Author of "ISIS UNVEILED."
"There is no Religion higher than Truth."
London: THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED.
7, Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C.
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE,
117, Nassau Street, New York.
THE MANAGER OF THE THEOSOPHIST.
Adyar, Madras.
1888.
"Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1888, by
H. P. Blavatsky,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C."
This Work
I Dedicate to all True Theosophists,
In every Country,
And of every Race,
For they called it forth, and for them it was recorded.
PRELIMINARY NOTES.
On the Archaic Stanzas, and the Four Prehistoric Continents ... 1
The Imperishable Sacred Land ... 6
The Hyperborean ... 7
Lemuria ... 7
Atlantis ... 8
The Tropics at the Pole ... 11
STANZAS FROM THE BOOK OF DZYAN . . . 15
THE BEGINNINGS OF SENTIENT LIVE ... 22
Man, the Third Logos ... 25
The Celestial Governors of Humanity ... 29
Parent Stars and Sister Planets ... 33
Three Kinds of Light ... 35
The Numbers of Creation ... 39
The First War in Heaven ... 45
TWO ANTEDILUVIAN ASTRONOMERS ... 47
STANZA II. NATURE UNAIDED FAILS ... 52
The Monsters of Chaos ... 53
The "Double Dragon" ... 57
Who are the Flames? ... 63
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE BRAHMINS ... 66
The Race that never dies ... 67
Cosmogony, an intelligent plan ... 73
STANZA III. ATTEMPTS TO CREATE MAN ... 75
The various classes of Creators ... 77
Man, a god in animal form ... 81
"Fires," "Sparks," and "Flames" ... 83
STANZA IV. CREATION OF THE FIRST RACES ... 86
Pitris of the Gods and Demons ... 89
What Prometheus symbolized ... 95
The Hammer of Thor ... 99
The Divine Rebels ... 103
Man's Father, the Sun ... 105
STANZA V. THE EVOLUTION OF THE SECOND RACE ... 109
The Secret Work of Chiram ... 113
The outgrowth of Races ... 117
Leda, Castor, and Pollux ... 121
Jah-Hovah Androgynous ... 125
The Jewish God-name ... 127
STANZA VI. THE EVOLUTION OF THE SWEAT-BORN ... 131
Bi-sexual reproduction ... 133
The Virgin Third Race ... 135
A Few Words about Deluges and Noahs ... 138
Various Deluges ... 141
The Arkite Symbols ... 143
Could Men Exist 18,000,000 Years ago? ... 148
Spontaneous Generation ... 151
The Solar System in the Puranas ... 155
Oceans of Carbonic Acid? ... 159
STANZA VII. FROM THE SEMI-DIVINE DOWN TO THE FIRST HUMAN RACES ... 161
Monads and Rounds ... 167
A Suggestive Explanation ... 171
A Saint Hypnotised ... 175
Sweat-born and Androgynes ... 177
STANZA VIII. EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMAL MAMMALIANS THE FIRST ... 180
Archaic Zoology ... 183
The Sin of the Mindless Men ... 185
WHAT MAY BE THE OBJECTIONS TO THE FOREGOING ... 185
STANZA IX. THE FINAL EVOLUTION OF MAN ... 191
The Hairy Men of China ... 195
The Separation of Sexes ... 197
Primeval Language ... 199
EDENS, SERPENTS AND DRAGONS ... 202
The Garden of Eden a College ... 203
Flying Camels ... 205
Two Schools of Magic ... 211
The Flying Dragons ... 219
THE SONS OF GOD AND THE SACRED ISLAND ... 220
The Magicians of Atlantis ... 223
STANZA X. THE HISTORY OF THE FOURTH RACE ... 227
The Mysteries among the Mayas ... 229
Satanic Myths ... 233
Mahasura and Satan ... 237
Man, the pale shadow of God ... 243
The curse of Vasishta ... 247
ARCHAIC TEACHINGS IN THE PURANAS AND GENESIS ... 251
From worm to man ... 255
Identity of Human and Animal embryos ... 259
A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE EARLY RACES ... 263
The Natural "Fall" ... 267
The Symbolism of Kronos ... 269
STANZA X. Continued ... 271
The Golden Age ... 273
No Devils outside Humanity ... 275
ARE GIANTS A FICTION? ... 277
The Seven Virgin Youths ... 281
The Tibetan Lilith ... 285
The Races of Men not all Human ... 287
THE RACES WITH THE "THIRD EYE" ... 289
Occult Physiology ... 295
The Evolution of the Eye ... 299
The Third Eye is now a Gland ... 301
THE PRIMEVAL MANUS OF HUMANITY ... 307
The Four Earlier Races ... 311
The Esoteric Meaning of " /Fish" ... 313
STANZA XI. THE CIVILIZATION AND DESTRUCTION OF THE FOURTH AND FIFTH RACES ... 316
Degeneration of Mankind ... 319
Atlantis now Ocean Floor ... 325
Changes of Climate ... 329
How to Read Symbols ... 335
The Antediluvian Buddhas ... 339
CYCLOPEAN RUINS AND COLOSSAL STONES AS WITNESSES TO GIANTS ... 341
Living, Speaking, and Moving Stones ... 345
It takes a God to become a Man ... 349
STANZA XII. THE FIFTH RACE AND ITS DIVINE INSTRUCTORS ... 351
The Astronomical Dragon ... 353
Serpents and Dragons under different Symbolisms ... 355
The Sidereal and Cosmic Glyphs ... 357
Our Divine Instructors ... 365
The Origin of the Satanic Myth ... 378
Noah was a Kabir, hence he must have been a Demon ... 390
The oldest Persian Traditions about the Polar, and the Submerged Continents ... 393
Western Speculations founded on the Greek and Purβnic Traditions ... 402
The "Curse" from a Philosophical point of view ... 409
ADDITIONAL FRAGMENTS FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE VERSES OF STANZA XII. ... 423
The Oldest Records about Atlantis ... 425
The Doom of Atlantis ... 427
The Races, Sub-Races, and Family Races ... 434
CONCLUSION ... 437
ESOTERIC TENETS CORROBORATED IN EVERY SCRIPTURE ... 449
§ XVI. ADAM-ADAMI ... 452
The Cabalistic Four Adams ... 457
XVII. THE "HOLY OF HOLIES": ITS DEGRADATION ... 459
Christian Symbolism ... 463
The "Four-faced" Brahma ... 465
The Old and the New Jehovah ... 469
XVIII. ON THE MYTH OF THE "FALLEN ANGEL," IN ITS VARIOUS ASPECTS ... 475
The Evil Spirit: Who and What? ... 475
The Gods of Light proceed from the Gods of Darkness ... 483
The many meanings of the "War in Heaven" ... 492
XIX. IS PLEROMA SATAN'S LAIR? ... 506
Jehovah's Personating Spirit ... 509
The Mysterium Magnum ... 512
The Logos and Satan are One ... 515
XX. PROMETHEUS THE TITAN ... 519
His Origin in Ancient India ... 519
The Boon he Gives ... 523
XXI. ENOICHION-HENOCH ... 529
XXII. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE MYSTERY NAMES IAO AND JEHOVAH ... 536
Cross and Circle ... 545
The Fall of the Cross into Matter ... 553
XXIII. THE UPANISHADS IN GNOSTIC LITERATURE ... 563
When Time be no longer ... 565
The Divine Self's Wisdom ... 566
XXIV. THE CROSS AND THE PYTHAGOREAN DECADE ... 573
Poseidon's Five Ministers ... 577
The Mystery of the Number Six ... 583
The Cross and Christian After-thought ... 587
XXV. THE MYSTERIES OF THE HEBDOMAD ... 590
Saptaparna ... 590
The Tetraktis in relation to the Heptagon ... 598
The Septenary Element in the Vedas ... 605
The Septenary in the Exoteric Works ... 611
Seven in Astronomy, Science and Magic ... 618
The Seven Souls of the Egyptologists ... 630
I. ARCHAIC, OR MODERN ANTHROPOLOGY? ... 645
The Occult and the Modern Doctrines ... 649
Science is Silent on every Problem ... 653
II. THE ANCESTORS MANKIND IS OFFERED BY SCIENCE ... 656
Various Modes of Reproduction ... 659
A Pithecoid Man Wanted ... 669
Plastidular Souls and Conscious Nerve-Cells ... 670
The atoms of our "Father-Bathybius" ... 674
III. THE FOSSIL RELICS OF MAN AND THE ANTHROPOID APE ... 675
Insurmountable difficulties for the Darwinians ... 677
The Argument of "Rudimentary Organs" ... 683
"Epitomized History" in the Foetus ... 684
The Evidence of Skulls ... 687
IV. DURATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL PERIODS, RACE CYCLES, AND THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN ... 690
Sayce's Sketch of Chronology ... 691
(a) Speculations on the Age of the Globe ... 694
The Adept-Astronomer ... 698
(b) On Chains of Planets and their Plurality ... 699
States of Consciousness ... 701
Worlds mentioned in the Bible ... 703
(c) Esoteric Geological Chronology ... 709
Parallelism of Life ... 711
The Two Sciences contrasted ... 713
The Paleolithic Landseer ... 721
Astral Man the Solution ... 728
The Kabalists and Science ... 730
V. ORGANIC EVOLUTION AND CREATIVE CENTRES ... 731
Dhyan Chohans and these Centres ... 732
(a) Origin and Evolution of the Mammalia ... 734
(b) The European Paleolithic Races whence and how distributed ... 738
VI. GIANTS, CIVILIZATIONS, AND SUBMERGED CONTINENTS TRACED IN HISTORY ... 742
A Mysterious Nation ... 743
The Seven Sabbaths ... 747
"Revelation" and the "Secret Doctrine" ... 748
Druidic Stones ... 752
Races of Giants ... 755
Mazdean "Seven Earths" ... 759
(a) Statements about the Sacred Islands ... 760
The Heirloom of Atlantis ... 763
The God-bearing Land ... 765
The Power of Names ... 767
The Sons of Coelus and Terra ... 769
Southern and Northern Atlantis ... 770
Niobe and her Children ... 771
The Cycles of Time ... 773
The Titans in Prison ... 776
VII. SCIENTIFIC AND GEOLOGICAL PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF SEVERAL SUBMERGED CONTINENTS ... 778
Corroborations of Occultism by Geology ... 779
Evidence of the Flora ... 781
Atlantis necessary to Ethnology ... 783
Astraea falls on her Head ... 785
Communication between South-Sea Islands ... 788
Evidence of Language ... 790
Ragon explains Masonic Symbols ... 795
The End a fitting prelude to Truth ... 798
ΤH e;mh; didach; qujk e~stin ejmh, alla tou' pevmfantς" me.
"My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me."
John vii. 16.
MODERN science insists upon the doctrine of evolution; so do human reason and the "Secret Doctrine," and the idea is corroborated by the ancient legends and myths, and even by the Bible itself when it is read between the lines. We see a flower slowly developing from a bud, and the bud from its seed. But whence the latter, with all its predetermined programme of physical transformation, and its invisible, therefore spiritual forces which gradually develop its form, colour, and odour? The word evolution speaks for itself. The germ of the present human race must have preexisted in the parent of this race, as the seed, in which lies hidden the flower of next summer, was developed in the capsule of its parent flower; the parent may be but slightly different, but it still differs from its future progeny. The antediluvian ancestors of the present elephant and lizard were, perhaps, the mammoth and the plesiosaurus; why should not the progenitors of our human race have been the "giants" of the Vedas, the Vφluspa, and the Book of Genesis? While it is positively absurd to believe the "transformation of species" to have taken place according to some of the more materialistic views of the evolutionists, it is but natural to think that each genus, beginning with the molluscs and ending with man, had modified its own primordial and distinctive forms. "Isis Unveiled," Vol. I., p. 153.
"Facies totius Universi, quamvis infinitis modis variet,
Manet tamen semper eadem." SPINOZA.
THE Stanzas, with the Commentaries thereon, in this Book, the second, are drawn from the same Archaic Records as the Stanzas on Cosmogony in Book I. As far as possible a verbatim translation is given; but some of the Stanzas were too obscure to be understood without explanation. Hence, as was done in Book I., while they are first given in full as they stand, when taken verse by verse with their Commentaries an attempt is made to make them clearer, by words added in brackets, in anticipation of the fuller explanation of the Commentary.
As regards the evolution of mankind, the Secret Doctrine postulates three new
propositions, which stand in direct antagonism to modern science as well as to
current religious dogmas: it teaches (a) the simultaneous
evolution of seven human groups on seven different portions of our globe; (b)
the birth of the astral, before the physical body: the former
being a model for the latter; and (c) that man, in this Round, preceded
every mammalian the anthropoids included
in the animal kingdom.*
* See Genesis ch. ii., v. 19. Adam is formed in verse 7, and in verse 19 it
is said: "Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the
field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to
see what he would call them." Thus man was created before the animals;
for the animals mentioned in chapter i. are the signs of the Zodiac, while the
man, "male and female," is not man, but the Host of the Sephiroth;
FORCES, or Angels, "made in his (God's) image and after his
likeness." The Adam, man, is not made in that likeness, nor is it so asserted in
the Bible. Moreover, the Second Adam is esoterically a septenary which
represents seven men, or rather groups of men. For the first Adam
the Kadmon
is the synthesis of the ten Sephiroth. Of these, the upper triad
remains in the Archetypal World as the future "Trinity," while the seven lower
Sephiroth create the manifested material world; and this septenate is the
second Adam. Genesis, and the mysteries upon which it was fabricated, came
from Egypt. The "God" of the 1st chapter of Genesis is the Logos, and
the "Lord God" of the 2nd chapter the Creative Elohim
the lower
powers.
2
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
The Secret Doctrine is not alone in speaking of primeval MEN born
simultaneously on the seven divisions of our Globe. In the Divine "Pymander"
of Hermes we find the same Seven primeval men* evolving from Nature and
"Heavenly Man," in the collective sense of the word, namely, from the Creative
Spirits; and in the fragments (collected by George Smith) of Chaldean tablets on
which is inscribed the Babylonian Legend of Creation, in the first column of the
Cutha tablet, seven human beings with the faces of ravens (black,
swarthy complexions), whom "the (Seven) great gods created," are mentioned. Or,
as explained in lines 16 and 18 "In the midst of the Earth they grew up and
became great . . . . Seven kings, brothers of the same family." These are the
Seven Kings of Edom to whom reference is made in the Kabala; the first race,
which was imperfect, i.e., was born before the "balance" (sexes)
existed, and which was therefore destroyed. (Zohar, Siphrah Dzeniouta, Idrah
Suta, 2928, La Kabbale, p. 205.) "Seven Kings, brethren,
appeared and begat children, 6,000 in number were their peoples" ( Hibbert
Lectures, p. 372). The god Nergas (death) destroyed them. "How did he destroy
them?" "By bringing into equilibrium (or balance) those who did not yet exist" (Siphrah
Dzeniouta). They were "destroyed," as a race, by being merged in
their own progeny (by exudation); that is to say, the sexless race reincarnated
in the bisexual
* Thus saith Pymander "This is the mystery that to this day was hidden.
Nature being mingled with the Heavenly man (Elohim, or Dhyanis), brought forth a
wonder . . . . Seven men, all males and females (Hermaphrodite) . . .
according to the nature of the seven Governors" Book II. v. 29) or the
seven Hosts of the Pitris or Elohim, who projected or created him. This
is very clear, but yet, see the interpretations of even our modern theologians,
men supposed to be intellectual and learned! In the "Theological and
philosophical works of Hermes Trismegistus, Christian (?)
Neoplatonist," a work compiled by John David Chambers, of Oriel
College, Oxford, the translator wonders "for whom these seven men are
intended?" He solves the difficulty by concluding that, as "the original pattern
man (Adam Kadmon of ch. i. Genesis) was
masculine-feminine, the seven may signify the succeeding patriarchs named in
Genesis" (p. 9) . . . A truly theological way of cutting the Gordian knot.
(potentially); the latter in the Androgynes; these again in the sexual, the later third Race; (for further explanation, vide infra). Were the tablets less mutilated, they would be found to contain word for word the same account as given in the archaic records and in Hermes, at least as regards the fundamental facts, if not as regards minute details; for Hermes is a good deal disfigured by mistranslations.
It is quite certain that the seeming supernaturalism of these teachings, although allegorical, is so diametrically opposed to the dead-letter statements of the Bible * as well as to the latest hypotheses of science, that it will evoke passionate denial. The Occultists, however, know that the traditions of Esoteric Philosophy must be the right ones, simply because they are the most logical, and reconcile every difficulty. Besides, we have the Egyptian "Books of Thoth," and "Book of the Dead," and the Hindu Purβnas with the seven Manus, as well as the Chaldeo-Assyrian accounts, whose tiles mention seven primitive men, or Adams, the real meaning of which name may be ascertained through the Kabala. Those who know anything of the Samothracian mysteries will also remember that the generic name of the Kabiri was the "Holy Fires," which created on seven localities of the island of Electria (or Samothrace) the "Kabir born of the Holy Lemnos" (the island sacred to Vulcan).
According to Pindar (See "Philosophomena," Miller's
edition, p. 98), this Kabir, whose name was Adamas, was, in the traditions
of Lemnos, the type of the primitive man born from the bosom of the Earth. He
was the Archetype of the first males in the order of generation, and was one of
the seven autochthonous ancestors or progenitors of mankind (ibid, p.
108). If, while coupling with this the fact that Samothrace was colonised by the
Phnicians, and before them by the mysterious Pelasgians who came from the
East, one remembers also the identity of the mystery gods of the
Phnicians, Chaldeans, and Israelites, it will be easy to discover whence came
also the confused account of the Noachian deluge. It has become undeniable of
late that the Jews, who obtained their primitive ideas about creation from
Moses, who had them from
* As it is now asserted that the Chaldean tablets, which give the allegorical
description of Creation, the Fall, and the Flood, even to the legend of the
Tower of Babel, were written "before the time of Moses" (See G. Smith's
"Chaldean Account of Genesis," p. 86), how can the
Pentateuch be called a revelation? It is simply another version of the
same story.
the Egyptians, compiled their Genesis and first Cosmogonic traditions when these were rewritten by Ezra and others from the Chaldeo-Akkadian account. It is, therefore, sufficient to examine the Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform and other inscriptions to find also therein, scattered here and there, not only the original meaning of the name Adam, Admi, or Adami,* but also the creation of seven Adams or roots of men, born of Mother Earth, physically, and of the divine fire of the progenitors, spiritually or astrally. The Assyriologists, ignorant of the esoteric teachings, could hardly be expected to pay any greater attention to the mysterious and ever-recurring number seven on the Babylonian cylinders, than they paid to it on finding the same in Genesis and the Bible. Yet the number of the ancestral spirits and their seven groups of human progeny are there, notwithstanding the dilapidated condition of the fragments, as plainly as they are to be found in "Pymander" and in the "Book of the Concealed Mystery" of the Kabala. In the latter Adam Kadmon is the Sephirothal TREE, as also the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." And that "Tree," says verse 32, "hath around it seven columns," or palaces, of the seven creative Angels operating in the spheres of the seven planets on our Globe. As Adam Kadmon is a collective name, so also is the name of the man Adam. Says George Smith in his "Chaldean Account of Genesis:"
"The word Adam used in these legends for the first human being is evidently not a proper name, but is only used as a term for mankind. Adam appears as a proper name in Genesis, but certainly in some passages is only used in the same sense as the Assyrian word" (p. 86).
Moreover, neither the Chaldean nor the Biblical deluge (the stories of
Xisuthrus and Noah) is based on the universal or even on the Atlantean deluges,
recorded in the Indian allegory of Vaivaswata Manu. They are the exoteric
allegories based on the esoteric mysteries of Samothrace. If the older
Chaldees knew the esoteric truth concealed in the Purβnic legends, the other
nations were aware only of the Samothracian mystery, and allegorised it. They
adapted it to their astronomical and anthropological, or rather phallic,
notions. Samothrace is known historically to have been famous in
antiquity for a deluge, which submerged the country and reached the top of the
highest mountains; an event which happened before the age of the Argonauts. It
was overflowed very
* Vide § "Adam-Adami," in Part II. of this volume.
suddenly by the waters of the Euxine, regarded up to that time as a lake.* But the Israelites had, moreover, another legend upon which to base their allegory: the "deluge," that transformed the present Gobi Desert into a sea for the last time, some 10 or 12,000 years ago, and which drove many Noahs and their families on to the surrounding mountains. As the Babylonian accounts are now only restored from hundreds of thousands of broken fragments (the mound of Kouyunjik alone having yielded to Layard's excavations over twenty thousand fragments of inscriptions), the proofs here cited are comparatively scanty; yet such as they are, they corroborate almost every one of our teachings, certainly three, at least. These are:
(1.) That the race which was the first to fall into generation was a dark Race (Zalmat Gaguadi), which they call the Adami or dark Race, and that Sarku, or the light Race, remained pure for a long while subsequently.
(2.) That the Babylonians recognised two principal Races at the time of the Fall, the Race of the Gods (the Ethereal doubles of the Pitris), having preceded these two. This is Sir H. Rawlinson's opinion. These "Races" are our second and third Root-races.
(3) That these seven Gods, each of whom created a man, or group of men, were "the gods imprisoned or incarnated." These gods were: the god Zi; the god Ziku (noble life, Director of purity); the god Mirku (noble crown) "Saviour from death of the gods" (later on) imprisoned, and the creator of "the dark Race which his hand has made;" the god Libzu "wise among the gods"; the god Nissi . . . . and the god Suhhab; and Hea or Sa, their synthesis, the god of wisdom and of the Deep, identified with Oannes-Dagon, at the time of the fall, and called (collectively) the Demiurge, or Creator. (See Chaldean Account Genesis, p. 82.)
There are two "Creations" so called, in the Babylonian fragments, and
Genesis having adhered to this, one finds its first two chapters
distinguished as the Elohite and the Jehovite creations. Their proper order,
however, is not preserved in these or in any other exoteric accounts. Now these
"Creations," according to the occult teachings, refer respectively to the
formation of the primordial seven men by the progenitors (the Pitris,
or Elohim): and to that of the human groups after the fall.
* See Pliny, 4, c. 12; Strabo, 10; Herodotus, 7, c. 108; Pausanias, 7, c. 4,
etc.
All this will be examined in the light of science and comparisons drawn from the scriptures of all the ancient nations, the Bible included, as we proceed. Meanwhile, before we turn to the Anthropogenesis of the prehistoric Races, it may be useful to agree upon the names to be given to the Continents on which the four great Races, which preceded our Adamic Race, were born, lived, and died. Their archaic and esoteric names were many, and varied with the language of the nationality which mentioned them in its annals and scriptures. That which in the Vendidad, for instance, is referred to as Airyanem Vaκgo (see Bund. 79, 12) wherein was born the original Zoroaster,* is called in the Purβnic literature "Sveta-Dwξpa," "Mount Meru," the abode of Vishnu, etc., etc.; and in the Secret Doctrine is simply named the land of the "Gods" under their chiefs the "Spirits of this Planet."
Therefore, in view of the possible, and even very probable confusion, that may arise, it is considered more convenient to adopt, for each of the four Continents constantly referred to, a name more familiar to the cultured reader. It is proposed, then, to call the first continent, or rather the first terra firma on which the first Race was evolved by the divine progenitors:
I. "The Imperishable Sacred Land."
The reasons for this name are explained as follows: This "Sacred Land"
of
which more later on is stated never to have shared the fate of the other
continents; because it is the only one whose destiny it is to last from the
beginning to the end of the Manvantara throughout each Round. It is the cradle
of the first man and the dwelling of the last divine mortal, chosen as
a Sishta for the future seed of humanity. Of this mysterious and sacred
land very little can be said, except, perhaps, according to a poetical
expression in one of the Commentaries, that the "pole-star has its watchful eye
upon it, from the dawn to the close of the twilight of 'a day' of the
GREAT
BREATH."
* By "original" we mean the "Amshaspend," called "Zarathustra, the lord and
ruler of the Vara made by Yima in that land." There were several Zarathustra or
Zertusts, the Dabistan alone enumerating thirteen; but these were all the
reincarnations of the first one. The last Zoroaster was the founder of the Fire
temple of Azareksh and the writer of the works on the primeval sacred Magian
religion destroyed by Alexander.
In India called "The Day of Brahmβ."
II. The "HYPERBOREAN" will be the name chosen for the Second Continent, the land which stretched out its promontories southward and westward from the North Pole to receive the Second Race, and comprised the whole of what is now known as Northern Asia. Such was the name given by the oldest Greeks to the far-off and mysterious region, whither their tradition made Apollo the "Hyperborean" travel every year. Astronomically, Apollo is of course the Sun, who, abandoning his Hellenic sanctuaries, loved to visit annually his far-away country, where the Sun was said never to set for one half of the year. Eggu;" ga;r nukto" te kai h~mato" eisi keleuQoi, says a verse in the Odyssey (x. 86).
But historically, or better, perhaps, ethnologically and geologically, the meaning is different. The land of the Hyperboreans, the country that extended beyond Boreas, the frozen-hearted god of snows and hurricanes, who loved to slumber heavily on the chain of Mount Riphaeus, was neither an ideal country, as surmised by the mythologists, nor yet a land in the neighbourhood of Scythia and the Danube.* It was a real Continent, a bona-fide land which knew no winter in those early days, nor have its sorry remains more than one night and day during the year, even now. The nocturnal shadows never fall upon it, said the Greeks; for it is the land of the Gods, the favourite abode of Apollo, the god of light, and its inhabitants are his beloved priests and servants. This may be regarded as poetised fiction now; but it was poetised truth then.
III. The third Continent, we propose to call "Lemuria." The name is an
invention, or an idea, of Mr. P. L. Sclater, who asserted, between 1850 and
1860, on zoological grounds the actual existence, in prehistoric times, of a
Continent which he showed to have extended from Madagascar to Ceylon and
Sumatra. It included some portions of what is now Africa; but otherwise this
gigantic Continent, which stretched from the Indian ocean to Australia, has now
wholly disappeared beneath the waters of the Pacific, leaving here and there
only some of its highland tops which are now islands. Mr. A. R. Wallace, the
naturalist, "extends the Australia of tertiary periods to New Guinea and the
Solomon Islands, and perhaps to Fiji;" and from its Marsupial types he infers "a
connection with the Northern Continent during the
* See Volcker, "Mythological Geography," pp. 145 to 170.
Secondary period," writes Mr. C. Gould in "Mythical Monsters," p. 47. The subject is treated at length elsewhere.*
IV. "Atlantis" is the Fourth Continent. It would be the first historical land, were the traditions of the ancients to receive more attention than they have hitherto. The famous island of Plato of that name was but a fragment of this great Continent. (See "Esoteric Buddhism.")
V. The Fifth Continent was America; but, as it is situated at the Antipodes,
it is Europe and Asia Minor, almost coeval with it, which are generally referred
to by the Indo-Aryan Occultists as the fifth. If their teaching followed the
appearance of the Continents in their geological and geographical order, then
this classification would have to be altered. But as the sequence of the
Continents is made to follow the order of evolution of the Races, from the first
to the fifth, our Aryan Root-race, Europe must be called the fifth great
Continent. The Secret Doctrine takes no account of islands and peninsulas, nor
does it follow the modern geographical distribution of land and sea. Since the
day of its earliest teachings and the destruction of the great Atlantis, the
face of the earth has changed more than once. There was a time when the delta of
Egypt and Northern Africa belonged to Europe, before the formation of the
Straits of Gibraltar, and a further upheaval of the continent, changed entirely
the face of the map of Europe. The last serious change occurred some 12,000
years ago,
* It is
to be remarked, however, that Mr. Wallace does not accept Mr. Sclater's
idea, and even opposes it. Mr. Sclater supposes a land or continent
formerly uniting Africa, Madagascar, and India (but not Australia and
India); and Mr. A. R. Wallace shows, in his "Geographical Distribution of Animals"
and "Island Life," that the hypothesis of such a land is quite
uncalled for on the alleged zoological grounds. But he admits that a much closer
proximity of India and Australia did certainly exist, and at a time so very
remote that it was "certainly pre-tertiary," and he adds in a private letter
that "no name has been given to this supposed land." Yet the land did exist, and
was of course pre-tertiary, for "Lemuria" (accepting this name for the
third Continent) had perished before Atlantis had fully developed; and the
latter sunk and its chief portions had disappeared before the end of the Miocene
period.
One more "coincidence"
"Now it is proved that in geologically recent times, this region of North
Africa was in fact a peninsula of Spain, and that its union with
Africa (proper) was effected on the North by the rupture of Gibraltar, and on
the South by an upheaval to which the Sahara owes its existence.
The shores of this former sea of Sahara are still marked by the shells of the same Gastropoda that live on
the shores of the Mediterranean." (Prof. Oscar Schmidt, "Doctrine of Descent
and Darwinism," p. 244.)
9 PRE-TERTIARY GIANTS.
and was followed by the submersion of Plato's little Atlantic island, which he calls Atlantis after its parent continent. Geography was part of the mysteries, in days of old. Says the Zohar (iii., fol. 10a): "These secrets (of land and sea) were divulged to the men of the secret science, but not to the geographers."
The claim that physical man was originally a colossal pre-tertiary giant, and that he existed 18,000,000 years ago, must of course appear preposterous to admirers of, and believers in, modern learning. The whole posse comitatis of biologists will turn away from the conception of this third race Titan of the Secondary age, a being fit to fight as successfully with the then gigantic monsters of the air, sea, and land, as his forefathers the ethereal prototype of the Atlantean had little need to fear that which could not hurt him. The modern anthropologist is quite welcome to laugh at our Titans, as he laughs at the Biblical Adam, and as the theologian laughs at his pithecoid ancestor. The Occultists and their severe critics may feel that they have pretty well mutually squared their accounts by this time. Occult sciences claim less and give more, at all events, than either Darwinian Anthropology or Biblical Theology.
Nor ought the Esoteric Chronology to frighten any one; for, with regard to figures, the greatest authorities of the day are as fickle and as uncertain as the Mediterranean wave. As regards the duration of the geological periods alone, the learned men of the Royal Society are all hopelessly at sea, and jump from one million to five hundred millions of years with the utmost ease, as will be seen more than once during this comparison.
Take one instance for our present purpose the calculations of Mr. Croll.
Whether, according to this authority, 2,500,000 years represent the time since
the beginning of the tertiary age, or the Eocene period, as an American
geologist makes him say;* or whether again Mr. Croll "allows fifteen millions
since the beginning of the Eocene period," as quoted by an English geologist,
both sets of figures cover the claims
* A. Winchell, Professor of Geology, "World-Life,"
p. 369.
Mr. Charles Gould, late Geological surveyor of Tasmania, in "Mythical
Monsters," p. 84.
made by the Secret Doctrine.* For assigning as the latter does from four to five million years between the incipient and the final evolution of the Fourth Root-Race, on the Lemuro-Atlantean Continents; one million years for the Fifth, or Aryan Race, to the present date; and about 850,000 since the submersion of the last large peninsula of the great Atlantis all this may have easily taken place within the 15,000,000 years conceded by Mr. Croll to the Tertiary Age. But, chronologically speaking, the duration of the period is of secondary importance, as we have, after all, certain American scientists to fall back upon. These gentlemen, unmoved by the fact that their assertions are called not only dubious but absurd, yet maintain that man existed so far back as in the Secondary Age. They have found human footprints on rocks of that formation; and furthermore, M. de Quatrefages finds no valid scientific reason why man should not have existed during the Secondary Age.
The "Ages" and periods in geology are, in sober truth, purely conventional
terms, as they are still hardly delineated, and, moreover,
* Sir Charles Lyell, who is credited with having "happily invented
the terms Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene," to mark the three divisions of the
Tertiary age, ought really to have settled upon some approximate age for his
"Mind-offspring." Having left the duration of these periods, however, to the
speculations of specialists, the greatest confusion and perplexity are the
result of that happy thought. It seems like a hopeless task to quote one set of
figures from one work, without the risk of finding it contradicted by the same
Author in an earlier or a subsequent volume. Sir W. Thomson, one of the most
eminent among the modern authorities, has changed, about half-a-dozen times, his
opinion upon the age of the Sun and the date of the consolidation of the Earth's
crust. In Thomson and Tait's "Natural Philosophy," one finds
only ten million years allowed, since the time when the temperature of the Earth
permitted vegetable life to appear on it; (App. D et seq. also Trans. Roy.
Soc. Edin. xxiii, Pt. 1, 157, 1862, where 847 is cancelled). Mr.
Darwin gives Sir W. Thomson's estimate as "a minimum of 98 and a maximum of 200
millions of years since the consolidation of the crust" (See Ch. Gould). In the
same work (Nat. Phil.) 80 millions are given from the time of
incipient incrustation to the present state of the world. And in his last
lecture, as shown elsewhere, Sir W. Thomson declares (1887) that the Sun is not
older than 15 millions of years! Meanwhile, basing his arguments as to
the limits to the age of the Sun's heat, on figures previously established by
Sir W. Thomson, Mr. Croll allows 60 millions of years since the
beginning of the Cambrian period. This is hopeful for the lovers of exact
knowledge. Thus, whatever figures are given by Occult Science, they are
sure to be corroborated by those of some one among the modern men of Science who
are considered as authorities.
11 THE TROPICS AT THE POLE.
no two geologists or naturalists agree as to the figures. Thus, there is a wide margin for choice offered to the Occultist by the learned fraternity. Shall we take for one of our supports Mr. T. Mellard Reade? This gentleman, in a paper on "Limestone as an Index of Geological Time," read by him in 1878 before the Royal Society, claims that the minimum time required for the formation of the sedimentary strata and the elimination of the calcareous matter is in round numbers 600 million years (See "Proceedings of Royal Society," London, Vol. XXVIII., p. 281); or shall we ask support for our chronology from Mr. Darwin's works, wherein he demands for the organic transformations according to his theory from 300 to 500 million years? Sir C. Lyell and Prof. Houghton were satisfied with placing the beginning of the Cambrian Age at 200 and 240 millions of years back respectively. Geologists and zoologists claim the maximum time, though Mr. Huxley, at one time, placed the beginning of the incrustation of the earth 1,000 million years ago, and would not surrender a millennium of it.
But the main point for us lies not in the agreement or disagreement of the Naturalists as to the duration of geological periods, but rather in their perfect accord on one point, for a wonder, and this a very important one. They all agree that during "The Miocene Age" whether one or ten million years ago Greenland and even Spitzbergen, the remnants of our Second or Hyperborean Continent, "had almost a tropical climate." Now the pre-Homeric Greeks had preserved a vivid tradition of this "Land of the Eternal Sun," whither their Apollo journeyed yearly. "During the Miocene Age, Greenland (in N. Lat. 708) developed an abundance of trees, such as the Yew, the Redwood, the Sequoia, allied to the Californian species, Beeches, Planes, Willows, Oaks, Poplars and Walnuts, as well as a Magnolia and a Zamia," says Science; in short Greenland had Southern plants unknown to Northern regions.
And now this natural question rises. If the Greeks knew, in the days of
Homer, of a Hyperborean land, i.e., a blessed land beyond the reach of
Boreas, the god of winter and of the hurricane, an ideal region which the later
Greeks and their classics have vainly tried to locate by searching for it beyond
Scythia, a country where nights were short and days long, and beyond that land a
country where the sun never set and the palm grew freely
if they knew of all
this, who then told them of it? In
their day, and for ages previously, Greenland must certainly have been already covered with perpetual snows, with never-thawing ice, just as it is now. Everything tends to show that the land of the short nights and the long days was Norway or Scandinavia, beyond which was the blessed land of eternal light and summer; and to know of this, their tradition must have descended to the Greeks from some people more ancient than themselves, who were acquainted with those climatic details of which the Greeks themselves could know nothing. Even in our day, science suspects beyond the Polar seas, at the very circle of the Arctic Pole, the existence of a sea which never freezes and a continent which is ever green. The archaic teachings, and likewise the Purβnas for one who understands the allegories of the latter contain the same statements. Suffice, then, to us the strong probability that a people, now unknown to history, lived during the Miocene period of modern science, at a time when Greenland was an almost tropical land.
NOTE. The reader is requested to bear in mind that the first and the following sections are not strictly consecutive in order of time. In the first Section the Stanzas which form the skeleton of the exposition are given, and certain important points commented upon and explained. In the subsequent sections various additional details are gathered, and a fuller explanation of the subject is attempted.
In primeval times, a maiden,
Beauteous Daughter of the Ether,
Passed for ages her existence
In the great expanse of Heaven,
. . . . . . . . . . .
In primeval times, a maiden,
Beauteous Daughter of the Ether,
Passed for ages her existence
In the great expanse of Heaven,
. . . . . . . . . . .
Seven hundred years she wandered,
Seven hundred years she laboured,
Ere her first-born was delivered.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Ere a beauteous duck descending,
Hastens toward the water-mother.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Lightly on the knee she settles,
Finds a nesting-place befitting,
Where to lay her eggs in safety,
Lays her eggs within, at pleasure,
Six, the golden eggs she lays them,
Then a Seventh, an egg of iron . . . . ."
(Kalevala, Rune I.)
15 STANZAS FROM THE BOOK OF DZYAN
(VERBATIM EXTRACTS.*)
1. THE LHA WHICH TURNS THE FOURTH IS SUBSERVIENT TO THE LHA OF THE SEVEN, THEY WHO REVOLVE DRIVING THEIR CHARIOTS AROUND THEIR LORD, THE ONE EYE. HIS BREATH GAVE LIFE TO THE SEVEN; IT GAVE LIFE TO THE FIRST.
2. SAID THE EARTH:"LORD OF THE SHINING FACE; MY HOUSE IS EMPTY . . . . SEND THY SONS TO PEOPLE THIS WHEEL. THOU HAST SENT THY SEVEN SONS TO THE LORD OF WISDOM. SEVEN TIMES DOTH HE SEE THEE NEARER TO HIMSELF, SEVEN TIMES MORE DOTH HE FEEL THEE. THOU HAST FORBIDDEN THY SERVANTS, THE SMALL RINGS, TO CATCH THY LIGHT AND HEAT, THY GREAT BOUNTY TO INTERCEPT ON ITS PASSAGE. SEND NOW TO THY SERVANT THE SAME."
3. SAID THE "LORD OF THE SHINING FACE":"I SHALL SEND THEE A FIRE WHEN THY WORK IS COMMENCED. RAISE THY VOICE TO OTHER LOKAS; APPLY TO THY FATHER, THE LORD OF THE LOTUS, FOR HIS SONS . . . . THY PEOPLE SHALL BE UNDER THE RULE OF THE FATHERS. THY MEN SHALL BE MORTALS. THE MEN OF THE LORD OF WISDOM, NOT THE LUNAR SONS, ARE IMMORTAL. CEASE THY COMPLAINTS. THY SEVEN SKINS ARE YET ON THEE . . . . THOU ART NOT READY. THY MEN ARE NOT READY."
4. AFTER GREAT THROES SHE CAST OFF HER OLD THREE AND PUT ON HER NEW SEVEN SKINS, AND STOOD IN HER FIRST ONE.
5. THE WHEEL WHIRLED FOR THIRTY CRORES MORE.
IT
CONSTRUCTED RUPAS: SOFT STONES THAT HARDENED; HARD PLANTS THAT SOFTENED.
VISIBLE FROM INVISIBLE, INSECTS AND SMALL LIVES.
SHE
SHOOK THEM OFF HER BACK WHENEVER THEY OVERRAN THE MOTHER.
* Only forty-nine Slokas out of several hundred are here given. Not every
verse is translated verbatim. A periphrasis is sometimes used for the sake of
clearness and intelligibility, where a literal translation would be quite
unintelligible.
16 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
. . . . AFTER THIRTY CRORES SHE TURNED ROUND. SHE LAY ON HER BACK; ON HER SIDE . . . SHE WOULD CALL NO SONS OF HEAVEN, SHE WOULD ASK NO SONS OF WISDOM. SHE CREATED FROM HER OWN BOSOM. SHE EVOLVED WATER-MEN, TERRIBLE AND BAD.
6. THE WATER-MEN TERRIBLE AND BAD SHE HERSELF CREATED FROM THE REMAINS OF OTHERS, FROM THE DROSS AND SLIME OF HER FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD, SHE FORMED THEM. THE DHYANI CAME AND LOOKEDTHE DHYANI FROM THE BRIGHT FATHER-MOTHER, FROM THE WHITE REGIONS THEY CAME, FROM THE ABODES OF THE IMMORTAL MORTALS.
7. DISPLEASED THEY WERE. OUR FLESH IS NOT THERE. NO FIT RUPAS FOR OUR BROTHERS OF THE FIFTH. NO DWELLINGS FOR THE LIVES. PURE WATERS, NOT TURBID, THEY MUST DRINK. LET US DRY THEM.
8. THE FLAMES CAME. THE FIRES WITH THE SPARKS; THE NIGHT FIRES AND THE DAY FIRES. THEY DRIED OUT THE TURBID DARK WATERS. WITH THEIR HEAT THEY QUENCHED THEM. THE LHAS OF THE HIGH, THE LHAMAYIN OF BELOW, CAME. THEY SLEW THE FORMS WHICH WERE TWO-AND FOUR-FACED. THEY FOUGHT THE GOAT-MEN, AND THE DOG-HEADED MEN, AND THE MEN WITH FISHES' BODIES.
9. MOTHER-WATER, THE GREAT SEA, WEPT. SHE AROSE, SHE DISAPPEARED IN THE MOON WHICH HAD LIFTED HER, WHICH HAD GIVEN HER BIRTH.
10. WHEN THEY WERE DESTROYED, MOTHER-EARTH REMAINED BARE. SHE ASKED TO BE DRIED.
11. THE LORD OF THE LORDS CAME. FROM HER BODY HE SEPARATED THE WATERS, AND THAT WAS HEAVEN ABOVE, THE FIRST HEAVEN.
12. THE GREAT CHOHANS CALLED THE LORDS OF THE MOON, OF THE AIRY BODIES. "BRING FORTH MEN, MEN OF YOUR NATURE. GIVE THEM THEIR FORMS WITHIN. SHE WILL BUILD COVERINGS WITHOUT. MALES-FEMALES WILL THEY BE. LORDS OF THE FLAME ALSO . . . "
13. THEY WENT EACH ON HIS ALLOTTED LAND: SEVEN OF THEM EACH ON HIS LOT. THE LORDS OF THE FLAME REMAIN BEHIND. THEY WOULD NOT GO, THEY WOULD NOT CREATE.
17
THE SLOKAS OF "DZYAN"
14. THE SEVEN HOSTS, THE "WILL-BORN LORDS," PROPELLED BY THE SPIRIT OF LIFE-GIVING, SEPARATE MEN FROM THEMSELVES, EACH ON HIS OWN ZONE.
15. SEVEN TIMES SEVEN SHADOWS OF FUTURE MEN WERE BORN, EACH OF HIS OWN COLOUR AND KIND. EACH INFERIOR TO HIS FATHER. THE FATHERS, THE BONELESS, COULD GIVE NO LIFE TO BEINGS WITH BONES. THEIR PROGENY WERE BHUTA, WITH NEITHER FORM NOR MIND. THEREFORE THEY ARE CALLED THE CHHAYA.
16. HOW ARE THE MANUSHYA BORN? THE MANUS WITH MINDS, HOW ARE THEY MADE? THE FATHERS CALLED TO THEIR HELP THEIR OWN FIRE; WHICH IS THE FIRE THAT BURNS IN EARTH. THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH CALLED TO HIS HELP THE SOLAR FIRE. THESE THREE PRODUCED IN THEIR JOINT EFFORTS A GOOD RUPA. IT COULD STAND, WALK, RUN, RECLINE, OR FLY. YET IT WAS STILL BUT A CHHAYA, A SHADOW WITH NO SENSE . . . .
17. THE BREATH NEEDED A FORM; THE FATHERS GAVE IT. THE BREATH NEEDED A GROSS BODY; THE EARTH MOULDED IT. THE BREATH NEEDED THE SPIRIT OF LIFE; THE SOLAR LHAS BREATHED IT INTO ITS FORM. THE BREATH NEEDED A MIRROR OF ITS BODY; "WE GAVE IT OUR OWN," SAID THE DHYANIS. THE BREATH NEEDED A VEHICLE OF DESIRES; "IT HAS IT," SAID THE DRAINER OF WATERS. BUT BREATH NEEDS A MIND TO EMBRACE THE UNIVERSE; "WE CANNOT GIVE THAT," SAID THE FATHERS. "I NEVER HAD IT," SAID THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH. "THE FORM WOULD BE CONSUMED WERE I TO GIVE IT MINE," SAID THE GREAT FIRE . . . . MAN REMAINED AN EMPTY SENSELESS BHUTA . . . . THUS HAVE THE BONELESS GIVEN LIFE TO THOSE WHO BECAME MEN WITH BONES IN THE THIRD.
18. THE FIRST WERE THE SONS OF YOGA. THEIR SONS THE CHILDREN OF THE YELLOW FATHER AND THE WHITE MOTHER.
19. THE
SECOND
RACE WAS
THE PRODUCT BY BUDDING AND
18 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
EXPANSION, THE A-SEXUAL FROM THE SEXLESS *THUS WAS, O LANOO, THE SECOND RACE PRODUCED.
20. THEIR FATHERS WERE THE SELF-BORN. THE SELF-BORN, THE CHHAYA FROM THE BRILLIANT BODIES OF THE LORDS, THE FATHERS, THE SONS OF TWILIGHT.
21. WHEN THE RACE BECAME OLD, THE OLD WATERS MIXED WITH THE FRESHER WATERS. WHEN ITS DROPS BECAME TURBID, THEY VANISHED AND DISAPPEARED IN THE NEW STREAM, IN THE HOT STREAM OF LIFE. THE OUTER OF THE FIRST BECAME THE INNER OF THE SECOND. THE OLD WING BECAME THE NEW SHADOW, AND THE SHADOW OF THE WING.
22. THEN THE SECOND EVOLVED THE EGG-BORN, THE THIRD. THE SWEAT GREW, ITS DROPS GREW, AND THE DROPS BECAME HARD AND ROUND. THE SUN WARMED IT; THE MOON COOLED AND SHAPED IT; THE WIND FED IT UNTIL ITS RIPENESS. THE WHITE SWAN FROM THE STARRY VAULT OVERSHADOWED THE BIG DROP. THE EGG OF THE FUTURE RACE, THE MAN-SWAN OF THE LATER THIRD. FIRST MALE-FEMALE, THEN MAN AND WOMAN.
23. THE SELF-BORN WERE THE CHHAYAS: THE SHADOWS FROM THE BODIES OF THE SONS OF TWILIGHT.
24. THE
SONS OF
WISDOM,
THE SONS OF
NIGHT, READY FOR REBIRTH, CAME
DOWN, THEY SAW THE VILE FORMS OF THE FIRST
THIRD,
"WE CAN CHOOSE,"
SAID THE
LORDS, "WE HAVE
WISDOM." SOME ENTERED THE
CHHAYA.
SOME
PROJECTED THE SPARK.
SOME DEFERRED TILL THE
FOURTH.
FROM THEIR OWN
RUPA
THEY FILLED THE KAMA.
THOSE WHO ENTERED BECAME
ARHATS.
THOSE WHO RECEIVED BUT A SPARK,
REMAINED DESTITUTE OF KNOWLEDGE; THE SPARK BURNED LOW.
THE
THIRD REMAINED MIND-LESS. THEIR
JIVAS WERE NOT
* The idea and spirit of the sentence is here given, as a verbal translation would
convey very little to the reader.
19 THE SLOKAS OF "DZYAN"
READY. THESE WERE SET APART AMONG THE SEVEN. THEY BECAME NARROW-HEADED. THE THIRD WERE READY. "IN THESE SHALL WE DWELL," SAID THE LORDS OF THE FLAME.
25. HOW DID THE MANΒSA, THE SONS OF WISDOM, ACT? THEY REJECTED THE SELF-BORN. THEY ARE NOT READY. THEY SPURNED THE SWEAT-BORN. THEY ARE NOT QUITE READY. THEY WOULD NOT ENTER THE FIRST EGG-BORN.
26. WHEN THE SWEAT-BORN PRODUCED THE EGG-BORN, THE TWOFOLD AND THE MIGHTY, THE POWERFUL WITH BONES, THE LORDS OF WISDOM SAID: "NOW SHALL WE CREATE."
27. THE THIRD RACE BECAME THE VAHAN OF THE LORDS OF WISDOM. IT CREATED "SONS OF WILL AND YOGA," BY KRIYASAKTI IT CREATED THEM, THE HOLY FATHERS, ANCESTORS OF THE ARHATS.
28. FROM THE DROPS OF SWEAT; FROM THE RESIDUE OF THE SUBSTANCE; MATTER FROM DEAD BODIES OF MEN AND ANIMALS OF THE WHEEL BEFORE; AND FROM CAST-OFF DUST, THE FIRST ANIMALS WERE PRODUCED.
29. ANIMALS WITH BONES, DRAGONS OF THE DEEP, AND FLYING SARPAS WERE ADDED TO THE CREEPING THINGS. THEY THAT CREEP ON THE GROUND GOT WINGS. THEY OF THE LONG NECKS IN THE WATER BECAME THE PROGENITORS OF THE FOWLS OF THE AIR.
30. DURING THE THIRD RACE THE BONELESS ANIMALS GREW AND CHANGED: THEY BECAME ANIMALS WITH BONES, THEIR CHHAYAS BECAME SOLID.
31. THE ANIMALS SEPARATED THE FIRST. THEY BEGAN TO BREED. THE TWO-FOLD MAN SEPARATED ALSO. HE SAID: "LET US AS THEY; LET US UNITE AND MAKE CREATURES." THEY DID.
32. AND THOSE WHICH HAD NO SPARK TOOK HUGE SHE-ANIMALS UNTO
THEM. THEY BEGAT UPON THEM DUMB
RACES.
DUMB THEY WERE THEMSELVES. BUT THEIR TONGUES UNTIED.
THE TONGUES OF THEIR PROGENY REMAINED STILL.
MONSTERS
THEY BRED. A RACE OF CROOKED RED-HAIR-COVERED MONSTERS GOING ON
ALL FOURS. A DUMB RACE TO KEEP THE SHAME UNTOLD.
20 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
33. SEEING WHICH, THE LHAS WHO HAD NOT BUILT MEN, WEPT, SAYING:
34. "THE AMANΒSA HAVE DEFILED OUR FUTURE ABODES. THIS IS KARMA. LET US DWELL IN THE OTHERS. LET US TEACH THEM BETTER, LEST WORSE SHOULD HAPPEN. THEY DID . . .
35. THEN ALL MEN BECAME ENDOWED WITH MANAS. THEY SAW THE SIN OF THE MINDLESS.
36. THE FOURTH RACE DEVELOPED SPEECH.
37. THE ONE BECAME TWO; ALSO ALL THE LIVING AND CREEPING THINGS THAT WERE STILL ONE, GIANT FISH-BIRDS AND SERPENTS WITH SHELL-HEADS.
38. THUS TWO BY TWO ON THE SEVEN ZONES, THE THIRD RACE GAVE BIRTH TO THE FOURTH-RACE MEN; THE GODS BECAME NO-GODS; THE SURA BECAME A-SURA.
39. THE FIRST, ON EVERY ZONE, WAS MOON-COLOURED; THE SECOND YELLOW LIKE GOLD; THE THIRD RED; THE FOURTH BROWN, WHICH BECAME BLACK WITH SIN. THE FIRST SEVEN HUMAN SHOOTS WERE ALL OF ONE COMPLEXION. THE NEXT SEVEN BEGAN MIXING.
40. THEN THE FOURTH BECAME TALL WITH PRIDE. WE ARE THE KINGS, IT WAS SAID; WE ARE THE GODS.
41. THEY TOOK WIVES FAIR TO LOOK UPON. WIVES FROM THE MINDLESS, THE NARROW-HEADED. THEY BRED MONSTERS. WICKED DEMONS, MALE AND FEMALE, ALSO KHADO (DAKINI), WITH LITTLE MINDS.
42. THEY BUILT TEMPLES FOR THE HUMAN BODY. MALE AND FEMALE THEY WORSHIPPED. THEN THE THIRD EYE ACTED NO LONGER.
43. THEY BUILT HUGE CITIES.
OF RARE EARTHS
AND METALS THEY BUILT, AND OUT OF THE FIRES VOMITED, OUT OF THE WHITE STONE
21 THE SLOKAS OF "DZYAN"
OF THE MOUNTAINS AND OF THE BLACK STONE, THEY CUT THEIR OWN IMAGES IN THEIR SIZE AND LIKENESS, AND WORSHIPPED THEM.
44. THEY BUILT GREAT IMAGES NINE YATIS HIGH, THE SIZE OF THEIR BODIES. INNER FIRES HAD DESTROYED THE LAND OF THEIR FATHERS. THE WATER THREATENED THE FOURTH.
45. THE FIRST GREAT WATERS CAME. THEY SWALLOWED THE SEVEN GREAT ISLANDS.
46. ALL HOLY SAVED, THE UNHOLY DESTROYED. WITH THEM MOST OF THE HUGE ANIMALS, PRODUCED FROM THE SWEAT OF THE EARTH.
47. FEW MEN REMAINED: SOME YELLOW, SOME BROWN AND BLACK, AND SOME RED REMAINED. THE MOON-COLOURED WERE GONE FOREVER.
48. THE FIFTH PRODUCED FROM THE HOLY STOCK REMAINED; IT WAS RULED OVER BY THE FIRST DIVINE KINGS.
49. . . . .
WHO RE-DESCENDED, WHO MADE PEACE WITH THE FIFTH,
WHO TAUGHT AND INSTRUCTED IT. . . . . .
§§ (1)
THE
LHA, or Spirit of the Earth. (2)
Invocation of the Earth to the Sun.
(3) What the Sun
answers.
(4) Transformation of the Earth.
1. THE LHA (a) WHICH TURNS THE FOURTH (Globe, or our Earth) IS SERVANT TO THE LHA(S) OF THE SEVEN (the planetary Spirits) (b), THEY WHO REVOLVE, DRIVING THEIR CHARIOTS AROUND THEIR LORD, THE ONE EYE (Loka-Chakshub) OF OUR WORLD. HIS BREATH GIVES LIFE TO THE SEVEN (gives light to the planets). IT GAVE LIFE TO THE FIRST (c). "THEY ARE ALL DRAGONS OF WISDOM," adds the Commentary (d).
(a) Lha is the ancient word in trans-Himalayan regions for "Spirit," any celestial or superhuman Being, and it covers the whole series of heavenly hierarchies, from Archangel, or Dhyani, down to an angel of darkness, or terrestrial Spirit.
(b) This expression shows in plain language that the Spirit-Guardian
of our globe, which is the fourth in the chain, is subordinate to the chief
Spirit (or God) of the Seven Planetary Genii or Spirits. As already explained,
the ancients had, in their Kyriel of gods, seven chief Mystery-gods, whose chief
was, exoterically, the visible Sun, or the eighth, and,
esoterically, the second Logos, the Demiurge. The seven (who have
now become the "Seven Eyes of the Lord" in the Christian religion) were the
regents of the seven chief planets; but these were not
* All the words and sentences placed in brackets in the Stanzas and
Commentaries are the writer's. In some places they may be incomplete and even
inadequate from the Hindu standpoint; but in the meaning attached to them in
Trans-Himalayan Esotericism they are correct. In every case the writer takes any
blame upon herself. Having never claimed personal infallibility, that which is
given on her own authority may leave much to be desired, in the very abstruse
cases where too deep metaphysics is involved. The teaching is offered as it is
understood; and as there are seven keys of interpretation to every symbol and
allegory, that which may not fit a meaning, say from the psychological or
astronomical aspect, will be found quite correct from the physical or
metaphysical.
reckoned according to the enumeration devised later by people who had forgotten, or who had an inadequate notion of, the real Mysteries, and included neither the sun, the moon, nor the earth. The sun was the chief, exoterically, of the twelve great gods, or zodiacal constellations; and, esoterically, the Messiah, the Christos (the subject anointed by the Great BREATH, or the ONE) surrounded by his twelve subordinate powers, also subordinate, in turn, to each of the seven "Mystery-gods" of the planets.
"The seven higher make the Seven Lhas create the world," states a Commentary; which means that our Earth, leaving aside the rest, was created or fashioned by terrestrial spirits, the "Regents" being simply the supervisors. This is the first germ, the seed of that which grew later into the Tree of Astrology and Astrolatry. The Higher ones were the Kosmocratores, the fabricators of our solar system. This is borne out by all the ancient Cosmogonies: that of Hermes, of the Chaldees, of the Aryans, of the Egyptians, and even of the Jews. Heaven's belt, the signs of the Zodiac (the Sacred animals), are as much the Bne' Alhim (Sons of the Gods or the Elohim) as the Spirits of the Earth; but they are prior to them. Soma and Sin, Isis and Diana, are all lunar gods or goddesses, called the fathers and mothers of our Earth, which is subordinate to them. But these, in their turn, are subordinate to their "Fathers" and "Mothers" the latter interchangeable and varying with each nation the gods and their planets, such as Jupiter, Saturn Bel, Brihaspati, etc.
(c) "His breath gave life to the seven," refers as much to the sun, who gives life to the Planets, as to the "High One," the Spiritual Sun, who gives life to the whole Kosmos. The astronomical and astrological keys opening the gate leading to the mysteries of Theogony can be found only in the later glossaries, which accompany the Stanzas.
In the apocalyptic Slokas of the Archaic Records, the language is as symbolical, if less mythical, than in the Purβnas. Without the help of the later commentaries, compiled by generations of adepts, it would be impossible to understand the meaning correctly. In the ancient Cosmogonies, the visible and the invisible worlds are the double links of one and the same chain. As the invisible Logos, with its seven hierarchies (represented or personified each by its chief angel or rector), form one POWER, the inner and the invisible; so, in the world of Forms, the Sun and the seven chief Planets constitute the visible and active potency; the latter "Hierarchy" being, so to speak, the visible and objective Logos of the invisible and (except in the lowest grades) ever-subjective angels.
Thus to anticipate a little by way of illustration
every Race in its
evolution is said to be born under the direct influence of one of the Planets: Race the first receiving its breath of life from the Sun, as will be seen later on; while the third humanity those who fell into generation, or from androgynes became separate entities, one male and the other female are said to be under the direct influence of Venus, "the little sun in which the solar orb stores his light."
The summation of the Stanzas in Book I. showed the genesis * of Gods and men taking rise in, and from, one and the same Point, which is the One Universal, Immutable, Eternal, and absolute UNITY. In its primary manifested aspect we have seen it become: (1) in the sphere of objectivity and Physics, Primordial Substance and Force (centripetal and centrifugal, positive and negative, male and female, etc., etc.); (2) in the world of Metaphysics, the SPIRIT OF THE UNIVERSE, or Cosmic Ideation, called by some the LOGOS.
This LOGOS is the apex of the Pythagorean triangle. When the triangle is complete it becomes the Tetraktis, or the Triangle in the Square, and is the dual symbol of the four-lettered Tetragrammaton in the manifested Kosmos, and of its radical triple RAY in the unmanifested, or its noumenon.
Put more metaphysically, the classification given here of Cosmic Ultimates,
is more one of convenience than of absolute philosophical accuracy. At the
commencement of a great Manvantara, Parabrahm manifests as Mulaprakriti and then
as the Logos. This Logos is equivalent to the "Unconscious Universal Mind,"
etc., of Western Pantheists. It constitutes the Basis of the SUBJECT-side of
manifested Being, and is the source of all manifestations of individual
consciousness. Mulaprakriti or Primordial Cosmic Substance, is the foundation of
the OBJECT-side of things the basis of all objective evolution and
Cosmogenesis. Force, then, does not emerge with Primordial Substance from Parabrahmic Latency. It is the transformation into energy of the
supra-conscious thought of the Logos, infused, so to speak, into the
objectivation of the latter out of potential latency in the One Reality. Hence
spring the wondrous laws of matter: hence the "primal impress" so vainly
discussed by Bishop Temple. Force thus is not synchronous with the first
objectivation of Mulaprakriti. But as, apart from it, the latter is
absolutely and necessarily inert a mere abstraction
it is
unnecessary to weave too fine a cobweb of subtleties as to the order of
succession of
* According to Dr. A. Wilder's learned definition,
Genesis,
genesi"
is not generation, but "a coming out of the eternal into the Kosmos and
Time": "a coming from esse into exsistere," or "from
BE-NESS into 'being' " as a Theosophist would say.
the Cosmic Ultimates. Force succeeds Mulaprakriti; but, minus Force, Mulaprakriti is for all practical intents and purposes non-existent.*
The "Heavenly Man" (Tetragrammaton) who is the Protogonos, Tikkoun, the firstborn from the passive deity and the first manifestation of that deity's shadow, is the universal form and idea, which engenders the manifested Logos, Adam Kadmon, or the four-lettered symbol, in the Kabala, of the Universe itself, also called the second Logos. The second springs from the first and develops the third triangle (see the Sephirothal Tree); from the last of which (the lower host of Angels) MEN are generated. It is with this third aspect that we shall deal at present.
The reader must bear in mind that there is a great difference between the LOGOS and the Demiurgos, for one is Spirit and the other is Soul; or as Dr. Wilder has it: "Dianoia and Logos are synonymous, Nous being superior and closely in affinity with To a~gaqon, one being the superior apprehending, the other the comprehending one noetic and the other phrenic."
Moreover, Man was regarded in several systems as the third Logos.
The esoteric meaning of the word Logos (speech or word, Verbum)
is the rendering in objective expression, as in a photograph, of the
concealed thought. The Logos is the mirror reflecting DIVINE MIND, and
the Universe is the mirror of the Logos, though the latter is the esse
of that Universe. As the Logos reflects all in the Universe of
Pleroma, so man reflects in himself all that he sees and finds in his
Universe, the Earth. It is the three Heads of the Kabala: "Unum intra
alterum, et alterum super alterum" (Zohar, Idra Suta, sec.
VII). "Every Universe (world or planet) has its own Logos," says the
doctrine. The Sun was always called by the Egyptians "the eye of Osiris," and
was himself the Logos, the first-begotten, or light made manifest to
the world, "which is the Mind and divine intellect of the Concealed." It is only
by the sevenfold Ray of this light that we can become cognizant of the Logos
through the Demiurge, regarding the latter as the creator of our
planet and everything pertaining to it, and the former as the guiding Force of
that "Creator" good and bad at the same time, the origin of good and the
origin of evil. This "Creator" is neither good nor bad per se, but its
differentiated aspects in nature make it assume one or the other character. With
the invisible and the unknown Universes disseminated through space, none of the
sun-gods had anything to do. The idea is expressed very clearly in the "Books of
Hermes," and in every ancient folk lore. It is symbolised generally by the
Dragon and the Serpent the Dragon of Good and the Serpent of Evil,
represented on Earth by
* For a clearer explanation of the origins, as contained in the esotericism
of the Bhagavad Gita, see the Notes thereon published in the "Theosophist"
for February, March and June, 1887, Madras.
the right and the left-hand Magic. In the epic poem of Finland, the Kalewala,* the origin of the Serpent of Evil is given: it is born from the "spittle of Suoyatar . . . . and endowed with a living Soul by the Principle of Evil," Hisi. A strife is described between the two, the "thing of Evil" (the Serpent or Sorcerer), and Ahti, the Dragon; "Magic Lemminkainen." The latter is one of the seven sons of Ilmatar, the virgin "daughter of the air," she "who fell from heaven into the sea," before Creation, i.e., Spirit transformed into the matter of sensuous life. There is a world of meaning and Occult thought in these few lines, admirably rendered by Dr. J. M. Crawford, of Cincinnati. The hero Lemminkainen, the good magician,
"Hews the wall with might of magic,
Breaks the palisade in pieces,
Hews to atoms seven pickets,
Chops the Serpent wall to fragments.
. . . . . .
When the monster little heeding,
. . . . . .
Pounces with his mouth of venom
At the head of Lemminkainen.
But the hero, quick recalling,
Speaks the Master words of Knowledge,
Words that came from distant ages,
Words his ancestors had taught him. . "
(d) In China the men of Fohi (or the "Heavenly Man") are called the
twelve Tien-Hoang, the twelve hierarchies of Dhyanis or Angels, with
human Faces, and Dragon bodies; the dragon standing for divine Wisdom
or Spirit; and they create men by incarnating themselves in
* J. W. Alden, New York.
It has been repeatedly stated that the Serpent is the symbol of wisdom and
of Occult knowledge. "The Serpent has been connected with the god of wisdom from
the earliest times of which we have any historical notice," writes Staniland
Wake. "This animal was the especial symbol of Thot or Taut . . . and of all
those gods, such as Hermes (?) and Seth who can be connected with him.
This is also the primitive Chaldean triad Hea or Hoa." According to Sir Henry
Rawlinson, the most important titles of this deity refer to "his functions as
the source of all knowledge and science." Not only is he "the intelligent fish,"
but his name may be read as signifying both "life" and a serpent (an initiated
adept), and he may be considered as "figured by the great serpent which occupies
so conspicuous a place among the symbols of the gods on the black stones
recording Babylonian benefactions." Esculapius, Serapis, Pluto, Knoum and Kneph,
are all deities with the attributes of the serpent. Says Dupuis, "They are all
healers, givers of health, spiritual and physical, and of
enlightenment." The crown formed of an asp, the Thermuthis,
belongs to Isis, goddess of Life and Healing. The Upanishads have a
treatise on the Science of Serpents in other words, the Science of
Occult knowledge; and the Nagas of the exoteric Buddhist are not "the
fabulous creatures of the nature of serpents . . . beings superior to
men and the protectors of the law of Buddha," as Schlagintweit
believes, but real living men, some superior to men by virtue of their Occult
knowledge, and the protectors of Buddha's law, inasmuch as
they interpret his metaphysical tenets correctly, others inferior morally
as being black magicians. Therefore it is truly declared that Gautama
Buddha "is said to have taught them a more philosophical religious system than
to men, who were not sufficiently advanced to understand it at the time of his
appearance." (Schlagintweit's "Tibetan Buddhism.")
seven figures of clay earth and water made in the shape of those Tien-hoang,a third allegory; (compare the "Symbols of the Bonzes"). The twelve ΖSERS of the Scandinavian Eddas do the same. In the Secret Catechism of the Druses of Syria a legend which is repeated word for word by the oldest tribes about and around the Euphrates men were created by the "Sons of God" descending on Earth, where, after culling seven Mandragoras, they animated these roots, which became forthwith men.*
All these allegories point to one and the same origin to the dual and the triple nature of man; dual, as male and female; triple as being of spiritual and psychic essence within, and of a material fabric without.
2. SAID THE EARTH, "LORD OF THE SHINING FACE (the Sun) MY HOUSE IS EMPTY. . . . SEND THY SONS TO PEOPLE THIS WHEEL (Earth). THOU HAST SENT THY SEVEN SONS TO THE LORD OF WISDOM (a). SEVEN TIMES DOTH HE SEE THEE NEARER TO HIMSELF; SEVEN TIMES MORE DOTH HE FEEL THEE. THOU HAST FORBIDDEN THY SERVANTS, THE SMALL RINGS, TO CATCH THY LIGHT AND HEAT, THY GREAT BOUNTY TO INTERCEPT ON ITS PASSAGE (b). SEND NOW TO THY SERVANT THE SAME!" (c).
(a) The "Lord of Wisdom" is Mercury, or Budha.
(b) The modern Commentary explains the words as a reference to a
well-known astronomical fact, "that Mercury receives seven times more
* The Mandragora is the mandrake of the Bible, of Rachel and Leah.
They are the roots of a plant, fleshy, hairy, and forked below, representing
roughly the limbs of a man, the body and even a head. Its magical and mysterious
properties have been proclaimed in fable and play from the most archaic ages.
From Rachel and Leah, who indulged in witchcraft with them, down to Shakespeare,
who speaks of shrieking
. . . . "Like mandrakes torn out of the earth
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad"
the mandragora was the magic plant par excellence.
These roots, without any stalk, and with large leaves growing out of the head
of the root, like a gigantic crop of hair, present little similitude to man when
found in Spain, Italy, Asia Minor, or Syria. But on the Isle of Candia, and in
Karamania near the city of Adan, they have a wonderfully human form; being very
highly prized as amulets. They are also worn by women as a charm against
sterility, and for other purposes. They are especially effective in Black
Magic.
light and heat from the Sun than Earth, or even the beautiful Venus, which receives but twice that amount more than our insignificant Globe." Whether the fact was known in antiquity may be inferred from the prayer of the "Earth Spirit" to the Sun as given in the text.* The Sun however, refuses to people the globe, as it is not ready to receive life as yet.
Mercury is, as an astrological planet, still more occult and mysterious than Venus. It is identical with the Mazdean Mithra, the genius, or god, "established between the Sun and the Moon, the perpetual companion of 'Sun' of Wisdom." Pausanias shows him as having an altar in common with Jupiter (Book V). He had wings to express his attendance upon the Sun in its course; and he was called the Nuntis, or Sun-wolf, "solaris luminis particeps." He was the leader of and the evocator of Souls, the "great Magician" and the Hierophant. Virgil depicts him as taking "his wand to evoke from Orcus the souls plunged therein" tum virgam capit, hac animas ille evocat Orco. (See also the 21st Fargard of the Vendidad on the celestial militia.) He is the golden-coloured Mercury, the crusofh;a" ΤErmh'" whom the Hierophants forbade to name. He is symbolised in Grecian mythology by one of the dogs (vigilance), which watch over the celestial flock (occult wisdom), or Hermes Anubis, or again Agathodζmon. He is the Argus watching over the Earth, and which the latter mistakes for the Sun itself. It is through the intercession of Mercury that the Emperor Julian prayed to the Occult Sun every night; for, as says Vossius: "All the theologians agree to say that Mercury and the Sun are one. . . . He was the most eloquent and the most wise of all the gods, which is not to be wondered at, since Mercury is in such close proximity to the Wisdom and the Word of God (the Sun) that he was confused with both." (Idolatry, Vol. II., p. 373.) Vossius utters here a greater occult truth than he suspected. The Hermes-Sarameyas of the Greeks is closely related to the Hindu Saram and Sarameya, the divine watchman, "who watches over the golden flock of stars and solar rays."
In the clearer words of the Commentary:
"The Globe, propelled onward by the Spirit of the Earth and his six
assistants,
* Copernicus wrote his theories on the "Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies" in
the XVIth century, and the Zohar, even if compiled by Moses de
Leon in the XIIIth century, states that: "In the book of
Hammannunah, the Old, we learn . . . that the earth turns upon itself in the
form of a circle; that some are on top, the others below, . . . . that there are
some countries which are lightened, whilst others are in darkness; these have
the day, when for the former it is night; and there are countries in which it is
constantly day, or in which at least the night continues only some instants." (Zohar
iii., fol. 10a "Qabbalah," p. 139.)
gets all its vital forces, life, and powers through the medium of the seven planetary Dhyanis from the Spirit of the Sun. They are his messengers of Light and Life."
"Like each of the seven regions of the Earth, each of the seven * Firstborn (the primordial human groups) receives its light and life from its own especial Dhyani spiritually, and from the palace (house, the planet) of that Dhyani physically; so with the seven great Races to be born on it. The first is born under the Sun; the second under Brihaspati (Jupiter); the third under Lohitanga (the "fiery-bodied," Venus, or Sukra); the fourth, under Soma (the Moon, our Globe also, the Fourth Sphere being born under and from the Moon) and Sani, Saturn the Krura-lochana (evil-eyed) and the Asita (the dark); the fifth, under Budha (Mercury)."
"So also with man and every 'man' in man (every
principle). Each gets its specific quality from its primary (the
planetary spirit), therefore every man is a septenate (or a combination
of principles, each having its origin in a quality of that special Dhyani).
Every active power or force of the earth comes to her from one of the seven
Lords. Light comes through Sukra (Venus), who receives a triple supply,
and gives one-third of it to the Earth. Therefore the two are called 'Twin-sisters,'
but the Spirit of the Earth is subservient to the 'Lord' of
Sukra. Our wise men represent the two Globes, one over, the other under the
double Sign (the primeval Svastica bereft of its four arms, or the cross
)."
The "double sign" is, as every student of Occultism knows, the symbol of the
male and the female principles in Nature, of the positive and the negative, for
the Svastica or 
is all that and much
more. All antiquity, ever since the birth of Astronomy imparted to the Fourth
Race by one of its divine kings of the Divine Dynasty and
* Science teaches that Venus receives from the sun twice as much light and
heat as the earth. Thus the planet, precursor of the dawn and the twilight, the
most radiant of all the planets, said to give the earth one-third of the supply
she receives, has two parts left for herself. This has an occult as well as an
astronomical meaning.
"As it is above so it is below" is the fundamental axiom of occult
philosophy. As the logos is seven-fold, i.e., throughout Kosmos it
appears as seven logoi under seven different forms, or, as taught by learned
Brahmins, "each of these is the central figure of one of the seven main branches
of the ancient wisdom religion;" and, as the seven principles which correspond
to the seven distinct states of Pragna, or consciousness, are allied to
seven states of matter and the seven forms of force, the division must be the
same in all that concerns the earth.
Venus is thus
the Earth
.
also of Astrology, represented Venus in its astronomical tables as a Globe poised over a Cross, and the Earth, as a Globe under a Cross. The esoteric meaning of this is: "Earth fallen into generation, or into the production of its species through sexual union." But the later Western nations did not fail to give quite a different interpretation. They explained this sign through their mystics guided by the light of the Latin Church as meaning that our Earth and all on it were redeemed by the Cross, while Venus (otherwise Lucifer or Satan) was trampling upon it. Venus is the most occult, powerful, and mysterious of all the planets; the one whose influence upon, and relation to the Earth is most prominent. In exoteric Brahmanism, Venus or Sukra a male deity * is the son of Bhrigu, one of the Prajβpati and a Vedic sage, and is Daitya-Guru, or the priest-instructor of the primeval giants. The whole history of "Sukra" in the Purβnas, refers to the Third and to the Fourth Races.
"It is through Sukra that the 'double ones' (the
Hermaphrodites) of the Third (Root-Race) descended from the
first 'Sweat-born,'" says the Commentary. Therefore it is
represented under the symbol of 
(the
circle and diameter) during the Third (Race) and of
during the Fourth.
This needs explanation. The diameter, when found isolated in a
circle, stands for female nature, for the first ideal World,
self-generated and self-impregnated by the universally diffused Spirit of
Life referring thus to the primitive Root-Race also. It becomes androgynous
as the Races and all on Earth develop into their physical forms, and the symbol
is transformed into a circle with a diameter from which runs a vertical line:
expressive of male and female, not separated as yet the first and earliest
Egyptian Tau 
; after which it
becomes or male-female separated (See
first pp. of Book I) and fallen into generation. Venus (the planet) is
symbolised by the sign of a globe over the cross, which shows it as presiding
over the natural generation of man. The Egyptians symbolised Ank,
"life," by the ansated cross, or 
, which is
only another form of Venus (Isis) 
, and
meant, esoterically, that mankind and all animal life had stepped out of the
divine spiritual circle and fallen into physical male and female generation.
This sign, from the end of the Third Race, has the same phallic significance as
the "tree
* In the esoteric philosophy it is male and female, or hermaphrodite; hence
the bearded Venus in mythology.
Therefore, putting aside its religio-metaphysical aspect, the Cross of the
Christians is symbolically far more phallic than the pagan Svastica.
of life" in Eden Anouki, a form of Isis, is the goddess of life; and Ank was taken by the Hebrews from the Egyptians and introduced by Moses, one learned in the Wisdom of the priests of Egypt, with many other mystical words. The word Ank in Hebrew, with the personal suffix, means "my life," my being, which "is the personal pronoun Anochi," from the name of the Egyptian goddess Anouki.*
In one of the most ancient Catechisms of Southern India, Madras Presidency, the hermaphrodite goddess Adanari (see also "Indian Pantheon") has the ansated cross, the Svastica, the "male and female sign," right in the central part, to denote the pre-sexual state of the Third Race. Vishnu, who is now represented with a lotus growing out of his navel or the Universe of Brahmβ evolving out of the central point Nara is shown in one of the oldest carvings as double-sexed (Vishnu and Lakshmi) standing on a lotus-leaf floating on the water; which water rises in a semicircle and pours through the Svastica, "the source of generation" or of the descent of man.
Pythagoras calls Sukra-Venus the Sol alter, "the other Sun." Of the "seven palaces of the Sun," that of Lucifer Venus is the third one in Christian and Jewish Kabala, the Zohar making of it the abode of Samael. According to the Occult Doctrine, this planet is our Earth's primary, and its spiritual prototype. Hence, Sukra's car (Venus-Lucifer's) is said to be drawn by an ogdoad of "earth-born horses," while the steeds of the chariots of the other planets are different.
"Every sin committed on Earth is felt by Usanas-Sukra. The Guru of the Daityas is the Guardian Spirit of the Earth and Men. Every change on Sukra is felt on, and reflected by, the Earth."
Sukra, or Venus, is thus represented as the preceptor of the Daityas, the
giants of the Fourth Race, who, in the Hindu allegory, obtained at one time the
sovereignty of all the Earth, and defeated the minor gods. The Titans
of the Western allegory are as closely connected with Venus-Lucifer, identified
by later Christians with Satan. Therefore, as Venus, equally with Isis, was
represented with Cow's horns on her head, the symbol of mystic Nature, and one
that is convertible with, and significant of, the moon, since all these were
lunar goddesses, the configuration of this planet is now placed by theologians
between the horns of the mystic Lucifer. It is owing to the fanciful
interpretation of the
* The ansated Cross is the astronomical planetary sign of Venus, "signifying
the existence of parturient energy in the sexual sense, and this was
one of the attributes of Isis, the Mother, of Eve, Hauvah, or
Mother-Earth, and was so recognised among all the ancient peoples in one or
another mode of expression." (From a modern Kabalistic
MS.)
Athenζus shows that the first letter of Satan's name was represented in
days of old by an arc and crescent; and some Roman Catholics, good and kind men,
would persuade the public that it is in honour of Lucifer's crescent-like horns
that Mussulmen have chosen the Crescent for their
national arms. Venus has always been identified, since the establishment of
Roman Catholic dogmatism, with Satan and Lucifer, or the great Dragon, contrary
to all reason and logic. As shown by the symbologists and astronomers, the
association between the serpent and the idea of darkness had an astronomical
foundation. The position which the constellation of Draco at one time occupied
showed that the great serpent was the ruler of the night. This constellation was
formerly at the very centre of the heavens, and is so extensive that it was
called the Great Dragon. Its body spreads over seven signs of the Zodiac; and
Dupuis, "who," says Staniland Wake, "sees in the Dragon of the Apocalypse a
reference to the celestial serpent," remarks that "it is not astonishing that a
constellation so extended should be represented by the author of that book as a
Great Dragon with seven heads, who drew the third part of the stars from heaven
and cast them to Earth"; (Dupuis, tome III., p. 255). Only
Dupuis never knew why Draco, once the pole-star
the symbol
of "Guide," Guru and director had been thus degraded by posterity. "The gods
of our fathers are our devils," says an Asiatic proverb. When Draco ceased to be
the lode-star, the guiding sidereal divinity, it shared the fate of all
the fallen gods. Seth and Typhon was at one time, Bunsen tells us, "a great god
universally adored throughout Egypt, who conferred on the sovereigns of the 18th
and 19th Dynasties the symbols of life and power. But subsequently, in the
course of the 20th Dynasty, he is suddenly treated as an evil Demon, insomuch
that his effigies and name are obliterated on all the monuments and inscriptions
that could be reached." The real occult reason will be given in these pages.
archaic tradition, which states that Venus changes simultaneously (geologically) with the Earth; that whatever takes place on the one takes place on the other; and that many and great were their common changes it is for these reasons that St. Augustine repeats it, applying the several changes of configuration, colour, and even of the orbital paths, to that theologically-woven character of Venus-Lucifer. He even goes so far in his pious fancy as to connect the last changes of the planet with the Noachian and mythical Deluge alleged to have taken place 1796 years B.C. (See "City of God" lxxi., ch. viii.).
As Venus has no satellites, it is stated allegorically, that "Asphujit" (this
"planet") adopted the Earth, the progeny of the Moon, "who overgrew its parent
and gave much trouble," a reference to the occult connection between the two.
The Regent (of the planet) Sukra* loved his adopted child so well that he
incarnated as Usanas and gave it perfect laws, which were disregarded and
rejected in later ages. Another allegory, in Harivansa, is that Sukra went to
Siva asking him to protect his pupils, the Daityas and Asuras, from the fighting
gods; and that to further his object he performed a Yoga rite "imbibing the
smoke of chaff with his head downwards for 1,000 years." This
refers to the great inclination of the axis of Venus (amounting to 50 degrees),
and to its being enveloped in eternal clouds. But it relates only to the
physical constitution of the planet. It is with its Regent, the informing Dhyan
Chohan,
* Sukra is the son of Bhrigu the great Rishi, and one of the Seven
Prajβpati, the founder of the Race of Bhargavas, in which Parasu Rβma is
born.
that Occult mysticism has to deal. The allegory which states that for killing Sukra's mother, Vishnu was cursed by him to be reborn seven times on the Earth, is full of occult philosophical meaning. It does not refer to Vishnu's Avatars, since these number nine, the tenth being still to come, but to the Races on Earth. Venus, or Lucifer (also Sukra and Usanas) the planet, is the light-bearer of our Earth, in both its physical and mystic sense. The Christians knew it well in early times, since one of the earliest popes of Rome is known by his Pontiff name as Lucifer.
"Every world has its parent star and sister planet. Thus Earth is the adopted child and younger brother of Venus, but its inhabitants are of their own kind. . . . All sentient complete beings (full septenary men or higher beings) are furnished, in their beginnings, with forms and organisms in full harmony with the nature and state of the sphere they inhabit."*
"The Spheres of Being, or centres of life, which are isolated nuclei breeding their men and their animals, are numberless; not one has any resemblance to its sister-companion or to any other in its own special progeny."
"All have a double physical and spiritual nature."
"The nucleoles are eternal and everlasting; the nuclei periodical and finite. The nucleoles form part of the absolute. They are the embrasures of that black impenetrable fortress, which is for ever concealed from human or even Dhyanic sight. The nuclei are the light of eternity escaping therefrom."
"It is that
LIGHT
which condenses into the forms of the 'Lords of Being'
the first and the highest of
which are, collectively, JIVΒTMA, or Pratyagβtma
(said figuratively to issue from Paramatma. It is the Logos of the Greek
philosophers appearing at the beginning of every new Manvantara). From
these downwards formed from the ever-consolidating waves of that light, which
becomes on the objective plane gross matter
proceed the numerous hierarchies
of the Creative Forces, some formless, others having their
* This is a flat contradiction of Swedenborg, who saw, in "the
first Earth of the astral world," inhabitants dressed as are the
peasants in Europe; and on the Fourth Earth women clad as are the
shepherdesses in a bal masque. Even the famous astronomer Huygens
laboured under the mistaken idea that other worlds and planets have the same
identical beings as those who live on our Earth, possessing the same figures,
senses, brain-power, arts, sciences, dwellings and even to the same fabric for
their wearing apparel! (Theorie du Monde). For the clearer
comprehension of the statement that the Earth "is the progeny of the Moon," see
Book I., stanza VI.
This is a modern gloss. It is added to the old Commentaries for the
clearer comprehension of those disciples who study esoteric Cosmogony after
having passed through Western learning. The earlier Glosses are too redundant
with adjectives and figures of speech to be easily assimilated.
own distinctive form, others, again, the lowest (Elementals), having no form of their own, but assuming every form according to the surrounding conditions."
"Thus there is but one Absolute Upadhi (basis) in the spiritual sense, from, on, and in which, are built for Manvantaric purposes the countless basic centres on which proceed the Universal, cyclic, and individual Evolutions during the active period."
"The informing Intelligences, which animate these various centres of Being, are referred to indiscriminately by men beyond the Great Range* as the Manus, the Rishis, the Pitris , the Prajβpati, and so on; and as Dhyani Buddhas, the Chohans, Melhas (fire-gods), Bodhisattvas, and others, on this side. The truly ignorant call them gods; the learned profane, the one God; and the wise, the Initiates, honour in them only the Manvantaric manifestations of THAT which neither our Creators (the Dhyan Chohans) nor their creatures can ever discuss or know anything about. The ABSOLUTE is not to be defined, and no mortal or immortal has ever seen or comprehended it during the periods of Existence. The mutable cannot know the Immutable, nor can that which lives perceive Absolute Life."
Therefore, man cannot know higher beings than his own "progenitors." "Nor shall he worship them, "but he ought to learn how he came into the world.
(c) Number Seven, the fundamental figure among all other figures in every
national religious system, from Cosmogony down to man, must have its raison
d'etre. It is found among the ancient Americans, as prominently as
among the archaic Aryans and Egyptians. The question will be fully dealt with in
the second part of this Book; meanwhile a few facts may be given here. Says the
author of the "Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and Quiches, 11,500 years
ago"§:
*" Beyond" the Great Range, means, in our case, India, as being the
Trans-Himalayan region for the Cis-Himalayan region.
The term Pitris is used by us in these Slokas to facilitate their
comprehension, but it is not so used in the original Stanzas, where they have
distinct appellations of their own, besides being called "Fathers" and
"Progenitors."
It is erroneous to take literally the worship of the human
Bodhisattvas, or Manjusri. It is true that, exoterically, the Mahβyβna school
teaches adoration of these without distinction, and that Huien-Tsang speaks of
some disciples of Buddha as being worshipped. But esoterically it is not the
disciple or the learned Manjusri personally that received honours, but
the divine Bodhisattvas and Dhyani Buddhas that animated (Amilakha, as
the Mongolians say) the human forms.
§: The author of this work is Augustus Le Plongeon. He and his wife are
well known in the United States for their untiring labours in Central America.
It is they who discovered the sepulchre of the royal Kan Coh, at Cichen-Itza.
The author seems to believe and to seek to
prove that the esoteric learning of the Aryans and the Egyptians was derived
from the Mayas. But, although certainly coeval with Plato's Atlantis, the Mayas
belonged to the Fifth Continent, which was preceded by Atlantis and Lemuria.
"Seven seems to have been the sacred number par excellence among all civilised nations of antiquity. Why? Each separate people has given a different explanation, according to the peculiar tenets of their (exoteric) religion. That it was the number of numbers for those initiated into the sacred mysteries, there can be no doubt. Pythagoras . . . calls it the 'Vehicle of Life' containing body and soul, since it is formed of a Quaternary, that is Wisdom and intellect, and of a Trinity or action and matter. The Emperor Julian, 'In matrem, etc.,' expresses himself thus: 'Were I to touch upon the initiation into our Sacred Mysteries, which the Chaldees Bacchized, respecting the seven-rayed god, lighting up the soul through him, I should say things unknown to the rabble, very unknown, but well known to the blessed Theurgists.' " (p. 141).
And who, acquainted with the Purβnas, the Book of the Dead, the Zendavesta, the Assyrian tiles, and finally the Bible, and who has observed the constant occurrence of the number seven, in these records of people living from the remotest times unconnected and so far apart, can regard as a coincidence the following fact, given by the same explorer of ancient Mysteries? Speaking of the prevalence of seven as a mystic number, among the inhabitants of the "Western continent" (of America), he adds that it is not less remarkable. For:
"It frequently occurs in the Popul-vuh . . . we find it besides in the seven families said by Sahagun and Clavigero to have accompanied the mystical personage named Votan, the reputed founder of the great city of Nachan, identified by some with Palenque. In the seven caves* from which the ancestors of the Nahuatl are reported to have emerged. In the seven cities of Cibola, described by Coronado and Niza. . . . In the seven Antilles; in the seven heroes who, we are told, escaped the Deluge . . . ."
"Heroes," moreover, whose number is found the same in every "Deluge" story from the seven Rishis who were saved with Vaivasvata Manu, down to Noah's ark, into which beasts, fowls, and living creatures were taken by "Sevens." Thus we see the figures 1, 3, 5, 7, as perfect, because thoroughly mystic, numbers playing a prominent part in every Cosmogony and evolution of living Beings. In China, 1, 3, 5, 7, are called "celestial numbers" in the canonical "Book of Changes." (Yi King, or transformation, as in "Evolution").
The explanation of it becomes evident when one examines the ancient
* These seven caves, seven cities, etc., etc., stand in every case
for the seven centres, or zones, upon which the seven primitive groups of the
first Root-race were born.
Symbols: all these are based upon and start from the figures given from the
Archaic Manuscript in the proem of Book I. ,
the symbol of evolution and fall into generation or matter, is reflected in the
old Mexican sculptures or paintings, as it is in the Kabalistic Sephiroth, and
the Egyptian Tau. Examine the Mexican MSS (Add.
MSS. Brit. Mus. 9789)*; you will find in it a tree whose trunk is covered
with ten fruits ready to be plucked by a male and female, one on each
side of it, while from the top of the trunk two branches shoot horizontally to
the right and left, thus forming a perfect
(tau), the ends of the two branches, moreover, each bearing a triple bunch, with
a bird
the bird of immortality, Atman or the divine Spirit
sitting between
the two, and thus making the seventh. This represents the same idea as
the Sephirothal Tree, ten in all, yet, when separated from its upper
triad, leaving Seven. These are the celestial fruits, the ten or
10, born out of the two invisible male
and female seeds, making up the 12, or the Dodecahedron of the Universe. The
mystic system contains the 
, the central
point; the 3 or 
; the five,
, and the seven or
, or again
; the triangle in the square and the
synthesizing point in the interlaced double triangles. This for the world of the
archetypes. The phenomenal world receives its culmination and the reflex of all
in MAN. Therefore he is the mystic square
in his
metaphysical aspect the Tetraktis; and becomes the Cube on
the creative plain. His symbol is the cube unfolded and 6 becoming 7, or the
three crossways (the female) and
four vertically; and this is man, the culmination of the deity on
Earth, whose body is the cross of flesh, on, through, and in
which he is ever crucifying and putting to death the divine Logos or his
HIGHER SELF.
"The universe," says every Philosophy and Cosmogony, "hath a Ruler (Rulers collectively) set over it, which is called the WORD (Logos); the fabricating Spirit is its Queen: which two are the First Power after the ONE."
These are the Spirit and Nature, which two form our illusory universe. The
two inseparables remain in the Universe of Ideas so long as it lasts,
and then merge back into Parabrahm, the One ever changeless. "The Spirit, whose
essence is eternal, one and self-existent," emanates a pure ethereal LIGHT
a
dual light not perceptible to the elementary senses in the Purβnas, in the
Bible, in the Sepher
* The engraving is reproduced in the "Sacred Mysteries of the Mayas and
Quiches" on p. 134.
See "Source of Measures" p. 50 to 53 and also Book II. Part 2.
Jezirah, the Greek and Latin hymns, in the Book of Hermes, in the Chaldean Book of Numbers, in the esotericism of Lao-tse, everywhere. In the Kabala, which explains the secret meaning of Genesis, this light is the DUAL-MAN, or the Androgyne (rather the sexless) angels, whose generic name is ADAM KADMON. It is they who complete man, whose ethereal form is emanated by other divine, but far lower beings, who solidify the body with clay, or the "dust of the ground" an allegory indeed, but as scientific as any Darwinian evolution and more true.
The author of the "Source of Measures" says that the foundation of the Kabala and all its mystic books is made to rest upon the ten Sephiroth; which is a fundamental truth.* He shows these ten Sephiroth or the ten numbers in the following diagram:
wherein the circle is the naught, its vertical diameter line is the first or primal ONE (the Word or Logos), from which springs the series of the other numbers up to 9, the limit of the digits. The 10 is the first Divine Manifestation containing "every possible power of exact expression of proportion." By this Kabalistic speculation we are taught that the Sephiroth "were the numbers or emanations of the Heavenly Light (figures 20612 to 6561), they were the 10 'Words,' DBRIM, 41224, the light, of which they were the flux, was the Heavenly Man, the Adam KDM (the 144 -144); and the Light, by the New Testament or Covenant (or 41224) created God; just as, by the Old Testament God (Alhim, 31415) creates light (20612 to 6561)."
Now there are three kinds of light in Occultism, as in the Kabala. (1) The
Abstract and Absolute Light, which is Darkness; (2) The Light of the
Manifested-Unmanifested, called by some the Logos; and (3) The latter light
reflected in the Dhyan Chohans, the minor logoi (the Elohim,
collectively), who, in their turn, shed it on the objective Universe. But in the
Kabala reedited and carefully adjusted to fit the Christian tenets by the
Kabalists of the XIII. century the three lights are
described as: (1) The clear and penetrating, that of Jehovah; (2) reflected
light; and (3) light in the abstract." This light abstractly taken (in
a metaphysical or symbolical sense) is Alhim (Elohim God),
* See "Masonic Review," Cincinnati, June 1886, Art. Kabala No. 6.
See "Isis Unveiled," Vol. II., pp. 300 et seq., for a
proof of the antiquity of the decimal system of figures.
while the clear penetrating light is Jehovah. The light of Alhim belongs to the world in general, in its allness and general fulness, but the light of Jehovah is that pertaining to the chiefest production, man, whom this light penetrated and made." The author of the "Source of Measures" pertinently refers the reader to Inman's "Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names," vol. ii., p. 648. There, an engraving of "the vesica piscis, Mary and the female emblem, copied from a rosary of the blessed Virgin . . . . printed at Venice, 1542," and therefore, as Inman remarks, "with a license from the Inquisition, consequently orthodox," will show the reader what the Latin Church understood by this "penetrating power of light and its effects " How sadly disfigured applied as they were to the grossest anthropomorphic conceptions have become, under Christian interpretation, the noblest and grandest, as the most exalted, ideas of deity of the Eastern philosophy!
The Occultists call this light Daiviprakriti in the East, and light of Christos in the West. It is the light of the LOGOS, the direct reflection of the ever Unknowable on the plane of Universal manifestation. But here is the interpretation thereof given by the modern Christians from the Kabala. As declared by the author just cited:
"To the fulness of the world in general with its chiefest content, man, the term Elohim-Jehovah applies. In extracts from the Zohar, the Rev. Dr. Cassell (a Kabalist), to prove that the Cabbalah sets forth the doctrine of the Trinity, among other things says: 'Jehovah is Elohim (Alhim) . . . by three steps God (Alhim), and Jehovah become the same, and though separated each and together, they are of the same one.'" Similarly, Vishnu becomes the Sun, the visible symbol of the impersonal deity. Vishnu is described as "striding through the seven regions of the Universe in three steps." But with the Hindus this is an exoteric account, a surface tenet and an allegory, while the Kabalists give it out as the esoteric and final meaning. But to proceed:
"Now light," explains the author, "as shown, is 20612 to 6561, as the proper
enunciation of the integral and numerical relation of diameter to circumference
of a circle. God (Alhim, i.e., 3.1415 to one, a modified form of the
above) is the reduction of this, so as to obtain a standard unit one, as
the basis, in general, of all calculation and all mensuration. But, for the
production of animal life, and for especial time measure or the lunar
year, that influence which causes conception and embryotic development, the
numbers of the Jehovah measure ('man even Jehovah' measure), viz. 113
to 355, have to be specialised. * But this last ratio is but a modified
form of light or 20612 to 6561, as a ' p ' value, being only a
variation of the same (that is 20612 to 6561 is 31415 to one, or Alhim or God) and in such a manner that one can be made
* See "Source of Measures," pp. 276, et seq. App.
VII.
to flow into and be derived from the other, and these are the three steps by which the Unity and sameness can be shown of the divine names. That is, the two are but variations of the same ratio, viz., that of ' p ' The object of this comment is to show the same measuring use for the Cabbalah as was employed in the three Covenants of the Bible, and in the symbols of Masonry, as just noticed."
"First then, the Sephiroth are described as Light, that is, they
themselves are a function of, indeed, the same as, the manifestation of Ain
Soph; and they are so from the fact that Light represents the ratio of
20612 to 6561, as part of the 'Words,' DBRIM, 41224, or as to the Word, Debar,
206 (= 10 cubits). Light is so much the burden of the Kabbalah, in
explaining the Sephiroth, that the most famous book on the Kabbalah is called
Zohar or Light. In this we find expressions of this kind:
'The Infinite was entirely unknown and diffused no light before the luminous
point violently broke through into vision . . . .' 'When he first assumed the
form (of the Crown, or the first Sephira), he caused 9 splendid lights to
emanate from it, which, shining through it, diffused a bright light in all
directions': that is, these 9 with his one (which was the origin, as above, of
the nine), together made the 10, that is 
or 
, or the sacred Ten (numbers
or Sephiroth), or Jod
and these numbers were 'the
Light.' Just as in the Gospel of St. John, God (Alhim, 31415 to one) was
that light (20612 to 6561) by which (Light) all things were made."
In Sepher Jezirah, or Numbers of Creation, the whole process of evolution is given out in Numbers. In its "32 paths of Wisdom" the number 3 is repeated four times, and the number 4 five times. Therefore, the Wisdom of God is contained in numbers (Sephrim or Sephiroth), for Sepher (or S-ph-ra when unvowelled) means "to cipher." And therefore, also, we find Plato stating that the deity geometrizes in fabricating the Universe.
The Kabalistic book, the Sepher Jezirah, opens with a statement of the hidden wisdom of Alhi in Sephrim, i.e , the Elohim in the Sephiroth.
"In thirty and two paths, hidden wisdom, established Jah, JHVH, Tzabaoth, Elohi of Israel, Alhim of Life, El of Grace and Mercy exalted, uplifted Dweller on high, and King of Everlasting, and his name Holy! in three Sephrim: viz: B-S'ph-r, V-S'ph-r, V-Siph-o-r."
"This Comment sets forth 'the Hidden Wisdom' of the original text by
hidden Wisdom, that is, by the use of words carrying a special set of Numbers
and a special phraseology, which will set forth the very explanatory system
which we find to fit so accurately in the Hebrew Bible. . . . . In setting forth
his scheme, to enforce it, and to finish out his detailed exposition in a
general postulate, viz., the one word
Sephrim (Sephiroth) of the Number Jezirah, the author explains the separation of this word in the three subordinate ones, a play upon a common word s-ph-r, or number."
The prince Al-Chazari says to the Rabbi *: "I wish now that thou wouldest impart to me some of the chiefest or leading principles of Natural Philosophy, which as thou sayest were in former times worked out by them (the Ancient Wise Ones)"; to which the Rabbi makes answer: "To such principles appertains the Number of Creation of our Race-father Abraham" (that is Abram and Abraham, or numbers 41224 and 41252). He then says that this book of Number treats of teaching the Alhim-ness and One-ness through, "DBRIM," viz., the numbers of the Word "Words." That is, it teaches the use of the ratio 31415 to one, through 41224, which last, in the description of the Ark of the Covenant, was divided into two parts by two tables of stone, on which these, DBRIM or 41224, were written or engraved or 20612 by 2. He then comments on these three subordinately used words, and takes care as to one of them to make the comment: "And Alhim (31415 to 1) said: Let there be Light (20612 to 6561)."
The three words as given in the text are:
. And the Rabbi in commenting upon them
says: "It teaches the Alhim-ness (31415) and One-ness (the
diameter to Alhim) through Words (DBRIM, 41224), by which on
the one side there is infinite expression in heterogeneous creations, and on the
other a final harmonic tendency to One-ness" (which as everyone knows
is the mathematical function of "p" of the schools, which
measures, and weighs and numbers the stars of heaven, and yet resolves them back
into the final Oneness of the Universe through Words). "Their final accord
perfects itself in that Oneness that ordains them and which consists in
(Book of Al-Chazari), that is the Rabbi,
in his first comment, leaves the jod, or i, out of one of the words,
whereas afterwards he restores it again. If we take the values of those
subordinate words, we find them to be 340, 340, 346; together these are 1026,
and the division of the general word into these has been to produce these
numbers, which by Temurah may be changed in various ways for various purposes."
(Kabala.)
The reader is asked to turn to Stanza IV. of Book I. and its
fourth commentary to find that the 3, 4 (7), and the thrice seven, or 1065,
the number of Jehovah, is the number of the 21 Prajβpati mentioned in the Mahabhβrata, or the three Sephrim (words in cipher or figures). And
this comparison between the Creative Powers of Archaic philosophy and the
anthropomorphic Creator of exoteric Judaism (since their esotericism
shows its identity with the Secret Doctrine) will lead the student to perceive
and discover that, in truth, Jehovah is but a lunar and
* In the "Book Al-Chazari" by Jehuda-ha-Levi, translated by Dr. D.
Cassell.
"generation" god. (See Book I, Part 2, "Deus Lunus.") It is a fact well known to every conscientious student of the Kabala, that the deeper he dives into it, the more he feels convinced that unless the Kabala or what is left of it is read by the light of the Eastern esoteric philosophy, its study leads only to the discovery that, on the lines traced by exoteric Judaism and Christianity, the monotheism of both is nothing more exalted than ancient Astrolatry, now vindicated by modern Astronomy. The Kabalists never cease to repeat that primal intelligence can never be understood. It cannot be comprehended, nor can it be located, therefore it has to remain nameless and negative. Hence the Ain-Soph the "UNKNOWABLE" and the "UNNAMEABLE" which, as it could not be made manifest, was conceived to emanate manifesting Powers. It is then with its emanations alone that human intellect has to, and can deal. Christian theology, having rejected the doctrine of emanations and replaced them with direct, conscious creations of angels and the rest out of nothing, now finds itself hopelessly stranded between Supernaturalism, or miracle, and materialism. An extra-cosmic god is fatal to philosophy, an intra-cosmic Deity i.e. Spirit and matter inseparable from each other is a philosophical necessity. Separate them and that which is left is a gross superstition under a mask of emotionalism. But why "geometrize," as Plato has it, why represent these emanations under the form of an immense arithmetical table? The question is well answered by the author just cited. His remarks are quoted in Part II., § "The Theogony of the Creative Gods."
"Mental perception," he says, "to become physical perception, must have the Cosmic principle of light: and by this, our mental circle must become visible through light; or, for its complete manifestation, the Circle must be that of physical visibility, or Light itself. Such conceptions, thus formulated, became the groundwork of the philosophy of the divine manifesting in the Universe."
This is philosophy. It is otherwise when we find the Rabbi in Al-Chazari saying that "under s'ph-r is to be understood calculation and weighing of created bodies. For the calculation, by means of which a body must be constructed in harmony or symmetry, by which it must be in construction rightly arranged and made to correspond to the object in design, consists at last in number, extension, mass, weight; co-ordinate relation of movements, then harmony of music, must consist altogether by number, that is (S'ph-r). . . By Sippor (s'phor) is to be understood the words of Alhim whereunto joins or adapts itself the design of the frame or form of construction; for example, it was said 'Let Light be.' The work became as the WORDS were spoken, that is, as the numbers of the work came forth. . . . ."
This is materialising the Spiritual without scruple. But the Kabala
was not always so well adapted to anthropo-monotheistic conceptions. Compare this with any of the six schools of India. For instance, in Kapila's "Sankhya" Philosophy, unless, allegorically speaking, Purusha mounts on the shoulders of Prakriti, the latter remains irrational, while the former remains inactive without her. Therefore Nature (in man) must become a compound of Spirit and Matter before he becomes what he is; and the Spirit latent in Matter must be awakened to life and consciousness gradually. The Monad has to pass through its mineral, vegetable and animal forms, before the Light of the Logos is awakened in the animal man. Therefore, till then, the latter cannot be referred to as "MAN," but has to be regarded as a Monad imprisoned in ever changing forms. Evolution, not creation, by means of WORDS is recognized in the philosophies of the East, even in their exoteric records. Ex oriente lux. Even the name of the first man in the Mosaic Bible had its origin in India, Professor Max Muller's negation notwithstanding. The Jews got their Adam from Chaldea; and Adam-Adami is a compound word and therefore a manifold symbol, and proves the occult dogmas.
This is no place for philological disquisitions. But the reader may be reminded that the words Ad and Adi mean in Sanskrit "the first"; in Aramζan, "One" (Ad-ad, "the only one"); in Assyrian, "father" whence Ak-Ad or "father-creator." * And once the statement is found correct it becomes rather difficult to confine Adam to the Mosaic Bible alone, and to see therein simply a Jewish name. Vide Part II. of this Volume, § "Adam-Adami."
There is frequent confusion in the attributes and genealogies of the gods in
their theogonies, as given to the world by the half-initiated writers,
Brahmanical and Biblical, the Alpha and the Omega of the records of that
symbolical science. Yet there could be no such confusion made by the earliest
nations, the descendants and pupils of the divine instructors: for both the
attributes and the genealogies were inseparably linked with cosmogonical
symbols, the "gods" being the life and animating "soul-principle" of the various
regions of the Universe. Nowhere and by no people was speculation allowed to
range beyond those manifested gods. The boundless and infinite
UNITY remained with every nation a virgin forbidden soil, untrodden by man's
thought,
* The appellation Ak-ad (or Akkadians) is of the same class as
Ad-m, Ha-va (Eve), Ζd-en (Eden); Ak-Ad meaning "Son of Ad"
(like the sons of Ad in Ancient Arabia). Ad-ad, the "Only One" and the
First, was the Ad-on or "Lord" of Syria and consort of Ad-ar-gat
or Aster't, the Syrian goddess. And Gan-Ζden (Eden) or Gandunia was
Babylonia and Mesopotamia. In Assyrian Ak meant Creator, the letter K
pronounced Kh (Ah) gutturally. According to Swedenborg's mysticism Adam was not
a man but a church (?) of primitive light. In the Vedas Ad-iti is the
primitive light, the Akβsa of the phenomenal world.
untouched by fruitless speculation. The only reference made to it was the brief conception of its diastolic and systolic property, of its periodical expansion or dilatation, and contraction. In the Universe with all its incalculable myriads of systems and worlds disappearing and re-appearing in eternity, the anthropomorphised powers, or gods, their Souls, had to disappear from view with their bodies: "The breath returning to the eternal bosom which exhales and inhales them," says our Catechism.
"Ideal nature," the abstract Space in which everything in the Universe is mysteriously and invisibly generated, is the same female side of procreative power in Nature in the Vedic as in every other Cosmogony. Aditi is Sephira, and the Sophia-Achamoth of the Gnostics, and Isis, the virgin Mother of Horus. In every Cosmogony, behind and higher than the creative deity, there is a superior deity, a planner, an Architect, of whom the Creator is but the executive agent. And still higher, over and around, within and without, there is the UNKNOWABLE and the unknown, the Source and Cause of all these Emanations. . . . .
It thus becomes easy to account for the reason why "Adam-Adami"
is found in the Chaldean scripture, certainly earlier than the Mosaic
Books. In Assyrian Ad is the father, and in Aramζan Ad is
"One," and Ad-ad the "only one," while Ak is in Assyrian
"creator." Thus Ad-am-ak-ad-mon became Adam Kadmon in the Kabala (Zohar),
meaning as it did, the "One (Son) of the divine Father, or the creator,"
for the words "am" and "om" meant at one time in nearly every
language the divine, or the deity. Thus Adam Kadmon and Adam-Adami
came to mean: "The first emanation of the Father-Mother or divine nature,"
and literally "the first divine one." And it is easy to see that Ad-Argat
(or Aster't, the Syrian goddess, the consort of Ad-on,
the lord god of Syria or the Jewish Adonai), and Venus, Isis, Ishtar,
Mylitta, Eve, etc., etc., are identical with the Aditi and Vβch of the
Hindus. They are all the "Mothers of all living" and "of the gods." On the other
hand cosmically and astronomically
all the male gods became at first
"Sun-gods," then, theologically, the "Suns of Righteousness" and the Logoi, all
symbolised by the Sun.* They are all Protogonoi (the first-born) and
* Adam-Jehovah, Brahmβ and Mars are, in one sense, identical; they are all
symbols for primitive or initial generative powers for the purposes of
human procreation. Adam is red, and so also are Brahmβ-Viraj and Mars
god and
planet. Water is the blood of the Earth; therefore, all these names are
connected with Earth and Water. "It takes earth and water to create a
human soul," says Moses. Mars is identical with Kartikeya God
of War (in one sense) which god is born of the Sweat of Siva, Sivβ Gharmaja and the Earth. In the Mahabhβrata he is shown as born without the
intervention of a woman. And he is also called "Lohita," the red, like
Adam, and the other "first men." Hence, the author of "The Source of
Measures" is quite right in thinking that Mars (and all the other gods of
like attributes), "being the god of war and of bloodshed, was but a
secondary idea flowing out of the primary one of shedding of blood in
conception for the first time." Hence Jehovah became later a fighting
god, "Lord of Hosts," and one who commands war. He is the aggressive
Zodh or Cain by permutation who slew his (female) "brother,"
whose "blood crieth from the ground," the Earth having opened
her mouth to receive the blood. (Genesis iii.)
Mikroprosopoi. With the Jews Adam Kadmon was the same as Athamaz, Tamaz, or the Adonis of the Greeks "the One with, and of his father" the "Father" becoming during the later Races Helios, the Sun, as Apollo Karneios,* for instance, who was the "Sun born"; Osiris, Ormazd, and so on, were all followed by, and found themselves transformed later on into still more earthly types: such as Prometheus, the crucified of Mount Kajbee, Hercules, and so many others, sun-gods and heroes, until all of them came to have no better significance than phallic symbols.
In the Zohar is it said "Man was created by the Sephiroth (Elohim-Javeh, also) and they engendered by common power the earthly Adam." Therefore in Genesis the Elohim say: "Behold Man is become as one of us." But in Hindu Cosmogony or "Creation," Brahmβ-Prajβpati creates Virβj and the Rishis, spiritually; therefore the latter are distinctly called "the Mind-born Sons of Brahmβ"; and this specified mode of engendering precluded every idea of Phallicism, at any rate in the earlier human nations. This instance well illustrates the respective spirituality of the two nations.
3. SAID THE "LORD OF THE SHINING FACE." "I SHALL SEND THEE A FIRE WHEN THY WORK IS COMMENCED. RAISE THY VOICE TO OTHER LOKAS, APPLY TO THY FATHER THE LORD OF THE LOTUS (Kumuda-Pati) (a) FOR HIS SONS . . . . THY PEOPLE SHALL BE UNDER THE RULE OF THE FATHERS (Pitri-pati). THY MEN SHALL BE MORTALS. THE MEN OF THE LORD OF WISDOM (Budha, Mercury) NOT THE SONS OF SOMA (the Moon) ARE IMMORTAL. CEASE THY COMPLAINTS (b). THY SEVEN SKINS ARE YET ON THEE. . . . THOU ART NOT READY. THY MEN ARE NOT READY (c).
(a) Kumuda-Pati is the Moon, the Earth's parent, in his region of Soma-loka. Though the Pitris (Pitar or "Fathers") are sons of the Gods, elsewhere sons of Brahmβ and even Rishis, they are generally known as the "lunar" ancestors.
(b) Pitri-pati is the lord or king of the Pitris, Yama, the
god of Death and the Judge of mortals. The men of Budha (Mercury) are
* Apollo Karneios is certainly a Greek transformation from the Hindu
Krishna Karna. "Karna" means radiant from "carne," "a ray,"
and Karneios, which was a title of Apollo with the Celts as with the
Greeks, meant "Sun born."
metaphorically immortal through their Wisdom. Such is the common belief of those who credit every star or planet with being inhabited. (And there are men of science M. Flammarion among others who believe in this fervently, on logical as well as on astronomical data). The Moon being an inferior body to the Earth even, to say nothing of other planets, the terrestrial men produced by her sons the lunar men or "ancestors" from her shell or body, cannot be immortal. They cannot hope to become real, self-conscious and intelligent men, unless they are finished, so to say, by other creators. Thus in the Purβnic legend, the son of the Moon (Soma) is Budha (Mercury), "the intelligent" and the Wise, because he is the offspring of Soma, the "regent" of the visible Moon, not of Indu, the physical Moon. Thus Mercury is the elder brother of the Earth, metaphorically his step-brother, so to say, the offspring of Spirit while she (the Earth) is the progeny of the body. These allegories have a deeper and more scientific meaning (astronomically and geologically) then our modern physicists are willing to admit. The whole cycle of the "first War in Heaven," the Tβraka-mβya, is as full of philosophical as of Cosmogonical and astronomical truths. One can trace therein the biographies of all the planets by the history of their gods and rulers. Usanas (Sukra, or Venus), the bosom-friend of Soma and the foe of Brihaspati (Jupiter) the instructor of the gods, whose wife Tara (or Taraka) had been carried away by the Moon, Soma "of whom he begat Budha" took also an active part in this war against "the gods" and forthwith was degraded into a demon (Asura) deity, and so he remains to this day.*
Here the word "men" refers to the celestial men, or what are called in India
the PITAR or pitris, the Fathers, the progenitors of men. This
* Usanas-Sukra or Venus is our "Lucifer," the morning star, of course. The
ingenuity of this allegory in its manifold meanings is great indeed. Thus
Brihaspati (the planet Jupiter) or Brahmanaspati is, in the Rig Veda, a
deity who is the symbol and the prototype of the exoteric or
ritualistic worship. He is priest sacrificer, suppliant, and the medium through
which the prayers of mortals reach the gods. He is the Purohita (family
priest, or Court Chaplain) of the Hindu Olympus and the spiritual Guru
of the Gods. Soma is the mystery god and presides over the mystic and occult
nature in man and the Universe. Tara, the priest's wife, who symbolizes the
worshipper, prefers esoteric truths to their mere shell, exotericism; hence she
is shown as carried off by Soma. Now Soma is the sacred juice of that name,
giving mystic visions and trance revelations, the result of which union is
Budha (Wisdom), Mercury, Hermes, etc., etc.; that science in short which to
this day is proclaimed by the Brihaspatis of Theology as devilish and
Satanic. What wonder that by expanding the cycle of this allegory we find
Christian theology espousing the quarrel of the Hindu gods, and regarding
Usanas (Lucifer), who helped Soma against that ancient personification of
ritualistic worship (Brahmanaspati, the lord of the Brahmans, now become
"Jupiter-Jehovah") as SATAN, the "enemy of God"!
does not remove the seeming difficulty, in view of modern hypotheses, of the teaching, which shows these progenitors or ancestors creating the first human Adams out of their sides: as astral shadows. And though it is an improvement on Adam's rib, still geological and climatic difficulties will be brought forward. Such, however, is the teaching of Occultism.
(c) Man's organism was adapted in every race to its surroundings. The first Root-Race was as ethereal as ours is material. The progeny of the seven Creators, who evolved the seven primordial Adams,* surely required no purified gases to breathe and live upon (see Part III. of this Volume). Therefore, however strongly the impossibility of this teaching may be urged by the devotees of modern science, the Occultist maintains that the case was as stated ζons of years before even the evolution of the Lemurian, the first physical man, which itself took place 18,000,000 years ago.
Preliminary evolution is described in one of the BOOKS OF DZYAN and the Commentaries thereon in this wise:
Archaic Scripture teaches that at the commencement of every local Kalpa, or Round, the earth is reborn; "as the human Jiva (monad), when passing into a new womb, gets re-covered with a new body, so does the Jiva of the Earth; it gets a more perfect and solid covering with each Round after re-emerging once more from the matrix of space into objectivity" (Comment). This process is attended, of course, by the throes of the new birth or geological convulsions.
Thus the only reference to it is contained in one verse of the volume of the Book of Dzyan before us, where it says:
4. AND AFTER GREAT THROES SHE (the Earth) CAST OFF HER OLD THREE AND PUT ON HER NEW SEVEN SKINS, AND STOOD IN HER FIRST ONE (a).
(a) This refers to the growth of the Earth, whereas in the Stanza treating of the First Round it is said (given in the Commentary):
"After the changeless (avikβra) immutable nature (Essence,
sadaikarϋpa) had awakened and changed (differentiated) into (a
state of) causality (avayakta), and from cause (Karana)
had become its own discrete effect (vyakta), from invisible it became
visible. The smallest of the small (the most atomic of
* As shown elsewhere, it is only the "Heavenly Man," Adam Kadmon, of the
first chapter of Genesis, who is made "in the image and likeness of
God." Adam, of chapter ii., is not said to be made in that image nor in
the divine likeness, before he ate of the forbidden fruit. The former Adam is
the Sephirothal Host; the second Adam is the Mindless first human Root-race; the
third Adam is the race that separated, whose eyes are opened.
For a discussion of the scientific objections to the views and figures
here enunciated, the reader is referred to the Addenda, which form Part
III. of this book.
atoms, or aniyβmsam aniyasam) became one and the many (ekanekαrϋpa); and producing the Universe produced also the Fourth Loka (our Earth) in the garland of the seven lotuses. The Achyuta then became the Chyuta.*
The Earth is said to cast off her old three skins, because this refers to the three preceding Rounds she has already passed through; the present being the fourth Round out of the seven. At the beginning of every new ROUND, after a period of "obscuration," the earth (as do also the other six "earths") casts off, or is supposed to cast off, her old skins as the Serpent does: therefore she is called in the Aitareya-Brβhmana the Sarpa Rajni, "the Queen of the Serpents," and "the mother of all that moves." The "Seven Skins," in the first of which she now stands, refer to the seven geological changes which accompany and correspond to the evolution of the Seven Root-Races of Humanity.
Stanza II., which speaks of this Round, begins with a few words of information concerning the age of our Earth. The chronology will be given in its place. In the Commentary appended to the Stanza, two personages are mentioned: Narada and Asura Maya, especially the latter. All the calculations are attributed to this archaic celebrity; and what follows will make the reader superficially acquainted with some of these figures.
TWO ANTEDILUVIAN ASTRONOMERS.
To the mind of the Eastern student of Occultism, two figures are indissolubly connected with mystic astronomy, chronology, and their cycles. Two grand and mysterious figures, towering like two giants in the Archaic Past, emerge before him, whenever he has to refer to Yugas and Kalpas. When, at what period of pre-history they lived, none save a few men in the world know, or ever can know with that certainty which is required by exact chronology. It may have been 100,000 years ago, it may have been 1,000,000, for all that the outside world will ever know. The mystic West and Freemasonry talk loudly of Enoch and Hermes. The mystic East speaks of NARADA, the old Vedic Rishi, and of ASURAMAYA, the Atlantean.
It has already been hinted that of all the incomprehensible characters in the
Mahabhβrata and the Purβnas, Narada, the son of Brahmβ in Matsya Purβna, the
progeny of Kasyapa and the daughter of Daksha
* Achyuta is an almost untranslatable term. It means that which is not
subject to fall or change for the worse: the Unfalling; and it is the
reverse of chyuta, "the Fallen." The Dhyanis who incarnate in the human
forms of the Third Root-Race and endow them with intellect (Manas) are
called the chyuta, for they fall into generation.
in the Vishnu Purβna, is the most mysterious. He is referred to by the honourable title of Deva Rishi (divine Rishi, more than a demi-god) by Parasβra, and yet he is cursed by Daksha and even by Brahmβ. He informs Kansa that Bhagavat (or Vishnu in exotericism) would incarnate in the eighth child of Devaki, and thus brings the wrath of the Indian Herod upon Krishna's mother; and then, from the cloud on which he is seated invisible as a true Manasaputra he lauds Krishna, in delight at the Avatar's feat of killing the monster Kesim. Narada is here, there, and everywhere; and yet, none of the Purβnas gives the true characteristics of this great enemy of physical procreation. Whatever those characteristics may be in Hindu Esotericism, Narada who is called in Cis-Himalayan Occultism Pesh-Hun, the "Messenger," or the Greek Angelos is the sole confidant and the executor of the universal decrees of Karma and Adi-Budh: a kind of active and ever incarnating logos, who leads and guides human affairs from the beginning to the end of the Kalpa.
"Pesh-Hun" is a general not a special Hindu possession. He is the mysterious guiding intelligent power, which gives the impulse to, and regulates the impetus of cycles, Kalpas and universal events.* He is Karma's visible adjuster on a general scale; the inspirer and the leader of the greatest heroes of this Manvantara. In the exoteric works he is referred to by some very uncomplimentary names; such as "Kali-Kβraka," strife-maker, "Kapi-vaktra," monkey-faced, and even "Pisuna," the spy, though elsewhere he is called Deva-Brahmβ. Even Sir W. Jones was strongly impressed with this mysterious character from what he gathered in his Sanskrit Studies. He compares him to Hermes and Mercury, and calls him "the eloquent messenger of the gods" (see Asiat. Res. I. p. 264). All this led the late Dr. Kenealy ("Book of God"), on the ground that the Hindus believe him to be a great Rishi, "who is for ever wandering about the earth, giving good counsel," to see in him one of his twelve Messiahs. He was, perhaps, not so far off the real track as some imagine.
What Narada really is, cannot be explained in print; nor would the
modern generations of the profane gather much from the information. But it may
be remarked, that if there is in the Hindu Pantheon a deity which resembles
Jehovah, in, tempting by "suggestion" of thoughts and "hardening" of the hearts
of those whom he would make his tools and victims, it is Narada. Only with the
latter it is no desire to obtain a pretext for "plaguing," and thus showing that
"I am the Lord God.
* This is perhaps the reason why, in the Bhagavad Gita, we are told that
Brahmβ had communicated to Narada in the beginning that all men whatsoever, even
Mlechchhas, outcasts and barbarians, might know the true nature of
Vasudeva and learn to have faith in that deity.
Nor is it through any ambitious or selfish motive; but, verily, to serve and guide universal progress and evolution.
Narada is one of the few prominent characters, save some gods, in the Purβnas, who visits the so-called nether or infernal regions, Pβtβla. Whether or not it was from his intercourse with the thousand-headed Sesha, the serpent who bears the seven Pβtβlas and the entire world like a diadem upon his heads, and who is the great teacher of astronomy,* that Narada learned all that he knew, certain it is that he surpasses Garga's Guru in his knowledge of cyclic intricacies. It is he who has charge of our progress and national weal or woe. It is he who brings on wars and puts an end to them. In the old Stanzas Pesh-Hun is credited with having calculated and recorded all the astronomical and cosmic cycles to come, and with having taught the Science to the first gazers at the starry vault. And it is Asuramaya, who is said to have based all his astronomical works upon those records, to have determined the duration of all the past geological and cosmical periods, and the length of the all the cycles to come, till the end of this life-cycle, or the end of the seventh Race.
There is a work among the Secret Books, called the "Mirror of Futurity," wherein all the Kalpas within Kalpas and cycles within the bosom of Sesha, or infinite Time, are recorded. This work is ascribed to Pesh-Hun Narada. There is another old work which is attributed to various Atlanteans. It is these two Records which furnish us with the figures of our cycles, and the possibility of calculating the date of cycles to come. The chronological calculations which will presently be given are, however, those of the Brahmins as explained further on; but most of them are also those of the Secret Doctrine.
The chronology and computations of the Brahmin Initiates are based upon the Zodiacal records of India, and the works of the above-mentioned astronomer and magician Asuramaya. The Atlantean zodiacal records cannot err, as they were compiled under the guidance of those who first taught astronomy, among other things, to mankind.
But here again we are deliberately and recklessly facing a new difficulty. We
shall be told that our statement is contradicted by science, in the
person of a man regarded as a great authority (in the West) upon all subjects of
Sanskrit literature Professor Albrecht Weber, of Berlin. This, to our great
regret, cannot be helped; and we are ready to maintain what is now stated.
Asuramaya, to whom the epic tradition points as the earliest astronomer in
Aryavarta, one to whom "the
* Sesha, who is also Ananta, the infinite, and the "Cycle of Eternity" in
esotericism, is credited with having given his astronomical knowledge to Garga,
the oldest astronomer of India, who propitiated him, and forthwith knew all
about the planets and how to read omens.
Sun-god imparted the knowledge of the stars," in propria persona, as Dr. Weber himself states, is identified by him, in some very mysterious way, with the "Ptolemaios" of the Greeks. No more valid reason is given for this identification than that "this latter name (Ptolemaios), as we see from the inscription of Piyadasi, became the Indian 'Turamaya,' out of which the name 'Asuramaya' might very easily grow." No doubt it "might," but the vital question is Are there any good proofs that it has thus grown? The only evidence that is given for it is, that it must be so: "since this Maya is distinctly assigned to Romaka-pura in the West." * The Maya is evident, since no Sanskritist among Europeans can tell where that locality of "Romaka-pura" was, except, indeed, that it was somewhere "in the West." Anyhow, as no member of the Asiatic Society, or Western Orientalist, will ever listen to a Brahmanical teaching, it is useless to take the objections of European Orientalists into consideration. "Romakapura" was in "the West," certainly, since it was part and parcel of the last continent of ATLANTIS. And it is equally certain that it is Atlantis, which is assigned in the Hindu Purβnas as the birth-place of Asuramaya, "as great a magician as he was an Astrologer and an Astronomer." Moreover, Prof. Weber refuses to assign any great antiquity to the Indian Zodiac, and feels inclined to think that the Hindus never knew of a Zodiac at all till "they had borrowed one from the Greeks." This statement clashes with the most ancient traditions of India, and must therefore be ignored. (Vide "The Zodiac and its Antiquity"). We are the more justified in ignoring it, as the learned German Professor himself tells us in the introduction to his work (History of Sanskrit Literature) that "in addition to the natural obstacles which impede investigation (in India), there still prevails a dense mist of prejudices and preconceived opinions hovering over the land, and enfolding it as with a veil." Caught in that veil, it is no wonder that Dr. Weber should himself have been led into involuntary errors. Let us hope that he knows better now.
Now whether Asuramaya is to be considered a modern myth, a personage who flourished in the day of the Macedonian Greeks, or as that which he is claimed to be by the Occultists, in any case his calculations agree entirely with those of the Secret Records.
From fragments of immensely old works attributed to the Atlantean astronomer,
and found in Southern India, the calendar elsewhere men-
* See "Lectures on the Indian Literature," p. 253, by Prof.
A. Weber; in Trubner's Asiatic Series.
Even the Maya Indians of Guatemala had their Zodiac from untold antiquity.
And "primitive man acted in the same manner independently of time or locality in
every age," observes a French writer.
tioned was compiled by two very learned Brahmins* in 1884 and 1885. The work
is proclaimed by the best Pundits as faultless from the Brahmanical
standpoint and thus far relates to the chronology of the orthodox teachings.
If we compare its statements with those made several years earlier in "Isis
Unveiled," with the fragmentary teachings published by some Theosophists, and
with the present data derived from the Secret Books of Occultism, the whole will
be found to agree perfectly, save in some details which may not be explained;
for secrets of higher Initiation as unknown to the writer as they are to the
reader would have to be revealed, and that cannot be done. (But see
"Chronology of the Brahmins" at the close of Stanza II.)
* The "Tirukkanda Panchanga" for the Kali Yug 4986, by
Chintamany Raghanaracharya, son of the famous Government astronomer of Madras,
and Tartakamala Venkata Krishna Rao.
§ (5) After enormous periods the Earth creates monsters. (6) The "Creators" are displeased. (7) They dry the Earth. (8) The forms are destroyed by them. (9) The first great tides. (10) The beginning of incrustation.
5. THE WHEEL WHIRLED FOR THIRTY CRORES (of years, or 300,000,000*). IT CONSTRUCTED RUPAS (forms). SOFT STONES, THAT HARDENED (minerals); HARD PLANTS, THAT SOFTENED (vegetation). VISIBLE FROM INVISIBLE, INSECTS AND SMALL LIVES (sarisripa, swapada). SHE (the Earth) SHOOK THEM OFF HER BACK, WHENEVER THEY OVERRAN THE MOTHER (a). AFTER THIRTY CRORES OF YEARS, SHE TURNED ROUND. SHE LAID ON HER BACK; ON HER SIDE. . . . . SHE WOULD CALL NO SONS OF HEAVEN, SHE WOULD ASK NO SONS OF WISDOM. SHE CREATED FROM HER OWN BOSOM. SHE EVOLVED WATER-MEN TERRIBLE AND BAD (b).
(a) This relates to an inclination of the axis
of which there
were several to a consequent deluge and chaos on Earth (having, however, no
reference to primeval chaos), in which monsters, half-human, half-animal, were
generated. We find it mentioned in the "Book of the Dead," and also in the
Chaldean account of creation, on the Cutha Tablets, however mutilated.
* 300 million years, or Three Occult Ages. The Rig Veda has the same
division. In the "Physician's Hymn," (X 97
1) it is said that "the plants came into being three ages (Triyugam)
before the gods" on our Earth (See "Chronology of the Brahmins" at the end of
this Stanza).
It is not even allegory. Here we have facts, that are found repeated in the account of Pymander, as well as in the Chaldean tablets of creation. The verses may almost be checked by the Cosmogony, as given by Berosus, which has been disfigured out of recognition by Eusebius, but some of the features of which may yet be found in fragments left by ancient Greek authors Apollodorus, Alexander Polyhistor, etc., etc. "The water-men terrible and bad," who were the production of physical nature alone, a result of the "evolutionary impulse" and the first attempt to create man the "crown," and the aim and goal of all animal life on Earth are shown to be failures in our Stanzas. Do we not find the same in the Berosian Cosmogony, denounced with such vehemence as the culmination of heathen absurdity? And yet who of the Evolutionists can say that things in the beginning have not come to pass as they are described? That, as maintained in the Purβnas, the Egyptian and Chaldean fragments, and even in Genesis, there have not been two, and even more, "creations" before the last formation of the Globe; which, changing its geological and atmospheric conditions, changed also its flora, its fauna, and its men? This claim agrees not only with every ancient Cosmogony, but also with modern science, and even, to a certain degree, with the theory of evolution, as may be demonstrated in a few words.
There is no "dark creation," no "Evil Dragon" conquered by a Sun-God, in the earliest World-Cosmogonies. Even with the Akkads, the great Deep (the Watery Abyss, or SPACE) was the birthplace and abode of Ea, Wisdom, the incognizable infinite Deity. But with the Semites and the later Chaldeans, the fathomless Deep of Wisdom becomes gross matter, sinful Substance, and Ea is changed into Tiamat, the dragon slain by Merodach, or Satan, in the astral waves.
In the Hindu Purβnas, Brahmβ, the creator, is seen recommencing de
novo several creations after as many failures; and two great creations
are mentioned,* the Padma and the Vβrβha, the present, when the Earth was lifted
out of the water by Brahmβ, in the shape of a boar, or "Vβrβha Avatar." Creation
is shown as a sport, an amusement (Lξlβ) of the creative god. The Zohar speaks
of primordial worlds, which perished as soon as they came into existence. And
the same is said in Midraish, Rabbi Abahu explaining distinctly (in Bereschith
Rabba, Parscha IX.) that "the Holy One" had successively
created and de-
* These two must not be confused with the seven creations or divisions in
each Kalpa (See Book I. "The Seven Creations"). The
primary and secondary creations are here meant.
stroyed sundry worlds, before he succeeded in the present one. This does not relate only to other worlds in space, but to a mystery of our own globe contained in the allegory about the "kings of Edom." For the words, "This one pleases me," are repeated in Genesis i. 31, though in disfigured terms, as usual. The Chaldean fragments of Cosmogony on the Cuneiform inscriptions, and elsewhere, show two distinct creations of animals and men, the first being destroyed, as it was a failure. The Cosmogonical tablets prove that this our actual creation was preceded by others (See "Hibbert Lectures," p. 390); and as shown by the author of "The Qabbalah," in the Zohar, Siphrah Dzeniouta, in Jovah Rabbah, 128a, etc., etc. The Kabala states the same.
(b) Oannes (or Dagon, the Chaldean "Man-fish") divides his Cosmogony
and Genesis into two portions. First the abyss of waters and darkness, wherein
resided most hideous beings men with wings, four and two-faced men, human beings with two heads, with
the legs and horns of a goat (our "goat-men,")* hippocentaurs, bulls with the
heads of men, and dogs with tails of fishes. In short, combinations of various
animals and men, of fishes, reptiles and other monstrous animals assuming each
other's shapes and countenances. The feminine element they resided in, is
personified by Thalatth the Sea, or "Water"
which was finally conquered by
Belus, the male principle. And Polyhistor says: "Belus came and cut the woman
asunder, and of one half of her he formed the Earth, and of the other half the
heavens, and at the same time he destroyed the animals within her." As
pertinently remarked by I. Myer, "with the Akkadians each object and power of
Nature had its Zi, Spirit. The Akkadians formed their deities into triads,
usually males (sexless, rather?); the Semites also had triadic deities, but
introduced sex" (p. 246) or phallicism. With the Aryans and the earliest
Akkadians all things are emanations through, not by, a creator
or logos. With the Semites everything is begotten.
* Whence the identity of the ideas? The Chinese have the same traditions.
According to the commentator Kwoh P'oh, in the work called Shan-Hai-King,
"Wonders by Sea and Land," a work which was written by the historiographer
Chung Ku from engravings on nine urns made by the Emperor Yu, (B.C. 2255), an
interview is mentioned with men having two distinct faces on their heads,
before and behind, monsters with bodies of goats and human faces, etc.
Gould, in his "Mythical Monsters," p. 27, giving the names of
some authors on Natural History, mentions Shan-Hai-King. According to
Kwoh P'oh (A.D. 276-324) this work was compiled three thousand years before his
time, or at seven dynasties distance. Yang Sun of the Ming Dynasty (commencing
A.D. 1368) states that it was compiled by Kung Chia and Chung Ku (as stated
above). Chung Ku at the time of the last emperor of the Hia dynasty, B.C. 1818,
fearing that the emperor might destroy the books treating of the ancient time,
carried them in his flight to Yin. (See "Mythical Monsters,"
by C. Gould, p. 27.)
6. THE WATER-MEN TERRIBLE AND BAD SHE HERSELF CREATED. FROM THE REMAINS OF OTHERS (from the mineral, vegetable and animal remains) FROM THE FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD (Rounds) SHE FORMED THEM. THE DHYANI CAME AND LOOKED. . . . . THE DHYANI FROM THE BRIGHT FATHER-MOTHER, FROM THE WHITE (Solar-lunar) REGIONS THEY CAME,* FROM THE ABODES OF THE IMMORTAL-MORTALS (a).
(a) The explanations given in our Stanzas are far more clear than that which the legend of creation from the Cutha tablet would give, even were it complete. What is preserved on it, however, corroborates them. For, in the tablet, "the Lord of Angels" destroys the men in the abyss, when "there were not left the carcases and waste" after they were slaughtered. After which they, the Great Gods, create men with the bodies of birds of the desert, human beings, "seven kings, brothers of the same family," etc., which is a reference to the locomotive qualities of the primary ethereal bodies of men, which could fly as well as they could walk, but who "were destroyed" because they were not "perfect," i.e., they "were sexless, like the Kings of Edom."
Weeded of metaphors and allegories, what will science say to this idea of a
primordial creation of species? It will object to the "Angels" and "Spirits"
having anything to do therewith: but if it is nature and the physical law of
evolution that are the creators of all there is now on Earth, why could there be
"no such abyss" when the globe was covered with waters, in which numbers of
monstrous beings were generated? Is it the "human beings" and animals with human
heads and double faces, which are a point of the objection? But if man is only a
higher animal and has evolved from the brute species by an infinite series of
transformations, why could not the "missing links" have had human heads attached
to the bodies of animals, or, being two-headed, have heads of beasts and
vice versa, in Nature's early efforts? Are we not shown during the
geological periods, in the ages of the reptiles and the mammalia, lizards with
birds' wings, and serpents' heads on animal bodies And, arguing from the
standpoint of science, does not even our modern human race occasionally furnish
us with monster-specimens: two-headed children, animal bodies with human heads,
dog-headed babies, etc., etc.? And this proves that, if nature will still play
such
* Gods and planetary Spirits, especially the Ribhus. "The three Ribhus" who
yet become "thrice seven in number" of their gifts.
Remember the "winged Races" of Plato; and the Popol-Vuh accounts
of the first human race, which could walk, fly and see objects, however distant.
See "Mythical Monsters," by Charles Gould.
freaks now that she has settled for ages into the order of her evolutionary work, monsters, like those described by Berosus, were a possibility in her opening programme; which possibility may even have existed once upon a time as a law, before she sorted out her species and began regular work upon them; which indeed now admits of definite proof by the bare fact of "REVERSION," as science puts it.
This is what the doctrine teaches and demonstrates by numerous proofs. But we shall not wait for the approval of either dogmatic theology or materialistic science, but proceed with the Stanzas. Let these speak for themselves, with the help of the light thrown by the Commentaries and their explanations; the scientific aspect of these questions will be considered later on.
Thus physical nature, when left to herself in the creation of animal and man,
is shown to have failed. She can produce the first two and the lower animal
kingdoms, but when it comes to the turn of man, spiritual, independent and
intelligent powers are required for his creation, besides the "coats of skin"
and the "Breath of animal Life." The human Monads of preceding Rounds need
something higher than purely physical materials to build their personalities
with, under the penalty of remaining even below any "Frankenstein" animal.*
* In the first volume of the lately published "Introduction a l'atude
des Races Humaines," by M. de Quatrefages, there is proof that
since the post-tertiary period and even before that time
since many Races
were already scattered during that age on the face of the Earth
man has not
altered one iota in his physical structure. And if, surrounded for ages by a
fauna that altered from one period or cycle to another, which died out, which
was reborn in other forms so that now there does not exist one single animal
on Earth, large or small, contemporary with the man of that period
if, then,
every animal has been transformed save man himself, this fact goes to prove not
only his antiquity, but that he is a distinct Kingdom. Why should he
alone have escaped transformation? Because, says de Quatrefages, the weapon used
by him, in his struggle with nature and the ever-changing geological conditions
and elements, was "his psychic force, not his physical strength or
body," as in the case of animals. Give man only that dose of intelligence
and reason with which other mammalia are endowed, and with his present bodily
organization he will show himself the most helpless of creatures of Earth. And
as everything goes to prove that the human organism with all its
characteristics, peculiarities and idiosyncrasies existed already on our Globe
in those far distant geological periods when there was not yet one single
specimen of the now-existing forms of mammalia, what is the unavoidable
conclusion? Why this: Since all the human races are of one and the same species,
it follows that this species is the most ancient of all the now-living
mammalia. Therefore it is the most stable and persevering of all, and was
already as fully developed as it is now when all the other mammalia now known
had not made even their first approach to appearance on this Earth. Such is the
opinion of the great French Naturalist, who gives thereby a terrible blow to
Darwinism.
7. DISPLEASED THEY WERE. OUR FLESH IS NOT THERE (they said). THIS IS NO FIT RUPA FOR OUR BROTHERS OF THE FIFTH. NO DWELLINGS FOR THE LIVES.* PURE WATERS, NOT TURBID, THEY MUST DRINK (a). LET US DRY THEM (the waters).
(a) Says the Catechism (Commentaries):
"It is from the material Worlds that descend they, who fashion physical man at the new Manvantaras. They are inferior Lha (Spirits), possessed of a dual body (an astral within an ethereal form). They are the fashioners and creators of our body of illusion." . . . .
"Into the forms projected by the Lha (Pitris) the two letters (the Monad, called also 'the Double Dragon') descend from the spheres of expectation.But they are like a roof with no walls, nor pillars to rest upon." . . . .
"Man needs four flames and three fires to become one on Earth, and he requires the essence of the forty-nine fires § to be perfect. It is those who have deserted the Superior Spheres, the Gods of Will, ∫∫ who complete the Manu of illusion. For the 'Double Dragon' has no hold upon the mere form. It is like the breeze where there is no tree or branch to receive and harbour it. It cannot affect the form where there is no agent of transmission (Manas, "Mind") and the form knows it not."
"In the highest worlds, the three are one,Ά on Earth (at first) the one becomes two. They are like the two (side) lines of a triangle that has lost its bottom line which is the third fire." (Catechism Book III., sec. 9.)
Now this requires some explanation before proceeding any further. To do so
especially for the benefit of our Aryan Hindu brethren
* The Monads of the presentments of men of the Third Round,
the huge Ape-like forms.
In the esoteric system the seven principles in man are represented by
seven letters. The first two are more sacred than the four letters of
the Tetragrammaton.
The intermediate spheres, wherein the Monads, which have not reached
Nirvana, are said to slumber in unconscious inactivity between the Manvantaras.
§
Explained elsewhere. The "Three Fires," Pavaka, Pavamβna, and Suchi, who
had forty-five sons, who, with their three fathers and their Father Agni,
constitute the 49 fires. Pavamβna (fire produced by friction) is the parent of
the fire of the Asuras; Suchi (Solar fire) is the parent of
the fire of the gods; and Pavaka (electric fire) is the father of the fire of
the Pitris (See Vayu Purβna). But this is an explanation on
the material and the terrestrial plane. The flames are evanescent and only
periodical; the fires eternal in their triple unity. They correspond to the
four lower, and the three higher human principles.
∫∫ The Suras, who become later the A-Suras.
Ά Atma, Buddhi and Manas. In Devachan the higher element of the Manas is
needed to make it a state of perception and consciousness for the disembodied
Monad.
whose esoteric interpretations may differ from our own we shall have to explain to them the foregoing by certain passages in their own exoteric books, namely, the Purβnas. In the allegories of the latter, Brahmβ, who is collectively the creative Force of the Universe, is said to be "at the beginning of the Yugas (cycles) . . .Possessed of the desire and of the power to create, and, impelled by the potencies of what is to be created, again and again does he, at the outset of a Kalpa, put forth a similar creation," (see Vishnu Purβna, Book I. ch. V., closing Sloka. Also "Manava Dharma Shastra" I. 30.) It is now proposed to examine the exoteric account in the Vishnu Purβna, and see how much it may agree or disagree with our occult version.
CREATION OF DIVINE BEINGS IN THE EXOTERIC ACCOUNTS.
In the Vishnu Purβna which is certainly the earliest of all the scriptures of that name we find, as in all the others, Brahmβ assuming as the male God, for purposes of creation, "four bodies invested by three qualities."* It is said: "In this manner, Maitreya, Jyotsna (dawn), Ratri (night), Ahan (day), and Sandhya (evening twilight) are the four bodies of Brahmβ" . . (p. 81, Vol. I., Wilson's translation). As Parasβra explains it, when Brahmβ wants to create the world anew and construct progeny through his will, in the fourfold condition (or the four orders of beings) termed gods (Dhyan Chohans), Demons (i.e., more material Devas), Progenitors (Pitris) and men, "he collects Yoga-like (Yϊyujθ) his mind."
Strange to say, he begins by creating DEMONS, who thus take precedence over
the angels or gods. This is no incongruity, nor is it due to inconsistency, but
has, like all the rest, a profound esoteric meaning, quite clear to one free
from Christian theological prejudice. He who bears in mind that the principle
MAHAT, or Intellect, the "Universal Mind" (literally "the
great"), which esoteric philosophy explains as the "manifested Omniscience"
the "first product" of Pradhβna (primordial matter) as Vishnu Purβna says, but
the first Cosmic aspect of Parabrahm or the esoteric SAT, the Universal Soul,
as Occultism
* This has in esotericism a direct bearing upon the seven principles
of the manifested Brahmβ, or universe, in the same order as in man.
Exoterically, it is only four principles.
Demons
is a very loose word to use, as it applies to a great number of
inferior i.e., more material
Spirits, or minor Gods,
who are so termed because they "war" with the higher ones; but they are no
devils.
The same order of
principles in man: Atma (Spirit),
Buddhi (Soul), its vehicle, as Matter is the Vahan of Spirit, and
Manas (mind), the third, or the fifth microcosmically. On the plane
of personality, Manas is the first.
teaches is at the root of SELF-Consciousness, will understand the reason why. The so-called "Demons" who are (esoterically) the Self-asserting and (intellectually) active Principle are the positive poles of creation, so to say; hence, the first produced. This is in brief the process as narrated allegorically in the Purβnas.
"Having concentrated his mind into itself and the quality of darkness pervading Brahmβ's assumed body, the Asuras, issuing from his thigh, were first produced; after which, abandoning this body, it was transformed into NIGHT." (See Part II., § "The Fallen Angels.")
Two important points are involved herein: (a) Primarily in the Rig-Veda, the "Asuras" are shown as spiritual divine beings; their etymology is derived from asu (breath), the "Breath of God," and they mean the same as the Supreme Spirit or the Zoroastrian Ahura. It is later on, for purposes of theology and dogma, that they are shown issuing from Brahmβ's thigh, and that their name began to be derived from a privative, and sura, god (solar deities), or not-a-god, and that they became the enemies of the gods. Every ancient theogony without exception from the Aryan and the Egyptian down to that of Hesiod places, in the order of Cosmogonical evolution, Night before the Day; even Genesis, where "darkness is upon the face of the deep" before "the first day." The reason for this is that every Cosmogony except in the Secret Doctrine begins by the "Secondary Creation" so-called: to wit, the manifested Universe, the Genesis of which has to open by a marked differentiation between the eternal Light of Primary Creation, whose mystery must remain for ever "Darkness" to the prying finite conception and intellect of the profane, and the Secondary Evolution of manifested visible nature. The Veda contains the whole philosophy of that division without having ever been correctly explained by our Orientalists, because it has never been understood by them.
Continuing to create, Brahmβ assumes another form, that of the Day, and
creates from his breath the gods, who are endowed with the quality of goodness
(passivity)*. In his next body the quality of great passivity prevailed, which
is also (negative) goodness, and from the side of that personage issued the
Pitris, the progenitors of men, because, as the text explains, "Brahmβ thought
of himself (during the process) as the father of the world." This is
Kriya-sakti
the mysterious Yoga power
* Thus, says the Commentary, the saying "by day the gods are most powerful,
and by night the demons," is purely allegorical.
This thinking of oneself as this, that, or the other, is the
chief factor in the production of every kind of psychic or even physical
phenomena. The words "whosoever shall say to this mountain be thou removed and
cast into the sea, and shall not doubt . . . . that thing will come to
pass," are no vain words. Only the word "faith" ought to be translated by WILL.
Faith without Will is like a wind-mill without wind barren of
results.
explained elsewhere. This body of Brahmβ when cast off became the Sandhya (evening twilight), the interval between day and night.
Finally Brahmβ assumed his last form pervaded by the quality of foulness, "and from this MEN, in whom foulness and passion predominate, were produced." This body when cast off became the dawn, or morning twilight the twilight of Humanity. Here Brahmβ stands esoterically for the Pitris. He is collectively the Pitar, "father."
The true esoteric meaning of this allegory must now be explained. Brahmβ here symbolizes personally the collective creators of the World and Men the universe with all its numberless productions of things movable and (seemingly) immovable.* He is collectively the Prajβpatis, the Lords of Being; and the four bodies typify the four classes of creative powers or Dhyan Chohans, described in the Commentary directly following Stanza VII. in Book I. The whole philosophy of the so-called "Creation" of the good and evil in this world and of the whole cycle of Manvantaric results therefrom, hangs on the correct comprehension of these Four bodies of Brahmβ.
The reader will now be prepared to understand the real, the esoteric
significance of what follows. Moreover there is an important point to be cleared
up. Christian theology having arbitrarily settled and agreed that Satan with his
Fallen Angels belonged to the earliest creation, Satan being the first-created,
the wisest and most beautiful of God's Archangels, the word was given, the
key-note struck. Henceforth all the pagan scriptures were made to yield
the same meaning, and all were shown to be demoniacal, and it was and
is claimed that truth and fact belong to, and commence only with,
Christianity. Even the Orientalists and Mythologists, some of them no Christians
at all but "infidels," or men of science, entered unconsciously to themselves,
and by the mere force of association of ideas and habit, into the theological
groove. Purely Brahmanical considerations, based on greed of power and ambition,
allowed the masses to remain in ignorance of great truths; and the same causes
led the Initiates among the early Christians to remain silent, while those who
had never known the truth disfigured the order of things, judging of the
hierarchy of "Angels" by their exoteric form. Thus as the Asuras had
become the rebellious inferior gods fighting the higher ones in popular creeds,
so the highest archangel, in truth the Agathodζmon, the eldest benevolent
Logos, became with theology the "Adversary" or Satan. But is this
warranted by the correct interpretation of any old Scripture? The answer is,
most certainly not. As the Mazdean Scriptures of the
* The same idea is found in the first four chapters of Genesis, with
their "Lord" and "God," which are the Elohim and the Androgynous
Eloha.
Zend-Avesta, the Vendidad and others correct and expose the later cunning shuffling of the gods in the Hindu Pantheon, and restore through AHURA the Asuras to their legitimate place in theogony, so the recent discoveries of the Chaldean tablets vindicate the good name of the first divine Emanations. This is easily proved. Christian Angelology is directly and solely derived from that of the Pharisees, who brought their tenets from Babylonia. The Sadducees, the real guardians of the Laws of Moses, knew not of, and rejected, any angels, opposing even the immortality of the human Soul (not impersonal Spirit). In the Bible the only "Angels" spoken of are the "Sons of God" mentioned in Genesis vi. (who are now regarded as the Nephilim, the Fallen Angels), and several angels in human form, the "Messengers" of the Jewish God, whose own rank needs a closer analysis than heretofore given. (Vide Supra, Stanza I., sub-sections 2, 3, et seq., where it is shown that the early Akkadians called Ea, Wisdom, that which was disfigured by the later Chaldees and Semites into Tismat, Tisalat and the Thallath of Berosus, the female Sea Dragon, now Satan.) Truly "How art thou fallen (by the hand of man), O bright star and son of the morning"!
Now what do the Babylonian accounts of "Creation," as found on the Assyrian fragments of tiles, tell us; those very accounts upon which the Pharisees built their angelology? But compare Mr. G. Smith's "Assyrian Discoveries," p. 398, and his "Chaldean Account of Genesis," p. 107. The "Tablet with the story of the Seven Wicked Gods or Spirits," has the following account we print the important passages in italics:
1. In the first days the evil Gods,
2. the angels, who were in rebellion, who in the lower part of heaven
3. had been created,
4. they caused their evil work
5. devising with wicked heads . . . . etc.
Thus we are shown, as plainly as can be, on a fragment which remained
unbroken, so that there can be no dubious reading, that the "rebellious angels"
had been created in the lower part of heaven, i.e., that they belonged
and do belong to a material plane of evolution, although as it is not
the plane of which we are made cognizant through our senses, it remains
generally invisible to us, and is thus regarded as subjective. Were the Gnostics
so wrong, after this, in affirming that this our visible world, and especially
the Earth, had been created by lower angels, the inferior Elohim, of
which, as they taught, the God of Israel was one. These Gnostics were nearer in
time to the records of the Archaic Secret Doctrine, and therefore ought to be
allowed to have known better than non-initiated Christians, who took upon
themselves, hundreds of years
later, to remodel and correct what was said. But let us see what the same Tablet says further on:
7. There were seven of them (the wicked gods) . . . . (then follows the description of these, the fourth being a "serpent," the phallic symbol of the fourth Race in human Evolution).
15. The seven of them, messengers of the God Anu, their king.
Now Anu belongs to the Chaldean trinity, and is identical with Sin, the "Moon," in one aspect. And the Moon in the Hebrew Kabala is the Argha of the seed of all material life, and is still more closely connected, kabalistically, with Jehovah, who is double-sexed as Anu is. They are both represented in Esotericism and viewed from a dual aspect: male or spiritual, female or material, or Spirit and Matter, the two antagonistic principles. Hence the "Messengers of Anu," (who is Sin, the "Moon,") are shown, in verses 28 to 41, as being finally overpowered by the same Sin with the help of Bel (the Sun) and Ishtar (Venus). This is regarded as a contradiction by the Assyriologists, but is simply metaphysics in the esoteric teaching.
There is more than one interpretation, for there are seven keys to the
mystery of the Fall. Moreover there are two "Falls" in Theology: the rebellion
of the Archangels and their "Fall," and the "Fall" of Adam and Eve. Thus the
lower as well as the higher Hierarchies are charged with a supposed crime. The
word "supposed" is the true and correct term, for in both cases it is founded on
misconception. Both are considered in Occultism as Karmic effects, and both
belong to the law of Evolution: intellectual and spiritual on the one hand,
physical and psychic on the other. The "Fall" is a universal allegory. It sets
forth at one end of the ladder of Evolution the "rebellion," i.e., the
action of differentiating intellection or consciousness on its various planes,
seeking union with matter; and at the other, the lower end, the rebellion of
matter against Spirit, or of action against spiritual inertia. And here lies the
germ of an error which has had such disastrous effects on the intelligence of
civilized societies for over 1,800 years. In the original allegory it is matter
hence the more material angels
which was regarded as the conqueror of
Spirit, or the Archangels who "fell" on this plane. "They of the flaming
sword (or animal passions) had put to flight the Spirits of Darkness." Yet
it is the latter who fought for the supremacy of the conscious and divine
spirituality on Earth and failed, succumbing to the power of matter. But in
theological dogma we see the reverse. It is Michael, "who is like unto God," the
representative of Jehovah, who is the leader of the celestial hosts
as
Lucifer, in Milton's fancy, is of the infernal hosts who has the best of
Satan. It is true that the nature of
Michael depends upon that of his Creator and Master. Who the latter is, one may find out by carefully studying the allegory of the "War in Heaven" with the astronomical key. As shown by Bentley, the "War of the Titans against the gods" in Hesiod, and also the war of the Asuras (or the Tβrakβmaya) against the devas in Purβnic legend, are identical in all save the names. The aspects of the stars show (Bentley taking the year 945 B.C. as the nearest date for such conjunction) that "all the planets, except Saturn, were on the same side of the heavens as the Sun and Moon," and hence were his opponents. And yet it is Saturn, or the Jewish "Moon-god," who is shown as prevailing, both by Hesiod and Moses, neither of whom was understood. Thus it was that the real meaning became distorted.
8. THE FLAMES CAME. THE FIRES WITH THE SPARKS; THE NIGHT FIRES AND THE DAY FIRES (a). THEY DRIED OUT THE TURBID DARK WATERS. WITH THEIR HEAT THEY QUENCHED THEM. THE LHAS (Spirits) OF THE HIGH; THE LHAMAYIN (those) OF BELOW, CAME (b). THEY SLEW THE FORMS, WHICH WERE TWO- AND FOUR-FACED. THEY FOUGHT THE GOAT-MEN, AND THE DOG-HEADED MEN, AND THE MEN WITH FISHES' BODIES.
(a) The "Flames" are a Hierarchy of Spirits parallel to, if not identical with, the "burning" fiery Saraph (Seraphim) mentioned by Isaiah (vi. 2-6), those who attend, according to Hebrew Theogony, "the Throne of the Almighty." Melha is the Lord of the "Flames." When he appears on Earth, he assumes the personality of a Buddha, says a popular legend. He is one of the most ancient and revered Lhas, a Buddhist St. Michael.
(b) The word "Below" must not be taken to mean infernal regions, but simply a spiritual, or rather ethereal, Being of a lower grade, because nearer to the Earth, or one step higher than our terrestrial sphere; while the Lhas are Spirits of the highest Spheres whence the name of the capital of Tibet, Lha-ssa.
Besides a statement of a purely physical nature and belonging to the
evolution of life on Earth, there may be another allegorical meaning attached to this Sloka, or indeed, as is taught, several. The FLAMES, or "Fires," represent Spirit, or the male element, and "Water," matter, or the opposite element. And here again we find, in the action of the Spirit slaying the purely material form, a reference to the eternal struggle, on the physical and psychic planes, between Spirit and Matter, besides a scientific cosmic fact. For, as said in the next verse:
9. MOTHER-WATER, THE GREAT SEA WEPT. SHE AROSE, SHE DISAPPEARED IN THE MOON, WHICH HAD LIFTED HER, WHICH HAD GIVEN HER BIRTH (a).
(a) Now what can this mean? Is it not an evident reference to tidal action in the early stage of the history of our planet in its fourth Round? Modern research has been busy of late in its speculations on the Palζozoic high-tides. Mr. Darwin's theory was that not less than 52,000,000 years ago and probably much more the Moon originated from the Earth's plastic mass. Starting from the point where research was left by Helmholtz, Ferrel, Sir William Thomson and others, he retraced the course of tidal retardation of the earth's rotary motions far back into the very night of time, and placed the Moon during the infancy of our planet at only "a fraction of its present distance." In short, his theory was that it is the Moon which separated from the Earth. The tidal elevation concurring with the swing of the globular mass centrifugal tendency being then nearly equal to gravity the latter was overcome, and the tidally elevated mass could thus separate completely from the Earth.*
The Occult teaching is the reverse of this. The Moon is far older than the
Earth; and, as explained in Book I., it is the latter which owes its being to
the former, however astronomy and geology may explain the fact. Hence, the tides
and the attraction to the Moon, as shown by the liquid portion of the Globe ever
striving to raise itself towards its parent. This is the meaning of the sentence
that "the Mother-Water arose and disappeared in the Moon, which had lifted her,
which had given her birth."
* But see the difficulties suggested later, in the works of various
geologists, against this theory. Compare Sir R. S. Bull's article in "Nature"
(Dec. 1, 1881), and also what the American geologists say.
10. WHEN THEY (the Rupas) WERE DESTROYED, MOTHER-EARTH REMAINED BARE,* SHE ASKED TO BE DRIED (a).
(a) The time for its incrustation had arrived. The waters had separated and the process was started. It was the beginning of a new life. This is what one key divulges to us. Another key teaches the origin of Water, its admixture with Fire (liquid fire it calls it), and enters upon an alchemical description of the progeny of the two solid matter such as minerals and earths. From the "Waters of Space," the progeny of the male Spirit-Fire and the female (gaseous) Water has become the Oceanic expanse on Earth. Varuna is dragged down from the infinite Space, to reign as Neptune over the finite Seas. As always, the popular fancy is found to be based on a strictly scientific foundation.
Water is the symbol of the female element everywhere; mater, from which the letter M, is derived pictorially from h a water hieroglyph. It is the universal matrix or the "Great Deep." Venus, the great Mother-Virgin, issues forth from the Sea-wave, and Cupid or Eros is her son. But Venus is the later mythological variant of Gaia (or Gζa), the Earth, which, in its higher aspect is Nature (Prakriti), and metaphysically Aditi, and even Mulaprakriti, the root of Prakriti or its noumenon.
Hence Cupid or Love in his primitive sense is Eros, the Divine Will, or
Desire of manifesting itself through visible creation. Thence Fohat, the
prototype of Eros, becomes on Earth the great power "Life-electricity," or the
Spirit of "Life-giving." Let us remember the Greek Theogony and enter into the
spirit of its philosophy. We are taught by the Greeks (See "Iliad"
IV., 201, 246) that all things, gods included, owe their being to the Ocean
and his wife Tethys, the latter being Gζa, the Earth or Nature. But who is
Ocean? Ocean is the immeasurable SPACE (Spirit in Chaos), which is the
Deity (see Book I.); and Tethys is not the Earth, but primordial matter
in the process of formation. In our case it is no longer Aditi-Gζa who begets
Ouranos or Varuna, the chief Aditya among the seven planetary gods, but
Prakriti, materialised and localised. The Moon, masculine in its theogonic
character, is,
* The goddess who gave birth to these primordial monsters, in the account of
Berosus, was Thallath, in Greek Thalassa, "the Sea.
See, for comparison, the account of creation by Berosus (Alexander
Polyhistor) and the hideous beings born from the two-fold
principle (Earth and Water) in the Abyss of primordial creation: Neras
(Centaurs, men with the limbs of horses and human bodies), and Kimnaras (men
with the heads of horses) created by Brahmβ in the commencement of the Kalpa.
See Commentary following Sloka 18.
in its cosmic aspect only, the female generative principle, as the Sun is the male emblem thereof. Water is the progeny of the Moon, an androgyne deity with every nation.
Evolution proceeds on the laws of analogy in Kosmos as in the formation of the smallest globe. Thus the above, applying to the modus operandi at the time when the Universe was appearing, applies also in the case of our Earth's formation.
This Stanza opens by speaking of thirty crores, 30,000,000, of years. We may be asked What could the ancients know of the duration of geological periods, when no modern scientist or mathematician is able to calculate their duration with anything like approximate accuracy? Whether they had or had not better means (and it is maintained that they had them in their Zodiacs), still the chronology of the ancient Brahmins shall now be given as faithfully as possible.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE BRAHMINS.
No greater riddle exists in science, no problem is more hopelessly insoluble, than the question: How old even approximately are the Sun and Moon, the Earth and Man? What does modern science know of the duration of the ages of the World, or even of the length of geological periods?
Nothing; absolutely nothing.
If one turns to science for chronological information, one is told by those who are straightforward and truthful, as for instance Mr. Pengelly, the eminent geologist, "We do not know." * One will learn that, so far, no trustworthy numerical estimate of the ages of the world and man could be made, and that both geology and anthropology are at sea. Yet when a student of esoteric philosophy presumes to bring forward the teachings of Occult Science, he is at once sat upon. Why should this be so, since, when reduced to their own physical methods, the greatest scientists have failed to arrive even at an approximate agreement?
It is true that science can hardly be blamed for it. Indeed, in the Cimmerian
darkness of the prehistoric ages, the explorers are lost in a labyrinth, whose
great corridors are doorless, allowing no visible exit into the Archaic past.
Lost in the maze of their own conflicting speculations, rejecting, as they have
always done, the evidence of Eastern tradition, without any clue, or one single
certain milestone to guide them, what can geologists or anthropologists do but
pick up the slender
* For a similar admission see Prof. Lefevre's Philosophy, p. 481.
thread of Ariadne where they first perceive it, and then proceed at perfect random? Therefore we are first told that the farthest date to which documentary record extends is now generally regarded by Anthropology as but "the earliest distinctly visible point of the pre-historic period." (Encyclopζdia Britannica.)
At the same time it is confessed that "beyond that period stretches back a vast indefinite series of prehistoric ages." (Ibid.)
It is with those specified "Ages" that we shall begin. They are "prehistoric" to the naked eye of matter only. To the spiritual eagle eye of the seer and the prophet of every race, Ariadne's thread stretches beyond that "historic period" without break or flaw, surely and steadily, into the very night of time; and the hand which holds it is too mighty to drop it, or even let it break. Records exist, although they may be rejected as fanciful by the profane; though many of them are tacitly accepted by philosophers and men of great learning, and meet with an unvarying refusal only from the official and collective body of orthodox science. And since the latter refuses to give us even an approximate idea of the duration of the geological ages save in a few conflicting and contradictory hypotheses let us see what Aryan philosophy can teach us.
Such computations as are given in Manu and the Purβnas save trifling and most evidently intentional exaggerations are, as already stated, almost identical with those taught in esoteric philosophy. This may be seen by comparing the two in any Hindu calendar of recognised orthodoxy.
The best and most complete of all such calendars, at present, as vouched for by the learned Brahmins of Southern India, is the already mentioned Tamil calendar called the "Tirukkanda Panchanga," compiled, as we are told, from, and in full accordance with, secret fragments of Asuramaya's data. As Asuramaya is said to have been the greatest astronomer, so he is whispered to have also been the most powerful "Sorcerer" of the "WHITE ISLAND, which had become BLACK with sin," i.e., of the islands of Atlantis.
The "White Island" is a symbolical name. Asuramaya is said to have lived (see
the tradition of Jhana-bhaskara) in Romaka-pura in the West: because
the name is an allusion to the land and cradle of the "Sweat-born" of the Third
Race. That land or continent had disappeared ages before Asuramaya lived, since
he was an Atlantean; but he was a direct descendant of the Wise Race, the
Race that never dies. Many are the legends concerning this hero, the pupil
of Surya (the Sun-God) himself, as the Indian accounts allege. It matters little
whether he lived on one or another island, but the question is to prove that he
was no myth, as Dr. Weber and others would make him. The
fact of "Romaka-pura in the West" being named as the birth-place of this hero of the archaic ages, is the more interesting because it is so very suggestive of the esoteric teaching about the "Sweat-born" Races, the men born from the pores of their parents. "ROMAKUPAS" means "hair-pores" in Sanskrit. In Mahβbhβrata XII. 10,308, a people named Raumyas are said to have been created from the pores of Virabhadara, the terrible giant, who destroyed Daksha's sacrifice. Other tribes and people are also represented as born in this way. All these are references to the later Second and the earlier Third Root Races.
The following figures are from the calendar just referred to; a footnote marks the points of disagreement with the figures of the Arya Samaj school:
I. From the beginning of cosmic evolution,* up
to the Hindu year Tarana (or 1887) .................... 1,955,884,687 years.
II. The (astral) mineral, vegetable and animal
kingdoms up to Man, have taken to evolve ........ 300,000,000 years.
III. Time, from the first appearance of
"Humanity" (on planetary chain)..........................1,664,500,987 years.
* The esoteric doctrine says that this "cosmic evolution" refers only to our
solar system; while exoteric Hinduism makes the figures refer, if we do not
mistake, to the whole Universal System.
Another point of disagreement. Occultism says: "The astral prototypes of
the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms up to man have taken that time (300
million years) to evolve, re-forming out of the cast-off materials of the
preceding Round, which, though very dense and physical in their own cycle, are
relatively ethereal as compared with the materiality of our present middle
Round. At the expiration of these 300 million years, Nature, on the way to the
physical and material, down the arc of descent, begins with mankind and works
downwards, hardening or materialising forms as it proceeds. Thus the fossils
found in strata, to which an antiquity, not of eighteen, but of many hundreds of
millions of years, must be ascribed, belong in reality to forms of the preceding
Round, which, while living, were far more ethereal than physical, as we
know the physical. That we perceive and disinter them as tangible
forms, is due to the process of materialization or crystallization referred to,
which took place subsequently, at the beginning of the Fourth Round, and reached
its maximum after the appearance of man, proceeding parallel with his physical
evolution. This alone illustrates the fact that the degree of materiality of the
Earth changes pari passu with that of its inhabitants. And thus man now
finds, as tangible fossils, what were once the (to his present senses) ethereal
forms of the lower kingdoms. The above Brahmanical figures refer to evolution
beginning on Globe A, and in the First Round. In this Volume we speak only of
this, the Fourth Round."
This difference and the change of cyphers in the last three triplets of
figures, the writer cannot undertake to account for. According to every
calculation, once the three hundred millions are subtracted, the figures ought
to stand, 1,655,884,687. But they are given as stated in the Tamil calendar
above-named and as they were translated. The school of the late Pandit Dayanand
Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj, gives a date of 1,960,852,987. See the
"Arya Magazine" of Lahore, the cover of which bears the words: "Aryan era
1,960,852,987."
IV. The number that elapsed since the
"Vaivasvata Manvantara"* or the human period
up to the year 1887, is just ......................... 18,618,728 years.
V. The full period of one Manvantara is . . . . . 308,448,000 years.
VI. 14 "Manvantaras" plus the period of one
Sβtya Yuga make ONE DAY OF BRAHMΒ, or
complete Manvantara and make ................. 4,320,000,000 years.
Therefore a Maha-Yuga consists of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,320,000 years.
The year 1887 is from the commencement of
Kali-Yuga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................... 4,989 years.
To make this still clearer in its details, the following computations by Rao Bahadur P. Sreenivas Row, are given from the "Theosophist" of November, 1885.
Mortal years.
360 days of mortals make a year ........................................... 1
Krita Yuga contains ................................................. 1,728,000
Treta Yuga contains ................................................. 1,296,000
Dwapara Yuga contains .............................................. 864,000
Kali Yuga contains ...................................................... 432,000
The total of the said four Yugas constitute a
Maha Yuga ............................................................... 4,320,000
Seventy-one of such Maha-Yugas form the
period of the reign of one Manu .......................... 306,720,000
The reign of 14 Manus embraces the duration
of 994 Maha-Yugas, which is equal to .............. 4,294,080,000
* VAIVASVATA Manu is the one human being
some versions
add to him the seven Rishis who in the Matsya Avatar allegory is
saved from the Deluge in a boat, like Noah in the Ark. Therefore, this
Vaivasvata Manvantara would be the "post-Diluvian" period. This, however,
does not refer to the later "Atlantean" or Noah's deluge, nor to the Cosmic
Deluge or Pralaya of obscuration, which preceded our Round, but to
the appearance of mankind in the latter Round. There is a great difference made,
however, between the "Naimitika," occasional or incidental, "Prakritika,"
elemental, "Atyantika," the absolute, and "Nitya,"
the perpetual Pralaya; the latter being described as "Brahmβ's contingent recoalescence of the Universe at the end of Brahmβ's
DAY." The
question was raised by a learned Brahmin Theosophist: "Whether there is such a
thing as Cosmic Pralaya; because, otherwise, the Logos
(Krishna) would have to be reborn, and he is Aja (unborn)." We cannot
see why. The Logos is said to be born only metaphorically, as the Sun
is born daily, or rather a beam of that Sun is born in the morning and is said
to die when it disappears, whereas it is simply reabsorbed into the parent
essence. Cosmic Pralaya is for things visible, not for the Arupa,
formless, world. The Cosmic or Universal Pralaya comes only at the end
of one hundred years of Brahmβ; when the Universal dissolution is said to take
place. Then the Avyaya, say the exoteric scriptures, the eternal life
symbolized by Vishnu, assuming the character of Rudra, the Destroyer,
enters into the Seven Rays of the Sun and drinks up all the waters of
the Universe. "Thus fed, the seven solar Rays dilate to seven Suns and
set fire to the whole Cosmos. . . . ."
Since a Maha-Yuga is the 1,000th part of a day of Brahmβ.
Add Sandhis, i.e., intervals between the reign of each Manu, which amount
to six Maha-Yugas, equal to ................................................................................................... 25,920,000
The total of these reigns and interregnums of 14 Manus, is 1,000 Maha-Yugas,
which constitute a Kalpa, i.e., one day of Brahmβ ............................................................ 4,320,000,000
As Brahmβ's Night is of equal duration, one Day and Night of Brahmβ would contain .... 8,640,000,000
360 of such days and nights make one year of Brahmβ make ....................................... 3,110,400,000,000
100 such years constitute the whole period of Brahmβ's age, i.e., Maha-Kalpa ...... 311,040,000,000,000
These are the exoteric figures accepted throughout India, and they dovetail pretty nearly with those of the Secret works. The latter, moreover, amplify them by a division into a number of esoteric cycles, never mentioned in Brahmanical popular writings one of which, the division of the Yugas into racial cycles, is given elsewhere as an instance. The rest, in their details, have of course never been made public. They are, nevertheless, known to every "Twice-born" (Dwija, or Initiated) Brahmin, and the Purβnas contain references to some of them in veiled terms, which no matter-of-fact Orientalist has yet endeavoured to make out, nor could he if he would.
These sacred astronomical cycles are of immense antiquity, and most of them pertain, as stated, to the calculations of Narada and Asuramaya. The latter has the reputation of a giant and a sorcerer. But the antediluvian giants (the Gibborim of the Bible) were not all bad or Sorcerers, as Christian Theology, which sees in every Occultist a servant of the Evil one, would have it; nor were they worse than many of "the faithful sons of the Church." A Torquemada and a Catherine de Medicis certainly did more harm in their day and in the name of their Master than any Atlantean giant or demigod of antiquity ever did; whether his name was Cyclops, or Medusa, or yet the Orphic Titan, the anguipedal monster known as Ephialtes. There were good "giants" in days of old just as there are bad "pigmies" now; and the Rakshasas and Yakshas of Lanka are no worse than our modern dynamiters, and certain Christian and civilised generals during modern wars. Nor are they myths. "He who would laugh at Briareus and Orion ought to abstain from going to, or even talking of, Karnac or Stonehenge," remarks somewhere a modern writer.
As the Brahmanical figures given above are approximately the basic calculations of our esoteric system, the reader is requested to carefully keep them in mind.
In the "Encyclopζdia Britannica" one finds, as the last
word of science, that the antiquity of man is allowed to stretch only over
"tens of thou-
sands of years." * It becomes evident that as these figures may be made to fluctuate between 10,000 and 100,000, therefore they mean very little if anything, and only render still denser the darkness surrounding the question. Moreover, what matters it that science places the birth of man in the "pre- or post-glacial drift," if we are told at the same time that the so-called "ice age" is simply a long succession of ages which "shaded without abrupt change of any kind into what is termed the human or Recent period . . . the overlapping of geological periods having been the rule from the beginning of time." The latter "rule" only results in the still more puzzling, even if strictly scientific and correct, information, that "even to-day man is contemporary with the ice-age in the Alpine valleys and in the Finmark."
Thus, had it not been for the lessons taught by the Secret Doctrine, and even by exoteric Hinduism and its traditions, we should be left to this day to float in perplexed uncertainty between the indefinite ages of one school of science, the "tens of thousands" of years of the other, and the 6,000 years of the Bible interpreters. This is one of the several reasons why, with all the respect due to the conclusions of the men of learning of our modern day, we are forced to ignore them in all such questions of pre-historic antiquity.
Modern Geology and Anthropology must, of course, disagree with our views. But Occultism will find as many weapons against these two sciences as it has against astronomical and physical theories, in spite of Mr. Laing's assurances that "in (chronological) calculations of this sort, concerning older and later formations, there is no theory, and they are based on positive facts, limited only by a certain possible (?) amount of error either way," occultism will prove, scientific confessions in hand, that geology is very much in error, and very often even more so than Astronomy. In this very passage by Mr. Laing, which gives to Geology pre-eminence for correctness over Astronomy, we find a passage in flagrant contradiction to the admissions of the best Geologists themselves. Says the author
"In short, the conclusions of Geology, at any rate up to the Silurian
period,§ when the present order of things was fairly inaugurated, are
approximate (truly so) facts and not theories, while the
astronomical conclusions are theories based on data so uncertain,
that while in some
* See article "Geology," in "Encyclopζdia
Britannica."
This allows a chance even to the Biblical "Adam Chronology" of 6,000
years. (Ibid.)
See his "Modern Science and Modern Thought."
§ To the Silurian period as regards Molluscs and Animal life
granted;
but what do they know of man?
cases they give results incredibly short . . . in others they give results almost incredibly long."
After which, the reader is advised that the safest course "seems to be to assume that Geology really proves the duration of the present order of things to have been somewhere over 100 millions of years," as "Astronomy gives an enormous though unknown time in the past, and to come in the future, for the birth, growth, maturity, decline, and death of the Solar System, of which our Earth is a small planet now passing through the habitable phase." (p. 49.)
Judging from past experience, we do not entertain the slightest doubt that, once called upon to answer "the absurd unscientific and preposterous claims of exoteric (and esoteric) Aryan chronology," the scientist of "the results incredibly short," i.e., only 15,000,000 years, and the scientist, who "would require 600,000,000 years," together with those who accept Mr. Huxley's figures of 1,000,000,000 "since sedimentation began in Europe" (World Life), would all be as dogmatic one as the other. Nor would they fail to remind the Occultist and the Brahmin, that it is the modern men of science alone who represent exact science, whose duty it is to fight inaccuracy and superstition.
The earth is passing through the "habitable phase" only for the present order of things, and as far as our present mankind is concerned with its actual "coats of skin" and phosphorus for bones and brain.
We are ready to concede the 100 millions of years offered by Geology, since
we are taught that our present physical mankind or the Vaivasvata
humanity began only 18 millions of years ago. But Geology has no facts to
give us for the duration of geological periods, as we have shown, no more indeed
than has Astronomy. The authentic letter from Mr. W. Pengelly, F.R.S.,
quoted elsewhere, says that: "It is at present, and perhaps always will be,
IMPOSSIBLE to reduce, even approximately, geological time into
years or even into millenniums." And having never, hitherto, excavated a fossil
man of any other than the present form what does Geology know of
him? It has traced zones or strata and, with these, primordial zoological life,
down to the Silurian. When it has, in the same way, traced man down to his
primordial protoplasmic form, then we will admit that it may know something of
primordial man. If it is not very material "to the bearings of modern scientific
discovery on modern thought," whether "man has existed in state of constant
though slow progression for the last 50,000 years of period of 15 millions, or
for the last 500,000 years of a period of 150 millions" ("Modern Science, etc."
p. 49), as Mr. S. Laing tells his readers, it is very much so for the claims of
the Occultists. Unless the latter show that it is a possibility, if not
a perfect certainty, that man
lived 18 millions of years ago, the Secret Doctrine might as well have
remained unwritten. An attempt must, therefore, be made in this direction, and
it is our modern geologists and men of science generally who will be brought to
testify to this fact in the third part of this volume. Meanwhile, and
notwithstanding the fact that Hindu Chronology is constantly represented by the
Orientalists as a fiction based on no "actual computation,"* but simply
a "childish boasting," it is never-the-less often twisted out of recognition to
make it yield to, and fit in with, Western theories. No figures have ever been
more meddled with and tortured than the famous
4, 3, 2, followed by
cyphers of the Yugas and Maha-Yugas.
As the whole cycle of prehistoric events, such as the evolution and transformation of Races and the extreme antiquity of man, hangs upon the said Chronology, it becomes extremely important to check it by other existing calculations. If the Eastern Chronology is rejected, we shall at least have the consolation of proving that no other whether the figures of Science or of the Churches is one whit more reliable. As Professor Max Muller expresses it, it is often as useful to prove what a thing is not as to show what it may be. And once we succeed in pointing out the fallacies of both Christian and scientific computations by allowing them a fair chance of comparison with our Chronology neither of the two will have a reasonable ground to stand upon, in pronouncing the esoteric figures less reliable than its own.
We may here refer the reader to our earlier work "Isis Unveiled," Vol. I., p. 32, for some remarks concerning the figures which were cited a few pages back.
To-day a few more facts may be added to the information there given, which is
already known to every Orientalist. The sacredness of the cycle of 4320, with
additional cyphers, lies in the fact that the figures which compose it, taken
separately or joined in various combinations, are each and all symbolical of the
greatest mysteries in Nature. Indeed, whether one takes the 4 separately, or the
3 by itself, or the two together making 7, or again the three added together and
yielding 9, all these numbers have their application in the most sacred and
occult things, and record the workings of Nature in her eternally periodical
phenomena. They are never erring, perpetually recurring numbers, unveiling, to
him who studies the secrets of Nature, a truly divine System, an intelligent
plan in Cosmogony, which results in natural cosmic divisions of times,
seasons, invisible influences, astronomical phenomena, with their action and
reaction on terrestrial and even moral nature; on
* Wilson's "Translation of Vishnu Purβna," Vol. I., pp. 50, 51.
birth, death, and growth, on health and disease. All these natural events are based and depend upon cyclical processes in the Kosmos itself, producing periodic agencies which, acting from without, affect the Earth and all that lives and breathes on it, from one end to the other of any Manvantara. Causes and effects are esoteric, exoteric, and endexoteric, so to say.
In Isis Unveiled we wrote that which we now repeat: "We are at the bottom of a cycle and evidently in a transitory state. Plato divides the intellectual progress of the universe during every cycle into fertile and barren periods. In the sublunary regions, the spheres of the various elements remain eternally in perfect harmony with the divine nature, he says; 'but their parts,' owing to a too close proximity to earth, and their commingling with the earthly (which is matter, and therefore the realm of evil), 'are sometimes according, and sometimes contrary to (divine) nature.' When those circulations which Eliphas Levi calls ' currents of the astral light' in the universal ether which contains in itself every element, take place in harmony with the divine spirit, our earth and everything pertaining to it enjoys a fertile period. The occult powers of plants, animals, and minerals magically sympathize with the ' superior natures,' and the divine soul of man is in perfect intelligence with these 'inferior' ones. But during the barren periods, the latter lose their magic sympathy, and the spiritual sight of the majority of mankind is so blinded as to lose every notion of the superior powers of its own divine spirit. We are in a barren period: the eighteenth century, during which the malignant fever of scepticism broke out so irrepressibly, has entailed unbelief as an hereditary disease upon the nineteenth. The divine intellect is veiled in man; his animal brain alone philosophizes." And philosophizing alone, how can it understand the "SOUL DOCTRINE"?
In order not to break the thread of the narrative we shall give some striking proofs of these cyclic laws in Part II., proceeding meanwhile with our explanations of geological and racial cycles.
(11) The Descent of the Demiurge. (12) The lunar gods ordered to create. (13) The higher gods refuse.
11. THE LORD OF THE LORDS CAME. FROM HER BODY HE SEPARATED THE WATERS, AND THAT WAS HEAVEN ABOVE, THE FIRST HEAVEN (the atmosphere, or the air, the firmament) (a).
(a) Here tradition falls again into the Universal. As in the earliest version, repeated in the Purβnas, so in the latest, the Mosaic account. In the first it is said: "He the Lord" (the god who has the form of Brahmβ) "when the world had become one ocean (Harivamsa I. 36) concluding that within the waters lay the earth, and desirous to raise it up," to separate it, "created himself in another form. As in the preceding Kalpa (Manvantara) he had assumed the shape of a tortoise, so in this one he took the shape of a boar, etc. etc." In the Elohistic "creation" (Genesis, verses 6, 7, 8, and 9) "God" creates a firmament in the midst of the waters . . . . . and says "let dry land appear." And now comes the traditional peg whereunto is hung the esoteric portion of the Kabalistic interpretation.
11.. THE GREAT CHOHANS (Lords), CALLED THE LORDS OF THE MOON, OF THE AIRY BODIES (a). "BRING FORTH MEN, (they were told), MEN OF YOUR NATURE. GIVE THEM (i.e., the Jivas or Monads) THEIR FORMS WITHIN. SHE (Mother Earth or Nature) WILL BUILD COVERINGS WITHOUT (external bodies). (For) MALES-FEMALES WILL THEY BE. LORDS OF THE FLAME, ALSO."
(a) Who are the Lords of the Moon? In India they are called
Pitris or "lunar ancestors," but in the Hebrew scrolls it is Jehovah
himself who is the "Lord of the Moon," collectively as the Host, and also as one
of the Elohim. The astronomy of the Hebrews and their observance of times
was regulated by the moon. A Kabalist, having shown that "Daniel . . . told
off God's providence by set times," and that the "Revelation" of John
"speaks of a carefully measured cubical city descending out of the
heavens," etc., adds
"But the vitalizing power of heaven lay chiefly with the moon. . . .
It was the Hebrew 
(Jehovah), and St.
Paul enjoins: 'Let no man judge you for your observance of the seventh day, and
the day of the new moon, which are a shadow of things to come; but the
body (or substance) is of Christ" or Jehovah, that function of this power that
"made the barren woman . . . a mother . . . for they are the gift of Jehovah" .
. . which is a key to the objection which her husband made to the Shunamite, as
to her going to the man of God
"for it is neither the seventh day nor the
day of the new moon. . . . (2 Kings, iv., 23.) The living
spiritual powers of the constellations had mighty wars, marked by the movements
and positions of the stars and planets, and especially as the result of the
conjunction of the moon, earth, and sun. Bentley comments on the Hindu "War
between the gods and the giants," as marked by the eclipse of the Sun at the
ascending node of the Moon, 945 B.C. (! !), at which time was born * or
produced from the sea, SRI (Sarai, S-r-i, the wife of the
Hebrew A-bram ). Sri is also Venus-Aphrodite the Western emblem "of the luni-solar
year or the moon (as Sri is the wife of the moon; vide foot-note), the
goddess of increase
. . . " Therefore . . . "the grand monument and landmark of the exact
period of the lunar year and month, by which this cycle (of 19 tropical
years and 235 revolutions of the moon) could be calculated, was Mount
Sinai the Lord Jehovah coming down thereon. . . . Paul speaks (then)
as a mystagogue, when he says concerning the freed woman and bond woman
of Abraham: 'For this Hagar (the bond-woman) is Mount Sinai in Arabia.'
How could a woman be a mountain? and such a mountain! Yet . . . she
was. . . . Her name was Hagar, Hebrew 
, whose numbers re-read 235, or in
exact measure, the very number of lunar months to equal nineteen tropical years
to complete this cycle. . . . Mount Sinai being, in the esoteric language of the
wisdom, the monument of the exact time of the lunar
* According to the wonderful chronology of Bentley, who wrote in days when
Biblical chronology was still undisputed; and also according to that of those
modern Orientalists who dwarf the Hindu dates as far as they can.
Now Sri is the daughter of Bhrigu, one of the Prajβpatis and
Rishis, the chief of the Bhrigus, "the Consumers," the aerial class of gods. She
is Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, and she is "the bride of Siva" (Gauri), and she
is Sarasvati, "the watery," the wife of Brahmβ, because the three gods and
goddesses are one, under three aspects. Read the explanation by Parasβra, in
Vishnu Purβna in Bk. I., ch. viii. (Vol. I., Wilson's trans., p. 119), and
you will understand. "The Lord of Sri" is the moon, he says, and "Sri is the
wife of Narβyβna, the God of Gods"; Sri or Lakshmi (Venus) is Indrβni, as she is Sarasvati, for in the words of Parasβra: "Hari (or Iswara, "the Lord") is all
that is called male in the Universe; Lakshmi is all that is termed female. There
is nothing else than they." Hence she is "female," and "God" is male Nature.
Sri is goddess of, and herself "Fortune and Prosperity."
years and months, by which this spiritual vitalizing cycle could be computed
and which mountain, indeed, was called (see Fuerst), "the Mountain of the
Moon (Sin). So also Sarai (SRI), the wife of Abram, could have
no child until her name was changed to Sarah,
, giving to her the property of this lunar
influence." *
This may be regarded as a digression from the main subject; but it is a very necessary one with a view to Christian readers. For who, after studying dispassionately the respective legends of Abram or Abraham, Sarai or Sarah, who was "fair to look upon," and those of Brahmβ and Sarasvati, or Sri, Lakshmi-Venus, with the relations of all these to the Moon and Water; and especially one who understands the real Kabalistic meaning of the name Jehovah and its relation to, and connection with, the moon who can doubt that the story of Abram is based upon that of Brahmβ, or that Genesis was written upon the old lines used by every ancient nation? All in the ancient Scriptures is allegorical all based upon and inseparably connected with Astronomy and Cosmolatry.
13. THEY (the Moon-gods) WENT, EACH ON HIS ALLOTTED LAND: SEVEN OF THEM, EACH ON HIS LOT. THE LORDS OF THE FLAME REMAINED BEHIND. THEY WOULD NOT GO, THEY WOULD NOT CREATE (a).
(a) The Secret teachings show the divine Progenitors creating men on seven portions of the globe "each on his lot" i.e., each a different race of men externally and internally, and on different zones. This polygenistic claim is considered elsewhere (vide Stanza VII.). But who are "They" who create, and the "Lords of the Flame," "who do not"? Occultism divides the "Creators" into twelve classes; of which four have reached liberation to the end of the "Great Age," the fifth is ready to reach it, but still remains active on the intellectual planes, while seven are still under direct Karmic law. These last act on the man-bearing globes of our chain.
Exoteric Hindu books mention seven classes of Pitris, and among them two
distinct kinds of Progenitors or Ancestors: the Barhishad and the
Agnishwatta; or those possessed of the "sacred fire" and those devoid of
it. Hindu ritualism seems to connect them with sacrificial fires, and with
Grihasta Brahmins in earlier incarnations: those who have, and those who
have not attended as they should to their household sacred fires in their
previous births. The distinction, as said, is derived from the Vedas.
The first and highest class (esoterically) the Agnishwatta,
* "Masonic Review"; Cincinnati, June 1886, Art. "The Cabbalah."
are represented in the exoteric allegory as Grihasta (Brahman-householders) who, in their past births in other Manvantaras having failed to maintain their domestic fires and to offer burnt sacrifices, have lost every right to have oblations with fire presented to them. Whereas the Barhishad, being Brahmins who have kept up their household sacred fires, are thus honoured to this day. Thence the Agnishwatta are represented as devoid of, and the Barhishad as possessed of, fires.
But esoteric philosophy explains the original qualifications as being due to the difference between the natures of the two classes: the Agnishwatta Pitris are devoid of fire (i.e., of creative passion), because too divine and pure (vide supra, Sloka 11th); whereas the Barhishad, being the lunar spirits more closely connected with Earth, became the creative Elohim of form, or the Adam of dust.
The allegory says that Sanandana and other Vedhas, the Sons of Brahmβ, his first progeny, "were without desire or passion, inspired with the holy wisdom, estranged from the Universe and undesirous of progeny" (Vishnu Purβna, Book I. vii.). This also is what is meant in Sloka 11 by the words: "They would not create," and is explained as follows: "The primordial Emanations from the creative Power are too near the absolute Cause. They are transitional and latent forces, which will develop only in the next and subsequent removes." This makes it plain. Hence Brahmβ is said to have felt wrathful when he saw that those "embodied spirits, produced from his limbs (gatra), would not multiply themselves." After which, in the allegory, he creates other seven mind-born Sons (see "Moksha-Darma" and "Mahabhβrata"), namely, Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu and Vasishta, the latter being often replaced by Daksha, the most prolific of the creators. In most of the texts these Seven Sons of Vasishta-Daksha are called the seven Rishis of the Third Manvantara; the latter referring both to the Third Round and also to the third Root-Race and its branch-Races in the Fourth Round. These are all the creators of the various beings on this Earth, the Prajβpati, and at the same time they appear as divers reincarnations in the early Manvantaras or races.
It thus becomes clear why the Agnishwatta, devoid of the grosser
creative fire, hence unable to create physical man, having no double,
or astral body, to project, since they were without any form, are
shown in exoteric allegories as Yogis, Kumβras (chaste youths), who became
"rebels," Asuras, fighting and opposing gods,* etc., etc. Yet it is
they
* Because, as the allegory shows, the Gods who had no personal merit of their
own, dreading the sanctity of those self-striving incarnated Beings who had
become ascetics and Yogis, and thus threatened to upset the power of
the former by their self-acquired powers
renounced them. All this
has a deep philosophical meaning and refers to the evolution and acquirement of
divine powers through self-exertion. Some Rishi-Yogis
are shown in the Purβnas to be far more powerful than the gods. Secondary gods
or temporary powers in Nature (the Forces) are doomed to disappear; it is only
the spiritual potentiality in man which can lead him to become one with the
INFINITE and the ABSOLUTE.
alone who could complete man, i.e., make of him a self-conscious,
almost a divine being
god on Earth. The Barhishad, though possessed
of creative fire, were devoid of the higher MAHAT-mic element.
Being on a level with the lower principles those which precede gross
objective matter
they could only give birth to the outer man, or rather to
the model of the physical, the astral man. Thus, though we see them intrusted
with the task by Brahmβ (the collective Mahat or Universal Divine
Mind), the "Mystery of Creation" is repeated on Earth, only in an inverted
sense, as in a mirror. It is those who are unable to create the
spiritual immortal man, who project the senseless model (the Astral)
of the physical Being; and, as will be seen, it was those who would not
multiply, who sacrificed themselves to the good and salvation of Spiritual
Humanity. For, to complete the septenary man, to add to his three
lower principles and cement them with the spiritual Monad
which could never
dwell in such a form otherwise than in an absolutely latent state
two connecting principles are needed: Manas and Kama.
This requires a living Spiritual Fire of the middle principle from the
fifth and third states of Pleroma. But this fire is the
possession of the Triangles, not of the (perfect) Cubes, which
symbolize the Angelic Beings:* the former having from the first creation got
hold of it and being said to have appropriated it for themselves, as in the
allegory of Prometheus. These are the active, and therefore
in Heaven
no
longer "pure" Beings. They have become the independent and free Intelligences,
shown in every Theogony as fighting for that independence and freedom, and hence
in the ordinary sense
"rebellious to the divine passive law." These are
then those "Flames" (the Agnishwatta) who, as shown in Sloka
13, "remain behind" instead of going along with the others to create men on
Earth. But the true esoteric meaning is that most of them were destined to
incarnate as the Egos of the forthcoming crop of Mankind. The human
Ego is neither Atman nor Buddhi, but the higher Manas: the
intellectual fruition and the efflorescence of the intellectual self-conscious
Egotism
in the higher spiritual sense. The ancient works
refer to it as Karana Sarira on the plane of Sutratma, which
is the golden thread on which, like beads, the various personalities of this
higher Ego are strung. If the reader were told, as in the
semi-esoteric allegories, that these Beings were returning Nirvanees,
from preceding Maha-Manvantaras
ages of incalculable
dura-
* See Book I., Stanzas III. to V. The triangle becomes a Pentagon (five-fold)
on Earth.
tion which have rolled away in the Eternity, a still more incalculable time ago he would hardly understand the text correctly; while some Vedantins might say: "This is not so; the Nirvanee can never return"; which is true during the Manvantara he belongs to, and erroneous where Eternity is concerned. For it is said in the Sacred Slokas:
"The thread of radiance which is imperishable and dissolves only in Nirvana, re-emerges from it in its integrity on the day when the Great Law calls all things back into action. . . ."
Hence, as the higher "Pitris or Dhyanis" had no hand in his physical
creation, we find primeval man, issued from the bodies of his spiritually
fireless progenitors, described as aλriform, devoid of compactness, and
MINDLESS. He had no middle principle to serve him as a medium
between the highest and the lowest, the spiritual man and the
physical brain, for he lacked Manas. The Monads which incarnated in
those empty SHELLS, remained as unconscious as when separated
from their previous incomplete forms and vehicles. There is no potentiality for
creation, or self-Consciousness, in a pure Spirit on this our plane,
unless its too homogeneous, perfect, because divine, nature is, so to say, mixed
with, and strengthened by, an essence already differentiated. It is only the
lower line of the Triangle
representing the first triad that emanates from
the Universal MONAD
that can furnish this needed
consciousness on the plane of differentiated Nature. But how could these pure
Emanations, which, on this principle, must have originally been themselves
unconscious (in our sense), be of any use in supplying the required
principle, as they could hardly have possessed it themselves? The answer is
difficult to comprehend, unless one is well acquainted with the philosophical
metaphysics of a beginningless and endless series of Cosmic Re-births; and
becomes well impressed and familiarised with that immutable law of Nature which
is ETERNAL
MOTION, cyclic and spiral,
therefore progressive even in its seeming retrogression. The one divine
Principle, the nameless THAT of the Vedas, is the universal
Total, which, neither in its spiritual aspects and emanations, nor in its
physical atoms, can ever be at "absolute rest" except during the
"Nights" of Brahmβ. Hence, also, the "first-born" are those who are first set in
motion at the beginning of a Manvantara, and thus the first to fall into the
lower spheres of materiality. They who are called in Theology "the Thrones," and
are the "Seat of God," must be the first incarnated men on Earth; and it becomes
comprehensible, if we think of the endless series of past Manvantaras, to find
that the last had to come first, and the first last. We find, in short, that the
higher Angels had broken, countless ζons before, through the "Seven Circles,"
and thus robbed them of the Sacred fire;
which means in plain words, that they had assimilated during their past incarnations, in lower as well as in higher worlds, all the wisdom therefrom the reflection of MAHAT in its various degrees of intensity. No Entity, whether angelic or human, can reach the state of Nirvana, or of absolute purity, except through ζons of suffering and the knowledge of EVIL as well as of good, as otherwise the latter remains incomprehensible.
Between man and the animal whose Monads (or Jivas) are fundamentally identical there is the impassable abyss of Mentality and Self-consciousness. What is human mind in its higher aspect, whence comes it, if it is not a portion of the essence and, in some rare cases of incarnation, the very essence of a higher Being: one from a higher and divine plane? Can man a god in the animal form be the product of Material Nature by evolution alone, even as is the animal, which differs from man in external shape, but by no means in the materials of its physical fabric, and is informed by the same, though undeveloped, Monad seeing that the intellectual potentialities of the two differ as the Sun does from the Glow-worm? And what is it that creates such difference, unless man is an animal plus a living god within his physical shell? Let us pause and ask ourselves seriously the question, regardless of the vagaries and sophisms of both the materialistic and the psychological modern sciences.
To some extent, it is admitted that even the esoteric teaching is allegorical. To make the latter comprehensible to the average intelligence, requires the use of symbols cast in an intelligible form. Hence the allegorical and semi-mythical narratives in the exoteric, and the (only) semi-metaphysical and objective representations in the esoteric teachings. For the purely and transcendentally spiritual conceptions are adapted only to the perceptions of those who "see without eyes, hear without ears, and sense without organs," according to the graphic expression of the Commentary. The too puritan idealist is at liberty to spiritualise the tenet, whereas the modern psychologist would simply try to spirit away our "fallen," yet still divine, human Soul in its connection with Buddhi.
The mystery attached to the highly spiritual ancestors of the divine
man within the earthly man is very great. His dual creation is hinted at in the
Purβnas, though its esoteric meaning can be approached only by collating
together the many varying accounts, and reading them in their symbolical and
allegorical character. So it is in the Bible, both in Genesis and even
in the Epistles of Paul. For that creator, who is called in
the second chapter of Genesis the "Lord God," is in the original the Elohim,
or Gods (the Lords), in the plural; and while one of them makes
the earthly Adam of dust, the other breathes into him the breath of life, and
the third makes of him a living soul (ii. 7), all of which readings
are implied in the plural number of the Elohim.* "The first man is of the Earth, the second (the last, or rather highest) is from heaven," says Paul in I. Corinthians xv. 47.
In the Aryan allegory the rebellious Sons of Brahmβ are all represented as holy ascetics and Yogis. Re-born in every Kalpa, they generally try to impede the work of human procreation. When Daksha, the chief of the Prajβpati (creators), brings forth 10,000 sons for the purpose of peopling the world, Narada a son of Brahmβ, the great Rishi, and virtually a "Kumara," if not so in name interferes with, and twice frustrates Daksha's aim, by persuading those Sons to remain holy ascetics and eschew marriage. For this, Daksha curses Narada to be re-born as a man, as Brahmβ had cursed him before for refusing to marry, and obtain progeny, saying: "Perish in thy present (Deva or angelic) form and take up thy abode in the womb," i.e., become a man (Vayu Purβna; Harivamsa, 170). Notwithstanding several conflicting versions of the same story, it is easy to see that Narada belongs to that class of Brahma's, "first-born," who have all proven rebellious to the law of animal procreation, for which they had to incarnate as men. Of all the Vedic Rishis, Narada, as already shown, is the most incomprehensible, because the most closely connected with the occult doctrines especially with the secret cycles and Kalpas (vide supra).
Certain contradictory statements about this Sage have much distracted the
Orientalists. Thus he is shown as refusing positively to create (have
progeny), and even as calling his father Brahmβ "a false teacher" for advising
him to get married ("Narada-Pancha-Rβtra"); nevertheless, he is
referred to as one of the Prajβpati, "progenitors"! In Naradiya Purβna,
he describes the laws and the duties of the celibate adepts; and as these occult
duties do not happen to be found in the fragment of about 3,000 Stanzas in the
possession of European museums, the Brahmins are proclaimed liars; the Orientalists forgetting that the Naradiya is credited with
containing 25,000 Stanzas, and that it is not very likely that such MSS.
should be found in the hands of the Hindu profane, those who are ready to sell
any precious olla for a red pottage. Suffice it to say, that Narada is
* Seth, as Bunsen and others have shown, is not only the primitive god
of the Semites
early Jews included
but also their "semi-divine
ancestor." For, says Bunsen ("God in History," vol. i, pp. 233, 234),
"the Seth of Genesis, the father of Enoch (the man) must be considered
as originally running parallel with that derived from the Elohim, Adam's
father." "According to Bunsen, the Deity (the god Seth) was the primitive
god of Northern Egypt and Palestine" (Staniland Wake, "The Great Pyramid").
And Seth became considered in the later Theology of the Egyptians as "AN EVIL
DΖMON," says the same Bunsen, for he is one with Typhon and one with the Hindu
demons as a logical sequel.
the Deva-Rishi of Occultism par excellence; and that the Occultist who does not ponder, analyse, and study Narada from his seven esoteric facets, will never be able to fathom certain anthropological, chronological, and even Cosmic Mysteries. He is one of the Fires above-mentioned, and plays a part in the evolution of this Kalpa from its incipient, down to its final stage. He is an actor who appears in each of the successive acts (Root-Races) of the present Manvantaric drama, in the world allegories which strike the key-note of esotericism, and are now becoming more familiar to the reader. But shall we turn to other ancient Scriptures and documents for the corroboration of the "Fires," "Sparks," and "Flames?" They are plentiful, if one only seeks for them in the right places. In the "Book of the Concealed Mystery," they are clearly enunciated, as also in the "Ha Idra Zuta Qadisha," or the lesser holy Assembly. The language is very mystical and veiled, yet still comprehensible. Therein, among the sparks of Prior Worlds, "vibrating Flames and Sparks," from the divine flint, the workmen proceed to create man, "male and female" (427); which "Flames and Sparks" (Angels and their Worlds, Stars and Planets) are said, figuratively, to "become extinct and die," that is to say, remain unmanifested until a certain process of nature is accomplished. To show how thickly veiled from public view are the most important facts of anthropogenesis, two passages are now quoted from two Kabalistic books. The first is from the Book of the Concealed Mystery:
(429.) From a Light-Bearer (one of the seven sacred planets) of insupportable brightness proceeded a radiating Flame, dashing off, like a vast and mighty hammer, those sparks which were the prior worlds.
(430.) And with most subtle ether were these intermingled and bound mutually together, but only when they were conjoined together, even the great Father and great Mother.
(431.) From Hoa, himself, is AB, the Father; and from Hoa, himself, is RUACH, the Spirit; who are hidden in the Ancient of Days, and therein is that Ether concealed.
(432.) And it was connected with a Light-Bearer (a planet and its angel or regent), which went forth from that Light-Bearer of insupportable brightness, which is hidden in the bosom of Aima, the Great Mother.*
Now the following extract from the Zohar also deals with the same mystery:
"The Pre-Adamite Kings. 'We have learned in the Siphrah D'Tzniootha: That the
At-tee'kah DAt-tee'keen, Ancient of Ancients, before He prepared his
Form, built Kings, and engraved
* See Mr. Mather's
"Kabbalah Unveiled."
Translated in I. Myer's Qabbalah.
Kings, and sketched out Kings (men, the Kings of the animals), and they could not exist: till he overthrew them and hid them until after a time, therefore it is written: 'And these are the Kings which reigned in the land of Edom' . . . . And they could not exist till Resha'Hiv'rah, the White Head, the At'-tee-'kah D'At-tee'keen, Ancient of Ancients, arranged Himself . . . . and formed all forms above and below. . . . Before He arranged himself in his Form had not been formed all those whom he desired to form, and all worlds have been destroyed . . . . they did not remain in their places, because the form of the Kings had not been formed as it ought to be, and the Holy City had not been prepared." (Zohar iii., 135a; 292a Idra Zootah. Brody, etc.)
Now the plain meaning of these two allegorical and metaphysical disquisitions
is simply this: Worlds and men were in turn formed and destroyed, under the
law of evolution and from pre-existing material, until both the
planets and their men, in our case our Earth and its animal and human races,
became what they are now in the present cycle: opposite polar forces, an
equilibrized compound of Spirit and Matter, of the positive and the negative, of
the male and the female. Before man could become male and female physically,
his prototype, the creating Elohim, had to arrange his Form on this sexual
plane astrally. That is to say, the atoms and the organic forces,
descending into the plane of the given differentiation, had to be marshalled in
the order intended by Nature, so as to be ever carrying out, in an immaculate
way, that law which the Kabala calls the Balance, through which
everything that exists does so as male and female in its final perfection, in
this present stage of materiality. Chochmah, Wisdom, the Male
Sephiroth, had to diffuse itself in, and through, Binah,
intelligent Nature, or Understanding. Therefore the First Root-race of men,
sexless and mindless, had to be overthrown and "hidden until after a time";
i.e., the first race, instead of dying, disappeared in the second race,
as certain lower lives and plants do in their progeny. It was a wholesale
transformation. The First became the Second Root-race, without either begetting
it, procreating it, or dying. "They passed by together," as it is
written: "And he died and another reigned in his stead" (Genesis xxvi.
31 et seq. Zohar iii., 292a). Why? Because "the Holy City
had not been prepared." And what is the "Holy City"? The Maquom
(the Secret Place or the Shrine) on Earth: in other words, the human
womb, the microcosmic copy and reflection of the Heavenly Matrix, the
female space or primeval Chaos, in which the male Spirit fecundates the germ of
the Son, or the visible Universe.* So much so, that in the paragraph on "the
Emanation of the Male and Female Principles" in the Zohar
* Vide "The Holy of Holies: its esoteric meaning," in Part II of
this Volume.
(ibid.), it is said that, on this earth, the WISDOM from the "Holy Ancient" "does not shine except in male and female." "Hohmah, Wisdom, is the Father, and BINAH, understanding, is the Mother . . . . and when they connect one with the other they bring forth and diffuse and emanate truth. In the sayings of Rabbi Je-yeva Sabah, i.e., the Old, we learned this: What is Binah Understanding? But when they connect in one another, the y (Yod) in the h (Heh), they become impregnated and produce a Son. And, therefore, it is called Binah, Understanding. It means BeN YaH, i.e., Son of YaH. This is the completeness of the whole." *
This is also the "completeness" of phallicism by the Rabbis, its perfect apotheosis, the divine being dragged into the animal, the sublime into the grossness of the terrestrial. Nothing so graphically gross exists in Eastern Occultism, nor in the primitive Kabala the "Chaldean Book of Numbers." We have said so in "Isis Unveiled":
"We find it rather unwise on the part of Catholic writers to pour out their vials of wrath in such sentences as these: 'In a multitude of pagodas, the phallic stone, ever and always assuming, like the Grecian batylos, the brutally indecent form of the lingham . . . the Maha Deva.' Before casting slurs on a symbol whose profound metaphysical meaning is too much for the modern champions of that religion of sensualism par excellence, Roman Catholicism, to grasp, they are in duty bound to destroy their oldest churches, and change the form of the cupolas of their own temples. The Mahody of Elephanta, the Round Tower of Bhangulpore, the minarets of Islam either rounded or pointed are the originals of the Campanile column of San Marco, at Venice, of the Rochester Cathedral, and of the modern Duomo of Milan. All of these steeples, turrets, domes, and Christian temples, are the reproductions of the primitive idea of the lithos, the upright phallus." (Vol. II., p. 5.)
Nevertheless, and however it may be, the fact that all these Hebrew Elohim,
Sparks, and Cherubs are identical with the Devas, Rishis and the Fires and
Flames, the Rudras and the forty-nine Agnis of the ancient Aryas, is
sufficiently proven by and in the Kabala.
* Zohar iii., 290a, quoted in Isaac Myer's
Qabbalah, p. 387.
§§ (14) Creation of men. (15) They are empty shadows. (16) The Creators are perplexed how to create a THINKING man. (17) What is needed for the formation of a perfect Man.
14. THE SEVEN HOSTS, THE "WILL (or Mind)-BORN" LORDS, PROPELLED BY THE SPIRIT OF LIFE-GIVING (Fohat), SEPARATE MEN FROM THEMSELVES, EACH ON HIS OWN ZONE (a).
(a) They threw off their "shadows" or astral bodies if such an ethereal being as a "lunar Spirit" may be supposed to rejoice in an astral, besides a hardly tangible body. In another Commentary it is said that the "Ancestors" breathed out the first man, as Brahmβ is explained to have breathed out the Suras (Gods), when they became "Asuras" (from Asu, breath). In a third it is said that they, the newly-created men, "were the shadows of the Shadows."
With regard to this sentence "They were the shadows of the Shadows"
a
few more words may be said and a fuller explanation attempted. This first
process of the evolution of mankind is far easier to accept than the one which
follows it, though one and all will be rejected and doubted even by some
Kabalists, especially the Western, who study the present effects, but have
neglected to study their primary causes. Nor does the writer feel competent to
explain a mode of procreation so difficult of appreciation save for an Eastern
Occultist. Therefore it is useless to enter here into details concerning the
process, though it is minutely described in the Secret Books, as it would only
lead to speaking of facts hitherto unknown to the profane world, and hence to
their being misunderstood. An "Adam" made of the dust of the ground will always
be found preferable, by a certain class of students, to one projected out of the
ethereal body of his creator; though the former process has never been heard of,
while the latter is familiar, as all know, to many Spiritualists in Europe and
America, who, of all men, ought to understand it. For who of those who have
witnessed the phenomenon of a materialising form oozing out of the pores of a
medium or, at other times, out of his left side, can fail to credit the
possibility, at least, of such a birth? If there are
in the Universe such beings as Angels or Spirits, whose incorporeal essence may constitute an intelligent entity notwithstanding the absence of any (to us) solid organism; and if there are those who believe that a god made the first man out of dust, and breathed into him a living Soul and there are millions upon millions who believe both what does this doctrine of ours contain that is so impossible? Very soon the day will dawn, when the world will have to choose whether it will accept the miraculous creation of man (and Kosmos too) out of nothing, according to the dead letter of Genesis, or a first man born from a fantastic link absolutely "missing" so far the common ancestor of man, and of the "true ape."* Between these two fallacies, Occult philosophy steps in. It teaches that the first human stock was projected by higher and semi-divine Beings out of their own essences. If the latter process is to be considered as abnormal or even inconceivable because obsolete in Nature at this point of evolution it is yet proven possible on the authority of certain "Spiritualistic" FACTS. Which, then, we ask of the three hypotheses or theories is the most reasonable and the least absurd? Certainly no one provided he is not a soul-blind materialist can ever object to the occult teaching.
Now, as shown, we gather from the latter that man was not "created" the
complete being he is now, however imperfect he still remains. There was a
spiritual, a psychic, an intellectual, and an animal evolution, from the highest
to the lowest, as well as a physical development from the simple and
homogeneous, up to the more complex and heterogeneous; though not quite on the
lines traced for us by the modern evolutionists. This double evolution in two
contrary directions, required various ages, of divers natures and degrees of
spirituality and intellectuality, to fabricate the being now known as man.
Furthermore, the one absolute, ever acting and never erring law, which proceeds
on the
* ". . . Huxley, supported by the most evident discoveries in Comparative
Anatomy, could utter the momentous sentence that the anatomical differences
between man and the highest apes are less than those between the latter and the
lowest apes. In relation to our genealogical tree of man, the necessary
conclusion follows that the human race has evolved gradually from the true
apes." ("The Pedigree of Man," by Ernest
Haeckel, translated by Ed. B. Aveling, p. 49).
What may be the scientific and logical objections to the opposite
conclusion we would ask? The anatomical resemblances between Man and the
Anthropoids grossly exaggerated as they are by Darwinists, as M. de Quatrefages shows
are simply enough "accounted for" when the origin of the
latter is taken into consideration.
"Nowhere, in the older deposits, is an ape to be found that approximates more
closely to man, or a man that approximates more closely to an ape ."
". . . . . The same gulf which is found to-day between Man and Ape, goes
back with undiminished breadth and depth to the Tertiary period. This fact alone
is enough to make its untenability clear," (Dr. F. Pfaff, Prof. of Natural
Science in the University of Erlangen).
same lines from one eternity (or Manvantara) to the other ever furnishing an ascending scale for the manifested, or that which we call the great Illusion (Maha-Maya), but plunging Spirit deeper and deeper into materiality on the one hand, and then redeeming it through flesh and liberating it this law, we say, uses for these purposes the Beings from other and higher planes, men, or Minds (Manus), in accordance with their Karmic exigencies.
At this juncture, the reader is again asked to turn to the Indian philosophy and religion. The Esotericism of both is at one with our Secret Doctrine, however much the form may differ and vary.
ON THE IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCES OF THE INCARNATING POWERS.
THE Progenitors of Man, called in India "Fathers," Pitara or Pitris, are the creators of our bodies and lower principles. They are ourselves, as the first personalities, and we are they. Primeval man would be "the bone of their bone and the flesh of their flesh," if they had body and flesh. As stated, they were "lunar Beings."
The Endowers of man with his conscious, immortal EGO, are the "Solar Angels" whether so regarded metaphorically or literally. The mysteries of the Conscious EGO or human Soul are great. The esoteric name of these "Solar Angels" is, literally, the "Lords" (Nath) of "persevering ceaseless devotion" (pranidhβna). Therefore they of the fifth principle (Manas) seem to be connected with, or to have originated the system of the Yogis who make of pranidhβna their fifth observance (see Yoga Shastra, II., 32.) It has already been explained why the trans-Himalayan Occultists regard them as evidently identical with those who in India are termed Kumβras, Agnishwattas, and the Barhishads.
How precise and true is Plato's expression, how profound and philosophical
his remark on the (human) soul or EGO, when he defined it as "a compound of the
same and the other." And yet how little this hint has
been understood, since the world took it to mean that the soul was the breath of
God, of Jehovah. It is "the same and the other," as
the great Initiate-Philosopher said; for the EGO (the "Higher Self" when merged
with and in the Divine Monad) is Man, and yet the same as the "OTHER,"
the Angel in him incarnated, as the same with the universal
MAHAT.
The great classics and philosophers felt this truth, when saying that "there
must be something within us which produces our thoughts. Something very subtle;
it is a breath; it is fire; it is ether;
it is quintessence; it is a slender likeness; it is an intellection; it is a number; it is harmony. . . . . " (Voltaire).
All these are the Manasam and Rajasas: the Kumβras, Asuras, and other rulers and Pitris, who incarnated in the Third Race, and in this and various other ways endowed mankind with Mind.
There are seven classes of Pitris, as shown below, three incorporeal and four
corporeal; and two kinds, the Agnishwatta and the Barhishad. And we may add
that, as there are two kinds of Pitris, so there is a double and a triple set of
Barhishad and Agnishwatta. The former, having given birth to their astral
doubles, are reborn as Sons of Atri, and are the "Pitris of the
Demons," or corporeal beings, on the authority of Manu (III., 196); while the
Agnishwatta are reborn as Sons of Marichi (a son of Brahmβ), and are the Pitris
of the Gods (Manu again, Matsya and Padma Purβnas and
Kulluka in the Laws of the Manavas, III., 195).* Moreover, the
Vayu Purβna declares all the seven orders to have originally been the
first gods, the Vairajas, whom Brahmβ "with the eye of Yoga,
beheld in the eternal spheres, and who are the gods of gods";
and the Matsya adds that the Gods worshipped them; while the
Harivansa (S. 1, 935) distinguishes the Virβjas as one class of
the Pitris only a statement corroborated in the Secret Teachings, which,
however, identify the Virβjas with the elder Agnishwattas
and the
Rajasas, or Abhutarajasas, who are incorporeal without even an
astral phantom. Vishnu is said, in most of the MSS., to have incarnated
in and through them. "In the Raivata Manvantara, again, Hari, best of
gods, was born of Sambhuti, as the divine Manasas
originating with
the deities called Rajasas." Sambhuti was a daughter of Daksha, and wife of
Marichi, the father of the Agnishwatta, who, along with the Rajasas,
are ever associated with Manasas. As remarked by a far more able
Sanskritist than Wilson, Mr. Fitzedward Hall, "Manasa is no inappropriate name
for a deity associated with the Rajasas. We appear to have in it Manasam the
same as Manas with the change of termination required to
express male personification" (Vishnu Purβna Bk. III., ch. I., p. 17
footnote). All the sons of Virβja are Manasa, says
Nilakantha. And
* We are quite aware that the Yayu and Matsya Purβnas
identify (agreeably to Western interpretation) the Agnishwatta with the seasons,
and the Barhishad Pitris with the months; adding a fourth class
the Kavyas
cyclic years. But do not Christian, Roman Catholics identify their Angels with
planets, and are not the seven Rishis become the Saptarshi
a
constellation? They are deities presiding over all the cyclic divisions.
The Vayu Purβna shows the region called Virβja-loka inhabited by the
Agnishwattas.
Virβja is Brahmβ, and, therefore, the incorporeal Pitris are called Vairβjas from being the sons of Virβja, says Vayu Purβna.
We could multiply our proofs ad infinitum, but it is useless. The wise will understand our meaning, the unwise are not required to. There are thirty-three crores, or 330 millions, of gods in India. But, as remarked by the learned lecturer on the Bhagavad Gitβ, "they may be all devas, but are by no means all 'gods', in the high spiritual sense one attributes to the term." "This is an unfortunate blunder," he remarks, "generally committed by Europeans. Deva is a kind of spiritual being, and because the same word is used in ordinary parlance to mean god, it by no means follows that we have to worship thirty-three crores of gods." And he adds suggestively: "These beings, as may be naturally inferred have a certain affinity with one of the three component Upadhis (basic principles) into which we have divided man."(Vide Theosophist, Feb., 1887, et seq.)
The names of the deities of a certain mystic class change with every Manvantara. Thus the twelve great gods, Jayas, created by Brahmβ to assist him in the work of creation in the very beginning of the Kalpa, and who, lost in Samadhi, neglected to create whereupon they were cursed to be repeatedly born in each Manvantara till the seventh are respectively called Ajitas, Tushitas, Satyas, Haris, Vaikunthas, Sadhyas, and Adityas: they are Tushitas (in the second Kalpa), and Adityas in this Vaivasvata period (see Vayu Purβna), besides other names for each age. But they are identical with the Manasa or Rajasas, and these with our incarnating Dhyan Chohans. They are all classes of the Gnana-devas.
Yes; besides those beings, who, like the Yakshas, Gandharvas, Kinaras, etc., etc., taken in their individualities, inhabit the astral plane, there are real Devagnanams, and to these classes of Devas belong the Adityas, the Vairβjas, the Kumaras, the Asuras, and all those high celestial beings whom Occult teaching calls Manaswin, the Wise, foremost of all, and who would have made all men the self-conscious spiritually intellectual beings they will be, had they not been "cursed" to fall into generation, and to be reborn themselves as mortals for their neglect of duty.
15. SEVEN TIMES
SEVEN
SHADOWS
(chhayas) OF
FUTURE
MEN
(or
Amanasas) (a) WERE
(thus)
BORN,
EACH OF HIS OWN COLOUR (complexion)
AND KIND (b). EACH
(also) INFERIOR TO
HIS FATHER (creator).
THE
FATHERS, THE
BONELESS, COULD GIVE NO
LIFE
TO BEINGS WITH
BONES. THEIR PROGENY WERE BHUTA (phantoms) WITH NEITHER FORM NOR MIND, THEREFORE THEY WERE CALLED THE CHHAYA (image or shadow) RACE (c).
(a) Manu, as already remarked, comes from the root "man" to think, hence "a thinker." It is from this Sanskrit word very likely that sprung the Latin "mens," mind, the Egyptian "Menes," the "Master-Mind," the Pythagorean Monas, or conscious "thinking unit," mind also, and even our "Manas" or mind, the fifth principle in man. Hence these shadows are called amanasa, "mindless."
With the Brahmins the Pitris are very sacred, because they are the Progenitors,* or ancestors of men the first Manushya on this Earth and offerings are made to them by the Brahmin when a son is born unto him. They are more honoured and their ritual is more important than the worship of the gods (See the "Laws of Manu," Bk. III., p. 203).
May we not now search for a philosophical meaning in this dual group of progenitors?
The Pitris being divided into seven classes, we have here the mystic number again. Nearly all the Purβnas agree that three of these are arupa, formless, while four are corporeal; the former being intellectual and spiritual, the latter material and devoid of intellect. Esoterically, it is the Asuras who form the first three classes of Pitris "born in the body of night" whereas the other four were produced from the body of twilight. Their fathers, the gods, were doomed to be born fools on Earth, according to Vayu Purβna. The legends are purposely mixed up and made very hazy: the Pitris being in one the sons of the gods, and, in another those of Brahmβ; while a third makes them instructors of their own fathers. It is the Hosts of the four material classes who create men simultaneously on the seven zones.
Now, with regard to the seven classes of Pitris, each of which is again
divided into seven, a word to students and a query to the profane. That class of
the "Fire Dhyanis," which we identify on undeniable grounds with the
Agnishwattas, is called in our school the "Heart" of the Dhyan-Chohanic Body;
and it is said to have incarnated in the third race of men and made them
perfect. The esoteric Mystagogy speaks of the mysterious relation existing
between the hebdomadic essence or substance of this angelic Heart and that of
man, whose
* This was hinted at in Isis Unveiled, Vol. I., p.
xxxviii., though the full explanation could not then be given: "The Pitris
are not the ancestors of the present living men, but those of the first
human kind or Adamic race; the spirits of human races, which, on the
great scale of descending evolution, preceded our races of men, and were
physically as well as spiritually, far superior to our modem pigmies. In
Manava-Dharma-Sastra they are called the Lunar ancestors."
every physical organ, and psychic, and spiritual function, is a reflection, so to say, a copy on the terrestrial plane of the model or prototype above. Why, it is asked, should there be such a strange repetition of the number seven in the anatomical structure of man? Why should the heart have four lower "cavities and three higher divisions," answering so strangely to the septenary division of the human principles, separated into two groups, the higher and the lower; and why should the same division be found in the various classes of Pitris, and especially our Fire Dhyanis? For, as already stated, these Beings fall into four corporeal (or grosser) and three incorporeal (or subtler) "principles," or call them by any other name you please. Why do the seven nervous plexuses of the body radiate seven rays? Why are there these seven plexuses, and why seven distinct layers in the human skin?
"Having projected their shadows and made men of one element (ether), the progenitors re-ascend to Maha-loka, whence they descend periodically, when the world is renewed, to give birth to new men.
"The subtle bodies remain without understanding (Manas) until the advent of the Suras (Gods) now called Asuras (not Gods)," says the Commentary.
"Not-gods," for the Brahmins, perhaps, but the highest Breaths, for the Occultist; since those progenitors (Pitar), the formless and the intellectual, refuse to build man, but endow him with mind; the four corporeal classes creating only his body.
This is very plainly shown in various texts of the Rig Veda the highest authority for a Hindu of any sect whatever. Therein Asura means "spiritual divine," and the word is used as a synonym for Supreme Spirit, while in the sense of a "God," the term "Asura" is applied to Varuna and Indra and pre-eminently to Agni the three having been in days of old the three highest gods, before Brahmanical Theo-Mythology distorted the true meaning of almost everything in the Archaic Scriptures. But, as the key is now lost, the Asuras are hardly mentioned.
In the Zendavesta the same is found. In the Mazdean, or Magian, religion, "Asura" is the lord Asura Visvavedas, the "all-knowing" or "omniscient Lord"; and Asura-Mazdha, become later Ahura-Mazdha, is, as Benfey shows, "the Lord who bestows Intelligence" Asura-Medha and Ahura-Mazdao. Elsewhere in this work it is shown, on equally good authority, that the Indo-Iranian Asura was always regarded as sevenfold. This fact, combined with the name Mazdha, as above, which makes of the sevenfold Asura the "Lord," or "Lords" collectively "who bestow Intelligence," connects the Amshaspends with the Asuras and with our incarnating Dhyan Chohans, as well as with the Elohim, and the seven informing gods of Egypt, Chaldea, and every other country.
Why these "gods" refused to create men is not, as stated in exoteric
accounts, because their pride was too great to share the celestial power of their essence with the children of Earth, but for reasons already suggested. However, allegory has indulged in endless fancies and theology taken advantage thereof in every country to make out its case against these first-born, or the logoi, and to impress it as a truth on the minds of the ignorant and credulous. (Compare also what is said about Makara and the Kumβras in connection with the Zodiac.)
The Christian system is not the only one which has degraded them into demons. Zoroastrianism and even Brahmanism have profited thereby to obtain hold over the people's mind. Even in Chaldean exotericism, Beings who refuse to create, i.e., who are said to oppose thereby the Demiurgos, are also denounced as the Spirits of Darkness. The Suras, who win their intellectual independence, fight the Suras who are devoid thereof, who are shown as passing their lives in profitless ceremonial worship based on blind faith a hint now ignored by the orthodox Brahmins and forthwith the former become A-Suras. The first and mind-born Sons of the Deity refuse to create progeny, and are cursed by Brahmβ to be born as men. They are hurled down to Earth, which, later on, is transformed, in theological dogma, into the infernal regions. Ahriman destroys the Bull created by Ormazd which is the emblem of terrestrial illusive life, the "germ of sorrow" and, forgetting that the perishing finite seed must die, in order that the plant of immortality, the plant of spiritual, eternal life, should sprout and live, Ahriman is proclaimed the enemy, the opposing power, the devil. Typhon cuts Osiris into fourteen pieces, in order to prevent his peopling the world and thus creating misery; and Typhon becomes, in the exoteric, theological teaching, the Power of Darkness. But all this is the exoteric shell. It is the worshippers of the latter who attribute to disobedience and rebellion the effort and self-sacrifice of those who would help men to their original status of divinity through self-conscious efforts; and it is these worshippers of Form who have made demons of the Angels of Light.
Esoteric philosophy, however, teaches that one third * of the Dhyanis
i.e., the three classes of the Arupa Pitris, endowed with
intelligence, "which is a formless breath, composed of intellectual not
elementary substances" (see Harivamsa, 932)
was simply
doomed by the law of Karma and evolution to be reborn (or incarnated) on
Earth. Some
* Whence the subsequent assertions of St. John's vision, referred to in his
Apocalypse, about "the great red Dragon having seven heads and ten
horns, and seven crowns upon his heads," whose "tail drew the third part
of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth" (ch. xii.).
The verse "did cast them to the Earth," plainly
shows its origin in the grandest and oldest allegory of the Aryan mystics, who,
after the destruction of the Atlantean giants and sorcerers,
concealed the truth astronomical, physical, and divine,
as it is a page out of pre-cosmic theogony under various allegories.
Its esoteric, true interpretation is a veritable Theodice of the "Fallen
Angels," so called; the willing and the unwilling, the
creators and those who refused to create, being now mixed up most
perplexingly by Christian Catholics, who forget that their highest Archangel,
St. Michael, who is shown to conquer (to master and to assimilate) the
DRAGON
OF WISDOM and of divine Self-sacrifice (now miscalled and
calumniated as Satan), WAS THE FIRST TO REFUSE TO CREATE! This led to endless
confusion. So little does Christian theology understand the paradoxical language
of the East and its symbolism, that it even explains, in its dead letter
sense, the Chinese Buddhist and Hindu exoteric rite of raising a noise
during certain eclipses to scare away the "great red Dragon," which laid a plot
to carry away the light! But here "Light" means esoteric Wisdom, and we have
sufficiently explained the secret meaning of the terms Dragon, Serpent,
etc., etc., all of which refer to Adepts and Initiates.
of these were Nirmanakayas from other Manvantaras. Hence we see them, in all the Purβnas, reappearing on this globe, in the third Manvantara, as Kings, Rishis and heroes (read Third Root-Race). This tenet, being too philosophical and metaphysical to be grasped by the multitudes, was, as already stated, disfigured by the priesthood for the purpose of preserving a hold over them through superstitious fear.
The supposed "rebels," then, were simply those who, compelled by Karmic law to drink the cup of gall to its last bitter drop, had to incarnate anew, and thus make responsible thinking entities of the astral statues projected by their inferior brethren. Some are said to have refused, because they had not in them the requisite materials i.e., an astral body since they were arupa. The refusal of others had reference to their having been Adepts and Yogis of long past preceding Manvantaras; another mystery. But, later on, as Nirmanakayas, they sacrificed themselves for the good and salvation of the Monads which were waiting for their turn, and which otherwise would have had to linger for countless ages in irresponsible, animal-like, though in appearance human, forms. It may be a parable and an allegory within an allegory. Its solution is left to the intuition of the student, if he only reads that which follows with his spiritual eye.
As to their fashioners or "Ancestors" those Angels who, in the exoteric legends, obeyed the law they must be identical with the Barhishad Pitris, or the Pitar-Devata, i.e., those possessed of the physical creative fire. They could only create, or rather clothe, the human Monads with their own astral Selves, but they could not make man in their image and likeness. "Man must not be like one of us," say the creative gods, entrusted with the fabrication of the lower animal but higher; (see Gen. and Plato's Timζus). Their creating the semblance of men out of their own divine Essence means, esoterically, that it is
they who became the first Race, and thus shared its destiny and further evolution. They would not, simply because they could not, give to man that sacred spark which burns and expands into the flower of human reason and self-consciousness, for they had it not to give. This was left to that class of Devas who became symbolised in Greece under the name of Prometheus, to those who had nought to do with the physical body, yet everything with the purely spiritual man. (See Part II of this volume, "The Fallen Angels"; also "The Gods of Light proceed from the Gods of Darkness.")
Each class of Creators endows man with what it has to give: the one builds
his external form; the other gives him its essence, which later on becomes the
Human Higher Self owing to the personal exertion of the individual;
but they could not make men as they were themselves
perfect, because
sinless; sinless, because having only the first, pale shadowy outlines of
attributes, and these all perfect from the human standpoint
white, pure
and cold as the virgin snow. Where there is no struggle, there is no merit.
Humanity, "of the Earth earthy," was not destined to be created by the angels of
the first divine Breath: therefore they are said to have refused to do
so, and man had to be formed by more material creators,* who, in their turn,
could give only what they had in their own natures, and no more. Subservient to
eternal law, the pure gods could only project out of themselves shadowy
men, a little less ethereal and spiritual, less divine and perfect than
themselves shadows still. The first humanity, therefore, was a pale copy of
its progenitors; too material, even in its ethereality, to be a hierarchy of
gods; too spiritual and pure to be MEN, endowed as it is with every negative
(Nirguna) perfection. Perfection, to be fully such, must
be born out of imperfection, the incorruptible must grow out of the
corruptible, having the latter as its vehicle and basis and contrast. Absolute
light is absolute darkness, and vice versa. In fact, there is neither
light nor
* In spite of all efforts to the contrary, Christian theology
having
burdened itself with the Hebrew esoteric account of the creation of man, which
is understood literally cannot find any reasonable excuse for its "God,
the Creator," who produces a man devoid of mind and sense; nor can it
justify the punishment following an act, for which Adam and Eve might plead
non compos. For if the couple is admitted to be ignorant of good and evil
before the eating of the forbidden fruit, how could it be expected to know that
disobedience was evil? If primeval man was meant to remain a
half-witted, or rather witless, being, then his creation was aimless and even
cruel, if produced by an omnipotent and perfect God. But Adam and Eve
are shown, even in Genesis, to be created by a class of lower divine Beings, the
Elohim, who are so jealous of their personal prerogatives as reasonable
and intelligent creatures, that they will not allow man to become "as one of
us." This is plain, even from the dead-letter meaning of the Bible. The
Gnostics, then, were right in regarding the Jewish God as belonging to a class
of lower, material and not very holy denizens of the invisible World.
darkness in the realms of truth. Good and Evil are twins, the progeny of Space and Time, under the sway of Maya. Separate them, by cutting off one from the other, and they will both die. Neither exists per se, since each has to be generated and created out of the other, in order to come into being; both must be known and appreciated before becoming objects of perception, hence, in mortal mind, they must be divided.
Nevertheless, as the illusionary distinction exists, it requires a lower order of creative angels to "create" inhabited globes especially ours or to deal with matter on this earthly plane. The philosophical Gnostics were the first to think so, in the historical period, and to invent various systems upon this theory. Therefore in their schemes of creation, one always finds their Creators occupying a place at the very foot of the ladder of spiritual Being. With them, those who created our earth and its mortals were placed on the very limit of mayavic matter, and their followers were taught to think to the great disgust of the Church Fathers that for the creation of those wretched races, in a spiritual and moral sense, which grace our globe, no high divinity could be made responsible, but only angels of a low hierarchy,* to which class they relegated the Jewish God, Jehovah.
Mankinds different from the present are mentioned in all the ancient
Cosmogonies. Plato speaks, in the Phζdrus, of a winged race of
men. Aristophanes (in Plato's Banquet), speaks
of a race androgynous and with round bodies. In Pymander, all the
animal kingdom even is double-sexed. Thus in § 18, it is said: "The circuit
having been accomplished, the knot was loosened. . . . and all the
animals, which were equally androgynous, were untied (separated)
together with man. . . . ." for. . . . "the causes had to produce effects
on earth." Again, in the ancient Quiche Manuscript, the Popol Vuh
published by the late Abbι Brasseur de Bourbourg the first men are described
as a race "whose sight was unlimited, and who knew all things at once": thus
showing the divine knowledge of Gods, not mortals. The Secret Doctrine,
correcting the unavoidable exaggerations of popular fancy, gives the facts as
they are recorded in the Archaic symbols.
* In Isis Unveiled several of these Gnostic systems are given. One
is taken from the Codex Nazarζus, the Scriptures of the Nazarenes,
who, although they existed long before the days of Christ, and even before the
laws of Moses, were Gnostics, and many of them Initiates. They held their
"Mysteries of Life" in Nazara (ancient and modern Nazareth), and their doctrines
are a faithful echo of the teachings of the Secret Doctrine
some of which we
are now endeavouring to explain.
See the translation from the Greek by Francois, Monsieur de Foix, Evesque
d'Ayre: the work dedicated to Marguerite de France, Reine de Navarre. Edition of
1579, Bordeaux.
(b) These "shadows" were born "each of his own colour and kind," each also "inferior to his creator," because the latter was a complete being of his kind. The Commentaries refer the first sentence to the colour or complexion of each human race thus evolved. In Pymander, the Seven primitive men, created by Nature from the "heavenly Man," all partake of the qualities of the "Seven Governors," or Rulers, who loved Man their own reflection and synthesis.
In the Norse Legends, one recognizes in Asgard, the habitat of the gods, as
also in the Ases themselves, the same mystical loci and
personifications woven into the popular "myths," as in our Secret Doctrine; and
we find them in the Vedas, the Purβnas, the Mazdean Scriptures and the Kabala.
The Ases of Scandinavia, the rulers of the world which preceded ours,
whose name means literally the "pillars of the world," its "supports," are thus
identical with the Greek Cosmocratores, the "Seven Workmen or Rectors"
of Pymander, the seven Rishis and Pitris of India, the seven Chaldean gods and
seven evil spirits, the seven Kabalistic Sephiroth synthesised by the upper
triad, and even the seven Planetary Spirits of the Christian mystics. The Ases
create the earth, the seas, the sky and the clouds, the whole visible world,
from the remains of the slain giant Ymir; but they do not create
MAN,
but only his form from the Ask or ash-tree. It is Odin who endows him
with life and soul, after Lodur had given him blood and bones, and finally it is
Honir who furnishes him with his intellect (manas) and with
his conscious senses. The Norse Ask, the Hesiodic Ash-tree, whence issued the
men of the generation of bronze, the Third Root-Race, and the Tzite
tree of the Popol-Vuh, out of which the Mexican third race of
men was created, are all one.* This may be plainly seen by any reader. But the
Occult reason why the Norse Yggdrasil, the Hindu Aswatha, the Gogard, the
Hellenic tree of life, and the Tibetan Zampun, are one with the Kabalistic
Sephirothal Tree, and even with the Holy Tree made by Ahura Mazda, and the Tree
of Eden who among the western scholars can tell? Nevertheless, the fruits
of all those "Trees," whether Pippala or Haoma or yet the more prosaic apple,
are the "plants of life," in fact and verity. The prototypes of our races were
all enclosed in the microcosmic tree, which grew and developed within and
under the great mundane macrocosmic tree ; and the mystery is half
revealed in the Dirghotamas, where it is said: "Pippala, the sweet
fruit of that tree upon which come spirits who
* See Max Muller's review of the Popol-Vuh.
Mr. James Darmesteter, the translator of the Vendidad, speaking of it,
says: "The tree, whatever it is . . ." (p. 209).
Plato's "Timζus."
love the science, and where the gods produce all marvels." As in the Gogard, among the luxuriant branches of all those mundane trees, the "Serpent" dwells. But while the Macroscosmic tree is the Serpent of Eternity and of absolute Wisdom itself, those who dwell in the Microcosmic tree are the Serpents of the manifested Wisdom. One is the One and All; the others are its reflected parts. The "tree" is man himself, of course, and the Serpents dwelling in each, the conscious Manas, the connecting link between Spirit and Matter, heaven and earth.
Everywhere, it is the same. The creating powers produce Man, but fail in their final object. All these logoi strive to endow man with conscious immortal spirit, reflected in the Mind (manas) alone; they fail, and they are all represented as being punished for the failure, if not for the attempt. What is the nature of the punishment? A sentence of imprisonment in the lower or nether region, which is our earth; the lowest in its chain; an "eternity" meaning the duration of the life-cycle in the darkness of matter, or within animal Man. It has pleased the half ignorant and half designing Church Fathers to disfigure the graphic symbol. They took advantage of the metaphor and allegory found in every old religion to turn them to the benefit of the new one. Thus man was transformed into the darkness of a material hell; his divine consciousness, obtained from his indwelling Principle (the Manasa), or the incarnated Deva, became the glaring flames of the infernal region; and our globe that Hell itself. Pippala, Haoma, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, were denounced as the forbidden fruit, and the "Serpent of Wisdom," the Voice of reason and consciousness, remained identified for ages with the Fallen Angel, which is the old Dragon, the Devil! (Vide Part II., "The Evil Spirit, who, or what?")
The same for the other high symbols. The Svastica, the most sacred
and mystic symbol in India, the "Jaina-Cross" as it is now called by the Masons,
notwithstanding its direct connection, and even identity with the Christian
Cross, has become dishonoured in the same manner. It is the "devil's sign," we
are told by the Indian missionaries. "Does it not shine on the head of the great
Serpent of Vishnu, on the thousand headed Sesha-Ananta, in the depths
of Pβtβla, the Hindu Naraka or Hell"? It does: but what is Ananta? As
Sesha, it is the almost endless Manvantaric cycle of time, and becomes
infinite Time itself, when called Ananta, the great seven-headed Serpent,
on which rests Vishnu, the eternal Deity, during Pralayic
inactivity. What has Satan to do with this highly metaphysical symbol? The
Svastica is the most philosophically scientific of all symbols, as also the
most comprehensible. It is the summary in a few lines of the whole work of
creation, or evolution, as one should rather say, from Cosmo-theogony down
to Anthro-
pogony, from the indivisible unknown Parabrahm to the humble moneron of materialistic science, whose genesis is as unknown to that science as is that of the All-Deity itself. The Svastica is found heading the religious symbols of every old nation. It is the "Worker's Hammer" in the Chaldean Book of Numbers, the "Hammer" just referred to in the "Book of Concealed Mystery" (Ch. I., §§ 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), "which striketh sparks from the flint" (Space), those sparks becoming worlds. It is "Thor's Hammer," the magic weapon forged by the dwarfs against the Giants, or the pre-cosmic Titanic forces of Nature, which rebel and, while alive in the region of matter, will not be subdued by the Gods, the Agents of Universal Harmony, but have first to be destroyed. This is why the world is formed out of the relics of the murdered Ymir. The Svastica is the Miolnir, the "storm-hammer"; and therefore it is said that when the Ases, the holy gods, after having been purified by fire (the fire of passions and suffering in their life-incarnations), become fit to dwell in Ida in eternal peace, then Miolnir will become useless. This will be when the bonds of Hel (the goddess-queen of the region of the Dead) will bind them no longer, for the kingdom of evil will have passed away. "Surtur's flames had not destroyed them, nor yet had the raging waters" of the several deluges. . . . . "Then came the sons of Thor. They brought Miolnir with them, no longer as a weapon of war, but as the hammer with which to consecrate the new heaven and the new Earth. . . . . " *
Verily many are its meanings! In the Macrocosmic work, the "HAMMER
OF CREATION," with its four arms bent at right angles, refers
to the continual motion and revolution of the invisible Kosmos of
Forces. In that of the manifested Kosmos and our Earth, it points to the
rotation in the cycles of Time of the world's axes and their equatorial belts;
the two lines forming the Svastica
meaning Spirit and Matter, the four hooks
suggesting the motion in the revolving cycles. Applied to the Microcosm,
Man, it shows him to be a link between heaven and Earth: the right hand
being raised at the end of a horizontal arm, the left pointing to the Earth. In
the Smaragdine Tablet of Hermes, the uplifted right hand is inscribed
with the word "Solve," the left with the word "Coagula."
It is at one and the same time an Alchemical, Cosmogonical,
Anthropological, and Magical sign, with seven keys to its inner meaning. It is
not too much to say that the compound symbolism of this universal and most
suggestive of signs contains the key to the seven great mysteries of Kosmos.
Born in the mystical conceptions of the early Aryans, and by them placed at the
very threshold of eternity, on the head of the serpent Ananta, it found
* See "Asgard and the Gods": "The renewal of
the World."
its spiritual death in the scholastic interpretations of mediζval Anthropomorphists. It is the Alpha and the Omega of universal creative Force, evolving from pure Spirit and ending in gross Matter. It is also the key to the cycle of Science, divine and human; and he who comprehends its full meaning is for ever liberated from the toils of Mahamaya, the great Illusion and Deceiver. The light that shines from under the divine hammer, now degraded into the mallet or gavel of the Grand Masters of Masonic Lodges, is sufficient to dissipate the darkness of any human schemes or fictions.
How prophetic are the songs of the three Norse Goddesses, to whom the ravens of Odin whisper of the past and the future, as they flutter around in their abode of crystal beneath the flowing river. The songs are all written down in the "Scrolls of Wisdom," of which many are lost but some still remain: and they repeat in poetical allegory the teachings of the archaic ages. To summarise from Dr. Wagner's "Asgard and the Gods," the "renewal of the world," which is a prophecy about the seventh Race of our Round told in the past tense.
The Miolnir had done its duty in this Round, and:
". . . . on the field of Ida, the field of resurrection (for the Fifth Round), the sons of the highest gods assembled, and in them their fathers rose again (the Egos of all their past incarnations). They talked of the Past and the Present, and remembered the wisdom and prophecies of their ancestor which had all been fulfilled. Near them, but unseen of them, was the strong, the mighty One, who rules all things. . . . and ordains the eternal laws that govern the world. They all knew he was there, they felt his presence and his power, but were ignorant of his name. At his command the new Earth rose out of the Waters of Space. To the South above the Field of Ida, he made another heaven called Audlang, and further off, a third, Widblain. Over Gimil's cave, a wondrous palace was erected, covered with gold and shining bright in the sun." These are the three gradually ascending planets of our "Chain." There the Gods were enthroned, as they used to be. . . . From Gimil's heights (the seventh planet or globe, the highest and the purest), they looked down upon the happy descendants of LIF and LIFTHRASIR (the coming Adam and Eve of purified humanity), and signed to them to CLIMB up higher, to rise in knowledge and wisdom, step by step, from one "heaven to another," until they were at last fit to be united to the Gods in the house of All-Father (p. 305).
He who knows the doctrines of Esoteric Budhism, (or Wisdom), though so imperfectly sketched hitherto, will see clearly the allegory contained in the above.
Its more philosophical meaning will be better understood if the reader thinks
carefully over the myth of Prometheus. It is examined
further on in the light of the Hindu Pramanthβ. Degraded into a
purely physiological symbol by some Orientalists, and taken in connection
with terrestrial fire only, their interpretation is an insult to every religion,
including Christianity, whose greatest mystery is thus dragged down to matter.
The "friction" of divine Pramanthβ and Arani could suggest itself under this
image only to the brutal conceptions of the German materialists
than whom
there are none worse. It is true that the Divine babe, Agni with the
Sanskrit-speaking Race, who became Ignis with the Latins, is born from
the conjunction of Pramanthβ and Arani (Svastica) during the sacrificial
ceremony. But what of that? Twashtri (Viswakarman) is the "divine
artist and carpenter" * and is also the Father of the gods and
of creative fire in the Vedas. So ancient is the symbol and so sacred,
that there is hardly an excavation made on the sites of old cities without its
being found. A number of such terra cotta discs, called fusaiolos,
were found by Dr. Schliemann under the ruins of ancient Troy. Both
these forms 
and
were excavated in great abundance, their
presence being one more proof that the ancient Trojans and their ancestors were
pure Aryans.
(c) Chhaya, as already explained, is the astral image. It bears this
meaning in Sanskrit works. Thus Sanjna (Spiritual Consciousness), the wife of
Sϋrya, the Sun, is shown retiring into the jungle to lead an ascetic life, and
leaving behind to her husband her Chhaya, shadow or image.
* The "Father of the Sacred Fire," writes Prof. Jolly, "is Twashtri . . . his
mother was Maya. He himself was styled Akta ( anointed,
christoί ),
after the priest had poured upon his head the spirituous (?) SOMA,
and on his body butter purified by sacrifice"; ("Man before Metals,"
p. 190). The source of his information is not given by the French
Darwinist. But the lines are quoted to show that light begins to dawn even upon
the materialists. Adalbert Kόhn, in his "Die Herabkunft des Feuers,"
identifies the two signs and
with Arani, and designates them
under this name. He adds: "This process of kindling fire naturally led men to
the idea of sexual reproduction," etc. Why could not a more dignified idea, and
one more occult, have led man to invent that symbol, in so far as it is
connected, in one of its aspects, with human reproduction? But its chief
symbolism refers to Cosmogony.
"Agni, in the condition of Akta, or anointed, is suggestive
of Christ," remarks Prof. Jolly. "Maya, Mary, his mother; Twastri,
St. Joseph, the carpenter of the Bible." In the Rig Veda, Viswakarman
is the highest and oldest of the Gods and their "Father." He is the "carpenter
or builder," because God is called even by the monotheists, "the Architect of
the Universe." Still, the original idea is purely metaphysical, and had no
connection with the later Phallicism.
16. HOW ARE THE (real) MANUSHYAS BORN? THE MANUS WITH MINDS, HOW ARE THEY MADE? (a) THE FATHERS (Barhishad (?)) CALL TO THEIR HELP THEIR OWN FIRE (the Kavyavahana, electric fire), WHICH IS THE FIRE WHICH BURNS IN EARTH. THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH CALLED TO HIS HELP THE SOLAR FIRE (Suchi, the spirit in the Sun). THESE THREE (the Pitris and the two fires) PRODUCED IN THEIR JOINT EFFORTS A GOOD RUPA. IT (the form) COULD STAND, WALK, RUN, RECLINE AND FLY. YET IT WAS STILL BUT A CHHAYA, A SHADOW WITH NO SENSE (b) . . . . . .
(a) Here an explanation again becomes necessary in the light, and with the help of the exoteric added to the esoteric scriptures. The "Manushyas" (men) and the Manus are here equivalent to the Chaldean "Adam" this term not meaning at all the first man, as with the Jews, or one solitary individual, but mankind collectively, as with the Chaldeans and Assyrians. It is the four orders or classes of Dhyan Chohans out of the seven, says the Commentary, "who were the progenitors of the concealed man," i.e., the subtle inner man. The "Lha" of the Moon, the lunar spirits, were, as already stated, only the ancestors of his form, i.e., of the model according to which Nature began her external work upon him. Thus primitive man was, when he appeared, only a senseless Bhuta* or a "Phantom." This "creation" was a failure, the reason of which will be explained in the Commentary on Sloka 20.
(b) This attempt was again a failure. It allegorizes the vanity of physical nature's unaided attempts to construct even a perfect animal let alone man. For the "Fathers," the lower Angels, are all Nature-Spirits and the higher Elementals also possess an intelligence of their own; but this is not enough to construct a THINKING man. "Living Fire" was needed, that fire which gives the human mind its self-perception and self-consciousness, or Manas; and the progeny of Pβrvaka and Suchi are the animal electric and solar fires, which create animals, and could thus furnish but a physical living constitution to that first astral model of man. The first creators, then, were the Pygmalions of primeval man: they failed to animate the statue intellectually.
This Stanza we shall see is very suggestive. It explains the mystery of, and
fills the gap between, the informing principle in man the
* It is not clear why "Bhϋtas" should be rendered by the
Orientalists as meaning "evil Spirits" in the Purβnas. In the Vishnu Purβna,
Book I, ch. 5, the Sloka simply says: "Bhϋtas fiends, frightful from
being monkey-coloured and carnivorous"; and the word in India now means
ghosts, ethereal or astral phantoms, while in esoteric teaching it
means elementary substances, something made of attenuated, noncompound
essence, and, specifically, the astral double of any man or animal. In
this case these primitive men are the doubles of the first ethereal
Dhyanis or Pitris.
HIGHER SELF or human Monad and the animal Monad, both one and the same, although the former is endowed with divine intelligence, the latter with instinctual faculty alone. How is the difference to be explained, and the presence of that HIGHER SELF in man accounted for?
"The Sons of MAHAT are the quickeners of the human Plant. They are the Waters falling upon the arid soil of latent life, and the Spark that vivifies the human animal. They are the Lords of Spiritual Life eternal." . . . . "In the beginning (in the Second Race) some (of the Lords) only breathed of their essence into Manushya (men); and some took in man their abode."
This shows that not all men became incarnations of the "divine Rebels," but only a few among them. The remainder had their fifth principle simply quickened by the spark thrown into it, which accounts for the great difference between the intellectual capacities of men and races. Had not the "sons of Mahat," speaking allegorically, skipped the intermediate worlds, in their impulse toward intellectual freedom, the animal man would never have been able to reach upward from this earth, and attain through self-exertion his ultimate goal. The cyclic pilgrimage would have to be performed through all the planes of existence half unconsciously, if not entirely so, as in the case of the animals. It is owing to this rebellion of intellectual life against the morbid inactivity of pure spirit, that we are what we are self-conscious, thinking men, with the capabilities and attributes of Gods in us, for good as much as for evil. Hence the REBELS are our saviours. Let the philosopher ponder well over this, and more than one mystery will become clear to him. It is only by the attractive force of the contrasts that the two opposites Spirit and Matter can be cemented on Earth, and, smelted in the fire of self-conscious experience and suffering, find themselves wedded in Eternity. This will reveal the meaning of many hitherto incomprehensible allegories, foolishly called "fables." (Vide infra, "The Secret of Satan.")
It explains, to begin with, the statement made in Pymander: that the
"heavenly MAN," the "Son of the Father," who partook of the nature and essence
of the Seven Governors, or creators and Rulers of the material
world, "peeped through the Harmony and, breaking through the Seven
Circles of Fire, made manifest the downward-born nature." * It explains
every verse in that Hermetic narrative, as also the Greek allegory of
Prometheus. Most important of all, it explains the many allegorical accounts
about the "Wars in Heaven," including that of Revelation with respect
to the Christian dogma of the fallen angels. It explains the
"rebellion" of the oldest and highest Angels, and the meaning of their being
cast down from Heaven into the depths of Hell,
* See "Pymander," Bk. II., verses 17 to 29.
i.e., MATTER. It even solves the recent perplexity of the Assyriologists, who express their wonder through the late George Smith.
"My first idea of this part" (of the rebellion), he says, "was that the wars with the powers of Evil preceded the Creation; I now think it followed the account of the fall" (Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 92). In this work Mr. George Smith gives an engraving, from an early Babylonian cylinder, of the Sacred Tree, the Serpent, man and woman. The tree has seven branches: three on the man's side, four on that of the female. These branches are typical of the seven Root-Races, in the third of which, at its very close, occurred the separation of the sexes and the so-called FALL into generation. The three earliest Races were sexless, then hermaphrodite; the other four, male and female, as distinct from each other. "The Dragon," says Mr. G. Smith, "which in the Chaldean account of the creation leads man to sin, is the creation of Tiamat, the living principle of the Sea, or Chaos . . . which was opposed to the deities at the creation of the world." This is an error. The Dragon is the male principle, or Phallus, personified, or rather animalized; and Tiamat, "the embodiment of the Spirit of Chaos," of the deep, or Abyss, is the female principle, the Womb. The "Spirit of Chaos and Disorder" refers to the mental perturbation which it led to. It is the sensual, attractive, magnetic principle which fascinates and seduces, the ever living active element which throws the whole world into disorder, chaos, and sin. The Serpent seduces the woman, but it is the latter who seduces man, and both are included in the Karmic curse, though only as a natural result of a cause produced. Says George Smith: "It is clear that the Dragon is included in the curse for the Fall, and that the Gods" (the Elohim, jealous at seeing the man of clay becoming a Creator in his turn, like all the animals,) "invoke on the head of the human Race all the evils which afflict humanity. Wisdom and knowledge shall injure him, he shall have family quarrels, he will anger the gods, he shall submit to tyranny. . . . he shall be disappointed in his desires, he shall pour out useless prayers, he shall commit future sin. . No doubt subsequent lines continue this topic, but again our narrative is broken, and it re-opens only where the gods are preparing for war with the powers of evil, which are led by Tiamat (the woman). . . . " (Babylonian Legend of Creation, p. 92.)
This account is omitted in Genesis, for monotheistic purposes. But it is a mistaken policy born no doubt of fear, and regard for dogmatic religion and its superstitions to have sought to restore the Chaldean fragments by Genesis, whereas it is the latter, far younger than any of the fragments, which ought to be explained by the former.
17. THE BREATH (human Monad) NEEDED A FORM; THE FATHERS GAVE IT. THE BREATH NEEDED A GROSS BODY; THE EARTH MOULDED IT. THE BREATH NEEDED THE SPIRIT OF LIFE; THE SOLAR LHAS BREATHED IT INTO ITS FORM. THE BREATH NEEDED A MIRROR OF ITS BODY (astral shadow); "WE GAVE IT OUR OWN," SAID THE DHYANIS. THE BREATH NEEDED A VEHICLE OF DESIRES (Kama Rupa); "IT HAS IT," SAID THE DRAINER OF WATERS (Suchi, the fire of passion and animal instinct). THE BREATH NEEDS A MIND TO EMBRACE THE UNIVERSE; "WE CANNOT GIVE THAT," SAID THE FATHERS. "I NEVER HAD IT," SAID THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH. "THE FORM WOULD BE CONSUMED WERE I TO GIVE IT MINE," SAID THE GREAT (solar) FIRE . . . . (nascent) MAN REMAINED AN EMPTY, SENSELESS BHΫTA . . . . THUS HAVE THE BONELESS GIVEN LIFE TO THOSE WHO BECAME (later) MEN WITH BONES IN THE THIRD (race) (a).
As a full explanation is found in Stanza V. (Vide paragraph (a)), a few remarks will now suffice. The "Father" of primitive physical man, or of his body, is the vital electric principle residing in the Sun. The Moon is its Mother, because of that mysterious power in the Moon which has as decided an influence upon human gestation and generation, which it regulates, as it has on the growth of plants and animals. The "Wind" or Ether, standing in this case for the agent of transmission by which those influences are carried down from the two luminaries and diffused upon Earth, is referred to as the "nurse"; while "Spiritual Fire" alone makes of man a divine and perfect entity.
Now what is that "Spiritual Fire"? In alchemy it is
HYDROGEN, in general;
while in esoteric actuality it is the emanation or the Ray which proceeds from
its noumenon, the "Dhyan of the first Element." Hydrogen is gas
only on our terrestrial plane. But even in chemistry hydrogen "would be the
only existing form of matter, in our sense of the term," * and is very nearly
allied to protyle, which is our layam. It is the father and
generator, so to say, or rather the Upadhi (basis), of both
AIR and
WATER, and is "fire, air and water," in fact: one under three aspects;
hence the chemical and alchemical trinity. In the world of manifestation or
matter it is the objective symbol and the material emanation from the subjective
and purely spiritual entitative Being in the region of noumena. Well
might Godfrey Higgins have compared Hydrogen to, and even identified it with,
the TO ON, the "One" of the Greeks. For, as he remarks, Hydrogen is not
Water, though it generates it; Hydrogen is not fire, though it manifests or
creates it; nor is it Air, though air may be regarded as a product of the union
of Water and
* See "Genesis of the Elements," by Prof. W.
Crookes, p. 21.
Fire since Hydrogen is found in the aqueous element of the atmosphere. It is three in one.
If one studies comparative Theogony, it is easy to find that the secret of these "Fires" was taught in the Mysteries of every ancient people, pre-eminently in Samothrace. There is not the smallest doubt that the Kabeiri, the most arcane of all the ancient deities, gods and men, great deities and Titans, are identical with the Kumβras and Rudras headed by Kartikeya a Kumβra also. This is quite evident even exoterically; and these Hindu deities were, like the Kabeiri, the personified sacred Fires of the most occult powers of Nature. The several branches of the Aryan Race, the Asiatic and the European, the Hindu and the Greek, did their best to conceal their true nature, if not their importance. As in the case of the Kumβras, the number of the Kabeiri is uncertain. Some say that there were three or four only; others say seven. Aschieros, Achiosersa, Achiochersus, and Camillus may very well stand for the alter egos of the four Kumβras Sanat-Kumβra, Sananda, Sanaka, and Sanβtana. The former deities, whose reputed father was Vulcan, were often confounded with the Dioscuri, Corybantes, Anaces, etc.; just as the Kumβra, whose reputed father is Brahmβ, (or rather, the "Flame of his Wrath," which prompted him to perform the ninth or Kumβra creation, resulting in Rudra or Nilalohita (Siva) and the Kumβras), were confounded with the Asuras, the Rudras, and the Pitris, for the simple reason that they are all one i.e., correlative Forces and Fires. There is no space to describe these "fires" and their real meaning here, though we may attempt to do so if the third and fourth volumes of this work are ever published. Meanwhile a few more explanations may be added.
The foregoing are all mysteries which must be left to the personal intuition of the student for solution, rather than described. If he would learn something of the secret of the FIRES, let him turn to certain works of the Alchemists, who very correctly connect fire with every element, as do the Occultists. The reader must remember that the ancients considered religion, and the natural sciences along with philosophy, to be closely and inseparably linked together. Ζsculapius was the Son of Apollo the Sun or FIRE of Life; at once Helios, Pythios, and the god of oracular Wisdom. In exoteric religions, as much as in esoteric philosophy, the Elements especially fire, water, and air are made the progenitors of our five physical senses, and hence are directly connected (in an occult way) with them. These physical senses pertain even to a lower creation than the one called in the Purβnas Pratisarga, or secondary Creation. "Liquid fire proceeds from indiscrete fire," says an Occult axiom.
"The Circle is the THOUGHT; the diameter (or the line) is the
WORD;
and their union is LIFE." In the Kabala, Bath-Kol is the daughter of the Divine Voice, or primordial light, Shekinah. In the Purβnas and Hindu exotericism, Vβch (the Voice) is the female Logos of Brahmβ a permutation of Aditi, primordial light. And if Bath-Kol, in Jewish mysticism, is an articulate prζter-natural voice from heaven, revealing to the "chosen people" the sacred traditions and laws, it is only because Vβch was called, before Judaism, the "Mother of the Vedas," who entered into the Rishis and inspired them by her revelations; just as Bath-Kol is said to have inspired the prophets of Israel and the Jewish High-Priests. And both exist to this day, in their respective sacred symbologies, because the ancients associated sound or Speech with the Ether of Space, of which Sound is the characteristic. Hence Fire, Water and Air are the primordial Cosmic Trinity. "I am thy Thought, thy God, more ancient than the moist principle, the light that radiates within Darkness (Chaos), and the shining Word of God (Sound) is the Son of the Deity." ("Pymander," § 6.) *
Thus we have to study well the "Primary creation," before we can understand the Secondary. The first Race had three rudimentary elements in it; and no fire as yet; because, with the Ancients, the evolution of man, and the growth and development of his spiritual and physical senses, were subordinate to the evolution of the elements on the Cosmic plane of this Earth. All proceeds from Prabhavβpyaya, the evolution of the creative and sentient principles in the gods, and even of the so-called creative deity himself. This is found in the names and appellations given to Vishnu in exoteric scriptures. As the Protologos (the Orphic), he is called Pϋrvaja, "pregenetic," and then the other names connect him in their descending order more and more with matter.
The following order on parallel lines may be found in the evolution of the Elements and the Senses; or in Cosmic terrestrial "MAN" or "Spirit," and mortal physical man:
1. Ether ... Hearing ... Sound.
2. Air ... Touch ... Sound and Touch.
3. Fire, or Light Sight ... Sound, Touch and Colour.
4. Water ... Taste ... Sound, Touch, Colour and Taste.
5. Earth ... Smell ... Sound, Touch, Colour, Taste and Smell.
As seen, each Element adds to its own characteristics, those of its
* The opponents of Hinduism may call the above Pantheism, Polytheism, or
anything they may please. If Science is not entirely blinded by prejudice, it
will see in this account a profound knowledge of natural Sciences and
Physics, as well as of Metaphysics and Psychology. But to find this out,
one has to study the personifications, and then convert them into chemical
atoms. It will then be found to satisfy both physical and even purely
materialistic Science, as well as those who see in evolution the work
of the "Great Unknown Cause" in its phenomenal and illusive aspects.
predecessor; as each Root-Race adds the characterizing sense of the preceding Race. The same is true in the septenary creation of man, who evolves gradually in seven stages, and on the same principles, as will be shown further on.
Thus, while Gods or Dhyan Chohans (Devas) proceed from the First Cause which is not Parabrahm, for the latter is the ALL CAUSE, and cannot be referred to as the "First Cause," which First Cause is called in the Brahmanical Books Jagad-Yoni, "the womb of the world," mankind emanates from these active agents in Kosmos. But men, during the first and the second races, were not physical beings, but merely rudiments of the future men: Bhϋtas, which proceeded from Bhϋtadi, "origin," or the "original place whence sprung the Elements." Hence they proceeded with all the rest from Prabhavβpyaya, "the place whence is the origination, and into which is the resolution of all things," as explained by the Commentator. Whence also our physical senses. Whence even the highest "created" deity itself, in our philosophy. As one with the Universe, whether we call him Brahmβ, Iswara, or Purusha, he is a manifested deity, hence created, or limited and conditioned. This is easily proven, even from the exoteric teachings.
After being called the incognizable, eternal Brahma (neuter or abstract), the Punda-Rikaksha, "supreme and imperishable glory," once that instead of Sadaika-Rupa, "changeless" or "immutable" Nature, he is addressed as Ekanaka-Rupa, "both single and manifold," he, the cause, becomes merged with his own effects; and his names, if placed in esoteric order, show the following descending scale:
1. Mahapurusha or Paramatman ... Supreme Spirit.
2. Atman or Pϋrvaja (Protologos) ... The living Spirit of Nature.
3. Indriyβtman, or Hrishikesa ..........Spiritual or intellectual soul (One
with the senses).
5. Bhutβtman ................................ . The living, or Life Soul.
6. Kshetrajna .................................. Embodied soul, or the Universe of Spirit and Matter.
7. Bhrβntidarsanatah .........................False perception Material Universe.
The last name means something perceived or conceived of, owing to false and erroneous apprehension, as a material form; but, in fact, only Maya, illusion, as all is in our physical universe.
It is in strict analogy with ITS attributes in both the spiritual and
material worlds, that the evolution of the Dhyan Chohanic Essences takes place;
the characteristics of the latter being reflected, in their turn, in Man,
collectively, and in each of his principles; every one of which
contains in itself, in the same progressive order, a portion of their various
"fires" and elements.
§§ (18) The Sons of Yoga. (19) The Sexless Second Race. (20) The Sons of the Sons of Twilight. (21) The "Shadow," or the Astral Man, retires within, and man develops a physical body.
18. THE FIRST (Race) WERE THE SONS OF YOGA. THEIR SONS, THE CHILDREN OF THE YELLOW FATHER AND THE WHITE MOTHER.
In the later Commentary, the sentence is translated:
"The Sons of the Sun and of the Moon, the nursling of ether (or the wind ) (a) . . . . . . .
"They were the shadows of the shadows of the Lords (b). They (the shadows) expanded. The Spirits of the Earth clothed them; the solar Lhas warmed them (i.e. preserved the vital fire in the nascent physical forms). The Breaths had life, but had no understanding. They had no fire nor water of their own (c).
(a) Remember in this connection the Tabula Smaragdina of Hermes, the esoteric meaning of which has seven keys to it. The Astro-Chemical is well known to students, the anthropological may be given now. The "One thing" mentioned in it is MAN. It is said: "The Father of THAT ONE ONLY THING is the Sun; its Mother the Moon; the Wind carries it in his bosom, and its nurse is the Spirituous Earth." In the occult rendering of the same it is added: "and Spiritual Fire is its instructor (Guru)."
This fire is the higher Self, the Spiritual Ego, or that which is eternally reincarnating under the influence of its lower personal Selves, changing with every re-birth, full of Tanha or desire to live. It is a strange law of Nature that, on this plane, the higher (Spiritual) Nature should be, so to say, in bondage to the lower. Unless the Ego takes refuge in the Atman, the ALL-SPIRIT, and merges entirely into the essence thereof, the personal Ego may goad it to the bitter end. This cannot be thoroughly understood unless the student makes himself familiar with the mystery of evolution, which proceeds on triple lines spiritual, psychic and physical.
That which propels towards, and forces evolution, i.e., compels the
growth and development of Man towards perfection, is (a) the MONAD,
or that which acts in it unconsciously through a force inherent in itself;
and (b) the lower astral body or the personal SELF. The former, whether
imprisoned in a vegetable or an animal body, is endowed with, is indeed itself,
that force. Owing to its identity with the ALL-FORCE, which, as said, is
inherent in the Monad, it is all-potent on the Arupa, or formless
plane. On our plane, its essence being too pure, it remains all-potential, but
individually becomes inactive: e.g., the rays of the Sun, which
contribute to the growth of vegetation, do not select this or that plant to
shine upon. Uproot the plant and transfer it to a piece of soil where the
sunbeam cannot reach it, and the latter will not follow it. So with the Atman:
unless the higher Self or EGO gravitates towards its Sun the Monad the lower
Ego, or personal Self, will have the upper hand in every case.
For it is this Ego, with its fierce Selfishness and animal desire to live a
Senseless life (Tanha), which is "the maker of the
tabernacle," as Buddha calls it in Dhammapada (153 and 154). Hence the
expression, "the Spirits of the Earth clothed the shadows and expanded them." To
these "Spirits" belong temporarily the human astral selves; and it is they who
give, or build, the physical tabernacle of man, for the Monad and its conscious
principle, Manas, to dwell in. But the "Solar" Lhas, Spirits, warm
them, the shadows. This is physically and literally true; metaphysically, or on
the psychic and spiritual plane, it is equally true that the Atman alone
warms the inner man; i.e., it enlightens it with the ray of divine
life and alone is able to impart to the inner man, or the reincarnating Ego, its
immortality. Thus, as we shall find, for the first three and a half Root-Races,
up to the middle or turning point, it is the astral shadows of the
"progenitors," the lunar Pitris, which are the formative powers in the Races,
and which build and gradually force the evolution of the physical form towards
perfection this, at the cost of a proportionate loss of spirituality. Then,
from the turning point, it is the Higher Ego, or incarnating principle, the
nous or Mind, which reigns over the animal Ego, and rules it
whenever it is not carried down by the latter. In short, Spirituality is on its
ascending arc, and the animal or physical impedes it from steadily progressing
on the path of its evolution only when the selfishness of the personality
has so strongly infected the real inner man with its lethal
virus, that the upward attraction has lost all its power on the thinking
reasonable man. In sober truth, vice and wickedness are an abnormal,
unnatural manifestation, at this period of our human evolution at least
they ought to be so. The fact that mankind was never more selfish and vicious
than it is now, civilized nations having succeeded in making of the first an
ethical characteristic, of the second an art, is an additional proof of the
exceptional nature of the phenomenon.
The entire scheme is in the "Chaldean Book of Numbers," and even in the Zohar, if one only understood the meaning of the apocalyptic hints. First comes En-Soph, the "Concealed of the Concealed," then the Point, Sephira and the later Sephiroth; then the Atzilatic World, a World of Emanations that gives birth to three other worlds called the Throne, the abode of pure Spirits; the second, the World of Formation, or Jetzira, the habitat of the Angels who sent forth the Third, or World of Action, the Asiatic World, which is the Earth or our World; and yet it is said of it that this world, also called Kliphoth, containing the (six other) Spheres, mylblb, and matter, is the residence of the "Prince of Darkness." This is as clearly stated as can be; for Metatron, the Angel of the second or Briatic World, means Messenger agg, Angel, called the great Teacher; and under him are the Angels of the third World, Jetzira, whose ten and seven classes are the Sephiroth,* of whom it is said that "they inhabit and vivify this world as Essential Entities and Intelligences, whose correlatives and contraries inhabit the third or Asiatic World." These "Contraries" are called "the Shells," hdpyl b, or demons, who inhabit the seven habitations called Sheba Hachaloth, which are simply the seven zones of our globe. Their prince is called in the Kabala Samael, the Angel of Death, who is also the seducing serpent Satan; but that Satan is also Lucifer, the bright angel of Light, the Light and Life-bringer, the "Soul" alienated from the Holy Ones, the other angels, and for a period, anticipating the time when they would have descended on Earth to incarnate in their turn.
"The Souls (Monads) are pre-existent in the world of Emanations," (Book of Wisdom viii., 20); and the Zohar teaches that in the "Soul" "is the real man, i.e., the Ego and the conscious I AM: 'Manas.' "
"They descend from the pure air to be chained to bodies,"
says Josephus repeating the belief of the Essenes (De Bello Judζo, 11,
12). "The air is full of Souls," states Philo, "they descend to be
tied to mortal bodies, being desirous to live in them." (De
Gignat, 222 c.; De Somniis, p. 455) ; because through, and in,
the human form they will become progressive beings, whereas the nature
of the angel is purely intransitive, therefore man has in him the
potency of transcending the faculties of the Angels. Hence the Initiates in
India say that it is the Brahmin, the twice-born, who rules the gods or devas;
and Paul repeated it in
* See Vol. 1. Part III., "Gods, Monads and Atoms." It is
symbolised in the Pythagorean Triangle, the 10 dots within, and the seven points
of the Triangle and the Cube.
Whence the Kabalistic name of Shells given to the astral form, the body called Kama Rupa, left behind by the higher angels in the shape of the higher Manas, when the latter leaves for Devachan, forsaking its residue.
Which shows that the Essenes believed in re-birth and many reincarnations on Earth, as Jesus himself did, a fact we can prove from the New Testament itself.
112
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
I Corinthians vi., 3: "Know ye not that we (the Initiates) shall judge angels"?
Finally, it is shown in every ancient scripture and Cosmogony that man evolved primarily as a luminous incorporeal form, over which, like the molten brass round the clay model of the sculptor, the physical frame of his body was built by, through, and from, the lower forms and types of animal terrestrial life. "The Soul and the Form when descending on Earth put on an earthly garment," says the Zohar. His protoplastic body was not formed of that matter of which our mortal frames are fashioned. "When Adam dwelt in the garden of Eden, he was clothed in the celestial garment, which is the garment of heavenly light. . . . light of that light which was used in the garden of Eden," (Zohar II 229 B). "Man (the heavenly Adam) was created by the ten Sephiroth of the Jetziric world, and by the common power they (the seven angels of a still lower world) engendered the earthly Adam . . . . First Samael fell, and then deceiving (?) man, caused his fall also."
(b) The sentence: "They were the shadows of the shadows of the Lords," i.e., the progenitors created man out of their own astral bodies, explains an universal belief. The Devas are credited in the East with having no shadows of their own. "The devas cast no shadows," and this is the sure sign of a good holy Spirit.
Why had they "no fire or water of their own"? * Because:
(c) That which Hydrogen is to the elements and gases on the objective plane, its noumenon is in the world of mental or subjective phenomena; since its trinitari