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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2 [[Vol. 2, Page xv]] [[ Eh eme didache ouk estin eme, alla tou pemphantos me .]] "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me." -- John vii. 16. [[Vol. 2, Page xvi]] M ODERN science insists upon the doctrine of evolution; so do human reason and the "Secret Doctrine," and the idea is corroborated by the ancient legends and myths, and even by the Bible itself when it is read between the lines. We see a flower slowly developing from a bud, and the bud from its seed. But whence the latter, with all its predetermined programme of physical transformation, and its invisible, therefore spiritual forces which gradually develop its form, colour, and odour? The word evolution speaks for itself. The germ of the present human race must have preexisted in the parent of this race, as the seed, in which lies hidden the flower of next summer, was developed in the capsule of its parent flower; the parent may be but slightly different, but it still differs from its future progeny. The antediluvian ancestors of the present elephant and lizard were, perhaps, the mammoth and the plesiosaurus; why should not the progenitors of our human race have been the " giants " of the Vedas, the Voluspa, and the Book of Genesis? While it is positively absurd to believe the "transformation of species" to have taken place according to some of the more materialistic views of the evolutionists, it is but natural to think that each genus, beginning with the molluscs and ending with man, had modified its own primordial and distinctive forms. -- "Isis Unveiled," Vol. I., p. 153. [[Vol. 2, Page 1]] PRELIMINARY NOTES. ------- ON THE ARCHAIC STANZAS, AND THE FOUR PRE-HISTORIC CONTINENTS. "Facies totius Universi, quamvis infinitis modis variet, Manet tamen semper eadem." -- S PINOZA. T HE Stanzas, with the Commentaries thereon, in this Book, the second, are drawn from the same Archaic Records as the Stanzas on Cosmogony in Book I. As far as possible a verbatim translation is given; but some of the Stanzas were too obscure to be understood without explanation. Hence, as was done in Book I., while they are first given in full as they stand, when taken verse by verse with their Commentaries an attempt is made to make them clearer, by words added in brackets, in anticipation of the fuller explanation of the Commentary. As regards the evolution of mankind, the Secret Doctrine postulates three new propositions, which stand in direct antagonism to modern science as well as to current religious dogmas: it teaches ( a ) the simultaneous evolution of seven human groups on seven different portions of our globe; ( b ) the birth of the astral, before the physical body: the former being a model for the latter; and ( c ) that man, in this Round, preceded every mammalian -- the anthropoids included -- in the animal kingdom.* [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See Genesis ch. ii., v. 19. Adam is formed in verse 7, and in verse 19 it is said: "Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them." Thus man was created before the animals; for the animals mentioned in chapter i. are the signs of the Zodiac, while the man, "male and female," is not man, but the Host of the Sephiroth; F ORCES, or Angels, "made in his (God's) image and after his likeness." The Adam, man, is not made in that likeness, nor is it so asserted in the Bible. Moreover, the Second Adam [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol. 2, Page]] 2 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. The Secret Doctrine is not alone in speaking of primeval MEN born simultaneously on the seven divisions of our Globe. In the Divine " Pymander " of Hermes we find the same Seven primeval men* evolving from Nature and "Heavenly Man," in the collective sense of the word, namely, from the Creative Spirits; and in the fragments (collected by George Smith) of Chaldean tablets on which is inscribed the Babylonian Legend of Creation, in the first column of the Cutha tablet, seven human beings with the faces of ravens (black, swarthy complexions), whom "the (Seven) great gods created," are mentioned. Or, as explained in lines 16 and 18 -- "In the midst of the Earth they grew up and became great . . . . Seven kings, brothers of the same family." These are the Seven Kings of Edom to whom reference is made in the Kabala; the first race, which was imperfect, i.e., was born before the "balance" (sexes) existed, and which was therefore destroyed. (Zohar, Siphrah Dzeniouta, Idrah Suta, 2928, La Kabbale, p. 205.) " Seven Kings, brethren, appeared and begat children, 6,000 in number were their peoples" (Hibbert Lectures, p. 372). The god Nergas (death) destroyed them. "How did he destroy them?" "By bringing into equilibrium (or balance) those who did not yet exist" ( Siphrah Dzeniouta ) . They were "destroyed," as a race, by being merged in their own progeny (by exudation); that is to say, the sexless race reincarnated in the bisexual [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] is esoterically a septenary which represents seven men, or rather groups of men. For the first Adam -- the Kadmon -- is the synthesis of the ten Sephiroth. Of these, the upper triad remains in the Archetypal World as the future "Trinity," while the seven lower Sephiroth create the manifested material world; and this septenate is the second Adam. Genesis, and the mysteries upon which it was fabricated, came from Egypt. The "God" of the 1st chapter of Genesis is the Logos, and the "Lord God" of the 2nd chapter the Creative Elohim -- the lower powers. * Thus saith Pymander -- "This is the mystery that to this day was hidden. Nature being mingled with the Heavenly man (Elohim, or Dhyanis), brought forth a wonder . . . . Seven men, all males and females (Hermaphrodite) . . . according to the nature of the seven Governors" -- Book II. v. 29) -- or the seven Hosts of the Pitris or Elohim, who projected or created him.