fThe Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
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[[This page continued from previous section ]] § XIII.
THE SEVEN CREATIONS.
" T HERE was neither day nor night, nor sky nor earth, nor darkness nor light, nor any other thing save only ONE, unapprehensible by intellect, or THAT which is Brahma and Pumis (Spirit) and Pradhana (crude matter)" ( Veda: " Vishnu Purana Commentary "); or literally: "One Pradhanika Brahma Spirit: THAT was." The "Pradhanika Brahma Spirit" is Mulaprakriti and Parabrahmam.
In Vishnu Purana, Parasara says to Maitreya, his pupil: -- "I have thus explained to you, excellent Muni, six creations.
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the creation of the Arvaksrotas beings was the seventh, and was that of man." Then he proceeds to speak of two additional and very mysterious creations, variously interpreted by the commentators.
Origen, commenting upon the books written by Celsus, his opponent -- books which were all destroyed by the prudent Church Fathers -- evidently answers the objections of his contradictor and reveals his system at the same time.
This was evidently septenary.
But his theogony, the genesis of the stars or planets, that of sound and colour, all found as an answer satire, and no better.
Celsus, you see, "desiring to exhibit his learning," speaks of a ladder of creation with seven gates , and on the top [[Vol.
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of it the eighth -- ever closed.
The mysteries of the Persian Mithras are explained and "musical reasons, moreover, are added." .
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And to these again he strives "to add a second explanation connected also with musical considerations,"* -- i.e.
, with the seven notes of the scale, the Seven Spirits of the Stars, &c., &c.
Valentinus expatiates upon the power of the great Seven , who were called to bring forth this universe after Ar ( r ) hetos , or the Ineffable, whose name is composed of seven letters, had represented the first hebdomad.
This name (Ar(r)hetos) is one to indicate the Sevenfold nature of the One (the logos ) .
"The goddess Rhea," says Proclus in Timaeus (p.
121), "is a Monad, Duad, and Heptad," comprehending in herself all the Titanidae , "who are seven." The Seven Creations are found in almost every Purana.
They are all preceded by what Wilson translates -- "the indiscrete Principle," absolute Spirit independent of any relation with objects of sense.
They are -- (1) Mahattattwa , the Universal Soul, Infinite Intellect, or Divine Mind; (2) Bhuta or Bhutasarga , elemental creation, the first differentiation of Universal indiscrete Substance; (3) Indriya or Aindriyaka , organic evolution.
"These three were the Prakrita creations, the developments of indiscrete nature preceded by indiscrete principle"; (4) Mukhya , the fundamental creation of perceptible things, was that of inanimate bodies**; (5) Tairyagyonya , or Tiryaksrotas , was that of animals; (6) Urdhwasrotas , or that of divinities*** (?); (7) Arvaksrotas , was that of man.
( See Vishnu Purana.
) This is the order given in the exoteric texts.
According to esoteric teaching there are seven primary, and seven secondary "creations;" the former being the Forces self-evolving from the one causeless FORCE; the latter, showing the manifested Universe emanating from the already differentiated divine elements.
Esoterically, as well as exoterically, all the above enumerated Creations stand for the (7) periods of Evolution, whether after an "Age" or a "Day" of Brahma.
This is the teaching par excellence of Occult Philosophy, which, however, never uses the term "creation," nor even that of evolution, "with regard to primary 'Creation':" but calls all such forces "the aspects of the Causeless Force." In the Bible [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Origen contra Celsum, b.
vi., chap.
xxii.
** The text says: "And the fourth creation is here the primary, for things immovable are emphatically known as primary." ( See Fitzedward Hall ' s Corrections.
) *** How can "divinities" have been created after the animals?
The esoteric meaning of the expression "animals" is the germs of all animal life including man.
Man is called a sacrificial animal , and an animal that is the only one among animal creation who sacrifices to the gods.
Moreover , by the "sacred animals," the 12 signs of the zodiac are often meant in the sacred texts, as already stated.
[[Vol.
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the seven periods are dwarfed into the six days of creation and the seventh day of rest, and the Westerns adhere to the letter.
In the Hindu philosophy, when the active Creator has produced the world of gods, the germs of all the undifferentiated elements and the rudiments of future senses (the world of noumena, in short), the Universe remains unaltered for a "Day of Brahma," a period of 4,320,000,000 years.
This is the seventh passive period or the "Sabbath day" of Eastern philosophy, that follows six periods of active evolution.
In the Satapatha Brahmana "Brahma" (neuter), the absolute Cause of all Causes, radiates the gods.
Having radiated the gods (through its inherent nature) the work is interrupted.
In the 1st Book of Manu it is said, "At the expiration of each night (pralaya) Brahma, having been asleep, awakes, and, through the sole energy of the motion , CAUSES to emanate from itself the spirit, which in its essence is, and yet is not." In the Sepher Jezirah , the Kabalistic Book of Creation, the author has evidently repeated the words of Manu.
In it the Divine Substance is represented as having alone existed from the eternity, boundless and absolute; and as having emitted from itself the Spirit.
"One is the Spirit of the living God, blessed be his Name, who liveth for ever!
Voice, Spirit, and Word, this is the Holy Spirit." ( Sepher Jezireh , chap.
1, Mishna IX.
) And this is the Kabalistic abstract Trinity, so unceremoniously anthropomorphized by the Fathers.
From this triple ONE emanated the whole Kosmos.
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 is fundamentally a cosmogonic narrative, detailing the order in which the seven creations unfold from the primordial One through successive stages from Mahattattwa to Arvaksrotas (man), drawing on Vedic, Gnostic, and Kabbalistic sources.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The supreme principle is described as 'unapprehensible by intellect' and the Ineffable (Arhetos) whose name itself signals inexpressibility, marking the ultimate source as radically concealed beyond ordinary cognition.
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
The opening describes the primordial principle as 'ONE, unapprehensible by intellect' and the 'indiscrete Principle, absolute Spirit independent of any relation with objects of sense,' emphasizing undivided, partless being prior to all differentiation.
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 entire passage is structured around the Seven Creations flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One, Mulaprakriti/Parabrahmam), with a ladder of seven gates, seven periods of evolution, and the emanation from the 'triple ONE' of the whole Kosmos.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly distinguishes between the 'exoteric texts' that give the seven creations and the 'esoteric teaching' that reveals seven primary and seven secondary creations, with the esoteric meaning of terms like 'animals' and 'divinities' concealed from surface reading.
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 explicitly describes a structured descent from the undifferentiated One through seven successive stages of increasing materiality (Universal Soul → elemental creation → organic evolution → inanimate bodies → animals → divinities → man), naming it both 'evolution' and the 'aspects of the Causeless Force.'
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
Proclus is quoted calling Rhea 'a Monad, Duad, and Heptad,' and the passage's opening describes the 'ONE, unapprehensible by intellect' as the undivided first principle from which all creation flows.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The number seven pervades the passage as the structural key to cosmic organization—seven creations, seven gates, seven notes, seven spirits, seven letters, seven periods—making numerical proportion the underlying architecture of divine reality.
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 Sepher Jezirah passage explicitly identifies a 'Kabalistic abstract Trinity'—'Voice, Spirit, and Word, this is the Holy Spirit'—from which the whole Kosmos emanated, and notes it was 'unceremoniously anthropomorphized by the Fathers.'
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage repeatedly asserts that all multiplicity flows from a single undifferentiated source: 'One Pradhanika Brahma Spirit: THAT was,' and the 'triple ONE' from which 'the whole Kosmos' emanated, affirming non-dual oneness as the ground of all existence.