In order to form a clear conception of what is meant by the One becoming two, and then being transformed into the "three-fold," the student has to make himself thoroughly acquainted with what we call "Rounds." If he refers to "Esoteric Buddhism" -- the first attempt to sketch out an approximate outline of archaic Cosmogony -- he will find that by a "Round" is meant the serial evolution of nascent material nature, of the seven globes of our chain* with their mineral, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Several inimical critics are anxious to prove that no seven principles of man nor septenary constitution of our chain were taught in our earlier volume, "Isis Unveiled." Though in that work the doctrine could only be hinted at, there are many passages, nevertheless, in which the septenary constitution of both man and chain is openly mentioned.
Speaking of the Elohim in Vol.
II., page 420, it is said: "They remain over the seventh heaven (or spiritual world), for it is they who, according to the Kabalists, formed in succession the six material worlds, or rather, attempts at worlds that preceded our own, which, they say, is the seventh." Our globe is, of course, upon the diagram representing the "chain," the seventh and the lowest; though, [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
1, Page]] 232 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
vegetable, and animal kingdoms (man being there included in the latter and standing at the head of it) during the whole period of a life-cycle.
The latter would be called by the Brahmins "a Day of Brahma." It is, in short, one revolution of the "Wheel" (our planetary chain), which is composed of seven globes (or seven separate "Wheels," in another sense this time).
When evolution has run downward into matter, from planet A to planet G, or Z, as the Western students call it, it is one Round.
In the middle of the Fourth revolution, which is our present "Round": "Evolution has reached its acme of physical development, crowned its work with the perfect physical man, and, from this point, begins its work spirit-ward." All this needs little repetition, as it is well explained in "Esoteric Buddhism." That which was hardly touched upon, and of which the little that was said has misled many, is the origin of man, and it is upon this that a little more light may now be thrown, just enough to make the Stanza more comprehensible, as the process will be fully explained only in its legitimate place, in Book II.
Now every "Round" (on the descending scale) is but a repetition in a more concrete form of the Round which preceded it, as every globe -- down to our fourth sphere (the actual earth) -- is a grosser and more material copy of the more shadowy sphere which precedes it in their successive order, on the three higher planes.
(See diagram in Stanza VI.
Comm.
6).
On its way upwards on the ascending arc, Evolution spiritualises and etherealises, so to speak, the general nature of all, bringing it on to a level with the plane on which the twin globe on the opposite side is placed; the result being, that when the seventh globe is reached (in whatever Round) the nature of everything that is evolving returns to the condition it was in at its starting point -- plus, every time, a new and superior degree in the states of consciousness.
Thus it becomes clear that the "origin of man," so-called, on this our present [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] as the evolution on these globes is cyclic, it is the fourth in descending the arc of matter.
And again, on page 367, Vol.
II., it is written: "In the Egyptian notions, as in those of all other faiths founded on philosophy , man was not merely .
.
.
an union of soul and body; he was a trinity when spirit was added to it; and besides that doctrine made him consist of body, astral form, or shadow, the animal soul, the higher soul, and terrestrial intelligence and a sixth principle, etc., etc.
-- the seventh -- S PIRIT." So clearly are these principles mentioned, that even in the Index , one finds on page 683: -- \"Six principles of man" -- the seventh being the synthesis of the six, and not a principle but a ray of the Absolute A LL -- in strict truth.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 233 WHAT INCARNATES IN ANIMAL MAN.
Round, or life-cycle on this planet, must occupy the same place in the same order -- save details based on local conditions and time -- as in the preceding Round.
Again, it must be explained and remembered that, as the work of each Round is said to be apportioned to a different group of so-called "Creators" or "Architects," so is that of every globe; i.e.
, it is under the supervision and guidance of special "Builders" and "Watchers" -- the various Dhyan-Chohans.
The group of the hierarchy which is commissioned to "create"* men is a special group, then; yet it evolved shadowy man in this cycle just as a higher and still more spiritual group evolved him in the Third Round.
But as it is the Sixth -- on the downward scale of Spirituality -- the last and seventh being the terrestrial Spirits (elementals) which gradually form, build, and condense his physical body -- this Sixth group evolves no more than the future man's shadowy form, a filmy, hardly visible transparent copy of themselves.
It becomes the task of the fifth Hierarchy -- the mysterious beings that preside over the constellation Capricornus, Makara, or "Crocodile" in India as in Egypt -- to inform the empty and ethereal animal form and make of it the Rational Man.
This is one of those subjects upon which very little may be said to the general public.
It is a MYSTERY, truly, but only to him who is prepared to reject the existence of intellectual and conscious spiritual Beings in the Universe, limiting full Consciousness to man alone, and that only as a "function of the Brain." Many are those among the Spiritual Entities, who have incarnated bodily in man, since the beginning of his appearance, and who, for all that, still exist as independently as they did before, in the infinitudes of Space.
.
.
.
To put it more clearly: the invisible Entity may be bodily present on earth without abandoning, however, its status and functions in the supersensuous regions.
If this needs explanation, we can do no better than remind the reader of like cases in Spiritualism, though such cases are very rare, at least as regards the nature of the Entity incarnating,** [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Creation is an incorrect word to use, as no religion, not even the sect of the Visishta Adwaitees in India -- one which anthropomorphises even Parabrahmam -- believes in creation out of nihil as Christians and Jews do, but in evolution out of preexisting materials.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The passage states that 'when the seventh globe is reached (in whatever Round) the nature of everything that is evolving returns to the condition it was in at its starting point — plus, every time, a new and superior degree in the states of consciousness,' describing periodic restoration with progressive elevation.
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.
Each globe is described as 'a grosser and more material copy of the more shadowy sphere which precedes it,' and the ascending arc brings each level 'on to a level with the plane on which the twin globe on the opposite side is placed,' establishing structural reflection across levels.
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 addresses the origin of the cosmos through 'the One becoming two, and then being transformed into the three-fold' and the serial evolution of nascent material nature through successive Rounds.
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 chain of seven globes each being 'a grosser and more material copy of the more shadowy sphere which precedes it,' with hierarchies of Dhyan-Chohans at different levels, and the One becoming two then three-fold.
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 references 'Esoteric Buddhism' as a prior work and 'archaic Cosmogony' as a tradition being transmitted, implying a chain of esoteric teaching across works and traditions.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly states 'This is one of those subjects upon which very little may be said to the general public. It is a MYSTERY, truly,' indicating esoteric concealment of deeper teaching.
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 how 'the invisible Entity may be bodily present on earth without abandoning, however, its status and functions in the supersensuous regions,' and how spiritual hierarchies incarnate or descend to form material aspects of man.
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 'supersensuous regions,' an 'invisible Entity' bodily present on earth without abandoning its status there, and 'shadowy' and 'filmy, hardly visible transparent' forms on higher planes.
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's central theme is the structured descent of spirit into matter ('evolution has run downward into matter, from planet A to planet G') complemented by its return ('begins its work spirit-ward'), with each Round being a repetition in 'a more concrete form' of the preceding one.
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 septenary constitution of man is explicitly paralleled with the septenary chain of globes, and the 'origin of man' on this planet 'must occupy the same place in the same order' as in the cosmic scheme.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The septenary constitution is central throughout: seven globes, seven principles of man, seven hierarchies, the 'Day of Brahma' as one cycle, with the number seven structuring the entire cosmological scheme.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The ascending arc 'spiritualises and etherealises' all things, bringing them back to the condition of the starting point plus a new degree of consciousness, describing a return with progressive elevation.
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 passage describes a cyclic pendulum motion: evolution runs 'downward into matter' from A to G, then 'begins its work spirit-ward' on the ascending arc, with each Round being 'one revolution of the Wheel.'
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 passage opens with 'the One becoming two, and then being transformed into the three-fold,' and the footnote explicitly describes man as 'a trinity when spirit was added' to soul and body, mapping the universal three-aspected pattern.
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
The footnote explicitly states 'man was not merely an union of soul and body; he was a trinity when spirit was added to it,' and the passage describes the evolution of shadowy form, rational mind, and physical body as distinct principles.