Chapter XXXV: Section XI: The Mysteries of the Hebdomad (2)

Diti, being Aditi—unless the contrary is proven to us—Aditi, we say, or Âkâsha in her highest form, is the Egyptian _seven‐fold_ Heaven. Every true Occultist will understand what this means. Diti, we repeat, is the sixth principle of _metaphysical_ Nature, the Buddhi of Âkâsha. Diti, the Mother of the Maruts, is one of her terrestrial forms, made to represent, at one and the same time, the Divine Soul in the ascetic, and the divine aspirations of mystic Humanity toward deliverance from the webs of Mâyâ, and consequent final bliss. Indra is now degraded, because of the Kali Yuga, when such aspirations are no more general but have become abnormal through a general spread of Ahamkâra, the feeling of Egotism, or “I‐am‐ ness” and ignorance; but in the beginning Indra was one of the greatest Gods of the Hindû Pantheon, as the _Rig Veda_ shows. Surâdhipa the “chief of the gods,” has fallen down from Jishnu, the “Leader of the Celestial Host”—the Hindû St. Michael—to an opponent of asceticism, the enemy of every holy aspiration. He is shown married to Aindrî (Indrânî), the personification of Aindriyaka, the evolution of the element of senses, whom he married “because of her _voluptuous attractions_”; after which he began sending celestial female demons to excite the passions of holy men, Yogîs, and “to beguile them from the potent penances which he dreaded.” Therefore, Indra, now characterized as “the god of the firmament, the personified atmosphere”—is in reality the cosmic principle Mahat, and the fifth human principle, Manas in its dual aspect—as connected with Buddhi, and as allowing itself to be dragged down by the Kâma principle, the body of passions and desires. This is demonstrated by Brahmâ telling the conquered God that his frequent defeats were due to Karma, and were a punishment for his licentiousness, and the seduction of various nymphs. It is in this latter character that he seeks, to save himself from destruction, to destroy the coming “babe,” destined to conquer him—the babe, of course, allegorizing the divine and steady will of the Yogî, determined to resist all such temptations, and thus destroy the passions within his earthly personality. Indra succeeds again, because flesh conquers spirit.(1478) He divides the “embryo” (of new _divine_ Adeptship, begotten once more by the Ascetics of the Âryan Fifth Race) into _seven_ portions (a reference not alone to the seven sub‐races of the new Root‐ Race, in each of which there will be a Manu,(1479) but also to the seven degrees of Adeptship), and then each portion into seven pieces—alluding to the Manu‐Rishis of each Root‐Race, and even sub‐race.

It does not seem difficult to perceive what is meant by the Maruts obtaining “four times seven” emancipations in every Manvantara, and by those persons who are _re‐born_ in that character, viz., of the Maruts in their Esoteric meaning, and who “fill up their places.” The Maruts represent (_a_) the passions that storm and rage within every Candidate’s breast, when preparing for an ascetic life—this mystically; (_b_) the Occult potencies concealed in the manifold aspects of Âkâsha’s lower principles—her body, or Sthûla Sharîra, representing the terrestrial, lower atmosphere of every inhabited Globe—this mystically and sidereally; (_c_) actual conscious existences, beings of a cosmic and psychic nature.

At the same time, Marut in Occult parlance is one of the names given to those Egos of great Adepts who have passed away, and are known also as Nirmânakâyas; of those Egos for whom—_since they are beyond illusion_—there is no Devachan, who, having either voluntarily renounced Nirvâna for the good of mankind, or who not yet having reached it, remain invisible on Earth. Therefore are the Maruts(1480) shown, firstly, as the sons of Shiva‐Rudra, the Patron Yogî, whose Third Eye (mystically) must be acquired by the Ascetic before he becomes an Adept; then, in their cosmic character, as the subordinates of Indra and his opponents, under various characters. The “four times seven” emancipations have a reference to the four Rounds, and the four Races that preceded ours, in each of which Maruta‐Jîvas (Monads) have been re‐born, and would have obtained final liberation, if only they had chosen to avail themselves of it. But instead of this, out of love for the good of mankind, which would struggle still more hopelessly in the meshes of ignorance and misery _were it not for this extraneous help_, they are re‐born over and over again “in that character,” and thus “fill up their own places.” _Who_ they are, “on Earth”—every student of Occult Science knows. And he also knows that the Maruts are Rudras, among whom also the family of Tvashtri, a synonym of Vishvakarman, the great Patron of the Initiates, is included. This gives us an ample knowledge of their true nature.

The same for the septenary division of cosmos and the human principles. The _Purânas_, along with other sacred texts, teem with allusions to this. First of all, the Mundane Egg which contained Brahmâ, or the Universe, was externally invested with _seven_ natural elements, at first loosely enumerated as Water, Air, Fire, Ether, and _three secret_ elements; then the “World” is said to be “encompassed on every side” by seven elements, also _within_ the Egg—as explained:

The world is encompassed on every side, and above, and below, by
the shell of the egg (of Brahmâ) [Andakatâha].(1481)

Around the shell flows Water, which is surrounded with Fire; Fire by Air; Air by Ether; Ether by the Origin of the Elements (Ahamkâra); the latter by Universal Mind, or “Intellect,” as Wilson translates. It relates to Spheres of Being as much as to Principles. Prithivî is not our Earth but the World, the Solar System, and means the “broad,” the “wide.” In the _Vedas_—the greatest of all authorities, though needing a key to be read correctly—three terrestrial and three celestial Earths are mentioned as having been called into existence simultaneously with Bhûmi, our Earth. We have often been told that six, not _seven_, appears to be the number of spheres, principles, etc. We answer that there are, in fact, only six principles in man; since his body is _no_ principle, but the covering, the shell of a principle. So with the Planetary Chain; therein, speaking Esoterically, the Earth—as well as the seventh, or rather fourth plane, one that stands as the seventh, if we count from the first triple kingdom of the Elementals that begin its formation—may be left out of consideration, being (to us) the only distinct body of the seven. The language of Occultism is varied. But supposing that _three_ Earths only, instead of seven, are meant in the _Vedas_, what are those three, since we still know of but one? Evidently there _must be_ an Occult meaning in the statement under consideration. Let us see. The “Earth that floats” on the Universal Ocean of Space, which Brahmâ divides in the _Purânas_ into seven Zones, is Prithivî, the World divided into seven principles—a cosmic division, looking metaphysical enough, but, in reality, _physical_ in its Occult effects. Many Kalpas later, our Earth is mentioned, and again, in its turn, is divided into seven Zones according to the law of analogy which guided ancient Philosophers. After which we find on it seven Continents, seven Isles, seven Oceans, seven Seas and Rivers, seven Mountains, seven Climates, etc.(1482)

Furthermore, it is not only in the Hindû scriptures and philosophy that one finds references to the seven Earths, but in the Persian, Phœnician, Chaldæan, and Egyptian cosmogonies, and even in Rabbinical literature. The Phœnix(1483)—called by the Hebrews Onech ענק, from Phenoch, Enoch, the symbol of a secret cycle and initiation, and by the Turks, Kerkes—lives a thousand years, after which, kindling a flame, it is self‐consumed; and then, reborn from itself, it lives another thousand years, up to _seven times seven_,(1484) when comes the Day of Judgment. The “seven times seven,” or forty‐nine, are a transparent allegory, and an allusion to the forty‐nine Manus, the seven Rounds, and the seven times seven human Cycles in each Round on each Globe. The Kerkes and the Onech stand for a Race Cycle, and the mystical Tree Ababel, the “Father Tree” in the _Kurân_, shoots out new branches and vegetation at every resurrection of the Kerkes or Phœnix; the “Day of Judgment” meaning a minor Pralaya. The author of the _Book of God_ and the _Apocalypse_ believes that:

The Phœnix is ... very plainly the same as the Simorgh of Persian
romance; and the account which is given us of this last bird yet
more decisively establishes the opinion that the death and revival
of the Phœnix exhibit the successive destruction and reproduction
of the world, which many believed to be effected by the agency of
a fiery deluge [and also a watery one in its turn]. When the
Simorgh was asked her age, she informed Caherman that this world
is very ancient, for it has been already _seven times
replenished_, with beings different from men, and _seven times
depopulated_:(1485) that the age of the human race in which we now
are, is to endure seven thousand years, and that she herself had
seen _twelve_ of these revolutions, and knew not how many more she
had to see.(1486)

The above, however, is no new statement. From Bailly, in the last century, down to Dr. Kenealy, in the present, these facts have been noticed by a number of writers; but now a connection can be established between the Persian oracle and the Nazarene prophet. Says the author of the _Book of God_:

The Simorgh is in reality the same as the winged Singh of the
Hindûs, and the Sphinx of the Egyptians. It is said that the
former will appear at the end of the world ... [as a] monstrous
lion‐bird.... From these the Rabbins have borrowed their mythos of
an enormous Bird, sometimes standing on the earth, sometimes
walking in the ocean ... while its head props the sky; and with
the symbol, they have also adopted the doctrine to which it
relates. They teach that there are to be _seven successive
renewals_ of the globe; that each reproduced system will last
_seven_ thousand years [?]; and that the _total duration of the
Universe_ will be 49,000 years. This opinion, which involves the
doctrine of the preëxistence of each renewed creature, they may
either have learned during their Babylonian captivity, or _it may
have been part of the primeval religion_ which their priests had
preserved from remote times.(1487)

It shows rather that the initiated Jews _borrowed_, and their non‐ initiated successors, the Talmudists, lost, the sense, and applied the seven Rounds, and the forty‐nine Races, etc., wrongly.

Not only _their_ priests, but those of every other country. The Gnostics, whose various teachings are the many echoes of the one primitive and universal doctrine, put the same numbers, under another form, in the mouth of Jesus in the very occult _Pistis Sophia_. We say more: even the Christian editor or author of _Revelation_ has preserved this tradition and speaks of the _seven_ Races, four of which, with part of the fifth, are gone, and two have to come. It is stated as plainly as can be. Thus saith the angel:

And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven
mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are _seven_
kings; _five_ are fallen, and one _is_, and the other is not yet
come.(1488)

Who, in the least acquainted with the symbolical language of old, will fail to discern in the _five_ Kings that have fallen, the four Root‐Races that were, and part of the Fifth, the one that _is_; and in the _other_, that “is not yet come,” the Sixth and Seventh coming Root‐Races, as also the sub‐races of this, our present Race? Another still more forcible allusion to the seven Rounds and the forty‐nine Root‐Races in _Leviticus_, will be found elsewhere, Part III.(1489)

E. Seven In Astronomy, Science, And Magic.

Again, number _seven_ is closely connected with the Occult significance of the Pleiades, those seven daughters of Atlas, “the six present, the seventh _hidden_.” In India they are connected with their nursling, the war God, Kârttikeya. It was the Pleiades (in Sanskrit, Krittikâs) who gave this name to the God, Kârttikeya being the planet Mars, _astronomically_. As a God he is the son of Rudra, born without the intervention of a woman. He is a Kumâra, a “virgin youth” again, generated in the fire from the Seed of Shiva—the Holy Spirit—hence called Agni‐bhû. The late Dr. Kenealy believed that, in India, Kârttikeya is the secret symbol of the Cycle of the Naros, composed of 600, 666, and 777 years, according to whether solar or lunar, divine or mortal, years are counted; and that the six visible, or the seven actual sisters, the Pleiades, are needed for the completion of this most secret and mysterious of all the astronomical and religious symbols. Therefore, when intended to commemorate one particular event, Kârttikeya was shown, of old, as a Kumâra, an Ascetic, with _six_ heads—one for each century of the Naros. When the symbolism was needed for another event, then, in conjunction with the seven sidereal sisters, Kârttikeya is seen accompanied by Kaumârî, or Senâ, his female aspect. He is then riding on a peacock, the bird of Wisdom and Occult Knowledge, and the Hindû Phœnix, whose Greek relation with the 600 years of the Naros is well known. A six‐rayed star (double triangle), a Svastika, a six and occasionally seven‐pointed crown, is on his brow; the peacock’s tail represents the sidereal heavens; and the twelve signs of the Zodiac are _hidden on his body_; for which he is also called Dvâdasha‐kara, the “twelve‐handed,” and Dvâdashâksha, “twelve‐eyed.” It is as Shakti‐dhara, however, the “spear‐holder,” and the conqueror of Târaka, Târaka‐jit, that he is shown to be most famous.

As the years of the Naros are, in India, counted in two ways, either by one hundred “years of the gods” (divine years), or one hundred “mortal years,” we can see the tremendous difficulty the non‐initiated have in arriving at a correct comprehension of this cycle, which plays such an important part in St. John’s _Revelation_. It is the truly apocalyptic cycle, because of its being of various lengths and relating to various pre‐historic events, and in none of the numerous speculations about it have we found any but a few _approximate_ truths.

Against the duration claimed by the Babylonians for their divine ages, it has been urged that Suidas shows the Ancients counting days for years, in their chronological computations. It is to Suidas and his authority that Dr. Sepp appeals in his ingenious plagiarism—which we have already exposed—of the Hindû figures 432. These they give in thousands and millions of years, the duration of their Yugas, but Sepp dwarfed them to 4,320 _lunar_ years,(1490) “before the birth of Christ,” as “foreordained” in the sidereal, in addition to the invisible, heavens, and proved “by the apparition of the Star of Bethlehem.” But Suidas had no other warrant for this assertion than his own speculations, and he was not an Initiate. He cites, as a proof, Vulcan, and shows him reigning 4,477 years, or 4,477 _days_, as he thinks, or again rendered in years, 12 years, 3 months, and 7 days; he has, however, 5 days in his original—thus committing an error even in such an easy calculation.(1491) True, there are other ancient writers guilty of like fallacious speculations; Calisthenes, for instance, who assigns to the astronomical observations of the Chaldæans only 1,903 years, whereas Epigenes recognizes 720,000 years.(1492) The whole of these hypotheses made by profane writers are due to a misunderstanding. The chronology of the Western peoples, ancient Greeks and Romans, was borrowed from India. Now, it is said in the Tamil edition of _Bagavadam_ that 15 solar days make a Paccham; two Pacchams, or 30 days, make a month of mortals, which is only one _day_ of the Pitara Devatâ or Pitris. Again, 2 of these months constitute a Rûdû, 3 Rûdûs make an Ayanam, and 2 Ayanams a year of mortals, which is only a _day_ of the Gods. It is from such misunderstood teachings that some Greeks have imagined that all the initiated priests had transformed days into years!

This mistake of the ancient Greek and Latin writers became pregnant with results in Europe. At the close of the past and the beginning of the present century, Bailly, Dupuis, and others, relying upon the purposely mutilated accounts of Hindû chronology, brought from India by certain unscrupulous and too zealous missionaries, built quite a fantastic theory on the subject. Because the Hindûs had made of half a revolution of the moon a measure of time; and because a month composed of only fifteen days, of which Quintus Curtius speaks,(1493) is found mentioned in Hindû literature, therefore, it becomes a verified fact that their _year_ was only half a year, when it was not called a _day_! The Chinese, also, divided their Zodiac into twenty‐four parts, and hence their year into twenty‐four fortnights, but such computation did not, nor does it, prevent them having an astronomical year just the same as ours. They also have a period of 60 days—the Southern Indian Rûdû—to this day in some provinces. Moreover, Diodorus Siculus(1494) calls “_thirty days_ an Egyptian year,” or that period during which the moon performs a complete revolution. Pliny and Plutarch(1495) both speak of it; but does it stand to reason that the Egyptians, who knew Astronomy as well as any other nation, made the _lunar_ month consist of 30 days, when it is only 28 days with fractions? This lunar period had an Occult meaning surely as well as had also the Ayanam and the Rûdû of the Hindûs. The year of 2 months’ duration, and the period of 60 days also, was a universal measure of time in antiquity, as Bailly himself shows in his _Traité de l’ Astronomie Indienne et Orientale_. The Chinamen, according to their own books, divided their year into two parts, from one equinox to the other;(1496) 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 Abbé Chappe.(1497) But is all this any reason for claiming that when the Hindû _Purânas_ say a solar _year_, they mean one solar _day_!

It was the knowledge of the natural laws which make of seven the root nature‐number, so to say, in the manifested world, or 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—to prophesy, it is called—the influence which they would 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 respectively the great ruler and rulers of our little system in all its seven domains, or “spheres of action.”(1498)

This has been so evident and remarkable, that even many of the modern men of Science, Materialists as well as Mystics, have had their attention called to this law. Physicians and Theologians, Mathematicians and Psychologists, have repeatedly drawn the attention of the world to this fact of periodicity in the behaviour of “Nature.” These numbers are explained in the Commentaries in the following words:

_The Circle is not the __“__One__”__ but the __“__All.__”_

_In the higher [Heaven], the impenetrable Rajah,_(_1499_)_ it [the Circle] becomes One, because [it is] the indivisible, and there can be no Tau in it._

_In the second [of the three Rajamsi, or the three __“__Worlds__”__], the One becomes Two [male and female], and Three [with the Son or Logos], and the Sacred Four [the Tetraktys, or Tetragrammaton]._

_In the third [the lower World or our Earth], the number becomes Four, and Three, and Two. Take the first two, and thou wilt obtain Seven, the sacred number of life; blend [the latter] with the middle Rajah, and thou wilt have Nine, the sacred number of Being and Becoming._(1500)

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:

_There 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 perceptions 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 analyze our sensations of this kind
with mathematical accuracy.(1501)

So much so, indeed, that more than one Physician has stood aghast at the _septenary_ periodical 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, healthy revolutions
of 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].(1502)

Dr. Laycock, writing on the “Periodicity of Vital Phenomena,”(1503) records a “most remarkable illustration and confirmation of the law in insects.”(1504)

To all of which Mr. Grattan Guinness remarks very pertinently, as he defends biblical chronology:

And man’s life ... is a _week_, a _week of decades_. “The days of
our years are three‐score years and ten.” Combining the testimony
of all these facts, we are bound to admit that _there prevails in
organic nature a law of septiform periodicity, a law of completion
in weeks_.(1505)

Without accepting the conclusions, and especially the premises of the learned founder of “The East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions,” the writer accepts and welcomes his researches in the Occult chronology of the _Bible_; just as, while rejecting the theories, hypotheses, and generalizations of Modern Science, we bow before its great achievements in the world of the Physical, or in all the minor details of material Nature.

There is most assuredly an Occult “chronological system in Hebrew scripture,” the _Kabalah_ being its warrant; moreover there is in it “a system of weeks,” based on the archaic Indian system, which may still be found in the old Jyotisha.(1506) And there are in it cycles of the “_week_ of days,” of the “_week_ of months,” of years, of centuries, and even of millenniums, and more, of the “week of years of years.”(1507) But all this can be found in the Archaic Doctrine. And if the common source of the chronology in every scripture, however _veiled_, is denied in the case of the _Bible_; then it will have to be shown how, in face of the six days and the seventh (a Sabbath), we can escape connecting the Genetic with the Paurânic Cosmogonies. For the first “week of creation” shows the septiformity of its chronology and thus connects it with Brahmâ’s “seven creations.” The able volume from the pen of Mr. Grattan Guinness, in which he has collected in some 760 pages every proof of this septiform calculation, is good evidence. For if the biblical chronology is, as he says, “regulated by the law of weeks,” and if it is septenary, whatever the measures of the creation week and the length of its days may be, and if, finally, “the Bible system includes weeks on a great variety of scales,” then this system is shown to be identical with all the Pagan systems. Moreover, the attempt to show that 4,320 years, in lunar months, elapsed between the “Creation” and the “Nativity,” is a clear and unmistakable connection with the 4,320,000 years of the Hindû Yugas. Otherwise, why make such efforts to prove that these figures, which are preëminently Chaldæan and Indo‐Âryan, play such a part in the _New Testament_? This we shall now prove still more forcibly.

Let the impartial critic compare the two accounts—the _Vishnu Purâna_ and the _Bible_—and he will find that the “seven creations” of Brahmâ are at the foundation of the “week of creation” in _Genesis_. The two allegories are different, but the systems are both built on the same foundation‐ stone. The _Bible_ can be understood _only by the light of_ the _Kabalah_. Take the _Zohar_, the “Book of Concealed Mystery,” however now disfigured, and compare. The seven Rishis and the fourteen Manus, of the seven Manvantaras, issue from Brahmâ’s head; they are his “Mind‐born Sons,” and it is with them that begins the division of mankind into its Races from the Heavenly Man, the manifested Logos, who is Brahmâ Prajâpati. Speaking of the “Skull” (Head) of Macroprosopus, the Ancient One(1508) (in Sanskrit Sanat is an appellation of Brahmâ), the _Ha Idra Rabba Qadisha_, or “Greater Holy Assembly,” says that in every one of his hairs is a hidden fountain issuing from the concealed brain.

And it shineth and goeth forth through that hair unto the hair of
Microprosopus, and from it [which is the manifest Quaternary, the
Tetragrammaton] is his brain formed; and thence that brain goeth
forth into _thirty_ and _two_ paths [or the Triad and the Duad, or
again 432].

And again:

Thirteen curls of hair exist on the one side and on the other of
the skull [_i.e._, six on one and six on the other, the thirteenth
being also the fourteenth, as it is male‐female]; ... and through
them commenceth the division of the hair [the division of things,
of mankind and the races].(1509)

“We _six_ are lights which shine forth from a _seventh_ (light),” saith Rabbi Abba; “_thou art the seventh light_”—the synthesis of us all—he adds, speaking of Tetragrammaton and his seven “companions,” whom he calls the “eyes of Tetragrammaton.”(1510)

Tetragrammaton is Brahmâ Prajâpati, who assumed _four_ forms, in order to create four kinds of _supernal_ creatures, _i.e._, made himself _four‐ fold_, or the manifest Quaternary;(1511) after that, he is re‐born in the _seven_ Rishis, his Mânasaputras, “Mind‐born Sons,” who became later, nine, twenty‐one, and so on, and who are all said to be born from various parts of Brahmâ.(1512)

There are two Tetragrammatons: the Macroprosopus and the Microprosopus. The first is the absolute perfect Square, or the Tetraktys within the Circle, both abstract conceptions, and is therefore called Ain—Non‐being, _i.e._, illimitable or absolute “Be‐ness.” But when viewed as Microprosopus, or the Heavenly Man, the Manifested Logos, he is the Triangle in the Square—the _sevenfold_ Cube, not the fourfold, or the plane Square. For it is written in “The Greater Holy Assembly”:

And concerning this, the children of Israel wished to inquire in
their hearts [know in their minds], like as it is written, Exod.
xvii. 7: “Is the Tetragrammaton in the midst of us, or the
Negatively Existent One?”(1513)

—where they distinguished between Microprosopus, who is called Tetragrammaton, and between Macroprosopus, who is called Ain, the Negatively Existent.(1514)

Therefore, Tetragrammaton is the Three _made_ four and the Four made three, and is represented on this Earth by his seven “Companions,” or “Eyes”—the “seven eyes of the Lord.” Microprosopus is, at best, only a _secondary_ manifested Deity. For “The Greater Holy Assembly” elsewhere says:

We have learned that there _were ten_ (_Rabbis_) [Companions]
entered into (_the Assembly_) [the Sod, “mysterious assembly or
mystery”] and that _seven_ came forth(1515) [_i.e._, _ten_ for the
unmanifested, seven for the manifested Universe].

1158. And when Rabbi Schimeon revealed the Arcana, there were
found none present there save those [seven] (_companions_). And
Rabbi Schimeon called them the seven eyes of Tetragrammaton, like
as it is written, Zach. iii. 9: “These are the seven eyes [or
principles] of Tetragrammaton” [—_i.e._, the four‐fold Heavenly
Man, or pure Spirit, is resolved into septenary man, pure Matter
and Spirit].(1516)

Thus the Tetrad is Microprosopus, and the latter is the male‐female Chokmah‐Binah, the second and third Sephiroth. The Tetragrammaton is the very essence of number _seven_, in its terrestrial significance. Seven stands between four and nine—the basis and foundation, astrally, of our physical world and man, in the kingdom of Malkuth.

For Christians and believers, this reference to _Zechariah_ and especially to the _Epistle of Peter_,(1517) ought to be conclusive. In the old symbolism, “man,” chiefly the Inner Spiritual Man is called a “stone.” Christ is the corner‐stone, and Peter refers to all men as “lively” (living) stones. Therefore a “stone with seven eyes” on it can only mean a man whose constitution (_i.e._, his “principles”) is septenary.

To demonstrate more clearly the seven in Nature, it may be added that not only does the number seven govern the periodicity of the phenomena of life, but that it is also found dominating the series of chemical elements, and equally paramount in the world of sound and in that of colour as revealed to us by the spectroscope. This number is the factor, _sine quâ non_, in the production of occult astral phenomena.

It is needless to refer in detail to the number of vibrations constituting the notes of the musical scale; they are strictly analogous to the scale of chemical elements, and also to the scale of colour as unfolded by the spectroscope, although in the latter case we deal with only _one_ octave, while both in music and chemistry we find a series of _seven_ octaves represented theoretically, of which _six_ are fairly complete and in ordinary use in both sciences. Thus, to quote Hellenbach:

It has been established that, from the standpoint of phenomenal
law, upon which all our knowledge rests, the vibrations of sound
and light increase regularly, that they divide themselves into
_seven_ columns, and that the successive numbers in each column
are closely allied; _i.e._, that they exhibit a close relationship
which not only is expressed in the figures themselves, but also is
practically confirmed in chemistry as in music, in the latter of
which the ear confirms the verdict of the figures.... The fact
that this periodicity and variety is governed by the number
_seven_ is undeniable, and it far surpasses the limits of mere
chance, and must be assumed to have an adequate cause, which cause
must be discovered.

Verily, then, as Rabbi Abba said:

We are six lights which shine forth from a seventh (_light_); thou
[Tetragrammaton] art the seventh light (_the origin of_) us all.

For assuredly there is no stability in those six, save (_what they
derive_) from the seventh. For all things depend from the
seventh.(1518)

The ancient and modern Western American Zuñi Indians seem to have entertained similar views. Their present‐day customs, their traditions and records, all point to the fact that, from time immemorial, their institutions, political, social and religious, were, and still are, shaped according to the septenary principle. Thus all their ancient towns and villages were built in clusters of six, around a seventh. It is always a group of seven, or of thirteen, and always the six surround the seventh. Again, their sacerdotal hierarchy is composed of six “Priests of the House” seemingly synthesized in the seventh, who is a woman, the “Priestess Mother.” Compare this with the “seven great officiating priests” spoken of in the _Anugîtâ_, the name given to the “seven senses,” exoterically, and to the seven human principles, Esoterically. Whence this identity of symbolism? Shall we still doubt the fact of Arjuna going over to Pâtâla, the Antipodes, America, and there marrying Ulûpî, the daughter of the Nâga, or rather Nargal, king? But to the Zuñi priests.

These receive, to this day, an annual tribute of corn of seven colours. Undistinguished from other Indians during the rest of the year, on a certain day they come out—six priests and one priestess—arrayed in their priestly robes, each of a colour sacred to the particular God whom the priest serves and personifies; each of them representing one of the seven regions, and each receiving corn of the colour corresponding to that region. Thus, the white represents the East, because from the East comes the first sun‐light; the yellow corresponds to the North, from the colour of the flames produced by the Aurora Borealis; the red, the South, as from that quarter comes the heat; the blue stands for the West, the colour of the Pacific Ocean, which lies to the West; black is the colour of the nether underground region—darkness; corn with grains of all colours on one ear represents the colours of the upper region—of the firmament, with its rosy and yellow clouds, shining stars, etc. The “speckled” corn, each grain containing all the colours, is that of the “Priestess‐Mother”—woman containing in herself the seeds of all races past, present and future; Eve being the mother of all living.

Apart from these was the Sun—the Great Deity—whose priest was the spiritual head of the nation. These facts were ascertained by Mr. F. Hamilton Cushing, who, as many are aware, became a Zuñi, lived with them, was initiated into their religious mysteries, and has learned more about them than any other man now living.

Seven is also the great magic number. In the Occult Records the weapon mentioned in the _Purânas_ and the _Mahâbhârata_—the Âgneyâstra or “fiery weapon” bestowed by Aurva upon his Chelâ Sagara—is said to be constructed of seven elements. This weapon—supposed by some ingenious Orientalists to have been a “rocket” (!)—is one of the many thorns in the side of our modern Sanskritists. Wilson exercises his penetration over it, on several pages in his _Specimens of the Hindû Theatre_, and finally fails to explain it. He can make nothing out of the Âgneyâstra, for he argues:

These weapons are of a very unintelligible character. Some of them
are occasionally wielded as missiles; but, in general, they
_appear to be mystical powers exercised by the individual_—such as
those of paralyzing an enemy, or _locking his senses fast in
sleep_, or bringing down storm, and rain, and fire, from
heaven.(1519)... They are supposed to assume celestial shapes,
endowed with human faculties.... The _Râmâyana_ calls them the
sons of Krishâshva.(1520)

The Shastra‐devatâs, “Gods of the divine weapons,” are no more Âgneyâstras, the weapons, than the gunners of modern artillery are the cannon they direct. But this simple solution did not seem to strike the eminent Sanskritist. Nevertheless, as he himself says of the armiform progeny of Krishâshva, “the allegorical origin of the Âgneyâstra weapons is, undoubtedly, the more ancient.”(1521) It is the fiery javelin of Brahmâ.

The seven‐fold Âgneyâstra, like the seven senses and the seven principles, symbolized by the seven priests, are of untold antiquity. How old is the doctrine believed in by Theosophists, the following Section will tell.

F. The Seven Souls Of The Egyptologists.

If one turns to those wells of information, _The Natural Genesis_ and the _Lectures_ of Mr. Gerald Massey, the proofs of the antiquity of the doctrine under analysis become positively overwhelming. That the belief of the author differs from ours can hardly invalidate the facts. He views the symbol from a purely natural standpoint, one perhaps a trifle too materialistic, because too much that of an ardent Evolutionist and follower of the modern Darwinian dogmas. Thus he shows that:

The student of Böhme’s books finds much in them concerning these
Seven “Fountain Spirits,” and primary powers, treated as seven
properties of Nature in the alchemistic and astrological phase of
the mediæval mysteries....

The followers of Böhme look on such matter as the divine
revelation of his inspired Seership. They know nothing of the
natural genesis, the history and persistence of the “Wisdom”(1522)
of the past (or of the broken links), and are unable to recognize
the physical features of the ancient “Seven Spirits” beneath their
modern metaphysical or alchemist mask. A second connecting link
between the theosophy of Böhme and the physical origins of
Egyptian thought, is extant in the fragments of _Hermes
Trismegistus_.(1523) No matter whether these teachings are called
Illuminatist, Buddhist, Kabalist, Gnostic, Masonic, or Christian,
the elemental types can only be truly known in their
beginnings.(1524) When the prophets or visionary showmen of
cloudland come to us claiming original inspiration, and utter
something new, we judge of its value by what it is in itself. But
if we find they bring us the ancient matter which they cannot
account for, and we can, it is natural that we should judge it by
the primary significations rather than the latest
pretensions.(1525) It is useless for us to read our later thought
into the earliest types of expression, and then say the ancients
meant that!(1526) Subtilized interpretations which have become
doctrines and dogmas in theosophy have now to be tested by their
genesis in physical phenomena, in order that we may explode their
false pretensions to supernatural origin or supernatural
knowledge.(1527)

But the able author of _The Book of the Beginnings_ and of _The Natural Genesis_ does—very fortunately, for us—quite the reverse. He demonstrates most triumphantly our Esoteric (Buddhist) teachings, by showing them identical with those of Egypt. Let the reader judge from his learned lecture on “The Seven Souls of Man.”(1528) Says the author:

The first form of the mystical Seven was seen to be figured in
heaven by the seven large stars of the _Great Bear_, the
constellation assigned by the Egyptians to the Mother of Time, and
of the seven Elemental Powers.(1529)

Just so, for the Hindûs place their seven primitive Rishis in the Great Bear, and call this constellation the abode of the Saptarshi, Riksha and Chitra‐shikhandinas. And their Adepts claim to know whether it is only an astronomical myth, or a primordial mystery having a deeper meaning than it bears on its surface. We are also told that:

The Egyptians divided the face of the sky by night into seven
parts. The primary Heaven was sevenfold.(1530)

So it was with the Âryans. One has but to read the _Purânas_ about the beginnings of Brahmâ and his Egg, to see this. Have the Âryans then, taken the idea from the Egyptians? But, as the lecturer proceeds:

The earliest forces recognized in Nature were reckoned as seven in
number. These became Seven Elementals, devils [?], or later
divinities. Seven properties were assigned to Nature—as matter,
cohesion, fluxion, coagulation, accumulation, station, and
division—and _seven elements or souls to man_.(1531)

All this was taught in the Esoteric Doctrine, but it was interpreted and its mysteries unlocked, as already stated, with _seven_, not two or, at the utmost, three keys; hence the causes and their effects worked in invisible or mystic as well as in psychic Nature, and were made referable to Metaphysics and Psychology as much as to Physiology. As the author says:

A principle of _sevening_, so to say, was introduced, and the
number seven supplied a sacred type _that could be used for
manifold purposes_.(1532)

And it was so used. For:

The seven souls of the Pharaoh are often mentioned in the Egyptian
texts.... _Seven souls, or principles in man were identified by
our British Druids_.... The Rabbins also ran the number of souls
up to seven: so, likewise, do the Karens of India.(1533)

And then, the author, with several misspellings, tabulates the two teachings—the Esoteric and the Egyptian—and shows that the latter had the same series and in the same order.

[Esoteric] Indian. Egyptian. 1. Rûpa, body or element of 1. Kha, body. form. 2. Prâna, the breath of life. 2. Ba, the soul of breath. 3. Astral body. 3. Khaba, the shade. 4. Manas, or 4. Akhu, intelligence or intelligence.(1534) perception. 5. Kâma Rûpa, or animal soul. 5. Seb, ancestral soul. 6. Buddhi, or spiritual soul. 6. Putah, the first intellectual father. 7. Âtmâ, pure spirit. 7. Atmu, a divine, or eternal soul.(1535)

Further on, the lecturer formulates these seven (Egyptian) Souls, as (1) The Soul of Blood—the _formative_; (2) The Soul of Breath—that _breathes_; (3) The Shade or Covering Soul—that _envelopes_; (4) The Soul of Perception—that _perceives_; (5) The Soul of Pubescence—that _procreates_; (6) The Intellectual Soul—that _reproduces intellectually_; and (7) The Spiritual Soul—that is _perpetuated permanently_.

From the exoteric and physiological standpoint this may be very correct; it becomes less so from the Esoteric point of view. To maintain this, does not at all mean that the “Esoteric Buddhists” _resolve men into a number of elementary spirits_, as Mr. G. Massey, in the same lecture, accuses them of maintaining. No “Esoteric Buddhist” has ever been guilty of any such absurdity. Nor has it been ever imagined that these shadows “become spiritual beings in another world,” or “seven potential spirits or elementaries of another life.” What is maintained is simply that every time the immortal Ego incarnates it becomes, as a total, a compound unit of Matter and Spirit, which together act on seven different planes of being and consciousness. Elsewhere, Mr. Gerald Massey adds:

The seven souls [our “principles”] ... are often mentioned in the
Egyptian texts. The moon‐god, Taht‐Esmun, or the later sun‐god,
expressed the seven nature‐powers that were prior to himself, and
were summed up in him as his seven souls [we say “principles”]....
The seven stars in the hand of the Christ in Revelation, have the
same significance.(1536)

And a still greater one, as these stars represent also the _seven keys_ of the Seven Churches or the Sodalian Mysteries, kabalistically. However, we will not stop to discuss, but add that other Egyptologists have also discovered that the septenary constitution of man was a cardinal doctrine with the old Egyptians. In a series of remarkable articles in the _Sphinx_, of Munich, Herr Franz Lambert gives incontrovertible proof of his conclusions from the _Book of the Dead_ and other Egyptian records. For details the reader must be referred to the articles themselves.

Böhme, the prince of all the mediæval seers, says:

We find seven especial properties in nature whereby this only
Mother works all things [which he calls fire, light, sound (the
upper three) and _desire_, _bitterness_, _anguish_, and
_substantiality_, thus analyzing the lower in his own mystic way];
whatever the six forms are spiritually, that the seventh [the body
or substantiality], is essentially. These are the seven forms of
the Mother of all Beings, from whence all that is in this world is
generated.(1537)

And again:

The Creator hath, in the body of this world, generated himself as
it were _creaturely_ in his qualifying or Fountain Spirits, and
all the stars are ... God’s powers, and the whole body of the
world consisteth in the seven qualifying or fountain
spirits.(1538)

This is rendering in mystical language our theosophical doctrine. But how can we agree with Mr. Gerald Massey when he states that:

The Seven Races of Men that have been sublimated and made
Planetary [?] by Esoteric Buddhism,(1539) may be met with in the
Bundahish as (1) the earth‐men; (2) water‐men; (3) breast‐eared
men; (4) breast‐eyed men; (5) one‐legged men; (6) bat‐winged men;
(7) men with tails.(1540)

Each of these descriptions, allegorical and even perverted in their later form, is, nevertheless, an echo of the Secret Doctrine teaching. They all refer to the pre‐human evolution of the “Water‐men terrible and bad” by _unaided_ Nature through millions of years, as previously described. But we deny point‐blank the assertion that “these were never real races,” and point to the Archaic Stanzas for our answer. It is easy to infer and to say that our “instructors have mistaken these shadows of the Past, for things human and spiritual”; but that “they are neither, and never were either,” it is less easy to prove. The assertion must ever remain on a par with the Darwinian claim that man and the ape had a common pithecoid ancestor. What the lecturer takes for a “mode of expression” and nothing more, in the Egyptian _Ritual_, we take as having quite another and an important meaning. Here is one instance. Says the _Ritual_, the _Book of the Dead_:

“I am the mouse.” “I am the hawk.” “I am the ape.”... “_I am the
crocodile whose soul comes from_ MEN.”... “_I am the soul of the
gods._”(1541)

The last sentence but one is explained by the lecturer, who says parenthetically, “_that is, as a type of intelligence_,” and the last as meaning, “the Horus, or Christ, as the outcome of all.”

The Occult Teaching answers: It means far more.

It gives first of all a corroboration of the teaching that, while the human Monad has passed on Globe A and others, in the First Round, through all the three kingdoms—the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal—in this our Fourth Round, every mammal has sprung from Man, if the semi‐ethereal, many‐shaped creature with the _human_ Monad in it, of the first two Races, can be regarded as Man. But it must be so called; for, in the Esoteric language, it is not the form of flesh, blood, and bones, now referred to as man, which is in any way the Man, but the inner divine Monad with its manifold principles or aspects.

The lecture referred to, however, much as it opposes _Esoteric Buddhism_ and its teachings, is an eloquent answer to those who have tried to represent the whole as a new‐fangled doctrine. And there are many such, in Europe, America, and even India. Yet, between the Esotericism of the old Arhats, and that which has now survived in India among the few Brâhmans who have seriously studied their Secret Philosophy, the difference does not appear so very great. It seems centred in, and limited to, the question of the order of the evolution of cosmic and other principles, more than anything else. At all events it is no greater divergence than the everlasting question of the _filioque_ dogma, which since the eighth century has separated the Roman Catholic from the older Greek Eastern Church. Yet, whatever the differences in the forms in which the septenary dogma is presented, the substance is there, and its presence and importance in the Brâhmanical system may be judged by what one of India’s learned meta‐physicians and Vedântic scholars says of it:

The real esoteric seven‐fold classification is one of the most
important, if not the most important classification, which has
received its arrangement from the mysterious constitution of this
eternal type. I may also mention in this connection that the four‐
fold classification claims the same origin. The light of life, as
it were, seems to be refracted by the treble‐faced prism of
Prakriti, having the three Gunams for its three faces, and divided
into seven rays, which develop in course of time the seven
principles of this classification. The progress of development
presents some points of similarity to the gradual development of
the rays of the spectrum. While the four‐fold classification is
amply sufficient for all practical purposes, this real seven‐fold
classification is of great theoretical and scientific importance.
It will be necessary to adopt it to explain certain classes of
phenomena noticed by occultists; and it is perhaps better fitted
to be the basis of a perfect system of psychology. It is not the
peculiar property of the “Trans‐Himâlayan Esoteric Doctrine.” In
fact, it has a closer connection with the Brâhmanical Logos than
with the Buddhist Logos. In order to make my meaning clear I may
point out here that the Logos has seven forms. In other words,
there are seven kinds of Logoi in the Cosmos. Each of these has
became the central figure of one of the seven main branches of the
ancient Wisdom‐Religion. This classification is not the seven‐fold
classification we have adopted. I make this assertion without the
slightest fear of contradiction. The real classification has all
the requisites of a scientific classification. It has seven
distinct principles, which correspond with seven distinct states
of Prajñâ or consciousness. It bridges the gulf between the
objective and subjective, and indicates the mysterious circuit
through which ideation passes. The seven principles are allied to
seven states of matter, and to seven forms of force. These
principles are harmoniously arranged between two poles, which
define the limits of _human_ consciousness.(1542)

The above is perfectly correct, save, perhaps, on one point. The “seven‐ fold classification” in the Esoteric System has never (to the writer’s knowledge) been claimed by any one belonging to it, as “the peculiar property of the ‘Trans‐Himâlayan Esoteric Doctrine’ ”; but only as having survived in that old School alone. It is no more the property of the Trans‐, than it is of the Cis‐Himâlayan Esoteric Doctrine, but is simply the common inheritance of all such Schools, left to the Sages of the Fifth Root‐Race by the great Siddhas(1543) of the Fourth. Let us remember that the Atlanteans became the terrible sorcerers, now celebrated in so many of the oldest MSS. of India, only toward their “Fall,” whereby the submersion of their Continent was brought on. What is claimed is simply that the Wisdom imparted by the “Divine Ones”—born through the Kriyâshaktic powers of the Third Race before its Fall and separation into sexes—to the Adepts of the early Fourth Race, has remained in all its pristine purity in a certain Brotherhood. The said School or Fraternity being closely connected with a certain island of an inland sea—believed in by both Hindûs and Buddhists, but called “mythical” by Geographers and Orientalists—the less one talks of it, the wiser he will be. Nor can one accept the said “seven‐ fold classification” as having “a closer connection with the Brâhmanical Logos than with the Buddhist Logos,” since both are identical, whether the one Logos is called Îshvara or Avalokiteshvara, Brahmâ or Padmapâni. These are, however, very small differences, more fanciful than real, in fact. Brâhmanism and Buddhism, both viewed from their orthodox aspects, are as inimical and as irreconcilable as water and oil. Each of these great bodies, however, has a vulnerable place in its constitution. While even in their esoteric interpretation both can agree but to disagree, once that their respective vulnerable points are confronted, every disagreement must fall, for the two will find themselves on common ground. The “Achilles’ heel” of orthodox Brâhmanism is the Advaita philosophy, whose followers are called by the pious “Buddhists in disguise”; as that of orthodox Buddhism is Northern Mysticism, as represented by the disciples of the philosophies of the Yogâchârya School of Âryâsangha and the Mahâyâna, who are twitted in their turn by their co‐religionists as “Vedântins in disguise.” The Esoteric Philosophy of both these can be but one if carefully analyzed and compared, as Gautama Buddha and Shankarâchârya are most closely connected, if one believes tradition and certain Esoteric Teachings. Thus every difference between the two will be found one of form rather than of substance.

A most mystic discourse, full of septenary symbology, may be found in the _Anugita_(1544) There the Brâhmana narrates the bliss of having crossed beyond the regions of illusion:

In which fancies are the gadflies and mosquitoes, in which grief
and joy are cold and heat, in which delusion is the blinding
darkness, in which avarice is the beasts of prey and reptiles, in
which desire and anger are the obstructors.

The sage describes the entrance into and exit from the forest—a symbol for man’s life‐time—and also that forest itself:(1545)

In that forest are seven large trees [the senses, mind and
understanding, or Manas and Buddhi, included], seven fruits, and
seven guests; seven hermitages, seven (forms of) concentration,
and seven (forms of) initiation. This is the description of the
forest. That forest is filled with trees producing splendid
flowers and fruits of five colours.

The senses, says the commentator:

Are called trees, as being producers of the fruits ... pleasures
and pains ...; the guests are the powers of each sense
personified—they receive the fruits above described; the
hermitages are the trees ... in which the guests take shelter; the
seven forms of concentration are the exclusion from the self of
the seven functions of the seven senses, etc., already referred
to; the seven forms of initiation refer to the initiation into the
higher life, by repudiating as not one’s own the actions of each
member out of the group of seven.(1546)

The explanation is harmless, if unsatisfactory. Says the Brâhmana, continuing his description: