The "Angel" of that Star, or the Dhyani-Buddha will be either the guiding or simply the presiding "Angel," so to say, in every new rebirth of the monad, which is part of his own essence , though his vehicle, man, may remain for ever ignorant of this fact.
The adepts have each their Dhyani-Buddha, their elder "twin Soul," and they know it, calling it "Father-Soul," and "Father-Fire." It is only at the last and supreme initiation, however, that they learn it when placed face to face with the bright "Image." How much has Bulwer Lytton known of this mystic fact when describing, in one of his highest inspirational moods, Zanoni face to face with his Augoeides?
The Logos , or both the unmanifested and the manifested W ORD, is called by the Hindus, Iswara, "the Lord," though the Occultists give it another name.
Iswara, say the Vedantins, is the highest consciousness in nature.
"This highest consciousness," answer the Occultists, "is only a synthetic unit in the world of the manifested Logos -- or on the plane of illusion; for it is the sum total of Dhyan-Chohanic consciousnesses.
" "Oh, wise man, remove the conception that not - Spirit is Spirit ," says Sankaracharya.
Atma is not - Spirit in its final Parabrahmic state, Iswara or Logos is Spirit; or, as Occultism explains, it is a compound unity of manifested living Spirits, the parent-source and nursery of all the mundane and terrestrial monads, plus their divine reflection, which emanate from, and return into, the Logos, each in the culmination of its time.
There are seven chief groups of such Dhyan Chohans, which groups will be found and recognised in every religion, for they are the primeval SEVEN Rays.
Humanity, occultism teaches us, is divided into seven distinct groups and their sub-divisions, mental, spiritual, and physical.* The monad, then, viewed as ONE, is above the seventh principle (in Kosmos and man), and as a triad, it is the direct radiant progeny of the said compound UNIT, not the breath (and special creation out of nihil ) of "God," as that unit is called; for such an idea is quite unphilosophical, and degrades Deity, dragging it down to a finite, attributive condition.
As well expressed by the translator of the "Crest-Jewel of Wisdom" -- though Iswara is "God" "unchanged in the profoundest depths of pralayas and in the intensest activity of the manvantaras " .
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., still " beyond (him) is [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Hence the seven chief planets, the spheres of the indwelling seven spirits, under each of which is born one of the human groups which is guided and influenced thereby.
There are only seven planets ( specially connected with earth), and twelve houses, but the possible combinations of their aspects are countless.
As each planet can stand to each of the others in twelve different aspects, their combinations must, therefore, be almost infinite; as infinite, in fact, as the spiritual, psychic, mental, and physical capacities in the numberless varieties of the genus homo , each of which varieties is born under one of the seven planets and one of the said countless planetary combinations.
See Theosophist , for August, 1886.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 574 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
' A TMA,' round whose pavilion is the darkness of eternal M AYA."* The "triads" born under the same Parent-planet, or rather the radiations of one and the same Planetary Spirit (Dhyani Buddha) are, in all their after lives and rebirths, sister, or " twin -souls," on this Earth.** This was known to every high Initiate in every age and in every country: "I and my Father are one," said Jesus (John x.
30).*** When He is made to say, elsewhere (xx.
17): "I ascend to my Father and your Father," it meant that which has just been stated.
It was simply to show that the group of his disciples and followers attracted to Him belonged to the same Dhyani Buddha, "Star," or "Father," again of the same planetary realm and division as He did.
It is the knowledge of this occult doctrine that found expression in the review of "The Idyll of the White Lotus," when Mr.
T.
Subba Row wrote: "Every Buddha meets at his last initiation all the great adepts who reached Buddhahood during the preceding ages .
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every class of adepts has its own bond of spiritual communion which knits them together.
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The only possible and effectual way of entering into such brotherhood .
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is by bringing oneself within the influence of the Spiritual light which radiates from one ' s own Logos.
I may further point out here .
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that such communion is only possible between persons whose souls derive their life and sustenance from the same divine RAY, and that, as seven distinct rays radiate from the 'Central Spiritual Sun,' all adepts and Dhyan Chohans are divisible into seven classes , each of which is guided, controlled, and overshadowed by one of the seven forms or manifestations of the divine Wisdom." (" Theosophist ," Aug., 1886.) [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The now universal error of attributing to the ancients the knowledge of only seven planets, simply because they mentioned no others, is based on the same general ignorance of their occult doctrines.
The question is not whether they were, or were not, aware of the existence of the later discovered planets; but whether the reverence paid by them to the four exoteric and three secret great gods -- the star-angels, had not some special reason.
The writer ventures to say there was such a reason, and it is this.
Had they known of as many planets as we do now (and this question can hardly be decided at present, either way), they would have still connected with their religious worship only the seven, because these seven are directly and specially connected with our earth, or, using esoteric phraseology, with our septenary ring of spheres.
(See supra .) ** It is the same, only still more metaphysical idea, as that of the Christian Trinity -- "Three in One" -- i.e.
, the Universal "over-Spirit," manifesting on the two higher planes, those of Buddhi and Mahat; and these are the three hypostases, metaphysical, but never personal.
*** The identity, and at the same time the illusive differentiation of the Angel -Monad and the Human -Monad is shown by the following sentences: "My Father is greater than I" (John xiv.
26) ; "Glorify your Father who is in Heaven " (Matt.
v.
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 seven Dhyan Chohans map onto seven planets, seven human groups, and seven rays, with the passage asserting these groups 'will be found and recognised in every religion'—a clear as-above-so-below structural mirroring.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
Monads are described as 'part of his own essence' (the Dhyani-Buddha's) and as emanating from and returning into the Logos, making them fragments of the divine embedded in material existence.
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's central structure is a cascade from the Logos through the Seven Dhyan Chohans (Rays) down to individual monads, with monads emanating from and returning into the Logos.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The adepts learn the identity of their Dhyani-Buddha only 'at the last and supreme initiation... when placed face to face with the bright Image,' suggesting salvific knowledge through direct experiential encounter.
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 Dhyani-Buddha is described as the adept's 'elder twin Soul' and 'Father-Soul,' a deeper aspect of the individual's own spiritual identity that guides across rebirths, distinct from the ego or everyday personality.
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 monads as emanating from the Logos into the material world and returning into it 'each in the culmination of its time,' naming a directional descent-and-return process.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The Logos is explicitly named as both unmanifested and manifested Word, equated with Iswara, and defined as 'a compound unity of manifested living Spirits, the parent-source and nursery of all the mundane and terrestrial monads.'
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 monad is described as functioning identically 'in Kosmos and man,' with the human monad as triad being the 'direct radiant progeny' of the same compound unit that governs the cosmos.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The monad is the passage's primary unit of analysis—described as ONE above the seventh principle, as a triad, as part of the Dhyani-Buddha's own essence, and as the entity that undergoes rebirth.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
Monads 'return into the Logos, each in the culmination of its time,' and the Dhyani-Buddha is the 'Father-Soul' toward which the monad's journey is oriented.
The passage explicitly references 'every new rebirth of the monad' and 'in all their after lives and rebirths,' making transmigration a working assumption of the cosmology.