Theosophical University Press Online Edition Fountain-Source of Occultism G. de Purucker A modern presentation of the ancient universal wisdom based on The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky. Copyright © 1974 by Theosophical University Press (print version also available). Electronic version ISBN 1-55700-070-0. All rights reserved. This edition may be downloaded for off-line viewing without charge. No part of this publication may be reproduced for commercial or other use in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of Theosophical University Press. For ease of searching, no diacritical marks appear in this electronic version of the text. Contents Foreword Section 1. The Primeval Wisdom-Teaching Passing on the Light Spiritual Illumination vs. Psychic Illusions The Still, Small Path Pledge-Fever and the Spiritual Will Section 2. Discipline precedes the Mysteries Esoteric Discipline Meditation and Yoga The Paramitas and the Exalted Eightfold Path The Initiatory Cycle NOTE: Sections 1 and 2 have also been issued together as the book, The Path of Compassion. Section 3. Space and the Doctrine of Maya Part 1 The Void and the Fullness The Boundless in Ancient Cosmogonies Spaces of Space Space, Time and Duration Cosmic Reality and Mahamaya Part 2 Parabrahman-Mulaprakriti Manvantara: a Dream, a Maya Hindu Conceptions of Maya Spiritual Reality and Mind-Born Illusion Section 4. Galaxies and Solar Systems: their Genesis, Structure, and Destiny Part 1 The Universe: a Living Organism Days and Nights of Brahma Genesis of a Universal Solar System The Celestial Zodiac and the Birth of a Solar System Raja Suns and the Cosmic Egg of Brahma Reimbodiment of a Planetary Chain Part 2 The Twelve Fohatic Magnetisms The Globe Zodiac Auric Egg: Cosmic and Microcosmic The Astro-Theogonical Aspect of the Cosmos Occult Physiological Structure of the Solar System Causative Nature of Cycles Cyclical Time Periods Racial Cycles and Yugas Section 5. Hierarchies and the Doctrine of Emanations Part 1 Out of Paranirvana into Manvantara The Cosmic Spirit in Pralaya and Manvantara The Three Logoi Fohat, the Dynamic Energy of Cosmic Ideation On the Gnostic Aeons Part 2 The Doctrine of Swabhava Sound, Color and Number Architects and Builders The Lipikas Section 6. Invisible Worlds and their Inhabitants Part 1 Pattern of the World Structure The Unrolling of the Cosmic Elements Elementals, Offspring of the Cosmic Elements Tattwas and the Seven Senses of Man The Birth of a Globe Planes and States of Consciousness Part 2 Lokas and Talas The Human Life-Wave in the Loka-Talas Interwebbing of Lokas and Talas Monads, Centers of Consciousness The Monadic Classes The Triple Evolutionary Scheme Section 7. The Doctrine of the Spheres Part 1 The Heart of the Sun — a Divinity Sunspots and the Circulations of the Solar System Solar and Terrestrial Magnetism The Triadic Life of Father Sun Part 2 The Twelve Sacred Planets Nature and Characteristics of the Planets Asteroids, Meteors, and Cosmic Dust The Moon Part 3 The Planet of Death Life-Waves and the Inner Rounds Interplanetary and Interglobal Nirvana Sishtas and Manus Section 8. Gods — Monads — Life-Atoms Part 1 Who are the Gods? Evolutionary Journey of the Monads Life-Atoms, their Origin and Destiny Heredity and the Life-Atoms The Doctrine of Transmigration Part 2 The Cause of Disease Man is his own Karma Is Karma Ever Unmerited? Good and Evil Section 9. Correlations of Cosmic and Human Constitutions The Auric Egg, its Nature and Function Monads, Egos and Souls The Auric Egg and Man's Principles Many Monads in Man Lost Souls and the Left-hand Path Occult Physiology Section 10. The Hierarchy of Compassion Part 1 The Silent Watchers The Three Vestures The Dhyani-chohanic Host The Avatara — a Spiritual Event Upapadaka and Anupapadaka Avataras Avataras of Maha-Vishnu and Maha-Siva Jesus the Avatara Part 2 The Power of Avesa The Tibetan Lamaistic Hierarchy Fifth and Sixth Rounders Buddhas and Bodhisattvas Gautama the Buddha Our Spiritual Home Section 11. Death and the Circulations of the Cosmos — I Part 1 The Oneness of all Life The Causal Aspects of Death The Process of Disimbodiment The Panoramic Vision The Pranas or Vital Essences Part 2 Physical Death — an Electromagnetic Phenomenon Kama-loka and the Second Death The Four States of Consciousness Ancient and Modern Spiritualism Contrasted The Nature of the Kama-rupa Section 12. Death and the Circulations of the Cosmos — II Part 1 Nature and Characteristics of the Devachan Length of the Devachanic Period Devachan and the Globes of the Planetary Chain Nirvana Sleep and Death are Brothers Part 2 Through the Portals of Death The Process of Reimbodiment Inner and Outer Rounds Interplanetary Peregrinations Return Journey of the Reimbodying Ego Appendices The Precessional Cycle The Potency of Sound The Four Sacred Seasons H.P.B. Messengers from the Lodge — the Insignia Majestatis Narada Foreword A work of art stands or falls by its power to inspire. With a book such as Fountain-Source of Occultism, which treats of cosmic truths and man's timeless search for answers, all the more must its message stand or fall on worth alone. Of this G. de Purucker is pre-eminently aware; he does not profess to provide the definitive statement, the final word of truth. What he does offer is an illumined interpretation of the universal wisdom on which the Secret Doctrine of the ages — and of H. P. Blavatsky's masterpiece of that name — is founded. Born on January 15, 1874 in Suffern, Rockland County, New York, de Purucker lived in the United States until the late '80's when the family moved to Geneva, Switzerland. His father, an Episcopal minister, had been appointed chaplain of the American Church there; a learned man and utterly committed, his inmost wish was to have his son ordained in the Anglican Communion. So he personally taught the boy Latin, Greek and Hebrew, had him tutored in modern European languages, as well as in the history and literature of Biblical peoples and of ancient Greece and Rome. The youth applied himself with assiduity, but his was a profoundly inquiring mind, with a natural intuitive sense of what was spiritually true and what was counterfeit. Before he reached eighteen, he knew with certainty that he could not enter the church; that, in fact, no formal religion could ever bind him. The quest for the gnosis, the living wisdom behind the externals of rite and dogma, had taken powerful hold. The shock to the parents was grievous: here was their son, destined from childhood for the ministry, able to read the Holy Scriptures in their original tongues, and trained in the functions and responsibilities of a pastor — turned agnostic. Deeply troubled, the young man left his home and studies in Geneva, sailed for America and, after spending a few months in New York, came to California where he worked on various ranches in San Diego County. All the while he continued his search, "looking around me, right and left, trying to find the clue to the mysteries of life and death which were bothering me so badly." He bought books on the Tarot as well as on mind-healing, to find they did not satisfy. When he came across a translation of one of the Upanishads, he set to work to master Sanskrit, just as he had earlier perfected himself in Anglo-Saxon, believing with Heine, the poet, that "with every new language, one wins a new soul." Then one day, he tells us, a small book on Theosophy fell into his hands, and "it startled me": I saw high thinking! I felt that there was more in this book than what an agnostic had seen. My years of study and reading of the literatures of the world — ancient literatures especially — had taught me to recognize ancient truth when I saw it. I was fascinated with something that I had always known in my heart; and it was this, that there has always existed, and that there exists today, a band, a company, a society, an association, of noble Sages, great Seers, "Wise Men of the East," as this book called them. We do not know the name of the book, but we do know that on August 16, 1893, Hobart Lorenz Gottfried de Purucker (later known as G. de P. to his associates) joined the Theosophical Society then headed in America by William Q. Judge, co-founder in 1875 with H. P. Blavatsky and H. S. Olcott of the modern theosophical movement. As a member of the San Diego Lodge and a regular user of their library, de Purucker helped organize a Secret Doctrine Class, and though only nineteen soon was appointed "permanent reader," moderating and guiding the studies of the members, most of whom were considerably older than he. For the next 49 years, to the day of his death on September 27, 1942, G. de P. gave of the fullness of himself in the service of his fellow men — a service which was to find magnificent expression in his elucidation of the spiritual principles of theosophy. Everything he said, in private or in public print, was an amplification of his youthful vision of the Oneness of the divine impress, and of the experiencibility of that Oneness by every human being. Fountain-Source of Occultism is no exception. In July 1929, when Gottfried de Purucker succeeded Katherine Tingley to the leadership of the Theosophical Society with international headquarters then at Point Loma, California, he initiated a series of esoteric studies for the purpose of stimulating the seeds of altruism as well as of giving instruction in the deeper aspects of theosophy.