The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
2 [[Vol.
2, Page 13]] BOOK II.
-- PART I.
ANTHROPOGENESIS.
--------------------- STANZAS TRANSLATED WITH COMMENTARIES FROM THE SECRET BOOK OF DZYAN.
[[Vol.
2, Page 14]] In primeval times, a maiden, Beauteous Daughter of the Ether, Passed for ages her existence In the great expanse of Heaven, .
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Seven hundred years she wandered, Seven hundred years she laboured, Ere her first-born was delivered.
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Ere a beauteous duck descending, Hastens toward the water-mother.
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Lightly on the knee she settles, Finds a nesting-place befitting, Where to lay her eggs in safety, Lays her eggs within, at pleasure, Six, the golden eggs she lays them, Then a Seventh, an egg of iron .
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." ( Kalevala, Rune I.) [[Vol.
2, Page]] 15 STANZAS FROM THE BOOK OF DZYAN.
ANTHROPOGENESIS IN THE SECRET VOLUME.
(VERBATIM EXTRACTS.*) I.
1.
T HE L HA WHICH TURNS THE FOURTH IS SUBSERVIENT TO THE L HA OF THE S EVEN, THEY WHO REVOLVE DRIVING THEIR CHARIOTS AROUND THEIR L ORD, THE O NE E YE.
H IS BREATH GAVE LIFE TO THE S EVEN; IT GAVE LIFE TO THE FIRST.
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S AID THE E ARTH: -- " L ORD OF THE S HINING F ACE; MY HOUSE IS EMPTY .
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SEND THY SONS TO PEOPLE THIS WHEEL.
T HOU HAST SENT THY SEVEN SONS TO THE L ORD OF W ISDOM.
S EVEN TIMES DOTH HE SEE THEE NEARER TO HIMSELF, SEVEN TIMES MORE DOTH HE FEEL THEE.
T HOU HAST FORBIDDEN THY SERVANTS, THE SMALL RINGS, TO CATCH THY LIGHT AND HEAT, THY GREAT BOUNTY TO INTERCEPT ON ITS PASSAGE.
S END NOW TO THY SERVANT THE SAME." 3.
S AID THE " L ORD OF THE S HINING F ACE": -- " I SHALL SEND THEE A FIRE WHEN THY WORK IS COMMENCED.
R AISE THY VOICE TO OTHER L OKAS; APPLY TO THY FATHER, THE L ORD OF THE L OTUS, FOR HIS SONS .
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THY PEOPLE SHALL BE UNDER THE RULE OF THE F ATHERS.
T HY MEN SHALL BE MORTALS.
T HE MEN OF THE L ORD OF W ISDOM, NOT THE L UNAR S ONS, ARE IMMORTAL.
C EASE THY COMPLAINTS.
T HY SEVEN SKINS ARE YET ON THEE .
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THOU ART NOT READY.
T HY MEN ARE NOT READY." 4.
A FTER GREAT THROES SHE CAST OFF HER OLD THREE AND PUT ON HER NEW SEVEN SKINS, AND STOOD IN HER FIRST ONE.
------- II.
5.
T HE WHEEL WHIRLED FOR THIRTY CRORES MORE.
I T CONSTRUCTED RUPAS: SOFT STONES THAT HARDENED; HARD PLANTS THAT SOFTENED.
V ISIBLE FROM INVISIBLE, INSECTS AND SMALL LIVES.
S HE SHOOK THEM OFF HER BACK WHENEVER THEY OVERRAN THE MOTHER.
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]] * Only forty-nine Slokas out of several hundred are here given.
Not every verse is translated verbatim.
A periphrasis is sometimes used for the sake of clearness and intelligibility, where a literal translation would be quite unintelligible.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 16 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
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A FTER THIRTY CRORES SHE TURNED ROUND.
S HE LAY ON HER BACK; ON HER SIDE .
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S HE WOULD CALL NO SONS OF H EAVEN, SHE WOULD ASK NO SONS OF W ISDOM.
S HE CREATED FROM HER OWN BOSOM.
S HE EVOLVED WATER-MEN, TERRIBLE AND BAD.
6.
T HE WATER-MEN TERRIBLE AND BAD SHE HERSELF CREATED FROM THE REMAINS OF OTHERS, FROM THE DROSS AND SLIME OF HER FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD, SHE FORMED THEM.
T HE D HYANI CAME AND LOOKED -- T HE D HYANI FROM THE BRIGHT F ATHER-MOTHER, FROM THE WHITE REGIONS THEY CAME, FROM THE ABODES OF THE IMMORTAL MORTALS.
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D ISPLEASED THEY WERE.
O UR FLESH IS NOT THERE.
N O FIT RUPAS FOR OUR BROTHERS OF THE FIFTH.
N O DWELLINGS FOR THE LIVES.
P URE WATERS, NOT TURBID, THEY MUST DRINK.
L ET US DRY THEM.
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T HE FLAMES CAME.
T HE FIRES WITH THE SPARKS; THE NIGHT FIRES AND THE DAY FIRES.
T HEY DRIED OUT THE TURBID DARK WATERS.
W ITH THEIR HEAT THEY QUENCHED THEM.
T HE L HAS OF THE H IGH, THE L HAMAYIN OF BELOW, CAME.
T HEY SLEW THE FORMS WHICH WERE TWO- AND FOUR-FACED.
T HEY FOUGHT THE GOAT-MEN, AND THE DOG-HEADED MEN, AND THE MEN WITH FISHES' BODIES.
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M OTHER-WATER, THE GREAT SEA, WEPT.
S HE AROSE, SHE DISAPPEARED IN THE MOON WHICH HAD LIFTED HER, WHICH HAD GIVEN HER BIRTH.
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W HEN THEY WERE DESTROYED, M OTHER-EARTH REMAINED BARE.
S HE ASKED TO BE DRIED.
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T HE L ORD OF THE L ORDS CAME.
F ROM HER BODY HE SEPARATED THE WATERS, AND THAT WAS H EAVEN ABOVE, THE FIRST H EAVEN.
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T HE GREAT C HOHANS CALLED THE L ORDS OF THE M OON, OF THE AIRY BODIES.
" B RING FORTH MEN, MEN OF YOUR NATURE.
G IVE THEM THEIR FORMS WITHIN.
S HE WILL BUILD COVERINGS WITHOUT.
M ALES-FEMALES WILL THEY BE.
L ORDS OF THE F LAME ALSO .
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" 13.
T HEY WENT EACH ON HIS ALLOTTED LAND: SEVEN OF THEM EACH ON HIS LOT.
T HE L ORDS OF THE F LAME REMAIN BEHIND.
T HEY WOULD NOT GO, THEY WOULD NOT CREATE.
[[Vol.
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: the Kalevala egg-cosmogony is explicitly cited, and the Stanzas describe the sequential origin of heaven, earth, water, fire, and successive races of beings from the primordial state.
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 presents a clear cascade from the Lord of the Shining Face through Seven Sons to the Lord of Wisdom, then to the Lords of the Moon and Great Chohans, each level sending agents downward to the Earth.
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 Book of Dzyan is presented as a secret text with a chain of transmission (translated with commentaries), implying a historical or mythical lineage of esoteric wisdom from master to disciple.
The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).
The explicit statement 'Males-females will they be' and the generative act of the Earth-Mother creating from her own bosom assert a masculine-feminine generative principle operating at the cosmic level.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The text is explicitly titled 'The Secret Doctrine,' drawn from 'The Secret Book of Dzyan,' with a footnote noting that only 49 of several hundred slokas are given and that periphrasis is used where literal translation would be 'quite unintelligible.'