The Secret Doctrine: Volume 1, Cosmogenesis: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy(Cambridge Library Collection - Spiritualism and Esoteric Knowledge)

Ukrainian-born Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891) was a powerful and controversial member of the spiritualist world and for a time famous for her powers as a medium. She was a co-founder of the theosophy movement in the United States, which she later extended to Europe and India, drawing from her extensive global travels and her familiarity with a broad range of belief systems, from Asian religions to New Orleans voodoo, as well as secret societies such as the Freemasons. Drawing from Hinduism and Buddhism, theosophy aimed to understand the mystic powers of the universe and promote the study of other religions. In The Secret Doctrine, published in 1888, Blavatsky aims to explain the spiritual origins of the world. Volume 1 looks at the world's 'cosmic evolution', the mystical symbolism that developed throughout this process, and scientific criticism.

Table of Contents:
Preface; Introduction; Book I; Section 1. Cosmic Evolution: Seven Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan: 1. The night of the universe; 2. The idea of differentiation; 3. The awakening of kosmos; 4. The septenary hierarchies; 5. Fohat: the child of the septenary hierarchies; 6. Our world, its growth and development, theosophical misconceptions, explanations concerning the globes and the monads; 6. Continued; 7. The parents of man on Earth; Summing up; Section 2. The Evolution of Symbolism in its Approximate Order: 1. Symbolism and ideographs; 2. The mystery language and its keys; 3. Primordial substance and divine thought; 4. Chaos – theos – kosmos; 5. The hidden deity, its symbols and glyphs; 6. The mundane egg; 7. The days and nights of Brahma; 8. The lotus as a universal symbol; 9. Deus lunus; 10. Tree and serpent and crocodile worship; 11. Demon est deus inversus; 12. The theogony of the creative gods; 13. The seven creations; 14. The four elements; 15. On Kwan-Shi-Yin and Kwan-Yin; Section 3. Science and the Secret Doctrine Contrasted: 1. Reasons for these addenda; 2. Modern physicists are playing at blind man's buff; 3. An lumen sit corpus nec non?; 4. Is gravitation a law?; 5. The theories of rotation in science; 6. The masks of science; 7. An attack on the scientific theory of force by a man of science; 8. Life, force, or gravity; 9. The solar theory; 10. The coming force; 11. On the elements and atoms; 12. Ancient thought in modern dress; 13. The modern nebular theory; 14. Forces – modes of motion or intelligences?; 15. Gods, monads, and atoms; 16. Cyclic evolution and karma; 17. The zodiac and its antiquity; 18. Summary of the mutual position.