The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
1, Page]] 610 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
[[This page continued from previous section ]] § XV.
GODS, MONADS, AND ATOMS.
S OME years ago we remarked* that "the Esoteric Doctrine may well be called the 'thread-doctrine,' since, like Sutratman , in the Vedanta philosophy,** it passes through and strings together all the ancient philosophical religious systems, and reconciles and explains them all." We say now it does more.
It not only reconciles the various and apparently conflicting systems, but it checks the discoveries of modern exact science, and shows some of them to be necessarily correct, since they are found corroborated in the ancient records.
All this will, no doubt, be regarded as terribly impertinent and disrespectful, a veritable crime of lese - Science; nevertheless, it is a fact.
Science is, undeniably, ultra-materialistic in our days; but it finds, in one sense, its justification.
Nature behaving in actu ever esoterically, and being, as the Kabalists say, in abscondito , can only be judged by the profane through her appearance, and that appearance is always deceitful on the physical plane.
On the other hand, the naturalists refuse to blend physics with metaphysics, the body with its informing soul and spirit, which they prefer ignoring.
This is a matter of choice with some, while the minority strive very sensibly to enlarge the domain of physical science by trespassing on the forbidden grounds of metaphysics, so distasteful to some materialists.
These scientists are wise in their generation.
For all their wonderful discoveries would go for nothing, and remain for ever headless bodies, unless they lift the veil of matter and strain their eyes to see beyond.
Now that they have studied nature in the length, breadth, and thickness of her physical frame, it is time to remove the skeleton to the second plane and search within the unknown depths for the living and real entity, for its SUB- stance -- the noumenon of evanescent matter.
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * "The Septenary Principle," art.
in "Five Years of Theosophy," p.
197.
** The Atman or Spirit (the Spiritual S ELF) passing like a thread through the five subtle bodies (or principles, Koshas ) is called "thread-soul," or Sutratman in Vedantic philosophy.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 611 WHICH OF THE TWO IS BLIND?
It is only by acting on such lines that some of the truths, now called "exploded superstitions," will be discovered to be facts and the relics of ancient knowledge and wisdom.
One of such "degrading" beliefs -- in the opinion of the all-denying sceptic -- is found in the idea that Kosmos, besides its objective planetary inhabitants, its humanities in other inhabited worlds, is full of invisible, intelligent Existences.
The so-called Arch-Angels, Angels and Spirits, of the West, copies of their prototypes, the Dhyan-Chohans, the Devas and Pitris, of the East, are no real Beings but fictions.
On this point Materialistic Science is inexorable.
To support its position, it upsets its own axiomatic law of uniformity in the laws of nature, that of continuity, and all the logical sequence of analogies in the evolution of being.
The masses of the profane are asked, and made, to believe that the accumulated testimony of History, which shows even the Atheists of old -- such as Epicurus and Democritus -- believing in gods , was false; and that philosophers like Socrates and Plato, asserting their existence, were mistaken enthusiasts and fools.
If we hold our opinions merely on historical grounds, on the authority of legions of the most eminent Sages, Neo-Platonists, Mystics of all the ages, from Pythagoras down to the eminent Scientists and Professors of the present century, who, if they reject "gods," believe in "spirits," shall we consider such authorities as weak-minded and foolish as any Roman Catholic peasant, who believes in and prays to his once human Saint, or the Archangel, St.
Michael?
But is there no difference between the belief of the peasant and that of the Western heirs to the Rosicrucians and Alchemists of the Middle Ages?
Is it the Van Helmonts, the Khunraths, the Paracelsuses and Agrippas, from Roger Bacon down to St.
Germain, who were all blind enthusiasts, hysteriacs or cheats, or is it the handful of modern sceptics -- the "leaders of thought" -- who are struck with the cecity of negation?
The latter, we opine.
It would be a miracle indeed, quite an abnormal fact in the realm of probabilities and logic, were that handful of negators to be the sole custodians of truth , while the million-strong hosts of believers in gods, angels, and spirits -- in Europe and America alone -- namely, Greek and Latin Christians, Theosophists, Spiritualists, Mystics, etc., etc., should be no better than deluded fanatics and hallucinated mediums, and often no higher than the victims of deceivers and impostors!
However varying in their external presentations and dogmas, beliefs in the Hosts of invisible Intelligences of various grades have all the same foundation.
Truth and error are mixed in all.
The exact extent, depth, breadth, and length of the mysteries of Nature are to be found only in Eastern esoteric sciences.
So vast and so profound are these that hardly a few, a very few of the highest Initiates -- those whose very existence is known but to a small number of [[Vol.
1, Page]] 612 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Adepts -- are capable of assimilating the knowledge.
Yet it is all there, and one by one facts and processes in Nature's workshops are permitted to find their way into the exact Sciences, while mysterious help is given to rare individuals in unravelling its arcana.
It is at the close of great Cycles, in connection with racial development, that such events generally take place.
We are at the very close of the cycle of 5,000 years of the present Aryan Kaliyuga; and between this time and 1897 there will be a large rent made in the Veil of Nature, and materialistic science will receive a death-blow.
Without throwing any discredit upon time-honoured beliefs, in whatever direction, we are forced to draw a marked line between blind faith, evolved by theologies, and knowledge due to the independent researches of long generations of adepts; between, in short, faith and philosophy.
There have been -- in all ages -- undeniably learned and good men who, having been reared in sectarian beliefs, died in their crystallized convictions.
For Protestants, the garden of Eden is the primeval point of departure in the drama of Humanity, and the solemn tragedy on the summit of Calvary, the prelude to the hoped-for Millennium.
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 chain of transmission through 'long generations of adepts' and references a lineage from 'Pythagoras down to the eminent Scientists and Professors of the present century,' framing the Esoteric Doctrine as a 'thread-doctrine' stringing together all ancient systems.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The passage draws a 'marked line between blind faith, evolved by theologies, and knowledge due to the independent researches of long generations of adepts; between, in short, faith and philosophy,' positioning direct esoteric knowledge as superior to faith-based belief.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage repeatedly emphasizes that Nature is 'esoteric' and 'in abscondito,' that the 'Veil of Nature' conceals deeper truths, and that esoteric knowledge is accessible only to 'a very few of the highest Initiates.'
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's central argument is that the cosmos is 'full of invisible, intelligent Existences' — Dhyan-Chohans, Devas, Pitris — constituting a non-physical dimension interpenetrating the physical world, concealed behind the 'Veil of Nature.'
Organized, persisting groups — fraternities, orders, lodges — that maintain esoteric knowledge or practices as an institution distinct from public religion or mainstream society, holding 'the keys' collectively rather than through any one master-disciple pair. Distinct from esoteric_lineage (a genealogical chain of individual transmission, not an institution) and hidden_sayings (the concealment of a teaching's meaning, independent of whether any organized body holds it).
The passage references 'the highest Initiates — those whose very existence is known but to a small number of Adepts' and 'long generations of adepts,' implying organized bodies maintaining esoteric knowledge.