The Egyptians divided the face of the sky by night into seven parts. The primary Heaven was sevenfold.[1530]
So it was with the Âryans. One has but to read the Purânas about the beginnings of Brahmâ and his Egg, to see this. Have the Âryans then, taken the idea from the Egyptians? But, as the lecturer proceeds:
The earliest forces recognized in Nature were reckoned as seven in number. These became Seven Elementals, devils [?], or later divinities. Seven properties were assigned to Nature—as matter, cohesion, fluxion, coagulation, accumulation, station, and division—and seven elements or souls to man.[1531]
All this was taught in the Esoteric Doctrine, but it was interpreted and its mysteries unlocked, as already stated, with seven, not two or, at the utmost, three keys; hence the causes and their effects worked in invisible or mystic as well as in psychic Nature, and were made referable to Metaphysics and Psychology as much as to Physiology. As the author says:
A principle of sevening, so to say, was introduced, and the number seven supplied a sacred type that could be used for manifold purposes.[1532]
And it was so used. For:
The seven souls of the Pharaoh are often mentioned in the Egyptian texts.... Seven souls, or principles in man were identified by our British Druids.... The [pg 669]Rabbins also ran the number of souls up to seven: so, likewise, do the Karens of India.[1533]
And then, the author, with several misspellings, tabulates the two teachings—the Esoteric and the Egyptian—and shows that the latter had the same series and in the same order.
| [Esoteric] Indian. | Egyptian. |
| 1. Rûpa, body or element of form. | 1. Kha, body. |
| 2. Prâna, the breath of life. | 2. Ba, the soul of breath. |
| 3. Astral body. | 3. Khaba, the shade. |
| 4. Manas, or intelligence.[1534] | 4. Akhu, intelligence or perception. |
| 5. Kâma Rûpa, or animal soul. | 5. Seb, ancestral soul. |
| 6. Buddhi, or spiritual soul. | 6. Putah, the first intellectual father. |
| 7. Âtmâ, pure spirit. | 7. Atmu, a divine, or eternal soul.[1535] |
Further on, the lecturer formulates these seven (Egyptian) Souls, as (1) The Soul of Blood—the formative; (2) The Soul of Breath—that breathes; (3) The Shade or Covering Soul—that envelopes; (4) The Soul of Perception—that perceives; (5) The Soul of Pubescence—that procreates; (6) The Intellectual Soul—that reproduces intellectually; and (7) The Spiritual Soul—that is perpetuated permanently.