The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1 of 4 The Synthesis of...

It is the spiritual evolution of the inner, immortal Man that forms the fundamental tenet of the Occult Sciences. To realize even distantly such a process, the student has to believe (a) in the One Universal Life, independent of Matter (or what Science regards as Matter); and (b) in the individual Intelligences that animate the various manifestations of this Principle. Mr. Huxley does not believe in Vital Force; others Scientists do. Dr. J. H. Hutchinson Stirling's work As regards Protoplasm has made no small havoc of this dogmatic negation. Professor Beale's decision also is in favour of a Vital Principle; and Dr. B. W. Richardson's lectures on Nervous Ether have been sufficiently quoted. Thus, opinions are divided.

The One Life is closely related to the One Law which governs the World of Being—Karma. Exoterically, this is simply and literally “action,” or rather an “effect-producing cause.” Esoterically, it is quite a different thing in its far-reaching moral effects. It is the unerring Law of Retribution. To say to those ignorant of the real significance, characteristics, and awful importance of this eternal immutable Law, that no theological definition of a Personal Deity can give an idea of this impersonal, yet ever present and active Principle, is to speak in vain. Nor can it be called Providence. For Providence, with the Theists—the Protestant Christians, at any rate—rejoices in a personal male gender, while with the Roman Catholics it is a female potency. “Divine Providence tempers His blessings to secure their better effects,” Wogan tells us. Indeed “He” tempers them, which Karma—a sexless principle—does not.

Throughout the first two Parts, it has been shown that, at the first flutter of renascent life, Svabhâvat, “the Mutable Radiance of the Immutable Darkness unconscious in Eternity,” passes, at every new rebirth of Kosmos, from an inactive state into one of intense activity; that it [pg 696] differentiates, and then begins its work through that differentiation. This work is Karma.

The one Cosmic Atom becomes seven Atoms on the plane of Matter, and each is transformed into a centre of energy; that same Atom becomes seven Rays on the plane of Spirit; and the seven creative Forces of Nature, radiating from the Root-Essence ... follow, one the right, the other the left path, separate till the end of the Kalpa, and yet in close embrace. What unites them? Karma.

The Atoms emanated from the Central Point emanate in their turn new centres of energy, which, under the potential breath of Fohat, begin their work from within without, and multiply other minor centres. These, in the course of evolution and involution, form in their turn the roots or developing causes of new effects, from worlds and “man-bearing” globes, down to the genera, species, and classes of all the seven kingdoms, of which we know only four. For as says the Book of the Aphorisms of Tson-ka-pa:

The true Buddhist, recognizing no “personal God,” nor any “Father” and “Creator of Heaven and Earth,” still believes in an Absolute Consciousness, Adi-Buddhi; and the Buddhist Philosopher knows that there are Planetary Spirits, the Dhyân Chohans. But though he admits of “Spiritual Lives,” yet, as they are temporary in eternity, even they, according to his Philosophy, are “the Mâyâ of the Day,” the Illusion of a “Day of Brahmâ,” a short Manvantara of 4,320,000,000 years. The Yin-Sin is not for the speculations of men, for the Lord Buddha has strongly prohibited all such enquiry. If the Dhyân Chohans and all the Invisible Beings—the Seven Centres and their direct Emanations, the minor centres of Energy—are the direct reflex of the One Light, yet men are far removed from these, since the whole of the visible Kosmos consists of “self-produced beings, the creatures of Karma.” Thus regarding a personal God “as only a gigantic shadow thrown upon the void of space by the imagination of ignorant men,”1096 they teach that only “two things are [objectively] [pg 697] eternal, namely Âkâsha and Nirvâna”; and that these are one in reality, and but a Mâyâ when divided.

Everything has come out of Âkâsha [or Svabhâvat on our earth] in obedience to a law of motion inherent in it, and after a certain existence passes away. No thing ever came out of nothing. We do not believe in miracles; hence we deny creation and cannot conceive of a creator.1097

If a Vedântic Brahman of the Advaita Sect, were asked whether he believed in the existence of God, he would probably answer, as Jacolliot was answered—“I am myself ‘God’;” while a Buddhist (a Sinhalese especially) would simply laugh, and say in reply, “There is no God; no Creation.” Yet the root Philosophy of both Advaita and Buddhist scholars is identical, and both have the same respect for animal life, for both believe that every creature on Earth, however small and humble, “is an immortal portion of the immortal Matter”—Matter having with them quite another significance from that which it has with either Christian or Materialist—and that every creature is subject to Karma.

The answer of the Brâhman would have suggested itself to every ancient Philosopher, Kabalist, and Gnostic of the early days. It contains the very spirit of the Delphic and Kabalistic commandments, for Esoteric Philosophy solved, ages ago, the problem of what man was, is, and will be; his origin, life-cycle—interminable in its duration of successive incarnations or rebirths—and his final absorption into the Source from which he started.

But it is not Physical Science that we can ever ask to read man for us, as the riddle of the Past, or of the Future; since no Philosopher can tell us even what man is, as known to both Physiology and Psychology. In doubt whether man was a God or a beast, Science has now connected him with the latter and derives him from an animal. Certainly the task of analyzing and classifying the human being as a terrestrial animal may be left to Science, which Occultists, of all men, regard with veneration and respect. They recognize its ground and the wonderful work it has done, the progress achieved in Physiology, and even—to a degree—in Biology. But man's inner, spiritual, psychic, or even moral, nature cannot be left to the tender mercies of an ingrained Materialism; for not even the higher psychological Philosophy of the West is able, in its present incompleteness and tendency towards a decided Agnosticism, to do justice to the inner man; especially to his higher capacities and perceptions, and to those states of consciousness, [pg 698] across the road to which such authorities as Mill draw a strong line, saying “So far, and no farther shalt thou go.”

No Occultist would deny that man—together with the elephant and the microbe, the crocodile and the lizard, the blade of grass and the crystal—is, in his physical formation, the simple product of the evolutionary forces of Nature through a numberless series of transformations; but he puts the case differently.

It is not against zoölogical and anthropological discoveries, based on the fossils of man and animal, that every Mystic and believer in a Divine Soul inwardly revolts, but only against the uncalled-for conclusions built on preconceived theories and made to fit in with certain prejudices. The premisses of Scientists may or may not be always true; and as some of these theories live but a short life, the deductions therefrom must ever be one-sided with materialistic Evolutionists. Yet it is on the strength of such very ephemeral authority, that most of the men of Science frequently receive honours where they deserve them the least.1098

To make the working of Karma—in the periodical renovations of the Universe—more evident and intelligible to the student when he arrives at the origin and evolution of man, he has now to examine with us the Esoteric bearing of the Karmic Cycles upon Universal Ethics. The question is, do those mysterious divisions of time, called Yugas and Kalpas by the Hindûs, and so very graphically, κύκλοι, cycles, rings [pg 699] or circles, by the Greeks, have any bearing upon, or any direct connection with, human life? Even exoteric Philosophy explains that these perpetual circles of time are ever returning on themselves, periodically and intelligently, in Space and Eternity. There are “Cycles of Matter,”1099 and there are “Cycles of Spiritual Evolution,” and racial, national, and individual Cycles. May not Esoteric speculation allow us a still deeper insight into their workings?

The possibility of rising to a comprehension of a system of coördination so far outreaching in time and space all range of human observations, is a circumstance which signalizes the power of man to transcend the limitations of changing and inconsistent matter, and assert his superiority over all insentient and perishable forms of being. There is a method in the succession of events, and in the relation of coëxistent things, which the mind of man seizes hold of; and by means of this as a clue, he runs back or forward over æons of material history of which human experience can never testify. Events germinate and unfold. They have a past which is connected with their present, and we feel a well-justified confidence that a future is appointed which will be similarly connected with the present and the past. This continuity and unity of history repeat themselves before our eyes in all conceivable stages of progress. The phenomena furnish us the grounds for the generalization of two laws which are trulyprinciples of scientific divination, by which alone the human mind penetrates the sealed records of the past and the unopened pages of the future. The first of these is the law of evolution, or, to phrase it for our purpose,the law of correlated successiveness or organized history in the individual, illustrated in the changing phases of every single maturing system of results.... These thoughts summon into our immediate presence the measureless past and the measureless future of material history.

They seem almost to open vistas through infinity, and to endow the human intellect with an existence and a vision exempt from the limitations of time and space and finite causation, and lift it up towards a sublime apprehension of the Supreme Intelligence whose dwelling place is eternity.1100

According to the teachings, Mâyâ—the illusive appearance of the marshalling of events and actions on this Earth—changes, varying with nations and places. But the chief features of one's life are always in accordance with the “Constellation” under which one is born, or, we should say, with the characteristics of its animating principle or the Deity that presides over it, whether we call it a Dhyân Chohan, as in Asia, or an Archangel, as with the Greek and Latin Churches. In ancient Symbolism it was always the Sun—though the Spiritual, not the visible, Sun was meant—that was supposed to send forth the chief [pg 700] Saviours and Avatâras. Hence the connecting link between the Buddhas, the Avatâras, and so many other incarnations of the highest Seven. The closer the approach to one's Prototype, in “Heaven,” the better for the mortal whose Personality was chosen, by his own personal Deity (the Seventh Principle), as its terrestrial abode. For, with every effort of will toward purification and unity with that “Self-God,” one of the lower Rays breaks, and the spiritual entity of man is drawn higher and ever higher to the Ray that supersedes the first, until, from Ray to Ray, the Inner Man is drawn into the one and highest Beam of the Parent-Sun. Thus, “the events of humanity do run coördinately with the number forms,” since the single units of that humanity proceed one and all from the same source—the Central Sun and its shadow, the visible.

For the equinoxes and solstices, the periods and various phases of the solar course, astronomically and numerically expressed, are only the concrete symbols of the eternally living verity, though they do seem abstract ideas to uninitiated mortals. And this explains the extraordinary numerical coincidences with geometrical relations, shown by several authors.

Yes; “our destiny is written in the stars”! Only, the closer the union between the mortal reflection Man and his celestial Prototype, the less dangerous the external conditions and subsequent reïncarnations—which neither Buddhas nor Christs can escape. This is not superstition, least of all is it fatalism. The latter implies a blind course of some still blinder power, but man is a free agent during his stay on earth. He cannot escape his ruling Destiny, but he has the choice of two paths that lead him in that direction, and he can reach the goal of misery—if such is decreed to him—either in the snowy white robes of the martyr, or in the soiled garments of a volunteer in the iniquitous course; for there are external and internal conditions which affect the determination of our will upon our actions, and it is in our power to follow either of the two. Those who believe in Karma have to believe in Destiny, which, from birth to death, every man weaves thread by thread round himself, as a spider his web; and this Destiny is guided either by the heavenly voice of the invisible Prototype outside of us, or by our more intimate astral, or inner man, who is but too often the evil genius of the embodied entity called man. Both these lead on the outward man, but one of them must prevail; and from the very beginning of the invisible affray the stern and implacable Law of Compensation steps in and takes its course, faithfully following [pg 701] the fluctuations of the fight.

When the last strand is woven, and man is seemingly enwrapped in the network of his own doing, then he finds himself completely under the empire of this self-made Destiny. It then either fixes him like the inert shell against the immovable rock, or carries him away like a feather in a whirlwind raised by his own actions, and this is—Karma.

The historical investigation of the development of the earth has proved thatnowandthenrest upon the same base; that the past has been developed in the same manner as the present rolls on; and that the forces which were in action ever remained the same.1101

The Forces—their Noumena rather—are the same, of course; therefore, the phenomenal Forces must be the same also. But how can any one feel so sure that the attributes of Matter have not altered under the hand of Protean Evolution? How can any Materialist assert with such confidence, as is done by Rossmassler, that:

Who are they “that darken counsel with words without knowledge,” and where were the Huxleys and Büchners when the foundations of the Earth were laid by the Great Law? This same homogeneity of Matter and immutability of natural laws, which are so much insisted upon by Materialism, are a fundamental principle of the Occult Philosophy; but this unity rests upon the inseparability of Spirit from Matter, and, if the two were once divorced, the whole Kosmos would fall back into Chaos and Non-being. Therefore, it is absolutely false, and but an additional demonstration of the great conceit of our age, to assert, as men of Science do, that all the great geological changes and terrible convulsions of the past have been produced by ordinary and known physical Forces. For these Forces were but the tools and final means for the accomplishment of certain purposes, acting periodically, and apparently mechanically, through an inward impulse mixed up [pg 702] with, but beyond their material nature. There is a purpose in every important act of Nature, whose acts are all cyclic and periodical. But spiritual Forces having been usually confused with the purely physical, the former are denied by, and therefore, because left unexamined, have to remain unknown to Science.1102 Says Hegel:

The history of the World begins with its general aim, the realization of the Idea of Spirit—only in animplicitform (an sich), that is, as Nature; a hidden, most profoundly hidden unconscious instinct, and the whole process of History ... is directed to rendering this unconscious impulse a conscious one. Thus appearing in the form of merely natural existence, natural will—that which has been called the subjective side—physical craving, instinct, passion, private interest, as also opinion and subjective conception—spontaneously present themselves at the very commencement. This vast congeries of volitions, interests and activities constitute the instruments and means of the World-Spirit for attaining its object; bringing it to consciousness and realizing it. And this aim is none other than finding itself—coming to itself—and contemplating itself in concrete actuality. But that those manifestations of vitality on the part of individuals and peoples, in which they seek and satisfy their own purposes, are at the same time the means and instruments of a higher and broader purpose of which they know nothing—which they realize unconsciously—might be made a matter of question; rather has been questioned ... on this point I announced my view at the very outset, and asserted our hypothesis ... and our belief that Reason governs the World and has consequently governed its history. In relation to this independently universal and substantial existence—all else is subordinate, subservient to it, and the means for its development.1103

No Metaphysician or Theosophist could demur to these truths, which are all embodied in Esoteric Teachings. There is a predestination in the geological life of our globe, as in the history, past and future, of races and nations. This is closely connected with what we call Karma, and what Western Pantheists called Nemesis and Cycles. The law of evolution is now carrying us along the ascending arc of our cycle, when the effects will be once more re-merged into, and re-become the now neutralized causes, and all things affected by the former will have regained their original harmony. This will be the cycle of our special Round, a moment in the duration of the Great Cycle, or Mahâyuga.

The fine philosophical remarks of Hegel are found to have their [pg 703] application in the teachings of Occult Science, which shows Nature ever acting with a given purpose, whose results are always dual. This was stated in our first Occult volumes, in the following words:

As our Planet revolves once every year around the Sun, and at the same time turns once in every twenty-four hours upon its own axis, thus traversing minor circles within a larger one, so is the work of the smaller cyclic periods accomplished and recommenced within the Great Saros. The revolution of the physical world, according to the ancient doctrine, is attended by a like revolution in the world of intellect—the spiritual evolution of the world proceeding in cycles, like the physical one. Thus we see in history a regular alternation of ebb and flow in the tide of human progress. The great kingdoms and empires of the world, after reaching the culmination of their greatness, descend again, in accordance with the same law by which they ascended; till, having reached the lowest point, humanity reässerts itself and mounts up once more, the height of its attainment being, by this law of ascending progression by cycles, somewhat higher than the point from which it had before descended.1104

But these cycles—wheels within wheels, so comprehensively and ingeniously symbolized by the various Manus and Rishis in India, and by the Kabiri in the West1105—do not affect all mankind at one and the same time. Hence, as we see, the difficulty of comprehending, and of discriminating between them, with regard to their physical and spiritual effects, without having thoroughly mastered their relations with, and action upon, the respective positions of nations and races, in their destiny and evolution. This system cannot be comprehended if the spiritual action of these periods—preördained, so to say, by Karmic law—is separated from their physical course. The calculations of the best Astrologers would fail, or at any rate remain imperfect, unless this dual action is thoroughly taken into consideration and mastered upon these lines. And this mastery can be achieved only through Initiation.

The Grand Cycle includes the progress of mankind from the appearance of primordial man of ethereal form. It runs through the inner Cycles of man's progressive evolution from the ethereal down to the semi-ethereal and purely physical; down to the redemption of man [pg 704] from his “coat of skin” and matter, after which it continues running its course downward and then upward again, to meet at the culmination of a Round, when the Manvantaric Serpent “swallows its tail” and seven Minor Cycles are passed. These are the great Racial Cycles which affect equally all the nations and tribes included in that special Race; but there are minor and national, as well as tribal, Cycles within these, which run their course independently of each other. They are called in Eastern Esotericism the Karmic Cycles. In the West—since Pagan Wisdom has been repudiated as having grown from and been developed by the Dark Powers, supposed to be at constant war with and in opposition to the little tribal Jehovah—the full and awful significance of the Greek Nemesis, or Karma, has been entirely forgotten. Otherwise Christians would have better realized the profound truth that Nemesis is without attributes; that while the dreaded Goddess is absolute and immutable as a Principle, it is we ourselves—nations and individuals—who propel it to action and give the impulse to its direction. Karma-Nemesis is the creator of nations and mortals, but once created, it is they who make of her either a Fury or a rewarding Angel. Yea—

—as the Chorus tells Prometheus. And as unwise they, who believe that the Goddess may be propitiated by any sacrifices and prayers, or have her wheel diverted from the path it has once taken. “The triform Fates and ever mindful Furies” are her attributes only on Earth, and begotten by ourselves. There is no return from the paths she cycles over; yet those paths are of our own making, for it is we, collectively or individually, who prepare them. Karma-Nemesis is the synonym of Providence, minus design, goodness, and every other finite attribute and qualification, so unphilosophically attributed to the latter. An Occultist or a Philosopher will not speak of the goodness or cruelty of Providence; but, identifying it with Karma-Nemesis, he will nevertheless teach that it guards the good and watches over them in this, as in future lives; and that it punishes the evil-doer—aye, even to his seventh rebirth—so long, indeed, as the effect of his having thrown into perturbation even the smallest atom in the Infinite World of Harmony has not been finally reädjusted. For the only decree of Karma—an eternal and immutable decree—is absolute Harmony in the [pg 705] world of Matter as it is in the world of Spirit. It is not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we who reward or punish ourselves, according as we work with, through and along with Nature, abiding by the laws on which that harmony depends, or—breaking them.

Nor would the ways of Karma be inscrutable were men to work in union and harmony, instead of disunion and strife. For our ignorance of these ways—which one portion of mankind calls the ways of Providence, dark and intricate, while another sees in them the action of blind Fatalism, and a third, simple Chance, with neither Gods nor Devils to guide them—would surely disappear, if we would but attribute all of them to their correct cause. With right knowledge, or at any rate with a confident conviction that our neighbours would no more work to hurt us than we would think of harming them, two-thirds of the world's evil would vanish into thin air. Were no man to hurt his brother, Karma-Nemesis would have neither cause to work for, nor weapons to act through. It is the constant presence in our midst of every element of strife and opposition, and the division of races, nations, tribes, societies and individuals into Cains and Abels, wolves and lambs, that is the chief cause of the “ways of Providence.” We cut these numerous windings in our destinies daily with our own hands, while we imagine that we are pursuing a track on the royal high road of respectability and duty, and then we complain because these windings are so intricate and so dark. We stand bewildered before the mystery of our own making, and the riddles of life that we will not solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx of devouring us. But verily there is not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen day, or a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our own doings in this or in another life.