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3IO
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Substajice* It is the Heart and Matrix of all the liviyig and existing
Forces in otir Solar Uiiverse. It is the Kernel from which proceed to
spread on their cyclic journeys all
the Powers that set in actiofi the Atoms,
iJi their functioiial duties, and the Focus within which they again meet in
their Seventh Esse7ice every eleventh year. He who tells thee he has seen
the Sun, laugh at him,\ as if he had said that the Sun moves really onward
in his diurnal path. . . .
xxiii. // is on account of his septenary nattire, that the Sun is spoken
of by the ancients as one who is driven by seven horses equal to the m,etres
of the Vedas; or, again, that, though he is identified with the seven Gana
[^Classes of Being'\ in his orb, he is distinct from them,\ as he is, indeed; as
also that he has Seven Rays, as indeed he has. . . .
XXV. The Seven Beings in the Sun are the Seveyi Holy Ones, self-born
from the inherent poiver i7i the Matrix of Mother-Substance. It is they who
send the seven principal Forces, called Rays, which at the beginning of
Pralaya will centre into seven new Suns for the next Manvantara. The
energy, from which they spring into conscious existe^ice in every Sun, is what
some people call Vishnu, which is the Breath of the AbsoIvUTEness.
We call it the One Maiiifested Life— itself a reflection of the Absolute. . .
xxvii. The latter must never be mentioned in words or speech, LEST
IT SHOULD TAKE AWAY SOME OF OUR SPIRITUAL ENERGIES that aspire
towards ITS state, gravitatiyig ever omvard unto IT spiritually, as the
whole physical tiniverse gravitates towards ITS -manifested centre— cosmically.
xxviii.
Theforfner— the Initial Existence — which may be called, while in
this state of being, the One I^ife, is, as explained, a Film for creative or
formative pttrposes.
It manifests in seven states, which, with their septenary
sub-divisio7is, are the Forty-nine Fires mentio7icd i7i sacred books. . . .
xxix. The first is the .... "J/oM^r" [/"r/V^a Materia]. Separating
itself i7ito its pri7nary seven states, it proceeds down cyclically;
whe7i
having co7isolidated itself in its LAST principle, as GROSS MATTER, § it
revolves aroimd itself and informs, zvith
the seve7ith emanatio7i of the last,
the first and the lowest ele77ient \_the serpe7it biti7ig its own tail\ In a
Hierarchy, or Order of Being, the seventh emanation of her last principle is:
* Or the "dream of Science," the primeval really homogeneous matter, which no mortal can make
objective in this Race, or Round either.
t " Vishnu, in the form of his active energy, neither ever rises nor sets, and is at once, the sevenfold
sun and distinct from it," says Vishnu Piirdna, II. xi., (Wilson, II. 296).
" In the same manner as a man approaching a mirror placed upon a stand, beholds in it his own
t
image, so the energy (or reflection) of Vishnu [the Sun] is never disjoined but remains
in the Sun (as in a mirror), that is there stationed." (Ibid., loc. cit.)
Compare the Hermetic "Nature" "going down cyclically into matter when she meets the
' Heavenly Man '."