Searchable Theosophical Texts
Theosophy House
The
Secret Doctrine
Volume
3
Compilation
of H P Blavatsky’s writings
Published
after her death
The
Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky
The Secret Doctrine,Volume 3
by H.P.Blavatsky
Published
in the late 1800's
As
for what thou hearest others say who persuade the many that the soul when once
freed from the
body
neither suffers....evil nor is conscious,I know that thou art better grounded
in the doctrines
received
by us from our ancestors and in the sacred orgies of Dionysus than to believe
them;for the
mystic
symbols are well known to us who belong to the Brotherhood.
Plutarch
The
problem of life is man.Magic,or rather Wisdom is the evolved knowledge of the
potencies of man's
interior
being which forces are divine emanations,as intuition is the perception of
their origin and
initiation
our induction into that knowledge ...We begin with instinct;the end is
omniscience.
A.Wilder
Page
1.
The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
--------
TABLE OF CONTENTS Sect.Page
INTRODUCTORY 1
One Key to all Sacred Books 3
Assumptions Have to be Proven 5
The Spirit of Plato's Teaching 7
Self-Contradiction of the Critic 9
The Character of Ammonius Saccas 11
Plato a Follower of Pythagoras 13
Preliminary Survey 1 14
The Protectors of
The A.B.C.Of Magic 1 17
Magic As Old As Man 1 19
The Tree of Knowledge 1 21
Occultism Must Win the Day 1 23
Black Magic at Work 1 25
Black Magic and Hypnotism 1 27
The Philosophy Stands on Its Own Merits 1 29
Modern Criticism and the Ancients 2 30
All Honour to Genuine Scientists 2 31
What is a Myth?2 33
Chaldean Oracles 2 35
The Origin of Magic 3 36
The Books of Hermes 3 37
What is the Origin of Magic?3 39
Pherecydes of Syros 3 41
Cain Mathematical and Anthropomorphic 3 43
The Secrecy of Initiates 4 44
Exoteric and Esoteric Teachings 4 45
Origen on “Genesis ”4 47
The “Dark Sayings ”of the “Testaments ”4 49
The Greatest Crime Ever Perpetrated 4 51
Asiatic Religions Proclaim Their Esoterism Openly 4 53
The Wisdom-Religion 4 55
Some Reasons for Secrecy 5 56
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Con't Sect.Page
The Key of Practical Theurgy 5 57
The Ladder of Being 5 59
Three Ways Open to the Adept 5 61
Man is God 5 63
Jesus Taught Reincarnation 5 65
The Dangers of Practical Magic 6 67
Names are Symbols 6 69
The Three Mothers 6 71
The Bible and Word 6 73
Moses and the Jews 6 75
Old Wine in New Bottles 7 76
Copies That Ante-Dated Originals 7 77
Which Were the Thieves?7 79
Character of the Bible 7 81
The Book of Enoch The Origin and the Foundation of
Christianity 8 82
The Book of Enoch and Christianity 8 83
Enoch Records The Races 8 85
The Book of Enoch Symbolical 8 87
Occultists Do Not Reject the Bible 8 89
Hermetic and Kabalistic Doctrines 9 91
The Kabalah and The Book of Enoch 9 93
Numbers and Measures 9 95
The Doctrine Belongs to All 9 97
Various Occult Systems of Interpretations -of Alphabets and
Numerals 10 98
Numbers and Magic 10 99
Gods and Numbers 10 101
The Universal Language 10 103
The Hexagon with the Central Point,or The Seventh Key 11
105
Occult Weapons 11 107
The Duty of the True Occultist Toward Religions 12 109
Christian and Non-Christian Adepts 12 111
Post-Christian Adepts and Their Doctrines 13 112
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The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Con't Sect.Page
Unfair Criticism 13 113
The Two Eternal Principles 13 115
Simon and His Biographer Hippolytus 14 117
Uneven Balances 14 119
Stones as “Evidences.”14 121
St.Paul the Real Founder of Present Christianity 15 122
Abrogation of Law by Initiates 15 123
Paul Changed to Simon 15 125
Peter a Jewish Kabalist,Not an Initiate 16 126
The Seat of Peter 16 127
Appollonius of Tyana 17 129
The Mysterious Teacher 17 131
Apollonius Cannot Be Destroyed 17 133
De Mirville on Apollonius 17 135
Apollonius No Fiction 17 137
Facts Underlying Adept Biographies 18 138
Jesus and Apollonius 18 139
Biographies of Initiates 18 141
Similarity of Legends 18 143
Nature of Christ 18 145
A Serious Mistranslation 18 147
Secret Doctrine of Jesus 18 149
The Cross and Crucifix 18 151
The Story of Jesus 18 153
The Primitive Woman 18 155
Kabalistic Reading of Gospels 18 157
Universal Teachings 18 159
St.Cyprian of
Magic in
Sorcerer Become Saint 19 163
The Eastern Gupta Vidya &The Kabalah 20 164
A Mystery Within a Mystery 20 165
Authorship of the Zohar 20 167
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Con't Sect.Page
Chaldaic and Hebrew 20 169
The First Men 20 171
Many Events Not Historical 20 173
The Real Hebrew Characters Lost 20 175
Hebrew Esotericism Not Primitive 20 177
The Concealed of all the Concealed 20 179
Three-in-one and Four 20 181
The Septenary Sephira 20 183
The Blind Leading the Blind 20 185
Hebrew Allegories 21 186
The Hebrew Bible does not Exist 21 187
Some Hebrews Were Initiates 21 189
The Seven Creative Gods 21 191
Seven Keys to all Allegories 21 193
Gerald Massey on the Seven Creators 21 195
The Father and Mother 21 197
The “Zohar ”on Creation and the Elohim 22 199
Angels as Builders 22 201
Who are the Elohim?22 203
Monad Duad and Triad 22 205
The Creative Gods 22 207
God the Host 22 209
What the Occultists and Kabalists Have to Say 23 211
The Mystery of the Sun 23 213
Modern Kabalists in Science and Occult Astronomy 24 215
The Place of Neptune 24 217
Self-Generation Ex-Niholo?24 219
Are There Angels in Stars?24 221
Eastern and Western Occultism 25 222
Primordial Matter 25 223
The Great Deep 25 225
The Chaos of Genesis 25 227
The Bible of Humanity 25 229
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Con't Sect.Page
Chaos is Theos or Kosmos 25 231
One Hundred and Eight 25 233
The Idols and the Teraphim 26 234
Divining By Teraphim 26 235
Jehovah and Teraphim 26 237
Idol of the Moon 26 239
Egyptian Magic 27 241
Evidence of Papyri 27 243
Symbols and Their Reading 27 245
Rebirth and Transmigration 27 247
The Egyptian Khous 27 249
Obsession in Egypt 27 251
Two Rituals of Magic 27 253
Magical Statues 27 255
Romances -But True 27 257
The Origin of the Mysteries 28 258
An Instant in Heaven 28 259
Growth of Popular Beliefs 28 261
A True Priesthood 28 263
The Egyptian Priests 28 265
Revealing and Reveiling 28 267
Atlanteans Degenerating 28 269
The Trial of the Sun Initiate 29 270
Vishvakarma and Vikarttana 29 271
The Transmission of Light 29 273
Masonry and the Jesuits 29 275
The Mystery “Sun of Initiation ”30 277
The Sun as God 30 279
The Objects of the Mysteries 31 281
Mysteries and Theophany 31 283
The Mysteries and Masonry 31 285
Traces of the Mysteries 32 287
Christos and Chrestos 32 289
The Symbolism of Narada 32 291
Page
6.
The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
--------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales--------
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Con't Sect.Page
Egyptian Initiation 32 293
The Self-Sacrificing Victim 32 295
Orpheus 32 297
The Last of the Mysteries in Europe 33 298
Alesia and Bibractis 33 299
The Learning of Egypt 33 301
The Post-Christian Successors to the Mysteries 34 303
The Root Races 34 305
The “False Gnosis ”34 307
Teachers of Ammonius 34 309
Difficulties and Dangers 34 311
The Neo-Platonic School 34 313
Symbolism of Sun and Stars 35 315
The Circle Dance 35 317
Christian Astrolatry 35 319
Michael the Conqueror 35 321
The Christian Sun-God 35 323
Pagan Sidereal Worship or Astrology 36 325
The Planetary Angels 36 327
Celestial Wheels 36 329
The Promethean Mystery 36 331
The Souls of the Stars —Universal Heliolatry 37 332
Christian Star-Worship 37 333
A Singular Confession 37 335
Astrology and Astrolatry 38 337
The Defence of Astrology 38 339
Its Later Deterioration 38 341
Its Prominent Disciples 38 343
Cycles of Avatâras 39 345
An Unfulfilled Prophecy 39 347
Secret Cycles 39 349
Secret Cycles 40 350
The Naros 40 351
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Con't Sect.Page
Age of the Vedas 40 353
Testimony of the Song Celestial 40 355
Mackey's Arguments 40 357
The Doctrine of Avatâras 41 361
All Avatâras Identical 41 363
Voluntary Incarnation 41 365
Cardinal De Cusa 41 367
The Seven Rays 41 369
Special Cases 41 371
The Higher Astral 41 373
The Seven Principles 42 374
The Mystery of Buddha 43 376
Shankarâchârya 43 377
The Buddha Cannot Reincarnate 43 379
A Fuller Explanation 43 381
Sacrifice 43 383
Shankarâchârya Still Living 43 385
“Reincarnations ”of Buddha 44 386
Vajradhara 44 387
Living Buddhas 44 389
An Obscure Passage 44 391
An Unpublished Discourse of Buddha 45 393
A Mistaken View 45 395
Nirvana-Moksha 46 396
The Ăkâsha 46 397
Matter is Ever Giving 46 399
Blind Faith Not Expected 46 401
What Annihilation Means 46 403
The Secret Books of “Lam-Rin ” and Dzyan 47 405
Amita Buddha Kwan-Shai-Yin and Kwan-Yin —What the
“Book of Dzyan ”and the Lamaseries of Tsong-Kha-Pa Say 48
407
Tsong-Kha-Pa —Lohans in China 49 409
The Lost Word 49 411
Page
8.
The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Con't Sect.Page
Tibetan Prophecies 49 413
A Few More Misconceptions Corrected 50 414
Misrepresentations of Buddhism 50 415
A Mysterious Land 50 417
Absurd Conclusions 50 419
Materialistic Orientalists 50 421
Introduction of Buddhism into Tibet 50 423
The 'Doctrine of the Eye'and The 'Doctrine of the Heart'or
the
'Heart's Seal'51 424
Swedenborg Claims 51 425
The God 'Who'51 427
More Misrepresentations 51 429
Âryâsanga 51 431
Note 52 434
A Warning 52 435
The Jewel of the Lotus 52 437
The Pythagorean Tetrad 52 439
Seven Correspondential Contents 52 441
Correspondence Between Races and Man 52 443
Man and The Logos 52 445
Cosmic Spiritual and Physical Centres 52 447
Woman and Alchemy 52 449
Sound and Colour 52 451
The Days of the Week 52 453
An Explanation 52 455
Astrology and Lunar Weeks 52 457
Seeing Sounds and Hearing Colours 52 459
Planetary and Human Bodies 52 461
Planets and Faculties 52 463
Simon Magnus the Magician 52 465
Series of Ćons 52 467
The Triple Ćon 52 469
Magic and Miracles 52 471
Magic a Divine Science 52 473
Page
9.
The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
--------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales--------
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Con't Sect.Page
The Seven Hierarchies 52 475
Origins 52 477
Colours and Principles 52 479
The Primordial Seven 52 481
The Hierarchies and Man 52 483
Wisdom and Truth 52 485
Occult Secrecy 52 487
The Light and Dark Sides of Nature 52 489
Nature's Finer Forces 52 491
The “Seven Principles ”52 493
The Auric Egg 52 495
Five or Seven Tattvas 52 497
The Tattvas 52 499
Esoteric and Tântra Tables of the Tattvas 52 501
Hatha and Râja Yoga 52 503
The Awakening of the Seventh Sense 52 505
The Master Chakras 52 507
The Human Harp 52 509
The Duality in Manas 52 511
The Living and the Dead 52 513
Gaining Immortality 52 515
Light and Life 52 517
The Two Egos 52 519
Death of the Soul 52 521
Reincarnation of Lower Soul 52 523
The Dweller on the Threshold 52 525
The Word 52 527
The Divine Witness 52 529
Appendix 52 530
A Mantra Operative 52 531
Colour and Spiritual Sound 52 533
Musical Table 52 535
Notes on Some Oral Teachings 52 537
The Dweller on the Threshold 52 539
Page
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The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
--------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales--------
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Con't Sect.Page
Fear and Hatred 52 541
Triangle and Quaternary 52 543
Prâna and Antahkarana 52 545
Sacred Centres of Body 52 547
Ăkâsha Nature's Sounding-Board 52 549
Kosmic Consciousness 52 551
Divisions of the Astral Plane 52 553
Kosmic Planes 52 555
Differentiation 52 557
Men and Pitris 52 559
Power of Imagination 52 561
Why Cycles Return 52 563
Talas and Lokas 52 565
States of Consciousness 52 567
Man and Lokas 52 569
Yogîs in Svarloka 52 571
Consciousness and Self-Consciousness 52 573
Scales of Consciousness 52 575
Vibrations and Impressions 52 577
The Crucifixion of the Christos 52 579
Rising Above the Brain 52 581
Christ and Apollonius 52 583
The Beginnings 52 585
Karmic Effects 52 587
Fire is Kriyâshakti 52 589
Responsibility and the Ego 52 591
Functions of the Astral Body 52 593
Page
11.
The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
--------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales--------
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PREFACE
The
task of preparing this volume for the press has been a difficult and anxious
one and it is necessary
to
state clearly what has been done.The papers given to me by H.P.B.were quite
unarranged and had
no
obvious order;I have therefore taken each paper as a separate Section and have
arranged them as
sequentially
as possible.With the exception of the correction of grammatical errors and the
elimination of
obviously
un-English idioms,the papers are as H.P.B.left them save as otherwise marked.In
a few
cases
I have filled in a gap but any such addition is enclosed within square
brackets,so as to be
distinguished
from the text.In "The Mystery of Buddha"a further difficulty arose;some
of the Sections
had
been written four or five times over each version containing some sentences
that were not in the
others;I
have pieced these versions together taking the fullest as basis,and inserting
therein everything
added
in any other versions.It is,however with some hesitation that I have included
these Sections in
the
Secret Doctrine .Together with some most suggestive thought they contain
very numerous errors of
fact
and many statements based on exoteric writings,not on esoteric knowledge.They were
given into
my
hands to publish as part of the Third Volume of the Secret Doctrine,and
I therefore do not feel
justified
in coming between the author and the public,either by altering the
statements,to make them
consistent
with fact or by suppressing the Sections.She says she is acting entirely on her
own authority
and
it will be obvious to any instructed reader that she makes -possibly
deliberately -many statements
so
confused that they are mere blinds,and other statements -probably inadvertently
-that are nothing
more
than the exoteric misunderstandings of esoteric truths.The reader must here as
everywhere use
his
own judgment but feeling bound to publish these Sections,I cannot let them go
to the public without
a
warning that much in them is certainly erroneous.Doubtless,had the author
herself issued this book,
she
would have entirely rewritten the whole of this division;as it was it seemed
best to give all she had
said
in the different copies,and to leave it in its rather unfinished state for
students will best like to have
what
she said as she said it even though they may have to study it more closely than
would have been
the
case had she remained to finish her work.
The
quotations made have been as far as possible found and correct references
given;in this most
laborious
work a whole band of earnest and painstaking students,under the guidance of
Mrs.Cooper-
Oakley
have been my willing assistants.Without their aid it would not have been
possible to give the
references,as
often a whole book had to be searched through in order to find a paragraph of a
few lines.
This
volume completes the papers left by H.P.B.with the exception of a few scattered
articles that yet
remain
and that will be published in her own magazine L cifer.Her pupils are
well aware that few will be
found
in the present generation to do justice to the occult knowledge of H.P.B.and to
her magnificent
sweep
of thoughts but as she can wait to future generations for the justification of
her greatness as a
teacher
so can her pupils afford to wait for the justification of their trust.
ANNIE BESANT
Page
12.
The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
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INTRODUCTORY
(Page 1)"POWER belongs to him who knows;"this is a very old
axiom.Knowledge -the first step to
which
is the power of comprehending the truth of discerning the real from the false
-is for those only
who
have freed themselves from every prejudice and conquered their human conceit
and selfishness,
are
ready to accept every and any truth once it is demonstrated to them.Of such
there are very few.The
majority
judge of a work according to the respective prejudices of its critics,who are
guided in their turn
by
the popularity or unpopularity of the author rather than by its own faults or
merits.Outside the
Theosophical
circle therefore the present volume is certain to receive at the hands of the
general public
a
still colder welcome than its two predecessors have met with.In our day no
statement can hope for a
fair
trial or even hearing unless its arguments run on the line of legitimate and
accepted enquiry
remaining
strictly within the boundaries of official Science or orthodox Theology.
Our
age is a paradoxical anomaly.It is preëminently materialistic and as
preëminently pietistic.Our
literature
our modern thought and progress,so called both run on these two parallel
lines,so
incongruously
dissimilar and yet both so popular and so very orthodox,each in its own way.He
who
presumes
to draw a third line as a hyphen of reconciliation between the two has to be
fully prepared for
the
worst.He will have his work mangled by reviewers,mocked by the sycophants of
Science and
Church
misquoted by his opponents,and rejected even by the pious lending libraries.The
absurd
misconceptions,in
so-called cultured circles of society of the ancient Wisdom-Religion
(Bodhism)after
the
admirably clear and scientifically-presented explanations in Esoteric B
ddhism are a good proof in
point.They
might have served as a caution even to those Theosophists who hardened in an
almost life-
long
struggle in the service of their Cause are neither timid with their pen nor in
the least appalled by
dogmatic
(Page 2)assumption and scientific authority.Yet do what
Theosophical writers may neither
Materialism
nor doctrinal pietism will ever give their Philosophy a fair hearing.Their
doctrines will be
systematically
rejected and their theories denied a place even in the ranks of those
scientific ephemera
the
ever-shifting "working hypotheses"of our day.To the advocate of the
"animalistic"theory our
cosmogenetical
and anthropogenetical teachings are "fairy-tales"at best.For to those
who would shirk
any
moral responsibility it seems certainly more convenient to accept descent from
a common simian
ancestor
and see a brother in a dumb tailless baboon than to acknowledge the fatherhood
of the Pitris,
the
"Sons of God "and to have to recognise as a brother a starveling from
the slums.
"Hold
back!"shout in their turn the pietists."You will never make of
respectable church-going Christians
Esoteric
Buddhists!"
Nor
are we in truth in any way anxious to attempt the metamorphosis.But this cannot
nor shall it
prevent
Theosophists from saying what they have to say especially to those who in
opposing to our
doctrine
Modern Science do so not for her own fair sake but only to ensure the success
of their private
hobbies
and personal glorification.If we cannot prove many of our points,no more can
they;yet we may
show
how instead of giving historical and scientific facts -for the edification of
those who knowing less
than
they look to Scientists to do their thinking and form their opinions -the
efforts of most of our
scholars
seem solely directed to killing ancient facts,or distorting them into props to
support their own
special
views.This will be done in no spirit of malice or even criticism as the writer
readily admits that
most
of those she finds fault with stand immeasurably higher in learning than
herself.But great
scholarship
does not preclude bias and prejudice nor is it a safeguard against self-conceit
but rather the
Page
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The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
--------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales--------
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reverse.Moreover
it is but in the legitimate defence of our own statements,i.e.the vindication
of Ancient
Wisdom
and its great truths,that we mean to take our "great authorities"to
task.
Indeed
unless the precaution of answering beforehand certain objections to the
fundamental
propositions
in the present work be adopted -objections which are certain to be made on the
authority of
this,that
or another scholar concerning the Esoteric character of all the archaic and
ancient works on
Philosophy
-our statements will be once more contradicted and even discredited.One of the
main points
in
this Volume is to indicate in the works of the old Aryan Greek and
One Key to all Sacred Books -(Page 3)other Philosophers of note as well as in all the world-scriptures,
the
presence of a strong Esoteric allegory and symbolism.Another of the objects is
to prove that the key
of
interpretation as furnished by the Eastern Hindu-Buddhistic canon of Occultism
-fitting as well the
Christian
Gospels as it does archaic Egyptian Greek,Chaldean Persian and even Hebrew
-Mosaic
Books
-must have been one common to all the nations,however divergent may have been
their
respective
methods and exoteric "blinds."These claims are vehemently denied by
some of the foremost
scholars
of our day.In his Edinburgh Lectures,Prof.Max Muller discarded this fundamental
statement of
the
Theosophists by pointing to the Hindu Shastras and Pandits,who know nothing of
such Esotericism.
[ The majority of the
Pandits know nothing of the Esoteric Philosophy now because they have lost the
key
to it;yet not one of these if honest would deny that the Upanishads and
especially the P ranas are
allegorical
and symbolical:nor that there still remain in India a few great scholars who
could if they
would
give them the key to such interpretations.Nor do they reject the actual
existence of Mahâtmâs -
initiated
Yogis and Adepts -even in this age of Kali Yuga.] The learned Sanskrit
scholar stated in so
many
words that there was no hidden meaning no Esoteric element or
"blinds,"either in the P rânas or
the
Upanishads .Considering that the word "Upanishad"means,when
translated the "Secret Doctrine."
the
assertion is,to say the least extraordinary.Sir M.Monier Williams again holds
the same view with
regard
to Buddhism.To hear him is to regard Gautama the Buddha as an enemy of every
pretence to
Esoteric
teachings.He himself never taught them!All such "pretences"to Occult
learning and "magic
powers"are
due to the later Arhats,the subsequent followers of the "Light of
Asia"!Prof.B.Jowett again
as
contemptuously passes the sponge over the "absurd"interpretations of
Plato's Timae s and the
Mosaic
Books by the Neoplatonists.There is not a breath of the Oriental
(Gnostic)spirit of Mysticism in
Plato's
Dialog es the Regius Professor of Greek tells us,nor any approach to
Science either.Finally to
cap
the climax,Prof.Sayce the Assyriologist although he does not deny the actual presence
in the
Assyrian
tablets and cuneiform literature of a hidden meaning -
"Many
of the sacred texts ....so written as to be intelligible only to the
initiated"-
yet
insists that the "keys and glosses"thereof are now in the hands of
the Assyriologists.The modern
scholars,he
affirms,have in their possession clues to the interpretation of the Esoteric
Records.
"Which
even the initiated priests [of Chaldaea ] did not possess."
(Page 4)Thus,in the scholarly appreciation of our modern Orientalists and Professors,Science
was in its
infancy
in the days of the Egyptian and Chaldean Astronomers.Pânini the greatest
Grammarian in the
world
was unacquainted with the art of writing.So was the Lord Buddha and everyone
else in India until
300
B.C.The grossest ignorance reigned in the days of the Indian Rishis,and even in
those of Thales,
Pythagoras,and
Plato.Theosophists must indeed be superstitious ignoramuses to speak as they do
in
Page
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The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
--------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales--------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-1DL
the
face of such learned evidence to the contrary!
Truly
it looks as if since the world's creation there has been but one age of real
knowledge on earth -
the
present age.In the misty twilight in the grey dawn of history stand the pale
shadows of the old
Sages
of world renown.They were hopelessly groping for the correct meaning of their
own Mysteries,the
spirit
whereof has departed without revealing itself to the Hierophants,and has remained
latent in space
until
the advent of the initiates of Modern Science and Research.The noontide
brightness of knowledge
has
only now arrived at the "Know-All "who basking in the dazzling sun of
induction busies himself with
his
Penelopeian task of "working hypotheses,"and loudly asserts his
rights to universal knowledge.Can
anyone
wonder then that according to present views the learning of the ancient
Philosopher and even
sometimes
that of his direct successors in the past centuries,has ever been useless to
the world and
valueless
to himself?For as explained repeatedly in so many words,while the Rishis and
the Sages of
old
have walked far over the arid fields of myth and superstition the mediaeval
Scholar and even the
average
eighteenth century Scientist have always been more or less cramped by their
"supernatural"
religion
and beliefs.True it is generally conceded that some ancient and also mediaeval
Scholars,such
as
Pythagoras,Plato Paracelsus,and Roger Bacon followed by a host of glorious
names,had indeed
left
not a few landmarks over precious mines of Philosophy and unexpected lodes of
Physical Science.
But
then the actual excavation of these the smelting of the gold and silver and the
cutting of the
precious
jewels they contain are all due to the patient labours of the modern man of
Science.And it is
not
to be the unparalleled genius of the latter that the ignorant and
hitherto-deluded world owes a correct
knowledge
of the real nature of the Kosmos,of the true origin of the universe and man as
revealed in the
automatic
and mechanical theories of the Physicists in accordance with strictly
scientific Philosophy?
Assumptions Have to be Proven -(Page 5)Before our cultured era Science was but a name
Philosophy
a delusion and a snare.According to the modest claims of contemporary authority
on genuine
Science
and Philosophy the Tree of Knowledge has only now sprung from the dead weeds of
superstition
as a beautiful butterfly emerges from an ugly grub.We have therefore nothing
for which to
thank
our forefathers.The Ancients have at best prepared and fertilised the soil;it
is the Moderns who
have
planted the seeds of knowledge and reared the lovely plants called blank
negation and sterile
agnosticism.
Such
however is not the view taken by Theosophists.They repeat what was stated
twenty years ago.It
is
not sufficient to speak of the "untenable conceptions of an uncultured
past"(Tyndall):of the "parler
enfantin "of the
Vaidic poets (Max Muller);of the "absurdities"of the Neoplatonists
(Jowett);and of the
ignorance
of the Chaldaeo-Assyrian initiated Priests with regard to their own
symbols,when compared
with
the knowledge thereon of the British Orientalist (Sayce).Such assumptions have
to be proven by
something
more solid than the mere word of these scholars.For no amount of boastful
arrogance can
hide
the intellectual quarries out of which the representations of so many modern
Philosophers and
Scholars
have been carved.How many of the most distinguished European Scientists have
derived
honour
and credit for the mere dressing-up of the ideas of these old Philosophers,whom
they are ever
ready
to disparage is left to an impartial posterity to say.Thus it does seem not
altogether untrue as
stated
in Isis Unveiled to say of certain Orientalists and Scholars of dead
languages,that they will allow
their
boundless conceit and self-opinionatedness to run away with their logic and
reasoning powers
rather
than concede to the ancient Philosophers the knowledge of anything the modern
do not know.
As
part of this work treats of the Initiates and the secret knowledge imparted
during the Mysteries,the
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statements
of those who in spite of the fact that Plato was an Initiate maintain that no
hidden Mysticism
is
to be discovered in his works,have to be first examined.Too many of the present
scholars,Greek and
Sanskrit
are but too apt to forego facts in favour of their own preconceived theories
based on personal
prejudice.They
conveniently forget at every opportunity not only the numerous changes in
language
but
also that the allegorical style in the writings of old Philosophers and the
secretiveness of the Mystics
had
their raison d'ętre ;that both the pre-Christian and the post-Christian (Page 6)classical writers -the
great
majority at all events -were under the sacred obligation never to divulge the
solemn secrets
communicated
to them in the sanctuaries;and that this alone is sufficient to sadly mislead
their
translators
and profane critics.But these critics will admit nothing of the kind as will
presently be seen.
For
over twenty-two centuries everyone who has read Plato has been aware that like
most of the other
Greek
Philosophers of note he had been initiated;that therefore being tied down by
the Sodalian Oath
he
could speak of certain things only in veiled allegories.His reverence for the
Mysteries is unbounded;
he
openly confesses that he writes "enigmatically "and we see him take
the greatest precautions to
conceal
the true meaning of his words.Every time the subject touches the greater
secrets of Oriental
Wisdom
-the cosmogony of the universe or the ideal preexisting world -Plato shrouds
his Philosophy in
the
profoundest darkness.His Timaeus is so confused that no one but an Initiate can
understand the
hidden
meaning As already said in Isis Unveiled:
The
speculations of Plato in the Banq et on the creation or rather the
evolution of primordial men and
the
essay on cosmogony in the Timaeus,must be taken allegorically if we accept them
at all.It is this
hidden
Pythagorean meaning in Timae s Cratyl s and Parmenides and a few
other triologies and
dialogues,that
the Neoplatonists ventured to expound as far as the theurgical vow of secresy
would
allow
them.The Pythagoran doctrine that God is the Universal Mind diffused through
all things,and the
dogma
of the soul's immortality are the leading features in these apparently incongruous
teachings.His
piety
and the great veneration he felt for the Mysteries are sufficient warrant that
Plato would not allow
his
indiscretion to get the better of that deep sense of responsibility which is
felt by every Adept.
"Constantly
perfecting himself in perfect Mysteries a man in them alone becomes truly
perfect "says he
in
the Phaedrus .
He
took no pains to conceal his displeasure that the Mysteries had become less
secret than formerly.
Instead
of profaning them by putting them within the reach of the multitude he would
have guarded them
with
jealous care against all but the most earnest and worthy of his disciples.[ This
assertion is clearly
corroborated
by Plato himself who writes:"You say that in my former discourse I have
not sufficiently
explained
to you the nature of the First.I purposely spoke enigmatically that in case the
tablet should
have
happened with any accident either by sea or land a person without some previous
knowledge of
the
subject might not be able to understand its contents."(Plato.Ep.II.312
Cory.Ancient Fragments.
p.304
] While mentioning the Gods on every page his monotheism is
unquestionable for the whole
thread
of his discourse indicates that by the term "God"he means a class of
beings lower in the scale
than
Deities,and but one grade higher than men.Even Josephus perceived and
acknowledged this fact
despite
the natural prejudice of his race.
The Spirit of Plato's Teaching -(Page 7)In his famous onslaught upon Apion this historian says;"Those
however
among the Greeks who philosophized in accordance with truth were not ignorant
of anything ..
.nor
did they fail to perceive the chilling superficialities of the mythical
allegories,on which account they
justly
despised them....By which thing Plato being moved says it is not necessary to
admit any one of
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the
other poets into ‘the Commonwealth 'and he dismisses Homer blandly after having
crowned him and
pouring
unguent upon him in order that indeed he should not destroy by his myths the
orthodox belief in
respecting
one God."[ Isis Unveiled i.287 288.]
And
this is the "God"of every Philosopher God infinite and impersonal.All
this and much more which
there
is no room here to quote leads one to the undeniable certitude that (a )as
all the Sciences and
Philosophies
were in the hands of the temple Hierophants Plato as initiated by them must
have known
them;and
(b),that logical inference alone is amply sufficient to justify anyone in
regarding Plato's writings
as
allegories and "dark sayings,"veiling truths which he had no right to
divulge.
This
established how comes it that one of the best Greek scholars in England
Prof.Jowett the modern
translator
of Plato's works seeks to demonstrate that none of the Dialogues -including
even the
Timae s -have any
element of Oriental Mysticism about them?Those who can discern the true spirit
of
Plato's
Philosophy will hardly be convinced by the arguments which the Master of
Balliol College lays
before
his readers."Obscure and repulsive"to him,the Timae s may
certainly be;but it is as certain that
this
obscurity does not arise as the Professor tells his public,"in the infancy
of physical science "but
rather
in its days of secresy;not "out of the confusion of theological
mathematical and physiological
notions,"or
"out of the desire to conceive the whole of Nature without any adequate
knowledge of the
parts."[
The Dialog es of Plato translated by B.Jowett.Regius Professor of
Greek at the University of
Oxford
111 5z3.]For Mathematics and Geometry were the backbone of Occult
cosmogony hence of
"Theology
"and the physiological notions of the ancient Sages are being daily
verified by Science in our
age;at
least to those who know to read and understand ancient Esoteric works.The
"knowledge of the
parts"avails
us little if this knowledge only leads us the more to ignorance of the Whole or
the "nature
and
the reason of the Universal "as Plato called Deity and causes us to
blunder most egregiously
because
of our boasted inductive methods.
(Page 8)Plato may have been "incapable of induction or generalization in
the modern sense";[ Op.cit.
p.561
] he may have been ignorant also of the circulation of the blood which
we are told "was
absolutely
unknown to him,"[ Op.cit.p.591 ]but then there is naught to
disprove that he knew what
blood
is -and this is more than any Physiologist or Biologist can claim
nowadays.
Though
a wider and far more generous margin for knowledge is allowed the
"physical philosopher"by
Prof.Jowett
than by nearly any other modern commentator and critic,nevertheless,his
criticism so
considerably
outweighs his laudation that it may be as well to quote his own words,to show
clearly his
bias.Thus
he says:
To
bring sense under the control of reason;to find some way through the labyrinth
or chaos of
appearances,either
the highway or mathematics,or more devious paths suggested by the
analogy
of man with the world and of the world with man;to see that all things have a
cause
and
are tending towards an end -this is the spirit of the ancient physical
philosopher.[This
definition
places (unwittingly of course),the ancient "physical philosopher"many
cubits higher
than
his modern "physical"confrčre since the ltima th le of
the latter is to lead mankind to
believe
that neither universe nor man have any cause at all -not an intelligent one at
all
events
-and that they have sprung into existence owing to blind chance and a senseless
whirling
of atoms.Which of the two hypotheses is the more rational and logical is left
to the
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impartial
reader to decide.] But we neither appreciate the conditions of knowledge
to which he
was
subjected nor have the ideas which fastened upon his imagination the same hold
upon
us.For
he is hovering between matter and mind;he is under the dominion of abstractions;his
impressions
are taken almost at random from the outside of nature;he sees the light but not
the
objects which are revealed by the light;and he brings into juxtaposition things
which to us
appear
wide as the poles asunder because he finds nothing between them.
The
last proposition but one must evidently be distasteful to the modern
"physical philosopher "who sees
the
"objects"before him but fails to see the light of the Universal Mind
which reveals them i.e .who
proceeds
in a diametrically opposite way.Therefore the learned Professor comes to the
conclusion that
the
ancient Philosopher whom he now judges from Plato's Timae s must have
acted in a decidedly
unphilosophical
and even irrational way.For:
He
passes abruptly from persons to ideas and numbers,and from ideas and numbers to
persons;[
Italics are mine.Every tyro in Eastern Philosophy every Kabalist will see
the
reason
for such an association of persons with ideas,numbers,and geometrical figures.For
number
says Philolaus,"is the dominant and self-produced bond of the eternal
continuance of
things."Alone
the modern scholar remains blind to the grand truth ] he confuses
subject and
object
first and final causes,and in dreaming of geometrical figures is
lost in a flux of sense.
Self-Contradiction of the Critic -(Page 9)[
Here again the ancient Philosopher seems
to be ahead of
the
modern.For he only "confuses ...first and final causes"(which
confusion is denied by those who
know
the spirit of the ancient scholarship),whereas his modern successor is
confessedly and absolutely
ignorant
of both.Mr.Tyndall shows Science "powerless"to solve a single one of
the final problems of
Nature
and "disciplined [read modern materialistic ] ,imagination retiring
in bewilderment from the
contemplation
of the problems "of the world of matter.He even doubts whether the men of
present
Science
possess "the intellectual elements which would enable them to grapple with
the ultimate
structural
energies of Nature."But for Plato and his disciples,the lower types were
but the concrete
images
of the higher abstract ones:the higher abstract ones:the immortal Soul has an
arithmetical as
the
body has a geometrical beginning.This beginning as the reflection of the great
universal archaeus
(Anima
Mundi ),is self-moving and from the centre diffuses itself over the whole
body of the Macrocosm.]
And
now an effort of mind is required on our parts in order to nderstand his do
ble lang age or to
apprehend
the twilight character of the knowledge and the genius of ancient
philosophers which under
such
conditions [?] seems by a divine power in many instances to have anticipated
the truth.[ Op.cit.
page
523 .]
Whether
"such conditions"imply those of ignorance and mental stolidity in
"the genius of ancient
philosophers"or
something else we do not know.But what we do know is that the meaning of the
sentences
we have italicized is perfectly clear.Whether the Regius Professor of Greek
believes or
disbelieves
in a hidden sense of geometrical figures and of the Esoteric "jargon
"he nevertheless admits
the
presence of a "double language"in the writings of these
Philosophers.Thence he admits a hidden
meaning
which must have had an interpretation.Why then does he flatly contradict his
own statement
on
the very next page?And why should he deny to the Timae s -that
preëminently Pythagorean (mystic)
Dialogue
-any Occult meaning and take such pains to convince his readers that
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The
influence which the Timaeus has exercised upon posterity is partly due to a
misunderstanding.
The
following quotation from his Introduction is in direct contradiction with the
paragraph which precedes
it
as above quoted:
In
the supposed depths of this dialogue the Neo-Platonists found hidden meanings
and
connections
with the Jewish and Christian Scriptures,and out of them they dictated doctrines
quite
at variance with the spirit of Plato.Believing that he was inspired by the Holy
Ghost or
had
received his wisdom from Moses,[ Nowhere are the Neoplatonists guilty of
such an
absurdity.The
learned Professor of Greek must have been thinking of two spurious works
attributed
by Eusebius and St.Jerome to Ammonius Saccas,who wrote nothing:or must have
confused
the Neoplatonists with Philo Judaeus.But then Philo lived over 130 years before
the
birth
of the founder of Neoplatonism.He belonged to the School of Aristobulus the Jew
who
lived
under Ptolemy Philometer (150 years B.C),and is credited with having
inaugurated the
movement
which tended to prove that Plato and even the Peripatetic Philosophy were
derived
from
the "revealed"Mosaic Books.Valckenaer tries to show that the author
of the
Commentaries on the Books of Moses was not Aristobulus,the sycophant of Ptolemy.But
whatever
he was he was not a Neoplatonist but lived before or during the days of Philo
Judaeus
-since the latter seems to know his works and follow his methods.](Page 10)they
seemed
to find in his writings the Christian Trinity the Word the Church ...and the
Neo-
Platonists
had a method of interpretation which could elicit any meaning out of any words.
They
were really incapable of distinguishing between the opinions of one philosopher
and
another
or between the serious thoughts of Plato and his passing fancies.[Only
Clemens
Alexandrinus,a
Christian Neoplatonist and a very fantastic writer.]...[But ] there is
no danger
of
the modern commentators on the Timae s falling into the absurdity of the
Neo-Platonists.
No
danger whatever of course for the simple reason that the modern commentators
have never had the
key
to Occult interpretations.And before another word is said in defence of Plato
and the Neoplatonists,
the
learned master of Balliol College ought to be respectfully asked:What does,or
can he know of the
Esoteric
canon of interpretation?By the term "canon"is here meant that key
which was communicated
orally
from "mouth to ear"by the Master to the disciple or by the Hierophant
to the candidate for
initiation;this
from time immemorial throughout a long series of ages,during which the inner
-not public -
Mysteries
were the most sacred institution of every land.Without such a key no correct
interpretation of
either
the Dialog es of Plato nor of any Scripture from the Vedas to
Homer from the Zend Avesta to the
Mosaic
Books,is possible.How then can the Rev.Dr.Jowett know that the interpretations
made by the
Neoplatonists
of the various sacred books of the nations were "absurdities"?Where
again has he found
an
opportunity of studying these "interpretations"?History shows that
all such works were destroyed by
the
Christian Church Fathers and their fanatical catechumens,wherever they were
found.To say that
such
men as Ammonius,a genius and a saint whose learning and holy life earned for
him the title of
Theodidaktos
("God-taught"),such men as Plotinus,Porphyry and Proclus,were
"incapable of
distinguishing
between the opinions of one philosopher and another or between the serious
thoughts of
Plato
and his fancies,"is to assume an untenable position for a Scholar.It
amounts to saying that (a)
scores
of the most famous Philosophers,the greatest Scholars and Sages of Greece and
of the Roman
Empire
were dull fools,and (b)that all the other commentators,lovers of Greek
Philosophy some of
them
the acutest intellects of the age -who do not agree with Dr.Jowett -are also
fools and no better
than
those whom they admire.The patronising tone of the last above-quoted passage is
modulated with
the
most naive conceit remarkable even in our age of self-glorification and
mutual admiration cliques.
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The Character of Ammonius Saccas -(Page 11)We have to compare the Professor's views with those
of
some other scholars.
Says
Prof.Alexander Wilder of New York,one of the best Platonists of the day speaking
of Ammonius,
the
founder of the Neoplatonic School:
His
deep spiritual intuition his extensive learning his familiarity with the
Christian Fathers,
Pantaenus,Clement
and Athenagoras,and with the most erudite philosophers of the time all
fitted
him for the labour which he performed so thoroughly.[The labour of
reconciling the
different
systems of religion.] He was successful in drawing to his views the
greatest scholars
and
public men of the Roman Empire who had little taste for wasting time in dialectic
pursuits
or
superstitious observances.The results of his ministration are perceptible at
the present day
in
every country of the Christian world;every prominent system of doctrine now
bearing the
marks
of his plastic hand.Every ancient philosophy has had its votaries among the
moderns;
and
even Judaism ...has taken upon itself changes which were suggested by the
"God-
taught"Alexandrian
...He was a man of rare learning and endowments,of blameless life and
amiable
disposition.His almost superhuman ken and many excellencies won for him the
title
of
Theodidaktos;but he followed the modest example of Pythagoras,and only assumed
the
title
of Philalethian or lover of truth.[ New Platonism and Alchemy by
Alex.Wilder M.D.pp.
7.4.]
It
would be happy for truth and fact were our modern scholars to follow as
modestly in the steps of their
great
predecessors.But not they -Philalethians!
Moreover
we know that:
Like
Orpheus,Pythagoras,Confucius,Socrates,and Jesus himself [ It is
well-known that
though
born of Christian parents,Ammonius had renounced the tenets of the Church -
Eusebius
and Jerome notwithstanding.Porphyry the disciple of Plotinus,who had lived with
Ammonius
for eleven years together and who had no interest in stating an untruth
positively
declares
that he had renounced Christianity entirely.On the other hand we know that
Ammonius
believed in the bright Gods,Protectors,and that the Neoplatonic Philosophy was
as
"pagan"as it was mystical.But Eusebius,the most unscrupulous forger
and falsifier of old
texts
and St.Jerome an out-and-out fanatic,who had both an interest in denying the
fact
contradict
Porphyry.We prefer to believe the latter who has left to posterity an
unblemished
name
and a great reputation for honesty .] Ammonius committed nothing to
writing.[ Two
works
are falsely attributed to Ammonius.One now lost called De Consensu Moysis et
Jes
is
mentioned by the same "trustworthy"Eusebius,the Bishop of Caesaraea
and the friend of
the
Christian Emperor Constantine who died however a heathen.All that is known of
this
pseudo-work
is that Jerome bestows great praise upon it (Vir.Ill st .55:and Euseb.H.E
..
vi.19).The
other spurious production is called the Diatesseron (or the
"Harmony of the
Gospels").This
is partially extant.But then again it exists only in the Latin version of
Victor
Bishop
of Capua (sixth century),who attributed it himself to Tatian and as wrongly
probably
as
later scholars attributed the Diatesseron to Ammonius.Therefore no great
reliance can be
placed
upon it nor on its "esoteric"interpretation of the Gospels.Is it this
work we wonder
which
led Prof.Jowett to regard the Neoplatonic interpretations as
"absurdities"?] Instead
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he
...communicated his most (Page
12)important doctrines to persons duly
instructed and
disciplined
imposing on them the obligations of secresy as was done before him by Zoroaster
and
Pythagoras,and in the Mysteries.Except a few treatises of his disciples we have
only the
declarations
of his adversaries from which to ascertain what he actually taught.[Op.cit
.p.7.]
It
is from the biased statements of such "adversaries."probably that the
learned Oxford translator of
Plato's
Dialogues came to the conclusion that:
That
which was truly great and truly characteristic of him [Plato ] his effort to
realise and
connect
abstractions,was not nderstood by them [the Neoplatonists ] at all [?].
He
states,contemptuously enough for the ancient methods of intellectual
analysis,that:
In
the present day ...an ancient philosopher is to be interpreted from himself and
by the
contemporary
history of thought.[ Op.cit .iii 524 .]
This
is like saying that the ancient Greek canon of proportion (if ever found),and
the Athena Promachus
of
Phidias,have to be interpreted in the present day from the contemporary history
of architecture and
sculpture
from the Albert Hall and Memorial Monument and the hideous Madonnas in
crinolines
sprinkled
over the fair face of Italy.Prof.Jowett remarks that "mysticism is not
criticism."No;but neither
is
criticism always fair and sound judgement.
La critiq e est aisée,mais l'art est difficile.
And
such "art"our critic of the Neoplatonists -his Greek scholarship
notwithstanding -lacks from a to z .
Nor
has he very evidently the key to the true spirit of the Mysticism of Pythagoras
and Plato since he
denies
even in the Timae s an element of Oriental Mysticism and seeks to show
Greek Philosophy
reacting
upon the East forgetting that the truth is the exact reverse;that it is
"the deeper and more
pervading
spirit of Orientalism"that had -through Pythagoras and his own initiation
into the Mysteries -
penetrated
into the very depths of Plato's soul.
But
Dr.Jowett does not see this.Nor is he prepared to admit that anything good or
rational -in
accordance
with the "contemporary history of thought"-could ever come out of
that Nazareth of the
Pagan
Mysteries;nor even that there is anything to interpret of a hidden nature in
the Timae s or any
other
Dialogue.For him,
The
so-called mysticism of Plato is purely Greek,arising out of his imperfect
knowledge
[ "Imperfect
knowledge"of what?That Plato was ignorant of many of the modern ‘working
hypotheses"-as
ignorant as our immediate posterity is sure to be of the said hypotheses
when
they in their turn after exploding join the "great majority"-is
perhaps a blessing in
disguise
.] and high aspirations,and is the growth of an age in which philosophy
is not wholly
separated
from poetry and mythology.[ Op.cit .p.524 .]
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Plato a Follower of Pythagoras -(Page 13)Among several other equally erroneous propositions,it is
especially
the assumptions (a)that Plato was entirely free from any element of Eastern
Philosophy in his
writings,and
(b)that every modern scholar without being a Mystic and a Kabalist himself can
pretend to
judge
of ancient Esotericism -which we mean to combat.To do this we have to produce
more
authoritative
statements than our own would be and bring the evidence of other scholars as
great as Dr.
Jowett
if not greater specialists in their subjects,moreover to bear on and destroy
the arguments of the
Oxford
Regius Professor of Greek.
That
Plato was undeniably an ardent admirer and follower of Pythagoras no one will
deny.And it is
equally
undeniable as Matter has it that Plato had inherited on the one hand his
doctrines,and on the
other
had drawn his wisdom from the same sources as the Samian Philosopher.[ I'Histoire
Critiq e d
Gnosticisme by
M.J.Matter Professor of the Royal Academy of Strasburg."It is in
Pythagoras and Plato
that
we find in Greece the first elements of [Oriental ] Gnosticism."he
says.(Vol.i.pp.48 and 50.)] And
the
doctrines of Pythagoras are Oriental to the backbone and even Brâhmanical;for
this great
Philosopher
ever pointed to the far East as the source whence he derived his information
and his
Philosophy
and Colebrooke shows that Plato makes the same profession in his Epistles,and
says that
he
has taken his teachings "from ancient and sacred doctrines."[Asiat.Trans
.i.579.] Furthermore the
ideas
of both Pythagoras and Plato coincide too well with the systems of India and
with Zoroastrianism to
admit
any doubt of their origin by anyone who has some acquaintance with these
systems.Again:
Pantaenus,Athenagoras,and
Clement were thoroughly instructed in the Platonic philosophy
and
comprehended its essential unity with the Oriental systems.[ New
Platonism and
Alchemy .p.4.]
The
history of Pantaenus and his contemporaries may give the key to the
Platonic,and at the same time
Oriental
elements that predominate so strikingly in the Gospels over the Jewish
Scriptures.
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SECTION I
Preliminary Survey
(Page 14)INITIATES who have acquired powers and transcendental
knowledge can be traced back to the
Fourth
Root Race from our own age.As the multiplicity of the subjects to be dealt with
prohibits the
introduction
of such a historical chapter which however historical in fact and truth would
be rejected a
priori as blasphemy
and fable by both Church and Science -we shall only touch on the
subject.Science
strikes
out at its own sweet will and fancy dozens of names of ancient heroes,simply
because there is
too
great an element of myth in their histories;the Church insists that biblical
patriarchs shall be regarded
as
historical personages,and terms her seven "Star-angels"the
"historical channels and agents of the
Creator."Both
are right since each finds a strong party to side with it.Mankind is at best a
sorry herd of
Panurgian
sheep following blindly the leader that happens to suit it at the
moment.Mankind -the
majority
at any rate -hates to think for itself.It resents as an insult the humblest
invitation to step for a
moment
outside the old well-beaten tracks,and judging for itself to enter into a new
path in some fresh
direction.Give
it an unfamiliar problem to solve and if its mathematicians,not liking its
looks,refuse to
deal
with it the crowd unfamiliar with mathematics,will stare at the unknown
quantity and getting
hopelessly
entangled in sundry x 's and y 's,will turn round trying to rend
to pieces the uninvited disturber
of
its intellectual Nirvana.This may perhaps,account for the ease and
extraordinary success enjoyed by
the
Roman Church in her conversions of nominal Protestants and Free-thinkers,whose
name is legion
but
who have never gone to the trouble of thinking for themselves on these most
important and
tremendous
problems of man's inner nature.
And
yet if the evidence of facts,the records preserved in History and the
uninterrupted anathemas of
the
Church against "Black Magic"and Magicians of the accursed race of
Cain are not to be heeded our
efforts
will prove very puny indeed.When for nearly two millenniums a body of men has
never ceased to
lift
its voice against Black Magic,the inference ought to be irrefutable that if Black
Magic exists as a real
fact
there must be somewhere its counterpart -White Magic.
The Protectors of
silver
money.Nature is dual in whatever she attempts,and this ecclesiastical
persecution ought alone to
have
opened the eyes of the public long ago.However much travellers may be ready to
pervert every
fact
with regard to abnormal powers with which certain men are gifted in
"heathen"countries;however
eager
they may be to put false constructions on such facts,and -to use an old proverb
-"to call white
swan
black goose "and to kill it yet the evidence of even Roman Catholic
missionaries ought to be taken
into
consideration once they swear in a body to certain facts.Nor is it because they
choose to see
Satanic
agency in manifestations of a certain kind that their evidence as to the
existence of such powers
can
be disregarded.For what do they say of
long
years,and have seriously studied every fact and belief that may prove an
obstacle to their success
in
making conversions,and who have become familiar with every exoteric rite of
both the official religion
and
sectarian creeds -all swear to the existence of a certain body of men whom no
one can reach but
the
Emperor and a select body of high officials.A few years ago before the war in
in
story
that had been reported twenty-five years before and had been widely circulated
in clerical papers.
They
had fathomed it was said the mystery of certain official deputations,sent at
times of danger by the
Emperor
and ruling powers to their Sheu and Kiuay as they are called among the
people.These Sheu
and
Kiuay they explained were the Genii of the mountains,endowed with the most
miraculous powers.
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They
are regarded as the protectors of
power
by the good and "learned"missionaries.
The
Sheu and Kiuay are men belonging to another state of being to that of the
ordinary man
or
to the state they enjoyed while they were clad in their bodies.They are
disembodied spirits,
ghosts
and larvae living nevertheless,in objective form on earth and dwelling in the
fastnesses
of mountains,inaccessible to all but those whom they permit to visit them.[ This
fact
and others may be found in Chinese Missionary Reports and in a work by
Monseigneur
Delaplace
a Bishop in
(Page 16)In
communicate.The
Sheu and Kiuay who enjoy the highest consideration of the Emperor and
Philosophers,and
of Confucianists who believe in no "Spirits "are simply Lohans
-Adepts who live in the
greatest
solitude in their unknown retreats.
But
both Chinese exclusiveness and Nature seem to have allied themselves against
European curiosity
and
-as it is sincerely regarded in
European
who ventured farthest into the interior of these countries.What was said of him
in 1876 may
now
be repeated.
The
district of the
under
the particular care and pilotage of certain agents of the chief authority and
are in duty
bound
to convey no intelligence respecting places and persons to the outside
world.But for
this
restriction many might contribute to these pages accounts of exploration
adventure and
discovery
that would be read with interest.The time will come sooner or later when the
dreadful
sand of the desert will yield up its long-buried secrets,and then there will
indeed be
unlooked-for
mortifications for our modern vanity.
"The
people of Pashai "[ The regions somewhere about Udyana and Kashmir
as the
translator
and editor of Marco Polo (Colonel Yule)believes (i.x75).] says Marco
Polo the
daring
traveller of the thirteenth century "are great adepts in sorceries and the
diabolic arts."
And
his learned editor adds:"This Paschai or Udyana was the native country of
Padma
Sambhava
one of the chief apostles of Lamaism i.e .of Tibetan Buddhism and a
great
master
of enchantments.The doctrines of Sakya as they prevailed in Udyana in old
times
were
probably strongly tinged with Sivaitic magic,and the Tibetans still regard the
locality as
the
classic ground of sorcery and witchcraft."
The
"old times"are just like the "modern times";nothing is
changed as to magical practices
except
that they have become still more esoteric and arcane and that the caution of
the
adepts
increases in proportion to the traveller's curiosity.Hiouen-Thsang says of the
inhabitants:"The
men ...are fond of study but pursue it with no ardour.The science of
magical form lae has become a reg lar professional b siness
with them."[Voyage des
Pčlerins
Bouddhistes.Vol.1..Histoire de la Vie de Hio en-Thsang etc.traduit du
chinois en
francais,par
Stanislas Julien .]We will not contract the venerable Chinese pilgrim on
this point
and
are willing to admit that in the seventh century some people made
"a professional
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business:of
magic,so also do some people now but certainly not the true adepts.
Moreoever
in that century Buddhism had hardly penetrated into Tibet and its races were
steeped
in the sorceries of the Bhon -the pre-lamaic religion.It is not Hiouen-Thsang
the
pious,courageous
man who risked his life a hundred times to have the bliss of perceiving
Buddh's
shadown in the cave of Peshwur who would have accused the good lamas and
monkish
thaumaturgists of "making a professional business"of showing it to
travellers.
The A.B.C.Of Magic -
(Page 17)The injunction of Gautama contained in his answer to King
Prasenajit his protector
who
called on him to perform miracles,must have been ever-present to the mind of
Hiouen-
Thsang."Great
king "said Gautama "I do not teach the law to my pupils,telling them
‘Go ye
saints
and before the eyes of the Brahmans and householders perform by means of your
supernatural
powers miracles greater than any man can perform.'I tell them when I teach
them
the law ‘Live ye saints,hiding yo r good works,and showing yo r sins .'"
Struck
with the accounts of magical exhibitions witnessed and recorded by travellers
of every
age
who had visited Tartary and Tibet Colonel Yule comes to the conclusion that the
natives
must
have had "at their command the whole encyclopaedia of modern
Spiritualists."Duhalde
mentions
among their sorceries the art of producing by their invocations the figures of
Laotseu
[ Lao-tse the Chinese
philosopher.] and their divinities in the air and of making a
pencil write
answers to q estions witho t anybody to ching it ."[T he Book of Ser Marco Polo i.3x8.]
The
former invocations pertain to the religious mysteries of their sanctuaries;if
done
otherwise
or for the sake of gain they are considered sorcery necromancy
and strictly
forbidden.The
latter art that of making a pencil write without contact was known and
practised
in China and other countries before the Christian era.It is the A B C of magic
in
those
countries.
When
Hiouen-Thsang desired to adore the shadow of Buddha it was not to
"professional
magicians"that
he resorted but to the power of his own soul-invocation;the power of prayer
faith
and contemplation.All was dark and dreary near the cavern in which the miracle was
alleged
to sometimes take place.Hiouen-Thsang entered and began his devotions.He made
one
hundred salutations,but neither saw nor heard anything.Then thinking himself
too sinful
he
cried bitterly and despaired.But as he was about to give up all hope he
perceived on the
eastern
wall a feeble light but it disappeared.He renewed his prayers,full of hope this
time
and
again he saw the light which flashed and disappeared again.After this he made a
solemn
vow:he
would not leave the cave till he had the rapture to at last see the shadow of
the
"Venerable
of the Age."He had to wait longer after this,for only after two hundred
prayers was
the
dark cave suddenly "bathed in light and the shadow of Buddha of a
brilliant white colour
rose
majestically on the wall as when the clouds suddenly open and all at once
display the
marvellous
image of the ‘Mountain of Light.'A dazzling splendour lighted up the features
of the
divine
countenance.Hiouen-Thsang was lost in contemplation and wonder and would not
turn
his
eyes away from the sublime and incomparable object."Hiouen-Thsang adds in
his own
diary
See-yu-kee,that it is only when man prays with sincere faith and if he
has received
from
above a hidden impression that he sees the shadow clearly but he cannot enjoy
the
sight
for any length of time (Max Muller B ddhist Pilgrims.)
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From
one end to the other the country is full of mystics,religious
philosophers,Buddhist saints
and
magicians.Belief in a spiritual world full of invisible beings who on certain
occasions,
appear
to mortals objectively is universal."According (Page 18)to the belief of the nations of
atmosphere
are filled with spiritual beings,which exercise an influence partly beneficent
partly
malignant on the whole of organic and inorganic nature....Especially are
deserts and
other
wild and uninhabited tracts,or regions in which the influences of nature are
displayed on
a
gigantic and terrible scale regarded as the chief abode or rendez-vo s of
evil spirits.And
hence
the steppes of Turan and in particular the great sand desert of the
looked
on as the dwelling place of malignant beings,from the days of hoary
antiquity."
The
treasures exhumed by Dr.Schliemann at
the
eyes of adventurous speculators are being turned toward the localities where
the wealth of
ancient
peoples is supposed to be buried in crypt or cave or beneath sand or alluvial
deposit.
Around
no other locality not even
independent
Tartary this howling waste of shifting sand was once if report speaks correctly
the
seat of one of the richest empires the world ever saw.Beneath the surface is
said to lie
such
wealth in gold jewels,statuary arms,utensils,and all that indicates
civilization luxury
and
fine arts as no existing capital of Christendom can show today.The
regularly
from east to west before terrific gales that blow continually.Occasionally some
of the
hidden
treasures are uncovered but not a native dare touch them,for the whole district
is
under
the ban of a mighty spell.Death would be the penalty.Bahti -hideous,but
faithful
gnomes
-guard the hidden treasures of this prehistoric people awaiting the day when
the
revolution
of cyclic periods shall again cause their story to be known for the instruction
of
mankind.[
Isis Unveiled i.599-601 603 598.]
The
above is purposely quoted from Isis Unveiled to refresh the reader's
memory.One of the cyclic
periods
has just been passed and we may not have to wait to the end of Maha Kalpa to
have revealed
something
of the history of the mysterious desert in spite of the Bahti and even the
Rakshasas of India
not
less "hideous."No tales or fictions were given in our earlier
volumes,their chaotic state
notwithstanding
to which chaos the writer entirely free from vanity confesses publicly and with
many
apologies.
It
is now generally admitted that from time immemorial the distant
knowledge
and of every kind of learning.Yet there is none to whom the origin of all her
Arts and Sciences
has
been so much denied as to the land of the primitive Aryas.From Architecture
down to the Zodiac,
every
Science worthy of the name was imported by the Greeks,the mysterious Yavanas
-agreeably with
the
decision of the Orientalists!Therefore it is but logical that even the
knowledge of Occult Science
should
be refused to
any
other ancient people.
Magic As Old As Man -(Page 19)It is so
simply because:
With
the Hindus it was,and is,more esoteric,if possible than it was even among the
Egyptian
priests.So
sacred was it deemed that its existence was only half admitted and it was only
practised
in public emergencies.It was more than a religio s matter,for it was [and is
still ]
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considered divine .The
Egyptian hierophants,notwithstanding the practice of a stern and pure
morality
could not be compared for one moment with the ascetical Gymnosophists,either in
holiness
of life or miraculous powers developed in them by the supernatural abjuration
of
everything
earthly.By those who knew them well they were held in still greater reverence
than
the
magians of Chaldaea."Denying themselves the simplest comforts of life they
dwelt in
woods,and
led the life of the most secluded hermits,"[ Ammianus Marcellinus,xxiii.6
.] while
their
Egyptian brothers at least congregated together.Notwithstanding the slur thrown
on all
who
practised magic and divination history has proclaimed them as possessing the
greatest
secrets
in medical knowledge and unsurpassed skill in its practice.Numerous are the
volumes
preserved
in Hindu Mathams,in which are recorded the proofs of their learning.To attempt
to
say
whether these Gymnosophists were the real founders of magic in
only
practised what has passed to them as an inheritance from the earliest Rishis [The
Rishis
-the
first group of seven in number lived in days preceding the Vedic period.They
are now
known
as Sages and held in reverence like demigods.But they may now be shown as
something
more than merely mortal Philosophers.There are other groups of
even
twenty-one in number.Haug shows that they occupy in the Brahmanical religion a
position
answering to that of the twelve sons of Jacob in the Jewish Bible The Brahmans
claim
to
descend directly from the Rishis.] -the seven primeval sages -would be
regarded as mere
speculation
by exact scholars.[ Isis Unveiled i.90 .]
Nevertheless,this
must be attempted.In Isis Unveiled all that could be stated about Magic
was set down
in
the guise of hints;and thus,owing to the great amount of material scattered
over two large volumes,
much
of its importance was lost upon the reader while it still more failed to draw
his attention on account
of
the faulty arrangement.But hints may now grow into explanations.One can never
repeat it too often -
Magic is as old as man .It
cannot any longer be called charlantry or hallucination when its lesser
branches
-such as mesmerism now miscalled "hypnotism ""thought reading
""action by suggestion "
and
what not else only to avoid calling it by its right and legitimate name -are
being so seriously
investigated
by the most famous Biologists and Physiologists of both
indissolubly
blended with Religion of every country and is (Page 20)inseparable
from its origin.It is as
impossible
for History to name the time when it was not as that of the epoch when it
sprang into
existence
unless the doctrines preserved by the Initiates are taken into
consideration.Nor can Science
ever
solve the problem of the origin of man if it rejects the evidence of the oldest
records in the world
and
refuses from the hand of the legitimate Guardians of the mysteries of Nature
the key to Universal
Symbology.Whenever
a writer has tried to connect the first foundation of Magic with a particular
country
or
some historical event or character further research has shown his hypothesis to
be groundless.There
is
a most lamentable contradiction among the Symbologists on this point.Some would
have it that Odin
the
Scandinavian priest and monarch originated the practice of Magic some 70 years
B.C..although it is
spoken
of repeatedly in the Bible.But as it was proven that the mysterious rites of
the priestesses Valas
(Voilers)were
greatly anterior to Odin's age [See Munter "On the most Ancient
Religions of the North
before
Odin.'Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de France.ii.230.] then
Zoroaster came in for an
attempt
on the ground that he was the founder of Magian rites;but Ammianus
Marcellinus,Pliny and
Arnobius,with
other ancient Historians,have shown that Zoroaster was but a reformer of Magic
as
practised
by the Chaldaeans and Egyptians,and not at all its founder.[ Ammianus
Marcellinus,xxvi.6.]
Who
then of those who have consistently turned their faces away from Occultism and
even Spiritualism
as
being "unphilosophical"and therefore unworthy of scientific thought
has a right to say that he has
studied
the ancients;or that if he has studied them,he has understood all they have
said?Only those
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who
claim to be wiser than their generation who think that they know all that the
Ancients knew and
thus,knowing
far more today fancy that they are entitled to laugh at their ancient
simple-mindedness
and
superstition;those who imagine they have discovered a great secret by declaring
the ancient royal
sarcophagus,now
empty of its King Initiate to be a "corn-bin "and the Pyramid that
contained it a
granary
perhaps a wine-cellar!["The date of the hundreds of pyramids in the
Valley of the
impossible
to fix by any of the rules of modern science:Herodotus informs us that each
successive king
erected
one to commemorate his reign and serve as his sepulchre.But Herodotus did not
tell all
although
he knew that the real purpose of the pyramid was very different from that which
he assigns to it.
Were
it not for his religious scruples,he might have added that externally it
symbolized the creative
principle
of Nature and illustrated also the principles of geometry mathematics,astrology
and
astronomy
.]
The Tree of Knowledge -(Page 21)Modern society on the authority of some men of Science
calls Magic
charlatantry.But
there are eight hundred millions on the face of the globe who believe in it to
this day;
there
are said to be twenty millions of perfectly sane and often very intelligent men
and woman members
of
that same society who believe in its phenomena under the name of
Spiritualism.The whole ancient
world
with its Scholars and Philosophers,its Sages and Prophets,believed in it.Where
is the country in
which
it was not practised?At what age was it banished even from our own country?In
the New World
as
in the Old Country (the latter far younger than the former),the Science of
Sciences was known and
practised
from the remotest antiquity.The Mexicans had their Initiates,their
Priest-Hierophants and
Magicians,and
their crypts of Initiation.Of the two statues exhumed in the Pacific States,one
represents
a
Mexican Adept in the posture prescribed for the Hindu ascetic,and the other an
Aztec Priestess,in a
head-gear
which might be taken from the head of an Indian Goddess;while the
"Guatemalan Medal"
exhibits
the "Tree of Knowledge"-with its hundreds of eyes and ears,symbolical
of seeing and hearing -
encircled
by the "Serpent of Wisdom"whispering into the ear of the sacred
bird.)Bernard Diaz de
Castilla
a follower of Cortez,gives some idea of the extraordinary refinement
intelligence and
civilization
and also of the magic arts of the people whom the Spaniards conquered by brute
force.Their
pyramid
are those of
Pharaohs,and
the Aztecs appear to have derived their civilization and religion in more than
one way from
the
same source as the Egyptians and before these the Indians.Among all these three
peoples arcane
Natural
Philosophy or Magic,was cultivated to the highest degree.
That
it was natural not supernatural and that the Ancients so regarded it is shown
by what Lucian says
of
the "laughing Philosopher "Democritus,who he tells his readers,
Believed
in no [miracles ] ...but applied himself to discover the method by which the
theurgists
could produce them;in a word his philosophy brought him to the conclusion that
magic
was entirely confined to the application and the imitation of the laws and the
works of
nature.
[Internally
it was a majestic fane in whose sombre recesses were performed the Mysteries,
and
whose walls had often witnessed the initiation scenes of members of the royal
family.The
porphyry
sarcophagus,which Professor Piazzi Smith Astronomer Royal of Scotland
degrades
into a corn-bin was the baptismal font upon emerging from which the neophyte
was
‘born again 'and became an adept.'(Isis Unveiled .i.518 519.)]
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(Page 22)Who then can still call the Magic of the Ancients
"superstition"?
In
this respect the opinion of Democritus is of the greatest importance to
us,since the Magi left
by
Xerxes,at Abdera were his instructors,and he had studied magic,moreover for a
considerable
time with the Egyptian priests.[ Diog.Laert.in "Democrit.Vit."]
For nearly
ninety
years of the one hundred and nine of his life this great philosopher had made
experiments,and
noted them down in a book,which according to Petronius,[Satyric ix.3.]
treated of nat re -facts
that he had verified himself.And we find him not only disbelieving in
and
utterly rejecting miracles,but asserting that every one of those that were
authenticated by
eye-witnesses,had
and could have taken place for all even the most incredible were
produced
according to the "hidden laws of nat re ."[ Pliny Hist.Nat
.]...Add to this that
one
of them still is,devoted to its study and practice -and who shall venture to
discredit its
dignity
as a study and its profundity as a science?[Isis Unveiled I.512 .]
No
true Theosophist will ever do so.For as a member of our great Oriental body he
knows indubitably
that
the Secret Doctrine of the East contains the Alpha and the Omega of Universal
Science;that in its
obscure
texts,under the luxuriant though perhaps too exuberant growth of allegorical
Symbolism lie
concealed
the corner and the key-stones of all ancient and modern knowledge.That Stone
brought
down
by the Divine Builder is now rejected by the too-human workman and this because
in his lethal
materiality
man has lost every recollection not only of his holy childhood but of his very
adolescence
when
he was one of the Builders himself;when "the morning stars sang together
and the Sons of God
shouted
for joy."after they had laid the measures for the foundations of the earth
-to use the deeply
significant
and poetical language of Job the Arabian Initiate.But those who are still able
to make room in
their
innermost selves for the Divine Ray and who accept therefore the data of the
Secret Sciences in
good
faith and humility they know well that it is in this Stone that remains buried
the absolute in
Philosophy
which is the key to all those dark problems of Life and Death some of which at
any rate
may
find an explanation in these volumes.
The
writer is vividly alive to the tremendous difficulties that present themselves
in the handling of such
abstruse
questions,and to all the dangers of the task.Insulting as it is to human nature
to brand truth
with
the name of imposture nevertheless we see this done daily and accept it.
Occultism Must Win the Day -(Page 23)For every occult truth has to pass through such denial and
its
supporters
through martyrdom before it is finally accepted;though even then it remains but
too often -
A
crown
Golden
in show yet but a wreath of thorns.
Truths
that rest on Occult Mysteries will have for one reader who may appreciate them
a thousand who
will
brand them as impostures.This is only natural and the only means to avoid it
would be for an
Occultist
to pledge himself to the Pythagorean "vow of silence."and renew it
every five years.Otherwise
cultured
society -two-thirds of which think themselves in duty bound to believe that
since the first
appearance
of the first Adept one half of mankind practised deception and fraud on the
other half -
cultured
society will undeniably assert its hereditary and traditional right to stone
the intruder.Those
benevolent
critics,who most readily promulgate the now famous axiom of Carlyle with regard
to his
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countrymen
of being "mostly fools,"having taken preliminary care to include
themselves safely in the
only
fortunate exceptions to this rule will in this work gain strength and derive
additional conviction of the
sad
fact that the human race is simply composed of knaves and congenital idiots.But
this matters very
little.The
vindication of the Occultists and their Archaic Science is working itself
slowly but steadily into
the
very heart of society hourly daily and yearly in the shape of two monster branches,two
stray off-
shoots
of the trunk of Magic -Spiritualism and the Roman Church.Fact works its way
very often through
fiction.Like
an immense boa-constrictor Error in every shape encircles mankind trying to
smother in
her
deadly coils every aspiration towards truth and light.But Error is powerful
only on the surface
prevented
as she is by Occult Nature from going any deeper;for the same Occult Nature
encircles the
whole
globe in every direction leaving not even the darkest corner unvisited.And
whether by
phenomenon
or miracle by spirit-hook or bishop's crook,Occultism must win the day before
the present
era
reaches "Shani's (Saturn's)triple septenary"of the Western Cycle in
the
end of the twenty-first century "A.D."
Truly
the soil of the long by-gone past is not dead for it has only rested.The
skeletons of the sacred
oaks
of the ancient Druids may still send shoots from their dried-up boughs and be
reborn to a new (Page
24)life
like that handful of corn in the sarcophagus of a mummy 4.000 years old which
when planted
sprouted
grew and "gave a fine harvest."Why not?Truth is stranger than
fiction.It may any day and
most
unexpectedly vindicate its wisdom and demonstrate the conceit of our age by
proving that the
Secret
Brotherhood did not indeed die out with the Philalethians of the last Eclectic
School that the
Gnosis
flourishes still on earth and its votaries are many albeit unknown.All this be
done by one or
more
of the great Masters visiting
of
Magic.Such secret Brotherhoods have been mentioned by several well-known
authors,and are
spoken
of in Mackenzie's Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia .The writer now in the face
of the millions who
deny
repeats boldly that which was said in
If
they [the Initiates ] have been regarded as mere fictions of the novelist that
fact has only
helped
the "brother-adepts"to keep their incognito the more easily....
The
St.Germains and Cagliostros of this century having learned bitter lessons from
the
vilifications
and persecutions of the past pursue different tactics now-a-days.[Op.cit
.ii.403 .]
These
prophetic words were written in 1876 and verified in 1886.Nevertheless,we say
again
There
are numbers of these mystic Brotherhoods which have naught to do with
"civilized"
countries;and
it is in their unknown communities that are concealed the skeletons of the
past.
These
"adepts"could if they chose lay claim to strange ancestry and exhibit
verifiable
documents
that would explain many a mysterious page in both sacred and profane history.
[ This is precisely
what some of them are preparing to do and many a "mysterious page"in
sacred
and profane history are touched on in these pages.Whether or not their
explanations
will
be accepted -is another question .]Had the keys to the hieratic writings
and the secret of
Egyptian
and Hindu symbolism been known to the Christian Fathers,they would not have
allowed
a single monument of old to stand unmutilated.[ Ibid.]
But
there exists in the world another class of adepts,belonging to a brotherhood
also and mightier than
any
other of those known to the profane.Many among these are personally good and
benevolent even
pure
and holy occasionally as individuals.Pursuing collectively however and as a body
a selfish one-
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sided
object with relentless vigour and determination they have to be ranked with the
adepts of the
Black
Art.
Black Magic at Work -(Page 25)These are our
modern Roman Catholic "fathers"and clergy.Most of the
hieratic
writings and symbols have been deciphered by them since the Middle Ages.A
hundred times
more
learned in secret Symbology and the old Religions than our Orientalists will
ever be the
personification
of astuteness and cleverness,every such adept in the art holds the keys tightly
in his
firmly
clenched hand and will take care the secret shall not be easily divulged if he
can help it.There are
more
profoundly learned Kabalists in
suspected.Thus
are the professedly public "brotherhoods"of "black"adepts
more powerful and
dangerous
for Protestant countries than any host of Eastern Occultists.People laugh at
Magic!Men of
Science
Physiologists and Biologists,deride the potency and even the belief in the
existence of what is
called
in vulgar parlance "Sorcery"and "Black Magic"?The
Archaeologists have their
them
who even suspects what has been going on in its crypts and its mysterious nooks
and corners,for
the
last century.More than that they do not even know of the existence of such
"magic halls"in their
of
experiments have been and are being made daily at the Salpetriere and also by
learned hypnotisers
at
their private houses.It is now proved that certain sensitives -both men and
women -when
commanded
in trance by the practitioner who operates on them to do a certain thing -from
drinking a
glass
of water up to simulated murder -on recovering their normal state lose all
remembrance of the
order
inspired -"suggested"it is now called by Science.Nevertheless,at the
appointed hour and
moment
the subject though conscious and perfectly awake is compelled by an
irresistible power within
himself
to do that action which has been suggested to him by his mesmeriser;and that
too whatever it
may
be and whatever the period fixed by him who controls the subject that is to say
holds the latter
under
the power of his will as a snake holds a bird under its fascination and finally
forces it to jump into
its
open jaws.Worse than this:for the bird is conscious of the peril;it resists
however helpless in its final
efforts,while
the hypnotized subject does not rebel but seems to follow the suggestions and
voice of its
own
free-will and soul.Who of our European men of Science who believe in such scientific
experiments
-and
very (Page 26)few are they who still doubt them now-a-days,and who do not
feel convinced of their
actual
reality -who of them it is asked is ready to admit this as being Black
Magic?Yet it is the gen ine
undeniable
and actual fascination and sorcery of old.The Mulu Kurumbas of
Nilgiri do not proceed
otherwise
in their envo tements when they seek to destroy an enemy nor do the
Dugpas of Sikkim and
and
starts but acts with certainty;it does not depend on the amount of receptivity
or nervous
impressibility
of the "subjects."Having chosen his victim and placed himself en
rapport with them the
Dugpa's
"fluid"is sure to find its way for his will is immeasurably more
strongly developed than the will of
the
European experimenter -the self-made untutored and nconscio s Sorcerer
for the sake of Science
-who
has no idea (or belief either)of the variety and potency of the world-old
methods used to develop
this
power by the conscio s sorcerer the "Black Magician"of the
East and West.
And
now the question is openly and squarely asked:Why should not the fanatical and
zealous priest
thirsting
to convert some selected rich and influential member of society use the same
means to
accomplish
his end as the French Physician and experimenter uses in his case with his
subject?The
conscience
of the Roman Catholic priest is most likely at peace.He works personally for
no selfish
purpose
but with the object of "saving a soul"from "eternal damnation."In
his view if Magic there be in
it
it is holy meritorious and divine Magic.Such is the power of blind faith.
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Hence
when we are assured by trustworthy and respectable persons of high social
standing and
unimpeachable
character that there are many well-organised societies among the Roman Catholic
priests
which under the pretext and cover of Modern Spiritualism and mediumship hold séances
for the
purposes
of conversion by suggestion directly and at a distance -we answer:We know
it.And when
moreover
we are told that whenever those priest-hypnotists are desirous of acquiring an
influence over
some
individual or individuals,selected by them for conversion they retire to an
underground place
allotted
and consecrated by them for such purposes (viz .ceremonial Magic);and
there forming a circle
throw
their combined will-power in the direction of that individual and thus by
repeating the process,gain
a
complete control over their victim -we again answer:Very likely.
Black Magic and Hypnotism -(Page 27)In fact we know the practice to be so whether this kind of
ceremonial
Magic and envoűtement is practised at
through
personal experience;and also because several of the writer's best and most
loved friends have
been
unconsciously drawn into the Romish Church and under her
"benign"protection by such means.
And
therefore we can only laugh in pity at the ignorance and stubbornness of those
deluded men of
Science
and cultured experimentalists who while believing in the power of Dr.Charcot
and his disciples
to
"envoűté "their subjects find nothing better than a scornful
smile whenever Black Magic and its
potency
are mentioned before them.Eliphas Levi the Abbe-Kabalist died before Science
and the
Faculté de Médecine of
scientific
experiments,but this is what he said twenty-five years go in his Dogme et
Rit el de la Ha te
Magie,on "Les
Envo tements et les Sorts ":
That
which sorcerers and necromancers sought above all things in their evocations of
the
Spirit
of Evil was that magnetic potency which is the lawful property of the true
Adept and
which
they desired to obtain possession of for evil purposes....One of their chief
aims was
the
power of spells or of deleterious influences....That power may be compared to
real
poisonings
by a current of astral light.They exalt their will by means of ceremonies to
the
degree
of rendering it venomous at a distance....We have said in our
"Dogma"what we
thought
of magic spells,and how this power was exceedingly real and dangerous.The true
Magus
throws a spell without ceremony and by his sole disapproval upon those with
whose
conduct
he is dissatisfied and whom he thinks it necessary to punish;[ This is
incorrectly
expressed.The
true Adept of the "Right Hand"never punishes anyone not even his
bitterest
and
most dangerous enemy:he simply leaves the latter to his Karma and Karma never
fails to
do
so sooner or later.] he casts a spell even by his pardon over those who
do him injury and
the
enemies of Initiates never long enjoy impunity for their wrong-doing.We have
ourselves
seen
proofs of this fatal law in numerous instances.The executioners of martyrs
always perish
miserably;and
the Adepts are the martyrs of intelligence.Providence [Karma ] seems to
despise
those who despise them and puts to death those who would seek to prevent them
from
living.The legend of the Wandering Jew is the popular poetry of this arcanum.A
people
had
sent a sage to crucifixion;that people had bidden him "Move on!"when
he tried to rest for
one
moment....well!That people will become subject henceforth to a similar
condemnation;it
will
become entirely proscribed and for long centuries it will be hidden "Move
on!move on!"
finding
neither rest nor pity.[Op.cit .ii.239.241 240.]
(Page 28)"Fables,"and "superstition "will be the
answer.Be it so.Before the lethal breath of selfishness
and
indifference every uncomfortable fact is transformed into meaningless fiction
and every branch of
the
once verdant Tree of Truth has become dried up and stripped of its primeval
spiritual significance.
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Our
modern Symbologist is superlatively clever only at detecting phallic worship
and sexual emblems
even
where none were ever meant.But for the true student of Occult Lore White or
Divine Magic could
no
more exist in Nature without its counterpart Black Magic,than day without night
whether these be of
twelve
hours or of six months duration.For him everything in that Nature has an occult
-a bright and a
night
side to it.Pyramids and Druid's oaks,dolmens and Bo-trees,plant and mineral
-everything was full
of
deep significance and of sacred truths of wisdom when the Arch-Druid performed
his magic cures and
incantations,and
the Egyptian Hierophant evoked and guided Chemnu the "lovely spectre
"the female
Frankenstein-creation
of old raised for the torture and test of the soul-power of the candidate for
initiation
simultaneously with the last agonising cry of his terrestrial human nature.True
Magic has lost
its
name and along with it its rights to recognition.But its practice is in daily
use;and its progeny
"magnetic
influence ""power of oratory ""irresistible fascination
""whole audiences subdued and held as
though
under a spell "are terms recognised and used by all generally meaningless
though they now are.
Its
effects,however are more determined and definite among religious congregations
such as the
Shakers,the
Negro Methodists,and Salvationists,who call it "the action of the Holy
Spirit"and "grace."
The
real truth is that Magic is still in full sway amidst mankind however blind the
latter to its silent
presence
and influence on its members,however ignorant society may be and remain to its
daily and
hourly
beneficent and maleficent effects.The world is full of such unconscious
magicians -in politics as
well
as in daily life in the Church as in the strongholds of Free-Thought.Most of
those magicians are
"sorcerers"unhappily
not metaphorically but in sober reality by reason of their inherent
selfishness,their
revengeful
natures,their envy and malice.The true student of Magic,well aware of the truth
looks on in
pity
and if he be wise keeps silent.For every effort made by him to remove the
universal cecity is only
repaid
with ingratitude slander and often curses,which unable to reach him,will react
on those who
wish
him evil.Lies and calumny -the latter a teething lie adding actual bites to
empty harmless
falsehoods
-become his lot and thus the well-wisher is soon torn to pieces,as a reward for
his
benevolent
desire to enlighten.
The Philosophy Stands on Its Own Merits -(Page 29)Enough has been given it is believed to show
that
the existence of a Secret Universal Doctrine besides its practical methods of Magic,is
no wild
romance
or fiction.The fact was known to the whole ancient world and the knowledge of
it has survived
in
the East in
professors
of it or Adepts.In any case it matters little whether the Guardians of the
Sacred Lore are
regarded
as living actually existing men or are viewed as myths.It is their Philosophy
that will have to
stand
or fall upon its own merits,apart from and independent of any Adepts.For in the
words of the wise
Gamaliel
addressed by him to the Synedrion:"If this doctrine is false it will
perish and fall of itself;but if
true
then -it cannot be destroyed.
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SECTION II
Modern Criticism and the Ancients
(Page 30)THE Secret Doctrine of the Aryan East is found repeated
under Egyptian symbolism and
phraseology
in the Book of Hermes.At or near the beginning of the present century all the
books called
Hermetic
were in the opinion of the average man of Science unworthy of serious
attention.They were
set
down and loudly proclaimed as simply a collection of tales,of fraudulent
pretences and most absurd
claims.They
"never existed before the Christian era "it was said:"they were
all written with the triple
object
of speculation deceiving and pious fraud;"they were all even the best of
them silly apocrypha.[
See
in this connection Pne matologie des Esprits by the Marquis de Mirville
who devotes six enormous
volumes
to show the absurdity of those who deny the reality of Satan and Magic,or the
Occult Sciences -
the
two being with him synonymous.] In this respect the nineteenth century
proved a most worthy scion
of
the eighteenth for in the age of Voltaire as well as in this century everything
save what emanated
direct
from the
laughed
to scorn perhaps more so even than it is now.The very thought of accepting as
authentic the
works
and vagaries of "a false Hermes,a false Orpheus,a false Zoroaster "of
false Oracles,false Sibyls,
and
a thrice false Mesmer and his absurd fluid was tabooed all along the line.Thus
all that had its
genesis
outside the learned and dogmatic precincts of
sidereal
phantom of the old Philosopher and Mystic -once of
moving
about in the astral mist over the old moss-covered roofs of the ancient town in
which he wrote his
famous
letter to Glanvil about "witches."The "soul"seems restless
and indignant as on that day of May
1678
when the doctor complained so bitterly to the author of Sadd cism s Tri
mphat s of Scot Adie
and
Webster."Our new inspired saints "the soul is heard to mutter
"sworn advocates of the witches....
who
against all sense and reason ...Will have no Samuel but a confederate knave
...these in-blown
buffoons,puffed
up with ...ignorance vanity and stupid infidelity!"(See "Letter to
Glanvil "and
Unveiled i 205 206)]or
the
"ridiculously
absurd."This tendency has survived to the present day.
All Honour to Genuine Scientists -(Page 31)Nothing can be further from the intention of any true
Occultist
-who stands possessed by virtue of his higher psychic development of
instruments of
research
far more penetrating in their power than any as yet in the hands of physical
experimentalists -
than
to look unsympathetically on the efforts that are being made in the area of
physical enquiry.The
exertions
and labours undertaken to solve as many as possible of the problems of Nature
have always
been
holy in his sight.The spirit in which Sir Isaac Newton remarked that at the end
of all his
astronomical
work he felt a mere child picking up shells beside the
reverence
for the boundlessness of Nature which Occult Philosophy itself cannot
eclipse.And it may
freely
be recognised that the attitude of mind which this famous simile describes is
one which fairly
represents
that of the great majority of gen ine Scientists in regard to all the
phenomena of the physical
plane
of Nature.In dealing with this they are often caution and moderation
itself.They observe facts with
a
patience that cannot be surpassed.They are slow to cast these into
theories,with a prudence that
cannot
be too highly commended.And subject to the limitations under which they serve
Nature they are
beautifully
accurate in the record of their observations.Moreover it may be conceded
further that modern
Scientists
are exceedingly improbable that any discovery will ever conflict with such or
such a theory
now
supported by such and such an aggregation of recorded facts.But even in
reference to the broadest
generalizations
-which pass into a dogmatic form only in brief popular text books of scientific
knowledge
-the
tone of "Science"itself if that abstraction may be held to be embodied
in the persons of its most
distinguished
representatives,is one of reserve and often of modesty.
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Far
therefore from being disposed to scoff at the errors into which the limitations
of their methods may
betray
men of Science the true Occultist will rather appreciate the pathos of a
situation in which great
industry
and thirst for truth are condemned to disappointment and often to confusion.
That
which is to be deplored however in respect to Modern Science is in itself an
evil manifestation of
the
excessive caution which in its most favourable aspect protects Science from
over-hasty conclusions:
(Page 32)namely the tardiness of Scientists to recognise that other
instruments of research may be
applicable
to the mysteries of Nature besides those of the physical plane and that it may
consequently
be
impossible to appreciate the phenomena of any one plane correctly without
observing them as well
from
the points of view afforded by others.In so far then as they wilfully shut
their eyes to evidence which
ought
to have shown them clearly that Nature is more complex than physical phenomena
alone would
suggest
that there are means by which the faculties of human perception can pass
sometimes from one
plane
to the other and that their energy is being misdirected while they turn it
exclusively on the minutiae
of
physical structure or force they are less entitled to sympathy than to blame.
One
feels dwarfed and humbled in reading what M.Renan that learned modern
"destroyer"of every
religious
belief past present and future has to say of poor humanity and its powers of
discernment.He
believes
Mankind
has but a very narrow mind;and the number of men capable of seizing acutely
(finement)the
true analogy of things,is quite imperceptible.[ Ét des Religie ses .]
Upon
comparing however this statement with another opinion expressed by the same
author namely
that:
The
mind of the critic should yield to facts,hand and feet bound to be dragged by
them
wherever
they may lead him.[Ét des Historiq es .]
one
feels relieved.When moreover these two philosophical statements are
strengthened by a third
enunciation
of the famous Academician which declares that:
To t parti pris a priori,doit etre banni de la science [Mémoire read at the Academie des
Inscriptions
des Belles Lettres,in 1859 .]
there
remains little to fear.Unfortunately M.Renan is the first to break this golden
rule.
The
evidence of Herodotus -called sarcastically no doubt the "Father of
History "since in every
question
upon which Modern Thought disagrees with him,his testimony goes for nought -the
sober and
earnest
assurances in the philosophical narratives of Plato and Thucydides,Polybius,and
Plutarch and
even
certain statements of Aristotle himself are invariably laid aside whenever they
are involved in what
modern
criticism is pleased to regard as myth.It is some time since Strauss proclaimed
that:
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What is a Myth?-
(Page 33)The presence of a supernatural element or miracle in a
narrative is an infallible sign
of
the presence in it of a myth;
and
such is the canon of criticism tacitly adopted by every modern critic.But what
is a myth -ěőčďň-to
begin
with?Are we not told distinctly by ancient writers that the word means
tradition?Was not the Latin
term
fab la a fable synonymous with something told as having happened in
pre-historic times,and not
necessarily
an invention.With such autocrats of criticism and despotic rulers as are most
of the French
English
and German Orientalists,there may then be no end of historical geographical
ethnological
and
philological surprises in store for the century to come.Travesties in
Philosophy have become so
common
of late that the public can be startled by nothing in this direction.It has
already been stated by
one
learned speculator that Homer was simply "a mythical personification of
the épopée ";[ See Alfred
Maury's
Histoire des Religions de la Grčce .i.248:and the speculations of
Holzmann in Zeitschriftf r
Vergleichende Sprach forsch ng ann.1882 p.487.sq.] by another that Hippocrates,son
of Esculapius,
"could
only be a chimera";that the Asclepiades,their seven hundred years of
duration notwithstanding
might
after all prove simply a "fiction";that "the city of
on
the maps."etc.Why should not the world be invited after this to regard
every hitherto historical
character
of days of old as a myth?Were not Alexander the Great needed by Philology as a
sledge-
hammer
wherewith to break the heads of Brahmanical chronological pretensions,he would
have become
long
ago simply "a symbol for annexation "or "a genius of conquest
"as has been already suggested by
some
French writer.
Blank
denial is the only refuge left to the critics.It is the most secure asylum for
some time to come in
which
to shelter the last of the sceptics.For one who denies unconditionally the
trouble of arguing is
unnecessary
and he also thus avoids what is worse having to yield occasionally a point or
two before
the
irrefutable arguments and facts of his opponent.Creuzer the greatest of all the
modern
Symbologists,the
most learned among the masses of erudite German Mythologists,must have envied
the
placid self-confidence of certain sceptics,when he found himself forced in a
moment of desperate
perplexity
to admit that:
We
are compelled to return to the theories of trolls and genii as they were
understood by the
ancients;[it
is a doctrine ] without which it becomes absolutely impossible to explain to
oneself
anything
with regard to the Mysteries.[Creuzer's Introd ction des Mystčres iii
456.]
of
the Ancients,which Mysteries are undeniable.
(Page 34)Roman Catholics,who are guilty of precisely the same
worship and to the very letter -having
borrowed
it from the later Chaldaeans,the Lebanon Nabathaeans,and the baptized Sabaeans,[The
later
Nabathaeans adhered to the same belief as the Nazarenes and the
Sabaeans,honoured John the
Baptist
and used Baptistm.(See Isis Unveiled ii.127:Munck,
Man .etc.)]and
not from the learned Astronomers and Initiates of the days of old -would now by
anathematizing
it hide the source from which it came.Theology and Churchianism would fain
trouble the
clear
fountain that fed them from the first to prevent posterity from looking into it
and thus seeing their
original
prototype.The Occultists,however believe the time has come to give everyone his
due.As to
our
other opponents -the modern sceptic and the Epicurean the cynic and the
Sadducee -they may find
an
answer to their denials in our earlier volumes.As to many unjust aspersions on
the ancient doctrines,
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the
reason for them is given in these words in Isis Unveiled :
The
thought of the present-day commentator and critic as to the ancient learning is
limited to
and
runs round the exoterism of the temples;his insight is either unwilling
or unable to
penetrate
into the solemn adyta of old where the hierophant instructed the neophyte to
regard
the
public worship in its true light.No ancient sage would have taught that man is
the king of
creation
and that the starry heaven and our mother earth were created for his sake.[i.535.]
When
we find such works as Phallicism [ By Hargrave Jennings .] appearing
in our day in print it is easy
to
see that the day of concealment and travesty has passed away.Science in
Philology Symbolism and
Comparative
Religion has progressed too far to make wholesale denials any longer and the
Church is
too
wise and cautious not to be now making the best of the situation.Meanwhile the
"rhombs of Hecate"
and
the "wheels of Lucifer "[ See de Mirville's Pne matologie iii
267 et seq.] daily exhumed on the sites
of
shown
in the ritual of the Latin Church.The latter is too learned to be ignorant of
the fact that even the
later
Chaldaeans,who had gradually fallen into dualism reducing all things to two
primal Principles,
never
worshipped Satan or idols,any more than did the Zoroastrians,who now lie under
the same
accusation
but that their Religion was as highly philosophical as any;their dual and
exoteric Theosophy
became
the heirloom of the Jews,who in their turn were forced to share it with the
Christians.Parsis
are
to this day charged with Heliolatry and yet in the Chaldean Oracles,under the
"Magical and
Philosophical
Precepts of Zoroaster"one finds the following:
Chaldean Oracles -(Page 35)
Direct
not thy mind to the vast measures of the earth;
For
the plant of truth is not upon ground.
Nor
measure the measures of the sun collecting rules,
For
he is carried by the eternal will of the Father not for your sake.
Dismiss
the impetuous course of the moon;for she runs always by work of necessity.
The
progression of the stars was not generated for your sake.
There
was a vast difference between the true worship taught to those who showed
themselves worthy
and
the state religions.The Magians are accused of all kinds of superstition but
this is what the same
Chaldaean
Oracle says:
The
wide aerial flight of birds is not true
Nor
the dissections of the entrails of victims;they are all mere toys
The
basis of mercenary fraud;flee from these
If
you would open the sacred paradise of piety
Where
virtue wisdom and equity are assembled.
[ Psellus,4:in Cory's
Ancient Fragments.269.]
As
we say in our former work:
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Surely
it is not those who warn people against "mercenary fraud"who can be
accused of it;
and
if they accomplished acts which seem miraculous,who can with fairness presume
to deny
that
it was done merely because they possessed a knowledge of natural philosophy and
psychological
science to a degree unknown to our schools?[ Isis Unveiled,i 535
536.]
The above q oted stanzas are a rather strange teaching to
come from those who are niversally
believed to have worshipped the s n,and moon,and the starry
hosts,as Gods.The sublime prof ndity
of the Magian precepts being beyond the reach of modern materialistic
tho ght,the Chaldean
Philosophers are acc sed of Sabaeanism and S
n-worship,which was the religion only of the
ned cated masses.
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SECTION III
The Origin of Magic
(Page 36)THINGS of late have changed true enough.The field of
investigation has widened;old religions
are
a little better understood;and since that miserable day when the Committee of
the
headed
by Benjamin Franklin investigated Mesmer ’s phenomena only to proclaim them
charlatanry and
clever
knavery both heathen Philosophy and Mesmerism have acquired certain rights and
privileges,
and
are now viewed from quite a different standpoint.Is full justice rendered them
however and are they
any
better appreciated?We are afraid not.Human nature is the same now as when Pope
said of the
force
of prejudice that:
The
difference is as great between
The
optics seeing as the objects seen.
All
manners take a tincture from our own
Or
some discolour ’d through our passions shown
Or
fancy ’s beam enlarges,multiplies,
Contracts,inverts,and
gives ten thousand dyes.
Thus
in the first decades of our century Hermetic Philosophy was regarded by both
Churchmen and men
of
Science from two quite opposite points of view.The former called it sinful and
devilish;the latter
denied
point-blank its authenticity notwithstanding the evidence brought forward by
the most erudite men
of
every age including our own.The learned Father Kircher for instance was not
even noticed;and his
assertion
that all the fragments known under titles of works by Mercury
Trismegistus,Berosus,
Pherecydes
of Syros,etc.were rolls that had escaped the fire which devoured 100 000 volumes
of the
great
Alexandrian Library -was simply laughed at.Nevertheless the educated classes of
then
as they do now that the famous Alexandrian Library the “marvel of the ages,”
was founded by
Ptolemy
Philadelphus;that numbers of its MSS had been carefully copied from hieratic
texts and the
oldest
parchments,Chaldaean Phoenician Persian etc;and that these transliterations and
copies
amounted
in their turn to another 100 000 rolls,as Josephus and Strabo assert.
The Books of Hermes -(Page 37)There is also
the additional evidence of Clemens Alexandrinus,that
ought
to be credited to some extent.[ The forty-two Sacred Books of the
Egyptians mentioned by
Clement
of
Iamblichus,on
the authority of the Egyptian priest Abammon attributes 1 200 of such books to
Hermes,
and
Manetho 36.000.But the testimony of Iamblichus as a Neoplatonist and Theurgist
is of course
rejected
by modern critics.Manetho who is held by Bunsen in the highest consideration as
a “purely-
historical
personage ” with whom “none of the later native historians can be compared ”
(see Egypte,i.
97)suddenly
becomes a Pseudo-Manetho as soon as the ideas propounded by him clash with the
scientific
prejudices against Magic and the Occult knowledge claimed by the ancient
priests.However
none
of the Archaeologists doubt for a moment the almost incredible antiquity of the
Hermetic books.
Champollion
shows the greatest regard for their authenticity and truthfulness,corroborated
as it is by
many
of the oldest monuments.And Bunsen brings irrefutable proofs of their age.From
his researches,
for
instance we learn that there was a line of sixty-one kings before the days of
Moses,who preceded
the
Mosaic period by a clearly-traceable civilization of several thousand
years.Thus we are warranted in
believing
that the works of Hermes Trismegistus were extant many ages before the birth of
the Jewish
law-giver.“Styli
and inkstands were found on monuments of the fourth Dynasty the oldest in the
world ”
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says
Bunsen.If the eminent Egyptologist rejects the period of 48.863 years before
Alexander to which
Diogenes
Laertius carries back the records of the priests he is evidently more
embarrassed with the ten
thousand
of astronomical observations,and remarks that “if they were actual
observations,they must
have extended over 10.000
years ” (p.44).“We learn however ” he adds,“from one of their own old
chronological
works ...that the genuine Egyptian traditions concerning the mythological
period treated
of
myriads of years.” (Egypte,i 15:Isis Unveiled i.33)] Clemens
testified to the existence of an
additional
30 000 volumes of the Books of Thoth placed in the library of the Tomb of
Osymandias,over
the
entrance of which were inscribed the words,“ A Cure for the Soul.”
Since
then as all know entire texts of the “apocryphal ” works of the “false ”
Pymander and the no less
“false
” Asclepias,have been found by Champollion in the most ancient monuments of
Egypt.[ These
details
are taken from Pne matologie,iii pp 204 205 ] As said in Isis
Unveiled :
After
having devoted their whole lives to the study of the records of the old
Egyptian wisdom
both
Champollion-Figeac and Champollion Junior publicly declared notwithstanding
many
biased
judgments hazarded by certain hasty and unwise critics,that the Books of Hermes
“truly
contain a mass of Egyptian traditions which are constantly corroborated by the
most
authentic
records and monuments of Egypt of the hoariest antiquity.”[ Egypte,p.143
Isis
Unveiled,i.625.]
The
merit of Champollion as an Egyptologist none will question and if he declare
that everything
demonstrates
the accuracy of the writings of the mysterious Hermes Trismegistus,and if the
assertion
that
their antiquity runs back into the night of time be corroborated by him in (Page 38)minutest details,
then
indeed criticism ought to be fully satisfied.Says Champollion:
These
inscriptions are only the faithful echo and expression of the most ancient
verities.
Since
these words were written some of the “apocryphal ”verses by the “mythical
”Orpheus have also
been
found copied word for word in hieroglyphics,in certain inscriptions of the
Fourth Dynasty
addressed
to various Deities.Finally Creuzer discovered and immediately pointed out the
very
significant
fact that numerous passages found in Homer and Hesiod were undeniably borrowed
by the
two
great poets from the Orphic Hymns,thus proving the latter to be far older than
the Iliad or the
Odyssey.
And
so gradually the ancient claims come to be vindicated and modern criticism has
to submit to
evidence.Many
are now the writers who confess that such a type of literature as the Hermetic
works of
Egypt
can never be dated too far back into the prehistoric ages.The texts of many of
these ancient
works,that
of Enoch included so loudly proclaimed “apocryphal ”at the beginning of this
century are now
discovered
and recognised in the most secret and sacred sanctuaries of Chaldaea India
Phoenicia
Egypt
and Central Asia.But even such proofs have failed to convince the bulk of our
Materialists.The
reason
for this is very simple and evident.All these texts -held in universal
veneration in Antiquity found
in
the secret libraries of all the great temples,studied (if not always
mastered)by the greatest statesmen
classical
writers,philosophers,kings and laymen as much as by renowned Sages -what were
they?
Treatises
on Magic and Occultism pure and simple;the now derided and tabooed Theosophy
-hence
the
ostracism.
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Were
people then so simple and credulous in the days of Pythagoras and Plato?Were
the millions of
Babylonia
and Egypt of India and Greece with their great Sages to lead them all
fools,that during those
periods
of great learning and civilization which preceded the year one of our
era -the latter giving birth
but
to the intellectual darkness of mediaeval fanaticism -so many otherwise great
men should have
devoted
their lives to a mere illusion a superstition called Magic?It would seem so had
one to remain
content
with the word and conclusions of modern Philosophy.
Every
Art and Science however whatever its intrinsic merit has had its discoverer and
practitioner and
subsequently
its proficients to teach it.
What is the Origin of Magic?-(Page 39)What is the origin of the Occult Sciences,or Magic?Who were
its
professors,and what is known of them whether in history or legend?Clemens
Alexandrinus,one of
the
most intelligent and learned of the early Christian Fathers,answers this
question in his Stromateis.
That
ex-pupil of the Neoplatonic School argues:
If
there is instruction you must seek for the master.[ Strom .VI
vii.The following paragraph
from
the same chapter .]
And
so he shows Cleanthes taught by Zeno Theophrastus by Aristotle Metrodorus by
Epicurus,Plato by
Socrates,etc.And
he adds that when he had looked further back to Pythagoras,Pherecydes,and
Thales,he
had still to search for their masters.The same for the Egyptians,the
Indians,the Babylonians,
and
the Magi themselves.He would not cease questioning he says to learn who it was
they all had for
their
masters.And when he (Clemens)had traced down the enquiry to the very cradle of
mankind to the
first
generation of men he would reiterate once more his questioning and ask,“Who is
their teacher?”
Surely
he argues,their master could be “no one of men.” And even when we should have
reached as
high
as the Angels,the same query would have to be offered to them:“Who were their
(meaning the
‘divine
’ and the ‘fallen ’ Angels)masters?’
The
aim of the good father ’s long argument is of course to discover two distinct
masters,one the
preceptor
of biblical patriarchs,the other the teacher of the Gentiles.But the students
of the Secret
Doctrine
need go to no such trouble.Their professors are well aware who were the Masters
of their
predecessors
in Occult Sciences and Wisdom.
The
two professors are finally traced out by Clemens,and are as was to be expected
God and his
eternal
and everlasting enemy and opponent the Devil;the subject of Clemens ’ enquiry
relating to the
d al aspect of
Hermetic Philosophy as cause and effect.Admitting the moral beauty of the
virtues
preached
in every Occult work with which he was acquainted Clemens desires to know the
cause of the
apparent
contradiction between the doctrine and the practice good and evil Magic,and he
comes to the
conclusion
that Magic has two origins -divine and diabolical.He perceives its bifurcation
into two
channels,hence
his deduction and inference.
We
perceive it too without however necessarily designating such bifurcation
diabolical for we judge the
“left-hand
path ” as it (Page 40)issued from the hands of its founder.Otherwise judging also
by the effects
of
Clemens ’ own religion and walk in life of certain of its professors,since the
death of their Master the
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Occultists
would have a right to come to somewhat the same conclusion as Clemens.They
would have a
right
to say that while Christ the Master of all true Christians,was in every
way godly those who resorted
to
the horrors of the Inquisition to the extermination and torture of
heretics,Jews and Alchemists,the
Protestant
Calvin who burnt Servetus and his persecuting Protestant successors,down to the
whippers
and
burners of witches in America must have had for their Master the
Devil.But Occultists,not believing
in
the Devil are precluded from retaliating in this way.
Clemens
’ testimony however is valuable in so far as it shows (1)the enormous number of
works on
Occult
Sciences in his day;and (2)the extraordinary powers acquired through those
Sciences by certain
men.
He
devotes,for instance the whole of the sixth book of his Stromat eis to
this research for the first two
“Masters
” or the true and the false Philosophy respectively both preserved as he
says,in the Egyptian
sanctuaries.Very
pertinently too he apostrophises the Greeks,asking them why they should not
accept
the
“miracles ” of Moses as such since they claim the very same privileges for
their own Philosophers,
and
he gives a number of instances.It is,as he says,Aeachus obtaining through his
Occult powers a
marvellous
rain;it is Aristaeus causing the winds to blow;Empedocles quieting the gale and
forcing it to
cease
etc.[ See Pne matologie,iii.207 Therefore Empedocles is called
ęůëőčáőĺěďňthe “dominator of
the
wind.”Strom.,VI.iii.]
The
books of Mercurius Trismegistus most attracted his attention.[ Ibid.iv.]
He is also warm in his praise
of
Hystaspes (or Gushtasp),of the Sibylline books,and even of the right Astrology.
There
have been in all ages use and abuse of Magic,as there are use and abuse of
Mesmerism or
Hypnotism
in our own.The ancient world had its Apollonii and its Pherecydae and
intellectual people
could
discriminate then as they can now.While no classical or pagan writer has ever
found one word of
blame
for Apollonius of Tyana for instance it is not so with regard to
Pherecydes.Hesychius of Miletia
Philo
of Byblos and Eusthathius charges the latter unstintingly with having built his
Philosophy and
Science
on demoniacal traditions -i.e.on Sorcery.
Pherecydes of
rather
a soothsayer than a physician ” and Diogenes Laertius gives a vast number of
stories relating to
his
predictions.One day Pherecydes prophesies the shipwreck of a vessel hundreds of
miles away from
him;another
time he predicts the capture of Lacedaemonians by the Arcadians;finally he
foresees his
own
wretched end.[Summarised from Pne matologie,iii.209.]
Bearing
in mind the objections that will be made to the teachings of the Esoteric
Doctrine as herein
propounded
the writer is forced to meet some of them beforehand.
Such
imputations as those brought by Clemens against the “heathen ” Adepts,only
prove the presence of
clairvoyant
powers and prevision in every age but are no evidence in favour of a Devil.They
are
therefore
of no value except to the Christians,for whom Satan is one of the chief pillars
of the faith.
Baronius
and De Mirville for instance find an unanswerable proof of Demonology in the
belief in the co-
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eternity
of Matter with Spirit!
De
Mirville writes that Pherecydes
Postulates
in principle the primordiality of Zeus or Ether and then on the same plane a
principle
coeternal and coactive which he calls the fifth element or Ogenos.[ Loc.cit.]
He
then points out that the meaning of Ogenos is given as that which shuts up
which holds captive and
that
is Hades,“or in a word hell.”
The
synonyms are known to every schoolboy without the Marquis going to the trouble
of explaining them
to
the Academy;as to the deduction every Occultist will of course deny it and only
smile at its folly.And
now
we come to the theological conclusion.
The
resumé of the views of the Latin Church -as given by authors of the same
characters as the Marquis
de
Mirville -amounts to this:that the Hermetic Books,their wisdom -fully admitted
in Rome -
notwithstanding
are “the heirloom left by Cain the accursed to mankind.” It is “generally
admitted ” says
that
modern memorialist of Satan in History:
That
immediately after the Flood Cham and his descendants had propagated anew the
ancient
teachings of the Cainites and of the surmerged Race.[Op.cit.,iii
208 ]
(Page 42)This proves at any rate that Magic,or Sorcery as he calls
it is an antediluvian Art and thus
one
point is gained.For as he says:-
The
evidence of Berosius makes Ham identical with the first Zoroaster founder of
Bactria the
first
author of all the magic arts of Babylonia the Chemesen a or Cham [The
English
speaking
people who spell the name of Noah's disrespectful son “Ham ”have to be reminded
that
the right spelling is “Kham ”or “Cham ”] the infamo s [ Black
Magic,or Sorcery is the ev il
result
obtain e d in any shape or way through the practice of Occult Arts:hence
it has to be
judged
only by its effects.The name of neither Ham nor Cain when pronounced has ever
killed
any one;whereas,if we have to believe that same Clemens Alexandrinus who traces
the
teacher
of every Occultist outside of Christianity to the Devil the name of Jehovah
(pronounced
Jevo and in a peculiar way)had the effect of killing a man at a distance.The
mysterious
Schemham-phorasch was not always used for holy purposes by the Kabalists,
especially
since the Sabbath or Saturday sacred to Saturn or the evil Shani became -with
the
Jews -sacred to “Jehovah.”] of the faithful Noachians,finally the object
of adoration for
Egypt
which having received its name ÷çěĺéá whence chemistry built in his honour a
town
called
Choemnis,or the “city of fire.” [Khoemnis,the pre-historic city
may or may not have
been
built by Noah's son but it was not his name that was given to the town but that
of the
Mystery
Goddess Khoemnu or Khoemnis (Greek form);the deity that was created by the
ardent
fancy of the neophyte who was thus tantalised during his “twelve labours ”of
probation
before
his final initiation.Her male counterpart is Khem.The city of Choemnis or
Khemmis
(today
Akhmem)was the chief seat of the God Khem.The Greeks identifying Khem with Pan
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called
this city “Panopolis.”] Ham adored it it is said whence the name Chammaim
given to
the
pyramids;which in their turn have been vulgarised into our modern noun
“chimney.”[
Pne matologie,iii
210.This looks more like pious vengeance than philology.The picture
however
seems incomplete as the author ought to have added to the “chimney ” a witch
flying
out
of it on a broomstick.]
This
statement is entirely wrong.Egypt was the cradle of Chemistry and its
birth-place -this is pretty well
known
by this time.Only Kenrick and others show the root of the word to be chemi or
chem,which is not
Chem or Ham but Khem,the
Egyptian phallic God of the Mysteries.
But
this is not all.De Mirville is bent upon finding a satanic origin even for the
now innocent Tarot.
He
goes on to say:
As
to the means for the propagation of this evil Magic,tradition points it out in
certain runic
characters
traced on metallic plates [or leaves,des lames ] which have escaped
destruction by
the
Deluge [ How could they escape from the Deluge unless God so willed
it?This is scarcely
logical.]
This might have been regarded as legendary had not subsequent discoveries
shown
it
far from being so.Plates were found covered with curious and utterly
undecipherable
characters,characters
of undeniable antiquity to which the Chamites [Sorcerers,with the
author
] attribute the origin to their marvellous and terrible powers.[Loc.cit.,p.210
]
The
pious author may meanwhile be left to his own orthodox beliefs.
Cain Mathematical and Anthropomorphic -(Page 43)He at any rate seems quite sincere in his views.
Nevertheless,his
able arguments will have to be sapped at their very foundation for it must be
shown on
mathematical
grounds who or rather what Cain and Ham really were.De Mirville is only the
faithful son
of
his Church interested in keeping Cain in his anthropomorphic character and in
his present place in
“Holy
Writ.” The student of Occultism on the other hand is solely interested in the
truth.But the age has
to
follow the natural course of evolution.
Page
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The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
--------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales--------
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SECTION IV
The Secrecy of Initiates
(Page 44)THE false rendering of a number of parables and sayings of
Jesus is not to be wondered at in
the
least.From Orpheus,the first initiated Adept of whom history catches a glimpse
in the mists of the
pre-Christian
era down through Pythagoras,Confucius,Buddha Jesus,Apollonius of Tyana to
Ammonius
Saccas,no Teacher or Initiate has ever committed to writing for public use.Each
and all of
them
have invariably recommended silence and secresy on certain facts and deeds,from
Confucius,
who
refused to explain publicly and satisfactorily what he meant by his “Great
Extreme ” or to give the
key
to the divination by “straws ” down to Jesus,who charged his disciples to tell
no man that he was
Christ
[ Matthew xvi.20.] (Chrestos),the “man of sorrows ” and
trials,before his supreme and last
Initiation
or that he had produced a “miracle ” of resurrection.[ Mark v.43 .]
The Apostles had to
preserve
silence so that the left hand should not know what the right hand did;in
plainer words,that the
dangerous
proficients in the Left Hand Science -the terrible enemies of the Right Hand
Adepts,
especially
before their supreme Initiation -should not profit by the publicity so as to
harm both the healer
and
the patient.And if the above is maintained to be simply an assumption then what
may be the
meaning
of these awful words:
Unto
you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God;but unto them that
are without
all
these things are done in parables;that seeing they may see and not perceive;and
hearing
they
may hear and not understand;lest at any time they should be converted and their
sins
should
be forgiven them.[ Mark iv.11 .]
Exoteric and Esoteric Teachings -(Page 45)Unless interpreted in the sense of the law of silence and
Karma
the utter selfishness and uncharitable spirit of this remark are but too
evident.These words are
directly
connected with the terrible dogma of predestination.Will the good and
intelligent Christian cast
such
a slur of cruel selfishness on his Saviour?[ It is not evident that the
words:“lest at any time they
should
be converted (or:“lest haply they should turn again ” -as in the revised
version)and their sins be
forgiven
them ” -do not at all mean to imply that Jesus feared that through repentance
any outsider or
“them
that are without ” should escape damnation as the literal dead-letter sense
plainly shows -but
quite
a different thing?Namely “lest any of the profane should by understanding his
preaching
undisguised
by parable get hold of some of the secret teachings and mysteries of Initiation
-and even of
Occult
powers?“Be converted ” is,in other words,to obtain a knowledge belonging
exclusively to the
Initiated:“and
their sins be forgiven them ” that is,their sins would fall upon the illegal
revealer on those
who
had helped the unworthy reap there where they have never laboured to sow and
had given them,
thereby
the means of escaping on this earth their deserved Karma which must thus re-act
on the
revealer
who instead of good did harm and failed.]
The
work of propagating such truths in parables was left to the disciples of the
high Initiates.It was their
duty
to follow the key-note of the Secret Teaching without revealing its
mysteries.This is shown in the
histories
of all the great Adepts.Pythagoras divided his classes into hearers of exoteric
and esoteric
lectures.The
Magians received their instructions and were initiated in the far hidden caves
of Bactria.
When
Josephus declares that Abraham taught Mathematics he meant by it “Magic,” for
in the
Pythagorean
code Mathematics mean Esoteric Science or Gnosis.
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Professor
Wilder remarks:
The
Essenes of Judea and Carmel made similar distinctions,dividing their adherents
into
neophytes,brethren
and the perfect ....Ammonius obligated his disciples by oath not to
divulge
his higher doctrines,except to those who had been thoroughly instructed and
exercised
[prepared for initiation ].[New Platonism and Alchemy,1869.pp.7.9.]
One
of the most powerful reasons for the necessity of strict secresy is given by
Jesus Himself if one may
credit
Matthew.For there the Master is made to say plainly:
Give
not that which is holy unto the dogs,neither cast ye your pearls before
swine;lest they
trample
them under their feet and turn again and rend you.[vii.6.]
Profoundly
true and wise words.Many are those in our own age and even among us,who have
been
forcibly
reminded of them -often when too late.[ History is full of proofs of the
same.Had not
Anaxagoras
enunciated the great truth taught in the Mysteries,viz .that the sun was
surely larger than
the
Peloponnesus,he would not have been persecuted and nearly put to death by the
fanatical mob.Had
that
other rabble which was raised against Pythagoras understood what the mysterious
Sage of Crotona
meant
by giving out his remembrances of having been the “Son of Mercury ” -God of the
Secret Wisdom
-he
would not have been forced to fly for his life:nor would Socrates have been put
to death had he
kept
secret the revelations of his divine Daimon.He knew how little his century
-save those initiated -
would
understand his meaning had he given out all he knew of the moon.Thus he limited
his statement
to
an allegory which is now proven to have been more scientific than was hitherto
believed.He
maintained
that the moon was inhabited and that the lunar beings lived in profound vast
and dark
valleys,our
satellite being airless and without any atmosphere outside such profound
valleys;this,
disregarding
the revelation full of meaning for the few only must be so of necessity.If
there is any
atmosphere
on our bright Selene at all.The facts recorded is the secret annals of the
Mysteries had to
remain
veiled under penalty of death.]
(Page 46)Even Maimonides recommends silence with regard to the true
meaning of the Bible texts.This
injunction
destroys the usual affirmation that “Holy Writ ” is the only book in the world
whose divine
oracles
contain plain unvarnished truth.It may be so for the learned Kabalists;it is
certainly quite the
reverse
with regard to Christians.For this is what the learned Hebrew Philosopher says:
Whoever
shall find out the true sense of the Book of Genesis ought to take care
not to divulge
it.This
is a maxim that all our sages repeat to us,and above all respecting the work of
the six
days.If
a person should discover the true meaning of it by himself or by the aid
of another
then
he ought to be silent or if he speaks he ought to speak of it obscurely in an
enigmatical
manner
as I do myself leaving the rest to be guessed by those who can understand me.
The
Symbology and Esoterism of the Old Testament being thus confessed by one
of the greatest Jewish
Philosophers,it
is only natural to find Christian Fathers making the same confession with
regard to the
New Testament and the Bible
in general.Thus we find Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen admitting it as
plainly
as words can do it.Clemens,who had been initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries
says,that:
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The
doctrines there taught contained in them the end of all instructions as they
were taken
from Moses and the prophets,
a
slight perversion of facts pardonable in the good Father.The words admit after
all that the Mysteries
of
the Jews were identical with those of the Pagan Greeks,who took them from the
Egyptians,who
borrowed
them in their turn from the Chaldaeans,who got them from the Aryans,the
Atlanteans and so
on
-far beyond the days of that Race.The secret meaning of the Gospel is again
openly confessed by
Clemens
when he says that the Mysteries of the Faith are not to be divulged to all.
But
since this tradition is not published alone for him who perceives the
magnificence of the
word;it
is requisite therefore to hide in a Mystery the wisdom spoken which the Son of
God
taught.[
Stromateis,xii.]
Origen on “Genesis ” -(Page 47)Not less
explicit is Origen with regard to the Bible and its symbolical
fables.He
exclaims:
If
we hold to the letter and must understand what stands written in the law after
the manner of
the
Jews and common people then I should blush to confess aloud that it is God who
has
given
these laws;then the laws of men appear more excellent and reasonable.[See
Homilies
7.quoted
in the So rce of Measures,p.307.]
And
well he might have “blushed ” the sincere and honest Father of early
Christianity in its days of
relative
purity.But the Christians of this highly literary and civilised age of ours do
not blush at all;they
swallow
on the contrary the “light ” before the formation of the sun the Garden of Eden
Jonah ’s whale
and
all notwithstanding that the same Origen asks in a very natural fit of
indignation:
What
man of sense will agree with the statement that the first second and third days
in which
the
evening is named and the morning were without sun moon and
stars,and the first day
without
a heaven?What man is found such an idiot as to suppose that God planted trees
in
Paradise
in Eden like a husbandman etc?I believe that every man must hold these things
for
images,under which a hidden sense lies concealed.[ Origen:Huet.Origeniana,167:
quoted
from Dunlop ’s Sid .p.176 .]
Yet
millions of “such idiots ” are found in our age of enlightenment and not only
in the third century.When
Paul
’s unequivocal statement in Galatians,iv.22-25 that the story of Abraham
and his two sons is all “an
allegory.”
and that “Agar is Mount Sinai ” is added to this,then little blame indeed can
be attached to
either
Christian or Heathen who declines to accept the Bible in any other light
than that of a very
ingenious
allegory.
Rabbi
Simeon Ben-“Jochai ” the compiler of the Zohar never imparted the most
important points of his
doctrine
otherwise than orally and to a very limited number of disciples.Therefore
without the final
initiation
into the Mercavah the study of the Kabalah will be ever
incomplete and the Mercavah can be
taught
only “in darkness,in a deserted place and after many and terrific trials.”
Since the death of that
great
Jewish Initiate this hidden doctrine has remained for the outside world an
inviolate secret.
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Among
the venerable sect of the Tanaim or rather the Tananim the wise men there were
those
who taught the secrets practically and initiated some disciples into the grand
and final
Mystery.But
the Mishna Hagiga,2 nd Section say that the table of contents of the Mercaba
“must
only be delivered to wise old ones.”The Gemara is still more
dogmatic.“The more
important
secrets of the Mysteries (Page
48)were not even revealed to all
priests.Alone the
initiates
had them divulged.” And so we find the same great secresy prevalent in every
ancient
religion.[
Isis Unveiled ii.350 .]
What
says the Kabalah itself?Its great Rabbis actually threaten him who
accepts their sayings verbatim.
We
read in the Zohar :
Woe
to the man who sees in the Thorah i.e.,Law only simple recitals and
ordinary words!
Because
if in truth it only contained these we would even today be able to compose a
Thorah
much
more worthy of admiration.For if we find only the simple words we would only
have to
address
ourselves to the legislators of the earth.[ The materialistic
“law-givers ”the critics and
Sadducees
who have tried to tear to shreds the doctrines and teachings of the great
Asiatic
Masters
past and present -no scholars in the modern sense of the word -would do well to
ponder
over these words.No doubt that doctrines and secret teachings had they been
invented
and written in Oxford and Cambridge would be more brilliant outwardly.Would
they
equally
answer to universal truths and facts is the next question however .] to
those in whom
we
most frequently meet with the most grandeur.It would be sufficient to imitate them
and
make
a Thorah after their words and example.But it is not so;each word of the Thorah
contains
an elevated meaning and a sublime mystery....The recitals of the Thorah are the
vestments
of the Thorah.Woe to him who takes this garment for the Thorah itself ....The
simple
notice only of the garments or recitals of the Thorah they know of no other
thing they
see
not that which is concealed under the vestment.The more instructed men do not
pay
attention
to the vestment but to the body which it envelops.[ iii.fol.1526 quoted
in Myer ’s
Qabbalah,p.102.]
Ammonius
Saccas taught that the Secret Doctrine of the Wisdom-Religion was found
complete in the
Books of Thoth (Hermes),from
which both Pythagoras and Plato derived their knowledge and much of
their
Philosophy;and these Books were declared by him to be “identical with the
teachings of the Sages
of
the remote East.” Professor A.Wilder remarks:
As
the name Thoth means a college or assembly it is not altogether improbable that
the books
were
so named as being the collected oracles and doctrines of the sacerdotal
fraternity of
Memphis.Rabbi
Wise has suggested the same hypothesis in relation to the divine utterances
recorded
in the Hebrew Scriptures.[ New-Platonism and Alchemy.p.6 ]
This
is very probable.Only the “divine utterances ” have never been so far
understood by the profane.
Philo
Judaeus,a non-initiate attempted to give their secret meaning and -failed.
But
Books of Thoth or Bible,Vedas or Kabalah,all enjoin the same secresy as
to certain mysteries of
nature
symbolised in them.“Woe be to him who divulges nlawf lly the words
whispered into the ear of
Manushi
by the First Initiator.”
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The “Dark Sayings ” of the “Testaments ” (Page 49)Who that “Initiator ” was is made plain in the Book of
Enoch:
From
them [the angels ] I heard all things,and understood what I saw that which will
not take
place
in this generation [Race ] but in a generation which is to succeed at a distant
period [ the
6
th and 7 th Races ] on account of the elect [the Initiates ].[ i.2.]
Again
it is said with regard to the judgment of those who when they have learned
“every secret of the
angels,”
reveal them that:
They
have discovered secrets,and they are those who have been judged;but not
thou my
son
[Noah ] ...thou art pure and good and free from the reproach of discovering
[revealing ]
secrets.[
IXIV.10.]
But
there are those in our century who having “discovered secrets ” unaided and
owing to their own
learning
and acuteness only and who being nevertheless,honest and straightforward men
undismayed
by
threats or warning since they have never pledged themselves to secresy feel
quite startled at such
revelations.One
of these is the learned author and discoverer of one “Key to the
Hebrew-Egyptian
Mystery.”
As he says,there are “some strange features connected to the promulgation and
condition ” of
the
Bible.
Those
who compiled this book were men as we are.They knew saw handled and realized
through
the key measure [ The key is shown to be “in the source of measures
originating the
British
inch and the ancient cubit ”as the author tries to prove.] the law of
the living ever active
God
.[ The word as a plural might have better solved the mystery.God is ever-present
;if he
were
ever-active he could no longer be an infinite God -nor ever-present in
his limitation.]
They
needed no faith that He was that He worked planned and accomplished as a mighty
mechanic
and architect.[The author is evidently a Mason of the way of thinking of
General
Pike.So
long as the American and English Masons will reject the “Creative Principle ”of
the
“Grand
Orient ”of France they will remain in the dark.]What was it then that
reserved to them
alone
this knowledge while first as men of God and second as Apostles of Jesus the
Christ
they
doled out a blinding ritual service and an empty teaching of faith and
no substance as
proof
properly coming through the exercise of just those senses which the Deity has
given all
men
as the essential means of obtaining any right understanding?Mystery and parable,and
dark saying,and cloaking
of the true meanings are the burden of the Testaments,Old and
New.Take
it that the narratives of the Bible were purposed inventions to deceive
the ignorant
masses,even
while enforcing a most perfect code of moral obligations:How is it possible to
justify
so great frauds,as part of the Divine economy when to that economy the
attribute of
simple
and perfect truthf lness must in the nature of things,be (Page 50)ascribed?What has,
or
what by possibility ought mystery to have with the promulgation of the truths
of God?[
So rce of Measures,pp.308
309 ]
Nothing
whatever most certainly if those mysteries had been given from the first.And so
it was with
regard
to the first semi-divine pure and spiritual Races of Humanity.They had the
“truths of God ” and
lived
up to them and their ideals.They preserved them so long as there was hardly any
evil and hence
scarcely
a possible abuse of that knowledge and those truths.But evolution and the
gradual fall into
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materiality
is also one of the “truths ” and also one of the laws of “God.” And as mankind
progressed and
became
with every generation more of the earth earthly the individuality of each
temporary Ego began
to
assert itself.It is personal selfishness that develops and urges man on to
abuse of his knowledge and
power.And
selfishness is a human building whose windows and doors are ever wide open for
every kind
of
iniquity to enter into man ’s soul.Few were the men during the early
adolescence of mankind and
fewer
still are they now who feel disposed to put into practice Pope ’s forcible
declaration that he would
tear
out his own heart if it had no better disposition than to love only himself and
laugh at all his
neighbours.Hence
the necessity of gradually taking away from man the divine knowledge and power
which
became with every new human cycle more dangerous as a double-edged weapon whose
evil side
was
ever threatening one ’s neighbour and whose power for good was lavished freely
only upon self.
Those
few “elect ” whose inner natures had remained unaffected by their outward
physical growth thus
became
in time the sole guardians of the mysteries revealed passing the knowledge to
those most fit to
receive
it and keeping it inaccessible to others.Reject this explanation from the
Secret Teachings,and
the
very name of Religion will become synonymous with deception and fraud.
Yet
the masses could not be allowed to remain without some sort of moral
restraint.Man is ever craving
for
a “beyond ”and cannot live without an idea of some kind as a beacon and a
consolation.At the same
time
no average man even in our age of universal education could be entrusted with
truths too
metaphysical
too subtle for his mind to comprehend without the danger of an imminent
reaction setting
in
and faith in Gods and Saints making room for an unscientific blank Atheism.No
real philanthropist
hence
no Occultist would dream for a moment of a mankind without one title of
Religion.
The Greatest Crime Ever Perpetrated -(Page 51)Even the modern day Religion in Europe confined to
Sundays,is
better than none.But if as Bunyan put it “Religion is the best armour that a
man can have ”
it
certainly is the “worst cloak ” ;and it is that “cloak ” and false pretence which
the Occultists and the
Theosophists
fight against.The true ideal Deity the one living God in Nature can never
suffer in man ’s
worship
if that outward cloak woven by man ’s fancy and thrown upon the Deity by the
crafty hand of the
priest
greedy of power and domination is drawn aside.The hour has struck with the
commencement of
this
century to dethrone the “highest God ” of every nation in favour of One
Universal Deity -The God of
Immutable
Law not charity;the God of Just Retribution not mercy which is merely an
incentive to evil-
doing
and to a repetition of it.The greatest crime that was ever perpetrated upon
mankind was
committed
on that day when the first priest invented the first prayer with a selfish
object in view.A God
who
may be propitiated by iniquitous prayers to “bless the arms ” of the worshipper
and send defeat and
death
to thousands of his enemies -his brethren;a Deity that can be supposed not to
turn a deaf ear to
chants
of laudation mixed with entreaties for a “fair propitious wind ”for self and as
naturally disastrous to
the
selves of other navigators who come from an opposite direction -it is this idea
of God that has
fostered
selfishness in man and deprived him of his self-reliance.Prayer is an ennobling
action when it
is
an intense feeling an ardent desire rushing forth from our very heart for the
good of other people and
when
entirely detached from any selfish personal object;the craving for a beyond is
natural and holy in
man
but on the condition of sharing that bliss with others.One can understand and
well appreciate the
words
of the “heathen ”Socrates,who declared in his profound though untaught wisdom
that:
Our
prayers should be for blessings on all in general for the Gods know best what
is good for
us.
But
official prayer -in favour of a public calamity or for the benefit of one
individual irrespective of losses
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to
thousands -is the most ignoble of crimes,besides being an impertinent conceit
and a superstition.
This
is the direct inheritance by spoliation from the Jehovites -the Jews of the
Wilderness and of the
Golden
Calf.
It
is “Jehovah ” as will be presently shown that suggested the necessity of
veiling and screening this
substitute
for the unpronounceable name and that led to all this “mystery parables,dark
sayings (Page
52)and
cloaking.” Moses had at any rate initiated his seventy Elders into the hidden
truths,and thus the
writers
of the Old Testament stand to a degree justified.Those of the New
Testament have failed to do
even
so much or so little.They have disfigured the grand central figure of Christ by
their dogmas,and
have
led people ever since into millions of errors and the darkest crimes,in His
holy name.
It
is evident that with the exception of Paul and Clement of Alexandria who had
been both initiated into
the
Mysteries,none of the Fathers knew much of the truth themselves.They were
mostly uneducated
ignorant
people;and if such as Augustine and Lactantius,or again the Venerable Bede and
others,were
so
painfully ignorant until the name of Galileo [ In his Pne matologie,in
Vol.iv.pp.105-112 the Marquis
de
Mirville claims the knowledge of the heliocentric system -earlier than Galileo
-for Pope Urban VIII.
The
author goes further.He tries to show that famous Pope not as the persecutor but
as one persecuted
by
Galileo and calumniated by the Florentine Astronomer into the bargain.If so so
much the worse for
the
Latin Church since her Popes,knowing of it still preserved silence upon this
most important fact
either
to screen Joshua or their own infallibility.One can understand well that the Bible
having been so
exalted
over all the other systems,and its alleged monotheism depending upon the
silence preserved
nothing
remained of course but to keep quiet over its symbolism thus allowing all its
blunders to be
fathered
on its God.] of the most vital truths taught in the Pagan temples -of
the rotundity of the earth for
example
leaving the heliocentric system out of question -how great must have been the
ignorance of
the
rest!Learning the accusations of dealing with the Devil lavished on the Pagan
Philosophers.
But
truth must out.The Occultists,referred to as “the followers of the accursed
Cain ” by such writers as
De
Mirville are now in a position to reverse the tables.That which was hitherto
known only to the ancient
and
modern Kabalists in Europe and Asia is now published and shown as being
mathematically true.
The
author of the Key to the Hebrew-Egyptian Mystery or the So rce of Meas res has
now proved to
general
satisfaction it is to be hoped that the two great God-names,Jehovah and Elohim
stood in one
meaning
of their numerical values,for a diameter and a circumference value
respectively;in other
words,that
they are numerical indices of geometrical relations;and finally that Jehovah
is Cain and vice
versa.
This
view says the author
Helps
also to take the horrid blemish off from the name of Cain as a put-up-job to
destroy his
character;for
even without these showings,by the very text he [Cain ] was Jehovah.So
the
theological
schools had better be alive to making the amend honorable if such a thing is
possible
to the good name and fame of the God they worship
Asiatic Religions Proclaim Their Esoterism Openly -(Page 53)[
Op.cit .App.vii.p.296.The writer
feels
happy to find this fact now mathematically demonstrated.When it was stated in Isis
Unveiled that
Jehovah
and Saturn were one and the same with Adam Kadmon Cain Adam and Eve Able
Seth.etc.
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and
that all were convertible symbols in the Secret Doctrine (see Vol ii.pp.446 448
464 et seq .):that
they
answered in short to secret numerals and stood for more than one meaning in the
Bible as in other
doctrines
-the author ’s statements remained unnoticed.Isis had failed to appear
under a scientific form
and
by giving it too much in fact gave very little to satisfy the enquirer.But now
if mathematics and
geometry
besides the evidence of the Bible and Kabalah are good for
anything the public must find itself
satisfied.No
fuller more scientifically given proof can be found to show that Cain is the
transformation of
an
Elohim (the Sephira Binah)into Jah-Veh (or God-Eve)androgyne and that Seth is
the Jehovah male
than
in the combined discoveries of Seyffarth Knight etc.and finally in Mr.Ralston
Skinner ’s most
erudite
work.The further relations of these personifications of the first human
races,in their gradual
development
will be given later on in the text.]
This
is not the first warning received by the “theological schools.” which however
no doubt knew it from
the
beginning as did Clemens of Alexandria and others.But if it be so they will
profit still less by it as the
admission
would involve more for them than the mere sacredness and dignity of the
established faith.
But
it may also be asked why is it that the Asiatic religions,which have nothing of
this sort to conceal
and
which proclaim quite openly the Esoterism of their doctrines,follow the same
course?It is simply
this:While
the present and no doubt enforced silence of the Church on this subject relates
merely to the
external
or theoretical form of the Bible -the unveiling of the secrets of which
would have involved no
practical
harm had they been explained from the first -it is an entirely different question
with Eastern
Esoterism
and Symbology.The grand central figure of the Gospels would have remained as
unaffected
by
the symbolism of the Old Testament being revealed as would that of the
Founder of Buddhism had
the
Brahmanical writings of the P ranas,that preceded his birth all been
shown to be allegorical.Jesus
of
Nazareth moreover would have gained more than he would have lost had he been
presented as a
simple
mortal left to be judged on his own precepts and merits,instead of being
fathered on Christendom
as
a God whose many utterances and acts are now so open to criticism.On the other
hand the symbols
and
allegorical sayings that veil the grand truths of Nature in the Vedas,the
Brahmanas,the Upanishads
and
especially in the Lamaist Chagpa Thogmed and other works,are quite of a
different nature and far
more
complicated in their secret meaning.While the Biblical glyphs have nearly all a
triune foundation
those
of the Eastern books are worked on the septenary principle.They are (Page 54)as closely related to
the
mysteries of Physics and Physiology as to Psychism and the transcendental
nature of cosmic
elements
and Theogony;unriddled they would prove more than injurious to the
uninitiated;delivered into
the
hands of the present generations in their actual state of physical and
intellectual development in the
absence
of spirituality and even of practical morality they would become absolutely
disastrous.
Nevertheless
the secret teachings of the sanctuaries have not remained without witness;they
have been
made
immortal in various ways.They have burst upon the world in hundreds of volumes
full of the quaint
head-breaking
phraseology of the Alchemist;they have flashed like irrepressible cataracts of
Occult
mystic
lore from the pens of poets and bards.Genius alone had certain privileges in
those dark ages
when
no dreamer could offer the world even a fiction without suiting his heaven and
his earth to biblical
text.To
genius alone it was permitted in those centuries of mental blindness,when the
fear of the “Holy
Office
” threw a thick veil over every cosmic and psychic truth to reveal unimpeded
some of the grandest
truths
of Initiation.Whence did Ariosto in his Orlando F rioso,obtain his
conception of that valley of the
Moon
where after our death we can find the ideas and images of all that exists on
earth?How came
Dante
to imagine the many descriptions given in his Inferno -a new Johannine
Apolcalypse a true Occult
Revelation
in verse -his visit and communion with the Souls of the Seven Spheres?In poetry
and satire
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every
Occult truth has been welcomed -none has been recognised as serious.The Comte
de Gabalis is
better
known and appreciated than Porphyry and Iamblichus.Plato ’s mysterious Atlantis
is proclaimed a
fiction
while Noah ’s Deluge is to this day on the brain of certain Archaeologists who
scoff at the
archetypal
world of Marcel Palingenius ’ Zodiac and would resent as a personal
injury being asked to
discuss
the four worlds of Mercury Trismegistus -the Archetypal the Spiritual the
Astral and the
Elementary
with three others behind the opened scene.Evidently civilised society is still
but half
prepared
for the revelation.Hence the Initiates will never give out the whole secret
until the bulk of
mankind
has changed its actual nature and is better prepared for truth.Clemens
Alexandrinus was
positively
right in saying “It is requisite to hide in a mystery the wisdom spoken ”
-which the “Sons of
God
”teach.
That
Wisdom as will be seen relates to all the primeval truths delivered to the
first Races,the “Mind-
born
”by the “Builders ”of the Universe themselves.
The Wisdom-Religion -(Page 55)There was in
every ancient country having claims to civilisation an
Esoteric
Doctrine a system which was designated WISDOM [ The writings extant in
olden times often
personified
Wisdom as an emanation and associate of the Creator.Thus we have the Hindu
Buddha the
Babylonian
Nebo the Thoth of Memphis,the Hermes of Greece:also the female
divinities,Neitha Metis,
Athena
and the Gnostic potency Achamoth or Sophia.The Samaritan Pentate ch denominated
the
Book of Genesis,Akamouth
or Wisdom and two remnants of old treatises,the Wisdom of Solomon and
the
Wisdom of Jesus,relate to the same matters.The Book of Mashalim -the
Disco rses of Proverbs of
Solomon
-thus personifies Wisdom as the auxiliary of the Creator.In the Secret Wisdom
of the East that
auxiliary
is found collectively in the first emanations of Primeval Light the Seven
Dhyani-Chohans,who
have
been shown to be identical with the “Seven Spirits of the Presence ” of the
Roman Catholics.] and
those
who were devoted to its prosecution were first denominated sages,or wise men...Pythagoras
termed
this system çăíůóéň ôůí äíôůí the Gnosis or Knowledge of things that are.Under
the noble
designation
of WISDOM the ancient teachers,the sages of India the magians of Persia and
Babylon
the
seers and prophets of Israel the hierophants of Egypt and Arabia and the
philosophers of Greece
and
the West included all knowledge which they considered as essentially
divine;classifying a part as
esoteric
and the remainder as exterior.The Rabbis called the exterior and secular series
the Mercavah
as
being the body or vehicle which contained the higher knowledge.[New
Platonism and Alchemy,p.6 .]
Later
on we shall speak of the law of silence imposed on eastern chelâs.
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SECTION V
Some Reasons for Secrecy
(Page 56)The fact that the Occult Sciences have been withheld from
the world at large and denied by the
Initiates
to Humanity has often been made matter of complaint.It has been alleged that
the Guardians of
the
Secret Lore were selfish in withholding the “treasures ” of Archaic Wisdom;that
it was positively
criminal
to keep back such knowledge -“if any ” -from the men of Science etc.
Yet
there must have been some very good reasons for it since from the very dawn of
History such has
been
the policy of every Hierophant and “Master.”Pythagoras,the first Adept and real
Scientist in pre-
Christian
Europe is accused of having taught in public the immobility of the earth and
the rotary motion
of
the stars around it while he was declaring to his privileged Adepts his belief
in the motion of the Earth
as
a planet and in the heliocentric system.The reasons for such secresy however
are many and were
never
made a mystery of.The chief cause as given in Isis Unveiled .It may now
be repeated.
From
the very day when the first mystic,taught by the first Instructor of the
“divine Dynasties ”
of
the early races,was taught the means of communication between this world and
the worlds
of
the invisible host between the sphere of matter and that of pure spirit he
concluded that to
abandon
this mysterious science to the desecration willing or unwilling of the profane
rabble -
was
to lose it.An abuse of it might lead mankind to speedy destruction;it was like
surrounding
a
group of children with explosive substances,and furnishing them with
matches.The first
divine
Instructor initiated but a select few and these kept silence with the
multitudes.They
recognised
their “God ”and each Adept felt the great “SELF ”within
himself.The Atman the
Self
the mighty Lord and Protector once that man knew him as the “ I am ”the “Ego
Sum ”the
“Asmi
”showed his full power to him who could recognise the “still small voice.” From
the days
of
the primitive man described by the first Vedic poet down to our modern age
there has not
been
a philosopher worthy of that name who did not carry in the silent sanctuary of
his heart
the
grand and mysterious truth.If initiated he learnt it as a sacred science;if
otherwise then
like
Socrates,repeating to himself as well as his fellow-men the noble injunction “
O man
know
thyself ” he succeeded in recognising his God within himself.
The Key of Practical Theurgy -
(Page 57)“Ye are Gods,”the king-psalmist tells us,and we find Jesus
reminding the scribes
that
this expression was addressed to other mortal men claiming for themselves the
same
privilege
without any blasphemy.And as a faithful echo Paul while asserting that we are
all
“the
temple of the living God ” cautiously remarked elsewhere that after all these
things are
only
for the “wise ” and it is “unlawful ”to speak of them.[ ii.317 318.Many
verbal alterations
from
the original text of Isis Unveiled were made by H.P.B.in her quotations
therefrom and
these
are followed throughout.]
Some
of the reasons for this secresy may be given.
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The
fundamental law and master-key of practical Theurgy in its chief applications
to the serious study of
cosmic
and sidereal of psychic and spiritual mysteries was,and still is,that which was
called by the
Greek
Neoplatonist “Theophania.” In its generally-accepted meaning this is
“communication between the
Gods
(or God)and those initiated mortals who are spiritually fit to enjoy such an
intercourse.”
Esoterically
however it signifies more than this.For it is not only the presence of a God
but an actual -
howbeit
temporary -incarnation the blending so to say of the personal Deity the Higher
Self with man -
its
representative or agent on earth.As a general law the Highest God the Over-soul
of the human being
(Atma-Buddhi),only
overshadows the individual during his life for purposes of instruction and
revelation;
or
as Roman Catholics -who erroneously call that Over-soul the “Guardian Angel ”
-would say “It stands
outside
and watches.” But in the case of the theophanic mystery it incarnates itself in
the Theurgist for
purposes
of revelation.When the incarnation is temporary during those mysterious trances
or “ecstasy ”
which
Plotinus defined as
The
liberation of the mind from its finite consciousness,becoming one and
identified with the
Infinite
this
sublime condition is very short.The human soul being the offspring or emanation
of its God the
“Father
and the Son ” become one “the divine fountain flowing like a stream into its
human bed.”
[ Proclus claims to
have experienced this sublime ecstasy six times during his mystic life:Porphyry
asserts
that Appollonius of Tyana was thus united four times to his deity -a statement
which we believe
to
be a mistake since Apollonius was a Nirmanakaya (divine incarnation -not
Avatara)-and he
(Porphyry)only
once when over sixty years of age.Theophany (or the actual appearance of a God
to
man),Theopathy
(or “assimilation of divine nature ”),and Theopneusty (inspiration or rather
the
mysterious
power to hear orally the teachings of a God)have never been rightly understood.]
In
exceptional
cases,however the mystery becomes complete;the (Page 58)Word is made Flesh in real
fact
the individual becoming divine in the full sense of the term since his personal
God has made of him
his
permanent life-long tabernacle -“the temple of God ”as Paul says.
Now
that which is meant here by the personal God of Man is,of course not his
seventh Principle alone
as
per se and in essence that is merely a bean of the infinite Ocean of
Light.In conjunction with our
Divine
Soul the Buddhi it cannot be called a Duad as it otherwise might since though
formed from
Atma
and Buddhi (the two higher Principles),the former is no entity but an emanation
from the Absolute
and
indivisible in reality from it.The personal God is not the Monad but indeed the
prototype of the latter
what
for want of a better term we call the manifested Karanatma [ Karana
Sharira is the “causal ” body
and
is sometimes said to be the “personal God.” And so it is,in one sense.] (Causal
Soul),one of the
“seven
” and chief reservoirs of the human Monads or Egos.The latter are gradually
formed and
strengthened
during their incarnation-cycle by constant additions of individuality from the
personalities in
which
incarnates that androgynous,half-spiritual half-terrestrial principle partaking
of both heaven and
earth
called by the Vedantins Jiva and Vijnanamaya Kosha and by the Occultists the
Manas (mind);
that
in short which uniting itself partially with the Monad incarnates in each new
birth.In perfect unity
with
its (seventh)Principle the Spirit unalloyed it is the divine Higher Self as
every student of
Theosophy
knows.After every new incarnation Buddhi-Manas culls,so to say the aroma of the
flower
called
personality the purely earthly residue of which its dregs -is left to fade out
as a shadow.This is
the
most difficult -because so transcendentally metaphysical -portion of the
doctrine.
As
is repeated many a time in this and other works,it is not the
Philosophers,Sages,and Adepts of
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antiquity
who can ever be charged with idolatry.It is they in fact who recognising divine
unity were the
only
ones,owing to their initiation into the mysteries of Esotericism to understand
correctly the
őđóíóéá(hyponea),or
under-meaning of the anthropomorphism of the so-called Angels,Gods,and
Spiritual
Beings of every kind.Each worshipping the one Divine Essence that pervades the
whole world
of
Nature reverenced but never worshipped or idolised any of these “Gods,” whether
high or low -not
even
his own personal Deity of which he was a Ray and to whom he appealed.[ This
would be in one
sense
Self-worship.]
The Ladder of Being -
(Page 59)The holy Triad emanates from the One and is the
Tetraktys;the gods,daimons,and
souls
are an emanation of the Triad.Heroes and men repeat the hierarchy in
themselves.
Thus
said Metrodorus of Chios,the Pythagorean the latter part of the sentence
meaning that man has
within
himself the seven pale reflections of the seven divine Hierarchies;his Higher
Self is,therefore in
itself
but the refracted beam of the direct Ray.He who regards the latter as an Entity
in the usual sense
of
the term is one of the “infidels and atheists,” spoken of by Epicurus,for he
fastens on that God “the
opinions
of the multitude ” -an anthropomorphism of the grossest kind.[“The Gods
exist ” said Epicurus,
“but
they are not what the hoi polloi (the multitude)suppose them to be.He is
not an infidel or atheist
who
denies the existence of Gods whom the multitude worship but he is such who
fastens on the Gods
the
opinions of the multitude.” ] The Adept and the Occultist know that
“what are styled the Gods are only
the
first principles ” (Aristotle).None the less they are intelligent conscious,and
living “Principles,” the
Primary
Seven Lights manifested from Light nmanifested -which to us is
Darkness.They are the Seven
-exoterically
four -Kumaras or “Mind-Born Sons ” of Brahma.And it is they again the Dhyan
Chohans,
who
are the prototypes in the aeonic eternity of lower Gods and hierarchies of
divine Beings,at the
lowest
end of which ladder of being are we -men.
Thus
perchance Polytheism when philosophically understood may be a degree higher than
even the
Monotheism
of the Protestant say who limits and conditions the Deity in whom he persists
in seeing the
Infinite
but whose supposed actions make of that “Absolute and Infinite ” the most
absurd paradox in
Philosophy.From
this standpoint Roman Catholicism itself is immeasurably higher and more
logical than
Protestantism
though the Roman Church has been pleased to adopt the exotericism of the
heathen
“multitude
”and to reject the Philosophy of pure Esotericism.
Thus
every mortal has his immortal counterpart or rather his Archetype in
heaven.This means that the
former
is indissolubly united to the latter in each of his incarnations,and for the
duration of the cycle of
births;only
it is by the spiritual and intellectual Principle in him entirely distinct from
the lower self never
through
the earthly personality.Some of these are even liable to break the union
altogether in case of
absence
in the moral individual of binding viz.,of spiritual ties.Truly as
Paracelsus puts it in his quaint
tortured
(Page 60)phraseology man with his three (compound)Spirits is
suspended like a foetus by all
three
to the matrix of the Macrocosm;the thread which holds him united being the
“Thread-Soul ”
Sutratma
and Taijasa (the “Shining ” )of the Vedantins.And it is through this spiritual
and intellectual
Principle
in man though Taijasa -the Shining “because it has the luminous internal organ
as its
associate
” -that man is thus united to his heavenly prototype never through his lower
inner self or Astral
Body
for which there remains in most cases nothing but to fade out.
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Occultism
or Theurgy teaches the means of producing such union.But it is the actions of
man -his
personal
merit alone -that can produce it on earth or determine its duration.This lasts
from a few
seconds
-a flash -to several hours,during which time the Theurgist or Theophanist is
that
overshadowing
“God ” himself;hence he becomes endowed for the time being with relative
omniscience
and
omnipotence.With such perfect (divine)Adepts as Buddha [ Esoteric,as
exoteric,Buddhism rejects
the
theory that Gautama was an incarnation or Avatara of Vishnu but teaches the
doctrine as herein
explained.Every
man has in him the materials,if not the conditions,for theophanic intercourse
and
Theopneusty
the inspiring “God ”being however in every case his own Higher Self or divine
prototype .]
and
others such a hypostatical state of avataric condition may last during the
whole life;whereas in the
case
of full Initiates,who have not yet reached the perfect state of Jivanmukta [
One entirely and
absolutely
purified and having nothing in common with earth except his body.] Theopneusty
when in full
sway
results for the high Adept in a full recollection of everything seen heard or
sensed.
Taijasa
has fruition of the supersensible .[ Mand kyopanishad,4.]
For
one less perfect it will end only in a partial indistinct remembrance;while the
beginner has to face in
the
first period of his psychic experiences a mere confusion followed by a rapid
and finally complete
oblivion
of the mysteries seen during this super-hypnotic condition.The degree of
recollection when one
returns
to his waking state and physical senses,depends on his spiritual and psychic
purification the
greatest
enemy of spiritual memory being man ’s physical brain the organ of his sensuous
nature.
The
above states are described for a clearer comprehension of terms used in this
work.There are so
many
and such various conditions and states that even a Seer is liable to confound
one with the other.
Three Ways Open to the Adept -(Page 61)To repeat:the Greek,rarely-used word “Theophania ” meant
more
with the Neoplatonists than it does with the modern maker of dictionaries.The
compound word
Theophania
” (from “theos,” “God ” and “phainomai ” “to appear),” does not simply mean “ a
manifestation
of
God to man by act al appearance ” -an absurdity by the way -but the
actual presence of a God in
man
a divine incarnation.When Simon the Magician claimed to be “God the
Father ” what he wanted to
convey
was just that which has been explained namely that he was a divine incarnation
of his own
Father
whether we see in the latter an Angel a God or a Spirit;therefore he was called
“that power of
God
which is called great ” [ Acts viii 10 (Revised Version).] or
that power which causes the Divine Self
to
enshrine itself in its lower self -man.
This
is one of the several mysteries of being and incarnation.Another is that when
an Adept reaches
during
his lifetime that state of holiness and purity that makes him “equal to the
Angels,” then at death his
apparitional
or astral body becomes as solid and tangible as was the late body and is
transformed into
the
real man.[ See the explanations given on the subject in “The Elixir
of Life ” by G.M.(From a Chela ’s
Diary),Five
Years of Theosophy.] The old physical body falling off like the
cast-off serpent ’s skin the
body
of the “new ” man remains either visible or at the option of the Adept
disappears from view
surrounded
as it is by the Akashic shell that screens it.In the latter case there are
three ways open to the
Adept:
(1)He
may remain in the earth ’s sphere (Vayu or Kama-loka),in that ethereal locality
concealed from
human
sight save during flashes of clairvoyance.In this case his astral body owing to
its great purity and
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spirituality
having lost the conditions required for Akashic light (the nether or
terrestrial ether)to absorb
its
semi-material particles,the Adept will have to remain in the company of
disintegrating shells -doing
no
good or useful work.This,of course cannot be.
(2)He
can by a supreme effort of will merge entirely into and get united with his
Monad.By doing so
however
we would (a)deprive his Higher Self of posthumous Samadhi -a bliss which is not
real Nirvana
-the
astral however pure being too earthly for such state;and (b)he would thereby
open himself to
Karmic
law;the action being in fact the outcome of personal selfishness -of reaping
the fruits produced
by
and for oneself -alone.
(3)The
Adept has the option of renouncing conscious Nirvana and (Page 62)rest to work on earth for the
good
of mankind.This he can do in a two-fold way:either as above said by
consolidating his astral body
into
physical appearance he can reassume the self-same personality;or he can avail
himself of an
entirely
new physical body whether that of a newly-born infant or -as Shânkarâcharya is
reported to
have
done with the body of a dead Rajah -by entering a deserted sheath ” and living
in it as long as he
chooses.This
is what is called “continuous existence.” The Section entitled “The Mystery
about Buddha ”
will
throw additional light on this theory to the profane incomprehensible or to the
generality simply
absurd .Such is the doctrine
taught everyone having the choice of either fathoming it still deeper or of
leaving
it unnoticed.
The
above is simply a small portion of what might have been given in Isis
Unveiled had the time come
then
as it has now.One cannot study and profit by Occult Science unless one gives
himself up to it -
heart
soul and body.Some of its truths are too awful too dangerous,for the average
mind.None can
toy
and play with such terrible weapons with impunity.Therefore it is,as St.Paul
has it “unlawful ” to
speak
of them.Let us accept the reminder and talk only of that which is “lawful.”
The
quotation on p.56 relates,moreover only to psychic or spiritual Magic.The
practical teachings of
Occult
Science are entirely different and few are the strong minds fitted for them.As
to ecstasy and
such
like kinds of self-illumination this may be obtained by oneself and without any
teacher or initiation
for
ecstasy is reached by an inward command and control of Self over the physical
Ego;as to obtaining
mastery
over the forces of Nature this requires a long training or the capacity of one
born a “natural
Magician.”
Meanwhile those who possess neither of the requisite qualifications are
strongly advised to
limit
themselves to purely spiritual development.But even this is difficult as the
first necessary
qualification
is an unshakable belief in one ’s own powers and the Deity within
oneself;otherwise a man
would
simply develop into an irresponsible medium.Throughout the whole mystic
literature of the ancient
world
we detect the same idea of spiritual Esoterism that the personal God exists
within nowhere
outside
the worshipper.That personal Deity is no vain breath or a fiction but an
immortal Entity the
Initiator
of the Initiates,now that the heavenly or Celestial Initiators of primitive
humanity -the Shishta of
the
preceding cycles -are no more among us.Like an undercurrent rapid and clear it
runs without
mixing
its crystalline purity with the muddy troubled waters of dogmatism an enforced
anthropomorphic
Deity
and religious intolerance.
Man is God -(Page 63)We find this idea in
the tortured and barbarous phraseology of the Codex
Nazarae s,and in the
superb Neoplatonic language of the Fourth Gospel of the later Religion in the
oldest
Veda and in the Avesta in the Abhidharma,in Kapila ’s Sankhya,and
the Bhagavad Gitâ.We
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cannot
attain Adeptship and Nirvana Bliss and the “Kingdom of Heaven ” unless we link
ourselves
indissolubly
with our Rex Lux the Lord of Splendour and of Light our immortal God within
us.“Aham eva
param Brahman ”-“ I am
verily the Supreme Brahman ”-has ever been the one living truth in the heart
and
mind of the Adepts,and it is this which helps the Mystic to become one.One must
first of all
recognize
one ’s own immortal Principle and then only can one conquer or take the Kingdom
of Heaven
by
violence.Only this has to be achieved by the higher -not the middle nor the
third -man the last one
being
of dust.Nor can the second man the “Son ”-on this plane as his “Father ”is the
Son on a still
higher
plane -do anything without the assistance of the first the “Father.”But to
succeed one has to
identify
oneself with one ’s divine Parent.
The
first man is of the earth earthy;the second [inner our higher ] man is the Lord
from
heaven....Behold
I show you a mystery.[ I.Cor.,xv.47.50 .]
Thus
says Paul mentioning but the dual and trinitarian man for the better comprehension
of the non-
initiated.But
this is not all for the Dephic injunction has to be fulfilled:man must know
himself in order to
become
a perfect Adept.How few can acquire the knowledge however not merely in its
inner mystical
but
even in its literal sense for there are two meanings in this command of the
Oracle.This is the
doctrine
of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas pure and simple.
Such
is also the mystical sense of what was said to Paul to the Corinthians about
their being the “temple
of
God ”for this meant Esoterically:
Ye
are the temple of [the or your ] God and the Spirit of [a or your ] God
dwelleth in you.[ I
Cor .iii.16.Has the
reader ever meditated upon the suggestive words,often pronounced by
Jesus
and his Apostles?“Be ye therefore perfect as your Father...is perfect ” (Matt
.v.48),
says
the Great Master.The words are “as perfect as your Father which is in heaven
”being
interpreted
as meaning God.Now the utter absurdity of any man becoming as perfect as the
infinite
all-perfect omniscient and omnipresent Deity is too apparent.If you accept it
in such
a
sense Jesus is made to utter the greatest fallacy.What was Esoterically meant
is,“Your
Father
who is above the material and astral man the highest Principle (save the Monad)
within
man his own personal God or the God of his own personality of whom he is the
‘prison
’ and the ‘temple.’ “”If thou wilt be perfect (i.e .an Adept and
Initiate)go and sell that
thou
hast ”(Matt .xix.21).Every man who desired to become a neophyte a chela
then as
now
had to take the vow of poverty.The “Perfect ” was the name given to the
Initiates of every
denomination.Plato
calls them by that term.The Essenes had their “Perfect.”and Paul plainly
states
that they the Initiates,can only speak before other Adepts.“We speak wisdom among
them
[only ] that are perfect ”(I.Cor .ii.6).]
(Page 64)This carries precisely the same meaning as the “ I am
verily Brahman ”of the Vedantin.Nor is the
latter
assertion more blasphemous than the Pauline -if there were any blasphemy in
either which is
denied.Only
the Vedantin who never refers to his body as being himself or even a part of
himself or
aught
else but an illusory form for others to see him in constructs his assertion
more openly and
sincerely
than was done by Paul.
The
Delphic command “Know thyself ” was perfectly comprehensible to every nation of
old.So it is now
save
to the Christians,since with the exception of the Mussulmans,it is part and
parcel of every Eastern
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religion
including the Kabalistically instructed Jews.To understand its full meaning
however
necessitates,first
of all belief in Reincarnation and all its mysteries;not as laid down in the
doctrine of
the
French Reincarnationists of the Allan Kardec school but as they are expounded
and taught by
Esoteric
Philosophy.Man must in short know who he was,before he arrives at knowing what
he is.And
how
many are there among Europeans who are capable of developing within themselves
an absolute
belief
in their past and future reincarnations,in general even as a law let alone
mystic knowledge of
one
’s immediately precedent life?Early education tradition and training of thought
everything is
opposing
itself during their whole lives to such a belief.Cultured people have been
brought up in that
most
pernicious idea that the wide difference found between the units of one and the
same mankind or
even
race is the result of chance;that the gulf between man and man in their
respective social positions,
birth
intellect physical and mental capacities -every one of which qualifications has
a direct influence on
every
human life -that all this is simply due to blind hazard only the most pious among
them finding
equivocal
consolation in the idea that it is “the will of God.” They have never analysed
never stopped to
think
of the depth of the opprobrium that is thrown upon their God once the grand and
most equitable
law
of the manifold re-births of man upon this earth is foolishly rejected.Men and
women anxious to be
regarded
as Christians,often truly and sincerely trying to lead a Christ-like life have
never paused to
reflect
over the words of their own Bible.
Jesus Taught Reincarnation -(Page 65)“Art thou Elias?” the Jewish priests and Levites asked the
Baptist.[
John,i.21.] Their Saviour taught His disciples this grand
truth of the Esoteric Philosophy but
verily
if His Apostles comprehended it no one else seems to have realised its true
meaning.No;not
even
Nicodemus,who to the assertion:“Except a man be born again [John,iii
“Born ” from above viz.,
from
his Monad or divine EGO the seventh Principle which remains till the end of the
Kalpa the nucleus
of
and at the same time the overshadowing Principle as the Karanatma (Causal
Soul)of the personality
in
every rebirth.In this sense the sentence “born anew ” means “descends from
above ” the last two
words
having no reference to heaven or space neither of which can be limited or
located since one is a
state
and the other infinite hence having no cardinal points.(See New
Testament,Revised Version
loc.cit.)] he
cannot see the Kingdom of God ” answers:“How can a man be born when he is old?”
and is
forthwith
reproved by the remark:“Art thou a Master in Israel and knowest not these
things?-as no one
had
a right to call himself a “Master ” and Teacher without having been initiated
into the mysteries (a)of a
spiritual
re-birth through water fire and spirit and (b)of the re-birth from flesh.[ This
can have no
reference
to Christian Baptism,since there was none in the days of Nicodemus and he could
not
therefore
know anything of it even though a “Master.”] Then again what can be a clearer
expression as
to
the doctrine of manifold re-births than the answer given by Jesus to the
Sadducees,“who deny that
there
is any resurrection ” i.e.,any re-birth since the dogma of the
resurrection in the flesh is now
regarded
as an absurdity even by the intelligent clergy:
They
who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world [Nirvana ] [ This
word translated in
the
New Testament “world ”to suit the official interpretation means rather
an “age ”(as shown
in
the Revised Version )or one of the periods during the Manvantara a Kalpa
or Aeon.
Esoterically
the sentence would read:“He who shall reach through a series of births and
Karmic
law the state in which Humanity shall find itself after the Seventh Round and
the
Seventh
Race when comes Nirvana Moksha and when man becomes ‘equal unto the
Angels
’ of Dhyan Chohans,is a ‘son of the resurrection ’ and ‘can die no more ’:then
there will
be
no marriage as there will be no difference of sexes ”-a result of our present
materiality and
animalism
.]....neither marry ...Neither can they die any more
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which
shows that they had already died and more than once.And again:
Now
that the dead are raised even Moses shewed ...He calleth the Lord the God of
Abraham
and the God of Isaac,and the God of Jacob for he is not a God of the dead but
of
the
living.[ L ke,xx.27-38.]
The
sentence “now that the dead are raised ” evidently applied to the then
actual re-births of the Jacobs
and
the Isaacs,and not to their (Page
66)future resurrection;for in such case
they would have been still
dead
in the interim and could not be referred to as “the living.”
But
in the most suggestive of Christ ’s parables and “dark sayings ” is found in
the explanation given by
him
to his Apostles about the blind man:
Master
who did sin this man or his parents,that he was born blind?Jesus answered
Neither
hath
this [blind physical ] man sinned nor his parents;but that the works of [his ]
God should be
made
manifest in him.[ John ix.2.3.]
Man
is the “tabernacle ” the “building ” only of his God;and of course it is not
the temple but its inmate -
the
vehicle of “God ” [The conscious Ego of Fifth Principle Manas,the
vehicle of the divine Monad or
“God
”.] that had sinned in a previous incarnation and had thus brought the
Karma of cecity upon the new
building.Thus
Jesus spoke truly;but to this day his followers have refused to understand the
words of
wisdom
spoken.The Saviour is shown by his followers as though he were paving by his
words and
explanation
the way to a preconceived programme that had to lead to an intended
miracle.Verily the
Grand
Martyr has remained thenceforward and for eighteen centuries,the Victim
crucified daily far more
cruelly
by his clerical disciples and lay followers than he ever could have been by his
allegorical enemies.
For
such is the true sense of the words “that the works of God should be made
manifest in him ” in the
light
of theological interpretation and a very undignified one it is,if the Esoteric
explanation is rejected.
Doubtless
the above will be regarded as fresh blasphemy.Nevertheless there are a number
of Christians
whom
we know -whose hearts go out as strongly to their ideal of Jesus,as their souls
are repelled from
the
theological picture of the official Saviour -who will reflect over our
explanation and find in it no
offence
but perchance a relief.
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SECTION VI
The Dangers of Practical Magic
(Page 67)MAGIC is a dual power:nothing is easier than to turn it
into Sorcery;an evil tho ght suffices for
it.Therefore while
theoretical Occultism is harmless,and may do good practical Magic,or the fruits
of
the
Tree of Life and Knowledge [ Some Symbologists relying on the
correspondence of numbers and the
symbols
of certain things and personages,refer these “secrets ” to the mystery of
generation.But it is
more
than this.The glyph of the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil ” has no doubt a
phallic and sexual
element
in it as has the “Woman and the Serpent ” ;but it has also a psychical and
spiritual significance.
Symbols
are meant to yield more than one meaning.] or otherwise the “Science of
Good and Evil ” is
fraught
with dangers and perils.For the study of theoretical Occultism there are no
doubt a number of
works
that may be read with profit besides such books as the Finer Forces of Nat
re,etc.the Zohar,
Sepher Jetzirah,The Book of Enoch,Franck ’s Kabalah,and many Hermetic treatises.These
are scarce
in
European languages,but works in Latin by the mediaeval Philosophers,generally
known as
Alchemists
and Rosicrucians,are plentiful.But even the perusal of these may prove
dangerous for the
unguided
student.If approached without the right key to them and if the student is unfit
owing to mental
incapacity
for Magic,and is thus unable to discern the Right from the Left Path let him
take our advice
and
leave this study alone;he will only bring on himself and on his family
unexpected woes and sorrows,
never
suspecting whence they come nor what are the powers awakened by his mind being
bent on
them.Works
for advanced students are many but these can be placed at the disposal of only
sworn or
“pledged
” chelas (disciples),those who have pronounced the ever-binding oath and who
are therefore
helped
and protected.For all other purposes,well-intentioned as such works may (Page 68)be they can
only
mislead the unwary and guide them imperceptibly to Black Magic or Sorcery -if
to nothing worse.
The
mystic characters,alphabets and numerals found in the divisions and
sub-divisions of the Great
Kabalah are
perhaps,the most dangerous portions in it and especially the numerals.We say
dangerous,because
they are the most prompt to produce effects and results and this with or
without the
experimenter
’s will even without his knowledge.Some students are apt to doubt this
statement simply
because
after manipulating these numerals they have failed to notice any dire physical
manifestation or
result.Such
results would be found the least dangerous:it is the moral causes produced and
the various
events
developed and brought to an unforeseen crisis,that would testify to the truth
of what is now stated
had
the lay students only the power of discernment.
The
point of departure of that special branch of the Occult teaching known as the
“Science of
Correspondences,”numerical
or literal or alphabetical has for its epigraph with the Jewish and
Christian
Kabalists,the two mis-interpreted verses which say that God ordered all things
in
number
measure and weight;[ Wisdom,xi.21.Douay version ]
and:
He
created her in the Holy Ghost and saw her and numbered her and measured her.[
Ecclesiasticus,i.9.Douay
version.]
But
the Eastern Occultists have another epigraph:“Absol te Unity,x,within
number and plurality.” Both
the
Western and the Eastern students of the Hidden Wisdom hold to this axiomatic
truth.Only the latter
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are
perhaps more sincere in their confessions.Instead of putting a mask on their
Science they show her
face
openly even if they do veil carefully her heart and soul before the
inappreciative public and the
profane
who are ever ready to abuse the most sacred truths for their own selfish
ends.But Unity is the
real
basis of the Occult Sciences -physical and metaphysical.This is shown even by
Eliphas Levi the
learned
Western Kabalist inclined as he is to be rather jesuitical.He says:
Absolute
Unity is the supreme and final reason of things.Therefore that reason can be
neither
one
person nor three persons;it is Reason and preeminently Reason (raison par
excellence ).
[ Dogme et Rit el
de la Ha te Magie,i,361 .]
Names are Symbols -(Page 69)The meaning
of this Unity in Plurality in “God ” or Nature can be solved
only
by the means of transcendental methods,by numerals,as by the correspondences
between soul
and
the Soul.Names,in the Kabalah,as in the Bible such as Jehovah
Adam Kadmon Eve Cain Abel
Enoch
are all of them more intimately connected by geometrical and astronomical
relations,with
Physiology
(or Phallicism)than with Theology or Religion.Little as people are as yet
prepared to admit it
this
will be shown to be a fact.If all those names are symbols for things hidden as
well as for those
manifested
in the Bible as in the Vedas,their respective mysteries differ
greatly.Plato ’s motto “God
geometrises
” was accepted by both Aryans and Jews;but while the former applied their
Science of
Correspondences
to veil the most spiritual and sublime truths of Nature the latter used their
acumen to
conceal
only one -to them the most divine -of the mysteries of Evolution namely that of
birth and
generation
and then they deified the organs of the latter.
Apart
from this,every cosmogony from the earliest to the latest is based upon
interlinked with and most
closely
related to numerals and geometric figures.Questioned by an Initiate these
figures and numbers
will
yield numerical values based on the integral values of the Circle -“the secret
habitat of the ever-
invisible
Deity ” as the Alchemists have it -as they will yield every other Occult
particular connected with
such
mysteries,whether anthropographical anthroplogical cosmic,or psychical.“In
reuniting Ideas to
Numbers,we
can operate upon Ideas in the same way as upon Numbers,and arrive at the
Mathematics
of
Truth ”writes an Occultist who shows his great wisdom in desiring to remain
unknown.
Any
Kabalist well acquainted with the Pythagorean system of numerals and geometry can
demonstrate
that the metaphysical views of Plato were based upon the strictest mathematical
principles.“True
mathematics,”says the Magicon “is something with which all higher
sciences
are
connected;common mathematics is but a deceitful phantasmagoria whose much
praised
infallibility
only arises from this -that materials,conditions and references are made to
foundation.”
The
cosmological theory of numerals which Pythagoras learned in India and from the
Egyptian
Hierophants is alone able to reconcile the two units,matter and spirit and
cause
each
to demonstrate the other mathematically.The sacred numbers of the universe in
their
esoteric
combination can alone solve the great problem and explain the theory of
radiation
and
the cycle of the emanations.The lower orders,before they develop into higher
ones,must
emanate
from the (Page 70)higher spiritual ones,and when arrived at the turning-point
be
reabsorbed
into the infinite.[Isis Unveiled,i 6,7.]
It
is upon these true Mathematics that the knowledge of the Kosmos and of all
mysteries rests,and to
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one
acquainted with them it is the easiest thing possible to prove that both Vaidic
and Biblical structures
are
based upon “God-in-Nature ” and “Nature-in-God ” as the radical law.Therefore
this law -as
everything
else immutable and fixed in eternity -could find a correct expression only in
those purest
transcendental
Mathematics referred to by Plato especially in Geometry as transcendentally
applied.
Revealed to men -we
fear not and will not retract the expression -in this geometrical and
symbolical
garb
Truth has grown and developed into additional symbology invented by man for the
wants and
better
comprehension of the masses of mankind that came too late in their cyclic
development and
evolution
to have shared in the primitive knowledge and would never have grasped it
otherwise.If later
on
the clergy -crafty and ambitious of power in every age -anthropomorphised and
degraded abstract
ideals,as
well as the real and divine Beings who do exist in Nature and are the Guardians
and
Protectors
of our manvantaric world and period the fault and guilt rests with those would-be
leaders,not
with
the masses.
But
the day has come when the gross conceptions of our forefathers during the
Middle Ages can no
longer
satisfy the thoughtful religionist.The mediaeval Alchemist and Mystic are now
transformed into the
sceptical
Chemist and Physicist;and most of them are found to have turned away from truth
on account
of
the purely anthropomorphic ideas,the gross Materialism of the forms in which it
is presented to them.
Therefore
future generations have either to be gradually initiated into the truths
underlying Exoteric
Religions,including
their own or to be left to break the feet of clay of the last of the gilded
idols.No
educated
man or woman would turn away from any of the now called “superstitions,” which
they believe
to
be based on nursery tales and ignorance if they could only see the basis of
fact that underlies every
“superstition.”
But let them once learn for a certainty that there is hardly a claim in the
Occult Sciences
that
is not founded on philosophical and scientific facts in Nature and they will
pursue the study of those
Sciences
with the same if not with greater ardour than that they have expended in
shunning them.This
cannot
be achieved at once for to benefit mankind such truths have to be revealed
gradually and with
great
caution the public mind not being prepared for them.
The Three Mothers -(Page 71)However much
the Agnostics of our age may find themselves in the
mental
attitude demanded by Modern Science people are always apt to cling to their old
hobbies so long
as
the remembrance of them lasts.They are like the Emperor Julian -called the
Apostate because he
loved
truth too well to accept aught else -who though in his last Theophany he beheld
his beloved Gods
as
pale worn-out and hardly discernible shadows,nevertheless clung to them.Let
then the world cling
to
its Gods,to whatever plane or realm they may belong.The true Occultist would be
guilty of high
treason
to mankind were he to break forever the old deities before he could replace
them with the whole
and
unadulterated truth -and this he cannot do as yet.Nevertheless,the reader may
be allowed to learn
at
least the alphabet of that truth.He may be shown at any rate what the Gods and
Goddesses of the
Pagans,denounced
as demons by the Church are not if he cannot learn the whole and final truth as
to
what
they are.Let him assure himself that the Hermetic “Tres Matres,” and the “Three
Mothers ” of the
Sepher Jetzirah are
one and the same thing;that they are no Demon-Goddesses,but Light Heat and
Electricity
and then perchance the learned classes will spurn them no longer.After this,the
Rosicrucian
Illuminati
may find followers even in the Royal Academies,which will be more prepared
perhaps,than
they
are now to admit the grand truths of archaic Natural Philosophy especially when
their learned
members
shall have assured themselves that in the dialect of Hermes,the “Three Mothers
” stand as
symbols
for the whole of the forces or agencies which have a place assigned to them in
the modern
system
of the “correlation of forces.” [ “Synesius mentions books of stone
which he found in the temple of
Memphis,on
one of which was engraved the following sentence:‘One nat re delights in
another one
nature
overcomes another one nature overrules another and the whole of them are one
’.” “The inherent
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restlessness
of matter is embodied in the saying of Hermes:‘Action is he life of Phta ’:and
Orpheus calls
nature
÷ďëőěç÷áíďň ěáôçń ‘the mother that makes many things,’ or the ingenious,the
contiving the
inventive
mother.”-Isis Unveiled.i.257.]Even the polytheism of the
“superstitious ”Brâhman and idolater
shows
its raison d ’ętre,since the three Shaktis of the three great
Gods,Brahma Vishnu and Shiva are
identical
with the “Three Mothers ”of the monotheistic Jew.
The
whole of the ancient religious and mystical literature is symbolical.The Books
of Hermes,the Zohar,
the
Ya-Yakav,the Egyptian Book of the Dead,(Page 72)the Vedas,the Upanishads,and the Bible are
as
full
of symbolism as are the Nabathean revelations of the Chaldaic Qu-tâmy;it is a
loss of time to ask
which
is the earliest;all are simply different versions of the one primeval Record of
prehistoric knowledge
and
revelation.
The
first four chapters of Genesis contain the synopsis of all the rest of
the Pentate ch,being only the
various
versions of the same thing in different allegorical and symbolical
applications.Having discovered
that
the Pyramid of Cheops with all its measurements is to be found contained in its
minutest details in
the
structure of Solomon ’s Temple;and having ascertained that the biblical names
Shem Ham and
Japhet
are determinative
of
pyramid measures,in connection with the 600-year period of Noah and the
500-year period
of
Shem Ham and Japhet:...the term “Sons of Elohim ”and “Daughters ”of H-Adam [are
] for
one
thing astronomical terms,[ So rce of Measures.p.x.]
the
author of the very curious work already mentioned -a book very little known in
Europe we regret to
say
-seems to see nothing in his discovery beyond the presence of Mathematics and
Metrology in the
Bible .He also arrives
at most unexpected and extraordinary conclusions,such as are very little
warranted
by the facts discovered.His impression seems to be that because the Jewish
biblical names
are
all astronomical therefore the Scriptures of all the other nations can be “only
this and nothing more.”
But
this is a great mistake of the erudite and wonderfully acute author of The
So rce of Measures,if he
really
thinks so.The “Key to the Hebrew-Egyptian Mystery ” unlocks but a certain
portion of the hieratic
writings
of these two nations,and leaves those of other peoples untouched.His idea is
that the Kabalah
“is
only that sublime Science upon which Masonry is based ” ,in fact he regards
Masonry as the
substance
of the Kabalah,and the latter as the “rational basis of the Hebrew text
of Holy Writ.” About this
we
will not argue with the author.But why should all those who may have found in
the Kabalah
something
beyond “the sublime Science ”upon which Masonry is alleged to have been built
be held up to
public
contempt?
In
its exclusiveness and one-sidedness such a conclusion is pregnant with future
misconceptions and is
absolutely
wrong.In its uncharitable criticism it throws a slur upon the “Divine Science
”itself.
The Bible and Word -Juggling -(Page 73)The Kabalah is indeed “of the essence of Masonry
”but it is
dependent
on Metrology only in one of its aspects the less Esoteric,as even Plato made no
secret that
the
Deity was ever geometrising.For the uninitiated however learned and endowed
with genius they
may
be the Kabalah which treats only of “the garment of God ”or the veil and
cloak of truth
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is
built from the ground upward with a practical application to present uses.[ Masonic
Review,
July
1886 ]
Or
in other words represents an exact Science only on the terrestrial plane.To the
initiated the Kabalistic
Lord
descends from the primeval Race generated spiritually from the “Mind-born
Seven.”Having
reached
the Earth the Divine Mathematics -a synonym for Magic in his day as we are told
by Josephus -
veiled
her face.Hence the most important secret yet yielded by her in our modern day
is the identity of
the
old Roman measures and the present British measures of the Hebrew-Egyptian
cubit and the
Masonic
inch.[See So rce of Measures pp.47 -50 et pass.]
The
discovery is most wonderful and has led to further and minor unveilings of
various riddles in
reference
to Symbology and biblical names.It is thoroughly understood and proven as shown
by
Nachanides,that
in the days of Moses the initial sentence in Genesis was made to read B
’rash ithbara
Elohim,or “In the
head-source [ or Műlaprakriti -the Rootless Root ] developed [or evolved ] the
Gods
[Elohim
] the heavens and the earth;”whereas it is now owing to the Massora and
theological cunning
transformed
into B ’rashith bara Elohim,or “In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth ”-
which
word juggling alone has led to materialistic anthropomorphism and dualism.] How
many more
similar
instances may not be found in the Bible the last and latest of the
Occult works of antiquity?There
is
no longer any doubt in the mind of the Occultist that notwithstanding its form
and outward meaning
the
Bible -as explained by the Zohar or Midrash,the Yetsirah
(Book of Creation)and the Commentary
on the Ten Sephiroth (by
Azariel Ben Manachem of the X11th century)-is part and parcel of the Secret
Doctrine
of the Aryans,which explains in the same manner the Vedas and all other
allegorical books.The
Zohar in teaching that
the Impersonal One Cause manifests in the Universe through Its Emanations,the
Sephiroth
-that Universe being in its (Page
74)totality simply the veil woven from the
Deity ’s own
substance
-is undeniably the copy and faithful echo of the earliest Vedas .Taken
by itself without the
additional
help of the Vaidic and of Brahmanical literature in general the Bible will
never yield the
universal
secrets of Occult Nature.The cubits inches,and measures of this physical plane
will never
solve
the problems of the world on the spiritual plane -for Spirit can neither be
weighed nor measured.
The
working out of these problems is reserved for the “mystics and the dreamers
”who alone are capable
of
accomplishing it.
Moses
was an initiated priest versed in all the mysteries and the Occult knowledge of
the Egyptian
temples
-hence thoroughly acquainted with primitive Wisdom.It is in the latter that the
symbolical and
astronomical
meaning of that “Mystery of Mysteries,”the Great Pyramid has to be sought.And
having
been
so familiar with the geometrical secrets that lay concealed for long aeons in
her strong bosom -the
measurements
and proportions of the Kosmos,our little Earth included -what wonder that he
should
have
made use of his knowledge?The Esoterism of Egypt was that of the whole world at
one time.
During
the long ages of the Third Race it had been the heirloom in common of the whole
of mankind
received
from their Instructors,the “Sons of Light ”the primeval Seven.There was a time
also when the
Wisdom-Religion
was not symbolical for it became Esoteric only gradually the change being
necessitated
by misuse and by the Sorcery of the Atlanteans.For it was the “misuse ”only and
not the
use
of the divine gift that led the men of the Fourth Race to Black Magic and
Sorcery and finally to
become
“forgetful of Wisdom ” ;while those of the Fifth Race the inheritors of the
Rishis of the Treta
Yuga
used their powers to atrophise such gifts in mankind in general and then as the
“Elect Root ”
dispersed.Those
who escaped the “Great Flood ”preserved only its memory and a belief founded on
the
knowledge
of their direct fathers of one remove that such a Science existed and was now jealously
guarded
by the “Elect Root ”exalted by Enoch.But there must again come a time when man
shall once
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more
become what he was during the second Yuga (age),when his probationary cycle
shall be over and
he
shall gradually become what he was -semi-corporeal and pure.Does not Plato the
Initiate tell us in
the
Phaedrus all that man once was and that which he may yet again become:
Before
man ’s spirit sank into sensuality and became embodied through the loss of his
wings,
he
lived among the Gods in the airy spiritual world where everything is true and
pure.[ See
Cary's
translation pp.322 323.]
Moses and the Jews -(Page 75 )Elsewhere he
speaks of the time when men did not perpetuate
themselves,but
lived as pure spirits.
Let
those men of Science who feel inclined to laugh at this,themselves unravel the
mystery of the origin
of
the first man.
Unwilling
that his chosen people -chosen by him -should remain as grossly idolatrous as
the profane
masses
that surrounded them Moses utilised his knowledge of cosmogonical mysteries of
the Pyramid
to
build upon it the Genesiacal Cosmogony in symbols and glyphs.This was more
accessible to the
minds
of the hoi polloi than the abstruse truths taught to the educated in the
sanctuaries.He invented
nothing
but the outward garb added not one iota;but in this he merely followed the
example of older
nations
and Initiates.If he clothed the grand truths revealed to him by his Hierophant
under the most
ingenious
imagery he did it to meet the requirements of the Israelites;that stiff-necked
race would accept
no
God unless He were as anthropomorphic as those of the Olympus;and he himself
failed to foresee
the
times when highly educated statesmen would be defending the husks of the fruit
of wisdom that grew
and
developed in him on Mount Sinai when communing with his own personal God -his
divine Self.
Moses
understood the great danger of delivering such truths to the selfish for he
understood the fable of
Prometheus
and remembered the past.Hence he veiled them from the profanation of public
gaze and
gave
them out allegorically.And this is why his biographer says of him that when he
descended from
Sinai
Moses
wist not that the skin of his face shone ...And he put a veil upon his face.[
Exod s.
xxxiv.29
33.]
And
so he “put a veil ”upon the face of his Pentate ch;and to such an extent
that using orthodox
chronology
only 3376 years after the event people begin to acquire a conviction that it is
“ a veil indeed.”
It
is not the face of God or even of a Johovah shining through;not even the face
of Moses,but verily the
faces
of the later Rabbis.
No
wonder if Clemens wrote in the Stromateis that:
Similar
then to the Hebrew enigmas in respect to concealment are those of the Egyptians
also.[
Op,cit.,V,vii.]
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SECTION VII
Old Wine in New Bottles
(Page 76)IT is more than likely that the Protestants in the days of
the Reformation knew nothing of the
true
origin of Christianity or to be more explicit and correct of Latin
Ecclesiasticism.Nor is it probable
that
the Greek Church knew much of it the separation between the two having occurred
at a time when
in
the struggle for political power the Latin Church was securing at any cost the
alliance of the highly
educated
the ambitious and influential Pagans,while these were willing to assume the
outward
appearance
of the new worship provided they were themselves kept in power.There is no need
to
remind
the reader here of the details of that struggle well-known to every educated
man.It is certain that
the
highly cultivated Gnostics and their leaders -such men as Saturnilus,an
uncompromising ascetic,as
Marcion
Valentinus,Basilides,Menander and Cerinthus -were not stigmatised by the
(now)Latin
Church
because they were heretics,nor because their tenets and practices were indeed “ob
t rpit dinem
portentosam nimi m et horribilem,”“monstrous,revolting abominations,” as Baronius says of
those of
Carpocrates
;but simply because they knew too much of fact and truth.Kenneth R.H.Mackenzie
correctly
remarks;
They
were stigmatised by the later Roman Church because they came into conflict with
the
purer
Church of Christianity -the possession of which was usurped by the Bishops of
Rome
but
which original continues in its docility towards the founder in the Primitive
Orthodox Greek
Church.[
The Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia nder “Gnosticism.”]
Unwilling
to accept the responsibility of gratuitous assumptions,the writer deems it best
to prove this
inference
by more than one personal and defiant admission of an ardent Roman Catholic
writer evidently
entrusted
with the delicate task by the Vatican.
Copies That Ante-Dated Originals -(Page 77)The Marquis de Mirville makes desperate efforts to
explain
to the Catholic interest certain remarkable discoveries in Archaeology and
Palaeography though
the
Church is cleverly made to remain outside of the quarrel and defence.This is
undeniably shown by
his
ponderous volumes addressed to the Academy of France between 1803 and
1865.Seizing the
pretext
of drawing the attention of the materialistic “Immortals ”to the “epidemic of
Spiritualism ”the
invasion
of Europe and America by a numberless host of Satanic forces,he directs his
efforts towards
proving
the same by giving the full Genealogies and the Theogony of the Christian and
Pagan deities,
and
by drawing parallels between the two.All such wonderful likenesses and
identities are only “seeming
and
superficial ”he assures the reader.Christian symbols,and even characters,Christ
the Virgin
Angels
and Saints,tells them were all personated centuries beforehand by the fiends of
hell in order to
discredit
eternal truth by their ungodly copies.By their knowledge of futurity the devils
anticipated events,
having
discovered the secrets of the Angels.”Heathen Deities,all the Sun-Gods,named
Sotors -
Saviours
-born of immaculate mothers and dying a violent death were only Ferouers [In
the Fero ers
and
Devs of Jacobi (Letters F.and D.)the word “ferouer ”is explained in the
following manner:The
Ferouer
is a part of the creature (whether man or animal)of which it is the type and
which it survives.It is
the
Nous of the Greeks,therefore divine and immortal and thus can hardly be the
Devil or the satanic
copy
De Mirville would represent it (See Memoires de l ’Academie des Inscriptions
Vol.XXXV11 P.623
and
chap.xxxix.p.749).Foucher contradicts him entirely.The Ferouer was never the
“principle of
sensations,”but
always referred to the most divine and pure portion of Man ’s Ego -the spiritual
principle.
Anquetil
says the Ferouer is the purest portion of man ’s soul.The Persian Dev is the
antithesis of the
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Ferouer
for the Dev has been transformed by Zoroaster into the Genius of Evil (whence
the Christian
Devil),but
even the Dev is only finite:for having become possessed of the soul of man by s
rpation it
will
have to leave it at the great day of Retribution.The Dev obsesses the soul of
the defunct for three
days
during which the soul wanders about the spot at which it was forcibly separated
from its body the
Ferouer
ascends to the region of eternal Light.It was an unfortunate idea that made the
noble Marquis
de
Mirville imagine the Ferouer to be a “satanic copy ” of a divine original.By
calling all the Gods of the
Pagans
-Apollo Osiris,Brahma Ormazd Bel etc.the “Ferouers of Christ and of the chief
Angels,”he
merely
exhibits the God and the Angels he would honour as inferior to the Pagan
Gods,as man is inferior
to
his Soul and Spirit:since the Ferouer is the immortal part of the mortal being
of which it is the type and
which
it survives.Perchance the poor author is unconsciously prophetic:and Apollo
Brahma Ormazd
Osiris,etc.are
destined to survive and replace -as eternal cosmic verities -the evanescent
fictions
about
the God Christ and Angels of the Latin Church!]-as they were called by
the Zoroastrians -the
demon-ante-dated
copies (copies anticipées )of the Messiah to come
The
danger of recognition of such facsimiles had indeed lately become
dangerously great.It had lingered
threateningly
in the air hanging like a sword of Damocles over the Church since the days of
Voltaire
Dupuis
and other writers on similar lines.The discoveries (Page 78)of the Egyptologists,the finding of
Assyrian
and Babylonian pre-Mosaic relics bearing the legend of Moses [ See
George Smith's Babylon
and
other works ]and especially the many rationalistic works published in
England such as S pernat ral
Religion made
recognition unavoidable.Hence the appearance of Protestant and Roman Catholic
writers
deputed to explain the inexplicable;to reconcile the face of Divine Revelation
with the mystery
that
the divine personages,rites,dogmas and symbols of Christianity were so often
identical with those
of
the several great heathen religions.The former -the Protestant defenders -tried
to explain it on the
ground
of “prophetic,precursory ideas ” ;the Latinists,such as De Mirville by
inventing a double set of
Angels
and Gods,the one divine and true the other -the earlier -“copies ante-dating
the originals ”and
due
to a clever plagiarism by the Evil One.The Protestant stratagem is an old one
that of the Roman
Catholics
is so old that it has been forgotten and is as good as new.Dr.Lundy ’s Mon
mental Christianity
and
A Miracle in Stone belong to the first attempts.De.Mirville ’s Pne
matologie to the second.In India
and
China every such effort on the part of the Scotch and other missionaries ends
in laughter and does
no
harm;the plan devised by the Jesuits is more serious.De Mirville ’s volumes are
thus very important
as
they proceed from a source which has undeniably the greatest learning of the
age at its service and
this
coupled with all the craft and casuistry that the sons of Loyola can
furnish.The Marquis de Mirville
was
evidently helped by the acutest minds in the service of Rome.
He
begins by not only admitting the justice of every imputation and charge made against
the Latin
Church
as to the originality of her dogmas,but by taking a seeming delight in
anticipating such charges;
for
he points to every dogma of Christianity as having existed in Pagan rituals in
Antiquity.The whole
Pantheon
of Heathen Deities is passed in review by him and each is shown to have had
some point of
resemblance
with the Trinitarian personages and Mary.There is hardly a mystery a dogma or a
rite in
the
Latin Church that is not shown by the author as having been “parodied by the Curvati
”-the “Curved ”
the
Devils.All this being admitted and explained the Symbologists ought to be
silenced.And so they
would
be if there were no materialistic critics to reject such omnipotency of the
Devil in this world.For if
Rome
admits the likenesses,she also claims the right of judgment between the true
and the false
Avatâra
the real and the unreal God between the original and the copy -though the copy
precedes the
original
by millenniums.
Page
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Which Were the Thieves?-(Page 79)Our author proceeds to argue that whenever the missionaries
try
to
convert an idolater they are invariably answered:
We
had our Crucified before yours.What do you come to show us?[This is as
fanciful as it is
arbitrary.Where
is the Hindu or Buddhist who would speak of his “Crucified ’?] Again
what
should
we gain by denying the mysterious side of this copy under the plea that according
to
Weber
all the present P ranas are remade from older ones,since here we have in
the same
order
of personages a positive precedence which no one would ever think of
contesting.[Op.
cit.,iv.237 ]
And
the author instances Buddha Krishna Apollo etc.Having admitted all this he
escapes the difficulty
in
this wise:
The
Church Fathers,however who recognised their own property under all such sheep
’s
clothing
...knowing by means of the Gospel ...all the ruses of the pretended spirits of
light;
the
Fathers,we say meditating upon the decisive words,“all that ever came before me
are
robbers
”(John,x.8),did not hesitate in recognising the Occult agency at work
the general
and
superhuman direction given beforehand to falsehood the universal attribute and
environment
of all these false Gods of the nations;“omnes dii genti m daemonia (elilim
).”
(Psalm
xcv.)[ Loc cit.,250.]
With
such a policy everything is made easy.There is not one glaring resemblance not
one fully proven
identity
that could not thus be made away with.The above-quoted cruel selfish
self-glorifying words,
placed
by John in the mouth of Him who was meekness and charity personified could
never have been
pronounced
by Jesus.The Occultists reject the imputation indignantly and are prepared to
defend the
man
as against the God by showing whence come the words,plagiarised by the author
of the Fourth
Gospel.They
are taken bodily from the “Prophecies ”in the Book of Enoch .The
evidence on this head of
the
learned biblical scholar Archbishop Laurence and of the author of the Evol
tion of Christianity who
edited
the translation may be brought forward to prove the fact.On the last page of
the Introduction to
the
Book of Enoch is found the following passage:
The
parable of the sheep rescued by the good Shepherd from hireling guardians and
ferocious
wolves,is
obviously borrowed by the fourth Evangelist from (Page 80)Enoch,Ixxxix,in which
the
author depicts the shepherds as killing and destroying the sheep before the
advent of the
Lord
and this discloses the true meaning of that hitherto mysterious passage in the
Johannine
parable
-“All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers ”-language in which we
now
detect
an obvious reference to the allegorical shepherds of Enoch.
“Obvious
”truly and something else besides.For if Jesus pronounced the words in the
sense attributed
to
him then he must have read the Book of Enoch -a purely Kabalistic,Occult
work,and he therefore
recognised
the worth and value of a treatise now declared apocryphal by his
Churches.Moreover he
could
not have been ignorant that these words belonged to the oldest ritual of
Inititation.
[“Q ” :Who knocks at
the door?
A.:The
good cowherd.
Page
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Q.:Who
preceded thee?
A.:The
three robbers.
Q.:Who
follows thee?
A.:The
three murderers,” etc.etc.”
Now
this is the conversation that took place between the priest-initiators and the
candidates
for
initiation during the mysteries enacted in the oldest sanctuaries of the
Himalayan
fastnesses.The
ceremony is still performed to this day in one of the most ancient temples in a
secluded
spot of Nepaul.It originated with the Mysteries of the first Krishna passed to
the
First
Tirthankara and ended with Buddha and is called the Kurukshetra rite being
enacted as
a
memorial of the great battle and death of the divine Adept.It is not Masonry
but an initiation
into
the Occult teachings of that Hero-Occultism pure and simple.]
And
if he had not read it and the sentence belongs to John or whoever wrote the
Fourth Gospel then
what
reliance can be placed on the authenticity of other sayings and parables attributed
to the Christian
Saviour?
Thus,De
Mirville ’s illustration is an unfortunate one.Every other proof brought by the
Church to show the
infernal
character of the ante-and-anti-Christian copyists may be easily disposed
of.This is perhaps
unfortunate
but it is a fact nevertheless -Magna est veritas et prevalebit.
The
above is the answer to the Occultists to the two parties who charge them
incessantly the one with
“Superstition.”and
the other with “Sorcery.”To those of our Brothers who are Christians,and twit
us with
the
secresy imposed upon the Eastern Chelas,adding invariably that their own “Book
of God ’ is “an open
volume
”for all “to read understand and be saved .” we would reply by asking
them to study what we
have
just said in this Section and then to refute it -if they can.There are very few
in our days who are
still
prepared to assure their readers that the Bible had
God
for its author salvation for its end and truth without any mixture of error for
its matter.
Character of the Bible -(Page 81)Could Locke be asked the question now he would perhaps be
unwilling
to repeat again that the Bible is
all
pure all sincere nothing too much nothing wanting.
The
Bible,if it is not to be shown to be the very reverse of all this,sadly
needs an interpreter acquainted
with
the doctrines of the East as they are to be found in its secret volumes;nor is
it safe now after
Archbishop
Laurence's translation of the Book of Enoch to cite Cowper and assure us
that the Bible
...gives a light to
every age
It
gives,but borrows none.
for
it does borrow and that very considerably;especially in the opinion of those
who ignorant of its
symbolical
meaning and of the university of the truths underlying and concealed in it are
able to judge
Page
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only
from its dead letter appearance.It is a grand volume a master-piece composed of
clever ingenious
fables
containing great verities;but it reveals the latter only to those who like the
Initiates,have a key to
its
inner meaning;a tale sublime in its morality and didactics truly -still a tale
and an allegory;a repertory
of
invented personages in its older Jewish portions,and of dark sayings and
parables in its later
additions,and
thus quite misleading to anyone ignorant of its Esotericism.Moreover it is
Astrolatry and
Sabaean
worship pure and simple that is to be found in the Pentate ch when it is
read exoterically and
Archaic
Science and Astronomy to a most wonderful degree when interpreted
-Esoterically.
Page
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SECTION VIII
The Book of Enoch The Origin and the
Foundation of Christianity
(Page 82)WHILE making a good deal of the Mercavah the Jews or
rather their synagogues,rejected the
Book of Enoch,either
because it was not included from the first in the Hebrew Canon or else as
Tertullian
thought it was disavowed
by
the Jews like all other Scripture which speaks of Christ [Book of
Enoch,Archbishop
Laurence
’s translation.Introduction p.v.]
But
neither of these reasons was the real one.The Synedrion would have nothing to
do with it simply
because
it was more of a magic than a purely kabalistic work.The present day
Theologians of both Latin
and
Protestant Churches class it among apocryphal productions.Nevertheless the New
Testament
especially
in the Acts and Epistles,teems with ideas and doctrines,now
accepted and established as
dogmas
by the infallible Roman and other Churches,and even with the whole sentences
taken bodily
from
Enoch or the “pseudo-Enoch ” who wrote under that name in Aramaic or
Syro-Chaldaic,as
asserted
by Bishop Laurence the translator of the Ethiopian text.
The
plagiarisms are so glaring that the author of The Evol tion of Christianity who
edited
Bishop
Laurence ’s translation was compelled to make some suggestive remarks in his
Introduction.On
internal evidence [ The Book of Enoch was unknown to Europe for a
thousand
years when Bruce found in Abyssinia some copies of it in Ethiopic;it was
translated
by
Archbishop Laurence in 1821 from the text in the Bodleian Library Oxford .] this
book is
found
to have been written before the Christian period (whether two or twenty
centuries does
not
matter).As correctly argued by the Editor it is
either
the inspired forecast of a great Hebrew prophet predicting with miraculous
accuracy the
future
teaching of Jesus of Nazareth or the Semitic romance from which the latter
borrowed
His
conceptions of the triumphant return of the Son of man to occupy a judicial
throne in the
midst
of rejoicing saints and trembling sinners,expectant of everlasting happiness or
eternal
fire;and
whether these celestial visions be accepted as human or Divine they have
exercised
so
vast an influence on the destinies of mankind for nearly two thousand years
that candid and
impartial
seekers after religious truth can no longer delay enquiry into the relationship
of the
Book of Enoch with the
revelation or the evolution of Christianity.[Op.cit.,p.xx.]
The Book of Enoch and Christianity -
(Page 83)The Book of Enoch
a lso records the supernatural
control of the elements,through the action of individual angels
presiding
over the winds,the sea hail frost dew the lightening ’s flash and reverberating
thunder.The
names of the principal fallen angels are also given among whom we recognise
some
of the invisible powers named in the incantations [magical ] inscribed on the
terracotta
cups
of Hebrew-Chaldee conjurations.[ Loc.cit.]
Page
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We
also find on these cups the word “Halleluiah ”showing that
a
word with which ancient Syro-Chaldeans conjured has become through the
vicissitudes of
language
the Shibboleth of modern Revivalists.[Op.cit.,p.xiv.note.]
The
Editor proceeds after this to give fifty-seven verses from various parts of the
Gospels and Acts,with
parallel
passages from the Book of Enoch and says:
The
attention of theologians has been concentrated on the passage in the Epistle
of Jude
because
the author specifically names the prophet;but the cumulative coincidence of
language
and ideas in Enoch and the authors of the New Testament Scripture as
disclosed in
the
parallel passages which we have collated clearly indicates that the work of the
Semitic
Milton
was the inexhaustible source from which Evangelists and Apostles,or the men who
wrote
in their names,borrowed their conceptions of the resurrection judgement
immortality
perdition
and of the universal reign of righteousness,under the eternal dominion of the
Son of
man.This
evangelical plagiarism culminates in the Revelation of John which adapts the
visions
of Enoch to Christianity with modifications in which we miss the sublime
simplicity of
the
great master of apocalyptic prediction who prophesied in the name of the
antediluvian
patriarch.[Op.cit.,p.xxxv.]
In
fairness to truth the hypothesis ought at least to have been suggested that the
Book of Enoch in its
present
form is simply a transcript -with numerous pre-Christian and post-Christian
additions and
interpolations
-from far older texts.Modern research went so far as to point out that Enoch is
made in
Chapter
Ixxi to divide the day and night into eighteen parts and to represent the
longest day in the year
as
consisting of twelve out of these eighteen parts,while a day of sixteen (Page 84)hours in length could
not
have occurred in Palestine.The translator Archbishop Laurence remarks thus:
The
region in which the author lived must have been situated not lower than
forty-one degrees
north
latitude where the longest day is fifteen hours and a half nor higher perhaps
than forty-
nine
degrees,where the longest day is precisely sixteen hours.This will bring the
country
where
he wrote as high up at least as the northern districts of the Caspian and
Euxine Seas ..
.the
author of the Book of Enoch was perhaps a member of one of the tribes
which
Shalmaneser
carried away and placed “in Halah and in Habor by the river Goshen and in the
cities
of the Medes.”[Op.cit.,p.xiii.]
Further
on it is confessed that:
It
cannot be said that internal evidence attests the superiority of the Old
Testament to the
Book of Enoch ...The Book
of Enoch teaches the pre-existence of the Son of man the Elect
One
the Messiah who “from the beginning existed in secret [The Seventh
Principle the First
Emanation.]
and whose name was invoked in the presence of the Lord of Spirits before
the
sun
and the signs were created.”The author also refers to the “other Power who was
upon
Earth
over the water on that day ” -an apparent reference to the language of Genesis
i.2.[ Op
cit.,p.xxxvii and xI.]
[We maintain that it applies as well to the Hindu Nârâyana -the “mover
on
the waters.” ] We have thus the Lord of Spirits,the Elect One and a third Power
seemingly
Page
74.
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foreshadowing
the Trinity [as much as the Triműrti ] of futurity;but although Enoch ’s ideal
Messiah
doubtless exercised an important influence on primitive conceptions of the
Divinity of
the
Son of man we fail to identify his obscure reference to another “Power ” with
the
Trinitarianism
of the Alexandrine school;more especially as “angels of power ” abound in the
visions
of Enoch.[Op cit.,pp x1 and 1i .]
An
Occultist would hardly fail to identify the said “Power.” The Editor concludes
his remarkable reflections
by
adding:
Thus
far we learn that the Book of Enoch was published before the Christian
Era by some
great
Unknown of Semitic [?] race who believing himself to be inspired in a
post-prophetic
age
borrowed the name of an antediluvian patriarch [ Who stands for the
“Solar ”or
Manvantaric
Year.] to authenticate his own enthusiastic forecast of the Messianic
kingdom.
And
as the contents of his marvellous book enter freely into the composition of the
New
Testament it follows
that if the author was not an inspired prophet who predicted the
teachings
of Christianity he was a visionary enthusiast whose illusions were accepted by
Evangelists
and Apostles as revelation -alternative conclusions which involve the Divine or
human
origin of Christianity.[ Op Cit.,pp.xli xlii.]
Enoch Records The Races -(Page 85)The outcome of all of which is,in the words of the same
Editor:
The
discovery that the language and ideas of alleged revelation are found in a
pre-existent
work,accepted
by Evangelists and Apostles as inspired but classed by modern theologians
among
apocryphal productions.[ Op.cit.,p.xlviii.]
The
accounts also for the unwillingness of the reverend librarians of the Bodleian
Library to publish the
Ethopian
text of the Book of Enoch .
The
prophecies of the Book of Enoch are indeed prophetic,but they were intended
for and cover the
records
of the five Races out of the seven -everything relating to the last two being
kept secret.Thus
the
remark made by the Editor of the English translation that:
Chapter
xcii.records a series of prophecies extending from Enoch ’s own time to about
one
thousand
years beyond the present generation [Op.cit.,p.xxiii.]
is
faulty.The prophecies extend to the end of our present Race not merely to a
“thousand years ” hence.
Very
true that:
In
the system of [Christian ] chronology adopted a day stands [occasionally ] for
a hundred
and
a week for seven hundred years.[Loc.cit.]
But
this is an arbitrary and fanciful system adopted by Christians to make Biblical
chronology fit with facts
or
theories,and does not represent the original thought.The “days ” stand for the
undetermined periods
of
the Side-Races,and the “weeks ” for the Sub-Races,the Root-Races being referred
to by an
expression
that is not even found in the English translation.Moreover the sentence at the
bottom of page
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150:
Subsequently
in the fourth week ...the visions of the holy and the righteous shall be seen
the
order of generation after generation shall take place [xcii.9.]
is
quite wrong.It stands in the original:“the order of generation after generation
has taken place on the
earth
” etc.;that is,after the first human race procreated in the truly human way had
sprung up in the
Third
Root-Races:a change which entirely alters the meaning.Then all that is given in
the translation -
as
very likely also in the Ethiopic text since the copies have been sorely
tampered with -as about things
which
were to happen in the future is,we are informed in the past tense of the
original Chaldean MSS.
and
is not prophecy but a narrative of what had already come to pass.When Enoch
begins -“to speak
from
a book ”[Op.cit.,xcii.4.] he is reading the account (Page 86)given by a great Seer and the
prophecies
are not his own but are from the Seer.Enoch or Enoichion means “internal eye
”or Seer.
Thus
every Prophet and Adept may be called “Enoichion ” without becoming a
pseudo-Enoch.But here
the
Seer who compiled the present Book of Enoch is distinctly shown as
reading out from a book:
I
have been born the seventh in the first week [the seventh branch or Side-Race
of the first
Sub-Race
after physical generation had begun namely in the third Root-Race ] ...But
after
me
in the second week [second Sub-Race ] great wickedness shall arise [arose
rather ] and in
that
week the end of the first shall take place in which mankind shall be safe.But
when the
first
is completed iniquity shall grow up.[Op.cit.,xcii 4-7 ]
As
translated it has no sense.As it stands in the Esoteric text it simply
means,that the First Root-Race
shall
come to an end during the second Sub-Race of the Third Root-Race in the period
of which time
mankind
will be safe;all this having no reference whatever to the biblical Deluge.Verse
10 th speaks of
the
sixth week [sixth Sub-Race of the Third Root Race ] when
All
those who are in it shall be darkened the hearts of all of them shall be
forgetful of wisdom [
the
divine knowledge will be dying out ] and in it shall a man ascend.
This
“man ”is taken by the interpreters,for some mysterious reasons of their own to
mean
Nebuchadnezzar;he
is in reality the first Hierophant of the purely human Race (after the
allegorical fall
into
generation)selected to perpetuate the dying Wisdom of the Devas (Angels or
Elohim).He is the first
“Son
of Man ” -the mysterious appellation given to the divine Initiates of the first
human school of the
Manushi
(men),at the very close of the Third Root-Race.He is also called the “Saviour ”
as it was He
with
the other Hierophants who saved the Elect and the Perfect from the geological
conflagration
leaving
to perish in the cataclysm of the Close [ At the close of every
Root-Race there comes a
cataclysm
in turn by fire or water.Immediately after the “Fall into generation ”the dross
of the third Root-
Race
-those who fell into sensuality by falling off from the teaching of the Divine
Instructors -were
destroyed
after which the Fourth Root-Race originated at the end of which took place the
last Deluge.
(See
the “Sons of God ”mentioned in Isis Unveiled.593 et seq.)] those
who forgot the primeval wisdom
in
sexual sensuality.
And
during its completion [of the “sixth week,” or the sixth Sub-Race ]he
shall burn the house
of
dominion [the half of the globe or the then inhabited continent ] with fire and
all the race of
the
elect root shall be dispersed.[ Op.cit.,xcii xx .]
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The Book of Enoch Symbolical -(Page 87)The above applies to the Elect Initiates,and not at all to
the
Jews,the
supposed chosen people or to the Babylonian captivity as interpreted by the Christian
theologians.Considering
that we find Enoch or his perpetuator mentioning the execution of the “degree
upon
sinners ” in several different weeks,[ Op.cit.,xcii 7 11 13 15.]
saying that “every work of the
ungodly
shall disappear from the whole earth ” during this fourth time (the Fourth
Race),it surely can
hardly
apply to the one solitary Deluge of the Bible still less to the
Captivity.
It
follows,therefore that as the Book of Enoch covers the five Races of the
Manvantara with a few
allusions
to the last two it does not contain “Biblical prophecies,” but simply facts
taken out of the Secret
Books
of the East.The Editor moreover confesses that:
The
preceding six verses,viz .13 th 15 th 16 th 17 th and 18 th are
taken from between the 14 th
and
15 th verses of the nineteenth chapter where they are to be found
in the MSS.[ Op.cit .
note
p.152 ]
By
this arbitrary transposition he has made confusion still more confused.Yet he
is quite right in saying
that
the doctrines of the Gospels and even of the Old Testament have
been taken bodily from the Book
of Enoch,for this is
as evident as the sun in heaven.The whole of the Pentate ch was adapted
to fit in
with
the facts given and this accounts for the Hebrews refusing to give the book
place in their Canon
just
as the Christians have subsequently refused to admit it among their canonical
works.The fact that
the
Apostle Jude and many of the Christian Fathers referred to it as a revelation
and a sacred volume is,
however
an excellent proof that the early Christians accepted it;among these the most
learned -as,for
instance
Clement of Alexandria -understood Christianity and its doctrines in quite a
different light from
their
modern successors,and viewed Christ under an aspect that Occultists only can
appreciate.The
early
Nazarenes and Chrestians,as Justin Martyr calls them were the followers of
Jesus,of the true
Chrestos
and Christos of Initiation;whereas,the modern Christians,especially those of
the West may be
Papists,Greeks,Calvinists,or
Lutherans,but can hardly be called Christians,i.e.,the followers of
Jesus,
the
Christ.
Thus
the Book of Enoch is entirely symbolical.It relates to the history of
the human Races and of their
early
relation to Theogony the symbols being interblended with astronomical and cosmic
mysteries.
(Page 88)One chapter is missing however in the Noachian records
(from both the Paris and
the
Bodleian MSS.),namely Chapter 1viii in Sect X;this could not be remodelled and
therefore
it had to disappear disfigured fragments alone having been left out of it.The
dream
about
the cows,the black,red and white heifers,relates to the first Races,their
division and
disappearance.Chapter
1xxxviii in which one of the four Angels “went to the white cows and
taught
them a mystery ”after which the mystery being born “became a man ”refers to
(a)the
first
group evolved of primitive Aryans (b)to the “mystery of the Hermaphrodite ”so
called
having
reference to the birth of the first human Races as they are now.The well-known
rite in
India
one that has survived in that patriarchal country to this day known as the
passage or
rebirth
through the cow -a ceremony to which those of lower castes who are desirous of
becoming
Brahmans have to submit -has originated in this mystery.Let any Eastern
Occultist
read
with careful attention the above-named chapter in the Book of Enoch,and
he will find that
the
“Lord of the Sheep ”in whom Christians and European Mystics see Christ is the
Hierophant
Victim whose name in Sanskrit we dare not give.Again that while the Western
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Churchmen
see Egyptians and Israelites in the “sheep and wolves,”all these animals relate
in
truth
to the trials of the Neophyte and the mysteries of initiation whether in India
or Egypt and
to
that most terrible penalty incurred by the “wolves ”-those who reveal
indiscriminately that
which
is only for the knowledge of the Elect and the “Perfect.”
The
Christians who thanks to later interpolations,[Those interpolations and
alternations are
found
in almost every case where figures are given -especially whenever the numbers
eleven
and
twelve come in -as these are all made (by the Christians)to relate to the
numbers of
Apostles,and
Tribes,and Patriarchs.The translator of the Ethiopic text -Archbishop Laurence
-attributes
them generally to “mistakes of the transcriber ”whenever the two texts the
Paris
and
the Bodleian MSS.differ.We fear it is no mistake in most cases.] have made out
in that
chapter
a triple prophecy relating to the Deluge Moses and Jesus,are mistaken as in
reality it
bears
directly on the punishment and loss of Atlantis and the penalty of
indiscretion.(The
“Lord
of the sheep ”is Karma and the “Head of the Hierophants ”also the Supreme
Initiator on
earth.)He
says to Enoch who implores him to save the leaders of the sheep from being
devoured
by the beasts of prey:
I
will cause a recital to be made before me ...how many they have delivered up to
destruction
and ...what they will do;whether they will act as I have commanded them or not.
Occultists Do Not Reject the Bible -
(Page 89)Of this,however they shall be ignorant;neither shalt thou
make any explanation to
them
neither shalt thou reprove them;but there shall be an account of all the
destruction done
by
them in their respective seasons.[Op.cit.,1xxxviii.99 100.]
...He
looked in silence rejoicing they were devoured swallowed up and carried off and
leaving
them in the power of every beast for food..[ Loc.cit.,94.This
passage as will be
presently
shown has led to a very curious discovery.]
Those
who labour under the impression that the Occultists of any nation reject the Bible
in its original
text
and meaning are wrong.As well reject the Books of Thoth the Chaldaean Kabalah
or the Book of
Dzyan itself.Occultists
only reject the one-sided interpretations and the human element in the Bible
which
is an Occult and therefore a sacred volume as much as the others.And terrible
indeed is the
punishment
of all those who transgress the permitted limits of secret revelations.From
Prometheus to
Jesus,and
from Him to the highest Adept as to the lowest disciple every revealer of
mysteries has had
to
become a Chrestos,a “man of sorrow ”and a martyr.“Beware ” said one of the
greatest Masters,“of
revealing
the Mystery to those without ”-to the profane the Sadducee and the
unbeliever.All the great
Hierophants
in history are shown ending their lives by violent deaths -Buddha [ In
the profane history of
Gautama
Buddha he dies at the good old age of eighty and passes off from life to death
peacefully with
all
the serenity of a great saint as Barthelemy St.Hilaire has it.Not so in the
Esoteric and true
interpretation
which reveals the real sense of the profane and allegorical statement that
makes Gautama
the
Buddha die very unpoetically from the effects of too much pork,prepared for him
by Tsonda.How
one
who preached that the killing of animals was the greatest sin and who was a
perfect vegetarian
could
die from eating pork,is a question that is never asked by our Orientalists,some
of whom made [as
now
do many charitable missionaries in Ceylon ] great fun at the alleged
occurrence.The simple truth is
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that
the said rice and pork are purely allegorical.Rice stands for “forbidden fruit
”like Eve's "apple"and
means
Occult knowledge with the Chinese and Tibetans;and “pork “for Brahmanical
teachings -Vishnu
having
assumed in his first Avatâra the form of a boar in order to raise the earth on
the surface of the
waters
of space.It is not therefore from “pork ”that Buddha died but for having
divulged some of the
Brahmanical
mysteries,after which seeing the bad effects brought on some unworthy people by
the
revelation
he preferred instead of availing himself of Nirvana to leave his earthly form
remaining still in
the
sphere of the living in order to help humanity to progress.Hence his constant
reincarnations in the
hierarchy
of the Dalai and Teshu Lamas,among other bounties.Such is the Esoteric
explanation.The life
of
Gautama will be more fully discussed later on.]Pythagoras,Zoroaster most
of the great Gnostics,the
founders
of their respective schools;and in our own more modern epoch a number of
Fire-Philosophers
of
Rosicrucians and Adepts.All of these are shown -whether plainly or under the
veil of allegory -as
paying
the penalty for the revelations they had made.This may seem to the profane
reader only
coincidence.
(Page 90)To the Occultist the death of every “Master ”is significant
and appears pregnant with meaning.
Where
do we find in history that “Messenger ”grand or humble an Initiate or a
Neophyte who when he
was
made the bearer of some hitherto concealed truth or truths,was not crucified
and rent to shreds by
the
“dogs ”of envy malice and ignorance?Such is the terrible Occult law;and he who
does not feel in
himself
the heart of a lion to scorn the savage barking and the soul of a dove to
forgive the poor ignorant
fools,let
him give up the Sacred Science.To succeed the Occultist must be fearless;he has
to brave
dangers,dishonour
and death to be forgiving and to be silent on that which cannot be given.Those
who
have
vainly laboured in that direction must wait in these days -as the Book of
Enoch teaches -“until the
evildoers
be consumed ”and the power of the wicked annihilated.It is not lawful for the
Occultist to seek
or
even to thirst for revenge:let him
Wait
until sin pass away for their [the sinners ] names shall be blotted out of the
holy books
[the
astral records ] their seed shall be destroyed and their spirits slain.[Op.cit
.cv.21.]
Esoterically
Enoch is the “Son of man ”the first;and symbolically the first Sub-Race of the Fifth
Root
Race.[
In the Bible [Genesis,iv and v ] there are three distinct
Enochs [Kanoch or Chanoch ] -the son of
Cain
the son of Seth and the son of Jared;but they are all identical and two of them
are mentioned for
the
purpose of misleading.The years of only the last two are given the first one
being left without further
notice.]
And if his name yields for purposes of numerical and astronomical glyphs
the meaning of the
solar
year or 365 in conformity to the age assigned to him in Genesis,it is
because being the seventh
he
is,for Occult purposes,the personified period of the two preceding Races with
their fourteen Sub-
Races.Therefore
he is shown in the Book as the great grandfather of Noah who in his turn is the
personification
of the mankind of the Fifth struggling with that of the Fourth Root-Race -the
great period
of
the revealed and profaned Mysteries,when the “sons of God ”coming down on Earth
took for wives
the
daughters of men and taught them the secrets of the Angels;in other words,when
the “mind-born ”
men
of the Third Race mixed themselves with those of the Fourth and the divine
Science was gradually
brought
down by men to Sorcery.
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SECTION IX
Hermetic and Kabalistic Doctrines
(Page 91)THE cosmogony of Hermes is as veiled as the Mosaic system
only it is upon its face far more in
harmony
with the doctrines of the Secret Sciences and even of Modern Science.Says the
thrice great
Trismegistus,“the
hand that shaped the world out of formless pre-existent matter is no hand ” ;to
which
Genesis is made to
reply “The world was created out of nothing ” although the Kabbalah denies
such a
meaning
in its opening sentences.The Kabalists have never any more than have the Indian
Aryans
admitted
such an absurdity.With them Fire or Heat and Motion [ The eternal and
incessant “inbreathing
and
outbreathing of Parabrahman ”or Nature the Universe of Space whether during
Manvantara or
Pralaya
.] were chiefly instrumental in the formation of the world out of
pre-existing Matter.The
Parabrahman
and Műlaprakriti of the Vedântins are the prototypes of the En Suph and
Shekinah of the
Kabalists.Aditi
is the original of Sephira and the Prajâpatis are the elder brothers of the
Sephiroth.The
nebular
theory of Modern Science with all its mysteries,is solved in the cosmogony of
the Archaic
Doctrine;and
the paradoxical though very scientific enunciation that “cooling causes
contraction and
contraction
causes heat;therefore cooling causes heat ” is shown as the chief agency in the
formation of
the
worlds,and especially of our sun and solar system.
All
this is contained within the small compass of Sepher Jetsirah in its
thirty-two wonderful Ways of
Wisdom
signed “Jah Jehovah Sabaoth ” for whomsoever has the key to its hidden
meaning.As to the
dogmatic
or theological interpretation of the first verses in Genesis it is
pertinently answered in the same
book,where
speaking of the (Page 92)Three Mothers,Air Water and Fire the writer describes them
as a
balance
with
The
good in one scale the evil in the other and the oscillating tongue of the
Balance between
them.[Op.cit.,iii
x.]
One
of the secret names of the One Eternal and Ever-Present Deity was in every
country the same and
it
has preserved to this day a phonetic likeness in the various languages.The Aum
of the Hindus,the
sacred
syllable had become the ‘Aéří with the Greeks,and the Aevum with the Romans
-the Pan or All.
The
“thirtieth way ” is called in the Sepher Jetzirah the “gathering
understanding ”because
Thereby
gather the celestial adepts judgments of the stars and celestial signs,and
their
observations
of the orbits are the perfection of science.[Op.cit.,30.]
The
thirty-second and last is called therein the “serving understanding ” and it is
so-called because it is
A
disposer of all those that are serving in the work of the Seven
Planets,according to their
Hosts.[Op.cit.,32
.]
The
“work ” was Initiation during which all the mysteries connected with the “Seven
Planets ” were
divulged
and also the mystery of the “Sun-Initiate ” with his seven radiances or beams
cut off -the glory
and
triumph of the anointed the Christos;a mystery that makes plain the rather
puzzling expression of
Clemens:
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For
we shall find that very many of the dogmas that are held by such sects [of
Barbarian and
Hellenic
Philosophy ] as have not become utterly senseless,and are not cut out from the
order
of
nature [“by cutting off Christ ”[ Those who are aware of the term
Christos was applied by
the
Gnostics to the Higher Ego (the ancient Pagan Greek Initiates doing the
same),will readily
understand
the allusion.Christos was said to be cut off from the lower Ego Chrestos,after
the
final
and supreme Initiation when the two became blended in one;Chrestos being
conquered
and
resurrected in the glorified Christos -Franck,Die Kabbala,75:Dunlap Sod
Vol.11.] or
rather
Chrestos ] ...Correspond in their origin and with the truth as a whole.[ Stromateis,1.
xiii.]
In
Isis Unveiled [ Op.cit.,II.viii.] the reader will
find fuller information than can be given here on the Zohar
and
its author the great Kabalist Simeon Ben Jochai.It is said there that on
account of his being known
to
be in possession of the secret knowledge and of the Mercaba which insured the
reception of the
“Word
” his very life was endangered and he had to fly to the wilderness,where he
lived in a cave for
twelve
years surrounded by faithful disciples,and finally died there amid signs and
wonders.[ Many are
the
marvels recorded as having taken place at his death or we should rather say his
translation;for he
did
not die as others do but having suddenly disappeared while a dazzling light
filled the cavern with
glory
his body was again seen upon its subsidence.When this heavenly light gave place
to the habitual
semi-darkness
of the gloomy cave -then only says Ginsburg “the disciples of Israel perceived
that the
lamp
of Israel was extinguished.” His biographers tell us that there were voices
heard from Heaven
during
the preparation for his funeral and at his interment when the coffin was
lowered into the deep
cave
prepared for it a flame broke forth and a voice mighty and majestic pronounced
these words:'This
is
he who caused the earth to quake and the kingdoms to shake!']
The Kabalah and The Book of Enoch -(Page 93)His teachings on the origin of the Secret Doctrine or
as
he also calls it the Secret Wisdom are the same as those found in the East with
the exception that in
place
of the Chief of a Host of Planetary Spirits he puts “God ”saying that this
Wisdom was first taught
by
God himself to a certain number of Elect Angels;whereas in the Eastern Doctrine
the saying is
different
as will be seen.
Some
synthetic and Kabalistic studies on the sacred Book of Enoch and the
Taro (Rota)are before us.
We
quote from the MS.copy of a Western Occultist who is prefaced by these words:
There
is but one Law one Principle one Agent one Truth and one Word.That which is
above
is
analogically as that which is below.All that which is,is the result of
quantities and of
equilibriums.
The
axiom of Eliphas Levi and this triple epigraph show the identity of thought
between the East and the
West
with regard to the Secret Science which as the same MS tells us,is:
The
key of things concealed the key of the sanctuary.This is the Sacred Word which
gives to
the
Adept the supreme reason of Occultism and its Mysteries.It is the Quintessence
of
Philosophies
and of Dogmas;it is the Alpha and Omega;it is the Light Life and Wisdom
Universal.
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The
Taro of the sacred Book of Enoch,or Rota is prefaced moreover with this
explanation:
The
antiquity of this book is lost in the night of time.It is of Indian origin and
goes back to an
epoch
long before Moses ...It is written upon detached leaves,which at the first were
of fine
gold
and precious metals ...It is symbolical and its combinations adapt themselves
to all the
wonders
of the Spirit.Altered by its passage across the Ages,it is nevertheless
preserved -
thanks
to the ignorance of the curious -in its types and its most important primitive
figures.
This
is the Rota of Enoch now called Taro of Enoch to which de Mirville alludes,as
we saw as the
means
used for “evil Magic.”the (Page
94)“metallic plates [or leaves ] escaped
from destruction during the
Deluge
”and which are attributed by him to Cain.They have escaped the Deluge for the
simple reason
that
this Flood was not “Universal.”And it is said to be “of Indian origin ” because
its origin is with the
Indian
Aryans of the first Sub-Race of the Fifth Root-Race before the final
destruction of the last
stronghold
of Atlantis.But if it originated with the forefathers of the primitive
Hindus,it was not in India
that
it was first used.Its origin is still more ancient and must be traced beyond
and into the Himaleh
[ Pockocke may be was
not altogether wrong in deriving the German Heaven Himmel from Himalaya;
nor
can it be denied that it is the Hindu Kailasa (Heaven)that is the father of the
Greek Heaven (Koilon),
and
of the Latin Coelum.] the Snowy Range.It was born in that mysterious
locality which no one is able
to
locate and which is the despair of both Geographers and Christian Theologians
-the regions in which
the
Brahman places his Kailasa the Mount Sumeru and the Pârvatî Pamîr transformed
by the Greeks
into
Paropamisus.
Round
this locality which still exists the traditions of the Garden of Eden were
built.From these regions
the
Greeks obtained their Parnassus [ See Pockocke's India in Greece and
his derivation of Mount
Parnassus
from Parnasa the leaf and branch huts of the Hindu ascetics,half shrine and
half habitation.
“Part
of the Par-o-Pamisus (the hill of Bamian),is called Parnassus.“These mountains
are called
Devanica
because they are so full of Devas of Gods,called “Gods of the Earth:”Bhu
Devas.They lived
according
to the Puranas,in bowers or huts,called Parnasas,because they were made of
leaves;
(Parnas),”p.302.]
and thence proceeded most of the biblical personages,some of them in their
day men
some
demigods and heroes,some -though very few -myths,the astronomical double of the
former.
Abram
was one of them -a Chaldaean Brâhman [Rawlinson is justly very confident
of an Aryan and
Vedic
influence on the early mythology and history of Babylon and Chaldea .] says
the legend
transformed
later after he had repudiated his Gods and left his Ur (p r “town ”?)in
Chaldaea into A-
brahms
[This is a Secret Doctrine affirmation and may or may not be
accepted.Only Abrahm Isaac and
Judah
resemble terribly the Hindu Brahmâ Ikshvâku and Yadu.] (or A-braham
”no-brâhman ”who
emigrated.Abram
becoming the “father of many nations ”is thus explained.The student of
Occultism has
to
bear in mind that every God and hero in ancient Pantheons (that of the Bible
included),has three
biographies
in the narrative so to say running parallel with each other and each connected
with one of
the
aspects of the hero -historical astronomical and perfectly mythical the last
serving to connect the
other
two together and smooth away the asperities and discordancies in the narrative
and gathering into
one
or more symbols the verities of the first two.Localities are made to correspond
with astronomical and
even
with psychic events.
Numbers and Measures -(Page
95)History was thus made captive by
ancient Mystery to become later
on
the great Sphynx of the nineteenth century.Only instead of devouring her too
dull querists who will
unriddle
her whether she acknowledges it or not she is desecrated and mangled by the
modern
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Oedipus,before
he forces her into the sea of speculations in which the Sphynx is drowned and
perishes.
This
has now become self-evident not only through the Secret
Teachings,parsimoniously as they may
be
given but by earnest and learned Symbologists and even Geometricians.The Key
to the Hebrew
Egyptian Mystery in
which a learned Mason of Cincinnati Mr.Ralston Skinner unveils the riddle of a
God
with such ungodly ways about him as the Biblical Jah-ve is followed by the
establishment of a
learned
society under the presidentship of a gentleman from Ohio and four
vice-presidents one of whom
is
Piazzi Smith the well-known Astronomer and Egyptologist.The Director of the
Royal Observatory in
Scotland
and author of The Great Pyramid,Pharaonic by name,H manitarian by fact,its
Marvels,
Mysteries,and its Teachings,is seeking to prove the same problem as the American author
and Mason;
namely
that the English system of measurement is the same as that used by the ancient
Egyptians in
the
construction of their Pyramid or in Mr.Skinner's own words that the Pharaonic
“source of measures ”
originated
the “British inch and the ancient cubit.” It “originated ”much more than
this,as will be fully
demonstrated
before the end of the next century.Not only is everything in Western religion
related to
measures,geometrical
figures,and time-calculations,the principal period-durations being founded on
most
of the historical personages,[ It is said in The Gnostics and their
Remains by C.W.King (p.13)with
regard
to the names of Brahma and Abram:“This figure of the man Seir Anpin
consists of 243 numbers,
being
the numerical value of the letters in the name ‘Abram ’ signifying the
different orders in the celestial
Hierarchies.In
fact the names Abram and Brahma are equivalent in numerical value.”Thus to one
acquainted
with Esoteric Symbolism it does not seem at all strange to find in the
Loka-pâlas (the four
cardinal
and intermediate points of the compass personified by eight Hindu Gods)Indra ’s
elephant
names
Abhra -(matanga)and his wife Abhramu.Abhra is in a way a Wisdom Deity since it
is this
elephant
’s head that replaced that of Ganesha (Ganapati)the God of Wisdom cut off by
Shiva.Now
Abhra
means “cloud ”and it is also the name of the city where Abram is supposed to
have resided -
when
read backwards -“Arba (Kirjath)the city of four ...Abram is Abra with an
appended m final and
Abra
read backward is Arba ”(Key to the Hebrew Egyptian Mystery).The author
might have added that
Abra
meaning in Sanskrit “in or of the clouds,”the cosmo-astronomical symbol of
Abram becomes still
plainer.All
of these ought to be read in their originals in Sanskrit.] but the
latter are also connected with
heaven
and earth truly only with the Indo-Aryan heaven and earth not with those of
Palestine.
The
prototypes of nearly all the biblical personages are to be sought (Page 96)for in the early Pantheon of
India.It
is the “Mind-born ”Sons of Brahma or rather of the Dhyâni-Pitara (the “Father
-Gods ”),the “Sons
of
Light ” who have given birth to the “Sons of Earth ”-the Patriachs.For if the Rig
Veda and its three
sister
Vedas have been “milked out from fire air and sun ” or Agni Indra and
Surya as Man -Smriti tells
us,the
Old Testament was most undeniably “milked out ”of the most ingenious
brains of Hebrew
Kabalists
partly in Egypt and partly in Babylonia -“the seat of Sanskrit literature and
Brahman learning
from
her origin.”as Colonel Vans Kennedy truly declared.One of such copies was Abram
or Abraham
into
whose bosom every orthodox Jew hopes to be gathered after death that bosom
being localised as
“heaven
in the clouds ”or Abhra.[ Before these theories and speculations -we are
willing to admit they
are
such -are rejected the following few points ought to be explained.(1)Why after
leaving Egypt was
the
patriarch ’s name changed by Jehovah from Abram to Abraham.(2)Why Sarai becomes
on the same
principle
Sarah (Gen.,xvii.).(3)Whence the strange coincidence of names?(4)Why
should Alexander
Polyhistor
say that Abraham was born at Kamarina or Uria a city of soothsayers and
invented
Asrronomy?(5)“The
Abrahamic recollections go back at least three millenniums beyond the
grandfather
of
Jacob “says Bunsen (Egypt ’s Place in History.v.35.)]
From
Abraham to Enoch ’s Taro there seems to be a considerable distance yet the two
are closely
related
by more than one link,Gaffarel has shown that the four symbolical animals on
the twenty-first key
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of
the Taro at the third septenary are the Teraphim of the Jews invented and
worshipped by Abram ’s
father
Terah and used in the oracles of the Urim and Thummim.Moreover astronomically
Abraham is
the
sun-measure and a portion of the sun while Enoch is the solar year as much as
are Hermes or Thot;
and
Thot numerically “was the equivalent of Moses,or Hermes,”“the lord of the lower
realms,also
esteemed
as a teacher of wisdom ”the same Mason-mathematician tells us;and the Taro
being
according
to one of the latest bulls of the Pope “an invention of Hell ”the same “as Masonry
and
Occultism
”the relation is evident.The Taro contains indeed the mystery of all such
transmutations of
personages
into sidereal bodies and vice versa .The “wheel of Enoch ”is an archaic
invention the most
ancient
of all for it is found in China.Eliphas Levi says there was not a nation but
had it its real meaning
being
preserved in the greatest secrecy.It was a universal heirloom.
As
we see neither the Book of Enoch (his “Wheel ”),nor the Zohar nor
any other kabalistic volume
contains
merely Jewish wisdom.
The Doctrine Belongs to All
(Page 97)The doctrine itself being the result of whole millenniums
of thought is therefore the
joint
property of Adepts of every nation under the sun.Nevertheless,the Zohar teaches
practical
Occultism more than any other work on that subject;not as it is translated and
commented
upon by its various critics though but with the secret signs on its
margins.These
signs
contain the hidden instructions,apart from the metaphysical interpretations and
apparent
absurdities
so fully credited by Josephus,who was never initiated and gave out the dead
letter
as
he had received it.[ Isis Unveiled,ii.350.]
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SECTION X
Various Occult Systems of Interpretations
-of Alphabets and Numerals
(Page 98)THE transcendental methods of the Kabalah must not
be mentioned in a public work;but its
various
systems of arithmetical and geometrical ways of unriddling certain symbols may
be described.
The
Zohar methods of calculation with their three sections,the Gematria
Notaricon and Temura also
the
Albath and Algath are extremely difficult to practice.We refer those who would
learn more to
Cornelius
Agrippa ’s works [ See Isis Unveiled ii.218-300.Gematria is
formed by a metathesis from the
Greek
word ăńáěěáôĺéáNotaricon may be compared to stenography;Temura is permutation
-a way of
dividing
the alphabet and shifting letters.] But none of those systems can ever
be understood unless a
Kabalist
becomes a real Master in his Science.The Symbolism of Pythagoras requires still
more arduous
labour.His
symbols are very numerous,and to comprehend even the general gist of his
abstruse
doctrines
from his Symbology would necessitate years of study.His chief figures are the
square (the
Tetraktys)the
equilateral triangle the point within a circle the cube the triple triangle and
finally the
forty-seventh
proposition of Euclid ’s Elements of which proposition Pythagoras was the
inventor.But
with
the exception none of the foregoing symbols originated with him,as some
believe.Millenniums
before
his day they were well known in India whence the Samian Sage brought them not
as a
speculation
but as a demonstrated Science says Porphyry quoting from the Pythagorean
Moderatus.
The
numerals of Pythagoras were hieroglyphical symbols by means whereof he explains
all
ideas
concerning the nature of things.[ De Vita Pythag.]
Numbers and Magic -(Page 99)The
fundamental geometrical figure of the Kabalah as given in the Book
of N mbers,[ We are not aware that a copy of this ancient work is
embraced in the catalogue of any
European
library;but it is one of the “Books of Hermes,” and it is referred to and
quotations are made
from
it in the works of a number of ancient and mediaeval philosophical
authors.Among these authorities
are
Arnoldo di Villanova ’s Rosari m Philosoph.,Francesco Arnuphi ’s Op s
de Lapide Hermes
Trismegistus
’ Tractat s de Transm tatione Metallor m and Tab la Smaragdina and
above all the treatise
of
Raymond Lully Ab Angelis Op s Divin m de Q inta Essentia.] that figure
which tradition and the
Esoteric
Doctrines tell us was given by the Deity Itself to Moses on Mount Sinai [Exod
s,xxv.40.]
contains
the key to the universal problem in its grandiose because simple
combinations.This figure
contains
in itself all the others.
The
Symbolism of numbers and their mathematical interrelations is also one of the branches
of Magic,
especially
of mental Magic,divination and correct perception in clairvoyance.Systems
differ but the root
idea
is everywhere the same.As shown in the Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia by
Kenneth R.H.Mackenzie:
One
system adopts unity another trinity a third quinquinity;again we have sexagons,
heptagons,novems,and
so on until the mind is lost in the survey of the materials alone of a
science
of numbers.[S b voce “Numbers.”]
The
Devanâgarî characters in which Sanscrit is generally written have all that the
Hermetic,Chaldaean
and
Hebrew alphabets have and in addition the Occult significance of the “eternal
sound ”and the
meaning
given to every letter in its relation to spiritual as well as terrestrial
things.As there are only
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twenty-two
letters in the Hebrew alphabet and ten fundamental numbers,while in the
Devanâgarî there
are
thirty-five consonants and sixteen vowels,making altogether fifty-one simple
letters,with numberless
combinations
in addition the margin for speculation and knowledge is in proportion
considerably wider.
Every
letter has is equivalent in other languages,and its equivalent in a figure or
figures of the calculation
table.It
has also numerous other significations,which depend upon the special
idiosyncrasies and
characteristics
of the person object or subject to be studied.As the Hindus claim to have
received the
Devanagari
characters from Sarasvati the inventress of Sanskrit the “language of the Devas
”or Gods
(in
their exoteric pantheon),so most of the ancient nations claimed the same
privilege for the origin of
their
letters and tongue.The Kabalah (Page 100)calls the Hebrew alphabet
the “letters of the Angels,”
which
were communicated to the Patriarchs,just as the Devanagari was to the Rishis by
the Devas.The
Chaldaeans
found their letters traced in the sky by the “yet unsettled stars and comets,”
says the Book of
N mbers ;while the
Phoenicians had a sacred alphabet formed by the twistings of the sacred
serpents.
The
Natar Khari (hieratic alphabet)and secret (sacerdotal)speech of the Egyptians
is closely related to
the
oldest “Secret Doctrine Speech.”It is a Devanâgarî with mystical combinations
and additions,into
which
the Senzar largely enters.
The
power and potency of numbers and characters are well known to many Western
Occultists as being
compounded
from all these systems,but are still unknown to Hindu students,if not to their
Occultists.In
their
turn European Kabalists are generally ignorant of the alphabetical secrets of
Indian Esoterism.At
the
same time the general reader in the West knows nothing of either;least of all
how deep are the
traces
left by the Esoteric numeral systems of the world in the Christian Churches.
Nevertheless
this system of numerals solves the problem of cosmogony for whomsoever studies
it while
the
system of geometrical figures represents the numbers objectively.
To
realise the full comprehension of the Deific and the Abstruse enjoyed by the
Ancients,one has to
study
the origin of the figurative representations of their primitive
Philosophers.The Books of Hermes are
the
oldest repositories of numerical Symbology in Western Occultism.In them we find
that the number
ten [See Johannes Meursius,Denari s Pythagoricus.] is
the Mother of the Soul Life and Light being
therein
united.For as the sacred anagram Teruph shows in the Book of Keys (Numbers),the
number 1
(one)is
born from spirit and the number 10 (ten)from Matter:“the unity has made the ten
the ten the
unity
”;and this is only the Pantheistic axiom in other words “God in Nature and
Nature in God.”
The
kabalistic Gematria is arithmetical not geometrical.It is one of the methods
for extracting the hidden
meaning
from letters,words and sentences.It consists in applying to the letters of a
word the sense they
bear
in numbers,in outward shape as well as in their individual sense.As illustrated
by Ragon:
The
figure I signified the living man (a body erect)man being the only living being
enjoying
this
faculty.A head being added to it the glyph (or letter)P was obtained meaning
paternity
creative
potency;the R signifying the walking man (with his foot forward)going iens,it
rus
[ Ragon Maconnerie
Occulte,p.426.note.]
Gods and Numbers -
(Page 101)The characters were also made supplementary to speech every
letter being at once
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a
figure representing a sound for the ear and idea to the mind;as,for instance
the letter F
which
is a cutting sound like that of air rushing quickly through space;fury fusee
fugue all
words
expressive of and depicting what they signify.[Ibid.,p.432 note.]
But
the above pertains to another system that of the primitive and philosophical
formation of the letters
and
their outward glyphic form -not to Gematria.The Temura is another kabalistic
method by which any
word
could be made to yield its mystery out of its anagram.So in Sepher Jetzirah we
read “One -the
spirit
of the Alahim of Lives.” In the oldest kabalistic diagrams the Sephiroth (the
seven and the three)are
represented
as wheels or circles,and Adam Kadmon the primitive Man as an upright
pillar.“Wheels and
seraphim
and the holy creatures ”(Chioth)says Rabbi Akiba.In still another system of the
symbolical
Kabalah called Albath
-which arranges the letters of the alphabet by pairs in three rows -all the couples
in
the first row bear the numerical value ten;and in the system of Simeon Ben
Shetah (an Alexandrian
Neoplatonist
under the first Ptolemy)the uppermost couple -the most sacred of all -is
preceded by the
Pythagorean
cypher:one and a nought -10.
All
beings,from the first divine emanation or “God manifested ”down to the lowest
atomic existence
“have
their particular number which distinguishes each of them and becomes the source
of their
attributes
and qualities as of their destiny.”Chance as taught by Cornelius Agrippa is in
reality only an
unknown
progression;and time but a succession of numbers.Hence futurity being a
compound of
chance
and time these are made to serve Occult calculations in order to find the
result of an event or
the
future of one ’s destiny.Said Pythagoras:
There
is a mysterious connection between the Gods and numbers,on which the science of
arithmancy
is based.The soul is a world that is self-moving;the soul contains in itself
and is,
the
quaternary the tetraktys [the perfect cube ].
There
are lucky and unlucky or beneficent and maleficent numbers.Thus while the
ternary -the first of
the
odd numbers (the one being the perfect and standing by itself in Occultism)-is
the divine figure or
the
triangle;the duad was disgraced by the Pythagoreans from the (Page 102)first.It represented Matter
the
passive and evil principle -the number of Maya illusion.
While
the number one symbolized harmony order or the good principle (the one
God
expressed
in Latin by Solus,from which the word Sol the Sun the symbol of the Deity),
number
two expressed a contrary idea.The science of good and evil began with
it.All that is
double
false opposed to the only reality was depicted by the binary.It also expressed
the
contrasts
in Nature which are always double:night and day light and darkness,cold and
heat
dampness
and dryness,health and sickness,error and truth male and female etc....The
Romans
dedicated to Pluto the second month of the year and the second day of that
month to
expiations
in honour of the Manes.Hence the same rite established by the Latin Church and
faithfully
copied.Pope John XIX instituted in 1003 the Festival of the Dead which had to
be
celebrated
on the 2 nd of November the second month of autumn.[ Extracted
from Ragon
Maconnerie Occulte.p.427
note .]
On
the other hand the triangle a purely geometrical figure had great honour shewn
it by every nation
and
for this reason:
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In
geometry a straight line cannot represent an absolutely perfect figure any more
than two
straight
lines.Three straight lines,on the other hand produce by their junction a
triangle or
the
first absolutely perfect figure.Therefore it symbolized from the first and to
this day the
Eternal
-the first perfection.The word for deity in Latin as in French begins with D in
Greek
the
delta or triangle Ä,whose three sides symbolize the trinity or the three
kingdoms,or
again
divine nature.In the middle is the Hebrew Yod the initial of Jehovah [see
Eliphas Levi ’s
Dogme et Rit el,i.154
] the animating spirit or fire the generating principle represented by the
letter
G the initial of “God ”in the northern languages,whose philosophical
significance is
generation.[
Summarised from Ragon ibid .p.428 note.]
As
stated correctly by the famous Mason Ragon the Hindu Trimurti is personified in
the world of ideas by
Creation
Preservation and Destruction or Brahma Vishnu and Shiva;in the world of matter
by Earth
Water
and Fire or the Sun and symbolised by the Lotus,a flower that lives by earth
water and the sun.
[ Ragon mentions the
curious fact that the first four numbers in German are named after the
elements.
“Ein
or one means the air the element which ever in motion penetrates matter
throughout and whose
continual
ebb and tide is the universal vehicle of life.“
Zwei
two is derived from the old German Zweig signifying germ fecundity;it stands
for earth the fecund
mother
of all.“
Drei
three is the trienos of the Greeks,standing for water whence the
Sea-gods,Tritons:and trident the
emblem
of Neptune -the water or sea in general being called Amphitrite (surrounding
water).“
Vier
four a number meaning in Belgiam fire ...It is in the quaternary that the first
solid figure is found
the
universal symbol of immortality the Pyramid ‘whose first syllable means fire.’
Lysis and Timaeus of
Loeris
claimed that there was not a thing one could name that had not the quaternary
for its root...The
ingenious
and mystical idea which led to the veneration of the ternary and the triangle
was applied to
number
four and its figure:it was said to express a living being I the vehicle of the
triangle 4 vehicle of
God
or man carrying in him the divine principle.”
Finally
“the Ancients represented the world by the number five.Diodorus explains it by
saying that the
number
represents earth fire water air and ether or spiritus.Hence the origin of Pente
(five)and of Pan
(the
God)meaning in Greek all.”(Compare Ragon.op.cit.,pp.428-430.)It is left
with the Hindu
Occultists
to explain the relation this Sanskrit word Pancha (five)has to the elements the
Greek Pente
having
for its root the Sanskrit term.] The Lotus,sacred to Isis had the same
significance in Egypt
whereas
in the Christian symbol the Lotus,not being found in either Judaea or Europe
was replaced by
the
water-lily.
The Universal Language -(Page 103)In every Greek and Latin Church in all the pictures of the
Annunciation
the Archangel Gabriel is depicted with this trinitarian symbol in his hand
standing before
Mary
while above the chief altar or under the dome the Eye of the Eternal is painted
within a triangle
made
to replace the Hebrew Yod or God.
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Truly
says Ragon there was a time when numbers and alphabetical characters meant
something more
than
they do now -the images of a mere insignificant sound.
Their
mission was nobler then.Each of them represented by its form a complete sense
which
besides
the meaning of the word had a double [ The system of the so-called
Senzar
characters
is still more wonderful and difficult since each letter is made to yield
several
meanings,a
sign placed at the commencement showing the true meaning .] interpretation
adapted
to a dual doctrine.Thus when the sages desired to write something to be
understood
only
by the savants,they confabulated a story a dream or some other fictitious
subject with
personal
names of men and localities,that revealed by their lettered characters the true
meaning
of the author by that narrative.Such were all their religious creations.[Ragon
Op,
cit.,p.431 note.]
Every
appellation and term had its raison d'ętre.The name of a plant or
mineral denoted its nature to the
Initiate
at the first glance.The essence of everything was easily perceived by him once
that it was figured
by
such characters.The Chinese characters have preserved much of this graphic and
pictorial character
to
this day though the secret of the full system is lost.Nevertheless,even now
there are those among
that
nation who can write a long narrative a volume on one page;and the symbols that
are explained
historically
allegorically and astronomically have survived until now.
Moreover
there exists a universal language among the Initiates,which an Adept and even a
disciple of
any
nation may understand by reading it in his own language.We Europeans,on the
contrary possess
only
one graphic sign common to all &(and);there is a language richer in
metaphysical terms than any
on
earth whose every (Page
104)word is expressed by like common
signs.The Litera Pythagorae so
called
the Greek Y (the English capital Y)if traced alone in a message was as explicit
as a whole page
filled
with sentences,for it stood as a symbol for a number of things -for white and
black Magic,for
instance.[The
Y exoterically signifies only the two paths of virtue of vice and stands also
for the
numeral
150 and with a dash over the letter Y for 150.000.]Suppose one man
enquired of another:To
what
School of Magic does so and so belong?And the answer came back with the letter
traced with the
right
branch thicker than the left then it meant “to right hand or divine Magic;”but
if the letter was traced
in
the usual way with the left branch thicker than the right then it meant the
reverse the right or left
branch
being the whole biography of a man.In Asia especially in the Devanâgarî
characters,every letter
had
several secret meanings.
Interpretations
of the hidden sense of such apocalyptic writings are found in the keys given in
the
Kabalah and they are
among its more secret lore.St.Hieronymus assures us that they were known to
the
School of the Prophets and taught therein which is very likely.Molitor the
learned Hebraist in his
work
on tradition says that:
The
two and twenty letters of the Hebrew alphabet were regarded as an emanation or
the
visible
expression of the divine forces inherent in the ineffable name.
These
letters find their equivalent in and are replaced by numbers,in the same way as
in the other
systems.For
instance the twelfth and the sixth letter of the alphabet yield eighteen in a
name;the other
letter
of that name added being always exchanged for that figure which corresponds to
the alphabetical
letter;then
all those figures are subjected to an algebraical process which transforms them
again into
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letters;after
which the latter yield to the enquirer “the most hidden secrets of divine
Permanency (eternity
in
its immutability)in the Futurity.”
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SECTION XI
The Hexagon with the Central Point or The
Seventh Key
(Page 105)Arguing the virtue in names (Baalshem),Molitor thinks it
impossible to deny that the Kabalah -
its
present abuses notwithstanding -has some very profound and scientific basis to
stand upon.And if it
is
claimed he argues,
That
before the Name of Jesus every other Name must bend why should not the
Tetragrammaton
have the same power?[ Tradition chap on “Numbers.”]
This
is good sense and logic.For if Pythagoras viewed the hexagon formed of two
crossed triangles as
the
symbol of creation and the Egyptians,as that of the union of fire and water (or
of generation),the
Essenes
saw in it the seal of Solomon the Jews the Shield of David the Hindus the sign
of Vishnu (to
this
day);and if even in Russia and Poland the double triangle is regarded as a
powerful talisman -then
so
widespread a use argues that there is something in it.It stands to reason
indeed that such an
ancient
and universally revered symbol should not be merely laid aside to be laughed at
by those who
know
nothing of its virtues or real Occult significance.To begin with even the known
sign is merely a
substitute
for the one used by the Initiates.In a Tântrika work in the British Museum a
terrible curse is
called
down upon the head of him who shall ever divulge to the profane the real Occult
hexagon known
as
the “Sign of Vishnu ”“Solomon ’s Seal ”etc.
The
great power of the hexagon -with its central mystic sign the T or the Svastika
a septenary -is well
explained
in the seventh key of Things Concealed for it says
(Page 106)The seventh key is the hieroglyph of the sacred septenary
of royalty of the
priesthood
[the Initiate ] of triumph and true result by struggle.It is magic power in all
its force
the
true “Holy Kingdom.”In the Hermetic Philosophy it is the quintessence resulting
from the
union
of the two forces of the great Magic Agent [Akâsha Astral Light.] ...It is
equally Jakin
and
Boaz bound by the will of the Adept and overcome by his omnipotence.
The
force of this key is absolute in Magic.All religions have consecrated this sign
in their rites.
We
can only glance hurriedly at present at the long series of antediluvian works
in their postdiluvian and
fragmentary
often disfigured form.Although all of these are the inheritance from the Fourth
Race -now
lying
buried in the unfathomed depths of the ocean -still they are not to be
rejected.As we have shown
there
was but one Science at the dawn of mankind and it was entirely divine.If
humanity on reaching its
adult
period has abused it -especially the last Sub-Races of the Fourth Root-Race -it
has been the fault
and
sin of the practitioners who desecrated the divine knowledge not of those who
remained true to its
pristine
dogmas.It is not because the modern Roman Catholic Church faithful to her
traditional
intolerance
is now pleased to see in the Occultist and even in the innocent Spiritualist
and Masons,the
descendants
of “the Kischuph the Hamite the Kasdim,the Cephene the Ophite and the Khartumim
”-all
these
being “the followers of Satan ”that they are such indeed.The State or National
Religion of every
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country
has ever and at all times very easily disposed of rival schools by professing
to believe they were
dangerous
heresies -the old Roman Catholic State Religion as much as the modern one.
The
anathema however has not made the public any the wiser in the Mysteries of the
Occult Sciences.
In
some respects the world is all the better for such ignorance.The secrets of
nature generally cut both
ways
and in the hands of the undeserving they are more than likely to become
murderous.Who in our
modern
day knows anything of the real significance of and the powers contained in
certain characters
and
signs -talismans -whether for beneficent or evil purposes?Fragments of the
Runes and the writing
of
the Kischuph found scattered in old mediaeval libraries;copies from the
Ephesian and Milesian letters
or
characters;the thrice famous Book of Thoth,and the terrible treatises
(still preserved)of Targes,the
Chaldaean
and his disciple Tarchon the Etruscan -who flourished long before the Trojan
War -are so
many
names and appellations void of sense (though met with in classical
literature)for the educated
modern
scholar.Who in the nineteenth century believes in the art described in such
treatises as those
of
Targes,of evoking and directing thunderbolts?
Occult Weapons -
(Page 107)Yet the same is described in the Brâhmanical literature and
Targes copied his “thunderbolts ”
from
the Astra [This is a kind of magical bow and arrow calculated to destroy
in one moment whole
armies;it
is mentioned in the Ramayana,the P ranas and elsewhere.] those
terrible engines of
destruction
known to the Mahabharatan Aryans.A whole arsenal of dynamite bombs would pale
before
this
art -if it ever becomes understood by the Westerns.It is from an old fragment
that was translated to
him
that the late Lord Bulwer Lytton got his idea of Vril.It is a lucky thing
indeed that in the face of the
virtues
and philanthropy that grace our age of iniquitous wars,of anarchists and
dynamiters,the secrets
contained
in the books discovered in Numa ’s tomb should have been burnt.But the science
of Circe and
Medea
is not lost.One can discover it in the apparent gibberish of the Tantrika
Sutras,the K ku-ma of
the
Bhutani and the Sikhim Dugpas and “Red-caps ”of Tibet and even in the sorcery
of the Nilgiri Mula
Kurumbas.Very
luckily few outside the high practioners of the Left Path and of the Adepts of
the Right -
in
whose hands the weird secrets of the real meaning are safe -understand the
“black ”evocations.
Otherwise
the Western as much as the Eastern Dugpas might make short work of their
enemies.The
name
of the latter is legion for the direct descendants of the antediluvian
sorcerers hate all those who
are
not with them arguing that therefore they are against them.
As
for the “Little Albert ”-though even this small half-esoteric volume has become
a literary relic -and the
“Great
Albert ”or the “Red Dragon ”together with the numberless old copies still in
existence the sorry
remains
of the mythical Mother Shiptons and the Merlins -we mean the false ones -all
these are
vulgarised
imitations of the original works of the same names.Thus the “Petite Albert ” is
the disfigured
imitation
of the great work written in Latin by Bishop Adalbert an Occultist of the
eighth century
sentenced
by the second Roman Concilium.His work was reprinted several centuries later
and named
Alberti Parvi L cii Libell s de Mirabilib s Nat rae
Arcanis.The severities of the Roman Church
have ever
been
spasmodic.While one learns of this condemnation which placed the Church as will
be shown in
relation
to the Seven Archangels,the Virtues or Thrones of God in the most embarrassing
position for
long
centuries,it remains a (Page
108)wonder indeed to find that the Jesuits
have not destroyed the
archives
with all their countless chronicles and annals,of the History of France and
those of the Spanish
Escurial
along with them.Both history and the chronicles of the former speak at length
of the priceless
talisman
received by Charles the Great from a Pope.It was a little volume on Magic -or
Sorcery rather -
all
full of kabalistic figures,signs mysterious sentences and invocations to the
stars and planets.These
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were
talismans against the enemies of the King (les ennemis de Charlemagne ),which
talismans,the
chronicler
tells us,proved of great help as “every one of them [the enemies ] died a
violent death.”The
small
volume Enchiridin m Leonis Papie,has disappeared and is very luckily out
of print.Again the
Alphabet
of Thoth can be dimly traced in the modern Tarot which can be had at almost
every bookseller ’s
in
Paris.As for its being understood or utilised the many fortune-tellers in
Paris,who make a
professional
living by it are sad specimens of failures of attempts at reading let alone
correctly
interpreting
the symbolism of the Tarot without a preliminary philosophical study of the
Science.The real
Tarot
in its complete symbology can be found only in the Babylonian cylinders,that
any one can inspect
and
study in the British Museum and elsewhere.Any one can see these Chaldaean
antediluvian
rhombs,or
revolving cylinders,covered with sacred signs;but the secrets of these divining
“wheels,”or
as
de Mirville calls them “the rotating globes of Hecate ”have to be left untold
for some time to come.
Meanwhile
there are the “turning-tables ”of the modern medium for the babes,and the Kabalah
for the
strong.This
may afford some consolation.
People
are very apt to use terms which they do not understand and to pass judgments on
prima facie
evidence.The
difference between White and Black Magic is very difficult to realise fully as
both have to
be
judged by their motive upon which their ultimate though not their immediate
effects depend even
though
these may not come for years.Between the “right and the left hand [Magic ]
there is but a cobweb
thread
”says an Eastern proverb.Let us abide by its wisdom and wait till we have
learned more.
We
shall have to return at greater length to the relation of the Kabalah to
Gupta Vidya and to deal further
with
esoteric and numerical systems,but we must first follow the line of Adepts in
post Christian times.
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SECTION XII
The Duty of the True Occultist Toward
Religions
(Page 109)HAVING disposed of pre-Christian Initiates and their
Mysteries -though more has to be said
about
the latter -a few words must be given to the earliest post-Christian Adepts
irrespective of their
personal
belief and doctrines,or their subsequent places in History whether sacred or
profane.Our task
is
to analyse this adeptship with its abnormal thaumaturgical or as now called
psychological powers;to
give
each of such Adepts his due by considering firstly what are the historical
records about them that
have
reached us at this late day and secondly to examine the laws of probability
with regard to the said
powers.
And
at the outset the writer must be allowed a few words in justification of what
has to be said.It would
be
most unfair to see in these pages,any defiance to or disrespect for the Christian
religion -least of all
a
desire to wound anyone ’s feelings.The Theosophist believes in neither Divine
nor Satanic miracles.At
such
a distance of time he can only obtain prima facie evidence and judge of
it by the results claimed.
There
is neither Saint nor Sorcerer Prophet nor Soothsayer for him;only Adepts,or
proficients in the
production
of feats of a phenomenal character to be judged by their words and deeds.The
only
distinction
he is now able to trace depends on the results achieved -on the evidence
whether they were
beneficent
or maleficent in their character as affecting those for or against whom the
powers of the Adept
were
used.With the division so arbitrarily made between proficients in “miraculous
”doings of this or that
Religion
by their respective followers and advocates,the Occultist cannot and must
not be concerned.
The
Christian whose Religion commands (Page 110)him to regard Peter
and Paul as Saints,and divinely
inspired
and glorified Apostles,and to view Simon and Apollonius as Wizards and
Necromancers,helped
by
and serving the ends of supposed Evil Powers -is quite justified in thus doing
if he be a sincere
orthodox
Christian.But so also is the Occultist justified if he would serve truth and
only truth in rejecting
such
a one-sided view.The student of Occultism must belong to no special creed or
sect yet he is bound
to
show outward respect to every creed and faith if he would become an Adept of
the Good Law.He
must
not be bound by the prejudged and sectarian opinions of anyone and he has to
form his own
opinions
and to come to his own conclusions in accordance with the rules of evidence
furnished to him
by
the Science to which he is devoted.Thus,if the Occultist is,by way of
illustration a Buddhist then
while
regarding Gautama Buddha as the grandest of all the Adepts that lived and the
incarnation of
unselfish
love boundless charity and moral goodness,he will regard in the same light
Jesus -
proclaiming
Him another such incarnation of every divine virtue.He will reverence the
memory of the
great
Martyr even while refusing to recognise in Him the incarnation on earth of the
One Supreme Deity
and
the “Very God of Gods ”in Heaven.He will cherish the ideal man for his personal
virtues,not for the
claims
made on his behalf by fanatical dreamers of the early ages,or by a shrewd
calculating Church
and
Theology.He will even believe in most of the “assorted miracles,”only
explaining them in
accordance
with the rules of his own Science and by his psychic discernment.Refusing them
the term
“miracle
”-in the theological sense of an event “contrary to the established laws of
nature ’ -he will
nevertheless
view them as a deviation from the laws known (so far)to Science quite another
thing.
Moreover
the Occultist will on the prima facie evidence of the Gospels -whether
proven or not -class
most
of such works as beneficent divine Magic,though he will be justified in
regarding such events as
casting
out devils into a herd of swine [ Matthew,viii.30-34.] as
allegorical and as pernicious to true faith
in
their dead-letter sense.This is the view a genuine impartial Occultist would
take.And in this respect
even
the fanatical Mussulmans who regard Jesus of Nazareth as a great Prophet and
show respect to
Him
are giving a wholesome lesson in charity to Christians,who teach and accept
that “religious
tolerance
is impious and absurd ” [ Dogmatic Theology,iii.345.] and
who will never refer to the prophet
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of
Islam by any other term but that of a “false prophet.”
Christian and Non-Christian Adepts -(Page 111)It is on the principles of Occultism then that Peter and
Simon
Paul and Apollonius,will now be examined.
These
four Adepts are chosen to appear in these pages with good reason.They are the
first in post-
Christian
Adeptship -as recorded in profane and sacred writings -to strike the key-note of
“miracles,”
that
is of psychic and physical phenomena.It is only theological bigotry and
intolerance that could so
maliciously
and arbitrarily separate the two harmonious parts into two distinct
manifestations of Divine
and
Satanic Magic,into “godly ” and “ungodly ” works.
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SECTION XIII
Post-Christian Adepts and Their Doctrines
(Page 112)WHAT does the world at large know of Peter and Simon for
example?Profane history has no
record
of these two while that which the so-called sacred literature tells us of them
is scattered about
contained
in a few sentences in the Acts .As to the Apocrypha their very name
forbids critics to trust to
them
for information.The Occultists,however claim that one-sided and prejudiced as
they may be the
apocryphal
Gospels contain far more historically true events and facts than does
the New Testament the
Acts included.The former
are crude tradition the latter [the official Gospels ] are an
elaborately made up
legend.The
sacredness of the New Testament is a question of private belief and of
blind faith and while
one
is bound to respect the private opinion of one ’s neighbour no one is forced to
share it.
Who
was Simon Magus,and what is known of him?One learns in the Acts simply
that on account of his
remarkable
magical Arts he was called “the Great Power of God.” Philip is said to have
baptised this
Samaritan;and
subsequently he is accused of having offered money to Peter and John to teach
him the
power
of working true “miracles,” false ones,it is asserted being of the Devil [ viii.9
10.] This is all if we
omit
the words of abuse freely used against him for working “miracles ”of the latter
kind.Origen mentions
him
as having visited Rome during the reign of Nero [ Adv.Celsum.]
and Mosheim places him along the
open
enemies of Christianity;[ Eccles.Hist.,i.140.] but Occult
tradition accuses him of nothing worse
than
refusing to recognise “Simeon ” as Vicegerent of God whether that “Simeon ” was
Peter or anyone
else
being still left an open question with the critics.
Unfair Criticism -(Page 113)That which
Irenaeus [Contra Haereses,1.xxiii.1-4.] and Epiphanius [
Comtra Haereses,ii
1-6.] say of Simon Magus -namely that he represented himself as the
incarnated
trinity;that
in Samaria he was the Father in Judaea the Son and had given himself out to the
Gentiles as
the
Holy Spirit -is simply backbiting.Times and events change;human nature remains
the same and
unaltered
under every sky and in every age.The charge is the result and product of the
traditional and
now
classical odi m theologic m.No Occultists -all of whom have experienced
personally more or less,
the
effects of theological rancour -will ever believe such things merely on the
word of an Irenaeus,if
indeed
he ever wrote the words himself.Further on it is narrated of Simon that he took
about with him a
woman
whom he introduced as Helen of Troy who had passed through a hundred
reincarnations,and
who
still earlier in the beginning of aeons,was Sophia Divine Wisdom an emanation
of his own
(Simon
’s)Eternal Mind when he (Simon)was the “Father ” ;and finally that by her he
had “begotten the
Archangels
and Angels,by whom this world was created ”etc.
Now
we all know to what a degree of transformation and luxuriant growth any bare
statement can be
subjected
and forced after passing through only half a dozen hands.Moreover all these
claims may be
explained
and even shown to be true at bottom Simon Magus was a Kabalist and a Mystic,who
like so
many
other reformers,endeavoured to found a new Religion based on the fundamental
teachings of the
Secret
Doctrine yet without divulging more than necessary of its mysteries.Why then
should not Simon
a
Mystic deeply imbued with the fact of serial incarnations (we may leave out the
number “one hundred ”
as
a very probable exaggeration of his disciples),speak of any one whom he knew
psychically as an
incarnation
of some heroine of that name and in the way he did -if he ever did so?Do we not
find in our
own
century some ladies and gentlemen not charlatans but intellectual persons
highly honoured in
society
whose inner conviction assures them that they were -one Queen Cleopatra another
one
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Alexander
the Great a third Joan of Arc,and who or what not?This is a matter of inner
conviction and is
based
on more or less familiarity with Occultism and belief in the modern theory of
reincarnation.The
latter
differs from the one genuine doctrine of old as will be shown but there is no
rule without its
exception.
(Page 114)As to the Magus being “one with God the Father God the Son
and God the Holy Ghost ”this
again
is quite reasonable if we admit that a Mystic and Seer has a right to use
allegorical language;and
in
this case moreover it is quite justified by the doctrine of Universal Unity
taught in Esoteric Philosophy.
Every
Occultist will say the same on (to him)scientific and logical grounds,in full
accordance with the
doctrine
he professes.Not a Vedantin but says the same thing daily:he is,of course
Brahman and he is
Parabrahman
once that he rejects the individuality of his personal spirit and recognizes
the Divine Ray
which
dwells in his Higher Self as only a reflection of the Universal Spirit.This is
the echo in all times and
ages
of the primitive doctrine of Emanations.The first Emanation from the Unknown is
the “Father [Op
cit.,ii.337.] the
second the “Son ”and all and everything proceeds from the One or that Divine
Spirit
which
is “unknowable.Hence the assertion that by her (Sophia or Minerva the Divine
Wisdom)he
(Simon),when
yet in the bosom of the Father himself the Father (or the first collective
Emanation),begot
the
Archangels -the “Son ”-who were the creators of this world.
The
Roman Catholics themselves,driven to the wall by the irrefutable arguments of
their opponents -the
learned
Philologists and Symbologists who pick to shreds Church dogmas and their
authorities,and point
out
the plurality of the Elohim in the Bible -admit today that the first
“creation ”of God the Tsaba or
Archangels,must
have participated in the creation of the universe.Might not we suppose:
Although
“God alone created the heaven and the earth ”...that however unconnected they
[the
angels ] may have been with the primordial ex nihilo creation they may
have received a
mission
to achieve to continue and to sustain it?[ Op cit.,ii.337.]
exclaims
De Mirville in answer to Renan Lacour Maury and the t tti q anti of the
French Institute.With
certain
alterations it is precisely this which is claimed by the Secret Doctrine.In
truth there is not a single
doctrine
preached by the many Reformers of the first and the subsequent centuries of our
era that did
not
base its initial teachings on this universal cosmogony.Consult Mosheim and see
what he has to say
of
the many “heresies ”he describes.Cerinthus,the Jew
Taught
that the Creator of this world ...the Sovereign God of the Jewish people was a
Being
...who derived his birth from the Supreme God;
that
this Being moreover
Fell
by degrees from his native virtue and primitive dignity.
The Two Eternal Principles -(Page 115)Basildes,Carpocrates and Valentinus,the Egyptian Gnostics
of
the
second century held the same ideas with a few variations.Basilides preached
seven Aeons (Hosts or
Archangels),who
issued from the substance of the Supreme.Two of them Power and Wisdom begot
the
heavenly hierarchy of the first class and dignity;this emanated a second;the
latter a third and so on;
each
subsequent evolution being of a nature less exalted than the precedent and each
creating for itself
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a
Heaven as a dwelling the nature of each of these respective Heavens decreasing
in splendour and
purity
as it approached nearer to the earth.Thus the number of these Dwellings
amounted to 365;and
over
all presided the Supreme Unknown called Abraxas,a name which in the Greek
method of
numeration
yields the number 365 which in its mystic and numerical meaning contains the
number 355
or
the man value [Ten is the perfect number of the Supreme God among the
“manifested ”deities,for
number
"I"is the symbol of the Universal Unit or male principle in Nature
and a number "0"the feminine
symbol
Chaos,the Deep the two forming thus the symbol of Androgyne nature as well as
the full value
of
the solar year which was also the value of Jehovah and Enoch.Ten with
Pythagoras,was the symbol
of
the Universe;also of Enos,the Son of Seth or the “Son of Man ” who stands as
the symbol of the solar
year
of 365 days and whose years are therefore given as 365 also.In the Egyptian
Symbology Abraxas
was
the Sun the “Lord of the Heavens.”The Circle is the symbol of the one
Unmanifesting Principle the
plane
of whose figure is infinitude eternally and this is crossed by a diameter only
during Manvantaras.]
This
was a Gnostic Mystery based upon that of primitive Evolution which ended with
“man.”
Saturnilus
of Antioch promulgated the same doctrine slightly modified.He taught two
eternal principles,
Good
and Evil which are simply Spirit and Matter.The seven Angels who preside over
the seven Planets
are
the Builders of our Universe -a purely Eastern doctrine as Saturnilus was an
Asiatic Gnostic.These
Angels
are the natural Guardians of the seven Regions of our Planetary System one of
the most
powerful
among these seven creating Angels of the third order being “Saturn ” the
presiding genius of the
Planet
and the God of the Hebrew people:namely Jehovah who was venerated among the
Jews,and
to
whom they dedicated the seventh day or Sabbath Saturday -“Saturn ’s day ” among
the Scandinavians
and
also among the Hindus.
Marcion
who also held the doctrine of the two opposed principles of Good and Evil
asserted that there
was
a third Deity between the two -one of a “mixed nature ”-the God of the Jews,the
Creator (with his
Host)of
the lower or our World.Though ever at war with the Evil (Page 116)Principle this intermediate
Being
was nevertheless also opposed to the Good Principle whose place and title he
coveted.
Thus
Simon was only the son of his time a religious Reformer like so many others,and
an Adept among
the
Kabalists.The Church to which a belief in his actual existence and great powers
is a necessity -in
order
the better to set off the “miracle ”performed by Peter and his triumph over
Simon -extols
unstintingly
his wonderful magic feats.On the other hand Scepticism represented by scholars
and
learned
critics,tries to make away with him altogether.Thus,after denying the very
existence of Simon
they
have finally thought fit to merge his individuality entirely in that of
Paul.The anonymous author of
S pernat ral Religion assiduously
endeavoured to prove that by Simon Magus we must understand the
Apostle
Paul whose Epistles were secretly as well as openly calumniated and
opposed by Peter and
charged
with containing “dysnoetic learning.” Indeed this seems more than probable when
we think of the
two
Apostles and contrast their characters.
The
Apostle of the Gentiles was brave outspoken sincere and very learned;the
Apostle of
Circumcision
cowardly cautious,insincere and very ignorant.That Paul had been partially at
least
if not completely initiated into the theurgic mysteries,admits of little
doubt.His
language
the phraseology so peculiar to the Greek philosophers,certain expressions used
only
by the Initiates,are so many sure earmarks to that supposition.Our suspicion
has been
strengthened
by an able article entitled “Paul and Plato ”by Dr.A.Wilder in which the author
puts
forward one remarkable and for us,very precious observation.In the Epistles
to the
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Corinthians he shows
Paul abounding with “expressions suggested by the initiations of
Sabazius
and Eleusis,and the lectures of the (Greek)philosophers.He (Paul)designates
himself
as idiotes -a person unskilful in the Word but not in the gnosis or
philosophical
learning.‘We
speak wisdom among the perfect or initiated ’ he writes,even the hidden
wisdom ‘not the wisdom
of this world nor of the Archons of this world but divine wisdom in a
mystery
secret -which none of the Archons of this world knew.’”[I.Cor.,ii.6-8.]
What
else can the Apostle mean by those unequivocal words,but that he himself as
belonging
to the Mystae (Initiated),spoke of things shown and explained only in the
Mysteries?The
“divine wisdom in a mystery which none of the Archons of this world knew,”
has
evidently some direct reference to the Basileus of the Eleusinian Initiation
who did know.
The
Basileus belonged to the staff of the great Hierophant and was an Archon of
Athens,and
as
such was one of the chief Mystae belonging to the interior Mysteries,to
which a very select
and
small number obtained an entrance.[ Compare Taylor ’s Ele sinian and
Bacchic
Mysteries.] The magistrates supervising the Eleusinia were called
Archons.[ Isis Unveiled.ii.
89.]
We
will deal however first with Simon the Magician.
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SECTION XIV
Simon and His Biographer Hippolytus
(Page 117)AS shown in our earlier volumes,Simon was a pupil of the
Tanaim of Samaria and the
reputation
he left behind him together with the title of “the Great Power of God ”testify
in favour of the
ability
and learning of his Masters.But the Tanaim were Kabalists of the same secret
school as John of
the
Apocalypse whose careful aim it was to conceal as much as possible the
real meaning of the names
in
the Mosiac Books.Still the calumnies so jealously disseminated against Simon
Magus by the unknown
authors
and compilers of the Acts and other writings,could not cripple the truth
to such an extent as to
conceal
the fact that no Christian could rival him in thaumaturgic deeds.The story told
about his falling
during
an aerial flight breaking both his legs and then committing suicide is
ridiculous.Posterity has
heard
but one side of the story.Were the disciples of Simon to have a chance we might
perhaps find that
it
was Peter who broke his legs.But as against this hypothesis we know that this
Apostle was too prudent
ever
to venture himself in Rome.On the confession of several ecclesiastical
writers,no Apostle ever
performed
such “supernatural wonders,” but of course pious people will say this only the
more proves
that
it was the Devil who worked through Simon.He was accused of blasphemy against
the Holy Ghost
only
because he introduced as the “Holy Spiritus ”the Men's (Intelligence)or “the
Mother of all.” But we
find
the same expression used in the Book of Enoch,in which in contradistinction
to the “Son of Man ”
he
speaks of the “Son of the Woman.”In the Codex of the Nazarenes,and in
the Zohar as well as in the
Books of Hermes the
same expression is used;and even in the apocryphal Evangeli m of the Hebrews
we
read that Jesus admitted the female sex of the Holy Ghost by using the
expression “My Mother the
Holy
Pneuma.”
(Page 118)After long ages of denial however the actual existence of
Simon Magus has been finally
demonstrated
whether he was Saul Paul or Simon.A manuscript speaking of him under the last
name
has
been discovered in Greece and has put a stop to any further speculation.
In
his Histoire des Trois Premiers Siecles de L ’Eglise,[ Op.cit.,ii.395.]M.de
Pressensé gives his
opinion
on this additional relic of early Christianity.Owing to the numerous myths with
which the history
of
Simon abounds -he says -many Theologians (among Protestants,he ought to have
added)have
concluded
that it was no better than a clever tissue of legends.But he adds:
It
contains positive facts,it seems,now warranted by the unanimous testimony of
the Fathers
of
the Church and the narrative of Hippolytus recently discovered.[ Quoted
by De Mirville.Op
cit.,vi.41 and 42.]
This
MS.is very far from being complimentary to the alleged founder of Western
Gnosticism.While
recognizing
great powers in Simon it brands him as a priest of Satan -which is quite enough
to show
that
it was written by a Christian.It also shows that like another servant “of the
Evil One ”-as Manes is
called
by the Church -Simon was a baptised Christian;but that both being too
well versed in the
mysteries
of true primitive Christianity were persecuted for it.The secret of such
persecution was then
as
it is now quite transparent to those who study the question impartially.Seeking
to preserve his
independence
Simon could not submit to the leadership or authority of any of the
Apostles,least of all to
that
of either Peter or John the fanatical author of the Apocalypse.Hence
charges of heresy followed by
“anathema
maranatha.”The persecutions by the Church were never directed against
Magic,when it was
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orthodox;for
the new Theurgy established and regulated by the Fathers,now known to
Christendom as
“grace
”and “miracles,”was and is still when it does happen only Magic -whether
conscious or
unconscious.Such
phenomena as have passed to posterity under the name of “divine miracles ”were
produced
though powers acquired by great purity of life and ecstacy.Prayer and
contemplation added to
asceticism
are the best means of discipline in order to become a Theurgist where there is
no regular
initiation.For
intense prayer for the accomplishment of some object is only intense will and
desire
resulting
in unconscious Magic.In our own day George Muller of Bristol has proved it.But
“divine
miracles
”are produced by the same causes that generate effects of Sorcery.
Uneven Balances -(Page 119)The whole
difference rests on the good or evil effects aimed at and on the
actor
who produces them.The thunders of the Church were directed only against those
who dissented
from
the formulae and attributed to themselves the production of certain marvellous
effects,instead of
fathering
them on a personal God;and thus while those Adepts in Magic Arts who acted
under her direct
instructions
and auspices were proclaimed to posterity and history as saints and friends of
God all others
were
hooted out of the Church and sentenced to eternal calumny and curses from their
day to this.
Dogma
and authority have ever been the curse of humanity the great extinguishers of
light and truth.[
Mr.St.George
Lane-Fox has admirably expressed the idea in his eloquent appeal to the many
rival
schools
and societies in India.“ I feel sure ”he said “that the prime motive however
dimly perceived by
which
you as the promoters of these movements,were actuated was a revolt against the
tyrannical and
almost
universal establishment throughout all existing social and so-called religious
institutions of a
usurped
authority in some external form supplanting and obscuring the only real and
ultimate authority
the
indwelling spirit of truth revealed to each individual soul true conscience in
fact that supreme source
of
all human wisdom and power which elevates man above the level of the brute.”(To
the Members of
the Aryan Samâj,the Theosophical Society,Brahmo and Hind
Samaj and other Religio s and
Progressive Societies in India.)]
It
was perhaps the recognition of a germ of that which later on in the then
nascent Church grew into the
virus
of insatiate power and ambition culminating finally in the dogma of
infallibility that forced Simon
and
so many others,to break away from her at her very birth.Sects and dissensions
began with the first
century.While
Paul rebukes Peter to his face John slanders under the veil of vision the
Nicolaitans,and
makes
Jesus declare that he hates them.[Revelation,ii.6.] Therefore
we pay little attention to the
accusations
against Simon in the MS.found in Greece.
It
is entitled Philosoph mena .Its author regarded as Saint Hippolytus by
the Greek Church is referred to
as
an “unknown heretic ”by the Papists only because he speaks in it “very
slanderously ” of Pope
Callistus,also
a Saint.Nevertheless,Greeks and Latins agree in declaring the Philosoph mena
to be an
extraordinary
and very erudite work.Its antiquity and genuineness have been vouched for by
the best
authorities
of Tubingen.
Whoever
the author may have been he expresses himself about Simon in this wise:
Simon
a man well versed in magic arts,deceived many persons partly by the (Page 120)art of
Thrasymedes,[This
“art ”is not common jugglery as some define it now:it ’s a kind of
psychological
jugglery if jugglery at all where fascination and glamour are used as means of
producing
illusions.It is hypnotism on a large scale.] and partly with the help
of demons.[ The
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author
asserts in this his Christian persuasion.]...He determined to pass
himself off as a
god...Aided
by his wicked arts,he turned to profit not only the teachings of Moses,but
those
of
the poets ...His disciples use to this day his charms.Thanks to incantations,to
philtres,to
their
attractive caresses [ Magnetic passes,evidently followed by a trance and
sleep.] and
what
they call “sleeps,”they send demons to influence all those whom they would
fascinate.
With
this object they employ what they call “familiar demons.”[ “Elementals
”used by the
highest
Adept to do mechanical not intellectual work as a physicist uses gases and
other
compounds.]
Further
on the MS.reads:
The
Magus (Simon)made those who wished to enquire of the demon write what their
question
was on a leaf of parchment;this,folded in four was thrown into a burning
brazier in
order
that the smoke should reveal the contents of the writing to the Spirit (demon)(Philos.,IV.
IV.)Incense
was thrown by handfuls on the blazing coals,the Magus adding on pieces of
papyrus,the
Hebrew names of the Spirits he was addressing and the flame devoured all.
Very
soon the divine Spirit seemed to overwhelm the Magician who uttered
unintelligible
invocations,and
plunged in such a state he answered every question -phantasmal apparitions
being
often raised over the flaming brazier (ibid .iii.);at other times fire
descended from
heaven
upon objects previously pointed out by the Magician (ibid.);or again the
deity evoked
crossing
the room would trace fiery orbs in its flight.(ibid .ix.).[Quoted
from De Mirville.
op.cit.,vi.43.]
So
far the above statements agree with those of Anastasius the Sinaďte:
People
saw Simon causing statues to walk;precipitating himself into the flames without
being
burnt;metamorphosing
his body into that of various animals [lycanthropy ];raising at banquets
phantoms
and spectres;ca sing the f rnit re in the rooms to move abo t,by
invisible spirits .
He
gave out that he was escorted by a number of shades to whom he gave the name of
“souls
of
the dead.”Finally he used to fly in the air ...(Anast.Patrol,Grecq e,vol.lxxxix.col.523
quaest.xx.).[
Ibid.,vi.45 .]
Suetonius
says in his Nero,
In
those days an Icarus fell at his first ascent near Nero ’s box and covered it
with his blood.[
Ibid.,p.46.]
This
sentence referring evidently to some unfortunate acrobat who missed his footing
and tumbled is
brought
forward as a proof that it was Simon who fell.[ Amédée Fleury.Rapports
de St.Pa l avec
Sénčq e.ii.100.The
whole of this is summarised from De Mirville.]
Stones as “Evidences.”-(Page 121)But the latter ’s name is surely too famous,if one must
credit the
Church
Fathers,for the historian to have mentioned him simply as “an Icarus.” The
writer is quite aware
that
there exists in Rome a locality names Simonium near the Church of SS.Cosmas and
Daimanus
(Via
Sacra),and the ruins of the ancient temple of Romulus,where the broken pieces
of a stone on
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which
it is alleged the two knees of the Apostle Peter were impressed in thanksgiving
after his supposed
victory
over Simon are shown to this day.But what does this exhibition amount to?For
the broken
fragments
of one stone the Buddhists of Ceylon show a whole rock on Adam ’s Peak with
another imprint
upon
it.A crag stands upon its platform a terrace of which supports a huge boulder
and on the boulder
rests
for nearly three thousand years the sacred footprint of a foot five feet
long.Why not credit the
legend
of the latter if we have to accept that of St.Peter?“Prince of Apostles,”or
“Prince of Reformers,”
or
even the “First-born of Satan ”as Simon is called all are entitled to legends
and fictions.One may be
allowed
to discriminate however.
That
Simon could fly i.e.,raise himself in the air for a few minutes,is no
impossibility.Modern mediums
have
performed the same feat supported by a force that Spiritualists persist in
calling “spirits.”But if
Simon
did so it was with the help of a self-acquired blind power that heeds little
the prayers and
commands
of rival Adepts,let alone Saints.The fact is that logic is against the supposed
fall of Simon at
the
prayer of Peter.For had he been defeated publicly by the Apostle his disciples
would have
abandoned
him after such an evident sign of inferiority and would have become orthodox
Christians.But
we
find even the author of Philosoph mena,just such a Christian showing
otherwise.Simon had lost so
little
credit with his pupils and the masses,that he went on daily preaching in the
Roman Campania after
his
supposed fall from the clouds “far above the Capitolium ”in which fall he broke
his legs only!Such a
lucky
fall is in itself sufficiently miraculous,one would say.
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SECTION XV
St.Paul the Real Founder of Present
Christianity
(Page 122)We may repeat with the author of Phallicism:
We
are all for construction -even for Christian,although of course
philosophical construction.
We
have nothing to do with reality in man ’s limited mechanical scientific sense
or with
realism .We have
undertaken to show that mysticism is the very life and soul of religion;[ But
we
can never agree with the author “that rites and ritual and formal worship and
prayers are of
absolute
necessity of things,”for the external can develop and grow and receive worship
only
at
the expense of and to the detriment of the internal the only real and true.]...that
the
Bible is only misread and misrepresented when rejected as
advancing supposed fab lo s and
contradictory things;that
Moses did not make mistakes,but spoke to the “children of men ”in
the
only way in which children in their nonage can be addressed;that the
world is indeed a
very
different place from that which it is assumed to be;that what is derided as
superstition is
the
only true and the only scientific knowledge and moreover that modern
knowledge and
modern
science are to a great extent not only superstition,but superstition of
a very
destructive
and deadly kind.[ H.Jennings,op.cit.,pp.37.38.]
All
this is perfectly true and correct.But it is also true that the New
Testament the Acts and the Epistles -
however
much the historical figure of Jesus may be true -all are symbolical and
allegorical sayings,and
that
“it was not Jesus but Paul who was the real founder of Christianity;”[See
Isis Unveiled ii.574.] but it
was
not the official Church Christianity at any rate.“The disciples were called
Christians first in Antioch ”
the
Acts of the Apostles tell us,[ xi.26.] and they were not
so called before nor for a long time after but
simply
Nazarenes.
This
view is found in more than one writer of the present and the past centuries.But
hitherto it has
always
been laid aside as an unproven hypothesis,a blasphemous assumption;though as
the author of
Pa l,the Fo nder of Christianity [Art by Dr.A.Wilder in
Evol tion .] truly says:
Abrogation of Law by Initiates -
(Page 123)Such men as Irenaeus,Epiphanius and Eusebius have
transmitted to posterity a
reputation
for such untruth and dishonest practices that the heart sickens at the story of
the
crimes
of that period.
The
more so since the whole Christian scheme rests upon their sayings.But we
find now another
corroboration
and this time on the perfect reading of biblical glyphs.In The So rce of
Measures we find
the
following:
It
must be borne in mind that our present Christianity is Pa line,not Jesus.Jesus,in
his life
was
a Jew conforming to the law;even more He says:“The scribes and pharisees sit in
Moses
’ seat;whatsoever therefore they command you to do that observe and do.”And
again:
“
I did not come to destroy but to fulfil the law ”Therefore he was under the law
to the day of
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his
death and could not while in life abrogate one jot or title of it.He was
circumcised and
commanded
circumcision.But Paul said of circumcision that it availed nothing and he (Paul)
abrogated
the law.Sa l and Pa l -that is,Saul under the law and Paul freed
from the
obligations
of the law -were in one man but parallelisms in the flesh of Jesus the
man under
the
law as observing it who thus died in Chrestos and arose freed from its
obligations,in the
spirit
world as Christos,or the triumphant Christ.It was the Christ who was
freed but Christ
was
the Spirit.Saul in the flesh was the function of and parallel of Chrestos.Paul
in the flesh
was
the function and parallel of Jesus become Christ in the spirit as an early
reality to answer
to
and act for the apotheosis;and so armed with all authority in the flesh
to abrogate human
law.[
Op.cit.,p.262.]
The
real reason why Paul is shown as “abrogating the law ” can be found only in
India where to this day
the
most ancient customs and privileges are preserved in all their purity
notwithstanding the abuse
levelled
at the same.There is only one class of persons who can disregard the law of
Brâhmanical
institutions,caste
included with impunity and that is the perfect “Svâmis,”the Yogis -who
have reached
or
are supposed to have reached the first step towards the Jivanmukta state -or
the full Initiates.And
Paul
was undeniably an Initiate.We will quote a passage or two from Iris
Unveiled,for we can say now
nothing
better than what was said then:
Take
Paul read the little of original that is left of him in the writings attributed
to this brave
honest
sincere man and see whether anyone can find a word therein to show that Paul
meant
by the word Christ anything more than the abstract ideal of the personal
divinity
indwelling
in man.For Paul Christ is not a person but (Page 124)an embodied
idea.“If any
man
is in Christ he is a new creation ”he is reborn,as after initiation for
the Lord is spirit -the
spirit
of man.Paul was the only one of the apostles who had understood the secret
ideas
underlying
the teachings of Jesus,although he had never met him.
But
Paul himself was not infallible or perfect.
Bent
upon inaugurating a new and broad reform one embracing the whole of humanity he
sincerely
set his own doctrines far above the wisdom of the ages,above the ancient
Mysteries
and
final revelation to the Epoptae.
Another
proof that Paul belonged to the circle of the “Initiates ”lies in the following
fact.The
apostle
had his head shorn at Cenchreae where Lucius (Ap lei s)was initiated
because “he
had
a vow.”The Nazars -or set apart -as we see in the Jewish Scriptures,had to cut
their
hair
which they wore long and which “no razor touched ”at any other time and
sacrifice it on
the
altar of initiation.And the Nazars were a class of Chaldaean Theurgists or
Initiates.
It
is shown in Isis Unveiled that Jesus belonged to this class.
Paul
declares that:“According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master-
b ilder I have laid
the foundation.”(1.Corinth.,iii.10.)
The
expression master-builder used only once in the whole Bible,and
by Paul may be
considered
as a whole revelation.In the Mysteries,the third part of the sacred rites was
called
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Epoteia
or revelation reception into the secrets.In substance it means the highest
stage of
clairvoyance
-the diviner;...but the real significance of the word is “overseeing ”from
“óđôďěáé
-“I see myself.” In Sanskrit the root âp had the same meaning
originally though now
it
is understood as meaning “to obtain.”[ In its most extensive meaning the
Sanskrit word has
the
same literal sense as the Greek term:both imply “revelation ” by no human agent
but
through
the “receiving of the sacred drink.”In India the initiated receive the “Soma
”sacred
drink,which
helped to liberate his soul from the body:and in the Eleusinian Mysteries it
was
the
sacred drink offered at the Epopteia.The Grecian Mysteries are wholly derived
from the
Brahmanical
Vaidic rites,and the latter from the Ante-Vaidic religious Mysteries -primitive
Wisdom
Philosophy.]
The
word epopteia is compound from ‘ĺđé ’ “upon ”and “óđôďěáé-“”to
look,” or an overseer an
inspector
-also used for a master-builder.The title of master-mason in Freemasonry is
derived
from this,in the sense used in the Mysteries.Therefore when Paul entitles
himself a
“master-builder
”he is using a word pre-eminently kabalistic,theurgic,and masonic,and one
which
no other apostle uses.He thus declares himself an adept having the right
to initiate
others.
If
we search in this direction with those sure guides,the Grecian Mysteries and
the Kabalah,before us,it
will
be easy to find the secret reason why Paul was so persecuted and hated by Peter
John and James.
The
author of the Revelation was a Jewish Kabalist p r sang,with all
the hatred inherited by him from
his
forefathers toward the Pagan Mysteries.[ It is needless to state that
the Gospel according to John
was
not written by John but by a Platonist or a Gnostic belonging to the
Neoplatonic school.] His
jealousy
during the life of Jesus extended even to Peter;and it is but after the death
of their common
master
that we see the two apostles -the former of whom wore the Mitre and the
Petaloon of the Jewish
Rabbis
-preach so zealously the rite of circumcision.
Paul Changed to Simon -(Page 125)In the eyes of Peter Paul who had humiliated him and whom
he
felt
so much his superior in “Greek learning ”and philosophy must have naturally
appeared as a
magician
a man polluted with the “Gnosis,”with the “wisdom ”of the Greek Mysteries
-hence perhaps,
“Simon
the Magician ”as a comparison not a nickname.[Ibid.,loc.cit.The
fact that Peter persecuted the
“Apostle
of the Gentiles ”under that name does not necessarily imply that there was no
Simon Magus
individually
distinct from Paul.It may have become a generic name of abuse.Theodoret and
Chrysostom
the earliest and most prolific commentators on the Gnosticism of those days
seem actually
to
make of Simon a rival of Paul and to state that between them passed frequent
messages.The former
as
a diligent propagandist of what Paul terms the “antithesis of the Gnosis ”(I
Epistle to Timothy ),must
have
been a sore thorn in the side of the apostle.There are sufficient proofs of the
actual existence of
Simon
Magus.]
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SECTION XVI
Peter a Jewish Kabalist Not an Initiate
(Page 126)As to Peter biblical criticism has shown that in all
probability he had no more to do with the
foundation
of the Latin Church at Rome than to furnish the pretext so readily seized upon
by the cunning
Irenaeus,of
endowing the Church with a new name for the Apostle -Petra or Kiffa -a name
which by an
easy
play upon words,could be readily connected to Petroma.The Petroma was a pair of
stone tablets
used
by the Hierophants at the Initiations,during the final Mystery.In this lies
concealed the secret of the
Vatican
claim to the seat of Peter.As already quoted in Isis Unveiled,ii.92:
In
the Oriental countries the designation Peter (in Phoenician and Chaldaic an
interpreter),
appears
to have been the title of this personage.[Taylor ’s Ele sinian and
Bacchic Mysteries,
Wilder
’s ed.p.x.]
So
far and as the “interpreters ”of Neo-Christianism,the Popes have most
undeniably the right to call
themselves
successors to the title of Peter but hardly the successors to least of all the
interpreters of
the
doctrines of Jesus,the Christ;for there is the Oriental Church older and far
purer than the Roman
hierarchy
which having ever faithfully held to the primitive teachings of the Apostles,is
known
historically
to have refused to follow the Latin seceders from the original Apostolic Church
though
curiously
enough she is still referred to by her Roman sister as the “Schismatic
”Church.It is useless to
repeat
the reasons for the statements above made as they may all be found in Isis
Unveiled [ ii.91-94.]
where
the words,Peter Patar and Pitar are explained and the origin of the “Seat of
Pitah ”is shown.
The
reader will find upon referring to the above pages that an inscription was
found on the coffin of
Queen
Mentuhept of the Eleventh Dynasty (2250 B.C.according to Bunsen),which in its
turn was shown
to
have been transcribed from the Seventeenth Chapter of the Book of the Dead,dating
certainly not
later
than 4500 B.C.or 496 years before the World ’s Creation in the Genesiacal
chronology.
The Seat of Peter -(Page 127)Nevertheless,Baron
Bunsen shows the group of the hieroglyphics given
(Peter-ref-s
,the “Mystery Word ”)and the sacred formulary mixed up with a whole series
of glosses and
various
interpretations on a monument 4 000 years old.
This
is identical with saying that the record (the true interpretation)was at that
time no longer
intelligible
...We beg our readers to understand that a sacred text a hymn containing the
words
of a departed spirit existed in such a state about 4.000 years ago as to be all
but
unintelligible
to royal scribes.[ Bunsen Egypt ’s Place in History.v.90.]
“Unintelligible
”to the non-initiated -this is certain;and it is so proved by the confused and
contradictory
glosses.Yet
there can be no doubt that it was -for it still is -a mystery word.The
Baron further explains:
It
appears to me that our PTR is literally the old Aramaic and Hebrew “Patar
”which occurs in
the
history of Joseph as the specific word for interpreting whence also
Pitrum is the term for
interpretation
of a text a dream.
This
word PTR was partially interpreted owing to another word similarly written in
another group of
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hieroglyphics,on
a stele the glyph used for it being an opened eye interpreted by De Rougé [ Stele,
p.44.]
as “to appear ” and by Bunsen as “illuminator ”which is more
correct.However it may be the word
Patar
or Peter would locate both master and disciple in the circle of initiation and
connect them with the
Secret
Doctrine;while in the “Seat of Peter ” we can hardly help seeing a connection
with Petroma the
double
set of stone tablets used by the Hierophant at the Supreme Initiation during
the final Mystery as
already
stated also with the Pitha-sthâna (seat or the place of a seat),a term used in
the Mysteries of
the
Tantriks in India in which the limbs of the Satî are scattered and then united
again as those of Osiris
by
Isis.[ See Dowson ’s Hind Classical Dict.,sub voc.,“Pitha-sthânam.”]
Pitha is a Sanskrit word and is
also
used to designate the seat of the initiating Lama.
Whether
all the above terms are due simply to “coincidences ”or otherwise is left to
the decision of our
learned
Symbologists and Philologists.We state facts -and nothing more.Many other
writers far (Page
128)more
learned and entitled to be heard than the author has ever claimed to be have
sufficiently
demonstrated
that Peter never had anything to do with the foundation of the Latin
Church;that his
supposed
name Petra or Kiffa also the whole story of his Apostleship at Rome are simply
a play on the
term
which meant in every country in one or another form the Hierophant or
interpreter of the
Mysteries;and
that finally far from dying a martyr at Rome where he had probably never been
he died
at
a good old age at Babylon.In Sepher Tolaoth Jesh ,a Hebrew manuscript of
great antiquity -
evidently
an original and very precious document if one may judge from the care the Jews
took to hide it
from
the Christians -Simon (Peter)is referred to as “a faithful servant of God ”who
passed his life in
austerities
and meditation a Kabalist and a Nazarene who lived at Babylon “at the top of a
tower
composed
hymns,preached charity ” and died there.
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SECTION XVII
Appollonius of Tyana
(Page 129)IT is said in Isis Unveiled that the greatest
teachers of divinity agree that nearly all ancient
books
were written symbolically and in a language intelligible only to the
Initiated.The biographical
sketch
of Apollonius of Tyana affords an example.As every Kabalist knows,it embraces
the whole of the
Hermetic
Philosophy being a counterpart in many respects of the traditions left us of
King Solomon.It
reads
like a fairy story but as in the case of the latter sometimes facts and
historical events are
presented
to the world under the colours of fiction.The journey to India represents in its
every stage
though
of course allegorically the trials of a Neophyte giving at the same time a
geographical and
topographical
idea of a certain country as it is even now if one knows where to look for
it.The long
discourses
of Apollonius with the Brâhmans,their sage advice and the dialogues with the
Corinthian
Menippus
would if interpreted give the Esoteric Catechism.His visit to the empire of the
wise men his
interview
with their king Hiarchas,the oracle of Amphiaraus,explain symbolically many of
the secret
dogmas
of Hermes -in the generic sense of the name -and of Occultism.Wonderful is this
to relate and
were
not the statement supported by numerous calculations already made and the
secret already half
revealed
the writer would never have dared to say it.The travels of the great Magus are
correctly
though
allegorically described -that is to say all that is related to Damis had
actually taken place -but
the
narrative is based upon the Zodiacal signs.As transliterated by Damis
under the guidance of
Appollonius
and translated by Philostratus,it is a marvel indeed.At the conclusion
of what may now be
related
of the wonderful Adept of Tyana our meaning will become clearer.Suffice it to
say for the present
that
the dialogues spoken of would disclose if correctly understood some of the most
important secrets
of
Nature.Eliphas Levi points out the great (Page 130)resemblance which
exists between King Hiarchus
and
the fabulous Hiram from whom Solomon procured the cedars of Lebanon and the
gold of Ophir.But
he
keeps silent as to another resemblance of which as a learned Kabalist he could
not be ignorant.
Moreover
according to his invariable custom he mystifies the reader more than he teaches
him
divulging
nothing and leading him off the right track.
Like
most of the historical heroes of hoary antiquity whose lives and works strongly
differ from those of
commonplace
humanity Apollonius is to this day a riddle which has,so far found no
Oedipus.His
existence
is surrounded with such a veil of mystery that he is often mistaken for a
myth.But according to
every
law of logic and reason it is quite clear that Apollonius should never be
regarded in such a light.If
the
Tyanean Theurgist may be put down as a fabulous character then history has no
right to her Caesars
and
Alexanders.It is quite true that this Sage who stands unrivalled in his
thaumaturgical powers to this
day
-on evidence historically attested -came into the arena of public life no one
seems to know whence
and
disappeared from it no one seems to know whither.But the reasons for this are
evident.Every
means
was used -especially during the fourth and fifth centuries of our era -to sweep
from people ’s
minds
the remembrance of this great and holy man.The circulation of his
biographies,which were many
and
enthusiastic,was prevented by the Christians,and for a very good reason as we
shall see.The
diary
of Damis survived most miraculously and remained alone to tell the tale.But it
must not be
forgotten
that Justin Martyr often speaks of Apollonius,and the character and
truthfulness of this good
man
are unimpeachable the more in that he had good reason to feel bewildered.Nor
can it be denied
that
there is hardly a Church Father of the first six centuries that left Apollonius
unnoticed.Only
according
to invariable Christian customs of charity their pens were dipped as usual in
the blackest ink of
odi m theologic m,intolerance
and one-sidedness.St.Jerome (Hieronymus)gives at length the story of
St.John
’s alleged contest with the Sage of Tyana -a competition of “miracles ” -in
which of course the
truthful
saint [ See Preface to St.Matthew ’s Gospel.Baroni s i.752 quoted
in De Mirville VI 63.
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Jerome
is the Father who having found the authentic and original Evangel (the
Hebrew text)by Matthew
the
Apostle-publican in the library of Caesarea “written by the hand of
Matthew ” (Hieronymus:De Viris,
Illus.Chap.III)-as
he himself admits -set it down as heretical and substituted for it his own
Greek text.
And
it is also he who perverted the text in the Book of Job to enforce
belief in the resurrection in flesh
(see
Isis Unveiled .Vol.II pp.181 and 182 et seq.)quoting in support
the most learned authorities.]
describes
in glowing colours the defeat of Apollonius,and seeks corroboration in St.John
’s Apocrypha
proclaimed
doubtful even by the Church.[ De Mirville gives the following
thrilling account of the “contest.”
“John
pressed as St.Jerome tells us,by all the churches of Asia to proclaim more
solemnly [in the face
of
the miracles of Apollonius ] the divinity of Jesus Christ after a long
prayer with his disciples on the
Mount
of Patmos and being in ecstasy by the divine Spirit made heard amid thunder and
lightning his
famous
In Principio erat Verb m.When that sublime extasis,that caused him to be
named the ‘Son of
Thunder
’ had passed Apollonius was compelled to retire and to disappear.Such was his
defeat less
bloody
but as hard as that of Simon the Magician.(“The Magician Theurgist.” VI 63.)For
our part we
have
never heard of extasis producing thunder and lightning and we are at a loss to
understand the
meaning.]
The Mysterious Teacher (Page 131)Therefore it is that nobody can say where or when
Apollonius was
born
and everyone is equally ignorant of the date at which and of the place where he
died.Some think
he
was eighty or ninety years old at the time of his death others that he was one
hundred or even one
hundred
and seventeen.But whether he ended his days at Ephesus in the year 96 A.D.as
some say or
whether
the event took place at Lindus in the temple of Pallas-Athene or whether again
he disappeared
from
the temple of Dictynna or whether as others maintain he did not die at all but
when a hundred
years
old renewed his life by Magic,and went on working for the benefit of humanity
no one can tell.The
Secret
Doctrine alone have noted his birth and subsequent career.But then -“Who hath
believed in that
report?”
All
that history knows is that Apollonius was the enthusiastic founder of a new
school of contemplation.
Perhaps
less metaphorical and more practical than Jesus,he nevertheless inculcated the
same
quintessence
of spirituality the same high moral truths.He is accused of having confined
them to the
higher
classes of society instead of doing what Buddha and Jesus did instead of
preaching them to the
poor
and the afflicted.Of his reasons for acting in such an exclusive way it is
impossible to judge at so
late
a date.But Karmic law seems to be mixed up with it.Born as we are told among
the aristocracy it
is
very likely that he desired to finish the work undone in this particular
direction by his predecessor and
sought
to offer “peace on earth and good will ” to all men and not alone to the
outcast and the criminal.
Therefore
he associated with the kings and mighty ones of the age.Nevertheless,the three
“miracle-
workers
” exhibited striking similarity of purpose.Like Jesus and like Buddha
Apollonius was the
uncompromising
enemy of all outward show of piety all display of useless religious
ceremonies,bigotry
and
hypocrisy.That his “miracles ” were more wonderful more varied and far better
attested in (Page 132)
History
than any others,it is also true.Materialism denies;but evidence and the
affirmations of even the
Church
herself however much he is branded by her show this to be the fact.[ This
is the old old story.
Who
of us,Theosophists,but knows by bitter personal experiences what clerical
hatred malice and
persecution
can do in this direction;to what an extent of falsehood calumny and cruelty
these feelings
can
go even in our modern day and what exemplars of Christ like charity His
alleged and self-
constituted
servants have shown themselves to be!]
The
calumnies set afloat against Apollonius were as numerous as they were false.So
late as
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eighteen
centuries after his death he was defamed by Bishop Douglas in his work against
miracles.In
this the Right Reverend bishop crushed himself against historical facts.For it
is
not
in the miracles but in the identity of ideas and doctrines preached that
we have to look for
a
similarity between Buddha Jesus and Apollonius.If we study the question with a
dispassionate
mind we shall soon perceive that the ethics of Gautama Plato Apollonius,
Jesus,Ammonius
Sakkas,and his disciples,were all based on the same mystic philosophy -
that
all worshipped one divine ideal whether they considered it as the “Father ”of
humanity
who
lives in man as man lives in Him or as the Incomprehensible Creative
Principle.All led
God-like
lives.Ammonius,speaking of his philosophy taught that their school dated from
the
days
of Hermes,who brought this wisdom from India.It was the same mystical
contemplation
throughout
as that of the Yogin:the communion of the Brahman with his own luminous Self -
the
“Atman.” [ Isis Unveiled,ii.342 .]
The
groundwork of the Eclectic School is thus shown to be identical with the
doctrines of the Yogis -the
Hindu
Mystics;it is proved that it has a common origin from the same source as the
earlier Buddhism of
Gautama
and of his Arhats.
The
Ineffable Name in the search for which so many Kabalists -unacquainted
with any
Oriental
or even European Adepts -vainly consume their knowledge and lives,dwells latent
in
the
heart of every man.This mirific name which according to the most ancient
oracles,
“rushes
into the infinite worlds,áöďéôçôů ďôńďöáëéăáé ”can be obtained in a twofold
way:by
regular
initiation and through the “small voice ”which Elijah heard in the cave of
Horeb the
mount
of God.And “when Elijah heard it he wrapped his face in his mantle and
stood in the
entering
of the cave.And behold there came the voice.”
When
Apollonius of Tyana desired to hear the “small voice ”he used to wrap himself
up
entirely
in a mantle of fine wool on which he placed both his feet after having
performed
certain
magnetic passes,and pronounced not the “name ”but an invocation well known to
every
adept.Then he drew the mantle over his head and face and his translucid or
astral
spirit
was free.On ordinary occasions he no more wore wool than the priests of the
temples.
The
possession of the secret combination of the “name ”gave the Hierophant supreme
power
over
every being human or otherwise inferior to himself in soul-strength.[ Loc.cit.,ii
343
344.]
Apollonius Cannot Be Destroyed (Page 133)To whatever school he belonged this fact is certain that
Apollonius
of Tyana left an imperishable name behind him.Hundreds of works were written
upon this
wonderful
man;historians have seriously discussed him;pretentious fools,unable to come to
any
conclusion
about the Sage have tried to deny his very existence.As to the Church although
she
execrates
his memory she has ever tried to present him in the light of a historical
character.Her policy
now
seems to be to direct the impression left by him into another channel -a well
known and a very old
stratagem.The
Jesuits,for instance while admitting his “miracles,” have set going a double
current of
thought
and they have succeeded as they succeed in all they undertake.Apollonius is
represented by
one
party as an obedient “medium of Satan ” surrounding his theurgical powers by a
most wonderful and
dazzling
light;while the other party professes to regard the whole matter as a clever
romance written
with
a predetermined object in view.
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In
his voluminous Memoirs of Satan the Marquis de Mirville in the course of his
pleading for the
recognition
of the enemy of God as the producer of spiritual phenomena devotes a whole
chapter to this
great
Adept.The following translation of passages in his book unveils the whole
plot.The reader is asked
to
bear in mind that the Marquis wrote every one of his works under the auspices
and authorisation of the
Holy
See of Rome.
It
would be to leave the first century incomplete and to offer an insult to the
memory of St.
John
to pass over in silence the name of one who had the honour of being his special
antagonist
as Simon was that of St.Peter Elymas that of Paul etc.In the first years of the
Christian
era ...there appeared at Tyana in Cappadocia one of those men of whom the
Pythagorean
School was so very lavish.As great a traveller as was his master initiated in
all
the
secret doctrines of India Egypt and Chaldaea endowed therefore with all the
theurgic
powers
of the ancient Magi he bewildered each in its turn all the countries which he
visited
and
which all -we are obliged to admit -seem to have blessed his memory.We could
not
doubt
this fact without repudiating real historical records.The details of his life
are transmitted
to
us by a historian of the fourth century (Philostratus),himself the translator
of a diary that
recorded
day by day the life of the philosopher written by Damis,his disciple and
intimate
friend.[
Pne matologie,vi.62.]
De
Mirville admits the possibility of some exaggerations in both recorder
and translator;but he “does not
believe
they hold a very wide space in the narrative.” Therefore he regrets to find the
Abbe (Page 134)
Freppel
“in his eloquent Essays,[ Les Apologistes Chrétiens a Second
Sičcle.p.106.] calling the diary
of
Damis a romance.”Why?
[Because ] the orator
bases his opinion on the prefect similitude calculated as he imagines,of
that
legend with the life of the Saviour.But in studying the subject more profoundly
he [Abbe
Freppel
] can convince himself that neither Apollonius nor Damis,nor again
Philostratus ever
claimed
a greater honour than a likeness to St.John.This programme was in itself
sufficiently
fascinating
and the travesty as sufficiently scandalous;for owing to magic arts Apollonius
had
succeeded
in counterbalancing in appearance several of the miracles at Ephesus [produced
by
St.John ] etc.[ Pne matologie,vi.62.]
The
ang is in herba has shown its head.It is the perfect the wonderful
similitude of the life of Apollonius
with
that of the Saviour that places the Church between Scylla and Charybdis.To deny
the life and the
“miracles
”of the former would amount to denying the trustworthiness of the same Apostles
and patristic
writers
on whose evidence is built the life of Jesus himself.To father the Adept ’s
beneficent deeds,his
raisings
of the dead acts of charity healing powers,etc.on the “old enemy ” would be
rather dangerous
at
this time.Hence the stratagem to confuse the ideas of
those
who rely upon authorities and criticisms.The Church is far more clear-sighted
than any of our great
historians.The
Church knows that to deny the existence of that Adept would lead her to
denying the
Emperor
Vespasian and his Historians,the Emperors Alexander Severus and
Aurelianus and their
Historians,and
finally to deny Jesus and every evidence about Him thus preparing the way to
her flock
for
finally denying herself .It becomes interesting to learn what she says
in this emergency through her
chosen
speaker De Mirville.It is as follows:
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What
is there so new and so impossible in the narrative of Damis concerning their
voyages to the
countries
of the Chaldees and the Gymnosophists?-he asks.Try to recall before denying
what were in
those
days those countries of marvels par excellence as also the testimony of
such men as Pythagoras,
Empedocles
and Democritus,who ought to be allowed to have known what they were writing
about.With
what
have we finally to reproach Apollonius?Is it for having made as the Oracles did
a series of
prophecies
and predictions wonderfully verified?No:because better studied now we know what
they
are.[
Many are they who do not know :hence they do not believe in them.]
The Oracles have now
become
to us,what they were to every one during the past century from Van Dale to
Fontenelle.
De Mirville on Apollonius (Page 135)Is it for having been endowed with second sight and having
had
visions
at a distance?[ Just so.Apollonius,during a lecture he was delivering at
Ephesus before an
audience
of many thousands,perceived the murder of the Emperor Domitian in Rome and
notified it at
the
very moment it was taking place to the whole town:and Swedenborg in the same manner
saw from
Gothenburg
the great fire at Stockholm and told it to his friends,no telegraph being in
use in those days.]
No;for
such phenomena are at the present day endemical in half Europe.Is it for having
boasted of his
knowledge
of every existing language under the sun without having ever learned one of
them?But who
can
be ignorant of the fact that this is the best criterion [ No criterion
at all.The Hindu Saddhus and
Adepts
acquire the gift by the holiness of their lives.The Yoga-Vidya teaches it and
no “spirits ” are
required.]
of the presence and assistance of a spirit of whatever nature it may be?Or
is it for having
believed
in transmigration (reincarnation)?It is still believed in (by millions)in our
day.No one has any
idea
of the number of the men of Science who long for the re-establishment of the
Druidical Religion and
of
the Mysteries of Pythagoras.Or is it for having exorcised the demons and the
plague?The Egyptians,
the
Etruscans and all the Roman Pontiffs had done so long before.[ As to the
Pontiffs,the matter is
rather
doubtful.] For having conversed with the dead?We do the same today or
believe we do so -which
is
all the same.For having believed in the Empuses?Where is the Demonologist that
does not know that
the
Empuse is the “south demon ” referred to in David ’s Psalms,and dreaded
then as it is feared even
now
in all Northern Europe?[ But this alone is no reason why people should
believe in this class of
spirits.There
are better authorities for such belief.] For having made himself invisible
at will?It is one of
the
achievements of mesmerism.For having appeared after his (supposed)death to the
Emperor
Aurelian
above the city walls of Tyana and for having compelled him thereby to raise the
siege of that
town?Such
was the mission of every hero beyond the tomb and the reason of the worship
vowed to the
Manes.[
De Mirville ’s aim is to show that all such apparitions of the Manes or
disembodied Spirits are
the
work of the Devil.“Satan ’s simulacra.”] For having descended into the
famous den of Trophonius,
and
taken from it an old book preserved for years after by the Emperor Adrian in
his Antium library?The
trustworthy
and sober Pausanias had descended into the same den before Apollonius,and came
back
no
less a believer.For having disappeared at his death?Yes like Romulus,like Votan
like Lycurgus,like
Pythagoras,(Page 136)[
He might have added:like the great
Shankaracharya Tsong-Kha-Pa and so
many
other real Adepts -even his own Master Jesus:for this is indeed a criterion of
true Adeptship
though
“to disappear ” one need not fly up in the clouds .] always under the
most mysterious
circumstances,ever
attended by apparitions,revelations,etc.Let us stop here and repeat once more:
had
the life of Apollonius been simple romance he would never have attained
such a celebrity during his
lifetime
or created such a numerous sect one so enthusiastic after his death.
And
so to add to this,had all this been a romance never would a Caracalla have
raised a haroon to his
memory
[ See Dion Cassi s.XXVII XVIII 2 ] or Alexander Severus
have placed his bust between those
of
two Demi-Gods and of the true God [Lampridlius,Adrian,xxxix.2.]
or an Empress have corresponded
with
him.Hardly rested from the hardships of the siege at Jerusalem Titus would not
have hastened to
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write
to Apollonius a letter asking to meet him at Argos and adding that his father
and himself (Titus)
owed
all to him the great Apollonius,and that therefore his first thought was for
their benefactor.Nor
would
the Emperor Aurelian have built a temple and a shrine to that great Sage to
thank him for his
apparition
and communication at Tyana.That posth mo s conversation as all knew
saved the city
inasmuch
as Aurelian had in consequence raised the siege.Furthermore had it been a
romance History
would
not have had Vopiscus,[ The passage runs as follows:“Aurelian had
determined to destroy Tyana
and
the town owed its salvation only to a miracle of Apollonius;this man so famous
and wise this great
friend
of the Gods,appeared suddenly before the Emperor as he was returning to his
tent in his own
figure
and form and said to him in the Pannonian language:‘Aurelian if thou wouldst
conquer abandon
these
evil designs against my fellow-citizens:if thou wouldst command abstain from
shedding innocent
blood;and
if thou wouldst live abstain from injustice.’ Aurelian familiar with the face
of Apollonius,whose
portraits
he had seen in many temples,struck with wonder immediately vowed to him
(Apollonius)
statue
portrait and temple and returned completely to ideas of mercy.” And then
Vopiscus adds:“If I
have
believed more and more in the virtues of the majestic Apollonius,it is
because after gathering my
information
from the most serious men I have found all these facts corroborated in the
Books of the
Ulpian
Library.” (See Flavius Vopiscus,A relian s ).Vopiscus wrote in 250 and
consequently preceded
Philostratus
by a century.] one of the most trustworthy Pagan Historians,to certify to
it.Finally Apollonius
would
not have been the object of the admiration of such a noble character as
Epictetus,and even of
several
of the Fathers of the Church;Jerome for instance in his better moments,writing
thus of
Apollonius:
This
travelling philosopher found something to learn wherever he went;and profiting
everywhere
thus improved with every day.[ Ep.ad Pa lin m.]
Apollonius No Fiction (Page 137)As to his prodigies,without
wishing to fathom them Jerome most
undeniably
admits them as such;which he would assuredly never have done had he not been
compelled
to do so by facts.To end the subject had Apollonius been a simple hero of a
romance
dramatised
in the fourth century the Ephesians would not in their enthusiastic gratitude
have raised to
him
a golden statue for all the benefits he had conferred upon them.[ The
above is mostly summarised
from
De Mirville.loc cit.,pp.66-69 ]
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SECTION XVIII
Facts Underlying Adept Biographies
(Page 138)THE tree is known by its fruits;the nature of the Adept by
his words and deeds.These words
of
charity and mercy the noble advice put into the mouth of Apollonius (or of his
sidereal phantom),as
given
by Vopiscus,show the Occultists who Apollonius was.Why then call him the
“Medium of Satan ”
seventeen
centuries later?There must be a reason and a very potent reason to justify and
explain the
secret
of such a strong animus of the Church against one of the noblest men of his
age.There is a
reason
for it and we give it in the words of the author of the Key to the
Hebrew-Egyptian Mystery in the
So rce of Measures,and
of Professor Seyffarth.The latter analyses and explains the salient dates in
the
life
of Jesus,and thus throws light on the conclusions of the former.We quote both
blending the two.
According
to solar months (of thirty days,one of the calendars in use among the
Hebrews)all
remarkable
events of the Old Testament happened on the days of the equinoxes and
the
solstices;for
instance the foundations and dedications of the temples and alters [and
consecration
of the tabernacle ].On the same cardinal days,the most remarkable events
of
the
New Testament happened;for instance the annunciation the birth the
resurrection of
Christ
and the birth of John the Baptist.And thus we learn that all remarkable epochs
of the
New Testament were
typically sanctified a long time before by the Old Testament,beginning
at
the
day succeeding the end of the Creation which was the day of the vernal
equinox.During
the
crucifixion on the 14 th day of Nisan Dionysius Areopagita saw in Ethopia an
eclipse of
the
sun and he said “Now the Lord (Jehovah)is suffering something.” Then Christ
arose from
the
dead on the 22d March 17 Nisan,Sunday the day of the vernal equinox
(Seyf.quoting
Philo
de Septen)-that is,on Easter or on the day when the sun gives new life to the
earth.
The
words of John the Baptist “He must increase but I must decrease ”serve to prove
as is
affirmed
by the fathers of the church that John was born on the longest day of the year
and
Christ
who was six months younger on the shortest 22d June and 22d December the
solstices.
Jesus and Apollonius-
(Page 139)This only goes to show that as to another phase John and
Jesus were but
epitomisers
of the history of the same sun under differences of aspect or condition;and one
condition
following another of necessity the statement L ke ix.7 was not only not
an empty
one
but it was true that which “was said of some that (in Jesus)John was risen from
the
dead.”
(And this consideration serves to explain why it has been that the Life of
Apolloni s of
Tyana,by
Philostratus,has been so persistently kept back from translation and from
popular
reading.Those
who have studied it in the original have been forced to the comment that either
the
Life of Apolloni s has been taken from the New Testament,or that
the New Testament
narratives
have been taken from the Life of Apolloni s,because of the manifest
sameness of
the
means of construction of the narratives.The explanation is simple enough
when it is
considered
that the names of Jes s Hebrew éů and Apollonius,or Apollo are alike
names of
the sun in the heavens ;and
necessarily the history of the one as to his travels through the
signs with the
personifications of his sufferings,triumphs and miracles,could be but the
history of the other where
there was a widespread common method of describing those
travels
by personification.)It seems also that for long afterward all this was known to
rest
upon
an astronomical basis;for the secular church so to speak,was founded by
Constantine
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and
the objective condition of the worship established was that part of his decree
in which it
was
affirmed that the venerable day of the sun should be the day set apart
for the worship of
Jesus
Christ as S n -day.There is something weird and startling in some other
facts about this
matter.The
prophet Daniel (true prophet,as says Graetz).[ A “true prophet
”because an
Initiate
one perfectly versed in Occult astronomy.] by use of the pyramid
numbers,or
astrological
numbers,foretold the cutting off of the Meshiac as it happened (which
would go
to
show the accuracy of his astronomical knowledge if there was an eclipse of the
sun at that
time)....Now
however the temple was destroyed in the year 71 in the month Virgo and 71
is
the Dove number as shown or 71X5 =355 and with the fish a Jehovah
number.
“Is
it possible ”queries,further on the author thus answering the intimate thought
of every Christian and
Occultist
who reads and studies his work:
Is
it possible that the events of humanity do run co-ordinately with these number
forms?If so
while
Jesus Christ as an astronomical figure was true to all that has been advanced
and
more
possibly.He may as a man have filled up under the numbers,answers in the sea of
life
to predestined type.The personality of Jesus does not appear to have been
destroyed
because
as a condition he was answering to astronomical forms and relations.The
Arabian
says
“Your destiny is written in the stars.”[ Key to Hebrew-Egyptian
Mystery.p.259 et seq.
Astronomy
and physiology are the bodies,astrology and psychology their informing souls:the
former
being studied by the eye of sensual perception the latter by the inner or
“soul-eye ” :
and
both are exact sciences .]
Nor
is the “personality ” of Apollonius “destroyed ” for the same (Page 140)reason.The case of Jesus
covers
the ground for the same possibility in the cases of all Adepts and Avataras
-such as Buddha
Shankaracharya
Krishna etc.-all of these as great and as historical for their respective
followers and in
their
countries,as Jesus of Nazareth is now for Christians and in this land.
But
there is something more in the old literature of the early centuries.Iamblichus
wrote a biography of
the
great Pythagoras.
The
latter so closely resembles the life of Jesus that it may be taken for a
travesty.Diogenes
Laërtius
and Plutarch relate the history of Plato according to a similar style.[ New
Platonism
and Alchemy .p.12 .]
Why
then wonder at the doubts that assail every scholar who studies all these
lives?The Church herself
knew
all these doubts in her early stages;and though only one of her Popes has been
known publicly
and
openly as a Pagan how many more were there who were too ambitious to reveal the
truth?
This
“mystery ”for mystery indeed it is to those who not being Initiates,fail to
find the key of the perfect
similitude
between the lives of Pythagoras,Buddha Apollonius,etc,-is only a natural result
for those
who
know that all these great characters were Initiates of the same school.For them
there is neither
“travesty
” nor “copy ” of one from the other;for them they are all “originals,”only
painted to represent one
and
the same subject:the mystic,and at the same time the public,life of the
Initiates sent into the world
to
save portions of humanity if they could not save the whole bulk.Hence the same
programme for all.
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The
assumed “immaculate origin ”for each referring to their “mystic birth ”during
the Mystery of Initiation
and
accepted literally by the multitudes,encouraged in this by the better informed
but ambitious clergy.
Thus,the
mother of each one of them was declared a virgin conceiving her son directly by
the Holy Spirit
of
God;and the Sons,in consequence were the “Sons of God ”though in truth none of
them was any
more
entitled to such recognition than were the rest of his brother Initiates,for
they were all -so far as
their
mystic lives were concerned -only “the epitomisers of the history of the same
Sun ” which epitome
is
another mystery within the Mystery.The biographies of the external
personalities bearing the names of
such
heroes have nothing to do with and are quite independent of the private lives of
the heroes,being
only
the mystic records of their public and parallel therewith of their inner lives,in
their characters as
Neophytes
and Initiates.
Biographies of Initiates-(Page 141)Hence the manifest sameness of the means of construction of
their
respective
biographies.From the beginning of Humanity the Cross,or Man with his arms
stretched out
horizontally
typifying his kosmic origin was connected with his psychic nature and with the
struggles
which
lead to Initiation.But if it is once shown that (a)every true Adept had and
still has,to pass
through
the seven and the twelve trials of Initiation symbolised by the twelve labours
of Hercules;(b)that
the
day of his real birth is regarded as that day when he is born into the world
spiritually his very age
being
counted from the hour of his second birth which makes of him a “twice-born ”a
Dvija or Initiate on
which
day he is indeed born of a God and from an immaculate Mother;and (c)that the
trials of all these
personages
are made to correspond with the Esoteric significance of initiatory rites -all
of which
corresponded
to the twelve zodiacal signs -then every one will see the meaning of the
travels of all those
heroes
through the signs of the Sun in Heaven;and that they are in each individual
case a
personification
of the “sufferings,triumphs and miracles ”of an Adept before and after his
Initiation.When
to
the world at large all this is explained then also the mystery of all those
lives,so closely resembling
each
other that the history of one seems to be the history of the other and vice
versa,will like everything
else
become plain.
Take
an instance.The legends -for they are all legends for exoteric
purposes,whatever may be the
denials
in one case -of the lives of Krishna Hercules,Pythagoras,Buddha Jesus,Apollonius,
Chaitanya.On
the worldly plane their biographies,if written by one outside the circle would
differ greatly
from
what we read of them in the narratives that are preserved of their mystic
lives.Nevertheless,
however
much masked and hidden from the profane gaze the chief features of such lives
will all be
found
there in common.Each of those characters is represented as a divinely begotten
Soter (Saviour),a
title
bestowed on deities,great kings and heroes;everyone of them whether at their
birth or afterwards
is
searched for and threatened with death (yet never killed)by an opposing power
(the world of Matter
and
Illusion),whether it be called a king Kansa king Herod or king Mara (the Evil
Power).They are all
tempted
persecuted and finally said to have been murdered at the end of the rite of
Initiation i.e.in their
physical personalities,of
which they are supposed to have been rid for ever after spirit al “resurrection
”
or
“birth.” And having thus come (Page 142)to an end by this
supposed violent death they all descend to
the
Nether World the Pit or Hell -the Kingdom of Temptation Lust and Matter
therefore of Darkness,
whence
returning having overcome the “Chrest-condition ”they are glorified and become
“Gods.”
It
is not in the course of their everyday life then that the great similarity is
to be sought but in their inner
state
and in the most important events of their career as religious teachers.All this
is connected with and
built
upon an astronomical basis,which serves,at the same time as a foundation for
the representation
of
the degrees and trials of Initiation:descent into the Kingdom of Darkness and
Matter for the last time
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to
emerge therefrom as “Suns of Righteousness,”is the most important of these and
therefore is found
in
the history of all the Soters -from Orpheus and Hercules,down to Krishna and
Christ.
Says
Euripides:
Heracles,who
has gone from the chambers of earth
Leaving
the nether home of Pluto.[ Heracles 807 ]
And
Virgil writes:
At
Thee the Stygian lakes trembled;Thee the janitor of Orcus
Feared
...Thee not even Typhon frightened ...
Hail
true son of Jove,glory added to the Gods.[ Aeneid,viii.274
ff.]
Orpheus
seeks,in the kingdom of Pluto Eurydice his lost Soul;Krishna goes down into the
infernal
regions
and rescues therefrom his six brothers,he being the seventh Principle;a
transparent allegory of
his
becoming a “perfect Initiate ” the whole of the six Principles merging into the
seventh.Jesus is made
to
descend into the kingdom of Satan to save the soul of Adam or the symbol of
material physical
humanity.
Have
any of our learned Orientalists ever thought of searching for the origin of
this allegory for the parent
“Seed
”of that “Tree of Life ”which bears such verdant boughs since it was first
planted on earth by the
hand
of its “Builders ” ?We fear not.Yet it is found as is now shown even in the
exoteric,distorted
interpretations
of the Vedas -of the Rig Veda the oldest the most trustworthy of
all the four -this root
and
seed of all future Initiate-Saviours being called in it the Visvakarmâ the
“Father ”Principle “beyond
the
comprehension of mortals;”in the second stage Sűrya the “Son ”who offers
Himself as a sacrifice to
Himself;in
the third the Initiate who sacrifices His physical to His Spirit al Self.
Similarity of Legends-(Page 143)It is in
Visvakarmâ the “omnificent ”who becomes (mystically)
Vikkartana
the “sun shorn of his beams,” who suffers for his too ardent nature and then
becomes
glorified
(by purification),that the keynote of the Initiation into the greatest Mystery
of Nature was struck.
Hence
the secret of the wonderful “similarity.”
All
this is allegorical and mystical and yet perfectly comprehensible and plain to
any student of Eastern
Occultism
even superficially acquainted with the Mysteries of Initiation.In our objective
Universe of
Matter
and false appearances the Sun is the most fitting emblem of the life-giving
beneficent Deity.In
the
subjective boundless World of Spirit and Reality the bright luminary has
another and a mystical
significance
which cannot be fully given to the public.The so-called “idolatrous ”Parsis and
Hindus are
certainly
nearer the truth in their religious reverence for the Sun than the cold
ever-analysing and as
ever-mistaken
public is prepared to believe at present.The Theosophists,who will be alone
able to take
in
the meaning may be told that the Sun is the external manifestation of the
Seventh Principle of our
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Planetary
System while the Moon is its Fourth Principle shining in the borrowed robes of
her master
saturated
with and reflecting every passionate impulse and evil desire of her grossly
material body Earth.
The
whole cycle of Adeptship and Initiation and all its mysteries are connected
with and subservient to
these
two and the Seven Planets.Spiritual clairvoyance is derived from the Sun;all
psychic states,
diseases,and
even lunacy proceed from the Moon.
According
even to the data of History -her conclusions being remarkably erroneous while her
premises
are
mostly correct -there is an extraordinary agreement between the “legends ”of
every Founder of a
Religion
(and also between the rites and dogmas of all)and the names and course of
constellations
headed
by the Sun.It does not follow however because of this,that both Founders and
their Religions
should
be the one myths and the other superstitions.They are one and all the different
versions of the
same
natural primeval Mystery on which the Wisdom-Religion was based and the
development of its
Adepts
subsequently framed
And
now once more we have to beg the reader not to lend an ear to the charge
-against Theosophy in
general
and the writer in particular -of disrespect toward one of the greatest and
noblest characters in
the
History of Adeptship -Jesus of Nazareth -nor even of hatred to the Church.The
expression of truth
and
fact can hardly be regarded (Page
144)with any approximation to justice as
blasphemy or hatred.
The
whole question hangs upon the solution of that one point:Was Jesus as “Son of
God ”and “Saviour ”
of
Mankind unique in the World ’s annals?Was His case -among so many similar
claims -the only
exceptional
and unprecedented one;His birth the sole supernaturally immaculate;and were
others as
maintained
by the Church but blasphemous Satanic copies and plagiarisms by anticipation?Or
was He
only
the “son of his deeds,” a pre-eminently holy man and a reformer one of many who
paid with His life
for
the presumption of endeavouring in the face of ignorance and despotic power to
enlighten mankind
and
make its burden lighter by His Ethics and Philosophy?The first necessitates a
blind all-resisting
faith;the
latter is suggested to every one by reason and logic.Moreover had the Church
always believed
as
she does now -or rather as she pretends she does,in order to be thus justified
in directing her
anathema
against those who disagree with her -or has she passed through the same throes
of doubt
nay
of secret denial and belief suppressed only by the force of ambition and love
of power?
The
question must be answered in the affirmative as to the second alternative.It is
an irrefutable
conclusion
and a natural inference based on facts known from historical records.Leaving
for the present
untouched
the lives of many Popes and Saints that loudly belied their claims to
infallibility and holiness,
let
the reader turn to Ecclesiastical History the records of the growth and
progress of the Christian
Church
(not of Christianity)and he will find the answer on those pages.Says a writer:
The
Church has known too well the suggestions of freethought created by enquiry as
also all
those
doubts that provoke her anger today;and the “sacred truths ” she would
promulgate
have
been in turn admitted and repudiated transformed and altered amplified and
curtailed
by
the dignitaries of the Church hierarchy even as regards the most fundamental
dogmas.
Where
is that God or Hero whose origin biography and genealogy were more hazy or more
difficult to
define
and finally agree upon than those of Jesus?How was the now irrevocable dogma
with regard to
His
true nature settled at last?By His mother according to the Evangelists,He was a
man -a simple
mortal
man;by His Father He is God!But how?Is He then man or God or is He both at the
same time?
asks
the perplexed writer.Truly the propositions offered on this point of the
doctrine have caused floods
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of
ink and blood to be shed in turn on poor Humanity and still the doubts are not
at rest.In this as in
everything
else the wise Church Councils have contradicted themselves and changed their
minds a
number
of times.
Nature of Christ-(Page 145)Let us recapitulate
and throw a glance at the texts offered for our
inspection.This
is History.
The
Bishop Paul of Samosata denied the divinity of Christ at the first Council of
Antioch;at the very origin
and
birth of theological Christianity He was called “Son of God ”merely on account
of His holiness and
good
deeds.His blood was corruptible in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
At
the Council of Nicaea held A.D.325 Arius came out with his premisses,which
nearly broke asunder
the
Catholic Union.
Seventeen
bishops defended the doctrines of Arius,who was exiled for
them.Nevertheless,thirty years
after
A.D.355 at the Council of Milan three hundred bishops signed a letter of
adherence to the Arian
views
notwithstanding that ten years earlier A.D.345 at a new Council of Antioch the
Eusebians had
proclaimed
that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and One with His Father.
At
the Council of Sirmium A.D.357 the “Son ”had become no longer
consubstantial.The Anomaeans,
who
denied that consubstantiality and the Arians were triumphant.A year later at
the second Council of
Ancyra
it was decreed that the “Son was not consubstantial but only similar to the
Father in his
substance.”Pope
Liberius ratified the decision.During several centuries the Council fought and
quarrelled
supporting the most contradictory and opposite views the fruit of their
laborious travail being
the
Holy Trinity which Minerva-like issued forth from the theological brain armed
with all the thunders of
the
Church.The new mystery was ushered into the world amid some terrible strifes,in
which murder and
other
crimes had a high hand.At the Council of Saragossa A.D.380 it was proclaimed
that the Father
Son
and Holy Spirit are one and the same Person Christ ’s human nature being merely
an “illusion ”-an
echo
of the Avatâric Hindu doctrine.“Once upon this slippery path the Fathers had to
slide down ad
absurd m -which they
did not fail of doing.” How deny human nature in him who was born of a woman?
The
only wise remark made during one of the Councils of Constantinople came from
Eutyches,who was
bold
enough to say:“May God preserve me from reasoning on the nature of my God ”-for
which he was
excommunicated
by Pope Flavius.
At
the Council of Ephesus,A.D.449 Eutyches had his revenge.As Eusibius,the
veracious Bishop of
Caesarea
was forcing him into the (Page
146)admission of two distinct
natures in Jesus Christ the
Council
rebelled against him and it was proposed that Eusebius should be burned
alive.The bishops
arose
like one man and with fists clenched foaming with rage demanded that Eusebius
should be torn
into
halves,and be dealt by as he would deal with Jesus,whose nature he
divided.Eutyches was re-
established
in his power and office Eusebius and Flavius deposed.Then the two parties
attacked each
other
most violently and fought.St.Flavius was so ill-treated by Bishop Diodorus,who
assaulted and
kicked
him that he died a few days from the injuries inflicted.
Every
incongruity was courted in these Councils,and the result is the present living
paradoxes called
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Church
dogmas.For instance at the first Council of Ancyra A.D.314 it was asked “In
baptising a
woman
with child is the unborn baby also baptised by the fact?”The Council answered
in the negative;
because
as was alleged “the person thus receiving baptism must be a consenting party
which is
impossible
to the child in the mother ’s womb.”Thus then unconsciousness is a canonical
obstacle to
baptism,and
thus no child baptised nowadays is baptised at all in fact.And then what
becomes of the
tens
of thousands of starving heathen babies baptised by the missionaries during
famines,and otherwise
surreptitiously
“saved ”by the too zealous Padres?Follow one after another the debates and
decisions of
the
numberless Councils,and behold on what a jumble of contradictions the present
infallible and
Apostolic
Church is built!
And
now we can see how greatly paradoxical when taken literally is the assertion in
Genesis :“God
created
man in his own image.” Besides the glaring fact that it is not the Adam of dust
(of Chapter ii.)who
is
thus made in the divine image but the Divine Androgyne (of Chapter i.),or Adam
Kadmon one can
see
for oneself that God -the God of the Christians at any rate -was created by man
in his own image
amid
the kicks,blows and murders of the early Councils.
A
curious fact one that throws a flood of light on the claim that Jesus was an
Initiate and a martyred
Adept
is given in the work,(already so often referred to)which may be called “a
mathematical revelation ”
-The
So rce of Measures.
Attention
is called to the part of the 46 th verse of the 27 th Chapter of Matthew as
follows:“Eli Eli Lama
Sabachthani?-that
is to say My God my God why hast thou forsaken me?”Of course our versions are
taken
from the original Greek manuscripts (the reason why we have no original
Hebrew manuscripts
concerning
these occurrences being because the enigmas in Hebrew would betray themselves
on
comparison
with the sources of their derivation the Old Testament).
A Serious Mistranslation
(Page 147)The Greek manuscripts,without exception give these words as
-
Hëé
Hëé ëáěá .óáâá÷čáíé
They
are Hebrew words,rendered into the Greek and in Hebrew are as
follows:
.
The
scripture of these words says “that is to say My God my God why hast thou
forsaken
me?”as
their proper translation.Here then are the words beyond all dispute;and beyond
all
question
such is the interpretation given of them by Scripture.Now the words will not
bear this
interpretation
and it is a false rendering.The true meaning is j st the opposite of the one
given and is -
My God,My God,how tho dost glorify me!
But
even more for while lama is why or how as a verbal it
connected the idea of to dazzle or
adverbially
it could run “how dazzlingly,” and so on.To the unwary reader this
interpretation is
enforced
and made to answer as it were to the fulfilment of a prophetic utterance by a
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marginal
reference to the first verse of the twenty-second Psalm which
reads:
“My
God my God why hast thou forsaken me?”
The
Hebrew of this verse for these words is -
as
to which the reference is correct and the interpretation sound and good but
with an utterly
different
word.The words are -
Eli,Eli,lamah azabvtha-ni?
No
wit of man however scholarly can save this passage from falseness of rendering
on its
face;and
as so it becomes a most terrible blow upon the proper first-face sacredness of
the
recital.[
App.vii.p.301.]
For
ten years or more sat the revisers (?)of the Bible a most imposing and
solemn array of the learned
of
the land the greatest Hebrew and Greek scholars of England purporting to
correct the mistakes and
blunders,the
sins of omission and of commission of their less learned predecessors,the
translators of
the
Bible.Are we going to be told that none of them saw the glaring difference
between the Hebrew
words
in Psalm xxii.Azabbvtha-ni and sabachthani in Matthew ;that
they were not aware of the
deliberate
falsification?
For
“falsification ”it was.And if we are asked the reason why the early Church
Fathers resorted to it the
answer
is plain:Because the Sacramental words belonged in their true rendering
to Pagan temple rites.
(Page 148)They were pronounced after the terrible trials of
Initiation and were still fresh in the memory of
some
of the “Fathers ”when the Gospel of Matthew was edited into the Greek
language.Because finally
many
of the Hierophants of the Mysteries,and many more of the Initiates were still
living in those days,
and
the sentence rendered in its true words would class Jesus directly with the
simple Initiates.The
words
“My God my Sun thou hast poured thy radiance upon me?”were the final words that
concluded
the
thanksgiving prayer of the Initiate “the Son and the glorified Elect of the
Sun.” In Egypt we find to this
day
carvings and paintings that represent the rite.The candidate is between two
divine sponsors;one
“Osiris-Sun
”with the head of a hawk,representing life the other Mercury -the ibis-headed
psychopompic
genius,who guides the Souls after death to their new abode Hades -standing for
the
death
of the physical body figuratively.Both are shown pouring the “stream of life
”the water of
purification
on the head of the Initiate the two streams of which interlacing form a
cross.The better to
conceal
the truth this basso-relievo has also been explained as a “Pagan
presentment of a Christian
truth.”The
Chevalier des Mousseaux calls this Mercury:
The
assessor of Osiris-Sol as St.Michael is the assessor Ferouer of the Word.
The
monogram of Chrestos and the Labarum the standard of Constantine -who by the by
died a
Pagan
and was never baptised -is a symbol derived from the above rite and also
denotes “life and
death.”Long
before the sign of the Cross was adopted as a Christian symbol it was employed
as a
secret
sign of recognition among Neophytes and Adepts.Says Eliphas Levi:
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The
sign of the cross adopted by the Christians does not belong exclusively to
them.It is
kabalistic,and
represents the oppositions and quaternary equilibrium of the elements.We see
by
the occult verse of the Pater to which we have called attention in
another work,that there
were
originally two ways of making it or at least two very different formulas to
express its
meaning;one
reserved for priests and initiates;the other given to neophyte and the profane.
[Dogme et Rit el de
la Ha te Magie,ii 88.]
One
can understand now why the Gospel of Matthew,the Evangel of the
Ebionites,has been for ever
excluded
in its Hebrew form from the world ’s curious grace.
Jerome
found the authentic and original Evangel written in Hebrew by Matthew the
Publican
at
the library collected at Caesarea by the martyr Pamphilius,“I received
permission from the
Nazaraeans,who at
Beroea of Syria used this (gospel to translate it “he writes toward the
end
of the fourth century.[ (Hieronymus,Des Viris Ill st.,III)“It is
remarkable that while all
Church
Fathers say that Matthew wrote in Hebrew the whole of them use
the Greek text as
the
genuine apostolic writing without mentioning what relation the Hebrew Matthew
has to our
Greek one!It had many peculiar
additions which are wanting in our (Greek )Evangel ”
(Olshausen
Nachweis der Echtheit der Sammtlichen Schriften des Ne en Test.,p.32;Dunlap
Sod,the Son of Man,p.44.)]
Secret Doctrine of Jesus
(Page 149)“In the Evangel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites
use ”said Jerome “which
recently
I translated from Hebrew into Greek,and which is called by most persons the gen
ine
gospel
of Matthew ” etc.[Comment to Matthew (XII 13)Book 11.Jerome adds
that it was
written
in the Chaldaic language but with Hebrew letters.]
That
the apostles had received a “secret doctrine ”from Jesus,who confessed it in an
unguarded
moment.Writing to the Bishops Chromatius and Heliodorus,he complains that “a
difficult
work is enjoined since this (translation)has been commanded me by your
Felicities,
which
St Matthew himself the Apostle and Evangelist did not wish to be
openly written.For if
this
had not been secret he (Matthew)would have added to the Evangel that
what he gave
forth
was his ;but he made up this book sealed p in the Hebrew characters,which
he put
forth
even in such way that the book,written in Hebrew letters and by the hand
of himself
might
be possessed by the men most religio s ;who also in the course of time
received it
from
those who preceded them.But this very book they never gave to any one to be
transcribed
and its text they related some one way and another.” [“St.Jerome.”v.445:
Dunlap
Sod,the Son of Man,p.46.] And he adds further on the same
page:“And it happened
that
this book,having been published by a disciple of Manichaeus,named Seleucus,who
also
wrote
falsely The Acts of the Apostles exhibited matter not for edification
but for destruction;
and
that this (book)was approved in a synod which the ears of the Church
properly refused to
listen
to.”[This accounts also for the rejection of the works of Justin Martyr
who used only this
“Gospel
according to the Hebrews ”as also did most probably Tatian his disciple.At what
a
later
period the divinity of Christ was fully established we can judge by the mere
fact that even
in
the fourth century Eusebius did not denounce this book as spurious,but only
classed it with
such
as the Apocalypse of John:and Credner (Z r Gesch.des Kan,p.129)shows
Nicephorus
inserting it together with the Revelation in his Stichometry,among
the
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Antilegomena.The
Ebionites,the gen ine primitive Christians,rejecting the rest of the
Apostolic
writings,make use only of this Gospel (Adv Hev.,i.26)and the
Ebionites,as
Epiphanius
declares,firmly believed with the Nazarenes,that Jesus was but a man “of the
seed
of a man.”]
Jerome
admits,himself that the book which he authenticates as being written “by the
hand of
Matthew
” was nevertheless a book which notwithstanding that he translated it twice was
nearly
unintelligible to him for it was arcane.Nevertheless,Jerome coolly sets down
every
commentary
upon it but his own as heretical.More than that Jerome knew that this
Gospel
was
the only original one yet he becomes more zealous than ever in his
persecution of the
“Heretics.”
Why?Because to accept it was equivalent to reading the death sentence of the
established
Church.The Gospel according to the Hebrews was well known to have been
the
(Page 150)only one accepted for four centuries by the Jewish Christians,the
Nazarenes and
the
Ebionites.And neither of the latter accepted the divinity of Christ.[
Isis Unveiled.II,182-3 .]
The
Ebionites were the first the earliest Christians,whose representative was the
Gnostic
author
of the Clementine Homilies,and as the author of S pernat ral Religion
shows 8 [Op.
cit.,II 5 ] Ebionitic
Gnosticism had once been the purest form of Christianity.They were the
pupils
and followers of the early Nazarenes -the kabalistic Gnostics.They believed in
the
Aeons,as
the Cerinthians did and that “the world was put together by Angels ”(Dhyan
Chohans),as
Epiphanius complains (Contra Ebionitas ):“Ebion had the opinion of the
Nazarenes,the
form of Cerinthians.”“They decided that Christ was of the seed of a man ” he
laments.[
See also Isis Unveiled,ii.180 to end of chapter.] Thus again:
The
badge of Dan-Scorpio is death-life,in the symbol .as crossbones and
skull ..
or
life-death ...the standard of Constantine the Roman Emperor.Abel has
been shown to be
Jesus,and
Cain-Vulcain or Mars,pierced him.Constantine was the Roman Emperor whose
warlike
god was Mars,and a Roman soldier pierced Jesus on the cross ....
But
the piercing of Abel was the consummation of his marriage with Cain and this
was proper
under
the form of Mars Generator;hence the double glyph one of Mars-Generator
[Osiris-
Sun
] and Mars-Destroyer [Mercury the God of Death in the Egyptian basso-relievo
] in one;
significant
again of the primal idea of the living cosmos,or of birth and death as
necessary to
the
continuation of the stream of life.[So rce of Measure,p.299.This
“stream of life ”being
emblematised
in the Philloc basso-relievo just mentioned by the water poured in the
shape of
a
Cross on the initiated candidate by Osiris -Life and the Sun -and
Mercury -Death.It was
the
finale of the rite of Initiation after the seven and the twelve
tortures in the Crypts of Egypt
were
passed through successfully.]
To
quote once more from Isis Unveiled :
A
Latin cross of a perfect Christian shape was found hewn upon the granite slabs
of the
Adytum
of the Serapeum;and the monks did not fail to claim that the cross had been
hallowed
by
the Pagans in a “spirit of prophecy.”At least Sozomen with an air of triumph
records the
fact.[
Another untrustworthy untruthful and ignorant writer an ecclesiastical
historian of the
fifth
century.His alleged history of the strife between the Pagans,Neoplatonists,and
the
Christians
of Alexandria and Constantinople which extends from the year 324 to 439
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dedicated
by him to Theodosius,the younger is full of deliberate falsifications.] But
archaeology
and symbolism,those tireless and implacable enemies of clerical false
pretences,
have
found in the hieroglyphics of the legend running round the design at least a
partial
interpretation
of its meaning.
According
to King and other numismatists and archaeologists,the cross was placed there as
the
symbol of eternal life.
The Cross and Crucifix
(Page 151)Such a Tau or Egyptian cross,was used in the Bacchic and
Eleusinian Mysteries.
Symbol
of the dual generative power it was laid upon the breast of the Initiate after
his “new
birth
”was accomplished and the Mystae had returned from their baptism in the sea.It
was a
mystic
sign that his spiritual birth had regenerated and united his astral soul with
his divine
spirit
and that he was ready to ascend in spirit to the blessed abodes of light and
glory -the
Eleusinia.The
Tau was a magic talisman at the same time as a religious emblem.It was
adopted
by the Christians through the Gnostics and Kabalists,who used it largely as
their
numerous
gems testify.These in turn had the Tau (or handled cross)from the Egyptians,and
the
Latin Cross from the Buddhist missionaries,who brought it from India (where it
can be
found
even now)two or three centuries B.C.The Assyrians,Egyptians,ancient Americans,
Hindus
and Romans had it in various,but very slight modifications of shape.Till very
late in
the
middle ages,it was considered a potent spell against epilepsy and demoniacal
possession
and the “signet of the living God ”brought down in St.John ’s vision by the
angel
ascending
from the east to “seal the servants of our God in the foreheads,”was but the
same
mystic
Tau -the Egyptian Cross.In the painted glass of St.Denis (France)this angel is
represented
as stamping this sign on the forehead of the elect;the legend reads,SIGNUM
TAY.In
King ’s Gnostics the author reminds us that “this mark is commonly borne
by St.
Anthony
an Egyptian recluse.”[ Gems of the Orthodox Christians.Vol.1.p.135
.] What the
real
meaning of the Tau was,is explained to us by the Christian St.John the Egyptian
Hermes,and
the Hindu Brahmans.It is but too evident that with the Apostle at least it
meant
the
“Ineffable Name ”as he calls this “signet of the living God ”a few chapters
further on [
Revelation,XIV 1 ] “Father
’s name written in their foreheads.”
The
Brahmâtmâ the chief of the Hindu Initiates,had on his headgear two keys symbol
of the
revealed
mystery of life and death placed cross-like;and in some Buddhist pagodas of
Tartary
and
Mongolia the entrance of a chamber within the temple generally containing the
staircase
which
leads to the inner dagoba.[ A Dagoba is a small temple of globular form
in which are
preserved
the relics of Gautama.] and the porticos of some Prachidas [ Prachidas
are
buildings
of all sizes and forms,like our mausoleums,and are sacred to votive offerings
to the
dead.]
are ornamented with a cross formed of two fishes,as found on some of the
zodiacs of
the
Buddhists.We should not wonder at all at learning that the sacred device in the
tombs in
the
catacombs at Rome the “Vesica Piscis,”was derived from the said Buddhist
zodiacal sign.
How
general must have been that geometrical figure in the world-symbols,may be
inferred
from
the fact that there is a Masonic tradition that Solomon ’s temple was built on
three
foundations,forming
the “triple Tau ”or three crosses.
In
its mystical sense the Egyptian cross owes its origin as an emblem to the
realisation by
the
earliest philosophy of an androgyno s d alism of every manifestation in nat
re which
proceeds
from the abstract ideal of a likewise androgynous deity while the Christian
emblem
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is
simply due to chance.Had the Mosaic law (Page 152)prevailed Jesus
should have been
lapidated.[The
Talmudistic records claim that after having been hanged he was lapidated
and
buried under the water at the junction of two streams.Mishna Sanhedrin Vol.V1.p.4:
Talm d,of Babylon same
article 43a 67a.] The crucifix was an instrument of torture and
utterly
common among Romans as it was unknown among Semitic nations.It was called the
“Tree
of Infamy.”It is but later that it was adopted as a Christian symbol;but during
the first
two
decades the apostles looked upon it with horror .[ Coptic Legends of
the Crucifixion.MSS.
XI
].It is certainly not the Christian Cross that John had in mind when
speaking of the “signet
of
the living God ”but the mystic Tau -the Tetragrammaton or mighty name
which on the
most
ancient Kabalistic talismans,was represented by the four Hebrew letters
composing the
Holy
Word.
The
famous Lady Ellenborough known among the Arabs of Damascus,and in the desert
after
her last marriage as Hano m Medjo ye had a talisman in her possession presented
to
her
by a Druse from Mount Lebanon.It was recognised by a certain sign on its left
corner as
belonging
to that class of gems which is known in Palestine as a “Messianic ”amulet
of the
second
or third century B.C.It is a green stone of a pentagonal form;at the bottom is
engraved
a fish higher Solomon ’s Seal;[ We are at a loss to understand why King
in his
Gnostic Gems represents
Solomon ’s Seal as a five-pointed star whereas it is six-pointed and
is
the signet of Vishnu in India .] and still higher the four Chaldaic
letters -Jod He Vau He
IAHO
which form the name of the Deity.These are arranged in quite an unusual way
running
from
below upward in reversed order and forming the Egyptian Tau.Around these there
is a
legend
which as the gem is not our property we are not at liberty to give.The Tau in
its
mystical
sense as well as the Crux ansata,is the Tree of Life.
It
is well known that the earliest Christian emblems -before it was ever attempted
to represent
the
bodily appearance of Jesus -were the Lamb the Good Shepherd and The Fish .The
origin
of the latter emblem which has so puzzled the archaeologists thus becomes
comprehensible.The
whole secret lies in the easily ascertained fact that while in the Kabalah
the
King Messiah is called “Interpreter ” or Revealer of the Mystery and shown to
be the fifth
emanation
in the Talm d -for reasons we will now explain -the Messiah is very
often
designated
as “DAG ”or the Fish.This is an inheritance from the Chaldees,and relates -as
the
very name indicates -to the Babylonian Dagon the man-fish who was the
instructor and
interpreter
of the people to whom he appeared.Abarbanel explains the name by stating that
the
sign of his (Messiah ’s)coming is the conjuction of Saturn and Jupiter in the
sign Pisces.
[ King (Gnostics )gives
the figure of a Christian symbol very common during the middle ages
of
three fishes,interlaced into a triangle and having the FIVE letters (a most
sacred
Pythagorean
number)É×ČŐ× engraved on it.The number five relates to the same kabalistic
computation
.] Therefore as the Christians were intent upon identifying their
Christos with the
Messiah
of the Old Testament they adopted it so readily as to forget that its
true origin might
be
traced still further back than the Babylonian Dagon.How eagerly and closely the
ideal of
Jesus
was united by the early Christians,with every imaginable kabalistic and pagan
tenet
may
be inferred from the language of Clemens,of Alexandria addressed to his
co-religionists.
The Story of Jesus
(Page 153)When they were debating upon the choice of the most
appropriate symbol to
Page
126.
The Secret Doctrine Volume 3 by H.P.Blavatsky
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remind
them of Jesus,Clemens advised them in the following words.Let the engraving
upon
the
gem of your ring be either a dove or a ship running before the wind (the
Argha),or a fish .”
Was
the good father when writing this sentence labouring under the recollection of
Joshua
son
of Nun (called Jes s in the Greek and Slavonian versions);or had he
forgotten the real
interpretation
of these pagan symbols?[Op.cit.,II 253-256.]
And
now with the help of all these passages scattered hither and thither in Isis
and other works of this
kind
the reader will see and judge for himself which of the two explanations -the
Christian or that of the
Occultist
-is the nearer to truth.If Jesus were not an Initiate why should all these allegorical
incidents of
his
life be given?Why should such extreme trouble be taken so much time wasted
trying to make the
above:(a)answer
and dovetail with purposely picked out sentences in the Old Testament to
show them
as
prophecies ;and (b)to preserve in them the initiatory symbols,the
emblems so pregnant with Occult
meaning
and all of these belonging to Pagan mystic Philosophy?The author of the So
rce of Measures
gives
out that mystical intent;but only once now and again in its one-sided
numerical and kabalistic
meaning
without paying any attention to or having concern with the primeval and more
spiritual origin
and
he deals with it only so far as it related to the Old Testament.He
attributes the p rposed change in
the sentence “Eli Eli lama sabachthani ”to the principle already mentioned of the crossed bone