And this is metempsychosis ( See " Mineral Monad " in " Five Years of Theosophy ," p.
276).
This fifth stage of evolution, called exoterically "Creation," may be viewed in both the Primary and Secondary periods, one as the Spiritual and Cosmic, the other as the material and terrestrial.
It is Archibiosis , or life-origination -- "origination," so far, of course, as the manifestation of life on all the seven planes is concerned.
It is at this period of Evolution that the absolutely eternal universal motion, or vibration, that which is called in Esoteric language "the GREAT BREATH," differentiates in the primordial, first manifested ATOM.
More and more, as chemical and physical sciences progress, does this occult axiom find its corroboration in the world of knowledge: the scientific hypothesis, that even the simplest elements of matter are identical in nature and differ from each other only owing to the variety of the distributions of atoms in the molecule or speck of substance, or by the modes of its atomic vibration , gains every day more ground.
Thus, as the differentiation of the primordial germ of life has to precede the evolution of the Dhyan Chohan of the third group or hierarchy of Being in Primary Creation, before those "gods" can become rupa (embodied in their first ethereal form), so animal creation has to precede , [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Professor Wilson translates it, as though animals were higher on the scale of "creation" than divinities, or angels, although the truth about the devas is very plainly stated further on.
This "creation," says the text, is both primary ( Prakrita ) and secondary ( Vaikrita ) .
It is the latter, as regards the origin of the gods from Brahma (the personal anthropomorphic creator of our material universe); it is the former ( primary ) as affecting Rudra, who is the immediate production of the first principle.
Rudra is not alone a title of Siva, but embraces agents of creation, angels and men, as will be shown further on.
** Neither plant nor animal, but an existence between the two.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 456 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
for that same reason, divine MAN on earth.
And this is why we find in the Puranas: "The fifth, the Tairyagyonya creation, was that of animals, and -- (VI).
The Urdhvasrotas creation, or that of divinities ( Vishnu Purana Book I.
chap.
i.
) .
But these (divinities) are simply the prototypes of the First Race, the fathers of their "mind-born" progeny with the soft bones.* It is these who became the Evolvers of the "Sweat-born" -- an expression explained in Book II.
Finally, the sixth "Creation" is followed, and " Creation in general, closed by -- (VII.) The evolution of the " Arvaksrotas beings, which was the seventh, and was that of man" ( Vishnu Purana , Book I.
) .
The "eighth creation" mentioned is no Creation at all; it is a blind again, for it refers to a purely mental process: the cognition of the "ninth" creation, which, in its turn, is an effect, manifesting in the secondary of that which was a "Creation" in the Primary ( Prakrita ) Creation.** The Eighth , then, called Anugraha (the Pratyayasarga or the intellectual creation of the Sankhyas, explained in Karika , v.
46, p.
146), is "that creation of which we have a perception " -- in its esoteric aspect -- and "to which we give intellectual assent (Anugraha) in contradistinction to organic creation.
" It is the correct perception of our relations to the whole range of "gods" and especially of those we bear to the Kumaras -- the so-called "Ninth Creation" -- which is in reality an aspect of or reflection of the sixth in our manvantara (the Vaivasvata).
"There is a ninth , the Kumara Creation, which is both primary and secondary," says Vishnu Purana , the oldest of such texts.*** "The Kumaras ," explains an esoteric text, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * "Created beings" -- explains Vishnu Purana -- "although they are destroyed (in their individual forms) at the periods of dissolution, yet being affected by the good or evil acts of former existences , are never exempted from their consequences.
And when Brahma produces the world anew, they are the progeny of his will .
.
." " Collecting his mind into itself ( Yoga willing), Brahma creates the four orders of beings, termed gods, demons, progenitors , and MEN " .
.
.
"progenitors" meaning the prototypes and Evolvers of the first Root Race of men.
The progenitors are the Pitris, and are of seven classes.
They are said in exoteric mythology to be born of Brahma ' s side , like Eve from the rib of Adam.
** "These notions," remarks Dr.
Wilson, "the birth of Rudra and the saints, seem to have been borrowed from the Saivas, and to have been awkwardly engrafted upon the Vaishnava system." The esoteric meaning ought to have been consulted before venturing such a hypothesis.
*** Parasara, the Vedic Rishi, who received the Vishnu Purana from Pulastya and taught it to Maitreya, is placed by the Orientalists at various epochs.
As correctly observed, in the Hindu Class.
Dict: -- "Speculations as to his era differ widely from 575 B.C.
to 1391 B.C ., and cannot be trusted.
" Quite so; but no less, however, than any other date as assigned by the Sanskritists, so famous in this department of arbitrary fancy.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 457 WHO THE KUMARAS ARE.
"are the Dhyanis, derived immediately from the supreme Principle, who reappear in the Vaivasvata Manu period, for the progress of mankind."* The commentator of the Vishnu Purana corroborates it, by remarking that "these sages live as long as Brahma; and they are only created by him in the first Kalpa, although their generation is very commonly and inconsistently introduced in the Varaha , or Padma Kalpa" (the secondary).
Thus, the Kumaras are, exoterically, "the creation of Rudra or Nilalohita, a form of Siva, by Brahma, and of certain other mind-born sons of Brahma.
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 explicitly states that the 'ninth creation' is 'an effect, manifesting in the secondary of that which was a Creation in the Primary (Prakrita) Creation' — each lower level is a legible reflection of the higher.
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 entire passage is a cosmogonic narrative describing the staged origin of creation through seven 'creations' from the primordial atom through gods to man, drawing on the Vishnu Purana's account.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
Brahma is described as 'the personal anthropomorphic creator of our material universe' — a secondary creator distinct from the supreme first principle, fitting the demiurge definition of a secondary fashioner of the material world.
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 clear cascade from the supreme Principle through Rudra, Dhyan Chohans, gods, Kumaras, and men, each level derived from the one above.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage repeatedly distinguishes exoteric from esoteric meaning ('called exoterically Creation,' 'in its esoteric aspect'), and the footnotes critique scholars for missing the hidden esoteric sense of the texts.
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 manifestation of life on 'all the seven planes,' ethereal forms (rupa), and a Primary (spiritual/cosmic) creation distinct from the material/terrestrial Secondary creation, implying 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 passage describes the cosmos unfolding as a structured descent from the supreme Principle through Primary (spiritual) and Secondary (material) creation stages, with each level differentiating further from the last — a directional process of spirit descending into matter.
Metempsychosis is explicitly named at the opening of the passage as the doctrine at issue, and the footnote references beings 'affected by the good or evil acts of former existences.'
The Hermetic doctrine that nothing rests — matter, energy, mind, and spirit are a single continuum differing only in rate of vibration, from the grossest matter to the least material spirit. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (affinity resonating BETWEEN separate things) in being a claim about what constitutes any one thing in the first place, and from magical_equilibrium (Lévi's operational balancing technique, which presupposes some vibration doctrine rather than stating this general principle).
The passage centrally argues that the 'absolutely eternal universal motion, or vibration' (the GREAT BREATH) differentiates in the primordial atom, and explicitly links this to the scientific hypothesis that elements differ only by 'modes of atomic vibration.'