These, Tsanagi-Tsanami , descended into the Universe by the celestial Bridge (the milky way), and " Tsanagi , perceiving far below a chaotic mass of cloud and water, thrust his jewelled spear into the depths, and dry land appeared." Then the two separated to explore Onokoro , the newly-created island-world; etc., etc.
( Omoie ) .
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 218 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Such are the Japanese exoteric fables, the rind that conceals the kernel of the same one truth of the Secret Doctrine.
Turning back to the esoteric explanations in every cosmogony: -- ( d ) The Third order corresponds to the Atma-Buddhi-Manas: Spirit, Soul and Intellect, and is called the "Triads." ( e ) The Fourth are substantial Entities.
This is the highest group among the Rupas (Atomic Forms*).
It is the nursery of the human, conscious, spiritual Souls.
They are called the "Imperishable Jivas," and constitute, through the order below their own, the first group of the first septenary** host -- the great mystery of human conscious and [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * It is worthy of notice that, while rejecting as a superstition of Occultism, and religion too, the theory of substantial and invisible Beings called Angels, Elementals, etc.
-- without, of course, having ever looked into the philosophy of these incorporeal Entities, or thought over them -- modern chemistry, owing to observation and discovery, should have unconsciously been forced to adopt and recognize the same ratio of progression and order in the evolution of chemical atoms as Occultism does, both for its Dhyanis and Atoms -- analogy being its first law.
As seen above, the very first group of the Rupa Angels is quaternary, an element being added to each in descending order.
So are the atoms, adopting the phraseology of chemistry, monatomic, diatomic, and tetratomic, progressing downwards.
Let it be remembered that Fire, Water, and Air, or the "Elements of primary Creation" so-called, are not the compound Elements they are on Earth, but noumenal homogeneous Elements -- the Spirits thereof.
Then follow the septenary groups or hosts.
Placed on parallel lines in a diagram with Atoms, the Natures of those Beings would be seen to correspond in their downward scale of progression to composite elements in a mathematically identical manner, as to analogy.
This refers, of course, only to diagrams made by the Occultists; for were the scale of Angelic Beings to be placed on a parallel line with the scale of the chemical atoms of Science -- from the hypothetical Helium down to Uranium -- they would of course be found to differ.
For these have, as correspondents on the Astral plane, only the four lowest orders -- the higher three principles in the atom, or rather molecule or chemical element, being perceptible only to the initiated Dangma's eye.
But then, if Chemistry desired to find itself on the right path, it would have to correct its tabular arrangement by that of the Occultists -- which it may refuse to do.
In Esoteric Philosophy, every physical particle corresponds to and depends on its higher noumenon -- the Being to whose essence it belongs; and above as below, the Spiritual evolves from the Divine, the psycho-mental from the Spiritual -- tainted from its lower plane by the astral -- the whole animate and (seemingly) inanimate Nature evolving on parallel lines, and drawing its attributes from above as well as from below.
** The number seven does not imply only seven Entities, but seven groups or Hosts, as explained before.
The highest group, the Asuras born in Brahma's first body -- [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
1, Page]] 219 THE HIERARCHIES OF SPIRITS.
intellectual Being.
For the latter are the field wherein lies concealed in its privation the germ that will fall into generation.
That germ will become the spiritual potency in the physical cell that guides the development of the embryo, and which is the cause of the hereditary transmission of faculties and all the inherent qualities in man.
The Darwinian theory, however, of the transmission of acquired faculties, is neither taught nor accepted in Occultism.
Evolution, in it, proceeds on quite other lines; the physical, according to esoteric teaching, evolving gradually from the spiritual, mental, and psychic.
This inner soul of the physical cell -- this "spiritual plasm" that dominates the germinal plasm -- is the key that must open one day the gates of the terra incognita of the Biologist, now called the dark mystery of Embryology.
( See text and note infra.
) ( f ) The Fifth group is a very mysterious one, as it is connected with the Microcosmic Pentagon, the five-pointed star representing man.
In India and Egypt these Dhyanis were connected with the Crocodile, and their abode is in Capricornus.
These are convertible terms in Indian astrology, as this (tenth) sign of the Zodiac is called Makara , loosely translated "crocodile." The word itself is occultly interpreted in various ways, as will be shown further on.
In Egypt the defunct man -- whose symbol is the pentagram or the five-pointed star, the points of which represent the limbs of a man -- was shown emblematically transformed into a crocodile: Sebakh or Sevekh "or seventh," as Mr.
Gerald Massey says, showing it as having been the type of intelligence, is a dragon in reality, not a crocodile.
He is the "Dragon of Wisdom" or Manas, the "Human Soul," Mind, the Intelligent principle, called in our esoteric philosophy the "Fifth" principle.
Says the defunct "Osirified" in ch.
lxxxviii., "Book of the Dead," or the Ritual , under the glyph of a mummiform god with a crocodile's head: -- (1) "I am the god (crocodile) presiding at the fear .
.
.
at the arrival of his Soul among men.
I am the god-crocodile brought for destruction" (an allusion to the destruction of divine spiritual purity [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] which turned into "Night" -- are septenary, i.e.
, divided like the Pitris into seven classes, three of which are arupa (bodiless) and four with bodies.
(See Vishnu Purana, Book I.) They are in fact more truly our Pitris (ancestors) than the Pitris who projected the first physical men.
(See Book II.) [[Vol.
1, Page]] 220 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
when man acquires the knowledge of good and evil; also to the "fallen" gods, or angels of every theogony).
(2) "I am the fish of the great Horus (as Mankara is the "crocodile," the vehicle of Varuna).
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 states 'every physical particle corresponds to and depends on its higher noumenon' and explicitly draws parallel lines between angelic beings and chemical atoms 'in a mathematically identical manner, as to analogy,' embodying the Hermetic axiom of structural reflection across scales.
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 opens with the Japanese creation narrative of Tsanagi-Tsanami descending the celestial Bridge and thrusting his spear to create dry land, and frames it as one instance of the universal cosmogonic truth.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
The statement that 'every physical particle corresponds to and depends on its higher noumenon' implies the divine pervades and sustains all of creation rather than remaining solely transcendent.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
The 'Imperishable Jivas' are described as 'the nursery of the human, conscious, spiritual Souls' containing 'the germ that will fall into generation' — fragments of divine spirit destined to incarnate in physical form.
Naturally-existing, non-human intelligences native to a single element — earth, air, fire, or water — rather than the fourfold-composite human nature: Paracelsus's gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines; the Deva Kingdom or fairy kingdom of Western occultism, forming their own parallel kingdom capable of incarnating in or forming relationships with humans. Distinct from artificial_elemental (a manufactured thought-entity deliberately created by a single operator, not a naturally-occurring species) and animism (the general doctrine that nature-places host indwelling spirits, of which this is one specific taxonomic system organised around the four elements rather than locality).
The passage describes 'Rupas (Atomic Forms),' 'Dhyanis,' and the 'Elements of primary Creation' as 'noumenal homogeneous Elements — the Spirits thereof' — non-human intelligences native to elemental planes forming their own parallel kingdom.
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 explicitly lays out a cascading hierarchy from Atma-Buddhi-Manas (Triads) through Rupas, Jivas, and septenary hosts, with the statement 'the Spiritual evolves from the Divine, the psycho-mental from the Spiritual' describing a structured descent from a higher source through successive levels.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly states that Japanese exoteric fables are 'the rind that conceals the kernel of the same one truth of the Secret Doctrine,' directly articulating the doctrine of outer narrative concealing inner liberating truth.
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 phrase 'perceptible only to the initiated Dangma's eye' references a threshold of access to knowledge, marking a before/after distinction in the initiate's perceptual status.
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 discusses 'substantial and invisible Beings called Angels, Elementals,' 'incorporeal Entities,' and the astral plane where higher principles are 'perceptible only to the initiated,' describing a non-physical dimension interpenetrating the physical world.
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 evolution as proceeding 'from the spiritual, mental, and psychic' down to the physical, with the 'germ that will fall into generation' in the physical cell, naming the directional process of spirit descending through successive planes 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 Fifth group is explicitly 'connected with the Microcosmic Pentagon, the five-pointed star representing man,' and the crocodile/dragon symbol is identified as 'Manas, the Human Soul, Mind, the Intelligent principle,' making the human the privileged mirror of cosmic structure.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage is structured around quaternary, triadic, and septenary groupings of beings, with explicit mathematical correspondence between the number of atomic forms and the number of angelic orders, treating numbers as the underlying structure of cosmic hierarchy.
The doctrine that reality has two registers — an Absolute truth as the divine or ultimate mind knows it, and a Relative truth as finite human reason perceives and must act on — with both held as legitimate on their own plane rather than the second being simply an error to correct. Distinct from apophatic_theology (a claim about how the divine may be described, by negation) and unity_of_being (a claim that being is ultimately one) in being a claim about two coexisting registers of truth-claim itself.
The distinction between 'exoteric fables' (outer register) and 'the kernel of the same one truth' (inner register) implies two coexisting levels of truth-claim, both legitimate on their own plane.
The doctrine that the one Godhead or first principle subsists as three co-equal aspects or persons rather than a bare unity — the Christian Father/Son/Holy Ghost invoked in the recurring liturgical formula 'In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' but structurally the same pattern as the Egyptian Amen/Ptah/Osiris, the Hindu Brahma/Vishnu/Siva, and the Kabbalistic Chochmah/Binah/Kether triads that esoteric writers explicitly map onto it as instances of one universal law. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about internal plurality) and divine_simplicity (God as having no parts or divisions at all) in asserting a definite three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
The 'Triads' (Spirit, Soul, Intellect) represent a three-aspected differentiation within the divine hierarchy, structurally parallel to the trinitarian pattern the text elsewhere maps across traditions.
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
The Third order is explicitly identified as 'Atma-Buddhi-Manas: Spirit, Soul and Intellect, and is called the Triads,' a three-principled division of the higher human nature.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The reference to 'the same one truth of the Secret Doctrine' underlying all cosmogonies implies an ultimate unity beneath the multiplicity of mythic expressions.