But this view does not prevent him from believing in its existence so long as it lasts, to wit, for one Mahamanvantara; nor from applying Akasa, the radiation of Mulaprakriti,* to practical purposes, connected as the World-Soul is with all natural phenomena, known or unknown to science.
The oldest religions of the world -- exoterically, for the esoteric root or foundation is one -- are the Indian, the Mazdean, and the Egyptian.
Then comes the Chaldean, the outcome of these -- entirely lost to the world now, except in its disfigured Sabeanism as at present rendered by the archaeologists; then, passing over a number of religions that will be mentioned later, comes the Jewish, esoterically, as in the Kabala, following in the line of Babylonian Magism; exoterically, as in Genesis and the Pentateuch, a collection of allegorical legends.
Read by the light of the Zohar, the initial four chapters of Genesis are the fragment [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] known Causeless Cause," is the oldest dogma in Occultism, millenniums earlier than the Pater-AEther of the Greeks and Latins.
So are the "Force and Matter, as Potencies of Space, inseparable, and the Unknown revealers of the Unknown." They are all found in Aryan philosophy personified by Visvakarman, Indra, Vishnu, etc., etc.
Still they are expressed very philosophically, and under many unusual aspects, in the work referred to.
* In contradistinction to the manifested universe of matter, the term Mulaprakriti (from Mula , "the root," and prakriti , "nature"), or the unmanifested primordial matter -- called by Western alchemists Adam's Earth -- is applied by the Vedantins to Parabrahmam.
Matter is dual in religious metaphysics, and septenary in esoteric teachings, like everything else in the universe.
As Mulaprakriti, it is undifferentiated and eternal; as Vyakta, it becomes differentiated and conditioned, according to Svetasvatara Upanishad , I .
8, and Devi Bhagavata Purana.
The author of the Four Lectures on the Bhagavad Gita, says, in speaking of Mulaprakriti: "From its (the Logos') objective standpoint, Parabrahmam appears to it as Mulaprakriti .
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Of course this Mulaprakriti is material to it, as any material object is material to us.
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Parabrahmam is an unconditioned and absolute reality, and Mulaprakriti is a sort of veil thrown over it." ( Theosophist , Vol.
VIII., p.
304.) [[Vol.
1, Page]] 11 PROEM.
of a highly philosophical page in the World's Cosmogony.
( See Book III., Gupta Vidya and the Zohar.
) Left in their symbolical disguise, they are a nursery tale, an ugly thorn in the side of science and logic, an evident effect of Karma.
To have let them serve as a prologue to Christianity was a cruel revenge on the part of the Rabbis, who knew better what their Pentateuch meant.
It was a silent protest against their spoliation, and the Jews have certainly now the better of their traditional persecutors.
The above-named exoteric creeds will be explained in the light of the Universal doctrine as we proceed with it.
The Occult Catechism contains the following questions and answers: " What is it that ever is?
" " Space, the eternal Anupadaka.
" * " What is it that ever was?
" " The Germ in the Root.
" " What is it that is ever coming and going?
" " The Great Breath.
" " Then, there are three Eternals?
" " No, the three are one.
That which ever is is one, that which ever was is one, that which is ever being and becoming is also one: and this is Space.
" " Explain, oh Lanoo (disciple).
" -- " The One is an unbroken Circle ( ring ) with no circumference, for it is nowhere and everywhere; the One is the boundless plane of the Circle, manifesting a diameter only during the manvantaric periods; the One is the indivisible point found nowhere, perceived everywhere during those periods; it is the Vertical and the Horizontal, the Father and the Mother, the summit and base of the Father, the two extremities of the Mother, reaching in reality nowhere, for the One is the Ring as also the rings that are within that Ring.
Light in darkness and darkness in light: the ' Breath which is eternal.
' It proceeds from without inwardly, when it is everywhere, and from within outwardly, when it is nowhere -- ( i.e., maya,** one of the centres*** ) .
It expands and [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Meaning "parentless" -- see farther on.
** Esoteric philosophy, regarding as Maya (or the illusion of ignorance) every finite thing, must necessarily view in the same light every intra-Cosmic planet and body, as being something organised, hence finite.
The expression, therefore, "it proceeds from without inwardly, etc." refers in the first portion of the sentence to the dawn of the Mahamanvantaric period, or the great re-evolution after one of the complete periodical dissolutions of every compound form in Nature (from planet to molecule) into its ultimate essence or element; and in its second portion, to the partial or local manvantara, which may be a solar or even a planetary one.
*** By "centre," a centre of energy or a Cosmic focus is meant; when the so-called "Creation," or formation of a planet, is accomplished by that force which is designated by the Occultists LIFE and by Science "energy," then the process takes place [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
1, Page]] 12 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
contracts ( exhalation and inhalation ) .
When it expands the mother diffuses and scatters; when it contracts, the mother draws back and ingathers.
This produces the periods of Evolution and Dissolution, Manwantara and Pralaya.
The Germ is invisible and fiery; the Root ( the plane of the circle ) is cool; but during Evolution and Manwantara her garment is cold and radiant.
Hot Breath is the Father who devours the progeny of the many-faced Element ( heterogeneous ) ; and leaves the single-faced ones ( homogeneous ) .
Cool Breath is the Mother, who conceives, forms, brings forth, and receives them back into her bosom, to reform them at the Dawn ( of the Day of Brahma, or Manvantara ) .
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The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The passage describes 'the great re-evolution after one of the complete periodical dissolutions of every compound form in Nature into its ultimate essence or element' — periodic restoration after vast cycles.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The One is described by negation — 'no circumference, nowhere and everywhere' — and Parabrahmam is 'an unconditioned and absolute reality' beyond positive categorization.
The universal fluid or medium of occult philosophy — Lévi's Great Magical Agent — that transmits will, thought, and magical influence between minds and matter, and preserves the impress of all forms and actions as a book of consciences; cognate with akasha and the anima mundi. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of hidden affinity) in being a substantival medium that can be charged, directed, and abused.
Akasa is explicitly named as 'the radiation of Mulaprakriti' and applied to practical purposes connected with all natural phenomena, functioning as the universal medium cognate with akasha.
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 narrates cosmic origin: the Father devours heterogeneous progeny, the Mother conceives, forms, brings forth, and receives them back — a narrative of how the cosmos first comes into being.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
Parabrahmam is described as 'an unconditioned and absolute reality' with Mulaprakriti as 'a sort of veil thrown over it,' indicating radical concealment of the supreme principle.
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.
The World-Soul is 'connected with all natural phenomena, known or unknown to science,' and the One is 'nowhere and everywhere,' suggesting the divine pervades all creation.
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
The One is 'an unbroken Circle with no circumference' and 'the indivisible point found nowhere, perceived everywhere' — pure undivided being without parts.
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 cascade from Parabrahmam through Mulaprakriti to the manifested universe, with the Logos as intermediary, and the Great Breath producing successive periods.
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).
The masculine-feminine generative principle is explicitly stated: 'the Vertical and the Horizontal, the Father and the Mother, the summit and base of the Father, the two extremities of the Mother' operating as structural features of creation.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly distinguishes exoteric from esoteric meanings across multiple religions: 'exoterically, for the esoteric root or foundation is one' and the Pentateuch as 'a collection of allegorical legends' readable only 'by the light of the Zohar.'
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.
The One is described as 'the boundless plane of the Circle' with 'no circumference, for it is nowhere and everywhere,' asserting the cosmos as ontologically boundless and without center.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The unmanifested Mulaprakriti, the World-Soul, and the 'Germ in the Root' describe non-physical dimensions of reality interpenetrating the physical world.
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 describes the directional process of descent: 'it proceeds from without inwardly, when it is everywhere' (evolution) and 'from within outwardly, when it is nowhere' (dissolution), a staged unfolding and return.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The Logos is explicitly mentioned as the mediating principle from whose objective standpoint Parabrahmam appears as Mulaprakriti, bridging the transcendent and the material.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The One is described as 'an unbroken Circle with no circumference, for it is nowhere and everywhere' — the absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity flows.
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
The passage is saturated with deliberate paradox: 'no circumference, for it is nowhere and everywhere,' 'Light in darkness and darkness in light,' 'the indivisible point found nowhere, perceived everywhere' — using contradiction to destabilize ordinary understanding.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
Matter is explicitly stated as 'dual in religious metaphysics' with Hot and Cool Breath, Father and Mother, expansion and contraction presented as two poles of the same principle.
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 entire Occult Catechism section is structured around the pendulum motion of the Great Breath — 'it expands and contracts (exhalation and inhalation)' producing 'periods of Evolution and Dissolution, Manwantara and Pralaya' — a measured cosmic oscillation.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
'No, the three are one. That which ever is is one, that which ever was is one, that which is ever being and becoming is also one: and this is Space' — all existence is ultimately one reality.