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    "slug": "vol-2-anthropogenesis",
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    "num": 22,
    "slug": "72-stanza-xii----the-fifth-race-and-its-divine-instructors-351",
    "title": "STANZA XII. -- THE FIFTH RACE AND ITS DIVINE INSTRUCTORS ... 351",
    "of": 49,
    "words": 14036,
    "text": "## STANZA XII. -- THE FIFTH RACE AND ITS DIVINE INSTRUCTORS ... 351\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 2, part 1, stanza 12\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n2\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 351 THE \"GREAT DRAGONS\" AND SERPENTS.\n\n##### STANZA XII.\nTHE FIFTH RACE AND ITS DIVINE INSTRUCTORS.\n\n-------\n\n§§ (47) The remnants of the first two races disappear\nfor ever. Groups of the various Atlantean races saved from the\nDeluge along with the Forefathers of the Fifth. (48) The origins\nof our present Race, the Fifth. The first divine Dynasties. (49)\nThe earliest glimmerings in History, now pinned to the allegorical\nchronology of the Bible, and \"universal\" History slavishly\nfollowing it. -- The nature of the first instructors and civilizers\nof mankind.\n\n---------------------\n\n47. **F**EW (*men*) REMAINED. **S**OME\nYELLOW, SOME BROWN AND BLACK, AND SOME RED, REMAINED. **T**HE\nMOON-COLOURED (*of the primitive* *Divine Stock*)*\n*WERE GONE FOR EVER (*a*) . . . .\n\n48. **T**HE **F**IFTH **R**ACE\nPRODUCED FROM THE **H**OLY **S**TOCK\n(*remained*)*. ***I**T WAS RULED BY\n**H**ER **F**IRST **D**IVINE\n**K**INGS.\n\n49. **T**HE \"**S**ERPENTS\"\nWHO RE-DESCENDED; WHO MADE PEACE WITH THE **F**IFTH\n(*Race*)*, *WHO TAUGHT AND INSTRUCTED IT (*b*)\n. . . .\n\n(*a*)* *This verse (47) relates to the Fifth Race.\nHistory does not begin with it, but living and ever-recurring\ntradition does. History -- or what is called history -- does not\ngo further back than the fantastic origins of our fifth sub-race,\na \"few thousands\" of years. It is the sub-divisions\nof this first sub-race of the Fifth Root-Race which are referred\nto in the sentence, \"Some yellow, some brown and black, and\nsome red, remained.\" The \"moon coloured\" (*i.e*.,\nthe First and the Second Races) were gone for ever -- ay, without\nleaving any traces whatever; and that, so far back as the third\n\"Deluge\" of the Third Lemurian race, that \"Great\nDragon,\" whose tail sweeps whole nations out of existence\nin the twinkling of an eye. And this is the true meaning of the\nVerse in the **C**OMMENTARY which says:\n\n\"*The* **G**REAT **D**RAGON\n*has respect but for the *'**S**ERPENTS' *of*\n**W**ISDOM, *the Serpents whose holes are now\nunder the triangular stones,*\"* i.e., *\"the\nPyramids, at the four corners of the world.\"\n\n(*b*) This tells us clearly that which is mentioned more\nthan once elsewhere in the Commentaries; namely, that the Adepts\nor \"Wise\" men of the three Races (the Third, Fourth\nand the Fifth) dwelt in subterranean habitats, generally under\nsome kind of pyramidal structure, if not\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 352 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nactually under a pyramid. For such \"pyramids\" existed\nin the four corners of the world and were never the monopoly of\nthe land of the Pharaohs, though until found scattered all over\nthe two Americas, under and over ground, beneath and amidst virgin\nforests, as in plain and vale, they were supposed to be the exclusive\nproperty of Egypt. If the true geometrically correct pyramids\nare no longer found in European regions, many of the supposed\nearly *neolithic *caves, of the colossal triangular, pyramidal\nand conical *menhirs *in the Morbihan, and Brittany generally;\nmany of the Danish tumuli and even of the \"giant tombs\"\nof Sardinia with their inseparable companions, the *nuraghi,\n*are so many more or less clumsy copies of the pyramids. Most\nof these are the works of the first settlers on the newly-born\ncontinent and isles of Europe, the -- \"some yellow, some\nbrown and black, and some red\" -- races that remained after\nthe submersion of the last Atlantean continents and islands (850,000\nyears ago), with the exception of Plato's Atlantean island, and\nbefore the arrival of the great Aryan races; while others were\nbuilt by the earliest immigrants from the East. Those who can\nhardly accept the antiquity of the human race so far back as the\n57,000 years assigned by Dr. Dowler to the skeleton found by him\nat New Orleans on the banks of the Mississippi, will, of course,\nreject these facts. But they may find themselves mistaken some\nday. It is the foolish self-glorification of the Arcadians who\nstyled themselves [[*proselenoi*]] -- older than the moon\n-- and of the people of Attica, who claimed that they had existed\nbefore the sun appeared in heaven, that we may disparage, not\ntheir undeniable antiquity. Nor can we laugh at the universal\nbelief that we had giant ancestors. The fact that the bones of\nthe mammoth and mastodon, and, in one case, those of a gigantic\nsalamander, have been mistaken for human bones, does not make\naway with the difficulty that, of all the mammalians, man is the\nonly one whom science will not allow to have dwarfed down, like\nall other animal frames, from the giant *homo* *diluvii\n*to the creature between 5 and 6 feet that he is now.\n\nBut the \"Serpents of Wisdom\" have preserved their records\nwell, and the history of the human evolution is traced in heaven\nas it is traced on underground walls. Humanity and the *stars\n*are bound together indissolubly, because of the *intelligences\n*that rule the latter.\n\nModern symbologists may scoff at this and call it \"fancy,\"\nbut \"it is unquestionable that the Deluge has (ever) been\nassociated in the legends of some Eastern peoples not only with\nthe Pyramids, but also with the constellations,\" writes Mr.\nStaniland Wake **(**\"*The Great* *Pyramid*\").*\n*The \"Old Dragon\" is identical with the \"great\nFlood,\" says Mr. Proctor (*in *\"*Knowledge,*\"*\nVol. I., p. *243): \"We know that in the past the constellation\nof the Dragon was at the pole, or boss, of the celestial sphere.\nIn stellar temples . . . the Dragon would be the\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 353 THE ASTRONOMICAL DRAGON.\n\nuppermost or ruling constellation . . . it is singular how closely\nthe constellations . . . correspond in sequence and in range of\nright ascension with the events recorded respecting the (Biblical)\nFlood.\"\n\nThe reasons for this *singularity *have been made clear\nin this work. But it shows only that there were *several *Deluges\nmixed up in the memories and traditions of the sub-races of the\nFifth Race. The first great \"Flood\" was astronomical\nand cosmical, while several others were *terrestrial. *Yet,\nthis did not prevent our very learned friend Mr. Gerald Massey\n-- an *Initiate* truly in the mysteries of the British\nMuseum, still only a *Self*-initiate -- from declaring\nand insisting that *the Atlantean *submersion and Deluge\nwere only the anthropomorphized fancies of ignorant people; and\nthat Atlantis was no better than an *astronomical allegory.\n*Nevertheless, the great Zodiacal allegory is based upon historical\nevents, and one can hardly interfere with the other; and it stands\nalso to reason that every student of Occultism knows what that\nastronomical and zodiacal allegory means. Smith shows in the Nimrod\nEpic of the Assyrian tablets the real meaning of it. Its \"*twelve\ncantos*\"* *refer to the \"annual course of\nthe Sun through the twelve months of the year. Each tablet answers\nto a special month, and contains a distinct reference to the animal\nforms in the signs of the Zodiac\"; the eleventh canto being\n\"consecrated to Rimmon, the God of storms and of rain, and\nharmonizes with the eleventh sign of the Zodiac -- Aquarius, or\nthe Waterman\" (*Nineteenth Century,* 1882,* p*.\n236). But even this is preceded in the old records by the *pre-*astronomical\nCosmic FLOOD, which became allegorized and symbolized in the above\nZodiacal or Noah's Flood. But this has nothing to do with Atlantis.\nThe Pyramids are closely connected with the ideas of both the\nGreat Dragon (the constellation), the \"Dragons of Wisdom,\"\nor the great Initiates of the Third and Fourth Races, and the\nFloods of the Nile, regarded as a divine reminder of the great\nAtlantic Flood. The astronomical records of Universal History,\nhowever, are said to have had their beginnings with the Third\nSub-race of the Fourth Root-race or the Atlanteans. When was it?\nOccult data show that even since the time of the regular establishment\nof the Zodiacal calculations in Egypt, *the poles have been\nthrice inverted.*\n\nWe will presently return once more to this statement. Such symbols\nas are represented by the Signs of the Zodiac -- a fact which\noffers a handle to materialists upon which to hang their one-sided\ntheories and opinions -- have too profound a signification, and\ntheir bearing upon our Humanity is too important to suffer dismissal\nin a few words. Meanwhile, we have to consider the meaning of\nthat other statement which mentions (verse 48) the first *divine\nKings, *who are said to have \"redescended,\" guided\nand *instructed *our Fifth Race after the last deluge!\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 354 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nWe shall consider this last claim historically in the sections\nthat follow, but must end with a few more details on the subject\nof \"Serpents.\"\n\nThe rough commentaries on the Archaic Stanzas have to end here.\nFurther elucidation requires proofs obtained from ancient, mediaeval,\nand modern works that have treated of these subjects. All such\nevidence has now to be gathered in, collated and brought together\nin better order, so as to compel the attention of the reader to\nthis wealth of historical proofs. And as the manifold meaning\nof the weird symbol -- so often referred to and suggestive of\nthe \"tempter of man\" in the orthodox light of the church\n-- can never be too strongly insisted upon, it seems more advisable\nto exhaust the subject by every available proof at this juncture,\neven at the risk of repetition. The Titans and Kabirs have been\ninvariably made out by our theologians and some pious symbologists\nas indissolubly connected with the grotesque personage called\n*devil,* and every proof to the contrary has been hitherto\nas invariably rejected and ignored; therefore, the occultist must\nneglect nothing which may tend to defeat this conspiracy of slander.\nIt is proposed to divide the subjects involved in these three\nlast verses into several groups, and examine them in this final\nchapter as carefully and as fully as space permits. A few more\ndetails may thus be added to the general evidences of antiquity,\non the most disputed tenets of Occultism and the Esoteric Doctrine\n-- the bulk of which will be found in Part **II**.\non Symbology.\n\n-------\n\n**S**ERPENTS AND **D**RAGONS UNDER DIFFERENT\n**S**YMBOLISMS.\n\nThe name of the Dragon in Chaldea was not written phonetically,\nbut was represented by two monograms, *probably *meaning,\naccording to the Orientalists, \"the scaly one.\" \"This\ndescription,\" very pertinently remarks G. Smith, \"of\ncourse might apply either to a fabulous dragon, a serpent, or\na fish,\" and we may add: \"It applies in one case to\n*Makara, *the tenth Zodiacal sign, meaning in Sanskrit\na non-descript amphibious animal, generally called Crocodile,\nand really signifying something else. (*Vide *Part **II**.,\n\"*The Mysteries of the Hebdomad.*\") This, then,\nis a virtual admission that the Assyriologists, at all events,\nknow nothing certain as to the status of the \"Dragon\"\nin ancient Chaldea, whence the Hebrews got *their *symbolism,\nonly to be afterwards robbed of it by the Christians, who made\nof the \"Scaly one\" a living entity and a maleficent\npower.\n\nA specimen of Dragons, \"winged and scaled,\" may be seen\nin the British Museum. Representing the events of the Fall according\nto the same authority, there are also two figures sitting on each\nside of a tree, and holding out their hands to the \"apple,\"\nwhile at the back of the \"Tree\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 355 THE NAASENIAN GNOSTICS.\n\nis the Dragon-Serpent. Esoterically, the two figures are two \"Chaldees\"\nready for initiation, the Serpent symbolising the \"Initiator\";\nwhile the jealous gods, who curse the three, are the exoteric\nprofane clergy. Not much of the literal \"Biblical event\"\nthere, as any occultist can see.\n\n\"The Great Dragon has respect but for the Serpents of Wisdom,\"\nsays the Stanza; thus proving the correctness of our explanation\nof the two figures and the \"Serpent.\"\n\n\"*The Serpents who redescended *. . . . *who taught\nand instructed*\" the Fifth Race. What sane man is capable\nof believing in our day that *real* serpents are hereby\nmeant? Hence the rough guess, now become almost an axiom with\nthe men of science, that those who wrote in antiquity upon various\nsacred Dragons and Serpents either were superstitious and credulous\npeople, or were bent upon deceiving those more ignorant than themselves.\nYet, from Homer downwards, the term implied something hidden from\nthe profane.\n\n\"Terrible are the gods when they manifest themselves\"\n-- those *gods* whom men call *Dragons. *And AElianus,\ntreating in his \"*De Natura* *Animalium*\"*\n*of these Ophidean symbols, makes certain remarks which show\nthat he understood well the nature of this most ancient of symbols.\nThus he most pertinently explains with regard to the above Homeric\nverse -- \"For the Dragon, while sacred and to be worshipped,\n*has within* *himself something still more of the divine\nnature *of which it is better (for others?) to remain in ignorance\"\n(Book xi., ch. 17).\n\nThis \"Dragon\" having a septenary meaning, the highest\nand the lowest may be given. The former is identical with the\n\"Self-born,\" the Logos (the Hindu *Aja*)*.\n*He was the second person of the Trinity, the **S**ON,\nwith the Christian Gnostics called the Naasenians, or Serpent-Worshippers.\nHis symbol was the constellation of the Dragon.* Its seven \"stars\"\nare the seven stars held in the hand of the \"Alpha and Omega\"\nin *Revelation. *In its most terrestrial meaning, the term\n\"Dragon\" was applied to the *Wise *men.\n\nThis portion of the religious symbolism of antiquity is very abstruse\nand mysterious, and may remain incomprehensible to the profane.\nIn our modern day it so jars on the Christian ear that it can\nhardly escape, all civilization notwithstanding, being regarded\nas a direct denunciation of the most cherished Christian dogmas,\nthe subject of which required, to do it justice, the pen and genius\nof Milton, whose poetical fiction has now taken root in the Church\nas a revealed dogma.\n\nDid the allegory of the Dragon and his supposed conqueror in\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* As shown by H. Lizeray in the \"Trinite Chretienne Devoilee\"\n-- placed between the immutable Father (the Pole, a fixed Point)\nand mutable matter, the Dragon transmits to the latter the influences\nreceived by him from the Pole, whence his name -- the *Verbum.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 356 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nHeaven originate with St. John, and in his *Revelation? *Emphatically\nwe answer -- No. His \"Dragon\" is Neptune, the symbol\nof Atlantean magic.\n\nTo demonstrate the negation the reader is asked to examine the\nsymbolism of the Serpent or the Dragon under its several aspects.\n\n-------\n\n**T**HE **S**IDEREAL AND **C**OSMIC\n**G**LYPHS.\n\nEvery astronomer -- besides Occultists and Astrologers -- knows\nthat, figuratively, the astral light, the milky way, and also\nthe path of the Sun to the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, as\nwell as the circles of the Sidereal or Tropical year, were always\ncalled \"Serpents\" in the allegorical and mystic phraseology\nof the adepts.\n\nThis, cosmically, as well as metaphorically. Poseidon is a \"Dragon\":\n\"*Chozzar, *called by the profane Neptune\" (Peratae\nGnostics); the \"Good and Perfect Serpent,\" the Messiah\nof the Naaseni, whose symbol in Heaven is *Draco.*\n\nBut one ought to discriminate between the characters of this symbol.\nFor instance: Zoroastrian Esotericism is identical with that of\nthe Secret Doctrine; and when, as an example, we read in the *Vendidad*\ncomplaints uttered against the \"Serpent,\" whose bites\nhave transformed the beautiful, eternal spring of Airyana-Vaego,\nchanging it into winter, generating disease and death, at the\nsame time as mental and psychic consumption, every occultist knows\nthat the Serpent alluded to is the north pole, as also the pole\nof the heavens.* The latter produces the seasons according to\nthe angle at which it penetrates the centre of the earth. The\ntwo axes were *no more parallel*;* *hence the eternal\nspring of Airyana Vaego by the good river Daitya had disappeared,\nand \"the Aryan Magi had to emigrate to Sagdiani\" --\nsay the exoteric accounts. But the esoteric teaching states that\nthe pole had passed through the equator, and that the \"land\nof bliss\" of the Fourth Race, its inheritance from the Third,\nhad now become the region of desolation and woe. This alone ought\nto be an incontrovertible proof of the great antiquity of the\nZoroastrian Scriptures. The Neo-Aryans of the post-diluvian age\ncould, of course, hardly recognise the mountains, on the summits\nof which their forefathers had met *before the Flood, *and\nconversed with the pure \"Yazathas\" (celestial Spirits\nof the Elements), whose life and *food *they had once shared.\nAs shown by Eckstein (*Revue Archeologique,*** 8***th\nyear, *1885), \"the Vendidad seems to point out a great\nchange in the atmosphere of central Asia; strong volcanic eruptions\nand the collapse of a whole range of mountains in the neighbourhood\nof the Kara-Korum chain.\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Symbolized by the Egyptians under the form of a Serpent with\na hawk's head.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 357 THE TWO MYSTIC POLES.\n\nThe Egyptians, according to Eusebius, who for once (and for a\nwonder) wrote the truth, symbolised Kosmos by a large fiery circle,\nrepresenting a serpent with a hawk's head lying across its diameter.\n\"Here we have the pole of the earth within the plane of the\necliptic, attended with all the fiery consequences that must arise\nfrom such a state of the heavens: when the whole Zodiac in 25,000\n(odd) years, must have reddened with the solar blaze, and *each\nsign must have been* *vertical *to the polar region.\"\n(*See Mackey*'*s *\"*Sphinxiad.*\")\n\nMeru -- the abode of the gods -- was placed, as before explained,\nin the North Pole, while *Patala, *the nether region, was\nsupposed to lie in the South. As each symbol in esoteric philosophy\nhas *seven keys,* geographically, *Meru* and*\nPatala *have one significance and represent localities; while\nastronomically, they have another, and mean \"the two poles,\"\nwhich meanings ended by their being often rendered in *exoteric*\nsectarianism -- the \"Mountain\" and the \"Pit,\"\nor Heaven and Hell. If we hold at present only to the astronomical\nand geographical significance, it may be found that the ancients\nknew the topography and nature of the Arctic and Antarctic regions\nbetter than any of our modern astronomers; they had reasons, and\ngood ones for naming one the \"*Mountain*\" and\nthe other the \"*Pit.*\"* *As the author\njust quoted half explains, *Helion *and* Acheron *meant\nnearly the same: \"*Heli-on is the Sun in* *the\nhighest*\"* *(Helios, Heli-on, the \"most high\");\n\"and *Acheron* is 32 deg. above the pole, and 32 below\nit, the allegorical river being thus supposed to touch the northern\nhorizon in the latitude of 32 degrees. The vast concave, that\nis for ever hidden from our sight and which surrounded the southern\npole, being therefore called the **P**IT, while observing,\ntoward the Northern pole that a certain circuit in the heavens\nalways appeared above the horizon -- they called it the Mountain.\nAs Meru is the high abode of the Gods, these were said to *ascend*\nand *descend *periodically; by which (astronomically) the\n*Zodiacal gods* were meant, the passing of the original\nNorth Pole of the Earth to the South Pole of the heaven.\"\n\"In that age,\" adds the author of that curious work,\nthe \"*Sphinxiad*\"* *and of \"*Urania*'*s\nKey to the Revelations*\" -- \"at noon, the ecliptic\nwould be parallel with the meridian, and part of the Zodiac would\ndescend from the North Pole to the north horizon; crossing the\n*eight coils of the Serpent *(eight sidereal years, or\nover 200,000 solar years), which would seem like an imaginary\n*ladder* with *eight staves *reaching from the earth\nup to the pole, *i.e*., the throne of Jove. Up this ladder,\nthen, the Gods, *i.e*., the signs of the Zodiac, ascended\nand descended. (Jacob's ladder and the angels) . . . . It is more\nthan 400,000 years since the Zodiac formed the sides of this ladder.\"\n. . . .\n\nThis is an ingenious explanation, even if it is not altogether\nfree from occult heresy. Yet it is nearer the truth than many\nof a more scientific\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 358 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nand especially theological character. As just said, the Christian\ntrinity was purely astronomical from its beginning, which made\nRutilius say -- of those who euhemerized *it -- *\"*Judaea\ngens, radix stultorum.*\"\n\nBut the profane, and especially the Christian fanatics, ever in\nsearch of scientific corroboration for their *dead-letter *texts,\nwill persist in seeing in the celestial pole the true Serpent\nof Genesis, Satan, the Enemy of mankind, instead of what it is\n-- a cosmic metaphor. *When the* *gods are said to forsake\nthe earth, *it does not only mean the gods, protectors and\ninstructors, but also the *minor *gods -- the regents of\nthe Zodiacal signs. Yet, the former, as actual and existing Entities\nwhich gave birth to, nursed, and instructed mankind in its early\nyouth, appear in every Scripture, in that of the Zoroastrians\nas much as in the Hindu Gospels. Ormazd, or Ahura-Mazda, the \"Lord\nof Wisdom,\" is the synthesis of the Amshaspends (or *Amesha-Spenta\n-- *\"*Immortal* Benefactors\"),* the \"Word,\"\nhowever, or the *Logos *and its six highest aspects in\nMazdyanism. These \"Immortal Benefactors\" are described\n*in Zamyad yasht *as the \"Amesha-Spentas, the shining,\nhaving efficacious eyes, great, helpful . . . . imperishable and\npure which are all seven of like mind, like speech, all seven\ndoing alike . . . . which are *the creators and destroyers\nof the creatures *of Ahura-Mazda, their creators and overseers,\ntheir protectors and rulers . . . .\"\n\nThese few lines alone indicate the dual and even the triple character\nof the Amshaspends, our Dhyan-Chohans or the \"Serpents of\nWisdom.\" They are identical with, and yet separate from Ormazd\n(Ahura-Mazda). They are also the Angels of the Stars of the Christians\n-- the Stary-azatas of the Zoroastrians -- or again the seven\nplanets (including the sun) of every religion.** The epithet --\n\"the shining having efficacious eyes\" -- proves it.\nThis on the physical and sidereal planes. On the spiritual, they\nare the divine powers of Ahura-Mazda; but on the astral or psychic\nplane again, they are the \"Builders,\" the \"watchers,\"\nthe *Pitar *(fathers), and the first Preceptors of mankind.\n\nWhen mortals shall have become sufficiently spiritualised, there\nwill be no more need of *forcing *them into a correct comprehension\nof ancient Wisdom. Men will *know *then, that there never\nyet was a great World-reformer, whose name has passed into our\ngeneration, who (*a*) was not a direct emanation of the\n**L**OGOS (under whatever name known to us), *i.e.*,\n*an essential *incarnation of one of \"the seven,\"\nof the \"divine Spirit who is sevenfold\"; and (*b*)\nwho had not appeared before, during the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Also translated as \"blissful Immortals\" by Dr. W.\nGeiger; but the first is more correct.\n\n** These \"seven\" became the eight, the *Ogdoad, *of\nthe later *materialized *religions, the seventh, or the\nhighest principle, being no longer the pervading Spirit, the Synthesis,\nbut becoming an anthropomorphic number, or additional unit.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 359 GOD AND NATURE ANTHROPOMORPHIZED.\n\npast Cycles. They will recognise, then, the cause which produces\nin history and chronology certain riddles of the ages; the reason\nwhy, for instance, it is impossible *for them *to assign\nany reliable date to Zoroaster, who is found multiplied by twelve\nand fourteen in the *Dabistan*; why the Rishis and Manus\nare so mixed up in their numbers and individualities; why Krishna\nand Buddha speak of themselves as *re-incarnations, i.e., *Krishna\nis identified with the Rishi Narayana, and Gautama gives a series\nof his previous births; and why the former, especially, being\n\"the *very supreme *Brahma,\" is yet called *Amsamsavatara\n-- *\"a part of a part\" only of the Supreme on Earth.\nFinally, why Osiris is a great God, and at the same time a \"prince\non Earth,\" who reappears in Thoth-Hermes, and why Jesus (in\nHebrew, Joshua) of Nazareth is recognised, cabalistically, in\nJoshua, the Son of Nun, as well as in other personages. The esoteric\ndoctrine explains it by saying that each of these (as many others)\nhad first appeared on earth as one of the seven powers of the\n**L**OGOS, individualized as a God or \"Angel\"\n(messenger); then, mixed with matter, they had re-appeared in\nturn as great sages and instructors who \"taught the Fifth\nRace,\" after having instructed the two preceding races, had\nruled during the Divine Dynasties, and had finally sacrificed\nthemselves, to be reborn under various circumstances for the good\nof mankind, and for its salvation at certain critical periods;\nuntil in their last incarnations they had become truly only \"the\nparts of a part\" on earth, though *de facto *the One\nSupreme in Nature.\n\nThis is the metaphysics of Theogony. And, as every \"Power\"\namong the SEVEN has (once individualized) in his charge one of\nthe elements of creation, and rules over it,* hence the many meanings\nin every symbol, which, unless interpreted according to the esoteric\nmethods, generally lead to an inextricable confusion.\n\nDoes the Western Kabalist -- generally an opponent of the Eastern\nOccultist -- require a proof? Let him open Eliphas Levi's *Histoire\nde* *la Magic,*\"* *p. 53, and carefully\nexamine his \"*Grand Symbole Kabalistique*\"*\n*of the Zohar. He will find, on the engraving given, a *white\n*man standing erect and a *black *woman upside down,*\ni.e*., standing on her head, her legs passing under the extended\narms of the male figure, and protruding behind his shoulders,\nwhile their hands join at an angle on each side. Eliphas Levi\nmakes of it, God and Nature; or God, \"light,\" mirrored\ninversely in \"Nature and Matter,\" darkness. Kabalistically\nand symbolically he is right; but only so far as emblematical\ncosmogony goes. Nor has he invented the symbol any more\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* These elements are: -- The cosmic, the terrene, the mineral,\nthe vegetable, the animal, the aqueous, and finally the human\n-- in their physical, spiritual, and psychic aspects.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 360 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthan the Kabalists have: the two figures in white and black stone\nhave existed in the temples of Egypt from time immemorial -- agreeably\nto tradition; and historically -- ever since the day of King Cambyses,\nwho personally saw them. Therefore the symbol must have been in\nexistence since nearly 2,500 years ago. This, at the very least,\nfor that Persian sovereign, who was a son of Cyrus the Great,\nsucceeded his father in the year 529 B.C. These figures were the\ntwo *Kabiri* *personifying the opposite poles. *Herodotus\n(*Thalia, *No. 77) tells posterity that when Cambyses entered\nthe temple of the Kabirim, he went into an inextinguishable fit\nof laughter, on perceiving what he thought a man erect and a woman\nstanding on the top of her head before him. These were the poles,\nhowever, whose symbol was intended to commemorate \"the passing\nof the original North Pole of the Earth to the South Pole of the\nHeaven,\" as perceived by Mackey.* But they represented also\nthe poles *inverted, *in consequence of the great inclination\nof the axis, bringing each time as a result the displacement of\nthe Oceans, the submersion of the polar lands, and the consequent\n*upheaval *of new continents in the equatorial regions,\nand *vice* *versa. *These Kabirim were the \"Deluge\"\ngods.\n\nThis may help us to get at the key of the seemingly hopeless confusion\namong the numbers of names and titles given to one and the same\ngods, and classes of gods. Faber showed already, at the beginning\nof this century, the identity of the Corybantes, Curetes, Dioscuri,\nAnactes, Dii Magni, Idei Dactyli, Lares, Penates, Manes,** Titans,\nand Aletae with the** K**ABIRI. And we have shown\nthat the latter were the same as the Manus, the Rishis and our\nDhyan Chohans, who incarnated in the Elect of the Third and Fourth\nRaces. Thus, while in Theogony the Kabiri-Titans were seven great\ngods: cosmically and astronomically the Titans were called Atlantes,\nbecause, perhaps, as Faber says, they were connected\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Who adds that the Egyptians had various ways of representing\nthe angles of the Poles. Also in Perry's *View of the Levant\n*there is \"a figure representing the South Pole of the\nEarth in the constellation of the Harp,\" in which the poles\nappear like two *straight rods, *surmounted with hawks'\nwings, but they were also often represented as serpents with heads\nof hawks, one at each end.\n\n** Faber and Bishop Cumberland would make them all the later pagan\npersonifications, as the former writer has it, of \"the Noetic\nArk, and no other than the Patriarch (Noah) and his family\"\n(!) *See his *\"*Kabiri,*\"* Vol.***\nI***., *136; because, we are told, \"after the\nDeluge in commemoration of the event, the pious Noachidae had\nestablished a religious festival, which was, later on, corrupted\nby their *impious *descendants; demons or hero-gods; and\nat length unblushing obscenity usurped the name and garb of religion\"\n(*Vol. I., p. *10.). Now this is indeed putting an extinguisher\nupon the human reasoning powers, not only of antiquity, but even\nof our present generations. Reverse the statement, and explain\nafter the words \"Noah and his family\" that what is meant\nby that patriarch and family is simply the Jewish version of a\nSamothracian mystery, of *Saturn, or Kronos-Sadic and his Sons,\n*and then we may say *Amen.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 361 WHO WERE ENOCH AND THE OTHERS?\n\n(*a*) *with At-al-as *\"the divine Sun,\"\nand (*b*) with *tit *\"the deluge.\" But\nthis, if true, is only the exoteric version. Esoterically, the\nmeaning of their symbols depends on the appellation, or title,\nused. The seven mysterious, awe-inspiring great gods -- the *Dioscuri*,*\nthe deities surrounded with the darkness of occult nature -- become\nthe *Idei *(or Idaeic finger) with the adept-healer by\nmetals. The true etymology of the name *lares *(now signifying\n\"ghosts\") must be sought in the Etruscan word \"*lars*,\"\n\"conductor,\" \"leader.\" Sanchoniathon translates\nthe word *Aletae *as fire worshippers, and Tabor believes\nit derived from *Al-Orit, *\"the god of fire.\"\nBoth are right, as in both cases it is a reference to the Sun\n(the highest God), toward whom the planetary gods \"gravitate\"\n(astronomically and allegorically) and whom they worship. As *Lares,\n*they are truly the Solar Deities, though Faber's etymology,\nwho says that \"*lar*\"* *is a contraction\nof \"*El-Ar,*\"* *the solar deity, is not\nvery correct. They are the \"lares,\" the conductors and\nleaders of men. As *Aletae, *they were the seven planets\n-- astronomically; and as *Lares,* the regents of the same,\nour protectors and rulers -- mystically. For purposes of exoteric\nor phallic worship, as also cosmically, they were the Kabiri,\ntheir attributes being recognised in these two capacities by the\nname of the temples to which they respectively belonged, and those\nof their priests. They all belonged, however, to the Septenary\ncreative and informing groups of Dhyan Chohans. The Sabeans, who\nworshipped the \"regents of the Seven planets\" as the\nHindus do their Rishis, held Seth and his son Hermes (Enoch or\n*Enos*)* *as the highest among the planetary gods.\nSeth and Enos were borrowed from the Sabeans and then disfigured\nby the Jews (exoterically); but the truth can still be traced\nabout them even in *Genesis.** *Seth is the \"progenitor\"\nof those early men of the Third Race in whom the \"Planetary\"\nangels had incarnated -- a Dhyan Chohan himself, who belonged\nto the *informing *gods; and Enos (Hanoch or Enoch) or\nHermes, was said to be *his son* -- because it was a generic\nname for all the early *Seers *(\"Enoichion\").\nThence the worship. The Arabic writer Soyuti says that the earliest\nrecords mention Seth, or *Set, *as the founder of Sabeanism;\nand therefore that the pyramids which embody the planetary system\nwere regarded as the place of sepulchre of both Seth and *Idris\n*(Hermes or Enoch), (*See Vyse, *\"*Operations,*\"*\nVol. II., p. *358); that thither Sabeans proceeded\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Who became later on, with the Greeks, limited only to Castor\nand Pollux. But in the days of Lemuria, the *Dioscuri, *the\n\"Egg-born,\" were the Seven Dhyan Chohans (Agnishwatta-Kumara)\nwho incarnated in the Seven Elect of the Third Race.\n\n** Clement of Alexandria recognized the astronomical significance\nof chapter xxv. *et seq. *of Exodus. According to the Mosaic\ndoctrine, he says that the seven planets help in the generation\nof terrestrial things. The two cherubs standing on the two sides\nof the sacred tetragrammaton represent the Ursa Major and Ursa\nMinor.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 362 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\non pilgrimage, and *chanted prayers seven times *a day,\n*turning to the* *North *(the Mount Meru, Kaph,\nOlympus, etc., etc.) (*See Palgrave,* *Vol. II., p.\n*264). Abd Allatif says curious things about the Sabeans and\ntheir books. So does Eddin Ahmed Ben Yahya, who wrote 200 years\nlater. While the latter maintains \"that each pyramid was\nconsecrated *to a star*\"* *(a star *regent\n*rather), Abd Allatif assures us \"that he had read in\nSabean books that one pyramid was the tomb of Agathodaemon and\nthe other of Hermes\" (*Vyse, Vol. II., p. *342). \"Agathodaemon\nwas none other than Seth, and, according to some writers, Hermes\nwas his son,\" adds Mr. Staniland Wake in \"*The Great\nPyramid,*\"* *p. 57.\n\nThus, while in Samothrace and the oldest Egyptian temples they\nwere the great Cosmic Gods (the seven and the *forty-nine *Sacred\nFires), in the Grecian fanes their rites became mostly phallic,\ntherefore to the profane, obscene. In the latter case they were\n3 and 4, or 7 -- the male and female principles -- (the *crux\nansata*);* *this division showing why some classical\nwriters held that they were only three, while others named four.\nAnd these were -- the Kabiri -- Axieros (in his female aspect,\nDemeter); Axio-Kersa (Persephone)*; Axiokersos (Pluto or Hades);\nand Kadmos or Kadmilos (Hermes -- not the ithyphallic Hermes mentioned\nby Herodotus (**II**. 51) but \"he of the sacred\nlegend,\" explained only during the Samothracian mysteries).\nThis identification, due, according to the Scholiast Apollon (Rh.\nI. 217), to an indiscretion of Mnaseas, is none at all, as names\nalone do not reveal much. There were still others again who maintained,\nbeing as right in their way, that there were only two Kabiri.\nThese were, esoterically, the two Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux,\nand exoterically, Jupiter and Bacchus. The two personified the\nterrestrial poles, geodesically; the terrestrial, and the pole\nof the heavens -- astronomically, as also the physical and the\nspiritual man. The story of Semele and Jupiter and the birth of\nBacchus, the *Bimater, *with all the circumstances attending\nit, needs only to be read esoterically to understand the allegory.\nThe parts played in the event by the fire, water, earth, etc.,\nin the many versions, will show how \"the father of the gods\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* It is a curious idea -- yet one not very far from the truth,\nperhaps -- that speculation of Mackey, the self-made Adept of\nNorwich, found in his \"Mythological Astronomy.\" He says\nthat the Kabiri named Axieros and Axiokersa derived their names\n(*a*) from *Kab *or* Cab, *a measure, and\nfrom *Urim*, the heavens: the Kabirim being thus \"a\nmeasure of the heavens\"; and (*b*) that their distinctive\nnames, implying the *principle of generation, *referred\nto the sexes. For, \"the word *sex *was formerly understood\nby *aix*; which has now settled . . . . into sex.\"\nAnd he refers to \"Encyclopaedia Londinus\" at the word\n\"*aspiration.*\"* *Now if we give the aspirated\nsound to Axieros, it would be *Saxieros*;* *and\nthe other pole would be *Saxiokersa. *The two poles would\nthus become the generators of the other powers of nature -- they\nwould be the *parents: *therefore the most powerful gods.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 363 THE POLES, THE \"HEAVENLY MEASURE.\"\n\nand the \"merry God of the wine\" were also made to personify\nthe two terrestrial Poles. The telluric, metalline, magnetic,\nelectric and the fiery elements are all so many allusions and\nreferences to the cosmic and astronomic character of the diluvian\ntragedy. In astronomy, the poles are indeed the \"heavenly\nmeasure\" (*vide* note* supra*);* and *so\nare the Kabiri *Dioscuri, *as will be shown, and the Kabiri-Titans,\nto whom Diodorus ascribes the *invention of fire* *and\nthe art of manufacturing iron. Moreover, Pausanias shows that\nthe original Kabiric deity was Prometheus. (I. ix. p. 751.)\n\nBut the fact that, astronomically, the Titans-Kabirim were also\nthe generators and regulators of the seasons, and cosmically the\ngreat Volcanic Energies, the gods presiding over all the metals\nand terrestrial works, does not prevent them from being, in their\noriginal divine characters, the beneficent Entities who, symbolized\nin Prometheus, brought light to the world, and endowed humanity\nwith intellect and reason. They are pre-eminently in every theogony\n-- especially in the Hindu -- the sacred divine fires, 3, 7, or\n49, according as the allegory demands it. Their very names prove\nit, as they are the *Agni-putra* (Sons of the Fire) in\nIndia, and the genii of the fire under numerous names in Greece\nand elsewhere. Welcker, Maury, and now Decharme, show the name\nKabeiron meaning \"the powerful through fire,\" from the\nGreek word *[[kaio]] *\"to burn.\" The Semitic\n*Kabirim, *\"the powerful, the mighty, and the great,\"\nanswering to the Greek [[*megaloi dunatoi*]], are later\nepithets. They were universally worshipped, and their origin is\nlost in the night of time. Yet whether propitiated in Phrygia,\nPhoenicia, the Troad, Thrace, Egypt, Lemnos or Sicily, their cult\nwas always connected with fire; their temples ever built in the\nmost volcanic localities, and in exoteric worship they belonged\nto Chthonian divinities. Therefore Christianity has made of them\n*infernal gods. *\n\nThey are truly \"the great, beneficent and powerful Gods,\"\nas Cassius Hermone calls them (*See Macrob. Sat. I., iii.,\nc. 4, p*. 376). At Thebes, Kore and Demeter, the *Kabirim,\n*had a sanctuary (*Pausan. IX.* 22; 5)*,* and\nat Memphis, the Kabiri had a temple so sacred, that none, excepting\nthe priests, were suffered to enter their holy precincts (*Herodotus\nI. ii.,* *c. *37). But we must not lose sight, at the\nsame time, of the fact that the title of Kabiri was a generic\none; that the Kabiri (the *mighty *gods as well as mortals),\nwere of both sexes, as also terrestrial, celestial and kosmic.\nThat, while in their later capacity of the Rulers of sidereal\nand terrestrial powers, a purely geological phenomenon (as it\nis now\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The word \"guebra\" comes from Kabiri, *gabiri,*\nand means Persian ancient fire-worshippers, or Parsis. Kabiri\nbecame *gabiri* and then remained as an appellation of\nthe Zoroastrians in Persia. (*See Hyde*'*s *\"*De\nReligio Persarum,*\"* cap. *29.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 364 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nregarded) was symbolized in the persons of those rulers, they\nwere also, in the beginning of times, the rulers of mankind. When\nincarnated as Kings of the \"divine Dynasties,\" they\ngave the first impulse to civilizations, and directed the mind\nwith which they had endued men to the invention and perfection\nof all the arts and sciences. Thus the Kabiri are said to have\nappeared as the benefactors of men, and as such they lived for\nages in the memory of nations. To them -- the Kabiri or Titans\n-- is ascribed the invention of letters (the *Devanagari, *or\nthe alphabet and language of the gods), of laws and legislature;\nof architecture, as of the various modes of magic, so-called;\nand of the medical use of plants. Hermes, Orpheus, Cadmus, Asclepius,\nall those demi-gods and heroes, to whom is ascribed the revelation\nof sciences to men, and in whom Bryant, Faber, Bishop Cumberland,\nand so many other Christian writers -- too zealous for plain truth\n--would force posterity to see only pagan copies of one and sole\nprototype, named Noah -- are all generic names.\n\nIt is the Kabiri who are credited with having revealed, by *producing*\ncorn or wheat, the great boon of agriculture. What *Isis-Osiris,\nthe* once living Kabiria, has done in Egypt, that Ceres is\nsaid to have done in Sicily; they all belong to one class.\n\nThat the Serpents were ever the emblems of wisdom and prudence\nis again shown by the caduceus of Mercury, one with Thot, the\ngod of wisdom, with Hermes, and so on. The two serpents, entwined\naround the rod, are phallic symbols of Jupiter and other gods\nwho transformed themselves into snakes for purposes of seducing\ngoddesses -- but only in the unclean fancies of profane symbologists.\nThe serpent has ever been the symbol of the adept, and of his\npowers of immortality and divine knowledge. Mercury in his psychopompic\ncharacter, conducting and guiding with the caduceus the souls\nof the dead to Hades and even raising the dead to life with it,\nis simply a very transparent allegory. It shows the dual power\nof the Secret Wisdom: the black and the white magic. It shows\nthis personified Wisdom guiding the Soul after death, and its\npower to call to life that which is dead -- a very deep metaphor\nif one thinks over its meaning. Every people of antiquity reverenced\nthis symbol, with the exception of Christians, who chose to forget\nthe brazen Serpent of Moses, and even the implied acknowledgment\nof the great wisdom and prudence of the Serpent by Jesus himself,\n\"Be ye *wise *as serpents and harmless as doves.\"\nThe Chinese, one of the oldest nations of our Fifth Race, made\nof it the emblem of their Emperors, who are thus the degenerate\nsuccessors of the \"Serpents\" or Initiates, who ruled\nthe early races of the Fifth Humanity. The Emperor's throne is\nthe \"Dragon's Seat,\" and his dresses of State are embroidered\nwith the likeness of the\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 365 THE VARIOUS NOAHS.\n\nDragon. The aphorisms in the oldest books of China, moreover,\nsay plainly that the \"Dragon\" is a human, albeit *divine,\n*Being. Speaking of the \"Yellow Dragon,\" the chief\nof the others, the *Twan-ying-t*'*u, says:* \"His\nwisdom and virtue are unfathomable . . . he does not go in company\nand does not live in herds (he is an ascetic). He wanders in the\nwilds beyond the heavens. He goes and comes, fulfilling the decree\n(Karma); at the proper seasons if there is perfection he comes\nforth, if not he remains (invisible).\". . . And Kon-fu-tyu\nis made to say by Lu-lan, \"The Dragon feeds in the pure water\nof Wisdom and sports in the clear waters of Life.\"\n\n-------\n\n**O**UR **D**IVINE **I**NSTRUCTORS.\n\nNow Atlantis and the Phlegyan isle are not the only record that\nis left of the deluge. China has also her tradition and the story\nof an island or continent, which it calls Ma-li-ga-si-ma, and\nwhich Kaempfer and Faber spell \"Maurigosima,\" for some\nmysterious phonetic reasons of their own. Kaempfer, in his \"*Japan*\"*\n*(*Appendix, p. *13), gives the tradition: The island,\nowing to the iniquity of its giants, sinks to the bottom of the\nocean, and Peiru-un, the king, the Chinese Noah, escapes alone\nwith his family owing to a warning of the gods through two idols.\nIt is that pious prince and his descendants who have peopled China.\nThe Chinese traditions speak of the divine dynasties of Kings\nas much as those of any other nations.\n\nAt the same time there is not an old fragment but shows belief\nin a multiform and even multigeneric evolution -- spiritual, psychic,\nintellectual and physical -- of human beings, just as given in\nthe present work. A few of these claims have now to be considered.\n\nOur races -- they all show -- have sprung from divine races, by\nwhatever name they are called. Whether we deal with the Indian\nRishis or Pitris; with the Chinese *Chim-nang *and*\nTchan-gy -- *their \"divine man\" and demi-gods; with\nthe Akkadian *Dingir* and* Mul-lil* -- the creative\ngod and the \"Gods of the ghost-world\"; with the Egyptian\nIsis-Osiris and Thot; with the Hebrew Elohim, or again with Manco\nCapac and his Peruvian progeny -- the story varies nowhere. Every\nnation has Amshaspends* (six exoterically), ten and seven Chaldean\nAnedots,\n\n[[Footnote continued]]---------------------------------\n\n* The Amshaspends are six -- if Ormazd, their chief and Logos,\nis excluded. But in the secret doctrine he is the seventh and\nhighest, just as Phtah is the seventh Kabir among the Kabiri.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 366 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nten and seven Sephiroth, etc., etc. One and all have been derived\nfrom the primitive Dhyan-Chohans of the Esoteric doctrine, or\nthe \"Builders\" of the Stanzas (Book I.). From Manu,\nThot-Hermes, Oannes-Dagon, and Edris-Enoch, down to Plato and\nPanadores, all tell us of seven *divine *Dynasties, of\nseven Lemurian, and seven Atlantean divisions of the Earth; of\nthe seven primitive and dual gods who descend from their celestial\nabode* and reign on Earth, teaching mankind Astronomy, Architecture,\nand all the other sciences that have come down to us. These Beings\nappear first as \"gods\" and Creators; then they merge\nin nascent man, to finally emerge as \"divine-Kings and Rulers.\"\nBut this fact has been gradually forgotten. As Bosuage shows,\nthe Egyptians themselves confessed that science flourished in\ntheir country only since Isis-Osiris, whom they continue to adore\nas gods, \"though they had become Princes in human form.\"\nAnd he adds of Osiris-Isis (the divine androgyne: -- \"It\nis said that this Prince (Isis-Osiris) built cities in Egypt,\nstopped the overflowing of the Nile; invented agriculture, the\nuse of the vine, music, astronomy, and geometry.\"\n\nWhen Abul-Feda says in his \"*Historia Anteislamitica*\"*\n*(*Fleisher, p.* 16) that the Sabean language was established\nby Seth and Edris (Enoch) -- he means by \"Sabean language\"\nastronomy. In the \"Melelwa Nohil\" (*MS. 47 in Nic.\nCat.*)* *Hermes is called the disciple of Agathodaemon.\nAnd in another account (*See Col. Vyse*'*s 2nd Vol.\nof the *\"*Pyramids* *of Ghizeh,*\"*\np. *364*, MS. *785*, Uri*'*s Cat*.) Agathodaemon\nis mentioned as a \"*King of Egypt.*\"* *Celepas\nGeraldinus gives curious traditions about Henoch. He calls him\nthe \"divine giant.\" In the \"*Book of* *the\nvarious names of the Nile,*\"* *the same author\n(the historian Ahmed-Ben-Yusouf Eltiphas) tells us of the belief\namong the Semitic Arabs that Seth (become later the Egyptian Typhon,\nSet), had been one of the seven angels (or Patriarchs in the Bible):\nthen he became a mortal and Adam's son, after which he communicated\nthe gift of prophecy and astronomical science to Jared, who passed\nit to his son Henoch. But Henoch (Idris) \"the author of thirty\nbooks, was Sabaean by origin\" (*i.e*., belonging to\nthe *Saba, *\"a Host\"); \"having established\nthe rites and ceremonies of primitive worship, he went to the\nEast, where he constructed 140 cities, of which Edessa was the\nleast important, then returned to Egypt where he became its King.\"\nThus, he is identified with Hermes. But there were five Hermes\n-- or rather one, who appeared -- as some Manus and Rishis did\n-- in several different characters. In the *Burham-i-Kati *he\nis mentioned as \"Hormig,\" a name of the planet Mercury\nor Budha; and Wednes-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In the Purana it is identified with Vishnu's or Brahma's Sveta\nDwipa of Mount Meru.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 367 HERMES IN ASTRONOMY AND ELSEWHERE.\n\nday was sacred both to Hermes and Thot. The Hermes of Oriental\ntradition, worshipped at Phineata and said to have fled after\nthe death of Argus into Egypt, civilized it under the name of\nThoth. But under whichever of these characters, he is always credited\nwith having transferred all the sciences from *latent to active\npotency,* *i.e.*, with having been the first to teach\nmagic to Egypt and to Greece, *before the days of Magna Graecia,\n*and when the Greeks were not even Hellenes.\n\nNot only Herodotus -- the \"father of History\" -- tells\nus of the marvellous dynasties of gods that preceded the reign\nof mortals, followed by the dynasties of demi-gods, Heroes, and\nfinally men, but the whole series of classics support him; Diodorus,\nEratosthenes, Plato, Manetho, etc., etc., repeat the same, and\nnever vary the order given.\n\n\"It is, indeed,\" as Creuzer shows: --\n\n\"From the spheres of the stars wherein dwell the gods of\nlight that wisdom descends to the inferior spheres.\" \"In\nthe system of the ancient priests (Hierophants and Adepts) all\nthings without exception, gods, the genii, *manes *(souls),\nthe whole world, are conjointly developed in Space and duration.\nThe pyramid may be considered as the symbol of this magnificent\nhierarchy of Spirits. . . . \"*\n\nThere were more efforts made by the modern historians (French\nAcademicians, like Renan, chiefly) to suppress truth by ignoring\nthe ancient annals of *divine *Kings, than is strictly\nconsistent with honesty. But M. Renan could never be more unwilling\nthan was Eratosthenes 260 years B.C. to accept the unpalatable\nfact; and yet the latter found himself obliged to recognise its\ntruth. For this, the great astronomer is treated with great contempt\nby his colleagues 2,000 years later. Manetho became with them\n\"a superstitious priest born and bred in the atmosphere of\nother lying priests of Heliopolis\" (*Freret*)*.\n*\"All those historians and priests,\" justly remarks\nthe demonologist, de Mirville, \"so *veracious* when\nrepeating stories of *human *kings and men, suddenly become\n*extremely suspicious *no sooner do they go back *to\ntheir gods.*\"* . *. . But there is the synchronistic\ntable of Abydos, which, thanks to the genius of Champollion, has\nnow vindicated the good faith of the priests of Egypt (Manetho's\nabove all), and that of Ptolemy. In the Turin papyrus, the most\nremarkable of all, in the words of the Egyptologist, de Rouge:\n--\n\n\". . . Champollion, struck with amazement, found that he\nhad under his own eyes the whole truth. . . . It was the remains\nof a list of dynasties embracing the furthest mythoic times, or\nthe REIGN OF THE GODS AND HEROES. . . . At the very outset of\nthis curious\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Ch. iv. of \"*Egypt,*\"* p. *441.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 368 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\npapyrus we have to arrive at the conviction that so far back already\nas the period of Ramses, those mythic and heroical traditions\nwere just as Manetho had transmitted them to us; we see figuring\nin them, as Kings of Egypt, the gods Seb, Osiris, Horus, Thoth-Hermes,\nand the goddess Ma, a long period of centuries being assigned\nto the reign of each of these.\" (*Ann. de Philologie Chretienne,\n*Vol. **XXXII**., p. 442).\n\nThe synchronistic tables of Manetho, besides the fact that they\nwere disfigured by Eusebius for dishonest purposes, had never\ngone beyond Manetho. The chronology of the divine Kings and Dynasties,\nlike that of the age of humanity, has ever been in the hands of\nthe priests, and was kept secret from the profane multitudes.\n\nAfrica, as a continent, it is said, appeared before Europe did;\nnevertheless it appeared later than Lemuria and even the earliest\nAtlantis. That the whole region of what is now Egypt and the deserts\nwas once upon a time covered with the sea, was known firstly through\nHerodotus, Strabo, Pliny, and all the Greeks; and, secondly, through\ngeology. Abyssinia was once upon a time an island; and the Delta\nwas the first country occupied by the pioneer emigrants who came\nwith their gods from the North-east.\n\nWhen was it? History is silent upon the subject. Fortunately we\nhave the Dendera Zodiac, the planisphere on the ceiling of one\nof the oldest Egyptian temples, which records the fact. This Zodiac,\nwith its mysterious three *Virgos *between the *Lion\n*and *Libra, *has found its OEdipus, who understood\nthe riddle of these signs, and justified the truthfulness of those\npriests who told Herodotus that: -- (*a*) The poles of\nthe Earth and the Ecliptic had formerly coincided; and (*b*)\nThat even since their first Zodiacal records were commenced, the\nPoles have been three times within the plane of the Ecliptic,\nas the Initiates taught.\n\nBailly had not sufficient words at his command to express his\nsurprise at the *sameness *of all such traditions about\nthe* divine *races. \"What are finally,\" he exclaims,\n\"all those reigns of Indian *Devas *and Persian *Peris?\n*. . . . Or, those reigns and dynasties of the Chinese legends;\nthose Tien-hoang or the *Kings of Heaven, *quite distinct\nfrom the *Ti-hoang, *the Kings on Earth, and the *Gin-hoang\n*the King's men, a distinction which is in perfect accord\nwith that other one made by the Greeks and the Egyptians, in enumerating\n*their dynasties of Gods,* *of demi-gods, and of mortals.*\"***\n\n\"Now,\" says Panadoras, \"it is before that time\n(Menes), that *the reign* *of the seven gods who rule\nthe world took place. *It was during that period that those\nbenefactors of humanity *descended *on Earth and taught\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n** Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 369 WHAT THE PRIESTS TOLD HERODOTUS.\n\nmen to calculate the course of the sun and moon by the twelve\nsigns of the Ecliptic.\"\n\nNearly five hundred years before the actual era, Herodotus was\nshown by the priests of Egypt the statues of their human Kings\nand Pontiffs*-piromis *(the archi-prophets or Maha-Chohans\nof the temples), *born one from the other *(without the\nintervention of woman) who had reigned before Menes, their first\n*human *King. These statues, he says, were enormous colossi\nin wood, three hundred and forty-five in number, *each of which\nhad his name, his history and his annals. *And they assured\nHerodotus* (unless the most truthful of historians, the \"Father\nof History,\" is now accused of fibbing, *just in this\ninstance*) that no historian could ever understand or write\nan account of these superhuman Kings, unless he had studied and\nlearned the history *of the three dynasties *that preceded\nthe human -- namely, the DYNASTIES OF THE GODS, that of demi-gods,\nand of the Heroes, or giants. These \"three dynasties\"\nare the three Races.**\n\nTranslated into the language of the Esoteric doctrine, these three\ndynasties would also be those of the Devas, of Kimpurushas, and\nof Danavas and Daityas -- otherwise gods, celestial spirits, and\ngiants or Titans. \"Happy are those who are born, even from\nthe condition of gods, as men, in Bharata-Varsha!\" exclaim\nthe incarnated gods themselves, during the Third Root-Race. Bharata\nis India, but in this case it symbolized the chosen land in those\ndays, and was considered the best of the divisions of Jambu-dwipa,\nas it was the land of active (spiritual) works *par excellence*;*\n*the land of initiation and of divine knowledge.\n\nCan one fail to recognise in Creuzer great powers of intuition,\nwhen, being almost unacquainted with the Aryan Hindu philosophies,\nlittle known in his day, he wrote: --\n\n\"We modern Europeans feel surprised when hearing talk of\nthe Spirits of the Sun, Moon, etc. But we repeat again, the *natural\ngood sense and the upright*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See also *Memoires a l*'*Academie, etc., of de Mirville,\nVol. III., *for a mass of evidence.\n\n** In *Vishnu-Purana, Book II., chap. *3, 4, *et seq.,\n*may be found many corroborations of the same, if one reads\ncarefully. The reigns of gods, lower gods, and men are all enumerated\nin the descriptions of the seven Islands, seven seas, seven mountains,\netc., etc., ruled by Kings. Each king is said invariably to have\n*seven *sons, an allusion to the seven sub-races. One instance\nwill do. The King of *Kusa dwipa *had seven sons (follow\nnames) . . . \"after whom the seven portions (Varsha) of the\nisland were called. *There reside mankind along with Daityas\nand Danavas, as well as with spirits of* *Heaven *(*Gandharvas,\nYakshas, Kimpurushas, etc*.)* and gods.*\"*\n*(*Chapter iv.*)* *There is but one exception\nin the case of King Priyavrata, the son of the first Manu, Swayambhuva\n-- who had *ten* sons. But of these, three -- Medha, Agnibahu,\nand Putra -- became ascetics, and refused their portions. Thus\nPriyavrata divided the earth again into *seven* continents.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 370 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n*judgment *of the ancient peoples, quite foreign to our *entirely\nmaterial *ideas upon celestial mechanics and physical sciences\n. . . could not see in the stars and planets only that which we\nsee: namely, simple masses of light, or opaque bodies moving in\ncircuits in sidereal space, merely according to the laws of attraction\nor repulsion; but they saw in them *living *bodies, *animated*\nby spirits as they saw the same in every kingdom of nature. .\n. . *This doctrine of spirits, so* *consistent and conformable\nto nature, *from which it was derived, formed a grand and unique\nconception, wherein the physical, the moral, and the political\naspects were all blended together . . . \"* *(\"*Egypte,*\"*\npp. *450* to* 455.)\n\nIt is such a conception only that can lead man to form a correct\nconclusion about his origin and the genesis of everything in the\nuniverse -- of Heaven and Earth, between which he is a living\nlink. Without such a psychological link, and the feeling of its\npresence, no science can ever progress, and the realm of knowledge\nmust be limited to the analysis of physical matter only.\n\nOccultists believe in \"spirits,\" because they *feel\n*(and some see) themselves surrounded on every side by them.*\nMaterialists do not. They live on this earth, just as, in the\nworld of insects and even of fishes, some creatures live surrounded\nby myriads of their own *genus, *without seeing, or so\nmuch as sensing them.**\n\nPlato is the first sage among the classics who speaks at length\nof the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* As a general rule, *now* that the very nature of the\n*inner *man has become as blind as his physical nature,\nman is situated on this globe as the *Amphioxus *is in\nthe Ocean. Surrounded by shoals and millions of various other\nfishes and creatures that see it, *the Amphioxus *species\n--having neither brain nor any of the senses possessed by the\nother classes -- sees them not. Who knows whether, on the Darwinian\ntheory, these \"Branchiostoma\" are not the direct ancestors\nof our Materialists.\n\n** The Occultists have been accused of worshipping *gods *or\ndevils. We deny this. Among the numberless hosts of spirits --\n*men *that were, and those who will be men -- there are\nthose immeasurably superior to the human race, higher and holier\nthan the highest Saint on Earth, and wiser than any mortal without\nexception. And there are those again who are no better than we\nare, as some are far worse and inferior to the lowest savage.\nIt is the latter classes that command the readiest communication\nwith our earth, who perceive and sense us, as the clairvoyants\nperceive and sense them. The close proximity of our respective\nabodes and planes of perception are in favour of such inter-communication\nunfortunately, as they are ever ready to interfere with our affairs\nfor weal or woe. If we are asked how it is that none but sensitive\nhysterical natures, neuro- and psycho-pathic persons see and occasionally\ntalk with \"Spirits,\" we answer the question by several\nother queries. We ask: \"Do you know the nature of hallucination,\nand can you define its psychic process? How can you tell that\nall such visions are due merely to physical hallucinations? What\nmakes you feel so sure that mental and nervous diseases, while\ndrawing a veil over our *normal* senses (so-called) *do\nnot *reveal at the same time vistas unknown to the healthy\nman, by throwing open doors usually closed against your scientific\nperceptions (?): or that a psycho-spiritual faculty *does not\n*forthwith replace the loss, or the temporary atrophy, of\na purely physical sense? It is disease, or the exuberance of nervous\nfluid which produces mediumship and visions --hallucinations,\nas you call them. But what *does *Science know even of\nmediumship?\" Truly were the [[Footnote continued on next\npage]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 371 A UNIVERSAL CORROBORATION.\n\ndivine Dynasties, and locates them on a vast continent which he\ncalls Atlantis. Bailly was not the first nor last to believe the\nsame, and he had been preceded and anticipated in this theory\nby Father Kircher. This learned Jesuit writes in \"*OEdipus\nAEgyptiacus*\" (*Vol. *I., p. 70): --\n\n\"I confess, for a long time I had regarded all this (dynasties\nand the Atlantis) as pure fables (*meras nugas*) to the\nday when, better instructed in Oriental languages, I judged that\nall those legends must be, after all, only the development of\na great truth. . . . .\"\n\nAs de Rougemont shows, Theopompus, in his *Meropis, *made\nthe priests of Phrygia and Asia Minor speak exactly as the priests\nof Sais did when they revealed to Solon the history and fate of\nAtlantis. According to Theopompus, it was a unique continent of\nan indefinite size, and containing two countries inhabited by\n*two races -- *a fighting, warrior race, and a pious, meditative\nrace,* which Theopompus symbolizes by two cities.** The pious\n\"city\" was *continually visited by* *the gods*;*\n*the belligerent \"city\" was inhabited by various\nbeings *invulnerable *to iron, liable to be *mortally\nwounded *only by stone and wood.\"*** De Rougemont treats\nthis as a pure *fiction *of Theopompus (\"*Peuple\nPrimitif,*\"* vol. iii. *157) and even sees a fraud\n(*supercherie*)* *in the assertion of the Saitic\npriests. This was denounced by the \"Demonologists\" as\nillogical. In the words of De Mirville: -- \"A* supercherie\n*which was based on a belief, the product of faith of the\nwhole antiquity; a *supposition *which yet gave its name\nto a whole mountain chain (the Atlas); which specified with the\ngreatest precision a topographical region (by placing some of\nits lands at a small distance from Cadiz and the strait of Calpetus),\nwhich prophesied, 2,000 years before Columbus, *the great*\n*trans-oceanic land *situated beyond that Atlantis and\nwhich \"is reached\" it said -- \"by the *islands\n*not of the blessed, but of the good spirits [[*eudaimonia*]]\n(our '*Iles Fortunees*')* -- *such a supposition\ncan never be an universal chimera.\" (*A word on *\"*Atlantis,*\"*\np. *29.)\n\nIt is certain that, whether \"chimera\" or reality, the\npriests of the whole world had it from one and the same source:\nthe universal tradition\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] modern Charcots to pay\nattention to the *delirium* of their patients from a more\npsychic standpoint, Science, and physiology especially, might\nbe more benefited than they are now, and truth have a wider field\nof fact in its knowledge.\n\n* These were the early Aryans and the bulk of the Fourth Root\nRaces -- the former pious and meditative (*yoga*-contemplation),\nthe latter -- a fighting race of sorcerers, who were rapidly degenerating\nowing to their uncontrolled passions.\n\n** The Northern and Southern Divisions of Lemuria-Atlantis. The\nHyperborean and the Equatorial lands of the two continents. (See\nSections about Lemuria and Atlantis in History.)\n\n*** This is Occult and refers to the property of iron which, attracted\nby magnetic elements, is repelled by others, which are made, by\nan occult process, as impervious to it as water to a blow.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 372 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nabout the third great continent which perished some 850,000 years\nago.* A continent inhabited by two distinct races; distinct physically\nand especially morally; both deeply versed in primeval wisdom\nand the secrets of nature; mutually antagonistic in their struggle,\nduring the course and progress of their double evolution. Whence\neven the Chinese teachings upon the subject, if it is but a *fiction?\n*Have they not recorded the existence once upon a time of\na *holy *island beyond the sun (*Tcheou*)*,*\nand beyond which were situated the lands *of the immortal men?*\n(*See de* *Rougemont, ibid.*)* *Do they not\nstill believe that the remnants of those *immortal *men\n-- who survived when the *holy *island had become black\nwith sin and perished -- have found refuge in the great desert\nof Gobi, where they still reside invisible to all, and defended\nfrom approach by hosts of Spirits?\n\n\"If one has to lend ear to traditions,\" writes the very\nunbelieving Boulanger, (\"*Regne des Dieux,*\"*\nIntroduction*) *. *. . \"the latter place before\nthe reign of Kings, that of the Heroes and demi-gods; and still\nearlier and beyond they place the marvellous reign of the gods\nand all the fables of the golden age. . . . One feels surprised\nthat annals so interesting should have been rejected by almost\nall our historians. And yet the ideas communicated by them were\nonce universally admitted and revered by all the peoples; not\na few revere them still, making them the basis of their daily\nlife. Such considerations seem to necessitate a less hurried judgment.\n. . . The ancients, from whom we hold these traditions, which\n*we accept no longer because* *we do not understand\nthem now, *must have had motives for believing in them furnished\nby their greater proximity to the first ages, and which the distance\nthat separates us from them refuses to us . . . . Plato in his\nfourth book of *Laws, *says that, long before the construction\nof the first cities, Saturn had established on earth a *certain\n*form of government under which man was very happy. As it\nis the golden age he refers to, or to that reign of gods so celebrated\nin ancient fables . . . . let us see the ideas he had of that\nhappy age, and what was the occasion he had to introduce this\n*fable *into a treatise on politics. According to Plato,\nin order to obtain clear and precise ideas on royalty, its origin\nand power, one has to turn back to the first principles of history\nand tradition. Great changes, he says, have occurred in days of\nold, *in heaven and on earth, *and the present state of\nthings is one of the results (*Karma*).* *Our traditions\ntell us of many marvels, of changes that have taken place in the\ncourse of the Sun, of Saturn's reign, and of a thousand other\nmatters that remained scattered about in human memory; but *one\nnever hears anything of the ***EVIL ***which\nhas*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The first continent, or island, if so preferred, \"the cap\nof the North Pole,\" has never perished; nor will it to the\nend of the Seven Races.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 373 WHEAT BROUGHT DOWN BY THE GODS.\n\n*produced those revolutions, nor of the evil which directly\nfollowed them. *Yet . . . . that Evil is the principle one\nhas to talk about, to be able to treat of royalty and the origin\nof power. . . .\"\n\nThat *evil*, Plato seems to see in the sameness or consubstantiality\nof the natures of the rulers and the ruled, for he says that long\nbefore man built his cities, in the golden age, there was naught\nbut happiness on earth, for there were no needs. Why? Because\nSaturn, knowing that man could not rule man, without injustice\nfilling forthwith the universe through his whims and vanity, would\nnot allow any mortal to obtain power over his fellow creatures.\nTo do this the god used the same means we use ourselves with regard\nto our flocks. We do not place a bullock or a ram over our bullocks\nand rams, but give them a leader, a shepherd, *i.e., a being\nof a species quite different from their own and of* *a\nsuperior nature. *It is just what Saturn did. He loved mankind\nand placed to rule over it no mortal King or prince but -- \"Spirits\nand genii [[*daimones*]] of a divine nature more excellent\nthan that of man.\"\n\nIt was god, the Logos (the synthesis of the Host) who thus presiding\nover the genii, became the first shepherd and leader of men.*\nWhen the world had ceased to be so governed and the gods retired,\n\"ferocious beasts devoured a portion of mankind.\" \"Left\nto their own resources and industry, inventors then appeared among\nthem successively and discovered fire, wheat, wine; and public\ngratitude deified them . . . .\"(\"*De Legibus*\"*\n*1*, iv.*;* in Crit. and in Politic*).\n\nAnd mankind was right, as fire by friction was the first mystery\nof nature, the first and chief property of matter that was revealed\nto man.\n\n\"*Fruits and grain, unknown to Earth to that day, were\nbrought by* *the *'*Lords of Wisdom*'* for\nthe benefit of those they ruled -- from other* *lokas *(spheres).\n. . \" say the Commentaries. Now: \"The earliest inventions\n(?) of mankind are the most wonderful that the race has ever made.\n. . The *first use of fire, *and the discovery of the methods\nby which it can be kindled; the domestication of animals; and,\nabove all, *the processes by which the various cereals were\nfirst developed *out of some wild grasses (?) -- these are\nall *discoveries with which, in ingenuity and in importance,*\n*no subsequent discoveries may compare. *They are all unknown\nto history -- all lost in the light of an EFFULGENT DAWN.\"\n(\"*Unity of Nature,*\" Argyll.)\n\nThis will be doubted and denied in our proud generation. But if\nit is asserted that there are no grains and fruits *unknown\nto earth, *then we may remind the reader *that wheat has\nnever been found in the wild state: it is* *not a product\nof the earth. *All the other cereals have been traced to their\nprimogenital forms in various species of wild grasses, but wheat\nhas\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The Secret Doctrine explains and expounds that which Plato says,\nfor it teaches that those \"inventors\" were gods and\ndemi-gods (Devas and Rishis) who had become -- some deliberately,\nsome forced to by Karma -- incarnated in man.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 374 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nhitherto defied the efforts of botanists to trace it to its origin.\nAnd let us bear in mind, in this connection, how sacred was that\ncereal with the Egyptian priests; wheat being placed even with\ntheir mummies, and found thousands of years later in their coffins.\nRemember: -- \"The servants of Horus glean the wheat in the\nfield of Aanroo. . . . wheat *seven cubits high.*\"\n(\"*Book of the Dead,*\"* chap. xcix., *33;*\nand clvi., *4.)* The reader is referred to Stanza **VII.,****\n**Verse 3, Book I., wherein this verse is explained in another\nof its meanings, and also to the \"*Book of the* *Dead,*\"\n*chap. cix., *v. 4 *and 5. *\n\n\"I am the Queen of these regions,\" says the Egyptian\nIsis; \"I was the first to reveal to mortals the mysteries\nof wheat and corn. . . . I am she who rises in the constellation\nof the dog . . . (Dog-star) . . . . Rejoice, O Egypt! thou who\nwert my nurse.\" (Book I., chap. **XIV**.**\n\nSirius was called the *dog-star. *It was the star of Mercury\nor Budha, called the great instructor of mankind, before other\nBuddhas.\n\nThe book of the Chinese Y-King, attributes the discovery of agriculture\nto \"the instruction given to men by celestial genii.\"\n\n\"Woe, woe to the men who know nought, observe nought, nor\nwill they see. . . . They are all blind*** since they remain ignorant\nhow much the world is full of various and invisible creatures\nwhich crowd even in the most sacred places\" (*Zohar, Part\nI., col. *177.)\n\nThe \"Sons of God\" *have *existed and *do *exist.\nFrom the Hindu *Brahmaputras and Manasaputras *(Sons of\nBrahma and Mind-born sons) down to the *B*'*ne-aleim\n*of the Jewish Bible, the faith of the centuries and\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This is a direct reference to the esoteric division of man's\nprinciples symbolised by the divine wheat. The legend which inscribes\nthe third Registrar of the papyrus (*Chap. cx. of the *\"*Book\nof the Dead*\")* *states: \"This is the region\nof the *Manes *(disembodied men) *seven cubits high\n-- *to wit: those just translated and supposed to be still\nsevenfold with all their principles, even the body represented\n*astrally* in the Kama-loka or* Hades, *before their\nseparation . . . . . \" and, there is wheat three *cubits\nhigh* for mummies in a *state of perfection*\"\n(*i.e., *those already separated, whose* three *higher\nprinciples are in Devachan \"who are permitted to glean it.\"\nThis region (Devachan) is called \"the land of the re-birth\nof gods,\" and shown to be inhabited by Scheo, Tefnant, and\nSeb. The \"region for the manes seven cubits high,\" (for\nthe yet imperfect mummies), and the region for those \"*in\na state of perfection*\"* *who \"glean wheat*\nthree *cubits high,\" is as clear as possible. The Egyptians\nhad the same esoteric philosophy which is now taught by the cis-Himalayan\nadepts, who, when buried, have corn and wheat placed over them.\n\n** There are Egyptologists who have tried to identify Osiris with\nMenes, which is quite erroneous. Bunsen assigns to Menes an antiquity\nof 5867 years **B.C**., and is denounced for it by\nChristians. But \"Isis-Osiris\" reigned in Egypt before\nthe Dendera Zodiac was painted on the ceiling of that temple,\nand that is over 75,000 years ago!\n\n*** In the text, \"corked up\" or \"screwed up.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 375 \"SONS OF GOD\" PERFECT AND IMPERFECT.\n\n*universal *tradition force reason to yield to such evidence.\nOf what value is* independent criticism *so called, or\n\"internal evidence\" (based usually on the respective\nhobbies of the critics), in the face of the universal testimony,\nwhich never varied throughout the historical cycles? Read esoterically\nthe sixth chapter of Genesis, which repeats the statements of\nthe Secret Doctrine, only changing slightly its form, and drawing\na different conclusion which clashes even with the *Zohar.\n*\"There were giants in the earth in those days; and *also\nafter that *when 'the Sons of *God*'* *(*b*'*ne-aleim*)*\n*\"came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children\nto them, the same became *mighty men *which were of old,\nmen of renown\" (or giants).*\n\nWhat does this sentence \"and also after that\" signify\nunless it means when explained: \"There were giants in the\nearth BEFORE, *i.e*., before the sinless sons of the Third\nRace; and *also after that* when other sons of God, lower\nin nature, inaugurated sexual connection on earth (as Daksha did,\nwhen he saw that his *Manasaputras *would not people the\nearth)\"? And then comes a long break in this chapter vi.\nof Genesis, between verses 4 and 5. For surely, it was not in\nor through the wickedness of the \"mighty men\" . . .\n. men of renown, among whom is placed Nimrod the \"mighty\nhunter before the Lord,\" that \"god saw that the wickedness\nof man *was *great,\" nor in the builders of Babel,\nfor this was *after *the Deluge; but in the progeny of\nthe giants who produced *monstra quaedam de genere giganteo,*\nmonsters from whence sprang the lower races of men, now represented\non earth by a few miserable dying-out tribes and the huge anthropoid\napes.\n\nAnd if we are taken to task by theologians, whether Protestant\nor Roman Catholic, we have only to refer them to their own literal\ntexts. The above quoted verse was ever a dilemma, not alone for\nthe men of science and Biblical scholars, but also for priests.\nFor, as the Rev. Father Peronne puts it: -- \"Either they\n(the B'ne-aleim) were good angels, and in such case how could\nthey fall? Or they were bad (angels) and in this case could not\nbe called *b*'*ne-aleim, *the \"sons of *God.*\"*\n*(*Praelectiones theol. ch. *ii.) This Biblical riddle\n-- \"the real sense of which no author has ever understood,\"\nas candidly confessed by Fourmont** -- can only be explained by\nthe Occult doctrine, through the Zohar to the Western, and the\n*Book of Dzyan *to the Eastern. What the former says we\nhave seen; what the Zohar tells us is this: *B*'*ne-aleim\n*was a name common to the *Malachim *(the good Messengers)\nand to the *Ischin *(\"the lower angels\")*\n*(*Rabbi Parcha*).\n\nWe may add for the benefit of the demonologists that their Satan,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n** Genesis vi*., *v*. 4.\n\n*** Reflections critiques sur l*'*origine des anciens\npeuples.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 376 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n\"the adversary,\" is included in *Job *among the\nsons of God or *b*'*ne-aleim* who visit their father.\"\n(*Chapter i.*)* *But of this later on.\n\nNow the Zohar says that the *Ischin, *the beautiful *B*'*ne-aleim*,\nwere *not *guilty, but mixed *themselves with mortal\nmen because they were sent* *on earth to do so.* (*Book\nof Ruth and Schadash*;* fol. *63,* col. *3;*\nAmsterdam edition*)*. *Elsewhere the same volume shows\nthese *b*'*ne-aleim* belonging to the tenth sub-division\nof the \"Thrones\" (*Zohar, part iii.,* *col.\n*113*. But see also 1st vol. *184). It also explains\nthat the Ischin, \"men-spirits,\" *viri* *spirituales,\n*now that men can see them no longer, help magicians to produce,\nthrough their science, *homunculi *which are not *small\nmen *but \"men *smaller *(in the sense of *inferiority*)*\n*than men.\" Both show themselves under the form that\nthe Ischin had then, *i.e*., gaseous and ethereal. Their\nchief is Azazel.\n\nBut Azazel, whom the Church dogma will associate with Satan, is\nnothing of the kind. Azazel is a *mystery, *as explained\nelsewhere, and it is so expressed in Maimonides, \"*In\nMore Nevochim*\"* *(*chapter xxvi., p. *8).\n\"There is an impenetrable mystery in the narrative concerning\nAzazel.\" And so there is, as Lanci, a librarian to the Vatican\nand one who ought to know, says -- we have quoted him before --\nthat \"this venerable divine name (*nome divino e venerabile*)\nhas become through the pen of Biblical scholars, a *devil,\n*a wilderness, a mountain, and a he-goat\" (*Sagra\nScrittura*).* *Therefore it seems foolish to derive\nthe name as Spencer does, from Ajal (separated) and El (god),\nhence \"one separated from God,\" the **D**EVIL.\nIn the Zohar, Azazel is rather the Sacrificial victim than the\n\"formal adversary of Jehovah,\" as Spencer would have\nit (*II., pp. *14, 29).\n\nThe amount of malicious fancy and fiction bestowed on that \"Host\"\nby various fanatical writers is quite extraordinary. Azazel and\nhis \"host\" are simply the Hebrew \"Prometheus,\"\nand ought to be viewed from the same standpoint. The Zohar shows\nthe *Ischin *chained on the mountain in the desert, allegorically;\nthus simply alluding to those \"spirits\" as being chained\nto the earth during the cycle of incarnation. Azazel (or Azaziel)\nis one of the chiefs of the \"transgressing\" angels in\n*Enoch, *who descending upon Ardis, the top of Mount Armon,\nbound themselves by swearing loyalty to each other. It is said\nthat Azaziel taught men to make swords, knives, shields, to fabricate\nmirrors (?) to make *one see what is behind him* (*viz.,*\n\"*magic mirrors*\").* *Amazarak taught\nall the sorcerers and dividers of roots; Amers taught the solution\nof magic; Barkayal, astrology; Akibeel, the meaning of portents\nand signs; Tamial, astronomy; and Asaradel taught the motion of\nthe moon. \"These seven were the first instructors of the\nFourth man\" (*i.e., *of the *Fourth *Race).\nBut why should allegory be always understood as meaning all that\nits dead-letter expresses?\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 377 THE FALLACIES OF THE TWO CHURCHES.\n\nIt is the symbolical representation of the great struggle between\ndivine wisdom, *nous, *and its earthly reflection, *Psuche,\n*or between Spirit and Soul, in Heaven and on Earth. In Heaven\n--because the divine **M**ONAD had voluntarily exiled\nitself therefrom, to descend, for incarnating purposes, to a lower\nplane and thus transform the animal of clay *into an immortal\ngod. *For, as Eliphas Levi tells us, \"the angels aspire\nto become men; for the perfect man, the man-god, is above even\nangels.\" On Earth -- because no sooner had Spirit descended\nthan it was strangled in the coils of matter.\n\nStrange to say, the Occult teaching reverses the characters; it\nis the anthropomorphous archangel with the Christians, and the\nman-like God with the Hindus, which represent matter in this case;\nand the Dragon, or Serpent, Spirit. Occult symbolism furnishes\nthe key to the mystery; theological symbolics conceal it still\nmore. For the former explains many a saying in the Bible and even\nin the New Testament which have hitherto remained incomprehensible;\nwhile the latter, owing to its dogma of Satan and his rebellion,\nhas belittled the character and nature of its would-be infinite,\nabsolutely perfect god, and created the greatest evil and curse\non earth -- belief in a personal Devil. This mystery is opened\nwith the key to its metaphysical symbolism now restored; while\nthat of theological interpretation shows the gods and the archangels\nstanding as symbols for the dead letter or dogmatic religions,\nand as arrayed against the pure truths of Spirit, naked and unadorned\nwith fancy.\n\nMany were the hints thrown out in this direction in \"Isis\nUnveiled,\" and a still greater number of references to this\nmystery may be found scattered throughout these volumes. To make\nthe point clear once for all: that which the clergy of every dogmatic\nreligion -- pre-eminently the Christian -- points out as Satan,\nthe enemy of God, is in reality, the highest divine Spirit --\n(occult Wisdom on Earth) -- in its naturally antagonistic character\nto every worldly, evanescent illusion, dogmatic or ecclesiastical\nreligions included. Thus, the Latin Church, intolerant, bigoted\nand cruel to all who do not choose to be its slaves; the Church\nwhich calls itself the bride of Christ, and the trustee at the\nsame time of Peter, to whom the rebuke of the Master \"get\nthee behind me Satan\" was justly addressed; and again the\nProtestant Church which, while calling itself Christian, paradoxically\nreplaces the New Dispensation by the old \"Law of Moses\"\nwhich Christ openly repudiated: both these Churches are fighting\nagainst divine Truth, when repudiating and slandering the Dragon\nof esoteric (because *divine*) Wisdom. Whenever anathematizing\nthe Gnostic Solar Chnouphis -- the Agathodaemon -- Christos, or\nthe theosophical Serpent of Eternity, or even the Serpent of Genesis\n-- they\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 378 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nare moved by the same Spirit of dark fanaticism that moved the\nPharisees to curse Jesus by saying to him \"Say we not well\nthou hast a devil?\"\n\nRead the account about Indra (Vayu) in the *Rig-Veda, *the\noccult volume *par excellence *of Aryanism, and then compare\nit with the same in the Puranas -- the exoteric version thereof,\nand the purposely garbled account of the true Wisdom religion.\nIn the Rig Veda Indra is the highest and greatest of the Gods,\nand his Soma-drinking is allegorical of his highly spiritual nature.\nIn the Puranas Indra becomes a profligate, and a regular drunkard\non the Soma juice, in the terrestrial way. He is the conqueror\nof all the \"enemies of the gods\" -- the Daityas, Nagas\n(Serpents), Asuras, all the *Serpent-*gods,* *and\nof Vritri, the Cosmic Serpent. Indra is the St. Michael of the\nHindu Pantheon -- the chief of the *militant *Host. Turning\nto the Bible, we find Satan, one of the \"Sons of God\"\n(*Job. i.* 6), becoming in exoteric interpretation the\nDevil, and the Dragon in its infernal, evil sense. But in the\nKabala (\"*Book* *of Numbers*\") Samael,\nwho is Satan, is shown to be identical with St. Michael, the *slayer\nof the Dragon. *How is this? For it is said that Tselem (the\nimage) reflects alike Michael and Samael *who are one. *Both\nproceed, it is taught, from *Ruach *(Spirit),* Neschamah\n*(Soul) and *Nephesch *(life). In the \"Chaldean\nBook of Numbers\" Samael is the concealed (occult) Wisdom,\nand Michael the higher *terrestrial *Wisdom, both emanating\nfrom the same source but diverging after their issue from *the\nmundane soul, *which on Earth is Mahat (intellectual understanding,\n*or Manas *(the seat of Intellect). They diverge, because\none (Michael) is *influenced *by Neschamah, while the other\n(Samael) remains *uninfluenced. *This tenet was perverted\nby the dogmatic spirit of the Church; which, loathing independent\nSpirit, uninfluenced by the external form (hence by dogma), forthwith\nmade of Samael-Satan (the most wise and spiritual spirit of all)\n-- the adversary of its anthropomorphic God and sensual physical\nman, the DEVIL!\n\n--------\n\n[[This page continued in next section]]\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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