5, the Sloka simply says: "Bhutas -- fiends, frightful from being monkey-coloured and carnivorous"; and the word in India now means ghosts, ethereal or astral phantoms, while in esoteric teaching it means elementary substances, something made of attenuated, noncompound essence, and, specifically, the astral double of any man or animal.
In this case these primitive men are the doubles of the first ethereal Dhyanis or Pitris.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 103 THE DIVINE REBELS.
HIGHER SELF or human Monad -- and the animal Monad, both one and the same, although the former is endowed with divine intelligence, the latter with instinctual faculty alone.
How is the difference to be explained, and the presence of that HIGHER SELF in man accounted for?
" The Sons of MAHAT are the quickeners of the human Plant.
They are the Waters falling upon the arid soil of latent life, and the Spark that vivifies the human animal.
They are the Lords of Spiritual Life eternal.
" .
.
.
.
" In the beginning (in the Second Race) some (of the Lords) only breathed of their essence into Manushya (men); and some took in man their abode.
" This shows that not all men became incarnations of the "divine Rebels, " but only a few among them.
The remainder had their fifth principle simply quickened by the spark thrown into it, which accounts for the great difference between the intellectual capacities of men and races.
Had not the "sons of Mahat," speaking allegorically, skipped the intermediate worlds, in their impulse toward intellectual freedom, the animal man would never have been able to reach upward from this earth, and attain through self-exertion his ultimate goal.
The cyclic pilgrimage would have to be performed through all the planes of existence half unconsciously, if not entirely so, as in the case of the animals.
It is owing to this rebellion of intellectual life against the morbid inactivity of pure spirit, that we are what we are -- self-conscious, thinking men, with the capabilities and attributes of Gods in us, for good as much as for evil.
Hence the REBELS are our saviours.
Let the philosopher ponder well over this, and more than one mystery will become clear to him.
It is only by the attractive force of the contrasts that the two opposites -- Spirit and Matter -- can be cemented on Earth, and, smelted in the fire of self-conscious experience and suffering, find themselves wedded in Eternity.
This will reveal the meaning of many hitherto incomprehensible allegories, foolishly called "fables." ( Vide infra, " The Secret of Satan.
") It explains, to begin with, the statement made in Pymander: that the "heavenly MAN," the "Son of the Father," who partook of the nature and essence of the Seven Governors, or creators and Rulers of the material world, "peeped through the Harmony and, breaking through the Seven Circles of Fire, made manifest the downward-born nature."* It explains every verse in that Hermetic narrative, as also the Greek allegory of Prometheus.
Most important of all, it explains the many allegorical accounts about the "Wars in Heaven," including that of Revelation with respect to the Christian dogma of the fallen angels.
It explains the "rebellion" of the oldest and highest Angels, and the meaning of their being cast down from Heaven into the depths of Hell, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See " Pymander, " Bk.
II., verses 17 to 29.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 104 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
i.e ., MATTER.
It even solves the recent perplexity of the Assyriologists, who express their wonder through the late George Smith.
"My first idea of this part" (of the rebellion), he says, "was that the wars with the powers of Evil preceded the Creation ; I now think it followed the account of the fall" ( Chaldean Account of Genesis, p.
92).
In this work Mr.
George Smith gives an engraving, from an early Babylonian cylinder, of the Sacred Tree, the Serpent, man and woman.
The tree has seven branches: three on the man's side, four on that of the female.
These branches are typical of the seven Root-Races, in the third of which, at its very close, occurred the separation of the sexes and the so-called FALL into generation.
The three earliest Races were sexless, then hermaphrodite; the other four, male and female, as distinct from each other.
"The Dragon," says Mr.
G.
Smith, "which in the Chaldean account of the creation leads man to sin, is the creation of Tiamat, the living principle of the Sea, or Chaos .
.
.
which was opposed to the deities at the creation of the world." This is an error.
The Dragon is the male principle, or Phallus, personified, or rather animalized ; and Tiamat, "the embodiment of the Spirit of Chaos," of the deep, or Abyss, is the female principle, the Womb.
The "Spirit of Chaos and Disorder " refers to the mental perturbation which it led to.
It is the sensual, attractive, magnetic principle which fascinates and seduces, the ever living active element which throws the whole world into disorder, chaos, and sin.
The Serpent seduces the woman, but it is the latter who seduces man, and both are included in the Karmic curse, though only as a natural result of a cause produced.
Says George Smith: "It is clear that the Dragon is included in the curse for the Fall, and that the Gods" (the Elohim, jealous at seeing the man of clay becoming a Creator in his turn, like all the animals,) "invoke on the head of the human Race all the evils which afflict humanity.
Wisdom and knowledge shall injure him, he shall have family quarrels, he will anger the gods, he shall submit to tyranny.
.
.
.
he shall be disappointed in his desires, he shall pour out useless prayers, he shall commit future sin.
.
No doubt subsequent lines continue this topic, but again our narrative is broken, and it re-opens only where the gods are preparing for war with the powers of evil, which are led by Tiamat (the woman).
.
.
.
" ( Babylonian Legend of Creation, p.
92.) This account is omitted in Genesis, for monotheistic purposes.
But it is a mistaken policy -- born no doubt of fear, and regard for dogmatic religion and its superstitions -- to have sought to restore the Chaldean fragments by Genesis, whereas it is the latter, far younger than any of the fragments, which ought to be explained by the former.
------- [[Vol.
2, Page]] 105 MAN'S FATHER, THE SUN.
17.
T HE BREATH ( human Monad ) NEEDED A FORM; THE F ATHERS GAVE IT.
T HE BREATH NEEDED A GROSS BODY; T HE EARTH MOULDED IT.
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 humanity through successive Root-Races, the separation of sexes, the 'FALL into generation,' and explicitly discusses the Babylonian/Chaldean account of creation including the Sacred Tree, Serpent, and the gods' war with Tiamat.
The reunification of complementary divine principles (male-female, spirit-matter) as a symbol of wholeness and salvation.
The passage states that Spirit and Matter, 'smelted in the fire of self-conscious experience and suffering, find themselves wedded in Eternity' — the reunification of complementary divine principles as a symbol of wholeness.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
The 'spark that vivifies the human animal' and the 'fifth principle simply quickened by the spark thrown into it' describe fragments of divine spirit entering and animating material bodies, awaiting their full development through self-exertion.
Naturally-existing, non-human intelligences native to a single element — earth, air, fire, or water — rather than the fourfold-composite human nature: Paracelsus's gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines; the Deva Kingdom or fairy kingdom of Western occultism, forming their own parallel kingdom capable of incarnating in or forming relationships with humans. Distinct from artificial_elemental (a manufactured thought-entity deliberately created by a single operator, not a naturally-occurring species) and animism (the general doctrine that nature-places host indwelling spirits, of which this is one specific taxonomic system organised around the four elements rather than locality).
Bhutas are defined as 'elementary substances, something made of attenuated, noncompound essence' and 'the astral double of any man or animal,' functioning as a class of non-human intelligences native to the elemental/astral realm.
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 passage explicitly identifies the Dragon as 'the male principle, or Phallus, personified' and Tiamat as 'the female principle, the Womb,' discusses the separation of sexes across Root-Races, and presents the masculine-feminine generative principle as operating on every plane of being.
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 'Higher Self or human Monad' is explicitly named as distinct from the 'animal Monad,' endowed with 'divine intelligence' versus 'instinctual faculty alone,' representing a deeper aspect of consciousness aligned with spiritual truth.
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 passage describes specific acts of descent: 'some (of the Lords) only breathed of their essence into Manushya; and some took in man their abode,' and the final lines state 'The Breath needed a form; The Fathers gave it' — discrete acts of spiritual principle taking on bounded material form.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The human Monad is described as containing 'capabilities and attributes of Gods in us,' the 'heavenly MAN' partook of the nature of the Seven Governors, and the human Plant is quickened by the Waters and Spark of the divine — making the human a small-scale image of the cosmos.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The 'Higher Self or human Monad' and 'animal Monad' are explicitly named and contrasted, with the human Monad endowed with divine intelligence and the animal with instinct alone, making the monadic structure a central organizing concept of the passage.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
Spirit and Matter are presented as 'two opposites' that are not merely opposed but are 'cemented' and 'wedded' — expressing the doctrine that apparent opposites are of the same nature and work together as extremes of a single scale.
The 1 Enoch narrative in which a class of originally-good angelic beings (the Watchers) descends, mates with women, and teaches forbidden arts — the substrate that Gnostic archons inherits and inverts: archons are born malevolent, the Watchers fall through transgression.
The passage explicitly narrates the 'Wars in Heaven,' the 'rebellion of the oldest and highest Angels,' their being 'cast down from Heaven into the depths of Hell,' and identifies the 'divine Rebels' as those who descended to Earth — directly paralleling the Watchers' descent narrative.
A vertical structure connecting cosmic levels — a tree, pillar, mountain, or ladder linking heaven, earth, and underworld around which the cosmos is organised. Yggdrasil binding the Nine Worlds in Norse cosmology, the Kalevala's Sampo as world-pillar, the Mayan ceiba, the Vedic Aśvattha, the shamanic central tree of Eliade's analyses. Cosmic-structural in character: distinct from sefirot_tree (a kabbalistic emanation diagram) and emanation_hierarchy (an ontological cascade); world_tree_axis is the cosmos's spine rather than the divine's outflow.
The Babylonian Sacred Tree with seven branches (three on the man's side, four on the female) is explicitly described as a vertical structure connecting cosmic levels, interpreted as typical of the seven Root-Races.