Header

The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy (2-volume set)

Isis Unveiled: Both Volumes - A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology (Illustrated)

the-secret-doctrine--the-synthesis-of-science-religion-and-philosophy-2-volume-set

The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy (2-volume set)

Continuously in print for over 100 years, the SD remains today the most comprehensive sourcebook of the esoteric tradition, outlining the fundamental tenets of the Secret Doctrine of the Archaic Ages. Challenging, prophetic, and strikingly modern, it directly addresses the perennial questions: continuity of life after death, purpose of existence, good and evil, consciousness and substance, sexuality, karma, evolution, and human and planetary transformation. Based on the ancient Stanzas of Dzyan with corroborating testimony from hundreds of sources, these volumes unfold the drama of cosmic and human evolution -- from the reawakening of the gods after a Night of the Universe to the ultimate reunion of cosmos with its divine source. Supplementary sections discuss relevant scientific issues as well as the mystery language of myths, symbols, and allegories, helping the reader decipher the often abstruse imagery of the world's sacred literature. This edition is a character-for-character, line-for-line reproduction of the two-volume 1888 first edition. It is set in new type which closely matches the Miller & Richard Old Style font used in the original. The Index at the end of Volume II is the version revised in 1925.

About the Author

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was born August 12, 1831, at Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, daughter of Colonel Peter Alexeyevich von Hahn and novelist Helena Andreyevna (née de Fadeyev). In 1849 she married N. V. Blavatsky, and shortly thereafter began more than 20 years of extensive travel, which brought her into contact with mystic traditions the world over. She was the principal founder of The Theosophical Society in New York City in 1875, and devoted her extraordinary literary talents to its humanitarian and educational purposes until her death in London, England, on May 8, 1891.

Paperback: 1571 pages
Publisher: Theosophical Univ Pr; Unabridged Verbatim Edition (2-vol set) edition (December 30, 2014)

The Secret Doctrine

The Synthesis Of Science, Religion, And Philosophy.

Volume I: Cosmogenesis

by H.P. Blavatsky

[1888]

THE SECRET DOCTRINE TABLE OF CONTENTS

523 SUGGESTIVE ALLEGORIES.

VII.

AN ATTACK ON THE SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF FORCE
BY A MAN OF SCIENCE.

The wise words of several (English) men of Science have now to be quoted in our favour. Ostracised for "principle's sake" by the few, they are tacitly approved of by the many. That one of them preaches almost Occult doctrines, in some things identical with, and often amounting to a public recognition of our "Fohat and his seven Sons" —

524 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the Occult Gandharva of the Vedas — will be recognised by every Occultist, and even by some profane readers.

If the latter open Volume V. of the Popular Science Review (pp. 329-334), they will find in it an article on "Sun Force and Earth Force," by Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., which reads as follows: —

"At this moment, when the theory of mere motion as the origin of all varieties of force is again becoming the prevailing thought, it were almost heresy to re-open a debate, which for a period appears, by general consent, to be virtually closed; but I accept the risk, and shall state, therefore, what were the precise views of the immortal heretic, whose name I have whispered to the readers, (Samuel Metcalfe), respecting Sun Force. Starting with the argument on which nearly all physicists are agreed, that there exist in nature two agencies — matter which is ponderable, visible, and tangible, and a something which is imponderable, invisible, and appreciable only by its influence on matter — Metcalfe maintains that the imponderable and active agency which he calls 'caloric' is not a mere form of motion, not a vibration amongst the particles of ponderable matter, but itself a material substance flowing from the Sun through Space,* filling the voids between the particles of solid bodies, and conveying by sensation the property called heat. The nature of caloric, or Sun-Force, is contended for by him on the following grounds: —

"(i.) That it may be added to, and abstracted from other bodies and measured with mathematical precision.

"(ii.) That it augments the volume of bodies, which are again reduced in size by its abstraction.

"(iii.) That it modifies the forms, properties, and conditions of all other bodies.

"(iv.) That it passes by radiation through the most perfect vacuum† that can be formed, in which it produces the same effects on the thermometer as in the atmosphere.

"(v.) That it exerts mechanical and chemical forces which nothing can restrain, as in volcanoes, the explosion of gunpowder, and other fulminating compounds.

"(vi.) That it operates in a sensible manner on the nervous system, producing intense pain; and when in excess, disorganization of the tissues.

"As against the vibratory theory, Metcalfe further argues that if caloric were a mere property or quality, it could not augment the volume of other bodies; for this purpose it must itself have volume, it must occupy space, and it must, therefore, be a material agent. If caloric were only the effect of vibratory motion amongst the particles of ponderable matter, it could not radiate from hot bodies without the simultaneous transition of the vibrating particles; but the fact stands out that heat can radiate from material ponderable substance without

* Not only "through space," but filling every point of our solar system, for it is the physical residue, so to say, of Ether, its lining on our plane; Ether having to serve other cosmic and terrestrial purposes besides being the "agent" for transmitting light. It is the astral fluid or "Light" of the Kabalists, and the "Seven rays" of Sun-Vishnu.

† What need, then, of etheric waves for the transmission of light, heat, etc., if this substance can pass through vacuum?

525 DR. RICHARDSON'S HERESY.

loss of weight of such substance. . . . With this view as to the material nature of caloric or sun-force; with the impression firmly fixed on his mind that 'everything in Nature is composed of two descriptions of matter, the one essentially active and ethereal, the other passive and motionless,'* Metcalfe based the hypothesis that the Sun-force, or caloric, is a Self-active principle. For its own particles, he holds, it has repulsion; for the particles of all ponderable matter it has affinity; it attracts the particles of ponderable matter with forces which vary inversely as the squares of the distance. It thus acts through ponderable matter. If universal space were filled with caloric, sun-force, alone (without ponderable matter), caloric would also be inactive and would constitute a boundless Ocean of powerless or quiescent ether, because it would then have nothing on which to act, while ponderable matter, however inactive of itself, has 'certain properties by which it modifies and controls the actions of caloric, both of which are governed by immutable laws that have their origin in the mutual relations and specific properties of each.'

"And he lays down a law which he believes is absolute, and which is thus expressed: —

" 'By the attraction of caloric for ponderable matter, it unites and holds together all things; by its self-repulsive energy it separates and expands all things.' "

This, of course, is almost the occult explanation of cohesion. Dr. Richardson continues: —

"As I have already said, the tendency of modern teaching is to rest upon the hypothesis . . . that heat is motion, or, as it would, perhaps, be better stated, a specific force or form of motion.†

"But this hypothesis, popular as it is, is not one that ought to be accepted to the exclusion of the simpler views of the material nature of sun-force, and of its influence in modifying the conditions of matter. We do not yet know sufficient to be dogmatic."‡

. . . "The hypothesis of Metcalfe respecting sun-force and earth-force is not only very simple, but most fascinating. . . . Here are two elements in the Universe, the one is ponderable matter . . . The second element is the all-pervading Ether, solar-fire. It is without weight, substance, form, or colour; it is matter infinitely divisible, and its particles repel each other; its rarity

* And how can it be otherwise? Gross ponderable matter is the body, the Shell of matter or Substance, the female passive principle; and this Fohatic force is the second principle, prana — the male and the active? On our globe this Substance is the second principle of the septenary Element — Earth; in the atmosphere, it is that of air, which is the cosmic gross body; in the Sun it becomes the Solar body and that of the Seven rays; in sidereal space it corresponds with another principle, and so on. The whole is a homogeneous Unity alone, the parts are all differentiations.

† Or the reverberation, and for sound, repercussion on our plane of that which is a perpetual motion of that Substance on higher planes. Our world and senses are victims of Maya, ceaselessly.

‡ An honest admission, that.

526 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

is such that we have no word, except ether,* by which to express it. It pervades and fills space, but alone it too is quiescent — dead.† We bring together the two elements, the inert matter, the self-repulsive Ether (?) and thereupon dead (?) ponderable matter is vivified"; [Ponderable matter may be inert but never dead — this is Occult Law. — H.P.B.] . . . "through the particles of the ponderable substance the ether [Ether's second principle. — H.P.B.] penetrates, and, so penetrating, it combines with the ponderable particles and holds them in mass, holds them together in bond of union; they are dissolved in the Ether."

"This distribution of solid ponderable matter through ether extends, according to the theory before us, to everything that exists at this moment. The ether is all-pervading. The human body itself is charged with the ether [Say astral light. — H.P.B.]; its minute particles are held together by it; the plant is in the same condition; the most solid earth, rock, adamant, crystal, metal, all are the same. But there are differences in the capacities of different kinds of ponderable matter to receive sun-force, and upon this depends the various changing conditions of matter; the solid, the liquid, the gaseous condition. Solid bodies have attracted caloric in excess over fluid bodies, and hence their firm cohesion; when a portion of molten zinc is poured upon a plate of solid zinc, the molten zinc becomes as solid because there is a rush of caloric from the liquid to the solid, and in the equalization the particles, previously loose or liquid, are more closely brought together. . . . Metcalfe himself, dwelling on the above-named phenomena, and accounting for them by the unity of principle of action, which has already been explained, sums up his argument in very clear terms, in a comment on the densities of various bodies. 'Hardness and softness' (he says), 'solidity and liquidity, are not essential conditions of bodies, but depend on the relative proportions of ethereal and ponderable matter of which they are composed. The most elastic gas may be reduced to the liquid form by the abstraction of caloric, and again converted into a firm solid, the particles of which would cling together with a force proportional to their augmented affinity for caloric. On the other hand, by adding a sufficient quantity of the same principle to the densest metals, their attraction for it is diminished when they are expanded into the gaseous state, and their cohesion is destroyed.' "

Having thus quoted at length the heterodox views of the great "heretic" — views that need only a little alteration of terms here and there, the same eminent scientist — an original and liberal thinker, undeniably — proceeds to sum up those views, and continues: —

* Yet it is not Ether, but only one of the principles of Ether, the latter being itself one of the principles of Akasa.

† And so does prana (Jiva) pervade the whole living body of man; but alone, without having an atom to act upon, it would be quiescent — dead; i.e., would be in laya, or as Mr. Crookes has it, "locked in protyle." It is the action of Fohat upon a compound or even a simple body that produces life. When a body dies it passes into the same polarity as its male energy and repels therefore the active agent, which, losing hold of the whole, fastens on the parts or molecules, this action being called chemical. Vishnu, the Preserver, transforms himself into Rudra-Siva, the Destroyer — a correlation seemingly unknown to Science.

527 WE DISAGREE.

"I shall not dwell at great length on this unity of sun-force and earth, which this theory implies. But I may add that out of it, or out of the hypothesis of mere motion as force, and of virtue without substance, we may gather, as the nearest possible approach to the truth on this, the most complex and profound of all subjects, the following inferences: —

"(a) Space, inter-stellary, inter-planetary, inter-material, inter-organic, is not a vacuum, but is filled with a subtle fluid or gas, which for want of a better term* we may still call, as the ancients did, Aith-ur — Solar fire, AEther. This fluid, unchangeable in composition, indestructible, invisible,† pervades everything and all [ponderable. — H. P. B.] matter,‡ the pebble in the running brook, the tree overhanging, the man looking on, is charged with the ether in various degree; the pebble less than the tree, the tree less than man. All in the planet is in like manner so charged! A world is built up in ethereal fluid, and moving through a sea of it.

"(b) The Ether, whatever its nature is, is from the sun and from the suns§ the suns are the generators of it, the store-houses of it, the diffusers of it.||

"(c.) Without the ether there could be no motion; without it particles of ponderable matter could not glide over each other; without it there could be no impulse to excite those particles into action.

"(d.) Ether determines the constitution of bodies. Were there no ether there could be no change of constitution in substance; water, for instance, could only exist as a substance, compact and insoluble beyond any conception we could form of it. It could never even be ice, never flint, never vapour, except for ether.

"(e) Ether connects sun with planet, planet with planet, man with planet, man with man. Without ether there could be no communication in the Universe; no light, no heat, no phenomenon of motion."

Thus we find that Ether and elastic atoms are, in the alleged mechanical conception of the Universe, the Spirit and Soul of Kosmos, and that the theory — put it any way and under whatever disguise — always leaves a more widely opened issue for men of

* Verily, unless the occult terms of the Kabalists are adopted!

† "Unchangeable" only during Manvantaric periods, after which it merges once more into Mulaprakriti; "invisible" for ever, in its own essence, but seen in its reflected coruscations, called the Astral light by the modern Kabalists. Yet, conscious and grand Beings clothed in that same Essence move in it.

‡ One has to add (ponderable), to distinguish it from that Ether which is matter still, though a substratum.

§ The Occult Sciences reverse the statement, and say that it is the sun, and all the suns that are from it, which emanate at the Manvantaric dawn from the Central Sun.

|| Here, we decidedly beg to differ with the learned gentleman. Let us remember that this AEther, whether Akasa is meant by the term, or its lower principle, Ether — is septenary. Akasa is Aditi in the allegory, and the mother of Marttanda (the sun), the Deva-matri — "Mother of the gods." In the solar system, the sun is her Buddhi and Vahan, the Vehicle, hence the 6th principle; in Kosmos all the suns are the Kama rupa of Akasa and so is ours. It is only when regarded as an individual Entity in his own Kingdom that Surya (the sun) is the 7th principle of the great body of matter.

528 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Science to speculate beyond the line drawn by modern materialism — or call it agnosticism rather, to be more correct* — than the majority avails itself of. Atoms, Ether, or both, modern speculation cannot get out of the circle of ancient thought; and the latter was soaked through with archaic occultism. Undulatory or corpuscular theory — it is all one. It is speculation from the aspects of phenomena, not from the knowledge of the essential nature of the cause and causes. When modern Science has explained to its audience the late achievements of Bunsen and Kirchoff, and shown the seven colours, the "primary" of a ray which is decomposed in a fixed order on a screen; and described the respective lengths of luminous waves, what has it proved? It has justified its reputation for exactness in mathematical achievement by measuring even the length of a luminous wave — "varying from about seven hundred and sixty millionths of a millimetre at the red end of the spectrum to about three hundred and ninety-three millionths of a millimetre at the violet end." But when the exactness of the calculation with regard to the effect on the light-wave is thus vindicated, Science is forced to admit that the force (which is the supposed cause) is believed to produce "inconceivably minute undulations" in some medium — "generally regarded as identical with the ethereal medium"† — and that medium itself is still only — a "hypothetical agent!"

Auguste Comte's pessimism with respect to the impossibility of knowing some day the chemical composition of the sun, has not been belied thirty years later by Kirchoff, as claimed. The spectroscope has helped us to see that the elements, with which the modern chemist is familiar, must in all probability be present in the sun's outward robes — not in the sun itself; and, taking these "robes," the solar cosmic veil, for the sun itself, the physicists have declared its luminosity to be due to combustion and flame, and have mistaken the vital principle of that luminary for a purely material thing, and called it "chromosphere."‡ We have hypotheses and theories only so far, not law — by any means.

* Brutal but frank materialism is more honest than Janus-faced agnosticism in our days. Monism is the Pecksniff of modern philosophy, turning a pharisaical face to psychology and idealism, and its natural face of a Roman Augur, swelling his cheek with his tongue — to Materialism. The Monists are worse than the Materialists; because, while looking at the Universe and psycho-spiritual man from the same negative stand-point, the latter put their case far less plausibly than sceptics of Mr. Tyndall's or even Mr. Huxley's stamp. Herbert Spencer, Bain and Lewes are more dangerous to universal truths than Buchner.

† "Geology," by Professor A. Winchell.

‡ See Five Years of Theosophy — Articles: "Do the Adepts deny the nebular theory?" and "Is the Sun merely a cooling mass?" — for the true Occult teaching.

THE SECRET DOCTRINE TABLE OF CONTENTS

social-bar-article-content

fb-apps-ub-segment

footer-scroller

Urantia Book, 44:0.11 - The Celestial Artisans

Never in your long ascendancy will you lose the power to recognize your associates of former existences. Always, as you ascend inward in the scale of life, will you retain the ability to recognize and fraternize with the fellow beings of your previous and lower levels of experience. Each new translation or resurrection will add one more group of spirit beings to your vision range without in the least depriving you of the ability to recognize your friends and fellows of former estates.
Princess Bride 1987 Wallace Shawn (Vizzini) and Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya)

Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Urantia Book, 117:4.14 - The Finite God

And here is mystery: The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality -- actuality -- of that man. The more man withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches nonreality -- cessation of existence. When man consecrates his will to the doing of the Father's will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make that man more than he is.
Urantia Book, 167:7.4 - The Talk About Angels

"And do you not remember that I said to you once before that, if you had your spiritual eyes anointed, you would then see the heavens opened and behold the angels of God ascending and descending? It is by the ministry of the angels that one world may be kept in touch with other worlds, for have I not repeatedly told you that I have other sheep not of this fold?"
Urantia Book, Foreword - 0:12.12 - The Trinities

But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience—God-consciousness.
Urantia Book, 1:4.3 - The Mystery Of God

When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that composes the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it came"; then, it is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who gave it." There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence.
Urantia Book, 1:4.1 - The Mystery Of God

And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.
Urantia Book, 1:4.6 - The Mystery Of God

To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world.
Urantia Book, 11:0.1 - The Eternal Isle Of Paradise

Paradise is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real.
Urantia Book, 50:6.4 - Planetary Culture

Culture presupposes quality of mind; culture cannot be enhanced unless mind is elevated. Superior intellect will seek a noble culture and find some way to attain such a goal. Inferior minds will spurn the highest culture even when presented to them ready-made.
Urantia Book, 54:1.6 - True And False Liberty

True liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the consort of self-admiration. True liberty is the fruit of self-control; false liberty, the assumption of self-assertion. Self-control leads to altruistic service; self-admiration tends towards the exploitation of others for the selfish aggrandizement of such a mistaken individual as is willing to sacrifice righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow beings.
Urantia Book, 54:1.9 - True And False Liberty

How dare the self-willed creature encroach upon the rights of his fellows in the name of personal liberty when the Supreme Rulers of the universe stand back in merciful respect for these prerogatives of will and potentials of personality! No being, in the exercise of his supposed personal liberty, has a right to deprive any other being of those privileges of existence conferred by the Creators and duly respected by all their loyal associates, subordinates, and subjects.
Urantia Book, 54:1.8 - True And False Liberty

There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, and unrighteousness.

footer-pages

About | Contact | Privacy Policy | Site Map | Search

Judaism

Gnosticism

Theology Tables of Contents

Christianity in 101 seconds

History

Eurasia

America

Pre-history

Gobekli Tepe

Pre-Clovis Toolkit

Cultural History

Going Where DarwinFeared to Tread

War Is A Racket

Communism's45 Goals

Science

Anthropology

Archaeology

Cosmology

Are We Alone?

Intelligent Design

Articles of Interest

Going Where DarwinFeared to Tread

ArdipithecusRamidus

Human GenomeProject

Money

Secrets

Power

Conspiracy Tables of Contents

A Message For All Humanity

History of The Urantia Book

Unique to The Urantia Book

Revelation

Parts of the book

Read The Urantia Book

The Mission

Subjects of Focus

Why It's Important

Love

Prayer

Suffering

Angels

Our Divine Destiny

Family

Faith

History/Science

From the Inside Flap

What’s Inside?

Excerpts

About the Author