183); the Arabs anciently divided the year into six seasons, each composed of two months; in the Chinese astronomical work called Kioo-tche, it is said that two moons make a measure of time, and six measures a year; and to this day the aborigines of Kamschatka have their years of six months, as they had when visited by Abbe Chappe (Voyage to Siberia, Vol.
III., p.
19).
But is all this a reason to say that when the Hindu Puranas say "a solar year " they mean one solar day!
It is the knowledge of the natural laws that make of seven the root nature-number, so to say, in the manifested world -- at any rate in our present terrestrial life-cycle -- and the wonderful comprehension of its workings, that unveiled to the ancients so many of the mysteries of nature.
It is these laws, again, and their processes on the sidereal, terrestrial, and moral planes, which enabled the old astronomers to calculate correctly the duration of the cycles and their respective effects on the march of events; to record beforehand (prophecy, it is called) the influence which they will have on the course and development of the human races.
The Sun, Moon, and planets being the never-erring time measurers, whose potency and periodicity were well known, became thus the great Ruler and rulers of our little system in all its seven domains, or "spheres of action."* This has been so evident and remarkable, that even many of the modern men of Science, Materialists as well as Mystics, had their attention called to this law.
Physicians and theologians, mathematicians and psychologists have drawn the attention of the world repeatedly to this fact of periodicity in the behaviour of "Nature." These numbers are explained in the "Commentaries" in these words.
T HE C IRCLE IS NOT THE " O NE" BUT THE ALL .
I N THE HIGHER [ heaven ] THE IMPENETRABLE R AJAH [" ad Mutant, " see Atharva-Veda X., 105], IT [ the Circle ] BECOMES O NE, BECAUSE [ it is ] THE INDIVISIBLE, AND THERE CAN BE NO T AU IN IT.
I N THE SECOND [ of the three " Rajamsi " ( tritiye ) , or the three " Worlds "] THE ONE BECOMES TWO [ male and female ] ; AND THREE [ add the Son or logos ] ; AND THE S ACRED F OUR [" tetractis, " or the " Tetragrammaton.
"] I N THE THIRD [ the lower world or our earth ] THE NUMBER BECOMES FOUR, AND THREE, AND TWO.
T AKE THE FIRST TWO, AND THOU WILT [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The spheres of action of the combined Forces of Evolution and Karma are (1) the Super-spiritual or noumenal; ( 2 ) the Spiritual; (3) the Psychic; (4) the Astro-ethereal; (5) the Sub-astral; (6) the Vital; and (7) the purely physical spheres.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 622 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
OBTAIN S EVEN, THE SACRED NUMBER OF LIFE; BLEND [ the latter ] WITH THE MIDDLE R AJAH, AND THOU WILT HAVE N INE, THE SACRED NUMBER OF BEING AND BECOMING ."* When the Western Orientalists have mastered the real meaning of the Rig Vedic divisions of the World -- the two-fold, three-fold, six and seven-fold, and especially the nine-fold division, the mystery of the cyclic divisions applied to heaven and earth, gods and men, will become clearer to them than it is now.
For -- " T HERE IS A HARMONY OF NUMBERS IN ALL NATURE; in the force of gravity, in the planetary movements, in the laws of heat, light, electricity, and chemical affinity, in the forms of animals and plants, in the perception of the mind.
The direction, indeed, of modern natural and physical science, is towards a generalization which shall express the fundamental laws of all, by one simple numerical ratio.
We would refer to Professor Whewell's 'Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences,' and to Mr.
Hay's researches into the laws of harmonious colouring and form.
From these it appears that the number seven is distinguished in the laws regulating the harmonious Perception of forms, colours, and sounds , and probably of taste also, if we could analyse our sensations of this kind with mathematical accuracy." ("Medical Review," July, 1844).
So much so, indeed, that more than one physician has stood aghast at the periodical septenary return of the cycles in the rise and fall of various complaints, and naturalists have felt themselves at an utter loss to explain this law.
"The birth, growth, maturity, vital functions .
.
.
.
change, diseases, decay and death, of insects, reptiles, fishes, birds, mammals, and even of man, are more or less controlled by a law of completion in weeks, " or seven days.** Dr.
Laycock ( Lancet, 1842-3), writing on the Periodicity of Vital Phenomena, records a "most remarkable illustration and confirmation of the law in insects."*** [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * In Hinduism, as understood by the Orientalists from the Atharvaveda, the three rajamsi refer to the three strides of Vishnu; his ascending higher step, being taken in the highest world (A.
V., VII ., 99, 1, cf.
I 155 , 5) .
It is the divo rajah, or the "sky," as they take it.
But it is something besides this in Occultism.
The sentence pareshu, guhyeshu, vrateshu, cf.
I, 155, 3, and IX.
, 75, 2; or again, verse X., 114, in Atharvaveda -- has yet to be explained.
** H.
Grattan Guinness, F.R.G.S ., in his "Approaching End of the Age." *** Having given a number of illustrations from natural history, the doctor adds: "The facts I have briefly glanced at are general facts, and cannot happen day after day in so many millions of animals of every kind, FROM THE L ARVA OR O VUM OF A M INUTE I NSECT UP TO M AN, at definite periods, from a mere chance or coincidence .
.
.
I think it impossible to come to any less general conclusion than this, that in animals, changes occur every three and a half, seven, fourteen, twenty-one, or twenty-eight days, or at some definite number of weeks " or septenary cycles.
Again, the same Dr.
Laycock states that: -- "Whatever type the fever may exhibit, there will be a paroxysm on the seventh day .
.
.
the fourteenth will be remarkable as a day of amendment .
.
.
" (either cure or death taking place).
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage asserts 'a harmony of numbers in all nature' spanning gravity, planetary movements, heat, light, electricity, chemical affinity, animal and plant forms, and mind — making each level a legible map of the others.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
The doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden numerical affinities, from planetary movements to the perception of the mind, is explicitly stated and supported by cited authorities.
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 unfolding of the One into Two, Three, Four, Seven, and Nine across the three worlds (heaven, middle, earth) as a description of cosmic origin and structure.
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
The One in the highest heaven is described as indivisible and without division ('there can be no Tau in it'), expressing the doctrine that the divine has no parts or composite attributes.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The seven spheres of action (Super-spiritual through purely physical) and the unfolding of numbers through the three Rajamsi describe a structured cascade from a single transcendent source downward through successive planes.
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 states that in the second Rajam 'the One becomes Two [male and female],' establishing the masculine-feminine generative principle as a structural feature of cosmic unfolding.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The passage describes the Circle in the highest heaven as 'the indivisible' that 'becomes One' with 'no Tau in it' — the absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity flows.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The entire passage is devoted to numbers (especially seven and nine) as the underlying structure of divine reality, the Tetractis, the sacred numbers of life and being, and the harmony of numbers in all nature.
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
The passage extensively describes periodicity and septenary cycles operating in biology, medicine, and cosmic processes — the 'periodical septenary return of the cycles in the rise and fall of various complaints.'
The rule of the stars and planetary powers over mortal destiny — the astrological governors whose spheres bind souls to birth, error, and death; in Sethian gnosis the 'error of the stars' that the savior exposes, and from which the incorruptible generation alone is free. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of universal affinity) in being a bondage-to-powers claim, and from archons (the rulers as personal beings) in concerning the astral machinery itself.
The Sun, Moon, and planets are described as 'the great Ruler and rulers of our little system in all its seven domains,' with their potency and periodicity governing the march of events.