snails. Heat, attraction, and repulsion are the three factors of Motion. Stanza IV, verse 6, introduces the Second Seven, the Lipika (Scribes), produced by the Three (Word, Voice, Spirit). They are connected with Karma as Recorders who impress on the Astral Light a faithful record of every act and thought. They project the ideal plan of the universe and stand parallel to the Seven Angels of the Presence.

The text states vestiges of all acts exist on walls of private apartments. Drs. Jevons and Babbage believe every thought scatters particles throughout the Universe, each a register of all that has happened. The forty Assessors in Amenti who accuse the Soul before Osiris belong to the same class as the Lipika. Chitra-Gupta, who reads each Soul's life from his register, and the Assessors reading from the heart of the defunct before Yama, Minos, Osiris, or Karma, are variants of the Lipika. The Lipi-ka are connected with Life Eternal, not Death, and with the destiny of every man and child traced in the Astral Light. They may influence the Science of Horoscopy, as a modern adept of Astrology observes regarding the Sidereal system's chemical influence on a newborn's brain.

The text presents Stanza V, verse 1, stating that the Primordial Seven, the First Seven Breaths of the Dragon of Wisdom, produce the Fiery Whirlwind. The commentary identifies this as the most difficult Stanza to explain, requiring familiarity with Eastern allegory. It addresses whether the "Builders," "Lipika," and "Sons of Light" are believed as Entities or merely imagery, answering that these Entities must be admitted as the root of spiritual man unless one accepts a fresh soul for every human birth since "Adam." The text states that primeval Intelligences must pass through the human stage to become fully conscious gods, applicable to mortals on any world at the appropriate equilibrium between matter and spirit. Hegel is cited as having intuitionally sensed this truth. The Puranic phrase "No Man -- No God" and a Kabalistic saying about the Breath becoming successively stone, plant, animal, man, spirit, and god are cited. The Mind-born Sons, Rishis, and Builders are identified as having been men in other worlds and preceding Manvantaras. The "fiery Wind" is identified as incandescent Cosmic dust following magnetically the directing thought of the Creative Forces, with every atom possessing potentiality of self-consciousness like Leibnitz's Monads. Mr. A.R. Wallace is noted as conceding that superior Intelligences directed human evolution. Stanza V, verse 2 follows: Dzyu becomes Fohat, the Swift Son of the Divine Sons whose Sons are the Lipika, who runs circular errands as the Steed while the Thought is the Rider, passing through fiery clouds and taking three, five, and seven strides through seven regions above and below, calling and joining the innumerable sparks. The commentary explains Dzyu as real Occult Wisdom, antithetical to Dzyu-mi which deals with illusions. The Dhyani-Buddhas are described as seven esoterically (five manifested, two future), eternal prototypes of earthly Buddhas, with Amitabha as the Dhyani-Buddha of Gautama Sakyamuni and Avalokiteswara as the synthesis and first Buddha. Fohat is then described at length: in the unmanifested Universe it is an abstract potential creative power; when the Divine Son breaks forth it becomes the propelling force causing the One to become Two and Three. Parallels are drawn with Greek mythology, the Puranas, and the Phoenician Cosmogony of Sanchoniathon. Fohat is identified with the Universal Mind, the creative Logos, and four-faced Brahma, and in its secondary aspect with Solar Energy and Electricity. A footnote discusses Col. Olcott's assertion that Electricity is matter, citing Maxwell. In India, Fohat is connected with Vishnu, whose three strides through seven regions in the Rig Veda are explained esoterically. The Zohar's teaching that Jehovah is Elohim "by three Steps" is presented, relating to Spirit, Soul, and Body. The Circle is discussed as symbol of the Unknown and Boundless Space, with Zeroana Akerne and Ormazd identified. The numerals 13514 (31415 by anagram) are found in the word Elohim. The Seven as Sacred Number is contrasted between Hebrew and Aryan usage, and a footnote quoting a Kabalist who praises Hebrew over Hindu is called "entirely erroneous."

The text addresses a correspondent who judges Hindu systems by their Shastras and Puranas in disfigured Orientalist translation, stating that comparison requires their esoteric teaching. It asserts the symbology of the Pentateuch and New Testament derives from the same source, and that the Pyramid of Cheops, whose measurements Professor Piazzi Smythe finds repeated in Solomon's temple, predates the Mosaic books, making any identity due to Jewish copying from Egyptians. Hebrew glyphs and language are called non-original, borrowed from Egyptians, Coptic, and Hyksos. The text asks who the Hyksos and Egyptians are, citing Bunsen on Khamism as from Western Asia with a Semitic germ, placing Egyptian events 9,000 years B.C. It contrasts archaic Esotericism with Hebrew records of phallic worship. A fragment references the septenary chain and aethereal worlds. An enumeration of the Seven worlds is quoted from the Hindu Classical Dictionary, placing the Sons of Brahma in the sixth division. Stanza V, verse 3, states He separates mineral atoms from gaseous clouds to form germs of wheels, placed in six directions and one central wheel. A note explains Wheels as centres of force through which Cosmic matter consolidates into globes, and that MOTION assumes a tendency to circular movement during Kalpas. The law of vortical movement is traced from Brahmins through Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Greeks, with Leucippus, Democritus, Pythagoras, Aristarchus, Anaxagoras, and others cited. The "Six directions of Space" are identified as the Double Triangle, a sign of Vishnu and Solomon's seal. Stanza V, verse 4, states Fohat traces spiral lines to unite the six to the seventh; the Lipika say "This is good." The Divine Arupa reflects itself in Chhayaloka. Notes explain Fohat as Divine Love uniting Spirit and Soul into the Monad, the Lipika as Dhyan-Chohans, and discuss SAT and the radical unity of ultimate essence through a Catechism dialogue between the Master and the pupil Lanoo. The text then treats Fire as the most perfect reflection of the ONE FLAME, citing Parsees, American tribes, Christians, and Rosicrucians. Stanza V, verse 5, states Fohat takes five strides and builds a winged wheel at each corner for the Four Holy Ones and their hosts. Notes explain the strides as referring to the five upper planes of Consciousness, and the Four Holy Ones as Maharajahs presiding over the cardinal points, connected with Karma. The text discusses Christian and pagan views of these beings, states that man's own deeds produce causes that attract corresponding sidereal powers, and identifies Monism and Materialism as the two main theories of science regarding Mind and Matter.

The text describes Monism as a subtle form of negative psychology, termed by Professor Bain "guarded Materialism," upheld by Lewis, Spencer, and Ferrier, regarding thought and matter as two aspects of one substance. The Egyptian temple curtain, per Clemens Alexandrinus, separated the tabernacle from the congregation; its five pillars (the Pentacle) symbolised the five senses and Root-races, its four colours the cardinal points and terrestrial elements. The Egyptian emblem is called spiritual, the Jewish materialistic. The square tabernacle of Moses is quoted from Exodus. Josephus explains the pillars as corresponding to the four Elements on pedestals facing the cardinal points with Zodiac figures. The idea is traced in Zoroastrian caves, Indian temples, and square buildings, as shown by Layard. The four Maharajahs are identified as regents of the elements, compared with Ezekiel's vision and Chinese Buddhism, and described as protectors of mankind and Agents of Karma. Ezekiel's four living creatures are identified as Cherubim, Seraphim, winged Globes, and Fiery Wheels. The Seraphim are fiery Serpents guarding Mount Meru. Cruden's Concordance is cited for Cherubim meaning "fullness of knowledge" connected with punishment. The text connects Meru, Eden, and Ophite Cherubim as watchers of Secret Knowledge. Ezekiel's four Cosmic Angels with four faces and wheels are quoted. Three groups—Builders, Planetary Spirits, and Lipika—are introduced, each divided into seven sub-groups. The Builders rebuild every System after the Night; the Planetary Spirits rule human destinies and correspond to the Loka-Palas; the Lipika are direct Recorders of Karma. Stanza V, No. 6, describes the Lipika circumscribing the Triangle, Cube, and Pentacle within the Egg, forming the Ring "Pass Not." The Lipikas make an impassible barrier between the personal EGO and the impersonal SELF. Two "ONES" are distinguished in Occult metaphysics: the absolute, unemanating First, and the Second, which emanates the seven Dhyan Chohans. The Ring "Pass-Not" is said to contain the symbol of pi and to exist in the absoluteness of infinity, not as a measurable locality. The Visishtadwaita teaching of Paramapadha is cited as a dim perception of this doctrine. No Spirit except the Lipika has crossed the forbidden line. The "ascending and descending" beings are Entities of higher worlds, appearing as Gods collectively. An analogy with the ant is drawn. The seven highest orders belong to purely divine Spirits, while six lower hierarchies occasionally communicate with their progeny on Earth.

A feminine figure traces physiological and psychic discoveries on a dead wall, all to be shown as cobwebs of scientific fancies. The objective framework alone is subservient to physiological science; the six higher principles evade analysis by one who ignores the Occult Sciences. "The Great Day of Be-With-Us" is peculiar to Esoteric Wisdom, as hazy for the profane as the Egyptian "Day of Come-To-US." The square symbolizes the Four sacred Forces; the Circle shows the boundary within Infinity no man, Deva, or Dhyan Chohan can cross. Spirits at the threshold of Paranirvana rest in the bosom of Parabrahmam during Mahapralaya. The Monad, completing its septenary gyration through the Cycle of Being, reassumes its primeval Essence and becomes the Absolute.

Stanza VI, verse 1 states that by the power of Kwan-Yin, the Mother of Mercy and Knowledge, residing in Kwan-Yin-Tien, Fohat—the Breath of their progeny, the Son of the Sons—calls forth from the lower abyss the illusive form of Sien-Tchan and the Seven Elements. Commentary (a) explains that Kwan-Yin is "the triple" of Kwan-Shai-Yin, being Mother, Wife, and Daughter of the Logos; in Vedantic esotericism, Daiviprakriti is both Mother and Daughter of the Logos; in trans-Himalayan teachings she is Mulaprakriti. Fohat is the androgynous energy resulting from the Light of the Logos, manifesting as Electricity, which is Life. Commentary (b) identifies Kwan-Yin-Tien as the "melodious heaven of Sound," a synonym of the Verbum; the text traces connections to Hebrew Bath-Kol, Adam Kadmon, and the Hindu goddess Vach, who is also the female Logos and is associated with Prajapati in creation. In Manu, Brahma divides his body into male and female parts, creating Viraj in the latter. A quoted lecture on the Bhagavadgita states that Vach has four forms (Vaikhari, Madhyama, Pasyanti, Para) corresponding to the four principles of the Kosmos. Verse 2 states that the Swift and the Radiant One produces the Seven Laya Centres and seats the universe on these foundations, surrounding Sien-Tchan with the Elementary Germs. Commentary (a) identifies the Laya Centres as zero-points where differentiation begins; Fohat is described as One and Seven, the spirit of Electricity, and no personal god but an emanation of Powers behind him. Commentary (b) identifies the Elementary Germs as the Atoms of Science and the Monads of Leibnitz. Verse 3 describes a progressive manifestation of the seven elements, from one manifested and six concealed to six to be manifested and one laid aside, ending with seven small wheels revolving, one giving birth to the other. Commentary (a) notes this refers also by analogy to the Seven Elements on Earth, of which four are now fully manifested and the fifth (Ether) partially so. The text argues the Ancients were not ignorant of the heterogeneity of elements, discusses how atoms change on different planets, and describes how the Mother's breath sends out atoms scattered by Fohat toward planetary atmospheres. Commentary (b) identifies the seven wheels as the planetary chain. Verse 4 describes Fohat building worlds in the likeness of older wheels on the imperishable Centres: he collects fiery dust, makes balls of fire, infuses life, sets them in motion, alternately heating and cooling them, acting from one Twilight to the other during seven eternities. Commentary (a) states the Law for birth, growth, and decay is one across all Manvantaras. Commentary (b) explains that Fohat metamorphosed into male and female polarity, has seven sons who are his brothers, and is forced to be born whenever two son-brothers come into too close contact; he binds together those of unlike nature and separates those of similar temperaments, relating to the law of attraction and repulsion. The Seven Sons-brothers represent the seven forms of Cosmic magnetism called the Seven Radicals.

The text states that according to its teaching, the nearer a body is to the UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE, the more it approaches reality, being removed farther from the world of Maya. Though the molecular constitution of certain beings is not deducible from their manifestations on this plane, they possess a distinctive objective structure in the noumenal Universe. Occultism sees in their effects "Elemental" forces and in their direct causes intelligent DIVINE Workmen. The connection of these Elementals with elements of pure Matter results in terrestrial phenomena such as light, heat, and magnetism. The text rejects the American Substantialists' calling every Force an "Entity," using the analogy of noise from rolling wheels being confused with the driver and the Master Intelligence. The name "Entity" is given only to the ruling Dhyan Chohans. The Elementals are invisible secondary Causes and effects of primary Causes behind the Veil. Electricity, light, and heat are termed the "Ghost or Shadow of Matter in Motion." The simile is expanded: the sensation of light is like the sound of wheels; the proximate cause is the driver; behind these stand the Intelligences whose essence generates the Elementals. Fohat guides the transfer of principles from one planet to another. When a planet dies, its informing principles are transferred to a laya or sleeping centre, which is awakened into a new sidereal body. The text remarks that physicists confess ignorance of matter's true Nature yet judge it. The force in a living person's breath is also "a mode of motion" but emanates from the living Entity. Endowing matter with inherent Force creates a greater difficulty than accepting Nature-Spirits. The Occultists assert all Forces of Nature are differentiated aspects of Universal Motion. When Fohat produces "Seven Laya Centres," the GREAT LAW modifies its perpetual motion on seven invisible points. Laya is described as the Zero-point, the NOUMENON of the Seventh State of Force, the Noumenon of Undifferentiated Cosmic Substance. The text elucidates this with the image of two consecutive planes of matter and the transition between them. The Primordial Atom (anu) cannot be multiplied and is called "SUM TOTAL." What is the abyss of nothingness to the physicist is the boundless Space of the Divine Plenum to the Occultist. The text addresses the objection that Nature must run down, asking how active stellar systems exist if eternity allowed it to do so. The moon is only hypothetically dead. The idea of transformable energy ending rests on the fallacious conception of a Sun radiating without compensation. Nature runs down from the objective plane only to re-emerge after rest and reascend after every PRALAYA. Each atom has seven planes of being governed by specific laws. The Law of Analogy between trans-Solar and intra-Solar systems is the first key to Cosmic physics in Occult Science. With the 4th Sloka of Stanza VI, ends the portion relating to Universal Cosmogony after the last Mahapralaya. From this verse onwards, the Stanzas concern only the Solar System, planetary chains, and the history of the globe. Before presenting new theories, the text explains that they clash with modern science and contradict earlier statements by other Theosophists, a difference arising from incompleteness of information given to earlier writers. The text proposes a break for a bird's eye view of points pertaining to the Secret Doctrine.

The text notes that among eleven omitted Stanzas, one describes planetary chain formation after the first Cosmic and Atomic differentiation. Law is stated to be eternal and uncreated; Deity is Law. The eternal Law unfolds everything on a sevenfold principle, including chains of seven globes. Only the lowest globe is visible to terrestrial perception. Each chain is the reincarnation of a lower, dead chain. The seven sacred planets are each septenaries. The invisible companion globes correspond to the principles in Man, on three material and one spiritual plane, answering to three Upadhis and one Vahan. A diagram of correspondences is referenced. Descent into matter and the "struggle of life" are described. Pliny is said to have spoken more truly of Earth than Watts. The moon-as-projection theory is rejected. Planetary chains have "Days" and "Nights." The process of the lunar chain informing the terrestrial chain is described globe by globe. The Moon is described as a dead yet living body, vampirised by the Earth, with beneficent and maleficent emanations. Its metaphysical nature is declared an occult secret. Two systems of septenary division of man are presented, with a table comparing Buddhist and Vedantic classifications. Three distinct Upadhis are identified. A six-point summary covers the septenary teaching: everything is septenary; chains are formed by rebirth; Earth lives through seven Rounds; Humanity develops fully in the Fourth; each life-cycle has seven root-races; the first root-race were progeny of the Pitris. The misconception of "Fifth- and Sixth-Rounders" is addressed: Confucius and Plato are Fifth Rounders, Buddha and Sankaracharya Sixth, allegorically. Errors in "Esoteric Buddhism" are noted, including the mistaken identification of Mars and Mercury as visible globes of the terrestrial chain.

The text states that blame for a misunderstanding is attached to both the vagueness of the Master's answer and the learner's question. The question concerned which planets besides Mercury belong to the "system of worlds." The reply named Mars and four other planets unknown to astronomy, and stated that no companion planets from A to Z can be seen through physical means. The writer takes blame for possible bungling due to ignorance of English. The text declares that neither Mars nor Mercury belong to Earth's chain; they are septenary units among the chains of the Solar System. A letter from Mr. Sinnett's Teacher is quoted stating there are innumerable Manvantaric chains of globes bearing intelligent beings. The author of "Esoteric Buddhism" is noted as having understood the traditional mode of teaching by provoking perplexity. The text explains that no Theosophist could expect full explanation before initiation, and that what was revealed was merely the esoteric lining of exoteric Scriptures. Verbatim extracts from authoritative letters follow: Mars is in obscuration, Mercury beginning to emerge from it, Venus in her last Round. Phobos is declared no satellite at all, with reference to Laplace and Faye. Mars and Mercury are septenary chains independent of Earth's sidereal lords. Another letter answers a young Theosophist's objection that companion Earths must be only slightly less material: the Globe sits at the bottom of the arc of descent, and overshadowing globes are in co-adunition but not in consubstantiality with Earth. Only adepts can perceive higher planes. Advice is given to be prudent and not divulge great Truths to the present generation. The Master's letter to his two "lay chelas" is quoted, imagining Earth as one of a group of seven man-bearing worlds. The text notes that early confusion between "Rings" and "Rounds" produced mistakes. The Master's reply to questions about figures was to "solve the problem of 777 incarnations." Of the four Vidyas from the Puranas, only Atma-Vidya can throw final light on the other three. The doctrine of Monad evolution created perplexity through incomplete exposition. The text ends by proposing to examine and supplement two tenets from "Esoteric Buddhism."

The text addresses two statements from "Esoteric Buddhism" on the monads' evolution through the globes, noting they pass several times round the circle as minerals, vegetables, and animals. It comments on the secrecy of occult figures, quoting Sinnett, and states such figures cannot be given outside the circle of pledged chelas. The teachings on Globes and Monads are merged. Eastern philosophy rejects the Western dogma of a newly-created soul per baby; a finite number of Monads evolve through successive personalities in each Manvantara. Diagrams on p. 172 show the lunar-chain at the start of its seventh Round and the not-yet-existing earth-chain. Globes are lettered A to G. Monads are divided into seven hierarchies; when Class 7 appears on Globe A, Class 1 has passed to Globe B. In the Seventh Round, when Class 7 quits Globe A, that Globe dies and transfers its principles to a new laya-centre forming Globe A of the Earth Chain. Each lunar Globe similarly forms a corresponding earth-chain Globe. The Moon is the fourth Globe. Only Class 1 attains the human state in the first Round; the "Door" closes at the mid-Fourth Round. Later Monads reach the human stage only at the close of the seventh Round and form the humanity of a future Manvantara. The Monadic Host comprises three classes: the Pitris, those first to become men, and Karmic laggards. The internal evolution of Man is purely spiritual. Quotations from "Esoteric Buddhism" and "Five Years of Theosophy" explain the wave of evolution stopping at the Fourth Round, where Buddhi is wedded to the Atmic Ray. The Monad is defined as Atma-Buddhi. The text then addresses the Lunar Monads, stating the Moon is the gross body of invisible principles, that seven Moons exist, and that the Earth is in reality the Moon's satellite. The Pitris ooze out their astral doubles at the start of the Fourth Round's human stage, serving as the model for physical man.

The text explains that the Pitris endow "senseless" shells with "mind" in the latter part of the Third Root-Race, and that Monads of the seventh Round will inform laya-centres on a higher plane. A triple evolutionary scheme is identified: Monadic (spiritual), Intellectual, and Physical evolutions, described as finite reflections of ATMA. The Intellectual is represented by the Manasa-Dhyanis (Solar Devas, or Agnishwatta Pitris); the Physical by the Chhayas of the lunar Pitris. Nature can only create "senseless forms" and cannot evolve intelligence unaided; the Manasa-Dhyanis fill this gap as the link between Spirit and Matter. The text recapitulates stages of Monadic development: the most developed (lunar) Monads reach the human germ-stage in the first Round and become pioneers of Humanity in the Fourth Round; others reach the human stage in later Rounds; the most retarded will not become men during this Manvantara. The Fourth Globe is described as the fulcrum of the chain, the sphere of Karmic adjustment, after whose midpoint no more Monads can enter the human kingdom. A Commentary is quoted stating that every form on earth strives toward the model of the "HEAVENLY MAN," and that the Dhyanis evolved their doubles which became vehicles for monads completing their cycle in three preceding Rounds. The inner man was originally the external man, evolving from within without; now the human foetus recapitulates all prior forms. The text addresses the relationship between the Fourth Round and the Stanzas, noting that the Stanzas speak only of the Fourth Round. It then refutes the claim that "Esoteric Buddhism" taught Darwinian evolution, citing a statement that "Man belongs to a kingdom distinctly separate from that of the animals." A letter from the Master (Mr. Sinnett's "teacher") is discussed, describing man's progression through the Rounds: ethereal and superspiritual in the first, growing more physical in the second, assuming a giant-ape form in the third, and achieving enormous intellectual development in the fourth. The text concludes that the Third Race "men" created the "missing link" through connection with animal species, and that the Lemuro-Atlantean was a highly civilized race. The text returns to the Stanzas.

The text presents Stanza VI, Sloka 5: at the Fourth Round, the Sons are told to create their images; one third refuses, two thirds obey. A note states the full meaning requires the "Anthropogenesis" in Book II. Long ages separate this sloka from the preceding one; the planetary drama is at the beginning of its fourth act. A footnote explains "Fourth" may mean fourth Eternity, Fourth Round, or fourth Globe. A Commentary is quoted in which the holy youths refuse to create species after their likeness, declaring them unfit forms; selfish feeling prevails among the gods, and they fall under the eye of the Karmic Lipikas to suffer in later births. Stanza VI, Sloka 6 pronounces the Curse: the refusers will be born in the Fourth Race, suffer and cause suffering; this is the First War. A footnote clarifies the curse does not imply a personal agent but a Karmic cause leading to bad incarnations. Another identifies "many wars" as struggles of adjustment, chiefly concerning the evolution of man. The text discusses the "rebellious" Angel's claim to independent will, quoting Revelation 12 on the war in Heaven. It then presents the Kabalistic version from the Codex Nazareus: Bahak-Zivo fails to construct creatures and calls in Fetahil, who fails worse. The spirit of the Earth awakens Karabtanos, and the Spiritus conceives Seven Figures and seven stellars representing the seven capital sins. Fetahil creates the Earth by dipping his hand in chaos. Mano calls Kebar-Zivo and commiserates the rebellious Genii. Cabar-Zio produces seven cardinal virtues to counteract the seven badly disposed principles. The text describes the Astral Light as dual and bisexual, quoting Isis Unveiled. It identifies Jehovah with Ilda-Baoth, "the son of Darkness," as one of the Elohim who produces seven Stellar Spirits. The "Fallen Angels" legend is said to be pagan in origin, from India via Persia and Chaldea. The Stanza continues: the older wheels rotate downward and upward; the Mother's spawn fills the Kosmos; battles are fought between Creators and Destroyers. A footnote explains "Older wheels" as the Globes of the chain during previous Rounds, and references a comparative diagram of seven planes. Another footnote defines "Seed" as the World-germ, and describes the Central Sun causing Fohat to collect primordial dust, with world-germs colliding and aggregating until those that escape become worlds.

The text opens with an account of an experiment in which a lady, unaware of a meteorite particle placed on her forehead, describes matter "there" as refined and the "real existence" compared to the coarse matter here. The text then notes that modern speculative works on struggles for life in sidereal heaven exist, especially in German, and that the idea of Darwinian-like evolution was treated in "Isis Unveiled" and belongs to antiquity. The Wars in Heaven in the Puranas, the wars of the Titans, the struggles between Osiris and Typhon, and the Scandinavian battle of the Flames all refer to the same subject with astronomical, theogonical, and human meanings. The text then states that all worlds become first comets, then Suns, then inhabitable worlds, a teaching as old as the Rishis, illustrated by the parable of seven ascetics lighting incense at a festival. A nucleus of Cosmic matter is launched into Space, must conquer a place among fixed bodies, and many perish. The text then describes Fohat placing his four fiery Sons in the Four circles and seven sons over the hot and cold lokas at the poles, connecting this to the Aurora Borealis and the properties of Akasa. Stanza VI, verse 7, addresses Lanoo to calculate the age of the small wheel, whose fourth spoke is Earth. A footnote describes the seven fundamental transformations of globes and explains that the Teachers refuse to give the time of Earth's birth. Another footnote details the four grades of initiation and the three higher grades beyond the Arhan. The text then describes the "Initiator," the "GREAT SACRIFICE," who sits at the threshold of Light, and the "Sons of Wisdom" who produced the "Sons of Ad" by Kriyasakti in the Third Race. This Being is the Tree from which all great Sages branched off. The text concludes with a passage on the first awakening of consciousness in primitive man, where devotion arose as the first motor, quoted from Carlyle.

A being is called into being as a vehicle for incarnating denizens of higher spheres, a child of pure Spirit. It is likened to the Mundane Tree of Norse Legend, undecaying in heaven. He is the first of the FIRST, the Seed of divine Knowledge. The text asks how the physical body reaches perfection, answering through evolution but never from animals. Carlyle describes the essence of being as a breath of Heaven. Man alone possesses consciousness of the highest Being. Novalis, via Carlyle, calls the human body the only temple in the universe. A footnote links Hindu mysticism to the Third Race.

Stanza VII, verse 1, declares the beginning of sentient formless life: first the Divine (vehicle), the One from the Mother-Spirit (Atman); then the Spiritual (Atma-Buddhi); then the Three, Four, and Five from the One, from which the Three, Five, and Seven — the Mind-Born Sons of Avalokiteswara and the Shining Seven (the Builders) — who watch over Lanoo and Bhumi (the Earth). Note (a) explains the hierarchy's division into seven esoteric groups within twelve Orders, identifies the highest as the divine Flames or "Fiery Lions" hidden in Leo, and presents a Japanese Anthropo-Cosmogenesis in which three formless Beings appear from Chaos (Kon-ton), followed by discussion of the Zohar, Ain-Soph, Adam Kadmon, and the "Book of Numbers." Note (b) describes the Six-pointed Star as symbol of the Logos, the emanation from the "Heavenly Virgin" or Sephira-Adam-Kadmon, and the differentiation of primordial light into Fohat or the "Seven Sons." Note (c) details the second Order (Atma-Buddhi), the Japanese seven Spirits in sequence, and Tsanagi-Tsanami's descent and creation of dry land. Note (d) identifies the Third order as the "Triads" (Atma-Buddhi-Manas). Note (e) describes the Fourth as the "Imperishable Jivas," discusses the spiritual germ in the physical cell, and rejects the Darwinian theory of acquired faculties. Note (f) connects the Fifth group with the crocodile, Capricornus, Manas, and Egyptian esotericism, quoting the "Book of the Dead" on Sekhem and the "ancestral heart." Note (g) describes the sixth and seventh groups as ethereal Entities subject to Karma, denies the existence of privileged uncreated angels, and states that the "Four" and "Three" must incarnate as all other beings. Stanza VII, verse 2 begins: the One Ray multiplies smaller rays; life precedes form and survives the last atom; the life-ray is like a thread through many beads.

The text opens by explaining a sloka expressing the Vedantic conception of a life-thread, Sutratma, running through successive generations. It asks how this can be explained and resorts to a simile, asking whether it seems unnatural that a foetus evolves from an infinitesimally small ovum and spermatozoon into a six-foot man. A footnote identifies the relevant beings as the Flagae, Guardian Angels, or Pitris, equating them with the sixfold Dhyan Chohans. The text states that the two chief difficulties of embryology—forces at work in foetus formation and the cause of hereditary transmission—have never been properly answered. A footnote discusses Professor Weismann's theory of the Plasm, which determines the image of the future individual and transmits intellectual idiosyncrasies, and presents two ways of explaining heredity, noting Weismann accepted the latter. The text then presents the simile: completing the physical plasm with the "spiritual plasm" containing the five lower principles of the six-principled Dhyan yields the secret. A quote from "Anthropos" describes the Microcosm as a Pentagon within the Hexagon Star. The functions of Jiva are described as five-fold, ascending from mineral to man, where alone the Jiva is complete. Mankind is stated to be offspring of the Elohim of Life in its prototypal form, progeny of the lowest Dhyanis physically, and indebted to divine Beings spiritually. The text discusses the Fifth Race, the improvement of tabernacles at the expense of the spiritual inner man, and the distinction between Nephesch and Ruach. A footnote critiques the author of "New Aspects of Life" for identifying Spirit with breath of life. The Egyptian papyri are cited as speaking of the seven principles. The Book of the Dead is discussed regarding the Soul's immortality, the Tiaou, and the periodical existences of the Ego. Plutarch is referenced on the festival of Osiris's ingress into the moon. The Sun and Moon are described as Father and Son in the causative generation of Humanity. The text then moves to Stanza VII, verse (3), explaining that when the One Eternal drops its reflection into Manifestation, that reflection differentiates the "Water of Space," and Chaos becomes male-female, with the three-fold being issuing as First-born. The Egyptian Ra issuing from the DEEP is identified as the Divine Universal Soul in its manifested aspect, as is Narayana, the Purusha. The text concludes by stating that the Stanza's meaning in reference to the mystery of man and his origin is still more difficult to comprehend.

The text explains that understanding the One becoming two and then the "three-fold" requires acquaintance with "Rounds." A Round is the serial evolution of the seven globes of the chain with their mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms during a life-cycle. A footnote addresses critics who claim no septenary constitution was taught in "Isis Unveiled," citing passages from that work. The globe is the seventh and lowest on the chain, and the fourth in descending the arc of matter. One Round is one revolution of the "Wheel." In the middle of the Fourth Revolution, evolution has reached its acme of physical development in perfect physical man and begins its work spirit-ward. Each Round on the descending scale is a repetition in more concrete form of the preceding one; on the ascending arc, evolution spiritualises until the seventh globe is reached, when everything returns to its starting condition plus a new degree of consciousness. The work of each Round is apportioned to a different group of Dhyan-Chohans. The Sixth Hierarchy evolves only the shadowy form of man; the Fifth Hierarchy, presiding over Capricornus or Makara, informs that form to make Rational Man. The text states that many Spiritual Entities have incarnated in man and still exist independently in Space, and that an invisible Entity may be bodily present on earth without abandoning its supersensuous functions. Man is philosophically an animal, a living body rather than a living being, since self-consciousness is required for the realisation of existence. The soul could free itself from the body for various reasons. The Dhyanis, having no physical body, can do what Initiates can do still better. The Zoroastrians regarded their Amshaspends as dual entities (Ferouers); Damascius and Jamblichus are cited as supporting this duality. The Roman Catholic Church denounces the doubles as devils, but "ferouer" means simply the reverse or opposite side of an attribute — two aspects of the same Unity. The thread of being (Sutratma) animating man through all his personalities is spun from the essence of the "threefold," "fourfold," and "fivefold." Saptaparna, the seven-leaved plant, is compared to the seven principles of man. Stanza VII, verse 4 is quoted: the root that never dies is the three-tongued flame of the four wicks. The three-tongued flame is the immortal spiritual triad — Atma-Buddhi and Manas; the four wicks are the four lower principles including the body. The sparks drawn from the flame are compared to evanescent personalities twinkling on the waves of Maya during a Manvantara, after which the beams — symbols of the eternal Spiritual Egos — alone survive, re-merged with the Mother-Source.

The text continues Stanza VII with verse (5), in which the Spark hangs from the Flame by the thread of Fohat and journeys through the seven Worlds of Maya, passing from metal and stone in the first Kingdom to plant in the second, then through seven forms to a sacred animal described as the first shadow of the physical man. From these combined attributes, Manu (man), the Thinker, is formed by the Seven Lives and the One Life; the Fivefold Lha completes him; Fish, Sin, and Soma perfect the last body. A footnote identifies the seven Worlds of Maya as the seven globes and seven rounds (49 stations) before the Monad at the beginning of each Manvantara, and identifies the Spark as JIVA, the MONAD in conjunction with MANAS, hanging from Atma-Buddhi. The text states this doctrine is supported by all ancient religions from the Vedic to the Egyptian, Zoroastrian, and Jewish, and that Kabalistic numerals are based on the divine septenary hanging from the Triad. Quotations from the Zohar, the Sephra Dzenioutha, and the Chaldean Book of Numbers describe the ten Sephiroth corresponding to the limbs of MAN, the formation of Adam Kadmon, and the six-by-six formation of worlds with Malkuth as the seventh. The text explains that Malkuth is both the Seventh and Fourth world, generated by Yezod, and shown as the Bride of Microprosopus. "Sabbath" is defined as a period equal in duration to the seven "days," equivalent to a pralaya. The difference between the Kabala of the Chaldean Book of Numbers and the archaic esoteric Vidya is stated to be very small. Shinto creation accounts are cited, with the "gods" identified as the five races. Eliphas Levi's septenary diagram is referenced. A tabular comparison is presented between Kabalistic, Occult, and Esoteric Pneumatics across seven and then four points. Footnote (b) quotes the Kabalistic aphorism that a stone becomes a plant, a plant a beast, a beast a man, a man a spirit, and a spirit a god. The Monad is described as shot by Evolution into mineral matter, then through vegetable and animal forms to the germ of physical man, remaining formless and senseless up to the Third Round. The monad requires a spiritual model and an intelligent consciousness; the Pitris meet the incarnating monad and blend Spirit and Matter to produce Perfect Man. The Celestial Ancestors (Sishta) then step in for the formation of divine man, as the Pitris had for animal man. The text concludes by stating that Occultism does not accept anything inorganic in the Kosmos.

The text asserts that all is Life and every atom of mineral dust is a Life beyond human comprehension. Tyndall is quoted saying atoms seem instinct with a desire for life. A Commentary states that to the profane, worlds are built of known Elements, but to an Arhat these Elements are collectively a divine Life and distributively countless lives; Fire alone is ONE on the plane of the One Reality, while on the manifested plane its particles are fiery lives called "DEVOURERS." From the ONE LIFE formless and Uncreate proceeds the Universe of lives: cold luminous fire forms curds in Space, collision produces rotation, then Fire, comets, vapour, solid water, mist, and solid watery wheels (MATTER globes) appear; Bhumi (Earth) appears with six sisters, and from their motion WATER and AIR are born. These four are the lives of the first four Rounds of Manvantara. The First Round developed one Element ("one-dimensional Space"); the Second Round brought forth two Elements (Fire and Earth) and a "two-dimensional species." The text discusses the "fourth dimension of Space" as an abbreviation for a fourth dimension of matter, arguing that the three spatial dimensions belong to one characteristic of matter (extension), and that further characteristics such as permeability would correspond to further human senses. Returning to the Rounds, the third perceived Water and the fourth added Earth. None of the elements were as they are now in preceding Rounds: Fire may have been pure AKASA, AIR was Nitrogen, and WATER the primordial fluid for making a living soul. The text addresses Genesis, calling "Heaven and Earth" a mistranslation of the duplex Heaven, and notes the same order of creation in both the Elohistic and Jehovistic chapters. Eliphas Levi's identification of the Astral Light with Akasa is rejected; the Astral Light is only the reflector of all things, not their container, and corresponds to the lowest plane of Ether whose noumenon is Akasa. Levi is rebuked for claiming the Indian Hierophants identified the Astral Light with the immortal Spirit. The text argues that Pradhana is synonymous with Mulaprakriti and Akasa, and that "sound" in the Vishnu Purana refers to the Logos. MAHAT, the first product of Pradhana, is the Logos and divine mind in creative operation. The Occultists refuse to name Akasa either Astral Light or Ether, contrasting "In my Father's house are many mansions" with the occult saying of seven mansions in the Mother's house. The fifth Element, Ether, will appear only in the fifth Round.

The text opens with a reference to the Vishnu Purana on the seven forms of nature from Mahat to Earth, noting the considerable difference between Mahat and the lower elements, and referencing Hegel's conception of Nature as perpetual becoming. It states that Creation in the Christian sense is unthinkable, quoting that God objectivises himself as Nature and rises out of it. The text then discusses a future Round in which permeability of matter becomes manifest, densest forms seeming like thick fog. Returning to the life-cycle, attention turns to the earth, which in the first Round is built up by "Devourers" who disintegrate and differentiate germs of other lives in the Elements. Occultism is said to dispose of the Azoic age, asserting that wherever matter exists, life exists, however latent. A quote from the Book of Dzyan identifies Spirit and Matter as two States of the ONE, with Spirit as first differentiation in Space and Matter as first differentiation of Spirit. The "Devourers" differentiate fire-atoms into life-germs, which produce lives working on the globe's structure. In the first Round the globe has no solidity, only cold brightness; towards its end it develops fire. The Earth's first rupa is the Akasic principle, identified with Astral Light, which Eliphas Levi calls "the imagination of Nature." A footnote critiques Levi's contradictory treatment of this subject. The Second Round brings Air; the Third, Water; the Fourth transforms the globe into a hard sphere. The globe is said to be in its Kamarupic state, and the text argues that the human body is built by countless lives, as is the Earth's crust. It contrasts Science's discovery of microbes with the occult teaching that all bodies are composed of invisible lives, each particle being both life-giving and death-giving. An example is given of ptomaine yielding orange-blossom scent. The knowledge of primary causes constitutes the basis of Magic; Paracelsus is named as the only European Occultist versed in this mystery, cut short by a criminal hand. The text then addresses the symbols "Fish, Sin and Moon" from the Stanza, connecting them to the Matsya Avatar, Oannes, Pisces, and the Fall of Spirit into matter. Lunar symbology is traced through Judaism to Egypt and India, with the Holy of Holies identified as a symbol of the womb. Stanza VII, verse 6, states that the thread between the Silent Watcher and his shadow strengthens with every re-incarnation; the Watcher and his Shadows are one. Stanza VII, verse 7, has the Flame address the Spark as its own image and shadow, its vehicle until the day of re-becoming. The annotation explains that in Paranirvana everything merges in the divine unity, which is neither annihilation nor atheism, and that the monad will re-emerge on a higher plane. The "Builders" are identified as the Watchers who descended and reigned over men during the Satya Yuga and subsequent periods, with the Dhyani-Buddhas furnishing races with divine kings and leaders.

Seven natures from spiritual to material evolve cyclically in a double centrifugal and centripetal way. The lowest depends on the five physical senses. This applies to all life and to the Universe, which manifests periodically. Every cosmic atom descends to matter then reascends, reaching the plane where it re-becomes the unconditioned ALL. The Pilgrim descends into matter, identifies with Humanity made in his own image, ascends the Golgotha of Life, sacrifices himself like Visvakarman to redeem all creatures, reaches Paranirvana, and will re-descend at the next coming, expected by some as the second advent, by others as the last Kalki Avatar.

The text opens with a quotation from T. Subba Row stating that the History of Creation comprises seven chapters, the seventh not yet written. The first chapter is declared finished, described as an approximation to the oldest basis for subsequent Cosmogonies. No European language save Sanskrit can adequately render the subject, and the material is not found in full in any of the six Indian schools of philosophy, on Egyptian papyri, or on Assyrian walls. The Vedanta gives only the metaphysical aspect; the Upanishads require a Master-key for full meaning. The Upanishads are described as part of the Sruti, attached to the Brahmana portion of the Vedas. Over 150 are enumerated by Orientalists, but less than a fifth are genuine. They are to the Vedas what the Kabala is to the Jewish Bible, treating of the origin of the Universe, Deity, Spirit, and Soul. They contain the beginning and end of all human knowledge but have ceased to reveal it since the day of Buddha. Half their contents have been eliminated and some rewritten. A tradition is recorded that the Upanishads were complete and used for the instruction of chelas preparing for initiation, until Gautama, Prince of Kapilavastu, learned the Brahmanical wisdom and determined to popularize it. The Brahmins then abridged the texts, detaching the most important portions without altering a word, so that the key to the secret code remained with the initiates alone. Sri Sankaracharya is named as the greatest Initiate of historical ages, who wrote Bhashyas on the Upanishads preserved in his mathams. The Smartava Brahmins, his sect, are noted as almost the only ones to produce students who can comprehend them. The text then recapitulates the system in numbered points: (1) The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, verified by independent visions of great adepts over countless generations. (2) The fundamental Law is the One homogeneous divine Substance-Principle, omnipresent and impersonal. (3) The Universe is the periodical manifestation of this Absolute Essence, which is neither Spirit nor matter but both; Parabrahmam and Mulaprakriti are One in reality, two in conception. (4) The Universe is MAYA, all temporary. (5) Everything in the Universe is conscious. (6) The Universe is worked from within outwards, guided by Hierarchies of sentient Beings (Dhyan-Chohans), who are perfected or incipient men, agents of Karmic and Cosmic Laws, possessing no individuality as separate entities. Every "Spirit" is either a disembodied or a future man. The whole order of nature evinces a progressive march toward higher life, manipulated by Elementals guided by Dhyan Chohans, whose collective aggregate forms the manifested verbum of the unmanifested LOGOS. Three representations of the Universe are given: Pre-existing, Ever-existing, and Phenomenal. The text concludes by stating it holds to Hermes and his Wisdom while opponents hold to Aristotle, and hence the disagreement.

The text opens with a quotation attributed to Hermes distinguishing Knowledge from sense, emphasizing the contrast between laboriously acquired sensory knowledge and the intuitive omniscience of Buddhi. The text then states its hope of having proven several facts. First, the Secret Doctrine teaches no Atheism except in the Hindu sense of nastika, the rejection of idols and anthropomorphic gods; every Occultist is thus a Nastika. Second, it admits a Logos or collective Creator — a Demiurgos who furnishes the plan of the Universe through Ideation while leaving constructive labour to Hosts of intelligent Powers and Forces; this Demiurgos is no personal deity but the aggregate of the Dhyan-Chohans and other forces. Third, these forces are dual in character: irrational brute energy inherent in matter, and the intelligent cosmic consciousness that directs it. Neither the collective Host nor any individual power is a proper subject for divine worship, though all are entitled to grateful reverence. Only the unknowable Karana, the Causeless Cause, should have its shrine in the heart. Fourth, Matter is Eternal and serves as the Upadhi for the Universal Mind; Esotericists maintain there is no dead matter in nature. The text then discusses Hermes's teaching that matter is the vehicle of becoming, and quotes Paracelsus on the universality of life in nature. Fifth, the Universe evolved from its ideal plan upheld in the unconsciousness of Parabrahm. The text compares this to Plato and Von Hartmann, and notes that Herbert Spencer's "unknowable" bears only faint resemblance to the Occultist's transcendental Reality. The text explains that the active Power awakens Kosmos at the dawn of each Period, transferring it from the Noumenal to the Phenomenal plane. Human forms have existed eternally as astral prototypes, and man's outward shell passed through every vegetable and animal body before assuming human shape. The text then discusses Paracelsus's Yliaster as primordial matter that evolved the Kosmos, identifying it with "Father-Mother" of the Stanzas and with Aditi-Prakriti. It describes how Ares (Fohat) produced the elements by spiritual combinations, and compares this with the Vishnu Purana. The text asserts the identity of fundamental truths between Hinduism and Hermetism, citing a Hermetic invocation and contrasting it with Trismegistos's declaration that God cannot be spoken of, concluding that Hermes was a generic nom-de-plume. A Hindu invocation to Vishnu from the Vishnu Purana is then quoted. The text notes both invocations suggest an anthropomorphic Being to the profane. A Hermetic passage on the unreality of appearances is cited. The text states the Secret Doctrine teaches the universe is ruled by intelligent and semi-intelligent Forces, and positions Occultists and Kabalists as the only rational expounders of ancient traditions against Theology, Science, and Spiritualism. The text then turns to comparing the Hermetic Fragments, as compiled by Mrs. A. Kingsford, with Esoteric philosophy. A footnote explains the correspondence between Hermetic terms and Esoteric ones. The text concludes with extracts from a private commentary describing the Initial Existence in the first twilight of the Maha-Manwantara as a conscious spiritual quality on the Seventh Plane in its Seventh State, and stating it is Substance to spiritual sight.

The text states that a substance existing everywhere forms the first UPADHI on which the solar system is built, found in pristine purity between the stars, with worlds in LAYA resting in its bosom. Inhabitants of earth, seeing through it, believe in illusion it is empty space, though no void space exists. Matter is septenary, each state graduated into seven degrees of density. SURYA exhibits the lowest state of the seventh principle of the Universal PRESENCE; central Suns are reflections of their PRIMARIES, visible only to Dhyan Chohans. The concealed Sun is a nucleus of Mother substance, the matrix of all Forces in the solar universe. The Seven Beings in the Sun are the Seven Holy Ones, Self-born from the matrix, who send the Seven Principal Forces that will centre into seven new Suns at the beginning of Pralaya. The Initial existence, the ONE LIFE, manifests in seven states with septenary subdivisions, the FORTY-NINE Fires. The "Mother" (prima MATERIA) proceeds cyclically, and its seventh emanation of the last principle operates in each hierarchy: mineral, plant, animal, and man, in whom it develops the reflection of all FORTY-NINE Fires. The text then cites Subba Row's enumeration of six Sakti—PARASAKTI, JNANASAKTI, ITCHASAKTI, KRIYASAKTI, KUNDALINI SAKTI, and MANTRIKA-SAKTI—synthesized by the Seventh. It quotes Hermes on the Sun's continuous creation of Life and the choirs of genii who preside over mundane affairs and direct all men except those illumined by a ray of God. The text identifies these genii universally as ILLUSION, clarifies the metaphysical sense of this term, and argues that Esoteric teachings oppose materialists who deny objective being to Force, Light, and Sound. It asserts Theosophists recognize science's intrinsic value but protest when consciousness is resolved into brain secretion. It predicts that Occult truths will eventually be forced upon Science, which will appropriate them under new names, as with Mesmerism. The text quotes Buckle on the ripening of minds for new philosophies, states the Fifth Race will continue to ridicule Occult Sciences, and announces that the Addendum will examine the Forces, the Solar orb, Gravitation, and the Natures of Ether and Elements.

The text states the writer first repeated the Kabalists' Commandments in the Esoteric Catechism fifteen years ago. A Sepher Jezireh passage commands closing mouth and heart against the mystery. A Rules of Initiation quote calls the secret death-giving, commanding silence before the vulgar. A corner of the Veil of Isis was lifted later; now a larger rent is made. Old errors, marshalled by conservatism, conceit, and prejudice, stand ready to strangle truth awakening from sleep, as since man became animal. This proves moral death to revealers and gives regeneration to the fit.

The page presents a table of contents for Book I, Part II, listing fifteen sections. Section I, "Symbolism and Ideographs," opens with a Carlyle quotation on symbols as revelations of the God-like. The writer states that studying hidden meanings in legends has occupied the greater portion of her life, and that no mythological story has ever been pure fiction but has an actual historical lining. She disagrees with symbologists who reduce mythologies to solar myths. A lengthy quotation from Gerald Massey's lecture "Luniolatry, Ancient and Modern" follows, criticizing Max Müller, Renouf, Cox, and Gubernatis for portraying primitive man as a fool of fancy, and arguing that mythology was a primitive mode of thinking founded on natural facts. Massey gives the example of the Egyptian moon-as-cat: the cat was adopted as a natural sign of the lunar orb because it sees in the dark, and the Egyptian word for cat (mau) means "the seer." The text notes that Selenography is the least esoteric division of lunar symbology and coins the term "Selenognosis." It states that without symbology no ancient Scripture can be correctly understood, and that every symbol is a many-faced diamond relating to several sciences. The distinction between emblem and symbol is drawn, citing Kenneth Mackenzie: a symbol illustrates a single special idea, while an emblem comprises a larger series of thoughts unfolding an idea in panoramic views. The Puranas and the Bible are identified as written emblems. The text addresses why adepts do not reveal all they know, noting that no man of science will accept the facts imparted. It explains that the spoken word has a magical potency related to the four Elements, and that historical events were never narrated in plain words lest connected powers be attracted; they were recorded in symbols. The Chinese alphabet is described as a system of logograms with no true letters. The text acknowledges Ralston Skinner of Cincinnati for discovering the chief key to ancient Hebrew symbology interwoven with metrology. A quotation from Skinner describes an ancient language whose letters possessed the powers of numbers, geometrical shapes, and ideographs, concealed within ordinary speech. The text clarifies that "divine origin" means a language and science imparted to early mankind by a more advanced mankind from other spheres, not revelation from an anthropomorphic god. It closes by speculating that divine Egos may become instructors of a new mankind on a new globe, and that these records lie embedded in the "Mystery language" of prehistoric ages.

The text states that recent discoveries by mathematicians and Kabalists prove every theology has sprung from a common source and one universal esoteric "Mystery" language. This language has seven "dialects," each referring to one of the seven mysteries of Nature, each with its own symbolism. The proof lies in the difficulty Orientalists experience interpreting Aryan and Egyptian records. The language was once universal, now intelligible only to the few. Several men have tried to re-establish such a tongue; Demaimieux alone has proven its possibility. The facets of this language led to varied Church dogmas, including the seven Sacraments and the Trinity. The seven keys were kept by the highest Hierophants; only partial knowledge passed through the treason of early Church Fathers into the hands of the Nazarenes. India is maintained to be the only country still possessing adepts with knowledge of all seven sub-systems. Egypt lost keys after the fall of Memphis; the Hebrews never had the higher keys. A passage from M. Gaston Maspero on the multiplicity of Egyptian religions is quoted and partially rejected: the text holds the esoteric was never altered, only forgotten. The seventeenth chapter of the Book of the Dead is analyzed in five points, showing Osiris as creative force, annihilator of evil, creator of fourteen gods, the Law of existence, and lord of the Seven Luminous ones. The Jewish system of sacred measures is identified as identical with those of Chaldea, Greece, and Egypt. The Parker ratio and its connection to the Great Pyramid are discussed. Petrie's and Proctor's opposition to Piazzi Smyth's measurements is noted, alongside Staniland Wake's defense. The cycle of Initiation is described as a miniature reproduction of the sidereal year. Moses is said to have based the tabernacle on the same formula; Solomon's Temple is called an allegory that never had real existence. Mathematicians are quoted as rejecting Parker's reasoning. The text concludes that no Scripture possesses the full key, that Eastern Occultism alone has the complete secret, and that the rediscovered two keys will demonstrate the system mathematically.

The text continues a discussion of views of nature and man on the authority of celestial bodies. A note states that had Mr. Staniland Wake been a Theosophist, he might have added that the narrow upward passage to the King's chamber in a pyramid had a "narrow gate," the same "strait gate" alluded to by Jesus in Matthew vii. 13, and that it is this gate in the Initiation temple the writer of Initiate words was thinking of. Another note states that what was said in Isis is now corroborated in "The Egyptian Mystery; or The Source of Measures" by readings of the Bible with numerical and geometrical keys. The text states that phallic symbols became offensive only due to materiality and animality added later. They originated with archaic races issuing from an androgyne ancestry, who first perceived the separation of sexes. The Semitic tribe is described as a small branchlet from the commingling of the 4th and 5th sub-races after the sinking of the great Continent. The text asserts that Ezra remodelled the whole Pentateuch and that the glyph of Pharaoh's daughter, the Nile, and the baby in the ark was anticipated in Babylonian fragments concerning King Sargon, who lived far earlier than Moses. The logical inference drawn is that Ezra learned the story at Babylon and applied the Sargon allegory to the Jewish lawgiver. The Sargon tablet text is quoted in full (lines 1–8), followed by the parallel passage from Exodus ii. A footnote quotes Mr. George Smith on the Sargon fragment found at Kouyunjik and notes the coincidence between Sippara and Zipporah. The text then argues that the Bible's secret system connects with Indian, Chaldean, and Egyptian symbolism, and that biblical glyphs and numbers derive from astronomical observation. It identifies the most archaic Eastern Esoteric symbols as a circle, point, triangle, plane, cube, pentacle, and hexagon. Every Cosmogony, it states, began with these forms up to number 9, synthesized by the Pythagorean mystic Decade. The numbers 3 and 4, the triangle and cube, are described as the male and female universal glyph, stamped in the Southern Cross and the Egyptian Crux-Ansata. A quoted passage explains the cube unfolded as a cross, the ansated cross, the golden candlestick, and the seven days of the week, concluding that the symbol is completed by the attachment of a man to the cross. The text then cites evidence of identical symbols in Egypt, Peru, Mexico, Easter Island, India, Chaldea, and Central Asia. Quoted passages describe Cyclopean statues on Easter Island bearing the ansated cross, carvings in South America showing a man transformed into a cross, and Aztec astronomical knowledge including a pyramid at Papantla with 318 niches. The text then turns to the problem of human antiquity, stating that ethnology finds it impossible to account for racial varieties without the hypothesis of several Adams. It quotes an anonymous author of "Primeval Man" who argues that Adam was not the first man, that pre-Adamic races existed, and identifies them as the Satanic race. The text notes that these pre-Adamic races are mentioned in the Bible when read esoterically, as in the Secret Doctrine, and that the SEVEN KEYS open the mysteries of the seven Root Races.

The text opens with a quotation from Alexander Bain's "Logic" on representative fictions. It identifies Ether as one of the lower principles of Primordial Substance (Akasa), a "representative fiction" of modern science, though for Occultists it is a reality. Ether is equated with the Astral Light; Primordial Substance with Akasa, the Upadhi of Divine Thought. In modern terms these become Cosmic Ideation (Spirit) and Cosmic Substance (Matter), two facets of one Absolute Existence. The God-Idea is said to evolve with man's intellectual evolution; philosophers required initiation into "perceptive mysteries" to grasp the ancients' correct idea. Herbert Spencer's treatment of the "Unknowable" is cited as showing materialistic influence. The Hellenes alone raised a public altar to the Unknown God, distinguished from Jehovah. Divine Thought is indefinable except through manifestations of Cosmic Substance. Its symbol is boundless darkness with a first central white point, signifying coeval Spirit-Matter before differentiation. When "the one becomes two," Spirit refers to consciousness, Matter to pure objectivity. During Universal Pralaya, Cosmic Ideation is nonexistent; upon Manvantaric re-awakening, absolute wisdom mirrors itself in Ideation, producing Cosmic Energy (Fohat), which impels Substance through Seven planes, yielding Seven Protyles (Seven Prakriti). The mutual inter-dependence of Substance and Ideation is affirmed. From the standpoint of highest metaphysics, the whole Universe, gods included, is an illusion, differing on each plane. The primordial Substance is the upadhi of every phenomenon, referenced in Genesis, Chaldean, Indian, and Egyptian cosmogonies. A quotation from the Taittiriya Upanishad traces evolution from Intelligence associated with Ignorance through Ether, air, heat, water, and earth. The Church's identification of Ether as abode of fallen angels is noted. Zoroaster and Psellus are cited on the formless state of sacred fire. Anaxagoras is mentioned as holding an Occult teaching on Ether. The text turns to the Laws of Manu, quoting the Self-existent Lord creating water and the golden Egg, from which Brahma forms heaven, earth, and sky. Medhatithi's commentary is discussed regarding the septenary principle, the dual nature of Manas, and its relationship to Ahamkara and Atma-Buddhi.

The text presents two readings of verse 16: one with "Atmamatrasu" and another with "matra-Chit" according to Medhatithi, stating the latter is correct since the Self constitutes the seventh principle, the synthesis of the six. The editor of the Manava-dharma Shastra is noted as having entered deeper into the philosophy than Dr. Burnell, translator of the "Ordinances of Manu." The editor rejects Kulluka's tanmatra and atmamatrasu, identifying the six as manas plus the five principles of Ether, air, fire, water, and earth, and corrects verse 17 by reading "Elements" as portions or principles. Verse 19 is cited, with Medhatithi's commentary identifying the five elements plus Manas and Ahamkara. Verse 20 confirms these constitute the "seven purusha," called the "Seven Prakritis" in the Puranas. Brahma is described as issuing from the golden egg, uniting male and female principles, being the same as all creative Protologoi. The text states that popular gods are not the true Deity but rungs of the septenary ladder of Divine Consciousness. Ain-Soph manifests through the Seven Letters of Jehovah's name. In Sankhya, mahat, ahamkara, and the five tanmatras are the seven Prakritis. The Mosaic books, read by the aid of the Kabala, are said to contain occult knowledge. The first verses of Genesis are analyzed: "God" commands another "god" who obeys; the Spirit of God is identified as Nara-yana or Vishnu. In the Kabala, "light" denotes Adam Kadmon or the Sephira; in the Chaldean "Book of Numbers," the secondary angels. That which commands is the eternal Law; he who obeys is the Elohim. The Sepher Jezireh is cited: the Divine Substance emitted the Spirit; from the triple ONE emanated the Kosmos in sequence—TWO (Air), THREE (Water), and Ether or Fire completing the Arba-il. The Zohar's account of the Concealed making a point and covering it with a garment (the world) is quoted. The "living Fire" is identified with Vital Electricity. The Zohar's "white hidden fire" in the Resha trivrah flows in 370 currents; the Siphrah Dzenioota's Serpent becomes three spirits (Atma-Buddhi-Manas) when Metatron is raised. Spirit and Cosmic Substance are stated to be one. The Ether of science constitutes the material from which the "Builders" fashion systems. A. R. Wallace is cited as admitting the guiding action of "higher intelligences." The whole Kosmos is said to have sprung from the DIVINE THOUGHT, which impregnates matter co-eternal with the ONE REALITY (Parabrahm = Mulaprakriti). The dodecahedron figure and twelve thousand years of creation are mentioned, with the secret computation reading these as years of Brahma. Sanchoniathon's Cosmogony is cited. Various fire-gods and dual deities are listed. The text concludes that occult Science holds the Key to all world problems, and that in antiquity there was one language, one knowledge, and one universal religion, under the same TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.

Chaos, Theos, Kosmos contain Space, defined by a Kabalist as "the all containing uncontained" and "the Unknown FIRST CAUSE." Space is the Universe's body with seven principles, each a septenary. No one has seen the Elements in fulness; wisdom lies in primeval peoples' expressions. Jewish Kabalism includes the seven-headed Serpent of Space and Alhim creating six Sephiroth. Wind, Air, Spirit are synonymous across nations. Science's Forces are material effects of four primordial Elements transmitted by the 4th Race. Chaos is senseless, containing all Elements undifferentiated; Chaos and Space are synonymous. Ether synthesizes the four elements, identified with Hindu Akasa. Isis Unveiled states materialism and theology err on ether; Aryan, Hermetic, Orphic, Pythagorean, Sanchoniathon, Berosus doctrines rest on aether and chaos as primeval principles producing the first androgynous deity. Peripatetics' "Nature abhors Vacuum" is cited; vacuum equals Ain-Soph, great Nothingness, or CHAOS. The highest Deity built the Universe as Dodecahedron; its "first begotten" is Tetragrammaton atop Seven lower Sephiroth (Chaldean belief). Philo the Jew quotes Chaldean view that Kosmos is a single point containing God. Chaos-Theos-Kosmos are three aspects of SPACE, the One Unknown Space. Cosmogonic traditions: Brahma from the Deep with ayana; Vishnu on Ananta-Sesha; Pythagorean triad as four-faced Brahma; Manu on Being-Purusha; Kneph; Scandinavian honey dew; Oannes; Moses on earth and water; Popol-Vuh; Brahma creating Muni from water, air, earth; alchemists' primordial substance; Paracelsus's homunculi; Thales on water; Job on Rephaim; Polier's Brahma floating on waters, hearing voice directing to Bhagavat, emerging as light. Zohar: primordial elements form the VOICE of the WILL. Architects synthesized by Demiurgos are collective Theos. Progression: Alhim, Jahva-Alhim, Jehovah. Theoi are Movers and Messengers; "God" traced from phallic sources through Aryan Dyaus, Greek Bacchus, Hebrew Yodh. Triple deity is male/female, good/evil, positive/negative, incognizable in pralaya, knowable only in active functions. It produces four primary Elements, known on Earth as seven, each with forty-nine sub-elements. Ibn Gebirol on seven heavens, seven earths. Churning of the Ocean: Amrita and Visha latent in Seven Oceans. Plato's Kosmos is "the Son" of Divine Thought and Matter. Dunlap on two Horus figures; Chaldean oracles on "winding form"; Vishnu as ideal Cause of Potencies.

The text opens by stating that the Logos or Creative deity must be traced to its ultimate source. In India, it is a Proteus of 1,008 divine names and aspects, from Brahma-Purusha through the Seven Rishis and ten Prajapati to the Avatars. The same problem of "One in many" is found in Egyptian, Greek, and Chaldeo-Judaic pantheons. In the Zohar, En-Soph is the ONE and infinite Unity. Valentinus and the Basilidians are quoted on AION and the hierarchy of emanations. True Esoteric philosophy describes these as aspects of the Absolute, not evolutions. The text discusses the Sephirothal aspects, the Zohar's modifications under Christian Mystics, and identifies the Logos/DABAR as a nought, "No-thing." Deity is declared to be NOTHING and DARKNESS. Marcus, chief of the Marcosians, is discussed at length: his teaching of four syllables (totaling thirty letters) is explained esoterically as a Triad and Quaternary making seven. His Revelation is quoted, in which the Supreme Tetrad appears in female form, explained as a symbol for Esoteric Philosophy. The Sephirothal Tree is identified with the Universe; the ten Sephiroths are divided into a spiritual Triad and a lower Septenary. The first Jewish triad (Sephira, Chochmah, Binah) is equated with the Hindu Trimurti. Phta is identified with AEsculapius, Apollo, and others, and with the Anima Mundi. KNEPH is described with its snake-emblem. En-Soph cannot create while within Oulom; it becomes finite through its ray penetrating the mundane egg. Sephira emerges as the Primordial Point, androgyne, "Father and Mother Aditi." The Zohar's Indivisible Point is quoted. The androgynous Principle and its emanations represent the Archetypal man. The Chinese Cosmogony (Tsi-tsai) and the Chaldaean Anu are cited as parallels. The Akkadian Genesis verses are quoted. The goose and swan symbols are discussed as representing the mundane egg, with references to the Crusaders, Egyptian Seb, and Mrs. Lydia Maria Child's remarks on the reverence of generative symbols.

The text opens by asking whence the universal symbol of the Egg comes, stating it was incorporated as a sacred sign in the cosmogony of every people, revered for its form and inner mystery. The development of the germ within the shell is described as a standing miracle. The First Cause, having no name in the beginnings, was later pictured as an invisible Bird that dropped an Egg into Chaos, which becomes the Universe; Brahm was called Kalahansa, the Swan of Eternity, who lays a Golden Egg at the beginning of each Mahamanvantara. The Egg's form as Circle and Sphere, matching the globe, is given as a second reason for its adoption. The text then surveys the Egg in Egyptian, Greek, and Indian sources: Seb is said to have laid an egg or the Universe; Ra is shown gestating in the Egg; the Orphic Egg is described by Aristophanes and shown by Porphyry as a representation of the world; the Vishnu Purana describes the egg containing continents, seas, mountains, gods, demons, and mankind. The first visible male being in both Greece and India abode in and issued from the egg; this was Dionysius with some Greeks. The text then shifts to decimal notation, arguing that the number 10, as unit and cipher, was known to the Pythagoreans and to the earliest archaic ages, citing Aristotle and Boethius. It moves to the ibis as sacred to Isis and Thoth, its role in destroying serpents and crocodile eggs, and the esoteric identification with Hermes. The four evangelist animals are identified as symbols of the four elements and four lower principles in man. The serpent, being oviparous, becomes a symbol of wisdom and the Logoi; the Brazen Serpent is interpreted as a phallic symbol rather than a reference to Christ. The Mundane Egg in Khnoom and Phtah is discussed, and the Egg is identified as the Devachan. The Scandinavian cosmogony from the Voluspa describes the Mundane egg in Ginnungagap, the creation of Ymir and Audhumla. The text closes by noting the same archaic thought persists from the Druid's anguinum to the Easter Egg.

The section defines the "Days and Nights of Brahma" as the Manvantaras (active periods) and Pralayas (dissolution), also called Kalpas and Maha Kalpas, which are infinite with no first or last. One Parardha of Brahma's existence has expired; the last Kalpa was Padma, the present one Varaha. A footnote explains the Buddhist allegory of Buddha dying of pork indigestion as referring to the Varaha-Kalpa and Brahminism's destruction of Buddhism. The text advises that Puranic statements about Manvantaras must be understood in their several references, relating to both great and small cycles. The Matsya Avatar preceded the Varaha, and the Matsya Avatar and Vaivasvata's Deluge connect to a distant geological period. After the first geological disturbance that sank the second Continent (Atlantis being the fourth), a second disturbance occurred. Yudhishthira, described as an actual king who lived 3,102 years B.C., applies also to the Deluge at Atlantis's first sinking. The text criticizes Orientalists for failing to unravel Hindu chronology. Three kinds of pralaya are described: Naimittika (incidental, at intervals of Brahma's Days), Prakritika (at the end of Brahma's life), and Atiyantika (individual Nirvana). A fourth, Nitya, is constant imperceptible dissolution. The Maha Pralaya lasts 311,040,000,000,000 years. When it arrives, beings migrate through Swar-loka, Maharloka, and Jana-loka. Clouds quench fires and rain for a hundred divine years, deluging the Solar System. The Universal Spirit then sleeps upon Sesha. The Elemental Dissolution is described: waters swallow earth, fire destroys waters, wind seizes fire, Ether seizes air, and so on until all merge. The Egg of Brahma is dissolved through successive absorption into Prakriti and finally Supreme Spirit. The Creative Force is Eternal as Noumenon but has beginning and end as manifestation. A Zohar passage is quoted in which the deity tells Moses it never sleeps. The six Sephiroth of Construction are identified as the six Dhyan Chohans synthesized by the seventh. The "thirteen" refer to the Manus; the "six thousand years" to the primordial first Root-race. Vamadeva Modelyar's poetic description of the coming Night of Brahma is given. A prophecy from Vishnu Purana describes the moral decay of the Kali Yuga and foretells the Kalki Avatar who will re-establish righteousness. Devapi and Moru, alive throughout the four ages, will return at the Krita age. The text notes the description fits conditions in Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The section "The Lotus, as a Universal Symbol" states that ancient symbols carry deep philosophical meaning, and the lotus represents both abstract and Concrete Universes. It was held sacred by Aryan Hindus, Egyptians, and Buddhists, revered in China and Japan, and adopted by the Greek and Latin Churches, who later replaced it with the water lily. A reference is made to Sir William Jones. With the Hindus, the lotus emblems the productive power of nature through fire and water. A verse from the Bhagavad Gita is quoted showing Brahm enthroned above the lotus. Jones is cited as showing that lotus seeds contain fully formed leaves before germination. In India the lotus symbolizes prolific earth and Mount Meru; the four genii of the four quarters each stand on a lotus. The lotus is the two-fold type of the Divine and human hermaphrodite. The spirit of Fire evolved Brahma. The lotus growing from Vishnu's navel is called the most graphic allegory of the Universe evolving from the central Sun. Lakshmi, called Padma, is shown floating on a lotus at Creation and during the churning of the ocean. A line from Sir Monier Williams is quoted. The underlying idea is the emanation of the objective from the subjective. When Darkness disappears, the creative Logoi perceive archetypal forms and fashion forms upon them; at this stage the Demiurge is not yet the Architect. A passage from the Book of the Dead, chapter lxxxi, "Transformation into the Lotus," is quoted. The lotus-idea is traced into Genesis. The text then turns to the lotus in exoteric worship, where it became a carrier of a terrestrial idea. A Kabalistic MS is quoted describing the lotus in the Nile as a symbol of generative activities, with the flower connected to the womb of Isis through the water. Osiris and Isis, children of Chronos, become parents of man as Horus. The generative function is discussed as a basis for symbolical language. The text contrasts pantheistic conceptions with the anthropomorphism of Judean symbology, quoting the MS on the womb as the Sanctum Sanctorum. It states no such thought existed among primitive Aryans, whose women were not secluded in Zenanas during the Vedic period. Aryan and Semitic religious thought are contrasted as opposite poles. With Brahmins, having a son is a religious duty; with the Semite, a temptation was invented in Eden and God is shown cursing an act of nature. The text states the esotericism of the New Testament agrees with that of the Hebrew Books, and Egyptian symbols were incorporated into the Gospels. The water-lily in Annunciation scenes is noted. The letter M is then discussed as the most sacred letter, symbolizing water, with numerous names beginning with M listed, including Maitreya, Maya, Mandala, and Moses, whose name is connected to being drawn from water. The connection between the Messiah and water, baptism, and the fish is stated. Egyptian relics are described: Khnoom sits on a lotus throne, Bes stands on a lotus, Thot sits on a lotus, and the frog goddess Hiquet rests on one. The frog symbol is called the most ancient Egyptian deity, connected with water and resurrection. Early Egyptian Christians adopted it in Church lamps inscribed "I am the resurrection."

The section, titled "The Moon, Deus Lunus, Phoebe," opens by describing the Moon as the most poetical and philosophical of archaic symbols, brought into prominence by the ancient Greeks and worn threadbare by modern poets. The Queen of Night is noted as a favourite theme with poets of Christendom from Milton and Shakespeare onward. A quotation from Shelley follows. The Moon is stated to stand in closer relations to Earth than any other sidereal orb; the Sun gives life to the planetary system while the Moon gives life to the globe. She is called both Queen and King, having been King Soma before becoming Phoebe and Diana. She is identified as pre-eminently the deity of Christians through the Mosaic and Kabalistic Jews. The Fathers, such as Origen or Clemens Alexandrinus, are said to have regarded the Moon as Jehovah's living symbol. Artemis is Luna in Heaven, Diana on Earth, Hekat in Hell; Diana-Hecate-Luna is the three in one, compared to Brahma-Vishnu-Siva. The number seven is traced to the four-fold 7 in the 28 days of the lunar month. The cat is described as a lunar symbol sacred to Isis, venerated in Bubaste. The Cynocephalus is presented as a Hermetic glyph of Mercury. The text asserts that Hindu mythology and Christian religion are both based on solar and lunar worships. A long quotation from unpublished MSS discusses the connection between time periods and feminine physiological phenomena, including the 28-day lunar month, 126-day quickening, 210-day viability, and 280-day parturition. The Egyptian bull and cow (Osiris and Isis) are linked to the Hebrew man and woman. The "double-womb" concept is explained through the Hebrew letter he as 5 and symbol of the womb, twice 5 being 10. Jehovah in its best aspect is identified as Binah, the Upper mediating Mother. The ancestors of the Akkadians are identified as Lunar Kings from India. Quotations from the Marquis De Mirville and Gerald Massey connect the Virgin Mary to the Moon. The Zohar allegory of R. El'azar and Rabbi Abbah meeting a man whose father dwelt in the Great Sea is recounted. Binah is identified with the Chaldean Tiamat, and Jehovah is declared identical with Chaos—Father, Mother, Son—on the material plane.

Lunar magnetism generates, preserves, and destroys life psychically and physically. The Moon is one of the seven planets and a theogonic regent, called archangel by Christians and god by Pagans. Chwolson's translation of an old Chaldean manuscript into Arabic relates Qu-tamy instructed by the moon-idol; Seldenus and Maimonides are cited. Teraphim were carved images through which starlight permeated, allowing angelic Virtues to converse; Seldenus explains they were built after certain planets (stoicheia) and figures called alexeteroi. "Nabathean agriculture" frightened men of science and was torn apart by Roman Catholics and Protestants. Solar and Lunar worship figure in Christian theology. Ammianus Marcellinus is cited on divinations with the Spirits of the Elements. Planets, Elements, and Zodiac appear in Heliopolis, Solomon's temple, Italian churches, and Notre Dame de Paris. The lunar symbol is the most complex. The Moon's sex is dual: male (King Soma, Sin) and female (Diana-Luna, Lythia, Lucina). Human sacrifices to Artemis in Tauris are noted; her names include Dictynna, Anaitis, and Kalliste (given by Pamphos). Artemis-Lochia precedes the God of the Rabbins and pre-Christian Kabalists. Trimorphos personifies the moon's three phases, interpreted differently by Stoics and Orpheans. Hecate-Luna is counterpart of the "Jealous God." The lunar Pantheon shows identity with the Christian Trinity. Maia is traced to Maya, Durga, meaning illusion. The Moon's seven phases divide into three astronomical and four psychic. The Mysteries allegorized the moon-god's death as the genius of evil triumphing over the sun. Worship traces through the third, fourth, and fifth Root-races to the Mahabharatan War. Among Semitic races the sun was feminine, the moon masculine. Soma from churning the Ocean of Life is given cosmographical meaning. The auto-generation of Gods: unmanifested essence begetting a manifested second-self. De Rouge's inability to understand Ammon-Ra's words to Amenophes is discussed; the doctrine was universal. Sais and Neith as genitrix of the Sun are quoted from the Commander's address to Cambyses. The pagan immaculate virgin is contrasted with the Papal conception, which degrades the ideal. Hathor as aspect of Isis suckles Horus; her British Museum legend is cited. Identity between archaic pagan and Christian conceptions is argued, citing De Mirville, St. Bernard, and Cornelius a Lapide. The Latin Church's adoption of solar-lunar symbols is noted as continuation of old Pagan worship; the account ends with Odin gaining wisdom from Mimir at the fountain of primeval Wisdom.

Odin's pledged eye is the Sun, his other the moon. Loki hid the light-giver in water and moon. Christians symbolized the Holy Ghost as Fire descending into Water: Mar, Mary. The dove became the Holy Spirit symbol. "Woman-light of the Shadow" serves Thot in the moon; Thot-Hermes is the manifested logos of Secret Wisdom. The moon symbolizes Virgin-Mother goddesses. Evil spirits war against the moon, now Mary. The Dragon connects to the Virgin on Satan; its head and tail are lunar nodes, symbolized as serpents killed by Hercules and the babe. Massey is quoted: symbols figured their own facts from the first.

The text opens with a quotation from De Chateaubriand on the serpent as object of horror or adoration. It presents the Ophites' teaching that the serpent was to be thanked for instructing Adam that the fruit of knowledge would raise his being, identifying this as the origin of the serpent's dual character. The serpent is described as one of the most ancient symbols, and its association with ancestor-souls among savage tribes is noted. Philostratus' account of serpent-heart consumption is treated as allegory. The "Serpent" and "Dragon" are identified as names for initiated adepts, illustrated by the Sigurd and Fafnir legend. Epiphanius confirms the Ophites' honouring of the Serpent for teaching the Mysteries. The Nagas are stated to be human, not reptilian. The Serpent is the type of rejuvenation, immortality, and time. The text critiques "The Natural Genesis" for covering only astronomical and physiological meanings, and describes the serpent's higher role in the universal mysteries. The Tree and Serpent are presented as indissolubly connected symbols. Modern interpretations by Payne Knight, Inman, and Massey are said to fit only the lowest stage of the Giver of Life's evolution. The Tree and Serpent in their original divine form are then described: the tree reversed, roots in Heaven, branches descending through the Pleroma to the terrestrial plane. The Asvattha from the Bhagavatgita is cited, with roots as the LOGOS and boughs as Hiranyagharba. The Tree's degradation upon touching terrestrial mud and the serpent Nidhogg gnawing the World-tree are narrated. The seven-headed dragons are explained as one head per race; Ananta, Sesha, and the Akkadian Serpent are named. Philo's statements on the numbers six and seven are quoted. Massey's account of the Septenary of Stars, the Egyptian celestial heptanomis, and the Chinese four sevens is summarized. The four genii are identified as the "Four Hidden Dragons of Wisdom." The septenary Dragon-Logos is described as split into four heptanomic parts. The crocodile is presented as the Egyptian dragon, dual symbol of Heaven and Earth. The Serpent's association with evil is dated to the middle ages only. The sarcophagus near the Porta Pia and its leaden plates are described. The Seven Vowels and their Forty and Nine Powers, the Seven Fires in India, the seven zones of post mortem ascent, and the seven-headed Serpent of Darkness whose heads are the seven Logoi are stated.

The section "Demon est Deus Inversus" argues that the opposing Power has always existed in Nature and that Christianity did not originate Satan. It traces good and evil symbols from abstractions (Light, Darkness) to natural phenomena (Day, Night, Sun, Moon) to Solar and Lunar deities to Dragons. It references Job and Genesis, notes that Suras become Asuras in Indian philosophy, and states that Satan became anthropomorphic only after man created a personal god, serving as a scapegoat. Pascal is quoted on Nature's perfections and defects. The first individual "Adversary" in Puranic literature is identified as Narada, a Brahmaputra. The "Deceiver" is identified as the anthropomorphised Demiurge. The Kabalists treat Evil as a force antagonistic but essential to Good. The "Old Dragon" was pure spirit before becoming matter; in Syro-Chaldean magic, Ophis and Ophiomorphos are joined at Virgo-Scorpio. The text notes the contradiction between Christ's "Lead us not into Temptation" and James's teaching that God does not tempt. It identifies the Serpent of Eden and "Lord God" as identical, and Jehovah and Cain as ONE, citing contradictory Old Testament actions of Jehovah. Puranic personifications follow: Pulastya as progenitor of Demons, Pisacha as daughter of Daksha; the Puranic "demons" are pious but oppose clergy and ritualism. Missionaries' attempts to identify Pulastya with Cain are discussed. The story of Parasara, whose father was devoured by a Rakshasa, is told, with his grandsire Vasishta counseling that his father's death was Karma and the Rakshasas are not culpable. The text then addresses cyclic evolution and the involution of spirit into matter. The allegory of the seven rectors breaking through seven circles of fire is shown to have become the Fall of Angels. Samael and Schemal are identified with Saturn and Chronos. Kronos represents Duration; the "rebellion" is breaking through superspiritual planes; Kronos mutilating Uranus represents Absolute Time becoming finite. The Titans of Hesiod are identified with the Suras and Asuras, with a seventh Titan (Phoreg) noted. Three wars are described: first between Asuras and Daityas under Hrada; second after Vishnu's device; third at the close of the 4th Race between Initiates of the Sacred Island and Sorcerers of Atlantis. The gods' prayers to Vishnu are quoted from the Vishnu Purana. Dr. Wilson's criticism is quoted and rebutted. Vishnu is identified as the deity in space and time, one of the Dhyanis or Elohim, and compared with Jehovah as both using deceit. The story of Mayamoha, Vishnu's illusory form, seducing the Daityas into abandoning the Vedas is quoted, along with Dr. Muir's translation. The text argues the Hindu narrators saw the God as the arch-Deceiver. It concludes with the Astral Light symbolized by the "Magic Head" in the Zohar and the double pyramid, identifying it as "Demon est Deus Inversus."

The text states that comprehending ancient cosmology requires comparative study of all great religions, and that exact science would call the underlying idea "the hierarchy of Forces." The original conception was one but became veiled as nations separated. A passage from W. S. W. Anson's "Asgard and the Gods" is quoted showing the common origin of religious conceptions; the text concurs that myths embody religion and history. Myth is defined as oral tradition conveying important truth. Nations lost sight of the highest One principle and transferred its attributes to caused effects. No nation conceived the One principle as immediate creator. References to Damascius, Porphyry, Hesiod, and Homer concern the silence surrounding the first principle. Zeus is the immediate artificer, not the highest god. The first principle is called "the circle of Heaven," symbolized by a point within a circle, the point being the Logos. In the Rig Veda, cosmogony begins with the Hiranyagharha and Prajapati. Porphyry is cited on the identity of the Pythagorean Monad and Duad with Plato's infinite and finite. The Norse cosmogony is described: Ginnungagap, All-Father, Ymir, Audumla, Buri, and the sons Odin, Willi, and We. Creative gods begin at the secondary stage. Zeus is born of Kronos; Brahma emanates from Kala. The androgyne character of chief creative gods is noted. T. Subba Row's "Notes on the Bhagavat-Gita" is cited: Parabrahmam is unknown and incognisable; the Logos is its first manifestation, latent during Pralaya. The Logos is identified with Avalokiteswara and the Verbum. AIN-SOPH is described as a boundless circle. The Dhyan Chohans and Elohim are multiplied aspects of the Logos. Vach is the female Logos, daughter and mother; Sephira holds the same position in the Kabala. The allegory of Brahma's intercourse with Vach is given a cosmic meaning. The four kinds of Vach are described.

The text opens with a citation from "Notes on the Bhagavad-Gita" identifying the whole Kosmos in objective form as Vaikhari Vach, the light of the Logos as the madhyama form, the Logos itself as the pasyanti form, and Parabrahmam as the para aspect. It then states that Vach, Shekinah, and the "music of the spheres" of Pythagoras are one, drawing on Hindu, Greek, and Chaldean Hebrew philosophies. These personations are viewed under four chief and three lesser aspects, or seven in all. The para form is described as latent Light and Sound in the bosom of the INCOGNISABLE; pasyanti is its transfer into the Logos's ideation; madhyama is its expressed light. The Kabala is cited for three kinds of light plus a fourth interpenetrating them. The ten Sephiroth are called D-BRIM (Dabarim), the Emanations of heavenly light identified as Adam Kadmon and Sephira, or Brahma Prajapati-Vach. Light, Sound, and Number are named the three factors of creation. Parabrahmam is knowable only through the luminous Point (the LOGOS), which knows only Mulaprakriti; Adam Kadmon knew only Shekinah. A passage describes the Heavenly man assuming the form of the Crown (Kether) and causing seven lights to emanate, totalling ten; likewise Brahma-Prajapati caused the seven Rishis to issue. Exotericism yields 10 and 7; Esotericism yields 3 and 7. This is linked to Pythagoras esteeming the Logos as "Source of Harmony," and to the requirement that candidates study Arithmetic, Astronomy, Geometry, and Music. A quotation from Diogenes Laertius traces the world's construction from the Monad through numbers, points, lines, superficies, solids, and four elements. Vach is described as the "melodious cow," identified with Isis, and as a permutation of Aditi, the "Mother of the gods." A quotation from the Book of Dzyan describes the great mother ready to bring forth the sons of the Cycle (4,320,000). The Seven (or eight) great gods are said to descend at each cycle's beginning. The Pyramids are placed under their supervision when Dhruva was at lowest culmination, over 31,000 years ago. Mor Isaac is cited for the Syrian hierarchy of worlds. Hermes is quoted on the Father-Mother and Son and seven Agents named DESTINY. The Saptarshi are discussed in relation to varying names across the Satapatha Brahmana, Mahabharata, and Vayu Purana. An Abydos hymn addresses Osiris as chief over six gods from Noo; he is identified as chief Prajapati, chief Sephiroth, chief Amshaspend-Ormazd. The Book of Druschim in the Talmud is cited for three groups of Sephiroth. The Tetragrammaton is described as a screen and misdirection. The text concludes by asserting that no Cosmogony except the Christian attributes immediate creation of Earth and man to the One Highest cause.

The text questions why certain Forces are called Elohim, "divine workmen," Energies, Ophanim, and "Sons of God" if they had nothing to do with Creation. It rejects the claim that China had no cosmogony, citing the Yi-King's "great Extreme" which produces "two figures," then "four images," then "eight symbols," compared to Pythagoras's Triad, Tetractis, and Decade emerging from the Monad. Confucius is discussed regarding divination, the sphericity of the Earth, and the heliocentric system taught by his school around 600 B.C. The sacred animals of the Western Bible—the Ox, Eagle, Lion, and Dove—are identified as symbols of primordial Cosmic forms in the Divine Thought, the ROOT. A Purana passage is quoted in which the great Architect gives the first impulse to planetary motion, after which the Brahmandica and Solar and Lunar Pitris take charge of their spheres. The Rishis become prajapati, then the seven and fourteen Manus, then the Saptarishis. The text turns to the mystery of blackness, noting darkness is always associated with the first symbol—a circle, egg, or head—in Hindu, Egyptian, Chaldeo-Hebrew, and Scandinavian systems. Black ravens, doves, waters, and flames are connected with primeval wisdom from the pre-cosmic Source. Kabalistic numerology is applied to "raven" (678) and "dove" (71), showing geometric relationships to Genesis. The raven symbolizes a new cycle and new Round; the dove represents the spiritual, androgyne man of the first three Races. Numerically Jehovah, Adam, and Noah are one in the Kabala. The Jewish allegory is described as astronomical and physiological rather than anthropomorphic. The text contrasts this with Eastern Esotericism, which never degraded the One Infinite Deity to such uses, noting the absence of Brahma from the Rig Veda. It concludes that only physical man is created in the image of the Deity, which is but "the minor gods," and that the HIGHER-SELF, the real EGO, alone is divine and GOD.

The text opens with a Vedic quotation describing the primordial state as containing neither day nor night nor any distinction, only ONE unapprehensible by intellect, identified as Brahma, Purusha, and Pradhana. The "Pradhanika Brahma Spirit" is equated with Mulaprakriti and Parabrahmam. In the Vishnu Purana, Parasara tells his pupil Maitreya that he has explained six creations and that the seventh was the creation of man, then proceeds to speak of two additional mysterious creations. Origen's commentary on the destroyed books of Celsus reveals a septenary system; Celsus speaks of a ladder of creation with seven gates and an eighth ever closed on top. The Persian Mithraic mysteries are connected with the seven notes of the scale. Valentinus expatiates on the great Seven called to bring forth the universe after Ar(r)hetos, the Ineffable, whose seven-lettered name indicates the Sevenfold nature of the One. Proclus describes the goddess Rhea as Monad, Duad, and Heptad. The Seven Creations, found in nearly every Purana, are enumerated: Mahattattwa, Bhuta-sarga, Indriya, Mukhya, Tairyagyonya, Urdhwasrotas, and Arvaksrotas. Esoterically there are seven primary and seven secondary creations, all corresponding to seven periods of Evolution. In the Bible these are reduced to six days of creation and a seventh of rest. In Hindu philosophy the seventh passive period is a "Day of Brahma" of 4,320,000,000 years. The Satapatha Brahmana describes Brahma radiating the gods before the work is interrupted. The Book of Manu describes Brahma awakening from pralaya and emanating the spirit. The Sepher Jezirah presents the Divine Substance emitting the Spirit, from which the Kosmos emanates through the sequence One, Two (Air), Three (Water), and the mystic four completed by Ether or Fire. R. Yehudah's teaching of seven heavens and seven earths is cited. Irenaeus testifies that the Gnostics taught a similar system, with a superior, inferior, and terrestrial Hebdomad. IAO is identified as chief of the superior Seven Heavens. The first begotten Ogdoad is the second Logos, or in astrolatry the Sun. Ildabaoth produces six stellar spirits forming the inferior Hebdomad. The third Hebdomad comprises seven primeval men. Ildabaoth is compared to Manu, who creates the Prajapatis. Ildabaoth's claim of supremacy is corrected by his mother, who names Anthropos as superior. The text then discusses the secondary creation beginning after spirit permeates the seven principles, the twelve hours of the Mishna as a dwarfed copy of the fourteen Manus of a Day of Brahma, and the distinction between Primary Creation (Light/Spirit) and Secondary Creation (Darkness/matter). The Zohar's teaching of the two-fold man, Adam Kadmon, is cited. The Indian descriptions of the first three creations—Mahat-tattwa, Bhuta, and Indriya—are then elaborated.

The text corrects "preceded by" to "beginning by" Buddhi in the description of the three Prakrita creations, explaining that Buddhi partakes of both discrete and indiscrete nature. It states that the Urdhvasrotas creation is "the sixth creation, that of the divinities," and that earlier and later manvantaras have been purposely confused to prevent the profane from perceiving the truth. The Deva-Sarga is the last of the first series, with universal reference to Evolutions in general. The Mukhya, or Primary creation, is the organic evolution of the vegetable kingdom, the middle point between the three lower and three higher kingdoms. The Tiryaksrotas (Tairyagyonya) creation, that of "sacred" animals, is explained: in primary creation "animals" means the germ of awakening consciousness; on Earth, animal creation precedes man in Round I, while in Round IV the reverse occurs, identified as metempsychosis. The Urdhvasrotas (divinities) is the sixth; these are prototypes of the First Race. The Arvaksrotas beings, the seventh, are that of man. The "eighth creation" is no creation at all but a purely mental process, the Anugraha, or intellectual creation. The ninth is the Kumara Creation, both primary and secondary. The Kumaras are Dhyanis derived from the supreme Principle. The exoteric four are Sanat-Kumara, Sananda, Sanaka, and Sanatana; the esoteric three are Sana, Kapila, and Sanat-sujata. They are "Virgin-Ascetics" who refuse to create material man. The text connects the Kumaras with the Archangel Michael, the "Virgin Combatant" of the Dragon, and identifies Michael as the guardian Angel of the Jews presiding over Saturn (Siva or Rudra) and the Sabbath. In the Talmud, Mikael is "Prince of Water" and chief of the seven Spirits, linked to Sanat-Sujata called Ambhamsi, "Waters." The text announces that the Rudras will be treated as "Fire-Spirits" in Book II, alongside the Cross (3+4) and Pythagorean numbers, and that the number seven will be examined as the root number of nature across the Vedas, Chaldean Scriptures, Egypt, Gnostic records, and physical science.

The text states that metaphysically there is One Element in nature with the Deity at its root, the seven elements being its garment. Four elements are generally spoken of in later antiquity; ether is not yet fully manifested. Plato characterized the four elements as composing and decomposing compound bodies. Cosmolatry is distinguished from fetishism as looking to the noumenon. The Theogony of Mochus places Ether first, then air, from which Ulom the intelligible God is born. In Orphic hymns, Eros-Phanes evolves from the Spiritual Egg. In the Katakopanisad, Purusha stands before original matter. Creuzer defines primitive beliefs as a species of magism and deification of potencies. The hierarchies of these potencies are Septenary in real Cosmic gradation. The text addresses Christians, stating the Bible manifests the mystic significance of the four elements throughout the Pentateuch. The tent of the Holy of Holies is a Cosmic Symbol, built in white per Josephus. In Egyptian and Hebrew temples, a four-coloured curtain on five pillars symbolized the four Elements. A Chaldean Oracle in Cory's Ancient Fragments states all things come from ether and return to it. The text traces the malachim of the Hebrews to the Cosmic gods of all nations, describing the genius loci as a late after-thought of the Fifth Root-race. The genius loci encompassed fire (Jove, Agni), water (Varuna, Neptune), air (Vayu, Indra), and earth (Pluto, Yama). Dodonean Jupiter included the four elements and cardinal points. The text argues Aidoneus, Dis, and Dionysius Chthonios are bases of Adonai, and that all Jupiters are one cosmic nature including Jehovah. The four-fold Jupiter is compared to four-faced Brahma. A grotto of Zaratushta in Central Asia is described where light of four colours converges on a marble pillar. Ancient priestly magic involved addressing gods in a language of sounds, numbers, and figures (mantras). St. Paul's words about gods in heaven and earth are compared to Plato's words about Father Aether. Sir W. Grove is quoted on the spirituality of the ultimate generating power. The text compares pagan and Christian practices: Hesiod's winds are paralleled by Hebrew wind names; the Delphic oracle's advice to sacrifice to the Winds is paralleled by Jewish fire sacrifices; the Lord's thunderbolts in I. Samuel are paralleled by Jupiter's; Athenian prayers to Boreas are paralleled by Christian prayers for enemy destruction. The text states it defends neither Pagan gods nor attacks the Christian deity. A Missionary Lavoisier's denunciation of Vayu is answered by quoting Jesus rebuking the Wind and Water. A prayer to the Virgin of the Sea is compared to the Phoenician prayer to Astarte. The text discusses legal punishments for sorcery, citing Constantine's sentencing of Sopatrus and Pausanias's account of prayers stopping hail-storms. The text concludes by arguing for the dual nature of every element, citing Grove on electricity, and comparing human forces to elemental vehicles.

Section XV, "On Kwan-Shi-Yin and Kwan-Yin," states that Kwan-shi-yin, like Avalokiteshwara, has passed through several transformations and is not a modern invention of the Northern Buddhists. The text quotes the Secret Doctrine teaching that the first to appear at Renovation is the last to come before Re-absorption, and identifies the logoi of all nations as the "Word" with the One Absolute, born of Fire and Water, the "Maker" of all things, and the Alpha and Omega of manifested Nature. A passage from the Fa-Hwa-King is quoted. The Bodhisatva is said to assume any form from the beginning to the end of a Manvantara; his memorial day and that of Maitreya Buddha are given, yet the two are declared to be one. He will appear as Maitreya Buddha in the seventh Race. The text states this belief is universal in the East and that no new Saviour can appear in the Kali yug. The exoteric ritual is described as founded on magic, with Mantras producing secret causation. Kwan-Shi-Yin is identified as Avalokiteshwara and as a form of the seventh Universal Principle, the synthetic aggregation of the Dhyani Chohans, the "Self-manifested" and "Son of the Father." A temple representation at Pu'to is described. In his third transformation Kwan-Yin is the genius of Water. The Dalai-Lama is said to be an incarnation of Kwan-Shi-Yin, and the Teshu Lama of Amitabha Buddha. The text then criticizes McClatchey and Hargrave Jennings for phallic interpretations, arguing Kwan-Shi-Yin literally means "the Lord that is seen" and refers to the Atman perceived by Buddhi. The etymology of "Yogini" and "Budh" as phallic symbols is rejected. Max Muller's "False Analogies" is cited. Kwan-shi-yin is called the "Dragon of Wisdom" and the Logos. Egyptian serpent symbols—Nahbkoon, Knouph, CHNOUBIS—are discussed, along with their identification with Hermes and Mercury. Kwan-Shi-Yin and Kwan-Yin are declared the male and female aspects of the same principle, the "Christos-Sophia" of the Gnostics. The section closes on the inadequacy of objective symbols for subjective truths. A contents list for Book I Part III, Addenda, follows. The Addenda begin with "Reasons for These Addenda," in which the writer defines her position relative to modern Science, welcoming it as "organized common sense" but disputing its materialistic encroachments. She states a gap of 43 verses must be left in the Stanzas, proposes to defend those already given, and declares the Occultist believes in "Lords of Light" and a Sun that is the vehicle of a god. Newton and Kepler are cited. Sir Humphry Davy is quoted against materialism. Bacon is identified as a founder of materialism, and "Fiat Lux" is esoterically rendered as "Let there be the Sons of Light."

The text poses to Science the question whether light is a body, stating that eminent physicists know neither way. It quotes the author of "Concepts of Modern Physics" and G. A. Hirn on the contradictory properties assigned to atoms and ether across scientific disciplines, declaring this the true image of modern Science and arguing that the occultist may place his symbols alongside such "symbolical systems." Section III opens with the Latin question whether light is a body. Light is described as a Force or undulation of ether, never a body. Sir W. Grove is credited with first showing in 1842 that light and heat are affections of matter, not a distinct fluid. Several "mystical Scientists" are said to have taught that light, heat, magnetism, electricity, and gravity were secondary effects of other Causes. Newton's adherence to the Pythagorean corpuscular theory is noted, along with Count de Maistre's hope that Newton would lead Science to recognize Intelligences behind Forces. The text asserts that materialistic physical science is "honey-combed with metaphysics" and traces Ether to ancient philosophers, the Greeks having borrowed it from the Aryans, with its origin in AKASA. It examines the modern concept: astronomers first regarded Ether as a fluid of extreme tenuity; in optics it became a substratum for luminous undulations; to explain dispersion and polarization, physicists endowed it with atomic structure and enormous elasticity, necessitating discontinuity. Cauchy proposed "material points without extension" and a discontinuous medium; Fresnel did similar for polarization; E. B. Hunt upset both. Clerk Maxwell showed an atomic ether would be simply gas. The atomo-mechanical theory then led to vortex-motion in a continuous medium. The text states that Official Science knows nothing of ether's constitution. Stallo is cited showing that materialists reject actio in distans while all physical action resolves into it. Professor Lodge's vortex-atom theory is shown to rest on a medium unknown to experience, making it a "metaphysical phantom." Cauchy's "material points without extension" are identified as Leibnitz's monads. Cauchy is quoted explaining that modified laws of attraction could make bodies penetrate each other, and the text concludes that the resulting "point," invisible on our plane, is visible to the adept on other planes.

The text opens by noting that while the corpuscular theory has been set aside, gravitation survives as a dominant principle in physics. An American reviewer of "Isis Unveiled" is quoted calling doubt of gravitation an insult to Newton's memory. The text contrasts astronomers' treatment of gravity as a law in itself with the Occultist view that such forces are secondary effects, and predicts the hypothesis will eventually join the archives of exploded speculations. Newton's own doubts are cited: in the "Principia" he treats "attraction" as a purely mathematical conception; in a Scholium he says attractions are rather impulses; in section XI he posits "some subtle spirit"; in his third Letter to Bentley he calls innate gravity "so great an absurdity." Cuvier's warning in "Revolution du Globe" about whether agents were "spiritual powers" is also given. Contemporaries' reactions follow: Leibnitz calls attraction "an incorporeal and inexplicable power"; Bernoulli finds the supposition "revolting"; Euler attributes gravity to a Spirit or subtle medium. The text traces the succession of scientific hypotheses — imponderable fluid, AEther, mechanical Forces as modes of motion — and references Plato's distinction between incorporeal Elements and their PRINCIPLES, Paracelsus, and Grove. Newton's protest against Forbes' statement that "attraction was the cause of the System" is recorded. The text then presents the ancient and Occultist view: for Pythagoras, Forces were Spiritual Entities ruling the Sidereal Heaven; Plato represented planets as moved by an intrinsic Rector; Aristotle called those rulers "immaterial substances" while recognizing stars as "acting and living bodies." Tycho Brahe recognized a triple force in the stars; Kepler understood globes as rational Intelligences around the Sun. The Occultist concept of Fohat is introduced as the energising intelligence in the Universal Electric or Vital Fluid. The text examines whether Newton was first to discover gravitation, citing the "Athenaeum" of 1867, which attributes Newton's knowledge to Boehme. Newton's creation of an absolute vacuum to permit attraction is discussed, along with later corrections by Le Couturier, Winchell, and Dr. Hunt. The text then considers the hypothesis of the Sun as a great magnet, attributing it to Kepler nearly three hundred years prior, and lists Kepler's three propositions: the Sun is a magnet, solar substance is immaterial, and a spirit or spirits provides perpetual care. Laplace's substitution of blind motion for Newton's "all-powerful Being" is discussed, along with his famous answer to Napoleon. The text closes by quoting the French Encyclopaedia on the impossibility of explaining the physical origin of rotatory motion, and announces an examination of both theories of rotation and gravitation as connected.

The text opens by quoting a reverend gentleman's complaint that final cause is pronounced a chimera and the first Great Cause is remanded to the Sphere of the Unknown, and notes the remarkable number of resulting hypotheses. The profane student is described as perplexed. Under "Current Hypotheses Explaining the Origin of Rotation," rotation is said to originate by collision of nebular masses, by attraction, by tangential action of currents of nebulous matter, or by central gravity. Prof. Winchell is quoted stating that no rotation could be generated in a mass by its own parts. Under "Hypotheses of the Origin of the Seven Planets and Comets," planets owe their birth to an explosion of the Sun or disruption of nebular rings. Laplace calls comets strangers to the planetary system; Faye says they are generated in it. One authority says fixed stars are motionless; Wolf says every star is in motion. Le Couturier states the Sun's axial movement has never ceased for over 350,000,000 years. Under "Contradictory Hypotheses," Maedler places the Sun's orbital centre at Alcyone in the Pleiades with a period of 180,000,000 years, while Sir W. Thomson states the Sun has existed no more than 15,000,000 years. The text asks whether the earth was once independent of the Sun. Accepting self-generated rotation is said to amount to a denial of inertia, an original impulse within a resisting ether, universal gravity as sole cause of revolution, a magnet in the Sun, invariable laws shown variable, and a motor force independent of the mass's nature. Neither Laplace's solar atmospheric fluid, nor Le Couturier's electricity, nor Foucault's heat can help these hypotheses. If matter is passive, the text asks how complicated movement can be attributed to its own Force unless it is an intelligence. The Count de Maistre is quoted: the planets rotate because they are made to rotate, and the modern physical system is a physical impossibility. Herschell is quoted as saying a will is needed to impart and restrain circular motion. Perturbations, both accidental and secular, are discussed; from Newton to Reynaud, all say the same. De Mirville compares the situation to a steamer needing a pilot. Comets are called "long-haired sidereal radicals" who disrespect gravity. The comet of 1811 is described, its tail thrown out against gravity yet the comet said to obey it. The writer states that in works written between 1865 and 1866, thirty-nine contradictory hypotheses were counted. The universe is said to be owed to Inert Matter, Senseless Force, and Blind Chance. The Zohar's distinction between hajaschar, hachoser, and phenomenal exteriority is noted. Professor Jaumes of Montpellier is quoted arguing that Forces are realities, not suppositions, and that a plurality of forces proceeding from the Deity is not unreasonable.

The text opens by asserting that Science will eventually abandon its physical, self-guiding laws and turn to occult teachings. It states that modern philosophy consists only of additions and subtractions from ancient philosophy, a fact known to Faraday and others. Atoms, Ether, and evolution are said to derive from ancient notions, taught as allegories to the profane and as plain truths during Initiations to the elect. The chief error of Science, in the view of Occultists, is the idea of inorganic or dead matter. This fallacy is illustrated by Professor Philip Spiller's treatise, in which he argues that no atom is originally endowed with force but is absolutely dead. A footnote counters that something dead implies it was once living, and that matter appearing inert is in fact most active, its particles in ceaseless vibration. Spiller asserts the independent substantiality of force as "incorporeal stuff," identified with the aether. In occult terms, this force-substance is the phenomenal positive aether (prakriti), while the omnipresent ether is the noumenon (Akasa). Stallo criticizes Spiller for disregarding the correlation of force and matter. The text then questions the nature of Electricity and Light, noting that Electricity is called a fluid and can be stored, and that Light can be stored as demonstrated by Professor Grove, whose experiment involves exposing an engraving to sunshine and then placing it on sensitive paper in darkness. The text asks what remains fixed on the paper, arguing it is neither matter as Science defines it nor merely motion. Grove's remark that Science should have neither desires nor prejudices is quoted. Faraday's confession of ignorance regarding the nature of matter is cited. The text discusses the term "substance," noting Eastern Occultism has special names for each kind while Science has only one. Stallo's argument that matter cannot be constructed by a synthesis of forces is quoted and said to apply only to the phenomenal world, not the supermundane spheres. Dr. James Croll's view of gravity as a force pervading space external to bodies is discussed, as is G.A. Hirn's demonstration that force resides in the space between atoms. The contradiction between the mechanical theory's assumption of absolute equality of primordial units and Avogadro's law in chemistry is highlighted, showing one must be wrong. The atom is declared an entified abstraction belonging to metaphysics, never having been perceived by any physical sense. Quotations from Wundt, Nazesmann, Kroenig, Clausius, Maxwell, and Sir W. Thomson are cited to show conflicting positions on atomic elasticity and the conservation of energy. The text then states that Occultists do not dispute Science's explanations of immediate objective agencies but object to Science believing it has revealed all. The ultimate causes of light and heat are said to reside in matter existing in super-sensuous states, perceivable by the SEER or Adept during trance under the Sushumna ray, the first of the Seven Mystic rays of the Sun, whose names are listed.

The text states that the Seven Rays spread through the Solar system constitute the physical Upadhi of the Ether of Science, in which light, heat, and electricity correlate to produce terrestrial effects. As psychic and spiritual effects, they emanate from the supra-solar Upadhi, or Akasa. A passage from Leslie is quoted asserting no fundamental difference between light and heat, each being a metamorphosis of the other. Buckle is quoted as unable to confirm or deny this. Two points are raised: production of heat by friction and conversion of heat into mechanical motion. The text notes that heat was once considered a fluid during the reign of matter, but when MOTION was proclaimed sole sovereign, heat became "a mode of motion." Occult Science, having changeless traditions from prehistoric times, maintains that Forces are not what modern learning would have them. The claim that the Hindu Yogi knows more than the greatest European physicist about the nature of light is defended through the Sushumna ray and the moon as deity of the mind. A lengthy quotation from Professor Butlerof follows, arguing that force is merely the passage of one state of motion into another, that force is an effect not a cause, and that the Spiritualist has as much right to attribute motion to Spirit as the Materialist to matter. Butlerof is described as the greatest chemist in Russia, who also defended Spiritualist materializations. The text then presents Butlerof's argument that the atom, being both indivisible and elastic, falls into a vicious circle fatal to materialism: elasticity requires divisibility, and infinite divisibility resolves matter into centres of force. The text turns to the Puranas, where the forty-nine fires are personified by the Sons of Daksha's daughters and the Rishis. From the Vayu Purana, Pavaka is electric fire, Pavamana is fire by friction, and Suchi is solar fire, all sons of Abhimanin, eldest son of Brahma and Swaha. A passage from the Vishnu Purana is cited showing the writers' acquaintance with correlation and the origin of Kosmos from the undiscrete Principle. The text then cites a catechism of the Visishtadwaita Vedantins (XIth century, founder Ramanujacharya) teaching that Prakriti was in laya before evolution, that every particle contains Jiva, and that Parabrahm pervades all. The Adwaita Vedantins, though called Atheists, produced the wisest Initiates. Finally, the allegory of Pururavas and the Gandharva is introduced, and the Tretagni obtained by friction of Aswattha wood is said to carry secret meaning. A footnote defines the Gandharva cosmically, psychically, mystically, and physically, identifying them as prototypes of Enoch's angels.

The section, titled "An Attack on the Scientific Theory of Force by a Man of Science," states that words of several English men of Science are quoted in its favour, and that one of them preaches doctrines amounting to recognition of "Fohat and his seven Sons," the Occult Gandharva of the Vedas. The text directs readers to an article by Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., in the Popular Science Review, on "Sun Force and Earth Force." Richardson's article is quoted at length, presenting the views of Samuel Metcalfe, who maintains that caloric is not a mere form of motion but a material substance flowing from the Sun through Space, filling the voids between particles of solid bodies. Metcalfe advances six grounds for this and argues against the vibratory theory, holding that caloric must itself have volume to augment the volume of other bodies. He formulates a law: by its attraction for ponderable matter, caloric unites and holds together all things; by its self-repulsive energy, it separates and expands all things. The text notes this is "almost the occult explanation of cohesion." Richardson acknowledges the modern hypothesis that heat is motion but argues it should not exclude the material nature of sun-force. He describes two elements: ponderable matter and the all-pervading Ether, without weight, substance, form, or colour, infinitely divisible, and self-repulsive. The Ether penetrates ponderable substance and holds its particles together; all things are charged with it. Metcalfe adds that hardness, softness, solidity, and liquidity depend on the relative proportions of ethereal and ponderable matter. Richardson then draws five inferences: space is filled with a subtle fluid called Aether; the Ether comes from the sun and suns; without it there could be no motion; it determines the constitution of bodies; and it connects sun with planet, planet with planet, man with planet, man with man. The text states that Ether and elastic atoms constitute the Spirit and Soul of Kosmos in the mechanical conception, and that modern speculation cannot escape the circle of ancient thought soaked with archaic occultism. It discusses the achievements of Bunsen and Kirchoff in measuring luminous waves, but notes that Science is forced to admit the force produces undulations in a medium still only a "hypothetical agent." Regarding the sun, the text claims the spectroscope has shown only elements in the sun's outward robes, not the sun itself, and that physicists have mistaken the vital principle for a purely material thing, calling it "chromosphere." The text concludes: "We have hypotheses and theories only so far, not law."

The section, titled "Mysterious Sun Fluid" (Chapter VIII, "Life, Force, or Gravity"), opens by noting that imponderable fluids and mechanical forces have fallen from favor, but gravitation persists. It argues that attraction alone cannot explain planetary or rotatory motion in space, and that a special impulse must be admitted for every sidereal body. Occultism and ancient philosophers are said to have named this cause for ages, though such beliefs are now declared exploded superstitions. Francoeur is quoted on the need to name the cause that pushes. A theory is cited that attraction between celestial bodies is actually repulsion, the Sun driving them onward. Herschell's theory of organisms in the Sun is mentioned. Marttanda (the Sun) is described as watching his seven brothers, the planets, from the central position to which his Mother, Aditi, relegated him. Sun-fluids or Emanations are said to impart all motion and awaken all into life in the Solar System, in harmony with laws of Manvantaric motion from the early Sandhya, regulated by the Movers, Intelligences within the Cosmic Soul. Robert Hunt, F.R.S., is cited on the photosphere, its curdy appearance, and Nasmyth's lens-shaped objects compared to a shoal of fish. Occultism states that solar flames seen through telescopes are reflections. Hunt is quoted on Vital Force being exalted above light, heat, and electricity. Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., is introduced with his theory of "Nervous Ether" as a subtle medium pervading nervous structure. Paracelsus is quoted on the Liquor Vitae and Archaeus. Richardson's rejection of the universal ether view as Pantheism is quoted and challenged. The Anugita is quoted on the septenary qualities of sound and the seven senses as causes. The Bhagavadgita is quoted with Krishna identifying himself as taste in water, light of sun and moon, sound in space. The Asvattha Tree of Life is described with Parabrahmam as seed and Mahat as trunk. The text states that physical phenomena proceed from Akasa, which proceeds from undifferentiated Chaos, the primary aspect of Mulaprakriti. It returns to Richardson's error in calling Nervous Ether an "animal product," stating it is the lowest principle of the Primordial Essence which is Life, and that living animals are its products. It descends to vegetation in the Sushumna sun-ray and penetrates man through the moon's beams. Richardson is quoted on the nervous ether conducting vibrations and accumulating during sleep. The text states the principle of Life may kill when too exuberant or too little present, and that it emanates from the ever-invisible Absolute ONE LIFE in a septenary scale with Sound (Logos) at the upper end and the Vidyadharas at the lower. Professor de Quatrefages is quoted stating that life is not antagonistic to inanimate forces but governs and rules their action by its laws.

The section, "The Solar Theory," opens with a quotation from Professor Beale's reply to Dr. Gull, in which Beale describes a mystery in life that physical investigation cannot fathom. The text states that Occultism locates the origin of the Life Essence in the same centre as the nucleus of prima materia of the Solar system. A Commentary passage describes the Sun as the heart of the Solar World, its brain hidden behind the visible Sun, and the planets as its limbs and pulses. Occult philosophy is said to deny the Sun is a globe in combustion, defining it as a glowing sphere whose real Sun is hidden behind. The Nasmyth willow leaves, mistaken by Sir J. Herschell for solar inhabitants, are identified as reservoirs of solar vital energy. A regular circulation of vital fluid is described, analogous to blood circulation, with the Sun contracting rhythmically during the manvantaric period; the eleven-year cycle of solar spots is attributed to this contraction. The text rejects Father Secchi's explanations of solar spots and compares them to the pulsation of the heart. A work on Geology is cited regarding the dream that all chemical elements are modifications of a single material element; Occult philosophy is said to have taught this since the existence of human speech, adding that there is neither Spirit nor matter but only aspects of the One ever-hidden IS. The text discusses how on higher planes elements appear complex, references Haeckel's monera and Bathybius, and quotes a stanza on Brahma and prakriti. The known elements are stated not to be primordial, which were formed from the "curds of the cold radiant mother" and "the fire-seed of the hot Father." The elements are said to have reached permanency in the 4th Round and 5th Race, before "the living fire of Orcus" will dissociate them. Spirit and Matter are described as two facets of the unknowable Unity. The text discusses Stallo's charges against materialistic scientists and states that Chemistry approaches the realm of the Occult. The Esoteric Doctrine's position that matter is eternal but atoms are born at every manvantara is explained, distinguishing pradhana from prakriti, and the Hindu cosmogony's opening words are cited. Mr. Crookes is presented as corroborating these positions through his lectures on the Genesis of the Elements and on "Elements and Meta-Elements." A long quotation from Crookes follows, in which he questions the criterion of an element, discusses the difficulty of distinguishing between bodies such as praseo- and neo-dymium, references the work of Kruss and Nilson, and proposes replacing "element" with "elementary group," with atomic weights representing mean values. The text draws an analogy between chemical and occult terminology. Crookes then describes an experiment with yttrium and dilute ammonia in which a precipitate appears only after several hours, which he interprets as a process akin to selection.

The text discusses a chemical precipitation in which molecules of a base are decomposed upon contact with ammonia, the liquids having been uniformly mixed so that no molecule is more exposed than another. The time elapsing before precipitate appears indicates a selective action directing some atoms to fall and others to remain in solution. A quoted passage asks what power directs each atom to choose its path, picturing a directive force passing atoms in review. Theists would answer "God" and solve nothing philosophically; Occultism answers on pantheistic grounds, referring to a subsequent section on Gods, Monads, and Atoms. The learned lecturer identifies slight differences of basicity between atoms, imperceptible by known tests. Occultism claims Ancient Wisdom solved the problem ages ago, and that Science is forced by its own discoveries to adopt occult phraseology. A commentary in esoteric doctrine describes the ASVATTHA, the tree of Life and Being and rod of the caduceus, growing from the two dark wings of the Swan of Life, with two serpents—Spirit and matter—descending interlaced along the trunk, their tails joining on earth into one, the great illusion, addressed to Lanoo. The caduceus is described as modified by the Greeks from an original triple-headed serpent symbol. The President of the Chemical Society of Great Britain is quoted describing two forces acting on the original protyle—time with lowering temperature, and electricity swinging like a pendulum—and proposing a lemniscate figure in three dimensions as the form of the creative force's track. The text interprets the lemniscate as representing evolution from Spirit into matter and a spiral as reinvolution from matter into Spirit, ending in the laya state. The President describes three simultaneous motions producing the lemniscate and explains how successive cycles produce different elemental groupings as temperature declines. He concludes that atoms are not eternal but share attributes of decay and death. Occultism affirms this while maintaining that matter is eternal, becoming atomic only periodically. The text states that periodical dissolutions occur: a partial pralaya after every Day of Brahma and a Universal pralaya after every Brahma's age. Mr. Crookes is quoted on minute shades of difference in matter, meta-elements, and the transformation of heat radiations into primary motions of atoms, which would invalidate Sir William Thomson's prediction of the universe's final decrepitude. The text notes that Crookes enumerates seven groups of dominant atomicities, suggesting comparison with the seven primitive sons of Aditi and the eighth rejected son. The text concludes that Science, in the person of its highest representatives, adopts the phraseology of old adepts such as Roger Bacon and returns to the "protyle," bridging the chasm between occult teachings and exact science.

The text opens by querying whether Force is "moving matter" or whether matter and force are phenomenal aspects of one primary Cosmic Substance, relating this to a Stanza on Fohat and his Seven Sons — the cause and effects of Cosmic Electricity. It states what physical science says of Sound and Light as sensations, then notes this covers only terrestrial consciousness. It observes that chemistry can dissociate compound molecules but atoms elude its grasp, and that Occultism sees in these Forces a ladder whose higher rungs trace to a living, intelligent Power. The text asserts Sound is a tremendous Occult power, capable of raising the pyramid of Cheops or reviving a dying man, and that it generates ozone beyond chemistry but within Alchemy. It may resurrect a being whose astral vital body has not been irreparably separated from the physical. The writer claims personal knowledge of this power. The text then turns to John Worrell Keely of Philadelphia and his discovery of the etheric Force. It states that had Keely succeeded, he might have reduced an army to atoms. It identifies Keely's "inter-etheric point" as the laya-point of the Occultists, and his "Creator" as likely Fohat. A long quotation from Keely, via Mrs. Bloomfield-Moore, describes his engine's neutral centre and planetary suspension theory. The text explains that such individuals as Keely are generally helped but on condition they do not become a peril to their age. It recounts that the writer told a theosophist at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition that Keely was a "natural-born magician" unconscious of his full powers. It connects Keely's capacities to the Dhyan-Chohans called "the first-born of Ether." The text states Keely's discovery leads to the sidereal Force known to Atlanteans as MASH-MAK, the vril of Bulwer Lytton, which reduced 100,000 men and elephants to ashes, allegorized as the Kapilaksha. It declares the discovery in completeness is by hundreds of thousands of years too premature, and that meanwhile the force will work through wires. A long quotation from Keely describes the six subdivisions of matter, sound as a real substance of tenuity, and odour's paradoxical confinement. The text remarks that no Adept could have explained it better. It rejects the one-sided scientific theory that no factor exists external to us other than vibrations, and quotes Asclepios calling such phenomena "incorporeal corporealities."

The text opens Section XI, "On the Elements and Atoms, from the Stand-point of Science and that of Occultism." In Occultism, "Element" means "rudiment"; "Elementary Man" refers to the incipient sketch of man latent in physical life or the form surviving the material body. Metaphysically, Element means the incipient divine man; physically, inchoate matter in the laya state. Elemental atoms are described as Souls (jiva), centres of potential vitality with latent intelligence. Modern physics is said to have borrowed atomic theory from the ancients but omitted the spiritual dimension. From Anaxagoras through Epicurus, Lucretius, and Galileo, philosophers believed in animated atoms rather than brute matter. Rotatory motion is explained esoterically as the cyclic curve of differentiated elements. No ancient philosopher dissociated Spirit from matter. The Gilgoolem doctrine and the "Promised Land" as Nirvana are discussed. The ancient Initiates meant by "Atom" a Soul, Genius, or Angel. The text then addresses the Monad, stating the axiom that nothing comes from nothing and referencing the Causeless Cause. Christian creation theology is contrasted with the Occult teaching that nothing is created but only transformed. The monad is defined as Atma in conjunction with Buddhi and higher Manas, one and eternal; in Pralaya it loses its name. The emanation hierarchy is then described: Adi Buddha emits the Logos (Vajradhara), who sends forth Vajrasattva, the diamond heart, from whom emanate the seven Dhyani Buddhas (Anupadaka), who in turn emanate the Bodhisattvas. These are identified with the Brahmanical Manasaputra, Rishis, and Prajapatis. A passage from the Anugita is cited on dissolution at pralaya. The esoteric teaching distinguishes the Adi-Buddhic monad manifesting as universal Buddhi, from which shoot the Seven Sons of Light, then the Dhyani-Buddhas, then the Bodhisattvas as shadows. The star under which a human entity is born remains its star throughout a Manvantara, connected with Individuality rather than personality. The Dhyani-Buddha serves as guiding Angel of the monad. Iswara is identified as the sum total of Dhyan-Chohanic consciousnesses. Humanity is divided into seven groups, and triads born under the same Parent-planet are twin-souls. Jesus's saying "I and my Father are one" is interpreted in this light. The Seven Sons of Light are identified with Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus, the Sun, and the Moon, three of these remaining secret. Uranus and Neptune are excluded from the secret orbs. The text discusses the seventy planets tradition, identifies Jehovah with Saturn as Israel's planetary god, and traces the Gnostic teaching of the planetary origin of the Monad through Origen's seven names and the Pistis-Sophia. The Astral Rulers are said to create monads from their own substance. The text concludes by noting that Saturn became reviled over time, that Jesus was not of pure Jewish blood and recognized no Jehovah, and that every heavenly body is a temple of a god, holding the priesthood responsible for the reaction toward materialism.

The section "Ancient Thought in Modern Dress" opens by stating that modern science is ancient thought distorted, and that several F.R.S. members are unconsciously approaching the Secret Sciences. On cosmogony and primeval matter, the text asserts that modern speculations rest on Grecian and Indian Archaic astronomy and physics. The conception of all-pervading homogeneous matter (Chaos) in Aryan and Greek thought is identified with the modern "Nebular condition of the world-stuff." Anaxagoras's Chaos is equated with Sir W. Thomson's "primitive fluid," and the Hindu and Greek Atomists (Kanada, Leucippus, Democritus, Epicurus, Lucretius) are seen reflected in modern atomic theory from Leibnitz to Thomson's "Vortical Atoms." A passage from "Isis Unveiled" is quoted at length on Light as first emanation, electricity, and the Builders. The Ether is linked to the views of Metcalfe and Dr. Richardson. The undulatory theory of light is then challenged through citations of Mr. Robert Hunt, Sir David Brewster, Professor Josiah P. Cooke, and Herschell. The text replies to Brewster by asking how electricity, if merely a mode of motion, can be stored, and cites Helmholtz and Mr. W. Crookes on the atomic nature of electricity. Chemistry is declared the only science capable of directing research toward the whole truth, with Crookes and the late Professor Butlerof named as two great chemists drawn toward the mysterious beyond. Crookes's concept of "protyle" (from "pro" and "hyle") is discussed, with Roger Bacon's Arte Chymiae cited as a precedent. The Occultist's response follows: no atom is ever created; atoms are eternal within the One Atom (Jagad-Yoni). Pradhana and Purusha are eternally one, Nirupadhi during Pralaya, and distinct from Parabrahmam. "Energy" is identified as Sarvaga in conjunction with Kala, a trinity in one during Manvantara, corresponding in Orphic philosophy to Phanes, Chaos, and Chronos. Crookes's description of the evolution of atoms through a birth-shell and dissociation space is quoted and identified as a scientific rendering of the evolution of the differentiated Universe in the secret teachings. The text then addresses the materialistic rejection of Ether and imponderable Force, citing a French group of electricians protesting against Clausius's theory with the cry "A bas l'Ether." It concludes by posing the question of the nature of the Cosmic Substance and proposing an examination of the Nebular Theory.

The text addresses the relationship between Esoteric Cosmogony and the modern nebular theory. It states that adepts do not entirely deny the theory but that science's own admissions undermine it. Nebulae are said to exist in elemental dissociation, yet the nebular theory is declared wrong. The hypothesis that planets were detached from the Sun is rejected; Sun and planets are called "co-uterine brothers." Objections regarding homogeneity of primeval matter are addressed. The text traces the nebular hypothesis historically through Anaximenes, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Halley, and Herschell. Laplace's specific mechanism—condensation, rotatory motion, ring detachment—is summarized, followed by a list of difficulties: retrograde satellite motion, density anomalies, and polar compression contradictions. A Master is quoted on the centrifugal theory's failures. The text asserts that all scientific "Forces" originate in the Vital Principle. Spectrum analysis findings on nebulae are discussed, and the 1876 Cygnus star transformation is noted as unfavorable to the nebular theory. Buffon's earlier comet hypothesis and Kant's and Laplace's original systems are mentioned. C. Wolf is quoted concluding the first part of the cosmogonical problem remains "in the domain of romance." Herbert Spencer is cited as objecting that the hypothesis implies a First Cause. The text ends by citing H. J. Slack on the convergence of sciences and expressing hope that Darwin's Natural Selection may form part of the Eastern doctrine of Evolution.

The text states that mechanical laws cannot prove the homogeneity of primeval matter except inferentially, and that Modern Science is secure only within the solar system. Its effects are felt through INTELLIGENCES named Dhyan-Chohans, called "Seven Governors" in Hermetic works, "Building Powers" by Pymander, and "Supernal Gods" by Asklepios. Wolf's work on astronomy endorses Kant's theory, which the text notes resembles esoteric teachings. Kant, nearly twenty-five and confined to Konigsberg, developed a theory of the world's system reborn through a nebula, filling a gap Newton failed to bridge. The text identifies Kant's primordial substance with Akasa and identifies the Esoteric Doctrine's prima materia as Daiviprakriti, the divine light emanating from the Logos, which formed the nuclei of self-moving orbs. Kant's theory that inhabitants of other planets are more or less ethereal in proportion to their distance from the Sun is noted as occult. The text then addresses the vital principle, quoting Dr. Richardson's description of "nervous ether" as a material agent, as evidence that some men of science hold views similar to theosophists. The dual nature of MANIFESTING MIND is discussed, its aspects being called centripetal and centrifugal forces. De Maistre's remark that gravitation is a word replacing "the thing unknown" is cited. The Secret Doctrine teaches that higher and lower worlds are interblended with the objective world, not located above or below it. The tail of a comet is offered as an analogy for invisible worlds. The text argues that Science's denial of such worlds has played into the hands of theology, citing Maxwell's calumny of Newton and Whewell's dispute of the plurality of worlds. A quotation from the Commentary on the Book of DZYAN describes the hierarchical relationship between the Sons of Bhumi, the Sons of Devalokas, and lower kingdoms. The text then addresses the geological question of how long the world has taken to become what it is, arguing that many prior humanities appeared and disappeared, their organisms needing no warm blood or atmosphere. The Earth and mankind are described as having life-periods of growth and death. Uriel's words to Enoch about shortened years and subverted things are cited; the "days of Sinners" are identified with the period of the Atlanteans, after which man began decreasing in stature and strength. The text concludes by placing the present sub-race of the Fifth Root Race at the acme of materiality.

The text recalls a prior remark comparing the Esoteric Doctrine to Sutratman in Vedanta, a thread passing through and stringing together ancient systems. It now claims the Doctrine also checks modern exact science, corroborating some of its discoveries in ancient records. Science is described as ultra-materialistic; Nature behaves esoterically and in abscondito, so the profane judge only by deceitful appearance. Naturalists refuse to blend physics with metaphysics; a minority of scientists are called wise for trespassing on metaphysical ground. The text urges removing the skeleton to a second plane to find the noumenon of matter. Beliefs in invisible intelligent Existences—Arch-Angels, Dhyan-Chohans, Devas, Pitris—are called fictions by Materialistic Science, which upsets its own law of uniformity to do so. The masses are asked to believe that Epicurus, Democritus, Socrates, and Plato were mistaken. The text asks whether Van Helmont, Khunrath, Paracelsus, Agrippa, Roger Bacon, and St. Germain were blind enthusiasts, or whether modern sceptics are struck with cecity of negation. It opines the latter. Only a very few of the highest Initiates can assimilate the knowledge of Eastern esoteric sciences. The text states the present Aryan Kaliyuga cycle of 5,000 years is closing and that between this time and 1897 a large rent will be made in the Veil of Nature. A line is drawn between blind faith and knowledge from adept research. Protestant and Catholic cosmologies are described; Theophilosophy is said to proceed on broader lines. The Pythagorean Triangle is presented as a description of cosmic evolution; its seventeen points give genealogies from Heavenly to terrestrial man. The gods, monads, and atoms are called a compound unit. La Pluche is quoted on the Mathematical Point. The Circle and Point are described as the basis of philosophy's conception of Deity. The equilateral Triangle's apex is the Father, left side the Mother (Duad), right side the Son, base the Universal plane; by transmutation these become the Tetraktis. A footnote describes marriage ceremony symbolism. Aristotle is said to have dwarfed the geometry by omitting the Point and Circle, reducing it to line, surface, body. Modern heirs interpret these as Space, Force, Matter. Space is called the real world, a One Unity whose surface is studded with phenomenal Universes. The Pythagorean Decad of ten points is described; the upper dot is a Monad. Pythagoras is said to have thrown a veil over the Circle and Point, laying the origin of differentiated matter in the basic line. The ideal triangle is called a phantom of the mind, yet no greater abstraction than Gravity or Force. The protyle is identified with the basic line. The unit divided ad infinitum approaches the planes of eternal Reality. Porphyry is quoted on the Monad as substantial and the Duad as origin of Evil. The Duad is called the third monad in Occultism. The Kabalistic name YHVH is said to express male and female, Hokhmah and Binah, with Shekinah as synthesizing spirit. Shekinah is equated with Sakti in exoteric Puranas and with the feminine Holy Spirit of early Christians. In transcendental Chaldean Kabala, Shekinah is sexless, an absolute Presence.

The text identifies the Duad of Pythagoras as two straight lines that can never meet, forming no geometrical figure, and calls it the symbol of matter. From this Duad, united in one basic line of the triangle on the lower plane, emerge the Elohim, or Deity in Cosmic Nature, the lowest designation with true Kabalists, translated "God" in the Bible. Out of the Elohim issue the Scintillas, described as the "Souls," appearing in three-fold form as Monads, atoms, and gods. Quotations from the Esot. Catechism state that each atom becomes a visible complex unit and that the Monadic Essence, passing through mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, becomes man. God, Monad, and Atom correspond to Spirit, Mind, and Body in man; in septenary aggregation they form the "Heavenly Man," of whom terrestrial man is a provisional reflection. The Monads (Jivas) are the Souls of Atoms, the fabric in which Chohans cloth themselves. The text treats these Monads from the standpoint of their individuality before descent into terrestrial form, which marks the medial point of their pilgrimage. It then turns to Leibnitz, who came near the truth but defined monadic evolution incorrectly, being neither an INITIATE nor a Mystic. An invariable law is formulated: a descent of Spirit into Matter equivalent to an ascent in physical evolution, and a re-ascent towards the LAYA state. The text asserts that Physical Science, having ascertained the law of atomic evolution from the protylean state, cannot reject it as a general law. Figuier and Paul D'Assier are named as having succumbed to this logical necessity. Professor W. Crookes' discovery of protyle is cited as an example. T. Subba Row, in "Notes on the Bhagavat Gita," is quoted as saying Crookes' lecture gives the nearest approach by modern investigators to the real occult theory of physical evolution on the plane of Vishwanara. Crookes is quoted at length declaring that commonly received elements are not simple and primordial but evolved from simpler matters. The text states that once protyle is accepted, Chemistry will reappear as New Alchemy or METACHEMISTRY, and that the manifested Mother, Father-Son-Husband, and Son correspond to Hydrogen, Oxygen, and nitrogen. The text concludes by urging that a third postulate be added to Crookes' two: that Leibnitz stood on a firm groundwork of fact and truth.

Only a small portion of thoughts rises into apperception; many remain in confused perception. Descartes denied soul to the animal; Leibnitz endowed the whole creation with mental life. Mertz observed this widened the realm of mental life and destroyed the contrast of animate and inanimate matter. Extension belongs to the senses only, not thinking faculties; the physicist sees no limit to the divisibility of matter. Leibnitz carried the argument in infinitum: atoms lost extension, retained only resistance, became centres of force reduced to mathematical points, yet gained infinite extension in a metaphysical dimension, illustrated by a cone on its point. This is the root of occult doctrine; the essence of things real is at the seventh depth. A footnote gives the real spelling as Leibniz, of Slavonian descent though German by birth. If Leibnitz's and Spinoza's systems were reconciled, the essence of esoteric philosophy would appear. Both opposed Descartes' two-substance metaphysics; Leibnitz made the two substances attributes of one universal unity, Spinoza recognised one indivisible substance. Spinoza was a subjective, Leibnitz an objective Pantheist. If blended and corrected, the result would be the impersonal, attributeless absolute divine essence, distinguished from the Presence (Mulaprakriti) or Schekinah, from which evolve hierarchies of intelligent Egos. Leibnitz states the primitive element of every material body is Force. Lachelier quotes that what exists outside us in an absolute manner are Souls whose essence is force. Leibnitz calls these Monads; Eastern philosophy calls them Jivas. Bjerregaard, in a paper before the Aryan Theosophical Society of New York, states that to Leibnitz everything is living activity, placing him in direct relationship to the Seers of the East, and shows monads differ from atoms: atoms are qualitatively alike and extended, while monads differ qualitatively, are mathematical points, indivisible, and spontaneously self-active mirrors of the Universe. The adept may read the future in a monad. This is where Leibnitz's philosophy breaks down, as no distinction is made between the Elemental monad and that of a Planetary Spirit or human soul. The Occult Sciences add that Monads may be separated into three Hosts: conscious spiritual Egos ("gods"), Elementals forming Universal Mirrors, and atoms informed by apperceptive monads. The Formless ("Arupa") Radiations unite monads and individualize an independent mind; by magnetic aggregation they create visible bodies from interstellar atoms. Atoms are called "Vibrations" in Occultism. Mr. Tyndall's discovery of atmospheric vibrations is the objective part of the process. At the origin of every force stands the conscious guiding noumenon. The interstellar shoals are dazzling like specks of virgin snow, their motion circular and swifter than thought; the atmosphere appears ablaze with them, producing flashes like the Aurora Borealis. The text concludes by hoping students will perceive a close relation between materialistic Science and Occultism, the complement and missing soul of the former.

The section, titled "Cyclic Evolution and Karma," states that the spiritual evolution of the inner immortal man is the fundamental tenet of the Occult Sciences. The student must believe in the ONE Universal Life independent of matter and in individual intelligences animating its manifestations. Divisions of opinion on Vital Force are noted, citing Huxley against Sterling, Beale, and Richardson. The ONE LIFE is related to KARMA, defined exoterically as "effect-producing cause" and esoterically as the Law of Retribution; it cannot be called Providence, which carries personal gender, whereas Karma is sexless. Svabhavat passes from inactivity to activity at each rebirth of Kosmos; this work is KARMA. The Cosmic atom becomes seven atoms on the matter plane and seven rays on the spirit plane, united by KARMA. Atoms emanate new centres of energy under Fohat, forming causes of effects from worlds down to the seven kingdoms. "Thyan-kam" is defined as the power of guiding cosmic energy. The Buddhist position is described: no personal god, but belief in Adi-Buddhi and Dhyan Chohans; spiritual lives are temporary. The "Yin-Sin" is not for speculation. The visible Kosmos consists of "self-produced beings, creatures of Karma." Buddhists deny creation; only Akasa and Nirvana are eternally real and one. A Vedantic Brahmin would answer "I am myself God" while a Buddhist says "There is no God," yet both share the same root philosophy. The text addresses physical Science's inability to account for man's spiritual nature and the objections of occultists to materialistic conclusions. It then examines Karmic Cycles and their bearing on human life, referencing Yugas and Kalpas. A quotation from "World-Life" discusses the law of evolution and the mind's capacity to transcend matter. Maya varies with nations and places; life's chief features accord with one's "Constellation" or animating principle. The Spiritual Sun sends forth Saviours and Avatars. The text discusses destiny and free will, describing Karma as self-made destiny. Buchner's statement that the past is an unfolded present is noted as repeating an Occulist axiom. The homogeneity of matter rests on the inseparability of Spirit from matter. A Hegel quotation on World History and the Idea of Spirit is cited. The Grand Cycle runs from primordial ethereal man through evolution to redemption. Karmic cycles in the East correspond to the forgotten Nemesis in the West. Karma-Nemesis is Providence minus finite attributes; it is not Karma that rewards or punishes but individuals themselves. The text advocates union, harmony, and Brotherhood as palliatives. Knowledge of Karma yields the conviction that man is his own saviour and destroyer. Western Aryans have reached their Kali-Yuga. The text distinguishes astrology from astronomy, claims Eastern records of racial development since the Fourth Race, and asserts that stars have occult influence on individuals and nations. The section closes with a promise to examine the Zodiac's ancient knowledge.

The text opens with a quotation from Jordan on men's tenacity of opinions and their reliance on others' understandings, then applies this to scientific prejudice among Orientalists regarding the antiquity of the Zodiac. Professor Weber's view that Indians imported the Zodiac from Greeks after the Macedonian invasion is identified as an error, as are claims that no Eastern nation knew of it before the Hellenes. The Book of Job is cited as evidence of pre-Greek Zodiac knowledge, naming Arcturus, Orion, Pleiades, Scorpio, and the Mazzaroths. Job's precedence over Homer and Hesiod is noted. Bailly's astronomical calculations, starting from references in Job, are presented as proving the Zodiac's origin among an antediluvian people, with a date of 3700 B.C. that predates the Greeks as a nation. Biblical evidence follows: II Kings xxiii.5 records zodiac signs worshipped until King Josiah's reformation in 624 B.C. Joseph's dream of twelve stars, the twelve sons of Jacob, and the Dabistan's Persian traditions are all identified as zodiacal. Philo Judaeus, Seneca on Berosus, and the Akkadian month names are cited. Proctor, the Hindu Kali Yug, and claims that Alexander's Greeks instructed Hindus in astronomy are mentioned. Egyptian astronomical antiquity is supported by Simplicius, Massey, Diogenes Laertius, and Martianus Capella. Plutarch's account of a trumpet sound and eight kinds of men is linked to the seven races and the great year of 25,868 years. Iamblichus's figure of 270,000 years is matched to the Esoteric Doctrine's timeline of Root-races. Roman Catholic writers' identification of the twelve Patriarchs with zodiac signs is catalogued sign by sign. Newton, Dulaure, Creuzer, Xenophon on Cyrus, Laplace, and Dupuis are cited on the Zodiac's universality. The text rejects chance, quoting Coleridge and substituting Karma for God. The Pisces-as-Messiah claim is examined and questioned; Brahmin and Babylonian fish-Messiah parallels are noted. Kepler's conjunction in Pisces at the "incarnation" and Dr. Sepp's lunar year 4320 are discussed. Wilford's identification of biblical patriarchs with Hindu figures is criticized, and the text asserts the Jews borrowed their figures and gods from the Chaldeans, making 4,320 lunar years from 432,000 years of Chaldean divine Dynasties. The text concludes that these figures are a distorted echo of the primitive esoteric doctrine concerning the Yugas.

The text states that a "Day" of Brahma equals 4,320,000,000 years, as does a "Night" of Brahma (Pralaya), after which a new Sun rises over a new manvantara. A footnote records Dr. Sepp of Munich's attempt to show that Hindus borrowed their figures from Christians and Chaldeans from Jews, based on saroses and neroses; the text rejects Suidas's supposed statement that 120 saroses made 2,222 sacerdotal years equal to 1,656 solar years. The teaching is said to have penetrated Palestine and Europe before the Christian era, to have been present among the Mosaic Jews, and to have received full expression through Christian chronologers who adopted it along with December 25th. The text discusses how the Messiah's birth, life, and death were fitted to Zodiacal exigencies, and cites Kepler on planetary conjunctions as "climacteric years of Humanity." It argues against the claim that the asterisk marking Taurus is prophetic of Christ, noting the Zodiac predates the Christian era and that all Sun-gods were connected with Taurus. The ansated cross, Jaina cross, and Christian cross are said to share the same meaning; the Dragon is a symbol of Wisdom, the Bull a symbol of physical generation. Erard-Mollien's 1853 paper before the Institute of France is cited for the antiquity of the Indian Zodiac, describing Kanya-Durga on a lion dragging the solar car. Volney's calculation placing the Zodiac's origin at 16,984 years before the present, and Dr. Schlegel's assignment of 18,000 years to the Chinese Astronomical Sphere, are noted. M. Bailly's argument that Hindu astronomy is the oldest is presented at length: he distinguishes between the epochs 1491 and 3102, arguing that 3102 is the real epoch because it was accompanied by an observable lunar eclipse, while no eclipse occurred at 1491. Further proofs are given: the division of the Kali-Yug epoch into a civil and astronomical moment; a conjunction of Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn visible about fourteen days after the epoch; the determination of the moon's node; and the positions of the "Eye of Taurus" and "Wheat-ear of Virgo" placing the origin of the Hindu Zodiac in the sixth degree of Libra. The text notes that at the commencement of Kali Yug the "Eye of the Bull" and "Heart of the Scorpion" were at the equinoctial points, and that the Pleiades (Pillaloo-codi, also called Krittika) were used to regulate Hindu months. Finally, Augustinus Riccius's mention of observations attributed to Hermes, made 1,985 years before Ptolemy, is cited regarding stellar longitudes.

A shared positional error on two stars implies common cause. Thebith's oscillatory stellar movement hypothesis is rejected. Hindu Astronomy places the first point of the Hindu Zodiac 35 degrees ahead of the equinox 1985 years before Ptolemy; after that stellar advance, a 7-degree gap persists between Hermes and Ptolemy longitudes. Observations ascribed to Hermes are assigned to Hindus, who divided the Zodiac into 27 constellations via the moon's daily motion, fixing the Wheatear of Virgo and the Eye of Taurus. A lunar eclipse 14 days after the Kali Yug epoch, between the Wheatear of Virgo and a neighboring star, yielded the moon's and sun's positions, fixing the Hindu year's commencement. The sun-moon conjunction 20,400 years before Kali Yug is fictitious; the real epoch is 3102 BCE. Tiravalore Brahmins give a great period of 1,600,984 days for the moon's motion, observationally fixed, ending 21 May 1282 at Benares with the moon in apogee. Brahmin lunar determinations diverge from European tables by nine and twenty-two minutes. The Hindu motion over 4,883 years matches Cassini and Maier; Siamese tables brought by M. de la Loubere in 1687 antedate both. The period originates in 3102 B.C. Bailly is cited as a rare scientific defender of Aryan Astronomy; no astronomer from Bentley to Burgess is deemed fair. A footnote contests missionary transmission of European astronomy to India, citing differing elements and the absence of Cassini's tables in 1687. A table of mean motions shows only Cassini's figure matching the Hindu value. The Monad's descent and re-ascent are inseparable from Zodiacal signs, referencing the author of The Gnostics on Gnostic and Platonist accommodation of Buddhistic theosophy. Archaic Occultism requires Buddhism and Hinduism as channels, both children of ancient Lemuro-Atlantean Wisdom.

The section, titled "Summary of the Mutual Position," addresses the reader, stating the case has been presented from both sides. It argues that if a void existed in Nature, it would be found in the minds of scientists who mutually destroy each other's teachings. It identifies "Ether, Matter, Energy" as the trinity of Physical Nature, drawing a parallel with the Christian Trinity and noting theology is ridiculed for its trinity while science's goes unchallenged. The "Conflict between Religion and Science" is said to have been won by the argument that theological concepts cannot be proved by scientific induction. Tyndall is quoted calling metaphysics fiction. The text proposes to examine whether exact Science acts the same way as Theosophy and Theology. Quoting Mr. S. Laing's "Modern Science and Modern Thought," it shows Science answering that the material universe is composed of Ether, Matter, and Energy, then demonstrating each is unknown: Ether is a mathematical assumption (Laing), matter's composition is unknown (Huxley), and Energy is known only by its effects (Ganot's Physics). Huxley is quoted calling vis viva "an empty shadow of my imagination." The text concludes Modern Science is built on mathematical abstraction and unknown substances. Father Felix is quoted stating "Mystery is the fatality of Science" and asking who has penetrated the secret of an atom's formation. Tyndall confesses the first marshalling of atoms baffles the microscope. The text notes some materialists would discard Ether and atoms. The fulness of the universe is stated to have been an accepted belief from the earliest philosophers. Hermes Trismegistus is quoted (in Mrs. Kingsford's rendering) denying the void and describing the universe as full of bodies. The text notes no Eastern Initiate would speak of spheres "above" but of an eternal "within." Hermes is quoted on orders of gods, Zeus, Light, Pantomorphos, Fortune and Destiny, and the ether as medium. All Forces are called "Gods" esoterically, and the personification of Fohat synthesizing manifesting forces is called a legitimate result. Stanza VI is referenced regarding Fohat setting in motion World-germs. Meteoric showers and their elliptical orbit, recognized in 1833, are presented as a modern rediscovery of ancient knowledge. Fohat is identified in India as the scientific aspect of Vishnu and Indra, and in Egypt as Toum issued of Noot, or Osiris. Toum's attributes are listed, and the Book of Dead chapter lxii is cited as showing Toum's identity with Fohat. The number seven is emphasized in both the Book of Dead and the Book of Dzyan. The text warns against believing Egyptians spoke of a monotheistic Supreme Being, stating the Hermetic works are Greek compilations from the Neo-Platonic period. Maspero is quoted on Egyptian monotheism being "purely geographical," and Lepage Renouf on the word Nouter being generic. The Greek fragments are said to bear a Neo-Platonic or Christian editorial hand. The text laments the age of "isms" and no religion. Augustin Thierry is quoted on legend being truer than history. Michelet is quoted on History being devoured by annalists. The text anticipates criticism of Book II and quotes Montesquieu's "Lettres Persanes" on lunatic asylums. The volume ends.

The text opens with a Greek aphorism and a quotation from John vii.16. It asserts that modern science, human reason, the Secret Doctrine, ancient legends, and the Bible all corroborate evolution. The flower-from-seed analogy illustrates that the germ of the present human race preexisted in its parent, and that humanity's progenitors may have been the "giants" of the Vedas, the Voluspa, and Genesis. A passage from "Isis Unveiled" is quoted. The Preliminary Notes state that the Stanzas in this volume derive from the same Archaic Records as Book I. Three propositions are postulated: (a) simultaneous evolution of seven human groups on seven portions of the globe; (b) the astral body precedes the physical; (c) man preceded every mammalian in this Round. A footnote identifies the Genesis "male and female" as the Host of the Sephiroth, not man. The "Pymander" of Hermes and Chaldean tablets are cited for seven primeval men. These are identified with the Seven Kings of Edom in the Kabala, a sexless first race destroyed by Nergas through the introduction of equilibrium, which then reincarnated in the Androgynes and the sexual third Race. Egyptian, Hindu, and Chaldeo-Assyrian sources are cited as further corroboration. The Samothracian mysteries and the Kabiri are discussed, with Pindar's account of Kabir (Adamas) as archetype of the first males. The text argues the Jews compiled Genesis from the Chaldeo-Akkadian account. Three points from the Kouyunjik fragments are listed: the first race to fall into generation was dark; two principal Races existed at the Fall; and the seven creating gods were "imprisoned or incarnated." The four pre-historic continents are named: I. "The Imperishable Sacred Land," lasting throughout the Manvantara; II. "Hyperborean," stretching from the North Pole through Northern Asia; III. "Lemuria," a name invented by Mr. Sclater; IV. "Atlantis," of which Plato's island was a fragment; and V. America, though Europe is called the fifth in the Aryan sequence. The claim that man was originally a pre-tertiary giant existing 18,000,000 years ago is addressed. The text notes widespread disagreement among geologists on period durations, citing Mr. Croll, Mr. Reade, Mr. Darwin, Sir C. Lyell, Prof. Houghton, and Mr. Huxley. All geologists agree that during the Miocene Age, Greenland and Spitzbergen had almost a tropical climate. The pre-Homeric Greeks preserved a tradition of this "Land of the Eternal Sun." The text concludes with a note that the sections are not strictly consecutive in order of time.

The text opens with a quotation from the Kalevala concerning a maiden, Daughter of the Ether, who wandered seven hundred years before her first-born was delivered, and a duck laying six golden eggs and one iron egg. A footnote states that only forty-nine Slokas out of several hundred are given and that periphrasis is sometimes used. The Earth addresses the Lord of the Shining Face, asking him to send his sons to people her empty house. He responds that she is not ready, her seven skins still being on her. She casts off her old three and puts on her new seven. The wheel constructs rupas, which she shakes off. She then creates water-men from dross and slime. The Dhyanis come, displeased, and dry the turbid waters with flames. The Lhas of the High slew the two- and four-faced forms and fought the goat-men, dog-headed men, and men with fishes' bodies. Mother-Water disappeared in the Moon. The Lord of the Lords separated the waters from the Earth's body, making heaven. The Great Chohans called the Lords of the Moon to bring forth men; the Lords of the Flame remained behind and would not create. The Seven Hosts separated men from themselves, producing shadows of future men. The Fathers, the Spirit of the Earth, and the Solar Fire jointly produced a good Rupa. Various beings contributed to the Breath's needs, but no one could give it a mind, and man remained an empty senseless Bhuta. The First Race were the Sons of Yoga. The Second was produced by a-sexual budding. The Second evolved the egg-born Third. The Sons of Wisdom came down; some entered the Chhaya and became Arhats, some deferred. The Manasa rejected the Self-Born and spurned the sweat-born until the egg-born were produced. The Third Race became the Vahan of the Lords of Wisdom. Animals were produced from sweat, residue, and dust. The two-fold man separated and bred. Those without a spark begat dumb monster races. The Lhas who had not built men wept, calling it Karma. All men became endowed with Manas. The Fourth Race developed speech. The Fourth became proud, took wives from the mindless, bred demons, built temples, and worshipped images. The Third Eye acted no longer. They built huge cities and great images. The First Great Waters came and swallowed the seven great islands. Few men remained; the moon-coloured were gone forever. The Fifth, produced from the holy stock, remained and was ruled by the first divine kings.

Stanza I, titled "Beginnings of Sentient Life," opens with four listed sections. Section 1 states that the Lha which turns the fourth globe (Earth) is servant to the Lhas of the Seven (planetary Spirits), who revolve around their Lord, the One Eye (Loka-Chakshub). His breath gives life to the seven and gave life to the first. The Commentary adds "They are all dragons of wisdom." Footnotes explain that Lha is the trans-Himalayan word for "Spirit" covering all heavenly hierarchies; that the Spirit-Guardian of the fourth globe is subordinate to the chief Spirit of the Seven Planetary Genii; and that the ancients had seven chief Mystery-gods whose chief was exoterically the visible Sun and esoterically the second Logos, the Demiurge. A Commentary states the seven higher make the Seven Lhas create the world, the Regents being supervisors. The notes then discuss the Logos as apex of the Pythagorean triangle becoming the Tetraktis, the manifestation of Parabrahm as Mulaprakriti and then as the Logos at the commencement of a Manvantara, and the distinction between the Logos (Spirit) and the Demiurgos (Soul). Man is identified as the third Logos. The Sun is called by the Egyptians "the eye of Osiris" and is itself the Logos. The Dragon and Serpent symbolism is discussed, with a passage from the Kalewala describing the strife between the Serpent of Evil and Magic Lemminkainen. Chinese, Scandinavian, and Druse creation allegories are cited, all pointing to the dual and triple nature of man. Section 2 presents the Earth speaking to the Sun: "My house is empty... Send thy sons to people this wheel." The Earth notes that the Sun has sent its seven sons to the Lord of Wisdom (Mercury/Budha) and has forbidden the small rings to catch its light. Footnotes explain the astronomical reference to Mercury receiving seven times more light than Earth, identify Mercury with Mithra and various mythological figures, and state that the Globe receives its vital forces through the seven planetary Dhyanis from the Spirit of the Sun. Each of the seven Firstborn receives light from its own Dhyani: the first under the Sun, the second under Jupiter, the third under Venus, the fourth under the Moon and Saturn, the fifth under Mercury. Venus and Earth are called "Twin-sisters." The text discusses the symbol of Venus as a Globe over a Cross and Earth as a Globe under a Cross, and notes that in exoteric Brahmanism Sukra is the son of Bhrigu and Daitya-Guru.

The diameter in a circle represents female nature and the primitive Root-Race; as Races develop physically, the symbol becomes androgynous (the Egyptian Tau) and then male-female separated. Venus is symbolised by a globe over the cross, presiding over natural generation. The Egyptian ansated cross (Ank, "life") signifies the fall from the divine spiritual circle into physical generation; the Hebrews took Ank from the Egyptians, and Moses introduced it. In a Southern Indian Catechism, the hermaphrodite goddess Adanari bears the Svastica denoting the pre-sexual state of the Third Race. Vishnu appears in an old carving as double-sexed on a lotus-leaf, with water pouring through the Svastica. Pythagoras calls Sukra-Venus the "other Sun"; in Kabala, Lucifer-Venus is the third palace of the Sun and the abode of Samael. According to Occult Doctrine, this planet is Earth's primary and spiritual prototype, its chariot drawn by eight earth-born horses. Sukra is preceptor of the Daityas, giants of the Fourth Race who once held sovereignty of Earth. The Titans of Western allegory connect with Venus-Lucifer, identified by later Christians with Satan. St. Augustine applies Venus's changing configuration to Lucifer's character and connects it with the Noachian Deluge. Allegorically, Sukra incarnated as Usanas and gave Earth perfect laws. In the Harivansa, Sukra performs a Yoga rite for a thousand years, referring to Venus's axial inclination and eternal clouds. The curse on Vishnu to be reborn seven times refers to the Races on Earth, not the Avatars. Quoted passages state that every world has a parent star and sister planet, that Spheres of Being are numberless and unlike one another, and that the informing Intelligences are called by various names. The number seven is treated as fundamental across all religious systems, with examples from the Mayas, Quiches, and other peoples. The Sephiroth are explained through a diagram, and three kinds of light are distinguished: Abstract and Absolute Light (Darkness), the Logos, and its reflection in the Dhyan Chohans.

The text discusses the ratio 20612 to 6561 as a modified form of light and a variation of pi (31415 to one, or Alhim or God), showing how the two ratios flow into and derive from each other to demonstrate the unity of divine names. The Sephiroth are described as Light, identical with the manifestation of Ain Soph, representing the ratio 20612 to 6561 as part of the Words (DBRIM, 41224). The Zohar is cited: the Infinite diffused no light before a luminous point broke through; the Crown (first Sephira) caused nine splendid lights to emanate, which with the one made the sacred Ten. The Gospel of St. John is referenced: God (Alhim) was that light by which all things were made. In Sepher Jezirah, the whole process of evolution is given in Numbers; in its "32 paths of Wisdom," 3 is repeated four times and 4 five times. The prince Al-Chazari asks the Rabbi for principles of Natural Philosophy; the Rabbi answers that the Number of Creation of Abraham pertains to these, teaching Alhim-ness and One-ness through DBRIM (41224), divided by two tables of stone into 20612 by 2. The text states that Jehovah is but a lunar and "generation" god, and that unless the Kabala is read by Eastern esoteric philosophy, its study reveals monotheism as ancient Astrolatry. Christian theology, having rejected emanations, is described as stranded between Supernaturalism and materialism. In Kapila's Sankhya, the Monad passes through mineral, vegetable, and animal forms before the Light of the Logos is awakened; evolution, not creation by Words, is recognized. Adam-Adami is shown to be a compound word of Indian origin, with Ad meaning "the first" in Sanskrit, "One" in Aramaean, and "father" in Assyrian. All male gods became first Sun-gods, then Logoi; Adam Kadmon was the same as Adonis, later transformed into earthly types. In the Zohar, Man was created by the Sephiroth; in Hindu Cosmogony, Brahma-Prajapati creates Viraj and the Rishis spiritually. The "Lord of the Shining Face" sends a fire, instructs to apply to the Lord of the Lotus (Kumuda-Pati) for his sons, states that the men of Budha (Mercury) are immortal while the sons of Soma are not, and declares the seven skins are yet on and the men are not ready. The cycle of the "first War in Heaven" (Taraka-maya) is described as containing planetary biographies; Usanas (Venus) is degraded into a demon deity after fighting against the gods. The text concludes with a verse from the Book of Dzyan: after great throes the Earth cast off her old three and put on her new seven skins.

The text clarifies that a reference concerns the growth of the Earth, contrasting it with the Stanza on the First Round, in which the changeless immutable nature awakened, differentiated into causality, and from invisible became visible; the smallest atoms became one and many, producing the Universe and the Fourth Loka in the garland of seven lotuses. The Achyuta became the Chyuta. The Earth casts off her old three skins, referring to three preceding Rounds; the present is the fourth of seven. At the beginning of every new Round, after obscuration, the earth casts off her skins as the Serpent does; she is called Sarpa Rajni in the Aitareya-Brahmana. The Seven Skins refer to seven geological changes corresponding to the Seven Root-Races. Stanza II speaks of this Round and begins with information on the age of the Earth. The Commentary mentions two personages: Narada and Asuramaya, especially the latter, to whom all calculations are attributed. Two figures are connected with mystic astronomy and cycles: the mystic West and Freemasonry name Enoch and Hermes; the mystic East names Narada, the old Vedic Rishi, and Asuramaya, the Atlantean. Narada is described as the most mysterious character in the Mahabharata and Puranas, called Deva Rishi by Parasara, cursed by Daksha and Brahma. He informs Kansa that Bhagavat would incarnate in the eighth child of Devaki, bringing wrath upon Krishna's mother, then lauds Krishna for killing Kesim. He is called Pesh-Hun, the Messenger, in Cis-Himalayan Occultism, and is the executor of universal decrees of Karma and Adi-Budh. In exoteric works he bears uncomplimentary names. Sir W. Jones compared him to Hermes and Mercury. Dr. Kenealy saw in him one of his twelve Messiahs. Narada visits Patala and may have learned from Sesha. Pesh-Hun calculated and recorded all astronomical and cosmic cycles. Asuramaya based his works on those records and determined the duration of past and future periods. A work called the "Mirror of Futurity" is ascribed to Narada; another is attributed to Atlanteans. The Brahmin chronology is based on Zodiacal records and Asuramaya's works. The text anticipates objection from Professor Albrecht Weber, who identifies Asuramaya with Ptolemaios and denies great antiquity to the Indian Zodiac. The text challenges this, noting Romakapura was part of Atlantis, which the Puranas assign as Asuramaya's birth-place. Whether Asuramaya is myth or historical, his calculations agree with the Secret Records. A calendar compiled by two Brahmins in 1884–1885 from fragments found in Southern India is proclaimed faultless.

Stanza II, "Nature Unaided Fails," opens with a numbered outline. Stanza 5 describes the Wheel whirling for thirty crores of years, constructing rupas: soft stones that hardened, hard plants that softened, insects and small lives. The Earth shook these off when they overran the Mother, then turned round and laid on her side. She called no sons of Heaven or Wisdom but created from her own bosom, evolving water-men terrible and bad. A note explains this relates to an inclination of the axis producing a deluge in which half-human, half-animal monsters were generated, as in the Book of the Dead and Cutha Tablets. The text asserts these are facts corroborated by Pymander, Chaldean tablets, Berosus, Apollodorus, and Alexander Polyhistor. It identifies the water-men as a failed first attempt to create man and argues that multiple creations preceded the present Globe. It contrasts Akkadian, Semitic, and Aryan cosmogonies: with the Akkads the Deep housed Ea (Wisdom); with the Semites it became gross matter and Ea became Tiamat, slain by Merodach. It cites the Puranas' Brahma recommencing after failures, the Zohar's perished primordial worlds, and Rabbi Abahu in the Midraish. Note (b) describes Oannes's Cosmogony: the abyss held winged men, two-faced men, two-headed beings with goat legs, hippocentaurs, bulls with men's heads, dogs with fish tails; the feminine element Thalatth was conquered by Belus, who cut her asunder to form Earth and heavens. Stanza 6 states the water-men were formed from mineral, vegetable, and animal remains of the first, second, and third Rounds. The Dhyanis came from the bright Father-Mother, the white solar-lunar regions, the abodes of the Immortal-Mortals. A note recounts the Cutha tablet's account of the Lord of Angels destroying men in the abyss, after which the Great Gods created men with bodies of birds of the desert, "seven kings, brothers of the same family," destroyed for being sexless and imperfect. The text argues that if evolution operates through nature, monstrous transitional forms are plausible, citing geological specimens and modern anomalies, and concludes that physical nature unaided fails at creating man, which requires spiritual and intelligent powers. Stanza 7 records the Creators' displeasure: "Our flesh is not there... This is no fit Rupa for our brothers of the Fifth... Let us dry them." A note quotes the Catechism on the Lha fashioning physical bodies and the Double Dragon descending unable to affect form without Manas. The text then examines the Vishnu Purana's exoteric account: Brahma assumes four bodies—Jyotsna, Ratri, Ahan, Sandhya—and sequentially creates Asuras, gods, Pitris, and men from each, the cast-off bodies becoming night, day, evening twilight, and dawn. The text explains that Brahma esoterically stands for the collective Pitris and that the four bodies typify the four classes of Dhyan Chohans.

The text states that pagan scriptures were made to yield the same meaning and shown to be demoniacal, with truth claimed to commence only with Christianity. Orientalists and Mythologists, even non-Christians, entered this theological groove unconsciously. Brahmanical considerations based on greed of power kept masses ignorant, and similar causes led early Christian Initiates to remain silent while others disfigured the hierarchy of Angels. As Asuras became rebellious inferior gods, the highest archangel, the Agathodaemon, became the "Adversary" or Satan. The text asserts this is not warranted by correct interpretation of any old Scripture. Mazdean Scriptures and Chaldean tablets are said to correct this distortion. Christian Angelology is stated to derive from the Pharisees, who brought tenets from Babylonia; the Sadducees rejected angels. An Assyrian tablet describing seven wicked gods or spirits is cited, showing the "rebellious angels" were created in the lower part of heaven, belonging to a material plane. The Gnostics are said to have been nearer in time to the records of the Archaic Secret Doctrine. The tablet's seven messengers of Anu are identified with Sin, the Moon, and overpowered by Sin with the help of Bel and Ishtar. The "Fall" is described as a universal allegory of the struggle between Spirit and Matter, a Karmic effect belonging to the law of Evolution. Bentley's astronomical analysis is invoked to show the War of Titans and the War of Asuras are identical, with Saturn prevailing in both Hesiod and Moses. Stanza II, verse 8, describes the Flames coming, drying out turbid dark waters, and the Lhas slaying two- and four-faced forms and fighting goat-men, dog-headed men, and men with fishes' bodies. The Flames are identified as a Hierarchy parallel to the Seraphim, with Melha as their Lord. Verse 9 describes Mother-Water rising and disappearing in the Moon, which had lifted and given her birth; the Occult teaching is stated as the reverse of Darwin's theory, holding that the Moon is far older than the Earth. Verse 10 states that when the Rupas were destroyed, Mother-Earth remained bare and asked to be dried. Water is identified as the symbol of the female element, and Cupid or Eros as the Divine Will. The text then presents the Chronology of the Brahmins, noting that modern science cannot determine the age of the Sun, Moon, Earth, or Man with any accuracy. The Tamil calendar called the Tirukkanda Panchanga, compiled from secret fragments of Asuramaya's data, is cited. Asuramaya is described as the greatest astronomer and most powerful Sorcerer of the White Island (Atlantis), a direct descendant of the Wise Race. Chronological figures are given: 1,955,884,687 years from the beginning of cosmic evolution to 1887; 300,000,000 years for astral evolution of the kingdoms up to Man; 18,618,728 years since the Vaivasvata Manvantara; one Manvantara of 308,448,000 years; one Day of Brahma of 4,320,000,000 years; and one Maha-Yuga of 4,320,000 years.

The text clarifies that the deluge under discussion is not the Atlantean or Noah's deluge, nor the Cosmic Deluge or Pralaya of obscuration preceding the current Round, but the appearance of mankind in the latter Round. Four types of Pralaya are distinguished: Naimitika (occasional), Prakritika (elemental), Atyantika (absolute), and Nitya (perpetual), the last being Brahma's contingent recoalescence at the end of Brahma's Day. A learned Brahmin Theosophist raises the question whether Cosmic Pralaya exists, since otherwise the Logos (Krishna), who is Aja (unborn), would have to be reborn. The text responds that the Logos is born only metaphorically, as a beam of the Sun is said to be born and die. Cosmic Pralaya applies to visible things, not the Arupa (formless) world, and occurs at the end of one hundred years of Brahma. The Avyaya, symbolized by Vishnu, assumes the character of Rudra, the Destroyer, enters the Seven Rays of the Sun and drinks up all waters of the Universe; the seven solar Rays then dilate to seven Suns and set fire to the Cosmos. A table gives the exoteric figures: a Maha-Yuga is the 1,000th part of a day of Brahma; Sandhis between the 14 Manus amount to 6 Maha-Yugas (25,920,000); the total of reigns and interregnums equals 1,000 Maha-Yugas, one Kalpa, or one day of Brahma (4,320,000,000); a Day and Night of Brahma equals 8,640,000,000; 360 such days and nights make one year of Brahma (3,110,400,000,000); 100 such years constitute the Maha-Kalpa (311,040,000,000,000). These figures are accepted throughout India and nearly match those of the Secret works, which amplify them with esoteric cycles unknown in popular Brahmanical writings, one being the division of Yugas into racial cycles. The cycles are attributed to Narada and Asuramaya, the latter reputed a giant and sorcerer. The text argues that antediluvian giants were not all evil, comparing Torquemada and Catherine de Medicis unfavorably to Atlantean giants, and likens the Rakshasas and Yakshas of Lanka to modern dynamiters. The Brahmanical figures are requested to be kept in mind. The Encyclopaedia Britannica's

Stanza III, "Attempts to Create Man," opens with Sloka 11: the Lord of the Lords came and separated the waters from Her body, creating the first heaven (the atmosphere or firmament). A note connects this to the Harivamsa and to the Mosaic firmament in Genesis. Sloka 12 orders the Great Chohans, called the Lords of the Moon, to bring forth men of their nature, giving them forms within while Mother Earth builds external coverings; they will be males-females and Lords of the Flame. A note identifies the Lords of the Moon as the Pitris in India and Jehovah as Lord of the Moon in Hebrew tradition, discussing the moon's vitalizing power and the identification of Sri with Sarai and Mount Sinai as a lunar monument. Sloka 13 states that seven Moon-gods went each on his allotted land, while the Lords of the Flame remained behind, refusing to create. A note explains that the Agnishwatta, being too divine and pure, lacked creative fire and could not project an astral body, while the Barhishad, possessing creative fire but lacking the higher Mahat-mic element, could only produce the outer man. The text states that primeval man was aeriform, devoid of compactness, and mindless, lacking Manas. It discusses the abyss of Mentality between man and animal, and the dual creation in which one Elohim makes Adam of dust, another breathes life, and a third makes a living soul. Narada, a son of Brahma, is described as having frustrated Daksha's attempt to people the world and been cursed to incarnate as a man. The text quotes the Book of the Concealed Mystery and the Zohar on the creation of man from sparks and flames, explaining that the First Root-race was sexless and mindless and became the Second Root-race. The "Holy City" is identified as the human womb, and Binah as "Son of YaH." The text concludes that the Hebrew Elohim, Sparks, and Cherubs are identical with the Devas, Rishis, and Agnis of the ancient Aryas.

The text presents Stanza IV, "Creation of the First Races," beginning with section 14. The Seven Hosts, the "Will (or Mind)-Born" Lords, propelled by Fohat, separate men from themselves, each on his own zone. A footnote explains they threw off their shadows or astral bodies. A Commentary says the Ancestors breathed out the first man as Brahma breathed out the Suras. Another says the newly-created men "were the shadows of the Shadows." The text notes this process is easier to accept than the one that follows, and that the writer considers it useless to enter details. It contrasts an Adam made of dust with one projected from the ethereal body of his creator, arguing the latter is familiar to Spiritualists who have witnessed materialising forms. The text states the world must choose between Genesis creation and a missing link, and that Occult philosophy steps in between, teaching the first human stock was projected by higher Beings out of their own essences. Man was not created complete; a double evolution in two contrary directions required various ages. The text then discusses the law proceeding from one Manvantara to another, using Beings from higher planes in accordance with Karmic exigencies. A section on "The Identity and Differences of the Incarnating Powers" follows. The Pitris are creators of bodies and lower principles, described as lunar Beings. The Solar Angels endow man with the conscious immortal EGO, named the Lords of pranidhana. They are identified with the Kumaras, Agnishwattas, and Barhishads. Plato's definition of the soul as "a compound of the same and the other" is discussed. The seven classes of Pitris—three incorporeal, four corporeal, of two kinds (Agnishwatta and Barhishad)—are detailed, with references to the Vayu Purana, Matsya, and Harivamsa. The text identifies them with the Manasa, Rajasas, and incarnating Dhyan Chohans. Section 15 states seven times seven shadows of future men (Amanasas) were born, each of his own colour and kind, inferior to his father. The boneless Fathers could give no life to beings with bones; the progeny were phantoms with neither form nor mind, called the Chhaya Race. The text elaborates on the septenary division, the refusal of the Arupa Pitris to create bodies, the Karmic compulsion to incarnate, and how exoteric theology transformed these beings into demons across multiple traditions.

The creative gods declare that man must not be like them, being entrusted with the fabrication of the lower animal but higher. A footnote explains that the esoteric interpretation of the "Fallen Angels" is a Theodice, and that St. Michael was the first to refuse to create. Christian theology is criticized for misreading Eastern symbolism, such as the eclipse rite meant to scare the "great red Dragon," where "Light" means esoteric Wisdom and Dragon refers to Adepts. The text then addresses what Prometheus symbolized: the first Race's creators could not give man the sacred spark of reason because they had it not to give; this was left to Devas symbolized as Prometheus, who dealt with purely spiritual man. Each class of Creators endows man with what it has: one builds external form, the other gives essence. The pure gods could only project shadowy men, too material to be gods, too spiritual to be men. Perfection must be born out of imperfection; Good and Evil are twins under Maya. A lower order of creative angels is needed to create inhabited globes, as the Gnostics first recognized. Various ancient Cosmogonies mention different mankinds: Plato's winged race, Aristophanes' androgynous race, Pymander's double-sexed animals, and the Popol Vuh's first men with unlimited sight. The Ases create the visible world from Ymir's remains but only man's form from the Ask tree; Odin gives life and soul, Lodur blood and bones, Honir intellect and conscious senses. The Norse Ask, Hesiodic Ash-tree, and Tzite tree are identified as one. The creating powers fail to endow man with conscious immortal spirit and are punished with imprisonment in matter. The Svastica is described as the most sacred symbol, the "Hammer of Creation," Thor's Hammer, summarizing evolution from Parabrahm to moneron. Norse songs prophesy the seventh Race. The Divine babe Agni is born from the conjunction of Pramantha and Arani. Finally, the Fathers produce a senseless shadow-form of man through electric and solar fires, failing to give it thinking mind.

The text defines "Bhutas" as meaning ghosts or ethereal phantoms in India, and in esoteric teaching, elementary substances of attenuated noncompound essence, specifically the astral double of any man or animal. These primitive men are identified as the doubles of the first ethereal Dhyanis or Pitris. The Higher Self or human Monad and the animal Monad are stated to be one and the same, the former endowed with divine intelligence, the latter with instinctual faculty alone. A quotation identifies the Sons of Mahat as the quickeners of the human Plant, the Waters falling upon arid soil, the Spark that vivifies, and the Lords of Spiritual Life eternal. Another quotation states that in the Second Race, some of the Lords breathed their essence into men while others took their abode in man. The text explains that only a few men became incarnations of the "divine Rebels," while the remainder had their fifth principle merely quickened by a spark, accounting for differences in intellectual capacity. The rebellion of intellectual life against the inactivity of pure spirit is said to be the cause of self-conscious, thinking men. The Rebels are called "our saviours." The text states that Spirit and Matter are cemented on Earth by the attractive force of contrasts and wedded in Eternity. This is said to explain the statement in Pymander about the "heavenly MAN" breaking through the Seven Circles of Fire, the Greek allegory of Prometheus, and the "Wars in Heaven" including the Christian dogma of fallen angels. The text references George Smith's account of a Babylonian cylinder showing the Sacred Tree with seven branches—three on the man's side, four on the woman's—typical of the seven Root-Races, with the separation of sexes occurring at the close of the third Race. The Dragon is identified as the male principle personified, and Tiamat as the female principle, the Womb. The Serpent seduces the woman, who seduces man. A new section presents a series of statements: the Fathers gave form, the Earth moulded the gross body, the Solar Lhas breathed the Spirit of Life, the Dhyanis gave the astral shadow, and Suchi provided the Vehicle of Desires. The Fathers, the Spirit of the Earth, and the Great solar Fire each state they cannot give a Mind to embrace the Universe. Nascent man remains an empty, senseless Bhuta. The text identifies the "Father" of primitive physical man as the vital electric principle in the Sun, the Moon as its Mother, and the Ether as the "nurse." "Spiritual Fire" is identified as Hydrogen in alchemy and as the emanation from the "Dhyan of the first Element" in esoteric actuality. Hydrogen is described as one under three aspects—fire, air, and water. The Kabeiri are identified with the Kumaras and Rudras headed by Kartikeya. A parallel table shows the five Elements paired with the five senses in ascending order, each adding the characteristic of its predecessor. The text concludes by stating that Gods or Dhyan Chohans proceed from the First Cause, called Jagad-Yoni, "the womb of the world," and that mankind emanates from these active agents in Kosmos.

The text presents Stanza V, "The Evolution of the Second Race," sections 18 and 19. Section 18, "The Sons of Yoga," states the first Race were the Sons of Yoga, their sons being children of the Yellow Father and the White Mother. A later Commentary renders this as "The Sons of the Sun and of the Moon, the nursling of ether." They were "shadows of the shadows of the Lords"; the Spirits of the Earth clothed them and the solar Lhas warmed them. They had life but no understanding, no fire nor water of their own. A footnote (a) identifies the "One thing" in the Tabula Smaragdina as MAN, with the Sun as Father, Moon as Mother, Wind as carrier, and Spirituous Earth as nurse; Spiritual Fire is added as instructor (Guru). The text explains that evolution proceeds on triple lines—spiritual, psychic, physical—propelled by the Monad and the lower astral body. The personal Ego, driven by Tanha, is "the maker of the tabernacle." The astral shadows of the lunar Pitris serve as formative powers for the first three and a half Root-Races, at the cost of a proportionate loss of spirituality. The text then describes the scheme from the Chaldean Book of Numbers and the Zohar: En-Soph, the Point, the Sephiroth, the Atzilatic World giving birth to the Throne, Jetzira, and the Asiatic World (Earth). The "Contraries" or "Shells" inhabit the seven zones of the globe; their prince is Samael, also the seducing serpent and Lucifer. The Souls (Monads) are pre-existent in the world of Emanations and descend to be chained to bodies. Man evolved primarily as a luminous incorporeal form over which the physical frame was built. The Devas cast no shadows. Footnote (c) explains that Hydrogen's noumenon is mirrored in three emanations from Atma, Buddhi, and Manas, and that the first Race had three elements but no living Fire. The text traces the connection of fire to divine names across multiple linguistic traditions and describes the Christian Kabalists' division of the elements among the four Evangelists. The first race are identified as astral doubles of their Fathers, the most progressed Entities from the sphere now our Moon. The lunar Fathers, compelled by evolutionary law, became creators of forms for less progressed Monads at the end of the Third Round. These Forms are called "Sons of Yoga" because Yoga is the supreme condition of the passive infinite deity, and in the Tibetan text they are called "Sons of Dhyana." Section 19 states the Second Race was the product by budding and expansion, the a-sexual form from the sexless shadow. The text notes this will be contested by scientific authorities, offers analogies from microscopic research showing organisms alternating between sexual and a-sexual reproduction, and compares the process to budding in plants or the Amoeba on a larger scale.

The text opens with a description of cell division: a nucleus forms a spindle within the cell, one half of which is extruded as polar cells that die, while the embryo develops from the remaining nucleus nourished by the cell substance. This is proposed as an analogy for the formation of the Second Race from the First: the astral form clothing the Monad, surrounded by its egg-shaped sphere of aura, extrudes a miniature of itself when the season of reproduction arrives; the germ grows on the aura, then separates carrying its own aura. The death of the polar cells corresponds to the separation of sexes, when gestation in utero became the rule. A quotation states that the early Second Race were the Fathers of the "Sweat-born" and the later Second Race were "Sweat-born" themselves. The "Sons of Yoga," or primitive astral race, had seven stages of evolution, as every individual Being had; the first sub-races of the Second Race were born by the described process, the last gradually by another method. The process of reproduction had seven stages in each Race. Primeval human hermaphrodites are stated as a fact known to the ancients and a perplexity for Darwin. A passage from Darwin's "Descent of Man" is quoted, noting that one sex bears rudiments of the opposite sex's reproductive parts and that some remote vertebrate progenitor appears to have been androgynous, though Darwin is disinclined to adopt this hypothesis. The text then introduces Naudin, who named the Darwinian protoplasm "Blastema" and made Adam, the a-sexual, spring from the clay, passing through a phase analogous to the nymphal state; for Naudin, Adam was mankind, not one man, and sexes differentiated by germination similar to Medusae and Ascidians. De Quatrefages criticizes this as unscientific. The text identifies Naudin's primordial Blastema with the Dhyan-Chohanic essence, the Chhaya of the Pitris, but notes two differences: Naudin holds evolution progressed by sudden leaps, and his Blastema possesses only blind instincts. The Zohar is quoted on the correspondence between lower and upper worlds. Section 20 identifies the Self-born, the Chhaya from the brilliant bodies of the Lords, the Sons of Twilight, as identical with the Pitris. Section 21 describes the old waters mixing with the fresher: the First Race, composed of astral shadows, never died but melted into the bodies of its sweat-born progeny. The text then examines the Greek myth of Leda, Castor, and Pollux in its variants: in the Odyssey they are semi-immortal, alternating day and night; in Pindar, Leda unites in one night to her husband and to Zeus, making Castor the son of the Mortal and Pollux of the Immortal; Pollux, finding Castor dying, is offered the choice of eternal Olympus or shared semi-immortality, and accepts the latter. This is interpreted as an allegory of the Third Race: the mortal half and the immortal half. Finally, the text turns to Genesis, identifying the androgyne separating into man and woman as Jah-Hovah in one Race and Cain and Abel in another, with Seth representing the first result after the Fall and Enos the "Son of man," the first Race born from man and woman.

Seth represents the later Third Race. The Kabalists brought forward the compound appellation of a creative Elohim named Yak and Jab (Jah-Hovah), meaning male and female, Jah-Eve as hermaphrodite and the first form of humanity. The Rabbin-Kabalist made the name secret so he could not divulge it without exposing the whole scheme. The text asserts the identity between Brahma-Prajapati and Jehovah-Sephiroth, and Brahma-Viraj and Jehovah-Adam, calling the Bible and Puranas two copies of the same original. In Manu, Brahma divides his body into male and female, symbolizing creative and generative power. The Zohar and some Rabbins repeat Puranic expressions; the "creation" in Brahmanical books is the Lila, the delight of the Supreme Creator, paralleled by the Kabalistic teaching that Ain-Soph rejoiced in Itself. The text calls this a purely Puranic, Aryan idea. The "Divine Hermaphrodite" is Brahma-Vach-Viraj; the Jewish equivalent is Jehovah-Cain-Abel. Jah-hovah is the generic name of creative planetary angels under whose star the Jewish nation evolved, one of the planetary Elohim of Saturn. Genesis ch. iv. v. 26 is claimed to read "Then began men to call themselves Jehovah," not "called upon the name of the Lord." The passage "I have gotten a man from the Lord" should read "I have gotten a man, even Jehovah," a rendering supported by a Rabbin-Kabalist and identified with the Eastern doctrine of Brahma. Cain is the son of the "Lord" (Adam Kadmon), not of Adam. Seth is esoterically the progeny of Cain and Abel, Abel being the female counterpart of male Cain. A numbered correspondence is given: the Unknowable (Parabrahm, Ain-Soph, the Spirit of Genesis); Heavenly Manu-Swayambhuva and Adam Kadmon; Manu-Swayambhuva separating into Brahma-Viraj and Vach-Viraj as Adam Kadmon separates into Jah-Hovah; and Vach, named Sata-Rupa and Savitri, identified with Eve. An esoteric reading of Ezekiel's wheel is quoted from "Isis Unveiled," stating that the name should be read Ieva or Eve, and that the lower Jehovah belongs to terrestrial races led by Enoch or Libra, while the ascending cycle leads the Prajapatis and Sephiroth. The Patriarchs are convertible in numbers like the Rishis. Various etymologies of Jehovah are discussed, including its Chaldaic root meaning "to be" and its connection to Hebe. Sanskrit syllables Jah and Yah are cited as evidence of Aryan influence on Babylonian mythology. The text notes that the Jews had de facto only two tribes, Judah and Levi, the latter being a priestly caste. Every nation held its first gods to be androgynous. The text concludes by listing double-sexed first creators from various traditions—Zeus-Zen, Chthonia, Metis, Osiris, Isis-Latona, Mithras, and Mithra—as records of the primeval divine Hermaphrodite.

The text presents Stanza VI, "The Evolution of the 'Sweat-Born,'" comprising verses 22 and 23 with extensive commentary. Verse 22 describes the Second Race producing the Third: sweat grew, its drops hardened and rounded; the Sun warmed, the Moon cooled and shaped, the Wind fed until ripeness; a white swan from the Starry Vault (the Moon) overshadowed the big drop, the egg of the future race, the Man-Swan (Hamsa) of the later Third, first male-female, then man and woman. A note explains the embryo was nourished ab extra by cosmic forces, citing Magendie and Sir M. Foster on physiological ignorance of fetal nutrition. The text explains the First Race created the Second by budding; the Second gave birth to the Third, which separated into three divisions. Early sub-races procreated by exudation of moisture forming an oviform egg. The earlier races were sexless; later races androgynous; sexes separated in the Third Race. The text seeks corroboration in legends, citing Kasyapa, the Nagas, and Patala (identified as America). It states three evolutionary stages: sexless, bi-sexual, separated. It cites Prof. Alex. Wilder on a double-sexed primeval race, Aristophanes in Plato's Banquet, Persian teachings, and an esoteric reading of the Toleduth of Adam. The sexless Race is Adam solus; the second, Adam-Eve; the Third, the "Separating Hermaphrodite," Cain and Abel. The Fourth Race, having tasted from the Tree of Good and Evil, had to acquire Wisdom by initiation. The text notes Jesus was mystically held to be man-woman, cites Orphic hymns and Egyptian deities, and states the bi-sexual unity of the Third Root-Race as an axiom. It notes humanities developed coordinately with the four Elements, and the close of the Third Root-Race saw eternal spring, compared via Flammarion to Jupiter. A footnote discusses Mattieu Williams' hypothesis that Jupiter is a critical planet. The text affirms the universal tradition of mankind evolving from a transparent texture, cites Louis Figuier, and states the first Race was formed from chhayas of the Pitris, corroborated in the Zohar. It answers an objection about Egyptian belief by citing a Hermetic fragment in Stobaeus on the Soul's transformations through forms until men become Spirits and pass into the choir of gods. Verse 23 states the Self-Born were the Chhayas, shadows from the Sons of Twilight, indestructible by water or fire; their sons were destroyed. A note explains the First Root-Race was ethereal and unaffordable by elements, but the Second perished when the Second Continent was transformed by displacement of waters. The text then addresses "Deluges" and "Noahs," noting contradictory Puranic accounts and the Mahabharata story of Vaivasvata and the fish, identifying the seven Rishis as the seven Races, and states the Flood had several meanings, spiritual and physical.

The text states that the ship or ark (navis), symbol of the female generative principle, is typified by the Moon and the Womb, both vessels of life-seeds vivified by the Sun or Vishnu. The First Cosmic Flood refers to primordial creation, with Chaos and the Deep standing for the Flood and the Moon for the Mother. The terrestrial Deluge has dual application: one case refers to the mortal woman becoming receptacle of human seed at the end of the Third Race, the other to the Atlantean submersion; in both the saviour is called Vaivasvata Manu. The Satapatha Brahmana says Vaivasvata produces a daughter and begets from her the race of Manu, referring to first Manushyas who created women by will before they were naturally born from hermaphrodites. The Puranic accounts make Ida or Ila wife of Budha, referring to the Atlantean flood. The Bhagavad Gita records Krishna saying the Seven Rishis and four preceding Manus were born from his mind. The four preceding Manus are identified with the four Races already lived. The Deluge is called an universal tradition; Stockwell and Croll enumerate about half a dozen Glacial Periods, the earliest dated 850,000 years ago. The text identifies this as the deluge that swept away the last peninsulas of Atlantis. Peruvian, Chaldean, Chinese, and Egyptian traditions all mention seven figures saved. The Kabiri, Titans, and Rishis are identified as the same seven persons, sons of Kronos and Rhea. Manes and Mania are said to be of Indian origin, Mania being Ida or Ila. Berosus is cited as showing Titea, Noah's consort, identified with Rhea and Ida. The Deluge is said to have multiple meanings: pre-cosmic, spiritual, and cosmogonic. The first great flood is placed at the end of the Satya Yuga with the appearance of the Second Root Race; the Second Flood affected the Fourth Root Race. Vaivasvata Manu is shown under three distinct attributes, the first being "Root-Manu."

The text continues a list of the "seed of life" appearing on Globe A in the First Round, Globe D in the Fourth Round, and as the "Seed of Man" at the beginning of every Root-Race. The Dvapara Yuga witnesses the destruction of sorcerers on an island beyond the Pillars of Hercules in the Atlantic Ocean, connected with the "White Island" called Ruta. The Dvapara Yuga lasts 864,000 years; if the Kali Yuga began about 5,000 years ago, the destruction occurred 869,000 years ago, close to the geologists' glacial period at 850,000 years. A woman who declared herself Manu's daughter refers to the physiological transformation of sexes during the Third Root-Race; the androgyne dividing into two halves is applied to Brahma and Vach and Adam and Eve. A Yuga may mean a Round, Root-Race, or Sub-Race; the instance of Ila, whose sex was changed repeatedly by the gods, references the androgynous Third Root-Race. Some Orientalists interpret Ila as a libation of milk or a stream of praise. In mystical meaning, the union of Swayambhuva Manu with Vach-Sata-Rupa represents the Root-life from which all Solar Systems spring. The Second Race, called "Sweat-Born," conceals a psycho-physiological phenomenon. The text asks whether men could exist 18,000,000 years ago and answers affirmatively, maintaining physical Humanity has existed that long, preceded by 300,000,000 years of mineral and vegetable development. The astral body within the physical is cited as key to the issue. The Monads had passed through phases of immetalization, plant and animal life before receiving human form. Spontaneous generation under different cosmic conditions is defended against Pasteur's experiments. The text argues for gradual condensation of humanity from ethereal to physical form, analogous to species evolving from filamentoid infusoria to reptilian monsters. Genesis's giants and the Titans are said to be founded on fact. Modern man 25,000,000 years ago is compared to the Moneron. Helmholtz, Thomson, Volger, Burmeister, and Czolbe are cited on the Earth's age. The Vishnu Purana is quoted as containing a heliocentric teaching about the Sun's fixed position, noted by Fitzedward Hall and Martin Haug.

The text asserts that man was the first, not the last, member of the mammalian family in this Round, and that a similar view has been mooted in France on high authority. It states that de Quatrefages has proven man lived in the mid-Tertiary period, before any now-known mammal species existed. The text notes that only the boldest geologists place man before the Miocene, and that the greatest authorities admit they do not know the duration of geological periods since the Mesozoic. Citing Huxley's six millions of years for the coal formation, the text asks how many more millions are needed to cover the span from the Jurassic, when the Third Race appeared, to the Miocene, when the bulk of the Fourth Race was submerged. The writer lists Harvey, transatlantic steamship advocates, and Mesmer as examples of the majority being wrong, noting that Charcot and Richet have now vindicated Mesmer. A Stanza is quoted stating that the mind-born, the boneless, gave being to the will-born with bones in the middle of the Third Race, 18,000,000 years ago. The text then argues that the earliest Root-Races existed on the astral plane, which had no direct contact with the physical plane in those early ages, and that the Earth did not reach its present density until 18,000,000 years ago. It raises the question of spontaneous generation, asking whence the Impulse came that grouped molecules into protoplasm, and rejects Sir W. Thomson's meteorite theory. The text then develops a philosophical argument for Hylozoism as the highest aspect of Pantheism, citing Aristotle, Plato, and Zeno, and concludes by returning to the question of whether the atmosphere of early geological periods was as deleterious as naturalists hypothesize, citing Blanchard, Meunier, and Bischof.

Stanza VII, "From the Semi-Divine down to the First Human Races," is presented. The Sons of Wisdom, the Sons of Night, issued from the body of Brahma when it became Night, came down ready for re-birth. They saw the intellectually vile forms of the First Third. The Lords said, "We can choose, we have wisdom." Some entered the Chhayas; some projected a spark; some deferred till the Fourth Race. Those who received but a spark remained destitute of higher knowledge. The Third remained mind-less; their Jivas were not ready and became the Narrow-Headed. The Third were ready; the Lords of the Flame and of the Dark Wisdom said, "In these shall we dwell." The text states this Stanza contains the key to the mysteries of evil and the so-called Fall of the angels. Note (a) explains that Man is only an animal intellectually up to the Fourth Round. Note (b) identifies the inferior Races as Australians, some African and Oceanic tribes. Note (c) discusses the Zohar's "Black Fire" and states esoteric philosophy admits neither good nor evil per se; Lucifer is the Logos in his highest and the "Adversary" in his lowest aspect. The Vishnu Purana's order of creation is described: minerals and vegetables, then Tiryaksrota, then Urdhwasrotas, then Arvaksrotas (human beings). Daksha made superior and inferior things; the Sons of Will and Yoga separated the androgynes. The Asuras come from the "body of night," Pitris from "body of Twilight," gods from "body of the day." The text identifies the pre-Brahmanical Asuras, Rudras, and Rakshasas with the Egos that incarnated in the Third Race, making man consciously immortal. The succession of Races is laid out: First Race (Self-born, astral shadows), Second Race (Sweat-born, Boneless), Third Root-Race (Androgynes). The "Sons of Passive Yoga" became oviparous. The text tabulates modes of reproduction from fission through true sexual union. The Sons of Wisdom entered those who were "ready" and became Arhats. Those "half ready" constitute average humanity; those "not ready" remained the narrow-brained. The Monads of the lowest specimens had no Karma when first born as men. The text recapitulates the Doctrine's claims of polygenetic origin, varied modes of procreation, and animal evolution following man's. It then examines the polygenetic theory among scientists, citing Darwinian evolutionists, Hovelacque, and Professor W.H. Flower.

The text declares a prior admission fatal to the dogmatism of physical Evolutionists. It notes that opponents of Darwinian theory were polygenists, naming John Crawford and James Hunt, and that in their day support for polygenesis was stronger than opposition. Only in 1864 did Darwinians embrace the theory of unity, with Huxley and Lubbock as first coryphai. On the priority of man to animals, the text argues that if man is the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, the teaching is logical, and that all lower kingdoms were consolidated by the "cast-off dust" and refuse of human matter. Man grew more physical by re-absorbing what he had given out through Nature's alchemical transmutations. Once the Androgyne humanity separated into sexes, it ceased to procreate its like through drops of vital energy, which Nature then used for the first mammal-animal forms. Agassiz is quoted as stating that all animal creation has tended toward man. The text affirms that this Round began with astral man, the reflection of the Dhyan Chohans, and that evolution originally began from above and proceeded downwards. Stanza 25 records that the Manasa, Sons of Wisdom, rejected the Self-born, spurned the First Sweat-born, and would not enter the First Egg-born; the reasons are physiological, not metaphysical. The writer notes that the name "Lemuria" was chosen on geographical considerations and later found to coincide with Haeckel's usage. Vogt's claim that Man in America sprang from platyrrhine apes is deferred to Stanza VIII. The Third Race at its zenith is described as towering giants; the gods of later races are their deified images. Stanzas 26 and 27 state that the Third Race became the Vahan of the Lords of Wisdom and created sons of Will and Yoga by Kriyasakti, the holy Fathers and ancestors of the Arhats. Kriyasakti is defined as the power of thought producing external results by its own energy. The order of the Races is given: Chhayas, Sweat-born, Egg-born and Kriyasakti-born, and children of the Padmapani. The allegory of Kandu is then expounded: the sage, representing the First Race, is seduced by Pramlocha, sent by Kama; the child conceived emerges from her perspiration and becomes Marisha, the symbol of the Second Race. The early Third Race is formed from drops of sweat grown into bodies, then changes to ovoid egg-bodies gestating for several years. The race then becomes androgyne, as Aristophanes describes, and is divided by Zeus. The polyp Stauridium, alternating between gemmation and sexual reproduction to produce the dissimilar Medusa, is cited as an analogy.

The text states Karma overrides heredity in human incarnations. The Fourth Race were children of Padmapani. The majority of mankind belongs to the seventh sub-race of the Fourth Root-Race. Padmapani (Avalokiteswara, Chenresi) is the Logos in higher aspect but progenitor of men on manifested planes; he manifests in human form to guide Tibetans. A legend holds he incarnates as the Dalai or Teschu Lama when faith dies out, and finally as the most perfect Buddha in Tibet. His eleven-faced form represents the four primeval races; the fourth row has only two faces, referencing the Atlanteans' untimely end. He sits atop the column. His four arms hold a lotus and serpent. Esoterically, "lotus-bearer" means supporter of the Kalpas; the present Maha-Kalpa is called Padma. In China, in female aspect, he becomes Kwan-yin. Astrological knowledge of the Dhyanis' birth-days aids magic feats; a magic mirror shows an individual's future. A warning about sorcery follows.

The Stanza states that the first animals of this Round were produced from drops of sweat, residue of substance, matter from dead bodies and animals of the previous Third Round, and cast-off dust. The annotation explains that mammalians were a later work of evolution than man in this Round. The Manvantaric cycle of Seven Rounds begins with mineral, vegetable, and animal, reaching a dead stop in the middle of the Fourth Race on Globe D. The Monad passes through the three objective kingdoms on the descending arc, reaching the solid state only at the mid-point of evolution; on the ascending arc, Spirit re-asserts itself until the Monad is free from matter at the close of the Seventh Round. The text identifies this order in Genesis chapters 1 and 2 read esoterically, and in the Puranas, Chaldean, Egyptian, and Chinese traditions. The Rishis' progeny are cited: Pulastya fathers the Serpents and Nagas; Kasyapa, through wives Tamra and Surabhi, fathers birds and cattle. The first Nagas are "Sons of Will and Yoga," born before the complete separation of sexes. The "Sacrifice of Daksha" is recounted from the Vayu Purana: Daksha, Chief Progenitor, loses his head in the strife between gods and Raumyas; Siva creates Virabhadra to destroy the sacrifice; Raumyas are created from the pores of the skin. Daksha typifies the early Third Race; from his period forward, creatures are engendered by sexual intercourse, whereas before they were propagated by will, sight, touch, and Yoga-power. Stanza 29 adds animals with bones, dragons of the deep, and flying Sarpas to the creeping things; long-necked water creatures become progenitors of fowls. Stanza 30 states that during the Third Race, boneless animals became animals with bones and their chhayas became solid. Stanza 31 states the animals separated into mate and female, then began to breed; the two-fold man also separated, saying "Let us as they; let us unite and make creatures." Stanza 32 states that those with no spark took huge she-animals unto them and begat dumb races of crooked, red-hair-covered monsters going on all fours. The annotation identifies this as the first physical fall into matter of lower races. The text then addresses objections to the foregoing, rejecting the idea that Nature developed man from the ape, and tracing some anthropoid species to the mindless Third Race man. It explains that the Monad is always divine and human, that the Kabalists say "Man becomes a stone, a plant, an animal, a man, a Spirit, and finally God," and that all present fauna are the correlative product of man. The text discusses the biogenetic law as known to Sages, describes the embryonic development as a cycle of metempsychosis from stone through plant to animal to human, and contrasts the Occultist position with Darwinian and Haeckelian theories, concluding that the true link between man and his ancestry is hidden within the animal tabernacle of man himself.

Stanza IX, "The Final Evolution of Man," opens with the Lhas (Sons of Wisdom) who had refused to create weeping at the sin committed with the animals. They declare the Manasa (mindless) have defiled their future abodes, that this is Karma, and resolve to dwell in the others and teach them better. All then become endowed with Manas (minds). The text notes the mindless had already separated and sinned unconsciously before divine reason enlightened them, yet even this seventh degenerated race will find itself on one of the seven paths. A footnote explains the "Fall": Daksha disappeared to make room for the separated portion of mankind. In the early Fourth evolution, vehicles were tampered with by huge animals, producing intermediate monster races. The Egg-Born Sons took animal females as mates and bred human monsters. Later, species became equilibrized and separated. The kings of the Last Races sealed the prohibition and struck culprits with sterility, destroying the Red and Blue Races. The text addresses the separation of sexes, interpreting the rib in Genesis as the boneless Race giving rise to the Race with bones, and cites a Tahitian tradition in which Taaroa pulls a bone from man to make a woman. It states that Occultism believes only in the superhuman, not the supernatural, affirming belief in ethereal races, giants, and dynasties of divine beings. The text then addresses the specific unity of mankind, explaining that cross-breeding occurred only in the very beginnings of physical man, and points to Tasmanians, Australians, and Andaman Islanders as descendants of half-animal tribes. Darwin's observation of mass sterility among Tasmanian women after European contact is cited. The Third Race's gradual transition from sexless to androgynous to separate sexes is described, requiring numberless generations until by the end of the fifth sub-race mankind was born as in historical generations. Stanza 36 states the Fourth Race developed speech. The Commentaries describe the First Race as speechless, the Second as having vowel-only sound-language, and the Third as developing language from natural sounds, with true speech emerging when the creative gods incarnated in mindless men. Speech developed in three stages: monosyllabic, agglutinative, and inflectional (the root of Sanskrit). The text identifies Semitic languages as corruptions of early Sanskrit and discusses the origins of Jews and Arabs. Stanza 37 states the androgyne became two, and all living things that were one became separated. A Commentary passage describes the end of the Satya Yuga after the separation, the arrival of the Nagas, and the descent of Divine Kings who taught men sciences and arts.

The section "Edens, Serpents, and Dragons" asks the origin and meaning of "Eden." Christians maintain it is holy Paradise desecrated by Adam and Eve's sin; the Occultist denies this. The Bible, read esoterically, rests on universal traditions. Eden is identified as an archaic name for the country watered by the Euphrates, rendered Ganduniyas in Assyrian Tablets. The Elohim of Genesis are interpreted as Aleim, a college of priests whose chief was Java-Aleim. Adam, prompted by the serpent (Woman and matter), unlawfully tastes the Tree of Knowledge, identified with the esoteric Secret Doctrine. Java-Aleim makes for Adam and his wife a chiton, a coat. The Hebrew Scripture bears marks of double origin, with Genesis a reminiscence of the Babylonian captivity. The Akkadians are described as emigrants from India whose sacerdotal adepts civilized a barbarian people. Professor Sayce is cited as corroborating that Babylonian culture was imported from India. The Garden of Eden on the Euphrates became the college of the Aleim, belonging to the Fifth Race and a reminiscence of the Adi-varsha of the Third Race. Eden's etymology is given as Greek hedone. Klaproth's chart places the "Garden of Wisdom" on the Pamir plateau. Eden Illa-ah means Wisdom or refers to Intellectual man. The Fall of man into generation is placed during the Mesozoic age. The Zohar's description of the serpent as a "flying camel" is vindicated by reference to the Plesiosaurus, Pterodactyl, and Mosasaurus. The text poses the question of how ancient nations could know of extinct monsters, arguing that either the Mesozoic must overlap the Quaternary or man must be their contemporary. Pterodactyls and Plesiosauri ceased with the Third Race. Stories of Kircher and Scherer seeing living dragons are dismissed as dreams or fibs. The text distinguishes the zoological from the metaphorical meaning of "dragon," "Naga," and "Serpent." The serpent of Genesis is an emblem of a cosmic force. The Brazen Serpent is the "Divine Healer." The ophidian shape was adopted by the Jews for physiological and phallic reasons. The serpent, Naga, and dragon each carry a septenary meaning. Two extremes are identified: science reducing serpent legends to the astrological, and theology's assertion of congenital possession by the devil. The word dragon in Chinese means "the being who excels in intelligence" and in Greek "he who sees and watches," qualifications applied to human originals symbolized by serpents and dragons.

The "originals" called "Dragons of Wisdom" in China are identified as the first disciples of the Dhyanis and the primitive adepts of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Races. Champollion describes the symbol of Chnouphis as an enormous serpent on human legs, a bearded Agathodaemon, found engraved on Gnostic and Basilidean stones. Repeating Iamblichus, Champollion identifies this deity as Eichton, the great Thot-Hermes, to whom Hermes Trismegistus attributes the invention of magic. The text objects to the term "invention," and explains that Thot-Hermes is a generic title of many adepts, as are Enoch and Nebo. Their serpent connection derives from enlightenment by solar and planetary gods during the Third Race. The Nagas, with Rishis and other beings, are the Sun's attendants throughout the twelve months. Apollonius met Buddhist Nagas in Kashmir, who are "wise men." The Bible is characterized as a record of the struggle between white and black Magic. The schism among the Fourth Race is allegorized in the Sons of Jacob, whose dying words about Dan and Levi are quoted. The word "Sod" in the original refers to the mysteries of Baal, Adonis, and Bacchus. Moses is identified as chief of the Sodales and Hierophant. The "Great Book of the Mysteries" states that Seven Lords created Seven men, three holy and four passionate, accounting for seven gradations of human nature. The Mexican Genesis and Egyptian theology give four ancestors, while Pymander gives seven. Set-Typhon, called "the seventh son," is distinguished from the serpent of evil. The "Book of the Dead" commands reading in the presence of a "serpent on two legs," meaning a Hierophant. The Nargal and Nagal are compared as chief sorcerers of Chaldean and Mexican traditions. Arjuna is said to have married Ulupi, a Naga, in Patala. The serpent emblem is identified as SEMES EILAM ABRASAX, the central spiritual sun, represented by the circle of Tiphereth, within which the serpent as dual Androgyne represents the Shadow of the Light. Shadow is not evil but Light's necessary corollary. The Ophites adore the Serpent as Saviour. The Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge are traced to India, where the banyan tree serves this symbolic function. Foh-tchou performs miracles under such a tree in China. The first Christians are said never to have perceived that the Serpent was the Lord God himself, teaching mankind to become creators. The Cross is described as an evolution from the tree and serpent. The Kabalistic view of the ansated cross and the separation of the dual principle is presented, followed by a reference to Charles Gould's 1886 work "Mythical Monsters," which claims that many mythical animals once really existed.

The text finds the Unicorn's existence more probable than a lunar myth origin, and doubts myths derive from contemplation of nature, supposing instead that time has enfeebled these tales. A geologist is cited showing man co-existed with extinct animals, including Cidastes, Titanosaurus montanus, Dinosaurians, Atlanto-Saurus immanis, the Sivatherium, Megatherium, and Pterodactyli. The text asks whether man could have survived among such creatures unless himself a giant. De Quatrefages and Professor Jukes are cited on man's antiquity and the real existence of flying dragons. The text asks whether mythical eras preserve mementoes of prehistoric man. Remaining giant animals are noted as decreasing in size, with pigmy elephants found in Malta. Sceptics are said to justify the words of the Chinese philosopher Chuang on the incomparability of known and unknown things.

The text presents an Isis legend concerning a portion of the globe science now concedes was a cradle of humanity. Before Ad-am and He-va, a vast inland sea covered Middle Asia north of the Himalayan range. An island of unparalleled beauty, said to exist to the present as a Gobi desert oasis, was inhabited by the Third Race's last remnant — the "Sons of Will and Yoga," who survived the great cataclysm. This Lemurian race could live in water, air, or fire, had unlimited control over the elements, and were the real "Sons of God" or Elohim who imparted Nature's secrets and revealed a lost "word." The word was known only to the Java Aleim (Maha Chohan) of each Sacerdotal College and passed to his successor at death; subterranean passages known only to chiefs provided communication with the island. Multiple Indian cities — Delhi, Allahabad — are built on several other cities forming subterranean structures of six or seven stories, with Florence as a European parallel. The lost Atlantis existed in those days, approaching its greatest glory when the last Lemurian continent sank. Hierophants divided into two categories: those instructed by the island's "Sons of God," and those inhabiting Atlantis, of another race born of divine parents with unlimited sight. These Lemuro-Atlanteans were ruled by Devas who assumed bodies. Their King Thevetata, an evil King-Demon, turned the Atlantis-race into a nation of wicked magicians; war followed, ending in Atlantis's submersion, imitated in Babylonian and Mosaic flood narratives. From the intermarrying of the hierophants' progeny and descendants of the Atlantean Noah sprang a mixed race: on one side Enochs, Moseses, Buddhas, and great hierophants; on the other, "natural magicians" who perverted their gifts to evil. The Histoire des Vierges reports an Indian legend of an immense Pacific continent destroyed by geological upheaval, its fragments found in Madagascar, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Polynesia. A belief common to Malacca and Polynesia affirms all islands once formed two countries inhabited by yellow and black men, swallowed by Ocean at the gods' command. The author concludes the Polynesian continent's existence rests on proofs admitting no further doubt, citing shared language, customs, and religious belief of peoples who never knew each other before European arrival. Easter Island statues are described as memorials of Fourth Race giants, of a sensual type matching the Atlanteans in esoteric Hindu books, contrasted with the colossal Buddha statues near Bamian, which represent the "Sons of Gods" rather than the brood of sorcerers. The text concedes the Puranas are exaggerated but argues Brahminical deviation is less than that of the Western Orientalist. It criticizes Dr. Weber and Mr. Max Müller's theory that writing was unknown in India before the Greeks, citing Professor Sayce's 1887 Hibbert lecture on Assyrian cylinders identifying Ea with Oannes, and the discovery at Tel-loh of diorite statues dating to at latest B.C. 4000, made of stone from the Sinaitic peninsula, alongside teak wood and references to sindhu muslin — evidence challenging the claim that Hindus were ignorant of writing before Greek contact.

The text presents Stanza X, "The History of the Fourth Race," listing verses 38–42 covering the birth of the Atlantean Race, sub-races interblending into mixed colours, Atlantean superiority, their fall into sin, first germs of Anthropomorphism and sexual religion, and loss of the "third Eye." Verse 38 states the Third Race gave birth to the Fourth, two by two, on the seven zones, and that gods became no-gods. Verse 39 assigns colours: first race moon-coloured, second yellow, third red, fourth brown becoming black with sin; the first seven shoots were one complexion, the next seven sub-races began mixing. A footnote explains the "Fall" as the transition from metaphysical to physical development, describing how some Dhyanis obeyed evolutionary law when the Third Race separated into sexes, while others incarnated later and received Karmic punishment; those deferring to the tainted Fourth Race became carriers of iniquity. The text identifies this as the "Fall of the angels" and rejects the theological "fall of man." It discusses the "Sons of God" in Genesis vi, the Book of Enoch as a Book of Initiation, and Enoch's predating of the New Testament. The "tortuous snake" is given an astronomical meaning, and the Serpent is said to possess the Keys of the Empire of the Dead. The Logos is explained as Wisdom and Christos as the union of Buddhi and Manas, referencing Pymander. The text criticizes the Church of Rome's identification with Revelation's "wife" and the distortion of Luke x.18. It then discusses Puranic allegories of fallen gods, the cyclic law of re-births in Manvantaras, and quotes a Master's letter on failures among Dhyan-Chohans. Finally, it references Kingsford's appendix "The Secret of Satan," explaining how the "Dragon of Wisdom" became Satan in degraded interpretation, and identifies Satan as the magistrate of Karmic justice.

The text compares a sentence with the Rabbi's explanation to Prince Al-Chazari, identifying Weight, Measure, and Number as attributes of the Sephiroth in Sepher Jezirah, the collective Adam Kadmon or Logos. It states that Satan and the anointed were identified in ancient thought, and that Satan is "the minister of God, Lord of the seven mansions of Hades," the Saptaloka of the Earth. Saturn (Satan) is the seventh and last in macrocosmic emanation; the Gnostics are called right in naming the Jewish god "an angel of matter." A quoted girdle around the loins is identified with the rings of Saturn and, in anthropogony, with the human body and its two lower principles. The "Secret of Satan" follows: Satan has lost his virginal estate as the Kumara has by incarnating, and both armies of God—the hosts of Michael and the legions of Satan—are Ministers of the Father. The Church's cursing of Satan is described as cursing the cosmic reflection of God. The text asserts the Kabala's historical foundation comes from the Secret Doctrine of the East, identifies the giants of Genesis with the Atlanteans and Greek Titans, and notes Schliemann's proof of Troy's existence. It directs scholars to the Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus, where the evolution proceeds from the "Moyst Principle" through the Universal Mind to the Heavenly Man, the second logos that fell into matter. A footnote explains that Christian theology, having applied the title Logos to Christ, declared all other Logoi false. The Kabala teaches that Pride and Presumption emptied heaven of one third of its denizens; the Rosicrucians taught only the outer "War in Heaven" story. The text explains that during the Sandhyas the Central Sun emits creative light passively, and that fashioning the organic Universe necessitated intelligent beings who became collectively a creative God. The Vatican MSS. of the Kabala, a copy said to have belonged to Count St. Germain, contain the Seven Suns of Life in the order of the Saptasurya; only four appear in public editions, referring to the quaternary group of the Dhyan-Chohans. The Kabala is said never to have originated with the Jews. A quotation from "New Aspects of Life and Religion" describes the Central Sun and three secondary suns as the organs of creation. The four classes of the Head-group are mapped onto the principles: the first and second radiate the Atma; the third cements Buddhi to Atman; the fourth endows Manas and the Kama-rupa; the spirit of the Earth builds the physical body. The Book of Dzyan is quoted on primeval man's projection: first the Breath, then Buddhi, then the Shadow-Son, with Manas as the necessary pivot. The Fifth and Fourth principles contain the dual personality; without them, even a perfect physical body yields only an unconscious appearance.

The text opens by explaining that the Heavenly rupa (Dhyan Chohan) creates man in its own form as a spiritual ideation consequent on the first differentiation of the universal manifested Substance. The first "differentiated Egos," called Archangels by the Church, were to imbue primordial matter with the evolutionary impulse. After Earth was prepared by lower powers, the higher powers (Archangels or Dhyanis) were compelled by evolutionary Law to descend to construct man. The "Self-created" and "Self-existent" projected their pale shadows, but the Third group, the Fire-Angels, rebelled and refused to join their Fellow Devas. Hindu exotericism represents them as Yogins who refused creating to remain eternally Kumaras; esoteric interpretation calls this a self-sacrifice, since the "Rebels" would not create will-less irresponsible men. The Elohim who pronounced the words about man becoming as one of them are identified with Ilda-baoth, the Demiurge of the Nazarenes, whose reflection created Ophiomorphos. Satan is viewed as the real creator and benefactor, the "Harbinger of Light." A narrative from King's "Gnostics" describes Ilda-Baoth fabricating a soulless man, his mother Sophia-Achamoth animating it with a ray of divine light, and the resulting rage producing Satan from the abyss. The allegory of Prometheus is drawn, with Zeus's curse paralleling Jehovah's curse against Satan. A quoted article (by Shell, per the footnote) identifies Satan with the "Centrifugal Energy of the Universe" and the "sea of fire" with the Sun as a site of purification. The Fire-Devas, Rudras, and Kumaras (including Michael and Gabriel) are said to have preferred the curse of incarnation to seeing the misery of beings created through too-spiritual Creators. The three Fires (Pavaka, Pavamana, Suchi), corresponding to Spirit, Soul, and Body, were condemned by Vasishta's curse to be born repeatedly. These Flames, named variously Prajapati, Pitris, Manus, Asuras, Rishis, Kumaras, incarnate in the Third Root-Race. The Third Race separated into sexes and was first endowed with reason; the "inner man (the conscious Entity) was not" at that stage. Esoteric philosophy teaches a modified polygenesis: humanity has a oneness of origin but was born on seven different centres. An allegory in Linga Purana describes Siva as Vamadeva becoming four divisions of human complexion across Kalpas. Three primeval races are named: RED-YELLOW, BLACK, and BROWN-WHITE. The Aryan races all spring from one progenitor, Vaivasvata Manu. The light yellow is the colour of the first solid human race, which gave birth to the Fourth Race. The text closes by noting that during the middle period of the Lemuro-Atlantean Race, the Earth, man, and everything on the Globe was of a grosser and more material nature, while corals and some shells were still in a semi-gelatinous, astral state.

Intervening cycles have moved the Earth toward dematerialization. Some theosophists object that an ethereal Earth 15–20 million years ago contradicts Geology. A footnote clarifies "last remnants" as portions of the great continent. The text asks why winds and waves could not operate on a semi-astral, viscid Earth. It answers an objection about planetary attraction by noting the system contains planets of different ages. The text contrasts Cis-Himalayan and Hindu teachings: Hindu Occultism dates Vaivasvata Manu Humanity at eighteen million years; the text agrees only for physical man, while MAN may have existed 300 million years. It affirms several Vaivasvata Manu existed, the name being generic, and announces further discussion of physical evolution.

The text asserts that the system of Cosmogony and Anthropogony described actually existed and is preserved in the Puranas and Jewish Scriptures, which are based on the same scheme of evolution. The Puranas give more attention to pre-Cosmic causes, while the Bible proceeds to material genesis and the Fifth Race. The allegory of Brahma as a Boar rescuing Earth from waters is explained as relating to geological alternation of water and land. The text claims the ancient Aryans knew natural history and geology, and that Puranic astronomy was shown by Bentley to be a real science anticipating modern nebular theory. The myths of the seven Prajapati and their sons the Rishis or Manus are identified as a detailed account of progressive animal evolution. The genealogy of Kasyapa, father of nagas, reptiles, and birds, is a veiled record of the order of evolution. Garuda, descending from reptiles, becomes their enemy in a cycle when birds turned on their reptilian origin. A geological sequence from Eozoon to man is quoted and matched to Puranic commentaries and the Book of Dzyan. The difference stated is that MAN was on earth from the beginning of this Round, his physical frame ready to receive the divine Pilgrim 18,000,000 years ago, having passed through all kingdoms of nature in previous Rounds. Man was endowed with Manas at the mid-point of the Third Root Race. The text anticipates embryological objections, conceding that the body develops through stages undistinguishable from fish, reptile, and mammal, but arguing this relates only to the physical shell. It cites Huxley's "persistent types" and Dr. Carpenter's Foraminifera to argue that man, like the lowest protozoa, shows no progressive change, and that the Palaeolithic skeleton is superior in some respects to the modern one. The Kabalistic axiom that a stone becomes a plant, a plant a beast, a beast a man, a man a God is cited. Haeckel's identical dog and human embryos are discussed, and the text asks why man should be coupled with quadrumana rather than with reptiles or dogs. The text rejects the Darwinian hypothesis, calling the ape an accidental cross-breed between an animal being and man, the result of bestiality in the latest Third and earliest Fourth Race men. The Egos of apes are entities compelled by Karma to incarnate in animal forms. The Kabalistic allegory of Lilith, Adam's first wife, a female hairy animal, is described as the source of this union. The apes are "speechless men" who will become speaking animals in the Fifth Round. Karma will lead monads of unprogressed men into the frames of physiologically regenerated baboons millions of years hence. The text concludes that this cyclic precession requires no special creation, and explains the absence of any link between ape and man by showing the former evolving from the latter.

The text states that millions of years separate the first "mindless" race from the Lemurians, and another gap separates the earliest Atlantean civilization from the historic period. Only broken colossi and cyclopean ruins remain as Lemurian witnesses, and these are dismissed by skeptics and the Church. Atlantis is denied or confused with Lemuria by most scientists. Africa is identified as never having been part of either the Third or Fourth Continents. Sweta-Dwipa is described as standing out during early Lemuria, while the area between Atlas and Madagascar remained submerged until early Atlantis, when Africa emerged and Atlas was half-sunk. The text asserts that detailed accounts of the first three races are impossible, and attention must focus on the Lemurians and Atlanteans before the Fifth Race can be addressed. Faber is quoted at length, arguing that Gentile idolatry rests on traditional remembrance of real events, specifically the destruction of the fourth Race by the Deluge, and that the Phlegian isle and Atlantis refer to one great event. Bailly is cited as showing the Atlanteans were a very ancient northern nation, and Cosmas Indico-Pleustes is mentioned as preserving a tradition that Noah inhabited Atlantis. The text objects to literal Biblical chronology. Plato is said to intentionally confuse the two continents, describing the first couple as formed of "Earth," meaning matter, since the Atlanteans were the first purely human race. The Third Race's "Fall" is described: being mindless at the period of separation, it begot anomalous offspring until angelic monods incarnated and endowed it with understanding. A Pymander passage is quoted on the commingling of the Seven Pitris with Nature. The symbolism of Uranos, Kronos, and Zeus is explained as relating to the mysteries of Evolution, with Kronos devouring his children as an allusion to Earth's fruitless efforts to create real human men. Hesiod's four ages are correlated with the four races, and the text concludes by noting this is all "Mythology" and poetry.

The text asks what modern science has to say about euhemerization of old fictions, stating the verdict is foreseeable, and that an attempt must be made to prove fictions and empirical speculations belong to the same domain of science. Stanza X (continued) presents verses 40–42: the Third and Fourth Races became tall with pride, declaring "We are the kings, we are the gods"; they took wives from the "Mindless," the narrow-headed, and bred monsters, wicked demons, and Khado (Dakini) with little minds; they built temples for the human body, worshipped male and female, and the Third Eye acted no longer. The commentary identifies these as the first truly physical men, whose characteristic was pride, and links the Atlanteans to antediluvian giants and to prototypes of Nimrods and the Builders of the Tower of Babel. The text inquires into the religion of the Third and Fourth Races, stating that in the common acceptation neither Lemurians nor Lemuro-Atlanteans had any, as they knew no dogma. Once the mental eye was opened, the Third Race felt itself one with the invisible ALL; each felt a Man-God in nature though an animal physically. The struggle between spiritual and physical began with the fruit of the Tree of Wisdom; those who conquered lower principles joined the "Sons of Light," while those who fell became "Sons of Darkness" and the seed of future Atlanteans. If religion is defined as reverence toward what is felt higher, even the earliest Lemurians had one, having bright gods of the elements. The Dhyanis of the Seven Heavens are the NOUMENOI of the Elements. This was the "Golden Age" when gods walked the earth; since then they became invisible and later generations worshipped the Elements. The Atlanteans became the first "Sacrificers" to the god of matter and the first anthropomorphists; that worship degenerated into self-worship and phallicism. The first Atlantean races separated into Pantheists and worshippers of dark Cosmic Powers—the earliest Gibborim, who became Kabirim, Titans, Rakshasas, and Daityas. The Lemurians gravitated toward the North Pole; the Atlanteans toward the Southern Pole, the pit. The two poles were denominated Dragons and Serpents. The legend of the "Fallen Angels" is identified as Humanity itself; the Demon of Pride, Lust, Rebellion, and Hatred had no being before physical conscious man appeared. The text states that postulating man's appearance before other mammalia, periodical deluges, and man's birth from a Superior Being means the teachings have few chances of impartial hearing. The divine man dwelt in the animal; when physiological separation took place, that race fell. The "Elect Race" had become the vehicle of incarnation of the highest Dhyanis before Humanity became quite material. When the last sub-races of the Third Race perished with the Lemurian Continent, the "seeds of the Trinity of Wisdom" had acquired the secret of immortality on Earth. The first war earth knew resulted from man's senses being opened; Titans were the stronger, their adversaries the wiser. The text notes that scriptures contain references to giants and that the Atlanteans are recognizable in the Rakshasas of Lanka, opponents conquered by Rama.

Science denies giants; Dr. Henry Gregor denounces the tradition. 1613 bones in the "Field of Giants," Lower Dauphine, proved by Cuvier to be Dinotherium giganteum fossils. Emperor Maximus's height and Darwin's law of reversion are cited; Giants are buried under Oceans. De Rougemont, Lartet, Philostratus, Pliny, Plutarch, Pausanias, and Abbe Pegues testify. The Gibborim, Rephaim, and Nephilim allude to Phantom races, the fallen Third Race, and the Fourth Race of Atlantean Giants. Bossuet is cited on idolatry; Clement of Alexandria translates gigantes as serpentes; the Shoo-King evidences the Fourth Race. Lord Chang-ty commanded Tehong and Lhy to sever heaven from earth. Celestial teachers' mysteries degenerated into Sorcery; four of seven Kumara sacrificed themselves till the end of the Manvantara, allegorized in the Linga Purana. The Serpent of Eternity led man toward immortality. The angelic Fall combines divine Wisdom with an earthly body; a mediaeval Kabalist links the Kabala to pre-adamite angels. Genesis opens with Sons of God and daughters of men; Rishis, Prajapatis, and Manus seed the Fourth Race. Lilith, Khado, and Sangye Khado preside over body worship degenerating into phallicism; Lemuro-Atlantean giants cross-breed, producing a pithecoid species. De Quatrefages suggests the ape may descend from man; the Stanzas declare man first mammalian of the Fourth Round; the third eye ceased acting.

The text opens by stating that the subject requires justification for every step and that the esoteric lens must also illuminate exact science. It asserts that man was the earliest mammalian, the indirect ancestor of the Ape, and a kind of Cyclops, and that the first two races were too ethereal to be called physical men, explaining why their relics cannot be found among fossils. It then states that man was the store-house of all seeds of life for this Round, quoting the Zohar on man as microcosm of the macrocosm. It discusses the human form as the new type at the beginning of every Round, quoting Visconde de Figaniere, and states that man became the living UNIT from which "cast-off clothes" determined the shape of every animal, and that man unconsciously "created" insects, reptiles, birds, and animals from his remains from the Third and Fourth Rounds. The same teaching is said to appear in the Vendidad, the Chaldean and Mosaic Ark allegories, and the Hindu Scriptures, including the allegory of Vaivasvata Manu. The text then opens the Mazdean Vendidad at Fargard ii., quoting Ormazd's command to Yima to build a vara and bring seeds of men, women, and cattle. It explains that the "men" in the Vara are the Progenitors or Dhyani, and that "Vara" means MAN. It quotes the instruction to knead the earth like a potter, referencing the Egyptian ram-headed god and the Elohim in Genesis. It discusses the "uncreated lights" and the reference to polar regions, and quotes verse 41 about a hermaphrodite couple being born every fortieth year, connecting it to a Stanza about the double one becoming four. It then quotes the dialogue between Ahura Mazda and Zarathustra about the bird Karshipta bringing the law of Mazda into the Vara, explaining that Karshipta is the human mind-soul symbolized by a bird. It discusses the Kabbalistic and Zoharic symbolism of bird as Angel or Soul, and Adam Kadmon as the tree with seven columns. The text states that antiquity believed the earliest mankind was a race of giants, references American excavations yielding nine- and twelve-foot skeletons, and asserts that the Titans and Cyclopes belonged to the Fourth Atlantean Race. It quotes Commentaries describing four-armed, three-eyed hermaphrodites whose third eye atrophied and became petrified, identifying the remnant as the pineal gland. It discusses the human eye growing from within without, references Professor Lankester's transparent-ancestor hypothesis, and cites the Hatteria species in New Zealand as evidence of a functional third eye in lower vertebrates, concluding with a quotation from Quain's Anatomy on the pineal gland.

The text describes the development of the pineal gland from the hinder part of the roof, its union by pedicles to the thalamus, and the formation of the posterior commissure. The lamina terminalis, optic commissure, and infundibulum are described in relation to the third ventricle and sella turcica. The optic thalami are described as initially a single hollow sac that becomes solid, with a cleft appearing as the third ventricle. The optic tracts are recognised early as hollow prolongations, distinctly formed at the fourth month, and prolonged into connection with the corpora quadrigemina. The pineal gland's visibility is discussed, and a connection is traced between the optic tracts, eyes, pineal gland, and optic thalami. The third eye of Hatteria punctata is cited. Descartes is described as having identified the pineal gland as the Seat of the Soul. The text states the pineal gland is more connected with Soul and Spirit than with physiological senses, and that it was an active organ when the spiritual element reigned supreme, atrophying as physiological senses developed. In the beginning, every species was hermaphrodite and one-eyed; the third eye was the only seeing organ before physical eyes developed. The "Cyclopean" eye is the organ of spiritual sight in man and of objective vision in the animal. The Fifth Root-Race is described as having crossed the meridian point of Spirit and Matter, being devoid of the Spiritual element replaced by the intellectual. The "odd eye" is said to have transformed into a gland after the physical Fall of the Lemurians. The pineal gland is connected with KARMA. The "eye of Siva" did not atrophy before the close of the Fourth Race. The heaviest Karma of the Fifth Race was generated by Monads in Atlantean times. The number of incarnating Monads is finite; no fresh Monads have incarnated since the middle-point of the Atlanteans. Karma is described as an Absolute and Eternal law, one with the Unknowable, inextricably connected with re-incarnation.

The text compares the inner man who personates theatrical characters to the permanent individuality, which knows its multiple roles though the false personality remains ignorant due to atrophy of the spiritual eye. A physical third eye existed in the Third Root-Race and persisted until the middle of the Third SUB-race of the Fourth Root-Race, when the human frame's consolidation made it disappear. Psychically, its functions lasted until nearly the end of the Fourth Race, dying out before the submersion of the Atlantean continent. The text returns to the Deluges, noting many occurred alongside three more important ones. It addresses the relationship between esoteric doctrine and Hindu legends, including Vaivasvata Manu as the Noah of the Aryans, which necessitates further explanation. A footnote speaks of ennobling conceptions of divine justice rather than degrading the Deity into a cruel tyrant called Providence.

The text addresses an apparent discrepancy between the chronology of 18,000,000 years ago for the great Flood connected with the sinking of a continent and the identification of Vaivasvata Manu as the Indian Noah linked to the Matsya Avatar of Vishnu. It states there is no real discrepancy, referring the reader to The Theosophist of July 1883, and notes that Occultists differ from Brahmins on this point. A quoted passage explains that Manu, son of Swayambhuva, was no man but the representation of the first human races evolved with the help of the Dhyan-Chohans at the beginning of the first round. The Laws of Manu (Book I, 80) state fourteen Manus for every Kalpa, seven having occurred in the present age. The text describes seven dawns and seven twilights (fourteen Manvantaras), root-Manus and seed-Manus (Sishtas), and the 7 x 7 production of Manus. The present seventh Manu, Vaivasvata, is identified in exoteric texts with Xisuthrus and Noah, but esoterically is one of the 49 minor Manus emanated from the Root-Manu, presiding over the Fifth Race. The text explains the Logos as the source of all Manus, the first Manu Swayambhuva as "the Self-manifested," and each Cosmic Monad as becoming a Centre of Force from which a planetary chain emerges. It then turns to the four races preceding the Fifth, calling the tradition universal (Mexican, Egyptian, Hindu), and quotes a Stanza describing the Earth's geological history in crores of years, placing the last universal disturbance at 120,000,000 years ago and the appearance of physical man at 18,000,000 years ago. The History of the Races begins at the separation of the Sexes. The "Vaivasvata Manu Deluge" is explained allegorically: the Deluge is Chaotic matter, Water the feminine principle, the Ark the female generative power, and Vishnu the divine Spirit guiding the Ark as a fish. The Seven Rishis symbolize the seven principles. The text distinguishes the submersion of Lemuria (Third Race, 700,000 years before the Eocene) from that of Atlantis (Fourth Race, 850,000 years ago), and discusses the cause of Atlantis's destruction as disturbances in axial rotation, noting the disagreement among modern scientists on this point.

The text opens with Stanza XI, concerning the civilization and destruction of the Fourth and Fifth Races. The Lemurians built huge cities of rare earths, metals, lava, and stone, cutting their own images and worshipping them. A note explains the text now blends the last Lemurians and first Atlanteans collectively, and references divine Dynasties claimed by Egyptians, Chaldeans, Greeks, and Hindus. A footnote criticizes modern science for avoiding Easter Island's statues as evidence of a submerged continent. The text states that men and civilized nations, under divine Rulers, built cities and cultivated arts, astronomy, architecture, and mathematics. This civilization did not immediately follow physiological transformation; many hundred thousands of years passed. The Lemurians of the sixth sub-race built first rock-cities, one of lava thirty miles west of Easter Island, destroyed by volcanic eruptions. The oldest Cyclopean buildings were Lemurian. The first large cities appeared on the region now known as Madagascar. A footnote discusses Rider Haggard's "SHE," quoting Ayesha on the destruction of the nation of Kor, and contrasts Haeckel's view of Homo primigenius with the text's account. Evolution perfected the civilized; Karma destroyed the savages. The Australians are descendants of those who extinguished their spark by bestiality. The Aryan nations traced descent through Atlanteans from spiritual Lemurians in whom the "Sons of Wisdom" incarnated. A footnote quotes Krishna in the Bhagavat-gita on the seven Rishis and four preceding Manus, identifying them with rupa hierarchies and arupa gods. Civilization developed the physical and intellectual at the cost of the psychic and spiritual. Mankind went down in stature; before the Fourth Race's advent, most had fallen into iniquity, save the "Elect," followers of the "Sons of Will and Yoga." The Atlanteans' physical beauty reached its climax toward the middle of their fourth sub-race. A Commentary quote states the elect of Sveta-dwipa took shelter on the sacred Island (Shamballah), while accursed races lived in jungles and underground. The seven Kumaras are named. Daityas and Rakshasas replaced the Saddhus of the Third age. The text then explains that the Puranas' geography is allegorical: the Seven Dwipas refer to the planetary chain, Jambu-dwipa being our globe. Bhaskara Acharya's descriptions of dwipas correspond to sidereal positions. The genealogies embrace three and a half Rounds. Vaivasvata Manu is the seventh of fourteen Manus, Root Manu of the Fourth Round. The text identifies the White Island as Sveta-dwipa and Saka-dwipa (earliest Atlantis), inhabited by the Magas, nursery of the first Zaratushta. It narrates the story of Samba, reputed son of Krishna, building a Sun temple, Narada's advice, Gauramukha's direction to the Magas, and Garuda carrying Samba to Sakadwipa. The Magas are identified as the Magi of Chaldea, forefathers of the Parsis. The earliest pioneers of the Fourth Race were not Atlanteans. Lemuria then covered the area from the foot of the Himalayas, from Chittagong westward to Hardwar and eastward to Assam.

The text describes Lemuria's southern extent across Southern India, Ceylon, Sumatra, Madagascar, Australia, and Tasmania, reaching near the Antarctic Circle and beyond Easter Island. Science is said to partially corroborate this through ancient continents, including the "Mascarene continent" and one from Spitzbergen to the Straits of Dover. The polar regions are identified as Humanity's earliest cradle and the Third Race's tomb. A decrease in the earth's rotation velocity is explained as causing waters to flow toward the poles, new lands to arise equatorially, and old ones to submerge. The Moon's Spirit regulates this; at a root race's close the Pitris draw harder. Scientists are said to have ascertained tidal influence on geological distribution. A question about Atlantis's future re-emergence is answered: 5,000 feet of chalk covers the sea-bottom, but a convulsion would dispose of it. The seven sacred Islands (Dwipas) appear in the Surya Siddhanta and works of Asura Maya, an Atlantean astronomer identified as re-incarnated in Ptolemy. Jambu-dwipa alone is terrestrial, being the globe. The North Polar region is described as a horse-shoe continent from Greenland to Behring Straits to the British Isles, raised simultaneously with equatorial Lemuria's submersion. Easter Island was settled by Atlanteans who perished by volcanic fires. Routes connecting India and the Americas via islands are described. Haeckel's racial distribution is cited as corroboration. In this epoch, neither Africa, the Americas, nor Europe existed. Easter Island belongs to the Third Race's earliest civilisation. Australian tribes are identified as Third Race remnants. A MASTER is quoted on flat-headed Australian aborigines. Ancestors of Aryan Hindus, Egyptians, Persians, Chaldees, and Phoenicians first appear here, governed by DIVINE DYNASTIES. Materialist ape-ancestry claims are criticized. The Third Race's development is described: the axle tilted, the Sweat-Born knew snow and ice, and survivors remained as half-grown babes in size and intellect—the third pralaya. Seven terrestrial pralayas are taught, three from axial change, governed by the "great ADJUSTER." FOAHAT is cited as the cause rather than a comet. The sidereal year of 25,868 years is linked to nations' rises and falls, with a reprieve of about 16,000 years. Commentary xxxiii describes Atlanteans decreasing in stature, mixing with animal races, and following the LEFT PATH. Stanza 44 states Atlanteans built images nine yatis high, lunar fires destroyed Lemuria, and water threatened the Fourth Race. Easter Island statues are noted as 20 to 30 feet high. Hindu and Egyptian astronomical records are cited as evidence of preserved knowledge. The Third Race ended its career in Lanka.

The text proposes that older, unexplored continents may exist in ocean beds and that present continents, like Lemuria and Atlantis, have been submerged and reappeared multiple times; at the next cataclysm, present continents will sink and Lemurias and Atlantises will rise again. The Northern prolongation of Lemuria into the North Atlantic does not contradict the site of Atlantis. Lemuria, cradle of the Third Root-Race, extended in a horse-shoe from the Pacific and Indian Oceans past Madagascar, round South Africa, through the Atlantic to Norway. The Wealden fresh-water deposit is identified as the bed of the main stream that drained Northern Lemuria. Professor Berthold Seeman is cited as accepting such a continent and regarding Australia and Europe as formerly one. The elevated Atlantic ridge, 9,000 feet high, is a remnant of an Atlantic continent. The Atlantic portion of Lemuria is the geological basis of Atlantis, a development rather than a new landmass. The Fourth Race Atlanteans developed from a nucleus of Northern Lemurian Third Race Men. The text then addresses the seven keys of symbolism and the seven sciences underlying the Occult Doctrine, listing modes of thought (realistic, idealistic, divine/spiritual) and methods of ancient texts (symbolical, emblematical, parabolical, hieroglyphical, logo-grammical). Proper names in the Vedas, the Book of the Dead, and the Bible are said to be composed of logograms. The deluge figures Vaivasvata, Xisuthrus, Deukalion, and Noah are said to encode causes and effects in their names. The text then addresses giants, citing traditions from India, Ceylon, Greece, Egypt, Chaldea, and the Jews, with biblical references to Og and Goliath. It describes the Easter Island statues (some 27 feet high) and the Bamian statues (largest 173 feet, second 120 feet, third 60 feet), arguing the latter predate Buddhism and were made by Initiates of the Fourth Race. The five Bamian statues are said to record the evolution of races: the largest represents the First Race, the second the sweat-born, the third the race that fell and inaugurated the first physical race. The Fourth Race was smaller, and the series culminated in the Fifth. These are identified as the Gibborim of the Bible, who lived one million years ago. A quotation from Montaigne's Essays follows, cautioning against condemning things as false merely because they seem unlikely.

The text discusses de Mirville's collection of evidence that stones walked, spoke, delivered oracles, and sang in Pagan and Biblical times, including the "Christ-stone" becoming a "Jupiter lapis" swallowed by Saturn. The text then states it will collect evidence that giants moved colossal rocks and that magic produced oracular stones. Pausanias is cited as having changed his opinion of Greeks worshipping stones upon reaching Arcadia. A poem attributed to Orpheus divides stones into ophites and siderites; the ophite is described as having the gift of speech and producing a child's cry when cast away, and Helanos used it to foretell Troy's ruin. Sanchoniathon and Philo Byblius call betyles "Animated Stones." The physician Eusebius carried ophites in his bosom and received oracles from them. Arnobius confesses to questioning such stones and receiving answers in a small voice. The Westminster stone, called liafail, named the king to be chosen. Suidas mentions Heraclius distinguishing animated from inanimate stones; Pliny mentions stones that fled from approaching hands. De Mirville asks why Stonehenge was called chior-gaur, "dance of giants." Monoliths weighing over 500,000 kilograms are described. The text states most such stones are relics of the last Atlanteans. William Tooke speculates on granite blocks in Russia and Siberia brought from immense distances; Charton reports an Irish rock assigned a probable African origin, matching Irish tradition of a Sorcerer bringing stones from Africa. Cambry initially attributes the stones to Nature alone, then recants. Flinders Petrie's Stonehenge notes some stones brought from the North of Ireland. A 1850 article in the Revue Archeologique describes rocking stones betraying knowledge of statics. Giraldus Cambrensis relates that a stone on the Isle of Mona returned to its place after being thrown into the sea; William of Salisbury testified to its presence in a church wall in 1554. Pliny describes the Argonauts' stone at Cyzicum that ran away. The Dracontia, sacred to the moon and serpent, are identified as ancient "Rocks of Destiny" whose motion was a code for initiated priests. Vormius and Olaius Magnus show Scandinavian kings were elected through such oracles. Pliny describes a rock at Harpasa movable by a single finger. E. Biot shows the Chatam peramba in Malabar identical with Carnac tombs, where enormous bones were found. The text then criticizes Science for teaching evolution over millions of years yet refusing to make mankind older than 100,000 years, and uses an analogy of a cathedral organ evolving from protein to play Mozart by itself. Herbert Spencer's definition of evolution is cited. The text argues the "Progenitors" had to become gods before they became men. Stanzas 45 and 46 are quoted: waters swallowed the seven great islands; all holy saved, the unholy destroyed. A note explains the seven islands belonged to Atlantis, the Deluge overtook the Fourth Race as the fate of every continent, and the Fifth Race was in its infancy. Another note states two-thirds of subsequent mankind were ruled by Dynasties of lower material Spirits, one-third joined the nascent Fifth Race, and when the Poles moved, the ungodly Atlanteans perished.

Stanza XII, "The Fifth Race and Its Divine Instructors," comprises three verses. V. 47: few men remained (yellow, brown, black, red); Moon-Coloured of primitive Divine Stock gone forever. V. 48: Fifth Race from Holy Stock remained, ruled by first Divine Kings. V. 49: Serpents re-descended, made peace, taught Fifth Race. Note (a): verse 47 relates to Fifth Race; history does not go further back than fifth sub-race; Moon-Coloured (First and Second Races) perished without traces as far back as third Deluge of Third Lemurian race. Note (b): Adepts of Third, Fourth, Fifth Races dwelt in subterranean habitats under pyramidal structures in four corners of world including Americas; European neolithic caves, menhirs, tumuli, nuraghi are copies of pyramids built by first settlers after submersion of Atlantean continents 850,000 years ago. On antiquity: Dr. Dowler's skeleton at New Orleans (57,000 years); Arcadians' claim of being older than moon; belief in giant ancestors. Staniland Wake on Deluge's association with Pyramids and constellations; Proctor on Dragon constellation's identity with Flood and correspondence with Biblical Flood events. First great Flood was astronomical and cosmical; others terrestrial. Gerald Massey denies Atlantean submersion. Smith analyzes Nimrod Epic's twelve cantos as referring to Sun's annual course through Zodiac. Pyramids connected with Great Dragon constellation, Dragons of Wisdom, Nile Floods. Rough commentaries on Archaic Stanzas end here; Serpents exhausted in subsequent sections. Under "Serpents and Dragons under Different Symbolisms": Dragon in Chaldea represented by monograms meaning "the scaly one," applicable to Makara, tenth Zodiacal sign. British Museum specimen of two figures flanking tree with Dragon-Serpent behind interpreted as two Chaldees ready for initiation with Serpent as Initiator. Dragon's highest meaning identified with Logos (Hindu Aja), second person of Trinity among Naaseni Gnostics, symbol Draco; most terrestrial meaning applied to Wise men. Dragon allegory did not originate with St. John; his Dragon is Neptune, symbol of Atlantean magic. Under "The Sidereal and Cosmic Glyphs": astral light, milky way, path of Sun called "Serpents" in adepts' phraseology. Poseidon identified as Dragon. Zoroastrian Vendidad's Serpent is north pole and pole of heavens; shift caused loss of eternal spring of Airyana-Vaego. Meru and Patala as two poles, exoterically Heaven and Hell; gods' periodic ascent and descent explained astronomically via Zodiacal signs crossing eight coils of Serpent.

The text examines Eliphas Levi's "Grand Symbole Kabalistique" of the Zohar, describing a white man erect and a black woman inverted, their hands joined at angles. Levi interprets this as God and Nature, light mirrored in darkness; the text accepts this only for emblematical cosmogony. The symbol is not Levi's invention but Kabalistic, existing in Egyptian temples since before Cambyses (529 B.C.), who reportedly laughed at the figures. They are the two Kabiri personifying opposite poles, commemorating the passing of the original North Pole to the South Pole of Heaven (per Mackey), representing poles inverted by axial inclination causing ocean displacement and continental upheaval. The Kabirim are identified as "Deluge" gods. Faber showed the identity of Corybantes, Curetes, Dioscuri, and others with the Kabiri; the text states the Kabiri were the same as the Manus, Rishis, and Dhyan Chohans who incarnated in the Elect of the Third and Fourth Races. Esoterically, as Lares they are Solar Deities and conductors of men; as Aletae they are the seven planets. The Sabeans held Seth and his son Hermes (Enoch) as highest planetary gods; Seth is a Dhyan Chohan, Enos a generic name for early Seers. Soyuti mentions Seth as founder of Sabeanism and the pyramids as sepulchres of Seth and Idris. In Samothrace and Egyptian temples the Kabiri were great Cosmic Gods (seven and forty-nine Sacred Fires); in Grecian fanes their rites became phallic. Some maintained only two Kabiri: esoterically Castor and Pollux, exoterically Jupiter and Bacchus, personifying the terrestrial poles. The story of Semele and Jupiter is read esoterically as the two Poles. The Kabiri-Titans are generators of seasons and Volcanic Energies; originally beneficent Entities symbolized in Prometheus. Their names derive from fire (Agni-putra, Kabeiron from "to burn"). Their cult was connected with fire and volcanic localities; Christianity made them infernal. The title was generic, of both sexes. Incarnated as Kings of divine Dynasties, they gave the first impulse to civilizations and are credited with letters, laws, architecture, magic, and agriculture. Hermes, Orpheus, Cadmus, Asclepius are generic names. The serpent is the symbol of the adept and Secret Wisdom; the Chinese emperors are successors of the Serpents or Initiates. China has its own deluge tradition (Maurigosima) with Peiru-un as the Chinese Noah. All nations' divine races derive from the primitive Dhyan-Chohans; from Manu to Plato, all tell of seven divine Dynasties and seven dual gods who descended to teach mankind.

The text notes the synchronistic table of Abydos vindicating Egyptian priests' good faith. The Turin papyrus contains a list of dynasties from the Reign of Gods and Heroes, naming Seb, Osiris, Horus, Thoth-Hermes, and the goddess Ma as Kings. Manetho's tables were disfigured by Eusebius; the chronology of divine Kings was kept secret from the profane. Africa appeared before Europe but later than Lemuria and earliest Atlantis. Egypt was once under sea; Abyssinia was an island; the Delta was first occupied by emigrants from the North-east. The Dendera Zodiac's riddle, once solved, justifies the priests' statements to Herodotus about the poles and Ecliptic. Bailly exclaims at the sameness of divine-race traditions across India, Persia, and China. Panadoras speaks of seven gods ruling before Menes who taught men to calculate celestial courses. Herodotus was shown three hundred and forty-five wooden colossi of pre-Menean Kings and Pontiffs; the priests assured him no historian could understand them without studying three preceding dynasties: Gods, demi-gods, and Heroes, identified as the three Races or Devas, Kimpurushas, and Danavas. The incarnated gods exclaim happiness of being born as men in Bharata-Varsha during the Third Root-Race. Creuzer's intuition about ancient peoples seeing spirits in celestial bodies is cited. Occultists believe in spirits; materialists do not. Plato locates the divine Dynasties on Atlantis. Kircher initially regarded Atlantis as fable, later as great truth. Theopompus reports priests of Phrygia speaking as the priests of Sais did to Solon. De Rougemont treats this as fiction; De Mirville refutes this. The universal tradition concerns a third continent that perished 850,000 years ago, inhabited by two antagonistic races. Chinese teachings record a holy island beyond the sun and immortal men in the Gobi. Boulanger notes traditions placing gods before heroes before kings. Plato's Laws describes Saturn ruling through spirits rather than mortals, with the Logos as first shepherd. When gods retired, inventors appeared and were deified. Wheat is noted as never found in the wild state, sacred to Egyptian priests, and referenced in the Book of the Dead. The Egyptian Isis reveals mysteries of wheat. The Zohar references invisible creatures. The Sons of God are traced from Hindu Brahmaputras to Jewish B'ne-aleim. Genesis chapter 6 is read esoterically, distinguishing earlier giants from later lower sons of God who inaugurated sexual connection, with the progeny of giants producing monsters and lower races. Father Peronne's dilemma about the B'ne-aleim is cited.

The text states a Biblical riddle can only be explained through Occult doctrine via the Zohar and Book of Dzyan. The Zohar identifies B'ne-aleim as common to the Malachim and Ischin. The Ischin were sent to mix with mortals, belong to the tenth sub-division of the "Thrones," and help magicians produce homunculi. Their chief is Azazel, whom Maimonides calls an impenetrable mystery; he is not Satan. The text rejects Spencer's etymology. In the Zohar, Azazel is the Sacrificial victim, and Azazel and his host are the Hebrew Prometheus, chained to earth during incarnation. In Enoch, seven angels teach arts to the Fourth Race. The allegory represents the struggle between nous and Psuche. The MONAD exiled itself to incarnate; Eliphas Levi states the man-god is above angels. Occult teaching reverses characters: the archangel represents matter, the Serpent represents Spirit. The text criticizes both Churches for anathematizing the Dragon of esoteric Wisdom. Indra is highest in the Rig-Veda but a drunkard in the Puranas. In the Kabala, Samael is identical with St. Michael, both proceeding from Ruach, Neschamah, and Nephesch. The Church perverted this, making Samael the Devil.

The text traces the origin of the Satanic myth to Pagan prototypes, identifying the Dragon-and-Sun tradition as universal, arising from whisperings about secret initiations and established through heliolatrous religion. The Western origin is located in Egypt, where the Ophites adopted rites from Hermes Trismegistus. Paired deities are listed: Bel and the Dragon, Apollo and Python, Krishna and Kaliya, Osiris and Typhon, Michael and the Red Dragon, St. George and his Dragon; Michael is described as a permutation of Jehovah. The earthly origin of the "War of Heaven" is sought in temples of Initiation and archaic crypts, supported by three proofs: priests assuming their gods' names, Dragons as symbols of Immortality and Wisdom, and hierophants styling themselves "Sons of the Dragon." The Serpent's catacombs at Thebes are described, where the mysteries of the kuklos anagkes were performed. De Bourbourg's Votan is cited for a Mexican demi-god's account of a snake's hole. The Druids, the Assyrian priest, and the Hivim are noted as calling themselves serpents. The "War in Heaven" is also explained as the adept's struggle against personified passions. Seth is identified as a Jewish travesty of Hermes, also Typhon and Apophis, the dark side of Osiris. Astronomically, the allegories referred to Solar and Lunar eclipses. Rahu, a Daitya, stole amrita during the churning of the Ocean; Vishnu placed him in the stellar spheres as the ascending and descending nodes. Rahu also figured in the Sun's initiation mysteries. A comparative analysis follows, matching Agni, Indra, and Karttikeya with Apollo and Michael: Agni is a Danava; Karttikeya is born of Agni to destroy Taraka; Indra kills Vritra. Apollo, born on Asteria, asks at birth to slay Python, paralleling Karttikeya and Michael. A Chaldean fragment read by George Smith is quoted, showing Adam joining the dragon of Tiamat and Merodach leading the heavenly host. The war is also applied to the struggle between Aryan adepts and the Sorcerers of Atlantis. Cosmologically, the Dragons represent chaotic principles brought to order by Sun-gods. In the "Book of the Dead" they are "Sons of Rebellion." In the Eddas, the Ases' war with the Hrim-thurses repeats the myth. Samael is identified with the Simoom and Vritra; Horus, identical with Anubis, slays Typhon with a spear. The evil Spirits, originally emblems of Chaos, became euhemerized and finally a Christian dogma.

The text identifies the Hindu "War in Heaven" between Soma and the gods as a cosmogonical and astronomical allegory drawn from the earliest theogony. It states that the Gnostic doctrines best reveal the meaning of the Dragon, Serpent, and Goat as symbols, and that the Gnostics divulged the esoteric nature of the Jewish Substitute for AIN-SOPH. Jesus of Nazareth is cited as advising his apostles to be wise as the serpent, and the Ophites are noted for reverencing a living snake as the emblem of Wisdom and the divine Sophia. The serpent is described as a dual symbol and, as a Dragon, a symbol of the manifested Deity in its Wisdom. The flying Dragon is connected to the Brazen Serpent of Moses. The text argues that the appellation Satan belongs by right to Jehovah, not the Serpent, and that the "Lord God" himself created woman, making the Serpent merely a scapegoat. The personages in Genesis chapters 1–4 are stated not to be one and the same; Jehovah appears only in chapter iv. The Serpent is identified as the bright Angel, one of the Elohim, and the Iao of the mysteries, who made man immortal. The real Fall is placed in chapter iv., where Jehovah-Cain creates Abel in Eve and sheds the Virgin blood. Cain, Jehovah, and Satan are declared identical. Evil is described as a necessity for progress, and Satan as the polar opposite present in all of nature. The tenets of the Satanians, Cainites, and Iscariotes are said to become comprehensible on this basis. The Gnostic identification of Jehovah with Ophiomorphos is presented. The fallen Angels are described as prototypes of fallen men across traditions, including the war between Thraetaona and Azhi-dahaka and the conflict with the Asuras in the Mahabharata. Noah is identified as a Kabir and an Atlantean Titan. Cain is equated with Mars; Tubal-Cain with Hephaestos. The Telchines of Rhodes are connected to Cain's genealogy. The identity of Noah with Melchizedek and with Kronos-Saturn is established through Bryant and Sanchoniathon. The Kabalistic interpretation from "The Source of Measures" is cited, presenting Cain as lord of the Ecliptic and "the Just One." The Noachian Deluge is stated to have never existed within Biblical chronology. The Kabirim are identified with the Dhyan-Chohans and the Pitris. Finally, Persian folklore is presented: before Adam, the Devs reigned 7,000 years and the Peris 2,000; Gyan, king of the Peris, possessed a shield against black magic; Iblis scattered the Devs; and the tenth king of Khanoom, Kaimurath, is identified with the Hebrew Adam.

The text identifies the ten antediluvian kings of Berosus with Chaldean, Egyptian, Greek, and Hebrew traditions, noting that the Hebrew tradition implies pre-adamite nations through Cain's settlement in Nod. It compares the 9,000 years of Persian tales with Plato's 9,000 years in "Critias" and "Timaeus," explaining that Initiates used veiled chronology: 9,000 years esoterically means 900,000, spanning from the Aryan race's first appearance to the final disappearance of Plato's small Atlantis. The Aryan races fought the descendants of the first giant races throughout this period until the Mahabharatean war. The text describes how the secrecy of cycles and computations was maintained from the Egyptians to the Hebrews, citing Herodotus's refusal to name the Initiate buried at Sais. Persian legends are then recounted: Siamek, son of Kaimurath, is murdered by his giant brother; Huschenk re-discovers metals and is killed by a rock from Damavend; Tahmurath slays the giants Argen and Demrusch and liberates Mergiana. Giamschid, believing himself immortal, is punished and wanders as Dhulkarnayn; Feridan vanquishes the usurper Zohac. The text identifies the mountains of Kaf with regions beyond the Arctic Circle, where a concealed continent persists. A Commentary passage describes the first dry land capping the North Pole, the emergence of further land during the Second and Third Races, the formation of the Himavat belt, and the appearance of Atlantis after Lemuria's destruction.

The text discusses Rudbeck, a Swedish scientist, who tried to prove that Sweden was Plato's Atlantis, identifying ancient Upsala with the capital of Atlantis. Bailly proved Rudbeck mistaken, but the text states Bailly was also mistaken, and that Sweden and Norway formed part of ancient Lemuria and Atlantis on the European side, as Eastern and Western Siberia and Kamschatka did on the Asiatic side. The text then turns to Wilford, who brought forward theories that the British islands were the "White Island," Atala of the Puranas. The text calls this nonsense, as Atala belongs to the nether lokas of Patala. A footnote details Wilford's errors in identifying Sveta-dwipa with England, Atala, and Atlantis. The Puranas place Atala on the seventh zone, between latitudes 24 and 28 degrees north, whereas England lies between the 50th and 60th degrees. The text states that Puranic statements apply to both physical and metaphysical worlds, and that the north pole, the country of Meru, is the seventh division representing the region of Atma. Pushkara is identified as the seventh dwipa, encompassing the Kshira Ocean; geographically it is America, allegorically the prolongation of Jambu-dwipa. The text objects to Wilford's identification of Meru with Mount Atlas, citing the Surya Siddhanta's description of Meru passing through the middle of the earth-globe. The text affirms belief in seven continents: four past, one present, two future. Sankha-dwipa is described as a minor island peopled by Mlechchhas; its king Sankhasura was killed by Krishna. The text corrects Wilford's placement of battles between Devatas and Daityas from the Nile to the coasts of Western Africa, south of Morocco, and states the Sahara was once a sea and fertile continent before becoming desert. The text asserts that a large continent preceded Europe, covering Atlantic and Pacific regions, corroborated by multiple traditions. An astronomical calculation by an adept places the connection of the Singhalese with Sancha dwipa at approximately 23,000 years ago. The text quotes Proclus on Atlantis's existence and Marcellus's account of seven and three islands. Finally, the text addresses the Zohar's explanation of Nehhaschim as the astral light, and opens a section on the "Curse" from a philosophical point of view, stating that creative powers in man were the gift of divine wisdom, not the result of sin.

The text opens by noting Jehovah's paradoxical behavior: cursing Adam and Eve for a supposed crime, then blessing the "chosen people" to be fruitful and multiply. The curse was not brought on by the Fourth Race alone, as the Third Race (the Antediluvians) perished similarly; the Deluge was thus a geological law, not punishment. The curse of Karma was not for seeking natural union but for abusing the creative power and wasting life-essence for bestial gratification. The third chapter of Genesis refers to the Adam and Eve of the closing Third and commencing Fourth Races. In the beginning, conception was easy for woman; during the Fourth Race, enmity arose between its seed and the "Serpent's" seed, and the seed of lust bruised the head of the seed of wisdom by turning procreation into animal gratification. Karma then "bruised the heel" of the Atlantean race, gradually changing it until, from the healthy Third Race, man became in the Fifth Race a being heir to constitutional and hereditary diseases. This is the real curse from the physiological standpoint. The intellectual evolution, quickened by the "Lords of Wisdom," has been a curse rather than a blessing. The text then turns to Aeschylus's "Prometheus Bound," in which the divine Titan (the Agnishwatta and other "Sons of the Flame of Wisdom," personified by the Greeks in Prometheus) suffers for having given fire and the arts to mankind, which have turned into chronic animalism and sensuality. The true theosophist will prove there was never an original sin but only an abuse of physical intelligence. The Crucified Titan is the symbol of the collective Logos and the "Lords of Wisdom" who incarnated in Humanity. The text then examines the allegory's hidden meaning: the demi-god robs the gods (Elohim) of the creative fire, is struck down by KRONOS ("time"), and delivered to Zeus, who desires mankind blind and animal-like. Prometheus is chained on Mount Caucasus until a son of Zeus delivers him. Catholic writers (des Mousseaux and de Mirville) construed Prometheus's words to Io as a prophecy of Christ, identifying Io as "mother of God" and "dark Epaphos" as Christ; the text argues this is a mistake, identifying "dark Epaphos" as Dionysos-Sabazius, son of Zeus and Demeter in the Sabasian Mysteries. Io is the moon and the EVE of a new race. The myth points to the last of the mysteries of cyclic transformations, toward the return of the state when woman knew no man. Prometheus then traces Io's racial wanderings: from Europe to Asia, past the Caucasus, eastward across the Caspian, to the Arimaspi, then along the "AEthiop" river (the Indus, also called Nil or Nila, born on Kailas) to the Nile Delta, where a new race (the Egyptians) begins. From this seed, fifty virgins return to Argos, one of whom bears a kingly race from which dauntless heroes shall spring to free the Titan.

Io, refusing Jupiter's passion, becomes horned. The cow symbolizes passive generative nature (Isis, Vach, Venus), mother of Cupid and of the Logos, whose symbol is the bull, as in Apis and Hindu temple bulls. In esoteric philosophy the cow is creative nature and the Bull her vivifying spirit, or Holy Spirit, as Mr. Kenealy shows. Horns were also sacred to the Jews, who placed Shittim-wood horns near the altar for criminals to seize. Argos is identified as Arghya Varsha, land of libation of old Hierophants, whence the deliverer of Humanity will appear; the name later became that of India. The subject formed part of the Sabasian mysteries, attested by Cicero and Clemens Alexandrinus, who attribute Aeschylus's condemnation for sacrilege to his exposing the Mysteries on a public stage while uninitiated. The text argues he must have been initiated, else a daimon would have revealed the allegorical drama to him. Aeschylus did not invent the Prometheus prophecy but repeated what priests revealed during the Sabasia, the oldest sacred festival of unknown origin, connected by mythologists through Mithras with Jupiter and Bacchus. Translators note the discrepancy between Zeus in Prometheus Bound and in other dramas; the text explains this through the distinction between abstract Zeus and Olympic Zeus, the latter representing Manas wedded to Kama, while Prometheus represents the divine aspect merging into Buddhi. Zeus as the human soul yielding to lower passions is depicted as a serpent that begets the Man-Saviour, Dionysos, one with Osiris, Krishna, Buddha, and the coming tenth Avatar who will deliver suffering mankind at the end of Kaliyuga. After Kalki-Avatar appears, all deities and their dark aspects vanish, and mankind becomes self-redeemed through the eternal Law adjusting contraries. The Prometheus myth stands at the origin of physical evil. KRONOS, as Time, enforces the order of cyclic evolution. The gift of fire became a curse because incarnation was premature; the Host preferred free-will to instinctual beatitude and sacrificed itself to benefit one portion of mankind, inflicting self-consciousness of responsibility. The allegory of KRONOS cursing Zeus and delivering Prometheus to his revenge is explained: Zeus represents the PITAR who created man senseless; the Titan represents the devas who fell into generation. The lower Host mastered physical forces; the higher possessed only spiritual fire. This drama is enacted daily in mankind. The modern Prometheus has become Epimetheus, seeing only after the event. Man will rebecome the free Titan after cyclic evolution restores harmony, when he understands that man created death himself.

The text introduces a manuscript group called "Tongshaktchi Sangye Songa," the Records of the Thirty-five Buddhas of Confession, noting these personages are called Buddhas in Northern Buddhism but may equally be called Rishis or Avatars. They are described as great Mahatmas chosen from among ninety-seven and fifty-three Buddhas in two groups, mostly imaginary personifications of powers. The specific MS from which fragments are drawn was copied from stone tablets belonging to a Buddha of the earliest Fifth Race who witnessed the Deluge and submersion of Atlantean continents. The text identifies Odin/Woden as one of the thirty-five Buddhas and describes dry-land crossings from Norway to Hudson's Bay and from the Sahara to the Gulf of Mexico in earlier epochs. A passage is quoted in which the Kings of Light have departed in wrath and the azure seats remain empty. The text explains that the yellow-faced races fled to Central Asia led by adepts including Vaivasvata Manu, and that nearly two-thirds of one million years elapsed before racial separation. It states that Aryans descend from the yellow Adam and Semites from the red Adam. The MS references Atlantean knowledge of aeronautics, alchemy, and astronomy. A fragment from the Commentary describes the great King of the dazzling Face sending air-vehicles to warn brother-chiefs to cross the dry land before the Lords of the storm arrive, instructing yellow-faced adepts to seize the Viwans of the Dark-faced Sorcerers, send them sleep, and offer blood to their speaking animals. The nations crossed beyond the water mark; when the Sorcerers awoke their Viwans were gone. The more powerful among them pursued the fleeing nations for three lunar terms until the rising waves engulfed them. The text asserts this is the original material behind the Exodus narrative, and that the Atlantean civilization exceeded that of Egypt.

The text continues a discussion of Menes, assigning him 4,100 years B.C., and quotes Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson to the effect that Egyptians had made great progress in civilization before Menes's time, pointing to prehistoric civilization. The Schesoo-Hor, "servants of Horus," are identified as the prehistoric settlers of Egypt who founded its principal cities and sanctuaries before the Pyramid epoch, possessing hieroglyphic writing. Maspero dates them to 4,000 or 5,000 years B.C. The Sidereal year cycle of 25,868 years is invoked to date the Great Pyramid; Alpha Draconis's position is cited for 3,350 B.C. and 2,170 B.C., but the Dendera Zodiac's showing three sidereal years is taken to demonstrate the Pyramid was built 78,000 years ago. A zodiac in far Northern India shows the same characteristics as Dendera. Mackey's account of the Dendera Zodiac describes the Lion standing upon the Hydra with tail pointing downward, and in other positions the Lion inverted with a Serpent's head, indicating pole inversion. In the Circular Zodiac given by Denon, the Lion stands on the Serpent with tail curving downward, and six or seven hundred thousand years are said to have passed between the two positions; Virgo appears differently in each. The three Zodiacs are assigned to the last three Family Races of the fourth Sub-race of the Fifth Root-Race, each lasting approximately 25 to 30,000 years. The first, the "Aryan-Asiatics," witnessed the perishing of the last "giant Atlanteans" some 850,000 years ago; the fourth Sub-race witnessed the destruction of the Aryo-Atlanteans in the last island of Atlantis some 11,000 years ago. A genealogical tree of the Fifth Root-Race is described diagrammatically: seven Rounds per manvantara, seven Sub-races per Root-Race, seven Family Races per Sub-race, and countless tribes depending on Karmic action. The Fifth Root-Race is said to have existed about 1,000,000 years, each preceding Sub-Race approximately 210,000 years, each Family Race about 30,000 years. European astronomers' dating of the Egyptian Zodiac to 2000 or 2400 B.C. is called absurd. The Hindu Kaliyuga beginning in 3102 B.C. and Bailly's verification of the epoch are cited. The three "Virgins" on the Zodiac are interpreted as recording the first three divine Dynasties who taught the Third Root-Race and later redescended during the third Sub-race of the Fifth. The same record is found in the Egyptian Labyrinth. Mackey's "Sphinxiad" is quoted as placing the maximum monument-record at five million years, falling short of Hindu records of seven or eight million. The Egyptians, Greeks, and "Romans" are called remnants of the Atlanto-Aryans. The Egyptian Zodiac is placed between 75 and 80,000 years old, while Volney's calculation gives the Greek Zodiac an age of 16,984 years.

The text closes Part II, stating that space forbids further elaboration. The forty-nine Stanzas and fragments from the Commentaries are all that can be published; with older records accessible only to the highest Initiates and a library of comments, they form the synopsis of Man's genesis. The Commentaries have been used to explain allegories showing esoteric views on geology, anthropology, and ethnology. The following Part will establish a metaphysical connection between the earliest races and their Creators, the divine men from other worlds. Volume III will give a history of great adepts and a view of the Mysteries; Volume IV will be devoted to Occult teachings. The duration between the Fourth and Fifth Race is too tremendous for detailed accounts. Whether the Masters of Wisdom possess a consecutive history is not for the writer to say; she can give only what she has been taught. The writer anticipates skeptical questions about whether the scheme is invented or the product of ancient imagination. A profane friend's remark that the writer's conclusions are excellent but premises doubtful is answered by asserting that scientific premises and conclusions are equally hypothetical. The records of temples, Zodiacal and traditional, and ideographic records of the East are not more doubtful than European ancient history. The text argues that writing was invented by the Atlanteans, not the Phoenicians, and was known many hundreds of millennia ago. It cites Panini's grammar, inscriptions on rocks in Iran and Central Asia, and Schliemann's discovery of Troy and its inscriptions as evidence against philologists' denials. Professor Virchow's testimony is quoted. The text then lists cases of truthful observers—Madame Merian, Audubon, Victor Hugo—who were accused of lying before their observations were confirmed. A passage from Macmillan (1860), quoted by Charles Gould, is reproduced on the disposition to suspect hoax. The writer states that no disbeliever is forced to credit the statements, and that the work will be vindicated only in the twentieth century. The comparison with Jacolliot's "Bible in India" and the "Ezour-Veda" is addressed. The text quotes Zoroaster's "When you doubt, abstain" and Bacon's advice to begin with doubts. The text then turns to the cyclic nature of human Races. It maintains that each Root-Race is entirely distinct, and that the new Race is preparing in America, where inter-marriage has produced a nation almost sui generis. The Americans are identified as the germs of the Sixth sub-race. Cataclysms will destroy Europe and later the Aryan race; the Sixth Root-Race will appear silently, its pioneers initially regarded as anomalous. The Fifth Race will overlap the Sixth for many hundreds of millennia. A sixth continent will appear to receive the new race. The text closes with a quotation from a Sage on the Past, Present, and Future as the Mahamaya of the Absolute.

The text opens with a quotation from the Zohar on the Doctrine's narratives as a cloak, and from Clement of Alexandria on concealing mysteries. A table of contents lists chapters XVI through XXV. The section "Esoteric Tenets Corroborated in Every Scripture" states the Second Part of the Stanzas is more difficult than Vol. 1, and that Theology must now be questioned. The teachings are described as old as the world, rendered in modern language from Asiatic esoteric centres. Sat and Asat are explained: Sat is the immutable, changeless root, "the ever becoming, though the never manifesting"; Asat is not merely its negation. They beget each other in a circle squared only at the threshold of Paranirvana. A footnote links this to Hegelian doctrine. Barth's criticism of the Rig-Veda is discussed: he finds no primitive simplicity, unlike Max Müller, who calls the Vedic hymns the simplest Aryan myth and Hesiod a distorted caricature. The text argues Orientalists cannot account for the gap because they reject the Secret Doctrine's chronology. Barth's observation that the Rig-Veda resembles the phraseology of initiated groups leads to the conclusion that it was compiled by Initiates. Ancient adepts are said to have solved great problems of science and preserved them in secrecy. Modern psychologists' speculations are called chimerical. Cicero is quoted on time confirming nature's judgment. The text concludes that theology and materialism have combined to destroy the old gods, and that lovers of old wisdom should prove both draw on very old material.

The text introduces Adam-Adami as a term used by Chwolsohn in "Nabathean Agriculture" and derided by Renan. It explains that Adami was a manifold symbol originating with the Aryan people, taken by Semites and Turanians, and that Ad-i was the name given by the Aryans to the first speaking race. This connects to Adonai, Adonis, and Sanskrit Ada-Nath, all meaning "First Lord." These truths were a common inheritance received by first mankind. The author of a work on Ibn Gebirol's writings is cited on Israelite use of "Adonai." Chwolsohn's 1860 translation of the "Nabathean Agriculture" is described as a retranslation from Arabic, originally from Chaldean. The Nabatheans are identified as Sabeans or Chaldean star-worshippers. Masoudi's account of their origin after the Deluge, under Nimrod, is given. Quatremere suggested the book was a copy made under Nebuchadnezzar II; the author maintains the Chaldean original came from oral discourses of a Babylonian landowner named Qu-tamy, who declared the doctrines were told by Saturn to the Moon, who communicated them to her idol, which revealed them to Qu-tamy. De Rougemont, Ewald, and Renan criticized Chwolsohn; Renan asked why the work should not be fraudulent. The text responds that Adam and others are generic names, and argues by analogy with the Quran and Talmud. The work is described as a repetition of Secret Doctrine tenets under Chaldean symbols. Maimonides and Abarbinel are cited on the work. Nebo is identified with Budha and Hermes-Mercury, and Moses's death on Nebo's mount is noted. Adam-Adami is explained as a personation of the dual Adam. The Kabalists' four Adams are described, with Isaac Myer cited. The divergence between modern Kabalists and Occultists on sexual symbolism is noted. Gnostic correspondences and the archaic symbols for the number of Root-Races are given.

The text describes the Sanctum Sanctorum (Adytum) as common to all ancient nations, noting a difference between its secret meanings in Pagan and later Jewish esotericism despite originally identical symbology. The Gentiles placed a sarcophagus and solar god in the Adytum as a symbol of resurrection embracing Manvantaras. The Jews set forth their Holy of Holies as a sign of Monotheism exoterically while seeing in it a phallic symbol esoterically; the Levites had only the Ark of the Covenant. David's dancing "uncovered" before the ark is mentioned. The ark is identified as the navi-form Argha; Parkhurst's explanation is quoted describing it as the emblem of female generative power. The two cherubs are said to form a yoni, and Jehovah's four letters are described as a bisexual emblem. Kadesh Kadeshim is discussed, with Kadesh also meaning the ministry of lascivious rites; the Kadeshim are compared to Nautch-girls. David's dance is identified as the circle-dance of Sabean worship. A passage from Isis Unveiled describes the Ark as the sacred Argha of the Hindus. The King's Chamber in Cheops' Pyramid is called an Egyptian Holy of Holies, where the candidate descended into the Sarcophagus representing the solar god entering the fecund womb of Nature. The "golden" Cow of Indian initiation, the crescent-form Argha of the Greeks, and the worship of Astoreth by the Jews are noted. The Sun, Moon, and Mercury-Thoth are given as the earliest Egyptian Trinity. Astoreth is described as the ship of Life; Belita became Eve, now Mary. The nave of Christian churches is derived from navis. The word Alm and its connection to Almeh (Egyptian dancing-girls) and to IO (the moon) are discussed. A scholar's linguistic analysis connects IOH to the Theban triad of Ammon, Mouth, and Khonsoo, and these Egyptian symbols to Jehovah. A correspondent's letter connects the number 1065 to Jehovah's name and to measurements in the King's Chamber, and the chief function of Jehovah by Hebrew Esotericism is stated as child-giving, his name's numbers measuring the lunar year.

The text discusses the etymology of "sacrament," tracing it to Hebrew words for phallus and yoni. Adam, as Adam Kadmon, is described as a priapic image and androgyne; the Kabalistic name refers to the two organs of procreation rather than a living being. Adam is identified in one sense as Jehovah. A tradition from Gregorie (1684), quoted by Hargrave Jennings in Phallicism, concerns Adam's body and Noah praying before it in the ark. The name Jehovah is shown to compose the idea of male-female as birth-originator. Numerical and geometric demonstrations from the "Source of Measures" establish cognate relationships between Arets, Adam, and H'Adam, and identify Jehovah with Noah. Adam is called the "Prophet of the Moon," and the belief that Moses's face appears in the moon is explained through Kabalistic permutations showing Moses to be a form of Jehovah. The "Holy of Holies" is presented as an international symbol not originating with the Hebrews. The text contrasts the metaphysical interpretation among Hindus and Egyptians with the realistic and physiological interpretation among Hebrews, noting that with fully initiated Tanaim the inner sense was as holy as with Aryan Dwijas. The ceremony of passing through the Holy of Holies, symbolized by the cow, meant spiritual rebirth for Aryans but the fall of Spirit into matter for Semites. Carlyle is quoted on the difference between Hindu and Israelite religion. Phallic worship is said to have developed only with the loss of keys to inner meaning. Geometry, the fifth divine Science, is said to have been desecrated by Talmudic Jews. The Hindu Lingham is identified with "Jacob's Pillar." In Hinduism the symbol is a universal abstraction; in Christian Judaism it is a personal God outside Nature. Two hypotheses are offered: either behind Jehovah there existed the incognizable Ain-Soph, or the Jews were from the beginning Lingham worshippers. The text affirms the former, stating that Jehovah was a substitute for exoteric national faith and that secret worship was Pantheism. The Ark is said to have contained a phallic stone identical with the name Jehovah. The Biblical Jews are dated from David rather than Moses; the Elohistic and Jehovistic texts are said to have been re-written 500 and 800 years after Moses respectively. IAO and Abraxas are identified with the god of the Hebrews and Egyptian Horus. Jehovah is said to be regarded as creator only in his capacity as genius of the moon.

The text states the quarrel is with theology, which enforces belief in a personal god and devil, while Occultism shows the fallacy. Nature is "a comely mother, but stone cold" to Pantheists, Occultists, and Pessimists regarding external physical nature. The superficial observer sees an immense slaughter-house; pessimists conclude no deity exists within her, materialists attribute all to blind force. Occultists regard physical nature as illusions and see pain as pangs toward perfectibility under Karma. Theologians built their God, Satan, and Angels from heathen Pantheons, distorting original characters; one achievement was transforming the divine alter ego into Satan. St. Augustine and Tertullian called the Devil "the monkey of God." Roman Catholic writers used Mazdean literature to support their theories. The Christian Devil is a piratical reprint from Chaldeo-Judaean mythology, resting on the Akkadian conception of cosmic powers in feud with Chaos. Silik-Muludag was the Son of Hea, the God of Wisdom. With Semitic nations, the Spirits of Earth and Heaven were twin brothers. The "Face of the Deep" of Genesis is traced in the Babylonian Tohu-bohu; the great Dragon Tiamat developed from the Sea of Space. The God of the Jews forbids cursing Satan, as Philo Judaeus and Josephus confirm. A Talmudic passage shows Satan is a God of whom even the "Lord" is in fear. The Zohar presents Satan as the personification of abstract evil, the weapon of Karmic law. The Logos Demiurge plays two parts in the drama of Creation. The Roman Catholic Church accepts St. Michael as the ferouer of Christ while calling Mercury a devil. The Farvarshi is explained as the inner immortal man, the spiritual counterpart of god, animal, plant, or element. Ahura Mazda recommends Zarathustra to invoke his Farvarshi rather than himself. Vossius proves Michael is the Mercury of the pagans. The text argues the Gospel sentence "All that came before me are thieves and robbers" is a verbatim repetition from the Book of Enoch, and that Jude quotes Enoch, acknowledging the source. The Veda is said to have gone forth into every nation of the Atlanto-Lemurians, and at the end of the Kali, Vishnu will appear as Kalki.

The text states that the sixth race shall give birth to the seventh race, the race of "Buddhas" or "Sons of God." It argues that the "Fall" is the descent of Gods who incarnate in mankind, and that the metaphorical Fall led Western Humanity to false dogmas: a distinct evil spirit, Hell, original sin, and ignorance that no fiends existed before man's appearance. The "Dragon" in Revelation is identified as the symbol of the cycle and the "Sons of Manvantaric Eternity" who descended on earth; the "third part of the stars" refers to the divine Monads, the human Egos destined to perform the cycle of incarnations. The Zohar is cited as confirming that the "Fall of the Angels" referred to the incarnation of angels who had broken through the Seven Circles — the Dhyanis who, by incarnating in "empty shadows," inaugurated the era of mankind. The first lesson of Esoteric philosophy is stated: the incognizable Cause only exhibits periodically different aspects to finite Minds; there never were devils or "disobedient Angels," since all are governed by Law. The Zohar's account follows: the "Holy One" called hosts of Angels to create man; they doubted and were annihilated; a lower host contradicted; man was created and sinned; the hosts of Uzza and Azael were thrown from Heaven and changed into men. Pymander's statement that "seven men (principles) were generated in Man" is presented as the septenary scale of creative Forces born from one white ray generated in Darkness.

The text states that Mankind, collectively and individually, is the vehicle of the breath of One Universal Principle in its primal differentiation and of countless "breaths" in secondary differentiations, as Nature proceeds toward planes increasing in materiality. The primary Breath informs the higher Hierarchies; the secondary, the lower. The text identifies Ezekiel xxviii and Isaiah xiv as the most convincing biblical passages proving this belief was once universal. Ezekiel addresses his lamentations to the King of Tyre; Isaiah to King Ahaz, who indulged in idol worship except for a few Initiates. The "prince of Tyre" is traced to the "divine Dynasties" of the Atlanteans, the Great Sorcerers. The text asserts there is no metaphor in Ezekiel's words but actual history, and that the imprecations are reminders of the fate of the Atlanteans. The "Mountain of God" is identified as Meru, whose representative in the Fourth Race was Mount Atlas, an esoteric symbol of the Fourth Race, with his seven daughters as symbols of its Seven Sub-races. The text argues that chapters xxviii and xxxi of Ezekiel relate to Atlantis, not Babylon, Assyria, or Egypt, and that the "garden of Eden" of the Initiates was a locality now submerged. The Vishnu Purana is cited regarding the Prachetasas emerging from the deep and destroying the iniquitous "trees" until Soma pacifies them. The Ramayana is described as the mystic narrative of the struggle between Rama and Ravana, the latter being the symbolical personation of the Atlantean race. The text then addresses a critic's complaint about Isis Unveiled and argues that Christian theology built its Epos of the War in Heaven on hazy metaphors, and that removing the Fallen Angels would render Christ a meaningless myth. The Taraka war is introduced as a clue. Budha's genealogy is described: son of Tara, wife of Brihaspati, carried away by Soma, causing war in Swarga. Indra is called the Indian prototype of Michael. Brihaspati represents exoteric worship; Tara, one initiated into secret knowledge; Soma, the sacred beverage. The birth of Budha represents esoteric Wisdom. War in Heaven is said to refer to several events on various planes, the first being a purely astronomical and cosmical fact pertaining to cosmogony.

In the oldest portions of the Rig Veda, the Asuras are the spiritual and the divine, the term being used for the Supreme Spirit and equivalent to the great Ahura of the Zoroastrians. Indra, Agni, and Varuna once belonged to the Asuras. In the Aitareya Brahmana, the breath of Brahma-Prajapati became alive and from it he created the Asuras. After a war, the Asuras are called enemies of the gods, "A-suras" meaning "no-gods." This connects them with the "Fallen Angels" of Christian Churches. They are sons of the primeval Creative Breath at the beginning of every new Maha Kalpa or Manvantara, allies of Soma against Brihaspati. The text identifies the hosts: the Usanas (host of Venus, become Lucifer), the Daityas and Danavas (Titans, "enemies of the sacrifices"), and the Nagas (serpents or Seraphs, identified with Initiates-hermits). The "war" is an allegorical record of strife between adepts of the right and left path. Three classes of Rishis are named: Rajarshis, Devarshis, and Brahmarshis. Narada, a Devarishi, is in feud with Brahma and Daksha. Sidereal phenomena served as a model for earthly events; an inland sea was consecrated as "the Abyss of Learning" with twelve centres representing Zodiacal signs, existing where the Gobi desert now stretches until a glacial cataclysm. The myth of Bel and Merodach against Tiamat is explained as having cosmic, geological, and historical meaning, relating to the drying of territories and the persecution of Right Path Prophets by those of the Left. The four "Adams" symbolize the four preceding races; the Zohar states the first Adam is not found on earth. Rabbi Simeon Ben-Iochai says understanding the Dragon is given only to "the little ones," perfect Initiates. The Siphrah Dzeniouta compares post-pralaya evolution to an uncoiling serpent. The Dragon and Serpent were never regarded as evil in antiquity; the Cosmic Serpent's 370 leaps refer to the tropical year. The text concludes that the "War in Heaven" and the "great dragon" carry several meanings, and that the Christian dogma of Fall and Atonement "dwindles down to a pagan symbol."

The section, titled "Is Pleroma Satan's Lair?", examines the subject from further aspects. It questions whether Milton's Battle of Angels reflects an Eastern tradition, suggesting access to secret Vatican works, and notes the "Beni Shamash" tradition contains more detail than the Book of Enoch or Revelation. The text criticizes scholars who doubt Enoch's antiquity, noting verses from the Book of Hermes were later found on Egyptian monuments. It states the "Old Dragon" and Satan are not described as "Fallen Angel" in original or modern Kabala, then quotes Eliphas Levi's description of Satan as a proud angel who chose independence at the price of eternal suffering. The text calls this correct, identifying Satan as the symbol of self-sacrifice for humanity's intellectual independence, Energy protesting against Static Inertia, but notes Levi was too subservient to Catholic authorities to confess the devil was mankind. A footnote compares Jack the Ripper and wife-beaters to Christian devils. The text argues theology turned pagan sun-gods into devils to assert its own authority, and that every race exalted its tribal deity; the God of Israelites was such a tribal God. It argues the Church invented an anthropomorphic Devil as a dark background for Jesus, calling Satan a fabrication of "Jehovah-Frankenstein." Quoting the author of "New Aspects of Life," it explores whether Jehovah was a personating Spirit, and how the substitution of Adonai for the ineffable name affected Christian terminology. It quotes Jules Baissac on avoiding the dogma of double principle. The text states there is no real difference between Obedient and Fallen Angels except in function—inertia versus activity among the Dhyan Chohans. Kabbalists say Satan's true name is Jehovah upside down. Eliphas Levi is quoted calling the devil a creative Force, not a person. The text identifies the astral light, called Lucifer by the Church, as the universal Soul and Pleroma, and defines Akasa as the Matrix of the Universe filling all infinite Space. It states mankind has become the "Serpent of Genesis" and determines the Astral Light's effects, which constitute humanity's Karma. The Fall is identified as the result of man's knowledge; the Fallen Angel became man's Manas and Self-consciousness. The Sutratma is described as the luminous thread of immortal monadship. Satan and Lucifer are identified as the human Mind, emanation of Mahat. The text questions how animals procreated before the Fall, then quotes "War in Heaven" on Christians misunderstanding their Liberator. A footnote discusses Mitford, the Yezidis, and the Gholaites. It states the Logos and Satan are one, the Verbum being a duality in full unity, with parallel examples from Greek and Aryan traditions. The fall of Logoi signifies incarnation, a Karmic law. It describes the Chinese, Zoroastrian, Egyptian, and Vedic versions of the same legend, identifying the fallen Spirits as "true mirrors of the Eternal Wisdom." The truth is called the Seventh Mystery of Creation. It identifies Airyaman as the divine aspect of Ahriman, discusses the Baresma, and defends ancient Initiates against charges of imposture. It quotes King's Gnostics on the Ark of the Covenant's cherubim, mentions the number 888, and closes with a reference to augurs.

The text states that European symbologists agree Prometheus held the greatest significance in antiquity. The author of the Mythologie de la Grece Antique is quoted describing Prometheus as the generator of humanity who kneads clay to fashion the first man. After the Flood of Deukalion, Zeus commanded Prometheus and Athena to create a new race from the mire; in Pausanias's day the slime was still shown in Phocea. Archaic monuments depict Prometheus modelling a human body, alone or with Athena. The text then introduces Phoroneus, hero of the lost Phoronidae, localized in Argolis where a perpetual flame was kept on his altar. Plato and Clemens Alexandrinus call him the first man or "father of mortals." His father is Inachos the river; his mother Melia is the personification of the ash-tree, connected to the age of Bronze and to Yggdrasil of Norse antiquity. The Norns, Gultweig, and Manas (the Conscious Soul) are discussed in relation to this tree. The fruit of the tree is lightning. The text criticizes modern materialism and presents Decharme's interpretation of a divine bird carrying fire from the celestial ash-tree. Phoroneus is identified as the Sanskrit bhuranyu, an epithet of Agni, and as the personified bird bringing heavenly lightning to Earth. The names Prometheus and Phoroneus are said to bear esoteric meanings relating to the seven celestial fires and the forty-nine fires of Agni Abhimanin. The text discusses the old Greek etymology of Prometheus from Promanthanein ("foreseeing") and the modern Orientalist finding of a phallic element. The legend is said to commemorate the first spark produced by friction. The philosophy of Occult Science objects to the premise of primitive misery, arguing that existing savages are no happier than their forefathers, and citing craniological data showing stone-age skulls are not below modern European averages in volume. Prometheus's first boon is identified as hindering mortals from foreseeing death, with fire given second. Fire is argued to have existed since earth's beginning through volcanic activity. AEschylus is called an initiate. M. F. Baudry's description of the Vedic pramantha process is quoted, including the Sanskrit terms pramantha and arani. The text identifies the "female Arani" in a Vedic hymn as Aditi, the mother of the gods, and traces a line from Aditi through Devaki (mother of Krishna) to the Roman Catholic Madonna. Aditi is the Deva-matri of Seven Sons; Devaki received six embryos from Jagaddhatri with the seventh, Krishna, transferred to Rohini. Mary is noted as mother of seven children in Matthew's Gospel. A prayer addressed to Devaki is quoted and compared to prayers to the Virgin. The Zohar's male and female principle is presented as an abstraction meaning the divine Spirit coalescing with matter, with Chochmah and Binah creating between the two principles. The section concludes that between the Serpent of Eden and the Devil of Christianity there is an abyss.

The text introduces Enoch (Enos, Hanoch, Enoichion) within the Satanic myth, noting his Book as source of early Christian Fallen Angels notions and its apocryphal status. "Apocrypha" is etymologized from Crypto, "to hide," as a secret temple book. Enoch is identified with Thoth, Hermes, and Mercury as distinct individuals of the same category of sacred writers, linked through the number Seven and 365. Enoichion esoterically means "Seer of the Open Eye." Josephus's account of Enoch concealing rolls under pillars parallels Hermes's story; the pillars are attributed to "sons of the Serpent-god." The pillars, covered in hieroglyphics, are prototypes of Moses's tablets. The Secret Doctrine teaches these were ideographic records from the Fourth Race, inherited from the Third Root-Race. Enoichion is a generic title; the esoteric meaning of "easy death" is the adept's physical death while living in the astral body. The Church's rejection of the Book is discussed, including Cajetan's claim regarding the Book of Jude and the danger to the fourth Gospel. Ludolph denied Abyssinian manuscripts existed; Bruce and Ruppel later found the work, and Bishop Laurence translated it. Talmudists disagree on Enoch's character. The Midrash links Hanokh to the Fourth Race and Noah to the Fifth. Enoch symbolizes man's dual nature in the astronomical cross. M. de Sacy's observations on the 364-day year and pre-Deluge order of nature are cited. The angel Uriel's words about shortened years and the earth's inclination are discussed, along with Noah's cry. The text questions how the author knew of Earth's axial inclination, citing Klee and Egyptian priests. The Book is described as a resume of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Races, referenced in the Pistis Sophia and Zohar, esteemed by Origen and Clement, and its Visions described as depicting Mysteries of Initiation. St. Augustine's reason for its rejection—excessive antiquity—is cited.

The section references Eliphas Levi's statement that the Sepher Jezirah, Zohar, and Apocalypse are master-pieces of Occult Sciences, qualifying this as applying "in Europe." It asserts that the fundamental principle of the Secret Doctrine is the mathematical and geometrical value of God-names, Angel-names, and Patriarchal names. The Zohar is called both profound and misleading, and Kabalistic esotericism is described as a further veil over primitive symbolism. The Circle (hidden deity) and its diameter (the Androgynous Creative Power) are presented as among the oldest symbols, complete with the Aryans, Egyptians, and Chaldeans but reduced to secondary mechanical creation with the Hebrews. The key is said lost, the Rabbis having preferred oblivion over sharing with persecutors. Jehovah is identified as the tribal god of the Jews; Deuteronomy 32:8-9 is cited to show his portion is Jacob alone. Astronomically, the Most High is the Sun and the Lord one of his seven planets. Two Kabalistic interpretations of Exodus 33:18-23 are given: a cosmo-metaphysical reading and a numerical one showing Moses equals 345 and Jehovah 543, their sum 888, the gnostic value of Christ, the system's purpose being to preserve the Lunar year's value. The symbol Jehovah is declared to have collapsed under analysis, revealing an euhemerized planet and a mask for many gods. The Trinity is identified as an astronomical triad: Sun, Mercury, and Venus. IAO is presented as a Mystery name predating the Jews, possibly brought by David from the Tyrians. The Cross is then treated as the most ancient symbol, connected to Mercury-Hermes as the LOGOS, to cruciform termini, to the cubic form, and to the phallic addition by the Egyptians. The cube unfolded becomes the tau cross; the circle attached to the tau gives the ansated cross. The Hindu Visvakarma crucifying the Sun-Initiate on a cruciform lathe is mentioned. The Jewish Deity is concluded to be a manifested duad, a Number, and an euhemerized Priapus, which the Eastern Occultist must decline.

The text discusses two expressions of circumference to diameter in integrals used in the Bible—the perfect and the imperfect—and their relation to the third stage of Evolution. It states that Western Mystics commence speculation only when the universe "falls into matter," and that no Kabalistic book hints at the psychological and spiritual secrets of creation. The writer rejects the identification of cosmic evolution with procreation, preferring Pagan over rabbinical methods, and locates the origin of the Cross and Circle beyond the Flood. The text then addresses Eliphas Levi and the Zohar, noting that Eastern Occultists agree with Pascal's circle definition of God, while Kabalists reverse it to veil their doctrine. It corrects the attribution of this definition, stating Pascal borrowed it from Mercury Trismegistus or Cardinal Cusa and disfigured it by replacing "Cosmic Circle" with "Theos." The section on Cross and Circle follows: ancient philosophers ascribed the divine to the circle's shape; Plato derives theos from theein, "to move"; Esoteric philosophy describes Deity as eternal perpetual motion circling back into Absolute Unity. The god Shoo (Ra) is represented holding a cross attached to a Circle. Gerald Massey's work is cited for the inseparability of cross and circle, the Chakra of Vishnu, Thor's Fylfot, and the wheel emblem. Raoul-Rochette's evidence shows the cross as symbol of procreation on Phoenician coins and brood mares. A form from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society combines cross, circle, lotus, and ellipse. The Ankh is described as the most sacred Egyptian cross, with the Ru denoting the northern birth-place of time, carried by Typhon of the Great Bear. The Puranic parallel identifies the Ankh-tie with Siva's pasa, a cord with double significance. Siva's various names and roles across the Vedas and Puranas are outlined, and the pasa is interpreted as the "strait gate" rather than a phallic symbol. The Seven Rishis and the Pleiades (Krittika) are connected to Kali-yuga and the precession of equinoxes. Karttikeya's birth from fire and water via Agni and the Ganges is described. The Pleiades are identified as the central point of sidereal symbology, linked to Taurus and the number one. The text concludes with the Scarabaeus as symbol of reincarnation, Proclus's invisible circles, and Pythagorean and Plinian circular postures in worship.

The text opens with the nine lives of a cat, grounded in physiological and occult reasons, with Mr. G. Massey's astronomical reason referenced. A footnote explains the cat's phosphorescent eyes as a mirror for unseen solar light. Ezekiel's wheel-within-a-wheel and Solomon's Ecclesiastes i.6 on the Spirit moving in circuits are cited; the Zohar explains the verse as referring to the Spirit under the Sun moving circularly toward union with the Sun. The Brahmanical Golden Egg is identified as Pythagoras's circle with Central Point. Concealed UNITY (Parabrahmam, the Great Extreme, Phta, En-Soph) is symbolized by a circle or nought; the god-manifested is the diameter, dimensional and feminine, while the circle is dimensionless. The Pythagorean Decade synthesizes the ALL in the numeral Ten. Section B, "The Fall of the Cross into Matter," begins. The circle-and-diameter idea is the first cosmogonic symbol. Fo-hi's trigrammes and Eliphas Levi's account of Chinese symbols are discussed. Plato's "God over all" is an abstract Intelligence, not a personal Creator; the "god over all" is Father of truth, not the Monotheist's Creator. Plato, Speusippus, and Xenocrates are cited. The Cross and Circle are universal international symbols. Eliphas Levi's anthropomorphic explanation is rejected; Initiates never use "God" for the One and Secondless Principle. A philosophical mean between Atheism and anthropomorphism is asserted. Hindus solved the problem by avatars, Christians by one Incarnation; exoterically both wrong, esoterically near truth. Paul alone fathomed the archaic mystery of the Cross. The Swastica implies the Central Point is not limited to one individual. Isarim found the Smaragdine tablet on the body of Hermes at Hebron; its words contain the riddle of the cross. The philosophical cross circumscribes birth, life, death, and immortality. The Tau appears at Palenque, in Egyptian hieroglyphics, in Ezekiel ix.4, in Moses's door-post mark in Exodus xii.22, and at Philoe. The cross is found on Easter Island, in Central Asia, and pre-Christian Scandinavia. "To crucify before the Sun" is a phrase of initiation from Egypt and India. The adept was tied in the form of a tau or Svastika, plunged in the "Sleep of Siloam" for three days and nights; in Egypt the body was placed in the King's Chamber of Cheops until sunrise. Bas-reliefs at Philoe show Hierophants pouring water in cross-shape. The tomb of Bait-Oxly and a fragment from Totmes III's hall display crosses. Cruciform couches were found in Egyptian temple undergrounds. Visvakarma ties Surya on the Swastika esoterically. The numerical value 113 of the Hebrew word for MAN is connected to the crucified-man symbol. Wittoba, a form of Vishnu, shows nail-marks. The Initiate is reborn after crucifixion on the Tree of Life. The Hebrews adapted cosmic symbols to their records; early Christian compilers used aish with Shanah. Plato's decussated Cross and Krishna's crucified figure are cited. The nails of the cross are described as phallic emblems forming a triangle and square.

The text examines the numerical significance of the three nails and wounds in relation to the cube and cross, connecting the phallic meaning of the Crucifixion Nails to Prometheus. The double glyph underlying the Cross is not of human invention. In the Mysteries, crucifixion freed the Ego Soul from the body. The cross later degraded to a phallic symbol. The Universal Soul is a Sevenfold cross with seven branches. The sign of the cross predates Christianity as a recognition sign among adepts and neophytes called Chrests. E. Levi's quotation describes two formulas for making the sign. The Latin Church adopted a phallic sign; the Greeks used the cross of the neophytes.

The text cites King's "Gnostics" on the shared Greek word for "vowel" and "voice," and proposes collating "Sound" and "Speech" in the Upanishads and Puranas with the Gnostic "Vowels" and "Voices" of the Thunders and Angels in Revelation and Pistis Sophia. Through Hippolytus, Marcus, described as a Pythagorean and Kabalist Gnostic, is said to have received revelation that the seven heavens each sounded one vowel forming a doxology, translated as the Sevenfold LOGOS differentiating into seven creative potencies. The text cites St. John's Apocalypse (chap. x. 3–4), where seven thunders utter voices and John is commanded to seal them, noting the same injunction applies to Marcus and all Initiates. The numbers seven and forty-nine recur throughout. In Pistis Sophia, Jesus tells his disciples that no mystery is more excellent than that of the seven vowels and their forty-nine powers. The text identifies the seven vowels with the Hindu fires, the Persian Simorgh, and the Jewish Kabalists, noting the latter reduced each renewal to 7,000 years instead of 7,000,000,000. Garuda is presented as the origin of related allegories: the Indian phoenix, emblem of cyclic time, the "man-lion" Singha, and vehicle of Vishnu. Gnostic gems show seven vowels over the lion's crown. Garuda is identified with the Maha-Kalpa; at his birth he is mistaken for Agni. His son Jatabu represents the 60,000-year cycle. C. W. King is cited as stating the gem was imported from India. The angel's oath that "there should be time no longer" is interpreted as the completion of the Seventh Round. The text states the Babylonians received their cyclic wisdom from India, and that the Japanese share the same figures. The baptism of water (John) is contrasted with fire (Jesus), and fire on Mount Sinai with smoke for the multitudes. The dialogue between Narada and Davamata in the Anugita is examined: Narada teaches that fire is all the deities, its smoke appears as darkness, and between pairs of opposites stands the fire, identified esoterically as the Self. The sevenfold Vaisvanara fire has seven tongues, fuels, and priests. A Pistis Sophia passage describes a name containing all names and forty-nine powers that, when uttered, causes all powers to be shaken. The text criticizes Orientalists including Wilson, Weber, and Monier Williams. In the Ramayana, Garuda is Sagara's 60,000 sons' maternal uncle; Jatayu, his son, declares "it is 60,000 years that I am born" before dying. The Kapila who slew Sagara's progeny is identified as the Sankhya founder; the Bhagavata Purana denies the imputation. Kapila's meditation site is located at Hardwar, where "Kapila's Pass" persists. Sagara is the name of the Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. The text lists multiple Kapilas and states the Kapila of the Satya and Kali Yugas may be one Individuality without being the same Personality.

The early Gnostics claimed their Science rested on a square whose angles represented Sige, Bythos, Nous, and Aletheia. They introduced the Tau as a Procrustean bed and Christos incarnating in Chrestos. The Universe was contained in the Pythagorean Decade, which presented Macrocosm and Microcosm aspects, studyable from Plato's Universals and Aristotle's inductive method. This dual system was brought by Pythagoras from India, being that of the Brachmans and Iranians. In the Laws of Manu, Brahma creates ten Prajapati, which produce seven Manus, the Seven Angels of the Presence. The number Seven is born from the upper triangle, from Sige and Bythos. In man, the septenary division is intended by Nature; the seventh principle (purusha) is the divine SELF. The Mystery language is pictorial and symbolical, not phonetic, dead for over 5,000 years but known to Gnostics. I signified an erect body, P paternity, R a moving man; in Hebrew, aleph symbolized a bull and Yodh represented 10. Odd numbers are divine, even terrestrial and devilish; the Pythagoreans hated the binary as the origin of evil. The ternary is the number of mystery par excellence; Ragon founded the Trinosophists on its three sides. The quaternary is the first solid figure, the pyramid. The Soul contains number 4; man is septenary when virtuous, quinary when bad. Number 5 compounds binary and ternary; the perfect man is quaternary plus ternary. The constellation Makara (Capricornus) is the tenth sign; it resolves into Ma (five) and Kara (hand), meaning a pentagon representing the five limbs of man. Its true esoteric form is an animal with antelope head and fish body, the vahan of Varuna. With the Peratae Gnostics, Chozzar (Neptune) has five androgyne ministers. The Kumaras are five esoterically, the fifth order of Brahmadevas. The Prachetasas are ten exoterically but five esoterically, identical with Chozzar's five ministers. Kama (Makara-ketu) is the Logos in the Rig-Veda, first manifestation of the ONE. The number five symbolizes both eternal and terrestrial Spirit; the five mystic words of Brahma became the Panchadasa. Makara connects the birth of the spiritual microcosm with the death of the physical Universe. In Egypt, the crocodiles in the Celestial Nile are five. The five words of Brahma became the "Five Words" on the akasic garment of Jesus. The E Delphicum was the numeral five. The Ogdoad (8) symbolizes the eternal spiral motion of cycles. Nine is the triple ternary, unlucky under certain conditions. Ten brings all digits back to unity and is the symbol of Deity, the Universe, and man.

The text traces the number seven as a primordial symbol composed of three and four, linking it to the Jewish temple candlestick (whose geometry yields the cross form), the Pythagorean triangle as image of the manifested Deity, and the quaternary as root of the physical plane. It then treats the Egyptian mythos of Osiris and Isis as personifications of Sun and Nile, Moon and Earth, reading the solar year 365 Pythagoreanly as Earth (3), animating principle (6), and quintessence (5). The text discusses the Indian theogony: the Kumaras, Narada, and the Gandharvas as Dhyan Chohans who, though cursed to rebirth, are called creators of thinking man, and connects the Sanakadikas to the Lemurians and Atlanteans of the Third and Fourth Races. The Swastica is described as a universal ancient symbol—found at Troy, with the Peruvians, and in Roman catacombs as Crux Dissimulata—meaning "the 10,000 truths" to Eastern traditions and embleming the activity of Fohat. Finally, the text argues the cross is pre-Christian, citing Massey's observation that no crucified figure appears in early Christian art for six or seven centuries, and concludes that to the follower of Eastern archaic Wisdom the Cross and Circle remain a profound mystery directed toward the Past, whose only reality is the vital Force that makes the seed germinate.

The Sage tacitly admits the boundless Circle as a universal Postulate and keeps silence concerning it. Eliphas Levi is quoted: the Logos of God reveals man and the logos of man reveals God. The Eastern Occultist would reply that man must be dumb on the CAUSE producing both God and its logos, otherwise becoming the reviler of the incognizable Deity. The text approaches the mystery of the Hebdomad, anticipating the number seven will be attributed to coincidence, as with the Strobic circles exhibited by Professor Sylvanus Thompson in 1877. The text asks why seven forms as a pre-eminent number in the illusion of a swaying saucer, and states it gives the solution refused by science in the section which follows. A footnote cites Sermon the 160th.

The text opens by stating the need to explain the recurrence of the number seven in Oriental scriptures. The sacred numbers 3, 4, and 7 are identified as representing Light, Life, and Union in the present manvantara, with seven as the factor number. A Brahmin is posed a question about a Upanishadic passage on "seven forefathers" and the Somapa Pitris, which few can answer. The Esoteric doctrine is cited: the first Seven threw seeds into the soil; first three came, then four were added when stone became plant; the second Seven guided plant Jivas into intermediate natures; the third Seven evolved their Chhayas; the fifth Seven imprisoned their Essence; thus man became Saptaparna, a seven-leaved plant. The Greek tau (7) combined with gamma is explained as a symbol of life and eternal life, gamma representing Earth. The number six is described as emblem of physical nature through the six dimensions of bodies; the senary applies to physical man, the septenary to man plus immortal soul. Ragon's double equilateral triangle is cited as the "hieroglyphical senary." The Indian double triangle is interpreted: lower triangle (apex down) as Vishnu (water), upper (apex up) as Siva (fire). The interlaced triangles simultaneously form the Septenary and Triad and constitute the Decad containing all ten numbers. Pythagoras is said to have made six sacred to Venus. The Earth is said to have seven Logoi, emanating rays of the Protogonos. Numbers 3 and 4 are male and female, Spirit and Matter; the four elements are matter, the three primaries remain unknown to science. An alchemical saying is quoted: when Three and Four kiss, the Quaternary becomes a cube, the number of Life, the Father-Mother SEVEN. All earliest organic forms appear in septenary groups, beginning ethereal. Virgil's Aeneid is quoted. Salt deposits form pyramidal shapes (fire); snow crystals form six-pointed stars. Darwin is cited on septenary periods in vertebrates; egg-hatching durations of various birds are listed. The moon guides the occult side of terrestrial nature; the Sun regulates manifested life. Jacob Boehme is mentioned for the seven properties of Nature. The theogonic Key is introduced: Noah is a permutation of the Deity for Earth formation. Jah-Noah is identified as head of the lower Cosmic Quaternary, which becomes septenate by emanating three additional principles, forming the full Sephirothal Tree of ten. Jah-Noah is identified three ways: Creative Elohim, Tetragrammaton/Adam-Kadmon, and Noah identical with Hindu Sishta. The Bible God is not the Universal 10 but a septenary. Ararat is etymologically connected to Earth. Noah symbolizes Root-Manu.

The text presents the quaternary of the intellectual world (T'Agathon, Nous, Psyche, Hyle) and the quaternary of the sensible world (Fire, Air, Water, Earth), identifying the four elements as rizomata and equating the lower Tetraktis with the tetragrammaton of the Jews. It then demonstrates that four is the arithmetical mean between the monad and the heptad, that two doubled makes four, and that the first cube (four retorted into itself) is a fertile number. The pyramis and cube, as form and matter, flow from one fountain: the tetragon on earth, the monad in heaven. Reuchlin is cited showing the cube as matter and the pyramid as form. The Hermesians are said to make four the symbol of truth only when amplified into a cube that unfolds to seven. An explanation is given for why the vertical (male) line becomes four-partitioned in the cross while the horizontal (matter) line becomes three-divisioned: the middle face of the unfolded cube is common to both and neutral. Theon's account of the Pythagorean Tetraktis as Harmony, its role in monochord division, and its musical tetrachord are cited. The four is called the Key-Keeper of Nature; in union with three it becomes seven, the most perfect number. Pythagoras's doctrine of the Music of the Spheres is laid out in seven tones from Moon to Zodiac. Plutarch's testimony that the Achaean Greeks regarded the tetrad as root of all things follows. A quotation from Reuchlin describes the Tetraktis producing a Pyramis whose top is unity, wall trinity, superficies quaternity, and whose base produces incorporeal fire through the descent of Juno (matter). The tetragrammaton is then identified esoterically as periodically chaotic eternal Matter, one with Nature or Isis, and with androgyne god-pairs. Every anthropomorphic god's name is said to be written with four letters. Odd numbers are described as masculine and perfect, even as female and imperfect. Seven is called Telesphoros, the number of a virgin, proceeding directly from the Monad. The septenary's sacredness to various gods is listed. The text argues that Cis-Himalayan Occultism's sevening is the most ancient, and rebuts Neo-Platonic claims of triple man by citing the Greek poet's "seven who sing." Lucian's Auction, Proclus, and the cosmologies of the Hindu Aryans, Egyptians, and early Chinese are invoked to show that number ten (higher triangle plus lower three-and-four) grounded ancient mysteries. The universality of seven across cultures is catalogued. The text concludes that man must be regarded as a Septenary, and cites the Pistis Sophia, via C. W. King, showing the human Entity as a sevenfold ray from the One, composed of four elements borrowed from the four Kabalistical worlds (Nephesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chaiah) and four constituents supplied by the rebellious Aeon

The text addresses the septenary element in the Vedas as corroboration of occult teaching on seven globes and seven races. The seven rays of Surya are paralleled to the Seven Worlds, the seven rivers of heaven (creative Hosts), and the seven rivers of earth (primitive human groups). The Seven Rishis are described as the seven friends of Agni; the human race is said to have sprung from fire and water, fashioned by the FATHERS from Agni. Agni, the Aswins, and the Adityas are synonymous with the sacrificers, called Pitar, Angirases, and Sadhyas, and collectively "Sons of God." The sacrificers are collectively the ONE sacrificer, Visvakarman, who performed the Sarva-Medha ceremony and sacrificed himself. The "Heavenly Man" purusha produced Viraj, from whom mortal man descended. Varuna regulates natural phenomena and controls the seven rivers; those who break his laws are punished by Indra. The Rig Veda is stated to speak of Seven Races allegorised by "seven streams," Five Races already inhabited, and three continents. The Purushasukta is examined, with a verse on seven enclosing logs and thrice seven layers of fuel relating to three Septenary primeval Races. The same doctrine is found in Parsi religion, where seven worlds became the seven Karshvare of the earth. Ahura Mazda is identified as head and synthesis of the seven Amesha Spentas, parallel to Agni-Vishnu-Surya as synthesis of the Seven Rays. Yima, the "first man" of the Vendidad, is described as progenitor of the Second Race and the first mortal who dies. He refuses to become bearer of the law but accepts to rule the world; a golden ring and poniard are given as emblems of sovereignty. After three hundred winters, Ahura Mazda warns Yima the earth is too full; Yima stretches it by one-third with Spenta Armaita's help, then by two-thirds, then a third time. After the third stretching, Ahura Mazda warns of fatal winters—the "flood" and cataclysm to Atlantis—and Yima builds a vara (ark). This is identified as the beginning of the Fourth Race. Before this, men had no regular death, only transformation, possessing monads without personal Egos. Mankind is said not to have issued from one couple but a first mankind; Occultism limits primordial races to seven, corresponding to the seven prajapatis. A Gnostic echo is cited: "a company of Seven angels" formed the first men. Section D examines the septenary in exoteric works: numbers seven and forty-nine are prominent in Sanskrit texts and Puranas. The Matsya Purana references seven Kalpas; Rishis appear by sevens in Manvantaras. An Atharva Veda hymn describes Time with seven rays and seven wheels. The Pravaha wind is septenary, with seven principal winds in the Kurma and Linga Puranas, connected with Dhruva the Pole-Star. The number is said to have passed through Indian, Egyptian, Chaldaic, Greek, Jewish, Roman, and Christian thought. The seven old books stolen from Noah's ark by Ham and the seven Brazen columns of Ham and Cheiron are mentioned as reflections of the Seven primordial mysteries. The Maruts are introduced as the next subject.

The Vayu Purana and Harivansa state that the Maruts are born in every manvantara forty-nine times, that twenty-eight obtain emancipation each manvantara, and that their places are filled by persons reborn in that character. The text asks what the Maruts are esoterically. In the Rig Veda they are storm gods, allies of Indra, "Sons of heaven and earth." An allegory makes them children of Siva, the Mahayogi. In the Rig Veda the god is called Rudra, a word used for Agni; the Maruts are his sons. In the Ramayana and Puranas, Diti, sister or complement of Aditi, is told by Kasyapa that if she carries the babe a hundred years she will obtain a son to destroy Indra. Indra foils her by dividing the embryo into seven portions, each into seven pieces, which become the Maruts. These deities are another aspect of the Kumaras, who are Rudras. Diti is identified with Aditi, or Akasa in her highest form, the Egyptian seven-fold heaven, and as the sixth principle, the Buddhi of Akasa. Indra, degraded in the Kali Yuga, is described as the cosmic principle Mahat and the fifth human, Manas in its dual aspect. Brahma tells Indra his defeats are due to Karma. Indra divides the "Embryo" into seven portions, a reference to the seven sub-races and seven degrees of adeptship. The "four times seven" emancipations reference the four preceding Rounds and Races. The Maruts represent passions in the candidate, occult potencies in Akasa's lower principles, and actual conscious Existences; they are also the Egos of great Adepts known as Nirmanakayas. The text then discusses the septenary division of Kosmos: the mundane Egg invested with seven elements, the universe encompassed by water, fire, air, ether, Ahamkara, and Universal Mind. Prithivi is the World, the Solar system. The Vedas mention three terrestrial and three celestial earths. There are six principles in man; the body is the covering. The Earth is divided into seven zones, continents, isles, and oceans. References to Seven Earths are found in Persian, Phoenician, Chaldean, Egyptian, and Rabbinical literature. The Phoenix (Onech, Kerkes) lives and is reborn forty-nine times. The Simorgh is identified with the Phoenix, the winged Singh, and the Sphinx. The Rabbins teach seven renewals of 7,000 years each, totaling 49,000. The Gnostics place the same numbers in Pistis Sophia. Revelation's seven kings—five fallen, one is, one not yet come—are read as the Root-Races. In the section on Seven in Astronomy, the Pleiades (Krittika) are connected with Karttikeya, son of Rudra, the planet Mars, a Kumara generated from the Seed of Siva. The cycle of Naros (600, 666, 777 years) is linked to Karttikeya's six heads and the peacock. The text then addresses the misunderstanding by Greek and Latin writers of Hindu time units, citing the Tamil Bagavadam, Bailly, Dupuis, and others, and notes that the year of two months and the sixty-day period were universal measures in antiquity.

The text notes that the Arabs anciently divided the year into six seasons, the Chinese work Kioo-tche says two moons make a measure of time and six measures a year, and the aborigines of Kamschatka have six-month years. It then asks whether this means the Hindu Puranas' "solar year" refers to one solar day. The knowledge of natural laws is said to make seven the root nature-number in the manifested world, enabling old astronomers to calculate cycles and record their effects on human races. The Sun, Moon, and planets, as time measurers, became the Ruler and rulers in seven domains or "spheres of action." A passage from the "Commentaries" describes the Circle as not the One but the All, with the One becoming two, three, and the Sacred Four in the second Rajamsi, and the number becoming four, three, and two in the third; taking the first two yields seven, the sacred number of life, and blending with the middle Rajamsi yields nine. The text cites the harmony of numbers in gravity, planetary movements, heat, light, electricity, chemical affinity, and perception, referencing Professor Whewell and Mr. Hay. Physicians and naturalists are noted as observing septenary periodicity in diseases and natural history. Dr. Laycock records paroxysms on the seventh day and amendment on the fourteenth. Grattan Guinness states man's life is "a week of decades." The text accepts his researches in occult chronology while rejecting his premises. It identifies an occult chronological system in Hebrew Scripture based on the Kabala, with cycles of weeks of days, months, years, and millenniums, and connects the six days and Sabbath of Genesis to Brahma's "Seven Creations." The Zohar's "Greater Holy Assembly" is cited regarding the skull of Macroprosopus, where hidden fountains issue from hairs, and thirteen curls of hair divide things, Mankind, and Races. Tetragrammaton is identified as Brahma Prajapati, re-born in the seven Rishis. Two Tetragrammatons are described: Macroprosopus as the absolute Square or Tetractis within the Circle (AIN), and Microprosopus as the triangle in the square, the sevenfold cube. The Tetragrammaton is the essence of number Seven in terrestrial significance, standing between four and nine. The text then demonstrates seven in chemistry, where elements arranged by atomic weights form groups of seven, citing Hellenbach's Magie der Zahlen, and in music and colour, where vibrations divide into seven columns. Finally, the Zuni Indians are described as building towns in clusters of six around a seventh, with a sacerdotal hierarchy of six priests synthesized in a seventh, the Priestess Mother, compared to the "seven great officiating priests" in Anugita.

The text questions Arjuna's marriage to Ulipi in Patala, then describes the Zuni priests, who receive annual tribute of seven-coloured corn. Six priests and one priestess appear in robes of sacred colours, each representing a region: white (East), yellow (North), red (South), blue (West), black (underworld), speckled (firmament), the last belonging to the Priestess-Mother. The Sun's priest heads the nation. F. Hamilton Cushing ascertained these facts. The Agneyastra, bestowed by Aurva on Sagara, is built of seven elements; Wilson fails to explain it. The seven-fold Agneyastra, like the seven priests, is of untold antiquity.

The text references Gerald Massey's "The Natural Genesis" and lectures as evidence for the antiquity of the septenary doctrine, noting his naturalistic standpoint. It quotes Massey on Bohme's Seven Fountain Spirits and the Hermes Trismegistus link between Theosophy and Egyptian thought, arguing ancient matter should be judged by primary significations. Massey's work is said to demonstrate esoteric Buddhist teachings as identical with Egyptian ones. His account of the Seven large stars of the Great Bear and the Egyptian sevenfold division of the sky is quoted, paralleled with Hindu Saptarishi traditions. The seven Egyptian souls are listed: Soul of Blood, Soul of Breath, Shade or Covering Soul, Soul of Perception, Soul of Pubescence, Intellectual Soul, and Spiritual Soul. The text accepts this physiologically but denies esoteric Buddhists resolve men into elementary spirits, maintaining the immortal Ego incarnates as a compound of Matter and Spirit on seven planes. Franz Lambert's Sphinx articles are cited for the septenary constitution from the Book of the Dead. Bohme's seven properties in nature are quoted. Massey's reference to the Seven Races in the Bundahish is addressed, with denial that they were never real races. The Egyptian Ritual passage "I am the crocodile whose Soul Comes FROM MEN" is quoted as corroboration that every mammal has sprung from Man in the Fourth Round. The divergence between old Arhat esotericism and surviving Brahminical esotericism is compared to the filioque dispute. An Indian metaphysician's account of the seven-fold classification based on states of Pragna is quoted. The Anugita allegory of the forest with seven trees, fruits, guests, hermitages, concentration, and initiation is described and explained, with the senses as trees, the Self as Fire, and the final forest where intelligence is the tree and emancipation the fruit. The text notes no Western Orientalist has perceived the allegory's higher meaning. A disclaimer acknowledges mistakes in previous works, stating the chief point was to show the Septenary doctrine was ancient. Rev. G. Oliver's Pythagorean account of seven properties in Man is quoted. The text concludes that one of the Seven Arts of enchantment of the Gnostics is now called Hypnotism, which in the hands of materialists will become Satanism.

The text opens with a quotation asking whether knowledge of the nether world is false or true. A table of contents follows, listing seven sections of the Addenda to Book II. Section I, "Archaic, or Modern Anthropology?" begins by stating that when the origin of man is asked of scientists, the answer is invariably "We do not know," with De Quatrefages named as an example. Seventy-five per cent of European Scientists are estimated to be Evolutionists. The text argues that scientists force the Darwinian hypothesis insincerely, and notes that Bishop Temple, in "Religion and Science," regards Matter as the unaided evolver of cosmic phenomena, a view differing from Haeckel's only in postulating a hypothetical deity "at the back of beyont." The text then surveys theories from Maillet in 1748 to Haeckel in 1870, naming Buffon, Lamarck, St. Hilaire, Gaudry, Wallace, Darwin, Owen, Haeckel, Vogt, Huxley, and Agassiz. De Quatrefages is said to arrange them into two groups: rapid and gradual transmutation. A footnote quotes de Quatrefages arguing that man cannot descend from any simian type due to inverse developmental order, and Schmidt's discussion of this argument is noted. The text then addresses Natural Selection, quoting G. J. Romanes' "physiological selection" from the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, and criticising C. Dixon's "Evolution without Natural Selection." Natural Selection is called a pure myth as an explanation of species origin. The esoteric position is stated: differentiating causes operate after the physicalization of root-types out of the astral, and the underlying variation is a sub-conscious intelligence traceable to a Reflection of Divine and Dhyan-Chohanic wisdom. Von Hartmann is mentioned as regarding evolution as guided by the Unconscious. Haeckel is criticised for including Lemuridae among man's ancestors and for his "plastidular" souls; de Quatrefages, Virchow, and du Bois-Reymond are named as his critics. The text declares the esoteric teaching absolutely opposed to Darwinian evolution as applied to man. A long quotation from Haeckel's "Pedigree of Man" (Aveling's translation) is given, in which Haeckel champions mechanical causes. The text replies with the concept of Kriyasakti. Lord Herbert is quoted on the human frame as a miracle. Danilevsky, de Quatrefages, Dr. Bourges, Dr. Richardson, Baron Hellenbach, and N. N. Strachof are named as thinkers approaching Occultist conclusions. The text closes by noting that no Darwinian can define when or in what form the first man appeared, and that rejecting a scientific hypothesis is considered the one unpardonable sin.

The text opens with a quotation from Huxley on man's place in Nature. It states the world is divided between divine progenitors—Adam and Eve or the lunar Pitris—and Bathybius Haeckelii. The occult theory is offered for comparison with modern Materialism. Haeckelian speculations are noted to receive no better treatment from exact Science than the occult theory, citing du Bois-Reymond's comparison of ancestral trees to Homeric pedigrees and Haeckel's own concession that phylogeny will never become exact Science. Two questions are posed: whether evolution starts with sexual propagation, or proceeds through organ development, separation, hermaphroditism, parthenogenesis, then sexual connection. The first is attributed to exoteric Bibles except the Puranas; the second to Occult philosophy. The text turns to S. Laing's "A Modern Zoroastrian." Laing's criticism of ancient religions for assuming male and female principles and his dismissal of "begotten, not made" are quoted. Two extenuating circumstances are offered: ancient philosophies are exoteric veils over esoteric truth, and old Scriptures have undergone constant alterations. Laing is then quoted showing that the larger proportion of living forms came into existence without sexual propagation, progressing through monera, nucleated cells, and germ-buds to sexual propagation in higher animals. The text notes Laing never applies this to the genus homo. The text argues that if true to the biogenetic law, Laing must apply ontogenesis to man, and that physical man must have passed through the same stages of procreation as other animals. The Occult books are said to describe these ante-sexual processes. The alternative offered is that the physical frame existed from preceding Rounds and the Monad stepped into the astral body of the progenitors. The text anticipates Science's reply that man appeared as the latest mammalian with procreation already established, and counters that no link between man and animal has been found. It addresses the "missing link" question and describes Eve as extracted from Adam by division, analogous to Amoeba splitting. Haeckel's theory of speech arising from animal sounds is addressed through Max Muller's argument that no explanation exists for how roots of language came into existence. Vogt's brain-size figures for gorilla and Australian natives are cited, along with Dr. F. Pfaff's observation on the gulf between ape and human brain sizes. The text argues that many missing links, not one, would be required to prove Huxley-Haeckelian theories. Wallace's maintenance that primitive man was a speechless ape is quoted, followed by Joly's rebuttal. The linguistic case is condensed: languages pass through radical, agglutinative, and inflected stages; Max Muller argues the existence of ready-made roots proves man cannot be the crown of a long organic series; Von Hartmann explains it as a manifestation of the Unconscious. The text then discusses the proper province of exact Science—observation, recording, comparison—and criticizes scientists who rush into metaphysics while deriding it. It closes by noting Haeckel's public complaints against du Bois-Reymond's opposition.

The text opens by quoting a declaration that those who dismiss phylogeny as a castle in the air demonstrate ignorance of empirical sources of knowledge. It then consults Webster's Dictionary, where "empirical" is defined as depending on experience alone without regard to modern science, and "Empiric" as a quack or charlatan. The text notes this applies to Occultists, yet the Occultist remains on his own metaphysical grounds and does not rank his knowledge among exact sciences. The text then questions a materialist who calls the origin of man from mammals a "deductive law" following from the "Theory of Descent," stating that a theory is merely a hypothesis and that Sir W. Hamilton has shown the word is used in a loose and improper sense. The ape-theory of Vogt and Darwin is declared far less scientific than the esoteric teaching because it clashes with its own fundamental laws. Dr. Schweinfurth is quoted deprecating premature judgment in bridging the "mysterious chasm" between man and beast. Darwin's description of the earliest ancestors of man—haired, bearded, tailed, arboreal, with prehensile feet and canine teeth as weapons—is quoted. De Quatrefages is cited showing that Darwin's placement of man among tailed catarrhines violates the law of permanent characterization, since man is essentially a walker while apes are climbers, and a walking animal cannot be descended from a climbing one. De Quatrefages further demonstrates that Haeckel's prosimiae (18th stage) have no decidua and a diffuse placenta, making them indeciduata and thus incapable of being ancestors of apes or man. Huxley is cited as having acknowledged no intermediary being fills the gap between man and the Troglodyte, yet still supporting descent from an ape. The text notes divergences between Darwin and Haeckel regarding the primitive ancestor, and responds to the charge that the Dhyan Chohan is hypothetical by arguing the pithecoid man is more purely hypothetical and clashes with scientific facts. Haeckel's admission of an "absolutely theoretical pithecoid man" and his sozura (14th stage) are cited as self-contradictions. The text then discusses Haeckel's "plastidular souls" and "atom-souls," noting that Haeckel defines the plastidular soul as possessing memory, and that consciousness is called a function of nerve cells. The text states this lands Haeckel into Kabalistic and Pythagorean monad teachings. The Occult teaching of life-atoms (Prana) transmitted by heredity and drawn together in new incarnations is contrasted with Haeckel's suggestion that peculiar motions and modes of aggregation are transmitted. Finally, Haeckel is quoted stating every atom has sensation and the power of movement, and the text notes that with Haeckel, "Soul" is simply the production of grey matter, a cell-soul bound up with the protoplasmic body.

He rejects Kant, Spencer, du Bois-Reymond, and Tyndall, whose view that the brain-consciousness passage is unthinkable is quoted. Haeckel's consciousness will not permit him to follow these thinkers. A footnote explains that indestructible force transfers vis viva without abandoning the first set of atoms, and questions Haeckel's theory. Haeckel asserts future knowledge will surpass present limits, quoting Darwin. The text predicts he will show Newton's consciousness was reflex action from plastidules of the Moneron Haeckelii. Bathybius is noted as exposed. Haeckel will continue asserting Bathybius's ghost-atom motion caused the works of Sophocles, Shakespeare, Newton, and Humboldt. The evolutionist admits fossil record gaps and a common root stock for man and apes. De Quatrefages is cited on absent proofs. The text concludes a giant Atlantean skeleton is more probable than a pithecoid missing link.

The text states that scientific data on "primeval man" and the ape lend no countenance to theories deriving man from the ape. It quotes Mr. Huxley querying where to look for primeval man in the strata, and asserts this will vindicate the anthropology of the Occultists. Mr. Boyd Dawkins is described as believing he has found the "missing link" in theory. The text notes that theologians maintained man was no older than 6,000 years until nearly 1860, and that l'abbé Bourgeois gave a worse blow to that theory than Boucher de Perthes had, by uncovering flints of human making from Miocene strata. A quote from "Modern Science and Modern Thought" presents the dilemma: the flints were either made by man or by an ape with superior intelligence. The text notes the Dryopithecus with such endowments remains undiscovered. It proposes carrying man as an hypothesis to the close of Mesozoic times, and observes that hillmen in India build abodes on trees as gorillas build dens. It argues the question of which imitates which is not open even granting Boyd Dawkins' theory. It notes no fossil primates exist in Eocene strata save extinct lemurian forms. A quote from "Modern Science and Modern Thought" discusses how man might have lived wherever anthropoid apes lived, and how the difference in physical structure between man and the highest animal is too great for direct descent. The text states there was a "special creation" for man and for the ape, his progeny. Albert Gaudry and others are cited as giving reasons why man cannot be regarded as the crown of an ape-stock. It notes the Gibbon remains in the same low grade of development as when it co-existed with Man at the close of the Glacial Period, and argues the time is too short for the evolution of the ape into Man during the first half of the Miocene. The text states physical man existed before the first bed of Cretaceous rocks was deposited, and that no anthropoid apes existed during the brighter days of the Fourth Race civilization. Haeckel's theory placing the transformation in Southern Asia or Lemuria is discussed; the text calls Lemuria the only speculation of worth. Subsection B addresses comparative anatomy. The Evolutionists are said to stand firm on structural similarity between ape and man. The text references the Ramayana and Hanuman. It lists the crucial proofs demanded: similarity of structure and presence of rudimentary organs. Huxley is said to have protested against too sanguine expectations, declaring the differences very great. De Quatrefages is noted as having said apes can claim descent from man rather than vice versa. Gratiolet's work on brain cavities is discussed: in man, intellect increases with age while facial bones diminish; in the ape it is the reverse. The text states man cannot descend from an ape or common ancestor but shows origin from the Dhyan Chohans or Pitris, and that the pithecoids descend from the animalized Fourth human Root-Race, being the product of man and an extinct species of mammal.

The text notes that Darwin's and Haeckel's argument proved weighty against European adversaries, and that anthropologists disputing man's animal ancestry were puzzled by gill-clefts and the "tail" problem. Occultism is presented as providing data: the human type is the repertory of all potential organic forms, the central point from which they radiate. This postulate constitutes a true "Evolution" or "Unfolding" not belonging to mechanical natural selection. A quotation from Geo. T. Curtis is given, suggesting it is equally probable that Man was created with rudimentary sketches that became useful in lower animals into which man degenerated. The text instructs reading "into which Man degenerated" as "the prototypes which man shed in the course of his astral developments." A wider generalization follows: in the Fourth Round terrestrial period, mammalian fauna are traceable to prototypes shed by Man, while amphibia, birds, reptiles, and fishes are resultants of the Third Round, astral fossil forms stored in the auric envelope of the Earth. Mammalia, first found in marsupials of the Triassic rocks, evolved from astral progenitors contemporary with the Second Race, being post-Human. A Darwinist objection regarding gill-clefts and embryonic stages is met by the reply that Third Round forms were referable to types thrown off by Third Round man, and that human foetal growth epitomizes both the Fourth and Third Round terrestrial life. Occultists account for children born with caudal appendages. The potentiality of every organ useful to animal life is locked up in Man. A new section on Darwinism and the antiquity of man begins. Geologists state that estimates of geological duration are necessarily imperfect. Croll calculates the tertiary age began 15 or 2½ million years ago. Exact Science can ignore the first Races of the esoteric teaching but not the Third at its closing period, the Fourth, and the Fifth. French geologists place man in the mid-miocene; English savants do not generally accept such antiquity. A quotation from Lyell addresses the scarcity of human bones in strata. The Darwinian hypothesis demands far greater antiquity for man than superficial thinkers suspect, as proven by Huxley, who insists the transformation from primordial ape occurred millions of years back, yet is forced to admit the Neanderthal skull's human proportions defeat his theory. An untold antiquity is the scientific sine qua non for Darwinian Evolution. The text states that the bestiality of primeval mindless races produced huge man-like monsters, offspring of human and animal parents; as semi-astral forms consolidated, descendants were modified until the breed dwindled to lower apes of the Miocene period. The later Atlanteans renewed the sin of the "Mindless" with full responsibility; the resultants were the species known as Anthropoid.

The text opens with a section on the duration of geological periods, race cycles, and the antiquity of man. It states that all depends on proofs for the antiquity of the Human Race, and considers the implications of finding man in Pliocene, Miocene, or Eocene strata for Darwinian theory. It notes that dates for cities and civilizations have been curtailed as a peace-offering to Biblical chronology, citing Ed. Lartet on the 140 different opinions about "Creation" and a 3,194-year discrepancy. It references the Babylonian foundation cylinder of Nabonidus, which mentions Naram-Sin, son of Sargon of Accadia, living 3,200 years earlier. It characterizes George Smith's Chaldean chronology as fantastic and quotes Professor A.H. Sayce's 1887 Hibbert lectures placing Sargon of Accad at B.C. 3750 and Accadian monuments at B.C. 4,000. It attributes the confusion of Babylonian dates to the esoteric nature of priestly records. It discusses the destruction of the Alexandrian, Atlantean, and Chinese libraries. It notes that the Tel-loh diorite statues are assigned a date contemporary with the fourth Egyptian dynasty, and that Eridu is allowed at least 6,000 years. It quotes Sayce on astronomical evidence placing the Accadian calendar at about 4,700 B.C. The text states that the Fourth Race's continent began sinking in the Eocene and was destroyed in the Miocene, save a small island mentioned by Plato. A second section examines modern scientific speculations, listing conflicting geological estimates from Thomson, Helmholz, Newcomb, Croll, Bischof, Read, Lyell, Darwin, and Huxley. It quotes Mivart on the absence of transitional forms and the suddenness of new species. It lists five esoteric axioms concerning the planetary chain, Seven Rounds, Seven Root-Races, and the antiquity of Man in the Fourth Round. It references the Encyclopaedia Britannica's 100-million-year figure for Earth's solidification.

The text opens by noting that modern science, with the exception of Flammarion and a few mystic astronomers, mostly denies the habitableness of other planets, while the Scientists of the earliest Aryan races are described as having known far more about the races of Mars and Venus than modern Anthropologists know of Earth's early stages. Archaic Scientists are said to attribute all geological cataclysms to the moon and planets, whereas modern Science denies such influence. Under the heading "On Chains of Planets and Their Plurality," the text poses questions about whether the Ancients knew of other worlds and what the Occultists' data are. The answer appeals to uniformity in diversity and analogy, citing the Hermetic axiom "As above, so below." The text notes the absence of proofs for the profane beyond inferential evidence, while Occultists find the Secret Books sufficient. The text discusses the limitation of human imagination in conceiving other worlds, noting that even great adepts can claim acquaintance only with planets of our solar system. It cites Laplace, Herschell, and Flammarion as admitting the plurality of inhabited worlds, and quotes Sir David Brewster. Flammarion's three conclusions are presented: that evolution produced a great variety of beings, that animated beings correlate with the physiological state of each globe, and that other humanities differ from ours in inner organization and external type. The text then turns to scriptural evidence, citing Ecclesiastes, Hebrews, Cardinal Wiseman, the Zohar, and the Midrash regarding destroyed worlds, and identifies the "Kings of Edom" as a symbol for pre-Adamite races.

The text states that the theory of earth's rotation met opposition and martyrdom because it confused the question of the Ascension. A footnote notes a calculation that Christ at cannon-ball speed would not have reached Sirius yet. The text cites 500,000,000 stars, incalculable distances, and asks whether Earth is the only centre of intelligent life. It gives two reasons for Christian opposition: astronomical ignorance with self-importance, and dread of the question of Revelation to each world. It states all intelligent persons now admit such worlds exist, asks whether four preceding mankinds existed before the Adamic Fifth Root Race, and proposes examining whether Occult chronology can agree with Science.

A supplementary remark on esoteric geological chronology opens. The text states that approximate durations of geological periods can be calculated from combined data of Science and Occultism, noting that geology determines deposit thickness and that deposition time bears proportion to thickness. Professor Lefevre is cited as providing relative figures, postulating the time since the first Laurentian bed as X. Thickness figures are given for each period, and a quotation from "Philosophy" assigns percentages: Primordial 53.5, Primary 32.2, Secondary 11.5, Tertiary 2.3, Quaternary 0.5. Using the occult datum of 320,000,000 years since first sedimentary deposits, rough approximations in years are calculated for each period. These are said to harmonise with Esoteric Ethnology; the Tertiary Atlantean part-cycle is estimated at 3½ to 4 million years, and the sinking of Ruta and Daitya is placed post-Tertiary. Mr. Edward Clodd is cited reviewing M. de Mortillet's work, which places man in the mid-Miocene. Clodd objects that this defies evolutionary doctrine. The text replies that evolution is repudiated by de Quatrefages, Dr. Weismann, and others, and that truth requires no external support. A parallel table follows, contrasting Scientific Hypotheses with Esoteric Theory. Science divides the globe's history into five periods according to Haeckel; esoteric philosophy divides life-periods into seven Kalpas and seven great human races in the present Manvantara. For the Primordial Epoch, science finds Eozoon Canadense, algae, molluscs, and crustacea; esoteric philosophy agrees but identifies the zoological relics as belonging to the Third Round. For the Primary, science describes fern-forests and first reptiles; esoteric doctrine calls these relics of the preceding Round. For the Secondary, science describes the age of Reptiles and first marsupial mammals, denying man's presence; the text asks how ancient annals of China, India, Egypt, and Judea describe these monsters before Cuvier. Esoteric philosophy places the Third Race in this period. For the Tertiary, science does not admit man before its close; esoteric philosophy states the Third Race disappeared through cataclysms and the Fourth perished during the Miocene while the Fifth (Aryan) race had one million years of independent existence. For the Quaternary, the Fifth Race is placed there if 1,500,000 years is allowed. The text then contrasts Palaeolithic and Neolithic man. Mr. Charles Gould is cited showing Palaeolithic men lacked pottery but produced sculptured implements, while Neolithic lake-dwellers had looms and pottery but lacked artistic ability. Three reasons are offered: no fossil evidence proves progressive specialization for man as for the horse; the Palaeolithic hatchet is indistinguishable from those of Australian savages, implying civilized and uncivilized peoples coexisted; and man could not have had sufficient time to transform from a "missing link." A syllogism concludes that even a missing link would favour the ape being degenerated man rather than man descending from a pithecoid ancestor. If Atlantis is accepted, the rude workmanship of Palaeolithic tools proves nothing against highly civilized nations existing alongside their makers.

The text discusses the "Reindeer feeding" portrait from the Thayngin grotto in Switzerland and sketches of a man running with two horse's heads, from the Reindeer period (at least 50,000 years ago), which Mr. Laing praises as exceedingly well done, with the reindeer feeding said to "do credit to any modern animal painter." A footnote speculates that two low-intelligence negro specimens might by breeding produce a new modified race leading to the anthropoid ape over geological time. The text notes that modern Esquimaux, like their Palaeolithic ancestors, tend to sketch animals and chase scenes, and asks why the same could not have occurred in those days. It observes that the 50,000-year-old portraits are superior to Egyptian drawings of 7,000 years ago, yet Egyptians were civilized while Palaeolithic men are called savages. The text asserts that geological discoveries are made to fit current theories rather than the reverse, and that Occultism will be vindicated. Professor Baumgartner's views on germs and a larva state are discussed; the text agrees with the larva state but identifies it as the soulless astral form of pre-physical Races. The text concurs with the German school that human races appeared in numerous races, not from one pair. Buchner is quoted on the plant passing into the animal and the animal into man; the text adds "and man into a spirit." Passages on spontaneous generation from Buchner are cited, and the text critiques the "two voids" problem and Sir W. Thomson's meteor hypothesis. Huxley is quoted on extending estimates of man's antiquity. The text criticizes materialist explanations of magnetism as a disease. The provisional victory of anti-spontaneous-generationists is noted, but even they admit it must have occurred once. Sir W. Dawson is quoted on man's unspecialized skeleton. A Palaeolithic reindeer engraving on an antler (after Geikie) is presented, and the text defies any untrained schoolboy to match it, noting its raccourci and anatomical knowledge. De Mortillet, Lyell, Max Muller, and Rawlinson are quoted on the absence of evidence for a primeval savage and the possibility of relapse from earlier civilization. An inconsistency is noted: Neolithic man appears more primitive than Palaeolithic man. Kent's Cavern at Torquay is described, showing Neolithic implements above Palaeolithic hatchets in stratigraphic order. The text presents the esoteric doctrine of cyclic rises and falls of civilization, citing the disappearance of idols in Neolithic times and the absence of human relics beyond Quaternary strata, explaining that Fourth Race mankind retreated to mountain summits after a cataclysm.

The text notes that Greenland Miocene plants suggest climate change but the problem is dismissed as not yet solvable. It states that Miocene plants of Europe have nearest analogues in North America, raising the question of migration. The Atlantis hypothesis is mentioned but called unnecessary. Professor Oliver is quoted showing botanical evidence favours North-Eastern Asia having been united to North-western America, perhaps where the Aleutian chain now extends. The text asserts that no pithecoid skull satisfying Darwinists would be found even if Atlantic strata were broken up miles deep. Dr. C. R. Bree is quoted noting no missing links have been found in any geological strata. The author of "Antiquity of Man" is said to have missed a clue in his own work from Professor G. Rolleston, who suggests the soul or higher faculties may play the first part in a progressive scheme. The text claims the Soul descends on Earth first and physical man is built on it, with faculties awakening later. Men of the Third and Fourth Races are said to have come from incorporeal spirits reduced to smaller forms; the Fifth Race appeared later, reduced from gigantic stature. Man is called the product of Nature's gradual work regarding the tabernacle only; what lives and thinks in man is the "Eternal Pilgrim." Sir C. Lyell's quotation of Hallam is given, and an Occultist's alternative is offered: man was made in the image of a type projected by the Dhyan Chohan, while the ape was made in the image of man as a revival of Third- and Fourth-Round form. Sir W. Dawson is quoted on Huxley avoiding the ape-to-man discussion and on Haeckel admitting the ape-like man is unknown. Bree is quoted again on the absence of any intermediate specimen. The Neanderthal skull is noted as presenting immense differences from the highest ape. The globe is said to be convulsed each time it reawakens, making fossils of previous Rounds unfindable. Every new Manvantara brings renovation of forms; the Ape-Man of the former Round is reproduced by human bestiality in the modern Anthropoid. The germ-on-meteor theory is called an eligible candidate for axiomatic truth, while current theories are said to clash discordantly. Spencer's verdict on "special creation" as worthless is quoted.

The text states that Universal Evolution works by uniform laws, which Esoteric Science admits but enforces more strictly, adding that development from less to more perfect applies only to Primary Creation and, during cyclic evolution, works only in lower kingdoms. Esoteric philosophy rejects special creation and the miraculous, teaching instead a cyclic law of a double stream of force and matter from the neutral centre of Being. The primitive germ of vertebrate life is distinct from that of vegetable and animal life, and the text places it at immeasurable distance from the origin of the Solar system. The "many" proceed from the ONE as living spiritual germs in septenary form. On earth, ethereal forms of the first Men are projected on seven zones by seven Dhyan-Chohanic centres, and centres of creative power exist for every root species. These "designers" are Builders working under the ONE LIFE and Law, operating in cycles on a geometrical scale, directing new evolution by adding or removing appendages as in the genus Felis. The text argues that without cycles, zoological and geological discoveries are unexplainable: Tertiary animals have dwindled, the Dryopithecus is more perfect anatomically than the modern gorilla, and if man is merely an animal he should have been a gigantic mammal, which esoteric science places in the first three rounds. Section A addresses the origin of mammalia, admitting the partial truth of natural selection and the derivation of birds from reptiles, then uses a diagram to mark the line of demarcation between etherospiritual, astral, and physical evolution. The "midway point of evolution" is where astral prototypes pass into the physical; astral matter is fourth state matter with its own protyle. Spiritualistic materializations, including Professor Crookes' "Katie King," are cited as testimony of astral descent into the physical. Goethe's archetype is referenced, and the "Unity of Type" is presented as witness to the ground-plan rather than proof of consanguineity. Section B concerns the European Palaeolithic races. Littre is cited on distinct human bones found near Namur and skulls resembling African and Carib types. Gaudry is quoted on forefathers being contemporaneous with the rhinoceros and hippopotamus. The text states that Palaeolithic men were of pure Atlantean and "Africo"-Atlantean stocks, that Europe was then united to N. Africa by a land bridge across the Straits of Gibraltar, and that of Atlantis only Ruta and Daitya remained. de Quatrefages, Virchow, and Retzius are cited linking Cro-Magnon cave-men, Guanches, Basques, and aboriginal American dolichocephalous tribes. The text states that progress was almost non-existent through the Chipped Stone-Age due to the cyclic impulse downwards and Atlantean Karma, and that Palaeolithic man disappears to make room for his successor. Professor Lefevre is quoted on the primitive European populations being absorbed by successive waves from Africa and Asia, forerunners of the Great Aryan Invasion of the Fifth Race.

The section, titled "Giants, Civilizations, and Submerged Continents Traced in History," asserts that historical evidence supporting claims of submerged continents and ancient civilizations is plentiful. The text cites a letter from Bailly to Voltaire in which Bailly states that the Brahmans are "very young in comparison with their ancient instructors," and notes that Bailly believed in Atlantis and pre-historic civilized nations, referring the antiquity of the Hindoos to a people more ancient than the Brahmans themselves. Voltaire is described as sharing this belief, conjecturing that cultured nations existed before China and India and were overpowered by a deluge of barbarians. A footnote clarifies that for the Fifth Race the deluge was of barbarians, while for the Fourth it was of water. Bailly is further quoted as holding that a foreign nation could instruct another and vanish without traces, and that Time devours facts. The priests of Sais, via Plato, are cited as telling Solon that the Greeks are a weak remnant of a great nation that emerged from the Atlantic sea. The Secret Doctrine identifies this nation as the seventh sub-race of the Atlanteans, absorbed into an early Aryan sub-race that descended from Asian plateaux and colonized freshly emerged European lands, from which Egypt, Greece, the Phoenicians, and Northern stocks proceeded. Later, Atlantean remnants of various colors invaded the continent; some were defeated and fled to Africa and remote lands that became islands, where their tribes degenerated into savagery. The text then addresses anthropological evidence, citing the La Naulette jaw in Belgium as evidence of extremely ancient man combining Turanian and negro characteristics, and arguing that the Canstadt and Engis men possessed essentially human attributes. It rejects the notion that man descended from apes, referencing Disraeli's division and favoring an "angelic theory" for some races. The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg is quoted on traditions in the Americas suggesting man existed at the time of the Andean upheaval. The text describes Cyclopean erections at Cuelap in Peru and notes the architectural resemblance to archaic European remains, which Fergusson calls the most remarkable coincidence in the history of architecture.

The text states that archaic records show Initiates of the Second Sub-race of the Aryan family moving between lands to supervise the building of menhirs, dolmens, colossal Zodiacs in stone, and sepulchres for the ashes of future generations. It asks when this was, noting that the crossing from France to Great Britain by land indicates the date. Footnotes cite baked bricks found at 20 and 25 yards in the Nile Valley, Burmeister's 72,000 years for first man in Egypt, Draper's 250,000 years for European man, and the fact that the British Isles were united to Gaul by an isthmus. The text quotes a scientific source stating European man was contemporaneous with extinct quaternary species and witnessed the upheaval of the Alps. M. E. Lartet is cited as holding that man could have existed as early as the Tertiary period. Mr. Croll places that period's beginning 2,500,000 years back. The text then asks how great the antiquity of Lemuro-Atlantean and Atlanto-Aryan man must be. It recounts the calumnies directed at Desnoyers in 1863 and the reception of the Abbe Bourgeois's 1867 discovery at the Brussels Congress of 1872. The text describes dolmens across all continents, citing Carnac, Loch-Maria-ker, Champ Dolent, and others. It asks who built them and why they are connected with Serpents and Dragons. It rejects Virchow's axiom that only the tombs are gigantic, arguing cremation explains the absence of giant skeletons and that giants were drowned with Atlantis. It states the Druids did not build these monuments but inherited the lore. The text then surveys traditions of giants in Norse mythology, among the Nyam-Nyam and their neighbours in Africa, in Cornwall, at Tarija and Ecuador, in Slavonia and Russia, and in Canaan and Bashan. It identifies the Nephilim as "hairy" men and states the truly gigantic races had disappeared before Moses. The Atlanteans of the middle period were called Great Dragons, their tribal symbol a giant Serpent. The Druids are described as descendants of the last Atlanteans, eastern priests akin to Chaldeans and Indians, who symbolized their deity as the "mighty Serpent," emblem of TIME. The text states the Druids believed in a succession of worlds, seven creations, and a seven-fold night and day. It quotes Seneca on world dissolution and compares this to the Puranic Pralaya and to Second Peter, chapter 3. Finally, the text addresses the Avesta's septempartite and tripartite earth, arguing against Dr. Geiger that the three strata refer to layers of globes in the terrestrial chain, and that the seven Karshvars are separated by the "Ocean" of space.

The text compares Zoroastrian and Indian tenets on the seven Dwipas, both placing a central continent surrounded by concentric rings. Qaniratha is identified as our Earth, the other Karshvars representing the chain of seven globes on three planes. The Druids kept perpetual fires on November 1st and greeted Venus as the Morning Star. Strabo mentions an island near Britannia with perpetual fire. The Druids believed in serial re-incarnation, a tenet inherited from the Atlanteans, who preserved records of the Root-Race's decline. Aelian preserves a Theophrastus dialogue between Midas and Silenus describing a vast continent where men were twice the size and age of later humans, with cities of over a million inhabitants. Grote's mirage theory of Atlantis is dismissed.

The text states that Plato and others knew what precedes, but no Initiate had the right to divulge all, so posterity received only hints. Plato, aiming to instruct as a moralist, merged Atlantis's multi-million-year history into one event on a small island (about the size of Ireland), whereas priests spoke of it as a continent vast as all Asia and Lybia combined. Plato's narrative bears the impress of truth; Homer preceded him in speaking of the Atlantes, so the tradition was older. Sanchoniathon and Diodorus preserved their histories. The text notes that in the present day Shakespeare and William Tell are being denied, and asks what wonder the Lemurians and Atlanteans have been merged with half-mythical peoples. Herodotus speaks of the Atlantes as a Western African people who gave their name to Mount Atlas, were vegetarians, whose sleep was undisturbed by dreams, and who daily cursed the sun. The text explains the dreamless sleep as referring to the earliest Atlanteans whose physical frame was not yet sufficiently consolidated. The cursing of the Sun relates to moral degeneration: the sixth sub-race used magic incantations against the Sun and, failing, cursed it. The later Atlanteans were renowned for magic, wickedness, and defiance of the gods; these traditions appear in the Bible's antediluvian giants and Tower of Babel, and in the Book of Enoch. Diodorus records the Atlanteans' boast of possessing the land where all gods received their birth and of having Uranus as first King and first teacher of astronomy. The myth of Atlas is then explained as an allegory combining Lemuria and Atlantis personified; Atlas is the son of an ocean nymph, his daughter Calypso. The Odyssey makes him sustainer of pillars separating heavens from earth. Sir Theodore Martin's interpretation is cited. The text discusses Decharme's doubt about the translation, the gigantic mountain chain, and identifies Atlas and Teneriffe Peak as dwarfed relics. Atlas is the sole Western relic of the Third Race's continent. The secrecy surrounding Atlantis's last islands is described, with Theopompus noting the Phoenicians sank their own vessels. The text addresses critics of Greek and Indian pantheons, explaining that theogonic symbolism had multiple keys. To the Initiate, Hesiod's theogony is historical. The septiform personations of the gods are enumerated. Uranos reigned over the Second Race, Kronos over the Lemurians, and Neptune over Atlantis. A digression on Gladstone's work follows, identifying Poseidon as the Spirit of the Fourth Root-Race and Nereus as its spirit in the Fifth Race. The text returns to the confusion in Greek accounts between the Great Continent and Poseidonis, citing Plato's dimensions. The seven Atlantides are named and their ethnological, astronomical, and occult significance stated. Three nations claimed descent from Lemuria; India can also claim it. The Aryan race's northern origin is argued from the Pole Star connection and Karmic law. The one-eyed Cyclopes are identified as the last three sub-races of the Lemurians, the "one-eye" referring to the Wisdom eye.

The text states that Ulysses belongs to the cycle of heroes of the Fourth Race and that his adventure with the Cyclopes allegorizes the passage from Cyclopean civilization to Atlantean culture, which caused the Third Race to lose their spiritual eye. The allegory of Apollo killing the Cyclopes to avenge Asclepios refers to the Hyperborean Arimaspian Cyclopes, the last race endowed with the "Wisdom-eye." Cosmically, this Hyperborean god is the Sun personified, changing climates over the sidereal year. Latona, Apollo's mother, is identified astronomically as the polar region and night giving birth to the Sun. The myth of Phaeton is explained as an allegory of two pralayas: the first when a frigid zone became moderate, the second when it became desolate again. When the astronomical meaning yields to the spiritual, Apollo becomes the personification of Seership. The quarrel of Latona with Niobe, representing the Atlantean race, allegorizes the history of the two continents. Niobe's seven sons and daughters personify the seven sub-races of the Fourth Race. Their destruction by Apollo and Diana is linked to changes in the earth's axis and cosmic cataclysms. A footnote connects this to Revelation xii, identifying the Dragon with the North Pole chasing the early Lemurians. Niobe's tears changed into a fountain symbolize Atlantis covered with water. Bailly's remark on Atlantis's influence on antiquity is quoted. Hesiod's men of the age of Bronze describe the giants of the first physical races. The "Sons of God" are said to have used the Deluge to rid the earth of Sorcerers among the Atlanteans. The Lemurians and early Atlanteans were divided into "Sons of Night" and "Sons of the Sun." The text discusses the six-month polar night, citing Herodotus, Pliny, Plutarch, Solinus, and the Zohar. The island of Delos is placed in the Northern seas, not Greece. The three giants Briareus, Kottos, and Gyges are identified as three polar lands imprisoned by Kronos. When gods and Titans rebelled against Zeus, the imprisoned giants were used to hurl Lemuria to the bottom of the seas to make room for Atlantis. The text concludes that historical conflicts between various races became theological dogmas, and that "ambitious scholiasts" succeeded in impressing Humanity with the belief in Satan for nearly two thousand years.

Scholars are noted as holding Hesiod's theogony rests on historical facts, so mythology is brought into the Addendum. Symbolisms in exoteric creeds are landmarks of prehistoric truths. The primitive cradle of earliest races became hyperborean and Saturnine. The Third, Lemurian Race is divided into androgynous and bi-sexual, with climates of eternal spring and winter. Legends are transformed by popular fancy but may be cleansed. The text turns to geological corroboration. A footnote cites Denis, Orpheus, and Pliny on the glacial sea named for its giants; the Secret Doctrine explains that continents formed North to South, climate change dwarfed northern races, and the Titans of Hesiod are Northerners.

The section opens by appending scientific admissions for those who dismiss the tradition of Atlantis as myth, noting that while science is largely indifferent, some scientists admit cautious agnosticism is more philosophical than denial. Two instances are presented as confirming passages in a Master's letter published in "Esoteric Buddhism." The first extract states the sinking of Atlantis began in the Eocene and culminated in the Miocene, first in the disappearance of the largest landmass coincident with the elevation of the Alps, second in the sinking of the last islands mentioned by Plato. W. Pengelly's lecture asks whether Atlantis existed in the North Atlantic, noting that since the Alps gained 4,000 to 10,000 feet since the Eocene, a post-Miocene depression might have carried it into abysmal depths. The second "Esoteric Buddhism" extract states Lemuria cannot be confounded with Atlantis; both sank with their gods, with about 700,000 years between the catastrophes, and relics are found in flat-headed aborigines of Australia. Professor Seemann states it would be premature to deny men existed in the Eocene, as a race co-exists with Eocene flora remnants in Australia; Haeckel accepts Lemuria and regards Australians as Lemurian descendants. Gerland is quoted stating Australian civilization indicates a higher grade, with everything resounding like expiring voices of a previous richer age. The text states Haeckel errs in classing Australians with Malays; Malays and Papuans are a mixed stock from intermarriages of low Atlantean sub-races with the Seventh sub-race of the Third Root-Race. The text then addresses the dying out of the lowest races due to sterility among women since European contact, citing Lefevre on nothing saving those that have run their course, and asks whether this confirms Cyclic Law and Karmic sterility. Lefevre remarks only three human types will remain. The text explains the tide-wave of incarnating Egos has rolled past these races and their extinction is a Karmic necessity. Professor Huxley is quoted stating nothing in biological or geological evidence renders untenable the hypothesis of a submerged area as large as Europe. Dr. Seemann is quoted on botanical evidence demonstrating former landmasses under the oceans, and that the Atlantis story rests on a solid historical basis. Mr. Duppa Crotch is quoted on tradition, Egyptian records, the Sahara as ancient sea, and the Challenger's proof of Atlantic ridges. Mr. Starkie Gardiner is quoted on former connections between continents. Sir Charles Lyell is quoted on Unger and Heer admitting an Atlantic Continent on botanical grounds, and on Egyptian cosmogony of successive catastrophes determined by the Magnus Annus. The text then discusses Astraea as Virgo, falling on her head when Zeus carries away Ganymedes, and explains the astronomical significance involving Leo, the Pleiades, the Hyades, Aldebaran, and the periodical renovations of the earth's continents. The Orphic hymn on the cataclysm is described: Pluto carries off Eurydice, Leo is vanquished, Virgo is inverted below the South horizon. Lyell is quoted on the connection between catastrophes and moral deterioration, and the text states "Jupiter" is the personification of Cyclic Law arresting the downward tendency of each Root-Race.

The text opens by quoting John Fiske's opinion that myths are explanations of natural phenomena by uncivilized minds, not allegories or esoteric symbols. The text responds that the language of the Initiated few was more "plain" and their science-philosophy more comprehensive than that of Herbert Spencer. A footnote quotes Jacolliot affirming that a civilization more ancient than Rome, Greece, Egypt, and India did exist. The text then examines Sir Charles Lyell's explanation of the Atlantis myth, which traces it to barbarous tribes connecting catastrophes with an avenging God, Asia's earthquakes as the primary source, and Egypt basing her geologic knowledge on these traditions. The text calls this a laboured hypothesis. A footnote catalogs evidence of cataclysms including continental elevation, raised beaches, and the Sunda island earthquake. The text then presents cumulative evidences for former submerged continents, quoting The Theosophist (August 1880) on traditions from India, Greece, Polynesia, and both Americas regarding Lemuria. Professor Schmidt and A.R. Wallace are cited supporting a former Southern Continent. Haeckel is quoted identifying Lemuria as the cradle of the human race; the text states this was the home of the Third-Race Men. The text then enumerates eight facts in favour of Atlantis: Miocene flora analogues between Europe and America; skull similarities between European and American remains; Basque language affinities with American aboriginal languages; sculptured stones in the Canary Islands resembling those at Lake Superior; Jurassic fossil identity between South America and Western Europe; faunal resemblances between isolated Atlantic islands; Retzius's identification of a common skull form across the Canary Islands, African coast, and Caribbean; and Challenger and Dolphin soundings revealing a 3,000-mile submarine elevation in the Atlantic with carved surface features. The text concludes with a quotation from Donnelly anticipating future archaeological discoveries from Atlantis, and a final passage stating that the Secret Doctrine is the common property of countless millions, that its origins are lost in the night of Time, and that the public has heard only the views of Science and Theology, while the theosophical position remains unheard.

The text states that ancient classics contain no clear reference to the system. When the Asiatic claim to a Secret Science is proven, the work becomes a pioneer of many more. Ragon, a Belgian Mason, reproaches English Masons with materializing the craft by connecting it to Solomon's Temple; he explains the Franc Mason meant initiation into ancient Mysteries, and that Neptune and Apollo presented as masons before Laomedon to establish the Trojan religion. Veiled sentences abound in classical writers, and few Initiates now understand them. Chronology is the most important obstacle, the writer being wedged between theological, geological, and anthropological dates. No religion has been entirely based on fiction; dogma alone kills primeval truth. The Key of Wisdom is hidden in Nature's bosom, in countries pointed to by Swedenborg. The two volumes form a prelude to Volumes III and IV, which remain almost completed but depend on the reception of the first two. The text closes with "THERE IS NO RELIGION HIGHER THAN TRUTH" and the end of Volume II.

The title page identifies the work as "The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy" by H. P. Blavatsky, author of "Isis Unveiled," bearing the motto "There is no Religion higher than Truth." Volume I is titled "Cosmogenesis." It is published in London by The Theosophical Publishing Company, Limited; by William Q. Judge in New York; and by The Manager of The Theosophist, Adyar, Madras, in 1888. The copyright page records entry according to Act of Congress in 1888 by H. P. Blavatsky. The dedication is addressed to all True Theosophists in every country and of every race, noting that they called the work forth and for them it was recorded. The preface opens with the author apologizing for the long delay, occasioned by ill-health and the magnitude of the undertaking. The two volumes do not complete the scheme; material on the history of occultism in the lives of great Adepts of the Aryan Race has been prepared. The third volume is entirely ready; the fourth almost so. The work was originally intended as an amended and enlarged version of "Isis Unveiled" but required a different method; it contains in all twenty pages extracted from that work. The author acknowledges defects of literary style and imperfect English, explaining that she is a foreigner who acquired the language late in life. English is chosen as the most widely-diffused medium. The truths are not presented as a revelation, nor does the author claim to be a first-time revealer of mystic lore; the material is found scattered in scriptures of great Asiatic and early European religions, hidden under glyph and symbol. The work gathers the oldest tenets into one harmonious whole. The writer's advantage over predecessors is that she need not resort to personal speculations; the work is a partial statement of what she has been taught by more advanced students, supplemented by her own study. Publication was necessitated by wild speculations of Theosophists and students of mysticism. The book is not the Secret Doctrine in its entirety but fragments of fundamental tenets. The teachings belong to no single religion exclusively; the Secret Doctrine is the essence of all. The work claims consideration by its logical coherence and adherence to Nature. Its aim is to show that Nature is not a fortuitous concurrence of atoms, to assign man his rightful place in the scheme of the Universe, to rescue archaic truths from degradation, to uncover the fundamental unity from which all religions spring, and to show that the occult side of Nature has never been approached by modern Science. The author recognizes no inferior court of appeal, is accustomed to abuse, and smiles in silent contempt at slander. The preface is signed H.P.B., London, October, 1888. The table of contents lists the structure of Volume I, Cosmogenesis, comprising an Introduction, a Proem, Book I Part I (Cosmic Evolution) containing seven Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan with extensive commentary, Book I Part II (The Evolution of Symbolism) in fifteen sections, and Book I Part III (Science and the Secret Doctrine Contrasted) in eighteen sections, followed by the contents of Volume 2.