{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/secret-doctrine/vol-2-anthropogenesis/81-the-many-meanings-of-the-war-in-heaven-492.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "vol-2-anthropogenesis",
    "name": "Volume II — Anthropogenesis"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "secret-doctrine",
      "name": "The Secret Doctrine",
      "url": "/sources/secret-doctrine/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 31,
    "slug": "81-the-many-meanings-of-the-war-in-heaven-492",
    "title": "The many meanings of the \"War in Heaven\" ... 492",
    "of": 49,
    "words": 7341,
    "text": "## The many meanings of the \"War in Heaven\" ... 492\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 2, pt 2, ch 18 c\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 492 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n[[This page continued from previous section]]\n\n#### C.\n\n##### THE MANY MEANINGS\nOF THE \"WAR IN HEAVEN.\"\n\nThe Secret Doctrine points out, as a self-evident fact, that Mankind,\ncollectively and individually, is, with all manifested nature,\nthe vehicle (*a*)* *of the breath of One Universal\nPrinciple, in its primal differentiation; and (*b*) of\nthe countless \"breaths\" proceeding from that One **B**REATH\nin its secondary and further differentiations, as Nature with\nits many *mankinds *proceeds downwards toward the planes\nthat are ever increasing in materiality. The primary Breath informs\nthe higher Hierarchies; the secondary -- the lower, on the constantly\ndescending planes.\n\nNow there are many passages in the Bible which prove on their\nface, *exoterically, *that this belief was at one time\n*Universal*;* *and the most convincing are the two\nchapters Ezekiel xxviii. and Isaiah xiv. Christian theologians\nare welcome to interpret both as referring to the great War before\nCreation, the Epos of Satan's rebellion, etc., if they so choose,\nbut the absurdity of the idea is too apparent. Ezekiel addresses\nhis lamentations and reproofs to the King of Tyre; Isaiah -- to\nKing Ahaz, who indulged in the worship of idols, as did the rest\nof the nation, with the exception of a few Initiates (the *Prophets,\n*so called), who tried to arrest it on its way to exotericism,\nor idolatry, which is the same thing. Let the student judge.\n\nIn *Ezekiel* xxviii. it is said, \"Son of Man, say unto\nthe prince of Tyrus, thus saith the Lord God (as we understand\nit, the \"god\" **K**ARMA): Because thine\nheart *is *lifted up, and thou hast said I *am *a\nGod . . . . and yet thou *art *a man . . . . behold I shall\nbring strangers upon thee . . . . and they shall draw their swords\nagainst the beauty of thy wisdom . . . . and they shall bring\nthee down to the pit . . . .\" or Earth-life.\n\nThe origin of the \"prince of Tyrus\" is to be traced\nto, and sought in\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 493 THE REAL MEANING OF THE CHERUB.\n\nthe \"divine Dynasties\" of the iniquitous Atlanteans,\nthe Great Sorcerers (See last Comments, on Stanza **XII**.,\nverses 47-49). There is no metaphor in the words of Ezekiel, but\nactual *history, *this time. For the voice *in*\nthe prophet, the voice of the \"Lord,\" his own Spirit,\nwhich spake unto him, says: -- \"Because thou hast said, 'I\n*am* a God, I sit in the seat of God(s) -- (divine Dynasties),\nin *the midst of the seas*,' yet thou art a man. . . .\n. Behold thou *art *wiser than Daniel; there is no secret\nthat they can hide from thee: with thy wisdom . . . thou hast\nincreased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of\nthy riches. Behold therefore . . . strangers shall draw their\nswords against the beauty of thy wisdom . . . they shall bring\nthee down . . . and thou shalt die the deaths *of them that\nare *slain *in the midst of the seas.*\" (Verses\n3-8.) All such imprecations are not *prophecy, *but simply\n*reminders *of the fate of the Atlanteans, the \"Giants\non Earth.\"\n\nWhat can be the meaning of this last sentence if it is not a narrative\nof the fate of the Atlanteans? Verse 17 saying, \"thine heart\nwas lifted up because of thy beauty,\" may refer to the \"Heavenly\nMan\" in Pymander, or to the Fallen Angels, who are accused\nof having fallen through pride on account of the great beauty\nand wisdom which became their lot. There is no metaphor here,\nexcept in the preconceived ideas of our theologians, perhaps.\nThese verses relate to the Past and belong more to the Knowledge\nacquired at the mysteries of Initiation than to retrospective\nclairvoyance! Says the voice, again: --\n\n\"Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God (in the Satya\nYuga) every precious stone was thy covering . . . . the workmanship\nof thy tabrets and thy pipes *was prepared in thee *in\nthe day *thou was created*. . . *Thou art the anointed\ncherub* . . . thou hast walked up and down in the midst of\nthe stones of fire . . . thou wast perfect in thy ways from the\nday that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. Therefore\nI will cast thee out of the *mountain of God *and destroy\nthee. . . . \"\n\nThe \"Mountain of God\" means the \"Mountain of *the\nGods*\"* or** *Meru, whose representative\nin the Fourth Race was Mount Atlas, the *last form of one of\nthe divine Titans, *so high in those days that the ancients\nbelieved that the heavens rested on its top. Did not Atlas assist\nthe giants in their war against the gods? (Hyginus). Another version\nshows the *fable *as arising from the fondness of Atlas,\nson of Iapetus and Clymene, for astronomy, and from his dwelling\nfor that reason on the highest mountain peaks. The truth is that\nAtlas, \"the mountain of the gods,\" and also the hero\nof that name, are the esoteric symbols of the Fourth Race, and\nhis seven daughters, the Atlantides, are the symbols of its Seven\nSub-races. Mount Atlas, according to all the legends, was three\ntimes as high as it is now; having sunk at two different times.\nIt is of a volcanic origin, and therefore the voice\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 494 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nwithin Ezekiel says: \"I will *bring forth a fire from\nthe midst of thee, *it shall devour thee,\" etc. (v. 18).\nSurely it does not mean, as seems to be the case from the translated\ntexts, that this fire was to be brought from the midst of the\nPrince of Tyrus, or his people, but from Mount Atlas, symbolising\nthe proud race, learned in magic and high in arts and civilization,\nwhose last remnant was destroyed almost at the foot of the range\nof those once gigantic mountains.\n\nTruly, \"thou shalt be a terror, and never *shalt *thou\nbe *any more*\";* as** *the very name of\nthe race and its fate is now annihilated from man's memory. Bear\nin mind, that almost every ancient King and priest was an initiate;\nthat from toward the close of the Fourth Race there had been a\nfeud between the Initiates of the *Right *and those of\nthe *Left *Path; finally, that the garden of Eden is referred\nto by other personages than the Jews of the *Adamic *race,\nsince even Pharaoh is compared to the fairest tree of Eden by\nthis same Ezekiel, who shows \"all the trees of Eden, the\nchoicest and best of Lebanon, . . . comforted in the nether parts\nof the earth . . . ,\" for \"they also went down into\nhell with him\" (Pharaoh)* unto the nether parts, which are\nin fact the bottom of the ocean, whose floor gaped wide to devour\nthe lands of the Atlanteans and themselves. If one bears all this\nin mind and compares the various accounts, then one will find\nout that the whole of chapters xxviii. and xxxi. of Ezekiel relate\nneither to Babylon, Assyria, nor yet Egypt, since none of these\nhave been so destroyed, but simply fell into ruins on the *surface,*\nnot* beneath *the earth -- but indeed to Atlantis and most\nof its nations. And he will see that the \"garden of Eden\"\nof the Initiates was no myth, but a locality now submerged. Light\nwill dawn upon him, and he will appreciate such sentences as these\nat their true esoteric value: \"Thou hast been in Eden; .\n. . thou wast upon the holy mountain of God\" -- for every\nnation had and many still have *holy* mountains: some, Himalayan\nPeaks, others, Parnassus, and Sinai. They were all places of initiation\nand the abodes of the *chiefs *of the communities of ancient\nand even modern adepts. And again: \"Behold, the Assyrian\n(why not Atlantean, Initiate?) was a cedar in Lebanon; . . . *his\nheight was exalted above all the trees*;* *. . . .\nthe cedars in the garden of God could not hide him, . . . so that\nall the trees of Eden . . . . envied him\" (Ezekiel xxxi.\n3-9).\n\nThroughout all Asia Minor, the Initiates were called the \"trees\nof Righteousness,\" and the cedars of Lebanon, as also were\nsome kings of Israel. So were the great adepts in India, but only\nthe adepts of the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The only Pharaoh whom the Bible shows going down into the Red\nSea was the king who pursued the Israelites, and who remained\nunnamed, for very good reasons, perhaps. The story was surely\nmade up from the Atlantean legend.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 495 VARIOUS NAMES FOR INITIATES.\n\nleft hand. When Vishnu Purana narrates that \"the world was\noverrun with trees,\" while the Prachetasas -- who \"passed\n10,000 years of austerity in the vast ocean\" -- were absorbed\nin their devotions, the allegory relates to the Atlanteans and\nthe adepts of the early Fifth Race -- the Aryans. Other \"*trees\n*(adept Sorcerers) spread, and overshadowed the unprotected\nearth; and the people perished . . . unable to labour for ten\nthousand years.\" Then the sages, the Rishis of the Aryan\nrace, called Prachetasas, are shown \"coming forth *from\nthe* *deep,*\"** *and destroying by the\nwind and flame issuing from their mouths, the iniquitous \"trees\"\nand the whole vegetable kingdom; until Soma (the moon), the sovereign\nof the vegetable world, pacifies them by making alliance with\nthe adepts of the *Right *Path, to whom he offers as bride\nMarisha, \"the offspring of the trees.\"** This means\nthat which is given in the Stanzas and Commentaries, and what\nis also given in Part **II**. of Vol. I., \"The\nSacred Island.\" It hints at the great struggle between the\n\"Sons of God\" and the Sons of the Dark Wisdom -- our\nforefathers; or the Atlantean and the Aryan Adepts.\n\nThe whole History of that period is allegorized in the *Ramayana,*\nwhich is the mystic narrative in epic form of the struggle between\nRama -- the first king of the *divine* dynasty of the early\nAryans -- and Ravana, the symbolical personation of the Atlantean\n(Lanka) race. The former were the incarnations of the Solar Gods;\nthe latter, of the lunar Devas. This was the great battle between\nGood and Evil, between white and black magic, for the supremacy\nof the divine forces, or of the lower terrestrial or cosmic powers.\nIf the student would understand better the last statement, let\nhim turn to the *Anugita *episode of the Mahabharata, chapter\nv., where the Brahmana tells his wife, \"I have perceived\nby means of the Self the seat abiding in the Self -- (the seat)\nwhere dwells the Brahman free from the pairs of opposites and\nthe moon, together with the fire (or the sun), upholding (all)\nbeings (as), the mover of the intellectual principle.\" The\nmoon *is* the deity of the mind (Manas) but only on the\nlower plane. \"Manas is dual -- *lunar *in the lower,\n*solar *in its upper portion,\" says a commentary.\nThat is to say, it is attracted in its higher aspect towards Buddhi,\nand in its\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Vishnu Purana, Book I., ch. xv.\n\n** This is pure allegory. The waters are a symbol of wisdom and\nof occult learning. Hermes represented the sacred Science under\nthe symbol of *fire*; the Northern Initiates, under that\nof water. The latter is the production of *Nara*, the \"Spirit\nof God,\" or rather *Paramatman*, the \"Supreme\nSoul,\" says Kulluka Bhatta, Narayana, meaning \"he who\nabides in the deep\" or plunged in the Waters of Wisdom --\n\"water being the body of Nara\" (*Vayu*). Hence\narises the statement that for 10,000 years they remained in austerity\n\"in the vast Ocean\"; and are shown emerging from it.\nEa, the God of Wisdom, is the \"Sublime Fish,\" and Dagon\nor Oannes is the Chaldean man-fish, who emerges from the waters\nto teach wisdom.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 496 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nlower descends into, and listens to the voice of its *animal\n*soul full of selfish and sensual desires; and herein is contained\nthe mystery of an adept's as of a profane man's life, as also\nthat of the *post-mortem *separation of the divine from\nthe animal man. The Ramayana -- every line of which has to be\nread esoterically -- discloses in magnificent symbolism and allegory\nthe tribulations of both man and soul. \"Within the body,\nin the midst of all these life-winds (? principles), which move\nabout in the body, and swallow up one another,* blazes the Vaishvana\nfire** sevenfold, of which 'I' am the goal,\" says the Brahmana.***\n\nBut the chief \"Soul\" is *Manas *or mind; hence,\nSoma, the moon, is shown as making an alliance with the solar\nportion in it, personified as the Prachetasas. But of the seven\nkeys that open the seven aspects of the Ramayana, as of every\nother Scripture, this is only one -- the metaphysical.\n\nThe symbol of the \"Tree\" standing for various Initiates\nwas almost universal. Jesus is called \"the tree of Life,\"\nas also all the adepts of the good Law, while those of the *left\n*Path are referred to as the \"withering trees.\"\nJohn the Baptist speaks of \"the axe\" which \"is\nlaid to the root of the trees\" (Matth. iii. 10); and the\nKing of Assyria's armies are called *trees *(Isaiah x.\n19).\n\nThe true meaning of the Garden of Eden was sufficiently given\nin \"*Isis Unveiled.*\"\n\nThe writer has more than once heard surprise expressed that *Isis*\nshould contain so few of the doctrines now taught. This is quite\nerroneous. For the allusions to such teachings are plentiful,\neven if the teachings themselves were still withheld. The time\nhad not arrived then, as the hour has not struck now *to say\nall. *\"No Atlanteans, or the Fourth Race which preceded\nour Fifth Race, are mentioned in '*Isis Unveiled,*'*\n*\"* *a critic on \"Esoteric Buddhism\"\nwrote one day. I, who wrote *Isis Unveiled, *maintain that\nthe Atlanteans *are *mentioned as our predecessors, namely,\nin Volume I., p. 133, when speaking of the Book of Job. For what\ncan be plainer than this: \"In the original text, instead\nof 'dead things,' it is written dead *Rephaim,* giants,\nor mighty primitive men, from whom 'Evolution' *may one*\n*day trace our present race.*\"* *It is invited\nto do so now, now that this hint is explained quite openly; but\nEvolutionists are as sure to\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This is explained by the able translator of Anugita in a foot-note\n(p. 258) in these words: \"The sense appears to be this; the\ncourse of worldly life is due to the operations of the life-winds\nwhich are attached to the **SELF**, and lead to its\nmanifestations as individual souls.\n\n**\" Vaisvanara (or Vaishvanara) is a word often used to denote\nthe Self\" -- explains Nilakantha. *** Translated by Kashinath\nTrimbak Telang, **M.A**., Bombay.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 497 TRACES OF PRE-HISTORIC STRIFES.\n\ndecline nowadays as they did ten years ago. Science and theology\nare against us: therefore we question both, and have to do so\nin self-defence. On the strength of hazy metaphors scattered throughout\nthe prophets, and in St. John's Revelation, a grand but re-edited\nversion of the Book of Enoch, on these insecure grounds Christian\ntheology built its dogmatic Epos of the War in Heaven. It did\nmore: it used the symbolical visions, intelligible only to the\nInitiates, as pillars upon which to support the whole bulky edifice\nof its religion; and now the pillars have been found very weak\nreeds, and the cunning structure is foundering. The entire Christian\nscheme rests upon these *Jakin *and *Boaz* -- the\ntwo contrary forces of good and evil, Christ and Satan the [[*agathai\nkai kakai dunameis*]]. Take away from Christianity its main\nprop of the Fallen Angels, and the Eden Bower vanishes with its\nAdam and Eve into thin air; and Christ, in the exclusive character\nof the One God and Saviour, and the victim of Atonement for the\nSin of animal-man, becomes forthwith a useless, meaningless myth.\n\nIn an old number of the *Revue Archaeologique *for the\nyear 1845 (p. 41), a French writer, M. Maury, remarks: -- \"This\nuniversal strife between good and bad spirits seems to be only\nthe reproduction of *another more ancient and more terrible\nstrife, *that, according to an ancient myth, took place before\nthe creation of the universe, between the faithful and the rebellious\nlegions.\"\n\nOnce more, it is a simple question of priority. Had John's *Revelation*\nbeen written during the Vedic period, and were not one sure now\nof its being simply another version of the *Book of Enoch *and\nthe Dragon legends of pagan antiquity -- the grandeur and the\nbeauty of the imagery might have biased the critics' opinion in\nfavour of the Christian interpretation of that first war, whose\nbattle field was starry Heaven, and the first slaughterers --\nthe Angels. As the matter stands now, however, one has to trace\nRevelation, event by event, to other and far older visions. For\nthe better comprehension of the Apocalyptic allegories and of\nthe esoteric *epos *we ask the reader to turn to *Revelation,*\nand to read chapter xii., from verse 1 to verse 7.\n\nThis has several meanings, most of which have been found out with\nregard to the astronomical and numerical keys of this universal\nmyth. That which may be given now, is a fragment, a few hints\nas to its secret meaning, as embodying the record of a real war,\nthe struggle between the Initiates of the two schools. Many and\nvarious are the still existing allegories built on that same foundation\nstone. The true narrative, that which gives the full esoteric\nmeaning, is in the Secret books, but the writer has had no access\nto these.\n\nIn the exoteric works, however, the episode of the Taraka war,\nand some esoteric commentaries, may offer a clue perhaps. In every\nPurana\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 498 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe event is described with more or less variations, which show\nits allegorical character.\n\nIn the Mythology of the earliest Vedic Aryans as in the later\n*Puranic* narratives, mention is made of Budha, the \"Wise\";\none \"learned in the *Secret *Wisdom,\" and who\nis the planet Mercury in his euhemerization. The *Hindu Classical\nDictionary *credits Budha with being the author of a hymn\nin the Rig Veda. Therefore, he can by no means be \"a later\nfiction of the Brahmins,\" but is a very old personation indeed.\n\nIt is by inquiring into his genealogy, or theogony, rather, that\nthe following facts are disclosed. As a myth, he is the son of\nTara, the wife of Brihaspati the \"gold coloured,\" and\nof \"Soma\" the (male) Moon, who, Paris-like, carries\nthis new Helen of the Hindu sidereal Kingdom away from her husband,\nwhich causes a great strife and *war* in Swarga (Heaven).\nThe episode brings on a battle between the gods and the Asuras:\nKing Soma, finds allies in Usanas (Venus), the leader of the Danavas;\nand the gods are led by Indra and Rudra, who side with Brihaspati.\nThe latter is helped by Sankara (Siva), who, having had for his\nguru Brihaspati's father, Angiras, befriends his son. Indra is\nhere the Indian prototype of Michael, the Archistrategus and the\nslayer of the \"Dragon's\" angels -- since one of his\nnames is *Jishnu* \"leader of the (celestial) Host.\"\nBoth fight, as some Titans did against other Titans in defence\nof revengeful gods, one -- of Jupiter *tonans *(in India,\nBrihaspati is the planet Jupiter, which is a curious coincidence);\nthe other, in support of the ever-thundering Rudra Sankara. During\nthis war, he is deserted by his body-guard, the storm-gods (Maruts).\nThe story is very suggestive in some of its details.\n\nLet us examine some of them, and seek to discover their meaning.\n\nThe presiding genius, or \"regent\" of the planet Jupiter\nis Brihaspati, the wronged husband. He is the instructor or spiritual\nguru of the gods, who are the representatives of the procreative\npowers. In the Rig Veda, he is called *Brahmanaspati, *a\nname meaning \"the deity in whom *the action of the worshipped\n*upon the gods is personified.\" Hence Brahmanaspati represents\nthe materialization of the *divine grace, *so to say, by\nmeans of ritual and ceremonies, or the exoteric worship.\n\n\"**T**ARA\"* -- his wife -- is on the other\nhand the personification of the powers of one initiated into *Gupta\nVidya *(secret knowledge), as will be shown.\n\n**S**OMA is the moon astronomically; but in mystical\nphraseology, it is also the name of the sacred beverage drunk\nby the Brahmins and the Initiates during their mysteries and sacrificial\nrites. The \"Soma\" plant is the* asclepias acida,\n*which yields a juice from which that mystic beverage,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See Dowson's *Classical Dictionary.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 499 ALLEGORIES ON THE \"WAR IN HEAVEN.\"\n\nthe* Soma *drink, is made. Alone the descendants of the\nRishis, the *Agnihotri *(the fire priests) of the great\nmysteries knew all its powers. But the real property of the true\nSoma was (and *is*)* *to make a new *man *of\nthe Initiate, after he is *reborn, *namely once that he\nbegins to live in his *astral *body (See \"The Elixir\nof Life\"*); for, his spiritual nature overcoming the physical,\nhe would soon snap it off and part even from that etherealized\nform.**\n\nSoma was never given in days of old to the non-initiated Brahman\n-- the simple *Grihasta, *or priest of the exoteric ritual.\nThus Brihaspati -- \"guru of the gods\" though he was\n-- still represented the dead-letter form of worship. It is Tara\n*his wife -- *the symbol of one who, though wedded to dogmatic\nworship, longs for true wisdom -- who is shown as initiated into\nhis mysteries by King *Soma, *the giver of that Wisdom.\nSoma is thus made in the allegory *to carry her away. *The\nresult of this is the birth of Budha -- *esoteric Wisdom --\n*(Mercury, or Hermes in Greece and Egypt). He is represented\nas \"so beautiful,\" that even the husband, though well\naware that Budha is not the progeny of his *dead-letter*\nworship -- claims the \"new-born\" as his Son, the fruit\nof his ritualistic and meaningless forms.*** Such is, *in brief,\none *of the meanings of the allegory.\n\n*War in Heaven *refers to several events of that kind on\nvarious and different planes of being. The first is a purely astronomical\nand cosmical fact pertaining to cosmogony. Mr. John Bentley thought\nthat with the Hindus *war in Heaven *is only a figure referring\nto their calculations of time periods (see Bentley's *Hindu\nAstronomy*)*.*****\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See \"Five Years of Theosophy.\"\n\n** The partaker of *Soma *finds himself both linked to\nhis external body, and yet away from it in his spiritual form.\nThe latter, freed from the former, soars for the time being in\nthe ethereal higher regions, becoming virtually \"as one of\nthe gods,\" and yet preserving in his physical brain the memory\nof what he sees and learns. Plainly speaking, *Soma *is\nthe fruit of the Tree of Knowledge forbidden by the jealous Elohim\nto Adam and Eve or *Yah-ve*, \"lest Man should become\nas one of us.\"\n\n*** We see the same in the modern exoteric religions.\n\n***** \"Historical Views of Hindu Astronomy.*\"*\n*Quoting from the work in reference to Aryachatta, who is\nsaid to give a near approach to the true relation among the various\nvalues for the computations of the value of [[*pi*]], the\nauthor of the \"Source of Measures\" reproduces a curious\nstatement. Mr. Bentley, it is said, \"was greatly familiar\nwith the Hindu astronomical and mathematical knowledge . . . this\nstatement of his then may be taken as authentic: the same remarkable\ntrait, among so many Eastern and ancient nations of *sedulously\nconcealing the arcana of this kind of knowledge, is* *a\nmarked one *among the Hindus. That which was given out to\nbe popularly taught and to be exposed to public inspection, *was\nbut the approximate of a more exact but hidden* *knowledge.\n*And this very formulation of Mr. Bentley will strangely exemplify\nthe assertion; and explained, will show that it (the Hindu *exoteric*\nastronomy and sciences) was derived *from a system exact beyond\nthe European one, *in which Mr. Bentley himself, of [[footnote\ncontinued on following page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 500 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThis served as a prototype, he thinks, for the Western nations\nto build their *war of the Titans *upon. The author is\nnot quite wrong, but neither is he quite right. If the sidereal\nprototype refers indeed to a *pre*-manvantaric period, and\nrests entirely on the Knowledge claimed by the Aryan Initiates\nof the whole programme and progress of cosmogony,* the *war\nof the Titans *is but a legendary and deified copy of the\nreal war that took place in the Himalayan *Kailasa *(heaven)\ninstead of in the depths of Cosmic interplanetary Space. It is\nthe record of the terrible strife between the \"Sons of God\"\nand the \"Sons of the Shadow\" of the Fourth and the Fifth\nRaces. It is on these two events, blended together by legends\nborrowed from the exoteric account of the war waged by the Asuras\nagainst the gods, that every subsequent national tradition on\nthe subject has been built.\n\nEsoterically, the *Asuras, *transformed subsequently into\nevil Spirits and lower gods, who are eternally at war with the\n*great* deities -- are the gods of the Secret Wisdom. In\nthe oldest portions of the Rig Veda, they are the spiritual and\nthe *divine*, the term *Asura *being used for the\nSupreme Spirit and being the same as the great Ahura of the Zoroastrians.\n(See Darmesteter's **V**ENDIDAD). There was a time\nwhen the gods Indra, Agni, and Varuna themselves belonged to the\n*Asuras.*\n\nIn the Aitareya Brahmana, the breath (*asu*)* *of\nBrahma-Prajapati became alive, and from that breath he created\nthe Asuras. Later on, after the war, the Asuras are called the\nenemies of the gods, hence -- \"A-suras,\" the initial\n\"A\" being a negative prefix -- or \"*no*-gods\"\n-- the \"gods\" being referred to as \"Suras.\"\nThis then connects the *Asuras* and their \"Hosts,\"\nenumerated further on, with the \"Fallen Angels\" of the\nChristian Churches, a hierarchy of spiritual Beings to be found\nin every Pantheon of ancient and even modern nations -- from the\nZoroastrian down to that of the Chinaman. They are the sons of\nthe primeval Creative Breath at the beginning of every new Maha\nKalpa, or Manvantara; in the same rank as the Angels who had remained\n\"faithful.\" These *were the allies of Soma *(the\nparent of the *Esoteric* *Wisdom*)* *as against\n*Brihaspati *(representing ritualistic or *ceremonial*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Continued from previous page]] course, trusted as far in advance\nof the Hindu Knowledge, at any time, in any generation.\"\n\nWhich is Mr. Bentley's misfortune, and does not take away from\nthe glory of the ancient Hindu astronomers, who were all Initiates.\n\n* The Secret Doctrine teaches that every event of universal importance,\nsuch as geological cataclysms at the end of one race and the beginning\nof a new one, involving a great change each time in mankind, spiritual,\nmoral and physical -- is pre-cogitated and preconcerted, so to\nsay, in the sidereal regions of our planetary system. Astrology\nis built wholly upon this mystic and intimate connection between\nthe heavenly bodies and mankind; and it is one of the great secrets\nof Initiation and Occult mysteries.\n\n[[Vol. 2, Page]] 501 SARPAS -- SERPENTS -- NAGAS.\n\nworship). Evidently they have been degraded in Space and Time\ninto opposing powers or demons by the ceremonialists, on account\nof their rebellion against hypocrisy, sham-worship, and the dead-letter\nform.\n\nNow what is the real character of all those who fought along with\nthem? They are (1) the* Usanas, *or the \"host\"\nof the planet Venus, become now in Roman Catholicism -- *Lucifer,\n*the genius of the \"morning star\" (see Isaiah xiv.,\n12), the* tsaba, *or army of \"Satan.\" (2) The\n*Daityas *and* Danavas *are the Titans, the demons\nand giants whom we find in the Bible (*Gen. *vi.) -- the\nprogeny of the \"Sons of God\" and the \"Daughters\nof Men.\" Their generic name shows their alleged character,\nand discloses at the same time the secret *animus *of the\nBrahmins: for they are the *Krati-dwishas -- *the \"enemies\nof the sacrifices\" or exoteric *shams. *These are\nthe \"hosts\" that fought against Brihaspati, the representative\nof *exoteric *popular and national religions; and Indra\n-- the god of the *visible *heaven, the firmament, who,\nin the early *Veda, *is the *highest *god of Cosmic\nheaven, the fit habitation for an *extra*-Cosmic and personal\nGod, higher than whom no exoteric worship can ever soar.\n\n(3) Then come the Nagas,* the *Sarpa *(serpents or Seraphs).\nThese, again, show their character by the hidden meaning of their\nglyph. In Mythology they are *semi-divine *beings with\na human face and the tail of a Dragon. They are therefore, undeniably,\nthe Jewish *seraphim *(from *Serapis *and* Sarpa,\n*Serpent); the plural being *saraph, *\"burning,\nfiery\" (See Isaiah, vi. 23). Christian and Jewish angelology\ndistinguishes between the Seraphim and the *Cherubim *or\nCherubs, who come second in order; esoterically, and Kabalistically,\nthey are identical; the *cherubim *being simply the name\nfor the images or likenesses of any of the divisions of the celestial\nhosts. Now, as said before, the Dragons and *Nagas *were\nthe names given to the Initiates-hermits, on account of their\ngreat Wisdom and Spirituality and their living in caves. Thus,\nwhen Ezekiel applies the adjective of *Cherub *to the King\nof Tyre, and tells him that by his *wisdom *and his *understanding\n*there is *no secret *that can be hidden from him (v.\n3, 4, xxviii.), he shows to an Occultist that it is a \"prophet,\"\nperhaps, still a follower of *exoteric *worship, who fulminates\nagainst an *Initiate *of another school and not against\nan imaginary Lucifer, a fallen cherub from the stars, and then\nfrom the garden of Eden. Thus the so-called \"war\" is,\nin one of its many meanings, also an allegorical record of the\nstrife between the two classes of adepts -- of the right and of\nthe left path. There were three classes of Rishis in India, who\nwere\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* *The Nagas *are described by the Orientalists as a mysterious\npeople whose landmarks are found abundantly in India to this day,\nand who lived in *Naga dwipa *one of the *Seven* continents\nor divisions of *Bharatavarsha *(old India), the town of\nNagpur being one of the most ancient cities in the country.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 502 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe earliest adepts known; the royal, or Rajarshis, kings and\nprinces, who adopted the ascetic life; the Devarshis, divine,\nor the sons of Dharma or Yoga; and Brahmarshis, descendants of\nthose Rishis who were the founders of *gotras *of Brahmans,\nor caste-races. Now, leaving the mythical and astronomical keys\nfor one moment aside, the secret teachings show many Atlanteans\nwho belonged to these divisions; and there were strifes and wars\nbetween them, *de facto *and* de jure. *Narada,\none of the greatest Rishis, was a *Devarishi*;* *and\nhe is shown in constant and everlasting feud with Brahma, Daksha,\nand other gods and sages. Therefore we may safely maintain that\nwhatever the *astronomical *meaning of this universally\naccepted legend, its human phase is based on real and historical\nevents, disfigured into a theological dogma only to suit ecclesiastical\npurposes. As above so below. Sidereal phenomena, and the behaviour\nof the celestial bodies in the heavens, were taken as a model,\nand the plan was carried out below, on earth. Thus, space, in\nits abstract sense, was called \"the realm of divine knowledge,\"\nand by the *Chaldees *or Initiates *Ab Soo, *the\nhabitat (or Father, *i.e.*, the source) of knowledge, because\nit is in space that dwell the intelligent Powers which *invisibly\n*rule the Universe.*\n\nIn the same manner and on the plan of the Zodiac in the *upper*\nOcean or the heavens, a certain realm on Earth, an inland sea,\nwas consecrated and called \"the Abyss of Learning\";\ntwelve centres on it in the shape of twelve small islands representing\nthe Zodiacal signs -- two of which remained for ages the \"mystery\nsigns\"** and were the abodes of twelve Hierophants and masters\nof wisdom. This \"sea of knowledge\" or learning*** remained\nfor ages there, where now stretches the Shamo, or Gobi desert.\nIt existed until the last great glacial period, when a\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Not less suggestive are the qualities attributed to Rudra Siva,\nthe great *Yogi,* the forefather of all the Adepts -- in\nEsotericism one of the greatest Kings of the Divine Dynasties.\nCalled \"the Earliest\" and the \"Last,\" he is\nthe patron of the Third, Fourth, and the Fifth Root-Races. For,\nin his earliest character, he is the ascetic *Dig-ambara, *\"clothed\nwith the Elements,\" *Trilochana, *\"the *three*-eyed\";\n*Pancha-anana, *\"the five-faced,\" an allusion\nto the past four and the present fifth race, for, though *five*-faced,\nhe is only \"four-armed,\" as the fifth race is still\nalive. He is the \"God of Time,\" Saturn-Kronos, as his\n*damaru* (drum), in the shape of an hour-glass, shows; and\nif he is accused of having cut off Brahma's fifth head, and left\nhim with only four, it is again an allusion to a certain degree\nin initiation, and also to the Races.\n\n** G. Seiffarth's idea that the signs of the Zodiac were in ancient\ntimes only ten is erroneous. Ten only were known to the profane;\nthe initiates, however, knew them all, *from the time of the\nseparation of mankind into sexes, *whence arose the separation\nof Virgo-Scorpio into two; which, owing to a secret sign added\nand the *Libra *invented by the Greeks, instead of the secret\nname which was not given, made 12. (*Vide Isis Unveiled, *Vol.\n**II**., p. 456.)\n\n*** The above is, perhaps, a key to the Dalai-Lama's symbolical\nname -- the \"Ocean\" lama, meaning the Wisdom Ocean.\nAbbe Huc speaks of it.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 503 THE MYTH OF BEL AND MERODACH.\n\nlocal cataclysm, which swept the waters south and west and so\nformed the present great desolate desert, left only a certain\noasis, with a lake and one island in the midst of it, as a relic\nof the *Zodiacal Ring *on Earth. For ages the watery abyss\n-- which, with the nations that preceded the later Babylonians,\nwas the abode of the \"great mother\" (the terrestrial\npost-type of the \"great mother chaos\" in heaven), the\nparent of Ea (Wisdom), himself the early prototype of Oannes,\nthe man-Fish of the Babylonians -- for ages, then, the \"Abyss\"\nor *Chaos* was the abode of wisdom and not of evil. The\nstruggle of Bel and then of Merodach, the Sun-god, with *Tiamat,\n*the Sea and its Dragon, a \"war\" which ended in\nthe defeat of the latter, has a purely cosmic and geological meaning,\nas well as an historical one. It is a page torn out of the History\nof the Secret and Sacred Sciences, their evolution, growth and\nDEATH -- *for the profane masses. *It relates (*a*)\nto the systematic and gradual drying up of immense territories\nby the fierce Sun at a certain pre-historic period; one of the\nterrible droughts which ended by a gradual transformation of once\nfertile lands abundantly watered into the sandy deserts which\nthey are now; and (*b*) to the as systematic persecution\nof the Prophets of the Right Path by those of the Left. The latter,\nhaving inaugurated the birth and evolution of the sacerdotal castes,\nhave finally led the world into all these exoteric religions,\ninvented to satisfy the depraved tastes of the \"*hoi polloi*\"*\n*and the ignorant for ritualistic pomp and the materialization\nof the ever-immaterial and Unknowable Principle.\n\nThis was a certain improvement on the Atlantean sorcery, the memory\nof which lingers in the remembrances of all the literary and Sanskrit-speaking\nportion of India, as well as in the popular legends. Still it\nwas a parody on, and the desecration of the Sacred Mysteries and\ntheir science. The rapid progress of anthropomorphism and idolatry\nled the early Fifth, as it had already led the Fourth Race, into\nsorcery once more, though on a smaller scale. Finally, even *the\nfour* \"*Adams*\"* *(symbolizing under\nother names the four preceding races) were forgotten; and passing\nfrom one generation into another, each loaded with some additional\nmyths, got at last drowned in that ocean of popular symbolism\ncalled the Pantheons. Yet they exist to this day in the oldest\nJewish traditions, as the *Tzelem, *\"the Shadow-Adam\"\n(the *Chhayas *of our doctrine); the \"model\"\nAdam, the copy of the first, and the \"male and female\"\nof the exoteric genesis (chap. i.); the third, the \"earthly\nAdam\" before the Fall, an androgyne; and the Fourth -- the\nAdam after *his fall, i.e., *separated into sexes, or the\npure Atlantean. The Adam of the garden of Eden, or the forefather\nof our race -- the fifth -- is an ingenious compound of the above\nfour. As stated in *Zohar* (iii., fol. 4, col. 14, Cremona\nEd.) Adam, the FIRST *man*, is not found\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 504 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nnow on earth, he \"is not found in all, below.\" Because,\n\"where does the lower earth come from? *From the chain\nof the Earth, and heaven* *above,*\"* i.e.,\n*from the superior globes, those which precede and are above\nour Earth. \"And there came out from it (the chain) creatures\nof all kinds. Some of them in (solid) skins, some in shells (*Klippoth*)*\n. *. . some in red shells, some in black, some in white, and\nsome of other colours . . . \" (See* Qabbalah*).\n\nAs in the Chaldean Cosmogony of Berosus and the Stanzas just given,\nsome treatises on the Kabala speak of creatures with two faces,\nsome with four, and some with one face: for \"the highest\nAdam did not come down in all the countries, or produce progeny\nand have many wives,\" but is a Mystery.\n\nSo is the Dragon a mystery. Truly, says Rabbi Simeon Ben-Iochai,\nthat to understand the meaning of the Dragon is not given to the\n\"Companions\" (students, or *chelas*)*, *but\nonly to \"the little ones,\" *i.e*., the* perfect\nInitiates.* *\"The work of the beginning the companions\nunderstand; but it is only the little ones who understand the\nparable on the work in the *Principium *by* the mystery\nof the serpent of the Great* *Sea.*\"*** *And\nthose Christians, who may happen to read this, will also understand\nby the light of the above sentence who their \"Christ\"\nwas. For Jesus states repeatedly that he who \"shall not receive\nthe Kingdom of God as a *little child, *he shall not enter\ntherein\"; and if some of his sayings have been meant to apply\nto children without any metaphor, most of what relates to the\n\"little ones\" in the Gospels, related to the *Initiates,\nof whom Jesus was one. *Paul (Saul) is referred to in the\nTalmud as \"the little one.\"\n\nThat \"Mystery of the Serpent\" was this: Our Earth, or\nrather *terrestrial life, *is often referred to in the\nSecret Teachings as the great Sea, \"the sea of life\"\nhaving remained to this day a favourite metaphor. The *Siphrah\nDzeniouta *speaks of primeval chaos and the evolution of the\nUniverse after a destruction (*pralaya*), comparing it\nto an uncoiling serpent: -- \"Extending hither and thither,\nits tail in its mouth, the head twisting on its neck, it is enraged\nand angry. . . It watches and conceals itself. *Every thousand\nDays *it is manifested.\" (I., § 16).\n\n[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Such was the name given in ancient Judea to the Initiates, called\nalso the \"Innocents\" and the \"Infants,\" *i.e*.,\nonce more reborn. This *key *opens a vista into one of\nthe New Testament mysteries; the slaughter by Herod of the 40,000\n\"Innocents.\" There is a legend to this effect, and the\nevent which took place almost a century **B.C.**,\nshows the origin of the tradition blended at the same time with\nthat of Krishna and his uncle Kansa. In the case of the N. T.,\nHerod stands for Alexander Janneus (of Lyda), whose persecution\nand murder of hundreds and thousands of Initiates led to the adoption\nof the Bible story.\n\n** Zohar ii., 34.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 505 THE SACREDNESS OF THE SERPENT.\n\nA commentary on the Puranas says: \"Ananta-Sesha is a form\nof Vishnu, the Holy Spirit of Preservation, and a symbol of the\nUniverse, on which it is supposed to sleep during the intervals\nof the *Days *of Brahma. The seven heads of Sesha support\nthe Universe. . . . \"\n\nSo the Spirit of God \"sleeps,\" is \"breathing\"\n(meracha' pheth') over the Chaos of undifferentiated matter, before\neach new \"Creation.\" (*Siphrah Dzeniouta*)*.\n*Now one \"Day\" of Brahma is composed, as already\nexplained, of *one thousand *Mahayugas; and as each \"Night\"\nor period of rest is equal in duration to this \"day,\"\nit is easy to see to what this sentence in *Siphrah Dzeniouta\n*refers, viz.: -- that the serpent manifests \"once in\na thousand days.\" Nor is it more difficult to see whither\nthe initiated writer of the *Siphrah *is leading us, when\nhe says: \"Its head is broken in the waters of the great sea,\nas it is written: 'Thou dividest the sea by thy strength, thou\nbrakest the *heads *of the *dragons* in the waters'\n\" (lxxiv. 13). It refers to the trials of the Initiates in\nthis physical life, the \"sea of sorrow,\" if read with\none key; it hints at the successive destruction of the seven spheres\nof a chain of worlds in the great sea of space, when read with\nanother key: for every sidereal globe or sphere, every world,\nstar, or group of stars, is called in symbolism \"the Dragon's\nhead.\" But however it may read, the Dragon was never regarded\nas Evil, nor was the Serpent either -- in antiquity. In the metaphors,\nwhether astronomical, cosmical, theogonical or simply physiological,\n*i.e.*, phallic -- the Serpent was always regarded as a\n*divine *symbol. When it is said \"The (Cosmic) Serpent\nwhich runs with 370 leaps\" (*Siphrah Dzeniouta*, §\n33) it means the cyclic periods of the great Tropical year (25,868\nyears), divided in the esoteric calculation into 370 periods or\ncycles, as one solar year is divided into 365 days. And if Michael\nwas regarded by the Christians as the Conqueror of Satan, the\nDragon, it is because in the Talmud this fighting personage is\nrepresented as the Prince of Waters, who had seven subordinate\nSpirits under him -- a good reason why the Latin Church made him\nthe patron Saint of every promontory in Europe. In the Kabala\n(*Siph. Dzen*.)* *the creative Force \"makes\nsketches and spiral lines of his creation *in the* *shape\nof a Serpent.*\"* *It \"holds its tail in its\nmouth,\" because it is the symbol of endless eternity and\nof cyclic periods. Its meanings, however, would require a volume,\nand we must end.\n\nThus the reader may now see for himself what are the several meanings\nof the \"War in Heaven,\" and of the \"great dragon.\"\nThe most solemn and dreaded of church dogmas, the alpha and omega\nof Christian faith, and the pillar of its **F**ALL\nand **A**TONEMENT, dwindles down to a pagan symbol,\nin the many allegories about those prehistoric struggles.\n\n-------\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
    "project_translation": false,
    "license": null,
    "methodology_url": null
  }
}