The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1 of 4: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and PhilosophyBlavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Religion
The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1 of 4: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Theosophy
Following Plato, Aristotle explained that the term στοιχεῖα was understood
only as meaning the incorporeal principles placed at each of the four
great divisions of our cosmical world, to supervise them. Thus, no more
than Christians do Pagans _adore_ and _worship_ the Elements and the
(imaginary) cardinal points, but the “gods” that respectively rule over
them. For the Church, there are two kinds of Sidereal Beings, Angels and
Devils. For the Kabalist and Occultist, there is but one class, and
neither Occultist nor Kabalist makes any difference between the “Rectors
of Light” and the “Rectores Tenebrarum,” or Cosmocratores, whom the Roman
Church imagines and discovers in the “Rectors of Light,” as soon as any
one of them is called by another name than the one she addresses him by.
It is not the Rector, or Mahârâjah, who punishes or rewards, with or
without “God’s” permission or order, but man himself—his deeds, or Karma,
attracting individually and collectively (as in the case of whole nations,
sometimes) every kind of evil and calamity. We produce _Causes_, and these
awaken the corresponding powers in the Sidereal World, which are
magnetically and irresistibly attracted to—and reäct upon—those who
produce such causes; whether such persons are practically the evil‐doers,
or simply “thinkers” who brood mischief. For thought is matter, we are
taught by Modern Science; and “every particle of the existing matter must
be a register of all that has happened,” as Messrs. Jevons and Babbage in
their _Principles of Science_ tell the profane. Modern Science is every
day drawn more into the maëlstrom of Occultism; unconsciously, no doubt,
still very sensibly.
“Thought is matter”: not of course, however, in the sense of the German
Materialist Moleschott, who assures us that “thought is the movement of
matter”—a statement of almost unparalleled absurdity. Mental states and
bodily states are utterly contrasted as such. But that does not affect the
position that every thought, in addition to its physical accompaniment
(brain‐change), exhibits an objective—though to us supersensuously
objective—aspect on the astral plane.(225)
The two main theories of Science as to the relations between Mind and
Matter are Monism and Materialism. These two cover the whole ground of
negative psychology with the exception of the quasi‐occult views of the
German Pantheistic schools.
The views of our present‐day scientific thinkers as to the relations
between mind and matter may be reduced to the following two hypotheses.
These show that both views equally exclude the possibility of an
independent soul, distinct from the physical brain through which it
functions. They are:
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