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Occultism of the secret doctrine

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An Outline of Occult Science Shares 2 topics Studies in Occultism; A Series of Reprints from the Writings of H. P. Blavatsky: No. 1: Practical Occultism—Occultism versus the Occult; Arts—The Blessings of Publicity Shares 2 topics True, Semi and Pseudo-Occultism Shares 2 topics Andlig kosmologi. Ytterlig förankring och förfining och av min kristet teosofiska livssyn. Shares 2 topics
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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at http : / /books . google . com/ ThtAlAphkAl BCHll Contcrn ll« S. HIrUctB Anj THE SECRET DOCTRINE. m ■■\^v ■■^- THE Secret Doctrine : THE SYNTHESIS OF SCIENCE RELIGION, AND PHILOSOPHY BV H. P. BLAVATSKY, AtJTHOK OF " ISIS DKVmi,SD." satyAt nAsti paro dharmah. " There is no Religion higher thui Truth." Volume III. LONDON & BENARES: The Theosophical Publjshing Society. CHICAGO: Theosophical Book Concern, 36, Van Burbn Street 1897. ReprinUd J 970. Bnt£r€d euearding Ar Aetsf Csmgpsi m tkgymcr Ij9q7. by die Theosophical Soak Omam. tfOtuago, m tke Ogia tfdit Uirar^x of Congress at WaaUsigtam, D,C. " E3»TEJLEI> AT STiTroKEaS HAXi. AL^M^iSTS. OF TMAJfSUtTMff AJfD MMIKWCCTTOV MSSSSITED. As for what thon hearest others say, who persuade the many that the soul when once freed from the body neither suffers . . . evil nor is consciona, 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. PLUTAltCH. The problem of life is man. Hl^^c, or rather Wisdom, is the evolved knowledge of the potencies of man's interior being, which forces are divine emanations, as in- tuition is the perception of their origin, and initiation our induction into that knowledge. . . . We begin with instinct ; the end is omniscience. A. WlItDBK. TABLE OF CONTENTS. ' PAOK I 3 Assumptions have to be proven 5 The Spirit of Plstq's Teaching 7 Self-Contradiction of the Critic 9 The Character of AmmoniusSaccas . It flato a follower of Pythagoras 13 SECTIC >N I. Freliniinaiy Survey u The Protectors of China IS The A B C of Magic 17 Magic as old as Man , 19 The Tree of Knowledge 21 Occultism mnst win the Day 13 Black Magic at work . »s Black Magic and Hypnotism 27 The Philosophy stands on its c wn Merits 29 SECTIO] "^ II. ■ 30 All Honour to Genuine Scientists .... 31 What is a Myth? 33 Chaldsean Oracles T III. . 3S SECTIOI 36 The Books of Hermes . . 37 IVhat is the Origin of Magic . . ■ 39 Pherecydes of Syror .... . 41 Cain Mathematical and Anthn ipomorphic . • 43 Viii CONT3NTS. SECTION IV. PAOR TheSecresyof the Initiates ........ 44 Exoteric and Bsoteric Teachings ....... 45 Origen on " Genesis ** . . . -47 The " Dark Sayings " of tl^e "Testaments " . . .. . . .49 The Greatest Crime erer per]Mtrated ...... 51 Asiatic Religions proclaim their Esotericism openly • • . • 53 The Wisdom Religion ......... 55 SECTION V. Some Reaaons for Secresy . . . . . .56 The Key of Practical Theurgy . . ■ . . . -57 The Ladder of Being ......... 59 Three Ways open to the Adept . . . . . . .61 Man is God .......... 63 Jesus taught Reincarnation ...... 65 SECTION VI. The Dangers of Practical Magic ....... 67 Names are Symbols ......... 69 The Three Mothers ......... 71 The Bible and Word-JnggUng ....... 73 Moses and the Jews ......... 75 SECTION VII. Old Wine in New Bottles ........ 76 Copies that Ante-dated Originals ' . . . . . • 77 Which were the Thieves ? . . ■ . . . , . '79 Character ofthe" Bible" 8i SECTION VIII. The " Book oi Enoch " the Origin and Foundation of Christianity . . 82 The "Book of Enoch" and Christianity . , . . .83 Enoch records the Races ........ 85 The " Book of Enoch " symbolical . . . . , - 87 Occultists do not reject the " Bible " ...... 89 C0NTBKT9. ix SECTION IX. rAom Hermetic and KabaUstic Doctrines ....... 91 The *< Kabalah " and the " Book of Enoch " 93 Nmnbera and Measures ..-■.... 95 The Doctzine belongs to All . . .97 SECTION X. Varions Occnlt Systems of Interpretations of Alphabets iaA Nnmerals . 9B Mnmbers and Hafcic • 99 Gods and Numbers . . icn The Univeisal Language ........ icg SECTtON XI. The Hexagon with the Central Point, or the Seventh Key , < .105 Occult Weapons . ... . .107 SECTION XII. The Duty of the True Occultist towards Religions . . , .109 Christian and non-Christian Adepts ....... iiz SECTION XIII. Post- Christian Adepts and their Doctrines . . . . .113 Unfair Criticism . .•■...... 113 The Two Eternal Principles ........ 115 SECTION XIV. Simon and his Biographer Hippolytns ...... 117 0nevefi Balances ......... TI9 Stones as " Evidences " . . ■ . . . . 121 SECTION XV. St Paul the Real Pounder of present Christianity . . . . isa Abrogation of Law by Initiates , . , • . * . 143 Panl changed to Simon . . ..... 135 X CONTBHTS. SECTION XVI. FAIW Peter a Jewish Kabalist, not an Initiate ...... lafr The Seat of Peter ......... 127 SECTION XVII. ApoUonins of Tyana ......... 129 The Mysterioua Teacher . . . . . . -131 ApoUonins cannot be Destrojred ....... 133 De Mirville on ApoUonins ........ 135 ApoUonins no Fiction . . -137 SECTION XVIII. Facts underlying Adept Biographies ....... rjS Jesns and ApoUonins ......... 139 Biographies of Initiates ........ 141 Similarity of Legends . . . ... . 143 Nature of Christ ......... 145 A Serious Mistranslation ........ 147 Secret Doctrine of Jesus ........ 149 The Cross and Crucifix . . . . . , .151 The Story of Jesus ......... 153 The PrimitiTe Woman ......... 155 Kabalistic Reading of Gospels ....... 157 Universal Teachings ......... 159 SECTION XIX. St Cyprian of Antioch ......... 160 Magic in Antioch . . . . . .161 Sorcerer become Saint ......... 163 SECTION XX. The Eastern Gupta Vidya and the Kabalah . . . .164 A Mystery within a Mystery ........ 165 Authorship of the " Zohar '* . . . . . . . .167 Chaldaic and Hebrew ......... 169 The First Men ..,,,..... 171 Many Events not Historical ........ 173 The real Hebrew Characters Lost . . . .175 Hebrew Bsotericism not Primitive ....... 177 The Concealed of AU the Concealed ....... 179 CONrrBNTS. 3d PAOS Three-in-One and Four ........ i8i The Septenary Sephira ........ 183 The Blind Leading the Blind ........ 185 SECTION XXI. Hebrew Allegories ......... 186 The Hebrew Bible does not exist ....... 187 Some Hebrews were Initirtes ....... 189 The Seven Creative Gods ........ 191 Seven Keys to all Allegories ........ 193 Gerald Maasey on the Seven Creators ...... 195 The Father and Mother ........ 197 SECTION XXII. The "Zohar" en Creation and the Blohim Angels as Builders Who are the Blohim ? . Honad, Dnad, and Triad The Creative Gods God the Host aoi ap3 207 209 SECTION XXIII. What the Occultiats and Kabalists have to say .an The Mystery of the Smi ........ aij SECTION XXIV. Modem Kabalists in Science and Occnlt Astronomy .... 21$ The Place of Neptnne ......... 317 Self-Generationez-Nihilo . . . , . 319 Are there Angels in Stats ?........ aai SECTION XXV. Bastem and Western Occultism ....... aai Primordial Matter ......... 22$ The Great Deep .......... 325 The Chaos of Genesis ......... 237 The Bible of Hnmanity ........ 339 Chaos is Theos or Kosmoa . . . ... . aji One Hundred and Eight ........ 333 zn coifntNTs. SECTION XXVI. PAGS The Idols and the Teraphim . . . . ' . . . 234 Divining by Teraphim . . ' . . . . . . 335 Jehovah and Teraphim ........ 237 Idol of the Moon . . ... . . 239 SECTION XXVII. Egyptian Magic ......... 241 Bvidence of Papyri ... . .... . 343 Symbols and their Reading . ... . . 345 Rebirth and Transmigration ........ 347 The Egyptian Khous . , . . ' . . . , . 249 Obsession in Egypt ......... 251 Two Rituals of Magic ......... 253 Magical Statnea .......... 355 Romances— bnt IVne ......... 237 258 259 261 SECTION xxviir The Origin of the Mysteries .... An Instant in Heaven . . . Growth of Popular Beliefs .... A True Priesthood ......... 263 The Egyptian Priests . . . . . . 265 Revealing and Reveiling ........ 367 Atlanteans Degenerating . . . . . 269 SECTION XXIX. The Trial of the Sun Initiate . . . ■ . . . . 270 Vishvakarma Vikarttana ........ 271 The Transmission of Light ......*• 273 Masonry and the Jesuits . . . , • • • 275 SECTION XXX. The Mystery "Sun of Initiation " . - • . • 277 The Sun as God . 279 SECTION XXXI. The Object of the Mysteries .....••• ^Si Mysteries and Theophany . . • ... • ■ - 3S3 The Mysteries and Masonry .....■-- 285 CONTBNTS. xisi SECTION XXXII. nam Traces of the Mysteries ........ 387 Christos and Chrestos ......... 289 The Symbolism of NArada- ........ 261 Egyptian Initiation ......... 293 The Self-sacnfidng Victim ........ 395 Oiphens ........... 297 SECTION XXXIII. The Last of the Mysteries in Europe ...... 298 Alesia and Bibractis ......... 399 The Learning of Egypt ........ 301 SECTION XXXIV. The Post-Christian Successors to the Mysteries 303 The Root Races ........ . 305 The "False Gnosis" ....... . 307 Teachings of Ammonius ...... ■ 309 Difficulties and Dangers ...... 3" The Neo-Platonic School ...... - 313 SECTION XXXV. Symbolism of Sun and Stars ........ 315 The Circle Dance ......... 317 Christian Astrolatry ......... 319 Michael the Conqueror ........ 321 The Christian Sun-God ........ 333 SECTION XXXVI. Pagan Sidereal Worship or Astronomy ...... 325 The Planetary Angels ......... 327 Celestial WTieels 329 The Promethean Mystery ........ 331 SECTION XXXVII. The Souls of the Stars— Universal Heliolatiy ..... 333 Christian Star-Worship ........ 333 A Singular Confession ........> 335 xiV COSTBWTS. SECTION XXXVIII. ■■.rum Artrolofjfy and AstrolAtry ........ 3^ The Oefeace of Astrology ....■■■■ 339 Its Later Deterioration ......-•• 34^ Its Prominent Disciples ....■••• 343 SECTION XXXIX. Cycles and Avatlras .,....■•• 345 An Unfulfilled Prophecy 347 Secret Cycles 349 SECTION XL. Secret Cycles 350 The Naros ......... 3SI Age of the Vedas ......... 353 Testimony of the Song Celestial ....... 355 Mackey's Arguments ......... 357 • atftr 1 SECTION XLI. as . 36r 363 36s 367 • 369 371 SECTION XLII. 373 374 The Doctrine of the Avatftraa All AvatAraa Identical Voluntary Incarnations Cardinal de Cusa The Seven Rays . Special Cases The Higher Astral The Seven Principles SECTION XLIII. The Myster>- of Buddha ........ 376 ShankarAchAr>-a .......... 377 Thr Buddha cannot Reiticamate ....... 379 A Fuller Kxplanation ......... 381 Sacrifice ........... 383 Shonk&rachArya still LiviuK ■ ....... 385 COITPBNTS. :. . SBCTION XLIV. PAOB *' Reincarnations" of Buddha. ....... 386 Vajradhara . . . . - . . . 3^7 I«i\inK Bnddhas .......... 389 An Obscure Passage ......... 391 SECTION XLV. An Unpublished Disconne of Buddha ...... 393 A Mistaken View ......... 395 SECTION XLVI. Nirvana-Moksha ......... 396 The Akisha .......... 397 Hatter is ever living ......... 399 Blind Faith not Expected ........ 401 What Annihilation Means ........ 403 SECTION XtVII. TheSecret Books of*' Lam-Bin" and Dzyan . . . .405 SECTION XI^VIII. Amita Buddha Kwan^Shal'Tin, and Kwan-yin.— What the " Book of Dzyaa ** and the Lamaseries of Tsong-Khapa say ..... 407 SECTION XLIX. Tsong-Khapa—Lohans in China ....... 409 The I^ost Word .......... 411 Tibetan Prophecies ......... 413 SECTION L. A Few More Misconceptions Corrected ...... 414 Misrepresentations of Buddhism ....... 415 A Mysterious Land ......... 417 Absurd Conclusions ......... 419 Materialistic Orientalists ........ 421 Introduction of Buddhism into Tibet . . . -423 SECTION U. PAOB The "Doctrine of the Eye" and the "Doctrine of th« Heart," or the "Heart's Seal" . 424 Swedenborg'8 Claims . . . . . . . 435 The God "Who" 497 More Misrepresentations ........ 439 AT7&sanga 431 SOME PAPERS ON THE BEARING OF OCCULT PHILOSOPHY ON LIFE. Note . 434 A Warning ... 435 The Jewel in the Lotus ......... 437 The Pythagorean Triad ........ 439 Seven Correspondential Contents ....... 441 Correspondence between Races and Man ...... 443 Man and the Logos ......... 445 Cosmic, Spiritual and Physical Centres ...... 447 Woman and Alchemy ......... 449 Sound and Colour .....'..,. 451 The Days of the Week ......... 453 An Explanation .......... 455 Astrology and Lunar Weeks ........ 457 Seeing Soands and Hearing Colours ...*... 459 Planetary and Human Bodies ........ 461 Planets and Faculties ......... 463 Simon Magus the Magician ........ 465 Series of ^oas . . . . . . . 467 The Triple ^on .......... 469 Mttgic and Miracles . . 471 Magic a Divine Science . . . 473 The Seven Hierarchies . . . . . 475 Origines ........... 477 Colours and Principles ......... 479 The Primordial Seven ......... 481 The Hierarchies and Man ........ 4^ Wisdom and Truth ... . -485 Occult Secresy .......... 487 The Light and Dark Sides of Nature . . . 4^9 Nature's Finer Forces ......... 49' The "Seven Principles" 493 C<MITBNTS. atVU PAOE The Auric Egg . ... . . . ■ • • '495 Five or Seven Tattvas ... . - • 497 TheTattvas 499 Bfloteric and Tflntra Tables of the Tattvas . . . . . .501 Hatha and RSja Yoga ......... 503 The Awakening of the Seventh Sense ...... 5^5 The Master Chakras 507 The Human Harp ......... SP9 The Duality of Manas . . . . . . - .511 The Living and the Dead ........ 513 Gaining Immortality ,..,..... 515 Light and Life .......... 517 The Two Egos .......... 519 Death of the Soul ......... 521 Reincarnation of Lower Soul ........ 533 The Dweller on the Threshold ....... 525 The Word ... ...... 527 The Divine Witness ......... 529 Appendix ........... 530 A Mantra Operative ......... 531 Colour and Spiritual Sound ........ 533 Musical Table .......... 535 Notes on some Oral Teachings ....... S37 The Dweller on the Threshold ....... 539 Fear and Hatred ......... 541 Triangle and Quaternary ........ 543 Prflna and Antahkarana ........ 545 Sacred Centres of the Body ........ 547 Akflsha Nature's Sounding-Board ....... 549 Kosmic Consciousness ......... 551 Divisions of the Astral Plane ........ 553 Kosmic Planes .......... 555 Differentiation .......... 557 Men and Pitris .......... 559 Power of Imagination ......... 561 Why Cycles Return ......... 5^3 Talas and Lokas ......... 565 States of Consciousness ........ 567 Man and Lokas .......... 569 Yogis in Svarloka ......... 571 Consciousness and Self-Consciousoess ...... 573 Scales of Consciousness . . . . . ... . 575 Vibrations and Impressions ........ 577 The Crucifixion of the Christos ....... 579 xviii coNTmrrs. PAGB Rising above the Brain ........ 581 Christ and ApoUonius ......... 583 The Beginnings .......... 585 Kannic Effects .......... 587 Fire is Krijflshakti ......... 589 Responsibility and the Ego ........ 591 Functions of the Astral Body . . . . 593 PREFACE. The task of preparing this volume for the press has been a difficult and anxious one, and it is necessar>- to state clearly what has been done. The papers given to mc by H, P. B. were quite unairanged, 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 ob\-iously uu-Euglish idioms, the papers are as H. P. B. left them, save as otherwise marked. In a few cases 1 have filled in a gap, but any such addition is enclosed within square brackets, so as to be distingxiished from the text. In " The Mystery of Buddha " a further difficulty arose ; some of the Sections had Iwen written four or five limes over, each version con- taining some sentences that were not in the others j 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 Surei 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 publisl], as part of the Third Volume of the Secret Doctrine^ and I therefore do not feci 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 XX PRRPACB. obvioiiK to any instructed reader that she makes — possibly de- Ul)cratcly — many statements so confused that they are mere blinds, and other Hlatcments — probably inadvertently — that are nothing more than the exoteric misunderstandings of esoteric truths. The render must here, as everywhere, use his own judgment, but feeling hound 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 rc-written the whole of this division ; as it was, it seemed l>est to give nil she had said in the different copies, and to leave it in its mthcr unfinished state, for students will best like to have what »ho said ns 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 wrrcct references given ; in this most laborious work a whole band of earnest and jviinstaking students, under the guidance of Mrs. CooiHT-Oakley, have been my willing assistants. Without their aid it would not haw been possible to give the references, as often a whole Kx^k had to be searched through, in order to find a para- graph of A few lines. This wtlunie completes the papers left by H. P. B.. with the exception of a few scattered articles that yet remain and that will be puWish<\l in her own magazine Liwi/fr, Her pupils arc well aware tkAt t<-w will be found in the present generation to do justice to the \VVuU knv»wledgit of H. P. B. and to her magnificent sweep of thv>u^ht» but AS she cm wait to ir.:are generations fiar the justification ^M her jiwAiness as a teacb^, so can hex pnpQs aff>td to wait for the jx\s(ifioAtioi; Oit their tms:- Axxis Besaxt. INTRODUCTORY. •' Power belongs to hitn who knows ; " this is a very old axiom, Knowledge — ihc first step to which is the power of comprehending the truth, of discerning the real from the false— is for those only who, having freed themselves from ever>* 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 ver>' ftw. The najohty 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 atithor. rather than by its own faults or merits. Outside the Theosophical circle, therefore, the present volume is certain to receive at the bands of the general public a still colder welcome than its two »redecessors hax'C met with. In our day no statement can hope for a '^feir trial, or even hearing, unless its arguments run on the line of legitimate and accepted enquiry, renxaiuing strictly within the boun- daries of official Science or orthodox Theology. Our age is a paradoxical anomaly. It is preeminently materialistic and as preeminently pietistic. Our literature, our modern thought and progress, so called, both run on these two parallel lines, so incon- gruously 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 misconcep- tions, in so-called cultured circles of society, of the ancient Wisdom- Religion (Bodhisra) after tlie admirably clear and scientifically-presented explanations in Esoteric Buddhisfti, 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 1 ■ • THB SECRBT DOCTRINE. assumptiou and scienti6c 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 scienti6c ephemera, the ever-shifting "working hypotheses" of our day. To the advocate of the " animalistic '* theory, oar 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 sec a brother in a dumb, tailless baboon, than to acknowledge the fatherhood of Pitris. the " Sons of God," and to have to recognise as a brother a stan'cling 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 tnuh, in any way anxious to attempt the metamor- phosis. But this cannot, nor shall it, prevent Tbeosophists froin saying what they have to say, especially to those who, in oppo!<ing 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 gtori&cation. If we cannot prove many of our point*, 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 cflForts 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 tlian herself. But great scliolarship does not preclude bias and prejudice, nor is it a safeguard against self-conceit, bnt rather the reverse. Moreover, it is but in the legitimate detence of our own state- ments, i.e., the vindication of Ancient Wisdom and its great truths, that we mean to take our ** great authorities" to ta^. Indeed, unless the precaution of answering beforeliand 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 Volnme is to indicate in the works of the old Arj'an. Greek, and ■ 4 OKS XBV TO AU. SACRBD BOOKS. Other Philosophers of note^ as well as in all the world-scriptures, the prebL'Dcc of a strong Esoteric allegory and symbolism. Another of the objects is to prove that the key of interpretatioii, as famished by the Eastern Hindu-Buddhistic canon of Occultism — fitting as well the Christian Gospels as it docs archaic Egyptian, Greek, Chaldaean, 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 IvCClnres. Prof. Max Miiller discarded this fundamental statement of the Theosophist» by pointing to the Hindu Sh^stras and Pandits, who know nothing of such Esotericisra.* The learned Sanskrit scholar stated in so many wordtf that there was no hidden meaning, no Esoteric element or "blinds," either in ilic Pa rdaas or the Upanhkads. 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 ever}' pretence to Esoteric teachings. He himself never taught them! All such "pretences" to Occtflt leaniiog and " magic powers" are due to the later Arhats, the subse* quent followers of the " Light of Asia " ! Prof. B. Jowett, again, as contemptuously passes the sponge over the " absurd " interpretations of Plato's Tirmeus and the Mosaic Books by the Neoplatonists. There is .»ot a breath of the Oriental (Gnostic) spirit of Mysticism in Plato's ^ iDmhgiiCi, the Regius Professor of Greek tells us, nor any approach to Science, either. Finally, to cap the climax. Prof Sayce, the Assyri- ologist, although he does not deny the actual presence, in the Assyrian tablets and cuneiform literature, of a hidden meaning — Many of the »acre<l texts ... so written ds to he intclliKf^Ic only to the uiiliateil— yet insists that the "keys and glosses" thereof are now in the hands of the Assyriologists. The modem scholars, he affirms, have in their possession clues to the interpretation of the Esoteric Records, Which «ven the initUted priests (of Chaldira] did not pf><weft& * Tb« n«]ority or the PntxUu know nothing of the Ktotcric Pbtliwophy now, because they haM lort tlir key to It ,■ yrt no! on* of Ihow, if hnttml, wnntd d*ny that th< U^titkadt. and e»pcciatly tb* /Vntnaj. are aJlc|:oncal and «yatl>oUc«l ; nor llinl llinc- still rnnnin in tndiit Hfewgrral srhoUra who coulil, if they wotdd, givr Xhvxa Ihe key lo Mich itiWrprt:tatlon«. Nor do they /ejetl il»c actB4- «xiit«Qi:« of KahltmiA— initiated YOK^siind AilFj)l«~Frat in thU ogt* ofKnli Vusa. THli SKCttKT JDOLTRJNK. Thus, in the scholarly appreciation of our modern OrientalisLs and Professors, Science was in its infancy in Ihc days of the Eg>*plian and Chaldxan Astronomers. P&nini. the greatest Grammarian in the world, was unacquainted with the art of writing. So was the Lord Buddha, and ever>-oue else in India nntil 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 superstitions ignoramuses to speak as they do, in 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 with- out revealing itself to the Hierophants. and has remained latent in space until the advent of the initiates of Modem 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 beeu useless to the world and \-alueIess to him- self? For, as explained repeatedly in so many words, while the Rishis and the Sages of old have walked far over the arid Belds of myth and superstition, the nicdiceval Scholar, and even the average eighteenth century Scientist, havealwa)'s been nioreor less cramped by their "super- natural" religion and beliefs. True, it is generally conceded that some ancient and also mcdiccval 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 unexplored lodes of Physical Science. But then the actual exca- vation 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 is it not to 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 Philo- AsauMpnoNS have to be proven. sophy? Before our cultured era, Science was but a name, Philosophy a delusion and a snare. According to the modest claims of contem- porar>' authority ou 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, there- fore, nothing for which to thank our forefaihers. The Ancients have at best prepared and fertilised the soil ; it is the Modems 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" (Tj-ndall) : of the " parUr en/an tin" at \\\c Vaidic poets (Max Miiller); of the " absurdi- ties" of the Neoplatonists (Jowett); and of the ignorance of the Chaldaeo-Assyrtan initiated Priests with regard to their own symbols, when compared with the knowledge thereon of the British Orientalise (Sayce). Such assumptions have to be proven by something more solid than the mere word of these scholars. For no aniouiu of hoastfu) arrogance can hide the intellectual quarries out of which the represen- tations 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 /sis Unveiled, to say of certain Orientalists and Scholars of dead languages, that they will allow their boundless conceit and self-opiniouatedness to runaway with their logic and reasouing powers, rather than concede to the ancient Philosophers the knowledge of any- thing the modem do not know. As part of this work treats of the Initiates and the secret knowledge imparted during the Mysteries, the 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 aud the secretiveness of the Mystics had their raison d'etre; that both the pre-Christian and the post- TH« SECHer DOCTRIIfB. Christian classical writers — the great majority at all events — were under the sacred obligation never to divulge the solemn secrets com- municated to them iu 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 t^venty-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 ; be openly confesses that he writes " enigmatically." and we see him take the greatest precautions to conceal the tnie meaning of his words. Every time the subject touches the greater secrets of Oriental Wisdom — the cosmogony of the noiverse. or the ideal preexisting world— Plato shrouds his Philosophy in the profoundest darkness. His Timttus is so confused that no one but an Initiate can understand the hidden meaning. As already said in his Unveiled : Tbc speculations of PUto in the Bantfuei on tlie creation, or rAthcr the evolution, of primorilial men, aii<l the e<isay on cosmof^it}' in tlte Timirus, ninst be taken >llegoncaUy if we accept tbem .it all. It is thin hiddeu rytliaj;orean aieaaintf in Tittupus, Cratylus, and Parmenui^.^, ami a few ottier trilogies and dinlof^ues, that lli« Neoplaloniiits ventured to expound, as far as the tlieargical vow of sccresy would allow them. The Pythagorean doctrine that God is the TJniversa! Mind difTuMsd through all things, and tbc dogma of the soul's immortality, are the leading features in the** apparently incongruous teachings. His pitty and the great x-ene- ration he felt for the Mysteries are suSicient warrant that Plato would not allow bis indiscretion to get tlic Iwtter of that deep sense of responsibility which is fell by crery AdepL "Constantly perfecting himself in perfect Mysteries a man in them alone becomes truly perfect." says be iu the Phadna. tie 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 ha\'e guarded them with jealous care against all bat the mom eMrnt-^ and worthy of his disciples." Wtitle mentioning the Gods on every page, his monotheism is unqnestionable, for the whole thread of his dls- cooise indicates that by the term "Gods" he meaus a class of beings lower in tlie scale than Deities, and hut one grade higher than men. Even Joscphus percei%-ed and acknowledge*! this fact, despite the natural prejudice of his race- fa hia * Tfcii asscrttOB tettewlyqyrebofatMl by plala hiiiueir, who write* : " Vpv sajr tbat la mr (bmor diiCAur^ I kave not »ufficietiUy eipUitic^I to you (he tiatur^ af th« Pint. I pnrpouely >|)okp •Biyauitically. that in our ihe tahlrt ibotild hnvc bappraed with any scddcat. elUicr by sea or land, A penoa without sowc previous kiiowlmlj^r of the Aut>)«cl mighl not be aUv to uaderfttand its content*."! (Plato, £/., U. 31J; Corf. Anrifmi pt^fKUuit.^- 3'M.) ' THS SKWT OF PUlTO's TSACHrNO. 1 I I I famoDS onslaugbl upon Apion, this Imtohau says: •■Tho**. however, among the Greeks who pfailosophizctl in accor4lancc with truth were not ignorant of anything, . . . nor dill they fail la perceive the chtllitit; superficialities of the mythical allegories, on which account they justly despised them. . . , By which thing Plato, heinK moved, says it is not necessary to admit any one of the other poets into 'the Comiiionwealth,' and he dismis.ies Homer Ijlamlly, nfter having crowned liim and pounng unffuenl upon him, in order that indeed he tthould not destroy by kit m^ths, the orthodox belief respecting one God." * And this is the "God" of everj' Philosopher, God infinite and im- personal. All this and much more, which there is no room here to quote, lead» one to the undeniable certitude that (a), as all the Sciences and Philosophies were iu the hands of the temple HierophanLs, Plato, as initiated by them, must have known them ; and (#), 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 modem translator of Plato's works, seeks to demonstrate that none of the Dialogues — including even the Timt^us — have any element of Oriental Mysticism about them ? Those who cau 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 Timteus may cer- tainly 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 " otit 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."t For Mathematics and Geometry were the backbone of Occult cosmogony, hence of "Theology," and the phy.siological notions of the ancient Sages are being daily verified by Science in our age ; at least, to those who know how to read and understand ancient Esoteric works. The " knowledge of the parts " avails us little, if this knowledge only leads us the more to iguorauce of the Whole, or the " nature and reason of the Universal," as Plato calletl Deity, and causes us to blunder most egregiously because of our boasted inductive methods. Plato may have • /Ml UmiitaUd, i. »B7, «U. * Tke Dialotttft cf f^to, mmlatcd br 8. Jowett. Re«iiu Praleuorof Creek it the Dntvenltro' Ozfanl, iii. }tj. 8 THB SKCRBT DOCTSINB. been '* incapable of induction, or generalization in the modem sense" ;* he may have been ignorant also, of the circulation of the blood, which. we are told, "was absolutely unknown to hini,"f but then, there is naught to disprove that he knew what blood is — and this is more than auy modem Physiologist or iiiologist 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 critidsin so considerably outweighs his laudation, that it may be as well to quote his own words, to show clearly his bias. Thus he saya : To bring sense under the control of rea^ion ; lo find some way through lh« labyrinth or chaos of appearances, cither the highway of uiathcmnttcs. or morftJ devious paths suggestttl by the analogy of man with Uie 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-t But we neither appreciate the conditions of knowledge to which he was subjected, nor have the ideas which fastened upon his imagination the same bold upon us. For he is hovering between matter and iniud; he is nnder the doniiiiion of nb^traclions ; his impress ions are taken almost at random from the out&ide of nature; he sees the light, but not the objects which are revealed by the lights and he brings into juxtaposition things which to us appeitr wide as the poles asnnder. because he fiuds nothing between them. The last proposition but one must evidently be distasteful to the modem "physical philosopher," who sees the "objects" before him, but fails to see the light of the Universal Mind, which reveals them, iV., who proceeds in a diametrically opposite way. Therefore the learned Professor comes to the conclusion that the aucicnl Philosopher, whom he now judges from Plato's Tim^iis, 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 HHmben topcrsoni,^\xe confuses subject and obJect,^f^ Bsxdfiuat causes, and in * 0^-n/., i>.)bi. ■t op. at., p. 591. t Tbta dcfliritloti pUc«i ((iti«rjltin(ctr. of coaf«*t, the wtcieut '• phycical philosopher " nuiny cotills biglm than bta modem " pbyslcal " totfrht. since the ttllima thule of the laltcr L» to leaJ touiklnd (o t)«llrvr thai iicilhcr univcrM nor man have any cawmn at all— do4 au inlelliKenI one at all event*— and Itiat tbey have ■pning into Fxi«I«im owing to bllnil chaiice and a ««a«cleu whiiting of atom. Wbicb of the two hypotbeaes ia the nioce rational aud logical U left to tbe impartial reader to ckcidc. \ Itattca are mine. Every tyro in Eastern rhilooophy, every Kabatiit, will *ee IHe ivaiiua tor aiieh an asMclalioa orpcrsotK with ideu. uumben, and |[eoiuelricaI fi|^rc«. For number, *ay« Philobiiia, " Ik Ihe (lomlna&l sad self- prod need bond gf UK cicnul continuance a( thinsn." Aiuoe Ihe nadem Scholar remains blind to the ^and iritth. SELr-COKTnADICnOIf OF TBS CRITIC. I I I drpflming of ;fcoinctncal fijnircs* u lost iu a flax of »cti»e. Atid now an tffort of ininrl is rt^uirfd on our parts ia ordrt to undtrstand kis double language, or lo 9ip\inihvnA the twilight ciutracUr of Ihe kuotokdge aiv\ the genius of ancient philo- sophers wbich. under such conditions [}\ t/ttrnt by a divine power in muny instances to have aotidpated the tnith.t 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 hove italicized is perfectly clear, Whether the Regius Professor of Greek believes or disbelieves in a hidden sense of geo- metrical Cgures and of the Esoteric "jargon," he nevertheless admits the presence of a "double language" in tlie writings of these Philo- sophers. Thence he admits a hidden meaning, which must have had an interpretation. W\iy, then, does he flatly contradict his own state* ment on the very next page? And why should he deny to the Timans — that preeminently Pythagorean (mystic) Dialogue — any Occult meaniug and take such pains to convince his readers that The iaSaence which the Ttttuzns has exercised upon posterily is partly dne to a niisundenitandtDg. The following quotation from his Introduction is in direct contradic- tion with the paragraph which precedes it, as above quoted: In the supposed depths of this dialogue the Kco-PIatDuists found hidden tneaniugs and connections with the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and out of them they dictated ducthucs quite at variance witL the spirit of I'Ulo. Believing that be was inspired by the Holy Ghost, or had received his wisdom from Moses. \ ' Here again the nnvirnl fhilonophn- twraiB lo tx ab«a<I of thr inodcm. For he only " confuses . . Br»i and fnnl cauMa " (wlikl) conAulon is deakd by thw* who kuow Iht spirit of Budnit •cbolarahip), whereas bis modern sacccsoor ia confeiwcdly and atMolulcly ignorant ol* boili. Mr. Tyndall «ltowii Science '■ powerlcaa " iDiMlvea Kindle otir«rihe final pralilenu of Nalurv and "diaci- pUncd [read, itMdrrti roatrr4alk<(tir1. lamgination retiring in bewilderment from the eontemplation of the problema " of ll« world of matter. He even dQiibt<i whether the meii of prr^enl Science poueaa " the inleltectiial eleiuenu which would eiiftbte Iheia to grapple with tlie ulUmate BtrucluroJ energie* of Nalore." Bui for PUlu nnA hin disdple^ the lower type* were hut the concrete ima^ca of Ibe higher abalraet ouet. ; the Immortflt Soul baa au arilfaroetical, aa the body haa a geotnelrical, beiflnDing. Thia betnnninK, n.■^ the reflection of the grtat untreraal ArchietU! [,Anima Atundi). i» wlf-movliig, and from the centre diiTuaea itaelf over Ihe whole body of the MKrocoMO. * Cp. at., p. sij. I Nowhere are the NcoplatonUta guilty of »uch an alaurdlly. The icariKd Profc^wr of Orcefc mu« have been thiukinr of two apurioua worlu attributed by KiiaeUuS and St. Jerontc to Amtnonms bKcas, who wrote nothing ; or miwt have confuaed the NcoplatonJat* with PhUo Judicu&. But tbea PhMo lived orer \yi year* Itefore the Mrtli of the fonndct of NeoplatoniKni. He t>clO«iged to Ihe tkttool of Arialolnihik the Jew. who Itvnd nnder Itoleny Phllotaeter Use ytara i».c.}, and is crediird I^th hnrinK ioauiruraled the morcmtBl which tended to picve tbAl Plato and e^-en the Penpaletic I^Uoaophy were derived frtNn the "reiwalcd" Moaalc Book*. ValckeBoer trira to ahow ihat the aitlbof of the CommfHlonrs on the /fevJUe/ Afotei. was not Ariatobnlne. Ihe sycophaat of Ptoletny. Bui whatever he w««. he waa not a NeopIatonbiC, but lived before, or during Ibcdayi of Philu Jud«ni4, lincc tlx latter oeetaa lo know his worlcs and Ibllow his melhoalv n> THB SBCRBT DOCTRmv, tliey sectii«<1 to End in his *rntiag9 the ChristiAn Trinity, the Word, the Church . . . iaA the Neo-PUtonists h«d a. inelhoil of intcrprctatiou wliicit couhl elicit any meAniug out or any words. They were really incapable of distinKnishing bKwe«n the opinions of one philosopher and another, or between the serious thoughtA of Plato and his passing fancies.* . . . [But] there is oo danger of the modern commenutors on the Tinvrus falling into the absordity of the Neo- I'Utonists. No danger whatever, of course, for the simple reason that the modern commc-utators have never had the key to Occalt 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: Wlial 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 lo ear " by the Master to the disciple, or by the Hterophant 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 institultou of ever>' land. Without such a key no correct interpretation of either the Diaiogius of Plato or any Scripture, from the Vedas to Homer, from Xhc Zend At^sta 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 Amraonius, a genius and a saint, whose learn- ing and holy life earned for him the title of Thcodidaktos (" 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 acntest intellects of the age-^who do not agree with Dr. Jowett— are also foolsand no better than those whom they admire. Thepatronising tone of the last above-quoted passage is modulated with the most naive conceit, remarkable even in our age of self-glorification and mutual- ^ I I I I THB CHARACTER OF AMMOTHITS SACCAS. XI admiration cliques. We have to compare the Professor'a views with those of iiome olher scholars. Says Prof, Alexander Wilder of New Vorfc. one of the best Plalonists of the day, speaking of Ammonius, the founder of the Neoplatoiiic School: His deep spiritaal intuition, tiU extensive leuning, his fatnitiarity witb the Christian Fathers, Panlienus, Clement and Athenagoras, and with the most erudite pliilosophers of the time, all fitted bim for the lahoar which he performed so thoruDghiy.' He was successful in drawing to hi* vicn the grcateat scholarii and puMic men of the Roman Empire, who had little taste Tor wasting time in dialectic pursuits or superstitious obsenances. The results of hU ministration are perceptible at the present day in every countrj- of the Cliristinn world ; ever> pro- minent svstem of doctrine now IjearinK the marks of his plastic hand. Every ancient philosophy has had its votaries among the moderns ; and e\'en JudaiMu . , has taken upon itself changes which were suggested by tlie " God>taught " Alexandrian. . . He vmli a man of rare learning and cndowtnetits, of hlauieless life and iimiable disposition. His almost superhuman ken and many cxcellenciea won for him the title of Theodidaklos ; but he followed the modest example of Pythagoras, and only assumed the title of Hhilalethinii, of lover of trulh.t It would be happy for truth and fact were our modern scholars to follow as modestly in the steps ol their great predecessors. But not they — Philalethians ! Moreover, we know that : Like Orpheus, Pythagora.s Confucius, Socrates, and Jesus himself,! Aminonius oommttlvd nothing to writing't Instead he . . . communicated his must ,"i-'- - r--~- <-,• ' -I- I- -" ; -\-^rf^,-,- -'--- - f^Mi;. * Tbelahour of moneiltns the diffcrrnt Ky.ile-ma orrtlfgloti. *7lftv/ra/iMiiJM mitj Alchtmv, by Al«. »1M«t. .MJf>. pp. 7, 4- ^ It t> wen-known that, UiqmbIi bam of ChriatiiU) piamits, AniEnanlaii hud Tmoimced the t««ets of tfae Church- Euiebiu and Jerome aottrithiitaiKliiis. l-orphyrj-. the duciplr of 1'IoUuua. who had liv«il vrith AnunuRtun Tor dtrvtrn yr.-im Idgdher, ami whu had na iiilm«i (in" i^lnliiiK nn iintnitli. poaitivelydwUrc* that he ba4 r^iiouncfd Chrifttinitity entlrclr- On tlic othtr band, wc know iliat AnmaniuK brlie%-cd in the bnuhl Codo. Protrctom. nnd thai ihr Kroptalunic rbiLosupliy whn jis "pa(an " b» It was idystlcal. But BuMbliu, the iao«t unscTuyulous for^r aiid falser of old leKU. and St. Jnmnc. oil mit-nnd-out ftnatic. who had botb an Inicrcsl (n dFit>4ng Uk fhct. contradict PorpliyTy. we ptcfn tu belicre Uie IbIIct, who ha» left to poaterily an ttnblrBti«hed uaine and a grcnt lepntation for honr^tj". \ 1\»o work* aw falsely at Wbnted to Amniondtfl. One, nawlmt.estled /V C^ntfntM Mfytisftjnm, la meiitiatitxt l>y Lbc same " truatwutthy " KuKt>lu9. tbc Blrtiop of Ciraaraea, ajid the fhrod of the Cbhsilao Kmpcrof Cou*tanliue, who dinl. however, a heathen. All that I* known of thlt pacudo-worl( la lh*l JcTOrtte healo«-s grtral prniK- upon jl | t'ir. lUntt., \ u ; and Ruacb., H. F., vi. m), The other apuriou* production U ca11c\1 the DntUta'aH (or the " Uanuoay of the Ooapela "). Tliia ia pajtialljr nctant. But then, aynin. It rxiitj only in (he Latin vn^lou of Victor. Bi*hop of Capua (alxtb eeiilury). who ;illribiited it binuKlf to Tatiau, and a» wntagly, [iroliably, sa UUr tichulars atLnbnted the Z>is(£ij^r<>i< loAmmonlui. Therefore uo (teat reliance can be placed upon K. nor on iu"e»oier{c" ialcT|>rrliilian uf (he Gospel-i. I» it IhU work, we wonder, which ted Prof. Jowelt to nganl the Neo- platooic intcrpreuUooa aa "Bl>aurdili«a"^ 12 THE SBCRRT DOCTRINK. iiuporlant iloclrines to prrsons duly instrucud anil disciplined, unpoUDK 0° Uietn the obliftations of secrcsy, as was done before him by Zoroaster and Pythagoras anil ill the Mysteries. Except a few treatises of bi» iltsctples we have only the declarationR of bis ad\'ersaries trom which to ascertain what he actually taught.* It is from the biassed statements of snch "adversaries," probably, that the learne<l Oxford translator of Plato's Dialogues came to the conclusion that: That which waa truly great and truly characteristic of him [Plato], hia effort to realise and connect abstractions, jvas not underilood by theni [the Neoplatooists] at all [?]. He states, contemptuously enough for the ancient methods of iutclleclu'tl analysis, that: In the prcKUt <Uy ... an ancient philosopher is to be interpreted from himself and by the con temporary history of thoughLt This is like saying that the ancient Greek canon of proportion (if ever found), and tlie Athena Promachus of Phidias, hax-e to be interpreted in the present day from the contemporary history of architecture and sculpture, from the Albert Hall and Memorial Monu- ment, and the hideous Madonnas in crinolines sprinkled over the fair face of Italy. Prof. Jowelt remarks that "mysticism is not criticism." No; but neither is criticism always fair and sound judgment. La critique est aia^ mnis Tart est difficile. And snch "an" our critic of the Neoplatonists — his Greek scholar- ship notwithstanding — lacks from a to z. Nor has he, ver>" evidently, the key to the true spirit of the Mysticism of Pythagoras and Plato, since he denies even in the Tinueui 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 Timmis or any other Dialogue. For him. The so-called mysticism of Plato is purely Greek, arisiag out of his imperfect « •0^.ai.,p. 7. • Of eil,m,%34. PLATO A FOIXOWBU OP PVTHAGORi 13 rledf^* and liigh aspirations, and if. the growUi of an age in which pbilosophy ia not wholly separated from poetry and mythology, t- 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 (6) that every mo<lem scholar, without being a Mystic and a Kabalist himself, can pretend to judge of ancient Esolericism — which we mean to combat. To do this we have to produce more authoritative statements than our own would be, and bring the e\'idence of other scholars as great as Dr. Jowelt, if not greater, socialists 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 Pytha- goras 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 bis wisdom, from the same sources as the Samiau Philosopher.* And the doctrines of Pj'thagoras are Oriental to the backbone, and even Brihmanical ; 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."§ Furthermore, the ideas of both Pythagoras and Plato coincide too well with the systems of India and with Zoroastrianisni to admit any doubt of their origin by anyone who has some acquaintance with these systems. Again : PantsenuR, AthenagornR, and Clenienl were thoroii>;li]y inslmcUd in the Platonic philosophy, and aympreheNded its esseuliiil unity with the Oriental systems, n The history of Pautaenus and his contemporaries may give the key to the Platonic, and at the same time Oriental, elements that predomi- nate so strikingly in the Gospels over the Jewish Scriptures. • "Impcrftct knowledge'" of what? Thai PiMo wm Ignontit of msnyof the modern "woiIeIiijc h]rpotbnn"-itftigiioratilM oiir tiiimedlftlv posterity is flur« to be of Ute aaiit hnxxbcsa wheo tbcy la their tunt after exploding join tlic "gr»t niajodty"— 1> perha[M a blcsbtng in (li.iBui»c. t Of. al.. p. sn- t /fisiairf Crili^ne di C-itiicitmr, ttjr H- J- Matter, PraA^KWr of the Roynt Academy of StraatHirg, "It is ia PythA«ora« aim] Plato that we find, In Uncoc, tbe 6m eteneBta of [Oriento]] GuoHllclsm," ke say*. (Vol. J, pp. 4A and jo > t Aiial. TVans.. i, ^79. n A'i>i» Fta^mttH tnd Alcketmy |i. a. SECTION I. ^RELmiNARY St^RVEY. Initiates who have acquired powers and transcendental knowledge can be traced back to the Fourth Koot Race from our own age. As the multiplicity of the subjects to be dealt with prohibits the introduc- tion of ^nch a historical chapter, which, howc\*cr 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 istrikes oat. at its o^K'n 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 his- torical personages, and terms her seven "Star-angels" the "historical channels and agents of the Creator." Both are right, since each &nds a strong party to side with it. Mankind is at best a sorrj* herd of Panurgian sheep, following blindly the leader that happens to suit it at the moment. Mankind — the majority at any rate — hates lo think for itself. It resents as an insult the humblest in\'itation to step for a moment outside the old well-beaten tracks, and, judging for itself, to enter into a new path in some fresli 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 ys and ys, will turn round, trying to rend to pieces the UDin\'ited disturber of its intellectual Nirv3na. This may, perhaps, account for the case and extraordinar>' 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 them- selves 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'* anil Magicians of the accursed race of Cain, are not to be heeded, our efforts will prove very puny indeed. When, for nearly two millenniums. THB PROTECTORS OP CHINA. "5 I I I I ~a~50cty 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 — ]iVhiU Magic, False silver coins could have no existence if there were no genuine stiver 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 per\'ert every fact with regard to abnormal powers with w}iich certain men arc 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 considcra* tion. once they swear in a body to certain facts. Nor is it because they choose to see Satauic agency in manifestations of a certain kind, that their evidence as to the existence of such powers can be dis- regarded. For what do they say of China ? Those missionaries who have lived in the country for 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 eveo' exoteric rite of both the ofHcial 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 waKin Tonkin, the archbishop in Pekin, on the report of some hundreds of missionaries and Christians, wrote to Rome the identical story that had been reported twenty-five years before, and had been widely circulated in clerical papers. They had fathomed, it was said, the myster>" of certain official deputations, sent at times of danger by the Kmperor 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 \v\\\\ the most miraculous powers. They are regarded as the protectors of China, by the " igno- rant" masses; as the incarnation of Satanic power by the good and " learned " missionaries. The Slieu and Kiuny «r« m«-ii belonging to another slate of being to Uitt of the ordinary man, or to tlje state they enjoyed while tliey were clad in their bodies. They are discutiodied spirits, ghosts ami Iar%*u;. living, nevertheless, in objective form oo earth, and dwelling in the faslneKsesof mountaina, inaccessible to all but those whom they pennit to visit thetii.* * Thia fact «iiil other* iiwy be found iu Cliiiiciw Minelou.iry Rrporta, and In a vrorit bjr Mcmwiini'ar Dcloplacv. a Bishop la China. Anmaiet dt la ftopagatio* 4* la Fiti. t6 THE SECKKT DOCTRINE. In Tibet certain ascetics are also called Lha, Spirits, by those with whom they do not choose to 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 tn their unknown retreats. But both Chinese exclusiveness and Nature seem to have allied themselve.4 against Riiropean curiosity and — as it is sincerely regarded in Tibet — desecration. Marco Polo, the famous traveller, was perhaps the European who ventured farthest into the interior of these countries. What was said of him in 1876 may now be repeated. The dlKtrict of the Gobi wUiIemeiw, and, in fact, ihe whole area of Independent Tartnry nnd Tibet is carefully guarded against foreign inlnisioit. Those who are pcnuUtctl loTravtfnie it are under tlie particular care and pilotage of certain agents of the chief authoritv, and are in duly bound to convey no intelligence respecting ptaci'S and peraond to the outside world. But for this rcslriction, many might contribute to these pages accounts of exploration. ad\'etiturc. and discovery that would be read with intcrrat. The time will come, sooner or later, when the dreadful sand of the desert will j-icid up its long-buhed secrets, and then there win indeed be uilooked-for mortifications for our modem vanity. '• The people of Paahai,"* says Marco Polo, the dartnR traveller of the thirteenth cenlnri'. *' nrr great adepts in sorceries and the diabolic arts." And hia leame<l tilitor adtU: "This Psschai, or IMyana, was thenati\-ecoudtn' of Padma Sambhhva, e-ne of the chief apostles of Lamaism, i>., of Tibetan Buddhism, and a great uiaatcr of enchantmenta. The doctrines of Sakya. aa they prevailed in Udyana M 9Ui iimfs, were prolwbly strongly tinged with Siva'ilic magic, and the Tibetans still refjanl the locality as the classic ground of sorcery and witchcraft." The " oUI times " are just tike the " moilem times " ; nothing is changed as to magical practices except that they ha\-e l>ccome still more esoteric and arcane, and that the caution of the adepts increases in proportion to the trai'eller's cnriodty. Iliourn-ThsAng says of the inhabitants: "The men , . . are fond of study, luit pursue it with no aiUour. THr siiemce of mcg^-al /ormmLr has become a trxwiar /w/rtlWittf/ ^mimtss witk th^tn." t We will not contradict the venerable Chinese pilgrim on this point, and are willing to admit that io ihc seventh century st^mt people made " a professional huunesa " of m«gic ; ao. also^ do sottu people now, but certainly not the true adepts. Moreo\'er. tn that ccntUT7>-, Buddhi»m had hardly penetrated into Tibet, and its races were steeped in the sorceries of the Rhon, --tb« pre>Umaic religion. It is not Htoucn-Tbsang. the pious. courageott!t man who riske«l his life a hundred times to have the bliss of perceiving Buddha's shadow in the cave of Pcshawur. who would have accused the good lamas and monLish tbanmHurgirta of "making a proCeaeiottal bofiness" of showing it to travellcn^ * TW Rftam tmme^KK. aboat C^tTvaa aad Kashair. as Uk traaaUtor and ednor tt Macco ftila dUaeb ca INBfai^ w atutila* JafciL THS A B C or VAOIC. ^7 I I The iDJunction of Gautama, contaiueil in bis answer to King Praseaajit. his pro- tector, who called on him to perform mirAclt^s, mu«t have be*n ever-pre«eiil lo the mind of Uioucn-Thsang. "Ureal king," aaid Gaatamo, " I do not teach the law lo niv pupils, telling them, 'Oo, ye saijita, and before the eyes of the BrAhm&n& and householders perform, br means of your snpematural powers, miracles j^eater than any man can perfnmi." I tell thrm when I teach them the law, ' Litc yc sainta, kidinx your f^ood uforks, and shotmng your sins.' " Struck with the accounts of ni.igical exhil>ition« witnessed and recorded by travellers of cvcr>* age who had visited Tnrtary and Tibet. Colonel Vule comes to the conclusion that the natives must have had "at their command the whole encyclopo^lia nf modern SpiritualLsts." Uuhalde mentions araoni; their sorceries the art of proilucing by their invocation!) the tigurea of I^nlKeu* and their divinities rn t^c air, and 0/ making a pencil wriU answers to questions without amybody tomhtHg it."f The former invocations pertain to the rehKious mysteries of their aanctuariea; if done otherwine, or for the sake o( gatH, they are considered iOrviTy, necromancy, and strictly forbidden. The latter art, that of makiuj; a pencil write without con- tact, was known and practised lit China and otlier countries before the Christian era. It is the A B C of magic in thoae countries. When Hiooen-Thsung desired to adore the shadow of Buddha, it vraa not to "professional magicians" that he resorted, but to the power of his own !ioul-iuvucutiun ; the power of prayer, faitli, and contemplation. All waa dark and dreary near the cavern In which the miracle was alleged to BOiDetimes take place. Uiouen-Tluaug entered and began his devotions. He made one hundred salutations, hut neither n&vr nor heard anything. Then, thinking himMrlftoo sinful, he cried bitterly and despairett. But as he was ahout to give up all hope, he perceived on the eastern wall a feeble light, but it dis- tppcared. He renewed his prayers, full of hope this time, and again he saw the light, which flashed and disapiJeared again. After this he iriade 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 lo wuil longer after this, for only after two humtred prayers was the dark cave suddenly " bathed in light, and the shadow of Buddha, of a brittianl white colour, rose niiijestically on the wnll. oa wJieti the clouds suddenly open, and all at once display the marvellous image of the ' Mountain of Light.' A daz/.ling sptendnur lighted up the features of the di\*ine countenance. Hioucn-Thsnng was lost in contemplation and wonder, and would not turn his eyes away from the sublime and incomparable objecL" Hiouen- Thsangaddsin bis own diarj', SeC'yH-kee, that it i.s only when m»n prays with stacere faith. &nd if he has received from at)ov'c a hidden impression, that he sees the »badow clearly, but he cannot enjoy the sight for any length of time. (Max Mtiller, Buddhi&t Pilgriins. ) From one end to the other the country is full of mystics, religious philosopher^ Buddhist saitils and magicians. Belief in a spiritual world, fnll of in\-isibl« beings who, on certain occasions, appear to mortals objectively, is universal. "According I,ac>.tse, theCblae*ephflo>o|ri)er. * The Maok a/ Ser Martm A/0, 1. jiR. 3 C THE SBCRKT DOCTIUJ<n£. lo the belief of the nations of Central Asia," rL-niarktt I. J, Scliiiiiilt, "the earth ii5 interior, as wcU as the encompassing atmoapbcre. are nUc<l with spiritaal l>ciiigs, which exercise on influence, partly beueficcnt, partly malignant, on the whole of organic and iaorganic natarv. . . . Especially arc dcacrts, and other wrild and uutahabited tracU. or rcKioos in which the influences of nature are displayed on ■ gigantic and terrilile scale, regarded as thechtef abode or reuder.-vousof evil apirits. And hence the steppes of Turan. an'l in particular the great sandy desert of Gobi. have been looked on as the dwelling place of inalignaat beings, from days of hoary antiqaity." The treasorcs cxbum«d by Dr. Schliettunn at Mycenae, bB\'e awakened popnlar cupidity, and the eyes of advcuturons speculators are being turned toward tlie localities where the wt-idth of ancient peoples is KuppoAed lo he buried, in crypt or cave, or beneath sand or alluvial deposit. Around no other locality, not even Peru, bang so mauy traditions as nround the Gobi Hef^ert. lit independent TBrtar>* this bowling waste of shiAiug sand was once, if report speaks correctly, the seat of one of the richest empires the world ever saw. Beneath thft surface is iaid to lie snch wealth in gold, jewels, statuary, amis utensils, and all that isdicatcs civilization, luxury, ami fine arts, an no existing (Capital of Christendom can show to>day. The Gobi sand moves regularly from cast 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 spelt. 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.* The above is purposely quoted from /sis Unveiled to refresh the reader's iiiemory. One of the cyclic periods has just been passed, and we may not have to wait to the end of Mah^ Kalpa to have revealed something of the history of the mysterious desert, in spite of the Bahtj, and even the Rakshasas of India, not less " hideous." No tales or fictions were given in our earlier volumes, their chaotic state not- withstanding, to wliich chaos the writer, entirely free from vanity, confesses publicly and with many apologies. It is now generally admitted that, from time immemorial, the distant East, India especially, was the land of knowledge and of ever>' 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, ever>' Science worthy of the name was imported by the Greeks, the mysterious Yavanas — agreeably with the decision of the Orientalists I Therefore, it is hot logical that even the knowledge of Occult Science should be refused I I I MAGIC AS 01J> AS KAH. '9 I I to ludia, since of its general practice in that country less is known than iu the case of any other ancient people. It is so, simply because : With the Hindus it was, nn.i is, more eiioteric, if possible, than it was cTcn among the Egyptian priests. So sacred wa.i it deemed that Us existence n-as only half admitted, and it was only practised in public emergencies. It urns rtiorr than a religuhu matta\Jor it urns [and it stiU^ considered dii'tiu. The Egyptian hiero- phant!), iiotwithfttanding the practice oi a stern and pure morality, could not be compared for one moment with the ascetical Gytnitosophist-s cither in holiness of life or miraculous power* developed in them by the supernatural abjuration of everything earthly. By tliosc who knew them well they were held in slill greater reverence than the magians of Chaldtta. "Denwng themselves the simplest comforts of life, they dwelt in woods, and ted the life of the most secluded hennita,"* while their Ej^j-ptian brothers at least congregated together. Notwithstanding the sltir throt^-n on all who practised magic and divination, history haa proc1aime<I ihem as possessing the greatest secrets in mc<Iical knowledge and unsurpassed filtill in its practice. Numerous are the vohimes prescrveil in Hindu Malbanis, in which are recorded the proofs of their learuin{>. To attempt to say whether these Oymnoaophists were the real founders of magic in India, or whether they only practised what had passed to them as an inheritance from the earliest Rishis-t — the seven primeval sages— would be regarded a« mere speculation by exact scholars.^ Nevertheless, this must be attempted. In Isis Unveiled, all that could be slated 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 arrange- ment. But bints may now grow into explanations. One can uever re- peat it too often — Magic is as old as man. It cannot any longer be called charlatanry 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 Europe and America, Magic is indissolubly blended with the Religion of everj' country- and is * Antmianujt Marc«1linn*, xxiii. 6. » Thp BUhis-tht flnrt gnn^ of srweti In tiiimber-liwd in dayi prrcrdlnjr the VwHc period. Thfy ID* now known tu aa«vii and held in rc«er«nee Hkc lirmiKod". Bui ilicy tuay noi«' be shown m Mimrthtng wore Ihau mrrrly mortal Phllo»«ph««- There ar* olh«r gronp* of ten. iwrlw nud *vti» twTBly-on* in number. Mauit "how* Itiat ihey occupy in Iht nrlhrnnniirnl r«llj[ian a p<»tHoii •OTwrrinit lo that of thr iwrtvc wemof Jnc-rt* iu the Jewish StbU. The BrihiaaaB dalai In dc»c«M! dincllx rroffi Ihr Rtahta. X t$h (MpHM. 1. 9B. SECRET DOCTRINK. inseparable from itsorigia. 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 it* it rejects the evidence of the oldest records in the world, and refuses from the hand of the legitimate Guardians of the m>*sieries of Nature the key to Universal Symbology. Whenever a writer has tried to connect the 6r5t foundation of Magic with a parti- cular country or some historical event or character, further research has shown his hj'pothesis to be groundless. There is a most lameut- able 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 re- peatedly in the Bible. But as it was proven that the mysterious rites of the priestesses Valas (Voilers) were greatly anterior to Odin's age*, then Zoroaster came in for an attempt, on the ground that he was the founder of Magian rites; but Aramianus Marcellinns. Pliny and Amo- bius, with other ancient Historians, have shown that Zoroaster was but a reformer of Magic as practised by the Chaldseaus and Egyptians, and not at all its founder, f 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 un- derstood ail they have said ? Only those who claim to be wiser than their generation, who think that they know all that the Ancients knew, and thus, knowing far more to-day. 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 empt?- of its King Initiate, to be a " coru-biu," and the Pyramid that contained it, a granar>', perhaps a wine-cellar t} ■ Sm Mflnlcr " On thv mntM Atidenl tutlglotu of the Iforth bcforr Odia." ACmo/ivj tU ta Sarift^ 4ei Amtiquairex ie Fr^mct, ii. ijo, t Amimanus ManrrUinui, xxvi. 6. t ■■The dBle of ihc himdrtd* of piTamiiU iti Oi* Vall*y of Ihf Nil* i» Joipauiibltr U* fia Ity ujr oflfafnikvof modem 'H.'ieiK.'v : Hrrv>i|dtut inronm u» tliatcach nHccciKiivc king erected on? lo corn- meitKinitf hw rri|tn. And xrrvc «s hit sfpuklite. But. Ucrodottu did aol tell all. allh^iiBh he knew IhAl the re*l pufiMMoT thepviaimd w;is itry dilTcrenl rrom that whii-h he aMipu to K. W«Mll MM ft»r his rcllgiou* •eropk*. lie ittiKliI ha« added that, externally, it .■.j-mlmliied the cmltve principle of Nature, and tlltutrated alau the principles oT ([coiiutry. uiithoniitic^ a>tr«too utd utr-jnomy. TUS TKEK OP KNOWUtDOE. 21 society, on the authority of some men of Science, calls Magic charlatan try. Bui there arc eight hundred millions on the face of the globe who believe in it to this day ; there are said to be tweuty millions of perfectly sane and often very iateUectual men and women, members of that same society, who believe in its phenomena under the name of Spiritualism. The whole ancient world, with its Scholars and Philo- sophers, 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 cr>'pts 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 CastiUa, a follower of Cortex, 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 pyramids are those of Egypt, built according to the .same secret canon of proportion as those of the Pharaohs, and the Aztecs appear to have derived their civilization aud religion in more than one way from the same source as the Eg>'ptians 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 snpematural, and that the Ancients so re- garded it, is shown by what Lucian says of the "laughing Philosopher." Democritus, who, he tells his readers, Relieveii in no [iiiir&cle*;] . . . but applied himself to discover Uie method by which the thcufKists could produce them; in a word, his philosophy brought him to the coDClusiou that magic was entirely confined to the application and the iaiitation of the lAwa and the norkfi of nature. iBtmiBny. fl ntM a mnje^c ba*. in whotr •wnTirr trcriKc^ wi-re prrfonw^ the Mynterie*, and whoae whUa had oTlm wiliiMsnl the loJtialion smmof luvnibcrs of the rojral raiuily. The porphjry Harco- ^1 vbafuK. whirh I^cTfrsor Piatzi Smyth. Astronomer Hoynl of Scotland, ilcffrulra Into ■ coni-bin, was ^M the tMptUiiia] rofit, ii(H<n nnrrgini: rrom wbich, the acophyte wub ' Umi ag&ln,' and became lUi ti THE SECRET DOCTRINE. * IVho then can sUU call the Magic Df the Ancients " superstition " ? Id this respect the optiiioii of Deniocrittis is of the greatest itnportance to ast since tbe M&){i l^f^ ^>' Xerxes, at Abdera. were lii» iuslructur:), and he bad studied magic, inOreo\'er. for a consiilerablc lime with the Hgj*pliaii priests." For nemrly ninety years of the one hundred ami nine of his life this great philosopher had made experiments, and noted them down in a book, which, accurdtng to Feliouius'* treated oj naturr—fajcls that he had verified himself. And vrc Bnd Iiini not only disbelieving in and otierly rejecting miracles, but asserting that evcrj- one of those that were sutheuticated by eye-wttnesiies, had. and could have taken place, for all. even the most imredibU. wrr* prothicetl accordiiig to thf "hidden faia of nature." t . , . Add to this that Greece, the "later cradle of the arts and sciences." and India, Cradle of religions, were, and one of them stilt is. devoted to its study and practice — and who shall \-entare to discredit its dignity as a study, and its pro- fundity OA a science? j No true Theosophist will ever do so. For. as a member of our great Oriental body, he knows indubitablj that the Secret Doctrine of the East contains the Alpha and the Omega of Uuiversal 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 dowu 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 tbe 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 vi\-idly 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 * Hoe. LftiM., In " DemocriL TH.' t Satyrie. ix. 3. t ninr. tfi'if. Ail/. I Itis Umvtilad, \. 311. OCCULTISM MUST WIK THK DAT. S3 I I I I with the name of imposture, nevertheless we see this done daily and accept it. For every occult truth has to pass through such denial and its supporters through martj-rdoui, before it is finally accepted : though even then it remains but too often — A crown Golden in thow, yet but a wT«atlt of tlionis. 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 natnral, 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 be!ie\-e that, since the first appear- ance 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 benevo- lent critics, who most readily promulgate the now famous axiom of Carlyle with regard to his countrj'men, of being " mostly fools," having taken preliminary' care to include themselves safely in the only fortu- nate 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 verj- 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-con- slrictor, 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, leaxnng 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 Europe, in other words — before the end of the twenty-first century '•A.D." Truly the soil of the long by-gone past ts 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 a^ TBE SECRET DOCTimCK. His, Bfce tkat bmdfbl of com, in the ssrcopliagiis of a mummy 4.000 jean old, which, wbcB plaotcd, sprouted, grew, end " gave a fine kMnrcst,** Why not ? Tnitb is stranger than fiction. It may any day, amd moM OBcxprctcdly, vindicate its wisdom and dcmcmsirate the con- cetc of oar sge, by proving that the Secret Brotherhood did noU indeed. die oat with the Philaletbians of the last Eclectic School, that the Gnoiw Aoariabes still on earth, and its votaries are many, albeit Bslniown. An this may be done by one, or more, of the great Masters visiting Earope, and exposing in their turn the alleged exposers and (radticers of Uagic. Such secret Brotherhoods hare been mentioned by ftcveral well-known authors, and are spoken of in Mackenzie's Roytti Masonic Cydopadia. The writer now. in the face of the millions who deny, repeats boldly, that which was said in his Unvtiled. If thty flhe Initiates] have been regarleil as mere fictions of the novelist, that fact bM only helped ihe "hrother-adeptii'* to keep iheir incognito the more tMlly. . . . The St. Oermaiiw and Cagliostros of this century, bsving learned trittcr Icssoo* froni the viltlicationt and pcrsccntions of the past, pursue different tactics now-a> •layi.* These prophetic words were written in 1S76, and verified in 1S86, Nevertheless, we say again, There arc nnnit*en of these mystic Brotherhoods which have naught to do with "civilized" conntric*; and ii i« in their unknown commuDities that are concealed the akeletona of the pAit. These "adepts" could, if they chose, lay claim to iriranKr anrrwtry, and exhibit verifiable docnments (hat would explain many a my^i-runm page in l>oth larred and profane hJBtorv.t Had the keys to the hieratic wrltniK* *nd thu Mcret of Hgyptiiiu and Hindu s^-mbolism been known to the Chriatian I'athen, Ihcy would not have allowed a single monument of old to stand nnmolllaiHl. ; But there exists in the world another class of adepts, belonging to a brolbcrhood a\no, 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 collec- tively, however, and as a body, a selfish, one-sided object, with relent- less vigour and dclermiuation, they have to be ranked with the adepts • O^ nl.. U. 403, ♦ ThU !■ |H«ciMty wb«l sonir of ihcm are ptvpariac to do, and many a " inyNtcnoiM page" in ncinl ndrl jinifont til«tofy mn toachnl on in Uw«e ftC^. Whether or art Uidr cxplaoatiotu wili be Mceplf^l -t« auoUicr tioMlton. BLACK MAGIC AT WOXK. as of the Black Art. These are oar modern Roman Catholic "fathers'* and clergy. Most of the hieratic writings and s\-mbols have been _^ deciphered by ihcm since the Middle Ages. A hundred times more H learned in secret Syrabology and the old Religions than our Orieula- ■ lists 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. Thtre are more profoundly leametl Knbalists in Rome and throughout Europe and America, than is generally 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 I the existence of what is called in vulgar parlance " Sorcery " and "Black Magic"! The Archaeologists have their Stonehenge in Eng- land with its thousands of secrets, and its twin-brother Karnac of Brittany, and yet there is not one of them who even suspect* what has been going on in its crypts, and its mysterious nooks and comers, for • the last centun'. More than that, they do not even know of the exis- tence of such " magic halls " in their Stouehenge, where curious scenes are taking place, whenever there is a new convert in view. Hundreds of experiments have bet-n. and are being made daily at the Salpelriere, and also by learned hypuotisers at their private houses. It is now proved that certain sensitives — both men and women — when com- manded in trance, by the practitioner, who operates on them, to do a certain thing — from drinking a gla-^s 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 con- scious of the peril; it resists, however helpless in its final efforts, while the hypnotized subject does not rebel, but seems to follow the sugges- tions and voice of his own free-will and soul. Who of our European men of Science, who believe in such xaen/i/ic experiments — and very I fl6 ITHS SBCKBT DOCTRUEB. few are they who still donbt them oow-a-days. and who do not teel convinced of thttir actual reality — who of them, it is asked, is ready to admit this as being Black Uagic? Yet it is the gemming, aadeniable and actual fasdnaticn and sorcery of old. The Mela Knnimbas of NUjciri do not proceed otherwise in their anoktemtnU when they seek to destroy an enemy, nor do the £>ag;pas of SikkJm and Bhutin know of any more potential agent than their wiU. Only in them that will does not proceed by jumps and starts, but acts with certainty : it docs not depend on the amount of receptivity or nervous impressibility of the "subject." Having chosen his victim and placed himself en rapffort vv'xXh htm. the Dugpa's "fluid" is sure to 6nd its way. for his will is immeasurably more strongly developed than the will of the ^ropean experimenter — the self-made, untutored, and ttnamseious 'BOrccrcr 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 consdout sorcerer, the ** Black Magician" of the East and West. iiAud now the question is openly and squarely asked : Why should not the fanatical and zealons priest, thirsting to convert some selected rich and influential member of society, use the same means to accom- plish bis end as the French Physician and experimenter uses in his case with his subject ? The conscience of the Roman C.itholic priest is most likely at peace. He works personally for no selti&h 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. 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 Romau Catholic priests which, under the pretext and cover of Modem Spiritualism and mediumship, hold scan«s for the purposes of conversion by suggestion, directly and at a distance — we answer: We know it. And when, more- over, we are told that whenever those priest- hypnotists are desirous of acquiring au 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 (:■/>.. cere- monial 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 BLACK MAGIC AND HYPNOTISM, 27 I I r fOISwer: Very likely. In fact we know the practice to be so. whether this kind of ceremonial Magic and envoitiemmt is practi.sed at Stone- faenge or elsewhere. We know it. we say, through personal experi- ence; and also because several of the writer's best and most loved friends have been unconsciously drawn into the Romish Church and tinder her "benign " protection by snch means. And, therefore, we can only laugh in pity at the ignorance and stubbornness of thoBe deluded men of Science and cultured experimentalists who. while believing in the power of Dr. Charcot and his disciples to "envoute" their subjects. 6nd nothing better than a scornful smile whenever Black Magic and its potency are mentioned before them. Eliphas Levi, the Abbe-Kabalisl. died before Science and the Faculte de Medecine of France had accepted h}-pnotism and infiucncc par suggtstion among its scientific experiments, but this is what he said twenty-five years ago, in his Dogme et Rituel de la HauU Magie, on "Les Knvoutements el les Sorts " : ThAt which ftorcerers and oecromanceni s>cm?ht above all things in their evocRtiom of tlie Spirit of Evil, has t)iul lungnelic poteiicy which is the lawful property of the inie Adept, and which they desired to obtain possession of for cril purposes. . . One of their chief nims was the power of spellsi or of dele- terious influences. . . . Tliat power may tie compared to real poisonings by a <iUfrt?Mt of astral light. They exalt their will by means of ceremonies to the itegree of rendering it venomous at a distance. . . . We have said in our "Dogma" what we thought of magic spella, and how this power was exceed- ingly real and dangerous. The true Magus throws a spell without ceremony and by his sole diwipproval, upon tliosc with whose conduct be is diioatisfied. and whom he thinks it necessary to punish ; • he casts a spell, even by his pardon, over those who do him iujtir^', and ihc enemies of luidates never long enjoy impunity for their wroug-doinK- \Vc have ourselves -^en proofs of this fatal law in numerous inslAUce^. The PTecntioners of martyn always perish mi-«T«bly; and the Adepts are the mortyrs of intelligence. Proridencc (Karma] seems to Ae^se those who deapt»e them, and puts to death those who wouM .seek to prevent them from living. The legeud of the Wandering Jew ia the popular poetr>' of this arc.inum. A people had sent a sage to cmcifixiou; 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 bidden "Move oil f move on '" finding neither rest nor prity.t ^ - h-prf • ThhislBCorwictlyCTprwsccl. The tnii- A(ln»l of the " Right H«Bd " never pimUh« wiyon*. not evni hii lilitcrrsl un<) iuo»l ilungrnMis curniy; he •iiuply leaves tlK lallcr tt> hU Knima, AuJ Kaniia aewr ruilc to do *o, •ooncr or later. t IV* <^'-> f>- 339> i4>i *4(i- aB THE SECRET DOCTKJNB. " Fables," and " superstitiou," will be the answer. Be it so. Before the lethal breath of selfishness and indifference every uncomfortable fact is transfomiL-d into meaningless fiction, and every branch of the once verdant Tree of Truth has become dried up and stripped of its primeval spiritual :>ignificance. Our modem Syniliologist is superla- tively 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 ever>'thing 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-Dniid 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 : aud its progeny, " magnetic influence," '' power of orator}'," "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 cougregations 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 aud 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 selfish- nes-s, their revengeful natures, their env>' 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 hjm, will react on those who wish him evil. Lies and calumny — the latter a teething lie, adding actual bites to empty harmless THE PHILOSOPHY STANOS ON ITS OWW WHRtTS. folaeboods — become his lot, and thus the well-wisher is soon torn to pieces, as a reward for his benevolent desire to enlighten. Enongh has been given, it is believed, to shew 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 thi.' whole ancient world, and the knowledge of it has survived in the East, in India espe- cially. And if there be such a Science, there must be naturally, some- where, professors of it, or Adepts. In any case it matters little whether the Guardians of the Sacred Lore are regarded as living, actually exist- ing 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 hitn to the Synedrion : " If this doctrine is false it will perish, and fall of itself; but if true, then— rV cannot be destroyed." SECTIOxN II. Modern Chiticism and the Ancients TiiH Secret Doctrine of the Aryan East is found repealed under Egyptian symbolism and pliraseolog>- in the Books of Herines. At. or near, the begianing 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.* 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 Royal Academy, was false, superstitious, foolish. Belief in the wisdom of the Ancients was 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 Mesraer and his absurd fluid, was tabooed all along the line. Thus all that had its genesis outside the learned aud dogmatic precincts of Oxford and Cambridge,! or the Academy of France, was ■ Bee, In Itiia cotmedtoT]. pHeumaUtogle iet Et^ritt, by Uir Marquis Ae MtrvHIc. who rterote* «ix cnormoiM volnmcii to ifaow Uie alr.iunlit)- oT IbOK who deny the mllty of SAUn snd Kofic. or the Ocealt Science*— the two tjcinc with him »ytion>inoM5. * W« think we Mc the sid«iTitl phuitom of th« old Philosopher and Myotic— once of Ctimbridge, X^niversity— Henry More, inovinir ahoiil In Ihc nfitral mint ovrr Ihe old mosn-covetwl roof* of It «ndcilt town Ui which be wrote Ms faiuou* Icitei toCtauvil about " wltchcfi." The" >oul " Kct rcatlcM «im1 indignant, m on ihat day of May, id-i. when the docior complained ao bitterly to t> author of SadJuctxmui TriumpkalMx of Scot, Adir and Webster. "Our new in«pir«d salaLa." •cul i* heard to mutter, "•worn advocates of Uie witchea . . . who ayainit all ku»c and rcMO^J , . . will have no Samnel bnt a conrederate knaw . . . lhe«e in-blown buToiina, puffnl up wilk . . . isnanuM, vmnity and itapid infidelity)" (Set "Ixtter toGUavti." and Jsit (fnveiltd. I. aoR, wA.) ALL HONOUR TO OKNUINB SCISNTISTS. 3« I denounced in those days as " unscientific," and " ridiculously absurd." This tendency has survived to the present day. Nothing can be further from the intention of any true Occultist — who stands possessed, by virtue of h?s 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 unsym- pathetically on the efforts that are being made in the area of physical enquir>-. 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 Ocean of Knowledge, is one of 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 fftnuini Scientists in regard to ail the phenomena of the physical plane of Nature. In dealing with this they are often caution and moderation itself. They obser\'e facts with a patience that cannot be surpassed. They are slow to cast these iuto theories, with a prudence that cannot be too highly commended. And, subject to the limitations under which they observe Nature, they arc beautifully accurate in the record of their obser\-ations. Moreover, it may be conceded further that modem Scientists are exceedingly careful not to affirm negations. They may say it is immensely improbable that any discovery will ever conBict with such ur such a theorj*. 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. 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 industr>' and thirst for truth are condemned to disappointment, and often to confusion. That which is to be deplored, however, in respect to Modem Science, is in itself an evil manifestation of the excessive caution which in its most favourable aspect protects Science from over-hasty conclusions : 32 THF 5BCRET DOCTRINB. namely, the tardiness of Scientists to recognise that other instniments of research may be applicable lo 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 energ>- is being misdirected while they turn it exclusively on the minutise 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 ever\' 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 &ei/.in(i acutely {finettUHt) Ihe true analogy of thlnRS. is quite iniperceptiblc.* Upon comparing, however, this statement with another opinion ex pressed by the same author, namely, that : The mind of the critic should yield to facts. Iiands and feet bound, to be dragged by Oietti wherever tbey may lead hiin,t one feels relieved. Ulien. moreover, these two philosopbical statements are strengthened by a third enunciation of the famous Academician, which declares that : Toiil parli prii h prion, doit etrt baiHi dg la sri^Hcr^ there remains little to fear. Uufortuuately M. Reaan is the first lo break this golden nile. 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 Thucy- dides, Polybius. and Plutarch, and even certain statements of Aristotle himself, are invariably laid aside whenever they are involved in what modem criticism is pleased to regard as a myth. It is some time since Strauss proclaimed that : • ilud^i Religitmifj. 1 Etidfi Hiitoriqtiei. t Mim^irt TtaA tx the AcadLinLe dM luscriplUms dn Br1l« I^ltrM, in iSg?. ■WSn.r IS A MYTH? 3i I I The pres«ncr of a sui>ernatural clement or miracle ia a narrattve to an infallible sign of tlie presrace in it of a myth : and such is the canon of criticiiini tacitly adopted by eveo' modern critic. But what is a myth — fi.o0ot — to be^n with ? Are we not toid distinctly by ancient writers that the word means tradition ? Was not the Latin term fabula, 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 eud 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 direc- tion. It hai^ already been ^stated bj' one learned speculator that Homer was simply "a mythical personification of the epopee"*; by another, that Hippocrates, sou 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 cit>' of Troy (Dr. Schlie- niann to the contrary) existed only on the maps," etc. Why should not the world be ioA-ited after this to regard every hitherto historical charac- ter 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. Forone who denies uncoTiditionatly, the trouble of arguing is unnecessary, and he also thus avoids what is worse, having to yield occa- sionally a point or two before the irrefutable arguments and facts of bis opponent. Creuzer, the greatest of all the modem 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 perplexitj' to admit thati* We are compelle:! to return to the theories of trolls aad genit. a« tliey were iitiderstood by the ancients; [it is a doctrine) without wliicli it becomes absolutely impossible to explain to oneself aavthing wtUi regard to the Mysteriest of the Ancients, which Mysteries are undeniable. * Sm Alfml Kauf> 's Hixtaire lUi Keligiain de la GrH<, 1. t^ : and ttK »pccuIsUoiU of Holzaann to ZtiUehrifl f-ir VfrjtleichfMJf Sfir^tk /itttckuHg. anR. 1851, p. ♦*;, *v- t Cieucr'* Iniwodiuiiim dit MjnUrti. iii. 4V). 3 » 34 THE SRCKET TlOCTRmK. Romau Catholics, who are guilty of precisely the same worship, and to the ver>' letter — having borrowed it from the later Chaldaeans, the Lebanon Nabathscans, and the baptized Sabeeans.* 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 Churchiauism would fain trouble the clear fountain that fed thera from the first, to pre%'ent 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 ICpicurcan. the c>Tiic and the Sadducee — they may find an answer to their denials in our earlier volumes. As to many nnjnst aspersions on the ancient doctrines, the reason for them is given in these words in /sis Unvciied : The thought of the pixscnt-day commentator and critic as to the nncifnt leorniog, is. limited to and runs round the t-voterism of the temples; his insight is ciUier unwilling or unable to penetrate into the solemn adyta of old. where the hicrophant instructed the neophyte to regard the pubHc worship in its true light. No ancient Kage would have tiiught that man is the king of creation, and ti'at tiie itarry heaven and our moUier earth were created for his sake-f When we find such works as /*Aa//«7iw t appearing in our day in print, it is easy to see that the day for 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 Lncifer,"§ daily exhumed on the sites of Babylonia, can no longer be used as clear evidence of a Satan-worship, since the same .symbol.s are shown in the ritual of the Latin Church. The latter is too k-arned to be ignorant of the fact that even the later Chaldseans. who had gra- dually 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 esoteric Theosophy became the heirloom of the Jews, who, in their turn, were forced to share it with the Christians. Pirsis are to this day charged with * The later Nabattueiuw adbfrrvd to the Mni« brltef u the Nanrcttcs aad the Sabmiis, hoaourd John the Baptint, and uted Bikptiim. iS«c /tu Lmtfthd, li. ij; ; Miuick, AUIufiMf. p. jij ; Dunlap. 5flrf. iMf Sen af Mam. rtci t By Uargrave Jeaoliifs. I Sn De MirvUle'tf fiiummaMofu, fii. abiHuf- I I I M CaAU>^AN ORACLBS. 35 Heliolatty, and yet in the Chaldaean Oracles, under the *' Magical and Philosophical Precepts of Zoroaster " one finds the following : I Direct not thy mind to the vast measures of the evth ; For the plant of truth It not upon ground. Nor measure the measures of the sun, collecting rales, For he is carried Ijy the eternal will of the Falher, not for your sake. DifimisG 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 tnie worship taught to those who showed themselves worthy, and the slate religions. The Magians are accused of all kinds of superstition, but this is what the same ICbaldxan Oracle says : The wide aerial flight of binis is not true, Nor the dissections of the entrails of victims ; they are all mere toys. Tlie basis of mercenary fraud ; flee from these If you would opeu the sacred paradise of piety, Where virtne, wiRJom, and equity are assembled. • As we say iu our former work : Surely it is not those who warn people against "mercenary fntud" who can be accused of tt ; iind if they accomplished acts which seem miraculous, who can wicK' fairness presume to deny that it was done merely because they possessed a know* ledge of natural philosophy aud psychological science to a degree unknown to our I schools ?t The above quoted stanzas are a rather strange teaching to come from those who are universally believed to have worshipped the sun, and moon, and the starr)' hosts, as Gods. The sublime profunditj* of the Magian precepts being beyoud the reach of modern materialistic thought, the Chaldean Philosophers are accused of Sabaeanism and Sun-worship, which was the religion only of the uneducated masses. :p-> ' ncUtu, 4: is Corr'i Attnemt Ftrngmena, ««$. i his Vnvtilei, i, sjj, s|6. SECTION III. The ORrom of Magic. Things of late have changed, true enough. The field of investiga- tion has widened ; old religions are a little better understood ; and since that miserable day when the Committee of the French Academy, headed by Benjamin Franklin, investigated Mesnier's phenomena only to proclaim them charlatanry and clever knavery, both heathen Philosophy and Mesmerism ha\'e 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 i^ as great between The opticit seeing, as the objects seen. All maanera take a tincture from our own. Or some diacolour'd through our pa&aioua shown. Or fancy's beaui enlarges, uiulliplies, Contracts, inverts, anil pves ten thousand dyes. Thus in the first decades of our cenlur>* Hermetic Philosophy was regarded by both Churchmen and mea of Science from two quite opposite points of \'iew. The former called it sinful and devilish ; the latter denied point-blank its authenticity, notwithstanding the eWdence brought forward by the most erudite men of ever>- age, including our own. The learned Father Kircher, for instance, was not even noticed ; and his assertion that all the fragment's known under titles of works by Mercury Trisraegistus. Berosus, Pherecydes of Syros. etc., were rolls that had escaped the fire which devoured loo.ooo volumes of the g^reat Alexandrian Library — was simply laughed at. Nevertheless the edu- cated classes of Europe knew then, as tliey do now, that the famous Alexandrian Library*, the '* mar\'el of the ages." was founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus ; that numbers of its MSS. had been carefully TBB BOOKS OF HBRKBS. 37 I I ■ I copied from hieratic texts and tlit; uldcst parchments, Cfaaldsean, Phoeni- cian, Persian, etc.; and that thesetransliteraiions and copies aniounted, in their turn, to another loo.ooo rolls, as Josephus and Strabo assert. There is also the additional evidence of Clemens AJexandrinus, that ought to be credited to some extent.* Clemens testified to the exist- ence of an additional 30.000 volumes of the Books of Thoth, placed m 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'* Pymauder, and the no less "false" Asclepias. have been found by Champollion in the most ancient monuments of Eg>'pt.t Ab said in fsis Unvdied : After liaviui^ devoted tlieir whole lives to the study of the reconU of the oM Eg.vpUan wisdom, both ChatnpoUion-Fig^ac and Chanip4>lliun Junior publicly declared. uolwitUstaiiding many biassetl jmlx"'*"^ hazarded by certain htutty aud uDwtM critics, that the Soaks of Hermes ''truly contain a mass of Egyptiau tradf- tioos which are constantly rorroborated by the most authentic records aud uionu> ments of Bgypt of the hoariest aulirLuity."t The merit of Champo!lion as an Egyptologist none will question, and if he declare that everylhitig demonstrates the accuracy of the writings of the mysterious Hermes Trismegistiis. aud if the assertion that their antiquity runs back into the night of time be corroborated by him in * Tlie foity-lwo Sacnrd Books of <)■« E(n'I>Uan0. mcutionn] ty CInacut of Alrxnndria a* haiHus exUced in hi^ lirae, wrrv but a ponlaii of Mx Books of llmBM. Inrnbllctiuit, on tbt authority of the Iveyptiaii pHrat Ati.-imuKMi, uUril'iutt^ Liooof ittich )KHiks lu llettnnt, and Maactho jti.ooo. But the tcitimony of [auibUctiti* lu a Ntruplatonist and Theiirglitt \% oT ccurftc TeJc<;t«I by raodeni criticB. Manrtho, who is held by Bnawti in the higbeKl cunsidcration as a "purely hUtorifsl personagr." with whom "iionir of (he- Inter native hiatorians can he conipared" (mc ^.gypie,\.<iTS, »nddeiily becomm a rBeudw-HnnMho, n.% Ro<m «s Ihe ideas proixmndnt by him clMh with the KcwDtific- prejuditXA airaliut >inf[ic and the Occult knowledge cltumnl by the andrfil prirstn. However, none of the ArrhrologlRts doubt Tor a moreent the aliDO«C Uicredlblc autii)uity of Uic Hermetic book». Chainpollion ahowa the greatrst rcsnnl for thdr authmtldty and trulhfVilnns, CofToboraied a* il in by many of the oldest mai)Uni«Dt». Aud Buitseu brinyB inefulnUc prooCt at Uielr aj(e. Froiu hi« rt^wirchw, for inttnin^, w» Icflrti thni Uipre wfl« a line of sixty-one kinp befoce the day* of Moccs, who preceded the Mgsaic pctioil by a dearly ■ tracrahle rirllfiatLon af wvernl ihoiM.inrt jvnrs. Thw« wr are warranted m believing thai tl>e work* of Ucniica Trlarocgiatua were extant many ages bcfttre the blrtli of Ihe Jewish law-ffi\-er. " Ktyli nnil inkMands wvre found on moDumeuls of the fotuth Dynasty, the oldest in Ihc world." says Bunacii. If the rmlnMit Egy]>tolo|^st rejectn Ihf ]MTtud of 48^3 yrars before Alexander, to which LiiogciKs I^rtlu* csrr^ bade tUC records of Ihe pneau, beiKCTidently nnre embarrsMctt with lh« ten IhouAand of a»lruno- Rucat obEtemliona, and remarkx that " If they were aclual obMTvatioDf. they mutt knw extended owr lo.ooo yean " (p. j^l. " We tearn, howrvrr " be nilil'.. " from one uf their own old chronological works . . . Ihat the j[en nine ItgyptJan traditions concerning the nythologlcal period tieal*^ of myriiuU of yeATs." \^KyfiU, i. 15; liii Vn\>eittit. i. jj.) * These details are taken from fti^amatologU. iii, p|>. to^, 103, I tsjipu, p. m: itit i/'MveiUd. i. its t«8 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. minutest details, then indeed crilicism ought to be fully satisfied. Says CbampoUiou : These iDicriptions are only the faithful echo and expression of the most andcnt Ten tics. Since these words were written, some of the " apocryphal *' verses by the " ra>*thical " Orpheus have also been found copied word for word, in hieroglyphics, in certain inscriptions of the Fourth Dynasty, addressed to various Deities. Finally, Creuzer dis- covered and immediately pointed out the very significant fact that numerous passages found in Homer and Hesiod were undeniably borrowed by the two gfreat poets from the Orphic Hymns, thus prov- ing the latter to be far older than the Iliad or the Odyssey. And so gradually the ancient claims come to be vindicated, and modem 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, arc now discovered and recognised in the most secret and sacred sanc- tuaries of Cbald.'ea, India. Phoenicia, Eg>'pt and Central A^. 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 rcjiowued Sages — what were they ? Treatises on Magic and Occultism, pure and simple ; the now derided and tabooed Theosophy — hence the ostracism. Were people, then, so simple aud credulous in the days of Pytha- goras 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 dark- ness of medixval fanaticism — so many othenvise 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 modem Philosophy. Every Art and Science, however, whatever its intrinsic merit, has had 'iu discoverer and practitioner, and subsequently its proficients to teach i WHAT tS THB OftlGTK OP ItAGIC > % it. What is the origin of the Occult Sciences, or Magic ? Who were its professors, and what is known of them, whctherin history or legend? Clemens Alexandrinus. one of the most intelligent and learned of the early Christian Fathers, answers this question in his Stromairis. That ex-pupil of the Neoplatonlc School argues : If there is instniclioii. you must seek for the master." And so he shows Cleanthes taught by Zeno, Theophrastus by Aris- totle, Metrodorus by Epicurus, Plato by Socrates, etc. And he adds that when he bad looked further back to Pythagoras. Pherccydes, 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 be (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 *diviue' and the 'falleu' 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 </ua/ aspect of Hermetic Philosophy, as cause and effect. Admit- ting the moral beauty of the virtues preached in every Occult work with which he was acquainted, Clemeus desires to know the cause of the apparent contradiction between the doctrine and the practice, good and e\al Magic, and he comes to the conclusion that Magic has two origins — divine and diabolical. He perceives its bifurcation into two channels, heuce his deduction and inference We perceive it too, without, however, necessarily designating such bifurcation diabolical, for we judge the "left-hand path" as it ' StrpM., Vt. vii. The TfiUowiBg paragraph in patapbrased from Utr same chapter. THB SECK£T DOCTRiNB. istiued from the bauds of its founder. Otberwise, Judging also by the effects of Clemens' own religion and the walk in life of certain of its professors, since tbe death of their Master, the Occultists would have a right lo come to somewhat the same conclusion a^ 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 tbe whippers and burners of witches in America, must liave had for their Master, the Devil, Bui Occultists, not believing ia the Devil, arc precluded from retaliating in this way. Clemens* testimony, however, is valuable in so far as it shows (i) 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 Stroma- teis to this research for the 6rst two " Masters" of the true and the false Philosophy respeclivelj', 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 Muses 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, ^^achus obtain- ing through his Occult powers a marvellous rain ; it is Aristaus causing the winds to blow; Empedocles quieting the gale, and forcing it to cease, etc.* The books of Mercurius Trismegistus most attracted his attention.f He is also warm in his praise of Hystaspes (or Gushiasp), of the Sibyl- line 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 owu. The ancient world had its Apollonii and its Pherecydx, and intellectual people could discriminate then, as they can now. \Vhilc no classical or pagan writer has ever found one word of blan;e for Apollonius of Tyaua. for instance, it is not so with regard to Pherecydes. Hesychius of Miletia. d-*- .,-1) * $vc Pkfmmafulirgre. Hi. tnj. Thcrrrorc Empedockft Is caJlcd KtiiXvOdttiioi, (he "dotniaator (rf Uiewfni)," .V(»»w.. VI III. * /Wrf., It. I FHERECVDBS OF SVRO& ♦« Pbilo of Byblos and Eusthathiiis charge the latter unstintingly with having built bis Philosophy aod Science on demoniacal iraditious — r.r., on Sorcery. Cicero declares that Pherecydes is, polius dt'vmus guam mediois, " rather a soothsayer than a physician," and Diogenes Laertius gives a vast number of stories relating to his predictions. One day Pherecjdes prophesies the shipwreck of a vessel hundreds of miles away from him ; another time he predicts the capture of the Lacedx- monians by the Arcadians; finally, he foresees his own wretched end.* Bearing in mind the objections that will be made to the teachings of the Esoteric Doctrine as herein propouuded, 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 aud 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 oue of the chief pillars of the faith. Baronius and Dc Mirville, for instance, find au unanswerable proof of Demoaology in the belief in the co-etemity of Matter with Spirit ! De Mirville writes that Pherecydes Postulates in principle the primordiaJity of Zeus or Kther, and tlicn, on the ume plan«, a principle, coelernal and conoliw, which he calU the flflh «tem«nt, or Ogetios.+ He then points out that the raeauing 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 r/snm/ oi Xhc views of the Latin Church — as given by authors of the same character as the Marquis de Mirville— amounts to this : that the Hermetic Book-?, their \visdora — fully admitted in Rome — notwith- standing, are "the heirloom left by Cain, the accursed, to mankind." It is " generally admitted," says that modern memorialist of Satan in History : That tintn«liatc1y after the Flood Ch&m atid his descendants had propagated anew tlie ancient teaching of the Caioitea and of the submerged lUce. X ' SmnmariaH fhitn fittutiattttagif, ill. H9. * iM.tit. I O^.c^-.w. 3icA. 42 TUB SECRGT DOCTKINR. 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 cvi<lenc« of Berosius makes Ham identical with the first Zoroaster, rouutier of Bactria, the first author of alt the magic arts of Babylonia, the Chemaenua or Cham,' the tn/amousf of the fuithful Noachians, finally the object of adorattoa for Eg>T)l. which having received its name xi7/«ui, whence chemistry, built in bis honour a town calle^l Choemnis, or the "city of fire."; Ham adored it. it is said, whence the name Cfiammaim given to the pyramids: which in thetr torn ha\x been vuljjariswl into our modem noun "chimney."^ 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 rA^wr, which is not Cham or Ham, but Khfm, the Egyptian phallic God of the Mysteries. But this is not all. De MirviUe is bent upon finding a satanic origin even for the now innocent Tarot. He goes on to say: As to the means for the propaj;ntioti of this evil Ma^c, tradition points it out, in certain runic characters traced on nietallio plates [or leaves, i/c! Iam(%\ which hare escaped destruction by the Delugc.|| This mif^ht have been regarded as legendary, had not subst^quent discoveries shown it far from being so. Plates were found covered with curious and utterly undecipherable characters, characters of un- deniable antiquity, to which the Chamites [Sorcerers, with the author] attribute the origin of their marrellous and terrible powers.^ The pious author mayj meanwhile, be lefl to hid own orthodox * The Rtiglish BtirakJng people who opell the name of Noah's dUmpectrnI son " Ham " have to be reoUniletl that Uic right »pe1liag U " tCham " or " Chnm." * Black Ua)cic, nr Sorvery, tR the rvii tr^ult oblsju'eil In any Ahape or wnjr through the practice of Oceult ArU ; hence k ha* lo be judttert only by its effects. The uame of iidlher Ham nor Cain, when pnmouncTtl, hftse^-crklllpd anj- one; whereas, tf we have to belW-e (hat wimcCIi-nKn» Alexandrlnu* who traces llte leACher of every Oi:cullLit, outiitile of Chriatianity, to the Devil, (he name of Jehovah I prooonni-ed Jev« and in a peciilliir way) had the etiect of WlHrtj a man at a distance. The uiysterious ScheinUam -phoraach wa-i ttirt alwnyo iwed for holy purpoon by the KahalMft. especially iiitce theSAbbath or Saturday, aicrcd to Saturn 01 tlieeei) SUaul, became— with the J«ws— sacred to "Jehovah." I Rhaemiih. the pie-historic dty, may or may not have been btitll hy N'onh'« *t>ii, but it was not bis luiDie that wax given lo the town, bnt that uf Ihe MyKtery r.odito^ Khonnnii or Khoerotii* (Creek fonn); the deity that was crented by the ardent fancy of the neophyte, xiho was thu«laittali«ed during his "twelve lahniim " of prohation berore hi); final inlliation. Her male couiiterpurl t) Kheni. The dly of Choeiuni* ot Kltemniis (to-day Akhmemi wns the chief seat of Ihe God Khem. Tlie Creeks identifying Khein with Pan, cnltcd this city '" ranopotU." ) PntHmat^iofit. lii. no. Thit looks more like pious veagennce than phlloloKy. The plctun. how. ever, aeenis incomplete, a» the author oaght to hare adilc<l to the " chimney " a witch flying out ofit on s broom«lck, H Jlow could they eacapc from the Deluge unless God ao willed it > Tliis is scaruely loiglcBL 1 t»c. cit., p. tio. CAIN. HATHBMATICAI* AND ANTHROPOMORPHIC. 45 beliefs. He, at any rate, seems quite sincere in his views. Neverthe- less, 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 its evolution. SECTION lY. The Secresy of Initiates. Tim 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 Ihc mists of the pre- Christian era, down through Pythagoras, Confucius. Buddha. Jesus, Apollonius of T}'aua. to Ammonius Saccas, no Teacher or Initiate has ever committed anything tu writing for public use. Each and all of them have invariably recommended silence and secresy on certaiu facts and deeds; from Confucius, who refused to explain publicly and satis- factorily what he meant by his "Great Extreme," or to give the key to the divination by " straws," down to Jesus, who charged bis disciples to tell no man that he was Christ • (Chrestos), the "man of sorrows" and trials, before his supreme and last Initiation, or that he had pro- duced a "miracle" of resurrection.f The Apostles had to preserve silence; so that the left hand should not know what the right band did; in plainer words, that the dangerous proficients in the Left Hand Science — the terrible enemies of the Right Hand AdepLs, especially before their supreme Initiation — should not pro6t by the publicity so as to harm both the healer and the patient. And if the above is main- tained 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 Einjjdom of C»od ; but unto tbctn that are without all these things are done in parables ; that seeing ihey may ace and not perceive; and hearing, they may hear and not understand: lest at my time tbey should be converted and their sina ahouhl tie forgiven them. | ■ 3i»Ukrv. xvL M. .V«r«,T.45. t JV«r4. It. it. \%. BXCTERIC AWh BSOTRRIC TRACHINCS. 4S Unless interpreted in the sense of the law of silence and Karma, Ihe utter selfishness and uncharitable spirit of this remark arc hut 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?* The work of propagating such truths in parables was left to the disciplejt 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. ^^Ticn Josephus declares that Abraham taught Mathematics he meant by it •• Magic." for in the Pythagorean code Mathematics mean Esoteric Science, or Gnosis. Professor Wilder remarks : Tbe BsMUM of Judxa and Canuel made similar distjnciions, di^'idiug their adherents into neophytes, bretlireu and the perfect. . . . Amtiioniu.t obligated his disciples by oath not to divnlj^ his higher doctrines, except to those who had been thoroughly instructed and exercised [prepared for initiation].t 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 huly unto the dot(& neilher cast ye your pearls before swine; lest they trample them under Uieir feet, and turn again and rend you.; Profoundly true and wise words. Many are those in our own age, and even among us, who ha%'e been forcibly reminded of them — often when too late.§ * Ift It a(N FvtdMit Ihnt the word*: "Iml nl any time Ihn' o^onlit ^ conwrted (ar:-"lril haplr Uiey BbouM turn affain "— a> la the rcrisctl vcrsloal simJ tticir siiu be forgiven Uicm"— da uot at jU nean lo imply that Je*us feared that thr(ni([l» repentance nay ounider, or " Iheni that are without," should v«cnppdninn«ltDti, a* the literal dead-leltec »«nw plainly ihows—ltul quite a different tbinjt t Namely, "lest any of the profane should by tindervlandlnfc hi* preaching. tindi!t^i*ed Sy parable. get hold of Motne of Uie Kevrrl tmchiuKK and ntyxleries of Iiiitialiitn -^ind even of Occull pawera .' ** Be converted " ia. tD other worda, lo obtain a knowledge bvloiiffiiis: cxcluaively to Che initiated ; "and their lin* be fortfren them," that \k. thetr ■int would fall upon the illtirat revralrT, nn ttaote •ho had helped Ihir unworthy lo reap ihen where thej' have tiever laboured lo fcow, and had glveti theni. tlierrby, the mearnt of cacapinji 04i this earth their dcaervcd tCarato, which tnuM ilius re-a«l ou tbe revealer. who, inntead of K^od, did hiiriii nnd failed. • A>» PtatoHitm 4tm.1 Alfhrmy, r«6q. pp. 7. 9- iv«. 6. I Hlctor; Is fViH of proofa of Ihe same. Kad not Anaxasforaa enudcJated tlte rt**! irath taufht In the MyaterSe^. vit., that the aun was nurely larger thau the Pclopooneaua. he would not ha^'e hepii tcnecuted and nearly put lo death by the fjttiitieal moS. Had that other rabble which waa raised 46 TBB SECSBT XKKTTKINS. Even Maimonides recommends silence with regard to the tnie ixie&&- ing of the BibU 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 Kaba- lists; it is certainly quite the reverse with regard to Christians. For this is what the learned Hebrew Philosopher says : WTiocvcr shall find out ihe inie sense of the Book of Gentsii oiight to take care not to divulge it This is a maxim that all our sages repeat to us, and atxyveall respecting the work of the ttix dityK. Ifa person should di.<tco\*er the true meaning of it by himseU^ or by the aid of another, then he ought to be silent, or if he speaks he might \v speak of it obscurely, in an enif^iatical manner, as I dQ m>-&elf, leaving thereat to be guessed by those who can understand mc. The Symbology and Esoterism of the Old Testament being thus con- fessed by one of the greatest Jewish Philosophers, it is only natural to find Christian Fathers making the same confession with regard to the Ncrv 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: The doctrines there taught contained in item the enJ of alt instruetttms tu th^ Sffre taken from Moses and the ptafihets, 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 Eg>'ptians, who borrowed them, in their turn, from the Chaldeans, 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 uadition is not published alone for him who perceives Uie ma^^ifi- ceuce of the word; it is requisite, therefore, to hide ia a Mystery the wifdon spoken, which the Sou of Gorl taught* KCalnst ryUiagoraa awJortood wkstdw mystertoM Sage of Cretow Meant t»riTVuiv<Mittaisi«ani* 1>T«»« vt having liMD ibe " Son oT Mercian ** — God of tbr Secnt Wudom— he woal4 not bavr ben forrcd to fly for hU life; nir would Socratn haw ttcm pot tod«Kt(i.hid he kept tec ret the rcvcUtiooa oT hi* dtrinv Itaimoa. He knew how UlQe hU cenlunr— -ssvr tboiir initUt«d ~w<juld uDdcrt>tand hi* tneaainc. bftd lit gitta out all be fcoew of ihr n»ocMi. Tttuii be limited hu sutement to mm aUexocT. wUclt ia now prPTca to baw beea iHOee •ciratlftc Uura was hitherto bcUceed. lie aiaia* laincd llMt tbe b>oc« wa> inhabited and that the Inoar liriHp li*<rU in pwfound. nut and dark ralteyc. ov istdlitr beintt affVu aad without may attnocphcre onliii^ such peofooad valley: thi>. dl&regaidias the te^rUitioci full of uMaaiag for the few oaly. tnuU be 90 uf neceniljr, if there la any attBO^bcre on <<ut bngfat Sekne at all. The facts ttcordcd is the secret aonal* oT the Myitefiea had to Tcmats veiled uada penalty of death. * ■ 5r>«aMifU, ail. ORIGHN ON "G«NKSIS." 47 Not less explicit is Origen with regard to the 3i6/€Aad its symbolical fables. He exclaims : If we hold to U)« l«Uer, and must understand what stands written in the Inw after the manner of the Jews and common people, then [ should liliisb to confess lUond that it is God who has given these laws: then the laws of men appear more excellent and reasonable.* And well he might have "bltished," the sincere and honest Father of early Christianity in its days of relative purity. But the Christian k 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 £den, 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 stnteraeiit that the jirst. secoad and third days in which the evening is named and the tHoming, were without sun, moon, and stars, and the first day without a heaven? What man is found Aocb an idiot as to suppose that God planted irt-cs in Parailisc, in ICden, like a husbandman, etc. ? I believe that cver>- man muat bold these things for images, under which a hidden sense lies coiicealeil ?t Yet millions of "such idiots" are found iu our ageof enlightenmem and not only in the third ceutur>'. When Paul's unequivocal statement in Gatatians, iv. 33-25. thai the story of Abraham and his two sons is all '" an allegoo." 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 Zokar. never im- parted 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 tlie 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. Among the venerable sect of the Tanaim, or ratlier the Tananim, the wise men, there were those who taught the secrets practically and initiated &ome disciple* into the ^and and final Mystery. But the Mhhna Hagiga. 2nd Section, »ay that the table of contents of the jWr/'j-a&i " must only be delivered to wise old ones." The Cemara is still more dogmatic. " The more important secrets of the Mysteries • 8cr Hamihet 7, In Lrvit.. quoted in the Samrts ttf Mnsiru, ^ i»f,- « Oricen: Rnet.. Oi-igeniana, i6j; Pranck, tax; quoted fnnn Duntap's 5IM p- 17^- 4$ THE SECRET DOCTRINB. wen: not even revealed to aJI priests. Alone the iailiatcs lia I them JivulKcd.** And so we fiml the same great setresy prevalent in every ancient religion." What says the Kabalah itself? lu great Rabbis actually threateu htm who accepts their sayings verbatim. We read ia the Zohar: Woe to the mnn who sees in (he Thocnh, i.e.. Law. only simple recitals and ordinarj- words ! Because if in truth it only containeil these, wc wonid even to<day be able to compose a Tlnrah much more worthy of admiration. For if we find only the simple worrU, wc would only have to address ourscli-ct to the Icgi-tlAtors of the earth, t to tliose in whom we mnst fre<iuently meet with the most grancleur. It woulit }>c sufficient to imitate them, and malce a Thorah after tlicir wonls and example. But it is not bo ; each word of the Thorah contains an clevate<l meaning aiida snhlinie mystery. . . . The recitals of tile Thorah arc Ihevestmcntsof the Thorah. Woe to him who takes this garment for the Thorah itjielf. . . . The simple take notice only of Uie garments or tecitaU of Uie Thorah, they know no otfatr thing, they see not that which is concealed under the vestment. The more inRlructed men du not pay atlcntiun to tlic vestment, but to the body which it envelops.; Ainmonius Saccas taught that the Secret Doctrine of the Wisdom- Religion was found complete in the Bmks 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 Thotli means a college or aAAemhIy. it ts dot altogether Improbable that the books were so named a& being the collected ontcles and doctrines of the sacerdotal fraternity of Memphi-s. Rabbi Wise has suggested the same hypothesis in reK^tion to the divine utteranceii recorded In the Hebrew Scriptures.} This is ven.* probable. Only the "di\*ine utterances" hare never been, so far, understood by the profane. Philo Judsus, anon-initiate, attempted to give their secret meaning and — failed. But Books of Thoth or Bibtt, Vedas or fCabahh^ all enjoin the same secrcsy as to certain mysteries of nature symbolised in them. "Woe be to him who divulges unfaw/nlly the words whispered into the ear of t itiM VmveU^, U. 350. * Th<r matcriAliMk "law-fivcr*." Ihc critics and SaWucrcs who h«\-e tried to te«r In -ihredf the dr>clrinr<k ami lcai;hinK!i of tlir (cn^al Asiiktic Marten, pAst am! |ifcT«iil- tio itcholKni in the iiuxl«rti Kiioe of the word— would do well to ponder orer thcne word*, No <loii)>l thm doclrinr* amX •ecret Uachiiiys hwt thtry bcru ttiveiilctl ami iriittvn In Dxrunl ami Cikmbrid)t« would tie ntorf liritliant OUt< ^ wardty Would Uiry equally ani-vrer to universal tniUis oiid fjcU, i» Ctic next qucrtioii howrver. 1 lii. fol, i5«b. quoted in Myciit {JaUialAh. \\. lai. J THB "DARK SAYINGS*' OP TITB "TESTAMBKTS." 49 Manushi by the First Initiator" Who that ** Initiator *' was is made plain in the Book of Enoch : Prom them [the Angels] I heard all thingii. and nnderstood what I saw: that which will not take place in this generation [Rocel bat tn a frtneration which i% to iccecd at a dtsUnt period [the 6th and 7th Races] 00 accooul or the elect [the Initiates].* Again, it is said with regard to the judgment of those who. when they have learned *' every secret of the aiigels," re^'cal them, that: They ha\*c djjscovered secrets, and they are those who have been judf^ ; Tint not tiion, my son [Noah] . . . thou art pure iiml gooil aod/rwr from tht* reproach of </isanvn')ijr[rcvemUii£] secrets.t But there are those in our century, who, hanng "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-Eg>'ptiau Mystery." As he says, there are "some <!trange features connected with the pro- mulgation and condition" of the Bible. Thow who compiled this Book were men as wc arc. They knew, saw, handled and realized, throagh the key mcMurc,! the taw of the livinR, cver-acli\'e Cod.( They needed no faith that He M-as, that He worked planited. and accompliahed, as a mighty mechanic and architccl.]| What was it. then, that reserv'edto them alone ,thiit knowledge, while first as men of God, and second as Apostles of Jesus the Chriit, they doled out a blinding ritual scmcc, and an empty teaching of faitli and no substance as proof, properly coming thruugh the exercise of just those tenses which the Deity has given all men a-s the essential means of obtatnitiK any right understanding? Myilny and parabtr, and dark saying, and cloaking; of the true meanings are the burden of the Testaments. Old and New. Take it that the ' Carrativea of the Btbtf were purposed iuventions to deceive the ignorant masses, even while enforcing a most perfect code of moral obligations: How is it possible to justify so great frauds ^ psrt of a Divine economy, when to tliat econoni>, the attribute of simple and perfect tnilhfulMcss must, iu the nature of things, be 4 Iriv. 10. : The kty ia Bhoim to be "in the ncKirce or nicnmirv^ orlfrlnnting the BrltUh inch waA the ancicni {-ulnl '' u thr aiithnr trlrn to pravr. 1 The word as a plural mifirht haw t>clt<r m>I«'«<I ihc mj-iitcrjr, Ood U net ■ preifml ; If hr were ivrf-attive Iw cmitd iiu lutigrr he an infttiitc Gwl- nor rrer-prcjicill in hi« liniitaUoo. 4 The auUioc U rvirtmily a Muon of the way of (hlaUns of e<tter»l Pifce. S» lonf M the Amcricau and Knglioli M i*ons will reject the " Crvalive Priticipk" ofthe " Grand Orient " of France rwill remain in the darlc. 3 " 9> THE SKCRET l>OCTRlNK. ascribed? What has, or what by possibility ought mystery to have, with the promulgation or the truths of God?* 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 np to tliem, and their ideals. They preser\'ed 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 materiality is also one of the "truths" and also one of the laws of " God." And as mankind progressed, and became with evcr>* 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 e%'ery kind of iniquity to enter into man's soul. Few were the men during the early adolescence of mankind, and fewer srill 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 lavi.shed freely only upon self Those few "elect" whose inner natures had remained unaffected by their outward physical growth, thus became in rime the sole guardians of the mysteries revealed, passing the know- ledge to those most fit to receive it, and keeping it inaccessible to others. Reject this explanation from the Secret Teachings, and tlie 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 cra\'ing for a "beyond " and cannot live without an ideal 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 mcUphysical, too subtle for bis 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 • Svirte <tf Mtaium, pp. 308, 309. TUB GREATEST CRIME EVER PERPETRATED. 5*, dream for a moment of a mankind without one tittle of Religion. 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," itcertainly 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 com- mitted 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 arras" of the worsKipper, 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 dis- astrous to the selves of other navigators who come from an opposite direction — il 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 ooi 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: OurprB}-<er« ahoulil be for blessings oa all, tu general, for the Gods know bat wbut Is good for us. But official prayer — in favour of a public calamity, or for the benefit of one individual irrespective of losses to thousands — is the most ignoble of crimes, besides being an impertinent conceit and a supersti- tion. 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 unpronounce- able name, and that led to all this "mystery, parables, dark sayings m 52 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. and cloaking." Moses liad. at any rate, initiated his seventy Elders into the hidden truths, and thus the writers of the Old Tesiammt stand to a degree justified. Those of the New Testamoil have failed to do even so much, or so little. They have disfigured the graud 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 th<j 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 time of Galileo* 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 and sin were synonymous with the early Christians. Hence the accusations of dealing with the Devil lavished on the Pagan Philosophers. But truth must out. The Occtiltists, referred to as "the followers of the accursed Cain," by such writers as De Mir^'ille, arc now in a posi- tion to reverse the tables. That which was bitherto known only to the ancient and modern Kabalists in Kurope and Asia, is now pub- lished and shown as being mathematically true. The author of the AV)' to ih( }IebrciV'EgYl>iian Afrsloy or ike Sunt cc o/ A f cam 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, respec- tively; in other words, that they are numerical indices of geometrical relations; and finally that Jehovah is Cain and vice vo'sd. This view, says the author, Hvlps also to take the horrid Mcinish ofT from the name of Cain, as a put-up job to destroy his cliaracter ; for even williout these showioys, hy llic* very text, ht [Cain] tvas Jehovah. So the theological scboola had belter be alii.-c to otaking the ' tn Jil* /^^Mfialoi^ie, in Voi. It., yp. laj-iii, the Unrqtii* de MirvHte rioiiiib Ote knowledge of th* Iteliocrolrir fiystrm-Mrllfr than OUiteo— tor Pope rrl«n VIII. 1%e auUi«r goes nirthcr. He trie* lo k}m>w thAt bmouH Poixr. nul a* the pcr^ecnlnr hat nt otic peracruttil by Kaltlcu, and catiitiiiitiitol hy the Horciiiiiic Astratioincr iiilo the barnniii. If k>. vt much tht wor*c for the Latin Charcli, !iiuc« Iwr roii«H, knovc-iiiKoflt. ■rtiU pmerved wtcacc upon I hi* tniMtJroportanlfiicl. «4thrr to Ktvcii jMhiia nr ihclr own iaftUlitnltty. thK cnii undrrKtHnit «tII that tiie £Mf hariug been to exstted over nit the other syiiit-tiK, nit<l It* nllejrcd inonothHsm dcprtiditig upon Ihc Ttilcuif prewrved , nothitis mnntncd of coutk but to ke>fp tj,uk'l over its »)-iutM>liUB, tints nllowiiiff hU iU Wuodcn tO be fiUbertd oa iU Cod. I J ASIATIC REUGIONSPROC1.A1M THEIR £S0TER1S1 -V. S3 lend honorable, if snch a thing u possible, lo the good name and fame of Ihe God ley worship.* This is not the first warning received by the " theological schools,** which, however, no doubt knewit 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: WTiile the present, and no doubt enforced silence of the Church on this subject relates merely to the external or theoretical form of the ^*^/r— 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 lisoterism and Symbolog>*. The grand central figure of the Gospels would have remained as unaffecled by the symbolism of the 0/d Testament being revealed, as would that of the Founder of Buddhism had the Br^hmanical writings of the PtirdnaSy that preceded his birth, all been shown lo be allegorical. Jesus of Kazarclh, moreover, would have gained more than he would have lost bad 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 sajnngs that veil the grand truths of Nature in the Vedas, the Brdhmanas, the Upanishads and especially in the L&malst 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 llie septenary principle. They are • Op, tit.. App. ■»«. p. 39*. The writer fee)* hnppy to find Ihi* feet now miQwmali- c«Il7 dctaonstiatcd. n'heu it wa? Hated in Iti* Unveiltd tltal Jetaovkh and Satura wrr* iii>e and the t>an>c wjllt Atlatu Kadaiou. Cain. Adam and Etc, Abd, Sctb, etc.. and Uiat all were con\-eTtible synkbuU in the Hrml Doclrine Imv Vol. ji. pp, 446, 44N. 464 et uvl: thai iher anowered. in nhort. to Kcret nuEnerals and ttood fbi iiiotr thaa one neaninc in the SibU as In other doctnuT*— the author's stBtcinmts miiaiued unuottced. Iiij h*d felled to appeal uudei a scientific romi, «nd by glrltie too roiKh, In fact, g&ve \vTy little to Miliary Uicetuitiircr. But new, irmslhematlca and (ceocnclnr. bedded the ci-idciice of the HtbU &aiH KAbaiah ■ good lor anytliitii;, the pulilii' mivil finil itM^lf tuttiMfied. So fnller, ciore Kcienlilically ki«vii proAf ran be found to Hxwt that Cain \t the tntRsfomtAtion of an Klobtm (the Sepbin Binali) into Jah' Veh (of Cotl-Ht-e) «ndrQK>nr, and thai Srih is the Jehovah loate, than in the combined discoveries of Scyflarth. Kmelil, etc., and tiiially in Mt. Rabtoa SkiDuer'fi most erudite work. The fufllier relatloiiii of these penonifications of the ISrat hunUB race*, in ttaelr gradual dcvclopmeiit. will be t>«efl laier 00 in the leal. M YHB SECRET DOCTRINK. as closely related to the mysteries of Physics and Physiology-, as to Psychism and the transcendental nature of cosmic elements and Theo- gony; tmriddled they would prove more than injurious to the unini- tiated ; delivered into the hands of the present generations in their actual state of physical and intellectual development, in the aTmence of spiritualitj' and even of practical morality, they would become abso- lutely disastrous. Nevertheless the secret teachings of the sanctuaries have not re- mained without witness; they have been made immortal iu 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 withotit 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 ever>' cosmic and psychic truth, to reveal unimpeded some of the grandest truths of Initiation. Wlience did Ariosto, in his Orlando Fnrioio, obtain his conception of that valley in 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 /«y^/w — anew Johannine Apocalypse, a true Occult Revelation in verse — his visit and communion with the Souls of the Seven Spheres? In poetry and satire eveo' Occult truth has been welcomed — none has been recognised as serious. The Comte de Gabalis is better known and appreciated than Porphyry and lam- blicbus. Plato's mysterious Atlantis is proclaimed a fiction, while Noah's Deluge is to this day on the brain of certain Archieologists, 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 Elementarj', 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 ia better prepared for truth. Clemens Alexandrinus was positively right in saying, " It is requisite to hide in a myster>' the wisdom spoken " — which the *' Sons of God" teach. That Wisdom, as will be seen, relates to all the primeval trutlis J TUB WISDOM-EEUGIOX. 55 delivered to the 6rst Races, the "Mind-bora," by the " Builders" of the Universe Themselves. There was in ever^- ancient country baviag claims to civiU&atioti. an Esoteric Doctrine, a system which wa* designated Wisdom,* and those who were devoted to its prosecntiou were first denominated sages, or wise men. . . . P>-thagoraa tenned this systctm ijyvWTK rwv ivrtov, the Gnosis or Knowledge of tilings that arc. Under the noble designation of Wisdou, the ancient teachers, the aagca of India, the magians of Persia and Babylon, the seers and prophetJ of Israel, the hierophmtU of Kg}*p' ao'l Arabia, and the philosophers of Greece and the West, includc^l all knowledge which they considered as esaentiany divine ; classifj-ing a part as esoteric anJ the remainder as exterior. The Rabbis called the exterior and secular series the Afercavah, aA being the body or Tchicle which contained the higher knowledge.f Later ou, we shall speak of the law of the silence imposed on Eastern chel&s. * The writing extant in ol<!«n titnn often penenified Wisdom u iin emanatisn and atsociate of the Ctraior. Thus wc hafc tlK Hindu Bad<lh«. the Babyloninn Ncho. th« Thoth of Meraphin, (he Iltrnirb or GtTvcf ; tiaa the Tmuk dit-iiiltkn. Ne^hu, Mctj*. Athena, aud ttie GuoKtic potency Achamoth or Sophia. The Samariiati PrnlaleM(h dcnoninatnl Ihc Root of Getusit, AVaniouth, or Wi«lom. ud two rrmnnnts of old treatises, the Wudom of Sotomom aud tiK lyudtm 9t fftni, relate lo Ihe hutne ni.iltrrs. The Boot of MaiJialim—ihx Zhicairtn or Ptatfrit ol SoloaoB— thus perHnlflet WUdoai a« ihC auKlUiirr of Ihc Creator. In tbe StKni WlMlotn of tlM Ba*t that auxiliary ii rounil colleL-livrly tti the ti[»t enanattonit ofPTimevaJ Uffht. Lbe Seiren Obyinl- rtt-^"^' wbo have been shown to be Ldeutical with the " Seven Spirits of the Presence " o^ tbe RoQun Catholic*. * Wnc Plalonnm ttmd AltM^mji, p. & SECTION V. Some Reasons for Secresy. Tub fact that the Occult Sciences have been withheld from the world at larji^e, aud deiiicdby the luiliates to Humanity, has often been made matter of complaint. It has been alleged that the Guardians of the Secret I^ore 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 llie policy of every Hicrophant 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 rotatory motion of the stars around it. while be was declaring to his prix-ileged 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 was given in Isis Unvcikd. It may now be repeated. From the very day when tht first myslic. UuRht by the first Instructor of the "diviDc Dynasties " of Uic early race;:, was taught the iiieatift of communication between this world and Uic worlds of the invisible host, between the sphere of matter and that of pure spirit, he concluded that to abandon thia mysteriouA science tothc dcsccralion, wiJUnj^ or unwilling, of the profane rabble— was to lose iu An abuse of it might lead nianlcind to speedy destruction ; it was like surrounding a group of children witli cxpIosi%'c substances, and furnishing them with match* The fint di%-ine Inatroctor initiated but a select few, and these kept silence with tbi multitudes. They recognised tluir "God " and each Adept fell the great "Ssi.f" within himself. The Atman, the Self, the mighty L,ord and Protector, once that man knew him as the '■! am," the "Ego Sum," the "Aami.*' showed bis full power to him who could recognije the "still small voice." From the da>-8 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 sanc- tnary of his heart the grand and mystcrioDs truth. If initiated, he learnt it as « THE K8V OP PRACTICAL THEUHGV. ^ sacral science : if otherwise, then, like Socrates, repeating to hitOM-ir as well as hi*; rellow-men. the noble iDJUDCtion, "O man, know thyself," he sucoeeded in recog- nising his God within him»eir. " Ye are Gods," the king-psalmist tcIU us, und we find Jesus reminding the scribes that this expression was addressed to other mortal men, claiming fort)ieiii.<«1ves the same pri\-ilege without an> blasphcra)'. And a« a faithful echo. Paul, while asserting that we are all "the temple of the Ituog Goil," caittiouKly remarked elsewhere that after all these things arc oul)* for the " wise," and it is "unlawful " to speak of them.' Some of the reasons for this secresy may here be g^ivcn. 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 Neoplatonists "Theophania.." In its generally-accepted meaning thiis is "cotnmunication between the Gods (or God) and those initiated mortals who arc spiritually fit to enjoy such an intercourse." Esolerically, however, it signifies more than this. For it is not only the presence of a God, but au actual — howheit tempK)rary — 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 CH'er-soul of the human being (Atma-Buddhi), only overshadows the individual during bis 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 myster}-. it incarnates itself in the Theurgist for purposes of revelation. When the incarna- tion is temporar>', during those mysterious trances or "ecstasy," which Plotinus defined as The liberation of the mind firom itit finite conscionsness, becoming one and identified mtb the Infinite, v 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. "t In exceptional cases, however, the mystery becomes complete: the * >■• 3'7. JiS- Mauy vcitMl Rltention* from the origrinal text of tiU tfa^iltd VKXt tiuulelv H-P- B. ia ll« quotations Ihcrrrniiti. »>nA lhr.-Bc are fiillowird thruugtioul. * Proclo* riBtm* lo have experimced (hit ^pblime cotaay nix limrs diiritig hU mjfutic life; IVirphyry asM-rlsthat ApoltoniitnofTyaiiM wa* thiu uniteil Tottr times to his deity— a flUtemcnt which we Ijclkre lo be a mUtnlcr. since ApollonhiK wu a NirmlOBlclya (divlttc in c&m all on— not Avat&ra}— (ind he (PDrphyry) only one*, when over sisly years of age. Theophany lor ihr actual appenTance of a Ood to mant, Theopathy {or " s»slmllatlou of dirfne nature "l, aad Thcopfleuflly flospiratioa, or ralber the mymeTioui poiver to hear orally the teaiUiiitKi of n CoA) hB^■c nevw hc^a rijEhtly uader- ■tood. '«8 THE SltCRKT DOCTRrNK. I 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, course, not his seventh Principle alone, as per se and in essence that merely a beam of the infinite Ocean of Light. In conjunction with otu Divine Soul, the Buddhi, it cannot be called a Duad, as it othe might, since, though formed from AtmSi and Buddhi (the two highi Principles), the former is no entity but an emanation from the Absolu' and indivisible in reality from IL The personal God is not the Mon but indeed the prototype of the latter, what for want of a better term we call the mani/esied KdranStmS* (Causal Soul), one of the "seven" a chief reservoirs of the human Monads or Egos. The latter are gradu formed and strengthened during their incarnation-cycle by const additions of individuality from the personalities in which incarna that androg>'nous. half-spiritual, half- terrestrial principle, partaking of both heaven and earth, called by the V'ed&ntins Jiva and VijAinama; Koslin. and by the Occultists the Manas (mind); that, in short, whi uniting itself partially with the Mouad, incarnates in each new birt In perfect unity with its (seventh) Principle, the Spirit unalloyed, it the diWne Higher Self, as ever>* student of Theosophy knows. Aft» every new incarnation Buddhi-Manas culls, so to say, the aroma of flower called personality, the purely earthly residue of which 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 Philosophers, Sages, and Adepts of antiquity who can ever be char with idolatrj'. It is they in fact, who, recognising divine unity, we the only ones, owing to their iuitiation into the mysteries of Esotehcism, to understand correctly the vwovwx. (h>'ponea), or under-meaning of tbfl anthropomorphism of the so-called Angels. Gods, and spiritual Beings of every kind. Each, worshipping the one Divine Essence that pet vades the whole world of Nature, reverenced, but never worshipps 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 appealed.! ■ Ui«MS)MrtnbUK'*c«iiaAl"bodr »>id to ■oqicHmm mM to be tbe " pcnoul God." t TU« wmU te la mm muc aeirtiorship, THE LADDBR OP BSIKG. 59 I I Th« holy Triad emsuates rrom the One, >nd U the TetralEt>'^ : the ^ods, dnimons, and souls arc an emnnstioti of the- Triiid. Heroes and men repeal the hierarchy lo 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, there- fore! 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 '•in6dels and atheists," spoken of by Epicurus, for he fastens on that God " the opinions of the multitude"— an anthropomorphiscn of the grossest kind.* 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 iiving- " Principles." the Priraao' Seven Lights mani/esfed from Light unmant/i*s/ai— ■which to us is Darkness. They are the Seven — cxoterically four — Kumiras or *' Mind -Bom Sons" of Brahma. And it is they again, the Dhyfin 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 thaw 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 stand- point 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 ever}' 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 theduration of thecycle of births; only it is by the spiritual and intellectual Principle in him, entirely distinct from the lower se//, never through the earthly personality. Some of these are even liable to break the union altogether, in case of absence in the moral iudi^'idual of binding, vh., of spiritual ties. Truly, as Paracelsus puts it in his quaint, tortured * "TbeC6d> eclat." said Gplninis. " but thry tn not what the Mm ^l»i [Ui« muttitudrl >uppo«r tkrai to be. He is not un infiileL or alhdit wha dmim tltr nriitr-oce of C.aA% whom Uic tnulUtudc worship, but he is such who fA«t«nH on the GoiIa Uie opiniotu or tbe ntulUtuile.", ^ TUE SRCRST DOCTRINB. phraseology, man with his three (couipound) Spirits is suspended tike a fcetus by all three to the matrix or the Macrocosm ; the thread which holds him united being the "Thread-Soul," Sutr3tma. and Taijasa (the "Shining") of the Vedantius. And it is through this spiritual and intellectual Principle in man, through Taijasa — >the Shining. " because it has the luminous internal organ as its associate" — that man is thus united to his heavenly prototype, never through bis lower inner self or Astral Body, for which there remains in most cases nothing but to fade out. 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 \is duration. This lasts from a few seconds — a flash — to several hours, during which time the Theurgist or Tlieo- phanist is that overshadowing "God" himself; hence he becomes endowed for the lime being with relative omniscience and omnipotence. With such perfect (divine) Adepts as Buddha* and others such a hypostatical slate of avataric condition may last during the whole life; whereas in the case of full Initiates, who have uot yet reached the perfect state of Jivanmukta.f Theopneusty, when in full sway, results for the high Adept in a full recollection of everything seen, heard, or sensed. TaiJHsa has fruition of the superseasiblct For one less perfect it will end only in a partial, indistinct remem- brance ; while the beginner has to face iu 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- h>'pn otic 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 comprehensiou of terms used in this work. There are so many and such various condition.^ and states that even a Seer is liable to confound one with the other. ■ Btolcrtc. BS cxotnfe, Buddhim Tv}ecU Uie theory UmI CBaUna *nis an fnnntaUon or ^nlira orvUliBu, but teactwa lh« <toctriue ai henin vitplaiD^tl. Bv«ry tonti haa in tiim the material*. If noi ihc roiKtillOfi*. for ihr^iphmilc intrrcotira; ami ThroprnuWy, the ia'-pirlng " Cod " brtoK, how- ever, lu rvcry ca^c, bts own Hlgbei ScU, or divine tiroioty|ic. t One ralJTvty hiuI atnolulely purifinl. aiid having nolhinif In cotitmoa wlUi ewtta WC^it U* 1 UAndAkyofanuhad. a. THXSE WAYS OPEW TO THE ADEPT To repeat : the Greek, rarely-used word, ■• Theophania," raeaut more with the Neoplatonisls than it does with the modem maker of diction- aries. The compound word, "Theophania" (from "theos," "God," and "phainomai," "to appear"), does not simply mean "a manifesta- tion of God to man by actual 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 divint 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,"* or tliat 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 apparilional or astral body becomes as solid and tangible as was the late body, and is transformed into the real man.f The old physical body, falling off like the cast-off serpent's skiu, 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 Ak^shic shell that screens it. In the latter case there are three ways open to the Adept : (i.) He may remain in the earth's sphere (Vdjii or K&ma-loka), iu that ethereal locality concealed from human sight save during flashes of clairvoyance. In this case his astral body, owing to its great purity and 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 entirety into, and get united with, his Monad. By doing so, however, he would (a) deprive his Higher Self of posthumous Samudhi — a bliss which is not real Nir\'ana — the astral, however pure, being too earthly for such state: and (A) he would thereby open himself to Karmic law; the action being, in fact, the outcome of personal selfishness— <if reaping the fruits produced by and for oneself— alone. (3.) The Adept has the option of renouncing conscious Nirvana and • Attt.^i. It) r Raised VeniDti; t Acv Ite explatuiUmiB fftym on Ibc «ubJMl lu "The KUxir of L.ifr," tiyC. M (fiotu 4 Ctwl4% «3 THB SBCRBT DOCTRINB. rest, to work on eartb for the good of inaakind. This be can do in a two-fold way : either, as above said, by consolidating his astral body into physical appearance, he can rciissaroe the self-same personality ; or be can avail himself of an entirely new physical body, whether that of a newly-born infant or — asSbankaracharya 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 iucompreheusibte, or to the generality simply absurd. Such is the doctrine taught, every- one having the choice of either falhomiug it still deeper, or of leaving it unnoticed. The above is simply a small portion of what might have been given iu his Unvdled, had the time come then, as it has now. One can- not 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 witJi 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 quotatiou on p. 56 relates, moreover, only to psychic or spiritual Magic. The practical teachiugs of OccuU Science are entirely difierent, 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 ccstacy is reached by an inward command and control of Self over the phj-sical Ego; as to obtaining mastery over the forces of Nature, this requires a long training, or the capacity of one bom a " natural Magician." Meanwhile, those who posse.ss neither of the requisite qualifications are strongly advised to limit themselves to purely spiritual developmeut. But even tliis is diffi- cult, as the first necessary qualification is an unshakable belief in one's own powers and the Deity within one.self ; 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 Esoterisiu, 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. I^*ke an under- GOD. fiij coirent, rapid and clear, il runs without mixing its crystalline purity with the muddy and troubled waters of dogmatism, an enforced an tbropom Orphic Deity and religious iutolerance. We find this idea in the tortured and barbarous phraseology of the Codex Nazaretus, and iu the superb Neoplatouic language of the Fourth Gospel of the later Religion, in the oldest Veda and iu the Avata, in the AbhidAanna^ in Kapila's Sdnkhya, and the Bhagavad Giid. We cannot attain Adeptship and NirvSna, Bliss and the " Kingdom of Heaven," unless we link our- selves iudissolubly with our Rex Lux, the Ix>rd of Splendour and of Light, our immortal God within us. " Aham eva param Brabmau"-7> " I am verily the Supreme Brahman" — has ever been the one living truth iu the heart and mind of the Adepts, and it is Ibis which helps the Mystic to become one. One must first of all recognise one's own immortal Principle, and then only can one conquer, or take the King- dom of Heaven by violence. Only tliis 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 bis "Father" is the Sou on a still higlier plane — do anything without liic assistance of the 6rst, the " Father." But to succeed oue has to identify oneself with one's divine Parent. Tbe first otooisof Uii: earth, earthy; the seconi] [inner, our higher] man it the Lord from heaven Behold, I show you a my&tery.' Thus says Paul, mentioning but the dual and trinitariau man for the better comprehension of the non-initiated. But this is uol all, for the Delphic injunction has to be fulfilled: man must know himself iu 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 nf the Oracle. This is the doctrine of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas pure and simple. Such is also the mystical sense of what was said by Paul to tbe Corinthians about their being tbe " temple of God," for this meant Esoterically : Vc are the temple of [the. or yourj God, and tbe Spirit of {■, or your} God dwelteth in yoa.t ■ I. Cm., rv. 47,50. * t. £>r., ill. 16. Itoft Ike fcadcT cvn- tnediljited npcm th« turgmllre word*, oftm prooousced bj JcaiM and hi« ApoMln / " Be ye lh««fore perffcl u roni Paihet . . U perfctl " 'MaM., v. ^Bj, says llwOnral Miurtcr. The words «rr, " lupt-rrKt uyuur Father whkh it) in hrawcn." bdnE Interpreted M niraiiing God. Now Ih« utter abturdity af tiny mail becoming aa pcifect as the infinite, all-petfrct nnaUcieiit and omnipTncm Deity. Is too apparent. If yon accept it Is such a kusc, Jc«ur u tnade 64 ritfi si{c%KV DocYftmna. This cain'es precisely the same meaning as the " I am venly Brahman" of the Vedtntin. Nor is the latter assertion more blasphe- mous than the Pauline — if there were any blasphemy in either, which is denied. Only the Vedantln. who never refers to his body as being himself, or even a part of himself, or aught else but an ilhisory form for others to sec him in, constructs his assertion more openly and sincerely than was done by Paul. The Delphic command "Know thyself* was perfectly comprehen- sible to every nation of old. So it is now, save to the Christians, since, with the exception of the Miis-sulmans, it is part and parcel of every Eastern religion, including the Kabalistically instructed Je\vs. To understand its full meaning, however, necessitates, first of all, belief in Reincarnation and all its my-stcries : not as laid down in the doctrine of the French Reincam alienists 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 manyare there among Europeans who arecapable of develop- ing 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 — ever>' one of which qualifications has a direct influence on every human life — that all this is simply due to blind bastard, 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 oppro- brium that is thrown upon their God, once the gjrand and most equit- able law of the manifold re-births of man upon this earth is foolishly rejected. Men and women anxious to be regarded as Christians, oftea lo uller Uie srcntMl TnlUo'- Whnl wo» I-Uoltrically rncaul is. "Your halhcr who is abo<rc tlic niatrnalond u*Cial mnii, llwHighml l^iiiciple Ua^-c the Maiudl vrittiiii inan, his own prraoaal Cod, oc Ulv God of his own pmannllty. of wbom he i» the' 'pri*ott' Kod Ihc Uiuplc. If thou wilt he |)CTfect U^.. Ml Adept ami luitlaU] go and mII that thou hafit " {Mall., xix. ii). Every man who dniml to become « ncuphyte, a cbcU. Uicn. «» bow, bad to taltc Uie vow of powrty. The ' Perrc^l." wnn thr lumr givm la Khe Initiates of vvrry denomviialiun. Plato calU thctn by that tcnn. The EcMocs had Ibcir " l'err«ct," aitO i'aul plainly Matca thai Uicy, tltc liiiliatm, can obIj BpCuk befute other Adt-pls. " Wc xpi^alc wt-«li>m titnan:^ thein [only] that are perfect *'(!, Cjr. i(. ft.) JBSU» TAUGHT REINCARNATION. » truly and sincerely tr>'uig to lead a Christ-like life, have never paused to reflect over the words of their own Si^lr. " Art tliou Elias?" the Jewish priests and Lcvites asked the Baptist.* Their Saviour taught His disciples this grand truth of the Hsotehc 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; V Except a man be bora agalnf he cannot see the Kingdom of God," answers : " How can a man be boru when he is old ?*' and is forthwith reproved by the remark: "Art thou a master in I.srael 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 (i) of the re-birth from flesh i 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 fle-sh is now regarded a.s an absurdity even by the intelligent clergy ; They who sLbII be nccounlwl worthy lo oblaiii that world (.Ninaoajf . . . neither marry • • • neither can they die any more, which shows that they had already died, and more than once. And again : Now that the dead are raised even Moses shewe<l ... he calletli the Lord the God of Abmhaiii, unit the God of Isaac, ami the God of Jacob, for be is not a God of the dead but of the living.K 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 „ . :™i: u.^- I i-i f' • iln-.ft! • Jaku, i. ti. ■»JokM.ui, '* Born " fhm atKn-«. MS., from hiii Monad or dinne Uco, the wmilli Principle, whicli mnnitw liTI th« end at the Kalpa. the nucleiw nf, aiiH nt the xntiie liini- thp ovtr^hnduwing Prlnctiilc, a* tbe lUranitnii tCauialSout) of th« pcrsoualitylo every rvMrtti. In this aeitifc. the Kntencc "bora ttuevr" uieana "ilcAcnidtt rrotn ahove." the Uat two oronl* huvinK "o rrfcrcncv to beavm or spnce, neither of whicli can br limited or located, rtnec ooe is a ittatc and the other inSoUe, hence having ■O cartlinal potnU. (See y*W TritamfUt. Rfiriifd I'triian, toe. Cit.) J ThI* can have no rHcirucc to Christian Bapliwn. since there woa none in the day^ of Nicodcotiia and he could not Iherefore know anything uf it, even thaiijjh n " Mmiter." I ThU word, traaclated In the .Vtu> Tfflammi •■ world " to suit ihe offlclat iulerprrtation. mean* talher aji "age" lati shown in tlir A'n^i^tf J-Wij-u'tj of one af Uie^tcrtudn iluriii); Uie Hanvantara, « Katpn. or iCon. B»otericaUy the ^ciurnce would rcail' "Itewhoihalt reach, through a aertes of birtlis an*I KAmk law, that btatein which HuRuiuity»hdl1 find Uitctfunmhe Seventh Koundoad the Seventh RACe.wtm COOlO Nirv&aa. MoluiHa, and when nuin bccotucs 'eqiuil unto the Angela' or Ohyjn Chohan>t, is a 'sonofthe reaunxction ' and 'cnit die uaiiwre': then there will tie no numagc, a* there win lie Do diflcrcnce of kxcs "—a iraall of our pre>ciit luatcrialitr and aoiiaallsni. ^ THB SHCRBT DOCTRINB. fiiture resurrection ; for in such case they would have been still dead in the interim, and could not be referred to as " the living." But 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: Muter, who did sin. this man or his parents, that he was bom blind? Jesus ■Dswered. Neither hath this [Mind, physical] man sinned nor his parents; hut that the worlu of [hie] God should be made manifest in him.* 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 " f — that bad sinned in a previous incarnation, and bad thus brought the Karma of cecity upon the new building. Thus Jesus spoke truly ; but to this day bis followers have refused to understand the words of wisdom spoken. The Saviour is shown by his followers as though be were paving, by his words and explanation, the way to a precon- ceived programme that had to lead to an intended miracle. Verily the Grand Martyr has remained thencefor^vard, and for eighteen centuries, the Victim cruciBed 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 iu him," in the light of theological inter- pretation, and a very undignified one it is, if the Esoteric explanation is rejected. Doubtless the above will be regarded as fresh blasphemy. Neverthe- less there are a number of Christians whom we know— whose hearts go out as strongly to their ideal oi 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 oBFence. but perchance a relief. * Tbc coDscioQa Ego, or FUUi Priudplc Blauaa, the vefaiclcof the diviae Monad or " Cod.' SECTION YL The Dangers of Practical Xagic. Magic is a dual power: nothing is easier than to turn il into Sorcery; an evil thought stiffias for il. Therefore while theoretical Occultism is harmless, and may do good, practical Magic, or the fruits of the Tree »of Ijfe and Knowledge * or otherwise the " Science of Good and Evil," is fraught with dangers and perils. For the study of theoretical Occnltism there are, no doubt, a number of works that may be read with profit, besides such books as the Finer Forces of Nature, etc., the Zohar, St-pher Jeizirak, The Book of Enoch, Franck's Kabalah, and many Hermetic treatises. These are scarce in European lan- guages, but works in Latin by the mediseval Philosophers, geuerally known a.s Alchemists and Rosicnicians, are plentiful. But even the pemsal of these may prove dangerous for the uuguided 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 un- expected 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 " chelSs (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 * 8aiBc87iBlx>locl>U, irlrliiiroii the corrctpoDdFote ofniimbrrK mid I he HymbolaofcertitlD thls]^ : pcnanagc^, rrf't^ these "seeretfi" tothe nyr^tery of gmrration. But H !a more Umn this. The rS^TPl* ^ tl>^ " T'^^ ^ Kaowledcie oT Good and BvU " has no doubt n phulUc and hxubI clentent io |il, aa luu the " Woman and the Serpent " : but ft haa also n psychieal nud apiritnal >t7nilieanc«. l^jmboU are meant to jntid nwte ttaaa ooe hmmuiix. 6B THR SHCRBY UOCTRINK. be, the>' can only mislead the unwar>' and guide him imperceptibly to Black Magic or Sorcery — if to nothing worse. The mystic characters, alphabets and numerals found in the divisions and snb- divisions of the Gtfat Kabalah, are, perhaps, the most danger- ous portions in it, and especially the numerals. We say dangerous, because they are the most/prompl to produce effects and results, and this with or without the expcriiueuter's will, even without his know- ledge. 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 Kaba- listfl, the two mis-interpreted verses which say that God ordered all things io number, measure and weight ;* and: He created bcr in the Holy Ghost, and saw her. and numbered her. and measured her.t But the Eastern Occultists hove another epigraph : "Absolute Unity, Xf within number and plurality." Both the Western and the Eastern students of the Hidden Wisdom hold to this axiomatic truth. Only the latter 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 i£liphas Levi, the learned Western Kabalist. inclined as he is to be rather Jesuitical. He says : Absolute Vnity i» the supreme and fitial reason of tfaiogs. Therefore, that reason can be neither one persou, nor three penwns; it is Reason, and pre- eminently Reason {tuiion par ex(illence).t • if tWoM, xL II. oonafivaiam.' > t D9£me rt ft'iuel Je la ffauU VrngU, I.J6I- NAMES ARE SYMBOLS. % The lueaninj; of this Unity in Plurality iu " God " or Nature, can be solved only by the means of transcendental methods, by uumerals, as by the correspondences between soul and the Soul. Names, in the fCabalak as in the Bible, such as Jehovah, Adam Kadmou, 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 BtbU as in the V^das, their respective mysteries differ greatly. Plato's motto " God georae- irises" 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 ii\*ith such mysteries, whether anthropographical, anthropological, 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 KalialiKl well acquainted with the Pythagorean system uf numerals and geometry cau demonstrate lliat the metaphysical views of Plato were based upon the *trict<st malliemalical principles. "Tnie mat lieiiia lies," .■yiys the Afagkon, *'i9 something with which all higher sciences are connected; common mathe- matics is but a dcceitfut phantiuma^rin, whose much prauwd infallibility only ariscB from this — that materials, conditions and references are made lo founda- tion." . . . The cosmotogical thoor>- of numerals which Pythagoras learned in India, and from the Egyptian Ilierophants, ia alone able to reconcile the two units, matiei and spirit, and cause each to demontitrate the other mathematically. The sncred numtient of tin; miiversc in their efioieric eoiiihinatinii can alone solve the ^eai. problem, and explain the theory of radiation and the cycle of the emanations. The lower orders, before ihey develop into higher ones, mnst emanate from tiio THE SBCRBT DOCTRWR. higher spiritual ones, tnd when arrived at the taming-point, be reSbSOTbed into the iuQoitc* rt is upon tliese true Mathematics that the Icnowledge of the Kosmos and of all mysteries rests, and to 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 " Natare-in-God,*' as the radical law. Therefore, this law — as everything else immutable and fixed in eternity — could find a correct cxprcs-sion only in those purest transcen- dental Mathematics referred to by Plato, especially in Geometr>' as trans- cendentally applied. Rntahd 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 other- wise. If later on, the clergy — crafty and ambitious of power in everj' 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 mauvantaric 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 antliroporaorphic ideas, the gross Materialism, of the forms in which it is presented to them. Therefore, future generations have either to be gradually ini- tiated into the truths underlying Exoteric Religions, including their own. or be left to break the feet of clay of the last of tlie gilded idols. No educated man or woman would turn away from any of the now called "superstitions" which they believe to be based on nurser>- tales and ignorance, if they could only see the basis of fact that underlies every "superstition." But let them once learn for a certainly that there is hardly a claim Ju the Occult Sciences that is not founded on philo- sophical 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 • Itii t'mfeit^ L b, 7. TUH THKBK MOTHEKS. Ai once, for to benefit mankind such truths have to be revealed gradually and with great caution, the public mind not bting prepared for them. However much the Agnostics of our age may find themselves in the mental attitude demanded by Modem 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 lie loved truth too well to accept aught else — who, though in his last Theophany be 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 for ever the old deities before he could replace them with the whole and un- adulterated 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 Icaru the whole and final truth as to what they arc. Let him assure himself that the Hermetic "Tres Matres," and the "Three Mothers" of the Sepher Jeizirah 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 eveu in the Royal Academies, which will be more prepared, perhaps, than they arc now, to admit the grand truths of archaic Natural Philosophy, especially when their learned members shall have assnred themselves that, in ihe dialectof Hermes, the " Three Mothers" stand as symbols for the whole of the forces or agencies which have a place assigned to them in the modem system of the "correlation offerees."* Rven the polytheism of the "superstitions" Brihman and idolater shows its ratson d'etre, since the three Shaktis of the three great Gods, Brahmi, Vishnu, and Shiva, are identical with the " Three Mothers*' of the monotheistic Jew. The whole of the ancient religions and mystical literature is symboli- cal. The Books of Hermes, the Zohar, the Ya- Yakav, the Eg^'ptian Book • "Sjnntos mcatlooi books of stone which he found In ihe traple oT Sfempfab, oa mie of which was eop^rcd the rotluwinr ftmtntcr : 'Oii« mature delights in Miother, one DuLure o*crcotae* ■nolber, cMiF nalurr ovrrrulcii nnotbu', and the whole of them ore ome' ." " The inhcrenl mUcMncM oT matter Ic cnbodicd in tbe uria^ of Hcnnn : ' Action U the Uf^ of PbU ' : and Orpben* calls nalare ffoXuftigj^aKif f<^r))p, ' the moUier that ouJus many tbiosa,' or tbe iu^euious, ttaeeoDtriviBs, tht iovtath«iBOtber."— /n'j Lfnwiltd, L ts?- 73 THE SKCRKT DOCTRITm. of the Dead, the Vedas^ the l/panishads, and the BibU, are as full of symbolism as are the Nabalhean revelations of the Chaldatc Qu-tslray ; it is a loss of time to ask which is the earliest; all arc simply diflFerent versions of the one primeval Record of prehistoric knowledge and revelation. The first four chapters of Gausis contain the synopsis of all the rest nf the Pentateuch, 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 Shcm, Ham and Japhct are determinative of pymraid measures, in cotiiifctton with the 6oo-ycnr period of Noab and the SOO-year period of Sheni, Ham and Japhet; . . . the term "Sons of Elohim" an<l "Daughters" of H-Adam, [are] for one thing astronomicul terms,' 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 extraordinarj' conclu- sions, such as are ver>' little warranted by the facts discovered. His impression seems to be that becau.se 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 Source of Afeasures, if he really thinks ^o. The "Key to the Hebrew-Egyptian Mystery" un- locks but a certain portion of the hieratic writings of these two uationsi and leaves those of other peoples untouched. His idea \f> that the Kabalak '• is only that .sublime Science upon which Masonr\' is based '* ; in fact he regards Masonry as the substance of the Kabalah, aud the latter as the *' rational basis of the Hebrew text of Holy Writ." About this we wll not argue with the author. But why should all those who may have found iu the Kabafak something beyond "the sublime Science" upon which Masonry is alleged to have been built, be held up to public contempt ?- In its cxclusiveness and one-sidediiess such a conclusion is pregnant with future misconceptions and is absolutely wrong. In its unchari-_ table criticism it throws a slur upon the " Divine Science " itself. Sjurtf nf SfraiMret, p, x. I ■ I I THH BIBLE AND WORD-JUCGUNC. 73 The Kabalah is indeed " of the essence of Masonry," but it is depen- dent on Melrologj' only in one of its aspects, the less Esoteric, as even Plato made no secret that the Deity was e\*er geometrising. For the uninitiated, however learned and endowed \vith genius they may be, the Kabalak, which treats only of " the garment of God,'* or the veil and ctoak of truth, u built From thc^ound apward with a practical application to preient oses.* 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 Josephiis — 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-Eg>'ptian cubit and the Masonic inch.f 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 Nacha- nides, that in the days of Moses the initial sentence iu GetifsU was made to read ffrash iihbara Elohim, or " In the head-source [or Mulaprakiti — the Rootless Root] developed [or evolved] the Gods [Elohim], the heavens and the earth;" whereas it is now, owing to the Massora and theological cnuutng, transformed into f>rashith bara Eiohhtit or, " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" — which word juggling alone has led to materialistic anthropo- morphism and dualism. Howmany more similar instances may not be found in the Bil/U, the last and latest of the Occult works of antiquity ? There is no longer any doubt in the mind of the Occultist, that, notwith- standing its form and outward meaning, the Bible — a.>i explained by the Zoltar or Afidrash, llie Yctzirah (Book of Creaiiou) and the Commentary on ihe Ten Sephirolh (by Axariel Ben Manachem of the XUtb centur>*) — is part and parcel of the Secret Doctrine of the Aryans, which explains in the same manner the Vcdas and all other allegorical books. The Zohar, in teaching that the Impersonal One Cause manifests in the Uni- verse through Its Emanations, the Sephiroth — that Universe being in its •'■ - •■- •—> ■ ■■--'-■ ■ Li • Afaiortu Kexiea/. July. iM6. 74 THE SBCRBT DOCTRINB. totality simply the veil woven from the Deity's own substance — is un- deniably the copy and faithful echo of the earliest Vedas. Taken by itiielf, without the additional help of the Vaidic and of Brihmanical literature In general, the BiMt will never yield the universal secrets of Occult Nature. The cubit:*, 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 mj-stcries and the Occult knowledge of the Eg\'ptian temples — hence thoroughly ac- quainted 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 Ugypt 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 Ij'ght," 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 Sorcer>*, and finally to become "forgetful of Wisdom " J while those of the Fifth Race, the inheritors of the Rishis of the TretS Yuga. used their powers to atrophise such gifls in mankind in general, and then, as the " Elect Root," dispersed. Those who escaped the "Great Flood" preserved only its memor>', 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 more become what he -was during the second Yuga (age), when his probationar>' cycle shall be over and he shall gradually become what he was — semi -corporeal and pure. Does not Plato, the Initiate, tell ns in the Pkadrus all that man once was. and that which he may yet again become : Before man's spirit sank into sensnality and became embodied through the loss ifosss hsn rap. jkws. 75 of his wiags, he lived amODg the Gods in the airy spiritual world where everything is true and pure.* Klsewhere he speaks of the time when men did not perpetuate themselves, but lived as pure spirits. T^t those men of Science who feel inclined to laugh at thi.s, themselves unravel tte niysteo' of the ori^u 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 the cosmogonical mysteries of the P>'ramid, to build upon it the Genesiacal Cosmogony in symbols and glyphs. This was more accessible to the minds of the Aoi polhi 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 foUowe<l the example of older nations and Initiates. If he clothed the grand truths revealed to him by his Hierophant under the most ingenious imager>', he did it to meet the requirements of the Israelites; that stiff-necked race would accept of 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. Mo.ies 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, Hoses wist not that the skin of his Tace shone . . . and he pat a veil upon his face.t And so he "put a veil " upon the face of his Pentateuch; and to such an extent that, using orthodox chronology, only 3376 years afler 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 Jehovah shining through ; not even the face of Mo.ses. but verily the faces of the later Rabbis. No wonder if Clemens wrote in the Stromaleis that : Similar, then, to the Hebrew enigmas in respect to concealment are thoise of the Hg>*ptian8 also, I * See Cut's trsnslMloa. pp. jji, jaj. *■ Sjtodut. JLxxxw. 19. jj. J op. eft., v. vli. SECTION YII. Old Vine in New Bottles. It is more Ihau likely, thai ihe Protestants in the days of the Reformation knew uothiug of the true origin of Christianity, or, to be more explicit and correct, of I^tln Rcclesiasticism. Nor is it probable that the Greek Church knew much of it, the separation between the two ha«Dg occurred at a time when, in the struggle for political power the Latin Chnrch was securing, at any cost, the alliance of the highlyj educated, the ambitious and influential Pagans, while these were willingj to assume the outward appearance of the new worship, pro\nded tfaeyj were themselves kept in power. There is no need to remind the readf here of the details of that struggle, well-known to every educated man. is certain that the highly cultured Guostics and their leaders — such metij as Saturnilns, an unconipromif;ing ascetic, as Marcion. Valentinu?^ Basilides, Menandcr and Cerintfaus — were not stigmatised by the (now) I^atin Church because they were heretics, nor because their tenets and practices were indeed " ob iurpitudinctn poriattosam nimiitmti honibilaH," ^ monstrous, revolting abominations," as Baroniussaysof those of Car-fl pocrales ; but simply because they knew too much of fact and tmtfa. Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie correctly remarks: They were, stigmatised by tlic later Kouian Cliurrb because they came into conflict witli the purer Church of Christiajiity — the possession of which was usurped by the Bishops of Ronic, but which original continues in its docility towanls the founder, in the Primitive Orthodox Greek Church.' Unwilling to accept the responsibility of gratuitous assumptions, th 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. The Marquis de Mi I COPIES THAT ANTH-DATED ORIGINALS. 77 I I I ■ I makes desperate efforts to explain in the Catholic interest certain remarkable discoveries in Arcbseologj' and Palaeography, though the Cbnrch is cleverly made to remain outside of the quarrel and defence. This is undeniably shown by hi» ponderous volumes addressed to the Academy of France between 1803 and 1865. Seizing the pre- text of drawing the attention of the materialistic "Immortals" to the "epidemic of Spiritualism." the invasion of Europe aud 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 tfie Christian and Pagan Deities, and by drawing parallels between the two. All such wonderful likenesses and identities are only "seeming and super6cial," he assures the reader. Christian symbols, and even characters, Christ, the Virgin, Angels and Saints, he 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 Soters — Saviours — born of immaculate mothers and dying a violent death, were only Ferouers* — as they were called by the Zoroastrians — the demon -ante- dated copies {copies aniia'p/csj of the Messiah to come. The danger of recognition of such facshnHes 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 I I * Ju Um FttOMft^t ai»il Dtvs orjacobj (l^ctlen F. and D,l ihe word "fcroww" is CxpUinnl in the bllowing minmrr r The FctoiktIsb purl of Uie crvntuir Iwhcthn-tnnn or AnimnD of which il \% Uic tJT»e and which il lursivr*. It la tlir Notttof Ihe timlo. theretort divioc and iminotUl, and thiw c«n hantty be the De»-i: or the «alaiiic ct>p} 1>« Mirville wuiilil rrtimriitit {f^re Mtmon fs df t Ataieintt <Ui Jntcriptions.Val. X7CXVII. ji. 6»j. wnd chop xxxi*. p, 7*)i, Fouehcr contnxlktti hitn cnlircly. The FrroiMr was orvvr the "principLc of Mii&ationit." buC lUway* refttTed tu the idikI dlvfitc atid pucr portion of Man's Ero -the "piritual i^riitciplc. Anquvcil says that the Feroucr i» Uic iiurcst portion of tnrui's Miul. The Petuan Dev \a the autilhesi* of the T'ermirr. for the Dtv ha^ be«ii tmnkTortned br ZorcMUter iulo Ihe Grnlua of Bril iwbcnce the Christian Dvriiy. but even \\x Der is only finite; for having become poaaewed of Ihe aaul of man by nsitt^lion, it will ha\x la Leave it at the AT«at day of RetrihntioD. The Dev obl>e««eii the aonl oTlhe defunct for three dnya.duritig which the soul wanders lltout Ibespot at which il w«» forcihiy ncp.Traicil fmiii iW b-idy : the Peroticr ajKcnda to the region of ttemal TJghl. It was aii uufurtutintr IdetL that murk the nulile Marrtulx ile Mirville imagine Ute Peroncr to be a "MUnlc copy " of n dtviae orierinal. B>- caltiag all the GodH of the Pas«n»-> Apollo, Osiiik, BrahmJl, OnnaBd, Br\, etc, the- " FerotterN at Chrint and of the chief AngeU." he Metety ezhit>iu the God and the Augcla he wotild honour n* inferior to the Pagati God*, aa nan la tnfia-torluhwtiaut and Spin I : aiiu-e the Frnsucr i;i thv itumortal paft of ihemcrtAl bdngaf whlck it ill the type niid which it ■urri\-e>. IVrch-iiinx the poor niithur U uneon«dou«ly ptvphetlc : and Apollo, Brahml, Onnazd. Oriiia, etc.. aredeatliKd to snrv^rc aud replace— aa etcntol cosmic writtew— Uir e*ane>4.'rBt lictioQn about the tiod, Chn&t oiid Augeb of Ihe Latin Church '. 78 THE SHCHET DOCTRINE of the Egyptologists, the finding of Assyrian and Babylonian pre- Mosaic relics bearing the legend of Moses* and especially the many rationalistic works published in England, such as Supernatural Religion made recognition unavoidable. Hence the appearance of Protestant and Roman Catholic writers deputed to explain the inexplicable ; to reconcile the fact of Divine Revelation wth 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 Monumental Christianity and A Miracle in Stone belong to the first attempts. De Mirville's Pneumatologie to the second. In India and China, ever>' such effort on the part of the Scotch and other missionaries ends in langhter, and docs no harm ; the plan deWsed 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 antl casuistry that the sons of Loyola can furnish. The Marquis de Mirville was evidently helped by the aculest minds in the serxnce of Rome. He begins by not only admitting the justice of ever>* imputation and chargemade against the Latin Church asto the originality of her dogmas, but by taking a seeming delight in anticipating such charges ; for he points to every dogum of Christianity as having existed in Pagan rituals in Antiquity. The whole Pantheon of Heathen Deities is passed in re- view by him, and each is shown to have had some point of resemblance with the Trinitarian personages and Mar>'. 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 Devila. 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 I I I i WHICH WERR THR THIKVRS ? 79 I th* true and the false AvatSra, the real and the unreal God. between the original and the copy — though the copy precedes the original by millenniunis. Our author proceeds to argue that whenever the missionaries lr>' to convert an idolater, they are invariably answered : We had our Crucilted before youni. What do yea come to show ns?* Again, what should wc k^^ ^y denying ibc mysterious side of this copy, under the plea thnt according to Weber all the present Puriaas are remade from older ones, since here we have in the same order of persouages a positive preewlence whicli no one would ever think of conlesting.t And the author instances Buddha, Krishna. Apollo, etc. Having admitteil all this he escapes the diSciilty in this wise : The Church Pathera, however, who recognized their own property under all such sheep's clothing . . . knovriug by means of the Go«pel ... all the ruses of the pretended spirits of light; the Palheni, we $ay, metlitating upon the decisive words, "all that ever came before me are robbers" (John, x. 8), did not hesitate in recognizing the Occull agency at work, the general and superhuman direction given beforehand to falsehood, the universal attribute and euvironment of all these ftdae Gods of the nationa; *'omfiei dii gemiium decntouia igUJim)." (Psalm xcv.il 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 Occul- tists reject the imputation indignantly, and are prepared to defend the man as af;aiusl the God, by showing whence come the words plagiar- ised 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 Evolution o/ChrisHaniiyy 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 hireliog guardians and ferocious wolves is obviously borrowetl by the fourth Evungelisl from ■ This is « fonrifnl ss it is nbltrery. Where It Uc Hlndo or Boddbist wlio would ap«ak ot hia " CnKt5«d " ? t Op-eU.hi. »37. % Loc. tH., tifi. 8o THK BRCKST DOCTRIIfS. Enoch, IxKzix, in which the author depicu the slicplicnls as killing an^ de»troynig the sliecj) Ixffort.- tiie advent of their Lord, anil tliua ili&clo&ca the tru« meauiii^; o\' that hitherto inysterions passage in the Johanutne parable— '*.\11 that ever came before me are thieves ami rohbers"— language in which we now detect an obvious reference lo the atlegoiieal shepbertlsor Enoch. " Obvious " truly, and sotuething else besides. For, if Jesus pro- nounced 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, aud value of a treatise now declared apocryphal by his Churches. Moreover, he c'ould not have been ignorant that these words belonged to the oldest ritual of Initiation.* And if he had not read it, and the sentence belongs lo John, or who- ever wrote the Fourth Gospel, then what reliance can be placed on the authenticity of other sayings and parables attributed to the Christian Saviour ? Tlius, DeMirville'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 as easily disposed of This is perhaps unfortunate, but it is a fact, nevertheless — Magna est Veritas cf prcvakbit. The above is the answer of the Occultists to the two parties who charge them incessantly, the one with " Superstition." aud the other with " Sorcer>'." To those of our Brothers who are Christians, and twit us with the secresy imposed upon the Kastcm Chelds. 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 ver>* few in our days who are still prepared lo assure their readers that the Bible had i I ., ■ " Q. : Who knocks at thr rtour ? A. : The Kood cowheH. Q. ! Who prtwdcd Wax f A. : The three robben. C-,- Wltofi>ll*m*thirc? A.: Tlic thtvc muttlcriT*,'' etc.. He. Now this it the cont-cnation that took plnce [Kturvcii the pri««t-iniUAti>n and the mirlidatei fitr InitlatlcHi during the my«lerie* ennrtett in the oldc*! MnctaaHm or the KimilAyao faatncMM. The cemuoay U nlll performed to tltU dn>- in oik oT the mmt aitcieiit Irinplrk iti n jtecluded apnl oT Nci'^'xl. It urigiitatt'cl with thr My^lerin oT the lint Kriahnn. pUMcd to the Pint Tirthukan itnd ended with Buddha, and i« culled the KuniL.Hhetr» rite, lidiig enacted »a a memorial uf the ar?*l bnttle and death of tht divine A<le[it. U Is not Ma»onry, but an ialtlatioo into the Occutl tnchinx* 9t thad Hero— Occuttium, pure ami Mmpk-. CHARACTER OP THB BIBIA. 9i God for iU author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mUture of error for its matter. Could Locke be asked the question now. he would perhaps be un- willing to repeat again that the fft'bU is alt pure, all sincere, DOthiog too much, nothing wanting. The Si6ie. 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 ihey are to be found in its secret \'olutnes ; nor is it safe now. after Archbishop Laurence's translation of the Book o/Enoci, to cite Cowper and assure us that the Jti^/tr . . . gives a Kgfat to every age. It giTCB, but borrows none. for it does borrow, and that ven' considerably ; especially in the opinion of those who, ignorant of its symbolical meaning and of the universality of the trtiths nnderhnng and concealed in it. are able to judge only from its dead-letter appearance. It is a grand volume, a master-piece composed of clever, ingenious fables con- taining 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 tlius quite mislead- ing to anyone ignorant of its Esotericism . Moreover it is Astrolatry and Sabscan worship, pure and simple, that is to be found in the Pen/a- tfuch when it is read exoterically, and Archaic Science and Astronomy to a most wonderful degree, when interpreted — Bsoterically. SECTION YIII. The Book of Enoch the Origin and the Foundation of Christianity. Whii-3 makiug a good deal of the Afercavah, the Jews, or ratfaer their synagogrucs, rejected the Book of Enochs either because it was not in- cluded from the first in the Hebrew Canon, or else, as TertulUan thought, it was Disavowed by the Jews like all other Scripture whicli speaks of Christ* 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 Nrw Tesiametit^ especially in the Acts and EpistUs, teems with ideas and doctrines, now accepted and established as dogmas by the infallible Roman and other Churches, and even with whole sen- tences taken bodily from Enoch, or the "pseudo-Enoch." who wrote under that name in Aramaic or Syro-Chaldaic, as asserted by Bishop I,aurence, the translator of the Ethiopian text. The plagiarisms are so glaring that the author of The Evolution oj Christianity, who edited Bishop X,aiirence"s translation, was compelled to make some suggestive remarks in his Introduction. On internal evidencet 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 Int^pired forecast of % great Hebrew prophet, predicting with miracn- loiu afcaracy the fatnre teaching of Jesus of Kaxareth, or the Semitic romance * J>wo4^£MKA,ArchbialiopLauT«acc'« trsttaUtloD. Inlrodactioa, p. ▼. t flu Book 0/ Emick waf. unknown to Buropc for » UiOUMod yean, wfaen Bni» Toutld in Afaytmitila wne copjes of it Sn liUiiopIc; it was translntcd bf Arcbbfnhop I^Bimcc in itt\. J'rom the Icxi in Ok Bodkiitii Ubrary, Ozrord. THE BOOK OF BNOCH AND CHRISTIANITY. *ih rrom whicb the Utter borrowed His conceptioDS of tbe tritimpbant return of the Sfon of man, to occupy a judicial throne in the midst of rejoictiiK saint* and tivmbltog sinners, expectant of cvcrlaiiting happinesfl or etcmnl fire; and wbetht-r these celestial visions lie accepted as human or Divine, tbcy have exercised so vast an influence on the destinies of mankind for nearly two thousand yean that candid and impartial seekers after religious truth can no longer delay enquiry into the relationship of the Biwk of Enoch with the revelation, or the evolution, of Christianity.* The Book of Enoch Also rcconls the snpcmalaral control of the elements, through the action of individual angels presiding over the winds, the sea, hail, frost, dew, the lightning's flash, and revx;rbeniting thunder. The names of the principal fallen angels are also given, among whom hx recognize some of the invisible powers named in the incantations [magical] inscril»ed On the lerra-cotla cups of Hebrew- Cbaldec conju- rationa,t We also find on these cups the word " Halleluiah," showing that A word with which ancient Syro-Chaldteaus conjured has become, through the vicissitudes of language, the Shibboleth of modem RevivaliBt8.t The Editor proceeds after this to gix*e fifty-seven verses from various parts of the Gosfic/s and Ac^s, with parallel passages from the J^ook of Enoch, and says : The attention of theologians has been concentrated on the passage in tbe EpistU of Jiutg, because the author specifically names the prophet; hut the cumulative coincidence of language and ideas in Knoch and the authors of the Nnv Tcstamntl ScTTpture, as disclosed in tlic parallel passages whicb we have collated, clearly indicates that the work of the Semitic Milton was the inexhaustible source from which E^'angclists and Apostles, or the men who wrote in their names, borrowcfl their conceptions of the resurrection, jadgracnt, immortality, perdition, and of the universal reign of righteousness, under the eternal dominion of the Son of ronn. This evangelical plagiarism culminates in the Revelation of John, whicb adapts the vision* of Fnoch to Chrislianity, witli modification?! id whicb we miss the snblimc simplicity of the great master of apocal>*ptic prwliction, who prophesied in the Dtune of the antediluWan patriarch.^ In fairness to truth, the hypothesis ought at least to have beeu sug- gested, that the Book of Ettcch in its present form is simply a transcript — with numerous pre-Christian and post-Christian additions and inter- polations— from far older texts. Modem 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 six- • Cy.n/.,p.xx. » IM. a't. t op. eil., p' xiv,, note. \ op. eil., p. 84 THB SSCRET DOCTRINS. teen hours in length could not have occurred in Palestine. The trans- lator, Archbishop Laurence, remarks thus: The region iti which the author lived must have been situated not lower Ibui forty-five degrees north latitude, where the longest day is fifteen hours and a-batf. Dor higher perhap-t than forty-nine dej^rees, where the longest day ia precisely sixteen hours. This will bring the countrj- where he wrote as high up at IcaAl as the DOrthem dlttricUt of the Cispian aud Euxiiie Sea» . . . the author of the Boot oj Enoch was perhaps a member of one of the tribes which ShaJmaneser carried away, and placed "in Halah and in Habor by the ri\-er Goshen, and in the cities of the Medea."* Further on, it is confessed that : It cannot be Mtd that internal eWdonce attests the superiority of the Old Testa- mmi to the Book of Enoch. . . . The Book of Enoch teaches the prefxistcnce of the Son of man, the Klect One, the Messiah, who " Iroiii the beginning existed in secretit and whose name was invoiced in the presence of the I^rd of Spirits, before the snn and the signs were created." The author also refer:» to the "other Power who was upon Earth on-ct the water on that day" — on apparent reference to the language of Genesis, i. a.; [We maintain that it applies as well to the Hindu Ndrdyana— the "mover on the waters."] We have thus the Lord of Sptrita* the Elect One. and a thinl Power, seemingly foreahadoH-ing this Trinity [os much as the Trim^rti] of futurity; but although Enoch's ideal Messiah doubtless exerctaed an imporliint iuCiiencc on primitive conccption& of the Divinity of the Son of man. we fail to identify his obscure reference to another "Power" with the Trinitarian ism of the Alexan<lrine school; more especially as "angds of power" abound in the visions of Hnoch.f An Occultist would hardly fail to identify the said *' Power." The Editor concludes his remarkable reflections by adding : Thus far wc Icam that the Book of Enoch was published before the Christian Bra by some great Unknown of Semitic [?] race, who, believing btm.self to be inspired in a post-prophcttc age, i>orrowed the name of an antcdJluviau patriarch I to authenticate hU own enthusiastic forec.-»t of t}ie 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 Apo^es as revelation— alternative conclnslons which involve the 0i\-iue or human origin of Christianity, it * op. tU., p. xlji. ♦ ■niefie\mth Principle, the Flril Euuualioo. 1 Op- eft., my- sxxvil. 4itd Xl. I O/. rU.. i>p. Kl- aiiJ U- I Wbo auncla few tbe "SoUr " or Manvanlaric Ve V_£y. a'l., pp. xli., ]^ii BNOCB RECORDS THE KACBS. 85 ^le outcome of all of which is, in the words of the same Editor : < g The discovery That tlie langtisgc and iileafi of alleged revelation nre found in A precEistent work, accepted by Hvangelists and ApoiiUes as inspired, bat cla-Hsed by modem Lheoloj^ans amonK apocryphal prod actions.* >> This accounts also for the unwillingness of the reverend librarians of the Bodleiau Library to publish the Ethiopian text of the Boak of Enoch. '-• The prophecies of the Book cf 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 frotn Enoch's own time to about one thousand years beyond the present generation.t 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 liundrei) yenrs.^ But this is an arbitrary and fanciful system adopted by Christians to make Biblical chronolog>' fit with facts or theories, and does not repre- sent 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 150: Subsequently, in the fourth week . . . the vision* of the holy and the rijEbteous shall be seen, the order of fiencratioD after generation shall take place,( is quite wrong. It stands in the original: "the order of generation after generation had 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-Race ; 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 in the original Chaldaean MSS., and is not pro- phecy, but a narrative of what had already come to pass. When Enoch begins "to speak from a book" || he is reading the account • op. eU,, p. zlvUI. t £y. ctf., pb -am. X Ue. at. i Scii. 9. I! C^. a'L, scU. 4> 0S TH£ SECIlrfl given by a great Seer, and the prophecies are not his own, but are from the Seer. Enoch or Eaoichiou means "internal eye" or SeL-r. Thus every Prophet and Adept may be called •• Enoichion," without be- coming a pseudo-Enoch. But here, the Seer who compiled the present Soo^ of E^ioch is distinctly shown as reading out from a book ; I have been born ihe seventh in the finit week [the seventh branch, or Side-Race, of the first Sub-Race, after physical generation had began, natnclj-, in the third Root-Racej . . . But after mc, in the second week fsecond Sub-Race] great wickedness fthalt 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 iniquit}- shall grow up.* As translated it has no sense. As it stands in the Esoteric text, it sintpty 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 loth speaks of the sixth week [sixth Sub- Race of the Third Root-Race] when All tho«e who are in it shall be darkened, the hearts of all of them shall be forgrtftil of wia>.lom [the divine knowledge wtU be dying out] and iu it shall a man aacen'L This •' man " is taken by the interpreters, for some mysterious reasons of their own. to mean Nebuchadne/.zar ; he is in real ity the first Hierophant of the purely human Race (after the allegorical Fall into generation) selected to perpetuate the dying M'lsdom of the Devas (Angels or Elohtm). He is the first "Son of Man" — the mysterious appellation gi\*en to the divine Initiates of the first human school of the Mdnushi (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 Closet those who forgot the primeval wisdom in sexual sensuality. And during its completion [of the "sixth week," or the sixth Sub-Race] he shall bnni the house of dominion [the half of the globe or the then inhabited cootuunt] with fin« uid qU tUe race of the eliect root shall be dispersed.; :^ ■ I. .,M ^.-'(.' n '., , -., "^^ — T. •■ ■ •C^<A.. adl.4-7 f At IhriiiMc nr every Sool-RacclhvTvcimMSi ■ cttlmclyun, in turn by Sr« or water, tntiaedialrty after 111* " ¥tA\ Into fnirrKlton " thr drov of Um Uiinl KoM-Kaoe— <boM who Ml iato ■MUttsIity hj- fklllni oiT (Vow lh« t«»chlac of the Diiinr Imtr m.'ter<— we w dratroyvid. after which Cbe Pi>unk HaM-llK« nrlKlitnlril, •! Utr miU uf wtiicli took pUc« the lut Ddafe. itet the "Boas of God" iMntlmteit In /mi VmvtMi^ m *t Mf.| I (^. rrt., scU. II. THB BOOK OF ENOCH SYMBOLICAI,. 87 I I I I The above applies to the Etect Initiates, and not at all to the Jews, the supposed chosen people, or to the Babylonian captivity, as inter- preted by the Christian theologians. Considering that we find Enoch, or his perpetuator, tncntioning the execution of the "decree upon sinners" in several different weeks,* 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 solitarj' Deluge of the Bibk^ 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, coufesses that: The preceding sis verse*, vi:.. 13th. i4tU, 15th. i5th. 17th. and l8th, are taken from between the 14th nod JStb verses of the nineteenth chapter, where they are to be found in the MSS.t By this arbitrar>' 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 Tesiamenl. have been taken bodily from X\\e Book of Enochs for this is as evident as the sun in heaven. The whole of the Pentateuek was adapted to fit in with the facts given, and this accounts for the Hebrews refusiug to give the book a 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 volame, 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 cau appreciate. The early Nazarenes and Chrestians. as Justin Martyr calls them, were the followers of Jeaus, of the true Chrestos and Christos of Initiatiou ; 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 histor>- of the human Races and of their early relation to Theogony, the symbols being interblended with astronomical and cosmic mysteries. * o^. di; xciL 7, II, 13, 1$. ^ o^. tft.. note, p. tit.. 68 THK SKCRBlr DOCTXINB. One chapter is missing, however, in the Noachian records (from both the Paris and the Bodleian MSS.). namely. Chapter Iviii. in Sect. X; this could not be remodelled, and therefore it had to disappear, dis- fignred fragments alone having been left of it. The dream about the cows, the black, red and white heifers, relates to the first Races, their division and disappearance. Chapter Ixxxviii, 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, and {6) to the "mystery of the Hermaphrodite " so called, having reference to the birth of the first human Races as they arc now. The well-known rite in India, one that has 5ur\'ived 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 desimns of becoming Brahmans have to submit — has originated in this mystery. Let any Eastern Occultist read ynth careful attention the above-named chapter in the Soak of Enoch, and he will find that the " Lord of the Sheep," in whom Christians and European Mystics sec Christ, is the Hierophant Victim whose name in Sanskrit we dare not give. Again, that while the Western 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,* 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 cnu9C a nrcital to be matle before me . . . how many they baw t* Thoiie interpolHliaiM Mid alteniliua!! arc (band slmoal lu every oaae (rfarre Apu*S *^ flw**^ rapcciAlly wlnocvrt thv nuintxn eleven and twelve come i»— M Uiese ate all nude tby Uic Chrtft- tiaoBl to TcUie to the numbers of Apoatin, and Tribca, and Palriarcbx. The Inmidalur of tbe SlUopic teal— ArcbU&hop I<aumcr— atlrlbtilra Uinu generally to " miMafcet oT Uk Uan>crit>cT " wbenevei the two IcxU, the Parle and itic Bodleian MSS,, dlffbr. We fear it w no taialakr, ia BOatcaaes. OCCULTISTS DO NOT REJECT THE BIBLE. 89 t I I delivered up to destinction, and . . . what they will do: whether they will act as I have cotnmaniled them or not Of ihifi, however, they fiiall be i^orant ; oetther shalt thou make any explains bon to them, neither shalt thou reprove them; but there shall be on account of all the destruction done by them in their respective seasons.* ... He looked in .lilcnce, rejoicing they were devoured, swallowed up, and carried off, and leaving them in the power of every beast for food. . . .t ' * ■ Those who labour under the impression that the Occttltists of alf^ nation reject the Bid/e, In its original text and meaning, are wrong. As well reject the ffooks of Thoth, the ChaldEcan Kabalak or the Hook of Dzyan itself. Occultists only reject the one-sided inter- pretations and the human clement 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 rcvealer of mysteries has had to become a Chresto.s, a " man of sorrow " and a martyr. "Beware," said one of the greatest Masters, "of reveal- ing the Mystery to those without"— to the profane, the Sadducec and the unbeliever. All the great Hierophants in history are shown end- ing their lives by violent deaths — Buddha,] Pj-ihagoras, 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. * O^. dt., IxxxviiL «?, 100. T /tfc. ciL, 94. TtuK pnsuB*-'. "* "^1 1'*^ inwiiUy shown, has led lo a wiy curioiu disicovtry. t tn (hr profane history of Uaulaiun Riulilhn lie dicM at the xwl old ajt^ of eij[hty, nnd prntmi off from life tu death peacWally with all the »cr<nity of a arrest ulnt, aa Barthflcmy SI. lIUAlre hns II. Not «o ill the l>o(erlc nnd true iiilcrpcTtiiltoii which teveals the tral venm of th<- invfanc anil KtlesDrical Ntalnueut that mokes GauUuua, Uie Biiddtia, di« very nn poetically front the cfl^ta of too aiiKb pork, preparw! fot him by T»onda. IIow one who prmchfd thai Ihc kiltlnfc of atilnals wns the grcalnt ain, uid who wu a perfecl vccelmiaii, could die from catiug potk. ift a question thai ia never aakiCd by OurOrientaliai*. »^mv ofwhoin made la" now rlo iTtiiny ch:trilable fniasloanrirs in OFylon) jTtT^t fun at ihr nlkgeil occutrencc. llie simple truUi is thai Ihv taid rice end pork an purely BlleKorical. Kicc Blandn for " fortiidden fruit," like Kvc'i " apple, ' aiid mean* Occult know tcdge "rilh tlw Chinese and Tlbetann; and "pork" for Krlhmanlcal teachla£« -Vishnu having aaantned in his fint AvaUta Uic fotiu of a boar, tn order to raise the earth on ttie surTacv of the wBter» of tpntx. It t< uot. tbcrefore, from " pork " that Buddha dIH. but for havfuft dlvulired aome of th<r BrAhmankal my«trriea, afln- wliich, aeving tile had ttfvclf, brought oit some unworthy people by Itw rrvrlatlon, be prcfcrml, iDAtrad of avuling himiclf of .Nirvina, to leave hi* earthly form, rcnuiiaing nltll in the tpbcrc of Ihe livinf, iii order lo help humanity In pmgre«ii. Hmc« hlv enHtant reincnmatitmH in ihr hierarchy of the Uslai %nA Te«hu l^mn*, aiuoag other bountkt. Buch is Ihc Ktotcric explanation. The life of Cautwat will be more folly diicuned later on. 90 THE SKCHRT DOCTRINK. To the Occultist, the death of every "Mabtet" is stguificaat, 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 troth or truths, was not crucified and rent to shreds by the "dogs" of en\T, malice and ignorance ? Such is the terrible Occult law ; aud 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 direc- tion must wait in these days — as the Book of Enoch teaches — " until the evil-doers 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 tbcir [the sinners'] names shall be blotted oat of the holy books [the asUal records], their «ce<l shall be destroyed and their spirits slain.' Ksoterically. Enoch is the '* Son of man," the first ; and sjonboU- cally, the first Sub-Race of the Fiflk Root Race.t 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 "sous of God" coming down on Kartli took for wives the daughters of men, and taught them the secrets of the Angels; in other words, when the "mind- bom" men of the Third Race mixed themselves with those of the Fourth, and the divine Science was gradually brought down by men to Sorcery. • Op, At., cv. •>. T In the Bibtf \Gnutit. iv kikI \'\ Ibere nre tbm dlatiucl Raochs tlUnacb or ChBn<Kb>— the son »f Cam. Uic Aoti ur Seth. aa<t tti<? boh of Jared ; bnl Ihcy an all identical, and two *ii ibau are men- MfMtA Tor pun>o»cs of miaU-adiag. Thr jr«ara of only Uie last two atv t^-rtx, the first one betof Ml miUunil TurUm noticr. iECTION IX. Hermetic and Kabalistic Doctrines. I The cosmogony of Hennes 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 g^reat Trisme- gistus, "the hand that shaped the world out of formless pre-existent matter is no hand " ; to which GeJiesis i-s made to reply, " The world was created out of nothing," although the Kabalah denies such a mean- ing in its opening sentences. The Kabalists have never, any more than have the Indian Aryans, admitted such an absurditj-. With them, Fire, or Heat, and Motion* were chiefly instrumental in the formation of the world out of preexisting Matter. The Parabrahman and Mulapra- kriti of the Veddntins are the prototypes of the Kn Suph and Shekinah of the Kabalists. Aditi is the original of Sephira. and the Prajdpatis are the elder brothers of the Sephirotb. The nebular theory of Modern Science, with all its mysteries, is solved in the cosmogony of the Archaic Doctrine ; and the paradoxical though ver>- scientific enunciation, that "cooling causes contraction and contraction causes heat ; therefore cooling causes heat," is sliown 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 Jeizirak 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 Generis it is pertinently answered in the same book, where speaking of the * The eternal uid fncew&nt " In-bKatliinf uid out-brcaUibis of Parabrahnun " or NbIiu«. tbe TTolvme hi flp«ct, vrheUtvr dnring Muivantors or Ptalayn. TTT TB£ SECKBT OOCTHIMB. Three Mothers, Air, Water and Fire, the writer describes them as fl balance with The good in one scale, the evil in the other, and Uit oscillating tongue of thf Balance between them. • 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 Htadus, the sacred syllable, had become the 'Au'-n- with the Greeks, and the .£vum with the Romans — the Pan or All. The "thirtieth way" is called in the Sepher Jetairah the "gathering understanding." because Thereljy gather the celestial adepts jadgracnts of the stars and celestial signs, and Iheir ol>servnlions of the orhitn are the perfection of sciencct The thirty-second and last is called therein the " serving understand- iog." and it is so-called because it is A disposer of all those that are Irving in the work of the Seven Planet^ according to their Hosts. X The "work" was Initiation, during which all the mysteries con- nected 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 mysten.- that makes plain the rather puzzling expression of Clemens : For we shall find that very many of the dogmas that are held by such secta [of Bnrbiman and Hellenic Iliilosopby] as have not liecomc utterly senseless, and are not cut out from the order of nature ["by cutting off Christ,"^ or rather Chrestos] , . . correspond in their origin and with the truth as a whole.|| In Am Unveiled,^ the reader will find fuller information than can be given here on the Zohar and its author, the great Kabalist, Simeon Ben Jocbai. It is said there thot 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," bis very life was endangered. * O^. til.. ,*o. I Tbow wtio are aware Uitl the term cltHno* wu applied by tht GnosUc* to the Higher Hg« (the aucwol Pagan Gnvk tniUaln duin]; IIk samr), will rcudlly uadenlnnd Uic nlluMon. Chrivtoa wu said lo be cut otf from the lovrer Kgo, ClirestDC, nfter the final iukI Kuprcm*: laJUaUoa. when tbe two ticcAnie bl^ndrd in one; Chrr*tnn bnnx couqocred snd rtsunrclrd in the glorified Chriitos.— Pranck, DuKabtata. 75: Uualap, S6d, Vol. u. H StirpmaUU, I. aiii. 0 Ofi. cH., II. viii. THE CABALAU AND TSE BOOK OP B170CR. 93 I I I and he had to fly to thu wilderness, where he lived in a cave for twelve years surrounded by faithful disciples, and finally died there amid sifpis and wonders.* 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 wiU be seen. Some synthetic and kabaUstic studies on the sacred Boo/e of Enoch and the Taro (Rota) are before us. Wc quote from the MS. copy of a Western Occultist, which is prefaced by these words : There is but one Law. one Principle, one A){pn(, one Truth and one Word. That which is above is analoKically as that which is b«Iow. AH that which '\k is th« result of quaotities aud of equillbriutus. 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, ia: The key of things concenle<l, llie Vey nf the sanctiian-. This is llie Sacret) Word which gives to the Adept the supreme reason of Occultism and its Mys- teries. It is the QaintLsseace of Philosophies and of Dogmas; it 19 the Alpha and Omega; it is the Light, Life and Wisdom Universal. ,, The Taro of the sacred Book of B%ioeh, or Rota, is prefaced, moreover; with this explanation : > The antiquity of this Book is lost in the night of time. It is of tntiian origin, and goes back to an epoch long before Mooea^ ... It U written upon detached kavcs, which at the first were of fine gold and preeioiis metals. ... It is symbolical, and its combinations adapt themselves to all the wonders of the SpiriL Altered by its passage across the Ages, it is nevertheless preserved — thanks to the Ignorance of the curious — in its t}'pea 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 ■ Mmy Mc ihe narvrts recorded u hsvlair taken place At ht« death, or «>e should rather uy hi« IrmiulBticiti ; Tur he did not dir u* otlirrs do. hot huving suddenly dlMppeftr«d, while s diknKng U];ht filled Uie cav«m irith glory, Iim lK>dy wu ugaiu Keit upon its mbsldcuce. When thin heaveuly llg:ht gvre place lo the habltnal urmi-dnrkitpwt of the gloomy cave — then only, nays Ciniibtrrg, "(fap diaciplci of Urorl pcrcriwd ttiat thr lamp of iiiniel wiu «xti»riiiiihed." Hi* biognipherK tell a* that there were ««»cea heard from Heaven during thr pieparaHon for hia runeral, and at hUintennent, when Ihr coffin waa lowrrctl into the deep catc [jrepnnd for It. a dame broke forth and a vdce taichty asd ouijcKiUc praoouuccd lh«K wgrda: "Thb t» he whocauaed the earth to quake, and the klngdoio« 10 xhakc I 94 TUB SKCRBT I>OCTMNH. "metallic plates [or leaves] escaped from destruction during the Deluge" and which are attributed by him to Cain. They have escaped (he Dduge 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 laststronghold 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.* the Snowy Range. It was bom in that mysterious locality which no one is able to locate, and which is the despair of both Geographers and Christian Theologians — the region in which the Brahman places bis Kailasa, the Mount Sumeru. and the p£lr\'ati Pamir, transformed by the Greeks into Paropamisus. Round this locality, which still exists, the traditions of the Garden of Eden were built. Prom these regions the Greeks obtained their Pamassusf ; and tbeuce proceeded most of the biblical personages, some of them in their day men, some derai-gods and heroes, somfr— though very few — myths, the astronomical doubles of the former. Abram was one of them — a Chaldseau Brahmau.t says the legend, transformed later, after he had repudiated his Gods and left his Ur {pur, " town " ?) in Chalda^, into A-brahm§ (or A-braham) " no-brShman " who emi- grated, Abram becoiuiug the "father of many nations" is thus ex- plained. 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 sen'ing 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 ' Pockock?, RUy be. wm not altoyrtliCT Mrroos '" drrivtnu Ihf G«rtnan ll*»\'rn. Utmmel, from HimllAj-a; aorrai] it br dpnicd Utat il in th« Hinilu KaiLx-ui lllmiveu) Uiat b lfa« faUicr of tlie Grcvfc Hmvcd <Koilofi), aad or ilic L^titi CccUira. t See Pockocke's /mfm j>i Gtttu, «uU biaikrivaUonof Mouul I'anuMua ftoni Parnatn.Uieteaiand branch huUofihe Hindu ■M:cticii. half ttariiMaiHlluUhstiiUtiou. "Part of tb«Pat-o-rainbtu(U)ebUI of Haminn), U cnl^l Pnmnmn*. ' Tltmr muunlniiiA are cntlnl Dirvmiicn, bevaune t)i«y are bo fall of Uc¥iia o( GotU, called " Cods of th? Kaitb," 8hu l>c<riu>. Thry liv«d, atconUoff lo th« Puriaaa. in- bowvn or huU, called Pamaaas, bcoiuK they wmt aadr of leuvr* ' tPania*^," p. soj, : RawUnaou la juaUj very confident of an Anran and Vcdk tnAucncc on the cwly mTthology and hMory of Babylon and Chaldtea. \ Ttrta taaSevrrt Doctrine affimution, and may or nut y not be accepted. Only Abrahm. laa^K anil Judah recemhle irrHbly ttxr Hiudu Braluni IluhVdka and V>dii. ICVMBHHS AND WEASURBS. 95 I I I I I and even with psychic events. History was thus made captive by ancient M>-stery, to become later on the great Sphynx of the iiiueteeiith century. Only, instead of devouring her too dull querists who will unriddle her whether she aclcnowledges it or not, she is desecrated and mangled by the modem CEdipus, 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, par- simoniously as they may be given, bnt by earnest and learned Sym- bologists and even Geometricians. The Key to the Hebrew Egyptian Mystery, in which a learned Mason oi Cincinnati, Mr. Ralston Skinner, unveils the riddle of a Gorl. with such ungodly wxy^ 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 Smyth, the well-known Astronomer and Egyptologist. The Director of the Royal Observatory in Scotland and author of The Gnat Pyramid. Pharaonic by name, Humaniiarian by fact, its Marvels, Mysteries, and its Teachings, is seelcing 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 Eg>'ptians in the construction of their Pyramid, or in Mr. Skinner's own words that the Pharaonic "sonrce 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 cen- tury. Not only is everything in Western religion related to measures, geometrical figures, and time-calculations, the principal period-dura- tions being founded on most of the historical personages,* 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 " It i« uid in The OmosIuj *Hd iheir Xfrnafiu, by C W. King (p. 13I, with i'cgard to the names of Brkbml and Abnta : "TltiK t)|r.ir« or the mdit, Sclr AnplD. cousUtsof >4^niiii]bcis.b«ttig lh« nuiueri- cnl value of the kttrrt in ihp namr ' Atn-sm ' <il|rnirrlnfc thf <llffrmil orders lit the ctlestial Hier- ■rcbicfl. In fact (be uudch Abiain nnd Bnthntl oKequivalrnl iti numnncal t-alue." ThuK lo one arqnalntcrd with Bsotcric SyinbcUina, it doe* not teem at nil ■iraiiKc lo find in ttrc I.ukii-pilaA (lh« four canlinal and intrrmc<U»tr poantu or tlK cotnpan pcr*onI&cd by dglit Iliudu Gods) ludra'a elephant, gained Abtira— fniitanga] and bis wife Ahliranu. Abbra Ls lu a way a Wiitilani ririty. since it ia litiaclrpbant'a bc<wl that replaced that of Gancalui (GaoapsUl the God of\V'iiuli>ai, cut otf ty Shiva. Mow AMiia ineuu " cloud." and It i* also the noiLte of tlie city where Abram is auppcwcd la have rvirfded— when «ad backward*—" Arba (KiTJathl Uie city of foor. , . Abram is Abra with ati nppcMted M final, and Abra read backward i» Arha " i^<x la lAt Hibieit) Egyptian Af^iUryi, The anthor Btigbt have atlded that AbrnineaiiiiieiiiSaiiakrit "ia,of of.thectoada." thccosinuiisLronowiuiI •jnbol of Abram becomes Biil] ptaioer. All of these ought to be read In thcfr oriciuaU, iu Sanskrit. jg6 TIXS SSCRIGT DOCTIUMB. for in the early Pftutheoa of India. It is the "Mind-bora" Sons of firahma« or rather of the Dhyani-Pitara (the "Father-Gods"), the " Sons of Light/' who have given birth to the " Sons of Earth " — the Patriarchs. For if the Rig Vfda and its three sister Vcdas have been "milked out from fire, air and sun," or Agni, Indra, and Sur^a, as Afanu-Stnriti X€i\s us, the 0/d Tesianunt was most undeniably " milked out" of the most ingenious brains of Hebrew Kabalists, partly in Eg>'pt and partly in Babylonia — " the scat 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 bo.som every orthodox Jew hopes to be gathered after death, that bosom being localised as " heaven in the clouds" or Abhra* 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 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- mathema- tician 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. EHphas Levi says there was not a nation but had it, its real meaning being preserved in the greatest secresy. It was a universal heirloom. As we see, neither the Book of Enock (his "Wheel "), nor the Zohar, nor any other kabalistic volume, contains merely Jewish wisdom. I ■ Bcrore these thcoria and jtpeculationa— we ttn wjilliig to admit the^ arv imdi— firv itftctcd. riir ruHovriog few iiolats cmghl lo Hr npUinrd. (tt Why. atXnr Iraving Kjcypl, wa* the patriarch'* Bame ctuufcJ t>yJehovati from Atiram to AbrahAm. Ii) Why Sarai bKomai on the name pri»ci|>lF Sarah \G<n., xiril.). L3'' Wlieace the *lran(re rijincldence of names? (^1 Why «hniiM Alexander PotyblStoT aay that Alfrahun wa* born nt KauHhna or Una. n oity or •ooDiMiyent. niid Inwnted Awtntnoniy > (5) "The Ahrahamic recollrctlons (o back at least three milletiniums beyond the Kraiidfatbrr of Jacob," My* BtinKQ {Egypt's PUtu in Hittory. ▼. 33.) THB DOCTRINE BELONGS TO AIX. 97 The doctrine itself being the result of whole millennioms of thought, is there- fore the joint property of Adepts of every nation under the sun. NeTertheless, the ^Aor 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.« • liix Uttvet'M, ii. j^'- 3 ■ SECTION X. Various Occult S^^stems of Interpretations OF Alphabets and Numerals. The transcendental methods of the Kab&lah must not be mentioaed in a public work ; bat its various systems of arithmetical and geo- metrical ways of unriddling certain symbols may be described. The ^oAar methods of calculation, with thuir three sections, the Gematria, Notaricou and Temura, also the Albath and Algath, are extremely difficult to practise. We refer those who would learn more to Cornelius Agrippa's works.* But none of those sy9tera.s can ever be understood unless a Kabalist becomes a real Master in his ScJL-nce. The Sym- bolism 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 triaugle, and finally the forty-seventh proposition of Euclid's Elements, of which proposition Pythagoras was the inventor. But with this 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. Tlie numerals of Pj-thngoras were hicroglj-phical symbols by means whereof he explaiued all ideas concerning the nature of tbings-t * Bee itit Vnvritfd, il. >i8-^o». Cnoatria Is formed by m mcinthesii frani the Greek word ypOfAfiartia ; NoiaHcon uuky be compared t£> utcuography ; Tcinuia ispcnnatkUou— ■ tmy of divid- (ag the atjihnliFi and >M(Uiis Mtcr&. ■t Dt Vila Prtkar. NT7MBBR5 AND UAGIC. 99 The fundamental geometrical figure of the Kabalah, as given in the Book of Numbers^* that figure which tradition and the Esoteric Doctrines tell us was given by the Deity Itself to Moses on Mount Stnai.t contains the key to the universal problem in its grandiose, because simple, combinations. This figure contains in itself all the ctheis. The Symbolism of numbers and their mathematical Inter-relations is also one of the branches of Magic, especially of mental Magic, divination and correct perception in clair\'oyance. Systems differ, but the root idea is everywhere the same. As showu in tlie R^al Maionic Cychp<edia, by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie; One ftystem adopts unity, Biiother triuitr, a third qoiiiqiiinity; a^tti we have •lexagonA. faeptaKons, novems, and so on, until Uie mind is lo«t in the sun-cy of the materials alone of a «cienc« of numbers,; The DevanSgari characters in which Sanskrit is generally written, have all that the Hermetic. Chald^ean and Hebrew alphabets have, and in addition the Ckrcult 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 twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet and ten fundamental numbers, while in the Devaufigari 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 con- siderably wider. Ever>' letter has its equivalent in other lan- guages, and its equivalent in a fignre or figures of the calcu- lation table. It has also numerous other siguificalions, 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 DevanSgari characters from Sarasvati. the inveu- iress 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 Kabatah ■ WcKr^notnwttfvlhftti copy of thifi anctrat work te embraced En UiecataloffiM or any European llbrttry ; but il ii odc of the " Books of HcmiM," nn*! il U Tvfrrrrd to and quotations arc made rram it in Ihc wnrks uf n riiinil)cr of ain'icni and mnllnival phlloeupMcal aiiUicir^. AmoiiK thct* authori* tica aic Araoldo dj Villanova't Roiarium mtoi^pH., l'ran«!KO Aruupbi' O^mj dt LapitU, llFiUMt 7>Uuw-Ki«tni' Tfixitatut 4r Tyansmutatiame Mela/lorn m anil Tiibuta Smaragdina, mnA above alt the Imttinc or Ravraoncl Lully, Ab Angelis O^mt Dimnum dt Quinta EtstnU'a. * F-T^Mt, xav. 40. _ I 5"^ yoct " Nutnbfn.'' roo ?S^9K«KT iK)&¥RI?rE. calls the Hebrew alphabet the "letters of the Anpels." which were" communicated to the Patriarchs, just as the Devanagari was to the Rishis by the Devas. The Chaldxans found their letters traced in the sky by the "yet unsettled stars and comets," sa\'s the Book of Nitmben ; 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 Eg>'ptians is closely related to the oldest " Secret Doctrine Speech." It is a Devanagari with mystical combina- tions 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. la their turn European Kabalists are generally ignorant of the alphabeti- cal 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 Rsoteric numeral systems of the world in the Christian Churches. Nevertheless this system of numerals solves the problem of cosmo- gony for whomsoever studies it, while the system of geometrical 6giires 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 tat* is the Mother of the Soul. Life and Light being therein united. For as the sacred anagram Teruph shows in the Book of the fCeys (Numbers), the number i (one) is born from Spirit, and the number lo (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 as numbers, in outward shape as well as in their individual sense. As illustrated by Ragou: The 6gure I si^ilictl the living mui (a body erect), man beiag the only living being enjoying this facility. A head being added to it, the glyph (or letter) P was GODS AND NUMBERS. XOl obtained, meaning paternity, creative potency ; the R signirying the walking uui (with bis foot forward) f^iiig, tens, Hums.' The characters were also made supplementary to speech, wtrj letter Iteing at once a figure representing a suan'J for the ear, an tde» to the mind; as, for instance, the letter F, which is a catting soand like that of air rushing quicldy through space; ftary, fnsee. fugue, all words expmsive of, and depicting what they signify.t 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 myster>- out of its ana^am. So in Sepher Jetsirak we read " One — the Spirit of the Alahim of Lives," In the oldest kabalistic diagrams the Scphiroth (the seven and the three) are represented as wheels or circles, and Adam Kadmon, the primitive Man, a» au upright pillar. " Wheels and seraphim and the holy creatures*' (Chiolh) say,s Rabbi Akiba. In still another system of the symbolical Kabalah called Albath— whtdi 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 — la All beings, from the 6rst divine emanation, or "God manifeiited/' 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 iu order to 6nd the result of an event, or the future of one's destiny. Said Pythagoras : There is a mj-sterioua connection between the Gods and nuuihers, on which the science of aritliQiancy is based. Ttie soul is a world that is self-moving; the soul contains in itself, and is, the quaternary', the tetraktys {the perfect cube J. 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 * Ra^n, JUaiomieru OccntU, p. 4*6. sole. M 102 THE SECRET DOCTRINB. first. It represented Matter, the passive and evil principle — the number of Mayil, illusion. WhUc the number imc 3)-ml>oiized hanuoDj, order or the good principle (the one God exprt:sscd ia Latin hy Solus, from which the word Sol, the Sun, the symbol of the Deily). number two exprcasetl a contrary idea. The science of good and evil began willi it. All that is 'loubte, false, opposed to the only reality, was depicted by the bin.iry. It also expreiwed the contra.<!ts in Nature which are always double: niKht and iIbv, light and darkness, cold and heat, dampness and dr^-ncsst health and ucknesa, error and truth, male and female, etc . . . The Romans dedicated lo Pluto the second month of the year, and the second day of that month to expiations in honour of the ManeA. Ilcnce the Ranie rite estKbtt.<tlied by the l<atin Charch. and faithfully copied. Pope John XIX. instituted in ioqj the Festival of the Dead, which hod. to be celebrated on the 2nd of November, the second month of autumn.* On the other hand the triangle, a purely geometrical figure, had great honour shewn It by every nation, and for this reason : In }j:eometry a straight hue cannot represent an absolutely perfect lignrc, 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 sym- holizetl from the first and to this day the Eternal — the first perfection. The word for deity in Uatin, us in French, begins with D, iu Greek the delta or triangle, a. whose three sides symbolize the trinity, or the three kingdoms, or, again, di\-iue nature. In the middle is the Hebrew Yod. the initial of Jcliovah [see ^liphas Wn*s Dogmeet tiUuil, i. 154], tlie animatiog spirit or fire, the generating principle represented by the letter G, the initial of "God " in tbe northern languages, whose philosophical significance is gcneration.t As stated correctly by the famous Mason Ragon, the Hindu Triumrli ifi personified in the world of ideas by Creation, Preservation and Destruction, or Brahm4, Vishnu and Shiva ; in the world of matter by Earth, Water and Fire, or the Sun, aud symbolised by the Lotus, a flower that lives by earth, water, and the sun. J The Lotus, sacred to * Rstmelfd from Rapm, Afaf»)i<tn*v OeemlU, p. 417, note. * &}xmTa»JvrtA Trom Ruffon, ibid., p. 41A, note. 1 Kayuu lumtioiii Uic curious fact ttut the lim four tinmtKr* la GenDau nre named ai^«rthtf elcninun. " Ein. or oat. means the air, the clattciil wliicli, cr«r In motion, penetrates matWf tbrougchout, sn<J whme coutinutl ebb sad tide in the uttlvtrul vcliiclc of life. " Zwci. two. i» derived from Uic old Ormnn Zwcii;, sl^ifyitig ifma, fbcundltjr ; tt stamls for earth th« recuiid mulher of all. "Drd. Uirec. iA t)w in>i*iM oT Uk Greeks. Mas dloi; for water, whence tbe Sca-irods, Tritons ; sod trident, the etnblrin of Nepttme— (b« watn-, or sea. In generul lirlug called Amphilritc iMmMii water). ■• Vier, four, a number nicnniits iu Belgian Brt;. . . U b in the qiulerDary that the first 1 fifutr is (utiud, llie iiniverMi xymSol nf tmmortnlit)'. Ilic rj-rutiud, ' who*e lint ayllabk iDMiu lj«ls and Tlnuciu of Locrit daf >niM th.it there wa> ttol ■ lbiti][ one could name Uiat bad uol ' Isia. had the same significance in Egypt, whereas in the Christian symbol, the Lotus, not being found in either Judaea or Europe, was re- placed by the water-lily. In every Greek and lAtia Church, in all the pictures of the Annuuciation. the Archangel Gabriel is depicted with this trinitahan symbol in his hand standing before Mar>', while above the chief altar or under the dome, the Eye of the Hleraal is painted within a triangle, made to replace the Hebrew Yod or God. Truly, says Ragon, there was a time when numbers and alphabetical characteni meant something more they do now— the images of a mere insignificant sound. Their mission was nobler then. Each o( them represented by its form a complete MUSe, which, besides the meaninf^ of the word, had. a double* interpretation adapted to a dual doctrine. Tbus when the sa;i^» desired tu write sotaeUiing to be understood only by the savants, they confabulated a storj-, 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 rfiltgious crenlions-t Every appellation and term liad its raison d'etre. 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 presented 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 ever>' quatvmary for iU root. . . The infccuious aud inj-stlciil idcn which Inl to the vrarralion of rtie lemtif)' and the tHnnKtc wn>) applkd to iiumlK'r four and lUfisurr: U was aaJd toexprcM ■ tivinx hcing, I. the vehicle o< the triiiut;)e 4. vehicle urtiod, □( mnti r.irryinjc \n him the dlrlne principle." Hinallj'. " the Agcieul* rn>re*cnled the woiltV l>y ihe iiumtier five. Diodunu explaitu it by iiafjiig tlwt lht« nnmher rtTirr«-iil» earth, fire, water, nir uod ether or splritus. llettce, U« oripu of IVnlc (fivcl vtd of Pbd (the God) meaning in Greek all." tConiparv Rajton, 0/. at., pp. 4iJ4-4j[i,) tt U leA with the Hindu OcatllUU to explain the lelkllon this Sanskrit word P&oclw [&vt\ )uu to tiie dcstfnta, Uie Greek Prote hfti-tn( far il« root the Satuikrit term. • The system of the ao-called Senmr chnracten i* still more woDdrrftil and dlfllcult, pinee each letter U made to yield nevenil meantogs, a tign placed at Ui« comcnencenimt iAtom\ng the irwc meaninK' 4 lUcon. t^. cdt., p. ut, DOtc. TH« SKCRBT DOCTRINH. word is expreswed 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 .• 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 di\ine Magic;" hnt if the letter were traced in the usual way, with the left brauch thicker than the right, then it meant the reverse, the nght or left branch being the whole biography of a man. In Asia, especially iu the Devanflgarl characters, every letter had several secret meanings. Interpretations of the hidden sense of such apocah-plic writings are found in the keys given in the Kabalah, and they are among its most sacred 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 rcgurdcd as an ctnuis* tiou. or the visible ejipression of the divine forces inherent in the iiiefFahle 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 letters 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 letters; after which the latter yield to the enquirer "the most hidden secrets of divine Permanency (eternity in its immutability) in the Futurity." * Thr V mo(vrtcBl]jr itgnlfin oply tlte iwo pcttas of virtiK or vice. vaA •uadi alio lor Uie avBcnl tge utd with t duh over Uic tetter V for taonooo. Jj SECTION XL The Hexagon with the Central Point, or THE Seventh Key. I I I I AsGUiNG upon the virtue in names (Baalshem), Molitor thinks it im- possible to deny that the /^abclak—\ts present abuses notwithstand- ing— has some ver>' profound and scientific basis to stand upon. And if it is claimed, he argues, TbBt before the Name of Jesus every other Nume must bend, why should not the Tetragrammaton have Uie sauie power ? ' This is good sense and logic. For if Pythagoras viewed the hexagon formed of two crossed triangles as the symbol of creation, and the Kgyp- tians,as that of tlie union of fircand water (or of generation), tUeEssenes 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 wide- spread a use argues that there is something in il. 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 begiu with, even the known sign is merely a substitute for the one used by the Initiates. In a T^ntrika work in the British Museum, a terrible curse is called dowu 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 Tilings ConceaUdy for it says : • T*aiitu>». chap, on *' Kniobas." I06 THK SECRET DOCTRINE. The fievenlh key i« the hieroglyph of the sacred sepletiBry. of royalty, of the priesthood [the Initiate], of triumph and true result by struggle It U magtc power in all tu force, Cie true "Uoly Kingdom," In the Hennetic Philosophy it is the quintessence resulting from the union of the two forces of the great Migic Agent [AJcdsbiL, Astrnl UghU] ... It is equally Jakiu and Boaz bound by the will of the Adept and overcome by hia omnipotence^ The force of this key in absolute lu Magic. All religions have con- secrated this sign in iheir rites. We can only glance hurriedly at present at the long series of antedilu- vian works in their postdiluviaa and fragmentary, often disfigured, fonn. Although all of these are the inheritance tVom the Fourth Race— now lying buried in the unfathoraed 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 reach- ing 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 tree 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 OccuUi.>>t, and even in the innocent Spiritualist and Mason, 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 evcrj' 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 modem 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 .Huch 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 modem 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 Hphesian and Milesian letters or characters; the thrice (amous BocJb of Tkotk, antl the terrible treatises (still preserved) of Targes, the Chaldsan. and his disciple Tarchon, the Etruscan— who fiourisbed long before the Trojan War — are so many names and appellations void of scnse(thotigh met with in classical literature) forthc educated modem scholar. Who, OCCULT WEAPONS. loy I I I in the nineteenth century, believes in the art, described in such treatises as those of Targes, of evoking and directing thuudcr-bolts ? Vet the same is described in the Brahmanical literature, and Targes copied his *' thunder-bolts *' from the Astra,* those terrible engines of destruction known to the Mah3bharatan Ar\-ans. 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 Lyltou 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 con- tained in the books discovered in Numa*s tomb should have been burnt. But the science of Circe and Medea is not lost. One can dis- cover it in the apparent gibberish of the Tdntrika Siitras, the Kuku-ma of the Bhutin! and the Sikhim Dugpas and "Red-caps" of Tibet, and even in the sorcen,' of the Nilgiri Mula Kurnmbas. Ver>' luckily few outside the high practitioners 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 Ougpas 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 exis- tence, 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 " Petit 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 Luai LibeUta de Mirabilibus Natura Arcanis. The severities of the Roman Church have ever been spasmodic. \Miile 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 • TMs U ■ kiud of Bugicstl bow and arrow calculated to destroy In ouc uomcol whole unnin ) U U Smdonnl in the AlMd^Md, Ihr /Vrilini nnil cl.iFwhcrtr. THK SECRET DOCTRINE. 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 liscurial. 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, mys- terious sentences and invocations to the stars and planets. These were talismans against the enemies of the King {la enncmis de CharU- magfu), which talismans, the chronicler tells us, proved of great help, as •* every one of them [the enemies] died a violent death." The small volume, Enchiridium Leonis Paper, 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 eveo' 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 withont a preliminary philosophical study of the Science. The real Tarot, in its complete symbology, can be found only in the Babylonian cyliuder&, that auy one caa tuspeci and study in the British Museum and elsewhere. Anyone can see these Chaldsean, antediluvian rhombs, or revolving cylinders, covered with sacred signs; but the secrets of these divining "wheels," or, as dc Mirville calls them, " the rotating globes of Hecate," have to be left untold for some lime to come. Meanwhile there are the "turning-tables" of the modem 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 Hastern proverb. I«et 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 VidyS, and to deal further with esoteric and numerical systems, but we must first follow the line of Adepts in post- Christian limes. SECTION XIL The Duty of the True Occultist Religions. I I I I Having disposed of pre-Christian Initiates and their Mysteries— though more has to he said ahout the latter — a few words must be given to the earliest post-Christian Adepts, irrespective of their personal beliefs 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 fewwords in justifica- tion 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 prirnd facie ev^ideuce 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 can- not and must not be concerned. The Christian whose Religion com- no THB SBCRfiT DOCT&JNB. mands him to regard Peter and Paul as Saints, and divinely inspired and glorified Apustlcs, and to view Simon and ApoUonius 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 crcL-d or sect, yet he is bound to show outward respect to ever>' creed and faith, if he would become an Adept of the Good Law. He must not be bound by the pre-judged 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 uuselfish 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 incarna- tion on earth of the One Supreme Deity, and the " Very God of Gods" in Heaven. He wll cheribh thu ideal man for his personal virluea, 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 " asserted miracles," only explaining them in accordance with the rules of hi.s own Science and by his psychic dis- cernment. Refusing them the term "miracle" — in the theological sense of an event " contrary to the established laws of nature " — he will nevertheless \'iew 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 bene6cent, divine Magic, though he will be justified in regarding such events as casting out devils into a herd of swine* 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 absiird,"t and who will I I I 1 Matthtw^ viU. 30-34. t DogDtaiK Thtoiosy, ill. 349> CHRISTIAN AND NON-CHRISTIAN ADBPTS. Ill never refer to the prophet of Islam by any other term but that of a " false prophet." It is on the principles of Occultism, then, that Peter and Simon, Paul and ApoUonlus, 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 ID 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. SECTION XIII. *ost-Chrt5tian Adepts and their Doctrines. WHATdoes the world at large know of Peter and Simon, for example? Profane histor\' has ao 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, how- ever, claim that, one-sided and prejudiced as they may be, the apocry- phal Gospds contain far more historically true events and facts than does the New Testament, the Ads included. The former are crude tra- dition, the latter (the official Gospels) areau elaborately made up legend. The sacredness of the Ne7o 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 leama in the Ads 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 ofTered money to Peter and John to teach him the power of working true ** miracles," false ones, it is as.serted, being of the Devil.* 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.f and Mosheim places him among the open enemies of Christianity ;J but Occult tradition accuses him of nothing worse than refusing to recognise "Simeon" as a Vicegerent of God, whether that " Simeon " was Peter or anyone else being still left an open question with the critic. I I I I I • «UI.9,ie. t A*v. a/nm. t Seeta. Out., L 140. vm^nt citiTicisH. Its I I That which Irenacus* and Kpiphaniusf say of Simon Ma£^5 — namely, that he represented himself as the incarnated trinity ; that in Samaria he was the Father, in Jndaea 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 odium the&iogiatm. No Occultists — all of whom have experienced personally, more or less, the efiFects of theolo- gical rancour — will ever believe such things merely on the word of an Irenccus, 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 in- troduced as Helen of Troy, who had passed through a hundred reincar- nations, and who, still earlier, in the beginning of aeons, was Sophia, Di\Hne 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 deg^e of transformation and luxnriant j^rowth any bare statement can be subjected and forced, after >ing 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 teach- ings of the Secret Doctrine, yet without divulging more than necessarj' 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 charla- tans but intellectURl person.s highly honoured in society, whose inner conviction assures them that they were — one Queen Cleopatra, another one 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 laodern theory of reincar- nation. The latter differs from the one genuine doctrine of old, as will be shown, but there is no rule without its exception. * Comtta Hart$tt. L xxill. i-j. t &mtra H^ratt, U. t-i. St AH THB SKCRBT DOCTRINB. As to the Magns 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. Everj* 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 indi- viduality of his personal spirit, and recognises 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," 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 (Sopliia. or Minerva, the Divine Wisdom) he (Simon), when yet in the bosom of the Father, himself the Father (or the first collec- tive Emanation), begot the Archangels — the " Son "—who were the creators of this world. The Roman Catholics themselves, driven to the wall by the irrefut- able arguments of their opponents — the learned Philologists and Sym- bologists who pick to shreds Church dogmas and their authorities, and point out the plurality of the Elohim in \hc Bible — admit to-day that the first " creation " of God, the Tsaba, or Archangels, must have par- ticipated in the creation of the Universe. Might not we suppose: AUhouj;h "God alone crcatci] the hcnvcn and the earth" . . . Ihnt however naconnccte<l they [the AtigeU] may have heeu with the primodial ex mhtlo crea* lioiii, lliey may have received y mission to nchicve, to coatinne, and to .sustain it?* exclaims De Mirville, \n answer to Renan. I^cour, Maury and the tuiti quanti of the French Institute. With certain allcrations it is precisely this which is claimed by the Secret Doctrine. In trtith 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 Sovereijrn 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 dimity. THE TWO ETERNAL PRINCIPLES. "5 Basilides, Carpocrates and Valentinns, the Egyptian Gnostics of the second century, held the same ideas with a few variations. Basilides preached seven j'Eons (Hosts or Archangels), who issued from the sub- stance 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 a Heaven as a dwelling, the nature of each of these respective Heavens decreas- ing 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 meaniug contains the number 355, or the man value * This was a Gnostic Mystery based upon that of primitive Evolution, which ended with "man." Saturuilus 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 doc- trine, as Saturuilus was an Asiatic Gnostic. These Angels are the natural Guardians of the seven Regions of our Planetar>' System, one of the most powerful among these seven creating Angels of the Ikird 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 Scandina\'ians and also among the Hindus. Marciou, 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 a: if u ' * Ten U the perfect number of Uk Supreme Cod iinonfr the "manifested" ddtin, for nttmba- 1 ia Uk nymbol of the Hnivertal Unit, or nnle |)riadplc in Nature, and number O Uie fetntuiiK symbol CtlMM, the I>eep. the two fonning tfau* the symbol of Audrocync nature an well ss the full value at Ihesotsryear.whi^wtL^alBA the value or Jehovah and Rni>ch. Ten. with Prlhagonis. waa tlie symbol of (he Unlvcf^i also ol Rnoa, the Stxi of SeUi, or the "Hon of Mau " who »tandK s« the symbol of tfac •otar year of .165 days, and whose ycaii are therefore g1»«ii os 365 also. In the BcyDtioii Syrabologjr Abraaas wa« the Bun, the " r.«ml of ihe Heaveiiii," The circle U the symbol of the one Unmantfeuinff rriiKlple. the plane of whoac flyurc U ia&nitudr tiemally, and thU iserocMd by a diataeler only duriB£ Uanvaiilara«. THE SSCRKT DOCTRINE. Principle, this intermediate Being was nevertheless also opposed to the pood 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 Churcli, to which a belief in his actual existence and great powers is a necessity — ia 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 Supernatural Religion assiduously endeavoured to prove that by Simon Magus we must understand the Apostle Paul, whose Epistles were secretly as well as openly caluuiniated and opposed by Peter, and charged vnih containing "dysnoetic learning." Indeed this seems more than probable when we think of the two Apostles and contrast their characters. The ApMtle of the Gentiles was brave, oatspokeu, sincere, and \'er>- learned: the Apostle of Circumcisiou, cowardly, rauttous, iusiucere. aod very ignoraat. That Paul had been, partially at least, if uot completely, initiated into the tbcurgic mysteries, a'lmits of little doubt. His language, the pbrascolag>' so peculiar to the Greek philosophers, certain expressions used only by the IDitiate^ are so many sure ear^niarks lo that supposilton. Our suspicion ha* been strengthened by an able article entitled "Paul and Plato," by Dr. A. Wilder, in which the author puts forward one remarkable aud, for us. very precious observation. In the Epistles to tki Corittihians, he shows Paul aboundtug with "exptx-ssion& suggested by the tni- tiatioua of Sabaziua and Kleusia, and the lectures of the (Greek) philoaophets. He (Paul) designates himself ait idiotes—^ person unskilful in the Word, but uot in the gnosis or philosophical learning. 'We speak wisdom among the perfect or initiated.' he writei, even the hidden wisdom, 'not the wisdom of this world, not of the Archons of this world, but divine wisdom iu a mystery, secret— which lume of tlu Arckons of this world ktuw.'"* ■«' "» "'' What else can the Apostle mean by those unequh'Ocal words, but that he hinuelt as belonf^ng to the My.<tts (tnitiatedj, <tpoke of things aIiowti and explained only iu the Mysteries-' The "ilivine wisdom iu a mystcrj- which none of the Archons of this world knew" has evidently M>me direct reference lo the Basileus of the Rleu- sinian Initiation who did know. The Basileua belonged to the staff of the great Hierophant, and was an Archon of Athens; and as audi was one of the chief Mystx, Ijt'longiiig to the inlerior Mysteries, to which a -very select and small number obtained an entrance.t The magistrates supervising tlie Bleuainia were called Archons.; We lA-ill deal, however, first with Simon the Magician. • /. Cw-t il. 6-1. t Compart Taylor'* £ft"«Ji«W* ««d iiatikic Myuetta. % /»»• t^vnitd, ii. s^ SECTION XIY. Simon and his Biographer Hippolytits. As shown in our earlier volumes, Simon was a pupil of the Tanaim of Samaria, and the reputation be leA 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 Mosaic Books. Still the calumnies so jealously disseminated against Simon Magus by the unkjaown authors and compilers of the Ads 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 stor>' told about his falling during an aerial flight, break- ing 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 both 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 Mens (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 Nazarencs, and in the Hohar, as well as in the Books of Hermes, the same expression \s used ; and even iu the apocryphal Evangdiunt of ike Hebrews we read that Jesus admitted the female sex of the Holy Ghost by using the expression " My Mother, the Holy Pneuraa." ii8 THE SOCKET DOCTKINK. After long ages of denial, however, the actual existence of Simoa 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 Trffis Premiers Sidles de tBgihe* M. de Pressense gives his opinion on this additional relic of early Christianity. Owing to the numerous myths with which the histor>' 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 contAinti positive factt, \t seems, now warranted by the nnanimous testimony of the Fnthcrs of the Church and the narrative of Hippolj-tus recently dis- covered, t This MS. is very far from being complimentary to the alleged founder of Western Gnosticism. While recogiiising 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 irapartialtj'. 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 Apoeatypse. Hence charges of heresy followed by "anathema maranatha." The persecutions by the Church were never directed against Magic, when it was orthodox ; for the new Theurg>', 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 "dinne miracles" were produced through powers acquired by great purity of life and ecstasy. 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 inten.se prayer for the accomplishment of some object is only intense will and desire, resulting in tinconscious Magic. In our own day George Miiller of Bristol has proved it. But * op. €il., U. 3ity t Quutml br De MLrvllte, Of. eiL, vL 4t WKl 4>. DTmVEN BAl^ANCBff."' "9 '•divine miracles" are produced by the same causes that generate effects of Sorcerj*. 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 extin- guishers of light and tmth.* It was perhaps the recognition of a germ of that which, later on, in the then nascent Church, grew into the vims 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.f Therefore we pay little attention to the accusations against Simon in the MS. found in Greece. It is entitled Philosophumefta. Its author, regarded as Saint Hip- polytus 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 Pfiihsophununa to be an extraordinary and very emdite work. Its antiquity and gennineress have been vouched for by the best authorities of Tiibingcn. 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 * Mr. SI. Ororgr I,«Be-Pux haa «il(iurably expiuMMiJ the kilca in hi* dOKinCnl BiipcKl to nw many rival tchoots and ftodeties in IndU. " I (tx\ sure," he said, " that the prime mottre, however dimly perceiwd, by wbich you. u Ihc promotcta of Uimc movemenls, were acUiated, wm a revolt agaJnot (hr tyrnnnical and almoat uainrmtil efttabll»hniL-iil throaghoul all vsisUnK aoctal aud ao-call«il trli- rioua iiMiitutiona of a tuuHMd authoritj- iu mdiic rKtrmal form «iT>pl«nttnff and otMcurine the only irat and ultimate nnlhorily, the indwelling Hpirii (»f truth rtvHil«d Iu enrh individml Mntl, tn>e cou- BctciKc in fact, that suprente )>outcc or all huniMD wixloui ;iiid (luwcr which elevates man above the lerclofthebrtilc " {n fUr Mfmhrrt of tkt Arya SamAj, tkt Th^ta^icatSonefj', Mruhmo amd Hindu ^mij aud other ktligwm3 and Puigreuivf Jita'ettft m imdta.) -t KeitHaUon, ii. b. (130 TUB SBCRBT DOCTRINE. art of Thruytnedes,* nnd partly sfi/A th€ tulp of demMu.f . . . H« determiueil lo pass bimsclf offas a god. . . . Aided by lii» wicked aria, he turned to profit not only tbc tcacliinK» of Moses, but those or the poets. . . . His disciples use to Ibis day his chsmia. Thanks to iiicaiitutious, lo philtres, to their attractive careuest and what they call "sleeps," they send demons to inBucnce all thow whom they wonld fasciuale. With this object theyeoiploy what they call "rarailiar ileitioniL"^ 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, wss thrown into a burning brazier, in orvlcr thai the smoke should reveal the contents of the writing to the Spirit (demon) \Plnios.. IV. iv.) Inccnae was thrown by bandfula on the blazing coals, the Magus adding, on pieces of papyrus, the Hebrew names of the Spirits he was addressing, and the flume devoured all. Very soon the diviru Spirit •seemed to overwhehu Ihe Magiciao, who uttereil unintelligible invocations, and plunged in such & state he aosweretl every question — phautajimul apparitions being often nitscil over the flaming brazier {ibid., iii.) ; at other times fire d«cendcd from heaven upon ohjecta previously pointed out by the Magician [ibid.) ; or again the deity evoked, croashig the room, wonM trace fiery orbs in its flight {Hid.. ix.).| So far the above statements agree with those of Anastasms the Stnaile : "^ople saw Simon causing statues to walk ; precipitating himself into the flames without being bnmt ; metamorpho^ng his body into that of varions animals [lycaa- thropyj: raising at banquets phantoms and spectres; causing the furniture in the rooms to move nbcui, by invisible spirits. ITe gave out that he was e«cort«il by a numbec of abade« lo whom he gave the nume of "swuls of the dead." Finally, he .wed. to Sy in the air . . . {Annst, PiUrol. Gncfmc, vol Ixxxix.. col. 53^ qosest. xx.).1 Saetonitis says in bis Aero, In those days an Teams fell at his first ascent near Nero's box and covered it his blood.** with' This sentence, referring evidently to some unfortunate acrobat who * T1iia''att" Istioi common jugglery, ssiomcdcfi&c It oow: UiAakiudof parctaolocic-Al jqgglrrr, if jngglrtyat all, where fiucinatigti and glaioour an used us "i^^n^ of producing UIusiooL U u bypnotUm on a Uig« kbIc. ^ Tbe aoihor uktu in thit hU Cbriatuui pcrtuuion. I Masaatu: pwiea, evidently, followed by a trance AOtl itlcvp. I "Ml— BlaJii" oMd by ihe bishEeit Adept Lu ilu nircbaiucMl, nol iDteOectoal work, wa ptaywiat ■K* faan aad other eonpooodi. • Quoted from Dc MirrtUc, «^ at., \i. 43. ^ rtirf., ri. 4^ " lUd., p. «b. kNBS AS "BVtBBNCBS.' 12X I I I I I I missed his footing and tumbled, is brought forward as a proof that it was Simon who fell.* But the latler's name is surely too famous, if one must credit the Church Fathers, for the historian to have men- tioned him simply as " an Icarus. " The writer is quite aware that there exists in Rome a locality* named 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 stoue, on which it is alleged the two knees of the Apostle Peter were. impressed in thanksgiving after his supposed victory over Simon, arc shown to this day. But what does this exhibition amonnt to?, J?or 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 foot-print, 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- bom of Satan," as Sinion 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. Modem medinms 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 bad he been defeated publicly by the Apostle, his dis- ciples would have abandoned him after such an evident sign of in- feriority, and would have become orthodox Christians. But we find even the author of Pkiioiophnttuna, 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 CapitoHum," in which fall he broke his legs only ] Such a lucky fall is in itself sufficiently miraculous, one would say. ■ AmMAe Ft«in7, Rapperu dc St. Am/ mvtt Sini^in, U. lOO. Ttoc wliolc of tht« !■ wimnuri«ed fnm DeUinrillc SECTION XV. St. Paul the real Founder of present Christianity. Wh may repeat with the author of Phaflicism : We are all for coHsintctiou — even for Christian, aUhougb of course philosophiccl coHitructwn. We have nothiDg to do witb reality, in mac'si limited, mechanicaL scientiflc sense, or with realism. We have ntulertaketi to show that mysticUm is the very life and soul of religion ; • . . . that the Bible is only misread and wim- rtpresfnted when rejected as advancing tupped fabulous and contradictory thif^; that Moses did not make mistakes, but spoke to the "children of men " in the only way in which chxUiren ia their nouage caL be addressed : that the world i«, 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 scieulific knowledge, and moreover thBt modem knowledge and modern science are to a great esctent not only supentititm, but superstition of a ver>' destructive and deadly kind.t All this is perfectly true and correct. But it is also true that the New Testament, the Acts and the £^j//«— however much the historical figure of Jesus may be true — are all symbolical and allegorical sayings, and that " it was not Jesus but Paul who was the real founder of Chris- tianity : " t 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.§ 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. Btit, hitherto, it has always been laid aside as an un- * Bui we can never agr^e vrilh the nuthor " thai rites and ritual ami farmil wonliip and p««yct» are dI the mbvulutc necesoity or thinpt. " fi^ Uw external cad <lc%-clof> and ([row uid receive wor«bip only St Ihe expeiwc of, and to the detriment of, the Internal, the onSjr rral and true. t H-Jenninf^s, »p. eit., pp. jj, 38. t See In\ Umveiltd, IL 574. Ixi.t6. I I i ABROGATION OP I^W BY INITIATES. 123 I I I proven hypothesis, a blasphemous assumption ; though, as the author of Paul, the Founder of Christianity^ truly says : Such men as Irenxas. Epiphantus And Eiuebiua have transmitted to posterity a reputation for such untruth and dishonest practices that the heart sicketiA at the story of the crimes of that period. The more so. since the whole Chnstian scheme rests upon tkdr say- ^ings. But we find now another corroboration, aud this time on the perfect reading of biblical glyphs. In Tfu Source of Measures we find the following: It must be borne in mind that our present Christianity i» Pautmc, not Jems. Jesoa, in his life. wa« a Jew. conforminj^ to the law; even more, He &a>-8: "The scribes and pharisces 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." Thcrofurc, He was under the law to the day of his death, and could not, while in life, abrogate one jot or tittle of it. lie was circumcised and coninianded circomcision. But Paul said of circumcision that iL availed nothing, and he 4 Paul) abrogated the law. Saut and /'an/— that is, Saul, under the law, and Paul, freed from the obligations of the law— were in one man. but pamlleUsms in the fleshy of Jestts the man under the law as observing it. who thus died in Chrfitos and arose, freed from its obligntioiis in the spirit world as CAristos, or the triumphant Christ. It was the Christ who was freed, but Christ was in the Spirit Satil in the flesh was the function of. and parallel of Chr^stos. Paul in the flesh was the function and parallel of Jesus become Christ in the spirit, as an early reality to answer to and flct for the apotheosis : and so armed with alt authority in the flesh to abrogate humau Uw-t 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 Brahmanical institutions, caste included, with im- punity, and that is the perfect " Sv^mis," the Yogi.s — who have reached, or are supposed to have reached, the first step towards the Jivaninukta state— or the full Initiates. And Paul was undeniably an Initiate. We will quote a passage or two from /sis 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 oUributed to this brave, hone*t, sincere man, and see whether anyone can find a word therein to abow that Paul meaot by the word Christ anything more than the abstract ideal •f the personal divinity indwelling in man. Vox Paul, Christ is not a person, but • Alt., by Dr. A. WUdcr. ia BimtmH^m, f £f^ a''., V. sM. J34 THB SBCRKT DOCTRINE. an embodied idea. "If any iniui is in Christ be is a new creation." he is reborn, i» after initiBlion. for tht Lord is spirit— the spirit of man. Paul was the only one ot the apf)«tleswho had understood the xecret ideas [uiderl>'inK the teachings ofJesiuL although hi.- had never met hini- Btit Patil himself was not infallible or perfect. Bept upon inaugurating a new and broad refonn, one embracing the wh(de of hofflanity, he sincerely set his own doctrines far above the wisdom of Ihc a|{e&, above the ancient Jblysterics and fiual revelation to the Kpoptic. Another proof that Paul belonged to the circle of the "Initiates" lies in the following facL The apostle had his head shorn at Cencbreae, where tAcins {Apm4ems)vrws initiated, because "he had a vow." The Na»ars~or set apart— «s we see in the Jewish Scriptures had to cut their hair, which they wore long, and which " no raior touched " at nny other time, and sacrifice it on the altar of inilia* tion. And the Nazars were a class of Chaldaean Tbcurgists or Initiates. It i.s shown in his Unveiled that Jesns belonged to this class. Paul declares that : " According to the grace of God which is given unto mc, wise iHOsUr-buiider, I have laid the foundation." (/. Corinth., iii. io.) This expression, niaslcr-huilder, used only once in the whole Bible, and by ma.y be considered as a whole revelation. In the Mysteries, the third part of the •lacrcd rites was callc<l E[K>pteia, or rcwlatiou, reception into the secrets. In sub- stance it means the highest stage of clairvoyance — the di\'ine; . . . but the real significance of the word is "overseeing," from omyuu— "I see mysel£'* In Sanskrit the root &p had the same meaning ori^nally, though now it is understood as mciining "to obtain." * The word rpopieia is curapoimd. frotu <»* " upon," and owro/iai ■■ to look," or an overseer, an inspector— also used for a master-builder. The title of master-mason, in Freeinasoary, is derived ^m this, in the sense usetl in the My.<!teries. Therefore, when Paul entitles himself h "master-builder," he is using a word pre-eminently kabehstic. thenrgic, and masonic, and one which no other apostle mte^. He tbns 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 iCabalak, before us, tt will be easy to (ind the secret reason why Paul was so persecuted and bated by Peter, John, and James. The author of the Hevetation was a Jewish Kalt-iliiit, ^M^ san^. with «1I tlie hatred inherited by him from his fore- fathers toward the psgan Mystcries.f His jealousy during the life of Jesns extended cTcn to Peter j and it Is but after the death of their common muster that we sec the I I I I * InUanMt nctemtve meaning, the Ranskril word ha* the Mme liters] KitM U tbe Gnck Icmi ImUi Imply " rrvHalion," t^ no humnn Bgrnl, but Utrttagh Um- "rMrnvtax of lh« gurred driulc.'' IN IiKtU tbc InilUtcd rcc«it<e<l iIk "Soioa." Mcrtd driok, which tKlpcd to tilxrr^e hi* •out frouihc bodsF ; ati<!l ui the tanisininn My«tcrk» ft wa* the wurrd drink offnrd at the RpciptHa. The Crvciaa Myatrrics arc wholly denvnl fruiii the Brihmaulcal Voitfic rilca, and Ibe latter rrom tbe Aatc-VaidlB itrfigiouB M)r&lrTl<-% primitive WUil*>ni Philoaopfay. * It ia tif¥xlk-iw lo >nat« that the f;ai/«-/acf<7n«itif ^y<ij|ii wat no* wiiuen byJobn.tMit by* PWOM or a Oaostic brlonriug to the Ncoplmonk *c(»ool. SECTION XVI. PBTER a Jewish Kabalist, not an Initiate. As to Peter, biblical criticism has shown that in all probability he hftd 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 [rencens, of endowing the Church with a new name for the Apostle — Pctra or Kiffa~a name which, by an easy play upon words, could be readily connected with Petroma. The Petroraa 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 acal of Peter. As already quoted in /sis Unveiled, ii. 92 : Id the Oriental couutries the designation Peter (in Pht^nician and Chalclaic an Inlerpreter), appears to have been the title of this personage.* So far, and as the "interpreters" of A^w-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. ha\'ing 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 his UnveiUd,\ 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 inscrip- tion was found on the coffin of Queen Mentuhept of the Eleventh Dynasty (2250 B.C. according to Bunsen), which in its turn was shown * Tii)r)or's /iUutintam tmi Baffkie MyuUriet, WiUcr'tcd.. p. x. * U.4I-94. I I I I THK SEAT OP PRTER. 127 I to have been transcribed from the Seventeenth Chapter of the Book of the Dead, dating certainly Dot latex than 4500 B.C. or 496 years before the World's Creation, in the Genesiacat chronolog>'. Nevertheless, Baron Bunsen shows the group of the hieroglyphics given {^Pelfr-ref-suy the "Mystery Word") and the sacred fonnular>- mixed up with a whole series of glosses and various interpretations on a monument 4,000 years old. 1 1 This is identical wilh sai-iug llial the record (the trnc interpretation) was at that timenolongerinteUiKihk. * . . We bcK our readers to understand that a sacred text, a hymn, containing the wonU of a departed spiril, existed in such a state. about 4,ooD years ago, as to be all but unintelligible to royal scribes.* '* 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 sHH «— a myster>' word. The Baron further explains ; It appear* to me that our PTR is literally the old Aramaic and Hebrew " Patar," wbkh occurs in the history of Joseph aa the speci6c word for intetfreting, whence also Pitniiii is the term for interpretation of a text, a dream. t This word, PTR, was partially interpreted owing to another word similarly written in another group of hieroglyphics, on a stele, the glyph used for it being an opened eye, interpreted by De Roug^J as *' to appear," and by Bunsen as " illtiminator," 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 Pelroma, 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-sthSna (seat, or the place of a seat), a term used in the Mysteries of the T^ntriks in India, in which the limbs of Sail are scattered and then united again, as those of Osiris by Isis.g 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 S>Tnbologi5ts and Philo- logists. We state facts — and nothing more. Many other writers, far • Buiucn, Egy^i Ptatt in Hiitoty, v. 90. t Sl4lt. p. 44. ) Bee Dowwin'a //iJttfo Claxiuai Did, tui voc., " Ptlha-sttainam." Y«8 THIS SBCRET DOCTRnm. more learned and entitled to be heard than the author has ever claimed to be. have suSicieutly demonstrated that Peter never bad auythiof; to do with the foundation of the Latin Church; that his supposed name Petra or Kififa, also the whole stor>' 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 6i)ally, far from dying a martyr at Rome, where he had probably never been, he died at a good old age at Babylon. In Sfpkrr Toldolk Jesku, a Hebrew manuscript of great antiquity — evidently an original and verj' 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 medita- tion, a Kabalist and a Nazarene who lived at Babylon "at the top of a tower, composed hymns, preached charity." and died there. I SECTION XVII. Apollonius of Tyana. Fr is said in /sis Unvrited that the greatest teachers of di^nnitj* agree that nearly all ancient books were written symbolically and in a lan- guage intelligible only to the Initiated. The biographical sketch of ApoIIonins of T>'an3 affords an example. As ever>- 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 fair>* story, btit. as in the case of the latter, soraeltmes 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 gfeographical and topographical idea of a certain country as it is even now, if one knows where to look for it. The long discourses of Apollo- nius with the Brahmans, their sage advice, and the dialogues with the Corinthian Menippns 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 alreadv 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 by Darais had actually taken place — but the narrative is based upon the Zodiacal signs. As transliterated by Damis under the guidance of Apollonius and translated by Philostratus, it is a marvel indeed. At tlie conclusion of what may now be related of the wonderful Adept of Tyaua our mean- ing will become clearer. Suffice it to say for the present that the dia- logues spoken of would disclose, if correctly understood, some of the most important secrets of Nature. Kliphas I^vi points out the great 130 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. resemblance which exists belwecu King Hiarchus and the iabulons 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 be teaches him, divulging nothing and leadiug hiui off the right track. Like most of the historical heroes of hoary antiquity, whose lives and works strongly differ from those of commonplace humanity. Apollontus IS to this day a riddle, which has, so far, found no Qidipus. His exis- tence is surrounded with such a veil of mystery that he is often mis- taken for a myth. But according to every law of logic and reason, il is quite clear that Apollouius should never be regarded in such a lighL 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 trae 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 5flh 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 mira- culously, and remained alone to tell the tale. But it must not be forgotten that Justin Martyr often speaks of Apollonius, and the charac- ter and truthfulness of this good man are unimpeachable, the more in that he had good reasons 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 oi odium thiologifum, intolerance and one-sidedness. St. Jerome (Hicronymus) gives at length the story of St. John's alleged contest with the Sage of Tyana— a competition of" miracles" — iu which, of course, the truUiful saint* describes in glowing colours the defeat of Apollonius, and seeks * See /W/iM /0 St. Maltkta's Gaif*l. B«roniiu, i. j^. (jnoted id Dc Hlrvillc. ti. 63. Jrromr te (he miner uhd having roanil the authentic ntid oncinal Knamgfl (the llrbm> Kztt, by MttUtew tbC Apo-ttc-pubjicaa, in the libraT> or CaHMrra, " wttUn ty Ihe kanJ uf Matthew" (Hirrunynns : Ar yirit. niiut. Cli«p. ill.)— as br hinue^r kditiitB— w^ il ilowi) uhirrclical. an'l «ubatltutciJ for it hiaowo Cnvk (cxI. AikI il U ml»o be who pervrrtnl the text m tbr Sotri »/J«t io cnforcv beUef in lt>c ir* ■■mrtfon in flr«h ikt /tit UniKtltd. Vol. U. pp. iSi and ila, tl My.), quating in aupport the ksninl untliuTlUa. i THB MYSTRRIOUS TRACHBR. ty corroboration io St. Johjx'sj^pociypAa proclaimed doubtful even by the Church* Therefore it is that nobody can say where or when ApoUoniu» was bom, 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 Records alone have noted his birth and subsequent career. But then — " who hath believed in /Aa/ report ? " All that history knows is that Apollonius was the enthusiastic founder of a new school of contemplatiou. Perhaps less metaphorical and more practical than Jesus, he nevertheless inculcated the same quintessence of spirituality, the liame 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 im- possible 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 a// men, and not alone to the outcast and the criminal. Therefore he associated with the kings and the mighty ones of the age. Nevertheless, the three "miracle-workers" exhibited striking simi- larity 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 "mira- cles" were more wonderful, more varied, and far better attested in • Df Mirvillff jfivn the following IhriUing accomit of the " coiiie»l." ■■ John. pccsBcd. as St. Jrroinc Iclln ti«, hy nil tJir ehutrhc* af Aata to proclaim man MlcnuUjr (in *!•* Ibcr oflhr miraclcH of ApolIO'^iu^J the divinity of Jrau.4 Christ, after a loii^' jirarer wilb bin dlsciplea oa the Mount of PatioM and hHnK in ecMasy by the divine Spirit, made heard amid tbunder and HgbtiiinK hia CaniouH /> f^i/uifiio era! yerbum. When tbalaubttnw cxtaniN, thai caiucd hitu lu be nanied lfa« 'Son of Thundet.' ttad passed, Apollonlua ww eompeUed to retire »ttd tu tlisappear. Sneh WMK his delc«l, leaa btoody but lu faArd as that uTSiraon, the MaipeJni]. i." Tbe Magician Tlicnr- gial." vL frjl For onr part we have never beard of cataaii produdag Ihuodcr and UghUUug aud wc are at a lOMt to nndentand tbe ncaning. ^3 TH« SECRBt DOCTIlIire. History than any others, is also true. Materialism denies; but evi- dence, and the affirmations of even the Church herself, however much he is branded by her. show this to be the fact.* The CAtutiinies Mt aflont against Apollonlua were as numeroufi lu they wer« faUe. So late OS eighteen cetitnries afler bin death he was defamed by Bnfaop Douf*Ias ia his work agaiuKC miracles. In this the Right Reverend bishop cnished himsell ■Cainit historical facts. For it is not in the miracla, but in the identity of ideaa and doctrines preached that we have to look (or a similarity between Buddha, Jeatu and Apollonius. If we study thcquc3tioD with a dispaasiouate mind, wc shall soon perceive that the ethics of Guutaiiia, Plato, Apollonius, Jesus, ATiitnoiuus SAkkas, and his disciples, were all based on the same m>-stic philosophy— 4h at all wor- shipped one dlWne Ideal, whether they considered it as the " Father" of humanitr, who lives in man. as man lives iu Him. or as the lucomprehcostble Creative Prin- ciple. All led Cod-like livt-s. Auimonitis, speakinj; of his philosophy, taught that their school dated from the days of Henries, who brought huiwsdora from India. It was the same mystical contemplation throughout as that of the Vogiu : the com> muaiou of the Brftliman with his own luminous Self— the "Atman."t 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 had a common origin, from the same source as the earlier Buddhism of Gautama and of his Arhats. Tlie Ineffable Name in the search for which so many Kabalists— ^nacqoahlted with any Oriental ortr\'en European Adepts— vainly consuine their knowledge and Uvea, dwells latent in the heart of every man. This miriflc name which, according to the most ancient oracles. " rushes into Iht infinite worlds, tt^n7r4((rrpo4^aX*yyi.* can be obtainc*i in a Iwofuld way: by rcgidar inilialiori, and through the "»iiia!1 voice" which Elijah heard in the cave of Iloreb. the mount of God. And "when Elijah beard it he wrapped his face in Ms manile and stood in the entering of the cave. And behold there enme t^ voice," MTien Apollonius of Tyana desired to hear the "small voice." he used to wnp him.<ielf up entirely in a mantle of fine wdoI, on which he placed both bis 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 tranalucid 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 Hterophnnl supreme power over e%-erv Iteing, human or otherwise, inferior to himself in soul-strength, t * T1ii« !■ the old. oM Mory. Who of iu. TtieoMphbiU. but knows by triltn- pctwonat cvperieac« wlmt clcrlcnl h:itm!, malice and pcrvrcutton can do tn thli rttrnrUon ; to What an evUttt of bJ«Hiood, calumny and crtMlty tlirar fwtliif;« ctin «•». e^r«n iu our modern dfiv. And wtiitt cxeraplara of Ckrut- ftirchitrity Hi* idt«gcd and KlT-COndUutnt vnrantii have vhuira thnnaelrcs to \te\ * /tit Onvetbd, H. 34*. < i^c- at., \\. .HJ. .u<- APOLLONIUS CANNOT HE DESTROVRD. 133 I I I To whatever school he belonged, this fact is certaiu. that ApoUonius of Tyana left an imperishable name behind him. Hundreds of works were written upon this wonderful man ; historians have seriously dis- cussed him i pretentious fools, unable to come to any conclusion about the Sage, have tried to deny his very eiristence. As to the Church, although she execrates his memor>'. 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 ihey have succteded, as they succeed in all they undertake. ApoUonius ijs represented by one party as an obedient " medium of Satan," surround- ing his theurgical powers by a most wonderful and dazzling light ; while the other parly professes to regard the whole matter as a clever romance, written with a predetermined object iu view. 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 bis works under the auspices and authorisation of the Holy See of Rome. It would l>e to leave the first oentiti^* incomplete and to oflfcr an insult to the sicmory of St John, to pass over in silence the name of one who had the honour ot Iwing his special antagonist, as Simon was that or ,SL Peter, Klymas that of Paul, etc In the first years of the Christian era, . . . there appeared at Tj-ana in Cappadocia one of those extraordinary men of whom the Pythagorean School waa so very lavish. As gnal a travi-ller us was liis master, ioiliated in all the secret doctrines of India, Kgypt and Chaldaca, endowed, therefore, with all the theurgic powers of the tiucieiit Magi, he bewildered, each in its tuni. all the countries which he Tiaited, and which all— wc are obliged to admit — seem to have blessed his memory. We conld not doubt this fact without rcpiidiuting real historical records. The details of his life are transmitted to us by a historian of the fourth century <PhilofitratuR), him.tclf the translator of a diary that recorded day by day the life of the philosopher, written by Damis, his disciple and intimate friend.* De Mir\'ille admits the possibility of sofw 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 Abbtf * /^efmatoltigit, vl. 6t. 124 THE SBCRET DOCTRINE. Freppel"in hiseloquent ^jsayf.'calling the diary of Damis a romance." Why? [BecAuM] llie orator liases his opinion od the perfect similitude, calculated as he imagines, of that Icgead with the life of the Saviour. Bat in studjriog the Kuhject more profouodly, he [Abb4 FreppelJ can con\-ince himself that neither Apollomus. nor r>Biiiis. nor again Philostratus ever claimed a greater honour than a likeness to St John. This programme was in itself snfficientty fascinating, and Uie timvestr aa sufficiently scandalous: for owing to magic arts Apollooius had succeeded io countertialancing, in appearance, several of the miracte« at Bphesus [produced bv St John], elc.t The anj^iis in herba has shonrn its head. It is the perfect, the won- deifal similitude of the life of Apolloniiis with that of the Saviour thai places the Church between Scylla aud Charybdis. To deny the life and the "miracles" of the former, would amount to denying the trast* worthiness 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 ktiows that to deny the existence of that Adept would lead her to denying the Emperor Vespasian and his His- torians, the Emperors Alexander Sevems and Aurelianus and thfir Hislorian.s, 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 Icaru what she says in this emergency, through her chosen speaker. De Mirville. It is as follows: What is there so new and so impossible in the narrative of Damis concerning their voyages to the countries of the Chaldecs and the Gymnosophists ? — he asks. Tr>' to recall, before denying, what were in those days those countries of marvels par ^xitf/Zetiee, as also the testi- mony of such men as Pythagoras, Bmpedocles and Democritus. who ought to be allowed to liave kuown what they were writing about. With what have we finally to reproach ApoIIonius? Is it for having made, as the Oracles did, a series of prophecies and predictions won- derftilly verified ? No : because, better studied now. we know what they are-t The Oracles have now become to us, what they were to every ■ />j ApetogitUt OlrttfVu an SttandSihU, p. 106. 1 /^tfitmata/pgM, vi, w. ) Haoy uv Uk7 who 4a -at kna»\: hence. Uiejr do Dot tteltevc in thrm. t>R MIKVtt,!^ OK APOU.0NIUS. 135 one during the past century, from Van Dale to Fonlenelle. Is it for having been endowed with second aight, and having had visions at a distance?* 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 P But who can be ignorant of the fact that this is the best criteriont of the presence and assistance of a spirit of whatever nature it may be? Or is it for having believed in transmigration (reincarna- tion) ? 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-establish- ment of the Drnidical Ketigion and of the Mysteries of Pythagoraa. Or is it for having exorcised the demons and the plague ? The Egyp- tians, the Etruscans and all the Roman Pontiffs had done so long before.t Pot having conversed with the dead ? We do the same to-day, or believe we do so— which is all the same. For having believed in the Enipuses ? Where is the Demonologist that docs not know that the Empuse is the " south demon " referred to in David's Psalms, and dreaded then as it i.s feared even now in all Northern Europe ?§ For having made himself invisible at will? It is one of the achievements of mesmerism. For having appeared af\er bis (supposed) death to the Emperor Aurelian above the city walls of Tyana, and for having com- pelled 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. || 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 Antiura 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 lyycurgus, like Pythag- I " JiHtao. ApoUouitW'. (luriiig ■ lecture be wm delivcriax tx Bptie«tt» before vt ftudienoe of nutty thoumnd*, percrivnl Utc munl«r of the Kntp^mr Domitian in Xoau umI notified il «1 the very ■UMural tl was Ukintt (tUcc, to tlie wlioI« looru : nod Swedenborv, In the Mrk niABarr. ww frcNa CotbcnbUTS tbc KTcat &n at Stockholn oud told ll to hi* Triends, no tete^nph being in uite in thOMe day*. * No criterioa «t bII. TIk Hlildn S£ddhu* and AdeptH sequire Ibe ^ft by (be haUnestt of Itaeir li«c». The Vo|[ii-Vli1yi trachm it. and no " splnbi " are rcqiured. t A« to the Poutiffs. the matter i^ rather doubtful. I But iM*- alone w no reason wky peofite ahoald betiere In thU daw of •pirita. Tarn are better authotities for •itch heBef. H De Mirville'ft aim U to show that all aueh apiwridoits of the Manes or dl^rnnbodled fipiriu nn llie : of the Deril, " Satan's ainiHlacra-" 136 THB SBCHAT DOCTRINB. oras.*alwayR tinder the most mysteriods circumstance*, ever attended by apparilions, revelations, etc. I«ct us stop here and repeat once more: bad the life of ApoUonius l>een simple romance, lie would never have attained such a celebrity during his lifetime or created such a nameroos sect, one so enthusiastic after his death. And. to add to this, had all this been a romance, never would a Cara- caJla have raised a heroon to his memor>'+ or Alexander, Set'vms have placed his bust between those of two Demi-Gods and of the true God, J or an Empress have corresponded with him. Hardly rested from the hardships of the siege at Jerusalem, Titus would not have hastened to 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 com- munication at Tyana. That posfhutmnis conversation, as aU knew, saved the cit>', inasmuch as Aurelian had in consequence raised the siege. Furthermore, had it been a romance. Histor>' would not have had Vopiscus.g one of the most trustworthy Pagan Historians, to certify to it. Finally, Apollonius would not have been the object of the admiration of snch a noble character as Epictetus, and even of several of the Fathers of the Church : Jerome for instance, in his belter moments, writing thus of Apollonius : This travelling philosopher found soraethtnK to leani wherever he went : and pn>- fitiag everywhere thus improved with every day.jj * Re migfal hAve ndded : like tb« girat StiAnbatlChirjrK, Taoos-Kha-rs. and to m»sy oUier ml A4cpt»-<v«n htn <nra MdBter. Jc«u« : for this is indeed a ctlteiiOB of true Adrptshlp. Uioti|;ta " to dfi- appcar " onr nrrd not By up in Ihe c1oad& * 6«« Dion C(UJiiis. XXTll. xvlii. t. i LAtnpcidiui, Adritin, xxix. j. I The passage tuns as follows : "Aurelian had cletermiDed lo destro}- Tyana nnd Ihe town owed Its salration only to a miracle of ApolloniiM ; thh man so hinons and «owi«e. thi* rreat friend of Ihe Gotb, appeared middenly before (he Rinperor, as he nas rrtutntns to his trnt, in hix own fiKt>'V and forroi, and aaid to him in (he Fannoninn rangitnire : ' Aurelian. iriboii wonldM conquer. atModoa UWM evil denfcnn MKnlnst tny fcllow-nltim* : tf thou wouldst eoramaTMl, abntam fVnm Kbeddinft fiinoemi bh>od;aiidiflhouwoutdst live, abstain frominjuMice.' Aurelian, familiar wlUi the foceof ApoUonltn, wlioac portralu be had aeen in mxay temples, mrack with wonder, bnmediatcly t^>wcd (o him <Apol- limJiM) stAlne, porlroil and temple, and leturacd completely lo ideas ul merey." And then VopiacM adds: " [f 1 have believed more and mote in the virtnesof thetNajM/tcApoUooiua. it ia bccaosc, aftet gatbering my inJomatioa (ram the miMt Sierions men, I htive found all thenr facts corroborated In the Books of the Ulpittn iJbraty." |}fee l-'Ia^iuc Voptsciu. An'thanut;. Vo|M*ctki wrote iu s*a and conaetiiteiitly pfecedcd Philostralns by a century. II E^. ai f^mlinttm. SECTION XYIII. Fact? underlying Adkpt Biographies Thh tree is known by its fruits ; the nature of the Adept by hU words and deeds. These words of charity and mercy, the noble advice put into the mouth of Apollonius (or of hi^ 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 ver>* 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 Hebrtw- Egyptian Mystery in the Source of Afeasures, 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 daj'H, one of the calentlan tn oae aniong the Hebrews) all remarkable e\tnts of the Otd 7esfament happened on the da>-* of the equinoxes (tnd the M>1stices: Tor instance, the fuiindiitionB ami dedications of the temples and altars [and consecration of the tabernacle J, On the »ame cardinal days, the most remarkable events of the AVic TW/himm/ happened; for instance, the annunciation, the birth, the resurrection of Christ, and the birth of JohntheBaptiaL And thus we learti tliat all remarkable epoch.<t of the iV^jv Testa jm en t vicn typically sanctified a long time before by the Olii Testament, beginning at the doy succee<ltnK the end of the Creation, which was the day of the A'cnial eqninox. During the crucifixioD, on the 14th day of Nisan. Dionysius .^rcopagita saw. in Ethiopia, an eclipse of the sun, and he said, " Now the Lord (Jehovah) is suflering something." Then Christ arose from the dead on the aid March. 17 Niian. Sunday, the day of the vernal equinox (Seyf., quoting Philo de SeptenI— that is, on Easter, or on the day when the sun gives new life to the earth. The words of John the Baptist "He mu.it increase, bnt 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, ami Christ, who was six months younger, on the shortest, sad June and 33d December, the solstices. JBBtrS AND AFOLLONTirS. 139 This oul>' go«s lo show lliat, as to another phase, John and jMtts were but cpitomisers of the history of the same ran, under differences of aspect or couditioD ; and one condition following another, of necessity, the AtAtement, Luig, tx. 7, wu not only not an empty one, but it wuii true, that which "was said of ttome, that (ju Jesas)John was risen from the dead." (And this considerftlion ser^-es to explain ■why it has been that the Life of ApoHonius of Tyana, by Philostratus, has been so perststetttly kept back from irauslatiou and from popular reading. Those who have studied it in the original have been forced to the comment that either the Life of Apolhniui has l>eeii taken from the i\ew 'festameitf, or that the tfew Testament narratives have been taken from the Life of ApoHonius, because of the manifest sameness of the ineans of (oustttution of the narrttti%-es. The enpla- nation is simple enough, when it is considered that the names oi Jesus, Hebrew igp, aud ApoHonius, or Apollo, are alike names of the sun itt the heavens; and necessarily the hialory of the one, as to his travels through thesigns, with the pcrsonjficatious of his Bufferings, triumphs and miracles, could be but the history of the other, where Lbere was a widespread, common method of describing those trav-cls by per- souification.) It seems also that, for long afterward, all this was known to re«t upon an astronomical basis ; for the secular church, so to speak, was founds*! by Constan- tine, 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 Sutt-Aay. Tliere is something weird and startling in some other facts about this matter. The prophet Daniel {true prophet, as says Graetz),* by use of tlie pyramid nuiubent, or astrological numbers, foretold the cutting off of the AUshiac, as it happened (which would go to show the accuracy of hU astronomical knowledge, if there was an eclipse of the sun at that time). . . . Now, bowev'er, the temple was destroyed in the year 71, in the month Virgo, and 71 is the Dove number, as shown, or 71 x 5 = 355, and with Me Jish, a. Jehovah number. "Is it possible" queries further ou the author, thus answering the intimate thought of ever>' Christian aud Occultist who reads and studies his work : Is it possible that the events of humanity do run co-ordinately with Uiese number forms? If so, while Je»us Christ, as .in astronomical Sgure.wastructo all tliat has been advanced, and more, possibly, He may, as a man, have filled up, under the numbers, answers in the ."sea of life to predestiiie<l type. The personality of Jesus does not appear to have been destroyed, because, as a condition, he was answering to aslrouo- mical forms and relations. The Arabian says, " Vour destiny is written in the star3."t Nor is the "personality'* of ApoHonius "destroyed" for the same * A" tn* propbflt " bccauM m iBitlste. one pcrrecILy v«nwd in Occult astninoiay'. t AVr W Htbrru-Kgyptiait MtUfry. p. ■$) et tnf, AalroiMifny and ptiyiriolanF are Uie bodlei, a>imt»Kr «"«' psv-rholnnv their informioc urals ; ihe foriucr being utatlied by the eye of •ettsoal perccptioD. Uit liitlcr !>>- tlic iiiiirTor"soiileye"; itiid kuth nnr ^x-or/ Kcimen- ««o TBS SSCRET DOCTRIKK. reason. The case of Jesus covers the ground for the same possibility in the cases of all Adepts and AvatSras— such as Buddha. Sbankai4- chSrya, Krishna, etc. — all of these as great and as historical for th' respective followers and in their countries, as Jesus of Nazareth is n for Christians and in this land. But there is something more in the old literature of the early, centuries. lamblichus wrote a biography of the great Pythagoras. The latter so closely re^eniWes the life of Jesus that ii may be laken for trave'tty. Diogenex LaiJrtius and Plutarch relate the history of Plato acconling to similar style.* 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 ha.s been known publicly and openly as a Pagan, how many more were there who wc: too ambitious to reveal the truth ? This "myster>'," for myster>' indeed it is to those who, not beiu^ Initiates, fail to find the key of the perfect similitude between the lives of Pythagoras. Buddha, Apolloaius. 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 on* 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 pro- gramme for all. The assumed " immaculate origin " tor each, refer- ring 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 Tirgin, conceiving her son directly by the Holy Spirit o( God: and the Sons, in consequence, were the "Sons of God," thou 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 th public and, parallel therewith, of their ianerUves, in their characters I ran ' * .Vfw Flmlonitm umd AUk^my, p. 13 SIOGItAPHniS OF tKirrATES. 141 I I I I Neophytes and Initiates. 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 oat horizon- tally, 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) ever>' true Adept had, and still has. to pass through the seven and the twelve trials of Initiation, symbolised by the twelve labours of Hercules ; (d) 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 hourof 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 person- ages 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 vend, will, Uke everything else, become plain. Take an instance. The legends — for they are «// 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 profauc gaze, the chief features of such lives will all be found there in common. Each of those charac- ters is represented as a divinely begotten Sotor (Saviour), a title bestowed on deities, great kings and heroes ; everyone of them, whether at their birth or afterwards, i.s .searched for, and threatened with death (yet never killed) by an opposing power (the world of Matter and Illu- sion), 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 phyiical personalities, of which they are supposed to have been rid for ever after spiritual *' resurrection " or " birth." And haviag thus come I4« "SBCRBT DOCTKINB. to »ii enti by this supposed violent death, they all descend to the Nether World, the Pit or Hell — the Kingdom of Temptatiod. 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 even.'day life. then, that the great gimttarily is to be sought, but iu their inner state and in the most impor- tant events of their career as religious teachers. All this is connected with, nnd 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, yfer lAt last fintf. to emerge therefrom as '• Suns of Righteousness," is the most important of these and, therefore, is found in the histor>' of alt the SotlSn— from Orpheus and Hercules, down to Krishna and Christ Sayn Knripides: Ilrmctc", who hss j^ne Trom the chambers of eirtta, I^nviiiK ll>^ nelher home of Pluto.* And Virgil writes: At Thee Ihc Siy^n'rtti lakes trcmhlca; Thee the janitor of Onnis I'evwl. . . Thee not even Typhon frightened. . . lUit. Aw A)M of Jove, glory added to the Go(li.t Orpheun seeks, in the kingdom of Pluto, Eurydice, his lost Soul; Kripihnn goes down into the infernal regions and rescues therefrom hlB six brothers, he being the seventh Principle; a transparent allegory of bis becoming a " perfect Initiate," the whole of the six Principles nit^rging into the seventh. Jesus is made to descend into the kingdom of Krtliin to save the soul of Adam, or the symbol of material physical humanity. Hnve any of our Icanicd Orientalists ever thought of searching for the origin of this allegory, for the parent "Seed" of that "Tree of Wfe" which benrs such verdant boughs since it was first planted on rnrth by the hand of its " Builders " ? We fear not. Yet it is found. an iii now Mhowii. even in the exoteric, distorted interpretations of the Kw/dJ— of the jV/^ Veda, the oldest, the most trustworthy of all the four —thin root and seed of nil future Tnitiate-Sa^'iours being called in it the Vi»vokarmfl. the •* Father" Principle, "beyond the comprehension of morlulH;" in the srcotui stage Suna, the "Son." who oflfers Himself M a Mucriflcc to Himself: in the third, the Initiate, who sacrifices His • f/eta<lti. 9vj. *jBmHt, vflL, »;4. K sj-mtMorr op usgkndS' 143 I I I ph^cafUi ^ShspirifiM^ Self. It is in ViKvakarmft, the"omnifirent,"who becomes (mystically) Vikkartana, the " son shorn of his beams," who suffers for his too ardent nature, and then becomes glonfied (by purifi- cation), that the keynote of the Initiation into the greatest Mystery of Nature was struck. Hence the secret of the wonderful " similarity." AU this is allegorical and mystical, and yet perfectly comprehensible and plain to any student of Eastern Occultism, cvca superficially acquainted with the Mysteries of Initiation. In our objective Universe of Matter and false appearances the Sun is the most fitting ctnblem of the life-giving, beneficent Deity. In the subjective, boundless World of Spirit and Realit>' the bright luminary has another and a mystical significance, which cannot be fully given to the public. The so-called "idolatrons" E^rsfs 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 Theoso- phists, who will be alone able to take in the meaning, may be told that the San is the external manifestation of the Seventh Principle of our Planetary System, while the Moon is its Fourth Principle, shining in the borrowed robes of her masler, saturated with and reflecting ever>* passionate impulse and evil desire of her grossly material borly, Earth. The whole cycle of Adeptship and Initiation and all its mysteries are connected wth, and subservient to, these two and the Seven Planets. Spiritnal clairvoyance is derived from the Sun ; all psychic states, diseases, and even lunacy, proceed from the Moon. According even to the data of Histor>- — 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 aud their Religions should be, the one myth.s and the other superstitious. They are, one and all, the different versions of the same natural primeval Myster\', onwhich 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 parti- cular— 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 Vnith and fact can hardly be regarded, X44 THE SBCRST OOCTHINB. with any approximatioa to justice, as blasphemy or hatred. The whole question han^ upod the solution of that one point ; Was Jesus as " Son of God" and " Saviour" of Mankind, unique in the World's uuiftbi? Was His case — among so many similar claims — the only exceptional and unprecedented one; His birth the sole superaaturally immaculate: and were all others, as maintained by the Church, but blasphemous Satanic copies and plagiarisms by anticipation P 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 aud 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, has the Church always believed as she does now — or rather, as she pretends she does, iu order to be thos justified indirecting her anathema against those who disagree with her— or has she passed through the same throes of doubt, nay, of secret denial aud uubelief. sui^pressed 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 l>ased 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 aud progress of the Christian Church (not of Christianity), and he will find the answer on those pages. Says a wri'.er . The Church has known too well the sngKestioas of ireelhooftht created I9 enquiry, as «Im> aU those iloubtA Lhat provoke her luiger lo-day : and the " sacred truths" she would pruDiuIgatc bu%-c been in turn admitted and repudiated, trans- formed aud altered, ampU&cd aad curtailed, by the (lif(Ditarie$ of the Chtuch hier- archy, even as regards the most ftradatncntal dognia:^. Where is that God or Hero whose origin, biography, and genealogy were more hazy, or more diffictUt 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 of iuk 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 I I NATUSB OF CHRIST. 145 I I themselves and cfianjic^ their minds a number of times. L«t us recapitulate and throw a glance at the texts offered for our inspection. This is History. The Bishop Paul of Saraosata 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 cormptible in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. At the Council of Niceea, held a.d. 325, Arius came out with his pre- misses, 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 Euscbians had proclaimed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and One with His Father. At the Council of Sirmintn, a.d. 357, the *'Son" had become no longer consubstantia]. The Anomacans, who denied that consubstan- tiality, and the Arians were triumphant. A year later, at the second Council of Ancyra. it was decreed that the " Son was not con substantial but only similar to the Father in his substance." Pope I^iberius ratified the decision. During several centuries the Councils fought and qnarrelled, sup- porting the most contradictory and opposite views, the frait of their laborious travail being the Holy Trinity, which, Minen^a-Hke. issuetl forth from the theological brain, armed with all the thunders of the Church. The new mystery was ushered into the woria amid some terrible strifes, in which murder and other crimes hao a high hand At theCouncil 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 Avat^ric Hindu doctrine. " Once upon this bllppery path the Fathers had to slide down at/ absunfuM — which they did not fail of doing." How deny human nature in him who was bom ot 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 excommuni- cated by Pope Flavins. At the Council of Ephesus, a.d. 44.9, Eutyches had his revenge. As Kusebius, the veracious Bishop of Cae>iarea, was forcing him into the 1 u r^X46 THE SECRET DOCTHIKR. admission of /aw distinct natures in Jesus Christ, the Council rebelled against him and it was proposed that Ivusebius should be burned alive. The bishops arose like one raan, and with fists clenched, foaming with rage, demanded that Eusebins should be torn into two halves, and be dealt by as he would deal with Jesus, whose nature he divided. Eutyches was re-established in his power and office, KuBebius and Flavius deposed. Then the two parties attacked each other most vio- lently and fought. St. Flavins was so ill-treated by Bishop Diodoms, who assaulted and kicked him, that he died a few days later from tbt- iujurtes inflicted. ^^H Every incongruity was courted in these Councils, and the result fe the present living paradoxes called Church dogmas. For instance, at the first Council of Ancyra, A.ii. 314, it was asked, " In baptizing a woman with child, is the unborn baby also baptized 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 its mother's womb." Thus then unconscionsness 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 tbou- >iands of starving heathen babies baptised by the missionaries during famines, and otherwise surreptitiously "saved" by the too zealoas 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 t And now we can see how greatly paradoxical, when taken literally, is the assertion in Geiusis : "God created man in his own imajre." Besides the glaring fact that it is not the Adam of dost (pf Chapter ii). who is thus made in the divine image, but the Divine Androgjne (of Chapter i.). or Adam Kadmon, oue can see for oneself that God — the God of the Christians at any rate— was created by man in his o\^^ image, amid the kicks, blows and murders of the early Coxuicil.s. 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 "—Tke Source of Measures. AltcQtioa is called to the part of the 46th verse of the 371h Chapter of Matthew, as follows; ■■ ICli, SH, Jrfima Sabacblliaiii?— that in to say. My God. mv Ocm!. why hisL thou forsaken me?" Of course, our versions ar« lAken from the originii] A SBSIOUS MISTRANSLATION. »47 I Aw L Gf«vi maouscripts (the rcuooi whjr we have no oriKm^ Hebrew m&Duscnpts concerning these occturences being becaase the enif^as in Hebrew would beUay themselves oo comparison wnlh the sourcea of ibcir derivation, the Old Teslamfnt). The Greek manu&cripts, without exception, give these words aa — 'HA* *HX* Xofco <raPa)fia.vt They arc Hebrew words, rendered ialo tbe Greek, and in Hvbrew are u follow*: Tbe Scripture of these words says, "that is to say. My God, my God, why hast thou foraaken me ^ " as their proper trAti<i]atioii. Here then are the words, beyoud all dispute; and beyond all question, such ia tbe intcq>retation given of them by Scripture. Now the words will not bear this interpretation, and it ia a falae rauder- ing. The true meaning 'Mjmt the opposite of the one given, and is— My God-, my God, how thou dost glorify me! Bnt even more, for while lama is why, or how, as a verbal it connects the idea of to dazzle, or adverbially, it could run " how dazstingiy," and »o on. To the unwary reader this interpretation is enforced, and made to answer, as it were, to tbe fulfil- ment of a prophetic utterance, by u marginal reference to tbe first verse of tlie iwenty-ucond Psalm, which reads : " Uy God, my God, why hast thou foraaken me ?** Tbe Hebrew of this verse for these words is— ,| t to which the reference is correct, and the interpretation sound and good, but with an utterly different word. The worda are — Eli, Eli, lamak asabvtha'nif No wit of man, however scholarly, can save this passage from falseness of render- ing on its face ; and as so, it becomes a most terrible blow upon the proper ftrat-face sacredness of the recital.* For ten years or more, sat the revisers (?) of the Bible, a most impos- ing and solemn array of the learned of the land, the greatest Hebrew and Greek scholars of England, purporting to correct the mistakes aud blunders, the sins of omission and of commission of their less learned predecessors, the translators of the Bible. Are we g^ing to be told that none of them saw the glaring difference between the Hebrew words in Psalm xxii., asabx'tha-ni, and sabackthani in Mallhew ; 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 6'«r«)nCTi/a/ words belonged in their true rendering to Pagan temple • App.. vii., p. joi. 14^ THK 5BCKST DOCTRmB. riles. They were pronounced after the terrible trials of InitiatioD, and were slill fresh in the mcmor)' of some of the "Fathers" when the Gospd 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 met " were the 6nal words that concluded the thanksgiving prayer of the Initiate. " the Son and the glori&ed Elect of the Sun." In Rgypt 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 llie Initiate, the two streams of which, interlacing, form a cross. The better to conceal the truth, this basso-reliei^ has also been explained as a " Pagan presentment of a Christian truth." The Cheva- lier des Mousaeaux calls this Mercury : The assessor of Osiriii-Sol, as St. Michael is the asseafior, Perouer, of the Word. The monogram of Chrestos and the Labanim, the standard of Con- stantine — 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 Neoph>'tes and Adepts. Say Eliphas \^\\ : The sign of the cro») udoptcit by the Chri^ians does not belong exclu8i%-ely to them. It it kabaliatic, and represents the oppositions and quaternary equilibrium of the clemrnts. We see by (he occult verse of the Paler, to which we have called attention in another work, thai there were originally two ways of making it, or, at least, two very different fomiulns to express its meaning: oac reserved for priests and initiates : the other given to neophytes and the profane.* 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 gaze. Jerome found the authentic and originaJ Evangel written in Hebrew, by Uatttacw the Puhlican, at the library coUecte<l at Coesarea by the martyr Pamphilioa, " I rtaivnt pfttumion from the NaMnrans,y»t}xo atDerceaofSyria used tliisCgoqidl * Dagmti H RtlmH it Ut Hamti fiAgu. it. 88. SaCHET DOCTHIKK OP W. '149 to translate it," be -writes toward the end of the fourth centtirT.^ " In the Uv»Dgel whicii Ihe !*>asorfHfs and Ebtonites use," said Jerome, "which recently I trans- lated from Hebrew into Greek, and which is called hj most persons the genuine gm>pel of Matthew," ctc.t That the apostles IiaiI received a "necret doctrine" from Jesus, and that he him- self taaght one, is evident from the following words of Jerome, who confeA!»ed it in au uagnardetl rooinent. Writing to thi- Rifihops Cfaromatins and Reliodorus, he coniplAinft that "a difficult work ia enjoiiietl, since this (trnnslation) has b«en com- manded me by your Felicities, whicli St. Matthew himiclj, the Apostle and Evan- gelist, did not wish to be opfniy written. For if this had not been iecrei, he (Matthew^ would have added to the Evanxel that what be gave forth woi his ; but he made up thit book staled up in the Hebrew characters, which he put forth etfen in such a way thai the book, written in Hebrew letters and by the band of himKir. nn'Kht be poAscssed by the men mast religious ; who also, iu the course of time, received it from those who preceded Ihem. But this very book they never gave to any one to be transcribed, and its text they related some one way and sonic another."! And he adds further on tbc same page: "And it happened that this book, having been published by a disciple of Manichocus, named Seleucu<i. who also wrote falsely The Acts 0/ 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."t Jerome admits, himself, that the bf>ok which he authenticates as being written "by the hand of Matthew," was nevertheless a book whicli. notwithstanding that he translated it twice, was nearly uniutelligible to him, for it was arcane. Never* theless, Jerome coolly seta down every commentary- upon it but his own as hereiicai. More than that, Jerome knew that this Gospel was the only original one. yet be becomes more zealous than ever in hts persecntion of the " Heretics." Wfay P Be> cause to accept it was equivalent to reading the deatli senteace of the eatabllRhed Cbnrcb. Tlie Gospel according to the Hebrews was well known to have been tbft * (RlrroBymuB, Dt Vwix lUnii., iiio "It i> rtmarfcablc that, while all Cfaurdi Psthen say tbst Matthew wtoie In Iffb'fu-. tht whoJe of thfm u« the GreH l«(l na th* KcntiiBC apostolic wrtllnj. without tncntloiiitiK what rrliitioii the Hfbrem Hatlhcw hoa to our Cttek one I It had monjr ^tcuttar addiitOMs whtcb arv wautiag io our (Urcck) KvaDycl " KMabauaen, vVocAnvu dtr Echtktit dtr Sdmmt- hehfn SeXnflm lUs Ntuen 7>/i.. p. 31 ; Dunlap, iiJW, /A/ Sw o//V .Waw, p. «-l t Commun. to MatiAfw (zit. 13) Book 11. Jerome adds that tt was wrllleo la the Cbaldaic laiiciuc«, but wiUi Bcbfcw tctttn. 9 "St. JeTeaK." v. 445 i Dunlap, SU, Itt So» of Mom. p. 4«- I This Kccountji bIm) for thr iej«cUo«i of the works of Jusliu Martyr, who used oaly this " Goapf I nccocdliic to tb« Hrhrrwu." bk al»o did moM probably Tntian, hlft dttctplc. At what a late period the diriiuty of Christ was fully c^tivblinhrd wr can jnd^by th« mtrf fart that cwa in Ihr foarth rrniury KnaehiDih did not ilmoiiiKr ttiit- hook no Kporioas. bat only claMwd U with such as the Ap&cal^u of John: aad Cndncr iZir G*3ch dti Kan, p iio)sliciw« N<crphoni» iiitirrtiTi|r it, toircthcT wltfa Ihe KexielaNtm. in bis Stitkomelry, among the Autilcgomcna. The Kblonltm, th« genuine primlllvt ChriaUatia, rejecting the- rext of the Apostolic writlngra, make uac oaly of this Gospel ^Adv. Har., 1. i6> aad Ib« ^)«OQltc«, ot^ Eptphanius itnlaraa, firmly believed, mlb the Nasarena, that Jeaas was bat aaiaa. "oflheaced o(a mas." I50 TBF SECRET DOCTKUVR. only one accepted for four centuries by the Jewish ChiiitiADi, the NazAreoe< aad the Bfaionites. And neither of the latter accepted the divinUy o/CfarisL* The EbiODites were the first, the earliest Christians, whose re- presentative was the Gnostic author of the Clem^nfitu Homilies, and as the author of SuperTiatural Religion shows,t Ebiouitic 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 ^ons. as the Cerinthians did, and that " the world was put together by Angels " (DhySn Chohans), as Hpiphanius complaias {Contra Ebiontias) : " Ebion had the opinion of Ihc Nazarenes, the form of Cerinthians." " They decided that Christ was of the seed of a man," he laments.] Thus again : The bad^ of Dan>Scorpio is death'life. in the symbol jl , a« cross-hones and tMt, ... or Ufe-deaih . . . tbe ftlaudurd of Constantine. the Roman Emperor. Ahti has been sliown to be Jesus, and Cain-Vulcain, or Mars, pierced him. Constan- tine was the Roman Emperor, whose warlike god was Mars, and a Roman soldier pierced Jesn£ on the cross. . . . ' But Uie 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-Gcncrator [Osiris-Sun] and Mars- Destroyer [Mercury tbe God of Death in the Egyptian basso-relUvo] in one ; .significant, again, of the primal idea of the hving cosmos, or of birth and death, as accessary to the continuation of the stream of life.t To quote once more from Isis Unvdled : A L«tin cross of a perfect Christian shape was found hewn upon the slabs of the Adytum of the Serapcnm : aud the monki; did not fail to claim that the cro&.<i had been hallowed by the Pagans in a "spirit of prophecy." At least. Sozomen, with an air of triumph, records the facL|{ But archscology and syni- holism, those tireless and implacable enem^ies of clerical false pretences, have found in the hierogl>'phtcs of the legend runbiiig round the design at least a partial interpretation of its meaning. According to Ring and other uumtsmatists and archsMlogists, the cross was « /lis Uu»»a*d. H. i8*-3. t Ot.ea..i{. %,. t &ev slso /n't Onwittd. it. iSo, toeaJ or chapter. I StMttt o/ Mitatuirt. ]>. iqg. Thia"9itreatn of tUc" txing etablanati*^ in the Philloc teu.)-r//t/n* Jut locutloacd, by the vraXei poured in the sbaipe of a Ciotu oa the iuitintcd candt>latc by 0»fih> - L*/t and the Sun ■ml Mercury— AraM. It wma tht final* o( ihc rite of It^liatioa after lh« trt<* SBtt the tutltt lortum In thr Ciypts of Ksypt urciv piuAcd Ihcough succcarfoUj. I Another untiiulwofthy. untruthful nnd IgaMiml writn, lui ecctariwrtical hiatoviui of t^ fifth ccntory. Hi* alleged buloty of the nUiCc between the l*a(uu, Neopiatonwtji, and the ChtikUiiiH of Alernksdria iind Constantiaoplc, which ritmds fron the yc«r jm to 4J4. dcdkated by Um to Thit doaitu. the youarer. U full of deliberate falaiScatioiui. J TBB CROSS AMD CRtTCIVIX. VSr I I I pimecd tkefe w tlte symbol of eternal life. Sucli a Vau, or Egyptian cross, was use<l in the Bacchic and Bleuxinian Mysteries. Symbol of the dc&l gefierative power, it was laid ui>on the breast nf the Initiate, after bt<c " new liirtli " was accompluhed. and the Myst« had returned from their baptism in the sea. It was a mystic si^ that bis spiritual birth had regenerated aad united his astral soul with his divine spirit, and that he was ready to ascend in spirit to the blessed abodes of light and f;lor>-— the Bletisinia. The Tau was a mflgic talisnian at the ■same time an a religious emblem. It nas adopted by the Chri<tttaii!> through the Gnostics and Kabalists, who used it largely, as their nomerousgems testify. These in turn had the Tau (or handled cross) from the Egyptian5,and the Latin Cross from the Buddhist misHtonarics, who brought it from ladia (where it can be found even now i two or ttiree centuries B.C. The Assyrians Egyptians, ancient Americaitfi, Hindus and Romans hiwi il in various, but very .slight modifications of shape. Till very late in the middle ages, it was conxidered a potent spell again st epilepsy and demoniacal poeaes&ioo, and the "signet of the living God" brought down in St. John's vision by the augel ascending from the cast to " seat tliescr\-antt of our God in the foreheads," was but the same mystic Tau — the Egyptian CroRs. In the painted glass of St. Denis (France) this angel is rtrpreae-nte^l as stamping this sign on the forehead of the elect: the legend reads. SIONUM TAY. In King's Gnostics, the author reminds us that " this mark i^ commonly borne by SL Antltouy, an Egyptian recluse."* What the real meaning of the Tau was, is explained to as by the Christian St. John, the Egyptian llermefi. And the Hindu Brahmans. It iji but too evident that, with the Apostle at least, it meant the " IncfTablc Name." as he callathis "signet of the li\-ingGod" a few chapters further ont Ui<; " Fathtr'i name written in their Jorekeads." • The BrahmAtmi, the chief of the Hindu Initiate^ had on his head-gear two keys s>-tnbol of the revealed mystery of life and deatti, placed cro<M-1ike; and in some Buddhist pagodas of Tarlary and Mongolia, the cntrancr of n chamber within the t>(Mnple. generally containing the staircase which leads to the inner dagoba,| and the porticos of some Prac-fiidas^ are ornamented with a cross formed of two fishes, as found on some of the zodiacs of tlie Buddhists. We should not wonder at all at learning thut the sacred device in the tonilM in the calacnnibs at Roirie. the " Vesica Fiscis," was derived from the said Buddhiat zo^lincal sign. How general must have been that geometrical figure in the world-symbols, may he inferred from the fAct that there is a Masonic tradition that Solomon's temple was built on three Eouadattons forming the " triple Tan " or three crosses. In its mysbcal sense, the Egyptian cross owes its origin, as an emblem, to the realisation by the earliest philosophy of uu aminygynoiti dualistn of eptry ntani/esta- turn in natmrf, which proceeds from the abstract ideal of a likewise androgynous deity, while the Christian emblem is simply due to chance. TLid the Mosaic law • **&Mu^auOi-lk9imrC»rMimns,wA:ti^.rSSl ' * Aravfa/MM. xl*. I. t A Ihigolw Is ■ RBBlI traiptr orKlot>ular fbrm, la which xrr pii. wived tAc rclk* orCdutittiB. I PntchtdM are bulldfai^ of aU iIks sad rorms. Uke oar auuMlcua*. aad tn HCT«d ta votive oCerinp lo the dtmd. 152 tUK SBCRKT DOCTRINE. prevailed, Jestu ihould have been lapidated.* Tbe crucifix waa an In&trument of toctare, and utterly common among Romans aa it wai anknown among Semitic nations. It was called the " Tree o( ln(amy." U is bat later that it was adoptcil m a ChriKtian symbol ; bnt danng the Brst two decades the apostles looked upon tt wiUi boiTor.t It ia certainly not the Christian Cross that John had in mind wben ^leakinfjof the "signetof theliving Ood,"hutthemyj^u'TBu — the Tetragrammaloa, or mighty name, wbicta. on the most ancient Kabolistic talismans, was reptesamted by the four Hebrew letters composing the Holy Word. The famous Lady EUenborougb. known amoti}^ the Arabs of Damaacnst and in tbe de««rt, after her lun marriage, as Hanoum Medjouye, had a talisman in her possession, presented to her by a Dnisc frum Mount Lebanon. It was recognised by a certain sign on its left corner u belonging to that class of gems which is known ia Palestine as ■ " Messiamc"' amulet, of tbe second or third century R.C. It isa green stone of a pentagonal form ; at the lK}ttom ia engraved a fiab ; higher, Solomon's ScbI;: and still higher, the four Chalilaic Iclters-Jod, He. Vau. He, lAHO, whkh form the name of the Deity. These arc arranged in quite an onusual way. niuDing from below upward, in reversed order, and forming tbe Kgyptiiin Tan. Aronod these there is a legend which, as the gem is not our property, we are not at liber^ to give. The Tau, in its mystical sense, as well as the Cntjt OMsata, is the Trteaf Lije. It is well known that tlie earliest Christian emblems— before it was ever attempted to represent tbe bodily appearance of Jesus— were the Lamb, the Good Shepherd, and The Fhh. The origin of tbe latter emblem, which hns so puzzled the archsologists, thus becomes comprehensible. The whole secret lies in the easily ■scertained fad tlini, while in the Kabalah the King Messiah is called " Interpreter," or Revealer of the Mystery, and shown to be the fifth emanation, in the Talmud— for reasons we will now explain— the Messiah ift very often dejugnated as ** OAG," or the Fbb. This is an inheritance from the Chaldccs. and relates — as the VC17 name indicates — to the Babylonian Uagon, the man-fish, who was the instructor and interpreter of the people, to whom he appeared. Abarbanel explains tbe name, by stating that the sign of his (Messiah':;) coming is the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the sign Pisces.^ Therefore, as the Christians were intent upon identifying their Christos with the Messiah of the Old Ttilament, they adopted it so readily as to forget that its true origin might be traced still farther back than the Babylomoii Dagon. How eagerly and closely the ideal of Jesus was united, by the early Christians, with ever>- imaginable kabalistic and pagan tenet, may be inferred from the language of Clemens, of Alexandria, addresseJ to his co-religionista * Tbe Tsliuudtslic manl« claltn that, alter having bmi h&nKnl. h« wok lapi dated juad buried uiMhr Uic water at the JuuctioD of two stteanu. Mithnti SaMAtdrm, Vol. VI., p. 4 ; Talmud, of Babjloa. same article, 43 ■. 6? a. * Cp^ic ItgtHii o/tMt CrmeiJUioM. M6& XI. t Wc an al a loaa to undmtand why Kins. *» ^^ Gttotitt Gtmt, rvpteseiiU Sototaoa** Seal aa a firc-potnted star, wbcrcas it ia fiix-pcliitc<l, and ia the lignel or VLeKdu In India. I King (CfNuficj) givei Uie figure of a Ctirlflliao Ayoibol. wry coniDOn during Uic taiddlc aftt, of three flabr» interlaced into u iriongle. and having the nVH lettrrv 4a toast ucred PjrlhagOTaa niunber) IX0YS engrBved on II. Tte number five rt-Utee to the sane kAbaliitic compuUUoti. J THE STORY OF JSSU& *53 I I When they were debatins upon the choice of the most appropriate symbol to rcniiud ibetn of Jesus, Clemens adviseil Uieai in the following words: "L*tlhe enKraviDK upon the gem of jroor ring be either a dcvt. or a ship running before the wifd (the Argha), or &jish." Was tlie good father, when writing this senience, labouring under the recoUectioti of Joshoa, son of Nun (called yt^flvi in theGrvelc Bod Slavonian versions); or had he forgottco the real interpielation of these pagan •ymbols i* And now, with the help of all these passages scattered hither and thither in Isis and other works of this kind, the reader will sec 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 Ini- tiate, why should all these alUgorical incidents of his life be given? Why should such extreme trouble be taken, so much lime wasted try- ing 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 preser\'e 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 Source of Measures gives out that mystical intent ; but only once now and again, in its one-sided, numerical and kabalisttc meaning, without paying auy attention to, or having concern with, the primeval and more spiritual origin, and he deals with it only so far as it relates to the Old Testametit. He attri- butes the purposed change in the seulence " Eli. Eli, lama sabachthani " to the principle already mentioned of the crossed bones and skull in the Labarum, As an emblem of death. Ixring placed over the door of life and «]gli!fylngMrfA, or of the interconuinmcnt of two opposite principles in one, just as, m>'8ttcally, the Saviour was held to be man-woninn.* The author's idea is to show the mystic blending by the Gospel writers of Jehovah, Cain, Abel, etc., with Jesus (in accordance with Jewish kabalistic numeration) ; the better he succeeds, the more clearly he shows that it was a forced blending, and that we have not a record of the real events of the life of Jesus, narrated by eye-witnesses or the Apostles. The narrative is all based on the signs of the Zodiac : ' Bach a double .sign or tnale-fenmle [in ancient astrological Magic]— viz: it wwi Taum*-Rvc, and Scorpio was Mars-Lnpa, or Mars with the female wolffiu relation to I * Op. at.. jDi. An ttiia coooect* Jcsub with great tniUateg \aA loUr ticroefi; ftll thU k purely PnjCAO, under a imrty-Fvolvrd varintioti. Ui» Chmtian ichcmp. 154 THE SBCKET DOCTRIHB. Romuliu]. So, u these signs were opposite^ of each other, yet hm/ m tkteentrt, thcywere coonected \ and so in fact it was. and in a doable seosc, the conception of the year was in Taurns, as the conception of live by Mars, her oppoaite. in Scocpia The birth would be at the winter solstice, or Christmas. On the coatrary. by coa- ception in titorpio— tii.. of Lupa by Taurus— l>irth would be in Leo. Scorpio wm Chrvstos in kumiiiationy whtl* I^eo was Christos in tnuntph. While Taorus-Ewe ftilfiUed aatroDomical functions, Mars-l,u]m fulfilled spiritual one* by type.* The author bases all this on Egyptian corrclalions and meanings of Gods and Goddesses, but ignores the Arj'an, which are far earlier. Mooth or Mouth, was the EKyptian cognomen of Vcdos, (Eve. mother of all living) [as Vach. mother of all living, a permutation of Aditi, as Eve was one of Seplura] or the moon. Plutarch {his, 374) hands it down that Ists was sometimes called /KiM. which word mean.t mother. . . (Isim, TITHr wotnan). (fsit. p. 372). leia. be says is that part of Nature, which, as femiuiue. contains in herself, as (nutrix) nurae, all things to be born. . . "Certainly- the moon." speaking ARtronomically, "chiefly exercises this function in Taurus, Venus bein^ the house (in opposition to Mara, generator, in Scorpio), because the sign is luna. hypsoma. Siuce. . . Isis Metheot differs from Isis Muih and that in the vocable Muih the notion 0/ bringing JbrtMm»,j beconcealed, and since fructification ntust take pitice. ^/being joitiiKl with Ijuut io Libra, it is not improbable that Much first indee<l signifies Venus in Libra; hence Luna in Libra." (Beitrage zur Kcuntaiss, purs. 11, S. (h under Mttth.yf Then Fuerst, under Bohu. is quoted to show The double play upon the word Afuthby help of which the real intent is produced in the occult way . . . sin, dtalfi, and women are one in the glyph, and cone- Ifttively connecte<l with intertoursf and deafh.l All this is applied by the author only to the exoteric and Jewish euhemerised symbols, whereas they were meant, first of all, to conceal cosmogonical mysteries, and then, those of anthropological evolution with reference to the Seven Races, already evoluted and to come, and especially as regards the last branch races of the third Root- Race. However, the word void (primeval Chaos) is shown to be taken for Evc-Venus-Naamah, agreeably with Puerst's definition; for as he says: In this primitive signification [of voidj was "irO [bohu] taken in the Riblicsl coa. mogony, and used in enUblUhing the dogma pMD OT Jes (us) m'avm. /a-us from nothing), respecting creation. [Which shows the writers* of the Netv Ttstamtmt considerably skilled in the Kabalah and Occult Sciences, and corroborates still more our assertion,] Hence Aquiln translates o^w vulg. vacua (bencc vacta. com\ [hence also the horns of Isis — Nature, EaKh. and the Moon — taken from Vicb, the Hindu "Mother of all that lives," identified with VirAj and called in Athar\«veda the daughter of KAmo, the/n/ deaircs ; •■ That daughter of thine. O Kima, is c^ti Op. tU.. v^. t Fp. tM. 195. » PiW. THB PRtMITIVB WOHAN. 155 I I I I I I I Ike cow, 3be whom Si^s aftoie VAcK-Virii}" who was milked by Brihaspnti, the Rishi. which is another mysteryj Ookelos aad Saniarit. "^^p^' The Plusnictait cosmogony has connected fiohu im Baaif into a persooified ex- pression denoting the primitive sttbitanee, and as a deity, the moi/ier oj racet o/ ihe ;?r(]£s [which is Aditi And VAcbJ. The Aramean name O'lrQ' n'>rT3i MITim, Bow^, Bv^-oc, Buto, for the moilur of the godi. which passed ovcrto the Qnojitlcs. Babylonians and EiOTtians, is identical then antk M6t InMD. our MiUh) properiy, (^Hu0) originated in Phcenician from an interchange of b with m.* Rather, one would say, go to the origia. The mystic euhcmerisation of Wisdom and Intelligence, operating in the work of cosm.ic evolution, or Buddhi under the names of Brahmil, Punisha. etc., as male power, and Aditi-V3ch, etc., as female, whence Sarasvati, Goddess of Wisdom, who became under the veils of Esoteric coucealmeut. Bulos. Bythos- Depth, the grossly material, personal female, called Eve, the "primitive woman " of Irenseus, and the world springing out o( Nothing. The workings oat of this glyph of 4th Genesis help to the comprehension of the division of one character into the forms of two persons; as Adam and Hve. Cain and Aljcl. Abram and Isaac, Jacob and E'iau, and so on fall male and female] . . . Now, as linking together several great salient points in the Biblical structure : (/) as to the Old and New Trstanunts ; with also {t) as to the Roman Hmpire ; (^| aa to confirming the meanings and uses of s>-mbols ; and (/) as to confirming the entire explanation and reading of the glyphs ; as (5} recognising and laying down the base of the great pyramid as the foundation square of the Bible construction : {6) as well as the new Roman adoption under Constautine — the following given :t Cain baa been shown to be . . . the 360 circle of the Zodiac, the perfect and exact standanl, by » squared division; hence his name of Melchizadik .... [The geometrical and numerical demonstrations here follow.] It has been repcate<lly stated that the object of the Great Pyramid construction was to measure the heavens and the earth . . . [the objectiTe spheres as evohuing from thf siil>- jective, purely spirit iisl Kosmos. we beg lea\'e to add]; therefore, its measuring con- tainment would indicate all the substance of measure of the heavens ami the earth, or agreeably to sncienl recognition, Earth. Air. Water Kod f-'ire.l (The baac aide of this pyramid was diameter to a circumference in feet of 9400. The chareclenstic of this is 24 feet, or 6 >c 4 » 24, or this rery Cain-Adam square.) Now, by the re«tor*tion of the encampment of the Israelites, as Initiated by Moses, by the great ■ fp- WS. "i^ , *' Had we known the kuned suibor \KioTt tiU ImwIc waj> prints, be aiighl have bmi [f^Ti-liancB, prer*llnl upon to aAA a afvtmlb link from which nil oth«n. fnr prrrrrlinif those muiitcraied In ^nt of tisK. andnurpiuurinR thrm in uaivmaMy pltiloaaphtcul Lnrauiu);, have beca derivnl, are. «v*n to tbF grrmi yyratniA, wh'nc fouBilfttioa sqairr was, m its turn, the gnat kiyux HySLcrica. t We woald Mjr coamic Matter. Spirit. Ctuoa. nod Dtvioe Light, far the RnpUan Idea wa* ideatical io this with the Arjrtnt. However, the auth or i% right witliTTirnrri to the Occult SynaboloKr »rtfie Jew*. Tb«y were > Kmarkably matter of fact, unspiritoal people at all timca; y«teven wtlh (beta " Rnacb" waa Divine Spirit, not "air." 156 THB SECRET DOCTRINE, scholar, FaUicr Athanaslua Kircher, th« Jeaait priest, the above is prociKly, by Biblical reconl and traditionary sources, the method of laying off this encampnieirt. The four interior s^uarrs were devote<l to (i) Moses and Aaron: (3i Kobath; (5] Gershom; nnd (4) Mernri — the 1,-Lst three being the heads of the UevitcA. The ftttribute<i or these squares were the pnmat attributes of Adam-Mar^ and writ concreted of the eieoients, £"arM, W//'. /-'irr. Water, or D"* = lam = H-'^/ir, TO * Noor ■= firtt TTO = Rtreach — Air, and Tito'' = Ubeshali = Earth, The initial letters of these words arc INRI — ^thu s^'niliol usually translaleil us /csus ^azmrcnns A*** /udiEonira— '• JesBs of N'azarcth, King of the Jews." This square of INRI i< tbe Adam square, which was extended frota, as a foundation, into four otbcra of 144 X 2 a 988, to the side of the large square of 28S x 4 == 1152. = the whole circamfcrence. But this square is the display of also circular elements and 115-* can denote thiK. Put IN/!/ into a circle, or read it aa the letters stand in tlie aquas*^ as to its values of 1521, and we hnve /" ~\ which reads lij-a. But as seen Cain denotes this as, or iu, the 115 of his name: which 115 was the very complement to make up the 360 day year, to aKree with the balances of the standard circle, which were Cain. Tbe comer squares of tbe larger square att, A = Leo, and B = Dan Scorpio; and it is seen that Cain pierces Abel at Ihc inter- sectionof the equinoctial wiih thesolstice cross lines, referred to from Dan-Scorpio on the celestial circle. Rut Dan-Scorpio borders on Libra, the scales, whose sign is v(whichsi^ ia that of the ancient ^iV/bn' on \t\i\ch the back 0/ the hatd to tht eaw^ rested, the pillow of Jacob), and is represented for one symbol 8» 'J^PS' • • * Also the badge of Dan-Scorpio is death>life, in the symbol f. Now the cross U the emblem of the origin of tneasures, in the fehovah form of a straight tine tme of a datominaiion of 3o6j2, the perftxt nrcumfcrenee : hence Cam was this as Jehovah, for the text says that he jc-as Jehovah. But the attachment of a man t« thiscrofts wasthat of iiy. 355 to 6561: 5153 x 4 = 20612. as shown. Now, over fhe head of Jesus crucified was placed the inscription, of which the initial letters of the words have always been retained as symbolic, and handed down and used as a monogram of Jesus Chrestos~t//>., JNRl or Jesus NaxareuM /iex Judieorum: bnl they are located on the Crvss, or the cu)x;d form of the circular origin of meaanm which measure the sohstauce of Earth, Atr, Fire and WaUr, or INRI = 115a, as shown. Here is the man on the civss. or 113: 355 combined with 6561 ; 5153 x 4 « 20612. These are the pyramid-&ase numbers as coming from 1 13 : 355 as the Hebrew source ; whence the Adam-!«quare. which is the pyramid ba»c, and the centre one to the larger square of the auatHptnnit. Bend INRI into a circle, and we hare :i53, or the circumference of the latter. Rut Jesus dying (or Abel married) made use of the very words needed to set forth all. He says, £ii, £ti, Lama Sateukih- atti . Read thera by their power valuefi, in circulat form, as produced Inmt * Mr, lUlcton Skinner sbows that tbe synitwl f , Uie croB*e<l bones and tkull, has the letter ^ iPt^ Ifa? half of ihc h«ad bctaind Ui«csr>. I I I I KABAUSTIC READING OF GOSPRLS. 157 the Adam form as shown, and wc haw "^M - 113. -hn - 113, or iij— 311 ! fT07 ~ 345* or Mo«C9 in the Cain-Adatti pyramid circle: nn3D >= 71a, equals Dove, or Jonah and 710 -^ a = 355, or 355 — 553 ; ami finally, as detcnuinattve of all a"" ur ni, wbert 3 - nun, fish - 565, and •* = 1 or 10 ; together 565 ' = 7T\JV or the Chrisi value. .... [All of the aliovc] tlirows Ught on the trauidiguraCion scene on the mount. There were present there Peter and Jamen and John with Jesus; or D** Inmi. James. Ifa/^ ; ntm". Peter. EaiiA ; iTn. John. Spirif, Air, and "T^T Jesiift. Firf, Lift^ together INRI. But behold Eli nnd Moses met them there, or "^N and noS or EU and iMtttah, or (13 aud 345. And this shows that the scene of transfiguration was connected with the cue abore set forth.* This kabalistical reading of Ihe Gospel narraltves — hitherto supposed to record the most important, the most uiysticaUy awful, yet most real events of the Ufe of Jesus — mu.st fall with terrible weight upon some Christians. Every honest trusting believer who has shed tears of re- verential emotion over the events of the short period of the public life of Jesus of Nazareth, has to choose one of the two ways opening before him after reading the aforesaid : either his faith has to render him quite imper\'ious to any light coming from human reasoning and evident fact; or he must confess that he has lost his Saviour. The One whom he had hitherto considered as the unique incarnation on this earth of the One Living God in heaven, fades into thin air, on the authority of tlie properly read and correctly interpreted BibU itself. Moreover, since on the authority of Jerome himself and his accepted and authentic confession, the book written by the hand of Matthew "exhibits matter not for edification but for destruction" (of Church and human Chris- tianity, and only that) what truth can be expected from his famous Vuigatc? Human mysteries, concocted by generations of Church Fathers bent upon evolving a religion of their own invention, are seen instead of a dix'ine Revelation ; and that this was so is corroborated by a prelate of the Latin Church. Saint Gregory Nazianzcn wrote to his friend and confidant, Saint Jerome: Nothing can impose better 011 a people than verbiage ; the less they undentand the more they admire. . Our fAtliers and doctors have often said, not what they thought, but I4iat to which circutustances and necessity forced them. 1 • Pp. «9&-3n. By these numbeni, esploliu the niilhor, " Hll U 113 (by placing Uw word in a ciidet; MmA bdnyj^S. is by cbange oflMtcn tosult tfae »me ralue 1^0!! 1 lu s drdc) or Moors, whiltr Sntiacjitta to Jobs or the dove, or Holy Sfjirit, bccauM (iti acuiik] it 1« 7ta<<ir 35; x tl Tlie tcnalnation Hi, m% ^ or sCgi, becomes Jebuv ah.' THK SeCRBT PRTNH, Which then of the two — the clergy, or the Occultists and Thcoso- phists — are the more blasphemous and d&ngcrous ? Is it those who would impose upon the world's acceptance a Saviour of their owo fashioning, a God with human shortcomings, and who therefore is cer- tainly not a perfect divine Being; or those others who say: Jesos of Nazareth was an Initiate, a holy, grand and noble character, but wittaal human, though truly " a Son of God'* ? If Humanity is to accept a so-called supernatural Religion, how far more logical to the Occultist and the Psychologist seems the trans- parent allegory given of Jesus by the Gnostics. They, as Occultists, and with Initiates for their Chiefs, differed only in their renderings of the story and in their symbols, and not at all in substance. What say the Ophites, the Nazarenes, and other "heretics"? Sophia, "die Celestial Virgin." is prevailed upon to send Christos, her emanation, to the help of perishing humanity, from whom Ilda-Baoth (the Jehovfth of the Jews) and his six Sons of Matter (the lower terrestrial Angels) are shutting out the divine light. Therefore, Christos, the perfect,* UnititiK bitnaelf with Sophia [divine Mrisdomj descended thruugh the seven plane- tAiy regions, assuming in t-acli an analogous form . . , [and] euteretl into the man Jesus at the moment of bis baptism in the Jordan. From tbii time fortli Jesus began to work anracics ; before that he hail been entirely ignor^ut of his own niissiuii. Ilda-Baoth. discovering that Christos was bringing to an end his kingdom of Matter, stirred up the Jews, his own people, against Him, and Jesus was put to death. When Jesus was on the Cross Christos and Sophia left His body, and returned to Their own sphere. The material body of Jesus was abandoned to the earth, but He Himself, the Inner Man, was clothed with a body made up of (Z-Mfr.f Thencefortb he consisted merely of soul and spiriL . . T>unti£ bis sojonn] tipon earth of eighUftt raonlhs after he had risen, he received from Sophia that per- fect knowlcdj^e, tliat true Gnosis, which he communicated to llie smnll portion of the ApoiillcH who were capnblc of receiving the sann:. X The above is transparently Eastern and Hindu; it is the Esoteric Doctrine pnre and simple, save for the names and the allegory. It is. * The Wrstcni p«r>oni5calion of that poxm, wbicb Ui« Hindui) call th« Vija. the " our •Krrd," or MahA Viihnm—n powrr. not the God— or th«t myTttcriiMW Prinripk tbiit coDlftiiu lo luelf tli« tk«d of Avatinam. ■> "AilM into Nervi Troni this (lecTepit body iala which Uiou hut been wat, AKCfld into Uljr fonneT abode, O bloMd AvaUr ' " t TV Gt^Uiii ttnJ thr.r firmaims, KInKi PP- w»i "«■ UNIVBRSAL TBACHXNGS. JS9 I I I more or less, the history of every Adept who obtains Initiation. The Baptism in the Jordan is the Rite of Initiation, the final purification, whether in sacred pagoda, tank, river, or temple lake in Egypt or Mexico. The perfect Chnstos and Sophia— divine Wisdom and Intelli- gence—enter the Initiate at the moment of the mystic rite, by trans- ference from Guru to Chela, and leave the physical body, at the moment of the death of the latter, to re-enter the NinnftnakSya, or the astral Ego of the Adept. The xpirit of Buddha [collectively] overshado'ns the Bodbisattvfts of his Church says the Buddhist Ritual of ArySsangha. Says the Gnostic teaching - When he [the spirit of Chnstos] shall have collected all the Spiritual, all the Lighl [thai exioLs iu matter], out of Jlbadaoth'!: empire, KedempLiou is accom- plished and the end of the world arrived." Say the Buddhists : When Buddlia [Uie Spirit of the Church] hears the hour titrike, he will send Maitreya Buddha — after whom the old world will be destroyed That which is said of Basilides by King may be applied as truthfully to every innovator, so called, whether of a Btiddhisl or of a Christian Church. In the eyes of Clemens Alexaudrinus, he says, the Gnostics taught very little that was blameable in their mystical transcendental views. In his eyes the latter [Basilides], was not a keretic, that is an innovator upon the accepted doctrinea of the Catholic Church, but only a theosophic speculator who sought to express old truths by new fonmilat-.t There was a Secret Doctrine preached by Jesus; and "secresy" in those days meant Secrets, or Mysteries of Initiation, all of which have been either rejected or disfigured by the Church. In Ihc Clementine ffomilies we read : And Peter said: "We remember that our Lord and Teacher, commaudiiiK US, said ' Guard the mysteries for me and the sons of my house.' " Wherefore al» he explained to His disciples privately the Mysterie* of the Kingdom of the Ucaveus.^ • /.«■- ctl. » Ofi.cii ,^ »S8 ffomiUn XTX.. ;cTioN xrx. St. Cyprian of Antioch. Thk j5ons(StellarSpirits) — emanated from the Unknown of theOnos- tics, and identical with the DhySii ChoUans of the Esoteric Doctrine — and their Pleronia, having been transformed into Arcbangela and the "Spirits of the Presence" by the Greek and T^atin Churches, the pro- totypes have lost ca:ste. The Pleroma* was now called the " Heavenly Host," and therefore the old name had to become identified with Satan and his " Host." Might is right in ever>' age, and Histor>* is full of con- trasts. Manes had been called the " Paraclete "f by his followers. He was an Occultist, but passed to posterity, owing to the kind exertions of the Church, as a Sorcerer, so a match had to be found for him by way of contrast. We recognise this match iu St. Cyprianus of Aotiocb. a sclf-coufessedif not a real "Black Magician," itseem-s, whom the Church— as a reward for his contrition aud humility — subsequently raised to the high rark of Saint and Bishop. What history knows of him is not much, and it is mostly based on his own confession, the truthfulness of which is warranted, we are told, by St. Gregory, the Empress Utidoxia, Photius and the Holy Church. This curious document was ferreted out by the Marquis de Mirville,J in the Vatican, and by him translated into French for the first time, as he assures the reader. We beg his permission to re-translate a few pages, not for the sake of the penitent Sorcerer, but for that of some students of Occultism, who will thus have an opportunity of comparing the * The Dmnita ronslUntcd Uir aynUiMta or eoUrcty of aU Uic ipiritval etiUUes. SL Paul lUll uaed Uk noiueia hi* UpUllcft. * The "Conirortcr," Mirond Mcaalah, interccttot. " A C«na applied to the Moly Ghost." MuMtfl was Uie dlHciplc or Tcrchinlliiut. wn Rcyivlian PbiloHiphrr, who, ■ccordJotc lo ihc Chrititliit) SocniteiJ it. t., cllnIbyT!llBuonl, iv.^), "while inrokiiic one daj thedemou ot tlieair, fell fram Uicroofi lUhotuK sod mu )dl1«d." MAGIC m ANTIOCH. I6l I I I methods of ancient Magic (or as the Church calls it, Demonism) with those of modem Theurgy and Occultism. The scenes described took place at Autioch about the middle of the third century, 252 A.D., says the translator. This Confession was written by the penitent Sorcerer after his conversion ; therefore, we are not surprised to find how much room he gives iu his lameotatioos to reviling his Initiator "Satan," or the "Serpent Dragon," as he calls him. There are other and more modem instances of the same trait in human nature. Converted Hindus, PSrsis and other " heathen " of India are apt to denounce their forefathers' religions at every opportu- nity. Thus mns the Confession : O all of you wbo reject the real mysteries of Clirist. see my lean ! . . . Von who wallow in your demoniacal practices, learn by my sad example all the vanity of their (the demons'] baits ... I am that Cyprianus, who. vowed to Apollo from bis iofuncy, was early imtiated into all the arts of the dragoo.* Even before the age of seven I had already been introduced into the temple of Mithra; three ye»n later, toy p&rentJt takiuR me to Athens to be received as citizen, I was per* mitted likewise to penetrate the myaterie« of Ceres lamenting her daugbter.t and I also became the guardian of the Orugon iu the Temple of Pallas. Atccnding after that to the summit of Mount Olympuii, the Seat of the Gods, as it ii called, there too I was initiated into the sense, and the rm/ meaning of their fthe Gods'] speeches and their clamorous manifestations {sttvpiiuum). U i& there that I was made to see in imagination {phantasia){oT mdyd] those irees and all those herbs that operate such prodigies with the help of demons; . . . and I saw their dances, their warfares, their snares, illusions and promiscuities. 1 heard their singing.^ I saw 6nally, for forty consecutive days the phalanx of the Gods and Goddesses, sending from Olympus, as though they were Kings, spirits to represent them on earlli and act in their name among all the nations.^ At that time I lived entirely on fruit, eaten only after sunset, the virtues of which were explained to me by the seven priests of the sacriAces.Jl When I was fifteen my parents desired that I should be mode acquainted, not only with all the natural laws in connection with the generation and corruption of • "TbciT^/i/ ffrpent placed to ttatth thr tfmplr." ooBiracnts t)r Ubrfllc "Row often hii»ei*i lepcated that il was do tymM. uo pcfBouiScfltion but rcslly ■ serpent occui>icd by 8 inxlt "—he escJsims; and wr answrr thai at Cairo in ■ Muiwulituin, nu4 a luatkfn XcntyiW, ire hsw sevn, a* thousatidsof oOm visitors have also uea. a hu|p; MTpent that UvmI Uierc for centuries, WMrcrelold. and WRS beld in gnnt respect. Was it aUo " occui)i««l )>y a Ood." or pmucaaed. in Other wonls 't ■ * Ttic M>-»teTicaortiemeter, orlbCalVicted moUier." i X By the natyn. . i ( This look* mthcr auspJcloit* and M«ma IntCTpolatetl. De HIrvilk tries to have what he aays of Sataa ami hia Court seuding tlirit imp* oti earth to Uiu(>t humanity and ttias(|iicrHilr pl iiaiit£t, ^m euTOborated t>y the cS'*orccrer. ^^ B This does not look like linful lood. Ii 1« the diet af CtaeUx to this day. L 163 THH SBCRBT DOCTHINK. boflics on earth, in the air and in the $eas. but also with all the other fortes grufted* (uuiiiu) on tbene by the Prince of the Worit) in uHci to counteract their primil and divine constitution.T At twenty I went to Memphis, where, penetrating into the Sanctuarie«. I was taught to discern all that pertains to the communications of demons [DAtmoncs or Spirits] with terrcAtriAl matters, their aversion fur certain plftces, their sympathy and ntlraetion for others, thetrcxpnlsion from certain planet^ certain objects and laws, their persistence in preferring darkness and their resis- tance to Hght-I There I teamed the numtKr of liie fallen Princea,^ that which takes place in human souls and the bodies they enter into commuDication with. 1 learnt the analogy that exists between earthquakca and the raicu, between the niotiou of the earthU and the motion of the seas ; I saw the spirits of the GianU plnnxed in subterranean darkness and seemingly supporting the earth tike a man carrying a burden on his 8houlders.1t ••'I'-i' When thirty I travelled to Chahlxa to study there the true power of the air. placed by some in the fire and by the more learned iu light [Akasha], I waa taught to see that the planets were in their variety as dissimilar as the plants on earth, and the stars were like nrniies ranged in hnltle order. I knew the Chaldsan dtvifiionof Btber into 365 parts,** and I perceived that even- one of the demons who divide it among iheniselvestt was endowed with tlmt material force that permitted him to execute the orders of the Prince and guide all the movements therein [in the KtherJIt They [the Chaldees] explaine<l to me how those Princes had become participania in the Council of Darkness, ever iu opposition to the Council of Light 1 got acquainted with the Mediator*? fsnrely not mediums as He Mirville ex- plains !J,tt and upon seeing the covenants they were mutually bound hy, I was •tmck with wonder upon learning lb« nature of their oaths and observance*. || • "Gr«ftcd" h the corred rTq«T»«1on, "The «cvm BnildPrt Rmfl tht divine aad the bearilcort IWceaoa toDirgnMsmatrrlal natiirr of the wj^nbtr and mlHcral hiagdoBM fTrryatcotid Roqd^**— n(fs tliv CuUchism 0/ Lamoci. t Only the PHnrc nTihr Wnrld i<i tioI Satan, v the tranitlBlor would make asbdim.tiut the coltcc- ttw Hocl of the PtauclAry. Thld is u little th«ologkal back-bltinc. } Urn Ihr Rlemmlal and TQemcntary Spiritu are evidently meant. ) Ttie rradcr has alrrfldy Irnmed tbr tnilh alionl Ihmi in thecourae of the pre«rat work. I Pity tbt penitent Saint hnd not irnparKrd hi« knowledge of the routl'M of the carlb and h«lk>- centric system earlier to bin Church. That mighl hnrc Miv«d more than one hunwn Ufe—ihat of Bruno tot ODC. * Cbelis in their trials 01 initiation, abo aee w trantts artifUiatty gent*cui fv* tktm. the vWon af UiP l^rth supported by nir rlephnnl on the top oT a tortffUe atandinK on natbinK-and this, to Icarh Ihem to discern Uie true from the false. ** KelaUiiK to (tic days of tlie year, atto to 7 X 7 divlrioni of ihc earth's sublunary tpbete. divided iolo trven upper and ttewen lower spheres with their rrxpectlvr Ftnnctary Hosts or "armies." ^ liaimon Ls not " demon," a* tmnnlated by be Mirville. but Spirit. 1: All Ihkti la to co.roIiorAle hni duipnnlic niM^rtioaA llist fater iltther or Jupiter is Satan I nod thai peslilctitlikl dlKa»ea, catsclysmii, and even thuoderMtorms thai prove dUastroas. come from ttac&atjwk lloat dwcUiuc in Bther— a good warnlnK to the lueu of Science! H The tranolator replarea the word Meilialanbyn>ediutn!>,eseii«inRhiniaeirin ■ Ibat-nolr bynyinc Uut Cyprian mmi^ have meant modem mediiunBl nil Cypriaous «imply raontto luDt al the ritc^and mvnteries of Initiation, and the pkdcfc uf wem> aad oattii that bound the Initiaiea together. Hi* Irantlalor, faown-er, h«« made a Witches' Sabh«tli of It iiiatend. SORCSRRK BHCOMK SAINT. 163 I I I Believe me, I *«w the Devil; believe me I have cmhriced him* [tike tlie witchc« at the Sahhatb (?)] when I was yrt quite young, and he saluted me hy the title of the new Jambres, declaring mc worthy of my ministry {initiatioii). He promised me coutiniial help dariag life and a principality after death.t Having >>ecome in ^eat hononr [an Adept] under his tuition, he placed under my orders a phalanx of tlcmons, and when I bid him good-bye, "Courage, good success, dcccUcat Cyprian," he exclaimed, rising up from bis seat to set me to the door, plunging thereby those present into a profound admiration. t Having bidden farewell to his CUaldEean Initiator, the future Sorcerer and Saint went to Antioch. His tale of '"iniquity" aud sub- sequent repentance is long but we will make tt short. He became "an accomplished Magician," surrounded by a host of disciples and "candi- dates to the perilous and sacrilegious art." He shows himself distri- buting love-philtres and dealing in deathly charms "to rid yonng wives of old husbands, and to ruin Christian virgins." Unfortunately Cyprianiw was not above love himself. He fell in love with the beau- tiful Justine, a converted maiden, after having vainly tried to make her share the passion one named Aglaides, a profligate, had for her. His "demons failed" be tells us, and he got disgusted with them. This disgust brings on a quarrel between him and his Hierophant, whom he insists on identifying with the Demon ; and the dispute is followed by a tournament between the latter and some Christian converts, in which the " Evil One " is, of course, worsted. The Sorcerer is finally baptised and gets rid of his enemy. Having laid at the feet of Anthimes, Bishop of Antioch, all his books on Magic, he became a Saint in com- pany with the beautiful Justine, who had converted him ; both suffered martyrdom imder the Emperor Diocletian; and both are bnried side by side in Rome, in the Basilica of St. John T^teran, near the Baptistery.' * "Twrtvr centuries later, is Aitl Tmatatwiw ■B'ifvform. theworU saw liattttrdo tlw«stiw tni*- t>rBce tbc DrvlJ he mcatu .']— atcconlinic lo hia own confcuiun iU>d in the nmtat coodilKias," czpUina Dr Ulrvltlr tn ■ ffKU-BO«, thcmring thereby lb* brothcrty low that bind* ChriiitUna. Now Cypriinu^ ■Bcaat bf Uw Devil urt}ic word ic realty in the nrigina! trxt] hia Initiator and Uinojikanl. No Saint —wen a penitent Sorcerer —would be m lilly a* to speak of hi* (tbc IXvil's} rUUiff froin hi* teat to ace him to the door, were il alherw'or. » It»ery Adept has '■ a priaeipallty after hia death." t Wbich nbotn that it wan IIk Hiero^innt and bis disciples. Cyprianus shows himself M gntetnl ■a moat of the other coaveru (tbemodcra inciudedxo hia Teachers and InatractOfs, SECTION XX. The Eastern Gupta Yidya & the Kabalae Wb now return to the consideration of the essential identity between the Eastern Gupta Vidy^ and the Kabalah as a system, while we must also show the dissimilarity in their philosophical interpretations since the Middle Ages. It must be confessed that the views of the Kabalists — meaning by the word those studeuts of Occultism who study the Jewish /(kabalah and who know little, if anything, of any other Ksoteric literature or of its teachings — are as varied in their synthetic conclusions apon the nature of the mysteries taught even in the Zohar 3\Qnc, and are as wide of the true mark, as are tbe dieta upon it of exact Science itself. Like the mediaeval Rosicrucian and the Alchemist — like the Abbot Trithe- mius, John Reuchlin, Agrippa, Paracelsus, Robert Fludd. Philalctbes, etc. — by whom they swear, the continental Occultists see in the Jewish Kabalah alone the universal well of wisdom ; they find in it the secret lore of nearly all the mysteries of Nature — metaphysical and divine — some of them including herein, as did Reuchlin, those of the Christian Bibie. For them the Zohar is an Esoteric Thesaurus of all the mys- teries of the Christian Gospel ; and the Sepher Yelzirak is the light that shines in every darkness, and the container of the keys to open ever>' secret in Nature. Whether many of our modem followers of the mediaeval Kabalists have an idea of the real meaning of the symbology of their chosen Masters is another question. Most of them have probably never given even a passing thought to the fact that the Eso- teric language used by the Alchemists was their own, and that it was given out as a blind, necessitated by the dangers of the epoch they lived in, and not as the Mystery-language, used by the Pagan Initiates, which the Alchemists had re-translatcd and re-veiled once more. A MYSTERY WITITIN A MTSTBBT. tCS I And now the situation stands thus: as the old Alchemists have not left a key to their writings, the latter have become a mystery within an older mystery. The Kabalah is interpreted and checked only by the light which mediaeval Mystics have thrown upon it, and they, in their forced Christolog\', had to put a theological dogmatic mask on every ancient teaching, the result being that each Mystic among our modem European and American Kabalists interprets the old symbols in his own way, and each refers his opponents to the Rosicrucian aud the Alchemist of three and four hundred years ago. Mystic Christian dogma is the central maelstrom that engulfs every old Pagan symbol, and Christianity — Anti-Gnostic Christianity, the modem retort that has replaced the alembic of the Alchemists — has distilled out of all recogni- tion the Kabalah, i.e., the Hebrew Zohar and other rabbinical mystic works. And now it has come to this : The student interested in the Secret Sciences has to believe that the whole cycle of the symhoUcal •' Ancient of Days," every hair of the mighty beard of Macroprosopos, refers only to the history of the earthly career of Jesus of Nazareth I And we are told that the Kabalak "was first taught to a select company of angels" by Jehovah himself— who, out of modesty, one must think, made himself only the third Sephiroth in it. and a female one into the bargain. So many Kabalists, so many explanations. Some believe — perchance with more reason than the rest — that the substance of the Kabalak is the basis upon which Masonry is built, since modern Masonry is undeniably the dim and hazy reflection of primeval Occult Masonry, of the teaching of those divine Masons who established the Mysteries of the prehistoric and prediluvian Temples of Initiation, raised by truly superhuman Builders. Others declare that the tenets expounded in the Zohar relate merely to mysteries terrestrial and pro- fane, having no more concern with metaphysical speculations — such as the soul, or the post-morlem life of man — than have the Mosaic books. Others, again — and these are the real, genuine Kabalists, who had their instructions from initiated Jewish Rabbis — affirm that if the two most learned Kabalists of the mediaeval period, John Rcuchlin and Para- celsus, differed in their religious professions — the former being the Father of the Reformation and the latter a Roman Catholic, at least in appearance — the Zohar cannot contain much of Christian dogma or tenet, one way or the other. In other words, they maintain that the numerical language of the Kabalistic works teaches universal tniths — and not any one Religion in particular. Those who make this X66 THK SBCRKT DOCTKXNB. Statement are perfectly right in saying that the Mystery -language nsed in the Zohar and in other Kabalistic literature was once, in a time of unfathomable antiquity, the universal language of Humanity. But they become entirely wrong if to this fact they add the untenable Iheory that this language was invented by, or ivas the ifriginai property cf. the Hebrews, from wAam all the other nations borrowed it. They are wrong, because, although the Zohar (ini ZHR), The SmJc of splendour of Rabbi Simeon Ben lochai. did indeed originate with him — his son, Rabbi Hleazar, helped by his secretary, Rabbi Abba, com- piling the Kabalistic teachings of his deceased father into a work called the /f/»/;rtr^those teachings were not Rabbi Simeon's, as the Gupta Vidyi shows. They are as old as the Jewish nation itself, and far older. lu short, the writings which pass at present under the title of the Zohar of Rabbi Simeon are about as original as were the Bgyp- tian synchronistic Tables after being handled by £usebius, or as St Paul's Epistles after their revision and correction by the "Holy Church."* I,et us throw a rapid retrospective glance at the history and the iribulatious of that very same Zohar, as we know of them from trust- worthy tradition and documents. We need not stop to discuss whether it was written in the first century B.C. or in the first century a.d, Suffice it for us to know that there was at all times a Kabalistic litera- ture among the Jews; that though historically it can be traced only from the time of the Captivity, yet from the Pentateuch down to the Talmud the documents of that literature were ever written in a kind of Mystery-language, were, in fact, a series of symbolical records which the Jews had copied from the Egyptian and the Chaldaean Sanctuaries, only adapting them to their own national history — if history it can be called. Now that which we claim — and it'is not denied even by the most prejxidiced Kabalist, is that although Kabalistic lore had passed orally through lung age^ down to the latest Pre-Christian Tanaim. and although Da\id and Solomon may have been great Adepts in it, as is claimed, yet no one dared to write it down till the days of Simeon '' * TUf U proved (five tike but • siairte morded latUticc. J. Picas de Miraadola, fiadtar tiMt UiAv waa iiior« Christianity Ihao Judstsm in lh« tiabalah, and diKovn-ing in it the daetritie* of tkr Thnilv. U)c Incarnation, the Uifinjlr or J(^sus. etc., wound up his proob of this trith a dtaneap to thr wurld at largr rrum Itomr. A& Clusl>iir|r Hhuwa : " tn nKo, whm onljr twraty-foar jre&r* old. be [Mciw] put>lj»h«d nine faundred (Kabsllstlc] tktxs, which w«n.- placwded m Robk, and under- took (o dt-frtid Ihrm in Ih^ pn'Mrnce of all Europoio scfaolara whon be IsTltcd to the BterrMl City, pTvmising to dcfrAy their ttavctUait expeiues." AUTHORSIUP OF THB ZOHAR. J 67 I Beo locfaai. In shurt, tbu lore found in Kabalistic literature was never recorded in writing before the first century of the modern era This brings the critic to the following reflection : While in India we find the Vedas and the BrShmanical literature written down and edited ages before the Christian era — the Orientalists themselves being obliged to concede a couple of millenniums of antiquity to the older manuscripts; while the most important allegories in Gftn'sixarc found recorded on Babylonian tiles centuries B.C. ; while the Egyptian sarco- phagi yearly yield proofs of the origin of the doctrines borrowed and copied by the Jews ; yet the Monotheism of the Jews is exalted and thrown into the teeth of all the Pagan nations, and the so-called Christian Revelation is placed above all others, like the sun above a row of street gas- lamps. Yet it is perfectly well known, having been ascertained beyond doubt or cavil, that no manuscript, whether Kaba- listic, Talmudistic, or Christian, which has reached our present genera- tion, is of earlier date than the first centuries of our era, whereas this can certainly never be said of the Egyptian pepyri or the Chaldcean tiles, or even of .some Eastern writings. But let us limit our present research to the KabaUh, and chiefly to the ^tff^fl/^— called also the Midrash. This book, whose teachings were edited for the first time between 70 and no A.D., is known to have been lost, and its contents to have been scattered throughout a number of minor manuscripts, until the thirteenth century. The idea that it was the composition of Moses de Leon of Valladolid, in Spain, who passed it off as B pseudograph of Siraeon Ben lochai, is ridiculous, and was well disposed of by Munk — though he does point to more than one modem interpolation in the Zohar. At the same time it is more than certain that the present Book of Zohar was written by Mo.ses de Leon, and, owing to joint editorship, is more Christian in its colouring than is many a genuine Christian volume. Mnnk gives the reason why, saying that it appears evident that the author made use of ancient documents, and among these of certain Midrasckim, or collections of traditions and Biblical expositions, which we do not now posses.s. As a proof, also, that the knowledge of the Ksoleric system taught in the Zohar came to the Jews very late indeed— at any rate, that they had so far forgotten it that the innovations and additions made by de I^eon provoked no criticism, but were thankfiUly received — Munk quotes from Tholuck, a Jewish authority, the following information: Haya Gaon. who died in 1038, is to our knowledge the first author who deve- I68 TBK &KCBBT DOCTRINR. loped (and perfected) the theory of the Sepliiroth, and he gave thetn names which we find again among the Kabalistic names used by Dr. Jellinck. Moses Ben Schem-Tob de Leon, who held intimate inter- course with the Syrian and Chaldxan Christian learned scribes, was enabled through the latter to acquire a knowledge of some of the Gnostic writing?}.* Again, the Scphcr JeiHrah {Book of Crtatien) — thongh attributed to Abraham and though very archaic as to its contents — is first men- tioned in the eleventh century by Jehuda Ho Le\-i (Chazari). And these twot the Zokar and Jcizirak, are the storchoose of all the sub- sequent Kabalistic works. Now let us see how far the Hebrew sacred canon itself is to be trusted. The word " Kabalah" comes from the root "to receive." and has meaning identical with the Sanskrit "Smriti" ("received by tradi- tion")— a system of oral teaching, passing from one generation of priests to another, as was the case with the BrShmanical books before they were embodied in manuscript. The Kabalistic tenets came to the Jews from the Chaldaeans ; and if Moses knew the primitive and universal language of the Initiates, as did ever>' Eg>'ptian priest, and was thus acquainted with the numerical system on which it was based, be may have — and we say he has—written Genesis and other *' scrolls." The five books that now pass current nnder his name, the Pmtalfuch, are not withal the original Mosaic Records.f Nor were they written in the old Hebrew square letters, nor even in the Samaritan charac- ters, for both alphabets belong to a date later than that of Moses, and Hebrew — as it is now known — did not exist in the days of great lawgiver, either as a language or as an alphabet. As no statements contained in the records of the Secret Doctrine of the Hast are regarded as of any value by the world in general, and since to be understood by and convince the reader one has to qu names familiar to him, and use arguments and proofs out of docum which are accessible to all, the following facts may perhaps demon^ strate that our assertions are not merely based on. the teachings Occult Records: (I) The great Orientalist and scholar, Klaproth, denied positive^ « tof . md iuo^i mon^^ % * ThU KccovMt \» lummarlMd from Isaac Mjrvr'B QabbatAh. p. lo, ti «f . t Tbrte is not In Uiv dccaloKue ooe idcn thmt in nnl the coiinttrpaTl. or Ibc pftnphnutc. of lli« doffmw uid cUiica cumot iinoiiB th« KgypUaiia lony bctoic Uic Unic of Mim«« u>d AUXM. iIlM MtMOle \jmm * tnitacripl from Egypllaa Souma : vide Geomttrjr im Jitiigiom, iCyo, CHAI41AIC AND HBBRSW. t69 I I I I the antiquity of the so-called Hebrew alphabet, on the ground that the square Hebrew characters in which the Biblical mauuschpts are written, and which we use in printing, were probably derived from the Palniyrcne writing, or some other Semitic alphabet, so that t!ic Hebrew Bible is written merely in the Chaldaic phonographs of Hebrew words. The late Dr. Kenealy pertinently remarked that the Jews and Chris- tians rely on A phonograph of a dead and almost onlcnown language, as atMtrusc as tlie cunei- form tettcn on the mountains of Assyria." (2) The attempts made to carry back the square Hebrew character to the time of Esdras (B.C. 458) have all failed. (3) It is asserted that the Jews took their alphabet from the Baby- lonians during their captivity. But there are scholars who do not carry the now-known Hebrew square letters beyond the late period of the fourth century, A.D.f The Hebrew Bible is precisely as if Hom«r were printed, not in Greek, but in Rngtisb letters ; or as if Shakespeare's works were phonographcd in Burmese.^ (4) Those who maintain that the ancient Hebrew is tlie same as the Syraic or Chaldaic have to see what is said in Jeremiah, wherein the Lord is made to threaten the house of Israel with bringing against it the mighty and ancient nation of the Chaldsans: A nation whose language thou kaoweat not, neither nnderstaodest what Lbey Bay.f This is quoted by Bishop Walton|j against the assumption of the identity of Chaldaic and Hebrew, and ought to settle the question. (5) The real Hebrew of Muses was lost after the seventy years' cap- tivity, when the Israelites brought back Chaldaic wilh them and grafted it on their own language, the fusion resulting in a dialectical variety of Chaldaic, the Hebrew tincturing it very slightly and ceasing from that time to be a spoken language.^ * Bsak^fGad. Kemly, p. jSj. The refemice to Klaprotb Is alio ftom UUi pa(& * S<« AtM.Jour.. N,S. vii.. p. 175, quotcrt by Kraraly. t AmA of God. lot, ai. I O^ at.. *. ts. I f^oltfomen*. ill. 13, iiuotrd by Kmntty, p. i«s- H Sc« Oook of God, p. 3»s. '■ C«rc BliWlld be Uikeu," wyi Bu(1«t (quoted by KenMly, p. 489), " to dlstitiKowb tM^lwera the PenlAliruch iu the ICtlrrcw luiiKiuixe but In the lellm nf the Samaritan alptiobrl, and tfae vrnion of th« ■'cniateucl) id ttae Sainuritau lanpiaftf. One of the mtm irniwrlant diArencca t>ctwecn Ibc Samanlan and the Hcbnrw text natpccu the dnratlon of ttae period bc1we«i lyo THE SECRET DOCTRINE. As to our statement that the present Oid Testament does not contain the original Books of Moses, this is proven by the facts that: (1) The Samaritans repudiated the Jewish canonical books aad Ikti* "Law of Moses.*' They will have neither the Psaims of David, noi the Prophets, nor the Talmud and Miskna : nothing but the real Books of Moses, and iu quite a different edition.* The Books of Moses and of Joshua are disfigured out of recognition by the Talnmdists, they say. (2) The "black Jews" of Cochiu. Southern India — who know no thing of the Babylonian Captivity or of the /en " lost tribes " (the latter a pure invention of the Rabbis), proving that these Jews must have come to India before the year 600 B.C. — have their Books of Moses which they will show to no one. And these Books and Laws dlSiu greatly from the present scrolls. Nor are they written in the square Hebrew characters (scml-Chaldaic and scmi-Palmyrcau) but in the archaic letters, as we were assured by one of them — letters entirely on- known to all but themselves and a few Sam.iritans. (3) The Karaim Jews of the Crimea — who call themselves the descen- dants of the true children of Israel, ijr., of the Sadducees — reject the ToraA and the Peiitafeuck of the Synagogue, reject the Sabbath of tiie Jews (keeping Friday), will have neither the Books of the Prophets nor the Psalms — nothing but their own Books of Moses and what they call his one and re.il Lciw. This makes it plain that the Kabalak of the Jews is but the distorted echo of the Secret Doctrine of the Chaldxans. and that the real Kabalah is found only iu the Chaldeean Book of Numbers now in the possession of some Persian Sufis. Every nation in antiquity bad its traditions based on those of the Aryan Secret Doctrine ; and each nation points to this day to a Sage of its own race who had received the primordial revelation from, and had recorded it under the orders of. a more or less divine Being. Thus it was with the Jews, as with all others. They had received their Occult Cosmogony and Laws from their Initiate, Moses, and they have now entirely mutilated them. Adi is the generic name in our Doctrine of all the first men. f.f., the £rst speaking races, in each of the seven zones — hence probably Miv ilclucr and tlir birtti of Abraham. The SiimariUiL totl mak^k it longet by au(u« cratnrics than lti« Hebrew tcxi : aud thr ScptunKiHt make* it (oo^rr by tonic centuries tliKn the SwuuilaA." It \* ohaPTvablr that ia tbr aolhenllc liuislati-oti ol ihr I>Uii Vulgutr, thr Roman Cbnrcfe foUown tbc com- piiUtioa rxprCMed in the Ucbn-i* text ; uaJ ia ber Martyrolofy (ollowt tb«t of tbc Seventy, both texts beinc iniplred. u »be cUliu. * See kev. JoAcph ■W^AV^Jommml, p. «». THB FIRST l»rBW.:r 171 I \ I I I ** Ad-am." And sucU first meu. tn every Dation. are credited with having been taught the divine mysteries of creation. Thus, the Sabxans taccording to a tradition preser\*ed in the Sufi works) say that when the "Third First Man" left the countrj- adjacent to India for Babel, a tree* was given to hiui, then another and a third tree, whose leaves recorded the history of all the races; the "Third First Man" meant one who belonged to the Third Root-Race, and yet the Sabaians call bim Adam. The Arabs of Upper Egypt, and the Mohammedans generally, have recorded a tradition that the Angel Azaz-el brings a message from the Wisdom-Word of God to Adam whenever he is re- born ; this the Sufis explain by adding that this book is given to every Seli-Allah ("the chosen one of God") for his wise men. The stor>' narrated by the Kabalists — namely, that the book given to Adam before his Fall (a book full of mysteries and signs and events which cither bad been, were, or were to be) was taken away by the Angel Raziel after Adam's Fall, but agaiu restored to him lest men might lose its wisdom and instruction; that this book was delivered by Adam to 5eth, who passed it to Enoch, and the latter to Abraham, and so on in succession to the most wise of every generation— relates to all nations, and not to the Jews alone. For Kero.sus narrates in his turn that Xisuthrus compiled a book, writing it at the command of his deity, which book was buried in Ziparaf or Sippara, the City of the Sun, ,ia Ba-bel-on-ya, and was dug up long afterwards and deposited in the temple of Belos ; it is from this book that Berosus look his history of the antediluvian dynasties of Gods and Heroes. iElian (in A/tmroe/) speaks of a Hawk (emblem of the Sun), who in the days of the begin- nings brought to the Egyptians a book containing the wisdom of their religion. The Sam-Sam of the Sabieans is also a Kabalah, as is the Arabic Zan-Zan {IVe// of Wisdom].X We are told by a very learned Rabalist that Seyffarth asserts that the old Egyptian tongue was only old Hebrew, or a Semitic dialect ; and he proves this, our correspondent thinks, by sendiug him "some .<)00 words in common " in the two languages. This proves very little to our mind. It only shows that the two nations lived together for centuries, and that before adapting the Chaldsean for their phonetic * A tree i» ftymbollcally • book— u " ptUMi " w uioUker ■jruooymof UwMme. t The wife af Mascs, ontr of tbr arvm daughtm o{ a MidUn prit^l, i» cmllrd Ztpem. It wu Jcthro. th*^ prittt or Midian, wbo iuitUited Mo«eti. ;cipora, one of the Kcveii daugtiUn, bring liimiil)' ai>e of tbc Mvcii occall powm Ihni ihr HirrophniH wan and in Mipposrd to p«M to the laittatcd aoricc. 1 Sm for tl)«M d«tAiU th« Book of Qvd. pp. tAK. 150. THB 8HCRET DOCTRINE. tongue the Jews had adopted the old Coptic or Rgyptian. The Israeli- tish Scriptures drew their bidden wisdom from the primeval Wisdom> Religion that was the source of other Scriptures, only it was sadly degraded by being applied to things and mysteries of this Barth. in- stead of to those in the higher and ever-present, thongh invisible. spheres. Their national history, if they can claim any autonoray before their return from the Babylonian captivity, cannot be carried back one day earlier than the time of Moses. The langnage of Abra- ham— if Zenian (Satnrn, the emblem of time — the "Sar," "Saros,"a "cycle") can be said to have any language — ^was not Hebrew, but Chaldaic. perhaps Arabic, and still more likely some old Indian dialect This is shown by numerous proofs, some of which we give here ; and unless, indeed, to please the tenacious and stubborn believers in BiHe chronology, we cripple the years of our globe to the Procrustean bed of 7.000 years, it becomes self-evident that the Hebrew cannot be called an old langnage, merely because Adam is supposed to have nsed it in the Garden of Eden. Bunsen says in Egypts Place in C/nivtrsai HUlQry that in the Cbaldican trilie immediately connected with Abtaliam, we find reminiscences of d&tes diifl^arcd and misunderstood as frenealofn^ of single men, or figures of epochs. The Ahraliamic lecollcctions go back at leaat tbree millennia beyond the grandfather of Jacob,* The j?ii<!tf of the Jews has ever been an Esoteric Book in its hidden meaning, but this meaning has not remained one and the same through- out since the days of Moses. It is useless, considering the limited space we can give to this subject, to attempt anything like the detailed history of the vicissitudes of the so-called Petttaietuh, and besides, the history is too well known to need lengthy disquisitions. WTiatever was, or was not, the Mosaic Book of Creation — from Genesis down to the Prophets — the Pmiateuch of to-day is not the same. It is sufficient to read the criticisms of Erasmus, and even of Sir Isaac Newton, to see clearly that the Hebrew Scriptures had been tampered with and re- modelled, had been lost and rewritten, a dozen times before the days of Ezra. This Ezra himself may yet one day turn out to have been A/^ra. the Chalda;.in priest of the Fire and Sun-God, a renegade who. through Ins desire of becoming a raler. and in order to create an Eth- narchy. restored the old lost Jewish Books in his own way. It was an I r MANT EVKNTS SOT HISTORICAI^ t^^ easy thing for one versed in the secret system of EsoLcrtc numerals, or Symbolog^y. to put togetlier events from the stray books that had been preserved by various tribes, and make of them an apparently harmo- nious narrative of creation and of the evolution of the Judaean race. But in its hidden meaning, from Gentsis to the last word of Deuteronomy^ the Pentateuch is the symbolical narrative of the sexe;*, and is an apo- theosis of Phallicism. under astronomical and physiolof^ri^^al persona- tions • Its coordination, however, is only apparent ; and the human hand appears at every moment, is found everywhere in the " Book of God." Hence the Kings of £dom discuss in Genesis before any king had reigned in Israel ; Moses records his own death, and Aaron dies twice and is buried in two different places, to say nothing of other trifles. For the Kabalist they arc trifles, for he knows that all these events are not history, but are simply the cloak designed to envelope and hide various physiological peculiarities ; but for the sincere Christian, who accepts all these "dark sayings" in good faith, it matters a good deal. Solomon may very well be regarded as a mytht by the Masons, as they lose nothing by it. for all their secrets are Kabalistic and allegorical — for those few. at any rate, who under- stand them. For the Christian, however, to give up Solomon, the son of David — from whom Jesus is made to descend — involves a real loss. Bat how c\'cn the Kabatists can claim great antiquity for the Hebrew texts of the old Biblical scrolls now possessed by the scholars is not made at all apparent. For it is certainly a fact of histor>', ba.sed on the con- fessions of the Jews themselves, and of Christians likewise, that : The Scriptures ba%-in}f perished in Uic captivity of Nahuchodonorar, Esdraa, the Levite, the prie^it, in the titties of Artaxerxes. king of the Persians, haviof; become inspired, in the exercise of prophecy refltored again the whole of the ancient ScriptureB.; •■'•■' : — l:. — .■'-M-Brf 4lt 1-1 < < ([ * Ait fa'ftiUv ahown in tb« S»urct a/StMHires kad other wotkx. V 8ur*1]r rv«n Miuoiiii tntuld nrvcr clMim the actmat rxUttnce oT Solomon * As Kcoealr sho*8, he U not noticed by Herodotus, nor by l*Uto. nor hy aar writer of »tADdiii([. It ii mtMt extfaordlnftry, hr Myn, " thfti Ihr Jrwish nntion, over whom but fl few ymnt lirforr the mljcfaly SOloooii hid rrljcned in «11 bU glory, with a aiaeiilficcncc »carcely eqtuilkd by the Krestest cuuaiicM. apetwliug aearly tight ihouMnd miUtomi of t^A on n (emplc. was ovrrloolced by (he historian Ilerodotua. writins ■>( RCTpt on the one hiaud, and of Itahyloii on the other—vbdliRg Iwlli pluTu, and of Cllur«^ paMtng •laioat necea^arily within afewmilea of the Bplcndld c-opitaj of tlie EMtiocial JenuMletu' How can thla be aceounted for ' " he asks (p. 457). Nay, not only are there no proofrt of the twelvr Irihc* of tarael bftvinffevercziiiUd. but Ilerodotua. tiK moat accurate of htaiorMUX. tvho waa iu Aasynft <«hca Bsrs fioiirifihed. nrver meniiiiui ihe Israelites at all ; and Rerodotua wa« bora la 4X4 x:. lluw ta thU? t Clnnent, ShvmmlHs, rxil. 174 TBK SRC RET DOCTRIWE. One must have a strong belief in " Bsdras," and especially in Ins good faith, to accept the now-existing copies as genuine Mosaic Books; for: Aaeuniiag llial lh« copies, or rnther phonographs which bad been made hj HilkUh and Esdras, and the various anonymous edilors. were really trae and geniiiDc, they mast have been wholly extenntn«te<l by AnliocbiiRi and the verciotu of the Old Teatatncnl which now snlisist must ba\x been made by Judas, or b^ some unknown compilers, probably Troni the Greek of the Serenty. loti]; after Ifae appearance and death of Jesus.* The Bid/e, therefore, as it is now (the Hebrew texts, that is), depends for its accuracy on the genuineness of the Sepfua^ni ; this, we are again told, was written miraculously by the Seventy, in Greek, and the original copy having been lost since that time, oar texts are re-translated back into Hebrew from that language. But in this vicious circle of proofs we once more have to rely upon the good feith of two Jews— Josephus and Philo Judseus of Alexandria— these two Historians being the only witnesses that the Septnagint was written under the circumstances narrated. And yet it is jnst these circumstances that are very little calculated to inspire one with confidence. For what does Josephus lell us ? He says that Ptolemy Pbiladelphus, desiring to read the Hebrew Law in Greek, wrote to Eleazar. the high-priest of the Jews, begging him io send him six mem from each e*f (he twelve tribes, who should make a translation for him. Then follows a truly miraculous stor>', vouchsafed by Aristeas, of these scvcnty-two men from the twelve tribes of Israel, who, shut up in an island, compiled their translation in exactly seventy-two days, etc. All this is very edifying, and one might have had very little reason to doubt the story, had not the " ten lost tribes " been made to play their part in it. How could these tribes, lost between 700 and 900 B.C.. each .send six men some centuries later, to satisfy the whim of Ptolem/t and to disappear once more immediately afterwards from the horizon ? A miracle, verily. We are expected, nevertheless, to regard such documents as the Septiutgint &^ containing direct divine revelation : Documents origin- ally written in a tongue about which nobody now knows anything; written by authors that are practically mythical, and at dates as to which no one is able even to make a defensible surmise : documents of the original copies of which there does not now remain a shred. Yet. THE REAL HRBREW CHARACTERS I«OST. 175 I people will persist in talking of the ancient Hebrew, as if there were any man left in the world who now knows one word of it. So little, indeed, was Hebrew known that both the Septuagint and the New Testament had to be written in a heathen language (the Greek), and no better reasons for it given than what Hutchinson says, namely, that the Holy Ohost chose to write the New Testament in Greek. The Hebrew language is considered to be very old, and yet there exists no trace of it an>'wbere on the old monuments, not eveo in Chaldsa. Among the great number of inscriptions of various kinds found in the ruins of that counto' : One in the Uebrew Chaldce letter and loDguoge has never ban found : nor baa a single authentic meilal or g<.*ni in tliis new-fangled character been ever discovered, wbicb could cany it even to the days of Jesus.' The original Book of Daniel is written in a dialect which is a raixtnre of Hebrew and Aramaic ; it is not even in Chaldaic, with the exception of a few verses interpolated later on. According to Sir W. Jones and other Orientalists, the oldest discoverable languages of Persia are the Chaldaic and Sanskrit, and there is no trace of the " Hebrew " in these. It wonld be very surprising if there were, since the Hebrew known to the Philologists does not date earlier than 500 B.C., and its characters belong to a far later period still. Thus, while the real Hebrew charac- ters, if not altogether lost are nevertheless so hopelessly transformed — A mere inspection of the alphabet showing that it haa been shaped and made legular, in doing which the cha.racteristic marks of some of the letters have been retrenehed'xn onler to make them more square and uniform — t that no one but an initialed Rabbi of Samaria or a "Jain" could read them, the uew system of the masoretic points has made them a sphinx-riddle for all. Punctuation is now to be found everywhere in all the later manuscripts, and by means of it anything can be made of a text; a Hebrew scholar can put on the texts any interpretation he likes. Two instances given by Kencaly will suffice : In Cenesis, xWx. ai, we read : Naphtali is a hind let looie ; he ^veih gxiodiy words. By only a slight alteration of the points Bochart chati^^es this into ; Napthali is a sprfiidtng tree, shooting forth beauHful branches. 60 again, in Psalms (xxix. 9}, instead of; * ^fi;f/N'/nmM/,vtt.,p>. ITS, qaotadby Kcaealy. 176 THE SBCRBT DOCTRINK. The voice or the Lord makttk the Mind to caive, antl di»covercth the forests; Bishop Lowth gives : The voice of Ibe Ixinl itrikflh the octk, and discoverelb the forests. The same word in Hebrew signifies "Crod " and " nothing." etc.* With regard to the claim made by some Kabalists that there was in antiquity one knowledge and one language, this claim is also our owa, and it is very just. Only it must be added, to make the thing clear, that this knowledge and language have both been esoteric ever since the submersion of the Atlanteans. The Tower of Babel myth relates to that enforced secrecy. Men falling into sin were re- garded as no longer trustworthy for the reception of such knowledge, and, from being universal, it became limited to the few. Thus, the "one-lip" — or the Myster>'-language — being gradually denied to sub- sequent generations, all the nations became severally restricted to their own national tongue; and forgetting the primeval Wisdom-lan- guage, they staled that the Lord — one of the chief Lordsor Hieropbfluts of the Mysteries of the Java Aleim^had confounded the langaagpes of all the earth, so that the sinners could understand one another's speech uo longer. But Initiates remained in every land and nation, and the Israelites, like all others, bad their learned Adepts. One of the keys to this Universal Knowledge is a pure geometrical and numerical system, the alphabet of every great nation ha\*ing a numerical value for every letter,! and, moreover, a system of permutation of syllables and synonyms which is carried to perfection in the Indian Occult methods, and which the Hebrew certainly has not. This one system, containing the elements of Geometry and Numeration, was used by the Jews for the purpose of concealing their Esoteric creed under the mask of t popular and national monotheistic Religion. The last who knew the system to perfection were the learned and " atheistical " Sadducees, the greatest enemies of the pretensions of the Pharisees and of their con- - ii, -■ /ir-fvi ^ > -■■1 M T' • Book a/ God. p. 385. * Spraking of the hiddtn ineiiiring of the Saiukrtt words. Itr. T. SvblM Kow. In his «bl* Article «■ "TlK Twi:lvieSiin»»of the Zodiac," jciwn aotnc •rtvice as lo Ihc way in whirh one slif>u1d proc««i1 ia Hod aui '■ tbe tinjt %igm^aM<x ol 3 nci cut Sanskrit aomcactature fu tlic old Aryan myths, t. Knd out thv (ynoaj-uM of Die word iu«d wliltb have othn- moainf*' ' fiixl OQt ttie auBkencsl valne of thr tcttrr> ranipoxitiK tbr word aixorduiK ta the mrthods of the uncient Tintrik tmilu {T'dntrtta SJUitra -vroitk* ou tacatiutioa nad Marie], 3. BKsmiac Ibe andcnt myth* 04- >lterorl». tf ihm are any. which have any special cooncclion with thr word tn quntion. 4- Pmtiute the dlSvnnt syllables cwtapoalag Ihc word and raaminc thr nrw cotDbiaationa that will thus be romed and their meaniup." etc. itnt he does not gtn the prinopal rale. And no donbt be it quite ri^t. tht TAntrika SAitfrtt arc aa old a* Hagic iladr. Have tbcy also borrowed their RaolcrtciBn Iran Ibe Hebrews i i HEBRRW KSOTRRICISM NOT PRIMITIVK. 177 I I (bsed notions brought from Babylon. Yes, the Sadducees, the Illu- sionists, who maintained that the Soul, the Angels, and all similar Beings, were illusions because they were temporary — thus sUowing themselves at one with Hastem Hsotericism. And since they rejected every book and Scripture, with the exception of the Law of Moses, it seems that the latter must have been very different from what it is now.* The whole of the forL-going is written with an eye to our Kabalists. Great scholars as some of them undoubtedly are, ihey are nevertheless wrong to hang the harps of their faith on the willows of Talmudic growth — on the Hebrew scrolls, whether in square or pointed charac- ters, now iu our public libraries, museums, or even in the collsctions of Paleographers. There do not remain half-a-dozen copies from the true Mosaic Hebrew scrolls in the whole world. And those who are in possession of these — as we indicated a few pages back — would not part with them, or even allow them to be examined, on any considera- tion whatever. How then can any Kabalist claim priority for Hebrew Esolericism, and say, as does one of our correspondents, that '* the Hebrew has come do\^*n from a far remoter antiquity than any of them [whether Egyptian or even Sanskrit ! ], and that it was the source, or oearer to the old original source, than any of them " ?f' As our correspondent says : " It becomes more convincing to me every day that in a far past time there was a mighty ciinlizatwn mth I • Thrir (btiDdrr, SmAoc. was (Iw pupil, throiiKh Aotifconus Saccbo. orsiutm the Jurt. They bul thett owu BCcr*! Bttot 0/ Iki lav ever iiuc« th« fcrunditioo of tbcir aecl (al>aul4<io B-c.) miid Ihut volimie was uolcaown to the ceuuhv. Atthr lime of the Separation th« Samaritatu rvcoffnlfcd only Ibe B««k 6/ the Law 0/ Motes and the Book ofjtnhua. autt tbdr HmtaJaick U far older, anil in diSrrrot from the Seplnaglnt. In it^s.c. Jennknleni hnd Its Irmpic ptundend. anil )U Sacred Booka— itataely, Ibe A'U( mode up byl{«niu)<l bninlinl liy Jiutas Maoc.il>eii»— w e ce \oM. <sre Border's ywe;^Hj, vol. ti. PP-3J1-S.V}): aflcr «rhJch the MatMtah cotDpIetcd the work of destnictiou ieven of Bata'a oace- BBOre ftdjiwted Biitr) twRiin by the chnnit^ inio wiitniT from honird Icttera TJierefore ibe later ftm- taltucA iMcpteil by Ibc Plianaeca wa« lejectcd aud laughed at by the Sadducees. Tbey are gcneralty called atheists : y«. tdnce those learned mni. uhoinade no secret of their ^eelhoujKbt, fumiahed from amotif tbeir auuiber the iuljsI emineut uf the Jewiah fatKb-pricstit, thia aeeniK impUAnible. Mow coold the Phaiiaces and the other two believinf and ploua tecta allow notorloua albeUta to be selected for aocb pOBta P The answer i;* diffiniK to find for blEotry ami for believer* in a personal, anthrapo- morpbkGod, but vcr>'(.-asy for tboae who accept beta. The Sadduccca were called fiiheUtabecanaeUiey believed aa the initialed Mo«n belirved, thui dlifering very widely from the latter made-up Jewiab legialator and hero of Mount Sinai. * Tbe meaaumnenla of the Great Pynunid beins thoae of the temple of Solaaion, of the Ark of the Covenant, etc.. accordinff to Piaaxi Sraythe and the auUior of the Soiree of ifeatnm, aad the Pyramid of Ovcb befoKabown on astronomical calcalationa to have been built 4950 k.c.. anA MonEshavinc n-rt/Zirahlsboola— for theaakeof arguoient— nut even half that Itrae beforr our era, bowonlbiabe.' Surely if any one borrowed frotuIheoUier. itiaootthe Pharaoh» front Moaea. Brea philology ataowB not ooty the Qsyptian. but even tbe MonxoliKii, older tbaa the Hebrew. 3 " I7S THE SBCK£T DOCTRINE. enormous Uarning, which had a common language over the earth., as tt which its essence can be recovered from the fragments which now exiit." Aye, there existed indeed a mighty civilization, and a still mightier secret learning and knowledge, the entire scope of which can never be discovered by Geometry and the Kabalah alone : for there are seven keys to the large entrance-door, and not one, nor even two. keys can ever open it sufficiently to allow more than glimpses of what lies within. Every scholar must be aware that there are two distinct styles — two schools, so to speak— plainly traceable in the Hebrew Scripures: the Elohistic and the Jehovistic. The portions belonging to these respec- tively arc so blended together, so completely mixed up by later hands, that often all external characteristics are lost. Yet it is also known that the two schools were antagonistic ; that the one taught esoteric, the other exoteric, or theological doctrines; that the one, the Elohists. were Seers (Roch), whereas the other, the Jehovists, were prophets (Nabhi),* and that the latter — who later became Rabbis — were gene- rally only nominally prophets by virtue of their official position, as the Popw is called the infallible and inspired vicegerent of God. Tbatt again, the Elohists meant by "Elohira" "forces," identifying their Deity, as in the Secret Doctrine, with Nature; while the Jehovists made of Jehovah a personal God externally, and used the term simply as a phallic symbol — a number of them secretly disbelieving even in metaphysical, abstract Nature, and synthesizing all on the terrestrial scale. Finally, the Elohists made of man the divine incarnate image of the Elohim, emanated first in all Creation; and the Jehovists show him as the last, the crowning glory of the animal creation, instead of his being the head of all the sensible beings on earth. (This is reversed by some Kabalists, but the reversion is due to the designedly-produced confusion in the texts, especially in the first four chapters of Genesis.) Take the Zohar and &nd in it the description relating to Ain-Suph, the Western or Semitic Parabrahman. What passages have come so nearly up to the VedSntic ideal as the following : Tb« crealioQ [the evolved Uoiverse] is the garment of that which has no D«D^ the garment woven from the Dtity's own suistance-f * TtallftlOfM ftbowftbotr Uie Books oT Hmts wme lam percd with. InSamiuHix. 9). itlswU: **He Uiat Unows projihct [Nalihi] wtu. bcfurrtiiiie called » }iccr [Rocb]." Now sioat betan Sammtt. 11k «*otd "Roch " U met nowhcTcintlK /fnMlfuc A. but its piece is ilwmjrsUkcn by that OT" Nabbl," Uu* prcnrv clemtly that the Mosaic tut ban bcvn rtrpLoccd b^ UiM of tkc lata Ijttibm. (Sec lior AiUcr details y^wijA AnUfuiUrt, by Uic Rev. D. Jeiuu]>ga,I>.D.) f 2Mar, i, M, THE C0NCKAI.KI1 OP A14. THB CONCEAI^D. 179 Between that which is Ain or "nothing," and the Heavenly Man. there is an Impersonal First Caxise, however, of which it is said : Before It gave any shape to Ibis world, before It produced any form. It was alone, without form or similitude to anything else. Who, then, can comprehend It. how 11 WAS before the creation, since It was fonnlcis? Hence it is forbidden to repre- sent It by any form, similitndc, or even by Its sacred name, by a single letter or a single point' The sentence that follows, however, is an evident later interpolation ; for it draws attention to a complete contradiction : And to this the words {Datt. iv. 15k refer — "Ye saw no manner of similitude on the day the Lord spake unto you." > But this reference to Chapter iv. of Deuieronomy, when in Chapter V. God is mentioned as speaking " face to face " with the people, is very clumsy. Not one of the names given to Jehovah in the Bible has any reference whatever to either Ain-Suph or the Impersonal First-Cause (which is the Logos) of the Kabalak ; but they all refer to the Kmanaiiims. It says For although to reveal itself to us, the concealed of .ill the concealed sent forth the Ten Kmanationa (Scphiroth) called the Ponn of God, Form of the Heavenly Man, yet since even this luminous form was too dazzltnR for our vifiion, ic had to assume another form, or luwl to put on another garmeut, whkh is the Universe. The Universe, therefore, or the visible world, is a farther expansion of the Divina Sab- stance, and is called in the Kabiilah "The Garment of God."'t This is the doctrine of all the Hindu Pur3nas, especially that of the Vishnu Purana. Vishnu pervades the Universe and is that Universe ; Brahma enters the Mundane Egg, and issues from it as the Universe; Brahm^ even dies with it and there remains only Brahman, the imper- sonal, the eternal, the unborn, and the uuqualifiable. The Ain-Suph of the Chaldseans and later of the Jews is assuredly a copy of the Vaidic Deity; while the " Heavenly Adam," the Macrocosm which unites in itself the totality of bciugs and is the Esse of the visible Universe, finds his original in the Puranic BrahmS. In Sbd, " the Secret of the Law," one recognizes the expressions used in the oldest fragments of the Gupta Vidya, the Secret Knowledge. And it is not venturing too much to say that even a Rabbi quite familiar with his own special Rabbinical Hebrew would only comprehend its secrets thoroughly if he added to • JMar, i, la. liee Dr. Ch. Gioflburg's eusy oa THt Cahbtkih, Hi Doctringt, DtuetofmttHtt amd IjUgrmtmrt. x8o THE SHCRKT DOCTRLNB. his learning a serious knowledge of the Hindu philosophies. I^et ns turn to Stauza I. of the Book of Dzyan for au example. The Zokar premises, as does the Secret Doctrine, a universal, eternal Bssencc, passive — l>ecause absolute — io all that men call attribates. The pregenetic or pre-cosniical Triad is a pure metaphysical abstrac- tion. The notion of a triple byposta:^is in one Unknown Divine Essence is as old as speech and thought. Hiranyagarbha. Hari, and Shankara — the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer — are the three mani- fested attributes of it, appearing and disappearing with Eosmoa ; the visible Triangle, so to speak, on the plane of the ever-invisible Circle. This is the prirae%'al root-thought of thinking Humanity; the Pytha- gorean Triangle emanating from the ever-con ccalcd Monad, or the Central Point. Plato speaks of it and Plotinas calls it an ancient doctrine, on which Cudworth remarks that : Sinc« Orpbeus, Pytha;:,'ora«, and Plato, who all of them asserted a Trinity of divine hypostases, unquestionably derived their (loctrioe from the Egryptians, It may be reasonably suspccitil that the EKXptians did the like before them." The Egyptians certainly derived their Trinity from the Indians. Wilson justly observes : As, however, the Grecian accounts and those of the Kgypttans are much more perplexed and unsatisfactory than those of the Hindus, it is most probable that we find amongst them the doctrine in its most fuiginal, as well as most methodical and signilicant fonn.t This, then, is the meaning; " Darknesi alone filled the BoundUis All, for Father, AfoiHer and Son were once more One."X Space was. and is ever. a.s it is between the Manvantaras. Tbe Universe in its pre-kosmic state was once more homogeneous and one — outside its aspect:^. This was a Kabalistic, and is now a Christian teaching. As is constantly shown in the Zokar, the Infinite Unity, or AJn-Suph, is ever placed outside human thought and appreciation ; and in Sepher Jetsirak we see the Spirit of God — the Logos, not the Deity itself— called One. • Cndwortli. i. iU. quoted by WUmo. KmAhn AiriM. i. m, oom t Vilhnu /^rmntt, i, 14, : Stauu 1. *■ TEDBK-IM-ONB AND POtTK. iSl I One is the Spirit of the living Goil, . . who liveth for ever. Voice, Spirit, [of the Spiritl and Word : this ii the Holy Spirit,* — and the Quaternary. From this Cube emanates the whole Kosinos. Says the Secret Doctrine : " It is called to life. The mystic Cube in which rests the Creative Idea, the manifesting Mantra [or articulate speech — VSchJ and the holy Puntsha [both radiations of prima materia] exist in the Eternity in tke Oivine Substance in their latent slate — during Pralaya. And in the Sepher Jetsirah, when the Thrce-in-One are lo be called into being — by the manifestation of SheJcinah, the first efFulgency or radiation in the manifesting Kosmos — the " Spirit of God," or Number One,t fructifies and awakens the dual Potency, Number Two, Air. and Number Three, Water ; in these " are darkness and emptiness, slime and dung" — which is Chaos, the Tohu-Vah-Bohn. The Air and Water emanate Number Four, Ether or Fire, the Son. This is the Kabalistic Quaternary. This Fourth Number, which in the manifested Kosmos is the One, or the Creative God, is with the Hindus the " Ancient," Sanat. the Prajfipati of the Vedas and the BrahmS of the Brahmans — the heavenly Androgyne, as he becomes the male only after separating himself into two bodies, Vach and VirSj. With the Kabalists, he is at first the Jah-Havab, only later becoming Jehovah, like Vir3j, his prototype ; after separ.-iting himself as Adam-Kadmon into Adam and 5ve in the formless, and into Cain-Abel in the semi- objective, world, he became finally the Jah-Havah, or man and woman, in Enoch, the son of Seth. For, the true meaning of the compound name of Jehovah — of which, nnvoweled, you can make almost anything — is : men and women, or humanity composed of its two sexes. From the first chapter to the end of the fourth chapter of Genesis every name is & permutation of another name, and every personage is at the same time somebody else. A Kabalist traces Jehovah from the Adam of earth to Seth, the third son rather race — of Adam. J Thus Seth is Jehovah male; and Enos, • Miikna, \. 9. T iBiUmantfeitedatstcitbwainMTni.ltietTnjverfte. In th«Chald«an A'oAa/aAit lutnclcs*. In the J««rwh, AhcLiuah U rcimUc. and Vbt early Christiaiu (uid tinoMiiu r«|ar<lnJ itic Huly r.hut as a flsnalc potency, la the Book of Sambm " Shekimt " is made U) drop the final " fc " that make* il ■ fnalnine iMnte. Niiiytnm. tbc Mover oti tlie WBterx, in 4lM> sexless : but it is our finn belief thai SheklDali and DtiviprrnVTiK, Uie^Ught of the I.ogo»." mn oae and the Mime Ihinf pliiIaao]>hicAlly. t The Klohim citrate Uic Adam of dust, and in hint Jehcvab-Binab teparute* him*eir iulo Kve, after whieh the inalepurUon of Cod brcoron IheScTjieiil, tempi* hiiDnrlfm live, tlint create* hltoadf •mn SKCRKT DOCTRINK. beioK a permutation of Cain and Abel, is Jehovah male and female, or our mankind. The Hindu Brahm5-Vir3j, VirSj-Manu. and Manu-Vai- vasvata. with his daughter and wife, VSch, present the greatest analogy with these personages — for anyone who will take the trouble of studying the 3ubjccl in both the ffi^/f and the Puranas. It is said of Brahnil that he created himself as Manu, and that he was bom of, and wm identical with, his original self, while he constituted the female portion Shata-rupa" (hundred-formed). In this Hindu Eve, "the mother of all living beings," Brahni^ created VirSj, who is himself, but on a lower scale, as Cain is Jehovah on au inferior scale: both are the first males of the Third Race. The same idea is illustrated in the Hebrew name of God (n>!T) Read from right to left "Jod" W is the father. " He" (n) the mother, " Vau" Ci) the son, and " He" (n). repeated at the end of the word, is jceneration. the act of birth, materiality. This is surely a sufficient reason why the God of the Jews and Christians should be personal, as much as the male BrahmS, Vishnu, or Shiva of the orthodox, exoteric Hindu. Thus the term of Jhvh alone — now accepted as the name of "One living [male] God " — will yield, if seriously studied, not only the whole mystery of Bang- (in the Biblical sense,) but also that of the Occult Thcogony, from the highest divine Being, the third in order, down to man. As shown by the best Hebraist.^ : The verbal TV71, or Hftyih. or E-y-e. means to be, to exiil, while rrn or Chiyth, or H-y*e. means to live, as motion of existence* Hence Eve stands as the evolution and the ncvcr-ccasing " becom- ing " of Nature. Now if we take the almost untranslatable Sanskrit word Sat, which means the quintessence of absolute immutable Being, or Be-ness — as it has been rendered by an able Hindu Occulti.st — we shall find no equivalent for it in any language ; but it may be rcgardcfi as most closely resembling " Ain," or " En-Suph," Boundless Being. Tlicn the term Hayab. " to be," as passive, changeless, yet manifested existence may perhaps be rendered by the Sanskrit JivStraS, universal life or soul, in its secondary and cosmic meaning ; while " Ch^ySh, " to live." as " motion of existence," is simply PrSna, the ever-changing life in its objective sense. It is at the head of this third categorj* that the Occultist finds Jehovah — the Mother, Binah, and the Father, Are- (■ bcr u Cain, paaau into ScUi, aad KSttera from Biioch, the Bott of lf«D, or HumaBily, as Jod hcv«. * TV S9ura e/Mtuuru, p. t. THE SBPT^ARV SEPHHIA. <83 » I Km. This is msdc plain in the Zohar, when the emanation and evolu- tion of the Sephirolh are explained: First, Ain-Suph. then Shckinah, the Garment or Veil of Infinite t,tght. then Sephira or the Kadmou. and, thus making the fourth, the spiritual Substance sent forth irom the Infinite IJght. This Sephira is called the Crown. Kether, and has besides, six other names — in all seven. These names are : i. Kether ; 2. the Aged ; 3. the Primordial Point ; 4. the White Head ; 5. the Long Face; 6. the Inscrutable Height; and 7. Ehejeh ("I am".)* This scpteuan.' Sephira is said to coutaiu in itself the niae Sephiroth. But before showing how she brought them forth, let us read an expla- nation about the Sephiroth in the Talmud, which gives it as an archaic tradition, or Kabalah. There are three groups (or orders) of Sephiroth : r. The Sephiroth called " divine attributes" (the Triad in the Holy Q\iateniar>*) ; 2. the sidereal (personal) Sephiroth ; 3. the metaphysical Sephiroth, or a peri- phrasis of Jehovah, who are the first three Sephiroth (Kether, Chokmah and Binah), the rest of the seven being the personal " Seven Spirits of the Presence" (also of the planets, therefore). Speaking of these, the angels are meant, though not because they are seven, but because they represent the seven Sephiroth which contain in them the universality of the Angels. This shows {a) that, when the first four Sephiroth are separated, as a Triad -Quaternary — Sephira being its synthesis — there remaiu only seven Sephiroth, as there are seven Rishis ; these become ten when the Quaternary, or the first divine Cube, is scattered into units; and {b) that while Jehovah might have been viewed as the Deity, if he be in- cluded in the three divine groups or orders of the Sephiroth, the collective Elohim. or the qiiatemar>' indivisible Kether. once that he becomes a male Ck»d. he is no more than one of the Builders of the lower group — a Jewish Brahraa-f A demonstration is now attempted. The first Sephira, containing the other uine, brought them forth in I • Thti Mrntifips Acphtni, Uue thin] poleucy. wiU Jdiov&b the LokI. who »Ky» to Hookm out of Uie burning buali: "(Herci 1 nm." t^Evoilus. iii. *.' Al Ihii llmr thr " lyird" hnit mil jrct l>rcotiie Jehovah. II WAS tint the nnr Mnlc ChmI whu apol:«, tiul Ui« Blohini ounlfostcd. or tlic bephlroth ia thrir nMnifnlnl cullrctivity of *«%-i.-n, c«nlutii«>l iu Ui« triple ScpMrn. t The Br.^hni.-itiK vn-rr wi->ciii Ihrii gmtrfltioii -vlicu thcyeiadu^lly, far no otlirr rcanon than tbls, nItmdoiKd BratimJ. aa<\ paid less atlcntlon in him JndtrlituMlly than to any other deity. As an alMtract iyntliCEtB they wtwuhipjjnl Him cullrcllwely and iu evecy Cod.eaxrh uf wliich nrprt*ejili lilm, A« Brihma, the male, he is fu lower lliAu Shiva, the Llnrsoi. who personates utiIwtysI ^nermtion, or Vulinn, the pitatrrer— both Shiva and ^H^hnu heing the T«B^ner«lani of life ufin- dealructioB. TlK Christlnn tnlght do wor«e than ftrilow their example, and wortbip Cod la Spirit, end sot in Uic mAk Orator- iS4 THK SECRBT DOCTWNE. this order: (2) Hokmah (Chokmah, or Wisdom), a masculine active potency represented among the divine names as Jah ; and, as a permu- tation or an evolution into lower forms in this instance — bt^coming the Auphanim (or the Wheels— cosmic rotation of matter) among the army, or the angelic hosts Prom this Chokmah emanated a feminine passive potency called (5) Intelligence, Binah, whose divine name is Jehovah, and whose angelic name, among the Builders ajid Hosts, is Arelim* It is from the union of these two potencies, male and female (or Chokmah and Binah) that emanated all the other Sephiroth, the seven orders of the Builders. Now if we call Jehovah by his divine name, then he becomes at best and forthwith "a female passive" potency in Chaos. And if we view him as a male God, he is no more than one of many, an Angel, Arelim. But straining the analysis to its highest point, and if his male name Jah, that of Wisdom, be allowed to him, still he is not the "Highest and the one Living God;" lor he is contained with many others within Sephira, and Sephira herself is a third Potency in Occultism, though regarded as the first in the exoteric Kabalah — and is one, moreover, of lesser importance than the Vaidic Aditi, or the Primordial Water of Space, which becomes after many a permutation the Astral Light of the Kabalist. Thus the Kahalah, as we have it now, is shown to be of the greatest importance in explaining the allegories and "dark sayings" of the BibU. As an Esoteric work upon the mysteries of creation, however, it is almost worthless as it is now disfigurc-d, unless checked by the Chal- dasan Bock of Numben or by the tenets of the Eastern Secret Scieoce^ or Esoteric Wisdom. The Western nations have neither the original Kabalak, nor yet the Mosaic BibU. Finally, it is demonstrated by internal as well as by external evidence, on the testimony of the best European Hebraists, and the confessions of the learned Jewish Rabbis themselves, that " an ancient document forms the essential basis of the BibU, which received very considerable insertions and supplements ;" and that "the Pentateuch arose out of the primitive or older document by means of a supplemen- tary one." Therefore in the absence of the Book of Numbcn,\ the Kabalists of the West are only entitled to come to definite conclusions, when they have at hand some data at least from that " ancient docu- ■ A plural word, ttfnirying acoIl«cU*c ho«l genenc^r ; Utccsll]', IbCMrooc Imm." * Tbc wrlUi poMOM* onlj a few exUacIs, mmiiv doan pagca ia all, vvrbatun qauUtiooa ftms that prime** woric of which bai twg or Ihre« coplc*. perhaps, arc rtin nnam. THB BUND LEADING THK BUND. 185 ment" — data now found scattered throughout Egyptian papyri, Assyrian tiles, and the traditions preserved by the descendants of the disciples of the last Nazars. Instead of that, most of them accept as their authorities and infallible guides Sabre d'Olivet — who was a man of immense erudition and of speculative mind, but neither a Kabalist nor an Occultist, either Western or Eastern — and the Mason Ragon, the greatest of the '* Widow's sons," who was even less of an Orientalist than d'Olivet, for Sanskrit learning was almost unknown in the days of both these eminent scholars. SECTION XXL Hebrew Allegories. How can any Kabalisl, acquainted with llie foregoing, deduce his con- cluHtonn with regard to the true Esoteric beliefs of the primitive Jews, from that only which he now finds in the Jewish scrolls ? How can ■ny scholar— even though one of the keys to the universal language be now positively discovered, the true key to the numehcat reading of a pure geometrical system — give out anything as his yp«a/ conclusion? Modern Kabalistic speculation is on a par now with modem ** specula- tive Masonry;" for as the latter tries vainly to link itself with the ancient — or rather the archaic — Masonry of the Temples, failing to make the link because all its claims have been shown to be inaccurate from an archaeological standpoint, so fares it also with Kabalistic speculation. As no mystery of Nature worth running after can be Kveftled to humanity by settling whether Hiram Abtf was a living Sidonian builder, or a solar myth, so no fresh information will be added to Occult Lore by the details of the exoteric privileges conferred on the Collegia Fabrorum by Numa Pompilius. Rather mnst the s>'mboIs used in it be studied in the Aryan light, since all the Symbolism of the ancient Initiations came to the West with the light of the Eastern Sun. Nevertheless, wc find the most learned Masons and Symbologists declaring that all these weird symbols and glyphs, that run back to a common origin of immense antiquit>*, were nothing more than a display of cunning natural phallicism, or emblems of primitive typolog>*. How much nearer the truth is the author of The Source of A/eatmres. who declares that the elements of human and numerical construc- tion in the ffthU do not shut out the spiritual elements in it. albeit so few now understand them. The words we quote are as suggestive aa they «re true : How ikvpftrmtety bUadtag bcconesa supentilioas a«; threugfa ignonaee. of such tnblciiUt when Ihcy an «ude to poaaen the power of bloodshed uid cortnn^ I THE HBBRSW BrBLE DOBS NOT SXIST. l87 Uirougb orders of propagauda of Any species of rc-ligiouft cultus. Wlieii one thinks of the borront of a Moloch, or Haul, or Dagon worship : of Uie correlated blood- deluxea under the Cross bapti/etl iu goru by Constantiiie, at Ibe iiittiaUve of the aecular Church i . . . when one tMnks of all this and then that the catue of all has been simply ijfnorance of the real radical readiiijj of the Moloch, and Baat^ and Dagon, and the Cro^ and the TphiUin, all running hack to a contniou origin, and after all being nothing more than a display of pure and natural malhematici, . . . one is apt to feel like cursing ignorance, and to lo** confidence in what are called intuitions of religion ; one is apt to wish for a return of the day when all the world was of one lip and of one knowledge. . . . But while tlieae elements (of the conatruction of the p>TanudJ arc rational and scieatitic. ... let no man coBsider that with this discovery comes a cntting-off of the spirHualily* of the Bible intention, or of man's relation to this spiritual foundation. Does one wish to build a house ^ No hou<te was ever actually built with tangible material UMtil fittt the architedural design of ImiMing had bem aetompUshed. no matter whether the structure was palace or hovel. So with these elements and nunil)ers. They are not of man, nor are they of his invention. They have been revealed to him to the extent of his ability to realize a aystem, which is the creative systetH of the eternal God. . . . But ipiriltMlly, to nmu the value of this matter is that he cau actually iu contemplation, bridge over all material construction of the cosmos, and pats into the very thought and mind of God, to the extent of recognizing this ^tsUm of design for cosmic creation — yea, even before the word-i went forth : " Lei there be ."f But true as the above words may be, when coming from one who has re-discovcred, more completely than anyone else has done during the past centuries, one of the keys to the universal Mystery Language, it is impossible for an Eastern Occultist to agree with the conclusion of the able author of The Source of Afcasures. He *' has set out to find the truth," and yet he still believes that : The best and most authentic vehicle of comtnunicatioD from ftbe creative] God to man . . . is to be fonnd in the Hebrew Bible. To this we must and shall demur, giving our reasons for it in a few words. The " Hebrew Bible" exists no more, as has been shown in the foregoing pages, and the garbled accounts, the falsified and pale copies we have of the real Mosaic Bible of the Initiates, warrant the making of no such sweeping assertion and claim. AM that the scholar can fairly claim is that the Jewish BibU, as now extant — in its latest and final interpretation, and according to the newly -discovered key — may g^ivc • Aj* : Imt Ihftt \piriluaUiy ltih upvtt br iliKflmrd, far less prowd, unlMa wt turn \a Ibe Xrymi Seripttim an<t Symbologj-. For Ihe Jtwn il wa» lo*l. saw for the Sadducce*. from Uie day thnt the " diMra people " mcbed Uie PromiKd I,Rnd, tbe national Kama ptweoling Mowa fram reaclituB it. t f^nA, PP.JI7-JI9. IBS THX SBQMSn DOCTRINB. a partial presentment of the tmths it contained before it was mangled. But how can he tell what the Pcntatctuh contained before it had been re-composed by Bsdras; then corrupted still more by the ambitious Rabbis in later times, and otherwise remodelled and interfered with? Leaving aside the opinion of the declared enemies of the Jewish Scrip- tures, one may quote simply what their most devoted followers say. Two of these are Home and Prideaux. The avowals of the former will be sufficient to show how much now remains of the original Mosaic books, unless indeed we accept his sublimely blind faith in the inspira- tion and editorship of the Holy Ghost. He writes that when a Hebrew scribe found a writing of any author he was entitled, if he thought fit, being " conscious of the aid of the Holy Spirit," to do exactly as be pleased with it — to cut it up, or copy it, or use as much of it as he deemed right, and so to incorporate it with his own manuscript. Dr. Kenealy aptly remarks of Home, that it is almost impossible to get any admission from him Tbul uiake* againsl bis cburcli. so remarkobly guanled ia he [Home] in hii p0raseolog>' and so wonderfully discreet iu the use of words that bis lan^oagi*. like a diplomntic letter, perpetually suggests to the mind ideas other than those which he really means ; I defy any unlearned person to read his chapter on " Hebrew characters " and lo derive any knowUdge from it whatever on the subject on which he professes to tre^t.* And yet this same Home writes : We are persuaded that the things to which reference is made proceeded from Itic original writers or compilers of the books {OUt Testamnf]. Sometimes Ibcy took other writinjis, annals, genealogies, and such like, mtb which they incorporaki additionai maUfr, or which they put together with gre-ater or les* condeuution. The Old Te-iiamctt authors used the sources they employed (that is. the writing of other people) «ith freedom and indepeudence. Conscions of the aid of the Divine Spirit, lluy adapted their owa prodncttoas, or the productions of others, to the wants of the times. But in these respects they cannot be said to have corrupted the test of Scripture. They made ike text.f But of what did they make it ? Why, of the writings of other persons, justly observes Kenealy : And this is Homc*s notion of what the Old Teitament is — a cento from the writings of unknown persotu collected and put together by those who, he says, were divinely inspired. No iufidcl that I know of has ever made so damaging i charge as this ^^inst the authenticity of the Old Tatamitit* 1 Sm Home's /ntroducliom iioth cdilioa), foL ii, p. 33, as quoted ^ Dt. Kxataiy, p. JI9. 80MB HRBRKWS WBRR IKITIATBS. I I I IIS is quite sofficieDt, we thlak, to show that no key to the uuiversal laaguage-system can ever open the mysteries of Cr'^atiou in a work in which, whether through design or carelessness, nearly every sentence has been made to apply to the latest outcome of religious views — to Phallicism, and to nothing else. There are a sufficjen: nuniher of stray bits in the Elohisttc portions of the BibUXja warrant the iufercncc that the Hebrew:^ who wrote it were Initiates; hence the mathematical coordi- nations and the perfect harmony between the measures of the Great Pyramid and the numerals of the Biblical glyphs. But surely if one borrowed from the other, it cannot be the architects of the Pyramid who borrowed from Solomon's Temple, if only because the former exists to this day a^ a stupendous living monumcuL of Esoteric records, while the famous temple has never existed outside of the far later Hebrew scrolls,* Hence there is a great distance between the admission that some Hebrews were Initiates, and the conclusion that because of this the Hebrew Bible must be the best standard, as beiag the highest representative of the archaic Esoteric System. Nowhere does the Bible say, moreover, that the Hebrew is the lan- guage of God; of this boast, at any rate, the authors are not guilty, Perhaps because in the days when the Bible was last edited the claim would have been too preposterous — hence dangerous. The compilers of the Old Testament, as it exists in the Hebrew canon, knew well that the language of the Initiates in the days of Moses was identical with that of the Egyptian Hierophants ; and that none of the dialects that had sprung from the old Syriac and the pure old Arabic of Yarab — the father and progenitor of the primitive Arabians, long before the time of Abraham, in whose days the ancient Arabic bad already become vitiated — that none of those languages was tl»e one sacerdotal universal tongue. Nevertheless all of them included a number of words which could be traced to common roots. And to do this is the business of modem Philology, though to this day, with all the respect due to the labours of the eminent Philologists of Oxford and Berlin, that Science seems to be hopelessly floundering in the Cimmerian darkness of mere hypothesis. I * Tke anther «a]rs that Parker's fnatfra/urr Is "thai iiLnittcol ncMure which wu ttK<l anciently u ihc perfect nieasurr, by the Eg>-ptiau>i, ta the coiMtmctiou or the Great Pyramid, whieh waa built ta mmtmmitmt it and ili uitt." and itaat "from it the tacrtd cmbil-mitut tvai dtrived. wbich wu the cul>it-value uied in the constmi'ttuii of the Temple ar^lnnon, the Ark ofNanh, and Uie Ark uf the Cuvetuint" (p. ti). TtiU is a (rand discovery. DO doubt, but It only itaom tliat tbe Jew* profiled vrcll by tlictr captivity in BcTP^ tad that Moae»va« arreit Initiate. J90 THE SECRET DOCTRINK. Abrens, when speaking of the letters as arranged in the Hebrew sacred scrolls, and remarking that they were masical notes, had pro* bably never studied Arj-an Hindu music. In the Sanskrit language letters are continually arranged in the sacred Ollas so that they may become musical notes. For the whole Sanskrit alphabet and the Vedas, from the first word to the last, are musical notations reduced to writing ; the two arc inseparable.* As Homer distinguished between the "language of Gods" and the "language of meu."t so did the Hindus. The DevanSgart. the Sanskrit characters, are the " speedi of the Gods," and Sanskrit is the divine language. It is argued in defence of the present version of the Mosaic Books that the mode of language adopted was an "accommodation" to the ignorance uf the Jewish people. But the said " mode of Ian- guage" drags down the "sacred text" of Esdras and his colleagues to the level of the most unspiritual and gross phallic religions. This plea confirms the suspicions entertained by some Christian Mystics and many philosophical critics, that: (a) Divine Power as an Absolute Unity had never aD>thiug more to do with the Biblical Jehovah and the " I^rd God '* than with any other Scphiroth or Number. The Ain-Suph of the Kabalah of Moses is as iudepeudent of any relation with the created Gods as is Parabrahman Itself. {b) The teachings veiled in the Old Teslafnrnt under allegorical ex- pressions arc all copied from the Magical Texts of Babylonia, by Esdras and others, while the earlier Mosaic Text had its source in Egypt. A few instances known to almost all Symbologists of note, and especially to the French Kg>'ptolo gists, may help to prove the state- ment. Furthennore. no ancient Hebrew Philosopher, Philo no more than the Sadducees, claimed, as do now the ignorant Christians, that • B«e Thtou/^kui, Nomnber. itjv. *rt. " Hiodn MuIc," p. 47- > The Danskrit lrtt«T« arr fnr ttww nunteraiU IbOD the |K>or Itreaty-two tettm of tbr Rrbmr alphabet. They arc all muaical. and they arc r«nl— or ralhrr cTiant«d— acc-onliny to a vjVkxni givea in vrrr old Timrikn works, and bit cnlW Drvanigari, Ui« apevcti, or lansuage, of U*e Coda. Aad Muce rach IrtUr nnswm to a nuinmil. titc Sanitkril aflTorda a far Iatsct scope for i niiiialnii. w|4 it auBt nec«iiaarily b* fat mote xwrftxt than ihi- HrSrew, which fnllo«Kd tbc Hmc syttem but could apply it only in a very limitnl way. ITeitlici of thr^c two laajcuagM wtn Lauchi lo tauinanily by UicUodii, *'Urvly it would more lllccly Ik the Sanskrit, thr pcrrcct form of Uie maA pcrficct langnagc on earth, than the Kctrrew, the raUKheat aiiil the pobteaL Pur once aoyosa beUeveaia alangaaseortlix-iiieohgia. lie can hatdly bclicrc at the mjiic time thai Angels or Coda •r any (lirine Mca»etigm have bad to develop it tmm & rouKb monuByllabic form into a pe-fiect <HM; M we aee la trrmitrinl tinguUtii: evulutiua. THfi SaVKN CRKATIVB GODS. "W I I "events in tiie Si6U should be takeu literally. Fhilo says most explicitly : The Tcrbal statemeals arc fabulous [iu Xhv Book of the LawJ : il is in the allegory Uiat we shall Rod the trath. Let us give a few instances, beginning with the latest narrative, the Hebrew, and thus if possible trace the allegories to their origin. I. Whence the Creation in six days, the seventh day as day of rest, the seven Elohim,* and the division of space into heaven and earth» in the first chapter of Gatesis ? The division of the \'ault above from the Abyss, or Chaos, below is one of the first acts of creation or rather of evolution, iu every cosmo- gony. Hermes in Pymander speaks of a hea\"en seen in seven circles with seven Gods in them. We examine the Assyrian lilcs and find the same on them — the seven creative Gods busy each in his own sphere. The cuneiform legends narrate how Bel prepared the seven man-iiions of the Gods; how heaven was separated from the earth. In the Br^hmanical allegory everything is septenary, from the seven zones, or envelopes, of the Mundane Egg down to the seven continents, islands, seas, etc. T)ie six days of the week and the seventh, the Sabbath, are based primarily on the seven creations of the Hindu Brahma, the seveuth being that of man ; and secondarily on the number of generation. It is preeminently and most conspicuously phallic. Tn the Babylonian system the seventh day, or period, was that in which man and the animals were created. 12. The Elohim make a woman out of Adam's rib.f^ This process is found in the Magical Texts translated by G. Smith. The seven Spirits bring fortii the woman from the loins of the man. explains Mr. Sayce in his Hibbert Lectures.X * InUiefitst cliaptcTof Gentzii the word "Ood " nprcMntathc Klohiin— Cod* in Ui« plural, not onr God. Tills U d cutining and difthoncat trnnslatton. For ih* whole Kahalah explaiuii mifficitrntljr Uuit the AUitm i£tahinil ott aem: each crCAlcii one of thr teren thitii^ cnururmtcd in Ibr first chapter, and tbnte muwct allegtiriutly lo tbf *«ven creationv To malce ihi* ckar. count tbc rcnca in which it Ik Miid " And God bbw Uial j( wa* good," and ysra will find thai thin \m mid Krven times— m verves a, lo. i3> il. 3i. >5. and \\. Aad Ihougli the compilers cunmnfly repreaent ilw cresLiou of man u occumnjr on the sixth itny. yet, hnvinn marie nisn " mok and female in (he imanc of Cod," iheSeveu Elohlui lepcat llie Mciitmenlal Aeiilcoce, "It wa« ^ood," for ttic seventh lime, tbua nuUcing ofinantbe«even[hcreatiau. and showine the orifinofihiabJl of cosmogony to bein UicUiuducieation* The FJohira are, of course, the seven Egyptian Khnamu. ihe "nsaiBlnnt-archilect***; the seven AmshaspentU of the Zuroiu>trian> ; the Seven SpiriU auborditutc to Udabaoth uf the NaMiraiMt ; Ibe •even PraJ&pati of the Hindu*, etc. 4 Gen., ii. ai M. % Ofi. rii., p. jijf, nnle. I 1 THE SECRET DOCTRrNB. The mystery of the womau who was made from the man is repeated iu every national religiou, and in Scriptures far aotedating the Jewish. You find it in the Avestan fragments, in the Egyptian Book of the Dioi, and finally in BrahmS, the male, separating from himself, as a femftle self, VSch. in whom he creates VirSj. 3. The two Adams of the first and second chapters in Genesis origi- nated from garbled exoteric accounLs coming from the Chaldaeans and the Egyptian Gnostics, revised later from the Persian traditions, most of which arc old Aryan allegories. As Adam ICadmon is the seventh creation,* so the Adam of dust is the eighth ; and in the PurSnas one finds an eighth, the Anugraha creation, and the Egyptian Gnostics had it. Irenseus, complaining of the heretics, says of the Gnostics : Sometimes they will bsve bim [man] to have been made on the sixth day, aod sometimes on the eighth. t The author of The Hebrew and Other Creaiiont writes : Theite two creations of man on the sixth ilay and on the eighth were those of the Adamtc, or fleshly man, and of the spiritual man, who were known to Paul and the Gnostics as the first and second Adam, the man of earth and the man of HeaTen. Irenaus also says they insisted that Mose:s began with the Ogdoad of the Seven Powers and their mother. Sophia [the old Kefa of Egypt, who is the Living Word at Ombos).; Sophia is also Aditi with her seven sons. One might go on enumerating and tracing the Jewish " revelations'* ad infinitum to their original sources, were it not that the task is super- fluous, since so much is already done in that direction by others — and done thoroughly well, as iu the case of Gerald Massey, who has sifted the subject to the very bottom. Hundreds of volumes, treatises, and pamphlets are being written yearly in defence of the "divine-inspira- tion" claim for the ^iW^r; but symbolical and archaeological research is coming to the rescue of truth and fact — therefore of the Esoteric Doctrine — upsetting every argument based on f ith and breaking it as an idol with feet of clay. A curious and learned book. TTte Approaching Endofthc Age, by H. Grattan Guinness, professes to solve the mysteries of the Bible chronology and to prove thereby God's direct revelation to man. Among other thiugs its author thinks that : U is impossible to deny that a septiform chronology was divinely appointed in the elaborate ritaal of Judaism. * Th« .wreaUi ootcrlcally, easterically the tistb. -* Cotitra H^aes. I, xvili, >. 1 Op. at. bj Gerald Mssacy. p 14 TUB SEVRN CREATrVB GODS. lyi I I the events in the Sible should be taken literally. Philo seys most explicitly : The verbal statements are fabulous [in the Book of the LawJ : it is in the allcgoiy that we shall 6nd tlic truth. Let us give a few instances, beginning with the latest narrative, the Hebrew, and thus if possible trace the allegories to their origin. 1. Whence the Creation in six days, the seventh day as day of rest, the seven Elohim,* and the division of space into heaven and earth, iu the 6rst chapter of Genesis f The division of the vatilt above from the Abyss, or Chaos, below is one of the first acts of creation or rather of evolution, in every cosmo- gony. Heriues in Pytnander speaks of a heaven seen in seven circles with seven Gods in them. We examine the Assyrian tiles and find the same on Ihem — the seven creative Gods busy each in his own sphere. The cuneiform legends narrate how Bel prepared the seven mansions of the Gods ; how heaven was separated from the earth. In the Brahmanical allegory eveo'thing is septenary, from the seven zones, or envelopes, of the Mundane Egg down to the seven continents, islands, seas, etc. The six days of the week and the seventh, the Sabbath, are based primarily on the seven creations of the Hindu Brahma, the seventh being that of man ; and secondarily on the number of generation. It is preeminently and most conspicuously phallic. In the Babylonian system the seventh day, or period, was that in which man and the animals were created. 2. The Elohim make a woman out of Adam's rib.f This process is found in the Magical Texts translated by G. Smith. The seven Spirits bring forth tlje woman from the loins of the man, explains Mr. Sayce in his Hibbert Ltctures.X * iB Ibe fim chapter of Gtnetit the word " God " wptmtiUit the Itlotilrn -Gods (n Uic plural, not aoeCod. Tlifai bacunaiiiyftnddishonefft traDstatloo. For the wtiolr KabalaH expIiLim luSicieiiUy that UiF Alhim (Rlohimi air srvrn : racrh crr^lrs oiw of tbr wvcn ihinss «nammit^d in (.he Srrt chapter, aud tb»C mtiamtT allcsorically to the seven <:teaU<iua. To uuke Ibta cleat, count the wnea in whkh it is uld " And Got! saw that It wan gooA." and you will flnd thai iMa la add seven tinier- in vcT«e*4, to, 13, 18, 11, »^, and 3:. And though th« cumpilers vuuuin^ly repreaent the crtalion of man HA occurring on the tixth day, yet. haring made man " male and female iu the iinajie of Gwl," Ihr Srven Klohim n-peat Ihe sarrammtal aetitniee. " II wax good," far thcRwenth lime.ihua maldnc of man the wen th creation, and •howinnUieorlgiuof Ihix bitofcoaiBOgony tobeiu the Hindu ere atl ana The Klobiui arr. of coorae. the Kvtm Rrypilan KhnOnia. (he " sftalatam-architccu" : the vc^ea AnvNhaiqtenda of the ZuronatrvauK ; the Seven Spirita aubonUnale to Udabaotfa of the Nainreaak ; the •even Pinjlpaiiof'thc Hindu*, etc. 4 Cen., H. >i ai. t 1^. oV..p..W5.«<^l«'. i '94 THB SKCRET DOQTRIXB. The celestial sphere with the earth, was divided into twelve compamoenu [attronomically], ami these compartinents were esteemed as scx^, the tortU of husbaads beinf; respectively the planets presiding over them. Thi^ being the Kttled Bcheme, want of proper correciion would bring it to puss, after a lime, that error and confusion woolri ensue by the compartmentR corning under the lonlsbip of the wrong pianets. instead of lawful wedlock, there would be illegal intercoone, as between the planets, " scits of Btckim," and lhe«e compartment^ " daughien of H-Adam," or the earih-mKO. ; aad in fact the fourth verse of sixth G^Mtsis will bcsr this interpretation for the usu.il one, viz., " In the snnie days, or periods, there wen untimely births to the earth ; and also behind that, when the sous of Elohim cane to the dnnghters of H-Adam. they begat to them the offispriDg of harlotry," elt, astronomically indicating this confaston.* Do any of these leanied explanations explain anything except a possible ingenious allegory, and a personification of the celestial bodies, by the ancient Mythologists and Priests? Carried to their last word they would undeniably explain much, and would thus furnish one of the right seven keys, fitting a great many of the Biblical puzzles yet opening none naturally and entirely, instead of being scientific and cunning master* keys. But they yet prove one thing — that neither the septifonn chronology nor the septiform tbeogony and evolution of all things is of divine origin in the BiS/e. For let us see the sources at which the Bi6/e sipped its divine inspiration with regard to the sacred number seven. Says Mr. Massey in the same lecture : Thf OooJt of Genesis tells lis nothing about the nature of these Elohim, erro- neously rendered "God," who iire creators of the Hebrew beginning, and who uc iheniselves pre^xlant and seated when the theatre opens and the curtain aseendi^ It says that in the beginning the Elohim created the heaven and the earth. In Uiousnnds of books the FJohim have l»een discussed, but . . . with no conclo- sive result . The Elohim are Seven in number, whether as n attire- powen, jjoda of constellations, or planetary gods, ... as the Pilns and Patriarchs iManuB and Fathers of earlier times. Tlie Gnosti<:s. howe\'er, and the Je«risfa Kabatah preserve an account of lite Blohim of Gniais by which we are able to identify them with other forms of the seven primordial powers. . . . Tbdr names are Ildabaoth, Jehovah (or Jao), Saliaoth, .\donai, RIoeus, Oreusi, and Astanphieus. Ildabaoth signifies the Lord OuJ of the fathers, thai is the fathers who preceded the Father ; and thus the seven are identical with the seven Pitris or Fathers of India (Irenaeus, B. I., xxx., 5). Moreover, the Hebrew Elohim were prccxtant by name and nature as Phcentcian divinities or powers. SBnchoniathoo meulions them by name, and ilescribes tlieni as .'luxiliaries of ICronos or Time. In this phase, then, the Elohim arc tinie-tecpers in lieaven ! In the Phoenician mythology the Elohim are the .Seven sons of Sydik [MelchizedelcJ identical with • c^. at., p. us- 1 GERALD MASSBY ON THE SEVBN CXEATORS. 195 I I I the Seven Kabiri, who in Egypt are tbe Seven »ons of Ptab, and the Seven Spirits oi tL^ va Th£ Book 0/ Pi£ Dead : . . . in America with the seven Hobgates, . . in Assyria with the seven Lumazi. . . . They are always seven io number .. . . . who Kai> — that is, luni round, together, whence the "Kab-lri." . . , They are also the Hi or Gods, in Assyrian, who were seven in nnniber! . . ,1 They were Grsl bom of the Mother in Space,* and then the Seven Companions passed into the sphere of time as auxiliaries of Kronus, or Sons of the Male ParenL As Damascius says in his Primifizt Principles, the Ma^ consider that space and time were the source of all ; and from being- powers of the air the gods were promoted to become time-keepers for men. Seven constellations were assigned to theni. ... As the seven turned rotmd in the ark of the sphere they were desi^ated the Seven Sailors' Companions, Rishis, or Elohim. The first "Seven Stars " are not planetary. They ore the leading stars of seven cousteUations which turned round with tbe Great Bear in describing the circle of the year.t These the Assyrians called the seven Lumazi, or leadersof the flocks of stars, doignated sheep. On the Hebrew line of descent or development, these Hlohim arc ttlcntifitrd for iw by the Eabalists and Gnostics, who retained the hidden wsdom or gnosis, the clue of which is absolutely essential to any proper understanding of mythology or theology. . . , There were two constellations with seven stars each. U^t call them the Two Bears. But tbe seven stars of the Lesser Bear were once conaidered to be the seven heads of the Polar Dragon, which we meet with — as the beast with seven heads — in the Akkadian Hymns and in /^cvctalion. The mythical dragon originated in the crocodile, which is the dragon of Egypt. . . . Now in one particnlar cult, the Sut-Typhonian, the first god was Sevekh [the seven-fold], who wears the crocodile's head, as well as the Serpent, anil who is the Dragon, or whose constellation wus the Dragon. ... In Egypt the Great Bear was the constelln* tion of Typhon, or Kepha, the old genetrix. called the Mother of the Revolutions^ and the Dragon with seven heads was assigueil to her son, Sevekh- Kronus, or Saturn, called the Dragon of life. That is, the typical dragon or serpent with seven heads was female at first and then the type was continued, as male in her son Sevekh, the Sevenfold Serpent, in Ea the Sevenfold, . . . lao Chnubis, and others. Wefind these two in The Book 0/ /ieveiation. One is the Scarlet Lady, the mother of mystery, the great harlot, who sat on u scarlet-coloured beast with seven heads, which is the Red Dragon of the Pole. She held in her hand the unclean things of her foniication. That means tbe etnlilcms of the male and female, imaged by the Egyptians at the Polar Centre, tbe very uterus of creation, as was indicated by the Thigh constellation, called the Khepsb of Typhon, the old Dragon, in the northern birthplace of Time in heaven. Tbe two revolved about Ihepoie 0/ heaven, 01 the Tree, as it was called* which was 6gured at tJie centre of the starry motion. In The Book 0/ Enoch these two constellations are identified as Leviathan and Itehemoth- BekhmuL, or the Dragon and Hippopotamus a Great Bear, aud they are tbe primal pair that were first created in the Garden of Eden. So that the Egyptian first ■ When tbey sre the AauptdBkas (PsrenUMs) of the Secret Doctrine. See Bluuaa, 1. 9, V«L i, 36. * Tbcac oricioatcd with the Aryans, who plmcrtl ihrrirlt] their " bright-ci-erted" (Cbtlr*- ahtkhandaul Scrca Uutbu. Uul nil tais is Ur mate Occult thiui uppeurk ou Uic »uirACe. 196 TBE 3BCRBT DOCTUKS. mother, Kers [or Kepha] whose name signifies "mystery," was the origin^] of the Hebrew Chavah, our Eve; and therefore Adam ia one with Sevekh the sercafold one. the solar dragon in whom the powcni of light and darkness were combined, ind the seTcnfold nature was nbown in the seven rays worn by the Gnostic I«o- ChoubU, god or the number seven, who Is Sevekh by name and a fomi of the fint father as head of the Seven." All this gives the key to the astronomical prototype of the allegory in Genesis, bat it fumishesno other key to the mystery involved in the sevenfold glyph. The able Egyptologist shows also thai Adam himself according to Rabbinical and Gnostic tradition, was the chief of the Seven who fell from Heaven, and he connects these with the Patriarchs, thus agreeing with the Esoteric Teaching. For by mystic permulation and the myster>' of primeval rebirths and adjustment, the Seven Rishis are in reality identical with the seven PrajSpatis, the fathers and creators of mankind, and also with the Kumiras, the first sons of Brahm&, who refased to procreate and multiply. This apparent con- tradiction is explained by the seven-fold nature — make it four-fold on metaphysical principles and it will come to the same thing— of the celestial men. the DhySn Chohaus. This nature is made to divide and separate; and while the higher principles (AtmS-Buddhi) of the *' Creators of Men " are said to be the Spirits of the seven constellations, their middle and lower principles are connected with the earth and are shown ''IVithont desire or passion, itispircd with holy wisdom, estranged from tLe ITniverse and undesirous of progeny,! remaining Kaumaric (virgin and uudefiled): therefore it is said they refused to create. For this they are cursed and sentenced to be bom and reborn " Adams,** as the Semites would say. Meanwhile let me quote a few lines more from Mr. G. Massey's lec- ture, the fruit of his long researches in Egj'ptology and other aucient lore, a.s it shows that the septenary division was at one time a universal doctrine : Adam as the father amon^ the Seven ia identical with the Egyptian Atum. . . whose other name of Adon is i'lentical with the Hebrew Adooai. In this way the second Creation in Onaitr reflect* and continues the later creation in the mythos which explains it. The Fall of Adam to the lower world led to his being humanised on earth, by which process the celestial was tnmed inlothe mortal, and this, which • O^. at., pp. »fl-M. •■ * FfjJkNM AmbM.WIIwn'fTrsas.. I. lOi. !%« period oTthMc KutiilrMU l^-JUUmic. t>.. bHfate lh«sep«T«tlonof wxM. StulbrforTliuciianttrhadrm-ivrr! ihrcTTDtivc. ortsovd. firrrof Pronetheos. THE ^ATBER AIH) MOTlTER. 197 I I I I I belong to the utronomical allcf^ory, got literalisieft m the Full of Man, or deficent of tht soul into mftttcr, ami the conversion nf the angelic into an earthly being. . . . It is rotmd in the [Uabylooianj tcxU. when Ea, the first fatber, is said to "grant forgiveiiess to the conspiring god&," for whose " redemption did he create mnnkind." (Sayce; //ti. I.ec., p. 140) . . . The Elohim, then, are the Eg>'pli,in, Akk^adiau, Hebrew, and Pharnician form of the Universal Seven Powers, who are Seven in EpTpt, Se\Tn in Akkad, Babylon, Persia. India, Britain, and Seven among the Gnostics and Kahalists. They were the Seven fathers who prece'led the Father in Heaven, because they were earlier than the individualised fatherhood on earth. . . . When the Blohim said : " I^et us make man in our image, afler our likeness." there were seven of tbeui who represented the seven elements, powers, or souls that went to the making of the human being wh« came into existence before the Creator was represented anthropomorpbically, or could have conferred the human likencM on the Adamtc man. It was in the sevenfold imaga sf the Klohim that man was first created, with his fteven elements, principles or b»uIs,' and Iherefore he could not have been formed in the image of the one God. The seven Gnostic Hlohim tried to make a man in their own iniajje, but could not for lack of virile power.t Thus their creation in earth and heaven was a failure . . . because lliey themselves were lacking in the sout of the fatherhood \ When the Gnostic laldabaotfa.; chief of the Se^'en, cried; "I azn the father and God." his mother Sophia [Achnmoth] replied : " Do not tell lies, lldabaotb, for the first man (Antliro- pos, son of Anthropos)} is above thcc." That is, man who had now been created in the image of the fatherhood was superior to the gods who were derived from the Mother-Parent alone ! I For, as it had been first on earth, so M*as it afterwards in heaven [the Secret Doctrine teaches the reverse]; and thus the primary gods were held to be soulless like the earliest races of men. . . . The Gnostics taught that the Spirits of Wickedness, the inferior Seven, derived their origin from the great Mother alone, who produced without the fatherhood ! It was in the image, then, of the sevenfold Klohim that the seven races were formed which we sometimes hear of as the Pre-Adamite races of men, because they were earlier than the father- hood, which was individualised only in the .<UfCoiid Hebrew Crention.H This shows sufficiently how the echo of the Secret Doctrine — of the Third and Fourth Races of men, made complete by the incarnation in humanity of the Manasa Putra, Sons of Intelligence or Wisdom — reached every comer of the globe. The Jews, however, although they borrow^ed of the older nations the groundwork on which to build their " Tbc Secret Doctrine Uj4 Ihat this was the necoml crmtion. not the first, and IhnL it look place durlnr the Third Race, when mea Mrp»rated, (.«., began to be bora as diatiuct men and women. See Tot. ii. uf this *rorit, Stannui aa-d Catnmmtarin. T TliUiaa WtWrm manjEliag of ihc Indian doctnuc of the Kuiuinu. % tic wu regarded by eeveiAt tinoMtic aecU u ooe willi Jehovah. See Itit OtvttUd, vol. it p. tA». \ Ur " man, aOB of man." The Ctiun.ii found (n Uila a pr^pkttyvaA a confeaslcn or Cbrtat, the "Son of Has)" B See Sunia ii. 5. Secret Doctrine. i(. t& * l^. C((.,irp.*j, 94. i tgS THE SBCSItT DOCTftnVB. rereUtkm, nererhad more than three keys oat of the seven in their mind, while composing their national alleg;ories — the astronomical, the numerical (metrology), and above all the purely anthropological, or rather physiological key. This resulted in the most phallic religion of all, and has now passed, part and parcel, into Christian theology, as is proved by the lengthy quotations made from a lecture of an able Egyp- tologist, who can make naught of it save astronomical myths and phallicism. as is implied by his explanations of " fiiitherhood " in the allegories. 191ft . "1 SECTION XXII. The "Zohar" on Creation and the Elohim. The opening sentence in Genesis, as every Hebrew scholar knows, is: Now there are two well-known ways of rendering this line, as any other Hebrew writing : one exoteric, as read by the orthodox £i6/e interpreters (Christian), and the other Kabalistic, the latter, moreover, being divided into the Rabbinical and the purely Kabalistic orOccult method. As in Sanskrit writing, the words are not separated in the Hebrew, bnt are made to nm together — especially in the old systems. For instance, the above, dinded, would read: " B'rashitk bara Eiekim eth hashamayim v^etk Kardhi ;" and it can be made to read thus: "Brash ithbara Elohim ethhashamayim zUih'arels" thus changing tlie meaning entirely. The latter means, " In the beginning God made Ike heavens and the earth," whereas the former, precluding the idea of any beginning, would simply read that "out of the ever-existing Essence [divine] [or out of the womb — also head — thereof] the dual [or androgj'ue] Force [Gods] shaped the double heaven ; " the upper and the lower heaven being generally explained as heaven and earth. The latter word means Esoterically the "Vehicle," as it gives the idea of an empty globe, within which the manifestation of the world takes place. Now, ac- cording to the rules of Occult symbolical reading as established in the old Sepher Jdsirah (in the Chaldjean Book of Numbers*) the initial fourteen letters (or " B'raaitW raalaim ") are in themselves quite sufficient to explain the theory of " creation " without any further ex- * t\it SffAer Jiltirak now luiown is bat « portion ortheorlKiEUl one {ncorpontcdin tfacChaldiean B*ok o/ Sumbtrs. Th? fragment uow lu pooBcwion of the WHteru KAbalista U oucfcrcAlly lunpcffd with by the JUbbiaofUic Uiddle A^es. a9 its muorctic points show. The "Muorib " Khetnc i» ■ nodcm blind, datlns nfter our era and perfected lu Tiberias. (See /jm (Jmoeiltd, toI. ii, pp. 4JO-4JI.) 300 THB SECUtT POCTRIHS. pianation or qualification. Every letter of them is a sentence : and. placed side by side with the hieroglyphic or pictorial initial version of "creation" in the Book of Dsyan, the origin of the Phcenician and Jewish letters woald soon be found out. A whole volume of explana- tions would give no more to the student of primitive Occult Symbology than this : the head of ft bttU within a circle, a straight horizontal line. L circle or sphere, then another one with three dots tn it, a triangle, then the Svastika (or Jaina cross); afler these come an equilateral triangle within a circle, seven small bulls' heads standing in three rows, one over the other ; a black round dot (an opening), and then seven lines, meaning Chaos or Water (feminine). . Anyone acquainted with the symbolical and uumerical value of the Hebrew letters will see at a glance that this glyph and the letters of " B'rasitb* raataim " are identical in meaning. " Beth " is " abode " Of "region;" " Resh," a "circle" or "head;" "Aleph." "buU" (the symbol of generative or creative power*) ; " Shin," a " tooth " (300 exoterically — a trident or Mr« in one in its Occult meaning) ; "Jodh," the perfect unity or "one " f ; " Tau/' the " root " or " foundation " (the same as the cross with the Egyptians and Ar>'ans) : again. " Beth," " Resh," and "Aleph." Then " Aleph," or seven bulls for the seven Alaim ; an ox-goad, " Lamedh/' active procreation ; " He," the ''•opening" or "matrix;" " Yodh," the organ of procreation; and "Mem," "water" or "chaos," the female Power near the male that precedes it. The most satisfactory and scientific exoteric rendering of the opening sentence of Genesis — ou which was hung in blind faith the whole Christian religion, synthesized by its fundamental dogmas — is un- deniably the one given in the Appendix to The Source of Afeasures by Mr. Ralston Skinner. He gives, and we must admit in the ablest, dearest, and most scientific way, the numerical reading of this first ■ Id the oldcM lymbolUDi— tbat used la the EgTptiatn hieTOKtypbia— when the baD'B head only to roiiDcl it awnis Ok Drily, the Perfnrt Circle, witb Ibe procrentiTe power Utetit in it. Wben the whole bull Is r«pi«*ciited, a BOlv God, a/<rj«fiaJ ddtjU meaDtifaT itis thea Ibeqranbol oritac acting IfTOCTattwe power. * II look ihree Hoot- IUce» tode«T«de the symbol of the One AbUr«cl Unity m»nUe»te<l In N»Ui« M ■ Kay rminalinK from infioitr Ithe Circle) ioto a phallic symbol of gen»a[ion. a* it wu even in the fTatate*. Ttala desTadation tieKati with the Fourth R»i:e. unit hail its raisim d'etre in PolythsMm, ■• Ihe UticT w»» invrmed to »ctTcn ihe One LTnivetsal Deity from prafauation. The Chriatiaa* n»9 plead Ignorance of it* meaning ai an escuMr for its acceptance Bat why ring nevrr-oeasing Iswln- tions to the MoaaJc Jcw« who repudiated all the other Goda, preaemd the siott phaUic, and tbe« BkOit impudently ptoctaimed tbemaelvea MunotheiaU? Je»iis errr ateadlly ignored Jehovnh. He went agaiuM the UmaIc commandmeiiM. He recoftnized hla Heavenly Father aloae, and ptOhiUtcd public worahip. ANGBLS AS BUlLPBKfi. 2at I sentence and chapter in Genesis. By the means of number 31, or the word " El " (i for " Aleph " and 30 for *' Lamedh "), and other numerical Bible symbols, compared with the measures used in the great pyramid of Eg>'pt, he shows the perfect identity between its measurements- inches, cubits, and plan — and the numerical values of the Garden of Eden, Adam and £vc, and the Patriarchs. In fihort, the author shows that the pyramid contains iu itself architecturally the whole of Genesis, and discloses the astronomical, and even the physiological, secrets in its symbols and glyphs ; yet he will not admit, it would seem, the psycho- CO smical and spiritual mysteries involved in these. Nor does the author apparently see that the root of all this has to be sought in the archaic legends and the Fautheoti of India.* Failing this, whither does his great and admirable labour lead him ? Not further than to find out that Adam, the earth, and Moses or Jehovah " are the same " — or to the a-b-c of comparative Occult Symbology — and that the days in Genesis being "circles'* "displayed by the Hebrews as squares," the result of the sixth-day's labour culminates in the friictifying principle. Thus the Bible is made to yield Phallicism, and that alone. Nor— read in this light, and as its Hebrew texts are interpreted by Western scholars — can it ever yield anything higher or more sublime than such phallic elements, the root and the corner-stone of its dead- letter meaning. Anthropomorphism and Revelation dig the impassable chasm betweeu the material world and the ultimate spiritual truths. That creation is not thus described in the Esoteric Doctrine is easily shown. The Roman Catholics give a reading far more approaching the true Esoteric meaning than that of the Protestant. For several of their saints and doctors admit that the formation of heaven and earth, of the celestial bodies, etc., belongs to the work of the " Seven Angels of the Presence." St. Denys calls the '* Builders" " the codperators of God," and St. Augustine goes even farther, and credits the Angels with the possession of the divine thought, the prototype, as he says, of everything created.! And, finally, St. Thomas Aquinas has a long " to ft evcryUilng' to b>«c finDd oiit tfatt ttw t«lc«Hal drcle of 360* la drtenflioed by •* die fhll word- ramarillaliilil."uidllial thl> yields, whm the woMUplacfd in a <Hn:1e. "j-t^ts, or thcreUtlon ofdr- cuaferrnce lo a dtamrtcr of oiw.*' Thi» in only its ■stioaoniicxt or auUKHiKtical aspect. To know the fan i^pUnAry siynificuicc of the " Priraordi*! Cir«k." tht pyramid and the KabalUtk Bibie muM be read in Um light ortbe figure oa which the tnnpka of India are built. The niatbetnaticalaqaaritiK of the drdr i« only th« tematria) riimmj of the protriein. The J«w« were content witli Ihe aix dajia af activity aiul the acvcnth of real. The progmltora of mankind aulved the ^mtul pftibteina of the Dnlvcrw with their a«vn Rays or Kiahia. -• C^iwju beyina with the IkirS timgc of "cmUon," akippLoc the pre iaisaiy two. 202 THB SBCRBT DOCTRINB. dissertation upon this topic, calling God the pritnary. aiidtlie An^ the secondar>', cause of all visible effects. In this, with sonic dogmatic differences of form, the " Angelic Doctor" approaches ver>' nearly the Gnostic ideas. Basilides speaks of the lowest order of Angels as the Builders of our material world, and Saturnilus held, as did the Sabseans, that the Seven Angels who preside over the planets are the real creators of the world ; the Kabalist-monk, Trithemius, in his De Secundis Deis, taught the same. The eternal Kosmos^ the Macrocosm, is divided in the Secret Doctrine, like man, the Microcosm, into three Principles and four Vehicles.' which in their collectivity are the seven Principles. In the Chaldxan or Jewish Kabatak, the Kosmos is divided into seven worlds : the Original, the Intelligible, the Celestial, the Elementary, the Lesser (Astral), the Infernal (KSma-loka or Hades), and the Temporal (of man). In the Chaldaean system it is in the Intelligible World, the second, that appear the "Seven Angels of the Presence." or the Sephiroth (the three higher ones being, in fact, one, and also the sura total of all). They are also the "Builders" of the Eastern Doctrine: and it is only in the third, the celestial world, that the seven planets and our solar system are built by the seven Planetary AngeK the planets becoming their visible bodies. Hence — as correctly stated — if the universe as a whole is formed out of the Eternal One Substance or Essence, it is not that everlasting Essence, the Absolute Deity, that builds it into shape ; this is done by the first Rays, the Angds or DhySn Chohans, that emanate from the One Element, which becom- ing periodically Light and Darkness, remains eternally, to its Root- Principle, the one unknown yet existing Reality. A learned Western Kabalist, Mr. S. L. MacGregor Mathers, whose reasoning and conclusions will be the more above suspicion since he is untrained in Eastern Philosophy and nnacqnainted with its Secret Teachings, writes on the first verse of Gatcsis in an unpublished essay : * Tfae Ihm rv«/-principl«« an, exoUricaUy : Han.Sool.utd Spirit <mciui(iur by"mui" Uie ii- teUiffcnt pcitonalityi. uid c*et«ncany: Ufc. Soul, aad SpinI; tbr four vehicles are Body, A«tnl doubh?. Antiual (or huiiuinl Soul, otid Divine Soul fStbaU-Sh«rin, Unca-Sliarira, KinuiT&pai, end BudiUti, tlK vehicle of Alma or Spirit). Or, to nuke it atUI Clever: li'i the Stvtntk Priaciple ba* for iU vehicle tbc Sixth (Buddhl'i: (i) the vehicle or Uanaa is Kiina-rAtui ; tj) tbaiof J^ruor Pr^kna (tifrt istlicLin(K-Shiir1ra|th« " double" of ntao: the Line* -Sharin proper can never leave the tmdy US death; that which appears U an antral body, reflectins the pliysiical body and aerrinc aa a vehicle fer the htunnn 40ul. <ir intelligence I ; and (4l the Body, the phymcal vchulT of all the above coUecUvely. The Occultist rccoffnixc* the same order b« exuting forthecoxraicnl totality, the ^/;tcA#-co«iitcal nniverse. \ I WHO ARE THK BLOHIM ? 303 » I \ tfgrashith Rara l?1ohim— " tn the begioniaK the Blohim created!" Who are tbe«e Blohim of Ckncm f Va-Yivfa Elohim Aih Ha-Adam BeTsalmo. Bc-TteUm tlchim Bara Otho, ZaAkar Vtngfbah Rara Otham—"KnA the Elohim created the Adam in Their own fma^, in the Image of the Elohim created They them, Male and t'entale created Tliey them ! " Who arc they. theHtohim? Theonlinar)- KngHshlransIation of the BibU renders the word Elohim by "God: " it translates i. plural noMH by a singular tfoe. The only excuse brought forward for this is the somewhat lame one that the word ia certainty plural, but is not to be used in a plural sense : that it is " a plural denoting excellence," But this is only an assumption whose value may be justly jcau^ed by Genesis i. 36, translated in the orthodox Biblical version thus : '• And Cod [Elohim] said, 'het us make man In our own image, after our likeness.*" Here is a distinct admission of the fact that " Blohim " is not a '* plural of excel- lence," but a plural noun denoting more than one being.* What, then, is the proper translation of "Elohim," aufi to whom is it referable ? "Blohim " is not only a plural, but a /cyninine plural f And yet the translators of the BibU have rendered it hy a mascuJine singular f Elohim is the plural of the feminine noun El-fa, for the final letter, -h, marks the gender. It, however, instead of forming the plural in -oth, takes the usual termination of the masculine pluial, which is •im. Although in the great majority of cases the nouns of both genders lake the tcnninatioos appropriatcil to thciu respectively, there arc yd many mascalincs which form the plural in -oth, as well as feminine which form it lu -im while some nouns of each gender lake alternately both. It m.ust be observed, however, that the termination of the plural does not affect its gender, which remains the same as in the singular. .... To find the real meaning of the symbolism involved fa this word Elohim we must go to that key of Jewish Hwiteric Doctrine, the UtUe-known and leaa-hnder- stood Kabatah. There we shall find that this word represents two united masculine and feminine Potencies, co-eqnal and co-eternal, conjoined in everlasting union for the maintenance of the Universe— the great Father and Mother of Nature, into whom the Eternal One conforms himself before the Universe can suhsisL For the teaching of the Kabalah is that before the Deity conformed himself thus — i.e. as *9t. Onyi. th« Afeopa^tc, UKsuppoaed coDtcoiporuyorst. Faul, hU co-diacip4c, aatl Snt Bubop of St. Drills, near Pnris. tmchcs that thr bulk of Ihr " work of creation " iras prrfarmrd tty tlir "JSravn Spiriuof tlic pccseacc "— tiod'i£(f-f)|^tfruA)r-i.o«riug to a parlicipAtiQa of th« dMaity ta them. KHirrarth., p. 196.) And Saint Au^&tinr a|i^ Ihinko that "Ihiaga were rather crcalev] In the angcltc miods tbao in Malarv, ihat ■• to aajr, that t}ie anseb perceived and Imew them fall thinics) in their thoughts l>e(bre ihey i^ould spring forth into actual existence." (I'irf, Dt Gmtsis ad Lillrram p., It.) (BumnariKed from De Uirvllle, Vol. II., pp. X37-J(jf .1 Thnu the early Christian Palhrnt, rveti n tinn- inUlabc like 8l ADriaiioc, ascribed the cnatioa of tlM visible world to Augvls, or Secondary Powers, while St. Denj's doI only speciSes these aa the " Sntm SpttiU of the Presence." btil ahowa theu owing their power to the Luforming divlite energy— l^obat in the Secret Doctrine. But the egotiatLiait darkaesa whSi^h cainml the Western races to clfnif n desperatelr to the <7<v-crniric ayateni. made them alio neglect and de«pi»e all tliOM frngmeDts of the true Rehgion which would ha»e deprived them bhiI the Illllc glntx- tbcy look fof the centre of the LiqIvctk of the ligiial boctour of having tieea exprcMty " cieatcd " by IheOiie. Secon<llfr!i.i. tsfinite God I k 304 THE 5BCRBT DOCTRIIfB. male and femalc--the Worlds of the Uaiverae conld not sabtist; or in the words of Gfnesis, that "the earth was formless and void." Thus, then, is the cooIbnnatioB of the Elohttn, the end of the Formless and the Void and the Darkness, for oaly after that confonnation can the Ruaitt Elohim—X.he "Spirit of the Blohim"— vibrate upon the countenance of the Waters. But this is a very small port of the information which the Initiate can derive from the Kabaiah concerning this won) Etohim- Attention must here be called to the confusion — if not worse— which reigus in the Western interpretations of the Kabaiah. The Eternal Onf is said to conform himself into two : the Great Father and Mother of Nature. To begin with, it is a horribly anthropomorphic conception to apply terms implying sexual distinction to the earliest and first differentialiuns of the One. And it is even more erroneous to identify these first differentiations — the Purusha and Prakriti of Indian Philosophy — with the Elohira. the creative powers here spoken of; and to ascribe to these (to our intellects) unimaginable abstractions, the formation and construction of this visible world, full of pain, sin, and sorrow. In truth, the "creation by the Elohira " spoken of here is but a much later *' creation," and the Elohim far from being supreme. or even exalted powers in Nature, are only lower Angels. This was the teaching of the Gnostics, the most philosophical of all the early Christian Churches. They taught that the imperfections of the world were due to the imperfection of its Architects or Builders — the imperfect, and therefore inferior. Angels. The Hebrew Elobim correspond to the PrajSpali of the Hindus, and it is shown else- where from the Esoteric interpretation of the Purdnas that the PrajSpali were the fashioners of man's material and astral form onlyt that they could not give him intelligence or reason, and therefore in symbolical language they "failed to create man." But, not to repeat what the reader can find elsewhere in this work, his attention needs only to be called to the fact that " creation " in this passage is aot the Primary Creation, and that the Elohim are not " God" nor even the higher Planetan,' Spirits, but the Architects of this visible physical planet and of man's material body, or encasement. A fandamentnl doctriue of the Kabalak is that the gradual development of tJie Deity from negative to positive Existence is symbolized by the gradual develop- ment of the Ten Numbers of the denary scale of uumeration, from the Zero* through the Unity, into tbc Plurality. This is the doctrine of the Sephtrotb, or Bmaoations. For the inward and concealed Negati^t Form concentrates a centre which ia the primal Unity. But the Unity is one and indivisible: it can neither ba increased tojr MONAD, DTTAD. AND TRZAD. 305 I I I mnltiplication nor decreased by diviaioa. for 1x1 = 1, and 00 more; and t^-ls], and ao less. Aod it is this cbangelessness of the Unity, or Monad, which makes it ft fitting t>'pe of the One and Chan^lcM Deity. It answers thns to the Christian idea of God (be Father, for as the Unity is the parent of tiie other numbers, so is the Deity the Father of All. The philosophical Eastern mtud would never fall into the error which the c&nnotaiion of these words implies. With them the "One and Changeless" — Parabrabman — the Absolute All and One, cannot be conceived as standing in any relation to things finite and couditioned. and hence they would never nse such terms as these, which in their very essence imply such a relation. Do ihey, then, absolutely sever man from God ? On the contrary. They feel a closer union than the Western mind has done in calling God the '* Father of AH," for they know that in his immortal essence man is himself the Changeless. Secondless One. Bat we have just said that the Unity is one and changeless by cither multiplica* tion or division ; how then is two, the Duad, Tomied ? By reflection. For, unlike Zero, the Unity i» partly definable — that is, in its positive lupect; and the defini- tion creates an Eikon or Kidolon of itself which, together with itself, forms a Duad; and thus the number two b 10 a certain extent analogous to the Christian idea of the Son as the Second Person. And as the Monad nbrales. and recoils into the Darkness of the Primary Thonght, so is the Duad leU as its vice-gerent and repre- sentative, and thus co-equaj *-ith the Positive Duad is the Triune Idea, the numl>cr three, co-equnl and co-eternal with the Dtiail in the bosom of the Unity, yet, as it were, proceeding therefrom in the numerical conception of its sequence. This explanation would seem to imply that Mr. Mathers is aware that this " creation" is not the truly divine or primar>' one, since the Monad — the first manifestation on our plane of objectivity — "recoils into the Darkness of the Primal Thought," i.^., into the subjectivity of the first divine Creation. And this, igain, also partly answers to the Christian idea of the Holy Ghost, and of the whole three forming a Trinity in unity. This also explains the fact in {i^metryof the three right lines being the smallest number which will make b plane rectilineal figure, while two can never enclose a space, being powerless and without effect till completed by Ibe numl}«r Three. These three first numbers of the decimal scale the Qabalists call by the names of Kethcr, the Crown, Chokmah, Wisdom, and Binah, Understanding: and they furthermore associale with tUcai theae divine names: with the Unity, Hhcich, "I exist; " with the Duad, Vah; and with the Triad, Elohim ; they especially also call the Duad, Abba— the Father, and the Triad, Aima— the Mother, whose eternal conjunction is synibolizcd in the won! Elohim. But what especially strikes the student of the Kaiaiah is the malicious persistency 306 THB SBCRBT DOCTRXNB. with wbich the trauaUtors of the BtbU bave jealously crowded out of sight and sap- pressed ever>- reference U> the feminine form of the Deity. Tbey have, as we hate just sect], translated the feminiDc ploral " Glohim," by the masculine singular. "God." But tbey linve done more than this : they have carefully hidden the fact that the word Ruach— the "Spirit" — is feminine, and that consequently the Holy Ghost of the Nrw Testament is a feminine Fotcncy. How many Christians are cognizant of the fact that in the account of the IncamatioD in L^e (t ySi '>« di\'ine Potencies are mentioned ? " The Holy Ghost nball come upon thee, and the Power of the Highest shall ovcrsliadow thee." Tbc Holy Ghost (the feminine Potency) descends, and the Power of the Highest (the masculine Potency) is united therewith. "Therefore also that holy thing which shall be bum of thee shall he called the Son of God**— of the niohim namely, seeing tliat these two Potencies descend. In the Sfphtr Yetsirah, or Book of Formation, we read ; "One 18 She the Rnach Elohim Chiim— (Spirit of the Living Elohim). . . . Voice, Spirit, and Wortl ; and this is She, the Spirit of the Holy One." Here again we sec the intimate coanection which exists between the Holy Spirit and tbt Elohim. Fuiilierniorc, farther on in this same Book of Formation— 'vi\Yx\i, is, he it remembered, one of tbc ohUst of the Kabalistical Books, and whose authorship it ascribed to Ahraham the Patriarch^we shall And the idea of a Feminine Trinity in the first place, from whom a masculine Trinity proceeds ; or, as it is said in the text: "Three Mothers whence proceed three Fathers." And yet this double Triad forms, as it were, but one complete Trinity. Again it is worthy of note that the Second and Third Sephiiotb (Wisdom and Underslandiog) «re both distinguished by feminine names, Chokmah and Binah. notwithstanding that to the former more particularly the masculine idea, and to the latter the feminine, are attribntet), under the titles of Abba and Aims (or I'ather and Mother). Tliis Aims (the Great Mother) is ningnificently symboHr-ed in the twelfth chapter of the Apocaiyfise, which is undoubtedly one of the most KabaUstic-il hooks in the BiliU. In fact. without the Kabalistical keys its meaning is utterly unintelligible. Now, in the Hebrew, as in the Greek, alphabet, there are no distinct numeial chiiracteis, and conseqiienlly each letter has a certain numerical value attached to it. From this circumstance results the important fact that e%*crj' Hebrew word constitutes n number, and every number a word. This is referred to in the Rrv<lA- ttOHS (xiii. lb) in mentioning the " number of the beast " I In the KabaUxh words of equal numerical values are supposed to have a certain explnnalory connection with each other. This forms the science of GcRiatria, which is the first division *A the Literal Kabalah. Furthermore, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet had for the Initiates of the Kabalah a certain hteroglyphical value and meaning which, rightly applied, Ka^■e to each word the value of a mystical sentence ; and this again was variable according to the relative positions of the letters with regard tc each other. From these various Kabolistical points of view let us now examtne this word Blohitu. First then we can divide the word into the two words^ which signify "The Feminine Divinity of the Waters;" compare with the Greek Aphrodite, "sprung J TUB CKZATIVE GODS. 207 I £rom Uie roam of tLe sea." Agaiu it is <livi&ible into the " Might)' Oul-, Star of the Sea." or "the Mighty One breathing forth the Spirit npon the Waters." Also by combination of the letters we get " the Silent Power or lab." And again. " My God, the Former of Ihc Universe," for Mah is a secret Kabalistickl name applied to the idea of Formation. Also we obtain *'V,Tio is my God." Furthertnorf "the Mother in lah." The total number isi Jryi^$-¥\o*-4iOw96m "Violent heat," or"lhe Power or Fire." IT we add together the three middle letters we obtain 45. and the first and last letters yield 41, making thus "the Mother of Formation." Lastl>, we shall find the two divine names " £1 " and "Yah," together with the letter m, which signifies " Water," for Mem, the name of this letter, means " water." If we divide it into its component letters and take them as hieroglyphical sigiu we sliall have : •« *■ Will perfected through Sacrifice progressing through successive TransformB' tton hy Inspiration." The last few paragraphs of the above, in which the word *■ Klohiiu" is Kabalistically analvTjed, show conclusively enough that the Hlohim are not one, nor two, nor even a trinity, but a Host — the army of the creative powers. The Christian Church, in making of Jehovah — one of these very Elohim — the one Supreme God, has introduced hopeless confusion into the celestial hierarchy, in spite of the volumes written hy Thomas Aquinas and his school on the subject. The only explanation to be found in all their treatises on the nature and essence of the numberless classes of celestial beings mentioned in the 5/^/^^— Archangels, Thrones, Seraphim, Cherubim, Messengers, etc. — is that "The angelic host is God's militia." They are "Gods M^ f«w/u«s," while he is " God the Creator;" but of their true functions — of their actual place in the economy of Nature — not one word is said. They are More brilliant than the fiamcs, more rapid than the wind, find they live in love and harmony, mutually enlightening each other, feeding on bread and a mystic beverage— the communion wine and water ?— surrounding as witli a rtvfr ojfirt the throne of the Lamb, and %'eiling their faces with their wiugs. This throne of love and glor>' they leave only to earn.' to the starA, the earth, the Icingdoni'; and all the sons of God, their brothers and pupils, in short, to all ciCHtures like Ificmsetva the divine influence As to then number, it i.^ that of the great army of Heaven (Sabaoth), more numerous than the stars Theology shows us these rational luminaries, each constituting a species, and contaitiiiix in tbeii natures snch or another position of Nature : coverm^ immense space, though of a determined area; residing— incorporeal though they ore — «*ithin fircumscribed limits; . . . more zapid than light or thunderbolt, disposing of all tbc elements of Nature, providing at will inexplicable mirages [iUusione ?j, objective and subjefr. ao8 THS SECRET DOCTRmK. tive in tnm, spcakinjif to men a language at an« time articulate, at aootber purely spiritual.* We learn farther on In the same work, that it is these Angels and their hosts who are referred, to iu the sentence of verse I, chapter ii, of Gentsis : Igitur perfecti sunt cosli et terra et omuisorualus eorum; " and that the Vulgate has peremptoriiy substituted for the Hebrew word "tsaba" ("host") that of '*omamcut:" Munck shows the mistake of substitution and the derivation of the compound title, " Tsabaoih- Elohini," from "tsaba." Moreover, Cornelius a Lapide, "the master of all Biblical commentators," says dc Mirvillc, shows us that such was the real meaning. Those Angels are stars. All this, however, teaches us very little as to the true functions of this celestial army, and nothing at all as to its place in evolution and its relation to the earth we live on. For an answer to the question, "Who are the true Creators?" we must goto the Esoteric Doctrine, since there only can the key be found which will render intelligible the Theogonies of the various world-religions. There we find that the real creator of the Kosmos, as of all visible Nature — if not of all the invisible hosts of Spirits uol yet drawn into the •' Cycle of Necessity," or evolution — is " the Lord — the Gods," or the "Working Host," the "Army" collectively taken, the "One in many." The One is infinite and unconditioned. It cannot create, for It can have no relation to the finite and conditioned. If everything we see, from the glorious suns and planets down lo the blades of grass and the specks of dust, had been created by the Absolute Perfection and were the direct work of even the First Energy that proceeded from It,t then every such thing would have been perfect, cLerual, and unconditioned, •Se Mirvitle, il. 34^ vTo Uic OccuIUhI and CbcU tb« iliffcrcucc mkdc between Energy anJ EniHiialioo nevd not be e«- plainetl. TbcSaoskiit word " Sakli " Ls unimislatable. It may be EacrKT- but it is one tbat proceed* throuxh itielf. Dot beiac due to the active ot coiudou* will of the ime Ihnl produce* It, Tbe " Ffr»l- Quru," or Logoa, Is not ad i&iunBtloii, but on Energy fnberent iu «id co-eloiul triUi Pa rubra bmiiii, the Owe. The ZoHa* ipeaks oTemBnaliona, but reserve* the trcrd Tm the M-ven Sephiroth erautiAted rrom the frnl three— whicb fonu oae tritd— Kcther, ChokiB&h. and Biuali. A* lor thete lht«e, il ezplnitu the diScTcecc by calling them " Imauiiutioiu," tQHWtliiiv Inherent to utd cotval ¥rJtb tbe »ul>jcc1 poRtulntcfl, or in other wortla, " Kuergies." It U theae " Auxiliarlca." the Auphanini. the hnir-bumkn I*rajApati>, the AngeU, the Architects imdcrthcleadrrtbjpof the" Angel ortheGreiilCuuncll," with the rest uf the KonncMi-BuitdeTi of other mlioB>, thai c&n alone carylaUi tite ttn perfect! oil of the Uairerae. fhU iniperfectiuti U oiie of tbe UgumentiortheSrvrrrt tk-irnoc in rnvuur of the existence and act jirity of these "l'c-tvcr>." And who know better than the fevt philottopbenofouT dvihtcd landi how near Ilie truth Phtluwu in aKriblaj; UMoriflrinofe^-il to the admlatiuv of inferior potencies la the VTsacnuent of auttcr, and even in the fonnatiimof man— a tiwh nilrusted toUiedmne lyOgot). ■"^^i> THg HOST iog like its author. The millions upon millions of imperfect works found in Nature tcsitfy loudly that they are the products of finite, conditioned beings—lhough the latter were and are Dhyau Chohaus. Archangels, or what ever else they may be named. In short, these imperfect works are the unfinished production of evolution, under the guidance of the imperfect Gods. The Zohar gives us this assurance as well as the Secret Doctriuc, It speaks of the auxiliaries of the "Ancient of Days." the " Snored Aged," and calls them Auphanim. or the lining Wheels of the celestial orbs, who participate in the work of the crea- tion of the Universe. a Tbns it is not the " Principle," One and Unconditioned, nor even Its reflection, that creates, but only the '* Seven Gods " who fashion the Universe out of the eternal Matter, vivified into objective life by the reflection into it of the One Reality. The Creator is they —"God the Host"— called in the Secret Doctrine the Dhyiln Chohaus ; with the Hindus the Prajapatis ; with the Western Kabalists the Sephiroth ; and with the Buddhist the Devas — impersonal because blind forces. They are the Anishaspends with the Zoroas- trians, and while with the Christian Mystic the " Creator" is the "Gods of the God." with the dogmatic Churchman he is the "God of the Gods." the " Ix>rd of lords," etc. •' Jehovah ' is only the God who is greater than all Gods in the eyes of Israel. 1 know, that the Ivord [of Israel] is great and tliat oar Lord is above all gods.* And again : For all tLe gods of the nations arc idoiR, but tbe Lord made the lieavenA-f The Eg>'ptian Neteroo, translated by ChampoIUon " the oiher Gods" are the Klohim of the Biblical writers, behind which stands concealed the One God. considered in the diversity of his powers.J This One is not Parabrabman, but the Unmanifested Logos, the Demiurgos, the real Creator or Fashioner, that follows him, standing for the Demiurgi collectively taken. Further on the great Egj^Jtologist adds : We nee Hg>'pt concealinK and hiding, so to say. the God ol Gods behind the agents she nirroitnds him with ; she givtrs the precedence lo her Kieat gods before the one t Pulmi xcvi. 5. 1 Rtttbvr as Ormud or Aban-aiuda, Vit-naiii-Ahnil. and sU the uaaunifeated LogoL Jchovati U Uie ULUiifcftcd Virlj. com«pQwU»K to Dinah, Uie IhinI Srphitu lu the Kabalah. ■ fmialr Pawer which would fiuil )U prototype nther in the mjipau. than In Drnlim&, ihe Creauir. 2IO TB£ SaCR£T DOCTRIKB. and sole Deity, so that the attributes of that God become thrir property. Tbo«c freat Gods proclRim themaelves UDcreate. . . . Neilh is " ihal whtcfi ts," u Jehovah;" Tlioth is self-createdt without having been begotten, etc JnilaUni annihilating these potencies Ijefore the grModeur of it« God. they cease to be ninpty Powers, like Fbtlo's Archangels, like the Sephiroth of the fCabalahi like the Ogdoadee of the Gnosticii — they mexxe together and bccfune tranaformeil into God himiicir.X Jehovah is thus, as the Kabalak teaches, at best but the " Heavenly Man." Adam Kadmon, used by the self-created Spirit, the Logos, as a chariot, a vehicle in His descent towards mauifestation in the phe- nomenal world. Such are the teachings of the Archaic Wisdom, nor can they be repudiated even by tlie orthodox Christian, if he be sincere and open- minded in the study of his own Scripture. For if he reads St. Paul's Epistles carefully he will find that the Secret Doctrine and the Kabalak are fully admitted by the " Apostle of the Gentiles." The Gnosis which he appears to condemn is no lei^s for him than for Plato " the supreme knowledge of the truth and of the One Being ; "§ for what St. Paul condemns is not the true, but only the false, Gnosis and its abuses : otherwise how could he use the language of a Platonist pur sangf The Ideas, types (Archai), of the Greek Philosopher; the Intelligences of Pythagoras ; the ^ons or Emanations of the Pantheist ; the I/)gos or Word, Chief of these Intelligences ; the Sophia or Wisdom ; the Demiurges, the Builder of the world under the direction of the Father, the Unmanifested Logos, from which He emanates ; Ain- Suph, the Unknown of the Infinite; the angelic Periods; the Severn Spirits who are the representatives of the Seven of all the older cosmogonies — are all to be found in his writings, recognized by the Church as canonical and divinely inspired. Therein, too, may be recognized the Depths of Ahriman, Rector of this our World, the " God of this World ; " the Pleroma of the Intelligences ; the Arch- ontes of the air; the Principalities, the Kabalistic Metatron ; and they can easily be identified again in the Roman Catholic writers when read in the original Greek and Latin texts, English translations giving but A very poor idea of the real contents of these. I I I •NeHli b «dlU. erldniUy. t Tbe Seir-cmtHl Loeo*. Siiiytaa. Paniklioilanu, «nd others- 1 JUirea'A^u. pp. jt _«. Quotnl hy I>c MimUc. I 8n KtpuhiK, I. vi. SECTION XXIII. What the Occultists and Kabaltsts have TO SAY. I The Zohar, an unfathomable store of hidden wisdom and mystery, U very often appealed to by Roman Catholic writers. A very learned Rabbi, now the Chevalier Drach. having been converted to Roman Catholicism, and being a great Hebraist, thought fit to step into the shoes of Picus de Miraudola and John Reuchlin, and to assure his new co-religionists that the Zohar contained in it pretty nearly all the dogmas of Catholicism. It is not our province to show here bow far he has succeeded or failed ; only to bring one instance of his explana- tions and preface it with the following : The Zohar, as already shown, is not a genuine production of the Hebrew mind. It is the repository and compendium of the oldest doc- trines of the Kast, transmitted orally at first, and then written down in independent treatises during the Captivity at Babylon, and finally brought together by Rabbi Simeon Ben lochai, toward the begin- ning of the Christian era. As Mosaic cosmogony was born under a new form in Mesopotamian countries, so the Zohar v^ti^ a vehicle in which were focussed rays from the light of Universal Wisdom. What- ever likenesses are found between it and the Christian teachings, the compilers of the Zohar never had Christ in their minds. Were it otherwise there would not be one single Jew of the Mosaic law lefl in the world by this time. Again, if one is to accept literally what the Zohar says, then any religion under the sun may find corroboration in its symbols and allegorical sayings ; and this, simply because this work is the echo of the primitive truths, and. every creed is founded on some of these ; the Zohar being but a veil of the Secret Doctrine. This is so evident that we have only to point to the said ex-Rabbi, the Chevalier Drach, to prove the fact. 912 THR SBCRKT DOCTRTNB. In Part III, fol. 87 (col. 346th) the Zohar treats of the Spirit guiding tbe Sun. its Rector, expUining that it is uot the Sun itself that is mcaat thereby, bat the Spirit "on, or under" the Sun. Drach is •OXioaft to sliow that it was Christ who was ineanl by that "Sun." or Ibe Solar Spirit therein. lu his comtuent upon that passage whicb reicrt to the Solar Spirit as " that stone which the builders rejected," he uwcrtK most positively that this 8tiii*<toiir {pifrre soUii) Is identical with Christ, who was that stone, and that therefore The Kun is undeniably (sans amitrdU) the second hypostasis of the Dei^," or CbrUt. If this be true, then the Vaidic or pre-Vaidic Aryans, Chaldseansand Kgyptiaus, like all Occultists past, present, and future, Jews included, have been Christians from all eternity. If this be not so, then modern Church Christianity is FaganLsm pure and simple cxoterically, and transcendental and practical Magic, or Occultism, Esoterically. For this "stone" has a manifold significance, a dual existence, with gradations, a regular progression and retrogression. It is a '* mystery" indeed. The Occultists are quite ready to agree with St. Chrysostom, that the infidels — ihefira/aru, rather — BcinfE blinded by sun-ltght, thus lose sight of the true Snn in the contempUtidn of the fftlst one. But if that Saint, and along with him now the Hebraist Drach, chose to see in the Zaiar and the Kabalistic Sun "the second hypostasis," this is no reason why all others should be blinded by them. The uyster>- of the Sun is the grandest perhaps, of all the innumerable mysteries of Occultism. A Gordian kuot, trtily, but one that cannot be severed with the donble-edged sword of scholastic casuistry. It is a true deo dignus vindice nodtis, and can be untied only by the Cods. The meaning of this is plain, and every Kabalist will understand it. Contra idem tu hquaris was not said by Pj-thagoras with regard to the visible San. It was the "Sun of Initiation" that was meant, in its triple form— two of which are the "Day-Suu" and the " Night-Sun." If behind the physical luminary there were no mystery that people ■cnsed iusli actively, why should every nation, from the primitive ■ * MrawtiV *ntt« rAghu rt ta Svmafgm. t. It., p. 4«7. t9 the Cbsmier Dncb. 3e« Oc MirwiOt THK KYeTKRY OF THE SUK. zts I peoples down to the Parsis of to-day, have turned towards the Sun during prayers? The Solar Trinity is not Mazdean, but is uDiversal, and is as old as man. All the temples in Antiquity were invariably made to face the Sun, their portals to open to the Hast. See the old temples of Memphis aud Baalbec, the Pyramids of the Old and of the New (?) Worlds, the Round Towers of Ireland, and the Serapeum of Egypt. The Initiates alone could give a philosophical explanation of this, and a reason for it— its mysticism notwithstanding — were only the world ready to receive it, which alas! it is not. The last of the Solar Priests in Europe was the Imperial Initiate. Julian, now called the Apostate.* He tried to benefit the world by revealing at least a portion of the great mystery of the f/MrXa<rio« and — /ic dud. " There are three in one," he said of the Sun — the central Sunt being a precaution of Nature : the first is the universal cause of all. Sovereign Good and perfection ; the Second Power is paramount Intelligence, having dominion over all reasonable beings, votfms ; the third is the visible Sun. The pure energ\' of solar intelligence procec<ls from the luminous seat occupied by our Sun in the centre of heaven, that pure energy being the Logos of our system; the " Mysterious Word Spirit produces all through the Sun, and never operates through any other medium," says Hermes Trismegistus. For it is in the Sun, more than iu any other heavenly body that the [unknown") Power placed the ^p *J«Uwi (bed ^r tb« nnK crinu «R Socrstu. Both divolyed a portion o/lb« toUr mysUty, ttw hcHoccnlric system l>ci»f; oiilj' n p«rt of what vias ^vcu duriiig InitiBtion— ooc «»i*ci<Mikly, Uie otber uHctmjiciuuUjr. the G(e«k %sige newt having txvn initiated, ft was ni>t tlic ntA aolaf ^yalcm that wm< piT*eTred io «uc:h accTTcy, l<tit ih^ mystcrie* cotiii«t«<l with the ^mix's kotuititutloin. Socrates was aralmiced to death by earthly nnd wurbUy judgrft: Julian died a vJokni <lcath liccauac the httb«TtO protccKiir hand was wilfadT^wn ttvm Min. and, no loagn- ihitlded by It. lie waa simply left to hia doUuy ot Kanaa. Foe llie student or (KCylUmu there ia a «uj;irr«tlrc dlffrrenn; becvrcto the two kinda of death. Aootlier mrninrahte ioslanre of the anconaciouK divul|[iug ul* korrctA iirr- lAiaing to niyatenci ia that of the jioet. P. Ovialius Naao, who. like 4ocratni. hud ito( been Initialed- la hU ctwe, the Ksipcror Aiicu«ttu. who wu »n loitiate, mercirully chanced IJm pmally of death into boniahmcnt In Totno* an the Ruatne. Thia nudden chiingr frtMii iiiitmundei] r<yn1 favour to banbhtittDt has tieen a fruitfttl Khctse of speculation to ctaMlcal achcJan> «ot initiuted inin (he MystcHea. They have qaote<l Ovid'a own Unea to ^how that it wa» aome grcjii gud tieiiioua iiuiao- raltty of Ui«Binperot of which Ovid had tiecoine utiwilllHf;ty corniaanl. The iiiri.irnM'- Uw of Itie death fKoalty. always rollowtag upon the revelation o( any porlfon or the My«ttri:a to the profane, wna unknuwn to them. Inatead of aitriiig the aiuialile und toctvirut act at tt»c Hniperor in ita true Ught. they have made it an occa*ioti for iniditcinfr hi* moral character, fhe voc-t* own •nirda can be no Fvidcuce. ticcauae aa he wai not an Initiate, tl could not be exptiiiaed IA btin in what hia olTence coonuiled. Tht-tv have t>een com para lively imxierti in-4tiitKe» of pocta unconvHmiidy rrvmlinn in their vrrae^ ao tnttch of the hidden knowlcdsf a^ to make even Iniliatea auppow them to t>e feUow-lniliatcs, aud come to talk In them on ihc cuhjcct. Thtaoaly ahowa that the Kimiiiw: poetic leropeTninnjl i« aomctlmci ao far trnri»poned ticyoud Ute bniuida oT ocdlnary aenae aa to get (hmpaca Into what haa If«en impirard on the Avtral I.J;rht. In _ the Ught ^ Aiia Ibcie are two pawnp-s that infcbt make an luitiAtc of Uic fiikt degree think ■ that Mr. Hilwin Arnold had bero tniUalnl hlnkKiriti the KiniilyaR JtArami, but thj^ is not »o. n t A proof thai Jniian waa acquainted with the beUoonlric vyatem. «4 THE 5BCRBT DOCTRIKB. seat of its habitation. Only neither Hermes Trismegistus nor Julian (an initiated Occultist), nor any other, meant hy this Unknown Cause Jehovah, or Jupiter. They referred to the cause that produced all the manifested "great Gods "or Demiurgi (the Hebrew God included) of our system. Nor was our visible, material Sun meant, for the latter was only the manifested symbol. Pbilolaus the Pythagorean, explains and completes Trismegpstus by saying: The San ii a mirror of fire, the splendour of whose flAmes by their reflection in that mirror [Ibe Saoj ts poured upon us, aud that splendour we coll image. It is evident that Pbilolaus referred to the central spiritual Sun, whose beams and effulgence are only mirrored by our central Star, the Sun. Thi-s 1.1 as clear to the OccultisLs as it was to the Pythagoreans. As for the profane of pagan antiquity, it was, of course, the ph>*sical Sun that was the "highest God" for them, as it seems — if Chevalier Drach's view be accepted — to have now virtually become for the modem Roman Catholics. If words mean anything, the statement made by the Che\'alier Drach that " this sun is, undeniably, the second h^Tiostasis of the Deitj*," imply what we say ; a.s "this Sun " refers to the Kabali^tic Sun, and " hypostasis" means substance or subsistence of the Godhead or Triuitj' — distinctly personal. As the author, being an ex-Rabbi, thoroughly versed in Hebrew, and in the mysteries of the Zohar. ought to know the value of xvords; and as, moreover, in writing this, he was bent upon reconciling " the seeming contradic- tions," as he puts it, between Judaism and Christianity — the fact becomes quite tvident. But all Uiis pertains to questions and problems which will be solved naturally and in the course of the development of the doctrine. The Roman Catholic Church stands accused, not of worshipping under other names the Divine Beings worshipped by all nations in antiquity, but of declaring idolatrous, not ouly the Pagans ancient and modern, but every Christian nation that has freed itself from tlie Roman yoke. The accusation brought against herself by more than one man of Science, of worshipping the stars like true Sabaeans of old, stands to this da\ uncoiUradicled. yet no star- worshipper has ever addressed his adoralion to the nialcrial stars aud planets, as will be shown before the last page of this work is written ; none the less is it true that those Philosophers alone who studied AstroIog> and Magic knew that the last word of those sciences was to be sought in, and expected from, the Occult forces emanating from those constellatioDS. SECTION XXIV. Modern Kabalists in Science and Occult Astronomy. Thkrh is a physical, an astral, and a super-astral Universe in the three chief divisions of the Kabalak ; as there are terrestrial, super- terrestrial, and spiritual Beings. The " Seven Planetary Spirits " may be ridiculed by Scientists to their hearts' content^ yet the need of intelligent ruling and guiding Forces is so much felt to this day that scientific men and specialists, who will not hear of Occultism or of ancient systems, find themselves obliged to generate in their inner consciousness some kind of semi-mystical system. Metcalt's " sun- force" theory, and that of Zaliwsky, a learned Pole, which made Electricity the Universal Force and placed its storehouse in the Sun.* were revnvals of the Kabalistic teachings. Zaliwsky tried to prove that Electricity, producing "the most powerful, attractive, calorific, and luminous cfiects," was present in the physical constitution of the Sun and explained its peculiarities. This is very near the Occult teaclnng. It is only by admitting the gaseous nature of the Sun-reflector, and the powerful Magnetism and Electricity of the solar attraction and repul- sion, that one can explain (a) the evident absence of any waste of power and luminosity in the Sun — inexplicable by the ordinary laws of combustion ; and ifi) the behaviour of the planets, so often contradict- ing every accepted rule of weight and gravity, And Zaliwsky makes this " solar electricity " " differ from anything known on earih." Father Secchi may be suspected of having sought to introduce Forces ofquiU a new order anti qaitc foreign to gra%'ilatioiii which he had discovered in Space,t * La Grat/itatfiMt par rEkttrieiti. p. j, quoted by Oc UlrvlUe, tv. ij^ '* De Miivilk, iv. 157. 216 THE SHCRET DOCTRmB. in order to reconcile Astronomy with theological Astronomy. But Nagy. a member of the Hungarian Academy of Scieoces, was no clerical, and yet he develops a theory on the necessity of intelligent Forces whose complacency "would lend itself to all the whims of lh« comets." He suspects that : Notwithstanding ell the actual xesearches on the rapidity or light — that aaisiiMg product of an unknown force . . . which wc see too frequently to undersunil— /*«/ /igMt is motumUss in reality.* C. E. Love, the well-known railway builder and engineer in France, tired of blind forces, made all the (then) " imponderable agents" — now called "forces" — subordinates of Electricity, and declares the latter to be an I nlelHgence— albeit molecular ia notore and utatcHaLt In the author's opinion these Forces are atomistic agcul:^. endowc with intelligence, spontaneous will, and motion.J and he thu^. like the Kabalists, makes the causal Forces substantial, while the Forces that act on this plane are only the effects of the former, as with him matter is eternal, and the Gods al5o;§ so is the Soul likewise, though it has inherent in itself a still higher Soul [Spirit], prcexistent, endowed with memorj', and superior to Electric Force ; the latter is subservient to the higher Souls, those superior Souls forcing it to act according to the eternal laws. The concept is rather hazy, but is evidently on the Occult lines. Moreover, the system proposed is entirely pantheistic, and is worked out in a purely scientific volume. Monotheists and Roman Catholics fall foul of it, of course ; but one who believes in the Planetary Spirits and who endows Nature with living Intelligences, must always expect this. In this connection, however, it is curious that after the modems have so laughed at the ignorance of the ancients. Who, knowing only of seven planets [yet having an ogdoad which did mot inchide the earth !1 iuventcd thererore seven Spirits to lit in with the number, Babinet should have vindicated the "superstition" uncousciously to himself. In the Revue des Deux Afonda this eminent French Astro- nomer writes : " MfmvirOH Iht Solat SftUm. p. 7. Dr MIrvfUr. I*. !«. * itiMi Jirr- tldtntUi dtt Agtmti h^»eU»T% i» Som, ib iti Lumttre, etc, p^ 13, /Mfc : Jbid.. i>. »i8. I Snnunaiised fttan Ihid., p. 213. Dc XirviOc, It. i)^ Fbb pi^cb op nsptunk. 217 I The of{<l<»d of the AncientM included the earth [which is on errorj, i.f.. ei){ht or seven accordiug to whether or not the earth was coniprified in the tiunibcr.* Dc Mirville assures his readers that : M. Babiaet was telling me but a few days ago that we had in reality only eight big planets, including the earth, and so many small ones between Mnrs and Jupiter . . . . Hcrschcl offchnji to call ail those beyond the seven primary' placets iutteroids ! f There is a problem to be solved in this connectiou. How do Astro- nomers know that Neptune is a planet, or even that it is a body belonging to our system ? Being found on the very confines of our Planetary World, so called, the latter was arbitrarily expanded to receive it ; but what really matbeuiatical and infallible proof have Astronomers that it is (a} a planet, and (,6) one of our planets ? None at aJl I It is at such an immeasurable distance from us, the Apparent diameter of the sun l)«riu){ to Neptune but one-furtieth of the sun's upporent diameter to us, and it is so dim and hazy when seen through the best telescope that it looks like an astronumtcal romance to call it one of our planets. Neptune's heat and light are reduced to ^io part of the heat and light received by the earth. His motion and that of his satellites have always looked suspicious. They do not agree — in appearance, at least — with those of the other planets. His system is retrograde, etc. But even the tatter abnormal fact resulted only in the creation of new hypotheses by our Aylrouomers. who forthwith suggested a probable overturn of Neptune, his collision with another body, etc Was Adams' and Leverrier's discoveo' so welcomed because Neptune was as necessary as was ISther to throw a new glory upon astronomical pre- vision, upon the certitude of modern scientific data, and principally upon the power of mathematical analysis ? It would so appear. A new planet that widens our planetary domain by more than four hundred million leagues is worthy of annexation. Yet, as in the case of terrestrial annexaiiou, scientific authority may be proved "right" only because it has " might." Neptune's motion happens to be dimly perceived: Eurekal it is a planet! A mere motion, however, proves very little. It is aow an ascertained fact in Astronomy that there are uo absolutely fixed stars in Nature,^ even though such stars should * Lm T>wr* tt HOtri Syitlme iittairf. De UlrviUe. W. 139. : If, ■» S(r W. Hrrtichel thau^'lil, lh« so-calkd fixcil ftlars bu'Jt Ksutlcd rrora, and owe tbdr origin Ui ocbuUr combuelion, ttic? cannot be Kxed mny more tliaii ii our auu, wbicb wiu brlierad to b« ail SITCRET DOCTSINB. continue to exist in astronomical parlance, while they have pa* from the scientific imagination. Occultism, however, has a st theory of its own with regard to Neptune. Occultism says that if several hypotheses resting on mere assump- tion— which have been accepted only because they have been taught by eminent men of learning — are taken away from the Science of Modem Astronomy, to which they serve as props, then even the pre- sumably universal law of gravitation will be found to be contrary to the most ordinar>' truths of mechanics. And really one can hardly blame Christians— foremost of all the Roman Catholics — however scientific some of these may them.selves be, for refusing to quarrel with their Church for the sake of scientific beliefs. Nor can we even blame them for accepting in the secresy of their hearts — as some of them do — the theological "Virtues'* and "Archons" of Darkness, instead of all the blind forces offered them by Science. Never cui there be inten-ention of any sort in the marslialling and the regular preccMion of the cvlc&tial bodies ! The law of gravilatiou i» the law of laws: who ever witjiesse<l a stone rising in the air against graviUtion? The permanence of the uuiversiil law is shown in the behaviour of Ihe sidereal worUls and globes eter- nally failhful to their primitive orbits; never wandering beyond their rc^pccdrr paths. Nor is there any iater\'eiilion needed, as iL could only be disastrou*. Whether the first sidereal incipient rotation took place owing to an intercofimic chance, or to the spontaneous development of hiteut prituordtal forces : or again, whether that impulse was given once for all by God or Gods — it does not make the slighteiit difference. At this stage of cosmic evolution no intervention, snpcrior or inferior, is iwlniissible. Were niiv to take place, the universal clock-work would stop, and Kosmos would fall into pieces. Such are .stray sentences, pearls of wisdom, fallen from lime to time from scientific lips, and now chosen at random to illustrate a query. We lift our dimini-shed heads and look heavenward. Such seems to be the fact : worlds, suns, and stars, the shining myriads of the heavenly hosts, remind the Poet of au infinite, shoreless ocean, whereon move swiftly numberless squadrons of ships, millions upon millions of cruisers, large and small, crossing each other, whirling and gyrating in motiouIeM aad is aovr round to rotate around ita axi* everr twenty-flve <layii. As tlie Kacd tur Dcamt lo llir •un. hOKKTcr. U HKhl-thwuMUid times r^rthtr awAf tntm bim Aaa I> Hcptnor. UK illuuo[)» fumUhctl by t)ic tclracopea tntut tK alaO eigtit-thouNind timr» a» Bt^at- We wUI thcrefarT Icmvr Ihe qnniitpn at rest, rcpcntinij ouly whnt A. Mawry Mtrt in hi» work fia Trrrr el t H*mm*. pubtishnl in ifl>ti: "II Is ultcfty hii[x»siblc, itu Tor, todechlr anything conctming NrptiiueS couMi- tuiloD. BJiiilory ailotic anthoriiilng u> lo Mcribc to tilm ■ rotarr moUon like that of oOwr piancti " (D* Mirvillr, itf, i^o.i, SBLP-GKKB RATION RJC-NrmW? 319 I I I I every direction ; and Science teaches us, that though they be without rudder or compass or any beacon to guide them, they are nevertheless secure from collision— almost secure, at any rate, save in chance acci- dents— as the whole celestial machine is built upon and guided by an immntable, albeit blind, law. and by constant and accelerating force or forces. " Built upon " by whom ? " By self-evolution," is the answer. Moreover, as dynamics teach that A IkkIv id motion teods lo coattnue in the same state of relative reM or motion uuless acted upon by flome external force, this force has to be regarded as self- gen crated — even if not eternal, since this would amount to the recognition of perpetual motion — aud so well self-calculated aud self-adjusted as to last from the beginning to the end of Kosmos. But "self-generation" has still to generate from something, generation ex-nikih being as contrary to reason as it is lo Science. Thus we are placed once more between the horns of a dilemma : are we to believe in perpetual motion or in self-generation ex-nihiio ? And if in neither, who or what is that something, which, first produced that force or those forces ? There are such things in mechanics as superior levers, which give the impulse and act upon secondary or inferior levers. The former, however, need an impulse and occasional renovation, otherwise they would themselves verj' soon stop and fall back into their original status. What is the external force which puts and retains them in motion ? Another dilemma I As to the law of cosmical non-intervention, it could be justified only iu one case, namely, if the celestial mechanism were perfect: but it is not. The so-called unalterable motions of celestial bodies alter and change incessantly ; they are verj' often disturbed, and the wheels of even the sidereal Iocomoti\'e itself occasionally jump off their invisible rails, as may be easily proved. Otherwise why should Laplace speak of the probable occurrcnci; at some future time of an oul-aud-out reform in the arrangement of the planets;* or Lagrange maintain the gradual narrowing of the orbits; or our modem Astronomers, again, declare that the fuel in the sun is slowly disappearing? If the laws and forces which govern the behaviour of the celestial bodies are im- mutable, such modifications and wearing-out of substance or fuel, of force and fluids, would be impossible; yet they are not denied. There- * Bxpuitiom Jm vrmi SjrtUm dm Mnrndf, p. lAi. 220 TUB SKCK£T DOCTRINE. fore one has to suppose that such modifications will have to rely upon the laws of forces, which will have lo self- regenerate themselves once more oo such occasions, thus producing an astral antinomy, aud a kind of physical paliuomy, since, as I^aplace says, one would then see fluids disobeying themselves aud reacting in a way conirary to all their attri- hutes and properties. Xewlan felt very uncomfortable about the moou. Her behaxiourin progressively narrowing the circumference of her orbit around the earth made him ner\'ous, lest it should end one day in our satelljte falling upon the earth. The world, he coufessed, needed repairing, and that ver>- ofteu* In this he was corroborated by Herschel.f He speaks of real and quite considerable deviations, besides those which are only apparent, but gets some consolation from his conviction that somebody or something will probably see to things. We may be answered that the personal beliiifs of some pious Ab- irouomers, however great they may be as scieulific characters, are no proofs of the actual existence and presence in space of intelligent supramundanc Beings, of either Gods or Angels. It is the behaviour of the stars and planets themselves that has to be analysed aud infer* euces must be drawn therefrom. Kenan asserts that nothing that we know of the sidereal bodies warrants the idea of the presence of any lutelligence, whether internal or exterual to them. Let us see, says Reynaud, if this is a fact, or only one more empty scientific assumption. The orbiu trftverMtl b>' ihe plauelA are far frgju being initnutible. They are. on Uie contrary, subject to perpetual matation in position, as in fomi. EIong«UoB<s contractions, and orbital widciiing-s o^cilliitions froiu right to left, slackentng^ and cjiitckening of speed .... and a)I this on a plane which &eem« to vacillate.^ As is very pertinently observed by des Mousseux : Here is a path having UIIIl' or the mathetnatical and Dieclianical preci-sion claimed for it; for ve know of no clock wliicb. having gone slow for several minutes Rhould catch up ihc riglit time 0/ itself and -auithout a tarn of tk£ key. So much for blind law and force. As for the physical impossibility — a miracle indeed in the sight of Scieucc — of a stone raised in the air against the law of grnvitalion. this is what Babiuet — the deadliest * Sn Uw pottasc quMcd by HcTScbcI bt A'^tittl /fli/Mi/V, p. ilg. De Uirvillr, hr. tb^ * lac. rit. t Tirrt tt Cttl. p. iS. Ibid, ARK THKRK ANOEW r.J STARS 221 I I enemy and opponent of the phenomena of levitation — (cited by Arago) says : Rreryonc knows the theory of bolides [meteors] aud AeroUchea. ... In CoanecUcut aa tramense aerolith was seen [a mass of eighteen hundred feet in diameter], hombArdinf; a whole American tone and returning to the spot [in mid-airj from which it had started.* Thus we find in both of the cases above cited — that of self-correcting planets and of meteors of gigantic size fiylug back into the air — a "blind force" regulating and resisting the natural tendencies of " blind matter," and even occasionally repairing its mistakes and correcting its failures. This is far more miraculous and even " extravagant." one would say, than any " Angel-guided " Element. Bold is he who laughs at the idea of Von Haller, who declares that : The stars are perhaps an abode of glorious Spirits; as here Vice reigns, there ia Virtoe master.t U' ■±^ • CEuvrei a'Armga, vol. J., |>. tv^; qunt«4 h)rCr Mirvinf, iH. ^. + " /)u* Sl^rtir iimd vifllrieht tin Silx w» kta'lf Gfittf , If tr hier itei lAsUr krrrteht. ttl dart die T^grmJ Afrister." SECTION XXY. Eastern and Western Occultism. In Tk€ Tk^osophisl for March, 1886.* in an answer to tlie Sphinx," a member of the J^ondon Lodge of the Theosophical Societf wrote as follows : We hold and believe thai il-c revival of OccoU KDOwlcdxe now in progress viU sniiie ilay ileinonstrate that the Western system represents ranges of perceptions which the Kastera— at least as expounded in the pa};cs of Tkt Theosophist — has y\ to atlain.t The writer is not the only person labouring under this erroneous im- pression. Greater Kabalists than he had said the same in the United States. This only proves that the knowledge possessed by Western Occultists of the true Philosophy, and the " ranges of perceptions " and thought of the Eastern doctrines, is ver>' superficial. This assertion nnll be easily demonstrated by giving a few instances, instituting com- parisons between the two interpretations of one and the same doctrine — the Hermetic Universal Doctrine. It is the more needed since, were I I I • Op. cil.. p. 411. * WhtnevcT Occall doctriur* wvrv ezpouniletl in Uie poCM oT Tht TA'Wto/Au/, carr ««• taken cack Ume lodKlarc a KUb^I inconiplclc wfacn the whole could aol be giwa iu ilr> lulnem, and uo wtiin- ha» rvcr Irird td niinlnid thr rradcr. As to ihr Wnrtcm "mtiKm of pcrcnMloa" conccrainc doc- trines really Occult, tb« Ku«t«rn OcculUalaliavcbveii made actiuainCed wilti then Tor aane timp pnl. Tliiis Ihey an cnalilrd to asMTt with conlidcncr that the Went may be in poaaeiMJan of IlcrmetK ptailOMphy aa a tpcculative ^jratesi of dialrcUcs, the latter being ased in lite WeKt admirably wrtl. but it lacks rattrely ibe knowlcd^ of Occultism. The genaltK SaMcTD Occultlft kccpa aileat and ituknomi, never publle.bM what be knowm, and rarely even apeakti of il, aa be knowa too welt tbc lictmtty of iudbcntioi. PRIMORDIAL 223 I I I I we to neglect bringing forward such comparisons, our work would be left incomplete. We may take the late Eliphas Levi, rightly referred to by another Western Mystic, Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie, as " one of the greatest re- presentatives of modem Occult Philosophy,"* as presumably the best and most learned expounder of the Cbaldacan Kabaiak. and compare his teaching with that of Eastern Occultists. In his unpublished manu- scripts and letters, lent to us by a Theosophist, who was for fifteen years his pupil, wc bad hoped to fiud that which he was unwilling to publish. What we do find, however, disappoints us greatly. We will take these teachings, then, as containing the essence of Western or Kabalistic Occultism, analyzing aud comparing them with the Eastern interpretation as we go on. Eliphas Levi teaches correctly, though in language rather too rbap- sodically rhetorical to be sufficiently clear to the beginner, that Etemal life is Motion cquilibraceU by the aJtcmalc manifestations of force But why does he cot add that this perpetual motion is independent of the manifested Forces at work ? He says : ChAOfl is the Toha-vali-bolin of pcrpclanl motion and the sum total of primordial matter : and he fails to add that Matter is " primordial " only at tlie beginning of every new reconstruction of the Universe matter in atiscandito, as it is called by the Alchemists, is eternal, indestructible, without beginning or end. It is regarded by Eastern Occultists as the eternal Root of all, the Mulaprakriti of the Vedantiu, and the SvabhSvat of the Buddhist, the Divine Essence, in short, or Substance; the radiations from This are periodically aggregated into graduated forms, from pure Spirit to gross Matter ; the Root, or Space, is in its abstract presence the Deity Itself, the Ineffable and Unknown One Cause. AJn-Suph with him also is the Boundless, the infinite and One Unity, secondless and causeless as Parabrahman. Ain-Suph is the indivisible point, and therefore, as "being everywhere and nowhere." is the abso- lute All. It is also " Darkness " because it is absolute Light, and the Root of the seven fundamental Cosmic Principles. Vet Eliphas Levi, by simply stating that "Darkness was upon the face of the Earth," fails to show (d) that *■ Darkness" in this sense is Deity Itself, and he is 224 THE SBCRRT OOCTRINB. therefore withholding the only philosophical solution ofthis problem for the human mind ; and (A) he allows thi: unwary student to believe that hy " Hartb " our own little globe — an atom in the Universe — is meuL In short, this teaching does not embrace the Occult Cosmogony, but deals simply with Occult Geology and the formation of our cosmic speck. This is further shown by his making a r^sum/of the Sephiro- thal Tree in this wise : r.wl is lianuony, ihe astronomy of Howgrs aud Unity outside of the World. This seems to suggest (a) that he teaches the existence of an extra- cosmic God. thus limiting and conditioning both the Kosmos and the divine Infinity and Omnipresence, which cannot be extraneous to or outside of one single atom ; and (^) that by skipping the whole of the pre-cosmic period— the manifested Kosmos here being meant — the very root of Occuh teaching, he explains only the Rabalistic meaning of the dead-letter of the Sid/e aud Genesis, leaving its spirit and essence un- touched. Surely the " ranges of perception " of the Westerti mind will not be greatly enlarged by such a limited teaching. Having .said a few words on Tohu-vah-bohu — the meaning of which Wordsworth rendered graphically as "higgledy-piggledy"— and having explained that this term denoted Cosmos, he teaches that: Abo%"e the <lark abj'ss [Chaos] w-ere the Water*: . . . the earth [At i^mr.'] wu TohiwvAh-bobo, ue., in confusioa. and darkness covered the lace of the Deep, uui vebenietit Breath moved on the Waters when the Spirit exclaimed {}\ "Let there be light," an<l there w-a.<) ligbL Thus the earth [our globe, of coarse] waft in a state of cataclysm : (kick vapours veiled the tmmcasity of the sky. the earth was covered with waters and a violent wind was agitating this dark ocean, when at a gtceii moment the equililjrium revealed itself and light reappeared; the letters that com- pose the Hebrew word " Bertihith " (the first word of Gmesis) are "Beth." the binary, the verb manifested by the act, a faninitK letter ; then " Rcsch," the Verbom and Life, number 20, the ditc multiplied by 2; and "Aleph," the spiritnal principk, the Uhitf a masculine letter. Place these letters in a triangle and }-ou have the absolute Unity, that without being inclmled into numbers creates the number, the tirsL mauifestation, which is a, and these two united by harmony resulting from the analogy of contraries [oppo- wtes], make i, only. This is why God is calle<5 Rlohim (pluriJ). All this is very ingenious, but is very puzzling, besides being incorrect. Forowingtolhefirst sentence, "Above the dark abyss were the Waters," the French Kabalist leads the student away from the right track. This an Eastern Chela will see at a glance, and even one of the profane may see it. For if the Tohu-vah-bohu is "under" and the Waters are A THE GRHAT DBEP. »25 "above." thea these two are quite distinct from each otber, and this is not the case. This statenieut is a very important one, inasmuch as it entirely changes the spirit and nature of Cosmogony, and brings it down to a level with exoteric C<w««^perhaps it was so staled with an eye to this result. The Tohn-vah-bohii is the "Great Deep" and is identical with •' the Waters of Chaos," or the primordial Darkness. By stating the fact otherwise it makes both "the Great Deep" and the "Waters" — which cannot be separated except in the phenomenal world — limited as to space and conditioned as to their nature. Thus i^liphas in his desire to conceal the last word of Esoteric Philosophy, fails — whether intentionally or otherwise does not matter — to point out the fundamental principle of the one true Occult Philosophy, namely, the unity and absolute homogeneity of the One Eternal Divine Elemeot, and he makes of the Deity a male God. Then he says: • Above the Waters wa* the powerfnl Breath of the Elohim [the creative Dhy4o Chohans^ Above the Breath aiipeared the Light, and above the Light the Word . . . . that created it. Now the fact is quite the reverse of this : it is the Primeval Light that creates the Word or Logos, Who in His turn creates physical light. To prove and illustrate what he says he gives the following figure : Tow any Eastern Occultist upon seeing this would not hesitate to pronounce it a " left-hand " magic figure. It is entirely reversed, aud it represents the third stage of religious thought, that current in Dvapara Yuga, when the one principle is already separated into male - and female, and humanitv is approaching the fall into materiality L .■ 22€ THB SECRET DOCTBIKE. which brings the Kali Yuga. A student of Eastern Occultism would draw it thus : For the Secret Doctrine teaches us that the reconstruction of the Universe takes place in thiswise: At the periods of new generation, perpetual Motion becomes Breath ; from the Breath comes forth primordial Light, through whose radiance manifests the Eternal Thought concealed in darkness, and this becomes the Word (Mantra).* It is Thai (the Mantra or Word) from which all This (the Universe) sprang into being. Further on Eliphas Levi says : This [the concealed Deity] mdiated a ray into the Eternal Es«cnc« [Waters of Space] and, fnictirjrinK thereby the primordial jjerm, the Ksseucc expai]<le<l.t gii-ing birth to tlie Heavenly Man from whoK mind were boru all forms. The Kabalak states very nearly the same. To learn what it really teaches one has to reverse the order m which Hliphas Levi gives it, replacing the word " above " by that of " in," as there cannot surely be any " above " or " under " in the Absolute. This is what he says : ASove the waters the powerful breath of the Elohim; above the Breath the Ijght; above Light the Word, or the Speech that created it. We see here the iphercs of eTolution: the soola [?] driven from the dark centre iDarkDess) toward the luminous circumference. At the bottom of the lowest circle is the Tohu-vab- bohu. or the chaos which precedes all manifestation [A'<tuiafl<:vi— generation] ; then the re^n of Water; then Breath; then Light; and, lastly, the Word. * In Uw ncotrric (trair, Ibc Sfaatra (or that payc^ic racolty or power Uwl «iii>eya p«rc^tioD or lboaK>>t) is tbc Older portion of the y»i»s. Uk necond pari of which is composed of lh« jr»<S4(MM«. In Ksotcric pfaim&eology Msoln is the Word trntdt flrsh. or rendered ohjrdive. lhr>'iiKh >Ji«iBe nuffc-. * The aectet nraalnc of the word " Bmbmi " rs ' cipsusiOD," " iacrcaac,' or " crowth.** 1 THE CHAOS OP GENHSIS. 227 I I The construction of the above sentences shows that the learned Abb^ had a decided tendency to anthropomorphize creation, even though the latter has to be shaped out of preexisting material, as the Zohar shows plainly enough. This is bow the " great " Western Kabalist gets out of the difficulty: he keeps silent on the first stage of evolution and imagines a second Chaos. Thus he says : The TobU'vab-bobu is the Latin Limbus, or twilight or the uioinitig an<l evening of life.* It is in perpetual motion.t it decomposes cootmually.J aad tlie work of putrefaction accelerates, liecaufie the world is advancing towards regeneratton.f The Tohu-vab-bobu of the Hebrews ia not exactly t2ie confusion of tbtDg<i called Chaos by the Greeks, and which is found described in the conimencemeni of the Metamoqibosis of Ovid; it is something greater and more profound; it is the foundation of religion, it is the philosophical affiruiatiou of ibe immateriality of God. Rather an affirmation of the materiality of a personal God. If a man has to seek his Deity in the Hades of the ancients — for the Tohu-vah- bohu> or the Limbus of the Greeks, is the Hall of Hades — then one can wonder no longer at the accusations brought forward by the Church agaiiLst the " witches"' and sorcerers versed in Western Kabalism, that they adored the goat Mendes, or the devil personified by certain spooks and Elementals. But in face of the task Elipbas Levi had set before hituself— that of reconciling Jewish Magic with Roman ecclesiasticism — he could say nothing else. Then he explains the first sentence in Genesis : Let ns put on one side the vulgar translation of the sacred texts and see what ia hidden in the first chapter of Genesis. He then gives the Hebrew text quite correctly, but transliterates it : Berescbitb Bara Eloim uth aachamam ouatti aarcs ouares ayete Tohu.vah-bohiL'' . . . Ouinias Kloim rai avur ouiai aour. And he then explains: ■J 1 The first word, "Bcrcschith," signifies "genesis," a word equivalent to "nalnre.** ■ Why not slvc at cucc its theolofteal meaning, u wc fiiid It In webcter } WUh Uic Roman CatbalicA it OKanti simply " put j; a lory," Ihc ticjTiIcrTtAntl tietwnrit hmrm maAh^^MLtmhm patriim aud ijmiiu im/anlum). iJic our for ■!) mm. whtXhct good, bad or IndilTctcot ; ilie otJitr for ihr .omI» of antiiaptiMd children 1 With the uiiciciits it lucauC dimply thai itbtcb iu £ivttrit Unttdhi^M i« culled tbe Kiuui T.okK. brtmrn I^rvschan and Aviichi. * Afl ChAM, the rtrmal I^trmrnt. not ns the Rlna Loka rardy > t A proof that by tbi» word ^liphaii Uni meaok the lowest region of the ten«>tria1 AUsha. I EvJdoitly be is cooctriicd only mill a\it priioiliuil wortil, or the terminal globe. i ■228 THE SHCRKT DOCTRINE. "The act of gcncratiou or production," wc maintain ; not *' natnre." He then continues : The phrase, then, is incorrectly translated in the Bible. It is not "in the begin- niag." for it should t>e at the stage of the generating forte* which would tfcit) exclude eTer>' idea of the ex-nihilo ... as nothing amnot produce something The wonl " Hloiiu " or " Elohim " signifies the getieraling Powers, and siicb ii tbc Occult sense of the firet verse. . . . " BerescUitli " ("nature" or "Kencsi&"|, "Bara" ("created") "Rloim" ("the forces") "Athat-ashaiuaim" ("hcBveos"} "oustb" and "oaris" ("the earth"}; that is to say. "The generative potendei createil indefinitely (eternally+) those forces that are the equilibrated oppodtei that we call heaven and earth, meaning the space and the bodies, the volatile ini) the fixed, the movement and tlic weight. Now this, if it be correct, is too vague to be understood by any otie ignorant of the Kabalistic teaching. Not only are hi& explanations tin- satisfactory and misleading — in Uis published works they are still worse — but bis Hebrew transliteration is entirely wrong : it precludes the student, who would compare it for hitnsetf with the equivalent symbols aud numerals of the words and tetters of the Hebrew alphabet from finding anything of chat he might have found were the words cor- rectly spelt in the French transliteration- Compared even with exoteric Hindu Cosmogony, the philosophy which Eliphas Levi gives out as Kabalistic is simply mystical Ronuu Catholicism adapted to the Christian KabaUh. His Hhtoirt de la Afagii shows it plainly, and revtals also his object, which he does not even care to conceal. For, while staling with his Church, that The Cbristinn religion has imposed silence on the lying oradea of the Gentiles and put an end to the prestige of the false gods,! he promises to prove iu his work that the real Sanctum Regnum. the great Magic Art, is iu that Star of Bethlehem which led the three Magi to adore the SaWour of the World. He says : We will prove that the study of the sacred Pentagram had to kad all the Magi to know Uie new name which should be raised aSove all names, and before which every being capable of worship has to bend his knce.j * In Ui« "tclwakn)itii{"or the Purees would be more correct. ♦ An ncMon which U incewant In eternity en rnioi SrcttUed "crtaUon:" It U evolutloo. uxl Ute etertuinyof e^-n-beconlng or theOrevk MiiloiM^pher au.l tlir Himtu V«<l.lntini ft U the S.tt atiil the one Belngne» of Panaeul Jts, or the Qdnjf IdcniiMl with Thoiidn Now how can Ihe I'otericie* be Mill to"creale movemenl." oiiL'e it ia sewi inovcmrDt never liail uuy brgluiiiiiK. bat esLiteil in Ite litemUy ' vi\\y not wy tli8l the reavrskcncd Toteiides Imacfcrred raotloa ftotu the eternal lo the IctnporDl plane of being } Sure'y thi» U uat Creation. t Hiuairt dt la Stagit. Int. p. t. I Hiitairt it ta Afagre. Int.. p i. TBB BIBLE OP fiTTUANITY. 399 This shows that Levi's Kabalak is mystic Christianity, and not Oc- »_cultism; for Occuliism is uuivcrsal and knows no diflerencc between the " Saviours " Cor great Avataras) of the several old nations. Eliphas Ltvi was not an exception in preaching Christianity under a disguise tof Kabalism. He wa^ undeniably " the greatest representative of modem Occult Philosophy," as it is studied in Roman Catholic coun- tries generally, where it is fitted to the preconceptions of Christian students. Bui he never taught the real universal Kabalah, and least of all did he teach Eastern Occultism. Let the student compare the Eastern and Western teaching, and see whether the philosophy of the Upanishads " has yet toattain the ranges of perception " of this Western system. Everyone has the right to defend the system he prefers, but in doing this, there is no need to throw slurs upon thesystem of one'sbrother. I In view of the great rcscuiblaucc between many of the fundamental "truths" of Christianity and the '■ myths" of Brahmauism, there have been serious attempts made lately to prove that the Bhagavad GUA and most of the Brdhmanas and the Pttrdnas are of a far later date than tthe Mosaic Books and even than the Gospeh. But were it possible that an enforced success should be obtained in this direction, such argument cannot achieve its object, since the Rig Veda remains. Brought down to the most modem limits of the age assigned to it. its date cannot be made to overlap that of the PoUaleHck, which is admittedly later, ft The Orientalists know well that they cannot make away with the ' landmarks, followed by all subsequent religions, set up in that " Bible of Humanity" called the Rig Veda. It is there that at the very dawn ■ of intellectual humanity were laid the foundation-stones of all the faiths and creeds, of every fane and church built from first to last; and they are still there. Universal " myths," i>crsonifications of Powers I divine and cosmic, primary and secondary, and historical personages I of all the now-exi.sting as well as of extinct reUgions are to be found in " the seven chief Deities and their 330,000,000 correlations of the Rig Veda, and those Seven, with the odd millions, are the Rays of the one I boundless Unity. But to This can never be offered profane worship. It can only be the "object of the most abstract meditation, which Hindus practise in order to obtain absorption in it." At the beginning of every " dawn " of '* Creation," eternal Light — which is darkness — assumes the aspect of so-called Chaos: chaos to the human intellect; the eternal Root to the superhuman or spiritual sense. 230 THE SECRET DOCTRINS. "Osiris is a black God." These were the words pronounced at " low breath" at Initiation in Eg>'pt. because Osiris Noumenou is darkness to the mortal. In this Chaos are formed the '* Waters," Mother Isis. Aditi, etc. They are the "Waters of Life," in which primordial germs are created^-or rather reawakened — by the primordial Light. It is Pnnishottama, or the Divine Spirit, which in its capacity of NirSyana. the Mover ou the Waters of Space, fructifies and infuses the Breath of life into that germ which becomes the "Golden Mundane Egg," in which the male Brahma is created ;* and from this the first Prajfipati, the Lord of Beings, emerges, and becomes the progenitor of mankind. And though it is not he, but the Absolute, that is said to contain the Universe in Itself, yet it is the duty of the male Brahma to manifest it in a visible form, tience he has to be connected with the procreation of species, and assumes, like Jehovah and other male Gods in subsequent anthropomorphism, a phallic symbol. At birst every such male God, the " Father " of all, becomes the "Archetypal Man." Between him and the Infinite Deity stretches an abyss. In the theistic religions of personal Gods the latter are degraded from abstract Forces into phjrsi- cal potencies. The Water of Life— the " Deep" of Mother Nature— is viewed in its terrestrial aspect in anthropomorphic religions. Behold, how holy it has become by theological magic ! It is held sacred and is deified now as of old in almost every religion. But if Christians use it as a means of spiritual purification in baptism and prayer; if Hindus pay reverence to their sacred streams, tanks, and rivers; if PSrsi, Ma- hommedan and Christian alike believe in its efficacy, surely that element must have some great and Occult significance. In Occultism it stands for the Fifth Principle of Knsmos, in the lower septenar>': for the whole visible Universe was bailt by Water, say the Kabalists who know the difference between the two waters— the " Waters of Life" and those of Salvation — so confused together in dogmatic religions. The " King- Preacher" says of himself : sir the Preacher, was kin}$ over Israel in Jerusalem, and I ^vc my heart to teek and search out by wisdom concerning alT thinzs tliat arc (ione uuder hen^*en.t Speaking of the great work and gIor>' of the Elohimt — unified into the * The Viklslinavu, Wtm tvgtrA VWimi u (Iw Supreme God and the fsHhloocr of the CalvetM^ cUlnt (hHt BrmJimii apriuir front the nftv«l of Vi&linu. (be " imptrrli^MbLtr," or ntber fram Ute Mtw UiHt grew froDi ll. Bui Uic " nniirl " hcrr mcaiu the CcotrjJ EVint, cIk matbcmatical xyiabot of in* Aoitudc. or rftrabnlutuin, the Oxix and tlie Secotidles^ t EuUitaitrs, \. 12, i^. I II is prulKilily ueedlewi lo stay hnr what everyone knowji. Tlie unnaUlion of Uw PTMCIUat Bible ts not a word for word rcnd«iu« at tht earlier Crn-k and l^Hu BibUs ■ the- ««we U way oftea diKfisuTvd, and "Cod" ts putwtiete "Jaliv^"' aud " Klulimi " liUind. CHAOS IS THBOS OK KOSMOS. ?3» ** Lord God *' in the English BidU, whose garment, he tells us, is light and heaven the curtain — he refers to the builder Who layeth the t)eBms of bis chambers in the waters,* n that is, the divine Host of the Sephiroth. who have constructed the Universe out of the Deep, the Waters of Chaos. Moses and Thales were right in saying that only earth and water can bring forth a living Soul, water being on this plane the principle of all things. Moses was an Initiate. Thales a Philosopher — i.e., a Scientist, for the words were synonymous in his day. ■ The secret meaning of this is that water and earth stand in the Mosaic Books for the prima materia and the creative (feminine) Prin- ciple on our plaue. In Eg>'pt Osiris was Fire, and Isis was the Earth or its synonym Water; the two opposing elements— just because of their opposite properties — being necessary to each other for a common object : that of procreation. The earth needs solar heat and rain to make her throw out her germs. But these procrcative properties of Fire and Water, or Spirit and Matter, are symbols but of physical genera- tion. While the Jewish Rabalists symbolized these elements only tn their application to manifested things, and reverenced them as the emblems for the production of terrestrial life, the Eastern Philosophy noticed them only as an illusive emanation from their spiritual proto- types, and no unclean or unholy thought marred its Esoteric religious symbol ogy. Chaos, as shown elsewhere, is Theos, which becomes Kosmos: it is Space, the container of everything in the Universe. As Occult Teach- ings assert, it is called by the Chaldxans, Kg>'ptians, and every other nation Tohu-vab-bohu, or Chaos. Confusion, because Space is the great storehouse of Creation, whence proceed not forms alone, but also ideas, which could receive their expression only through the Logos, the Word, Verbum, or Sound. The numb^s i, 2. ^, ^ are the successive emanaihns/rotn Mother^Space] as she forms running downward her garment, spreading it upon the seven steps of Creation.f 7Tu roller returns upon itself, as one end joins the other * Aa/mj. CIV. j. ,1. * To nvoid iniiiun<leTri«ndinff af th? word "civntian " su ollra usmI by lu, Uie mnarks or ttw author of iitcMfh ike GAirt 0/ Gold tuAy be quoced o«rlB( to tlieii cteumeu ind almplktly. " Th« words ' to cmtc ' uc often undcntood by the onKnary mind to conrcy (be idea of irvalving Soiuc- Unng out ur iiolhliiK. Tlits ih clrarly not ita i&raamv. Wc arc tDCMiUlIy obliged to prorjdr our CnMMwiUi cbAM from whicfa tu produce tbc irorlda. Tbc ttllrr of tbc aoJI, who i% thr typicid (ire- dtner of aocinl Hiir, roud hare his rontcrint : his t«rth, bU sky, raiu anil »ud, and UK KCd* to pitoe »32 THK SBCRET DOCTRINB. in infinitude, and the numbers 4, 3, and s are displayed, as it is the onty tide of Ike veil (hat we can perceive, the first number being lest in its «- aeeu$ible solitude. - . . Father, which is Boundless Time, generates Mother, whiek is infinite Space, in Eternity ; and Mother generates Father in /tfanvantarai, which are divisions of durations, that Day when that tvorld becomes one otean. Then the Mother becomes Nard [ Waters — the Great Deep^ Jot Nara \the Supreme Spirit^ to rest — or move — upon, when, it is said, that !• 3, 3, 4 descend and abide in the world oftht unseen, white the 4, 3. 2, become the limits in the visible toorld to deal with the manifestations of Father [ Time]* This relates to theMah&yugas which in figures become 432, and with the addition of noughts. 4.330,000. Now it is surpassingly sirouge, if it be a mere coincidence, that the numerical value of Tohu-vah-bohu. or "Chaos," in the Bible — which Cbao«, of course, is the " Mother " Deep, or the Waters of Space- should >-icld the same &gures. For this is what is found in a Kabalist manuscript: b ■• mU of the He«veti* uid Che Earth in the second verse of Genesis Ihat tfaej laadCoofiuiaa" — that is. they were "Tohu-vab-bohu;" " ».n& darttttess Ibe Ckc of tbe deep," i.e„ "the petfect material out of which con* n«to be made lacked orgaoizatioiL'* The order of tbe digiti of these wafdl ailhij iK%mA 1 1 t tbe letters rendered by their namerica) value— b 6.526k6$4 ■ad 3k306k. By sit speech these are kev-wfirking Bombers loosely shnffled togetlicr, theycf— a**kgy»of conrtnieticin. but to be recogmxed. one by one, as tued ud fvqoind. Ttey ftftav agmunMrically in the work as immediately following tbe finlicMeaoevf inBdcMBBCwbOn: "tn Rash developed itseU Gods, the heaTcoa •ad the cbxIl'' Mahipty zkc aiHbcn of the letters of "Toha-rah'bohn" together continuously tnm ri^ I* Scft* ffanc the ooosecntiTe nngle products as w« go^ and we will ha«« the ibaomic «na of nines, n£^ («) 3% 6a jfia, a.iGcv icxflbo^ ^A-^i°o, or as by the charactexine fic^: i 6, J^ >i6, 106^ and 43^: (b) jo^ iva, TVx i.A¥K l.^oa, or 3. iil ya. 14V t*. 4IX Ibe suits dosnig in 452. oim of Ac most tmmoas munbert of ■atifvi^ laA vfeack, tiwiwgfa obsmrad, oropa o«t m the chitnokigy up to tbe Vlnd4 ... ttr tMfe. Ow vTMMivlK <«*»*«« wbCMsb. Ikrrr w u^ I Mil 1 q !■*. taato«. or -mttJUm, hvm «Wch • Or,(H4 frSMrtgU IS lEflt.U»1MISn mAXHOg ^^ *k."i; -WL**; -V<i "0»;"*K*5I ■T*«r"av"«: % Itr. bkaoM Awwn'v »» ONK HUNDRED AND EIGHT. 233 This shows that the Hebrew usage of play upon the numbers must have come to the Jews from India. As we have seen, the final series yields, besides many another combination, the figures 108 and 1008 — the number of the names of Vishnu, whence the 108 grains of the Yog: s rosary — and close with 432, the truly *' famous" number in Indian and Chaldsean antiquity, appearing in the cycle of 4,320,000 years in the former, and in the 432,000 years, the duration of the Chaldsean divine dynasties. SECTION XXYI. The Idols and the Teraphtm, The meaning of the "fairy-tale" told by the Chaldaeau Qu-taray is easiiy understood. His madtts operandi with the " idol of the moon" was that of all the Semites, before Terah, Abraham's father, made images — the Teraphim, called after him — or tlie "chosen people" of Israel ceased divining by them. These teraphim were just as much " idols" a!i is any pagan image or statue.* The injunction " Thon shalt not bow to a graven image," or teraphim, must have either come at a later date, or have been disregarded, since the bowing-down to and the diWuicg by the teraphim seem to have been so orthodox and general that the "Lord" actually threatens the Israelites, through Hosea. to deprive them of their teraphim. Por the children of Israel sbAll abide many dA>-s without a king, . . . with- out a MCri6c«. and without an inia^r. Matzebah. or statue, or pillar, is explained in the Bibie to mean "without an ephod and without teraphim."t Kather Kircher supports very strongly the idea that the statue of the Egyptian Serapis was identical in every way with those of the seraphim. or teraphim. in the temple of Solomon. Says Louis de Dieu : Thej- were, perhaps, images of angels, or statues dedicated to the angets, the presence of one of thes< spiriu being thu^ attracted into a teraphim and answehug the inquirers [coDsultajisJ i and even in tliU hypothesis the word "teraphim" wonld * Thai Itic Irraphim was ■ ctatur, and no suall arturlt dthcr. U sfaows in Samwtt xix.. Michal ialM» a icraphtn {"ln»ce," a* it ii truuUied) and pau it in bed to trpnsnit IlwHd. ber kMihmd, who nn awajr fiWB Saul ("re vcnr ij. tl mtI- U '<"'* (ho* of the liae and abape of a bmaan fipirv— a ttata* or nal Htl, -t C$*. HI.. UL A DtVmiNG BY TBRAI 235 I I become the equir«leiit of "leraphiot" by cbaugiDf; the "t" iuto "s" in the manner of Syrian*. ■ What says the Srptuaffint f The teraphim are translated successively by JiSiM^a — forms in someone's likeness; eidolon, an "astral body;" yXtflprA — the sculptured ; Kcvoru^ia — sculptures in the sense of containing something hidden, or receptacles: *iAoi/« — manifestations; (Uij^oaf— truths or realities; ^u^^oi^MiTa or^rur^ot^ — luminous, shining likenesses. The latter expression shows plainly what the teraphim were. The Vulgate translates the term by "annuntientes." the •■ messengers who announce," and it thus becomes certain that the teraphim were the oracles. They were the animated statues, the Gods who revealed themselves to the masses through the Initiated Priests and Adepts in the Egyptian, Chaldaean, Greek, and other temples. As to tlie way of divining, or learning one's fate, and of being instructed by the teraphim. f it is explained quite plainly by Maimonides and Seldenus. The former says : The worsbippcn of the terapliim claimed that the light of the principal stars planets], peiietrating; into and filling th« cancil statue LbrougU nml t)irou>;li, the angelic virtue [of thv regents, or animating principle in the planctaj conversed with them, teaching thein many most useful arts and sciences.^ In his turn Scldcnus explains the same, adding that the teraphim§ were built and fashioned in accordance with the position of their re- spective planets, each of the teraphim being consecrated to a special "star-angel." those that the Greeks called stoichae, as also according to figures located in the sky and called the " tutelary Gods" : Those who traced out llie irrm-xCa. were called <rTw;i;«w/toTi«oi [or Uie dtviuers by the plancUj and the (rTOiX«a.[I Ammianus Marcellinus states that the ancient divinations were always • Louifr '.k Uie\i. G^ntsu, icxxi i*. Sec Dp Mlrvlllr, Hi J57 t " TtM! Inaphim of Abram'f faUter, Tcnb. the * naker of i»Ufc»,' wen tb« Kabciri Ood», and wc ■ceihcia wonhipped bjr Micnh, by Ihr Dmiltcc. nn<l othrrs. {JuHgri, xvli.-xri(t,, etc. r IWaphbn were jdrallsnl with Mraptaita. aiid ttaMC wmc Krpcnt latares, Ihc orIg:ln of which U in l]ie Suufciit '&ifpa* lUic 'verpeal') a symbol tomrd to all tbcd«tlle» as a »ymbo( of iianrartAlitr. Kiyuo.or the Cod Kiv«n. worshipped Xvf the llebr«wii in Ihc wildernt^ss. ii Ahivs, thr Hitiilii Aalurii, (The Zcndic 'fa' in '«' lu India; tbu*. 'Ilapta* In 'Sapta:' 'Hindu' i» 'Sindliftya.' |A. WUOei ) •The "•"' coDliiiuolly «ott«m to "h" frwm r.rewc lo Calcutta, from the Caucuua to Egypt,' aays Dualap, Thcrerurv (bt Icllm ' k.' ' h,' iind ' 9 ' Bt« iatcrchauKi^Able. The Cnrck ■tory &hinn> thai Dardanw, Uic Areadiaii, havtuf recHrrd them as a dowry, carried them to Saniothrace, and theace to Troy; and lh*y were \»ur*hipped toiig tfcfore tite days of glory of Tyre <«■ Kidoti, Iba^igli the loraer had beco built j,hm a.c. From wbcrc did Dardaiitia derive tbem^" itii t'anrtXHt, t-jTO. t Ualmon. Mart Nevoikim, tXI. xxx. TTbOK dedicated to the sua were tnadr in gold, and thoae to the moon In allver. \D*DiitSf*ii*,Ttr^pl^. 11. Syai, p. 31- TUS SIjCRET DOCTR1NG. accomplished with the help of the " spirits" of the eleiueiits (spirittu trlcmctitorum), or as they art called in Greek rvti-fiara twc <rr<M;^((W. Now the latter are not the "spirits" of the stars (planets), nor are they divine Beings ; they are simply the creattires inhabiting their respectiTc elements, called by the Kabalists. elementary spirits, and by the Theo- sophists elementals.* Father Kirchcr, the Jesuit, tells the reader: Even- god had such instrum^nu of rluHnntioti to sprak through. Each had hi* speciality. Serapis gave instruction on agriculture; Anubis taught sciences; Horns advised upon psychic and spiritual matters ; Isis was consulted on the rising of the Nile, and so on.f This historical fact, furnished by one of the ablest and most erudite among the Jesuits, is unfortunate for the prestige of the " Lord God of Israel " with regard to his claims to priority and to his being the o»i living God. Jehovah, on the admission of the O/d Tfsiamctit itself, conversed with bis elect iu uo other way, and this places him on a par with every other Pagan God, even of the inferior classes. In Judges, !cvii., we read of Micah having an ephod and a teraphim fabricated, and consecratingthem to Jehovah (see the Svpluaghti zwA the Vuigatc); these objects were made by a founder from the two htmdred shekels of silver given to him by his mother. True, King James' " Holy Bible" explains this little bit of idolatry by saying: In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did I'hat which was right in his own eyes. Yet the act must have been orthodox, since Micah, after hiring a priest, a diviner, for his ephod and teraphim. declares : *' Now know I that the Lord will do me good." And if Micah's act — who Had an house of Godit, and made an e|>bod and teraphim and consecrated one of his sons to their service, as also to that of the " graven image " dedicated " unto the Lord" by his mother — now seems prejudicial, it was not so iu those days of one religion and one h"p. How can the Latin Church blame the act, since Kirchcr, one of her best writers, calls the teraphim " the holy instruments of primitive revelations ; " since Genais shows us Rebecca going " to enquire of the Lord/' J and the Lord answering her (certainly * ThoK Ihnt th« KabaLbts call eUmtntary npirils arc sylplw, kdoihs, umUna and ulunaadnv, ■MluTv-bpiritii, in tiliOTt. The ipiriu or U)« ang«li Tonucd a dlvtlact diku. 1 Op.tiL.xxy.taeixt. JVHOVAH AKD TERAPniU. 237 through his teraphim), and deliveriug to her several prophecies? And if this be not sufficient, there is Saui, who deplores the silence of the epUod,*and David who consults the thumraira, and receives oral advice from the Lord as to the best way of killing his enemies. The thnmmim and urim, however — the object in our days of so much conjectttTe andspeculatiou — wasuot an invention of the Jews, nor had it originated with them, despite the minute instruction given about it by Jehovah to Moseii. For the pricst-hicruphant of the £g)'ptiaii temples wore a breastplate of precious stones, in every way similar to that of the high priest of the Israelites. The ht^h-prie-<iu of RgyP' wore suspended on their necks an image of stipphtr«, CKlled TfHfh, the manifestation of Irulh bcconiin}{ evident in it. Seldenus is not the only Christian writer who assimilates the Jewish to the Pagan teraphim, and expressed a conviction that the former had borrowed them from the Kg>'ptians. Moreover, we are told by DoUinger. a preeminently Roman Catholic writer: The teraphim were used and retnained in manyjewisb families to the days of Jo«ah.+ As to the personal opinion of DoUinger, a Papist, and of Seldenus, a Protestant — both of whom trace Jehovah in the teraphim of the Jews and "evil .•spirits'* in those of the Pagans — it is the usual one-sided judgment of odium theohgicum and sectarianism. Seldenus is right, however, in arguing that in the days of old, all such modes of communi- cation had been primarily established for purposesof divine and angelic communications only. But The holy Spirit (spirits, rather) spake [not] to the children of Israel [alone] by nrim and Uiiimmiin, while the tabernacle remained, as Dr. A. Cruden would have people believe. Nor had the Jews alone need of a " tabernacle '* for such a kind of iheophanic, or divine com-^ municatioti; for no Bath-Kol (or "Daughter of the divine Voice"), called thnnimini, could be heard whether by Jew, Pagan, or Christian, were there not a fit tabernacle for it. The " tabernacle " was simply the archaic telephone of those days of Magic when Occult powers were acquired by Initiation, just as they are now. The nineteenth ceuturj' * The vphori wtu n linen garraenl tmni bjr tbv ?i<Kh priMi, but as thr thummiin was attached to H. Uic eulin pjtaplictitalut of divinatiou w&s on«ii compriKd in that siagle word. c}>ho4. ti<« Z, Sim., nviii. ft, ond xxi. 7, S. 4 f^t^anniH and Ju4ahm.vi. Kit' «38 THS SECRET DOCTRINS. has replaced with an electric telephone the " tabernacle *' of specified metals, wood, and special arrange ments, and has natural mediums instead of high, priests and hierophants. Why should people wonder, then, that instead of reaching Planetary Spirits and Gods, believers should now communicate vtiih no greater beings than elementals and animated sheila — the demons of Porphyry ? Who these were, he tells uf candidly in his \\'ork On the Good and Bad Demons : They whose ambition is to be taken for God£, aud whose leader demands to be recogniited as the Supreme God, Most decidedly — aud it is not the Theosophists who will ever deny the fact — there are good as well as bad spirits, beneficent and malevolent " Gods " in all ages. The whole trouble was. and slill is, to know which is which. And this, we maintain, the Christian Church knows no more than her profane flock. If anything proves this, it is, most decidedly, the numberless theological blunders made in this direction. It is idle to call the Gods of the heathen "devils," and then to copy their symbols in such a servile manner, enforcing the distinction between the good and the bad with no weightier proof than that they are respectively Christian and Pagan. The planets— the elements of the Zodiac — have not figured only at Heliopolis as the twelve stones called the " mysteries of the elements" (elementonim arcana). Ou the authority of many an orthodox Christian writer they were found also in Solomon's temple, and may be seen to this day in several old Italian churches, and eveu in Notre Dame of Paris. One would really say that the warning in Clement's SiromaUis has been giveu in vain, though he is supposed to quote words pronounced by St. Peter. He says : Do not adore God as the Jews ilo, who think they are the only ODes to know Deity and fail to perceive that, iastea<I of God, they are worehippiiig angels, the lunar months, and the moon.* Who after reading the above can fail to feel surprise that, notwith- standing such understanding of the Jewisli mistake, the Christians are still worshipping the Jewish Jehovah, the Spirit who spoke through his teraphim t That this is so, and that Jehovah was simply the " tutelary genius," or spirit, of the people of Israel — only one of the pneumata t6n stoicheiOn (or "great spirits of the elements"), not even a high "Planetar>'" — is demonstrated on the authority of St. Paul and of IDOL OP TBE MOON. 239 I Clemens Alexandrinus, if the words they use have any meaning. With the latter, the word <rroixfM signi6es not only elements, but also Generative cosmoloj^cal principles, and notahly the signs [or constellations] of Uie Zodiac, of the raunlfas, days, tlie sod and tbe moon.* The expression is used by Aristotle in the same sense. He says, Tutv Aarpw oTocxcw.t while Diogenes Laertius calls AiStKo <rroix«ia, the twelve signs of the Zo<iiac.J Now having the positive evidence of Ammianus Marcellinus to the cfifect that Aucient divination was always accomplished with the help of the spirits of the elements, or the same uria/taTa iw <rrMx«wi', aud seeing in the Bible numerous passages that (a) the Israelites, including Saul and David, resorted to the .same divination, and used the same means ; and (3) that it was their "Lord" — namely, Jehovah — who answered them, what else can we believe Jehovah to be than a *' spihtus elementorum " ? Hence one sees no great difference between the " idol of the moon " — the Chaldaran teraphim through which spoke Saturn — and the idol of urim and thummim, the organ of Jehovah. Occult rites, scientific at the beginning — and fonning the most solemn and sacred of sciences — have fallen through the degeneration of mankind into Sorcery, now called "superstition." As Diogenes explains in his History : Tbe Ealdhi, having made long observMtioas ou the planets and knowing better than anyone else the meaning of their motions and their influences, predict to people their futurity. They regard their doctrine of the Jivf great orbs— which they call interpreters, and we. planets — as the most important. And though they allege that it is the sun llint furnishes Ihciii with most of the predictions for great forth- comiog eveuts. yet they worship more particularly Saturn. Snch predictions made to a number of kiagt, especially to Alexunder, Antigonus, Seleucus, Kicanor, etc., . . have been so niarvclloiuly realised thM people M'cre stnicic with admira- tion, f It follows from the above that the declaration made by Qu-tamy, the Chaldxan Adept — to the effect that all that he means to impart in his work to the profane bad been told by Saturn to the moon, by the latter to her idol, and by that idol, or teraphim, to himself, the scribe — no more implied idolatry than did the practice of the same method by King * JJittempu ta iMt G^mtitgt, p. 146. t ZIW Gmer., L II. iv. I <!€« Ctumoj, by Mttimge. I., «4., | 101. t O^. (it.. L U. 24D THB SBCRBT D9CTKINS. David. One fails to perceive in it, therefore, either an apocrypha or a " fairy-tale." The above-named Chaldaean Initiate lived at a period far anterior to that ascribed to Moses, in whose day the Sacred Science of the sanctuary was still in a flourishing condition. It began to decline only when such scoffers as Lucian had been admitted, and the pearls of the Occult Science had been too often thrown to the htaigiy dogs of criticism and ignorance. SECTION XXYII. Egyptian Magic. Psw of our students of Occultism have had the opportunity of examining Egyptian papyri — those living, or rather re-arisen witnesses that Magic, good and bad, was practised many thousands of years back into the night of lime. The use of the papyrus prevailed op to the eighth century of our era, when it was given up, and its fabrication fell into disuse. The most curious of the exhumed docu- ments were immediately purchased and taken away from the countr>'. Yet there are a number of beautifully- preserved papyri at Bulak. Cairo, though the greater number have never been yet properly read.* Others— thost; thai have been carried away and may be found in the museums and public libraries of Europe— have fared no better. In the day^ of the Vicomte de Rouge, some twenty-five years ago. only a few of them " were two-thirds deciphered ; " and among those some most interesting legends, inserted parenthetically and &jr purposes of explaining royal expenses, are in the Register of the Sacred Accounts. This may be verified in the so-called '* Harris" and Anastasi collections, and in some papyri recently exhumed : one of these gives an account of a whole series of magic feats performed before the Pharaohs Ramses II. and III. A curious document, the first-mentioned, truly. It is a papyrus of the fifteenth century B.C.. written during the reign of Ramses V., the last king of the eighteenth dynasty, and is the work of the scribe Thoulmes, who notes down some of the events with * ■■ The chartkotn^ cmployctl on IIiom; parctaoieDU," write* De Mirvllle, " ore >onieUiiic« liicrugly- phies, placF«l perpendicularly, a kind of \lntary tnchysniphy (abri<lKnl ch«racten>, wlirrv the Imaffif lnofleiiTciltiicnl toa«iiiipIefttr(dw;atoUierUiaespUccdin honxoitUl line«; tbeiblbc Jiitrfllic or »acml writinff. voing from tight to left w Id dll Semitic Ungwagr^ ; lantly. the chornctcTs of th* country, lucd for cifficiiil documrata, nuMtly cootracla. etc., but nhicli aiiicr tile Ptoteoilo tiax been also adopted foe the mouuraenta." v. 81, tli. A copy of the Uarris papynu. traoaUtcd by Chi>(w»~ n^jtrtii wtagi^f-may be studied at (he British Museum. fl4a THE SECRET DOCTRINE. regard to defaulters occurring on the twelfth and thirteenth days of the month of Paophs. The document shows that in those days of "miracles'* in Eg>*pt the taxpayers were not found among the living alone, but every runmmy was included. All and everything was taxed ; and the Khou of the mummy, iu default, was punished "by thepriest- exorciser, who deprived it of the liberty of action." Now what was the Khou ? Simply the astral body, or the aerial simulacrum of the corpse or the mummy — that which in China is called the Hauen, and in India the Bhflt. Ujion reading this papyrus to-day, an Orientalist is pretty sure to fling it aside in disgust, attributing the whole affair to the crass super- stition of the ancients. Truly phenomenal and inexplicable must hare been the dullness and credulity of that otherwise highly philosophical and civilized nation if it could carry on for so many consecutive ages, for thousands of years, such a system of mutual deception ! A system whereby the people were deceived by the priests, the priests by their King-HierophanLs, and the latter themselves were cheated by the ghosts, which were, in their turn, but "the fruits of hallucination." The whole of antiquity, from Menes to Cleopatra, from Manu to Vikraraaditya, from Orpheus down to the last Roman augur, were hysterical, we are told. This must have been so. if the whole were not a system of fraud. Life and death were guided by, and were under the sway of, sacred "conjuring." For there is hardly a papyrus, though it be a simple document of purchase and sale, a deed belonging to daily transactions of the most ordinary kind, that has not Magic, wiiitc or black, mixed up in it. It looks as though the sacred scribes of the Nile had purposely, and in a prophetic spirit of race-hatred, carried out the (to them) most unprofitable task of deceiving and puzzling the generations of a future white raceof tinbelievers yet unborn ! Anyhow, the papyri are full of Magic, as are likewise the stelie. We learn, moreover, that the papyrus was not merely a smooth -surfaced parch- ment, a fabric made of Lif^eotjs matter from a shmb, tlie peUicles of which superposed one over the other rormeJ a kind of writing-paper; but that the shrub itself, the implements and tools for fabricating the parchment, etc., were all previously subjected to a process of magical preparation — according to the ordinance of the Gods, who had taught that art. as they had all others, to their Priest- Hierophants. There are, however, some modem Orientalists who seem to have an XVXDBKCE OP PAPYRI. 243 iokling of the true nature of such things, and especially of the analogy and the relations that exist between the Magic of old and our modern- day phcaonicna. Chabas is one of these, for he indulges, in his trans- lation of the " Harris " papyrus, in the following reflections : f Without havinj; recourse Ld the imposing cerciaouies of the wand of nennes, or to the obscure formula of au unfathomable mysticism, a nie«merii!«r in our own day will, by means of a few passes, disturb the organic faculties of a subject, incul- cate the knowledge of foreign lan^ages, transport him to a far-distant country, or into secret places, make him gticss the thoughts of those aTwent, read in closed letters, etc . . . The sntre of the modem sybi! is a modestdookiiij; room, the tripod has made room for a small round table, a hat, a plalc. a piece of furni- ture of th« mofit vulgar kind; only the latter is even superior to the oracle of anti- quity [how docs M. Chabas know ^], iniifiinuch ax the latter only «pokc.* while the oracle of our day writes its answers. At the command of the medium the spiriu of the dead descend to make tlie runiiture creak, and the authors of bygone ceutnries deliver to us works writteu by thcni beyond the grave. Human credulity has no oarrower limits to-day than it had at the dawn of historical times. . . . Aa teratology is an essential part of general physiology now, so the piricnded Occult Sciences occupy in the annals of humanity a place which is not without its impor- tance, and deserve for more than one reason the attention of the philosopher and the bistorian.t Selecting the two ChampoUions, Leuonuand, Bunsen, Vicomte de Rouge, and several other Egyptologists to serve as our witnesses, let us see what they say of Egyptian Magic and Sorcery. They may get out of the difficulty by accounting for each " superstitious belief" and practice by attributing them to a chronic psychological aad physio- log^ical derangement, and to collective hysteria, if they like ; slill facts are there, staring u.s in the face, from the hundreds of these myAterions papyri, exhumed after a rest of four, five, and more thousands of years, with their magical containments and evidence of antediluvian Magic. A small library, fuund at Thebes, has furnished fragments of every kind of ancient literature, many of which are dated, and several of which have thus been assigned to the accepted age of Moses. Books or manuscripts on ethics, history, religion and medicine, calendars and * Awl what of the " Mcne. mriic. tck«], uph^rslii," the words tbnt " ih« fiDgtn of a ntui's tuad," «hOK body add ortn mniinrd tnvisiWr. wrote on the wnlb of DcUhaxcau'a paIac« ■ \DaHul,^.\ Wtaat of Ihr writiii]L;n ol SJmuii tlir Moi^icUn, ami ihe magic chvracfm on Ihr wmlla and fit the ulr of tt»c crypta ol* Initio tiou. without menliotunc the taMr* v>f itone ou MhUJi the fi over of Uod wrote tht nMBnuuwtmicntd ? Bclwmm lb« writing of unr God «nd othrr Ciyli thr diflrTrticc, If nny, lie* only in tbelf Rspectiw nntareii : aiwlir ttic lre«iit to be known by iU fruits, thvu prrTcrracv would have to be irlvrn alwnyninihc- Pafcnn CkkU. It it itit-ftnniCTrliil "To be or not lobe." Kitbcr all of Ibcm are— w At auy intr, may l>e— lni«, or all arc surely pious frauds and Ibr tvimW of credulity. * J^fyrms Magtfie, p. 186. 244 THE SBCRCT DOCTRr^TE. registers, poems and tiovels — e\*eTything — may be had in that precioa^ collection ; and old legends — traditions of long forgotten ages (please toreiuark. this: legends recorded during the Mosaic period) — are already referred to therein as belonging to an immense antiquity, lo the period of the dynasties of Gods and Giants. Their chief contents, how- ever, are formula of exorcisms against black Magic, and funeral rituals: true breviaries, or the vaiUmecum of every pilgrim-traveller in elemitj*. These funeral texts are generally written in hieratic charac- ters. At the head of the papyrus is invariably placed a series of scenes, showing the defunct appearing before a host of Deities succes- sively, who hrive lo examine him. Then comes the judgment of the Soul, while the third act begins with the launching of that Soul into the divine light. Such papyri are often fortj' feet long.* The following is extracted from general descriptions. It will show how the modems understand and interpret Egyptian (and other) Symbology. The papjTus of the priest Nevo-loo (or Nevolen). at the Louvre, may be selected for one case. First of all there is the bark carrying the coffin, a black chest containing the defunct's mummy. His mother, Ammenbem-Heb, and his sister, Hoolssanoob, are near; at the head and feet of the corpse stand Nephtys and Isis clothed fn red, and near them a priest of Osiris clad in his panther's sktn, his censer in his right band, and four assistants carrying the mumm>''s intestines. The coffin is received by the God Anubis (of the jackal's head), from the hands of female weepers. Then the Soul rises from its mummy and the Khoo (astral body) of the deftiiict. The former begins its worship of the four genii of the East, of the sacred birds, and of Ammon as a ram. Brought into the *' Palace of Truth," tlie defunct is before his judges. While the Soul, a scarabseus, stands iu the presence of Osiris, his astral Khou is at the door. Much laughter is provoked in the West by the invocations to various Deities, presiding over each of the limbs of the mummy, and of the living liuiuan body. Only judge : iu the papyrus of the mummy Petamenoph " the anatomy becomes theographical." " astrology is applied to physiology," or rather " to the anatomy of the buman body, the heart and the soul." The defunct's " hair belongs tu the Nile, his eyes to Venus (Isis), his ears to Macedo, the guardian of the tropics; bis nose to Anubis, his left temple to the Spirit dwelling SVMBOLS AND THBtR KBADING. a+S I • I in the sun. . . . What a series of intolerable absurdities and ignoble prayers ... to Osiris, imploring liim lo give the defunct in the other world, geese, eggs, pork, etc." • It might have been pmdcut, perhaps, lo have waited to ascertain whether all these terras oi" " geese, eggs, and pork " had not some other Occnlt meaning. The Indian Yogi who, in an exoteric work, is invited to drink a certain intoxicating liquor till he loses his senses, was also regarded as a drunkard rcpreseutiug his sect and class, until it was found that the Esoteric sense of that *' spirit " was quite different : that it meant divine light, and stood for the ambrosia of Secret Wisdom. The symbols of the dove and the lamb which abound now in Eastern and Western Christian Churches may also be exhumed long ages hence, and speculated upon as objects of present-day worship. And then some " Occidentalist,' in the forthcoming ages of high Asiatic civilization and learning, may write karmically upon the same as follows: "The ignorant and superstitious Gnostics and Agnostics of the sects of 'Pope' and 'Calvin' (the two monster Gods of the Dynamite-Christian period) adored a pigeon and a sheep! " There will be portable hand- fetishes in all and every age for the satisfaction and reverence of the rabble, and the Gods of one race will always be degraded into devils by the next one. The cycles revolve within the depths of I«ethe, and Karma shall reach Europe as it has Asia and her religions. Nevertheless, Thin gT-aod and <ligni6ed tan^aj^e [in the Book of the Dead], tli«su pictured full of majesty. thi» orthodoxy of tbc whole evidently provinj; a very precise doctrine concerning the immortality of tlie soal hdH its personal survival, , as shown by De Rouge and the Abbe Van Urival, have charmed some Orientalists. The psychostasy (or judgment of the Soul) is certainly a whole poem to him who can read it correctly and interpret the images therein. In that picture we see Osiris, the horned, with his sceptre hooked at the end — the original of the pastoral bishop's crook or crosier — the Soul hovering above, encouraged by Tmei, daughter of the Sun of Righteousness and Goddess of Mercy and Justice ; Horns and Anubis, weighing the deeds of the soul. One of these papj'ri shows the Soul found guilt>' of gluttony sentenced lo be re-bom on earth as a hog ; forthwith comes the learned conclusion of an Orientalist, * De ]iiTviU« (tTMD whom aiycfa of Uie pnoedinir ii lAltcDl, x. tt. 85. 346 THB SECRET DOCTRINE. •"This is an indisputable proof of belief in melttnpsychosts^ of trans- migration into anima/s." etc. Perchance the Occult law of Karma might explain the sentence otherwise. It may, for all our Orientalists know, refer to the physio- logical vice in store for the Soul when re-incarnated — a vice that will lead that personality into a thousand and one scrapes and mis- adventures. Torturesto begin with, tbea nietcmps>x:hosta </MWn^5,ooo>Amasahawlc, anaugtl, a lotus-flower, a heron, a stork, a swallow, .1 serpeut, aiirl a crocodile: one sees thai the consolation of such a, profcresa was far from being satisfactory, argues De Mtrville, in his work on the Satanic character of the Gods of Egypt.* Again, a simple suggestion may throw on this a great light. Are the Orientalist* quite sure they have read correctly the " metempsychosis during 3,000 years" ? Thu Occult Doctrine teaches that Karma waits at the threshold of Devachan (the Amenti of the EgM>tians) for 3.000 years; that then the eternal ^go is reincar- nated df now, to be punished in its new temporary personality for sins committed in the preceding birth, and the sufTeriag for which, in one shape or another, will atone for past misdeeds. And the hawk, the lotus-flower, the heron, serpent, or bird — every object in Nature, in short — had its symbolical and manifold meaning in ancient religious emblems. The man who all his life acted hypocritically and passed for a good man, but had been in sober reality watching like a bird of prey his chance to pounce upon his fellow-creatures, and had deprived thera of their property, will be sentenced by Karma to bear the punishment for hypocrisy and covetousness in a future life. What will it be ? Since even-- human unit has ultimately to progress in its evolution, and since that " man " will be reborn at some future time as a good, sincere, well-meauiug man. his sentence to be re-incarnated as a hawk may simply mean that he will then be regarded metaphorically as such. That, notwithstanding his real, good, intrinsic qualities, he will, perhaps during a long life, be unjustly and falsely charged with and suspected of greed and hypocrisy and of secret exactions, all of which will make him suffer more than he can bear. The law of retri- bution can never err, and yet bow many such innocent victims of false appearance and human malice do we not meet in this world of in- cessaut illusion, of mistake and deliberate wickedness. We see them See Oe Ulrvilte. r. S4. 85. KBBIRTIl AND TRANSKIGRATION. 247 every day. and they may be fouad within the personal experience of each of us. What Orientalist can say with any degree of assurance that he has understood the religion.s of old ? The metaphorical lan- guage of the priests has never been more than superficially revealed, and the hieroglyphics have been very poorly mastered to this day.* What says his Unveiled on this question of Egyptian rebirth and transmigration, and does it clash with anything that we say now? It will lie obserretl tliat this philoAophy of cycles, whicli was allegorized by tlie ERyptioLO Hierophants in Ibe "cycle of necessity," cxplaias at the same time the allegory of the "Fall of Man." According to the Arabian descriptions, each of the ■cveu cliamljcrs of llii: pyramids — those granilL-sl of all cosmic syrabolB — wa« known by the name of a planet The peculiar architecture of the pyramids shows in itself the drift of the metaphj'sicftt thoitghl of iheir builders. The apex is lo5t in the clear blue sky of the laud of the Pharaohs, and typifies the primordial point lost in the unwren Universe from whence started the first race of the spiritual prototypes of mmi. Each siummy from the moment that it was embalmed lost its physical individuality in one sense: it symbolised the liuuiaii race. Placetl in $uch a way as was tiest calcul[itc<l to aid the exit of tlie " Soul." the latter had to pass through the seven planetary chambers licfore it made its exit Ihrougli the sym- bolical apex. Hacb chamlx*r typified, at the same time, one of the seven spheres [of our Chain] and one of the seven hiRlier types of physico-spi ritual humanity alleged to be above our own. Hvery 3rx>o years the soul. rcprescntati\*c of its race, had to return to its primal point of departure liefore tt underwent another evolutioa Into a more pcrlectcd spiritual and physicaj transformation. Wc must go deep indeed into the abstruse metaphysics of Oriental mysticism before we can realise fnlly the infinitude of the subjects that were embraced at one sweep by the majestic thought of its expoiients.+ This is all Magic when ouce the details arc given ; and it relates at the same time to the evolution of our seven Root-Races, each with the characteristics of its special guardian or "God," and his Planet. The astral body of each Initiate, after death, had to reenact in its funeral mystery the drama of the birth and death of each Race — the past and the future — and pass throtigh the seven "planetary chambers," which, as said above, typified also the seven spheres of our Chain, The mystic doctrine of Kastem Occultism teaches that '* The Spiritual Ego \not the astral Khou\ has to revisit, before it in- carnates into a new Itody, the scenes it left ai its last disincamatian. 2t * One sees tbuidiSKuItr arise «ren witbapcrfecUy known language Uke Sanskrit, the iticjinliig of wWrh t* far easier to rompif twnd than the hieratic writings of Hgypt. Crcryone known how bope- kMly the KMiBkritinln ate oftrn puxiilr4 ovrr the rval meatilEig ami how \\\^y fail in rendrHng the awaainr convctly in their miKCtlve trauUUoot. In which ouc OricpUIiat contruliclii the oUier. 4 Q^.tii..\.m. 24S THE SKCRBT DOCTRINE. has to see for itseif and take cognizanee 0/ all ike effects prvduad fy the causes [thf Niddnas] generated by its ac/iotts in a previous ti/e ; thal^ seeing, it should rerognisc the Justice of the decree, and help the law of Retri- bution {Karma] instead of impeding it."* The translations by Vicomle de Rouge of several Egyptian papyri, imperfect as they may be, give us one advantage : they show undeni- ably the presence in them of white, divine Magic, as well as of Sorcery, and the practice of both throughout all the dynasties. The Book of the Deady far older than Genesis^ or any other book of the Old Testament, shows it in every line. It is fall of incessant prayers and exorcisms against the Black Art. Therein Osiris is the conqueror of the "aerial demons." The worshipper implores his help against Matat, "from whose eye proceeds the invisible arrow." This "invisible arrow" that proceeds from the eye of the Sorcerer (whether living or dead) and that "circulates throughout the world," is the evil eye- cosmic in its origin, terrestrial in its effects on the microcosmical plane. It is not the Latin Christians whom it behoves to view this as a super- stition. Their Church indulges in the same belief, and has even a prayer against the "arrow circulating in darkness." The most interesting of all those documents, however, is the "Harris" papyrus, called in France '*le papyrus magiquc de Chabas," as it was 6rst translated by the latter. It is a manuscript written in hieratic characters, translated, commented upon, and published in i860 by M. Chabas, but purchased at Thebes iu 1855 by Mr. Harris. Its age is given at between twenty-eight and thirty centuries. We quote a few extracts from these translations: CelcDdar of lucky and unlucky ilnys : . . , He who makes a hull work on the 20th of the month of Phamiuths will surely <lie ; he who on the 24tb day of the tame month pronounces the name of Selh aloud will see trouble irigninR in hu house from that day ; ... he who on the jlh day of Patchous leaves his house fftlls sick and dies. Exclaims the translator, whose cultured instincts are revolted : If one had not these words under our eyes, one could never believe insach ser lud« at Ibc epoch of the Ramcssides.f * Book n.. CoatmcBlary. ♦ Bnnsm Hnd ChHinpalUan m* dectxTr, and Dr. Curprmrr says thai Ihc Book «/lAf DtAi, ecuIplDrrd 00 the oldm nioi]uii)«DtJ>, with " lb« v«ry phrase* wc Bnd in Iht ?frmr Tetlamrnt id coniir^Tioii with the Day of Jiidgnieiit . . wn« ensmvcd protMbty 3.000 yean before tti« timr of Christ." iScc t Dc Mirvflle. v U. Jtut vatSx a niradiir and horcacope Interdictiooa exist to India in our day, m ftcll a> in China and oil thr Baddhut co>iutrir«. THE £GYI>TIAN KHOUS. 249 I We belong to the nineteenth century of the Christian era, and are therefore at the height of civilization, and under the benign sway and enlightening influence of the Christian Chnrch, instead of being subject to the Pagan Gods of old. Nevertheless we personally know dozens, and have heard of hundreds, of educated, highly-intellecttial persons who would as soon think of commilling suicide as of starting on any business on a Friday, of dining at a table where thirteen sit down, or of beginning a long journey on a Monday. Napoleon the Great became pale when he saw three candles lit on a table. Moreover, we may gladly concur with De Mirville in this, at any rate, that such "superstitions" are "the outcome of observation and experience." If the former had never agreed with facts, the authority of the Ca/cmfar, he thinks, would not have lasted for a week. But to resume: Genftklwral infiueatcfs .■ The eliild born on Ihe 5th dny of Fnoplii wit! l^e killc*l by a tiall ; on the 37lh by a MrpenL Born on the 4tli of the monlh of Athyr, be will succamb to blows. This is a question of horoscopic predictions; judiciary astrology is firmly believed in in oar own age, and has been proven to be scientifi- cally possible by Kepler. Of the Khous two kinds were distinguished : first, the justified Khous, i.e., those who had been absolved from sin by Osiris when they were brought before bis tribunal ; these lived a second life. Secondly, there were the guilty Khous, "the Khous dead a second time;" these were the damned. Second death did not annihilate them, but they were doomed to wander about aud to torture people. Their existeuce had phases analogous to those of the living man, a bond so intimate between the dead and the living that one sees how the observation of religious funeral rites and exorcisms and prayers (or rather magic incantations) should have become accessary * Says one prayer: Do not permit that the venom sJiould master bis limbs [of tlic ilcfunct}, . . . that he shoulU be peiictr&ted by any male detnJ, pr any female dead ; or that ihe shadow ofany spirit should haunt him (or her).t M. Chabas adds : These Khous were beings of Ihat kind to which biuuan beings beking after their <ieiUii : they were exorcised in the name of the god Cbous. . . . The Manes then could enter the bodies of the living, haunt and obse^is Uieni. Formulae and talismans, anil especially statues or d^Vmryfjforrj, were ui^ed ugainttt such /or?ntdat>U invasions. J . . . They were combated by the help of the divine power, the god • SmOcMlrviDv. lil-dg. •* /b^. Afgg., p. ^b^. i Wd., p. i6«. 2SO TUa SECRBT DOCTRINE. Chons being Tntued for stich deliveraoois. The Khou^ in obeying the onlcrs of tbe god, none tbc less preserved the precious Tacutty inherent In him of accommodiUag himseirin any other bmly nt will. The most frequent formula of exorcism is as follows. It is very suggestive : Men. gods, elect, dead spirits, amous, negroes, meoti-u, do not IooIe at this sott] to show cruelty toward it. This is addressed to all who were acquainted tfi/A Magic. "Amulets and mystic names." This chapter is called "ver>* mys* terious," and contains invocatious to Pcnhakahakaherher and Uranao- karsankrobite, and other such easy names. Says Cbabas: We have proofs that mystic names simitar to tliesc were in common use dniing the stay of the Israelites in Kgypt. And we may add that, whether got from the Eg>*ptiau5 or the Hebrews, tht-se are sorcery names. The student can consult the works of Eliphas Levi, such as hi>i Grimoire des Sorciers. In these exorcisms Osiris is called Mamuram-Kahab, and is implored to prevent the twice-dead Khou from attacking the justified Khou and his next of kin, since the accursed (astral spook) Can take any form he likes and penetrate at will into any locality or body. In studying Eg>'ptian papyri, one begins to find that the subjects of the Pharaohs were not very much inclined to the Spiritism or Sptrittial- ism of their day. They dreaded the "blessed spirit" of the dead more than a Roman Catholic dreads the devill But how uncalled-for and unjust is the charge against the Gods of Egypt that they are these "devils," and against the priests of exercis- ing their magic powers with the help of "the falleu angels," maybe seen in more than one papyrus. For one often finds in them records of Sorcerers sentenced to the death penalty, as though they had been living under the protection of the holy Christian Inquisition. Here is one case during the reigu of Ramses III, quoted by De Mirville from Chabas. The first pege tic^ns with these words: "From the place where I am to the people of my conntrj-." There is reason to snppose, as one will sec, that the person who vrrolc this, in the first personal pronoun, is a magistrate mating a report, and attesting it iNrfore men, after an accustomed formnla, for here is the main part of this accusation ■ "This Hai. a bad man. waa an overseer [or perhapa keeper] of sheep : he said : ' Can I have ft book that will give me great power ? ' . , . And a book was given him with the foraiulx* of Ramses* Meri -Amen, the great God. his OBSESSION IN BGYPT. 251 I I loynl master ; and he succeeded in getting a i)i\iue power enabliug bim to Tascinate men. He also succeeded in building a pl%c«: and ia finding a very deep plact, and produced men of Menh [uia^cal homuncnU ?] and . . . lo%*e-wntiQ>{s . . stealing them from the Klieii [the occult library of the palace] by the hand of the stonemason Alirma, ... by forcing one of the Raperviaors to go aside, and acting magically oa the others. Then he sought to rea«l futurity by them and suc- ceeded. All the horrors and nboiiiinatiouR he had conceived in his heart, he did them really, he practised thcni all. and other great crimes as well, such as the horror [?] of all the Rods and Goddesses. Utcwise let the prescriptions grfai [sa/eref] unto death be done unto him, such as Uie divine words onler to l>e done to him.** The accusation does not stop there, it specifies the crimes. The first hne speaks of a hand paralysed by means of the men of Menh, to whom it is wraply said. " f,ft saeh an effect t>£ prodiuid,'^ and it is produce*!. Then come the great abotninatiotts, such as deserve death. . . . The judges who had examined him (the culprit) reported saying, " Let him die according to tlie order of Pharaoh, and according to what is written in the lines of the divine Unguage." M. Chabas remarks: Docnments of this kind abound, but the task, of analysing them all cannot be attempted with the limited means we possess.* Then there is an inscription taken in the temple of KhotLs, the God who had power over the elcuienlaries, at Thebes. It was presented by M. Prisse d'Avenne to tlie Imperial — now National — Library of Paris, and was translated first by Mr. S. Birch. There is in it a whole romance of Magic. It dates from the day of Ramses XII. t of the twentieth dynasty; it is from the rendering of M. de Roug^ as quoted by De Mir\-ille, that we now translate it. This monument tells us that one of the Ramses of the twentieth dynasty, while ooUecting at Naharain the tributes paid to Rgypt by the Asiatic nations, fell in love with a daughter of the chii;f of Bakhtcn, one of his tributaries, married her and, bringing her to Eg>-pt with him, raised her to the dignity of fj^ueeti, under the royal name ol Rnnefrou. Soon afterwards the chief of Bakbten dispatched a messenger to Ramses, praying the ^issiatance of Egyptian science for Bent-Rosh. a young sister of the queen, attacked with illness in all her Huibs, The me.'isengcr asked expressly that a "wise>uian" [an Initiate — Rch-Het] should be sent. The king gftve orders that nil the hietogramniAtist« of the palace and the guardians of the secret books of the Khen should Ije sent for, and choosinR; from among them the royal scribe Thoth-em-Hehi, an intetlig«nt cUDt well V'ersed ill writing, charged him to examine the sickness. * MiUiioaid«« in hi* TYeatisf on /iMatrt »ays. •pcAkluff of the Jewtah tcraphim: "Tbt? talked with men." To Ihin day Chri«tiati aomren la Italy , ami negro Voodoo* ot Kcw Orleans rnlwicnte imull wax Sguns in the likencnor Uiclr x-ictinu. and tiautipicrcc them will) n«eillet, Ute wouhJ. aa 011 tlic Icnptiin or Menh, beinj: TvpercuiuKd on the living, onen klUiB( thcta. Myitchoua deathn are »till niauy, Kiid nnt all arc liacnt to the luilty haad. t The ""'"—^ uf LepsiuB, wlio rcdgtied aome 1300 yean before our era 253 THE SECRKT nOCTRlNK. ArrivM a1 Balchten, Ttaoth*em-H«bi foand that fient-Rosb wiu possetted KhoQ (Em-sch-'crn kcr Ii*oul, hul dectarnl himseJf loo wi>ak to enjia;^ in a with liini.* Eleven >-cars elapsed, ami the young girl's stnle did not unprovc. The chief of Bakhten again sent his messenf^er, and on hii« fonual demand Khoit»-pcin>SekIcmil- Z.ini, one of the divine forms of Cbons— God the Son in the Theban Trinity— «ra« dispntcbcd to Bakhten. . . ■ The Crotl [incarnate] having saluted [baa) tlie patient, she felt bmneJiatciy relieved, and the Khou who was in her tnAuifested forthwith his intention of obeviog the onters of the God. "O great God, who forccst the phantom to vanish." said tlie Khou. " I am til y slnve and I will return whence T came ! "+ Evidently Khous-peiri-Seklerem-Zam was a real Hieropliant of the class named the "Sons of God,*' since he is said to be one of the forms of the God Khons; which means either that he was considered as an iucarnation of that God — an AvatSra — or that he was a full Initiate. The same text shows that the temple to which he belonged was one of those to which a School of Magic was attached. There was a Kben in it, or that portion of the temple which was inaccessible to all but the highest priest, the Ubrar>' or depository of secret works, to the study and care of which special priests were appointed (those whom all the Pharaohs consulted in cases of great importance), and wherein they communicated with the God.s and obtained advice from them. Does not Lucian tell his readers in his description of the temple of Hiera- polis, of "Gods who manifest their presence independently i"'J And further on that he once travelled with a priest from Memphis, who told him he had passed twenty-three years in the subterranean cr>'pts of his temple, receiving instructions on Magic from the Goddess Isis her- self. Again we read that it was by Mercury himself that the great Sesoslris (Ramses II.) was instructed in the Sacred Sciences. On which Jablonsky remarks that we have here the reason why Amuti (Ammon) — whence he thinks our "Amen" is derived — was a real evocation to the light.§ In the Papyrus Anastasi, which teems with various formulae for the " One nay judcc bov trustworthy are the tnuiBlaUom of nch BsyptisD docutaenu when Uc Miit«iic« is rendered iu tbrec dilFcrcnt wny» by Ibm Egjrptolagudii. ttougt^ vnj-* : " H« found her hi a st«1« lo foil um^r the poutr o/ tpi^ili." or. " wiUi bn Ibnlw quite ntilT," {'i another vrraiou ^ md Cbabott Iriuuilutm; " And Uir &-riIi« fuuiii) the Khiiu tuu wickrd." Bctwecil bcf bcitiy in pOMCMJon oJ" an evil Khou and " wiUi bcr litabt quite •tiff." tlietc u, a difltrencr. t Se Uirvdlc, v. S47, m*. I Sonie Imnalalon would have t.uciBn apeak of the inhabJlanta of the city, but they fail BO show that this vln* U itialntatiiAbLe. ) De Mirrille. r. »jfi, 937. TWO RITUALS OF UAGIC. 353 I I evocation of Gods, and with exorcisms against Kiious and the elemea- tary demons, the se\-enth paragraph shows plainly the difference made between the real Gods, the Planetary Angels, and those shells of mortals whicli are left behind in K3ma-1oka, as though to tempt man- kind and to puzzle it the more hopelessly in Its vaiu search after the truth, outside the Occult Sciences aud the veil of Initiation. This seventh verae sa3's with regard to such divine evocations or theomantic consultations: One must invoke tbat diWn? and grcnt name * only in cases of absolute aeccsstty, and when one Teels ahsollttelj pure aii<l irreproAcliable. Not SO in the formula of black Magic. Reuvens, speakiug of the two rituals of Magic of the Anastasi collection, remarks that they Undeniably forui tlie iiiosl instructive coinnieutAry upoit the Egyptian tnysUries attributed to Jamblichua, and the best pendant to that classical work, for under* standing the thauDiaturgy of tlie philoitophical sects, thautnaturg> buAcd on ancient Egyptian religion. Accor<)ing to Jamblicbus, thauntatunD' was exercised by tbe niinifttiy of wcondary genii.t Reuvens closes with a remark which is very suggestive and is very important to the Occultists who defend the antiquity and genuineness of their documents, for he says: All that he [Jamblichiu] givca out as theology we find as history- in oar papyri. But then how deny the authenticity*, the credibilltj'. and, beyond all, the trustworthiness of those classical writers, who all wrote about Magic and its Mysteries in a most worshipful spirit of admiration and reverence? Listen to Piudarus, who exclaims: Happy be who descends into the grave tbua initiated, for be knows the end of his life and the Icingdomt given by Jupiter.^ • How can Ae Mirrilte ttx ftaun in the BKyi>>)>» Ood of Uw ffmtt divine Nfttnc, wlm he hiranelf nctinits thttt nothing wns greater Ihiin the name o( th« araclc of Dodono, wi it wtut lliat oT Ihr Cnd of the Jews, ISO. or Jchovali ' That oracle 11114 been brought \>y tlie rclasciniu to Dodonn more thiui foHrterri centurl** b-c, mirt left with the fofrrfltlicni of the Hellencn, nnri its hiilory i<i well. known sad niiy be read In Herodottu. Jupiter, wlio lo^-^ tiK fair nyniph of the ocoui. Oadaus. bail ordcrcil {^tafi^u? \o carry his cult 1.0 Tlicssaty. The name o( \\k God of that oracle at the terapic of Dodona wna Zcu^rclasgic-os. the Zeuiipatci lUod tlic Patlier). or aslV; Mirvkllc explains : " U wnAthe uttnt par ejeftUmtf. the name titnt the Jews held as the ineffiiSte, the iitipronouiiceahte Naine — in AatX.Jaok-fattr, i.e., ' he who wim, who is, mill whti will be," olherwlw: thrHteraal." Ami the author adsuU tbat Maury i« right " in di«co\-cting iu the nainc of the Vaidic liidra the ttitilicol Jrhuvah." am! doe» not even attempt to il^iy the etyinnlojiicnl ronnectton between the two names—'' the g'tal and the loil uaine with tlie kuo and tbe tli under- bo lt«. " Strang cunfeatrions, and atlU olranger eoatndtctloni. r Kcnrau' Utitr tc UtfWMt m tkt 7$th nnmhtr 0/ Iht fyfijrri Anaitati." See Dc BUrvUle. v. ■$■■ J The KlcuMiiiAn Piclda. I Fi-agmuMli, ix. 254 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. Or to Cicero : only teaches us to Initiation hope.* Plato, Pansanias, Strabo, Diodorus and dozens of others bring their evidence as to the great boon of Initiation ; all the great as well as the partially-initiated Adepts, share the enthusiasm of Cicero. Vitvs not Plutarcli, thinking o( what he lia<l learned in his initiation, console him- self for tile lofts of his wife? Had he not obtained the certitude at the Mysteries of Bacchus that "the soul [spirit] reiuuin^i incomiptiljle, and that there is a here- after"? . . . Aristophanes went even farther : "All those who participateil in the Mysteries," he sayR, "le*l nn innocent, calm, ami holy life ; they died lookinx for the li^ht of the Eleusinian Fields [Devachani while the rest could never expect anytliing but eternal darknejw [igiioriince ?]. . . . And when one thinks about the importance attached by the Rutes to the principle and the correct celebration of the M>'steries, to the stipulations made in their treaties for the security of their celebration, one sees to what de^^e those Myv terics had so long occupied their first and their last thought It was the grcate.'it among public as well as private preoccupations, and this is only nalnral, since according to Dollinger, " the Kleusinian M>'steries wck viewed as the efflorescence of all the Greek religion, as the purest essence of all it* conceptions.t Not only conspirators were refused admittance therein, but those who had not denouncetl them ; traitorR, perjurers, debauchees.! , . . tioUiat Porphyry could say that: "Our soul has to be at the moment of death as it was during the Mysteries. i.e., exempt from any blemishes, passion, envy, hatred, or anger.''j Truly, ^ itfagic WEB considered a Divine Science which led to a participation in the attri- butes of the Divinity itself-H Herodoltis, Thales, Parmenides, Empedocles, Orpheus, Pythagoras, all went, each in his day, in search of the wisdom of Egypt's great Hierophants, in the hope of solving the problems of the universe. Says Philo : The Mysteries were known to unveil the secret operations of Nature.^ The prodigies accomplished by the priests of theurgic magic are so well authenti- cated and the evidence— if liuniaii lestinioiiy is worth anything at alibis so over- whelming that, rather than confess that the pagan theurgists far outrivallcd the • /V /-/ifAtii, n. rr. * Judaitm and fiifamitm.t. tit, I fitag. of Siyr- "A- i'o*- > Vf Sfifttal. Ugi t) Dr Mirville. v. »;«. 179. 1 Itil i'nvfikd, i. *5. HAGICAL STATUfiS. 255 CtinsUans in miracles. Sir David Brt-wster conceileil to llie former the greatest pro- ficiency* in physics and e^-erything that pertains to natural philosophy. Science finds herself in a very disaprMable dilemma. . . . "Mapc," »ays Pselhis, "fomiedlUe last part of the sacerdotal science. It investi* gated the nature, power, and qnality of cvcr>*thing snbtunar>*: of the elements and their parts, of animals, of various plants and their fmits, of stones and herhii. Tn ahort, it explored the essence and power of everything. Prom hence, therefore, it produced its effects. And it formed slaiues [magnetizedjwhich procure health, and made all various figures and thinga [talisnians], which could equally l»ecome the instruments of disease as well as of health. Often, too, celestial fire is made to appear through magic, and then slatuet laugh and lamps are spontaneously en- kindled." ■ This assertion of Psellus that Magic " made statues which procure health/* is now proven to the world to be no dream, no vain boast of a hallucinated Theurgist. As Reuvens says, it becomes " history*. " For it is found in the Papyrus Magique of Harris and on the votive stele jnst mentioned. Both Chabas and De Roug£ state that : On the eighteenth line of this very mutilated monument is found the formula with regard to the acquiescence of the God (Chons) who made bis consent known by a motion he impETted to his statue. t" '" ' There was even a dispute over it between the two Orientalists. While M. de Rouge wanted to translate the word "Han" by "favour" or "grace," M. Chahas insisted that "Han" meant a "movement" or "a sifpC* made by the statue. Excesses of power, abuse of knowledge and personal ambition very often led selfish and unscrupulous Initiates to black Magic, just as the same causes led to precisely the same thing among Christian popes and cardinals ; and it was black Magic that led finally to the abolition of the Mysteries, and not Christianity, as is often erroneously thought. Read Moramsen's Roman History, vol. i., and you will find that it was the Pagans themselves who put an end to the desecration of the Divine Science. As early as 560 B.C. the Roman.s had discovered an Occult association, a school of black Magic of the most revolting kind; it celebrated mysteries brought from Etruria, and very soon the moral pestilence had spread all over Italy More thnn seven thousnml Initiates were prosecuted, and most of them were sen- tenced to death. . . . l^ter on, Tilus^Livius shows usanother three thousand Initiates sentenced during a single year for the crime of poisoning.; • tm t/tvf'Ud, i. *e>. Mj. t Dc MtrviUe. v. a^i. 1 pc Mtrviltc, V. »ai. »56 THE SECRET DOCTRnfE. And yet black Magic is derided and denied I PauUhier may or may not be too enthusiastic in saying that India appears to him as The grand and primitive hearth of human thought* that has ended by embracing the who^e nncienl uorld, but he was right in his idea. That primitive thought led to Occult knowledge, which in our Fifth Race is reflected from the earliest days of the Egyptian Pharaohs down to our modem times. Hardly a hieratic papyrus is exhumed with the tightly swathed-up mutnmiesof kings and high priesLs that docs not contain some interesting infor* mation for the modern students of Occultism. All that is. of course, derided Magic, the outcome of primitive knowledge and of revelatiou, though it was practised in such ungodly ways by the Allantean Sorcerers that it has since become necessary for the subsequent Race to drawa thick veil over the practices which were used to obtain so-called magical effects on the psychic and on the physical planes. In the letter no one in our centtiry will believe the statements, with the exception of the Roman Catholics, and these will give the acts asalanic origin. Nevertheless, Magic is so mixed up with the histoo' of the world, that if the latter is ever to be written it has to rely upon the di.scoveries of Archceolog>', Eg>'ptologj', and hieratic writings and inscriptions : if it insists that they must be free from that "superstition of the ages" it will never see the light. One can well imagine the embarrassing position in which serious £g>'ptologtsts, Assyriologists, savants and academicians find themselves. Forced to translate and interpret the old papyri and the archaic inscriptions on stelae and Babylonian cylinders, they find themselves compelled from first to last to face the distasteful, and to them repulsive, subject of Magic, with its incantations and paraphernalia. Here they find sober and grave narratives from the pens of learned scribes, made up under the direct supervision of Chaldieau or Egyptian Hierophants, the most learned among the Philosophers of antiquity. These statements were written at the solemn hour of the death and burial of Pharaohs, High Priests, and other mighty ones of the land of Clienii ; their purpose was the introduction of the newly-born, Gsirified Soul before the awful- iribiuial of the " Great Judge " in the region of AmenLi— there where a lie was said to outweigh the greatest crimes. Were the Scribes aod Hierophant.^. Pharaohs, aud ICiug- Priests all fools or frauds to have either believed in, or tried to make others believe in, such "cock-and KOHAW -BUT THT7B. 257 bull stories " as are fownd in the most respectable papyri ? Yet there is no help for it. Corroborated by Plato and Herodotus, by Manetho and Syncellus, as by all the greatest and most trustworthy authors and philosophers who wrote upon the subject, those papyri note down — as seriously as they note any history, or any fact so well Icnown and accepted as to need no commentary— whole royal dynasties of Maues. to wit, of shadows and phantoms (astral bodies), and such feats of magic skill. and such Occult phenomena, that the most credulous Occultist of our own times would hesitate to believe them to be true. The Orientalists have found a plank of salvation, while yet publishing and delivering the papyri to the criticism of literary Sadducees : they generally call them " romances of the days of Pharaoh So-and-6o.'* The idea is ingenious, if not absolutely fair. SECTION XXYIII. The Origin of the Mysteries. All that is explained in the preceding Sections and a hundredfold more was taught in the Mysteries from time immemorial. If the firet appearaDce of those institutions is a matter of historical tradition with regard to some of the later nations, their origin must certainly be assigned to the time of the Fourth Root Race. The Mysteries were imparted to the elect of that Race when the average Atlantean had begun to fall too deeply into sin to be trusted with the secrets of Nature. Their establishment is attributed iu the Secret Works to the King-Initiates of the divine dynasties, when the " Sons of God " had gradually allowed their country to become Kookarma-tlcs (the land of \'ice). The antiquity of the Mysteries may be inferred from the histor>*of the worship of Hercules in Eg\'pt. This Hercules, according to what the priests told Herodotus, was not Grecian, for he says : Of the Grecian Hercules I coiiM in no pjirt of Rgypt procure any knowledge: » . . the nunc was never borrowed by Egypt from Greece. . . . HerculM, t ... as they [tlie priesUj uSimi, t.i one of the tweh-e (great Gods), wbo irerc reproduced froin the earlier eight Gods 17.000 years before the year of Hercules is of Indian origin, and — his Biblical chronology put aside "-Colonel Tod was quite right in his suggestion that he was BalarSma or Baladeva. Now oue must read the Purdnasvnth. the Esoteric key in one'shand in order to find out how on almost every page they corroborate the Secret Doctrine. The ancient classical writers so well understood this truth that they unanimously attributed to Asia the origin of Hercules. A section of the MahdbhArala is devoted to the history of the Uercflla, of which race waaVyua. . . . Diodoms has the same legend with some variety. He AK WSTAirr IN HEAVEN. 359 B^ri: " Hercules was born amongst the IndiAtis and, Hk« tht Grfteka, thty Turuish him wiUi a ctuti and lion's hide." Both [Krishna and Baladeva] are (lords) of the race {c<Ua) ofHeri (Heri-cul>e8) of vbicb the Greeksmight have made the compound Hercules,* The Occult Doctrine explains that Hercules was the last incarnation of one of the seven " Lords of the Flame," as KrisUna's brother, Bala- deva. That his incarnations occurred during the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Root-Races, and that his worship was brought into Egr>'p*- fro*" Lanka and India by the later immigrants. That be was boriowed by the Greeks from the Eg>'ptians is certain, the more so as the Greeks place his birth at Thebes, and only his twelve labours at Argos. Now we find in the Vishnu Parana a complete corroboration of the statement made in the Secret Teachings, of which PurSnic allegory the following is a short summary : Raivata, a grandson of SbarydtJ, Manu's fourth son, finding no man worthy of his lovely daughter, repaired with her to Brahma's region to consult the God in this emergency. Upon his arrival, Haha, Huhu, and other Gandharvas were singing before the throne, and Kaivata, waiting till they had done, imagined that but one Muhurta (instant) had passed, whereas long ages had elapsed. When they had finished Raivata pros- trated himself and explained his perplexity. Then Brahm& a.sked him whom he wished for a son-in-law, and upon hearing a few personages named, the Father of the World smiled and said : " Of those whom you have named the third and fourth generation [Root-RacesJ no longer survive, for many successions of ages [Chatnr-Yuga, or lUc four Vuga cycles] have passed away while you were listening to our songsters. Now on earth the twenty-eighth great age of the present Manu is nearly finished and the Kali period is at hand. You must therefore bestow this virgiu-gem upon some other husband. For you are now alone.V Then the Raja Raivata is told to proceed to Kushasthali, his ancient capital, which was now called Dv^rak^. and where reigned in his stead a portion of the divine being (Vishnu) in the person of Baladeva, the brotlier of Krishna, regarded as the seventh incamatiou of Vishnu whenever Krishna is taken as a full divinity. " Being thus instructed by the Lotus-born [Brahm4], Raivata re- turned with his daughter to earth, where he found the race of men dwindled in stature [see what is said in the Stanzas and Commentaries of the races of mankind gradually decreasing in stature] ; . . . • Tod'a Kajasthan. 1. A. ,^^ THE SECRBT DOCTRINE. reduced in vigour, and enfeebled iu intellect. Repairing to the city erf Kusha<ithalt, he found it much altered," because, according to the allegorical explanation of the commentator, "Krishna had reclaimed from the sea a portion of the country." which means in plain language that the continents had all been changed meanwhile — and *' had reno- vated the city" — or rather built a new one. Dvarakfl : for one reads in the Bhagavad Purdna* that Kushasthali was founded and built by Raivata within the sea ; and subsequent discoveries showed that it 'was the same, or on the same spot, as DvSraka. Therefore it was on an island before. The allegory in Vishnu Purdna shows King Raivata giving his daughter to "the wielder of the ploughshare"— or rather " the plough-bannered " — Baladeva. who ** beholding the damsel of excessively lofty height. . . . shortened her with the end of his ploughshare, and she became his wife."* This is a plain allusion to the Third and Fonrth Races — to the Atlanteau giants and the successive incarnations of the "Sons of the Flame '* and other orders of DhySn Chohans iu the heroes and kings of mankind, down to the Kali Yuga, or Black Age, the beginning of which is within historical limes. Another coincidence : Thebes is the city of a hundred gates, and Dvilrak^ is so called from its many gateways or doors, from the word " Dvara." " gateway." Both Hercules and Baladeva are of a passionate, hot temper, and both arc renowned for the fairness of their white skins. There is not the slightest doubt that Hercules is Baladeva in Greek dress. Arrian notices the great similarity between the Thebau and the Hindu Hercules, the latter being worshipped by the Suraseni who built Methorea, or Mathurfi, Krishna's birthplace. The same writer places Saudracottus (Chandra- gupta, the grandfather of King Asoka. of the clan of Mor>'a) in the direct line of the de.scendants of Baladeva. There were no Mysteries in the beginning, we are ta.ught. Know- ledge (VidyS) was common property, and it reigned universally throughout the Golden Age (Satya Yuga). As says the Commentary; Aftn had not created r<nl yet in those days of bliss and purity, for ikey were of Gad-like, more than of human nature. But when mankind, rapidly increasing in numbers, increased also in variety of idiosyncrasies of body and mind, then incarnated Spirit showed its weakness. Natural exaggerations, and along with these Ofi.eit..lx.m.t% t yiiknu Purdum.iH^i, WllaoB'sUnnilaUon, ifl. t4t-i!U. GKOWTR OP POPUIAK BELIEFS. 26r I superstitions, arose in tbe less cultured and healthy minds. Selflshncss was boni out of desires and passions hitherto unknown, and but too often knowledge and power were abused, until finally it became neces- sary to limit the number of those Tvhv kn€w. Thus arose Initiation. Ever>- separate nation now arranged for itself a religious system, according to its enlightcunient and spiritual wants. Worship of mere form being discarded by the wise men, these confined true knowledge to the ver>* few. The nee<l of veiling truth to protect it from desecra- tion becoming more apparent with every generation, a thin veil was □sed at first, which had to be gradually thickeued according to the spread of personality and selfishness, and this led to the Mysteries. They came to be established in every country and among every people, while to avoid strife and misunderstanding exoteric beliefs were allowed to grow up in the minds of the profane masses. Inoffensive and innocent in their incipient stage — like a historical event arranged in the form of a fairy tale, adapted for and comprehensible to the child's mind — in those distant ages such beliefs could be allowed to grow and make the popular faith without any danger to the more philosophical and abstruse truths taught in the sanctuaric?;. Logical .ind scientific observation of the phenomena in Nature, which alone leads man to the knowledge of etenial truths— provided he approaches the threshold of observation unbiassed by preconception and sees with his spiritual eye before he looks at things from their physical aspect — does not lie within the province of the masses. The niar\'els of the One Spirit of Truth, the ever-concealed and inaccessible Deity, can be unravelled and assimilated only through Its manifestations by the secondare- "Gods,''"^ Its acting powers. While the One and Universal Cause has to remain for ever /« abseondiie. Its manifold action may be traced through the effects in Nature, The latter alone being comprehensible and manifest to average mankind, the Powers causing those effects were allowed to grow in the imagination of the populace. Ages later in the Fifth, the Aryan, Race some unscrupulous priests began to take advantage of the too-easy beliefs of the people in every country, and Enally raised those secondary Powers to the rank of God and Gods, thus succeeding in isolating them altogether from tbe One Universal Cause of all causes.* ■ THerp WPTC no Br^hmnTis a* a hmdllary nstr In days af Oltl. To thnw lcmg-diTMirI«d offM I man iKCttinc r BrDinuin lliraugh penonal merit and InUiittLon. Gradtmlly. however, dcrtpotism CTrpt in, snd the wm of n Brihnt«R wna craited a BrUiman ^ right urprotrctian first, thm hy that of hnvdlty. 'ni« rithu of blood trpUccd tho»c of nal merit, aod tliaa arote th« body of Brihnians, wWch was Kwn cbanjcml into a powerful ca«1e. 262 THE SKCKBT OOCTRINE. Henceforward the knowledge of the primeval troths reaoiiied entirely in tht; bands of the Initiates. The Mysteries had their weak points and their defects, as every institution welded with the human element must necessarily have. Yet Voltaire has characterised their benefits iu a few words: I& the chaos of popular superstitions there existed ui institution whtcll hu erer prevented man Erom f&lHng into ibaolute brutality : it was that of tlie Mysteries. vVerily, as Ragon puts it of Masonr>' ; Its temple has Time for duration, ihe rniverse for space. . . . " Let as ilivide that we may rule." have »aid the crafty: "Let us unite to resiit," have said the first Masvtis.* Or rather, the Initiates whom the ^^asons have never ceased to claim as their primitive and direct Masters. The first and fundatiiental prin- ciple of moral strength and power is association and solidarity of thought and purpose. '* The Sons of Will and Yoga '* united in the beginning to resist the terrible and ever-growing iniquities of the left- hand Adepts, the Atlauteans. This led to the foundation of still more Secret Schools, temples of learning, and of Mysteries inaccessible to all except after the most terrible trials and probations. Anything that might be said of the earliest Adepts and thetr divine Masters would be regarded as fiction. It is necessary, therefore, if we would know something of the primitive Initiates to judge of the tree by its fruits ; to examine the bearing and the work of their successors iu the Fifth Race as reflected in the works of the classic writers and the great Philosophers. How were Initiation and the Initiates regarded during some 2,000 years by the Greek and Roman writers ? Cicero informs his readers in verj- clear terms. He says : An Initiate must practise all the ^•i^tlle« in his power: justice, fidelity, liberality, modeaty, temperance; these rirtue* cuum men to forget the talents that be may lack.t Ragon says : When the Kg>-ptian priests said: ".Ml for the people, nothing througb the people," they were right: in an ignorant nntion tnitU must be revealed only to * Dti /miliati'imt AtKifttHti and Minterma. "The myalerict." ULy» Rigoo. "were the fltl of India." In this he ii mtMalcrit, for the Aryan rncc tiitil bratiglit Ihe myatrnca of laillaUoa tnm AUaatJR. NcvctttaricM he in nght in >ayitig that the tu>->lcnn preceded All civiliMtlOB*. and that bjr polLRtiiiiK thr miml and murals of Ihc peoples ihey wrvcd us a baK for all th« lam— <iTa, pOllUcal, BLid rrllf^iHts. /■■-- O/r.. i. a. A Tfttre PRIESTHOOO. throngh the p«ople. The real axiom ou^bt to be : I I trustworthy peraona. . . . We have seen in our days, noihiiig for ihff people," a false aud daDgcrous system. " All for the people and with the people." • But in order to achieve this reform the masses have to pass through a dual trans for matiou : {a) to become divorced from every eletueut of «xoteric superstitioa aud priestcraft, and (b) to become educated men, free from ever>' danger of being enslaved whether by a man or an idea. This, in view of the preceding, may seem paradoxical. The Initiates were '* priests." we may be told — at any rate, all the Hindu, Egyptian, Chaldaean, Greek, Phoenician, aud other erophants and Adepts were priests iu the temples, aud it was they who invented their respective exoteric creeds. To this the answer is possible : '- The cowl does not make the iViar." If one may believe tradition aud the unanimous opinion of ancient writers, added to the examples we have iu the " priests " of India, the most conservative nation in the world, it becomes quite certain that the Egyptian priests were no more priests in the sense we give to the word than are the temple lirahmaus. They could never be regarded as such if we take as our standard the European clergy. Iraurens observes very correctly that : The priests of Egypt were not, strictly speailnp, tninUters of religion. The vnonl •'priest," which traiisliition has lieen badly iuterprctcd, had an acceptation very different fraci tbe one that is applie<l to it among u& In the language of antiquity, aud especially in the spnse of the initiation of the priests of ancient Egypt, the word " priest " is synonymous with tliat of " pliilosophcr." . . . Th6 iostitntion of the Egyptian pric<its seems to have been really a confederation of sages gathered to study the art of ruling men, to centre the domain of truth, modulate ita propagation, and arrest its too dangcrotxs dispersioo.t The Egyptian Priests, like the BrShmans of old, held the reins of the governing powers, a system that defscended to them by direct inheritance from the Initiates of the great Atlantis. The pure cult of Nature in the earliest patriarchal days — the word "patriarch" applying in its first original sense to the Progenitors of the human race.J; the Fathers, Chiefs, and Instructors of primitive men — became the heirloom of those • Det iHtiialiiiitt, p. It. * £stau NiUariquti tur lo Pramt-Mat^mmtfit, p[k 143. mJ- 2 rbc WOtd "patriarch" b compOMd of the Gieelc won! "Pmlria" fCamily." "Iribr," or "naUon" muI " Arctm" (« "chief'i. the pntcrn*! prlncipk. The JcwiiUi Patriuchii who wrnr puUm, paiued th«tr nunc to the CfarUtian Palriarcfafl i yd Uicy wvre net prltwts, bnt wvn nrnpty the hfrads of th«ir iribet, like ihc Indian RlsUis. 364 TH£ SSCXJXT UOCTSINS. alone who could discern the nonmenon beneath the phenomenon. Later, the Initiates transmitted their knowledge to the human kings, as their divine Masters had passed it to their forefathers. It was their prerogative and duly to reveal the secrets of Nature that were useful to mankind — the hidden virtues of plants, the art of healing the sick, and of bringing about brotherly love and mutnal help among mankind. No Initiate was one if he could not heal — aye. recall to life from apparent death (coma) those who. too long neglected, would have indeed died dnring their lethargy.* Those who showed such powers were forthwith set above the crowds, and were regarded as Kings and Initiates. Gautama Buddha was a King- Initiate, a healer, and recalled to life those who were in the hands of death. Jesus and Apolloniiis were healers, and were both addressed as Kings by their followers. Had they failed to raise those who were to all intents and purposes the dead, nooe of their names would have passed down to posterity* ; for this was the first and crucial test, the certain sign that the Adept had upon Him the invisible hand of a primordial divine Master, or was an incaraatioD of one of the "Gods." Tlie later royal privilege descended to our Fifth Race kings through the kings of Egypt. The latter were all initiated into the mysteries of medicine, and they healed the sick, even when, owing to the terrible trials and labours of final Initiation, they were unable to become full Hierophanls. They were healers by privilege and by tradition, and were assisted in the healing .irt by the Hierophanls of the temples, when they thcmseU'es were ignorant of Occult curative Science. So also in far later historical times we find Pyrrhus curing the sick by simply touching them with his foot ; Vespasian and Hadrian needed only to pronounce a few words taught to them by their Hierophants, in order to restore sight to the blind and health to the cripple. From that time onward history has recorded cases of the same privilege conferred on the emperors and kings of almost every nation.f That which is known of the Priests of Egypt and of the ancient L"- L^cUd _1U- * There U no ne«d to obaervr here that the raameUoa of a really dead body is in hrtpovibUitr la Nalurr. t The kiaft oT Uaaguy claimeil that they could cure lh« JBitnillcr : Ute Dakcs of RuTfundr i*r« credited with prcMTvitiE people ffoin Ihc WnK«: 'he ltinir» of Spain deltrered lho«e poMWMnt *y UisdtfvU, The prcrOKfttive of curing ltickini:'%evil vrn^ Kivvii lo tbc tciiiK* of Pniiuv, in nririinl for the virtue* of fC"o<l Kinft K Uit. FruQcis Ibc i-rnt, duriuc a Hhorl uay U Muveillc* for hMaon> wed- diojt. touched hikJ curt<J of iD.it duonx: opiranl* orsoo penona. The kinifs of Rndand had (be mnK privilcire. rrm Egyptian pRrasTs. 265 I I I I I BrShmans, corrbboraled as it is by all the ancient classics and histori- cal writers, gives us the right to believe iu that which is only tradi- tional in the opinion of sceptics. Whence the wonderful knowledge of the Egyptian Priests in erery department of Science, unless they had it from a still more ancient source? The famous "Four." the seats of learning in old Egx-pl, arc more historically certain than the begin- nings of modern England. It was in the great Theban sanctuary that* Pythagoras npon hi-^ arrival from India studied the Science of Occult numbers. It was in Memphis that Orpheus popularized his too-abtruse Indian metaphysics for the use of Magna Grecia; and thence Thales, and ages later Democritus, obtained all they knew. It is to Sais that all the honour must be given of the wonderful legislation and the art of ruling people, imparted by its Priests to Lycurgus and Solon, who will both remain objects of admiration for generations to come.' And had Plato and Eudoxus never gone to worship at the shrine of Hcliopolis, most probably the one would have never astonished future generations with his ethics, nor the other with his wonderfiil know-" ledge of mathematics.* The great modern writer on the Mysteries of Egyptian Initiation — one, however, who knew nothing of those in India — the late Ragoa, has not exaggerated in maintaining that: All t]ie notions pcrssesseil hy Huidu«taa, Persia, Syrfa, Arabia, Chaldaea, Sydonta, and the priests of Babylonia, Ton the secret»of Nature], was known to the Eg^'ptiau priests. 11 is thu< Indian philo^opliy. witlioni niysterie*. whicli. having pene> irnteil into Chaldaea and ancient Tersfa, gave rise to tlie doctrine of Egyptian Mysteries, t The Mysteries preceded the hieroglyphics.t They gave birth to the latter, as permanent records were needed to preserve and commemorate their secrets. It is primitive Philosophy§ that has .served as the * Sec l^ttKn^' Estait ffititrif MCI tor ftrtUfT iatovmmtioa aa lollicworkl-vi<le,unitmalknowle4g« oT the Egyptian Mc*!*. t Ikt litiliatioHi, p. 14- I Tlic iroiA con)c» frou Uie Gredc " liicnM " (ucred ") nod " gldpbo " [" 1 gnrn "). The Ecyptiaa ebtnctm were sncrrd In the Cod*, «« the IniUnn nevnnlgnrt I> Itie lAncnttge of the Godi. I The aitme autlioi had 1 a* OcculliM* hav«l a wry rrawu.iblp ohJcctJon to the morkm elymolA^ of the word"ph!kNK>phy," whirb i« inleTpTfled"love of wisdom," mid is iiotbiiigor tl»e kind, Tlie phllo- aoplken were scientiivlK, niid phi1oM>|jhy wa.* a re;il Acience— nol limply vcrblB^c, m it U in our day. The term U i^otupOKicd of two I'rrrk word* whcne tncnnins 9* jnleniled ta convey itit secn-t >m<>c, and ougbl lo be iiitctprrled bi> " wisdom of love." Now it t* in ttic luL word. " luve," thai 1te« hidileu the e«»>tcric signtKMnce: for "loW dof* in»t ntflnd h«t nun noon, nor dnr» U mean "affrctlmi " or " funilu(^!>," Imt ia the term used for Eron. that priiuordl^ principle In divine cncatloii, tyn'Mjynioua wiUi voOiX. Uie HtMtrAct desire in Nature for proenadon, rx-sulting in ui evcrloniiii; ktics of 266 THK SBCRKT I>OCTHINB. foundation-stone for modem Philosophy; only the progeny, while perpetuating the features of the exterual body, ha.s lost on its way the Soul and Spirit of its parent. Initiation, though it contained neither rules and principles, nor uiy special teaching of Science — as now understood — was nevertheless Science, and the Science of sciences. And though devoid of dogma, of physical discipline, and of exclusive ritual, it was yet the one true Religion — that of etenial truth. Outwardly it was a school, a college, wherein were taught sciences, arts, ethics, legislation, philanthropy, the cult 9f the tnie and real nature of cosmic phenomena ; secretly, dnnn^ the Mysteries, practical proofs of the latter were given. Those who could learn truth oa all things — i.e., those who could look the great Isis in her unveiled face and bear the awful majesty of the Goddess- became Initiates. But the children of the Fifth Race had fallen too deeply into matter always to do so with impunity. Those who failed disappeared from the world, without leaving a trace behind. Which of the highest kings would have dared to claim any indix'idual, however high his social standing, from the stem priests, once that the victim had crossed the threshold of their sacred Adytum ? The nuble precepts taught by the Initiates of the early races passed to India, Egypt, and Greece, to China and Chaldaea. and thus spread alt over the world. All that is good, noble, and grand in human nature, every divine faculty and aspiration^ were cultured by the Priest- Philosophers who sought to develop them iu their Initiates. Their code of ethics, ba-^ed on altniism, has become universal. It is found in Confucius, the "atheist," who taught that "he who loves not bis brother has no virtue in him," and in the Old Tesfamenf precept, "Thou Shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."* The greater Initiates became like unto Gods, and Socrates, inPlato'si'^afo, is represented as sa>'ing: The Initiates are stire to come into the company of the Gods. In the same work the great Athenian Sage is made to say: phenotnena. linca»i> "tUvinc love." UiM imtvcfscl dement of divine oauii;>rMcacr iprmd Uiraufli- out NatiiKDiid which U at otioe the chic rcauiw auJclTect. Th« "wiidaiii al low" |ur "tthiloiofihia.n racaat attntctloti to aud love of «v«Tythitig hidden bcucath objective pbenaoieDA and the kaowledfc (hrreof. Pbllmophy mciuil thr highest Adejilship — love uf and iLtsimilatian with tVilf. In hia inode*ty PjthjgotM even icfu»e(l to be colled s PhUoKphcr for ouc wh<j luiowt erery hiddeg Uiinff >H Uiings visihlc ; cause and effect, or ahoolute truth), aud called bimaElf limiily a Sai;e an aipiraat lo phltMoplty, or 10 Windoni of Love—tuvc in iu exoteric nMUtins hciug u degnded by men then as il U now by Us purely tcrre»lrial applicntivn * Ltv.. xix. m. SBVEALING AND R£V£II.ING. 267 It i& quite apparent that those who have established the MrMeries, or the secret assemblies of the Initiates, were ao lueaa persoua, but powerful genii, \rho from the first ages had cndeavourcil to mHk.i.-us uudcrsland under Ihase enigmas that he who will reach the invisible regions unpuriAed will be hurled into the abyss [the Eighth Sphere of the Occult Doctrine; that is, he will lose his personality for ever}, while he who will atuin them purged of the maculations of thit world, and accomplished in virtues, wUl be received in the abode of the Gods. I I I I Said Clemens Alexandrinus, referring to the Mysteries: Here ends all teaching. One sees Nature and all things, A Christian Father of the Church speaks then as did the Pagan Pretextalus, the pro-consul of Achaia (Iburlh century A.D.). "a man of eminent virtues," who remarked that to deprive the Greeks of "the sacred Mysteries which bind in one the whole of mankind," was to render their very lives worthless to them. Would the Myslenes have ever obtained the highest praise from the noblest men of antiquity had they not been of more than human origin? Read all that is said of this unparalleled institution, as much by those who had never been ini- tiated, as by the Initiates themselves. Consult Plato, Euripides, Socrates. Aristophanes, Pindar, Plutarch, Isocrates, Diodorus, Cicero, Kpictetns, Marcus Aiirclius, not to name dozens of other famous Sages and writers. That which the Gods and Augels had revea/ni. exoteric religions, beginning with that of Moses, revdled and hid for ages from the sight of the world. Joseph, the son of Jacob, was an Initiate, otherwise he would not have married Aseneth, the daughter of Petephre ("Potiphar" — "he who belougs to Phre" the Suu-God), priest of Heliopolis and governor of On.* Evcrj* truth rcveaifd by Jesus, and which even the Jews and early Christians understood, was reveiled by the Church that pretends to serve Him, Read what Seneca says, as quoted by Dr. Kenealy : " The world beiiiK melted antl having reitntered the bosom of Jupiter [or Para- brahman]. Ibis Go<l continues for some time totally coucentrc-d in himself and remains concealed, as it were, wholly immersed in the contemplation of liis own ideas. Afterwards we see a new world spring from him. . . . An innocent race of men is formed." And again, speaking of a mundane diiisolution as involving the destruction or death of all, be [SenecaJ leaches us that when the laws of Nature shall be buried in niiu and the last day of the world shall come, the Southern Pole sball crush, as it falls, all the regionsof Africa; and the North Pole shall overwhelm all the countries beneath its axis, llie ajirighted sun ^hatl be deprived of Us light ; "■ ■'OH,"*UK"8ua," Ui«Sv]rttiannuMoriultU(>oli»,Uic"Cityorib«Siui"t. THR SSCSET DOCTKINH.' the pHlaceoffaeavea, {alUnf; to decay, shall prodncc at oncebotli life and death,; sotat kind of di^ficdution >>tiall equally sei/.e upon all the dnties, who thus rf turn to their original chaos.* One might fancy oneself reading the Puranic account by PardshaS" of the great Pralaya. It is nearly the satnc thing, idea for idea. Has Christianity nothing of the kind? Let the reader open any English ^I'd/f and read chapter iii. of the Seatrid EphtU of Pfter, and be will find there the same ideas. There shall cunic in the laM days scofTerK, .... naj'tn^ Where is the promtM of hix coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all Uiings continue as ihcy were from the begianinjf of the creation. Por this they willingly arc ignorant of that hy the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water : whereby the world that then was, being o\-erflowed with water, perislied. But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the sane word are .... resen'ed unto fire in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, ami the elements shall melt with fervent heat. . , Nevertheless wc .... look for new heavens and a new earth. If the interpreters chose to see in this a reference to a creation, a deluge, and a promised coming of Christ, when they will live in a New Jerusalem in heaven, that is no fault of Peter. What he meant was the destruction of the Fifth Race and the appearance of a new continent for the Sixth Race. The Druids understood the meaning of the Sun in Taurus, therefore when all the fires were extinguished on the ist of November their sacred and inextinguishable fire remained alone to illumine the horizon like those of the Magi and the modern Zoroastrian. And like the early Fifth Race and the later Chaldseans and Greeks, and again like the ChI^stians (who do it to this day without suspecting the real meaning), they greeted the "Morning-Star," the beautiful Veuus-Lucifer.f Strabo speaks of an island near Britannia where Ceres and Persephone were worshipped with the same rites as in Samothrace, and this was the sacred Icma, where a perpetual fire was lit. The Druids believed in the rebirth of man, not, as Lucian explains, That the same S^rii shall animate a new body, not here, tnil in a diffi^rent world. btit in a series of reincarnations in this same world; for as Diodoms ■ Booh 9/Gta, p. lie. t Mr. KctMraly quaint, in his B«ok of Corf, Vallanccy, who u^fl : " I bad out been a week landrd in Iidaud fruin GibnUtar, where I had «liidi(:(1 Hcbn-w nod Chnldnic iiuiler Jewi of various cotintrin. whrv I hmrd a pcn^Miiil Kirt tuy to a boor sUnding by brr ' Ft^iti ait yfaMin A'v* (' Brhuli! lb« tuorumy tOar '1. poiniiug lo the plaiicl Vcwn, the Uaddena Naf of ibc Chalduaa." n* SECTION XXIX. The Trial of the Sun Initiate. We will begin with the ancient Mysteries — those received from the Atlanteans by the primitive An'ans — whose mental and inteUectual state Professor Max Mtillcr has described with such a masterly hand, yet left so incomplete withal. He Bays : We ba\x in it {ia the Rig Veda\ a period or the inteUectual life of man u which there is no parallel in any other part of the world. In the hymns of the Vedi^ we sec man Icfl to himself to .solve the riddle of thin world. . . . Re invokes the gods around him. he praises, he worships them. But .ititl wilb all these gods . . . . beneath him, and above him, the early poet seems ill at rest within himself. There, too, in his avfw breast, he has discovered a power that is never mute when he prays, never absent when be fears and trembles. It seems to inspire his prayers and yet to listen to them ; it seems to live in him, and yet to support him and all around him. The only name be can find for this mysterious power is " Brahman ; " for bratinian meant originally force, will, wish, and the propulsive power of creation. But this impersonal brahman too, as soon as it is named, gronn into something strange and divine. It ends by being one of many gods, one of the gi^&t triad, worshipped to the present day, And still the thought within him has do real name: that power which is nothing but itself, which supports the gods, tbe heavens, and every living being, floats before his mind, conceived but not expressed At lost he calls it " Atraan." for SCman, originally breath or spirit, comes to mean Self and Self alone. Self, whether divine or btiman ; Self, whether creating or Buffering: Self, whether One or AH ; but always Self, independent and free. " Who has seen the first-born ? " says the poet, "when be who had no bones {i.e., Cona\ bore him that had hones ? Wliere was the life, the blood, the Self of the world? Who went to ask this from any one who knew it?" {Ki^l^eda, I, 164. 4.) This idea of a divine Self ouce exprtMed, everything else musl acknowledge its supremacy ; Sel/'M tbe Lord of all things; it is tbe King of all things; as all the spokes of a wheel are contained ia the nave and circumference, all things are contained in this Self; All selves arc contained in this Stl/.'" {BiihadAranyalea, IV. v, 15).* ^SHVAKARMA AND VTKAKTTANA. I This Self, the highest, the one, and the universal, was symbolised on the plane of mortals by the Sun, its life-giving effulgence being in its ttirn the emblem of the Soul— killing the terrestrial passions which have ever been an impediment to the re-union of the Unit Self (the Spirit) with the All-Self. Hence the allegorical mystery, only the broad features of which may be given here. It was enacted by the " Sons of the Fire-Mist " and of " Light." The second Sun (the "second hypos- tasis " of Rabbi Drach) appeared as put on his trial, \'ishvakarma, the Uierophant, cutting off seven of his beams, aud replacing ihcm with a crown of brambles, when the ** Sun " became Vikarttaua. shorn of bis beams or rays. After thai, the Sun — enacted by a neophyte ready to be initiated— was made to descend into PiltSla, the uelher regions, on a trial of Tantalus. Coming out of it triumphant, he emerged from this region of lust and iniquity, to re-becorae Karmas&kshiu, witness of the Karma of men.* and arose once more triumphant iu all the glorv' of his regeneration, as the Graha-Rfijah, King of the Constellations, and was addressed as Gabhastiman, "re-possessed of his rays." The •' fable " iu the popular Pantheon of India, founded upon, and born out of the poetical mysticism of the Rig- F^*ya— the sayings of which were mostly all dramatised during the religious M>-steries — grew in the course of its exoteric evolution into the following allegory. It may be found now in several of the Purdnas and in other Scriptures. In the Rig- Veda and its Hymns, Vishvalcarma, a Myster>'-God, is the Logos, the Dtmiurgos. one of the greatest Gods, and spoken of in two of the hymns as the highest. He is the Omnificeut (V'ishvakarma), called the " Great Ardfaitcctof the Universe." the All seeiiiK God, .... the father, the Renerator, the flisposcr. who pvca the gods their names, and is beyond tlie conipreheHfioii of mortals, as is every Mystery-God. EsotericaHy, He is the personification of the creative manife'^led Power: and mystically He is the seventh principle in man, in its coUectivitv. For He is the son of Bhuvana, the self-created, luminous Essence, and of the \'irtuous, chaste and lovely Yoga-SiddhS, the virgin Goddess, whose name speaks for itself, since it personified Yoga-power, the "chaste mother" that creates the Adepts. In the Rig-Vaidic Hymns, Vishvakarma performs the "great sacrifice," i.e., sacrifices himself for the world; or, as the Ninikta is made to say. trans- lated by the Orientalists: ■9J2 THE SECRET DOCTRIKE. Vi»Itvakarraa first of all offers up all the world in a sacrifice, and then cniUbj sacrificing himself. In the mystical representations of his character, Vishvakarma is often called Vittoba, and is pictured as the " Victim." the ** Man- God," or the Avat^ra crucified in space. [Of the true Mysteries, the real Initiations, nothing of course can be said in public ; they can he known only to those who are able to experi- ence them. Bat a few hints cau be xiven o( the great ceremonial Mysteries of Antiquity, which stood to the public as the real Mysteries, and into which candidates were initiated with mnch ceremony aad display of Occult Arts, Behind these, in silence and darkness, were the true Mysteries, as they have always existed and continue to exist. In Egypt, as in Chaldaea and later in Greece, the Mysteries were celebrated at stated times, and the first day was a public holiday, on which, with much pomp, the candidates were escorted to the Great Pyramid and passed thereinto out of sight. The secoud day was devoted to cere- monies of purification, at the close of which the candidate was presented with a white robe; on the third dayj* he was tried and examined as to his proficiency in Occult learning. On the fourth day, after another ceremony symbolical of purification, he was sent alone to pass through various trials, finally becoming entranced in a subterranean crypt, in utter darkness, for two days and two nights. In Egj'pt, the entranced neoph\*te was placed in an empty sarcophagus in the Pyramid, where the initiatoo' rites took place. lu India and Central Asia, he was bound on a lathe, and when his body had become like that of one dead (entranced), he was carried into the crypt. Then the Uierophant kept watch over him "guiding the apparitional soul (astral body) from this world of Samsira (or delusion) to the nethef kingd()m.s, frooi which, if successful, he had the right of releasing icven suffering souls" (Elementaries). Clothed with his Anaudamayakosha, the body of bliss — the SrotSpanna remained there where we have no right to follow him, and upon returning — received the Word, with or without the "heart's blood" of the Hierophant.f ■ [Tbere Lh a xajr in B. P. B.*a MS-, and Uie paragraph ia brackebi Ktipplin what mw njaalnc- A B.] * In /ill UnvfiUd, Vol. II., pp. 4t, 4». » portion oi this rit« is rvt^nvA to. SpetfUnK of tht dofou or Atonrmrni. U U trftced to anckni " hcalkeudom" again. Wc aay: "Ttiia comcnlotM ai % church wlikh bad bcHcveil hnwtf built un a, firm rtx-k for lunK centuries, U now rxcavaicd by •ciencc atid proved to cone from Uir CacMtica. Proftvaor Draper abows it a> bardly kuow« in ttac dajrs of TtrrtuIUau, and u havinc ' oriiciixtlcd amons the Coo^Uc bcitticc* («c Comjtui ^«famw A^ TUX TRANSUISSIOK 0¥ UORT. 373 Only in truth the Hierophant was never killed — neither in India nor elsewhere, the murder bcinjf simply feigned — unless the Initiator had chosen the Initiate for his successor and had decided to pass to him the last and supreme Word, after which he had to die — only one man in a nation having the right to know that word. Many are those grand Initiates who have thus passed out of the world's sight, dis- appearing An mysteriously from the sight of men u Moses frota the top of Mount Pisgah {/Mo, oracular Wuidutn i, aAei he bad laid his hands upon Joshua, who thus became "full of the ^nrit of wiKlom," i.f., iaitiated. But he died, he was not killed. For killing, if really done, would belong to black, not to divine Magic. It is the transmission of light, rather than a transfer of life, of life spiritual and divine, and it is the shedding of Wisdom, not of blood. But the uninitiated inventors of theological Christianity took the allegorical language ^ /a ietire ; and instituted a dogma, the crude, misunderstood expression of which horrifies and repels the spiritual *• heathen." All these Hierophants and Initiates were tj'pes of the Sun and of the Creative Principle (spiritual potency) as were Vishvakarma and l/fMH omJ ScUnct, p. a*4). . . . But there are suSideat praob to show that it origineied amouK them no more than did their anoliited ChrintM and Sophtn. The rormer they modellw) on (hcorifldal of the Kinr Mesdah, the male pniid[ile of wiidoai, and the tatter on the IhLrd SepUinilh, ftota the ChnMjcau K>ibalah, aiid evea from Uie Uludu firshiul and Sanuval), and itK Tagan Uloayktua and Dcnieler. AuJ here we ore Oil firm froiind. if It were onlj' because it i« now proi-ed that Ihe AV» Talameni iktct appealed in Its eoniplele rortn, surh «• we find it now, till 3»j yennt after the periud at the apaalk«, and the Zokar and other Kabatistic books are foaad to belonif lio the fint century befofe our era, it not to be far older atill . "rheCnoaticaetitertained many of tlicEiisetMau Idcaa; and thcEaflcnea hadlhe^ graater andintnoc Mrsterfeaat k«*t two centwrie* before our era, They were the fMn'm or /nitiaUt, the deacendant* of the Hnrpt Jan hietofihnatn. in whuae caiintrj' they h<ut beeu ^ettle-i (at several centurfa beforv thejr were converted to HiiddtiUtic inonA^iliciidn by Ihe cni».-»ionarie« of Klntc Asoka. and amnlganated later with Ihe carlieiit Christiuns ; nnd Ihey exUteil. pnilinMy, Iicfuire the otJ H^yplian lemj(1e» were dene- craled and ruined in the ince«s«nt Invasion* of IVrsian*, Creekn. and other conquering hofden. The hierophanta bad their atonement enncied in the Myntcry of Initiattoti ages before Ihe nnuatica, »r evcu Ihe Eaacnca, hod appeared. II was kuowit amoug hieroptaantn as the BaptiRia of Btood, and wa* connidered not u an nlonemcnl for the ' fall of innn ' In Kdni, but simply a« an cxplaUon for Ihepoxt, pment, and Tiilnre tins of it[iiuraut. but nei-ert tie leas polluted mankind. Tlie hietophant had the option of either offering hia pun and Mntea> life a» a sacrifiee for hU race to the godi whom he hoped to rejoin, or an anlimil Tictim. Tlie former depended entirely on their own wUI. At the loat mouienl of the iwtetnn ' new birth,' the Initiator pM»cd ' the word ' to the iniliAled, and ininie- dlntcly after Ihe latter had a wmpon placed in hi* ri^ht hand, and wax ordered A> Uriie. This ts the true origin of Ihe ChrLtUan itognui of atoMcnient." An Baltanche aaya. guoted byKagon: " Deiitniaion la the great God of the World." juatifyUig Iherefore lbephl1oaai>hlca1 conception of the Hin<in Shtvit. Axrcording to thia immiitohle and &acre^ law. the Initiate wan compelled to kill the Initiator ; Dtherwioe initiation remained int:oniplcle. . . . It \% dcnth (hat generalea life.'* Ortkodoxif matonni^f, p. toi. Alt that, however, waa embtcmatle and exoteric. Weapon and billing miut be uudnvtood tii their allegorical senaa. L 374 TBB SECKBT DOCTKINS. Vikarttana. from the origin of the Mysteries. Ragon, the famoos Mason, gives curious details and explanations with regard to the Sun rites. He shows that the biblical Hiram, the great hero of Masonrr (the "widow's son") a type taken from Osiris, is the Sun-God, the inventor of arts, and the "architect," the name Hiram meaning the tie- vakd, a title belonging to the Sun. Ever>' Occultist knowis how closely related to Osiris and the Pyramids are the uarratives m Kings con- cerning Solomon, his Temple and its construction ; he knows also that the whole of the Masonic rite of Initiation is based upon the Biblical allegoryof the codstrucliou of that Temple, Masons conveniently forget- ting, or perhaps ignoring, the fact that the latter narrative is modelled upon ]Cg>'ptian and still earlier symbolisms. Ragon explains it b; showing that the three companions of Hiram, the " three murderers." typify the three last months of the year; and that Hiram stands for the Sun — from its summer solstice downwards, whtn it begins decreasing— the whole rite being an astronomical allegory. During the summer solslicf, the Sun provokes songs of Kf^li'"*'^ from all that breathes; hence Hiram, who reprcfteuts it, can give to whomsoever bos the rigiit to it, the sacred Word, that is to say life. When ihe Sun de^eods to the inferior signs all Nature becomes mute, and Hiram can no longer give the sacml Won] to the companions, who represent the three inert months of the year. The first com- psniou strilies Hiram feebly with a rule twenty-four inches long, symbol of the twenty-four hoars which make up each diurnal revolution ; it is the first distriba- tioQ of time, which after the exaltation of the mighty star, feebly assails his «ci»- tence, giving him the first blow. The second companion strikes him with an irom square, symliol of the last season, figured by the inlcrscctioos of two right lines, which would diude into four equal parts the Zodiacal circle, whose centre symbo lises Hiram's heart, wliere it touches the point of the fotir Mjuares representing the four seasons: second distribution of time^ which at that period strikes a heavier blow at the solar existence. The third companion strikes him niortnlly on his fort^ head with .1 heavy blow of his mallet, whose cylindrical fomi symbolises the year, the ring or circle ; third di.stribution of time, the accomplishment of which deals the last blow to Uic existence of the expitingSun. Kroni this interpretation it hai been inferred that IfirafH, ti. founder of metals, the hero of the new legend with the title of archilat, is Osiris (the Sun} of modem initiation ; thst /ni. his widow, is the Lodge, thccmblem of the Karth {loka in Sanskrit, the world) and that Horns, son of Osiris (or of light) and the widow's son, is tlic free flfason, that is to say. the InxtuiU who inhabits the terrestrial lo<Ige {ihe ekild of the Widow, and of /.ight.)* And here again, our friends the Jesuits have to be mentioned, for Che above rite is of their making. To give one instance of their success 10 * Orlkodaxte waftfvmVw. I>P> tovio^. MASONRY AND THE JHSTITS. J75 I throwing dust iulo the eyes of ordinary individuals to prevent their seeing the truths of Occultism^ we will point otit what they did in what is now called Freemasonry'- This Brotherhood docs possess a considerable portion of the sym- bolism, formula:, and ritual of Occultism, handed down from time immemorial from the primeval Initiations. To render this Brother* hood a mere harmless negation, the Jesuits sent some of their most able emissaries into the Order, who first made the simple brethren believe that the true secret was lost with Hiram Abifif; and then induced them to put this belief into their formularies. They then invented specious but spurious higher degress, pretending to give further light upon this lost secret, to lead the candidate on and amuse him with forms borrowed from the real thing but containing no substance, and all artfully contrived to lead the aspiring Neophjrte to nowhere. And yet men of good sense and abilities, in other respects, vdW meet at intervals, and with solemn face, zeal and earnestness, go through the mockery of revealing "substituted secrets" instead of the real thing. If the reader turns to a very remarkable and very useful work called TAe Royal Masonic Cychpadia, Art. " Rosicruciauism," he will find its author, a high and learned Mason, showing what the Jesuits have done to destroy Masonry. Speaking of the period when the existence of this mysterious Brotherhood (of which many pretend to know "something" if not a good deal, and know in fact nothing) was first made known, he says: There wa-s a drejvl .iniong the creat masjie<i of .wciety in byegone (lavs of the iiii- 5ccn— a dread, as recent events ami pheootuena show very clearly, uot yet overcome in its entirety. Hence students of Nature and mind were forced into an ohACurity not altogether unwelcome. . . . The Kabulistic reveries of a Johanti Reuchlin led to the 6ery action of a Luther, and the patient labours of Trittcnheini produced the modtm system of diplomatic cipher writing. . ■ . It is very worthy of re- mark, that one particular ccntur\', and that in which the Rosicnicians first showed themselves, is distiflguisbed in history as the era in which most of the« efforts at throwing off the trammels of the paat [Popery and £cclesiAsti(;iam] occurred. Hence the opposition uf the losing party, and llivir virulence against auythiug mysterious or unknown. Thc>' freely organised pseudo-Rosi crucian and Mosooic societies in return; and these societies were instructed to irregularly entrap the weaker brethren of the True and Invisible Order, and then triumphantly t>etray an>'tbing they might he so inconsiderate a» to coinniuuicate to the superiors of these transitory- and unmeaning associations. Every wile waa adopted hy the authori- ties, fighting in self-defence against the progress of truth, to engage, by persuasion, interest or terror, aucb as might be cajoled into receiving the Pope as Master* rjh THB SECRET DOCTKINR. when gained, as many converts to that fuith know, but lUre qoI owb. \hitj are treated with neglect, and left to fight the battle of life sa best they may, not erea being adnittted to the knowledge of such misentble aporrlietJt u the Romish faith considers itself entitled lo withhold. But if Masonry has bcea spoiled, none is able to crush the real, in- visible Rosicnician and the Kastern Initiate. The symbolism of Vishvakanna and Surya Vikarttana has survived, where Hiratn Abiff was indeed murdered, and we will now return to it. It is not simply an astronomical, but is the most solemn rite, an inheritance from the Archaic Mysteries that has crossed the ages and is used to this day. It typifies a whole drama of the Cycle of Life, of progressive incarnations, and of psychic as well as of physiological secrets, of which neither the Church nor Science knows anything, though it is this rite that has led the former to the greatest of its Chribtian Mysteries. SECTION XXX. The Mystery "Sun of Initiation." I \ Thb antiquity of the Secret Doctrine may be better realised when it is shown at what point of history its Mysteries had already been desecrated, by being made subservient to the personal ambition of despot-ruler and crafty priest. These profoundly philosophical and scientifically composed religious dramas, in which were enacted the grandest truths of the Occult or Spiritual Universe and the hidden lore of leaming, had become subject to persecution long before the days when Plato and even Pi-tbagoras flourished. Withal, primal revelations given to Mankind have not died with the Mysteries : they are still pre- served as heirlooms for future and more spiritual generations. It has been already staled in /sis Unveiled,^ that so far back as in the days of Aristotle, the great Mysteries had already lost their primitive grandeur and solemnity. Their rites had fallen into desuetude, and they had to a great degree degenerated into mere priestly speculations and had become religious shams. It is useless to state when they first appeared in Europe and Greece, since recognised history may almost be said to begin vrith Aristotle, everything before him appearing to be in an inextricable chronological confusion. Suffice it to say, that in Egypt the Mysteries had been known since the days of Mencs, and thai the Greeks received them only when Orpheus introduced them from India. In an article " Was writing known before Fanini ?"t it is stated tliat the PanduB had acquired universal dominion and had taught the " sacri- ficial " Mysteries to other races as far back as 3,3c» B.C. Indeed, when Orpheus, the son of Apollo or Helios, received from his father the phorminx — the seven-stringed lyre, symbolical of the sevenfold mystery * Five Yart^ Jluauphy. p. 139, A corfoui (jucfttioa to »twt and to dear. **beii It iswcll-knowu ewn to the OrlmtaUats thnt, to takr but one c»ae. Uim Is VsMku. who was 11 prrdccn*or at finiul. and hie work still eziits ; there u« scvcutcca writen of Nlniku iglofuryt known to hive pra.-«i)eil Vaaka THK SECRET DOCTRI^^K. of Initiation — these Mysteries were already hoar>' with age in Central Asia and India. According to Herodotus it was Orpheus who brought them from India, and Orpheus is far anterior to Homer and Hesiod. Thus even iu the days of Aristotle few were the true Adepts left m Europe and even in Eg>'pt. The heirs of those who had been dispereed by the conquering s^vords of various invaders of old Egypt had been dispersed iu their turn. As 8,000 or 9.000 years earlier the stream of knowledge bad been slowly running down from the tablelands of Central Asia into India and towards Europe and Northern Africa, so about 500 years n.c. it had begun to flow backward to its old home and birthplace. During the two thousand subsequent years the know- ledge of the existence of great Adepts nearly died out in Europe. Nevertheless, in some secret places the Mysteries were still enacted in all their primitive purity. The "Sun of Righteousness" still blazed high on Mf midnight sky: and, while darkness was upon the face of the profane world, there was the eternal light in the Adyta on the nights 01 Initiation. The truf Mysteries were never made public. Gleusinia and Agrsc for the multitudes : the God Ev^ouA.^ " of the good counsel," the great Orphic Deity, for the neophyte. This mysteo' God — mistaken by our Syrabologists for the Sun— who was He ? Hver>'one who has any idea of the ancient Egyptian exoteric faith is quite aware that for the multitudes Osiris was the Sun in Heaven, "the Heavenly King," Ro-Imphab; that by the Greeks the Sun was called the" Eye of Jupiter," as for the modern orthodox Parsi be is " the Eye of Ormuzd : " that the Sun. moreover, was addressed as the "All-seeing God " (B^oXw^ftiA/iw) as the •" God riaviour," and the "saving God" (Atnov r^ (Twn;piac). Read the papynia of Papheronmes at Berlin, and the stela as rendered by Mariette Bey,* and see what they say : Glory to thee, O Sun, divine child J . . . thy rays carry life to the pure and to those ready. . . . The Gods [the " Sons of God "jwho approach thcc trenihle with delight and -twe. . . . Thou art the first boru, the Sou of God. the Word.t The Church has now seized upon these terms and sees presentments of the coming Christ in these expressions in the initiatory rites and * La Mtrtd'Apit. p. A1- * One Jtiat iutUated v* calletl tbc " finU-lMm," ouil in Indl* he becomn dw^a. " twice bom," oaty after hSa final aud supmne InlUatiou. i^i*ery Adept L> » "Son of God" aiut a"SOD of Licht" «flet receiwing the " WottI," when be becutnes U>e " Word"' himaelf, after riTcdviiig Uie seven divine tutxi- butu ot the " lyre of ApaUo." THS SUN AS GOD. 279 prophetic utterances of the Pagan Oracles. They are nothing of the kind, for they were applied to every worthy Initiate. If the expres- sions that were used in hieratic writings and glyphs thousands of years before our era are now found iu the laudatory hymns and prayers of Christian Churches, it is simply because they have been nnblu&hingly appropriated by the T^alin Christians, in the full hope of never being detected by posterity. Everything that could be done had been done to destroy the original Pagan manuscripts and the Church felt secure. Christianity has undeniably had her great Seers and Prophets, like every other religion ; but their claims are not strengthened by denying their predecessors. listen to Plato: ^ Know tlien. Glaucus, that wlicn I speak or the production of good, it Is the Sun X mean. The Son has a perfect analogy with his Father. lamblichus calls the Sun "the image of divine intelligence or Wisdom." Eusebius, repeating the words of Philo, calls the rising Sun (Ara-roKii) the chief Angel, the most ancient, adding that the Arch- angel who is polyonyfftmis (of many names) is the Verbum or Christ. The word Sol (Sun) being derived from solus, the One, or the " He alone," and its Greek name Helios meaning the " Most High,*' the emblem becomes comprehensible. Nevertheless, the Ancients made a difference between the Suu and its prototype. Socrates saluted the rising Sun as does a true P3rsi or Zoroastrian in our own day ; and. Homer and Euripides, as Plato did after them several times, mention the Jupiter-Logos, the "Word" or the Sun. Nevertheless, the Christians maiutaiu that siuce the oracle consulted on the God lao answered : " It is the Sun," therefore The Jehovah of the Jews was well known tc9 the Pagans ajid Greeks;' and "lao is our Jehovah." The first part of the proposition has nothing, it seems, to do with the second part, and least of all can the couclusiou be regarded as correct. But if the Christians arc so anxious to prove the identity. Occultists have nothing against it. Only, in such case, Jehovah is also Bacchus. It is very strange that the people of civilised Christendom should until now hold on so desperately to the skirts of the idolatrous Jews — Sabssans and Sun worshippers as they were.t like the rabble of Chaldsea — and that they should fail to see thai the later Jehovah is hut a Jewish development of the Ja-va, or the • Sm De KIrvinc Iv. ij. f II. Kinss, xxiii. 4-'^ 280 THB SECRBT DOCTKtNH. lao. of the Phoenicians ; that this name, in short, was tlie secret name of a Mystery-God, one of the many Kabiri. " Highest God " as He was for one little nation, he never was so regarded by the Initiates who conducted the Mysteries : for them he was but a Planetar>- Spirit attached to the \HsibIe Snn ; and the visible Sun is only the ccntzal Star, not the central spiritual Sun. And the Angel of the Lord said unto htm [Manoah] " Whj^ askut tliou thus after my name, seeing it is secret." * However this may be, the identity of the Jehovah of Mount Sinai with the God Bacchus is hardly disputable, and he is sure!? — as already shown in /sis C/mictTo/— Dionysos.f Wherever Bacchus was worshipped there was a tradition of Nyssa.t and a cave where he was reared. Outside Greece, Bacchus was the all-powerful " Zagreus, the highest of Gods." in whose service was Orpheus, the founder of the Mysteries. Now, unless it be conceded that Moses was an initiated Priest, an Adept, whose actions arc all narrated allegorically, then it must be admitted that he personally, together with his hosts of Israelites, worshipped Bacchus. And Moses boilt an altar, and called the name or it Jelwvah Nissi [or, lao-Diai, dr again Dionistj.f To Strengthen the statement we have further to r«mcmber that the place where Osiris, the Eg>'ptiau Zagreus or Bacchus, was bom. was Mount Sinai, which is called by the Egyptians Mount Nlssa. The brazen serpent was a nis, 0?n3, and the month of the Jewish Passover is Nisan. * Jiidgri. xiii. li. Ramaon, Manoab'N Mm. mut an ItdltaleoT Ibnt "M]rBtBr> " Lord, J*-ti : Ik •!• coiuecT&lcd before his binh to t>cconie n "Naxsiitc" {■ chcU) an Adept. Ilia tin wiUi DatiUh.uri the rroppfnic of liinlonfc hair that "no muir wnAtotoiicfa "shown how well he kept his Mcred raw- Tb* sllcgocy of Sanuoii prove* the Baotcricisin of ihc Siile. u aUo the cbstracter of the ■• Myslciy G«di " ofthe Jem. True, Mdvcni jcjvn a •Icftnition of the Phrrnldnn Idea of the (deal sunlight M a •piritual influence iasuiuK from the bisheat UO(l. lao, " Xbt light couctivnble only by intellect— tte phynical and vpintual IMndple of all Ifalngs; out of which Ih? soul emanatca." 11 waa Uie mak RMence, or WiKdom. while the pnnitlvc matl«r Or CTtavt waa Ihe female. Tba« the Srst two prin<l- plea, co-eternal and Infinite, were alreadjr with Ihe primitive rhccniciaiu. apitit aadnuittar. But th* is the echo of Jewinh Ibuuifhl, nut the opintun of Pagan Phi[aaO|ihenk » See /«> L'ui<nlfd, a. 5»t 1 Belta-tian or Scj'thopolt* in raVeatioe haJ that tlt-«iiraatioii : ao bad a apol on Uounl Pareaa^sa. But DiodoTus rteclare* that NysMa was ti«^tw*Tii Phirniria and Kyypl ; GuTtpidcR atatea that Dtonyao* came to Greece from India ; and l>iodorua addo hb teoUiBony : " Oolria was brouzlit up In Nraaa, la AiaMa the Happy : he was Ihe wn of Z/-u>, and was named from hb Cither I uaminalive Zens, (eU- UvF />i«j] and llic place IMo-NynM "— the Zcu* or Jove of Nyssa. This identity of name or title la TCT7 tl^ficatit. In Oreeec Dionyaoa «■• second only t« Zeua, and Pindar aaya: "80 F«lbier2«ai SOaema oU thi&ica, and Bacchus be Sovctob alao." I £x., Kvii. 15 SECTION XXXL The Objects of the Mysteries. I I The earliest Mysteries recorded in history are those of Saraothrace. After the distribution of pure Fire, a new life began. This was the new birth of the Initiate, after which, like the Brabmans of old in India, he became a dwija— a " twice bom," loitiated into that wbicli mny be rightly calletl the most blessed of all Mysteries . . . being ourselves pure,* says Plato. Diodorus Siculus, Herodotus, and Sanchouiaihou the PhfEnician — the oldest of Historians — say that these Mystericsoriginated in the night of time, thousands of years probably before the historical period. lamhlichus informs us that Pythagoras Was iuitiated iu all the Mysteries of Byblus and Tyre, ia the sacred operations of the S>Tiiuis, and in the Mysterits of the Phceuiciflns.t As was said in /sis UnveUed: When men like Pytha^ora-s Plato and laniblichtis, renowned for iheir severe morality, took part in the Mysteries and spoke of thein with veneration, it ill behovea our modern critics to judge them [nnd their IiiiUales] upon their merely external iispcct- Yel this is what has been done until now, especially by the Christian Fathers. Clement Alexandrinus stigmatises the Mysteries as •' in- decent and diabolical " though his words, showing that the Eleusinian Mysteries were identical with, and even, as he would allege, borrowed from, those of the Jews, are quoted elsewhere in this work. The Mys- teries were composed of two parts, of which the L,e.sser were performed ' FHMirutt Cary's uaaktslton, p- j>6. V t,i/te/ Fyihagvrai, p, xqj. "Since PytbacoraA," he addi^, "nUo«pntl twoBnd twenty ycAninthv ■dyta o( llie lcinplr» in Hgypt, aMOCUted wilh Uie Mavtftn* in Babylom, And iwu inatiucteti t>y tb«ni la tticii vcntmblr Icnowlrtlec. ii \t not at all wonderful that he was ^killnl in Mnfricut Thcurity, and was thFtcfore nblc to ix-rfuiiu tiitngK which »urpaa< mcKly humaii powvi. and wbith ai/pcai lo be perfectly incredible to the rulx*>' " IP- '9*1- a82 THB SECRET DOCTRINE. at Agrs, and the Greater at HIeusis, and Cienicnt had been him4«tt' initiated. But the Katharsis, or trials of purification, have ever been misunderstood. lamblichus explains the worst ; and his expianatioo ought to be perfectly satisfactory, at any rate for every unprejudiced mind. He says : — Exlubitions of this kind in the Mysteries were designed to free as from licentiou passions, bygratifyiDg tlie si^^lit. and nl tlie <iaiiie time vanqui.sb:ng all evil Uiougbt, throngh tlie awful sanctity witb wbicb the»e rites were accompanied. Dr. Warburton remarks : The wisest and best men in the Pagan world arc unanimous in this, that the Mysteries wcix- instituted pure, and proposeO. the noblest ends by the wortbiat means. Although persons of both sexes and all classes were allowed to take part in the Mysteries, and a participation in them was ei'en obliga- tory-, verj' few indeed attained the higher and final Initiation in these celebrated rites. The gradation of the Mysteries is given us by Proclos in the fourth book of his Theology of Plato. The perfective rile, precedes in oixler the iiiilintion Telete, Afitesis, and the iBi* tiation, Epopicia, or the final apoc.il ypse [revelation]. Thcon of Smyrna* in Mathematica, also divides the mystic rites into five parts : The first of which is the previous purification ; for neither ar« the Mysteries com- municMed to all who are willing to receive them ; but there are certain persons who are prevented by the voice of the crier since it is oeceswiry that such OS are not expelled frotri the Mysteries should first be refined by certain purifications: but after purificntton the reception of the sacred rite« succced-t. Tbc third part is denominated cpopteia or reception. And the fourth, which is the end and design of the revelation, is (the investiture) the binding of the head and fixing of the crowns* . . . whether after this he [the iuitialed person] becomes • torchbcarer, or an hierophant of tbc Mysteries, or sustains some other part of th^ aacenlotfil office. But tlie fifth, which is produced from all these, U friendship ant. interior communion with God. And this wns the last and most swful of all the Mj-sterics-t The chief objects of the Mysteries, represented as diabolical by the * 'rhiaexpre*Mootuuiloolb«uiMleHtoudMinplyUteriUy ; for, MlnthcttitLiaUotKifccHaiti Brotlm- hoodn, 11 bu n itrart mconltiK that we hare )ait cxpUIncd : It was hinted at t>y Pythicoraa. when he dcacrities hU FMltnKn after Ui« IiiilMilioit, an<l »«>« th^t lit war rrotrnrd tiy thr Cods In whoar pmntm he h«il ilnink ■' the waters of life "—in Ihc Ultida My«ctle» ihCK wai tbv (boot of life, ani toma, th« fBcrcd dritik. * BieMttKian anil Bacchic htyiUriea, T. Taylor, p. 46, 47. m'STERIES AND THHOPHANY. 383 I Christian Fathers and ridiculed by modern writers, were instituted with the highest and the most moral purpose in view. There is no need to repeat here that which has been already described in /sis Unvnled* that whether through temple Initiation or the private study of Theurgy, every \ student obtained the proof of the immortality of his Spirit, and the ■ survival of his Soul. What the last epopteia was is alluded to by Plato in Phadms : B«tDg initiate in those MysUties, which it is lawfDl to call the most hieased of all mysteries . . . we were freed from the molestations of e'^'ils, which otherwise await UA io a future period of time. likewise in consequence of this div-inc iniiia' iion. we became spectators of entire, simple, immoveable, and blessed visions rest- dent in a pure lij^hLt This veiled confession shows that the Initiates enjoyed Theophany — saw visions of Gods and of real immortal Spirits. As Ta3'Ior correctly infers : The moat sabhme part of the epopteia or final reveahng. consiateil in belioMing the Gods [the high Planetary Spirits) themselves, invested with a resplendent light; The statement of Proclus upon the subject is unequivocal : In all the Initiations and Mysteries, the (^ods exhibit many forms of themselves, and appear in a variety of shapeti ; iitid sometimes indeed a formless light of them- selves is held forth to the view ; sometimes this light is according to a human form and sometimes it proceeds into a different shape.^ Again we have Whatever is on earth is the resemblance and shadow of something- that is in the sphere, while that resplendent thing [the protot^-pc of the Soul-Spiritj reroaineth in uMckangeabti condition, it is well also witli its sh.idow. When that resplendent one removeth far from its shadow life rcmovcth [from the latter] to a distance. Again that light is the shadow of something more resplendent than ttself.n Thus speaks the Dfsalir, in the Book of Shet (the prophet Zirtu.sht), thereby showing the identity of its Esoteric doctrines with those of the Greek Philosophers. The second statement of Plato confirms the view that the Mysteries of the Ancients were identical with the Initiations practised even now among the Buddhist and the Hindu Adepts. The higher I * U. m. 113- + FAerttinian and ffauAic Myiteria, p. 63. ( Op. cit.. p. (.5, I ^oudby Taylor, p, 66. II V*r»«jj-iS. 284 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. visions, the most irulbful, were produced through a regular discipliae of gradual Initiations, and the development of psychical powers. In Kurope and Egypt the Mystas were brought into close uniou with those whom Proclus calls " mystical natures," " resplendent Gods," because, as Plato says : p\Ve] were ourselves pure and tminaCulate. being liberated from tbia suiroondiig veslni«Dt, wbich we denominate body, and to which ve are now boaud like la oyster to its shell." As to the East, The doctrine of planetary and terrestrial Pilris was revealed enliniy in ondeat India, as well as now, only at the laat moment of initiation, and to the adepts of superior defrrees."*" The word Piiris may now be explained and something else added. In India the chela of the third degree of Initiation has two Gum*: One, the living Adept; The other the disembodied and glorified MahStmfi, Who remains the adviser or instructor of even the high Adepts. Few are the accepted chelas who even see their living Master. their Guru, till the day and hour of their final aud for ever binding vow. It is this that was meant in fsis Unveiled, when it was stated that few of the fakirs (the word cheia being unknown to Europe and America in those days) however Pure, and honest, .iiid self-devoted, Imve yet ever seeu the astral fonn of a partly human fiitar (an ancestor or father), otherwise than at the solemn moment of thdr tirst and last initiation. It ts in tbc presence of his iustnictor, (he Guru, and just before the va/ou-fakir [the just initiated chela] is despatched into the world of the living, with his seven-knolLcd t>amboo wand for all protection, that he is suddenly placed face to face with the unknown raESENCE [of his Pitar or TaUier, the gloria fied invisible Jklaster, or discmlxiilied MahaCmA). He sees it. aud falls prDBtratcflt the feet of the c\-anescenL form, but is not eatmsted with the great secret of its evocation, for it is Ibe siipreiue mvstery of the holy syllable. The Initiate, says Eliphas Levi, knows : therefore, " he dares all and keeps silent.** Says the great French Kabalist : You may see him often *aci, never discouraged or desperate; often poor, never bumbled orwrclched ; often persecuted, never cowed down or vaaquisheil, l-'or he remembers the widowhoofl and the murder of Orpheus, the exile and solitary death of Moses, the martyrdom of the prophets, the tortures of Apolloniu.<s the Cross of the Saviour. He knows in what forlorn state died Agrtppa. whose memor>' is slan* dered to this day ; he knows the trials that broke down the great Paracelsus mod * fihrndnu, 64, quoted by TrtIot, p. 4|. « /tit CAiWfM, iL iM' TH8 MYSrERmS AWD MASOmtY, 285 I I I P «n that Ra^inond Lutly bad to suffer before he arrived at a bloody dtath. He remembepi Swedenborg haviug to feign insanity, and losiag "-"wa his reason before his knowledge was forgiven to bim; St Martin, who bad to hide hiin»eir all his life : Caglioxtn^ who died forsaken in the celU of the Inquii^ition ■ : Cazotte. who perished on the guillotint Successor of so many ^-ictimi, he dares, nevertheless, but understands the more the necessity to keep silent f Masonry — not the political institution known a& the Scotch Lodge, but real Masonr>'. some rites of which are still preserved in the Grand Orient of France, and that Elias Ashmole. a celebrated English Occult Philosopher of the XVIIth century, tried in vain to retnodel, after the manner of the Indian and Egj'ptian Mysteries — Masonry rests, accord- ing to Ragon, the great authority upon the subject, upon three funda- meutal degrees : the triple duty of a Mason is to study whence he comes, what he is, and whiihcr he j^oes : the study that is, of God, of himself, and of the future transformation.^ Masonic Initiation was modelled on that in the lesser Mysteries. The third degree was one used in both Egypt and India from timeimtuemorial, and the remembrance of it lingers to this day iu ever)" Lodge, under the name of the death and resurrection of Hiram Abiflf, the " Widow's Son." In Eg>'pt the latter was called "Osiris;" in India " Loka-chakshu" (Eye of the World), and "Dinakara" (day-maker) or the Stin^and the rite itself was everywhere named the •' gate of death." The coffin, or sarcophagus, of Osiris, killed by Typhon, was brought in and placed in the middle of the Hall of the Dead, with the Initiates all around it and the candidate near by. The latter was asked whether he had participated in the murder, and notwithstanding his denial, and after sundry and very hard trials, the Initiator feigued to strike him ou the head with a hatchet ; he was thrown down, swathed in bandages like a mummy, and wept over. Then came lightning and thunder, the supposed corpse was surrounded with fire, aud was finally raised. Ragon speaks of a rumour that charged the Emperor Commodus — when he was at one time enacting the part of the Initiator — with ha\'ing played this part iu the initiator>' drama so .seriously that he actually killed the postulant when dealing him the blow with the hatchet. This shows that the /esser Mysteries had not quite died out iu the second centur>' a.d. * TliU i« (ai»c, and Uic Abl>£ Cotuianl lEUphu IjMi kmtvt it wu m. Whjrdld be proinalsnte the mitniUi? r D^emt 4* la Hanlt Magit. L 119, iw. 1 Orlkodoxu Ma^aiutifitf, p. ^. .^86 THS S£CR£T DOCTRINK. The Mysteries were carried iuto South and Central America. Northern Mexico and Peru by the Atlanteans in those days when A pedefttriun frotn the North [of what was once apoa a time alao India] nii^i hnve reached— hardly vcttiog his feet — the Alaskan Peninsulu, tlirouj^h Manchooru. across ihc /utiuc Gulf of Tarlari', the Kvirile and Aleutian Inlands ; while anotkn traveller, furnished with a canoe and stortinff from the South, could have walked over from Siam, crossed the Polynesian Islands and trudged into any part of tbe continent of Sonth America.* They continued to exist down to the day of the Spanish invaders. These destroyed the Mexican and Peruvian records, but were pre- \-ented from laying their desecrating hands upon the many Pyramids— the lodges of an ancient Initiation — whose ruins are scattered over Pucute Nacional. Cholula. and Teotihuacan. The niins of Palenqoe of Ococimgo in Chiapas, and others in Central America are known to all. If the pyramids and temples of Guiengola and Mitla ever betnf their secrets^ the present Doctrine will then be shown to have been i forerunner of the grandest truths in Nature. Meanwhile they have alt a claim to be called Mitla, " the place of sadness" and " the abode of the (desecrated) dead." SECTION XXXII. Traces of the Mysteries. quit I I Says the Poyat Afasonit Cyclopedia, art. '• Siin : '* In all times, the Ron lia* nece.isnrilv plnyed sii important part as a 8ytr>x>T, and e!«pecial]y in FrecmaKiiiry. The W.M. represents the risinK sun. the J.W. the sua at the merirlian, anti the S.\V. the setting sun. In tile Dmidicnl rites the .^rch- Dniid rcpresenied the suu, and was aided by tM-o other odiccrs, one representing the Moon in tlir West, and tlie other the Sun at the South in its meridian. It !s quite anncccBsarr to enter into any lengthened discussion on this symbot It is the more " unnecessary " since J. M. Ragon has discussed it y fully, as one may &nd at the end of Section XXIX.. where part of his explanations have been quoted. Freemasonr>' derived her rites from the East, as we have said. And if it be true to say of the modern Rosicrucians that " they are invested with a knowledge of chaos, not perhaps a very desirable aci^iiisition," the reniarlc is still more true when applied to nil the other branches of Masourj-, since the knowledge of their members about the full signification of their symbols is nit. Dozens of hypotheses are resorted to. one more unlikely than the other, as to the " Rouud Towers" of Ireland; one fact is enough to show the ignorance of the Masons, namely, that, according to the Royal Masonic Cyclopadia, the idea that they arc connected with Masonic Initiation may be at once dismissed as unworthy of notice. The "Towers." which are found thronghout the East in Asia, were connected with the My stcr>'-Inilia lions, namely, with the Vishvakanna and the Vikarttana rites. The candidates for Initiation were placed in them for three days and three nights, wherever there was no temple with a subterranean crypt close at band. These round towers were built for no other purposes. Discredited as are all such monuments of Pagan origin by the Christian clergy, who thus "• soil their own nest," they are still the living and indestructible relics of the Wisdom of old. i ^4 288 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. Nothing exists in this objective and illusive world of ours that cannoi be made to seire two purposes — a good aud a bad one. Thus in later ages, the luitlates of the Z,d/? Path and the anthropomorphists Cook io hand most of those venerable ruins, then sileut and deserted by ihdr first wise inmates, aud turned them indeed into phallic monuments. But this was a deliberate, wilful, and vicious misinterpretation of their real meaning, a deflection from their first use. The Sun — though evtr. even for the multitudes, /ivvot o{rpa»'ov &<»«, "the only and one King aihI God in Heaven," and the Ei^i-X^, "the God of Good Counsel" of Orpheus — had in cverj- exoteric popular religion a dual aspect whidi was anthroporaorphised by the profane. Thus the Sun was Osiris- Typhon, OrwwM.^- A hrivian, Bel-Jupiter and Baal, the Ufe-gi\ing and the (/poM-giving luminary-. And thus one and the same monolith, pillar, pyramid, tower or temple, originally built to glorify the first principle or aspect, might become iu time an idol-fane, or worse, a phallic emblem in its crude and brutal form. The Lingam of Uu Hiudus has a spiritual and highly philosophical meaning, while the missionaries see in it but an "indecent emblem:" it ha.s just the meaning which is to be found in all those baalini, chammanim, and the bamotb with the pillars of unhewn stone of the Bible, set up for the glorification of the mate Jehovah. But this does not alter the iaxA. that the pureia of the Greeks, the nur-hags of Sardinia, the teocoUi of Mexico, etc., were all in the beginning of the same character as the " Round Towers" of Ireland. They were sacred places o Initiation. In 1877. the writer, quoting the authority and opinions of some most eminent scholars, ventured to assert that there was a great diflFerence between the terms Chrcstos and Chrislos, a difference having a pro- fonnd and Esoteric meaning. Also that while Chrisios means "to live" and "to be born into a new life." Chresios, in "Initiation" phraseologv', signified the death of the inner, lower, or personal nature in man; thus is given the key to the Brihmanical title, the tv^ice-bom: and finally, There were C/rrrslians long before the era of Christisttity. and the Gssenes be- longed to thein.* . . . For this epithets sufficiently opprobrious to characterise the writer could hardly be found. And yet then as well as now, the author never CBBtSTOS Ai«D CHRB9T0S. 28^ I I I attempted a statement of such a serious nature without showing as many learned authorities for it as could be mustered. Thus oa the next page it was said : Lepsius »hows that the word A'fl/Vr mennA Clirestos, " good." and that one of the titles of Osiris. "Onnofre.'' must be translated "the goodness of God made mani- bst." "The vorehip of Christ was not universal at this early ilatc." explaiu.'* Mackenzie, " by which i mean that Christolatry had not been introduced ; but the wonhip of Chrestos — the Good Principle — had preceded it by many centuries, nnd even survived the general adoption of Christianity, as shown on monumenla still in existence. . . . A^ain. wc ha^'e an inscription which is pre-Christinn on au cpitaphiel tablet (Spon. .Vwr. Erud.. Ant., x. xviii. 2). Ya;^tr^c Aa/Mcra«m' Aj^o-fioffic UpoK XpjoT* X(up<, and de Ro<L<ii (Roma Sott^rranea, tome i.. tav. xxi.) gives us another example from the cntaconibs— '■ .Biia Chrestc, ia Pace."* To-day the writer is able to add to all those testimonies the corrobo- ratioQ of an erudite author, who proves whatever be undertakes to show on the authority of geometrical demonstration. There is a most curious passage with remarks and explanations in the Sourcf of Mea- sures, whose author has probably never heard of the " Mystery-God *' Visvafcarma of the early Aryans. Treating on the difference between the terms Chrest and Christ, he ends by saying that: There were two Mc&siahs: one who went down into the pit for the solvation of this world : this was the Sun shorn of his j^oldcn rays, and crowned with black- ened ones (symbolising this Iosa), as the thcarns : the other was the triumphant Messiah mounting up to the summit of the arch of heaven, and personified as the Lion of the Tribe of/udah. In twth instances he had the cros& : once in humilia- tion and once holding it in his control as the law of creation, He being Jehovah. And then the author proceeds to give "the fact" that "there were two Messiahs." etc., as quoted above. And this — Icaviug the divine and mystic character and claim for Jesus entirely independent of this event of His mortal life — shows Him, beyond any doubt, as an Initiate of the Eg>'ptian Mysteries, where the same rite of Death and of spiritual Resurrection for the neophyte, or the suffering Chrestos on his trial and new birth by Regeneration, was enacted — for this was a universally adopted rite. The "pit" into which the Eastern Initiate was made to descend was, as shown before, PatSIa, one of the seven regions of the nether world, over which ruled Visuki, the great "snake God." This pit, P4tala. has * Itta VmwOtd, «. 313 3 D ago TH8 SECRBT DOCTBINK. in the Eastern Sjinbolism precisely the same manifold meaning as is fonnd by Mr. Ralston Skinner in the Hebrew word sAtac in its application to the case in hand. For it was the synonym of Scorpio— Patfila's depths being "impregnated with the brightness of the new Sun" — represented by the "uewly born" into the gIor>-; and PitlU was and is in a sense, "a pit, a grave, the place of death, and the door of Hades or Shcol " — as, in the partially esoteric Initiation.s in India, the candidate had to pass through the matrix of the heifer before proceeding to PStSla. In its non-mystic sense it is the Antipodes- America being referred to in India as Palala. But in its symbolism it meant all that, and much more. The fact alone that Vasuki, the ruling Deity of PAt^la, is represented in the Hindu Pantheon as the great Naga (Serpent) — who was used by the Gods and Asuras as a rope round the mountain Mandara, at the churniug of the ocean for Amrita, the water of immortality — connects him directly with Initia- lion. For he is Shesha Nfiga also, serving as a couch for Vishnu, and upholding the seven worlds ; and he is a]so Anauta. "the endless," and the symbol of eternity — hence the "God of Secret Wisdom," degraded by the Church to the ry/t- of the tempting Serpent, of Satan. That what is now said is correct may be verified by the evidence of even the exoteric rendering of the attributes of various Gods and Sages both in the Hindu and the Buddhist Pantheons. Two instances will suffice to show how little our best and most erudite Orientalists are capable of dealing correctly and fairly with the symbolism of Eastern uatioos, while remaining ignorant of the corresponding points to be found only in Occultism and the Secret Doctrine. (0 The learned Orientalist and Tibetan traveller, Professor Emil Schlagintweit, mentions in one of his works on Tibet, a national legend to the effect that NAgArjuiia [a " mj-tholosical " personage "without any real existence.** Uie learned German scholar Ihinb-i] receiveil the book Param&nha, or according lo others, the book Avatamsaia, fmm tbc NAgas, rabuluus creatures of Uie natort of serpentB, who occupy a place among the beiogs superior to man, and are regarded as protectors of the law of Duddba. To these spiritual beiogs Sh&kyamuni is said to have taught a more philosophical religious s>-stem than to men, who were not sofficieutly advanced to understand il at the time of his appearance.* Nor are men sufficiently advanced for it now: for "the more pbilo* • SttdOMitm ra 71M P- 3>- THK SYMBOLISM OF nArADA. a4i I I I I I sophical religious system" is the Secret Doclriue, the Occult Eastern Philosophy, which is the comer-stone of all sciences rejected by the niiwise builders even at this day, and more lo-day perhaps than ever before, in the great conceit of our age. The allegory means simply that NSgSijuna having been initiated by the "Serpents" — the Adepts, "the wise ones" — and driven out from India by the Br&hmans, who dreaded to have their Mysteries and sacerdotal Science divulged (the real cause of their hatred of Buddhism), went away to China and Tibet, where he initiated many into the truths of the hidden Mysteries taught by Gautama Buddha. (2) The hidden symbolism of NArada— the great Rishi and the author of some of the Kig-Vaidic hymns, who incarnated again later on during Krishna's time — has never been understood. Yet, in con- nection with the Occult Sciences, Narada, the son of Brahma, is one of the most prominent characters; he is directly connected in his first incarnation with the "Builders'* — hence with the seven "Rectors" of the Christian Church, who '* helped God in the work of creation." This grand personification is hardly noticed by our OrientaHsts, who refer only to that which he is alleged to have said of P5tlla, namely, "that it is a place of sexual and sensual gratifications." This is thought to be amusing, and the re6ection is suggested that NSrada, no doubt, " found the place delightful.'' Yet this sentence simply shows him to have been an Initiate, connected directly with the Mysteries, and walking, as all the other neophytes, before and after him. had to walk, in "the pit among the thorns" in the "sacrificial Chrest condi- tiou," as the sufifering victim made to descend thereinto — a mystery, truly! NSrada is one of the seven Rishis, the "mind-bom sons'' of Brahma. The fact of his having been during his incarnation a high Initiate — he, like Orpheus, being the founder of the Mysteries — is corroborated, and made evident by his historj'. The Mahabkarata states that Narada, having frustrated the scheme formed for peopling the universe, in order to remain true to his vow of chastity, was cursed by Daksha. and sentenced to be born once more. Again, when born during Krishna's time, he is accused of calling his father BrahniS "a false teacher," because the latter advised him to get married, and he refused to do so. This shows him to have been an Initiate, going against the orthodox worship and religion. It is curious to find this Rishi and leader among the " Builders" and the " Heavenly Host" as *92 THB SBCRET DOCTRrNK. the prototype of the Christian " leader" of the same " Host " — the Archangel Mikacl. Both are the male " Virgins/' and both are the only ones among their respective "Hosts" who refuse to create. Ndrada is said to ha\'e dissuaded the Hari-ash\'as, the five thousand sons of Daksha, begotten by him for the purpose of peopling the Earth, from producing offspring. Since then the Hari-ashvas have " dispersed themselves through the regions, and have never returned." The Initiates are, perhaps, the incarnations of these Hari-ash\'as? It was on the seventh day. the third of his ultimate trial, that the neophyte arose, a regenerated man. who, having passed through his second spiritual birth, returned to earth a glorified and triumphaat conqueror of Death, a Hierophant. An Eastern neophyte in his Chrest condition may be seen in a certain engTa\*ing in Moor's Hindu Pantheon, whose author mistook another form of the crucified Sun or Vishuu. Vittoba. for Krishna, and calls it " Krishna crucified in Space." The engraving is also given in Dr. Lundy's Monuintntal Christianity, in which work the reverend author has collected as many proofs as his pouderous volume could hold of "Christian symbols htfore Christianit}-/' as he exprefwes it. Thus he shows us Krishna and Apollo as good shepherds, Krishna holding the cruciform Conch and the Chakra, and Krishna " crucified in Space." as he calls it. Of this figure it may be truly said, as the author says of it himself: This representation I believe to be anterior In Chrisii.inity. ... It looks like ■.Christian crucifix in many respects. . . . The drawing, the attitude, the nail- marks in hands tiad feet, indicate a Christian origin, while the Parthian coronet of ae\'en points, the absence of the n-ood, and of the usual inscription, and the rays of glory above, would seem to point to .some other than a ChristUa orij^n. Can it bf the viciini-man. or the priest and victim both in one. of the Hindu M>thology, who offered himself a sacrifice before the worlds were ? It is surely so. Can it be Plato's Second God who impressed himself os the uniTcree in the form of Uie cross ? Or is it his divine man, who would be scourged, tormented, fettered, have his eyes burnt out ; and lastly . . , would be cnutficd f It is all that and much more : archaic religions Philosophy was universal, and its Mysteries are as old as man. It is the eternal symbol of the personified Sun— astronomically purified^ — in its mystic meaning regenerated, and symbolised by all the Initiates in memory of a sinless Humanity when all were " Sons of God." Now, mankind has become EGYPTIAN INITIATIOJI. t I f the " Son of Evil " truly. Does all this take anything away from the dignity of Christ as an ideal, or of Jesus as a divine raan ? Not at all. On the contrary, made to stand alone, glorified above all otber "Sons of God," Ue can only foment evil feelings in all those many millioned nations who do not belie\'e in the Christian system, provoking their hatred and leading to iniquitous wars and strifes. If. on the other hand, we place Him among a long series of "Sons of God" and Sons of divine Light, every man may then be left to choose for himself, among those many ideals, which he will choose as a God to call to his help, and worship on earth as in Heaven. Many among those called ''Saviours" were " good shepherds," as was Krishna for one, and all of them are said to have " crushed the serpent's head" — in other words to have conquered their sensual nature and to have mastered divine and Occult Wisdom. Apollo killed P>'thon, a fact which exonerates him from the charge of being himself the great Dragon, Satan : Krishna slew the snake Kalin^ga, the Black Serpent ; and the Scandinavian Thor bruised the head of the symbolical reptile with his crucifixion mace, In EgiT*! every city of importance was separated from its burial-place by a sacred lake. The same ceremony of judgment, as is described in TA^ Book of the Dead — •• that precious and mysterious book " (Bunsen) —as taking place in the world of Spirit, took place on earth during the burial of the mummy. Forty-two judges or assessors assembled on the shore and judged the departed " Soul " according to its actions when in the body. After that the priests returned within the sacred precincts and instructed the neophytes upon the probable fate of the Soul, and the solemn drama that was then taking place in the invisible realm whither the Soul had fled. The immortality of the Spirit was strongly inculcated on the neophytes by the Al-om-jak — the name of the highest £g>-ptian Hierophant. In the Crata Nepoa — the priestly Mysteries in Eg>'pl — the following are described as four out of the seven degrees of Initiation. - After a preliminary trial at Thebes, where the neophyte had to pass through many probations, called the "Twelve Tortures." he was com- manded, in order that he might come out triumphant, to govern his passions and never lose for a moment the idea of his inner God or seventh Principle. Then, as a symbol of the wanderings of the nnpurified Soul, he had to ascend several ladders and wander in dark- ness in a cave with many doors, all of which were locked. Having THB 5RCRRT DOCTRINK. overcome all. he received the degree of Pastophoris, after which he became, in the second and third de^ees, the Neocoria and Melanc- phoris. Brought into a vast subterranean chamber, tbiclcly furnished with mummies lying in state, he was placed in presence of the coflSn which contained the mutilated body of Osiris. This was the hall called the " Gates of Death," whence the verse in Job : Have the gates orOestb been opened to thee, Haiit thou seen the doors of Ihi? shmlow of death ? Thus asks Ihc " Lord," the Hierophant, the Al-um-jah, the Initiator of Job, alluding to this third degree of Initiation. For the Book ^ Job is the poem of Initiation par excellence. When the neoph\te had conquered the terrors of this trial, he was conducted to the " Hall of Spirits," to be judged by them. Among the rules in which he was instructed, he was commanded : Never to eilhcr desire or seelc revenge ; to be always ready to help a brother in danger, even unto the risk of his own life; to burj' even,* dead l)ody ; to honour hu parents above all ; to rci>pect old age, and protect thOKe weaker than hiniself : and, finally, to ever liear in mind the hour of death, and that of resurrection in a new and imperishable body. Purity and chastity were highly recommended, and adultery was threatened with death. Thus the Rg>*ptian neophyte was made a Kristaphoros. In this degree the myatery-narae of lAO was commoni- cated to him. I^t the reader compare the above sublime precepts with the precepts of Buddha, and the noble comtnandments in the "Rule of Life" for the ascetics of India, and he will understand the nnity of the Secret Doctrine ever>Tvhere. It is impossible to deny the presence of a sejcual element in many religious symbols, but this fact is not in the least open to crensure, once it becomes generally known that — in the religious traditions of ever>' country — man was not boni in the first " human " race from father and mother. From the bright " mind-bom Sons of Brahmft," the Rishis, and from Adam Kadmon with his Emanations, the Sephiroth, down to the *' parentless," the Anupddaka. or the DbySni- Buddhas, from whom sprang the Bodbisattvas and Manushi-Bnddhas, the earthly Initiales^men — the first race of men was with every nation held as being bom without father or mother. Man, the "Manushi- Buddha," the Manu, the " Enosb." sou of Selh, or the " Son of Man " as he is called — is born in the present way only as the consequence. THR SiaP-SACRIFICnro VICTIM. •as the unavoidable fatality, of the law of natural evolution. Mankind — having reached the last limit, and that turning point where its spiritual nature had to make room for mere physical organisation — had to " fall into matter" and generation. But man's evolution and involution are cyclic. He will end as he began. Of course to our grossly material minds even the sublime symbolism of Kosmos conceived in the matrix of Space after the divine Unit had entered into and fructified it with Its holy fiat, will no doubt suggest materiality. Not so with primitive mankind. The initiatory rite in the Mysteries of the self-sacrificing Victim that dies a spiritual death to save the world from destruction — really from depopulation— was established during the Fourth Race, to commemorate an event, which, ph>'sio logically. ha.s now become the Mystery of Mysteries among the world-problems. In the Jewish script it is Caiu and the female Abel who are the sacrificed and sacrificing couple— both immolating themselves (as permutations of Adam and Eve, or the dual Jehovah) and shedding their blood " of separation and union," for the sake of and to save mankind by inatigurating a new physiological race. Later still, when the neophyte, as already mentioned, in order to be re-bom once more into his lost spiritual state, had to pass through the entrails (the womb) of a inrgin heifer * killed at the moment of the rite, it involved again a mystery and one as great, for it referred to the process of birth, or rather the first entrance of man on to this earth, through Vach — " the melodious cow who milks forth sustenance and water " — and who is the female Logos. It had also reference to the same self-sacrifice of the "divine Hermaphrodite" — of the third Root-Race — the trans- formation of Humanit}' into tnily physical men, after the loss of spiritual potency. When, the fniit of evil having been tasted along with the fruit of good, there was as a result the gradual atrophy of spirituality and a strengthening of the materiality in man, then he was doomed to be born thenceforth through the present process. This is the Mystery of the Hermaphrodite, which the Ancients kept so secret and veiled. It was neither the absence of moral feeling, nor the presence of gross sensuality in them that made them imagine their Deities under a dual aspect ; but rather their knowledge of the mysteries and processes of primitive Nature. The Science of Physio- logy was better known to them than it is to us now. It is iu this • The Aryans rrplncrd the living cow tjy one nindc of gold, liilvtrr or any ather metal, and IbcrltrU pmrrvnl to Uib day, wbea one cLenna to become ■ Brilmuii, b twice-boni, in lodU. 396 THE SECRET DOCTRIKR. that lies buried the key to die Symbolism of old, tbe true focus of national thought, and the strange dual-sexed images of nearly every God and Goddess in both pagan and monotheistic Pantheons. Says Sir William Dnimmond in Uidipus Judaicm : The trutlis of science were the arcana of the priests because these tmths were tile fonodatjons of rehgion. But why should the missionaries so cruelly twit the Vaishnavas and Krishna worshippers for the supposed grossly indecent meaning of their symbols, since it is made clear beyond the slightest doubt, and by the most unprejudiced writers, that Chrestos in the pit — whether the pit be taken as meaning the grave or hell — had likewise a sexual element in it, from the ver>' origin of the symbol. This fact is no longer denied to-day. The "Brothers of the Rosy Cross" of the Middle Ages were as good Christians as any to be found in Europe, nevertheless, all their rites were based on symbols whose meaning was pre-eminently phallic and sexual. Their biographer, Hargrave Jennings, the best modem authority on Rosicrucianism, speaking of this mystic Brotherhood, describes how The tortures an<l the sftcrilicc of Calvar>', the Pa.ssioD of the Cross, were, in tbct [tbe Rofie-Croiie's] glorious blessed magic and triumph, the prolest aad appeftl. Protest— by whom ? The answer is, the protest of the crucified Rose, the greatest and the most unveiled ot all sexual svinbols — the Yoni and Lingam, the " victim " and the " nmrderer,*' the female and male priuciples in Nature. Open the last work of that author, Pkalticism, and see in what glowing terms he describes the sexual s>*mboIism in that which is most sacred to the Christian : Tlie flowing blood streaaied froui the crown, or the pierciug circlet of the thorns of Kelt. The Rose is feminine. Its lustrous carmine petals are guarded with thorns. The Rone is the mo.it bf^autiful of flower*. The Rose is the Queen of God's Ganfen (Mar\-, the Virgin). It is not the Rose alone which is the roa)fica) idea, or tmtfa. But it i*t the *' crueilied rose," or the *' martyred rose " (by the graad mystic apoca- lyplic figure) which is the talisman, the standard, the object of adoration of all the " Sons of Wisdom " or the true Rosicrucians.* Not of all the " Sons of Wisdom." by any means, not even of the true Rosicmcian. For the latter would never put in such sickening relievo, in such a purely sensual and terrestrial, not to say auimal light, the grandest^ tbe noblest of Nature's symbols. To the Rosi- O&PHBUS. 297 I i I I I I I I cnician, the " Rose" was the symbol of Nature, of the ever prolific and virgin Earth, or Isis, the mother and nourisher of man, considered as feminine and represented as a virgin woman by the Egyptian Initiates. Like every other personification of Nature and the Earth she is the sister and wife of Osiris, as the two characters answer to the personified symbol of the Earth, both she and the Sun being the progeny of the same mysterious Father, because the Earth is fecundated by the Sun — according to the earliest Mysticism — by divine insufflation. It was the pure ideal of mystic Nature that was personified in the " World Virgins," the " Celestial Maidens," and later on by the human Virgin, Mary, the Mother of the Saviour, the Salvator Mundi now chosen by the Christian World. And it was the character of the Jewish maiden that was adapted by Theology to archaic Symbolism,* and not the Pagan symbol that was modelled for the new occasion. We know through Herodotus that the Mysteries were brought from India by Orpheus — a hero far anterior to both Homer and Hesiod. Very little is really known of him, and till very lately Orphic litera- ture, and even the Argonauts, were attributed to Onamacrilus, a con- lemporao' of Pisistratus, Solon and Pythagoras — who was credited with their compilation in the present form toward the close of the sixth century B.C.. or Soo years after the time of Orpheus. But we are told that in the days of Fausauias there was a sacerdotal family, who, like the BrShmans with the VedaSy had committed to memory all the Orphic Hymns, and that Ihey were usually thus transmitted from one generation to another. By placing Orpheus so far back as 1300 B.C., ofBcial Science — so careful in her chronology to choose in each case as late a period as possible — admits that the Mysteries, or in other words Occultism dramatised, belong to a still earlier epoch than the Chaldaeans and Egyptians. The downfall of the Mysteries in Europe may now be mentioned. * la Ragon'i Onko4oxw Ma^o»Ki^i. p. roj, mmI(, wc find the fbllowinc statnticnt— borrowed from AlbHiHAur U» Anblnn. prT^b•hty : " The Vitgim of the Magt amd Chaldaaiu, llit Clialtliean *pbnc [flobc] thowvd in it^hrNwtis a newljr-tiont tuilir, calird Cft^i't/iiNi^/riiij ,' ft was placed in the flrraa of ihr Cel^DtiBl Viririn. It wa« to thi* Virslii that UntCMttacnM. Utc AleziiDdrian UbrBrisn. honi 174 jmn brfbrvourrra, gave Ihcnnmruf ImU, motherof Horns." Thia (a only what Kirchcr j(isT* (tii v£tf>/iu jf^yfiUmi, lii. 51, quoting AJbunuwar'. "la ttae fint d«cati of the Vtrifin ri*n a maid, called Adcreooca. that i» purr. intmticuUte vir^lD . . , ■Uttav upon aa embroidcicd throuv nuni- tnK» box ■ - • : a ^K>y. nntuci] JmtiLi . . which sfcniflca laoa, whom the^ alio call Clirisl In Creek." (Sc« ttit ViveiU4. H. vii-) SECTION XXXIII 'The Last of the Xystkries in Europe. As was predicted by the greatHermes in his dialogue with .^sculapins, the time bad indeed come when impious foreigners accused Hg>'pt of adoring monsters, and naught but the letters engraved in stone upon her monuments survived— enigmas unintelligible to posterity Her sacred Scribes and Hierophants became wanderers upon the fact of the earth. Those who had remained iu Egypt found themselvtt obliged for fear of a profanation of the sacred Mysteries to seek refuge in deserts and mountains, to form and establish secret societies and brotherhoods— such as the Essenes : those who had crossed the oceans to India and even to the (now-called) New World, bound themselves by solemn oaths to keep silent, and to preserve secret their Sacred Knowledge and Science ; thus these were buried deeper than ever out of human sight. In Central Asia and on the northern borderlands of India, the triumphant sword of Aristotle's pupil swept away from his path of conquest ever." vestige of a once pure Religion : and its Adepts receded further and further from that path into the most hidden spots of the globe. The C5xle of * * * * being at its close, the first hotir for the disappearance of the Mysteries struck on the clock of the Races, with the Macedonian conqueror. The first strokes of its last hour sounded in the year 47 B.C. Aiesia* the famous city in Gaul, the Thebes of the Kelts, so renowned for its ancient rites of Initiation and Mysteries, was. as J. M. Ragon well describes it; The ancient metropolis and the tomb of Inittatioti. of the religion of the Dmids and of iht (nttlotn of Ganl.t ■ Now called SI. fttiite (CAIe d'Or) oo tbe two ttreanu, tb« OM tnd the Owrmin. It* fiOl t* a hlaio- rjca) r«ct In Keltic GhuHkIi HUtory. 1 Ctikodoxit MaifHi^uf, p. jj ALBSTA AfTD B1BRACTI3. 299 Tt was during the first century before our era. that the last and supreme hour of the great Mysteries had struck. History' shows the populations of Central Gaul revolting against the Roman yoke. The country was subject to Cse^ar, and the rerolt was crushed ; the result was the slaughter of the garrison at Alesia (or Alisa). and of all its inhabitants, including the Druids, the college-priests and the neo- phytes; after this the whole city was plundered and razed to the ground. Bibractis. a city as large and as famous, uot far from Alesia, perished a few years later. J. M. Ragon describes her end as follows : Bifaracti«. the mother of sciences, the Mul of the early natioDft [in Europe], a town equally famous Tor its sacred college of Druids, its ciWlisation, tfa schools, in which 40,000 students were taught pliilosiiphy, literatuic, grammar, jumprudcncc, mediciae, astrologj-, occult sciences, architecture, etc. Rival of Thches, of Memphis, of Athens and of Rome, it possessed nn amphitheatre, surrounded with colOAMl statues, and accommodating too,ooo spectators, gladiators, a capitol, temples of Jniiiis, Pluto, Proserpine, Jupiter, Apollo, Minerva, Cybele, Venus and Anubts; and in the midst of those sumptuous edifices the S'auniacliy. with its vast basin, an incretlible construction, » gigsntic tvork nhereiti fioated boats and galleys devoted to naval games; then a Champ iU' tVars. an aqueduct, fountains, public baths; finally fortifications and walls, the construction of which dated from the heroic age«.* Such was the last city in Gaul wherein died for Kuropc the secrets of the Initiations of the Great Mysteries, the Mysteries of Nature, and of her forgotten Occult truths. The rolls and mannscnpts of the famous Alexandrian I,ibrar5* were burned and destroyed by the same Csesar.f' but while History deprecates the action of the Arab general. Amrus. who gave the final touch to this act of vandalism perpetrated by the great conqueror, it has not a word to say to the latter for his destruc- tion of nearly the same amount of precious rolls in Alesia, uor to the destroyer of Bibractis. While Sacro\*ir — chief of the Gauls, who revolted against Roman despotism under Tiberias, and was defeated by Silius in the year 21 of our era — was burning himself alive with his fellow conspirators on a funeral pyre before the gates of the cit>', as Ragon tells us, the latter was sacked and plundered, and all her trea- sures of literature on the Occult Sciences perished by fire. The once majestic city, Bibractis, has now become Autun. Ragon explains. • op at. p. u. ■* Tbr ChnstUo niob in 389 of 0«r era completed the work ofdeatrucUoti iijiou wlial reiuauiHl ; dumI of tbepru^lcn woika wereaa««d for BludeaUofUccuUism, but ImI toUir wurl<l. 300 TBS SECRET DOCTHINE. A few monuments of glorious antiquity are still there, such as th« temples of Janus Mid of C>'belc Ragon goes on: Arlea, foDii>1ed two thausand years before Christ, was sacke^l in 270. Thi« metzt^ polis of Gaul, rcslorrJ 40 yenrs later by Coiistaulinc, has preserved to Uiii day » few rcmalus of its ancient splendour; amphitheatre^ capitol, an obelisk, a block. of granite 17 mclrt-s high, a triumphal arch, catacombs, etc Tbus ended Eelto- Gaultc civilisation. Cu:8ar. ajt a barbarian worthy of Rome, had already accom- plished tbe destruction of the ancient Mysteries by the sack of the temples and their initiatory colleges, and by the massacre of the Initiated and tbe Braids, ftc- maincd Rome : but «Le never had but the lesser Mysteries, shadows of the Secret Sciences. The Great Initiation was ertincU" A few further extracts may be given from his Ocailt Afasonry, as they bear directly upon our subjecl. However learned and enidite, some of the chronological mistakes of that author are very great. He sajrs: After deified man (Ilcrmcs) came the King-l'riest [the Hieropfaanti Menes was tbe lir^t legislator and the fouuder of Thebes of the hundred palaces. Me Iillcd that city with magnificent splendour : it is from his day that the sacerdotal epoch cf Sgypt dates. The priciits reigne<l, for it is they who made the laws. I( is said that tbcre have been three hundred and twenty-nine [HierophantsJ since his time — ail of whom have remained unknown. After that, genuine Adepts having become scarce, the author shows the Priests choosing false ones from the midst of slaves, whom they exhibited, having crowned and deified them, for tbe adoration of the ignorant masses. Tired of reigning in such a servile way, the kings rebelled and freed tliemselvca Then came Sesoslris, the founder of Memphis (1613, they say, before our era). To the sacerdotal election to the throne succeeded that of the warriors. . . Cheopi who reigned from 1173 to lisa built the great Pyramid which bears his name. He is accused of having persecuted theocracy and closed the temples. This is utterly incorrect, though Ragon repeats "History." The Pyramid called by the uame of Cheops is the Great Pyramid, the building of which even Baron Bunsen assigned to 5,000 B.C. He says in Egypt's Place in Universal Hist&ry : 'Op.a't. p. 3j. J.M. Rojpm.B Bclglaii bj' birth, and a M neon, knew norc about Occittliam thMiMi]r other non-inttiuted writer. For RTly yt»t* be bLuJird tlir oiicii-nl U)'»ln-)n wbm-vrr be could liad accounts of thetn. In iix>s. he focmkd at I'adt tbe Brotherhood of i>j TV utoio/Ari, jo which t-odsr he dcUwTctl for yvanv lecture* an Anrtnit and UiKicm Iniliatiiin (in tfii6 nniJ asnia in :A«ii, wbJcft wcT« pubLithcd. and now .-ite loal. Then he became the wntei in chtrf of Jftrnmn, a cna mirk paper. Ills br>t M-orkk umr /jt Maiimmntr Oe^niu vmA \.hK Faitet Initiaii^un. After bis death, in ilbOia niiiulfCT of hi* MSb. remained in tlie po»««Mitjn of the Grand Orieut of Prance. A hlRh Haaoo Wd the writer that Ra^n had carreaponclcd for yean with tiRi Orientaiiata in Syria Mid Kcypt. aae«l wboiu '\M a Kopt gemieaua. THH T,lSAll?nNG OF EOTPT. 30' I I I I I The Origincs of Eg}!!! go back to the ointh inUleoniutn before Christ.* And as the Mysteries were performed and the Initiations took place in that Pyramid — for indeed it was built for that purpose — it looks strange and an utler contradiction with known facts in the history of the Mysteries, to suppose that Cheops, if the builder of that Pyramid, ever turned against the initiated Priests and their temples. Moreover, as far as the Secret Doctrine teaches, it w-as not Cheops who built the Pyramid of that name, whatever else he might have done. Yet. it is quite true that Owin^ to an KUtiopian invasion and Ihc federated govemmenl of iweU'e chiefs, royalty fell into the hands of Amasts, a man of low birth. This was in 570 B.C., and it is Amasis who destroyed priestly power. And Thus perished thai ancient theocracy which showed its crowned priests for so many ccuturieii to Eg>'pt and Uie whole world. Egypt had gathered the students of all countries around her Priests and Hierophanls before Alexandria was founded. Ennemoser asks : How comes it that so little has become known of the BIysteries and of their parlicalar cuuteots, through so many a)fes, and amongst so many different times and people ? The answer is that it is again owing to the universally strict silence of the initiate«l. Another cause may be found in the destruction and total loss of all the written memorials of the secret knowledge of the remotest antiquity. Numa'% books, described by Li\'>'. consisting of natural philottophy, were found in hi.<t tomb; but they were not allon-ed to be made known, lest they should reveal the most secret mysteries of the state religion. . . . The senate and the tribunes of the people delennined . . . that the books themselves should be burned, which was dont.t Cassain mentions a treatise, well-known in the fourth and fifth cen- taries, which was accredited to Uam, the son of Noah, who in his turu was reputed to have received it from Jared. the fourth generation from Seth, the son of Adam. Alchemy also was first taught in Egypt by hct learued Priests, though the first appearance of this system is as old as man. Many writers have declared that Adam was the first Adept ; but that was a blind and a pun upon the name, which is " red earth " in one of its meanings. The correct information— under its allegorical veil — is found in the sixth chapter of Genesis, which speaks of the "Sons of God" who took wives of the daughters of men. after which they communicated op, dt., iT. 4te- t HiHurr »/ Magic, tt. n. 302 THE SBCRKT DOCTKINB. to these wives many a mystery and secret of the phenomenal world. The cradle of Alchemy, says Olaus Borrichius, is to be sought in the most distant times. Bemocritus of Abdera was an Alchemist, and a Hermetic Philosopher. Clement of Alexandria wrote considerably upon the Science, and Moses and Solomon are called proficients in it We are told by W. Godwin : The first authentic record on this subject ia an edict of Diocletian about 300 years A.D., ordering a diligent search to be made in Egypt for all the ancient books which treated of the art of making gold and silver, that they might, without dis- tinction, be consigned to the flames. The Alchemy of the Chaldaeans and the old Chinamen is not even the parent of that Alchemy which revived among the Arabians many centuries later. There is a spiritual Alchemy and a physical transmu- tation- T^he knowledge of both was imparted at the Initiations. SECTION XXXIY. Thz Post-Christian Successors to THE Mysteries. I \ The Eleusinian Mysteries were no more. Yet it was these which gave their principal features to the Neo-platonic school of Animonius Saccas, for the Eclectic System was chiefly characterised by its Theurgy and ecfttasis. It was Taniblichus who added to it the Egyptian doctrine of Theurgy with its practices, and Porphyry, the Jew, who opposed this new element. The school, however, with but few exceptions, practised asceticism and contemplation, its mystics passing through a discipline as rigorous as that of the Hindu devotee. Their efforts never tended so much to develop the successful practice of tliauuiaturg>', necromancy or sorcer>' — such as they are now accused of— as to evolve the higher faculties of the inner man, the Spiritual Ego. The school held that a number of spiritual beings, denizens of spheres quite independent of the earth and of the human cycle, were mediators between the " Gods" and men. and even between man and the Supreme Soul. To put it in plainer language, the soul of man became, owing to the help of the Planetary Spirits, '* recipient of the soul of the world " as Emerson puts it. Apollonius of T>'ana asserted his possession of such a power in these words (quoted by Professor Wilder in his Nco-Plaionism) : I can Me the present and the fliture la a clear mirror. The aage [.\dcpt] need not wait For thevapinirs of the enrlh and the corruption of the nir lo foresee plagues and fevers; he must lenow them later than Go'l. but earlier than the people. The theoi or gods »x the future: commou men, Che present; sa^es, that which is about to take place. My peculiar abstemious mode of living produces such an ftcuteness of the senses, or creates some other faculty, so that the grcaieat nml most rcnv^ble things may be performed.* THE SECRET DOCTRINE. Professor A. Wilder's comment thereupon is remarkable : Thts U what may be termed spirtluai photography. The aoul is the camen ia which factA and eveatfl, future, post, anri present, are alike fixed; and the miixl becomes coaitcious of them. Beyond cnir everyday world of litnits, all ia u one dif or stale — the pa.«t and future comprised in the prcsenL Probably Lhia U the " great day," the "laat day," the 'May of the Lord," of the Bible writers— the day into which everyone passes by death or eatasis. Then the soul is freed from the coo- straint of the body, and its nobler part is united to higher nature xnd becDniei par- taker in the u'i»<lom aud (oreknowleiige of the higher beings.* How iar the system practised by the Nco-Platonists was identical with that of the old and the modem Vedantins may be inferred frou what Dr. A. Wilder says of the Alexandrian Theosophists. The anterior idea of the New PUtouists was that of a single .Supreme EssMCe. . . All the oI<l philosophies cotitHinetl llie doctrine that 6tcu^ thgoi, £oda ordii- poeers, angels, demons, and other spiritual agencies, emanated from the Suprenr Being. Ammonius accepted the doctrine of the Books of Hermes, that frora the dinnc All proceeded the Divine Wisdom or Amun : that from Wls^lom pro- cee<'led the Demiurge or Creator ; and from the Creator, the subonlinate spiritnd beings; the world and its peoples Iteing the last The first i* contained in Um _ second, the first anil secoml in the third, aud so ou through the entire 9crie>.t ^^H This is a perfect echo of the belief of the Vedfintins, and it proceed^ directly from the secret teachings of the East. The same author says: Akin to thi*! is the doctrine of the Jewish Kabala which was taught by the Pliai^ or Pharisees, who probably borrowed it, as their sectarian designation would seem to indicate, from the Magians of Persia. U is substantially embodied ia tbe follow* ing synopsis. The Divine Being is the All, the miurce of all existence, the Infinite: and He cannot be known. The Universe re\*eals Him, and subsists by Uim. At the beginning His effulgence went forth everywhere.; Eventually He retired within Himself and so formed arotind Him n vacant space. Into this He transmitted Hb first Binauation, n Ray, containing in it the generative and conccptivc power, and hence the name IE, or Jab. This in its turn produced the tikkun. ihc paUtrm or Idea of form ; and in Lbi.<t em3n.itioii, which also contained the male and female, or generative and conceptivc potencies, were the three primitive forces of L,igfat, Spirit and L,ife. This Tikkun is united to the Ray, or first emanation, and pe^ vaded by it : and by that union is also in ]>erpetualcoaimunication with the infinite source. It is the patleru, tlie primitive mail, the Adam Kadmon, the macro€\3sm of • /Jte. tit. • Of. at., pp. q. 10. ) Thi* DtvlDclCfriilimicc and BMeacelsthe U^t oftlie L<v«ti oaty Ui« VecUalia iroiild ttav ptiitiouu " He." iMit would mjt •* H." I I TUH SOOT RACKS. Tythafforas and Dtber philosophers. Prom it proceeded the Sephirolh. . . . hnini the Sepbirolli in turn eniaiiaied Ihe four worlds each prnceediug out of the oae immtdiatcly above it. and the low-cr one cnvi-lopiag ita superior. These worlds became less pure as they descended in the scale, the lou-ea of all being the material worid.* This veiled enunciation of the Secret Teaching will be clear to our readers by this time. These worlds are : AzUtth i» peopled with the purest emanations [the First, almost spiritual, Race or the human beings that wen; to inhabit] the Fourth; the aecornl, Beriah^ \iy h lower order, the servants of the former [the second Race] ; the third, Jesirah, by the cherubim and seraphim, the Bl<'>hiti) niid R'lii Blohitu [" Sons of Gods" or E/oiini, our Third Race]. Tht fourth world. Asiah. is inhabited by the Klipputh, of whom Belial is chief [the Allanteau SorcererR}.+ These worlds are all the earthly dnplicates of their heavenly proto- types, the mortal and temporary reflections and shadows of the more durable, if not eternal, races dwelling in otlier, to us, invisible worlds. The souls of the men of our Fifth Race derive their elements from these four worlds— Root Races— that preceded ours: namely, our intellect, Manas, the fifth principle, our passions and mental and corporeal appe- tites. A conflict having arisen, called "war in heaven," among our prototypical worlds, war came to pass, oeons later, between the Atlan- teans{ of Asiali, and those of the third Root Race, the B'ni Elohim or the •■ Sons of God,"§ and then evil and wickedness were intensified. Mankind (in the last sub-race of the third Root Race) having Sinned in their 6r6t parent [a phystological allegory, truly I] ham whose soul e\'er7 human floul is an ciiuiuution. says the Zohar. men were "exiled *' into more material bodies to Expiate that iiin and become proficient in Koodiiess. To accomplish the cycle of necessity, rather, explains the doctrine ; to progress on their task of evolution, from which task none of us can be freed, neither by death nor suicide, for each of us have to pass through the "Valley of Thorns" before he emerges into the plains of divine light and rest. And thus men will continue to be bom in new bodies Till they have become sufficiently pure to enter a higher form of existence. 777 ^ t,. I--. ■ '*' ZjH. <U., »oU. p. 10. ■♦ hK. Ht.. nctt. t »R SiottruBmtbUum. \ry A. P. Sianefl, Fifth Sdition. t Ser /lit UmveMiei. Vid, 1., pp. )S9-S9S- "^^ "Sons of God" and Uietr war with the glitnis m0 mftglduu. 3o6 TUK SKCKKT UOCl'KIKK. This means only that Mankind, from the First down to the last, or Seventh Race, is compo^icdof one and the same company of actors, who have descended from higher spheres to perform their artistic tour on this our planet. ICarth. Starting as pare spirits on our downward journey around the world (verily t) with the knowledge of truth— bow feebly echoed in the Occult Doctrines — inherent in us, cyclic law brings us down to the reversed apex of matter, which is lost down here on earth and the bottom of which we have already struck ; and then, lie same law of spiritual gravity wll make us slowly ascend to still higher, still purer spheres than those we started from. Foresight, prophecy, oracular powers ! Illusive fancies of man's dwarfed perceptions, which see actual images in reflections and shadows, and mistake past actualities for prophetic images of a futnrc that has no room in Kternity. Our macrocosm and its smallest micro- cosm, man, arc both repeating the same play of universal and individual events at each station, as on every stage on which Karma leads them to enact their respective dramas of life. False prophek could have no existence had there been no true prophets. And so there were, and many of both classes, and in all ages. Only, none of these ever saw anything but that which had alreadycome to pass, and had been before prototypically enacted in higher spheres — if ihc event foretold related to national or public weal or woe — or in some preceding life, if £l con- cerned only an individual, for cver>' such event is stamped as an indelible record of the Past and Future, which are only, after all. the ever Present in Eternity. The " worlds " and the purifications spoken of in the Zohar and other Kabalistic books, relate to our globe and races uo more and no less than they relate to other globes and other races that have preceded our own in the great cycle. It was such funda- mental truths as these that were performed in allegorical plays and images during the Mysteries, the last Act of which, the Epilogue for the Mystse, was the anastasis or *' continued existence." as also the "Soul transformation." Hence, the author of Nco-p/aionism and Akhcmy shows us that all such Eclectic doctrines were strongly reflected in the Epistles oi Paul, and were Inculcated more or less among tlic Churches. Hence, such pHSMges as these "Ye were JeaJ in errors ami *ms; yc walked accord:n>f lo the eeoH of Ihis world, according to the arehon that lias the Uominatioa of Uie air." "We wrestle not 4gain&t flesh aod blood, but ag&insl *Jie domiiiatious. against poteocies, agdnst THE "XAI.SB GNOSIS. 307 I tbe lords of dsrknesi^ and against the miscbicvoasncss of spirits in tBc cmpyreaB regions." But Paul wa* evidfully hostile to the effort to lAvaA his gospe! with the gDOAtic ideas of the Hebrew- Eityp^''^'' school, as stx-ms to have becu attempted at Kphesus ; and accordingly, wrote to TiraotUy, his favourite disciple, "Keep safe the precious charge entrusted to thee ; and reject the ucw doctrines and the anta- ^ainic principles of the gnosis, falsely so-called, of which some have roadc pro- fession and gone astray from the faith."" But as the Gnosis is the Science oertatning to our Higher Self, as blind faith is a matter of teinperainent aiul emotionalis:n, and as Paul's doctrine was still newer and his intcrprclatiuus far more thickly veiled, to keep the inner truths hidden far away from the Gnostic, preference has been given to the former by every eameat seeker afler truth. Besides this, the great Tc-achera who professed the so-called " false Gnosis" were very numerous in the days of the Apostles, and were as great as any converted Rabbi conkl be. If Porph>Ty, the Jew Maiek, went against Theurgy on accuiint of old traditional recollections, there were other teachers who practised it. Plotinus, lamblichus, Proclus were all thauraaturgists, and the latter Elaborated the entire theosophy and theurgy of his predecessors into a complete system, t As to Ammonius, Countenanced by Clemenfi an<I Athenagoraii, in the Chnrcli, and by leanied men of the Synagogue, the Academy, and the Grove, he ful&Ucd bis labour by teaching a common doctrine for all.t Thus it is not Judaism and Christianity that re-modcUed the ancient Pagan Wisdom, but rather the latter that put its heathen curb, quietly and insensibly, ou the new faith; and this, moreover, was still further influenced by the Eclectic Theosophical system, the direct emanation of the Wisdom Religion. All that is grand and noble in Christian theology coraesfroui Neo-Platonism. It is too well-known to now need much repetition that Ammonius Saccas, the God-taught ftheoiidakios) and the lover of the truth fphilaU-thcsJ, in establishing his school, made a direct attempt to benefit the world by teaching those portions of the Secret Science that were permitted by its direct guardians to be revealed in those days.g The modern movement of our own Theo- * Loc. cit., noit. * Op. cit.. p. 18. « tv. ft., p. ». I Ka orthodox Chrtstian hu ever equalled, tax km snrpiuaed, la the prsctlce of true Chrtst-tlkc virtues and etliics, or in the beauty of hU moral nature. iLmiBoaiiu, the Ahuundnau perrcrt ftm ChnMianity ihc wiu iKirs from UuisUau iMuenU^ 3o8 THE SKCRBT DOCTKINS. sophical Society was beg^noD the same principles; for the Neo-PIatonic school of Aramonius aimed, as we do, at the reconcilement of all sects and peoples, under the once common faith of the Golden Age, trying to induce the nations to lay aside their contentions — in religious matters at any rate — byproving to them that their various beliefs are all the more or less legitimate children of one common parent, the Wisdom Religion. Nor was the Eclectic Theosophical system — as some writers inspired by Rome would make the world believe — developed only during the third century of our era ; but it belongs to a much earlier age, as has been shown by Diogenes Laertius. He traces it to the beginuiag of the dynasty of the Ptolemies ; to the great seer and prophet, the Egyptian Priest Pot-Amun, of the temple of the God of that name — for Amun is the God of Wisdom. Unto that day the communication between the Adepts of Upper India and Bactria and the Philosophers of the West bad never ceased. Under Pliiladelphus . . . the Hpllenic teachers became rivals of tUe College of Rahliiti of B«l>yIoii. The Biul<lhi:»Lic Vcddotic and Magian systems wene U' pounded slong with the pliilo-wphies of Greece. . . . Aristobulus, ibe Jew, declared that the elliics of Aristotle were derivtrd from tlie law of Moses (!}; and Iliilo, after bim, attempted to interpret the i'cntAtcuch id accordAoce with the doc- trines of Pythagoras and the Acadeiuv. In Josepbus it is anid that, in tbc Book o( the Genesis, Moses wrote pbiloHophically— that is, in tbc figurative style; and the B&senes of Canucl were reproduced in the Therapenta: of Egypt, who, in turn, were declared by Kusebius to be identical with the Christians, though tbey actually existed long before the Christian era. Indeed, in its turn, Christianity aim was taught at Alexandria, and underwent an acialo^oas metamorphosis. Panta>nDR, Athena- goras And Clement were tlturoughly instructed in the Hlatoaic phdosopby, and comprehended its ejaential unity with the orieatal systems." I' Ammonius, thongh the son of Chri.stian parents, was a /over of the truth, a true Philalctheiau foremoiit of all. He set his heart upon the work of reconciling the different systems into a harmonious whole, for he had already perceived the tendency of Christianit5' to raise itself on the hecatomb which it had constructed out of all other creeds and faiths. What says history ? The ecclesiastical historian, Mosheim. declares that Aminonius, conceiving that not only the philosophers of Greece, but also all those of the different barbarous nations, were perfectly in unison with each other with rcgiipl to ever>' essential point, made it Ins busine*.!^ so to temper and expound the teoels of ml! these various accts, as to make it appeartheyhad all of them originated from one TEACHINGS OF AMMOmUS. 309 I I I I \ ftucl Ihe satne'Source. and all tended to one and the same end. Af;ain, Moshcim savs that ^Vamtoiiius taujjht that the religion of the multitude went band in baud with phUosophy, and witli ht-T had shared the fate of being by degrees corrupted and obiicuruil wiUi mere human conceits, euperstition, and lies; that it ougbt, there* fore, to Iw brutight bact to its original purity by purging it of this dross and ex- pounding it upon philosophical principles ; and that the whole which Christ had in view was to reinstate and restore to its primitive integrity the Wisdom of the Ancients." Now what was that " Wisdom of tlie Ancients " that the Founder of Christianity " had in view" ? The system taught by Atntnonius in his Eclectic Theosophicfll School was made of the crumbs permitted to be gathered from the antediluvian lore ; those Neo-Platonic teachings are described in the /Edinburgh Encycloptedta as follows : He [Ammonias] adopted the doctrines which were received in Egypt concerning the Universe and the Deity. coiisidere<1 as constituting one great whole; concern- ing the eternity of the world, the nature of souls, the empire of Providence fKamia] and the government of the world by demons [daimoHS or fip\j\l», archangels], lie also established a system of moral iliscipline which allowed the people in general to live according to the laws of tlicir country and the dictates of nature ; but required the wise to exalt their minds by contemplation, and to mortify the body.t so that they might be capable of enjoying the presence and assiiitance of the demons [including their own daitHon or Seventh Principle] . . , and ascending after death to the presence of the Supreme fSoul] ParenL In order to reconcile the popular religions, and particularly the Christian, with this new sjstcm, he made the whole history of the heathen gods an allegory, maintaining tliat they were only Celestial miuistersj entitled to nn inferior kind of worship ; and he acknowledged that Je^iis Chiist was an excellent man and the friend of t>oil, but alleged that it was not his design entirely to alwUsh the worship of demong,^ and that hii only in- tention was to purify the ancient religion. No more could be declared except for those Philalethcians who were initiated, "persons duly instructed and disciplined" to whom Ammonius communicated his mure important doctrines, Imposing on them the obligations of secrecy, ad was done before him by Zoroas- ter and Pythagoras, and in the Mysteries [where on oath was required from the * iJiwtH by Dr. Wilder, p. 5. - - ' * ** aCortiAcatioo " is itcre meant In Uie mora], not the phyiiical aeiiae; to restrain every lust aad pusion, and live on tlic simplest diet potAibte. : This is the Kco-flatonic ieachln|[ <tdopt«] as ■ doctrlae In the Roman CalboIIc Charcb, w!th its wotTihip (>( the Seven Spirits, t Th< Cliiirc}i hai inode of it the worship of dcvilji, " Oainion " Is Spirit, and relato to uiir divine Spirit, the ht-vcnth Prinriple imd lo Ihe DhyAn Chohnna. Jmus prohitdted ^ng to the temple or cbuc>:b " .» i'hiLniwcs do " but comiUMiidcd thAt uiaii hliuiild trlire fur pntyer ((.■unjm union with hit Gftd> into B privAlv c1o«et. I» h Jp«hs who would have counlennnc«d in the face of the utarting miUioQS, tti« buildlns cf tbC Boat f^otseous chnrdm ? 310 THB SECRET DOCTKINU. neoph\-tMior catechnmetiftnot to dtvtilKcwhat they had learned}. The great Pytb*- {{oras divided his teachings into exoteric and eaoteric* Has not Jesus done the same, since He declared to His disciples lo them it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heat whereas to the multitudes it was not given, and therefore He spoke in parables which had a two- fold meaning? Dr. A. Wilder proceeds : Thas AmmoniuH found his work ready to his hand. His deep spiritual intuitian. his extensive learning, and his faniilianty with the Christian fatheni, Pantcnittt Clement and Athcnagoras and with the most erudite philosophers of the time, iS\ fitted him for the lalwur he perfQnDe<l so thoroughly. . . . The results of Ui mtn filtration are perceptible at the present day in e\*ery counin- of the ChrisiUa woild ; every prtjunneut system of drjctrine now bearin/^ the marks of his plasOc hiiniL. Hvcin,- ancient philosoph}' has had its votaries among the modems ; an*! even Judaiitm, oldest of them all. has lalteu upon itself changes which wen; sug- gested by the " God-tanght " Alexantlrian.t The Neo- Platonic School of Alexandria founded by Amraoniiis — the prototype proposed for the Theosophical Society — taught Theurgy and Magic, as much as they were taught iu the days of P.vthagoras, and by others iar earlier than his period. For Proclus says that the doctrines of Orpheus, who was an Indian and came from India, were the origin of the systems afterwards promulgated. What Orphens delivered in hidden allegories, Pythagoras learned when he wti initiated into the Orphic Af ysteries ; and PL-ito next received a periVet knowledge of them from Orphic and Pjthagorean wriling».I The Philalelheiaus had their division into neopliytes (ckelasj and Initiates, or Masters; and the eclectic system was characterised by three distinct features, which are purely V'edanlic; a Supreme Essence, One and Universal ; the eternity and indivisibility of the human spirit ; aad Theurgy-, which is Mantncism. So also, as we have seen, they had their secret or Esoteric teachings like any other mystic school. Nor were they allowed to reveal anything of their secret tenets, any more than were the Initiates of the Mysteries. Only the penalties incurred by the revealers of the secrets of the latter were far more terrible, and this prohibition has suri'ived to this day, not only iu India, but even among the Jewish Kabalists in Asia.§ • op. til., p. T. ♦ pjt. «'/..p. 7. t op. fit-, p. 18. I The Talmud gitK* the iitary of the rour Tanaltn, who are made, la aU«saric«l tenas, to eater tau Uke garden 0/ i^ightt. ■>.. to be ioltisted into the occult uid fiat) science Drppictn,TiBs Awn danCbrs. 3" One of the reasons for such secrecy may be the undoubtedly serious dtflScuUics and hardships of chelaship, and the dangers attending luitiation. The modem candidate has, like his predecessor of old, to either conquer or die ; when, which is still worse, he does not lose bis reason. There is no danger to him who is true and sincere, and, especially, unselfish. For he is thus prepared beforehand to meet any temptation. He, who folly recognised the power of hi* immortal spirit, ami never doubtud for one moment its omnipotent proleciion. ha<I naught to fear. Dot woe to the canili- date in whom the slightest physical fear— sickly child of matter— made hitn lose sight and faith in bis own invulnerability. He who was not wholly confidcat of bis moral fitness to accept the hurden of these tremendous secrets was di>oiue«l.* There were no such dangers in Neo- Platonic luitiatious. The selfish and the unworthy failed in their object, and in the failure was the punishment The chief aim was " reunion of the part witli the a//." This All was One, with numberless names. Whether called Dui. the " bright Lord of Heaven " by the Aryan ; /ao, by the Chaldsean and Kabalist ; /adi? by the Samaritan ; the Tiu or Tuisco by the Northman ; Duw. by the Briton ; Zeus, by the Thracian or Jupiter by the Roman — it was the Being, the Fadt, One and Suprerae.f the unborn and the inexhaustible source of every emanation, the fountain of life and light eternal, a Ray of which every one of us carries in him on this earth. The knowledge of this Mj'sterj' had reached the Neo-Platonists from India through Pythagoras, and still later through ApoUonius of T>-ana and the rules and methods for producing ecstasy had come from the same lore of the divine Vidya, the Gnosis. For Ar>'avarta, the bright focus into which had been poured in the beginning of time the flames " Aceonllng to th« tvachlxfc of our holy nuutcrt the nnnic* of the four who entcied Ute garden of delight, ftn : Ben A.!>ai. Beu Zoma, Acber, and Rabbi Aklba. . . . " Ben Aaoi looked 4n(l-~los( his ^^w. " Bra ZooiA lookeil and— lodt his teuton. "Acber made depredoiioni in the plantation" (mtscd tip the whole and failed). "Bui Aluba. who hail eoleretl in pence cjrae out of it lu peace; for the Mint, who^ name he ble4*ed.had said. This H/A maa is woniiy of KcnHng lu wiU) Klory.' " " The lcam«l coinmniUiluni of the Tklmu<l, Utc Kabbia of Ibc aynago^we, explain that the gardem t/ Otiizhl, iu which tboae four pcnotwuc* are made to enter. 1» but that my&trrioua science, the moat teiTible o( »cieiKeft fot weak intellect*, which it leads directly to insanity," tAys A. Kianclc. In bit KabiaUM. Itii-nol the pure at heart and be who*tudiea but with a new to perfect tng hjmaelf %nA so mote ea&ly ocquirinf the prORifaed linntairtatltjr, who need have any (eat ; but rntbrr he who makeaof the*cienceof scienee* u aiuful pretcat fi»r worldly molivea, whOfthuuld lremt>lc The lot iw will ntvrj undcraiand the kaballatic oocations of the iNprcme itiiuatioa— /iJ) UmvttU*, li> ■I9- * isis UmrttUd.M. 119. f Sec JVM-Ptatontsm. ». 9. 312 TH£ &BCRKT UOCTKlNiS. of Divine Wisdom, had become the centre from which radiated the " longues of fire '* luto every portion of the globe. What was SamSdlii but that SubliiDc* ecstiuy, in which state thitif;» divine and the mysteries of Natarc ttv revealed to its, of which Porphyry speaks ? ■ ~. The efflux from ihe 'li\-ine soul is imparte^l to tie human spirit in uurtMr ahundaiice, accompliKliiiig Tor the aoiil a union witli the divine, and enuoliiig a while in the Iwdy to be partaker of the life which is not in the body, he explains elsewhere. Thus under the title of Magic was tatight every Science, physical and metaphysical, natural or deemed supernatural by those who are igncraot of the omtiipresencc and universality of Nature. Divine Magic makes of man a God ; human magic creates a new Send. We wrote in /sis UnvciUd: In the oldest docnincnts now in the possession of the World — the yedas and the older laws of Mauu — wc timl many magical rites practiced and permitted bv the BrAhmans.* Tibet, Japan, and China, tench in the ptvsirnt age thai which «r«s taught by the oldest Chaldtenus. The clergy of these respective coantries pron moreover what they teach — namely, that the practice of moral and physical puritTv and of certain austerities. dc\'e]opes the vital soul-power of sclf-illumioauua. Affording to man the control over ht» own iinmortai spirit, tl gives hmt tnilj- magicol powers over the elementary »pirili> inferior to himself. In the West «c find magic of as high an antiquity as in the East The Druids of Great Britafo practised it in the silent crypis of their deep caves; and Pliny devotea many i chapter to the ■' wiwlom " t of the leaders ol the Celts The Scmothees— the Dniiito of the Gauls— expounded the physical as well as the spiritual sciences. Thej taught the secrets of the univerfte, the harmonious progress of the hcaveniT bodies, the formation uf the earth, and above oil— the immortality of the SouL; In their sacred groves—natural academies built Tjy the bund of the Invisible Archi- tect— the initiates a.'tsctubled at the still hour of midnight, to learn about what molt once was, and what he will he.f They necdeil no artificial illnminntion, nor life- drawing gsB, to light up their temples, hr the chaste goddess of night beante<I her most silvery rays on their oak -crowned heads; and their white^robed sacred bards knew how to converse wilh the solitary queen of the starry vault.| During the palmy days of Neo-Platonism these Bards were au more, * Sn tbc Cock publjilMil by Sir Wiltiam Jooc*, Cbaplcr ia. p. la. * PKay : Hiil. JVa/-, xjix. i ; /t., avi. u ■ *»•'• % etc. 1 Pompoulua ascHba to th«m the knowledge cd tbc UgtaeiU aaa I Cic»«T, iii. 14- 1 Fliny, XXX. Jtit Vnvett^, i. iB. THH NHO-PLATOjnC SCHOOL. 31$ I r their cycle had run its course, and the last of the Druids had perished at Bibractis and Alesia. But the Nco- Platonic school was for a lonj; time successful, powerful and prosperous. Still, while adopting Ar>'an Wisdom in its doctrines, the school failed to follow the ^^'iadom of the Brdhmans in practice. It showed its moral and intellectual superiority too openly, caring too much for the great and powerful of this earth. While the Brabmans and their great Yogis — experts in jiatters of philosophy, metaphysics, astronomy, morals and religion — preserved their dignity under the sway of the most powerful princes, remained aloof from the world and would not condescend to visit them or ask for the slightest favour,* the Emperors Alexander. Severu5, and Julian, and the greatest among the ari:stocracy of the land, embraced the tenets of the Neo-Platonist5. who mixed freely with the world. The system flourished for several centuries and comprised within the ranks of its followers the ablest and most learned among the men of the time; Hypatia, the teacher of the Bishop Synesius. was one of the oruameuts of the School until the fatal and shameful day when she was murdered by the Christian mob at the instigation of Bishop Cyril of Alexandria, The school was finally removed to Athens, and closed by order of the Emperor Justinian. How accurate is Dr. Wilder's remark that Modem vrriters hare commented npon the peculiar views of the Neo-Platonists upon these [toetapbysical] subjects, seldom represenling them correctly, eveo \I tliis waa desired or intcndcd.t The few speculations on the subluuarj', material, and spiritual universes that they did put into writing — Ammonius never having himself written a line, after the wont of reformers — could not enable posterity to judge them rightly, even had not the early Christian Vandals, the later crusaders, and the fanatics of the Middle Ages, destroyed three parts of that which remained of the Alexandrian Library and its later schools. Professor Draper shows that Cardinal Ximeues alone • " TIk cnrc whkb thcf took In «dncatinfr TOutb.ln famIliaririncttwitbgciKn>Q»an<S vIrtuMu •»!• UownU. did tlicm peculiar bonoar, and their mudnu and diKoanes. u Trcoixkd by hiitoriuu, pra«T thnt Ihpy wrre rxj)"! lu iitalUis of phi1osa;>hy, mvUtpliyskH, astroouiuy, luuralily atid trligioii," sayii a modem writer. "U Iclnffs orprinccsdcrircd tlic advice or tlic bleuinfB of Uic holy Dwu, Uiey were rithrr Qbligcd la go lliemsclwes, or lo aciid Bipastng^JTSi. To Uicae men no ucrrt power orntlirr pUitl or mineral waa uiikii'>«Fn. They had fathomed nature to iu dcpUi!). while pcjcbotogy aad phymiolosy w^rc lo them open books, and the result was that scirace thftt U now termed, so aupcTciUoualy, magit." ♦ Ofi. «■/„ p. 0. THS 8BCRBT DOCTaiMB. DeUverctI to tht Sames in the squanrs of Granada eighty thooaand Arabic nuin- scripts, many of them LransUuoiis of cla&sical authors. In the Vatican Library, whole passages in the most rare and precious treatises of the Ancients were found erased and blotted, out, "for the sake of interlining them with absurd psalmodies!" Moreover it is well known that over Ihirty-six volumes written by Porphyry were burnt and otherwise destroyed by the " Fathers." Most of the little thai is known of the doctrines of the Eclectics is found in the writiags of Plutinus and of those same Church Fathers. Says the author of Nfo-Piatonism : What Plato was to Socrfttes, and the Apostle John to the head of the Chril faith, Plotiniu became to the God-taught Ammouitu. To Plotinus, Origcne% Longintisweare indebted forwhot is known oftlitr Philalethcian system. They wwe .duiy iDstructed. initiated and entrusted with the iatehor doctxinc^.* This accounts mar\'ellousIy for Origen's calling people " idiots" wlu believe in the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve fables ; as also for the fact that so few of the writings of that Church Father have passed to posterity-. Between the secrecj' imposed, the vows of silence and that which was maliciously destroyed by every foul means, it is indeed miraculous that even so much of the PhilaletUetan tenets has reached the world. SECTION XXXY. Symbolism of Sun and Stars. I I I I Ako the Heaven was visiWe iu Seven Circles and the planets appeared with all their signa, iii star-rorm, and the atant were divided and numbered with tite mlera that were in them, and their revolving course, throujfh the agency of the divine Spirit.* Here Spirit tlenote3 Pueuma. collective Deity, manifested iu its '■ Builders." or, as the Church has it, "the seven Spirits of the Presence," the mediantibus angclis of whom Thomas Aquinas says that " God never works but through them." These seven " rulers" or mediating; Angels were the Kabiri Gods of the A^cient^>. This was so evident, that it forced from the Church, together with the admission of the fact, au expUuation aud a theory, .whose clumsiness and evident sophistry are such that it must fail to impress. The world is asked to believe, that while the Planetary Angels of the Church are divine Beings, the genuine "Seraphim, "f these very same angels, under identical names and planets, were and are "false" — as Gods of the ancients. They are no better than pretenders; the cunning copies of the real Angels, produced before- hand through the craft and power of Lucifer and of the fallen Angels, Now. what are the Kabiri ? Kabiri, as a name, is derived from Habir -|3;n. great, and also from Venus, this Goddess being called to the present day Kabar. as is also her star. The Kabiri were worshipped at Hebron, the city of the Anakim, or anakas (kings, princes). They are the highest Planetary Spirits, the "greatest Gods" and "the powerful." Varro. following Orpheus, • HtrmtM, U. 6, t FKna 6'iira^ ^PfV " terj. t>unilti4r." plural laee /mi«4.v1. ><ti). Tbey are Kffarded u tbetMr- MUkl attrndniiU uf ihe Alti)t|[;bty, " hu lawengere." ansclsor netmton*. In RexfMion ihfy tiK- tlir " wwn burniuf lamp« " in iltmd»v« berorc the throne. 3i6 THB SECRHT DOCTRINB. calls these Gods tiSwaroi, "divine Powers." The word Kabirim when applied to men, and the words Heber, Ghcber (with rcicr- ence to Nimrod, or the " giants" of Genesis, vi.) and Kabir. are aH derived from the "mysterious Word" — the Ineifable and the " Un- pronounceable.*" Thus it is they who represent tsaba, the "host of heaven." The Church, however, bowing before the angel Anael (the regent of Venus).* connects the planet Venus with Lucifer, the chief of the rebels under Satan — so poetically apostrophi7.ed by the prophet Isaiah as " O Lucifer, son of the morning."! All the Mystery Gods were Kabiri. As these "seven liclors" relate directly to the Secret Doctrine their real status is of the greatest importance. Suidas defines the Kabiri as the Gods who command all the other daemons (Spirits). KaSci'p<ivc 5(u'^*wn«. MacrobJus introduces them as Tho«« PcDstc« and lutelarv deities, tbroagb wbom wc live and learn and know [Saium, I. iii. ch. iv.). The teraphim through which the Hebrews consulted the oracles of the Urim and the Thuramim, were the symbolical hieroglyphics of the Kabiri. Nevertheless, the good Fathers have made of Kibir the synonym, of dex'il and of daimon (spirit) a demon. The Mysteries of the Kabiri at Hebron (Pagan and Jewish) were presided over by the seven Planetary (3ods. among the rest by Jupiter and Saturn under their mystery names, and they are referred to as iiioxtpao^ and ii^id;^«/wa, and by Euripides as a^%oxp**a^ a Btlfi. Cren- zer, moreover, shows that whether in Phcenicia or in Egypt, the Kabiri were always the seven planets as known iu antiquity, who, together with their Father the Sun — referred to elsewhere as ihdr " elder brother" — composed a powerful ogdoad; J the eight superior powers, as ifxptlw, or solar assessors, danced around him the sacred circular dance, the symbol of the rotation of the planets around the Sun. Jehovah and Saturn, moreover, arc one. It is quite natural, therefore, to find a French writer, JD'Anselme, *'Vten <rith Uie Cfealdinni and Ktryptiiun wiu i be wife of /VM^nj, and i* Kfsrded u Uk oioIIkt df tlH lCAl>Ui. th« %oni ai Phlu or Hiucpth— the ilivini: light oi Ibc Hun. Thr uiki-U anftwcr to Itw ainri in the followlag order- Tbi- Sun. i he Moon, Mam, Vcaut, Mercury. Jupiter, and Satnrv; MkhncI, Gstiriel, Snnnel, As4ri, Raphael. Znchuiel, and Orific) : thU l» In nW^ion aud ChtiaUu Kabalism ; Htrologicolly and ««ot«ncalLy the pUco »r Ihc " rc£«Qts " hUuuI otfacrwiae, aa*l*o la the Jewiifa, or raUin- the ml ChaU«aii A'ataioA. » l.0e.<it., niv, IS, t ThU U one more pnat Uiat the Aoci«iit> Icuen of *mvn plAOrla bestdm the 4un : for oUienhic wbktaUlhrrixhlhtahnrhncaMC: The •cvcstb, with two ottwn.u Mated, were " raj-stny " plmeOk whftber Ctanus or any other. THE CIRCLB DAWeE. 317 I Applying the same terms of Aii6x*fxr<K and 'iii6x*(ifra to Jehovah and his word, and they are correctly so applied. I*or if the " circle dance " prescribed by the Amazons for the Mysteries — being the "circle dance" of the planets, and characterised as " the motion of the divine Spirit carried on the waves of the great Deep" — can now be called ••infernal" and "lascivious" when performed by the Pagans, then the same epithets ought to be applied to David's dance : • and to the dance of the daughters of Shiloh4 and to the leaping of the prophets of Baal ;J they were all identical and all belonged to Snbseau worship. King David's dance, during which he uncovered himself before his maid- servants in a public thoroughfare, saying : I will play {act wantonljt before TTTR (Jebo\'ah|. and I will yet be more vile thaa this, was certainly more reprehensible than any " circle dance" during the Mysteries, or even than the modern Rdsa MandaU in [ndia.§ which is the same thing. It wa.s David who introduced Jehovistic worship into Judea, after sojourning so long among the Tynans and Philistines, where these rites were common, David knew iiotliiti}; of Moses; and If he fdtroduceVl thfr Jeliovfth-wonliip, it vra» not io iu monothciMic character, but suDply as that of one of the many {A'a&i- reati) goia of the nciglilKiuring nations, a tutelary deity of his own- rTTn< to whom he bad gi%*eii the preference— tvbom he bad chosen among "all olhc:r (Kaheirt) and who was one of the " associates," Cliabir, of the Sun. The Shakers dance the " circle dance" to this day when turning round for the Holy Ghost to move them. In India it is NSrfi-yana who is "the mover on the waters;" and NirSyana is Vishnu in his secondary form, and Vishnu has Krishna for an AvatSra. in whose honour the " circle dance " is still enacted by the Nautch-giris of the temples, he being the Sun-God and they the planets as symbolised by the gopis. I^t the reader turn to the works of De Mtrvitle, a Roman Catholic writer, or to Monujnfntal Christianiiy, by Dr. Lundy, a Protestant I * II.5im..tI. jD.». t Judgti, xxi. Jt, tl tf^. t I. KiMgt. xviLt. «6. I This (Inncp— Ibr R&m Mandalft. euaclMl by the OopU or 3hq)hr-rdeBK^ of Krivhm. tbc Suit- God, in enacts to ttiU da^ In Mjpntina in tnilio, aiwl U uadcuLuliIjr tlic «iimt Uieo-attroDeuitcal aud ■rmlMlical dJincT of thr pluncta aiul llie Zodiacal siciu. that «ru danced Utouftsud* or year* before I our CTK. I fm UuuriM. U. 4S- ;3M THE SECRET DOCTRINE. divine, if he wauts to appreciate to any degree the subtlety and casuistir of their reasonings. No one ignorant of the occult versions can fail to be impressed with the proofs brought forward to show bow clevert]r and perseveriugly " Satan has worked for long niiUenuiums to tempt a humanity" unblessed with an infallible Church, in order to have himself recognised as the "One living God," and his fiends as holy Angels. The reader mu.st be patient, and study with attention what the author says on behalf of his Church. To compare il the better with the version of the Occultists, a few points may be quoted here verbatim. Rt IVtcr tells us : " May the divine Lacifer triae m yotar hearts " * [Now the Sot is Christ]. . . . " t will scud my Son froni the Sun," said the Htcraal thtuogh the voice of prophetic (radiliontt ; and prophecy ba\*ing become htstorr the Cvaag^ lists tepeated in their turn : The Sun rising from on high \'isited iis.t Now Gc^ says, through Malachi, that the Sun shall arise fur those who fear his name. What Malachi meant by "the Sun of Righteous- ness" the Kabalists alone can tell; but what the Greek, and even the Protestant, theologians understood by the term is of course Christ. referred to metaphorically. Only, as the sentence, "I will send my Son from the Sun," is borrowed verbatim from a Sibylline Book, it becomes very hard to understand liow it can be attributed to, or classed with any prophec>' relating to the Christian Saviour, unless, indeed, the laticr is to be idcmlfied with Apollo. Virgil, again, says. "Here comes the Virgin's and Apollo's reign," and Apollo, or Apollyon. is to this day viewed as a form of Satan, and is taken to mean the Anti- christ. If the Sibylline promise. "He will send his Son from the Sun" applies to Christ, then either Christ and Apollo are one — and tkea why call the latter a demon?— or the prophecy had nothing to do with the Christian Saviour, and, in such a case, why appropriate U 4t all? But lie Mirville goes further. He shows us St. Denys, the Areo- pagitc. affirming that The Sun is the special signiiicaliou, and the statue of God.;; . , . It is by ttie * U. Sfiiatt. i. \ti. The En|[U»h l«xt ny«: " Until the day-«l«r Brine In your hrtrt.** n ItiBiBf altrrnticin which do«"> ii« really matter— ■» Liei/et U the d»y «* well as thir " ravrnlng '* st«r— and B ift less sliocking lu {lioua eitn. There are a iiumhrr of sLich altrraiioua in the rrotcatotu bibles. t Again Uic QivUah InmalaUon change* the word '-Sun" into "day'sprinf." The Roman Calholica ate decidedly braver anil mote aiticere tlian the PratrsUnt theoIuKiADs. Oc MtmOe : Thu* aaid the I^srj-ptianB and the HalNSMin in dayn of old, the aymbol of WbOCC nuuifetted fods. Oairia and Del, vitat the van. But Ihcy hod a hijr)>er deity. CBRISTIAlf A5TE0LATKY. 3*9 I I I I Item door Uiat th« glor}* of the Lord ^lenetrated into the Uinples [of the Jews aud Christinos, that divine: glury bt;itig Sun-light.J ..." Wv hailil our chtuchcs towanU the east," fiays to hts turn Sl Ambrose, " for dnhag the Mysteries we begin by renouncing hioi who is in the west." "He who is in the west" is Typhon, Ihc Egyptian god of darkness — the west having been held by them as the "Typhouic Gale of Death." Thus, having borrowed Osiris from the £g>-plians, the Church Fathers lliought Hule of helping themselves to his brother Typhon. Then again : The prophet Banich* spcnks of the stars that rejoice in their irsst^/s and litadets (ChBp. iii-h <uicl liccUsuistes applies the same terms to the sun, which is said to be "the admirable veiwd. of the most High," and the "citadel of the Lord" <^i'Xa\i).f In every ca.te there is no doubt about the thing, for the sacred writer say», IL is a Spirit who rules the sun's course. Hear what he says (id hccies., i. 6i, "The sun also ariseth — and its spirit lighting all in its circular path (g>'rat g>Tans) relunictb according to hia circuits."! De Mirville seems to quote from texts either rejected by or unknown to Protestants, in whose bible there is no forty-third chapter of EciUiiasUs : nor is the sun made to go "in circuits" in the latter, but the wind. This is a question to be settled between the Roman and the Protestant Churches. Our point is the strong element of Sab»:anism or Heliolatry present in Christianity. An (Ecumenical Council having authoritatively put a stop to Chris- tian Aslrolatry by declaring that there were no sidereal Souls in sun, moon, or planets. St. Thomas took upon himself to settle the point in dispute. The "angelic doctor" announced that such expressions did not mean a "soul," but only an Intelligence, not resident in the sun or stars, but one that assisted them, "a guiding and directing intelli- gence."S • Katinl rnun tfac Pratcttaiil Ublc but (eft lo tbc Aptcrj^kc whkb. accordinr <o Artick VI. of Ibc Church of Pjifflnnd, " abe doth read forexaaiplcof lift and InKtrtictino of mimnen" IM, but cot to catattliith any tloctriiK. "♦ Cometiusa LafiiiU, v. 148. I Eecl4Si<t$Ui. jcliil. The nbove (juotaUonft arc taken ftvm De Mirvillc's chapter " On ChrlsUau oad JntiKh SuUr Thralogy.** i». as-jfl. I N«v«rtti«lcfis the Church hits prrtrrved in hrr moM aacrcd riles tbe " itar-ritec " of ih« Pagui IniliftlM- In the jirr -Clirislitiu Milhiaic- Mj^terit*. the cmiilitlatr -mho ovtrrcamt •iK-ce«sfully the "twvlve TortMre«" whicli preceded the final iDittation. received a *inaU round cak* vt wafer of unkavtocd bread, cymboliniiift in onr of tin inraninK!*, the miIst diwr, and Icacnrn as the muinit ihmvralyhiTad). . . . A Imnb, ora bull cmi, wan lutlnl.aad with the blood the caudi<1iitc had to beapnitUed. aala theeaacof ibe EtaperorJntiim'viBitiatkin. Thcsevrn nilrsor myatcrlre chat arc mmMCulffl in the gciA-Ai/jow aa the wwn 5;als «rliich afc openeJ in ordrr were then d^tTtvred to Ibe newty Ixira. 3^ THE &RCBKT DOCTRIKB. Thereupon the atittior. comforted by the explanation, qnotes Clemolt the Alexandrian, and reminds the reader of the opinion of that philo- sopher, the inter-relation that exists "between the seven branches erf the candlestick — the seven stars of the Revelation," and the sun: Tbe ^ix branches (says Clement) fixed to tbe central CADdlcstJck have larnpih bm the stin plarerl in the midst of the wandering ones (yrXavTiTwv) pours his bCAnu on ihemall; this golden candlc5!tick hides one more mystery: it is the sign of Cbrifet, not only in shape, but because he sheds his light through the minutij of tbe »evca spirits primarily created, and who are the Seven Eyes of tbe XjOnl. Therefore the principal planets arc to the seven primeval spirits, accordiof; to St Clemetit, thai which the canillcstick-suii is to Christ Himself, namely — their N'Cssels, their <^w\aj(<u. Plain enough, to be sure ; though one fails to see that this explana- tion even helps the situation. Tbe seven-branched chandelier of the Israelites, as well as the "wanderers" of the Greeks, had a far more natural meaning, a pureh* astrological one to begin with. In fact from Magi andChaldseaiis down to the much-laughed-al ZadkicI, e\'er> astrological work will tell its reader that the Sun placed in the midst of the planets, with Saturn, Jupiter and Mars on one side, and Ventis, Mercury and the Moon on the other, the planets' line cro.ssing ."hrough the whole Karth, has always meant what Hermes tells us. naniL'ly, the thread of desliuy, or that whose action (influence) is cnlled destiny.* But symbol for symbol we prefer the sun to a candle* stick. One can understand how the latter came to represent the siu and planets, but no one can admire the choseu symbol. There is poetry and grandeur in the sun when it is made to symbolTTC the "Eye of Ormuzd." or of Osiris, and is regarded as the Vihan (vehicle) of the highest Deity. But one mnst for ever fail to perceive that aay particular glory is rendered to Christ by assigning to him the trunk of a candlestick.t in a Jewish synagogue, as a mystical scat of honour. There are then positively two suns, a sun adored and a sun adoring. The Apocalypse proves it. The Word is found in Chap, vii., in the angel who ascends with the rising of tlie «nn, having tbe seal of tbe living God. . . . While commentators differ on tbe personality of this angel, St. Ambrose and many other theologians see in bim * Trat>'My>6 T, Cotcridse: " Iiutinctinrly the rvaHon has »lwny« pointrdout to mcu Utc ulUnMie cull or various ttMoat*. . . . There U ua doubt but that lulrolt^cy or Minie aorl or other wIO be tbe U*i acbicvemcat of astronomy ; tbm tniiM be ohctnicnl rclntioDS belwecn Uk plaiictM . . . tbe lUITemKe of tlicir uiaKuLludc toiuiMnKi with tliat of Uicir tlittnncrt u BOt expUcaUc ocbcrwjac* Between pisneif and our canh with its miukiud, «c may add. t *- Cfamt Ibcu." the HutUorMyi>tp. 40). "UreprcMulcd by IbrtninkarUiecaiidlestidc.'' J MICHAHJ. THB CONQTTEROR. 321 I Christ himseir. . . . He is tb« .Sun adored. But in Chap. xix. we Rnd an burcI Blan'UiiK tn Ihe sub, invitluj; all Uic nations to gather lo the great .lupper of the Lamb. Thii time it is literally and limply the aogti of the sqd — who cannot be tuistakeo for the " Word," since the prophet distioKuiahes him from the Word, the King of KiugH ainl the T^nl of LonU. . . . The angel in Uic sun sectns to be an adoring stin. Who may be the latter ? And who else can he be but the Moniing Star, the guardian angel of tlie Word, his/CTwa^r, or angel of the face, as the Word is the acgel of the Face (presence) of his Father, his principal tiltrtbiite and strength, as hiA nAiue itself iniplie<i (Mikael), the powerful rector glorified by the Charch, the Rector potens who will fell the Antichrist, the \'ice-Wonl, in short, who represents his master, and seems to be otu xtftth Him.' Yes, Milcael is the alleged conqtieror of Ormuzd, Osiris, Apollo. Krifihna, Mithra, etc., of all the Solar Gods, in short, kuown and unknown, now treated as demons and as "Satan." Nevertheless, the "Conqueror" has not disdained to doti the war-spoils of the vanquished foe-s — their per.sonalities, attributes, even their names — to become the aitfT ego of. these demons. vi Thus the Sun-God here is fionoveror the Eternal. The prince is Omiuid, since he is the fir»l of the seven Amshuspends [the demon copies of the seven origioal angels] {caput angelormH) .- the Iamb 0atna/j, the Shepherd of the Zodiac and the antagonist of the snake. Bnt the Sun (the Eye of Ormuzd) has also his rector. Eorshid or the Milraton. who is the Ferotur of the face of Ormuzd, his l7.ed, or the morning star. The Ma^'leaiis ha<1 a triple Sun. . . . For us Korshid'Mitratoa is the first of the fisycAopomfiian genii, »nd the guide of the |n, the inimolstor of the terrestrial Rull [or lanih] whooe wound.i are licked by the Terpcnt [on the famous Mithraic monamentJ.t St. Paul, in speaking' of the nilcrs of this world, the Cosuiocratores, only said what was said by all the primitive Philosophers of the ten centuries before the Christian era, only he was scarcely understood, and was often wilfully misinterpreted. Dnmascius repeats the teach- ings of the Pagan writers when he explains that There are seven series of cosmocratores or cosmic forces, which are double : the higber ones commissioned to support and guide the superior world ; the lower ones, the inferior world (our own]. And he is but saying what the ancients taught. lamblichus gives this dogma of the duality of all the planets and celestial bodies, of gods and daimons (spirits). He also divides the Archontes into two classes — the more and the less spiritual; the latter more connected with and clothed with matter, as having a fomi, while the former arc bodiless • Dt Hinrille, Iv. 41, 42. « At UlivtUe, Ir. 4*. i 322 THK SSCKBT Z>OCTKINB. (arupa). But what have Satan and his angc-ls to do with al! this? Perhaps only that the identity of the Zoroastnan dogma with the Chris- tian, and of Mithra, Ormiud, and Ahriman with the Christian Father. Son, and DenI, might be accounted for. And when we say "Zoroastrian dogmas" we mean the exoteric teaching. How explain the same relations between Mithra and Ormuzd as those between the Archangel Mikael and Christ? Ahura Mazda says to tioly Karatushta : "When 1 errata [cmanatedj Mitlire ... I created him that be shouM be invoked and adored cttually with myKir." For the sake of necessar>' reforms, the Zoroastrian Aryans trausformed the De\*a5. the bright Gods of India, into devs or devnls. It was their Karma that in their turn the Christians should vindicate on this point the Hindus. Now Ormuzd and Mithra have become the devs of Christ and Mikael, the dark lining and aspect of the Saviour and Augd. The day of the Karm , of Christian theology will come in its turn. Already the Protestants have begun the first chapter of the religion that will seek to transform the "Seven Spirits" and the host of the Roman Catholics into demons and idols. Ever>' religion has its Karma, as has every individual. That which is due to human conception and is built on the abasement of our brothers who disagree with us, must have its day. "There is uo religion higher than truth." The Zoroastrians, Mazdeans, and Persians borrowed their conceptioos from India ; the Jews borrowed their theory of angels from Persia ; the Christians borrowed from the Jews. Hence the latest interpretation by Christian theology — to the great disgust of the synagogue, forced to share the symbolical candlestick with the hereditarj- enemy — that the seven-branched candlestick repre- sents the seven Churches of Asia and the seven planets which are the angels of those Churches. Hence also, the conviction that the Mosaic Jews, the inventors of that symbol for their tabernacle, were a kind of Sabceans. who blended their planets and the spirits thereof into one. and called them — only far later — ^Jchoviib. For this we have the testi- mony of Clemens Alexandrinus, St. Hieronymus and others. And Clement, as an Initiate of the Mysteries — at which the secret of the heliocentric system was taught several thousands of years before Galileo and Copernicus — proves it by explaining that By ihtst various symbols co[inecie<l vrith (sidereal) pheaoiuena the totalitj of all the creatures which t^ind heaven with earth, are ligured. . . . The THB CHRISTIAW 8I7W-GOD. 3*3 I I I chandelier represented the motion of the seven luiniuiLries, describing their astral revolution. To the right and the left ofthai candelabnini projected the six branches, each of which hati its lamp, becau&c the Sua placed as a candelabrum in the middle of other planets distributes light toiheoi.* . . . As to the cherubs having twelve wings between the two, thej- reprejscnt to ua the sensuous world in the twelve zodiacal signs,t And yet, in the face of all this evidence, sun, moon, planets, all are shown as being demoniacal before, and divine only after, the appear- ance of Christ. All know the Orphic verse : " It is Zeus, it is Adas, it is the Sua, it is Bacchus." these names hav^ing been all synonymous for classic poets and writers. Thus for Democritus " Deity is but a soul in an orbicular fire," and that fire is the Sun. For lamblichus the sun was " the image of divine intelligence"; for Plato "an immortal living Being." Hence the oracle of Claros when asked to say who was the Jehovah of the Jews, answered, " It is the Sun." We may add the words in Psaim xix. 4 In the sun balb he placed a tabernacle for bunsetf^ ... bis going forth m from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it ; and there is nothing hid from the heal thereof. Jehovah then is the sun, and thence also the Christ of the Roman Church. And now the criticism of Dupuis on that verse becomes com- prehensible, as also the despair of the Abbe Fuucher. "Nothing is more favourable to Sabeeism than this text of the Vulgate I " he exclaims. And, however disfigured may be the words and sense in the English authorised bible, the Vulgate and the Septuagint both give the correct text of the original, and translate the latter : " In the sun he established his abode" ; while the Vulgate regards the " heat" as coming direct from God and not from the sun alone, since it is God who issues forth from, and dwells in the sun and performs the circuit : in soie posuit . . . . et ipse exultavit. From these facts it will be seen that the Protestants were right in charging St. Justin with saying that God has permitted us to worship the sun. * NotwIthstftDilinii the- ahovf, wrilt«n In thr rarllf^t Chri^tlati prriod tiy the rnipsnde Nvo- PlBlotiist, thL- Churcli persists to this cUy in ber wiUu] error. llelplcM agaiiut Calil«o, «h« aaw tria to tlirow ■ doubt even on tbc hcUocmtric sywtciB i t StromaUn. V., vL 1 Tbt BnglUh hiblehas: "In Ihvm (the Hnivma) hiitti tw net a tatxniAcIe Tor Vat sun," vrhicb U acorrect nod has no aeitfc to view of the ccnc that fgllows. foe there «rf tblaa* " bid from tlw beat tberecf " if the Utter word h lo be appiied to the sun. 324 "^^^ SBCRST DOCTRINE. And this, notwithstanding the lame excuses that what was really meant was that God permitted himself to be worshipped in, or within, the sun, which is all the same. It will be seen from the above, that while the Pagans located in the sun and planets only the inferior powers of Nature, the representative Spirits, so to say, of Apollo, Bacchus, Osiris, and other solar gods, the Christians, in their hatred of Philosophy, appropriated the sidereal localities, and now limit them to the use of their anthropomorphic deity and his angels — new transformations of the old, old gods. Something had to be done in order to dispose of the ancient tenants, so they were disgraced into " demons," wicked devils. SECTION XXXVl. Pagan Sidereal Worship, or Astrology. I Thb Teraphira of Abram's falher Terah, the '■ maker of images," and the Kabiri Gods are directly connected with ancient Sabsean worship or Aslrolatry. Kiyun, or the God Kivan, worshipped by the Jews in the wilderness, is Saturn and Shiva, later on called Jehovah. Astrology existed before astronomy, and Asiro^wmus was the title of the highest hierophant in Egypt.* One of the names of the Jewish Jehovah. "Sabaoth," or the "Lord of Hosts" (Jsabaoth), belong:* to the ChaJdfean Sabxans (or I'sad^ans). and has for its root the word isad, meaning a "car," a "ship,'* and "an array'*; sabaoth thus meaning literally the artity of the skip, the crew, or a naval host, the sky being metaphorically referred to as the " upper ocean *' in the doctrine. In his interesting volumes, The God of Afoses^ Lacour explains that all such worda as The celestial armies or the host*) of heaveD, sigaifv not only the totality of the heavtnly constellations, but also the Aleim on whom tliey are depcudcnt: the aUitxbaoul are the forces or sovls of the consteTlaUonB, the potende* that ciaiatain «Brt guide the plntiets in this order and procession ; . . . the Jao-\*a-TzbBout signifies Him. the supreme chief of those celestial bodies In his collectivity, as the chief "Order of Spirits," not a chief Spirit. The Sabaeans having worshipped in the grave?* images only the celestial hosts — angels and gods whose habitations were the planets, never in truth worshipped the stars. For on Plato's authority, we know that among the stars and constellations, the * Whn. at hicraphaat took hit lul Aegne, he emenred ttom the tacred nceu colled .Vanmtntf aud «■» i^vcn Ihr cotdrn Tom, the BgypUan Ctikm, whliA waa mbae«tciciilly jtland on hi* Wraat, aitiS tHiried with hint. 326 THE SKCKBT DOCTRIKB. planets alone had a right to the title of ihtoi (Gods), as that name was derived from the verb Bilv, to run or to circulate. Seldenus also tells us that thev were likewise called 6t<H ^avXaioi (God-Councillors I aud paffZotftopni [licton) u they (the pUoetil were present at tlie sun's consUtorj'. sttiis consistoris aditanits. Says the learned Kircher : The sceptres the seven presiding anjielii were anned with, explain these DAme* of RhatMlojihores and lictors ^ven to them. Reduced to its simplest expression and popular meaning, this is of course fetish worship. Yet esoteric astrolatry was not at all the worship of idols, since under the names of" Councillors" and " Lictors," present at the " Sun's consistory," it was not the planets in their material bodies that were meant, but their Regents or " Souls '* (Spirits). If the prayer " Our Father in heaven," or "Saint" so-and- so in " Ht-avcn " is not an idolatrous invocation, then "Our Father in Mercury," or "Our Lady in Venus," "Queen of Heaven," etc., is no more so : for it is precisely the same thing, the name making no difference in the act. The word used in the Christian prayers, "in heaven" cannot mean anything abstract. A dwelling— whether of Gods, angels or Saints (ever>- one of these being anthropomorphic individualities and beings) — must necessarily mean a locality, some defined spot in that "heaven"; hence it is quite immaterial for purposes of worship whether that spot be considered as "heaven** in general, meaning nowhere in particular, ur in the Sun, Moon or Jupiter. The argument is futile that there were Two deities, and two distinct hierarchic^ or tiabai in heaven, in the ancieat world as ill our mndeni times . . . the cue, ihc living God and hia hoat, and the other, Satan, Lucifer with bis councillors and lictors, or Wxc fallen angels. Our opponents say that it is the latter which Plato with the whole of antiquity worshipped, and which two-thirds of humanity worship to this day. "The whole question is to know how to discern between the two." Protestant Christians fail to find any mention of angels in the Penta- teuch, we may therefore leave them aside. The Roman Catholics and the Kabalists find such mention ; the former, because they have accepted Jewish augelology, without suspecting that the " tsabaean Hosts" were colonists and settlers on Jiidsean territory from the lands of the Gentiles; the latter, because they accepted the bulk of the THE PIANETARY ANGHtS. 327 Secret Doctrine, keeping the kernel for themselves and leaving the husks to the unwar>'. Cornetius a Lapide points out and proves the meaning of the word Isaba in the first verse of Chapter ii. of Genesis; and he does so correctly, guided, as he probably was. by learned Kabalists. The Protes- tants are certainly wrong in their contention, for angels are mentioned la the Pentateuch under the word tsaba, which means " hosts "of angels. In the Vnlgate the word is translated ornafus, meaning the "sidereal anny," the ornanuni also of the sky — kabalistically. The biblical scholars of the Protestant Church, and the savants among the material- ists, who failed to find "angels" mentioned by Moses, have thus committed a serious error. For the verse reads : Thus the heaven and the earth \rere BnUhed and all the ho«t of them. the "host" meaning "the army of stars and angels"; the last two words being, it seeniB, convertible terms in Church phraseology. A Lapide is cited as an authority for this ; he says that Tsaba docs not mean alha- otic or the other but "Ihi oh€ and tkt other." qt both, sid^rutM ac angehrum. If the Roman Catholics are right on this point, so are the Occultists when they claim that the angels worshipped in the Church of Rome are none else than their "Seven Planets," the Dhy4n Chohans of Buddhistic Esoteric Philosophy, or the Kumaras, "the mind-born sons of BrahraS," known under the patronymic of Vaidhrltra. The identity between ihe Kumaras. the Builders or cosmic Dhyan Chohans, and the Seven Angels of the Stars, will be found without one single flaw if their respective biographies are studied, and especially the charac- teristics of their chiefs, Sanat-Kum^ra (Sanat SujSta). and Michael the Archangel. Together with the Kabirini (Planets), the name of the above in Chaldrea, they were all " divine Powers " (Forces). Fuerot says that the name Kabiri was used to denote the seven sons of fn*' meaning Pater Sadie, Cain, or Jupiter, or again of Jehovah. There are seven Kumaras — four exoteric and three secret — the names of the latter being found in the Sdnkkya Bkashya, by GaudapadS- chArya.* They are all " Virgin Gods," who remain eternally pure and innocent and decline to create progeny. In their primitive aspect, these Ar>an seven " miud-boru sons " of God are not the regents of * Tbr Hvtvt: Mrrcl tuimn mre " Sana, BMoat BHjlla. noA KapUs ; " vrhilc the four cxoMrtc Ooda are callcU, Sauat KuiuJia, Saiuuda, SauakJi ftod **"*'""ii 328 TBB SfiCKET DOCTRINE. the planets, but dwell far beyond the planetary region. But the same mysterious transference from one character or dignity to another is found in the Christian An gel 'Scheme. The "Seven Spirits of the Presence" attend perpetually ou God, and yet we 6nd tbcni tinder the same names of MikacI, Gabriel, Raphael, cLc, a.s "Star-regents" or the infonning deities of the seven planets. Suffice it to say thai the Archangel Michael is called "the invincible virgin combatant" as he •'refused to create,"* which would connect him with both Sana Suj&ta and the Kum&ra who is the God of War. The above has to be demonstrated by a few quotations. Comment- ing upon St. John's " Seven Golden Candlesticks," Cornelius a Lapide says : Tbete KTcn Ughti relate to tlie aeven branches of tlte caixJlvstick by wbicta were represeiiteil the seven [principal] planets in the temples of Moses and Solomon . . or, better still, to the seven principal Spirits, commissioned to watch orer the salvation of men and churches. St. Jerome says : In truth the candlestick with the seven branches was the type of the worM and its planets. St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Roman Catholic doctor writes : I do not renitrmbcr having ever met to the works of saints or philosophen a denial that the planets are (Skilled by spiritual beings. . . . It seems to me that it maybe proved to demunstralion that the celestial bodies are guided by some intelli- gence, either directly by God. or by the mediation of angelji. Hut the latter opinion seems to be far more consotinnt wth the order of things asiierted by St. Ocaya to be without exception, that everj'thiug on earth is, at a rule, i^venied by God through intermediar>' s^^encies-t* And now let the reader recall what the Pagans say of this. All the cla-ssical authors and philosophers who have treated the subject, repeat with Hermes Trismegistus, that the .seven Rectors — the planets including the sun — were the associates, or the co-workers, of the Unknown All represented by the Deraiurgos — commissioned to contain ■ ABottao- Kamlrs.t>ie "Ood of War" Isculh^J in the Hindu fyuxm il» "eternal cdRtatk"— " the viipn warrior." Hr U ihr Aryan St. MiOiacl. ■t We givt Uie oriffinal : " CoeIc»*ift corpora movrfl ii tt^rimili crrfttsr*, « nrmtnt Sauctonim wt ptailoaophnniin, DPffktiim, IcgiMcmcinnnliii. {O^tt, X. oxX. »i.\. . . . Mihi nalMoi vMctur. qood I>rm»M4lralrve (icobari pOMCt. quoi •(> altqijo Inlcllcctu corpon co«lcati<t ai<:>ireaiitur, ««] u Dro tTtiniHllale, Tct it mnliantibus anp^ll*. ftcd qnix] tuHlanUlmv an|iHi* ca movrat, coB^rraft raruiB ordtiK. qurto Ifiouy^u* iafallibilem uterit, Ut inftfriora a Deo per Atrdta •wunduiu cunam Cimmaerm adtninii(rrn(ur'' [O^ust. Xt. an. ii.), and if «u, and Gud mevft mHdlr* «rith the once for iwr voUtMiBhrd lawn of Nalnre. leiving^ it to hia adauoltlraHn, Wby thould llKir bciox oaUed CmIb liy the " hmitini " \ik dermed idolatroiu ? CELESTIAL WESBLS. 339 I tht Cosmos — onr planetary world — within seven circles. Plutarch shows them representing " the circle of the celestial worlds." ARain, Denys of Thracia and the learned Clemens, of Alexandria both describe the Rectors as being^ shown in the Egyptian temples in the shape of mysterious wheels or spheres always in motion, which made the Initiate:) alBrm that the problem of perpetual motion had been solved by the celestial wheels in the Initiation Adyta.* This doctrine of Hermes was that of Pythagora:i and of Orpheus before him. It is called by Proclus"the God-given" doctrine. lamblichus speaks of it with the greatest reverence. Philostratns tells his readers that the whole sidereal court of the Babylonian heaven was represented in the temples la globes made of sapphires and supporting the golden images of their respective gods. The temples of Persia were especially famous for these representa- tions. If Cedrenus can be credited Tlie BxDperor Heraclius on his entry into the city of Bazaeum was slnick with Bdmiration aoii wonder before Ihe immense machine fabricated for King Chosroes. which reprewnted the night-sky wilh the planet!^ and all their revo]ntion», wilh Ihe aogcld prtsiding over thcin.T It was on such "spheres" that Pythagoras studied Astronomy in the adyia areana of the temples to which be had access. And it was there on his Initiation, that the eternal rotation of those spheres — "the mysterious wheels" as they are called by Clemens and Deuys. and which Plutarch calls " world-wheels"— <iemonstrated to him the verity * In oa« of DCS MovaaeAox's volume* on DcmoBOlogy {.CEavru dtt Dtrntmu if m do not nnntske Ihr BUit«n«iit of Ihe Abbe Hue i« fonnd, «art ihe author tesllfifs to having heard th« followriog Klorjr rrpt-.^trdly from Ihe Abb£ hiinwlT. In a tamaacry of Tibet, the niiasioiiary found Ihe rulluu-injc ; It i* a niniple canrns vrithotit the ^^li^hLc^t mecliaoical apparatu* attached, a* the visitor may provr by esnnuninK l1 at hiii Inoure. 11 n.i>Tcweata a nnjonlit lanilacaiK, but Ihr mouii m nut at all motiontcM and dead; quiw the reverse, for. according to the A hKi. one would xaythat our nioonhcc- •eir, or at Iwiist her linnt; doyble. lij[hlcd the pjc-lurr. K>cb phase, rdch (L«pecl. each tnovement of our MLcUite, is repeated in her l*csiinilc. In the moveuMnt and progrcM of the moon in the aacKd ptctuTT. " You nee this jtlonet 1» the paioltiiij; ride as a cres^fnt, or full, shine t>rightly, poM Lcbitul the clonda, peep out or aet, in a maune: cotccajwuding iu Uie moit cxtraonliiiary w^y with the real lamhtarr. II la, la a word, ■ tnoex perfect and re^leodeiii reproduction of the p«Ie iiueen of lh« m'Kht, which received the a<lomtiiin of to many pcuplc in Ihe iluyii of old.*' We know fr*ttn the m<at RtiAbk sonrcot and uuiueroua «ye-wita«iwe«. that xiicta *' roachinea "— uot canvas pniiiliia'&'ilo exist in certain temples of Tibet ; waLto the "aidereal whecla" reprevenling Ihf planets, and kepi for the Mmc purpoaeb-ii&tro(o|;tt:^l aud magical. Huc'b statement was Irsnalalcd lu /lu UmirtJed (roiu Oea MoitsAcaux'a volume. * Ccdrenua, p. ^. Whether produced by cFaciwori or magic power, such machines— whole celfta* tUI spberea with plttncls rots (Inr —were found in the gan.:tuarie«, and aontc exi«t to thl« day la Japan, in a secret suUenaueaa tciapiv af the «ld Mifcadoa, as well as lu two other placca. 1 33° THE SECRBT POCTRINE. of what had been divulged to him. namely, the heliocentric system, the great secretof the Adj-ta. AH the discoveries of modem astronomy, like all the secrets that can be revealed to it in future aj^es, were con- tained in the secret observatories and Initiation Halls of the temples of old India and Eg>'pt. It is in them that the Cbaldsean made his calculations, revealing to the world of the profane no more tlian it was fit to receive. We nioy. and shall be told, no doubt, that Uranus was unknown to the ancients, and that they were forced to reckon the sun amongst the planets and as their chief. How does anyone know ? Uranus is a modern rtatn^: but one thing is certain: the ancient-* had a planet, "a mystery planet," that they never named and that the highest Astro- nomus. the Hierophaut, alone could "confabulate with." But this seventh planet was not the sun, but the hidden Divine Hierophant. who was said to have a crown, and to embrace within its wheel *' seventy-seven smaller wheeU.'* In the archaic secret system of the Hindus, the sun is the visible Logos "S&rya"; over him there is another, the divine or heavenly Man — who, after having established the system of the world of matter on the archetype of the Unseen Universe, or Macrocosm, conducted during the' Mysteries the heavenly RSlsa Mandala : when he was said : To give with liis right foot the impuliie to Tyam or BfaQtni [Earth] that maktt her rotate in a double rcvolatiun. What says Hermes again ? When explaining Egj'ptian Cosmology he exclaims : Listen. O my son . . . the Power has also formed sc\"cn agents, who coataia within their circles the material world, aiid whose action iscilled destiny. . . , When all Itecame subject to man, the Suven, wilHitjjr to favour human ititellijtutccv communicated to him their powers. Dut as aooa as man knew their true eftiienoe and his own nature, he desired to penetrate within and beyond the circles and thu* break their circumference by usurping the power of him who has dooiinion over the Kire [Sun] itself; after which, haniig robbed one of tlie Wlieels of the Sun of the sacred lire, he fell into slavery.' It is not Prometheus who is meant here. Prometheus is a symbol and a personification of the whole of mankind in relation to an event which occurred during its childhood, so to saj* — the " Baptism by Fire " — which is a mystery within the great Promethean Mystery, one thai THE PROMETHEAN MYSTERY. 33 1 may be at present mentioned only in its broad general features. By reason of the extraordinary growth of human intellect and the develop- ment in our age of the fifth principle (Manas) in man, its rapid progress has paralysed spiritual perceptions. It is at the expense of wisdom that intellect generally lives, and mankind is quite unprepared in its present condition to comprehend the awful drama of human dis- obedience to the laws of Nature and the subsequent Fall, as a result. It can only be hinted at, in its place. SECTION XXXYH. The SoiJLS of the Stars— Um\'"ERSAL Heliolatry. Ts order to show that the Ancients have never '* mistaken stars for Gods," or Angelfe and the suu for the highest Gods and God, but have worshipped only the Spirit of all, and have reverenced the minor Gods supposed to reside in the sun and planets — the difference between these two worships has to be pointed out. Saturn. " the Father of Gods" must not be confused with his namesajce — the planet of the same name with its eight moous and three rings. The two — thongh in one sense identical, as are, for instance, physical man and his soul— must be separated in the question of worship. This has to be done the more carefully in the case of the seven planets and their Spirits* as the whole formation of the universe is attributed to them in the Secret Teachings. The same difference has to be shown again between the stars of the Great Bear, the Riksha and the Chitra Shikhandina, "the bright- crested," and the Rishis — the mortal Sages who appeared on earth during the Satya Yuga. If all of these have been so far closely united in the visions of the seers of every age — the bible seers included — there must have been a reason for it. Nor need one go back so far as into the periods of "superstition" and "unscientific fancies" to 6nd great men in our epoch sharing in them. It is well known that Kepler, the eminent astronomer, in common with many other great men who believed that the heavenly bodies ruled favourably or adversely the fates of men and nations — fully credited besides this the fact that all heavenly bodies, even our own earth, are endowed with living and thinking souls. Le Couturier's opinion is worthy of notice in this relation : We are tou mclined to criticize nnsparin^y ever}'thinf!: concermng aAtroIoEry and its ideas : aeverthtless our criticism, to be one, ought nt least to know, test it chould be proved aimless, what those ideas in truth arc. And when aniuaf; the men we thu» criticize, we find such names as those of RcgiomoaUuus, Tycho Srihe, Kepler, etc., there is reason why we should be careful. Kepler was an aatroWji[er by profession, and became an astronomer in consequence. He was earning his livelihood by genethliac fi^ruroa. which, indicating- the state of the heavens at the nininc-ut of tht birth of individuals, were a means to wliich cvcrj-onc resorted for horoscopes. That Rreat man was a belie\'er in the principles of astro- logy, without accepting all its foolish result*." But aslrolojfy is nevertheless prodaimed as a sinful science, and together with OccuIti.sra is tabooed by the Churches. It is very doubtful, bowcnrer, whether mystic "star worship" can he so easily laughed dowu as people imagine — at any rate by Christians. The hosts of Angels, Cherubs and Planetary Archangels are identical with the minor Gods of the Pagans. As to their "great Gods," if Mars has been shown — on the admission of even the enemies of the PaRan astrologers — to have been regarded by the latter simply as the personified strength of the one highest impersonal Deity, Mercury being personified as its omniscience, Jupiter as its omnipoteucy. and so ou, then the "superstition" of the Pagan has indeed become the " religion" of the masses of the civilized nations. For with the latter. Jehovah is the synthesis of the seven Elohim. the eternal centre of all those attributes and forces, the Alei of the Aleim. and the Adonai of the Adonira. And if with them Mars is now called St. Michael, the "strength of God." Mercury Gabriel, the "omniscience and fortitude of the Lord," and Raphael " the blessing or healing power of God." this is simply ^ change of names, the characters behind the masks remaining the same. The Dalai-lama's mitre has seven ridges in honour of the seven chief Dhyani Buddhas. In the funeral ritual of the Egyptians the defunct is made to exclaim : Salutntion to you, O Princes, who stand in the presence of Osiria. . . . Send me the jfrace to have my sins destroyed, as>;ou have done for the seven iptrits who follow Uieir Lord !t ,.. ..^ Brahma's head is ornamented with seven rays, and he is followed by the«even Rishis, in the seven Svargas. China has her seven Pagodas : * Utuie tia Seienen, p. ajo. * Translated by the Vlcomte de Roogemoat. See Ltt Aimalei dt PkiJatepkie OtrHumnt, ;tb ;cir, 334 TBK SECRKT DOCTKINa. the Greeks had their seven Cyclopes, seven Demiurgi. and the M.ys^Tj Oods. the seven Kabiri, whose chief was Jupiter-Satarn, and with the Jew's, Jehovah. Now the latter Deity has become chief of all. the highest and the one God, and his old place is taken by Mikael (Michael). He is the " Chief of the Host" {tsaba)\ the " Archi- strategus of the Lord's army " ; the *" Conqueror of the Devil " — Victor diaboli — and the " Archjsatrap of the Sacred Militia," he who slew the " Great Dragon." Unfortunately astrology and symbology, having no inducement to veil old things with new masks, have preserved the real name of Mikael — " that was Jehovah " — Mikael being the Augel of the face of the Lord.* " the guardian of the planets." and the living image of God. He represents the Deity in his visits to earth, for as it is well expressed in Hebrew, he is one St»3"T3' who is as God, or who is ^ like uuto God. It is he who cast out the serpent.f ^ Mikael. being the regent of the planet Saturn, is — Saium.X His raystery-narae is Sabbathiel, because he presides over the Jewish Sabliath, as also over the astrological Saturday. Once identified, the reputation of the Christian conqueror of the devil is in still greater d*nget from further identifications. Biblical angels are called Mala- chim. the messengers between God (or rather the gods) and men. In h Hebrew 7»-0 Maladi, is also " a King," and Malech or Melech was | likewise Moloch, or again Saturn, the Seb of Egypt, to whom Dia S'tfurm, or the Sabbath, was dedicated. The Sabseans separated and UiKtinguisheit the planet Saturn from its God far more ihau the Roman Catholics do their angels from their stars; and the Kabalists make ol the Archangel Mikael the patron of the seventh work of magic. Id ihcolof^lcMl symboUnn . . . Japiter [the Stiii] is the risen and gloriotu Saviour. RDd SalurD, God the Father, or the Jehovah of MO£es,f (wyit l^liphas Levi, who tfUi^f to know. Jehovah and the Saviour, Saturn and Jupiter, being thus one, and Mikael being called the living ituage of tKxl, it does seem dangerous for the Church to call Saturn, ^Un— i'r liifM mmmzmis. However, Rome is strong in casuistry and will get out of this as she got out of every other identification, with tftory lt> herself and lo her own full satisfaction. Nevertheless all her I .. «\»uiM« "Thttttrt w*r la bMfVii. lilluet And bii iuifel> fougtit < .«l «lt«co« wa» CM« owl (9). ,...._: .^ ^i4itt«ftii« Suit MulJupitcT, and eves of Vmiu. A SJNOUI^K CONFHSSION. I ogmas atld rituals seem like so many pages torn oul from the history of Occullism, and then distorted. The extremely thiij partition that separates the Kabalistic and Chaldsean Theogony from the Roman Catholic Angelology and Theodicy is now confessed by at least one Roman Catholic writer. One can hardly believe one's eyes in finding the following (the passages italicized by us should be carefully noticed) : One of the moRt characlcnslic features of oar Holy Scriptures is (he caUrulated diitretion used in the ftiHnctulion of the mysttrtes less direcUy useful to salvation. . . . Thus, be}-ond those "tnynailsof myriads" of auf^liccreaturen just noticed* aoil all Lbeae prudently trlenieiitary divisions, there are ct-rtaialy many others, whose very natnes hare not yet reached u&t " For," excellently says St. John Chrysos- tom, " there are lioubtlcss, (ii»i(' dubio,) many other yirlaes [celestial l^cingsj whose denoniinationa we arc yel f;ir from knowing. . . . The nine orf!cr.i are not hy any means the only popiilatiozis in heaven, where, on the coutrary, are to be found numUrUss tnba of inhabitants iafiaitely varie'l, and of which it would be impoiisj. hlc to give (At' s/i^Aitsi idea ibraai'U human tongue. . . . Pa^i\, yrho had ieamed /Aetr names, reveals to us their cidatencc." (ZV Itieomprehetnibiti Natura Dei, Bk. IV.) .... It would thus umouut to a gross mistafie to see merely errors in the Angelology of the Kahalists und GnosticH, so severely treated by the Apostle of the Geulilea, for bis imposing censure reached only their exaggerations and vicious interpretations, and still more, the appliiaiion of those noble titles to the miserable personalities of demoniaeai usurpcrs.l Often nothing so resemble each other as the language of the judges and thai of the coHViils. fof saints and Occultists]. One has to ptnetratc deeply into this dtml slndy [of creed and profession] and what is still better, to frrni blindly to the attthority of the Irihtmal [the Church of Rome, of course] to enable oneself to seize preci.sely the point of the error. The Gnosis condemned Ity Sl Paul remains, nevertheless, for him as for Plato the supreme ktiowLcdgc of all truths and of the Being pur cxcellerue, o oitw* Stv \Repa6l. Bit. VI(. The Ideas, types, "pj^** of the Greek philosopher, the Jttlelligences of Pyihagoras, the aeons or emanations, the occasion of so much reproach to the first heretics the Logos or Word. Chief of these IntelHgenccs, the Dcmiurgos. the architect of the world under his father's direction [of the Pngans], the unknown Go<l, the En'Soph, or the /t of the Infinite [of the Kabalists^ the angelical periods.^ the seven spirits, the Depths of Ahriman, the World's Hectors, the Archonies of the air, the God of this world, \.\ycpkroma of the " If enumeraied. thcjr will be found to be ttic Hiadu " divisions " sod chain of Oeras. sad Uic Dbyan Choliont of Etolcric Buddhism. V Bui thtt fact Itita iio( prevented the Konion Churcb rotn ndoptinir thrm all th« aarar, (urcrptin^ ttatm from JKitonnt. tbousb perchance nini-rre Church FHthm, who hud borrowed tbeiu from KJtbn tlstB— Jcwb uiiil Pa|;3n<>, t To call "uiiurpcni" tbOK who prvKdcd the Chri^an BHn^ br whose benefit ttacM same litle« were borrowed. Ucarrving pamdoxlcal anachroiiiHoi a little too lor I I Or the diviHt agn. tlic " dnvs and yearn of Brahinl." 336 THK SBCRKT DOCTRINE. intfllligeaces, down to Metatron the aagd of the Jews, ull tkii is /<wnd wont ftr word, as so tuarty truths, in the works of our greaiat doctors^ and in Hi. Paul.* If an Occultist, eager to charge the Church with a numberless series of plagiarisms were to write the above, could he have written more strongly? And have we, or have we not, the right, after such a com- plete confes.'iion, to reverse the tables and to say of Romitn Catholics and others what is said of the Gnostics awd Occultists. " They used oar expressions and rejected our doctrines." For it is not the "pro- moters of the false Gnosis" — who had all those expressions from their archaic ancestors — who helped themselves to Christian expressions. but verily the Christian Fathers and Theologians, who helped them- selves t6 our nest, and have tried ever since to »oil it. The words above quoted will explain much to those who are search- ing for truth and for truth only. They will show the origin of certain rites in the Church inexplicable hitherto to the simple-minded, and will give the reason why such words as " Our Lord the Sun " were used in prayer by Christians up to the fifth and even sixth century of our era, and embodied in the Liturgy, until altered into "Our Lord, the God." Let us remember that the early Christians painted Christ on the walls of their subterranean necropolis, as a shepherd in the guise of, and invested with all the attributes oi Apollo, driving away the wolf. Fenris, who seeks to devour the Sun and his Satellites. h. * Oe Mirvillc, ij. 3*5. 316. So wc Mf too. And Uib ibom Uiu U 1» to Uw Kabaliitft muA MifidBia Uiat the Church la indchicd for h« a<4Miu and o&me«, Paul nwrr condcnuint rtai Gnoeis, b«t the falu odf, now accepted by the Church, I I SECTION XXXYin. Astrology and Astrolatry. The books of Hermes Trismegistus contain the exoteric meaning, still veiled for all but the Occultist, of the Astrology and Astrolatry of the Khaldi. The two subjects are closely connected. Astrolatry, or the adoration of the heavenly host, is the natural result of only half- revealed Astrology', whose Adepts carefully concealed from the non- initiated masses its Occult principles and the wisdom imparted to them by the Regents of the Planets — the •' Angels." Hence, divine Astro- logy for the Initiates ; superstitious Astrolatry for the profane. St. Jnstin asserts it : Prom the first invention Of tn^'iiieroglrphics it wa» not the vulgar, hot the dia- tinguished and select men who became initiated in the secrecy of the lempks into the science of every kind of AsUoUtgy — eveti itito Us most abject kind : that Astro- logy which later on found itself prostitotcd in the public thoroughfares. There was a vast difference between the Sacred Science taaght by Petosiris and Necepso — the first Astrologers mentioned in the Egyptian manuscripts, btlieved to have lived during the reign of Ramses II. (Sesostris)* — and the miserable charlatanr>' of the quacks called Chaldaeans, who degraded the Divine Knowledge under the last Emperors of Rome. Indeed, one may fairly describe the two as the " high ceremonial Astrolog>"" and " astrologrical Astrolatr>"." The first depended on the knowledge by the Initiates of those (to us) immaterial Forces or Spiritual Entities that affect matter and guide it. Called by the ancient Philosophers the Archontes and the Cosmocratores, they were the types or paradigms on the higher planes of the lower and more material beings on the scale of evolution, whom we call Ele- mcntals and Nature-Spirits, to whom the Saboeans bowed and whom they worshipped, without suspecting the essential difference. Hence * SCWMtTto. or Phnrnnh Rumiies Tl., whcxic mummy wns unswnthvd In iBMbjr Mupero of ihe But«k MuMTUin, aaJ trco([iii4ni ae tlinl of Hit greatett king Of Hgypt, nhonc grandson, Ramws IQ. waa UK last kioff of ao RDdcnt Unf data. S > 338 THE SECRET DOCTRIHK. the laller kind when not a mere pretence, degenerated but too often into Black Magic. It was the favourite form of popular or exotenc Astrology-, entirely ignorant of the apotelcsmatic principles of the primitive Science, the doctrines of which were imparled only at Initiation. Thus, while the real Hicrophants soared like Demi-Gods to the very summit of spiritual knowledge, the koi potht among the Sabseans crouched, steeped in superstition — ten millenniums back, as they do now— in the cold and lethal shadow of the valleys of matter. Sidereal in0uence is dual. There is the physical and physiological influence, that of exotericism; and the high spintual, intellectual, and moral influence, imparled by the knowledge of the planetary Oods. Bailly, speaking with only an imperfect knowledge of the former, called Astrology, so far hack as the eighteenth century. " The very foolish mother of a very wise daughter" — Astronomy. On the other hand, Arago, a luminary of the nineteenth ceutur>'. supports the reality of the sidereal influence of the Sun, Moon and Planets. He asks : Where do we find lanar influences refuted tty atguineuU that scieuce would ilare to avow } But even BaiUy, having, as he thought, put down Astrology as publicly practised, dares not do the same with the real Astrology. He says : Jm^Jciarj- Astrology was ai its origin the result of a profouml system, the worit o( aii enlightened nation that wouhl wander too far into the mysteries of God and Nature. A Scientist of a more recent date, a member of the Institute of France, and a professor of Histor>', Ph. I«ebas, discovers (unconsciotisly to him- self) the very root of Astrology in his able article on the subject in the Dictionnaire Encychp/dique de France. He well tmderstands, he tells his readers, that the adhesion to that Science of such a number of highly intellectual men should be in itself a suiBcient motive for believing that all Astrology is not folly; While proclaiming in politics the sovereignty of the people and of public opinion can we admit, as heretofore, that mankind allowed itself to be radically deceived in this only: that an absolute and gross absurdity reijjncd in the minds of whole nations for so many centuries without being based on anything sure — on one band human imbecility, and on the other charlatanry ? Uow for filty centuries and more can most men have Wen cither dupes or knaves.' . . . Kven though we may find it impossible to decide between and separate the realities of Astrology- from the elements of invention and empty dreaming in it, ... let us, neverthe- less, repeat with Bussuet and all modern philosophers, that " nothing that has l>eeii dominant could he absolute!} f;ilse." I« it not true, at aU events, that there j«a THB DEFENCE OP ASTROLOGY. 339 me ft noi I lib I \ \ pbysical reaction on one another among the planets ? Is \t not again tme, titat the planeTfl have An inflcencc on the almosphere. and consequently at any rate a mediate action on vegetation and animalfi? Ila^ not motlcm science ilemonslritted now theAT two jx>inl:i bcyoud any doubt ? . . . Is it any Itiss true tliBt human liberty of action 19 not a1>soliite: that all is bounil. that all weighs, planets as the it, on eftch individual vrUI; thai Providence [or /Carina} act« ou ua and directs men through those relations that it has esln>il;shed between them and the ^-isiblc objects and the whole universe ? . . . Astrolatry, in its easence, is nothing but that; wc are iKiiind to recognifte that an ituttnct superior to Uie age tlitr> lived in guided the efforts of the ancient Magi. As to the luaterialism and annihtiation of human moral freedoai with which Batlly charge.4 their theory (AstraIog>-). the re- probate has no sense whatever. .\I1 the yrcat astrologers admitted, without one single exception, tlint man could react against the influence of the stars. This prin- ciple is establisheil in the Ptoletncemn Tetrabiblos, the tme astrological Scripture^ in chapters ii. and iiL of book i.* Thomas Aquinas liaci corroborated Lebas in anticipation ; he says : The celestial bodies are ihi cause oj ail that happens in this sublunary world, they act indirectly on human actions: but not all the effects produced by them are un- avoidable.t The Occultists and Theosophists are the first to confess that there is white and black Astrology'. Nevertheless, Astrolog>" has to be studied in both aspects by those who wish to become proficient in it; and the good or bad results obtained do not depend upon the principles, which nre the same in both kinds, but in the Astrologer himself. Thus Pythagoras, who established the whole Copernican sy.stem by the Books of Hermes 2,000 years before Galileo's predecessor was bom, found and studied in them the whole Science of divine Theogony. of the communication with, and the evocation of, the world's Rectors — the Princes of the " Principalities" of St. Paul — the nativity* of each Planet and of the Universe itself, the formulae of incantations and the consecration of each portion of the human body to the respective Zodiacal sign corresponding to it. All this cannot be regarded as childish and absurd — still less "devilish " — save by those who are, and wish to remain, tyros in the Philosophy of the Occult Sciences. No true thinker — no one who recognises the presence of a common bond between man and visiblCt as well as invisible, Nature — would see in the old relics of Archaic Wisdom— such as the Pelemmoph Papyrus, for instance — "childish nonsense and absurdity," as many AcademiciaiiS * op. eit.. p. 4M. t Summa. QuMt. xv. Art. v., upon As(rotoerr», and Vol. m. pp. (-iq. THB SKCRKT DOCTRINB- and Scientists have done. But upon finding in such ancient docnments the application of the Hennetic rules and laws, such as The consecration of one's hair to the celestial Nile ; of the left temple to the Mving Spirit in the sun, and in the right one to the spirit of Ammoii. ht will endeavour to study and comprehend belter the " laws of correspondences." Nor will he disbelieve in the antiquity of Astrotogv on the plea that some Orientalists have thought fit to declare that the Zodiac was not ver>' ancient, being only the invention of the Greeks of the Macedonian period. For this statement, besides having been shown to be entirely erroneous by a number of other reasons, may be entirely disproved by facts relating to the latest discoveries in Egj^pt, and by the more accurate readings of hieroglyphics and inscriptions of the earliest dynasties. The published polemics on the contents of the so-called '* Magic '* Papyri of the Anastasi coUeclioa indicate the antiquity of the Zodiac. As tYxe^ Lettres a Leitront say: The papyri discourse at length upon the four basfs or Foundations of the world, the identity of which It is impossible, according U Champolliuu, tu mistuke, ns one is forced to reco^ise in them ihc Pillars of the World of St. Paul. It is they who are invoked with the gods of all the celestial zones, quite imalogou% once more, to the Spiriluaiia HeguitUiC in £ecUstiims of the same Apostle.* That invocation was made in the proper terms ... of the farmnla, repto- duced far too faithfully by JflJiibliclms for it to t>e posatble to refuse him any longer the merit of having transmitted tu pottlenty the ancient and primitive spirit of the Eg>"pti£in .^slrologcrs-t As Lctronne had tried to prove that all the genuine Kg}*ptian Zodiacs had been manufactured during the Roman period, the Sensaos mummy is brought forward to show that : a All the Zodiacal monuments in Euypt were chiefly a.stroiiomical. Royal tomhs and funereal rituals arc so many tables of constellations and of their influences fot all the hours of ever)- month. Thus the genetbltac tables themselves prove that they arc far older than the period assigned to their Origin ; all the Zodtncs of the sarcophagi of later epochs ' "The princfpniltim and pmrem fboni] in heav«ii1y plocex " \Efikti., tU. m). Thv vrw, "hr though there be Uiat arc callM Gods, wliether ia hetnvn or on earUi, to. Ui«v be ikitLs maay ud lonb nioii)-" J. Curttitk.. vili, 5), ohowit, nl any rate, the rccoKuHiofl l>y Paul of a pluraUtjr of "Ooila'' wh^Mo h« colli! "dKincnu" t"<piriU"-iicvcr rfrw'/n. I-rinopnUlies. nironcii. ttanttiriaM, BercUm, etc. btc all Jnrl^ and ChriaUiin amau* tot Ibc GoAit oT the anclviit*— the ArchoaflKla maA Aii|t«U of the foruur being ia c^■c^J' cox tlic Dcvu and ttic Uh/ln Cbobaoa oC Um man ondntf ■cligiooft. -t Answer by Kciitcds 10 Ixtronuc wiiti rcpird to bb mistaken Dotioos about the t^^Oiu oi Dendcnt. iTff tATER DETERIORATION. 341 I I beinjf siniptc reminiscenced of the Zodiacs belonging to the mytJiological farcbaic] period. Primitive Astrology was as far above modern judidar>' Astrology, so-called, as the guides (the Planets and Zodiacal signs) are above the Vamp-posts. Berosus shows the sidereal sovereignt>'of Bel and Mylitta (Sun and Moon), and only " the twelve lords of the Zodiacal Gods/' tlie" thirty-six Gods Counsellors'* and the " twenty-four Stars, judges of this world," which support and guide the Universe (our solar system), watch over mortals and reveal to mankind its fate and their own decrees. Judiciary Astrology as it is now known, is correctly denominated by the Latin Church the Materialistic and pantheistic prophesying by the objective plaiiL-t ilsvlf, imlcpcn- dently of its Rector [the Mlac of the Jews, the raicisters of the Eternal commis- rioned by him to announce bis will to mortals] : the asceusioo or conjunction of Ute planet at tlie moment of the birth of an Indiviilual decidiof; his fortune and the moment and mode of bis death.* Every student of Occultism knows that the heavenly bodies are closely related during each Manvantara with the mankind of that special cycle ; and there are some who believe that each great character bom during that period has — as every other mortal has, only in a far stronger degree — his destiny outlined within his proper constellation or star, traced as a SL-lf-prophecy, an anticipatt-d autobiography, by the in- dwelling Spirit of that particular star. The human Monad in its first beginning is that Spirit, or the Soul of that star (Planet) itself. As our Sun radiates its light and beams on every body in space within the boundaries of its system, so the Regent of every Planet-star, the Parent- monad, shoots out from itself the Mouad of every " pilgrim" Soul bom under its house within its own group. The Regents are esoterically seven, whether in the Sephiroth, the " Angels of thL- Presence," the Rishis, or the Amshaspends. "The One is no number" is said in all the esoteric works. • St. Angustiiiir iDt Gen., t. iU.t and Dclrio {Dif^ihit.. Vol. IV., chap. iU.I are quoted by De Minrille, tp »how thai " Iht laorr Mlroloscr* §pcak the Imlh and Iht- brtlcr Ihrj' proplicny 11. the more out bns to lecl dil&dral, ■cciiiy ttml their agreniieiil with Uie devil [Kcauiea thereby the more appwieat." The ffliDoua (UtcmenC made by Jurcnal \Satirti, ^i.) to the effect thai " not o«c Aa^le aMrolo^er couldbe foiind who Ail twI pay dearly for the h(.-1)> he receivrd fVont hi* f^etiiiix''— nn toott proves the laltef la he a ttevit Uiau the death 04* Sociatea prpvea hia dattuoo to have tieeti a uattvc rrotn the ueihct world— ir sacb thcie lie. Siirh nrjEumcnl only dctnonitratcs human stupidity and wickedneM, once reiuwn ia iniidc subservicnl (o pnjmlke .imi ranaticiaui i»r every sort. " Must of the great writers of antiquity, Cicero and Tncilus amcUK thrm, believed In Astrotogy and ihe tcaJUa* tion of il» 'propheei™ :" and "the penally of death dectrwl neiirly everywhere ngjin^l tboae BiathemaiteinnK [a«troloeet»J who happcucd to predict bUely dimiuiahed ueiUier tbeir number DOT tbeir tranquillity of ndnd." 34* THE SECRKT DOCTRINE. Prom the Kasdim and Gazzim (Astrologers) the noble primitire science passed to the Kbartumim Asaph ini (or Theologians) and the Haknmim (or scientists, the Magicians of the low'er class), and from these to the Jews during their captivity. The Books of Moses had beeo buried in oblivion for centuries, and when re-discovered by Hilkiah had lost their true sense for the people of Israel. Primitive Occult ^Vstrology was on the decline when Daniel, the last of the Jewish Initiates of the old school, became the chief of the Magi and Astrologers of Chaldxa. In those days even Egj'pl, who had her wisdom from the same source as Babylon, had degenerated from her former grandeur, and her glot; had begun to fade out. Stilt, the science of old had left her eternal imprint on the world, and the seven great Primitive Gods reigned for ever in the Astrology and in the division of time of every nation upon the face of the earth. The names of the days of our (Christian) week are those of the Gods of the Cbalda^ans, who translated them from those of the Ar>*ans; the uniformity of these antediUunan names in every nation, from the Goths back to the Indians, would remain inexplicable, as Sir W. Jones thought, had not the riddle been explained to us by the invitation made by the Chaldcean oracles, recorded by Porphyry and quoted by Eusebius : To carrj- those nsmes first to the Egj-ptian and Phcenician colonies, then to the Greeks, with the express recommendation tbat each God should be invoked onir OQ that liny thai hud bcea called Ijy his niune. . . . Thns ApoHo says in those oracles : " I must be inrokcd on the day of the mm ; Mercury after his directions, then Chronos [Saturn], then Venus, and do not (jH to call »even times each ortho»e gods." * This is slightly erroneous. Greece did not get her astrological instruction from Egypt or from Chaldsa, but direct from Orpheus, as Luciau tells us.f It was Orpheus, as he says, who imparted the Indian Sciences to nearly all the great monarchs of antiquity ; and it was they, the ancient kings favoured by the Planetary Gods, who recorded the principles of Astrology — as did Ptolemus, for instance. Thus Lucian writes : The Bceotian Tiresias acquired the greatest reputation in the art of predicting futurity. ... In those days dirination was not as slightly treated as it is now : and nothing was ever undcrL-ikcn witliout prci'tous consutlntion with divtners, whose oracles were all directed by astrology. ... At Delphos the virgin com- • J^tfaratia F.vmmftiita. I, xh". * AH.. It. 6a. On the sarcophagus of an Egyptian Pharaoh. Neith, mother of Ra. the heifer that brings forth the Sun, her body spangled with stars, and wearingtbesolarandlunardiscs. is equally referred to as the " Heavenly Virgin ** and "Our Lady of the Starry Vault." Modem judiciar>' Astrolog>' in its present form began only during the time of Diodorus. as he apprises the world* But Chaldsean Astrology was believed in by most of tlie great men in History, such as Caesar, Pliny. Cicero — whose best frieuds, Nigidius Figulus and Lucius Tarrutios, were themselves Astrologers, the former being famous as a prophet. Marcus Antonius never travelled without an Astrologer recommended to him by Cleopatra. Augustus, when ascending the throne, had his horoscope drawn by Theagenes. Tiberius discovered pretenders to his throne by means of Astrology and divination. Vitellius dared not exile the Chaldaeans, as they had announced the day of tbeir banishment as that of his death. Vespasian consulted them daily; Doutitian would not move without being advised by the prophets; Adrian was a learned Astrologer himself; and all of them, ending with Julian (called the Apostate because he would not become one), believed in, and addressed their prayers lo, the Planetary "Gods." The Emperor Adrian, moreover, "predicted from the January calends up to December 31st, every event that happened to him daily." Under the wisest emperors Rome had a School of Astrolog>*, wherein were secretly taught the occult inOuences of the Sun, Moon, and Saturn. f Judiciary Astrology is used to this day by the Kabalists ; and ^liphas Levi, the modern French Magus, teaches its rudiments in his Dogme et RifuJ de la Haute Magic. But the key to ceremonial or ritualistic Astrolog>'. with the teraphim and the urim and thummim of Magic. Is lost to Europe. Hence our century of Materialism shrugs its shoulders and sees in Astrolog}-— a pretender. Not all scientists scoff at it. however, and one may rejoice in reading in the Afuslr des ScicncesX the suggestive and fair remarks made by Le Couturier, a man of science of no mean reputation. He thinks It curious ■ f/M., I. H. • All Uk«c parUcuUn mxj b6 rooad More fiiliy and Tw Pigeac'ft kgfPU. I Op HI., p. »sa- mon compMelr in ChampulUon SECTION XXXIX. Cycles and Ayataras. I I I I Wk have already drawn attention to the facts that the record of the life of a World-Saviour is emblematical, and must be read by its mystic meaning, and that the fijjpjres 432 have a cosmic evolutionary significance. We find these two facts throwing light on the origin of the exoteric Christian religion, and clearing away much of the obscurity surrounding its beginnings. For is it not clear that the names and- characters in the Synoptical Gospels and in that of St. John are not historical ? Is it not evident that the compilers of the life of Christ, dextrous to show that the birth of their Master was a cosmic, aslro-' nomical, and divinely-preordained event, attempted, to coordinate the same with the end of the secret cycle, 4.320 ? When facts are collated this answers to them as little as does the other cycle of " thirty-three solar years, seven months, and seven days/' which has also been bronght forward as supporting the same claim, the soli*lunar cycle in which the Sun gains on the Moon one solar year. The combination of the three figures, 4, 3, 2, with cyphers according to the cycle and Manvantara coucerued, was, and is, preeminently Hindu. It will remain a secret even though several of its significant features are revealed. It relates, for instance, to the Praiaya of the races in their periodical dissolution, before which events a special AvatSra has always to descend and incar- nate on earth. These figures were adopted by all the older nations, such as those of Egypt aud Chaldaea, and before them were current among the Allanteans. Evidently some of the more learned among the early Church Fathers who had dabbled, whilst Pagans, in temple secrets, knew them to relate to the Avat3ric or Messianic it. jstery, and tried to apply this cycle to the birth of their Messiah ; they failed because the figures relate to the respective ends of the Root-Races and not to any individual. In their badly-directed efforts, moreover, an error of five years occurred. Is it possible, if their claims as to the ,^(j THE SaCRKT DOCTRINE. importance and universality of the event were correct, that such a vital mistake should have been allowed to creep into a chronological com- putation preordained and traced in the heavens by the &nger of God* Again, what were the Pagan and even Jewish Initiates doing, if this claim as to Jesus be correct ? Could they, the custodians of the key to the secret cycles and Avataras, the heirs of all the Aryan, Eg>*ptian, and Chaldiean wisdom, have failed to recognise their great "God- Incarnate." one with Jehovah.* their Saviour of the latter days, him whom all the nations of Asia still expect as their Ralkt Avat^ra. Ntait- reya Buddha, Sosiosfa, Messiah, etc.? The simple secret is this : There are cycles within greater cycles, which are all contained in the one Kalpa of 4,320.000 years. It w it the end of this cycle that the Kalki AvatSra is expected — the Avatftrt Whose name and characteristics are secret. Who will corae forth from Shamballa. the " City of Gods," which is in the West for some nations, in the East for others, in the North or South for yet others. And this is the reason why, from the Indian Rishi to Virgil, and from Zoroaster down to the latest Sibyl, all have, since the beginning of the Fifth Race, prophesied, sung, aud promised the cyclic return of the Virgin — Virgo, the coustellation^aud the birth of a divine child who should bring back to our earth tlie Golden Age. No one, however fanatical, would have sufficient hardihood to main* tain that the Christian era has ever been a return to the Golden Age — Virgo ha\'ing actually entered into Libra since then. I^efc us trace as briefly as possible the Christian traditions to their true origin. First of all, they discover in a few lines from Virgil a direct prophecy of the birth of Christ. Vet it is impossible to detect in this prophecy any feature of the present age. It is in the famous fourth Eclogue in which, half a century before our era. Pollio is made to ask the Bfttses of Sicily to sing to him about greater events. The last era of Cnmtean song is now arrivecl and the grand scriea of ages [that aericB which recors agmia and again in the course of our mundaoc revolution] begins afresh. Now the Virgin A-strxa returns, .ind the reign of Saturn recom- * In Uk i.ja6 placM lu Ibe .Vmr Teitamtnt when: Uie word " God " it mmtioord noUiiiii^ atpilfiei Uiit in Oo4 are include more bcingtt than G<kI. On the coatnty in 17 p)ac« God is n»lkd (he only Ood. The place* whm Ihe Father U »u>cBll«d unouat to 310. la i4^ placoi God is •ddi^Mcd wiUi htgli-wiuKling UUok tn 90 pUcen all prayers and tluiukb are addnned to the F«Ukt; }•» timM in the -Vifw Teilammt \% the Son dMlarcd to be Interior lo the Father ; B5 tunen is Jnua called tlM " Son of Alan : " 70 tinta ia he called a tuan. In not one single jilnce in the bible to It taid that God holds within him three diflctCDt Bdn^ or PerMns, aad yet is anc iMnK ot FeTBon.-Dr. Kart Mm Berxeo's iMlmttt in Sweden. AN UNFUU'ILLBD PROPUSCY. 347 mences. Now a new progeii>- dac^di from the cel^tial realms. Do tbou, chaste l,ucina, smile propitious to the iafant Ikiy who will brinj; to a close the preseut Age of Iron,* nnrl jntrodnce throughout the whole wnrM the Age of Gold. . . . He shall share the life of Gods and shall ace heroes mingled in society with Gods, bkn- mU be seen by them and all the peaceful world- ■ . . Then shall the herda no tougrrdrend the huge lion, the iierpeut also shall die: aud tlie potsou's deceptive plant shall perish. Come then, dear child of the Gods, great descendant of Jupiterl , . . The time is near. See^ the world is shaketi with its globe saluting thee : the earth, the regions of the sea, and the heavens anblime.t 'It is in these few lines, called the "Sibylline prophec>* about the coming of Christ,** that his followers now see a direct foretelling of the event. Now who will presume to raaintaiu that cither at the birth of Jesus or since the establishment of the so-called Christian religion, any portion of the above-quoted sentences can be shown as prophetic ? Has the '* last age " — the Age of Iron, or Kali Yuga — closed since then ? Quite the reverse, since it is shown to be iu full sway just now, not only because the Hindus use the name, but by universal personal experience. Where is tliat " new race that has descended from the celestial realms " ? Was it the race that emerged from Paganism into Christianity ? Or is it our present race, with nations ever red-hot for fight, jealous and envious, ready to pounce upon each other, showing mutual hatred that would put to blush cats and dogs, ever b'ing and decei\nng one another? Is it this age of onrs that is the promised "Golden Age" — in which neither the venom of the serpent nor of any plant is any longer lethal, and in which we are all secure under the mild sway of God -chosen sovereigns? The wildest fancy of ^n opium-eater could hardly suggest a more inappropriate description, if it is to be applied to our age or to any age since the year one of our era. What of the mutual slaughter of sects, of Christians by Pagans, and of Pagans and Heretics by Christians ; the horrors of the Middle Ages and of the Inquisition; Napoleon, and since his day, an " armed peace'" at best — at the worst, torrents of blood, shed for supremacy over acres of land, and a handful of heathen : millions of soldiers under arms, ready for battle; a diplomatic body playing at Cains and Judases ; and instead of the " mild sway of a divine sovereign " the universal, though un- recognised, sway of C£esarism, of "might" in lieu of " right." and the breeding therefrom of anarchists, socialists, petroleuses, and destroyers of every descripdon ? * Kali Vtiffi> the BUck or Iraa Age. * VlrsU. Retime, Iv. 348 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. The Sibylline prophecy and Virgil's inspirational poetry remaio «■ fulfilled in every point, as we see. Tlie fields arc yellow with soft ears of com ; but so they were before our era : Tlic blushing grapes shall hang from the rude brambles, and dewv honey shall [w may] distil frota the rugged oak ; but they have not thus done, so far. We must look for another inter' pretation. What is it ? The Sibylline Prophetess spoke, as thousands of other Prophets and Seers have spoken, though even the few such records that have survived are rejected by Christian and infidel, and their interpretations are only allowed and accepted among the Initiated. The Sibyl alluded to cycles in geucral aud to the great cycle especially. Let us remember how the PurSnas corroborate the above, among others the Vishnu Purdna : When the pmctires taught by th« Vedas, and the lustitules of Law Mttdl have nearly ceased, and the close of the Kali Yoga [the " Iron Age*' of Virgil] shall be nigh, an aspect of thai divine Retng who exists of his owd spiritual rinture io the character of BrahraS and even is the beginning and the end [.-IfpAa and OmegaX . ' . . shall descend upon earth : be will hi bom in the family of Vishnayashas^ iti eminent BrAbman of Sharaballsb . . . eodowed with the eight saperhwnas powers By hin irresistible might he wilt destroy ... all whose mind» aie devoted to iniquity. He will then recsLBbliab righteousness upon earth : and the niitiiK of Iliase who live at the vnd of tlic [Kali] Age shall be awiUfeuetl, and shall be as pellucid as crystal.* The men who arc Ihuji changed by virtue of that peculiar time shall be as the seeds of human beings [the Shistha, the survivors of the fntore cataclysm 1, and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws of the Rrita [or Satya] Yuga [the age of purity, or the " Goidcn Age*']. For it is said : " When the sua and moon and Tishya [asterisms] and the planet Jupiter arc in one manxioa the Krita Age (the Golden] shall return, t The astronomical cycles of the Hindus — those taught publicly — have been sufficiently well understood, but the esoteric meaning thereof, in its application to transcendental subjects connected with them, has ever remained a dead-letter. The number of cycles was enormous; it ranged from the MahS Yug.i cycle of 4.320.000 years down to the small septenar>' and quinquennial cycles, the latter being composed of the five years called respectively the ' At Vk tAttoK eS Mtr Ran-, people, it is said, throush suflferinff and dbcanteat will iMCOtac man BpiriiiuU. Clairvoyance will txcoiue u gvoeniL faculty. We shall be approachlns tbe cpiritaal state of [fee Third ind St^cmd Kaces. • yitknn fkrina. IV.. ksiv. saS, Wilson's LrBBBlatbM. SBCRBT CYCLES. 349 Samvatsara, Parivatsara, Idvatsara, Anuvatsara, and Vatsara, each having secret attribntes or qualities attached to them. Vriddhagarga gives these in a treatise, now the property of a Trans-Himiiayan Matham (or temple) ; and describes the relation between this quinquen- nial and the Brihaspati cycle, based on the conjunction of the Sun and Moon every sixtieth year: a cycle as mysterious — for national events in general and those of the Aryan Hindu nation especially — as it is important. SECTION XL. Secret Cycles. Thh former five-year cycle comprcliends sixty solar<sidereal montus of 1800 days, sixty-one solar mouths (or 1830 days) ; sixty-two lunar month.'i (or 1S60 lunations), and sixty-seven lunar-asterismal months (or 1 809 such days). Ill his Kala SatikaNla, Col. Warren very properly regards these yeara as cycles; this they are, for each year has its own special importance as ha\-ing some bearing upon, and connection with, specified events in individual horoscopes. He writes that In the cycle of sixty there Are contained five cycles of twelve years, each supposeil equal lo one year of the planet (Briliaspati, or Jupiter) ... I mention this cycle because I Tound it mentioned in !uimc books, but I Icnow of uo nation or tribe that reclcoti.-> time after that account.* The ignorance is very natural, since Col. Warren could know nothing of the secret cycles and their meanings. He adds : The Diunes or the five cycles or Yugu are: . . . (i) Samvatsan, (3) Parivat- sara, (3) Idvatsara, (4) Anuvatsara, (5) Udravatsara. The learned Colonel might, however, have assured himself that there were "other nations" which had the same secret cycle, if he had but remembered that the Romans also had their lustrum of five years (from the Hindus undeniably) which represented the same period if multiplied by 12. f Near Benares there are still the relics of all these cycle- records, and of astronomical instruments cut out of solid rock, the everlasting records of Archaic Initiation, called by Sir W. Jones Of. cil., p. ii>. t At any lau, tbv tetnpk Mcrd mcuDing mu Ihc MBK. THE NAUOS. 35* I I I suggested by the prudent Br^hmans who snrrounded him) old " back records " or reckouiags. But iu Stonehcage lliey exist to this day; Hig^gins says that Waltire found the barrows of tumnli sur- rounding this giant-temple represented accurately ihe situation and magnitude of the fixed stars, forming a complete orrcrj' or planiiiphere. As Colcbrooke fouud out, it is the cycle of the Vedas, recorded Ju the Jyotisha, one of the VedSngas, a treatise on Astronomy, which is the basis of calculation for all other cycles, larger or smaller ; • and the V^as were written in characters, archaic though they be, long after those natural obsen'alions, made by the aid of their gigantic mathe- matical and astronomical instruments, had been recorded b> ihc men of the Third Race, who had received their instruction from the DhySn Cfaohans. Maurice speaks truly when he observes that all such Circular stone monutnents were intended u darable eytubals of asironomical cycles by 8 race who, not having, or for political reasons, forbtililing the use of letters, hud no other permanent method of iuatnicttag their disciples or handing down their kuowleilge to posterity. He errs only in the last idea. It was to conceal their knowledge from profane posterity, leaving it as an heirloom only to the Initiates, that such monuments, at once rock observatories and astronomical treatises, were cut out. It is no news that as the Hindus divided the earth into seven zones, so the more western jjeoples — Chal(ia;ans, Phccnicians. and even the Jews, who got their learning either directly or indirectly from the Brahmans — made all their secret and sacred numerations by 6 and i3, though using the number 7 whenever this would not lend itself to handling. Thus the numerical base of 6. the exoteric figure given by Arya Bbatta. was made good use of. From the first secret cycle of 600 — the Xaros, transformed successively into 60,000 and 60 and 6, and, with other noughts added into other secret cycles — ilown to the smallest, an Arch.Tcologist and Mathematician can easily find it repeated in every countrj", known to every nation. Hence the globe was divided into 60 degrees, which, multiplied by 60, became 3,600 the "great year." Hence also the hour with its 60 minutes of 60 seconds each. The Asiatic people count a cycle of 60 years also, after which comes the lucky seventh dccad, and the Chinese have their small cycle of 60 days, the Jews of 6 days, the Greeks of 6 centuries— the Naros again. * Atial. fta., TO). viU. p. 4^0. H 1*^. 352 THE SBCRBT DOCTRtNE- The Babylonians bad a great yearof 3,600, being the Naros tnnltiplied by 6. The Tartar cycle called Van was 180 years, or three sixties ; this multiplied by 12 limes 12=144, niakes 25,920 years, the exact period of revolution of the heavens. India is the birthplace of arithmetic and mathematics ; as "Our Figures," in Chips from a German Workshop, by Prof. Max Miiller. sbo«!> beyond a doubL As well explained by Krishna Shastri Godbole in Tkt Tkeosophist : The Jews . . . rcpresentetl the units (1*9) by the first nine letters of mr alphabet; the tens (10-90) by the next nine letters; the iirnt four bundrcda {loo^fiu by the last four Ivtten. and the iruaininK ones (501>>90D) by the aecoad forms of the letters "kAf" (nth), "niim" (ijth), "nOn" (i3th(, "pe" (i-thj. and "sAil" (tStbi. and they represented otlitT nuubcra by combinin); these letters according to their value;. . . . The Jews of the present period stilt adhere to this practice of noti- tton 10 tlieir Hebrew book&. The Greeks bml a numerical system similar to that nsed by the Jews, but tbey carried it a little farther by umoK letters of the Bl^tdiel with a dash or slaiit-line behind, to represent thousands (looo-^oook tcua of tboo- sands (laooo-^oooo) and one hundre<l of thousands (100,000) the last, for insUacc being represented by "rbo"" with a dash heliind, while "rho" sinijly repf tax The Romans represented all namerical \'alues by the combination (adc when the second letter itt of equal or less value) of six letters of their alphabet; i (= I), V (" 5t, X ( = to), c (for " centum " ^ 100), A \ ^ 500), and m ( ^ 1000} ; thcs JO 3 XX. IS - XV, and 9 = ix. These are called the Roman numerals, and are sdopte<l by all European nations when using the Romnn alphabet. The Aratitat ftnt followed tbeir neighbours, the Jews, in their method of compuUtion. so mncb BO that they called it Abjad from the fin?t four Hebrew letters— "alif," "betfa." "gimcl"— or rather "jinicl," that is, *"jim" (Arabic being wanting in *'g*'K mm! "dalcth." representing the first four units. But when in tlie early part of the Cbri.<itian rni Uiey cauie to India as traders, Uicy found tbe country already naang for computation the decimal scale of notation, which ihey forth^-ith borrowed hterally; in:., without altering its method of writing from left to right, at variance with their own mode of writing, which is from right to left. They introduced this system into Rnrope through S{min -ind other Huropean countries lying along the coast of the Mediterranean and under their Hway, during the dark ages of Kuropcan history. It has thus beconte evident that the Aryas knew well nialhematics vt tlie science of computation at a time when all other nations knew but little, if anything, of it. It has also bceti admitted that the knowledge of arithmetic and algebra was first introduced from the Hindus by the Arabs, and then taught by them to the Western nations. This fact convincingly pro\-es that the Aryan civilisation is older than that of any other nation in the world ; and us the l^'aUts arc arowcdly proved tlie oldest work of that civilisation, a presumption is raised in favour of their great antiquity.* TUmlm^OC AuKOBt, iMt. AGE OF THE VBDAS. 353 But while tbe Jewish nation, for iastaace — regarded so long as Che first and oldest in the order of creation — knew nothing of arithmetic and remained utterly ignorant of the decimal scale of notation — the latter existed for ages in India before the actual era. To become certain of the immense antiquity of the Aryan Asiatic nations and of their astronomical records one has to study more than tbe Vedas. The secret meaning of the latter wilt never be understood by the present f^eueration of Orientalists: and the astronomical works which give openly the real dates and prove the antiquity of both the nation and its science, elude the grasp of the collectors of ollas and old manuscripts in India, the reason being too obvious to need explanation. Yet there are Astronomers and Mathematicians to this day in India, humble Shdstris and Pandits, unknown and lost iu the midst of that population of phenomenal memories and metaphysical brains, who have undertaken the task and have proved to the satisfaction of many that the P'edas are the oldest works in the world. One of such is the ShSstri just quoted, who published in TA^^ Theosophisi^ an able treatise pro^nng astronomically and mathematically that : If the PoAi-VAiiliLA works alone. Die IJpanishads, the BrAhmanos, etc., dovrn to the Purdoas, when examined criticaUy carry us back to 3o,(wo B.C.. Uien the tiiiLe of the composition of the yi^oi themselves canuot be \<s& tlmn 30,000 B.C., in round onmbers, a date which we may take at prevenL us the age of that Book of book&t And what are his proofs? Cycles and the evidence >'ielded by the asterisms. Here are a few extracts from his rather lengthy treatise, selected to give an idea of his demonstrations and bearing directly on the quinquennial cycle spoken of just now. Those who feel interested in the demonstrations and are advanced mathematicians can turn to the article itself, " The Antiquity of the Vedas," X and judge for themselves. la Sotn&kara in his commcntar>' on the SHesha Jyotiska quotes a passage from the Sattipatka Br&hmana, which conUiiis an observation on the change of the tropics and which ia also found in the S^khdyatia Brdhmana, as has licen noticct:! by Prof. Max Miillei in hia preface to Rigveda .Sam/iitd (p. xx. foot-note, vol. iv.). The pas- sage is this: . . . "The full-moon night in Philfjuna is the first night of 5am- vatsaru, tbe first year of the quinquennial age." This passage clearly filinwn ttial the quinqnenniat age which, according to tbe sixtli vvnc of 1\m Jyotiska, begin;* on theist of MAgha(JanuarY-Febrtuiry), once began on the isthof Ph&IgunafPebruary. • Anc-, lUt to Frt>., iSBa. * i^tc. eit^ i<r. U7. t Tk**i9^itl, VOL Ui. p. u. 2J^' THK SECRET DOCTRINB. Mftrcbk Now when the 151)1 of Pb&It^ns of the first ye&r called SAinvfttsank of ibe quinquennial ag« b^fina, the moon, according to Ihe/y^tisAa, is in or ilh of the UtUra PUUkuuI, and the ran in ^thf I 124 ' ,+ 1 3+8 39 33 th ( I ^^ 3+- I H-8 25 or ^th of Pflrva Bh&ilrapadA. Hence the position of th« four principal points on the ecliptic was then as follows: The winter solstice in 3°29' of Purva BhftdrapadA. Thv vernal equinox in the licginuiag of Mrigashirsha. The summer sohttice in 10 of Purva PhAlguni. The itDtiininal equinox in llic miildle of Jycshlfaa. The vernal equinoctial point, we have seen, coincided with the beirinnijiK of KrittikA in 1431 B.C. ; and from the be^inniuK of Kriltilcft to that of Mriga»fair«bs, was. in consequence. 1431 + 36 2^3 x 7a == 1421 -f 1930 = 3341 B.C., supposing the rale oi preicsswn to be 50" a year. When we take the rate to be 3'^ao" in 247 years, the time comes up to 1516 + 19607 - 3476'7 B.C. When Ihe winter solstice hy its retrograile motion coincided afler that with tbe beginning of PQrva Bbfldrapadd, Uicn the commencement of the quinquennial age was changed from the isth to the rst of ITiAlguna (Pchruary-MarchJ. This change took pla£e 340 years afler the <Utc of the atiove observation, that is, in 3101 B.C. This date is mosit important, as from it an era was reckoned in after tiincA. The commenccmuit of" the Kali or Kali Yuga (derive<l from " kal," " to reckon ">, though said by European flcbolors to be an imaginary dAte, becomes thus an astro- nomical fact. INTSRCBANGB OP KRITTIKA AKD ASHVIWl.* We thus see that the asterisms, twenty-seven in number, were counted from the Mrigashirsba when the vernal equinox was in its beginning, and that the practice of thus counting was a^lhcred to till the vernal equinox retrograde*! to the beginning of Krittikfl, when il became the first of ihe asterisms. Por then the winter solstice bad changed, receding from Phdlguna (February* March) to MAgha (January* February), one complete lunar month. And, in like manner, the place of Kritttkl * The impartial Mudy of Vaidic and Post^Valdlc worica abom that ttae lacient Aryuis knew »eU tbe pTvce^aiaii of the equiausn. and " that tliey chaoged their poritloa from n certain afitrtisia to two Ittccaiionalty thrwj nitrriainK hock whcn^m' the pnceation amouiited to two, propctly speaktng, (o » nUtt luttcriiouK at ntxiut 1/°, hcing Ihc laoUitn of (he »iiu in « lunnr moiitb, and M cauaetl tbe iiMtiioas to fall b^ck a cotuplele lunnr month. . - It apprmts certain t)i«t mi Ihr (Inte of SArya Siddhinta. Srakmd SiddAmta. Aud other ancient trcatiaes on aAttonomy, the ^-craaJ equinoctial point bad not actually rcauhnl tbir he^nnlug of A^hvint, tittt wu a frw 'IrfTm ctiHt of ii. . . The astronooicn of Hurope change wetlward the bcsinntnc of Arte* and af all crthrr fllgns of (he SkidlBC every year liy alKiitt jn" 15. and Ihn* make (he tintne« of (he tifVB mcaaln|1e«B. Bat these ilffiis ate ai luirch Sxcd a* tbe iL«icn>n)> (henuwlves, and fac»c« the Wcsnra aa(ratioraeri of Ibe prraent day appear la na la Ihia leapecl lc«« wary and acicslific tn (beir obaerva- tiooa Uuu Uieir vciy ancient bretliren-(be ktssM."~ThfaiophiU, iii. (j. TKSTIMONV OV THH SONG CBUiSTIAI,. 355 I P was occupiefl by Asfavinl, that is, the latter became the first of the astcrisnw, head- ing all others, wheu its beginning coincideJ with the vernal equiaoctial point, or, in other words, when the winter solstice was in Paoahu (Deccniber-l-'ebmHrj'). Now from the beginning ofKrittikA to that of .'Vshvini there are two aiteristns, or a6 3'3*', And the time the equinox takes to retrograde this distance at the rate of i in 72 years is 1930 years; and hence the date at which the vernal equinox coincided with the cotnnicDcement of Ashvinl or with the end of Revati is 1920-1431 = 499 A-D BbnTlkv*9 Opinion. 12. The next and equally-imporUint observation we have to record here is one diflcusaed by Mr. Bentlcy in his researches into the Indian antiquitieii. **T1ie first lunar asterism," be says, "in the division of tweaty-eiglit was called MAIo. Uiat is to say, the root or origin. In the division of twenty-seven the first lunar asterism was called Jycshtba, that is to say, the eldest or first, and consequently of the same import as the former"' {tide his Historical l-'iatr of the Hindu AUronomy, p. 4). Prom this it becomes manifest that the vernal equinox was once in the beginning of MOIa, and Miila was reckoned the first of the asterisms when they were Lweuty> eight in number, including Adhijit. Now there are fourteen asterisms, or 180°, from the beginning of Mrigaahirsha to that of MOla, and hence the date at which the vernal equinox coincided with the beginning of M Ala was at least 3341 + 180 X 73 = 16,301 11.C. The position of the four pnncipol points on the ecliptic was then as given below : The winter solstice in the beginning of Uttara Pbilgtmi in the month of SbiAvana. -> The vernal equinox in the beginning of MiUa in KArttika. The summer solstice in the beginning of PArva Bh^rapadd In MAglia. The autumnal equinox in the beginning of Mrigaahlrsha in VaishAkha. A Proof prom the Braoavao gIta. 13. The lihagavad Gitd, as well as tbc BhAgavata, makes mention of an obser^'a- tion which points to a still more remote antiquity than the one discovered by Mr. Bentley. The passages are given in order below : " I am the MilrgiLshin>faa [viz. the first among the months] and the spring [vis. the first among the seasons]." This shows that at one lime the first mouth of spring was Mdrgashirsba. A season includes two months, and the mention of a month suggests the season. "I am the SanivAUiira among the years [which are five in number] and the spring among the scnsoii.t, and the MArgashtrsba among the months and the Abhijit amuug the asterisms [which are twenty-eight in number]." This clearly points out that al one time in the first year called Samvatsara, of the quinquennial age, the Mailhu, that is, the first month of spring, was Mirgashlrsha, and Abhijit was the first of the asterisms. It then coiucided with the vKmal equinoctial point, and thence from it the a^tensms were counted. To find the date of this obser\-iition : There are tliree asterisms from the beginning of M^Ia to the beginning of Abh.jit, and heuce the date in question is at least i6k3oi + 3/7 x qoX 35e THQ BBCRBT DOCTRINB. 72 s 19^078 or about aaooo b.c Thx iJamvatsara at Lhis time began In BhAdrapadL the winter solstitial month. So far then 20.000 years are Tnathemalically proven for the antiquity of the Vcdas. And this is simply exoteric. Any mathematician, pro- vided he be not blinded by preconception and prejudice, can see this. and au unknown but very clever amateur Astronomer, S. A. Mackey, has proved it some sixty years back. His lheor>' about the Hindu Yugas and their length is curious— a^ being so very near the correct doctrine. It ia »aid in volomc ii. p. 131. of Asiatic Resatrehes that : *' The great ancestor Yudhister reigned 27,000 years ... at the end of the brazen a;;re." In roItUDf tx. p. 364, wc read : " In the beginning of the Cati Vnga, in the rcij^n of Yadhister. And Yndisttr . . . began his reign immctiiately after the flood called Pralaya." Here we find three diffcrtnt statements concerning Yudhiatcr ... to cxplala thcac seeming differences wc muHl have recourse to their books of science, what we find the bea\'ens and the eartli divided \nKo fizf parti of unequal dimensions, bf circles parallel to the equator. Attention to these rlivtsions will he fonnd to be of the utmost importance ... as it will be found that from thetn aroae the division of their Maha-Yuga into its four component parLi. Every atttrououier knows that there ti a point in the heavens called the pole, round which the whole seems to tnru in twenty-four hours ; and that at ninety degrees from it they imagine a cirde called the equator, which divides the heavens and the earth into two equal parti, the nortli and the south. Between thi^t circle aud the pole there ts another imAginary circle called the circle of perpetual apparition : between which and the equator there is a point in the heavens caHed the zanith, through which let aiiother iraiLginaiy circle pa-ss, parallel to the other tu'O; and then there wants hot tlie circle of perpetual occullation to complete the round, . . . No astronomer of Europe besides myself has ever applied them to the development of the Hindu mysterious nuiubers. We are told in the Asiatic Researches that Yndhistcr brought Vlcram&ditya to reign in Caasimcr, which is in the latitude of .16 degrees. And in that latitude the circle of perpetual apparition would extend up to 72 degree* altitude, aud from that to the zenith there are but iS degrees, but from the zeftith to the equator in that latitude there are 36 degrees, and from the equator to the circle of perpetual occultation there are 54 degrees. Here we find the semi-circle of 180 degrees divuled into four parts, in the proportion of 1, 2, 3, 4, i.r., 18. j6, Stt 73- Whether the Hindu astronomers were acquainted with the motion of the earth or not is of no consequence, since Uie appearances are the same; and if U will give those gentlemen of tender covscirwes any pleasure I am wHling to admit that they imagined the heavens rolled round the cartli. but tliey had obaerveil the stars in the path of Uie sun to move /ora'ar/ through ihe equiiiocti.il points, at the rateof fifly^fouraecondsof a degree in n year, »v1iich cnrried the whole zodiac round in 14.0U0 years ; in which time they alao obsen*ed that the angle of obliquity varied, ■o oa to extend or contract the widtli of the tropics 4 <lfgree3 on each si>le, which rate mackey's argumhnts. 357 I I I of molion wouM carry tJie iropics from the equator to the poles in W'.'^J'*' yetn : in which time the Zodiac would have made tweuty-two and a half revolutions, which are expressed by the parallel circles from the eqaator to the polca ... or what amoTiDts to the same thing, the north pole of the ecliptic would have moveil from the north pole of the earth to the ctpialor. . , . Thus the poles become inverted in ],o8c^ncxi years, which is their Maha Yuga, and which they had divided into four tinequal parts, in the proportions of i, 2, 3. 4, for the reasons mentioned above; which are lo&ooo, ai6,ooo, 334,000. mnd 431,000. Here we have the raost positive proofs that the above numbers originateil in aNeimt astrtiHomifal observations, and consequently are not deserving of those epithets which have been bestowc<l upon theni by the Hssa>'i5t. echoinE the x-oice of Bentley, Wilford, I>upnis, etc. r have now to show that the reign of Yudhistcr for 27,000 years is neither absurd nor disgusting, but perhaps the Essa)^^ is not aware that there were scvenl Yudhistcrs or Judhisters. la volume 11. p. 131. Asiatic Rnearch/i : "The great ancestor of Yudhister reigned 37,000 years at the end of the braxen or third age.** Here I must again beg your Rttentton to this projection. This is a plane of that machine which the second gentlemnn thought ao very clumsy; it is that of &pro- long spheroid, called by the ancients an atroscope. Let the longest axis represent the poles of the earth, making an angle of 28 degrees with the horizon ; then will the seven divisions above the horizon to the North Pole, the temple of Buddha, and the seven from the North Pole to the circle of perpetual apparition represent the fbnrteen Manvantaras. or very long periods of rime, each of which, according to the third volume of Asiatic Researches, "p. 258or259, was the reign of a Menu. But Cnpt. Wilford, in volnme v. p. 243. gives us the following infornuition : "The Egyptians had fourteen dynasties, and the Hindus had fourteen d>'Tiasties. the rulers of which are called Menus." . . . Who can here mistake the fourteen very long periods of time for those which constituted the Cali Yuga of Delhi, or any other place in the Intttude of 28 degrees, where the blank .space from the foot of Mem to the seventh circle from the equator, constitutes the part passed over by the tropic in the next age; which proportions differ considerably from those in the lalilude of 36 ; and because the numbers in the Hindn books diffctr, Mr. Bentley asserts that: "This shows what little dependence is to he pat in them." But, on the contrary, it shows with what accuracy the Hindus had observed th.e motions of the heavens in different latitudes. Some of the Hindus infonn us that " the earth has two spindles which are sur- rounded by seven tiers of heaverts and hells at the distance of one Raju each." This needs but little explanation when it is understood that the scNxn divisions from the equator to their zenith are called Rishis or RasMas. But what is most to our present purpose to know ts that they had given names to each of those divisions which the tropics passed over during each revolution of the Zodiac. la the latitude of 36 degrees where the Pole or Meni was nine steps high at Cassimere. they were called Shastras; in latitude 28 degrees at Delhi, where the Pole or Meru was seven step* high, they were called Menus: but in 24 degrees, at Cacha, where the Pole or Meni was but six steps high, they were called Sacas. But in the ninth volume [Asiatic Resmrches\ Yudhister, the son of Dhenna, or Justice, was the first of the six Sacas; \/ 35S THB SBCRBT DOCTRINB. the name implies the end, and as cvcrytltins has two ends, Yudhister is as applicable to the first as to the last. An<1 as the di\'tfiion on the north of the circle of perpettui apparition is the fint of the Cali Vuk^i^ suppoaing the tropics to be ascending, it was called the division or reign of Vudhister. But the division which immediately precedes the circle of perpetual apparition is the last of the third or ifrazen age. ami was therefore called Vu<Uiister, and as his reign preeeiled the reign pf the other, as the tropic ascended to the Pole or Mem, he was called Ifw father of the other — " tbe great ancestur of Yudhister. who reigned twenty-ievCH ihousaad years, at iht eitdot the brazen age." (Vol. iL Asiatic liesearchei.) The ancient Hindus observed that the Zodiac went forwanl at about the rate of fif^'-fonr •tcconds a year, and to avoid greater fractions, stated it at that, which would tnalce a complete ruuml in 24,000 years i and obser\-itig the angle of the polei to vary nearly 4. degrees each round, stated the three numbers as such, which woold have given forty-Jive rounds of ihg Zodiac to half a revolution of the poles ; bot finding that forty-five round* would not bring the aortbcru tropic to coincide with the circle of pcrpclnal apparition by tbirly minuter of ft degree, which required the Zodiac to move one sign and a half more, which we all know it could not do in less than 5,000 years, they were, in the cose before us, added to the end of the brau» 9ge: which lengthen the reign of that Yudhister to 27,000 years instead of 34.am but, al another lime lUey did aot alter the regular order of 24,001 years to the rcigo of each of these long-winded monarcbs, but rounded up the time by allowing s regency to continue three or four thousand years. In volume ii. p. 134, Asiati£ A'tUAirrA^^weare told that: "Paric^it, the great nephcwandsucccssoi of Yudhister, is allowed without controversy to have reigned in the interval between the drtMM and earthen, or Cali Ages, and to have died at the setting-in of the Cali Yug." Hert we 6nd an interregnum at the end of the brazen age. and before the setting-tn of the Cali Yug : and as tliere can be but one brazen or Trcta Yug, i.e., the third age, in a Maba Yiiga of i,oSovQOO years : the reign of ttiis Paricshit must have been in the decond Maha Ynga, when the pole had returned to its original position, which must have taken 7,160,000 years : and this is what the Hindus call the frajanatha Yoga. Analogous to tbiR custoai is that of some nations more modem, who, fond of even numbers, have made the common year to consist of twelve months of thirty days each, and the five days and o<ld measure have been represented as the reign of a httlc serpent biting his tail, and divided into five parts, etc But "Yudhister began his reign immediately after the fiood catted Prahya" i.e., at tbe end of the Cali Vug (or age of he.it), when the tropic had passed from the pole to the other side of the circle of perpetual apparitiou, which coincides M-ith tbe northern horizon ; here the tropics or summer solstice would be again in the same parallel of north declination, at the commencement of their first age, as he was at the £W(/ of tlieir /A»i/ (7^, or Treta Yug, called the brazen age. . . . Enough has been K-iid to pro\'e that the Hindu books of science are not disgusting absurdities, originated in ignorance, vauity, and credulity; but books contaioiog the most profound knowledge of astronomy and geography. What, therefore, can induce thoAe gentlemen of tender consciences to insist that Yudhister was a real mortal man 1 have no guess; unless it be that they fear for the fate of Jared and his grandfather, Methuselah ? THE MYSTERY OF BUDDHA. SECTION XU The Doctrine of AyatAras. STRANGE story — a legend rather — is persistently current among the disciples of some great Himalayan Gums, and even among laymen, *to the effect that Gautama, the Prince of Kapilavastu. has never left [the terrestrial regions, though his body died and was burnt, and its I relics are preserved to this day. There is an oral tradition among the Chinese Buddhists, and a written statement among the secret books of the Lamaists of Tibet, as well as a tradition among the Ar>-ans, that Gautama Buddha had two doctrines : one for the masses and His lay disciples, the other for His "elect," the Arhats. His policy and after Him that of His Arhats was, it appears, to refuse no one admission into the ranks of candidates for Arbatship, but never to divulge the final mysteries except to those who had proved themselves, daring long years of probation, to beworthy of Initiation. These once accepted were con- secrated and initiated without distinction of race, caste or wealth, as in the case of His western successor. It is the Arhats who have set forth and allowed this tradition to take root in the people's mind, and it is the basis, also, of the later dogma of X<amaic reincarnation or the suc- cession of human Buddhas. The little that can be said here upon the subject may or may not help to guide the psychic student in the right direction. It being left to the option and responsibility' of the writer to tell the facts as she \ personally understood them, the blame for possible misconceptions created must fall only upon her. She has been taught the doctrine, but it was left to her sole intuition— as it is now left to the sagacity of the reader — to group the mysterious and perplexing facts together. The incomplete statements herein given are fragments of what is contained in certain secret volumes, but it is not lawful to divulge the details. The esoteric version of the mystery given in the secret volumes may 362 THE SECRET DOCTRINK. be told vco' briefly. The Buddhists have always stoutly denied that iheir Buddha was. as alleged by the Brahmans. an Avalara of Vishnu in the same sen^^e as a man is an incarnation of his Kannic ancestor. They deny it partly, perhaps, because the esoteric meaning of the term " Mahi Vishnu" is not known to them in its full, impersonal, aod general meaning. There is a mysterious Principle in Nature called " Mah,t Viahnu." which is not the God of that name, but a principle which contains B)ja, the seed of AvatSrism or, in other words, is the potency and cause of such divine incarnations. All theWorld-Sanours. the Bodhisattvas and the AvatSras, are the trees of salvation grown oat from the one seed, the Bija or " Mahi Vishnu." Whether it be called Adi-Buddha (Primeval Wisdom) or Maht Vishnu, it is all the same- Understood esoterically, Vishnu is both Saguna and Nirguna (with and without attribnles). In the first aspect, Vishnu is the object bf exoteric worship and devotion ; in the second, as Nirguna. he is the culmination of the totality of spiritual wisdom in the Universe— NirvSua,* in short — and has as worshippers all philosophical minds. In this esoteric sense the Lord Buddha was an incarnation of MahS Vishnu. This is from the philosophical and purely spiritual standpoint. From the plane of illusion, however, as one would say, or from the terrestrial standpoint, those initiated i-naw that He was a direct incamation of one of the primeval "Seven Sons of Light" who are to be found in every Theogony — the Dhy^n Cholians whose mission it is, from one eternity (aeon) to the other, to watch over the spiritual welfare of the regions under their care. This has been already enunciated in Esoteric Buddhism. One of the greatest mysteries of speculative and philosophical Mys- ticism— and it is one of the mysteries now to be disclosed — is the modu% operandi in the degrees of such hypostatic transferences. As a matter of course, divine as well as human incarnations must remain a closed book to the theologian as much as to the physiologist, unless the esoteric teachings be accepted and become the religion of the world. This teaching may never be fully explained to an unprepared public: but one thing is certain and may he said now: that between the dogma I * A grwl drnl of mliKancc^iiioii U nXttA hy a coafUrion of planes of beloff vaA mUuM of rjcpm- ■ioa«. for inKtancr. certain xiiirilual aUtea have been conTaaadnl wllh ibr Kinrlsa of BOVOKA. The NlrvJina of Buddha U toUIIy diBcnut from auy otticr iplrituat Mate of Sjiuldhi uf cvm the hichrst Thrapliacui enjoyed hy kurr Adepts. After pbyaical dcalh Uie Idnda of >plritUAl ttataa nacbed by A^epu differ (reaUy. AX.t AVATARA3 ID^NTICAT.. 3«3 of a newly-created soul for each new birth, and the physiological assumption of a temporar>' animal seal, there lie:^ the vast region of Occult teaching * with its logical and reasonable demonstrations, the links of which may all be traced in logical and philosophical sequence in nature. This " Mystery" is found, for him who understands its right mean- ing, in the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, in Xh^ Bhagavad Gild. chapter iv. Says the AvatSra : Many births or mine have paft.<wd, as Also of your.t, O Arjuna ! All tlios^ I know, bat you do not know youis, O harasscr of yonr enemies. AUhuugh I uii unborn, with cxbauatlcss AtmA, atid am the Ix>r() of all that is: yet. taking up tlic dominaliou of my natorc I am hom by the power of iUua{on.t Whenever. O son of Bh&rata, there is tlecline of Dharma [the right law] and the rise of Atlharma [the opposite of Dbanna] there I manifest myself. For the salvation of the ^oo<l and the destruction of wickedneas. for the establish* ment of the law. f am born in eii-ery yuRa. Whoever compreheiida trnly my divine birth and action, he. O Arjuna, having abandoned ;he Ixidy does not receive re-birth ; he comes to me. Thus, all the AvatSras are one and the same: the Sons of their *' Father," in a direct descent and line, the " Father," or one of the seven Flames becoming, for the time being, the Son, and these two being one — in Kternity. What is the Father ? Is it the absolute Cause of all ? — the fathomless Eternal ? No ; most decidedly. It is Kiran- Stma. the " Causal Soul " which, in its general sense, is called by the Hindus ishvara. the Lord, and by Christians. " God," the One and Only. From the standpoint of tinity it is so : but then the lowest of the Elementals could equally be viewed in such case as the " One and Only." Each human being has, moreover, his own divine Spirit or personal God, That divine Entity or Flame from which Buddhi emanates stands in the same relation to man, though on a lower plane, * Tblt Mglon ifl the oik poMJbk poiat of conciliation between the two dJumetricallT opposed potm of nlij{1im nnd sctracc, Ibc onr wiUt Jts barrva ficUft oS dogmiwan faith, the o4hfr ovct-'niuiilny with empty hypotlmcs. Ijotb tn-ergrowo wiUi the weed* of error. They will uvwt meet. Tlic tvn> arc %.l fend, it an cvcrlastlnff wnrfarc with ach oth^r. but this docs tio4 prrveni ihetn from anitinir N|ti>insl F,aotrric Philcauithy. which for t>ru nillFuniuniH hua had to fight agalnsl tnr«lli)iility Ju tfOUt directions, or "mere vanity and pretence" a» Anioutnuj deSncd it, aod aow finds tlic msterialinn of Modem Science arrayed asaifist it* truths. * Whence aotne of the Gnomic Idm* ' CeriathiM taujrht that the world and Jehovah harlog ra'l<-n off from wirtaeand primiltve A\^\iily iheSupreRir^ p~rn»itt^ one of hUfloriaus if{on». who-Hf miinr w.iJttbe"Ai)Oml«d" iCtariM) toiucarnitc In the m in Jriu. Oaii I ide* denied the rtraltiy ofMii^ bxly of JcwM. nnd i.'«IUnt[ it an " ill union " held that it was airnon of Cyrene w}io vulfcTed oo Ihe Citm9 in bis Mead. All <ncl< teachinsii ore echoex of the Butem Uoctrioes- 3H TB£ SECKET DOCTKINB. as the Dliyani-Buddha to his human Buddlia. Hence monotheism and polytlieisiii are not irreconcilabie ; they exist in Nature. Truly, " for the salvation of the good and the destruction of wicked- ness," the personalities known as Gautama, Shankara, Jesus and a few others were born each iu Ins aj^e, as declared—" I am born in e\'ery Yuga " — and they were all bom through the same Power. There is a great mystery in such iucaraalions and they are outside aud beyoud the cycle of general re-hirths. Rebirths may be divided into three classes: the divine incarnations called Avat^ras; those of Adepts who give up Nirvilna for the sake of helping on humanity— the NirnifinakSyas ; and the natural succession of rebirths for all — the common law. The Avatfira is an appearance, one which may be termed a special illusion within the natural illusion that reigns on the planes under the sway of that power. M&ySi. : the Adept is re-bora consciously, at his will and pleasure ; * the units of the common herd unconsciously follow the great law of dual evolution. What is an Avatara? for the term before being used ought to be well understood. It is a descent of the nmnifested Deity— whether under the specific name of Shiva, Vishnu, or Adi-Buddha — into an illusive form of individuality, an appearance which to men on this illusive plane is objective, bnt is not so in sober fact. That illusive form, having neither past nor future, because it had neither previous incar- nation nor will have subsequent rebirths, has naught to do with Karma, which has therefore no hold on it. Gautama Bri>DRA was born an Avatdra in one sense. But this, is view of unavoidable objections on dogmatic grounds, necessitates explanation. There is a great difference between an Avatfira and a Jivanmukta : one, as already stated, is an illusive appearance, Karma- leas, and having never before incarnated; and theother, the Jivanmukta, is one who obtains NirrSna by his individual merits. To this expres- sion again an uncompromising, philosophical Vedantiu would object. He might say that as the conditiuu of the Avalira and the Jivanmukta are one and the same state, no amount of personal merit, in howsoever many incarnations, can lead its possessor to Nirv&na. NirvSna, he would say, is actionless ; how can, then, any action lead to it? It i» ■ A KVanlBC initialed Adept will KlalnblsAikpUhlp, Uiough Ihrrcraay be ror our world of lllu*lmt numbcrteM incsniaUoiM of him Tbe propelling power Uuit li«a at the root of u irrirs of uich mnunaliunk U <•«/ Karma, at oriUnatily uudcmUMxl, but a still mon inacrutablc power. Uurlnf llw period of hi* live* the Adept doe* noi lOM bli Adcpitlilp. thougb b« caoaot Hk ia U to b bi|;l iltgree. YOhVUTARY INCARNATIONS. 3^ neither a result nor a cause, but au ever-present, eternal fs, as N&gasena defined it. Hence it can have no relation to, or concern wiib, action, merits or demerit, since these are subject to Karma. All this is ver>' true, but still to our mind there i.s an important difference between the two. An Avatara is; a Jivaumukla becomes otm. If the slate of the two is identical, not so are the causes which lead to it. Au Avatira is a descent of a God into an illusive form ; a JIvanmukta, who may have passed through numberless incarnations and may have accumulated merit in them, certainly does not become a Nin'&ai because of that merit, but only because of the Karma generated by it, which leads and guides him iu the direction of the Guru who will initiate him into the mystery of Nirvana and who alone can help him to reach this abode. The Shastras say that from our works alone we obtain Mokbha, and if we take no pains there will be no gain and we shall be neither assisted nor benefited by Deity [the MahS-Gum]. Therefore it is maintained tliat Gautama, though au Avatd.ra tn one -sense, is a true human Jtvanmukta, owing his position to his personal merit, and thus more than an Avat&ra. It was his personal merit that enabled him to achieve Nirv&na. Of the voluntary and conscious incarnations of Adepts there are two t\'pes — those of Nirmanakayas. and those undertaken by the proba- tionary cbeliis who are on their triaL The greatest, as the mast puzzling mystery of the first type lies in the fact, that such re-birth in a human body of the personal Ego of some particular Adept — ^whcn it has been dwelling in the MdyHvi or the Kima Rupa, and remaining in the Kama Loka — may happen even when his " Higher Principles" are in the state of Nirvfina.* Let it be understood that the above expressions are used for popular purpo.^es, and therefore that what is written does not deal with this deep and mysterious question from the highest plane, that of absolute spirituality. nor again from the highest philosophical point of view, comprehend - blc but to the v«ry few. It must oot be supposed that anything can go * Vvaax Um lo-ciilcd Brabmll I/>lu— tbe Kv«ath and hLglici ivorUL beyond which dl m srftpa, fonnln", ptireJy «philiial— In th* Icwmit worM and Itv«c(, or rven lo an otijrct imrh as a leaf, there la prrpctual revolutioa of the condition of extM«uce. erulution and K^birth. Hotae human hriufa attain fXtXe* or iiplieT«» from wtiich there U only ii return in a new Ralpa La day of Br^htnA): Uiere *n otlter atatn or apherea frani wbi«h Wxtn U only return aft«r im yrara of Brahnii iMahA- Kalpa. a period cowr^nir jit.ott.oMvvn.ooo year*). Nir^ia*. it laaaid. is a state from which there U B4 nctuni. Vrt it i> mniuiainctl thai therv may be. as ezccptiuiial cawa. rc-incarnaiiaa from that autc t only nicb inramatiotM are- illu»Joa, Itkc everything ^«e oa Ihb ptaoe, aa wlU be ahowo. .166 THE OTCRBT DOCTRINE. into Nirvana which is not eternally there ; bnt human intellect io con* ceiving the Absolute must put It as the highest term in an indefinite series. If this be home in mind a great deal of misconception will be avoided. The content of this spiritual evolution is the material im various planes with which the NirvSni was in contact prior to his nttaiumcnl of Nirvana. The plane ou which this is true, being in the series of illusive planes, is undoubtedly not the highest. Those who search for that must go to the right source of study, the teachings of the Upanishads, and must go in the right spirit. Here we attempt only to indicate the direction in which the search is to be made, and in sho%ving a few of the mysterious Occult possibilities we do not bring our readers actually to the goal. The ultimate tnith can be commuui- cated only from Guru to initiated pupil. Having said so much, the statement still will and must appear incom* prehensible, if not absurd, to many. Firstly, to all those who are unfamiliar with the doctrine of the manifold nature aud various aspects of the human Monad : and secondly to those who view the septenary division of the human entity from a too materialistic standpoint. Yet the iutuilional Occultist, who has studied thoroughly the mysteries of Nirvfina — who knows it to be identical with Parabrahman, and hence unchangeable, eternal and no Thing but the Absolute All — will seize the possibility of the fact. They know that while a DharmakSya — a Nirvdni "without remains," as our Orientalists have trauslaled it. being absorbed into that Nothingnes.s. which is the one real, because Absolute. Consciousness — cannot be said to return to incarnation od Earth, the Nirvani being no longer a he, a she, or even an it, the Nirmanakaya— or he who has obtained Nirvfina "with remains." i.t» who is clothed in a subtle body, which makes him impervious to all outward impressions and to every mental feeling, and in whom the notion of his Ego has not entirely ceased — can do so. Again, every Eastern Occultist is aware of the fact that there are two kinds of NIrmanakayas — the natural, and the assumed ; that the former is the name or epithet given to the condition of a high ascetic, or Initiate, who has reached a stage of bliss second only to Nir\'d:ia : while the latter means the self-sacrifice of one who voluntarily gives up the abso- lute NirvSna, in order to help humanity and be still doing it good, or, in other words, to save his fellow-creatures by guiding Ihcm. It may be objected that the DharmakSya, being a NirVanl or Jivanraukta, can have no " remains " left behind him after death, for having attained that CABDIKAI. DK CUSA. 367 State from which no further incarnations are possible, there is no need for him of a subtle body, or of the individual Ego that reincarnates from one birlh to another, and that therefore the latter disappears of logical necessity ; to this it is answered : it is so for all exoteric pur- poses and as a general law. But the case with which we are dealing is an exceptional one, and its realization lies within the Occult powers of the high Initiate, who, before entering into the state of Nirvana, can cause his "remains" (sometimes, though not very well, called his M^y^vi Rupa), to remain behind,* whether he is to become a NirvSnt, or to find himself in a lower state of bliss. Next, there are cases — rare, yet more frequent than one would be disposed to expect — which are the voluntary and conscious reincarna- tions of Adeptsf on their trial. Ever>- man has an Inner, a " Higher Self," and also an Astral Body. But few are those who. outside the higher degrees of Adeptship. can guide the latter, or any of the prin- ciples thai auimate iu when once death has closed their short terrestrial life. Yet such guidance, or their transference from the dead to a living body, is not only possible, but is of frequent occurrence, according to Occult and Kabalistic teachings. The degrees of such power of course vary greatly. To mention but three: the lowest of these degrees would allow an Adept, who has been greatly trammelled during life in his study and in the use of his powers, to choose after death another body in which he could go on with his interrupted studies, though ordinarily he would lose in it every remembrance of his pre- vious incarnation. The next degree permits him. in addition to this, to transfer the memory of his past life to his new bodj- ; while the highest has hardly any limits in the exercise of that wonderful faculty. As an instance of an Adept who enjoyed the first mentioned power some mediaeval Kabalists cite a well-known personage of the fifteenth century — Cardinal de Cusa ; Karma, due to his wonderful devotion to * TMs fact of tbe diMppearauc« of Uw vchivle of HgoLism in th« Tiilly devHopcd Yogt, who is rappoaed to have rowltcd Ntrvica «■ curUi. year* \x(on bii corporeal death, bu ted to Uic law is Manu. iaactiOoedbjrtnillniniiitiM of Brihiminical aittharily. that wch nParun&tmi sbould be held « nb«n1ute1y bliunelcKs aud bvt froiu sin or rvsponaibilily, Uo wliatrvci lie may (tec Uvnt rbaptcr of tbt /M»t of jVaoiit. Icdccd. CJ'tc i[«rir— that moKt dnputtc. nncomproTablng and aiitocrfttk (yrmat In India— cou he Imiken wJOi impuuity by Uic Yugl, wlio u ubovc irotttc. Tbis will give tbc tccr to out litAtenieutii. » [The word ■• Adcpl " U very loosely lued by H. P. B.. who often sc«n9 to ho^-e inipliml l>y it no norc than the poMCsdoa of mpecUl kaowlnlgF of «jnK kind. ItCTc It icciiw 10 mean first am nniniUatril disciple and then ui inlttatcd oa«.— Una.] 368 THE SECRET DOCTRIKK. Esoteric study and the ICaSalah, led the sufiTeriag^ Adept to seek iai^- tectuat recuperation and rest froui ecclesiastical tyranny in the body of Copernicus. 6V non € v€ro e ben trovato ; and the perusal of the lives of the two men might easily lead a believer in such powers to a readr acceptance of the alleged fact. The reader ha\Hng at his command the means to do so is asked to turn to the formidable folio in Latin of the fifteenth century, called De Doda Igtiorantia, written by the Cardinal de Cusa. in which all the theories and hypotheses — all the ideas— of Copernicus ire found as the key-notes to the discoveries of the great astronomer* Who was this extraordinarily leanied Cardinal ? The son of a poor boatman, owing all his career, his Cardinal's hat, and the reverential awe rather than frieudship of the Popes Bugenius IV^ Nicholas V., and Pius II., to the extraordinary learning which seemed innate in him, since he had studied nowhere till comparatively late in life. De Cusa died in 1473; moreover, his best works were written before he was forced to eater orders— to escape persecution. Nor did the Adept escape it. In the voluminous work of the Cardinal above-quoted is found a very suggestive seutence. the authorship of which has been variously attri- buted to Pascal, to Cusa himself, and to the Zohar, and which belongs by right to the Books of Hermes - The world is an infinite sphere, whose centre is everywhere and whose circnrafer* ence is nowhciv. This is changed by some into : "The centre being nowhere, and the circumference everj-where.'' a rather heretical idea for a Cardinal, though perfectly orthodox from a Kabalistic standpoint. • About fifty yp»r» before the birth of Copcmicitf. de Cuiui wrote hs follows: "Tbough Uie worid may not lieHbculutrly infinite, no i>nc can tcprrMnit it to himHC-lf ms fin)lr. niticr bum«Ti trASon U In- capable of aaslfiUac to It any teem. . . . For ia Ibc tame w&y that out caitU canaoi be ia tte cetiire of thvt'utvcne. a^i thouxlit. nomorr ivutd thr sphere of Ihi.' flxnl Htwbc In it. . . . Tlllia Uil!>«rartdU1ik«a vast iructiinr, having Itn I'vntre [Ddty] everywhere, atnliacircumfrmcr nawhen [macM-a muHdi.qiiau hab<ns u^que ceMlrum. fl nuUibi eirmm/ereHttam). . . . H«nc«. tbc earth not hnns in Ihr i-etiltr, c;initat tltcrefurebe muUouleaH .... and Ihrrugb it ia far amallcr ihao the (un. oue mutt not conclude for Ml that, that the i* worae {vHw^ttuxn rile]. . . . One caanni Mr whetScT il» tnhnhilaniK ait superior to thaw who dwell nearer to the »ua, at in other •tsr«, a* jiiderenl opgice cttuoiM be deprived of inhsbitants. . . . The earth, v^ry Ulccly [/in-Aui«J one of tbeuiiallest glohm. I& nei-rrthelcw the cradlv of lntrni|:ei)t beings, mo^t Br>bte nnd peHcct." One cannot fait to ngnit with the biogrBpher of Cardinal de Cosa, who. hovini; no Kuipidon of the Occ^ill truth, and the reason of ittcli erudition in a writer of the fourteenlti an<i fifteenth c«nt>irm, •imply Enarvek at Hueh a miraculous foreknowledge, and attribntcs it lo Hod, u>'tng of hlra that be wm • man incomparable in eveiy kind of philoaophy, by whom many n IheoloitlcAl mystery InaeccsaiMe W the human mind \'\. veiled and neglected for centuries ivetata ,rf nrp.'c.'Jl were oner mon brought to light. " ("aical migtit have read De Cuaa'a worka ; but whence could tite Canliual htvr borrowrd hta ideas i " «aka Moreri. Kridcntljr from Hannea and the work* of Pythngora*, e^■en If the BajWary of U* incamaUoa aod re-incamaUon tie dismlaaed. THB SEVEN RAYS. 369 The theory of rebirth mast be set forth by Occultists, and then applied to special cases. The right comprehension of this psychic fact is based, upon a correct view of that group of celestial Beings who are universally called the seven Primeval Gods or Angels— our Dhy&n Chohans — the "Seven Primeval Rays" or Powers, adopted later on by the Christian Religion as the "Seven Angels of the Presence." Arupa, formless, at the upper rung of the ladder of Being, materializing more and more as they descend in the scale of objectivity and form, ending in the grossest and most imperfect of the Hierarchy, man — it is the former purely spiritual group that is pointed out to us. in our Occult teaching, as the nursery and fountain-head of human beings. Therein germinates that consciousness which is the earliest manifestation from causal Con- sciousness— the Alpha and the Omegja of divine being and life for ever. And as it proceeds downward through every phase of existence descend- ing through man, through animal and plant, it ends its descent only In the mineral. It is represented by the double triangle — the most mys- terious and the most suggestive of all mystic signs, for it is a double glyph, embracing spiritual and physical cousciousuess and life, the former triangle running upwards, and the lower downwards, both inter- laced, and showing the various planes of the twice-seven modes of consciousness, the fourteen spheres of existence, the Lokas of the Br&hmans. The reader may now be able to obtain a clearer comprehension of the whole thing. He will also see what is meant by the " Watchers," there being one placed as the Guardian or Regent over each of the seven divisions or regions of the earth, according to old traditions, as there is one to watch over and guide every one of the fourteen worlds or Lokas.* But it is not with any of these that we are at present con- cerned, but with the " Seven Breaths," so-called, that funiish man with his immortal Monad in his cyclic pilgrimage. The Commentary on the Book of Dzyan says : Descending on his region first as Lord of Glory, the Flame (or Breath}^ having called into conscious being the highest of the Emanations of that special region, ascends from it again to Its primeval seal, whence It taatches * This b Uie WCirt meAtjing of the tUlemmbi sboul Ibe Mumrchy of Pn^&p«tu or Rishlt. Pint nevcn arcmcntlDueil.lIini Uu, Ui<rn twenty-ooe, ftnd aooq. Tticy ar« "God«"antI cnalon of idcii — many of Uicm Uk "LordB of BHhK"" : they «r: ibc "Min<l-boni Sons " of BnlmU. an J Uicn they h(\:«inc mortal hertm. and arv often ahown aft of a wry aioful character. The Occult meanlDg uf the Biblical PAtharcha, their genealogy, and thdr detccndaats dtvUlng among theoueh-e« tltc earth. La the »;iine. Again, Jacob's dreum hax the saiax aigitlftcance- i n THE SECRET DOCTRINE. ffver and gitides Its eounUcss Beams (Monads). It rkoosrs as Its Avaiaras only thast tvho had the Sevin Virtues in them* in their previous ineama- Hon. As for the resit It overshadows each with one of its countless 6eami. . . . y'et ei>en the " &eam" is a part of the Lord of Lords. \ The septenary principle in man — who can be regarded as dual only as concerns psychic manifestation on this gross earthly plane — was known to all antiquity, and may be found in every ancient Scriptore. The Eg>'ptians knew and taught it, and their dinsiou of principles is in every point a counterpart of the Aryan Secret Teaching. It is thus given in /sis Unveiled : In the Kg^'ptian notions, as in tho«c of all other faiths foanded on philosopli*, msD was oot merely ... a union of soul and boily : he was a trinity wbcn Spirit WAS added tu il. Besides, that doctrine made him conii&t of Kha (liodyL Khaba (astral fumi or slindow), Ka (animal soul or life-principle), Ba (the htf^ber •oul), and Alch (terrestrial intelligence). They had also a sixth principle, nanie<l Sah (or mummy ), but the functions of this one commenced after the death of the body.; The seventh principle being of coarse the highest, uncreated Spirit ■was gcncrically called Osiris, therefore every deceased person became Osirified — or an Osiris — after death. But in addition to reiterating the old ever-present fact of reincarna* tion and Karma — not as taught by the Spiritists, but as by the most Ancient Science in the world^Occultists must teach cyclic and evolu- tionary reincarnation : that kind of re-birth, mysterious and still incom- prehensible lo tnany wlio are ignorant of the world's history, which was cautiously mentioned in /sis L'nvetled. A general re-birth for every individual with interlude of Kctina Loka and Dcvachan, and a cyclic conscious reincarnation with a grand and divine object for the few. Those great characters who tower like giants in the histor>' of mankind like SiddSrtha Bitddha and Jesus in the realm of the spiritual, and Alexander the Macedonian and Napoleon the Great in the realm of physical conquests are but the reflected images of human t>'pes which had existed — not ten thousand years before, as cautiously pnt forward in /sis Unveiled, but for millions of consecutive years from the begin- ning of the Manvantara. For — with the exception of real Avatlras, as ' Re " uf thp !Vvro VJrlim " U one wba, withont the bcnrfil of Initlatloo, btCMMM a* pmc a* aa* Adept by tbe idinple excrtioa of hU own meril. Being m> holy, bit bodr al hi* tml incamctiaa become* the A vatJini nf his " Watcher" or Coardlnn Ansel, K» UicCbri»tUii would put it. t Th« title of thr hi«hesl Dbrio Chobaiut. X IT*."*..!!. J67. SPECIAL CASES. 371 above explained — they are the same unbrokea Rays (Monads), each respectively of its own special Parent-Flame — called Uevas, Dhyda Chohans, or DhyAni-Buddha«, or again, Planetary Angels, etc. — shining in xonic eternity as their protot)rpes. It is in their image that some men are born, and when some specific humanitarian object is in view, the latter are hy postal ically animated by their divine prototypes repro- duced again and again by the mysterious Powers that control and guide the destinies of our world. No more could be said at the time when his £/«tr;/srf was written; hence the statement was limited to the single remark that There is no prominent character in all the annals of sacred or profane history whose prototype we raiinot find in the half fictitious and half real traditions of bygone religions and niyUiologie& As the star, glimmrring at an imnietisurable distance above our heads, in the boundless iiumensity of the sky, reflects itself in the Kmootb waters of a lake, so does ihc imagery of men of Die antediia%'iun ages reflect itself in the periods we can embrace in a historical retrospect But now that so many publications have been brought out. stating much of the doctrine, and several of them giving many an erroneous view, this vague allusion may be amplified and explained. Not only does this statement apply to prominent characters in history in general, but also to men of genius, to every remarkable man of the age, who soars beyond the common herd with some abnormally de\"eloped special capacity in him, leading to the progress and good of mankind. Each is a reincarnation of an individuality that has gone before him with capacities iu the same line, bringing thus as a dowrj- to his new form that strong and easily re-awakened capacity or qtiality which had been fully developed in bim in his preceding birth. Very often they are ordinary mortals, the Kgos of natural men in the course of their cyclic development. Bat it is with " special cases " that we are now concerned. Let us suppose that a person during his cycle of incarnations is thus selected for special purposes — the vessel being sufficiently clean — by his personal God, the Fountain-head (on the plane of the manifested) of his Monad, who thus becomes his in-dweller. That God, his own prototype or *' Father in Heaven," is, in one sensf, not only the image in which he, the spiritual man, is made, but in the case we are considering, it is that spiritual, individual Ego him-ielf. This is a case of permanent, life-long Theophania. Let us bear in mind that this is neither Avatfirism. as it is understood in Brflhmauical Philosophy, nor is the 372 THE SECRET DOCTMKR. man thus selected a Jivanmukta or Nirvani, but that it is a wholly exceptional case in the realm of Mysticism. The man may or may not have been an Adept in his previous lives; he is so far, and simply, an extremely pure and spiritual individual — or one who was all that in hia preceding birth, if the vessel thus selected is that of a uewly-bora infant In this case, after the physical translation of such a saint or Bodhtsattva, his astral principles cannot be subjected to a natural dis- solution like those of any common mortal. They remain in our sphere and within human attraction and reach ; and thus it is that not only a Bnddha, a Shankar^chSrya. or a Jesus can be said to animate several persons at cue and the same time, but even the principles of a high Adept may be animating the outward tabernacles of common mortals. A certain Ray (principle) from Sanat Kumara spiritualized (animated) Pradyumna, the son of Krishna during the great MahSbhSrata period, while at the same time, he, Sanat Kuniilra, gave spiritual instruction to King Dhritarfishtra. Moreover, it is to be remembered that Sanat- Kumflra is " an eternal youth of sixteen." dwelling in Jana Loka, his owa sphere or spiritual state. Even in ordinary maiiumistic life, so-called, it is pretty well ascer- tained that while the body is acting — even though only mechanically— or resting in one place, its astral double may be appearing and acting independently in another, and very often distant place. This is quite a common occurrence in mystic life and history, and if this be so with ecstatics, Seers and Mystics of every description, why cannot the same thing happen on a higher and more spiritually developed plane of existence? Admit the possibility on the lower psychic plane, then why not on a higher plane ? In the cases of higher Adeptship, when the body is entirely at the command of the Inner Man. when the Spiritual Ego is completely reiiuited with its seventh principle even during the life-lime of the persoaaUt>% and the Astral Man or personal Ego has become so purified that he has gradually assimilated all the qualities and attributes of the middle nature (Buddhi and Manas in their terrestrial aspect) that personal Ego substitutes itself, so to say. for the spiritual Higher Self, and is thenceforth capable of living an independent life on earth; when corporeal death takes place the following mysterious event often happens. As a Dharmakaya. a Nirvani '* without remains** entirely free from terrestrial admixtnre, the Spiritual Ego cannot return to reincarnate on earth. But in such cases, it is affirmed, the personal Ego of even a Dharmakaya can remain in our sphere as a TITH HIGHER ASTRAL. 373 I whole, and return to incarnation on earth if need be. For now it can no longer be subject, like the astral remains of any ordinary man, to gradual dissolution in the K3ma Loka (the limbtis or purgatory of the Roman Catholic, and the "Summer-land" of the Spiritualist); it can- not die a second death, as such disintegration i» called by Prochis.* It has become too holy and pure, no longer by reflected but its own natural light and spirituality, either to sleep in the unconscious slumber of a lower Nir\*inic state, or to he dissolved like any ordinary astral shell and disappear in its entirety. But in that condition known as the Nirm^nakaya [the Nirvant "with remains,"] he can still help humanity. " Let me suffer and bear the sins of all [be reincarnated unto new misery] but let the world be saved I " was said by Gautama Buddha : an exclamation the real meaniug of which is little understood now by his followers. " If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ?"t asks the astral Jesus of Peter. "Till I come** means "till I am re- incarnated again'* in a physical body. Yet the Christ of the old crucified body could truly say: " I am with my Father and one with Him," which did not prevent the astral from taking a form again nor John from tarr>'ing indeed till his Master had come; nor hinder John from failing to recognize him when he did come, or from then opposing him. But in the Church that remark generated the absurd idea of the millennium or chiliasm, in its physical sense. Since then the "Man of Sorrows" has returned perchance, more than once, unknown to, and undiscovered by, his blind followers. Since then also, this grand "Son of God " has been incessantly and most cruelly crucified daily and hourly by the Churches founded in his name. But the Apostles, only half-initiated, failed to tarr>' for their Master, and not recognizing him, spumed him every time he returned. t • "ATter death, tbc sool oonliiinetli la tbc kHk) lastral) Ijody. till ll li cntireljr porlOcd Er«u a]I aufryiKma*! pai«<oiu: Ihm ^oih it put off by a. attond dtmth (when arisitiR ia ItevachRn) ihea«ri«l body u it iliit the c«ilh1y one. Whcrcror« lh« andeabl nj that th«TC 1» a cc1m11«] bod;' alwnyn Jo{Dcd frith the aonl, wlikh is immortal, luminous nnd atjir-likr.** It b-conx^fi oiitiml Uicu, that Ibe " a«rUl t>ody " of an Adept «boii]d tiarc ho nu;:li ficcoml dying, siocv il )iii>i been dnvt.ied of all its Datunl impurity bcrcwe iU Kparatlon IVom ibe phy^cal t}ody. The hlirb inllUte i« a " Son of th* KeaurRCtioc." " bclOK «1«»J «»>''' "le augtb," and cauuut dtc any more taee trnkr, t». j4). ■t St./ttkn, Kxi. >i. J Sec the extnict made iu Ihe Tk^sophitl from a gtoriotLs uovel by I».toirvsky— n frnffment roiiiUrd " The Great ItwidUifw." U b s fiction, Dalurally, sUll a aublltne fiction of Clihit Kturoinf in Spain during the p«lroy day* at the InquiJtlUoo, and bHog imprisoned and pill to dc«th by the laquixitaT, who Icafs \etiK Christ fthould tuia Uie work of Jesuit handa. SECTION XLIL The Seven Principles. The *' Myster>' of Buddha " is that of several other Adepts — perhaps of many. The whole trouble is to understand correctly that olhei myflter>' : that of the real fact, so abstruse and transcendental at first sight, about the "Seven Principles" in man, the reflections in man of the seven powers iu Nature, physically, and of the seven Hierarchies of Being, intellectually and spiritually. Whether a man — material, ethereal, and spiritual — is for the clearer comprehension of his (hroadly- speakiug) triple nature, divided into groups according to one or another system, the foundation and the apex of that division will be always the same. There being only three Upadhis (bases) in man, any number of Koshas (sheaths) and their aspects may be built on these without dcs- tropng the harmony of the whole. Thus, while the Esoteric System accepts the septenary division, the Vedautic classification gives five Koshas, and the Taraka Riija Yoga simplifies them into four — the three UpSdhis synthesized by the highest principle. Atrafi. That which has just been stated will, of course, suggest the question: " How can a spiritual (or semi -spiritual) personality lead a triple or even a dual life, shifting respective * Higher Selves ' arf libitum, and be still the one eternal Munad in the infinity of a Manvantara ? " The answer to this is easy for the true Occultist, while for the uninitiated ^>rofane it must appear absurd. The "Seven Principles" are, of course, the manifestation of one indivisible Spirit, but only at the end of the Manvantara, and when they come to be re-united on the plane of the One Reality does the unity appear ; during the " Pilgrim's " jouruey the reflections of that indivisible One Flame, the aspects of the one eternal Spirit, have each the power of action on one of the manifested planes of existence — the gradual differentiations from the oneunmaoifested plane — on that plane namely to which it properly belongs. Oar earth THB PURIFIED SBLP. 375 adfurding every MSySvic condition, it follows that the purified Ego- tistical Principle, the astral and personal Self of an Adept, though form- ing in realit)' one integral whole with its Highest Self (Atma and Buddhi) may, nevertheless, for purposes of universal mercy and benevo- lence, so separate itself from its divine Monad as to lead on this plane of illusion and temporary being a distinct independent conscious life of its own under a borrowed illusive shape, thus scr\-ing at one and the same time a double purpose : the exhaustion of its own individual Karma, and the saving of millions of human beings less favoured than itself from the effects of mental blindness. If asked: "When the change described as the passage of a Buddha or a Jivanmukta into Nirv&na takes place, where does the original consciousness which animated the body continue to reside — in the Nir^'Sni or in the subse- quent reincarnations of the latter's 'remains' (.the Kirmanak^ya) ? " the answer is that Unprisoned consciousness may be a " certain know- ledge from observation and experience," as Gibbon puts it. but dis- embodied consciousness is not an effect, but a cause. It is a part of the whole, or rather a Ray on the graduated scale of its manifested acti\-ity, of the one an-per\''ading, limitless Flame, the reflections of which alone can differentiate ; and, as such, consciousness is ubiquitous, and can be neither localized nor centred on or in any particular subject, nor can it be limited. Its eflfects alone pertain to the region of matter, for thought is an energy that affects matter in various ways, but consciousness per St, as understood and explained by Occult philosophy, is the highest quality of the sentient spiritual principle in us, the Divine Soul (or Buddhi) and our Higher Ego. and does not belong to the plane of materiality. After the death of the physical man, if he be an Initiate, it becomes transformed from a humau quality into the independent principle itself; the conscious Ego becoming Consciousness per se without any Kgo, in the sense that the latter can no longer be limited or conditioned by the senses, or even by space or time. Therefore it is capable, without separating itself from or abandoning its possessor, Buddhi, of reflecting itself at the same time iu its astral man that was, without being under any necessity for localizing itself. This is showu at a far lower stage in our dreams. For if consciousness can display activit>' during our visions, aud while the body and its material brain are fast asleep — and if even during those visions it is all but ubiquitous — how much greater must be its power when entirely free from, and having no more connection with« our physical brain. SECTION XLIII. The Mystery of Buddha. Now the mystery of Buddha lies in this: Gautama, an incarnation of ^ pure Wisdom, had yet to learn in His human body and lo be iuiliatcd into the world's secrets like any other mortal, until the day when He emerged from His secret recess in the Himalayas and preached for the first time in the grove of Benares. The same with Jesus: from the age of twelve to thirty years, when He is found preaching the Sermon on the Mount, nothing is positively said or known of Him. Gautama had sworn inviolable secrecy as to the Esoteric Doctrines imparted to Him. In HiA immense pity for the ignorance — and as its consequence the sufferings— of mankind, desirous though He was to keep inviolate His sacred vows, He failed lo keep within the prcscribL-d limits. While constructing His Esoteric Philosophy (the " Eye-Doctrine") on the foundations of eternal Truth, He failed to conceal certain dogmas, and trespassing beyond the lawful lines, caused those dogmas lo be misunderstood. In His anxiety lo make away with the false Gods, He revealed in the "Seven Paths to Nirv&na" some of the mysteries of the Seven Lights of the Arupa (formless) World. A little of the truth is oAen worse than no truth at all. Truth tnd fiction are like oil and water: they will never mix. His new doctrine, which represented the outward dead body of the Esoteric Teaching without its vivifying Soul, had disastrous efi"ects: it was never correctly understood, and the doctrine itself was rejected by the Southern Buddhists. Immense philanthropy, a boundless love and charity for all creatures, were at the bottom of His unintentional mistake; but Karma little heeds intentions, whether good or bad, if ihey remain fruitless, If the " Good Law" as preached resulted in the most sublime code of ethics and the unparalleled philosophy of things external iu the visible Kosmos, it biassed and misguided immature minds into believing there was nothing more under the outward mantle of the system, and its dead-letter only was accepted. More- SH AN KAR A CUASY A. 377 over, the new teaching un^vettled many great minds which had previously followed Ihe orthodox Brabmanical lead. Thus, fifty odd years after his death " the great Teacher " * having refused full DharraakSya and Nirvfina, was pleased, for purposes of Karma and philanthropy, to be reborn. For llim death had been no death, but as expressed in the " Elixir of I«ife,"t He changed A sudden plunge iuU> darkness to a transition into a brighter light The shock of death was broken, and like many other Adepts. He threw off the mortal coil and left it to be burnt, and its ashes to serve as relics, and began interplanetary life, clothed in His subtle body. He was reborn as Shankara, the greatest VedSntic teacher of India, whose philosophy— based as it is entirely on the fundamental axioms of the eternal Revelation, the Shniti, or the primitive Wisdom- Religion, as Buddha from a different point of view had before based His — finds itself in the middle-ground between the too exuberantly veiled metaphysics of the orthodox BrShmans and those of Gautama, which, stripped in their exoteric garb of every soul -vivifying hope, transcen- dental aspiration and symbol, appear in their cold wisdom like crystal- line icicles, the skeletons of the primeval truths of Ksoteric Philosophy. Was ShankarachSrya Gautama the Buddha, then, under a new personal form ? It may perhaps only puzzle the reader the more if he be told that there was the '• astral " Gautama inside the outward Shan- kara, whose higher principle, or Atman, was, nevertheless, his own divine prototype — the "Son of I*ight," indeed — the heavenly, mind- bora sonof Aditi. This fact is again based on that mysterious transference of the divine ex -personality merged in the impersonal Individuality — now in its full trinitarian form of the Monad as AtmS-Buddhi-Manas — to a new body, whether visible or subjective. In the first case it is a Manushya-Buddha ; in the second it is a Ninninakiya. The Buddha is in Nirvana, it is said, though this once mortal vehicle — the subtle body — of Gautama is still present among the Initiates ; nor will it leave the realm of conscious Being so long as suffering mankind needs its divine help — not to the eud of this Root Race, at any rate. From time to time He, the "astral" Gautama, associates Himself, iu some most mysterious — ■ Wbtn wfr tuiy lb« " gnvt TmcIkt," vn do aot mran HU Baddhk Ego, but thai principle in Hla which wa* (he wlikric of TIi« personal or terrestrial Egio. » /"iMf >Vm»/ */ Tktotffphy. Ntrw Edition, p. J. 378 TUK SECRBT DOCTRINB. to US quite iucomprelieusible — manner, with AvatSras and great saints, and works through them. And several such are named. Thus it is averred that Gautama Buddha was reincarnated in Shan- karficharya— that, as is said in Esoteric Buddhism : SbankarAcliflry^ simpir ttfos Buddha io all respects la a uew body.* While the expression in its mystic sense is true, the way of pnttiag it may be misleading until explained. Shankara was a Buddha, most assuredly, but he never was a reincarnation of the Buddha, thougli Gautama's "Astral" Ego — or rather his Bodhisattva — may ha\-e been associated in some mysterious way with ShankarachSrya. Yes, it was perhaps the Ego. Gautama, under a new and better adapted casket— that of a Brahman of Southern India. But the Atman, the Higher Self that overshadowed both, was distinct from the Higher Self of the translated Buddha, which was now in Its own sphere in Kosmos. Shankara was an Avatdra in the full sense of the terra. According to Sayanacharya, the great commentator on the Vtdas^ he is to be heW as an Avat&ra, or direct incarnation of Shiva— the Logos, the Seventh Principle in Nature — Himself. In the Secret Doctnne Shri Shaakar- Schar>'a is regarded as the abode — for the thirty-two years of his mortal life — of a Flame, the highest of the manifested Spiritual Beings, one of the Primordial Seven Rays. And now what is meant by a " Bodhisattva" ? Buddhists of the MahityS.na mystic system teach that each Buddqa manifests Himself (hypos tatically or otherwise) simultaneously in three worlds of Being, namely, in the world of Kama (concupiscence or desire — the scnsuomi universe or our earth) in the shape of a man ; in the world of Rupa (form, yet supcrsensuous) as a Bodhisattva : and in the highest Spiritual World (that of purely incorporeal existences) as a Dhyfini- Buddha. The latter prevails eternally in space and time, i.e., firom one Maha-Kalpa to the other — the synthetic culmination of the three being Adi-Buddha,t the Wisdom -Principle, which is Absolute, and therefore out of space and time. Their inter-relation is the follow- ing ; The Ohyfini-Buddha. when the world needs a human Buddha, • O^. nl.jt. I7S. Firth Bdltlon. * It would be iiaclaa to nitc objccdoun Trom otateric trorks lo statFucnla in thU, which alau M expound, howcvrr superiUdally, Ihe EHotrric Tmehinjir* tlone. Il U b^cauM they an ulslrd hy Uie exoteric doctrine Ibat SUhop Bi«ADilet atw) othcn. nver that the nolian of « nipmnc eternal Adi- BuddhA IB la be Touud only in •rrilinr* oT eoiaparatl*vly receut date. What » pvcii herr is takea from the MCtrt Dortioai of Utu Kyi Kborlo (KiU Cfaakcni. in Saniikrlt, oc tiK " Wheel of time.'* or duration). i THS BUDDHA CANNOT REFNCAkNATa. 379 ^dfeattfs" tTirnugh Ibe power of Dhydna (meditation, omnipotent devotion), a mind-bom son— a Bodbisattva — whose mission it is after the physical death of his human, or Nfanushya-Buddha, to continue his work on earth till the appearance of the subsequent Buddha. The Hsqteric meaning of this teaching is clear. In the cast: of a simple mortal, the principles in him are only the more or less bright reflec- tions of the seven cosmic, and the seven celestial Principles, the Hier- archy of supersensual Beings. In the case of a Buddha, they are almost the principles in «i^ themselves. The Bodhisattva replaces in him the KSrana Sharira, the Ego principle, and the rest correspond- ingly; and it is in this way that Esoteric Philosophy explains the meaning of the sentence that " by virtue of Dhyana [or abstract meditation] the Dhyini-Buddha [the Buddha's Spirit or Monad] creates a Bodhisattva." or the astrally clothed Ego within the Mauushya-Buddha. Thus, while the Buddha merges back into Nir\'ana whence it pro- ceeded, the Bodhisattva remains behind to conttnne the Buddha's work upon earth. It is then this Bodhisattva that may have afforded the lower principles in the apparitional body of Shankardcharya. the Avat5ra. Now to say that Buddha, after having reached Nir\"Sna, relumed thence to reincarnate in a new body, would be uttering a heresy from the BrShmanical, as well as from the Buddhistic standpoint. Even in the Mah^yana exoteric School in the teaching as to the three " Buddhic " bodies,* it is said of the Dharmakaya — the ideal formless Being — that once it is taken, the Buddha in it abandons the world of sensuous perceptions for ever, and has not. nor can he have, any more connec- tion with it. To say, as the Esoteric or Mystic School teaches, that though Buddha is in NirvSna he has left behind him the Nirmanakdya (the Bodhi.sattva) to work after him, is quite orthodox and in accord- ance with both the Esoteric Mahdydna and the Prasanga Madhydmika Schools, the latter an anti-esoteric and most rationalistic system. For in the Aa/a Chakra Commentary it is shown that there is : (i) Adi- Buddha, eternal and conditionless : then (2) come Sambhogakdya- Buddhas, or Dhydni-Bnddhas, existing from (sonic) eternity and never disappearing — the Causal Buddhas so to say ; and (3) the Manushya- * The tbrec bodl«* tre (1) the TflrmlnakAyn (Pru-lpal-Kn in TtbeUa), In wrbtdi Uifr Bodbtaattva I aner ralcrinK by the aix PjriuuiLia Ui« Patti tu Nirvliia. a[>peui to moi in order to teuli ibem : [a] I Santbhoyokiya (Dii>g-pai<Ku), the hoAy of hlUa impcrvtmu la all phjwical MfunUana, rr«:ejved by I one whn has rulBlled the Uim caodlliaaa of uotal perfection; mod <jl UbarmalcAva lia Tibetan, I Chos-Ku], ibc Nirvink \>oiy. 380 TBK SECRKT DOCTBINK. Bodbisattvas. The relation between Ibcm is determined by the definition given. Adi-Buddha is Vajradhara, and the Dhyani-Buddbis are Vajrasattva; yet though these two are different Beings on their respective planes. They are identical in fact, one acting through the other, as a DhySoi through a human Buddha. One is " Endless lo- telligence ; " the other only "Supreme Intelligence." It is said of ITira Bodhisattva— who was subsequently on earth Buddha Gautama : Having fulfilled all the conditioos for the ttnmediale aUaiameDL of perfect BatlJb«- Miip, the Holy One preferred, from unlimitt diarily towards liriag beinga, 011a more lu reincarn»lc for the benefit of mmi. The NirvSna of the Buddhists is only the threshold of Paranirvana, according to the Esoteric Teaching : while with the BrShmans, it is the sumtnum bonum, that final state from which there is no more return — not till the next MaliS-Kalpa, at all events. And even this last view will be opposed by some too orthodox and dogmatic Philo- sophers who will not accept the Esoteric Doctrine. With them Nirvana is absolute nothingness, in which there is nothing and no one : only an unconditioned All. To understand the full character- istics of that Abstract Priociple one must sense it intuitionally and comprehend fully the "one permanent condition in the Universe,** which the Hindus define so truly as Th« state of perfect uncoasdousne«B — bare ChidAk&aham (field of consciouaa' in fact, however paradoxical it may seem to the profane reader.* Shaulcarachar\-a was reputed to be an Avatara. an assertion writer implicitly believes in, but which other people are. of course, at liberty to reject. And as such he took the body of a southern Indian, newly-boni Brahman baby ; that body, for reasons as important as they are mysterious to us, is said to have been auimated by Gautama's astral personal remains. This divine Non-Ego chose as its own Upadhi (physical basis), the ethereal, human Ego of a great Sage in this world of forms, as the fittest vehicle for Spirit to descend into. Said Shankaracharya : Purabrahman is ICartA[Punishalaathere is noolher AdhuihtAtbA.t and Parabrah- moti is Prakriti, there being no other aubstance-Z ■ Ftve Kmij 0/ Tktw^Hy. art. " PenKHul and Impenooal God," p. »9. « AdblihUtha, ihc active or working ag«iic ia Frakrili (or maitcry. : yedAnta-SAt'ai. A<L 1. VXAa iv. aiil. aj. eomBUuUrr- The |iiikm^ ii* aiyra a> fotlMM la ThIbnut'B irniulaUun (Socrrd Doolu ot the KiUI, zzxir.), p- (W : " The Self 16 ihua U)c Qperathe CJkUK, b^caiMc there ia uo otbo rutinji principle, and the nuteriaJ caa>c bccauK tkCK i» uo stkcr M^bstUMC fttaa whlcii the world could oririaate." th^ A FULLER SXPLANATIOM. 381 Now what is true of tlie Macrocosm ical is also true of the Microcosmi- cal plane. It is therefore nearer the truth to say — when once we accept such a possibiUt>' — that the " astral " Gautama, or the Nirm^nakiya, was the Upddhi of ShankarachSrya's spirit, rather than that the latter was a reincarnation of the former. When a Shanfcarachftrya has to be bom, naturally every one of the principles in the manifested mortal man must be the purest and finest that exist on earth. Consequently those principles that were once attached to Gautama, who was the direct great predecessor of Shankara, were naturally attracted to him, the economy of Nature forbidding the rc-evolution of similar priuciples from the crude state. But it must be remembered that the higher ethereal principles are not, like the lower more material ones, visible sometimes to man (as astral bodies), and they have to be regarded in the light of separate or independent Powers or Gods, rather than as material objects. Hence the right way of representing the truth would be to say that the various principles, the Bodhisatlva, of Gautama Buddha, which did not go to Nir\'4ua, re- united to form the middle principles o* Shankarachar>'a, the earthly Entity.* It is absolutely necessary to study the doctrine of the Buddhas esoterically and understand the subtle differences between the various planes of existence to be able to comprehend correctly the above. Put more clearly, Gautama, the human Buddha, who had, cxoterically, Amil^bha for his Bodhisattva and Avalokiteshvara for his Dhyant- Buddha— the triad emanating directly from Adi- Buddha— assimilated these by his " DhySna " (meditation) and thus become a Buddha (" en- lightened '*). In another manner this is the case with all men ; every- one of us has his Bodhisattva— the middle principle, if we hold for a moment to the trinitarian division of the septenary group^and his DhySni-Buddha. or Chohan, the ** Father of the Sou." Our connecting link with the higher Hierarchy of Celestial Beings lies here in a nut- shell, only we are too sinful to assimilate them. * In/Vw Ytd^jof Thei)M>pky ^v^.. "ShAkr> Muni'n Pbur in HUtarf." p. tjf, noteMI U Hlalcd tlut one day trtim Mir I,oni «at in Um Sattspasill Cai-c ISftplayaraat be compared mui bo % Saptapkraa (KVFii I*av«I} pUat. **Mciidicanu," be uM, "tfwiv ■(««nm Badclhiiaintfvny BniMha. and there ue nir llbllurtiM uid hut on? Buililhia in nch mcndicadt. Wb*t are Uir j^ivn f The Kvcn brancliaa of cwnpkte know- 1«<Ib«. What are (be lii t The rix orgatis of tense. What nre the fin- ? Tbe five clancnU orUlu- s<fV being. Ami the fine tvhii^h in also ten ? He U a true Buddha who deTcIopM in him the ten famu of holincM and sobjc^tn them all to the One." Which means that every principle In Uic Bitddlia nraa Uie hlghrot thnt conid be evolved on ttaiii earth; whereas in the uuae uf oUier men who atliiin la Nlrvina iliU u not neceaMrily the caae. Bven u a mete liattuitt < Uaaoihyai Buddba Oautama was a pattern for aJl xam. Btit hU Arhata vrtc not necoMnilr ao. 382 XHK &ECRBT IKJCTRIXK. Six centurto after the translation of the fauinaQ Buddna (Gautanu) another Reformer, as noble and 35 loving, though less favoured by opporttmily, arose in another part of the world, among another and a lesii spiritual race. There is a great similarity between the subsequent opinions of the world about the two Saviours, the Eastern and the Western. While millions became converted to the doctrines of the two Masters, the enemies of both — sectarian opponents, the most dan* gerons of all — tore both to shreds by insinuating maliciously -distorted statements based on Occult truths, and therefore doubly daageront. While of Buddha it is said by the Brahmans that He was truly an Avatdra of Vishnu, but that He had come to tempt the Brdbmans from their faith, and was therefore the evil aspect of the Ck>d ; of Jesus the Bardesauian Gnostics and others asserted that He was Ncbu. the false Messiah, the destroyer of the old orthodox religion. " He is the founder of a new sect of Nazars," said other sectarians. In Hebrew the word "Naba" means "to speak by inspiration/' frt33' and "03 is Nebo. the God of wisdom). But Nebo is also Mercury, who is Buddha in the Hindu monogram of planets. And this is shown by the fact that the Talmudists hold that Jesus was inspired by the Genius (or Regent) of Mercury confounded by Sir William Jones with Gautams Buddha. There are many other strange points of similarity between Gautama and Jesus, which canuot be noticed here.* If both the luitiates. aware of the danger of furnishing the uncul- tured masses with the powers acquired by ultimate knowledge, left the innermost comer of the sanctuary in profound darkness, who. ac- quainted with human nature, can blame cither of them for this ? Yet although Gautama, actuated by prudence, left the Esoteric and most dangerous portions of the Secret Knowledge untold, and lived to the ripe old age of eighty — the Esoteric Doctrine says one hundred — years, dying with the certainty of h.iving taught its e.iseutial truths, and of having sown the seeds for the conversion of one-third of the world. He yet perhaps revealed more than was strictly good for posterity. But Jesus, who had promi.scd His disciples the knowledge which confers upon man the power of producing " miracles" far greater than He had ever produced Himself, died, leaving but a few faithful disciples — men only half-way to knowledge. They had therefore to struggle with a world to which they could impart only what they but half-knew them- selves, and — no more. In later ages the exoteric followers of both • Sc* fn's Cnnrilnl, a. ijfc. aACRIFtCB. 383 I I I I mangled the truths given out, often out of recognition. With regard to the adherents of the Western Master, the proof of this lies in the very fact that none of them can now produce the promised " miracles." They have to choose: either it is Ihey who have blundered, or it is their Master who must stand arraigned for an empty promise, an un> called-for boast.* Why such a difference in the destiny of the two? For the Occultist this enigma o( the unequal favoar of Karma or Pro- vidence is unriddled by the Secret Doctrine. It is " not lawful " to speak of such things publicly, as St. Paul tells IS. One more explanation only may be given in reference to this sub- 3ect. It was said a few pages back that an Adept who thus sacrifices himself to live, giving up full NirvSna, though he can never lose the knowledge acquired by him in previous existences, yet can never rise higher in such borrowed bodies. Why? Because he becomes simply the vehicle of a " Son of I«ight " from a still higher sphere. Who being Arupa, has no personal astral body of His own fit for this world. Such " Sons of Light," or Dhy5ni-Buddhas, are the DharraakSyas of preced- ing Manvantara.s, who have closed their cycles of iucaruations in the ordinary sense and who. being thus Karmaless, have long ago dropped their individual Rupa^ and have become identified with the first Prin- ciple. Hence the necessity of a sacrificial NirmSnak^ya, ready to suffer for the misdeeds or mistakes of the new body in its earth- pilgrimage, without any future reward on the plane of progression and rebirth, since there are no rebirths for him in the ordinary* sense. The Higher Self, or Divine Monad, is not in such a case attached to the lower Ego ; its connection is only temporary, and in most cases it acts through decrees of Karma This is a real, genuine sacrifice, the explanation of which pertains to the highest Initiation of Gnana (Occult Knowledge). It is closely linked, by a direct evolution of Spirit and involution of Matter, with the primeval and great Sacrifice at the foundation of the manifested Worlds, the gradual smothering and * " Btton one become* a Buddha he laust be i ftodhUaHra; berore cvoMug; inlo « B&dbiaattrJi he rausl be » Dhyini-Boddha. ... A Btvlrlhisattva is the my Hod Path 10 bt» Puhtr. noA thence to the Otte Supreme BMrnce" {Dtittml oj BiuUMas, p. t], ftom Kryisaaga). "1 am the Wfty. the Truth, and the Life: no man comclh unto the Faiherbut by mc" fSi.J»km, xiv. 6^ The "way" im not the goal. Nowhere thronshoal the Nrw Titlamtnl t> Jcaim found culling hfrakclf God, Or ad]'' Ihiugbigbet than " asonof (KkI," Uicaonofa*' Father "common toall.synlhelii-tUly. Paul tirvn- Mid It. 71m.. iii. 10), "Cod wwt tnanifetlinthc He*)!." but "H? who was tnaaifeMed in the S««b " (Reriaed E<lllioa|. WhUe the common herd among Ihc Buddhttti— the BurmeHe e&pedally^resard Jesoaas an ncamation of Oev^datta, a relative wbn oppoied the tcachinrv of Buddb*., the xiudenU oJ Htotctic nifloAOpby awiaUittfoBUvncSateaBodhlaattvmitUb Ihc apdrili^r Buddha Htmnelf in Him. 384 THE SECRBT DOCTUINB. death of tbe spiritual Id the material. The seed "is not quickened except it die." •* Hence in the Purusha Sukta of the Rig VedA^\ the motlier-fount and source of all subsequent religions, it is stated alle- gorically that " the thousand-headed Purusha " was slaughtered at the foundation of the World, that from bis remains the Universe miglit arise. This is nothing more uor less thau the fouudation — the seed, truly — of the later many-formed symbol in various religions, includiog Christianity, of the sacrificial lamb. For it is a play upon the words. " Aja " (Purusha), " the unborn." or eternal Spirit, means also ** Iamb," in Sanskrit. Spirit disappears — dies, metaphorically — the more it gets involved in matter, and hence the sacrifice of the " unborn/* or the " lamb." Why the Buddha chose to make this sacrifice will be plain only to those who, to the minute knowledge of His earthly life, add that of a thorough comprehension of the laws of Karma. Such occurrences, however, belong to the most exceptional cases. As tradition goes, the Brdhmans had committed a heavy sin \tf persecuting Gautama Bin>DHA and His teachings instead of blending and reconciling them with the tenets of pure Vaidic Br^hraanism, as was done later by Sbankar&char>'a. Gautama had never goue against the Vedas, only against the exoteric growth of preconceived interpreta- tions. The Shruti— divine oral revelation, the outcome of which was the Veda — is eternal. It reached the ear oi Gautama Siddartha as it had those of the Rishis who had written it down. He accepted the revelation, while rejecting the later overgrowth of Brdbmanical thought and fancy, and built His doctrines on one and the same basis of imperishable truth. As in the case of His Western successor, Gautama, the " Merciful," the *' Pure," and the "Just," was the first found in the Eastern Hierarchy of historical Adepts, if not in the world-annals of divine mortals, who was moved by that generous feel- ing which locks the whole of mankind within one embrace, with no petty differences of race, birth, or caste. It was He who first enunciated that grand and noble principle, and He again who first put it into practice. For the sake of the poor and the reviled, the outcast and the hapless, invited by Him to the king's festival table. He had excluded those who had hitherto sat alone in haughty seclusion and selfishness, believing that they would be defiled by the very shadow of the dis- • L OwArt.. XT. 36. i (^ eil., Handmla x., Iijnm gtt. SHiUTKARXcRtRVA STTU. UVINO. 385 I inherited ones of the land — and these non-spiritual Brthmans turned against Him for that preference. Since then such as these have never forpven the prince-beggar, the son of a king. who. forgetting ITis rank and station, had flung widely open the doors of the forbidden sanctuary to the pariah and the man of low estate, thus gi\'ing precedence to personal merit over hcrcditar>' rank or fortune. The sin was theirs — the cause nevertheless Himself: hence the " Merciful and the Blessed One " could not go out entirely from this world of illusion and created causes without atoning for the sin of all— therefore of these Br^mans ftlso. If " man afflicted by man " found safe refuge with the Tathftgata, " man afflicting man " had also his share in His self-sacrificing, all- embracing and forgiving love. It is stated that He desired to atone for the sin of His enemies. Then only was He willing to become a full Dharmakiya, a Jivanmukta " without remains." The close of ShankardchSrya's life brings us face to face with a fresh mystery. Shankar3.ch3rya retires to a cave iu the Himalayas, permit- ting none of his disciples to follow him. and disappears therein for ever from the sight of the profane. Is he dead? Tradition and poptilar belief answer iu the negative, and some of the local Gurus, if they do not emphatically corroborate, do not deny the rumour. The truth with its mysterious details as given in the Secret Doctrine is known but to them ; it can be given out fully only to the direct followers of the great Dravidian Guru, and it is for them alone to reveal of it as much as they think fit. Still it is maintained that this Adept of Adepts lives to this day in his spiritual entity as a mysterious, unseen, yet overpowering presence among the Brotherhood of Shamballa, beyond, far beyond, the snowy-capped Himalayas. SECTION XLIY. Reincarnations" of Buddha. Every section io the chapter on " Dezhin Shcgpa" * (Tathftgata) in the Commentaries represents one year of that great Philosopher's life, in its dual aspect of public and private teacher, the two being" con- trasted and commented upon. It shows the Sage reaching Buddha- hood through a long course of study, meditation, and Initiations, as any other Adept would have to do, not one rung of the ladder up to the arduous "Path of Perfection" being missed. The Bodhisattva became a Buddha and a Nirvani through personal effort and merit. after having had to undergo all the hardships of every other neophyte — not by virtue of a divine birth, as thought by some. It was only the reaching of Nirvana while still lining in the body and on this earth that was due to His having been in previous births high on the " Path of Dzyan" (knowledge, wisdom). Mental or intellectual gifts and abstract knowledge follow an Initiate In his new birth, but he has to acquire phenomenal powers anew, passing through all the successive stages. He has to acquire Rinchen-na-dun ("the seven precious gifts ")t one after the other. During the i>eriod of meditation no worldly phenomena on the physical plane must be allowed to enter into his mind or cross his thoughts. Zhine-lhagthong (Sanskrit: Vipashya, religious abstract meditation) will develop in him most wonderful faculties ludepeudeutly of himself. The four degrees of ■ UtcraUy. " be who waUu [or follows} in Ifac way [or paUi] oT bis pr«dec«Kin." • Schmidt, In Slanong Serlt^n, p. Alt. and ScblaKintwelt, in SiutiUum m Tibrl, p. 53. accept Ibtm pTvdouH ihinKs Uleraih. cnumeraUng tbcm xs " the wheel. Iheprcckiiu Hone, Uie loyal coniort, the Y^s\ trrasurrr, ihe best h<mte, the elephunl, the best lenrlei," After this one caa Utcle wonder if " beddet ft Otayial-Biuldhi and a Ubyim-UodhiMttTS " each humaa Bnddha U fumUhed with " ■ ftnale conpanion, a Bbakli"— wheti In tnth " ShakI) " it Kim ply tbc$<nil-powcr,Uie payclilc caeqCT oT tbeOod as of the Adept. Tbe " royal ccniorl," the third oTtJic "«even pTvcitms yiAa," very Ufetly kd ifac Inrocd Oricntali** Into this Indlcrouf error. VAJ1UU3HARA. ^^^ 387 contemplation, or Sam-tan (Sanskrit: Dhyana), once acquired, every- thing becomes easy. For, once that mau has entirely got rid of the idea of individuality, merging his Self in the Universal Self, becoming, so to say, the bar of steel to which the properties inherent in the A loadstone (Ad i Buddha, or Anima Mundi)are imparted, powers hitherto dormant in him are awakened, mysteries in invisible Mature are unveiled, and becoming a Thonglam-pa (a Seer) he becomes a DhyAni-Buddha. Every Zung (Dharani, a mystic word or mantra) of the Lokottaradharma (the highest world of causes) will be known to him. Thus, after His outward death, twenty years .ater, TathSgata in His immense love and "pitiful mercy" for erring and ignoraut homanity, refused Paranirvana* in order that He might continue to help men. Says a Commentary : Having recukcd the Path of Ddivtra^cc [ Thar-lavt\ from trammigra- tiCH, one cantu>t perform Tulpa f any longer, for to becotiu a Paranirvani is to close the circle of the Septenary Ku'Sum.\ He has merged his borrotved Dorjcsempa [ Vajrasattva^ into the Universal and become one with a. Vajradhara, also Vajrasattva (Tibetan: Doijechang and Dorjedzin, or Doijosarapa), is the regent or President of all the Dhyau Chohans or DhySni Bnddhas. the highest, the Supreme Buddha ; personal, yet never manifested objectively ; the " Supreme Conqueror," the " Lord of all Mysteries," the " One without Beginning or End " — in short, the Logos of Buddhism. For, as Vajrasattva. He is simply the Tsovo (ChieO of the Dhyani Buddhas or Dhyan Chohans. and the Supreme Intelligence in the Second World ; while as Vajradhara (Dorjechang), He is all that which was enumerated above. " These two are one, and yet two," and over them is "Chang, the Supreme Unmanifested and * A BodhUatirm can rvadi Mrvina rh'I li*v, u Budillia did. >nd aAcr death be cmn HUier rrHiH ob^lfvr ninoamnUon cr accept and use It it hia eoureuience lor ibe benefit oT monkiad whom Iw can iiMtrucl Id variouK way« while be moaina in the DerochaDic legion* within the attiactloa a/ oui earth. But ba^'inir once reached PamTtirvinit or "?firvlna wtlhoni rvtnalmi"— the highest UhannakijrA conditinn, in wtiicli auie he muaiaa cutirdy ootaJde of rvny earlbly ODodilton— he wjQ return ao motv until the rommmcenrnt of a new Manvanlara. aincc be baa ooaaed beyond tbe cycle cf hIrtlH. T Tulpa ta the volanurT iacarnalloin of an Adept Into a Uving body, whether of an adult, chUd, or new-b>M-n babe ; Kn-snmta tbe triple rorm of Ibe Nirviun state and fta respective dimtlnn in the "cycle of Noo- Being." Ttw nnmbei acvm ber« refer* to the scrcn Honods Of our aepteuary Syslem. 386 THB SECRBT DOCTRIN'B. Universal Wisdom tbat lias no name." As two in one He (They) is the Power that subdued and conquered Evil from the beginning, allow* ing it to reign only over willing subjects on earth, and having no power over those who despise and hate it. Esoterically the allegory is easily understood ; exoterically Vajradhara (Vajrasaltva) is the God to whom all the cvW spirits swore that they would not impede the propagation of the Good Law (Budd}iism), and before whom all the demons tremble. Therefore, we say this dual personage has the same r^/c assigned to it in canonical and dogmatic Tibetan Buddhism as have Jehovah and the Archangel Mikael, the Metatvon of the Jewish Kabalists. This is easily shown. Mikael is " the angel of the face of God." or hewho represents his Master. " My face shall go with thee" fin English, "presence"), before the Israelites, says God to Moses {Exodus, xxxiii. 14). " The angel of my presence" (Hebrew: "of my face") {/satah. Ixiii. 9), etc. The Roman Catholics identify Christ with Mikael, who is also his ferouer, or "face," mystically. This is precisely the position of Vajradhara, or Vajrasaltva, in Northern Buddhism. For the latter, in His Higher Self as Vajradhara (Dorjechang), is nev^r manifested, except to the seven Dhydn Chohans, the primeval Builders. Esoterically, it is the Spirit of the "Seven" collectively, their seventh principle, or Alman. Exoteri- cally, any amount of fables may be found iu Kaia Chakra, the most important work in the Gynt [or (D^gj'u] division of the Kanjur, the division of mystic knowledge [(D)gyu]. Dorjechang (wisdom) Vajradhara, is said to live in the second Ar5pa World, which connects him with Metatron, in the first world of pure Spirits, the Briatic world of the Kahalists, who call this angel El-Shaddai, the OmnipK)tent and Mighty One. Metatron is in Greek ayycAo? (Messenger), or the Great Teacher. Mikael fights Satan, the Dragon, and conquers him and his Angels. Vajrasaltva, who is one with Vajrapini, the Subduer of the Evil Spirits, conquers Rahu, the Great Dragon who is always tr>'ing lo devour the sun and raoou (eclipses). " War in Heaven " ia the Christian legend is based upon the bad angels having discovered the secretsi (magical wisdom) of the good ones (EnocbJ.and the mystery of the "Tree of Life." Let anyone read simply the exoteric accounts in the Hindu and Buddhist Pantheons — the latter version being taken from the former — and he will find both resting on the same primeval, archaic allegory from the Secret Doctrine. In the exoteric texts (Hindu and Buddhist), the Gods churn the ocean to extract from it the Water of Life — Amrita — or the Elixir of Knowledge. In both the Dragoa UVING BUDDHAS. ^ Steals some of this, and is exiled from heaven by Vishnu, or Vajra* dbara, or the chief God. whatever may be his uame. We Hnd the same in the Book of Eji&eh. and it is poetized in St. John's Rr^-daiion, And DOW tlie allegory, with all its fanciful omamentatioiis, has become a dogma ! As will be found mentioned later, the Tibetan Lamaseris contain many secret and semi-secret volumes, detailing the lives of great Sages* Many of the statements in them are purposelyconfused, and in others the reader becomes bewildered, unless a clue be given him, by the use of one name to cover many individuals who follow the same line of teaching. Thus there is a succession of "living Buddhas'" and the name "Buddha" is given to teacher after teacher. Schlagintweit writes : To each bnm&n Buddha belongs a DhyAni- Buddha, and a Dhytni-Bodhisattva, and the unlimited number of the ronner also involves an equally unlimited nnmber of the latter/ [But if this be so — and the exoteric and semi-exoteric use of the name justify the statement — the reader must depend on his own intuition to distinguish between the DhySni Buddhas and the human Bnddhas, and must not apply to the great Buddha of the Fifth Race all that is ascribed to " the Buddha" in books where, as said, blinds are constantly introduced. In one of these books some strange and obscure statements are made which the writer gives, as before, entirely on her own respousibility, since a few may sense a meaning hidden under words misleading in their surface meaning, jt It is slated that at the age of thirty-three, £hankar&ch^r>'a, tired of his mortal body, "put it off" in the cave he bad entered, and that the Bodhisattva, that served as his lower personality, was freed With the harden of a sin upon him which he had not committed. At the same time it is added : At whatever age one put« off his outward body by free will, at that age will he be made to die a violent death agaiun tiis will in bis next rebirth. * SmMimm d* TfM, p. $1. Tlita ante emetic we of • name it tonai amoBf Kiadui with Utat of StwnkaracblTTu, tu iMkr bul attc Itwlance. All His ■ttcc«a«on tmu hi« aanir, bat arv not reincana* ItoasafUim. So witb ibc " Buddhu." ■* [Ttic wortlii witbLn IitackrU arc aupplkd to introduce the loSitmtmg aUlatamU that are con/uanl and ooBtiadiciory u they •tand, an'l which II. P. a had prebaUy InteDded to «lucidate to Knaa •Jigfal ntcnl, MH ttacy air wniuxt two or Uirev timet with dlffnvnt aentvacc* rallowing them. Tba V.S. is exceedingly couAiacd. and rvcrythtni; II. P, B. hM i% here pieced together, the adiiitiua abOTC tCJdle briiig narked In brackrts io lUiiliiic'lab tl froni bera.^A. 8.] 390 THE SSCRBT DOCTRINB. Now, Karma could have no bold on " Mahi Shankara " (as Shankara is called in the secret work), as he had. as Avat^ra, ao Ego of his own, but a Bodhisattva — a willing sacrificial nctim. Xeither had the latter any responsibility for the deed, whether sinful or other- wise. Therefore we do not see the point, since Karma cannot act unjustly. There is some terrible mystery involved in all this sloty, one that no uninitiated intellect can ever unravel. Still, there it ia, suggesting the natural query. "Who. then, was puni.shed by Karma?" and leaving it to be answered. A few centuries later Buddha tried one more incarnation, it is said, in * • * *, and again, fifty years subsequent to the death of this Adept, in one whose name is given as Tiani-Tsang.* No details, no further information or explanation is given. It is simply stated that the last Buddha had to work out the remains of his Karma, which none of the Gods ihcmselvcH can escape, forced as he was to bury still deeper certain mysteries half revealed by him — hence misinterpreted. The words used would stand when translated :t Boru 6fl>'-tvo years too «arly as Shramana Gautama, th« son of King Zostang; then retiriag fifty-seven years too soon as Mahi Shaakara, who got tired of hti outward form. Tliis wilful act aroused and attracted King Karma, who killed tht new form of • " • at thirty-three. J the age of the body that was pot off, [At whatever age one puts off his outward body by free will, at that age will he be made to die in his next incarnation againsi hii oji//— Comnieotar)-.] He died in his next (body) at thirty-two and a little over, and again in his next at eighty— ft MAyA, and at one hundred, in reality. The Bodhisattva chose Tiasi-Tsang.f then again the Sugata became Tsoiig-Kba.pa, who became thus Dczbin-Shegpa [TathAgata — "one who follows in the way and manner of his predecessors " j. The Blessed One conld do good to hit generation as * • • but none to posterity, and so as Tiaui-T&ang he became incarnated only for the "remains" [of his precedent Karma, us wc understand it}. The i^cven Ways apd the Four Truths were once more hidden out of sight The Merciful One confined since then bis attention and fatherly care to the he.irt of Bodyul, the nursery- gronndfl of the seeds of truth. The blessed *' remains " eince then have overshadowed and rested in many a holy body of human Bodhisattvas. > . No further information is given, least of all are there any details or * Xlnc SutMhodntix. > Time aiT Mrvtrml natncfe laurkcd atirtply by astenslu. I ShaiiliarJUIiAtya dlM aIm> nt tbiity-two yvan or sere, ur nthcr diwppesrrd rrooi the sichi of I dbdpin, A* thf If gctid Boc«. I Doc* -' Tiaui-Tttag " stuid far Apulloni»« of Tyaua :- Tbls i» a simple Nurndse. Some tbingt tbe life or that Adrpl would iweni to tally with :hc tiypotbois— olhcn ID go «smiiMt it AN OBSCURB PASSAGS. 391 explanations to be found in the secret volnme. All is darkness and mystery in it, for it is evidently written but for those who are already instructed. Several flaming red asterisks are placed instead of names, and the few facts given are abruptly broken off. The key of the riddle is left to the intuition of the disciple, unless the "direct followers" of Gautama the Buddha — " those who are to be denied by His Church for the next cycle"^and of Shankarich^rya. are pleased to add more. The final section gives a kind of summary'' of the seventy sections J— covering seventy-three years of Buddha's life • — from which the last paragraph is summarized as follows : Ktncrgitig from , ihe most excellent seat of the three secrets [SaDg-Sum], the Master oT incomparable mercy, after having performed on all the anchorites the rile of .and each of these having been cut off.t pcrcciNTd through (the power of] Hlun-Chub; what waa his next duty. The Most-IUastrioiu meditated and aaked himself whether this would help [the future] generations. W'hat thc>' needed was the sight of MdyS in a body of illusion. Which ? . . . The great conqueror of pains and sorrows arose nnd proceeded Iwick to his birthphice. There Sugata was welcomed by the few, for they did not know Shramana Gautama. "Sb&kya [the Mighty] is in NirvAna. . . . He has given the Science to the Shuddhas [Shudra]," said they of DanizeYul [the country of Br&tamans: India]. . . . It was for that, born of pity, that the AH-GIorious One had to retire to , and then appear [kamiically] as Mahl Shankara ; and out of pity aa . and again as , and again as Tsong-Kha'pa. . . . For, he who chooses iu humiliation must go down, and he who loirs not allows Karma to raise him.j This passage is confessedly obscure and written for the few. It is not lawful to say any more, for the time has not yet come when nations are * According to Ssolcrk teaching Iluddha tlwd oim tiuadr«it yean in rt-aUty. Chiragh having mchvd NirrAna in his cightirth year Iir was trgantnl as one dead to Uie wortd of tbe Uriog. S«v Kftictc •• Sblkrumutii'!) Plact in History " in Five Vtart w/ Theutafhy. * It ia BMKr</rile, pertaining to high IniUaUoo, and laiui the Mmc slgnlAcance tr the one to which Clement or Alexandria alludea when he fpoUu of " the token of rvcoguiliun licing in cnoimon with UK. a»t>y cutting all Chfiitl " (Slrom., 13). Schlnginlwnt woodcrs what il may be. " The typical re- preseatation of a hemiit." he nya. "ii always that of a nuu) frith long, uncut hair end bmnl. . . . A rile nrry oflcti ««tcct«l. though I am urieibk to state for what reasoD, i* that of Chod {■ to cat ' or * to destroy ') theTDcanLngof which is anxiously kept a profound aecrvt by Ihe I^nas.' \Bud4kiim in DM. p. 163.) t tUuD-Chub ti the dlvioiag iipirit in man, the highest degree of seersblp. I The secret mcaniug of this sentence ia thnt Karma exerei«e» ita sway over the Adept as much as over any other man; "Gods" can cacape it aa little as simple mortals. The Adept who, having leoiL-tieid thePnth und woiiHisDhannakiya— the Kirvloa from which tbeie b no return until the new grand Kalpa— pnrfcm 10 use His right of cbooaioga cODdilioii inrerior to that which belong* to Htm, hot that wilil leave him free to rrlum whenever He Ihinlu it advisable and undcrwhatever personality He may aelecl, must tx prepared to talu all the chances of failure— pouibLy— and a loiver condition than was His lot— for a certnJnty— as it ia an occult law. Kanaa alouc Is ab«olutc justice and Lufalti- Itle ia its aelectiona. He who uses his rights with it 1 Karma) must bear the contrquracc*— ir any. Thus Buddha's first reincarnation was prodr '-d by Xarms— dnd it led Him hifthcr ttiau ever ; the two BDaowing were " out of pity " and • * ■ 99* THB SECRET DOCTRINK. prepared to hear the whole truth. The old religions are fnll of mysteries, and Lo demonstrate some of them would surely lead to an explosion of hatred, followed, perhaps, by bloodshed and worse. It will be sufficient to know that while Gautama Buddha is merged in Nirvina ever since his death, Gautama Shitkyamuni may have had to reincarnate — this dual inner personality being one of the grealciit mysteries of Esoteric psych ism. "The seat of the three secrets" refers to a place inhabited by high Initiates and their disciples. The "secrets" are the three mystic powers known as Gopa, Yasodhara. and Uptala Varna, that Csomo de Kciros mistook for Buddha's three wives, as other Orientalists have mistaken Shakti (Yoga power) personified by a female deity for His wife ; or the Draupadi — also a spiritual power — for the wife iu common of the five brothers P^dava. SECTION XLY. An Unpublishjsd Discourse of Buddha. I * (It is found in the second Book of Commentarus and is addressed to the Arhats.) Said the All-Merciful : Blessed are ye. O Bfaikshus, happy are ye who have understood the mystery of Being and Non-Being explained iu Bas-pa f Dharma, Doctnne], and hax'e given preference lo the latter, for ye are verily my Arhats. . . . The elephant, who sees his form mirrored in the lake, looks at it, and then goes away, taking it for the real body of another elephant, is wiser than the man who beholds his fece in the stream, and. looking at it, says, "Here am 1 ... I am I": for the *' T," his Self, is not in the world of the twelve Nidauas aud mutability, but in that of Non-Being, the only world beyond the snares of Maya. . . . That alone, which has neither cause nor author, which is self- existing, eternal, far beyond the reach of mutability, is the true "I" [Ego], the Self of the Universe. The Universe of Nam- Khasays: "lam the world of Sieu-Chau";* the four illusions laugh and reply, "Verily so." But the truly wise man knows that neither man. nor the Universe that he passes through like a flitting shadow, is any more a real Universe than the dewdrop that reflects a spark of the morning sun is that sun. . . . There are three things, Bhikshus, that are everlastingly the same, upon which no vicissitude, no modifi- cation can ever act: these are the Law, Nir\'3na. and Space,t and those three are One, since the first two are within the last, and that last one a MEya, so long as man keeps within the whirlpool of sensuous existences. One need not have his mortal body die to avoid the ^ The Dnivvnit of Brahaii (Sird-Ch*n ; N«m-KhA) b UnWerial Ulitnon. or our pbcnoniffiiBl world. • AUaha- II isne»lto impoMib1« ta rrndn lh« myiiHc wofd"Tho-og " by «uy oUi« irrm than "Spjux," Slid yet, ookM coined on pgrpOM, no b«w appelUtion can render it to well to the mi ad of tbc OccnlUal- Hw term "Adfti"i« also trsnilatcd "Spaor," and Ihovii a world ol meaniniE in iU 394 THB SKCRBT DOCTRINE. clutches of concupiscence and other passions. The Arhat who observes the seven hidden precepts of Bas-pa may become Dang-mi and Lha.» He may hear the " holy voice" of . . . [Kwan->'in],t and find himself within the quiet precincts of his Sangharama J trans- ferred into AmitSbha Buddha.§ Becoming one with Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi.H he may pass throu>;li all the six worlds of Being (Rupa- loka) and get into the first three worlds of Arfipa.^ . Ue who listens to my secret law, preached to my select Arhats, will arrive with its help at the knowledge of Self, and thence at perfection. It is due to entirely erroneous conceptions of Ea.stem thought aad to ignorance of the existence of an Esoteric key to the outwird Buddhist phrases that Bumouf and other great scholars have inferred from such propositions — held also by the VedSntins — as " my body is not body" and "myself is no self of mine," that Eastern psychology was all based upon non-permanency. Cousin, for instance, lecturing upon the subject, brings the two following propositions to prove, on BumouPs authority', that, unlike Brahmanism, Buddhism rejects the perpetuity of the thinking principle. These are: I. Thought or Spirit**— for the fncoUy is not distingiiuthcd from the subject-- appears only wilh sensalioti and does not survive it. 3. The Spirit cannot itself lay hold of itself, and m directiag atteation to itself it draws from it ouly thecotivicliou of its powerlessoess to see itself otherwise than w successive and transitory. This all refers to Spirit embodied, not to the freed Spiritual Self on whom MfiyS has no more hold. Spirit is do body; therefore have the * Datiff-iun. a piulfivd kmU. anil Ltut, a ttwH spirit vriUiiti a living Ixxly ; on Atlrpt or Arbat. In the popular opinion in Tttiet, a Lhai* k dtspmbodied spirit, aomething aimilar to the Bunocic Stx— only higher. * Kwfin-yln Is as>^onyni, for tn thcorifrinal another term la uKd, but the nwaninKb IdenticaL II i« the divine voice of 9elf. or Llie " Spirit -v^ylce " tn man. and the samean Vichiafarara (the " Voioc- ddty "tof the Drlbmatts. In China. ih<! Dudilblat Hlualista havtr dcfp-aded it* ntesntnc bjr anthio- poatnTphiiinfc It inia a OoddeM of the same naine. vHlh one Ihouaand handa and eyea, and (bey call ttKwfiB-shaJ-yin-Bodhtsat. itiiithF BuddhiM "daimon "-voice of Socrates. t SMngharama •■ tlic samcimm ta>t(lornm of an aacctk, a cave or any place be Cbooaes for hi* isAdl- tntion. I Ainitibha Buddha la in thlacocnectioaUie "boondteasU^l" by wfalcb UinEa of the tub]«ct)«e worlil are pereeived. II HwMericalty. " the un«arp«M]ttgTy mercifat and enHghtened bean." said of the " Perfect Onca." the Jiran-miikta«, rollecltwly. ■f These alx worlds— Mven with us— arc the worlds of Nats or Spirits, *ritb the Bunneae BnddUsIa, and the sevni hightrr vnirldM of the VedliitiuEi. ■* Two Ihingn entirely rllstinet from each other- The " faculty ia not distinguiabed Itwa iba subject " only on this matcnal plane, while tbouKht generated by aur ph}-sical brain, one that luM never impreased itaelf at the saiiK time on the spiritual counterpart, whetber through the atropliy at tbe latter or the lulrinsic weakucas of that thought, cttn oetvr Mirvlvc our body ; this reach la »nt*. A MISTAKEN VIEW. 395 Orientalists made of it " nobody" and nothing. Hence they proclaim Buddhists to be Nihilists, and Ved^ntins to be the followers of a creed in which the " Impersonal [God] turns out on examination to be a myth" ; their goal is described as The complete extinction of all spiritual, mental, and bodily powers by absorption into the Impersonal.* ■ KedBiiia.Sira, translated by U^Jorjacor. p. 113. SECTION XLYI ]N lEYANA-MOKSHA. The few sentences given in the text from one of Gaatama Buddha's secret teachings show how uncalled for is the epithet of " Materialist" when applied to One >ATiom two-thirds of those who are looked upon as freat Adepts and Occultists in Asia recognize as their Master, whether under the name of Buddha or that of ShankarSch3r>-a. The reader will remember the just-quoted words are what Buddha Sangg>-as(or Pho) is alleged by the Tibetan Occultists to have taught : there are three eternal things in the Universe — the Law, Nirvfiua, and Space. The Buddhists of the Southern Church claim, on the other hand, that Buddha held only two things as eternal — Akasha and NirvSna. But Akasha being the same as Aditi * and boUi being translated *' Space," there is no discrepancy so far, since Nirv3na as well as Moksha, is a state. Then in both cases the great Kapilavastu Sage unifies the two, as well as the three, into one eternal Element, and ends by saying that even " that One is a MSya" to one who is not a Dang-ma, a perfectly purified Soul. The whole question hangs upon materialistic miscouccpliuns and ignorance of Occult Metaphysics. To the man of Science who regards Space as simply a mental representation, a conception of something exis\ing pra /omtd, and having no real being outside our mind. Space Perseia verily an illusion. He may fill the boundless interstellar space with au "imaginary"' ether, nevertheless Space for him is au abstraction. Most of the Metaphysicians of Europe are so wide of the mark, from the purely Occult standpoint, of a correct comprehension of " Space,'* as are the Materialists, though the erroneous couceptions of both of course differ widely. • AdHi ia, arcordiiiK to the /Fijr y^da. "tbr Patbcr and Hothcr of ttll thcC:odi*';ud Akl«hs !■ hdd by Sonibent ItuUilhUni m Iht Hoot of oil. nhcocc rvcrymins in the Univerae cotue out, io obeOirncc to a lm«r of motion Inhrrt-nt in it ; and this ia the Titttton "Epacc '' iTbo-og). THB AEA5HA. 39^ I 1(, bearing in mind the philosophical views of the Anc>enU npon this question, we compare them with what is now termed exact pby&ical Sciencc.itwiUbefound that the two disagree only in inferencesand names, and that their postulates are the same when reduced to their most simple expression. From the beginning of the human j'Eons, from the very dawn of Occull Wisdom, the regions that the men of Science fill with ether have been explored by the Seers of every age. That which the world regards simply as coRmic Space, an abstract representation, the Uiudu Rishi. the Chald^ean Magus, the Egyptian Hierophanl held, each and all, as the one eternal Root of all, the playground of all the Forces in Nature. It is the fountain-head of all terrestrial life, and the abode of those (to us) invisible swarms of existences— of real beings, as of the shadows only thereof, conscious and unconscious, intelligent and senseless — that surround us on all sides, that iatcrpenetrale the atoms of our Koswos, and see us not. as we do uot either see or sense them ^Jirough our physical organisms. For the Occultist "Space" and 'Universe" are synonyms. In Space there is not Matter, Force, nor Spirit, but all that and much more. It is the One Element, and that one the Anima Mundi — Space, AkiLsha, Astral Light — the Root of Life which, in its eternal, ceaseless motion, like the out- aud in-breathing of one boundless ocean, evolves but to reabsorb all that lives and feels and thinks and has its being in it. As said of the Universe in /sis l/nvaled, it is: The coiubiaation ofa lliousattd eteuents and yet the expression ofa single Spirit — a chaos to the sense, a KoHUioa to the rcasoa. Such were the views upon the subject of all tlie great ancient Philosophers, from Mauu down to Pythagoras, from Plato to Paul. When the dlASoIution [Pr&laya] bad arri\-ed at its term the great Being [Para- AtmA, or Para- Punish a], the Lord existing through himsclT. outof whom aod throufjh whom all things were, and are, and will be, . . . resolved to emaoate from hU Qwn sulisUncc the various creatures.* The mystic Decad [df Pythagoras] (I -f 2 + 3 + 4 = lo) is a way of expressiug this idea. The One is God : t the Two. matter; the Three, combining Monad aad Duad and partaking of the nature of both, is the pheoomenal world ; the Tetrad, or form of perfection, expresses the emptiness of all : and the Decad, or sum of all, involves the eultre Cosmos.; ■ MAnava.Dk^rwM. Skit Ira. l.<. 7. 4 The "Cod" ofPyUiagonu. the disdplc of the krf%a SajrN. bnopenonftl God. Lei it be mocB bnedUiat tiFtnuirhl ua a cardin&l leoet that tb«re cklbU a pcnsaiMat PritKlple ol* Uuitj ImmUial lonoi, etuiDxct. and other p bcaoncoA of the llai«tr»c. T Uit Um»nU4, i. zvi. 398 THE SECRST DOCTSINB. Plato's "God" is the "Universal Ideation." and Paul saying "Oat of bim, and through him. and in him. all things are." had surely a Principle — never a Jehovah — in hia profound mind. The key to the Pythagorean dogmas is the key to every great Philosophy. It is the general formula of unity in mulUpUcity. the One cvoUing the mujr and pervading the All. It is the archaic doctrine of Emanation in a few words. Speusippus and Xenocrates held, like their great Master. Plato, that: The Anims Mundi (or "world-soul") was not the Ddty, bat a mantfeststiot. Those philosopherft never conceived of the One as an anitnaU natunf. The ooiguul One did not exist, tis wc understand the term. Not till he lit) had united with the many emanated exiiitences (the Monad and Duad), was a being' produced. The T(/Aioi' (■■honoured"), the something manifested, dwell.tin the centre as in them- ciunference. but it is onl^ the reSection of the Deity — the World-Soul. In this doc- trine we lind the spirit of Esoteric Buddhisci.* And it is that of Hsoleric BrShminism and of the Vedantin Adwiutis. The two modem philosophers, Schopenhauer and von UartmaoD. teach the same ideas. The Occultists say that : The psychic and cctenic forces, the " ideo-motor "and "electro-hiological powers,' •• latent thonghl," and even " unconscious cerebration " theories can be com in two words : the Eabalistic Astral Lightt Schopenhauer only synthesized all this by calling it Will, and con- tradicted the men of Science in their materialistic views, as voo Hartinann did later on. Tho^ axiXhox of Xhc PhUosophj of Ike Unconscwus calls their views " an instinctual prejudice." Furthermore, he demonstrates that no experimenter can ba^'c anything to do with matter properly so termed, but only with the forces into which he divides it. The visible effects of matter sre bat the effects of force. He concludes thereby that that which is now called matter is nothing but the aggregation of atomic forces, to express which the word "matter" is used; outside of that, for science, nutter is but A word void of scnse.^ As much, it is to be feared, as those other terms with which we arc now concerned, " Space," "Nirvfina," and so on. The bold theories and opinions expressed in Schopenhauer's works differ widely _ iiom those of the majorit}> of our orthodox scientists.^ " la reality." remarks lias LmaoD. I oweta," ■ ideMAfl • Isii Unveiled. \. xviii. t hit CmvnM 1. 58. t /TO UnvtiieJ. i. 59. I While Ihey ore to a gnat cslent Identical urith thoae dT Bttoteric Buddhim, ihr Secrei Doctriac oTtbeSafl. MATTER IS BVSR LIVING. 399 daring speculator, '* there is neiUier Matter nor Sptrtl. The tendency to gravita- tion in a stone is as unexplataable as thought in the human brain. ... If matter I can — no one knows why— fiOI to the ground, then it c»n also— no one knows why— think. ... As sooQ, even in mechanics, a.s Tve trespass beyond the purely mathematical, as soon as we reach the inscrutable adhesion, graWtation. and so on we are faced by phenonieun which are to our !ien<tes aii Diy.<:terinu.« as the will and thoughlm man: we find ourselves facing the incomprehensible, for such is every force in nature. Where is, then, that mattervt\i\th you all pretend to know so well' and from which — being so familiar with it — you draw ojl your conclusions and explanations, and attribute to it all things } . . . That nhich can be fully realized by our rcasou and senses is but the superficial ; they can ne%*cr rt-ach the true inner substance of things. Such was the opinion of Kant If you consider that there is iu a human head Rome sort of a sfit'iil, then you are obliged to concede the same to a stone. If your dead and utterly-passive matter can manifest a ten- dency toward gmvitation or, like electricity. Attract and repel and send out sparks then as well as the brain it can also think. In short, e^-ery particle of the so-called spirit we can replace with an equivalent of mnlter, and every particle of matter replace with spirit . . . Thus, it is not tlie Christian dinsioa of all things into matter and spirit Ihnt can ever be found philosophically exact; but only if we divide them into u/ii/ and tnaHtfcsiaiion, which form of di\'ision has naught to dp with the former, for it spiritualizes everj-thing : all that which is in the first instance real and objective — body and matter— it tr&usfonns into a representation, and every manifestation into vrill."* The mailer q{ science may be for all objective purposes a " dead and utterly -passive matter " ; to the Occultist not an atotn of it can be dead — '• Life is ever present in it." We send the reader who would know more about it to our article, " Transmigration of Life-Aloms.'*t What we are now concerned with is the doctrine of Nirvana. A "system of atheism" it may be justly called, since it recognises neither God nor Gods — least of all a Creator, as it entirely rejects creation. The Fecit ex nikih is as incomprehensible to the Occult metaphysical Scientist as it is to the scieutihc Materialist. It is at this point that all agreement stops between the two. But if such be the sin of the Buddhist and BrShman Occultist, then Pantheists and Atheists^ and also theistical Jews — the Kabaltsts— must also plead "guilty" to it; yet no one wonld ever think of calling the Hebrews of the Kabalah " Atheists." Except the Talmudistic and Christian exoteric systems there never was a religious Philosophy, whether iu the ancient or modem world, but rejected a priori the ex nihUo hypothesis, simply because Matter was always co-etemalized with Spirit. * f^irarga, U. ill. iu: QboIm] In Am Umvtikd, i. 58. * Fiveytan ^ l%*oiafhj, p. 33!, it tag. THB 5SCRBT DOCTimm. NirvSna, as well as the Molcsha of the VedSiilins, is re^rded b>' most of the Orientalists as a synonym of annihilation ; yel no more glaring injustice could be done, and this capital error must be pointed out and disproved. On this most important tenet of the Briihmo- Buddhistic system — the Alpha aud the Omega of "Being" or "Non- Being" — rests the whole edifice of Occult Metaphysics. Now the rectification of the g^eat error concerning Nir\*Ana may be ver\- easily accomplished with relatiou to the philosophically iuclined. to those who, In the glass of tilings temporal se« tlie image of things spiritual. On the other hand, to that reader who could never soar beyond the details of tangible material form, our explanation will appear meaning- less. He may comprehend and even accept the logical inferences from the reasons given — the true spirit will ever escape his intuitions. The word "nihil" having been misconceived from the first, it is continually used as a sledge-hammer in the .matter of Esoteric Philosophy. Nevertheless it is the duty of the Occultist to try and explain it. Nirvana and Moksha, then, as said before, have their being^ in non- being, if such a paradox be permitted to illustrate the meaning the belter. NirvSna, as some illustrious Orientalists have attempted to prove, does mean the "blowing- out"* of all sentient existence. It ia like the Bauie of a candle burnt out to its last atom, and then suddenly extinguished. Quite so. Nevertheless, as the old Arfaat Nagasena affirmed before the king who taunted him : " Nirvana «" — and Nirvins is eternal. But the Orientalists deny this, and say it is not so. In their opinion NirvSua is not a re-absorption in the Universal Foice, not eternal bliss and rest, but it means literally "the blowing-out. the extinction, complete annihilation, and not absorption." The Lank- dvatdra quoted in support of their argp.iments by some Sanskritists. and wbich gives the different interpretations of NirvSna by the Tirthika Brahmans, is no authority to one who goes to primeval sources for information, namely, to the Buddha who taught the doctrine. As well quote the ChSr\'aka Materialists in their support. ■ rrof. Max Mailer, in a tetUr lo Th* Timu (April, i<37). tnalnlatnert moat vebetnendy that Nil mrani. annihilatioH in the fullest ■mac of the word. {Chips from a Gtrmtan H'orkikof. i. i«,-.l BmIIm i9H In a tcctiin before the GvnrraT Uectiiiir of the AAsoaatiou of Germnii Phitolosldt at Kiel. "■ be dislincUy (kcinm bis belief thai the NihUlsni sttribuI<^d to Ouddhu* teaching roewa do fwrl of hia doctrine, and that it U wholly wrong tosuppoae IhalKirvina meaoauiniblUtlco." ^Trubnei'a Awrf tyrienifat Lit. Rk., Oct. i^h. i*>>.j BUND PAXTH NOT RXPBCTBD. 401 If we bring as an argument the sacred Jaina books, wherein the d>*ing Gautama Buddha is thus addressed: "Arise into Nltvi [Nir- vina] from this decrepit body into which thou hast been sent. . , . Ascend into thy former abode, O blessed AvatSra " ; and if we add that this seems to us the very opposite of nihilism, we may be told that so far it may only prove s contradiction, one more discrepancy in the Buddhist faith. If again we remind the reader that since Gautama is believed to appear occasionally, re-descending from his "former abode" for the good of humanit>' and His faithful congregation, thus making it incontestable that Buddhism does not teach final annihila- tion, we shall be referred to anthorities to whom such teaching is ascribed. And let ns say at once: Men are no authority for us in quos* tions of conscience, nor ought they to be for anyone else. If anyone holds to Buddha's Philosophy, let him do and say as Buddha did and said : if a man calls himself a Christian, let him follow the command- ments of Christ — not the interpretations of His many dissenting priests and sects. ,!( In A Biiddhisl Catechism the question is asked : Are therr any Uogmas in Buddhism which we ore required to accept on £aith.> A. No. We are earnestly enjomeil to accept nothing whatever on faith, whether it be written in books, handed down from our ancestors, or taught by sages. Our Lord Buddha has said that we must not believe in a thing said merely because it is Aaid; nor traditiosii because they have been handed down from antiquity; nor nimonrs, as such ; nor writings liy ssfpes, because sages wrote them : nor fancies that we may nuspect to hav'c been inspired in us by a Deva (that is, in presumed spiritual inspiratioo}; nor from inferences drawn from some haphazard assumption we may have made ; nor because of what seems an analogical necessity ; nor on the mere authority of oar teachers or masters. But we are to believe when the writing, doctrine, or 5a>*ing is corroborated by our own reason and consciousnesa. " For this," says he in concluding, " I taught you not to believe merely because you have heard, but when you believed of your consciousness, then to act accordingly and abundantly."" That NirvUna, or rather, that state in which we are in Nirvana, is quite the reverse of annihilation is suggested to us by our " reason and consciousness," and that is sufficient for us personally. At the same time, this fact being inadequate and very ill-adapted for the general reader, something more efficient may be added. * See th« KaUima StUta of Ui« AngnttaranHay*. a» quoted lo A Bmddkist Cattekitm. bjr H- S> OlcoU, Prrsiiletit of Ihe Thttwophicol Soclrty. pp. h, S*"- 3 DO i ^ea THB SBCKBT DOCTRINB. Witliotit resorting to sources unsympathetic to OccuUism. the Kabatak furnishes us with the most luminous and clear proofs ihat the tenn " nihil " in the minds of the Ancient Philosophers had a meaning quite different from that it has now received at the hands of MaierialisU. It means certainly "nothing" — or "no-thing." F. Kircher, in his work on the Kabalak and the Egyptian Mysteries* explains the tern admirably. He tells his readers that in the Zokar the first of the Sephirothf has a name the significance of which is " the Infinite,*' but which was translated indifferently by the Kabalists as "Ens" and " Non-Ens"' ("Being" and "Non-Being"); a ^^'n^, inasmuch as it is the root and source of all other beings; Non-Being because Ain Soph— the Boundless and the Causeless, the Unconscious and the Passive Principle — resembles nought else in the Universe. The author adds : This is The reason why St. Peoys did not heAitAte to call it Nihil. "Nihil '* therefore stands — even with some Christian theologians and thinkers, especially with the earlier ones who lived but a few removes' from the profound Philosophy of the initiated Pagans — as a synonNin for the impersonal, divine Principle, the Infinite All, which is no Being or thing — the En orAin Soph, the Parabrabman of the Vedanta. Now St. Denys was a pupil of St. Paul — an Initiate — and this fact makes everything dear. ,^, The " Nihil" is in esst the Absolute Deity itself, the hidden Power or Omnipresence degraded by Monotheism into an anthropomorphic Being, with all the passions of a mortal on a grand scale. Union with That is not annihilation in the sense understood in Europe.J In the East annihilation in Nirvana refers but to matter: that of the visible as well as the invisible body, for the astral body, the personal double, is still matter, however iiublimated. Buddha taught that the primitive Substance is eternal and uachangcable. Its vehicle is the pure, luminous ether, the boundless, infinite Space. Not a void rcsultins froui the abaence of forms, bat on the cootrary, the foaiuU'^ t Sci>lur, or Aillti (mrttic SpMcr). Ttac ScpbiroUi, be it undcratood, m idmticjl with the HIimIb PrwjlpatiH. ttKDIiyiitaiali&iisofKiiotnic Bu^dhtnn. th<Zoro»»tri«« Ara»hMp«id». »nd SnaUy wil* the Slohlnt- Ihc " Srwn AnrcU o/ ihe Ptrwan " of Ibe Romwi CMbOUc Chuidi : Accortinjr lo the t-UJitcm idra. ih* All com** cat from th< One. uid rrtanil to il aciin. AbaolBU WinlhiUtioa i^ fclmply nnthinlcibl*. Nor can rtvraal Moltrr be nnnlhnatM, Varm may be MWlW* latcd : TO-relBlloqa may cbuisr. That to »U. Thc« Mu be BO JMlt IhiBf m Uflihllatioil— la tte Knrapun kdm- ts the Ciil«rte. i WHAT AXNIHILATIOH MBAN5. 403 tion of all forms . . . [This] dcDOtes it to be the creation of M&yA, all the workB of which an; as nothiog before the uncreated Form [Spirit], in whose profound and ftacrt?d depths all modoii must cease for ever.* Motion here refers only to iUitsivc objects, to their change as opposed to perpetuity, rest — perpetual motion being the Eternal Law, the cease- less Breath of the Absolute. The masteo' of Buddhistic dogmas can be attained only according to the Platonic method : from universals to particulars. The key to it lies in the refined and mystical tenets of spiritual influx and divine life. Sailh Buddha : Whosoever is unacquainted with my Lau\\ and dies in that slate must return to earth until he becomes a perfect SafHano [^ascetic'\. To achieve this object he must destroy within himself the trinity of Maya.\ He must extinguish his passiffns, unite and identify himself with the Law \_ike teach- ing of the Secret Doctrine], and comprehend the philosophy of annihilation. % No, it is not in the dead-letter of Buddhistical literature that scholars may ever hope to find the true solution of its metaphysical subtleties. Alone in all antiquitj' the P>*thagoreans understood them perfectly, and it is on the (to the average Orientalist and the Materialist) incomprehen- sible abstractions of Buddhism that Pythagoras grounded the pnucipa^ tenets of his Philosophy. ^ Annihilation means with the Buddhistical Philosophy only a dispersion of matter, in whatever form or semblance of form it may be, for everything that bears a shape was created, and thus must sooner or later perish, i.e., change that shape; therefore, as something temporal, though seeming to be permanent, it is but an iUusion, MdyS ; for as eternity has neither beginning nor eud, the more or less prolonged duration of some particular form pa.sses, as it were, like an instautaneoas flash of lightning. Before we have the time to realize that we have seen it, it is gone and passed for ever; hence even our astral bodies, pure ether, are but illusions of matter so long as they retain their terrestrial outline. The latter changes, says the Buddhist, according to the merits or demerits of the person during his lifetime, and this is ■ liU t'HvcHtd, i. rf^. • Th* Secret Law, Uie " Doctrine of the Hc«rt," >a culled in cnntnut to the " Uoctrioe of the Kjre." or motrTK Buddhism. I -■ niuBlve natter iHitatriptcmsriresUtionlnUicnuUily.utd tbe a«ti«l or fontal Soul {the body), and Ihr PlatoaUii dual Soul— the latioaal aad tbe irratioaal one." 1 Itii t/MvaJid, i. t«9> 404 THE SHCRKT DOCTRINK. metempsychosis. When the spiritual Entity breaks loose for ever from every particle of matter, then only it enters upon the eternal and unchangeable Nirvana. He exists in Spirit, in nothing ; as a form, a shape, a semblance, he is completely annihilated, and thus will die no more, for Spirit alone is no M^ya, but the only Reality in an iUusionary universe of ever-passing forms. It is opoD this Ouddhiat doctrine that the Pythagoreans grounded the principal tenets of their pfailosoptiy. "Can that Spirit whicb gives life and motion, and pat- taken of the nature of light, be reiluccd to nonentity ?" they ask. "Caii thai sen- sitive Spiril iu brutes which exercises memory-, one of the rational faculties, die and become nothing?" And Wbitclock Bulstrode in his able defence of Pythagom expounds this doctrine by adding: " If you say they [the brutes] breathe their Spirits into the air, and there vanish, that is all thai I contend for. The air indeed is the proper place to receive then, being according to Laertins full of sonls; and according to Epicurus full of atona the principles of all things; for even this place wherein we walk and birds AybasM much of a spiritual nature that it is invisible, and therefore may well be the reoeiTef of forms, since the forms of all bodies are so : we can only sec and hear ita efiecti: the air itself is too fine and above the capacity of the age. What then is the ethcf in tbcrcgioualxive, and what art' the influences of forms thai dticend from thence?" The Sfiiriis of creatures, the Pythagoreans hold, who are emanations of the most sublimated portions of ether — emanations, btratfii, but not forms. Ether is camp- tlble — all philosophers agree in that; — and what is incorruptible is so far /nmm being annikilated when it gets rid of the form that it lays a good claim to imniotiality. " But what it) that which has no body, uofortn; which ig imponderable, invisible, ■ud indivisible — that which exists, and yet is notf" aslc the Buddhists "It i> Nirrina," i* the answer. It is nothing— uoX. a region, but rather a state.* • tsis Umveard, i «9o. SECTION XLVII. ' The Seceet Books of "Lam-Rin" akd Dzyan. I Thb Soo^ of Dzyan — from the Sanskrit word " Dhyiln " (mystic meditation) — is the first volume of the Commentaries upon the seven secret folios of Kiu-te, and a Glossary of the public works of the same name. Thirty-five volumes of Kiu-te for exoteric purposes and the use of the laymen may be found in the possession of the Tibetan Gelugpfl. Lamas, in the library of any monastery; and also fourteen books of Commentaries and Annotations on the same by the initiated Teachers. Strictly speaking, those thirty-five books ought to be termed '* The Popularised Version " of the Secret Doctrine, full of myths, blinds, and errors ; the fourteen volumes of CammeHiaries, on the other hand — with their translations, annotations, and an ample glossary of Occult terms, worked otit from one small archaic folio, the Book of the Secret Wisd&m of the World* — contain a digest of all the Occult Sciences. These, it appears, are kept secret and apart, in the charge of the Teshu Lama of T^i-gad-je. The Booksof Kiu-te are comparatively modern, having been edited within the last millennium, whereas, the earliest voUimes of tb« Comfneniaries are of untold antiquity, some fragments of the original cylinders having been preserved. With the exception that they explain and correct some of the too fabulous, and to every appearance, grossly- exaggerated accounts in the Books of IKiu-tef — properly so-called — the Cemmentarifs have little to do with these. They stand in relation to • n is from the le«U of *I] Uie»c worlu th»t the Srcrrt Doctrine 1)W been gp*»Tn, The oii^nid BUltet would not lomke ■ small pnraphlct. bxit Ibe nci>lainationit and nota bom Uie Cuinnientail(i Mid GloMaiics miybt be worlecd luto tea voiunm aa large w /lu UmiMled. -t The mouk DcUa Penuft nukn coandcrnble ftin in hLi Afemoin (we MuUiKm's TiM) of CCrtaki BtalemenUfn the BoOkaof KiU'te. Uc bringi to the notice of the ChriitiBn public "the great moiui- Wn tdafioa Im^ucK hi^h'* [n Tfbrtan lesgtie cotitdilitiiB of five miU-n) in the Uimilaymi Anagt. " AcccjTding to tbeir U«f," b< Mya, " in U)C weit of thl« world i* bo ctemat wortd . . . ■ pamdise, uid m il a Saint caltcd HopahiBa, which incan^ ' Saliit ofSplendour and Infinite I^ght.' Thix 8aJnt ha* many dlsdplea who an aU Ch«ng-cbuti/' wTiidi meaiu, b« adds In a footnote. " the Spiriu at IbtMc who, on account of Ihdt perfection, do not core to bccciac sainU. and train and Instruct the bodies cf the rebfirn I^mnn ... mi thai Ihey may help the tiviug." Which tneaua thai the preHuin- ably "ilcad" Vang-Cbbub [aot"Chang-cliab "iBrerimpty Uviui; BodhUaltvaa, »o«ne of Iho»e known M Uhaute (" the Qrotherii"). At to the "mountain [6(1,000 leagues high," the CimM^n/ar^ which giwscbc key to Kuch «latenin]t»Cxi>lAiDfl Ifaat according to the codeuMcd by thewritcm, "to tbe wett flf the ' RiiDwy Monotaii] ' 160 Ieagn<:» [the cyphers being n blind] from a certatn spot and by a direct road, lathe BtiitnteVu] [the country or 'Seal of the Biotherf.'}, the realdeiice of Mahl-Choban . . . *■ etc Thb L> Ibe real meaning. The " ilopabma " of DcUa Pcnoa is— Uk Mabi-Ctaohan, tbe Chief k them as the Ch&ldseo-Jewisb Kabatah stands to ihe Mosaic Books, la the work known as the Avaiumsaka Sutra, in section : " The Supreme Alman [Soul] as tnauifested in the character of the Arhatsand Pratyeka Buddhas." it is stated that : Because from Uie ttcginiiiii^ all sentient creatures have confused the truth ud embraced the false, therefore there came into existence a bidden knowledge called Alaya VijAflna. '* Who is in possession of the true knowledge ? " is asked. " The great Teachers of the Suowy Mountain," is the response. These "great Teachers" have been knowu to live in the "Snowy Range" of the Himalayas for countless ages. To deny in the face of millions of Hindus the existence of their great Gurus, living in the Ashrams scattered all over the Trans- or the Cis-Himalayan slopes is to make oneself ridiculous in their eyes. When the Buddhist Saviour appeared in India, their Ashrams — for it is rarely thai these great Men are found in Lamaseries, unless on a short visit — were on the spots they now occupy, and that even before the Brihmans them- selves came from Central Asia to settle on the Indus. And before that more than one Aryan Dvija of fame and historical renown had sat at their feet, learning that which culminated later on in one or another of the great philosophical schools. Most of these Him&Iayan Bbaote were Aryan Br^hmans and ascetics. No student, unless ver>- advanced, would be beneflted by the perusal of those exoteric volumes • They must be read with a key to their meaning, and that key can only be found in the Comrneniariis. Moreover there arc aomc comparatively modem works that are positively injurious so fiir a» a fair comprehension o. even exoteric Buddhism is concerned. Such arc the Dnddhht CosfHOS. by Bonze Jin-ch'on of Pekin; the Sking- y)»u-ki (or The Reeonh of the Enlighiennunt of Tathagatd), by WangPak ~«evciitli century ; Hisai Sutra {ox Book of Creation\ and some others. «... i ■■■" h' «,..! /».' '>ltltil 1" 1 Kir \»' ■ ft' H> w >m lirfuir tM. written by Cclung tpr1r4l)Ttiati|:o-paCtibe>go-mo, it Uaaid: "The • •iU«|iiiiiirU-» whu Imvc ii>t&ltie<l our land Sunder ptvtrst) In the laat cenlnrr tad Hitllly liy luniliiKOUr ucred litrralurelntoHdlcult. baii-e»b<»rii liltlir i]i«aTtlM '. •\%9 II U true Umt Uie SoctmI Canon of the Tibetutit. th« K*ktrmr and M« i)of 4llftltiicl wtirko-io^j public and Oa^ Mcrcl volunwa, lh« rDrmcr bcinx com- InllM >i/ i\ vi'lunic* Tolto. Moy we humbly ijifite the (ood mluioDflnn, bcnma, < 'I «)ii\Hf\U>l iti itrllliii: A ttllmpse uf the laad-nkraed wcrtt folio*? IXkd Ihey iii'ttt I rail MMUiv the Weotcrn Puidlto that these nuniuctlpta ent) faliu* cmU . ' ' II Ttbftuii without a key \a\ la their [leculUr dianctere, and \h\ to M III fwryilratripliiMi of tocniily t* G(uratJve, every Duae andvvd I Ui aludy the niodc ol deciplirriug aod tben lo learn the cquiea- u««ily every wunl uf the rell^ooa Uiifiuge. The CCTpUta III I • )il«y tu our MCCTilotal puntln." SECTION XL Yin. Amita Buddha Kwan-Shai-yin, and Kwan- YiN.— What the "Book of Dzyan" and the Lamaseries of Tsong-Kha-pa say. I I As a supplement to the Commeniaries there are many secret folios on the lives of the Bnddhas and Bodhisattvas, and among these there is one on Prince Gautama and another on His reincarnation in Tsong- Kha-pa. This great Tibetan Reformer of the fourteenth century, said to be a direct incarnation of Amita Buddha, is the founder of the secret School near Tji-gad-je, attached to the private retreat of the Teshu Lama. It is with Him that began the regular system of Lamaic incarnations of Buddhas (Sang-gyas), or of ShSkya-Thub-pa (Shakya- mnnt). Aroida or Amita Buddha is called by the author of Chitust Buddhism, a mythical being. He speaks of Amida Buddha f,Ami-io Fo) a fabulous purwaage, worshipped assiduously— like Kwan-yin — by the Northern Buddhists, but unknown in Siam, Burmah, and Ceylon.* Very likely. Yel Amida Buddha is not a "iJabulous" personage, since (a) "Amida" is the Senzar form of "Adi"; "Adi-Buddhi" and " Adi-Buddha,"t ^^ already shown, existed ages ago as a Sanskrit term for " Primeval Soul" and "Wisdom" ; and (*) the name was applied to Gautama Shakyamuni, the last Buddha in India, from the seventh century, when Buddhism was introduced into Tibet. " Amitabha" (in Chinese, " Wu-Uang-sheu") means literally " Boundless Age," a * Cht»eie Buiidhitm,^. 171. T "Buddhl" \a. ■ &aiukril term for " dlscrlEalnnliou " or intellect (the ■Ixth principle;, aad Uutklba" b " wiM, " "wwdom," and also Uic planet M<icury. 40» SHCRKT I>OCTHtNB. synonym of "En." or "Ain-Suph," the "Ancient of Days," and is an epithet that connects Him directly with the Boundless Adi-Buddbi (primeval and Universal Soul) of the Hindus, as well as with the Anima Mundi of all the ancient nations of Europe and the Boundless and Infinite of the Kabalists. If AmilSbha be a fiction of the Tibetans, or a new form of Wu-liang-sheu, "a fabulous personage," as the author* compiler o( Chinese Buddhism tells his readers, then the "fable" most be a very ancient one. For on another page he says himself that the addition to the canon, of the bookii containing the Legends ol Kwan-yin and of the Wcateni hc&vcn vith its Bnddha, AmitAbba, was also previQUs to the Council o( Kashmerc, a little Ixfore the bef^ning of our era," and he places the origin of the primiti%'e Buddhist books which are common to the Northern ud Southern Duddhiats before 346 11.1:. Since Tibetans accepted Bnddhi>!m only in the seventh centur>' a.d, how comes it that they are charged with inventing Amita-Buddb«} Besides which, in Tibet, AmitSbha is called Odpag-med, which shorn that it is not the name but the abstract idea that was first accepted of an unknown, invisible, and Impersonal Power — taken, moreover, from the Hindu "Adi-Buddhi." and not from the Chinese "Amitabha."t There is a great difference between the popular Odpag-med (Amitabha) who sits enthroned in Devacban (Sukhlvati), according to the Afani Kambum Scriptures — the oldest kisiorical work in Tibet, and the philo- sophical abstraction called Amida Buddha, the name being passed now to the earthly Buddha, Gautama. * Thi« curicws contnidictloR may be Tound In Chineu BmtUhism, pp. iti, itj. The rcrerfd aaUMi lUMirrs hi* Tcaitrtv thai '' to Ihc pliilo«o]>bi<: Buililbiats . . . Amitlhtin Vo«hl To, uid lh« oUim irvDoUiiafE but thccJenftoTldtfl^" 1p. *jM- Vn-y tmc. Byt WKbeuJd b« all other tkific samM. •nek ■kjehomh, AlUb.vtc., i|iitlif they anuct simply "sigiiaof id«a«" IhU would onljr show thai atindi that rccci\<c ihcm othctvHjiC arc not "philosophic " ; it wouM not al all afford anioua proof Utat then ue pnvonal, llrlng Goda of tbesc imoica i» ccaUty. t The Cbinne Arailibba [Wii-liaug-fhcui and the Tibetan Amitibha (Odpa(-iB«l) have mm become perrana] Gods, niliug over liiiK) livjnic In tlic cclevlial reinon oT Sukh&vall, or Tn«Mu (Ttbetan : IXrvachaii); while Adi-nuddhi, of the philosophic nindu, nod AmiU Suddhit oT Uie philn- Mpl^c Chiiumnii aod Tibclati, ait namca Tar tuiivcnsl, primeval idras. SECTION XLIX. Tsong-Kha-pa.— LoHANS m China. I In an article, " Reincarnation in Tibet," everything that could be said, about Tsong-Kha-pa was published .♦ It was stated that this reformer was not, as is alleged by Pars! scholars, an incarnation of one of the celestial Dhyanis, or the five heavenly Buddhas. said to have been created by ShSbyamnni after he had risen to Xir\*ana, but that he was an incarnation of Amita Buddha Himself. The records preser\'ed in the Gon-pa, the chief Lamaser>' of Tda-shi-HIumpo, show that Sang-gyas left the regions of the "Western Paradise" to incarnate Himself in Tsong-Kha-pa, in consequence of the great degradation into which His secret doctrines had fallen. Whenever made loo public, the Good Law of Cbeu [magical ponxrE] fell iovaria- bly into sorcery or "black magic.'* The Dwijas, the Hoshang [Chinese tnouluj and the I^tnas could alone be entmsie<l safely with the fonnuloe. Until the Tsong-Kha-pa period there had been no Saag-gyas (Buddha) incarnations in Tibet. Tsong-Kha-pa gave the signs whereby the presence of one of the twenty-five Bodhisattvas f or of the Celestial Buddhas (Dhyan Chohftns) in a human body might be recognized, and He strictly forbade necromancy. This led to a split amongst the Lamas, and the mal- contents allied themselves with the aboriginal Bhons against the re- formed Lamaism. Even now they form a powerful sect, practising the most disgusting rites all over Sikkhim, Bhutan, Nepaul. and even on the borderlands of Tibet. It was worse then. With the permission of the Tda-shu or Teshn I^ma4 some hundred Lohaus (Arhats), to avert strife, 'k, * Sn 7%t0iut>hiit fbt March, iSSt. t The itilimiilc rrlaliun or the Iwcnly-Sve Buddhas (BodhiMltvmtt wiUi tbc tWcnty-DTC TsUt-l* fUx CondilioBcd or Limited) of Uic Hindtu U intemiinB. I It U rnriotui to note tbc great iniport«uc« given by European Orieataltns to the DalaV Laua* ol Uuuu.andthcit uttrt ignorance as to tbcTda-kbu lorTcihu) LAmu, wbilc It la the Utter wh:i began the bimuvhicnl ccrirs of Buddba-lncamiitiuos, and are Jt /aria tbc "pope*" in Tibet; the Dajal Luiuwue thccteationaof NabADg-lob-S«ug, theTda'ibul.Bma,who waa Himaclftheilxth incanw- ticn of Anuta. (hroQgh Ttosg Kha-p«. though «vtt few kcu to be aware of Uiat IwU 4TO IB SBCRBT DOCTRIXB. went to settle in China in the famous monastery near Tien-t'-ai, wliere they soon became subjects for leg;endao' lore, and continue to be so to this day. They had been already preceded by other Lohans, The world-famous disciples of TBth&j;ata. called the " sweet-TOtccd " on acconat of tbtfir ability to chant the Mantras with uiAgica) effect.* The first ones came from Kashmir in the year 3.oooof Kali Vuga (aboot acenturybeforc the Christian era),t while the last onesarrivedat theend of the fourteenth century, 1,500 years later; and, finding no room for themselves at the lamasery of Yihigching. they built for their own tise the largest monaster)' of all on the sacred island of Pu-to (Buddha, or Put, in Chinese), in the province of Chusau. There the Good Law, the " Doctrine of the Heart," flourished for several centuries. But when the island was desecrated by a mass of Western foreigners, the chief Lohans left for the mountains of : In the Pagoda of Pi-yun-li, near Pekin. one can still see the " Kail of the Five-hundred Lohans." There the statues of the first-comers are arranged below, while one solitary Lohan is placed quite under the roof of the building, which seeins to have been built in commemoration of their visit. The work^ of the Orientalists are full of the direct landmarks of Arhats (Adepts), possessed of thaumaturgic powers, but these art spoken of^whenever the subject cannot be avoided — with unconcealed scorn. Whether innocently ignorant of, or purposely ignoriag. the importance of the Occult element and symbology in the various Religions they undertake to explain, short work is generally made of such passages, and they are left untranslated. In simple justice, how- ever, it should be allowed that much as all such miracles may have been exaggerated by popular reverence and fancy, they are neither less credible nor less attested in " heathen " annals than are those of the * TTic chanlins ^ > Mnnlra U uot h prayer, but tatb«r a nUfioU Mnteacc ia which the IW) of Occult cauoation connect* itJ>c1f nrith. and ilcpm<b on. the vHII and acta of Ita singer. U U « loccc*- ■loii nf SanKlcrit wnitida, and vrhcn it.i nlring or words and ivniracet ia pranounoed nccorfUag to the Vtniclcal fonnokc in Ibc AtMama VedA, hut undcntood by the few. totnc Maotrfts pnniaoc «n iaatan- taiwouK and vrfy wonderful cfltrt. In il» esoteric aense il contnin!) Ihr Vich ithr " myvAc speech "1. which mldcB in the Matitra. or rather in its aounda, tince U t« accordiug t^> the vibratiaaa, oec waj or Ihe cither, of rthrr that llic effect in produced. The " Kwcrt wurtt* " wete called by that aaiae becavav they wen expciU io M&Dttas. Hcnoc Ibe legend in Chlaa Uiat the uo|piig and Okelodj vt the Lohana are heard at dawn by the prieat< fnMn thdr ccUt In the monaaicr)- of Faog<Kwaac. lB>r BH^**tkr«f Cki-Kai tii Tien -tal- nan -Ichl.) « The iTlrhrrtled t^han, Mlrihyaittika, who converted the kiR;r and whole cotmiry of Xaahirtr la ftnddhlain. •enl n body of Lohann to pieach the Good I^w. He wa« the scniptor who rwbed to Bnddha the rntnoii* statue anehundfvd feet hi|th, which Hinen •Tt^iinjc aaw at [Mrdu. to the aorlh of the riiiijab. Aa the Mime Ctiitieiic trav-eller mentiona a temple teu Li frvini tV^hawttr— ;;^ (evt nmad ■nd 9v> ft*! hiKh—whIch wan at hia tinte (a.u. 5«o) atready ifr >*ear« nld, Roeppm Ihinka that «a fu bach aa »v' ii-C- Uu'Ulhlriii wiia Ihe prevalent relitpoa in the pMDJah. THE U>ST WORD. 4" I I I numerous Christian Saints in the church chronicles. Both have au equal right to a place in their respective histories. If, after the beginning of persecution against Buddhism, the Arbats were no more heard of iu India, it was becau:»e, their vows prohibiting retaliation, they had to leave the country and seek solitude and security in China, Tibet, Japan, ond elsewhere. The sacerdotal powers of the BrAhmans being at that time unlimited, the Simons and Apollouiuses of Buddhism had as much chance of recognition and appreciation by the Brilbmanical Irenseuses and TertuUians as had their successors in the Judjean and Roman worlds. It wa.s a historical rehearsal of the dramas that were enacted centuries later in Christendom. As in the case of the so-called " Heresiarchs " of Christianity, it was not for rejecting the ya^as or the sacred Syllable that the Buddhist Arhats were persecuted, but fc understanding too well the secret meaning of both. It wab simply because their knowledge was regarded as dangerous and their presence in India unwelcome, that thej' had to emigrate. Nor were there a smaller nuuiber of Initiates among the BrShmans themselves. Even to-day one meets most wonderfully-gifted Saddhus and Yogis, obliged to keep themselves unnoticed smd in the shadow, not only owing to the absolute secresy imposed upon them at their Initiation but also for fear of the Anglo-Indian tribunals and courts of law, wherein judges are determined to regard as charlatanr)', imposition, and fraud, the exhibition of, or claim to, any abnormal powers, and one may judge of the past by the present. Ceuturies after our era the Initiates of the iuuer temples and the Mathams (monastic communities) chose a superior council, presided over by an all-powerful Brahm-Atm3, l"he Supreme Chief of all those MahStmas. This pontificate could be exercised only by a Brahman who had reached a certain age. and he it was who was the sole guardian of the mystic formula, and he was the Hierophant who created great Adepts. He alone could explain the meauing of the sacred word, AUM, and of all the religious symbols and rites. And whosoever among those Initiates of the Supreme Degree revealed to a profane a single oue of the truths, even the smallest of the secrets entrusted to him, had to die : and he who received the confidence wa,s put to death. But there existed, and still exists to this day, a Word far surpassing the mysterious monosyllable, aud whidi renders him who comes into possession of its key nearly the equal of Brahman. The BrahmStmSs alone possess this key, and we know that to this day there are two 4ia THB SBCKBT DOCTRINB. great Initiates hi Southern India wtio posseiis it. It can be passed only at death, for it is the "Lost Word." No torture, no human power, could force its disclosure by a Brahman who Icnows it; and it is well guarded in Tibet. Yet this &ecresy and this profound mystery are indeed disheartening, since they alone — the Initiates of India and Tibet — could thoroughly dissipate the thick mists hanging over the history of Occultism, and force its claims to be recognized. The Delphic injunction, " /Cmom Ihyself" seems for the few in this age. But the fault ought not to be laid at the door of the Adepts, who have done all that could be done^ and have gone as far as Their rules permitted, lo open the eyes of the world. Only while the European shrinks from public obloquy and the ridicule unsparingly thrown on Occultists, the Asiatic is being discouraged by his own Pandits. These profess to labour under the gloomy impression that no Biga V*idya. no Arhatship (Adeptship), is possible during the Kali Yuga (the " Black Age*') we are now passing through. E\'€n the Buddhists are taught that the Lord Buddha is alleged lo have prophesied that the power would die out in "one millennium after His death." But this is an entire mistake. In the Digha Nikaya the Buddha says : Hear, Subhadra ! The world will never be witbont Rahats, if the ascetics in Or congrtgations well and truly keep my precepts. A similar contradiction of the view brought forward by the BrShmans is made by Krishna in the Bhagavad GUd, and there is further the actual appearance of mauy SSddhus and miracle-workers in the past, and even in the present age. The same holds good for China and Tibet. Among the commandments of Tsong-Kha-pa there is one that enjoins the Rahats (Arhats) to make an attempt to enlighten the world, including the "white barbarians," even.' century, at a certain specified period of the cycle. Up lo the present day none of these allempls has been very successful. Failure has followed failure. Have we to explain the fact by the light of a certain prophecy? It is said that up to the time when Pban-chhen-rin-po-chhe (the Great Jewel of Wisdom) * condescends to be reborn in the land of the P'helings(Westemers),and appearing as the Spiritual Conqueror (Chom-den-da), destroys the errors and ignorance of the ages, it will be of little use to try to uproot the misconceptions * A UUe ofUicTda-BliikHlBiii-poI^ma. I TIBBTAN PROPHBCIBS. 413 of Fheling-pa (Europe) : her sons will listen to no one. Another pro- phecy declares that the Secret Doctrine shall remain in all its purity in Bhod-yul (Tibet), only to the day that it is kept free from foreign in- vasion. The very visits of Western natives, however friendly, would be baneful to the Tibetan populations. This is the true key to Tibetan excluslveness. SECTION L. A FEW MORE Misconceptions Corrected. Notwithstanding widespread misconceptions and errors — often most amusing to one who has a certain knowledge of the true doctrines — about Buddhism generally, and especially about Buddhism in Tibet, all the Orientalists agree that the Buddha's foremost aim was lo lead human beings to salvation by teaching them to practise the greatest purity and virtue, and by detaching them from the service of this illusionary world, and the love of one's still more illusionary — because so evanescent and unreal — body and physical self. And what is the good of a virtuous life, full of privations and suffering, if the only result of it is to be annihilation at the end ? If ^ven the attainment of that supreme per- fection which leads the Initiate to remember the whole series of his past lives, and to foresee that of the future ones, by the full development of that inner, divine eye in him, and to acquire the knowledge that unfolds the causes * of the ever- recurring cycles of existence, brings him Bnally to non-being, and nothing more — then the whole system is idiotic, and Epicureanism is far more philosophical than staA Buddhism. He who is unable to comprehend the subtle, and yet so potent, difference between existence in a material or physical state and a purely spiritual existence— Spirit or "SouI-life" — will never appreciate at their full value the grand teachings of the Buddha, even in their exoteric form. Individual or personal existence is the cause of pains and sorrows ; collective and impersonal life-eternal is full of divine bliss and joy for ever, with neither causes nor effects to darken its light. And the hope for such a life-eternal is the keynote of the whole of Buddhism. If we are told that impersonal existence is no existence at all, but amounts to annihilation, as was maintained by some French reincarnationists, then we would ask : What difference can it '" Tbr imlvc NMAvca, called *a Tilxton Tfo-brel Chnx-Dyi, wblch are bued opcm the " Fo« Traibi." HISKSPRESSKTATIONS OP BUDDHISM. 415 \ I I naketn the spiritual perceptions of an Ego whether he enter Nirvfina loaded with the recollections only of his own personal lives — tens of thonsandsaccordingtotheniodeni reincamationists— orwhelher, merged entirely in the Parabrahmic stale it becomes one with the AH, with the absolute knowledge and the absolute feeling of representing collective humanities ? Once that an Ego lives only ten distinct indindual lives be must necessarily lose his one self, and become mixed up — merged, so to say — with these ten selves. It really seems that so long as this great mystery remains a dead-letter to the world of Western thinkers, and especially to the Orientalists, the less the latter undertake to explain it the better for Truth. Of all the existing religious Philosophies, Buddhism is the least understood. The Lassens, Webers, Wassiljows, the Burnoufs and JuHens. and even such "eye-witnesses "of Tibetan Buddhism as Csoma de Koros and ihe Schlagintweits, have hitherto only added perplexity to confusion. None of these has ever received his information from a genuine Gelugpa source: all have judged Buddhism from the bits of knowledge picked up at Tibetan frontier lamaseries, in countries thickly populated by Bhutanesc and I«eptchas, Bhons, and red-capped Dugpas, along the line of the Himalayas. Hundreds of volumes pur- chased from Burats, Shamans, and Chinese Buddhists, have been read aodtranslated, glossed and misinterpreted according to invariable custom. Esoteric Schools would cease to be worthy of their name were their literature and doctrines to become the property of even their profane co-religionists — still less of the Western public. This is simple common-sense and logic. Nevertheless this is a fact which our Orientalists have ever refused to recognize : hence they have gone on, gravely discussing the relative merits and absurdities of idols. " sooth- saying tables/* and "magical figures of Phurba" on the "square tortoise." None of these have anything to do with the real philo- sophical Buddhismof the Gelugpa, or even of the most educated among the Sakyapa and Kadampa sects. All snch "plates" and sacrificial tables, Chinsreg magical circles, etc.. were avowedly got from Sikkhim, Bhutan, and Eastern Tibet, from Bhons and Dugpas. Nevertheless, these are given as characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism ! It would be as fairto judge the unread Philosophy of Bishop Berkeley after studying Christianity in the clown-worship of Neapolitan lazzaroni, dancing a mystic jig before the idol of St. Pip, or carr>'ing the ex-voio in wax of the phallus of SS. Cosmo and Domiano. at Tseraie. 4t6 THE SECKET DOCTRINB. It is quite inie that the primitive Shrfivakas (listeners or hearers) and the Shramanas (the "thought-restrainers " and the "pure") have degenerated, and that many Buddhist sects have fallen into mere dogmatism and ritualism. Like every other Esoteric, half- suppressed teaching, the words of the Buddha convey a double meaning, and every sect has gradually come to claim to be the only one knowing the correct meaning, and thus to assume supremacy over the rest. Schism has crept in, and has fastened, like a hideous cancer, on the fair body of early Buddhism. NSgSijuna's MahHySna ("Great Vehicle") School wasopposedby the Hinay5na(or "Little Vehicle '*)Syslcm, and even the VogSchSrya of Aryasauga became disfigured by the yearly pilgrimage from India to the shores of Mansarovara, of hosts of vagabonds with matted locks who play at being Yogis and Fakirs, preferring Ihb to work. An affected detestation of the world, and the tedious and useless practice of the counting of inhalations and exhalations as a means to produce absolute tranquillity of mind or meditation, have brought this fichool within the region of Hatha Yoga, and have made it heir to the Brfihmanical Tirthikas. And though its Srotapatti. its SakridagSmin. AnSgSmic, and Arhats.* bear the same names in almost every school, yet the doctrines of each differ greatly, and none of these is likely to gain real Abhijiifls (the supernatural abnormal five power*). One of the chief mistakes of the Orientalists when judging on " internal (?) evidence," as they express it, was that they assumed that the Pratyeka Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, and the "Perfect" Buddhas were a later development of Buddhism. For on these three chief degrees are based the seven and twelve degrees of the Hierarchy of Adeptship. The first are those who have attained the Bodhi (wisdom) of the Buddhas, but do not become Teachers.f The human Bodhisattvas are candidates, so to say, for perfect Buddhaship (in Kalpas to comeX and with the option of using their powers now if need be. " Perfect*" * The SroUpttIi in Oim who hSFi nttaiord Uir firU PaUi of compnhenjioti in live ival and llw luinal ; the Sakriditciinju ia tbe caudidate Tor one or the hlsltei laiUalionic " onr who i* to nc«jw birth oncp more : " the Anaiclinin Is hr who h«s attained the " third Path." or Uter^ly, *' he who w4U not be telKini ngain *' unlai he to wiifiei it, taavitiK Uic optioti of being rrboni Id any of tbe " worlik or lh« God«." OT of mnatnin^ in I>e\-achaii. or of choosing: nn enrthly body with a phltanlliropic object. An Artaat t» one who htu reached the bifheat fnth; he may mcrvc into Hirvltia at will, wMIe bCTC on earth. * [The fmiyeka Buddha atanda on the level of the Buddha, but Hin work for the world has noUi- inc to da with its leaching, Uid Uis oOke lias always been ■uncmndetl with my«lrry. The ptcpw- tetoua view tlral He, at such aui)eTbuniun heiKhl of |>uwer. wudom and love conld be aeJftiJi u fOQoA in tbe exoteric books, tbough it U bard to »ee bow it can ttam arisen. H. P. B. Chaffed vcta correct the mistake, as she hod, in a careless moment, cofded such a Malentent dtewhcrg. —A. B.] I I M.H1>. 4v; I I Bnddhas are simply "perfect" Initiates. All these are men. and not disembodied Beings, as is given out in the Htnay&na exoteric books. Their correct character may be found only in the secret volumes of I^ugrub or NSg&tjnna, the fonnder of the MahSyana system, who is said to have been initiated by the NSgas (fabulous " Serpents." the veiled name for an Initiate or MahStma). The fabled report found in Chinese records that NSgSrjuna considered his doctrine to be in opposition to that of Gautama Buddha, until he discovered from the NSgas that it was precisely the doctrine that had been secretly taught by ShSkyamuni Himself, is an allegory-, and is based upon the reconciliation between the old Brabmanical secret Schools in the Himalayas and Gautama's Ksoteric teachings, both parties having at first objected to the rival schools of the other. The former, the parent of all others, had been established beyond the Himalayas fbr ages before the appearance of ShSkyarouni. Gautama was a pupil of this: and it was with them, those Indian Sages, that He had learned the truths of the Sungata, the emptiness and impermanence of every terrestrial, evanescent thing, and the mysteries of Prajfia P5ramit5, or "knowledge across the River," which finally lands the " Perfect One " in the regions of the One Reality. But His Arbats were not Himself. Some of them were ambitions, and they modified certain teachings after the great councils, and it is on account of these " heretics " that the Mother-School at first refused to allow them to blend their schools, when persecution began driving away the Esoteric Brotherhood from India. But when finally most of them submitted to the guidance and control of the chief Ashrams, then theYogich^rya of Ary^anga was merged into the oldest Lodge. For it is i/iere from time immemorial that has lain concealed the final hope and light of the world, the salvation of mankind. Many are the names of that School and land, the name of the latter being now regarded by the Orientalists as the mythic name of a fabulous countr>'. It is from this mysterious land, nevertheless, that the Hindu expects his Katki Avatira, the Buddhist his Maitreya, the Pars! his Sosiosh, and the Jew his Messiah, and so would the Christian expect thence his Christ — if he only knew of it. There, and there alone, reigns Paranishpanna (Gunggrub), the absolutely perfect comprehension of Being and Non-Being, the change- less true Existence in Spirit, even while the latter is seemingly still ir the body, every inhabitant thereof being a Non-Ego because he has become the Perfect Ego. Their voidness is "self- existent and perfect" 3 BB 4iS THB SSCKST DOCTRIKB. — if there were profane eyes to sense and perceive it — because it has become absolute ; the unreal being transformed into conditionles* Reality, and the realities of this, onr world, having vanished in their own nature into thin (non- existing) air. The "Absolute Truth" (Dondam-pay-den-pa ; Sanskrit: Paramarthasatya), having conquered "relative truth" (Kunza-bchi-den-pa; Sanskrit: Samvritisatya), the inhabitants of the mysterious region are thus supposed to have reached the state called in mystic phraseology Svasamvedana (" self- analyzing reflection ") and Faram^rtba, or that absolute consciousness of the personal merged into the impersonal Ego, which is above all, hence above illusion in every sense. Its " Perfect" Buddhas and Bodhisattvas may be on every nimble Buddhist tongue as celestial — therefore unreachable Beings, while these names may suggest and say nothing to the dull perceptions of the European profane. UTiat matters it to Those who, being in this world, yet live outside and far beyond our illusive earth! Above Them there is but one class of NirvSnis, namely, the Chos-ku (Dharmak3ya). or the NirvSnis "without remains" — ^the pure Ariipa, the formless Breaths.* Thence emerge occasionally the Bodhisattvas in their Pnil-pai-kn (or Nirmanak^ya) body and, assuming an ordinary appearance, they teach men. There are conscious, as well as unconscious, incarnations. Most of the doctrines contained in the Yogachar>*a, or MahSy^a systems are Esoteric, like the rest. One day the profane Hindu and Buddhist may begin to pick the Bible to pieces, taking it literally. Education is fast spreading in Asia, and already there have been made some attempts in this direction, so that the tables may then be cruelly turned on the Christians. Whatever conclusions the two may arrive at, they will never be half as absurd and unjust as some of the theories launched by Christians against their respective Philosophies. Thns^ according to Spence Hardy, at death the Arhat enters Kirvflna : That is, he ceases to exist. And, agreeably to Major Jacob, the Jtvanmnkta, * It U an ctToiicouA idm which makes th« Ori«iitftU«U tftke liunJly U>e teachiaft of tfa« MabiyliM BdfcKd Bbmil Uir thnr diflt-rmt kindji of bodin, nitmely, Ihr pTti1p«-kii, Itic Lonjcehod-dsocpsic-ku, uul the Cboft-ko. M all penainlBg to Ibe NirvAoic coudltwii. Then ar* two klada of Nfrviaa : Uw earth))-, and ihal of the purely diacmtxxlkd Spirits. Th«c ibrrc '■ bodies " arc lh« IbRc envclopa— an n»QT« or leu physical— which are at the tUitpaaal of l)i« Ailrpt who hna i?ntcT«d and cnMSrd the six rAramltl*, or " Paths" of Buddha. Uncc He etitera upon Um Mvcnth, \\t can rctura bo move CO MUth. See CocmStycNr. At. Sac. Btng., rli. 14*; and acbotl, Buddkumui, p. 9, who fitv fl nthov wi«^. ABSURD CONCLUSIONS. 419 I into Brahma, enters npon an nnconsciooi and stonelike existence.* lankar&chdrya is shown as saying in his prolegomena to the Shvetaikvatara : GnosiK, once arisen, requires iii>t1iing farther for the realization of its result: it needfi snifsidia only that it may arise. The Theosophist, it has been argned, as long as he lives, may do good and evil as he chooses, and incur no stain, such is the: efficacy of gnosis. And it is further alleged that the doctiine of NirvSna lends itself to immoral inferences, and that the Quietists of all ages have been taxed with immorality.! Accordingto WassilyewJ and Csoma de Kdro5,§ the Prasauga School adopted a peculiar mode of ^ Deducing the absurdity and errnneousness of every esoteric opinion, fl Correct interpretations of Buddhist Philosophy are crowned by that gloss on a thesis from the Prasanga School, that Even an Arbat goes to hell in case he doubt an>thing,1I thus maJcing of the most free-thinking religion in the world a blind- faith system. The " threat " refers simply to the well-known law that even an Initiate may fail, and thus have his object utterly ruined, if he doubt for one moment the efficacy of his psychic powers — the alphabet of Occultism, as every Kabalist well knows. The Tibetan sect of the Ngo-vo-nyid-raed par Mraba (" they who deny existence," or " regard nature as MSyS ")** can never be contrasted for one moment with some of the nihilistic or materialistic schools of India, such as the ChSn-'aka. They are pure Veddntins — if anything — in their views. And if the Yogichdryas may be compared with, or called the Tibetan V i sbish tad wait! s. the Prasanga School is surely the Adwaita Philosophy of the land. It was divided into two: one was originally founded by Bhavya, the Svantalra Madhyamika School, and the other by BnddhapSlita ; both have their exoteric and esoteric divi- sions. It is necessary to belong to the latter to know anything of the * ffdintt S&ta. Iren>latnl by U«jor Jacob, p. ii^. ■t J&id.,p. III. 1 Gfrr SmMMitmui. pp. jt?, «?. " «?.. quoted by ScMaglatwdt. I SittdAism tm Tiiff, p. 41. I Jffur. 0/ At. Soe. Bmgal, vil. 144. quoicd M abov«. It BuiidMitm in Tibfl, p. 44. *■ Thry maintain also lh« ndatcim of Onr Aheolutc purr Naltirv, Parafarahmm ; the IllusMn at CTcrythlngouUitlvof it; tlic lesdiujc of ttie indindtul Soul— a lUy ofUic" tuiTCrMl"— into Uc irue of exi«teDce and tliinca by Vofa alooc. 420 THE SECRET DOCTTlI>aj. esoteric doctrines of thai sect, the most metaphysical and philosophical of all. Chandrakirli (Dava Dagpa) wrote his commentaries oa the Prasauga doctrines and taught publicly ; and he expressly states that there are two ways of entering the " Path " to Nirvana. Any virtuoits man can reach by Naljomgonsum ("meditation by self-perceptioa"X the intuitive comprehension of the four Truths, without either belong- ing to a monastic order or having been initiated. In this case it was considered as a heresy to maintain that the visions which may arise in consequence of such meditation, or Vishnfi (internal knowledge), are not susceptible of errors (Namtog or fal.se visions), for they are. AUya alone having an absolute and eternal existence, can alone have absolnte knowledge; and even the Initiate, in his Nirmanakaya*body may com- mit an occasional mistake in accepting the false for the true in his ex- plorations of the *' Causeless*' World. The DharmakAya Bodhisattvi is alone infallible, when in real Samddhi. Alaya, or Nying-po, being the root and basis of all, invisible and incomprehensible to human eye and intellect, it can reflect only its reflection — not Itself Thus that reflection will be mirrored like the moou in tranquil and clear water only in the passionless DhannakSya intellect, and will be distorted by the flitting image of ever>'thing perceived in a mind that is itself liable to be disturbed. In short, this doctrine is that of the RSj-Yoga in its practice of the two kinds of the Samfidhi state; one of the " Paths" leading to th* sphere of bliss (Sukhavall or Devachan), where man enjoys perfect. unalloyed happiness, but is yet still connected with personal existence; and the other the Path that leads to entire emancipation from the worlds of illusion, self, and unreality. The flrst one is open to all and is reached by merit simply ; the second— a hundredfold more rapid- is reached through knowledge (Initiation). Thus the followers of the Prasanga School are nearer to Esoteric Buddhi.sm than are the YogS- chSryas ; for their views are those of the most secret Schools, and only the echo of these doctrines is heard in the Yamyangskapda and other works in public circulation and use. For instance, the unreality of two out of the three divisions of time is given in public works, namely («) that there is neither past nor future, both of these divisions being ■ NlridinaklyX (also Nirvlnaiaya. vulg.) U the body or Srir "witb remain*." or Uw influrocc of tn-retiriftl nltriliuln, bowrvcr spirilUAUiMl, Cltujnng yet to ibat Self. An tnltlntr in DtaamAkij*. or in Nirrlua " wilhaul reinalna." iH the Jivmnnmlrtii. tbc Perfect liUtUie. wbo tepsratcs hi* Rtxber 6rir nittrcly frota Ms body duritigr Sauiidhi. [U will \k autlnd that these two wonU sic btf" UKd ill a aca^ other ihsn lliat pmrloasly given.— A. B.) 4 I BIATBRIAUSTIC ORIBNTAUSTS. 431 I I I I I correlative to the present ; and (*) that the reality of things Ldu never be sensed or perceived except by him who has obtained the Dharmakdya body; here again is a difficulty, since this body "without remains'* carries the Initiate to full Paranirvaaa, if we accept the exoteric explana- tiou verbally, and can therefore neither sense nor perceive. But evidently our Orientalists do not feel the caveat in such incongruities, and they proceed to speculate without pausing to reflect over It. Literature on Mysticism being enormous, and Russia, owing to the free intercourse with the Burats, Shamans, and Mongolians, having alone purchased whole libraries on Tibet, scholars ought to know better by this time. It suffices to read, however, what Csoma wrote on the origin of the K^a Chakra System,* or Wassilyew on Buddhism, to make one give up ever>' hope of seeing them go below the riud of the " forbidden fruit.'* When Schlagintweit is found sa>'ing that Tibetan Mysticism is not Yoga — Thai abstract devotion by which supematnra) powers are acquired.! as Yoga is de6ned by Wilson, but that it is closely related to Siberian Shamanism, and is "almost identical with the Tautrika ritual'*; and that the Tibetan Zung is the " Dharanh,'* and the Gytit only the Trtw- tras — pre-Christian Tantra being judged by the ritual of the modem TSntrikas — one seems almost justified in suspecting our materialistic Orientalists of acting as the best friends and allies of the missionaries. Whatever is not known to our geographers seems to be a non-existent locality. Thus : Mysticism ii reported to have orijjinateit in the fnhuloiis conntry. Sauibhala. .... Csoma, from Crtnr/H/ ijivefitigations, places this [fabulous ?] countr>' beyond the Sir Daria fYaxartesJ between 45* wd 50" north latitude. It was first known ia tadia in the year 965 a.d.> and was introduced , . . into Tibet from India, vid Kixsbmir, in the year 1035 A.D.t *'It" meaning the "Dus-kyi Khorlo," or Tibetan Mysticism. A wstem as old as man, known in India and practised before Kurope had become a continent, "was first known," we are told, only nine or ten centuries ago! The text of its books in its present form may have "originated" even later, for there are numerous such texts that have been tampered with by sects to suit the fancies of each. But who has read • Ttw "Hacwd" Booki of Ihw-Kyi Khorlo ("Time Circle"). Scr /*nr, Ai. Sac., i\. 57. works wnr ■tMndoned to thr Sikkbim Dugpu. front th« tiinr of T<wag-Khn-pa'« rerorm. t Glouarv 9/ Jttdkiat aitd Rrvenuf Ti-rwi, art. " Yogn," rinotol fn Biddkijm •*« 7TM, p. 47. t BuddhUm M TiM, pp. 47. «S. Th«w 433 flTH SfiCRBT OOCTRlfKfft. theongina! book on Dus-Kja Khorto, re- written byTsong-Kha-pa, with his Commentaries? Cousidering that this grand Reformer burnt every book on Sorcery on which he could lay his hands in 1387, and that he has left a whole library of his own works — not a tenth part of which has ever been made known — tiuch statements as those above-quoted are, to say the least, premature. The idea is also cherished — from t happy hypothesis offered by Abb^ Hue — that Tsong-Kha-pa derived his wisdom and acquired his extraordinary powers from his interconrse with a stranger from the West, "remarkable for a long nose." Thii stranger is believed by the good Abbe "to have been a European mis- sionary"; hence the remarkable resemblance of the religious ritual id Tibet to the Roman Catholic service. The sanguine *' Lama of Jeho- vah" does not say, however, who were the five foreigners who appeared in Tibet in the year 371 of our era, to disappear as suddenly and mys- teriously as they came, after leaving with King Thothori-Nyang-lsaa instructions how to use certain things in a casket that *' had fallen frotn heaven" in his presence precisely fifty years before, or in the year A.D. 331* There is generally a hopeless conhision about Ivastem dates among European scholars, but nowhere is this so great as in the case of Tibetan Buddhism. Thus, while some, correctly enough, accept the seventh centur>* as the date of the iutroduclion of Buddhism, there are others — such as Ifassen. and Koeppung, for instance — who show 00 good authority, the one, the construction of a Buddhist monaster)' on the slopes of the Kailas Range so far back as the year 137 B.c.t and the other, Buddhism established in and north of the Punjab, as early as the year 292 B.C. The difference though trifling — only just one thousand years — is nevertheless puzzling. Bui even thbi is easily explained on Esoteric grounds. Buddhism — the veiled Esotericism of Buddha — was established and took root in the seventh ccnturj* of the Christian era ; while true Esoteric Buddhism, or the kernel, the very spirit of TathSgata's doctrines, was brought to the place of its birth, the cradle of humanity, by the chosen Arhals of Buddha, who were sent to find for it a secure refuge, as * Bu4idkitm in TiM, pp. e>j. 64. llic objecu found in llie cukrt, t* cnusieraleil In Uie exottric legcnd. afr of coutiie »yuiluUcul. They may \k fuund mrnUurntil in tbt Kamjur. Tbcy wtn Mid t4 be; (il two binds joined; («) a ulitiatiiK CI]olea IStflpa. or rvliquaiytj tj) • taUamui wlUi "On nanl pttdme lium " liuicHbed on il ; (4] n reljgioui book, Zamaief (" ■ coostTBCtcd vebide "I. t AtUrtkumiknt^, il. I9;t. INTRODUCTION OP BUDDHISM INTO TIBBT. 423 The Sage had perceived the dangers ever since he had entered npon Thonglam (**the Path of seeing," or clairroyance). Amidst populations deeply steeped in Sorcery the attempt proved a failure; and it was not until the School of the "Doctrine of the Heart" had merged with its predecessor, established ages earlier on the slope facing Western Tibet, that Buddhism was finally engrafted, with its two distinct Schools — the Esoteric and the exoteric divisions — in the land of the Bhon-pa. SWEDSHBORO'S CI^IHS. 435 I * that contain the " Word."* Perchance the names of those " Spirits " who visited the great Swedish TheosophJst were Eastern. The word of a man of such undeniable and recognised integrity, of one whose learning in Mathematics, Astronomy, the natural Sciences and Philo- sophy was far in advance of his age, cannot be trifled with or rejected as unceremoniously as if it were the statement of a modem Theofio- phist ; further, he claimed to pass at will into that state when the Inner Self frees itself entirely from every physical sense, and lives and breathes in a world where every secret of Nature is an open hook to the Soul-eye.f Unfortunately two-thirds of his public writings arc ilso allegorical in one sense ; and, as they have been accepted literally, criticism has not spared the great Swedish Seer any more than other Seers. Having taken a panoramic view of the hidden Sciences and Magic with their Adepts in Europe, Eastern Initiates must now be mentioned. If the presence of Esotericism in the Sacred Scriptures of the West only now begins to be suspected, after nearly two thousand years of blind faith in their verhatim wisdom, the same may well be granted as to the Sacred Books of the East. Therefore neither the Indian nor the Buddhist system can be understood without a key, nor can the study of comparative Religion become a "Science" until the symbols of every Religion yield their hnal secrets. At the best such a study will remain a loss of time, a playing at hide-and-seek. On the authority of a Japanese Encyclopedia, Remusat shows the Buddha, before His death, committing the secrets of His system to His disciple, Kisyapa. to whom alone was entrusted the sacred keeping of the Esoteric interpretation. It is called in China Ching-fa- yin-Tsang (" the Mystery of the Eye of the Good Doctrine "). To any student of Buddhist Esotericism the term, "the Mystery of the Eye," would show the absence of any Esotericism. Had the word " Heart" stood in its place, then it would have meant what it now only professes to convey. The " Eye Doctrine" means dogma and dead-letter form, church ritualism intended for those who are content with exoteric formulae. The '■ HL-art Doctrine," or the " Heart's Seal " (the Sin Yin), is the only real one. This may be found corroborated by Hiuen Tsang. • op. CU., \\. 470. ^ Onkai 00c obtains mad inrariuaUou aod Iht right metbod, ticte'S ruiiaiu, banrrTer corrvct and tmc In SoHl-llfc, will tv«r fail to get photographed la our buBUU iiieiiior7, uk) oeiuin cells cr tt»e bnln OK Bore to plsjr havoc wjlh our Rmerabraaca. 426 THE SHCRET DOCTRINTC. In bis translation of Maka-Prajna-ParamUa {Ta'Poh-Je~King\ in one Inindred and twenty volumes, it is stated that it was Buddha's " faronntc disciple Anauda," who, after his great Master had gone into NirvSna, was commissioned by KSsyapa to promulgate " the Eye of the Doc- trine," the "Heart" of the Law having been left with the Axhats alone. The essential difference that exists between the two^the " Eye '* and the " Heart." or the outward form and the hidden meaning, the coU metaphysics and the Divine Wisdom — is clearly demonstrated in several volumes on " Chinese Buddhism," written by sundry mis- sionaries. Having lived for years in China, they still know no more than they have learned from pretentious schools calling themselves esoteric, yet freely supplying the open enemies of their faith with pro- fessedly ancient manuscripts and esoteric works t This ludicrous con- tradiction between profession and practice has never, as it seems. struck any of the western and reverend historians of other peoples' secret tenets. Thus many esoteric schools are mentioned in Chinat Buddhism b3' the Rev. Joseph Edkins, who belie\*cs quite sincerely thai he lias made "a minute examination " of the secret tenets of Buddhists whose works "were until lately inaccessible in their original form." It really will not be saying too much to state at once that the gennine Esoteric literature is '* inaccessible " to this day, and that the re^Mct- able gentleman who was inspired to state that It docs not appear that there was any secret doctrine which those who knew it would not dis'ulgc, made a great mistake if he ever believed in what he says on page i6i of his work. Let him know at once that all those Yu-luh (" Records of the Sayings") of celebrated teachers are simply blinds, as complete — if not more so— than those in the Pur&nas of the Brtthmaos. It is useless to enumerate an endless string of the Snest Oriental scholars or to bring forward the researches of Remusat, Bumouf. Koeppen. St Hilaire, and St. Julian, who are credited with ha\nug exposed to view the ancient Hindu world, by revealing the sacred and secret books of Buddhism : the world that they reveal has never been veiled. The mistakes of all the Orientalists may be judged by the mistake of one of the most popular, if not the greatest among them all — Prof. Max Mhller. It is made with reference to what he laughingly translates as the "god WTio" tKa;. THE COD "WHO." 427 The atttbors of the Br&bmanas liad so completely broken with the past, that, forgetful of the poetical character of the hymos aud the yearning of the poels after the I'ukoown Go*l, they exalleJ the interrogative pronoun itself into a deity, and acknowledged a god Ka (or Who ?} . . . Wherever interrogative verses occur the author slates that Ka is PrajApati, or the f^ni of Creatures. Nor did they stop here. Some of the hymns in which the interrojfntive pronoun occurred were called Kodvet, )>., having Kad or Quid. But soon a new adjective was formed, and not only the hymns but the sacrifice also offered to the gwl were called Kaya, or "WUo"-ish. . . . At the time of Pinini this word acquired snch legitimacy as to call for a separate rulcexplaiuing its formation. The Commentator here explains ECa by Brahman. Had the commentator explained It even by Parabrahman he would have been still more in the right than he was by rendering It as "BraUman." One fails to see why the secret and sacred Mysterv'-Name of the highest, sexless, formless Spirit, the Absoltite, — Whom no one wonld have dared to classify with the rest of the manifested Deities, or even to name during the primitive nomenclature of the symbolical Panthenon. should not be expressed by an interrogative pronoun. U it those who belong to the most anthropomorphic Religion in the world who have a right to take ancient Philosophers to task for even an exag- gerated religious awe and veneration ? But we are now concerned with Buddhism. Its Esotericism and oral instruction, which is written down and preserved in single copies by the highest chiefs in genuine Esoteric Schools, is shown by the author San-Kian-yi-su. Contrasting Bodhidharma with Buddha, he exclaims : "Julai'' (Tathdgata) taught great truths and the causes of things. He became the instructor of men and Devos. He saved multitudes, and spoke the couteuts of more than five hundred works. Mence arose the Kiau-mea, or exoteric branch of the syfttem, and it was believed to be the tradition of the words of Buddha. Bodlii- dharma brought from the Western Heaven [ShambatlaJ the "Seal of Truth" (true seal )and opened the fountain of contemplation in the East. He pointeil directly to Buddha's heart and nature, swept away the parasitic and alien growth of book- instruction, and thus established the Tsung-men, or Csotehc branch of the system coutainiog the tradition of the heart of Buddha.* A few remarks made by the author of Chinese Buddhism throw a flood of light on the universal misconceptions of Orientalists in general, and * Ckinut Bud^iam. p. ijS. The Iter. Joseph itdklna cither Iffnorci, or— which w more protMbIc— la ullerly ignorimt of tbe real exislencc or iiui;l> Schools, and judge* b; the ChinCK travesties of k tbe«e,caU[DgsiicliEBotericum"bet«n>doxBudiUiiaai." And «o ft ia, ia one anu*. 428 THE SBCRKT DOCTRINE. of the missionariea in the "lands of the Gentiles" in particular. Thij appeal ver>' forcibly to the intuition of Theosophists — more particttlarij of those iu India. The sentences to be noticed are italicized. The coiamoti [ChineiieJ wuril for tlie esoteric Schools i» dan, tlic Sun»lcrit Dhytm . . . Ortbudox Buddhism has in ChiDa slowly but steadily hecomt futeroiox. The Buddhism of books and ancieut traditions hoi btcome the BuddhUm of mjsik tonlemplation, . . . The history of ajiCiLnt KChools springiog up long ago in tbe finddhist communities of India can now be only vtry partiaily retovcred, Posiibl? BOnie light may Ik- thrimn Iwclc by China upon the religious history of the countij from which Uuddhistn came." In no part of the story is aid to the recovery of the lost knowledge more likely to be fouml Ihan in the accounW of the patriarchs, the tine of whom was completed by Bodhidharma. In seeking the best explattation ol the Cbinene luid Japanese narrative of the patriarchs, and the sfvm Budditta lerniinnting in Gautama, or Sh&kyamuni, it is important to know the Jain tiwii- ttons aa Uiey were early in the nizth century of our era, when the Patriarch Bodhi* dhaima removed to China. . . . In trading Uie i\^ of the various schools of esoteric Buddhism it must be kept in mind that a principle somewhat similar to the dogma of apostolical succesaioa belongs to them all. They all profess to derive their doHrines through a Sftecestw* of teachers, each tmtructed personalty by his predecessor, tilt the time of Bodki- dhnnna, and so further up in the series to Sh4kyamuni hitHseif and the eaHitr Buddhas-f 'tt 15 complained further on, and is mentioned as a fallingf away from strict orthodox Buddhism, that the Lamas of Tibet are received in Pekin teith the itlmoit respect by the Emperor. The following passages, taken from different parts of the book, summarise Mr. Edkins' views : Hermits are not uncommonly met with in the ricinity of large Buddhist temples . . . their hair being allowol to grow unshorn. . . . The doctrine of meleni- psjThDsis is rejected. Buddhism is one form of Pantheism ou the ground that the doctrine of metenipiiychosis make;) all nnture instinct with life, and that that life it the Deity assuming di6crent forms of personality, that Deity not being a 9elf>consciott% free-acting Self-Cause, but an all-per^'ading SptriL The esoteric Buddhists of Chitu, keeping rigidly lo their one doctrine, J sny nothing of Ilie metempsychosis. . . . or any other of the more material parts of the Buddhist system. . . . TliC Westem paradise promised to the worshippers of Amida Buddha is . , . incoa • Thnl country -Indifl—hu lost the records of iucb Schools and Uieir teiuJiinttx only m far *5 the genera] public, and especially the ianpprcclntlvc Western OrientaUsu, Arc concerned. It hasprr^rmrf thrm In fUll in kohic Mathmns Irefuges fuc myiitic contemplalioti). But U may perbapa be better lo wd( them wild, ami fTom. Ihdr riglitrul owners, tbe so-called " myttucal " AdepU, or MaUtail*. "* Ck'Htu Buddhitm,^^. 153-159. I Tlicy certainly rrjcct mo»t einp7ialica]ly the popular thrary oT Ihc transnu'gTStlOd of huowa euUties or (tonla mio animalA. but not tbe evolution of men from aoimals—M br, at Icaal, aa tbelr lower prindplcs are coDceracd. mSrB »nSl«PRHS8RTATIONS. si stent with Ihe doctrine of Nirvana [?].• . . . It promiui tmmi*r1alUy instead of anuihilntion. The great antiquity of this School is evident from the early date of the traDslatioD of the Amida SAira, which came from the hituds of Kuni&rajiv&, and the K't^iiang-sheu-Kin^, dating from the Haa dynasty. Its extent of inllueace is seen in the Attachment of the Tibetans and Moguls to the worship of thia Buddha, and in the fact that the name of this fictitious personage [.'] '\s mare com- monly heard in China than that of the historical Shflkyamuai. We fear the learned writer is on a false track as to Nirvlna and Amita Buddha. However, here we have the evidence of a missionary to show that there arc. several schools of Esoteric Buddhism in the Celestial Empire. When the misuse of dogmatical orthodox Buddhist Scriptures had reached its climax, and the true spirit of the Buddha's Philosophy was nearly lost, several reformers appeared from India, who established an oral teaching. Such were Bodhidhamia and K&giijuna, the authors of the most important works of the contempla- tive School in China during the first centuriesof our era. It is known, moreover, as is said in Chhtese Buddhisvi, that Bodhidharma became the chief founder of the Esoteric Schools, which were di\-ided into five principal branches. The data given are correct enough, but every con- clusion, without one single exception, is wrong. It was said in hii Unveiled that— Buddha teaches the doctrine of a new birth as plainly as Je.<;u5 does. Desiring to break with the ancient Mysteries, to which it was impossible to admit the Ignorant masses, the Hindu reformer, though generally silent u^ion more than one secret dogma, clearly states his thought in several passages. Thus, he says: " Some pfople are bom again ; c\-iI-doers go to hell tA%*itchi]: righteous people go to hcavca [DevachanJ: those who arc free from all worldly desires enter NirvAiia" {Precepts of the Dhammapada, v. ia6|. Blsewfaere Hudilha states that "it is tjetter to believe in a future life, in which happiness or misery- can be felt: for if the heart believes therein it will abandon sin and act virtuously ; and even if tliere is no resurrection (rcbirthj, such a life will bring a good name and the reward of men. But those who believe in extinction at death <A-i)1 not fail to commit any sin that tiey may choose, because of their diabulicf in a future." (See W^Acrf of the Law.) How is immortality, then, " inconsistent with the doctrine of ' It in qnttr ctmsixtent, on the cdntrviy, whro crplxlncd In tbe Ugilit of Ute Kaotenc OoctrliiF. The " WCHlcm pAr&difec," i>t WOktent liea\'cii, is naiicliuii lucatcilin iraiureRdmlal ipacc. It is AbAm4-/ldt locmlity in thr moantJiinK. or, to hr more comet, cue caciccLcd in a dc*m wilhin uuunUiiM. Uencv It it awigncd Tor ihe inidcnce of tlio«c studcnU at SMteric Miulom— dlwriplct of Buddha— who bare attAfnol the rank of Lobaii» and AnlcimlM tAdept«». It u caUcd " U'catem " aimply from (vographlcal couAideniUoait ; and " the grail iron maunlBtn girdle " that aurroundii the Avitchi, nod the Kvcn Lolcu that eiiciicl« the " Weatmi pontdwe " arc a very exact reprenraUtiou oi wvU-koawtl locahtiu and thinsa to the BaKtirm atudcnt of OcculUao^ 430 THE SKCRBT DOCTRIWB. Nir\'5ua?" The above are only a few of Buddha's openly-expressed thoughts to his chosen Arhats ; the great Saint said much more. Asa comment upon the mistaken views lield in our centun* by the Oriental- ists, "who vainly try to fathom Tathdgata's thoughts," and those ot Brihmans. " who repudiate the great Teacher to this day." here art some original thoughts expressed in relation to the Buddha and the study of the Secret Sciences. They are from a work written in Chinese by a Tibetan, and published in the monastery of Tientai for circulatioo among the Buddhists Who live in (oreiigtx lands, and are in danger of being spoiled by missionaries, ai the author truly says, every convert being not only " spoiled " for his own creed, but being also a sorry acquisition for Christianity. A translation of a few passages, kindly made from that work for ibc pre- sent volumes is now given. No profane ears having heard the mighty Chan->'(Ui [secret and enlightening precepts] of Vu-vei-Tchen-jen [Buddha within Buddha],* of our beloved Lord and Bodbisaltva, how can one tell what his Ihotightti really wtre? The holy Sang-gyu- Panchhen t never offered an insight into the One Reality to the uarefonned [unini- tiated] Shikkus. Few are those even among the Tu-fon [Tibetans] who knew il; as for the Tsunjf-mcn J Schools they arc going with ever>- day more down hilL . , . . Not even the Fa'siong-Tsungf can give one the wi^om taught in real Naljor'Chod-pa [Sanskrit:! YogAcbdrya]: . . . it is all " Eye " Ooctrine, and do more. The loss of a restraining guidance is felt, since the Tch'-an-si [teachers] of inward meditation [self-contemplation or Tchung-kwanj have become rare, and the Good Law is replaced by idol-worship [Siang-kyan}. It is of this [idol* or intagt- worship] that the Barbarians [Western people] have beard, and know nothing of Bas-po-Dhurtiia [the secret Dharuia or doctrine], miy has truth to hide tike ■ tortoise within its shell ? Because it is now found to have become like the llama's tonsure knife, H a weapon too dangerous to um even for the Lauoo. Tberefore no one can be entrusted with the knowledge [Secret Science] before bi» lime. The ' The word is transUtcd by Ihv OiienUIUla a» " true man wiUiout ■ potitioa," {i\ which Ir vot aiskadini;. It simply mcan»lbe tmc {naer man. or Ego. "Buitflha vAfkuk fiuddJis" mcauiag thai tlKitr wm» n Cautnmn inwardly as, well sa omtwariilf, * Oac tA the title* oT Gaittama Buddho In Tibrt. i The "Usotcric*' Schools, or lects, or which tberr arc maayin Chins. lA school of coutciuplaliou founded by tliucn-TMng, the traveller, ae&rly extiocL rs t\tm%, Tvung menDFi " th* School that unvHln the mner tintun of things." II Iteotcric. OT hidden, teadung of Yogs (Cbluesc : Vogi-ml-kcan). *l Thv " tonsure kuife " is nude ot mtUaric inin, and is need Tot the putpooe of cntUag off the "vow-lock." or hair fttm the novlcr-'* hmd during hia first ordiaatloa. It has s double-edged bliidr. In khnrp an * laioi, and lin concealed wiUiin a hotlow handle of bom. By touching a spriiic the blnde jcikK out like • flash of llghlntng. and recedes bock with the «atae raiudlty. A gteak drxtcrily f» rei|Ulied in uiiiug it without wounding the hmd uf the yuimg Getang asd Ceioog- (candiilalc* to l>ccome priests and nuns) during the prelituinoiy rites, wliich ore public. ARVASANGA. I I Cbagptt>Thog>road have become rare, and the best have retired to Tiuhita the Blesse<l. ' Further on, a man seeking to master the mysteries of Esotericjsm before be had been declared by the initiated Tch'-an-si (teachers) to be ready to receive them, is likened to One who would, without a iBiitcrn and on a dttrk night, proceed to a place foil of scorpions, determined to feel on the ground for a needle bis neighbonr baa dropped. Again : He who would acquire the Sacred Knowledge sbould, before he goes any farther ■' /rim Hii lamp of inner iniderstnnding," And then " with the help of «ach good Ijgbt" use his meritorious actions as a dnst-doth to remove every impurity from htH inyfltic mirror,'*' so that he .should be enabled to sec in its lu.ttre the faithful rcBectiou of Self. .... First, this ; then Tong-pa-nya,; lastly: Samma Sam- buddha.( In Chinese Buddhism a corroboratioa of these statements is to be found in the aphorisms of I«in-tsi : Witbiit tlie body wliich admits sensations, acquires knowletlge, thinks, and acts, there is the "true man without a position" Wu-wei-chen-jeu. He makes himself clearly visible ; not the thinnest separnting film hitles him. Why do you not recog- nise nim.^ ... If the mind doe.s not come to conscious existence there is deliverance everywhere What is Buddha? ,7«.i. \ mind clear and at rest. What is the Law.' ^m. A mind clear and enlightened. What is Tuuf Ans. In eveiy place absence of impediments and pure enlightenment. These three kreone. * Chan>o-'nios:-ias(] 1« Uic Tlbrlatt name of Arrlsoitsa, the rounder of the Vosichirya or NHljoTubwlgia Schoul. Thw ttogv ntid Initiate is uid to hav« been Umsht " Wiadom " by Mai- trey* lin<tdh« Himi«:f. the Buddha of ihr Sixth Race, at Tnsbita In celeotial nyion pmtded ovo* by Htm], aiidMhaunj;TrrrlT«d fnim Him thr fiw bookit of CKamfatUkoi-Hxa. The Jiecrrt Doctrine teaches, howcim*, that he came from L>cjung, or saambhalla. CAlled the "»ource of happla«M " ("«toilota-acqufrcd")and declarctt by sotnc OrtnitntititA lo t>ra" TahuIoitK " place. t It may not be. perhspt. smiM to lemind ibenader of the fact Uiai ihe"m(rrarr" was a part of tlie »yi]iboluitn of the Thesnophoria, a parUon of the Rleustnian Myatcnci : and Utat it vnu used in the search for Atmu, the "Hidden One." or "Self." In hi« excellent paper on the above-named myvtrrieK, m. Akxander 'Wlliter of New York uyc : " Despite the awtertioa of Ueradotua and othets that the Bacchic Myiaerie* ftrre KgyptUn, there eii»l» Mrong probablHiy that they cnme OTiEiRelly from India, and were Staalx'iticor Btidilhii^ticitl. Karr-Pentep-hoiieia wa« hut the yoddesa ParasH-paiti, or Bluvoni, and Zftgrviu is from Chalua. a country extendins from ocean to ocean. If this Ib a Turanian •lory we con esaJly trcofnise the ' horns ' as the crescent wi»rn by t,Mna- priests, and assume the whnlc legend |lhe fable of Diony«uii-Zagteus] to be hosed on Lauu-succeasloa and Iranamicratioti. . . . The whole story of (Mrpheus . . . hat a Illndn Hn( all through." The tale or "I<ama-»uccr«sioin and Iranxtnisnitlon " did unt originate witli the L^man, who date them. Ml«<ci(oalyM>(arlMi:kas the scvirnih century, but with the Chaldjcans and the Brihmans, RtUI earlier. 2 The slate of alwolate freedom from any Din or desire. Tlie state dnrhiv which an Ai1e7>t »ce« the long seriea of his past births, and lives Ihroo^li all hia prrtious incaniatioiis in this and the Other wotldi. iSce the admirable descripUoti in ll)c iAgktuf Asia, p. i«6, 1M4 ed.) NOTB. Papers I. II. III. of the following were written by H. P. B. tnd were circulated privately during her lifetime, but they were writtct with the idea that they would be published after a time. Th^ aie papers intended for students rather than for the ordinary reader, and will repay careful study and thought. The " Notes of some Onl Teaching " were written down by some of her pupils and were partiaHj corrected by her, but no attempt has been made to relieve them of their fragmentary character. She had intended to make them the basis for written papers similar to the first three, but her failing health rendered this impossible, and they are published with her consent, the time for restricting them to a limited circle having expired. Annie Bbsant. PAPER I. A WARNING. TnKRB is a strange law in Occultism which has been ascertained and proven by thousands of years of experience ; nor has it failed to demonstrate itself, almost in every case, during the years that the Theosophical Society has been in existence. As soon as anyone pledges himself as a " Probationer,'* certain Occult effects ensue. Of these the first is the Ikrowing outward of everything latent in the nature of the man : his faults, habits, qualities or subdued desires, whether good, bad or indifferent. For instance, if a man be vain or a sensualist, or ambitious, whether by atavism or by karmic heirloom, those vices are sure to break out, even if be has hitherto successfully concealed and repressed them. They will come to the front irrepressibly, and he will have to fight a hundred times harder than before, until he kills all such tendencies in himself. On the other hand, if he be good, generous, chaste and abstemious, or has any virtue hitherto latent and concealed in him, it will work its way out as irrepreasibly as the rest. Thus a civilized m.in who hates to be considered a saint, and therefore assumes a mask, will not be able to conceal his true nature, whether base or noble. This is an imuutablk law in thb domain of thk occult. Its action is the more marked, the mure earnest and sincere the desire of the candidate, and the more deeply he has felt the reality and importance of his pledge. The ancient occult axiom, '* Know Thyself," must be familiar to every student ; but few if any have apprehended the real meaning of this wise exhortation of the Delphic Oracle. You all know your earthly pedigree, but who of you has ever traced all the links of heredity. < 436 Ta« SBCRET DOCTKIKB. astral, psychic and spiritual, wliich go to make you what yon are? Many have writlen and expressed their desire to unite themselves with their Higher Ego, yet Done seem to know the indissoluble link con- necting tlieir " Higher ligos" with the One Universal Shlf. /, For all purposes of Occultism, whether practical or purely meta- physical, such knowledge is absolutely requisite. It is proposed, therefore, to begin these pap^ by showing Ihis connection in all directions with the worlds : Absolute, Archet>-pal, Spiritual. Minasic, Psychic, Astral, and Elemental. Before, however, we can touch upon 1 the higher worlds— Archetypal, Spiritual and M^nasic — we mmx master the relations of the seventh, the terrestrial world, the lower ^ Prakriti, or Matkuth as in the Kabalah, to the worlds or planes which ''^v immediately follow it. '** QIC. " Om." says the Ar>-an Adept, the son of the Fifth Race, who with this syllable begins and ends his salutation to the human being, his conjuratiou of, or appeal to, non-humau Prcsbncbs. "Om-Mani." murmurs the Turanian Adept, the descendant of the Fourth Race ; and after pausing he adds, " Padme-Hum." This famous invocation is very etroneoosly translated by the Orientalists as meaning, " Oh the Jewel in the Lotus." For although, literally, Ou is a syllable sacred to the Deity, Padmk means " in the Lotus," and Mani is any precious stone, still neither the words them- selves, nor their symbolical meaning, are thus really correctly remlered- In this, the most sacred of all Eastern formulas, not only has evety syllable a secret potency producing a definite result, but the whole invocation has seven different meanings and can produce sevui distinct results, each of which may differ from the others. The seven meanings and the seven results d^-pend upon the intona- tion which is given to the whole formula and to each of its syllables; and even the numerical value of the letters is added to or diminished according as such or another rhythm is made use of. Let the student remember that number underlies form, and number guides sound. Number lies at the root of the manifested Universe: numbers and harmonious proptortions guide the first differentiations of homogeneous substance into heterogeneous elements; and number and numbers set limits to the formative hand of Nature. Know the corresponding numbers of the fundamental principle of I I TSK JEWEL m TB£ K.OTU&. 437 every element aod its sub-elements, learu their interaction and behaviour on the occult side of manii'esting Naiure, audthelawof correspoudence^. will lead you to the discovery of the greatest mysteries of macrocos-v mical life. But to arrive at the macrocosmical, you must begin by the micro- cosmical, t.t., yon must study Man, the microcosm — iu this case as physical science does — inductively, proceeding from particulars to univcrsals. At the same time, however, since a key-note is required to analyze aud comprehend any combination of differentiations of sound. we must never lose Bight of the Platonic method, which starts n'ith one general view of all, and descends from the universal to the individual. This is the method adopted in Mathematics — tiie only exaU science that exists in our day. Let us study Man, therefore ; but if we separate him for one moment from the Universal Whole, or view him iu isolation, from a slugle aspect, apart from the " Heavenly Man " — the Universe symbolized by Adam Radmon or his equivalents in every Philosophy — we shall either laud in Black Magic or fail most iogloriously in our attempt. Thus the mystic sentence, " Om Maui Padme Hum,'* when rightly understood, instead of being composed of the almost meaningless words, "Oh the Jewel in the Lotus," contains a reference to this indissoluble union between M.in and the Universe, rendered in seven different ways, and having the capability of seven different applications to as many plauesof thought and action. From whatever aspect we examine it, it means : " I am that I am" : " I am in thee and thou art in me." In this conjunction and close union the good aud pure luau becomes a God. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he will bring about, or innocently cause to happen, unavoidable results. In the first case, if an Initiate (of course an Adept of the Right-hand Path alone is meant), he can guide a beneficent or a protecting current, and thus benefit and protect individuals and even whole nations. In the second case, although quite unaware of what he is doing, the good man becomes a shield to whomsoever he is with. Such is the fact ; but its how and why have to be explained, and this can be done only when the actual presence and potency of numbers in sounds, and hence in words and letters, have been rendered clear. The formula, '' Om Mani Padme Hum," has been choseu as an illustration on account of its almost infinite potency in the mouth of an Adept, and 43» THH SECRET DOCTRIWB. of its potentiality when pronounced by any man. Be careftil. all you who read this : do not use tliese words ia vain, or when in angler, lest you become yourself the first sacrificial victim, or, what is worse, endanger those whom you love. The profane Orientalist, who all bis life skims mere externals, will tell you flippantly, and laughing at the superstition, that in Tibet this sentence is the most powerful six-syllabled incantation and is said to have been delivered to the nations of Central Asia by Padmapdni, the Tibetan Cbcnresi * But who is PadmapSni, in reality ? Each of us must recognise him for himself, whenever he is ready. Each of us has within himself the "Jewel in the Lotus," call it Padmapfini. Krishna, Buddha, Christ, or whatever name we may give to our Divine Self. The exoteric story runs thus : The supreme Buddha, or AmitSbha, they say. at the hour of the creation of man. caused a rosy ray of light to issue from his right eye. The ray emitted a sound and became PadmapSni Bodhisattva. Then the Deity allowed to stream forth from his left eye a blue ray of light, which, becoming incarnate in the two \irgins Dolma, acquired the power to enlighten the minds of living beings. Amitibha then called the combination, which forthwith took up its abode in man. " Om Afani Padme Ifum," " I am tlie Jewel in the Lotus and in it I will remain." Then PadmapSni, "the One in the Lotus" vowed never to cease work- ing until he had made Humanity feel his presence in itself and had thus saved it from the misery of rebirth. He vowed to perform the feat before the end of the Kalpa, adding that, in case of failure, he wished that his head should split into numberless fragments. The Kalpa closed ,- but Humanity felt him not within its cold, evil heart. Then PadmapAni*s head split and was shattered into a thousand frag- ments. Moved with compassion, the Deity re-formed the pieces into tm heads, three white, and seven of various colours. And since that day man has become a perfect number, or Tkn. In this allegory the potency of Sot;ND. Coloor, and Nitmbbr is so ingeniously introduced as to veil the real Esoteric meaning. To the outsider it reads like one of the many meaningless fairy-tales of creation ; but it is pregnant with spiritual and divine, physical and magical meaning. From Amitftbha — na colour, or the mkiU glory — are I S«« iii^r«. ii. iH. ift). IBS PYTIZAGOB£Ai4 TBTEAD. 439 I I differentiated colours of the prism. These each emit a corresponding sound, forming the seven of the musuai scaU. As Geometo'. among the Mathematical Sciences, is specially related to Architeclure. and also (proceeding to Univereals) to Cosmogony, so the ten Jods of the Pythagorean Tetrad, or Tetrakt>'s, being made to sym- bolize the Macrocosm, the Microcosm, or man, its image, had also to be divided into ten points. For this Nature herself has provided, as will be seen. But before this statement can be proved and the perfect correspon- dences between the Macrocosm and the Microcosm demonstrated, a few words of explanation are necessary. r.<To the learner who would study the Esoteric Sciences with their double objecl : (a) of proving Man to be identical in spiritual and physical essence with both the Absolute Principle and with God in Nature: and. (^) of demonstrating the presence in him of the same potential powers as exist in the creative forces in Nature — to such a one a perfect knowledge of the correspondences between Colours, Sounds, and Numbers is the first requisite. As already said, the sacred formula of the far) East, " Om Afani Padtne Hum,'' is the one best calai- lated to make these correspondeutial qualities and functions clear to the learner. ^^ J, In the allegory of Padmapini, the Jewel (or Spiritual Ego) in the Lotus, or the symbol of androgynous man, the numbers 3, 4, 7, 10, as synthesizing the Unii, Man, are prominent, as I have already said. It is on the thorough knowledge and comprehension of the meaning and potency of these numbers, in their various and multiform combinations, and in their mutual correspondence with sounds or words, and colours or rates of motion (represented in physical science by vibrations), that the progress of a student in Occultism depends. Therefore we must begin with the first, initial word, Om, or AuM. Om is a " blind." The sentence " Om Marti Padme Hum'' is not a six- but a seven-syllabled phrase, as the first syllable is double in its right pronunciation, and triple in its essence, A-um. It represents the for ever concealed primeval triune dififerentiation, not/rom but in the One Absolute, and is therefore symbolized by the 4, or the Tetraktys, in the metaphysical world. It is the Unit-ray, or A.tmau. It is the Atman, this highest Spirit in man, which, in coujunctlou with Buddbi and Manas, is called the upper Triad, or Trinity. This 44^ "CHK SEC&£T DOCTRINE. Triad with its fcmr lower human principles, is, moreover, enveloped witli an auric atmospbere, like tUc yoUt of an egg (the future embryo) by Ibc albumen and sbell. This, to the perceptions of higher Beiogs from other planes, makes of each individnaliiy an oval sphere of more or less radiancy. To show the student the perfect correspondence between the birth of Kosmos. a World, a Planetary Being, or a Child of Sin and Earth, a more definite and clear description must be given. Those acquainted with Physiology will understand it better than others. Who, having read say the Vishnu or other Purdna, is not fomihar with the exoteric allegory of the birth of Brahmi (male-female) in the Egg of the World, Hirauyagarbha, surrounded by its se%'en zones, or rather planes, which in the world of form and matter become seveo and fourteen Lokas ; the numbers seven and fourteen reappearing as occasion requires. Without giving out the secret analysis, the Hindus have from tim* immemorial compared the matrix of the Universe, and also the solar matrix, to the female uterus. It is written of the former: "Its womb is vast as the Meni," and The future mighty oceaus lay asleep Id Ihe waters that filled its cavities, the con* ticents, seal and mountains, the stars, planets, the k°^ ilemoos and mankind. The whole resembled, in its inner and outer coverings, the cocoanut filled interiorly with pulp, and covered externally with husk and rind. " Vast as Meru," say the texts. - -Wera was its Anmion. and the other mountains were its Chorion, adds a verse in Vishnu Purdna* In the same way is man born in his mother's womb. As BrahmJ is surrounded, in exoteric traditions, by seven layers within and seven without the Mundane Egg, so is the embryo (the first or the seventh layer, according to the end from which wc begin to count). Thus, just as Esotericism in its Cosmogony enumerates seven inner and seven outer layers, so Physiology notes the contents of the uterus as seven also, although it is completely ignorant of this being a copy of what takes place in the Universal Matrix. These conleuts are : I. Embryo. 2. Amniotic Fluid, immediately surrounding the Embryo. J. Amnion, a membrane derived from the Fcetus, which contains the floid. 4- Umbilical Vesicle, which serves to convey nourishment origi- uti.. .1.::— - — -^ 1_ „, .»r , , * WUMHi'a traMJaUDQ, as aiiMWlfd by I^scdwkrd UaU, i. 40. SBVEN CORRHSPOKDBHTIAI. CONTKNTS. 44Z □ally to the Kmbryo and to nourish it. 5. Allantois, a protrusion from the Embryo in the form of a closed bag, which spreads itself belweeu 3 and 7, iu the midst of 6, and which, after being specialized into the Placenta, serves to conduct nourishment to the Embr>'0. 6. Interspace • between 3 and 7 (the Amnion and Chorion), filled with an albuminous fluid. 7. Chorion, or outer layer. Now, each of these seven contents severally corresponds with, and is formed after, an anlctypc, unt: on each of the seven planes of being,, with which in their turn correspond the seven states of Matter and all ■ other forces, sensational or functional, in Nature. The following is a bird's-eye view of the seven correspondentiaL contents of the wombs of Nature and of Woman. We may contrast them thus : CosHtc Process, (upper pole.) (i) The mathematical Point, called the " Cosmic Seed," the Monad of Leibnitx; which con- tains the whole Universe, as the acorn the oak. This is the first bubble on the surface of boundless homogeneous Substance, or Space, the bubble of differentiation in its incipient stage. It is the begin- ning of the Orphic or Brahma's Egg. It corresponds in Astrology and Astronomy to the Sun. HuuAK Process, (lower polb.) (1) The terrestrial Embryo, which contains in it the future man with all his potentialities. In the series wf principles) of the human system it i.s the Atnian, or the super-spiritual principle, just as in the physical Solar System it is the Sun. (2) The vis vHa of our solar system trxudes from the Sun. (a) It is called, when referred to the higher planes, .^.Vasha. (^) It proceeds from the ten "divinities," the ten numbers of the Sun, which is itself the " Per- fect Number." These are called Dis-— in reality Space — the forces (2) The Amniotic Fluid exudes from the Embr\'0. (a) It is called, on the plane of matter, PrSua.* (*) It proceeds, talcing itS5gyrce_ -4,, in the universal One Liferfrom the heart of man and Buddhi, over., which the Seven Solar Rays (Godsi. preside. ■ Prina U in reality tHe Wiircraal I,ifc Piiadpk. 442 S8CRBT DOCTRINB. spread in Space, three of which are contained in the Sun's Atman, or seventh principle, and seven are the rays shot out by the Sun. (3) The Kther of Space, which, in its external aspect, is the plastic crust which is supposed to enve- lope the Snn. On the higher plane it is the whole Universe, as the third differentiation of evolv- ing Substance, Mulaprakriti be- coming Frakriti. (a) It corresponds mystically to the manitested Mahat, or the Intel- lect or Soul of the World. (3) The Amnion, the membrane containing the Amniotic Fluid and enveloping the Embryo. After the birth of man it becomes the third la>'er, so to say, of his mag- neto-Wtal aura. (fl) Manas, the third principle (counting from above), or the Human Soal in Man. (4) The sidereal contents of Ether, the substantial parts of it. unknowuto Modern Science, repre- sented : (a) In Occult and Kabalistic Mysteries, by Elementab. (*) In physical Astronomy, by meteors, comets, and all kinds of casual and phenomenal cosmic bodies. (4) Umbilical Vesicle, serving, as Science teaches, to nourish the Embryo originally, but, as Occult Science avers, to carry to the Fcetus by osmosis the cosmic influence, extraneous to the mother. («) In the grown man these" become the feeders of Kima, over which they preside. (^) In the physical man, his pas- sions and emotions, the moral me- teors and comets of human nature. (5) Life currents in Ether, having their origin in the Sun : the canals through which the vital principle of that Ether (the bltwd of the Cosmic Body) passes to nourish ever>'thing on the Earth and on the other Planets: from the miner- als, which are thus made to grow (5) The Allantois, a protruston from the Embryo, which spreads itself between the Amnion and Chorion ; it is supposed to conduct the nourishment from the mother to the Embr>*o. It corresponds to the life-principle, Prina or Jiva. CORRBSPONDBHt^S BWPWBEH RACES Al^^wT 449- I \ I I and become specialized, from the plants, which are thus fed, to ani- mal and man, to whom life is thus imparted. (5) The double radiation, psychic and physical, which radiates from the Cosmic Seed and expands around the whole Kosmos, as well as around the Solar System and every Planet. In Occultism it is called the upper divine, and the lower material, Astral Light. (7) The outer crust of every sidereal body, the Shell of the Mundane Egg. or the sphere (of our Solar System^f out Earth, and of cver>' man ^d animal. In sidereal space, Ether proper; on the terrestrial plane. Air, which again is built in seven layers. (a) The primordial potential world-stuff becomes (for the Man- van taric period) the permanent globe or globes. (6) The Allantois is divided into two layers. The interspace between the Amnion and the Chorion con- tains the Allantois and also an albuminous fluid.* (7) The Chorion, or the Zans Peliucida, the globular object called Blastodermic Vesicle, the outer and the inner layers of the mem- brane of which go to form the physical man. The outer, or ecto- derm, forms his epidermis: the inner, or eododemi, his muscles, bones, etc. Man's skin, again, is composed of seven layers. (a) The "primitive" becomes the "permanent" Chorion. Even in the evolution of the Races we see the same order as in Nature and Man.f Placental animal-man became such only after the separation of sexes in the Third Root-Race. In the physiological evolution, the placenta is fully fonned and functional only after the third month of uterine life. * AU the Dterlne coatenti. having a dirtvt tplHtuitl conoectlea with their cosmic uiletypf^ an. «■ Ibe phyMcal plane, potent Objects ia Black MacK, ood an tfaerWone raiuldemJ unclean. t Sec tufwa. 11. Pan I. 444^ THB aBCKHT DOCTRINB. Let us put aside such humau conceptions as a peisonal God, and hold lo the purely divine, to that which underlies all and everjthing is boundless Nature. It is called by its Sanskrit Esoteric name In tic yedas. Tat for That), a term for the unknowable Rootless Root. If we do so, wc may answer these seven questions of the EsoUric Cateckiin thus: 1,(1) Q.— What is the Eternal Absolute? A.— That. (2) Q. — ^How came Kosmos into being? A.— Through That. (3) Q- — How, or what will it be when it falls back into Pralaya ? A.— In That. (4) Q. — Whence all the animate, and suppositionally, the "inani- mate" nature? A.— From That. (5) Q. — What is the Substance and Essence of which the Universe is formed ? A.— That. (6) Q. — Into what has it been and will be again and again resolved ? A.— Into That. j^) Q. — Is That then both the instrumental and material cause of the Universe ? A. — ^Whal else is it or can it be than That? As the Universe, the Macrocosm and the Microcosm,* are ten, why should we divide Man into seven "principles"? This is the reason why the perfect number ten is divided into twoj,iiiJJieir completeness, t^^^ super- spiritually and physically, the forces arc ten : to wit, three oa the subjective and inconceivable, and seven on the objective plane. Bear in mind that I am now giving you the description of the two opposite poles : (o) the primordial Triangle, which, as soon as it has reflected Itself in the *' Heavenly Man," the highest of the lower seren — disappears, returning into "Silence and Darkness": and (^) the astral paradigmatic man, whose Monad (Atma) is also represented by a triangle, as it has to become a ternary in conscious Devachanic inter- ludes. The purely terrestrial man being reflected in the universe of Matter, so to say, upside down, the upper Triangle, wherein the creative ^eation and tUe subjective potentiality of the formative faculty resides* % V - / /■J.i'. ■.:<:-' *- r/i-. ■''■ ' L C 7 i^?"- ^-C'- ^r - ^./^ I fei, its contact with Na- [ Man being the Fourth, lit a Quaternarv, or Te- jthe Higher Self. R. 6. These six princi- jting on four dififerent uid having their AuRic pE on the seventh (vide kre those used by the [of the Right-Haud, or jCagicians. fsical Body is no princi- [s entirely ignored, being ly in Black Magic. lentPes of Rdtion. B) Left Eye. Rupa) Left Ear. 1^ehici.e) Left Nostril. iradigm of the loth (cre- rifice in the Lower Triad. lysical Organs are used Dugpas in Black Magic. mK ajny "tbb locos. ^^^^^ 445 )s shifted in the man of clay below the seven. Thus three of the ten, containing^ in the archetypal world only ideative and paradigmatical potentiality, i,f., existing in possibility, not in action, are in fact one. The potency of formative creation resides in the Logos, the synthesis of the seven Forces or Rays, which becomes forthwith the Quaternary, the sacred Tetraktys. This process is repealed in man, in whom the ' lower physical triangle becomes, in conjunction with the female One. the male- female creator, or generator. The same on a still lower plane in the animal world. A mystery above, a mystery below, truly. This is bow the upper and highest, and the lower and most animal. - stand in mutual relation. DIAGRAM r. In this diagram, we see that physical man (or his body) does not share in the direcl pure waves of the divine Essence which flows from the One in Three, the Unmanifcstcd. throuj^h the Manifested Logos (the upper face in the diagram). Purusha, the primeval Spirit, touches the human head and stops there. Bnt the Spiritual Man (the synthesis of the seven principles) is directly connected with it. » And here a few words ought to be said about the usual exoteric enumeration of the ^jrincipIes.^'||At firstjan approximate division only was made and given out. Eiolerie Budtihism begins with Atma, the seventh, and cuds with the Physical Body, the first. Now neither AtmS. which is 00 individual " principle," but a radiation front and one with the Unmani- fested I^ogOH ; nor the Body, which is the material rind, or shell, of the Spiritual Man, can be, in strict truth, referred to 'as "principles." Moreover, the chief " principle " of all, one not even mentioned, hereto- fore, is the "Luminous Kgg" (Hiranyagarbha), or the invisible magnetic sphere in which every man is enveloped.* It is the direct emanation : (a) from the Atmic Ray in its triple aspect of Creator, Preser\'er and Destroyer (Regenerator); and {h) from Buddhi-Manos. The sei'cniA aspect of this individual Aura is the faculty of assuming the form of its body and becoming the " Radiant," the Luminous AugoeJdes. It is this, .strictly speaking, which at times becomes the form called MSy&vi Rupa. Therefore, as explained in the second face of the diagram (the astral man), the Spiritual Man consists of only five '* 80 »r« Qk anlniala, thr plutU. and ewtn Uie mincTalK. Rctchcabttch acver undcntood wh«l he Itsmctl thcough bU «cusitiTcs aad cUinroy*nu. It it the odic, or tftthcc the uuic or maftifftic fluid which nnaiiat(» fnma nan, but it it alao sume^ioK mote. W6 THX SBCRST DOCTKINB. principles, as taught by the Vedftntins,* who substitute, tacitly, for the physical this sixth, or Auric, Body, aud merge the dual Maaas (the dual mind, or consciousness) into one. Thus they speak of five KosbiB A (sheaths or principles), and call Atrad the sixth yet no "pridciple." This is the secret of the late Subba Row's criticism of the division ii Esoteric Buddhism. But let the student now learn the true Esoteric enumeration. The reason why public mention of the Auric Body was not permitted was on account of its being so sacred. It is this Body which, at deatk, assimilates the essence of Buddhi and Manas and becomes the vehicle of these spiritual principles, whi^h are nol objective, and then, with the fill! radiation of AtmS upon it ascends as Manas-Taijasi into the Devachanic state. Therefore is it called by many names. It is the SfitrStma, the silver " thread " which " incarnates" from the beginning of Manvantara to the end, stringing upon itself the pearls of human existence, in other words, the spiritual aroma of every personality it follows through the pilgrimage of lifcf Tt is also the material from which the Adept forms bis Astral Bodies, from the Augoeides and the MaySvi Rupa downwards. After the death of man. when its most ethereal particles have drawn into themselves the spiritual principles of Bnddhi and the Upper Manas, and are illuminated with the radiance of Atui^, the Auric Body remains either in the Devachanic state of con- sciousness, or, in the case of a full Adept, prefers the state of a Nirmanakdya, that is, one who has so purified his whole system that he is above even the divine illusion of a Devachani. Such aa Adept remains in the astral (invisible) plane connected with our earth, and henceforth moves and lives in the possession of all his principles except the Kama Rupa and Physical Body. In the case of the Devachani. the Linga Sharira— the alter ego of the body, which during life is within the physical envelope while the radiant aura is without — strengthened by the material particles which this aura leaves behind, remains close to the dead body and outside it. and soon fades away. In the case of the full Adept, the body alone becomes subject to dissolurion, while the centre of that force which was the seat of desires and passions, disappears with its cause— the animal body."-* But during the life of the latter all these centres arc more or less active and in constant correspondence * Sm itprm, i. itt, for Ibr Vcdlntic rxoterlc mmiKratka. + Ser ZjtfijV'.Janaiiry. i««9 "DialogiK upon Uh- Myylerim af AAer-Ufr. COSMIC, SPnUTUAL, AND PHYSICAL CBXTRBS. 447 with their prototypes, the cosmic centres, and their microcosms, the principles. It is only through these cosmic and spiritual centres that the physical centres (the upper seven orifices and the lower triad) can benefit by their Occult interaction, for these orifices, or openings, are channels conducting into the body the influences that the will of rnan attracts and uses, vis., the cosmic forces. ' This will has, of course, to act primarily through the spiritual princi- ples. To make this clearer, let us take an example. In order to stop pain, let us say in the right eye, you have to attract to it the potent magnetism from that cosmic principle which corresponds to this eye and also to Buddhi. Create, by a powerful will effort, an Jmaginan-'line of communication between the right eye and Buddhi, locatius; the latter as a eetitrt in the same part of the bead. This line, though you may call it ■■ imaginary." is, once you succeed in seeing it with your mental eye and give it a shape and colour, in truth as good as real. A rope in a dream h not and yet is. Moreover, according to the prismatic colour with which you endow your line, so will the influence act. Now Buddhi and Mercury correspond with each other, and both are yellow, or radiant and golden coloured. In the human system, the right eye corresponds with Buddhi and Mercury; and the left with Manas and Venus or Lucifer. Thus, if your line is golden or silver.-, it will stop the pain ; if red, it will increase it. for red is the colour of KSma and correpponds with Mars. Mental or Christian Scientists have stumbled upon the effectz without understanding the causes. Having found by chance the secret of producing such results owing to mental abstraction, they attribute them to their union with God (whether a personal or impersonal God they know best), whereas it is simply the effect of one or another principle. However it may be, they are on the path of dis- covery, although they must remain wandering for a long lime to come. Let not I Esoteric^r students ^commit the same mistake. It has often been explained that neither the cosmic planes of substance nor even the human principles — with the exception of the lowest material plane or world and the physical body, which, as has been said, arc no " principles," — can be located or thought of as being in Space and Time. As the former are seven in One, so are we seven in Onb — that same absolute Soul of the World, which is both Matter and non-Matter, Spirit and non-Spirit, Being and non-Being. Impress yourselves well with this idea, all those of you who would study the mysteries of Sku'.^ Remember that with our physical senses alone at our command, none C4 <t,* 5^ '-'j 443 TBK SBCRBT DOCTRINE. of US can hope to reach beyond gross Matter. We can do so only through one or another of our seven sfnrilteal senses, either by trunifl^, or if one is a bom Seer. Yet even a clairvoyant possessed of soch faculties, if not an Adept, no matter how honest and sincere he maybe. will, through his ignorance of the truths of Occult Science, be led br the \*isions he sees in the Astral Light only to mistake for God or Angels the denizens of those spheres of which he may occasionally catch a glinip.>^e, as witness Swedenborg and others. These seven senses of ours correspond with ever>- other aeptenate in nature and in ourselves. Physically, though invisibly, the bumaa Auric Hnvelope (the amnion of the physical man in every age of life) has seven layers, just as Cosmic Space and our physical epidennii have. It is this Aura which, according to otir mental and physical state of purity or impurity, either opens for us vistas into other worlds, ot shuts us out altogether from anything but this three-dimensional wotM «f Matter. Each of our seven physical senses (two of which are still unknowo to profane Science), and also of our seven states of consciousness — w..* (i) wakiug: (2) waking-dreaming: (3) natural sleeping; (4) induced or trance-sleep ; (5) p?;ychic ; (6) super-psychic ; and (7) purely spiritttal — corresponds with one of the seven Cosmic Planes, develops and uses one of the seven super-senses, and is connected directly, in its use oa the terre*itro-spiritual plane, with the cosmic and divine centre of force that gave it birth, and which is its direct creator. Each is also coa- nected with, and under the direct inflnence of, one of the seven sacred Planets.* These belonged to the Lesser Mysteries, whose foUowen were called Mystai (the veiled), seeing that they were allowed to perceive things only tlirough a mist, as it were "with the eyes closed"; while the Initiates or "Seers" of the Greater Mysteries were called Epoptai (those who see things unveiled). It was the latter only wbo were taught the true mysteries of the Zodiac and the relations and cor- respondences between its twelve signs (two secret) and the ten human orifices. The latter are now of course ten in the female, and ouly nine in the male ; but this is merely an external difference. In the second volume of this work it is stated that till the end of the Third Koot-Kace (when androgynous man separated into male and female) the ten orifices existed in the hermaphrodite, first potentially, then WOMilN AND AJ^HKHV. 449 functionally. The evolution of the human embryo shows this. For instance, the only opening formed at first is the buccal cavity, "a cloaca communicating with the anterior extremity of the intestine." These become later the mouth and the posterior orifice : the Logos differen- tiating and emanating gross matter ou the lower plane, iu Occult parlance. The difficulty which some students will experience in recon- ciling the correspondences between the Zodiac and the orifices can be easily explained. Magic is coeval with the Third Root-Race, which began by creating through KriySshakti and ended by generating its species in the present way.* Woman, being left with the full or perfect cosmic number lo (the divine uiunber of Jehovah), was deemed higher and more spiritual than man. In Egypt, in days of old, the marriage service contained an article that the woman should be the " lady of the lord, " and real lord over him, the husband pledging himself to be "obedient to his wife" for the production of alchemical results such as the Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's Stone, for the spirituai help of the woman was needed by the male Alchemist. But woe to the Alchemist who should take this iu the dead-letter sense of physical union. Such sacrilege would become Black Magic and be followed by certain failure. The true Alchemist of old took aged women to help him. carefully avoiding the young ones ; and if any of them happened to be married they treated their wives for months both before and during their operations as sisters. The error of crediting the Ancients with knowing only ten of the zodiacal signs is explained iu his Unveiled.^ The Ancients did know of twelve, but viewed these signs differently from ourselves. They took neither Virgo nor Scorpio singly into consideration, but regarded them as two in one. since they were made to refer directly and symboli- cally to the primeval dual man and his separation into sexes. During the reformation of the Zodiac, Libra was added as the twelfth sign, though it is simply an equilibratiug sign, ai the turning point — the mystery of separated man. X^t the student learn all this well. Meanwhile we have to recapitu- late what has been said. (i) Each human being is an incarnation of his Qod, in other words, one with his " Father in Heaven," just as Jesus, an Initiate, is made to say. As many men on eartli, so many Gods in Heaven ; and yet these ' Sm npn, i. ut, tt Mf., and U. ptttm. i Op.al.,\i. is6. 461. 465 f' Mf. 450 TBB aSCKST DOCTRINR. Gods are in reality Onb, for at the end of every period of activity, they are withdrawn, like the rays of the setting sun, into the Paretil Luminary, the Non-Manifested Logos, which in its turn is merged into the One Absolute. Shall we call these "Fathers" of ours, whether individually or collectively, and under any circumstances, our per- sonal Gcd f Occultism answers. Never. All that an average man caa know of his "Father" is what he knows of himself, through and within himself. The Soul of his "Heavenly Father" is incarnated in him. This Soul is himself, if he be successful in assimilat- ing the Divine Individuality while in his physical, animal shell. As to the Spirit thereof, as well expect to be heard by the Absolute. Om prayers and supplications are vain, unless to potential words we add potent acts, and make the Aura which surrounds each one of ns so pure and divine that the God within us may act outwardly, or io other words, become as it were an extraneous Potency. Thus have Initiates, Saints, and very holy and pure men been enabled to help others as well as themselves in the hour of need, and produce what are foolishly called " miracles," each by the help and with the aid of the Cod within himself, which be alone has enabled to act on the outward plane. (2) The T(ord Aijm or Om, which corresponds to the upper Triangle, if pronounced by a very holy and pure man, will draw out, or awaken, not only the less exalted Potencies residing in the planetary spaces and elements, but even his Higher Self, or the " Father" within him. Pro- nounced by an averagely good man, in the correct way, it will help to strengthen him morally, especially if between two '* AuMS" he medi- tates intently upon the Aum within him, concentrating all his attention upon the ineffable glory. But woe to the man who pronounces it after the commission of some far-reaching sin ; he will only thereby attract to his own impure photosphere invisible Presences and Forces which could not otherwise break through the Divine Envelope. Auk is the original of Amen. Now, Amen is not a Hebrew term, but, like the word Halleluiah, was borrowed by the Jews and Greeks from the Chaldees. The latter word is often found repeated in certain magical inscriptions upon cups and urns among the Babylonian and Ninevean relics. Amen does not mean "so be it," or "verily," bot signified in hoary antiqtiity almost the same as Acii. The Jewish -TanaVm (Initiates) nsed it for the same reason as the Aryan Adepts use AuM, and with a like success, the numerical value of AMeNxn Hebrew aourn> and colouk. 45« I I I letters being 91, thesaraeaa the full value of YffVff* 26, and ADoNa V, 65, or 91. Both words mean the affirmatioa of the being, or existence, of the sexless " IiOrd " within us. (3) Esoteric Science teaches that every sound in the visible world awakens its corresponding sound in the invisible realms, and arouses to action some force or other on the Occult side of Nature. Moreover, every sound corresponds to a co]our and a number (a potency spiritaal, psychic or physical) and to a sensation on some plane. All these find an echo in every one of the so-far developed elements, and even on the terrestnal plane, in the Lives that swarm in the terrene atmosphere, thus prompting them to action. Thus a prayer, unless pronounced nuntaily and addressed to one's " Father" in the silence and solitude of one's " closet," must have more frequently disastrous than beneficial results, seeing that the masses are entirely ignorant of the potent effects which they thus produce. To produce good effects, the prayer must be uttered by " one who knows how to make himself heard in silence," when it is no longer a prayer, but becomes a command. Why is Jesns shown to have forbidden his hearers to go to the public sj'nagogues ? Surely every praying man was not a hypocrite and a liar, nor a Pharisee who loved to be seen praying by people! He had a motive, we must suppose: the same motive which prompts the experienced Occultist to prevent his pupils from going into crowded places now as then, from entering churches, seance rooms, etc., unless they are in sympathy with the crowd. There is one piece of advice to be given to beginners, who cannot help going into crowds — one which may appear superstitious, but which in the absence of Occult knowledge will be found efficacious. As well known to good Astrologers, the days of the week are not in the order of those planets whose names they bear. The fact is that the ancient Hindu.** and Eg\'ptians divided the day into four parts, each day being under the protection (as ascertained by practical magic) of a planet ; and every day, as correctly asserted by Dion Cassius, received the name of the planet which ruled and protected its first portion. I«et the student protect himself from the " Powers of the Air" (Elementals) which throng public places, by wearing either a ring containing some jewel of the colour of the presiding planet, or else of the metal sacred to it. But the best protection is a clear conscience and a firm desire to benefit Humanitv. * Jti'ttevah. or OMlc-ftnule oa Ibe lemMtrial plMoe. m invented by ihtr Jew*, and now made ont (o mous Jcbovah ; but Higuiiying in rcalily and titernlly, " ^vinf bdne " and " rccdviag lift." 45« Tax SSCRBT DOCTKXNB. THB PLANBTS, THE DAYS OF THE WEEK AKD THBrR COR RES. PONDING COU)trRS AND METAtS. In the accompanyiug diagram the days of the week do uot stand in their usual order, though they are placed iu their correct sequence u determined by the order of the colours in the solar spectrum and the correspoudiug colours of their ruling plauets. The fault of the con- fusion in the order of the days revealed by this comparison lies at the door of tte early Christians. Adopting from the Jews their lunar months, they tried to blend them with the solar plauets, and so made a mess of it ; for the order of the days of the week as it now stands does not follow the order of the plauets. Now, the Ancients arranged the planets in the following order: Moon. Mercur)', Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter.^aturnl counting the Sun as a planet for exoteric purposes. Again, the £g>^tians and Indiana, the two oldest nations, divided their day into four parts, each of which was under the protection and rule of a planet. In course of time each day came to be called by the name of that planet which ruled its first portion — the morning. Now, when they arranged their week, the Christians proceeded as follows : they wanted to make the day of the Sun, or Sunday, the seventh, so they named the days of the week b; taking every fourth plauet in turn ; e.g.. beginning with the Moon (Monday), they counted thus: Moon, Mercur)-, Venus, Sun, Man; thus Tuesday, the day whose first portion was ruled by Mars, became the second day of the week ; and so on. It should^ be remembered also that the Moon, like the Sun, is a subsututc iai a secret planet. The present division of the solar year was made several centuries later than the beginning of our era; and our week is not that of the Ancients and the Occultists. The septenary division of the four parts of the lunar phases is as old as the world, and orignnaled with the people who reckoned time by the lunar months. The Hebrews ne%'er used it, for they counted only the seventh day, the Sabbath, though the second chapter of Genesis seems to speak of it. Till the days of the Caesars there is no trace of a week of seven days among any nation save the Hindus. From India it passed to the Arabs, and reached Europe with Christianity. The Roman week consisted of eight days, and the Athenian of ten.* Thus one of the numberle&s contra- • Bee AW&W mr tr OUttdridf. J. H. ft^goa. an^ tt- As the Human Principle* hmve no Sound, Numbers pir it, but only cottespond e test, to Numbers, Sounds, Colours, etc., I them tbey are not enumerated here in tfas order used for esoleiic purposes. ■)AYS OF THE , WEEK. < Tlisday. Dm llattis, or "iw. COLOURS I. Req. SOVNt). Ml'MCKl. iiCALSi Camul. < Gamml. Ba. Sunday. i 3. Ohanok. Dies Solu. or Ri. Do. Rk. WiDHBSDAY. DutM*nurii,ot Voden. Day of luddba In ibe •ouih. and of Voden in the lonb — Gods of Vi«doin Saturday. Din SatMTtu, 01 .aiuin 3- Velkjw G*. 4. Gresn. Ha. Ml. Fa. Thursda). Dim J Of II, oc bor PriroAV Diit I'tntris, or tige 5. BLur. I Pa. \ 6 Indiooor Da i t Dark Blub , Sol. 1 La. Monday. Dmi Lunat, or loon. 7 ViOLBT I Ni. St THE DATS or THE WEEK. 453 I dictions and fallacies of Christendom is the adoption of Ihe Indian septenary week of the lunar reckoning, and the preservation at the same time of the mythological names of the planets. Nor do modem Astrologers give the correspondences of the days and planets and their colours correctly ; and while Occultists can give good reaf^on for every detail of their own tables of colours, etc., it is doubtful whether the Astrologers can do the same. To close this first Paper, let me say that the readers must in all necessity be separated into two broad divisions: those who have not quite rid themselves of the usual sceptical doubts, but who long to ascertain how much truth there may be in the claims of the Occultists ; and those others who, having freed themselves from the trammels of Materialism aud Relatinty, feel that true and real bliss ran.st be sought only in the knowledge and personal experience of that which the Hindu Philosopher calls the BrahmavidyS, and the Buddhist Arhat the realization of Adibuddha. the primeval Wisdom. Let the former pick out and study from these Papers only those explanations of the pheno- mena of life which profane Science is unable to give them. Even with such limitations, they will find by the end of a year or two that they will have learned more than all their Universities and Colleges can teach them. As to the sincere believers, they will be rewarded by seeing their faith transformed into knowledge. True knowledge is of Spirit and in Spirit alone, and cannot be acquired in any other way except through the region of the higher mind, the only plane from which we can penetrate the depths of the all-pervading Absoluteness. He who carries out only those laws established by human minds, who lives that life which is prescribecf by the code of mortals and their fallible legislation, chooses as his guiding star a beacon which shines on the ocean of M3yS, or of temporary delusions, and lasts for but one incarnation. These laws are necessary for the life and welfare of physical man alone. He has chosen a pilot who directs him through the shoals of one existence, a master who parts with him, however, on the threshold of death. How much happier that man who, while strictly performing on the temporary objective plane the duties of daily life, carrying out each and every law of his countr>', and rendering, in .short, to C£csar what is Caesar's, leads in reality a spiritual and perma- nent existence, a life with no breaks of continuity, no gaps, no inter- 454 THB SECRET DOCTRIITE. ludes, uot even during those periods which are the halting-places of the long pilgrimage of purely spiritual life. All the phenomena of the lower human mind disappear like the curtain of a proscenium, allowing him to live in the region beyond it, the plane of the noumenal, the odc reality. If man by suppressing, if not destroying, his selfishness and personality, only succeeds in knowing himself as he is behind the veil of physical MSyS, he will soon stand beyond all pain, all misery, and beyond all the wear and tear of change, which is the chief originator of pain. Such a man will be physically of Matter, he will move surrounded by Matter, and yet he will live beyond and outside it. His body will be subject to change, but he himself will be entirely without it, and will experience everlasting life even while in temporary bodies of short duration. All this may be achieved by the development of unselfish universal love of Humanity, and the suppression of personality, or selfishruss, which is the cause of all sin, and consequently of all human sorrow. •==^3 PAPER II. AN EXPLANATION. In view of the abstruse nature of the subjects dealt with, the present r«Ai^p«r-wi11 begin with an explanation of somt: points which remained obscure in the preceding one, as well as of some statements iu which there was an appearance of contradiction. Astrologers, of whom there are many among the Esotericists, are likely to be puzzled by some statements distinctly contradicting their teachings: whilst those who know nothing ol the subject may perhaps find themselves opposed at the outset by those who have studied the exoteric systems of the Kabalah and Astrology. For let it be distinctly known, nothing of that which is printed broadcast, and available to every student in public libraries or museums, is really Esoteric, but is either mixed with deliberate "blinds," or cannot be understood and studied with profit without a complete glossary of Occult terms. The following teachings and cxpLinations, therefore, may be useful to the student in assisting him to formulate the teaching given in the preceding Fap«r. .'Vj'Tj^ l/CT^I/^ In Diagram I. it will be observed that the 3, 7, and 10 centres are respectively as follows : (a) The 3 pertain to the spiritual world of the Absolute, and there- fore to the three higher principles in Man. (d) The 7 belong to the spiritual, psychic, and physical worlds and to the body of man. Physics, metaphysics and hyper-physics are the triad that symbolizes man on thi$ plane. (c) The 10, or the sum total of these, is the Universe as a whole, in all its aspects, and also its Microcosm — Man, with his ten orifices. Laying aside, for the moment, the Higher Deoad (Kosmos) and the 456 THK SHCKKT DOCTRINK. Lower Decad (Man), the first three numbers of the separate sevens have a direct reference to the Spirit, Soul and Auric Envelope of the human being, as well as to the higher supersensual world. The lower four, or the four aspects, belong to Man also, as well as to the Universal Kosmos, the whole being synthesized by the Absolute. If these three discrete or distributive degrees of Being be conceived, according to the Synibology of all the Eastern Religions, as contained in wi Ovum, or Ego, the ti^me of that Egg will be SvabhSvat, or the All-Bring on the manifested plane. This Universe has, in truth, neither centre nor periphery ; but in the individual and finite mind of man it has such a definition, the natural consequence of the limitations of human thought. In Diagram II.. as already stated therein, no notice need be taken of the numbers used in the left-hand column, as these refer only to the Hierarchies of the Colours and Sounds on the metaphysical plane, and are not the characteristic numbers of the human principles or of the planets. The human principles elude enumeration, because each man differs from every other, jnst as no two blades of grass on the wholt earth are absolutely alike. Numbering is here a question of spiritual progress and the natural predominance of one principle over another. With one man it may be Buddhi that stands as number one; with another, if he be a bestial sensualist, the Lower Manas. With one the physical body, or perhaps Pr.1na. the life principle, will be on the first and highest plane, as would be the case in an extremely healthy man, full of vitality; with another it may come as the sixth or even seventh downward. Again, the colours and metals corresponding to the planets and human principles, as will be observed, are not those known exo- terically to modern Astrologers and Western Occultists. Let us see whence the modem Astrologer got his notions about the correspondence of planets, metals and colours. And here we are reminded of the modern Orientalist, who, judging by appearances credits the ancient Akkadians (and also the Chaldsean.'i. Hindus and. Egyptians) with the crude notion that the Universe, and in like manner^ the earth, was like an inverted, bell-shaped howl ! This he demon- strates by pointing to the symbolical representations of some Akkadian inscription.s and to the Assyrian carvings, IL is, however, no place here to explain how mistaken is the Assyriologist, for all such repre- sentations are simply symbolical of the Khargakkurra, the World- Mountain, or Meru, and relate only to the North Pole, the Land of the ASTROLOGY AMD LVNAK VRfiKS. Govls. Now, the Assyrians arranged their ^ra^n'r teaching about the planets and their correspondences as follows : JVum t*rM. Atwta Mmtt. CMm'j. - 1 )■ 1 I. Satuin. tu<). Blick. Satnrdair. (Whence jiabtwtli, •ia huauuf of Jclujvali.) 1. Jupiter. ■nn- White, bnt «• often Porplv orOnnce. Thtmday. Mns. tron. Ked. Tue»d«y. 44 am. ■ 0«U. VeDow>gQldeil. Band*^. 5- Vcaoa. Copim*. Ctmi or YcUow. Friday. 6. Mercury. Qolclullver. MiK. WedD«sday. * . , Mom. Ulfw. aivcr-wUte. Monday. This is the arrangement now adopted by Christian Astrologers, with the exception of the order of the days of the week, of which, by asso- ciating the solar planetary names with the lunar weeks, they have made a sore mess as has been already shown in Paper I. This is the Ptole- maic geocentric system, which represents the Universe as in the follow- ing diagram, showing our IJarth in the centre of the Universe, and the Sun a Planet, the fourth in number : The Hearen oi tbr Moon Mercury Veona Sua Mva Jipiter Satnru FUtMAMKirt, And if the Christian cbrouolog}' and order of the days of the week are being daily denounced as being based on an entirely wrong a.stro- nomical foundation, it is high time to begin a reform also in Astrology built on such lines, and coming to us entirely fxom the Cbaldsean and Assyrian exoteric mob. . f. a tf-^i^ '^v c^'t^ t^>\ i But the correspondences given in these Papers are purely Esoteric * See lu^a, II. j;); and . is*, U Mf . 458 THK SBCRKT DOCTRINK. For this reason it follows that when the Planets of the Solar System are named or symbolized (as in Diagram II.) it mtxst not be supposed that the planetary bodies themselves are referred to, except as typts oo a purely physical plane of the septenary nature of the psychic and spiritual worlds. A material planet can correspond only to a material something. Thus when Mercury is said to correspond to the right eye. it does not mean that the objective planet has any inHuence on the right optic organ, but that both stand rather as corresponding mysti- cally through Buddhi. Man derives his Spiritual Soul (Buddhi) from the essence of the Manasa Putra. the Sons of Wisdom, who are the Divine Beings (or Angels) mling and presiding over the planet Hercur>'. In the same way Venus, Manas and the left eye are set down as correspondences. Exoterically, there is, in reality, no such associatioo of physical eyes and physical planets: but Esoterically there is; for tae right eye is the '• Eye of Wisdom." i.e., it corresponds magnetically with that Occult centre in the brain which we call the "Third Eye'*;* while the left corresponds with the intellectual braiUt or those cells which are the organ on the physical plane of the thinking faculty. The kabalistic triangle of Kether, Chokmah and Binah shows this. Chokmah and Binah, or Wisdom and Intelligence, the Father and Mother, or. again, the Father and Son, are on the same plane and react mutually on one another. When ibe individual consciousness is turned inward, a conjunction of Manas and Buddhi takes place. In the spiritually regenerated man this conjunction is permanent, the Higher Manas clinging to Buddhi beyond the threshold of Devachan, and the Soul, or rather the Spirit, which should not be confounded with Atm3, the Super-Spirit, is then said to have the "Single Eye." Esoterically, in other words, the "Third Eye" is active. Now Mercury is called Hermes, and Venus. Aphrodite, and thus their conjunction in man on the psycho- physical plane gives him the name of the Hermaphrodite, or Androgyne. The absolutely Spiritual Mauys, however, entirely disconnected from sexh The Spiritual Man corres^nds directly with the higher "coloured circles," the Divine Prism which emanates from the One Infinite White Circle; while physical man emanates from the Sephiroth, which are the Voices or Sounds of Eastern Philosophy. And these "Voices" See npra, 0. yu, tt ttf. 2 ^ ^ i SKBING SOUNDS AND BRARtNG COljOURI 499 I I 'e are lower than the " Colours," for they are the seven lower Sephirolh, or the objective Sounds, seen, not heard, as the Zokar shows,* and even the Old Testament also. For, when properly translated, verse id of chapter xx. Exodus would read : " And the people saw the Voices " (or Sounds, not the " thunderings" as now translated); and these Voices, or Sounds, are the Sephiroth.f In the same way the right and left nostrils, into which is breathed the "Breath of Lives"! are here said to correspond with Sun and Moon, as Brabma-Prajapati and Vsich, or Osiris and Isis, are the parents of the natural life. This Quaternary, viz. : the two eyes and two nostrils, Mercury and Venus, Sun and Moon, constitutes the Kabalistic Guard i an -Augels of the Four Corners of the Earth. It is the same in the Eastern Esoteric Philosophy, which, however, adds that the Sun is not a planet, but the central star of our system, and the Moon a dead planet, from which all the principles are gone, both, being substitutes, the one for an invisible inter-Mercurial planet, and the other for a planet which seems to have now altogether dis- appeared from \'iew. These are the Four MahSr^jahs,§ the " Four Holy Ones" connected with Karma aud Humanity, Kosmos aod Man, iu all their aspects. They are : the Sun, or its substitute Michael ; Moon, or substitute Gabriel ; Mercury, Raphael ; and Venus, Uriel. It need hardly be said here again that the planetary bodies themselves, being only physical symbols, are not often referred to in the Esoteric System. but, as a rule, their cosmic, psychic, physical and spiritual forces are symbolized under these names. la short, it is the seven physical planets which are the lower Sephiroth of the Kabalak, and our triple physical Sun whose reflection only we see, which is symbolized, or rather persoui&cd, by the Upper Triad, or Sephirothal Crown. || Then, again, it will be well to point out that the numbers attached to the psychic prind;plM ^n Diagram 1. appear the reverse of those in exoteric writings. ■This* is because numbers in this connection are purely arbitrary, changing with every school. Some schools count • Op.tit..'^.%\.t. * Sec Pranlc-ii Ou Kat^ala, p. m, at taq. : Gtmait, ii. 7. I5^^*«.l. 147. I We may rcifcr for coafimaUoa b> Origtn's worfca, iriio aajrs Uiol "Ute aeroi ruling tlaimoo*" (gralt or pl«nclaiy niltn) atv Mldiad. Ihc Sun (the lioii-lik«): (he Mcoad in ordci, the Rull, Juphcr or Snrlct. etc i and kU Ukk, tbc " Sercii of Uif Preaguce," on the SrphiroUi. Tlir Sephifatlval Tree iathFTrrr ttf the Divine Waacu u riven by I\>rpbyry. or Porplirry'a Tre«. u it li lutuUly called. 460 THK SHCRKT DOCTRINK. three, some fbnr, some six, and others seven, as do all me Buddlusi Esotericisis. . As said before,* the Esoteric School has been divided into two departments since the fourteenth century, one for the inner Lanoos. or higher CbclSs, the other for the outer circle, or lay ChclSi. Mr. Siunett was distinctly told in the letters he received froni one of the Gums that he could not be taught the real Esoteric Doctrine gl«D out only to the pledged disciples of the Inner CircIe.^The numbm and principles do not go in regular sequence, like the skins of an onion, bat the student must work out for himself the Dumber appropriate to each of his principles, when the time comes for him to enter opon practical study. The above will suggest to the student the necessity of knowing the principles by their names and their appropriate faculties apart from any system of enumeration, or by association with their corresponding centres of actions, colours, sounds, etc, until these become inseparable. The old and familiar mode of reckoning the principles, given in the Theosophist AX\A Esoieru Buddhism, leads to another apparently perplex- ing contradiction, though it is really none at all.^The principles numbered 3 and 2. vis: Lings Sharira and Prfina, or Jiva, stand in tht reverse order to that given in Diagram I. A moment's consideratioo will suffice to explain the apparent discrepancy between the exoteric enumeration.!, and the Esoteric order given in Diagram I. Por in Dingram I. the Linga Sharira is defined as the vehicle of PrSna, or Jiva, the life principle, and as such must.of necessity be inferior to Prftna, not superior as the exoteric ennraeration would suggest. /\tht principles do not stand one above the other, and thus cannot be taken in numerical sequence ; their order depends upon the superiority and predominance of one or another principle, and therefore differs in every man. The Linga Sharira is the double, or protoplasmic autetype of the body, which is its image. It is in this sense that it is called ia Diagram II. the parent ol the physical body, i.e., the mother by con- ception of PrSna, the father. This idea is conveyed in the Egyptian mythology by the birth of Horns, the child of Osiris and Isis, although, like all sacred Mythoi, this has both a threefold spiritual, and a sevenfold psycho -physical application. To close the subject, PrAoa, the life principle, can, in sober truth, have no number, as it pervades PIANST&XY AND HUHAM BODIES. erery Other principle, or the bumaji total. Each number of the seven wontd thus be naturally applicable to PrSua-Jiva exoterically as it is to the Auric Body Eaoterically. Aa Pythagoras showed. Kosmos was produced not through or *>'number, but geometrically, ;>., following the proportions of numbers. I I To those who are uuacquaiuted with the exoteric astrological natures ascribed iu practice to the planetary bodies, it may be useful if we set them down here after the manner of Diagram II., in relation to their dominion over the human body, colours, metals, etc., and explain at the same time why genuine Esoteric Philosophy differs from the astro- logical claims. PUiuU. 1 Dayt. ■ ■ r Mtlah ^^t* o/tht Body Co/oari. Satiihi' 1 Saturday. \jeaA. Right Ear, KDKa and Bony SyttetU' Ufack." Jupita-. TU1UI1U7. »tt. txft Bar. ThlcbJt. Peel »ud Anehal ayiUm. Pwrple.t Man. Tuesday. Iron. Ponhcad aitd Noee.WskninSrs- fiuicUoii and MtuculR SyktciC Bed. Mn. ftutuliy. Gold. Bight 8yc. U«Ti Kul Vital Cratm. Unuigc.l Vciitu. 1 Friday. Conm. Chin incl Cheeks, KmJc and Reins and the Vcneua Syricm. Ycllow-t Ucrcory. WdlAMday. Quiduilvcr. Moutb, fUnds. AtKtominal VUccra anil N«rtvt)g& System. Xyyn or Cicani-ll Moon. Uooday. aovir. BrbsU. Ufl Bye. ifae PliUdic ftyateii^ SkUva, Lymph, etc. Whtte.l * Saoterically. gicca, ttwic beinx no black iu the priamiktic ray. * Kbotcrtcally. hghl blue. As a pistnenl. purple u a compo'.iiiil of rrd an'l blue, and In R««tffra OccultfAtn blu« U ih« tpiritual CMCitce of the colovr purple, «rhil« red is ils luaicnal tiaaw. In mUily, Occultism uiakca Jupitrr bine bceauw be U the uta of Snturn. which b creeo. and light blue aa a pnaniuk colour conlaina a mat daal at gnea. Again, the Aorlc Body will contain much of the CQlour of ihr I.0WIT Hanaa IT the nun I* a material aensualUt. juM aa U will cootala much of the darker hue if the Uighct Hanaa haa preponderance uvcr the I.ow«r. t Baolcricalty, the Sun eannot eormpoad with the eye. ooae. or any other arsan, aimre, aa explained, it U no pluict. but a cvulral atar. II waa adopted aa a planet by ihr paat-Ctarlillan A((m- loger*. who had nerrr be<n initiated. Moreo«er. the true colour of tlte etun ia Mne, and it ii|>]>ear» yellow only owing to the effect at the abMU-ptlou of vapoun tchledy melalltc) by ita atmovphcre. All b Hlyi on our Bartb. t BMt«rically. indigo, or dark blue, whicta la the conplenanl of yellow in the piisnL Tellow In a ■Jmple or primiti** colour. Manas being dual iu Its nature— aa is tta aidereal lymbol, the planet 462 THB SRCART DOCTRINK. Thus it will be seen that the influence of the solar system in tbe exoteric kabalistic Astrology is by this method distributed over the entire human body, the primary metals, and the gradations of coloor from black to white ; but that Hsotehcism recognizee acithur black dot white as colours, because it holds religiously to the seven solar or natural colours of the prism. Black and while are artificial tints. The^ belong to the Earth, and are only perceived by virtue of the spedal construction of our physical organs. White is the absence of all colours, and therefore no colour; black is simply the abscuce of light, and therefore the negative aspect of white. The seven prismatic colours are direct emanations from the Seven Hierarchies of Being, each of which has a direct bearing upon and relation to one of the human principles, since each of these Hierarchies is. in fact, the creator and source of the corresponding human principle. Each prismatic colour is called in Occultism the '* Father of the Sound " which corre- sponds to it ; Sound being the Word, or the Logos, of its Father- Thought. This is the reason why sensitives connect every colour with a definite sound, a fact well recoguixed iu Modem Science (r.^.. Francis Galton's Human FacuUy). But black and white are '^<V:*^JL V >l'i^^<"A■X' Veuui. wbicli U botb the morninir >nd eroiiiif uar— Oie diflbimce bct«»e«a tbe bi4t1>«r uid tbc loNa ptinctpln of M«titi>, whotK «siie«cc u derived frain Ihe Hierarchy ruling Venu», is dettotrd by ibt dark btue aud gi««ii. Crccn, Uic l^wcr Man u, rote mbtes Uk colour oi the lotar «p«cUiuB «Uch Bppran betwcm lta« yellow and the dark blue. Ibe Hj^bm- Spiritual Maniu. tndigo i> Uw IntCB^iH colour oT the liravra or dty, Ic deroie the upward tmdeucy of Uaiias toward Buddbi, o> Itac heavenly KptrilonI Soul. This colour is obtained from the 'j^igo/na iineiorsa. ■ plamt of tkc highe«l occult properties In India, much used io White Mo^c, nnd orculUjr connected witb copycr. Thl« Is ohuivu by Ihc itidigo aaauming a copper lustre, enpedally when rubbed on any bard mbsUMK. Annlher property of the dye 1» th«t it i« tnsolubk' f n water and cren in etfict. t>einr li^liUl ua wtifU than auy kuowu liquid. No symbol has ever been adopted in Uie H«*t wilfccut lieinic twaed upca I loflcal and demonstrable reason. Therefbn Butcra SymbolocUt*. from the cailicbl ages, haw connecteil the ipiritual and the animal minds of mail, the one with dark Mue (Ncwtoa's todisoi. or true blue, free from vrecn : aid the oUier wlUi pure greca. It E«OlcricaUy^ellowJbecau>e the culuur of the &un la orange, and Mercur>- now stands srxi to Ihc &un in dlstAicc, o it docs in colonr. The plat>et lot which the Sun is ■ tatMtilMte was still nearer the ituu than H«rcnry now is, and was one of the moat scctH nu<l hiKbe*) plaiteta. It u ^d to have tieconie invinbte at the close of the rhird Race. V E^oterlcmlly. vioM, because, perbapi. violet Is Ibe colour assumed by a ray of aaaUxlit when trauMnllled through ti very thin plate of silver, and also because the Moos sbtac* upon ibe HartA with llgbt borrowird from tb« Sun, as the baman body shine* with <iuahiirntions borinwi-d from it> donble— Ibe aJ^rial man. As the aslral Shadow starts the aeries of prioctplea in dub, ob the tems. trial plane, up to the lower, aidnuil Manas, !k> the violet ray startt the series of prianatic coloora Aoa Ua end up to green, boUi beins, the one a* a priociptc and the other as a colour, the mo9i reAnncWt oTall the prindplea and colours. Resides which, there I* the same great Occult mynery attached U all these eoTTcapoadences, boUi eelcnUal and lerreatriat bodies, colour* and aonnds. In clearer wqNa, tbcie ezista the same law of rrlntlon between the Moon and Uic Earth, the astral ud ttie Mviam hndy of nun, as between the violet end uf theprtsinalic npectmin and the indifo and the blue. But4f tkb norv anon. PLANETS AND FACUtTIES. 463 I I I entirely negative colours, and have no representatives in the world of subjective being. Kabalistic Astrology says that the dominion of the planetary bodies in the human brain also is defined thus : there are seven primary groups of faculties, six of which function through the cerebrum, and the seventh thruugh the cerebellum. This is perfectly correct Esoteri- cally. But when it is further said that : Saturn governs the devotional faculties f Mercur>'> the intellectual ; Jupiter, the sympathetic; the Sun, the governing faculties; Mars, the selfish; Venus, the tenacious; and the Moon, the instincts; — we say that the explanation is incomplete and even misleading. For, in the first place, the physical planets can rule only the physical body and the purely physical functions. All the mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual faculties, arc influenced by the Occult properties of the scale of causes which emanate from the Hierarchies of the Spiritual Rulers of the planets, and not by the planets themselves. This scale, as gjiven in Diagram II., leads the student to perceive in the following order: (i) colour; (2) .sound; (3) the sound materializes into the spirit of the metals, i.e., the metallic Elementals ; (4) these materialize again into the physical metals ; (5) then the harmonial and vibratory radiant essence passes into the plants, giving them colour and smell, both of which "properties" depend upon the rale of vibration of this energy per unit of time ; (6) from plants it passes into the animals ; (7) and finally culminates in the "principles" of man. ThusweseetheDivineEssenceof our Progenitors in Heaven circling through seven stages ; Spirit becoming Matter, and Matter returning to Spirit. As there is sound in Nature which is inaudible, so there is colour which is invisible, hut which can be heard. The creative force, at work in its incessant task of transformation, produces colour, sound and numbers, in the shape of rates of vibration which compound and dissociate the atoms and molecules. Though invisible and inaudible to us in detail, yet the synthesis of the whole becomes audible to us on the material plane. It is that which the Chinese call the "Great Tone," or Kung. It is, even by scientific confession, the actual tonic of Nature, held by musicians to be the middle Fa ou the keyboard of a piano. We hear it distinctly in the voice of Nature, in the roaring of the ocean, in the sound of the foliage of a great forest, in the distant roar of a great city, in the wind, the tempest and the storm : in short, in everything in Nature which has a voice or produces sound. To the SHCRBT UOCTRmB. hearing of all who hearken, it culminates in a single definite tone,*/ an uoapprectable pitch, which, as said, is the F, or Fa, of the diatoaK scale. From these particulars, that wherein lies the difference between the exoteric and the Esoteric nomenclature and symbolism will be evident to the student of Occultism. In short, kabalistic Astrology, u practised in Europe, is the semi -esoteric Secret Science, adapted for the outer and not for the inner circle. It is, furthermore^ often left incom- plete and not infrequently distorted to conceal the real truth. While it symbolizes and adapts its correspondences on the mere appearances of things. Esoteric Philosophy, which concerns itself pre-eminently with the essence of things, accepts only .such symbols as cover the whole ground. i.e.,snch, symbols as yield a spiritual as well as a psychic and physical meaning. Yet even Western Astrology has done excel- lent work, for it has helped to carry the knowledge of the existence of a Secret Wisdom throughout the dangers of the Mediaeval Ages and their dark bigotry up to the present day. when all danger has dis- appeared. The order of the planets in exoteric practice is that defined by their geocentric radii, or the distance of their several orbits from the EanJ: as a centre, viz., Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and Mooo In the first three of these we find symbolized the celestial Triad of supreme power in the physical, manifested universe, or Brahrai. Visbos and Shiva ; while in the last four we recognize the symbols of the ter- restrial quatcrnanr' ruling over all natural and physical revolutions of the seaions, quarters of the day, points of the compass, and elemeats. 'Thus : i i i Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. Morning. Noon. Evening. Night Youth. Adolescence. Manhood. Age. Fire. Air. Water. Earth. East. South. West. Nonh. But Esoteric Science is not content with analogies on the purdy objective plane of the physical senses, and therefore it is absolutely necessar>' to preface further teachings in this direction with a cli explanation of the real meaning of the word Magic. SIHON HACVUS THB MAGICIAN. 465 WHAT MAGIC IS, IN REALITY. Esoteric Science is, above all. the knowledge of our relations with and, in Divine Magic,* instparablcness from oar divine Sdves — the latter meaning something else besides our own higher Spirit. Thu!^ before proceeding: to exemplify and explain these relations, it may perhaps be useful to give the student a correct idea of the full meaningof this most misunderstood word j" Magic." Many are tho.4e willing and eager to ■ study Occultism, but ver>' few have even an approximate idea of the Science itself. Now. very few of our American and European students can derive benefit from Sanskrit works or even their translations, as these ■ translations are, for the most part, merely blinds to the uninitiated. I therefore propose to offer to their attention demonstrations of the afore- (aaid drawn from Neo-Platonic works. These arc accessible in transla- tion : and. in order to throw light on that which has hitherto been full of darkness, it will suffice to point to a certain key in them. Thus the Gnosis, both pee Christian and post-Christian, will serve our purpose admirably. There are millions af Christians who know the name of Simon Magus,/ and the little that is told about him in the Acts; but very few who have^^ even heard of the many mbtley, fantastic and contradictory details which tradition records about his life. The story of his claims and bis death is to be found only in the prejudiced, half-fantastic records about him in the works of the Church Fathers, sucli as Irenxus, Hpipbanius and P St. Justin, and especially in the anonymous PhUoiophumena. Yet he is a historical character, and the appellation of "Magus" was given to him and was accepted by all his conteuiporarick, including the heads of the Christian Church, as a qualification indicating the miraculous powers he possessed, and irrespective of whether he was regarded as a white (divine) or a black (infernal) Magician. In this respect, opinion has always been made subservient to the Gentile or Christian proclivi- ties of his chronicler. It is in his system and in that of Menander, his pupil and successor, that we find what the term '^agic" meant for Initiates in those days. Simon, as all the other ^Gnostics, taught that our world was creatad by the lowtr angels, whom he called £ons. He mentions only three * Usgic, Mit^a, tne&nA, in ll»9pintuii], tcccet wiim. Uic "tireat UTc," or rftTioi! life in spirit. The root U magk.M. aevo in the Suiskril muhal, Zend mar. Crrck mfgai. and l,j|Uii maf"". bU ai^fr- li^ " great." 3 M 466 THU SECRET DOCTRINE. / • f degrees of such, because it was and is useless, as we nave before explained, to teach anything about the four higher ones, and he there- fore begins at the plane of globes A and G. His system is as near to Occult Truth as any. so thai we may examine it, as well as his own and Menauder's claims about " Magic," to find out what they meant by the term. Now, for Simon, the .summit of all manifested creation was Fire. It was, with him as with as, the Universal Principle, the Infinite Potency, born from the concealed Potentiality. This Fire was the primeval cause of the manifested world of being, and was dual, haviog a manifested and a concealed, or secret, side. \ The Mcret side of the Fire is concealed in its evident [or objecdve} rideJaad Uk objective is produced from the secret side,*_l ^ he writes, which amounts to saying that the visible is ever present is the in\*isible. and the invisible in the visible. This was but a new fonn of stating Plato's idea of the Tntelligible (Notion} and the Sensible (Aistkiton), and Aristotle's teaching on the Potency fDuHamis) and the Act (Energeia). For Simou, all that can be thought of, all that can be acted upon, was perfect intelligence. Fire contained all. And thus all the parts of that Fire, being endowed with intelligence and reason, were susceptible of development by extension and emanation. This is otir teaching of the Manifested Logos, and these parts in their primor- dial emanation are our DhySn Chohans, the "Sons of Flame and Fire," or higher .<^ns. This ** Fire " is the symbol of the active and living side of Divine Nature. Behind it lay "infinite Potentiality in Potenti- ality," which Simon named " that which has stood, stands and will stand," or permanent stability and personified immutability. From the Potency of Thought, Divine Ideation thus passed to Action. Hence the series of primordial emanations through Thought begetting the Act. the objective side of Fire being the Mother, the sacred side of it being the Father. Simon called these emanations Syzygics (a united pair, or couple), for they emanated two-by-two, one as an active, and the other as a passive i^^on. Three couples thus emanated (or six tn all, the Fire being the seventh), to which Simou gave the following names: "Mind and Thonght ; Voice and Name; Reason and RcBec- tion,"t the first in each pair being male, the la.ft female. From these primordial six emanated the six ^ons of the Middle World. Let see what Simon himself says : * t^ii»»t$kumam; vt ». t ^Khu, EpimtiA ; Mimi. Cmtmm. i^uaut, Emtikmmiiu. I ^^^^ SERIES OP ^ONS. lacR of tbote she primitive beings contained the entire infinite Potency [of its parent]; but it was there only in Potency, and not in Act That Potency had to be called forth [or confonned] through an itnage in order that it should manifest in all il» essence, virtue, grandeur and cffecLs ; for only then could the emanated Potency become similar to its parent, the eternal and infinite Potency. If, on the contrary, it remained simply potentially in the six Potencies and failed to be conformed through an image, then tlie Potency woald not pass iota action, but would get lost,* in clearer terms, it tvotUd become atrophied, as the modem expre^on goes. ^Iow, what do these words mean if not that to be equal in all things to the Infinite Potency the JEons had to imitate it in its action, and become themselves, in their turn, emanative Principles, as was their Parent, giving life to new beings, and becoming Potencies /« a€/u them- selves ? To produce emanations, or to have acquired the gift of Kriyfi- shakti.t is the direct result of that power, an effect which depends on our own action. That power, then, is inherent in man, as it is in the primordial j^ons- and even in the secondary Emanations, by the veo' fact of their and our descent from the One Primordial Principle, the Infinite Power, or Potency. Thus wc find in the system of Simon Magus that the first six ^ous, synthesized by the seventh, the Parent Potency, passed into Act, and emanated, in their turn, six secondary -^ons, which were each synthesized by their respective Parents. In the Pkilosophumena we read that Simon compared the .i^ns to the " Tree of I^ife.' Said Simon in the Revctation -.X '5Cf^- 1 j ty^ It is written that there are two ramificationn of the universal ^ous, having neither beginning nor end. issued both from the s.inie Root, tlic invisible and incomprehen- sible Potentiality, Sigft [Silence]. One of these [series of ^ons] appears from above. This is the Great Potency, Univers.il Mind [or Divine Ideation, the Mahat of the Hindus]; it orders all things and is male. The other is from below, for it is the Great [manifested] Thought, the female -Eon, generating all things. These [two j. kinds of ^ons] Corresponding j with each other, have conjunction and manifest^ the middle distance [the intenneiliate sphere, or plane], the incomprehensible Air which has neither beginning nor end.|| This female "Air" is our Ether, or the kabalisUc Astral Light. It T' ' mhnofikumdMa, vl. I*. t Sec tmfra, tm^ wee. X The Creai KetMtmiiott {Hi Megali A^hotii), of which Slmoa hltawlf m anppcwcd lo ka«c t>cn the aatboT. \ UtltJoiXy, ataading opposite each oUier in tow* or pain. I) Pkiiom^wmtHa.iii. ifl. THR SBCEJtr DOCTBWK, is, then, the Second World of Simon, born of Fire, the principle of everything. We call it the One Lifb, the Intelligent, Divine Flame, omnipresent and infinite. In Simon's system this Second World was ruled by a Being, or Potency, both mole and female, or active and passive, g^ood and bad. This Parent-Betng^. like the primordial infinite Potency, is also called ** that which has stood, stands and will fttand." fio long as the manifested Kosmos shall last. When it emanated m *•/« and became like unto its own Parent, it was not dual or androgyne. It is the Thought (Sig£) that emanated from it which became as itself (the Parent), having become like unto its image (or antctype) ; the second had now become in its turn the first (on its own plane or sphere). As Simon has it : It [the PArrnt or Father] wu one. For having it fthe Thought] In Iticlf, it w» tfiT_ aXoae. It was oot, hDWc%-er. first, though it was pre^ziBting; bat manifesting itself to itteir from itself, it became the secoud (or dual). Nor was it called Father before it [the Thought] gave it that name. Ah, therefore, itself developing itself by itself, inanifcitted to itself its own Thouf^ht, so also the Thougiit being ntiitiifested did not act, but seeing the Father hid it in itself^ that is. (hid) that Potency (in itselfV Ami the Potency [DuHamti, vi/.: A/otts] and Thought lEfiinma'] are male- female. Whence they correspond with one another— for Potency in no way differs from Thonghl— bring otir. So from the things above is fonnd Potency, and from thuae below, Thought. It comes to pass, therefore, that that which is manifested from llietn, Although being one, yet is found to I>e iwofolil, the androgyne having the female in itselC So is Mind in Thought, things inseparable Erom each other which though t>eiiig one arc yet found dual.* He [Simon] calls the first Syzygy of the six Potencies and of the seventh, which Is with it. Nods and Bpinoia, Hea%'cn and Earth: the male looks down from on. tigh and takes thought for his Syzygy for spouse^ for the Eortti below receivca \ those iutellcctnal fruits which are brought down from Heaven and are cognate lo the Earth.t , Simon's Third World with its third scries of six JEoas, and the seventh, the Parent, is emanated in the same way. It is this same note which runs through every Gnostic system — gradual development downward into Matter by similitude ; and it is a law which is to be traced down to primordial Occultism, or Magic. With the Gnostics, as with us, this seventh Potency, synthesizing all, is the Spirit brooding over the dark waters of undifferentiated Space, N^rayana, or Vishnu, Ijix India; the Holy Gho.st in Christianity. But while in the latter the conception is conditioned and dwarfed by limitations necessitating • ty. at., vi. a. * 0^.ea,L i|. THH TRlPUt MOa. 469 faith and grace, Kastern Philosophy shows it pervading every atom, conscious or unconscious. Irenieus supplements the information on the fnrther development of these six ^Eons. We learn from him that Thought, having separated itself from its Parent, and knowing through its identity of Hssence with the latter what it had to know, proceeded on the second or intermediate plane, or rather World (each of such Worlds consisting of two planes, the superior and inferior, male and female, the Utter assuming finally both Potencies and becoming an- drogyne), to create inferior Hierarchies, Angels and Powers, Dominions and Hosts, of every description, which in their turn created, or rather emanated out of their own Essence, our world with its men and beings, over which Ihey watch. It thus follows that every rational being — called Man on Earth — is of the same essence and possesses potentially all the attributes of the higher ^ons, the primordial Seven. It is for him to develope, " with the image before him of the highest," by imitation in tulu, the Potency with which the highest of his Parents, or Fathers, is endowed. Here we may again quote with advantage from the Phtlowphumena : So then, according to Simon, this blissful and imperishable [principle] is cod> cealed in cvcrytbio^ in potency, not in act. This is "that which has stood, stands and will stand," vis., that which has stood above in ingenerable Potency: that which atands below in the stream of the waters generated in an image: that which will stand alxiTe, t)eaide the btissAil infinite Potency, if it m&kes itself like unto this image. For three, he ssys, are they that stand, and without these three jEoi» ti( stability, there is no ailornmcnt of the gcnerable which, according to them [the Simoniaus}. is borne on the water, and being moulded according to the similitude is a perfect and celestial (^on), in no manner of thinking inferior to the Ingener- able Potency. Thus Ihcy say : " I and thou [are] one ; txrfore me [wastj thon ; that which is after thee [is] I." This, be says, is the one Potency, divided into above and t>elow, generating itself, nourishing itself, seeking itself, finding itself: its own mother, father, brother, spouse, daughter and son, one, for it is the Root of all.* Thus of this triple JEon, we learn the first exists as " that which has stood, stands and will stand," or the uncreate Power, Atman ; the second is generated in the dark waters of Space (Chaos, or undifferen- tiated Substance, our Buddhi), from or through the image of the former reflected in those waters, the image of Him, or It, which moves on them ; the third World (or, in man. Manas) will be endowed with every power of that eternal and omnipresent Image if it but assimilates it to itself. For. tTO TBS RBCRKT UOCTRINB. Atl thit ift eternal, pure and incorruptible is conceuled in everything thai is, if only potentially, not acliially. Atid Ever}'tbing is that imaftc. provided the lower image (maa) ascends to that hlgfaeat irce and Root in Spirit and Thought Matter as Substatice is eternal and has never been created. Therefore [Simou Magus, with all the great Gnostic Teachers and Eastern Philo- leophers, never speaks of its beginning. "Eternal Matter" receives its Various forms in the lower iEon from the Creative Angels, or Builders, ^s we call them. Why, then, should not Man. the direct heir of the [liighest ^on, do the same, by the potency of his thought, which is [torn from Spirit? This is Kriyfishakti. the power of producing forms kOn the objective plane through the potency of Ideation and Will, from ^visible, indestructible Matter. Truly says Jeremiah,' quoting the " Word of the Lord " : Before I formed thee in the belly t Itaew thee; and berore thou earnest forth oat of the womb I sanctified thee, :for Jeremiah stands here for Man when he was yet an ^on, or Divine Man. both with Simon Magus and Eastern Philosophy. The first three jchapters of Getu-sis are as Occult as that which is given in Paper I. For sthe terrestrial Paradise is the Womb, says Simou, f Eden the regioQ^ surrounding it. The river which went out of Eden to water the garden . 'is the Umbilical Cord ; this cord is divided into four Heads, the streams •that flowed out of it. the four canals which serve to carry nutrition to the ''cetus, i.e., the two arteries and the two veins which are the channels for the blood and convey the breathing air. the unborn child, according Lto Simon, being entirely enveloped by the Amnion, fed through the 'Umbilical Cord and given vital air through the Aorta4 ."lin. t miaja^htimfna, *I. 14. t At Am Ibcic arr tlie Mnphalo.mcMiiMric *eu«U. two urtetie* and two v«a». bal thcw aflerwiHa totally disappear, an does the " voKular bttd*' on tbc Umbilical VckIcIc. from irhlch tht'y prormL ACreganb ttic "UmbllhMl Vmm1«" proper. th« Uubllloal Cord ultlmjtely liu caOvKinl ■round It .front right lo Irfl the one DmWIlcat Vrln which l&km th« oxvKnatcd htood froin tli? mother to tliv FcEttu. aud two Hypogiutrk or (JtublliLnl Arteries wbicti iikt the uaml-up blood from Wtt Fcetu* to 'IDk Ptaceiita. the content* of the wwieUbrinc the tvwrwof thkt wtaiid) pt«vaili after Urth. Thua jBcinice cum>bunilea Ibe wiadom and knowlfdjte of ancient Occultwm, for lo the day> uf Bituoa. , Hainu no mail, unleaa an Initiate, knew auylhiag Blx>ut tti« circulalioti of the Maid or atx>ut Phyai- ofocy. Whik this rnper wAit being ptinted, I received two .noall pqm:>hlctl ftr*m Dr. Jeranw A- Jndenon, which were printed in ilMi and 1S8S, and in which ta to he found the acicntific demos* 'itratlon of the f<cliil nntrltiiMi as ndvancrd in Pnper I BHrrfly, the I'octtn i« nottriclied by oamiKb fiom the AiniiiotM: t-liiiit aud rc»ptrea by means of the Placenta, Scirm-e kuot*s little of nolblnf About (be Amniotic Fluid and its uaea. If «ny one carea to Ibllow up tbla queatlou, I would rccom- me.ii I>r. ABdctsou's itemnrkt m tk* JVulHtiom aftk* FittfU. (Wood ft Co., Mew Vorfc.) HACIC AND HIHACLB5. The above is given for the elucidation of that which is to follow. The disciples of Simon Magus were numerous, and were instructed by him in Magic. They made use of so-called "exorcisms" (as in the New Tfsfamgnl), incantations, philtres ; believed in dreams and visions, and produced them at will ; and finally forced the lower orders of spirits to obey them. Simon Magus was called "the Great Powerof God," literally " the Potency of the Deity which is called Great." That which was then termed Magic we now call Theosophia, or Divine Wisdom, Power and Knowledge. His direct disciple. Menauder, was also a great Magician. Says Irenseus. among other writers : The ftnccessor of Simon was Mcaander. a SaniaritAn by trirth, who rrached the hij;heat summits in tbc Science of Hagic. Thus both master and pupil are shown as having attained the highest powers in the art of enchantments, powers which can be obtained only through "the help of the De\'il." as Christians claim; and yet their "works" were identical with those spoken of in the New Tesfameni, wherein such phenomenal results are called dii.'ine miracles, and are, therefore, believed iu and accepted as coming from and through God. But the question is, have lhe.se so-called "miracles" of the "Christ" and the Apostles everbeen explained any more thau the magical achieve* meuts of so-called Sorcerers and Magicians? I say, never. We Occul- tists do not believe in supernatural phenomena, and the Masters laugh at the word " miracle." Let us see, then, what is really the sense of the word Magic. The source and basis of it lie in Spirit and Thought, whether on the purely divine or the terrestrial plane. Those who know the history of Simon have the two versions before them, that of ■\^Tiite and of Black Magic, at their option, in the much talked of union of Simon with Helena, whom he called his Kpinota (Thought). Those who, like the Christians, had to discredit a dangerous rival, talk of Helena as being a beautiful and actual woman, whom Simon had met in a bouse of ill- fame at Tyre, and who was, according to those who wrote his life, the reincarnation of Helen of Troy. How, then, was she " Divine Thought"? The lower angels, Simon is made to say in PkihsQphu- mena. or the third i^ons. being so material, had more badness in them than all the others. Poor man, created or emanated from them, had the vice of his origiu. What was it ? Only this: when the third ,£ons possessed themselves, in their turn, of the Divine Thought through 472 THU 5SCRET DOCTRINE. the transmission into them of Fire, instead of making of man a com- plete being, according to the universal plan, they at first detained from him that Divine Spark (Thought, un Earth Manas); and that was the cause and origin of senseless man's committing the original sin as the angels had committed it eeons before ^^rcfusing lo create * Finally, after detaining Epinoia prisoner amongst them and having subjected the Divine Thought to every kind of insult and desecration, they ended by shutting it into the already defiled body of man. After this, as interpreted by the enemies of Simon, she passed from one female body into another through ages and races, until Simon found and rccogmxL*d her in the form of Helena, the " prostitute," Uie " lost sheep " of the parable. Simon is made to represent himself as the S3\'iour descended on Earth to rescue this " lamb " and those men in whom Epinoia is still under fhe dominion of the lower angels. The greatest magical feats are thus attributed to Simon through his sexual union with Helena, hence Black Magic. Indeed, the chief rites of this kind of Magic are based on such disgusting literal interpretation of noble myths, one of the noblest of which was thus invented by Simon as a symbolical mark of his own teaching. Those who understood it correctly knew what was meant by '' Helena." It was the marriage of Nous (AtmS-Buddlii) with Manas, the union through which Will and Thought become one and are endowed with divine powers. For Atman in man, being of an unalloyed essence, the primordial Divine Fire (or the eternal and uni- versal " that which has stood, stand.s and will stand ">, is of all the planes ; and Buddhi is its vehicle or Thought, generated by and gener- ating the "Father" in her turn, and also Will. She is "that which has stood, stands and will stand," thus becoming, in conjunction with Manas, male-female, in this sphere only- Hence, when Simon spoke of himself as the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and of Helena as his Epinoia, Divine Thought, he meant the marriage of his Buddhi with Manas. Helena was the Shakli of the inner man, the female potency. Now, what says Menander? The lower angels, he taught, were the emanations of Hnnoia fDesigning Thought). It was Ennoia who taught the Science of Magic and imparted it to him, together with the art of conquering the creative angels of the lower world. The latter stand for the passions of our lower nature. His pupils, after receiving MAQIC A DIVIKB SCrSNCB. I japtism from him (,i.e.. after Initiation), were said to "resurrect from the dead" and, "growing no older," became "immortal."* This "resurrection" promised by Menander meant, of course, simply the passage from the darkness of ignotancc into the light of truth, the awakening of man's immortal Spirit to inner and eternal life. This is the Science of the R5ja Yogis — Magic. Every person who has read Xeo- Platonic Philosophy knows how its chief Adepts, such as Plotinus. and especially Porphyr>', fought against phenomenal Theurgy. But, beyond all of them, Jamblichus, the author of the De Afyitmis, lifts high the veil from the real term(Theurgy, and shows us therein the true Divine Science of RSja Yoga.") Magic, he :»ays, is a lofty and sublime Science, Divine, and exalted above all others. It is Uic great icnie<]y fur all. ... It neither takes i\s source in, nor is it limited to, the body o; its passions, to (he human compound or its conctitution : but bU IB derived by it from our nppcr Gods, our divine Egos, which run like a silver thread from the Spark in us up to the primeval divine Fire.f Jamblichns execrates physical phenomena, produced, as he says, by the bad demons who deceive men (the spooks of the seance room), as vehemently as he exalts Divine Theurgy. But to exercise the latter, he teaches, the Theurgist must imperatively be "a man of high morality and a chaste Soul." The other kind of Magic is used only by impure, selfisb'men, and has nothing of the Divine in it. No real Vates would ever consent to find in its communications anything coming from our higher Gods. Thus one (Theurg>*) is the knowledge of our Father (the Higher Sell); the other, subjection to our lower nature. One requires holiness of the Soul, a holiness which rejects and excludes everything corporeal ; the other, the desecration of it (the Soul). One is the union with the Gods (with one's God), the source of all Good ; the other intercourse with demons (Eleraentals), which, unless we subject thetn, will subject us. and lead us step by step to moral ruin (mediumship). In short : Theurgy unites us most strongly to divine nature. This nature twf^ts itself through itsclt moves through its own power*, supports all, and is intelligent. Being the omameat of the Universe, tt invites as to intelligible iruth, to perfection ■ See HuKbiiu, Hitt. EecUt., UK fil. c«p. >6. 0* AfytUn'it. p. lOo, Uiiai m w i9i p. u>^ fol. f. THB SBCSET DOCTKIVS. and imparting perftctlon to others. It tmites as ■» intimately to all the creative actions of the Gods, according to the capacity of each of us, that the aoul luvii( accomplished the ftacre<I rites is consotitUtcU in their [the Gods' J actions and iatdb- gcnccs, until it launches itself ialo and is absorbed by the primordial dinae essence. This is the object of the sacred Initiations of the Egyptians.* Now, Jarablichus shoMTS us how this union of our Higher Sotil with the Universal Soul, with the Gods, is to be effccled. He speaks of Manteia. which is Samiidhi, the highest trauce.f He speaks also of dream which is divine vision, when man re-become.s again a God. By Theurgy, or RSja Yoga, a man arrives at; (i) Prophetic Discemmeol through our God (the respective Higher Ego of each of us) reveahog to us the truths of the plane ou which wu happen to be acting ; (i) Ecslacy and lUuuiiuatiou ; (3) Action in Spirit (in Astral Body or through Will) ; (4) and Domination over the uiiuor, senseless demou (Elementals) by the very nature of our purified Egos. But this demands the complete puriEcatiou of the latter. And this is called by him Magic; through initiation into Theurgy. But Theurgy has to be preceded by a training of our senses and tbe knowledge of the humau Self iu relation to the Divine Self. So long as man has not thoroughly mastered this preliminary stud}-, it is idle to anthropomorphize the formless. By "formless" I mean the higher and the lower Gods, the supermundane as well as mundane Spirits, or Beings, which to beginners can be revealed only in Colours and Sounds. For none but a high Adept can perceive a "God" in its true transcendental form, which to the untrained intellect, lo the Chel^, will be visible only by its Aura. The visions of full figures casually perceived by sensitives and mediums belong to one or another of the only three categories they can see : (a) Astrals of living mcQ: (b) Niruiauakayas (Adepts, good or bad, whose bodies are dead, but who have learned to live in the invisible space in their ethereal personalities): and (c) Spooks, Elementariesand Elementals masquerad- ing in shapes borrowed from the Astral Light in general, or from figures in the "mind's eye" of the audience, or of the medium, which are immediately reflected in their respective Auras. Having read the foregoing, students will now better comprehend the necessity of first studying the correspondences between our *' principles" — which are but the various aspectsof the triune (spiritual and physical) man— and our Paradigm, the direct roots of these in the Universe. ■ Df MytUtUt, |>. J49, Uacs i; to t%, *t uf., cap*. «. sad vU. t tbi4., p^ 100. •«& Ui, ca^ ilL kRCI m I \ In view of this, we must resume our teaching about the Hierarchies directly connected aud for ever linked with man. Enough has been said to show that while for the Orientalists and profane masses the sentence, " Om Mani Padme Hum" means simply "Oh the Jewel in the Lotus," Esotcrically it signifies "Oh my Crod within me." Yes; there is a God in each human being, for man was. and will re-become. God. The sentence points to the indissoluble union between Man and the Universe. For the Lotus is the universal symbol of Kosmos as the absolute totality, and the Jewel is Spiritual Mau. or God. In the preceding Paper, the correspondences between Colours, Sounds, and " Principles " were given ; and those who have read our second volume will remember that these seven principles are derived from the seven great Hierarchies of Angels, or Dhyan Chohans, which are, in their turn, associated with Colours and Sounds, and form collec- tively the Manifested Logos. In the eternal music of the spheres we find the perfect scale corre- sponding to the colours, and in the number, determined by the vibra- tions of colour and sound, which " underlies every form and guides every sound," we find the snraraing-up of the Manifested Universe. We may illustrate these correspondences by showing the relation of colour and sound to the geometrical figures which* express the pro- gressive stages in the manifestation of Kosmos. But the student will certainly be liable to confusion if, in studying the Diagrams, he does not remember two things : (i) That, our plane being a plane of reflection, and therefore illusionary. tke various noia- iions are reversed and must be counted from below upwards. The musical scale begins from below upwards, commencing with the deep Do and ending with the far more acute Si. (2) That K.tma Rfipa (correspond- ing to Do in the musical scale), containing as it does all potentialities of Matter, is necessarily the starting-point on oar plane. Further, it commences the notation on every plane, as corresponding to the '• matter" of that plane. Again, the student must also remember that these notes have to be arranged in a circle, thus showing how Fa is the middle note of Nature. In short, musical notes, or Sounds. Colours * aeem/i \fa. i.]4:'-4'<'''V-:li-M.'f Mf.. U>d6js,«f SiV' ^^^^^ 47C TUK SRCRar DOCTRINX. ^^^^^^ ^^^1 and Nnml>ers proceed from one to seven, and not from seven to one ^^H as erroneously shown in the spectrum of the prismatic colours, u ^^H which Red is counted first : a fact which neceftsitated my patting the ^^H principles and the days of the week at random in Diagram II, Tlie ^^^1 musical scale and colours, according to the number of vibrations, pro- ^^^^ ceed from the world of gross Matter to that of Spirit thus : /Mu. ^Vm inter t. Siam a/ Mmtuv. ^^^^^^ ChbijA, ahsdow or Double. , \l9let. 6L V * SUkt. ^^^1 nifchrr Manu. Splrittul In- ' Indigo. U. •■ t critical gUto, caned Aif li Occttltitin. ^^^H Aoric anclope. i Blue. So]. 5 Z Stcas or Tapoar. ^^^^1 LiOwer Manu,orAniiiMlSonl. pa. *-H Critical SUtc ^^^1 BuddU, or Spiritual SouL Vdlow. Mi. "J WatCT. ^^^H Prina, or Ufe Prlncipl*. { Onagt. R«. "6 Critical St*t«. Ict- ^^^H KAmn R&pa, IhcScal of Ani- Red. Do. -? ^^^^^^ Here again the student is aske ^^^1 spondence between "principles ^^H given. The Ksoteric enumeratic ^^H the conventional exoteric. The ( ^^H according to illusive appearance* ^^^1 Esoteric Buddhism, were tabulate ^^H their minds. It was half a blind. d to disn " and n cannc )ne is th . The d for be aiss fron numbers t be mac e reality. luman ] ginuers. I his mind any corre- for reasons already le to correspond with the other is clasfufied >rinciples, as given in so as not to confuse ^^^^H J To proceed : The Point in the Circle is the Uu manifested Logos, corresponding to Absolute Life and Absolute Sound. The first geometrical £gurc after the Circle or the Spheroid is the Triangle. It corresponds to Motion, Colour and Sound. Thus the Point in the Triangle represents the Second Logos, " Father- Mother, " or the White Ray which is no colour, since it contains » potentially all colours. It is shown radiating from the Unmanifested Logos, or the Unspoken Word. Around the first Triangle is formed on the plane of I Primordial Substance in this order (reversed z& to our I p lane) : r A. VioUt (a J Si. Indito. Grten. (<0 /a. Ymem. Orange. {/) Re. (a) The Astra] Double of Nature, or the Paradigm o{ all Forms. (^) Divine Ideation, or Universal Mind. (0 The Synthesis of Occult Nature, the Egg of Brahmft, containing all and radiating all. (d) Animal or Material Soul of Nature, source of animal and vege- table intelligence and instinct. • Tbe MMter-Ker or Tooie of Haiiirntcd Hmkm. 478 TBB SKCRKT DOCTRJNB. (e) The aggregate of Dbyftn Cbohantc Intelligeoccs, Fohat. (/) Life Priuciple iu Nature. (^) The Life Procreating Principle in Nature. That which, on the spiritual plane, corresponds to sexual affinity on the lower. Mirrored on the plane of Gross Nature, the World of Reality is re\'ersed, and becomes on Earth and our plane : B. (d) Red is the colour of manifested dual, or male and female. In man it is shown in its lowest animal form. (*) Orange is the colonr of the robes of the Yogis and Bnddlust Priests, the colour of the Sun and Spiritual Vitality, also of the Vital Principle. (f) Yellow or radiant Golden is the colour of the Spiritnal. Divine Ray in every atom ; iu man of Buddhi. (i/) Green and Red are, so to speaU, interchaugcable colours, for Green absorbs the Red, as being threefold stronger in its ribratioos than the latter ; and Green is the compli!menlary colour of extreme Red. This is why the Lower Manas and K^ma Rupa are respectively shown as Green and Red. (e) The A?;tral Plane, or Auric Envelope in Nature and Man. (/) The Mind or rational element in Man and Nature. (g) The most ethereal counterpart of the Body of man, the <^posite pole, standing in point of vibration and sensitiveness as the Violet stands to the Red. The above is on the manifested plane : after which we get the sem and the Manifested Prism, or Man on Earth. With the latter, the Black Magician alone is concerned. In Kosmos, the gradations and correlations of Colours and fwunds, and therefore of Numbers are infinite. This is suspected even in Physics, for it is ascertained that there exist slower vibrations than those of the Red, the slowest perceptible to us, and far more rapid vibrations than those of the Violet, the most rapid that our senses can perceive. But on Earth, in our physical world, tbe range of perceptible vibrations is limited. Our physical senses cannot take cognizance of vibrations above and below the septenary and limited gradations of the prismatic colours, for «uch vibratious are incapable of causing to. us the COLOURS AND PRINCIPLES. 479 (I J QnngtM' Lit VeHow - Otttm. Bliie. Indigo. sensation of colour or sound. It will always be the graduated septenary and no more, unless we learn to paralyze our Quaternary' and discern both the superior and inferior vibration!* with our spiritual senses seated in the upper Triangle. Now, on this plane of illusion, there are three fundamental colours, as demonstrated by Physical Science, Red, Blue and Yellow (or rather Orange-Yenow"). Expressed in terms of the human principles they are : (i) Kama Rtipa, the seat of the animal sensations, welded to. and serving as a vehicle for the Animal Soul or Lower Manas (Red and Green, as said, being interchangeable) ; (2) Auric Envelope, or the essence of man ; and (3) Prana, or Life Principle. But if from the realm of illusion, or the living man as he is on our Earth, subject to his sensuous perceptions only, we pass to that of semi-illusion, and observe the natural colours themselves, or those of the principles, that is, if we try to find out which are those that in the perfect man absorb all others, we shall find that the colours correspond and become complementary in the following way : Violet. '■'• -f •■■*.*.- ■- - - violet. A faint violet, mist-like form represents the Astral Man within an oviform bluish circle, over which radiate in cea.seless vibrations the prismatic colours. That colour is predominant, of which the corres- ponding principle is the most active generally, or at the particular moment when the clairvoyant perceives it. Such man appears during his waking states ; and it is by the predominance of this or that colour,' and by the intensity of its vibrations, that a clairvoyant, i/ he be acquainted with correspondences, can judge of the inner state or character of a person, for the latter is an open book to every practical Occultist. In the trance state the Aura changes entirely, the seven prismatic colours being no longer discernible. In sleep also they are not all " at home." For those which belong to the spiritual elements in the man, viz.. Yellow, Buddhi; Indigo, Higher Mauas; and the Blue of the Auric Envelope will be either hardly discernible, or altogether missing. The Spiritual Man is free during sleep, and though his physical memory may not become aware of it, lives, robed in his highest essence, in realms on other planes, in realms which are the land of reality, called dreams on onr plane of illusion. 4S0 THK SKCKKT DOCTMNK. A good clairvoyant, moreover, if he had an opportunity of seeing a Yogi in the trance state and a mesmerized subject, side by side, wooU leatn an important lesson in Occultism. He would learn to know ihe difference between self-induced trance and a hypnotic state resnlting from extraneous influence. In the Yog!, the "principles " of the lover Quaternary disappear entirely. Neither Red, Green, Red-Violet nor the Adric Bhie of the Body are to be seen ; nothing but hardly percep- tible vibrations of the goldcu-hued PrSna principle and a violet flame streaked with gold rushing upwards from the head, in the region where the Third Eye rests, and culminating in a point. If the student remembers that the true Violet, or the extreme end of the spectrum, b no compound colour of Red and Blue, but a homogeneous colour with vibrations seven times more rapid than those of the Red,* and that the golden hue is the essence of the three yellow hues from Orange Red to Yellow-Orange and Yellow, he will understand the reason why : he lines in his own Auric Body, now become the vehicle of Buddhi-Manas. On the other hand, in a subject in an artificially produced hypnotic or mesmeric trance, an effect of unconscious when not of conscious Black Magic, unless produced by a high Adept, the whole set of the principles will be present, with the Higher Manas paralyzed, Buddhi severed from it through that paralysis, and the red-violet Astral Body entirely subjected to the Lower Mauas and K&ma Rupa (the green and red animal monsters in us). One who comprehends well the above explanations will readily see how important it is for every student, whether he is striving for practical Occult powers or only for the purely psychic and spiritual gifts of clair- voyance and metaphysical knowledge, to master thoroughly the right Waw-ltnglkt in Milli- JVumier »/ TtArs/iMu n • Colour t. mttret. IVilliomj. Violet extrcioc 4d6 jyt VioKl U3 709 Vjolfft- Indif i> Indign 43'* 449 ^ ladiKo-Bluc 4M 6m Blur 479 (131 Btue-Gn«n 4»i 6to Green ^■* ste Gr*cii-Vpllow U* S6< I Vdlow - 5S« 544 Vc-I low - flnn gi; 1 s*s < Oruigv ■ Onuin'Kcd lt«d 3M 503 4&( ited>atr«>nr «U 40ft THtt PRtMOSDTAL SSVBN. COTT<9po3^nces between the human, or nature principles, and those of Kosmos. It is ignorance which leads materialistic Science to deny the inner man and his Divine powers ; knowledge and personal experience that allow the Occultist to affirm that such powers are as natural to man as swimming to fishes. It is like a Laplander, in all sincerity, denying the possibility of the catgut, strung loosely on the sounding- board of a violin producing comprehensive sounds or melody. Our principles are the Seven-Stringed Lyre of Apollo, truly. In this our age, when oblivion has shrouded ancient knowledge, men's facnlties are no better than the loose strings of the violin to the Laplander. But the Occultist who knows how to tighten them and tune his violin in harmony with the vibrations of colour and sound, will extract divine harmony from them. The combination o( these powers and the attuning of the Microcosm and the Macrocosm will give the geometrical equiva- lent of the invocation " Om Mani Padmf Hum." This was why the previous knowledge of music and geometry was obligatory in the School of P>'thagoras. THE ROOTS OF COLOUR AND SOUND. r Further, each of the Primordial Seven, the first Seven Rays forming the Manifested Logos, is again sevenfold. Thus, as the seven colours of the solar spectrum correspond to the seven Rays, or Hierarchies, so each of these latter has again its seven divisions corresponding to the same series of colours. But in this case one colour, viz., that which characterizes the particular Hierarchy as a whole, is predominant and more intense than the others. These Hierarchies can only be syinbolized as concentric circles of prismatic colours ; each Hierarchy being represented by a series of seven concentric circles, each circle representing one of the prismatic colours in their natural order. But in each of these "wheels" one circle will be brighter and more vivid in colour than the rest, and the wheel will have a surrounding Aura (a fringe, as the physicists call it) of that colour. This colour will be the characteristic colour of that Hierarchy as a whole. Each of these Hierarchies furnishes the essence (the Soul) and is the " Builder " of one of the seven kingdoms of Nature which are the three elemental kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable, the 3 = 4S2 THF. 5BCRST DOCTSINB. animal, and the kingdom of spiritual man.* Moreover, each Hierarchy furnishes the Auraof one of the seven principles in man with its specific colour. Further, as each of these Hierarchies is Ibe Ruler of one of the Sacred Planets, it will easily be understood how Astrology came into existence, and that real Astrologj* has a strictly scientific basis. The symbol adopted in the Eastern School to represent the Seres Hierarchies of creative Powers is a wheel of seven concentric circles, each circle being coloured with one of the seven colours; call them Angels, if you will, or Planetary Spirits, or, again, the Seven Rulers of the Seven Sacred Planets of our system, as in our present case. At all events, the concentric circles stand as symbols for Ezekiel's Wheds with some Western Occultists and Kabalists, and for the " Builders" or PrajSpati with us. DIAGRAM III. The student should carefully examine the following Diagram. Thus the Linga Shaiira is derived from the Violet sub- ray of the Violet Hierarchy; the Higher Manas is similarly derived from the Indigo sub-ray of the Indigo Hierarchy, and so on. Every man being bom under a certain planet, there will always be a predominance of that planet's colour in him, because that " principle" will rule in him which has its origin in the Hierarchy in question. There will also be a certain amount of the colour derived from the other planets present in his Aura, but that of the ruling plauet will be strongest. Now a person in whom, say. the Mercury principle is predominant, will, by actiug upon the Mercury principle in another person born under a different planet, be able to get him entirely under his control. For the stronger Mercur>' principle in him will overpower the weaker Mercurial element in the other. But he will have little power over persons bom under the same planet as himself. This is the key to the Occult Sciences of Magnetism and Hypnotism. The student will understand that the Orders and Hierarchies are here named after their corresponding colours, so as to avoid using numerals, which would be confusing in connection with the human principles, as the latter have no proper numbers of their own. The real Occult names of these Hierarchies cannot now be given. The student must, however Tcinember that the colours which we see with our physi- cal c}'es are uot the true colours of Occult Nature, but are merely the effects pro- duced on the mechanism of our physical organs by certain rates of vibration. For in- stance, Clerk Maxwell has demonstrated that the retinal effects of any colour may be imitated by properly combin- ing three other colours. It follows, therefore, that our retina has only three distinct colour sensations, and we therefore do not perceive the seven colours which really exist, but only their ** imita> tions," so to speak, in ottr physical organism. Thus, for instance, the Orange-Red of the first " Tri- angle " is not a combination of Orange and Red, but the true "spiritual" Red, if the term may be allowed, while the Red (blood-red) of the spectrum is the colour of KSma, animal desire, and is inseparable from the material plane. Opangc THE UNITY or T3EITY. Esotericisra. pore and simple, speaks of no personal God ; therefore are we considered as Atheists. But, in reality, Occult Philoaophy, as a whole, is based absolutely on the ubiquitous presence of God. the 4^ THK SECRHT DOCTRUTB.' Absolute Deity ; and if It Itself is uot speculated upon, as being too sacred and yet incomprehensible as a Unit to the &nite intellect, y«t tht entire Philosophy is based upoiLJi? Divine Powers as being the Source of all that breathes and lives ancUias existence. In every ancient Religioa the Onb was demonstrated by the many. In Eg^'pt and India, in Chalda:a and Pbcenicia, and finally in Greece, the ideas about Deity were expressed by multiples of three, five and seven ; and also by dghl, nine and twelve great Gods, which symbolized the powers and propei* ties of the One and Only Deity. This was related to that in6oite sub- division by irregular and odd numbers to which the metaphysics of these nations .subjected their Onh Divinity. Thus constituted, the cycle of the Gods had all the qaalities and attributes of the Oni SUPKBHB AND UNKNOWABLE : for in this collection of divine Personali- ties, or rather of Symbols personiBed, dwells the One God, the God Onh, that God which, in India, is said to have no Second. O Got] Ani [the Spiritual Sun^ thou reaideat in the agglomeratioa of thy dir personages.* These words show the belief of the ancients that all manifestation proceeds from one and the same Source, all emanating from the one identical Principle which can never be completely developed except in and through the collective and entire aggregate of Its emanations. The Pleroma of Valentinus is absolutely the Space of Occult Philo- sophy ; for Pleroma means the " Fullness," the superior regions. It U the sum total of all the Divine manifestations and emanations express- ing the plenum or totality of the rays proceeding from the OxB, differentiating on all the planes, and trausforming themselves into Divine Powers, called Angels and Planetar)' Spirits in the Philosophy of every nation. The Gnostic .^ons and Powers of the Pleroma are made to speak as the Devas and Siddhas of the Purdnas. The Epinoia, the first female manifestation of God, the " Principle " of Simon M^^ and Saturninus. holds the same language as the Logos of Basitides; and each of these is traced to the purely esoteric AJetheia, the Truth of the Mysteries, All of them, we are taught, repeat at different times and id different languages the maguificeut hymn of the Egyptian papymsv thousands of years old : Th« Gods adotr thee, they greet thee, O the One Dark Truth. And addressing Ra, they add : 1 • yf/iuf GrH»di f^pmit Orhiiuy. p. Wi, WISDOM AND TRUTH. 485 The Gods bow before thy Majesty, by exalting the Souls of that which produces them . . . and say to thee, Peace to all emanations from the Unconscious Father of the Conscious Fathers of the Gods. . . . Thou producer of beings, we adore the souls which emanate from thee. Thon begettest ns, O thou Unknown, and we greet thee in worshipping each God-Sonl which descendeth from thee and Uveth in ns. ^-^ This is the soarce of the assertion : Know ye not that ye are Gods and the temple of God. This is shown in the " Roots of Ritualism in Chnrch and Masonry," in Lucifer for March, 1889. Truly then, as said seventeen centuries ago, " Man cannot possess Truth (Al^theia) except he participate in the Gnosis." So we may say now : Ko man can know the Truth unless he studies the secrets of the Fleroma of Occultism ; and these secrets are all in the Theogony of the ancient Wisdom- Religion, which is the AlStheia of Occult Science. PAPER III. A Word Concerning the Earlier Papers. / As man>;, have written and almost complained to me that they could find no practical clear application of certain diagrams appended to the first two Papers, and others have spoken of their abstniseness. a short explanation is necessary. The reason of this difficulty in most cases has been that the point of view taken was erroneous; the purely abstract and metaphysical was mistaken for, and confused with, the concrete and the physical. I«et: us take for example the diagrams on page 477 (Paper II.,) and say that these are entirely macrocosmic and ideal. It must be renienibercd that the study of Occultism proceeds from Universals to Particular* and not the reverse way, as accepted by Science. As Plato was an Ini- tiate, he very naturally used the former method, while Aristotle, never having been initiated, scoffed at his master, and, elaborating a systcoi of bis own, left it as an heirloom to be adopted and improved by Bacon. Of a truth ihc aphorism of Hermetic Wisdom. "As above, so below," applies to all Esoteric instruction; but we must begin with the above; we must learn the formula before we can sum the scries. The two figures, therefore, are not meant to represent any two particular planes, but are the abstraction of a pair of planes, explana- tory of the law of reflection, just as the Lower Manas is a reflection of the Higher. They must therefore be taken in the highest metaphysical The diagrams are only intended t^familiarize students with the lead- ing ideas of Occult correspondenMSyWie very genius of metaphysical, or macrocosmic and spiritual Occultism forbidding the use of figures or even symbols further than as temporao' aids. Once define an idea in words, and it loses its reality ; once figure a metaphysical idea, imd V OCCi;i.T SKCRKCY. 487 you materialize its spirit. Figures must be used only as ladders to scale the battlements, ladders to be disregarded when once the foot is set upon. |;he.rampaij,. Let students, therefore, be very careful to spiritualize the Papers and avoid materializing them ; let them always try to 6nd the highest meaning possible, confident that in proportion as,t)iey approach the material and visible in their speculations on the Papers, so far are they from the right uaderstanding of them. This is especially the case with these first Papers and Diagrams, for as in all true arts, so in Occultism, we must first learn the theor>- before we are taught the practice. CONCBKNING SBCKBCT. Students ask : Why such secrecy about the details of a doctrine the body of which has been publicly revealed, as in Esoteric Buddhism and the Secret Doctriiu f To this Occultism would reply: for two reasons:— (a) The whole truth is loo sacred to be given out promiscuoualy. (*) The knowledge of all the details and missing links in the exoteric teachings is too dangerous in profane hands. The truths revealed to man by the " Planetary Spirits" — the highest Kumaras, those who incarnate no longer in the Universe during this Mah&manvantara — who will appear on earth as Avatdras only at the beginning of every new human Race, and at the junctions or close of the two ends of the small and great cydesXiu time, as man became more animalized, were made to fade away from his memoryj Yet, though these Teachers remain with man no longer than the time required to impress upon the plastic minds of child-humanity the eternal verities they teach, Their Spirit remains vivid though latent in mankind, f And thelfiill knowledge of the primitive revelation has remained always wif^ a few elect, and 'has been transmitted from that time up to the present, from one genetation of Adepts to another. As the Teachers say in the Occult Primer : nrTXff is thne so as to ensure them [the eternal truths] from being utterly tost orforgpttm in ages hereafter by the forthcomins generations. The mission of the Planetar>' Spirit is but to strike the key-note of Truth. When once He has directed the vibration of the latter to run its course uninterruptedly along the concatenation of the race to the end of the cycle. He disappears from our earth until the following Plane- tar>* Manvautara The mission of any teacher of Esoteric truths, *rBn SBGRBT DOCTRZNB. ^- whether he stands at the top or the- foot of the ladder of knowledge^ U precisely the saiue : as above, so below. I have ouly orders to strike the key-uote of the various Esoteric tmths among the learners as i body. Those units among you who will have raised themselves oo the " Path " over their fellow-students, in their Esoteric sphere, will, as the "Elect" spoken of did and do in the Parent Brotherhoods, receive the last explanatory details and the ultimate key to what they learn. No one. however, can hope to gain this privilege before the MAaTBRS— not my humble self— &nd him or her worthy. If you wish to know the real raisoH d'etre for this policy, I now give ^ to you. No use my repeating and explaining what all of you know as well as myself; at the very bcgiuuing, events have shown that no caution can be dispensed with. Of our body of several hundred men and women, many did not seem to realize either the awful sacrednctf of the pledge (which some look at the end of their pen), or the fact that their personality has to be entirely disregarded, when brought face to face with their Hiohkk Sblf ; or that all their words and professions went for naught unless corroborated by actions. This was human nature, and no more ; therefore it was pa&sed leniently by» and a new lease accorded by the Mastbb. But apart from this there is a danger lurking in the nature of the present cycle itself. Civilized humanity, however carefully guarded by its invisible Watchers, the Nirmina- kayas, who watch over our respective races and nations, is yet. owing to its collective Karma, terribly under the sway of the traditional opposeis of the Nirm^nakSyas — the " Brothers of the Shadow," embodied and disembodied ; and this, as has already been told you, will last to the end of the first Kali Yuga cycle (1897), and a few years beyond, as the smaller dark cycle happens to overlap the great one. Thus, notwith- standing all precautions, terrible secrets are oAen revealed Co entirely unworthy persons by the efforts of the "Dark Brothers'* and their working on human brains. This is entirely owing to the simple fact that in certain privileged organisms, vibrations of the primitive truth put in motion by the Planetary Beings are set up, in what Western philosophy would term innate ideas, and Occultism " flashes of genius,"* Some such idea based on eternal truth is awakened, and all that the wfttchful Powers can do is to prevent its entire revelation. ~~ Everything in this Universe of differentiated matter has its two a.spccts, the light and the dark side, and these two attributes applied * Sec " Geniu," Lmei/»r, Nor., illf, p. a«7. J THE UGHT AND ZkASX BlDfiS OX KATUKB. 489 I i practically, lead the one Lo use, the other to abuse. Ever>' man may become a Botanist without apparent danger lo his fellow-creatures; and many a Chemist who has mastered the science of essences knows that every one of them can both heal and kill. Not an ingredient, not a poison, but can be used for both purposes — aye. from harmless wax to deadly prussic add, from the saliva of an infant to that of the cobra di capeUa. This every tyro in medicine knows — theoretically, at any rate. But where is the learned Chemist in our day who has been per- mitted to discover the " night side '* of an attribute of any substance in the three kingdoms of Science, let alone in the seven of the Occultists ? Who of them has penetrated into its Arcana, into the innermost Essence of things and its primary correlations ? Yet it is this knowledge aloue which makes of an Occultist a genuine practical Initiate, whether he turn out a Brother of Light or a Brother of Darkness. The essence of that subtle, traceless }x>ison, the most patent in nature, which entered into the composition of the so-called Medici and Borgia poisons, if used with discrimination by one well versed in the septenary degrees of its potentiality on each of the planes accessible to man on earth — could heal or kill every man in the world ; the result depending, of course, on whether the operator was a Brother of the Light or a Brother of the Shadow. The former is prevented from doing the good he might, by racial, national, and individual Karma ; the second is impeded in his fiendish work by the joint efforts of the human " Stones " of the " Guardian Wall."* It is incorrect to think that there exists any special "powder of pro- jection " or " philosopher's stone," or " elixir of life." The latter lurks in ever>* Bower, in every stoue nnd mineral throughout the globe. It 18 the ultimate essence of everythinj; &n its way to higher and kigk^r\ ofoluiion. As there is no good or evil per u, so there is neither " elixir of life" nor " elixir of death." nor poison, ptr u, but all this is con- tained in one and the same universal Ksscnce, this or the other effect, or result, depending on the degree of its differentiation and it3 various correlations. The light side of it produces life, health, bliss, divine peace, etc. ; the dark side brings death, disease, sorrow and strife. This is proven by the knowledge of the nature of the most violent poisons ; of some of them even a large quantity will produce no evil effect on the organism, whereas a grain of the same poison kills with • Sec Vaitt ^tiu SHt»t^, PP- U aail 94. vt. 16, ClOHMty 490 TH« 3ECIIBT DOCTRINK. tbe rapidity of lightning ; while the same graiu, again, altered by a certiiB combination, though its quantity remains almost identical, will heal. The number of the degrees of its differentiation is septenary, as are the planes of its action, each degree being either beneficent or maleficent in its effects, according to the system into which it is introduced. He who is skilled in these degrees is on the high road to practical Adept- ship ; he who acts at hap>hazard — as do the enormous majority of the "Mind Curers," whether "Mental" or "Christian Scientists"— is likely to me the effects on himself as well as on others. Put on the track by the example of the Indian Yogis, and of their broadly but incorrectly outlined practices, which they have only read about, b« have had no opportunity to study — these new sects have rushed head- long and guideless into the practice oi denying and affirming. Thus they have done more harm than good. Those who are successful owe it to their innate magnetic and healing powers, which very often counteract that which would otherwise be conducive to much evil. Beware, I say ; Satan and the Archangel are more than twins; they are one body and one mind — Deus est Demon inversus. Is THB PRACTICB OF CONCKNTRATION BeN'EFICBNT? Such is another question often asked. I answer: Genuine concen- tration and meditation, conscious and cautious, upon one's lower self in the light of the inner di\'inc man and the Paramit^, is an excellent thing. But to "sit for Yoga," with only a superficial and oilen dis- torted knowledge of the real practice, is almost invariably fatal: for ten to one the student will either develop mcdiumistic powers in him- self or lose time and get disgusted both with practice and theot?. Before one ntshes into such a dangerous experiment and seeks to go beyond a minute examination of one's lower self and its walk in life, or that which is called in our phraseolog>*, " The Chela's Daily Life Ledger," he would do well to learn at least the difference between the two aspects of " Magic." the White or Divine, and the Black or Devilish, and assure himself that by "sitting for Yoga," with no experience, as well as with no guide to show him the dangers, he does not daily and hourly cross the boundaries of the Divine to fall into the Satanic. Nevertheless, the way to learn the difference is very easy; one has only to remember that no Esoteric truths entirety unveited wiU ever be given in public print, in book or magazine. 4) ! .^ I ask students to turn to the Theosopkist of November, 1S87. Oa haturCs ntfun fottcjts. 49T I I page 98 they will find the beginning of an excellent article by Mr. R4iua Prasad ou " Nature's Finer Forces."* The value of this work is not so much in its literary merit, though it gained its author the gold medal o( the Tktosophist, as in its exposition of tenets hitherto con- cealed in a rare and ancient Sanskrit work on Occaltism. But Mr. RSma Prasad is not an Occultist, only an excellent Sanskrit scholar, a university graduate and a man of remarkable intelligence. His es-says are almost entirely based on TSntra works, which, if read indiscriminately by a tyro in Occultism, will lead to the practice of most unmitigated Black Magic. Now, since the difference of primary importance between Black and White Magic is the oDJect with which it is practised, and that of secondary importance the nature of the agents used for the production of phenomenal results, the line of demarcation between the two is vtxy — very thin. The danger is lessened only by the fact that every Ocatlt book, so-called, is Occult only in a certain sense : that is, the text is Occult merely by reason of its blinds. The symbolism has to be thoroughly understood before the reader can get at the correct sense of the teaching. Moreover, it is uever complete, its several portions each being under a different title, and each contain- ing a portion of some other work; so that without a key to these no such work divulges the whole truth. Even the famous Shivdgama, ou which Natures Fhur Ferffs is based, *' is nowhere to be found in complete form." as the author tells us. Thus, like all others, it treats of only five Tattvas instead of the seven as in Esoteric teachings. Now, the Tattvas being simply the substratum of the seven forces of Nature, how can this be? There are seven forms of Prakhti as KapiLVs SAnkhya, the Vishnu Purdna, and other works teach. Pra- kriti is Nature, Matter (primordial and elemental) ; therefore logic demands that the Tattvas also should be seven. For whether Tattvas mean, a.s Occultism teaches, "forces of Nature," or, as the learned R^ma Prasad explains, "the substance out of which the universe is formed " and " the power by which it is sustained," it is all one : they _^ iA?*nr _ * The refrrcoecs to " Naldn'i Finn Forces " wbicb ToUow, haw rfptrt to the eight nrliclrs which app<r«rrd in Ihr pngM of the Tyifomfikiu and nal to Uic RfletMi eaiayx and Uir traiiitlKlion of • chapirr of Ihe.Siliwil^oiwii ifbich arecwilBiow) In thf-hnolecBlkd t^'alure't Finfr Fartfi. ttieSfin-Seama In lis dctaiU U [iiircly Tiiitnf, aud oothiiiK hut hum cma r<sult from uij ptAClical IoIIowihk uf it> pncepU. I would inott ■tronK'r <l'*<uulr tuir *tnd<-Rt from attempting any of thnc Hatha Vota pnplicm. for he will cilhn- ruia himaFlf entirely, or throw himMlf io far baeik thai it wiU to aUaoat imtiHjHubte to rcgjui the )o«t grotiad in this iacarrtaiioa. The Inuulation tefnred to hu bttn cooaldrtably expurKalrd. and even nfnr ia hardly 6t for pnbliration. It tTcntnmirtida Bla^ Uagirof Ihr worn kind, and is the very antipodea of apiritual Klja Vo|fB. Beware, I aay. 494 raa sscrbt doctrinr. 3, Lewer Afatias, the Aninal Soal, the reflecttou or shadow of tbe Buddhi-Manas. having ihc poten- tialities of both, but coaque*^ generally by its association with the K&ma elements. 3. Buddhi ; for Baddhi is a ray of the Universal Spiritual Soul (Alava). 4. Manas {K\it Higher Ego); for it proceeds from Mahat, the first product or emanation of Pradhdna, which contains potentially all the Gunas (attributes). Mahat is Cos- mic Intelligence, called the "Great Principle."* As tbe lower man is the combined product of two aspects — physi- cally, of his Astral Form, and psycho- physiologically of K£ma-Man«i —he is not looked upon even as an aspect, but as an illusion. The Auric Egg, on account of its nature and manifold functions, has to be well studied. As Hiranyagarbha, the Golden Womb or Egg, contains BrahniS, the collective symbol of the Seven Universal ForceSi so the Auric Egg contains, and is directly related to, both the divine and the physical man. In its essence, as .said, it is eternal; in its constant correlations and transformations, during the reincamatin; progress of the Ego on this earth, it is a kind of perpetual raotioo machine. As given out in our second volume, the Egos or KumSras, incarnat* ing in man, at the end of the Third Root-Race, are not human Egos of this earth or plane, but become such only from the moment they ensoul the Animal Man. thus endowing him with his Higher Mind. Each is a '* Breath " or Principle, called the Human Soul, or Mauas, the Mind. As the teachings say : " Each is a pillar of light. Having chosen its vehicle, it expandtd, smr- rounding with an Akdshic Aura the human animal, while the Divine (Manasic) Principle settled ■within that human form." Ancient Wisdom teaches us. moreover, that from this first incarna- tion, the Lunar Pitris, who had made men out of their Chha>*ds ot Shadows, are absorbed by this Auric Essence, and a distinct Astral Form is now produced for each forthcoming personality of the reincarnating series of each Ego. * PrtiM, on emflli >t my rate, is Uiua bnl a node of life, ■ constant cyclic modon frooi wHUn oat- waidl; and bark «irain. an oat-brMtUas and in-bwaUiinf of Uie ONi Uks, cm Jiva, Uic vynonrm af ifie AtaMiluir anil rnkiiuwalilr Dfilr rrtna i« not abaolatg U/c, oc Jt»», but ll» aap«ct ia a w«ltt of ^(lualoii. In tbe Tht^topkul, May. 18H, 9. 47V, PitaattiaaU la be " one »imge Gdh- thaa Um c*<}« Balln-orUiPeaTth." \ ^ {dMSdt^) THB AURIC OOC. 4§5 I I! Thus the Aaric Egg, reflecting all the thoughts, words and deeds of man, is : (a) The preserver of every Karmic record. (d) The storehouse of all the good and evil powers of man. receiving and giving out at his will — nay, at his very thought — every potentiality, which becomes, then and there, an acting potency : this Aura is the mirror in which sensitives and clairvoyauls sense and perceive the real man, and see him as he is, not as he appears. (f) As it furnishes man with bis Astral Form, around which the physical entity models itself, first as a foetus, then as a child and man, the astral growing apace with the human being, so it furnishes him during life, if an Adept, with his M^y^vi Rupa, or Illusion Body, which is not his P'lVa/- Astral Body ; and after death, with his Devachanic lif'^Entity and K^ma Kup.i, or Body of Desire (the Spook).* In the, case of the Devachanic Entity, the Ego, in order to be able to go into a state of bliss, as the " I " of its immediately preceding incar- nation, has to be clothed (metaphorically speaking) with the spiritual elements of the ideas, aspirations and thoughts of the now disembodied personality ; otherwise what is it that enjoys bliss and reward ? Surely not the impersonal Ego, the Divine Individuality. Therefore it must be the good Karmic records of the deceased, iniprcssed upon the Auric Substance, which furnish the Human Soul with just enough of the spiritual elements of the ex-pcrsonality, to enable it to still believe itself that body from which it has jusl been severed, and to receive its fruition, during a more or less prolonged period of "spiritual gesta- tion." For Devacban is a " spiritual gestation " within au ideal matrix J— atatitA. birth of the Ego into the world of effects, which ideal, subjective V^ birth precedes its next terrestrial birth, the latter being determined by its bad Karma, into the world of causes,! a^ In the ca.se of the Spook, the K3ma Rupa is furnished from the animal dregs of the Auric Envelope, with its daily Karmic record of animal life, so full of aniiual desires and selfish aspirations.! - --- T-i^ ^A.jariLl^^^/t-^ ■ zz:* . * It U FTTouei>tis to call Uic fo<irlli iiuu^n ptibctple " Kitna B&pm." H ia ao RApn or ibnn si all until aner ri^ath. but stnnds for ThPRmIc rlrmrnu in man. his animal dndna and pasiioiit, anch as anger, luat, mvy, Tcvcngc, etc., Uic progcoy of aeUubnoa aiid ni>tL«r. T Hrrr the world c( rfTrcIn i» the Drvsrhanic Mal^. and the vrofUl nr emtuat, e«Tth llfr. I II i* thia Kima KOpa alone tbat can maltriatite In mcdlnmiitic ■lancet, which occM*oaa]ly happcfia when it ia iwl the A»Ital Double or Llnga Shartm, of th« nediuni himself which apprnra. How, then, can Ibia vile bundle of pauiona and tcrrcnrial lusta, tvaurrected by. and gaining connciouMiMa only througli Ihe oiganl&in at the tnediura, he accepted m% a "deparf-d ansd " or tlic Spirit uf a once humnn body ' A» well uy orthc micrabic peat which foaleui on a peraoo. tliat " la a swTirt departed aagel. 4^ THV 5BCRBT DOCTRIHB. W Now the Linga Sharira remains with the Physical Body, and fiado out along with it. An astral entity then has to be created, a new LtOKi Shartra provided, to become the bearer of all the past Tanhas and future Karma. How is this accomplished ? The mediumistic Spook, the "departed angel," fades out and vanishes also in its turn* as a& entity or full image of the personality that was, and leaves in the Kima- lokic world of effects only the record of its misdeeds and sinful thoogtits -•ndacls. known in the phraseology of Occultists as Tinhic or faumaa ElemenlaT^^ Entering into the composition of the Astral Form of th* new body, into which the Ego. upon it? quilting the Devachanic state Is to enter according to Karmic decree, the Hleraentals form that or» astral entity which is bom within the Auric Envelope, and of which it is of%en said : Bad Karma waits at the threshold of Devachan. with its army of Skandha«.t For no sooner is the Devachanic state of reward ended, than the Ego is indissolubly united with (or rather follows in the track oQ the new Astral Form. Both are Karmically propelled towards the family or woman from whom ia to be born the animat chiti chosen by Karma to become the vehicle of the Ego which has jtwt ^wakened from the Devachanic state. Then the new Astral Form, composed partly of the pure Ak^shic Es.sence of the Auric Hgg. and partly of the terrestrial elements of the punishable sins and misdeeds of the last personality, is drawn into the womau. Once there. Natnre models the foetus of flesh around the Astral, out of the growing materials of the male seed in the female soil. Thus grows out of the essence of a decayed seed the fruit or eidolon of the dead seed* the physical fruit producing in its turn within itself another, and other seed.*; for future plants. And now we may return to the Tattvas, and see what they mean in nature and man. showing thereby the great danger of indulging in fancy, amateur Yoga, without knowing what we are about. * Thli !■ RccornplIshM In mar* «r 1a» time, accditllnjr to the defR« la which Uie pnooftHtr (whottc ilrrjt* li now i*i wwi wptnlual or malnial. IT vpiritnalltT prcvAllcd. tbcn Ui« Lorv*. ai Spoufc, will fade out v*ry »>>oi» ; t*ut if Uic personality wu ?ety iufttrti*lislic, thp Klma R4pa nuy la»t fm ccaluhra ■nil— in mnimt. thmigh very czcrpUoiul otsot— «*Tn cnrvirr «riih thr help of loaw of Ita ■C4ttn^ Skxnilhu. whlcti are >U Iraiufonncd la time into BleiaenUta. Sec Ibe Kty to Tlwini^Q. pp. 141 /i Mf ., tu which work it was impoMibte tn gu tato delaili, bat wberc tbc ^tfc»ru<fn» ^^e apufccs of aa tbc yenni of JUnatc cScci. t Kty M Tlitoutpky. p. 141 FtVK OR SBVBN TATPVAS. 497 Ths Tattvic Correlations and Mranikg. In Nature, then, we find seven Forces, or seven Centres of Force, and everytUiiig seems to respond to that number, as for instance, the sep- tenary scale in music, or Sounds, and ihc septenary spectrum in Colours. 'l bave not exhausted its nomenclature and proofs in the earlier volnmes, yet enough is given to show every thinker that the facts adduced are no coincidences, but very weighty testimony. There are several reasons why only five Tattvas are given in the Hindn systems. One of these I have already mentioned ; another is that owing to our having reached only the Fifth Race, and being (so far as Science is able to ascertain) endowed with onlir fives enses, the two remaining .senses that are stil! latent in man can have their existence proven only on phenomenal evidence which to the Materialist is no evidence at all. The five physical senses are made to correspond with the five lower Tatt\'as, the two yet undeveloped senses in man ; and the two forces, or Tattvas, forgotten by BrShmaus and still unrecognized by Science, being so subjective and the highest of them so sacred, that they can only he recognized by. and known through, the highest Occult Sciences. It is easy to sec thai these two Tattvas and the two senses (the sixth and the seventh) correspond to the two h igh est ftuman)princi pies, Ruddhi and the Auric Envelope, impregnated with tnC "ITgiit of AtmS. Unless we open in ourselves, by Occult training, the sixth and seventh senses, we can never comprehend correctly their corresponding types. Thus the statement in Naiure^s Finer Forces that, in the TStt^nc scale, the highest Tattva of all is Akdsha* (followed by [only] four, each of which becomes grosser than its predecessor), if made from the Esoteric standpoint, is erroneous. For once Aki^sha, an almost homogeneons and certainly universal Principle, is translated Ether, then Akdsha is dwarfed and limited to our \nsible Universe, for assuredly it is not the Ether of Space. Ether, whatever Modern Science makes of it, is differentiated Substance : Ak3sha, having no attributes save one— Sound, of which it is thf subsiralnm—'is, no substance even exoterically and in the minds of some Orientalists,! hut rather Chaos, or the Great Spatial Void.t * FoUowinc Shiv^ama. tb« «aid outbor caumerau* Uic corrci[rondcii<«t is Uu< wiae ; AkUui. Btli«T. U roUtnrrd bjr Viyu, Cn* ; Trjos, Hnl : Apatt, liquid ; nad PriUiivl, SoUd. ert Km Piti-I>dw»r(1 Hall'i DDKs on Ihr yifhnit PurAmc. 4 Tbc pair which wc refer la aa the One Ufc, the Root of AJl, And ilklihs in tU ptc-diOcRmtiRliac poiod Anawen U> ihc Brahma (ncutert nnd Adiii uf »onw lUndtia, nnd •touda in thCMinc RiftUoaM Uic FanbrabBun ind UUapraktili of- Uie Vedlntim. . j 3 *■*■ 498 THB SKCRKT DOCTKn^E- Esoterically, Alcftsba alone is Divine Space, and becomes Ether only on the lowest and last plane, or our visible Universe and Earth. In this case the blind is in the word " attribute," which is said to be Sound. But Sound is no attribute of Alt&sha. but its primary correlation, its primordial manifestation, the Logos, or Divine Ideation made Word. and that "Word" made "Flesh." Sound may be considered u "attribnte" of Akisha only on the condition of anthropomorphiziag the latter. It is not a characteristic of it. thongh it is ce^inly as Innate in it as the idea " I am /" is innate in our thoughts, t" ^ ^ Occultism teaches that Akasha^^tains .and Tndudes the seven Centres of Force, therefore the six Tattvas. of which it is the seventh, or rather their synthesis. But if Akdsba be taken, as we believe it is in this case, to represent ouly the exoteric idea, then the author is right ; because, ^eeing~]that .\kdsha is universally omnipresent, following the I^ur&nic limitation. y<»r the better comprehension of ottr finite in te!l^U, he places its commencement only beyond the four planes of our Har^ Chain,* the two higher Tattvas being as concealed to the average mortal as the sixth and seventh senses are to the materialistic mind. Therefore, while Sanskrit and Hindu Philosophy generally speak of five Tattvas only, Occultists name seven, thus making them corres- pond with every septenary in Nature. The Tattvas stand in the same order as the seven macro- and micro-cosmic Forces : and as taught in Bsotericism, arc as follows : (i) Adi Tattva, the primordial universal Force, issuing at (he beginning of manifestation, or of the "creative" period, from the eternal immutable Sat, the substratum of hix- It corresponds with the Auric Envelope or BrahmS's Egg, which surrounds every globe, as well as every man, animal and thing. It is the vehicle containing potentially everything — Spirit and Substance, Force and Matter. Adi Tattva, in Esoteric Cosmogony, is the Force which we refer to as pro- ceediug from the First or Lfnmanifested Logos. (2) Anupadaka Tattva,! the first diflfcrcntiation on the plane of being — the first being an ideal one — or that which is bom by trans- formation from something higher than itself. With the Occultists, this Force proceeds from the Second Logos. • Bn above, 1. dlarma, p. **■■ %. £■•» * Attapldaka, Opapatika in rtU. ntcatia Ifae " parvtittrv." bom witboat falhcr or nuUm-, fran HflJ, aa a timoaformatiOD, t.t- th« Cod BralnBk spninc fTOin tfac l,Wu> Ukc fymbol Of thp Dmwvrwi tbat zf^m% fiwn Viahntt'a navrl, VUhnu lypifiyiu^ rirruH] anil liiniMww Spaca, asd ■rabn>4 UM Vnivrrw and LoOQt ; Um iu> tliical UuildliK la alio \tora bata a I.<Miia. L. M THB TATTVAS. M (3) Arasha Tattva, this is the point from which all exoteric Philo- sophies aud Religions start. Ak&sba Tattva is explained in tbeiu as Eiheric Force. Ether. Hence Jupiter, the " highest " God. was named after Pater iCiher; Indra, once the highest God in India, is the ethcric or heavenly expanse, and so with Urauus. etc. The Christian biblical God, also, is spoken of as the Holy Ghost, Pneuraa, rarefied wind or air. This the Occultists call the Force of the Third Logos, the Creative Force in the already Manifested Unix'^erse. (4) VAvu Tattva, the aerial plane where substance is gaseous. (5) Taijas Tattva, the plane of our atmosphere, from tejas, luminous. (6) ApAS Tattva, watery or liquid substance or force. (7) PRiTHni Tattva, solid earthly substance, the terrestrial spirit or force, the lowest of all. All these correspond to our Principles, and to the seven senses and forces in man. According to the Tattva or Force generated or induced in us, so will our bodies act. Now, what I have to say here is addressed especially to those members who are anxious to develop powers by "sitting for Yoga." You have seen, from what has been already said, that in the develop- ment of R3ja Yoga, no extant works made public are of the least good ; they can at best give inklings of Hatha Yoga, something that may develop mediumship at best, and in the worst case — consumption. If those who practice "meditation," and try to learn "the Science of Breath," will read attentively Natures Fitter Forces, they will find that it is by utilizing the five Tattvas only that this dangerous science is acquired. For in the exoteric Yoga Philosophy, and the Hatha Yoga practice, AkSsha Tattva is placed in the head (or physical brain) of man ; Tcjas Tattva in the shoulders ; Vayu Tattva in the navel (the seat of all the phallic Gods. " creators " of the universe and man) ; Apas Tattva in the knees ; and Prithivi Tattva in the feet. Hence the two higher Tattvas and their correspondences are ignored and /'' j^ excluded ; and, as these are the chief factors in Rlja Yoga, no, spiritual y | or intellectual phenomena of a high nature can take place. v The best results obtainable will be physical phenomena and no more. As the " Five Breaths." or rather the five states of the human breath, in Hatha Yoga correspond to the above terrestrial planes and colours, what spiritual results can be obtained ? l On the contrary, they are the very reverse of the plane of^pirit, or the higher raacrocosmic plane, reflected -flU Soo THE SECRET DOCTRINE. as they are upside down, in the Astral Light. This is proven in tbe TSntra work, Shivagama, itself. IvCt us compare. First of all, remember that the Septenarj' of visible and also invisible Nature is said in Occultism to consist of the thref (and four) Fires, which grow into the forty-nine Fires. This shows that as the Macro* cosm is divided into seven great planes of various diflferentiatioiis of Substance — from the spiritual or subjective, to the fhlly objective or material, from Ak&.sha down to the sin-laden atmosphere of our earth- so, in its turn, each of these great planes has three aspects, based oa four Priuciplcs, as already shown above. This seems to be quite natural, as even modem Science has her three states of matter and what are gener- ally called the " critical " or intermediate states between the solid, the fluldic. aud the gaseous. Now. the Astral Light is not a universally diffused stuff, but pertains i'onljTto our earth and all other bodies of the system on the same plane of matter with it. Our Astral Light is, so to speak, the Linga Shorira of our earth ; only instead of being its primordial prototype, as in the case of our ChhSyt, or Double, it is the reverse. Human and animil bodies grow and develop on the model of their antetypal Doubles; whereas the Astral Light is bom from the terrene emanations, grows and develops afler its prototypal parent, and in its treacherous wttvtA everything from the upper planes and from the lower solid plane, tbe earth, both ways, is reflected rever^fd. flence the confusion of its colours and sounds in the clairvoyance and clairaudience of the sensi- tive who trusts to its records, be that sensitive a Hatha Yogi or a medium. Thelfollowingi parallel between the Esoteric and the T&ntra Tables of the Tattvas in relation to Sounds and Colours shows this t«7 clearly : /^ 7X47 /fCC0Mp^f^^f/^& f/^St-^ ytt THB SBCKBT UOCTRnOt. Such, then, is the Occult Science on which the modem Ascetics aad Yogis of India base their Soul development and powers. They are known as the Hatha Yogis. Now, the science of Hatha Yoga resb upon the "suppression of breath," or PranSyama, to which exerdae our Masters are unanimously opposed. For what is PrdnSy&ma? Literally translated, it means the ** death of (vital) breath." Pr&na, aa said, is not Jlva. the eternal fount of life immortal : nor is it connected in any way with Pranava, as some think, for Pranava is a synonym of At;M in a mystic sense. As much as has ever been taught publicly aad clearly about it is to be found iu Natures Finer Forces. If such direc- tions, however, arc followed, they can only lead to Blaclc Magic and mediumship. Several impatient Chel^, whom we knew personally to India, went in for the practice of Hatha Yoga, notwithstanding oof warnings. Of these, two developed consumption, of which one died; others became almost idiotic; another committed suicide; and one developed into a regular Tantrilca, a Black Magician, but his careef, fortunately for himself, was cut short by death. The science of the Five Breaths, the moist, the fiery, the airy, ete., has a twofold significance and two applications. The T&ntrikas take it literally, as relating to the regrulation of the vital, lung breath, whereas the ancient RSja Yogis understood it as referring to the mental ox "will" breath, which alone leads to the highest clairvoyant powers, to the function of the Third Eye, and the acquisition of the true RSja Yoga Occult powers. The difference between the two is enormous. The former, as shown, use the five lower Taltvas; the latter begin by ttsing the three higher alone, for mental and will development, and the rest only when they have completely mastered the three ; hence, they use only one (AkSsha Tattva) out of the Tantric five. As well said in the above stated work, "Tattvas are the modifications of Svanu" Now. the Svara is the root of all sound, the substratum of the P>tha- gorean music of the spheres, Svara being that which is beyond Spirit, in the modern acceptation of the word, the Spirit within Spirit, or as very properly translated, the "current of the life-wave," the emana- tion of the One Life. The Great Breath spoken of in our first volume is Atma. the etymology of which is '* eternal motion.** Now while the ascetic Cheli of our school, for his mental develop- ment, follows carefully the process of the evolution of the Uni- verse, that is, proceeds from universals to particulars, the Hatha Yogi reverses the conditions and begins by sitting for the suppression i HATHA AND RAJA TOGA. SOS of his (vital) breath. And if. as Hindu philosophy teaches, at the beginning of kosmic evolution, "Svara threw itself into the form of Aldlsha," and thence snccessively into the forms of VSyu (air), Agni (fire). Apas (water), and Prithivi (solid matter).* then it stands to leason that we have to begin by the higher supersensttous Tattvais. The RSja Yogi does not descend on the planes of substance beyond S^kshma (subtle matter), while the Hatha Yogi develops and oscs his powers only on the material plane. Some Xautrikas locate the three Nadis, SushumnS, td^ and Pingalfi. in the medulla oblongata, the central line of which they call Sushumn^, and the right and left divisions, Pingaia and Id3. and also in the heart, to the divisions of which they apply the .same names. The Trans-Himaiayan school of the ancient Indian Raja Yogis, with which the modem Yogis of India have little to do. locates SushumnS, the chief seat of these three Nadis, in the central tube of the spinal cord, and IdS. and Pingalfl on its left and right sides. Sushumni is the Brahmadanda. It is that canal (of the spinal cord), of the use of which Physiology knows no more than it does of the spleen and the pineal gland, la and Pingal^ are simply the sharps and flats of that Fa of human nature, the keynote and the middle key in the scale of the septenary harmony of the Principles, which, when struck in a proper way, awakens the sentries on either side, the spiritnal Manas and the physical Kdma, and subdues the lower through the higher. But this effect has to be produced by the exercise of will-power, not through the scientift: or trained suppression of the breath. Take a transverse section of the spinal region, and yotl will find sections across three columns, one of which columns trans- mils the volitional orders, and a second a life current of Jiva — not of Prtna. which animates the body of man — during what is called Sam^dhi and like .<^tates. He who has studied both systems, the Hatha and the RSja Yoga, finds an enormous difference between the two ; one is purely psycho- physiological, the other purely psycho-spiritual. The TSntiists do not seem to go higher than the six visible and known plexuses, with each of which they connect the Tattvas ; and the great stress they lay on the chief of these, the Muladhara Chakra (the sacral plexus), shows the material and selfish bent of their efforts towards the acquisition of powers. Their five Breaths and five Tattvas are chiefly concerned * See Theotophiti, Febnair. lUS, p, rjt, 5<H THU SECRET DOCTRIXE. with the prostatic, epigastric, cardiac, and laryngeal plexuses. Alnort ignoring the Ajfift, ihey are positively ignorant of the synthesizing laryngeal plexns. But with the followers of the old school it is different. We begin with the master>' of that organ which is situated at the base of the brain, in the pharynx, and called by Western Anato- mists the Pituitar>' Body. In the series of the objective cranial organs, corresponding to the subjective T^ttvic principles, it stands to the Third Bye (Pineal Gland) as Manas stands to Bnddhi ; the arousing and awakening of the Third Eye must be performed by that vascular organ, that insignificant little body, of which, once again. Physiology knows nothing at all. The one is the Energizer of Will, the other that of Clairvoyant Perception. 2.*^ _ _ Those who arc Physicians, Physiologists. Anatomists, etc., will understand me better than the rest in the following explanation. Now, as to the functions of the Pineal Gland, or Conarium. and of the Pituitary Body, we find no explanations vouchsafed by the standard authorities. Indeed, on looking through the works of the greatest specialists, it is curious to observe how much confused ignorance oo the human vital economy, physiological as well as psychological, is openly confessed. The following is all that can be gleaned from the authorities upon these two important organs. (i) The Pineal Gland, or Conarium, is a rounded, oblong body, from three to four lines longj.of a deep reddish grev, connected with the pos* terior part of the third ventricle of the braiq^llt is attached at its base by *^ two thin medullary cords, which diverge forward to the Optic ThalanuT]'' Remember that the latter are found by the best Physiologists to be the organs of reception and coudeusation of the most sensitive and sen- sorial incitations from the peripher>' of the body (according to Occult- ism, from the periphery* of the Auric Egg, which is our point of communication with the higher, universal planes). We are further told that the two bands of the Optic Tbnlami. which are inflected to meet each other, unite on the median line, where they become the two peduncles of the Pineal Glaud. (2) The Pituitary Body, or Hypophysis Cerebri, is a small and hari ioT^n, about six lines broad, three long and three high. If is formed of an anterior bean-shaped, and of a posterior and more rounded lobe, which are uniformly united. Its component parts, we are told. m« almost identical with those of the Pineal Gland ; yet not the slightest connection can be traced between the twolcentsea.J To this, however. i THB AWAKSNING OF TEB SBVBNTB SBNSH- 505 Occultists take exception ; they Jtnow that there is a coanection. and this even anatomically^ and physically.. Dissectors, on the other hand, have to deal with corpses; and, as they themselves admit, brain- matter, of all tissues and organs, collapses aud changes form the soonest — in fact, a few minutes after death. When, then, the pulsating life which expanded the mass of the brain, filled all its cavities and energized all its organs^ vanishes, the cerebral mass shrinks into a sort of pasty condition, aud ot^ce open passages become closed. But the contraction and even interblendiiig of parts in this process of shrink- ing, and the siibsequent pasty state of the brain, do not imply that there is no connection between these two organs before death. In point of fact, as Professor Owen has shown, a connection as objective as a g^roove and tube exists in the crania of the human foetus and of certain fishes. When a man is in his normal condition, an Adept can see the golden Aura pnlsating in both the centres, like the pulsation of the heart, which never ceases throughout life. This motion, however, under the abnormal condition of effort to develop clair\'oyant faculties, becomes intensified, and the Aura takes on a stronger vibratory or swinging action. The arc of the pulsation of the Pituitary Body mounts upward, more and morej^until, just as when the electric current /^ strikes some solid object, the current finally strikes the Pineal Gland, and the dormant organ is awakened and set all glowing with the pure AkSshic Fire. ' This is the psycho- physiological illustration of two organs on the physical plane, which are, respectively, the concrete symbols of the metaphysical concepts called Manas and Buddhi. The latter, in order to become conscious on this plane, needs the more differentiated fire of Manas ; &uf once (he sixlh sotse has awaktned the sn'tnth, the light which radiates from this seventh sense illumines the fields of infinitude. For a brief space of time man becomes omnis- cient; the Past and the Future, Space and Time, disappear and become for him the Present. If an Adept, he will store the knowledge he thus gains in his physical memory, and nothing, save the crime of indulging in Black Magic, can obliterate the remembrance of it. If only a Chela, portions alone of the whole truth will impress them- selves on his memory, and he will have to repeat the process for years, never allowing one speck of impurity to stain him mentally or physi- cally, b*fore he becomes a fully initiated Adept. It may seem strange, almost incomprehensible, that the chief success of Gupta Vidy&, or Occult Knowledge, should depend upon such flashes 506 TH« SBCRBT DOCTRINB. C t of clairvoyance, and that the latter should depend in tnan on two such insignificant. .excrescences in his cranial cavity, "two homy wtrtt covered with grey sand (acervnlus cerebri).*' as expressed by Bichatio )i\i A fialomii Descriptive : yet so it is. But this sand is not to be des- pised ; nay, in truth, it is snly this landmark of the internal, indepeo- dent activity of the Couarium.that prevents Physiologists from classify- ing it with the absolutely useless atrophied organs, the relics of i previous and now utterly changed anatomy of man during some period of his unknown evolution. This " sand " is very mysterious, and baffles the inquiry of every Materialist. In t^e cavity on the anterior sur&ct of this gland, in young person^&ud in its substance, in people of advanced years, is found A yellowish substance, semi-transparent, brilliant and hard, the diameter of wbicb does not exceed half a line.* Such is the acervultis cerebri. This brilliant " sand *' is the concretion of the gland itself, so say the Physiologists. Perhaps not, we answer. The Pineal Gland is that which the Eastern Occultist calls Devdksha. the " Divine Eye.'* To this day, it is the chief organ of spirituality in the human brain, the seal of genitis. the magical Sesame uttered by the purified will of the Mystic, which opens all the avenues of truth for him who knows how to use it. The Esoteric Science teaches that Manas, the Mind Ego. does not accomplish its full union with the child before he is six or seven years of age, before which period, even according to the canoa of the Church and Law. no child is deemed responsible, f ' Manas be- comes a prisoner, one with the body, only at that age. Now a strange thing was obser\red in several thousand cases by the famous German anatomist. Wengel. With a few extremely rare exceptions, this " sand." or golden-coloured concretion, is found only in subjecta^-afler the completion of their seventh jtai.y^ Ilhe case of fools these calculi are ver>- few ; iu congenital idiots they are completely absent. Mor- gagni.J Grading,§ and GumU were wise men in their generation, and are wise men to-day, since they are the only Physiologists, so far. * SfltmimcmPK. D* Aetnmlo Ctriir*, vol- U- p. JM. t Ib the Or««l: Kuiem Chnrcta no cbltd is aUcnrvd to c* to coaftadon bofcm Ihe Kgc of ir*i.*ftM' wUch be U c(m«ii]«ied lo hare rcttcbed TlM Age of rewoa. I Dt C»ui. £/., vol xij. } Adtttrt. Mid., li. its. n De LafiUit Glamdntir Pimntit fn QtiinQut M*mt Attn. 1751. THP. IIASTBR CRAKKAS. 507 who conuect the calculi with mind. For, sum up the facts, that they are absent in young children, in very old people, and in idiots, jP and the unavoidable conclusion will be that they must be connected T with mind. Now since every mineral, vegetable and other atom is only a con- cretion of crj'stallized Spirit, or Akfisha, the Universal Soul, why. asks Occultism, should the fact that these concretions of the Pineal t Gland, are, upon analysis, found to be composed of animal matter, ^^ phosphate of lime and carbonate, serve as an objection lo the state- meat that Ihey are the result of the work of mental electricity upon surrouudiug matter? Our seven Chakras are all situated in the bead, and it is these Master Chakras which govern and rule the seven (for there are seven) principal plexuses in the body, besides the forty-two minor ones lo which Pbysio]og>- refuses that name. The fact that no microscope can detect such centres on the objective plane goes for nothing ; no micro- scope has ever yet detected, nor ever will, the diflfereuce between the motor and sensory nen-'e-tubes, the conductors of all our budily and psychic sensations ; and yet logic alone would show that such difference exists. And if the term plexus, in this application, does not represent to the Western mind the idea conveyed by the term of the Anatomist, then call them Chakras or Padmas, or the Wheels, the Lotus Heart and Petals. Remember that Physiology, imperfect as it is. shows septenary groups all over the exterior and interior of the body; the se%-enlheadj orifices, the seven *' organs" at the base of the brain, theseven plexuses, the pharyngeal, laryngeal, cavernous, cardiac, epigastric, prostatic, and sacral, etc. e.T-c ih^ -.-3 •^^'^n^ oF^0 t sT When the time comes.fadvanced stndentsJwiU be given the minute details about the Ma.ster Chakras and taught the use of them : till then, less difficult subjects have to be learned. If asked whether the seven plexuses, or Tattvic centres of action, are the centres where the seven Rays of the Logos vibrate, I answer in the affirmative, simply remarking that the rays of the Logos vibrate in every atom, for the matter of that. In these volumes it is almost revealed that the " Sons of Pobat " are the personified Forces known in a general way as Motion, Sound, Heat, Light, Cohesion, Electricity or Electric Fluid, and Nerve-Force or Magnetism. This truth, however, cannot teach the student to attune and moderate the Kundalint of the cosmic plane with the vi/ai Kunda- y)8 TBS 3SCKBT UOCTKIMB. liui, the Electric Fluid with the Nerve-Force, and unless he does so, he is sure to kill himself; for the one travels at the rate of about 90 feet, and the other at the rate of ii5,ac>o leagues a second. The sevta Shaktis respectively called Para Sbakti. Jhana Shakti, etc.. are synony- mous with the " Sons of Fohat," for they are tbeir female aspects. At the present stage, however, as their names would only be confusing to the Western student, it is better to remember the £u{;lisb equivalents as translated above. As each Force is septenary, their sum is, oi course, forty-nine. The question now mooted in Science, whether a sound is capable of calling forth impressions of light and colour in addition to its nattiral Bound impressions, has been answered by Occult Science ages ago. Evcr>- impulse or vibration of a physical object producing a certaii vibration of the atr. that is, causing the collision of physical particles, the sound of which is capable of affecting the ear, produces at the same time a corresponding flash of light, which will assume some particular colour. For, in the realm of hidden Forces, an audibU sound is but ft subjective colour; and a perceptible colour, but an inaudibU sound; both proceed from the same potential substance, which Physicists used to call ether, and now refer to under various other names ; but whidi we call plastic, through invisible Space. This may appear a paradoxi- cal hypothesis, but facts are there to prove it. Complete deafness, for instance, does not preclude the possibility of discerning sounds; medical science has several cases on record which prove that these sounds are received by, and conveyed to, the patient's organ of sight, through the mind, under the form of c:hromatic impressions. The very fact that the intermediate tones of the chromatic musical scale were formerly written in colours shows an unconscious reminiscence of the ancient Occult teaching that colour and sound are two out of the seven correlative aspects. &ft our plane, of one and the same thing. Nature's first differentiated Substance. Here is an example of the relation of colour to vibration well worthy of the attention of Occultists. Not only Adepts and adi'anced Chelas, but also the lower order of Psychics, such as clairvoyants and psycho- metrists, can perceive a psychic Aura of various colours around every individual, corresponding to the temperament of the person within it In other words, the mysterious records within the Auric Egg are not the heirloom of trained Adepts alone, but sometimes also of natural Psychics. Every hnman passion, every thought and quality, is indi- cated in this Aura by corresponding colours and shade* of coloar, and certain of these are sensed and felt rather than perceived. The best of such Psychics, as shown by Galton. can also perceive colours produced by the vibrations of musical instruments, every note suggesting a difTerent colour. As a string vibrates and gives forth an audible note, so the nerves of the human body vibrate and thrill in correspon- dence with various emotions under the general impulse of the circulat- ing vitality of Prana, thus producing undulations in the psychic Aura of the person which result in chromatic effects. The hnman nervous system as a whole, then, may be regarded as an .^Golian Harp, responding to the impact of the vital force, which is no abstraction, but a dynam.ic reality, and manifests tlie subtlest shades of the individual character in colour phenomena. If these ner\'e vibra- tions are made intense enough and brought into vibratory relation with an astral element, the result is — sound, How, then, can anyone doubt the relation between the microcosmic and macrocosmic forces? And now that I have shown that the Tantric works as explained by Rdma Pr^ad, and other Yoga treatises of the same character which have appeared from time to time in Thcosophical journals — for note well that those of true RSja Yoga are never published — tend to Black Magic and are most dangerous to take for guides in self-traiuing, I hope that students will be oa their guard. For, considering that no two authorities up to the present day agree as to the real location of the Chakras and Padma5 in the body, and. seeing that the colours of the Tattvas as given arc reversed, e.g.: (a) Ak^sha is made black or colourless, whereas corresponding to Manas, it is indigo ; (^) VSyu is made blue, whereas, corresponding to the I*owcr Manas, it is green ; (f) Apas is made white, whereas, corresponding to the Astral Body, it is violet, with a silver, mooulike white substratum ; Tejas. red, is the only colour given correctly — from such con- siderations, I say, it is easy to see that these disagreements are dangerous blinds. Further, the practice of the Five Breaths results in deadly injury, both physiologically and psychically, as already shown. It is indeed that which it is called, Pr^n^y^ma. or the death of the breath, for it results, for the practiser, in death — in moral death always, and in physical death very frequently. xl 5«o THK SRCkBT DOCTWmt. f On Exoteric "Bunds" aot) *'thh Death op the Soui.." As a corollary to this, and before going into still more abstruse teachings, I must redeem the promise already given. I have to iUos- trate by tenets you already know, the awful doctrine of personal aonihi* lation. Banish from your minds all that you have hitherto read ia such works as Esolerie Buddhism, and thought you understood, of such hypotheses as the eighth sphere and the moon, and that maa shares a common ancestor with the ape. Even the details occasioaally given out by myself in the Theosophist ^nA Lua/rr were nothing like the whole truth, but only broad general ideas, hardly touched upon in their details. Certain passages, however, give out hints, especially my foot-notes on articles translated from Kliphas Levi's Lftters on Magk.* Nevertheless, personal immortality is conditional, for there are sach things as "soulless men.'* a teaching barely mentioned, although it is spoken of even in his Unveiled;] and there is an Avitchi. rightly callwl Hell, though it has no connection with, or similitude to, the good Christian's Hell, either geographically or psychically. The truth known to Occultists and Adepts in ever\* age could not be given out to i promiscuous public ; hence, though almost every mystery of Occolt Philosophy lies half concealed in Isis andJhe two earlier volumes of the present work. I had no right to amplify or correct the details of others. Readers may now compare those four volumes and such books as Esoteric Buddhism with the diagrams and explanations in these Papers, and see for themselves. Param3tm5. the Spiritual Sun, may be thought of as outside the human Auric Hgg, as it Is also ontside the Macrocosmic or Brahml's Egg. Why ? Because, though every particle and atom are, so to speak, cemented with and soaked through by this Paramfitmic essence, yet it is wrong to call it a " hnman ** or even a " universal" Principle, for the term is very Hkely to give rise to naught but an erroneous idea of the philosophical and purely metaphysical concept; it is not a Principle, but the cause of every Principle, the latter term being applied by Occul- tists only to its shadow — the Universal Spirit that ensouls the boundless Kosnios whether within or beyond Space and Time. Buddhi serves as a vehicle for that ParamStmic shadow. TbisBuddhi * S«e " Stra<r Tboucbu on Dnith and S«Un " ia Ui« Tfuoto/Aut. *ot iU. No. t ; ilao" Pngntatimt Occult Truth," vola. iii. (md iv. nn soi or HAKAS. 5i» is nnirersal, and so also is the human Atma. Within the Auric Egg is the macracosmic pentacle of Life, Pr^na, containing within iUelf the pentagram which represents man. The ui:tversal pentacle must be pictnred with its point soaring upwards, the sign of White Magic — in the human pentacle it is the lower limbs which are upward, forming the " Horns of Satan," as the Christian Kabbalists call them. This is the symbol of Matter, that of the personal man, and the recognized pentacle of the Black Magician. For this reversed pentacle does not stand only for K.^ma. the fourth Principle exolcricaUy, but it also represents physical man, the aoimal of Besh with its desires and passions. Now, mark well, in order to understand that which follows, that )( Maoas may be pictured as an upper triangle connected with the lower ^ Manas by a thin line which binds the two together. This is the Antah- karaua. that path or bridge of communication which serves as a link between the personal being whose physical brain is under the sway of the lower animal mind, and the reincarnating Individuality, the spiritual Ego, Manas, Manu, the " Divine Man." This thinking Manu alone is thai which reincarnates. In truth and in nature, the two Minds, the spiritual and the physical or animal, are one^ but separate into two at reincarnation. For while that portion of the Divine which goes to atiimate the personality, consciously separating itself, like a dense but pure shadow, from the Divine Ego,* wedges itself into the brain and senses f of the fcetus, at the completion of its seventh month, the Higher Manas does not unite itself with the child before the com- pletion of the £rst seven years of its life. This detached essence, or rather the reflection or shadow of the Higher Manas, becomes, as the -■fi AP^ * The Mftcnce ot the Di^-iiie Kgo U " pur« fliim«," an entity to which BOthln; etm V added and tnm which DOthins can be token : it canoot. tbertfore, be diininistKd «vcii bir couuUeu nnmbcn or hn««r minda, detachnl fnmi it like Qamca front a flame'. This Is In answrr to aa objectioD by an JSMMericUt who asfcrd whciK« wu thai inrxhnnstiblc eaocacc of one and tbe soine Individuality whkh was called upon la rutnisli a hutnoo IntellMt Tor trrtry nrw personality la which it bi incarnated. t TIw brain, or thinking machinery, is not only in the head, but, as erery phyrioloKtst who ts not quite a materialiat will tell yoii, every orsan in ntan. heart, liver, lunxs. etc., down to every nerve and tauacle, baa, so to •iiieulc. its own di&liuLt brain oi thiiikiiig afparalui. As our bnin has naught to do Ib tbe pidaticc of Ibe collective and individual work of every organ In us, vhal U that which goidcK each ao nnnringty in its inceaannt functtuas: Ihnt make these strujt^lc, aud that loo with (tiaease. ibnnn It otT and act*, each of thnu, even to the amallevt, no4 in a cluck wurk maoner, as allexedbjraomeioalcrlalisuirtir, at the a]if;hte«t dialurbance i>r breakage the clock st»^|, but as an. entity endowed with instinct ' To say It is Nature is Co aay uothing. if it is not the ennndalion of a felUcy; for NsinTe aOer all I* bul a name for thi-*e very snmc functions, the sum of llir qualities and atlribulcB, physical, luciiUI, etc., in tlie uuimae and man, tbe total of ap:ucica and forcea guided by iutcUigeat laws. 5'« THK SKCRBT DOCT«INB. child grows, a distinct thinking Principle in man. its chief agent beuijt the physical braiu. No wonder the Materialists, who perceive oaly Mm •* rational soul," or mind, will not disconnect it with the brain and matter. But Occnlt Philosophy has ages ago solved the probloa of mind, and discovered the duality of Manas. The Divine Ego lends with its point upwards towards Buddhi, and the human Egx> gravitalts downw&rds, immersed in Matter, connected with its higher, subjectiTC half only by the Antahkarana. As its derivation suggests, this is the only connecting link during life between the two minds — the higfaet consciousness of the Ugoand the human intelligence of the lower mind. To understand this abstruse metaphysical doctrine fully and correctly. one has to be thoroughly impressed with an idea, which I have in vain endeavoured to impart to Theosophists at large, namely, the great axiomatic truth that the only eternal and living Reality is that wfaicli the Hindus call Param^tmS and Parabrahman. This is the one ever- existing Root Essence, immutable and unknowable to our pb}'sical senses, but manifest and clearly perceptible to our spiritual natures. Once imbued with that basic idea and the further conception that if It is omnipresent, universal and eternal, like abstract Space itself, <m must have emanated from It and we must, some day, return into It, and all the rest becomes easy. If so, then it stands to reason that life and death, good and evil, past and future, are all empty wbrds, or at best, figures of .speech. If the objective Universe itself is but a passing illusion on account of its begin- ning and finitude, then both life and death must also be aspects anrf illusions. They are changes of state, in fact, and no more. Real life is in the spiritual consciousness of that life, in a conscious existencF ia Spirit, not Af alter: and real death is the limited perception of life, the impossibility of sensing consciou.s or even individual existence outside of form, or at least, of some form of Matter. Those who sincerely reject the possibility of conscious life divorced from Matter and brain-sub- ' stance, are dead units. The words of Paul, an Initiate, become compre- hensible. "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God;" which is to .say : Ye are personally dead matter, unconscious of its own spiritual essence, and your real life is hid with your Divine Ego (Chrislos) in, or merged with, God (AtmS) ; now has it departed from you, ye soulless people.* Speaking on Esoteric lines, every irrevocably THB UVING AND THB DBAH. 513 materialistic person is a dead Man, a liviug automaton, ia spite of his being endowed with great brain power. Listen to what Aryasangfa& says, stating the same fact : That which is neither Spirit nor Matter, neither Light nor DarkncM, but is verily the coot&iDer and root of these, that thou art. The Root projects at every Dawa its shadow oil Itsklf. ftttd tliat shadow thou caliest Light and Life, O poor dead Form. (This) Lifc-Lighl strcameth downward through the stairway of the sevea worlds, the atiirs of which each step become deuser aud darker. It is of this seven* time»-fieven scale Itat thou art the faithful climber and mirror. O little man ! Thou art this, but thou knowcst it noL This is the first lesson to learn. The second is to study well the Principles of both the Kosmos and ourselves, dividing the group into the pertuanent and the itnpenuauent. the higher and immortal and the lower and mortal, for thus only can we master and guide, first the lower cosmic and personal, then the higher cosmic and impersonal. Once we can do that we have secured our immortality. But some may say; "How few are those who can do so. All such are great Adepts, and none can reach such Adeptship in one short life." Agreed ; but there is an alternative. " If the Sun thou canst not be, then be the bumble Planet," says the Book of the Golden Precepts. AnJ if even that is beyond our reach, iheu let us at least endeavour to keep within the ray of some lesser star, so that its silvery light may penetrate the murky darkness, through which the stony path of life trends onward; for without this divine radiance we risk losing more than we imagine. With regard, then, to " soulless " men, and the " second death " of the "Soul," mentioned in the second volume of /i« UnveiUd. you will there find that I have spoken of such .soulless people, and even of Avitchi, though 1 leave the latter unnamed. Read from the last paragraph on page 367 to the end of the first paragraph on page 370, and then collate what is there said with what I have now to say. The higher triad, Atma-JBuddbi-Manas, may be recognized from the first lines of the quotation from the Eg>'ptian papyrus. In the Ritual, now the Book of the Dead, the purified Soul, the dual Manas, appears as *' the victim of the dark influence of the Dragon Apophis," the physical personality of Kamarupic tnan. with his passions. " If it has attained the final knowledge of the heavenly and infernal Mysteries, the Gno.sis" — the divine and the terrestrial Mysteries, of White and Black Magic — then the defunct personality "will triumph over its enemy"— death. This alludes to the case of a complete re-union, at the end of 5»4 -^ THB SBCRST DOCTRINE, earth life, of the lower Manas, full of "the harvest of lif'^''(with its Ego.^ But if Apophis conquers the Soul, then it " cannot eacape a second death." These few lines from a papyrus, many thousands of years old, contain a whole revelation, known, in those days, only to the Hierophanls and the Initiates. The "harvest of life" consists of the finest spiritual thoughts, of the memory of the noblest and most unselfish deeds of Ibe personality, and the constant presence during its bliss after death of all those it loved with divine, spiritual devotion .• Remember the teaching: The Human Soul, lower Manas, is the only and direct mediator between the personality and the Divine Ego. That which goes to make up on this earth the personality miscalled individuality by the majority, is the sum of all its mental, physical, and spiritual characteristics, whicfa. being impressed on the Human Soul, produces the Tnan. Now, of all these characteristics it is the purified thoughts alone which can be itD> pressed on the higher, immortal Ego. This is done by the Human Soul merging again, in its essence, into its parent source, commingUng with its Divine Ego during life, and reuniting itself entirely with it after the death of the physical man. Therefore, unless K&ma-Manas transmits to Buddhi-Manas such personal ideations, and such con- sciousness of its " I" as can be assimilated by the Divine Ego. nothing of that " I " or personality can sun,'ive in the Eternal. Only that vhicb is worthy of the immortal God within us, and identical in its nature with the divine quintessence, can survive; for in this case it is its own, the Divine Ego's, "shadows" or emanations which ascend to it and are indrawn by it into itself again, to become once more part of its own Essence. No noble thought, no grand aspiration, desire, or divine immortal love, can come into the brain of the man of clay and settle there, except as a direct emanation from the Higher to, and througti. the lower Ego ; all the rest, intellectual as it may seem, proceeds from the " shadow," the ioiver mind, in its association and commingling with Kama, and passes away and disappears for ever. But the mental and spiritual ideations of the personal *' I " return to it. as parts of the Ego's Essence, and can never fade out. Thus of the personality that was, only its spiritual experiences, the memory of all that is good and noble, with the consciousness of its '• I" blended with that of all the other personal "rs"that preceded It, survive and become immortal. • Set Krf fa» ThfMfffAjr, j>p. tn, t^H, ft ttf. GAINING MMORTAUTT. (y^ 515 There is no distinct or separate iinsiortality for the men of earth out- side of the Ego which informed them. That Higher Ego is the sole bearer of all its al/n- fgos on earth and their sole representative in the mental state called Devachan. As the last embodied personality, how- ever, has a right to its own special state of bliss, unalloyed and free from the memories of all others, it is the last life <mly which is fully and realistically vivid. Devachan is often compared to the happiest day in a series of many thousands of other "days" in the life of a person. The intensity of its happiness makes the man entirely forget all others, his past becoming obliterated. This is what we call the Devachanic state, the reward of the per- sonality, and it is on this old teaching tliat the hazy Christian notion of Paradise was built, borrowed with many other things from the Egyptian Mysteries, wherein the doctrine was enacted. And this is the meaning of the passage quoted in Isis. The Soul has triumphed over Apophis, the Dragon of Flesh. Henceforth, the personality will live in elemity, in its highest and noblest elements, the memory of its past deeds, while the " characteristics " of the " Dragon " will be fading out in Kama Loka. If the fjtiestion be asked, " How live in eternity, when Devachan lasts but from 1,000 to 2,000 years," the answer is : " In the same way as the recollection of each day which is worth remember- ing lives in the memory of each one of us." For the sake of an example, the days passed in one personal life may be taken as an illustration of each personal life, and this or that person may stand for the Divine '- I To obtain the key which will open the door of many a psychological mystery it is sufficient to understand and remember that which pre- cedes aud that which follows. Many a Spiritualist has felt terribly indignant on being told that personal immortality was conditional ; and yet such is the philosophical and logical fact. Much has been said already on the subject, but no one to this day seems to have fully nnderstood the doctrine. Moreover, it is not enough to know that such a fact is said to exist. An Occultist, or he who would become one, must know why it is so; for having learned and comprehended the raisott d'etre, it becomes easier to set others right in their erroneous speculations, and, most important of all, it affords one an opportunity, without saying too much, to teach other people to avoid a calamity which, sad to say, occurs in our age almost daily. This calamity will now be explained at length. 516 TBB SSCRST DOCTRINB. Oue must know little indeed of the Eastern modes of expression to fail to see in the passage quoted from the D»ok of the Lkad, and tit pages of his, (a) an allegory for the tuiinitiated, cxintaining oiir Bsoteric teaching: and (A) thai the two terms "second death" ud "Soul" are, in one sense, blinds. "Soul" refers indifferently t* Buddhi-Manas and Kama-Maoas. As to the term "second death," tht qualification " second " applies to se\'eral deaths which have to be undergone by the "Principles" during their incarnation, Occtiltists alone uuderstanding fully the sense in which such a statement is made For we have (i) the death of the Body ; (z) the death of the Aninul Soul in K^ma Loka; (3) the death of the Astral Linga Sharirx following that of the Body; (4) the metaphysical death of the Higher Ego, the imttwrtal, every time it " falls into matter." or incarnates in 1 new personality. The Animal Soul, or lower Manas, that shadow of the Divine Ego which separates from it to inform the personahty. cannot by any possible means escape death in KSma Ix>1ca, at any rate that portion of this reflection which remains as a terrestrial residue and cannot be impressed on the Ego. Thus the chief and most importint secret with regard to that " second death," in the Esoteric teaching, was and is to this day the terrible possibility of the d^ih of the Sonl, that 19, its severance from the Ego on earth during a person's tifetimi. This is a real death (though with chances of resurrection), which show> no traces in a person and yet leaves him morally a living corpse. It ia difficult to see why this leaching should have been preser\'ed until now with such secrecy, when, by spreading it among people, at any rate among those who belie\'e in reiucarnation, so much good might be done. But so it was, and I had no right to question the wisdom of the prohibition, but have given it hitherto, as it was given to myself, vnda pledge not to reveal it to the world at targe. But now I have permiv- sion to give it to all. revealing its tenets first to the Rsotericists. and then when they have assimilated them thoroughly it will be their duty to teach others this special tenet of the ** second death," and warn all the Theosophists of its dangers. ■J To make the teaching clearer, I shall seemingly have to go over old ground ; in reality, however, it is given out with new light and new details. I have tried to hint at it in the Theosophist as I have done in isis, but have failed to make myself understood. I will now explain it, point by point. S WEIGHT AND LIFH. SI7 TffK PHTIjOSOPHICAL RATIONAtK OP THE TkNKT. ^(1^ Imagine, for illiislralion's sake, the one homogeneous, absolute and omnipresent Essence, above the upper step of the "stair of the seven planes of worlds." ready to start on its evoIutionar>' journey. As its correlating reflection gradually descends, it differentiates and trans- forms into subjective, and finally into objective matter. Let us call it at its north pole Absolute Light ; at its south pole, which to us wonM be the fourth or middle step, or plane, counting either way, we know it Esoterically as the One and Universal Life. Now mark the differ- eiice. Above, Lights below, Li/e. ''The former is everiramutablc.the latter manifests under the aspects of countless differentiations. According to the Occult law, all potentialities included iu the higher become differentiated reflections in the lower: and according to the same law, nothing which is differentiated can be blended with the homogeneous. Again, nothing can endure of that which lives and breathes and has its being in the seething waves of the world, or plane of differentiation. Thus Bnddhi and Manas being both primordial rays of the One Flame, the former the vehicle, theupadhi or vahana, of the one eternal Jissence, the latter the vehicle of Mahat or Divine Ideation (Mah9-Buddhi in the Pnranas\ the Universal Intelligent Soul — neither of them, as <iucb, can become extinct or be annihilated, either in essence or conscious- ness. But the physical personality with its Linga Sharlra. and the animal soul, with its Kama.* can and do become so. They are bom in the realm of illusion, and must vanish h'ke a fleecy cloud from the blue and eternal sky. He who has read these volumes with any degree of atten- tion, must know the origin of the human Egos, called Monads, generically, and what they were before they were forced to incarnate in the human animal. The divine bein^ whom Karma led to act in the drama of Manvantaric life, are entities from higher and earlier worlds and planets, whose Karma had not been exhausted when their world went into Pralaya. Such is the teaching; but whether it is so or not, the Higher Egos are — as compared to such forms of transi- tory, terrestrial mud as ourselves—Divine Beings, Gods, immortal throughout the MahSmanvantara. or the 311,040,000.000.000 years during which the Age of Brahm^ lasts. And as the Divine Egos, in * JUma RApa. tb« vehicle af the Lower Manu, i* said lo dwell in the pbjniciU brain, in tke five phjrsiciil smsen nnil in all the vfn^e-fngMU of Uw pbyviral body. Si« TBB SECKBT DOCTRINR. order to re-become the One Essence, or be indrawn again into the Aii, have to purify themselves in the fire of sufferfng and individual ex- perience, so also have the terrestrial Egos, the personalities, to do likewise, if they would partake of the immortality of the Higher Egus. This they can achieve by crushing in themselves all that benefits onlj the lower personal nature of their ''selves" and by aspiring to trans- fuse their thinking K^mic Principle into that of the Higher Ego. We (i.e., our personalities) become immortal by the mere fact of our think- ing moral nature being grafted on our Divine Triune Monad, Atml- Buddhi-Manas, the three in one and one in three (aspects). For the Monad manifested on earth by the incarnating Ego is that which is called the Tree of Life Eternal, that can only be approached by eating the fruit of knowledge, the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or of Gnosis. Divine Wisdom. In the Esoteric teachings, this Ego is the fifth Principle in man. But the student who has read and understood the first two Papers, knows something more. He is aware that the seventh is not i human, but a universal Principle in which man participates ; but m does equally every physical and subjective atom, and also every blade of grass and everything that lives or is in Space, whether it be sensible of it or not. He knows, moreover, that if man is more closely con- nected with it, and assimilates it with a hundredfold more power, it is simply because he is endowed with the highest consciousness on this earth ; that man, in short, may become a Spirit, a Deva, or a God, in his next tran.sformation, whereas neither a stone nor a vegetable, nor an animal, can do so before they become men in their proper turn, (2) Now what are the functions of Buddhi ? On this plane it has none, unless it is united with Manas, the conscious Ego. Buddhi stands to the divine Root Essence in the same relation as Mulaprakiiti to Parabrahman, in the Vedauta School ; or as Alaya the Universal Soul to the One Eternal Spirit, or that which i.s beyond Spirit. It is its human vehicle, one remove from that Absolute, which can have no relation whatever to the finite and the conditioned. (3) What, again, is Manas and its functions? In its purely meta- physical aspect, Manas, though one remove on the downward plane from Buddhi, is still so immeasurably higher than the physical man, that it cannot enter into direct relation with the personality, except through its reflection, the lower mind. Manas is Spirilnal Sel/-Con- idou%tuss in itself, and Divine Consciousness when united with Buddhi. ■ J THB TWO KGOS. which is the true "producer" of that "production" (\'ikira), or Self- Consciousne:iS, through Mahat. Buddhi-Mauas, therefore, is entirely unfit to manifest during its periodical incarnations, except through the human mind or lower Mauas. Both are linked together and are in- separable, and cat! have as little to do with the lower Tanmatras,* or rudimentary atoms, as the homogeneous with the heterogeneous. It is, therefore, the task of the lower Manas, or thinlcing personality, if it would blend itself with its God, the Divine Ego, to dissipate and para- lyze the Tanmatras, or properties of the material form. Therefore, Manas is shown double, as the Ego and Mtnd of Man. It is KSma- Manas. or the lower Ego, which, deluded into a notion of independent existence, as the " producer " in its turn and the sovereign of the five Tanmatras, becomes Egv-t'nm, the selfish Self, in which case it has to be considered as Mah^bhutic and finite, in the sense of its being con- nected with Ahankara, the personal " I-creatiug " faculty. Hence Maoos has to be regarded aa eternal and non-eternal : eternal in ita atomic nature (paramanu rfipal, as eternal substance (dravj'a), finite {Icirya rflpa) when linked us a duad with Kima (unimal desire or human egoistic volition), a lower production, in sliort-t UTiile, therefore, the Individual Ego, owing o its essence and nature, is immortal throughout eternity, with a form (rflpa), which prevails during the whole life cycles of the Fourth Round, its Sostf,OT resemblance, the personal Ego, has to win its immortality. (4) Autahkaraua is the name of that imaginar>*bridge, the /aM which lies between the Divine and the human Egos, for they are Sgvs, during human life, to rebecome <>ntf Ego in Devachan or Nirvana. This may seem diflScult to understand, but in reality, with the help of a familiar, though fanciful illustration, it becomes quite simple. Let us figure to ourselves a bright lamp in the middle of a room, casting its light upon the wall. Let the lamp represent the Divine Ego, and the light thrown on the wall the lower Manas, and let the wall stand for the body. That portion of the atmosphere which transmits the ray from the tamp to the wall, will then represent the Antahkarana. We must further suppose that the light thus cast is endowed with reason and intelligence, aud * TumllrK nmina sn1)t1« aoil rottlaitnUry fumi. Uk grooa lyptot Ibr finer 'lemeals. Tlir five TaniTiAtraa am r«aUy Uie ctmra^critUc propcrtKS « qitjUttin or niAtUt ani of alt Ute clcmcnU ; Uic rral apirit of Uie ^jsnl I* " sofBclhmff " or " mf^nty tnoaccudnital," to Uke wau^ o( pii^pcrUca or QMlllfc*. rffiKi^ f|i Sec 7%mm/*m/, Anrut. iHj, " Tbc Bfat sad the Unreal." i*i THH SECRET SOCTSHTB. possesses, moreover, the faculty of (liAsipatiti^ all the evil shadows which pass across the wall, and of attracting all brightnesses to itself, receiving their indelible impressions. Now. it is in the power of the human Bgo to chase- away the shadows, or sins, and multiply the brightnesses, or good deeds, which make these impressions, and thus through Antib- karana, ensure its own permanent connection, and its final re-union, with the Divine Kgo. Remember that the latter cannot take place while there remains a single taint of the terrestrial, or of matter, in the purity of that light. On the other hand, the connection cannot bo entirely mptnred, and final re-union prevented, so long as there remains one spiritual deed, or potentiality to serve as a thread of nnion ; but the moment this last spark is extinguished, and the last poteniiality ex- hausted, then comes the severance. In an Eastern parable, the Divine Ego is likened to the Master who sends out his labourers to till the ground and to gather in the harvest, and who is content to keep the field so long as it con yield even the smallest return. But when the ground becomes absolutely sterile, not only is it abandoned, but the labourer also (the lower Manas) perishes. On the other hand, however, still using our simile, when the light thrown on the wall, or the rational human Ego, reaches the point of actual spiritual exhaustion, the Antahkarana disappears, no more light is transmitted, and the lamp becomes non-existent to Ihc rayT The light which has been absorbed gradually disappears and " Soul eclipse" occurs ; the being lives on earth and then passes into Kiima I«oka as a mere surviving congeries of material qualities; it can never pass on- wards towards Devachan, but is reborn immediately, a human animal and scourge, v This simile, however fantastic, will help us to seize the correct idea. Save through the blending of the moral nature with the Divine Hgo, there is no immortality for the personal Ego. It is only the most spiritual emanation.<; of the personal Human Soul which survive. Having, during a lifetime, been imbued with the notion and feeling of the "I am I" of its personality, the Human Soul, the bearer of the very es.sence of the Karmic deeds of the physical man. becomes, afterj the death of the latter, part and parcel of the Divine Plame, the Bg<k^ It becomes immortal through the mere fact that it is now strongly grafted on the Monad, which is the '* Tree of Life Eternal." And now we must speak of the tenet of the "second death." What happens to the KSmic Human Soul, which is always that of a debased i I MtATB OF THB SOUU 5" P aiifl" wicked man or oi" a soulless person ? This mystery will now be explained. The personal Soul in this caae, vis., in that of one who has never had a thought not concerned with the animal self, having nothing to transmit to the Higher, or to add to the sum of the experiences gleaned from past incarnations which its memory is to preserve throughout eternity — this personal Soul becomes separated from the Ego. It can graft nothing of self on that eternal trunk whose sap throws out millions of personalities, like leaves from its branches, leaves which wither, die and fall at the end of their season. These personalities bud, blossom forth and expire, some without leaving a trace behind, others after commingling their own life with that of the parent stem. It is the Souls of the former class that are doomed to annihilation, or Avitchi, a state so badly understood, and still worse described by some Theosophical writers, but which is not only located on our earth, but is in fact this very earth itself. Thus we see that Antabkarana has been destroyed before the lower man has had au opportunity of assimilating the Higher and becoming at one with it; and therefore the Karaic'Soul" becomes a separate entity, to live henceforth, for a short or long period according to its Karma, as a "soulless" creature. But before I elaborate this question, I must explain more clearly the meaning and functions of the Antabkarana. As already said, it may be represented as a narrow bridge connecting the Higher and the lower Manas. If you look at the Clossar>- of the M»i« o/ tkf Silence^ pp. 88 and S9, you will find that it is a projection of the lower Manas, or, rather, the link between the latter and the Higher Ego. or. between the Human and the Divine or Spiritual Soul.* At death it is destroyed as a path, or medium of communicatioa, and its remains sarvive as KAiuii ROpa. the " shell." It is this which the Spiritualists see sometimes appearing in the seance rooms as materialized " forms," which they foolishly mistake for the " Spirits of the Departed."! So far is this from being * A* Uw lutbor of EtaterU BmddkUm and tfar Octalt Wartd aI1«] Huib* Utr Hunui Sotil, aotf BuiUhl Vm Spiritual Soul. I bavc left these tenai uDduofcd in tbe Vokt, teeuc taal It wm a book tatcnded Tar the public, ♦ In Ihc exoteric Icachiufm of Rija Torn, Antahkanna )■ callH Uic lanw organ of pcrceyiion and Is dlridad IdIo fouc parti: the llofwr) Manas, Buddhl (rranan), AhanUra iperaonality), and itta lUiJAJci^ fitcully). II aUo, lOKctber witli Kver al otber orcaos. ronoa ■ pan 04* Jiva. Soal 1 alae Ungadeh EaoteririaU, however, mual not be mialrd by thi* popular vermoti. S^Lf-'^ftNS^^ L JtZA' 5*2 TUB SivCRBT DOCTUKB. iMA the case, that in dreams, though Aiitahkarana is there, the personality is only half awake ; therefore, Antahkarana is said to be drunk or insane during our normal sleeping state. If such is the case during the periodical death, or sleep, of the living body, one may judge what the consciousness of Antahkarana is like when it has been transformed after the *" eternal sleep" into KAma Kupa. But to return. In order not to confuse the mind of the Westen student with the abstruse dii&culties of Indiau metaphysics, let hin view the lower Manas, or Mind, as the personal Ego during the wakiog state, and as Antahkarana only during those momeuls when it aspira towards its Higher ^o, und thus becomes the medium of communica- tion between the two. It is for this reason that it is called the " Path." Now, when a limb or organ belonging to the physical organism is left in disuse, it becomes weak and finally atrophies. So also is it with mental faculties; and hence the atrophy of the lower mind-functioD. called Antahkarana, becomes comprehensible in both completely materialistic and depraved natures. ' f^*f(t. ) According to Esoteric Philosophy, however, the teaching is u follows: Seeing that the faculty and function of Antahkarana is as necessary as the medium of the car for hearing, or that of the eye for seeing; then so long as the feeling of Ahankara, that is, of the personal " I " or selfishness, is not entirely crushed out in a man. ood the lower mind not entirely merged into and become one with the Higher Buddhi-Manas, it stands to reason that to destroy Antabkanuu is like destroying a bridge over an impassable chasm ; the iraveiler can never reach the goal on the other shore. And here lies the difference between the exoteric and Esoteric teaching. The former makes the Vedanta state that so long as Mind (the lower) clings through Antah- karana to Spirit (Buddhi-Manas) it is impossible for it to acquire true Spiritual Wi.sdom, Gny3na, and that this can only be attained by seek- ing to come en rapport with the Universal Soul (AtmS) ; that, in fact, it is by ignoring the Higher Mind altogether that one reaches Raja Yoga. We say it is not so. No single rung of the ladder leading to knowledge can be skipped. No personality can ever reach or bring itself into communication with AtmS. except through Buddhi-Manas ; to try and become a Jivanmuktaor a Mahitm^, before one has become an Adept or even a Narjol (a sinless man) is like trying to reach Ceylon from India without crossing the sea. Therefore we are told that if we destroy .Antahkarana before the personal is absolutely under the con- KBINCAKNATION OF LOWBK SODL. trol of the impersonal Ego. we risk to lose the latter and be severed for ever from it, unless indeed we hasten to re-establish the communi- cation by a supreme and 6nal effort. It is only when we are indissolubly linked with the essence of the Divine Mind, that we have to destroy Antahkarana. Like as a soHlBTy warrior pnnuied by au army, seeks refuge in a stroaghoK] : to cut tititiself ofT from tbe enemy, tie Jirst destroys thedrawbridge, and then only com- mences to deslTuy tlie pursuer; so most the Srotipatti act before he slayi Antub- karana. Or as an Occult axiom has it : The Unit hfiomes Three, and Tht^ce generate Four, it is for the UUer {the Quar- ternary] to rebecome Three, and for the Divine Three to expand into the Ai>soiMle One. Monads, which become Ouads on the difTerentiated plane, to develop into Triads during the cycle of incarnations, even when incarnated know neither space uor time, but are diffused through the lower Prin- ciples of the Quaternary, being omnipresent and omniscient in their nature. But this omniscience is innate, and can manifest its reflected light only through that which is at least semi -terrestrial or material ; even as the physical brain which, in its turn, is the vehicle of the lower Manas enthroned in Kama Rupa. And It is this which is gradually annihilated in cases of " second death." But such annihilation — which is in reality the absence of the slightest trace of the doomed Soul from the eternal siEMORv. and therefore signifies annihilation in eternity — does not mean simply discontinuation of human life on earth, for earth is Avltchi. and the worst Avilchi possible. Expelled for ever from the consciousness of the Individuality, the reincamatiug Ego. the physical atoms and psychic vibrations of the now separate personality are immediately reincarnated on the same earth, only in a lower and still more abject creature, a human being only in form, doomed to Karmic torments during the whole of its new life. Moreover, if it persists in its criminal or debauched course, it will suffer a long series of immediate reincarnations. Here two questions present themselves: (i) What becomes of the Higher Ego in such cases? (3) What kind of an animal is a human creature bom soulless ? Before answering these two very natural queries, I have lo draw the attention of all of you who are born in Christian countries to the fact that the romance of the vicarious atonement and the mission of Jesus, 5H THE SBCRST DOCTBINB. as it now stands, wa^ drawn or borrowed by some too liberal Initiatei ^m the mysterious and weird tenet of tbe earthly experience of the reiocarnaling Ego. The latter is indeed the sacrificial victim of, a«d through, it5 own Karma in previous Manvantaras. which takes upon itself ^'olunt3^ily the duty of saving what would be othenvise sonlless men or personalities. Eastern truth is thus more philosophical and logical than Western fiction. The Christos, or Bnddhi'Manas of ea<i man is not quite an innocent and sinless God, though in one sense it is the ■' Father." being of the same essence with the Universal Spirit, and at the same time the " Son," for Manas is the second remove from the " Father." By incaraatiou the Divine Son makes itself responsible iV# for the sins of all the. personalities which it will inform. Uriiis it can ' do only through its proxy or reflection, the lower ManasJ The only case iu which the Divine Ego can escape individual penalty and re- sponsibility as a guiding Principle, is when it has to break off from the personality, because matter, with its ps>'chic and astral \'ibrBtionSi. is then, by the very inten!;ity of its combinations, placed beyond the control of the Ego. Apophis, the Dragon, having become the con- qneror, the reincarnating Manas, separating itself gradually from its tabemable, breaks finally asunder from the ps>-cho-animal Sonl. Thus, in answer to the first question. I say : (i) The Divine Ego does one of two things: either (a) it recom- mences immediately under its own Karmic impulses a fresh series of incarnations ; or (6) it seeks and finds refuge in the bosom of the Mother, Alaya, the Universal Soul, of which the Manvantaric aspect is Mahat. Freed from the life-irapressions of the personalitj% it merges into a kind of Xirvflntc interlude, wherein there can be nothing but the eternal Present, which absorbs the Pa^i and Future. Bereft of the "labourer," both field and harvest now being lost, the Master, in tbe infinitude of his thought, naturally presences no recollection of the finite and evanescent illusion which had been his last persoDalit>-. And then, indeed, is the latter annihilated. (2) The future of the lower Manas is more terrible, and still more terrible to humanity than to the now animal man. It sometimes happens that after the separation the exhausted Soul, now become supremely animal, fades out in Kama Loka, as do all other animal souU. But seeing that the more material is the human mind, the longer it lasts, even in tbe intermediate stage, it frequently happens that after tbe present life of the soulless man is ended, be is again and again _d THR UWBLLUU ON TUB THRKSHOLD. 5*5 reincftrnated into new personalities, each one more abject than the other. The impulse of animai life is too strong ; il cannot wt&r itself Ottt in one or two lives only. In rarer cases, however, when the lower Manas is doomed to exhaust itself by starvation ,■ when there is no longer hope that even a remnant of a lower light wilt, owing to favour- able conditions — say, even a short period of spiritual aspiration and repentance— attract back to itself its Parent Ego. and Karma leads the Higher Ego back to new incamations,c.thcn something far more dreadful may happen^ The Kama-Manasic spook may become that which is called in Occultism the " Dweller on the Threshold." This Dweller is not like that which is described so graphically in Zanoni^ but an actual fact in Xature and not a fiction in romance, however beautiful the latter may be. Bulwer, however, must have got the idea from some Eastern Initiate. This Dweller, led by affinity and attrac- tion, forces itself into the astral current, and through the Auric Enve- lope, of the new tabernacle inhabited by the Parent Ego. and declares war to the lower light which has replaced it. This, of course, can only happen in the case of the moral weakness of the personality so obsessed. No one strong in virtue, and righteous in his walk of life, can risk or dread any such thing; but only those depraved in heart. Robert Louis Stevenson had a glimpse of a true vision indeed when he wrote his Strange Ca%< ofDr.Jekyil and Mr. Hyde. His story is a true allegory. Ever>' CheI5 will recognise in it a substratum of truth, and in Mr. Hyde a Dweller, au obsessor of the personality, the tabernacle of the Parent Spirit. "Thi5 is a nightmare tale!" I was often told by one, now no more in our ranks, who had a most pronounced " Dweller." a " Mr. Hyde.'* as an almost constant companion. " How can such a process take place without one's knowledge ? " It can and does so happen, and I have almost described it once before in the TheasopkUt. The Soul, the lower Mind, becomes as a half aoimal principle almost panilysol with daily vice, ami grows gradually uuconscious uf its subjective half, the L,oril. one of the miKhty Host; [and] in proportion to the rapid sensuouB devetopnieiit of the brain and nerves, »oouer Or later, it ^tlie personal 8oul) finally lo!*es sight of its divine mission on earth. Truly, Like the vampire, the braio feeds and lives and grows in strength at the eKpensc of its apirilual parent . . . and the personal half- unconscious Soul becomes acoaeless beyoad hope of rcdemptiou. It is powerlew to discern the voice of ita 5»6 THB SBCRKT DOCTRXNK. God. It alms but at the development and fuller comprehensioti of natunl, cttrthlj life ; and Uius can discover but the mysteries of physical nature. ... It hegni by becoming virtually dead, during the life of the body ; and ends by dying cob- pletely — that Is, by being aMHihilaifd as a wtnpUU imtnorial Soul. Sncii a caxu- trophe may often happen long years before one's physical death : ' ' We elbow sosl- lesB men and women at cverj- step in life." Aud when death arrives . thcR is no more a Sonl (the reincamatioK Spihtnil Ego) to liberate . . . for U hn fiedyfars before. Remit : Bereft of its guiding Principles, but strengthened by the matcTial elements, KSma-Manas, from being a "derived light" noir becomes an independent Entity. Afler thns suffering itself to sink lower and lower on the animal plane, when the hour strikes for its earthly body to die, one of two things happens : either K^ma-Manas is immediately reborn in Myalba, the state of Avitchi on earth,* or, if it become too strong in evil — " immortal in Satan" is the Occult expres- sion— it is sometimes allowed, l"or Karmic purposes, to remain in an active state of Avitchi in the terrestrial Aura. Then through despair and loss of all hope it becomes like the mythical "devil" in its endless wickedness ;• it continues in its elements, which are imbued through and through with the essence of Matter; for evil is coeval with Matter rent asunder from Spirit. And when its Higher Ego has once more reiucaruated, evolving a new reflection, or Kama-Manas, the doomed lower Ego, like a Frankenstein's monster, will ever feel attracted to its Father, who repudiates his son, aud will become a regular " Dweller on the Threshold" of terrestrial life. I gave the outlines of the Occult doctrine in the Theosophht of October, 1881, and November. 1S82, hot could not go into details, and therefore got x-ery much embarrassed when called upon to explain. Yet I have \vritten there plainly enough about " useless drones," those who refuse to become co-workers with Nature and who perish by millions during the Manvantaric life-cycle; those, as in the case in hand, who prefer to be ever suffering in Avitchi under Karmic law rather than give up their lives "in evil." and finally, those who are co-workers with Nature for destruction. These are thoroughly wicked and depraved men, but yet as highly intellecttial and acutely spiritual for evil, as those who are spiritual for good. The (lower) Ggos of these may escape the law of final destruction or annihilation for ages to come. • The Earlli, or mrth-lifr r«lh*T. i» Ibe only Avitchi (Hrll) that rxliilii for the m«i of oar hanuaity oa this itlobc. Avttchi U % alalr, not ■ tocniity, ■ coaiilnp«rt of DrvBcluB. Such a Mat« fuUuw* the Soul fthetrver It grx*, whcihcrr Into lUmq I/>ks, as a wmi-«oiiMioiu 9pook. qr Into a hwnuui boilf, when reborn lo vuRcr Avttcbi. Our I'tiilubofiliy rccoRiiiit-i no other Hetl, THK WORD. 527 • ThBS we find two kinds of soulless beings on earth : those who have lost their Higher Ego in the present incarnation, and those who are bom soulless, having been severed from their Spiritual Soul in the pre- ceding birth. The former are candidates for Avltchi; the Utter are " Mr. Hydes," whether in or out of human bodies, whether incarnated or hanging about as invisible though potent ghotUs. In such men, cun- ning develops to an enormous degree, and no one except those who are familiar with the doctrine would suspect them of being soulless, for neither Religion nor Science has the least suspicion that such facts actually exist in Nature. There is, however, still hope for a person who has lost his Higher Soul through his vices, while he is yet in the body. He may be still redeemed and made to tuni on his material nature. For either an intense feeling of repentance, or one single earnest appeal to the Ego that has fled, or best of all, an active effort to amend one's ways, may bring the Higher Ego back again. The thread of connection is not altogether broken, though the Ego is now beyond forcible reach, for " Autahkarana is destroyed," and the personal Ivntity has one foot already in Myalba:* yet it is not entirely beyond hearing a strong sjiintnal appeal. There is another statement made in /sis Unvciied^ on this subject. It is said that this terrible death may be some- times avoided by the knowledge of the mysterious Namk. the " \VORD."t What this " Wokd," which is not a "Word" but a Sound, is, yon all know. Its potency lies in the rhythm or the accent. This means simply that even a bad person may, by the study of the Sacred Science, be redeemed and stopped on the path of destruction. But unless he is in thorough union with his Higher Ego, he may repeat it, parrot-like, ten thousand times a day, and the "Word" will not help him. On the contrary, if not entirely at one with his Higher Triad, it may produce quite the reverse of a beneficent effect, the Brothers of the Shadow using it very often for malicious objects; in which case it awakens and stirs up naught but the evil, 'material elements of Nature. But if one's nature is good, and sincerely strives towards the Highsx Sbi^, which is that Aum. through one's Higher Ego, which is its third * Sm K«wr ^ tJtt Sittmu, p. 97. I Rend the IiMt fbotnotv on p. jM, sol. M. of /n'l Ifmtteiled, and yon will sec that rren profane Hi[yploloei*u wid dteo wlio, like Buiuen, were ignorant of niitUUou, were Rtiuck by tbelr own diKOTcries when they foaaA the " Won) " mentioned in old pnprri. L S«8 THE SECRBT DOCTRINK. letter, and Buddhi the second, there is no attack of the Drepio Apophis which it will not repel. From those to whom much is given much is expected. He who knocks at the door of the Sauctuary in fall knowledge of its sacrednesa, and after obtaining admission, departs from the threshold, or turns round and says. "Oh. there's nothing it it!" and thus loses his chance of learning the whole truth — can but await his Kanna. Such are then the Esoteric explanations of that which has perplexed so many who have foimd what they thought contradictious in varioof Theosophical writings, including " Fragments of Occult Truth." is vols. iii. and it. of The Theosopkisl, etc. Before finally dismissing the fiubjeci, I must add a caution, which pray keep well iu miud. It will be very natural for those of you who are ^sotericists to hope that none of you belong so far to the soulless portion of mankind, and that you can feel quite easy about Avitchi, e%'en as the good citizen is about the penal laws. Though not. perhaps, exactly on the Path as yet, you art skirting its border, and many of you in the right dirt-clion. Between sue]] venal faults as are inevitable under our social environment, ami the blasting wickedness described in the Editor's note on Eliphas Levi's "Satan,"* there is an abyss. If not become "immortal in gooii by identification with (our) God," or Auu. Atm^-Buddhi-Manas, we have surely not made ourselves "immortal in evil" by coalescing with Satan, the lower Self. You forget, however, that cver3rthing mast have a beginuiug; that the first step on a slippery mountain alopeis the necessary antecedent to one's falling precipitately to the bottom and into the arms of death. He it far from me the suspicion that any of the Esoteric students have reached to any considerable point down the plane of spiritual descent. All the same I warn you to avoid taking the first step. You may not reach the bottom in this life or the next, but you may now generate causes which will insure your spiritnaJ destruction in ynjur third, fourth, fifth, or even some subsequent birth. In the great Indian epic you may read how a mother whose whole family of warrior sons were slaughtered in battle, complained to Krishna that though she had the spiritual vi.sion to enable her to look back fifty incarnations, yet she could see no sin of hers that coald have begotten so dreadful a Karma; and Krishna answered her: "If thou could'st look back to thy fifty-first anterior birth, as I can, thoa would'st see thyself killing in wanton cruelty the same number of • see TlkMwqhtM/, vol. iij., October, tas«. p. tx ^ THK DIVHTB WITNSSa. 539 I ants as that of the sons thou hast now lost." This, of course, ts only a poetical exaggeration ; yet it is a striking image to show how great results come from apparently trifling causes. Good and evil are relative, and are intensified or lessened according to the conditions by which man is surrounded. One who belongs to that which we call the " useless portion of mankind." that is to say, the lay majority, is in many cases inesponsiblc. Crimes committed in Avidya, or ignorance, involve physical but not moral respousibilities or Karma. Take, for example, the case of idiots, children, savages, and people who know no belter. But the case of each who is pledged to the HiGHBR Self is quite another matter. Vou cannot invokg this Divine Wiln^ss with impunity, and once that you have put yourselves under its tutelage, you have asked the Radiant Light to shine and search through all the dark comers of your being ; consciously you have in- voked the Divine Justice of Karma to take note of your motive, to scrutinize your actions, and to enter up all in your account. The step is irrevocable as that of the infant taking birth. Never again can you <^, force yourselves back into the matrix of AvidyS and irresponsibility./ ^ ^ Though yoit Qce to the uttermost parts of the earth, aud hide yourselves I from the sight of men, or seek oblivion in the tumult of the social whirl, 1^ " that Light will find you out and lighten your every thought, word and deed."*/ All H. P. B. can do is to send to each earnest one among you a most sincerely fraternal sympathy aud hope for a good outcome to your endeavours. Nevertheless, be not discouraged, but try, ever keep trying;* twenty failures are not irremediable if followed by as many undaunted struggles upward. Is it not so that mountains are climbed } And know further, that if Karma relentlessly records in the Esotericist's account, bad deeds that in the ignorant would be overlooked, yet, equally true is it that each of his good deeds is, by reason of his association with the Higher Self, a hundredfold intensified as a potentiality for good. Finally, keep ever in mind the consciousness that though yon see no Master by your bedside, nor hear one audible whisper in the silence of the still night, yet the Holy Power is about you. the Holy Light is shining into your hour of spiritual need and aspirations, and it will be no fault of the Mastbrs. or of their humble mouthpiece and servant, if through per\'ersity or moral feebleness some of you cut yourselves off from these higher potencies, and step upon the declivity that leads to Avitchi. <??> APPENDIX. NOTES ON PAPERS I., II. ai>d III. Page 436. Students In the west have little or no idea of the forces that lie latent in Sonnd, the Ak^hic vibrations that may be set up by those who understand how to pronounce certain words. The Om. or the " Om mani pa^mf hum*' are in spiritual aflSnity with cosmic forces, but with- out a knowledge of the natural arrangement, or of the order in which the syllables stand, ver>' little can be achieved, "Om" is, of course. Aum, that may be pronounced as two, three or seven syllables, setting up different vibrations. Now, letters, as vocal sounds, cannot fail to correspond with musical notes, and therefore with numbers and colours ; hence also with Forces and Tattvas. He who remembers that the Universe is built up from the Tattvas will readily understand something of the power that may be exercised by vocal souuds. Every letter in the alphabet, whether divided into three, four, or seven septenaries, or forty-nine letters, has its own colour, or shade of colour. He who has learnt the colours of the alphabetical letters, and the corresponding numbers of the seven, and the forty-nine colours and shades on the scale of planes and forces, and knows their respective order in the seven planes, will easily master the art of bringing them into affinity or interplay. Bui here a difficulty arises. The Senzar and Sanskrit alphabets, and other Occult tongfues, besides other potencies, have a number, colour, and distinct syllable for every letter, and so had also the old Mosaic Hebrew. But bow many students know any of these tongues } When the time cornea^ therefore, it must suffice to teach the students the numbers and colours attached to the Latin letters only (N.B. as pronounced in Latin, not in Anglo-Saxon, Scotch, or Irish). This, however, would be at present premature. A XAnTRA OPHHATnnt 531 The colour and number of not only the planets but also the zodiacal constellatious corresponding to every letter of the alphabet, are neces- sary to make any special syllable, and even letter, operatife* There- fore if a student would make Buddhi operative, for instance, he would have to intone the first words of the Mantra on the note mi. But he would have still further to accentuate the mi, and produce mentally the yellow colour corresponding to this sound and note, on every letter M in *• Om niani padmc hum" \ this, not because the note bears the same name in the vernacular, Sanskrit, or even the Senear, for it does not — but because the letter M follows the first letter, and is in this sacred formula also the seventh and the fourth. As Buddhi it is second; as fiuddhi-Manas it is the second and third combined. Or.^J.-^»Xci ^ <X^Ux^P* h^^ *^UA..^jZi^>^^ H. P. B. ^ PAfiE439.t ^ ^^ ^ A/^^. The Pythagorean Four, or Tetraktys, was the sjnnbol of the Kosmos, as containing within itself, the point, the line, the superficies, the solid ; in other words, the essentials of all forms. Its mystical representation is the point within the triangle. The Decad or perfect number is contained in thQ Four ; thus, 1-1-2 + 3+4=10. Pack 453. StmsAV. MconiAT. TUSSD&T. WBDVir. Thu'dav. nu&Av. SAT'IUT. © D S 5 u ? >? Second QiMTtrr. J >i u s h 0 I Third % » •; 0 D ^ 9 Qoartcr. »? 0 D J » 4 2 Pags 477. O. The difficult passage: "Bear in mind .... a mystery below truly,"^ may become a little more dear to the student if slightly ampli- ■ Sec yititt of Ik* Siltnu, p. vtil. + Th« followiuK Dctea were contribytcd by atudeiit* uid approved by U. P. B. X Ser pner <«. 532 THK SRCRBT OOCTRKKS. fied. The " primordial Triangle " is the Second Logos, which reflects itself as a Triangle in the Third Logos, or Heavenly Maa, and thei disappears. The Third Logos^ containing the "potency of fonnatire creation," develops the Teiraktys from the Triangle, aud so becomes the Seven, the Creative Force, making a Decad with the primordial Triangle which originated it. When this heavenly Triangle aod Tetraktys are reflected in the Universe of Matter^ as the astral para- digmatic man, they are reversed, and the Triangle, or formative potency, is thrown below the Quatemarj'. with its apex pointing downwards : the Monad of this astral paradigmatic man is itself a Triangle, bearing to the Quatemar}' and Triangle the relation borne by the primordial Triangle to the Heavenly Man. Hence the phrase, " the upper Triangle ... is shiflcd in the man of clay below tkt seven." Here again thePoint tracing the Triangle, the Monad becomtnj; the Ternary, with the Quaternary aud the lower creative triangle, make up the Decad, the perfect number. *' As above, ao below." The student will do well to relate the knowledge here acquired to that given on p. 477. Here the upper Triangle is given as Violet, Indigo, Blue, associating Violet as the paradigm of all forms with Indigo as Mahat, and blue as the Alniic Aura. In the Quaternary, Yellow, as substance, is associated with Yellow-Orange, Life, and Red-Orange, the creative potency. Green is the plane between. The next stage is not explained. Green passes upwards to Violet. Indigo, Blue, the Triangle opening out lo receive it, and so forming the square, Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green. This leaves the Red-Orange. Yellow-Orange, and Yellow, and these, having thus lost their fourfb member, can only form a triangle. This triangle revolves, to point downwards for the descent into matter, and ** mirrored on the plane of gross nature, it is reversed," and appears as in the diagram following these words. ^ Second Logos. TUird !.«gos. or Ucavcnly Man. The la 1 The 10. TheTriBnglcbecoHiing tlie Qiiater- , nary and then the Septenary.* Astral ParaUismatic Man. Crcatirc Triungle thrown the Seven. ■ ixci.- iupfa, i. 1^, yj, aud yy COUOVK AND SPnUTUAX SOVlfD. 533 In the perfect man the Red will be absorbed by the Green ; Yellow will become one with Indigo ; Vellow-Orange will be absorbed in Blue; Violet will remain outside the True Man, though connected with blm. Or, to translate the colours; Kfima will be absorbed in the Lower Manas ; Buddhi will become one with Manas ; Pr^na will be absorbed in the Auric Egg ; the physical body remains, connected but outside the real life. A. B. Page 481. To the five senses at present the property of mankind two more on this globe are to be added. The sixth sense is the psychic sense of colour. The seventh is that of spiritual sound. In the second instruc- tion, the corrected rates of vibration for the seven primary colours and their modulations are given. Inspecting these, it appears that each colour differs from the proceeding one by a step of 42. or 6x7. 463 Red +42 = 504 Sn) Orange +42 = 546 546 Yellow +42=588 5S8 Gre«n +42=630 630 Blue +42=673 672 Indigo +43 = 714 714 Violet +42-756 756 Red Third OcUve of psychic coloor perceptions. Carrying the process backward, ana subtracting 42, we find that the first or ground colour is green, for this globe. — Green ] SBhie Indigo J 26 Violet 168 Ked 210 Orange 252 Yellow 294 Green 336 Blue 378 Indigo 420 Violet 462 Red The second and fourth octaves would be heat and aclinic rays, and arc invisible to our present perception. The seventh sense is that of spiritual sound: and, since the vibra- tions of the sixth progress by steps of 6 x 7, those of the seventh progress by steps of 7 X 7. This is their table : Fiiw semi-octave Second octave. — Fa 49 Sol 981^ 147 Si Green Sound Blue „ Indigo „ Violet Pust aemi -octave. s» THK SSCRHT DOCTRINR. 196 Do . Red Sound v 245 t^c ■ Orange .. 394 Mi . . Yellow ,. 343 F« ■ 392 Sol . Gruen „ .. Blue ■ Second OcUTe. 44t ha .. Indigo „ 490 Si . Violet .. S39l>o ■ .. Red Etc, etc. The fifth sense is in our possesion : it is possibly that of geometrical form, and its steps of progression would be 5 x 7. or 35. The fourth sense is that of physical bearing, music, and its progres* sions are 28, or 4 x 7. The truth of this is demonstrated by the fact that it is in accord with the theories of Science as to the vibrations of musical notes. Our scale is as follows : — , aS, 5*. 84. : 1 3. 140. 168. 196. 324. 254. 280. 308, 336, 364. 392. 420. 448, 476. 504- 5» 560, 583, 616, 644. 672, 70a According to musical science, the notes C, E. G, are as 4, 5, 6. in their ratios of vibrations. The same ratio obtains between the notes of the triplet G, B. D. and F, A. C. This gives the scale, and reducing the vibrations to C as i, the ratios of the seven notes to C are 'c^ f V- '^ '^' 'f ^ Reducing these to whole numbers, we get for one octave : 37 30 3a D R F 36 40 45 48 G A B C" By a similar calculation we can put an octave below C, and above C Writing these three octaves in line, and multiplying by seven we obtain a nearly exact correspondence with our table of vibration for the fourth sense. MOSICAI, TABLE. SCALS RATID. »4 308 »6 E r na aI P t40 B|Jk 168 C\ 189 D 310)B 224 P ■ 252 G 280 A J15 ^ MUSICAI* TABU9. 535 39* 420 476 504 616 a* kATtO. 48 54 X X = 336 c 378 D 60 64 X X = 4aoE 448 P 72 X ^ So+G 80 X = 5fio A 90 X -- 630 B 96 X - 672 c H.a NOTES ON SOME ORAL TEACHINGS. THE THREB VITAL AIRS. L ^^^PiIt is the pure Akfisha that passes up Sushumna : its two aspects V flow in Ids and PingalS. Tbe.se are the three vital airs, and are H symbolized by the Brahmanical thread. They are ruled by the Will. I Will and Desire are the higher and lower aspects of cue and the same I thing. Hence the importance of the purity of the canals : for if they soil the vital aire energized by the Will, Black Magic results. This is why all sexual intercourse is forbidden in practical Occultism. ■ , From Sushumn^. Id& and Pingat& a circulation is set up, and from ■ the central canal passes Into the whole body. (Man is a. tree ; he has ■ in him the macrocosm and the microcosm. Hence the trees used as H symbols : the Dhyfin-Chohanic body is thus figured.) H SI THE AURIC BGO. H The Anric Egg is formed in curves, which may be conceived from the curves formed by sand on a vibrating metal disk. Hach atom, as each body, has its Anric Egg. each centre forming its own. This Auric Egg, with the appropriate materials thrown into it, is a defence ; no wild animal, however ferocious, will approach the Yog! thus guarded : it flings back from its surface all malign influences. No Will power is manifested through the Auric Bgg. Q. Whal is the conntcHon between the circuUtioJt of the vital ain and the power of the Yo^ to make his Auric Egg a defetue against aggression f A. It is impossible to an.twer this question. The knowledge is die last word of Magic. It is connected with Kundaliui. that can as easily destroy as preserve. The ignorant tyro might kill himself. Q. Is the Auric Egg of a child a differentiation of Akdsha, into which may be thrown by the Adept the materials he needs for special purposes— ^.%.. the Mayavi Rupa f [The question was somewhat obscurely worded. Evidently what the questioner wanted to know was if the Auric Egg was a differentia- A^ 53S tHB SRCRBT nOCTRINK. tion of AkiLsha, into which, as the child became a man. he might, if n Adept, weave the materials needed for special purposes, etc.j A. Taking the question in the sense of an Adept putting somft- thing into or acting on the Auric Egg of a child, theu this could not be done, as the Auric Egg is Karmic, and not even an Adept must inter- fere with such JCarmic record. If the Adept were to put an>thing inta the Auric Egg of another, for which the person is not responsible, or which does not come from the Higher Self of that personality, ho» could Rarmic justice be maintained ? The Adept can draw into his own Auric Egg from his planet, oc even from that of the globe or of the universe, according;^ to his degree. This envelope is the receptacle of all Karmic causes, and photograph* all things like a sensitive plate. The child has a very small Auric Egg which is in colonr almost pure white. At birth the Auric Egg consists of almost pure AkAshA pins the Tanh^, which, until the seventh year, remain potential or ia latency. The Auric Egg of an idiot cannot be said to be human, that ts, it is not tinged with Manas. It Is Ak^shic vibrations rather than an Auric Egg— the material envelope, such as that of the plant, the mineral or other object. The Auric Egg is the transmitter from the periodical lives to the Life eternal, i.e., from Pr.1na to JIva. It disappears, but remains. The reason why the confession of the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches is so great a sin is because the confessor interferes with the Auric Egg o( the penitent by means of his will power, engrailing artificially emanations from his own Auric Egg and casting seeds for germination into the Auric Egg of his subject. It is on the same lines as hypnotic suggestion. The above remarks apply equally to Hypnotism, although the latter is a psycho-physical force, and it is this which constitutes one of its many serious dangers. At the same time " a good thing may pass through dirty channels." as in the case of the breaking by suggestion of the alcohol or opium habit. Mesmerism may be used by the Occultist to remove evil habits, if the intention be perfectly pure; as on the higher plane intention is everything, and good intention must work for good. Q. Is the Auric Egg the expansion of the " Pillar of Ligki," Ou Mdnasic Principie. and so not surrounding the child tUl its seventh year t THR DWBt^I^R ON THK THRBSHOLD. 539 • A. It is the Auric Egg. The Auric Kgg is quite pure at birth, bat it is a question whether the higher or lower Manas will colour it at the seventh year. The M^asic expausiou is pure AkSsha. The ray of Manas is let down into the vortex of the lower Principles, and being discoloured, and so limited by the K&mic Taahas and by the defects of the bodily organism, forms the personality. Hereditary Karma can reach the child before the seventh year, but no individual Karma can come into play till the descent of the Manas. The Auric Egg is to the Man As „ Astral Light „ Earth ^^ „ „ Ether Astral Light ^^K „ „ Ak^ha Ether W The critical states are left out in the enumeration. They are the ■ Laya Centres, or missing links in our consciousness, and separate these I four planes from one another. I THE DWELLER. I The " Dweller on the Threshold " is found in two cases : (a) In ihe I case of the separation of the Triangle from the Quaternary ; (#) When I KSmic desires and passions are so intense that the Kama Rupa persists " in KSma Loka beyond the Devachanic period of the Ego, and thus survives the reincarnation of the Devachanic Entity (e.g., when reincarnation occurs within two hundred or three hundred years). The "Dweller" being drawn by affinity towards the Reincarnating Ego to whom k had belonged, and being unable to reach it, fastens on the Klma of the new personality, and becomes the Dweller on the Threshold, strengthening the Kamic element and thus lending It a dangerous potency. Some become mad from this cause. INTELLECT. The white Adept is not always at first of powerful intellect. In fact. H. p. B had known Adepts whose intellectual powers were originally below the average. It is the Adept's purity, his equal love to all, his working with Nature, with Karma, with his "Inner God." that give him his power. Intellect by itself alone will make the Black Magician. For intellect alone is accompanied with pride and selfishness : it is the intellectual plus the spiritual that raises man. For spirituality prevents pride and vanity. Metaphysics are the domain of the Higher Manas ; whereas *A** 540 THB SBCRBT DOCTRINE. Physics arc that of Klma-Manas. which docs the thinking in Physkal Science and on material things. Kama-Manas, like every other Pris- dple, is of seven degrees. The Mathematician without spiritnalitf, however great he may he, will not reach Metaphysicii ; but tlie Meta- physician will master the highest conceptions of Mathematics, and will apply them, without learning the latter. To a bom Metaphysician the Psychic Plane will not be of much account : he will see its erron immediately he enters it, inasmuch as it is not the thing he seeks. With respect to Music and other Arts, they are the children of either the Manasic or KSma-Mduasic Principle, proportionately as Soul or technicality predominates. KARMA. After each incarnation, when the Manasic Ray returns to its Father, the Ego, some of its atoms remain behind and scatter. These fiCftnasic atoms, Tinhic and other " causes," being of the same nature as the Manas, are attracted to it by strong bonds of affinity, and on the reincarnation of the Ego are unerringly attracted to it and constitnte its Karma. Until these are all gathered up. the individuality is not free from rebirth. The Higher Manas is responsible for the Ray it sends forth. If the Ray be not soiled, no bad Karma is generated. THE TUR!YA state. You .should bear in mind that, in becoming Karma-less, good Karma, as well as bad, has to be gotten rid of, and that Nidinas, started towards the acquisition of good Karma, are as binding as those induced in the other direction. For both are Karma. Yogi.s cannot attain the Tnriya state unless the Triangle is separated from the Quaternary. MAHAT. Mahat is the manifested nniversal Parabrdhmic Mind (for one Man- vantara) on the Third Plane [of Kosmos]. It is the Law whereby the Light falls from plane to plane and differentiates. The MSnasapntras are its emanations. Man alone is capable of conceiving the Universe on this plane of existence. Bxistenc« is; but when the entity does not feel it. for that entity it is not. The pain of an operation exists, though the patient does not feel it, and for the patient it is not. VBAK &KD BATRBD. S«I I HOW TO ADVANCE Q. What is the c&mct pronundaticn of A UM t A. Il should first be practised physically, always at the same pitch, which must be discovered in the same way as the particular colour of the student is found, for each has his own tone. ' Atrif consists of two vowels and one semi-vowel, which latter must T»c prolonged. Just as Nature has its Fa, so each man has his : man being differentiated from Nature. The body may be compared to as instrument and the Ego to the player. You begin by producing effects on yourself; then little by little you learn to play on the Tattvas and Principles ; learn first the notes, then the chords, then the melodies. Once the student is master of every chord, he may begin to be a co- TPorker with Nature and for others. He may then, by the experience he has gained of his own nature, and by the knowledge of the chords, strike such as will be beneficial in another, and so will scr\'e as a key- note for beneficial results. Try to have a clear representation of the geometrical triangle on every plane, the conception gradually growing more metaphysical, and ending with the subjective Triangle, Atm£-Buddhi-Manas. It is only by the knowledge of this Triangle under all forms that you can succeed, e.g. in enclosing the past and the future in the present. .Remember that you have to merge the Quaternary tn the Triangle. The Lower Manas is drawn upwards, with the Kama, Pr^a and Xinga, leaving only the physical body behind, the lower reinforcing the higher. Advance may be made in Occultism even in Devacban, if the Mind and Soul be set thereon during life; but it Is only as in a dream, and the knowledge will fade away as memory of a dream fades, unless it be kept alive by conscious study. FEAR AND HATRED. Fear and hatred are essentially one and the same. He who fears nothing will never hate, and he who hates nothing will never fear. THE TRIANGLE. Q. What is the -meaning of the phrase : " Form a dear image of the Triangle on every plant : " e.g.. on the Astral Plane, what should one think of as the Triangle f A. [H. P. B. asked whether the question signified the meaning of 542 THE SBCRET IWCTitlNB. the Triangle or the way to represent the Triangle on the '* screen of light." The questioner explaining that tlie latter was the meaning, H. P. B. said that] it n-as only In the Turiya state, the fourth of tbe seven steps of RSja Yoga that the Yogi can represent to himself that which is abstract. Below this state, the perceptive power, being con- ditioned, must have some form to contemplate ; it cannot represent to itself the Arttpa. In the Turiya state the Triangle is iu yourself and is felt. Below the Turiya state there must be a symbol to represent Atm^-Bnddhi-Manas. It Is not a mere geometrical Triangle, bnt the Triad imaged, to make thought possible. Of this Triad, we can make some kind of representation of Manas, however indistinct ; while of Atmfi no image can be formed. We mnst try to represent the Triangle to ourselves on higher and higher planes. We most figure Manas u overshadowed by Buddhi, and immersed in AtmS. Only Manas, the Higher Ego, can be represented ; we may think it as the AugoeidcS, the radiant figure in Zanoni. A very good Psychic might sec this. PSYCHIC VISION. Psychic vision, however, is not to be desired, since Psyche is earthly and evil. More and more as Science advances, the psychic will be reached and understood : Psychtsm has in it nothing that is spiritual. Science is right on its own plane, from its own standpoint. The law of the Conservation of Energj* implies that psychic motion is generated by motion. Psychic motion being only motion on the Psychic Plane, a material plane, the Psychologist is right who sees in it nothing be3roBd matter. Animals have no Spirit, but they have psychic \-iston, and are sensitive to psychic conditions ; observe how these react on their health, their bodily state. Motion is the abstract Deity ; on the highest plane it is Arnpo, absolute ; but on the lowest it is merely mechanical. Psychic action is within the sphere of physical motion. Ere psychic action can be developed in the brain and nerves, there must be adequate action which generates it on the Physical Plane. The paral>^ed animal that cannot generate action in the physical body, cannot think. Psychics merely see on a plane of di£erent material density ; the spiritual glimpses sometimes obtained by them come from a plane beyond. A Psychic's vision is that of one coming, as it were, into a lighted room, and seeing everything there by an artificial light: when the light is extinguished, vision is lost. Spiritual vision sees by the light within. TRIANGUE AND QUATBKNABY. 543 I I the light hidden beneath the bushel of the body, by which we can see clearly and independently of all outside. The Psychic seeing by an external light, the vision is coloured by the nature of that light. X. saying that she fell as though she saw on three planes, H. P. B. answered that each plane was sevenfold, the Astral as every other. She gave as an example on the Physical Plane the vision of a table with the flense of sight; seeing it still, with the eyes closed, by retinal impression ; the image of it conserved in the brain ; it can be recalled by memory ; it can be seen in dream ; or as an aggregate of atoms ; or as disintegrated. All these are on the Physical Plane. Then we can begin again on the Astral Plane, and obtain another septenary. This hint should be followed and worked out. TRIANGLE AND QUATERNARY. Q. Why is the violet, the cohur of the Linga Sharira, placed at the apex of the /\, -when the Macrocosm ts figured as /^, thus throwing the yellow, Buddhi, into the lower Quaternary t Q A. It is wrong to speak of the '* lower Quaternary " in the Macro- cosm. It is the Tetraktys, the highest, the most sacred of all symbols. There comes a moment when, in the highest meditation, the Lower Manas is withdrawn into the Triad, which thus becomes the Quater- nary, the Tetraktys of Pythagoras, leaving what was the Quaternaiy as the lower Triad, which is then reversed. The Triad is reflected in the Lower Manas. The Higher Manas cannot reflect itself, but when the Green passes upward it becomes a mirror for the Higher ; it is then no more Green, having passed from its associations. The Psyche thea becomes spiritual, the Ternary is reflected in the Fourth, and the Tetraktys is formed. So long as you are not dead, there must be something to reflect the Higher Triad ; for there must be something to bring back to the waking consciousness the experiences passed through on the higher plane. The Lower Manas is as a tablet which retains the impressions made on it during trance. ^ The Turiya state is entered on the Fourth Path ; it is figured in the diagram on p. 478, in the Second Paper. Q. What is the meaning of a triangle formed of lines of light appearing in the midst of intense vibrating blue ? A. Seeing the Triangle outside is nothing ; it is merely a reflection of the Triad on the Auric Envelope, and proves that the seer is outside the Triangle. It should be seen in quite another way. You must * ^ 544 TBB SUCkRT DOCTRINB. endeavoar to merge yourself in it, to assimilate yourself with it. Tm are merely seeing things in the Antral. "When the Third Bye is opoet in any one of yon. you will have something very different to tell me." Q. H'ttJk r^erau£ to ike "Pillar of Light" in a previous quatioiL,u tkt Aurit EnvtUfie tkt Higher EgP^ and does it correspond to tiu Rxtf Pmss-Not t [This question was not answered, as going too far. The Ring ?•»• Kot is at the circumference of the manifested Universe.] NIDAnaS Q. T%€ n»i cftht Nidanas is Avidya. How does this differ from M4yi f Htm mmmy Hidinus are there Esoterically f A. A^in too much is asked. The NidSnas, the concatenation* of causes and effects (not in the sense of the Orientalists), are not caosed by ignorance. They are produced by Dhyfin Chohans and Devas, who rertainly cannot be said to act in ignorance. We produce NidSnasio ignorance. Each cause started on the Physical Plane sets up action oa everj' plane to all eternity. They are eternal eflfects reflected fioa plane to plane on to tlie " screen of eternity." MANAS. Q. Mliat is the septenary eiassifieation of Jifanas ? There are sevn degrees ttf the Lover Jifanas, and presumably there are seven degrees of the Higher. Art there then fourteen degrees of Af anas, or is Manas, taken as a whole, dividfd inffi/ortynine Manasic fires f A, Ceruinly there are fourteen, but you want to run before you can walk. First learn the three, and then go on to the forty-nine. TTiere are three Sons of Agiii : they become seven, and then evolve to the forty-nine. But you are still ignorant how to produce the three. Learn first how to produce the "Sacred Fire," spoken of in the Purimas. The forty-nine fires are all states of Kundalint. to be pro- duced in ourselves by the friction of the Triad. First learn the septenary of the body, and then that of each Principle. But first of all learn the firat Triad (the three vital airs) THE SPINAL CORD. Q. What is the sympathetic nerve and its function in Occultism f 7/ fnund only after a certain stage of animal evolution, and vttould seem to he Moiifing in complexity towards a second spinal cord. A. At the end of the next Round, Humanity will again become PRAMTA Aim ANTAH KA8ANA. 545 I I male*f«nale. and then there will be two spinal cords. In the Seventh Race the two will merge into the one. The evolution corresponds to the Races, and with the evolntton of the Races the sympathetic developes into a true spinal cord. We are returning up the arc only with self-consciousness added. The Sixth Race will correspond lo the "pndding bags," hot will have the perfection of form with the highest intelligence and spirituality. Anatomists are beginning to Snd new raniifications and new modifi- cations in the human body. They are in error on many points, f.g., as to the spleen, which Ihey call the manufactory of white blood corpus- cles, but which is really the vehicle of the Liuga Sharira. Occultists know each minute portion of the heart, and ha\'e a name for each. They call them by the names of the Gods, as Brahma's Hall, Vishnu's Hall, etc. They correspond with parts of the braiu. The very atoms of tht body are the thirty-three crores of Gods. The sympathetic nerve is played on by the Tintrikas, who call it Shiva's Vina. prAna. Q. What is the relation of man to Prana — the periodical life ? A. Jiva becomes Frana only when the child Is born aud begins to breathe. It is the breath of life, Nephesh. There is no Prflna on the Astral Plane. antahkarana. Q. 77ie Antahkarana is the link between the Higher and the Lower Egos ! does it correspond to the umbilical cord in projection f A. No ; the umbilical cord joining the a.stral to the physical body is a real thing. Antahkarana is imaginary, a figure of speech, and is only the bridging over from the Higher to the Lower Manas. Antahkarana only exists when you commence to "throw your thought upwards and downwards." The Mayavi Rdpa, or Manasic body, has no material connection with the physical body, no umbilical cord. It is spiritual and ethereal, and passes everywhere without let or hindrance. It entirely differs from the astral body, which, if injured, acts by reper- cussion on the physical body. The Devachanic entity, even previous to birth, can be affected by the Skandhas. but these have nothing to do with the Antahkarana. It is affected, e.g., by the desire for re- incarnation. Q. We are told in The Voice of the Silence that me have to b^ome 546 THX SBCKBT DOCTRUIS. " Ihe path itself" and in anoSher passage- that Antakkarana is that p^tl. Does this mean anything more than thai we have to bridge over tkt g€f between the eonsdousness of ihi Lower and ike Higher Egos t A, That is all. Q. We are told that there are seven portals on the Path : is ikere then a sevenfold division of Antahkarana t Also, is Antahkarana ike battU- field? A. It is the battlefield. There are seven divisions in the Antab* karana. As you pass from each to the next you approach the Higher Manas. When you have bridged the fourth you may consider youxscU fortunate. MISCRLLANEODS. Q. We are told thai Apm " should be practised physically." Does this mean that, colour being more differentiated than sound, it is only through the colours that we shall get at the real sound of each of us ? and Ikat Aim (an only have its Spiritual and Occult signification when turned to the Atmd-Buddhi-Afanas of each person f A. AiTM means good action, not merely lip-sound. You must svf it in deeds. Q. With reference to the /^, is not the Atm&-Buddhi- Manas different for each entity, according to the plane on which heis f A. Each Principle is on a di^erent plane. The Chel& must rise to one after the other, assimilating each, until the three are one. This is the real root of the Trinity. Q. In The Secret Doctrine we are told that Jkdsha is the same as Pradhdna. Akdsha is the Auric Egg of the earth, and yet Akdsha is Mahat. What then is the relation of Manas to the Auric Egg f A. M&laprakriti is the same as Akdsha (.seven degrees). Mahat is the positive aspect of Ak&sha, and is the Manas of the Rosmic Body. Mahat is to AldLsha as Manas is to Buddhi, and Pradhdna is but aQother name for Mulaprakriti. ■ The Auric Egg is Akasha and has seven degrees. Being pure abstract substance, it reflects abstract ideas, but also reflects lower concrete things. The Third I^ogos and Mahat are one, and are the same as the Uni- versal Mind. Alaya. The Tetraktys is the Chatur Vidya, or the fourfold knowledge in one* the four-faced Brahma. SACRBD CENTRHS OP BODY. 547 \ nAuis. Q. Have the Nadh any fixed relationship io the veriebrtr ? can they be located opposite to or between any vertebrir ? can they be regarded as occupy- ing each a given and fixed extent in the cord f Do they correspond to the divisions of the cord known to Anatomists f A. H. P. B. believed that the NSdSs corresponded to regions of the spinal cord known lo Anatomists. There arc thus six or seven Nidis or plexuses along the spinal cord. The term, however, is not technical but general, and applies to any knot, centre, ganglion, etc. The sacred NSdis are those which run along or above SusbumnS. Six are known lo Science, and one (near the atlas) unknown, Even the TSraka R^ja Yogis speak only of six, and will not mention the sacred seventh. Id^ and PingaU play along the cur\'ed wall of the cord in which is Sushumna. They are semi -material, positive and negative, sun and moon, and start into action the free and spiritual current of SushnmnS. They have distinct paths of their own, otherwise they would radiate all over the body. By concentration on Id5 and Pingald is generated the " sacred fire." Another name for Shiva's Vinfi (sympathetic system) is Kali's Vina. The sympathetic cords and IdS and Pingalfl start from a sacred spot above the medulla oblongata, called Triveni. This is one of the sacred centres, another of which is Brahmarandra, which is, if you like, the grey matter of the brain. It is also the anterior fontanelle in the new-born child. The spinal column is called Brahmadanda, the stick of BrahmS. This is again symbolized by the bamboo rod carried by Ascetics. The Yogis on the other sides of the Himalayas, who assemble regularly at Lake Mansarovara, carry a triple knotted bamboo stick, and are called Tridandins. This has the same signification as the Br^manical cord, which has many other meanings besides the three vital airs: e.g.^ it symbolizes the three luitiatious of a BrShman, taking place: (o) at birth, when he receives his mystery name from the family Astrologer, who is supposed to have received it from the Devas (he is also thus said lo be initiated by the Devas) ; a Hindu will sooner die than reveal this name; (*) at seven, when he receives the cord; and (c) at eleven or twelve, when he is initiated into his caste. S4S TH* SECRKT DOCTRIKH. Q. If it is right to study the body and its organs, iviih their corrapon- dences. will you give the main outUtu of these in connection untk the Na£x and with tkf diagram of the orifices. A. The Spleen - corresponds to the Liaga Sharira K&ma PrSaa Kima- Manas Manas- An tah kara na Mauas pro- „ Uver - - .. „ Heart - „ Corpora- quad rigemina „ „ Pituitary body „ ,. Fiueal gland UDtil il is touched by the vibrating light of Kundalinl, which ceeds from Buddhi, when it becomes Buddbi-Manas. The pineal gland corresponds with DiWne Thought. The pitnitary body is the organ of the Psychic Plaue. Psychic vision is caused by the molecular motion of this body, which is directly connected with the optic nerve, and thus affects the sight and gives rise to halliicinatioos. Its motion may readily cause Qashes of light, such as may be obtained by pressing the eyeballs. Drunkenness and fever produce illusions of sight and hearing by the action of the pituitary body. This body is sometimes so afiTccted by drunkenness that it is paralyzed. If an influence on the optic nerve is thus produced and the current thus reversed, the colour will probably be complementary. SEVENS. Q. If the physical body is no part of the real human septenary, is physical matetial world one of the sevai planes of the A'asmic septenary f A. It is. The body is not a Principle in Esoteric parlance, because the body and the Linga are both ou the same plane ; then the Auric Egg makes the seventh. The body is an UpAdhi rather than a Prin- ciple. The earth and its astral light are as closely related to each other as the body and its Llnga, the earth being the Upfidhi. Otir plane in its lowest division is the earth, in it.s highest the astral. The terrestrial astral light should of course not be confounded with the universal Astral Light. Q, A physical object was spoken of as a septenary on the physical plane, inasmuch as we amid (:) directly contact it; (2) retinally repro- duce it; (3) remember it; (4) dream of it; (5) view it atomical/yi (6) view it disintegrated : (7)^ What is the seventh ? These are set'CJi ways in which we view it : the septenary is our way of seeing one thing. Is it objectively septenary t M [iJiiHA haturs'b soui?dikg-boaju>. 549 A. The seventh brit'ges across from one plane lo another. The last is the idea, the privation of matter, and carries you to the next plane. The highest of one plane touches the lowest of the next. Seven is a factor in nature, as in colours and sounds. There are seven degrees in the same piece of wood, each perceived by one of the seven senses. In wood the smell is the most material degree, while in other sub- stances it may be the sixth. Substances are septenary apart from the consciousness of the viewer. The psychometer. seeing a morsel, say of a table a thousand years hence, would see the whole ; for every atom reflects the whole body to which it belongs, just as with the Monads of Leibnitz. After the seven materia! subdivisions are the seven divisions of the Astral, which is its second Principle. The disintegrated matter—the highest of the material subdivisions — is the privation of the idea of it — the fourth. . The number fourteen is the first step between seven and forty-nine. Bach septenary is really a fourteen, because each of the seven has its two aspects. Thus fourteen signifies the inter-relation of two planes in its turn. The septenar>' is to be clearly traced in the lunar months, fevers, gestations, etc. On it is based the week of the Jews and the septenary Hierarchies of the Lord of Hosts. SOUND& Q. Scund is an atirib'ute of Akdsha : bu. we cannci cognise anything on the Akdshic plane: on what plane then do we recognize sound ? On what plane is sound produced by ike physical contact of bodies f Is there sound on seven planes, and is the physical plane one of them ? j4. The physical plane is one of them. You cannot see Ak^ha, but you can sense it from the Fourth Path. You may not be fully conscious of it, and yet you may sense it. iVkSsha is at the root of the manifestation of all sounds. Sound is the expression and manifesta- tion of that which is behind it, and which is the parent of many cor- relations. All Nature is a sounding-board; or rather Akasha is the sounding-board of Nature. It is the Deity, the one Life, the one Existence. (Hearing is the vibration of molecular particles ; the order is seen in the sentence, '* The disciple feels, hears, sees.") Sound can have no end. H. P. B. remarked with regard to a tap made by a pencil on the table : " By this time it has affected the whole universe. The particle which has bad its wear and tear destroys some- ^iP THB SSCRBT DOCTKINB. thing which passes into something else. It is eternal in the Nidlnas it produces." A sound, if not previously produced on the Astral Plane, and berore that on the Akashic. could not be produced at all. Akisha is the bridge between nen'e cells and mental powers. Q. " Colours are p&y chic, and sounds are spiritual." What, assuming that these arc vibrations, is the successive order f these corresponding ta sight and hearing) of the other senses ? A. This phrase was not to be taken out of its context* otherwise confusion would arise. All are on all planes. The First Race bad touch all over like a sounding board ; this touch differentiated into the other senses, which developed with the Races. The "sense" of the First Race was that of touch, meaning the power of their atoms to vibrate in unison with external atoms. The " touch" would be almost the same as sympathy. The senses were on a different plane with each Race ; eg., the Fourth Race had very much more developed senses than ourselves, but oo another plane. It was also a ver>' material Race. The sixth and seventh senses will merge into the Akdshic Sound. "It depends to what degree of matter the sense of touch relates itself as to what we call it." frAna.. Q. Is Prana the production of the countless " lives " 0/ thi human body, and therefore, to some extent, of the congeries of the cells o ■ atoms of the body? A. No; Prina is the parent of the "lives." As an example, a sponge may be immersed in an ocean. The water in the sponge's interior may be compared to Prdna; outside is Jlva. PrSna is the motor- principle in life. The "lives" leave Pr&ua: Prana does not leave them. Take out the sponge from the water, and it becomes dr>-. thus symbolizing death. Ever>- principle is a differentiation of Jtva, but the life-motion in each is Prftna, the "breath of life." K&ma depends on PrSna, without which there would be no KSma. Pr4na wakes the K^mic germs to life; it makes all desires vital and living;. THE SRCOND SPINAL CORD. Q. With reference to the answer to the question on the second cord, whAt is it that -mil become a second spinal cord in the Sixth Race f Will Idd and Pingala have separate physical ducts f KOSUIC CON3CXOU8NB3S. 551 A. It is the sympathetic cords which will grow together and form another spinal cord. Id£ and PingaU will be joined with SushumnI, and they will become one. Id& is on the left side of the cord, and Pingaia on the right. INITIATES. Pythagoras was an Initiate, one of the grandest of Scientists. His diseiple. Archytas, was marvellously apt in applied Science. Plato and Euclid were Initiates, but not Socrates. No real Initiates were married. Euclid learned his Geometry in the Mysteries. Modem men of Science only rediscover the old truths. KOSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS. H. P. B. proceeded to explain Kosmic Consciousness, which is, like all else, on seven planes, of which three are inconceivable, and four are cognizable by the highest Adept. She sketched the planes as in the following diagram* Hsms-Bgo. Klnu-Hanu or Hi^er Fiqrchic. Prtnlc-Kima orl.owcr PsyclUc. Afltnl. PrlkiUIc orTeTTOttrial. Taking the lowest only, the Terrestrial (it was afterwards decided to call this plane PrSkritic), it is divisible into seven planes, and these again into seven, making the forty-nine. 552 THJC SBCRBT DOCTRINB. TBRRBSTRIAI* Slifc then toolc the lowest plane of Pnkriti, or the true Terrestrial, Jind divided it as follows : — Ttve tCTTMirUilj^Aaet, or 7tli Prftkrftk. pm^Bso fw AtniCi fana-Sgo or Bnddttic. Xco-Maiuw- Kima-Huiu or Lower Masak. Frftnk Klma or Fqrckic^ Aatnl. Ot>feetlve. Its objective or sensuous plane is that which is sensed by the five physical senses. On its second plane things are reversed. Its third plane is psychic : here is the instinct which prevents a kitten going into the water and getting drowned. The following table of the terrestrial, objective consciousness was given : 1. Sensuous. 2. Instinctual. 3. Physiological-emotional. 4. Passional „ 5. Mental ^ 6. Spiritual „ 7. X. DrVISIOHS OP TUB ASTRAL FUAltS. 553 ASTRAL. Tke thrM lower Prikritk ■!« related to tlae UiK« lower of the I J Astm naiM iniwvUalFlj tmcs«*iiag. \. MMttti BMOihL Aatral ManH. MlttX Klnu-MMUS. Astral Pqrchic, or rrlnk. A»tnl Astral. AMnlOt^ectfrc. With regard to the first division of the second plane. H. P. B. re- minded her pupils that all seen on it must be reversed in translating it, £.g, with numbers which appeared backwards. The Astral Objec- tive corresponds in everything to the Terrestrial Objective. The second division corresponds to the second of the lower plane, but the objects are of extreme tenuity, an astralized Astral. This plane is the limit of the ordinary medium, beyond which he cannot go. A non-mediumistic person to reach it must be asleep or in a trance, or under the influence of laughing-gas; or in ordinary delirium people pass on to this plane. The third,, the PrAnic, is of an intensely vivid nature. Extreme delirium carries the patient to this plane. In delirium tremens the sufferer passes to this and to the one above it. l^unatics are often con- scious on this plane, where they see terrible visions. It runs into the — Fourth division, the worst of the astral planes, K5mic and terrible. Hence come the images that tempt ; images of drunkards in KSma Loka impelling others to drink : images of all vices inoculating men with the desire to commit crimes. The weak imitate these images in a kind of monkeyish fashion, so falling beneath their influence. This is also the cause of epidemics of vices, and cycles of disaster, of accidents of all kinds coming in groups. Extreme delirium tremens is on this plane. 554 THB SBCJLST Z>OCTRIKB. The 6fth division is that of premonitioiis in dreams, of re6ectioQs from the lower mentality, glimpses into the past and future, the plane of things mental and not spiritual. The mesmerized clairvoyant can reacb this plane, and even, if good, may go higher. The sixth is the plane from which come all beautiful inspirations of art, poetry, and music : high types of dreams, flashes of genius. Here we have glimpses of past incarnations, without being able to locate or analyze them. We are on the seventh plane at the moment of death or in exceptional visions. The drowning man is here when he remembers his past life. The memory of events of this plane must be centred in the heart, " the seat of Buddha." There it will remain, but impressions from this plaoe are not made on the physical brain. 4tb Rounif PlBse FolMt Konnic Klnu-I>|atuu 3rd Kwmic none KiMnik Life JTvA-PobAL Frluic Klma md Koamk' Plane Kosmlc AilnU tHXMnk nane Prikritk 6Ut PtikriUc 5tb FrSkrtUc gpinic Body 4tfa PrUcrilu: 3rdPTlkriUc uidPrtkriUc iri Prikriik BuddhI iUma-MaiMtJ* prinic KJm* "Astral [In this tMAgram all the Kosmic Plaqes •ihoiilit be fixtu^ ^ of One siz' " e lowest plane, Pra' - - - « of one size — that ei make so large a diagram that the planes are compressed.— Ed.] riven to the lowest plane, Prakriti. PIbdcs abonld Iw of one size— that given to the first, or loweaL the sixe Further, withtn the drcie all the PrAkritk To do thia would EOSMIC PLANES, GENERAL NOTES. 555 \ The two planes above dealt with are the only two used in the Hatha Yoga. PrSna and the Auric Envelope are essentially the same, and again, as Jiva. it is the same as the Universal Deity. This, in its Fifth Principle, is Mahat, in its Sixth, Alaya. (The Universal Life is also seven-princi- pled.) Mahat is the highest Entity in Kosmos ; beyond this is no diviner Entity ; it is of subtlest matter. Suksbma. In us this is Manas, and the very Logoi are less high, not having gained experience. The Minasic Entity will not be destroyed, even at the end of the Mahd- manvautara, when all the Gods are absorbed, but will re-emerge from ParabrShmic latency. Consciousness is the Kosmic seed of supcrkosmic omniscience. It has the potentiality of budding into the Dix'ine Consciousness. Rude physical health is a drawback to seership. This was the case with Sweden borg. Fohat is everywhere : it runs like a thread through all. and has its own seven divisions. KOSUIC Pl^ANBS AS SIX WITB AURIC ECC AS SSVRHTS. In the Eosmic Auric Envelope is all the Karma of the manifesting Universe. This is the Hiranyagarbha. Jiva is everywhere, and so with the other Principles. 556 THB SBCRBT DOCTRINE. The above diagram represents the type of all the Solar Systems. Mahat, single before informing the Universe, differentiates wh« informing it, as does Manas in man. Mahat as Divine Ideation. Fohat. Kosmic Substance. Manas. Antahkarana. I^wer Manas, Taking this figure to represent the human Principles and planes of consciousness, then • The t'ouTtb Globe of every Planetai7 Ctaftin. DIFPK RENTl ATION . 557 7. 6, 5 represent respectively, Shiva, Vishnu, BrabmS, Brahma being the lowest. Shiva is the four-faced Brabni&; the Creator, Preserver. Destroyer, and Regenerator. Between 5 and 4 comes the Antahkarana. The /\ represents the Christos, the Sacrificial Victim crucified between the thieves : this is the double-faced entity. The VedSntins make this a quateraarj' for a blind : Antahkarana, Chit, Buddhi, and Manas. ManVANTARIC ASPBCT of PaRABRAHMAN AKD MOtAPRAKRITI. Uahat. p. ^^ "^'./e. '■"ttj, '^ Attributes, Mftyfivi RQpas, etc. N.B.— The nninber of Rays b irbitrary sad without sigoificftnce. *erceptive life begins with the Astral: it is not our physical atoms which see, etc. Consciousness proper begins between KSma and Manas. AtmS* Buddhi acts more in the atoms of the body, in the bacilli, microbes, etc., than in Man himself. OBJECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS. Sensuous objective consciousness includes all that pertains to the five physical senses in man, and rules in animals, birds, fishes and some insects. Here arc the *' Lives " ; their consciousness is in Atnia- Buddhi • these are entirely without Manas. 558 THH SECRBT DOCTRINB. ASTRAL CONSCIODSNESa Thai of some plants (e.g., sensitive), of ants, spiders, and some light-flies (Indian), but not of bees. The vertebrate animals in general are without this consciousneK, but the placental Mammals have all the potentialities of humaa con- sciousnesa, though at present, of course, dormant. Idiots are on this plane. The common expression " he has lost his mind" is an Occult truth. For when through fright or other cause the lower raind becomes paralyzed, then the consciousness is on the Astral Plane. The study of lunacy will throw much light on these points. This may be called the '* nerve plane." It is cognized by our "nervous centres" of which Physiology knows nothing, e.g., the clair- voyant reading with the eyes bandaged, reading with the tips of tbe fingers, the pit of the stomach, etc. This sense is greatly developed in the deaf and dumb- kAma-prAnic consciousness. The general life- consciousness which belongs to all the objective world, even to the stones ; for if stones were not living they could not decay, emit a spark, etc. Affinity between chemical elements is a manifestation of this K^mic consciousness. kAma-m.\.nasic consciocsnrss. The instinctual consciousness of animals and idiots in its lowest degrees, the planes of sensation : in man these are rationalized, e.g., a dog shut in a room ha.s the instinct to get out, but cannot because its instinct is not sufBcicntly rationalized to take the necessary means; whereas a man at once takes in the situation and extricates himself. The highest degree of this Oma-M^nasic consciousness is the psychic. Thus there are seven degrees from the instinctual animal to the rationalized instinctual and psychic. mAnasic CONSCIOCSNBSS. From this plane Manas stretches upwards to Mahat. BUDUHIC CONSCIOUSNESS. The plane of Buddhi and the Auric Rnvelopc. From here it goes to the Father in heaven. Atmt, and reflects all that is in the Auric Envelope. Five and six therefore cover the planes from the psychic to the divine. I IIBN A7n> PinUft 559 I I MISCELLANEOUS. Reason is a thiog that oscillates between right and wrong. But Intelligence — Intuition — is higher, it is the clear vision. To get rid of Kima we must crush out all our material instincts — "crush out matter." The flesh is a thing of hahit; it will repeat mechanically a good impulse as well as a bad one. It is not the flesh which is always the tempter; in nine ca.ses out of ten it is the Lower Manas, which, by its images, leads the flesh into temptation. The highest Adept begins his Samadhi on the Fourth Solar Plane, but cannot go outside the Solar System. When he begins SamSdhi he is on a par with some of the Dhyan Chohans, but he transcends them as he rises to the seventh plane (Nir\'fina). The Silent Watcher is on the Fourth Kosmic Plane. The higher Mind directs the Will: the lower turns it into selfish Desire. The head should not be covered in meditation. It is covered in Sam5dhi. The DhySn Chohans arc passionless, pure and mindless. They have no struggle, no passions to crush. The Dhy5n Chohans are made to pass through the School of Life. •' God goes to School." The best of us in the future will be Manasaputras ; the lowest will be Pitris. We are seven intellectual Hierarchies here. This earth becomes the moon of the next earth. The " Pitris " are the Astral overshadowed by Atrai-Bdddhi, falling into matter. The " Pudding-bags" had Life and Atma-Buddbi, but no Manas. They were therefore senseless. The reason for all evolution is the gaining of experience. In the Fifth Round all of us will play the part of Pitris. We shall have to go and shoot out our ChhSySs into another humanity, and remain until that humanity is perfected. The Pitris have finished their office in this Round aud have gone into Nirvana: but they will return to do the same office up to the middle point of the Fifth Round. The Fourth or Kitmic Hierarchy of the Pitris becomes the " man of flesh." The astral body is first in the womb : then comes the germ that fructifies it. It is then clothed with matter, as were the Pitris. The ChhSy^ is really the lower Manas, the shadow of the higher Mind. This ChhSyt makes the Miyavi Rijpa. The Ray clothes itself 560 TBB SBCRST DOCTKINE. ill the highest deGfr^e of the Astral Plane. The Maytvi Rupa i» com- posed of the aiftral body as Up4dhi, the g^atdiag ititelHgeuce from clie heart, the attributes aod qualities from the Auric Envelope. The Auric Envelope takes up the Light of Atm^, and overshadovs the coronal, circling round the head. The Anric Fluid is a combination of the Life and Will principles, the life and the will being one and the same in Kosmos. It emanates from the eyes and hands, when directed by the will of the operator. The Auric Light surrounds all bodies: it is the " aura" emanating from them, whether they be animal, vegetable, or mineral. It is the light, e.g., seen round magnets. Atm^-Buddhi'Manas in man corresponds to the three Logoi m Kosmos. They not only correspond, but each is the radiation from Kosmos to Microcosmos. The third Logos. Mahat, becomes Manas to man, Manas being only Mahat individualized, as the sun-rays are in- dividualized in bodies that absorb them. The stin-rays give life, ther fertilize what is already there, and the individual is formed. Mahat. so to say, fertilizes, and Manas is the result. BuddhJ-Manas is the Kshetrajna. There are seven planes of Mahat, as of all else. THR HUMAN PRINCIPLES. Here H. P. B. drew two diagrams, illustrating different wai representing the human principles. In the first - Atmi; Buddfai Mimtta. K«Tna-h4aiwi«. Pr»IV». Lm^a •A.E the two lower are disregarded ; they go out. disintegrate, are of noi account. Remain five, under the radiation of Atmft. the lower Quaternary is regarded as mere matter, objective illusion, and there rL-main Manas and the Auric Egg, the higher Principles being reflected in the Auric Egg. In alt these systems remember the main principle, the descent and re-ascent of the Spirit, in man as in Kosmos. The Spirit is drawn downwards as by spiritual gravitation. Seeking further for the cause of this, the students were checked. H. P. B. giving only a suggestion on the three Logoi : 1. Potentiality of Mind (Absolute Thought). 2. Thought in Germ. 3. Ideation in Activity NOTES. Protective variation, e.g., identity of colouring of insects and of that on which they feed, was explained to be the work of Nature Kle- mentals. Form is on different planes, and the forms of one plane may be formless to dwellers on another. The Kosniocratores build on planes in the Divine Mind, visible to them though not to us. The principle of limitation— ;6r(«(-i)!>/«w individuaitonif: — is Form: this principle is Divine Law manifested in Kosmic Matter, which, in its essence, is limitless. The Auric Egg i:i the limit of man as Hirauyagarbha of the Kosmos. ,. The first step towards the accomplishment of Kriy^shakti is the use of the Imagination. To imagine a thing is to ilruily create a model of what you desire, perfect in all its details. The Will is then brought into action, and the form is thereby transferred to the objective world. This is creation by Kriyasbakti. 3 00 I » 5*2 TUB SECRET DOCTUNB. SUNS AND PLANETS. A comet partially cools and settles down as a sun. It then ^^radsaUy attracts round it planets that are as yet unattached to any centre, and thus, in millions of years, a Solar System is formed. The worn-out planet becomes a moon to the planet of another system. The sun wc see is a reflection of the true Sun : this reflection, as an outward concrete thing, is a K&ma-Rupa. all the suns forming the Kdma-Rfipa of Kosraos. To its own system the sun is Buddhi, as being the reflection and vehicle of the true Sun, which is AtmS. invisi- ble on this plane. All the Fohatic forces — electricity, etc. — are in this reflection. THE MOON. At the beginning of the evolution of our globe, the moon was macfa nearer to the earth, and larger than it is now. It has retreated from ns, and shrunk much in size. (The moon gave all her Principles to the earth, while the Pitris gave only their ChhSySs to man.) The influences of the moon are wholly psycho-physiological. It is dead, sending out injurious emanations like a corpse. It vampirize* the earth and its inhabitants, so that anyone sleeping in its rays suffers, losing some of his life-force. A white cloth is a protection, the rays not passing through it, and the bead especially should be thus guarded. It has most power when it is full. It throws ofl" particles which we absorb, and is gradually disintegrating. Where there is snow the moon looks like a corpse, being unable, through the white snow, to vampirize eflectually. Heucc snow-covered mountains are free from its bad in- fluences. The moon is phosphorescent. The Rftkshakas of Lanka and the Atlanteans are said to have sub- jected the moon. The Thcssalians learned from them their Magic. Esotcrically. the moon is the symbol of the Lower Manas; it is also the .lymbol of the Astral. Plants which under the sun's rays are beneficent are maleficent under those of the moon. Flerbs containing poisons are most active when gathered under the moon's rays. A new moon will appear during the Seventh Round, and our moon will finally disintegrate and disappear. There is now a planet, the " Mystery Planet," behind the moon, and it is gradually dying. Finally the time will come for it to send its Principles to a new Laya Centre, and there a new planet will form, to belong to another Solar System, the WHY CYCLES RBTUHN. 563 present Mystery Planet then functioning as moon to that new globe. This moon wUl have notbiag to do with, our earth, though it will come within our range of vision. THE SOLAR SYSTEM. All the visible planets placed in our Solar System by Astronomers belong to it, except Neptnne. There are also some others not known to Science, belonging to it, and " all moons which are not yet \*isiblc for next things." The planets only move in our consciousness. The Rulers of the seven Secret Planets have no influence on this earth, as this earth has on other planets. It is the sun and moon wliich really have not only a mental, but also a physical eflect. The effect of the sun on humanity is connected with KSma-Praua. with the most physical KSmic elements in us; it is the vital principle which helps growth. The effect of the moon is chiefly KSma-MAnasic or psycho-physiological ; it acts on the psychological brain, on the brain-mind. PRECIOUS STONES. In answer to a question, H. P. B. said that the diamond and the ruby were under the sun, the sapphire under the moon — '• bnt what does it matter to you?" TIME. When once out of the body, and not suliject to the habit of conscious- ness formed by others, time does not exist. Cycles and epochs depend on consciousness : we are not here for the first time; the cycles return because we come back into conscious existence. Cycles are measured by the consciousness of humanity and not by Nature. It is because we are the same people as in past epochs that these events occur to us. DEATH. The Hindus look upon death as impure, owing to the disintegration of the body and the passing from one plane to another. "I believe in transformation, not in death." ATOMS. The Atom is the Soul of the molecule. It is the six Principles, and the molecule is the body thereof. The Atom is the Atman of the objec- tive Kosmos, i.e., it is on the seventh plane of the lowest Prakriti. :;i t SH THB SBCRBT OOCTRINB. TERMS. H. P. B. began by saying that students ought to know the correct meaning of the Sanskrit terms nsed in Occultism, and should leani the Occult Symbology. To begin with one had better learn the correct Esoteric classification and names of the fourteen (7 x 2) and seven (Sapta) Lokas found in the exoteric texts. These are given there In i very confused manner, and are full of " blinds.*' To illustrate thii three classifications are given below. IjOKAS. I. The general exoteric, orthodox and tdntric category : Bbur-Ioka. Bhuvar-loka. Swar-loka. Mahar-loka. The second seven are reflected. Janar-loka. Tapar-loka. Satya-loka. 3. The S&nkhya category, and that of some Vedaatiua BrahmS^-loka. Pitri-loka. Soma-Ioka. Indra-loka. Gandharva-loka. Rakshasa-loka Yaksha-loka. And an eighth. 3. The Ved&ntic, the nearest approach to the Esoteric : Atala. Vitala. Sutala. Talatala (or Ka ratal a). RasStala. Mahatala. PStaia. Bachand all correspond Esotericallytothe Kosmicor DhySn Chohanic Hierarchies, and to the human States of Consciousness and their sub- divisions (forty-nine). To appreciate this the meanings of the terms used in the Vedantic classification must be first understood. TALA6 AND LOKAS. 56s Sntala Karatala Rasdtala Ta/a means p/au. Atala means no place. Vitala means some change for the better: «>.. better for matter, in that more matter enters into it, or, in other words, it becomes more differentiated. This is an ancient Occnlt term, means good, excellent, place, means something that can be grasped or touched (fro* kara, a hand): i.e., the state in which matter becomes tangible. •! means place of taste : a place you can sense with one of the organs of sense. Mahdtala means exoterically "great place"; bnt, Esoterically, a place including all others subjectively, and potentially including all that precedes it. PStSIa means something under the feet (from pada, foot), the up^dhi, or basis, of anything, the antipodes, America, etc. Each of the Lokas, places, worlds, states, etc., corresponds with and is transformed into five (exoterically) and seven (Esoterically) states or Tattvas, for which there are no definite names. These in the main divisions cited below make up the forty-nine Fires: 5 and 7 TanmStras, outer and inner senses. 5 and 7 Bhiitas, or elements. 5 and 7 Gnyauendr^'as. or organs of sensation. 5 and 7 Karmendryas, or organs of action. These correspond in general to States of Consciousness, to the Hier- archies of DhySn Chohans, to the Tattvas, etc. These Tattvas transform themselves into the whole Universe. The fourteen Lokas are made of seven with seven reflections: above, below; within, without ; subjective, objective; pure, impure; positive, negative ; etc. EXPLANATION OF THE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS CORRESPONDING TO THE VEDANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF LOKAS 7. Atala. The Atmic or AuHc state or locality : it emanates directly fixnn Absoldteness. and is the first something in the Universe. Its correspondence is the Hierarchy of non-substantial primordial Beings, in a place which is no place (for ns), a state which is no state. This 366 THB SBCR8T DOCTRINK Hierarchy contains the primordial plane, all that was. is, and will bt from the beginning to the end of the Mah^manvantara ; all is tbcre- This statement should not. however, be taken to imply Kismet : the latter is contrary to all the teachings of Occnltism. Here are the Hierarchies of the DhySnt Buddhas. Their state is (bat of Parasam^dhi, of the Dharmakftya ; a state where no progress is possible. The entities there may be said to be crystallized in poritr. in homogeneity. - 6. Vitala. Here are the Hierarchies of the celestial Buddhas, or Bodhisattvas, who are said to emanate from the seven DhySaiBuddhas. It is related on earth to SamSdhi, to the Buddhic consciousness in mao No Adept, save one, can be higher than this and live ; if he passes into the Atmic or Dharmakaya state (Alaya) he can return to earth no more. These two states are purely hyper- metaphysical. 5- Sutala. A differential state corresponding on earth with the Higher Uanas, and therefore with Shabda (Sound), the Logos, our Higher Kgo : and also to the Manushi Buddha state, like that of Gautama, oo earth. This is the third stage of Samadhi (which is septenary). Here belong the Hierarchies of the Kum^ras — the Agnishvattas, etc. 4. Karatala corresponds with Sparsha (touch) and to the Hier- archies of ethereal, semi-objective DhySn Chohans of the astral matter of the MSnasa- Manas, or the pure ray of Manas, that is the Lower Mana.'i before it is mixed with KSma (as in the young child). They are called Sparsha Dcvas, the Devas endowed with touch. These Hierarchies of Devas arc progressive : the first have one sense ; the second two ; and so on to seven : each containing all the senses poten- tially, but not yet developed. Sparsha would be rendered better by affinity, contact. ■^ 3. RasAiaia, or Rupatala: corresponds to the Hierarchies of Rupa or Sight Devas, possessed of three senses, sight, hearing, and touch- These are the KSma-M^uasic entities, and the higher KtementaU. With the Rosicrucians they were the Sylphs and Undines. It corres- ponds on earth with an artificial state of consdonsoess, such as that produced by h3^notisra and drugs (morphia, etc.). 2. Afahdtala. Corresponds to the Hierarchies of Rasa or Taste Devas, and includes a state of consciousness embracing the lower five senses and emanations of life and being. It corresponds to K£ma and Pr^a in man, and to Salamanders and Gnomes in nature. :i. Pdfalu. Coiresponds to the Hierarchies of Gandha or SmeU I STATSS OF CONSCIOUSNBSS. g6f Devas, the nnderworld or antipodes : Myalba. The sphere of irrational animals, having no feeling save that of self-preservation and gratifica- tion of the senses : also of intensely selfish human beings, waking or sleeping. This is why Nirada is said to have visited Patala when he was cursed to be reborn. He reported that life there was very pleasant for those "who had never left their birth-place"; they were very happy. It is the earthly state, and corresponds with the sense of smell. Here are also animal Dugpas, KlementaXs of animals, and Nature Spirits. » FURTHER KXPLANATIONS OF THE SAME CLASS1FICATI0N& 7. Auric. Atmic, Alayic, sense or state. One of full potentiality, but not of actiWty. 6. Buddhic ; the sense of being one with the iiniverse ; the impossi- bility of imagining oneself apart from it. (It was asked why the term Alayic was here given to the Atmic and not to the Baddhic state. Atts. These classifications are not hard and £ast divisions. A term may change places according as the classifi- cation is exoteric, Esoteric or practical. For students the effort should he to bring all things down to states of consciousness. Buddhi is really one and indivisible. It is a feeling within, absolutely inexpressi- ble in words. All cataloguing is useless to explain it.) 5. Shibdic, sense of hearing. 4. Sp^rshic, sense of touch. 3. Rupic, the state of feeliug oneself a body and perceiving it (rupa s= form). 7. RSsic, sense of taste. I. Gandhic. sense of smell. All the Kosmic and anthropic states and senses correspond with our organs of sensation, Gnyancndryas, rudimentary organs for receiving knowledge through direct contact, sight, etc. These are the faculties of Sharira. through Netra (eyes), nose, speech, etc., and also with the organs of action, Karmendryas, hands, feet, etc. Exoterically, there are five sets of five, giving twenty-five. Of these twenty are facultative and five Buddhic. Exoterically Buddhi is said to perceive ; Esoterically it reaches perception only through the Higher Manas. Each of these twenty is both positive and negative, thus making forty in all. There are two suhjecti\'e states answering to each of the four sets of five, hence eight in all. These being subjective can- ^ THR SBCRKT DOCTRINB. not be doubled. Thus we have 40 + 8 ^ 48 " cognitions of Buddhl" These with Mayd, which inclndes them all. make 49. (Once thai yon have reached the cognition of M&yS. yoo are an Adept.) TABLH. 5 + 5 Tanmitras 2 stibjective. 5 + S Bhfitas 2 5 + 5 GnySnendryas 2 5 + 5 Karmendryas 2 „ 30+20 8 20 +20 + 8 + Mflyfi = 49. THE LOKAS. In their exoteric blinds the Br^mans count fourteen I/>kas (eartli included), of which seven are objective, though not apparent, and seven subjective, yet fully demonstrable to the Inner Man. There are seven Divine Lokas and seven infernal (terrestrial) Lokas. Skvbn Divine Lokas. Sbven Infernal (Tsrrbstriai.) Lokas. I. P&tAla (onr earth). 3. MabStala. 1. Bhurloka (the earth). 2. Bhuvarloka (between the earth and the sun [Mun!s]). 3. Svarloka (between the sun and 3. RasStala. the Pole Star [Yogis]). 4. Maharloka (between the earth and the utmost limit of the Solar System).* 5. Janarloka fbeyond the Solar System, the abode of the Ku- mSras who do not belong to this plane). 6. Taparloka (still beyond the 6. Vitala. MahStmic region, the dwelling of the Vairaja deities). 7. Satyaloka (the abode of the 7. Atnla. Nirvanis). 4. Talfitala (or KaratalA>. 5. Sutala. * All Uifwe " cpkc«* " (kHutt Uw «peiH«l nugtKtie currraU, tbc planes «r Mihsl«iic«, aod the (IntTW at appriMkch tli4l Ibc cdaRciouiiiKi* o( Ih« Voti. or CbcU. pcrfemA lowmrd« uniuiU^on wilk tte In&ahltanU of the Lofcu. .■^Tt1t)T KI.E1CZKTS. DTVljrs LOKAS, OB STATES. BhataH. INFERNAL ITEBRF.S- TRIAL) TALAS. OR KTATKS. Kiipn. hie' I \. fghbrloka. Thc^abi- taqof thinking lid eood men. Psychic State. 2. fihuvarloka. State in which the man thinks more of his inner condi- tion than of his persona- lity. His Asirwl passes into this sphcrt-, and so does it» Nuti stance. Higher Psychic State. I. P.iliila. Man's \ i. AbcKle t aiiinial gross body sinteof iiifj; and the personHlity tiitH)Ct.iict- :. dwell hiTc. instinctual 3. Svay/aia, State when the Vog! has lost all tastes and started towards Keuuiou. Holy State. 4. .Maharlaka. Where the Lower Manas has lost nil K;'iniicaffinitv. Super- holy .Slate. BhCitas. Elementary SuhstauceK. S. Ether. 6. Divine Flame. c.. Janarloka. Manas is en lirely free;! from K.inin, and hecomei« one with the Kgo. Kunii'ira Stale. 6. Taparloka. Even if it is af^ain rc-hom, it has now become (invulner- able, inconsumable. I Innate ChristosVstate. \J:Qj^jiA- - 7. A kasha. Elementary Substances. 7. Salvaloka. In this state the Yogi reaches the highest SamSdhi. He is at the threshold of the great choice. 2. Mahaiala. Abode of man's astral, sha- dow of the gross body, which shadow takes up the charac- ter! s tics o f t h i s sphere. 3. Pasalala. Where the Kama longs for the taste (Kasai of everything. I 4. Tola Vhe 1,0 Talatala. Whire ,ower ManHs clings to the sentient and objective life ; is- K£mic. Kupa, 2. Kegiim j Light and j Aliode of" fj. spirits. flj the other Devas, iht animal w instinct 3. Ik-vacli or plane 1.1 reawnicd li a>liir:itioii of K;"iina-.\ i-lenlciit.Tls.: 4. T'lauc ■ giving iv;i weak. AlHi 'among Ihi-. sphcri- uf one end, ail scltishiii..-?, 5. Suiaia. Manas becomes in it entire- ly the slave of Kiinia. and at one with the niiinial man. (J. / ilala. W hen, this is reached, the Higher breaks off entirily/ from the Lower. KTht chord is snappctl.^ ;, .-Ilala. Man dies but to l>e directly relioni. No place mtans no Devachan. Spiritn.-d di-ath, an- tjiliilatiun. 5. Aliodc . Ihe Soii-i of ma. onni' iug all tb.i realm uf M. its sway 6. I'lanc inconsunial ilivini' fin- Vair.'ijas. tl the Sun. 7. riiinc 0I lum est in universe : t MAJV AND U3KA3. 56> These the Brdfamaes read from the bottom. Now all these fourteen are planer from without within, and (the seven Divine) States of Consciousness through which man can pas»— and musi pass, once he is determined to go through the seven paths and ]>ortals of Dhyuni ; one need not be disembodied for this, and all this is reached on earth, and in one or many of the incarnations. See the order : the four lower ones (i, 2, 3, 4), are riepa ; i.e.. they are performed by the Inner Man with the full concurrence of the diviner portions, or elements, of the Lower Manas, and consciously by the personal man. The three higher states cannot be reached and re- membered by the latter, unless he is a fully initiated Adept. A ilatha Yogi will never pass beyond the Maharloka, psychically, and the TalStala (double or dual place), physico-m en tally. To become a Rdja Yogi, one has to ascend up to the seventh portal, the Satyaloka. For such, the Master Yogis tell us, is the fruition of Yajna, or sacrifice. ■ When the Bhiir, Bhuvar and Svarga (states) are once passed, and the Yogi's consciousness centred in Maharloka, tt is in the last plane and state between entire idenllhcation of the Personal and the Higher I Manas. One thing to remember: while the infernal (or terrestrial) states are also the seven divisions of the eartli, for planes and slates, as much as I they are Kosmic divisions, the divine Saptaloka are purely subjective, and begin with the psychic Astral Light plane, ending with the Satya or Jivanniukta state. These fourteen Lokas, or spheres, form the extent of the whole Brahmanda (world). The four lower are transitory, with all their dwellers, and the three higher eternal ; i.e., the former states, planes and subjects, to these, last only a Dayof Brahm^ changing with every' Kalpa : the latter endure for an Age of Brahma. In Diagram V. only Body, Astral. KSma, Lower Manas, Higher Manas, Buddbi and Auric Atm^ are given. Life is a Universal Kosmic principle, and no more than Atmau does it belong to iudivi- dtials. L In answer to questions on the diagram, H, P. B. said that Touch " and Taste have no order. Elements have a regular order, but Fire pervades them all. Every sense pervades every other. There is no universal order, that being first in each which is most developed. Students must learn the correspondences : then concentrate on the organs and so reach their corresponding states of consciousness. Take them in order beginning with the lowest, and working steadify 5TO THS SBC&BT DOCTRINE. upwards. A medium might irregularly catch glimpses of higher, bit wonld not thus gain orderly development. The greatest phenomeaa are produced by touching and centering tse attention upon the little finger. The Lokas and Talas are reflections the one of the other. So also are the Hierarchies in each, in pairs of oppo&ites, at the two poles of the sphere. Everywhere are such opposites: good and evil. Light and darkness, male and female. H. P. B. f^ould not say why bine was the colour of the earth. Blue is a colour by itself, a primar>'. Indigo is a colour, not a shade of blue, so is violet. The Vairajas belong to, are the fiery Egos of, other Manvantaras. They have already been purified in the fire of passions. It is they who refused to create. They have reached the Seventh Portal, and have refused Nin,'ana. remaining for succeeding Manvantaras. The seven steps of Antahkarana correspond with the Lokas. SamSdhi is the highest state on earth that can be reached in the body. Beyond that the Initiate must have become a NirroSnakaya. Purity of mind is of greater importance than purity of body. If the Upddhi be not perfectly pure, it cannot preser\'e recollections coming from a higher state. An act may be performed to which little or no attention is paid, and it is of comparatively small importance. But if thought of, dwelt on in the mind, the effect is a thousand limes greater. The thoughts must be kept pure. '' Remember that KSma. while having bad passions and emotions, helps you to evolve by giving also the desire and impulse necessary for rising. The flesh, the body, the human being in his material part. is. on this plane, the most difficult thing to subject. The highest Adept, put into a new body, has to struggle against it and subdue it, and finds its sub* jugation difficult. The Liver is the General, the Spleen is the Aide-de-Camp. All thai the Liver does not accomplish is taken up and completed by the Spleen. H. P. B. was asked whether each person must pass through the four- teen slates, and answered that the Lokas and Talas represented plaaes on thise-irth, through some of which all must pass, and through all of which the disciple must pass, on his way to Adeptship. Everyone passes through the lower Lokas, but not necessarily through the TOGIS m SVARLOKA. 57' corresponding Talaa. There are two poles ia everything : seven state* in every state. Vitala represents a sublime as well as an infernal state. That state which for the mortal is a complete separation of the Ego from the personality is for a Huddha a mere temporar>* separation. For the Buddha it is a Kosmic state. The Brahmans and Buddhists regard the Talas as hells, but in reality the term is figurative. We are in hell whenever we are in misery, suflfer misfortune and so on. FORMS IN THE ASTR.\L LIGHT. The Elemcntals in the Astral light are reflections. Evcrytliing on earth is reflected there. It is from these that photographs are some- times obtained through mediums. The raed.iums unconsciously pro- duce them as forms. The Adepts produce them consciously through KriySshakti, bringing them down by a process that may be com- pared to the focussing of rays of light by a btirning glass. STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS. Bhurloka is the waking state in which we normally live ; it is the state in which animals also are, when they sense food, a danger, etc. To be in Svarloka is to be completely abstracted on this plane, leaving only instinct to work, so that on the material plane you would behave as an animal. Yogis are known who have become cr>'stallized in this state, and then they must be nourished by others. A Yogi near Alla- habad had been for fifty-three years sitting on a stone ; his Cbelda plunge him into the river every night and then replace liim. During the day his consciousness returns to Bhurloka, and he talks and teaches. A Yog! was found on an island near Calcutta round whose limbs the roots of trees had grown. He was cut out, and iu the endeavour to awaken him so many outrages were inflicted on him that he died. Q. Is it possible to be in wore than one state 0/ consciousness at once f A. The consciousness cannot be entirely on two planes at once. The higher and lower states are not wholly incompatible, but if you are on the higher you will wool-gather on the lower. In order to remember the higher state on returning to the lower, the memory must be carried upwards to the higher. An Adept may apparently enjoy a dual consciousness; when he desires not to see he can abstract him- self: he may be in a higher state and yet retam answers to questions 572 THS SBCKXT OOCTIUKB. addressed to him. But is this case he will momentarily return to the material plane, shooting up again to the higher plane. This is his only salvation in adverse conditions. The lower you go in the Talas the more intelloctnal you become and the less spiritual. You may be a morally good man but not spiritual. Intellect may remain very closely related to Kdma. A man may he in a Loka and visit one and all the Talas, his condttioD depending on the I^ka to which he belongs. Thus a man in Bh6r]oki only may pass into the Talas and go to the devil. If he dwells in Bhuvarloka he cannot become as bad. If he has reached the Satya state he cau go in"o any Tala without danger; buoyed up by his own purity he can never be engulfed. The Talas are brain intellect states, while the Lokas — or mote accurately the three higher — are spiritual. Manas absorbs the light of Buddbi. Buddhi is Arfipa, and can absorb nothing. When the Ego takes all the light of Buddhi. it takes that of AtmS, Buddhi being the vehicle, and thus the three become one. This done, the full Adept is one spiritually, but has a body. The fourfold Path is finished and he is one. The Masters' bodies are, as far as they are concerned, illusionary, and hence do ncrt grow old, become wrinkled, etc. The student, who is not naturally psychic, should fix the fourfold conscionsness in a higher plane and nail it there. Let him make a bundle of the four lower and pin them to a higher state. He should centre on this higher, trying not to permit the body and intellect to draw him down and carry him away. Play ducks and drakes wth the body, eating, drinking and sleeping, but living always on the ideaL MOTHER-LOVE. Ill KTother-love is an instinct, the same in the human being and in the animal, and often stronger in the latter. The continuance of this love in human beings is due to association, to blood magnetism and to psychic affinity. Families are sometimes formed of those who have lived together before, but often not. The causes at work are very complex and have to he balanced. Sometimes when a child with very bad Karma i.s to be born, parents of a callous type are chosen, or they may die before the Karmic results appear. Or the suffering through the child may be their own Karma. Molher-Iove as an instinct is between Ra.sStala and TalStala. COHSCZOUSNBSS AKD SBLF-CONSCIOUSNBSS. S73 The Lipikas keep man's ELarmic record, and impress it on the Astral Light. Vacillatiug people pass from one state of consciousness to another. Thought arises before desire. The thought acts on the brain, the brain on the organ, and then desire awakes. It is not the outer stimulus that arouses the organ. Thought therefore must be slaio ere desire can be extinguished. The student must guard his thoughts. Five minutes' thought may undo the work of five years ; and though the five years' work will be run through more rapidly the second time, yet time is lost. CONSCIOUSNESS. H. P. B. began by challenging the views of consciousness in the West, commenting on the lack of definition iu the leading Philosophies. No distinction was m<tde between consciousness and self- conscious- ness, and yet in this lay the difference between man and the animal. The animal was conscious only, not self-conscious; the animal does not know the Ego as Subject, as does man. There is therefore an enormous difference between the consciousness of the bird, the insect, the beast, and that of man. But the full consciousness of man is self-consciousness — that which makes us say, " / do that." If there is pleasure it must be traced to some one experiencing it. Now the difference between the conscious- ness of man and of animals is that while there is a Self in the animal, the animal is not conscious of the Self. Spencer reasons on conscious- ness, but when he comes to a gap he merely jumps over it. So again Hume, when he says that on introspection he sees merely feelings and can never find any " I,*' foists that without an " I " no seeing of feel- ings would be possible. What is it that studies the feelings? The animal is not conscious oi the feeling "I am I." It has instinct, but instinct is not self-consciousness. Self- consciousness is an attribute of the mind, not of the soul, the anima, whence the ver>' name animal is taken. Humanity had no self-consciousness until the coming of the Mftnasaputras in the Third Race. Consciousness, brain -consciousness) is the field of the light of the Ego, of the Auric Egg, of the Higher Manas. The cells of the leg are conscious, but they arc the slaves of the idea ; they are not self-conscious, they cannot originate an idea, although when they are tired they can convey to the brain an uneasy sensation, and so give rise to the idea of fatigue. Instinct is the lower state of consciousness. Man has consciousness running through the 574 TBB SBCUtT I>OCT1UKB. four lower keys of liis septeoary consdousness : there are seven scale of coDSciousness in his conscioasness, which i& none the less essentially and pre-eminently one, a unit- There arc millions and millions of states of consciousness, as there are millions and millions of leaves; but as you cannot find two leaves alike, so you cannot find two states of consciousness alike ; a state is never exactly repeated. Is memory a thing bom in us that it can give birth to the Ego ? Knowledge, feeling, volition, are colleagues of the miud, not faculties of it. Memory is au artificial thing, an adjunct of relativeness ; it can be sharpened or left dull, and it depends on the condition of the brain- cells which store all impressions; knowledge, feeling, volition, canno: be correlated, do what you will. They are not produced from each other, nor produced from mind, but are principles, colleagues. Yoa cannot have knowledge without memory, for memory stores all things, garnishing and furnishing. If you teach a child nothing, it will kno« nothing. Brain-consciousness depends on the intensity of the light shed by the Higher Manas on the Lower, and the exteut of affinity between the brain and this light. Brain-mind is conditioned by the responsiveness of the brain to this light ; it is the field of conscioasness of the Manas. The animal has the Monad and the Manas latent, but its brain cannot respoud. All poteutialities are there, but are dormant There are certain accepted errors in the West which vitiate all their theories. Uow many impressions can a man receive simultaneously into his consciotisness and record? The Westerns say one: Occultists say normally seven, and abnormally fourteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty- one, up to forty-nine, impressions can be simultaneously received. Occultism teaches that the consciousness always receives a sevenfold impression and stores it in the memory. You can prove it by striking at once the seven notes of the musical scale: the seven sounds reach the consciousness simultaneously, but the untrained ear can only recognize them one after another, and if you choose you can measure the intervals. The trained ear will hear the seven notes at once, simultaneously. And experiment has shown that in two or three week.s a man may be trained to receive seventeen or eighteen impres- sions of colour, the intervals decreasing with practice. Memory is acquired for this life, and can be expanded. Genius is the greatest responsiveness of the brain aud brain-memory to the Higher Manas. Impressions on any sense are stored in the memory, SCALES OF CON5CIOUSNBSS. 575 Before a pbysical sense i& developed there is a mental feeling which proceeds to become a physical sense. Fishes who are blind, living in the deep sea, or subterranean waters, if they are put into a pond will in a few generations develop eyes. But in their previous state there is a sense of seeing, though no physical sight ; how else should they in the darkness find their way, avoid dangers, etc. ? The mind will take in and store all kinds of things mechanically and unconsciously, and will throw them into the memory as nnconscious perceptions. If the atten- tion is greatly engrossed in any way, the sense perception of any injury is not felt at the time, but later the suffering enters into consciousness. So, returning to our example of the seven notes struck, simultaneously, we have one impression, but the ear is affected in succession by the notes one after another, so that they are stored in the brain-mind in order, for the untrained consciousnes.s cannot register them simulta- neously. All depends on training and on attention. Thus the transference of a sensation passing from any organ to the conscious- ness is almost simultaneous if your attention is fixed on it, but if any noise distracts your attention, then it will take a fraction more of a second before it reaches your consciousness. The Occultist should train himself to receive and transmit along the line of the seven scales of his consciousness e%'ery impression, or impressions, simultaneously. He who reduces the intervals of physical time the most has made the most progress. CONSCIOUSNESS, ITS SEVEN SCAI^BS. There are seven scales or shades of consciousness, of the Unit ; e.g.^ in a moment of pleasure or pain ; four lower and three higher. I. Physical sense-perception : Perception of the cell (if para- lyzed, the sense is there, though you do not feel it), a. Self-perception or apperception ; I.e., self- perception of cell. 3. Psychic apperception : Of astral double, doppelganger, carrying it higher to the 4. Vital perception : Physical feeling, sensations of pleasure and pain, of quality. These are the four lower scales, and belong to the psycho-physio- logical man. 5. Minasic discerument of the M^nasic self-perception. Lower Manas : 576 6. Will perception : THB SBCKST OOCTKIHV. 7. Spiritual, entirely conscious apperception : Volitional perception, the vokrn- tary taking in of an idea; yon can regard or disregard physical pain. Because it reache.s the Higher, self-conscious Manas. [Apperception means self- percept ion. conscious action, not as with Leibnitz, but when attention is fixed on the perception. j You can take these on any planes : e.g., bad news passes through the four lower stages before coming to the heart. Or take Sound : I. It strikes the ear. 9. Self- perception of the ear. 3. On the psychic or mental. which carries it to 4. Vital (harsh, soft ; strong, weak ; etc.). THE EGO. One of the best proofs that there is an Ego, a true Field of Conscioos- ness, is the fact already mentioned, that a state of consciousness is l^ever exactly reproduced, though you should live a hundred years, and pass through milliards and milliards. In an active day, how many states and substates there are; it would be impossible to have celts enough for all. This will help you to understand why some mental states and abstract things follow the Ego into Devachan, and why others merely scatter in space. That which touches the Entity has an affinity for it, as a noble action, is immortal and goes with it into Devachan, forming part and parcel of the biography of the personality which is disintegrating. A lofty emotion runs through the seven stages, and touches the Ego, the mind that plays its tunes in the mind* cdLs. We can analyze the work of consciousness and describe it; bat we cannot define consciousness unless wc postulate a Subject. brCrloka. The Bhnrloka begins with the Lower Manas. Animals do not fed as do men. The dog thinks more of his master being angr>' than of the actual pain of the lash. The animal does not suffer in memory and in imagination, feeling past and future as well as actual present pain. k I VIBRATIONS AND IMPRESSIONS. 577 HlNEAIv GLAND The special physical org^an of pcrceptiou U the brain, and perception is located in the aura of the pineal gland. This aura answers in vibra- tions to any impressions, but it can only be sensed, not perceived, in the living man. During the process of thought inanifestiiig in con- sciousness, a constant vibration occurs in the light of this aura, and a clairvoyant looking at the braiu of a living man may almost count, see with the spiritual eye, the seven scales, the seven shades of light, passing from the dnllest to the brightest. You touch your hand ; before yon touch it the vibration Is already in the aura of the pineal gland, and has its own shade of colour. It is this aura which causes the wear and tear of the organ, by the vibrations it sets up. The brain, set vibrating, conveys the vibrations to the spinal cord, and so to the rest of the body. Happiness as well as sorrow sets up these strong vibrations, and so wears out the body. Powerful vibrations of joy or sorrow may thus kill. THE HRART. ^ The septenary disturbance and play of light aiouad the piueal gland are re8ected in the heart, or rather the aura of the heart, which vibrates and illumines the seven brains of the heart, just as does the aura round the pineal glaud. This is the exoterically four- but Esoterically seven-leaved lotus, the Saptaparna, the cave of Buddha with its seven compartments. ASTRAL AND EGO. There is a difference between the nature and the essence of the Astraf Body and the Ego. The Astral Body Is molecular, however ethereal i zed it may be: the Ego is atomic, spiritual. The Atoms arc spiritual, and are for ever in\'isible on this plane ; molecules form around them, they remaining as the higher invisible principles of the molecules. The eyes are the most Occult of our senses : close them and you pass to the mental plane. Stop all the senses and you are entirely on another plane. INDtVIDUAUTY. If twelve people are smoking together, the smoke of their cigarettes may mingle, but the molecules of the smoke from each have an affinity with each other, and they remain distinct for ever and ever, no matter 3 FT J 578 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. bow the whole mass may interblend. So a drop of water, thongl into the ocean retains its individuality. It has become a drop life of its own, like a man, and cannot be annihilated. Any group of people would appear as a group in the Astral Light, but would not be permanent ; but a group meeting to study Occultism would cohere, and the impression would be more permanent The higher and the more spiritual the affinity, the more permanent the cohesion. LOWER MANAS The Lower Manas is an emanation from the Higher Manas, and is of the same nature as the Higher. This nature can make uo tmpressiCFn on this plane, nor receive any : an Archangel, having no experience, M would be senseless on this plane, and could neither give nor receive ^ impressions. So the Lower Manas clothes itself with the essence of the Astral Light ; this astral envelope shuts it out from its ParenU except throngh the Autahkarana which is its ouly salvation. Break thii and yon become an animal. KAMA. Kdma is life, it is the essence of the blood. When this leaves blood the latter congeals. Prfina is universal on this plane; it is in the vital principle, Prfinfc, rather than PrSna. SELFHOOD. Qualities determine the properties of " Self-hood." As. for instance, two wolves placed in the same environment would probably not act diflferently. The field of the consciousness of the Higher Ego is never reflected in the Astral Light. The Auric Envelope receives the impressions f>f both the Higher and the Lower Manas, and it is the latter impressions that are also reflected in the Astral Light. Whereas the essence of all things spiritual, all that which reaches, or is not rejected by, tlie Higher Ego is not reflected in the Astral Light, because it is on tod low a plane. But during the life of a man, this essence, with a view to Karmic ends, is impressed on the Auric Envelope, and after death and the separation of the Principles is united with the Universal Mind (that is to say, those " impressions " which arc superior to even the Devachanic Plane), to await there Karmically until the day when the Ego is to be reincaruated. [There are thus three sets of impressioos. which wemay call theKSmic, Devachanicand M^nasic.j For the entities, THE CRPCIPtXJON OF THE CHRISTOS. 579 BO matter how high, must have IheirKarmic rewards and pimisbmeiitsoa earth. These spiritual impressions are made more or less on the brain, otherwise the l^wer Ego would not be responsible. There are some impressions, however, received through the brain, which are not of our previous experteuce. In the case of the Adept the brain is trained to retaiu these impressions. The Reincarnating Ray may, for convenience, be separated into two aspects : the lower IQmic Ego is scattered in KSnia Loka ; tbe Mdnasic part accomplishes its cycle aud returns to the Higher Ego. It is, in reality, this Higher Ego which is, so to speak, punished, which suffers. This is the true crucifixion of the Christos — the most abstruse but yet the most important mystery of Occultism ; all the cycle of our lives bangs oa it. It is indeed the Higher Ego that is the sufferer ; for remember that the abstract consciousness of the higher personal consciousness will remain impressed on the Ego, since it must be part and parcel of its eternity. All our grandest impressions are impressed on the Higher Ego, because they are of the same nature as itself. Patriotism and great actious in national ser\'lce are not altogether good, from the point of view of the highest. To benefit a portion of humanity is good ; hut to do so at the expense of the rest is bad. Therefore, iti patriotism, etc.. the venom is present with the good. For though the inner essence of the Higher Ego is uusoilable, the outer garment may be soiled. Thus both the bad and the good of such thoughts and actions art impressed on the Auric Envelope and the Karma of the bad is taken up by the Higher Ego, though it is perfectly guiltless of it. Thus both sets of impressions, after death, scatter in the Universal Mind, and at reincarnation the Ego sends out a Ray which is itself, into a new personality, and there suffers. It suffers in the Self-consciousness that it has created by its own accumu- lated experiences. Every one of our Egos has the Karma of past Manvautaras behind. There are seven Hierarchies of Egos, some of which, e.g., in inferior tribes, may be said to be only just beginning the present cycle. The Ego starts with Divine Consciousness; no past, no future, no separa- tion. It is long before realizing that it is itself. Only after many births does it begin to discern, by this collectivity of experience, that it is individual. At the end of its cycle of reincarnation it is still the same Divine Consciousness, but it has now become individualized Self- consciousness. 58o THK SBCBRT DOCTRINB. The feeling of rcspousibility is inspired by the presence of the Wgtt of the Higher Ego. As the Ego in \t& cycle of re-birth becomes more and more indi\'idualined, it learns more and more by sttffering to recognize its own responsibility, by which it finally gains Self-con- sciousness, the consciousness of all the Egos of the whole Universe. Absolute Being, to have the idea or sensation of ail this, mnat pass through all experience individually, not universally, so that when it returns it should be of the same omniscience as the Universal Uind pius the memory of all that it has passed through. At the Day '* Be with us" ever>* Ego has to remember all the crycles of its past reincarnations for Manvantaras. The Ego comes in contact with this earth, all seven Principles become one. it sees all that it has done therein. It sees the stream of Its past reincarnations by a certain divine light. It sees all humanity at once, but still there is ever, as it were, a stream which is always the " I." We should therefore always endeavour to accentuate our respon- sibility. The Higher Ego is. as it were, a globe of pure diWne light, a Unit from a higher plane, on which is no diflferentiatiou. Descending to a plane of differentiation it emanates a Ray, which it can only manifet through the personality which is already diflerenttated. A portion of this Ray, the I/>wer Manas, during life, may so crystallize itself and become one with K&ma that it will remain assimilated with Matter. That portion which retains its purity forms Antahkarana. The whole fate of an incarnation depends on whether Antahkarana will be able to restrain the K&ma-Manas or not. After death the higher light (Antahkarana) which bears the impressions and memory of all good and noble aspirations, assimilates itself with the Higher Kgp. the bad is dissociated in space, and conies back as bad Rarma awaitiae the personality. M The feeling of responsibility is the beginning of Wisdom, a proof ' that Ahanlcara is beginning to fade out, the beginning of losing the sense of separateuess. J kAma rOpa. The Efima RJ3pa eventually breaks up and goes into animals. All red-blooded animals come from man. The cold-blooded are from the matter of the past. The blood is the lUma Rupa. The white corpuscles are the scavengers, "devourers*': thev are RISING ASOVB TBB BRAIN. S8< ooKcd out of tHe Astral through the spleen, and are of the same esseace as the Astral. They are the sweat-born of the ChhayS. Rama is everywhere in the body. The red cells are drops of electrical fluid, the perspiration of all the organs oozed out from every cell. They are the progeny of the Fohatic Principle. HEART. There are seven brains in the heart, the ITpSdhis and symbols of the seven Hierarchies. THE FIREa The fires are always playing round the pineal gland, but when Kundalini illuminates ihcm for a brief instant the whole universe is seen. Even in deep sleep the Third Eye opens. This is good for Manas, who profits by it, though we ourselves do not remember PERCEPTION. In answer to a question on the seven stages of perception, H. P. B. said that thought should be centred on the highest, the seventh, and then an attempt to transcend this will prove that it is impossible to go beyond it on this plane. There is nothing in the brain to carry the thinker on, and if thought is to rise yei further it must be thought without a brain. I«et the eyes be closed, the will set not to let the brain work, and then the point may be transcended and the student will pass to the next plane. All the seven stages of perception come before Antahkarana; if you can pass beyond them you are on the Manasic Plane. Try to imagine something which transcends your power of thought, say, the nature of the Ohyitn Cbohans. Then make the brain passive, and pass beyond; you will see a white radiant light, like silver, but opalescent as mother of pearl ; then waves of colour will pass over it, beginning in the tenderest violet, and through bronze shades of green to indigo with metallic lustre, and that colour will remain. If you see this you are on another plane. You shoiild pass through seven stages. When a colour comes, glance at it, and if it is not good reject it. Let your attention be arrested only on the green, indigo and yellow. These are good colours. The eyes being connected with the brain, the colour you see most easily will be the colour of the personality. If you see red, it is merely physiological, and is to be disregarded. Green-bronze is the Ivower Manas, yellow-bronze the Antahkarana, 582 THa SBCKXT DOCTKINS. indigo-bronze is Manas. These are to be observed, and when the yellow-broTiKe merges into the indigo you are on the MSnasic Plane. On the Mfinasic Plane you see ihe Noumena. the essence of phe- nomena. You do not see people or other consciousnesses, bat have enough to do to keep your own. The trained Seer can see Noumena always. The Adept sees the Noumena on this plane, the reality of things, so cannot be deceived. In meditation the beginner may waver backwards and forwards between two planes. You hear the ticking of a clock on this plane, then on the astral— the soul of the ticking. Wlien clocks are stopped here the ticking goes on on higher planes, in the astral, and then in the ether, until the last bit of the clock is gone. It is the same as with a dead body, which sends out emanations until the last molecule is disintegrated. There is no time in meditation, because there is no succession of states of consciousness on this plane. Violet is the colour of the A.stral. You begin with it, but should not stay in it ; try to pass on. When you sec a sheet of violet, you are beginning unconsciously to form a MSyavi Rupa. Fijc your attention, and if you go away keep your consciousness firmly to the Mfiy&vic Body; do not lose sight of it, hold on like grim death. CONSCIOUSNESS. The consciousness which is merely the animal consciousness is made up of the consciousness of all the cells in the body except those of the heart. The heart is the king, the most important organ in the body of man. Even if the head be severed from the body, the heart will continue to beat for thirty minutes. It will beat for some hours if wrapped in cotton wool and put in a warm place. The spot in the heart which is the last of all to die is the seat of life, the centre of all. BrahmS. the first spot that lives in the foetus and the last that dies. When a Yogi is buried in a trance it is this spot that lives, though the rest of the body be dead, and as long as this is alive the Yogi can be resurrected. This spot contains potentially miud. life, energy, and will. During life it radiates prismatic colours, fiery and opalescent. The heart is the centre of spiritual consciousness, as the brain is the centre of intellectual. But this consciousness cannot be guided by a person, nor its energy directed by him until he is at one with Buddhi- Manas; until then it guides him — if it can. Hence the pangs of CHRIST AND APOIXONIUS. 583 remorse, the prickings of couscience ; they come from the heart, not the head. In the heart is the only manifested God, the other two arc invisible, and it is this which represents the Triad, Atma-Buddhi- Manas. In reply to a question whether the consciousnestt might not be con- centrated In the heart and so the promptings of the Spirit caught. H. P. B. said that any one who could thus concentrate would be at one with Manas, would have united Kama-Manas to the Higher Manas. The Higher Manas could not directly guide man, it could only act through the Lower Manas. There are three principal centres in man. Heart, Head, and Navel : any two of which may be + or — to each other, according to the relative predominance of the centres. The heart represents the Higher Triad ; the liver and spleen repre- sent the Quatemar>'. The solar plexus is the brain of the stomach. H. P. B. was asked if the three centres above-named would represent the Christos, crucified between two thieves; she said it might serve as an analogy*, but these figures must not be over-driven. It must never be forgotten that the Lower Manas is the same in its essence as the Higher, and may become one with it by rejecting Kamic impitlses. Thu crucifixion of the Christos represents the self-sacrifice of the Higher Manas, the Father that sends his ouly begotten Sou into the world to take upon him our sins: the Christ-myth came from the Mysteries. So also did the life of ApoUonius of Tyaua ; this was suppressed by the Fathers of the Church because of its striking simi- larity to the life of Christ. The psycho- intellectual man is all in the head with its seven gate- ways ; the spiritual man is in the heart. The convolutions are formed by thought. .,. The third ventricle in life is filled with light, and not with a liquid as after death. There are seven cavities in the brain which are quite empty during life, and it is in these that visions must be reflected if they are to remain in the memor>-. These centres are, in Occultism, called the seven harmonies, the scale of the divine harmonies. They are filled with Ak&sha, each with its own colour, according to the state of con- sciousness in which you are. The sixth is the pineal gland, which is hollow and empty during life : the seventh is the whole ; the fifth is the third ventricle : the fourth the pituitary body. When Manas is united 584 THS SBCRBT DOCTRXA. to Atml-Baddhi, or when AtniS-Bnddhi is centred in Manas, it acts in the three higher cavities, radiating, sending forth, a halo of ligbu and this is visible in the case of a very holy peTson. The cerebellum is the centre, the storehouse, of all the forces; it is the K&ma of the head. The pineal gland corresponds to the nterus ; its peduncles to the Fallopian tubes. The pitnitary body is only its servant, its torch-bearer, like the servants bearing lights that used to run before the carriage of a princess. Man is thus aodro^oe so far as his head is concerned. Man contains in himself every element that is found in the Universe. There is nothing in the Macrocosm that is not in the Microcosm. The pineal gland, as was said, is quite empty during life; the pituitary contains various essences. The grannies in the pineal gland are pre- cipitated after death within the cavity. The cerebellum furnishes the materials for ideation ; the frontaj lobesof the cerebrum are the finishers and polishers of the materials, but they cannot create of themselves. Clairvoyant perception is the consciousness of touch : thus reading letters, psychometrizing substances, etc., may be done at the pit of the stomach. Every sense has its consciousness, and you can have con- sciousness through every sense. There may be consciousness on the plane of sight, though the brain be paralyzed ; the eyes of a paralyzed person will show terror. So with the sense of hearing. Those who are physically blind, deaf or dumb, are still possessed of the psychic counterparts of these senses. WILL AND DBSIRB. Eros in man is the will of the genius to create great pictures, great music, things that will live and serve the race. It has nothing in common with the animal desire to create. Will is of the Higher Manas. It is the universal harmonious tendency acting by the Higher Manas. Desire is the outcome of separatene.ss, aiming at the satisfaction of Self in Matter. The path opened between the Higher Ego and the Lower enables the Ego to act on the personal self. CONVERSION. It is not true that a man powerful in evil can suddenly be converted and become as powerful for good. His vehicle is too defiled, and he can at best but neutralize the evil, balancing up the bad Kannic causes 1 TBB BHGIKNINC5. 5»5 he has set in motion, at any rate for this incarnation. You cannot take a herring barrel and use it for attar of roses : the wood is too soalced through with the drippings. When evil impulses and tendencies have become impressed on the physical nature, they cannot at once he reversed. The molecules of the body have been set in a KAmic direction, and though they have sufficient intelligence to discern between things on their own plane, i.e... to avoid things harmful to themselves, they cannot understand a change of direction, the impulse to which is from another plane. If they are forced loo violently, disease, madness or death will result. ORIGINES. Absolute eternal motion, Parabrahman, which is nothing and ever}- thing, motion inconceivably rapid, in this motion throws offa film, which is Energy, Eros. It thus transforms itself to Mulaprakrili. primordial Substance which is still Energy. This Energy, still transforming itself in its ceaseless and inconceivable motion, becomes the Atom, or rather the germ of the Atom, and then it is on the Third Plane. Our Manas is a Ray from the World-Soul and is withdrawn at Pralaya ; " it is perhaps the Lower Manas of Parabrahman." that is, of the Parabrahman of the manifested Universe. The first film is Energ)*, or motion on the manifested plane; Alaya is the Third Logos, Mahd- Buddhi. Mahat. We always begin on the Third Plane; beyond that all is inconceivable. Atm3 is focussed in Buddhi, but is embodied only in Manas, these being the Spirit, Soul and Body of the Universe. DREAilS We may have evil experiences in dreams as well as good. We should, therefore, train ourselves so as to awaken directly we toed to do wrong. The Lower Manas is asleep in sense-dreams, the animal consciousness being then guided towards the Astral Light by K&ma ; the tendency of such sense-dreams is always towards the auimal. If we conid remember our dreams in deep sleep, then w« should be able to remember all our past incarnations. NIDANAS. There are twelve Nid2nas, exoteric and Esoteric, the fundamental doctrine of Buddhism. 586 THX SBCKET DOCTKIN8. So also there are twelve exoteric Buddhist Sfittas called Nidtna^ each giving one Nidana. The Nidinas have a dual meaoiug. They are : (i) The twelve causes of sentient existence, through the twelve Ii of subjective with objective Nature, or between the subjective and objective Natures. (a) A coucatcuatiou of causes and effects. Every cause produces an effect, and this effect becomes in its lam a cause. Each of these has as UpSdhi (^ basis), one of the sub-divisions of one of the Nidanas. and also an effect or consequence. Both bases and effects belong to one or another NidSna, each having from three to seventeen, eighteen and twenty-one sub-divisions. The names of the twelve Nidauas are: (i) Jarfimarana. (7) Sparsha. (3) jati. (8) Chadayiitana. (3) Bhava. (9) NSmarupa. (4) UpSdana. (10) Vignaua. (5; Trishna. (11) Samskara. (6) Vedana. (la) Avidya* (i) Jaramabana, lit. death in consequence of decrepitude. Notice that death and not life comes as the first of the Nid£nas. This is the first fundamental in Buddhist Philosophy; every Atom, at eveij moment, as soon aa it is born begins dying. The five Skandhas are founded on it ; they are its effects or product. Moreover, in its turn, it is based on the five Skandhas. They are mutual things, one gives to the other. (2} JATI. lit. Birth. That is to say, Birth according to one of the four modes of Chaturyoni (the four wombs), vis. : (i) Through the womb, like Mammalia. (ii) Through Eggs. (iii) Ethereal or liquid Germs — fish spawn, pollen, insects, etc (iv) AnupSdaka — NirmSnakSyas. Gods, etc. That is to say that birth takes place by one of these modes. Yon must be born in one of the six objective modes of existence, or in the seventh which is subjective. These four are within six modes of existence, viz. : ' [irifae Nldlou are icttd Uieiwetve wajr, i^,, fruni ii to i, Ibcj gi'wctht ~~*l"*i"Tnr imlff Ittt: ) KARMtC EWRCTS. 587 Exoterieally : — (i) Devas ; (ii) Men ; (iii) Asuras ; (iv) Men in Hell ; (v) Pretas. de- vouring demons on earth ; (vi) animals. EsoUricaUy : — (i) Higher Gods; (ii) DevasorPUris (all classes); (iii) Nirmftnakiyas; (iv) Bodhisattvas ; (v) Men in Myalba ; (vi) Kfima ROpic existences, whether of men or animals, in KSma Loka or the Astral Light; (vii) Elementals (Subjective Existences). (3) Bhava — Karmic existence, not life existence, but as a moral agent which determines where you will be bom, i.e., in which, of the Triloka, Bhur, Bhuvar or Svar (seven Lokas in reality). The cause or NidSua of Bhava is Up4d&na, that is, the clinging to existence, that which makes us desire life in whatever form. Its effect is Jati in one or another of the Triloka and under whatever conditions. Nid^nas are the detailed expression of the law of Karma under twelve aspects ; or we might say the law of Karma under twelve Kid&nic aspects. StCANDHAS. Skandhas are the germs of life on all the seven planes of Being, and make up the totality of the subjective and objective man. Every vibra- tion we have made is a Skandha. The Skandhas arc closely united to the pictures in the Astral Light, which is the medium of impres- sions, and the Skandhas, or vibrations, connected with subjective or objective man, are the links which attract the Reincarnating Ego. the germs left behind when it went into Devachan which have to be picked np again and exhausted by a new personality. The exoteric Skandhas have to do with the physical atoms and vibrations, or objective man : the Esoteric with the internal and subjective man. A mental change, or a glimpse of spiritual truth, may make a man suddenly change to the truth even at his death, thus creating good Skandhas for the next life. The last acts or thoughts of a man have an enormous effect upon his future life, but he would still have to suffer for his misdeeds, and this is the basis of the idea of a death-bed repen- tance. But the Karmic effects of the past life must follow, for the man in his next birth must pick up the Skandhas or vibratory impressions that he left in the Astral Light, since nothing comes from nothing in Occultism, and there must be a link between the lives. New Skandhas are bom from their old parents. 58« SRC&KT DOCTRINE. It is wrong to speak ofTauhSs in the plural; there is only one TanU, the datre io live. This develops into a multitade or one might say i congeries of ideas. The Skandhas are ICarmic and non<Kanmc Skandhas may produce Elementals hy unconscious Kriyashakti. Every Elemental that is throwu out by man must return to him sooner or later, since it is his own vibration. They thus become his Prankeo- stein. BlemenlaU are simply effects produciug effects. They are dis- embodied thoughts, good and bad. They remain cn-stallized in the Astral Light and are attracted by affinity and galvanized back into life again, when their originator returns to earth-life. You can paralyxe them by reverse effects.' Elementals are caught like a disease and hence are dangerou.s to ourselves and to others. This is why it is dan- gerous to influence others. The Elementals which live after your death are those which you implant in others: the rest remain latent till yoa are reincarnated, when they come to life in you. "Thus," H. P. B. said, *'if you are badly taught by me or incited thereby to do something wrong, you would go on after my death and sin through me. bnt I should have to bear the Karma. Calvin, for instance, will have to suffer for all the wrong teaching he has given, though he gave it with good intentions. The worst • • * * does is to arrest the progress of truth. Even Buddha made mistakes. He applied his teaching to people who were not ready ; and this has produced Nid&nas." SUBTLE BODIBS. When a roan visits another in his Astral Body, it is the Linga Shartra which goes, but this canuot happen at any great distance. When a man thinks o^ another at a distance very intently, he sometimes appears to that person. In this case it is the MSyfivi Rnpa, which is created by unconsciotis Kriyftshakti, and the man himself is not conscious of appearing. If he were, and projected his MSy§vi Kupa consciously, he wonid be an Adept.* No two persons can be simultaneously conscious of one another's presence, unless one be an Adept. Dngpas use the MAyAvi Rupa and sorcerers also. Dugpas work on the X^inga Sharira of other people. The Liaga Sbarfra in the spleen is the perfect picture of the man, and ia good or bad, according to his own nature. The Astral Body is the subjective image of the man which is to be, the first germ in the ' [/.r, >ii Inilialc, Uk wronl Ailrjrt bebiK- med by H. P. B. to cuwr »U gmles of loitlAtion. A* ■bow fccn, fehc umU lUc wotda Uljrlvi Kupa io mon Uun one anuc.— Sd.J ynut IS KRITASUAXTI. 5«9 matrix, the model of the physical body in which the child is formed and developed. The Linga Sbarira may be hurt by a sliarj} instrument, and would not face a sword or bayonet, although it would easily pass througli a table or other piece of furniture. Nothing however can hurt the Mayavi Rupa or thought-body, since it is purely subjective. When swords are struck at shades, it is the sword itself, not its Linga Sharira or Astral that cuts. Sharp instru- ments alone can penetrate Astrals, e.g., under water, a blow will not affect you, but a cut will. The projection of the Astral Body should not be attempted, but the power of Kriyisliakti should be exercised in the projection of the MSyAvi Rupa. KIRB. Fire is not an Element but a divine thing. The physical flame is the objective vehicle of the highest Spirit. The Fire Elemeutals are the highest. Rverj'thing in this world has its Aura and its Spirit. The flame yon apply to the candle has nothing to do witli the candle itself. The Aura of the object comes into conjunction with the lowest part of the other. Granite cannot bum because its Aura is Fire. Fire Eleraen- tals have no consciousness on this plane, they are too high, reflecting the divinity of their own source. Other Elementals have consciousness on this plane as they reflect man and his nature. There is a very great difference between the mineral and vegetable kingdoms. The wick of tb.e lamp, for instance, is negative. It is made positive by fire, the oil being the medium. jEthcr is Fire. The lowest part of jBther is the flame which you see. Fire is Divinity in its subjective presence throughout the universe. Under other conditions, this Universal Fire manifests as water, air and earth. It is the one Element in our visible Universe which is the Kriyashakti of all forms of life. It is that which gives light, heat, death, life, etc. It is even th^e blood. In all its various mauiJcbtatiuus ;i is essentially one. It is the "seven Cosmocratores." Evidence of the esteem in which Fire was held are to be found in the Old Tesiament. The Pillar of Fire, the Burning Bush, the Shining Face of Moses — all Fire. Fire is like a looking-glass in its nature, and reflects the beams of the first order of subjective manifestations which are supposed to be throwu ou to the screen of the first outlines of the created universe ; in their lower aspect these are the creations of Fire. 590 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. Fire in the grossest aspect of its essence is the first form and reflects the lower forms of the first subjective beings which are ia the univeise. The first divine chaotic thoughts are the Fire Hlementals. When on earth they take form and come flitting in the flame in the form of the Salamanders or lower Fire Elcmcntals. In the air you have raillions of living and conscious beings, besides our thoughts which they catch up. The Fire Blementals are related to the sense of sight and absort the Elemcutals of all the other senses. Thus through sight you can have the consciousness of feeling, hearing, tasting, etc., since all are included in the sense of sight. HINTS ON THE FUTURE. As time passes on there will be more and more ether iu themfT When ether fills the air, then will be bom children without fathers. In Virginia there is an apple tree of a special kind. It does not blossom but bears fruit from a kind of berry without any seeds. This will gradually extend to animals and then to men. Women will bear children without impregnation, and in the Seventh Round there will appear men who can reproduce themselves. In the Seventh Race of llie Fourth Round, men will change their skins every year and will have new toe and finger nails. People will become more psychic, then spiritual. Last of all in the Seventh Round, Buddhas will be born without sin. The Fourth Round is the longest in tlie Kali Yuga, then the Fifth, then the Sixth, and the Seventh Hound will be very short THE EGOS. In explaining the relations of the Higher and Lower Ego. Devachan, and the ** Death of the Soul," the following figure was drawn : B L.M.Z \h.m. On the separation of the Principles at death the Higher Ego may be said to go to Devachan by reason of the experiences of the Lower. The Higher Ego in its own plane is the Rumfira. The Lower Quaternary dissolves ; the body rots, the Linga Sbartn &dea out. At reincarnation the Higher Ego shoots out a Ray. the Lower Bgo RBSFOXSIBILITT jUTD THS RGO. 591 I I [ts energies are upward and downward. The upward tendencies become its Devachanic experiences ; the lower are Kaniic. The Higher Manas stands to Buddhi as the I^wer Manas to the Higher. As to the question of responsibility, it may be understood by an example. If you take the form of Jack the Ripper, you must suffer for its misdeeds, for the law will punish the murderer and hold him responsible. You arc the sacrificial victim. lu the same way the Higher Ego is theChristos, the sacrificial victim for the Lower Manas. The Ego takes the responsibility of every body it informs. You borrow some money to lend it to another ; the other runs away, but it is you who are responsible. The mission of the Higher Ego is to shoot out a Ray to be a Soul in a child. Thus the Ego incarnates in a thousand bodies, taking upon itself the sins and responsibilities of each body. At every incarnation a new Ray is emitted, and yet it is the same Ray in essence, the same in you and me and every one. The dross of the incarnation disintegrates, the good goes to Devachau. The Flame is eternal. From the Flame of the Higher Ego, the Lower is lighted, and from this a lower vehicle, and so on. And yet the Lower Manas is such as it makes itself. It is possible for it to act differently in like conditions, for it has reason and self- conscious knowledge of right and wrong, and good and evil, given to it. It is in fact endowed with all the attributes of the Divine Soul. In this the Ray is the Higher Manas, the speck of responsibility on earth. •* The part of the essence is the essence, but while it is out of itself, so to say, it can get soiled and polluted. The Ray can be manifested on this earth because it can send forth its MSyjivi Rupa. But the Higher cannot, so it has to send forth a Ray. We may look upon the Higher Ego as the Sun, and the personal Manases as its Rays. If we take away the surrounding air and light the Ray may be said to return to the Sun, so with the Lower Manas and Lower Quaternary. The Higher Ego can only manifest through its attributes. In cases of sudden death, the Lower Manas no more disappears than does the Kama Rupa after death. After the severance the Ray may be said to snap or he dropped. After death such a man cannot go to Devachan, nor yet remain in K3ma Loka : his fate is to reincarnate immediately. Such an entity is then nn animal Soul plus the intelli- gence of the severed Ray. The manifestation of this intelligence in 592 THE SOCKET DOCTSIN8. ihc next birth will depend entirely on the physical formation of the brain and on education. Such a Soal may be re-nnited with its Hiji^heT Ego in the next birth, if the environment is such as to give it a chance of aspiration ( this is the " grace " of the Christians) ; or it may go on for two or three incar- nations, the Ray becoming weaker and weaker, and gradually dissipat- ing, until it is bom a congenital idiot and then Anally dissipated io lower forms. There are enormous mysteries connected with the Lower Manas, With regard to some intellectual giants, they are in somewhat the same condition as smaller men, for their Higher Ego is paralyzed, that is to say, their spiritual nature is atrophied. The Manas can pass its essence to several vehicles, e.g., the MSj-Svi Rupa, etc., and even to Elementals which it can ensoul. a.s the Rosicnicians taught. The M^y^vi Rupa may be sometimes so vitalized that it goes on to another plane and unites with the beings of that plane and so ensouls them. People who bestow great affection upon animal pets are ensouling them to a certain extent, and such animal Souls progress very rapidly ; in return such persons get back the animal vitality and magnetism. It is, however, against Nature to thus accentuate animal evolution, and oa the whole is bad. MONADIC KVOLUTION The Kumdras do not direct the evolution of the Lunar PitrST To understand the latter, we might take the analogy of the blood. The blood may be compared to the universal Life Principle, the corpuscles to the Monads. The different kinds of corpuscles are the aame as the various classes of Monads and various kingdoms, not. however, because of their essence being different, but because of the environment in which they aie. The Chhslya. is the permanent seed. and Wcissraann in his hereditary germ theory is very near truth. H. P. B. was asked whether there was one Ego to one permanent Cbbaya seedroversouliug it in a series of incarnations; her answer was: •■■ No. it is Heaven and Earth kisAing each other." The animal Suuls are in temporary forms and shells in which they ffain experience, and iu which they prepare materials for higher evolution. FUNCTIONS OF THE ASTRAl. BODY. 593 Until the age of seven the astral atavic germ forms and moulds the body ; after that the body forms the Astral. The Astral and the Mind mutually react on each other. Thi; meaning of the passage in the Upanishads, where it says that the Gods feed on men, is that the Higher Ego obtains its earth expe- rience through the Lower. ASTRAL BODY. The Astral can get out unconsciously to the person and wander about. The Chhaya is the same as the Astral Body. The genu or life essence of it is in the spleen. "The ChhSy^ is coiled up in the spleen." It is from this that the Astral is formed: it evolves in a shadowy curling or gyrating essence like smoke, gradually taking form as it grows. But it is not projected from the physical, atom for atom. This latter intcrraolecular form is the K^ma Riipa. At death ever>' cell and molecule gives out its essence, and from it is formed the Astral of the K^tma Rupa: but this can never come out during life. The Chhdyd in order to become visible draws upon the sunoundiug atmosphere, attracting the atoms to itself; the Linga Sharira could not form in vacuo. The fact of the Astral Body accounts for the Arabian and Eastern tales of Djius and bottle imps, etc. In spiritualistic phenomena, the resemblance to deceased persons is mostly caused by the imagination. The clothing of such phantoms is formed from the living atoms of the medium, and is no real clothing, aud has nothing to do with the clothing of the medium. "All the clothing of a materialization has been paid for." The Astral supports life; it is the reservoir or sponge of life, gather- ing it up from all the natural kingdoms around, and is the intermediary between the kingdoms of PrSnic and physical life. Life cannot come immediately from the subjective to the objective, for Nature goes gradually through each sphere. Therefore the Linga Shartra is the intermediary between Fraua and our physical body, and pumps in the life. The spleen is consequently a very delicate organ, but the physical spleen is only a cover for the real spleen. Now Life is in reality Divinity, Parabrahmaa. But in order to manifest on the Physical Plane it must be assimilated ; and as the purely physical is too gross, it must have a medium, viz., the Astral. % OB 594 THU saCKBT DOCTRINE. Astral matter is not homogeneous, and the Astral Light is nothing but the shadow of the real Divine Ugbt; it is however not mole- cular. Those (Kamar&pic) entities which are below the Devachauic Plane are in KSma l/oka and only possess intelligence like monkeys. There arc 110 entities in the four lower kingdoms possessing intelligence which can communicate with men, but the Elementals have instincts like animals. It is, however, possible for the Sylphs (the Air Elementals, the wickedest things in the world) to communicate, but they require to be propitiated. Spooks (KSmartipic entities) can only give the information they sec immediately before them. They see things in the Aura of people, although the people may not be aware of them themselves. Earth-bound spirits arc Kdmalokic entities that have been so materialistic that they cannot be dissolved for a long time. They have only a glimmering of consciousness and do not know why they are held, some sleep, some preserve a glimmering of consciousness and suffer torture. In the case of people who have very little Devachan, the greater part of the consciou.sness remains in Kama Loka, and may last far beyond the normal period of one hundred and fifly years and remain over until the next reincarnation of the Spirit. This then becomes the Dweller on the Threshold and fights with the new Astral. The acme of K9ma is the sexual instinct, ^r.^., idiots have such desires and also food appetites, etc., and nothing else. Devachan is a state on a plane of spiritual consciousness ; Kflma I-/ika is a place of physical consciousness. It is the shadow of the animal world and that of instinctual feelings. When the consciousness thinks of spiritual things, it is on a spiritual plane. If oue*s thoughts are of nature, flowers, etc, then the conscionanesa is on the material plane. But if thoughts arc about eating, drinking, etc.. and the passions, Ihen the consciousness is in the KSmalokic plane, which is the plane of animal instincts pure and simple.

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