The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
1, Page]] 460 [[This page continued from previous section ]] § XIV.
THE FOUR ELEMENTS.
M ETAPHYSICALLY and esoterically there is but One E LEMENT in nature, and at the root of it is the Deity; and the so-called seven elements, of which five have already manifested and asserted their existence, are the garment, the veil , of that deity; direct from the essence whereof comes M AN, whether physically, psychically, mentally or spiritually considered.
Four elements only are generally spoken of in later antiquity, five admitted only in philosophy.
For the body of ether is not fully manifested yet, and its noumenon is still "the Omnipotent Father -- AEther, the synthesis of the rest." But what are these " E LEMENTS" whose compound bodies have now been discovered by Chemistry and Physics to contain numberless sub-elements, even the sixty or seventy of which no longer embrace the whole number suspected.
(Vide Addenda , §§ XI.
and XII ., quotations from Mr.
Crookes' Lectures.) Let us follow their evolution from the historical beginnings, at any rate.
The four Elements were fully characterized by Plato when he said that they were that "which composes and decomposes the compound bodies.
" [[Vol.
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Hence Cosmolatry was never, even in its worst aspect, the fetishism which adores or worships the passive external form and matter of any object, but looked ever to the noumenon therein.
Fire, Air, Water, Earth, were but the visible garb, the symbols of the informing, invisible Souls or Spirits -- the Cosmic gods to whom worship was offered by the ignorant, and simple, respectful recognition by the wiser.
In their turn the phenomenal subdivisions of the noumenal Elements were informed by the Elementals, so called, the "Nature Spirits" of lower grades.
In the Theogony of Mochus, we find Ether first, and then the air; the two principles from which Ulom the intelligible ([[ noetos ]]) God (the visible universe of matter) is born.* In the Orphic hymns, the Eros-Phanes evolves from the Spiritual Egg, which the AEthereal winds impregnate, Wind being "the Spirit of God," who is said to move in AEther, "brooding over the chaos" -- the Divine "Idea." In the Hindu Katakopanisad , Purusha, the Divine Spirit, already stands before the original matter, from whose union springs the great Soul of the World, "Maha = Atma, Brahm, the Spirit of Life;"** these latter appellations being again identical with the Universal Soul, or Anima Mundi , the Astral Light of the Theurgists and Kabalists, being its last and lowest division." The [[ stoicheia ]] (Elements) of Plato and Aristotle, were thus the incorporeal principles attached to the four great divisions of our Cosmic World, and it is with justice that Creuzer defines those primitive beliefs .
.
.
as a species of magism , a psychic paganism , and a deification of potencies ; a spiritualization which placed the believers in a close community with these potencies," (Book IX, p.
850).
So close, indeed, that the hierarchies of those potencies or Forces have been classified on a graduated scale of seven from the ponderable to the imponderable.
They are Septenary, -- not as an artificial aid to facilitate their comprehension -- but in their real Cosmic gradation, from their chemical (or physical) to their purely spiritual composition.
Gods -- with the ignorant masses -- gods independent and supreme; daemons with the fanatics, who, intellectual as they often may be, are unable to understand the Spirit of the philosophical sentence, in pluribus unum.
With the hermetic philosopher they are FORCES relatively " blind ," or " intelligent ," according to which of the principles in them he deals with.
It required long millenniums before they found themselves, in our cultured age, finally degraded into simple chemical elements.
At any rate, good Christians, and especially the Biblical Protestants, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Movers: "Phoinizer," 282.
** Weber: "Akad.
Vorles," 213, 214, etc.
[[Vol.
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ought to show more reverence for the four Elements, if they would show any for Moses.
For the Bible manifests the consideration and mystic significance in which they were held by the Hebrew Lawgiver, on every page of the Pentateuch.
The tent which contained the Holy of Holies " was a Cosmic Symbol, sacred, in one of its meanings, to the Elements, the four cardinal points, and E THER.
Josephus shows it built in white, the colour of Ether.
And this explains also why, in the Egyptian and the Hebrew temples -- according to Clemens Alexandrinus -- a gigantic curtain, supported by five pillars, separated the sanctum sanctorum (now represented by the altar in Christian churches) wherein the priests alone were permitted to enter, from the part accessible to the profane.
By its four colours the curtain symbolized the four principal Elements, and signified the knowledge of the divine that the five senses of men can enable man to acquire with the help of the four Elements.
(See Stromata I., v.
§ 6).
In Cory's Ancient Fragments , one of the "Chaldean Oracles" expresses ideas about the elements and Ether in language singularly like that of the Unseen Universe , written by two eminent scientists of our day.
It states that "from ether have come all things, and to it all will return; that the images of all things are indelibly impressed upon it; and that it is the store-house of the germs or of the remains of all visible forms, and even ideas.
It appears as if this case strangely corroborates our assertion that whatever discoveries may be made in our days will be found to have been anticipated by many thousand years by our 'simple-minded ancestors.' " -- ( Isis Unveiled.
) Whence came the four elements and the malachim of the Hebrews?
They have been made to merge, by a theological sleight-of-hand on the part of the Rabbins and the later Fathers of the Church into Jehovah, but their origin is identical with that of the Cosmic gods of all other nations.
Their symbols, whether born on the shores of the Oxus, on the burning sands of Upper Egypt, or in the wild forests, weird and glacial, which cover the slopes and peaks of the sacred snowy mountains of Thessaly, or again, in the pampas of America, their symbols, we repeat, when traced to their source, are ever one and the same.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The Chaldean Oracle quoted in the passage states 'from ether have come all things, and to it all will return,' implying a cyclical restoration of all things to their source.
The universal fluid or medium of occult philosophy — Lévi's Great Magical Agent — that transmits will, thought, and magical influence between minds and matter, and preserves the impress of all forms and actions as a book of consciences; cognate with akasha and the anima mundi. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of hidden affinity) in being a substantival medium that can be charged, directed, and abused.
The passage explicitly identifies the Astral Light of the Theurgists and Kabalists with the Universal Soul/Anima Mundi, and quotes the Chaldean Oracle describing Ether as 'the store-house of the germs or of the remains of all visible forms, and even ideas'—a direct description of the Astral Light as preserving the impress of all forms.
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 visible elements correspond to invisible spiritual principles, the four colours of the curtain symbolize the four Elements, and the passage insists that symbols 'when traced to their source, are ever one and the same' across all nations, making each level a legible map of 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 multiple cosmic origin stories: the Theogony of Mochus (Ether then air, from which the intelligible God is born), the Orphic hymns (Eros-Phanes evolving from the Spiritual Egg), and the Hindu Katakopanisad (Purusha before original matter, from whose union springs the Soul of the World).
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The Deity is described as existing 'at the root' behind the elements which are merely its 'garment, the veil,' and the noumenon is contrasted with the phenomenal, suggesting the supreme reality is concealed behind its manifestations.
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 passage states that 'direct from the essence whereof comes MAN' and that the elements are the 'garment, the veil' of the Deity, implying the divine pervades and is present within all of creation rather than remaining solely transcendent.
Naturally-existing, non-human intelligences native to a single element — earth, air, fire, or water — rather than the fourfold-composite human nature: Paracelsus's gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines; the Deva Kingdom or fairy kingdom of Western occultism, forming their own parallel kingdom capable of incarnating in or forming relationships with humans. Distinct from artificial_elemental (a manufactured thought-entity deliberately created by a single operator, not a naturally-occurring species) and animism (the general doctrine that nature-places host indwelling spirits, of which this is one specific taxonomic system organised around the four elements rather than locality).
The passage explicitly discusses 'Elementals, so called, the Nature Spirits of lower grades' that inform the phenomenal subdivisions of the noumenal Elements, and the hierarchies of potencies/Forces classified on a graduated scale—directly describing naturally-existing non-human intelligences native to elements.
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 centrally describes a graduated scale of seven from ponderable to imponderable, from chemical/physical to purely spiritual, with the elements as emanations (garment, veil) of the One Deity at the root.
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 traces a continuous thread from the Chaldean Oracles through Plato, Aristotle, the Orphic hymns, the Hindu Upanishads, and the Hebrew Lawgiver, implying a universal esoteric tradition transmitted across cultures and millennia.
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 elements are described as 'visible garb, the symbols of the informing, invisible Souls or Spirits,' and the noumenal realm behind the phenomenal elements is populated by Elementals and Nature Spirits of lower grades.
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 a directional process from the One Deity through seven graduated levels from the most spiritual to the most physical (chemical), with the Chaldean Oracle's 'from ether have come all things, and to it all will return' implying the complementary return.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The passage opens with 'there is but ONE ELEMENT in nature, and at the root of it is the Deity,' from which all multiplicity (the seven elements, MAN) flows, making the One the undivided first principle.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage emphasizes the septenary structure as 'not an artificial aid to facilitate their comprehension but in their real Cosmic gradation,' and the four elements, five pillars, four colours, and four cardinal points all carry symbolic numerical significance.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage asserts that metaphysically there is but ONE element in nature with the Deity at its root, and that the seven elements are merely the 'garment, the veil' of that one deity, making all existence a single divine reality.
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 describes a 'graduated scale of seven from the ponderable to the imponderable' and 'from their chemical (or physical) to their purely spiritual composition,' presenting matter and spirit as a single continuum differing in degree of subtlety.