i., p.
302, is, first of all, shot down by the law of Evolution into the lowest form of matter -- the mineral.
After a sevenfold gyration encased in the stone (or that which will become mineral and stone in the Fourth Round), it creeps out of it, say, as a lichen.
Passing thence, through all the forms of vegetable matter, into what is termed animal matter, it has now reached the point in which it has become the germ, so to speak, of the [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The introductory chapters of Genesis were never meant to represent even a remote allegory of the creation of our Earth.
They embrace a metaphysical conception of some indefinite period in the eternity, when successive attempts were being made by the law of evolution at the formation of universes.
The idea is plainly stated in the Zohar: "There were old worlds, which perished as soon as they came into existence, were formless, and were called Sparks.
Thus, the smith, when hammering the iron, lets the sparks fly in all directions.
The sparks are the primordial worlds, which could not continue because the Sacred Aged (Sephira) had not as yet assumed its form (of androgyne, or opposite sexes) of King and Queen (Sephira and Kadmon), and the Master was not yet at his work." See Zohar, "Idra Suta," Book iii., p.
292, b.
The Supreme consulting with the Architect of the world -- his Logos -- about creation.
("Isis Unveiled," vol.
ii., p.
421.) [[Vol.
1, Page]] 247 SPIRIT ALONE IS HELPLESS ON EARTH.
animal, that will become the physical man.
All this, up to the Third Round, is formless, as matter, and senseless, as consciousness.
For the Monad or Jiva per se cannot be even called spirit: it is a ray, a breath of the A BSOLUTE, or the Absoluteness rather, and the Absolute Homogeneity, having no relations with the conditioned and relative finiteness, is unconscious on our plane.
Therefore, besides the material which will be needed for its future human form, the monad requires ( a ) a spiritual model, or prototype, for that material to shape itself into; and ( b ) an intelligent consciousness to guide its evolution and progress, neither of which is possessed by the homogeneous monad, or by senseless though living matter.
The Adam of dust requires the Soul of Life to be breathed into him: the two middle principles, which are the sentient life of the irrational animal and the Human Soul, for the former is irrational without the latter.
It is only when, from a potential androgyne, man has become separated into male and female, that he will be endowed with this conscious, rational, individual Soul, ( Manas ) "the principle, or the intelligence, of the Elohim," to receive which, he has to eat of the fruit of Knowledge from the Tree of Good and Evil.
How is he to obtain all this?
The Occult doctrine teaches that while the monad is cycling on downward into matter, these very Elohim -- or Pitris, the lower Dhyan-Chohans -- are evolving pari passu with it on a higher and more spiritual plane, descending also relatively into matter on their own plane of consciousness, when, after having reached a certain point, they will meet the incarnating senseless monad, encased in the lowest matter, and blending the two potencies, Spirit and Matter, the union will produce that terrestrial symbol of the "Heavenly Man" in space -- PERFECT MAN.
In the Sankhya philosophy, Purusha (spirit) is spoken of as something impotent unless he mounts on the shoulders of Prakriti (matter), which, left alone, is -- senseless.
But in the secret philosophy they are viewed as graduated.
Though one and the same thing in their origin, Spirit and Matter, when once they are on the plane of differentiation, begin each of them their evolutionary progress in contrary directions -- Spirit falling gradually into matter, and the latter ascending to its original condition, that of a pure spiritual substance.
Both are inseparable, yet ever separated.
In polarity, on the physical plane, two like poles will always repel each other, while the negative and the positive are mutually attracted, so do Spirit and Matter stand to each other -- the two poles of the same homogeneous substance, the root-principle of the universe.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 248 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Therefore, when the hour strikes for Purusha to mount on Prakriti's shoulders for the formation of the Perfect Man -- rudimentary man of the first 2 1/2 Races being only the first , gradually evolving into the most perfect of mammals -- the Celestial "Ancestors" (Entities from preceding worlds, called in India the Sishta) step in on this our plane, as the Pitris had stepped in before them for the formation of the physical or animal-man, and incarnate in the latter.
Thus the two processes -- for the two creations: the animal and the divine man -- differ greatly.
The Pitris shoot out from their ethereal bodies, still more ethereal and shadowy similitudes of themselves, or what we should now call "doubles," or "astral forms," in their own likeness.* This furnishes the Monad with its first dwelling, and blind matter with a model around and upon which to build henceforth.
But Man is still incomplete.
From Swayambhuva Manu (in Manu, Book I.), from whom descended the seven primitive Manus or Prajapati, each of whom gave birth to a primitive race of men, down to the Codex Nazareus, in which Karabtanos or Fetahil (blind concupiscent matter) begets on his Mother, "Spiritus," seven figures, each of which stands as the progenitor of one of the primaeval seven races -- this doctrine has left its impress on every Archaic Scripture.
"Who forms Manu (the Man) and who forms his body?
The L IFE and the L IVES.
Sin** and the MOON." Here Manu stands for the spiritual, heavenly man, the real and non-dying E GO in us, which is the direct emanation of the "One Life" or the Absolute Deity.
As to our outward physical bodies, the house of the tabernacle of the Soul, the Doctrine teaches a strange lesson; so strange that unless thoroughly explained and as rightly comprehended, it is only the exact Science of the future that is destined to vindicate the theory fully.
It has been stated before now that Occultism does not accept anything inorganic in the Kosmos.
The expression employed by Science, "inorganic substance," means simply that the latent life slumbering in the molecules of so-called "inert matter" is incognizable.
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 maps the same structural principle (polarity, androgyne, graduated descent/ascent) across the cosmic, spiritual, and human planes, implying each level reflects the others.
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 cosmos and life: from the Absolute through the Monad, through mineral, vegetable, animal stages, to the formation of Perfect Man, with the Zohar adding the pre-history of perished primordial worlds.
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 claim that 'Occultism does not accept anything inorganic in the Kosmos' and that 'latent life slumbering in the molecules of so-called inert matter' is merely 'incognizable' asserts the divine pervades all of creation.
The reunification of complementary divine principles (male-female, spirit-matter) as a symbol of wholeness and salvation.
The 'blending the two potencies, Spirit and Matter, the union will produce that terrestrial symbol of the Heavenly Man in space — PERFECT MAN' frames the union of complementary divine principles as the generative act of wholeness.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
The Zohar quotation explicitly identifies perished primordial worlds as 'Sparks' — 'the sparks are the primordial worlds, which could not continue' — using the spark metaphor for fragmented divine emanations trapped in failed materialization.
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 structured descent from the Absolute through the Monad into successive planes (mineral, vegetable, animal, human), forming a clear cascade from a single transcendent source.
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 androgyne principle is structurally important: 'from a potential androgyne, man has become separated into male and female,' and the Zohar references 'King and Queen (Sephira and Kadmon)' as the generative masculine-feminine pair.
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 monad 'cycling on downward into matter' and the Pitris' meeting 'the incarnating senseless monad, encased in the lowest matter' describe a specific descent of spiritual principle into bounded material form.
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 the Pitris' 'ethereal bodies' from which they shoot out 'astral forms' and 'doubles,' and a 'higher and more spiritual plane' of consciousness, all constituting a non-physical dimension interpenetrating the physical.
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 entire passage is a systematic account of involution: spirit 'shot down by the law of Evolution into the lowest form of matter,' cycling through successive planes, explicitly paired with the complementary ascent of matter back to spiritual substance.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The passage explicitly references 'The Supreme consulting with the Architect of the world -- his Logos -- about creation,' positioning the Logos as the mediating ordering principle between the transcendent and the created.
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 union of Spirit and Matter produces 'that terrestrial symbol of the Heavenly Man in space — PERFECT MAN,' explicitly framing the human as a microcosmic image of a cosmic archetype.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The Monad/Jiva is a central subject of the passage, explicitly defined as 'a ray, a breath of the ABSOLUTE' that cannot be called spirit per se and requires a spiritual model and intelligent consciousness to guide its evolution.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
The passage explicitly invokes the Hermetic principle of polarity: 'two like poles will always repel each other, while the negative and the positive are mutually attracted, so do Spirit and Matter stand to each other — the two poles of the same homogeneous substance.'
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
Matter is described as 'ascending to its original condition, that of a pure spiritual substance,' indicating a reversal of the involutionary descent back toward the undifferentiated origin.
The ten attributes or emanations through which the Ein Sof (Infinite) reveals itself and creates the universe in Kabbalistic theology.
The Zohar quotation references 'the Sacred Aged (Sephira)' and 'King and Queen (Sephira and Kadmon),' directly invoking Kabbalistic sephirotic emanations as a cosmological framework.
The monad is described as cycling 'on downward into matter' through mineral, vegetable, and animal forms across successive 'Rounds' before becoming human, constituting a clear transmigration across life-forms.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage asserts Spirit and Matter are 'one and the same thing in their origin' and 'the two poles of the same homogeneous substance, the root-principle of the universe,' making a direct non-dualist claim.