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    "slug": "22-v-the-hidden-deity-its-symbols-and-glyphs-349",
    "title": "V. THE HIDDEN DEITY, ITS SYMBOLS AND GLYPHS ... 349",
    "of": 48,
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    "text": "## V. THE HIDDEN DEITY, ITS SYMBOLS AND GLYPHS ... 349\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 2, ch 5\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 349 THE MANY ARE ONE.\n\n[[This page continued from previous section]]\n\n##### § V.\nON THE HIDDEN DEITY, ITS SYMBOLS AND GLYPHS.\n\n**T**HE Logos or Creative deity, the \"Word made\nFlesh,\" of every religion, has to be traced to its ultimate\nsource and Essence. In India, it is a Proteus of 1,008 divine\nnames and aspects in each of its *personal *transformations,\nfrom Brahma-Purusha down through the Seven *divine *Rishis\nand ten *semi*-divine Prajapati (also Rishis) to the *divine-human\n*Avatars. The same puzzling problem of the \"One in many\"\nand the multitude in One, is found in other Pantheons, in the\nEgyptian, the Greek and the Chaldeo-Judaic, the latter having\nmade confusion still more confused by presenting its Gods as euhemerizations,\nin the shapes of Patriarchs. The latter are now accepted by those\nwho reject Romulus as a myth, and are represented as living and\n*historical *Entities*. Verbum satis sapienti.*\n\nIn the Zohar, En-Soph is also the **O**NE, and the\ninfinite Unity. This was known to the very few learned Fathers\nof the Church, who were aware that Jehovah was but a *third\nrate *potency and no \"highest\" God. But while complaining\nbitterly of the Gnostics and saying . . . \"our Heretics hold\n. . . that **P**ROPATOR is known but to the *Only\nbegotten *Son* (who is Brahma among the rest) that is to the\nmind\" (*nous*),* *Irenaeus never mentioned\nthat the Jews did the same in their real *secret *books.\nValentinus, \"the profoundest doctor of the Gnosis,\"\nheld that \"there was a perfect AION who existed before Bythos,\nor Buthon (the first father of unfathomable nature, which is the\nsecond Logos) called Propator.\" It is thus **A**ION,\nwho springs as a Ray from Ain-Soph (who *does not create*),*\n*and **A**ION, who creates, or *through *whom,\nrather, everything is created, or evolves.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* As Mulaprakriti is known only to Iswar, the **L**OGOS, as\nhe is called now by Mr. T. Subba Row, of Madras. (See his *Bhagavadgita\n*Lectures.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 350 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nFor, as the Basilidians taught, \"there was a supreme god,\n*Abraxas*,* *by* *whom was created mind\"\n(*Mahat*,* *in Sanskrit, *Nous *in Greek).\n\"From Mind proceeded the word, *Logos*,* *from\nthe word, Providence (Divine Light, rather), then from it Virtue\nand Wisdom in Principalities, Powers, Angels, etc., etc.\"\nBy these (Angels) the 365 AEons were created. \"Amongst the\nlowest, indeed, and those who made this world, he (Basilides)\nsets last of all the God of the Jews, whom he denies to be God\n(and very rightly), affirming he is one of the angels\" (*Ibid.*)*.\n*Here, then, we find the same system as in the Puranas, wherein\nthe Incomprehensible drops a seed, which becomes the golden egg,\nfrom which Brahma is produced. Brahma produces Mahat, etc., etc.\nTrue Esoteric philosophy, however, speaks neither of \"creation\"\nnor of \"evolution\" in the sense the exoteric religions\ndo. All these personified Powers are not evolutions from one another,\nbut so many aspects of the one and sole manifestation of the **A**BSOLUTE\nall. The same system as the gnostic prevails in the Sephirothal\naspects of Ain-Soph, yet, as *these aspects are in Space and\nTime*,* *a certain order is maintained in their successive\nappearances. Therefore, it becomes impossible not to take notice\nof the great changes that the *Zohar *has undergone under\nthe handling of generations of Christian Mystics. For, even in\nthe metaphysics of the Talmud, the \"lower Face\" (or\n\"Lesser Countenance\"), the microprosopus, in fact, could\nnever be placed on the plane of the same abstract ideal as the\nHigher, or \"Greater Countenance,\" macroprosopus. The\nlatter is, in the Chaldean Kabala, a pure abstraction; the Word\nor **L**OGOS, or **D**ABAR (in Hebrew),\nwhich Word, though it becomes in fact a plural number, or \"Words\"\n-- **D**(a)**B**(a)**R**IM,\nwhen it reflects itself, or falls into the aspect of a Host (of\nangels, or Sephiroth, \"numbers\") is still collectively\n**O**NE, and on the ideal plane a nought -- 0, a\n\"No-thing.\" **I**T is without form or being,\n\"with no likeness with anything else.\" (*Franck*,*\n*\"*Die Kabbala*,\"* p. *126.) And even\nPhilo calls the Creator, the* Logos *who stands next God,\n\"*the ***S**ECOND **G**OD,\"\nand \"the second God who is his (Highest God's) **W**ISDOM\"\n(*Philo. Quaest. et Solut*)*. *Deity is not God.\nIt is NOTHING, and DARKNESS. It is nameless, and therefore called\n*Ain-Soph* --* *\"the* *word* Ayin*\nmeaning nothing.\" *See Franck *\"*Die Kabbala*,\"*\np. *153. * See also Section XII.*,* *\"*Theogony\nof the Creative Gods.*\"* *The \"Highest God\"\n(the unmanifested **L**OGOS) is its Son.\n\nNor are most of the gnostic systems, which come down to us mutilated\nby the Church Fathers, anything better than the distorted shells\nof the original speculations. Nor were they *open *to the\npublic or reader, at any time; *i.e.*, had their hidden\nmeaning or esotericism been revealed, it would have been no more\nan esoteric teaching, and this could never be. Alone Marcus (the\nchief of the Marcosians, 2nd century), who taught\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 351 THE GNOSTIC IDEA.\n\nthat deity had to be viewed under the symbol of *four syllables*,*\n*gave out more of the esoteric truths than any other Gnostic.\nBut even he was never well understood. For it is only on the surface\nor dead letter of his* Revelation *that it appears that\nGod is a quaternary, to wit: \"the Ineffable, the Silence,\nthe Father, and Truth,\" -- in reality it is quite erroneous,\nand divulges only one more esoteric riddle. This teaching of Marcus\nwas that of the early Kabalists and ours. For he makes of Deity,\nthe number 30 *in *4 *syllables*,* *which,\ntranslated esoterically, means a Triad or *Triangle*,*\n*and a Quaternary or a square, in all *seven*,*\n*which, on the lower plane made the seven divine or secret\nletters of which the God-name is composed. This requires demonstration.\nIn his \"Revelation,\" speaking of divine mysteries expressed\nby means of letters and numbers, Marcus narrates how the \"Supreme\nTetrad came down unto me (him) from the region which cannot be\nseen nor named, *in a female form*,* because the world\nwould have been unable to bear her appearing under a male figure*,\"*\n*and revealed to him \"the generation of the universe,\n*untold before to either *gods or men.\"\n\nThis first sentence already contains a double meaning. Why should\na female figure be more easily borne or listened to by the world\nthan a male figure? On the very face of it this appears nonsensical.\nWithal it is quite simple and clear to one who is acquainted with\nthe mystery-language. *Esoteric Philosophy*,* *or\nthe Secret Wisdom, was symbolized by a female form, while a male\nfigure stood for the *Unveiled *mystery. Hence, the world\nnot being ready to receive, could not bear it, and the Revelation\nof Marcus had to be given allegorically. Then he writes:\n\n\"When first the Inconceivable, the Beingless and Sexless\n(the Kabalistic Ain-Soph) began to be in labour (*i.e.*,\nwhen the hour of manifesting Itself had struck) and desired that\nIts Ineffable should be born (the first **L**OGOS,\nor AEon, or Aion), and its invisible should be clothed with form,\nits mouth opened and uttered the word like unto itself. This word\n(logos) manifested itself in the form of the Invisible One. The\nuttering of the (ineffable) name (through the word) came to pass\nin this manner. He (the Supreme Logos) uttered the first word\nof his name, which is a *syllable of four letters. *Then\nthe second syllable was added, *also of four letters. *Then\nthe third, composed of *ten *letters; and after this the\nfourth, which contains *twelve* letters. The whole name\nconsists thus of *thirty letters *and of *four syllables.\n*Each letter has its own accent and way of writing, but neither\nunderstands nor ever beholds that form of the whole Name, -- no;\nnot even the power of the letter that stands next to Itself (to\nthe Beingless and the Inconceivable.)* All these sounds when united\nare the collective Beingless,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Iswara, or the Logos, cannot see Parabrahmam, but only Mulaprakriti,\nsays the lecturer, in the Four Lectures on Bhagavatgita. (See*\nTheosophist*,* *Feb., 1887.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 352 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nunbegotten AEon, and *these *are the Angels that are ever\nbeholding the face of the Father* (the Logos, the \"second\nGod,\" who stands next God, \"the Inconceivable,\"\naccording to Philo).\n\nThis is as plain as ancient esoteric secrecy would make it. It\nis as Kabalistic, but less veiled than the Zohar in which the\nmystic names or attributes are also four syllabled, twelve, forty-two,\nand even seventy-two syllabled words! The *Tetrad *shows\nto Marcus the TRUTH in the shape of a naked woman, and letters\nevery limb of that figure, calling her head [[omega]], her neck\n[[psi]], shoulders and hands [[gamma]], and [[chi]], etc., etc.\nIn this Sephira is easily recognised, the Crown (*Kether*)*\n*or head being numbered *one*; the brain or Chochmah,\n2; the heart, or Intelligence (Binah), 3; and the other seven\nSephiroth representing the limbs of the body. The Sephirothal\nTree is the Universe, and Adam Kadmon represents it in the West\nas Brahma represents it in India.\n\nThroughout, the 10 Sephiroth are represented as divided into the\nthree higher, or the spiritual *Triad*,* *and the\nlower Septenary. The true Esoteric meaning of the sacred number\nseven is cleverly veiled in the *Zohar; *yet was betrayed\nby the double way of writing \"in the beginning\" or *Be-resheeth*,*\n*and Be-raishath, the latter the \"Higher, or *Upper\n*Wisdom.\" As shown by Mr. Macgregor Mathers in his *Kabbalah\n*(p. 47), and in the *Qabbalah *of Mr. T. Myer (p.\n233), both of these Kabalists being supported by the best ancient\nauthorities, these words have a dual and secret meaning. *Braisheeth\nbara Elohim *means that the *six*,* *over which\nstands the *seventh *Sephiroth, belong to the lower material\nclass, or, as the author says: \"Seven . . . . are applied\nto the Lower Creation, and three to the spiritual man, the Heavenly\nPrototypic or first Adam.\"\n\nWhen the Theosophists and Occultists say that God is no **B**EING,\nfor **I**T is nothing, *No-Thing*,* *they\nare more reverential and religiously respectful to the Deity than\nthose who call God a **H**E, and thus make of Him\na gigantic **M**ALE.\n\nHe who studies the Kabala will soon find the same idea in the\nultimate thought of its authors, the earlier and great Hebrew\nInitiates, who got this secret Wisdom at Babylonia from the Chaldean\nHierophants, while Moses got his in Egypt. The Zohar cannot well\nbe judged by its after translations in Latin and other tongues,\nas all those ideas were, of course, softened and made to fit in\nwith the views and *policy *of its Christian arrangers;\nbut in truth its ideas are identical with those of all other religious\nsystems. The various Cosmogonies show that the Archaic Universal\nSoul was held by every nation as the \"Mind\" of the Demiurgic\nCreator; and that it\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The \"Seven Angels of the Face,\" with the Christians.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 353 THE EGYPTIAN VERSION.\n\nwas called the \"Mother,\" *Sophia *with the Gnostics\n(or the female Wisdom), the *Sephira *with the Jews, Saraswati\nor Vach, with the Hindus, *the Holy Ghost being a female Principle.*\n\nHence, born from it, the *Kurios *or Logos was, with the\nGreeks, the \"God, mind\" (*nous*)*. *\"Now\nKoros (*Kurios*)* *signifies the pure and unmixed\nnature of intellect -- wisdom,\" says Plato in \"Cratylus\";\nand Kurios is Mercury, the Divine Wisdom, and \"mercury is\nthe Sol\" (Sun) (\"*Arnobius*\"* *vi.,\nxii.), from whom Thot-Hermes received this divine Wisdom. While,\nthen, the *Logoi *of all countries and religions are correlative\n(in their sexual aspects) with the female Soul of the World or\nthe \"Great Deep;\" the deity, from which these *two\nin one *have their being, is ever concealed and called the\n\"Hidden One,\" connected only indirectly with Creation,*\nas it can act only through the Dual Force emanating from the Eternal\nEssence. Even AEsculapius, called the \"Saviour of all,\"\nis identical, according to ancient classics, with *Phta*,*\n*the Egyptian Creative Intellect (or Divine Wisdom), and with\nApollo, Baal, Adonis and Hercules (*see Dunlap*'*s *\"*Mystery\nof Adonis*,\"* pp. *23* and *95); and Phta\nis, in one of its aspects, the \"Anima Mundi,\" the Universal\nSoul of Plato, the \"Divine Spirit\" of the Egyptians,\nthe \"Holy Ghost\" of the early Christians and Gnostics,\nand the *Akasa *of the Hindus, and even, in its lower aspect,\nthe *Astral Light. *For *Phta *was originally the\n\"God of the Dead,\" he in whose bosom they were received,\nhence the *Limbus *of* *the Greek Christians, or\nthe Astral Light. It is far later that *Phta *was classed\nwith the Sun-gods, his name signifying \"he who opens,\"\nas he is shown to be the first to unveil the face of the dead\nmummy, to call the soul to *life in his bosom. *(See*\nMaspero*'*s *\"*Bulaq Museum.*\")*\n***K**NEPH, the Eternal *Unrevealed*,* *is\nrepresented by the snake-emblem of eternity encircling a water-urn,\nwith its head hovering *over the *\"*waters*\"*\nwhich it incubates with its breath *-- another form of one\nand the same idea of \"Darkness,\" its ray moving on the\nwaters, &c. As \"Logos-Soul,\" this *permutation\n*is called Phta; as Logos-Creator, he becomes *Imhot-pou*,*\n*his son, \"the god of the handsome face.\" In their\nprimitive characters these two were the first Cosmic Duad, *Noot*,*\n*\"space or *Sky*,\"* *and* Noo*,*\n*\"the primordial Waters,\" the Androgyne Unity, above\nwhom was the *Concealed ***B**REATH of Kneph.\nAnd all of them had the aquatic animals and plants sacred to them,\nthe *ibis*,* *the *swan*,* *the*\ngoose*,* *the* crocodile*,* *and the\n*lotus.*\n\nReturning to the Kabalistic deity, this Concealed Unity is then\n= [[*to pan*]]\n= [[*apeiros*]], Endless, Boundless, non-Existent,\nso\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* We use the term as one accepted and sanctioned by use, and therefore\nmore comprehensible to the reader.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 354 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nlong as the *Absolute *is within *Oulom*,** *the\nboundless and termless time, as such, En-Soph cannot be the Creator\nor even the modeller of the Universe, nor can he be *Aur *(light).\nTherefore En-Soph is also Darkness. The *immutably *Infinite\nand the *absolutely *Boundless can neither will, think,\nnor act. To do this it has to become finite, and it does so, by\nits ray penetrating into the mundane egg -- infinite space --\nand emanating from it as a finite god. All this is left to the\nray latent in the one. When the period arrives, the absolute will\nexpands naturally the force within it, according to the Law of\nwhich it is the inner and ultimate Essence. The Hebrews did not\nadopt the egg as a symbol, but they substituted for it the \"Duplex\nheavens,\" for, translated correctly, the sentence \"God\nmade the heavens and the earth\" would read: -- \"In and\nout of his own essence as a womb (the mundane egg), God created\nthe two heavens.\" But the Christians have chosen as the symbol\nof their Holy Ghost, the dove.\n\n\"Whosoever acquaints himself with\nthe Mercaba and the *lahgash *(secret speech or incantation),\nwill learn the secret of secrets.\" *Lahgash *is nearly\nidentical in meaning with Vach, the hidden power of the Mantras.\n\nWhen the active period has arrived, from within the eternal essence\nof Ain-Soph, comes forth Sephira, the active Power, called the\nPrimordial Point, and the Crown, *Kether. *It is only through\nher that the \"Un-bounded Wisdom\" could give a concrete\nform to the abstract Thought. Two sides of the upper triangle\nby which the ineffable Essence and the universe -- its manifested\nbody -- are symbolized, the right side and the base are composed\nof unbroken lines; the third, the left side, is dotted. It is\nthrough the latter that emerges Sephira. Spreading in every direction,\nshe finally encompasses the whole triangle. In this emanation\nthe triple triad is formed. From the invisible Dew falling from\nthe higher *Uni-triad *(thus leaving 7 sephiroths only),\nthe \"Head\" Sephira *creates *primeval waters,\n*i.e.*, Chaos takes shape. It is the first stage towards\nthe solidification of spirit which through various modifications\nwill produce earth. \"*It requires earth and water to make\na living soul*,\"* *says Moses. It requires the\nimage of an aquatic bird to connect it with water, the female\nelement of procreation with the egg and the bird that fecundates\nit.\n\nWhen Sephira emerges like an active power from within the latent\nDeity, she is female; when she assumes the office of a creator,\nshe becomes a male; hence, she is androgyne. She is the \"Father\nand\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* With the ancient Jews, as shown by Le Clerc, the word *Oulom*\nmeant only a time whose beginning or end is not known. The term\n\"eternity,\" properly speaking, did not exist in the\nHebrew tongue with the meaning, for instance, applied by the Vedantins\nto Parabrahm.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 355 INTERNATIONAL CORRELATION OF GODS.\n\nMother Aditi,\" of the Hindu Cosmogony and of *the Secret\nDoctrine. *If the oldest Hebrew scrolls had been preserved,\nthe modern Jehovah-worshipper would have found that many and uncomely\nwere the symbols of the *creative *god. The frog in the\nmoon, typical of his generative character, was the most frequent.\nAll the birds and animals now held \"unclean\" in the\nBible had been the symbols of the Deity in days of old. It was\nbecause they were too sacred that a mask of uncleanness was placed\nover them, in order to preserve them from destruction. The brazen\nserpent was not a bit more poetical than the goose or swan, if\nsymbols are to be accepted *a la lettre.*\n\nIn the words of the *Zohar: *\"The Indivisible Point,\nwhich has no limit and cannot be comprehended because of its purity\nand brightness, expanded *from without*,* *forming\na brightness that served the indivisible Point as a veil;\"\nyet the latter also \"*could not be viewed in *consequence\nof its immeasurable light. It too *expanded from without*,*\n*and this expansion was its garment. Thus through a constant\n*upheaving *(motion) finally the world originated\"\n(*Zohar I. *20*a*)*. *The Spiritual substance\nsent forth by the Infinite Light is the *first *Sephira\nor *Shekinah: *Sephira* exoterically *contains all\nthe other nine Sephiroths in her*. Esoterically *she contains\nbut two,* *Chochmah *or* Wisdom*,* *\"a*\n*masculine, *active* potency whose divine name is *Jah*\n( ),\" and **B**INAH,\na feminine passive potency, Intelligence, represented by the divine\nname Jehovah ( ); which\ntwo potencies form, with Sephira the third, the Jewish trinity\nor the Crown, **K**ETHER. These two Sephiroths called\nFather, *Abba*,* *and Mother *Amona*,*\n*are the duad or the double-sexed *logos *from which\nissued the other seven Sephiroths. (See *Zohar.*)* *This*\n*first Jewish triad (Sephira, Chochmah, and Binah) is the\nHindu *Trimurti.* *However veiled, even in the *Zohar*,*\n*and more still in the exoteric Pantheon of India, every particular\nconnected with one is reproduced in the other. The *Prajapati\n*are the Sephiroths. Ten with Brahma they dwindle to seven,\nwhen the Trimurti, and the Kabalistic triad, are separated from\nthe rest. The seven Builders (Creators) become the seven *Prajapati*,*\n*or the seven Rishis, in the same order as the Sephiroths\nbecome the Creators; then the Patriarchs, etc. In both Secret\nSystems, the One Universal Essence is incomprehensible and *inactive\n*in its absoluteness, and can be connected with the building\nof the Universe only in an indirect way. In both, the primeval\nMalefemale or androgynous Principle, and their ten and seven Emanations\n(Brahma-Viraj and Aditi-Vach on the one part and the Elohim-Jehovah,\nor Adam-Adami (Adam Kadmon) and Sephira Eve on the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In the Indian Pantheon the double-sexed Logos is Brahma, the\nCreator, whose seven \"mind born\" sons are the primeval\nRishis -- the \"Builders.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 356 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nother), with their Prajapati and Sephiroths, represent in their\ntotality, first of all the Archetypal man, the *Proto-logos;\n*and only in their secondary aspect do they become Cosmic\npowers, and astronomical or sidereal bodies. If Aditi is the mother\nof the gods, *Deva-Matri*,* *Eve* *is the\nmother of all living; they are the *Sakti *or generative\npower in their female aspect of the \"Heavenly man,\"\nand they are all compound Creators. Says a \"*Gupta Vidya*\"*\n*Sutra: \"In the beginning, a ray issuing from Paramarthika\n(*the one *and only true existence), it became manifested\nin Vyavaharika (conventional existence) which was used as a *Vahan\n*to descend into the Universal Mother, and to cause her to\nexpand (swell, *brih*)*.*\"* *And in\nthe *Zohar *it is stated: \"The Infinite Unity, formless\nand without similitude, after the form of the heavenly man was\ncreated, used it. The Unknown Light* (Darkness) used the (heavenly\nform) as a chariot through\nwhich to descend, and wished to be called by this form, which\nis the sacred name Jehovah.\"\n\nAs the Zohar says: \"In the beginning was the Will of the\nKing, prior to any other existence. . . . It (the Will) sketched\nthe forms of all things that had been concealed but now came into\nview. And there went forth as a sealed secret from the head of\nAin Soph, a nebulous spark of matter, without shape or form. .\n. . Life is drawn from below, and from above the source renews\nitself, the sea is always full and spreads its waters everywhere.\"\nThus the deity is compared to a shoreless sea, to water which\nis \"the fountain of life\" (Zohar iii., 290). \"The\nseventh palace, the fountain of life, is the first in the order\nfrom above\" (ii. 261). Hence the Kabalistic tenet on the\nlips of the very Kabalistic Solomon, who says in Proverbs ix.,\n1: \"Wisdom hath builded her house; it hath hewn out its *seven\n*pillars.\"\n\nWhence then, all this identity of ideas, if there was no primeval\n**U**NIVERSAL Revelation? The few points shown are\nlike a few straws in a hayrick, in comparison to that which will\nbe shown as the work proceeds. If we turn to that most hazy of\nall Cosmogonies -- the Chinese, even there the same idea is found.\n*Tsi-tsai *(the Self-Existent) is the unknown Darkness,\nthe root of the *Wuliang-sheu *(Boundless* *Age),\nAmitabhe, and Tien (heaven) come later on. The \"great Extreme\"\nof Confucius gives the same idea, his \"straws\" notwithstanding.\nThe latter are a source of great amusement to the missionaries.\nThese laugh at every \"heathen\" religion, despise and\nhate that of their\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Says Rabbi Simeon: \"Ah, companions, companions, man as\nan emanation was both man and woman, as well on the side of the\n'*Father*'* *as on the side of the '*Mother.*'*\n*And this is the sense of the words: 'And Elohim spoke; Let\nthere be Light, and it was Light' . . . and this is the *two-fold\nman.*\"* *(\"*Auszuge aus dem Sohar*,\"\np. 13, 15.)* *Light, then, in *Genesis *stood for\nthe Androgyne Ray or \"Heavenly Man.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 357 ORNITHOLOGICAL SYMBOLS.\n\nbrother Christians of other denominations, and yet one and all\naccept *a la lettre *their own *Genesis. *If we\nturn to Chaldea we find in it *Anu*,* *the concealed\ndeity, the One, whose name, moreover, shows it to be of Sanskrit\norigin. *Anu*, which means in Sanskrit \"atom,\"\naniyamsam aniyasam (smallest of the small), is a name of Parabrahm\nin the Vedantic philosophy; Parabrahm being described as smaller\nthan the smallest atom, and greater than the greatest sphere or\nuniverse: \"*Anagraniyam and Mahatorvavat.*\"*\n*This is what George Smith gives as the first verses of the\nAkkadian *Genesis *as found in the Cuneiform Texts on the\n\"*Lateras Coctiles.*\"* *There also, we\nfind *Anu *the passive deity or En-Soph, *Bel*,\nthe Creator, the Spirit of God (Sephira) moving on the face of\nthe waters, hence water itself, and *Hea*,* *the\nUniversal Soul or wisdom of the three combined.\n\nThe first eight verses read thus:\n\n1. When above, were not raised the heavens;\n\n2*.* And below on the earth a plant had not grown up.\n\n3. The abyss had not broken its boundaries.\n\n4. The chaos (or water) Tiamat (the sea) was the producing mother\nof the whole of them. (This is the Cosmical Aditi and Sephira.)\n\n5. Those waters at the beginning were ordained but --\n\n6. A tree had not grown, a flower had not unfolded.\n\n7. When the gods had not sprung up, any one of them.\n\n8. A plant had not grown, and order did not exist.\n\nThis was the chaotic or ante-genetic period -- the double Swan\nand the Dark Swan, which becomes white, when Light is created.*\n\nThe symbol chosen for the majestic ideal of the Universal Principle\nwill seem little calculated to answer its sacred character. A\ngoose, or even a swan, may appear unfit, no doubt, to represent\nthe grandeur of the Spirit. Nevertheless, it must have had some\ndeep occult meaning, since it figures not only in every cosmogony\nand world religion, but even was chosen by the mediaeval Christians,\nthe Crusaders, as the* vehicle *of the Holy Ghost supposed\nto lead the army to Palestine, to wrench the Tomb of the Saviour\nfrom the hands of the Saracen. If we are to credit Professor Draper's\nstatement in his \"Intellectual Development of Europe,\"\nthe Crusaders, led on by Peter the Hermit, were preceded, at the\nhead of the army, by the Holy Ghost under the shape of a white\ngander in company of a goat. The Egyptian God of Time, Seb, carries\na goose on his head. Jupiter assumes the form of a swan and Brahma\nalso, because the root of all this is that mystery of mysteries\n-- the **M**UNDANE **E**GG. (See preceding\n§).\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The Seven Swans that are believed to land from Heaven into Lake\nMansarovara, are in the popular fancy the Seven Rishis of the\nGreat Bear, who assume that form to visit the locality where the\nVedas were written.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 358 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nOne has to learn the reason of a symbol before one depreciates\nit. The dual element of Air and Water is that of the ibis, swan,\ngoose and pelican, of crocodiles and frogs, lotus flowers and\nwater lilies, &c.; and the result is the choice of the most\nunseemly symbols among the modern as much as the ancient mystics.\nPan, the great god of nature, was generally figured in connection\nwith aquatic birds, geese especially, and so were other gods.\nIf, later on, with the gradual degeneration of religion, the gods\nto whom geese were sacred, became Priapic deities, it does not\nstand to reason that water fowls were made sacred to Pan and other\nPhallic deities as some scoffers even of antiquity would have\nit (*see Petronii Satyrica*,* *cxxxvi.); but that\nthe abstract and divine power of procreative nature had become\ngrossly anthropomorphized. Nor does the Swan of Leda show \"Priapic\ndoings and her enjoyment thereof,\" as Mr. Hargrave Jennings\nchastely expresses it -- for the myth is but another version of\nthe same philosophical idea of cosmogony. Swans are frequently\nfound associated with Apollo, as they are the emblems of water\nand fire (sun-light also), before the separation of the Elements.\n\nOur modern symbologists might profit by some remarks made by a\nwell-known writer, Mrs. Lydia Maria Child. \"From time immemorial\nan emblem has been worshipped in Hindostan as the type of creation,\nor the origin of life. . . . Siva or the Mahadeva being not only\nthe reproducer of human forms, but also the fructifying principle,\nthe generative power that pervades the Universe. The maternal\nemblem is likewise a religious type. This reverence for the production\nof life, introduced into the worship of Osiris the sexual emblems.\nIs it strange that they regarded with reverence the great mystery\nof human birth? Were they impure thus to regard it? Or are *we*\nimpure that do not so regard it? But *no clean and thoughtful\nmind *could so regard them. . . . We have travelled far, and\nunclean have been the paths, since those old Anchorites first\nspoke of God and the soul in the solemn depths of their first\nsanctuaries. Let us not smile at their mode of tracing the infinite\nand the incomprehensible Cause throughout all the mysteries of\nnature, lest by so doing we cast the shadow of our own grossness\non their patriarchal simplicity.\" (\"*Progress of\nReligious Ideas*,\"* Vol. *1, *p. *17,*\net seq.*)\n\n--------------\n\nNext Chapter\n\nContents",
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