Having evolved from Cosmic Space, and before the final formation of the primaries and the annulation of the planetary nebula, the Sun, we are taught, drew into the depths of its mass all the Cosmic vitality he could, threatening to engulf his weaker "brothers" before the law of attraction and repulsion was finally adjusted; after which he began feeding on "The Mother's refuse and sweat"; in other words, on those portions of Ether (the "breath of the Universal Soul") of the existence and constitution of which science is as yet absolutely ignorant.
A theory of this kind having been propounded by Sir William Grove (see " Correlation of the Physical Forces ," 1843, p.
81; and " Address to the British Association , 1866"), who theorized that the systems "are gradually changing by atmospheric additions or subtractions, or by accretions and diminutions arising from nebular substances" .
.
.
and again that "the Sun may condense gaseous matter as it travels in Space and so heat may be produced" -- the archaic teaching seems scientific enough, even in this age.* Mr.
W.
Mattieu Williams suggested that the diffused matter or Ether which is the recipient of the heat radiations of the Universe is thereby drawn into the depths of the solar mass.
Expelling thence the previously condensed and thermally exhausted Ether, it becomes compressed and gives up its heat, to be in turn itself driven out in a rarified and cooled state, to absorb a fresh supply of heat, which he supposes to be in this way taken up by the Ether, and again concentrated and redistributed by the Suns of the Universe.** This is about as close an approximation to the Occult teachings as Science ever imagined; for Occultism explains it by "the dead breath" given back by Martanda and his feeding on the "sweat and refuse" of "Mother Space." What could affect Neptune,*** Saturn and Jupiter, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Very similar ideas in Mr.
W.
Mattieu Williams' " The Fuel of the Sun ;" in Dr.
C.
William Siemens' " On the Conservation of Solar Energy " (Nature, XXV ., p.
440-444, March 9, 1882); and also in Dr.
P.
Martin Duncan's " Address of the President of the Geological Society ," London, May, 1877.
** See " Comparative Geology ," by Alexander Winchell, LL.D ., p.
56.
*** When we speak of Neptune it is not as an Occultist but as a European.
The true Eastern Occultist will maintain that, whereas there are many yet undiscovered planets in our system, Neptune does not belong to it, his apparent connection with our sun and the influence of the latter upon Neptune notwithstanding.
This connection is mayavic , imaginary, they say.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 103 THE STELLAR "SONS OF LIGHT." but little, would have killed such comparatively small "Houses" as Mercury, Venus and Mars.
As Uranus was not known before the end of the eighteenth century, the name of the fourth planet mentioned in the allegory must remain to us, so far, a mystery.
The "Breath" of all the "seven" is said to be Bhaskara (light-making), because they (the planets) were all comets and suns in their origin.
They evolve into Manvantaric life from primaeval Chaos (now the noumenon of irresolvable nebulae) by aggregation and accumulation of the primary differentiations of the eternal matter, according to the beautiful expression in the Commentary, "Thus the Sons of Light clothed themselves in the fabric of Darkness." They are called allegorically "the Heavenly Snails," on account of their (to us) formless INTELLIGENCES inhabiting unseen their starry and planetary homes, and, so to speak, carrying them as the snails do along with themselves in their revolution.
The doctrine of a common origin for all the heavenly bodies and planets, was, as we see, inculcated by the Archaic astronomers, before Kepler, Newton, Leibnitz, Kant, Herschel and Laplace.
Heat (the Breath), attraction and repulsion -- the three great factors of Motion -- are the conditions under which all the members of all this primitive family are born, developed, and die, to be reborn after a "Night of Brahma," during which eternal matter relapses periodically into its primary undifferentiated state.
The most attenuated gases can give no idea of its nature to the modern physicist.
Centres of Forces at first, the invisible sparks of primordial atoms differentiate into molecules, and become Suns -- passing gradually into objectivity gaseous, radiant, cosmic, the one "Whirlwind" (or motion) finally giving the impulse to the form, and the initial motion, regulated and sustained by the never-resting Breaths -- the Dhyan Chohans.
------- STANZA IV.
-- Continued.
6.
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T HEN THE S ECOND S EVEN, WHO ARE THE L IPIKA, PRODUCED BY THE THREE ( Word, Voice, and Spirit ) .
T HE REJECTED S ON IS O NE, THE " S ON- S UNS" ARE COUNTLESS.
The Lipi-ka , from the word lipi , "writing," means literally the [[Vol.
1, Page]] 104 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
"Scribes."* Mystically, these Divine Beings are connected with Karma, the Law of Retribution, for they are the Recorders or Annalists who impress on the (to us) invisible tablets of the Astral Light, "the great picture-gallery of eternity" -- a faithful record of every act, and even thought, of man, of all that was, is, or ever will be, in the phenomenal Universe.
As said in " Isis ," this divine and unseen canvas is the B OOK OF L IFE.
As it is the Lipika who project into objectivity from the passive Universal Mind the ideal plan of the universe, upon which the "Builders" reconstruct the Kosmos after every Pralaya, it is they who stand parallel to the Seven Angels of the Presence, whom the Christians recognise in the Seven "Planetary Spirits" or the "Spirits of the Stars;" for thus it is they who are the direct amanuenses of the Eternal Ideation -- or, as called by Plato, the "Divine Thought." The Eternal Record is no fantastic dream, for we meet with the same records in the world of gross matter.
"A shadow never falls upon a wall without leaving thereupon a permanent trace which might be made visible by resorting to proper processes," says Dr.
Draper.
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.
.
"The portraits of our friends or landscape-views may be hidden on the sensitive surface from the eye, but they are ready to make their appearance as soon as proper developers are resorted to.
A spectre is concealed on a silver or a glassy surface, until, by our necromancy, we make it come forth into the visible world.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The 'Night of Brahma' during which 'eternal matter relapses periodically into its primary undifferentiated state' followed by rebirth is a clear statement of periodic cosmic restoration after vast cycles.
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 Astral Light is explicitly named as 'the great picture-gallery of eternity' and 'the invisible tablets' on which the Lipika record every act and thought, functioning as the universal medium preserving the impress of all phenomena.
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 explicitly maps scientific theories onto occult teachings and draws parallels between the planetary allegory and cosmic structure, reflecting the 'as above, so below' principle.
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 is fundamentally a narrative of cosmic origin: how the Sun drew in Cosmic vitality, how planets evolved from primaeval Chaos by aggregation, and how the 'Sons of Light' came into being from undifferentiated matter.
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.
A cascading structure is described: from Cosmic Space/Ether through the Sun to the planets, with the Dhyan Chohans, the Lipika, and the 'Sons of Light' forming successive levels of divine principle flowing downward.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage presents 'Occult teachings' and 'archaic teaching' as esoteric knowledge parallel to but hidden from mainstream science, with allegorical language ('Heavenly Snails,' 'Sons of Light') concealing deeper meaning.
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 'countless' Son-Suns, the vastness of Cosmic Space, and the 'eternal matter' suggest a boundless universe without fixed center or circumference.
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 'formless INTELLIGENCES inhabiting unseen their starry and planetary homes' and the invisible Astral Light realm that interpenetrates the physical world, recording all acts and thoughts.
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 a directional staged process: 'They evolve into Manvantaric life from primaeval Chaos by aggregation and accumulation of the primary differentiations of the eternal matter' — a structured descent from undifferentiated principle to material form.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The Lipika are 'produced by the Three (Word, Voice, and Spirit)' and are described as 'direct amanuenses of the Eternal Ideation — or, as called by Plato, the Divine Thought,' making the ordering word/idea central to the cosmogonic process.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The 'invisible sparks of primordial atoms' and 'eternal matter' in its 'primary undifferentiated state' suggest an absolutely simple first principle from which all multiplicity flows.
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).
Attraction and repulsion are named as two of the 'three great factors of Motion,' presented as complementary poles governing all cosmic development.
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 explicitly describes cyclical cosmic rhythm: beings are 'born, developed, and die, to be reborn after a Night of Brahma, during which eternal matter relapses periodically into its primary undifferentiated state.'
The Hermetic doctrine that nothing rests — matter, energy, mind, and spirit are a single continuum differing only in rate of vibration, from the grossest matter to the least material spirit. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (affinity resonating BETWEEN separate things) in being a claim about what constitutes any one thing in the first place, and from magical_equilibrium (Lévi's operational balancing technique, which presupposes some vibration doctrine rather than stating this general principle).
Matter is described as differentiating through motion from 'invisible sparks of primordial atoms' into molecules and Suns, 'passing gradually into objectivity gaseous, radiant, cosmic' — a continuum of increasing materiality through vibrational rates.