The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
1, Page]] 191 THE PRELIMINARY CREATION OF MAN.
[[This page continued from previous section ]] STANZA VI.
-- Continued.
5.
A T THE FOURTH ( Round , or revolution of life and being around " the seven smaller wheels ") ( a ), THE SONS ARE TOLD TO CREATE THEIR IMAGES.
O NE THIRD REFUSES.
T WO ( thirds ) OBEY .
The full meaning of this sloka can be fully comprehended only after reading the detailed additional explanations in the "Anthropogenesis" and its commentaries, in Book II.
Between this Sloka and the last, Sloka 4 in this same Stanza, extend long ages; and there now gleams the dawn and sunrise of another aeon.
The drama enacted on our planet is at the beginning of its fourth act, but for a clearer comprehension of the whole play the reader will have to turn back before he can proceed onward.
For this verse belongs to the general Cosmogony given in the archaic volumes, whereas Book II.
will give a detailed account of the "Creation" or rather the formation, of the first human beings, followed by the second humanity, and then by the third; or, as they are called, "the first, second, and the third Root-Races." As the solid Earth began by being a ball of liquid fire, of fiery dust and its protoplasmic phantom, so did man.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 192 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
( a ) That which is meant by the qualification the "Fourth" is explained as the "fourth Round" only on the authority of the Commentaries.
It can equally mean fourth "Eternity" as "Fourth Round," or even the fourth (our) Globe.
For, as will repeatedly be shown, it is the fourth Sphere on the fourth or lowest plane of material life.
And it so happens that we are in the Fourth Round, at the middle point of which the perfect equilibrium between Spirit and Matter had to take place.* Says the Commentary explaining the verse: -- " The holy youths ( the gods ) refused to multiply and create species after their likeness , after their kind.
They are not fit forms ( rupas ) for us.
They have to grow.
They refuse to enter the chhayas ( shadows or images ) of their inferiors.
Thus had selfish feeling prevailed from the beginning , even among the gods , and they fell under the eye of the Karmic Lipikas.
" They had to suffer for it in later births.
How the punishment reached the gods will be seen in the second volume.
------- STANZA VI.
-- Continued.
6.
T HE CURSE IS PRONOUNCED ( a ): THEY WILL BE BORN IN THE FOURTH ( Race ), SUFFER AND CAUSE SUFFERING ( b ).
T HIS IS THE FIRST WAR ( c ).
( a ) It is a universal tradition that, before the physiological "Fall," propagation of one's kind, whether human or animal, took place through the WILL of the Creators, or of their progeny.
It was the Fall of Spirit into generation, not the Fall of mortal man.
It has already been stated that, to become a Self-Conscious Spirit, the latter must pass through every cycle of being, culminating in its highest point on earth in Man.
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * It was, as we shall see, at this period -- during the highest point of civilization and knowledge, as also of human intellectuality, of the fourth, Atlantean Race -- that, owing to the final crisis of physiologico-spiritual adjustment of the races, humanity branched off into its two diametrically opposite paths: the RIGHT- and the LEFT-hand paths of knowledge or of Vidya.
" Thus were the germs of the White and the Black Magic sown in those days.
The seeds lay latent for some time , to sprout only during the early period of the Fifth ( our Race ) .
" ( Commentary.
) [[Vol.
1, Page]] 193 THE FIRST CAUSE OF SIN.
Spirit per se is an unconscious negative ABSTRACTION.
Its purity is inherent, not acquired by merit; hence, as already shown, to become the highest Dhyan Chohan it is necessary for each Ego to attain to full self-consciousness as a human, i.e.
, conscious Being, which is synthesized for us in Man.
The Jewish Kabalists arguing that no Spirit could belong to the divine hierarchy unless Ruach (Spirit) was united to Nephesh (living Soul), only repeat the Eastern Esoteric teaching.
"A Dhyani has to be an Atma-Buddhi; once the Buddhi-Manas breaks loose from its immortal Atma of which it (Buddhi) is the vehicle, Atman passes into NON-BEING, which is absolute Being." This means that the purely Nirvanic state is a passage of Spirit back to the ideal abstraction of Be-ness which has no relation to the plane on which our Universe is accomplishing its cycle.
( b ) "The curse is pronounced" does not mean, in this instance, that any personal Being, god, or superior Spirit, pronounced it, but simply that the cause which could but create bad results had been generated, and that the effects of a Karmic cause could lead the "Beings" that counteracted the laws of Nature, and thus impeded her legitimate progress, only to bad incarnations, hence to suffering.
( c ) "There were many wars" refers to several struggles of adjustment, spiritual, cosmical, and astronomical, but chiefly to the mystery of the evolution of man as he is now.
Powers -- pure Essences -- "that were told to create" is a sentence that relates to a mystery explained, as already said, elsewhere.
It is not only one of the most hidden secrets of Nature -- that of generation, over whose solution the Embryologists have vainly put their heads together -- but likewise a divine function that involves that other religious, or rather dogmatic, mystery, the "Fall" of the Angels, as it is called.
Satan and his rebellious host would thus prove, when the meaning of the allegory is explained, to have refused to create physical man, only to become the direct Saviours and the Creators of " divine Man." The symbolical teaching is more than mystical and religious, it is purely scientific, as will be seen later on.
For, instead of remaining a mere blind, functioning medium, impelled and guided by fathomless LAW, the "rebellious" Angel claimed and enforced his right of independent judgment and will, his [[Vol.
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right of free-agency and responsibility, since man and angel are alike under Karmic Law.* "And there was war in Heaven.
.
.
.
Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon; and the Dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in Heaven.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The description of Spirit as 'an unconscious negative ABSTRACTION' and Atman passing into 'NON-BEING, which is absolute Being' employs negation to describe the divine.
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 states 'As the solid Earth began by being a ball of liquid fire... so did man,' establishing the Hermetic axiom that cosmic structure is reflected at the human 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 passage is explicitly about cosmic and human origin: 'the general Cosmogony given in the archaic volumes' and 'the formation of the first human beings, followed by the second humanity, and then by the third.'
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 cascading hierarchy from Spirit through Dhyani Chohans to Atma-Buddhi to Man, with each level less perfect than the one above and the 'Sons' creating 'images' after their likeness.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage is framed as esoteric teaching with hidden meaning: 'The full meaning of this sloka can be fully comprehended only after reading the detailed additional explanations' and the allegorical reinterpretation of the Fall of Angels.
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 populated by the Sons, Dhyani Chohans, and spiritual beings that operate alongside and affect the physical world through cycles of creation and incarnation.
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 descent of Spirit through successive cycles (Rounds, Root-Races) into materialization in Man, with 'to become a Self-Conscious Spirit, the latter must pass through every cycle of being, culminating in its highest point on earth in Man.'
A magical or spiritual orientation that turns occult power toward self-aggrandizement, domination, or personal ends divorced from — or actively opposed to — service of the divine, contrasted with the Right-hand Path's use of the same powers in reverent service and selfless healing. Distinct from psychic_attack (one specific malevolent technique this orientation may employ, not the standing orientation itself) and forbidden_knowledge (a transgression-against-divine-prohibition narrative, not an ongoing praxis-orientation).
The passage explicitly names 'the RIGHT- and the LEFT-hand paths of knowledge or of Vidya' and states 'the germs of the White and the Black Magic sown in those days,' directly invoking the left-hand path as a standing orientation.
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 explicit parallel 'As the solid Earth began by being a ball of liquid fire, of fiery dust and its protoplasmic phantom, so did man' makes the human the privileged mirror of cosmic structure.
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 presents Spirit and Matter as two poles of the same scale whose equilibrium is the cosmic law, and the Right- and Left-hand paths as 'diametrically opposite' expressions of the same knowledge.
A magical or spiritual orientation that directs occult power toward reverent service of the divine and the welfare of others, in disciplined subordination to a moral code — the positive complement to the Left-hand Path's self-aggrandizement, and the orientation an initiatory order upholds in barring seduction, extortion, and the sale of initiation for gain. Distinct from left_hand_path (the opposing orientation this concept mirrors) and theurgy (a specific ritual technique of divine engagement, not the standing ethical orientation of the practitioner).
The passage explicitly names the 'RIGHT-hand path of knowledge' as the positive complement to the Left-hand path, with the 'rebellious' Angel's choice representing the divergence.
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
The passage states that 'to become a Self-Conscious Spirit, the latter must pass through every cycle of being, culminating in its highest point on earth in Man,' making self-consciousness the soteriological goal.
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
The passage explicitly discusses the tripartite structure: 'Ruach (Spirit) was united to Nephesh (living Soul)' and 'Buddhi-Manas breaks loose from its immortal Atma,' mapping spirit, soul, and body/matter.
The 1 Enoch narrative in which a class of originally-good angelic beings (the Watchers) descends, mates with women, and teaches forbidden arts — the substrate that Gnostic archons inherits and inverts: archons are born malevolent, the Watchers fall through transgression.
The passage explicitly reinterprets the 'Fall of the Angels' narrative, stating that 'Satan and his rebellious host would thus prove... to have refused to create physical man,' directly engaging with and inverting the Watchers descent myth.