Western European stream·The Great Initiates·Rama: The Aryan Cycle

Source context

Theme

Rama as post-Atlantean Aryan cycle inaugurator and great initiate of primordial migration

Soul-faculty

Sentient Soul

Steiner

• GA 53, 1905-03-16Steiner identifies great initiates as the originators of every major cultural and religious impulse, speaking to each people in a language adapted to that people's stage of development.
• GA 92, 1905-03-28Steiner treats post-Atlantean Aryan cultural streams as inaugurated by great initiates whose influence is preserved in mythological figures, paralleling Schuré's treatment of Rama as the founding initiatic teacher of the Aryan cycle.
• GA 104a, 1909-05-10Steiner describes the succession of post-Atlantean cultural epochs as each presided over by specific initiatic leaders, beginning with the ancient Indian epoch and its seven teachers, providing structural context for Schuré's Rama figure.

Cross-tradition

• Vedic / Hindu traditionThe figure of Rama in the Ramayana epic encodes an archaic initiatic leadership of the Aryan peoples, bearing cross-tradition congruence with Schuré's reconstruction of a pre-historic initiator-king who guided northward migration and the founding of sacred law.
• Avestan / Zoroastrian traditionThe Avestan figure of Yima (Jamshid), described as a primordial king who led his people to a new land and instituted a golden age, shows cross-tradition congruence with Schuré's Rama as leader of the Aryan migration cycle.

Rama: The Aryan Cycle

The Aryan Cycle

Zoroaster asked Ormuzd, the Great Creator, "Who is the first man with whom you conversed?"

Ormuzd answered, "Noble Yima, the one who was in command of the Courageous. I told him to watch over the worlds which belong to me, and I gave him a saber of gold and a sword of victory." And Yima moved forward on the way of the sun and assembled the courageous men in the famous Airyana-Vaeja, created pure.

—Zend Avesta (Vendidad-Sadé 2nd Fargard)

O Agni, Holy Fire! Purifying fire! You who sleep in the wood, and ascend in shining flames on the altar, you are the heart of sacrifice, the fearless wings of prayer, the divine spark hidden in everything, and the glorious soul of the sun!

— Vedic Hymn

1The Races of Mankind and the Origins of Religion
"Heaven is my Father, it engendered me. I have this entire celestial circle as my family. My Mother is the noble Earth. The highest part of its surface is her womb; there the Father makes fruitful the womb of the one who is his wife and daughter." Thus the Vedic poet sang four or five thousand years ago, before an earth altar where a fire of dry herbs flamed. A profound divination, a sublime consciousness is expressed in these strange words. They contain the secret of the double origin of mankind. Anterior to and superior to the earth is the divine archetype of man; celestial is the origin of his soul. But his body is the product of earthly elements fecundated by a cosmic essence. The embraces of Uranus and the Great Mother, in the language of the Mysteries, signify the showers of souls or of spiritual monads which come to fertilize terrestrial seeds; they are the organizing principles without which matter would be only an inactive and diffused mass. The highest part of the earth's surface, which the Vedic poet calls the womb of the earth, designates the continents and mountains, cradles of the races of man. As for Heaven, Varuna, the Uranus of the Greeks, this represents the invisible order, super-physical, eternal and intellectual; it embraces the entire infinity of space and time. In this chapter we shall consider only the terrestrial origins of humanity according to esoteric traditions, confirmed by modern anthropological and ethnological science. The four races which share the globe today are daughters of varied lands. Successive creations, slow elaborations of the earth at work, the continents have emerged from the seas at great intervals of time, which the ancient priests of India called interdiluvian cycles. During thousands of years, each continent produced its flora and fauna, culminating in a human race of a different color. The southern continent, engulfed by the last great flood, was the cradle of the primitive red race of which the American Indians are but the remnants, descended from the troglodytes, who reached the top of the mountains when their continent sank. Africa is the mother of the black race, called the Ethiopian by the Greeks. Asia gave birth to the yellow race, preserved in the Chinese. The last arrival, the white race, came from the forests of Europe, between the tempests of the Atlantic and the laughter of the Mediterranean. All human types are the result of mixtures, combinations, degeneracies or selections of these four great races. In the preceding cycles, red and black races ruled successively with powerful civilizations which have left traces in Cyclopean structures as well as in the architecture of Mexico. The temples of India and Egypt had traditions concerning these vanished civilizations. -- In our cycle the white race is predominant, and if one calculates the probable antiquity of India and Egypt, one will find that its preponderance dates back seven or eight thousand years. According to Brahmanic traditions, civilization probably began on our globe five thousand years ago, with the red race on the southern continent, while all of Europe and part of Asia were still under water. These myths also speak of an earlier race of giants. Gigantic human bones, whose formation resembles the monkey more than man, have been found in caves of Tibet. These creatures were related to a primitive humanity, intermediate, and still akin to animal life, possessing neither articulated speech, social organization, nor religion. For these three things always appear at the same time, and this is the meaning of that remarkable bardic triad which says, "Three things come into existence at the same time: God, light and freedom." With the first stammering of speech, society is born and the vague hint of a divine order appears. It is the breath of Jehova in the mouth of Adam, the word of Hermes, the law of the first Manu, the fire of Prometheus. A God trembles in the human faun. The red race, as we have said, inhabited the southern continent, now engulfed, called Atlantis by Plato, in keeping with Egyptian traditions. A great earthquake destroyed part of this continent, and scattered the remainder. Several Polynesian races, as well as the Indians of North America and the Aztecs whom the Spanish conquerors found in Mexico, are the survivors of this ancient red race whose civilization, lost forever, had its days of glory and material splendor. All these people carry in their souls the incurable melancholy of old races which die without hope. After the red race, the black race dominated the globe. One must look for the superior species, the best of the race, in the Abyssinian and the Nubian, in whom is preserved the type of this race at its height. The latter invaded southern Europe in prehistoric times, and were driven back by the inhabitants. Their trace has been completely erased from our popular traditions. During the period of their supremacy, they had religious centers in Upper Egypt and in India. Their Cyclopean cities crenelated the mountains of Africa, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Their social organization was an absolute theocracy. At the top were priests who were feared like the gods; at the bottom were groveling tribes without any acknowledged family. The women were slaves. These priests possessed profound knowledge, the principle of the divine unity of the universe, and the worship of the stars which, under the name of Sabeanism, spread among the white peoples." But between the knowledge of the priests and the crude fetishism of the masses, there was no middle ground, no idealistic art, no vivid mythology. Moreover, they possessed an already scientific industry, especially the art of handling huge stones by means of the ballista, and of melting metals in immense furnaces, at which they used prisoners of war. Among this race, strong in physical resistance, passionate energy and the capacity for affection, religion therefore was the reign of power, through terror. The nature of God hardly affected the consciousness of these childlike peoples except in the form of a dragon, a terrible antediluvian animal which the kings had painted on their banners, and the priests carved on the portals of their temples. If the sun of Africa helped give birth to the black race, it can be said that the glaciers of the arctic regions witness the advent of the white race. The latter are the Hyperboreans of whom Greek mythology speaks. These sandy-haired, blue-eyed men came from the north through forests illuminated by the aurora borealis, accompanied by dogs and reindeer, directed by bold leaders and guided by clairvoyant women. Shaggy hair of gold, and eyes of azure: these were their predetermined colors. This race is to invent the worship of the sun and of the sacred fire, and will bring into the world the longing for heaven. Sometimes these people will rebel against heaven to the point of wishing to climb up to it; at other times they will bow before its splendors in absolute adoration. Like the others, the white race also had to tear itself away from the savage state before becoming aware of itself. -- Its distinctive characteristics are the love of individual freedom, reflective sensitivity which creates the power of sympathy, and supremacy of the intellect, which gives the imagination an idealistic and symbolic turn. -- Spiritual sensitivity brought about affection -- man's preference for but one wife; from this came this race's tendency toward monogamy, the conjugal principle and the family. -- The need for freedom, coupled with that of sociability created the clan, with its elective principle. Visionary imagination created ancestor worship, which forms the root and center of religion among white people. The social and political principle is manifest the day some half-savage men, besieged by an enemy people, instinctively assemble and choose the strongest and most intelligent among them to defend and lead them. On that day society is born. The chief is a king in embryo; his companions are future noblemen. The deliberating old men, unable to march, already form a kind of senate or assembly of elders. -- But how was religion born? It has been said that it arose out of the fear of primitive man, face to face with nature. But fear has nothing in common with reverence and love. It does not unite fact and idea, visible and invisible, man and God. As long as man did nothing but tremble before nature, he was not yet man. He became man when he seized the link which connected him with the past and future, with something superior and beneficent, and when he worshiped that mysterious unknown. But how did he worship for the first time? Fabre d Olivet offers a supremely astute and thought-provoking hypothesis on how ancestor worship must have been established among the white race.? In a quarrelsome clan, two rival warriors are arguing. Raging, they are about to fight, and are already grappling with one another. At that moment, a dishevelled woman throws herself between them and separates them. Her eyes are aflame; her voice has the tone of authority. In panting, cutting words she says that in the forest she has just seen the ancestor of the race, the victorious warrior of yesteryear, the Herôll, appear before her. He does not wish two brother warriors to fight, but to unite against the common enemy. "The ghost of the great ancestor, the Herôll, told me so," exclaims the excited woman. "He spoke to me; I saw him!" What she says, she believes. Convinced, she convinces. Moved, astonished, and as though overcome by an invincible force, the reconciled rivals regard this inspired woman as a kind of divinity. Such inspirations, followed by abrupt changes, must have occurred frequently and in many diverse forms in the prehistoric life of the white race. Among savage people it is the woman who, in her excitable sensitivity, first senses the spiritual, affirms the unseen. Let us now consider the unexpected and enormous consequences of an event similar to the one about which we are speaking. In the clan, in the tribe, everyone is talking about the marvelous event. The oak tree where the inspired woman saw the vision, becomes sacred. She is taken back to it, and there, under the hypnotic influence of the moon, which plunges her into a visionary state, she continues to prophesy in the name of the great ancestor. Soon this woman and others like her, standing on rocks in the middle of forest glades, at the sound of the wind and the distant ocean, call forth the diaphanous souls of ancestors before quivering crowds who, charmed by magic incantations, see them or think they see them amidst the mists drifting in the moonlight. Ossian, the last of the great Celts, will summon Fingal and his companions in the gathering clouds. Thus at the very origin of social life, ancestor worship is established among the white race. The great ancestor becomes the god of the tribe. This was the beginning of religion. But this is not all. Around the prophetess old men group themselves and observe her in her deep sleep and in her prophetic ecstasies. They study her divers states, examine her revelations, interpret her oracles. They observe that when she prophesies in the visionary state, her face is transfigured. Her speech becomes rhythmical, and her raised voice pronounces her oracles as she sings a serious and meaningful melody.* From this come the lines, verses, poetry and music, whose origins are considered divine among the people of the Aryan race. The idea of revelation could occur only with respect to facts of this kind. At the same time we see religion and worship, priests and poetry arise. In Asia, Iran and India, where peoples of the white race established the first Aryan civilization, mixing with people of different colors, men quickly gained ascendancy over women in religious insight. There we no longer hear anyone speak except wise men, Rishis and prophets. Woman, subjugated, submissive, is no longer priestess except in the home. But in Europe the trace of the important role of woman is found among peoples of the same origin who remained savage for thousands of years. It appears in the Scandinavian Pythoness, in the Voluspa of the Edda, in the Celtic Druidesses, in the women diviners who accompanied the Germanic armies and decided the day of battle, and even in the Thracian Bacchantes who survive in the legend of Orpheus. The prehistoric clairvoyant is continued in the Pythia of Delphi. The first prophetesses of the white race are organized in Druidess schools under the supervision of informed elders or Druids, men of the oak tree. At first they were only doers of good deeds. Through their intuition, their divination and their enthusiasm, they gave a great impetus to the race. But rapid corruption and tremendous abuses of this institution were inevitable. Feeling that they were mistresses of the destinies of the people, the Druidesses wanted to rule the latter at any cost. Lacking inspiration, they tried to reign by terror. They demanded human sacrifices, making these the essential element of their cult. In this, the heroic instincts of their race worked in their favor. The people were courageous, their warriors held death in contempt; at the first call they came voluntarily and bravely threw themselves beneath the knives of bloodthirsty priestesses. Through human hecatombs the latter hurried the living to join the dead as messengers, for it was believed that in this manner one gained the protection of the ancestors. This activity on the part of the prophetesses and Druids became a fearful means of domination. This is the first example of the perversion the noblest instincts of human nature inevitably undergo when they are not controlled by a wise authority or guided toward the good by a higher conscience. Left to the mercy of ambition and individual passion, inspiration degenerates into superstition, courage into ferocity, the sublime ideal of sacrifice into an instrument of tyranny and of sinister and cruel exploitation. But the white race was only in its violent, wild youth. Passionate in the spiritual sphere, it had yet to undergo many other and more bloody crises. It had just been awakened by the attacks of the black race, which was beginning to invade the south of Europe. This was an unequal struggle from the beginning. The half-savage whites, just emerging from their forests and their lacustrine homes, had no other means of defense than their spears and stone-tipped arrows. The blacks had iron weapons, armor of brass, all the resources of their industrial civilization and their Cyclopean cities. Defeated in the first encounter, the white captives became the slaves of the black men, who forced them to quarry stone and to carry crude ore into their furnaces. Escaped captives brought back to their own country the customs, skills and fragments of the science of their conquerors. They learned two things from the black men: the smelting of metals, and holy writing, that is, the art of recording certain ideas by means of mysterious hieroglyphic signs which they inscribed on the skins of beasts, on stone, or the bark of the ash tree. From this we get the runes of the Celts. Smelted, forged metal was the instrument of war; sacred writing was the origin of science and of religious tradition. The struggle between the white and black races wavered back and forth for many centuries from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus, and from the Caucasus to the Himalayas. The salvation of the white men was in their forests. There, like wild animals, they could hide themselves, reappearing at a suitable moment. Emboldened, disciplined and better armed as the centuries progressed, they finally took revenge, overthrew the cities of the black men, drove them from the coasts of Europe, later invading North Africa and Central Asia, then inhabited by black peoples. The mixture of the two races was effected either by peaceful colonization or by military conquest. Fabre d Olivet, that wonderful seer of the prehistoric past of mankind, starts with this idea in order to set forth a clear view of the origin of the people called the Semitic and also of the Aryans. Wherever the white colonists yielded to the black peoples, accepting their rule and receiving religious initiation from their priests, there Semitic peoples such as the pre-Menes Egyptians, the Arabs, the Phoenicians, Chaldeans and Jews probably came into being. The Aryan civilizations, on the other hand, probably were formed where the white men ruled the black men as a result of war or conquests -- as in the case of the Iranians, Hindus, Greeks and Etruscans. In addition, among Aryan peoples we also include all the whites who remained in a savage and nomadic state in antiquity such as the Scythians, the Getae, the Celts, and later the Germans. In this way the basic diversity between religions and sacred writing of these two great categories of nations can be explained. Among the Semites, where the intellectuality of the black race originally predominated, over and above the popular idolatry a tendency toward monotheism can be observed. The principle of the oneness of the hidden, absolute and formless God was one of the essential dogmas of the priests of the black race and of their secret initiation. Among the white men who were conquerors or who remained of pure blood, one observes on the contrary, a tendency toward polytheism, mythology and personification of divinity, stemming from their love of nature and their impassioned ancestor worship. The main difference between the style of writing of the Semites and the Aryans probably resulted from the same cause. Why do all Semitic people write from right to left, and why do all Aryan people write from left to right? The reason Fabre d'Olivet gives is as curious as it is original. It calls before our eyes a real vision of the forgotten past. Everyone knows that in prehistoric times no writing at all was done by the general masses of the people. The custom only spread with phonetic script, or the art of representing the sounds of words by letters. But hieroglyphic script, or the art of representing things by arbitrary signs, is as old as human civilization. And always in those primitive times, such writing was the privilege of the priesthood, since it was considered a sacred thing, a religious function, and originally a divine inspiration. When, in the Southern Hemisphere, the priests of the black or southern race drew their mysterious signs on animal skins or on stone slabs, they used to face the South Pole, the lines of their handwriting directed toward the east, the source of light. Therefore they wrote from right to left. The priests of the white or Nordic race learned writing from the black priests and at first wrote like them. But when the sense of their origin was developed in them, along with national consciousness and racial pride, they invented their own signs, and instead of facing the south, the country of the black men, they faced the north, the country of their ancestors, while continuing to write in the direction of the east. Their characters then ran from left to right, the direction of Celtic runes, of Zend, Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and all writings of the Aryan races. The letters move toward the rising sun, the source of terrestrial life, but the people face the north, the country of their ancestors and the mysterious source of the aurora borealis. The Semitic and the Aryan currents are the two rivers upon which all our ideas, mythology, religion, art, science and philosophy have come to us. Each of these streams carries with it a different conception of life; the reconciliation and balance of the two would be truth itself. The Semitic current contains absolute and superior principles: the idea of unity and universality in the name of a supreme Principle which, in its application, leads to the unification of the human family. The Aryan current contains the idea of ascending evolution in all terrestrial and supra-terrestrial kingdoms, and its application leads to an infinite diversity of developments in the richness of nature and the many aspirations of the soul. Semitic genius descends from God to man; Aryan genius ascends from man to God. One is represented by the punishing archangel who descends to earth, armed with sword and thunder; the other by Prometheus, who holds in his hand the fire snatched from heaven and surveys Olympus with his glance. We bear these two geniuses within us. We think and act under the influence of the one or the other in turn. But they are not harmoniously blended within us. They contradict and fight each other in our inner feelings, in our subtle thoughts, as well as in our social life and institutions. Hidden beneath many forms which can be summarized under the generic terms spirituality and naturalism, they control our discussions and struggles. Irreconcilable and invincible, who will unite them? And yet the progress, the salvation of mankind depends upon their reconciliation and synthesis. For this reason, in this book we would like to go back to the source of the two streams, to the birth of the two geniuses. Beyond the conflicts of history, the wars of cults, the contradictions of sacred texts, we shall enter the very consciousness of the founders and prophets who gave religions their initial impetus. From above, these men received keen intuition and inspiration, that burning light which leads to fruitful action. Indeed, synthesis pre-existed in them. The divine ray dimmed and darkened with their successors, but it reappears, it shines whenever a prophet, hero or seer returns to his life origin. For only from this point of departure does one see the goal; from the shining sun, the path of the planets. Thus revelation in history is continuous, graduated, multiform, like nature, but identical in its source, one like Truth, unchangeable as God. In following back along the Semitic stream, by way of Moses we come to Egypt, whose temples, according to Manetho, embodied a tradition thirty thousand years old. In tracing back along the Aryan stream, we come to India, where as a result of the conquest of the white race, the first great civilization developed. India and Egypt were the two great mothers of religions. They knew the secret of the great initiation. We shall enter their sanctuaries. But their traditions will carry us back even further to an earlier period when the two rival geniuses of which we spoke, appear united in a primeval innocence and a marvelous harmony. This is the primitive Aryan period. Thanks to the wonderful achievements of modern science, thanks to philology, mythology and comparative ethnology, today we are able partly to envision this period. It is outlined in the Vedic hymns, which nevertheless, in their patriarchal simplicity and sublime purity, are but a reflection. It was a virile and serious age, resembling nothing less than the Golden Age dreamed of by the poets. Grief and strife are by no means absent, but within men is a confidence, a strength and a serenity which mankind has never recaptured. In India, thought will become more profound, feelings will be refined. In Greece, passions and ideas will be clothed in the charm of art and the magic cloak of beauty. But no poetry surpasses certain Vedic hymns in moral loftiness, in eminence and intellectual breadth. In them breathes the feeling of the Divine in nature, the Unseen surrounding it and the great Unity pervading the whole. How was such a civilization born? How did such a superior intellectuality develop in the midst of wars between races and the battle against nature? Here the investigations and conjectures of contemporary science stop. But the religious traditions of people, interpreted according to their esoteric meaning, go further and allow us to imagine that the first concentration of the Aryan nucleus in Iran took place through a kind of selection. This latter was worked out in the very center of the white race, under the leadership of a conquering lawmaker who gave his people a religion and a law in harmony with the genius of the white race. The holy book of the Persians, the Zend-Avesta, speaks of this ancient legislator under the name of Yima, and Zoroaster, in founding a new religion refers to him as the first man to whom Ormuzd, the living God, spoke. Jesus Christ refers to Moses in the same manner. -- The Persian poet Firdausi calls this same lawmaker Djem, the conqueror of black men. -- In the Hindu epic, the Ramayana, he appears under the name Rama, is dressed like an Indian king, is surrounded by the splendors of a progressive civilization, but he retains his two distinctive characteristics of reforming conqueror and initiate. -- In the Egyptian traditions, the time of Rama is indicated by the reign of Osiris, Lord of Light, which precedes the reign of Isis, Queen of Mysteries. -- Finally, in Greece, the ancient hero- demigod was honored under the name Dionysius, which comes from the Sanskrit Deva Nahusha, the divine restorer. Orpheus even gave this name to the divine Intelligence, and the poet Nonnus sang of the conquest of India by Dionysius, according to the tradition of Eleusis. Like radii of the same circle, all these traditions indicate a common center. By following their path one can reach it. Then, long before the India of the Vedas, before the Iran of Zoroaster, in the early dawn of the white race, one sees the first creator of the Aryan religion emerging from the forests of ancient Scythia, crowned with his twin tiara of conqueror and initiate, and bearing in his hand the mystical fire, the holy fire which will illumine all races. It is to Fabre d Olivet that the honor is due for having discovered this personality.° He marked out the bright path which leads to him, and in following this path I, in turn, shall attempt to call him forth. Notes for this chapter:

1This division of mankind into four successive, primitive races was accepted by the oldest priests
of Egypt. They are represented by four figures of different types and skin colors in the paintings of the tomb of Seti I at Thebes. The red race bears the name Rot; the Asiatic race with yellow skin, Amu; the African race with black skin, Halasiu; the Lybico European race with white skin and blond hair, Tamahu -- Lenormant, History of the Peoples of the Orient, Vol. 1.

2Refer to the Arabian historians, as well as Abul Ghazi, Genealogical History of the Tartars and
works of Mohammed Moshen, historian of the Persians. William Jones, Asiatic Researches 1. Discourse on the Tartars and Persians.

3Histoire philosophique du genre humain, Vol. 1..

4All who have seen a real sleep walker have been struck by the unusual intellectual excitement
which is brought about during sleep. For those who have not witnessed such a phenomenon and who doubt it, we will quote a passage from the famous David Strauss. At the house of his friend, Dr. Justinus Kerner, he saw the famous Clairvoyant of Prevorst and describes her in the following manner: "Shortly afterward, the seer fell into a hypnotic sleep. Thus for the first time I viewed this unusual state, and, I can say, in its purest and loveliest manifestation. The face bore a suffering yet exalted and tender expression and was as if bathed in heavenly light; the speech was pure, cadenced and rhythmical, a sort of recitative, an abundance of overflowing feelings which might have been compared to masses of clouds, sometimes bright, sometimes dark, gliding over the soul, or better still, to quiet, melancholy breezes caught up in the strings of a marvelous aeolian harp." (Trans. by R. Lindau, Biographie Generale, art. Kerner)

5Refer to the last battle between Ariovistus and Caesar in the latter's Commentaries.

6Historie philosophique du genre humain. Vol. 1.

2The Mission of Rama
Four or five thousand years before our time, dense forest still covered ancient Scythia, which extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arctic Seas. This continent, which the black men had seen develop island by island, they called, "land emerging from the waves." How this land contrasted with their white soil, bleached by the sun, this Europe of green coasts, with humid, deeply indented bays, of dreamy rivers, somber lakes, and of mists, forever clinging to the sides of its mountains! On the grassy, uncultivated plains, vast like the pampas, one heard nothing but the call of deer, the roaring of buffalo and the gallop of the great herds of wild horses, shaking their manes in the wind. The white man who lived in the forests of ancient Scythia was no longer a cave man. Already he could call himself master of this land. He had invented flint knives and hatchets, bow and arrow, sling and bowstring. Finally he had found two battle companions, two excellent, incomparable, lifelong friends: the dog and the horse. The domesticated dog, having become the faithful guardian of his forest home, gave a sense of security to his house. In taming the horse, man had conquered the land and subjugated the other animals; he had become the king of space. Mounted on wild horses, these sandy-haired men rode like the lightning. They killed the bear, the wolf, the aurochs and frightened the panther and the lion who lived in our forests at that time. Civilization had begun; the embryonic family, the clan and the tribe existed. Everywhere the Scythians, sons of the Hyperboreans, erected huge menhirs to their ancestors. When a leader died, his arms and horse were buried with him so that, it was said, the warrior could ride across the clouds and chase the dragon of fire in the other world. Hence the custom of sacrificing the horse, which plays such an important role in the Vedas and among the Scandinavians. Religion thus began in the worship of ancestors. The Semites found the one God, the universal Spirit, in the desert, on the mountain tops, in the immensity of stellar space. The Scythians and the Celts found their gods in the form of many spirits, in the heart of their forests. There they heard voices; there they experienced the first thrills of the Unseen, visions of the great Beyond. This is why the forest -- delightful or dreadful -- has remained dear to the white race. Charmed by the music of the leaves and the magic of the moon, in the course of the ages, men always return to it as to a fountain of youth, the temple of the great mother Hertha. There sleep men's gods, their loves, their lost Mysteries. From the most remote times, visionary women prophesied under trees. Each tribe had its great prophetess, like the Voluspa of the Scandinavians, with her school of Druidesses. But these women, at first nobly inspired, became ambitious and cruel. The good prophetesses changed into evil magicians. They instituted human sacrifices, and the blood of their Herôlls flowed continuously over the dolmens, to the sinister chants of the priests and the approving shouts of the ferocious Scythians. Among these priests was a young man in the prime of life; his name was Ram. Though he had been destined for the priesthood, his contemplative soul and penetrating mind rebelled against this bloody cult. The young Druid was gentle and serious. Early in life he had shown remarkable knowledge of plants, their marvelous powers, the distilling and preparation of their juices, as well as the study of stars and their forces. He seemed to divine, to see far-off things. Hence his premature authority over the older Druids. A kindly greatness emanated from his words and his being. His wisdom contrasted with the madness of the Druidesses, those screechers of curses who pronounced their inauspicious oracles during convulsions of delirium. The Druids had called him "the one who knows," and the people called him "the inspired one of peace." Nevertheless, Ram, striving after divine science, had travelled over all of Scythia and the southern countries. Fascinated by his personal knowledge and his modesty, the priests of the black men had revealed a part of their secret knowledge to him. When he returned to the northern country, Ram was frightened at seeing the cult of human sacrifices increasing more and more among his people. He saw in it the ruin of his race. But how could he fight this custom propagated by the arrogance of the Druidesses, the ambition of the Druids, and the superstition of the people? Then another calamity befell the white men, and Ram thought he saw in it heaven's punishment of the sacrilegious cult. From their expeditions into the southern countries and from their contact with the black men, the white men had brought back a terrible disease, a kind of plague. It infected men through the bloodstream, through the sources of life. The entire body became covered with black spots. The breath became foul, the swollen limbs, eaten by ulcers, became deformed, and the sick person died in excruciating pain. The breath of the living and the smell of the dead spread the plague widely. And white men, stupefied, fell and died by the thousands in their forests, abandoned even by birds of prey. Deeply sorrowful, Ram vainly looked for a means of salvation. He was in the habit of meditating under an oak tree in a glade. One evening, during which he had pondered for a long time over the evils of his race, he fell asleep at the foot of the tree. In his sleep it seemed to him that a loud voice was calling him by name, and he thought he awakened. Then he saw before him a man of majestic height, clothed like himself in the white robe of the Druids. He carried a rod, around which a snake was coiled. The astonished Ram was about to ask the stranger what it meant, but the latter, taking him by the hand, made him stand up and showed him a beautiful branch of mistletoe on the very tree at the foot of which he had been resting. "O Ram!" he said, "There is the remedy you seek." Then he took from his breast a little gold pruning knife, cut the branch, and gave it to him. He murmured a few words about the way to prepare the mistletoe, and disappeared. Then Ram awakened fully, feeling very deeply comforted. An inner voice told him that he had found salvation. He prepared the mistletoe according to the instructions of the divine friend with the golden sickle. Then he made a sick man drink this brew in a fermented liquor, and the patient was cured. The marvelous healings he brought about made Ram famous in all Scythia. He was summoned everywhere for healing work. When consulted by the Druids of his tribe, he shared his discovery with them, adding that it must remain the secret of the priestly caste in order to insure its power. Ram's disciples, traveling over all Scythia with branches of mistletoe, were considered divine messengers and their master a demigod. This event marked the origin of a new cult. From this time on, the mistletoe became a sacred plant. Ram perpetuated its fame by instituting the holiday of Noel, or of the new salvation, which he placed at the beginning of the year, calling it the Night Mother of the universe, or of the great renewal. As for the mysterious being whom Ram had seen in a dream and who had shown him the mistletoe, in the esoteric tradition of the white men of Europe he is called Aesc-heyl-hopa, which means "hope for salvation is in the forests." The Greeks called him Aesculapius, the genius of medicine who holds the magic rod in the form of a caduceus. Nevertheless, Ram, "the inspired one of peace," had broader plans. He wanted to cure his people of a moral wound more disastrous than the plague. Chosen chief of the priests of his tribe, he issued an order that all the schools of the Druids and Druidesses were to stop making human sacrifices. This news spread to the ocean, hailed as a joyful event by some, as an outrageous sacrilege by others. Their power threatened, the Druidesses began to scream curses upon the presumptuous man, to hurl death sentences against him. Many Druids who saw in human sacrifices their only means of power, joined them. Ram, extolled by a large group, was hated by others. But rather than withdraw from the battle, he aggravated it by establishing a new symbol. At that time each white tribe had its rallying sign in the form of an animal which symbolized its chosen qualities. Some of the chiefs nailed cranes, eagles or vultures to the framework of their wooden houses; others, the heads of wild boars or buffalo. This is the origin of the coat-of-arms. But the chosen emblem of the Scythians was the bull, which they called Thor, the sign of brute force and violence. Ram took the figure of the ram, the courageous, peaceful leader of the flock, in place of the bull, and made it the rallying sign of his followers. This emblem, established in the midst of Scythia, became the signal for a great clamor and an actual revolution in men's thought. The white people divided into two camps. The very soul of the white race was split in half, in order to free itself from animality, so that it might climb the first step of the invisible sanctuary which leads to divine mankind. "Death to the Ram!" shouted Thor's supporters. "War on the Bull!" shouted Ram's friends. A fearful war was imminent. In the face of this threat, Ram hesitated. If war were let loose, would this not intensify the evil and force his race to destroy itself? At this moment he had another dream. The stormy heaven was filled with dark clouds which swept over the mountains and moved above the bending trees of the forest. Standing on a rock, a wild-haired woman was about to strike a fine warrior who was tied before her. "In the name of the ancestors, Stop!" shouted Ram, throwing himself upon the woman. The Druidess, threatening her adversary, gave Ram a look as piercing as the blade of a knife. But the thunder rolled in the thick clouds, and amidst a flash of lightning a dazzling figure appeared. The forest paled before it. The Druidess fell as if thunderstruck, and the bonds of the captive having been broken, he looked at the shining giant with a gesture of defiance. Ram did not tremble, for in the features of the apparition he recognized the divine being who had already spoken to him beneath the oak tree. This time he appeared more beautiful, for his entire body shone with light. And Ram saw that he was in an open temple with broad columns. In the place of the sacrificial stone, an altar was raised. Nearby stood the warrior whose eyes still feared death. The woman lying on the flagstones, appeared to be dead. And now the heavenly genius carried a torch in his right hand; in his left hand was a cup. He smiled benevolently, saying, "Ram, I am pleased with you. Do you see this torch? It is the sacred fire of the divine Spirit. Do you see this cup? It is the cup of Life and Love. Give the torch to the man, the cup to the woman." Ram did as his genius commanded him. Hardly was the torch in the man's hand and the cup in the woman', than the fire lighted of itself on the altar, and both shone transfigured in the light, like the divine husband and wife. At the same time the temple grew larger; its columns mounted to heaven; its vault became the firmament. Then, carried by his dream, Ram saw himself borne to the top of a mountain under the starry sky. Standing near him, his genius explained the meaning of the constellations, and in the flaming signs of the zodiac Ram read the destinies of mankind. "Wonderful spirit, who are you?" Ram asked the genius. And the genius replied, "I am called Deva Nahusha, divine Intelligence. You will spread my light over the earth, and I shall always come at your call. Now, be on your way. Go!" And with his hand, the genius pointed toward the East.

3Exodus and Conquest
In this dream, as in a flash of lightning, Ram saw his mission and the great destiny of his race. From that moment he no longer hesitated. Instead of igniting the spark of war among the peoples of Europe, he decided to take the best of his race into Asia. He announced to his people that he would institute the cult of the sacred fire, which would bring about mankind's happiness; that human sacrifices would be abolished forever; that ancestors would be invoked no longer by bloodthirsty priestesses beside savage rocks dripping with human blood, but in each home, by husband and wife joined in a single prayer, in a hymn of adoration, near the fire which purifies. Yes, the visible fire of the altar, symbol and conductor of the invisible celestial fire, would unite family, clan, tribe and all peoples -- a center of the living God on earth. But in order to reap this harvest, it was necessary to separate the good grain from the tares; it was necessary for the bravest to prepare themselves to leave Europe in order to conquer a new land, a virgin country. There he would issue his law; there he would establish the cult of the regenerating fire. This proposal was received enthusiastically by a young people, yearning for adventure. Lighted fires, kept burning for several months on the mountains, were the signal for the mass migration of all who wished to follow the Ram. The tremendous migration, directed by that great shepherd of peoples, slowly started to move, departing in the direction of Central Asia. Among the Caucasus Mountains were several Cyclopean strongholds of the black men which had to be captured. In memory of these victories, the white people later carved huge rams' heads in the rocks of the Caucasus. Ram proved himself worthy of his great mission. He smoothed out difficulties, read thoughts, predicted the future, healed the sick, calmed the rebels, set courage aflame. Thus the heavenly powers which we call Providence willed the rule of the northern race on earth, and by means of Ram's wisdom, cast shining light upon its path. Lesser inspired leaders had already rescued this race from its savage state. But Ram, who first conceived of social law as an expression of divine law, was truly a straightforward, inspired man of the highest order. He made friends with the Turanians, old Scythian tribes who inhabited upper Asia, and led them in the conquest of Iran, where he completely repelled the black men, for he intended that a people of unmixed white race would inhabit Central Asia and become a center of light for all others. He founded the city of Ver, which Zoroaster called an admirable city. He taught men how to till and sow seed in the soil; he was the father of cultivated wheat and of the vine. He created classes according to occupations and divided the people into priests, warriors, laborers and artisans. In the beginning, the classes were not at all rivals. The hereditary privilege, source of hatred and jealousy, was introduced only later. He forbade slavery as well as murder, stating that slavery was the cause of all evils. As for the tribe, that primitive grouping of the white race, he preserved it as it was, allowing it to elect its leaders and judges. Ram's crowning work, the pre-eminently civilizing instrument created by him, was the new role he gave to woman. Until that time, man had considered woman either as a wretched slave whom he overburdened and brutally mistreated, or as the turbulent priestess of the oak tree and rock, from whom he sought protection and who ruled him in spite of himself -- a fascinating, dreadful sorceress whose oracles he feared and before whom his superstitious heart trembled. Human sacrifice was woman's revenge against man, when she sank the knife into the fierce male tyrant's heart. Outlawing this horrible cult and reestablishing woman in man's estimation in her divine function as wife and mother, Ram made her the priestess of the hearth, the guardian of the sacred fire, the equal of her husband, the one who joined with him in calling upon the souls of the ancestors. Like all great legislators, Ram did nothing more than develop and organize the great instincts of his race. In order to enhance and beautify life, Ram ordained four great yearly festivals. The first was that of the spring or of generations. It was dedicated to the love of husband and wife. The festival of summer or of harvest belonged to the sons and daughters, who offered the fruit of their labor to the parents. The festival of autumn feted fathers and mothers; they then gave fruit to their children as a sign of rejoicing. The holiest and most mysterious of festivals was Noel, or the great sowing-time. Ram dedicated it both to new-born children, the fruits of love conceived in spring, and to the souls of the dead, to the ancestors. A point of connection between the visible and the invisible, this religious observance was both a farewell to souls in flight, and a mystical greeting to those who returned to be reincarnated in the mothers, to be reborn in children. On this holy night, the ancient Aryans assembled in the sanctuaries of Airyana-Vaeia as they had formerly in their forests. With fires and chants they celebrated the renewal of the earthly and solar year, the germination of nature in the heart of winter, the trembling of life before the abyss of death. They sang of the universal kiss of heaven given to earth, and the triumphant birth of the new sun from the great Night-Mother. Thus Ram linked human life with the cycle of the seasons and with the movements of the stars. At the same time he emphasized its divine significance. Because he founded such productive institutions, Zoroaster called him "the leader of peoples, the most blessed monarch." This is why the Hindu poet Valmiki, who places the ancient hero in a much more recent period, surrounded by the luxury of a more advanced civilization, nevertheless preserves in him the characteristics of such a high ideal. "Rama with lotus blue eyes," said Valmiki, "was lord of the world, master of his soul, and the object of men's love. He was the father and mother of his subjects. He knew how to bestow upon all beings the bond of love." Once settled in Iran, at the gates of the Himalaya Mountains, the white race was not yet ruler of the world. It was necessary that its vanguard push onward into India, the main center of the black men, ancient conquerors of the red and yellow races. The Zend-Avesta speaks of this march of Rama? on India. The Hindu epic makes it one of its favorite themes. Rama was the conqueror of the land which the Himavat encircles, the land of elephants, tigers and gazelles. He ordered the first attack, and led the first thrust of this colossal battle in which two races unconsciously contended for the scepter of the world. Poetic tradition of India, elaborating upon the secret traditions of the temples, transformed their struggle into a fight between black and white magic. In his war against the peoples and kings of the land of the Jambus, as it was then called, Ram or Rama, as the Orientals named him, employed means which appear miraculous simply because they are beyond the ordinary capacities of mankind. Other great initiates attain similar results, due to their knowledge and manipulation of the hidden forces of nature. Here tradition shows Rama causing streams to burst forth in the desert, finding in these unexpected resources a kind of balm whose use he taught; elsewhere he puts an end to an epidemic with a plant called homa (Greek amomon, Egyptian persea) from which he extracted a healing essence. This plant became sacred among his followers, replacing the mistletoe of the oak tree, preserved by the Celts of Europe. Rama made use of all kinds of magic spells against his enemies. The priests of the black men ruled only by means of a decadent cult. In their temples they were in the habit of keeping enormous snakes and pterodactyls, rare survivors of antediluvian animals, which were worshiped like gods, and which terrified the masses. They made these snakes eat the flesh of captives. Sometimes Rama appeared unexpectedly in these temples with torches, driving out, frightening and subduing both serpents and priests. Sometimes he appeared in the midst of his enemies, exposed and defenseless among those who sought his death, departing again without anyone having dared touch him. When those who had allowed him to escape were questioned, they answered that upon meeting his gaze they were petrified, or that, while he was speaking, a mountain of brass was placed between them and him and they could not see him. Finally, as a consummation of his work, the epic tradition of India attributed to Rama the conquest of Ceylon, last refuge of the black magician Ravana, on whom the white magician showered down fire, first having formed a bridge over the sea by means of an army of monkeys closely resembling some primitive tribe of bimanous savages, led and inspired by this great charmer of nations. Notes for this chapter:

7It is noteworthy that the Zend Avesta, the sacred book of the Parsis, while considering Zoroaster as
the one inspired by Ormuzd and the prophet of God's law, makes him the successor of a much more ancient prophet. Behind the symbolism of the ancient temples one grasps here the chain of the great revelation of mankind, uniting all true initiates. Here is the important passage:

1Zarathustra (Zoroaster) asked Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd, God of Light): Ahura-Mazda, holy and
most sacred creator of all corporeal beings:

2Who is the first man with whom you spoke, Ahura-Mazda?

4Then Ahura-Mazda answered: With the noble Yima, he who was at the head of an assembly
worthy of praises, O pure Zarathastra.

13And I said to him: Watch over the worlds which belong to me, make them fertile in your role of
protector.

17And I brought him the arms of victory, I who am Ahura-Mazda:

18A golden lance and a golden spear ...

31Then Yima raised himself up to the stars in the south, on the path which the sun takes.

37He walked over this land which he had made fertile. It was one-third larger than before.

43And the radiant Yima called together the assembly of the most virtuous men in the famous
Airyana Vaeja, created pure. (Vendidad Sade, 2nd Fargard Trans. by Anquetil Duperron)

4The Last Will of the Great Ancestor
Through his strength, genius and kindness, say the sacred books of the Orient, Rama became master of India and spiritual king of the earth. Priests, kings and people bowed down before him as before a heavenly benefactor. Under the sign of the ram his missionaries spread afar the Aryan law which proclaimed equality of conquerors and conquered, the abolition of human sacrifice and slavery, respect for the woman in the home, the worship of ancestors and the institution of the sacred fire, visible symbol of the nameless God. Rama had grown old. His beard had become white, but the strength had not left his body and the majesty of the pontiffs of truth reposed on his forehead. The kings and the representatives of the people offered him absolute authority. He requested one year to think it over, and again had a dream. The genius who inspired him, spoke to him in his sleep. He saw himself once more in the forests of his youth. He had become young again, and was wearing the linen robe of the Druids. The moon was shining. It was the holy night, the Night-Mother, when people await the rebirth of the sun and the year. Rama was walking under the oak trees, listening to the voices of the forest. A beautiful woman came to him. She was wearing a magnificent crown. Her hair was the color of gold, her skin the whiteness of snow, and her eyes had the deep luster of the sky after a storm. She said to him, "I was the savage Druidess; through you I have become the radiant wife. And now my name is Sita. I am the woman glorified by you. I am the white race; I am your wife. O, my master and my king, is it not for my sake that you crossed rivers, charmed peoples and deposed kings? This is the reward. Take this crown in your hand, put it on your head and rule the world with me." She knelt humbly and submissively, offering him the crown of the earth. Its precious stones radiated a thousand lights, the rapture of love smiled in the woman's eyes and the soul of the great Rama, shepherd of the peoples, was touched. But, above the forests, Deva Nahusha, his genius, appeared and said to him, "If you place that crown upon your head, divine Intelligence will leave you; you will see me no longer. If you clasp this woman in your arms, she will die of your happiness. But if you refuse to possess her she will live happy and free on earth, and your invisible spirit will reign over her. Choose! Either listen to her or follow me." Sita, still kneeling, looked at her master, her eyes overflowing with love, pleadingly awaiting his answer. Rama remained silent for a moment. He looked deep into Sita's eyes, considering the gulf which separates complete possession from an everlasting farewell. But feeling that supreme love is supreme abnegation, he placed his liberating hand on the white woman's forehead, blessed her, and said, "Farewell! You are free. Do not forget me!" Immediately the woman disappeared like a lunar phantom. Young Aurora raised her magic wand above the ancient forest. The king became old again. A shower of tears bathed his white beard, and from the depths of the woods a mournful voice called "Rama, Rama!" But Deva Nahusha, the genius shining with light, exclaimed, "Come to me!" And the divine spirit carried Rama off to a mountain in the north of Himavat. After this dream which showed him the fulfilment of his mission, Rama assembled the kings and representatives of the people, saying to them, "I do not desire the supreme power you offer me. Keep your crowns and observe my law. My task is finished. I am retiring forever with my fellow initiates to a mountain of Airyana-Vaeia. From there I shall watch over you. Guard the sacred fire! If it should happen to die out, I shall reappear among you as a judge and terrible avenger!" After this he withdrew with his intimate followers to Mount Albori between Balk and Bamyan, and entered into a retreat known to the initiates alone. There he taught his disciples what he knew of the earth and the Great Being. Then they went out to carry into Egypt and as far as Occitania the sacred fire, symbol of the divine unity of things, and the horns of the ram, emblem of the Aryan religion. These horns became the insignia of initiation and later of priestly and royal power. From a distance Rama continued to watch over his people and over his beloved white race. The last years of his life were spent in arranging the calendar of the Aryans. We owe the signs of the zodiac to him. It is the last work of the patriarch of the initiates, a strange book, written with stars in heavenly hieroglyphics in the immeasurable, boundless firmament, by the Ancient of Days of our race. In establishing the twelve signs of the zodiac, Ram attributed a triple meaning to them. The first referred to the powers of the sun during the twelve months of the year; the second, to a certain extent told his own story; the third indicated the secret means he had used to attain his goal. This is why the signs, read in reverse order, later became the secret emblems of progressive initiation." He ordered his friends to keep his death secret and to continue his work by perpetuating their brotherhood. For centuries people believed that Rama, wearing the tiara of ram's horns, was still alive on the holy mountain. In Vedic times the Great Ancestor became Yama, the judge of the dead, the psychopomp Hermes of the Hindus. Notes for this chapter:

8The horns of the ram are found on the heads of many human figures carved on Egyptian
monuments. This headgear of kings and high priests is the mark of priestly and royal initiation. The two horns of the papal tiara are derived from it.

9This is how the signs of the Zodiac represent Rams life, according to Fabre d'Olivet, that thinker
and genius who knew how to interpret the symbols of the past according to esoteric tradition: 1. Aries, The Ram which is fleeing with head turned backward, indicates Ram's position when leaving his country, his eye fixed on the land behind him. 2. The Raging Bull (Taurus) stands in the way of his march, but half of his body, held fast in the mud prevents him from executing his plan; he falls upon his knees. These are the Celts, represented by their own symbol, who in spite of their efforts, finally yield. 3. Gemini express the alliance of Ram with the Turanians. 4. Cancer, Ram's meditations and inner reflections. 5. The Lion, his battles against his enemies. 6. The Winged Virgin, victory. 7. The Scales, the equality of conquerors and conquered. 8. The Scorpion, rebellion and treason. 9. Sagittarius, the revenge he takes. 10. Capricorn. 11. Aquarius, the Waterman. 12. The sign of Pisces refers to the moral side of his story. One may find this explanation of the Zodiac both daring and strange. However, never has any astronomer or mythologist explained to us the origin or meaning of these mysterious signs of the heavenly map, adopted and revered by humanity since the beginning of our Aryan cycle. Fabre dOlivet's hypothesis at least has the merit of opening new and broad perspectives. I have said that these signs, when read in reverse order in the Orient and in Greece, later marked the ascending steps necessary to reach supreme initiation. Let us remember only the most famous of these emblems: The Winged Virgin meant the purity which gives victory; The Lion, moral strength; The Twins, the union of man and a divine spirit, together forming two invincible fighters; The subdued Bull, mastery over nature; The Ram, the constellation of Fire or of the universal Spirit, giving supreme initiation through the knowledge of Truth.

5The Vedic Religion
Through his genius for organizing, the great initiator of the Aryans had created in Central Asia and Iran, a people, a society, a living impulse which was to radiate in all directions. The colonies of the primitive Aryans spread into Asia and Europe, carrying with them their customs, cults and gods. Of all the colonies, the branch of the Aryans of India most closely resembles the primitive Aryans. The sacred books of the Hindus, the Vedas, have a threefold value for us. First, they lead us to the home of the ancient, pure Aryan religion, of which the Vedic hymns are brilliant rays. In addition, they give us the key to India. Finally, they show us an initial crystallization of basic ideas of esoteric doctrine and of all Aryan religions." Let us confine ourselves to a brief sketch of both the exterior and the heart of the Vedic religion. There is nothing simpler and greater than this religion, in which an intense naturalism is mixed with a transcendent spirituality. Before sunrise, a man -- the head of a family -- is standing before an earth altar where a fire, lighted with two pieces of wood, burns. At one and the same time this man is father, priest and king of the sacrifice. "While Dawn disrobes," as a Vedic poet says, "like a woman leaving her bath: -- Dawn who has woven the loveliest of cloths," the leader repeats a prayer, an invocation to Usha (the Dawn), to Savitar (the Sun), and the Asuras (the spirits of life). The mother and sons pour the fermented liquors of the asclepus, the soma, into Agni, the fire, and the rising flame carries to the invisible gods the purified prayer spoken by the patriarch and the heart of the family. The state of mind of the Vedic poet is far removed from both Hellenic sensualism (I refer to the popular cults of Greece, not the doctrine of the Greek initiates) and from the Judaic monotheism which worships the formless, omnipresent Lord. For the Vedic poet, nature resembles a transparent veil, behind which move imponderable divine forces. These powers are the forces he calls upon, worships and personifies, but without being deceived by his metaphors. For him Savitar is less sun than Vivasvat, the creative power of life, who animates man and who moves the solar system. Indra, the divine warrior, crossing the sky in his gilded chariot, hurling thunder and making the clouds burst, personifies the powers of this same sun in atmospheric life, in "the great transparency of the atmosphere." When they call upon Varuna, the Greek Uranus, god of the vast, luminous sky, who embraces everything, the Vedic poets go even higher. "If Indra represents the active, militant life of heaven, Varuna represents its unchangeable majesty. Nothing equals the magnificence of the descriptions the hymns give of him. The sun is his eye, the sky his clothing, the hurricane his breath. It is he who established heaven and earth on unshakeable foundations, and who keeps them separate. He made everything and preserves everything. No one can touch the works of Varuna, no one fathoms him, but he knows all and sees all that is and will be. In the heights of heaven he lives in a palace with a thousand doors; he watches the path of the birds in the air and of ships on the seas. From that point, from the height of his golden throne with its brass foundation, he surveys and judges the deeds of men. He is the preserver of order in the universe and in society; he punishes the guilty; he is merciful to the man who repents. And to him the anguished cry of remorse is raised; before his presence the sinner comes to rid himself of the weight of his error. Elsewhere Vedic religion is ritualistic, sometimes highly speculative. With Varuna it goes down into the depths of consciousness and realizes the notion of holiness." In addition, it elevates itself to the pure idea of one God who permeates and overlooks the great All. Nevertheless, the imposing pictures the Vedic hymns unroll in great quantity like bountiful rivers, present to us only the exterior sheath of the Vedas. With the conception of Agni, the divine fire, we are very close to the core of the doctrine and its esoteric, transcendent foundation. In fact, Agni is the cosmic agent, the principle of the universe, par excellence. "It is not only the terrestrial fire of lightning and the sun. Its true domain is the unseen, mystical heaven, temporary dwelling-place of the eternal light and of the first principles of all things. Its births are infinite, whether it bursts forth from the piece of wood in which it sleeps like the embryo in the womb, or whether as a 'child of the waves,' it issues with the noise of thunder from celestial rivers where the Acvins (celestial horsemen) engendered it with aranis of gold. Agni is the eldest of the gods, ruler in heaven as well as on earth, and he officiated in the abode of Vivasvat (the sky or sun) long before Matharicva (the lightning) brought him to mortals and Atharvan and the Angiras, ancient high priests, appointed him here below as protector, host and friend of men. Master and generator of the sacrifice, Agni becomes the bearer of all mystical speculations of which sacrifice is the purpose. He engenders the gods, he organizes the world, he produces and preserves universal life; in short, he is cosmogonic power. "Soma is the teardrop of Agni. In reality it is the drink of a fermented plant poured as a libation to the gods during the sacrifice. But, like Agni, it has a mystical existence. Its supreme abode is in the depths of the third heaven where Surya, daughter of the sun, filtered it, and where Pushan, food- giving god, bound it. It is from there that the Falcon, a symbol of lightning, or Agni himself went and snatched it from the heavenly Archer, from Gandharva its guardian, and brought it to men. The gods drank it and became immortal; men also will become immortal when they drink it in the home of Yama, dwelling-place of the happy. In the meantime, here below it gives them vigor and fullness of life; it is ambrosia and the water of youth. It nourishes, permeates plants, invigorates the semen of animals, inspires the poet and provides wings for prayer. Soul of heaven and of earth, of Indra and Vishnu, with Agni, it forms an inseparable couple; this couple that lighted the sun and stars." The conception of Agni and Soma contains the two essential principles of the universe, according to esoteric doctrine and all living philosophy. Agni is the Eternal Masculine, the creative intellect, pure spirit; Soma is the Eternal Feminine, the soul of the world, or the ethereal substance, womb of all the visible and invisible worlds before the eyes of the flesh, and finally nature, or subtle matter in its infinite transformations.' And the perfect union of these two beings constitutes the supreme being and essence of God. From these two major ideas springs a third and no less fecund one. The Vedas make of the cosmogonic act a perpetual sacrifice. In order to produce all that exists, the supreme being sacrifices himself; he divides himself in order to emerge from his unity. This sacrifice therefore is considered the vital point of all the functions of nature. This idea, surprising at first, very profound when one considers it further, contains in embryo the entire theosophic teaching of the evolution of God in the world, the esoteric synthesis of polytheism and monotheism. It will lead to the Dionysiac teaching of the fall and redemption of souls, which will have full expression in Hermes and Orpheus. From this will arise the doctrine of the Holy Word, proclaimed by Krishna and fulfilled by Jesus Christ. The fire sacrifice with its ceremonies and prayers, the unchangeable center of the Vedic cult, thus becomes the reflection of this great cosmogonic act. The Vedas attach a capital importance to prayer, to the form of invocation which accompanies sacrifice. For this reason they make a goddess of prayer, Brahmanaspati. Faith in the evocative and creative power of human speech, accompanied by a powerful activity of the soul or an intense projection of will is the source of all cults, and the reason for the Egyptian and Chaldean doctrine of magic. For the Vedic and Brahmanic priests, by means of fire, chants and prayers, called upon the Asuras, the invisible Lords, and the Pitris or souls of ancestors, whom they believed seated themselves upon the grass during the sacrifice, attracted by the fire, the songs and the prayers. The science relating to this aspect of the cult involves the hierarchy of spirits of every rank. As for the immortality of the soul, the Vedas confirm this with unmistakable clarity. "There is an immortal side to man; that is the one, O Agni, which you must warm with your rays and quicken with your fires. O Jatavedas, in the glorious body, formed by you, carry it to the world of the godly." The Vedic poets not only indicate the destiny of the soul, but are also concerned with its origin. "Where were souls born? There are those who come to us and return, who return and come back again." That in brief is the doctrine of reincarnation, which will play a major role in Brahmanism and Buddhism, among the Egyptians and the Orphics, in the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato, the mystery of mysteries, the secret of secrets. After this, how can one not recognize in the Vedas the broad lines of an organic religious system, a philosophic concept of the universe? In them is not only the profound intuition of anterior intellectual truth, superior to the observation, but also unity and breadth of vision in the understanding of nature and in the coordination of its phenomena. Like a beautiful rock crystal, the consciousness of the Vedic poet reflects the sunshine of eternal truth, and in this brilliant prism shine all the rays of a universal theosophy. The principles of the eternal teaching are even more visible here than in the other sacred books of India and in the other Semitic or Aryan religions, because of the extraordinary directness of the Vedic poets and the clarity of this primitive religion, so lofty and so pure. At that time, the distinction between the mysteries and popular worship did not exist. But in carefully reading the Vedas, behind the father of the family or the officiating poet of the hymns, one already perceives another more important person. One glimpses the Rishi, the wise man, the initiate, from whom he received the truth. One also observes that this truth was transmitted by an uninterrupted tradition which dates back to the beginnings of the Aryan race. Thus, then, is the Aryan people launched in its conquering, civilizing career along the Indus and Ganges. Rama's invisible genius, the knowledge of things divine, Deva Nahusha rules over it. Agni, the sacred fire, flows in its veins. A rose-tinted aura surrounds this age of youth, power and virility. The family is established, the woman respected. Priestess of the home, sometimes she herself composes and sings the hymns. "May this wife and husband live one hundred autumns," said a poet. They love life, but they also believe in the after-life. The king lives in a castle on a hill which overlooks the village. In war he is set upon a splendid chariot, clothed in shining armor, wearing a tiara; he shines like the god Indra. Later, when the Brahmans have established their authority, near the magnificent palace of the maharaja or great king, one sees the stone pagoda from which come the arts, the poetry and drama of the gods, pantomimed and danced by sacred dancers. Castes exist for the moment, but not in a strict sense and without absolute boundaries. The warrior is priest, and the priest, warrior; more often he is the chief or king's officiating priest. Now here comes an individual, poor in appearance but with a rich future. His hair and beard are unkempt, he is half-clothed in red rags. This muni, this recluse, lives near the holy lakes, in a wild place where he gives himself to meditation and the ascetic life. From time to time he comes to admonish the leader or king. Often he is pushed aside and disobeyed, but he is respected and feared. Already he exercises a terrible power. Between the king on his gilded chariot, surrounded by warriors, and the almost naked muni, having no weapons other than his thought, his speech and his gaze, a battle will take place. And the conqueror will not be the king; it will be the recluse, the almost fleshless, emaciated beggar, because he will have knowledge and strength. The story of this battle is the same as that of Brahmanism, as later it will be that of Buddhism. In it is summed up almost all of India's history. Notes for this chapter:

10The Brahmans considered the Vedas their holy books par excellence. They found in them the
science of sciences. The word Veda means knowledge. The scientists of Europe have been justifiably drawn to these texts by a kind of fascination. At first they saw in them only a patriarchal poetry; then they discovered in them not only the origin of the great Indo-European myths and our classic gods, but also a wisely organized cult, a profoundly religious and metaphysical system (See Bergaigne, La religion des Vedas, as well as the excellent and enlightening work of August Barth, Les religions de l'Inde.) The future perhaps still holds a final surprise, which will be to find in the Vedas the definition of that secret power of nature which modern science is in the process of rediscovering.

11What clearly proves that Soma represented the absolute feminine principle is the fact that the
Brahmins later identified it with the Moon. As the Moon symbolizes the feminine principle in all ancient religions, so the Sun symbolizes the masculine principle.

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