--T.S.
The Septenary Principle in Esotericism
Since the exposition of the Arhat esoteric doctrine was begun, many who
had not acquainted themselves with the occult basis of Hindu philosophy
have imagined that the two were in conflict. Some of the more bigoted
have openly charged the Occultists of the Theosophical Society with
propagating rank Buddhistic heresy; and have even gone to the length of
affirming that the whole Theosophic movement was but a masked Buddhistic
propaganda. We were taunted by ignorant Brahmins and learned Europeans
that our septenary divisions of Nature and everything in it, including
man, are arbitrary and not endorsed by the oldest religious systems of
the East. It is now proposed to throw a cursory glance at the Vedas,
the Upanishads, the Law-Books of Manu, and especially the Vedanta, and
show that they too support our position. Even in their crude
exotericism their affirmation of the sevenfold division is apparent.
Passage after passage may be cited in proof. And not only can the
mysterious number be found traced on every page of the oldest Aryan
Sacred Scriptures, but in the oldest books of Zoroastrianism as well;
in the rescued cylindrical tile records of old Babylonia and Chaldea, in
the "Book of the Dead" and the Ritualism of ancient Egypt, and even in
the Mosaic books--without mentioning the secret Jewish works, such as
the Kabala.
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