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    "slug": "vol-2-anthropogenesis",
    "name": "Volume II — Anthropogenesis"
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    "num": 32,
    "slug": "82-xix-is-pleroma-satans-lair-506",
    "title": "XIX. IS PLEROMA SATAN'S LAIR? ... 506",
    "of": 49,
    "words": 6682,
    "text": "## XIX. IS PLEROMA SATAN'S LAIR? ... 506\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 2, pt 2, ch 19\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 506 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n#### § XIX.\n\n##### IS PLEROMA SATAN'S LAIR?\n\n**T**HE subject is not yet exhausted, and has to\nbe examined from still other aspects.\n\nWhether Milton's grandiose description of the three Days' Battle\nof the Angels of Light against those of Darkness justifies the\nsuspicion that he must have heard of the corresponding Eastern\ntradition -- it is impossible to say. Nevertheless, if not himself\nin connection with some Mystic, then it must have been through\nsome one who had obtained access to the secret works of the Vatican.\nAmong these there is a tradition of the \"Beni Shamash\"\n-- the \"children of the Sun\" -- concerning the Eastern\nallegory, with far more minute details *in its triple*\n*version, *than one can get either from the *Book of\nEnoch, *or the far more recent Revelation of St. John about\nthe \"Old Dragon\" and his various Slayers, as just shown.\n\nIt seems inexplicable to find, to this day, authors belonging\nto Mystical Societies who yet continue in their preconceived doubts\nas to the \"alleged\" antiquity of the \"Book of Enoch.\"\nThus, while the author of the \"Sacred Mysteries among the\nMayas and Quiches\" is inclined to see in Enoch an Initiate\nconverted to Christianity (! !) (*vide *p. 16), the English\ncompiler of Eliphas Levi's works -- \"The Mysteries of Magic\"\n-- is also of a like opinion. He remarks that: \"Outside the\nerudition of Dr. Kenealy, no modern scholarship attributes any\nmore remote antiquity to the latter work (the 'Book of Enoch')\nthan the fourth century **B.C**.\" (*Biograph.\nand Critical Essay, p. xxxviii.*)*. *Modern scholarship\nhas been guilty of worse errors than this one. It seems but yesterday\nthat the *greatest *literary critics in Europe denied the\nvery authenticity of that work, together with the Orphic Hymns,\nand even the* Book of Hermes* or* Thot, *until whole\nverses from the latter were discovered on Egyptian monuments and\ntombs of the earliest dynasties. The opinion of Archbishop Laurence\nis quoted elsewhere.\n\nThe \"Old Dragon\" and Satan, now become singly and collectively\nthe symbol of, and the theological term for, the \"Fallen\nAngel,\" is not so described either in *the original Kabala\n*(the Chaldean \"Book of Numbers\") or in the modern.\nFor the most learned, if not the greatest of modern Kabalists,\nnamely Eliphas Levi, describes Satan in the following glowing\nterms: -- \"It is that Angel who was proud enough to believe\nhimself God; brave enough to buy his independence at the price\nof eternal suffering and torture; beautiful enough to have adored\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 507 THE LIVING DEVILS.\n\nhimself in full divine light; strong enough to reign in darkness\namidst agony, and to have built himself a throne on his inextinguishable\npyre. It is the Satan of the Republican and heretical Milton.\n. . . . the prince of anarchy, served by a hierarchy of pure Spirits\n(! ! ) . . . . \"(*Histoire de la Magie, *16-17) This\ndescription -- one which reconciles so cunningly theological dogma\nand the Kabalistic allegory, and even contrives to include a political\ncompliment in its phraseology -- is, when read in the right spirit,\nquite correct.\n\nYes, indeed; it is this grandest of ideals, this ever-living symbol\n-- nay apotheosis -- of self-sacrifice for the intellectual independence\nof humanity; this ever active Energy protesting against Static\nInertia -- the principle to which Self-assertion is a crime, and\nThought and the *Light of Knowledge *odious. It is -- as\nEliphas says with unparalleled justice and irony -- \"this\npretended hero of tenebrous eternities, who, slanderously charged\nwith ugliness, is decorated with horns and claws, which would\nfit far better his implacable tormentor -- it is he who has been\nfinally transformed into a serpent -- the red Dragon.\" But\nEliphas Levi was yet too subservient to his Roman Catholic authorities;\none may add, too jesuitical, to confess that this devil was mankind,\nand never had any existence on earth outside of that mankind.*\n\nIn this, Christian theology, although following slavishly in the\nsteps of Paganism, was only true to its own time-honoured policy.\nIt had to isolate itself, and to assert its authority. Hence it\ncould not do better than turn every pagan deity into a devil.\nEvery bright sun-god of antiquity -- a glorious deity by day,\nand its own opponent and adversary by night, named the Dragon\nof Wisdom, because it was supposed to contain the germs of night\nand day -- has now been turned into the antithetical shadow of\nGod, and has become *Satan *on the sole and unsupported\nauthority of despotic human dogma. After which all these producers\nof light and shadow, all the Sun and the Moon Gods, were cursed,\nand thus the one God chosen out of the many, and Satan, were both\nanthropomorphised. But theology seems to have lost sight of the\nhuman capacity for discriminating and finally analysing all that\nis artificially forced upon its reverence. History shows in every\nrace and even tribe, especially in the Semitic nations, the natural\nimpulse to exalt its own tribal deity above all others to the\nhegemony\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* What *devil* could be possessed of more cunning, craft\nand cruelty than the \"Whitechapel murderer\" \"Jack\nthe Ripper\" of 1888, whose unparalleled blood-thirsty and\ncool wickedness led him to slaughter and mutilate in cold blood\nseven unfortunate and *otherwise *innocent women! One has\nbut to read the daily papers to find in those wife and child-beating,\ndrunken brutes (husbands and fathers!), a *small* percentage\nof whom is daily brought before the courts, the complete personifications\nof the devils of Christian Hell!\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 508 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nof the gods; and proves that the God of the Israelites was such\na *tribal* *God, *and no more, even though the Christian\nChurch, following the lead of the \"chosen\" people, is\npleased to enforce the worship of that one particular deity, and\nto anathematize all the others. Whether originally a conscious\nor an unconscious blunder, nevertheless, it *was* one.\nJehovah has ever been in antiquity only \"a god *among\n*other* Gods,*\" (lxxxii. *Psalm). *The*\nLord *appears to Abraham, and while saying, \"I am the*\nAlmighty God,*\" yet adds, \"I will establish my covenant\nto be a God unto thee\" (Abraham), and unto his *seed after\nhim (Gen. *xvii. 7) -- not unto Aryan Europeans.\n\nBut then, there was the grandiose and ideal figure of Jesus of\nNazareth to be set off against a dark background, to gain in radiance\nby the contrast; *and a darker one the Church could hardly\ninvent. *Lacking the Old Testament symbology, ignorant of\nthe real connotation of the name of Jehovah -- the rabbinical\nsecret substitute for the ineffable and unpronounceable name --\nthe Church mistook the cunningly fabricated shadow for the reality,\nthe anthropomorphized *generative* symbol for the one Secondless\nReality, the ever unknowable cause of all. As a logical sequence\nthe Church, for purposes of duality, had to invent an anthropomorphic\nDevil -- created, as taught by her, by God himself. Satan has\nnow turned out to be the monster fabricated by the \"Jehovah-Frankenstein,\"\n-- his father's curse and a thorn in the divine side -- a monster,\nthan whom no earthly Frankenstein could have fabricated a more\nridiculous bogey.\n\nThe author of \"New Aspects of Life\" describes the Jewish\nGod very correctly from the Kabalistic stand-point as \"the\nSpirit of the Earth, which had revealed itself to the Jew as Jehovah\"\n(*p*. 209). \"It was that Spirit again who, after the\ndeath of Jesus, assumed his form and personated him as the risen\nChrist\" -- the doctrine of Cerinthius and several Gnostic\nsects with slight variation, as one can see. But the author's\nexplanations and deductions are remarkable: \"None knew .\n. . better than Moses . . . and so well as he how great was the\npower of those (gods of Egypt) with whose priests he had contended,\"\nhe says . . . \"the gods of which Jehovah is claimed to be\nthe God\" (by the Jews only). \"What were these gods,\nthese *Achar *of which Jehovah, the* Achad, *is\nclaimed to be the God . . . by overcoming them?\" the author\nasks; to which our Occultism answers: \"those whom the Church\nnow calls the *Fallen Angels *and collectively *Satan,*\nthe* Dragon, *overcome, if we have to accept *her*\ndictum, by Michael and the Host, that Michael being simply Jehovah\nhimself, one of the subordinate Spirits at best.\" Therefore,\nthe author is again right in saying: \"The Greeks believed\nin the existence of . . . *daimons. *But . . . they were\nanticipated by the Hebrews, who held *that*\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 509 JEHOVAH, A PERSONATING SPIRIT.\n\n*there was a class of personating spirits *which they designated\n*demons,* 'personators.' Admitting with Jehovah, who expressly\nasserts it, the existence of other gods, which were personators\nof the One God, were these other gods simply a higher class of\npersonating spirits, which had acquired and exercised greater\npowers? And is not personation *the Key* *to the mystery\nof the Spirit state? *But once granting this position, *how\nare we to know that Jehovah was not a personating Spirit, *a\nSpirit which arrogated to itself that it was, and thus became,\nthe personator of the one unknown and unknowable God? Nay, how\ndo we know that the Spirit calling itself Jehovah, in arrogating\nto itself his attributes did not thus cause its own designation\nto be imputed to the One who is in reality as nameless as incognizable?\"\n(*pp*. 144-145.)\n\nThen the author shows \"that the Spirit Jehovah *is *a\npersonator\" on its own admission. It acknowledged to Moses\n\"that it had appeared to the patriarchs as *the God Shaddai\"*\n. . . . and \"the *god Helion*\"* . . . . *With\nthe same breath it assumed the name of Jehovah; and it is on the\nfaith of the assertion of this personator that the names *El,\nEloah,* *Elohim,* and* Shaddai, *have been read\nand interpreted in juxtaposition with Jehovah as \"the Lord\nGod Almighty.\" Then when the name Jehovah became ineffable\n. . . . the designation *Adonai, *\"Lord\" was\nsubstituted for it, and\" . . . . it was owing to this substitution\nthat the 'Lord' passed from the Jewish to the Christian 'Word'\nand 'World' as a designation of God\" (*p*. 146). And\nhow are we to know, the author may add, that Jehovah was not many\nspirits personating even that seemingly one -- *Jod* or\nJod-He?\n\nBut if the Christian Church was the first to make the existence\nof Satan a dogma, it was because, as shown in *Isis, *the\nDevil -- the powerful *enemy of God *(?* *! !) had\nto become the corner stone of the pillar of the Church. For, as\na Theosophist, M. Jules Baissac, truly observes in his *\"Satan\nou le Diable\"** *(*p. *9): \"Il fallait\neviter de paraitre autoriser le dogme du double principe en faisant\nde ce Satan createur une puissance reelle, et pour expliquer le\nmal originel, on profere contre Manes l'hypothese d'une permission\nde l'unique tout Puissant.\"* The choice and policy were unfortunate,\nanyhow. Either the personator of the lower god of Abraham and\nJacob ought to have been made entirely distinct from the mystic\n\"Father\" of Jesus, or -- the \"Fallen\" Angels\nshould have been left unslandered by further fictions.\n\nEvery god of the Gentiles is connected with, and closely related\nto,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* After the polymorphic Pantheism of some Gnostics came the esoteric\n*dualism* of Manes, who was accused of personifying *Evil*\nand creating of the Devil a God -- rival of God himself. We do\nnot see that the Christian Church has so much improved on that\nexoteric idea of the Manicheans, for she calls God her King of\nLight, and Satan, the King of Darkness, to this day.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 510 THE SECRET DOCTRINE\n\nJehovah -- the *Elohim*; for they are all One *Host*,\nwhose units differ only in name in the esoteric teachings. Between\nthe \"Obedient\" and the \"Fallen\" Angels there\nis no difference whatever, except in their respective functions,\nor rather in the inertia of some, and the activity of others among\nthose \"Dhyan Chohans\" or *Elohim* who were \"*commissioned\nto create*,\" *i.e*., to fabricate the manifested\nworld out of the eternal material.\n\nThe Kabbalists say that the true name of Satan is that of Jehovah\nplaced upside down, for \"Satan is not a black god but the\nnegation of the white deity,\" or the *light of Truth*.\nGod is light and Satan is the necessary darkness or *shadow*\nto set it off, without which pure light would be invisible and\nincomprehensible.* \"For the initiates,\" says Eliphas\nLevi, \"the devil is not a person but a creative Force, for\nGood as for Evil.\" They (the Initiates) represented this\nForce, which presides at physical generation, under the mysterious\nform of God *Pan* -- or Nature: whence the horns and hoofs\nof that mythical and symbolic figure, as also the Christian \"goat\nof the Witches' Sabbath.\" With regard to this too, Christians\nhave imprudently forgotten that the goat was also the victim selected\nfor the atonement of all the sins of Israel, that the *scape-goat*\nwas indeed the sacrificial martyr, the symbol of the greatest\nmystery on earth -- the *Fall* into generation. Only the\nJews have long forgotten the real meaning of their (to the non-initiated)\nridiculous hero, selected from the drama of life in the great\nmysteries enacted by them in the desert; and the Christians never\nknew it.\n\nEliphas Levi seeks to explain the dogma of his Church by paradoxes\nand metaphors, but succeeds very poorly in the face of the many\nvolumes written by pious Roman Catholic demonologists under the\napprobation and auspices of Rome, in this nineteenth century of\nours. For the true Roman Catholic, the devil or Satan is *a\nreality*; the drama enacted in the sidereal light according\nto the seer of Patmos -- who desired, perhaps, to improve upon\nthe narrative in the \"Book of Enoch\" -- is as real,\nand as historical a fact as any other allegory and symbolical\nevent in the Bible. But the Initiates give an explanation\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* To quote in this relation Mr. Laing in his admirable work \"Modern\nScience and Modern Thought\" (*p*. 222, 3*rd Ed.*):\n\"From this dilemma (existence of evil in the world) there\nis no escape, unless we give up altogether the idea of an anthropomorphic\ndeity, and adopt frankly the Scientific idea of a First Cause,\ninscrutable and past finding out; and of a universe whose laws\nwe can trace, but of whose real essence we know nothing, *and\ncan only suspect, or faintly discern a fundamental law which may\nmake the polarity of good and evil a necessary condition of existence*.\"\nWere Science to know \"the real essence,\" instead of\nknowing nothing of it, the faint suspicion would turn into the\ncertitude of the existence of *such a law*, and the knowledge\nthat this law is connected with Karma.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 511 AKASA, THE \"MYSTERIUM MAGNUM.\"\n\nwhich differs from that given by Eliphas Levi, whose genius and\ncrafty intellect had to submit to a certain compromise dictated\nto him from Rome.\n\nThus, the true and *uncompromising *Kabalists admit that,\nfor all purposes of Science and philosophy, it is enough that\nthe profane should know that the great magic agent called by the\nfollowers of the Marquis de St. Martin -- the Martinists -- astral\nlight, by the mediaeval Kabalists and Alchemists the Sidereal\nVirgin and the *Mysterium Magnum, *and by the Eastern Occultists\nAEther, the reflection of *Akasa -- *is that which the\nChurch calls *Lucifer. *That the Latin scholastics have\nsucceeded in transforming the universal soul and Pleroma, the\n*vehicle of Light *and the receptacle of all the forms,\na force spread throughout the whole Universe, with its direct\nand indirect effects, into Satan and his works, is no news to\nany one. But now they are prepared to give out to the above-mentioned\nprofane even the secrets hinted at by Eliphas Levi without *adequate*\n*explanation; *for the latter's policy of veiled revelations\ncould only lead to further superstition and misunderstanding.\nWhat, indeed, can a student of Occultism, a *beginner, *gather\nfrom the following highly poetical sentences of Eliphas Levi,\nas apocalyptic as the writings of any of the Alchemists?\n\n*\"Lucifer, *the Astral Light . . . . is an intermediate\nforce existing in all creation, it serves to create and to destroy,\nand the Fall of Adam was an erotic intoxication which has rendered\nhis generation a slave to this fatal light . . . every sexual\npassion that overpowers our senses is a whirlwind of that light\nwhich seeks to drag us towards the abyss of death, Folly. Hallucinations,\nvisions, ecstasies are all forms of a very dangerous excitation\ndue to this *interior* *phosphorus *(?)*. *Thus\nlight, finally, is of the nature of fire, the intelligent use\nof which warms and vivifies, and the excess of which, on the contrary,\ndissolves and annihilates. Thus man is called upon to assume a\nsovereign empire over that (astral) light and conquer thereby\nhis immortality, and is threatened at the same time with being\nintoxicated, absorbed, and eternally destroyed by it. This light,\ntherefore, inasmuch as it is devouring, revengeful, and fatal,\nwould thus really be hell-fire, the serpent of the legend; the\ntormented errors of which it is full, the tears and the gnashing\nof teeth of the abortive beings it devours, the phantom of life\nthat escapes them, and seems to mock and insult their agony, all\nthis would be the devil or Satan indeed.\" (*Histoire de\nla Magie, p. *197).\n\nThere is no *wrong *statement in all this; nothing save\na superabundance of ill-applied metaphors, as in the application\nof Adam -- a *myth* -- to the illustration of the astral\neffects. *Akasa -- *the astral light* -- can be defined\nin a few words; it is the universal Soul, the Matrix of the Universe,\nthe \"Mysterium Magnum\" from which all that exists is\nborn by separation or *differentiation. *It* *is\nthe cause of existence; it\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n**Akasa *is* not *the Ether of Science, as some\nOrientalists translate it.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 512 THE SECRET DOCTRINE\n\nfills all the infinite Space; *is Space itself*, in one\nsense, or both its *Sixth* and Seventh principles.* But\nas the finite in the Infinite, as regards manifestation, this\nlight must have its shadowy side -- as already remarked. And as\nthe infinite can never be manifested, hence the finite world has\nto be satisfied with the *shadow alone*, which its actions\ndraw upon humanity and which men attract *and force to activity*.\nHence, while it is the *universal Cause* in its unmanifested\nunity and infinity, the Astral light becomes, with regard to Mankind,\nsimply the effects of the causes produced by men in their sinful\nlives. It is not its bright denizens --- whether they are called\nSpirits of Light or Darkness -- that produce Good or Evil, but\nmankind itself that determines the unavoidable action and reaction\nin the great magic agent. It is mankind which has become the \"Serpent\nof Genesis,\" and thus causes daily and hourly the Fall and\nsin of the \"Celestial Virgin\" -- which thus becomes\nthe Mother of gods and devils at one and the same time; for she\nis the ever-loving, beneficent deity to all those who stir her\n*Soul and heart*, instead of attracting to themselves her\nshadowy manifested essence, called by Eliphas Levi -- \"the\nfatal light\" which kills and destroys. Humanity, in its units,\ncan overpower and master its effects; but only by the holiness\nof their lives and by producing good causes. It has power only\non the manifested *lower* principles -- the shadow of the\nUnknown and Incognizable Deity in Space. But in antiquity and\n*reality*, Lucifer, or *Luciferus*, is the name\nof the angelic Entity presiding over the *light of truth*\nas over the light of the day. In the great Valentinian gospel\n*Pistis Sophia* (§ 361) it is taught that of the three\nPowers emanating from the Holy names of the Three [[*Tridunameis*]],\nthat of Sophia (the Holy Ghost according to these gnostics --\nthe most cultured of all), resides in the planet Venus or Lucifer.\n\nThus to the profane, the Astral Light may be God and Devil at\nonce --\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Says Johannes Tritheim, the Abbot of Spanheim, the greatest\nastrologer and Kabalist of his day: -- \"The art of divine\nmagic consists in the ability to perceive the essence of things\nin the light of nature (astral light), and by using the soul-powers\nof the spirit to produce material things from the unseen universe,\nand in such operations the Above and the Below must be brought\ntogether and made to act harmoniously. The spirit of Nature (astral\nlight) is a unity, creating and forming everything, and acting\nthrough the instrumentality of man it may produce wonderful things.\nSuch are accomplished, if you learn to know yourself. You will\nknow it by the power of the spirit that is in yourself, and accomplish\nit by mixing your spirit with the essence that comes out of yourself.\nIf you wish to succeed in such a work you must know how to separate\nSpirit and Life in Nature, and, moreover, to separate the astral\nsoul in yourself and to make it tangible, and then the substance\nof the soul will appear visibly and tangibly rendered objective\nby the power of the spirit.\" -- (Quoted in Dr. Hartman's\n\"Paracelsus.\")\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 513 MIND, THE QUICKENING SPIRIT.\n\n*Demon est Deus inversus: *that is to say, through every\npoint of Infinite Space thrill the magnetic and electrical currents\nof *animate Nature, *the life-giving and death-giving waves,\nfor death on earth becomes life on another plane. *Lucifer\n*is divine and terrestrial light, the \"Holy Ghost\"\nand \"Satan,\" at one and the same time, *visible *Space\nbeing truly filled with the differentiated Breath invisibly; and\nthe Astral Light, the manifested effects of the two who are one,\nguided and attracted by ourselves, is the *Karma *of humanity,\nboth a personal and impersonal entity: personal, because it is\nthe mystic name given by St. Martin to the Host of divine Creators,\nguides and rulers of this planet; *impersonal,* as the\nCause and effect of universal Life and Death.\n\nThe *Fall *was the *result of man's knowledge, *for\nhis \"eyes were opened.\" Indeed, he was taught Wisdom\nand the hidden knowledge by the \"Fallen Angel,\" for\nthe latter had become from that day his *Manas, *Mind and\nSelf-consciousness. In each of us that golden thread of continuous\nlife -- periodically broken into active and passive cycles of\nsensuous existence on Earth, and super-sensuous in Devachan --\n*is* from the beginning of our appearance upon this earth.\nIt is the *Sutratma,* the luminous thread of immortal *impersonal\n*monadship, on which our earthly lives or evanescent *Egos\n*are strung as so many beads -- according to the beautiful\nexpression of Vedantic philosophy.\n\nAnd now it stands proven that Satan, or the Red *Fiery *Dragon,\nthe \"Lord of Phosphorus\" (brimstone was a theological\nimprovement), and *Lucifer, *or \"Light-Bearer,\"\nis in us: it is our *Mind -- *our tempter and Redeemer,\nour intelligent liberator and Saviour from pure animalism. Without\nthis principle -- the emanation of the very essence of the pure\ndivine principle *Mahat *(Intelligence), which radiates\ndirect from the *Divine* *mind *-- we would be surely\nno better than animals. The first man Adam was made only a *living\nsoul *(nephesh), the last Adam was made a *quickening Spirit*:\n*--* *says Paul, his words referring to the building\nor *Creation *of man. Without this *quickening*\nspirit, or *human Mind *or soul, there would be no difference\nbetween man and beast; as there is none, in fact, between animals\nwith respect to their actions. The tiger and the donkey, the hawk\nand the dove, are each one as pure and as innocent as the other,\nbecause *irresponsible. *Each follows its instinct, the\ntiger and the hawk killing with the same unconcern as the donkey\neats a thistle, or the dove pecks at a grain of corn. If the Fall\nhad the significance given to it by theology; if that\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The real original text of I Corinthians, rendered Kabalistically\nand esoterically would read (*in Chap.* xv*., verses\n*44 *and* 45): \"It is sown a *soul body *(not\n'natural' body), it is raised a *spirit *body.\" St.\nPaul was an Initiate, and his words have quite a different meaning\nwhen read esoterically. The body \"is sown in *weakness\n*(passivity); it is raised in power\" (43) -- or in spirituality\nand intellect.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 514 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nfall occurred as a result of an act never intended by nature,\n-- a* sin,* how about the animals? If we are told that\nthey procreate their species in consequence of that same \"original\nsin,\" for which God cursed the earth -- hence everything\nliving on it -- we will put another question. We are told by theology,\nas by Science, that the animal was on earth far earlier than man?\nWe ask the former: How did it *procreate its species, *before\nthe fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, of the Good and the Evil,\nhad been plucked off? As said: \"The Christians -- far less\nclear-sighted than the great Mystic and Liberator whose name they\nhave assumed, whose doctrines they have misunderstood and travestied,\n*and whose memory they have blackened by their deeds -- *took\nthe Jewish Jehovah as he was, and of course strove vainly to reconcile\nthe *Gospel of Light and Liberty *with the Deity of Darkness\nand Submission.\" (*\"War in Heaven.\"*)***\n\nBut, it is sufficiently proven now that all the *soi-disant\n*evil Spirits who are credited with having made war on the\ngods, are identical as personalities; moreover, that all the ancient\nreligions taught the same tenet save the final conclusion, which\nlatter differs from the Christian. The seven primeval gods had\nall a dual state, one essential, the other accidental. In their\nessential state they were all the \"Builders\" or *Fashioners,\n*the Preservers and the rulers of this world, and in the accidental\nstate, clothing themselves in visible corporeality, they descended\non the earth and reigned on it as Kings and Instructors of the\nlower Hosts, who had incarnated once more upon it as men.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* By Godolphin Mitford, later in life, Murad Ali Bey. Born in\nIndia, the son of a Missionary, G. Mitford was converted to Islam,\nand died a Mahomedan in 1884. He was a most extraordinary Mystic,\nof a great learning and remarkable intelligence. But he left the\nRight Path and forthwith fell under Karmic retribution. As well\nshown by the author of the article quoted \"The followers\nof the defeated Elohim, first massacred by the victorious Jews\n(the Jehovites), and then persuaded by the victorious Christians\nand Mohamedans, continued nevertheless. . . Some of these scattered\nsects have lost even the tradition of the true rationale of their\nbelief -- to worship in secrecy and mystery the Principle of Fire,\nLight, and Liberty. Why do the Sabean Bedouins (avowedly Monotheists\nwhen dwelling in the Mohamedan cities) in the solitude of the\ndesert night yet invoke the starry 'Host of Heaven'? Why do the\nYezidis, the 'Devil Worshippers,' worship the 'Muluk-Taoos' --\nThe 'Lord Peacock' -- the emblem of pride and of hundred-eyed\nintelligence (and of Initiation also), which was expelled from\nheaven with Satan, according to an old Oriental tradition? Why\ndo the Gholaites and their kindred Mesopotamo-Iranian Mohamedan\nSects believe in the 'Noor Illahee' -- the Light of the Elohim\n-- transmitted in *anastasis *through a hundred Prophet\nLeaders? It is because they have continued in ignorant superstition\nthe traditional religion of the 'Light Deities whom Jahveh overthrew'\n(is *said *to have overthrown rather); for by overthrowing\n*them* he would have overthrown himself. The'Muluk-Taoos'\n-- is *Maluk *-- 'Ruler' as is shown in the foot-note.\nIt is only a new form of Moloch, Melek, Molech, MaIayak, and *Malachim*\"*\n-- *Messengers, Angels, etc.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 515 THE LOGOS AND SATAN ARE ONE.\n\nThus, esoteric philosophy shows that man is truly the manifested\ndeity in both its aspects -- good and evil, but theology cannot\nadmit this philosophical truth. Teaching the dogma of the Fallen\nAngels in its dead-letter meaning, and having made of Satan the\ncorner-stone and pillar of the dogma of redemption -- to do so\nwould be suicidal. Having once shown the rebellious angels *distinct\nfrom God and the Logos *in their personalities, the admission\nthat the downfall of the *disobedient* Spirits meant simply\ntheir fall into generation and matter, would be equivalent to\nsaying that God and Satan were identical. For since the **L**OGOS\n(or God) is the aggregate of that once divine Host accused of\nhaving fallen, it would follow that the Logos and Satan are one.\n\nYet such was the real philosophical view of the now disfigured\ntenet in antiquity. The *Verbum, *or the \"Son,\"\nwas shown in a dual aspect by the Pagan Gnostics -- in fact, he\nwas a *duality *in full *unity. *Hence, the endless\nand various national versions. The Greeks had Jupiter, the son\nof Chronos, the Father, who hurls him down into the depths of\nKosmos. The Aryans had Brahma (in later theology) precipitated\nby Siva into the Abyss of Darkness, etc., etc. But the fall of\nall these Logoi and Demiurgi from their primitive exalted position,\nhad in all cases one and the same esoteric signification in it;\nthe *curse -- *in its philosophical meaning -- of being\nincarnated on this earth; an unavoidable rung on the ladder of\ncosmic evolution, a highly philosophical and fitting Karmic law,\nwithout which the presence of Evil on Earth would have to remain\nfor ever a closed mystery to the understanding of true philosophy.\nTo say, as the author of the* Esprits Tombes des Paiens *(p.\n347) does, that since \"Christianity is made to rest on two\npillars, that of evil ([[*ponerou*]]), and of good [[*Iagathou*]];\non two forces, in short, [[*Iagathau kai kakai dunomeis*]]:\nhence, if we suppress the punishment of the *evil forces, *the\nprotecting mission of the good Powers will have neither value\nnor sense\" -- is to utter the most unphilosophical absurdity.\nIf it fits in with, and explains Christian dogma, it obscures\nthe facts and truths of the primitive wisdom of the ages. The\ncautious hints of Paul have all the true esoteric meaning, and\nit took centuries of scholastic casuistry to give them the present\nfalse colouring in their interpretation. The *verbum* and*\nLucifer *are one in their dual aspect; and the \"Prince\nof the Air\" *(princeps aeris hujus) *is not the \"God\nof *that* period,\" but an everlasting principle. If\nthe latter was said to be ever *circling *around the world\n-- *qui circumambulat terram -- *the great Apostle referred\nsimply to the never-ceasing cycles of human incarnations, in which\nevil will ever predominate unto the day when Humanity is redeemed\nby the true divine Enlightenment which gives the correct perception\nof things.\n\nIt is easy to disfigure vague expressions written in dead and\nlong-\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 516 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nforgotten languages, and palm them off as truths and *revealed\n*facts on the ignorant masses. The identity of thought and\nmeaning is the one thing that strikes the student in all the religions\nwhich mention the tradition of the fallen Spirits, and in those\ngreat religions there is not one that fails to mention and describe\nit in one or another form. Thus, Hoang-Ty, the great Spirit, sees\nhis Sons, who had acquired *active* *wisdom, *falling*\ninto the valley of Pain. *Their leader, the **F**LYING\n**D**RAGON, having drunk of the forbidden ambrosia,\n*fell to the Earth *with his Host (Kings). In the *Zend\nAvesta, *Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), surrounding himself with\nfire (the \"Flames\" -- *vide supra*)* *seeks\nto conquer the Heavens,* when Ahura Mazda, descending from the\n*solid* Heaven he inhabits, to the help of the Heavens\n*that revolve *(in* time* *and space, *the\nmanifested worlds of cycles including those of incarnation), and\nthe *Amshaspends, *\"the seven bright Sravah,\"\naccompanied by their stars, fight Ahriman, and the vanquished\nDevas fall to the Earth along with him. (*Acad. des Inscrip.,\n*Vol. xxxix., p. 690; see *Vendidad, *Farg. xix., iii.)\nIn the Vendidad the Daevas are called \"evil-doing,\"\nand shown to rush away \"into the depths of the world of hell,\"\nor matter. (47.) This is an allegory showing the *Devas*\n*compelled to incarnate, *once that they have separated\nthemselves from their parent essence, or, in other words, after\nthe unit had become a multiple, after differentiation and manifestation.\n\nTyphon the Egyptian, Python, the Titans, the Suras and the Asuras,\nall belong to the same legend of Spirits peopling the Earth. They\nare not \"*demons* commissioned to create and organize\nthis visible universe,\" but fashioners (the \"architects\")\nof the worlds, and the progenitors of man. They are the *Fallen\n*angels, metaphorically -- \"the true mirrors of the Eternal\nWisdom.\"\n\nWhat is the absolute and complete truth as well as the esoteric\nmeaning about this universal myth? The whole essence of truth\n*cannot* *be transmitted from mouth to ear. *Nor\ncan any pen describe it, not even that of the recording Angel,\nunless man finds the answer in the sanctuary of his own heart,\nin the innermost depths of his divine intuitions. It is the great\n**SEVENTH MYSTERY **of Creation, the first and the\nlast; and those who read St. John's Apocalypse may find its shadow\nlurking under the *seventh seal*. . . . It can be represented\nonly in its apparent, objective form, like the eternal riddle\nof the Sphinx. If the latter threw herself into the sea and perished,\nit is not because OEdipus *had* unriddled the secret of\nthe ages, but because, by anthropomorphizing the ever-spiritual\nand the subjective, he had\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* So does every Yogi and even Christian: one *must take the\nKingdom of heaven by* *violence -- *we are taught.\nWhy should such a desire make of any one a devil?\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 517 BARESMA, THE DIVINE TWIG.\n\ndishonoured the great truth for ever. Therefore, we can give it\nonly from its philosophical and intellectual planes, unlocked\nwith three keys respectively -- for the last four keys of the\nseven that throw wide open the portals to the mysteries of Nature\nare in the hands of the highest Initiates, and cannot be divulged\nto the masses at large -- not in this, our century, at any rate.\n\nThe dead letter is everywhere the same. The dualism in the Mazdean\nreligion, was born from exoteric interpretation. The holy \"Airyaman,\"\n\"the bestower of weal,\" invoked in the prayer called\nAiryama-ishyo, is the divine aspect of Ahriman, \"the deadly,\nthe Dae of the Daevas\" (Farg. xx., 43), and Angra Mainyu\nis the dark material aspect of the former. \"Keep us from\nthe Hater, O Mazda and Armaita Spenta\" (Vendidad Sadah),\nhas, as a prayer and invocation, an identical meaning with \"Lead\nus not into temptation,\" and is addressed by man to the terrible\n*Spirit of duality *in man himself. For (Ahura) Mazda is\nthe spiritual, divine, and purified man, and Armaita Spenta, the\nSpirit of the Earth or materiality, is the same as Ahriman or\nAngra Mainyu in one sense.\n\nThe whole of the Magian or Mazdean literature -- or what remains\nof it -- is magical, occult, hence allegorical and symbolical\n-- even its \"mystery of the law\" (see the Gatha in Yasna**\nXLIV.**). Now the Mobed and the Parsi keep their eye on\nthe *Baresma *during the sacrifice, the divine twig off\nOrmazd's \"tree\" having been transformed into a bunch\nof metallic rods; and wonder why neither the Amesha-Spentas, nor\n\"the high and beautiful golden Haomas, nor even their Vohu-Mano\n(good thoughts), nor their Rata (sacrificial offering),\"\nhelp them much. Let them meditate on the \"tree of Wisdom,\"\nand study, assimilating one by one, the fruits thereof. The way\nto the tree of eternal life, the white Homa, the Gaokerena, is\nthrough one end of the earth to the other; and Haoma is in heaven\nas it is on earth. But to become once more a priest of it, and\na *healer*, man must heal himself before he can heal others.\n\nThis proves once more that the so-called \"myths,\" in\norder to be at least approximately dealt with in any degree of\njustice, have to be closely examined from all their aspects. In\ntruth, every one of the *seven* *Keys *has to be\nused in its right place, and never mixed with the others, if we\nwould unveil the entire cycle of mysteries. In our day of dreary\nsoul-killing materialism, the ancient priest Initiates have become,\nin the opinion of our learned generations, the synonyms of clever\nimpostors, kindling the fires of superstition in order to obtain\nan easier sway over the minds of men. This is an unfounded calumny,\ngenerated by scepticism and uncharitable thoughts. No one believed\nmore in Gods -- or, we may call them, the Spiritual and now invisible\nPowers, or Spirits,\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 518 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe *noumena *of the *phenomena *-- than they did;\nand they believed just *because they knew. *If, initiated\ninto the Mysteries of Nature, they were forced to withhold their\nknowledge from the profane, who would have surely abused it, such\nsecrecy was undeniably less dangerous than the policy of their\nusurpers and successors. The former taught only that which they\nwell knew. The latter, *teaching what they do not know,*\nhave invented, as a secure haven for their ignorance, a jealous\nand cruel Deity, who forbids man to pry into his mysteries under\nthe penalty of damnation. As well they may, for *his *mysteries\ncan at best be only hinted at in polite ears, never described.\nTurn to King's Gnostics, \"Description of the Plates\"\n(Plate H), and see for yourself what was the primitive Ark of\nthe Covenant, according to the author, who says: \"There is\na Rabbinical tradition that the cherubin placed over it were represented\nas male and female, in the act of copulation, in order to express\nthe grand doctrine of the Essence of *Form* and* Matter,\n*the two principles of all things. When the Chaldeans broke\ninto the sanctuary and beheld this most astounding emblem, they\nnaturally enough exclaimed, 'Is this your God, of whom you boast\nthat He is such a lover of purity?' \" (p. 441.)\n\nKing thinks that this tradition \"savours too much of Alexandrian\nphilosophy to demand any credit,\" to which we demur. The\nshape and form of the wings of the two cherubim standing on the\nright and left sides of the Ark, these wings meeting over the\n\"Holy of Holies,\" are an *emblem* quite eloquent\nin itself, besides the \"holy\" *Jod* within the\nark! The Mystery of Agathadaemon, whose legend states, \"I\nam Chnumis, Sun of the Universe, 700,\" can alone solve the\nmystery of Jesus, the number of whose name is 888.\" It is\nnot the key of St. Peter, or the Church dogma, but the *narthex\n*-- the wand of the candidate for initiation -- that has to\nbe wrenched from the grasp of the long-silent Sphinx of the ages.\nMeanwhile ----\n\nThe augurs, who, upon meeting each other, have to thrust their\ntongues into their cheeks to suppress a fit of laughter, may be\nmore numerous in our own age than they ever were in the day of\nSylla.\n\n-------\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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