From Meru, the abode of gods, to Eden, the distance is very small, and from the Hindu Serpents to the Ophite Cherubim, the third out of the seven of which was the Dragon, the separation is still smaller, for both watched the entrance to the realm of Secret Knowledge.
But Ezekiel plainly describes the four Cosmic Angels: "I looked, and behold, a whirlwind, a cloud and fire infolding it .
.
.
also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures .
.
.
they had the likeness of a man.
And every one had four faces and four wings .
.
.
the face of a man, and the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle .
.
.
" ("Man" was here substituted for "Dragon." Compare the " Ophite Spirits.
" * ) .
.
.
"Now as I beheld the living creatures behold one wheel upon the Earth with his four faces .
.
.
as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel .
.
.
for the support of the living creature was in the wheel .
.
.
their appearance was like coals of fire .
.
." etc.
(Ezekiel, ch.
i.) There are three chief groups of Builders and as many of the Planetary Spirits and the Lipika, each group being again divided into Seven sub-groups.
It is impossible, even in such a large work as this, to enter into a minute examination of even the three principal groups, as it would demand an extra volume.
The "Builders" are the representatives of the first "Mind-Born" Entities, therefore of the primeval Rishi-Prajapati: also of the Seven great Gods of Egypt, of which Osiris is the chief: of the Seven Amshaspends of the Zoroastrians, with [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The Angels recognised by the Roman Catholic Church who correspond to these "Faces" were with the Ophites: -- Dragon -- Raphael; Lion -- Michael; Bull, or ox -- Uriel; and Eagle -- Gabriel.
The four keep company with the four Evangelists, and preface the Gospels.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 128 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Ormazd at their head: or the "Seven Spirits of the Face": the Seven Sephiroth separated from the first Triad, etc., etc.* They build or rather rebuild every "System" after the "Night." The Second group of the Builders is the Architect of our planetary chain exclusively; and the third, the progenitor of our Humanity -- the Macrocosmic prototype of the microcosm.
The Planetary Spirits are the informing spirits of the Stars in general, and of the Planets especially.
They rule the destinies of men who are all born under one or other of their constellations; the second and third groups pertaining to other systems have the same functions, and all rule various departments in Nature.
In the Hindu exoteric Pantheon they are the guardian deities who preside over the eight points of the compass -- the four cardinal and the four intermediate points -- and are called Loka-Palas , "Supporters or guardians of the World" (in our visible Kosmos), of which Indra (East), Yama (South), Varuna (West), and Kuvera (North) are the chief; their elephants and their spouses pertaining of course to fancy and afterthought, though all of them have an occult significance.
The Lipika (a description of whom is given in the Commentary on Stanza IV .
No.
6) are the Spirits of the Universe, whereas the Builders are only our own planetary deities.
The former belong to the most occult portion of Cosmogenesis, which cannot be given here.
Whether the Adepts (even the highest) know this angelic order in the completeness of its triple degrees, or only the lower one connected with the records of our world, is something which the writer is unprepared to say, and she would incline rather to the latter supposition.
Of its highest grade one thing only is taught: the Lipika are connected with Karma -- being its direct Recorders.** [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The Jews, save the Kabalists, having no names for East, West, South, and North, expressed the idea by words signifying before, behind, right and left, and very often confounded the terms exoterically, thus making the blinds in the Bible more confused and difficult to interpret.
Add to this the fact that out of the forty-seven translators of King James I.
of England's Bible "only three understood Hebrew, and of these two died before the Psalms were translated" ( Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia ), and one may easily understand what reliance can be placed on the English version of the Bible.
In this work the Douay Roman Catholic version is generally followed.
** The Symbol for Sacred and Secret Knowledge was universally in antiquity, a Tree, by which a Scripture or a Record was also meant.
Hence the word Lipika, the [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
1, Page]] 129 THE LIPIKA.
STANZA V.
-- Continued.
6.
T HE L IPIKA CIRCUMSCRIBE THE TRIANGLE, THE FIRST ONE ( the vertical line or the figure 1 .
), THE CUBE, THE SECOND ONE, AND THE PENTACLE WITHIN THE EGG ( circle ) ( a ) .
I T IS THE RING CALLED " P ASS NOT," FOR THOSE WHO DESCEND AND ASCEND ( as also for those ) WHO, DURING THE KALPA, ARE PROGRESSING TOWARD THE GREAT DAY " B E WITH US" ( b ).
.
.
.
T HUS WERE FORMED THE A RUPA AND THE R UPA ( the Formless World and the World of Forms ); FROM ONE LIGHT SEVEN LIGHTS; FROM EACH OF THE SEVEN SEVEN TIMES SEVEN LIGHTS.
T HE " W HEELS" WATCH THE R ING.
The Stanza proceeds with a minute classification of the Orders of Angelic Hierarchy.
From the group of Four and Seven emanates the "mind-born" group of Ten, of Twelve, of Twenty-one, etc., all these divided again into sub-groups of septenaries, novenaries, duodecimals, and so on, until the mind is lost in this endless enumeration of celestial hosts and Beings, each having its distinct task in the ruling of the visible Kosmos during its existence.
( a ) The esoteric meaning of the first sentence of the Sloka is, that those who have been called Lipikas, the Recorders of the Karmic ledger, make an impassible barrier between the personal E GO and the impersonal S ELF, the Noumenon and Parent-Source of the former.
Hence the allegory.
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 systematically maps the same structural principles across Hindu (Rishi-Prajapati, Loka-Palas), Egyptian (Seven Gods, Osiris), Zoroastrian (Amshaspends, Ormazd), Kabbalistic (Sephiroth, Triad), and Christian (Ezekiel's four faces, Evangelists) traditions, demonstrating 'as above so below' at every scale.
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 Stanza's declaration 'Thus were formed the Arupa and the Rupa (the Formless World and the World of Forms)' is a direct cosmogonic statement describing the origin of the two fundamental cosmic realms.
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's central structure is a cascading hierarchy: 'From one light seven lights; from each of the seven seven times seven lights,' with Builders, Planetary Spirits, and Lipika as successive emanations, and angelic orders flowing from groups of Four and Seven into ever-finer sub-groups.
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 traces a universal chain of correspondence across Hindu, Egyptian, Zoroastrian, Kabbalistic, and Christian traditions, implying a single credential of teaching transmitted across cultures.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage is entirely about esoteric teaching: the 'realm of Secret Knowledge,' the esoteric meaning of the Sloka, the 'most occult portion of Cosmogenesis which cannot be given here,' and the barrier between ego and self.
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 entire passage describes a non-physical dimension populated by Builders, Planetary Spirits, Lipika, and angelic hierarchies that interpenetrate and govern the physical world without being visible to ordinary senses.
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 structured descent from Arupa (Formless) to Rupa (World of Forms), with Builders 'rebuilding every System after the Night' and the progressive multiplication of lights, naming the directional process of spirit unfolding into matter.
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 passage explicitly states the third group of Builders is 'the progenitor of our Humanity — the Macrocosmic prototype of the microcosm,' directly asserting the human as small-scale image of the cosmos.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The 'Noumenon and Parent-Source' referenced in the esoteric gloss on the Lipika's barrier points to an absolutely simple, undivided first principle beyond the personal ego.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage is saturated with numerological structure: sevens, fours, the triangle (1), cube (2), pentacle within the egg, groups of Ten, Twelve, Twenty-one, septenaries, novenaries, duodecimals — numbers as the underlying architecture of divine reality.
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
The esoteric gloss on the Lipika states they make 'an impassible barrier between the personal EGO and the impersonal SELF, the Noumenon and Parent-Source of the former,' touching on the recognition of one's true nature beyond the ego.
The ten attributes or emanations through which the Ein Sof (Infinite) reveals itself and creates the universe in Kabbalistic theology.
The passage explicitly names 'the Seven Sephiroth separated from the first Triad' as part of the Builders' correspondences, directly invoking the Kabbalistic emanation scheme.
The rule of the stars and planetary powers over mortal destiny — the astrological governors whose spheres bind souls to birth, error, and death; in Sethian gnosis the 'error of the stars' that the savior exposes, and from which the incorruptible generation alone is free. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of universal affinity) in being a bondage-to-powers claim, and from archons (the rulers as personal beings) in concerning the astral machinery itself.
The Planetary Spirits are described as ruling 'the destinies of men who are all born under one or other of their constellations,' a clear statement of astrological governance over mortal fate.