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fThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2 [[Vol. 2, Page]] 161 A SUGGESTIVE STANZA. STANZA VII. FROM THE SEMI-DIVINE DOWN TO THE FIRST HUMAN RACES. ------- §§ (24) The higher creators reject in their pride the forms evolved by the "Sons of Yoga." (25) They will not incarnate in the early "Egg-born." . . (26) They select the later androgynes. (27) The first man endowed with mind. --------------------- 24. T HE S ONS OF W ISDOM, THE S ONS OF N IGHT ( issued from the body of Brahma when it became Night ), READY FOR RE-BIRTH, CAME DOWN. T HEY SAW THE ( intellectually ) VILE FORMS OF THE FIRST THIRD ( still senseless Race ) ( a ) . " W E CAN CHOOSE," SAID THE L ORDS, "WE HAVE WISDOM." S OME ENTERED THE C HHAYAS. S OME PROJECTED A SPARK. S OME DEFERRED TILL THE F OURTH ( Race ). F ROM THEIR OWN ESSENCE THEY FILLED ( intensified ) THE K AMA ( the vehicle of desire ) . T HOSE WHO RECEIVED BUT A SPARK REMAINED DESTITUTE OF ( higher ) KNOWLEDGE. T HE SPARK BURNT LOW ( b ). T HE T HIRD REMAINED MIND-LESS. T HEIR J IVAS ( Monads ) WERE NOT READY. T HESE WERE SET APART AMONG THE S EVEN ( primitive human species ). T HEY ( became the ) NARROW-HEADED. T HE THIRD WERE READY. I N THESE SHALL WE DWELL, SAID THE L ORDS OF THE F LAME AND OF THE D ARK W ISDOM ( c ). This Stanza contains, in itself, the whole key to the mysteries of evil, the so-called Fall of the angels, and the many problems that have puzzled the brains of the philosophers from the time that the memory of man began. It solves the secret of the subsequent inequalities of intellectual capacity, of birth or social position, and gives a logical explanation to the incomprehensible Karmic course throughout the aeons which followed. The best explanation which can be given, in view of the difficulties of the subject, shall now be attempted. ( a ) Up to the Fourth Round, and even to the later part of the Third Race in this Round, Man -- if the ever-changing forms that clothed the Monads during the first three Rounds and the first two and a half races of the present one can be given that misleading name -- is, so far, only an animal intellectually. It is only in the actual midway Round that he develops in himself entirely the fourth principle as a fit vehicle for the [[Vol. 2, Page]] 162 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. fifth. But Manas will be relatively fully developed only in the following Round, when it will have an opportunity of becoming entirely divine until the end of the Rounds. As Christian Schoettgen says in Horae Hebraic, etc., the first terrestrial Adam "had only the breath of life," Nephesh, but not the living Soul. ( b ) Here the inferior Races, of which there are still some analogues left -- as the Australians (now fast dying out) and some African and Oceanic tribes -- are meant. " They were not ready " signifies that the Karmic development of these Monads had not yet fitted them to occupy the forms of men destined for incarnation in higher intellectual Races. But this is explained later on. ( c ) The Zohar speaks of "Black Fire," which is Absolute Light-Wisdom. To those who, prompted by old theological prejudice, may say: "But the Asuras are the rebel Devas, the opponents of the Gods -- hence devils, and the spirits of Evil," it is answered: Esoteric philosophy admits neither good nor evil per se, as existing independently in nature. The cause for both is found, as regards the Kosmos, in the necessity of contraries or contrasts, and with respect to man, in his human nature, his ignorance and passions. There is no devil or the utterly depraved, as there are no Angels absolutely perfect, though there may be spirits of Light and of Darkness; thus L UCIFER -- the spirit of Intellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought -- is metaphorically the guiding beacon, which helps man to find his way through the rocks and sandbanks of Life, for Lucifer is the L OGOS in his highest, and the "Adversary" in his lowest aspect -- both of which are reflected in our Ego. Lactantius, speaking of the Nature of Christ, makes the L OGOS, the Word, the first-born brother of Satan, the " first of all creatures. " ( Inst. div . Book II., c. viii., "Qabbalah," 116.) The Vishnu Purana describes these primeval creatures (the Arvaksrota ) with crooked digestive canals: They were "endowed with inward manifestations, but mutually in ignorance about their kind and nature. " The twenty-eight kinds of Badha, or imperfections, do not apply, as Wilson thought, to the animals now known and specified by him,* for these did not exist in those geological periods. This is quite plain in the said work, in which the first created (on this globe) are the "five-fold immovable creation," minerals and vegetables; then come those fabulous animals, Tiryaksrota, (the monsters of the abyss slain by the "Lords," see Stanzas II. and III .); then the Urdhwasrotas, the happy celestial beings, which feed on ambrosia; then lastly, the Arvaksrotas, human beings -- Brahma's [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See Book I., chap. v., p. 71. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 163 CREATORS AND SUB-CREATORS. seventh creation so-called. But these "creations," including the latter, did not occur on this globe, wherever else they may have taken place. It is not Brahma who creates things and men on this Earth, but the chief and Lord of the Prajapati, the Lords of Being and terrestrial Creation.* Obeying the command of Brahma, Daksha (the synthesis, or the aggregate, of the terrestrial creators and progenitors, Pitris included) made superior and inferior ( vara and avara ) things "referring to putra " progeny, and " bipeds and quadrupeds, and subsequently by his will (the Sons of Will and Yoga) made females," i.e ., separated the androgynes. Here again, we have "bipeds" or men, created before the "quadrupeds" as in the esoteric teachings. ( Vide supra and Stanza XII as explained.