`The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
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STANZA IV.
COMMENTARY.
1.
L ISTEN, YE S ONS OF THE E ARTH, TO YOUR INSTRUCTORS -- THE S ONS OF THE F IRE ( a ).
L EARN THERE IS NEITHER FIRST NOR LAST; FOR ALL IS ONE NUMBER, ISSUED FROM NO NUMBER ( b ).
( a ) These terms, the "Sons of the Fire," the "Sons of the Fire-Mist," and the like, require explanation.
They are connected with a great primordial and universal mystery, and it is not easy to make it clear.
There is a passage in the Bhagavatgita (ch.
viii.) wherein Krishna, speaking symbolically and esoterically , says: "I will state the times (conditions) .
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at which devotees departing (from this life) do so never to return (be reborn), or to return (to incarnate again).
The Fire, the Flame, the day, the bright (lucky) fortnight, the six months of the Northern solstice, departing (dying) in these, those who know the Brahman (Yogis) go to the Brahman.
Smoke, night, the dark (unlucky) fortnight, the six months of the Southern solstice, (dying) in these, the devotee goes to the lunar light (or mansion the astral light also) and returns (is reborn).
These two paths, bright and dark, are said to be eternal in this world (or great kalpa, 'Age').
By the one a man goes never to come back, by the other he returns." Now these names, "Fire," "Flame," "Day," the "bright fortnight," etc., as "Smoke," "Night," and so on, leading only to the end of the lunar path are incomprehensible without a knowledge of Esotericism.
These are all names of various deities which preside over the Cosmo-psychic Powers.
We often speak of the Hierarchy of "Flames" (see Book II.) of the "Sons of Fire," etc.
Sankaracharya the greatest of the Esoteric masters of India, says that fire means a deity which presides over Time (kala).
The able translator of Bhagavatgita, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, M.A ., of Bombay, confesses he has "no clear notion of the meaning of these verses" (p.
81, footnote).
It seems quite clear, on the contrary, to him who knows the occult doctrine.
With these verses the mystic sense of the solar and lunar symbols are connected: the Pitris are lunar deities and our ancestors, because they created the physical man.
[[Vol.
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The Agnishwatha, the Kumara (the seven mystic sages), are solar deities, though the former are Pitris also; and these are the "fashioners of the Inner Man." (See Book II.) They are: -- "The Sons of Fire" -- because they are the first Beings (in the Secret Doctrine they are called "Minds"), evolved from Primordial Fire.
"The Lord is a consuming Fire" (Deuteronomy iv.
24); "The Lord (Christos) shall be revealed with his mighty angels in flaming fire" (2 Thessal.
i.
7, 8).
The Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles like "cloven tongues of fire," (Acts ii.
v.
3); Vishnu will return on Kalki , the White Horse, as the last Avatar amid fire and flames; and Sosiosh will be brought down equally on a White Horse in a "tornado of fire." "And I saw heaven open and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him .
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is called the Word of God," (Rev.
xix.
13) amid flaming Fire.
Fire is AEther in its purest form, and hence is not regarded as matter, but it is the unity of Aether -- the second manifested deity -- in its universality.
But there are two "Fires" and a distinction is made between them in the Occult teachings.
The first, or the purely Formless and invisible Fire concealed in the Central Spiritual Sun , is spoken of as "triple" (metaphysically); while the Fire of the manifested Kosmos is Septenary, throughout both the Universe and our Solar System.
"The fire or knowledge burns up all action on the plane of illusion," says the commentary.
"Therefore, those who have acquired it and are emancipated, are called 'Fires.' " Speaking of the seven senses symbolised as Hotris, priests, the Brahmana says in Anugita : "Thus these seven (senses, smell and taste, and colour, and sound, etc., etc.) are the causes of emancipation;" and the commentator adds: "It is from these seven from which the Self is to be emancipated.
'I' (am here devoid of qualities) must mean the Self, not the Brahmana who speaks." (" Sacred Books of the East ," ed.
by Max Muller, Vol.
VIII., 278.) ( b ) The expression "All is One Number, issued from No Number" relates again to that universal and philosophical tenet just explained in Stanza III.
(Comm.
4).
That which is absolute is of course No Number; but in its later significance it has an application in Space as in Time.
It means that not only every increment of time is part of a larger increment, up to the most indefinitely prolonged duration conceivable by the human intellect, but also that no manifested thing can [[Vol.
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be thought of except as part of a larger whole: the total aggregate being the One manifested Universe that issues from the unmanifested or Absolute -- called Non-Being or "No-Number," to distinguish it from B EING or "the One Number." ------- STANZA IV.
-- Continued.
(2) L EARN WHAT WE, WHO DESCEND FROM THE P RIMORDIAL S EVEN, WE, WHO ARE BORN FROM THE P RIMORDIAL F LAME, HAVE LEARNED FROM OUR F ATHERS ( a ).
( a ) This is explained in Book II., and this name, "Primordial Flame," corroborates what is said in the first paragraph of the preceding commentary on Stanza IV.
The distinction between the "Primordial" and the subsequent seven Builders is this: The former are the Ray and direct emanation of the first "Sacred Four," the Tetraktis, that is, the eternally Self-Existent One (Eternal in Essence note well, not in manifestation, and distinct from the universal ONE).
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The Absolute is described as 'No Number,' 'Non-Being,' and the 'Formless and invisible Fire concealed in the Central Spiritual Sun' — defined by negation and transcendence of all positive categories.
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.
The passage explicitly identifies 'the lunar light (or mansion the astral light also)' as a realm, and equates Fire with 'Aether in its purest form' as a universal medium, connecting to the concept of a transmitting cosmic fluid.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage maps correspondences between fire/aether, solar/lunar, physical man/inner man, and the seven senses as 'causes of emancipation,' reflecting structural parallels across cosmic levels.
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: from the unmanifested Absolute ('No-Number'/'Non-Being') the manifested Universe ('One Number'/'Being') issues, through the Tetraktis, the Primordial Flame, and the seven Builders who fashion physical and inner man.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
The Pitris are described as 'fashioners of the physical man' (lunar deities) contrasted with the solar deities who fashion the 'Inner Man,' implying a secondary creator function, though they are not portrayed as ignorant or malevolent.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The 'purely Formless and invisible Fire concealed in the Central Spiritual Sun' and the Absolute as 'No Number'/'Non-Being' express the supreme principle's radical concealment beyond ordinary perception.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
Fire is equated with Aether in its purest form, the 'Primordial Flame' is the source of the first Beings, and the 'bright path' leads to Brahman — light/fire functions as the luminous quality of the divine throughout.
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 explicitly maps a cascading chain: the eternally Self-Existent One → the Tetraktis (Sacred Four) → the Primordial Seven (their Ray and direct emanation) → the seven Builders → the 'Sons of Fire' (first Beings/Minds evolved from Primordial Fire), each level issuing from the one above.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The passage references 'our Fathers' (the Primordial Seven learning from their predecessors), Sankaracharya as 'the greatest of the Esoteric masters of India,' and an unbroken chain of esoteric transmission.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
'Those who know the Brahman (Yogis) go to the Brahman' presents direct knowledge of the divine as the means of liberation, contrasted with the ignorant path to rebirth.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage repeatedly stresses that the Gita verses are 'symbolic and esoteric,' 'incomprehensible without a knowledge of Esotericism,' and that the 'mystic sense' of solar and lunar symbols is concealed beneath the outer text.
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 reference to 'the most indefinitely prolonged duration conceivable by the human intellect' and the boundless 'No Number' from which all issues suggests an ontologically infinite cosmos.
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 passage describes non-physical dimensions: the 'Cosmo-psychic Powers,' the 'astral light' realm, the 'Central Spiritual Sun' concealing the Formless Fire, and the distinction between manifested and unmanifested planes of being.
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 directional descent from the unconditioned (No Number) through manifested Aether/Fire, the Primordial Seven, to the fashioning of physical and inner man — a staged process from unconditioned principle to materialization.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The distinction between the 'fashioners of the physical man' (Pitris) and 'fashioners of the Inner Man' (Agnishwatha/Kumara) implies the human as a microcosmic image of cosmic structure.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
'All is One Number, issued from No Number' and the 'eternally Self-Existent One' (distinct from the universal ONE) present the absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity flows.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage is saturated with numerical symbolism: 'One Number' vs 'No Number,' the 'Primordial Seven,' the 'Tetraktis' (four), the 'seven mystic sages,' 'seven senses,' and the septenary vs. triple distinction of Fire.
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).
The passage repeatedly sets up polarities: bright/dark paths, solar/lunar deities, manifested/unmanifested, 'One Number'/'No Number,' and the two distinct Fires (triple vs. septenary).
Guided passage of the soul through afterlife realms.
The Gita passage describes the soul's post-mortem passage through two distinct paths — to Brahman or to the lunar mansion — constituting a guided passage through afterlife realms.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The bright path in the Gita passage describes the soul's return to Brahman ('go to the Brahman'), reversing the descent into the lunar path of rebirth.
The Bhagavad Gita passage explicitly describes two post-mortem paths: the bright path to Brahman (never to return/be reborn) and the dark path to lunar light where the soul 'returns (is reborn).'
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
'All is One Number, issued from No Number' and 'the total aggregate being the One manifested Universe that issues from the unmanifested or Absolute' express the doctrine that all existence is ultimately one reality issuing from a single source.