Band 2 Anthropogenesis - H.P. Blavatsky

"Now," says Panadoras, "it is before that time (Menes), that the reign of the seven gods who rule the world took place. It
was during that period that those benefactors of humanity descended on Earth and taught
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* Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne.
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[[Vol. 2, Page]] 369 WHAT THE PRIESTS TOLD HERODOTUS.
men to calculate the course of the sun and moon by the twelve signs of the Ecliptic."
Nearly five hundred years before the actual era, Herodotus was shown by the priests of Egypt the statues of their human
Kings and Pontiffs-piromis (the archi-prophets or Maha-Chohans of the temples), born one from the other (without the
intervention of woman) who had reigned before Menes, their first human King. These statues, he says, were enormous
colossi in wood, three hundred and forty-five in number, each of which had his name, his history and his annals. And they
assured Herodotus* (unless the most truthful of historians, the "Father of History," is now accused of fibbing, just in this
instance) that no historian could ever understand or write an account of these superhuman Kings, unless he had studied
and learned the history of the three dynasties that preceded the human -- namely, the DYNASTIES OF THE GODS, that
of demi-gods, and of the Heroes, or giants. These "three dynasties" are the three Races.**
Translated into the language of the Esoteric doctrine, these three dynasties would also be those of the Devas, of
Kimpurushas, and of Danavas and Daityas -- otherwise gods, celestial spirits, and giants or Titans. "Happy are those who
are born, even from the condition of gods, as men, in Bharata-Varsha!" exclaim the incarnated gods themselves, during
the Third Root-Race. Bharata is India, but in this case it symbolized the chosen land in those days, and was considered
the best of the divisions of Jambu-dwipa, as it was the land of active (spiritual) works par excellence; the land of initiation
and of divine knowledge.
Can one fail to recognise in Creuzer great powers of intuition, when, being almost unacquainted with the Aryan Hindu
philosophies, little known in his day, he wrote:--
"We modern Europeans feel surprised when hearing talk of the Spirits of the Sun, Moon, etc. But we repeat again, the
natural good sense and the upright
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* See also Memoires a l'Academie, etc., of de Mirville, Vol. III., for a mass of evidence.
** In Vishnu-Purana, Book II., chap. 3, 4, et seq., may be found many corroborations of the same, if one reads carefully.
The reigns of gods, lower gods, and men are all enumerated in the descriptions of the seven Islands, seven seas, seven
mountains, etc., etc., ruled by Kings. Each king is said invariably to have seven sons, an allusion to the seven sub-races.
One instance will do. The King of Kusa dwipa had seven sons (follow names) . . . "after whom the seven portions
(Varsha) of the island were called. There reside mankind along with Daityas and Danavas, as well as with spirits of
Heaven (Gandharvas, Yakshas, Kimpurushas, etc.) and gods." (Chapter iv.) There is but one exception in the case of
King Priyavrata, the son of the first Manu, Swayambhuva -- who had ten sons. But of these, three -- Medha, Agnibahu,
and Putra -- became ascetics, and refused their portions. Thus Priyavrata divided the earth again into seven continents.
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[[Vol. 2, Page]] 370 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
judgment of the ancient peoples, quite foreign to our entirely material ideas upon celestial mechanics and physical
sciences . . . could not see in the stars and planets only that which we see: namely, simple masses of light, or opaque
bodies moving in circuits in sidereal space, merely according to the laws of attraction or repulsion; but they saw in them
living bodies, animated by spirits as they saw the same in every kingdom of nature. . . . This doctrine of spirits, so
consistent and conformable to nature, from which it was derived, formed a grand and unique conception, wherein the
physical, the moral, and the political aspects were all blended together . . . " ("Egypte," pp. 450 to 455.)
It is such a conception only that can lead man to form a correct conclusion about his origin and the genesis of everything
in the universe -- of Heaven and Earth, between which he is a living link. Without such a psychological link, and the
feeling of its presence, no science can ever progress, and the realm of knowledge must be limited to the analysis of
physical matter only.
Occultists believe in "spirits," because they feel (and some see) themselves surrounded on every side by them.*
Materialists do not. They live on this earth, just as, in the world of insects and even of fishes, some creatures live
surrounded by myriads of their own genus, without seeing, or so much as sensing them.**
Plato is the first sage among the classics who speaks at length of the
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* As a general rule, now that the very nature of the inner man has become as blind as his physical nature, man is situated
on this globe as the Amphioxus is in the Ocean. Surrounded by shoals and millions of various other fishes and creatures
that see it, the Amphioxus species --having neither brain nor any of the senses possessed by the other classes -- sees
them not. Who knows whether, on the Darwinian theory, these "Branchiostoma" are not the direct ancestors of our
Materialists.
** The Occultists have been accused of worshipping gods or devils. We deny this. Among the numberless hosts of spirits
-- men that were, and those who will be men -- there are those immeasurably superior to the human race, higher and