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    "slug": "vol-1-cosmogenesis",
    "name": "Volume I — Cosmogenesis"
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    "num": 21,
    "slug": "23-vi-the-mundane-egg-359",
    "title": "VI. THE MUNDANE EGG ... 359",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 4858,
    "text": "## VI. THE MUNDANE EGG ... 359\n\n\nThe Secret Doctreine by H P Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 2, ch 6\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 359 THE EGG-BORN GOD.\n\n##### § VI.\nTHE MUNDANE EGG.\n\n**W**HENCE this universal symbol? The Egg was incorporated\nas a sacred sign in the cosmogony of every people on the Earth,\nand was revered both on account of its form and its inner mystery.\nFrom the earliest mental conceptions of man, it was known as that\nwhich represented most successfully the origin and secret of being.\nThe gradual development of the imperceptible germ within the closed\nshell; the inward working, without any apparent outward interference\nof force, which from a latent *nothing *produced an active\n*something*,* *needing nought save heat; and which,\nhaving gradually evolved into a concrete, living creature, broke\nits shell, appearing to the outward senses of all a self-generated,\nand self-created being -- must have been a standing miracle from\nthe beginning.\n\nThe secret teaching explains the reason for this reverence by\nthe Symbolism of the prehistoric races. The \"First Cause\"\nhad no name in the beginnings. Later it was pictured in the fancy\nof the thinkers as an ever invisible, mysterious Bird that dropped\nan Egg into Chaos, which Egg becomes the Universe. Hence Brahm\nwas called Kalahansa, \"the swan in (Space and) Time.\"\nHe became the \"Swan of Eternity,\" who lays at the beginning\nof each Mahamanvantara a \"Golden Egg.\" It typifies the\ngreat Circle, or O, itself a symbol for the universe and its spherical\nbodies.\n\nThe second reason for its having been chosen as the symbolical\nrepresentation of the Universe, and of our earth, was its form.\nIt was a Circle and a Sphere; and the ovi-form shape of our globe\nmust have been known from the beginning of symbology, since it\nwas so universally adopted. The first manifestation of the Kosmos\nin the form of an egg was the most widely diffused belief of antiquity.\nAs Bryant shows (iii., 165), it was a symbol adopted among the\nGreeks, the Syrians, Persians, and Egyptians. In chap. liv. of\nthe Egyptian Ritual, Seb, the god of Time and of the Earth, is\nspoken of as having laid an egg, or the Universe, \"an egg\nconceived at the hour of the great one of the Dual Force\"\n(Sec. V., 2, 3,* *etc.).\n\nRa is shown like Brahma gestating in the Egg of the Universe.\nThe deceased is \"resplendent in the Egg of the land of mysteries\"\n(xxii., 1). For, this is \"the Egg to which is given life\namong the gods\" (xlii., 11). \"It is the Egg of the great\nclucking Hen, the Egg of Seb, who issues from it like a hawk\"\n(lxiv., 1, 2, 3; lxxvii., 1).\n\nWith the Greeks the Orphic Egg is described by Aristophanes, and\nwas part of the Dionysiac and other mysteries, during which\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 360 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe Mundane Egg was consecrated and its significance explained;\nPorphyry showing it a representation of the world, [[*Ermenenei\nde to oon kosmon*]]. Faber and Bryant have tried to show that\nthe egg typified the ark of Noah, which, unless the latter is\naccepted as purely allegorical and symbolical, is a wild belief.\nIt can have typified the ark only as a synonym of the moon, the\n*argha *which carries the universal seed of life; but had\nsurely nothing to do with the ark of the Bible. Anyhow, the belief\nthat the universe existed in the beginning in the shape of an\negg was general. And as Wilson has it: \"A similar account\nof the first aggregation of the elements in the form of an egg\nis given in all the (Indian) Puranas, with the usual epithet Haima\nor Hiranya, 'golden' as it occurs in Manu.\" Hiranya, however,\nmeans \"resplendent,\" \"shining,\" rather than\n\"golden,\" as proven by the great Indian scholar, the\nlate Swami Dayanand Sarasvati, in his unpublished polemics with\nProfessor Max Muller. As said in the Vishnu Purana: \"Intellect\n(Mahat) . . . the (unmanifested) gross elements inclusive, formed\nan egg . . . and the lord of the Universe himself abided in it,\nin the character of Brahma. In that egg, O Brahman, were the continents,\nand seas and mountains, the planets and divisions of the universe,\nthe gods, the demons and mankind.\" (*Book* i.,*\nch.* 2.)* *Both in Greece and in India the first visible\nmale being, who united in himself the nature of either sex, abode\nin the egg and issued from it. This \"first born of the world\"\nwas Dionysius, with some Greeks; the god who sprang from the mundane\negg, and from whom the mortals and immortals were derived. The\ngod Ra is shown in the *Ritual *(Book of the Dead, xvii.,\n50) beaming in his egg (the Sun), and he starts off as soon as\nthe god *Shoo *(the Solar energy) awakens and gives him\nthe impulse. \"He is in the Solar egg, the egg to which is\ngiven life among the gods\" (*Ibid.*,* *xlii.,*\n*13). The Solar god exclaims: \"I am the creative soul\nof the celestial abyss. None sees my nest, none can break my egg,\nI am the Lord!\" (*Ibid.*, LXXXV.).\n\nIn view of this circular form, the \"|\" issuing from\nthe \" ,\" or the\negg, or the male from the female in the androgyne, it is strange\nto find a scholar saying -- on the ground that the most ancient\nIndian **MSS**. show no trace of it -- that the ancient Aryans\nwere ignorant of the decimal notation. The 10, being the sacred\nnumber of the universe, was secret and esoteric, both as the unit\nand cipher, or *zero*,* *the circle. Moreover, Professor\nMax Muller says that \"the two words *cipher *and *zero*,*\n*which are but one, are sufficient to prove that our figures\nare borrowed from the Arabs.* Cipher is the Arabic \"cifron,\"\nand means\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See Max Muller's \"Our Figures.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 361 WHENCE OUR FIGURES?\n\n*empty*,* *a translation of the Sanscrit name of\nnought \"sunya,\" he says.* The Arabs had their figures\nfrom Hindustan, and never claimed the discovery for themselves.**\nAs to the Pythagoreans, we need but turn to the ancient manuscripts\nof Boethius's *Geometry*,* *composed in the sixth\ncentury, to find among the Pythagorean numerals*** the 1 and the\n*nought*,* *as the first and final ciphers. And\nPorphyry, who quotes from the Pythagorean *Moderatus*,*****\n*says that the numerals of Pythagoras were \"hieroglyphical\nsymbols, by means whereof he explained ideas concerning the nature\nof things,\" or the origin of the universe.\n\nNow, if, on the other hand, the most ancient Indian manuscripts\nshow as yet no trace of decimal notation in them, and Max Muller\nstates very clearly that until now he has found but nine letters\n(the initials of the Sanscrit numerals) in them; on the other\nhand, we have records as ancient to supply the wanted proof. We\nspeak of the sculptures and the sacred imagery in the most ancient\ntemples of the far East. Pythagoras derived his knowledge from\nIndia; and we find Professor Max Muller corroborating this statement,\nat least so far as to allow the *Neo*-Pythagoreans to have\nbeen the first teachers of \"ciphering,\" among the Greeks\nand Romans; that \"they at Alexandria, or in Syria, became\nacquainted with the Indian figures, and adapted them to the Pythagorean\nabacus\" (our figures). This cautious admission implies that\nPythagoras himself was acquainted with but *nine* figures.\nThus we might reasonably answer that, although we possess no certain\nproof (*exoterically*)* *that the decimal notation\nwas known by Pythagoras, who lived on the very close of the archaic\nages,***** we have yet sufficient evidence to show that the full\nnumbers, as given by Boethius, were known to the Pythagoreans,\neven before Alexandria was built.****** This evidence we find\nin Aristotle, who says that \"some philosophers hold that\nideas and numbers are of the same nature, and amount to TEN in\nall.\"******* This, we believe, will be sufficient to show\nthat the decimal notation was known among them at least as early\nas four centuries B.C., for Aristotle does not seem to treat the\nquestion as an innovation of the \"Neo-Pythagoreans.\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* A Kabalist would be rather inclined to believe that as the Arabic\n*cifron *was taken from the Indian *Synya*, nought,\nso the Jewish Kabalistic Sephiroth (*Sephrim*) were taken\nfrom the word cipher, not in the sense of emptiness but the reverse\n-- that of creation by number and degrees in their evolution.\nAnd the Sephiroth are 10 or .\n\n** See Max Muller's \"Our Figures.\"\n\n*** See King's \"Gnostics and their Remains,\" plate xiii.\n\n**** \"Vita Pythag.\"\n\n***** 608 **B.C.**\n\n****** This city was built 332 **B.C**.\n\n******* \"Metaph.\" vii., F.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 362 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nBut we know more than that: *we* *know *that the\ndecimal system must have been known to the mankind of the earliest\narchaic ages, since the whole astronomical and geometrical portion\nof the secret sacerdotal language was built upon the number 10,\nor the combination of the male and female principles, and since\nthe Pyramid of \"Cheops\" is built upon the measures of\nthis decimal notation, or rather upon the digits and their combinations\nwith the *nought. *Of this, however, sufficient was said\nin *Isis Unveiled*,* *and it is useless to repeat\nand return to the same subject.\n\nThe symbolism of the Lunar and Solar Deities is so inextricably\nmixed up, that it is next to impossible to separate such glyphs\nas the egg, the lotus, and the \"sacred\" animals from\neach other. The *ibis*,* *for instance, sacred to\nIsis, who is often represented with the head of that bird, sacred\nalso to Mercury or Thoth, because that god assumed its form while\nescaping from Typhon, -- the *ibis *was held in the greatest\nveneration in Egypt. There were two kinds of ibises, Herodotus\ntells us (Lib. II. c. 75 *et seq.*)* *in that country:\none *quite black*,* *the other black and white.\nThe former is credited with fighting and exterminating the winged\nserpents which came every spring from Arabia and infested the\ncountry. The other was sacred to the moon, because the latter\nplanet is white and brilliant on her external side, dark and black\non that side which she never turns to the earth. Moreover, the\n*ibis *kills land serpents, and makes the most terrible\nhavoc amongst the eggs of the crocodile, and thus saves Egypt\nfrom having the Nile infested by those horrible Saurians. The\nbird is credited with doing so in the moonlight, and thus being\nhelped by *Isis*,* *as the moon, her sidereal symbol.\nBut the nearer esoteric truth underlying these popular myths is,\nthat Hermes, as shown by Abenephius (*De cultu Egypt.*),*\n*watched under the form of that bird over the Egyptians, and\ntaught them the occult arts and sciences. This means simply that\nthe *ibis religiosa *had and has \"magical\" properties\nin common with many other birds, the albatross pre-eminently,\nand the mythical white swan, the swan of Eternity or Time, the\n**K**ALAHANSA.\n\nWere it otherwise, indeed, why should all the ancient peoples,\nwho were no more fools than we are, have had such a superstitious\ndread of killing certain birds? In Egypt, he who killed an *ibis*,*\n*or the golden hawk -- the symbol of the Sun and Osiris --\nrisked and could hardly escape death. The veneration of some nations\nfor birds was such that Zoroaster, in his precepts, forbids their\nslaughter as a heinous crime. We laugh in our age at every kind\nof divination. Yet why should so many generations have believed\nin divination by birds, and even in zoomancy, said by Suidas to\nhave been imparted by Orpheus, who taught how to perceive in the\nyoke and white of\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 363 EGG-BORN LOGOI.\n\nthe egg, under certain conditions, that which the bird born from\nit would have seen around it during its short life. This occult\nart, which demanded 3,000 years ago the greatest learning and\nthe most abstruse mathematical calculations, has now fallen into\nthe depths of degradation: it is old cooks and fortune-tellers\nwho read their future to servant-girls in search of husbands,\nby means of the white of an egg in a glass.\n\nNevertheless, even Christians have to this day their sacred birds;\nfor instance, the dove, the symbol of the Holy Ghost. Nor have\nthey neglected the sacred animals. The* Evangelical *zoolatry\n-- the Bull, the Eagle, the Lion, and the Angel (in reality the\nCherub, or Seraph, the fiery-winged Serpent), is as much pagan\nas that of the Egyptians or the Chaldeans. These four animals\nare, in reality, the symbols of the four elements, and of the\nfour *lower* principles in man. Nevertheless, they correspond\nphysically and materially to the four constellations that form,\nso to speak, the *suite *or* cortege *of the Solar\nGod, and occupy during the winter solstice the four cardinal points\nof the zodiacal circle. These four \"animals\" may be\nseen in many of the Roman Catholic New Testaments where the *portraits\n*of the evangelists are given. They are the animals of Ezekiel's\nMercabah.\n\nAs truly stated by Ragon, \"the ancient Hierophants have combined\nso cleverly the dogmas and symbols of their religious philosophies,\nthat these symbols can be fully explained only by the combination\nand knowledge of *all *the keys.\" They can be only\n*approximately *interpreted, even if one finds out three\nout of these seven systems: the *anthropological*,*\n*the* psychic*,* *and the *astronomical.\n*The two chief interpretations, the highest and the lowest,\nthe spiritual and the physiological, they preserved in the greatest\nsecrecy until the latter fell into the dominion of the profane.\nThus far, with regard only to the *pre-historic *Hierophants,\nwith whom that which has now become purely (or impurely) phallic,\nwas a science as profound and as mysterious as biology and physiology\nare now. This was their exclusive property, the fruit of their\nstudies and discoveries. The other two were those which dealt\nwith the creative gods (theogony), and with creative man, *i.e.*,\nthe ideal and the practical mysteries. These interpretations were\nso cleverly veiled and combined, that many were those who, while\narriving at the discovery of one meaning, were baffled in understanding\nthe significance of the others, and could never unriddle them\nsufficiently to commit dangerous indiscretions. The highest, the\nfirst and the fourth -- theogony in relation to anthropogony --\nwere almost impossible to fathom. We find the proofs of this in\nthe Jewish \"Holy Writ.\"\n\nIt is owing to the serpent being oviparous, that it became a symbol\nof wisdom and an emblem of the Logoi, or the *self-born. *In\nthe temple of Philoe in Upper Egypt, an egg was artificially prepared\nof clay made of\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 364 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nvarious incenses, and it was made to hatch by a peculiar process,\nwhen a *cerastes *(the horned viper) was born. The same\nwas done in antiquity for the cobra in the Indian temples. The\n*creative *God emerges from the egg that issues from the\nmouth of Kneph -- as a winged serpent -- because the Serpent is\nthe symbol of the All-wisdom. With the Hebrews he is glyphed by\nthe \"flying or fiery serpents\" of the Wilderness and\nMoses, and with the Alexandrian mystics he becomes the Ophio-Christos,\nthe Logos of the Gnostics. The Protestants try to show that the\nallegory of the Brazen Serpent and of the \"fiery serpents\"\nhas a direct reference to the mystery of Christ and Crucifixion*;\nbut it has a far nearer relation, in truth, *to the mystery\nof generation*,* *when dissociated from the egg with\nthe central germ, or the *circle with its central point. *The*\nbrazen Serpent *had no such holy meaning as that; nor was\nit, in fact, glorified above the \"*fiery serpents*\"*\nfor the bite of which it was only a natural remedy. *The symbological\nmeaning of the word \"brazen\" being the feminine principle,\nand that of fiery, or \"gold,\" the male one.**\n\nIn the *Book of the Dead*,* *as just shown, reference\nis often made to the Egg. Ra, the mighty one, remains in his Egg,\nduring the struggle between the \"children of the rebellion\"\nand *Shoo *(the Solar Energy and the Dragon of Darkness)\n(ch. xvii.). The deceased is resplendent in his\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* And this *only* because the brazen serpent was lifted\non a pole! It had rather a reference to Mico the Egyptian egg\nstanding upright supported by the sacred Tau; since the Egg and\nthe Serpent are inseparable in the old worship and symbology of\nEgypt, and since both the Brazen and \"fiery\" serpents\nwere *Saraphs*,* *the \"burning fiery\"\nmessengers, or the serpent Gods, the *nagas *of India.\nIt was a purely phallic symbol without the egg, while when associated\nwith it -- it related to cosmic creation.\n\n** \"Brass was a metal symbolizing the *nether world *.\n. . . that of the womb where life should be given . . . The word\nfor serpent was in Hebrew *Nakash*,* *but this is\nthe same term for *brass.*\"* *It is said in\nNumbers (xxi.) that the Jews complained of the Wilderness *where\nthere was no water *(*v*. 5); after which \"the\nLord sent fiery serpents\" to bite them, when, to oblige Moses,\nhe gives him as a remedy the *brazen serpent *on a pole\nto look at; after which \"any man when he beheld the serpent\nof brass . . . . *lived*\"* *(?). After that\nthe \"Lord,\" gathering the people together at the well\nof Beer, gives them water, (14-16), and grateful Israel sang this\nsong, \"Spring up, O Well,\" (*v*. 17). When, after\nstudying symbology, the Christian reader comes to understand the\ninnermost meaning of these three symbols -- *water*,*\nbrazen*,* the serpent*,* *and a few more --\n*in the sense given to them in the Holy Bible*,* *he\nwill hardly like to connect the sacred name of his Saviour with\nthe \"Brazen Serpent\" incident. The Seraphim\n(fiery winged serpents) are no doubt connected with, and inseparable\nfrom, the idea \"of the serpent of eternity -- God,\"\nas explained in Kenealy's Apocalypse. But the word cherub also\nmeant serpent, in one sense, though its direct meaning is different;\nbecause the *Cherubim *and the Persian winged [[*gruphes*]]*\n*\"griffins\" -- the guardians of the golden mountain\n-- are the same, and their compound name shows their character,\nas it is formed of (kr)\n*circle*,* *and\n\"aub,\" or ob -- serpent -- therefore, a \"serpent\nin a circle.\" And this settles the phallic character of the\nBrazen Serpent, and justifies Hezekiah for breaking it. (*See\nII. Kings*,* *18, 4). *Verbum sat. sapienti.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 365 THE WINGED GLOBE.\n\nEgg when he crosses to the land of mystery (xxii. i.). He is the\nEgg of Seb (liv. 1-3). . . . The Egg was the symbol of life in\n*immortality *and eternity; as also the glyph of the generative\nmatrix; and the *tau*,* *associated with it, only\nof life and birth in *generation. *The* *Mundane\nEgg was placed in *Khnoom*,* *the \"Water of\nSpace,\" or the feminine *abstract *principle (Khnoom\nbecoming, with the *fall *of mankind into generation and\nphallicism, Ammon, the *creative *God); and when *Phtah*,*\n*the \"fiery god,\" carries the Mundane egg in his\nhand, then the symbolism becomes quite terrestrial and concrete\nin its significance. In conjunction with the hawk, the symbol\nof Osiris-Sun, the symbol is dual: it relates to both lives --\nthe mortal and the immortal. In Kircher's *OEdipus Egyptiacus\n*(vol. iii., p. 124) one can see, on the papyrus engraved\nin it, an egg floating above the mummy. This is the symbol of\nhope and the promise of a *second birth *for the *Osirified\n*dead; his Soul, after due purification in the Amenti, will\ngestate in this egg of immortality, to be reborn from it into\na new life on earth. For this Egg, in the esoteric Doctrine, is\nthe *Devachan*,* *the abode of Bliss; the winged\nscarabeus being alike a symbol of it. The \"winged globe\"\nis but another form of the egg, and has the same significance\nas the scarabeus, the *Khopiroo *(from the root *Khoproo\n*\"to become,\" \"to be reborn,\") which relates\nto the rebirth of man, as well as to his spiritual regeneration.\n\nIn the Theogony of Mochus, we find AEther first, and then the\nair, from which Ulom, the *intelligible *([[*noetos*]])\ndeity (the visible Universe of Matter) is born out of the Mundane\nEgg. (Mover's *Phoinizer*,* *p. 282.)\n\nIn the *Orphic *Hymns, the Eros-Phanes evolves from the\ndivine Egg, which the *AEthereal Winds *impregnate, wind\nbeing \"the Spirit of the unknown Darkness\" -- \"the\nspirit of God\" (as explains K. O. Muller, 236); the divine\n\"Idea,\" says Plato, \"who is said to move AEther.\"\n\nIn the Hindu *Katakopanishad*,* *Purusha, the divine\nspirit, already stands before the original matter, \"from\nwhose union springs the great soul of the world,\" Maha-Atma,\nBrahma, the Spirit of Life,* etc., etc.** Besides this there are\nmany charming allegories on this subject scattered through the\nsacred books of the Brahmins. In one place it is the female creator\nwho is first a germ, then a drop of heavenly dew, a pearl, and\nthen an egg. In such cases -- of which there are too many to enumerate\nthem separately -- the Egg gives birth to the four elements within\nthe fifth, Ether, and is covered with seven coverings, which become\nlater on the seven upper and the seven lower worlds. Breaking\nin two, the shell becomes the heaven, and the meat in the egg\nthe earth, the white forming the terres-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The latter appellations are all identical with *Anima Mundi*,*\n*or the \"Universal Soul,\" the astral light of the\nKabalist and the Occultist, or the \"Egg of Darkness.\"\n\n** Weber, \"Akad Vorles,\" pp. 213, 214 *et seq.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 366 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ntrial waters. Then again, it is Vishnu who emerges from within\nthe egg with a lotus in his hand. Vinata, a daughter of Daksha\nand wife of Kasyapa (\"the Self-born sprung from Time,\"\none of the seven \"creators\" of our world), brought forth\nan egg from which was born Garuda, the vehicle of Vishnu, the\nlatter allegory having a relation to our Earth only, as Garuda\nis the Great Cycle.\n\nThe egg was sacred to Isis; the priests of Egypt never ate eggs\non that account.*\n\nDiodorus Siculus states that Osiris was born from an Egg, like\nBrahma. From Leda's Egg Apollo and Latona were born, as also Castor\nand Pollux -- the bright Gemini. And though the Buddhists do not\nattribute the same origin to their Founder, yet, no more than\nthe ancient Egyptians or the modern Brahmins, do they eat eggs,\nlest they should destroy the germ of life latent in them, and\ncommit thereby Sin. The Chinese believe that their first man was\nborn from an egg, which *Tien*,* *a god, dropped\ndown from heaven to earth into the waters.** This symbol is still\nregarded by some as representing the idea of the origin of life,\nwhich is a scientific truth, though the human *ovum *is\ninvisible to the naked eye. Therefore we see respect shown to\nit from the remotest past, by the Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans,\nthe Japanese, and the Siamese, the North and South American tribes,\nand even the savages of the remotest islands.\n\nWith the Egyptians, the concealed god was Ammon (*Mon*).\nAll their gods were dual: the scientific *reality *for\nthe Sanctuary; its double, the fabulous and mythical Entity, for\nthe masses. For instance, as observed in \"Chaos, Theos, Kosmos,\"\nthe older Horus was the *Idea *of the world remaining in\nthe demiurgic mind \"born in Darkness before the creation\nof the world;\" the *second *Horus*** was the same\n*Idea *going forth from the *Logos*,* *becoming\nclothed with matter and assuming an actual existence. (Compare\n*Mover*'*s *\"*Phoinizer*,\"*\np. *268.) The same with *Khnoum *and Ammon;**** both\nare represented ram-headed, and both often confused, though their\nfunctions are different. Khnoum is \"the modeller of men,\"\nfashioning men and things out of the Mundane Egg on a potter's\nwheel;\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Isis is almost always represented holding a lotus in one hand\nand in the other a circle and the Cross (*crux ansata*),*\n*the Egg being sacred to her.\n\n** The Chinese seem to have thus anticipated Sir William Thomson's\ntheory that the first living germ had dropped to the Earth from\nsome passing comet. Query! why should this be called* scientific\n*and the Chinese idea a superstitious, foolish theory?\n\n*** Horus -- the \"older,\" or *Haroiri*,* *is\nan ancient aspect of the solar god, contemporary with *Ra*\nand* Shoo; *Haroiri is often mistaken for Hor (Horsusi),\nSon of Osiris and Isis. The Egyptians very often represented the\nrising Sun under the form of Hor the older, rising from a full-blown\nlotus, the Universe, when the solar disc is always found on the\nhawk-head of that god. Haroiri is Khnoum.\n\n**** Ammon or *Mon*,* *the \"hidden,\" the\nSupreme Spirit.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 367 THE SCANDINAVIAN LOGOS.\n\nAmmon-Ra, the generator, is the secondary aspect of the concealed\ndeity. Khnoum was adored at Elephanta and Philoe,* Ammon at Thebes.\nBut it is Emepht, the One, Supreme *Planetary *principle,\nwho blows the egg out of his mouth, and who is, therefore, Brahma.\nThe shadow of the deity, Kosmic and universal, of that which broods\nover and permeates the egg with its vivifying Spirit until the\ngerm contained in it is ripe, was the *mystery *god whose\nname was unpronounceable. It is Phtah, however, \"he who opens,\"\nthe opener of life and Death,** who proceeds from the egg of the\nworld to begin his dual work. (*Book of Numbers.*)\n\nAccording to the Greeks, the phantom form of the Chemis (*Chemi*,*\n*ancient Egypt) which floats on the ethereal waves of the\nEmpyrean Sphere, was called into being by Horus-Apollo, the Sun\ngod, who caused it to evolve out of the Mundane egg.***\n\nIn the Scandinavian Cosmogony -- placed by Professor Max Muller,\nin point of time, as \"far anterior to the Vedas\" in\nthe poem of Voluspa (the song of the prophetess), the Mundane\negg is again discovered in the phantom-germ of the Universe, which\nis represented as lying in the *Ginnungagap* --* *the\ncup of illusion (*Maya*)* *the boundless and void\nabyss. In this world's matrix, formerly a region of night and\ndesolation, *Nebelheim *(the mist-place, the *nebular\n*as it is called now, in the astral light) dropped a *ray\nof cold light *which overflowed this cup and froze in it.\nThen the *Invisible *blew a scorching wind which dissolved\nthe frozen waters and cleared the mist. These waters (chaos),\ncalled the streams of* Elivagar*,* *distilling in\nvivifying drops, fell down and created the earth and the giant\n*Ymir*,* *who only had \"the semblance of man\"\n(the Heavenly man), and the cow, *Audhumla *(the \"mother\"\nor astral light, Cosmic Soul) from whose udder flowed *four\n*streams of milk (the four cardinal points: the four heads\nof the four rivers of Eden, etc., etc.) and which \"four\"\nallegorically are symbolized by the *cube *in all its various\nand mystical meanings.\n\nThe Christians -- especially the Greek and Latin Churches -- have\nfully adopted the symbol, and see in it a commemoration of life\neternal,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* His triadic goddesses are *Sati *and* Anouki.*\n\n*** Phtah *was originally the god of death, of *destruction*,*\n*like Siva. He is a *solar *god* *only by virtue\nof the sun's fire killing as well as vivifying. He was the national\ngod of Memphis, the radiant and \"fair-faced God.\" (See\n*Saqquarah Bronzes*,* Saitic Epoch.*)\n\n*** The* Brahmanda Purana *contains the mystery about Brahma's\ngolden egg fully; and this is why, perhaps, it is inaccessible\nto the Orientalists, who say that this Purana, like the Skanda,\nis \"no longer procurable in a collective body,\" but\n\"is represented by a variety of Khandas and Mahatmyas professing\nto be derived from it.\" The \"Brahmanda Purana\"\nis described as \"that which is declared in 12,200 verses,\nthe magnificence of the egg of Brahma, and in which an account\nof the future Kalpas is contained as revealed by Brahma.\"\nQuite so, and much more, perchance.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 368 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nof salvation and of resurrection. This is found in and corroborated\nby the time-honoured custom of exchanging \"Easter Eggs.\"\nFrom the *anguinum*,* *the \"Egg\" of the\n\"pagan\" Druid, whose name alone made Rome tremble with\nfear, to the red Easter Egg of the Slavonian peasant, a cycle\nhas passed. And yet, whether in civilized Europe, or among the\nabject savages of Central America, we find the same archaic, primitive\nthought; if we only search for it and do not disfigure -- in the\nhaughtiness of our fancied mental and physical superiority --\nthe original idea of the symbol.\n\n--------------\n\n[[This page continued in next section]]\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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