[cover: Third and revised edition of The Secret Doctrine.]

(H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine - Vol. III, pp. 436-445, 1897 — SOME PAPERS ON THE BEARING OF OCCULT PHILOSOPHY ON LIFE, PAPER I.)

""OM," says the Âryan Adept, the son of the Fifth Race, who with this syllable begins and ends his salutation to the human being, his conjuration of, or appeal to, non-human PRESENCES.

"OM-MANI," murmurs the Turanian Adept, the descendant of the Fourth Race; and after pausing he adds, "PADME-HUM."

This famous invocation is very erroneously translated by the Orientalists as meaning, "Oh the Jewel in the Lotus." For although, literally, OM is a syllable sacred to the Deity, PADME means "in the Lotus," and MANI is any precious stone, still neither the words themselves, nor their symbolical meaning, are thus really correctly rendered.

In this, the most sacred of all Eastern formulas, not only has every syllable a secret potency producing a definite result, but the whole invocation has seven different meanings and can produce seven distinct results, each of which may differ from the others.

The seven meanings and the seven results depend upon the intonation which is given to the whole formula and to each of its syllables; and even the numerical value of the letters is added to or diminished according as such or another rhythm is made use of. Let the student remember that number underlies form, and number guides sound. Number lies at the root of the manifested Universe: numbers and harmonious proportions guide the first differentiations of homogeneous substance into heterogeneous elements; and number and numbers set limits to the formative hand of Nature.

Know the corresponding numbers of the fundamental principle of every element and its sub-elements, learn their interaction and behaviour on the occult side of manifesting Nature, and the law of correspondences will lead you to the discovery of the greatest mysteries of macrocosmical life.

But to arrive at the macrocosmical, you must begin by the micro-cosmical, i.e., you must study MAN, the microcosm—in this case as physical science does—inductively, proceeding from particulars to universals. At the same time, however, since a key-note is required to analyze and comprehend any combination of differentiations of sound, we must never lose sight of the Platonic method, which starts with one general view of all, and descends from the universal to the individual. This is the method adopted in Mathematics—the only exact science that exists in our day.

Let us study Man, therefore; but if we separate him for one moment from the Universal Whole, or view him in isolation, from a single aspect, apart from the "Heavenly Man"—the Universe symbolized by Adam Kadmon or his equivalents in every Philosophy—we shall either land in Black Magic or fail most ingloriously in our attempt.

Thus the mystic sentence, "Om Mani Padme Hum," when rightly understood, instead of being composed of the almost meaningless words, "Oh the Jewel in the Lotus," contains a reference to this indissoluble union between Man and the Universe, rendered in seven different ways, and having the capability of seven different applications to as many planes of thought and action.

From whatever aspect we examine it, it means: "I am that I am": "I am in thee and thou art in me." In this conjunction and close union the good and pure man becomes a God. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he will bring about, or innocently cause to happen, unavoidable results. In the first case, if an Initiate (of course an Adept of the Right-hand Path alone is meant), he can guide a beneficent or a protecting current, and thus benefit and protect individuals and even whole nations. In the second case, although quite unaware of what he is doing, the good man becomes a shield to whomsoever he is with.

Such is the fact; but its how and why have to be explained, and this can be done only when the actual presence and potency of numbers in sounds, and hence in words and letters, have been rendered clear. The formula, "Om Mani Padme Hum," has been chosen as an illustration on account of its almost infinite potency in the mouth of an Adept, and of its potentiality when pronounced by any man. Be careful, all you who read this: do not use these words in vain, or when in anger, lest you become yourself the first sacrificial victim, or, what is worse, endanger those whom you love.

The profane Orientalist, who all his life skims mere externals, will tell you flippantly, and laughing at the superstition, that in Tibet this sentence is the most powerful six-syllabled incantation and is said to have been delivered to the nations of Central Asia by Padmapâni, the Tibetan Chenresi.{766}

But who is Padmapâni, in reality? Each of us must recognize him for himself, whenever he is ready. Each of us has within himself the "Jewel in the Lotus," call it Padmapâni, Krishna, Buddha, Christ, or whatever name we may give to our Divine Self. The exoteric story runs thus:

The supreme Buddha, or Amitâbha, they say, at the hour of the creation of man, caused a rosy ray of light to issue from his right eye. The ray emitted a sound and became Padmapâni Bodhisattva. Then the Deity allowed to stream forth from his left eye a blue ray of light, which, becoming incarnate in the two virgins Dolma, acquired the power to enlighten the minds of living beings. Amitâbha then called the combination, which forthwith took up its abode in man, "Om Mani Padme Hum," "I am the Jewel in the Lotus and in it I will remain." Then Padmapâni, "the One in the Lotus" vowed never to cease working until he had made Humanity feel his presence in itself and had thus saved it from the misery of rebirth. He vowed to perform the feat before the end of the Kalpa, adding that, in case of failure, he wished that his head should split into numberless fragments. The Kalpa closed; but Humanity felt him not within its cold, evil heart. Then Padmapâni's head split and was shattered into a thousand fragments. Moved with compassion, the Deity re-formed the pieces into ten heads, three white, and seven of various colours. And since that day man has become a perfect number, or TEN.

In this allegory the potency of SOUND, COLOUR, and NUMBER is so ingeniously introduced as to veil the real Esoteric meaning. To the outsider it reads like one of the many meaningless fairy-tales of creation; but it is pregnant with spiritual and divine, physical and magical meaning. From Amitâbha—no colour, or the white glory—are born the seven differentiated colours of the prism. These each emit a corresponding sound, forming the seven of the musical scale. As Geometry, among the Mathematical Sciences, is specially related to Architecture, and also (proceeding to Universals) to Cosmogony, so the ten Jods of the Pythagorean Tetrad, or Tetraktys, being made to symbolize the Macrocosm, the Microcosm, or man, its image, had also to be divided into ten points. For this Nature herself has provided, as will be seen.

But before this statement can be proved and the perfect correspondences between the Macrocosm and the Microcosm demonstrated, a few words of explanation are necessary.

To the learner who would study the Esoteric Sciences with their double object: (a) of proving Man to be identical in spiritual and physical essence with both the Absolute Principle and with God in Nature; and (b) of demonstrating the presence in him of the same potential powers as exist in the creative forces in Nature—to such a one a perfect knowledge of the correspondences between Colours, Sounds, and Numbers is the first requisite. As already said, the sacred formula of the far East, "Om Mani Padme Hum" is the one best calculated to make these correspondential qualities and functions clear to the learner.

In the allegory of Padmapâni, the Jewel (or Spiritual Ego) in the Lotus, or the symbol of androgynous man, the numbers 3, 4, 7, 10, as synthesizing the Unit, Man, are prominent, as I have already said. It is on the thorough knowledge and comprehension of the meaning and potency of these numbers, in their various and multiform combinations, and in their mutual correspondence with sounds or words, and colours or rates of motion (represented in physical science by vibrations), that the progress of a student in Occultism depends. Therefore we must begin with the first, initial word, OM, or AUM. OM is a "blind." The sentence "Om Mani Padme Hum" is not a six- but a seven-syllabled phrase, as the first syllable is double in its right pronunciation, and triple in its essence, A-UM. It represents the for ever concealed primeval triune differentiation, not from but in the ONE ABSOLUTE, and is therefore symbolized by the 4, or the Tetraktys, in the metaphysical world. It is the Unit-ray, or Âtman.

It is the Âtman, this highest Spirit in man, which, in conjunction with Buddhi and Manas, is called the upper Triad, or Trinity. This Triad with its four lower human principles, is, moreover, enveloped with an auric atmosphere, like the yolk of an egg (the future embryo) by the albumen and shell. This, to the perceptions of higher Beings from other planes, makes of each individuality an oval sphere of more or less radiancy.

To show the student the perfect correspondence between the birth of Kosmos, a World, a Planetary Being, or a Child of Sin and Earth, a more definite and clear description must be given. Those acquainted with Physiology will understand it better than others.

Who, having read say the Vishnu or other Purâna, is not familiar with the exoteric allegory of the birth of Brahmâ (male-female) in the Egg of the World, Hiranyagarbha, surrounded by its seven zones, or rather planes, which in the world of form and matter become seven and fourteen Lokas; the numbers seven and fourteen reappearing as occasion requires.

Without giving out the secret analysis, the Hindus have from time immemorial compared the matrix of the Universe, and also the solar matrix, to the female uterus. It is written of the former: "Its womb is vast as the Meru," and the future mighty oceans lay asleep in the waters that filled its cavities, the continents, seas and mountains, the stars, planets, the gods, demons and mankind.

The whole resembled, in its inner and outer coverings, the cocoanut filled interiorly with pulp, and covered externally with husk and rind. "Vast as Meru," say the texts.

Meru was its Amnion, and the other mountains were its Chorion, adds a verse in Vishnu Purâna.{767}

In the same way is man born in his mother's womb. As Brahmâ is surrounded, in exoteric traditions, by seven layers within and seven without the Mundane Egg, so is the embryo (the first or the seventh layer, according to the end from which we begin to count). Thus, just as Esotericism in its Cosmogony enumerates seven inner and seven outer layers, so Physiology notes the contents of the uterus as seven also, although it is completely ignorant of this being a copy of what takes place in the Universal Matrix. These contents are:

1. Embryo.
2. Amniotic Fluid, immediately surrounding the Embryo.
3. Amnion, a membrane derived from the Foetus, which contains the fluid.
4. Umbilical Vesicle, which serves to convey nourishment originally to the Embryo and to nourish it.
5. Allantois, a protrusion from the Embryo in the form of a closed bag, which spreads itself between 3 and 7, in the midst of 6, and which, after being specialized into the Placenta, serves to conduct nourishment to the Embryo.
6. Interspace between 3 and 7 (the Amnion and Chorion), filled with an albuminous fluid.
7. Chorion, or outer layer.

Now, each of these seven contents severally corresponds with, and is formed after, an antetype, one on each of the seven planes of being, with which in their turn correspond the seven states of Matter and all other forces, sensational or functional, in Nature.

The following is a bird's eye view of the seven correspondential contents of the wombs of Nature and of Woman. We may contrast them thus:

COSMIC PROCESS. (UPPER POLE.)	HUMAN PROCESS. (LOWER POLE.)
(1) The mathematical Point, called the "Cosmic Seed," the Monad of Leibnitz; which contains the whole Universe, as the acorn the oak. This is the first bubble on the surface of boundless homogeneous Substance, or Space, the bubble of differentiation in its incipient stage. It is the beginning of the Orphic or Brahmâ's Egg. It corresponds in Astrology and Astronomy to the Sun.	(1) The terrestrial Embryo, which contains in it the future man with all his potentialities. In the series of principles of the human system it is the Âtman, or the super-spiritual principle, just as in the physical Solar System it is the Sun.
(2) The vis vitoe of our solar system exudes from the Sun. (a) It is called, when referred to the higher planes, Âkâsha. (b) It proceeds from the ten "divinities," the ten numbers of the Sun, which is itself the "Perfect Number." These are called Dis—in reality Space—the forces spread in Space, three of which are contained in the Sun's Âtman, or seventh principle, and seven are the rays shot out by the Sun.	(2) The Amniotic Fluid exudes from the Embryo. (a) It is called, on the plane or matter, Prâna.{768} (b) It proceeds, taking its source in the universalOne Life, from the heart of man and Buddhi, over which the Seven Solar Rays (Gods) preside.
(3) The Ether of Space, which, in its external aspect, is the plastic crust which is supposed to envelope the Sun. On the higher plane it is the whole Universe, as the third differentiation of evolving Substance, Mûlaprakriti becoming Prakriti. (a) It corresponds mystically to the manifested Mahat, or the Intellect or Soul of the World.	(3) The Amnion, the membrane containing the Amniotic Fluid and enveloping the Embryo. After the birth of man it becomes the third layer, so to say, of his magneto-vital aura. (a) Manas, the third principle (counting fromabove), or the Human Soul in Man.
(4) The sidereal contents of Ether, the substantial parts of it, unknown to Modern Science, represented: (a) In Occult and Kabalistic Mysteries, by Elementals. (b) In physical Astronomy, by meteors, comets, and all kinds of casual and phenomenal cosmic bodies.	(4) Umbilical Vesicle, serving, as Scienceteaches, to nourish the Embryo originally, but, as Occult Science avers, to carry to the Foetus by osmosis the cosmic influences extraneous to the mother. (a) In the grown man these become the feeders of Kâma, over which they preside. (b) In the physical man, his passions and emotions, the moral meteors and comets of human nature.
(5) Life currents in Ether, having their origin in the Sun: the canals through which the vital principle of that Ether (the blood of the Cosmic Body) passes to nourish everything on the Earth and on the other Planets: from the minerals, which are thus made to grow and become specialized, from the plants, which are thus fed, to animal and man, to whom life is thus imparted.	(5) The Allantois, a protrusion from the Embryo, which spreads itself between the Amnion and Chorion; it is supposed to conduct the nourishment from the mother to the Embryo. It corresponds to the life-principle, Prâna or Jîva.
(6) The double radiation, psychic and physical, which radiates from the Cosmic Seed and expands around the whole Kosmos, as well as around the Solar System and every Planet. In Occultism it is called the upper divine, and the lower material, Astral Light.	(6) The Allantois is divided into two layers. The interspace between the Amnion and the Chorioncontains the Allantois and also an albuminous fluid.{769}
(7) The outer crust of every sidereal body, the Shell of the Mundane Egg, or the sphere of our Solar System, of our Earth, and of every man and animal. In sidereal space, Ether proper; on the terrestrial plane, Air, which again is built in seven layers. (a) The primordial potential world-stuff (for the Manvantaric period) the permanent globe or globes.	(7) The Chorion, or the Zona Pellucida, theglobular object called Blastodermic Vesicle, the outer and the inner layers of the membrane of which go to form the physical man. The outer, orectoderm, forms his epidermis; the inner, orendoderm, his muscles, bones, etc. Man's skin, again, is composed of seven layers. (a) The "primitive" becomes becomes the"permanent" Chorion.

Even in the evolution of the Races we see the same order as in Nature and Man.{770} Placental animal-man became such only after the separation of sexes in the Third Root-Race. In the physiological evolution, the placenta is fully formed and functional only after the third month of uterine life.

Let us put aside such human conceptions as a personal God, and hold to the purely divine, to that which underlies all and everything in boundless Nature. It is called by its Sanskrit Esoteric name in the Vedas, TAT (or THAT), a term for the unknowable Rootless Root. If we do so, we may answer these seven questions of the Esoteric Catechism thus:

(1) Q.--- What is the Eternal Absolute?
A.--- THAT.
(2) Q.--- How came Kosmos into being?
A.--- Through THAT.
(3) Q.--- How, or what will it be when it falls back into Pralaya?
A.--- In THAT.
(4) Q.--- Whence all the animate, and suppositionally, the "inanimate" nature?
A.--- From THAT.
(5) Q.--- What is the Substance and Essence of which the Universe is formed?
A.--- THAT.
(6) Q.--- Into what has it been and will be again and again resolved?
A.--- Into THAT.
(7) Q.--- THAT then both the instrumental and material cause of the Universe?
A.--- What else is it or can it be than THAT?

As the Universe, the Macrocosm and the Microcosm,{771} are ten, why should we divide Man into seven "principles"? This is the reason why the perfect number ten is divided into two: in their completeness, i.e., super-spiritually and physically, the forces are TEN: to wit, three on the subjective and inconceivable, and seven on the objective plane. Bear in mind that I am now giving you the description of the two opposite poles: (a) the primordial Triangle, which, as soon as it has reflected itself in the "Heavenly Man," the highest of the lower seven—disappears, returning into "Silence and Darkness"; and (b) the astral paradigmatic man, whose Monad (Âtmâ) is also represented by a triangle, as it has to become a ternary in conscious Devachanic interludes. The purely terrestrial man being reflected in the universe of Matter, so to say, upside down, the upper Triangle, wherein the creative ideation and the subjective potentiality of the formative faculty resides, is shifted in the man of clay below the seven. Thus three of the ten, containing in the archetypal world only ideative and paradigmatical potentiality, i.e., existing in possibility, not in action, are in fact one. The potency of formative creation resides in the Logos, the synthesis of the seven Forces or Rays, which becomes forthwith the Quaternary, the sacred Tetraktys. This process is repeated in man, in whom the lower physical triangle becomes, in conjunction with the female One, the male-female creator, or generator. The same on a still lower plane in the animal world. A mystery above, a mystery below, truly.

This is how the upper and highest, and the lower and most animal, stand in mutual relation."

———————
{766} See supra, ii. 188, 189.
{767} Wilson's translation, as amended by Fitzedward Hall, i. 40.
{768} Prâna is in reality the universal Life Principle.
{769} All the uterine contents, having a direct spiritual connection with their cosmic antetypes, are, on the physical plane, potent objects in Black Magic, and are therefore considered unclean.
{770} See supra, ii. Part I.
{771} The Solar System or the Earth, as the case may be.