The esoteric symbol of Kali Yuga is the five-pointed star reversed, thus -- the sign of human sorcery, with its two points (horns) turned heavenward, a position every [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See that suggestive work, "The Source of Measures," where the author explains the real meaning of the word "sacr'," from which "sacred," "sacrament," are derived, which have now become synonyms of "holiness," though purely phallic!
[[Vol.
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Occultist will recognise as one of the "left-hand," and used in ceremonial magic.* It is hoped that during the perusal of this work the erroneous ideas of the public in general with regard to Pantheism will be modified.
It is wrong and unjust to regard the Buddhists and Advaitee Occultists as atheists.
If not all of them philosophers, they are, at any rate, all logicians, their objections and arguments being based on strict reasoning.
Indeed, if the Parabrahmam of the Hindus may be taken as a representative of the hidden and nameless deities of other nations, this absolute Principle will be found to be the prototype from which all the others were copied.
Parabrahm is not "God," because It is not a God.
"It is that which is supreme, and not supreme (paravara)," explains Mandukya Upanishad (2.28).
IT is "Supreme" as CAUSE, not supreme as effect.
Parabrahm is simply, as a "Secondless Reality," the all-inclusive Kosmos -- or, rather, the infinite Cosmic Space -- in the highest spiritual sense, of course.
Brahma (neuter) being the unchanging, pure, free, undecaying supreme Root, "the ONE true Existence, Paramarthika," and the absolute Chit and Chaitanya (intelligence, consciousness) cannot be a cogniser, "for THAT can have no subject of cognition." Can the flame be called the essence of Fire?
This Essence is "the LIFE and LIGHT of the Universe, the visible fire and flame are destruction, death, and evil." "Fire and Flame destroy the body of an Arhat, their essence makes him immortal." ( Bodhi-mur, Book II.
) "The knowledge of the absolute Spirit, like the effulgence of the sun, or like heat in fire, is naught else than the absolute Essence itself," says Sankaracharya.
IT -- is "the Spirit of the Fire," not fire itself; therefore, "the attributes of the latter, heat or flame, are not the attributes of the Spirit, but of that of which that Spirit is the unconscious cause." Is not the above sentence the true key-note of later Rosicrucian [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * We are told by the Western mathematicians and some American Kabalists, that in the Kabala also "the value of the Jehovah name is that of the diameter of a circle." Add to this the fact that Jehovah is the third Sephiroth, Binah, a feminine word, and you have the key to the mystery.
By certain Kabalistic transformations this name, androgynous in the first chapters of Genesis, becomes in its transformations entirely masculine, Cainite and phallic.
The fact of choosing a deity among the pagan gods and making of it a special national God, to call upon it as the "One living God," the "God of Gods," and then proclaim this worship Monotheistic, does not change it into the ONE Principle whose "Unity admits not of multiplication, change, or form," especially in the case of a priapic deity, as Jehovah now demonstrated to be.
[[Vol.
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philosophy?
Parabrahm is, in short, the collective aggregate of Kosmos in its infinity and eternity, the "THAT" and "THIS" to which distributive aggregates can not be applied.* "In the beginning THIS was the Self, one only" ( Aitareya Upanishad ) ; the great Sankaracharya, explains that "THIS" referred to the Universe (Jagat); the sense of the words, "In the beginning," meaning before the reproduction of the phenomenal Universe.
Therefore, when the Pantheists echo the Upanishads, which state, as in the Secret Doctrine, that "this" cannot create, they do not deny a Creator, or rather a collective aggregate of creators, but only refuse, very logically, to attribute "creation" and especially formation, something finite to an Infinite Principle.
With them, Parabrahmam is a passive because an Absolute Cause, the unconditioned Mukta.
It is only limited Omniscience and Omnipotence that are refused to the latter, because these are still attributes (as reflected in man's perceptions); and because Parabrahm, being the "Supreme ALL," the ever invisible spirit and Soul of Nature, changeless and eternal, can have no attributes; absoluteness very naturally precluding any idea of the finite or conditioned from being connected with it.
And if the Vedantin postulates attributes as belonging simply to its emanation, calling it "Iswara plus Maya," and Avidya (Agnosticism and Nescience rather than ignorance), it is difficult to find any Atheism in this conception.** Since there can be neither two INFINITES nor two ABSOLUTES in a Universe supposed to be Boundless, this Self-Existence can hardly be conceived of as creating personally.
In the sense and perceptions of finite "Beings," THAT is Non-"being," in the sense that it is the one BE-NESS; for, in this ALL lies concealed its coeternal and coeval emanation or inherent radiation, which, upon becoming periodically Brahma (the male-female Potency) becomes or expands itself into the manifested Universe.
Narayana moving on the (abstract) waters of Space, is transformed into the Waters of concrete substance moved by him, who now becomes the manifested WORD or Logos.
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See "Vedanta Sara," by Major G.
A.
Jacob; as also "The Aphorisms of S'andilya," translated by Cowell, p.
42.
** Nevertheless, prejudiced and rather fanatical Christian Orientalists would like to prove this pure Atheism.
For proof of this, see about Major Jacob's "Vedanta Sara." Yet, the whole Antiquity echoes this Vedantic thought: -- "Omnis enim per se divom natura necesse est Immortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur." [[Vol.
1, Page]] 8 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The periodic nature of cosmic manifestation ('upon becoming periodically Brahma... expands itself into the manifested Universe') implies cyclical recurrence to and from the unmanifested state.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The passage extensively defines Parabrahm by negation: it 'can have no attributes,' 'cannot be a cogniser,' is 'not a God,' and 'absoluteness very naturally precluding any idea of the finite or conditioned from being connected with it.'
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage presents a cosmogonic narrative: from the undifferentiated 'THIS' (Aitareya Upanishad) through Isvara, Narayana on the waters, the Logos, to the manifested Universe.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
Isvara is presented as the emanated creator distinct from the absolute Parabrahm, functioning as a secondary creative agent ('Iswara plus Maya') while the supreme principle remains unconditioned and non-acting.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
Parabrahm is described as 'the ever invisible spirit and Soul of Nature' and 'the hidden and nameless deities of other nations,' emphasizing radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
Parabrahm is described as 'the ever invisible spirit and Soul of Nature' pervading all of creation, and the essence of fire (not the flame) is identified as the universal life and light present in all things.
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
Parabrahm is defined as having no attributes, no parts, no subject of cognition, and its 'Unity admits not of multiplication, change, or form'—a clear statement of divine simplicity.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage describes a clear cascade from Parabrahm (the absolute) through Isvara plus Maya to the manifested Universe, with each level being a derivative of the prior.
The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).
Brahma is described as 'the male-female Potency' and the footnote discusses Jehovah's name as 'androgynous in the first chapters of Genesis' before becoming 'entirely masculine, Cainite and phallic.'
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
Sankaracharya's quote equates 'the knowledge of the absolute Spirit' with the absolute Essence itself, suggesting direct experiential identification with the divine rather than propositional belief.
The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.
Parabrahm is identified as 'the infinite Cosmic Space' and the passage explicitly states 'there can be neither two INFINITES nor two ABSOLUTES in a Universe supposed to be Boundless.'
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage traces a structured descent from the unconditioned Parabrahm through Isvara, the abstract waters, the Logos, and into concrete substance, naming the directional process of spirit unfolding into matter.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
Narayana is explicitly identified as 'the manifested WORD or Logos' who transforms from moving on abstract waters to moving concrete substance, mediating between the transcendent and the material.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
Parabrahm is centrally defined as the 'Secondless Reality,' 'the ONE true Existence, Paramarthika,' the unconditioned absolute from which all multiplicity flows, and which 'admits not of multiplication, change, or form.'
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
The passage uses paradoxical formulations such as 'IT is that which is supreme, and not supreme (paravara)' and 'In the sense and perceptions of finite Beings, THAT is Non-being, in the sense that it is the one BE-NESS' to destabilize ordinary categorical thinking.
The doctrine that reality has two registers — an Absolute truth as the divine or ultimate mind knows it, and a Relative truth as finite human reason perceives and must act on — with both held as legitimate on their own plane rather than the second being simply an error to correct. Distinct from apophatic_theology (a claim about how the divine may be described, by negation) and unity_of_being (a claim that being is ultimately one) in being a claim about two coexisting registers of truth-claim itself.
The passage distinguishes between the absolute (Parabrahm as 'Supreme as CAUSE, not supreme as effect') and the relative (its emanations with attributes), holding both as valid on their own plane.
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
The passage describes the universe as 'periodically' expanding from the absolute into manifestation, implying a cyclical rhythm of manifestation and withdrawal.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage asserts that Parabrahm is 'the collective aggregate of Kosmos in its infinity and eternity' and 'the all-inclusive Kosmos,' identifying the divine with the totality of existence in a non-dual framework.