Esoteric Tradition, The (2 Volumes)

Gottfried de Purucker comes from the same mystical background as Helena P. Blavatsky. He distinguises himself by the clarity with which he explains the theosophical ideas and the accuracy with which he preserves their purity. He was head of the Theosophical Society from 1929 until his passing in 1942

This work is one of his many books. It is in many respects an opening of new and inner doors to hitherto carefully guarded esoteric knowledge, and was considered by De Purucker as his most important contribution to Theosophical literature. It supplements with important detail and keen philosophical analysis the Theosophical teachings given by H.P. Blavatsky in her masterpiece The Secret Doctrine

What is this tradition, knowledge of which remains almost totally unknown? It is the esoteric tradition stretching back to the beginnings of time — that line of teaching and teachers, that golden thread of Truth, which has never been broken, which is the essence of the secret wisdom of Nature. It is that Wisdom preserved for mankind through the agency of the Mystery-Schools of the past, and again presented to the world through the medium of a reawakened Theosophical Movement. This is the wonderful theme of these volumes, illustrated by lucid description of the doctrines of the archaic Wisdom-philosophy

Photographic Reproduction of the 2nd edition, 1940
First edition of this photographic reproduction, 2015

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

INTRODUCTION
Reality or Truth, and Relative Truth – Dogma defined – The nature of Seership – What is proof? – Is it infallible? – Faith, true and blind – The Esoteric Tradition – Religion, Philosophy, and Science as distinguished from religions, philosophies, and sciences – Theosophy the universal ‘touchstone’ – The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett and The Secret Doctrine

Chapter I
THEOSOPHY: THE MOTHER OF RELIGIONS, PHILOSOPHY, AND ESOTERIC SCIENCE
Intimations of existence of Wisdom-Religion universal – The Esoteric Philosophy re-stated by H.P. Blavatsky – Intuition as source of human understanding of Truth – What Theosophy is and what it is not – The Guardians of the Wisdom-Religion and the methods of its dissemination – Esotericism and exotericism—the Mystery-Schools, and the ‘Mysteries’ –
Early Christian, Neo-Platonic, and Neo-Phytagorean teachers and their teachings – Anathematized teachings of Origen – The Qabbâlâh (‘the Tradition’), and Theosophy – The Esoteric Doctrine, it’s relation to human mentality and man’s conception of Truth – What we owe to ancient civilizations

Chapter II
ALLEGORY AND MYSTICAL SYMBOLISM
Why the Esoteric keys are safeguarded – Karman and Reimbodiment once held secret but now clearly expounded – The universal Mysteries the source of symbolic imagery – Intuition, its value in the study of symbolism – Theosophical Interpretation of: “It (the Kingdom of God) will come when two and two make one; when the outside is like the inside; and when there is neither male nor female” – The Story of the Vine and Grapes explained – The ‘Cry from the Cross,’ its correct translation and esoteric significance – A comprehensive survey of symbolism and mysticism as used by all great Teachers – The Symbol of the Serpent or Snake

Chapter III
THE SECRET DOCTRINE OF GAUTAMA THE BUDDHA — I
Evidence of existence of a system of esoteric teaching in Buddhism – The Buddha-Gautama – The Buddhist ‘Confession of Faith’: its esoteric meaning – Samskâras and Nirvâna explained – The Eye-Doctrine and the Heart-Doctrine – The injunction of the Lord Buddha to his disciples as found in the Mahâ-Parinibbâna-Sutta – Esoteric Buddhism and the existence of a succession of Teachers in the history of Buddhism – The Hînayâna and the Mahâyâna Schools defined and describe – Sâkyamuni and the non-existence of a static ‘soul’ in man – Occidental Orientalists have need of greater intuition and common sense in the study of Buddhism

Chapter IV
THE SECRET DOCTRINE OF GAUTAMA THE BUDDHA — II
The Doctrine of Becoming – The Pâli scriptures and the teaching of ‘survival’ – What is it that survives? Karman, Rebirth, and the Jâtaka-tales – Fundamental doctrines of Buddhism: The Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Verities – The Pâramitâs as given by H.P. Blavatsky in The Voice of the Silence and in Buddhist literature – Meanings of the terms Samskâras, Skandhas, Karman, and Evolution – Discussion concerning the x-quantity in man – Symbolism in the life-story of the Buddha – The Buddha’s teachings on union with the Divine

Chapter V
WORLDS VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE — I
The Universe a septempartite or decempartite organism – Who and what are the Devas? – Knowing the Universe by becoming – Scientists dream dreams of truth and see visions of reality – ‘Dimensions,’ ‘singular points,’ ‘spheres,’ and ‘planes’ – Natural phenomena and the invisible causal realms – The ‘law of probability,’ ‘indeterminacy,’ chance’ – Early Christian, ‘pagan,’ and ancient, occult teachings about man and the Universe compared with those of modern science – Universal Consciousness-substance and the causal realms – God, or gods? – Radiation, light, consciousnesses- Where are the invisible worlds and what are their inhabitants?

Chapter VI
WORLDS VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE — II
Universes, Hierarchies, and Logoi – Man and Universe six-sevenths or seven-tenths occult – The lokas and talas explained – Rûpa-lokas and Earth’s sevenfold Planetary Chain compared – The Seven Sacred Planets – Globe-bodies and planes – ‘Conservation of energy’ – Who are the Kosmo-kratores? – The Moon and moons – Reimbodiment of globe-chain – Entire Solar System interblended and interactive – Modern astrology and the ancient Wisdom-Astrology – Captures, galactic and electronic – Classes of Monadic Life-Waves – Kosmic Space, Hierarchs, and Wondrous Beings – Archaic Pantheism – Christian God and the Unknowable Principle – Space a container of Divine Atoms

Chapter VII
EVOLVING SOULS — I
Evolution and Revolution – No absolute endings in evolution – ‘Soul’ and souls explained – Evolution and emanation: an analysis – Infinite hosts of souls: numerous illustrations – What are ‘group-souls’ and what constitutes ‘grouping’? – Enduring Consciousness and fugitive ‘events’ – The eternal and the evanescent in all beings – What is immortality? – The ‘losing’ of the self in the Self – ‘As a man thinks, so is he’ – The difference between man and beast – Solomon and Ecclesiastes – Man, a microcosm in the Macrocosm is yet One with the All

Chapter VIII
EVOLVING SOULS — II
The four planes of Universal Being – Nature and evolution of elementals defined – Man his own architect – Our source and the origin of our life-atoms – Dual aspect of life-atoms – One Law but countless ramifications of detail and repetition – The heresy of Separateness – The rûpa-planes and the Sephîrôth of the Qabbâlâh – Every being a well-spring of ‘creative’ activity – What part of an ever changing entity endures? – Monadic generation of elementals continuous – Climbing the Ladder of Life

Chapter IX
THE EVOLUTIONARY PATHWAY TO THE GODS
Monadism and Atomism: the essential carpentry of the manifested Universe – Druidic and other ancient teachings – Self-expression eternal and universal – Evolution and Involution – Possibility of understanding states of consciousness during pralaya of a planetary chain or solar system – The Garden of Eden, and Man a ‘fallen angel,’ theosophically explained – The War in Heaven – Teleologic element in evolution and the evils of Darwinism – The great evolutionary Drama of Life – The Rivers of Lives and geologic Ages in the light of Theosophy – Evolution entirely a spiritual process

Chapter X
ESOTERIC TEACHINGS ON THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN AND ANIMAL BEINGS
H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, and Esoteric Evolution – Teachings of modern science, and the difficulties of expounding the Wisdom-teachings – Human development during past ages – Whence came the beasts and reptiles? – Man, his physical structure during the First and Second Races, and physical modes of propagation – The human embryo and its prenatal development in relation to physical structure of early Man – Androgyne and uni-sexual development – Evolution and involution and the ‘closing of the door’ into the Human Kingdom – What are the anthropoid apes? – Destiny of the beasts – Emanation of Mammalia from the human stock – What is a ‘type’? – Time periods, geologic ages, and radio-activity – Specialization – Spiritual, intellectual, and psycho-mental evolution – Consolidation and size of early root-race types – Man, a vast treasury – Embryology, the touchstone – Geological remains

Chapter XI
THE TURNING OF THE WHEEL — THE PAST
Civilization and civilizations – Periods of transition illustrated by time of downfall of the Roman Empire – Divination, soothsayers, etc., then and now – Oracles and the Wisdom of the Ages -The closing of the Mystery-Schools and the age of spiritual barrenness in the Occident – Astronomical teachings of early Mesopotamia – Claudius Ptolemy and his legacy to the Dark Ages – Graeco-Roman world the alembic of religions and philosophies two thousand years ago – Pioneers of the Renaissance: their interpretations of Truth and the reception they received -The significance of the founding of the Theosophical Society – Mutability of Science and permanence of the Ancient Wisdom -The scientific attitude fifty years ago and now

Chapter XII
THE TURNING OF THE WHEEL — THE PRESENT
Intellectual conditions of 1875 – H.P. Blavatsky, her life-work, the Message she brought, and her Teachers – Responsibility of the Sages and Seers, and the ‘law’ of Karman – The quickening of Science, Philosophy, and Religion – The Atomistic School of the Greeks and its influence on Newton and Huxley – ‘Modes of Motion,’ ‘absolute time,’ and ‘absolute space.’ – Einstein’s ‘space-time continuum.’ – Relativity and Mâyâ – Seven points wherein the modern relativity-theory approaches the Esoteric Tradition – Vision versus dogmatism in Science: some examples – Modern Science becoming metaphysical and mystical – The promise of the future

Chapter XIII
BEHIND THE VEILS WITH SCIENCE — I
Modern Science elucidating some of the teachings of the great Sages – The true status of ancient civilizations – Are the present ‘primitive’ people representatives of degenerate or of embryo-races? – The Negro Race – What is science? – Modern scientific conceptions of consciousness – Some conceptions of the atom and atomic space and time – What animates an atom? – Illusions of ‘matter’: the ether, and the Void – ‘Density’ of the ether, and Mâyâ – Ãkâsa, spirit-substance-force, or Life – The Galaxy, its form, size, and some of its suns – Fallacy of the theory of the ‘expanding universe’

Chapter XIV
BEHIND THE VEILS WITH SCIENCE — II
A Universe of Consciousness: a most important postulate – Consciousness the root of force or energy – Explanation of Gravitation and the Forces of Nature – Newton’s conception of same – Empedocles on Cosmic ‘Love’ and ‘Hate’ – ‘Space-curvature’ and the ‘Cosmic Rays’ – Pralayas and Manvantaras – Spencer and a ‘running down’ Universe – Outworn terminology hampers scientific expression – ‘Creation’ – Hydrogen and helium and the processes of integration and disintegration – Laya-centers, ‘singular points,’ and ‘dimensions’ – All matter concreted light – The ‘Quantum Theory’ – Prout’s Hypothesis and ‘isotopes’ – No limits to the divisibility of matter – The inner god in man and the forces of the invisible realms of Nature – Our five sences and the Root-Races

Chapter XV
WEBS OF DESTINY — I
The Cosmic Web, a Universe of Law infilled by willing agents – Fatalism, Karman, and Free Will – “Unmerited suffering’ and Karman – What is Karman? – The web, the causal forces, and man himself – Laws and lawgivers – The conflict of wills in evolving entities – Good and Evil, ‘spiritual wickedness,’ and the ‘forces of evil’ – Past and present ideas of divinity, and certain Articles of Faith – Webs in the weaving, and the human and cosmic weavers – Schools of Fatalism – ‘Determinacy’ and ‘indeterminacy’ – What originates causes? – Man the Actor – Unfolding will as the impulse to evolutionary ascent – Explanation of the phrase ‘above Karman’

Chapter XVI
WEBS OF DESTINY — II
Essential unity and identity of all Beings, and the Great Heresy – Individual and universal contributors to the Manvantaric Web of Cosmos – Psychological influence of Mâyâ – Karman and the Mahâmâyâ – “As we sow, so shall ye also reap” – Destiny and the Greek teachings – Ethical responsibility and Karman – ‘Sins’ of commission and ‘sins’ of omission – Karman and ‘unmerited suffering’ – Classes of Karman – The Reincarnating Ego and the choice before Rebirth – The Insane and Karman – Great world-catastrophes – The immanent Christ and the intricacies of individual Karman – The Buddhist teaching of Karman

Chapter XVII
HEAVENS AND HELLS — I
Pure and perverted teachings of the post-mortem states – Similarities and variances in the conceptions of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell,’ and the orthodox ideas – Superstition – Mansions of experience in the Universe – “In my Father’s house are many mansions” – Lokas and talas – Attractions and repulsions of peregrinating beings – Nirvâna, Devachan, Avîchi, Nirvâna-Avîchi and Kâma-loka – Our Earth a Myalba – Post-mortem destiny of the human soul – Pantheism and evolution – Emanational evolution as distinct from Darwinism – What is retribution? – Heavens and hells both manifold and temporary – Earth but one of many Cosmic Inns of Life

Chapter XVIII
HEAVENS AND HELLS — II
‘Heavens’ and ‘hells’ in myth and legend and ancient literature – The ‘path to the gods’ and the ‘paths to the fathers’ – Evolution in process throughout the composite of the Universe – ‘Death,’ the human soul, and the Reincarnating Ego – What happens to the evil man after death? – Relative and intermediate states of bliss and misery – The Tattwas defined and described – Nirvâna, identity or nonentity – Plotinus ‘On the Problem of the Soul’ – The Inner God and the personality – The Nirvânî, Devachanî and the state of Avîchi – The ‘lost soul’ and the future of its Monad – Man carves his own destiny – The grand vision of endless growth

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II

Chapter XIX
REIMBODIMENT AS TAUGHT THROUGH THE
AGES — I
Pre-existence, Reimbodiment, Rebirth, Palingenesis, Transmigration, Metempsychosis, Reincarnation, and Metensomatosis, defined and described – The relation of the Reimbodying Ego to the above – ‘Coming anew into life,’ a universal teaching – Skeptics powerless to disprove Rebirth – The Egyptians, metempsychosal reincarnation, and Herodotus – Why did the Egyptians mummify their dead? – The origin of the Egyptians – The Encyclopaedia Brittannica and Metempsychosis: a correction – Josephus, the Pharisees, and Reincarnation – The Universal System and Philo Judaeus

Chapter XX
REIMBODIMENT AS TAUGHT THROUGH THE
AGES — II
Disappearance of the doctrine of Reimbodiment in the sixth century – Scattered groups who retained it: Albigenses, Cathari, Bogomils – Doctrine taught among earliest Christians as illustrated by citations from Origen, Jerome and Clement – Hints as to the doctrine of Reimbodiment found in the Bible – Later believers in some form of metempsychosal reimbodiment: Giordano Bruno, van Helmont, Swedenburg, Goethe, Lessing, Herder – Illustrations of modern conception and misconceptions of the doctrine – The doctrine of Reimbodiment as given in the Orphic teachings

Chapter XXI
HOW MAN IS BORN AND REBORN — I
The causes of rebirth – Love, a great re-uniting power from life to life – The impersonal Eros of the Cosmos – The greater reunion at the end of the Manvantara – The power of thought in building our future destiny on Earth – Reincarnation explains that becomes of unexhausted energies generated in earth-life – What is heredity? – Sex not a radical thing – Explanation of the ego’s entrance into male or female body – The Theosophical conception of marriage – Hate as well as love, a great magnetic power – ‘Not remembering past lives’ no argument against Reincarnation

Chapter XXII
HOW MAN IS BORN AND REBORN — II
How character is builded – Sorrow and suffering, proofs of Nature’s compassionate heart – What it is that reincarnates – Law concerning length of devachanic period – Why we need a devachanic rest – Renunciation of the devachanic rest and shortening of that period possible – The devachanic type of character here on Earth – Unusual cases considered: death of small children; premature death in adult life: by disease, by violence; suicides, congenital idiots – Reincarnation of animals – Man becomes whatever he longs for – Reimbodiment, the doctrine of another chance

Chapter XXIII
‘LIFE,’ IN FACT AND IN THEORY — I
Nineteenth century materialism: an era of contradictions – The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett gives insight into the nature of that era – Twentieth century has seen a change in outlook – Western theological and scientific meaning of ‘life’ – ‘Life’ and ‘death’ are two processes – The doctrine of Swabhâva – Explanation of the term ‘Monadic Ray’ – The ‘new man’ the karman of the old man’ – ‘Life’ and ‘death’ inextricable interwoven

Chapter XXIV
‘LIFE’, IN FACT AND IN THEORY — II
Life not an ‘entity’ separate from matter – Theories of the Mechanists and Vitalists – Animism – No gulf between matter and spirit – Table of radiations of various frequencies illustrating gradual mergence of ethereal substance into material substance – What is Life per se? – Beginnings and endings are dreams of illusion – Nature in continual birth – Death merely a sloughing off of vehicles – What death will be for us in the future – Death and sleep are one – The source of our essential life is the Divine Monad

Chapter XXV
THE ASTRAL LIGHT AND THE LIFE-ATOMS —I
Immobility impossible in the Universe – Dissolution inevitable to all compounded beings – No permanent individuals to be found in bodies – The astral worlds – The nature of the physical body – Explanation of radio-activity in the mineral world – The constitution of Globe D, our Earth – Peregrinations of the life-atoms in a human physical body during earth-life – Analogy of this process with the after-death peregrinations of the life-atoms – Death and other subjects as taught in the Mystery-Schools – The Seven Principles of Man as taught by the Romans and by the Greeks – The relation of the Seven Principles of Man to the Cosmic Principles – Greek and Roman teachings regarding the Underworld

Chapter XXVI
THE ASTRAL LIGHT AND THE LIFE-ATOMS — II
Cause of death from the vehicular standpoint – Peregrination of the physical life-atoms after death – Life-atoms on every plane of man’s being – Journeys of the astral life-atoms after death – Difference between the Linga-sarîra and the Kâma-rûpa – Fate of the Kâma-rûpa of man after death – Our responsibility in connexion with the life-atoms of our various bodies – Description of the picking up of bodies on return of Ego into earth-life – Explanation of the Christian dogma of the ‘resurrection of the body’ – Every vehicle a ‘mode’ of consciousness – Circulations of the life-atoms in the Cosmos

Chapter XXVII
DEATH — AND AFTER: A STUDY OF CONSCIOUSNESS — I
The consciousness-side of the after-death states – A discussion of the subject of consciousness – The ‘I am’ consciousness and the ‘I am I’ consciousness – The Sûtrâtman or Thread-Self – Plato’s teaching of Anamnesis – The unfolding of consciousness in earth-life – The cause of physical death from the standpoint of consciousness – The ‘dreams’ of the Devachan – The panoramic view of the past life at the moment of death – Description of the destiny of the intermediate nature after death – Description of the Kâma-loka – The opportunities which old age brings

Chapter XXVIII
DEATH — AND AFTER: A STUDY OF CONSCIOUSNESS — II
The Radiance of the Reincarnating Ego: what it is and its destiny after the death of the body – The identity of sleep and death – The nature of dreams -Study of consciousness – The seven states of human consciousness: four main divisions defined – Advice to those who watch at a deathbed

Chapter XXIX
THE CIRCULATIONS OF THE COSMOS
The ancient science of Astrology: what its teachings comprised – The status of modern Astrology – The mystic numbers 4, 3, 2 – Esoteric hints in lines from Vergil’s Georgics – Ranges of consciousness of the various monads in man – The eternal peregrinations of the Monad – The Seven Sacred Planets in relation to the peregrinations of the Monad – The vital currents in the cosmic organism – Facts about the Mithraic teachings – Explanations of the two kinds of Outer Rounds – Trishnâ or ‘thirst’ for earth-life -Deductions to be drawn from the Theosophical teachings about death and the after-death states

Chapter XXX
BIRTH AND BEFORE BIRTH
The garments or veils evolved by the Monad – The relation of a human parent to the genealogical stream which follows him – Relation between the peregrinations of the Monad and the stay of the Reincarnating Ego in the Devachan – More detailed description of the return of the Reincarnating Ego into earth-life – The inter-atomic and intra-atomic ethers – The sacred mystery of birth – What is protoplasm? – The constitution of the germ-cell – The aura: a psycho-magnetic-electric atmosphere – Kinetic and dormant life-atoms – More about the mysteries of birth

Chapter XXXI
GREAT SAGES AND THEIR PLACE IN THE COSMIC HIERARCHY
Who and what the great Sages are – Guides and protectors of the human race – Explanation of various names given to them – Legends concerning them – Their natural ‘powers’ – The true nature of ‘miracles’ – The rationale of human perfectibility – The graduated scale of beings from elementals to gods – The fundamental unity of all classes of beings – The doctrine of the Silent Watcher, the spiritual Hierarch of our Globe

Chapter XXXII
PNEUMATOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY: MYSTERIES OF MAN’S INNER NATURE — I
The Christian doctrine of spirit, soul, and body – Esoteric teaching of man as sevenfold (or tenfold) being – The sevenfold division of the Universe – Man builded of elements draw from the cosmic reservoir – Man as a host of monads – Man as a threefold entity – The nature of true psychology and pneumatology – The ‘I am’ and the ‘I am I’ in man – The normal and abnormal interactive functioning of ‘spirit,’ ‘soul,’ and body’ – Cases of supernormal activity of the Upper Duad – The great Teachers as willing human instruments of a spiritual Essence

Chapter XXXIII
PNEUMATOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY: MYSTERIES OF MAN’S INNER NATURE — II
Human beings divisible into three general classes – The status of the intermediate or psychological part of the constitution in these three classes – The ‘Voice of Conscience’ – Intuition, Inspiration, and Genius, explained – Avatâras and the mystery of their existence – Connexion between Jesus, Sankarâchârya, and the Buddha – Minor Avatâras – The Messenger an Avatâra of a kind: H.P. Blavatsky an instance – The destiny of the ‘I am I’ consciousness – The emanational unfolding of man’s sevenfold being follows universal plan – How union with the divinity within may be begun and continued to a glorious consummation

Chapter XXXIV
GREAT SEERS VERSUS VISIONARIES
What constitutes a Seer? – The status of the visionary or semi-mystic – The source of his ‘visions’ – The Astral Light: its characteristics, its illusions, its dangers – Denizens of the astral world – The spiritual Seer and the Ãkâsa – Why visionaries often mislead – Where the Masters of Wisdom live and why there – How one may distinguish between the Seer and the visionary – Two main tests of the true Teacher: universality of teaching, and inner virtue – Some visionaries of superior type – Why the Seer is a spiritual Teacher – The purpose of training and initiation – Minor initiations – Explanations of ‘angels’ and other ‘visitants’ from higher realms – Two authentic sources of knowledge available to the spiritual Teacher

Chapter XXXV
THE ESOTERIC SCHOOLS
The age of the Mystery-Schools – The nature of the Atlantean Race – The Mystery-Schools as the seats of learning in ancient times – The degeneration of the Mystery-Schools – Initiated Roman Emperors – Training in chelaship – Prophetic writings depicting the approach of spiritual darkness: Second Epistle of Peter, Vishnu-Purâna, Hermetic writings – Cyclic appearances of Teachers or their Messengers – How the Teachers of mankind work – The present existence of the Mystery-Schools – The Occult Succession or Hermetic Chain of Teachers – The stuff of which disciples are made

Chapter XXXVI
POSTSCRIPT: SOME MISUNDERSTOOD TEACHINGS OF THE MYSTERIES
Mystery-Schools the foci of spiritual light – Intimate connexion between the cosmic cycles and man’s life on Earth – The story of Jesus a mystery-tale – Interpretation of the story of Jesus’ entering Jerusalem on an ass and the foal of an ass – Meaning of the Epiphany – When did Jesus really live? – The aureole, nimbus, aura, etc. – Christianity a syncretistic system – Early identity of Jesus with the ‘Sol Invictus’ – Ancient customs and beliefs in regard to the Winter-Solstice festival – Interpretation of the dogma of the Virgin Birth – Significance of the legend of the Three Magi