- Some portions of the quotations have been carefully removed in order to simplify the understanding of the text. These omissions are not indicated in the extracts with three dots to make the reading smoother. We recommend the student to refer to the original text for further reference.

Abbreviations:

SD: The Secret Doctrine. 3 Vol Ed.

CW: The Collected Writings of HPB

KT: Key to Theosophy

TG: Theosophical Glossary

IGT: The Inner Group Teachings of HPB

AT: The Aquarian Theosophist, Vol. II, Supplement No. 9 September 17, 2002 (Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge)

HST: How to Study Theosophy.

ML: The Mahatma Letters. Chronological Edition

LMW: Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom

INTRODUCTION

a) Contents of The Secret Doctrine

i.1 The skeleton of Book I is formed by Seven Stanzas translated from the secret Book of Dzyan, the original of which is written in the sacred language of the Initiates—the Senzar. The stanzas and their commentaries and explanations form Part I of this First Book. Part II is devoted to the elucidation of the fundamental symbols contained in the great religions of the world, and the occult meaning of the hidden ideographs and glyphs. Part III outlines the contrasting views of Science and the Secret Doctrine and meets probable scientific objections by anticipation. This Part serves as a connecting link between the two volumes.

The general arrangement of Volume II is similar to that of Volume I. It deals primarily with the Evolution of Man on this Planet. Part I is based on Twelve Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan describing the gradual evolution of humanity through many occult stages, the origin of the lower kingdoms of nature, the submergence of ancient continents, and presents a panoramic view of bygone civilizations. Part II deals with the Archaic Symbolism of the World-Religions, with special emphasis on the Sevenfold and Quaternary classifications of elements and forces. Part III contrasts again the teachings of the Wisdom-Religion with those of the then current Science, mainly in the domain of Anthropology and Geology. (Boris de Zirkoff “What is The Secret Doctrine”, Theosophia Vol. XXV, No. 1)

General Table of Contents of the Two Volumes

Volume I: Cosmogenesis

Proem

The Oldest MSS. in the world and its Symbolism

The One Life, Active and Passive

The Secret Doctrine—Pantheism—Atheism

Space in all Religions and in Occultism

Seven Cosmic Elements—Seven Races of Mankind

The Three Postulates of the Secret Doctrine

Description of the Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan

Part I. Cosmic Evolution

Seven Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan

Stanza I The Night of the Universe

Stanza II The Idea of Differentiation

Stanza III The Awakening of Kosmos

Stanza IV The Septenary Hierarchies

Stanza V Fohat The Child of the Septenary Hierarchies

Stanza VI Our World, its Growth and Development

Stanza VII The Parents of Man on Earth

Summing Up

Part II. The Evolution of Symbolism in its Approximate Order

I Symbolism and Ideographs

II The Mystery Language and its Keys

III Primordial Substance and Divine Thought

IV Chaos—Theos—Kosmos

V The Hidden Deity, its Symbols and Glyphs

VI The Mundane Egg

VII The Days and Nights of Brahma

VIII The Lotus as a Universal Symbol

IX Deus Lunus

X Tree and Serpent and Crocodile Worship

XI Demon Est Deus Inversus

XII The Theogony of the Creative Gods

XIII The Seven Creations

XIV The Four Elements

XV On Kwan-Shi-Yin and Kwan-Yin

Part III. Science and The Secret Doctrine Contrasted

I Reasons for these Addenda

II Modern Physicists are Playing at Blind Man’s Buff

III An Lumen Sit Corpus Nec Non?

IV Is Gravitation a Law?

V The Theories of Rotation in Science

VI The Masks of Science

VII An Attack on the Scientific Theory of Force by a Man of Science

VIII Life, Force, or Gravity?

IX The Solar Theory

X The Coming Force

XI On the Elements and Atoms

XII Ancient Thought in Modern Dress

XIII The Modern Nebular Theory

XIV Forces—Modes of Motion or Intelligences?

XV Gods, Monads, and Atoms

XVI Cyclic Evolution and Karma

XVII The Zodiac and its Antiquity

XVIII Summary of the Mutual Position

Volume II: ANTHROPOGENESIS

Preliminary Notes

On the Archaic Stanzas, and the Four Prehistoric Continents

The Imperishable Sacred Land

The Hyperborean

Lemuria

Atlantis

The Tropics at the Pole

Part I. Anthropogenesis

Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan

Stanza I Beginnings of Sentient Life

Stanza II Nature Unaided Fails

Stanza III Attempts to Create Man

Stanza IV Creation of the First Races

Stanza V The Evolution of the Second Race

Stanza VI The Evolution of the Sweat-Born

Stanza VII From the Semi-Divine Down to the First Human Races

Stanza VIII Evolution of the Animal Mammalians—the First Fall

Stanza IX The Final Evolution of Man

Stanza X The History of the Fourth Race

Stanza XI The Civilization and Destruction of the Fourth and Fifth Races

Stanza XII The Fifth Race and its Divine Instructors

Additional Fragments from a Commentary on the Verses of Stanza XII

Conclusion

Part II. The Archaic Symbolism of the World-Religions

Esoteric Tenets Corroborated in every Scripture

XVI Adam-Adami

XVII The “Holy of Holies”: Its Degradation

XVIII On the Myth of the “Fallen Angel”, in its Various Aspects

XIX Is Pleroma Satan’s Lair?

XX Prometheus the Titan

XXI Enoïchion-Henoch

XXII The Symbolism of the Mystery Names Iao, and Jehovah

XXIII The Upanishads in Gnostic Literature

XXIV The Cross and the Pythagorean Decade

XXV The Mysteries of the Hebdomad

Part III. Addenda. Science and The Secret Doctrine Contrasted

I Archaic, or Modern Anthropology?

II The Ancestors Mankind is offered by Science

III The Fossil Relics of Man and the Anthropoid Ape

IV Duration of the Geological Periods, Race Cycles, and the Antiquity of Man

V Organic Evolution and Creative Centres

VI Giants, Civilizations, and Submerged Continents Traced in History

VII Scientific and Geological Proofs of the Existence of Several Submerged Continents

b) About the Secret Doctrine

i.2 The Secret Doctrine is the common property of the countless millions of men born under various climates, in times with which History refuses to deal, and to which esoteric teachings assign dates incompatible with the theories of Geology and Anthropology. The birth and evolution of the Sacred Science of the Past are lost in the very night of Time. (SD II, p. 794)

i.3 The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and its cosmogony alone is the most stupendous and elaborate system. But such is the mysterious power of Occult symbolism, that the facts which have actually occupied countless generations of initiated seers and prophets to marshal, to set down and explain, in the bewildering series of evolutionary progress, are all recorded on a few pages of geometrical signs and glyphs [See Section 2]. It is useless to say that this system is no fancy of one or several isolated individuals. That it is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity. That for long ages, the “Wise Men” [Adept] of the Fifth Race, of the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm and shifting of continents, had passed their lives in learning, not teaching. How did they do so? It is answered: by checking, testing, and verifying in every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent visions of great adepts; i.e., men who have developed and perfected their physical, mental, psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost possible degree. No vision of one adept was accepted till it was checked and confirmed by the visions—so obtained as to stand as independent evidence—of other adepts, and by centuries of experiences. (SD I, 272-3)

i.4 These truths are in no sense put forward as a revelation; nor does the author claim the position of a revealer of mystic lore, now made public for the first time in the world’s history. This work is a partial statement of what she herself has been taught by more advanced students, supplemented, in a few details only, by the results of her own study and observation. It is needless to explain that this book is not the Secret Doctrine in its entirety, but a select number of fragments of its fundamental tenets. (SD I, Preface)

i.5 The aim of this work may be thus stated: to show that Nature is not ‘a fortuitous concurrence of atoms’, and to assign to man his rightful place in the scheme of the Universe; to rescue from degradation the archaic truths which are the basis of all religions; and to uncover, to some extent, the fundamental unity from which they all sprang; finally, to show that the occult side of Nature has never been approached by the Science of modern civilization. (SD I, Preface)

i.6 And here, we must be allowed a 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., 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 Avatar. 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? (SD II, p. 640)

i.7 The SD must contain all that HPB knows herself, and a great deal more than that, seeing that much of it comes from men whose knowledge is immensely wider than hers. Furthermore, she implies unmistakably that another may well find knowledge in it which she does not possess herself. (R. Bowen, HST, p. 5)

i.8 The truths revealed to man by the “Planetary Spirits” (the highest Kumaras, those who incarnate no longer in the universe during this Mahamanvantara), who appear on earth as Avataras only at the beginning of every new human race, and at the junction or close of the two ends of the small and great cycle, were made in time to fade away from the memory of man as he became more animalized. Yet, though these Teachers remain with man no longer than the time required to impress upon the plastic minds of child-humanity the eternal verities they teach, the spirit of the teachings remains vivid though latent in mankind. As the Teachers say in the Occult Primer: “This is done so as to ensure them (the eternal truths) from being utterly lost or forgotten in ages hereafter by the forthcoming generations. . .” The mission of the Planetary Spirit is but to strike the keynote of Truth. Once he has directed the vibration of the latter to run its course uninterruptedly along the concatenation of the race to the end of the cycle––he disappears from our earth until the following Planetary Manvantara.[1] (CW 12, p. 600-1)

i.9 Knowledge comes in visions, first in dreams and then in pictures presented to the inner eye during meditation. Thus have I been taught the whole system of evolution, the laws of being and all else that I know—the mysteries of life and death, the workings of karma. Not a word was spoken to me of all this in the ordinary way, except, perhaps, by way of confirmation of what was thus given me—nothing taught me in writing. And knowledge so obtained is so clear, so convincing, so indelible in the impression it makes upon the mind, that all other sources of information, all other methods of teaching with which we are familiar dwindle into insignificance in comparison with this. One of the reasons why I hesitate to answer offhand some questions put to me is the difficulty of expressing in sufficiently accurate language things given to me in pictures, and comprehended by me by the pure Reason, as Kant would call it. (CW 13, p. 285)

i.10 The Book of Dzyan [is about] “Knowledge through meditation”. (SD I, p. 434)

i.11 The True Student of The Secret Doctrine is a Jnana Yogi, and this Path of Yoga is the True Path for the Western student. It is to provide him with sign posts on that Path that the Secret Doctrine has been written. (HST, p. 14)

i.12 These two volumes had to serve as a PROLOGUE, and prepare the reader’s mind for those which shall now follow. But our explanations are by no means complete, nor do they pretend to give out the full text, or to have been read by the help of more than three or four keys out of the sevenfold bunch of esoteric interpretation, and even this has only been partially accomplished. The work is too gigantic for any one person to undertake, far more to accomplish. Our main concern was simply to prepare the soil. This, we trust we have done. These two volumes only constitute the work of a pioneer who has forced his way into the well-nigh impenetrable jungle of the virgin forests of the Land of the Occult. A commencement has been made to fell and uproot the deadly up as trees of superstition, prejudice, and conceited ignorance, so that these two volumes should form for the student a fitting prelude for Volumes III and IV. Until the rubbish of the ages is cleared away from the minds of the Theosophists to whom these volumes are dedicated, it is impossible that the more practical teaching contained in the Third Volume should be understood. Consequently, it entirely depends upon the reception with which Volumes I and II will meet at the hands of Theosophists and Mystics, whether these last two volumes will ever be published, though they are almost completed. (SD II, pp. 797-8)

i.13 Since, as confessed before, this work withholds far more than it gives out, the student is invited to use his own intuitions. (SD I, p. 278)

Section I

The Secret Doctrine and its study

a) How to Study the SD

I.1 A work which compares several dozens of philosophies and over half-a-dozen of world-religions, a work which has to unveil the roots with the greatest precautions, as it can only hint at the secret blossoms here and there—cannot be comprehended at a first reading, nor even after several, unless the reader elaborates for himself a system for it. (CW 12, p. 235)

I.2 Reading the SD page by page as one reads any other book will only end in confusion. The first thing to do, even if it takes years, is to get some grasp of the ‘Three Fundamental Principles’ [Propositions] given in Proem. Follow that up by study of the Recapitulation—the numbered items in the Summing Up to Vol. I (Part I). Then take the Preliminary Notes (Vol. II) and the Conclusion (Vol. II). (HST, p. 6)

I.3 If one imagines that one is going to get a satisfactory picture of the constitution of the Universe from the SD one will get only confusion from its study. It is not meant to give any such final verdict on existence, but to Lead Towards The Truth. (HST, p. 8)

I.4 It is worse than useless going to those whom we imagine to be advanced students (HPB said) and asking them to give us an “interpretation” of the SD. They cannot do it. If they try, all they give are cut and dried exoteric renderings which do not remotely resemble the Truth. To accept such interpretation means anchoring ourselves to fixed ideas, whereas Truth lies beyond any ideas we can formulate or express. Exoteric interpretations are all very well, and she does not condemn them so long as they are taken as pointers for beginners, and are not accepted by them as anything more. (R. Bowen, HST, p. 8)

I.5 The Diagrams and Plates are intended to familiarize students with the leading ideas of occult correspondences only, the very genius of metaphysical, or macrocosmic and spiritual Occultism forbidding the use of figures or even symbols further than as temporary aids. Once define an idea in words, and it loses its reality; once figure a metaphysical idea, and you materialize its spirit. Figures must be used only as ladders to scale the battlements, ladders to be disregarded once the foot is set upon the rampart. Let the Esotericists, therefore, be very careful to spiritualize the Instructions and avoid materializing them; let them always try to find the highest meaning possible, confident that in proportion as they approach the material and visible in their speculations on the Instructions, so far are they from the right understanding of them. As in all true arts, so in Occultism, we must learn the theory before we are taught the practice. (CW 12, p. 600)

I.6 No matter what one may study in the SD let the mind hold fast, as the basis of its ideation to the following ideas:

(a) The Fundamental Unity of All Existence. Fundamentally there is One Being. Being absolute there is nothing outside it. It is indivisible, else it would not be absolute. The Atom, the Man, the God are each separately, as well as all collectively, Absolute Being in their last analysis, that is their Real Individuality. It is this idea which must be held always in the background of the mind to form the basis for every conception that arises from study of the SD. The moment one lets it go (and it is most easy to do so when engaged in any of the many intricate aspects of the Esoteric Philosophy) the idea of Separation supervenes, and the study loses its value.

(b) The second idea to hold fast to is that There Is No Dead Matter. Every last atom is alive. It cannot be otherwise since every atom is itself fundamentally Absolute Being. Therefore there is no such thing as “spaces” of Ether, or Akasha[2], or call it what you like, in which angels and elementals disport themselves like trout in water. That's the common idea. The true idea shows every atom of substance no matter of what plane to be in itself a Life.

(c) The third basic idea to be held is that Man is the Microcosm. As he is so, then all the Hierarchies of the Heavens exist within him. But in truth there is neither Macrocosm nor Microcosm but One Existence. Great and small are such only as viewed by a limited consciousness.

(d) Fourth and last basic idea to be held is that expressed in the Great Hermetic Axiom. It really sums up and synthesises all the others. As is the Inner, so is the Outer; as is the Great so is the Small; as it is above, so it is below; there is but One Life and Law; and he that worketh it is One. Nothing is Inner, nothing is Outer; nothing is Great, nothing is Small; nothing is High, nothing is Low, in the Divine Economy. (HST, pp. 9-12)

b) The Nature and Method of Occult Teachings

I.7 Your axioms of logic can be applied to the lower Manas [mind] only and it is from the perceptions of Kama-Manas [material mind] alone that you argue. But Occultism teaches only that which it derives from the cognition of the Higher Ego or the Buddhi-Manas [spiritual mind]. (CW 10, pp. 384-5)

I.8 [The Mahatma K.H. wrote to Sinnett:] “Especially is the case with occult study, in connection with which the traditional methods of teaching, generally followed, aim at impressing every fresh idea on the memory by provoking the perplexity it at last relieves.” (SD I, p. 164)

I.9 First let the student clearly realize that he cannot see things spiritual with the eyes of the flesh, and that in studying, he must use the eyes of the Spiritual Intelligence, else will he fail and his study will be fruitless. (CW12, p. 691)

I.10 Indeed, it must be remembered that all these Stanzas appeal to the inner faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension of the physical brain. (SD I, p. 21)

I.11 The Infinite cannot be known to our reason, which can only distinguish and define; but we can always conceive the abstract idea thereof, thanks to that faculty higher than our reason—intuition, or the spiritual instinct. (CW 11, p. 258)

I.12 You cannot expect me to give everything; something must be left to the intuition and to human intelligence. If I had written everything I would have had to make 25 volumes and it would not have been enough. (AT, p. 17)

I.13 The foregoing are all mysteries which must be left to the personal intuition of the student for solution, rather than described. (SD II, p. 106)

I.14 To some extent, it is admitted that even the esoteric teaching is allegorical. To make the latter comprehensible to the average intelligence, requires the use of symbols cast in an intelligible form. Hence the allegorical and semi-mythical narratives in the exoteric, and the (only) semi-metaphysical and objective representations in the esoteric teachings. For the purely and transcendentally spiritual conceptions are adapted only to the perceptions of those who “see without eyes, hear without ears, and sense without organs,” according to the graphic expression of the Commentary. (SD II, p.81)

I.15 The whole essence of truth cannot be transmitted from mouth to ear. Nor can any pen describe it, unless man finds the answer in the sanctuary of his own heart, in the innermost depths of his divine intuitions. (SD II, p. 516)

I.16 Thus the mystical side of the interpretation must be left to the intuition of the student. (SD II, p. 579)

I.17 In using figurative language, as has been done in The Secret Doctrine, analogies and comparisons are very frequent. Darkness for instance, as a rule, applies only to the unknown totality, or Absoluteness. Contrasted with eternal darkness, the first Logos is certainly Light; contrasted with the second [Logos] or third, the manifested Logos, the first is Darkness, and the others are Light (CW 10, p. 368)

I.18 It may be a parable and an allegory within an allegory. Its solution is left to the intuition of the student, if he only reads that which follows with his spiritual eye. (SD II, p. 94)

I.19 The key of the riddle is left to the intuition of the disciple (CW 14, p. 405)

I.20 For a clearer comprehension of the extremely abstruse and at first incomprehensible theories of our occult doctrine, never allow the serenity of your mind to be disturbed during your hours of literary labour, nor before you set to work. It is upon the serene and placid surface of the unruffled mind that the visions gathered from the invisible find a representation in the visible world. Otherwise you would vainly seek those visions, those flashes of sudden light which have already helped to solve so many of the minor problems and which alone can bring the truth before the eye of the soul. It is with jealous care that we have to guard our mind-plane from all the adverse influences which daily arise in our passage through earth-life. (ML, No. 65)

I.21 The mind can be made to work with electric swiftness in a high excitement; but the Buddhi—never. To its clear region, calm must ever reign. (LMW 1, No. 30)

c) The Effects of Studying the SD

I.22 “Experience must be gained” of every evil as good passion mentally, and overcome in thought, by reflection. Love and longing for higher things on a Spiritual plane will thus leave no room for the lower animal longings. (CW12, p.32)

I.23 “The contemplation of celestial things will make man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs”—says Cicero. (CW 6, p. 347)

I.24 Come to the SD without any hope of getting the final Truth of existence from it, or with any idea other than seeing how far it may lead Towards the Truth. See in study a means of exercising and developing the mind never touched by other studies. (HST, p. 9)

I.25 The brain is the instrument of waking consciousness, and every conscious mental picture formed means change and destruction of the atoms of the brain. Ordinary intellectual activity moves on well beaten paths in the brain, and does not compel sudden adjustments and destructions in its substance. But this new kind of mental effort calls for something very different—the carving out of new “brain paths,” the ranking in different order of the little brain lives. If forced injudiciously it may do serious physical harm to the brain. This mode of thinking is what the Indians call Jnana Yoga. As one progresses in Jnana Yoga one finds conceptions arising which though one is conscious of them, one cannot express nor yet formulate into any sort of mental picture. As time goes on these conceptions will form into mental pictures. This is a time to be on guard and refuse to be deluded with the idea that the new found and wonderful picture must represent reality. It does not. As one works on one finds the once admired picture growing dull and unsatisfying, and finally fading out or being thrown away. This is another danger point, because for the moment one is left in a void without any conception to support one, and one may be tempted to revive the cast-off picture for want of a better to cling to. The true student will, however, work on unconcerned, and presently further formless gleams come, which again in time give rise to a larger and more beautiful picture than the last. But the learner will now know that no picture will ever represent the Truth. This last splendid picture will grow dull and fade like the others. And so the process goes on, until at last the mind and its pictures are transcended and the learner enters and dwells in the World of No Form, but of which all forms are narrowed reflections. (HST, pp. 12-4)

I.26 Try to see it with your third eye, and don’t look only with you two eyes, and try also to think with your spiritual brain. (AT, p. 21)

I.27 For growth is from within outwards, and always the inner remains the more perfect. Even the development of a physical sense is always preceded by a mental feeling, which proceeds to evolve a physical sense. (CW12, p. 691)

I.28 She [HPB] withheld the explanation because to know about it now, before being guarded by more advanced knowledge, would be dangerous. If instruction were given hereupon, that moment the mental force of students who worked upon the teaching would project their consciousness into that realm. For the mind and consciousness acting together have the power to separate or segregate the different planes one from the other; and this too in the case of the merest beginner. The danger lies in the possibility of evoking entities far too powerful and unspiritual for ordinary men and women to have any dealings with. (Note by AB and WQJ, CW 12, pp. 678-9)

I.29 While theoretical Occultism is harmless, and may do good, practical Magic is fraught with dangers and perils. If the student is unfit let him take our advice and leave this study alone; he will only bring on himself and on his family unexpected woes and sorrows, never suspecting whence they come, nor what are the powers awakened by his mind being bent on them. The mystic characters, alphabets and numerals found in the Kabalah, are, perhaps, the most dangerous portions in it, and especially the numerals. We say dangerous, because they are the most prompt to produce effects and results, and this with or without the experimenter’s will, even without his knowledge. (CW 14, pp. 59-60)

I.30 No figures and numbers could be given to the public, for figures and numbers are the key to the esoteric system. (SD I, p. 164)

Section II

The Absolute Reality—The First Fundamental Proposition

II.1 Before the reader proceeds to the consideration of the Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan which form the basis of the present work, it is absolutely necessary that he should be made acquainted with the few fundamental conceptions which underlie and pervade the entire system of thought to which his attention is invited. These basic ideas are few in number, and on their clear apprehension depends the understanding of all that follows; therefore no apology is required for asking the reader to make himself familiar with them first, before entering on the perusal of the work itself. (SD I, p. 13)

a) The Absolute Reality

II.2 The Secret Doctrine establishes an Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable Principle on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception and could only be dwarfed by any human expression or similitude. It is beyond the range and reach of thought—in the words of Mandukya, “unthinkable and unspeakable”. (SD I, p. 14)

II.3 Hermes Trismegistos is made to say: “To speak of God is impossible. For corporeal cannot express the incorporeal . . . That which has not any body nor appearance, nor form, nor matter, cannot be apprehended by sense. I understand, Tatios, I understand, that which it is impossible to define—that is God”. (SD I, p. 286)

II.4 It is the omnipresent Reality: impersonal, because it contains all and everything. Its impersonality is the fundamental conception of the System. It is latent in every atom in the Universe, and is the Universe itself. (SD I, p. 273)

II.5 To render these ideas clearer to the general reader, let him set out with the postulate that there is one absolute Reality which antecedes all manifested, conditioned, being. This Infinite and Eternal Cause is the rootless root of “all that was, is, or ever shall be”. It is of course devoid of all attributes and is essentially without any relation to manifested, finite Being. It is “Be-ness” rather than Being (in Sanskrit, Sat), and is beyond all thought or speculation. (SD I, p. 14)

b) Its two (Absolute) Aspects

II.6 This “Be-ness” is symbolised in the Secret Doctrine under two aspects:

a) On the one hand, absolute abstract Space, representing bare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind can either exclude from any conception, or conceive of by itself. (SD I, p. 14)

II.7 The One All is like Space—which is its only mental and physical representation on this Earth, or our plane of existence—neither an object of, nor a subject to, perception. Space is neither a “limitless void”, nor a “conditioned fulness”, but both: being, on the plane of absolute abstraction, the ever-incognisable Deity, which is void only to finite minds, and on that of mayavic perception, the Plenum, the absolute Container of all that is, whether manifested or unmanifested: it is, therefore, that Absolute All. (SD I, p. 8)

II.8 “What is that which was, is, and will be, whether there is a Universe or not; whether there be gods or none?” asks the esoteric Senzar Catechism. And the answer made is—Space. (SD I, p. 9)

II.9 b) On the other hand [its second aspect, is] absolute Abstract Motion[3] representing Unconditioned Consciousness. This latter aspect of the one Reality is also symbolised by the term “The Great Breath”, a symbol sufficiently graphic to need no further elucidation. (SD I, p. 14)

II.10 The appearance and disappearance of the Universe are pictured as an outbreathing and inbreathing of “the Great Breath”, which is eternal, and which, being Motion, is one of the three aspects of the Absolute—Abstract Space and Duration being the other two. When the “Great Breath” is projected, it becomes the Kosmos. When the Divine Breath is inspired again the Universe disappears into the bosom of “the Great Mother”. (SD I, p. 43)

c) Pre-cosmic Differentiation

II.11 Parabrahm (the One Reality, the Absolute) is the field of Absolute Consciousness, i.e., that Essence which is out of all relation to conditioned existence. (SD I, p. 15)

II.12 If one could suppose the Eternal Infinite All, the Omnipresent Unity, instead of being in Eternity, becoming through periodical manifestation a manifold Universe or a multiple personality, that Unity would cease to be one. (SD I, p. 8)

II.13 But once that we pass in thought from this (to us) Absolute Negation, duality supervenes in the contrast of Spirit (or consciousness) and Matter, Subject and Object.

Spirit (or Consciousness) and Matter are, however, to be regarded, not as independent realities, but as the two facets or aspects of the Absolute (Parabrahm), which constitute t