Although these matters were barely hinted at in " Isis Unveiled ," it will be well to remind the reader of what was said in Vol.
I., pp.
587 to 593, concerning a certain Sacred Island in Central Asia, and to refer him for further details to the chapter in Book II.
on "The Sons of God and the Sacred Island." A few more explanations, however, though thrown out in a fragmentary form, may help the student to obtain a glimpse into the present mystery.
To state at least one detail concerning these mysterious "Sons of God" in plain words.
It is from them, these Brahmaputras, that the high Dwijas, the initiated Brahmins of old justly claimed descent, while the modern Brahmin would have the lowest castes believe literally that they issued direct from the mouth of Brahma.
This is the esoteric teaching, which adds moreover that, although these descendants (spiritually of course) from the "sons of Will and Yoga," became in time divided into opposite sexes, as their " Kriyasakti " progenitors did themselves, later on; yet even their degenerate descendants have down to the present day retained a veneration and respect for the creative [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] of those architectural proportions that the Ancients could build those wonders of all the subsequent ages, their Fanes, Pyramids, Cave-Temples, Cromlechs, Cairns, Altars, proving they had the powers of machinery and a knowledge of mechanics to which modern skill is like a child's play, and which that skill refers to itself as the 'works of hundred-handed giants.'" ( See " Book of God ," Kenealy.
) Modern architects may not altogether have neglected those rules, but they have superadded enough empirical innovations to destroy those just proportions.
It is Vitruvius who gave to posterity the rules of construction of the Grecian temples erected to the immortal gods; and the ten books of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio on Architecture, of one, in short, who was an initiate , can only be studied esoterically.
The Druidical circles, the Dolmen, the Temples of India, Egypt and Greece, the Towers and the 127 towns in Europe which were found "Cyclopean in origin" by the French Institute, are all the work of initiated Priest-Architects, the descendants of those primarily taught by the "Sons of God," justly called "The Builders." This is what appreciative posterity says of those descendants.
"They used neither mortar nor cement, nor steel nor iron to cut the stones with; and yet they were so artfully wrought that in many places the joints are not seen, though many of the stones, as in Peru, are 18 ft.
thick, and in the walls of the fortress of Cuzco there are stones of a still greater size." ( Acosta , vi., 14.) "Again, the walls of Syene, built 5,400 years ago, when that spot was exactly under the tropic, which it has now ceased to be, were so constructed that at noon, at the precise moment of the solar solstice, the entire disc of the Sun was seen reflected on their surface -- a work which the united skill of all the astronomers of Europe would not now be able to effect." -- (Kenealy, " Book of God.
") [[Vol.
1, Page]] 210 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
function, and still regard it in the light of a religious ceremony, whereas the more civilized nations consider it as a mere animal function.
Compare the western views and practice in these matters with the Institutions of Manu in regard to the laws of Grihasta and married life.
The true Brahmin is thus indeed "he whose seven forefathers have drunk the juice of the moon-plant (Soma)," and who is a "Trisuparna," for he has understood the secret of the Vedas.
And, to this day, such Brahmins know that, during its early beginnings, psychic and physical intellect being dormant and consciousness still undeveloped, the spiritual conceptions of that race were quite unconnected with its physical surroundings.
That divine man dwelt in his animal -- though externally human -- form; and, if there was instinct in him, no self-consciousness came to enlighten the darkness of the latent fifth principle.
When, moved by the law of Evolution, the Lords of Wisdom infused into him the spark of consciousness, the first feeling it awoke to life and activity was a sense of solidarity, of one-ness with his spiritual creators.
As the child's first feeling is for its mother and nurse, so the first aspirations of the awakening consciousness in primitive man were for those whose element he felt within himself, and who yet were outside, and independent of him.
D EVOTION arose out of that feeling, and became the first and foremost motor in his nature; for it is the only one which is natural in our heart, which is innate in us, and which we find alike in human babe and the young of the animal.
This feeling of irrepressible, instinctive aspiration in primitive man is beautifully, and one may say intuitionally, described by Carlyle.
"The great antique heart," he exclaims, "how like a child's in its simplicity, like a man's in its earnest solemnity and depth!
heaven lies over him wheresoever he goes or stands on the earth; making all the earth a mystic temple to him, the earth's business all a kind of worship.
Glimpses of bright creatures flash in the common sunlight; angels yet hover, doing God's messages among men .
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Wonder, miracle, encompass the man; he lives in an element of miracle* .
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A great law of duty, high as these two infinitudes (heaven and hell), dwarfing all else, annihilating all else -- it was a reality, and it is one: the garment [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * That which was natural in the sight of primitive man has become only now miracle to us; and that which was to him a miracle could never be expressed in our language.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 211 THE SONS OF WISDOM.
only of it is dead; the essence of it lives through all times and all eternity!" It lives undeniably, and has settled in all its ineradicable strength and power in the Asiatic Aryan heart from the Third Race direct through its first "mind-born" sons, -- the fruits of Kriyasakti.
As time rolled on the holy caste of Initiates produced but rarely, and from age to age, such perfect creatures: beings apart, inwardly, though the same as those who produced them, outwardly.
While in the infancy of the third primitive race: -- "A creature of a more exalted kind Was wanting yet, and therefore was designed; Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast For empire formed and fit to rule the rest.
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The path of loving devotion and self-surrender to a personal deity as itself sufficient means of liberation — the Gita's 'to those constantly devoted, I come forward as their deliverer,' Kabir's and the Sant poets' love-religion, the devotional stream that parallels Sufi love-mysticism. Distinct from mystical_union (the resulting state), fana_annihilation (the ego's unmaking at the path's end), ladder_of_love (eros staged toward Beauty), and prayer (the practice of address): bhakti names devotion as the soteriological road itself.
The passage explicitly states 'DEvotion arose out of that feeling, and became the first and foremost motor in his nature; for it is the only one which is natural in our heart, which is innate in us,' naming devotion as the primary soteriological force.
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 the origin of the Third Race: the dormant state, the infusion of consciousness by the Lords of Wisdom, the first feeling of solidarity, and the arising of devotion — a temporally-narrative account of how the race came to be.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
The passage explicitly states 'the Lords of Wisdom infused into him the spark of consciousness,' describing a fragment of divine spirit entering a material body.
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 hierarchical descent from the 'Sons of God' (Brahmaputras) through the high Dwijas to initiated Brahmins to modern Brahmins, with each level less perfect than the one above.
The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition.
The passage states that 'the first feeling it awoke to life and activity was a sense of solidarity' and that 'DEvotion arose out of that feeling, and became the first and foremost motor in his nature; for it is the only one which is natural in our heart,' elevating feeling as the primary mode of knowing the divine.
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 chain of spiritual transmission from the 'Sons of God' through the 'high Dwijas' to initiated Brahmins, and notes that 'the holy caste of Initiates produced but rarely, and from age to age, such perfect creatures.'
The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).
The passage explicitly states that the spiritual progenitors 'became in time divided into opposite sexes, as their Kriyasakti progenitors did themselves, later on,' presenting the masculine-feminine principle as a structural feature operating on the spiritual plane.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly frames its content as 'the esoteric teaching,' refers to 'the present mystery,' and presents explanations 'in a fragmentary form' reserved for the student, concealing deeper meaning.
The ritual admission of an individual into esoteric knowledge or a sacred order through a formal rite of passage — testing, ordeal, or ceremony — marking a definite before/after threshold in the initiate's status and access. Distinct from hidden_sayings (the doctrine being concealed, not the rite of admission to it) and esoteric_lineage (the historical chain of transmission across generations, not a single individual's admission).
The passage refers to 'the initiated Brahmins of old' and Vitruvius as 'one, in short, who was an initiate,' implying a formal threshold of admission into esoteric knowledge.
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 process of spirit descending into matter: the Lords of Wisdom infusing the spark of consciousness into the dormant primitive being, tracing the staged descent from spiritual creators to embodied human form.
Organized, persisting groups — fraternities, orders, lodges — that maintain esoteric knowledge or practices as an institution distinct from public religion or mainstream society, holding 'the keys' collectively rather than through any one master-disciple pair. Distinct from esoteric_lineage (a genealogical chain of individual transmission, not an institution) and hidden_sayings (the concealment of a teaching's meaning, independent of whether any organized body holds it).
The 'holy caste of Initiates' who 'produced but rarely, and from age to age, such perfect creatures' functions as an organized esoteric group maintaining knowledge distinct from the general populace.