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2, Page]] 607 THE SEVEN EARTHS AND THE SEVEN RACES. to the seven primeval groups of mankind, as Visvakarman represents divine humanity collectively.* The same doctrine is found reflected in the other old religions. It may, and must have come down to us disfigured and misinterpreted, as in the case of the Parsis, who read it in their Vendidad and elsewhere, without understanding the allusions they contain any better than the Orientalists do; yet the doctrine is plainly mentioned in their old works. (See the enumeration of the seven spheres --not the " Karshvare of the earth, " as believed -- in Fargard XIX ., 30). But see further on. Comparing the esoteric teaching with the interpretations by James Darmesteter (the Vendidad, edited by Prof. Max Muller), one may see at a glance where the mistake is made, and the cause that produced it. The passage runs thus: -- "The Indo-Iranian Asura (Ahura) was often conceived as seven-fold; by the play of certain mythical (?) formulae and the strength of certain mythical (?) numbers, the ancestors of the Indo-Iranians had been led to speak of seven worlds, ** and the Supreme God was often made seven-fold, as well as the worlds over which he ruled." ( Vide the foot note ) . "The seven worlds became in Persia the seven Karshvare of the earth: the earth is divided into seven Karshvare, only one of which is known and accessible to man, the one on which we live, namely, Hvaniratha; which amounts to saying that there are seven earths.*** Parsi mythology knows also of seven heavens. Hvaniratha itself is divided into seven climes. (Orm. Ahr. § 72. " Vendidad Introd. p. Lx.,)" and the same division and doctrine is to be found in the oldest and most revered of the Hindu [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Nor is this archaic teaching so very unscientific, since one of the greatest naturalists of the age -- the late Professor Agassiz -- admitted the multiplicity of the geographical origins of man, and supported it to the end of his life. The unity of the human species was accepted by the illustrious Professor of Cambridge (U.S.A.) in the same way as the Occultists do -- namely, in the sense of their essential and original homogeneity and their origin from one and the same source: -- e.g ., Negroes, Aryans, Mongols, etc., have all originated in the same way and from the same ancestors. The latter were all of one essence, yet differentiated, because belonging to seven planes which differed in degree though not in kind. That original physical difference was but little more accentuated by that of geographical and climatic conditions, later on. This is not the theory of Agassiz, of course, but the esoteric version. It is fully discussed in the Addenda (Part III. ). ** The seven worlds are, as said, the seven spheres of the chain, each presided over by one of the "Seven great gods" of every religion. When the latter became degraded and anthropomorphized, and the metaphysical ideas nearly forgotten, the synthesis or the highest, the seventh, was separated from the rest, and that personification became the eighth god, whom monotheism tried to unify but -- failed. In no exoteric religion is God really one, if analyzed metaphysically. *** The six invisible globes of our chain are both "worlds" and "earths" as is our own, albeit invisible. But where could be the Six invisible earths on this globe? [[Vol. 2, Page]] 608 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. scriptures -- the Rig-veda. Mention is made therein of six worlds, besides our earth: the six rajamsi above prithivi -- the earth, -- or "this" (idam) as opposed to that which is yonder ( i.e., the six globes on the three other planes or worlds). ( See Rig-veda I. 34 , III. 56 ; VII 10, 411, and V ., 60. 6). The italics are ours to point out the identity of the tenets with those of the esoteric doctrine, and the mistake made. The Magi or Mazdeans only believed in what other people believed in; namely, in seven "worlds" or globes of our planetary chain, of which only one is accessible to man (at the present time), our Earth; and in the successive appearance and destruction of seven continents or earths on this our globe, each continent being divided, in commemoration of the seven globes (one visible, six invisible), into seven islands or continents, "seven climes," etc., etc. This was a common belief in those days when the now Secret Doctrine was open to all. It is this multiplicity of localities under Septenary division, that made the Orientalists (led astray, moreover, by the oblivion of both the uninitiated Hindus and Parsis of their primitive doctrines) feel so puzzled by this ever-recurring seven-fold number, as to regard it as "mythical." It is that oblivion of the first principles which has led the Orientalists off the right track and made them commit the greatest blunders. The same failure is found in the definition of the Gods. Those who are ignorant of the esoteric doctrine of the earliest Aryans, can never assimilate or understand correctly the metaphysical meaning contained in these B EINGS. Ahura Mazda (Ormazd) was the head and synthesis of the seven Amesha Spentas (or Amshaspends), and, therefore, an Amesha Spenta himself. Just as "Jehovah-Binah Arelim" was the head and synthesis of the Elohim and no more; so Agni-Vishnu-Surya was the synthesis and head, or the focus whence emanated in physics as in metaphysics, from the Spiritual as from the physical Sun, the Seven Rays, the seven fiery tongues, the seven planets or gods. All these became supreme gods and the O NE G OD, but only after the loss of the primeval secrets, the sinking of Atlantis, or "the Flood," and the occupation of India by the Brahmans, who sought safety on the summits of the Himalayas, when even the high table-lands of what is now Tibet became submerged for a time. Ahura Mazda is addressed only as "the Most Blissful Spirit, Creator of the corporeal World" in the Vendidad. "Ahura Mazda" in its literal translation means the "Wise Lord" ( Ahura "lord," and Mazda "wise"). Moreover, this name of Ahura, in Sanskrit Asura, connects him with the Manasaputras, the Sons of Wisdom who informed the mindless man, and endowed him with his mind ( manas ) .