Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine, Book I - Part I)

Discussion on literature other than by the Star of Azazel.
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Let's take a couple weeks off for the Christmas holidays and continue on Stanza VII. 1. come 1st of January. Peaceful holidays for all!
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Smaragd wrote: Thu Dec 15, 2022 1:48 pm and continue on Stanza VII. 1. come 1st of January.
Missing the deadline I'm going to make a short notion to the previous stanza and prepare to write notions on the next one by 8th of January.
Secret Doctrine wrote:There are four grades of initiation mentioned in exoteric works, which are known respectively in Sanskrit as “Sçrôtâpanna,” “Sagardagan,” “Anagamin,” and “Arhan”—the four paths to Nirvana, in this, our fourth Round, bearing the same appellations. The Arhan, though he can see the Past, the Present, and the Future, is not yet the highest Initiate; for the Adept himself, the initiated candidate, becomes chela (pupil) to a higher Initiate. Three further higher grades have to be conquered by the Arhan who would reach the apex of the ladder of Arhatship.
Emphasis mine. Continuing on my previous appreciation of the teaching on the rounds, the sevenfold cycles are known repeating a certain evolution-involution pattern with known stages. In the light of the quote, this teaching of the rounds can be seen as a systematic learning method to observe the Past, the Present, and the Future and thus a training method to become an Arhat. If one is to adopt this way of looking in to things and make predictions of what is the challenge of different operators based on their past and present and what do they (or most importantly I) probably have to see in order to reach to the next phase. Although leaning to observe things through the rounds is rather formal and systematic, it surely helps training one's mind in to a living vision of the Arhat. The systematic training is always necessary as heuristic ladders that can be tossed once we have climbed on top of the clouds with them.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Stanza VII.I.
Book of Dzyan wrote:Behold the beginning of sentient formless life (a). First, the divine (vehicle) (b), the one from the mother-spirit
(Atman) ; then the Spiritual—(Atma-Buddhi, Spirit-soul) (c) ; (again) the three from the one (d), the four from the one (e), and the five (f), from which the three, the five and the seven (g)—these are the three-fold and the four-fold downward ; the “mind-born sons of the first Lord (Avalôkitêswara) the Shining Seven (the “Builders ”). It is they who are thou, me, him, O Lanoo ; they who watch over thee and thy mother, Bhumi (the Earth).
Here we are entering a bit more familiar area. The divine vehicle, according to Blavatsky’s commentary, seems to speak of Atma as the vehicle of Logos where there is the abstract idea – the unmanifested Logos –, and the manifested Logos (Atma) acting as a vehicle of the latter. This manifested Logos in turn is then seen through aspecual manifestations all the way to the sevenfold division of Logos, and this pattern repeating itself on all the areas of manifestation, the ”globes” etc.

Secret Doctrine’s commentary on this sloka stresses the difference of the unmanifested Logos and the manifested which is called Microprosopus who has six limbs (for example, Sun and the six planets). It seems like Atma as itself represents unmanifested Son, from the low human perspective, but its also a vehicle which brought to manifestation splits in to atma-buddhi and furthermore to atma-buddhi-manas.

After the triad we have the four and the five, both of which seem quite mysterious by their nature but let’s see if we can understand their nature and possibly ground some of it down.
Secret Doctrine wrote:The Fourth are substantial Entities. This is the highest group among the Rupas (Atomic Forms). It is the nursery of the human, conscious, spiritual Souls. They are called the “Imperishable Jivas,” and constitute, through the order below their own, the first group of the first septenary host—the great mystery of human conscious and intellectual Being.
With the Fourth, we are talking about the atom’s basic structure as a nursery or a womb. I’m making a leap here and suggesting this nursery in its archetypal round womb function connects to the Scribes who oversee the karmic law of the cosmos. When we come to face our karma through this nursery, we become conscious and attached to our spiritual souls (which the nursery is said to be there for), and consequently become able to proceed with our dharma. Simply put, it is a sort of encoding place where energy is informed by the skandhas of an individual to take a certain kind of position inorder to form a reality as it should be formed according to karma. In cosmic proportions the karma is that of higher entities – planets and their spirits, karma from the previous manvantaras and ”globes” put forth in order for the occult evolution to proceed forth meaningfully in the next phase.

Approaching the meaning of the Fifth, I was very much soaking myself in to the text in a way that I read small portions and tried not stressing too much on understanding them thorougly, but still understanding the sentences properly. Then I relaxed and kind of ”felt the waters” where I had soaked with the text and then from this water I could reach to the inner understanding of the text rather than something that is just mechanically ”learned”. This water felt like THE tool of the mystic, and as I read forth I was wondering if this five actually relates to these waters somehow, although I tend to associate Fire with the pentagram. The Fifth group’s relation to ”human conscious and intellectual Being” (cf. the above quote where these things find their nursery from the Fourth and ”constitute through the order below their own”, i.e. the Fifth I assume) seemed to hint that this using of the water relates to reaching consciousness on things outside of consciousness. This is symbolically already sound, as we see from similar function the dreams have and how water relates to that. And as it came to be, the commentary actually noted how this group relates esoterically to water, although I’m not sure if my take on it is really what is meant. Additionally there seems to be a connection to the crocodile symbolism of the Egyptians, crocodiles natural environment being water. A teacher from the water, Dagon, Sea Serpent, Dragon.

More over, the five is the Manasic Star - the human conscious and intellectual Being as a whole shining on its lower instruments. We can embark on this challenge of consciousness in various way, and in our occultism we stress the heart of it which is ethical strive, allowing the evolution and involution processes to answer the struggle in the world. I think the star should be seen as one whole constituting of its horns, which have been gained through occult initiations in many, many reincarnations, and as it has been so formed, it is able to be also seen working from the higher to the lower worlds actively as a complete Star, and as we naturally see it working when thinking about the emanating direction of cosmogonies. I.e. when we think about the Fifth group in the cosmogony, we must understand that it was made by the Pitris, by our ancestors of the previous ”races”, and looking from the perspective of the spirit the work was overseen by the Dhyanis.

The sixth and the seventh groups are said to be many branchings of lower entities - elementals. I’m guessing these should be thought as cosmic portions of the lower triad of the Hieroglyphic Key, meaning that while the human aspects of kama manas, kama rupa and linga sharira are particularly instrument and body-like things, the elementals could be possibly seen as raw cosmic substance which the human lower instruments are ”built” from, yet having a sort of pseudo-entity nature to it they can swallow people like the sea or wild fires swallow careless travellers. Fire being prana, although its instrumental value can seem quite abstract; Air being the substance, or a type of energy the rational mind uses, that is divisive, ordering; Water being the elemental form which mediates and passes information; and Earth being the elemental form which solidifies, grounds, holds and carries.

***

Going through a rough batch in my personal life and was barely able to write this and left out alot of stray thoughts that I didn't have time to chew to a presentable form. My mind is clouded and unclear, and thus I might have to take couple of weeks before continuing. I already felt bad for not being able to give as much to this important stanza as I would have liked, so better to take some time. Sorry about the inconsistence of Christmas holidays + this.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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STANZA VII.2.
The Book of Dzyan wrote:The one ray multiplies the smaller rays. Life precedes form, and life survives the last atom (of Form, Sthula-sarira, external body). Through the countless rays the life-ray, the one, like a thread through many beads (pearls)
In this stanza and its commentary we get more acquainted with the one principle dividing in to many. It is kind of an advanced study in to what happens between the usual principles we are familiar with from our Hieroglyphic Key. If I understood correctly, atma (or one higher – the Monad) is or corresponds to the one ray, multiplying in to atma-buddhi and manas, and interestingly in this stanza we seem to focus largely on the Five – the Human Star –, which is illustrated also in between the two triangles in the Hieroglyphic Key illustration. As fluid, it seems to be described having similar qualities as linga sharira, that is vitality of Life (as called in the stanza), yet as a Manasic Star it seems higher. To a degree it seems to be overlapped with the Sun/Prana, which perhaps maps its vitality to its right place, being more of a general than particular nature. Prana is called Jivatma, mapping out another point of an ego, which is precisely the self as compiled by the previous races and the current building of the fifth. Jivatma would thus be the Magician of Tarot in the making. The highest and the lowest Dhyan Chohans, or Elohim if you will, is said to be outside this Five fold human Jivatma, where the lowest gives the form, and the Highest being the One principle (Atma, or perhaps Monad). Thus Atma as the ”seventh” embodies the hexagram, while Jivatma is the pentagram build and manifested in to Life through the procession of globes and races.

And this Life, preceding form as it is said in the stanza, can finally bring the form to less obscure and definitive manifestation in the lowest Elohim. The good thing here, it is said, is that formal intellect is given way to develop, yet it makes us, here in this stage of the Work, more or less to forget the spiritual self. Jivatma replaces the higher self in the typical experience, and this gushing Life Force (Manas-Prana alone = intuition) tends to drive us quite blindly forth, eventhough it can be balanced by rediscovering Atma behind/above Jivatma, and building the formal intellect (kama manas) to work all that extruding energy.

I’d like to further study and reflect this through the Three Hypostases of Neoplatonism:

The One (The Absolute)

Nous (Divine Mind)

World Soul

(Sensible world)

Here I would place Atma correspond to Nous, and Jivatma correspond to World Soul. Following Subba Row’s presentation on his respective tradition, which we have mentioned earlier in this reading circle, this would mean Jivatma is how the Absolute is seen from the perspective of Atma (how it is seen from non-absolute perspective leading in to multiplying of the rays), and thus Jivatma overlapping with Prana is the One Life. Could we also say Jivatma is the soul of a man? I’m hesitant to do so, first thinking the Five are areas, or rooms and their guiding entities operating within the World Soul. But then again, rooms as meeting spaces are easily associated with the basic function of the soul. I guess the typical symbol given here by the Hebrew shepherds is that of the Tabernacle. Not many tabernacles for each of the consequent reaces, but the poles of the square tabernacle plus its middle pole creating and upholding the five fold soul of the current Man. It seems a more accurate to say that Buddhi-Prana is the soul of Man which is inhabited, or held up, by the Manasic Star of Jivatma. The symbols of Star and Tabernacle don’t overlap too well, imperfect as they are, but the comparison may still help to understand the concept and perhaps different functions of the same entity.

Recently there has been alot of talk about the deceased, mediumism and necromancy on the forum, and I’d like to suggest that our ancestors (of both blood and spiritual teachers and fellow students) from those who we have managed to meet during our current incarnation as well as all those of the previous ”races” and root races are in the fluid and the breath of Prana-Jivatma. And further, we as nations, families and individuals are responsible of certain portions of the World Soul. As human individuals – proper microcosms – we are responsible of the whole, yet as we might have already mastered some areas, in this life our responsibilities are emphasised on others. How the One Life includes in its ray the dead, as well as their guiding spirits, as pearls is beautifully looked through by Blavatsky with the help of Egyptian myths regarding the Moon. Similarly, I recall reading on our website some articles of this double current of Prana where the other is the river of life and the other is the river of death.

Unorthodox timing with this post as predicted. I will probably continue on the next one on the 29th of January.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Back on the horse.

Stanza VII. 3.
Book of Dzyan wrote:When the one becomes two—the “three-fold ” appears (a). The three are (linked into) one ; and it is our thread, O Lanoo, the heart of the man-plant, called Saptaparna
In its heart the sloka draws out the moment where ”the One Eternal drops its reflection into the region of Manifestation, that reflection, “the Ray,” differentiates the “Water of Space”. There is a voice in me which wants to suggest the three are the higher triad, central sun and the lower triad as a reflection, but with further consideration this is only a reflection of what the stanza really is talking about. To make a human microcosmic comparison to this cosmic event, One Eternal could be seen as the Monad, while in ”Chaos becom[ing] male-female, and Water, incubated through Light, and the “three-fold being issu[ing] as its First-born” could be seen atma-buddhi-manas as the First-born of the parents who are One Eternal, and Mother Chaos. In some ways this procreation chain seems to repeat, or more accurately, the seed proceeds in to different phases where Manas proceeds its own seed as the Manasic Star, which constitutes of the elements, and the 4+1 ”ancestors” of mankind, and perhaps further the instruments of the lower triad are created as well as birth in to the higher instruments takes place.
Secret Doctrine wrote:The Egyptian Ra, issuing from the deep, is the Divine Universal Soul in its manifested aspect, and so is Narâyana, the Purusha, “concealed in Akâsa and present in Ether.”
An important definition from Blavatsky where Akâsha is said to be unmanifested side of Divine Universal Soul, while Ether is the manifested side. We can probably think of these through the idea of karma where the akashic libraries are all the records of all positive or negative deeds waiting in the pre-cosmic state to be made null in the manifested side – the cosmos. Thus Ether is the substance of the world, the Chaos impregnated by the spirit and the particular karma each of the ruling Creator of each aeon carries upon it from previous rounds. Human beings then seem like entities that are intervowen (by each portion or aspect of the Divine Man embodying one part of the rounds) in to this formation, and created especially for the retribution of the karmic weight. Does Architects or Creators preside in Akasha, while Builders or Watchers are to be seen in Ether, being the same group of Seven, yet a different if we locate them on different spheres? Similar to the relationship of Absolute and Logos, where they are one in their shared operation and even in their being, yet through their metaphysical and physical locations they are different, let’s say, by their name.

Archangels and Archontes could be seen another pair where we see the same thing, same being, similarly as fra Nefastos pointed out in another topic on the Finnish side of the forum different names which seems like different sides of a coin, and these dualities forming a sort of a ladder. Here’s Nefastos’ list of examples where Archangels and Archontes could be added somewhere in there (translation mine):
”The Absolute & Logos
Logos & Metatron
Metatron & Lucifer
Lucifer & Ego
Ego & the Inner Master
The Inner Master & one’s spiritual teacher
And so on...”

When it comes to Lucifer and Satan, these two sides of spirit and matter seems to place Lucifer as the Manasic Star, and Satan as the Power principle quite close to the elemental material beings. More precisely I tend to see Lucifer as the Manasic intelligence which embodies the five elements, hovering slightly over the Pranic pool of activated or manifesting (solar) energy, and consequently the power it entails. These two can be seen as two sides of a coin and the coin itself in this case I interpret to be Jivatma, here denoting its meaning as the Life Principle manifesting the Self, to whom the door to the world (continously on every waking moment) is opened by the entity who casts the spell of dual polarities, namely Satan. We could remind ourselves here of the relevance of the number 666 to the demon of the Sun, Sorath, and how ’the number of the beast’ relates to the animal mechanism of the planetary clockwork, which is marked by its central power – the Sun. Consequently it is good to remember how following these animal impulses are indeed a mechanism contrary to the common misconception of following one’s impulses being the definition of being alive, free and at the heart of the moment. There is a grain of truth there, as there is a grain of truth in the notion that in order to live, we must heed our feelings and emotions. The difference is made by conscious choices, which necessitates one to become conscious of how our impulses base largely on mechanisms, and we need to filter out by our increasingly conscious mind and self-reflection the misinforming feelings and impulses from that one half of the voice of silence, which are the feelings and impulses without their relation to consciousness. In this way, we reveal the Manasic Star from behind the wordly noise.

Here I’m seeing the Manasic Star as an attainable bridge between Atma and Jivatma, in this occasion following more of the Star of Azazel (+Blavatsky’s and the Mahatmas’) way of using these terms than other writers and traditions. This means Atma = Higher Self, holding its individual Will; Jivatma = Manifested or the manifesting Self. The active magician, again, to me seems to be the coin between such a Jivatma and the Manasic Star, the latter being a instrumental representative of the higher triad atma-buddhi-manas, while embodying the Five, an thus being another ”coin” between two areas of reality.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Stanza VII
Book of Dzyan wrote:4. It is the root that never dies, the three-tongued flame of the four wicks * (a) . . . The wicks are the sparks, that draw from the three-tongued flame (their upper triad) shot out by the seven, their flame; the beams and sparks of one moon reflected in the running waves of all the rivers of the earth
Secret Doctrine commentary opens the relation of the flames and wicks, where the higher triad is recognized as the immortal part of us. Manas as the five-fold human pentagram has reached to certain occult developments during its latest incarnation and its fruit is absorbed by atma-buddhi to their higher sphere. Theosophists have written a lot about what happens next. Devachan, the rest beyond devachan etc. SD commentary, quoting an Egyptian source (perhaps their book of the dead) offers another interesting perspective or detail to the process:
“I am the three-wicked Flame and my wicks are immortal,” says the defunct. “ I enter into the domain of Sekhem (the God whose arm sows the seed of action produced by the disembodied soul) and I enter the region of the Flames who have destroyed their adversaries,” i.e., got rid of the sin-creating “ four wicks.”
This sowing of the seed is a vast area of interest especially for occultists. First, this simply means that we reap what we sow and our processes may take longer in both purgatories and devachan than we'd ideally fancy in a strictly occult sense (will to transcend thoroughly to the absolute state). Secondly we might try to pause here for a little while and consider the sowing of the seed and its relation to the gift an adept occultist leaves behind. Does the seed of a spirit dwelling in higher spheres correspond somehow to ascended masters guidance given to his pupils?

If this is taken to be true to some degree, then what is the bridge between the Master and the pupil? I'd say it is a certain kind of inspiration, which is reached by the pupils' own Promethean efforts to climb to the immortal spheres in one's own being and receive the teaching and the flame shared there amongst the Brethren.
Book of Dzyan wrote:The wicks are the sparks, that draw from the three-tongued flame (their upper triad) shot out by the seven, their flame
Emphasis mine. The reason why I'm again and again confused with the three and the four while reading the Secret Doctrine is that there are multiple ways to understand them, and the seven can be talked about as a collective - the Elohim - within the unmanifested state of Logos, or it can mean the manifested three and four. The four on its turn can be looked through the corresponding human principles, the corresponding kingdoms of nature, or even the elements. The reader’s mind needs to adjust and try to see to the four of the context.

Moreover the septenary is indicated over and over again, clearly or between the lines, to have been completed in the fourth cycle, which opens multiple directions of how to interpret this. My own mind wants to go the easy way and say that the four lower tools have been prepared in the four cycles and thus we may use the four lower and the three higher principles, the latter having been waiting for the lower instruments to be used in a way which allows the dormant higher one’s to guide them. But I do not find such ideas from the SD, rather there is this weird rhythm suggested where the first and third rounds (if I remember correctly) awaken human capabilities more significantly than other rounds. This can possibly be taken as Blavatksy’s understandable emphasis to show the people of our ages what are the most crucial points that makes us human. For example we can recognize in our cultures the devaluation of individual critical thinking (i.e. not just parroting the usual clichés of critical thought and settling for it as enough work of thought) and thus the very place of individual centre. Or devaluation of the rock under our feet, which was about to be lost in madame B's times as the rule of scientism and atheism were well on their way. From the other side the emphasis acknowledges the problem that too much focus on the astral is easily seen as “the humane way”, while on the contrary it secretly destroys the human effort and leaves it on the shoulders of others. In other words, generally we are well aware of how the wrong kind of effort destroys truly sacred work (not to downplay the unconscious dangers present in our efforts), but we still remain largely unconscious to the dangers of astralism and its directions of passivity. In this sense Satanism is the antidote if it is taken to its proper extent of individual core from which to work, instead of as an excuse for impulsive behaviour. (The difference here is that the Satanism of reaching to the individual core may allow impulses through their valuation by the soundness of the core, while Satanism which allows impulses by giving them intrinsic value and follows them accordingly severs connections to the core in such a downward spiral.)

Regarding the seven already being complete in the fourth round might also come to the explanation of two sevens talked about in the second volume, where the topic is handled through the doctrine of Manus. The idea is that each round has seven smaller rounds where the Manu of the round could be seen ruling through the Manu of the smaller round. In these chains there seem to be special role with the Manu who is the root of the round or race*, and also the one who produces the seed of the round, in the other end of the round. These are the first and the seventh round Manus, and by the start of the fourth round, these root and seed Manus are numbered 7, and according to Blavatsky, this is the idea behind the double seven, and the seven being fulfilled already in the beginning of the fourth round.

* It could be that the term or title ‘Manu’ is used specifically when talking about races rather than rounds, but the abstraction of this idea is the point I'm drawing here. Apologies for possible mixing of specific terms. It would be interesting to compare the names of the Manus given in vol II to the Western names for the planetary spirits, but we’ll have to leave such endeavours elsewhere.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Stanza VII
The Book of Dzyan wrote:(5) The spark hangs from the flame by the finest thread of Fohat. It journeys through the Seven Worlds of Maya (a). It
stops in the first (Kingdom), and is a metal and a stone; it passes into the second (Kingdom), and behold—a plant; the
plant whirls through seven forms and becomes a sacred animal; (the first shadow of the physical man) (b).
From the combined attributes of these, manu (man), the thinker, is formed.
Who forms him? The seven lives ; and the one life (c).
Who completes him? The fivefold Lha. And who perfects the last body? Fish, sin, and soma (the moon) (d)
Just as I took up the problem with the 3+4 and 7 on the previous sloka, some of it is further explained in this weeks Secret Doctrine commentary. The writer points how the four rounds can be seen as the four planes in the Microprosopus of the Kabbalistical Tree of Life, while the seven are the ”limbs” of the Microprosopus. As the seven creators manifest their respective parts of the round as ”limbs” of the Microprosopus – the lesser face (manifested) – each steps in to a new plane only down to the fourth. After which on the return trip – the ascension – where the rest of the creators appear on planes 3, 2 and 1.

Blavatsky goes on to clarify how Divine Androgyne has to separate from its homogenity of absoluteness in to the opposing duality of sexes in order to break free to the consciousness of Spirit (Masculine) and to the senses of the Matter (feminine). Blavatsky gives an important notion on a question recently talked about on the forum: ”Absolute Homogeneity, having no relations with the conditioned and relative finiteness, is unconscious on our plane”. Emphasis mine. This means the absolute is superconscious rather than conscious in terms of the conditioned state of duality. To gain perspective here, we could compare this to the nature of virtue of the highest angelic orders discussed about on the latest entry on the Celestial Hierarchy reading group. The virtues presented by these hierarchies are so close to the source of emanation, that all the complexities presenting themselves lower down are seen through right from the start. There the paradox is witnessed and an upheld reality. In the case of the absolute it is even more deeply so.

When the emanation continues on long enough, the unconscious matter as the animal man is separated to the degree that it can live a life of its own separate from the spirit, as well as the spirit may still remain from being awakened in the reality of now, grounded to the state of matter. These metaphors of animal man and the spirit are very vivid and close to reality, that I imagine it is hard to misunderstand their reality and actuality. Still, I’d like to emphasise that the animal man is the one who possesses senses, it is the one to whom we often lull towards when we are tired or struggle with understanding (to be conscious) of something that demands to be understood, yet drains our energy in so doing. From here we come to see the virtues and vices of the Feminine quite clearly: in matter there is the caring lull of the Great Mother, as there is the ignorance of dodging the important challenges to become conscious of something, to put a stop to the damage we do completely or half-unconscious to ourselves. The masculine virtue in this context is obvious in its consciousness bringing attribute, while there are many vices in how to force consciousness or pseudo-consciousness.

The idea of the middle principles tying together the spirit and matter humanity resolves the question, mentioned in earlier post, of why humanity only starts to awake near the 3rd round. If I understood correctly, the animal man is there for the first time starting to receive the consciousness of Manas and thus from the lull of the animal man we begin the preparations for the Hieros Gamos which takes properly place at the lowest point of material existence - the 4th round. The two aspects of the Divine Androgyne manifested in the Kali Yuga of the fourth round dynamicly brought together and embarking on towards ascension as the senses of material humanity meets the consciousness of spirit. I’m interpreting the middle principles to mean Manas and the Animal man as the alchemical substance of metamorphoses, the former as an agent of spirit and the latter as the chaotic matter brought through the alchemy of the rounds in to the middle state to the spirit-given order of the pentagram - the "Manasic Star".

To study this a bit further, let’s place the Hierpglyphic Key infront of us; the version whith the decagram set upon the middle cross between the higher and lower triads. The feminine material principle can be seen there on multiple stages:
1. On the very center, there is the laya point where substance is in its undifferentiated, noumenal state where the Magna Mater and the Son are one.
2. The lower triangle approximately represents the material in its differentiated state – the animal man as its reasoning mind in service of perpetual kamic limbo, feeling affects, and energetical body all of which can work independently disregarding the spirit (the higher triangle).
3. The pentagram, as the Manasic star set upon the prana to point how the abstraction of prana has been differentiated to the five attributes of matter. As a decagram denoting both the emanating and remanating directions, the symbol depicts the product of the consciousness of spirit impregnating the sentient matter, and as such it is the thing which bridges the the animal man with the spirit.

The longwinded commentary goes on describing how the rounds can be seen as evolution of matter. This is described as the dimensions of matter in space, each dimension corresponding on our senses. The four dimensions up to the fourth round are not the typical x, y & z coordinate directions but rather one dimension of matter is described as these coordinate directions or ”extension”. This dimension of matter is followed by colour, motion (molecular motion), taste and smell. The dimension of the upcoming fifth round is described as ”permeability”, corresponding to ether and general clairvoyance as the sense perceiving this attribute of matter.

In addition to these differentations of the manifested matter, the commentary goes on quite detailed explanations on also the noumena of matter – mulaprakriti – and its progression towards these manifestations in the rounds. The metaphysical between states of matter before the cosmic rounds, are named as akasha, which seems to be somewhere between noumena and phenomena, and additionally to my surprise it seems to be a state of Logos who beholds the Mother (Mulaprakriti) in the absolute state of ”One life”. Then there is the astral light and ether, the latter corresponding from its own plane (that of the fifth round) to akasha while the former is the ”imagination of nature”. Here Blavatsky hails towards Eliphas Levi’s writings on the astral light acknowleding some of it while pointing his inaccuracy, which I interpreted to be that of blurring the lines between akasha-astral light-ether.

(c)
Here Blavatsky goes on to explain how atoms work as self-regulating centers who destroys and creates its own form. The destroyers, or flames regulating the form of the hidden nucleus of the atom seem to host bacteria, poisons formed in cells and creatures invisible to microscopes. The point seems to be that all atoms are alive, formed by billions of other beings and having different scales of individual beings and wholes. This seems to be an animistic idea in the heart of occult philosophy. Individual atoms form individual plants, animals and human beings who have their own scales of individuality. The individual atoms of a plant regulate their own life and death cycles, and behind the plant there is a similar regulator – hidden individual being who uses its life force to hold back the destroying automata of bacteria etc until we reach the half-point of our lives and start to slowly die. The term One life ultimately points the Mother-Son deity at the root of all as the being behind all life. Blavatsky claims all magic is based on this idea. Healing diseases by magic then would tap in to this hidden individuality and perhaps finds the alchemical root of all substance, and the way to operate it in order to find balance between the creating and destroying regulators to find health, or even the mythical Spring of Youth. The map of matter from its noumena to the elements, built during the rounds, traces this spring to the Hidden Sun of Saturnian laya point.

The following question and its answer is thus quite well explained:
The Book of Dzyan wrote:Who forms him? The seven lives ; and the one life.

(d) ”Who completes him? The fivefold Lha. And who perfects the last body? Fish, sin, and soma (the moon)”

The last part about the curious symbolism regarding the fish, sin and soma (the moon) is pointed relating to the Chaldean Oannes, the fish-man. Sin as in the allegorical ”Fall of Spirit into matter”, and the Moon relating to the Pitris. These taken as the answer to the completion of Man and the perfection of the last body seems to form the bridge between the third and the fourth rounds, i.e. from the Water element moving towards Earth. The fish comes to the land – the material corporality is wrapped around the previous elements - Water. Spirit has now been brought in to matter, and the Moon, as our ancestral Pitris, waning, gives its power to the new round.

***

These last commentaries seem to define many expressions used throughout the book with such simplicity and clarity that it seems like Blavatsky is rewarding the reader for pushing through all the obscurity to the last steps of these commentaries. One can feel annoyed by the inconvenience, but I must acknowledge that eventhough my diving in to these commentaries have not been always accurate and include clear misconceptions, the fact that her method forced me to still try those dives and try to figure out the larger concepts behind her winding writing style has both been good training in many regards including patience, focus, ability to see to the archetypal world and finding the bigger picture behind the details without the author pointing to it directly. In short, individual thinking is encouraged.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Smaragd
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Stanza VII.
Book of Dzyan wrote:6. From the first-born (primitive, or the first man) the thread between the silent watcher and his shadow becomes more strong and radiant with every change (re-incarnation) (a). The morning sun-light has changed into noon-day glory . . . .
On the basis of what we’ve gone through, this sloka seems quite obvious. Sort of a breather in the whole of the stanza. The increasing radiance seems to come to the point how the Master receives more instruments as the shadow goes through its initiations. The Magician of the tarot comes to mind. This despite the radiance being buried deeper and deeper as the descend in to the darkness of matter (instruments) furthers.
Secret Doctrine wrote:The Watcher, or the divine prototype, is at the upper rung of the ladder of being; the shadow, at the lower. Withal, the Monad of every living being, unless his moral turpitude breaks the connection and runs loose and “astray into the lunar path”—to use the Occult expression—is an individual Dhyan Chohan, distinct from others, a kind of spiritual individuality of its own, during one special Manvantara.
I first read the latter sentence to speak of the lunar path, but it talks about the Monad holding its individuality during one Manvantara, and I believe consequently suggesting the Monad being an egg brooded by the Seven. Thus the lunar path is not referred here as revolving around an individual Dhyan Chohan. Rather the lunar path severs its ties to the Inner Master and is just hanging on to mayavic structures – the illusions of the Moon. Reminds me of some simple forms of life hovering in ther dark without eye-sight, or evolution imagined by the old biologists going through different forms by random testing rather than any guidance. Or people, who building not on principles but mostly just on reactions and primitive defenses, are rather helpless in finding the hidden rock and its guidance. Perhaps in the denial they sometimes reach the inner guidance and the genius of virtue which guides them to the right direction, but its rather chaotic and usually harmful to their surroundings. The Lunar Path as a ”spiritual path” seems a delusion of how things are and a delusions of oneself, unless there is included a deep sense of the mysteries of the magical substance of matter, ability to reach the archetypal beyond form with ease; a real ability to approach the spirit from the darkness of the chthonic world (EDIT: which is already a connection to the inner master). Nature read as nature is, is its strong side which can lack from the all-spirit and hierarchies RHP school of thought taken with too much emphasis.

Its Primary, the Spirit (Atman) is one, of course, with Paramâtma (the one Universal Spirit), but the vehicle (Vahan) it is enshrined in, the Buddhi, is part and parcel of that Dhyan-Chohanic Essence; and it is in this that lies the mystery of that ubiquity, which was discussed a few pages back.

Here we take the Monad in to parts and see how in Atma it is one with the whole of Monads (Logoic entity) pertaining more towards the noumena. The ”egg”, which I mentioned earier, could then be seen as Buddhi or soul of the Monad, and it is part of the Dhyan-Chohanic Essence. The latter means it unites the noumena and the phenomenal cosmic circles. This soul with such a function presides within all, and over everything, atleast latent if not always actualized on all levels of human effort, and thus it is everywhere all at the same time (ubiquity). This bridging and the Dhyan-Chohanic Essence brings us back to the idea of the silent watchers.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine, Book I - Part I)

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Stanza VII. 7.

The sloka describes how the spirit – the Flame – clothes itself with its vehicle – the Spark –, and these sparks as vehicles reune fully with the spirit on pralaya. The Secret Doctrine commentary explains how this reunion happens in steps on the ascending side of things: the Elect of humanity in the lowest point of manifestation (this coarse materiality of ours) rise up to take on the work of their predecessors as guides. This idea of the guides remind me of Ervast’s explanations of the boddhisattva, who he saw as one being from the body of which all occult teachers worked from. Our predecessors naturally would themselves proceed and receive a place from their predecessors in this chain of teachers and students.

Two ”Dhyani-Buddhas of the two higher groups, namely the ”Watchers” and ”Architects”” are interestingly described. If I understood right, they are two of the seven beings behind their vehicles who embody their respective great steps of the manvantara, and the races of humanity thereon. Architects are described the ones who teached humans arts and science, while Watchers ”revealed to the incarnated Monads that had just shaken off their vehicles of the lower Kingdoms – and who had, therefore, lost every recollection of their divine origin – the great spiritual truths of the transcendental worlds”. In the light of the idea of predecessors and the expression ”the two higher groups” (i.e. not the highest apparently) it seems these groups are the ones before us and after us, perhaps even sharing the same dimension, that is if we are now looking at the fourth, instead of the remanating fifth, making these Dhyani-Buddhas’ creations appear in the third ”dimension”.

According to my interpretation, as Architects, the beings on such a plane or dimension would teach the humanity of the Water element the arts and sciences preparing the concrete element of Earth, and as Watchers they would guide the humanity in ascension and the occult knowledge we strive for during our age:
Secret Doctrine wrote:”--that each atom, we say, may reach through individual merits and efforts that plane where it re-becomes the one unconditioned ALL. But between the Alpha and the Omega there is the weary ”Road” hedged in by thorns, that ”goes down first, then –

Winds up hill all the way
Yes, to the very end . . . .

Starting upon the long journey immaculate; descending more and more into sinful matter, and having connected himself with every atom in manifested Space – the Pilgrim, having struggled through and suffered in every form of life and being, is only at the bottom of the valley of matter, and half through the cycle, when he has identified himself with collective Humanity. This, he has made in his own image. In order to progress upwards and homewards, the ”God” has now to ascend the weary uphill path of he Golgotha of Life. It is the martyrdom of self-conscious existence. Like Visvakarman he has to sacrifice himself to himself in order to redeem all creatures, to resurrect from the many into the One Life.”
There are many precious stones in this poetic ending to the commentary on the cosmogony. First of all it offers consolation to the present day occultist, who might be anxious with the slow pace and self-torturing state of the world, for it reminds us that everyone has to walk in to the sinful depths of matter and go through it all before they can take upon the journey back home. This should ease us with the knowledge how we can not lift the whole world with us because the world and its individuals need to go down by themselves first. If we would manage to create seemingly magnificent and massive cultural changes, these changes would be completely exoteric and already rotting inside, because it is only within individuals where the change must happen before the Golden Age with its culture may rise. Although I guess there are some overlap here, because we as occult aspirants are still making the mistakes and and learning – descending in to ”Sin” as we aim towards adepthood.

Thus we flow individually towards the guidance of the Watchers after being completely saturated with the world of Sin and actually ready to leave it behind. From this state of the filled cup we become, identifying ourselves with the collective humanity, and with such a connection made we begin to know of the Masters and the occult ways of operating with them.

In the light of this filled cup, and the flame and the spark relationship where the latter is the vehicle of the former, it is quite interesting to think of the self-sacrifice on the last sentence of the quote where "he has to sacrifice himself to himself in order to redeem all creatures". Microcosmic mysteries.

***

This is it for the Stanzas of this book. It took us four years with at least half or more of the time on pause due to us being too overwhelmed with it and life in general. I’m quite sure that most of my own entries here have not much more value in them than just being documentation of a struggling mind trying to fathom the complexity of this book. But the struggle itself has been worth it although occasionally it felt like drowning in sand which lead on to fantasies of reading more galvanizing books. Yet, now I feel I understand the things much more clearly, galvanized in ways unexpected and thus probably just the right way. I have already ventured back to Stanzas IV and V, both of which I seem to understand much better, even to the extent that I’m tempted to start over and focus on the poems themselves, only searching for affirmation or denial of my interpretations from the commentary. But alas, now is not the time.

I will continue reading the ”Summing Up” and see if there’s anything I’d like to report back, in order to finalize this reading group, but don’t hold your breath, this post might work as good an ending as any.

After that I’ll probably continue reading Book I. - Part II. ”The Evolution of Symbolism in its Approximate Order” and skip Part III. ”Science and the Secret Doctrine Contrasted”, in the fears of it being uninteresting polemics much in the way of Isis Unveiled. Book I. - Part II or Book II we will not touch upon any further in this reading group. But perhaps we will come back to th latter in another format. Time will tell.

Thank you to all commentators and readers alike, for taking part of this endeavour!
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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