This is what she described in one of her experiments; with a particle of a meteorite placed on her forehead, in an envelope, the lady, not being aware of what it contained, said: "What a difference between that which we recognise as matter here and that which seems like matter there!
In the one, the elements are so coarse and so angular , I wonder that we can endure it all, much more that we can desire to continue our present relations to it; in the other, all the elements are so refined, they are so free from those great, rough angularities, which characterize the elements here, that I can but regard that as by so much the more than this, the real existence." ( Vol.
III.
p.
345-6.) ** When carefully analysed and reflected upon, this will be found as scientific as Science could make it, even at our late period.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 202 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
We have been assured that there exist several modern works of speculative fancy upon such struggles for life in sidereal heaven, especially in the German language.
We rejoice to hear it, for ours is an Occult teaching lost in the darkness of archaic ages.
We have treated of it fully in " Isis Unveiled ," and the idea of Darwinian-like evolution, of struggle for life and supremacy, and of the "survival of the fittest" among the Hosts above as the Hosts below, runs throughout both the volumes of our earlier work, written in 1876 ( See Index in " Isis Unveiled " at the words " Evolution " -- " Darwin " -- " Kapila " -- " Battle of Life ," etc.
etc.
) But the idea was not ours, it is that of antiquity.
Even the Puranic writers have ingeniously interwoven allegory with Cosmic facts and human events.
Any symbologist may discern the astro-cosmical allusion even though he be unable to grasp the whole meaning.
The great "Wars in Heaven," in the Puranas; the wars of the Titans, in Hesiod and other classical writers; the "struggles," also in the Egyptian legend between Osiris and Typhon, and even those in the Scandinavian legends, all refer to the same subject.
Northern Mythology refers to it as the battle of the Flames, the sons of Muspel who fought on the field of Wigred.
All these relate to Heaven and Earth, and have a double and often even a triple meaning, and esoteric application to things above as to things below.
They relate severally to astronomical, theogonical and human struggles; to the adjustment of orbs, and the supremacy among nations and tribes.
The "Struggle for Existence" and the "Survival of the Fittest" reigned supreme from the moment that Kosmos manifested into being, and could hardly escape the observant eye of the ancient Sages.
Hence the incessant fights of Indra, the god of the Firmament, with the Asuras -- degraded from high gods into Cosmic demons; and with Vritri or Ah-hi; the battles fought between stars and constellations, between Moon and planets -- later on incarnated as kings and mortals.
Hence also the War in Heaven of Michael and his Host against the Dragon (Jupiter and Lucifer-Venus), when a third of the stars of the rebellious host was hurled down into Space, and "its place was found no more in Heaven." As said long ago -- "This is the basic and fundamental stone of the secret cycles.
It shows that the Brahmins and Tanaim .
.
.
speculated on the creation and development of the world quite in a Darwinian way, both anticipating him and his school in the natural selection of species, the survival of the fittest, [[Vol.
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and transformation.
.
.
.
There were old worlds that perished conquered by the new," etc., etc.
(" Isis Unveiled ," Vol.
II.
, p.
260.) The assertion that all the worlds (Stars, planets, etc.) -- as soon as a nucleus of primordial substance in the laya (undifferentiated) state is informed by the freed principles, of a just deceased sidereal body -- become first comets, and then Suns to cool down to inhabitable worlds, is a teaching as old as the Rishis.
Thus the Secret Books distinctly teach, as we see, an astronomy that would not be rejected even by modern speculation could the latter thoroughly understand its teachings.
For, archaic astronomy, and the ancient, physical and mathematical sciences, expressed views identical with those of modern science, and many of far more momentous import.
A "struggle for life" as a "survival of the fittest" in the worlds above, as on our planet here below, are distinctly taught.
This teaching, however, although it would not be "entirely rejected" by Science, is sure to be repudiated as an integral whole.
For it avers that there are only seven Self-born primordial "gods" emanated from the trinitarian ONE.
In other words, it means that all the worlds or sidereal bodies (always on strict analogy) are formed one from the other, after the primordial manifestation at the beginning of the "Great Age" is accomplished.
The birth of the celestial bodies in Space is compared to a crowd or multitude of "pilgrims" at the festival of the "Fires." Seven ascetics appear on the threshold of the temple with seven lighted sticks of incense.
At the light of these the first row of pilgrims light their incense sticks.
After which every ascetic begins whirling his stick around his head in space, and furnishes the rest with fire.
Thus with the heavenly bodies.
A laya-centre is lighted and awakened into life by the fires of another "pilgrim," after which the new "centre" rushes into space and becomes a comet.
It is only after losing its velocity, and hence its fiery tail, that the "Fiery Dragon" settles down into quiet and steady life as a regular respectable citizen of the sidereal family.
Therefore it is said: -- Born in the unfathomable depths of Space, out of the homogeneous Element called the World-Soul, every nucleus of Cosmic matter, suddenly launched into being, begins life under the most hostile circumstances.
Through a series of countless ages, it has to conquer [[Vol.
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for itself a place in the infinitudes.
It circles round and round between denser and already fixed bodies, moving by jerks, and pulling towards some given point or centre that attracts it, trying to avoid, like a ship drawn into a channel dotted with reefs and sunken rocks, other bodies that draw and repel it in turn; many perish, their mass disintegrating through stronger masses, and, when born within a system, chiefly within the insatiable stomachs of various Suns.
( See Comm.
to Stanza IV ) .
Those which move slower and are propelled into an elliptic course are doomed to annihilation sooner or later.
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 that myths have 'a double and often even a triple meaning, and esoteric application to things above as to things below,' relating to 'astronomical, theogonical and human struggles' simultaneously — a direct articulation of 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 centrally a cosmogonic narrative: it describes how celestial bodies are born from the undifferentiated laya state, become comets, cool into suns, and settle into inhabitable worlds, with the allegory of pilgrims lighting incense sticks illustrating the sequential birth of worlds.
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 seven Self-born primordial gods emanated from the trinitarian ONE, with all worlds formed one from the other after primordial manifestation, establishing a cascading hierarchy.
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 claims the teaching is 'as old as the Rishis' and references ancient sages and Puranic writers as prior holders of this knowledge, establishing a historical chain of transmission.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly references 'the Secret Books,' 'Occult teaching lost in the darkness of archaic ages,' and the 'esoteric application' of myths that a 'symbologist may discern' even if unable to grasp the whole 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 passage describes 'the unfathomable depths of Space,' 'the infinitudes,' and a boundless cosmos where countless worlds are born and perish without apparent limit.
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 meteorite experiment reveals a non-physical dimension with 'refined' elements and 'Hosts above' that is interpenetrating with the physical world but ordinarily imperceptible.
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 manifestation from the undifferentiated laya (undifferentiated) state into differentiated worlds — 'as soon as a nucleus of primordial substance in the laya state is informed by the freed principles' — a structured descent from unconditioned to conditioned.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage describes all cosmic matter as born 'out of the homogeneous Element called the World-Soul,' implying a single underlying substance from which all multiplicity arises.