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    "name": "Volume I — Cosmogenesis"
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    "num": 26,
    "slug": "28-xi-demon-est-deus-inversus-411",
    "title": "XI. DEMON EST DEUS INVERSUS ... 411",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 6531,
    "text": "## XI. DEMON EST DEUS INVERSUS ... 411\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 2, ch 11\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 411 THE MYSTERY OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS.\n\n[[This page continued from previous section]]\n\n##### § XI.\nDEMON EST DEUS INVERSUS.\n\n**T**HIS symbolical sentence, in its many-sided forms,\nis certainly most dangerous and iconoclastic in the face of all\nthe dualistic later religions -- or rather theologies -- and especially\nso in the light of Christianity. Yet it is neither just nor correct\nto say that it is Christianity which has conceived and brought\nforth Satan. As an \"adversary,\" the opposing Power required\nby the equilibrium and harmony of things in Nature -- like Shadow\nto throw off still brighter the Light, like Night to bring into\ngreater *relief *the Day, and like cold to make one appreciate\nthe more the comfort of heat -- **S**ATAN has ever\nexisted. Homogeneity is one and indivisible. But if the homogeneous\nOne and Absolute is no mere figure of speech, and if heterogeneity\nin its dualistic aspect, is its offspring -- its bifurcous shadow\nor reflection -- then even that divine Homogeneity must contain\nin itself the essence of\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 412 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nboth good and evil. If \"God\" is Absolute, Infinite,\nand the Universal Root of all and everything in Nature and its\nuniverse, whence comes Evil or D'Evil if not from the same \"Golden\nWomb\" of the absolute? Thus we are forced either to accept\nthe emanation of good and evil, of Agathodaemon and Kakodaemon\nas offshoots from the same trunk of the Tree of Being, or to resign\nourselves to the absurdity of believing in two eternal Absolutes!\n\nHaving to trace the origin of the idea to the very beginnings\nof human mind, it is but just, meanwhile, to give his due even\nto the proverbial devil. Antiquity knew of no isolated, thoroughly\nand absolutely bad \"god of evil.\" Pagan thought represented\ngood and evil as twin brothers, born from the same mother -- Nature;\nso soon as that thought ceased to be Archaic, Wisdom too became\nPhilosophy. In the beginning the symbols of good and evil were\nmere abstractions, Light and Darkness; then their types became\nchosen among the most natural and ever-recurrent periodical Cosmic\nphenomena -- the Day and the Night, or the Sun and Moon. Then\nthe Hosts of the Solar and Lunar deities were made to represent\nthem, and the Dragon of Darkness was contrasted with the Dragon\nof Light (See *Stanzas *V*.*,* *VII. of Book\nI.) The Host of Satan is a Son of God, no less than the Host of\nthe B'ni Alhim, these children of God coming to \"present\nthemselves before the Lord,\" their father (see *Job ii.*)*.\n*\"The Sons of God\" become the \"Fallen Angels\"\nonly after perceiving that the daughters of men *were fair*,*\n*(*Genesis vi.*)* *In the Indian philosophy,\nthe *Suras *are* *among the earliest and the brightest\ngods, and become *Asuras *only when dethroned by Brahminical\nfancy. Satan never assumed an anthropomorphic, individualized\nshape, until the creation by man, of a \"one *living*\npersonal god,\" had been accomplished; and then merely as\na matter of prime necessity. A screen was needed; a scape-goat\nto explain the cruelty, blunders, and but too-evident injustice,\nperpetrated by him for whom absolute perfection, mercy, and goodness\nwere claimed. This was the first Karmic effect of abandoning a\nphilosophical and logical Pantheism, to build, as a prop for lazy\nman, \"a merciful father in Heaven,\" whose daily and\nhourly actions as *Natura naturans*,* *the \"comely\nmother but stone cold,\" belie the assumption. This led to\nthe primal twins, Osiris-Typhon, Ormazd-Ahriman, and finally Cain-Abel\nand the *tutti-quanti *of contraries.\n\nHaving commenced by being synonymous with Nature, \"God,\"\nthe Creator, ended by being made its author. Pascal settles the\ndifficulty very cunningly: \"Nature has perfections, in order\nto show that she is the image of God: and defects, in order to\nshow that she is *only *his* *image,\" he says.\n\nThe further back one recedes into the darkness of the prehistoric\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 413 DEATH IS LIFE.\n\nages, the more philosophical does the prototypic figure of the\nlater Satan appear. The first \"Adversary\" in individual\nhuman form that one meets with in old Puranic literature is one\nof her greatest Rishis and Yogis -- Narada, surnamed the \"Strife-maker.\"\n\nAnd he is a Brahmaputra, a son of Brahma, the male. But of him\nlater on. Who the great \"Deceiver\" really is, one can\nascertain by searching for him *with open eyes *and an\nunprejudiced mind, in every old cosmogony and Scripture.\n\nIt is the anthropomorphised *Demiurge*,* *the Creator\nof Heaven and Earth, when separated from the collective Hosts\nof his fellow-Creators, whom, so to speak, he represents and synthesizes.\nIt is *now *the God of *theologies. *\"The thought\nis father to the wish.\" Once upon a time, a philosophical\nsymbol left to perverse human fancy; afterwards fashioned into\na fiendish, deceiving, cunning, and jealous God.\n\nDragons and other fallen angels being described in other parts\nof this work, a few words upon the much-slandered Satan will be\nsufficient. That which the student will do well to remember is\nthat, with every people except the Christian nations, the Devil\nis to this day no worse an entity than the opposite aspect in\nthe dual nature of the so-called Creator. This is only natural.\nOne cannot claim God as the synthesis of the whole Universe, as\nOmnipresent and Omniscient and Infinite, and then divorce him\nfrom evil. As there is far more evil than good in the world, it\nfollows on logical grounds that either God must include evil,\nor stand as the direct cause of it, or else surrender his claims\nto absoluteness. The ancients understood this so well that their\nphilosophers -- now followed by the Kabalists -- defined evil\nas the lining of God or Good: *Demon est Deus inversus*,*\n*being a very old adage. Indeed, evil is but an antagonizing\nblind force in nature; it is *reaction*,* opposition*,*\n*and *contrast*, --* *evil for some, good for\nothers. There is no *malum in se: *only the shadow of light,\nwithout which light could have no existence, even in our perceptions.\nIf evil disappeared, good would disappear along with it from Earth.\nThe \"Old Dragon\" was pure spirit before he became matter,\n*passive *before he became *active. *In the Syro-Chaldean\nmagic both Ophis and Ophiomorphos are joined in the Zodiac, at\nthe sign of the Androgyne *Virgo-Scorpio. *Before its fall\non earth the \"Serpent\" was *Ophis-Christos*,*\n*and after its fall it became Ophiomorphos-**C**HRESTOS.\nEverywhere the speculations of the Kabalists treat of Evil as\na FORCE, which is antagonistic, but at the same time essential,\nto Good, as giving it vitality and existence, which it could never\nhave otherwise. There would be no *life* possible (in the\n*Mayavic *sense) without *Death*, nor regeneration\nand reconstruction without destruction. Plants would perish in\neternal sunlight, and so would man, who would become an automaton\nwithout the exercise of his free will and aspirations\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 414 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nafter that sunlight, which would lose its being and value for\nhim had he nothing but light. Good is infinite and eternal only\nin the eternally concealed from us, and this is why we imagine\nit eternal. On the manifested planes, one equilibrates the other.\nFew are those theists and believers in a personal God, who do\nnot make of Satan the shadow of God; or who, confounding both,\ndo not believe they have a right to pray to that idol asking its\nhelp and protection for the exercise and impunity of their evil\nand cruel deeds. \"Lead us not into Temptation\" is addressed\ndaily to \"our Father, which art in Heaven,\" and not\nto the Devil, by millions of human Christian hearts. They do so,\nrepeating the very words put in the mouth of their Saviour, and\ndo not give one thought to the fact that their meaning is contradicted\npoint blank by James \"the brother of the Lord.\" \"Let\nno man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot\nbe tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.\" -- (The\nGen. Ep. of James, i, 13). Why, then, say that it is the Devil\nwho tempts us, when the Church teaches us *on the authority\nof Christ *that it is God who does so? Open any pious volume\nin which the word \"temptation\" is defined in its theological\nsense, and forthwith you find two definitions: (1) \"Those\nafflictions and troubles *whereby God tries his people;*\"*\n*(2)* *Those means and enticements which the Devil\nmakes use of to *ensnare *and allure mankind. (St. James\ni., 2, 12, and Mat. vi., 13.) If accepted literally, the two teachings\nof Christ and James contradict each other, and what dogma can\nreconcile the two if the occult meaning is rejected?\n\nBetween the alternative allurements, wise will be that philosopher\nwho will be able to decide where God disappears to make room for\nthe Devil! Therefore when we read that \"the Devil is a liar\nand the father of it,\" *i.e.*, INCARNATE LIE, and\nare told in the same breath that Satan -- the Devil -- was a son\nof God and the most beautiful of his archangels, rather than believe\nthat Father and Son are a gigantic, personified and eternal LIE,\nwe prefer to turn to Pantheism and to Pagan philosophy for information.\n\nOnce that the key to Genesis is in our hands, it is the scientific\nand symbolical Kabala which unveils the secret. The great Serpent\nof the Garden of Eden and the \"Lord God\" are identical,\nand so are Jehovah and Cain ONE -- that Cain who is referred to\nin theology as the \"murderer\" and the LIAR to God! Jehovah\ntempts the King of Israel to number the people, and Satan tempts\nhim to do the same in another place. Jehovah turns into the fiery\nserpents to bite those he is displeased with; and Jehovah informs\nthe brazen serpent that heals them.\n\nThese short, and seemingly contradictory, statements in the Old\nTestament (contradictory because the two Powers are separated\ninstead of being regarded as the two faces of one and the same\nthing) are the\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 415 THEOLOGICAL ETYMOLOGIES.\n\nechoes -- distorted out of recognition by exotericism and theology\n-- of the universal and philosophical dogmas in nature, so well\nunderstood by the primitive Sages. We find the same groundwork\nin several personifications in the Puranas, only far more ample\nand philosophically suggestive.\n\nThus Pulastya, a \"Son of God\" -- one of the first progeny\n-- is made the progenitor of Demons, the Rakshasas, the tempters\nand the Devourers of men. *Pisacha *(female Demon) is a\ndaughter of Daksha, a \"Son of God\" too, and a God, and\nthe mother of all the Pisachas (*Padma Purana*)*. *The\nDemons, so called in the Puranas, are very extraordinary devils\nwhen judged from the standpoint of European and orthodox views\nabout these creatures, since all of them -- Danavas, Daityas,\nPisachas, and the Rakshasas -- are represented as extremely pious,\nfollowing the precepts of the Vedas, some of them even being great\nYogis. But they oppose the clergy and Ritualism, sacrifices and\nforms -- just what the full-blown Yogins do to this day in India\n-- and are no less respected for it, though they are allowed to\nfollow neither caste nor ritual; hence all those Puranic giants\nand Titans are called Devils. The Missionaries, ever on the watch\nto show, if they can, the Hindu traditions no better than *a\nreflection *of the Jewish Bible, have evolved a whole romance\non the alleged identity of Pulastya with Cain, and of the Rakshasas\nwith the Cainites, \"the accursed,\" the cause of the\n*Noachian *Deluge. (See the work of Abbe Gorresio, who\n\"etymologises\" Pulastya's name as meaning the \"rejected,\"\nhence Cain, if you please). Pulastya dwells in *Kedara*,*\n*he says, which means a \"dug-up place,\" a* mine*,*\n*and Cain is shown in tradition and the Bible as the first\nworker in metals and a miner thereof!\n\nWhile it is very probable that the *Gibborim *(the giants)\nof the Bible are the Rakshasas of the Hindus, it is still more\ncertain that both are Atlanteans, and belong to the submerged\nraces. However it may be, no Satan could be more persistent in\nslandering his enemy, or more spiteful in his hatred, than the\nChristian theologians are in cursing him as the father of every\nevil. Compare their vituperations and opinions given about the\nDevil with the philosophical views of the Puranic sages and their\nChrist-like mansuetude. When Parasara, whose father was devoured\nby a Rakshasa, was preparing himself to destroy (magically) the\nwhole race, his grandsire, Vasishta, says a few extremely suggestive\nwords to him. He shows the irate Sage, on his own confession,\nthat there is Evil and *Karma*,* *but no \"evil\nspirits.\" \"Let thy wrath be appeased,\" he says.\n\"The Rakshasas are not culpable; thy father's death *was\nthe work of Karma. *Anger is the passion of fools; it becometh\nnot a wise man. *By whom*,* it may be asked*,*\nis any one killed? *Every man *reaps the consequences of\nhis own acts. *Anger, my son, is the destruction of\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 416 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nall that man obtains . . . and prevents the attainment of emancipation.\nThe sages shun wrath. Be not thou, my child, subject to its influence.\nLet not those *unoffending *spirits of darkness be consumed;\nlet thy sacrifice cease. Mercy is the might of the righteous\"\n(*Vishnu Purana*,* *Book i., ch. i.). Thus, every\nsuch \"sacrifice\" or prayer to God for help is *no\nbetter than an act of black magic. *That which Parasara prayed\nfor, was the destruction of the Spirits of Darkness, for his personal\nrevenge. He is called a *Pagan*,* *and the Christians\nhave doomed him as such, to eternal hell. Yet, in what respect\nis the prayer of sovereigns and generals, who pray before every\nbattle for the destruction of their enemy, any better? Such a\nprayer is in every case *black magic *of the worst kind,\nconcealed like a demon \"Mr. Hyde\" under a sanctimonious\n\"Dr. Jekyll.\"\n\nIn human nature, evil denotes only the polarity of matter and\nSpirit, a struggle for life between the two manifested Principles\nin Space and Time, which principles are one *per se*,*\n*inasmuch they are rooted in the Absolute. In Kosmos, the\nequilibrium must be preserved. The operations of the two contraries\nproduce harmony, like the centripetal and centrifugal forces,\nwhich are necessary to each other -- mutually inter-dependent\n-- \"in order that both should live.\" If one is arrested,\nthe action of the other will become immediately self-destructive.\n\nSince the personification called Satan has been amply analyzed\nfrom its triple aspect -- in the Old Testament, Christian theology\nand the ancient Gentile attitude of thought -- those who would\nlearn more of it are referred to Vol. II. of **I**SIS\n**U**NVEILED, chap. x. See also several sections\nin Book II., Part II. of this work. The present subject is touched\nupon and fresh explanations attempted for a very good reason.\nBefore we can approach the evolution of physical and *divine\n*man, we have first to master the idea of cyclic evolution,\nto acquaint ourselves with the philosophies and beliefs of the\nfour races which preceded our present race, to learn what were\nthe ideas of those Titans and giants -- giants, verily, mentally\nas well as physically. The whole of antiquity was imbued with\nthat philosophy which teaches the involution of spirit into matter,\nthe progressive, downward cyclic descent, or active, self-conscious\nevolution. The Alexandrian Gnostics have sufficiently divulged\nthe secret of initiations, and their records are full of \"the\nsliding down of *AEons*\"* *in their double\nqualification of Angelic Beings and Periods: the one the natural\nevolution of the other. On the other hand, Oriental traditions\non both sides of the \"black water\" -- the oceans that\nseparate the two *Easts* --* *are as full of allegories\nabout the downfall of Pleroma, of that of the gods and Devas.\nOne and all, they allegorized and explained the **F**ALL\nas *the*\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 417 THE ANGELS SLANDERED.\n\n*desire to learn and acquire knowledge* --* *to\nKNOW. This is the natural sequence of mental evolution, the spiritual\nbecoming transmuted into the material or physical. The same law\nof descent into materiality and re-ascent into spirituality asserted\nitself during the Christian era, the reaction having stopped only\njust now, in our own special *sub-race.*\n\nThat which, perhaps ten millenniums ago, was allegorized in *Pymander\n*in a triune character of interpretation, meant as a record\nof an astronomical, anthropological, and even alchemical fact,\nnamely, the allegory of the seven rectors breaking through the\nseven circles of fire, was dwarfed into one material and anthropomorphic\ninterpretation -- the rebellion and *Fall of the Angels. *The\nmultivocal, profoundly philosophical narrative, under its poetical\nform of the \"Marriage of Heaven with Earth,\" the love\nof nature for Divine form and the \"Heavenly man,\" enraptured\nwith his own beauty mirrored in nature -- *i.e.*, Spirit\nattracted into matter -- has now become, under theological handling:\n\"the seven Rectors disobeying Jehovah, self admiration generating\nSatanic Pride, followed by their **F**ALL, Jehovah\npermitting no worship to be lost save upon himself.\" In short,\nthe beautiful Planet-Angels, the glorious cyclic aeons of the\nancients, became henceforward synthesized in their most orthodox\nshape in Samael, the chief of the Demons in the Talmud, \"That\ngreat serpent with *twelve wings *that draws down after\nhimself, in his Fall, the solar system, or the Titans.\" But\n*Schemal*, the* alter ego *and the Sabean type of\nSamael, meant, in his philosophical and esoteric aspect, the \"year\"\nin its astrological evil aspect, its twelve months or wings of\nunavoidable evils, in nature; and in esoteric theogony (see Chwolson\nin **N**ABATHEAN **A**GRICULTURE, Vol.\nII., p. 217), both Schemal and Samael represented a particular\ndivinity. With the Kabalists they are \"the Spirit of the\nEarth,\" the personal god that governs it, identical *de\nfacto *with Jehovah. For the Talmudists admit themselves that\n**S**AMAEL is a god-name of one of the seven Elohim.\nThe Kabalists, moreover, show the two, Schemal and Samael, as\na symbolical form of Saturn, **C**HRONOS, the twelve\nwings standing for the 12 months, and the symbol in its collectivity\nrepresenting *a racial cycle. *Jehovah and Saturn are also\nglyphically identical.\n\nThis leads in its turn to a very curious deduction from a Roman\nCatholic dogma. Many renowned writers belonging to the Latin Church\nadmit that a difference exists, and should be made, between the\nUranian Titans, the antediluvian giants (also Titans), and those\npost-diluvian giants in whom they (the Roman Catholics) *will*\nsee the descendants of the mythical Ham. In clearer words, there\nis a difference to be made between the Cosmic, *primordial\n*opposing Forces -- guided by cyclic law -- the Atlantean\nhuman giants, and the post-diluvian great adepts, whether\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 418 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nof the *right *or the *left *hand. At the same time\nthey show that Michael, \"the* generalissimos *of the\nfighting Celestial Host, the *bodyguard of Jehovah*,\"*\n*as it would seem (see de Mirville) is also a Titan, only\nwith the adjective of \"divine\" before the cognomen.\nThus those \"Uranides\" who are called everywhere \"divine\nTitans,\" and who, having rebelled against Kronos (Saturn),\nare therefore also shown to be the enemies of Samael (an Elohim,\nalso and synonymous with Jehovah in his collectivity), are identical\nwith Michael and his host. In short, the *roles *are reversed,\nall the combatants are confused, and no student is able to distinguish\nclearly which is which. Esoteric explanation may, however, bring\nsome order into this confusion, in which Jehovah becomes Saturn,\nand Michael and his army, Satan and the rebellious angels, owing\nto the indiscreet endeavours of the too faithful zealots to see\nin every pagan god a devil. The true meaning is far more philosophical,\nand the legend of the first \"Fall\" (of the angels) assumes\na scientific colouring when correctly understood.\n\nKronos stands for endless (hence immovable) Duration, without\nbeginning, without an end, beyond divided Time and beyond Space.\nThose \"Angels,\" genii, or Devas, who were born *to\nact in space and time*,* i.e.*,* *to break through\nthe *seven circles of the superspiritual *planes into the\nphenomenal, or circumscribed, super-terrestrial regions, are said\nallegorically to *have rebelled *against Kronos and fought\nthe (then) one living and highest God. In his turn, when Kronos\nis represented as mutilating Uranus, his father, the meaning of\nthis mutilation is very simple: Absolute Time is made to become\nthe finite and the conditioned; a portion is robbed from the whole,\nthus showing that Saturn, the father of the gods, has been transformed\nfrom *Eternal Duration *into a limited Period. Chronos\ncuts down with his scythe even the longest and (to us) seemingly\nendless cycles, yet, for all that, limited in Eternity, and puts\ndown with the same scythe the mightiest rebels. Aye, not one will\nescape the scythe of Time! Praise the god or gods, or flout, one\nor both, and that scythe will not be made to tremble one millionth\nof a second in its ascending or descending course.\n\nThe Titans of Hesiod's *Theogony *were copied in Greece\nfrom the *Suras *and* Asuras *of India. These Hesiodic\nTitans, the *Uranides*,* *numbered once upon a time\nas only six, have been recently discovered to be *seven*\n--* *the seventh being called Phoreg -- in an old fragment\nrelating to the Greek myth. Thus their identity with the Seven\nrectors is fully demonstrated. The origin of the \"War in\nHeaven\" and the **F**ALL has, in our mind, to\nbe traced unavoidably to India, and perhaps far earlier than the\nPuranic accounts thereof. For **T**ARAMAYA was in\na later age, and there are three accounts, each of a distinct\nwar, to be traced in almost every Cosmogony.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 419 THE WAR OF THE GODS.\n\nThe first war happened in the night of time, between the gods\nthe (A)-*suras*,* *and lasted for the period of\none \"divine year.\"* On this occasion the deities were\ndefeated by the Daityas, under the leadership of Hrada. After\nthat, owing to a device of Vishnu, to whom the conquered gods\napplied for help, the latter defeated the Asuras. In the Vishnu\nPurana no interval is found between the two wars. In the Esoteric\nDoctrine, one war takes place before the building of the Solar\nsystem; another, on earth, at the \"creation\" of man;\nand a third \"war\" is mentioned as taking place at the\nclose of the 4th Race, between its adepts and those of the 5th\nRace, *i.e.*, between the Initiates of the \"Sacred\nIsland\" and the Sorcerers of Atlantis. We shall notice the\nfirst contest, as recounted by Parasara, while trying to separate\nthe two accounts, purposely blended together. It is there stated\nthat as the Daityas and Asuras were engaged in the duties of their\nrespective orders (*Varna*)* *and followed the paths\nprescribed by holy writ, practising also religious penance (a\nqueer employment for *demons *if they are *identical\nwith our devils*,* *as it is claimed) -- it was impossible\nfor the gods to destroy them. The prayers addressed by the gods\nto Vishnu are curious as showing the ideas involved in an anthropomorphic\ndeity. Having, after their defeat, \"fled to the Northern\nshore of the Milky Ocean (Atlantic Ocean),** the discomfited gods\naddress many supplications \"to the first\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* One \"Day of Brahma\" lasting 4,320,000,000 years --\nmultiply this by 365! The Asuras here (no-gods, but demons) are\nstill *Suras*,* *gods higher in hierarchy than such\nsecondary gods as are not even mentioned in the Vedas. The duration\nof the war shows its significance, and that they are only the\npersonified Cosmic powers. It is evidently for sectarian purposes\nand out of *odium theologicum *that the illusive form assumed\nby Vishnu *Mayamoha*,* *was attributed in later\nrearrangements of old texts to Buddha and the Daityas, in the\n*Vishnu Purana*, unless it was a fancy of Wilson himself.\nHe also fancied he found an allusion to Buddhism in Bhagavatgita,\nwhereas, as proved by K. T. Telang, he had only confused the Buddhists\nand the older Charvaka materialists. The version exists nowhere\nin other Puranas if the inference does, as Professor Wilson claims,\nin the \"Vishnu Purana\"; the translation of which, especially\nof Book iii., ch. xviii., where the reverend Orientalist arbitrarily\nintroduces Buddha, and shows him teaching Buddhism to Daityas\n-- led to another \"great war\" between himself and Col.\nVans Kennedy. The latter charged him publicly with wilfully distorting\nPuranic texts. \"I affirm,\" wrote the Colonel at Bombay,\nin 1840, \"that the Puranas do not contain what Professor\nWilson has stated is contained in them . . . until such passages\nare produced I may be allowed to repeat my former conclusions,\nthat Professor Wilson's opinion, that the Puranas as now extant\nare compilations made between the eighth and seventeenth centuries\n(**A.D**.!) rests solely *on gratuitous assumptions and\nunfounded assertions*,* *and that his reasoning in\nsupport of it is either futile, fallacious, contradictory, or\nimprobable.\" (See *Vishnu Purana*,* *trans.\nby Wilson, edit. by Fitzedward Hall, Vol. V., Appendix.)\n\n** This statement belongs to the *third *War, since the\nterrestrial continents, seas and rivers are mentioned in connection\nwith it.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 420 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nof beings, the divine Vishnu,\" and among others this one:\n\"Glory to thee, who art one with the Saints, whose perfect\nnature is ever blessed. . . . Glory to thee, *who art one with\nthe Serpent-race*,* double-tongued*,* impetuous*,*\ncruel*,* insatiate of enjoyment *and abounding with\nwealth. . . . Glory to thee, . . . . O Lord, *who hast neither\ncolour nor extension*,* *nor size (*ghana*),*\nnor any predicable qualities*,* *and whose essence\n(*rupa*), purest of the pure is appreciable only by holy\n*Paramarshi *(greatest of sages or Rishis). We bow to thee,\nin the nature of Brahma uncreated, undecaying (*avyaya*),*\n*who* art in our bodies *and* in all other bodies*,*\nand in all living creatures*,* *and beside whom nothing\nexists. We glorify that Vasudeva, the lord of all, who is without\nsoil, the seed of all things, exempt from dissolution, unborn,\neternal; being in essence *Paramapadatmavat *(beyond the\ncondition of spirit) and in essence and substance (*rupa*),*\n*the whole of this (Universe).\" (Book III., ch. xvii.,\n*Vish. Purana.*)\n\nThe above is quoted as an illustration of the vast field offered\nby the Puranas to adverse and erroneous criticism, by every European\nbigot who forms an estimate of an alien religion on mere external\nevidence. Any man accustomed to subject what he reads to thoughtful\nanalysis, will see at a glance the incongruity of addressing the\naccepted \"Unknowable,\" the formless, and attributeless\n**A**BSOLUTE, such as the Vedantins define **B**RAHMA,\nas being \"one with the serpent-race, double-tongued, cruel\nand insatiable,\" thus associating the abstract with the concrete,\nand bestowing adjectives on that which is freed from any limitations,\nand conditionless. Even Dr. Wilson, who, after living surrounded\nby Brahmins and Pundits in India for so many years, ought to have\nknown better -- even that scholar lost no opportunity to criticize\nthe Hindu Scriptures on this account. Thus, he exclaims: --*\n\n\"The Puranas constantly teach incompatible doctrines! According\nto this passage, the Supreme being is not the inert cause of creation\nonly, but exercises the functions of an active providence. The\nCommentator quotes a text of the Veda in support of this view:\n'Universal Soul entering into men, governs their conduct.' Incongruities,\nhowever, are as frequent in the Vedas as in the Puranas. . . .\n.\"\n\nLess frequent, in sober truth, than in the Mosaic Bible. But prejudice\nis great in the hearts of our Orientalists -- especially in those\nof \"reverend\" scholars. **U**NIVERSAL **S**OUL\nis* not *the inert Cause of Creation or (Para) Brahma,\nbut simply that which we call the sixth principle of* intellectual\n*Kosmos, on the manifested plane of being. It is Mahat, or*\nMahabuddhi*,* *the great Soul, the vehicle of Spirit,\nthe first primeval reflection of the formless **C**AUSE,\nand that which is even *beyond ***S**PIRIT.\n\n[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In Book I., chap. xvii., narrating the story of Prahlada --\nthe Son of Hiranyakasipu, the Puranic *Satan*, the great\nenemy of Vishnu, and the King of the three worlds -- into whose\nheart Vishnu entered.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 421 THE DECEPTION OF THE GODS.\n\nSo much for Professor Wilson's uncalled-for fling. As for the\napparently incongruous appeal to Vishnu by the defeated gods,\nthe explanation is there, in the text of Vishnu Purana, if Orientalists\nwould only notice it.* There is Vishnu, as Brahma, and Vishnu\n*in his two aspects*,* *philosophy teaches. There\nis but one Brahma, \"essentially *prakriti *and *Spirit*,\"*\n*&c.\n\nTherefore, it is not Vishnu -- \"the inert cause of creation\"\n-- which exercised the functions of an *active* Providence,\nbut the Universal Soul, that which E. Levi calls *Astral Light\n*in its material aspect. And this \"Soul\" is, in\nits dual aspect of spirit and matter, the true anthropomorphic\nGod of the Theists; as this God is a *personification *of\nthat Universal Creative Agent, pure and impure both, owing to\nits manifested condition and differentiation in this Mayavic World\n-- *God *and *Devil *-- truly. But Dr. Wilson failed\nto see how Vishnu, in this character, closely resembles the Lord\nGod of Israel, \"especially in his policy of deception, temptation,\nand cunning.\"\n\nIn the Vishnu Purana this is made as plain as can be. For it is\nsaid there, that \"at the conclusion of their prayers (*stotra*)*\n*the gods beheld the Sovereign Deity Hari (Vishnu) armed with\nthe conch, the discus, and the mace, *riding on Garuda. *.\"\nNow \"Garuda\" is the manvantaric *cycle*,*\n*as will be shown in its place. Vishnu, therefore, is the\ndeity *in space and time*;* *the peculiar God of\nthe Vaishnavas (a *tribal *or* racial God*,*\n*as they are called in esoteric philosophy): *i.e.*,\none of the many Dhyanis or Gods, or Elohim, one of whom was generally\nchosen for some special reasons by a nation or a tribe, and thus\nbecame gradually a \"God *above all* Gods\" (2\nChronicles ii. 5,) the \"highest God\" as Jehovah, Osiris,\nBel, or any other of the *Seven *Regents.\n\n\"The tree is known by its fruit,\" -- the nature of a\nGod by his actions. The latter, we have either to judge by the\ndead-letter narratives, or to accept allegorically. If we compare\nthe two -- Vishnu, as the defender and champion of the defeated\ngods; and Jehovah, the defender and champion of the \"chosen\"\npeople, so called by antiphrasis, no doubt, as it is the Jews\nwho had *chosen *that \"jealous\" God -- we shall\nfind that both use deceit and cunning. They do so on the principle\nof \"the end justifying the means,\" in order to have\nthe best of their\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This ignorance is truly and beautifully expressed in the praise\nof the Yogins to Brahma, \"the upholder of the earth\"\n(in Book I., chap. iv. of V. P.), when they say, \"Those who\nhave not practised devotion conceive erroneously of the nature\nof the world. The ignorant who do not perceive that this Universe\nis of the nature of wisdom, and judge of it as an object of perception\nonly, are lost in the ocean of spiritual ignorance. But they who\nknow true wisdom, and whose minds are pure, behold this whole\nworld *as one with divine knowledge*,* *as one with\nthee, O God! Be favourable, O universal Spirit!\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 422 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nrespective opponents and foes -- the demons. Thus while (according\nto the Kabalists) Jehovah assumes the shape of the tempting Serpent\nin the Garden of Eden; sends Satan with a special mission to tempt\nJob; and harasses and wearies Pharaoh with Sarai, Abraham's wife,\nand \"*hardens*\"* *his heart against Moses,\nlest there should be no opportunity for* plaguing *his\nvictims \"with great plagues\" (*Genesis* xii.,\n*Exodus*) --* *Vishnu is made in *his *Purana\nto resort to a trick no less unworthy of any respectable god.\n\n\"Have compassion upon us, O Lord, and protect us, who have\ncome to thee for succour from the Daityas (demons)!\" pray\nthe defeated Gods. \"They have seized upon the three worlds,\nand appropriated the offerings which are our portion, *taking\ncare not to transgress the Precepts of the Veda. *Although\n*we*,* as well as they*,* are parts of thee.* *.\n. . . engaged as they are in the paths prescribed by the holy\nwrit . . . . it is impossible for us to destroy them. Do thou,\nwhose wisdom is immeasurable (*Ameyatman*) instruct us *in\nsome *device by which we may be able to exterminate the enemies\nof the gods!\"\n\n\"When the mighty Vishnu heard their request, he emitted from\nhis body an *illusory *form* *(*Mayamoha*,* *\"the\ndeluder by illusion\") which he gave to the Gods and thus\nspake: \"This *Mayamoha *shall* wholly beguile the\nDaityas*,* *so* *that being led astray from the path\nof the Vedas, they may be put to death. . . . Go then and fear\nnot. Let this delusive vision precede you. It shall this day be\nof great service unto you, O Gods!\"\n\n\"After this, the great Delusion, *Mayamoha*,* *descending\nto earth, beheld the Daityas engaged in ascetic penances, and\napproaching them, in the semblance of a *Digambara *(naked\nmendicant) with his head shaven . . . he thus addressed them,\nin gentle accents: \"Ho, lords of the Daitya race, wherefore\nis it that you practise these acts of penances?\" etc., etc.\n(Book II., xviii.).\n\nFinally the Daityas were seduced by the wily talk of *Mahamoha*,*\n*as* *Eve was seduced by the advice of the Serpent.\nThey became apostates to the Vedas. As Dr. Muir translates the\npassage: --\n\n\"The great Deceiver, practising illusion, next beguiled other\nDaityas, by means of many other sorts of heresy. In a very short\ntime, these Asuras (-Daityas) deluded by the Deceiver (who was\nVishnu) abandoned the entire system founded on the ordinances\nof the triple Veda. Some reviled the Vedas, others the Gods, others\nthe ceremonial of sacrifice, and others the Brahmans. This, they\nexclaimed, is a doctrine which will not bear discussion. The slaughter\nof animals in sacrifice is not conducive to religious merit. To\nsay that oblations of butter consumed in the fire produce any\nfuture reward, is the assertion of a child. . . . If it be a fact\nthat a beast slain in sacrifice is exalted to heaven, why does\nnot the worshipper slaughter his own father? . . . . Infallible\nutterances do not, great Asuras, fall from the skies; it is only\nassertions founded on reasoning that are accepted by me and by\nother intelligent persons like yourselves! Thus by numerous methods\nthe Daityas were unsettled by the great Deceiver (*Reason*).\n. . . When\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"There was a day when the *Sons of God *came before\nthe Lord, and Satan came *with his brothers*,* *also\nbefore the Lord\" (*Job *ii., Abyss., *Ethiopic\n*text).\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 423 THE DECEPTION, AN ALLEGORY.\n\nthey had entered on the path of error, the gods mustered all their\nenergies and approached to battle. Then followed a combat between\nthe gods and the Asuras; and the latter, who had abandoned the\nright road, were smitten by the former. In previous times they\nhad been defended by the armour of righteousness which they bore,\nbut when that had been destroyed they, also, perished.\" (*Journal\nof the Royal Asiat. Society*,* *Vol. **XIX**., p. 302.)\n\nWhatever may be thought of Hindus, no enemy of theirs can regard\nthem as fools. A people whose holy men and sages have left to\nthe world the greatest and most sublime philosophies that ever\nemanated from the minds of men, must have known the difference\nbetween right and wrong. Even a savage can discern white from\nblack, good from bad, and deceit from sincerity and truthfulness.\nThose who had narrated this event in the biography of their god,\nmust have seen that in this case it was that God who was the arch-Deceiver,\nand the Daityas, who \"never transgressed the precepts of\nthe Vedas,\" who had the sunny side in the transaction, and\nwho were the true \"Gods.\" Thence there must have been,\nand *there is *a secret meaning hidden under this allegory.\nIn no class of Society, in no nation, are deceit and craft considered\nas Divine virtues -- except perhaps in the clerical classes of\ntheologians and modern Jesuitism.\n\nThe Vishnu Purana,* like all other works of this kind, has passed\nat a later period into the hands of the temple-Brahmins, and the\nold **MSS**. have, no doubt, been once more tampered with by\nsectarians. But there was a time when the Puranas were esoteric\nworks, and so they are still for the Initiates who can read them\nwith the key that is in their possession.\n\nWhether the Brahmin Initiates will ever give out the full meaning\nof these allegories, is a question with which the writer is not\nconcerned. The present object is to show that, while honouring\nthe *creative Powers *in their multiple forms, no philosopher\ncould, or ever has, accepted the allegory for the true Spirit,\nexcept, perhaps, some philosophers belonging to the present \"superior\nand civilized\" Christian races. For, as shown, Jehovah is\nnot one whit the superior of Vishnu on the plane of ethics. This\nis why the Occultists and even some Kabalists, whether they regard\nor not those creative Forces *as living and conscious Entities\n*-- and one does not see why they should not be so accepted\n-- will never confuse the **C**AUSE with the effect,\nand accept the Spirit of the Earth for Parabrahm or Ain-Soph.\nAt all events they know well the true nature of what was called\nFather-AEther by the Greeks, Jupiter-Titan, etc., etc. They know\nthat the soul of the **A**STRAL **L**IGHT\nis divine, and\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Wilson's opinion that the \"Vishnu Purana\" is a production\n*of our era*,* *and that in its present form it\nis not earlier than between the VIIIth and the XVIIth (!!) century,\nis absurd beyond noticing.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 424 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nits body (the light-waves on the lower planes) infernal. This\nLight is symbolized by the \"Magic Head\" in the *Zohar*,*\n*the double Face on the double Pyramid: the black pyramid\nrising against a pure white ground, with *a white head and\nface within its black triangle; *the white pyramid, inverted\n-- the reflection of the first in the dark waters, showing the\n*black reflection of the white face*. . . . .\n\nThis is the \"Astral Light,\" or **D**EMON\nEST **D**EUS **I**NVERSUS.\n\n--------------\n\n[[This page continued in next section]]\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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