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314 'THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
classed beneath the astral powers [superhuman astral Spirits]. Perpetually they
change, not always identically, but revolving in circles.* They permeate by the
body two parts of the soul, that it may receive from each the impress of his own
energy. But the reasonable part of the soul is not subject to the Genii; it is
designed for the reception of [the] God,t who enlightens it with a sunny ray.
Those who are thus illumined are few in number, and from them the Genii abstain
for neither Genii nor Gods have any power in the presence of a single ray of God. J
But all other men, both soul and body, are directed by Genii, to whom they cleave,
and whose operations they aflfect
The Genii have then the control
of mundane things and our bodies serve them as instruments. §
The above, save a few sectarian points, represents that which was a
universal belief, common to all nations, till about a century or so back.
It is still as orthodox in its broad outlines and features among Pagans
and Christians alike, if one excepts a handful of Materialists and men
of Science.
For whether one calls the Genii of Hermes and his "Gods," "Powers
of Darkness" and "Angels," as in the Greek and I,atin Churches; or
"Spirits of the Dead," as in Spiritualism; or, again, Bhuts and Devas,
Shaitan or Djin, as
they are still called in India and Mussulman countries
they are all one and the same thing—Ihi^vsiQ-N. I^et not this,
however, be misunderstood in the sense into which the great philosophical
doctrine of the Vedantists has been lately perverted by
Western schools.
All that which is, emanates from the Absolute, which, by reason of
this qualification alone, stands as the One and Only Reality—hence,
everything extraneous to this Absolute, the generative and causative
Element, mtcst be an Illusion, most undeniably. But this is only so
from the purely metaphysical view. A man who regards himself as
mentally sane, and is so regarded by his neighbours, calls the visions
of an insane brother—hallucinations which make the victim either
happy or siipremely wretched, as the case may be—likewise illusions and
fancies. But, where is that madman for whom the hideous shadows
in his deranged mind, his illusio7is, are not, for the time being, as
actual and as real as the things which his physician or keeper may see
* Cyclic progress in development.
t The God in man and often the incarnation of a God, a highly Spiritual Dhyan Chohan in him,
besides the presence of his own Seventh Principle.
J Now, what "God" is meant here Not God the "Father," the anthropomorphic fiction; for that
God is the Elohim collectively, and has no being apart from the Host. Besides, such a God is finite
and imperfect. It is the high Initiates and Adepts who are meant here by the "few in number."
And it is precisely such men who believe in "Gods", and know no "God" but one Universal
unrelated and unconditioned Deity.
} The Virgin of the IVorid, pp. 104-5, "The Definitions of Asclepios."