It comes to this: Mankind in its first prototypal, shadowy form, is the offspring of the Elohim of Life (or Pitris); in its qualitative and physical aspect it is the direct progeny of the "Ancestors," the lowest Dhyanis, or Spirits of the Earth; for its moral, psychic, and spiritual nature, it is indebted to a group of divine Beings, the name and characteristics of which will be given in Book II.
Collectively, men are the handiwork of hosts of various spirits; distributively, the tabernacles of those hosts; and occasionally and singly, the vehicles of some of them.
In our present all-material Fifth Race, the earthly Spirit of the [[Vol.
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Fourth is still strong in us; but we are approaching the time when the pendulum of evolution will direct its swing decidedly upwards, bringing Humanity back on a parallel line with the primitive third Root-Race in Spirituality.
During its childhood, mankind was composed wholly of that Angelic Host, who were the indwelling Spirits that animated the monstrous and gigantic tabernacles of clay of the Fourth Race built by (as they are now also) and composed of countless myriads of lives.* This sentence will be explained later on in the present Commentary.
The "tabernacles" have improved in texture and symmetry of form, growing and developing with the globe that bore them; but the physical improvement took place at the expense of the spiritual inner man and nature.
The three middle principles in earth and man became with every race more material; the Soul stepping back to make room for the physical intellect; the essence of elements becoming the material and composite elements now known.
Man is not, nor could he ever be, the complete product of the "Lord God"; but he is the child of the Elohim , so arbitrarily changed into the singular masculine gender.
The first Dhyanis, commissioned to "create" man in their image, could only throw off their shadows, like a delicate model for the Nature Spirits of matter to work upon.
(See Book II.) Man is, beyond any doubt, formed physically out of the dust of the Earth, but his creators and fashioners were many.
Nor can it be said that the "Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," unless that God is identified with the " O NE L IFE," Omnipresent though invisible, and unless the same operation is attributed to "God" on behalf of every living Soul -- or Nephesch , which is the vital Soul, not the divine Spirit or Ruach , which ensures to man alone a divine degree of immortality, that no animal, as such, could ever attain in this cycle of incarnation.
It is the inadequate distinctions made by the Jews, and now by our Western metaphysicians, who, not knowing of, and being unable to understand, hence to accept, more than a triune man -- Spirit, Soul, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Science, dimly perceiving the truth, may find Bacteria and other infinitesimals in the human body, and see in them but occasional and abnormal visitors to which diseases are attributed.
Occultism -- which discerns a life in every atom and molecule, whether in a mineral or human body, in air, fire or water -- affirms that our whole body is built of such lives, the smallest bacteria under the microscope being to them in comparative size like an elephant to the tiniest infusoria.
[[Vol.
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Body -- thus confuse the "breath of life" with immortal Spirit.* This applies also directly to the Protestant theologians, who, in translating verse 8 of Ch.
III.
in the Fourth Gospel, have entirely perverted the meaning.
Indeed the verse is made to say "The wind bloweth where it listeth," instead of "the Spirit goeth where it willeth," as in the original and also in the translation of the Greek Eastern Church.
Thus the philosophy of psychic, spiritual, and mental relations with man's physical functions is in almost inextricable confusion.
Neither the old Aryan, nor the Egyptian psychology are now properly understood.
Nor can they be assimilated without accepting the esoteric septenary, or, at any rate, the Vedantic quinquepartite division of the human inner principles.
Failing which, it will be for ever impossible to understand the metaphysical and purely psychic and even physiological relations between the Dhyan-Chohans, or Angels, on the one plane, and humanity on the other.
No Eastern (Aryan) esoteric works are so far published, but we possess the Egyptian papyri which speak clearly [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The learned and very philosophical author of "New Aspects of Life" would impress upon his reader that the Nephesh chaiah (living soul), according to the Hebrews, "proceeded from, or was produced by, the infusion of the Spirit or Breath of Life into the quickening body of man, and was to supersede and take the place of that spirit in the thus constituted self, so that the spirit passed into, was lost sight of, and disappeared in the living Soul." The human body, he thinks, ought to be viewed as a matrix in which, and from which, the Soul (which he seems to place higher than the spirit) is developed -- considered functionally and from the standpoint of activity, the Soul stands undeniably higher in this finite and conditioned world of Maya -- the Soul, he says, "is ultimately produced from the animated body of man." Thus the author identifies "Spirit" (Atma) simply with "the breath of life." The Eastern Occultists will demur to this statement, for it is based on the erroneous conception that Prana and Atma or Jivatma are one and the same thing.
The author supports the argument by showing that with the ancient Hebrews, Greeks and even Latins, Ruach , Pneuma and Spiritus -- with the Jews undeniably, and with the Greeks and Romans very probably -- meant Wind; the Greek word Anemos (wind) and the Latin Anima "Soul" having a suspicious relation.
This is very far fetched.
A legitimate battle-field for deciding this question is hardly to be found, since Mr.
Pratt seems to be a practical, matter-of-fact metaphysician, a kind of Kabalist-Positivist, and the Eastern metaphysicians, especially the Vedantins, are all Idealists.
The Occultists are also of the extreme esoteric Vedantin school, and they call the One Life (Parabrahm), the Great Breath and the Whirlwind; but they disconnect the seventh principle entirely from matter or any relation to, or connection with it.
[[Vol.
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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 draws parallels between the human inner principles and the cosmic spiritual hierarchy (Dhyan-Chohans), and between the physical improvement of tabernacles and the spiritual regression of the inner man.
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 multi-agent origin of mankind: the Elohim providing the prototypal form, the Dhyanis providing the physical aspect, and other divine beings providing the moral and spiritual nature.
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 passage states that the 'One Life' is omnipresent, that 'Occultism discerns a life in every atom and molecule, whether in a mineral or human body, in air, fire or water,' and that the whole body is built of such lives.
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 chain of divine beings (Elohim/Pitris, Dhyanis, Nature Spirits) each contributing to the formation of humanity, with the Dhyanis throwing off shadows for lower spirits to work upon.
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 appeals to the 'old Aryan' and 'Egyptian' psychology and the 'Egyptian papyri' as authoritative sources for the esoteric septenary, implying a chain of transmission across traditions.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage is itself esoteric teaching, referencing 'Book II' for further explanation and presenting knowledge that 'our Western metaphysicians' cannot understand or accept.
The doctrine that the divine or a spiritual principle takes on a specific, bounded material or bodily form — descending from an unconditioned state into individual, corporeal existence — as a discrete act rather than a diffuse pervading presence. The Christian Word made flesh, the Hindu avatara, the Egyptian pharaoh as living Horus, the Vajrayana tulku. Distinct from divine_immanence (the general claim that the divine pervades all of creation diffusely, not a specific embodiment-event) and separation_from_source (the felt exile FROM origin, the opposite motion) in describing a specific, individuated descent INTO a particular body or form.
The passage describes the specific descent of spirit into material form: the Dhyanis throwing off shadows, the Spirit falling into matter, and the 'breath of life' being breathed into the nostrils as a discrete act of individuation.
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 extensively describes hosts of spirits, angels (Dhyan-Chohans), and divine beings that inhabit and animate the physical world as invisible indwelling forces, with the whole body built of such lives.
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 page heading 'SPIRIT FALLING INTO MATTER' and the description of the three middle principles becoming more material with each race, the Soul stepping back to make room for physical intellect, constitute a central theme of this passage: the structured descent of spirit into matter paired with its eventual evolutionary return.
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 connects the human inner principles (septenary, Vedantic quinquepartite division) to the Dhyan-Chohans on a higher plane, making the human a mirror of the cosmic spiritual structure.
The state of a person being controlled or inhabited by an external spirit or entity — the entity as subject acting through the person's body, rather than merely troubling them from without. Distinct from haunting (a discarnate soul or place-bound presence that interferes without necessarily entering and controlling a living body) and from spirit_conjuration (an operator deliberately commanding a spirit's appearance, the reverse relation — here the spirit is uninvited and in control, not summoned and subordinated).
The passage states that men are 'distributively, the tabernacles of those hosts; and occasionally and singly, the vehicles of some of them,' describing spirits inhabiting human bodies.
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
The 'pendulum of evolution' swinging from material to spiritual and back is a direct expression of the rhythmic/pendulum doctrine operating in the cosmic-historical register.
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
The passage explicitly distinguishes Nephesch (vital Soul) from Ruach (divine Spirit) from the physical body, and references the 'esoteric septenary' and 'Vedantic quinquepartite division of the human inner principles,' making the multi-principled structure of the human being a central topic.