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 trinitarian latent nature is mirrored in its three
* It is corroborated, however, as we have shown, by the esotericism of
Genesis. Not only are the animals created therein after the "Adam of Dust,"
but vegetation is shown in the Earth before "the heavens and the Earth
were created." "Every plant of the field before it (the day that the heavens and
the Earth were made, v. 4) was in the Earth" (v. 5). Now, unless the Occult
interpretation is accepted, which shows that in this 4th Round the Globe was
covered with vegetation, and the first (astral) humanity was
produced before almost anything could grow and develop thereon, what can the
dead letter mean? Simply that the grass was in the earth of the Globe before
that Globe was created? And yet the meaning of verse 6, which says that "there
went up a mist from the Earth" and watered the whole face of the Earth before it
rained, and caused the trees, etc., to grow, is plain enough. It shows also in
what geological period it occurred, and further what is meant by "Heaven and
Earth." It meant the firmament and dry incrustated land, separated and
ridden of its vapours and exhalations. Moreover, the student must bear in mind
that, as Adam Kadmon, "the male and female being" of Genesis, ch. I.,
is no physical human being but the host of the Elohim, among which was Jehovah
himself so the animals mentioned in that chapter as "created" before man in
the dead letter text, were no animals, but the Zodiacal signs and other sidereal
bodies.
active emanations from the three higher principles in man, namely, "Spirit, Soul, and Mind," or Atma, Buddhi, and Manas. It is the spiritual and also the material human basis. Rudimentary man, having been nursed by the "air" or the "wind," becomes the perfect man later on; when, with the development of "Spiritual fire," the noumenon of the "Three in One" within his Self, he acquires from his inner Self, or Instructor, the Wisdom of Self-Consciousness, which he does not possess in the beginning. Thus here again divine Spirit is symbolised by the Sun or Fire; divine Soul by Water and the Moon, both standing for the Father and Mother of Pneuma, human Soul, or Mind, symbolised by the Wind or air, for Pneuma, means "breath."
Hence in the Smaragdine Tablet, disfigured by Christian hands:
"The Superior agrees with the Inferior; and the Inferior with the Superior; to effect that one truly wonderful Work" which is MAN. For the secret work of Chiram, or King Hiram in the Kabala, "one in Essence, but three in Aspect," is the Universal Agent or Lapis Philosophorum. The culmination of the Secret Work is Spiritual Perfect Man, at one end of the line; the union of the three elements is the Occult Solvent in the "Soul of the World," the Cosmic Soul or Astral Light, at the other; and, on the material plane, it is Hydrogen in its relation to the other gases. The TO ON, truly; the ONE "whom no person has seen except the Son"; this sentence applying both to the metaphysical and physical Kosmos, and to the spiritual and material Man. For how could the latter understand the TO ON the "One Father," if his Manas, the "Son," does not become (as) "One with the Father," and through this absorption receive enlightenment from the "divine instructor," Guru Atma-Buddhi?
"If thou would'st understand the SECONDARY ("Creation," so-called), oh Lanoo, thou should'st first study its relation to the PRIMARY." (Commentary, Book of Dzyan, III. 19.)
The first Race had three elements, but no living Fire. Why? Because:
"We say four elements, my Son, but ought to say three," says Hermes
Trismegistus. "In the Primary Circle" (creation) that which is marked
reads "Root," as in the Secondary
likewise.
Thus in Alchemy or Western Hermetism (a variant on Eastern Esotericism) we find:
X
Sulphur Flamma Spiritus
Hydrargyum Natura Aqua
Sal Mater Sanguis
And these three are all quaternaries completed by their Root, Fire. The
Spirit, beyond manifested Nature, is the fiery BREATH in its absolute Unity. In
the manifested Universe, it is the Central Spiritual Sun, the electric Fire of
all Life. In our System it is the visible Sun, the Spirit of Nature, the
terrestrial god. And in, on, and around the Earth, the fiery Spirit thereof
air, fluidic fire; water, liquid fire; Earth, solid fire. All
is fire ignis, in its ultimate constitution, or I, the root of which
is O (nought) in our conceptions, the All in nature
and its mind. Pro-Mater is divine fire. It is the Creator, the
Destroyer, the Preserver. The primitive names of the gods are all connected with
fire, from AGNI, the Aryan, to the Jewish god who "is a consuming fire." In
India, God is called in various dialects, Eashoor, Esur, Iswur, and
Is'Vara, in Sanskrit the Lord, from Isa, but this is
primarily the name of Siva, the Destroyer; and the three Vedic chief gods are
Agni (ignis), Vayu, and Surya Fire, Air, and the Sun, three
occult degrees of fire. In the Hebrew 
(aza),
means to illuminate, and 
(asha)
is fire. In Occultism, "to kindle a fire" is synonymous to evoking one of the
three great fire-powers, or "to call on God." In Sanskrit Osch or
Asch is fire or heat; and the Egyptian word Osiris is compounded (as shown
by Schelling) of the two primitives aish and asr, or a "fire-enchanter."
Aesar in the old Etruscan meant a God (being perhaps derived from
Asura of the Vedas). Aeswar and Eswara are analogous
terms, as Dr. Kenealy thought. In the Bhagavad Gξtβ we read, "Iswara
resides in every mortal being and puts in motion, by his supernatural power, all
things which mount on the Wheel of Time." It is the creator and the destroyer,
truly. "The primitive fire was supposed to have an insatiable appetite for
devouring. Maximus of Tyre relates that the ancient Persians threw into the fire
combustible matter crying: 'Devour, oh Lord!' In the Irish language Easam,
or Asam, means 'to create,' and Aesar was the name of an
ancient Irish god, meaning 'to light a fire' " (Kenealy).
The Christian Kabalists and symbologists who disfigured Pymander
prominent among them the Bishop of Ayre, Francois de Tours, in the 16th century
divide the elements in this way:
The four elements formed from divine substances and the Spirits of the Salts of Nature represented by
St. Matthew Angel-Man Water . . (Jesus-Christ, Angel-Man, Mikael )
A - 
St. Mark The Lion Fire
E - Y St. Luke The Bull Earth
I - O St. John The Eagle Air
*
* To those who would inquire "What has Hydrogen to do with air or oxygenation?" it is answered: "Study first
the ABC of Occult Alchemy." In their anxiety, however, to identify
Pymander, "the mouth of Mystery," with St. John the Baptist prophetically, they
thus identified also the 7 Kabeiri and the Assyrian Bulls with the
Cherubs of the Jews and the Apostles. Having, moreover, to draw a line of
demarcation between the four and the three the latter being
the Fallen Angels; and furthermore to avoid connecting these
with the "Seven Spirits of the Face," the Archangels, they unceremoniously threw
out all they did not choose to recognise. Hence the perversion in the order of
the Elements, in order to make them dovetail with the order of the Gospels, and
to identify the Angel-Man with Christ. With the Chaldees, the Egyptians, from
whom Moses adopted the Chroub (Cherubs in their animal form), and the
Ophites; with all these, the Angels, the Planets, and the Elements, were
symbolized mystically and alchemically by the Lion (Mikael); the
Bull (Uriel); the Dragon (Raphael); the Eagle (Gabriel);
the Bear (Thot-Sabaoth); the Dog (Erataoth); the Mule
(Uriel or Thartharaoth). All these have a qualificative meaning.
H, THE QUINTESSENCE,Τ HFLOX FLAMMA-VIRGO (virgin oil), FLAMMA DURISSIMA, VIRGO, LUCIS ΖTERNA MATER.
The first race of men were, then, simply the images, the astral doubles, of their Fathers, who were the pioneers, or the most progressed Entities from a preceding though lower sphere, the shell of which is now our Moon. But even this shell is all-potential, for, having generated the Earth, it is the phantom of the Moon which, attracted by magnetic affinity, sought to form its first inhabitants, the pre-human monsters, (vide supra, Stanza II.). To assure himself of this, the student has again to turn to the Chaldean Fragments, and read what Berosus says. Berosus obtained his information, he tells us, from Ea, the male-female deity of Wisdom. While the gods were generated in its androgynous bosom (Svβbhβvat, Mother-space) its (the Wisdom's) reflections became on Earth the woman Omoroka, who is the Chaldean Thavatth, or the Greek Thalassa, the Deep or the Sea, which esoterically and even exoterically is the Moon. It was the Moon (Omoroka) who presided over the monstrous creation of nondescript beings which were slain by the Dyanis. (Vide Hibbert Lectures, p. 370 et seq.; also in Part II. "Adam-Adami.")
Evolutionary law compelled the lunar "Fathers" to pass, in their monadic condition, through all the forms of life and being on this globe; but at the end of the Third Round, they were already human in their divine nature, and were thus called upon to become the creators of the forms destined to fashion the tabernacles of the less progressed Monads, whose turn it was to incarnate. These "Forms" are called "Sons of Yoga," because Yoga (union with Brahmβ exoterically) is the supreme condition of the passive infinite deity, since it contains all the divine energies and is the essence of Brahmβ, who is said (as Brahmβ) to create everything through Yoga power. Brahmβ, Vishnu and Siva are the most powerful energies of God, Brahma, the Neuter, says a
Purβnic text. Yoga here is the same as Dhyβna, which word is again synonymous with Yoga in the Tibetan text, where the "Sons of Yoga" are called "Sons of Dhyβna," or of that abstract meditation through which the Dhyani-Buddhas create their celestial sons, the Dhyani-Bodhisattvas. All the creatures in the world have each a superior above. "This superior, whose inner pleasure it is to emanate into them, cannot impart efflux until they have adored" i.e., meditated as during Yoga. (Sepher M'bo Ska-arim, translated by Isaac Myer, Qabbalah, pp. 109-111.)
19. THE SECOND RACE (was) THE PRODUCT BY BUDDING AND EXPANSION; THE A-SEXUAL (form) FROM THE SEXLESS (shadow). THUS WAS, O LANOO, THE SECOND RACE PRODUCED (a).
(a) What will be most contested by scientific authorities is this
a-sexual Race, the Second, the fathers of the "Sweat-born" so-called, and
perhaps still more the Third Race, the "Egg-born" androgynes. These two modes of
procreation are the most difficult to comprehend, especially for the Western
mind. It is evident that no explanation can be attempted for those who are not
students of Occult metaphysics. European language has no words to express things
which Nature repeats no more at this stage of evolution, things which therefore
can have no meaning for the materialist. But there are analogies. It is not
denied that in the beginning of physical evolution there must have been
processes in Nature, spontaneous generation, for instance, now extinct, which
are repeated in other forms. Thus we are told that microscopic research shows no
permanence of any particular mode of reproducing life. For "it shows that the
same organism may run through various metamorphoses in the course of its
life-cycle, during some of which it may be sexual, and in others
a-sexual; i.e., it may reproduce itself alternately by the
co-operation of two beings of opposite sex, and also by fissure or budding
from one being only, which is of no sex." * "Budding" is the very word used
in the Stanza. How could these Chhayas reproduce themselves otherwise; viz.,
procreate the Second Race, since they were ethereal, a-sexual, and even devoid,
as yet, of the vehicle of desire, or Kama Rupa, which evolved only in the Third
Race? They evolved the Second Race unconsciously, as do some plants. Or,
perhaps, as the Amba, only on a more ethereal, impressive, and larger
scale. If, indeed, the cell-theory applies equally to Botany and Zoology, and
extends to Morphology, as well as to the Physiology of organisms,
* See Laing's "Modern Science and Modern Thought," p. 90.
and if the microscopic cells are looked upon by physical science as independent living beings just as Occultism regards the "fiery lives" * there is no difficulty in the conception of the primitive process of procreation.
Consider the first stages of the development of a germ-cell. Its nucleus
grows, changes, and forms a double cone or spindle, thus,
within the cell. This spindle
approaches the surface of the cell, and one half of it is extruded in
the form of what are called the "polar cells." These polar cells
now die, and the embryo develops from the growth and segmentation of the
remaining part of the nucleus which is nourished by the substance of
the cell. Then why could not beings have lived thus, and been created in
this way at the very beginning of human and mammalian evolution?
This may, perhaps, serve as an analogy to give some idea of the process by which the Second Race was formed from the First.
The astral form clothing the Monad was surrounded, as it still is, by its egg-shaped sphere of aura, which here corresponds to the substance of the germ-cell or ovum. The astral form itself is the nucleus, now, as then, instinct with the principle of life.
When the season of reproduction arrives, the sub-astral "extrudes" a miniature of itself from the egg of surrounding aura. This germ grows and feeds on the aura till it becomes fully developed, when it gradually separates from its parent, carrying with it its own sphere of aura; just as we see living cells reproducing their like by growth and subsequent division into two.
The analogy with the "polar cells" would seem to hold good, since their death would now correspond to the change introduced by the separation of the sexes, when gestation in utero, i.e., within the cell, became the rule.
"The early Second (Root) Race were the Fathers of the 'Sweat-born'; the later Second (Root) Race were 'Sweat-born' themselves."
This passage from the Commentary refers to the work of evolution from the
beginning of a Race to its close. The "Sons of Yoga," or the primitive astral
race, had seven stages of evolution racially, or collectively; as every
individual Being in it had, and has now. It is not Shakespeare only who divided
the ages of man into a series of seven, but Nature herself. Thus the first
sub-races of the Second Race were born at first by the process described on the
law of analogy; while the last began gradually, pari passu with the
evolution of the human body, to be formed otherwise. The process of reproduction
had seven stages also
* See Book I. Part I. Stanza VII Commentary 10.
in each Race, each covering ζons of time. What physiologist or biologist could tell whether the present mode of generation, with all its phases of gestation, is older than half a million, or at most one million of years, since their cycle of observation began hardly half a century ago.
Primeval human hermaphrodites are a fact in Nature well known to the ancients, and form one of Darwin's greatest perplexities. Yet there is certainly no impossibility, but, on the contrary, a great probability that hermaphroditism existed in the evolution of the early races; while on the grounds of analogy, and on that of the existence of one universal law in physical evolution, acting indifferently in the construction of plant, animal, and man, it must be so. The mistaken theories of mono-genesis, and the descent of man from the mammals instead of the reverse, are fatal to the completeness of evolution as taught in modern schools on Darwinian lines, and they will have to be abandoned in view of the insuperable difficulties which they encounter. Occult tradition if the terms Science and Knowledge are denied in this particular to antiquity can alone reconcile the inconsistencies and fill the gap. "If thou wilt know the invisible, open thine eye wide on the visible," says a Talmudic axiom.
In the "Descent of Man" * occurs the following passage; which shows how near Darwin came to the acceptance of this ancient teaching.
"It has been known that in the vertebrate kingdom one sex bears rudiments of various accessory parts appertaining to the reproductive system, which properly belong to the opposite sex. . . . Some remote progenitor of the whole vertebrate kingdom appears to have been hermaphrodite or androgynous . . . But here we encounter a singular difficulty. In the mammalian class the males possess rudiments of a uterus with the adjacent passages in the Vesiculζ prostaticζ; they bear also rudiments of mammζ, and some male marsupials have traces of a marsupial sac. Other analogous facts could be added. Are we then to suppose that some extremely ancient mammal continued androgynous after it had acquired the chief distinctions of its class, and therefore after it had diverged from the lower classes of the vertebrate kingdom? This seems very improbable, for we have to look to fishes, the lowest of all the classes, to find any still existent androgynous forms."
Mr. Darwin is evidently strongly disinclined to adopt the hypothesis which
the facts so forcibly suggest, viz., that of a primeval androgynous
* Second Edition, p. 161.
And why not all the progenitive first Races, human as well as animal; and why one "remote progenitor"?
Obviously so, on the lines of Evolutionism, which traces the mammalia to
some amphibian ancestor.
stem from which the mammalia sprang. His explanation runs: "The fact that various accessory organs proper to each sex, are found in a rudimentary condition in the opposite sex may be explained by such organs having been gradually acquired by the one sex and then transmitted in a more or less imperfect condition to the other." He instances the case of "spurs, plumes, and brilliant colours, acquired for battle or for ornament by male birds" and only partially inherited by their female descendants. In the problem to be dealt with, however, the need of a more satisfactory explanation is evident, the facts being of so much more prominent and important a character than the mere superficial details with which they are compared by Darwin. Why not candidly admit the argument in favour of the hermaphroditism which characterises the old fauna? Occultism proposes a solution which embraces the facts in a most comprehensive and simple manner. These relics of a prior androgyne stock must be placed in the same category as the pineal gland, and other organs as mysterious, which afford us silent testimony as to the reality of functions which have long since become atrophied in the course of animal and human progress, but which once played a signal part in the general economy of primeval life.
The occult doctrine, anyhow, can be advantageously compared with that of the most liberal men of science, who have theorised upon the origin of the first man.
Long before Darwin, Naudin, who gave the name of Blastema to that which the Darwinists call protoplasm, put forward a theory half occult and half scientifico-materialistic. He made Adam, the a-sexual, spring suddenly from the clay, as it is called in the Bible, the Blastema of Science. "It is from this larval form of mankind that the evolutive force effected the completion of species. For the accomplishment of this great phenomenon, Adam had to pass through a phase of immobility and unconsciousness, very analogous to the nymphal state of animals undergoing metamorphosis," explains Naudin. For the eminent botanist, Adam was not one man, however, but mankind, "which remained concealed within a temporary organism . . . . distinct from all others and never contracting alliance with any of these." He shows the differentiation of sexes accomplished by "a process of germination similar to that of Medusζ and Ascidians." Mankind, thus constituted physiologically, "would retain a sufficient evolutive force for the rapid production of the various great human races."
De Quatrefages criticises this position in the "Human Species." It
is unscientific, he says, or, properly speaking, Naudin's ideas "do not
form a scientific theory," inasmuch as primordial Blastema is connected
in his theory with the First Cause, which is credited with having made potentially in the Blastema all past, present, and future beings, and thus of having in reality created these beings en masse; moreover, Naudin does not even consider the secondary Causes, or their action in this evolution of the organic world. Science, which is only occupied with Secondary Causes, has thus "nothing to say to the theory of Naudin" (p. 125).
Nor will it have any more to say to the occult teachings, which are to some extent approached by Naudin. For if we but see in his "primordial Blastema" the Dhyan-Chohanic essence, the Chhaya or double of the Pitris, which contains within itself the potentiality of all forms, we are quite in accord. But there are two real and vital differences between our teachings. M. Naudin declares that evolution has progressed by sudden leaps and bounds, instead of extending slowly over millions of years; and his primordial Blastema is endowed only with blind instincts a kind of unconscious First Cause in the manifested Kosmos which is an absurdity. Whereas it is our Dhyan Chohanic essence the causality of the primal cause which creates physical man which is the living, active and potential matter, pregnant per se with that animal consciousness of a superior kind, such as is found in the ant and the beaver, which produces the long series of physiological differentiations. Apart from this his "ancient and general process of creation" from proto-organisms is as occult as any theory of Paracelsus or Khunrath could be.
Moreover, the Kabalistic works are full of the proof of this. The Zohar, for instance, says that every type in the visible has its prototype in the invisible Universe. "All that which is in the lower (our) world is found in the upper. The Lower and the Upper act and react upon each other." (Zohar, fol. 186.) Vide infra, Part II., "Esoteric Tenets corroborated in every Scripture."
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 (a).
(a) The "shadows," or Chhayas, are called the sons of the
"self-born," as the latter name is applied to all the gods and Beings born
through the WILL, whether of Deity or Adept. The Homunculi of
Paracelsus would, perhaps, be also given this name, though the latter process is
on a far more material plane. The name "Sons of Twilight" shows that the
"Self-born" progenitors of our doctrine are identical with the Pitris
of the Brahmanical system, as the title is a reference to their mode of birth, these Pitris being stated to have issued from Brahmβs "body of twilight." (See the Purβnas.)
21. WHEN THE RACE BECAME OLD, THE OLD WATERS MIXED WITH THE FRESHER WATERS (a); WHEN THE 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. (b). THE OLD WING BECAME THE SHADOW, AND THE SHADOW OF THE WING (c).
(a) The old (primitive) Race merged in the second race, and became one with it.
(b) This is the mysterious process of transformation and evolution of mankind. The material of the first forms shadowy, ethereal, and negative was drawn or absorbed into, and thus became the complement of the forms of the Second Race. The Commentary explains this by saying that, as the First Race was simply composed of the astral shadows of the creative progenitors, having of course neither astral nor physical bodies of their own this Race never died. Its "men" melted gradually away, becoming absorbed in the bodies of their own "sweat-born" progeny, more solid than their own. The old form vanished and was absorbed by, disappeared in, the new form, more human and physical. There was no death in those days of a period more blissful than the Golden Age; but the first, or parent material was used for the formation of the new being, to form the body and even the inner or lower principles or bodies of the progeny.
(c) When the shadow retires, i.e. when the astral body becomes covered with more solid flesh, man develops a physical body. The "wing," or the ethereal form that produced its shadow and image, became the shadow of the astral body and its own progeny. The expression is queer but original.
As there may be no occasion to refer to this mystery later, it is as well to
point out at once the dual meaning contained in the Greek myth bearing upon this
particular phase of evolution. It is found in the several variants of the
allegory of Leda and her two sons Castor and Pollux, which variants have each a
special meaning. Thus in Book XI. of the Odyssey, Leda is spoken
of as the spouse of Tyndarus, who gave birth by her husband "to two sons of
valiant heart" Castor
and Pollux. Jupiter endows them with a marvellous gift and privilege. They are semi-immortal; they live and die, each in turn, and every alternate day; ejterhmeroi *. As the Tyndaridζ, the twin brothers are an astronomical symbol, and stand for Day and Night; their two wives, Phbe and Hilasira, the daughters of Apollo or the Sun, personifying the Dawn and the Twilight. Again, in the allegory where Zeus is shown as the father of the two heroes born from the egg to which Leda gives birth the myth is entirely theogonical. It relates to that group of cosmic allegories in which the world is described as born from an egg. For Leda assumes in it the shape of a white swan when uniting herself to the Divine Swan. Leda is the mythical bird, then, to which, in the traditions of various peoples of the Aryan race, are attributed various ornithological forms of birds which all lay golden eggs. § In the Kalevala (the Epic Poem of Finland), the beauteous daughter of the Ether, "the Water Mother," creates the world in conjunction with a "Duck" (another form of the Swan or Goose, Kalahansa), who lays six golden eggs, and the seventh, "an egg of iron," in her lap. But the variant of the Leda allegory which has a direct reference to mystic man is found in Pindar ∫∫ only, with a slighter reference to it in the Homeric hymns. Ά Castor and Pollux are in it no longer the Dioscuri (of Apollodorus III. 10, 7); but become the highly significant symbol of the dual man, the Mortal and the Immortal. Not only this, but as will now be seen, they are also the symbol of the Third Race, and its transformation from the animal man into a god-man with only an animal body.
Pindar shows Leda uniting herself in the same night to her husband and also
to the father of the gods Zeus. Thus Castor is the son of the Mortal, Pollux
the progeny of the Immortal. In the allegory made up for the occasion, it is
said that in a riot of vengeance against the Apherides ** Pollux
kills Lynceus "of all mortals he whose sight is the most penetrating"
but
Castor is wounded by Idas, "he who sees and knows." Zeus puts an end to
the fight by hurling his thunderbolt and killing the last two combatants. Pollux
finds his brother dying. In
* "Odyssey," xi. 298 to 305; "Iliad,"
iii., 243.
Chants Cypriaques, Hyg. Tal., 80. Ovid, "Fasti," etc. See Decharme's "Mythologie de la Grece Antique."
See Brahma Kalahamsa in Book I. Stanza III., p. 78.
§ See Decharme's "Mythologie," etc., p. 652. ∫∫ Nem., x., 80 et seq. Theocras, xxiv., 131.
Ά xxxiv., v. 5; Theocritus, xxii., 1. ** Apollodorus, III. ii., 1.
Castor's tomb was shown in Sparta, in days of old, says Pausanias
(III., 13, 1); and Plutarch says that he was called at Argos the demi-mortal
or demi-hero mizarchagetaί
. (See Plutarch, Quaestiones Graecζ,
23.)
his despair he calls upon Zeus to slay him also. "Thou canst not die altogether," answers the master of the Gods; "thou art of a divine race." But he gives him the choice: Pollux will either remain immortal, living eternally in Olympus; or, if he would share his brother's fate in all things, he must pass half his existence underground, and the other half in the golden heavenly abodes. This semi-immortality, which is also to be shared by Castor, is accepted by Pollux.* And thus the twin brothers live alternately, one during the day, and the other during the night.
Is this a poetical fiction only? An allegory, one of those "solar myth" interpretations, higher than which no modern Orientalist seems able to soar? Indeed, it is much more. Here we have an allusion to the "Egg-born," Third Race; the first half of which is mortal, i.e., unconscious in its personality, and having nothing within itself to survive ; and the latter half of which becomes immortal in its individuality, by reason of its fifth principle being called to life by the informing gods, and thus connecting the Monad with this Earth. This is Pollux; while Castor represents the personal, mortal man, an animal of not even a superior kind, when unlinked from the divine individuality. "Twins" truly; yet divorced by death forever, unless Pollux, moved by the voice of twinship, bestows on his less favoured mortal brother a share of his own divine nature, thus associating him with his own immortality.
Such is the occult meaning of the metaphysical aspect of the allegory. The
widely spread modern interpretation of it so celebrated in antiquity,
Plutarch tells us, § as symbolical of brotherly devotion namely, that it
was an image borrowed from the spectacle of Nature is weak and inadequate to
explain the secret meaning. Besides the fact that the Moon, with the Greeks, was
feminine in exoteric mythology, and could therefore hardly be regarded as Castor
and at the same time be identified with Diana ancient symbologists who
held the Sun, the King of all sidereal orbs, as the visible image of the highest
deity, would not have personified it by Pollux, a demi-god only. ∫∫
* Pindar. Nem. x., 60, Dissen.
Schol. Eurip. "Orestes," 463, Dindorf. See Decharme's "Mythol.," etc., p. 654.
The Monad is impersonal and a god per se, albeit unconscious on this plane. For, divorced from its third (often called fifth) principle, Manas, which is the horizontal line of the first manifested triangle or trinity, it can have no consciousness or perception of things on this earthly plane. "The highest sees through the eye of the lowest" in the manifested world; Purusha (Spirit) remains blind without the help of Prakrit (matter) in the material spheres; and so does Atma-Buddhi without Manas.
§ "Morals," p. 484 f.
∫∫ This strange idea and interpretation are accepted by Decharme in his "Mythologie
de la Grece Antique." "Castor and Pollux," he says, "are nothing but the
Sun and Moon conceived as twins . . . . The Sun, the immortal
and powerful that disappears every evening from the and descends under the
Earth, as thou he would make room for the fraternal orb which comes to life with
night, is Pollux, who sacrifices himself for Castor ; Castor, who,
inferior to his brother, owes to him his immortality : for the Moon, says
Theophrastus, is only another , but feebler Sun." (De Ventis 17. See Decharme,
p. 655)
If from Greek mythology we pass to the Mosaic allegories and symbolism, we shall find a still more striking corroboration of the same tenet under another form. Unable to trace in Genesis the "Egg-born," we shall still find there unmistakably the androgynes, and the first three races of the Secret Doctrine hidden under most ingenious symbology in the first four chapters of Genesis.
THE DIVINE HERMAPHRODITE.
An impenetrable veil of secrecy was thrown over the occult and religious mysteries taught, after the submersion of the last remnant of the Atlantean race, some 12,000 years ago, lest they should be shared by the unworthy, and so desecrated. Of these sciences several have now become exoteric such as Astronomy, for instance, in its purely mathematical and physical aspect. Hence their dogmas and tenets, being all symbolised and left to the sole guardianship of parable and allegory, have been forgotten, and their meaning has become perverted. Nevertheless, one finds the hermaphrodite in the scriptures and traditions of almost every nation; and why such unanimous agreement if the statement is only a fiction?
It is this secrecy which led the Fifth Race to the establishment, or rather
the re-establishment of the religious mysteries, in which ancient truths might
be taught to the coming generations under the veil of allegory and symbolism.
Behold the imperishable witness to the evolution of the human races from the
divine, and especially from the androgynous Race the Egyptian Sphinx, that
riddle of the Ages! Divine wisdom incarnating on earth, and forced to taste of
the bitter fruit of personal experience of pain and suffering, generated under
the shade of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil a secret first known
only to the Elohim, the SELF-INITIATED, "higher gods" on
earth only. *
In the Book of Enoch we have Adam, the first divine
androgyne,
* See "Book of Enoch."
Adam (Kadmon) is, like Brahmβ and Mars, the symbol of the generative
and creative power typifying Water and Earth an alchemical secret.
"It takes Earth and Water to create a human soul," said Moses. Mars is the Hindu Mangala, the planet Mars, identical with Kartikeya, the "War-God," born
of Gharma-ja (Siva's sweat) and of the Earth. He is Lokita, the
red, like Brahmβ also and Adam. The Hindu Mars is, like Adam, born from no woman
and mother. With the Egyptians, Mars was the primeval generative Principle,
and so are Brahmβ, in exoteric teaching, and Adam, in the Kabala.
separating into man and woman, and becoming JAH-HEVA in one form, or Race, and Cain and Abel * (male and female) in its other form or Race the double-sexed Jehovah an echo of its Aryan prototype, Brahmβ-Vβch. After which come the Third and Fourth Root-Races of mankind that is to say, Races of men and women, or individuals of opposite sexes, no longer sexless semi-spirits and androgynes, as were the two Races which precede them. This fact is hinted at in every Anthropogony. It is found in fable and allegory, in myth and revealed Scriptures, in legend and tradition. Because, of all the great Mysteries, inherited by Initiates from hoary antiquity, this is one of the greatest. It accounts for the bi-sexual element found in every creative deity, in Brahmβ-Virβj-Vβch, as in Adam-Jehovah-Eve, also in "Cain-Jehovah-Abel." For "The Book of the Generations of Adam" does not even mention Cain and Abel, but says only: "Male and female created he them. . . and called their name Adam" (ch. v. 5). Then it proceeds to say: "And Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth" (v. 3); after which he begets other sons and daughters, thus proving that Cain and Abel are his own allegorical permutations. Adam stands for the primitive human race, especially in its cosmo-sidereal sense. Not so, however, in its theo-anthropological meaning. The compound name of Jehovah, or Jah-Hovah, meaning male life and female life first androgynous, then separated into sexes is used in this sense in Genesis from ch. v. onwards. As the author of "The Source of Measures" says (p. 159): "The two words of which Jehovah is composed make up the original idea of male-female, as the birth originators"; for the Hebrew letter Jod was the membrum virile and Hovah was Eve, the mother of all living, or the procreatrix, Earth and Nature. The author believes, therefore, that "It is seen that the perfect one" (the perfect female circle or Yoni, 20612, numerically), "as originator of measures, takes also the form of birth-origin, as Hermaphrodite one; hence the phallic form and use."
Precisely; only "the phallic form and use" came long ages later; and the
first and original meaning of Enos, the son of Seth, was the First Race
born in the present usual way from man and woman for Seth is no man, but a
race. Before him humanity was hermaphrodite.
* Abel is Chebel, meaning "Pains of Birth," conception.
See "Isis Unveiled," Vol. II, p. 398, where Jehovah is shown to be Adam and Eve blended, and Hevah, and Abel, the feminine serpent.
See "Isis Unveiled," Vol. I., 305: "The union
of the two create a third Race, etc."
While Seth is the first result (physiologically) after the FALL, he is also the first man; hence his son Enos is referred to as the "Son of man." (Vide infra.) Seth represents the later Third Race.
To screen the real mystery name of AIN-SOPH the Boundless and Endless No-Thing the Kabalists have brought forward the compound attribute-appellation of one of the personal creative Elohim, whose name was Yak and Jab, the letters i or j or y being interchangeable, or Jah-Hovah, i.e. male and female;* Jah-Eve an hermaphrodite, or the first form of humanity, the original Adam of Earth, not even Adam Kadmon, whose " mind-born son" is the earthly Jah-Hovah, mystically. And knowing this, the crafty Rabbin-Kabalist has made of it a name so secret, that he could not divulge it later on without exposing the whole scheme; and thus he was obliged to make it sacred.
How close is the identity between Brahmβ-Prajβpati and Jehovah-Sephiroth, between Brahmβ-Virβj and Jehovah-Adam, the Bible and the Purβnas compared can alone show. Analysed and read in the same light, they afford cogent evidence that they are two copies of the same original made at two periods far distant from each other. Compare once more in relation to this subject Genesis ch. 4. verses 1 and 26 and Manu I., and they will both yield their meaning. In Manu (Book I. 32) Brahmβ, who is also both man and god, and divides his body into male and female, stands in his esoteric meaning, as does Jehovah or Adam in the Bible, for the symbolical personification of creative and generative power, both divine and human. The Zohar affords still more convincing proof of identity, while some Rabbins repeat word for word certain original Purβnic expressions; e.g., the "creation" of the world is generally considered in the Brahmanical books to be the Lila, delight or sport, the amusement of the Supreme Creator, "Vishnu being thus discrete and indiscrete substance, spirit, and time, sports like a playful boy in frolics." (Vishnu Purβna, Book I., ch. ii.) Now compare this with what is said in the Book, "Nobeleth' Hokhmah": "The Kabalists say that the entering into existence of the worlds happens through delight, in that Ain-Soph (? !) rejoiced in Itself, and flashed and beamed from Itself to Itself . . . . which are all called delight," etc. (Quoted in Myer's "Qabbalah," p. 110). Thus it is not a "curious idea of the Qabbalists," as the author just quoted remarks, but a purely Purβnic, Aryan idea. Only, why make of Ain-Soph a Creator?
The "Divine Hermaphrodite" is then Brahmβ-Vβch-Virβj; and that of the
Semites, or rather of the Jews, is Jehovah-Cain-Abel. Only the "Heathen" were,
and are, more sincere and frank than were the
* Jod in the Kabala has for symbol the hand, the forefinger and the
lingham, while numerically it is the perfect one; but it is also the
number 10, male and female, when divided.
later Israelites and Rabbis, who undeniably knew the real meaning of their
exoteric deity. The Jews regard the name given to them the Yah-oudi as an
insult. Yet they have, or would have if they only wished it, as undeniable a
right to call themselves the ancient Yah-oudi, "Jah-hovians," as the Brahmins
have to call themselves Brahmins, after their national deity. For
Jah-hovah is the generic name of that group or hierarchy of creative planetary
angels, under whose star their nation has evolved. He is one of the planetary
Elohim of the regent group of Saturn. Verse 26 of Genesis, ch.
iv., when read correctly, would alone give them such a right, for it calls the
new race of men sprung from Seth and Enos, Jehovah, something
quite different from the translation adopted in the Bible: "To him also, was
born a son, Enos; then began men to call themselves Jah or Yah-hovah," to with
men and women, the "lords of creation." One has but to read the
above-mentioned verse in the original Hebrew text and by the light of the
Kabala, to find that, instead of the words as they now stand translated, it is:
"Then began men to call themselves Jehovah," which
is the correct translation, and not "Then began men to call upon the name of the
Lord"; the latter being a mistranslation, whether deliberate or not. Again the
well-known passage: "I have gotten a man from the Lord," should read: "I have
gotten a man, even Jehovah." * Luther translated the passage one way, the Roman
Catholics quite differently. Bishop Wordsworth renders it: "Cain I have
gotten Kain, from Kβnithi, I have gotten." Luther: "I
have gotten a man O even the Lord" (Jehovah); and the author of "The Source of
Measures": "I have measured a man, even Jehovah." The
last is the correct rendering, because (a) a famous Rabbin, a Kabalist,
explained the passage to the writer in precisely this way, and (b)
because this rendering is identical with that in the Secret Doctrine of the East
with regard to Brahmβ. In "Isis Unveiled,"
it was explained
by the writer that "Cain . . . is the son of the 'Lord' not of Adam (Genesis
iv. I)" The "Lord" is Adam Kadmon, the "father" of Yodcheva,
"Adam-Eve," or Jehovah, the son of sinful thought, not the progeny of flesh
and blood. Seth, on the other hand, is the leader and the progenitor of the
Races of the Earth; for he is the son of Adam, exoterically, but
esoterically he is the progeny of Cain and Abel, since Abel or Hebel is a
female, the counterpart and female half of the male Cain, and Adam is the
collective name for man and woman: "male and female (Zachar va Nakobeh)
created he them . . . and called their name Adam." The verses in
Genesis from chs. i. to v., are purposely mixed up for Kabalistic
reasons. After MAN of
*
See "Source of Measures," p. 227.
Vol. II., p. 264, et seq.
Genesis ch. i. 26 and Enos, Son of Man of ch. iv. v. 26, after Adam, the first androgyne, after Adam Kadmon, the sexless (the first) Logos, Adam and Eve once separated, come finally Jehovah-Eve and Cain-Jehovah. These represent distinct Root-Races, for millions of years elapsed between them.
Hence the Aryan and the Semitic Theo-anthropographies are two leaves on the same stem; their respective personifications and symbolic personages standing in relation to each other in this way.
I. The Unknowable, referred to in various ways in Rig Vedic
verse, such as "Nought Was," called, later on "Parabrahm;" the
(Ain, nothing, or the
"Ain-Soph" of the Kabalists), and again, the "Spirit" (of God) that moves upon
the face of the waters, in Genesis. All these are identical.
Moreover, in Genesis, ch. i., v. 2, is placed as verse 1 in the
secret Kabalistic texts, where it is followed by the Elohim
"creating the Heaven and the Earth." This deliberate shifting of the order of
the verses was necessary for monotheistic and Kabalistic purposes.
Jeremiah's curse against those Elohim (gods) who have not created the
Heavens and the Earth, ch. x., v. 11, shows that there were other
Elohim who had.
II. The "Heavenly" Manu-Swβyambhuva, who sprang from Swβyambhu-Narayana, the "Self-existent," and Adam Kadmon of the Kabalists, and the androgyne MAN of Genesis ch. 1 are also identical.
III. Manu-swβyambhuva is Brahmβ, or the Logos; and he is Adam Kadmon, who in Genesis iv., 5, separates himself into two halves, male and female, thus becoming Jah-Hovah or Jehovah-Eve; as Manu Swβyambhuva or Brahmβ separates himself to become "Brahmβ-Virβj and Vβch-Virβj," male and female; all the rest of the texts and versions being blinds.
IV. Vβch is the daughter of Brahmβ and is named Sata-Rupa, "the hundred-formed," and Savitri, "generatrix," the mother of the gods and of all living. She is identical with Eve, "the mother (of all the lords or gods or) of all living." Besides this there are many other occult meanings.
What is written in "Isis," although scattered about and very cautiously expressed at the time, is correct:
Explaining esoterically Ezekiel's wheel,* it is said of Jodhevah or Jehovah: -
"When the ternary is taken in the beginning of the Tetragram, it expresses
the divine creation spiritually, without any carnal sin; taken at its
opposite end it expresses the latter: it is feminine. The name of Eva is
composed of three letters, that of the primitive or heavenly
* "Isis Unveiled," Vol. II., p. 462.
Adam, is written with one letter, Jod or Yodh; therefore it must not be read Jehovah but Ieva, or Eve. The Adam of the first chapter is the spiritual, therefore pure, androgyne Adam Kadmon. When woman issues from the rib of the second Adam (of dust), the pure Virgo is separated, and falling "into generation," or the downward cycle, becomes Scorpio, emblem of sin and matter. While the ascending cycle points to the purely spiritual races, or the ten prediluvian patriarchs, the Prajβpatis and Sephiroth are led on by the creative Deity itself, who is Adam Kadmon or Yod-cheva. Spiritually, the lower one (Jehovah) is that of the terrestrial races, led on by Enoch or Libra, the seventh; who, because he is half-divine, half-terrestrial, is said to have been taken by God alive. Enoch, Hermes, and Libra, are one."
This is only one of the several meanings. No need to remind the scholar that Scorpio is the astrological sign of the organs of reproduction. Like the Indian Rishis, the Patriarchs are all convertible in their numbers, as well as interchangeable. According to the subject to which they relate they become ten, twelve, seven or five, and even fourteen, and they have the same esoteric meaning as the Manus or Rishis.
Moreover, Jehovah, as may be shown, has a variety of etymologies, but only
those are true which are found in the Kabala.
(Ieve) is the Old
Testament term, and was pronounced Ya-va. Inman suggests that it is
contracted from the two words 
Yaho-Iah, Jaho-Jah, or Jaho is Jah. Punctuated it is
which is, however, a Rabbinical caprice
to associate it with the name Adoni or
, which has the same points. It is
curious, and indeed hardly conceivable, that the Jews anciently read the name
(Adoni), when they had
so many names of which Jeho and Jah and Iah constituted a
part. But so it was; and Philo Byblus, who gives us the so-called fragment of
Sanchoniathon, spelt it in Greek letters
IETW , Javo or
Jevo. Theodoret says that the Samaritans pronounced Yahva, and the
Jews Yaho. Prof. Gibbs, however, suggests its punctuation
thus: 
(Ye-hou-vih);
and he cut the Gordian knot of its true occult meaning. For in this last form,
as a Hebrew verb, it means "he will be." * It was also derived from the Chaldaic verb
or
eue (eva) or eua
(Eva) "to be." And so it was, since from Enosh, the "Son
of Man," only, were the truly human races to begin and "to be," as males and
females. This statement receives further corroboration, inasmuch as Parkhurst
makes the verb 
to mean: (1) "To
* See for comparison Hosea, xii. 6, where it is so punctuated.
fall down" (i.e. into generation or matter); and (2) "To be, to
continue " as a Race. The aspirate of the word eua (Eva)
"to be" being 
Heve (Eve),
which is the feminine of and the
same as Hebe, the Grecian goddess of youth and the Olympian bride of Heracles,
makes the name Jehovah appear still more clearly in its primitive double-sexed
form.
Finding in Sanskrit such syllables as Jah and Yah, e.g., Jah (navi) "Ganges" and Jagan-nβtha, "Lord of the World," it becomes clear why Mr. Rawlinson is so very confident in his works of an Aryan or Vedic influence on the early mythology of Babylon. Nor is it to be much wondered at that the alleged ten tribes of Israel disappeared during the captivity period, without leaving a trace behind them, when we are informed that the Jews had de facto but two tribes those of Judah and of Levi. The Levies, moreover, were not a tribe at all, but a priestly caste. The descendants have only followed their progenitors, the various patriarchs, into thin, sidereal air. There were Brahms and A-brahms, in days of old, truly, and before the first Jew had been born. Every nation held its first god and gods to be androgynous; nor could it be otherwise, since they regarded their distant primeval progenitors, their dual-sexed ancestors, as divine Beings and Gods, just as do the Chinese to this day. And they were divine in one sense, as also were their first human progeny, the "mind-born" primitive humanity, which were most assuredly bi-sexuals as all the more ancient symbols and traditions show. Under the emblematical devices and peculiar phraseology of the priesthood of old, lie latent hints of sciences as yet undiscovered during the present cycle. Well acquainted as may be a scholar with the hieratic writing and hieroglyphical system of the Egyptians, he must first of all learn to sift their records. He has to assure himself, compasses and rule in hand, that the picture writing he is examining fits, to a line, certain fixed geometrical figures which are the hidden keys to such records, before he ventures on an interpretation."
"But there are myths which speak for themselves. In this class we may include
the double-sexed first creators of every Cosmogony. The Greek Zeus-Zen (Ζther),
and Chthonia (the chaotic earth) and Metis (water), his wives; Osiris and
Isis-Latona the former god also representing Ζther, the first emanation of
the Supreme Deity, Amun, the primeval source of Light; the goddess Earth and
Water again; Mithras, the rock-born god, the symbol of the male mundane fire, or
the personified primordial light, and Mithra, the fire goddess, at once his
mother and his wife; the pure element of fire (the active, or male principle)
regarded as light and heat, in conjunction with Earth and Water, or Matter, the
female or passive element of cosmical generation" all these are records of
the primeval divine Hermaphrodite.
131 THE SWAN AND THE EGG.
§§ (22) The evolution of the three races continued. (23) The second race creates the Third and perishes.
22. THEN THE SECOND EVOLVED THE SWEAT-BORN, THE THIRD (Race). 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 (the Moon), OVERSHADOWED THE BIG DROP. THE EGG OF THE FUTURE RACE, THE MAN-SWAN (Hamsa) OF THE LATER THIRD (a). FIRST MALE-FEMALE, THEN MAN AND WOMAN (b).
(a) The text of the Stanza clearly implies that the human embryo was
nourished ab extra by Cosmic forces, and that the "Father-Mother"
furnished apparently the germ that ripened: in all probability a "sweat-born
egg," to be hatched out, in some mysterious way, disconnected from the "double"
parent. It is comparatively easy to conceive of an oviparous humanity, since
even now man is, in one sense, "egg-born." Magendie, moreover, in his Precis
Elementaire de Physiologie, citing "a case where the umbilical
cord was ruptured and perfectly cicatrized," yet the infant was born alive,
pertinently asks, "How was the circulation carried on in this organ?" On the
next page he says: "Nothing is at present known respecting the use of digestion
in the ftus;" and respecting its nutrition, propounds this query: "What, then,
can we say of the nutrition of the ftus? Physiological works contain only
vague conjectures on this point." "Ah, but," the sceptic may urge, "Magendie's
book belongs to the last generation, and Science has since made such strides
that his stigma of ignorance can no longer be fixed upon the profession."
Indeed; then let us turn to a very great authority upon Physiology, viz., Sir M.
Foster (Text-Book of Physiology, third edition, 1879, p. 623); and to
the disadvantage of modern Science we shall find him saying, "Concerning the
rise and development of the functional activities of the embryo, our knowledge
is almost a blank. We know scarcely anything about the various steps by which
the primary fundamental qualities of the protoplasm of the ovum are
differentiated into the complex phenomena which we have attempted in
this book to explain." The students of Trin. Coll. Cantab. will now kindly draw a veil before the statue of Hygeia and bandage the eyes of the busts of Galen and Hippocrates, lest they look reproachfully at their degenerate descendants. One further fact we must note. Sir M. Foster is discreetly silent about the case of the ruptured umbilical cord cited by his great French confrere.
This is a very curious statement as explained in the Commentaries. To make it clear: The First Race having created the Second by "budding," as just explained, the Second Race gives birth to the Third which itself is separated into three distinct divisions, consisting of men differently procreated. The first two of these are produced by an oviparous method, presumably unknown to modern Natural History. While the early sub-races of the Third Humanity procreated their species by a kind of exudation of moisture or vital fluid, the drops of which coalescing formed an oviform ball or shall we say egg? which served as an extraneous vehicle for the generation therein of a ftus and child, the mode of procreation by the later races changed, in its results at all events. The little ones of the earlier races were entirely sexless shapeless even for all one knows *; but those of the later races were born androgynous. It is in the Third Race that the separation of sexes occurred. From being previously a-sexual, Humanity became distinctly hermaphrodite or bi-sexual; and finally the man-bearing eggs began to give birth, gradually and almost imperceptibly in their evolutionary development, first, to Beings in which one sex predominated over the other, and, finally, to distinct men and women. And now let us search for corroboration of these statements in the religious legends of East and West. Let us take the "Egg-born Race" first. Think of Kasyapa, the Vedic sage, and the most prolific of creators. He was the son of Marichi, Brahmβ's mind-born son; and he is made to become the father of the Nagas, or Serpents, among other beings. Exoterically, the Nagas are semi-divine beings which have a human face and the tail of a serpent. Yet there was a race of Nagas, said to be a thousand in number only, born or rather sprung from Kadra, Kasyapa's wife, for the purpose of peopling Pβtalβ, which is undeniably America, as will be shown; and there was a NAGA-Dwipa, one of the seven divisions of Bhβrata-Varsha, India, inhabited by a people bearing the same name, who are allowed, even by some Orientalists, to be historical, and to have left many a trace behind them to this day.
Now the point most insisted upon at present is that, whatever origin be
claimed for man, his evolution took place in this order: (1) Sexless, as all the
earlier forms are; (2) then, by a natural transition, he became,
* See the "Timζus."
"a solitary hermaphrodite," a bi-sexual being; and (3) finally separated and became what he is now. Science teaches us that all the primitive forms, though sexless, "still retained the power of undergoing the processes of A-Sexual multiplication;" why, then, should man be excluded from that law of Nature? Bi-sexual reproduction is an evolution, a specialized and perfected form on the scale of matter of the fissiparous act of reproduction. Occult teachings are pre-eminently panspermic, and the early history of humanity is hidden only "from ordinary mortals;" nor is the history of the primitive Races buried from the Initiates in the tomb of time, as it is for profane science. Therefore, supported on the one hand by that science which shows to us progressive development and an internal cause for every external modification, as a law in Nature; and, on the other hand, by an implicit faith in the wisdom we may say pansophia even of the universal traditions gathered and preserved by the Initiates, who have perfected them into an almost faultless system thus supported, we venture to state the doctrine clearly.
In an able article, written some fifteen years ago, our learned and respected friend Prof. Alex. Wilder, of New York, shows the absolute logic and necessity of believing "The Primeval Race Double-Sexed," and gives a number of scientific reasons for it.* He argues firstly, "that a large part of the vegetable creation exhibits the phenomenon of bisexuality . . . the Linnaean classification enumerating thus almost all plants. This is the case in the superior families of the vegetable kingdoms as much as in the lower forms, from the Hemp to the Lombardy Poplar and Ailanthus. In the animal kingdom, in insect life, the moth generates a worm, as in the Mysteries the great secret was expressed: "Taurus Draconem genuit, et Taurum Draco." The coral-producing family, which, according to Agassiz, 'has spent many hundreds of thousands of years, during the present geological period, in building out the peninsula of Florida . . . . produce their offspring from themselves like the buds and ramifications in a tree.' Bees are somewhat in the same line . . . . The Aphides or plant lice keep house like Amazons, and virgin parents perpetuate the Race for ten successive generations."
What say the old sages, the philosopher-teachers of antiquity. Aristophanes
speaks thus on the subject in Plato's "Banquet": "Our
nature of old was not the same as it is now. It was androgynous, the
form and name partaking of, and being common to both the male and female. .
. . Their bodies were round, and the manner of their running
* See Extracts from that Essay in "The Theosophist," of
February, 1883.
circular.* They were terrible in force and strength and had prodigious ambition. Hence Zeus divided each of them into two, making them weaker; Apollo, under his direction, closed up the skin."
Meshia and Meshiane were but a single individual with the old Persians. "They also taught that man was the product of the tree of life, growing in androgynous pairs, till they were separated at a subsequent modification of the human form. "
In the Toleduth (generation) of Adam, the verse "God created (bara,
brought forth) man in his image, in the image of God created he him, male
and female created he them," if read esoterically will yield the true sense,
viz.: "The Elohim (Gods) brought forth from themselves (by
modification) man in their image . . . . created they him (collective
humanity, or Adam), male and female created he
(collective deity) them." This will show the esoteric point. The sexless
Race was their first production, a modification of and from
themselves, the pure spiritual existences; and this was Adam solus.
Thence came the second Race: Adam-Eve or Jod-Heva,
inactive androgynes; and finally the Third, or the "Separating
Hermaphrodite," Cain and Abel, who produce the Fourth, Seth-Enos, etc. It is
that Third, the last semi-spiritual race, which was also the last
vehicle of the divine and innate Wisdom, ingenerate in the Enochs, the Seers of
that Mankind. The Fourth, which had tasted from the fruit of the Tree
of Good and Evil Wisdom united already to earthy, and therefore impure,
intelligence § had consequently to acquire that Wisdom by initiation and
great struggle. And the union of Wisdom and Intelligence, the former ruling
the latter, is called in the Hermetic books "the God possessing the double
fecundity of the two sexes." Mystically Jesus was held to be man-woman. See also
in the Orphic hymns, sung during the Mysteries, we find:
* Compare Ezekiel's vision (chap. i) of the four divine beings who "had the
likeness of a man" and yet had the appearance of a wheel, "when they went they
went upon their four sides . . . . for the spirit of the living creature was in
the wheel."
See Prof. Wilder's Essay "The Primeval Race Double-Sexed."
Eugibinus, a Christian, and the Rabbis Samuel, Manasseh ben Israel, and Maimonides taught that "Adam had two faces and one person, and from the beginning he was both male and female male on one side and female on the other (like Manu's Brahmβ), but afterwards the parts were separated." The one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm of David recited by Rabbi Jeremiah ben Eliazar is evidence of this. "Thou hast fashioned me behind and before," not beset as in the Bible, which is absurd and meaningless, and this shows, as Prof. Wilder thinks, "that the primeval form of mankind was androgynous."
§ See the union of Chochmah, Wisdom, with Binah,
Intelligence, or Jehovah, the Demiurge, called Understanding
in the Proverbs of Solomon, ch. vii. Unto men Wisdom (divine
occult Wisdom) crieth: "Oh, ye simple, understand Wisdom; and ye fools, be
of an understanding heart." It is spirit and matter,
the nous and the psyche; of the latter of which St. James says
that it is "earthly, sensual, and devilish."
"Zeus is a male, Zeus is an immortal maid." The Egyptian Ammon was the goddess Neοth, in his other half. Jupiter has female breasts, Venus is bearded in some of her statues, and Ila, the goddess, is also Su-Dyumna, the god, as Vaivasvata's progeny.
"The name Adam," says Professor A. Wilder, "or man, itself implies this double form of existence. It is identical with Athamas, or Thomas (Tamil Tam), which is rendered by the Greek Didumos, a twin; if, therefore, the first woman was formed subsequently to the first man, she must, as a logical necessity, be 'taken out of man' . . . and the side which the Elohim had taken from man, 'made he a woman' (Gen. ii.). The Hebrew word here used is Tzala, which bears the translation we have given. It is easy to trace the legend in Berosus, who says that Thalatth (the Omoroca, or Lady of Urka) was the beginning of creation. She was also Melita, the queen of the Moon. . . . The two twin births of Genesis, that of Cain and Abel, and of Esau and Jacob, shadow the same idea. The name 'Hebel' is the same as Eve, and its characteristic seems to be feminine," continues the author. "Unto thee shall be his desire," said the Lord God to Cain, "and thou shalt rule over him." The same language had been uttered to Eve: "Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." . . .
Thus the pristine bi-sexual unity of the human Third Root-Race is an axiom in the Secret Doctrine. Its virgin individuals were raised to "Gods," because that Race represented their "divine Dynasty." The moderns are satisfied with worshipping the male heroes of the Fourth Race, who created gods after their own sexual image, whereas the gods of primeval mankind were "male and female."
As stated in Book I, the humanities developed coordinately, and on parallel
lines with the four Elements, every new Race being physiologically adapted to
meet the additional element. Our Fifth Race is rapidly approaching the Fifth
Element call it interstellar ether, if you will which has more to do,
however, with psychology than with physics. We men have learned to live in every
climate, whether frigid or tropical, but the first two Races had nought to do
with climate, nor were they subservient to any temperature or change therein.
And thus, we are taught, men lived down to the close of the Third Root-Race,
when eternal spring reigned over the whole globe, such as is now enjoyed by the
inhabitants of Jupiter; a "world," says M. Flammarion, "which is not subject
like our own to the vicissitudes of seasons nor to abrupt alternations of
temperature, but which is enriched with all the treasures of eternal spring." ("Pluralite
des Mondes," p. 69.) Those astronomers who maintain that Jupiter
is in a molten condition, in our sense of the term, are invited to settle their
dispute with this learned French
Astronomer.* It must, however, be always borne in mind that the "eternal spring" referred to is only a condition cognised as such by the Jovians. It is not "spring" as we know it. In this reservation is to be found the reconciliation between the two theories here cited. Both embrace partial truths.
It is thus a universal tradition that mankind has evolved gradually into its
present shape from an almost transparent condition of texture, and neither by
miracle nor by sexual intercourse. Moreover, this is in full accord with the
ancient philosophies; from those of Egypt and India with their Divine Dynasties
down to that of Plato. And all these universal beliefs must be classed with the
"presentiments" and "obstinate conceptions," some of them ineradicable, in
popular faiths. Such beliefs, as remarked by Louis Figuier, are "frequently the
outcome of the wisdom and observation of an infinite number of generations of
men." For, "a tradition which has an uniform and universal existence,
* An hypothesis evolved in 1881 by Mr. Mattieu Williams seems to have
impressed Astronomers but little. Says the author of "The Fuel of the Sun,"
in Knowledge, Dec. 23, 1881: "Applying now the researches of Dr.
Andrews to the conditions of Solar existence . . . I conclude that the Sun has
no nucleus, either solid, liquid, or gaseous, but is composed of
dissociated matter in the critical state, surrounded, first, by a flaming
envelope, due to the recombination of the dissociated matter, and outside of
this, by another envelope of vapours due to this combination."
This is a novel theory to be added to other hypotheses, all scientific
and orthodox. The meaning of the "critical state" is explained by
Mr. M. Williams in the same journal (Dec. 9, 1881), in an article on "Solids,
Liquids, and Gases." Speaking of an experiment by Dr. Andrews on carbonic acid,
the scientist says that "when 88Ί is reached, the boundary between
liquid and gas vanished; liquid and gas have blended into one mysterious
intermediate fluid; an indefinite fluctuating something is there filling the
whole of the tube an etherealised liquid or a visible gas. Hold a
red-hot poker between your eye and the light; you will see an upflowing wave of
movement of what appears like liquid air. The appearance of the hybrid
fluid in the tube resembles this, but is sensibly denser, and evidently stands
between the liquid and gaseous states of matter, as pitch or treacle stands
between solid and liquid."
The temperature at which this occurs has been named by Dr. Andrews the
"critical temperature"; here the gaseous and the liquid states are
"continuous," and it is probable that all other substances capable
of existing in both states have their own particular critical temperatures.
Speculating further upon this "critical" state, Mr. Mattieu Williams emits
some quite occult theories about Jupiter and other planets. He says: "Our
notions of solids, liquids, and gases are derived from our experiences of
the state of matter here upon this Earth. Could we be removed to another planet,
they would be curiously changed. On Mercury water would rank as one of the
condensible gases; on Mars, as a fusible solid; but what on Jupiter?"
"Recent observations justify us in regarding this as a miniature sun, with an
external envelope of cloudy matter, apparently of partially-condensed water, but
red-hot, or probably still hotter within. His vaporous atmosphere is evidently
of enormous depth, and the force of gravitation being on his visible outer
surface two-and-a-half times greater than that on our
Earth's surface, the atmospheric pressure, in descending below this visible
surface, must soon reach that at which the vapour of water would be brought to
its critical condition. Therefore we may infer that the oceans of Jupiter
are neither of frozen, liquid, nor gaseous water, but are oceans or atmospheres
of critical water. If any fish or birds swim or fly therein, they must be very
critically organized."
As the whole mass of Jupiter is 300 times greater than that of the Earth, and
its compressing energy towards the centre proportional to this, its materials,
if similar to those of the Earth, and no hotter, would be considerably more
dense, and the whole planet would have a higher specific gravity; but we know by
the movement of its satellites that, instead of this, its specific gravity is
less than a fourth of that of the Earth. This justifies the conclusion that it
is intensely hot; for even hydrogen, if cold, would become denser than Jupiter
under such pressure.
"As all elementary substances may exist as solids, liquids, or gases, or,
critically, according to the conditions of temperature and pressure, I am
justified in hypothetically concluding that Jupiter is neither a solid, a
liquid, nor a gaseous planet, but a critical planet, or an orb composed
internally of associated elements in the critical state, and surrounded by a
dense atmosphere of their vapours and those of some of their compounds such
as water. The same reasoning applies to Saturn and other large and rarified
planets."
It is gratifying to see how scientific imagination approaches every
year more closely to the borderland of our occult teachings.
has all the weight of scientific testimony." * And there is more than one such tradition in the Purβnic allegories, as has been shown. Moreover, the doctrine that the first Race of mankind was formed out of the chhayas (astral images) of the Pitris, is fully corroborated in the Zohar. "In the Tzalam (shadow image) of Elohim (the Pitris), was made Adam (man). (Cremona, Ed. iii., 76a; Brody, Ed. iii., 159a; "Qabbalah," Isaac Myer, p. 420.)
It has been repeatedly urged as an objection that, however high the degree of metaphysical thought in ancient India, yet the old Egyptians had nothing but crass idolatry and zoolatry to boast of; Hermes, as alleged, being the work of mystic Greeks who lived in Egypt. To this, one answer can be given a direct proof that the Egyptians believed in the Secret Doctrine is, that it was taught to them at Initiation. Let the objectors open the "EclogζPhysicζ et Ethicζ" of Stobζus, the Greek compiler of ancient fragments, who lived in the fifth century, A.D. The following is a transcription by him of an old Hermetic fragment, showing the Egyptian theory of the Soul. Translated word for word, it says:
"From one Soul, that of ALL, spring all the Souls, which
spread themselves as if purposely distributed through the world. These souls
undergo many transformations; those which are already creeping creatures turn
into aquatic animals; from these aquatic animals are derived land animals; and
from the latter the birds. From the beings who live aloft in the air (heaven)
men are born. On reaching that
* "The Day After Death," p. 23.
status of men, the Souls receive the principle of (conscious) immortality, become Spirits, then pass into the choir of gods."
23. THE SELF-BORN WERE THE CHHAYAS, THE SHADOWS FROM THE BODIES OF THE SONS OF TWILIGHT. NEITHER WATER NOR FIRE COULD DESTROY THEM. THEIR SONS WERE (so destroyed) (a).
(a) This verse cannot be understood without the help of the Commentaries. It means that the First Root-Race, the "Shadows" of the Progenitors, could not be injured, or destroyed by death. Being so ethereal and so little human in constitution, they could not be affected by any element flood or fire. But their "Sons," the Second Root-Race, could be and were so destroyed. As the "progenitors" merged wholly in their own astral bodies, which were their progeny; so that progeny was absorbed in its descendants, the "Sweat-born." These were the second Humanity composed of the most heterogeneous gigantic semi-human monsters the first attempts of material nature at building human bodies. The ever-blooming lands of the Second Continent (Greenland, among others) were transformed, in order, from Edens with their eternal spring, into hyperborean Hades. This transformation was due to the displacement of the great waters of the globe, to oceans changing their beds; and the bulk of the Second Race perished in this first great throe of the evolution and consolidation of the globe during the human period. Of such great cataclysms there have already been four.* And we may expect a fifth for ourselves in due course of time.
A FEW WORDS ABOUT "DELUGES" AND "NOAHS."
The accounts in the various Purβnas about our Progenitors are as
contradictory in their details as everything else. Thus while, in
the Rig Veda, Ida (or Ila) is called the Instructress of Vaivasvata Manu,
Sayana makes of her a goddess presiding over the Earth, and the Sathapatha
Brβhmana shows her to be the Manu's daughter, an offering of his sacrifice,
and, later on, his (Vaivasvata's) wife, by whom he begat the race of
Manus. In the Purβnas, again, she is Vaivasvata's daughter, yet the wife of
Budha (Wisdom), the illegitimate son of the Moon (Soma) and the planet Jupiter's
(Brihhaspati's) wife, Tara. All this, which seems a jumble to the
profane, is full of philosophical meaning to the Occultist. On the very face of
the narrative a secret and sacred meaning is per-
* The first occurred when what is now the North Pole was separated from the
later Continents.
ceivable, all the details, however, being so purposely mixed up that the experienced eye of an Initiate alone can follow them and place the events in their proper order.
The story as told in the "Mahabhβrata" strikes the key-note, and yet it needs to be explained by the secret sense contained in the Bhagavad Gξtβ. It is the prologue to the drama of our (Fifth) Humanity. While Vaivasvata was engaged in devotion on the river bank, a fish craves his protection from a bigger fish. He saves and places it in a jar, where, growing larger and larger, it communicates to him the news of the forthcoming deluge. It is the well-known "Matsya Avatar," the first Avatar of Vishnu, the Dagon * of the Chaldean Xisuthrus, and many other things besides. The story is too well known to need repetition. Vishnu orders a ship to be built, in which Manu is said to be saved along with the seven Rishis, the latter, however, being absent from other texts. Here the seven Rishis stand for the seven Races, the seven principles, and various other things; for there is again a double mystery involved in this manifold allegory.
We have said elsewhere that the great Flood had several meanings, and that it
referred, as also does the FALL, to both spiritual and physical, cosmic and
terrestrial, events: as above, so it is below. The ship or ark navis
in short, being the symbol of the female generative principle, is typified in
the heavens by the Moon, and on Earth by the Womb: both being the vessels and
bearers of the seeds of life and being, which the sun, or Vishnu, the male
principle, vivifies and fructifies. The First Cosmic Flood refers to
primordial creation, or the formation of Heaven and the Earths; in which case
Chaos and the great Deep stand for the "Flood," and the Moon for the "Mother,"
from whom proceed all the life-germs. But the terrestrial Deluge and
* We must remember that at the head of all the Babylonian gods were Ea,
Anu, and the primeval Bel; and that Ea, the first, was the God of
Wisdom, the great "God of Light" and of the DEEP, and that he was identified
with Oannes, or the Biblical Dagon the man-fish who rose out of the Persian
Gulf.
See Part. II. § "The Holy of Holies."
It is far later on that the Moon became a male god; with the Hindus it
was Soma, with the Chaldeans Nannak or Nannar, and Sin, the son of Mulil, the
older Bel. The "Akkadians" called him the "Lord of Ghosts"; and he was the god
of Nipoor (Niffer) in northern Babylonia. It is Mulil who caused the waters of
the Flood to fall from heaven on Earth, for which Xisuthrus would not allow him
to approach his altar. As the modern Assyriologists have now ascertained, it is
the northern Nipoor which is the centre whence Chaldean (black) magic spread;
and Eridu (the Southern) which was the primitive seat of the worship of the
culture god, the god of divine wisdom the Sun-God being the supreme deity
everywhere. With the Jews, the Moon is connected with Israel's Jehovah and his
seed, because Ur was the chief seat of the worship of the Moon-god, and because
Abraham is said to have come from Ur, when from A-bra(h)m, he becomes Abraham.
its story has also its dual application. In one case it has reference to that mystery when mankind was saved from utter destruction, by the mortal woman being made the receptacle of the human seed at the end of the Third Race,* and in the other to the real and historical Atlantean submersion. In both cases the "Host" or the Manu which saved the seed is called Vaivasvata Manu. Hence the diversity between the Purβnic and other versions; while in the Sathapatha Brβhmana, Vaivasvata produces a daughter and begets from her the race of Manu; which is a reference to the first human Manushyas, who had to create women by will (Kriyasakti), before they were naturally born from the hermaphrodites as an independent sex, and who were, therefore, regarded as their creator's daughters. The Purβnic accounts make of her (Ida or Ila) the wife of Budha (Wisdom), the latter version referring to the events of the Atlantean flood, when Vaivasvata, the great Sage on Earth, saved the Fifth Root-race from being destroyed along with the remnants of the Fourth.
This is shown very clearly in the Bhagavad Gξtβ, where Krishna is made to say:
"The Seven great Rishis, the four preceding Manus, partaking of my essence, were born from my mind: from them sprung (were born) the human races and the world." (Chapter X., verse 6).
Here the four preceding "Manus," out of the seven, are the four Races
which
have already lived, since Krishna belongs to the Fifth Race, his death having
inaugurated the Kali Yuga. Thus Vaivasvata
* When Narada, the virgin-ascetic, threatened to put an end to the human race
by preventing Daksha's sons from procreating it.
This is corroborated by a learned Brahmin. In his most excellent lectures
on the Bhagavad Gξtβ (see "Theosophist," April, 1887, p. 444)
the lecturer says: "There is a peculiarity to which I must call your attention.
He (Krishna) speaks here of four Manus. Why does he speak of four? We are now in
the seventh Manvantara, that of Vaivasvata. If he is speaking of the past Manus,
he ought to speak of six, but he only mentions four. In some commentaries an
attempt has been made to interpret this in a peculiar manner. The word 'Chatvaraha'
is separated from the word 'Manavaha,' and is made to refer to Sanaka, Sanandana,
Sanatkumβra, and Sanatsujata, who are also included among the mind-born sons of
Prajβpati. But this interpretation will lead to a most absurd conclusion, and
make the sentence contradict itself. The persons alluded to in the text have a
qualifying clause in the sentence. It is well known that Sanaka and the other
three refused to create, though the other sons had consented to do so;
therefore, in speaking of those persons from whom humanity has sprung into
existence, it would be absurd to include those four also in the list. The
passage must be interpreted without splitting the compound into two nouns. The
number of Manus will then be four, and the statement would then contradict the
Purβnic account, though it would be in harmony with the occult theory. You will
recollect that it is stated (in Occultism) that we are now in the Fifth
Root-Race. Each Root-Race is considered as the Santhathi of a
particular Manu. Now, the Fourth Race has passed, or, in other words, there have
been four past Manus.
. . "
Manu, the son of Surya (the Sun), and the saviour of our Race, is connected with the Seed of Life, both physically and spiritually. But, at present, while speaking of all, we have to concern ourselves only with the first two.
The "Deluge" is undeniably an universal tradition. "Glacial periods" were numerous, and so were the "Deluges," for various reasons. Stockwell and Croll enumerate some half dozen Glacial Periods and subsequent Deluges the earliest of all being dated by them 850,000, and the last about 100,000, years ago.* But which was our Deluge? Assuredly the former, the one which to this date remains recorded in the traditions of all the peoples, from the remotest antiquity; the one that finally swept away the last peninsulas of Atlantis, beginning with Ruta and Daitya and ending with the (comparatively) small island mentioned by Plato. This is shown by the agreement of certain details in all the legends. It was the last of its gigantic character. The little deluge, the traces of which Baron Bunsen found in Central Asia, and which he places at about 10,000 years B.C., had nothing to do with either the semi-universal Deluge, or Noah's flood the latter being a purely mythical rendering of old traditions nor even with the submersion of the last Atlantean island; at least, only a moral connection.
Our Fifth Race (the non-initiated portions), hearing of many deluges, confused them, and now know of but one. This one altered the whole aspect of the globe in its interchange and shifting of land and sea.
We may compare the traditions of the Peruvians: "The Incas, seven in number, have repeopled the Earth after the deluge," they say (Coste I, IV., p. 19); Humboldt mentions the Mexican version of the same legend, but confuses somewhat the details of the still-preserved legend concerning the American Noah. Nevertheless, the eminent Naturalist mentions twice seven companions and the divine bird which preceded the boat of the Aztecs, and thus makes fifteen elect instead of the seven and the fourteen. This was written probably under some involuntary reminiscence of Moses, who is said to have mentioned fifteen grandsons of Noah, who escaped with their grandsire. Then again Xisuthrus, the Chaldean Noah, is saved and translated alive to heaven like Enoch with the seven gods, the Kabirim, or the seven divine Titans; again the Chinese Yao has seven figures which sail with him and which he will animate when he lands, and use for "human seed." Osiris, when he enters the ark, or solar boat, takes seven Rays with him, etc., etc.
Sanchoniathon makes the Aletζ or Titans (the Kabirim) contemporary
* "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," xviii.; "American
Journal of Science," III., xi., 456; and Croll's "Climate and
Time." Lemuria was not submerged by a flood, but was destroyed by
volcanic action, and afterwards sank.
with Agruerus, the great Phnician god (whom Faber sought to identify with Noah*); further, it is suspected that the name of "Titan" is derived from Tit-Ain "the fountains of the chaotic abyss" (Tit-Theus, or Tityus is "the divine deluge"); and thus the Titans, who are seven, are shown to be connected with the Flood and the seven Rishis saved by Vaivasvata Manu.
They are the sons of Kronos (Time) and Rhea (the Earth); and as Agruerus, Saturn and Sydyk are one and the same personage, and as the seven Kabiri are said to be the sons of Sydyk or Kronos-Saturn, the Kabiri and Titans are identical. For once the pious Faber was right in his conclusions when he wrote: "I have no doubt of the seven Titans and Kabiri being the same as the seven Rishis of the Hindu mythology (?), who are said to have escaped in a boat along with Manu, the head (?) of the family."
But he is less fortunate in his speculations when he adds "The Hindoos, in their wild legends have variously perverted the history of the Noachidae (? !), yet it is remarkable that they seem to have religiously adhered to the number seven." Hence Captain (Col.) Wilford very judiciously observes: that "Perhaps the seven Manus, the seven Brahmadicas and the seven Rishis are the same, and make only seven individual persons. ∫∫ The seven Brahmadicas were Prajβpatis, or lords 'of the prajas or creatures.' From them mankind was born, and they are probably the same with the seven Manus. . . . These seven grand ancestors of the human race were created for the purpose of replenishing the Earth with inhabitants." (Asiatic Researches, Vol. V. p. 246); and Faber adds that: "the mutual resemblance of the Kabirs, the Titans, the Rishis, and the Noetic family, is too striking to be the effect of mere accident." Ά
Faber was led into this mistake, and subsequently built his entire theory
concerning the Kabiri, on the fact that the name of the scriptural
* Agruerus is Kronos, or Saturn, and the prototype of the
Israelitish Jehovah. As connected with Argha, the Moon or Ark of
salvation, Noah is mythologically one with Saturn. But then this cannot relate
to the terrestrial flood. (But see Faber's "Kabiri," Vol. I, pp. 35,
43, and 45.)
See ibid., Vol. II., p. 240.
Sanchoniathon says that the Titans were the sons of Kronos, and seven in number; and he calls them fire-worshippers, Aletζ (sons of Agni?), and diluvians. Al-ait is the god of fire.
§ Of which seven, let us remark, the Aryans, and not the Semites, were the originators, while the Jews got that number from the Chaldeans.
∫∫ Seven individual sons of God, or Pitars and Pitris; also in this case the sons of Kronos or Saturn (Kβla "time") and Arkites, like the Kabiri and Titans, as their name "lunar ancestors" shows, the Moon being the Ark, or Argha, on the watery abyss of space.
Ά See "Kabiri," Vol. I., p. 131.
Japhet is on the list of the Titans contained in a verse of the Orphic hymns. According to Orpheus the names of the seven "Arkite" Titans (whom Faber refuses to identify with the impious Titans, their descendants) were Kus, Krus, Phorcys, Kronos, Oceanus, Hyperion, and Iapetus:
Koi'o;n te, Kroion te melan, Forkun te krataio;n,
Kai Kronon, Wkeanon dΕ,ΤTperivoa te Iapetuvnte.
(Orph. apud Proclum. In Tim. lib. v. p. 295.
But why could not the Babylonian Ezra have adopted the name of Iapetos for one of Noah's sons? The Kabiri, who are the Titans, are also called Manes and their mother Mania, according to Arnobius. (Adversum Gentes, lib. III., p. 124.) The Hindus can therefore claim with far more reason that the Manes mean their Manus, and that Mania is the female Manu. (See Ramayana.) Mania is Ila or Ida, the wife and daughter of Vaivasvata Manu, from whom "he begat the race of Manus." Like Rhea, the mother of the Titans, she is the Earth (Sayana making her the goddess of the Earth), and she is but the second edition and repetition of Vβch. Both Ida and Vβch are turned into males and females; Ida becoming Sudyumna, and Vβch, "the female Virβj," turning into a woman in order to punish the Gandharvas; one version referring to cosmic and divine theogony, the other to the later period. The Manes and Mania of Arnobius are names of Indian origin, appropriated by the Greeks and Latins and disfigured by them.
Thus it is no accident, but the result of one archaic doctrine common to all,
of which the Israelites, through Ezra, the author of the modernised Mosaic
books, were the latest adapters. So unceremonious were they with other people's
property, that Berosus (Antiquitates Libyζ, I, fol. 8), shows
that Titea of whom Diodorus makes the mother of the Titans or
Diluvians (See Bibl. lib. III. p. 170) was the wife of
Noah. For this Faber calls him the "pseudo-Berosus," yet
accepts the information in order to register one proof more that the pagans have
borrowed all their gods from the Jews, by transforming patriarchal material.
According to our humble opinion, this is one of the best proofs possible of
exactly the reverse. It shows as clearly as facts can show, that it is the
Biblical pseudo-personages which are all borrowed from pagan myths, if
myths they must be. It shows, at any rate, that Berosus was well aware of the
source of Genesis, and that it bore the same cosmic astronomical
character as the allegories of Isis-Osiris, and the Ark, and other older "Arkite"
symbols. For, Berosus says that "Titea magna" was afterwards called Aretia,*
and worshipped with the Earth; and this
*Aretia is the female form of Artes (Egyptian Mars). Thence the Chaldean (and
now Hebrew) word 
(Aretz)
"Earth." The author of "Beitrage zur Kenntniss" (Art. under "Artes"
Mars) quotes: "Addit Cedrenus (Salem I., 3): Stella
Martis ab Egyptiis vocatur Ertosi (plantare,
generare). Significat autem hoc omnis generis procreationem et vivificationem,
omnisque substantiζ et materiζ naturam et vim ordinantem atque procreantem."
It is Earth as "source of being"; or, as explained by the author of "The
Source of Measures," Arts is the same in Hebrew and Egyptian,
and both combine the primeval idea of Earth as source; precisely as in
the Hebrew itself, under another form, Adam and Madim, (Mars)
are the same, and combine the idea of Earth with Adam under the form of
H-Adam-H.
identifies "Titea," Noah's consort, with Rhea, the mother of the Titans, and with Ida both being goddesses who preside over the Earth, and the mothers of the Manus and Manes (or Tit-an-Kabiri). And "Titea-Aretia" was worshipped as Horchia, says the same Berosus, and this is a title of Vesta, goddess of the Earth. "Sicanus deificavit Aretiam, et nominavit eam linguβ Janigena Horchiam." (Ibid. lib. V. fol. 64.)
Scarce an ancient poet of historic or prehistoric days who failed to mention the sinking of the two continents often called isles in one form or another. Hence the destruction, besides Atlantis, of the Phlegyζ. (See Pausanias and Nonus, who both tell how:
"From its deep-rooted base the Phlegyan isle
Stern Neptune shook, and plunged beneath the waves
Its impious inhabitants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ."
Dionysius lib xviii. p. 319).
Faber felt convinced that the "insulζ Phlegyζ" were Atlantis. But all such allegories are more or less distorted echoes of the Hindu tradition about that great Cataclysm, which befell the Fourth, really human, though gigantic, Race, the one which preceded the Aryan. Yet, as just said, like all other legends, that of "the Deluge has more than one meaning. It refers in Theogony, to pre-cosmic transformations, to spiritual correlations however absurd the term may sound to a scientific ear and also to subsequent Cosmogony; to the great FLOOD of WATERS (matter) in CHAOS, awakened and fructified by those Spirit-Rays which were swamped by, and perished in, the mysterious differentiation a pre-cosmic mystery, the Prologue to the drama of Being. Anu, Bel, and Noah preceded Adam Kadmon, Adam the Red, and Noah; just as Brahmβ, Vishnu, and Siva preceded Vaivasvata and the rest." (See "Isis Unveiled.," Vol. II., pp. 420 et seq., where one or two of the seven meanings are hinted at.)
All this goes to show that the semi-universal deluge known to
geology (first glacial period) must have occurred just at the time allotted to
it by the Secret Doctrine: namely, 200,000 years (in round numbers) after the
commencement of our FIFTH RACE, or about the time assigned by Messrs. Croll and
Stockwell for the first glacial period: i.e., about 850,000 years ago.
Thus, as the latter disturbance is attributed by geologists and astronomers to
"an extreme eccentricity of the Earth's
orbit," and as the Secret Doctrine attributes it to the same source, but with the addition of another factor, the shifting of the Earth's axis a proof of which may be found in the Book of Enoch,* if the veiled language of the Purβnas is not understood all this should tend to show that the ancients knew something of the "modern discoveries" of Science. Enoch, when speaking of "the great inclination of the Earth," which "is in travail," is quite significant and clear.
Is not this evident? Nuah is Noah, floating on the waters in his ark; the latter being the emblem of the Argha, or Moon, the feminine principle; Noah is the "spirit" falling into matter. We find him, as soon as he descends upon the Earth, planting a vineyard, drinking of the wine, and getting drunk on it, i.e., the pure spirit becomes intoxicated as soon as it is finally imprisoned in matter. The seventh chapter of Genesis is only another version of the First. Thus, while the latter reads: "and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," in ch. 7 it is said " . . . and the waters prevailed . . . and the ark went (with Noah, the spirit) upon the face of the waters." Thus Noah, if identical with the Chaldean Nuah, is the spirit vivifying matter, which latter is Chaos, represented by the DEEP, or the Waters of the Flood. In the Babylonian legend (the pre-cosmical blended with the terrestrial event) it is Ishtar (Astaroth or Venus, the lunar goddess) who is shut up in the ark and sends out "a dove in search of dry land." ("Isis Unveiled" Vol. II, pp. 423 and 424).
George Smith notes in the "Tablets," first the creation of the moon, and then that of the sun: "Its beauty and perfection are extolled, and the regularity of its orbit, which led to its being considered the type of a judge and the regulator of the world." If this story related simply to a cosmogonical cataclysm even were this latter universal why should the goddess Ishtar or Astoreth, the Moon, speak of the creation of the sun after the deluge? The waters might have reached as high as the mountain of Nizir (Chaldean version), or Jebel Djudi (the deluge mountains of the Arabian legend), or yet Ararat (of the Biblical narrative), and even the Himalaya (of the Hindu tradition), and yet not reach the sun: the Bible itself stopped short of such a miracle! It is evident that the deluge of the people who first recorded it had another meaning, less problematical and far more philosophical than that of an universal deluge, of which there are no geological traces whatever.
As all such Cataclysms are periodical and cyclical, and as Manu Vaivasvata
figures as a generic character, under various circumstances and events
(vide infra: "The Seven Manus of Humanity"), there seems to be
no
* Chap. lxiv., Sect. xi.
serious objection to the supposition that the first "great flood" had an allegorical, as well as a cosmic meaning, and that it happened at the end of the Satya Yuga, the "age of Truth," when the Second Root Race, "The Manu with bones," made its primeval appearance as "the Sweat-Born." *
The Second Flood the so-called "universal" which affected the Fourth
Root Race (now conveniently regarded by theology as "the accursed race of
giants," the CAINITES, and "the sons of Ham") is that flood
which was first perceived by geology. If one carefully compares the accounts in
the various legends of the Chaldees and other exoteric works of the nations, it
will be found that all of them agree with the orthodox narratives given in the
Brahmanical books. And it may be perceived that while, in the first account,
"there is no God or mortal yet on Earth," when Manu Vaivasvata lands on the
Himavan; in the second, the Seven Rishis are allowed to keep him company: thus
showing that whereas some accounts refer to the sidereal and cosmic
FLOOD
before the so-called creation, the others treat, one of the Great Flood of
Matter on Earth, and the other of a real watery deluge. In the Satapatha
Brβhmana, Manu finds that "the Flood had swept away all living creatures,
and he alone was left" i.e., the seed of life alone remained from
the previous dissolution of the Universe, or Mahapralaya,
after a "Day of Brahmβ"; and the Mahabhβrata refers simply to
the geological cataclysm which swept away nearly all the Fourth Race to make
room for the Fifth. Therefore is Vaivasvata Manu shown under three distinct
attributes in our esoteric Cosmogony: (a) as the "Root-Manu"
* All such expressions are explained in the "Anthropogenesis"
of this Book, and elsewhere.
One has to remember that, in the Hindu philosophy, every differentiated
unit is such only through the cycles of Maya, being one in its essence with the
Supreme or One Spirit. Hence arises the seeming confusion and contradiction in
the various Purβnas, and at times in the same Purβna, about the same individual.
Vishnu as the many-formed Brahmβ, and as Brahma (neuter) is one, and yet
he is said to be all the 28 Vyasas (Vishnu Purβna). "In every
Dvapara (third) age, Vishnu, in the person of Vyasa, divides the Veda,
which is one, into four and many portions. Twenty-eight times have the Vedas
been arranged by the great Rishis in the Vaivasvata Manvantara, in the Dvapara
Yuga . . . and, consequently, twenty-eight Vyasas have passed away . . . they
who were all in the form of Veda-Vyasas, who were the Vyasas of their
respective eras. . . . " (Book III., Ch. III.) "This world is Brahmβ in
Brahmβ, from Brahmβ . . . nothing further to be known." Then, again . . . "There
were in the First Manvantara seven celebrated sons of Vasishta, who in the
Third Manvantara, were sons of Brahmβ (i.e., Rishis), the
illustrious progeny of Urja." This is plain: the Humanity of the First
Manvantara is that of the seventh and of all the intermediate ones. The mankind
of the First Root-Race is the mankind of the second, third, fourth, fifth,
etc. To the last it forms a cyclic and constant reincarnation of the Monads
belonging to the Dhyan Chohans of our Planetary chain.
on Globe A in the First Round; (b) as the "seed of life" on Globe D in the Fourth Round; and (c) as the "Seed of Man" at the beginning of every Root-Race in our Fifth Race especially. The very commencement of the latter witnesses, during the Dvapara Yuga,* the destruction of the accursed sorcerers; "of that island (Plato speaking only of its last island) beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in the Atlantic Ocean, from which there was an easy transition to other islands in the neighbourhood of another large Continent" (America). It is this "Atlantic" land which was connected with the "White Island," and this White Island was Ruta; but it was not the Atala and the "White Devil" of Colonel Wilford (see "Asiatic Researches," Vol. VIII., p. 280), as already shown. It may well be remarked here that the Dvapara Yuga lasts 864,000 years, according to the Sanskrit texts; and that, if the Kali Yuga began only about 5,000 years ago, that it is just 869,000 since that destruction took place. Again, these figures are not very widely different from those given by the geologists, who place their "glacial period" 850,000 years ago.
Then "a woman was produced who came to Manu and declared herself his
daughter, with whom he lived and begat the offspring of Manu."
This refers to the physiological transformation of sexes during the Third
Root-Race. And the allegory is too transparently clear to need much explanation.
Of course, as already remarked, in the separation of sexes an androgyne being
was supposed to divide his body into two halves (as in the case of Brahmβ and
Vβch, and even of Adam and Eve), and thus the female is, in a certain sense, his
daughter, just as he will be her son, "the flesh of his (and her) flesh and the
bone of his (and her) bone." Let it be also well remembered that not one of our
Orientalists have yet learned to discern in those "contradictions and amazing
nonsense," as some call the Purβnas, that a reference to a Yuga may mean a
Round, a Root-Race, and often a Sub-Race, as well as form a page torn
out of pre-cosmic theogony. This double and triple meaning is proved by various
references to one and the same individual apparently, under an identical name,
while it refers, in fact, to events divided by entire Kalpas. A good instance is
that of Ila. She is first represented as one thing and then as another. In the
exoteric legends it is said that Manu Vaivasvata, desiring to create sons,
instituted a sacrifice to Mitra and Varuna; but, through a mistake of the
officiating
* The Dvapara Yuga differs for each Race. All races have their own cycles,
which fact causes a great difference. For instance, the Fourth Sub-Race of the
Atlanteans was in its Kali-Yug, when destroyed, whereas the Fifth was in its
Satya or Krita Yuga. The Aryan Race is now in its Kali Yuga, and will
continue to be in it for 427,000 years longer, while various "family Races,"
called the Semitic, Hamitic, etc., are in their own special cycles. The
forthcoming 6th Sub Race which may begin very soon will be in its Satya
(golden) age while we reap the fruit of our iniquity in our Kali Yuga.
Brahman, a daughter only was obtained Ila. Then, "through the favour of the gods," her sex is changed and she becomes a man, Su-dyumna. Then she is again turned into a woman, and so on; the fable adding that Siva and his consort were pleased that "she would be male one month and female another." This has a direct reference to the Third Root-Race, whose men were androgynes. But some very learned Orientalists think (see "Hindu Classical Dictionary") and have declared that "Ila was primarily food, nourishment, or a libation of milk; thence a stream of praise, personified as the goddess of speech." The "profane" are not told, however, the reason why "a libation of milk," or "a stream of praise," should be male and female by turn: unless, indeed there is some "internal evidence" which the occultists fail to perceive.
In their most mystical meanings, the union of Swβyambhϋva Manu with Vβch-Sata-Rupa, his own daughter (this being the first "euhemerization" of the dual principle of which Vaivasvata Manu and Ila are a secondary and a third form), stands in Cosmic symbolism as the Root-life, the germ from which spring all the Solar Systems, the worlds, angels and the gods. For, as says Vishnu:
"From Manu all creation, gods, Asuras, man must be produced,
By him the world must be created, that which moves and moveth not. . . . ."
But we may find worse opponents than even the Western Scientists and Orientalists. If, on the question of figures, Brahmins may agree with our teaching, we are not so sure that some of them, orthodox conservatives, may not raise objections to the modes of procreation attributed to their Pitar Devatas. We shall be called upon to produce the works from which we quote, while they will be invited by us to read their own Purβnas a little more carefully and with an eye to the esoteric meaning. And then, we repeat again, they will find, under the veil of more or less transparent allegories, every statement made herein corroborated by their own works. One or two instances have already been given as regards the appearance of the Second Race, which is called the "Sweat-Born." This allegory is regarded as a fairy-tale, and yet it conceals a psycho-physiological phenomenon, and one of the greatest mysteries of Nature.
But in view of the chronological statements made herein, it is natural to ask:
To this Occultism answers in the affirmative, notwithstanding all scientific
objectors. Moreover, this duration covers only the Vaivasvata-Manu Man,
i.e., the male and female entity already separated into
distinct sexes. The two and a half Races that preceded that event may have lived 300,000,000 years ago for all that science can tell. For the geological and physical difficulties in the way of the theory could not exist for the primeval, ethereal man of the Occult teachings. The whole issue of the quarrel between the profane and the esoteric sciences depends upon the belief in, and demonstration of, the existence of an astral body within the physical, the former independent of the latter. Paul d'Assier, the Positivist, seems to have proven the fact pretty plainly,* not to speak of the accumulated testimony of the ages, and that of the modern spiritualists and mystics. It will be found difficult to reject this fact in our age of proofs, tests, and ocular demonstrations.
The Secret Doctrine maintains that, notwithstanding the general cataclysms
and disturbances of our globe, which owing to its being the period of its
greatest physical development, for the Fourth Round is the middle-point of the
life allotted to it were far more terrible and intense than during any of the
three preceding Rounds (the cycles of its earlier psychic and spiritual life and
of its semi-ethereal conditions) physical Humanity has existed upon it for the
last 18,000,000 years. This period was preceded by 300,000,000 years of the
mineral and vegetable development. To this, all those who refuse to accept the
theory of a "boneless," purely ethereal, man, will object. Science, which knows
only of physical organisms, will feel indignant; and materialistic
theology still more so. The first will object on logical and reasonable grounds,
based on the preconception that all animate organisms have always existed on the
same plane of materiality in all the ages; the last on a tissue of most absurd
fictions. The ridiculous claim usually brought forward by theologians, is based
on the virtual assumption that mankind (read Christians) on this planet have the
honour of being the only human beings in the whole Kosmos, who dwell on a globe,
and that they are consequently, the best of their kind.
* "Posthumous Humanity" translated by H. S. Olcott,
London, 1887.
Professor Newcomb says: "The heat evolved by contraction would last only 18,000,000 years" ("Popular Astronomy," p. 500); but "a temperature permitting the existence of water could not be reached earlier than 10,000,000 years ago" (Winchell's "World-Life," p. 356). But Sir W. Thomson says that the whole age of the incrustation of the Earth is 18,000,000 years, though, this year, he has again altered his opinion and allows only 15,000,000 years as the age of the Sun. As will be shown in the Addenda, the divergence of scientific opinions is so great that no reliance can ever be placed upon scientific speculation.
The essay on "The Plurality of Worlds" (1853)
an
anonymous work, yet well known to have been the production of Dr. Whewell is
a good proof of this. No Christian ought to believe in either the plurality of
worlds or the geological age of the globe, argues the Author; because, if it is
asserted that this world is only one among the many of its kind, which are all
the work of God, as it is itself; that all are the seat of life, all the realm and dwelling
of intelligent creatures endowed with will, subject to law and capable of
free-will; then, it would become extravagant to think that our world should have
been the subject of God's favours and His special interference, of His
communications and His personal visit. . . . . . . Can the Earth
presume to be considered the centre of the moral and religious Universe, he
asks, if it has not the slightest distinction to rely upon in the physical
Universe? Is it not as absurd to uphold such an assertion (of the plurality of
inhabited worlds), as it would be to-day to uphold the old hypothesis of
Ptolemy, who placed Earth in the centre of our system? . . . The above is quoted
from memory, yet almost textually. The author fails to see that he is
bursting his own soap-bubble with such a defence.
The Occultists, who believe firmly in the teachings of the mother-philosophy, repel the objections of both theologians and scientists. They maintain, on their side, that, during those periods when there must have been insufferable heat, even at the two poles, successive floods, upheaval of the valleys and constant shifting of the great waters and seas, none of these circumstances could form an impediment to human life and organization, such as is assigned by them to the early mankind. Neither the heterogeneity of ambient regions, full of deleterious gases, nor the perils of a crust hardly consolidated, could prevent the First and Second Races from making their appearance even during the Carboniferous, or the Silurian age itself.
Thus the Monads destined to animate future Races were ready for the new transformation. They had passed their phases of immetalization, of plant and animal life, from the lowest to the highest, and were waiting for their human, more intelligent form. Yet, what could the plastic modellers do but follow the laws of evolutionary Nature? Could they, as claimed by the Biblical dead-letter, form "Lord-God"-like, or as Pygmalion in the Greek allegory, Adam-Galatea out of volcanic dust, and breathe a living soul into Man? No: because the soul was already there, latent in its Monad, and needed but a coating. Pygmalion, who fails to animate his statue, and Bahak-Zivo of the Nazarean Gnostics, who fails to construct "a human soul in the creature," are, as conceptions, far more philosophical and scientific than Adam, taken in the dead-letter sense, or the Biblical Elohim-Creators. Esoteric philosophy, which teaches spontaneous generation after the Sishta and Prajβpati have thrown the seed of life on the Earth shows the lower angels able to construct physical man only, even with the help of Nature, after having evolved the ethereal form out of themselves, and leaving the physical form to evolve gradually from its ethereal, or what would now be called, protoplasmic model.
This will again be objected to: "Spontaneous Generation" is an exploded
theory, we shall be told. Pasteur's experiments disposed of it twenty years ago,
and Professor Tyndall is against it. Well, suppose he is? He ought to know that,
should spontaneous generation
151
SPONTANEOUS GENERATION.
be indeed proven impossible in our present world-period and actual conditions which the Occultists deny still it would be no demonstration that it could not have taken place under different cosmic conditions, not only in the seas of the Laurentian period, but even on the then convulsed Earth. It would be interesting to know how Science could ever account for the appearance of species and life on Earth, especially of Man, once that she rejects both the Biblical teachings and spontaneous generation. Pasteur's observations, however, are far from being perfect or proven. Blanchard and Dr. Lutaud reject their importance and show that they have none. The question is so far left sub judice, as well as that other one "when, at what period, life appeared on the Earth?" As to the idea that Hζckel's Moneron a pinch of salt! has solved the problem of the origin of life, it is simply absurd. Those materialists, who feel inclined to pooh-pooh the theory of the "Self-existent," the "Self-born heavenly man," represented as an ethereal, astral man, must excuse even a tyro in Occultism laughing, in his turn, at some speculations of modern thought. After proving most learnedly that the primitive speck of protoplasm (moneron) is neither animal nor plant, but both, and that it has no ancestors among either of these, since it is that moneron which serves as a point of departure for all organized existence, we are finally told that the Monera are their own ancestors. This may be very scientific, but it is very metaphysical also; too much so, even for the Occultist.
If spontaneous generation has changed its methods now, owing perhaps to
accumulated material on hand, so as to almost escape detection, it was in full
swing in the genesis of terrestrial life. Even the simple physical form and the
evolution of species show how Nature proceeds. The scale-bound, gigantic sauria,
the winged pterodactyl, the Megalosaurus, and the hundred-feet long Iguanodon of
the later period, are the transformations of the earliest representatives of the
animal kingdom found in the sediments of the primary epoch. There was a time
when all those above enumerated "antediluvian" monsters appeared as filamentoid
infusoria without shell or crust, with neither nerves, muscles, organs nor sex,
and reproduced their kind by gemmation: as do microscopical animals also, the
architects and builders of our mountain ranges, agreeably to the teachings of
science. Why not man in this case? Why should he not have followed the same law
in his growth, i.e., gradual condensation? Every unprejudiced person
would prefer to believe that primeval humanity had at first an ethereal or,
if so preferred, a huge filamentoid, jelly-like form, evolved by gods or natural
"forces," which grew, condensed throughout millions of ages, and became gigantic
in its physical impulse and tendency, until it settled into the huge, physical
form of the Fourth Race Man, rather
than believe him created of the dust of the Earth (literally), or from some unknown anthropoid ancestor.
Nor does our esoteric theory clash with scientific data, except on first appearance, as Dr. A. Wilson, F.R.S., says, in a letter to "Knowledge," (Dec. 23, 1881). "Evolution rather Nature, in the light of evolution has only been studied for some twenty-five years or so. That is, of course, a mere fractional space in the history of human thought." And just because of that we do not lose all hope that materialistic science will amend its ways, and will gradually accept the esoteric teachings if even at first divorced from their (to science) too metaphysical elements.
Has the last word on the subject of human evolution yet been said? "Each . . . . answer to the great Question (Man's Real Place in Nature), invariably asserted by the followers of its propounder, if not by himself, to be complete and final, remains in high authority and esteem, it may be for one century, it may be for twenty," writes Prof. Huxley; "but, as invariably, time proves each reply to have been a mere approximation to the truth tolerable chiefly on account of the ignorance of those by whom it was accepted, and wholly intolerable when tested by the larger knowledge of their successors"! ! Will this eminent Darwinian admit the possibility of his pithecoid ancestry being assignable to the list of "wholly intolerable beliefs," in the "larger knowledge" of Occultists? But whence the savage? Mere "rising to the civilized state" does not account for the evolution of form.
In the same letter, "The Evolution of Man," Dr. Wilson makes other strange confessions. Thus, he observes, in answer to the queries put to "Knowledge" by "G. M.":
" 'Has evolution effected any change in man? If so, what change? If not, why not?' . . . If we refuse to admit (as science does) that man was created a perfect being, and then became degraded, there exists only another supposition that of evolution. If man has arisen from a savage to a civilized state, that surely is evolution. We do not yet know, because such knowledge is difficult to acquire, if the human frame is subject to the same influences as those of lower animals. But there is little doubt that elevation from savagery to civilized life means and implies 'evolution,' and that of considerable extent. Mentally, man's evolution cannot be doubted; the ever-widening sphere of thought has sprung from small and rude beginnings, like language itself. But man's ways of life, his power of adaptation to his surroundings, and countless other circumstances, have made the facts and course of his 'evolution' very difficult to trace."
This very difficulty ought to make the Evolutionists more cautious in their
affirmations. But why is evolution impossible, if "man was created a
perfect being, and then became degraded?" At best it can only apply
to the outward, physical man. As remarked in "Isis Unveiled," Darwin's evolution begins at the middle point, instead of commencing for man, as for everything else, from the universals. The Aristotle-Baconian method may have its advantages, but it has undeniably already demonstrated its defects. Pythagoras and Plato, who proceeded from the Universals downwards, are now shown more learned, in the light of modern science, than was Aristotle. For he opposed and denounced the idea of the revolution of the earth and even of its rotundity. "Almost all those," he wrote, "who affirm that they have studied heaven in its uniformity, claim that the earth is in the centre, but the philosophers of the Italian School, otherwise called the Pythagoreans, teach entirely the contrary. . . ." Because (a) the Pythagoreans were Initiates, and (b) they followed the deductive method. Whereas, Aristotle, the father of the inductive system, complained of those who taught that "the centre of our system was occupied by the Sun, and the earth was only a star, which by a rotatory motion around the same centre, produces night and day" (Vide De Cζlo, Book II., c. 13.) The same with regard to man. The theory taught in the Secret Doctrine, and now expounded, is the only one, which can without falling into the absurdity of a "miraculous" man created out of the dust of the Earth, or the still greater fallacy of man evolving from a pinch of lime-salt, (the ex-protoplasmic moneron) account for his appearance on Earth.
Analogy is the guiding law in Nature, the only true Ariadne's thread
that can lead us, through the inextricable paths of her domain, toward her
primal and final mysteries. Nature, as a creative potency, is infinite, and no
generation of physical scientists can ever boast of having exhausted the list of
her ways and methods, however uniform the laws upon which she proceeds. If we
can conceive of a ball of Fire-mist becoming gradually as it rolls through
ζons of time in the interstellar spaces a planet, a self-luminous globe, to
settle into a man-bearing world or Earth, thus having passed from a
soft plastic body into a rock-bound globe; and if we see on it everything
evolving from the non-nucleated jelly-speck that becomes the sarcode * of the
moneron, then passes from its protistic state into the form of
an animal, to grow into a gigantic reptilian monster of the Mesozoic times; then
dwindles again into the (comparatively) dwarfish crocodile, now confined solely
to tropical
* Or what is more generally known as Protoplasm. This substance
received its name of "Sarcode" from Prof. Dujardin Beaumetz far
earlier.
The Monera are indeed Protista. They are neither animals "nor
plants," writes Hζckel; " . . . the whole body of the Moneron represents
nothing more than a single thoroughly homogeneous particle of albumen in a
firmly adhesive condition." ("Journal of Microscopical Science,"
Jan., 1869, p. 28.)
regions, and the universally common lizard * how can man alone escape the general law? "There were giants on earth in those days," says Genesis, repeating the statement of all the other Eastern Scriptures; and the Titans are founded on anthropological and physiological fact.
And, as the hard-shelled crustacean was once upon a time a jelly-speck, "a thoroughly homogeneous particle of albumen in a firmly adhesive condition," so was the outward covering of primitive man, his early "coat of skin," plus an immortal spiritual monad, and a psychic temporary form and body within that shell. The modern, hard, muscular man almost impervious to any climate, was, perhaps, some 25,000,000 years ago, just what the Hζckelian Moneron is, strictly "an organism without organs," an entirely homogeneous substance with a structureless albumen body within, and a human form only outwardly.
No man of science has the right, in this century, to find the figures of the Brahmins preposterous in the question of Chronology; for their own calculations often exceed by far the claims made by esoteric science. This may easily be shown.
Helmholtz calculated that the cooling of our Earth from a temperature of 2,000° to 200° Cent. must have occupied a period of no less than 350,000,000 years. Western science (including geology) seems generally to allow our globe an age of about 500,000,000 years altogether. Sir W. Thomson, however, limits the appearance of the earliest vegetable life to 100,000,000 years ago a statement respectfully contradicted by the archaic records. Speculations, furthermore, vary daily in the domains of science. Meanwhile, some geologists are very much opposed to such limitation. "Volger . . . . calculates, that the time requisite for the deposit of the strata known to us must at least have amounted to 648 millions of years . . . . " Both time and space are infinite and eternal. "The Earth, as a material existence, is indeed infinite; the changes only which it has undergone can be determined by finite periods of time" (Burmeister). "We must therefore assume that the starry heaven is not merely in space, what no astronomer doubts, but also in time, without beginning or end; that it never was created, and is imperishable." (See Czolbe).
Czolbe repeats exactly what the Occultists say. But the Aryan Occultists, we
may be told, knew nothing of these later speculations. "They were even ignorant
of the globular form of our earth."
* Behold the Iguanodon of the Mesozoic ages the monster 100 feet
long now transformed into the small Iguana lizard of South America. Popular
traditions about giants in days of old, and their mention in every
mythology, including the Bible, may some day be shown to be founded on fact. In
nature, the logic of analogy alone ought to make us accept these traditions
as scientific verities.
"Force and Matter"; by L. Buchner, edited by J.
F. Collingwood, F.R.S.L., p. 61.
(Coleman.) To this the Vishnu Purβna contains a reply, which has forced certain Orientalists to open their eyes very widely.
. . . "The Sun is stationed, for all time, in the middle of the day, and over against midnight, in all the Dwipas (continents), Maitreya! But the rising and the setting of the Sun being perpetually opposite to each other and in the same way, all the cardinal points, and so the cross-points, Maitreya; people speak of the rising of the Sun where they see it; and where the Sun disappears, there, to them, is his setting. Of the Sun, which is always in one and the same place, there is neither setting nor rising, for what is called rising and setting are only the seeing and the not seeing the Sun." (Vishnu Purβna, Book IL, ch. viii.)
To this Fitzedward Hall remarks, "The Heliocentricism taught in this passage is remarkable. It is contradicted, however, a little further on." Contradicted purposely, because it was a secret temple-teaching. Martin Haug remarked the same teaching in another passage. It is useless to calumniate the Aryans any longer.
To return to the Chronology of the geologists and anthropologists. We are afraid Science has no reasonable grounds on which she could oppose the views of the Occultists in this direction. Except that "of man, the highest organic being of creation, not a trace was found in the primary strata; only in the uppermost, the so-called alluvial layer," is all that can be urged, so far. That man was not the last member in the mammalian family, but the first in this Round, is something that science will be forced to acknowledge one day. A similar view also has already been mooted in France on very high authority.
That man can be shown to have lived in the mid-Tertiary period, and in a
geological age when there did not yet exist one single specimen of the now
known species of mammals, is a statement that science cannot deny
and which has now been proven by de Quatrefages.* But even supposing his
existence in the Eocene period is not yet demonstrated, what period of time has
elapsed since the Cretaceous period? We are aware of the fact that only the
boldest geologists dare to place man further back than the Miocene age. But how
long, we ask, is the duration of those ages and periods since the Mesozoic time?
On this, after a good deal of speculation and wrangling, science is silent, the
greatest authorities upon the subject being compelled to answer to the question:
"We do not know." This ought to show that the men of science are no greater
authorities in this matter than are the profane. If, according to Prof. Huxley,
"the time represented by the coal formation would be six millions of years,
how many more millions would be required to cover
* "Introduction a l'Etude des Races Humaines."
"Modern Science and Modern Thought," by S. Laing, p. 32.
the time from the Jurassic period, or the middle of the so-called "Reptilian" age (when the Third Race appeared), up to the Miocene, when the bulk of the Fourth Race was submerged? *
The writer is well aware that those specialists, whose computations of the ages of the globe and man are the most liberal, always had the shyer majority against them. But this proves very little, since the majority rarely, if ever, turns out to be right in the long run. Harvey stood alone for many years. The advocates for crossing the Atlantic with steamers were in danger of ending their days in a lunatic asylum. Mesmer is classed to this day (in the Encyclopζdias) along with Cagliostro, and St. Germain, as a charlatan and impostor. And now that Messrs. Charcot and Richet have vindicated Mesmer's claims, and that "Mesmerism" under its new name of Hypnotism a false nose on a very old face is accepted by science, it does not strengthen one's respect for that majority, when one sees the ease and unconcern with which its members treat of "Hypnotism," "Telepathic Impacts," and its other phenomena. They speak of it, in short, as if they had believed in it since the days of Solomon, and had never called its votaries, only a few years ago, "lunatics and impostors!"
The same revulsion of thought is in store for the long period of years, claimed by esoteric philosophy as the age of sexual and physiological mankind. Therefore even the Stanza which says:
"The mind-born, the boneless, gave being to the will-born with bones"; adding that this took place in the middle of the Third Race 18,000,000 years ago has yet a chance of being accepted by future scientists.
As far as XIXth century thought is concerned, we shall be told, even
by some personal friends who are imbued with an abnormal respect for the
shifting conclusions of science, that such a statement is absurd. How much more
improbable will appear our further assertion, to the effect that the antiquity
of the First Race dates back millions of years beyond this again. For,
although the exact figures are withheld, and it is out of the question to refer
the incipient evolution of the primeval Divine
* "Esoteric Buddhism," p. 70.
The same fate is in store for spiritualistic phenomena and all the other
psychological manifestations of the inner Man. Since the days of Hume,
whose researches culminated in a nihilistic idealism, Psychology has gradually
shifted its position to one of crass materialism. Hume is regarded as a
psychologist, and yet he denied a priori the possibility of phenomena
in which millions now believe, including many men of science. The Hylo-idealists
of to-day are rank Annihilationists. The schools of Spencer and Bain
are respectively positivist and materialist, and not metaphysical at all. It is
psychism and not psychology; it reminds one as little of the
Vedantic teaching as the pessimism of Schopenhauer and von Hartmann recalls the
esoteric philosophy, the heart and soul of true Buddhism.
Races with certainty to either the early Secondary, or the Primary ages of geology, one thing is clear: that the figures 18,000,000 of years, which embrace the duration of sexual, physical, man, have to be enormously increased if the whole process of spiritual, astral and physical development is taken into account. Many geologists, indeed, consider that the duration of the Quaternary and Tertiary Ages demands the concession of such an estimate; and it is quite certain that no terrestrial conditions whatever negative the hypothesis of an Eocene Man, if evidence for his reality is forthcoming. Occultists, who maintain that the above date carries us far back into the secondary or "Reptilian" age, may refer to M. de Quatrefages in support of the possible existence of man in that remote antiquity. But with regard to the earliest Root-Races the case is very different. If the thick agglomeration of vapours, charged with carbonic acid, that escaped from the soil or was held in suspension in the atmosphere since the commencement of sedimentation, offered a fatal obstacle to the life of human organisms as now known, how, it will be asked, could the primeval men have existed? This consideration is, in reality, out of court. Such terrestrial conditions as were then operative had no touch with the plane on which the evolution of the ethereal astral races proceeded. Only in relatively recent geological periods, has the spiral course of cyclic law swept mankind into the lowest grade of physical evolution the plane of gross material causation. In those early ages, astral evolution was alone in progress, and the two planes, the astral and the physical,* though developing on parallel lines, had no direct point of contact with one another. It is obvious that a shadow-like ethereal man is related by virtue of his organization if such it can be called only to that plane from which the substance of his Upadhi is derived.
There are things, perhaps, that may have escaped the far-seeing but not all-seeing eyes of our modern naturalists; yet it is Nature herself who undertakes to furnish the missing links. Agnostic speculative thinkers have to choose between the version given by the Secret Doctrine of the East, and the hopelessly materialistic Darwinian and Biblical accounts of the origin of man; between no soul and no spiritual evolution, and the Occult doctrine which repudiates "Special creation" and the "Evolutionist" Anthropogenesis equally.
Again, to take up the question of "Spontaneous generation"; life as
science shows has not always reigned on this terrestrial plane.
* It must be noted that, though the astral and physical planes of matter ran
parallel with one another even in the earliest geological ages, yet they were
not in the same phases of manifestation in which they are now. The
Earth did not reach its present grade of density till 18,000,000 years
ago. Since then both the physical and astral planes have become
grosser.
There was a time when even the Hζckelian Moneron that simple globule of
Protoplasm had not yet appeared at the bottom of the seas. Whence came the
Impulse which caused the molecules of Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, etc.,
to group themselves into the Urschleim of Oken, that organic "slime,"
now christened protoplasm. What were the prototypes of the Monera? They, at
least, could not have fallen in meteorites from other globes already formed, Sir
W. Thomson's wild theory to this effect, notwithstanding. And if they have
so fallen; if our Earth got its supply of life-germs from other planets;
who, or what, had carried them into those planets? Here, again, unless
the Occult teaching is accepted, we are compelled once more to face a
miracle; to accept the theory of a personal, anthropomorphic Creator,
the attributes and definitions of whom, as formulated by the Monotheists,
clash as much with philosophy and logic, as they degrade the ideal of an
infinite Universal deity, before whose incomprehensible awful grandeur the
highest human intellect feels dwarfed. Let not the modern philosopher, while
arbitrarily placing himself on the highest pinnacle of human intellectuality
hitherto evolved, show himself spiritually and intuitionally so far below the
conceptions of even the ancient Greeks, themselves on a far lower level, in
these respects, than the philosophers of Eastern Aryan antiquity. Hylozoism,
when philosophically understood, is the highest aspect of Pantheism. It is the
only possible escape from idiotic atheism based on lethal materiality, and the
still more idiotic anthropomorphic conceptions of the monotheists; between which
two it stands on its own entirely neutral ground. Hylozoism demands
absolute Divine Thought, which would pervade the numberless active,
creating Forces, or "Creators"; which entities are moved by, and have
their being in, from, and through that Divine Thought; the latter, nevertheless,
having no more personal concern in them or their creations, than the
Sun has in the sun-flower and its seeds, or in vegetation in general. Such
active "Creators" are known to exist and are believed in, because perceived and
sensed by the inner man in the Occultist. Thus the latter says that an
ABSOLUTE Deity, having to be unconditioned and unrelated, cannot be thought of
at the same time as an active, creating, one living god, without immediate
degradation of the ideal.* A Deity that manifests in Space and Time
these two being simply the forms of THAT which is the Absolute
ALL
can be but a fractional part of the
* The conception and definition of the Absolute by Cardinal Cusa may
satisfy only the Western mind, prisoned, so unconsciously to itself, and
entirely degenerated by long centuries of scholastic and theological sophistry.
But this "Recent philosophy of the Absolute," traced by Sir W. Hamilton to Cusa,
would never satisfy the more acutely metaphysical mind of the Hindu Vedantin.
whole. And since that "all" cannot be divided in its absoluteness, therefore that sensed creator (we say Creators) can be at best but the mere aspect thereof. To use the same metaphor inadequate to express the full idea, yet well adapted to the case in hand these creators are like the numerous rays of the solar orb, which remains unconscious of, and unconcerned in, the work; while its mediating agents, the rays, become the instrumental media every spring the Manvantaric dawn of the Earth in fructifying and awakening the dormant vitality inherent in Nature and its differentiated matter. This was so well understood in antiquity, that even the moderately religious Aristotle remarked that such work of direct creation would be quite unbecoming to God ajprepe;ί tw' qew'. Plato and other philosophers taught the same: deity cannot set its own hand to creation, aujtournei'n a&panta. This Cudworth calls "Hylozoism." As old Zeno is credited by Laertius with having said, "Nature is a habit moved from itself, according to seminal principles; perfecting and containing those several things which in determinate times are produced from it, and acting agreeably to that from which it was secreted." *
Let us return to our subject, pausing to think over it. Indeed, if there was vegetable life during those periods that could feed on the then deleterious elements; and if there was even animal life whose aquatic organization could be developed, notwithstanding the supposed scarcity of Oxygen, why could there not be human life also, in its incipient physical form, i.e., in a race of beings adapted for that geological period and its surroundings? Besides, science confesses that it knows nothing of the real length of "geological periods."
But the chief question before us is, whether it is quite certain that, from
the time of that which is called the "Azoic" age, there ever was such an
atmosphere as that hypothesised by the Naturalists. Not all the physicists agree
with this idea. Were the writer anxious to corroborate the teachings of the
Secret Doctrine by exact science, it would be easy to show, on the admission of
more than one physicist, that the atmosphere has changed little, if at all,
since the first condensation of the oceans i.e., since the
Laurentian period, the Pyrolithic age. Such, at any rate, is the
opinion of Blanchard, S. Meunier, and even of Bischof as the experiments of
the latter scientist with basalts have shown. For were we to take the word of
the majority of scientists as to the quantity of deadly gases, and of elements
entirely saturated with carbon and nitrogen, in which the vegetable and animal
kingdoms are shown to have lived, thriven, and developed, then one would have to
come to the curious conclusion that there were, in those days, oceans
* Cudworth's "Intellectual System," I. p. 328.
of liquid carbonic acid, instead of water. With such an element, it becomes doubtful whether the Ganoids, or even the Primitive Trilobites themselves could live in the oceans of the primary age let alone in those of the Silurian, as shown by Blanchard.
The conditions that were necessary for the earliest race of mankind, however, require no elements, whether simple or compound. That which was stated at the beginning is maintained. The spiritual ethereal Entity which lived in Spaces unknown to Earth, before the first sidereal "jelly-speck" evolved in the ocean of crude Cosmic Matter, billions and trillions of years before our globular speck in infinity, called Earth, came into being and generated the Moneron in its drops, called Oceans needed no "elements." The "Manu with soft bones" could well dispense with calcic phosphate, as he had no bones, save in a figurative sense. And while even the Monera, however homogeneous their organism, still required physical conditions of life that would help them toward further evolution, the being which became primitive Man and the "Father of man," after evolving on planes of existence undreamt of by science, could well remain impervious to any state of atmospheric conditions around him. The primitive ancestor, in Brasseur de Bourbourg's "Popul-Vuh," who in the Mexican legends could act and live with equal ease under ground and water as upon the Earth, answers only to the Second and early Third Races in our texts. And if the three kingdoms of Nature were so different in pre-diluvian ages, why should not man have been composed of materials and combinations of atoms now entirely unknown to physical science? The plants and animals now known, in almost numberless varieties and species, have all developed, according to scientific hypotheses, from primitive and far fewer organic forms. Why should not the same have occurred in the case of man, the elements, and the rest? "Universal Genesis starts from the one, breaks into three, then five, and finally culminates into seven, to return into four, three, and one." (Commentary.)
For additional proofs consult Part II. of this Volume, "The Septenary in Nature."
§§ (24) The higher creators reject in their pride the forms evolved by the "Sons of Yoga." (25) They will not incarnate in the early "Egg-born." . . (26) They select the later androgynes. (27) The first man endowed with mind.
24. THE SONS OF WISDOM, THE SONS OF NIGHT (issued from the body of Brahmβ when it became Night), READY FOR RE-BIRTH, CAME DOWN. THEY SAW THE (intellectually) VILE FORMS OF THE FIRST THIRD (still senseless Race) (a). "WE CAN CHOOSE," SAID THE LORDS, "WE HAVE WISDOM." SOME ENTERED THE CHHAYAS. SOME PROJECTED A SPARK. SOME DEFERRED TILL THE FOURTH (Race). FROM THEIR OWN ESSENCE THEY FILLED (intensified) THE KAMA (the vehicle of desire). THOSE WHO RECEIVED BUT A SPARK REMAINED DESTITUTE OF (higher) KNOWLEDGE. THE SPARK BURNT LOW (b). THE THIRD REMAINED MIND-LESS. THEIR JIVAS (Monads) WERE NOT READY. THESE WERE SET APART AMONG THE SEVEN (primitive human species). THEY (became the) NARROW-HEADED. THE THIRD WERE READY. IN THESE SHALL WE DWELL, SAID THE LORDS OF THE FLAME AND OF THE DARK WISDOM (c).
This Stanza contains, in itself, the whole key to the mysteries of evil, the so-called Fall of the angels, and the many problems that have puzzled the brains of the philosophers from the time that the memory of man began. It solves the secret of the subsequent inequalities of intellectual capacity, of birth or social position, and gives a logical explanation to the incomprehensible Karmic course throughout the ζons which followed. The best explanation which can be given, in view of the difficulties of the subject, shall now be attempted.
(a) Up to the Fourth Round, and even to the later part of
the Third Race in this Round, Man if the ever-changing forms that
clothed the Monads during the first three Rounds and the first two and a half
races of the present one can be given that misleading name is, so far, only
an animal intellectually. It is only in the actual midway Round that he
develops in himself entirely the fourth principle as a fit vehicle for the
fifth. But Manas will be relatively fully developed only in the following Round, when it will have an opportunity of becoming entirely divine until the end of the Rounds. As Christian Schoettgen says in Horζ Hebraic, etc., the first terrestrial Adam "had only the breath of life," Nephesh, but not the living Soul.
(b) Here the inferior Races, of which there are still some analogues left as the Australians (now fast dying out) and some African and Oceanic tribes are meant. "They were not ready" signifies that the Karmic development of these Monads had not yet fitted them to occupy the forms of men destined for incarnation in higher intellectual Races. But this is explained later on.
(c) The Zohar speaks of "Black Fire," which is Absolute Light-Wisdom. To those who, prompted by old theological prejudice, may say: "But the Asuras are the rebel Devas, the opponents of the Gods hence devils, and the spirits of Evil," it is answered: Esoteric philosophy admits neither good nor evil per se, as existing independently in nature. The cause for both is found, as regards the Kosmos, in the necessity of contraries or contrasts, and with respect to man, in his human nature, his ignorance and passions. There is no devil or the utterly depraved, as there are no Angels absolutely perfect, though there may be spirits of Light and of Darkness; thus LUCIFER the spirit of Intellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought is metaphorically the guiding beacon, which helps man to find his way through the rocks and sandbanks of Life, for Lucifer is the LOGOS in his highest, and the "Adversary" in his lowest aspect both of which are reflected in our Ego. Lactantius, speaking of the Nature of Christ, makes the LOGOS, the Word, the first-born brother of Satan, the "first of all creatures." (Inst. div. Book II., c. viii., "Qabbalah," 116.)
The Vishnu Purβna describes these primeval creatures (the
Arvaksrota) with crooked digestive canals: They were "endowed with
inward manifestations, but mutually in ignorance about their kind and
nature." The twenty-eight kinds of Badha, or imperfections, do not
apply, as Wilson thought, to the animals now known and specified by him,* for
these did not exist in those geological periods. This is quite plain in the said
work, in which the first created (on this globe) are the "five-fold immovable
creation," minerals and vegetables; then come those fabulous animals,
Tiryaksrota, (the monsters of the abyss slain by the "Lords," see Stanzas II. and III.); then the Urdhwasrotas, the happy celestial
beings, which feed on ambrosia; then lastly, the Arvaksrotas, human
beings Brahmβ's
* See Book I., chap. v., p. 71.
seventh creation so-called. But these "creations," including the latter, did not occur on this globe, wherever else they may have taken place. It is not Brahmβ who creates things and men on this Earth, but the chief and Lord of the Prajβpati, the Lords of Being and terrestrial Creation.* Obeying the command of Brahmβ, Daksha (the synthesis, or the aggregate, of the terrestrial creators and progenitors, Pitris included) made superior and inferior (vara and avara) things "referring to putra" progeny, and "bipeds and quadrupeds, and subsequently by his will (the Sons of Will and Yoga) made females," i.e., separated the androgynes. Here again, we have "bipeds" or men, created before the "quadrupeds" as in the esoteric teachings. (Vide supra and Stanza XII as explained.)
Since, in the exoteric accounts, the Asuras are the first beings created from the "body of night," while the Pitris issue from that of Twilight; the "gods" being placed by Parβsara (Vishnu Purβna) between the two, and shown to evolve from the "body of the day," it is easy to discover a determined purpose to veil the order of creation. Man is the Arvaksrota coming from the "Body of the Dawn"; and elsewhere, man is again referred to, when the creator of the world, Brahmβ, is shown "creating fierce beings, denominated Bhϋtas and eaters of flesh," or as the text has it, "fiends frightful from being monkey-coloured and carnivorous." Whereas the Rakshasas are generally translated by "Evil Spirits" and "the enemies of the gods," which identifies them with the Asuras. In the Ramβyana, when Hanuman is reconnoitering the enemy in Lanka, he finds there Rakshasas, some hideous, "while some were beautiful to look upon," and, in Vishnu Purβna, there is a direct reference to their becoming the Saviours of "Humanity," or of Brahmβ.
The allegory is very ingenious. Great intellect and too much knowledge are a two-edged weapon in life, and instruments for evil as well as for good. When combined with Selfishness, they will make of the whole of Humanity a footstool for the elevation of him who possesses them, and a means for the attainment of his objects; while, applied to altruistic humanitarian purposes, they may become the means of the salvation of many. At all events, the absence of self-consciousness and intellect will make of man an idiot, a brute in human form. Brahmβ is Mahat the universal Mind hence the too-selfish among the Rakshasas showing the desire to become possessed of it all to "devour" Mahat. The allegory is transparent.
At any rate, esoteric philosophy identifies the pre-Brahmanical
* "Vishnu Purβna," Book I., chap. xv. of vol. 2.
Ibid., Book I., chap. v.
Asuras, Rudras, * Rβkshasas and all the "Adversaries" of the Gods in the allegories, with the Egos, which, by incarnating in the still witless man of the Third Race, made him consciously immortal. They are, then, during the cycle of Incarnations, the true dual Logos the conflicting and two-faced divine Principle in Man. The Commentary that follows, and the next Stanzas may, no doubt, throw more light on this very difficult tenet, but the writer does not feel competent to give it out fully. Of the succession of Races, however, they say:
"First come the SELF-EXISTENT on this Earth. They are the 'Spiritual Lives' projected by the absolute WILL and LAW, at the dawn of every rebirth of the worlds. These LIVES are the divine 'Sishta,' (the seed-Manus, or the Prajβpati and the Pitris)."
From these proceed
1. The First Race, the "Self-born," which are the (astral) shadows of their Progenitors. The body was devoid of all understanding (mind, intelligence, and will). The inner being (the higher self or Monad), though within the earthly frame, was unconnected with it. The link, the Manas, was not there as yet.
2. From the First (race) emanated the second, called the "Sweat-born"
and
* Whom Manu calls "our paternal grandfathers" (III., 284). The Rudras
are the seven manifestations of Rudra-Siva, "the destroying god," and also
the grand Yogi and ascetic.
See § II, §§ 1, Commentary.
To speak of life as having arisen, and of the human race as
having originated, in this absurdly unscientific way, in the face of
the modern Pedigrees of Man, is to court instantaneous annihilation. The
esoteric doctrine risks the danger, nevertheless, and even goes so far as to ask
the impartial reader to compare the above hypothesis (if it is one) with
Hζckel's theory now fast becoming an axiom with science which is quoted
verbatim:
". . . How did life, the living world of organisms, arise? And, secondly, the
special question: How did the human race originate? The first of these two
inquiries, that as to the first appearance of living beings, can only be decided
empirically (! !) by proof of the so-called Archebiosis, or equivocal
generation, or the spontaneous production of organisms of the simplest
conceivable kind. Such are the Monera (Protogenes, Protamoeba, etc), exceedingly
simple microscopic masses of protoplasm without structure or organisation, which
take in nutriment and reproduce themselves by division. Such a Moneron
as that primordial organism discovered by the renowned English
zoologist Huxley, and named Bathybius Haeckelii, appears as a continuous thick
protoplasmic covering at the greatest depths of the ocean, between 3,000 and
30,000 feet. It is true that the first appearance of such Monera has not up
to the present moment been actually observed; but there is nothing
intrinsically improbable in such an evolution." (The "Pedigree of
Man," Aveling's translation, p 33.) The Bathybius protoplasm having recently turned out to be no organic
substance at all, there remains little to be said. Nor, after reading this, does
one need to consume further time in refuting the further assertion that . . . .
"in that case man also has beyond a doubt (to the
minds of Hζckel and his like) arisen from the lower mammalia, apes and the
earlier simian creatures, the still earlier Marsupialia, Amphibia, Pisces, by
progressive transformations," all produced by "a series of natural forces
working blindly. . . . . . . . . aim, without design" (p.
36).
The above-quoted passage bears its criticism on its own face. Science is made
to teach that which, up to the present time, "has never been actually
observed." She is made to deny the phenomenon of an
intelligent nature and a vital force independent of form and matter, and to
find it more scientific to teach the miraculous performance of "natural forces
working blindly without aim or design." If so, then we are led
to think that the physico-mechanical forces of the brains of certain
eminent Scientists are leading them on as blindly to sacrifice logic and common
sense on the altar of mutual admiration. Why should the protoplasmic Moneron
producing the first living creature through self-division be held as a
very scientific hypothesis, and an ethereal pre-human race generating
the primeval men in the same fashion be tabooed as unscientific
superstition? Or has materialism obtained a sole monopoly in Science?
the "Boneless." This is the Second Root-Race, endowed by the preservers (Rβkshasas) * and the incarnating gods (Asuras and the Kumβras) with the first primitive and weak spark (the germ of intelligence) . . And from these in turn proceeds:
3. The Third Root-Race, the "Two-fold" (Androgynes). The first Races hereof are shells, till the last is "inhabited" (i.e., informed) by the Dhyanis.
The Second Race, as stated above, being also sexless, evolved out of itself, at its beginning, the Third Androgyne Race by an analogous, but already more complicated process. As described in the Commentary, the very earliest of that race were:
"The 'Sons of Passive Yoga.* They issued from the second Manushyas
* The Rβkshasas, regarded in Indian popular theology as demons, are
called the "Preservers" beyond the Himalayas. This double and contradictory
meaning has its origin in a philosophical allegory, which is variously rendered
in the Purβnas. It is stated that when Brahmβ created the demons, Yakshas (from
Yaksh, to eat) and the Rβkshasas, both of which kinds of demons, as
soon as born, wished to devour their creator, those among them that called out
"Not so! oh, let him be saved (preserved)" were named Rβkshasas (Vishnu
Purβna Book I. ch. v.). The Bhagavata Purβna (III, 20,
19-21) renders the allegory differently. Brahmβ transformed himself into night
(or ignorance) invested with a body, upon which the Yakshas and Rβkshasas
seized, exclaiming "Do not spare it; devour it." Brahmβ then cried out, "Do not
devour me, spare me." This has an inner meaning of course. The "body of Night"
is the darkness of ignorance, and it is the darkness of silence and secrecy. Now
the Rβkshasas are shown in almost every case to be Yogis, pious Saddhus and
Initiates, a rather unusual occupation for demons. The meaning then is
that while we have power to dispel the darkness of ignorance, "devour it,"
we have to preserve the sacred truth from profanation. "Brahmβ is for the
Brahmins alone," says that proud caste. The moral of the fable is
evident.
The gradual evolution of man in the Secret Doctrine shows that all the
later (to the profane the earliest) Races have their physical origin in
the early Fourth Race. But it is the sub-race, which preceded the one that
separated sexually, that is to be regarded as the spiritual
ancestors of our present generations, and especially of the Eastern Aryan Races.
Weber's idea that the Indo-Germanic Race preceded the Aryan Vedic Race
is, to the Occultist, grotesque to the last degree.
(human race), and became oviparous. The emanations that came out of their bodies during the seasons of procreation were ovulary; the small spheroidal nuclei developing into a large soft, egg-like vehicle, gradually hardened, when, after a period of gestation, it broke and the young human animal issued from it unaided, as the fowls do in our race."
This must seem to the reader ludicrously absurd. Nevertheless, it is strictly on the lines of evolutionary analogy, which science perceives in the development of the living animal species. First the moneron-like procreation by self-division (vide Hζckel); then, after a few stages, the oviparous, as in the case of the reptiles, which are followed by the birds; then, finally, the mammals with their ovoviviparous modes of producing their young ones.
If the term ovoviviparous is applied to some fish and reptiles, which hatch their eggs within their bodies, why should it not be applied to female mammalians, including woman? The ovule, in which, after impregnation, the development of the ftus takes place, is an egg.
At all events, this conception is more philosophical than that of Eve with a suddenly created placenta giving birth to Cain, because of the Apple, when even the marsupial, the earliest of mammals, is not placental yet.
Moreover, the progressive order of the methods of reproduction, as unveiled by science, is a brilliant confirmation of esoteric Ethnology. It is only necessary to tabulate the data in order to prove our assertion. (Cf. especially Schmidt's "Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism," p. 39, et. seq., and Laing's "A Modern Zoroastrian," pp. 102-111.)
1. Fission:
(a) As seen in the division of the homogeneous speck of protoplasm, known as Moneron or Amba, into two.
(b) As seen in the division of the nucleated cell, in which the cell-nucleus splits into two sub-nuclei, which either develop within the original cell-wall or burst it, and multiply outside as independent entities. (Cf., the First Root-Race.)
II. Budding:
A small portion of the parent structure swells out at the surface and finally
parts company, growing to the size of the original organism; e.g., many
vegetables, the sea-anemone, etc. (Cf., the Second Root-Race.) *
* Every process of healing and cicatrization in the higher animal groups
even in the case of reproduction of mutilated limbs with the Amphibians is
effected by fission and gemmation of the elementary
morphological elements.
III. Spores:
A single cell thrown off by the parent organism, which develops into a multicellular organism reproducing the features of the latter, e.g., bacteria and mosses.
IV. Intermediate Hermaphroditism:
Male and female organs inhering in the same individual; e.g., the majority of plants, worms, and snails, etc.; allied to budding. (Cf. Second and early Third Root-Races.)
V. True sexual union:
(Cf. later Third Root-Race.)
We now come to an important point with regard to the double evolution of the human race. The Sons of Wisdom, or the spiritual Dhyanis, had become "intellectual" through their contact with matter, because they had already reached, during previous cycles of incarnation, that degree of intellect which enabled them to become independent and self-conscious entities, on this plane of matter. They were reborn only by reason of Karmic effects. They entered those who were "ready," and became the Arhats, or sages, alluded to above. This needs explanation.
It does not mean that Monads entered forms in which other Monads
already were. They were "Essences," "Intelligences," and conscious spirits;
entities seeking to become still more conscious by uniting with more
developed matter. Their essence was too pure to be distinct from the universal
essence; but their "Egos," or Manas (since they are called
Manasaputra, born of "Mahat," or Brahmβ) had to pass through earthly human
experiences to become all-wise, and be able to start on the returning
ascending cycle. The Monads are not discrete principles,
limited or conditioned, but rays from that one universal absolute
Principle. The entrance into a dark room through the same aperture of one ray of
sunlight following another will not constitute two rays, but one ray
intensified. It is not in the course of natural law that man should become a
perfect septenary being, before the seventh race in the seventh Round. Yet
he has all these principles latent in him from his birth. Nor is it part of the
evolutionary law that the Fifth principle (Manas), should receive its
complete development before the Fifth Round. All such prematurely
developed intellects (on the spiritual plane) in our Race are
abnormal; they are those whom we call the "Fifth-Rounders." Even
in the coming seventh Race, at the close of this Fourth Round, while our four
lower principles will be fully developed, that of Manas will be only
proportionately so. This limitation, however, refers solely to the spiritual
development. The intellectual, on the physical plane, was reached during the
Fourth Root-Race. Thus, those who were "half ready," who received "but a spark,"
constitute the average humanity which has to acquire its intellectuality during
the present Manvantaric evolution,
after which they will be ready in the next for the full reception of the "Sons of Wisdom." While those which "were not ready" at all, the latest Monads, which had hardly evolved from their last transitional and lower animal forms at the close of the Third Round, remained the "narrow-brained" of the Stanza. This explains the otherwise unaccountable degrees of intellectuality among the various races of men the savage Bushman and the European even now. Those tribes of savages, whose reasoning powers are very little above the level of the animals, are not the unjustly disinherited, or the unfavoured, as some may think nothing of the kind. They are simply those latest arrivals among the human Monads, which were not ready: which have to evolve during the present Round, as on the three remaining globes (hence on four different planes of being) so as to arrive at the level of the average class when they reach the Fifth Round. One remark may prove useful, as food for thought to the student in this connection. The MONADS of the lowest specimens of humanity (the "narrow-brained" * savage South-Sea Islander, the African, the Australian) had no Karma to work out when first born as men, as their more favoured brethren in intelligence had. The former are spinning out Karma only now; the latter are burdened with past, present, and future Karma. In this respect the poor savage is more fortunate than the greatest genius of civilised countries.
Let us pause before giving any more such strange teachings. Let us try and find out how far any ancient Scriptures, and even Science, permit the possibility of, or even distinctly corroborate, such wild notions as are found in our Anthropogenesis.
Recapitulating that which has been said we find: That the Secret Doctrine
claims for man, (1) a polygenetic origin. (2) A variety of modes of procreation
before humanity fell into the ordinary method of generation. (3) That the
evolution of animals of the mammalians at any rate follows that of man
instead of preceding it. And this is diametrically opposed to the now generally
accepted theories of evolution and the descent of man from an animal ancestor.
* The term here means neither the dolicho-cephalic nor the brachyo-cephalic,
nor yet skulls of a smaller volume, but simply brains devoid of intellect
generally. The theory which would judge of the intellectual capacity of a man
according to his cranial capacity, seems absurdly illogical to one who has
studied the subject. The skulls of the stone period, as well as those of African
Races (Bushmen included) show that the first are above rather than below the
average of the brain capacity of the modern man, and the skulls of the last are
on the whole (as in the case of Papuans and Polynesians generally) larger by one
cubic inch than that of the average Frenchman. Again, the cranial capacity of
the Parisian of to-day represents an average of 1437 cubic centimetres compared
to 1523 of the Auvergnat.
Let us, by giving to Cζsar what is Cζsar's, examine, first of all, the chances for the polygenetic theory among the men of science.
Now the majority of the Darwinian evolutionists incline to a polygenetic explanation of the origin of Races. On this particular question, however, scientists are, as in many other cases, at sixes and sevens; they agree to disagree.
"Does man descend from one single couple or from several groups monogenism or polygenism? As far as one can venture to pronounce on what in the absence of witnesses (?) will never be known (?), the second hypothesis is far the most probable." * Abel Hovelacque, in his "Science of Language," comes to a similar conclusion, arguing from the evidence available to a linguistic enquirer.
In an address delivered before the British Association, Professor W. H. Flower remarked on this question:
"The view which appears best to accord with what is now known of the characters and distribution of the races of man . . . . is a modification of the monogenistic hypothesis (!). Without entering into the difficult question of the method of man's first appearance upon the world, we must assume for it a vast antiquity, at all events as measured by any historical standard. If we had any approach to a complete palζontological record, the history of Man could be re-constructed, but nothing of the kind is forthcoming."
Such an admission must be regarded as fatal to the dogmatism of the physical Evolutionists, and as opening a wide margin to occult speculations. The opponents of the Darwinian theory were, and still remain, polygenists. Such "intellectual giants" as John Crawford and James Hunt discussed the problem and favoured polygenesis, and in their day there was a far stronger feeling in favour of than against this theory. It is only in 1864 that Darwinians began to be wedded to the theory of unity, of which Messrs. Huxley and Lubbock became the first coryphζi.
As regards that other question, of the priority of man to the animals in the
order of evolution, the answer is as promptly given. If man is really the
Microcosm of the Macrocosm, then the teaching has nothing so very impossible in
it, and is but logical. For, man becomes that Macrocosm for the three lower
kingdoms under him. Arguing from a physical standpoint, all the lower kingdoms,
save the mineral which is light itself, crystallised and immetallised from
plants to the creatures which preceded the first mammalians, all have been
consolidated in their physical structures by means of the "cast-off dust" of
those minerals, and the refuse of the human matter, whether from living or
dead
* A. Lefevre, "Philosophy," p. 498.
bodies, on which they fed and which gave them their outer bodies. In his turn, man grew more physical, by re-absorbing into his system that which he had given out, and which became transformed in the living animal crucibles through which it had passed, owing to Nature's alchemical transmutations. There were animals in those days of which our modern naturalists have never dreamed; and the stronger became physical material man, the giants of those times, the more powerful were his emanations. Once that Androgyne "humanity" separated into sexes, transformed by Nature into child-bearing engines, it ceased to procreate its like through drops of vital energy oozing out of the body. But while man was still ignorant of his procreative powers on the human plane, (before his Fall, as a believer in Adam would say,) all this vital energy, scattered far and wide from him, was used by Nature for the production of the first mammal-animal forms. Evolution is an eternal cycle of becoming, we are taught; and nature never leaves an atom unused. Moreover, from the beginning of the Round, all in Nature tends to become Man. All the impulses of the dual, centripetal and centrifugal Force are directed towards one point MAN. The progress in the succession of beings, says Agassiz, "consists in an increasing similarity of the living fauna, and, among the vertebrates, especially, in the increasing resemblance to man. Man is the end towards which all animal creation has tended from the first appearance of the first palζozoic fishes." *
Just so; but "the palζozoic fishes" being at the lower curve of the arc of the evolution of forms, this Round began with astral man, the reflection of the Dhyan Chohans, called the "Builders." Man is the alpha and the omega of objective creation. As said in "Isis Unveiled," "all things had their origin in spirit evolution having originally begun from above and proceeding downwards, instead of the reverse, as taught in the Darwinian theory." Therefore, the tendency spoken of by the eminent naturalist above quoted, is one inherent in every atom. Only, were one to apply it to both sides of the evolution, the observations made would greatly interfere with the modern theory, which has now almost become (Darwinian) law.
But in citing the passage from Agassiz' work with approval, it must not be
understood that the occultists are making any concession to the theory,
which derives man from the animal kingdom. The fact that in this Round he
preceded the mammalia is obviously not impugned by the consideration that the
latter (mammalia) follow in the wake of man.
* "Principles of Zoology," p. 206.
Vol. I, p. 154.
25. HOW DID THE MANASA, THE SONS OF WISDOM ACT? THEY REJECTED THE SELF-BORN, (the boneless). THEY ARE NOT READY. THEY SPURNED THE (First) SWEAT-BORN.* THEY ARE NOT QUITE READY. THEY WOULD NOT ENTER THE (First) EGG-BORN.
To a Theist or a Christian this verse would suggest a rather theological idea: that of the Fall of the Angels through Pride. In the Secret Doctrine, however, the reasons for the refusal to incarnate in half-ready physical bodies seem to be more connected with physiological than metaphysical reasons. Not all the organisms were sufficiently ready. The incarnating powers chose the ripest fruits and spurned the rest.
By a curious coincidence, when selecting a familiar name for the continent on which the first androgynes, the Third Root-Race, separated, the writer chose, on geographical considerations, that of "Lemuria," invented by Mr. P. L. Sclater. It is only later, that reading Hζckel's "Pedigree of Man," it was found that the German "Animalist" had chosen the name for his late continent. He traces, properly enough, the centre of human evolution to "Lemuria," but with a slight scientific variation. Speaking of it as that "cradle of mankind," he pictures the gradual transformation of the anthropoid mammal into the primeval savage!! Vogt, again, holds that in America Man sprang from a branch of the platyrrhine apes, independently of the origination of the African and Asian root-stocks from the old world catarrhinians. Anthropologists are, as usual, at loggerheads on this question, as on many others. We shall examine this claim in the light of esoteric philosophy in Stanza VIII. Meanwhile, let us give a few moments of attention to the various consecutive modes of procreation according to the laws of Evolution.
Let us begin by the mode of reproduction of the later sub-races of the Third
human race, by those who found themselves endowed with the sacred fire
from the spark of higher and then independent Beings, who were the psychic and
spiritual parents of Man, as the lower Pitar Devata (the Pitris)
were the progenitors of his physical body. That Third and holy Race
consisted of men who, at their zenith, were described
* This is explained in the section which follows this series of Stanzas in
the allegory from the Purβnas concerning Kandu, the holy sage, and Pramlochβ,
the nymph alleged to have hypnotised him, (Vide § II, Commentary after St.I.), a
suggestive allegory, scientifically, as the drops of perspiration, which she
exuded, are the symbols of the spores of science (Vide infra).
This will be explained as we proceed. This unwillingness to fashion men, or create, is symbolized in the Purβnas by Daksha having to deal with his opponent Narada, the "strife-making ascetic."
Vide Verse 24.
as, "towering giants of godly strength and beauty, and the depositories of all the mysteries of Heaven and Earth." Have they likewise fallen, if, then, incarnation was the Fall?
Of this presently. The only thing now to be noted of these is, that the chief gods and heroes of the Fourth and Fifth Races, as of later antiquity, are the deified images of these men of the Third. The days of their physiological purity, and those of their so-called Fall, have equally survived in the hearts and memories of their descendants. Hence, the dual nature shown in those gods, both virtue and sin being exalted to their highest degree, in the biographies composed by posterity. They were the pre-Adamite and the divine Races, with which even theology, in whose sight they are all "the accursed Cainite Races," now begins to busy itself.
But the action of "spiritual progenitors" of that Race has first to be disposed of. A very difficult and abstruse point has to be explained with regard to Stanzas 26 and 27. These say:
26. WHEN THE SWEAT-BORN PRODUCED THE EGG-BORN, THE TWO-FOLD (androgyne Third Race*), THE MIGHTY, THE POWERFUL WITH BONES, THE LORDS OF WISDOM SAID: "NOW SHALL WE CREATE" (a).
Why "now" and not earlier? This the following sloka explains.
27. (Then) THE THIRD (race) BECAME THE VAHAN (vehicle) OF THE LORDS OF WISDOM. IT CREATED SONS OF "WILL AND YOGA," BY KRIYASAKTI (b), IT CREATED THEM, THE HOLY FATHERS, ANCESTORS OF THE ARHATS. . . .
(a) How did they create, since the "Lords of Wisdom" are
identical with the Hindu Devas, who refuse "to create"? Clearly they are the
* The evolutionist Professor Schmidt alludes to "the fact of the separation
of sexes, as to the derivation of which from species once hermaphrodite
all (the believers in creation naturally excepted) are assuredly of one accord."
Such indeed is the incontestable evidence drawn from the presence of rudimentary
organs. (Cf., his "Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism,"
p. 159.) Apart from such palpable traces of a primeval hermaphroditism, the
fact may be noted that, as Laing writes, "a study of embryology. . . . shows
that in the human higher animal species the distinction of sex is not
developed until a considerable progress has been made in the growth of
the embryo." ("A Modern Zoroastrian," p.106.) The Law of
Retardation operative alike in the case of human races, animal species, etc.,
when a higher type has once been evolved still preserves hermaphroditism as
the reproductive method of the majority of plants and many lower animals.
Kumβras of the Hindu Pantheon and Purβnas, those elder sons of Brahmβ, "Sanandana and the other sons of Vedhas," who, previously created by him "without desire or passion, remained chaste, full of holy wisdom and undesirous of progeny?" *
The power, by which they first created, is just that which has since caused them to be degraded from their high status to the position of evil spirits, of Satan and his Host, created in their turn by the unclean fancy of exoteric creeds. It was by Kriyasakti, that mysterious and divine power latent in the will of every man, and which, if not called to life, quickened and developed by Yogi-training, remains dormant in 999,999 men out of a million, and gets atrophied. This power is explained in the "Twelve Signs of the Zodiac," as follows:
(b) "Kriyasakti the mysterious power of thought which enables it to produce external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its own inherent energy. The ancients held that any idea will manifest itself externally, if one's attention (and Will) is deeply concentrated upon it; similarly, an intense volition will be followed by the desired result. A Yogi generally performs his wonders by means of Itchasakti (Will-power) and Kriyasakti."
The Third Race had thus created the so-called SONS OF WILL AND YOGA, or the "ancestors" (the spiritual forefathers) of all the subsequent and present Arhats, or Mahatmas, in a truly immaculate way. They were indeed created, not begotten, as were their brethren of the Fourth Race, who were generated sexually after the separation of sexes, the Fall of Man. For creation is but the result of will acting on phenomenal matter, the calling forth out of it the primordial divine Light and eternal Life. They were the "holy seed-grain" of the future Saviours of Humanity.
Here we have to make again a break, in order to explain certain difficult points, of which there are so many. It is almost impossible to avoid such interruptions. For explanations and a philosophical account of the nature of those beings, which are now viewed as the "Evil" and rebellious Spirits, the creators by Kriyasakti, the reader is referred to the chapters on "The Fallen Angels" and "The Mystic Dragons," in Part II. of this Volume.
The order of the evolution of the human Races stands thus in the Fifth Book of the Commentaries, and was already given:
The First men were Chhayas (1) ; the second, the "Sweat-born"
(2), the Third, "Egg-born," and the holy Fathers born
by the power of Kriyasakti (3); the Fourth were the children of the
Padmapani (Chenresi) (4).
* See "Vishnu Purβna," Book I., ch. 7, para. 1.
See "Five Years of Theosophy," p. 777.
Of course such primeval modes of procreation by the evolution of one's image, through drops of perspiration, after that by Yoga, and then by what people will regard as magic (Kriyasakti) are doomed beforehand to be regarded as fairy-tales. Nevertheless, beginning with the first and ending with the last, there is really nothing miraculous in them, nor anything which could not be shown natural. This must be proven.
1. Chhaya-birth, or that primeval mode of sexless procreation, the first Race having oozed out, so to say, from the bodies of the Pitris, is hinted at in a Cosmic allegory in the Purβnas.* It is the beautiful allegory and story of Sanjnβ, the daughter of Viswakarman married to the Sun, who, "unable to endure the fervours of her lord," gave him her chhaya (shadow, image, or astral body), while she herself repaired to the jungle to perform religious devotions, or Tapas. The Sun, supposing the "chhaya" to be his wife begat by her children, like Adam with Lilith an ethereal shadow also, as in the legend, though an actual living female monster millions of years ago.
But, perhaps, this instance proves little except the exuberant fancy of the Purβnic authors. We have another proof ready. If the materialised forms, which are sometimes seen oozing out of the bodies of certain mediums could, instead of vanishing, be fixed and made solid the creation of the first Race would become quite comprehensible. This kind of procreation cannot fail to be suggestive to the student. Neither the mystery nor the impossibility of such a mode is certainly any greater while it is far more comprehensible to the mind of the true metaphysical thinker - than the mystery of the conception of the ftus, its gestation and birth as a child, as we now know it.
Now to the curious and little understood corroboration in the Purβnas about the "Sweat-born."
2. Kandu is a sage and a Yogi, eminent in holy wisdom and pious austerities,
which, finally, awaken the jealousy of the gods, who are represented in the
Hindu Scriptures as being in never-ending strife with the ascetics. Indra, the
"King of the Gods," finally sends one of his female Apsarasas to tempt the
sage. This is no worse than Jehovah sending Sarah, Abraham's wife, to tempt
Pharaoh; but in truth it is those gods (and god), who are ever trying to disturb
ascetics and thus make them lose the fruit of their austerities, who ought to be
regarded as "tempting demons," instead of applying the term to the Rudras,
Kumβras, and Asuras, whose great sanctity and chastity seem a standing reproach
to the Don Juanic gods of the Pantheon. But it is
* Vide "Vishnu-Purβna," Book III.,
chap. 2.
In the oldest MS. of "Vishnu-Purβna"
in the possession of an Initiate in Southern India, the god is not Indra,
but Kama, the god of love and desire. See text further on.
the reverse that we find in all the Purβnic allegories, and not without good esoteric reason.
The king of the gods (or Indra) sends a beautiful Apsarasas (nymph) named Pramlocha to seduce Kandu and disturb his penance. She succeeds in her unholy purpose and "907 years six months and three days" * spent in her company seem to the sage as one day. When this psychological or hypnotic state ends, the Muni curses bitterly the creature who seduced him, thus disturbing his devotions. "Depart, begone!" he cries, "vile bundle of illusions!" . . . And Pramlocha, terrified, flies away, wiping the perspiration from her body with the leaves of the trees as she passes through the air. She went from tree to tree, and as, with the dusky shoots that crowned their summits, she dried her limbs, the child she had conceived by the Rishi came forth from the pores of her skin in drops of perspiration. The trees received the living dews; and the winds collected them into one mass. "This," said Soma (the Moon), "I matured by my rays; and gradually it increased in size, till the exhalation that had rested on the tree tops became the lovely girl named Marisha."
Now Kandu stands here for the First Race. He is a son of the Pitris, hence one devoid of mind, which is hinted at by his being unable to discern a period of nearly one thousand years from one day; therefore he is shown to be so easily deluded and blinded. Here is a variant of the allegory in Genesis, of Adam, born an image of clay, into which the "Lord-god" breathes the breath of life but not of intellect and discrimination, which are developed only after he had tasted of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; in other words when he has acquired the first development of Mind, and had implanted in him Manas, whose terrestrial aspect is of the Earth earthy, though its highest faculties connect it with Spirit and the divine Soul. Pramlocha is the Hindu Lilith of the Aryan Adam; and Marisha, the daughter born of the perspiration from her pores, is the "sweat-born," and stands as a symbol for the Second Race of Mankind.
As remarked in the foot note (vide supra) it is not Indra,
who now figures in the Purβnas, but Kamadeva, the god of love and desire, who
sends Pramlocha on Earth. Logic, besides the esoteric doctrine, shows that it
must be so. For Kama is the king and lord of the Apsarasas, of whom Pramlocha is
one; and, therefore, when Kandu, in cursing her,
* These are the exoteric figures given in a purposely reversed and distorted
way, being the figure of the duration of the cycle between the first and second
human race. All Orientalists to the contrary, there is not a word in any of the
Purβnas that has not a special esoteric meaning.
"Vishnu Purβna," Book I., ch. 15. Cf. also Vivien's
temptation of Merlin (Tennyson), the same legend in Irish tradition.
exclaims "Thou hast performed the office assigned by the monarch of the gods, go!" he must mean by that monarch Kama and not Indra, to whom the Apsarasas are not subservient. For Kama, again, is in the Rig Veda (x. 129) the personification of that feeling which leads and propels to creation. He was the first movement that stirred the ONE, after its manifestation from the purely abstract principle, to create, "Desire first arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind; and which sages, searching with their intellect, have discovered to be the bond which connects Entity with Non-Entity." A hymn in the Atharva Veda exalts Kama into a supreme God and Creator, and says: "Kama was born the first. Him, neither gods nor fathers (Pitara) nor men have equalled." . . . . The Atharva Veda identifies him with Agni, but makes him superior to that god. The Taittarξya Brβhmana makes him allegorically the son of Dharma (moral religious duty, piety and justice) and of Sraddha (faith). Elsewhere Kama is born from the heart of Brahmβ; therefore he is Atma-Bhu "Self-Existent," and Aja, the "unborn." His sending Promlochβ has a deep philosophical meaning; sent by Indra the narrative has none. As Eros was connected in early Greek mythology with the world's creation, and only afterwards became the sexual Cupid, so was Kama in his original Vedic character, (Harivansa making him a son of Lakshmi, who is Venus). The allegory, as said, shows the psychic element developing the physiological, before the birth of Daksha, the progenitor of real physical men, made to be born from Mβrishβ and before whose time living beings and men were procreated "by the will, by sight, by touch and by Yoga," as will be shown.
This, then, is the allegory built on the mode of procreation of the Second or the "Sweat-born." The same for the Third Race in its final development.
Mβrishβ, through the exertions of Soma, the Moon, is taken to wife by the
Prachetasas, the production of the "Mind-born" sons of Brahmβ also
*, from
whom they beget the Patriarch Daksha, a son of Brahmβ
* The text has: "From Brahmβ were born mind-engendered progeny, with forms
and faculties derived from his corporeal nature, embodied spirits
produced from the limbs (gatra) of Dhimat (all-wise deity).
These beings were the abode of the three qualities of deva-sarga
(divine creation, which, as the five-fold creation, is devoid of clearness
of perception, without reflection, dull of nature). But as they did not
multiply themselves, Brahmβ created "other mind-born sons like himself,"
namely, the Brahmβ-rishis, or the Prajβpati (ten and seven). Sanandana and the
other sons of Vedhas (Brahmβ) were previously created, but, as shown elsewhere,
they were "without desire or passion, inspired with holy wisdom,
estranged from the universe and undesirous of progeny" (Book I, ch. 7).
These Sanandana and other Kumβras are then the Gods, who after refusing to
"create progeny" are forced to incarnate in senseless men. The reader must
pardon unavoidable repetitions in view of the great number of the facts given.
also, in a former Kalpa or life, explain and add the Purβnas, in order to mislead, yet speaking the truth.
(3.) The early Third Race, then, is formed from drops of "sweat," which, after many a transformation, grow into human bodies. This is not more difficult to imagine or realise than the growth of the ftus from an imperceptible germ, which ftus develops into a child, and then into a strong, heavy man. But this race again changes its mode of procreation according to the Commentaries. It is said to have emanated a vis formativa, which changed the drops of perspiration into greater drops, which grew, expanded, and became ovoid bodies huge eggs. In these the human ftus gestated for several years. In the Purβnas, Marisha, the daughter of Kandu, the sage, becomes the wife of the Prachetasas and the mother of Daksha. Now Daksha is the father of the first human-like progenitors, having been born in this way. He is mentioned later on. The evolution of man, the microcosm, is analogous to that of the Universe, the macrocosm. His evolution stands between that of the latter and that of the animal, for which man, in his turn, is a macrocosm.
Then the race becomes:
(4.) The androgyne, or hermaphrodite. This process of men-bearing explains,
perhaps, why Aristophanes * describes the nature of the old race as
androgynous, the form of every individual being rounded, "having the back
and sides as in a circle," whose "manner of running was
circular . . . . terrible in force and strength and with prodigious ambition."
Therefore, to make them weaker, "Zeus divided them (in the Third Root-Race) into
two, and Apollo (the Sun), under his direction, closed up the skin." The
Madagascans (the island belonged to Lemuria) have a tradition about the first
man, who lived at first without eating, and, having indulged in food, a swelling
appeared in his leg; this bursting, there emerged from it a female, who became
the mother of their race. Truly . . . "We have our sciences of Heterogenesis
and Parthenogenesis, showing that the field is yet open. . . . .
The polyps . . . . produce their offspring from themselves, like the buds and
ramifications of a tree. . . . " Why not the primitive human polyp? The
very interesting polyp Stauridium passes alternately from gemmation
into the sex method of reproduction. Curiously enough, though it grows merely as
a polyp on a stalk, it produces gemmules, which ultimately develop into a
sea-nettle or Medusa. The Medusa is utterly dissimilar to its
parent-organism, the Stauridium. It also reproduces itself differently, by
sexual method, and from the resulting eggs Stauridia once more put in
* See Plato's "Banquet."
an appearance. This striking fact may assist many to understand that a form may be evolved as in the sexual Lemurians from Hermaphrodite parentage quite unlike its immediate progenitors. It is, moreover, unquestionable that in the case of human incarnations the law of Karma, racial or individual, overrides the subordinate tendencies of "Heredity," its servant.
The meaning of the last sentence in the above-quoted Commentary on Stanza 27, namely, that the Fourth Race were the children of Padmapani, may find its explanation in a certain letter from the Inspirer of "Esoteric Buddhism" quoted on p. 68. "The majority of mankind belongs to the seventh sub-race of the Fourth Root-Race the above-mentioned Chinamen and their off-shoots and branchlets. (Malayans, Mongolians, Tibetans, Hungarians, Finns, and even the Esquimaux are all remnants of this last offshoot.)"
Padmapani, or Avalτkitκswara in Sanskrit, is, in Tibetan, Chenresi. Now,
Avalτkitκswara is the great Logos in its higher aspect and in the
divine regions. But in the manifested planes, he is, like Daksha, the progenitor
(in a spiritual sense) of men. Padmapani-Avalτkitκswara is called
esoterically Bhodhisatva (or Dhyan Chohan) Chenresi Vanchug, "the
powerful and all-seeing." He is considered now as the greatest protector of Asia
in general, and of Tibet in particular. In order to guide the Tibetans and Lamas
in holiness, and preserve the great Arhats in the world, this heavenly Being is
credited with manifesting himself from age to age in human form. A popular
legend has it that whenever faith begins to die out in the world, Padmapani
Chenresi, the "lotus-bearer," emits a brilliant ray of light, and forthwith
incarnates himself in one of the two great Lamas the Dalai and Teschu Lamas;
finally, it is believed that he will incarnate as "the most perfect Buddha" in
Tibet, instead of in India, where his predecessors, the great Rishis and Manus
had appeared in the beginning of our Race, but now appear no longer. Even the
exoteric appearance of Dhyani Chenresi is suggestive of the esoteric teaching.
He is evidently, like Daksha, the synthesis of all the preceding Races and the
progenitor of all the human Races after the Third, the first complete
one, and thus is represented as the culmination of the four primeval
races in his eleven-faced form. It is a column built in four rows, each
series having three faces or heads of different complexions: the three faces for
each race being typical of its three fundamental physiological transformations.
The first is white (moon-coloured); the second is yellow; the third, red-brown;
the fourth, in which are only two faces the third face being left a blank
(a reference to the untimely end of the Atlanteans) is brown-black. Padmapani
(Daksha) is seated on the column, and forms the apex. In this reference
compare Stanza 39. The Dhyan Chohan is represented with four arms, another
allusion to the four races. For while two are folded, the third hand holds a
lotus (Padmapani, "the lotus-bearer"), this flower symbolizing
generation, and the fourth holds a serpent, emblem of the Wisdom in his power.
On his neck is a rosary, and on his head the sign of water
matter, deluge while on his brow
rests the third eye (Siva's eye, that of spiritual insight). His name is
"Protector" (of Tibet), "Saviour of Humanity." On other occasions when he has
only two arms, he is Chenresi, the Dhyani and Bhodisatva, Chakna-padmakarpo,
"he who holds a lotus." His other name is Chantong, "he of the 1,000 eyes,"
when he is endowed with a thousand arms and hands, on the palm of each of which
is represented an eye of Wisdom, these arms radiating from his body like a
forest of rays. Another of his names is Lokapati and Lokanβtha (Sanskrit) "Lord
of the World"; and Jigtengonpo (Tibetan), "Protector and Saviour against evil"
of any kind.
Padmapani, however, is the "lotus-bearer" symbolically only for the profane;
esoterically, it means the supporter of the Kalpas, the last of which, the
present Maha-Kalpa (the Vβrβha), is called Padma, and represents one half of the
life of Brahmβ. Though a minor Kalpa, it is called Maha, "great," because it
comprises the age in which Brahmβ sprang from a lotus. Theoretically, the Kalpas
are infinite, but practically they are divided and sub-divided in Space and
Time, each division down to the smallest having its own Dhyani as patron
or regent. Padmapani (Avalτkitκswara) becomes, in China, in his female aspect, Kwan-yin, "who assumes any form, at pleasure, in order to save mankind." The
knowledge of the astrological aspect of the constellations on the respective
"birth-days" of these Dhyanis Amitabha (the O-mi-to Fo, of China), included:
e.g., on the 19th day of the second month, on the 17th day of the
eleventh month, and on the 7th day of the third month, etc., etc. gives the
Occultist the greatest facilities for performing what are called "magic" feats.
The future of an individual is seen, with all its coming events marshalled in
order, in a magic mirror placed under the ray of certain
constellations. But beware of the reverse of the medal,
SORCERY.
STANZA VIII.
EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMAL MAMMALIANS. THE
FIRST FALL.
§§ (28) How the first mammals were produced. (29) A quasi-Darwinian Evolution. (30) The animals get solid bodies. (31) Their separation into sexes. (32) The first sin of the mindless men.
28. FROM THE DROPS OF SWEAT (a); FROM THE RESIDUE OF THE SUBSTANCE; MATTER FROM DEAD BODIES AND ANIMALS OF THE WHEEL BEFORE (previous, Third Round); AND FROM CAST-OFF DUST; THE FIRST ANIMALS (of this Round) WERE PRODUCED.
(a) The Occult doctrine maintains that, in this Round, the
mammalians were a later work of evolution than man. Evolution proceeds in
cycles. The great Manvantaric cycle of Seven Rounds, beginning in the First
Round with mineral, vegetable, and animal, brings its evolutionary work on the
descending arc to a dead stop in the middle of the Fourth Race, at the
close of the first half of the Fourth Round. It is on our Earth, then,
(the Fourth sphere and the lowest) and in the present Round, that this
middle point has been reached. And since the Monad has passed, after its "first
inmetallization" on Globe A, through the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds
in every degree of the three states of matter, except the last degree of the
third or solid state, which it reached only at the "mid-point of evolution"
it is but logical and natural that at the beginning of the Fourth Round on
Globe D, Man should be the first to appear; and also that his frame should be of
the most tenuous matter that is compatible with objectivity. To make it still
clearer: if the Monad begins its cycle of incarnations through the three
objective kingdoms on the descending curved line, it has necessarily to enter on
the re-ascending curved line of the sphere as a man also. On the descending arc
it is the spiritual which is gradually transformed into the material. On the
middle line of the base, Spirit and Matter are equilibrized in Man. On the
ascending arc, Spirit is slowly re-asserting itself at the expense of the
physical, or matter, so that, at the close of the seventh Race of the Seventh
Round, the Monad will find itself as
free from matter and all its qualities as it was in the beginning; having gained in addition the experience and wisdom, the fruition of all its personal lives, without their evil and temptations.
This order of evolution is found also in Genesis (ch. 1 and 2) if one reads it in its true esoteric sense, for chapter i. contains the history of the first Three Rounds, as well as that of the first Three Races of the Fourth, up to that moment when Man is called to conscious life by the Elohim of Wisdom. In the first chapter, animals, whales and fowls of the air, are created before the androgyne Adam.* In the second, Adam (the sexless) comes first, and the animals only appear after him. Even the state of mental torpor and unconsciousness of the first two races, and of the first half of the Third Race, is symbolized, in the second chapter of Genesis, by the deep sleep of Adam. It was the dreamless sleep of mental inaction, the slumber of the Soul and Mind, which was meant by that "sleep," and not at all the physiological process of differentiation of sexes, as a learned French theorist (M. Naudin) imagined.
The Purβnas, the Chaldean and Egyptian fragments, and also the Chinese traditions, all show an agreement with the Secret Doctrine as to the process and order of evolution. We find in them the corroboration of almost all our teaching. For instance: the statement concerning the oviparous mode of procreation of the Third Race, and even a hint at a less innocent mode of the procreation of the first mammal forms, "gigantic, transparent, dumb and monstrous they were," says the Commentary. Study the stories of the several Rishis and their multifarious progeny; e.g., Pulastya is the father of all the Serpents and Nagas the oviparous brood; Kasyapa was grandsire, through his wife Tamra, of the birds and of Garuda, king of the feathered tribe; while by his wife Surabhi, he was the parent of cows and buffaloes, etc., etc.
In the Secret Doctrine, the first Nagas beings wiser than Serpents
are the "Sons of Will and Yoga," born before the complete separation of the
sexes, "matured in the man-bearing eggs produced by the power (Kriyasakti) of
the holy sages" of the early Third Race.
* An allegorical reference to the "Sacred Animals" of the Zodiac and other
heavenly bodies. Some Kabalists see in them the prototypes of the animals.
In "Hesiod," Zeus creates his third race of men out of ash-trees. In the "Popol Vuh" the Third Race of men is created out of the tree Tzita and the marrow of the reed called Sibac. But Sibac means "egg" in the mystery language of the Artufas (or Initiation caves). In a report sent in 1812 to the Cortes by Don Baptista Pino it is said: "All the Pueblos have their Artufas so the natives call subterranean rooms with only a single door where they (secretly) assemble. . . . . These are impenetrable temples . . . . and the doors are always closed to the Spaniards. . . . . They adore the Sun and Moon . . . . fire and the great SNAKE (the creative power), whose eggs are called Sibac."
There is a notable difference esoterically between the words
Sarpa and Naga, though they are both used
indiscriminately. Sarpa (serpent) is from the root Srip, serpo to
creep; and they are called "Ahi," from Ha, to abandon. "The sarpa was
produced from Brahmβ's hair, which, owing to his fright at beholding the Yakshas,
whom he had created horrible to behold, fell off from the head, each hair
becoming a serpent. They are called Sarpa from their creeping and Ahi
because they had deserted the head" (Wilson). But the Nagas, their
serpent's tail notwithstanding, do not creep, but manage to walk, run and fight
in the allegories.
". . . . . In these were incarnated the Lords of the three (upper) worlds, the various classes of Rudras, who had been Tushitas, who had been Jayas, who are Adityas;" for, as explained by Parβsara, "There are a hundred appellations of the immeasurably mighty Rudras."
Some of the descendants of the primitive Nagas, the Serpents of Wisdom, peopled America, when its continent arose during the palmy days of the great Atlantis, (America being the Pβtβla or Antipodes of Jambu-Dwipa, not of Bharata-Varsha). Otherwise, whence the traditions and legends the latter always more true than history, as says Augustin Thierry and even the identity in the names of certain "medicine men" and priests, who exist to this day in Mexico? We shall have to say something of the Nargals and the Nagals and also of Nagalism, called "devil-worship" by the Missionaries.
In almost all the Purβnas, the story of the "Sacrifice of Daksha" is given, the oldest account of which is to be found in Vayu Purβna. Allegorical as it is, there is more meaning and biological revelation in it to a Naturalist, than in all the pseudo-scientific vagaries, which are regarded as learned theories and hypotheses.
Daksha, who is regarded as the Chief Progenitor, is, moreover, pointed out as
the creator of physical man in the "fable," which makes him lose his
head from his body in the general strife between the gods and the Raumas.
This head, being burnt in the fire, is replaced by the head of a ram
(Kasi-Khanda). Now the ram's head and horns are ever the symbol of
generating power and of reproductive force, and are phallic. As we have
shown, it is Daksha who establishes the era of men engendered by sexual
intercourse. But this mode of procreation did not occur suddenly, as one may
think, and required long ages before it became the one "natural" way. Therefore,
his sacrifice to the gods is shown as interfered with by Siva, the
destroying deity, evolution and
PROGRESS personified, who
is the regenerator at the same time; who destroys things under one form
but to recall them to life under another more perfect type. Siva-Rudra creates
the terrible Virabhadra (born of his breath) the "thousand-headed,
thousand-armed" (etc.) monster, and commissions him to destroy the sacrifice
prepared by Daksha. Then Virabhadra, "abiding in the region of the ghosts
(ethereal men).
created from the pores of the skin (Romakupas), powerful Raumas,* (or Raumyas)." Now, however mythical the allegory, the Mahabhβrata, which is history as much as is the Iliad, shows the Raumyas and other races, as springing in the same manner from the Romakupas, hair or skin pores. This allegorical description of the "sacrifice" is full of significance to the students of the Secret Doctrine who know of the "Sweat-born."
In the Vayu Purβna's account of Daksha's sacrifice, moreover, it is said to have taken place in the presence of creatures born from the egg, from the vapour, vegetation, pores of the skin, and, finally only, from the womb.
Daksha typifies the early Third Race, holy and pure, still devoid of an individual Ego, and having merely the passive capacities. Brahmβ, therefore, commands him to create (in the exoteric texts); when, obeying the command, he made "inferior and superior" (avara and vara) progeny (putra), bipeds and quadrupeds; and by his will, gave birth to females . . . . to the gods, the Daityas (giants of the Fourth Race), the snake-gods, animals, cattle and the Danavas (Titans and demon Magicians) and other beings."
. . . . "From that period forward, living creatures were engendered by sexual intercourse. Before the time of Daksha, they were variously propagated by the will, by sight, by touch, and by Yoga-power." And now comes the simply zoological teaching.
29. ANIMALS WITH BONES, DRAGONS OF THE DEEP AND FLYING SARPAS (serpents) 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 (a).
(a) This is a point on which the teachings and modern biological speculation are in perfect accord. The missing links representing this transition process between reptile and bird are apparent to the veriest bigot, especially in the ornithoscelidζ, hesperornis, and the archζopteryx of Vogt.
30. DURING THE
THIRD
(Race),
THE BONELESS ANIMALS GREW AND CHANGED: THEY BECAME ANIMALS WITH BONES
(a),
THEIR CHHAYAS BECAME SOLID (also).
* Wilson translates the word as "demigods" (See his Vishnu Purβna, p.
130); but Raurnas or Raumyas are simply a race, a tribe.
xii.
10308.
"Vishnu Purβna"
31. THE ANIMALS SEPARATED THE FIRST (into mate and female) (b) . . . .
(a) Vertebrates, and after that mammalians. Before that the animals were also ethereal proto-organisms, just as man was.
(b) The fact of former hermaphrodite mammals and the subsequent separation of sexes is now indisputable, even from the stand-point of Biology. As Prof. Oscar Schmidt, an avowed Darwinist, shows: "Use and disuse combined with selection elucidate (?) the separation of the sexes, and the existence, totally incomprehensible, of rudimentary sexual organs. In the Vertebrata especially, each sex possesses such distinct traces of the reproductive apparatus characteristic of the other, that even antiquity assumed hermaphroditism as a natural primeval form of mankind. . . . The tenacity with which the rudiments of sexual organs are inherited is remarkable. In the class of mammals, actual hermaphroditism is unheard of, although through the whole period of their development they drag along with them these residues born by their unknown ancestry, no one can say how long ago." *
31. . . . . THEY (the animals) BEGAN TO BREED. THE TWO-FOLD MAN (then) SEPARATED ALSO. HE (man), SAID "LET US AS THEY; LET US UNITE AND MAKE CREATURES." THEY DID. . . .
32. AND THOSE WHICH HAD NO SPARK (the "narrow-brained" TOOK HUGE SHE-ANIMALS UNTO THEM (a). THEY BEGAT UPON THEM DUMB RACES. DUMB THEY WERE (the "narrow-brained") THEMSELVES. BUT THEIR TONGUES UNTIED (b). 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. §
(a) The animals "separated the first," says Stanza 31. Bear in mind
that at that period men were different, even physiologically, from what
* "Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism," pp. 186-7. The
"Unknown Ancestry" referred to are the primeval astral prototypes. Cf.
§ II., p. 260 (a).
See verse 24.
These "animals," or monsters, are not the anthropoid or any other apes, but verily what the Anthropologists might call the "missing link," the primitive lower man; see infra.
§ The shame of their animal origin which our modern scientists would
emphasize if they could.
they are now, having passed the middle point of the Fifth Race. We are not told what the "huge she-animals" were; but they certainly were as different from any we know now, as were the men.
This was the first physical "fall into matter" of some of the then existing and lower races. Bear in mind Stanza 24. The "Sons of Wisdom" had spurned the early Third Race, i.e., the non-developed, and are shown incarnating in, and thereby endowing with intellect, the later Third Race. Thus the sin of the brainless or "mindless" Races, who had no "spark" and were irresponsible, fell upon those who failed to do by them their Karmic duty.
(b) See later on concerning the beginning of human speech.
WHAT MAY BE THE OBJECTIONS TO THE FOREGOING.
Thus Occultism rejects the idea that Nature developed man from the ape, or even from an ancestor common to both, but traces, on the contrary, some of the most anthropoid species to the Third Race man of the early Atlantean period. As this proposition will be maintained and defended elsewhere, a few words more are all that are needed at present. For greater clearness, however, we shall repeat in brief what was said previously in Book I., Stanza VI.
Our teachings show that, while it is quite correct to say that nature had
built, at one time, around the human astral form an ape-like external
shape, yet it is as correct that this shape was no more that of the "missing
link," than were the coverings of that astral form, during the course of its
natural evolution through all the kingdoms of nature. Nor was it, as shown in
the proper place, on this Fourth Round planet that such evolution took place,
but only during the First, Second, and Third Rounds, when MAN was, in turn, "a
stone, a plant, and an animal" until he became what he was in the First
Root-Race of present humanity. The real line of evolution differs from the
Darwinian, and the two systems are irreconcilable, except when the latter is
divorced from the dogma of "Natural Selection" and the like. Indeed, between the
Monera of Hζckel and the Sarisripa of Manu, there lies an
impassable chasm in the shape of the Jiva; for the "human"
Monad, whether immetallized in the stone-atom, or invegetallized
in the plant, or inanimalized in the animal, is still and ever a
divine, hence also a HUMAN Monad. It ceases to be human only when it becomes
absolutely divine. The terms "mineral," "vegetable" and "animal" monad
are meant to create a superficial distinction: there is no such thing as a
Monad (jiva)
186 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
other than divine, and consequently having been, or having to become, human.
And the latter term has to remain meaningless unless the difference is well
understood. The Monad is a drop out of the shoreless Ocean beyond, or, to be
correct, within the plane of primeval differentiation. It is divine in
its higher and human in its lower condition the adjectives "higher"
and "lower" being used for lack of better words and a monad it remains at all
times, save in the Nirvanic state, under whatever conditions, or whatever
external forms. As the Logos reflects the Universe in the Divine Mind, and the
manifested Universe reflects itself in each of its Monads, as Leibnitz put it,
repeating an Eastern teaching, so the MONAD has, during the
cycle of its incarnations, to reflect in itself every root-form of each
kingdom. Therefore, the Kabalists say correctly that "MAN
becomes a stone, a plant, an animal, a man, a Spirit, and finally God. Thus
accomplishing his cycle or circuit and returning to the point from which he had
started as the heavenly MAN." But by "Man" the divine
Monad is meant, and not the thinking Entity, much less his physical body. While
rejecting the immortal Soul, the men of Science now try to trace the latter
through a series of animal forms from the lowest to the highest; whereas, in
truth, all the present fauna are the descendants of those primordial monsters of
which the Stanzas speak. The animals the creeping beasts and those in the
waters that preceded man in this Fourth Round, as well as those contemporary
with the Third Race, and again the mammalia that are posterior to the Third and
Fourth Races all are either directly or indirectly the mutual and correlative
product (physically) of man. It is correct to say that the man of this
Manvantara, i.e., during the three preceding Rounds, has passed through
all the kingdoms of nature. That he was "a stone, a plant, an animal." But (a)
these stones, plants, and animals were the prototypes, the filmy presentments of
those of the Fourth Round; and (b) even those at the beginning of the
Fourth Round were the astral shadows of the present, as the Occultists express
it. And finally the forms and genera of neither man, animal, nor plant
were what they became later. Thus the astral prototypes of the lower beings of
the animal kingdom of the Fourth Round, which preceded (the chhayas of)
Men, were the consolidated, though still very ethereal sheaths
of the still more ethereal forms or models produced at the close of the Third
Round on Globe D.* "Produced from the residue of the substance matter; from dead
bodies of men and (other extinct) animals of the wheel
before," or the previous Third Round as Stanza 24 tells us. Hence,
while the nondescript "animals"
* Vide "Esoteric Buddhism."
that preceded the astral man at the beginning of this life-cycle on our Earth were still, so to speak, the progeny of the man of the Third Round, the mammalians of this Round owe their existence, in a great measure, to man again. Moreover, the "ancestor" of the present anthropoid animal, the ape, is the direct production of the yet mindless Man, who desecrated his human dignity by putting himself physically on the level of an animal.
The above accounts for some of the alleged physiological proofs, brought forward by the anthropologists as a demonstration of the descent of man from the animals.
The point most insisted upon by the Evolutionists is that, "The history of the embryo is an epitome of that of the race." That "every organism, in its development from the egg, runs through a series of forms, through which, in like succession, its ancestors have passed in the long course of Earth's history.* The history of the embryo . . . . is a picture in little, and outline of that of the race. This conception forms the gist of our fundamental biogenetic law, which we are obliged to place at the head of the study of the fundamental law of organic development."
This modern theory was known as a fact to, and far more philosophically
expressed by, the Sages and Occultists from the remotest ages. A passage from "Isis
Unveiled" may here be cited to furnish a few points of comparison.
In Vol. I., pp. 388-9, it was asked why, with all their great learning,
physiologists were unable to explain teratological phenomena? Any anatomist who
has made the development and growth of the embryo "a subject of special study,"
can tell, without much brain-work, what daily experience and the evidence of his
own eyes show him, viz., that up to a certain period, the human embryo is
facsimile of a young batrachian in its first remove from the spawn tadpole.
But no physiologist or anatomist seems to have had the idea of applying to the
development of the human being from the first
* "A very strong argument in favour of variability is supplied by the science
of Embryology. Is not a man in the uterus . . . . . a simple cell, a vegetable
with three or four leaflets, a tadpole with branchiζ, a mammal with a tail,
lastly a primate (?) and a biped? It is scarcely possible not to recognise in
the embryonic evolution a rapid sketch, a faithful summary, of the entire
organic series." (Lefevre, Philosophy, p. 484).
The summary alluded to is, however, only that of the store of types
hoarded up in man, the microcosm. This simple explanation meets all such
objections, as the presence of the rudimentary tail in the ftus a fact
triumphantly paraded by Hζckel and Darwin as conclusively in favour of the
Ape-Ancestor theory. It may also be pointed out that the presence of a
vegetable with leaflets in the embryonic stages is not explained
on ordinary evolutionist principles. Darwinists have not traced man through the
vegetable, but Occultists have. Why then this feature in the embryo,
and how do the former explain it?
"The Proofs of Evolution," a lecture by
Hζckel.
instant of its physical appearance as a germ to its ultimate formation and birth the Pythagorean esoteric doctrine of metempsychosis, so erroneously interpreted by critics. The meaning of the axiom: "A stone becomes a plant; a plant, a beast; a beast, a man, etc." was mentioned in another place in relation to the spiritual and physical evolution of men on this Earth. We will now add a few more words to make the matter clearer.
What is the primitive shape of the future man? A grain, a corpuscle, say some physiologists; a molecule, an ovum of the ovum, say others. If it could be analysed by the microscope or otherwise of what ought we to expect to find it composed? Analogically, we should say, of a nucleus of inorganic matter, deposited from the circulation at the germinating point, and united with a deposit of organic matter. In other words, this infinitesimal nucleus of the future man is composed of the same elements as a stone of the same elements as the Earth, which the man is destined to inhabit. Moses is cited by the Kabalists as authority for the remark that it required earth and water to make a living being, and thus it may be said that man first appears as a stone.
At the end of three or four weeks the ovum has assumed a plant-like appearance, one extremity having become spheroidal and the other tapering like a carrot. Upon dissection it is found to be composed, like an onion, of very delicate laminζ or coats, enclosing a liquid. The laminζ approach each other at the lower end, and the embryo hangs from the root of the umbilicus almost like the fruit from the bough. The stone has now become changed, by "metempsychosis," into a plant. Then the embryonic creature begins to shoot out, from the inside outward, its limbs, and develops its features. The eyes are visible as two black dots; the ears, nose, and mouth form depressions, like the points of a pineapple, before they begin to project. The embryo develops into an animal-like ftus the shape of a tadpole and, like an amphibious reptile, lives in water and develops from it. Its Monad has not yet become either human or immortal, for the Kabalists tell us that this only occurs at the "fourth hour." One by one the ftus assumes the characteristics of the human being, the first flutter of the immortal breath passes through its being; it moves; and the divine essence settles in the infant frame, which it will inhabit until the moment of physical death, when man becomes a spirit.
This mysterious process of a nine-months' formation, the Kabalists call the
completion of the "individual cycle of evolution." As the ftus develops amidst
the liquor amnii in the womb, so the Earths germinate in the universal
ether, or astral fluid, in the womb of the Universe. These cosmic children, like
their pigmy inhabitants, are at first nuclei; then ovules; then gradually
mature; and becoming
mothers, in their turn, develop mineral, vegetable, animal, and human forms. From centre to circumference, from the imperceptible vesicle to the uttermost conceivable bounds of the Kosmos, those glorious thinkers, the Occultists, trace cycle merging into cycle, containing and contained in an endless series. The embryo evolving in its pre-natal sphere, the individual in his family, the family in the state, the state in mankind, the Earth in our system, that system in its central universe, the universe in the Kosmos, and the Kosmos in the ONE CAUSE . . . thus runs their philosophy of evolution, differing as we see, from that of Hζckel:
"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and (Parabrahm) the soul . . ."
These are the proofs of Occultism, and they are rejected by Science. But how is the chasm between the mind of man and animal to be bridged in this case? How, if the anthropoid and Homo primigenius had, argumenti gratia, a common ancestor (in the way modern speculation puts it), did the two groups diverge so widely from one another as regards mental capacity? True, the Occultist may be told that in every case Occultism does what Science repeats; it gives a common ancestor to ape and man, since it makes the former issue from primeval man. Ay, but that "primeval man" was man only in external form. He was mindless and soulless at the time he begot, with a female animal monster, the forefather of a series of apes. This speculation if speculation it be is at least logical, and fills the chasm between the mind of man and animal. Thus it accounts for and explains the hitherto unaccountable and inexplicable. The fact that, in the present stage of evolution, Science is almost certain that no issue can follow from the union of man and animal, is considered and explained elsewhere.
Now what is the fundamental difference between the accepted (or nearly so)
conclusions, as enunciated in "The Pedigree of Man," viz.,
that man and ape have a common ancestor; and the teachings of Occultism, which
deny this conclusion and accept the fact that all things and all living beings
have originated from one common source? Materialistic science makes man evolve
gradually to what he is now, and, starting from the first protoplasmic
speck called Moneron (which we are told has, like the rest, "originated
in the course of immeasurable ages from a few, or from one simple,
spontaneously arising original form, that has obeyed one law of
evolution"), pass through "unknown and unknowable" types up to the ape, and
thence to the human being. Where the transitional shapes are discoverable we are
not told; for the simple reason that no "missing links" between man and the apes
have ever yet been found, though this fact in no way prevents men like Hζckel
from inventing them ad libitum.
Nor will they ever be met with; simply, again, because that link which unites man with his real ancestry is searched for on the objective plane and in the material world of forms, whereas it is safely hidden from the microscope and dissecting knife within the animal tabernacle of man himself. We repeat what we have said in Isis Unveiled:
". . . . . . . All things had their origin in spirit evolution having originally begun from above and proceeded downward, instead of the reverse, as taught in the Darwinian theory. In other words, there has been a gradual materialization of forms until a fixed ultimate of debasement is reached. This point is that at which the doctrine of modern evolution enters into the arena of speculative hypothesis. Arrived at this period we will find it easier to understand Hζckel's Anthropogeny, which traces the pedigree of man 'from its protoplasmic root, sodden in the mud of seas which existed before the oldest of the fossiliferous rocks were deposited,' according to Professor Huxley's exposition. We may believe the man (of the Third Round) evolved 'by gradual modification of an (astral) mammal of ape-like organization' still easier when we remember that (though in a more condensed and less elegant, but still as comprehensible, phraseology) the same theory was said by Berosus to have been taught many thousands of years before his time by the man-fish Oannes or Dagon, the semi-demon of Babylonia * (though on somewhat modified lines).
"But what lies back of the Darwinian line of descent? So far as he is concerned nothing but 'unverifiable hypotheses.' For, as he puts it, he views all beings 'as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Silurian system was deposited.' He does not attempt to show us who these 'few beings' were. But it answers our purpose quite as well, for, in the admission of their existence at all, resort to the ancients for corroboration and elaboration of the idea receives the stamp of scientific approbation. . . . "
Truly, as also said in our first work: "If we accept Darwin's theory of the development of species, we find that his starting-point is placed in front of an open door. We are at liberty with him, to either remain within, or cross the threshold, beyond which lies the limitless and the incomprehensible, or rather the Unutterable. If our mortal language is inadequate to express what our spirit dimly foresees in the great 'Beyond' while on this earth it must realize it at some point in the timeless Eternity." But what lies "beyond" Hζckel's theory? Why Bathybius Hζckelii, and no more!
A further answer is given in Part III. Addenda.
* Cory: "Ancient Fragments."
"Origin of Species," pp. 448, 489, first edition.
§§ (33) The creators repent. (34) They atone for their neglect. (35) Men become endowed with minds. (36) The fourth race develops perfect speech. (37) Every androgynous unit is separated and becomes bisexual.
33. SEEING WHICH (the sin committed with the animals), THE LHAS (the spirits, the "Sons of Wisdom") WHO HAD NOT BUILT MEN (who had refused to create), WEPT, SAYING:
34. "THE AMANASA (the 'mindless') HAVE DEFILED OUR FUTURE ABODES (a). THIS IS KARMA. LET US DWELL IN THE OTHERS. LET US TEACH THEM BETTER, LEST WORSE SHOULD HAPPEN." THEY DID. . . .
35. THEN ALL BECAME ENDOWED WITH MANAS (minds). THEY SAW THE SIN OF THE MINDLESS.
But they had already separated before the ray of divine reason had
enlightened the dark region of their hitherto slumbering minds, and had
sinned. That is to say, they had committed evil unconsciously, by producing
an effect which was unnatural. Yet, like the other six primitive brother or
fellow races, even so this seventh, henceforth degenerated race, which will have
to bide its time for its final development on account of the sin
committed, even this race will find itself on the last day on one of
the seven paths. For "the wise * guard the home of nature's order, they assume
excellent forms in secret." But we must see whether the "animals" tampered
with, were of the same kind as those known to zoology.
* This verse in the Veda (X. 5-6), "The seven wise ones (rays of
wisdom, Dhyanis) fashion seven paths (or lines as also Races in another
sense). To one of these may the distressed mortal come" which is interpreted
solely from the astronomical and cosmic aspect is one of the most pregnant in
occult meaning. The "paths" may mean lines (maryadah), but
they are primarily beams of light falling on the paths leading to wisdom. (See
Rig Veda IV. 5-13.) It means "ways" or paths. They
are, in short, the seven Rays which fall free from the macrocosmic centre, the
seven principles in the metaphysical, the seven Races in the physical sense. All
depends upon the key used.
"Rig Veda," X. 10, 5, 2.
(a) The "Fall" occurred, according to the testimony of ancient Wisdom and the old records, as soon as Daksha (the reincarnated Creator of men and things in the early Third Race) disappeared to make room for that portion of mankind which had "separated." This is how the Commentary explains the details that preceded the "Fall":
"In the initial period of man's Fourth evolution, the human kingdom branched off in several and various directions. The outward shape of its first specimens was not uniform, for the vehicles (the egg-like, external shells, in which the future fully physical man gestated) were often tampered with, before they hardened, by huge animals, of species now unknown, and which belonged to the tentative efforts of Nature. The result was that intermediate races of monsters, half animals, half men, were produced. But as they were failures, they were not allowed to breathe long and live, though the intrinsically paramount power of psychic over physical nature being yet very weak, and hardly established, the 'Egg-Born' Sons had taken several of their females unto themselves as mates, and bred other human monsters. Later, animal species and human races becoming gradually equilibrized, they separated and mated no longer. Man created no more he begot. But he also begot animals, as well as men in days of old. Therefore the Sages (or wise men), who speak of males who had no more will-begotten offspring, but begat various animals along with Danavas (giants) on females of other species animals being as (or in a manner of) Sons putative to them; and they (the human males) refusing in time to be regarded as (putative) fathers of dumb creatures spoke truthfully and wisely. Upon seeing this (state of things), the kings and Lords of the Last Races (of the Third and the Fourth) placed the seal of prohibition upon the sinful intercourse. It interfered with Karma, it developed new (Karma).* They (the divine Kings) struck the culprits with sterility. They destroyed the Red and Blue Races.
In another we find:
"There were blue and red-faced animal-men even in later times; not from actual intercourse (between the human and animal species), but by descent."
And still another passage mentions:
"Red-haired, swarthy men going on all-fours, who bend and unbend (stand erect and fall on their hands again) who speak as their forefathers, and run on their hands as their giant fore-mothers."
Perchance in these specimens, Hζckelians might recognize, not the
* It is next to impossible to translate verbally some of these old
Commentaries. We are often obliged to give the meaning only, and thus
retranslate the verbatim translations.
Rudra, as a Kumβra, is Lilalohita red and blue.
Homo primigenius, but some of the lower tribes, such as some tribes of the Australian savages. Nevertheless, even these are not descended from the anthropoid apes, but from human fathers and semi-human mothers, or, to speak more correctly, from human monsters those "failures" mentioned in the first Commentary. The real anthropoids, Hζckel's Catarrhini and Platyrrhini, came far later, in the closing times of Atlantis. The orang-outang, the gorilla, the chimpanzee and cynocephalus are the latest and purely physical evolutions from lower anthropoid mammalians. They have a spark of the purely human essence in them; man on the other hand, has not one drop of pithecoid * blood in his veins. Thus saith old Wisdom and universal tradition.
How was the separation of sexes effected? it is asked. Are we to believe in
the old Jewish fable of the rib of Adam yielding Eve? Even such belief is more
logical and reasonable than the descent of man from the Quadrumana without any
reservation; as the former hides an esoteric truth under a fabulous version,
while the latter conceals no deeper fact than a desire to force upon mankind a
materialistic fiction. The rib is bone, and when we read in Genesis that Eve was
made out of the rib, it only means that the Race with bones was
produced out of a previous Race and Races, which were "boneless." This is an
esoteric tenet spread far and wide, as it is almost universal under its various
forms. A Tahitian tradition states that man was created out of Arζa,
"red
* This, regardless of modern materialistic evolution, which speculates in
this wise: "The primitive human form, whence as we think all human species
sprang, has perished this long time." (This we deny; it has only decreased in
size and changed in texture.) "But many facts point to the conclusion that it
was hairy and dolichocephalic." (African races are even now
dolichocephalic in a great measure, but the palζolithic Neanderthal skull, the
oldest we know of, is of a large size, and no nearer to the capacity of the
gorilla's cranium than that of any other now-living man). "Let us, for the time
being, call this hypothetical species Homo primigenius. . . . This
first species, or the Ape-man, the ancestor of all the others, PROBABLY arose in
the tropical regions of the old world from ANTHROPOID APES." Asked for
proofs, the evolutionist, not the least daunted, replies: "Of these NO FOSSIL
REMAINS ARE AS YET KNOWN TO US, BUT THEY WERE probably AKIN TO THE
GORILLA AND
ORANG OF THE PRESENT DAY." And
then the Papuan negro is mentioned as the probable descendant in the first line
(Pedigree of Man, p. 80).
Hζckel holds fast to Lemuria, which with East Africa and South Asia also, he
mentions as the possible cradle of the primitive Ape-men; and so do many
geologists. Mr. A. R. Wallace admits its reality, though in a rather modified
sense, in his "Geographical Distribution of Animals." But let
not Evolutionists speak so lightly of the comparative size of the brains of man
and the ape, for this is very unscientific, especially when they
pretend to see no difference between the two, or very little at any rate. For
Vogt himself showed that, while the highest of the Apes, the gorilla, has a
brain of only 30 to 51 cubic inches, the brain of the lowest of the Australian
aborigines amounts to 99.35 cubic inches. The former is thus "not half of the
size of the brain of a new-born babe," says Pfaff.
Earth." Taaroa, the creative power, the chief god, "put man to sleep for long years, for several lives," which means racial periods, and is a reference to his mental sleep, as shown elsewhere. During that time the deity pulled an Ivi (bone) out of man and she became a woman.*
Nevertheless, whatever the allegory may mean, even its exoteric meaning necessitates a divine Builder of man "a Progenitor." Do we then believe in such "supernatural" beings? We say, No. Occultism has never believed in anything, whether animate or inanimate, outside nature. Nor are we Cosmolators or Polytheists for believing in "Heavenly Man" and divine men, for we have the accumulated testimony of the ages, with its unvarying evidence on every essential point, to support us in this; the Wisdom of the Ancients and UNIVERSAL tradition. We reject, however, every groundless and baseless tradition, which, having outgrown strict allegory and symbolism, has found acceptance in exoteric creeds. But that which is preserved in unanimous traditions, only the wilfully blind could reject. Hence we believe in races of beings other than our own in far remote geological periods; in races of ethereal, following incorporeal, "Arupa," men, with form but no solid substance, giants who preceded us pigmies; in dynasties of divine beings, those Kings and Instructors of the Third Race in arts and sciences, compared with which our little modern science stands less chance than elementary arithmetic with geometry.
No, certainly not. We do not believe in the supernatural but only in the superhuman, or rather interhuman, intelligences. One may easily appreciate the feeling of reluctance that an educated person would have to being classed with the superstitious and ignorant; and even realize the great truth uttered by Renan when he says that: "The supernatural has become like the original sin, a blemish that every one seems ashamed of even those most religious persons who refuse in our day to accept even a minimum of Bible miracles in all their crudeness, and who, seeking to reduce them to the minimum, hide and conceal it in the furthermost corners of the past."
But the "supernatural" of Renan belongs to dogma and its dead letter. It has
nought to do with its Spirit nor with the reality of facts in Nature. If
theology asks us to believe that four or five thousand years ago men lived 900
years and more, that a portion of mankind, the enemies of the people of Israel
exclusively, was composed of giants
* "Polynesian Researches," Ellis. Vol.II.,
p. 38.
Missionaries seem to have pounced upon this name Ivi and made of it
Eve. But, as shown by Professor Max Mόller, Eve is not the Hebrew name
but an European transformation of 
, chavah,
"life," or mother of all living; "while the Tahitian Ivi and the Maori
Wheva meant bone and bone only." ("False Analogies.")
Chaire d'Hebreu au college de France, p. 20.
and monsters, we decline to believe that such a thing existed in Nature 5,000 years back. For Nature never proceeds by jumps and starts, and logic and common sense, besides geology, anthropology and ethnology, have justly rebelled against such assertions. But if that same theology, giving up her fantastic chronology, had claimed that men lived 969 years the age of Methuselah five million years ago, we would have nothing to say against the claim. For in those days the physical frame of men was, compared to the present human body, as that of a megalosaurus to a common lizard.
A naturalist suggests another difficulty. The human is the only species which, however unequal in its races, can breed together. "There is no question of selection between human races," say the anti-Darwinists, and no evolutionist can deny the argument one which very triumphantly proves specific unity. How then can Occultism insist that a portion of the Fourth Race humanity begot young ones from females of another, only semi-human, if not quite an animal, race, the hybrids resulting from which union not only bred freely but produced the ancestors of the modern anthropoid apes? Esoteric science replies to this that it was in the very beginnings of physical man. Since then, Nature has changed her ways, and sterility is the only result of the crime of man's bestiality. But we have to this day proofs of this. The Secret Doctrine teaches that the specific unity of mankind is not without exceptions even now. For there are, or rather still were a few years ago, descendants of these half-animal tribes or races, both of remote Lemurian and Lemuro-Atlantean origin. The world knows them as Tasmanians (now extinct), Australians, Andaman Islanders, etc. The descent of the Tasmanians can be almost proved by a fact, which struck Darwin a good deal, without his being able to make anything of it. This fact deserves notice.
Now de Quatrefages and other naturalists, who seek to prove Monogenesis by
the very fact of every race of mankind being capable of crossing with every
other, have left out of their calculations exceptions, which do not in
this case confirm the rule. Human crossing may have been a general rule from the
time of the separation of sexes, and yet that other law may assert itself, viz.,
sterility between two human races, just as between two animal species of various
kinds, in those rare cases when a European, condescending to see in a female of
a savage tribe a mate, happens to chose a member of such mixed tribes.* Darwin
notes such
* Of such semi-animal creatures, the sole remnants known to Ethnology were
the Tasmanians, a portion of the Australians and a mountain tribe in
China, the men and women of which are entirely covered with hair. They were the
last descendants in a direct line of the semi-animal latter-day
Lemurians referred to. There are, however, considerable numbers of the mixed
Lemuro-Atlantean peoples produced by various crossings with such semi-human
stocks e.g., the wild men of Borneo, the Veddhas of Ceylon, classed
by Prof. Flower among Aryans (!), most of the remaining Australians, Bushmen,
Negritos, Andaman Islanders, etc.
The Australians of the Gulf of St. Vincent and the neighbourhood of Adelaide
are very hairy, and the brown down on the skin of boys of five or six
years of age assumes a furry appearance. They are, however, degraded
men not the closest approximation to the "pithecoid
man," as Hζckel so sweepingly affirms. Only a portion of these men are a Lemurian relic. (Cf. "Esoteric Buddhism," p.55.)
a case in a Tasmanian tribe, whose women were suddenly struck with sterility, en masse, some time after the arrival among them of the European colonists. The great naturalist tried to explain this fact by change of diet, food, conditions, etc., but finally gave up the solution of the mystery. For the Occultist it is a very evident one. "Crossing," as it is called, of Europeans with Tasmanian women i.e., the representatives of a race, whose progenitors were a "soulless" * and mindless monster and a real human, though still as mindless a man brought on sterility. This, not alone as a consequence of a physiological law, but also as a decree of Karmic evolution in the question of further survival of the abnormal race. In no one point of the above is Science prepared to believe as yet but it will have to in the long run. Esoteric philosophy, let us remember, only fills the gaps made by science and corrects her false premises.
Yet, in this particular, geology and even botany and zoology support the esoteric teachings. It has been suggested by many geologists that the Australian native co-existing as he does with an archaic fauna and flora must date back to an enormous antiquity. The whole environment of this mysterious race, about whose origin ethnology is silent, is a testimony to the truth of the esoteric position.
"Manual of Geology," p. 302.
thing of the Oolitic type, while it had been altogether supplanted and replaced on the rest of the Globe." (! !)
Now why has less change taken place in Australia than elsewhere? Where is the raison d'etre for such a "curse of retardation"? It is simply because the nature of the environment develops pari passu with the race concerned. Correspondences rule in every quarter. The survivors of those later Lemurians, who escaped the destruction of their fellows when the main continent was submerged, became the ancestors of a portion of the present native tribes. Being a very low sub-race, begotten originally of animals, of monsters, whose very fossils are now resting miles under the sea floors, their stock has since existed in an environment strongly subjected to the law of retardation. Australia is one of the oldest lands now above the waters, and in the senile decrepitude of old age, its "virgin soil" notwithstanding. It can produce no new forms, unless helped by new and fresh races, and artificial cultivation and breeding.
To return, however, once more to the history of the Third Race, the
"Sweat-Born," the "Egg-bearing," and the "Androgyne." Almost sexless, in its
early beginnings, it became bisexual or androgynous; very gradually of course.
The passage from the former to the latter transformation required numberless
generations, during which the simple cell that issued from the earliest parent
(the two in one), first developed into a bisexual being; and then the cell,
becoming a regular egg, gave forth a unisexual creature. The Third-Race-mankind
is the most mysterious of all the hitherto developed five Races. The mystery of
the "How" of the generation of the distinct sexes must, of course, be very
obscure here, as it is the business of an embryologist and a specialist, the
present work giving only faint outlines of the process. But it is evident that
the units of the Third Race humanity began to separate in their pre-natal
shells, or eggs,* and to issue out of them as distinct male and female babes,
ages after the appearance of its early progenitors. And, as time rolled on its
geological periods, the newly born sub-races began to lose their natal
capacities. Toward the end of the fourth sub-race, the babe lost its
faculty of walking as soon as liberated from its shell, and by the end of the
fifth, mankind was born under the same conditions and by the same identical
process as our historical generations. This required, of course, millions of
years. The
* The "fables" and "myths" about Leda and Jupiter, and such like, could never
have sprung up in people's fancy, had not the allegory rested on a fact in
nature. Evolution, gradually transforming man into a mammal, did in his case
only what it did in that of other animals. But this does not prevent man from
having always stood at the head of the animal world and other organic species,
and from having preceded the former.
reader has been made acquainted with the approximate figures, at least of the exoteric calculations, in Stanza II.
We are approaching the turning-point of the evolution of the Races. Let us see what occult philosophy says on the origin of language.
36. THE FOURTH RACE DEVELOPED SPEECH.
The Commentaries explain that the first Race the ethereal or astral Sons of Yoga, also called "Self-born" was, in our sense, speechless, as it was devoid of mind on our plane. The Second Race had a "Sound-language," to wit, chant-like sounds composed of vowels alone. The Third Race developed in the beginning a kind of language which was only a slight improvement on the various sounds in Nature, on the cry of gigantic insects and of the first animals, which, however, were hardly nascent in the day of the "Sweat-born" (the early Third Race). In its second half, when the "Sweat-born" gave birth to the "Egg-born," (the middle Third Race); and when these, instead of "hatching out" (may the reader pardon the rather ridiculous expression when applied to human beings in our age) as androgynous beings, began to evolve into separate males and females; and when the same law of evolution led them to reproduce their kind sexually, an act which forced the creative gods, compelled by Karmic law, to incarnate in mindless men; then only was speech developed. But even then it was still no better than a tentative effort. The whole human race was at that time of "one language and of one lip." This did not prevent the last two Sub-Races of the Third Race * from building cities, and sowing far and wide the first seeds of civilization under the guidance of their divine instructors, and their own already awakened minds. Let the reader also bear in mind that, as each of the seven races is divided into four ages the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Age so is every smallest division of such races. Speech then developed, according to occult teaching, in the following order:
I. Monosyllabic speech; that of the first approximately fully developed human
beings at the close of the Third Root-race, the "golden-coloured,"
yellow-complexioned men, after their separation into sexes, and the full
* To avoid confusion, let the reader remember that the term Root-Race applies
to one of the seven great Races, sub-Race to one of its great Branches, and
Family-Race to one of the sub-divisions, which include nations and large tribes.
In the Section on the Divine Dynasties, the nature of these "Instructors" is explained.
Vide Section attached to the "Divisions into Yugas."
199 PRIMEVAL LANGUAGE.
awakening of their minds. Before that, they communicated through what would now be called "thought-transference," though, with the exception of the Race called the "Sons of Will and Yoga" the first in whom the "Sons of Wisdom" had incarnated thought was but very little developed in nascent physical man, and never soared above a low terrestrial level. Their physical bodies belonging to the Earth, their Monads remained on a higher plane altogether. Language could not be well developed before the full acquisition and development of their reasoning faculties. This monosyllabic speech was the vowel parent, so to speak, of the monosyllabic languages mixed with hard consonants, still in use amongst the yellow races which are known to the anthropologist.*
II. These linguistic characteristics developed into the
agglutinative languages. The latter were spoken by some Atlantean races, while
other parent stocks of the Fourth Race preserved the mother-language. And as
languages have their cyclic evolution, their childhood, purity, growth, fall
into matter, admixture with other languages, maturity, decay and finally
death, so the primitive speech of the most civilized Atlantean races that
language, which is referred to as "Rβkshasi Bhasa," in old Sanskrit works
decayed and almost died out. While the "cream" of the Fourth Race gravitated
more and more toward the apex of physical and intellectual evolution, thus
leaving as an heirloom to the nascent Fifth (the Aryan) Race the inflectional,
highly developed languages, the agglutinative decayed and remained as a
fragmentary fossil idiom, scattered now, and nearly limited to the aboriginal
tribes of America.
* The present yellow races are the descendants, however, of the early
branches of the Fourth Race. Of the third, the only pure and direct
descendants are, as said above, a portion of the fallen and degenerated
Australians, whose far distant ancestors belonged to a division of the seventh
Sub-race of the Third. The rest are of mixed Lemuro-Atlantean descent. They have
since then entirely changed in stature and intellectual capacities.
Language is certainly coeval with reason, and could never have
been developed before men became one with the informing principles in them
those who fructified and awoke to life the manasic element dormant in primitive
man. For, as Professor Max Muller tells us in his "Science of Thought,"
"Thought and language are identical." Yet to add to this the reflection
that thoughts which are too deep for words, do not really exist at
all, is rather risky, as thought impressed upon the astral tablets exists
in eternity whether expressed or not. Logos is both reason and speech. But
language, proceeding in cycles, is not always adequate to express spiritual
thoughts. Moreover, in one sense, the Greek Logos is the equivalent of the
Sanscrit Vβch, "the immortal (intellectual) ray of spirit." And the fact that Vβch (as Devasena, an aspect of Saraswati, the goddess of hidden
Wisdom) is the spouse of the eternal celibate Kumβra, unveils a suggestive,
though veiled, reference to the Kumβras, those "who refused to create,"
but who were compelled later on to complete divine Man by incarnating
in him. All this will be fully explained in the sections that follow.
III. The inflectional speech the root of the Sanskrit, very erroneously called "the elder sister" of the Greek, instead of its mother was the first language (now the mystery tongue of the Initiates, of the Fifth Race). At any rate, the "Semitic" languages are the bastard descendants of the first phonetic corruptions of the eldest children of the early Sanskrit. The occult doctrine admits of no such divisions as the Aryan and the Semite, accepting even the Turanian with ample reservations. The Semites, especially the Arabs, are later Aryans degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality. To these belong all the Jews and the Arabs. The former are a tribe descended from the Tchandalas of India, the outcasts, many of them ex-Brahmins, who sought refuge in Chaldea, in Scinde, and Aria (Iran), and were truly born from their father A-bram (No Brahmin) some 8,000 years B.C. The latter, the Arabs, are the descendants of those Aryans who would not go into India at the time of the dispersion of nations, some of whom remained on the borderlands thereof, in Afghanistan and Kabul,* and along the Oxus, while others penetrated into and invaded Arabia.
But this was when Africa had already been raised as a continent. We have
meanwhile to follow, as closely as limited space will permit, the gradual
evolution of the now truly human species. It is in the suddenly arrested
evolution of certain sub-races, and their forced and violent diversion into the
purely animal line by artificial cross-breeding, truly analogous to the
hybridization, which we have now learned to utilize in the vegetable and animal
kingdoms, that we have to look for the origin of the anthropoids.
* Ptolemy, speaking in his ninth table of the Kabolitζ
(Kabul tribes), calls them
Aristophuloi , the aristocratic or noble
tribes. The Afghans call themselves Ben-Issrael (children of Is(sa)rael),
from Issa, "woman and also earth," Sons of Mother Earth. But if you
call an Afghan Yahoudi (Jew), he will kill you. The
subject is fully treated elsewhere. The names of the supposed twelve tribes and
the names of the real tribes, the same in number, of the Afghans, are the same.
The Afghans being far older (at any rate, their Arabic stock) than the
Israelites, no one need be surprised to find such tribal names among them as
Youssoufzic, "Sons of Joseph" in Punjcaure and Boonere; the Zablistanee
(Zebulon); Ben-manasseh (sons of Manasseh) among the Khojar Tartars;
Isaguri, or Issachar (now Ashnagor in Afghanistan), etc., etc. The whole twelve
names of the so-called twelve tribes are names of the signs of the Zodiac, as is
now well proven. At any rate, the names of the oldest Arabic tribes,
re-transliterated, yield the names of the zodiacal signs and of the mythical
sons of Jacob likewise. Where are the traces of the Jewish twelve tribes?
Nowhere. But there is a trace, and a good one, that the Jews have tried to
deceive people with the help of those names. For, see what happens ages
after the ten tribes had wholly disappeared from Babylon. Ptolemy
Philadelphus, desiring to have the Hebrew Law translated for him into Greek (the
famous Septuagint), wrote to the high priest of the Jews,
Eleazar, to send him six men from each of the twelve tribes;
and the seventy-two representatives (of whom sixty were ghosts
apparently) came to the king in Egypt and translated the law amid miracles and
wonders. See Butler's "Horae Biblicζ," Josephus, and Philo
Judζus.
In these red-haired and hair-covered monsters, the fruit of the unnatural connection between men and animals, the "Lords of Wisdom" did not incarnate, as we see. Thus by a long series of transformations due to unnatural cross-breeding (unnatural "sexual selection"), originated in due course of time the lowest specimens of humanity; while further bestiality and the fruit of their first animal efforts of reproduction begat a species which developed into mammalian apes ages later.*
As to the separation of sexes, it did not occur suddenly, as one may think. Nature proceeds slowly in whatever she does.
37. THE ONE (androgyne) BECAME TWO; ALSO ALL THE LIVING AND CREEPING THINGS, THAT WERE STILL ONE, GIANT-FISH, BIRDS, AND SERPENTS WITH SHELL-HEADS (a).
This relates evidently to the so-called age of the amphibious reptiles, during which ages science maintains that no man existed! But what could the ancients know of antediluvian prehistoric animals and monsters! Nevertheless, in Book VI. of the Commentaries is found a passage which says, freely translated:
"When the Third separated and fell into sin by breeding men-animals, these (the animals) became ferocious, and men and they mutually destructive. Till then, there was no sin, no life taken. After (the separation) the Satya (Yuga) was at an end. The eternal spring became constant change and seasons succeeded. Cold forced men to build shelters and devise clothing. Then man appealed to the superior Fathers (the higher gods or angels). The Nirmβnakaya of the Nβgas, the wise Serpents and Dragons of Light came, and the precursors of the Enlightened (Buddhas). Divine Kings descended and taught men sciences and arts, for man could live no longer in the first land (Adi-Varsha, the Eden of the first Races), which had turned into a white frozen corpse."
The above is suggestive. We will see what can be inferred from this brief
statement. Some may incline to think that there is more in it than is apparent
at first sight.
* The Commentary explains that the apes are the only species, among the
animals, which has gradually and with every generation and variety tended more
and more to return to the original type of its male forefather the dark
gigantic Lemurian and Atlantean.
EDENS, SERPENTS, AND DRAGONS.
Whence the idea, and the true meaning of the term "Eden"? Christians will maintain that the Garden of Eden is the holy Paradise, the place desecrated by the sin of Adam and Eve; the Occultist will deny this dead-letter interpretation, and show the reverse. One need not believe and see in the Bible divine revelation in order to say that this ancient book, if read esoterically, is based upon the same universal traditions. What Eden was is partially shown in Isis Unveiled.*
It was said that: "The Garden of Eden as a locality is no myth at all; it
belongs to those landmarks of history which occasionally disclose to the student
that the Bible is not all mere allegory. Eden, or the Hebrew
Gan-Eden, meaning the park or the garden
of Eden, is an archaic name of the country watered by the Euphrates and its many
branches, from Asia and Armenia to the Erythrζan sea." (A. Wilder says that Gan-duniyas is a name of Babylonia.) In the Chaldean "Book of Numbers,"
the location is designated in numerals, and in the cypher Rosicrucian
manuscript, left by Count St. Germain, it is fully described. In the Assyrian
Tablets it is rendered Ganduniyas. "Behold," says the
(Elohim) of Genesis,
"the man is become as one of us." The Elohim may be accepted in one
sense for gods or powers, and in another for Aleim, or priests
the hierophants initiated into the good and evil of this world; for there was
a college of priests called the Aleim, while the head of their caste,
or the chief of the hierophants was known as Java-Aleim. Instead of
becoming a neophyte, and gradually obtaining his esoteric knowledge through a
regular initiation, an Adam, or Man, uses his intuitional faculties
and, prompted by the serpent (Woman and matter), tastes of the Tree of
Knowledge the esoteric or Secret Doctrine unlawfully. The priests of
Hercules, or Mel-karth, the "Lord of the Eden," all wore "coats of skin." The
text says: "And Java-Aleim made for Adam and his wife
'Chitonuth our.' " The first Hebrew
word, "chiton," is the Greek Chiton
, Chiton.
It became a Slavonic word by adoption from the Bible, and means a
coat, an upper garment.
"Though containing the same substratum of esoteric truth as does every early
Cosmogony, the Hebrew Scripture wears on its face the marks of a double origin.
Its Genesis is purely a reminiscence of the Babylonian captivity. The names of
places, men and even objects, can be traced from the original text to the
Chaldeans and the Akkadians, the progenitors and Aryan instructors of the
former. It is strongly contested that the Akkad tribes of Chaldea, Babylonia and
Assyria were in
* Vol. I., pp. 575, et seq.
any way cognate with the Brahmans of Hindostan; but there are more proofs in favour of this opinion than otherwise. The Shemite or Assyrian ought, perchance, to have been called the Turanian, and the Mongolians have been denominated Scyths. But if the Akkadians ever existed, otherwise than in the imagination of some ethnologists and philologists, they certainly would never have been a Turanian tribe, as some Assyriologists have striven to make us believe. They were simply emigrants on their way to Asia Minor from India, the cradle of humanity, and their sacerdotal adepts tarried to civilize and initiate a barbarian people. Halιvy proved the fallacy of the Turanian mania in regard to Akkadian people, and other scientists have proved that the Babylonian civilization was neither born nor developed in that country. It was imported from India, and the importers were Brahminical Hindus."
And now, ten years after this was written, we find ourselves corroborated by Professor Sayce, who says in his first Hibbert lecture that the culture of the Babylonian city Eridu was of foreign importation. It came from India.
"Much of the theology was borrowed by the Semites from the non-Semitic Akkadians or proto-Chaldeans, whom they supplanted, and whose local cults they had neither the will nor the power to uproot. Indeed, throughout a long course of ages the two races, Semites and Akkadians, lived side by side, their notions and worship of the gods blending insensibly together."
Here, the Akkadians are called "non-Semitic," as we had insisted they were in "Isis," which is another corroboration. And we are no less right in always maintaining that the Jewish Biblical history was a compilation of historical facts, arranged from other people's history in Jewish garb Genesis excluded, which is esotericism pure and simple. But it is really from the Euxine to Kashmir and beyond, that science has to search for the cradle or rather one of the chief cradles of mankind and the sons of Ad-ah; and especially in after times, when the Garden of Ed-en on the Euphrates became the college of the astrologers and magi, the Aleim.
But this "college" and this Eden belong to the Fifth Race, and are simply a
faint reminiscence of the Adi-varsha, of the primeval Third Race. What is the
etymological meaning of the word Eden? In Greek it is
hdonh;,
signifying voluptuousness. In this aspect it is no better than the
Olympus of the Greeks, Indra's heaven (Swarga) on Mount Meru, and even the
paradise full of Houris, promised by Mahomet to the faithful. The
Garden of Eden was never the property of the Jews; for China, which can hardly
be suspected of having known anything of the Jews 2,000 B.C., has such a
primitive garden in Central Asia inhabited by the "Dragons of Wisdom," the
Initiates. And according to Klaproth,
the hieroglyphical chart copied from a Japanese Cyclopζdia in the book of Fo-kone-ky, places its "Garden of Wisdom" on the plateau of Pamir between the highest peaks of the Himalayan ranges; and describing it as the culminating point of Central Asia, shows the four rivers Oxus, Indus, Ganges, and Silo flowing from a common source, the "Lake of the Dragons."
But this is not the Genetic Eden; nor is it the Kabalistical Garden of Eden. For the former Eden Illa-ah means in one sense Wisdom, a state like that of Nirvana, a paradise of Bliss; while in another sense it refers to Intellectual man himself, the container of the Eden in which grows the tree of Knowledge of good and evil: man being the Knower thereof.
Renan and Barthιlemy St. Hilaire, basing themselves "on the most solid inductions," think it impossible to doubt any longer, and both place the cradle of humanity "on the region of the Timaus." Finally, the Asiatic Journal * concludes that: "All the traditions of the human race gathering its primitive families at the region of their birth-place, show them to us grouped around the countries where Jewish tradition places the Garden of Eden; where the Aryans (Zoroastrians) established their Airyana-vaκgτ or the Meru (?). They are hemmed in to the North by the countries which join the lake Aral, and to the South by Baltistan, or Little Tibet. Everything concurs in proving that there was the abode of that primitive humanity to which we have to be traced."
That "primitive humanity" was in its Fifth Race, when the "four-mouthed Dragon," the lake, of which very few traces are now left, was the abode of the "Sons of Wisdom," the first mind-born sons of the Third Race. Yet it was neither the only one nor the primitive cradle of humanity, though it was the copy of the cradle, verily, of the first thinking divine man. It was the Paradesa, the highland of the first Sanskrit-speaking people, the Hedone, the country of delight of the Greeks, but it was not the "bower of voluptuousness" of the Chaldeans, for the latter was only the reminiscence of it; and also because it was not there that the Fall of Man occurred after the "separation." The Eden of the Jews was copied from the Chaldean copy.
That the Fall of man into generation occurred during the earliest portion of
what science calls the Mesozoic times, or the age of the reptiles, is evidenced
by the Bible phraseology concerning the serpent, the nature of which is
explained in the Zohar. The question is not whether Eve's incident with
the tempting reptile is allegorical or textual, for no one can doubt that it is
the former, but to show the antiquity of the symbolism on the very face of it,
and that it was not only a Jewish but an universal idea.
* "Journal Asiatique," seventh year, 1855.
Now we find in the Zohar a very strange assertion, one that is
calculated to provoke the reader to merry laughter by its ludicrous absurdity.
It tells us that the serpent, which was used by Shamael (the supposed
Satan), to seduce Eve, was a kind of flying camel
( kamelomorphon. )
A "flying camel" is indeed too much for the most liberal-minded F.R.S. Nevertheless, the Zohar, which can hardly be expected to use the language of a Cuvier, was right in its description: * for we find it called in the old Zoroastrian MSS. Aschmogh, which in the Avesta is represented as having lost after the Fall "its nature and its name," and is described as a huge serpent with a camel's neck.
"There are no winged serpents, nor veritable dragons," asserts Salverte, " . . . grasshoppers are called by the Greeks winged serpents, and this metaphor may have created several narratives on the existence of winged serpents."
There are none now; but there is no reason why they should not have existed during the Mesozoic age; and Cuvier, who has reconstructed their skeletons, is a witness to "flying camels." Already, after finding simple fossils of certain saurians, the great naturalist has written, that, "if anything can justify the Hydra and other monsters, whose figures were so often repeated by mediζval historians, it is incontestably the Plesiosaurus."
We are unaware if Cuvier had added anything in the way of a further mea culpa. But we may well imagine his confusion, for all his slanders against archaic veracity, when he found himself in the presence of a flying saurian, "the Pterodactyl" (found in Germany), "78 feet long, and carrying vigorous wings attached to its reptilian body." That fossil is described as a reptile, the little fingers of whose hands are so elongated as to bear a long membranous wing. Here, then, the "flying camel" of the Zohar is vindicated. For surely, between the long neck of the Plesiosaurus and the membranous wing of the Pterodactyl, or still better the Mosasaurus, there is enough scientific probability to build a "flying camel," or a long-necked dragon. Prof. Cope, of Philadelphia, has shown that the Mosasaurus fossil in the chalk was a winged serpent of this kind. There are characters in its vertebrζ, which indicate union with the Ophidia rather than with the Lacertilia.
And now to the main question. It is well known that Antiquity has never
claimed palζontography and paleontology among its arts and sciences; and it
never had its Cuviers. Yet on Babylonian tiles, and especially in old Chinese
and Japanese drawings, in the oldest Pagodas
* See Moses Maimonides, "More Nevochim."
"Science Occulte," p. 646.
"Revolution du Globe," vol. v., p. 464.
and monuments, and in the Imperial library at Pekin, many a traveller has seen and recognised perfect representations of Plesiosauri and Pterodactyls in the multiform Chinese dragons.* Moreover, the prophets speak in the Bible of the flying fiery serpents, and Job mentions the Leviathan. Now the following questions are put very directly:
I. How could the ancient nations know anything of the extinct monsters of the carboniferous and Mesozoic times, and even represent and describe them orally and pictorially, unless they had either seen those monsters themselves or possessed descriptions of them in their traditions, which descriptions necessitate living and intelligent eye-witnesses?
II. And if such eye-witnesses are once admitted (unless retrospective clairvoyance is granted), how can humanity and the first palζolithic men be no earlier than about the middle of the tertiary period? We must bear in mind that most of the men of science will not allow man to have appeared before the Quaternary period, and thus shut him out completely from the Cenozoic times. Here we have extinct species of animals, which disappeared from the face of the Earth millions of years ago, described by, and known to, nations whose civilization, it is said, could hardly have begun a few thousand years ago. How is this? Evidently either the Mesozoic time has to be made to overlap the Quaternary period, or man must be made the contemporary of the Pterodactyl and the Plesiosaurus.
It does not stand to reason, because the Occultists believe in and defend
ancient wisdom and science, even though winged saurians are called "flying
camels" in the translations of the Zohar, that we believe as readily in
all the stories which the middle ages give us of such dragons. Pterodactyls and
Plesiosauri ceased to exist with the bulk
* We read in the "Memoire a l'Academie" of the
"naive astonishment of Geoffrey St. Hilaire, when M. de Paravey showed to him in
some old Chinese works and Babylonian tiles dragons, . . . . saurians and
ornithorhynchuses (aquatic animals found only in Australia),
etc., extinct animals that he had thought unknown on earth. . . . till his own
day."
See Isaiah, xxx. 6: "The viper and the flying serpent unto the land of trouble and anguish," and the fiery serpents conquered by the brazen serpent of Moses.
The fossils reconstructed by science, which we know ought to be
sufficient warrant for the possibility of even a Leviathan, let alone
Isaiah's flying serpents, or saraph mehophep, which words are
translated in all the Hebrew dictionaries as "saraph," enflamed or fiery venom,
and "mehophep," flying. But, although Christian theology has always
connected both (Leviathan and saraph mehophep) with the devil,
the expressions are metaphorical and have nought to do with the "evil one." But
the word Dracon has become a synonym for the latter. In Bretagne the
word Drouk now signifies "devil," whence, as we are told by Cambry ("Monuments
Celtiques," p. 299), the devil's tomb in England, Draghedanum
sepulcrum. In Languedoc the meteoric fires and will-o'-the-wisps
are called Dragg, and in Bretagne Dreag, Wraie (or
wraith), the castle of Drogheda in Ireland meaning the devil's castle.
of the Third Race. When, therefore, we are gravely asked by Roman Catholic
writers to credit Christopher Scherer's and Father Kircher's cock-and-bull
stories of their having seen with their own eyes living fiery and flying
dragons, respectively in 1619 and 1669, we may be allowed to regard their
assertions as either dreams or fibs.* Nor shall we regard otherwise than as a
poetical license that other story told of Petrarch, who, while
following one day his Laura in the woods and passing near a cave, is credited
with having found a dragon, whom he forthwith stabbed with his dagger and
killed, thus preventing the monster from devouring the lady of his heart. We
would willingly believe the story had Petrarch lived in the days of Atlantis,
when such antediluvian monsters may still have existed. We deny their existence
in our present era. The sea-serpent is one thing, the dragon quite another. The
former is denied by the majority because it exists and lives in the very depths
of the ocean, is very scarce, and rises to the surface only when compelled,
perhaps, by hunger. Thus keeping invisible, it may exist and still be denied.
But if there was such a thing as a dragon of the above description, how could it
have ever escaped detection? It is a creature contemporary with the earliest
Fifth Race, and exists no more.
* The ultramontane writers accept the whole series of draconian stories given
by Father Kircher (Edipus Ζgyptiacus, "De Genere Draconum,")
quite seriously. According to that Jesuit, he himself saw a dragon which
was killed in 1669 by a Roman peasant, as the director of the Museo Barberini
sent it to him, to take the beast's likeness, which Father Kircher did and had
it published in one of his in-folios. After this he received a letter
from Christopher Scherer, Prefect of the Canton of Soleure, Switzerland, in
which that official certifies to his having seen himself with his own eyes,
one fine summer night in 1619, a living dragon. Having remained on his
balcony "to contemplate the perfect purity of the firmament," he writes, "I saw
a fiery, shining dragon rise from one of the caves of Mount Pilatus and direct
itself rapidly towards Fluelen to the other end of the lake. Enormous in size,
his tail was still longer and his neck very extended. His head and jaws were
those of a serpent. In flying he emitted on his way numerous sparks (? !) . . .
. I thought at first I was seeing a meteor, but soon looking more attentively, I
was convinced by his flight and the conformation of his body that I saw a
veritable dragon. I am happy to be thus able to enlighten your Reverence on
the very real existence of those animals"; in dreams, the
writer ought to have added, of long past ages.
As a convincing proof of the reality of the fact, a Roman Catholic refers
the reader to the picture of that incident painted by Simon de Sienne, a friend
of the poet, on the portal of the Church Notre Dame du Don at Avignon;
notwithstanding the prohibition of the Sovereign Pontiff, who "would not allow
this triumph of love to be enthroned in the holy place"; and adds: "Time has
injured and rubbed out the work of art, but has not weakened its tradition." De
Mirville's "Dragon-Devils" of our era seem to have no luck, as they disappear
most mysteriously from the museums where they are said to have been. Thus the
dragon embalmed by Ulysses Aldobranda and presented to the Musee du Senat,
either in Naples or Bologna, "was there still in 1700, but is there no more." (Vol.
2, p. 427, "Pneumatologie.")
The reader may inquire why we speak of dragons at all? We answer: firstly, because the knowledge of such animals is a proof of the enormous antiquity of the human race; and secondly, to show the difference between the zoological real meaning of the words "dragon," "Nβga," and "Serpent," and the metaphorical one, when used symbolically. The profane reader, who knows nothing of the mystery language, is likely, whenever he finds one of these words mentioned, to accept it literally. Hence, the quid pro quos and unjust accusations. A couple of instances will suffice.
Sed et serpens? aye: but what was the nature of the serpent? Mystics intuitionally see in the serpent of Genesis an animal emblem and a high spiritual essence: a cosmic force superintelligent, a "great fallen light," a spirit sidereal, aerial and tellurian at the same time, "whose influence circumambulates the globe (qui circumambulat terram), as a Christian fanatic of the dead-letter (de Mirville) has it, and which only manifested itself under the physical emblem, which was the most convenient "with respect to its moral and intellectual coils": i.e. under the ophidian form.
But what will Christians make of the Brazen Serpent, the "DIVINE HEALER," if
the serpent is to be regarded as the emblem of cunning and evil? The "Evil One"
itself? How can the line of demarcation ever be settled, when it is traced
arbitrarily in a sectarian theological spirit. For, if the followers of the
Roman Church are taught that Mercury and Ζsculapius, or Asclepios, who are, in
truth, one, are "devils and sons of devils," and the wand and serpent of the
latter were "the devil's wand"; how about the "brazen serpent" of Moses? Every
scholar knows that both the heathen wand and the Jewish "serpent" are
one and the same, namely, the Caduceus of Mercury, son of
APOLLO-PYTHON.
It is easy to comprehend why the Jews adopted the ophidian shape for their
"seducer." With them it was purely physiological and phallic;
and no amount of casuistical reasoning on the part of the Roman Catholic Church
can give it another meaning, once that the mystery language is well studied, and
that the Hebrew scrolls are read numerically. The Occultists know that the
serpent, the Naga, and the dragon have each a septenary meaning; that
the Sun, for instance, was the astronomical and cosmic emblem of the
two contrasted lights, and the two serpents of the Gnostics, the good and the
evil one; they also know that, when generalised, the conclusions of
both science and theology present two most ridiculous extremes. For, when the
former tells us that it is sufficient to trace the legends of the serpents to
their primal source, the astrological legend, and to meditate seriously on the
Sun, conqueror of Python, and the celestial virgin in the Zodiac
forcing back the devouring dragon, if we would have the key of all the
subsequent religious dogmas; it is easy to perceive that, instead of
generalising, the author simply has his eye on Christian religion and Revelation. We call this one extreme. The other we see in this: when, repeating the famous decision of the Council of Trent, theology seeks to convince the masses that "from the fall of man until the hour of his baptism the devil has full power over him, and possesses him by right (diabolum dominationem et potestatem super homines habere et jure cos possidere)." To this Occult philosophy answers: Prove first the existence of the devil as an entity, and then we may believe in such congenital possession. A very small amount of observation and knowledge of human nature may be sufficient to prove the fallacy of this theological dogma. Had SATAN any reality, in the objective or even subjective world (in the ecclesiastical sense), it is the poor devil who would find himself chronically obsessed and even possessed by the wicked hence by the bulk of mankind. It is humanity itself, and especially the clergy, headed by the haughty, unscrupulous and intolerant Roman Church, which have begotten, given birth to, and reared in love the evil one; but this is a digression.
"The whole world of thought is reproached by the Church with having adored the serpent. The whole of humanity 'incensed and at the same time stoned it.' The Zend Avesta speaks of it as the Kings and Vedas do, as the Edda and the Bible. . . . Everywhere the sacred serpent, the naga, and its shrine and its priest; in Rome it is the Vestal who prepares its meal with the same care as she bestows on the sacred fire. In Greece, Ζsculapius cannot cure without its assistance, and delegates to it his powers. Everyone has heard of the famous Roman embassy sent by the Senate to the god of medicine and its return with the not less famous serpent, which proceeded of its own will and by itself toward its Master's temple on one of the islands of the Tiber. Not a Bacchante that did not wind it (the serpent) in her hair, not an Augur but questioned it oracularly, not a necromancer whose tomb is free from its presence! The Cainites and the Ophites call it Creator, while recognizing, as Schelling did, that the serpent is 'evil in substance and its personification.' " *
Yes, the author is right, and if one would have a complete idea of the
prestige which the serpent enjoys to our own day, one ought to study the matter
in India and learn all that is believed about, and still attributed to, the
Nagas (Cobras) in that country; one should also visit the Africans of
Whydah, the Voodoos of Port-au-Prince and Jamaica, the Nagals of Mexico, and the
Pa, or men-serpents of China, &c. But why wonder that the serpent is "adored"
and at the same time cursed, since we
* "Sacred Serpents" on p. 432 of de Mirville's "Memoire."
know that from the beginning it was a symbol? * In every ancient language the word dragon signified what it now does in Chinese (lang) i.e., "the being who excels in intelligence" and in Greek dravkwn , or "he who sees and watches." And is it to the animal of that name that any of these epithets can apply? Is it not evident, wherever superstition and oblivion of the primitive meaning may have led savages now, that the said qualifications were intended to apply to the human originals, who were symbolized by serpents and dragons? These "originals" called to this day in China "the Dragons of Wisdom" were the first disciples of the Dhyanis, who were their instructors; in short, the primitive adepts of the Third Race, and later, of the Fourth and Fifth Races. The name became universal, and no sane man before the Christian era would ever have confounded the man and the symbol.
The symbol of Chnouphis, or the soul of the world, writes Champollion, "is
among others that of an enormous serpent standing on human legs; this reptile,
the emblem of the good genius, is a veritable Agathodζmon. It is often
represented bearded. . . . . That sacred animal, identical with the serpent of
the Ophites, is found engraved on numerous Gnostic or Basilidean stones . . . .
The serpent has various heads, but is constantly inscribed with the letters
CHOUBIS ."
Agathodζmon was endowed "with the knowledge of good and evil," i.e.,
with divine Wisdom, as without the former the latter is impossible. Repeating Iamblichus, Champollion
shows him to be "the deity called
Eictw'n
(or the fire of the celestial gods the great § Thot-
* This is about as just as though a few millenniums hence a fanatic of
some future new creed, who was bent on glorifying his religion at the
expense of ancient Christianity, were to say: "Everywhere the quadruped
lamb was adored. The nun placed it, calling it the Agnus, on her bosom; the
priest laid it on the altar. It figured in every paschal meal, and was glorified
loudly in every temple. And yet the Christians dreaded it and hated it, for they
slew and devoured it. .
. . ." Heathens, at any rate, do not eat their sacred
symbols. We know of no serpent, or reptile-eaters except in Christian civilized
countries, where they begin with frogs and eels, and must end with real snakes,
as they have begun with lamb and ended with horse-flesh.
"Pantheon," 3.
The solar Chnouphis, or Agathodζmon, is the Christos of the Gnostics, as every scholar knows. He is intimately connected with the seven sons of Sophia (Wisdom), the seven sons of Aditi (universal Wisdom), her eighth being Marttanda, the Sun, which seven are the seven planetary regents or genii. Therefore Chnouphis was the spiritual Sun of Enlightenment, of Wisdom, hence the patron of all the Egyptian Initiates, as Bel-Merodach (or Bel-Belitanus) became later with the Chaldeans.
§ Hermes, or rather Thot, was a generic name. Abul Teda shows in "Historia
Anti-Islamitica" five Hermes, and the names of Hermes, Nebo, Thot
were given respectively in various countries to great Initiates. Thus Nebo,
the son of Merodach and Zarpanitu (whom Herodotus calls Zeus-Belos), gave
his name to all the great prophets, seers and Initiates. They were all "serpents
of Wisdom," as connected with the Sun astronomically, and with Wisdom
spiritually.
Hermes), to whom Hermes Trismegistus attributes the invention of magic." *
The "invention of magic!" A strange term to use, as though the unveiling of the eternal and actual mysteries of nature could be invented! As well attribute, millenniums hence, the invention instead of the discovery of radiant matter to Prof. Crookes. Hermes was not the inventor, or even the discoverer, for, as said in the foot-note, Thot-Hermes is a generic name, as is Enoch ( Enoichion, the "inner, spiritual eye"), Nebo, the prophet and seer, etc. It is not the proper name of any one living man, but a generic title of many adepts. Their connection in symbolic allegories with the serpent is due to their enlightenment by the solar and planetary gods during the earliest intellectual Race, the Third. They are all the representative patrons of the Secret Wisdom. Asclepios is the son of the Sun-god Apollo and he is Mercury; Nebo is the son of Bel-Merodach; Vaivasvata Manu, the great Rishi, is the son of Vivisvat the Sun or Sϋrya, etc., etc. And while, astronomically, the Nβgas along with the Rishis, the Gandharvas, Apsarasas, Gramanis (or Yakshas, minor gods) Yatudhanas and Devas, are the Sun's attendants throughout the twelve solar months; in theogony, and also in anthropological evolution, they are gods and men when incarnated in the nether world. Let the reader be reminded, in this connection, of the fact that Apollonius met in Kashmir Buddhist Nβgas which are neither serpents zoologically, nor yet the Nβgas ethnologically, but "wise men."
The Bible, from Genesis to Revelations, is but a series of historical records of the great struggle between white and black Magic, between the Adepts of the right path, the Prophets, and those of the left, the Levites, the clergy of the brutal masses. Even the students of Occultism, though some of them have more archaic MSS. and direct teaching to rely upon, find it difficult to draw a line of demarcation between the Sodales of the Right Path and those of the Left. The great schism that arose between the sons of the Fourth Race, as soon as the first Temples and Halls of Initiation had been erected under the guidance of "the Sons of God," is allegorized in the Sons of Jacob. That there were two schools of Magic, and that the orthodox Levites did not belong to the holy one, is shown in the words pronounced by the dying Jacob. And here it may be well to quote a few sentences from "Isis Unveiled."
The dying Jacob thus describes his sons: "Dan," he says, "shall be a
serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the
horse-heels, so that his rider shall fall backwards (i.e., he will
teach candidates black magic)
. . .I have waited for thy salvation,
O Lord!" Of Simeon and Levi the patriarch remarks that they" . . . are
brethren; instru-
* "Pantheon," text 15.
ments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly." * Now in the original, the words "their secret" really are "their SOD." And Sod was the name for the great mysteries of Baal, Adonis and Bacchus, who were all sun-gods and had serpents for symbols. The Kabalists explain the allegory of the fiery serpents by saying that this was the name given to the tribe of Levi, to all the Levites, in short, and that Moses was the chief of the Sodales. It is to the mysteries that the original meaning of the "Dragon-Slayers" has to be traced, and the question is fully treated of hereafter.
Meanwhile it follows that, if Moses was the chief of the Mysteries, he was the Hierophant thereof, and further, if, at the same time, we find the prophets thundering against the "abominations" of the people of Israel, that there were two schools. "Fiery serpents" was, then, simply the epithet given to the Levites of the priestly caste, after they had departed from the good law, the traditional teachings of Moses: and to all those who followed Black Magic. Isaiah, when referring to the "rebellious children" who will have to carry their riches into the land whence come "the viper and fiery flying serpent" (xxx. 6), or Chaldea and Egypt, whose Initiates had already greatly degenerated in his day (700 B.C.), meant the sorcerers of those lands. § But these must be carefully distinguished from the "Fiery Dragons of Wisdom" and the "Sons of the Fire Mist."
In the "Great Book of the Mysteries" we are told that: "Seven Lords created Seven men; three Lords (Dhyan Chohans or Pitris) were holy and good, four less heavenly and full of passion. . . The chhayas (phantoms) of the Fathers were as they."
This accounts for the differences in human nature, which is divided into
seven gradations of good and evil. There were seven tabernacles ready to be
inhabited by Monads under seven different Karmic conditions. The Commentaries
explain on this basis the easy spread of evil, as soon as the human Forms had
become real men. Some ancient
* "Genesis," ch. xlix.
Dunlap, in his introduction to "Sod, the Mysteries of Adonis," explains the word "Sod" as arcanum, religious mystery, on the authority of Schindler's "Penteglott." "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him," says Psalm xxv., 14. This is a mistranslation of the Christians, for it ought to read "Sod Ihoh (the mysteries of Ihoh) are for those who fear him" (Dunlap, "Mysteries of Adonis," xi). "Al (El) is terrible in the great Sod of the Kadeshim (the priests, the holy, the Initiated), Psalm lxxxix, 7" (ibid.). The Kadeshim were very far from holy. (Vide Part II., "The Holy of Holies.")
"The members of the priest-Colleges were called Sodales," says Freund's "Latin Lexicon" (iv. 448). "Sodalities were constituted in the Idζan Mysteries of the MIGHTY MOTHER," writes Cicero in de Senectute. ("Mysteries of Adonis.")
§ The priests of Baal who jumped over the fires. But this was a Hebrew
term and a local one. "Saraph" "fiery or flaming venom."
philosophers ignored the seven in their genetical accounts and gave only four. Thus the Mexican local Genesis has "four good men" described as the four real ancestors of the human race, "who were neither begotten by the gods nor born of woman"; but whose creation was a wonder wrought by the creative Powers, and who were made only after "three attempts at manufacturing men had failed." The Egyptians had in their theology only "four sons of God," whereas in Pymander seven are given thus avoiding any mention of the evil nature of man; though when Seth from a god sank into Set-Typhon, he began to be called "the seventh son." Whence probably arose the belief that "the seventh son of the seventh son" is always a natural-born magician, though, at first, only a sorcerer was meant. APAP, the serpent symbolizing evil, is slain by Aker, Set's serpent; * therefore Set-Typhon could not be that evil. In the "Book of the Dead" it is commanded (v. 13) that chapter clxiii. should be read "in the presence of a serpent on two legs," which means a high Initiate, a Hierophant, for the discus and ram's horns that adorn his "serpent's" head in the hieroglyphics of the title of the said chapter denote this. Over the "serpent" are represented the two mystic eyes of Ammon, the hidden "mystery god." This passage corroborates our assertion, and shows what the word "serpent" meant in antiquity.
But as to the Nβgals and Nβrgals, whence came the similarity of names between the Indian Nβgas and the American Nβgals?
"The Nβrgal was the Chaldean and Assyrian chief of the Magi (Rab-Mag), and the Nβgal was the chief sorcerer of the Mexican Indians. Both derive their names from Nergal-Serezer, the Assyrian god, and the Hindu Nβgas. Both have the same faculties and the power to have an attendant dζmon, with whom they identify themselves completely. The Chaldean and Assyrian Nβrgal kept his dζmon, in the shape of some animal considered sacred, inside the temple; the Indian Nβgal keeps his wherever he can in the neighbouring lake, or wood, or in the house in the shape of some household animal." §
Such similarity cannot be attributed to coincidence. A new world is
discovered, and we find that, for our forefathers of the Fourth Race,
* "Book of the Dead" xxxix.
The same ram's horns are found on the heads of Moses which were on some old medals seen by the writer in Palestine, one of which is in her possession. The horns, made to form part of the shining aureole on the statue of Moses in Rome (Michael Angelo), are vertical instead of being bent down to the ears, but the emblem is the same; hence the Brazen Serpent.
But see Harris's "Magic Papyrus" No. v.; and the ram-headed Ammon manufacturing men on a potter's wheel.
§ Brasseur de Bourbourg: "Mexique," pp. 135 and
574.
it was already an old one. That Arjuna, Krishna's companion and chela, is said to have descended into Pβtβla, the "antipodes," and therein married Ulϋpi, * a Nβga (or Nβgini rather), the daughter of the king of the Nβgas, Kauravya.
And now it may be hoped the full meaning of the serpent emblem is proven. It is neither that of evil, nor, least of all, that of the devil; but is , indeed, the KEMEK EILAM ABRASAX ("the eternal Sun-Abrasax"), the central spiritual sun of all the Kabalists, represented in some diagrams by the circle of Tiphereth.
And here, again, we may quote from our earlier volumes and enter into further explanations.
"From this region of unfathomable depth (Bythos, Aditi, Shekinah, the veil of the unknown) issues forth a circle formed of spirals. This is Tiphereth; which, in the language of symbolism, means a grand cycle, composed of smaller ones. Coiled within, so as to follow the spirals, lies the serpent emblem of Wisdom and Eternity the dual Androgyne; the cycle representing Ennoia, or the divine mind (a power which does not create but which must assimilate), and the serpent, the Agathodζmon, the Ophis, the Shadow of the Light (non-eternal, yet the greatest divine light on our plane). Both were the Logoi of the Ophites: or the Unity as Logos manifesting itself as a double principle of Good and Evil."
Were it light alone, inactive and absolute, the human mind could not appreciate nor even realise it. Shadow is that which enables light to manifest itself, and gives it objective reality. Therefore, shadow is not evil, but is the necessary and indispensable corollary which completes Light or Good: it is its creator on Earth.
According to the views of the Gnostics, these two principles are immutable Light and Shadow, Good and Evil being virtually one and having existed through all eternity, as they will ever continue to exist so long as there are manifested worlds.
This symbol accounts for the adoration by this sect of the Serpent, as the
Saviour, coiled either around the sacramental loaf, or a Tau, the phallic
emblem. As a Unity, Ennoia and Ophis are the Logos. When separated, one
is the Tree of Life (spiritual), the other, the Tree
* Ulϋpi has an entirely Atlantean ring about it. Like Atlantis, it is neither
a Greek nor a Sanskrit name, but reminds one of Mexican names.
"Mahabhβrata," Adiparva, Sloka, 7788, 7789. The "Bhagavβta Purβna," ix.,
xx., 31, as explained by Sridhera, the commentator, makes Ulϋpi the daughter of
the king of Manipura; but the late Pundit Dayanand Saraswati, certainly the
greatest Sanskrit and Purβnic authority in India on such questions, personally
corroborated that Ulϋpi was daughter of the king of the Nβgas at Pβtβla, or
America, 5000 years ago, and that the Nβgas were Initiates.
of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Therefore, we find Ophis urging the first human couple the material production of Ilda-Baoth, but which owed its spiritual principle to Sophia-Achamoth to eat of the forbidden fruit, although Ophis represents divine Wisdom.
The serpent, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life, are all symbols transplanted from the soil of India. The Arasa-Maram, the banyan tree, so sacred with the Hindus (since Vishnu during one of his incarnations, reposed under its mighty shade and there taught human philosophy and sciences), is called the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. Under the protecting foliage of this king of the forests, the Gurus teach their pupils their first lessons on immortality and initiate them into the mysteries of life and death. The Java-Aleim of the Sacerdotal College are said, in the Chaldean tradition, to have taught the sons of men to become like one of them. To the present day Foh-tchou,* who lives in his Foh-Maeyu, or temple of Buddha, on the top of the "Kouin-long-sang," the great mountain, produces his greatest religious miracles under a tree called in Chinese Sung-Ming-Shu, or the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, for ignorance is death, and knowledge alone gives immortality. This marvellous display takes place every three years, when an immense concourse of Chinese Buddhists assembles in pilgrimage at the holy place.
Now it may become comprehensible why the earliest Initiates and Adepts, or the "Wise Men," for whom it is claimed that they were initiated into the mysteries of nature by the UNIVERSAL MIND, represented by the highest angels, were named the "Serpents of Wisdom" and "Dragons;" as also how the first physiologically complete couples after being initiated into the mystery of human creation through Ophis, the manifested Logos and the androgyne, by eating of the fruit of knowledge gradually began to be accused by the material spirit of posterity of having committed Sin, of having disobeyed the "Lord God," and of having been tempted by the Serpent.
So little have the first Christians (who despoiled the Jews of their Bible)
understood the first four chapters of Genesis in their esoteric meaning, that
they never perceived that not only was no sin intended in this disobedience, but
that actually the "Serpent" was "the Lord God" himself, who, as the Ophis, the
Logos, or the bearer of divine creative wisdom, taught mankind to become
creators in their turn. They
* Foh-tchou, literally, in Chinese meaning Buddha's lord, or the teacher of
the doctrines of Buddha-Foh.
This mountain is situated south-west of China, almost between China and Tibet.
Let the reader be reminded that in the Zohar, and also in all
the Kabalistic works, it is maintained that "Metatron united to Shekinah"
(or Shekinah as the veil (grace) of Ain-Soph), representing the Logos, is
that very Tree of Knowledge; while Shamael the
dark aspect of the Logos occupies only the rind of that tree, and has the
knowledge of EVIL alone. As Lacour, who saw in the scene of the Fall (chap.
iii., Genesis) an incident pertaining to Egyptian
Initiation, says: "The Tree of the Divination, or of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil . . . . is the science of Tzyphon, the
genius of doubt, Tzy to teach, and phon, doubt. Tzyphon is one
of the Aleim; we shall see him presently under the name of Nach, the
tempter" (Les loim, Vol. II., p. 218). He is now known to the
symbologists under the name JEHOVAH.
never realised that the Cross was an evolution from the "tree and the serpent," and thus became the salvation of mankind. By this it would become the very first fundamental symbol of Creative cause, applying to geometry, to numbers, to astronomy, to measure and to animal reproduction. According to the Kabala the curse on man came with the formation of woman. * The circle was separated from its diameter line. "From the possession of the double principle in one, that is the Androgyne condition, the separation of the dual principle was made, presenting two opposites, whose destiny it was, for ever after, to seek reunion into the original one condition. The curse was this, viz.: that nature, impelling the search, evaded the desired result by the production of a new being, distinct from that reunion or oneness desired, by which the natural longing to recover a lost state was and is for ever being cheated. It is by this tantalizing process of a continued curse that Nature lives." (Vide "Cross and Circle," Part II.)
The allegory of Adam being driven away from the "Tree of Life" means,
esoterically, that the newly separated Race abused and dragged the mystery of
Life down into the region of animalism and bestiality. For, as the Zohar
shows, that Matronethah (Shekinah, the wife of Metatron symbolically) "is
the way to the great Tree of Life, the Mighty Tree," and Shekinah is divine
grace. As explained: This Tree reaches the heavenly vale and is hidden between
three mountains (the upper triad of principles, in man). From these three
mountains, the Tree ascends above (the adept's knowledge aspires heavenward) and
then redescends below (into the adept's Ego on Earth). This Tree is
revealed in the day time and is hidden during the night, i.e., revealed
to an enlightened mind and hidden to Ignorance, which is night. (See Zohar
I., 172, a and b.) "The Tree of the Knowledge of the Good
and the Evil grows from the roots of the Tree of Life." (Comm.) But then also:
"In the Kabala it is plainly to be found that "the 'Tree of Life'
was
* This is the view taken and adopted by all the Church Fathers, but it is not
the real esoteric teaching. The curse did not begin with the formation
of either man or woman, for their separation was a natural sequence of
evolution, but for breaking the law (See supra).
"By which (human) nature lives," not even the animal but the misguided,
sensual and vicious nature, which men, not nature, created.
the ansated cross in its sexual aspect, and that the 'Tree of Knowledge'
was the separation and the coming together again to fulfil the fatal
condition. To display this in numbers the values of the letters composing the
word Otz ( 
), tree, are 7 and 9, the seven
being the holy feminine number and the nine the number of the phallic or male
energy. This ansated cross is the symbol of the Egyptian female-male,
Isis-Osiris, the germinal principle in all forms, based on the primal
manifestation applicable in all directions and in all senses." *
This is the Kabalistic view of the Western Occultists, and it differs from the more philosophical Eastern or Aryan views upon this subject. The separation of the sexes was in the programme of nature and of natural evolution; and the creative faculty in male and female was a gift of Divine wisdom. In the truth of such traditions the whole of antiquity, from the patrician philosopher to the humblest spiritually inclined plebeian, has believed. And as we proceed, we may successfully show that the relative truth of such legends, if not their absolute exactness vouched for by such giants of intellect as were Solon, Pythagoras, Plato, and others begins to dawn upon more than one modern scientist. He is perplexed; he stands startled and confused before proofs that are being daily accumulated before him; he feels that there is no way of solving the many historical problems that stare him in the face, unless he begins by accepting ancient traditions. Therefore, in saying that we believe absolutely in ancient records and universal legends, we need hardly plead guilty before the impartial observer, for other and far more learned writers, among those who belong to the modern scientific school, evidently believe in much that the Occultists do: e.g., in "Dragons," not only symbolically, but also in their actual existence at one time.
"It would have indeed been a bold step for anyone, some thirty years ago, to have thought of treating the public to a collection of stories ordinarily reputed fabulous, and of claiming for them the consideration due to genuine realities, or to have advocated tales, believed to be time-honoured fictions, as actual facts; and those of the nursery as being, in many instances, legends, more or less distorted, descriptive of real beings or events. Nowadays it is a less hazardous proceeding. . . "
Thus opens the introduction to a recent (1886) and most interesting work by
Mr. Charles Gould, called "Mythical Monsters." He boldly states his belief in
most of these monsters. He submits that: "Many of the so-called mythical
animals, which, throughout long ages and in all nations, have been the fertile
subjects of fiction and fable, come
* "The Source of Measures." Vide infra, "The Septenary," in Part II.
legitimately within the scope of plain matter-of-fact natural history; and that they may be considered, not as the outcome of exuberant fancy, but as creatures which really once existed, and of which, unfortunately, only imperfect and inaccurate descriptions have filtered down to us, probably very much refracted, through the mists of time. . . Traditions of creatures once co-existing with man, some of which are so weird and terrible as to appear at first sight to be impossible. For me the major part of those creatures are not chimeras but objects of rational study. The dragon, in place of being a creature evolved out of the imagination of an Aryan man by the contemplation of lightning flashing through the caverns which he tenanted, as is held by some mythologists, is an animal which once lived and dragged its ponderous coils and perhaps flew. . .To me the specific existence of the Unicorn seems not incredible, and in fact, more probable than that theory which assigns its origin to a lunar myth * . . .For my part I doubt the general derivation of myths from 'the contemplation of the visible workings of external nature.' It seems to me easier to suppose that the palsy of time has enfeebled the utterance of these oft-told tales until their original appearance is almost unrecognisable, than that uncultured savages should possess powers of imagination and poetical invention far beyond those enjoyed by the most instructed nations of the present day; less hard to believe that these wonderful stories of gods and demigods, of giants and dwarfs, of dragons and monsters of all descriptions are transformations than to believe them to be inventions."
It is shown by the same geologist that man, "successively traced to periods
variously estimated from thirty thousand to one million years.
. ., co-existed with animals which have long since become extinct (p.
20)." These animals, "weird and terrible," were, to give a few
instances (1) "Of the genus Cidastes, whose huge bones and vertebrζ
show them to have attained a length of nearly two hundred feet.
. . " The
remains of such monsters, no less than ten in number, were seen by Professor
Marsh in the Mauvaises Terres of Colorado, strewn upon the plains. (2) The
Titanosaurus montanus, reaching fifty or sixty feet in length; (3) the
Dinosaurians (in the Jurassic beds of the Rocky Mountains), of still more
gigantic proportions; (4) the Atlanto-Saurus immanis, a femur
of which alone is over six feet in length, and which would be thus over one
hundred feet in length! But even yet the line has not been reached, and we hear
of the discovery of remains of such titanic proportions as to possess a
thigh-bone over twelve feet in length (p. 37). Then we read of the
monstrous Sivatherium in the Himalayas, the four-horned stag, as large
as an elephant, and exceeding the latter in height; of the gigantic
Megatherium: of colossal flying lizards, Pterodactyli, with
* "The Unicorn: a Mythological Investigation,"
Robert Brown, jun., F.S.A.
Pp. 3 and 4, Introduction to "Mythical Monsters."
crocodile jaws on a duck's head, etc., etc. All these were co-existent with man, most probably attacked man, as man attacked them; and we are asked to believe that the said man was no larger then than he is now! Is it possible to conceive that, surrounded in Nature with such monstrous creatures, man, unless himself a colossal giant, could have survived, while all his foes have perished? Is it with his stone hatchet that he had the best of a Sivatherium or a gigantic flying saurian? Let us always bear in mind that at least one great man of science, de Quatrefages, sees no good scientific reasons why man should not have been "contemporaneous with the earliest mammalia and go back as far as the Secondary Period." *
"It appears," writes the very conservative Professor Jukes, "that the flying dragons of romance had something like a real existence in former ages of the world." "Does the written history of man," the author goes on to ask, "comprising a few thousand years, embrace the whole course of his intelligent existence? Or have we in the long mythical eras, extending over hundreds of thousands of years, and recorded in the chronologies of Chaldea and China, shadowy mementoes of prehistoric man, handed down by tradition, and perhaps transported by a few survivors to existing lands, from others which, like the fabled Atlantis of Plato, may have been submerged, or the scene of some great catastrophe which destroyed them with all their civilization;" (p. 17).
The few remaining giant animals, such as elephants, themselves smaller than their ancestors the Mastodons, and Hippopotami, are the only surviving relics, and tend to disappear more entirely with every day. Even they have already had a few pioneers of their future genus, and have decreased in size in the same proportion as men did. For the remains of a pigmy elephant were found (E. Falconeri) in the cave deposits of Malta; and the same author asserts that they were associated with the remains of pigmy Hippopotami, the former being "only two feet six inches high; or the still-existing Hippopotamus (Chropsis) Liberiensis, which M. Milne-Edwards figures as little more than two feet in height."
Sceptics may smile and denounce our work as full of nonsense or fairy-tales.
But by so doing they only justify the wisdom of the Chinese philosopher Chuang,
who said that "the things that men do know can in no way be compared,
numerically speaking, to the things that are unknown"; § and thus they laugh
only at their own ignorance.
* "The Human Species," p. 52.
"Manual of Geology," p. 301.
"Recherches sur les Mammiferes," plate I.
§ Preface to "Wonders by Land and Sea," (Shan Hai King).
THE "SONS OF GOD" AND THE "SACRED ISLAND."
The legend given in Isis in relation to a portion of the globe which science now concedes to have been the cradle of humanity though it is but one of the seven cradles, in truth ran, condensed, and now explained, as follows:
"Tradition says, and the records of the Great Book (the Book of Dzyan) explain, that long before the days of Ad-am, and his inquisitive wife, He-va, where now are found but salt lakes and desolate barren deserts, there was a vast inland sea, which extended over Middle Asia, north of the proud Himalayan range, and its western prolongation. An island, which for its unparalleled beauty had no rival in the world, was inhabited by the last remnant of the race which preceded ours."
"The last remnant" meant the "Sons of Will and Yoga," who, with a few tribes, survived the great cataclysm. For it is the Third Race which inhabited the great Lemurian continent, that preceded the veritable and complete human races the fourth and the fifth. Therefore it was said in Isis that
"This race could live with equal ease in water, air, or fire, for it had an unlimited control over the elements. These were the 'Sons of God'; not those who saw the daughters of men, but the real Elohim, though in the oriental Kabala they have another name. It was they who imparted Nature's most weird secrets to men, and revealed to them the ineffable, and now lost 'word.' "
The "Island," according to belief, exists to the present hour; now, as an oasis surrounded by the dreadful wildernesses of the great Desert, the Gobi whose sands "no foot hath crossed in the memory of man."
"This word, which is no word, has travelled once around the globe, and still lingers as a far-off dying echo in the hearts of some privileged men. The hierophants of all the Sacerdotal Colleges were aware of the existence of this island; but the 'word' was known only to the Java Aleim (Maha Chohan in another tongue), or chief lord of every college, and as passed to his successor only at the moment of death. There were many such colleges, and the old classic authors speak of them.
"There was no communication with the fair island by sea, but subterranean passages, known only to the chiefs, communicated with it in all directions." *
Tradition asserts, and archζology accepts the truth of the legend that there
is more than one city now flourishing in India, which is built on
* There are archζologists, who, like Mr. James Fergusson, deny the great
antiquity of even one single monument in India. In his work, "Illustrations of
the Rock-Cut Temples of India," the author ventures to express the very
extraordinary opinion that "Egypt had ceased to be a nation before the earliest
of the cave-temples of India was excavated." In short, he does not admit the
existence of any cave anterior to the reign of Asoka, and seems anxious to prove
that most of these rock-cut temples were executed during a period extending from
the time of that pious Buddhist king until the destruction of the Andhra dynasty
of Maghada, in the beginning of the fifth century. We believe such a claim
perfectly arbitrary. Further discoveries will show that it is erroneous and
unwarranted.
several other cities, making thus a subterranean city of six or seven stories high. Delhi is one of them; Allahabad another examples of this being found even in Europe; e.g., in Florence, which is built on several defunct Etruscan and other cities. Why, then, could not Ellora, Elephanta, Karli, and Ajunta have been built on subterranean labyrinths and passages, as claimed? Of course we do not allude to the caves which are known to every European, whether de visu or through hearsay, notwithstanding their enormous antiquity, though that is so disputed by modern archζology. But it is a fact, known to the Initiated Brahmins of India and especially to Yogis, that there is not a cave-temple in the country but has its subterranean passages running in every direction, and that those underground caves and endless corridors have in their turn their caves and corridors.
"Who can tell that the lost Atlantis which is also mentioned in the Secret Book, but, again, under another name, pronounced in the sacred language did not exist yet in those days?"
we went on to ask. It did exist most assuredly, as it was fast approaching its greatest days of glory and civilization when the last of the Lemurian continents went down.
"The great lost continent might have, perhaps, been situated south of Asia, extending from India to Tasmania? * If the hypothesis (now so much doubted, and positively denied by some learned authors, who regard it as a joke of Plato's) is ever verified, then, perhaps, will the scientists believe that the description of the god-inhabited continent was not altogether a fable. And they may then perceive that Plato's guarded hints and his attributing the narrative to Solon and the Egyptian priests, were but a prudent way of imparting the fact to the world, and, by cleverly combining truth and fiction, so disconnecting himself from a story which the obligations imposed at initiation forbade him to divulge.
"To continue the tradition, we have to add that the class of hierophants was divided into two distinct categories: those who were instructed by the 'Sons of God,' of the island, and who were initiated in the divine doctrine of pure revelation; and others who inhabited the lost Atlantis if such must be its name and who, being of another race, (born sexually but of divine parents), were born with a sight, which embraced all living things, and was independent of both distance and material obstacle. In short, they were the Fourth Race of men mentioned in the Popol-Vuh, whose sight was unlimited, and who knew all things at once."
In other words, they were the Lemuro-Atlanteans, the first who had
* America when discovered, was called Atlanta by some native tribes.
Since then Donnelly's Atlantis has appeared, and soon its actual existence will have become a scientific fact.
It is so divided to this day, and theosophists and Occultists, who have
learned something of the Occult but undeniable power of Dugpaship at their own
expense, know this but too well.
a dynasty of Spirit-Kings, not of Manes, or "ghosts," as some believe (See "Pneumatologie"), but of actual living Devas (or demi-gods or Angels, again) who had assumed bodies to rule over them, and who, in their turn, instructed them in arts and sciences. Only, as they were rupa or material Spirits, these Dhyanis were not always good. Their King Thevetata was one of the latter, and it is under the evil influence of this King-Demon that . . . the Atlantis-race became a nation of wicked magicians.
"In consequence of this, war was declared, the story of which would be too long to narrate; its substance may be found in the disfigured allegories of the race of Cain, the giants, and that of Noah and his righteous family. The conflict came to an end by the submersion of the Atlantis, which finds its imitation in the stories of the Babylonian and Mosaic flood. The giants and magicians '. . . and all flesh died . . . and every man.' All except Xisuthrus and Noah, who are substantially identical with the great Father of the Thhnkithians in the Popol-Vuh, or the sacred book of the Guatemaleans, which also tells of his escaping in a large boat like the Hindu Noah Vaivasvata.
"If we believe the tradition at all, we have to credit the further story that, from the intermarrying of the progeny of the hierophants of the island and the descendants of the Atlantean Noah, sprang up a mixed race of righteous and wicked. On the one side the world had its Enochs, Moseses, various Buddhas, its numerous 'Saviours,' and great hierophants; on the other hand, its 'natural magicians' who, through lack of the restraining power of proper spiritual enlightenment, . . . perverted their gifts to evil purposes. . ."
We may supplement this by the testimony of some records and traditions. In the "Histoire des Vierges: Les Peuples et les Continents Disparus," the author says:
"One of the most ancient legends of India, preserved in the temples by oral and written tradition, relates that several hundred thousand years ago there existed in the Pacific Ocean an immense continent which was destroyed by geological upheaval, and the fragments of which must be sought in Madagascar, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the principal isles of Polynesia."
"The high plateaux of Hindustan and Asia, according to this hypothesis, would only have been represented in those distant epochs by great islands contiguous to the central continent . . . According to the Brahmans, this country had attained a high civilization, and the peninsula of Hindustan, enlarged by the displacement of the waters, at the time of the grand cataclysm, has but continued the chain of the primitive traditions born in this place. These traditions give the name of Rutas to the peoples which inhabited this immense equinoctial continent, and from their speech was derived the Sanscrit. . . .And the Indo-Hellenic tradition, preserved by the most intelligent population which emigrated from the plains of India, equally relates the existence of a continent and a people to which it gives the name of Atlantis and Atlantides, and which it locates in the Atlantic in the northern portion of the Tropics."
"Apart from this fact, the supposition of an ancient continent in those latitudes, the vestiges of which may be found in the volcanic islands and moun-
tainous surface of the Azores, the Canaries and Cape de Verdes, is not devoid of geographical probability. The Greeks, who, moreover, never dared to pass beyond the pillars of Hercules, on account of their dread of the mysterious ocean, appeared too late in antiquity for the stories preserved by Plato to be anything else than an echo of the Indian legend. Moreover, when we cast a look on a planisphere, at the sight of the islands and islets strewn from the Malayan Archipelago to Polynesia, from the straits of Sunda to Easter Island, it is impossible, upon the hypothesis of continents preceding those which we inhabit, not to place there the most important of all.
"A religious belief, common to Malacca and Polynesia, that is to say, to the two opposite extremes of the Oceanic world, affirms 'that all these islands once formed two immense countries, inhabited by yellow men and black men, always at war; and that the gods, wearied with their quarrels, having charged Ocean to pacify them, the latter swallowed up the two continents, and, since, it has been impossible to make him give up his captives. Alone, the mountain-peaks and high plateaux escaped the flood, by the power of the gods, who perceived too late the mistake they had committed.'
"Whatever there may be in these traditions, and whatever may have been the place where a civilization more ancient than that of Rome, of Greece, of Egypt, and of India was developed, it is certain that this civilization did exist, and it is highly important to science to recover its traces, however feeble and fugitive they may be" (pp. 13-15).
This last tradition corroborates the one given from the "Records of the Secret Doctrine." The war mentioned between the yellow and the black men, relates to a struggle between the "sons of God" and the "sons of giants," or the inhabitants and magicians of Atlantis.
The final conclusion of the author, who personally visited all the islands of Polynesia, and devoted years to the study of the religion, language, and traditions of nearly all the peoples, is as follows:
"As to the Polynesian continent which disappeared at the time of the final geological cataclysms, its existence rests on such proofs that to be logical we can doubt no longer.
"The three summits of this continent, the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, Easter Island, are distant from each other from fifteen to eighteen hundred leagues, and the groups of intermediate islands, Viti, Samoa, Tonga, Foutouna, Ouvea, the Marquesas, Tahiti, Poumoutou, the Gambiers, are themselves distant from these extreme points from seven or eight hundred to one thousand leagues.
"All navigators agree in saying that the extreme and the central groups could never have communicated in view of their actual geographical position, and with the insufficient means they had at hand. It is physically impossible to cross such distances in a pirogue . . . without a compass, and travel months without provisions.
"On the other hand, the aborigines of the Sandwich Islands, of Viti, of New
Zealand, of the central groups, of Samoa, Tahiti, etc., had never known
each other, had never heard of each other, before the arrival of the
Europeans. And yet each of these people maintained that their island had at
one time formed part of an
immense stretch of land which extended towards the West on the side of Asia. And all, brought together, were found to speak the same language, to have the same usages, the same customs, the same religious belief. And all to the question, 'Where is the cradle of your race?' for sole response, extended their hand toward the setting sun" (Ibid., p. 308).
Geographically, this description clashes slightly with the facts in the Secret Records; but it shows the existence of such traditions, and this is all one cares for. For, as there is no smoke without fire, so a tradition must be based on some approximate truth.
In its proper place we will show modern Science fully corroborating the above
and the traditions of the Secret Doctrine with regard to the two lost
continents. The Easter Island relics are, for instance, the most astounding and
eloquent memorials of the primeval giants. They are as grand as they are
mysterious; and one has but to examine the heads of the colossal statues, that
have remained unbroken on that island, to recognise in them at a glance the
features of the type and character attributed to the Fourth Race giants. They
seem of one cast though different in features that of a distinctly
sensual type, such as the Atlanteans (the Daityas and "Atalantians") are
represented to have in the esoteric Hindu books. Compare these with the faces of
some other colossal statues in Central Asia those near Bamian for instance
the portrait-statues, tradition tells us, of Buddhas belonging to
previous Manvantaras; of those Buddhas and heroes who are
mentioned in the Buddhist and Hindu works, as men of fabulous size,* the good
and holy brothers of their wicked co-uterine brothers generally, as Ravana, the
giant King of Lanka was the brother of Kumbhakarna; all descendants of the gods
through the Rishis, and thus, like "Titan and his enormous brood," all "heaven's
first born." These "Buddhas," though often spoilt by the symbolical
representation of the great pendent ears, show a suggestive difference,
perceived at a glance, between the expression of their faces and that of the
Easter Isle statues. They may be of one race but the former are "Sons of
Gods"; the latter the brood of mighty sorcerers. All these are re-incarnations,
however, and apart from unavoidable exaggerations in popular fancy and
tradition, they are historical characters. When did they live? How
long ago lived the
* An approach to the statues at Bamian also a Buddha 200 feet high is
found near a Jain settlement in Southern India, and appears to be the only one
that remains at present.
Even Wilson admits that Rama and Ravana were personages founded on
historical facts: "The traditions of Southern India uniformly ascribing its
civilization and the settlement of civilized Hindus (the Fifth Race) to the
conquest of Lanka by Rama" (Vishnu Purβna, iii., p. 318)
the victory of the "Sons of God" over the Atlantean sorcerers, says the true
tradition.
two races, the Third and Fourth, and how long after did the various tribes of the Fifth begin their strife, the wars between Good and Evil? We are assured by the Orientalists that chronology is both hopelessly mixed and absurdly exaggerated in the Purβnas and other Hindu Scriptures. We feel quite prepared to agree with the accusation. Yet, if Aryan writers did allow their chronological pendulum to swing too far one way occasionally, beyond the legitimate limit of fact; nevertheless, when the distance of that deviation is compared with the distance of the Orientalists' deviation in the opposite direction, moderation will be found on the Brahminical side. It is the Pundit who will in the long run be found more truthful and nearer to fact than the Sanskritist. Surely, it is not because the curtailing of the latter even when proven to have been resorted to in order to fit a personal hobby is regarded by Western public opinion as "a cautious acceptance of facts," whereas the Pundit is brutally treated in print as a liar, that everyone has to see this in the same light. An impartial observer may judge it otherwise. He may either proclaim both unscrupulous historians, or justify both, each on his respective ground, and say: Hindu Aryans wrote for their Initiates, who read truth between the lines, not for the masses. If they did mix up events and confuse Ages intentionally, it was not in view of deceiving any one, but to preserve their knowledge from the prying eye of the foreigner. Otherwise, to him who can count the generations from the Manus, and the series of incarnations specified in the cases of some heroes,* the meaning and chronological order are very clear in the Purβnas. As for the Western Orientalist, he must be excused, on account of his undeniable ignorance of the methods used by archaic Esotericism.
But such existing prejudices will have to give way and disappear very soon
before the light of new discoveries. Already Dr. Weber's and Mr. Max Muller's
favourite theories namely, that writing was not known in India, even in the
days of Pβnini (!); that the Hindus had all their arts and sciences even to
the Zodiac and their architecture (Ferguson) from the Macedonian Greeks;
these and other such cock-and-bull hypotheses, are threatened with ruin. It is
the ghost of old Chaldea that comes to the rescue of truth. In his third Hibbert
* Thus we are shown one hero, to give an instance, first born as the
"unrighteous but valiant monarch" (Purusha) of the Daityas, Hiranyakasipu, slain
by the Avatar Nara-Sinha (Man-lion). Then he was born as Ravana, the
giant king of Lanka, and killed by Rama; after which he is reborn as Sisupala,
the son of Rajarishi (King Rishi) Damaghosha, when he is again killed by
Krishna, the last incarnation of Vishnu. This parallel evolution of Vishnu
(spirit) with a Daitya, as men, may seem meaningless, yet it gives us the key
not only to the respective dates of Rama and Krishna but even to a certain
psychological mystery.
lecture (1887) Professor Sayce of Oxford, speaking of newly-discovered Assyrian and Babylonian cylinders, referred at length to Ea, the God of Wisdom, now identified with the Oannes, of Berosus, the half-man, half-fish, who taught the Babylonians culture and the art of writing. This Oannes, to whom, thanks only to the Biblical Deluge, an antiquity of hardly 1,500 B.C. had been hitherto allowed, is now spoken of in these terms:
"His city was Eridu, which stood 6,000 years ago on the shores of the Persian Gulf. The name means 'the good city,' a particularly holy spot, since it was the centre from which the earliest Chaldean civilization made its way to the north. As the culture-god was represented as coming from the sea, it was possible that the culture of which Eridu was the seat was of foreign importation. We now know that there was intercourse at a very early period between Chaldea and the Sinaitic peninsula, as well as with India. The statues discovered by the French at Tel-loh (dating from at latest B.C. 4,000) were made of the extremely hard stone known as diorite, and the inscriptions on them stated the diorite to have been brought from Mazan i.e., the Sinaitic peninsula, which was then ruled by the Pharaohs. The statues are known to resemble in general style the diorite statue, Kephren, the builder of the second Pyramid, while, according to Mr. Petrie, the unit of measurement marked on the plan of the city, which one of the Tel-loh figures holds on his lap, is the same as that employed by the Pyramid builders. Teak wood has been found at Mugheir, or Ur of the Chaldees, although that wood is an Indian special product; add to this that an ancient Babylonian list of clothing mentions sindhu, or 'muslins,' explained as 'vegetable cloth.' "
Muslin, best known now as Dacca muslin, known in Chaldea as Hindu (Sindhu), and teak wood used 4,000 years B.C.; and yet the Hindus, to whom Chaldea owes its civilization (as well proven by Colonel vans Kennedy), were ignorant of the art of writing before the Greeks taught them their alphabet if we have to believe Orientalists!
§§ (38) The Birth of the Fourth, Atlantean Race. (39) The sub-races of the Fourth Humanity begin to divide and interblend; they form the first mixed races of various colours. (40) The superiority of the Atlantean over other races. (41) They fall into sin and beget children and monsters. (42) The first germs of Anthropomorphism and sexual religion. They lose their "third Eye."
38. THUS TWO BY TWO, ON THE SEVEN ZONES, THE THIRD (Race) GAVE BIRTH TO THE FOURTH (Race men). THE GODS BECAME NO-GODS (Sura became a-Sura) (a).
39. THE FIRST (Race) ON EVERY ZONE WAS MOON-COLOURED (yellow-white); 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 IN THE BEGINNING. THE NEXT (seven, the sub-races) BEGAN MIXING THEIR COLOURS (b).
(a) To understand this verse 38, it must be read together with the
three verses of Stanza IX. Up to this point of evolution man belongs more
to metaphysical than physical nature. It is only after the so-called
FALL,
that the races began to develop rapidly into a purely human shape. And, in order
that he may correctly comprehend the full meaning of the Fall, so mystic and
transcendental is it in its real significance, the student must be told at once
the details which preceded
* Strictly speaking, it is only from the time of the Atlantean, brown and
yellow giant Races, that one ought to speak of MAN, since it was the Fourth race
only which was the first completely human species, however much larger
in size than we are now. In "Man" (by two chelas), all that is said of the
Atlanteans is quite correct. It is chiefly that race which became "black with
sin" that brought the divine names of the Asuras, the Rβkshasas and the Daityas
into disrepute, and passed them on to posterity as the names of fiends. For, as
said, the Suras (gods) or Devas having incarnated in the wise men of Atlantis,
the names of Asuras and Rβkshasas were given to the Atlanteans; which
names, owing to their incessant conflicts with the last remnants of the Third
Race and the "Sons of Will and Yoga," have led to the later allegories about
them in the Purβnas. "Asura was the generic appellation of all the Atlanteans
who were the enemies of the spiritual heroes of the Aryans (gods)." ("Man," p.
97.)
this event; of which event modern theology has formed a pivot on which its most pernicious and absurd dogmas and beliefs are made to turn.
The archaic commentaries explain, as the reader must remember, that, of the Host of Dhyanis, whose turn it was to incarnate as the Egos of the immortal, but, on this plane, senseless monads that some "obeyed" (the law of evolution) immediately when the men of the Third Race became physiologically and physically ready, i.e., when they had separated into sexes. These were those early conscious Beings who, now adding conscious knowledge and will to their inherent Divine purity, created by Kriyasakti the semi-Divine man, who became the seed on earth for future adepts. Those, on the other hand, who, jealous of their intellectual freedom (unfettered as it then was by the bonds of matter), said: "We can choose . . . we have wisdom" (See verse 24), and incarnated far later these had their first Karmic punishment prepared for them. They got bodies (physiologically) inferior to their astral models, because their chhayas had belonged to progenitors of an inferior degree in the seven classes. As to those "Sons of Wisdom" who had "deferred" their incarnation till the Fourth Race, which was already tainted (physiologically) with sin and impurity, they produced a terrible cause, the Karmic result of which weighs on them to this day. It was produced in themselves, and they became the carriers of that seed of iniquity for ζons to come, because the bodies they had to inform had become defiled through their own procrastination. (See verses 32, 36.)
This was the "Fall of the angels," because of their rebellion against Karmic Law. The "fall of man" was no fall, for he was irresponsible. But "Creation" having been invented on the dualistic system as the "prerogative of God alone," the legitimate attribute patented by theology in the name of an infinite deity of their own making, this power had to be regarded as "Satanic," and as an usurpation of divine rights. Thus, the foregoing, in the light of such narrow views, must naturally be considered as a terrible slander on man, "created in the image of God," a still more dreadful blasphemy in the face of the dead-letter dogma. "Your doctrine," the Occultists were already told, "makes of man, created out of dust in the likeness of his God, a vehicle of the Devil, from the first." "Why did you make of your god a devil both, moreover, created in your own image?" is our reply. The esoteric interpretation of the Bible, however, sufficiently refutes this slanderous invention of theology; the Secret Doctrine must some day become the just Karma of the Churches more anti-Christian than the representative assemblies of the most confirmed Materialists and Atheists.
The old doctrine about the true meaning of the "Fallen Angels," in its
anthropological and evolutionary sense, is contained in the Kabala,
and explains the Bible. It is found pre-eminent in Genesis when the
latter is read in a spirit of research for truth, with no eye to dogma, and in
no mood of preconception. This is easily proven. In Genesis (vi.) the
"Sons of God" B'ne Aleim become enamoured of the
daughters of men, marry, and reveal to their wives the mysteries unlawfully
learnt by them in heaven, according to Enoch; and this is the "Fall of Angels."
*
But what is, in reality, the "Book of Enoch" itself, from which the author of
Revelation and even the St. John of the Fourth Gospel have so profusely
quoted? (e.g., verse 8, in chapter 10, about all who have come before
Jesus, being "thieves and robbers.") Simply a Book of Initiation,
giving out in allegory and cautious phraseology the programme of certain archaic
mysteries performed in the inner temples. The author of the "Sacred
Mysteries among the Mayas and Quiches" very justly suggests that the so-called
"Visions" of Enoch relate to his (Enoch's) experience at initiation, and what he
learned in the mysteries; while he very erroneously states his opinion that
Enoch had learned them before being converted
* In general, the so-called orthodox Christian conceptions about the
"fallen" angels or Satan, are as remarkable as they are absurd. About a dozen
could be cited, of the most various character as to details, and all from the
pen of educated lay authors, "University graduates" of the present quarter of
our century. Thus, the author of "Earth's Earliest Ages," J. H. Pember, M.A.,
devotes a thick volume to proving Theosophists, Spiritualists, Metaphysicians,
Agnostics, Mystics, poets, and every contemporary author on oriental
speculations, to be the devoted servants of the "Prince of the Air," and
irretrievably damned. He describes Satan and his Antichrist in this wise:
"Satan is the 'Anointed Cherub' of old. . . . God created Satan, the fairest
and wisest of all his creatures in this part of His Universe, and made him
Prince of the World, and of the Power of the Air. . . . He was placed in an
Eden, which was both far anterior to the Eden of Genesis.
. . and of an
altogether different and more substantial character, resembling the New
Jerusalem. Thus, Satan being perfect in wisdom, and beauty, His vast empire is
our earth, if not the whole solar system.
. . Certainly no other angelic power
of greater or even equal dignity has been revealed to us. The Archangel
Michael himself is quoted by Jude as preserving towards the Prince of Darkness
the respect due to a superior, however wicked he may be, until God has formally
commanded his deposition." Then we are informed that "Satan was from the
moment of his creation surrounded by the insignia of royalty" (!
!): that he "awoke to consciousness to find the air filled with the
rejoicing music of those whom God had appointed . . . ." Then the Devil "passes
from the royalty to his priestly dignity" (! ! !) "Satan was also a
priest of the Most High," etc., etc. And now "Antichrist will
be Satan incarnate" (pp. 56-59). The Pioneers of the coming Apollyon have
already appeared they are the Theosophists, the Occultists, the authors of
the "Perfect Way," of "Isis Unveiled," of the "Mystery of the Ages," and even of
the "Light of
Asia"! ! The author notes the "avowed
origin" (of Theosophy) from the "descending angels,"
from the "Nephilim," or the angels of the VIth ch. of Genesis,
and the Giants. He ought to note his own descent from them also, as the
present Secret Doctrine endeavours to show unless he refuses to belong to the
present humanity.
to Christianity (!!); furthermore, he believes that this book was written "at the beginning of the Christian era, when . . . the customs and religion of the Egyptians fell into decadency"! This is hardly possible, since Jude quotes in his epistle from the "Book of Enoch" (verse 14); and, therefore, as Archbishop Laurence, the translator of the Book of Enoch from the Ethiopic version, remarks, it "could not have been the production of a writer who lived after . . . or was even coeval with" the writers of the New Testament: unless, indeed, Jude and the Gospels, and all that follows, was also a production of the already established Church which, some critics say, is not impossible. But we are now concerned with the "fallen Angels" of Enoch, rather than with Enoch himself.
In Indian exotericism, these angels (Asuras) are also denounced as "the enemies of the gods;" those who oppose sacrificial worship offered to the latter. In Christian theology they are broadly referred to as the "Fallen Spirits," the heroes of various conflicting and contradictory legends about them, gathered from Pagan sources. The coluber tortuosus "the tortuous snake," a qualification said to have originated with the Jews, had quite another meaning before the Roman Church distorted it: among others, a purely astronomical meaning.
The "Serpent" fallen from on high, "deorsum fluens,"
was credited with the possession of the Keys of the Empire of the Dead,
tou' qanavtou ajrchv to that day, when Jesus saw it "falling like lightning
from heaven" (Luke x. 17, 18), the Roman Catholic interpretation of
cadebat ut fulgur to the contrary, notwithstanding; and it means indeed
that even "the devils are subject" to the Logos who is
WISDOM,
but who, as the opponent of ignorance, is Satan or Lucifer at the same time.
This remark refers to divine Wisdom falling like lightning on, and quickening
the intellects of those who fight the devils of ignorance and superstition. Up
to the time when Wisdom, in the shape of the incarnating Spirits of
MAHAT,
descended from on high to animate and call the Third Race to real conscious
life, humanity if it can be so called in its animal, senseless state was of
course doomed to moral as well as to physical death. The Angels
fallen into generation are referred to metaphorically as Serpents and
Dragons of Wisdom. On the other hand, regarded in the light of the LOGOS,
the Christian Saviour, like Krishna, whether as man or logos, may be said to
have saved those who believed in the secret teachings from "eternal death," to
have conquered the Kingdom of Darkness, or Hell, as every Initiate does. This in
the human, terrestrial form of the Initiates, and also because the logos
is Christos, that principle of our inner nature which develops in us into
the Spiritual Ego the Higher-Self being formed of the indissoluble union
of Buddhi (the sixth) and the spiritual efflorescence of Manas, the