It is those who are unable to create the spiritual immortal man, who project the senseless model (the Astral ) of the physical Being; and, as will be seen, it was those who would not multiply, who sacrificed themselves to the good and salvation of Spiritual Humanity.
For, to complete the septenary man, to add to his three lower principles and cement them with the spiritual Monad -- which could never dwell in such a form otherwise than in an absolutely latent state -- two connecting principles are needed: Manas and Kama.
This requires a living Spiritual Fire of the middle principle from the fifth and third states of Pleroma.
But this fire is the possession of the Triangles, not of the (perfect) Cubes, which symbolize the Angelic Beings:* the former having from the first creation got hold of it and being said to have appropriated it for themselves, as in the allegory of Prometheus.
These are the active, and therefore -- in Heaven -- no longer "pure" Beings.
They have become the independent and free Intelligences, shown in every Theogony as fighting for that independence and freedom, and hence -- in the ordinary sense -- "rebellious to the divine passive law." These are then those "Flames" (the Agnishwatta ) who, as shown in Sloka 13, "remain behind" instead of going along with the others to create men on Earth.
But the true esoteric meaning is that most of them were destined to incarnate as the Egos of the forthcoming crop of Mankind.
The human Ego is neither Atman nor Buddhi, but the higher Manas: the intellectual fruition and the efflorescence of the intellectual self-conscious Egotism -- in the higher spiritual sense.
The ancient works refer to it as Karana Sarira on the plane of Sutratma, which is the golden thread on which, like beads, the various personalities of this higher Ego are strung.
If the reader were told, as in the semi-esoteric allegories, that these Beings were returning Nirvanees, from preceding Maha-Manvantaras -- ages of incalculable dura- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] Yogis are shown in the Puranas to be far more powerful than the gods.
Secondary gods or temporary powers in Nature (the Forces) are doomed to disappear; it is only the spiritual potentiality in man which can lead him to become one with the INFINITE and the ABSOLUTE.
* See Book I., Stanzas III.
to V.
The triangle becomes a Pentagon (five-fold) on Earth.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 80 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
tion which have rolled away in the Eternity, a still more incalculable time ago -- he would hardly understand the text correctly; while some Vedantins might say: "This is not so; the Nirvanee can never return"; which is true during the Manvantara he belongs to, and erroneous where Eternity is concerned.
For it is said in the Sacred Slokas: "The thread of radiance which is imperishable and dissolves only in Nirvana, re-emerges from it in its integrity on the day when the Great Law calls all things back into action .
.
.
." Hence, as the higher "Pitris or Dhyanis" had no hand in his physical creation, we find primeval man, issued from the bodies of his spiritually fireless progenitors, described as aeriform, devoid of compactness, and M INDLESS.
He had no middle principle to serve him as a medium between the highest and the lowest, the spiritual man and the physical brain, for he lacked Manas.
The Monads which incarnated in those empty S HELLS, remained as unconscious as when separated from their previous incomplete forms and vehicles.
There is no potentiality for creation, or self-Consciousness, in a pure Spirit on this our plane, unless its too homogeneous, perfect, because divine, nature is, so to say, mixed with, and strengthened by, an essence already differentiated.
It is only the lower line of the Triangle -- representing the first triad that emanates from the Universal M ONAD -- that can furnish this needed consciousness on the plane of differentiated Nature.
But how could these pure Emanations, which, on this principle, must have originally been themselves unconscious (in our sense), be of any use in supplying the required principle, as they could hardly have possessed it themselves?
The answer is difficult to comprehend, unless one is well acquainted with the philosophical metaphysics of a beginningless and endless series of Cosmic Re-births; and becomes well impressed and familiarised with that immutable law of Nature which is E TERNAL M OTION, cyclic and spiral, therefore progressive even in its seeming retrogression.
The one divine Principle, the nameless T HAT of the Vedas, is the universal Total, which, neither in its spiritual aspects and emanations, nor in its physical atoms, can ever be at "absolute rest" except during the "Nights" of Brahma.
Hence, also, the "first-born" are those who are first set in motion at the beginning of a Manvantara, and thus the first to fall into the lower spheres of materiality.
They who are called in Theology "the Thrones," and are the "Seat of God," must be the first incarnated men on Earth; and it becomes comprehensible, if we think of the endless series of past Manvantaras, to find that the last had to come first, and the first last.
We find, in short, that the higher Angels had broken, countless aeons before, through the "Seven Circles," and thus robbed them of the Sacred fire; [[Vol.
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which means in plain words, that they had assimilated during their past incarnations, in lower as well as in higher worlds, all the wisdom therefrom -- the reflection of M AHAT in its various degrees of intensity.
No Entity, whether angelic or human, can reach the state of Nirvana, or of absolute purity, except through aeons of suffering and the knowledge of EVIL as well as of good, as otherwise the latter remains incomprehensible.
Between man and the animal -- whose Monads (or Jivas) are fundamentally identical -- there is the impassable abyss of Mentality and Self-consciousness.
What is human mind in its higher aspect, whence comes it, if it is not a portion of the essence -- and, in some rare cases of incarnation, the very essence - - of a higher Being: one from a higher and divine plane?
Can man -- a god in the animal form -- be the product of Material Nature by evolution alone, even as is the animal, which differs from man in external shape, but by no means in the materials of its physical fabric, and is informed by the same, though undeveloped, Monad -- seeing that the intellectual potentialities of the two differ as the Sun does from the Glow-worm?
And what is it that creates such difference, unless man is an animal plus a living god within his physical shell?
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The 'thread of radiance' that 're-emerges from [Nirvana] in its integrity on the day when the Great Law calls all things back into action' describes a periodic restoration of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
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 passage narrates the origin of human beings: how the Triangles appropriated the fire, how primeval man was created mindless in empty shells, and how the Monads became unconscious without the middle principle.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
The Monads (divine sparks) are described as incarnating in empty shells, remaining unconscious, and the human Ego is a 'portion of the essence' of a higher Being trapped in a physical form awaiting development.
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 is structured around a cascading descent from the Universal MONAD through the Triangle (first triad), Triangles (Angelic Beings), Cubes, down through Manas and Kama to the physical, with each level less perfect than the one above.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly distinguishes 'the true esoteric meaning' from the outer allegorical reading, stating that the ordinary sense is 'rebellious to the divine passive law' while the inner meaning reveals the incarnation of Egos.
The deeper aspect of the individual's own consciousness aligned with divine or spiritual truth, distinct from the ego or everyday personality — a locus of guidance and identity that can speak with its own recognisable 'voice' in moments of crisis, carrying memory or knowledge the ordinary self lacks. Distinct from inner_light (a static luminous quality or spark, not an alternate seat of identity and agency) and kingdom_within (the claim that the divine realm generally is present inside the individual, not this specific personal higher consciousness).
The human Ego is defined as 'the higher Manas: the intellectual fruition and the efflorescence of the intellectual self-conscious Egotism — in the higher spiritual sense,' distinct from the lower personality and identified with a higher Being's essence.
The doctrine that the divine or a spiritual principle takes on a specific, bounded material or bodily form — descending from an unconditioned state into individual, corporeal existence — as a discrete act rather than a diffuse pervading presence. The Christian Word made flesh, the Hindu avatara, the Egyptian pharaoh as living Horus, the Vajrayana tulku. Distinct from divine_immanence (the general claim that the divine pervades all of creation diffusely, not a specific embodiment-event) and separation_from_source (the felt exile FROM origin, the opposite motion) in describing a specific, individuated descent INTO a particular body or form.
The entire passage is about the incarnation of spiritual principles into material form: the Monads incarnating in shells, the Triangles incarnating as human Egos, and the Monads remaining unconscious without the middle principle.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage traces the directional descent of spirit into matter stage by stage — from the Universal MONAD through the Triangle, Triangles, Cubes, down through Manas and Kama to the physical — and complements it with the eventual return, naming this as the cosmic process.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The Monad is a central operative concept: the spiritual Monad that can only dwell latently without connecting principles, the Universal MONAD from which the first triad emanates, and the Monads that incarnate in empty shells.
The divine fullness or totality of the highest realm, populated by aeons and divine attributes, contrasted with the deficient material world.
The Pleroma is explicitly named as the source of the Spiritual Fire ('from the fifth and third states of Pleroma'), and the passage contrasts its divine fullness with the deficient material world that lacks the middle principle.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The passage describes the soul's journey back through aeons of suffering and knowledge, with the thread of radiance re-emerging from Nirvana, and the ultimate goal of becoming 'one with the INFINITE and the ABSOLUTE.'
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
The passage explicitly names 'Eternal Motion, cyclic and spiral, therefore progressive even in its seeming retrogression' as an immutable law of Nature governing all cosmic processes.
The passage explicitly describes Nirvanees returning from preceding Maha-Manvantaras and the 'endless series of past Manvantaras' in which entities have undergone repeated incarnations in lower and higher worlds.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage asserts that 'the one divine Principle, the nameless THAT of the Vedas, is the universal Total' from which all emanations and physical atoms derive, and that the spiritual potentiality in man can lead him to become one with the INFINITE.