Chapter XXXVI: Section XI: The Mysteries of the Hebdomad (3)

That forest is filled with trees producing flowers and fruits of
four colours. That forest is filled with trees producing flowers
and fruits of three colours, and mixed. That forest is filled with
trees producing flowers and fruits of two colours, and of
beautiful colours. That forest is filled with trees producing
flowers and fruits of one colour, and fragrant. That forest is
filled [instead of with seven] with two large trees producing
numerous flowers and fruits of undistinguished colours [mind and
understanding—the two higher senses, or theosophically, Manas and
Buddhi]. There is one fire [the Self] here, connected with the
Brahman,(1547) and having a good mind [or _true knowledge_,
according to Arjuna Mishra]. And there is fuel here, (namely) the
five senses [or human passions]. The seven (forms of) emancipation
from them are the seven (forms of) initiation. The qualities are
the fruits.... There ... the great sages receive hospitality. And
when they have been worshipped and have disappeared, another
forest shines forth, in which _intelligence_ is the tree, and
emancipation the fruit, and which possesses shade (in the form of)
tranquillity, which depends on knowledge, which has contentment
for its water, and which has the Kshetrajña(1548) within for the
sun.

Now, all the above is very plain, and no Theosophist, even among the least learned, can fail to understand the allegory. And yet, we see great Orientalists making a perfect mess of it in their explanations. The “great sages” who “receive hospitality” are explained as meaning the senses, “which, having worked _as unconnected with the self_ are finally absorbed into it.” But one fails to understand, if the senses are “unconnected” with the “Higher Self,” in what manner they can be “absorbed into it.” One would think, on the contrary, that it is just because the _personal_ senses gravitate and strive to be connected with the _impersonal_ Self, that the latter, which is Fire, burns the lower five and purifies thereby the higher two, “mind and understanding,” or the higher aspects of Manas(1549) and Buddhi. This is quite apparent from the text. The “great sages” _disappear_ after having “been worshipped.” Worshipped by whom if they (the presumed senses) are “unconnected with the self”? By Mind, of course; by Manas (in this case merged in the _sixth sense_) which is not, and cannot be, the Brahman, the Self, or Kshetrajña—the Soul’s Spiritual Sun. Into the latter, in time, Manas itself must be absorbed. It has worshipped “great sages” and given hospitality to _terrestrial_ wisdom; but once that “another forest shone forth” upon it, it is Intelligence (Buddhi, the seventh sense, but sixth principle) which is transformed into _the_ Tree—that Tree whose fruit is emancipation—which finally destroys the very roots of the Ashvattha tree, the symbol of _life_ and of its illusive joys and pleasures. And therefore, those who attain to that state of emancipation have, in the words of the above‐cited Sage, “no fear afterwards.” In this state “the end cannot be perceived because it extends on all sides.”

“There always dwell seven females there,” he goes on to say, carrying out the imagery. These females—who, according to Arjuna Mishra, are the Mahat, Ahamkâra and five Tanmâtras—have always their faces turned downwards, as they are obstacles in the way of spiritual ascension.

In that same [Brahman, the Self] the seven perfect sages, together
with their chiefs, ... abide, and again emerge from the same.
Glory, brilliance and greatness, enlightenment, victory,
perfection and power—these seven rays follow after this same sun
[Kshetrajña, the Higher Self].... Those whose wishes are reduced
[the unselfish]; ... whose sins [passions] are burnt up by
penance, merging the self in the self,(1550) devote themselves to
Brahman. Those people who understand the forest of knowledge
[Brahman, or the Self], praise tranquillity. And aspiring to that
forest, they are [re‐] born so as not to lose courage. Such,
indeed, is this holy forest.... And understanding it, they [the
sages] act (accordingly), being directed by the Kshetrajña.

No translator among the Western Orientalists has yet perceived in the foregoing allegory anything higher than mysteries connected with sacrificial ritualism, penance, or ascetic ceremonies, and Hatha Yoga. But he who understands symbolical imagery, and hears the voice of _Self within Self_, will see in this something far higher than mere ritualism, however often he may err in minor details of the Philosophy.

And here we must be allowed a last remark. No true Theosophist, from the most ignorant up to the most learned, ought to claim infallibility for anything he may say or write upon Occult matters. The chief point is to admit that, in many a way, in the classification of either cosmic or human principles, in addition to mistakes in the order of evolution, and especially on metaphysical questions, those of us who pretend to teach others more ignorant than ourselves—are all liable to err. Thus mistakes have been made in _Isis Unveiled_, in _Esoteric Buddhism_, in _Man_, in _Magic: White and Black_, etc., and more than one mistake is likely to be found in the present work. This cannot be helped. For a large or even a small work on such abstruse subjects to be entirely exempt from error and blunder, it would have to be written from its first to its last page by a great Adept, if not by an Avatâra. Then only should we say, “This is verily a work without sin or blemish in it!” But so long as the artist is imperfect, how can his work be perfect? “Endless is the search for truth!” Let us love it and aspire to it for its own sake, and not for the glory or benefit a minute portion of its revelation may confer on us. For who of us can presume to have the _whole_ truth at his fingers’ ends, even upon one minor teaching of Occultism?

Our chief point in the present subject, however, has been to show that the septenary doctrine, or division of the constitution of man, was a very ancient one, and was not invented by us. This has been successfully done, for we are supported in this, consciously and unconsciously, by a number of ancient, mediæval, and modern writers. What the former said, was well said; what the latter repeated, has generally been distorted. An instance: Read the Pythagorean Fragments, and study the septenary man as given by the Rev. G. Oliver, the learned Mason, in his _Pythagorean Triangle_, who speaks as follows:

The Theosophic Philosophy ... counted seven properties [or
principles] in man—viz.:

(1) The divine golden man.

(2) The inward holy body from fire and light, like pure silver.

(3) The elemental man.

(4) The mercurial ... paradisiacal man.

(5) The martial soul‐like man.

(6) The venerine, ascending to the outward desire.

(7) The solar man, [a witness to and] an inspector of the wonders
of God [the Universe].

They had also seven fountain spirits or powers of nature.(1551)

Compare this jumbled account and distribution of Western Theosophic Philosophy with the latest Theosophic explanations by the Eastern School of Theosophy, and then decide which is the more correct. Verily:

Wisdom hath builded her house,
She hath hewn out her _seven pillars_.(1552)

As to the charge that our School has not adopted the sevenfold classification of the Brâhmans, but has confused it, this is quite unjust. To begin with, the “School” is one thing, its exponents (to Europeans) quite another. The latter have first to learn the A B C of practical Eastern Occultism, before they can be made to understand correctly the tremendously abstruse classification based on the seven distinct states of Prajñâ or Consciousness; and, above all, to realize thoroughly what Prajñâ _is_, in Eastern metaphysics. To give a Western student that classification is to try to make him suppose that he can account for the origin of consciousness, by accounting for the process by which a certain knowledge, though _only one of the states_ of that consciousness, came to him; in other words, it is to make him account for something he knows on _this_ plane, by something he knows nothing about on the other planes; _i.e._, to lead him from the spiritual and the psychological, direct to the ontological. This is why the primary, old classification was adopted by the Theosophists—of which classifications in truth there are many.

To busy oneself, after such a tremendous number of independent witnesses and proofs have been brought before the public, with an additional enumeration from theological sources, would be quite useless. The seven capital sins and seven virtues of the Christian scheme are far less philosophical than even the seven liberal and the seven accursed sciences—or the seven arts of enchantment of the Gnostics. For one of the latter is now before the public, pregnant with danger in the present as for the future. The modern name for it is _Hypnotism_; used as it is by scientific and ignorant Materialists, in the general ignorance of the seven principles, it will soon become _Satanism_ in the full acceptation of the term.

PART III. ADDENDA. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.

The knowledge of this nether world—
Say, friend, what is it, false or true?
The false, what mortal cares to know?
The true, what mortal ever knew?