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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2 [[Vol. 2, Page]] 22 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. STANZA I.* BEGINNINGS OF SENTIENT LIFE. ------- §§ (1) T HE L HA, or Spirit of the Earth. (2) Invocation of the Earth to the Sun. (3) What the Sun answers. (4) Transformation of the Earth. -------------- 1. T HE L HA ( a ) WHICH TURNS THE FOURTH ( Globe, or our Earth ) IS SERVANT TO THE L HA(S) OF THE SEVEN ( the planetary Spirits ) ( b ) , THEY WHO REVOLVE, DRIVING THEIR CHARIOTS AROUND THEIR L ORD, THE ONE EYE ( Loka-Chakshub ) OF OUR WORLD. H IS BREATH GIVES LIFE TO THE SEVEN ( gives light to the planets ) . I T GAVE LIFE TO THE FIRST ( c ) . " T HEY ARE ALL DRAGONS OF W ISDOM," adds the Commentary ( d ). ( a ) Lha is the ancient word in trans-Himalayan regions for "Spirit," any celestial or superhuman Being, and it covers the whole series of heavenly hierarchies, from Archangel, or Dhyani, down to an angel of darkness, or terrestrial Spirit. ( b ) This expression shows in plain language that the Spirit-Guardian of our globe, which is the fourth in the chain, is subordinate to the chief Spirit (or God) of the Seven Planetary Genii or Spirits. As already explained, the ancients had, in their Kyriel of gods, seven chief Mystery-gods, whose chief was, exoterically, the visible Sun, or the eighth, and, esoterically, the second Logos, the Demiurge. The seven (who have now become the "Seven Eyes of the Lord" in the Christian religion) were the regents of the seven chief planets; but these were not [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * All the words and sentences placed in brackets in the Stanzas and Commentaries are the writer's. In some places they may be incomplete and even inadequate from the Hindu standpoint; but in the meaning attached to them in Trans-Himalayan Esotericism they are correct. In every case the writer takes any blame upon herself. Having never claimed personal infallibility, that which is given on her own authority may leave much to be desired, in the very abstruse cases where too deep metaphysics is involved. The teaching is offered as it is understood; and as there are seven keys of interpretation to every symbol and allegory, that which may not fit a meaning, say from the psychological or astronomical aspect, will be found quite correct from the physical or metaphysical. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 23 THE ACTION OF THE GREAT BREATH. reckoned according to the enumeration devised later by people who had forgotten, or who had an inadequate notion of, the real Mysteries, and included neither the sun, the moon, nor the earth. The sun was the chief, exoterically, of the twelve great gods, or zodiacal constellations; and, esoterically, the Messiah, the Christos (the subject anointed by the G reat B REATH, or the O NE) surrounded by his twelve subordinate powers, also subordinate, in turn, to each of the seven "Mystery-gods" of the planets. "The seven higher make the Seven Lhas create the world," states a Commentary; which means that our Earth, leaving aside the rest, was created or fashioned by terrestrial spirits, the "Regents" being simply the supervisors. This is the first germ, the seed of that which grew later into the Tree of Astrology and Astrolatry. The Higher ones were the Kosmocratores, the fabricators of our solar system. This is borne out by all the ancient Cosmogonies: that of Hermes, of the Chaldees, of the Aryans, of the Egyptians, and even of the Jews. Heaven's belt, the signs of the Zodiac (the Sacred animals ) , are as much the Bne' Alhim (Sons of the Gods or the Elohim) as the Spirits of the Earth; but they are prior to them. Soma and Sin, Isis and Diana, are all lunar gods or goddesses, called the fathers and mothers of our Earth, which is subordinate to them. But these, in their turn, are subordinate to their "Fathers" and "Mothers" -- the latter interchangeable and varying with each nation -- the gods and their planets, such as Jupiter, Saturn Bel, Brihaspati, etc. ( c ) "His breath gave life to the seven," refers as much to the sun, who gives life to the Planets, as to the "High One," the Spiritual Sun, who gives life to the whole Kosmos. The astronomical and astrological keys opening the gate leading to the mysteries of Theogony can be found only in the later glossaries, which accompany the Stanzas. In the apocalyptic Slokas of the Archaic Records, the language is as symbolical, if less mythical, than in the Puranas. Without the help of the later commentaries, compiled by generations of adepts, it would be impossible to understand the meaning correctly. In the ancient Cosmogonies, the visible and the invisible worlds are the double links of one and the same chain. As the invisible Logos, with its seven hierarchies (represented or personified each by its chief angel or rector), form one POWER, the inner and the invisible; so, in the world of Forms, the Sun and the seven chief Planets constitute the visible and active potency; the latter "Hierarchy" being, so to speak, the visible and objective Logos of the invisible and (except in the lowest grades) ever-subjective angels. Thus -- to anticipate a little by way of illustration -- every Race in its [[Vol. 2, Page]] 24 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. evolution is said to be born under the direct influence of one of the Planets: Race the first receiving its breath of life from the Sun, as will be seen later on; while the third humanity -- those who fell into generation, or from androgynes became separate entities, one male and the other female -- are said to be under the direct influence of Venus, " the little sun in which the solar orb stores his light." The summation of the Stanzas in Book I. showed the genesis* of Gods and men taking rise in, and from, one and the same Point, which is the One Universal, Immutable, Eternal, and absolute U NITY. In its primary manifested aspect we have seen it become: (1) in the sphere of objectivity and Physics, Primordial Substance and Force (centripetal and centrifugal, positive and negative, male and female, etc., etc.); (2) in the world of Metaphysics, the S PIRIT OF THE U NIVERSE, or Cosmic Ideation, called by some the L OGOS. This L OGOS is the apex of the Pythagorean triangle.