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362 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
We now add—it is all this and much more.
This "Fire" is spoken of in all the Hindu Sacred Books, as also in
the Kabalistic works. The Zohar explains it as the "White Hidden
Fire, in
the Risha Havurah," the White Head, whose Will causes the
fiery fluid to flow in 370 currents in every direction of the Universe.
is identical with the "Serpent that runs with 370 leaps" of the Siphrak
Dtzeniouiha,
the Serpent, which, when the "Perfect Man," the Metatron,
is raised, that is to say, when the Divine Man indwells in the
animal man, becomes three Spirits, or Atma-Buddhi-Manas, in our
Theosophical phraseology.
Spirit, then, or Cosmic Ideation, and Cosmic Substance—one of
whose "principles" is Ether—are one, and include the Elements, in the
sense St. Paul attaches to them. These Elements are the veiled Synthesis
standing for Dhyan Chohans, Devas, Sephiroth, Amshaspends,
Archangels, etc. The Ether of Science—the Ilus of Berosus, or the
Protyle of Chemistry—constitutes, so to speak, the rtcde material,
relatively, out of which the above-named Builders, following the plan
traced out for them eternally in the Divine Thought, fashion the
Systems in the Kosmos. They are "myths," we are told. No more sa
than Ether and the Atoms, we answer. The two latter are absolute
necessities of Physical Science, and the Builders are as absolute a
necessity of Metaphysics. We are twitted with the objection: You
never saw them. And we ask the Materialists: Have you ever seen
Ether, or your Atoms, or, again, your Force Moreover, one of the
greatest Western Evolutionists of our modern day, co-" discoverer"
with Darwin, Mr. A. R. Wallace, when discussing the inadequacy of
Natural Selection alone accounting for the physical form of Man,
admits the guiding action of "higher intelligences" as a ''necessary
part of the great laws which govern the material Universe."*
Indeed, there are few myths in any religious system worthy of the
name, but have a historical as well as a scientific foundation.
justly observes Pococke, "are now proved to be /a^/^5, just in
It
" Myths,"
These "higher intelligences" are the Dhyan Chohans of the Occultists.
proportion
as we misunderstand them; triiths, in proportion as they were
once understood."
The most distinct and the one prevailing idea, found in all
teaching, with reference to
ancient
Cosmic Evolution and the first "creation"
* Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection.