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    "slug": "vol-1-cosmogenesis",
    "name": "Volume I — Cosmogenesis"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 17,
    "slug": "19-ii-the-mystery-language-and-its-keys-310",
    "title": "II. THE MYSTERY LANGUAGE AND ITS KEYS ... 310",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 8454,
    "text": "## II. THE MYSTERY LANGUAGE AND ITS KEYS ... 310\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 2, ch 2\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 310 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n##### § II.\nTHE MYSTERY LANGUAGE AND ITS KEYS.\n\n**R**ECENT discoveries made by great mathematicians\nand Kabalists thus prove, beyond a shadow of doubt, that every\ntheology, from the earliest and oldest down to the latest, has\nsprung not only from a common source of abstract beliefs, but\nfrom one universal esoteric, or \"Mystery\" language.\nThese scholars hold the key to the universal language of old,\nand have turned it successfully, though only *once*,*\n*in the hermetically closed door leading to the Hall of Mysteries.\nThe great archaic system known from prehistoric ages as the sacred\nWisdom Science, one that is contained and can be traced in every\nold as well as in every new religion, had, and still has, its\nuniversal language -- suspected by the Mason Ragon -- the language\nof the Hierophants, which has seven \"dialects,\" so to\nspeak, each referring, and being specially appropriated, to one\nof the seven mysteries of Nature. Each had its own symbolism.\nNature could thus be either read in its fulness, or viewed from\none of its special aspects.\n\nThe proof of this lies, to this day, in the extreme difficulty\nwhich the Orientalists in general, the Indianists and Egyptologists\nespecially, experience in interpreting the allegorical writings\nof the Aryans and the hieratic records of old Egypt. This is because\nthey will never remember that all the ancient records were written\nin a language which was universal and known to all nations alike\nin days of old, but which is now intelligible only to the few.\nLike the Arabic figures which are plain to a man of whatever nation,\nor like the English word *and*,* *which becomes\n*et* for the Frenchman, *und* for the German, and\nso on, yet which may be expressed for all civilized nations in\nthe simple sign & -- so all the words of that mystery language\nsignified the same thing to each man of whatever nationality.\nThere have been several men of note who have tried to re-establish\nsuch a universal and *philosophical* tongue:* *Delgarme,\nWilkins, Leibnitz; but Demaimieux, in his *Pasigraphie*,*\n*is the only one who has proven its possibility. The scheme\nof Valentinius, called the \"Greek Kabala,\" based on\nthe combination of Greek letters, might serve as a model.\n\nThe many-sided facets of the mystery language have led to the\nadoption of widely varied dogmas and rites in the exotericism\nof the Church rituals. It is they, again, which are at the origin\nof most of the dogmas of the Christian Church, *e.g.,*\nthe seven Sacraments, the Trinity, the Resurrection; the seven\ncapital Sins and the seven Virtues. The seven keys to the mystery\ntongue, however, having always been in\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 311 EGYPT'S MANY RELIGIONS.\n\nthe keeping of the highest among the initiated Hierophants of\nantiquity, it is only the partial use of a few out of the seven\nwhich passed, through the treason of some early Church Fathers\n-- ex-initiates of the Temples -- into the hands of the new sect\nof the Nazarenes. Some of the early Popes were Initiates, but\nthe last fragments of their knowledge have now fallen into the\npower of the Jesuits, who have turned them into a system of sorcery.\n\nIt is maintained that **INDIA **(not in its present limits,\nbut including its ancient boundaries) is the only country in the\nworld which still has among her sons adepts, who have the knowledge\nof all the seven *sub-systems *and the key to the entire\nsystem. Since the fall of Memphis, Egypt began to lose those keys\none by one, and Chaldea had preserved only three in the days of\nBerosus. As for the Hebrews, in all their writings they show no\nmore than a thorough knowledge of the astronomical, geometrical\nand numerical systems of symbolizing all the human, and especially\nthe *physiological *functions. They never had the higher\nkeys.\n\n\"Every time I hear people talking of the religion of Egypt,\"\nwrites M. Gaston Maspero, the great French Egyptologist and the\nsuccessor of Mariette Bey, \"I am tempted to ask *which\n*of the Egyptian religions they are talking about? Is it of\nthe Egyptian religion of the 4th Dynasty, or of the Egyptian religion\nof the Ptolemaic period? Is it of the religion of the rabble,\nor of that of the learned men? Of that which was taught in the\nschools of Heliopolis, or of that other which was in the minds\nand conceptions of the Theban sacerdotal class? For, between the\nfirst tomb of Memphis, which bears the *cartouche *of a\nking of the third dynasty, and the last stones at Esneh under\nCaesar-Philippus, the Arabian, there is an interval of at least\nfive thousand years. Leaving aside the invasion of the Shepherds,\nthe Ethiopian and Assyrian dominions, the Persian conquest, Greek\ncolonization, and the thousand revolutions of its political life,\nEgypt has passed during those five thousand years through many\nvicissitudes of life, moral and intellectual. Chapter **XVII**.\nof the *Book of the Dead *which seems to contain the exposition\nof the system of the world as it was understood at Heliopolis\nduring the time of the first dynasties, is known to us only by\na few copies of the eleventh and twelfth dynasties. Each of the\nverses composing it was already at the time interpreted in three\nor four different ways; so different, indeed, that according to\nthis or another school, the Demiurge became the solar fire --*\nRa-shoo*,* *or the primordial water. Fifteen centuries\nlater, the number of readings had increased considerably. Time\nhad, in its course, modified the ideas about the universe and\nthe forces that ruled it. During the hardly 18 centuries that\nChristianity exists, it has worked,\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 312 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ndeveloped and transformed most of its dogmas; how many times,\nthen, might not the Egyptian clergy have altered its dogmas during\nthose fifty centuries that separate Theodosius from the King Builders\nof the Pyramids?\"\n\nHere we believe the eminent Egyptologist is going too far. The\nexoteric dogmas may often have been altered, the esoteric never.\nHe does not take into account the sacred immutability of the primitive\ntruths, revealed only during the mysteries of initiation. The\nEgyptian priests *have forgotten much*,* they altered\nnothing. *The loss of a good deal of the primitive teaching\nwas due to the sudden deaths of the great Hierophants, who passed\naway before they had time to reveal *all* to their successors;\nmostly, to the absence of worthy heirs to the knowledge. Yet they\nhave preserved in their rituals and dogmas the principal teachings\nof the secret doctrine. Thus, in the seventeenth chapter mentioned\nby Maspero, one finds (1) Osiris saying he is *Toum *(the\ncreative force in nature, giving form to all Beings, spirits and\nmen), self-generated and self-existent, issued from *Noun*,*\n*the celestial river, called *Father-mother *of*\n*the gods, the primordial deity, which is chaos or the *Deep*,\nimpregnated by the unseen spirit. (2) He has found *Shoo *(solar\nforce) on the staircase in the City of the Eight (the two *cubes\n*of good and Evil), and he has annihilated the evil principles\nin *Noun *(chaos) the children of Rebellion. (3) He is\nthe Fire and Water, *i.e.*, Noun the primordial parent,\nand he created the gods out of his limbs -- 14 gods (twice seven)\nseven dark and seven light gods (the seven Spirits of the Presence\nof the Christians and the Seven dark Evil Spirits). (4) He is\nthe Law of existence and Being (v. 10), the* Bennoo *(or\nphoenix, the bird of resurrection in Eternity), in whom night\nfollows the day, and day the night -- an allusion to the periodical\ncycles of cosmic resurrection and human re-incarnation; for what\ncan this mean? \"The wayfarer who crosses millions of years,\nin the name of One, and the great green (primordial water or Chaos)\nthe name of the other\" (v. 17), one begetting millions of\nyears in succession, the other engulfing them, to restore them\nback. (5) He speaks of the Seven Luminous ones who follow their\nLord, who confers justice (Osiris in* Amenti*)*.*\n\nAll this is now shown to have been the source and origin of Christian\ndogmas. That which the Jews had from Egypt, through Moses and\nother initiates, was confused and distorted enough in later days;\nand that which the Church got from both, is still more misinterpreted.\n\nYet their system is now proven identical in this special department\nof symbology -- the key, namely, to the mysteries of astronomy\nas connected with those of generation and conception -- with those\nideas of ancient religions, the theology of which has developed\nthe phallic element. The Jewish system of sacred measures applied\nto religious symbols is the same,\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 313 THE JEWS, AND THEIR SYSTEM.\n\nso far as geometrical and numerical combinations go, as those\nof Chaldea, Greece, and Egypt, having been adopted by the Jews\nduring the centuries of their slavery and captivity with those\nnations.* What was that system? It is the intimate conviction\nof the author of \"The Source of Measures\" that \"the\nMosaic Books were intended, by a mode of art speech, to set forth\na geometrical and numerical system of exact science, which should\nserve as an origin of measures.\" Piazzi Smyth believes likewise.\nThis system and these measures are found by some scholars to be\nidentical with those used in the construction of the great pyramid\n-- but this is only partially so. \"The foundation of these\nmeasures was the Parker ratio,\" says Mr. R. Skinner, in \"The\nSource of Measures.\"\n\nThe author of this very extraordinary work has found it out, he\nsays, in the use of the integral ratio in numbers of diameter\nto circumference of a circle, discovered by John Parker, of New\nYork. This ratio is 6,561 for diameter, and 20,612 for circumference.\nFurthermore, that this geometrical ratio was the very ancient\n(and probably) the divine origin of what have now become through\nexoteric handling and practical application the British linear\nmeasures, \"the underlying unit of which, viz., the *inch*,*\n*was likewise the base of one of the royal Egyptian *cubits\n*and of the Roman *foot. *He also found out that there\nwas a modified form of the ratio, viz., 113-355 (explained in\nhis work); and that while this last ratio pointed through its\norigin to the exact integral pi, or to 6,561 to 20,612, it also\nserved as a base for astronomical calculations. The author discovered\nthat a system *of exact science*,* geometrical*,*\nnumerical*,* and astronomical*,* *founded on\nthese ratios and to be found in use in the construction of the\nGreat Egyptian Pyramid, was in part the burden of *this language\n*as contained in, and concealed under, the verbiage of the\nHebrew text of the Bible. The inch and the two-foot rule of 24\ninches interpreted for use through the elements of the circle\n(*see first pages of Book I.*)* *and the ratios\nmentioned, were found to be at the basis or foundation of this\nnatural and Egyptian and Hebrew system of science, while, moreover,\nit seems evident enough that the system itself was looked upon\nas of divine origin and of divine revela-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* As we said in *Isis *(*Vol. II. p*. 438-9), \"To\nthe present moment, in spite of all controversies and researches,\nHistory and Science remain as much as ever in the dark as to the\norigin of the Jews. They may be as well the exiled *Tchandalas\n*of old India, the 'bricklayers' mentioned by Vina-Svata,\nVeda-Vyasa and Manu, as the Phoenicians of Herodotus, or the Hyk-Sos\nof Josephus, or descendants of Pali shepherds, or a mixture of\nall these. The Bible names the Tyrians as a kindred people, and\nclaims dominion over them. . . . Yet whatever they may have been,\nthey became a hybrid people, not long after Moses, as the Bible\nshows them freely intermarrying not alone with the Canaanites,\nbut with every other nation or race they came in contact with.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 314 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ntion. . . .\" But let us see what is said by the opponents\nof Prof. Piazzi Smyth's measurements of the Pyramid.\n\nMr. Petrie seems to deny them, and to have made short work altogether\nof Piazzi Smyth's calculations in their Biblical connection. So\ndoes Mr. Proctor, the champion \"Coincidentalist\" for\nmany years past in every question of ancient arts and sciences.\nSpeaking of \"the multitude of relations independent of the\nPyramid, which have turned up while the Pyramidalists have been\nendeavouring to connect the pyramid with the solar system . .\n. . these coincidences,\" he says, \"are altogether more\ncurious than any coincidence between the Pyramid and astronomical\nnumbers: the former are as close and remarkable as they are real\"\n(*i.e.*, those \"coincidences\" that would remain\nif even the pyramid had no existence); \"the latter which\nare only *imaginary *(?)* *have only been established\nby the process which schoolboys call 'fudging,' and now new measures\nhave left the work to be done all over again\" (*Petrie*'*s\nletter to the Academy*,* Dec. *17, 1881.) To this Mr.\nStaniland Wake justly observes in his work on \"The Origin\nand Significance of the Great Pyramid\" (London, 1882): \"They\nmust, however, have been more than *mere coincidences*,*\n*if the builders of the Pyramid had the astronomical knowledge\ndisplayed in its perfect orientation and in its other admitted\nastronomical features.\"\n\nThey had it; and it is on this \"knowledge\" that the\nprogramme of the MYSTERIES and of the series of Initiations was\nbased: thence, the construction of the Pyramids, the everlasting\nrecord and the indestructible symbol of these Mysteries and Initiations\non Earth, as the courses of the stars are in Heaven. The cycle\nof Initiation was a reproduction in miniature of that great series\nof Cosmic changes to which astronomers have given the name of\ntropical or sidereal year. Just as, at the close of the cycle\nof the sidereal year [25,868 years], the heavenly bodies return\nto the same relative positions as they occupied at its outset,\nso at the close of the cycle of Initiation the inner man has regained\nthe pristine state of divine purity and knowledge from which he\nset out on his cycle of terrestrial incarnation.\n\nMoses, an Initiate into the Egyptian Mystagogy, based the religious\nmysteries of the new nation which he created, upon the same abstract\nformula derived from this sidereal cycle, which he symbolised\nunder the form and measurements of the tabernacle, that he is\nsupposed to have constructed in the wilderness. On these data,\nthe later Jewish High Priests constructed the allegory of Solomon's\nTemple -- a building which never had a real existence, any more\nthan had King Solomon himself, who is simply, and as much a solar\nmyth as is the still later Hiram Abif, of the Masons, as Ragon\nhas well demonstrated. Thus, if the measurements of this allegorical\ntemple, the symbol of the cycle of\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 315 PIAZZA SMYTH AND PETRIE DISAGREE.\n\nInitiation, coincide with those of the Great Pyramid, it is due\nto the fact that the former were derived from the latter through\nthe Tabernacle of Moses.\n\nThat our author has undeniably discovered *one *and even\n*two *of* the keys *is fully demonstrated in the\nwork just quoted. One has but to read it to feel a growing conviction\nthat the hidden meaning of the allegories and parables of both\nTestaments is now unveiled. But that he owes this discovery far\nmore to his own genius than to Parker and Piazzi Smyth, is as\ncertain, if not more so. For, as just shown, whether the measures\nof the great Pyramid taken and adopted as the correct ones by\nthe Biblical \"Pyramidalists\" are beyond suspicion, is\nnot so sure. A proof of this is the work called \"The Pyramids\nand Temples of Gizeh,\" by Mr. F. Petrie, besides other works\nwritten quite recently to oppose the said calculations, which\nwere called *biassed. *We gather that nearly every one\nof Piazzi Smyth's measurements differs from the later and more\ncarefully made measurements of Mr. Petrie, who concludes the Introduction\nto his work with this sentence:\n\n\"As to the results of the whole investigation, perhaps many\ntheories will agree with an American who was a warm believer in\nPyramid theories when he came to Gizeh. I had the pleasure of\nhis company there for a couple of days, and at our last meal together\nhe said to me in a saddened tone -- 'Well, Sir! I feel as if I\nhad been to a funeral. By all means let the old theories have\na decent burial, though we should take care that in our haste\nnone of the wounded ones are buried alive.'\"\n\nAs regards the late J. Parker's calculation in general, and his\nthird proposition especially, we have consulted some eminent mathematicians,\nand this is the substance of what they say:\n\nParker's reasoning rests on sentimental, rather than mathematical,\nconsiderations, and is logically inconclusive.\n\n*Proposition *III*.*,* *namely, that --\n\n\"The circle is the natural basis or beginning of all area,\nand the square being made so in mathematical science, is artificial\nand arbitrary --\"\n\n-- is an illustration of an arbitrary proposition, and cannot\nsafely be relied upon in mathematical reasoning. The same observation\napplies, even more strongly, to Proposition VII., which states\nthat:\n\n\"Because the circle is the primary shape in nature, and hence\nthe basis of area; and because the circle is measured by, and\nis equal to the square only in ratio of half its circumference\nby the radius, therefore, circumference and radius, and not the\nsquare of diameter, are the only natural and legitimate elements\nof area, by which all regular shapes are made equal to the square,\nand equal to the circle.\"\n\nProposition IX. is a remarkable example of faulty reasoning, and\nit is the one on which Mr. Parker's Quadrature mainly rests. Here\nit is: --\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 316 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n\"The circle and the equilateral triangle are opposite to\none another in all the elements of their construction, and hence\nthe fractional diameter of one circle, which is equal to the diameter\nof one square, is in the opposite duplicate ratio to the diameter\nof an equilateral triangle whose area is one,\" etc., etc.\n\nGranting, for the sake of argument, that a triangle can be said\nto have a radius in the sense in which we speak of the radius\nof a circle, -- for what Parker calls the radius of the triangle\nis the radius of a circle inscribed in the triangle and therefore\nnot the radius of the triangle at all, -- and granting for the\nmoment the other fanciful and mathematical propositions united\nin his premises, why must we conclude that if the triangle and\ncircle are opposite in all the elements of their construction,\nthe diameter of any defined circle is in the opposite duplicate\nratio of the diameter of any given equivalent triangle? What necessary\nconnection is there between the premises and the conclusion? The\nreasoning is of a kind not known in geometry, and would not be\naccepted by strict mathematicians.\n\nWhether the Archaic esoteric system originated the British inch\nor not, is of little consequence, however, to the strict and true\nmetaphysician. Nor does Mr. Ralston Skinner's esoteric reading\nof the Bible become incorrect, merely because the measurements\nof the Pyramid will not be found to agree with those of Solomon's\ntemple, the ark of Noah, etc.; or because Mr. Parker's Quadrature\nof the Circle is rejected by mathematicians. For Mr. Skinner's\nreading depends first of all on the Kabalistic methods and the\nRabbinical value of the Hebrew letters. But it is extremely important\nto ascertain whether the measures used in the evolution and building\nof the Aryan symbolic religion, in the construction of their temples,\nthe figures given in the Puranas, and especially in their chronology,\ntheir astronomical symbols, the duration of the cycles, and other\ncomputations, were, or were not, the same as those used in the\nBiblical measurements and glyphs. For this will prove that the\nJews, unless they took their sacred cubit and measurements from\nthe Egyptians (Moses being an initiate of the Priests) must have\ngot those notions from India. At any rate they passed them to\nthe early Christians. Hence, it is the Occultists and Kabalists\nwho are the \"true\" heirs to the KNOWLEDGE, or the secret\nwisdom which is still found in the Bible; for they alone now understand\nits real meaning, whereas profane Jews and Christians cling to\nthe husks and dead letter thereof. That it is the system of measures\nwhich led to the invention of the God-names Elohim and Jehovah,\nand their adaptation to phallicism, and that Jehovah is a not\nvery flattered copy of Osiris, is now demonstrated by the author\nof the \"Source of Measures.\" But the latter and Mr.\nPiazzi Smyth both seem to labour under the impression that (*a*)\nthe priority of the system belongs to the Israelites,\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 317 TRUTH MUST PREVAIL AT LAST.\n\nthe Hebrew language being the *divine *language, and that\n(*b*) this universal language belongs to direct revelation!\n\nThe latter hypothesis is correct only in the sense shown in the\nlast paragraph of the preceding §; but we have yet to agree\nas to the nature and character of the divine \"Revealer.\"\nWith regard to priority, this, to the profane, will of course\ndepend on (*a*) the internal and external evidence of the\nrevelation, and (*b*) on each scholar's individual preconception.\nThis, however, cannot prevent either the theistic Kabalist, or\nthe Pantheistic Occultist, from believing each in his way; neither\nof the two convincing the other. The data furnished by history\nare too meagre and unsatisfactory for either of them to prove\nto the sceptic which of them is right.\n\nOn the other hand, the proofs afforded by tradition are too constantly\nrejected for us to hope to settle the question in our present\nage. Meanwhile, materialistic science will be laughing impartially\nat both Kabalists and Occultists. But the said vexed question\nof priority once laid aside, Science, in its departments of philology\nand comparative religion, will find itself finally taken to task,\nand be compelled to admit the common claim.* Its greatest scholars,\ninstead of pooh-poohing that supposed\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* One by one the claims become admitted, as one Scientist after\nanother is compelled to recognize the facts given out from the\n*Secret Doctrine* --* *though he rarely, if ever,\nrecognizes that he has been anticipated in his statements. Thus,\nin the palmy days of Mr. Piazzi Smyth's authority on the Pyramid\nof Gizeh, his theory was, that the porphyry sarcophagus of the\nKing's Chamber \"*is the unit of measure for *the two\nmost enlightened nations of the earth, England and America,\"\nand was no better than a \"corn bin.\" This was vehemently\ndenied by us in *Isis Unveiled *just published at that\ntime. Then the New York press arose in arms (the \"*Sun*\"*\n*and the \"*World*\"* *chiefly) against\nour presuming to correct or find fault with such a star of learning.\nOn p. 519, vol. I., we had said, that Herodotus when treating\nof that Pyramid \"might have added that, externally it symbolized\n*the* *creative principle of Nature*,* *and\nillustrated also the *principles of geometry*,* mathematics*,*\nastrology*,* and astronomy. *Internally, it was a majestic\nfane, in whose sombre recesses were performed the mysteries, and\nwhose walls had often witnessed the initiation-scenes of members\nof the royal family. The porphyry sarcophagus, which Professor\nPiazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal of Scotland, degrades into a corn-bin,\nwas the *baptismal font*,* *upon emerging from which\nthe neophyte was \"born again\" and became an adept.\"\n\nOur statement was laughed at in those days. We were accused of\nhaving got our ideas from the \"craze\" of Shaw, an English\nwriter who had maintained that the Sarcophagus had been used for\nthe celebration of the Mysteries of Osiris; (we had never heard\nof that writer!). And now, six or seven years later, this is what\nMr. Staniland Wake writes on p. 93 of his paper, on \"The\nOrigin and Significance of the Great Pyramid.\"\n\n\"The so-called King's Chamber, of which an enthusiastic pyramidist\nsays, 'The polished walls, fine materials, grand proportions,\nand exalted place, eloquently tell of glories yet to come -- if\nnot, the chamber of perfections of Cheops' tomb, was probably\n*the place to which the initiant was admitted after he had\npassed through the narrow upward passage and the grand gallery*,*\nwith its lowly termination*,* which gradually* *prepared\nhim for the* [[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 318 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n\"farrago of absurd fiction and superstitions,\" as the\nBrahminical literature is generally termed, will endeavour to\nlearn the symbolical universal language with its numerical and\ngeometrical keys. But here again they will hardly be successful\nif they share the belief that the Jewish Kabalistic system contains\nthe key to the *whole *mystery:* for*,* it does\nnot. *Nor does any other Scripture at present possess it in\nits entirety, for even the Vedas are not complete. Every old religion\nis but a chapter or two of the entire volume of archaic primeval\nmysteries -- Eastern *Occultism *alone being able to boast\nthat it is in possession of the full secret, with its* seven\n*keys. Comparisons will be instituted, and as much as possible\nwill be explained in this work -- the rest is left to the student's\npersonal intuition. For in saying that *Eastern Occultism has\nthe secret*,* *it is not as if a \"complete\"\nor even an approximate knowledge was claimed by the writer, which\nwould be absurd. What I know, I give out; that which I cannot\nexplain, the student must find out for himself.\n\nBut while supposing that the whole cycle of the universal mystery\nlanguage will not be mastered for whole centuries to come, even\nthat which has been hitherto discovered in the Bible by some scholars\nis quite sufficient to demonstrate the claim -- mathematically.\nJudaism having availed itself of two keys out of the seven, and\nthese two keys having been now rediscovered, it becomes no longer\na matter of individual speculation and hypothesis, least of all\nof \"coincidence,\" but one of a correct reading of the\nBible texts, as anyone acquainted with arithmetic reads and verifies\nan addition or total.* A few years longer and this system will\nkill the dead letter of the Bible, as it will that of all the\nother exoteric faiths, by showing the dogmas in their real, naked\nmeaning.\n\nAnd then this undeniable meaning, however incomplete, will unveil\nthe mystery of Being, besides changing entirely the modern scientific\nsystems of Anthropology, Ethnology and especially that of Chronology.\nThe element of Phallicism, found in every God-name and narrative\nin the Old (and to some degree in the New) Testament, may also\nin time considerably change modern materialistic views in Biology\nand Physiology.\n\nDivested of their modern repulsive crudeness, such views of nature\nand man, on the authority of the celestial bodies and their mysteries,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] *final stage of the\nSACRED MYSTERIES.*\"* *Had Mr. Staniland Wake been\na Theosophist, he might have added that the narrow upward passage\nleading to the King's chamber had a \"narrow gate\" indeed;\nthe same \"strait gate\" which \"leadeth unto life,\"\nor the new spiritual re-birth alluded to by Jesus in Matthew vii.\n13 *et seq; *and that it is this gate in the Initiation\ntemple, that the writer who recorded the words alleged to have\nbeen spoken by an Initiate, was thinking of.\n\n* All we have said in *Isis *is now found corroborated\nin the \"Egyptian Mystery; or The Source of Measures,\"\nby those readings of the Bible with the numerical and geometrical\nkeys thereto.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 319 MOSES COPIED FROM SARGON.\n\nwill unveil the evolutions of the human mind and show how natural\nwas such a course of thought. The so-called phallic symbols have\nbecome offensive only because of the element of materiality and\nanimality in them. As they originated with the archaic races,\nwhich, issuing to their personal knowledge from an androgyne ancestry,\nwere the first phenomenal manifestations in their own sight of\nthe separation of sexes and the ensuing mystery of creating in\ntheir turn -- such symbols were but natural. If later races have\ndegraded them, especially the \"chosen people,\" this\ndoes not affect the origin of those symbols. The little Semitic\ntribe -- one of the smallest branchlets from the commingling of\nthe 4th and 5th sub-races (the Mongolo-Turanian and the Indo-European,\nso-called, after the sinking of the great Continent) -- could\nonly accept its symbology in the spirit which was given to it\nby the nations from which it was derived. Perchance, in the Mosaic\nbeginnings, that symbology was not as crude as it became later\nunder the handling of Ezra, who remodelled the whole Pentateuch.\nFor the glyph of Pharaoh's daughter (the woman), the Nile (the\nGreat Deep and Water), and the baby-boy found floating therein\nin the ark of rushes, has not been primarily composed for, or\nby, Moses. It has been found anticipated in the Babylonian fragments\non the tiles, in the story of King Sargon,* who lived far earlier\nthan Moses. Now, what is the logical inference? Most assuredly\nthat which gives us the right to say that the story told of Moses\nby Ezra had been learned by him while at Babylon,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* On page 224 of *Assyrian Antiquities *Mr. George Smith\nsays: \"In the palace of Sennacherib at Kouyunjik I found\nanother fragment of the curious history of Sargon. . . . published\nin my translation in the *Transactions of the Society of Biblical\nArchaeology*,* vol. I. part I.* *p*. 46.\"\nThe capital of Sargon, the Babylonian Moses, \"was the great\ncity of Agadi, called by the Semitics Akkad -- mentioned in Genesis\nas the capital of Nimrod.\" (*Gen. x. *10)* *.\n. . \"Akkad lay near the City of *Sippara *on the Euphrates\nand North of Babylon.\" (*See Isis*,* vol. II*.\n*p. *442-3,) Another strange *coincidence *is found\nin the fact that the name of the neighbouring above-mentioned\nCity of *Sippara *is the same as the name of the wife of\nMoses -- *Zipporah *(Exodus ii.). Of course the story is\na clever addition by Ezra, *who could not be ignorant of it.\n*This curious story is found on fragments of tablets from\nKouyunjik, and reads as follows: --\n\n1. Sargona, the powerful king, the king of Akkad am I.\n\n2.* *My mother was a princess, my father I did not know;\na brother of my father ruled over the country.\n\n3. In the city of Azupiran, which is by the side of the River\nEuphrates.\n\n4. My mother, the princess, conceived me; in difficulty she brought\nme forth.\n\n5. She placed me in an ark of rushes, with bitumen my exit she\nsealed up.\n\n6. She launched me in the river, which did not drown me.\n\n7. The river carried me, to Akki the water-carrier it brought\nme.\n\n8. Akki, the water-carrier, in tenderness of bowels, lifted me,\netc., etc.\n\nAnd now *Exodus *(ii): \"And when she (Moses' mother)\ncould not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes,\nand daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein,\nand she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 320 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nand that he applied the allegory told of Sargon to the Jewish\nlawgiver. In short, that *Exodus *was never written by\nMoses, but re-fabricated from old materials by Ezra.\n\nAnd if so, then why should not other symbols and glyphs far more\ncrude in their phallic element have been added by this adept in\nthe later Chaldean and Sabaean phallic worship? We are taught\nthat the primeval faith of the Israelites was quite different\nfrom that which was developed centuries later by the Talmudists,\nand before them by David and Hezekiah.\n\nAll this, notwithstanding the exoteric element, as now found in\nthe two Testaments, is quite sufficient to class the Bible among\nesoteric works, and to connect its secret system with Indian,\nChaldean, and Egyptian symbolism. The whole cycle of biblical\nglyphs and numbers as suggested by astronomical observations --\nastronomy and theology being closely connected -- is found in\nIndian exoteric, as well as esoteric, systems. These figures and\ntheir symbols, the signs of the Zodiac, the planets, their aspects\nand nodes -- the last term having now passed even into our modern\nbotany to distinguish male and female plants (the unisexual, polygamous,\nmonoecious, dioecious, etc., etc.) -- are known in astronomy as\n*sextiles*,* quartiles *and so on, and have been\nused for ages and aeons by the archaic nations, and in one sense\nhave the same meaning as the Hebrew numerals. The earliest forms\nof elementary geometry must have certainly been suggested by the\nobservation of the heavenly bodies and their groupings. Hence\nthe most archaic symbols in Eastern Esotericism are a circle,\na point, a triangle, a plane, a cube, a pentacle, and a hexagon,\nand plane figures with various sides and angles. This shows the\nknowledge and use of geometrical symbology to be as old as the\nworld.\n\nStarting from this, it becomes easy to understand how nature herself\ncould have taught primeval mankind, even without the help of its\ndivine instructors, the first principles of a numerical and geometrical\nsymbol language.* Hence one finds numbers and figures used as\nan\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] \"The story,\"\nsays Mr. G. Smith, \"is supposed to have happened about 1600\nB.C. rather earlier than the supposed age of Moses. As we know\nthat the fame of Sargon reached Egypt, it is quite likely that\nthis account had a connection with the event related in *Exodus\n*ii., for every action, when once performed, has a tendency\nto be repeated.\" But now, when Professor Sayce has had the\ncourage to push back the dates of the Chaldean and Assyrian Kings\nby two thousand years more, Sargon must have preceded Moses by\n2,000 years at the least. (See Professor Sayce's *Lectures\n*on* *the subject.) The confession is suggestive, but\nthe figures lack a cypher or two.\n\n* As a reminder how the *Esoteric *religion of Moses was\ncrushed several times, and the worship of Jehovah, as re-established\nby David, put in its place, by Hezekiah for one, read pp. 436-42,\nvol. II., in *Isis Unveiled. *Surely there must have been\nsome very [[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 321 THE CROSS, A PHALLIC SYMBOL.\n\nexpression and a record of thought in every archaic symbolical\nScripture. They are ever the same, with only certain variations\ngrowing out of the first figures. Thus the evolution and correlation\nof the mysteries of Kosmos, of its growth and development -- spiritual\nand physical, abstract and concrete -- were first recorded in\ngeometrical changes of shape. Every Cosmogony began with a circle,\na point, a triangle, and a cube, up to number 9, when it was synthesized\nby the first line and a circle -- the Pythagorean mystic *Decade*,*\n*the sum of all, involving and expressing the mysteries of\nthe entire Kosmos; recorded a hundred times more fully in the\nHindu system, for him who can understand its mystic language.\nThe numbers 3 and 4, in their blending of 7, as those of 5, 6,\n9, and 10, are the very corner-stone of Occult Cosmogonies. This\ndecade and its thousand combinations are found in every portion\nof the globe. One recognizes them in the caves and rock-cut temples\nof Hindostan and Central Asia, as in the pyramids and lithoi of\nEgypt and America; in the Catacombs of Ozimandyas, in the mounds\nof the Caucasian snowcapped fastnesses, in the ruins of Palenque,\nin Easter Island, everywhere whither the foot of ancient man has\never journeyed. The 3 and the 4, the triangle and the cube, or\nthe male and female universal glyph, showing the first aspect\nof the evolving deity, is stamped for ever in the Southern Cross\nin the Heavens, as in the Egyptian *Crux-Ansata. *As well\nexpressed, \"The Cube unfolded is in display a cross of the\n*tau*,* *or Egyptian form, or of the Christian cross\nform. . . . A circle attached to the first, gives the *ansated\ncross*. . . numbers 3 and 4 counted on the cross, showing\na form of the (Hebrew) golden candlestick (in the Holy of Holies),\nand of the 3 + 4 = 7, and 6 + 1 = 7, days in the *circle of\nthe week*,* *as 7 lights of the sun. So also as the\nweek of 7 lights gave origin to the *month *and* year*,*\n*so it is the *time marker of birth*. . . . The cross\nform being shown, then, by the connected use of the form 113 :\n355, the symbol is completed by the *attachment of a man to\nthe cross.* *This* *kind of measure was made to co-ordinate\nwith the idea of the *origin *of human life, and hence\nthe *phallic form.***\"\n\nThe* Stanzas *show the cross and these numbers playing\na prominent part in archaic cosmogony. Meanwhile we may profit\nby the evidence collected by the same author to show the identity\nof symbols and their esoteric meaning all over the globe, which\nhe calls rightly the \"primordial vestiges of these symbols.\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] good reasons why the\nSadducees, who furnished almost all the high Priests of Judea,\nheld to the Laws of Moses and spurned the alleged \"Books\nof Moses,\" the Pentateuch of the Synagogue and the Talmud.\n\n* Once more, remember the Hindu Wittoba crucified in space; the\nsignificance of the \"sacred sign,\" the *Swastica;\n*Plato's Decussated man in Space, etc., etc.\n\n** \"Source of Measures.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 322 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n\"Under the general view taken of the nature of the number\nforms. . . . it becomes a matter of research of the utmost interest\nas to when and where their existence and their use first became\nknown. Has it been a matter of revelation in what we know as the\nhistoric age -- a cycle exceedingly modern when the age of the\nhuman race is contemplated? It seems, in fact, as to the date\nof its possession by man, to have been farther removed in the\npast from the old Egyptians than are the old Egyptians from us.\n\n\"The Easter Isles in 'mid Pacific' present the feature of\nthe remaining peaks of the mountains of *a submerged continent*,*\n*for the reason that these peaks are thickly studded with Cyclopean\nstatues, remnants of the civilization of a dense and cultivated\npeople, who must have of necessity occupied a widely extended\narea. On the back of these images is to be found the '*ansated\ncross*'* *and the same modified to the outlines of the\nhuman form. A full description, with plate showing the land, with\nthe thickly planted statues, also with copies of the images, is\nto be found in the January number 1870 of the London *Builder.*\n\n\"In the '*Naturalist*,'* *published at Salem, Massachusetts,\nin one of the early numbers, is to be found a description of some\nvery ancient and curious carving on the crest walls of the mountains\nof South America, older by far, it is averred, than the races\nnow living. The strangeness of these tracings is in that they\nexhibit the outlines of a man stretched out on a cross,* by a\nseries of drawings, by which from the form of *a man *that\nof *a cross *springs, but so done that the cross may be taken\nas the man, or the man as the cross; thus exhibiting a symbolic\ndisplay of the interdependency of the forms set forth.\n\n\"It is known that tradition among the Aztecs has handed down\na very perfect account of the *deluge*. . . . Baron Humboldt\nsays that we are to look for the country of Aztalan, the original\ncountry of the Aztecs, as high up at least as the 42nd parallel\nnorth; whence, journeying, they at last arrived in the vale of\nMexico. In that vale the earthen mounds of the far north become\nthe elegant stone pyramidal and other structures whose remains\nare now found. The correspondences between the Aztec remains and\nthose of the Egyptians are well known. . . . Attwater, from examination\nof hundreds of them, is convinced that they had a knowledge of\nastronomy. As to one of the most perfect of the pyramidal structures\namong the Aztecs, Humboldt gives a description to the following\neffect:\n\n\"The form of this pyramid (of Papantla) which has *seven\n*stories, is more tapering than any other monument of this\nkind yet discovered, but its height is not remarkable, being but\n57 feet, its base but 25 feet on each side. However, it is remarkable\non one account: it is built entirely of hewn stones, of an extraordinary\nsize, and very beautifully shaped. *Three *staircases lead\nto the top, the steps of which are decorated with hieroglyphical\nsculptures and small *niches *arranged with great symmetry.\nThe number of these niches seems to allude to the 318 *simple\nand compound signs of the days *of their civil calendar.\"\n\n\"318 is the Gnostic value of Christ,\" remarks the author,\n\"and the famous number of the trained or circumcised servants\nof Abraham. When it is consi-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See farther on the description given of the early Aryan initiation:\nof Visvakarma crucifying the Sun, \"Vikkartana,\" shorn\nof his beams -- on a cruciform lath.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 323 IDENTITY OF THE ANCIENT SYMBOLS.\n\ndered that 318 is an *abstract value*,* *and* universal*,*\n*as expressive of a diameter value to a circumference of *unity*,*\n*its use in the composition of the civil calendar becomes manifest.\"\n\nIdentical glyphs, numbers and esoteric symbols are found in Egypt,\nPeru, Mexico, Easter Island, India, Chaldea, and Central Asia.\nCrucified men, and symbols of the evolution of races from gods;\nand yet behold Science repudiating the idea of *a human race\nother than *one made in *our *image; theology clinging\nto its 6,000 years of Creation; anthropology teaching our descent\nfrom the ape; and the Clergy tracing it from Adam 4,004 years\nB.C.!!\n\nShall one, for fear of incurring the penalty of being called a\nsuperstitious fool, and even a *liar*, abstain from furnishing\nproofs -- as good as any -- only because that day, when all the\nSEVEN KEYS shall be delivered unto Science, or rather the men\nof learning and research in the symbological department, has not\nyet dawned? In the face of the crushing discoveries of Geology\nand Anthropology with regard to the antiquity of man, shall we\n-- in order to avoid the usual penalty that awaits every one who\nstrays outside the beaten paths of either Theology or Materialism\n-- hold to the 6,000 years and \"special creation,\" or\naccept in submissive admiration our genealogy and descent from\nthe ape? Not so, as long as it is known that the secret records\nhold the said SEVEN keys to the mystery of the genesis of man.\nFaulty, materialistic, and biassed as the scientific theories\nmay be, they are a thousand times nearer the truth than the vagaries\nof theology. The latter are in their death agony for every one\nbut the most uncompromising bigot and fanatic.* Hence we have\nno choice but either to blindly accept the deductions of Science,\nor to cut adrift from it, and withstand it fearlessly to its face,\nstating what the Secret Doctrine teaches us, being fully prepared\nto bear the consequences.\n\nBut let us see whether Science in its materialistic speculations,\nand even theology in its death-rattle and supreme struggle to\nreconcile the 6,000 years since Adam with Sir Charles Lyell's\n\"Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man,\" do not\nthemselves give us unconsciously a helping hand. Ethnology, on\nthe confession of some of its very learned votaries, finds it\nalready impossible to account for the varieties in the human race,\nunless the hypothesis of the *creation of several Adams *be*\n*accepted. They speak of \"a white Adam and a black Adam,\na red\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Some of its defenders must have lost their reason, one would\nrather say. For what can one think when, in the face of *the\ndead-letter *absurdities of the Bible, these are still supported,\npublicly and as fiercely as ever, and one finds its theologians\nmaintaining that though \"the Scriptures carefully refrain\n(?) from making any direct contribution to scientific knowledge,\n*they have never stumbled *upon any statement *which\nwill not abide the light of ***A**DVANCING **S**CIENCE\"!!!\n-- (\"*Primeval Man*,\"* *p. 14).\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 324 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nAdam and a yellow Adam.\"* Were they Hindus enumerating the\nrebirths of Vamadeva from the *Linga Purana*,* *they\ncould say little more. For, enumerating the repeated births of\nSiva, the latter show him in one Kalpa of a *white *complexion,\nin another of a *black *colour, in still another of a *red*\ncolour, after which the Kumara becomes \"four youths of a\nyellow colour.\" This strange *coincidence*,* *as\nMr. Proctor would say, speak only in favour of scientific intuition,\nas Siva-Kumara represents only allegorically the human races during\nthe genesis of man. But it led to another intuitional phenomenon\n-- in the theological ranks this time. The unknown author of \"Primeval\nMan\" in a desperate effort to screen the divine Revelation\nfrom the merciless and eloquent discoveries of geology and anthropology,\nremarking that \"it would be unfortunate if the defenders\nof the Bible should be driven into the position of either surrendering\nthe inspiration of Scripture, or denying the conclusions of geologists\"\n-- finds a compromise. Nay, he devotes a thick volume to proving\nthis fact: \"Adam was not the *first man**** *created\nupon this earth.\" . . . The exhumed relics of pre-Adamic\nman, \"instead of shaking our confidence in Scripture, supply\nadditional proof of its veracity\" (*p.* 194). How\nso? In the simplest way imaginable; for the author argues that,\nhenceforth \"we\" (the clergy) \"are enabled to leave\nscientific men to pursue their studies without attempting to coerce\nthem by the fear of heresy\" . . . (this must be a relief\nindeed to Messrs. Huxley, Tyndall, and Sir C. Lyell). . . . \"The\nBible narrative *does not commence with creation*,*\n*as is commonly supposed, but with the formation of Adam and\nEve, *millions of years after *our planet had been created.\nIts previous history, so far as Scripture is concerned, is yet\nunwritten.\" . . . . . \"There may have been not one,\nbut twenty different races upon the earth before the time of Adam,\njust as there may be twenty different races of men on other worlds\"\n(p. 55). . . . Who, then, or what were those races, since the\nauthor still maintains that Adam is *the first man of our race?\n*It was THE SATANIC RACE AND RACES! \"Satan (was) never\nin heaven, Angels and men (being) one species.\" It was the\npre-Adamic race of \"Angels that sinned.\" Satan was \"the\nfirst Prince of this world,\" we read. Having died in consequence\nof his rebellion, he remained on earth as a *disembodied Spirit*,*\n*and tempted Adam and Eve. \"The earlier ages of the Satanic\nrace, and more especially *during the life-time of Satan *(*!!!*)\nmay have been a period\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"Primeval Man Unveiled, or the Anthropology of the Bible\";\nauthor (unknown) of the \"Stars and the Angels\" 1870,\np. 195.\n\n** Especially in the face of the evidence furnished by the authorized\nBible itself in ch. iv. of *Genesis*,* v*. 16 *and\n*17, which shows Cain going to the land of Nod and there marrying\na wife.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 325 THE IMPARTIALITY OF SCIENTIFIC DENIALS.\n\nof patriarchal civilization and comparative repose -- a time of\nTubal-Cains and Jubals, when both Sciences and arts attempted\nto strike their roots into the accursed ground. . . . . What a\nsubject for an epic. . . . (when) there are inevitable incidents\nwhich must have occurred. We see before us . . . . the gay primeval\nlover wooing his blushing bride at dewy eve under the Danish oaks,\nthat then grew where now no oaks will grow . . . . the grey primeval\npatriarch . . . . the primeval offspring innocently gambolling\nby his side. . . . . A thousand such pictures rise before us\"!\n. . . . (pp. 206-207).\n\nThe retrospective glance at this *Satanic *\"blushing\nbride\" in the days of Satan's innocence, does not lose in\npoetry as it gains in originality. Quite the reverse. The modern\nChristian bride -- who does not often blush nowadays before her\ngay modern lovers -- might even derive a moral lesson from this\ndaughter of Satan, in the exuberant fancy of her first human biographer.\nThese pictures -- and to appreciate them at their true value they\nmust be examined in the volume that describes them -- are all\nsuggested with a view to reconcile the infallibility of revealed\nScripture with Sir C. Lyell's \"Antiquity of Man\" and\nother damaging scientific works. But this does not prevent truth\nand fact appearing at the foundation of these vagaries, which\nthe author has never dared to sign with his own, or even a borrowed\nname. For, his pre-Adamic races -- not Satanic but simply Atlantic,\nand the Hermaphrodites before the latter -- are mentioned in the\nBible when read esoterically, as they are in the Secret Doctrine.\nThe SEVEN KEYS open the mysteries, past and future, of the seven\ngreat Root Races, as of the seven Kalpas. Though the genesis of\nman, and even the esoteric geology, will surely be rejected by\nScience just as much as the Satanic and pre-Adamic races, yet\nif having no other way out of their difficulties the Scientists\nhave to choose between the two, we feel certain that, Scripture\nnotwithstanding, once the mystery language is approximately mastered,\nit is the archaic teaching that will be accepted.\n\n-------\n\n[[This page continued in next section]]\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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