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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2 [[Vol. 2, Page]] 86 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. STANZA IV. CREATION OF THE FIRST RACES. §§ (14) Creation of men. (15) They are empty shadows. (16) The Creators are perplexed how to create a THINKING man. (17) What is needed for the formation of a perfect Man. 14. T HE S EVEN H OSTS, THE " W ILL ( or Mind )- B ORN" L ORDS, P ROPELLED BY THE S PIRIT OF L IFE- G IVING ( Fohat ) , SEPARATE MEN FROM THEMSELVES, EACH ON HIS OWN Z ONE ( a ). ( a ) They threw off their "shadows" or astral bodies - - if such an ethereal being as a "lunar Spirit" may be supposed to rejoice in an astral, besides a hardly tangible body. In another Commentary it is said that the "Ancestors" breathed out the first man, as Brahma is explained to have breathed out the Suras (Gods), when they became " Asuras " (from Asu, breath). In a third it is said that they, the newly-created men, "were the shadows of the Shadows." With regard to this sentence -- "They were the shadows of the Shadows" -- a few more words may be said and a fuller explanation attempted. This first process of the evolution of mankind is far easier to accept than the one which follows it, though one and all will be rejected and doubted even by some Kabalists, especially the Western, who study the present effects, but have neglected to study their primary causes. Nor does the writer feel competent to explain a mode of procreation so difficult of appreciation save for an Eastern Occultist. Therefore it is useless to enter here into details concerning the process, though it is minutely described in the Secret Books, as it would only lead to speaking of facts hitherto unknown to the profane world, and hence to their being misunderstood. An "Adam" made of the dust of the ground will always be found preferable, by a certain class of students, to one projected out of the ethereal body of his creator; though the former process has never been heard of, while the latter is familiar, as all know, to many Spiritualists in Europe and America, who, of all men, ought to understand it. For who of those who have witnessed the phenomenon of a materialising form oozing out of the pores of a medium or, at other times, out of his left side, can fail to credit the possibility, at least, of such a birth? If there are [[Vol. 2, Page]] 87 MAN NOT CREATED PERFECT. in the Universe such beings as Angels or Spirits, whose incorporeal essence may constitute an intelligent entity notwithstanding the absence of any (to us) solid organism; and if there are those who believe that a god made the first man out of dust, and breathed into him a living Soul -- and there are millions upon millions who believe both -- what does this doctrine of ours contain that is so impossible? Very soon the day will dawn, when the world will have to choose whether it will accept the miraculous creation of man (and Kosmos too) out of nothing, according to the dead letter of Genesis, or a first man born from a fantastic link -- absolutely " missing " so far -- the common ancestor of man, and of the "true ape."* Between these two fallacies,** Occult philosophy steps in. It teaches that the first human stock was projected by higher and semi-divine Beings out of their own essences. If the latter process is to be considered as abnormal or even inconceivable -- because obsolete in Nature at this point of evolution -- it is yet proven possible on the authority of certain "Spiritualistic" FACTS. Which, then, we ask of the three hypotheses or theories is the most reasonable and the least absurd? Certainly no one -- provided he is not a soul-blind materialist -- can ever object to the occult teaching. Now, as shown, we gather from the latter that man was not "created" the complete being he is now, however imperfect he still remains. There was a spiritual, a psychic, an intellectual, and an animal evolution, from the highest to the lowest, as well as a physical development -- from the simple and homogeneous, up to the more complex and heterogeneous; though not quite on the lines traced for us by the modern evolutionists. This double evolution in two contrary directions, required various ages, of divers natures and degrees of spirituality and intellectuality, to fabricate the being now known as man. Furthermore, the one absolute, ever acting and never erring law, which proceeds on the [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * ". . . Huxley, supported by the most evident discoveries in Comparative Anatomy, could utter the momentous sentence that the anatomical differences between man and the highest apes are less than those between the latter and the lowest apes. In relation to our genealogical tree of man, the necessary conclusion follows that the human race has evolved gradually from the true apes. " (" The Pedigree of Man, " by Ernest Haeckel, translated by Ed. B. Aveling, p. 49). What may be the scientific and logical objections to the opposite conclusion -- we would ask? The anatomical resemblances between Man and the Anthropoids -- grossly exaggerated as they are by Darwinists, as M. de Quatrefages shows -- are simply enough "accounted for" when the origin of the latter is taken into consideration. "Nowhere, in the older deposits, is an ape to be found that approximates more closely to man, or a man that approximates more closely to an ape . . . . . ." ** ". . . . . The same gulf which is found to-day between Man and Ape, goes back with undiminished breadth and depth to the Tertiary period. This fact alone is enough to make its untenability clear," (Dr. F. Pfaff, Prof. of Natural Science in the University of Erlangen). [[Vol. 2, Page]] 88 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. same lines from one eternity (or Manvantara) to the other -- ever furnishing an ascending scale for the manifested, or that which we call the great Illusion ( Maha-Maya ) , but plunging Spirit deeper and deeper into materiality on the one hand, and then redeeming it through flesh and liberating it -- this law, we say, uses for these purposes the Beings from other and higher planes, men, or Minds (Manus), in accordance with their Karmic exigencies. At this juncture, the reader is again asked to turn to the Indian philosophy and religion. The Esotericism of both is at one with our Secret Doctrine, however much the form may differ and vary. ------- O N THE I DENTITY AND D IFFERENCES OF THE I NCARNATING P OWERS.