The science called Gupta Vidya [Secret Doctrine] establishes seven Fundamental Keys to the Ageless Wisdom.  The first three Fundamentals were given by H.P. Blavatsky and are contained within the Proem of The Secret Doctrine, published in 1888. Prior to commencing with the study of the proposed Fourth, the student is advised to carefully study and reflect upon the first three. The first three absolutely fundamental Laws of the Universe as given by H.P.B., establish:

I. An Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless and Immutable Principle.  The One Absolute Reality that ante cedes all manifested conditioned Being.

II. The Law of Periodicity.

III. The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Oversoul of the Great Unknown Life.

  The Fourth Fundamental herein given expresses the numerical values of the Seven Great Rays or Emanations:

IV.   [1 +5 + 9 + 2 + 5 + 3 + 5 +1 + 5 + 7 = (43) = 7]

Commentary:

        The general reader of Alice A. Bailey and H.P. Blavatsky is now invited in the unprecedented effort to expose the numerical figures and mathematical cycles of the Seven Great Rays or Emanations. Owing to the incompleteness of the astrological instruction given out to A.A.B. and H.P.B., the reader who is already a student of their combined works should not be surprised to initially find considerable time dedicated to the general introductory and explanation of the whole astrological portion of the secret sacerdotal language built upon the number 10. When writing this commentary it was assumed that those interested in it would already be somewhat familiar with the books of H.P.B. and A.A.B., and although I have taken special care that my exposition does not fall flat, shoot under the feet, or fly over the head of the sincere student of the Seven Rays, it is definitely a post-graduate work, not a series of simple instructions for beginners.  Furthermore, though recondite or unfamiliar Occult terminology has also purposefully not been avoided, I have truly sought to present the numerical ideas and explanations in the best and clearest form.  Admittedly, this is a daring attempt to divulge hitherto undisclosed and veiled Eastern Esoteric Instruction and reveal unimpeded the grandest truths of the Great White Lodge, its most important and vital astrological Mysteries and treat openly of the Celestial Doctrine of Sacred Numbers.  The Master Key with its secret numerical combination of 10 digits will no longer remain exclusively with the Initiate alone but be given to humanity.

           It is well for the modern student to pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that no secret was so well hidden and so secret with the ancient initiate astrologers as that of 10 Sacred Numbers and the method for calculating the numerically controlled periods of the Seven Rays.  I would remind students that when writing about the key to the astrological Mysteries H.P.B. repeated in the Introductory of The Secret Doctrine what she had earlier written in Isis Unveiled.

“The said key must be turned seven times before the whole of the system is divulged.  We will give but one turn, and thereby allow the profane one glimpse into the mystery.  Happy he, who understands the whole.” (Vol. I. pg.60)

And, once again quoted from Isis Unveiled, H.P.B., unequivocally states:

“Which key is only darkly referred to as possible, but refused absolutely, by these extraordinary men, as not permissible to be disclosed.” (Vol. II. pg. 461)

          In the Tibetan’s book Esoteric Astrology, A.A.B., when writing of the key says the following:

“I would remind you that there is an astrological key to The Secret Doctrine which cannot yet be given in completeness.  I can give you some hints and suggest some lines of approach, and these, if carried in the consciousness of the illumined astrologers, may enable one of them at a later date to discover that key and then - turning it on behalf of humanity - reveal the fourth great fundamental of the Ageless Wisdom of which three are already given in the Proem of The Secret Doctrine.” (Esoteric Astrology, pg.7-8)

          From the most ancient times, it was held as the highest transgression to divulge anything pertaining to Ray Chronology and no Lodge astrologer was permitted to reveal a single figure.  The secret arithmetical code and evaluative formulae of progress and regress recorded in the annals of the Hierarchy have always remained veiled and closed. We have been taught that this law of silence was always imposed on initiate astrologers and from the very dawn of human history has been Hierarchical policy.  The genuine Esoteric astrologer remains silent and unknown and never publishes what he knows, even rarely speaking of it because he knows to well the penalties for indiscretion.  Let the reader learn and appreciate all this.  But very happily history, as all else in nature proceeds in cycles and actual history repeats itself. Hence, the virgin trail of the Astrological Key to the Secret Doctrine, which has long been hidden behind the impassable path of the few hints and clues left by the Masters of Wisdom and thus, remained concealed from view, has once again, resurfaced. Astrological instruction deliberately drowned in the sea of doubt and denial or simply inextricably lost in the jungles of the modern students mind have now re-ascended and re-appeared on the surface. Meanwhile, no one can realize more fully than this astrologer the gravity of the charges which will fall from the lips and be levelled by some of his peers against his audacity to attempt to expound the Fourth Fundamental of the Ageless Wisdom and in the process simultaneously claim to turn the Astrological Key to the Secret Doctrine which is, as you know, the Third Key from out of the Seven Keys. Of course, my attempt to unite 10 Sacred Numbers with the prototypical Ideas of the Seven Great Rays must be accepted or rejected on its own merits, fully or partially. 

Moreover, the reader must be reminded, as a whole, what is now given cannot be found in full anywhere. Instead of putting a mask on the numerical Science of Correspondences, I have shown its face openly, carefully revealing the heart and soul of the Divine Doctrine trusting that its sacred truths will not be abused or used by in appreciative students for their own selfish ends.  The student now has the opportunity to learn the Numerical Alphabet of Truth but, most assuredly, would be guilty of high treason to attempt to manipulate the Sacred Numbers in any fashion whatsoever. The punishment is terrible indeed for those who transgress the permitted laws and timing of secret revelation.  Standing arrayed in battle-order in the Occultist’s arsenal of weaponry, the 10 Sacred Numbers are most dangerous as double-edged weapons, which must not be used to manipulate other people or only freely lavish on the lower Self.  Those few, whose inner natures will remain unaffected by the double-edged blade of Occult Knowledge, are the most fit to receive the master key to the geometrical-numerical Mystery Language.  Then, and only then, will a true sense of Hierarchical timing be known along with the understanding of the correct hour for the carrying out of the Hierarchical Plan in its future detail. Quite naturally, all of this will seem problematical at best to those who have neither understanding nor knowledge in the power of Esoteric Numerals.  But to those who can reason from the standpoint of trained disciples, this warning is not unworthy of credence and should not be dismissed lightly.  Those trained workers who understand the power of thought will appreciate that a concerted power, were it turned to Black Magic, could interfere with important Hierarchical Plans on the verge of externalisation.  This is, of course, one of the principle reasons why, in the past, the actual figures, periods and dates for the Ray Periods have always been withheld.

          The proposed fourth fundamental herein given is expressed through the correct combination of the 10 Sacred Numbers, which form the foundation of the Manifested Kosmos.  Each of the 10 Master Figures stand for an external utterance of a numerical letter of the Universal Word, the symbol for the Whole of Kosmos and correspondingly sets the vibrational rate of substance on one plane or other of the seven Universal planes of existence through which specific deific qualities seek perfect expression.   In other words, its arithmetical code ciphers the Universal Symbol of the Deific Word of the Macrocosmic Logos which in [Its] totality is Kosmos - the Universe made into terms of Form.  The 10 Sacred Numbers express and describe the architecture of the Idea of the immovable Divine Thought in [Its] Absoluteness.  They give the key to understanding the mathematical blueprint of the ideal conception of the Eternal Universe. The Celestial Logos is, in the Esoteric interpretation, the total of the Number 10, which, is symbolised by the Divine Decad. As Cosmic Symbols, the 10 Numerical Emanations constitute the true Body or Form of the Celestial Logos, which is outwardly clothed, as a farther expansion of the Divine Substance, in the visible world, the Universal Word made flesh.  In Esoteric Philosophy, the Decad Is made to emerge from the One Solitary Impartite Monad of the Celestial Logos. As a Universal Symbol, the Decad or the Perfect 10, best represents the idea of the Absolute All manifesting itself in the Logos of Generative Power and Creation. The Circle is the “naught,” or the zero, representing Absolute No-Thing while the vertical line stands for the Manifested Logos.  The idea of representing the Absolute Unmanifest Logos by the circumference of a circle, and the Creative Power - male and female, or the Androgynous Logos - by the Diameter of the Circle, is best described in Indian Philosophy by the symbol of the Brahmanical “Golden Egg” from within which emerges Brahma, the Creative Logos from the Central Point of the Circle.  Keep in mind, the Decad is the ideogram of the Ideal Model of the first Divine Idea or Thought from which springs the whole Kosmos.  It stands in its character for the Supreme Idea, which is beyond all finite existence, secondary causes, laws and principles and upon which all other ideas are grounded.  Containing every possible power of exact expression and proportion, the Decad is regarded as the First Divine Manifestation. The vertical diameter line is the primal One from which spring the 2, the 3, the 4, the5, the 6, the 8, and the 9. Occult Cosmogony begins therefore, with the circle, the point, the triangle, the square, the pentagram, the hexagon, the heptagon, the ogdoad and the triple ternary. The corresponding geometric figures or bodies represent the Sacred Numbers objectively. The Form of the Universe, students must remember, is not produced through or by number, but geometrically, that is, following the proportions described and expressed by the numerical letters of the Universal Word which is, as earlier stated, in its totality the whole of Kosmos. The fourth fundamental’s digitalized Code of Law sets forth a geometric, numerical and astronomical system of exact science founded on the integral values and ratios of the Divine Figures, which form, on the plane of the Unified Decad, the realm of Reality. Reflect on this. Its numerical formula pertains in its chief applications to the serious study of cosmic, sidereal, terrestrial and spiritual Mysteries. Although it requires arduous labor and necessitates years of study to comprehend even the general gist, it is an easy thing for one well versed in its sacerdotal puzzle to explain the cycles of the Seven Rays. Keep in mind; the numerically controlled periods of the Seven Rays are much more than a mere succession of events, or a periodical space of time of more or less prolonged duration.  What the student must attempt to grasp is that, in Esoteric Astrology, cyclical time is our abstraction of the Celestial Logos who is made to manifest co-ordinately with the numerically controlled spiral-cyclic efforts of the Seven Great Rays or Emanations.

   The Esoteric system of Universal Numerical Symbolism reveals the mathematical and geometrical relations of the Boundless Circle, representing the!  Absolute Principle, to the Point, the Triangle and Square and all the integral Ray Emanations of the Divine area.  This sequence of figures beginning with the Point within the Circle express scientific descriptions of the order of the evolution of Kosmos and forms the mathematical groundwork for the system of Occult Cosmology.  One who has studied the numerical evolution in the primeval Occult Cosmogony begins therefore, with the symbol of the Boundless or Infinite Circle and the One Unmanifest Logos and then proceeds with the second Manifested, the Triangle concreting into the Square and then, the Seven Rays on the material plane. In the symbols of the Circle, Triangle and the Square we see three distinct representations of the Universe as the Pre-existing, evolving from the Ever-existing, and the Phenomenal or again, the Initial, the Manifested and the Creative Triad or the Three in One.  Consequently, the Esoteric Numeric System is based on the Divine Septenary hanging from the Triad thus, forming the Decad. This indicates to us that Logoic manifestion is of a septenary nature and the Central Light of the Logos, the One Ray of Divinity, manifests first as a Triplicity and then as a Septenary.  We see the One Logos radiate forth as fundamental Father-Mother-Son and these three again, reflected through the Seven Ray Logoi. In other words, the One Ray demonstrates through the Three major Rays and the Four minor making the Divine Septenary.  This symbolises the same idea as the Sephirothal Tree, ten in all, yet when seperated from its supernal Triangle, leaving Seven.

          The key values in all aspects of the Seven Rays are expressed through their mathematical and geometrical relations on the Universal Plane of Nature. Their Universal Ray Figures are the Sacred Numbers or vital figures, which come before the apparent figures. In Esoteric astrology a Sacred Number is the embodiment of a cosmic Entity, Divinities and at the same time “Breaths” emanating from the One Life, the All in All, who’s breath alone could organise the Kosmos. Before the mathematical numbers therefore, there are the self-moving numbers and before the figures apparent the vital figures.  The 10 Sacred Numbers of the Seven Rays lie at the Root of the Manifested Universe and guide the first differentiation of homogenous Substance into hetergenous Elements and set the limits to the formative hand of the Logos in Nature. Their Universal Essences are philosophically viewed as the abstraction of expression or, the inwardness of manifested things. As Cosmic Symbols, the Sacred Numbers are an expression of the primal qualities and essences of the Celestial Spirit, in the Spirit; are, in fact, Spirit. In other words, they are the materialised embodiments, the quality of the form or the condition of the Seven Ray Spirits, each at a specific higher vibrational rate on one plane or other of Kosmos and seeking expression through that particular form or condition.  In no way therefore, are the mathematical figures and geometrical bodies of the 10 Sacred Numbers an arbitrary or human-born doctrine, system or code. Indeed, these numbers have their application in the most sacred calculations of Lodge astrologers, as they are the never-erring, perpetually recurring numbers, unveiling to the student who studies them a truly Divine System and an intelligent Plan in Nature. Taken collectively, they represent the Light of the Logos, the direct reflection of the Unmanifest on the Plane of Universal Manifestation; that is, the Divine Host of Sephiroth who have constructed the Universe.  All created Bodies on the Universal Plane of Nature are built in proportion by their means and are numerically co-ordinated in relation to their movements. The Chain of Hierarchy is great and immutable and the numerical sequences unalterable. Never does the geometrical pattern, the numerical progression, or the Law of Correspondence break down. It becomes evident that Knowledge of the numerically controlled periods of the Seven Rays will eventually lead humanity to a conscious working with Divine Law and to an intelligent co-operation with the Plan of Evolution.  Though always of wide general interest to students of the Seven Rays, the subject of the periods of the Ray Cycles has always been one, which is withal very little, comprehended. Suffice it to say, the fourth fundamental alone can provide the number of mortal years that run along the sevenfold lines of the spiritual and physical evolutions of the seen and the unseen because the events of mankind, as all else in nature do run co-ordinately with the numerically controlled periods of the Seven Rays.

          In their grand and simple combinations, the fundamental numbers and geometrical figures describe by the Great Circle, the Luminous Point, the Ideal Triangle and the Perfect Square contain the key to the construction and evolution of Kosmos. In Esoteric Philosophy, the Universal Postulate upon which the whole of the Manifested Universe is based is the All-Presence of the Boundless Circle.  In its character as a symbol the One Great Circle stands for the hidden absolute existence, which contains within itself the noumena of all realities, the One Permanent Reality. In the spiritual sense, the Circle is the ideogram of the One Being which is the noumenon of all noumena, which we know, underlie phenomena.  The Circle, curving in upon itself, stands as the chief symbol of the Absolute Perpetual Motion and Endless Duration of the Unmanifest Logos. In the region of Occult metaphysics the Great Circle is the sign of the Unknown and the Unknowable Mover, the truly Self-Existing One.  Whether, for example, as in the case of the Vedic Deity, Parabrahman or the Jewish Ain Soph, the notion of Absolute No-Thing, a universal, eternal essence, is always to be found symbolised by the Circle or the “nought.” Ain-Soph is secondless and causeless as is Parabrahman.  In each system both are regarded as being nowhere and everywhere, hence, the Absolute All in All. Keep in mind, the Circle symbolises pure Darkness because it represents the hidden!  Absolute Light of Life. As a glyph, the plane of the Circle exemplifies the absolute homogenous nature of the Divine Essence and the abstract body of the ever-present abstraction, the Unmanifest Logos. In Occult Cosmogony, Space is, in its abstract presence, the Unmanifest Logos [Itself], the Ineffable and Unknown Cause.  The idea of representing Absolute No-Thing in the ideograph of the Great Circle brings to view the idea of the Universe emerging from and in boundless Space, the radiations from which are periodically aggregated into graduated forms from pure Spirit to gross Matter. The fundamental dogma of Occultism is the Unity of All in Nature, in its Ultimate Essence. Every new period of Universal Manifestation or World Creation occurs out of the Eternal Esse, the pre-existent eternal Substance, or Matter, which Substance is the Boundless Ever-Existing Space, best symbolised by the Great Circle. In the Circle therefore, we see the idea of the eternal immutability of the Unmanifest One and the Changelessness of that Principle. The Circle, the archetype of all round figures, contains a Triad in its construction composed of Centre, Space and Circumference.  It is the inherent Triad formed by the construction of the Circle, which gives rise to the idea of the Triple Hypostasis of the Unnameable and Unknown Essence, the Threefold Being of the Absolute Life, the Root of the Seven Fundamental Cosmic Principle.

          It is the hierogram of the Point in Circle, which denotes the dawn of differentiation of the Unmanifest Logos from the passive or inactive state of causal latency into one of intense activity.  Esoteric Philosophy forms its conception of a logical, universal and Absolute Logos on the basis of the Point within the Circle. The essence of the Point is Motion as it reveals the change from the Eternal Vibration in the Unmanifested to Vortical Motion in the Manifested. In other words, the absolutely eternal universal motion, or vibration, called the “Great Breath,” differentiates into the primordial, first manifested Cosmic Atom. The Point then, symbolises the Manifested Logos but [That] from which [It] emanates, or of which, rather, it is the expression, the Unmanifest Logos, is passed over in silence. Quite clearly, this indicates to us that the unknown, indivisible, pregenetic Point, after its manifestation as the Universe, is the veil, which conceals the Absolute Silent All. Parabrahman or Ain-Soph, the No-Thing because the Infinite and the All cannot be known except through the Luminous Point. But even the Manifest Logos knows not Parabrahman but only [Its] veil, Mulaprakriti, and not the One Unconditional and Absolute Reality behind.  The Absolute Unmanifest Logos remains the ever-incomprehensible abstraction. Occult Philosophers draw a clear line between the absolutely Ideal Universe and the invisible though Manifested Kosmos. It is the Unit-Point therefore, which is the chief symbol of the real esoteric Logos or super-cosmic Monad, as it is called, in [Its] synthetic character. In short, the Point symbolises the “First Born, '94 the “Creator,” or the Divine Mind in creative operation.  This indicates to us that the Celestial Logos, the “Grand Heavenly Man,” evolves as a Compound Unit of Logoi, who appear in their totality as the “Fiat Lux.” When the Spirit-Ray of the Unmanifest Logos differentiates the “Water of Space,” by dropping a reflection of itself into the region of Manifestion, the Three-fold Being of the One Absolute Life, synthesised in the Point, issues forth and appears. Absolute Endless No-Thing uses the Form of the One, the Manifested Point of Logos as the Vehicle to descend into and manifest itself in the phenomenal world.  In this we see the Spirit-Ray of the Unmanifest Logos using the Manifested Logos or the objective universe as the means to manifest. So, the Circle represents the First Cause then, the Unmanifest Logos, the original and Eternal Idea that manifests through the Second Logos, or Adam Kadmon, the Point. Keep in mind however, the Intra-Cosmic Monad!  of the Unknown Logos is only an emanation and reflection of the Point in the Phenomenal world as it becomes the apex of the Second Manifested Triangle, unifying the threefold nature of the Circle, or Spirit-Ray on the noumenal plane in the supersenous World. The Point retires into and merges with the Circle after emanating the first Three Points and connecting them with lines, thus forming the noumenal basis of the Ideal Triangle. In Occult Cosmogony we find the Solitary Monad of the Manifest Logos turning in and coalescing with the Boundless Circumference of the Great Circle as soon as [It] has evolved the Uni-Triad.

     The first geometrical figure after the Circle or Speheroid is the Triangle.  Its three aspects of Motion, Colour and Sound are made to appear and disappear with the Manifested Kosmos, the visible Triangle, so to speak, on the plane of the ever-invisible Circle. After having emanated from itself the first Three Points and connecting them with lines, the Point of Logos becomes the apex of the manifested equilateral Triangle.  The Triangle is the first absolutely Perfect Figure because, as we know, in geometry one or two straight lines cannot represent a figure.  It is the junction of three straight lines, which produce the first Perfect Figure - the First Perfection.  Father-Mother-Son are unified in the apex point on the noumenal plane.  On the plane of the noumenal world, the Ideal Triangle is the First Conception of the Manifested Logos, its image Father-Mother-Son.  The Ideal Triangle really stands for the triune co-equal nature of the first differentiated Substance or the Co substantiality of the manifested Father-Mother-Son.   It is only the base line of the Triangle, which can furnish a basis for differentiated consciousness.  This indicates the origin of differentiated Cosmic Matter is to be found in the base of the Triangle.  The base line is the symbol therefore, of the Universal Plane of Productive Nature and unifies on the phenomenal plane Father-Mother-Son as these were unified in the noumenal Universe in the Point. The sum of the Sacred Numbers constructing the Ideal Triangle is 6 as (1+5+9 = 15 = 6).  Thus figure 6, the Hexagon, Double Triangle or Pythagorean “Star of Life”, represents the animating or the informing Principle emanated from the Trinitarian One. It stands in its chief character as the symbol for the inseparability and junction and blending together of pure Spirit and Matter. In other words, the number 6 is the symbol of the Creative Logos, unifying the subjective and the objective. It stands for the six forces or powers of Nature, all synthesized by the invisible seventh. The 1, the 5, and the 9, are the expression of fundamental Father-Son-Mother, the radical Triple Ray in the Unmanifested and are the Noumenon of the Square or the Manifested Kosmos.  Within the decimal system the symbolism is plain and clear. Digit 5, occupies the mid-way position between the extremes of the Male-God or Father Ray, represented by the vertical 1, and the Great Mother, represented by the 9.  Number 9, represents the feminine in Nature because it stands for the limit of the digits in the decimal system - the extent of the form or body. Thus, in the super-spiritual and archetypal Universe, the 1, the 5, and the 9, correspond to the Sephirothal Crown or Upper Triad. Reflect on this.

          The Ideal Triangle emanates from the One and becomes the Perfect Square, the symbol of fundamental Father-Mother-Son as a Unity and as a living manifestation. The “4”, is a Sacred Number because it emanates from the One, the first manifested Unit or rather Three in One. The symbol of the Square or Quaternary is the pyramid with its square base and four triangular sides.  In Esoteric Philosophy, the Square must bu9ild for itself a wall from the Triangle, if it would be manifested.  The Three becomes Four due to the Law of Solids as the Triangle with its Three lines on a plane surface takes on Four sides when it becomes a solidified body.  The Quaternary is the Three made Four and the Four made Three and is represented on this Earth by the “3” and the “4”, or the universal male and female glyphs showing the first aspect of the evolving Logos. Through a process of mystic transmutation the Triangle becomes a Square and so becomes the Seven, the Creative Force, thus, making a Decad with the primordial Triangle, which originated it. In other words, the Quaternary represents the One who is the Three made Four which are the Seven which equal the Perfect 10.  The sum of the seven Esoteric numbers of the four minor Ray Logoi composing the Great Square equals (28) or 10.  This indicates that the Spirit of the Logos becomes, in [Its] manifested state the Makara or Kumura, the Perfect 10 - the Universe.  The number 28 stands for the Liberated Lives of each Great Manvantara.

[2+5+3+5+1+5+7] = (28) = 10]

   It is upon a right comprehension of the Occult symbolism and numerical values of the Great Circle, the Ideal Triangle and the Perfect Square that the student’s progress has to depend because for the further elucidation in one’s mind, the geometric bodies and numerical figures offers the only sure clues which can guide one’s subsequent studies. But let the student remember that the 10 Sacred Numbers are not fundamentally concerned with the ability to function on a plane, nor the manipulation of energy or matter.  Numerology has previously been studied only from the exoteric substance aspect with the emphasis upon the material and not from the standpoint of the subjective consciousness with the emphasis primarily psychological.  Initiation into the system of Universal Symbolism concerns Consciousness and deals with the subjective Life, that is, Life as part of the self-realisation of the Logos of a Ray, and not Life in Matter as we understand it. Only when this latter point is sufficiently grasped, is it safe and wise for the learner to proceed with this study.  Commentary on the 10 Sacred Numbers  continues as follows:

Cipher 1.  The First Ray of Will and Power

     Digit “1’, in the first place is the chief symbol of the Universal Unit, the Male-God and the Father Ray. Body the Great of the “1`”, embodies the beauty of the idea of the Creative Logos, the ultimate glory of the intelligent arrangement of the Sevenfold Power and the majesty of the ordered forces, fusioned and blended.

Cipher 5.  The Second Ray of Love-Wisdom