Page 54 (part 2)

So also Sarai ( SRI ), the wife of Abram, could have no child until her name was changed to Sarah, , giving to her the property of this lunar influence."* This may be regarded as a digression from the main subject; but it is a very necessary one with a view to Christian readers. For who, after studying dispassionately the respective legends of Abram or Abraham, Sarai or Sarah, who was "fair to look upon," and those of Brahma and Sarasvati, or Sri, Lakshmi-Venus, with the relations of all these to the Moon and Water; -- and especially one who understands the real Kabalistic meaning of the name Jehovah and its relation to, and connection with, the moon -- who can doubt that the story of Abram is based upon that of Brahma, or that Genesis was written upon the old lines used by every ancient nation? All in the ancient Scriptures is allegorical -- all based upon and inseparably connected with Astronomy and Cosmolatry. ------- 13. T HEY ( the Moon-gods ) WENT, EACH ON HIS ALLOTTED LAND: SEVEN OF THEM, EACH ON HIS LOT. T HE L ORDS OF THE F LAME REMAINED BEHIND. T HEY WOULD NOT GO, THEY WOULD NOT CREATE ( a ). ( a ) The Secret teachings show the divine Progenitors creating men on seven portions of the globe "each on his lot" -- i.e. , each a different race of men externally and internally, and on different zones. This polygenistic claim is considered elsewhere ( vide Stanza VII. ). But who are "They" who create, and the "Lords of the Flame," "who do not"? Occultism divides the "Creators" into twelve classes; of which four have reached liberation to the end of the "Great Age," the fifth is ready to reach it, but still remains active on the intellectual planes, while seven are still under direct Karmic law. These last act on the man-bearing globes of our chain. Exoteric Hindu books mention seven classes of Pitris, and among them two distinct kinds of Progenitors or Ancestors: the Barhishad and the Agnishwatta; or those possessed of the "sacred fire" and those devoid of it. Hindu ritualism seems to connect them with sacrificial fires, and with Grihasta Brahmins in earlier incarnations: those who have, and those who have not attended as they should to their household sacred fires in their previous births. The distinction, as said, is derived from the Vedas. The first and highest class (esoterically) the Agnishwatta, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * "Masonic Review"; Cincinnati, June 1886, Art. "The Cabbalah." [[Vol. 2, Page]] 78 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. are represented in the exoteric allegory as Grihasta (Brahman-householders) who, in their past births in other Manvantaras having failed to maintain their domestic fires and to offer burnt sacrifices, have lost every right to have oblations with fire presented to them. Whereas the Barhishad, being Brahmins who have kept up their household sacred fires, are thus honoured to this day. Thence the Agnishwatta are represented as devoid of, and the Barhishad as possessed of, fires. But esoteric philosophy explains the original qualifications as being due to the difference between the natures of the two classes: the Agnishwatta Pitris are devoid of fire ( i.e. , of creative passion), because too divine and pure ( vide supra, Sloka 11th); whereas the Barhishad, being the lunar spirits more closely connected with Earth, became the creative Elohim of form, or the Adam of dust. The allegory says that Sanandana and other Vedhas, the Sons of Brahma, his first progeny, "were without desire or passion, inspired with the holy wisdom, estranged from the Universe and undesirous of progeny" ( Vishnu Purana, Book I. vii.). This also is what is meant in Sloka 11 by the words: "They would not create," and is explained as follows: -- "The primordial Emanations from the creative Power are too near the absolute Cause. They are transitional and latent forces, which will develop only in the next and subsequent removes." This makes it plain. Hence Brahma is said to have felt wrathful when he saw that those "embodied spirits, produced from his limbs ( gatra ), would not multiply themselves." After which, in the allegory, he creates other seven mind-born Sons (see "Moksha-Darma" and "Mahabharata" ) , namely , Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu and Vasishta, the latter being often replaced by Daksha, the most prolific of the creators. In most of the texts these Seven Sons of Vasishta-Daksha are called the seven Rishis of the Third Manvantara; the latter referring both to the Third Round and also to the third Root-Race and its branch-Races in the Fourth Round. These are all the creators of the various beings on this Earth, the Prajapati, and at the same time they appear as divers reincarnations in the early Manvantaras or races. It thus becomes clear why the Agnishwatta, devoid of the grosser creative fire, hence unable to create physical man, having no double, or astral body, to project, since they were without any form , are shown in exoteric allegories as Yogis, Kumaras (chaste youths), who became "rebels," Asuras, fighting and opposing gods,* etc., etc. Yet it is they [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Because, as the allegory shows, the Gods who had no personal merit of their own, dreading the sanctity of those self-striving incarnated Beings who had become ascetics and Yogis, and thus threatened to upset the power of the former by their self-acquired powers -- renounced them. All this has a deep philosophical meaning and refers to the evolution and acquirement of divine powers through self-exertion. Some Rishi- [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol. 2, Page]] 79 THE LIVING SPIRITUAL FIRE. alone who could complete man, i.e. , make of him a self-conscious, almost a divine being -- god on Earth. The Barhishad, though possessed of creative fire, were devoid of the higher M AHAT-mic element. Being on a level with the lower principles -- those which precede gross objective matter -- they could only give birth to the outer man, or rather to the model of the physical, the astral man. Thus, though we see them intrusted with the task by Brahma (the collective Mahat or Universal Divine Mind), the "Mystery of Creation" is repeated on Earth, only in an inverted sense, as in a mirror.