The Secret Doctrine

The Secret Doctrine

by H.P. Blavatsky
The Secret Doctrine

The Secret Doctrine

by H.P. Blavatsky

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Overview

Madame Blavatsky's masterpiece of occult philosophy is now scaled down to its essentials, providing the most readable, accessible experience ever of modern history's seminal work of esoterica.

The Secret Doctrine, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's magnum opus on the origin and development of the universe and humanity itself, is arguably by the most famous, and perhaps the most influential, occult book ever written. Its publication in 1888 generated in the West a groundswell of interest in esoteric philosophies, the effects of which are still being felt in literature and philosophy, in alternative and mainstream religious traditions, and in popular culture around the world. Yet the book's availability typically has been limited to hefty, expensive, two-volume editions, its length and price long eluding the grasp of most readers.

Now this single-volume edition, abridged and annotated by historian and Theosophical scholar Michael Gomes, places the ideas and key sections of The Secret Doctrine within reach of all who are curious. In particular, Gomes provides a critical sounding of the book's renowned stanzas on the genesis of life and the cosmos-mysterious passages that Blavatsky said originated from a primeval source and that form the heart of The Secret Doctrine. Gomes meticulously scales down the book's most important writings on symbolism to their essentials, and offers notes and a glossary to illuminate arcane references. His historical and literary introduction casts new light on some of the book's sources and on the career of its brilliant and enigmatic author, one of the most intriguing personages of recent history.

At once compact and representative of the work as a whole,this new edition of The Secret Doctrine brings unprecedented accessibility to the esoteric classic of the modern era.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781101992586
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 10/25/2016
Sold by: Penguin Group
Format: eBook
Pages: 1296
Sales rank: 827,981
File size: 13 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Like a comet across the horizon of complacent Western civilization, MADAME HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY (1831-1891) appeared on the American scene in the early 1870s and almost single-handedly revived interest in the occult and esoteric, and also introduced many Westerners to the religious ideas of the East, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism. The world-traveled Russian noblewoman founded the Theosophical Society in New York City in 1875 to study the esoteric ideas behind the world's religions. She relocated to India in 1878, where she and her collaborator, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, a retired Civil War officer, helped inaugurate India's independence movement. Blavatsky moved to London in 1885, where she began writing her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine—a vast, two-volume compendium of occult philosophy and a cosmological vision of humanity's lost history and secret destiny. Published in 1888, The Secret Doctrine became a formative influence on avant-garde artists and intellectuals, and propelled the dawning occult revival and alternative spiritual culture. Blavatksy died two years after its publication.

Read an Excerpt

COSMIC EVOLUTION.
(Continues…)



Excerpted from "The Secret Doctrine"
by .
Copyright © 2009 H.P. Blavatsky.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Introduction xvii

The Need of such a Book xix

The Antiquity of Documents and MSS xxiii

What the Book is intended to do xxviii

Volume First. Cosmogenesis.

Proem 1

The Oldest MSS. in the world and its Symbolism 2

The One Life, Active and Passive 3

The Secret Doctrine-Pantheism-Atheism 5

"Space" in all Religions and in Occultism 7

Seven Cosmic Elements-Seven Races of Mankind 9

The Three Postulates of the Secret Doctrine 10

Description of the Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan 14

Book I.-Part I Cosmic Evolution.

Seven Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan 21

Stanza I The Night of the Universe 27

The Seven Eternities 28

"Time" 28

The Universal Mind and the Dhyan Chohans 29

Nidana and Maya: The Causes of Misery 29

The Great Breath 33

Being and Non-Being 34

The Eye of Dangma 36

Alaya, the Universal Soul 37

Stanza II The Idea of Differentiation 40

The Absolute knows Itself not 41

The Germ of Life was not yet 43

The Universe was still concealed in the Divine Thought 46

Stanza III The Awakening of Kosmos 46

The Great Vibration 47

Nature's Symbols 49

The Power of Numbers 50

The Logoi and the Dragon 54

The Astral Light 56

Primeval Radiations from Unity 59

The Web of Being 61

Conscious Electricity: Fohat 63

Stanza IV The Septenary Hierarchies 63

The Sons of the Fire 63

The Vehicle of the Universe-the Dhyan Chohans 65

The Army of the Voice 68

Speech and Mind 70

The Ogdoad and the Heptad 72

The Stellar "Sons of Light" 75

Stanza V Fohat: The Child of the Septenary Hierarchies 77

The Fiery Whirlwind and the Primordial Seven 77

They Produce Fohat 78

The Correlation of the "Gods" 82

Evolution of the "Principles" of Nature 86

The Mystery of the Fire 87

The Secret of the Elements 89

The Square of the Tabernacle 90

The Planetary Spirits and the Lipika 92

The Ring "Pass Not" 93

The Sidereal Book of Life 94

The Soul's Pilgrimage and its "Rest" 96

Stanza VI Our World, Its Growth and Development 97

The Logos 97

Mystery of the Female Logos 98

The Seven Layu Centres 99

The "Elementary Germs" 100

The Evolution of the Elements 100

The Building of the Worlds 102

A Neutral Centre 105

"Dead" Planets-The Moon 106

Theosophical Misconceptions 108

The Planetary Divisions and the Human Principles 109

The Moon 110

Transmigrations of the Ego 113

The Septenary Chain 115

Relation of the other Planets to the Earth 116

Explanations Concerning the Globes and the Monads 121

The Lunar Chain and the Earth Chain 123

The Earth, the Child of the Moon 124

Classification of the Monads 125

The Monad Defined 126

The Lunar Monads-the Pitris 127

A Triple Evolution in Nature 129

Stanza VI Continued 136

"Creation" in the Fourth Round 136

The "Curse," "Sin," and "War" 138

The Struggle for Life and the Birth of the Worlds 144

The Adepts and the Sacred Island 149

Stanza VII The Parents of Man on Earth 151

Divisions of the Hierarchies 152

Correlations of Beings 159

What incarnates in Animal Man 166

Formation of Man: the Thinker 169

Occult and Kabalistic Pneumatics 173

Akasa and Ether 182

The Invisible "Lives" 183

Occult Vital Chemistry and Bacteriology 185

The Watcher and his Shadow 188

Earth peopled by the Shadows of the Gods 189

Summing Up 190

The pith and marrow of the Secret Doctrine 193

Hermes in Christian Garb 202

Some Occult Aphorisms 205

The Seven Powers of Nature 208

Book I.-Part II The Evolution of Symbolism in its Approximate Order.

I Symbolism and Ideographs 219

Emblem and Symbol differ 221

Magic Potency of Sound 223

Mystery Language 225

II The Mystery Language and its Keys 225

Egypt's many Religions 226

The Jews and their System 228

Moses copied from Sargon 233

Identity of Ancient Symbols 236

III Primordial Substance and Divine Thought 238

Divine Thought, or Cineritious Matter? 240

Ether and Intelligence 242

The Seven Prakritis 248

The Mystic Fire 249

One Tree of Knowledge 251

IV Chaos-Theos-Kosmos 251

The Union of Chaos and Spirit 253

The Birth of Mind 254

V The Hidden Deity, its Symbols and Glyphs 257

The Gnostic Idea 259

International Correlation of Gods 262

VI The Mundane Egg 265

Egg-born Logoi 269

The Winged Globe 271

VII The Days and Nights of Brahmâ 273

Human Gods and Divine Men 274

The Rebirth of Gods 275

The Puranic Prophecy 280

VIII The Lotus as a Universal Symbol 282

Exoteric and Esoteric 284

The Purity of early Phallicism 286

The Egyptian Lotus 287

IX Deus Lunus 288

A Glance at the Lunar Myth 289

A Key-note to the Moon 291

Copies and Originals 294

The Moon Bi-sexual 296

X Tree and Serpent and Crocodile Worship 303

Degeneration of the Symbol 304

The Seven-headed Dragons 306

Dragon and Crocodile 308

XI Demon Est Deus Inversus 309

Death is Life 311

The Fall of the Angels 315

Transformation of the Legend 318

XII The Theogony of the Creative Gods 320

The Point within the Circle 322

The Logos or Verbum 325

The Factors of Creation 327

Identity of the Hierarchies in all Religions 331

Difference between the Aryan and Semitic Systems 337

XIII The Seven Creations 337

The Gnostic and the Hindu Versions 340

The Seven Puranic "Creations" 341

XIV The Four Elements 349

The "Gods" and the "Elements" 351

The Language of the Elements 352

Pagan and Christian Worship of the Elements 355

XV On Kwan-Shi-Yin and Kwan-Yin 357

Kwan-Shi-Yin and Phallicism 358

The Real Meaning 359

Book I.-Part III Science and the Secret Doctrine Contrasted.

I Reasons for These Addenda 365

Occultism versus Materialism 367

The Sabbath of the Mystic 368

II Modern Physicists are Playing at Blind Man's Buff 369

III An Lumen Sit Corpus NEC Non? 370

The Hypothetical Ether 372

Scientific Theories of its Constitution 373

IV Is Gravitation a Law? 375

Intelligences or Blind Forces? 378

The Cause of Attraction 382

V The Theories of Rotation in Science 384

Conflicting Hypotheses 386

More Hypotheses 389

VI The Masks of Science 390

What are the "Forces?" 392

The View of the Occultists 393

Scientific and Occult Theories on Heat 397

The Atoms of Science 400

VII An Attack on the Scientific Theory of Force by a Man of Science 404

Ether and Atoms 408

VIII Life, Force, or Gravity? 409

Dr. Richardson on Nervous Ether 411

The Senses and their Action 415

Too much "Life" may Kill 418

IX The Solar Theory 419

The Primordial Element 420

Elements and Meta-Elements 424

The Tree of Life and Being 427

Prof. Crookes on the Elements 429

X The Coming Force 431

Mr Keeley, an Unconscious Occultist 434

Inter-Ethcric Waves 437

The Secrets of Sound and Odour 441

XI On the Elements and Atoms 442

Metaphysical Chemistry 444

What are the Seven Planets? 449

The Cyclic Fall of the Gods 451

XII Ancient Thought in Modern Dress 452

All-Potential Unity 456

The "Seventh" in Chemistry 458

XIII The Modern Nebular Theory 460

Forces are Emanations 465

What is the Nebula? 466

XIV Forces-Modes of Motion or Intelligences? 471

The Vital Principle 471

Occult and Physical Science 474

XV Gods, Monads, and Atoms 478

The Gods of the Ancients-the Monads 481

The Monad and the Duad 484

The Genesis of the Elements 487

Hermes and Huxley 491

The Teaching of Leibnitz 493

The Monads according to Occultism 497

XVI Cyclic Evolution and Karma 498

Karmic Cycles and Universal Ethics 501

Destiny and Karma 502

Karma-Nemesis 508

XVII The Zodiac and its Antiquity 509

The Jewish Patriarchs and the Signs of the Zodiac 513

Zodiacal Cycles 517

Hindu Astronomy 521

XVIII Summary of the Mutual Position 527

Science Confesses her Ignorance 528

Materialism is leading Europe towards a catastrophe 533

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