But there is still as little cause to regard them as devils, and this is precisely what the Roman Catholics maintain against all reason and logic.
( b ) The concluding sentence of this sloka shows how archaic is the belief and the doctrine that man is seven-fold in his constitution.
The thread of being which animates man and passes through all his personalities, or rebirths on this Earth (an allusion to Sutratma), the thread on which moreover all his "Spirits" are strung -- is spun from the essence of the "threefold," the "fourfold" and the "fivefold"; which contain all the preceding.
Panchasikha , agreeably to Bhagavata Purana (V.
XX.
25-28), is one of the seven Kumaras who go to Sveta-Dvipa to worship Vishnu.
We shall see further on, what connection there is between the "celibate" and chaste sons of Brahma, who refuse "to multiply," and terrestrial mortals.
Meanwhile it is evident that "the Man-Plant," Saptaparna, thus refers to the seven principles, and man is compared to the seven-leaved plant of this name* so sacred among Buddhists.
For further details as to Saptaparna and the importance of the number seven in occultism, as well as in symbology, the reader is referred to Part II., Book II., on Symbolism: Sections on " Saptaparna ," "The Septenary in the Vedas," etc.
etc.
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The Egyptian allegory in the "Book of the Dead" already mentioned, the hymn that relates to the reward "of the Soul," is as suggestive of our Septenary Doctrine as it is poetical.
The deceased is allotted a piece of land in the field of Aanroo, wherein the Manes, the deified shades of the dead, glean, as the harvest they have sown by their actions in life, the corn seven cubits high, which grows in a territory divided into 14 and 7 portions.
This corn is the food on which they live and prosper, or that will kill them, in Amenti, the realm of which the Aanroo field is a domain.
For, as said in the hymn, (see chap.
xxxii.
9) the deceased is either destroyed therein, or becomes pure spirit for the Eternity, in consequence of the "Seven times seventy-seven lives" passed or to be passed on Earth.
The idea of the corn reaped as the "fruit of our actions" is very graphic.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 237 THE IMMORTAL ROOT.
STANZA VII.
-- Continued.
4.
I T IS THE ROOT THAT NEVER DIES, THE THREE-TONGUED FLAME OF THE FOUR WICKS* ( a ) .
.
.
T HE WICKS ARE THE SPARKS, THAT DRAW FROM THE THREE-TONGUED FLAME ( their upper triad ) SHOT OUT BY THE SEVEN, THEIR FLAME; THE BEAMS AND SPARKS OF ONE MOON REFLECTED IN THE RUNNING WAVES OF ALL THE RIVERS OF THE EARTH (" Bhumi ," or " Prithivi ")** ( b ) .
( a ) The "Three-tongued flame" that never dies is the immortal spiritual triad -- the Atma-Buddhi and Manas -- the fruition of the latter assimilated by the first two after every terrestrial life.
The "four wicks" that go out and are extinguished, are the four lower principles, including the body.
"I am the three-wicked Flame and my wicks are immortal," says the defunct.
"I enter into the domain of Sekhem (the God whose arm sows the seed of action produced by the disembodied soul) and I enter the region of the Flames who have destroyed their adversaries," i.e.
, got rid of the sin-creating "four wicks." (See chap.
i., vii., "Book of the Dead," and the "Mysteries of Ro-stan.") ( b ) Just as milliards of bright sparks dance on the waters of an ocean above which one and the same moon is shining, so our evanescent personalities -- the illusive envelopes of the immortal MONAD-EGO -- twinkle and dance on the waves of Maya.
They last and appear, as the thousands of sparks produced by the moon-beams, only so long as the Queen of the Night radiates her lustre on the running waters of life: the period of a Manvantara; and then they disappear, the beams -- symbols of our eternal Spiritual Egos -- alone surviving, re-merged in, and being, as they were before, one with the Mother-Source.
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The three-tongued flame of the four wicks corresponds to the four unities and the three Binaries of the Sephirothal tree (see Commentary on Stanza VI.).
** Useless to repeat again that the terms given here are Sanskrit translations; for the original terms, unknown and unheard of in Europe, would only puzzle the reader more, and serve no useful purpose.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The passage states that after the Manvantara the sparks disappear and the beams 're-merge in, and being, as they were before, one with the Mother-Source,' implying a cyclical restoration.
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 explicit analogies between the seven principles of man and the seven-leaved plant (Saptaparna), and between the eternal Spiritual Egos and moon-beams reflected in water, mapping cosmic structure onto human constitution.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
The moon and its beams are used as symbols of the eternal Spiritual Egos, with the 'lustre' of the Queen of the Night radiating on the waters of life as a metaphor for divine illumination.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
The 'beams and sparks of one moon reflected in the running waves' are explicitly identified as symbols of 'our eternal Spiritual Egos' trapped in evanescent material personalities.
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 cascade of principles (threefold, fourfold, fivefold, sevenfold) with the spiritual triad above the four lower principles, and beams/sharks shot out from a single source (the Mother-Source) that re-merge into it.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage refers the reader to further esoteric sections ('Part II., Book II., on Symbolism') and frames the teaching as requiring specialized occult knowledge to interpret.
The deeper aspect of the individual's own consciousness aligned with divine or spiritual truth, distinct from the ego or everyday personality — a locus of guidance and identity that can speak with its own recognisable 'voice' in moments of crisis, carrying memory or knowledge the ordinary self lacks. Distinct from inner_light (a static luminous quality or spark, not an alternate seat of identity and agency) and kingdom_within (the claim that the divine realm generally is present inside the individual, not this specific personal higher consciousness).
The immortal MONAD-EGO and the spiritual triad (Atma-Buddhi and Manas) are described as the deeper, enduring aspect of the individual distinct from the evanescent personalities.
The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection.
The 'three-tongued flame that never dies' as the immortal spiritual triad within man represents an inner luminous divine quality persisting through all rebirths.
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 subtle principles (Sutratma, the spiritual triad, the four lower principles) and the 'running waves of Maya' as a non-physical dimension interpenetrating physical life.
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 spirit descending into matter (the four wicks as lower principles) and its complementary return (re-merging with the Mother-Source), tracing a directional process of descent and ascent.
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.
Man is explicitly compared to the seven-leaved plant (Saptaparna) as a 'Man-Plant,' and the seven principles of human constitution are presented as mirroring the cosmic sevenfold structure.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The passage explicitly names 'the immortal MONAD-EGO' as the undivided reality behind the evanescent personalities, which are merely 'illusive envelopes' of it.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The number seven is treated as fundamentally significant throughout: the seven principles, the seven-leaved plant, 'seven times seventy-seven lives,' the territory divided into 14 and 7 portions, and the corn seven cubits high.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The passage explicitly describes the beams (eternal Spiritual Egos) 're-merged in, and being, as they were before, one with the Mother-Source' after the Manvantara cycle.
The passage centrally describes 'the thread of being which animates man and passes through all his personalities, or rebirths on this Earth,' making transmigration the core subject.
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
The passage explicitly divides the human constitution into the 'immortal spiritual triad' (Atma-Buddhi and Manas) and the 'four lower principles, including the body,' a clear tripartite-plus structure.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage asserts that all the evanescent sparks are reflections of 'one moon' and that the beams are ultimately 'one with the Mother-Source,' implying an underlying oneness.