Page 57 (part 4)

To this, one answer can be given -- a direct proof that the Egyptians believed in the Secret Doctrine is, that it was taught to them at Initiation. Let the objectors open the " Eclogae Physicae et Ethicae " of Stobaeus, the Greek compiler of ancient fragments, who lived in the fifth century, A.D . The following is a transcription by him of an old Hermetic fragment, showing the Egyptian theory of the Soul. Translated word for word, it says: -- "From one Soul, that of ALL , spring all the Souls, which spread themselves as if purposely distributed through the world. These souls undergo many transformations; those which are already creeping creatures turn into aquatic animals; from these aquatic animals are derived land animals; and from the latter the birds. From the beings who live aloft in the air (heaven) men are born. On reaching that [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] times greater than that on our Earth's surface, the atmospheric pressure, in descending below this visible surface, must soon reach that at which the vapour of water would be brought to its critical condition. Therefore we may infer that the oceans of Jupiter are neither of frozen, liquid, nor gaseous water, but are oceans or atmospheres of critical water. If any fish or birds swim or fly therein, they must be very critically organized. " As the whole mass of Jupiter is 300 times greater than that of the Earth, and its compressing energy towards the centre proportional to this, its materials, if similar to those of the Earth, and no hotter, would be considerably more dense, and the whole planet would have a higher specific gravity; but we know by the movement of its satellites that, instead of this, its specific gravity is less than a fourth of that of the Earth. This justifies the conclusion that it is intensely hot; for even hydrogen, if cold, would become denser than Jupiter under such pressure. "As all elementary substances may exist as solids, liquids, or gases, or, critically, according to the conditions of temperature and pressure, I am justified in hypothetically concluding that Jupiter is neither a solid, a liquid, nor a gaseous planet, but a critical planet, or an orb composed internally of associated elements in the critical state, and surrounded by a dense atmosphere of their vapours and those of some of their compounds such as water. The same reasoning applies to Saturn and other large and rarified planets." It is gratifying to see how scientific imagination approaches every year more closely to the borderland of our occult teachings. * " The Day After Death, " p. 23. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 138 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. status of men, the Souls receive the principle of (conscious) immortality, become Spirits, then pass into the choir of gods." -------- 23. T HE S ELF- B ORN WERE THE C HHAYAS, THE SHADOWS FROM THE BODIES OF THE SONS OF TWILIGHT. N EITHER WATER NOR FIRE COULD DESTROY THEM. T HEIR SONS WERE ( so destroyed ) ( a ). ( a ) This verse cannot be understood without the help of the Commentaries. It means that the First Root-Race, the "Shadows" of the Progenitors, could not be injured, or destroyed by death. Being so ethereal and so little human in constitution, they could not be affected by any element -- flood or fire. But their "Sons," the Second Root-Race, could be and were so destroyed. As the "progenitors" merged wholly in their own astral bodies, which were their progeny; so that progeny was absorbed in its descendants, the "Sweat-born." These were the second Humanity -- composed of the most heterogeneous gigantic semi-human monsters -- the first attempts of material nature at building human bodies. The ever-blooming lands of the Second Continent (Greenland, among others) were transformed, in order, from Edens with their eternal spring, into hyperborean Hades. This transformation was due to the displacement of the great waters of the globe, to oceans changing their beds; and the bulk of the Second Race perished in this first great throe of the evolution and consolidation of the globe during the human period. Of such great cataclysms there have already been four.* And we may expect a fifth for ourselves in due course of time. ------- A F EW W ORDS ABOUT " D ELUGES" AND " N OAHS." The accounts in the various Puranas about our Progenitors are as contradictory in their details as everything else. Thus while, in the Rig Veda, Ida (or Ila) is called the Instructress of Vaivasvata Manu, Sayana makes of her a goddess presiding over the Earth, and the Sathapatha Brahmana shows her to be the Manu's daughter, an offering of his sacrifice, and, later on, his (Vaivasvata's) wife, by whom he begat the race of Manus. In the Puranas, again, she is Vaivasvata's daughter, yet the wife of Budha (Wisdom), the illegitimate son of the Moon (Soma) and the planet Jupiter's ( Brihhaspati's ) wife, Tara. All this, which seems a jumble to the profane, is full of philosophical meaning to the Occultist. On the very face of the narrative a secret and sacred meaning is per- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- *The first occurred when what is now the North Pole was separated from the later Continents. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 139 WHAT THE FLOOD MEANS. ceivable, all the details, however, being so purposely mixed up that the experienced eye of an Initiate alone can follow them and place the events in their proper order. The story as told in the "Mahabharata" strikes the key-note, and yet it needs to be explained by the secret sense contained in the Bhagavad Gita. It is the prologue to the drama of our (Fifth) Humanity. While Vaivasvata was engaged in devotion on the river bank, a fish craves his protection from a bigger fish. He saves and places it in a jar, where, growing larger and larger, it communicates to him the news of the forthcoming deluge. It is the well-known "Matsya Avatar," the first Avatar of Vishnu, the Dagon* of the Chaldean Xisuthrus, and many other things besides. The story is too well known to need repetition. Vishnu orders a ship to be built, in which Manu is said to be saved along with the seven Rishis, the latter, however, being absent from other texts. Here the seven Rishis stand for the seven Races, the seven principles, and various other things; for there is again a double mystery involved in this manifold allegory. We have said elsewhere that the great Flood had several meanings, and that it referred, as also does the FALL, to both spiritual and physical, cosmic and terrestrial, events: as above, so it is below.