Difference between revisions of "Blavatsky H.P. - Isis Unveiled"

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{{Style P-Title|ISIS UNVEILED}}
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{{Style P-Title|Isis Unveiled:}}
 
{{Style P-Subtitle|A MASTER-KEY}}
 
{{Style P-Subtitle|A MASTER-KEY}}
{{Style P-Subtitle|TO THE}}
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{{Style P-Subtitle|<small>TO THE</small>}}
{{Style P-Subtitle|MYSTERIES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN}}
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{{Style P-Subtitle|{{Style S-Small capitals|Mysteries of Ancient and Modern}}}}
 
{{Style P-Subtitle|SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY.}}
 
{{Style P-Subtitle|SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY.}}
  
<center>BY</center>
 
  
{{Style P-Subtitle|H. P. BLAVATSKY}}
+
<center><small>BY</small></center>
 +
{{Style P-Subtitle|H. P. BLAVATSKY,}}
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|corresponding secretary of the theosophical society}}</center>
  
{{Style P-Epigraph|“Cecy est un livre de bonne Foy.”|—Montaigne|250px}}
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{{Vertical space|2em}}
  
 
<center>1877 First Edition,</center>
 
<center>1877 First Edition,</center>
 
<center>Updated and Corrected.</center>
 
<center>Updated and Corrected.</center>
<center>Credits for electronic first verbatim edition goes to [http://universaltheosophy.com/hpb/isisunveiled.html Universal Theosophy]</center>
+
<center>Credits for electronic edition goes to [http://universaltheosophy.com/hpb/isisunveiled.html Universal Theosophy]</center>
  
 
{{Vertical space|2em}}
 
{{Vertical space|2em}}
{{Style P-Subtitle|Vol. I.—SCIENCE.}}
 
{{Vertical space|2em}}
 
 
{{IU-page|v=1|p=iii|title=}}
 
  
 
<center>THE AUTHOR</center>
 
<center>THE AUTHOR</center>
 
<center>Dedicates these Volumes</center>
 
<center>Dedicates these Volumes</center>
 
<center>to the</center>
 
<center>to the</center>
<center>{{Style C-Italic|THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY}}</center>
+
<center>''THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,''</center>
<center>which was founded at New York, a.d. 1875.</center>
+
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|which was founded at New York, a.d. 1875.}}</center>
 
<center>To Study the Subjects on which they Treat.</center>
 
<center>To Study the Subjects on which they Treat.</center>
  
{{IU-page|v=1|p=v|title=}}
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{{Vertical space|2em}}
{{Style P-Title level |2|PREFACE.}}
+
 
<center>———</center>
+
{{Style P-Subtitle|TABLE OF CONTENTS.}}
 +
 
 +
<div style="max-width: 600px; min-width: 400px; margin: 0 auto;">
 +
<center><big>{{Style S-Small capitals|Volume I}}</big></center>
 +
: {{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.Preface|Preface]]}} {{IU-p-toc|1|v}}
 +
 
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU v.1 ch.Before the Veil|Before the veil]]}}</center>
 +
: Dogmatic assumptions of modem science and theology {{IU-p-toc|1|ix}}
 +
: The Platonic philosophy affords the only middle ground {{IU-p-toc|1|xi}}
 +
: Review of the ancient philosophical systems {{IU-p-toc|1|xv}}
 +
: A Syriac manuscript on Simon Magus {{IU-p-toc|1|xxiii}}
 +
: Glossary of terms used in this book {{IU-p-toc|1|xxiii}}
 +
 
 +
<center>–––––––</center>
 +
<center>'''Volume First.'''</center>
 +
<center>THE “INFALLIBILITY” OF MODERN SCIENCE</center>
 +
<center>–––––––</center>
 +
 
 +
<center>CHAPTER I</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.1|Old things with new names]]}}</center>
 +
: The Oriental Kabala {{IU-p-toc|1|1}}
 +
: Ancient traditions supported by modern research {{IU-p-toc|1|3}}
 +
: The progress of mankind marked by cycles {{IU-p-toc|1|5}}
 +
: Ancient cryptic science {{IU-p-toc|1|7}}
 +
: Priceless value of the Vedas {{IU-p-toc|1|12}}
 +
: Mutilations of the Jewish sacred books in translation {{IU-p-toc|1|13}}
 +
: Magic always regarded as a divine science {{IU-p-toc|1|25}}
 +
: Achievements of its adepts and hypotheses of their modern detractors {{IU-p-toc|1|25}}
 +
: Man’s yearning for immortality {{IU-p-toc|1|37}}
 +
 
 +
<center>CHAPTER II</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.2|Phenomena and forces]]}}</center>
 +
: The servility of society {{IU-p-toc|1|39}}
 +
: Prejudice and bigotry of men of science {{IU-p-toc|1|40}}
 +
: They are chased by psychical phenomena {{IU-p-toc|1|41}}
 +
: Lost arts {{IU-p-toc|1|49}}
 +
: The human will the master-force of forces {{IU-p-toc|1|57}}
 +
: Superficial generalizations of the French savants {{IU-p-toc|1|60}}
 +
: Mediumistic phenomena, to what attributable {{IU-p-toc|1|67}}
 +
: Their relation to crime {{IU-p-toc|1|71}}
 +
 
 +
<center>CHAPTER III</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.3|Blind leaders of the blind]]}}</center>
 +
: Huxley’s derivation from the Orohitppus {{IU-p-toc|1|74}}
 +
: Comte, his system and disciples {{IU-p-toc|1|75}}
 +
: The London materialists {{IU-p-toc|1|85}}
 +
: Borrowed robes {{IU-p-toc|1|89}}
 +
: Emanation of the objective universe from the subjective {{IU-p-toc|1|92}}
 +
 
 +
<center>CHAPTER IV</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.4|Theories respecting psychic phenomena]]}}</center>
 +
: Theory of de Gasparin {{IU-p-toc|1|100}}
 +
: Theory of Thury {{IU-p-toc|1|100}}
 +
: Theory of des Mousseaux, de Mirville {{IU-p-toc|1|100}}
 +
: Theory of Babinet {{IU-p-toc|1|101}}
 +
: Theory of Houdin {{IU-p-toc|1|101}}
 +
: Theory of Drs. Rayer and Jobert de Lamballe {{IU-p-toc|1|102}}
 +
: The twins–“unconscious cerebration” and “unconscious ventriloquism” {{IU-p-toc|1|105}}
 +
: Theory of Crookes {{IU-p-toc|1|112}}
 +
: Theory of Faraday {{IU-p-toc|1|116}}
 +
: Theory of Chevreul {{IU-p-toc|1|116}}
 +
: The Mendeleyeff commission of 1876 {{IU-p-toc|1|117}}
 +
: Soul blindness {{IU-p-toc|1|121}}
 +
 
 +
<center>CHAPTER V</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.5|The aether, or “astral light”]]}}</center>
 +
: One primal force, but many correlations {{IU-p-toc|1|126}}
 +
: Tyndall narrowly escapes a great discovery {{IU-p-toc|1|127}}
 +
: The impossibility of miracle {{IU-p-toc|1|128}}
 +
: Nature of the primordial substance {{IU-p-toc|1|133}}
 +
: Interpretation of certain ancient myths {{IU-p-toc|1|133}}
 +
: Experiments of the fakirs {{IU-p-toc|1|139}}
 +
: Evolution in Hindu allegory {{IU-p-toc|1|153}}
 +
 
 +
<center>CHAPTER VI</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.6|Psycho-physical phenomena]]}}</center>
 +
: The debt we owe to Paracelsus {{IU-p-toc|1|163}}
 +
: Mesmerism – its parentage, reception, potentiality {{IU-p-toc|1|165}}
 +
: “Psychometry” {{IU-p-toc|1|183}}
 +
: Time, space, eternity {{IU-p-toc|1|184}}
 +
: Transfer of energy from the visible to the invisible universe {{IU-p-toc|1|186}}
 +
: The Crookes experiments and Cox theory {{IU-p-toc|1|195}}
 +
 
 +
<center>CHAPTER VII</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.7|The elements, elementals and elementaries]]}}</center>
 +
: Attraction and repulsion universal in all the kingdoms of nature {{IU-p-toc|1|206}}
 +
: Psychical phenomena depend on physical surroundings {{IU-p-toc|1|211}}
 +
: Observations in Siam {{IU-p-toc|1|214}}
 +
: Music in nervous disorders {{IU-p-toc|1|215}}
 +
: The “world-soul” and its potentialities {{IU-p-toc|1|216}}
 +
: Healing by touch, and healers {{IU-p-toc|1|217}}
 +
: “Diakka” and Porphyry’s bad daemons {{IU-p-toc|1|219}}
 +
: The quenchless lamp {{IU-p-toc|1|224}}
 +
: Modern ignorance of vital force {{IU-p-toc|1|237}}
 +
: Antiquity of the theory of force-correlation {{IU-p-toc|1|241}}
 +
: Universality of belief in magic {{IU-p-toc|1|247}}
  
The work now submitted to public judgment is the fruit of a somewhat intimate acquaintance with Eastern adepts and study of their science. It is offered to such as are willing to accept truth wherever it may be found, and to defend it, even looking popular prejudice straight in the face. It is an attempt to aid the student to detect the vital principles which underlie the philosophical systems of old.
+
<center>CHAPTER VIII</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.8|Some mysteries of nature]]}}</center>
 +
: Do the planets affect human destiny? {{IU-p-toc|1|253}}
 +
: Very curious passage from Hermes {{IU-p-toc|1|254}}
 +
: The restlessness of matter {{IU-p-toc|1|257}}
 +
: An old prophecy fulfilled {{IU-p-toc|1|260}}
 +
: Sympathies between planets and plants {{IU-p-toc|1|264}}
 +
: Hindu knowledge of the properties of colors {{IU-p-toc|1|265}}
 +
: “Coincidences” the panacea of modern science {{IU-p-toc|1|268}}
 +
: The moon and the tides {{IU-p-toc|1|273}}
 +
: Epidemic mental and moral disorders {{IU-p-toc|1|274}}
 +
: The gods of the Pantheons only natural forces {{IU-p-toc|1|280}}
 +
: Proofs of the magical powers of Pythagoras {{IU-p-toc|1|283}}
 +
: The viewless races of ethereal space {{IU-p-toc|1|284}}
 +
: The “four truths” of Buddhism {{IU-p-toc|1|291}}
  
The book is written in all sincerity. It is meant to do even justice, and to speak the truth alike without malice or prejudice. But it shows neither mercy for enthroned error, nor reverence for usurped authority. It demands for a spoliated past, that credit for its achievements which has been too long withheld. It calls for a restitution of borrowed robes, and the vindication of calumniated but glorious reputations. Toward no form of worship, no religious faith, no scientific hypothesis has its criticism been directed in any other spirit. Men and parties, sects and schools are but the mere ephemera of the world’s day. Truth, high-seated upon its rock of adamant, is alone eternal and supreme.
+
<center>CHAPTER IX</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.9|Cyclic phenomena]]}}</center>
 +
: Meaning of the expression “coats of skin” {{IU-p-toc|1|293}}
 +
: Natural selection and its results {{IU-p-toc|1|295}}
 +
: The Egyptian “circle of necessity” {{IU-p-toc|1|296}}
 +
: Pre-Adamite races {{IU-p-toc|1|299}}
 +
: Descent of spirit into matter {{IU-p-toc|1|302}}
 +
: The triune nature of man {{IU-p-toc|1|309}}
 +
: The lowest creatures in the scale of being {{IU-p-toc|1|310}}
 +
: Elementals specifically described {{IU-p-toc|1|311}}
 +
: Proclus on the beings of the air {{IU-p-toc|1|312}}
 +
: Various names for elementals {{IU-p-toc|1|313}}
 +
: Swedenborgian views on soul-death {{IU-p-toc|1|317}}
 +
: Earth-bound human souls {{IU-p-toc|1|319}}
 +
: Impure mediums and their “guides” {{IU-p-toc|1|325}}
 +
: Psychometry an aid to scientific research {{IU-p-toc|1|333}}
  
We believe in no Magic which transcends the scope and capacity of the human mind, nor in “miracle,” whether divine or diabolical, if such imply a transgression of the laws of nature instituted from all eternity. Nevertheless, we accept the saying of the gifted author of {{Style S-Italic|Festus,}} that the human heart has not yet fully uttered itself, and that we have never attained or even understood the extent of its powers. Is it too much to believe that man should be developing new sensibilities and a closer relation with nature? The logic of evolution must teach as much, if carried to its legitimate conclusions. If, somewhere, in the line of ascent from vegetable or ascidian to the noblest man a soul was evolved, gifted with intellectual qualities, it cannot be unreasonable to infer and believe that a faculty of perception is also growing in man, enabling him to descry facts and truths even beyond our ordinary ken. Yet we do not hesitate to accept the assertion of Biffé, that “the essential is forever the same. Whether we cut away the marble inward that hides the statue in the
+
<center>CHAPTER X</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.10|The inner and outer man]]}}</center>
 +
: Père Félix arraigns the scientists {{IU-p-toc|1|338}}
 +
: The “Unknowable” {{IU-p-toc|1|340}}
 +
: Danger of evocations by tyros {{IU-p-toc|1|342}}
 +
: Lares and Lemures {{IU-p-toc|1|345}}
 +
: Secrets of Hindu temples {{IU-p-toc|1|350}}
 +
: Reincarnation {{IU-p-toc|1|351}}
 +
: Witchcraft and witches {{IU-p-toc|1|353}}
 +
: The sacred Soma trance {{IU-p-toc|1|357}}
 +
: Vulnerability of certain “shadows” {{IU-p-toc|1|363}}
 +
: Experiment of Clearchus on a sleeping boy {{IU-p-toc|1|365}}
 +
: The author witnesses a trial of magic in India {{IU-p-toc|1|369}}
 +
: Case of the Cévennois {{IU-p-toc|1|371}}
  
{{IU-page|v=1|p=vi|title=PREFACE.}}  
+
<center>CHAPTER XI</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.11|Psychological and physical marvels]]}}</center>
 +
: Invulnerability attainable by man {{IU-p-toc|1|379}}
 +
: Projecting the force of the will {{IU-p-toc|1|380}}
 +
: Insensibility to snake-poison {{IU-p-toc|1|381}}
 +
: Charming serpents by music {{IU-p-toc|1|383}}
 +
: Teratological phenomena discussed {{IU-p-toc|1|385}}
 +
: The psychological domain confessedly unexplored {{IU-p-toc|1|407}}
 +
: Despairing regrets of Berzelius {{IU-p-toc|1|411}}
 +
: Turning a river into blood a vegetable phenomenon {{IU-p-toc|1|413}}
  
{{Style P-No indent|block, or pile stone upon stone outward till the temple is completed, our new result is only an {{Style S-Italic|old idea.}} The latest of all the eternities will find its destined other half-soul in the earliest.”}}
+
<center>CHAPTER XII</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.12|The “impassable chasm”]]}}</center>
 +
: Confessions of ignorance by men of science {{IU-p-toc|1|417}}
 +
: The Pantheon of nihilism {{IU-p-toc|1|421}}
 +
: Triple composition of fire {{IU-p-toc|1|423}}
 +
: Instinct and reason defined {{IU-p-toc|1|425}}
 +
: Philosophy of the Hindu Jainas {{IU-p-toc|1|429}}
 +
: Deliberate misrepresentation of Lemprière {{IU-p-toc|1|431}}
 +
: Man’s astral soul not immortal {{IU-p-toc|1|432}}
 +
: The reincarnation of Buddha {{IU-p-toc|1|437}}
 +
: Magical sun and moon pictures of Thibet {{IU-p-toc|1|441}}
 +
: Vampirism–its phenomena explained {{IU-p-toc|1|449}}
 +
: Bengalese jugglery {{IU-p-toc|1|457}}
  
When, years ago, we first travelled over the East, exploring the penetralia of its deserted sanctuaries, two saddening and ever-recurring questions oppressed our thoughts: {{Style S-Italic|Where}}, who, what {{Style S-Italic|is}} GOD? {{Style S-Italic|Who ever saw the}} immortal SPIRIT {{Style S-Italic|of man, so as to be able to assure himself of man’s immortality?}}
+
<center>CHAPTER XIII</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.13|Realities and illusion]]}}</center>
 +
: The rationale of talismans {{IU-p-toc|1|462}}
 +
: Unexplained mysteries {{IU-p-toc|1|466}}
 +
: Magical experiment in Bengal {{IU-p-toc|1|467}}
 +
: Chibh Chondor’s surprising feats {{IU-p-toc|1|471}}
 +
: The Indian tape-climbing trick an illusion {{IU-p-toc|1|473}}
 +
: Resuscitation of buried fakirs {{IU-p-toc|1|477}}
 +
: Limits of suspended animation {{IU-p-toc|1|481}}
 +
: Mediumship totally antagonistic to adeptship {{IU-p-toc|1|487}}
 +
: What are “materialized spirits”? {{IU-p-toc|1|493}}
 +
: The Shudâla-Mâdan {{IU-p-toc|1|495}}
 +
: Philosophy of levitation {{IU-p-toc|1|497}}
 +
: The elixir and alkahest {{IU-p-toc|1|503}}
  
It was while most anxious to solve these perplexing problems that we came into contact with certain men, endowed with such mysterious powers and such profound knowledge that we may truly designate them as the sages of the Orient. To their instructions we lent a ready ear. They showed us that by combining science with religion, the existence of God and immortality of man’s spirit may be demonstrated like a problem of Euclid. For the first time we received the assurance that the Oriental philosophy has room for no other faith than an absolute and immovable faith in the omnipotence of man’s own immortal self. We were taught that this omnipotence comes from the kinship of man’s spirit with the Universal Soul—God! The latter, they said, can never be demonstrated but by the former. Man-spirit proves God-spirit, as the one drop of water proves a source from which it must have come. Tell one who had never seen water, that there is an ocean of water, and he must accept it on faith or reject it altogether. But let one drop fall upon his hand, and he then has the fact from which all the rest may be inferred. After that he could by degrees understand that a boundless and fathomless ocean of water existed. Blind faith would no longer be necessary; he would have supplanted it with knowledge. When one sees mortal man displaying tremendous capabilities, controlling the forces of nature and opening up to view the world of spirit, the reflective mind is overwhelmed with the conviction that if one man’s spiritual {{Style S-Italic|Ego}} can do this much, the capabilities of the Father Spirit must be relatively as much vaster as the whole ocean surpasses the single drop in volume and potency. {{Style S-Italic|Ex nihilo nihil fit;}} prove the soul of man by its wondrous powers—you have proved God! In our studies, mysteries were shown to be no mysteries. Names and places that to the Western mind have only a significance derived from Eastern fable, were shown to be realities. Reverently we stepped in spirit within the temple of Isis; to lift aside the veil of “the one that is and was and shall be” at Saïs; to look through the rent curtain of the Sanctum Sanctorum at Jerusalem; and even to interrogate within the crypts which once existed beneath the sacred edifice, the mysterious Bath-Kol. The {{Style S-Italic|Filia Vocis}}—the daughter of the divine voice—
+
<center>CHAPTER XIV</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.14|Egyptian wisdom]]}}</center>
 +
: Origin of the Egyptians {{IU-p-toc|1|515}}
 +
: Their mighty engineering works {{IU-p-toc|1|517}}
 +
: The ancient land of the Pharaohs {{IU-p-toc|1|521}}
 +
: Antiquity of the Nilotic monuments {{IU-p-toc|1|529}}
 +
: Arts of war and peace {{IU-p-toc|1|531}}
 +
: Mexican myths and ruins {{IU-p-toc|1|545}}
 +
: Resemblances to the Egyptian {{IU-p-toc|1|551}}
 +
: Moses a priest of Osiris {{IU-p-toc|1|555}}
 +
: The lessons taught by the ruins of Siam {{IU-p-toc|1|563}}
 +
: The Egyptian Tau at Palenque {{IU-p-toc|1|573}}
  
{{IU-page|v=1|p=vii|title=PREFACE.}}  
+
<center>CHAPTER XV</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.1_ch.15|India the cradle of the race]]}}</center>
 +
: Acquisition of the “secret doctrine” {{IU-p-toc|1|575}}
 +
: Two relics owned by a Pâli scholar {{IU-p-toc|1|577}}
 +
: Jealous exclusiveness of the Hindus {{IU-p-toc|1|581}}
 +
: Lydia Maria Child on Phallic symbolism {{IU-p-toc|1|583}}
 +
: The age of the Vedas and Manu {{IU-p-toc|1|587}}
 +
: Traditions of pre-diluvian races {{IU-p-toc|1|589}}
 +
: Atlantis and its peoples {{IU-p-toc|1|593}}
 +
: Peruvian relics {{IU-p-toc|1|597}}
 +
: The Gobi desert and its secrets {{IU-p-toc|1|599}}
 +
: Thibetan and Chinese legends {{IU-p-toc|1|600}}
 +
: The magician aids, not impedes, nature {{IU-p-toc|1|617}}
 +
: Philosophy, religion, arts and sciences bequeathed by Mother India to posterity {{IU-p-toc|1|618}}
  
{{Style P-No indent|responded from the mercy-seat within the veil,{{Footnote mark|*}} and science, theology, every human hypothesis and conception born of imperfect knowledge, lost forever their authoritative character in our sight. The one-living God had spoken through his oracle—man, and we were satisfied. Such knowledge is priceless; and it has been hidden only from those who overlooked it, derided it, or denied its existence.}}
 
  
From such as these we apprehend criticism, censure, and perhaps hostility, although the obstacles in our way neither spring from the validity of proof, the authenticated facts of history, nor the lack of common sense among the public whom we address. The drift of modern thought is palpably in the direction of liberalism in religion as well as science. Each day brings the reactionists nearer to the point where they must surrender the despotic authority over the public conscience, which they have so long enjoyed and exercised. When the Pope can go to the extreme of fulminating anathemas against all who maintain the liberty of the Press and of speech, or who insist that in the conflict of laws, civil and ecclesiastical, the civil law should prevail, or that any method of instruction solely secular, may be approved;{{Footnote mark|†}} and Mr. Tyndall, as the mouth-piece of nineteenth century science, says, “. . . the impregnable position of science may be stated in a few words: we claim, and we shall wrest from theology, the entire domain of cosmological theory”{{Footnote mark|}}—the end is not difficult to foresee.
+
<center><big>{{Style S-Small capitals|Volume II}}</big></center>
  
Centuries of subjection have not quite congealed the life-blood of men into crystals around the nucleus of blind faith; and the nineteenth is witnessing the struggles of the giant as he shakes off the Liliputian cordage and rises to his feet. Even the Protestant communion of England and America, now engaged in the revision of the text of its {{Style S-Italic|Oracles,}} will be compelled to show the origin and merits of the text itself. The day of domineering over men with dogmas has reached its gloaming.
+
: {{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.Preface|Preface]]}} {{IU-p-toc|2|iii}}
 +
:: Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson and Baroness Burdett-Coutts
  
Our work, then, is a plea for the recognition of the Hermetic philosophy, the anciently universal Wisdom-Religion, as the only possible key to the Absolute in science and theology. To show that we do not at all conceal from ourselves the gravity of our undertaking, we may say in advance that it would not be strange if the following classes should array themselves against us:
+
<center>–––––––</center>
 +
<center>'''Volume Second'''</center>
 +
<center>THE “INFALLIBILITY” OF RELIGION</center>
 +
<center>–––––––</center>
  
{{Footnotes start}}
+
<center>CHAPTER I</center>
{{Footnote return|*}} Lightfoot assures us that this voice, which had been used in times past for a testimony from heaven, “was indeed performed by magic art” (vol. ii., p. 128). This latter term is used as a supercilious expression, just because it was and is still misunderstood. It is the object of this work to correct the erroneous opinions concerning “magic art.”
+
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.1|The church: where is it?]]}}</center>
 +
: Church statistics {{IU-p-toc|2|1}}
 +
: Catholic “miracles” and spiritualistic “phenomena” {{IU-p-toc|2|4}}
 +
: Christian and Pagan belief compared {{IU-p-toc|2|10}}
 +
: Magic and sorcery practiced by Christian clergy {{IU-p-toc|2|20}}
 +
: Comparative theology a new science {{IU-p-toc|2|25}}
 +
: Eastern traditions as to Alexandrian Library {{IU-p-toc|2|27}}
 +
: Roman pontiffs imitators of the Hindu Brahmâtma {{IU-p-toc|2|30}}
 +
: Christian dogmas derived from heathen philosophy {{IU-p-toc|2|33}}
 +
: Doctrine of the Trinity of Pagan origin {{IU-p-toc|2|45}}
 +
: Disputes between Gnostics and Church Fathers {{IU-p-toc|2|51}}
 +
: Bloody records of Christianity {{IU-p-toc|2|53}}
  
{{Footnote return|}} Encyclical of 1864.
+
<center>CHAPTER II</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.2|Christian crimes and heathen virtues]]}}</center>
 +
: Sorceries of Catherine of Medici {{IU-p-toc|2|55}}
 +
: Occult arts practiced by the clergy {{IU-p-toc|2|59}}
 +
: Witch-burning and auto-da-fé of little children {{IU-p-toc|2|62}}
 +
: Lying Catholic saints {{IU-p-toc|2|74}}
 +
: Pretensions of missionaries in India and China {{IU-p-toc|2|79}}
 +
: Sacrilegious tricks of Catholic clergy {{IU-p-toc|2|82}}
 +
: Paul a kabalist {{IU-p-toc|2|91}}
 +
: Peter not the founder of Roman church {{IU-p-toc|2|91}}
 +
: Strict lives of Pagan hierophants {{IU-p-toc|2|98}}
 +
: High character of ancient “mysteries” {{IU-p-toc|2|101}}
 +
: Jacolliot’s account of Hindu fakirs {{IU-p-toc|2|103}}
 +
: Christian symbolism derived from Phallic worship {{IU-p-toc|2|109}}
 +
: Hindu doctrine of the Pitṛis {{IU-p-toc|2|114}}
 +
: Brahmanic spirit-communion {{IU-p-toc|2|115}}
 +
: Dangers of untrained mediumship {{IU-p-toc|2|117}}
  
{{Footnote return|}}“Fragments of Science.”
+
<center>CHAPTER III</center>
{{Footnotes end}}
+
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.3|Divisions amongst the early Christians]]}}</center>
 +
: Resemblance between early Christianity and Buddhism {{IU-p-toc|2|123}}
 +
: Peter never in Rome {{IU-p-toc|2|124}}
 +
: Meaning of “Nazar” and “Nazarene” {{IU-p-toc|2|129}}
 +
: Baptism a derived right {{IU-p-toc|2|134}}
 +
: Is Zoroaster a generic name? {{IU-p-toc|2|141}}
 +
: Pythagorean teachings of Jesus {{IU-p-toc|2|147}}
 +
: The Apocalypse kabalistic {{IU-p-toc|2|147}}
 +
: Jesus considered an adept by some Pagan philosophers and early Christians {{IU-p-toc|2|150}}
 +
: Doctrine of permutation {{IU-p-toc|2|152}}
 +
: The meaning of God-Incarnate {{IU-p-toc|2|153}}
 +
: Dogmas of the Gnostics {{IU-p-toc|2|155}}
 +
: Ideas of Marcion, the “heresiarch” {{IU-p-toc|2|159}}
 +
: Precepts of Manu {{IU-p-toc|2|163}}
 +
: Jehovah identical with Bacchus {{IU-p-toc|2|165}}
  
{{IU-page|v=1|p=viii|title=PREFACE.}}  
+
<center>CHAPTER IV</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.4|Oriental cosmogonies and Bible records]]}}</center>
 +
: Discrepancies in the Pentateuch {{IU-p-toc|2|167}}
 +
: Indian, Chaldean and Ophite systems compared {{IU-p-toc|2|170}}
 +
: Who were the first Christians? {{IU-p-toc|2|178}}
 +
: Christos and Sophia-Akhamôth {{IU-p-toc|2|183}}
 +
: Secret doctrine taught by Jesus {{IU-p-toc|2|191}}
 +
: Jesus never claimed to be God {{IU-p-toc|2|193}}
 +
: New Testament narratives and Hindu legends {{IU-p-toc|2|199}}
 +
: Antiquity of the “Logos” and “Christ” {{IU-p-toc|2|205}}
 +
: Comparative Virgin-worship {{IU-p-toc|2|209}}
  
The Christians, who will see that we question the evidences of the genuineness of their faith.
+
<center>CHAPTER V</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.5|Mysteries of the Kabala]]}}</center>
 +
: Ain-Soph and the Sephîrôth {{IU-p-toc|2|212}}
 +
: The primitive wisdom-religion {{IU-p-toc|2|216}}
 +
: The book of Genesis a compilation of Old World legends {{IU-p-toc|2|217}}
 +
: The Trinity of the Kabala {{IU-p-toc|2|222}}
 +
: Gnostic and Nazarene systems contrasted with Hindu myths {{IU-p-toc|2|225}}
 +
: Kabalism in the book of Ezekiel {{IU-p-toc|2|232}}
 +
: Story of the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter found in the history of Kṛishṇa {{IU-p-toc|2|241}}
 +
: Untrustworthy teachings of the early Fathers {{IU-p-toc|2|248}}
 +
: Their persecuting spirit {{IU-p-toc|2|249}}
  
The Scientists, who will find their pretensions placed in the same bundle with those of the Roman Catholic Church for infallibility, and, in certain particulars, the sages and philosophers of the ancient world classed higher than they. Pseudo-Scientists will, of course, denounce us furiously.
+
<center>CHAPTER VI</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.6|Esoteric doctrines of Buddhism parodied in Christianity]]}}</center>
 +
: Decisions of Nicæan Council, how arrived at {{IU-p-toc|2|251}}
 +
: Murder of Hypatia {{IU-p-toc|2|252}}
 +
: Origin of the fish-symbol of Vishṇu {{IU-p-toc|2|256}}
 +
: Kabalistic doctrine of the Cosmogony {{IU-p-toc|2|264}}
 +
: Diagrams of Hindu and Chaldeo-Jewish systems {{IU-p-toc|2|265}}
 +
: Ten mythical Avatâras of Vishṇu {{IU-p-toc|2|274}}
 +
: Trinity of man taught by Paul {{IU-p-toc|2|281}}
 +
: Socrates and Plato on soul and spirit {{IU-p-toc|2|283}}
 +
: True Buddhism, what it is {{IU-p-toc|2|288}}
  
Broad Churchmen and Freethinkers will find that we do not accept what they do, but demand the recognition of the whole truth.
+
<center>CHAPTER VII</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.7|Earlier Christian heresies and secret societies]]}}</center>
 +
: Nazareans, Ophites, and modern Druzes {{IU-p-toc|2|291}}
 +
: Etymology of IAŌ {{IU-p-toc|2|298}}
 +
: “Hermetic Brothers” of Egypt {{IU-p-toc|2|307}}
 +
: True meaning of Nirvâṇa {{IU-p-toc|2|319}}
 +
: The Jaina sect {{IU-p-toc|2|321}}
 +
: Christians and Chrêstians {{IU-p-toc|2|323}}
 +
: The Gnostics and their detractors {{IU-p-toc|2|325}}
 +
: Buddha, Jesus, and Apollonius of Tyana {{IU-p-toc|2|341}}
  
Men of letters and various {{Style S-Italic|authorities,}} who hide their real belief in deference to popular prejudices.
+
<center>CHAPTER VIII</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.8|Jesuitry and Masonry]]}}</center>
 +
: The Zohar and Rabbi Shimon {{IU-p-toc|2|348}}
 +
: The Order of Jesuits and its relation to some of the Masonic orders {{IU-p-toc|2|352}}
 +
: Crimes permitted to its members {{IU-p-toc|2|355}}
 +
: Principles of Jesuitry compared with those of Pagan moralists {{IU-p-toc|2|364}}
 +
: Trinity of man in Egyptian Book of the Dead {{IU-p-toc|2|367}}
 +
: Freemasonry no longer esoteric {{IU-p-toc|2|372}}
 +
: Persecution of Templars by the Church {{IU-p-toc|2|381}}
 +
: Secret Masonic ciphers {{IU-p-toc|2|395}}
 +
: Jehovah not the “Ineffable Name” {{IU-p-toc|2|398}}
  
The mercenaries and parasites of the Press, who prostitute its more than royal power, and dishonor a noble profession, will find it easy to mock at things too wonderful for them to understand; for to them the price of a paragraph is more than the value of sincerity. From many will come honest criticism; from many—cant. But we look to the future.
+
<center>CHAPTER IX</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.9|The Vedas and the Bible]]}}</center>
 +
: Nearly every myth based on some great truth {{IU-p-toc|2|405}}
 +
: Whence the Christian Sabbath {{IU-p-toc|2|406}}
 +
: Antiquity of the Vedas {{IU-p-toc|2|410}}
 +
: Pythagorean doctrine of the potentialities of numbers {{IU-p-toc|2|417}}
 +
: “Days” of Genesis and “Days” of Brahmâ {{IU-p-toc|2|422}}
 +
: Fall of man and the Deluge in the Hindu books {{IU-p-toc|2|425}}
 +
: Antiquity of the Mahâbhârata {{IU-p-toc|2|429}}
 +
: Were the ancient Egyptians of the Âryan race? {{IU-p-toc|2|434}}
 +
: Samuel, David, and Solomon mythical personages {{IU-p-toc|2|439}}
 +
: Symbolism of Noah’s Ark {{IU-p-toc|2|447}}
 +
: The Patriarchs identical with zodiacal signs {{IU-p-toc|2|459}}
 +
: All Bible legends belong to universal history {{IU-p-toc|2|469}}
  
The contest now going on between the party of public conscience and the party of reaction, has already developed a healthier tone of thought. It will hardly fail to result ultimately in the overthrow of error and the triumph of Truth. We repeat again—we are laboring for the brighter morrow.
+
<center>CHAPTER X</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.10|The Devil-myth]]}}</center>
 +
: The devil officially recognized by the Church {{IU-p-toc|2|477}}
 +
: Satan the mainstay of sacerdotalism {{IU-p-toc|2|480}}
 +
: Identity of Satan with the Egyptian Typhon {{IU-p-toc|2|483}}
 +
: His relation to serpent-worship {{IU-p-toc|2|489}}
 +
: The Book of Job and the Book of the Dead {{IU-p-toc|2|493}}
 +
: The Hindu devil a metaphysical abstraction {{IU-p-toc|2|501}}
 +
: Satan and the Prince of Hell in the Gospel of Nicodemus {{IU-p-toc|2|515}}
  
And yet, when we consider the bitter opposition that we are called upon to face, who is better entitled than we upon entering the arena to write upon our shield the hail of the Roman gladiator to Cæsar: Moriturus te Salutât!
+
<center>CHAPTER XI</center>
 +
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.11|Comparative results of buddhism and christianity]]}}</center>
 +
: The age of philosophy produced no atheists {{IU-p-toc|2|530}}
 +
: The legends of three Saviors {{IU-p-toc|2|537}}
 +
: Christian doctrine of the Atonement illogical {{IU-p-toc|2|542}}
 +
: Cause of the failure of missionaries to convert Buddhists and Brahmanists {{IU-p-toc|2|553}}
 +
: Neither Buddha nor Jesus left written records {{IU-p-toc|2|559}}
 +
: The grandest mysteries of religion in the Bhagavad-Gîtâ {{IU-p-toc|2|562}}
 +
: The meaning of regeneration explained in the Śatapatha-Brâhmaṇa {{IU-p-toc|2|565}}
 +
: The sacrifice of blood interpreted {{IU-p-toc|2|566}}
 +
: Demoralization of British India by Christian missionaries {{IU-p-toc|2|573}}
 +
: The Bible less authenticated than any other sacred book {{IU-p-toc|2|577}}
 +
: Knowledge of chemistry and physics displayed by Indian jugglers {{IU-p-toc|2|583}}
  
{{Style P-Signature|H.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;B.
+
<center>CHAPTER XII</center>
New York, September, 1877.}}
+
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|[[HPB-IU_v.2_ch.12|Conclusions and illustrations]]}}</center>
 +
: Recapitulation of fundamental propositions {{IU-p-toc|2|587}}
 +
: Seership of the soul and of the spirit {{IU-p-toc|2|590}}
 +
: The phenomenon of the so-called spirit-hand {{IU-p-toc|2|594}}
 +
: Difference between mediums and adepts {{IU-p-toc|2|595}}
 +
: Interview of an English ambassador with a reincarnated Buddha {{IU-p-toc|2|598}}
 +
: Flight of a lama’s astral body related by Abbé Huc {{IU-p-toc|2|604}}
 +
: Schools of magic in Buddhist lamaseries {{IU-p-toc|2|609}}
 +
: The unknown race of Hindu Tôḍas {{IU-p-toc|2|613}}
 +
: Will-power of fakirs and yogis {{IU-p-toc|2|617}}
 +
: Taming of wild beasts by fakirs {{IU-p-toc|2|622}}
 +
: Evocation of a living spirit by a Shaman, witnessed by the writer {{IU-p-toc|2|626}}
 +
: Sorcery by the breath of a Jesuit Father {{IU-p-toc|2|633}}
 +
: Why the study of magic is almost impracticable in Europe {{IU-p-toc|2|}635}
 +
: Conclusion {{IU-p-toc|2|635}}
 +
</div>

Latest revision as of 10:34, 20 April 2024


Isis Unveiled:

A MASTER-KEY
TO THE
Mysteries of Ancient and Modern
SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY.


BY
H. P. BLAVATSKY,
corresponding secretary of the theosophical society
1877 First Edition,
Updated and Corrected.
Credits for electronic edition goes to Universal Theosophy
THE AUTHOR
Dedicates these Volumes
to the
THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,
which was founded at New York, a.d. 1875.
To Study the Subjects on which they Treat.


TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Volume I
Preface
... v
Before the veil
Dogmatic assumptions of modem science and theology
... ix
The Platonic philosophy affords the only middle ground
... xi
Review of the ancient philosophical systems
... xv
A Syriac manuscript on Simon Magus
... xxiii
Glossary of terms used in this book
... xxiii
–––––––
Volume First.
THE “INFALLIBILITY” OF MODERN SCIENCE
–––––––
CHAPTER I
Old things with new names
The Oriental Kabala
... 1
Ancient traditions supported by modern research
... 3
The progress of mankind marked by cycles
... 5
Ancient cryptic science
... 7
Priceless value of the Vedas
... 12
Mutilations of the Jewish sacred books in translation
... 13
Magic always regarded as a divine science
... 25
Achievements of its adepts and hypotheses of their modern detractors
... 25
Man’s yearning for immortality
... 37
CHAPTER II
Phenomena and forces
The servility of society
... 39
Prejudice and bigotry of men of science
... 40
They are chased by psychical phenomena
... 41
Lost arts
... 49
The human will the master-force of forces
... 57
Superficial generalizations of the French savants
... 60
Mediumistic phenomena, to what attributable
... 67
Their relation to crime
... 71
CHAPTER III
Blind leaders of the blind
Huxley’s derivation from the Orohitppus
... 74
Comte, his system and disciples
... 75
The London materialists
... 85
Borrowed robes
... 89
Emanation of the objective universe from the subjective
... 92
CHAPTER IV
Theories respecting psychic phenomena
Theory of de Gasparin
... 100
Theory of Thury
... 100
Theory of des Mousseaux, de Mirville
... 100
Theory of Babinet
... 101
Theory of Houdin
... 101
Theory of Drs. Rayer and Jobert de Lamballe
... 102
The twins–“unconscious cerebration” and “unconscious ventriloquism”
... 105
Theory of Crookes
... 112
Theory of Faraday
... 116
Theory of Chevreul
... 116
The Mendeleyeff commission of 1876
... 117
Soul blindness
... 121
CHAPTER V
The aether, or “astral light”
One primal force, but many correlations
... 126
Tyndall narrowly escapes a great discovery
... 127
The impossibility of miracle
... 128
Nature of the primordial substance
... 133
Interpretation of certain ancient myths
... 133
Experiments of the fakirs
... 139
Evolution in Hindu allegory
... 153
CHAPTER VI
Psycho-physical phenomena
The debt we owe to Paracelsus
... 163
Mesmerism – its parentage, reception, potentiality
... 165
“Psychometry”
... 183
Time, space, eternity
... 184
Transfer of energy from the visible to the invisible universe
... 186
The Crookes experiments and Cox theory
... 195
CHAPTER VII
The elements, elementals and elementaries
Attraction and repulsion universal in all the kingdoms of nature
... 206
Psychical phenomena depend on physical surroundings
... 211
Observations in Siam
... 214
Music in nervous disorders
... 215
The “world-soul” and its potentialities
... 216
Healing by touch, and healers
... 217
“Diakka” and Porphyry’s bad daemons
... 219
The quenchless lamp
... 224
Modern ignorance of vital force
... 237
Antiquity of the theory of force-correlation
... 241
Universality of belief in magic
... 247
CHAPTER VIII
Some mysteries of nature
Do the planets affect human destiny?
... 253
Very curious passage from Hermes
... 254
The restlessness of matter
... 257
An old prophecy fulfilled
... 260
Sympathies between planets and plants
... 264
Hindu knowledge of the properties of colors
... 265
“Coincidences” the panacea of modern science
... 268
The moon and the tides
... 273
Epidemic mental and moral disorders
... 274
The gods of the Pantheons only natural forces
... 280
Proofs of the magical powers of Pythagoras
... 283
The viewless races of ethereal space
... 284
The “four truths” of Buddhism
... 291
CHAPTER IX
Cyclic phenomena
Meaning of the expression “coats of skin”
... 293
Natural selection and its results
... 295
The Egyptian “circle of necessity”
... 296
Pre-Adamite races
... 299
Descent of spirit into matter
... 302
The triune nature of man
... 309
The lowest creatures in the scale of being
... 310
Elementals specifically described
... 311
Proclus on the beings of the air
... 312
Various names for elementals
... 313
Swedenborgian views on soul-death
... 317
Earth-bound human souls
... 319
Impure mediums and their “guides”
... 325
Psychometry an aid to scientific research
... 333
CHAPTER X
The inner and outer man
Père Félix arraigns the scientists
... 338
The “Unknowable”
... 340
Danger of evocations by tyros
... 342
Lares and Lemures
... 345
Secrets of Hindu temples
... 350
Reincarnation
... 351
Witchcraft and witches
... 353
The sacred Soma trance
... 357
Vulnerability of certain “shadows”
... 363
Experiment of Clearchus on a sleeping boy
... 365
The author witnesses a trial of magic in India
... 369
Case of the Cévennois
... 371
CHAPTER XI
Psychological and physical marvels
Invulnerability attainable by man
... 379
Projecting the force of the will
... 380
Insensibility to snake-poison
... 381
Charming serpents by music
... 383
Teratological phenomena discussed
... 385
The psychological domain confessedly unexplored
... 407
Despairing regrets of Berzelius
... 411
Turning a river into blood a vegetable phenomenon
... 413
CHAPTER XII
The “impassable chasm”
Confessions of ignorance by men of science
... 417
The Pantheon of nihilism
... 421
Triple composition of fire
... 423
Instinct and reason defined
... 425
Philosophy of the Hindu Jainas
... 429
Deliberate misrepresentation of Lemprière
... 431
Man’s astral soul not immortal
... 432
The reincarnation of Buddha
... 437
Magical sun and moon pictures of Thibet
... 441
Vampirism–its phenomena explained
... 449
Bengalese jugglery
... 457
CHAPTER XIII
Realities and illusion
The rationale of talismans
... 462
Unexplained mysteries
... 466
Magical experiment in Bengal
... 467
Chibh Chondor’s surprising feats
... 471
The Indian tape-climbing trick an illusion
... 473
Resuscitation of buried fakirs
... 477
Limits of suspended animation
... 481
Mediumship totally antagonistic to adeptship
... 487
What are “materialized spirits”?
... 493
The Shudâla-Mâdan
... 495
Philosophy of levitation
... 497
The elixir and alkahest
... 503
CHAPTER XIV
Egyptian wisdom
Origin of the Egyptians
... 515
Their mighty engineering works
... 517
The ancient land of the Pharaohs
... 521
Antiquity of the Nilotic monuments
... 529
Arts of war and peace
... 531
Mexican myths and ruins
... 545
Resemblances to the Egyptian
... 551
Moses a priest of Osiris
... 555
The lessons taught by the ruins of Siam
... 563
The Egyptian Tau at Palenque
... 573
CHAPTER XV
India the cradle of the race
Acquisition of the “secret doctrine”
... 575
Two relics owned by a Pâli scholar
... 577
Jealous exclusiveness of the Hindus
... 581
Lydia Maria Child on Phallic symbolism
... 583
The age of the Vedas and Manu
... 587
Traditions of pre-diluvian races
... 589
Atlantis and its peoples
... 593
Peruvian relics
... 597
The Gobi desert and its secrets
... 599
Thibetan and Chinese legends
... 600
The magician aids, not impedes, nature
... 617
Philosophy, religion, arts and sciences bequeathed by Mother India to posterity
... 618


Volume II
Preface
... iii
Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson and Baroness Burdett-Coutts
–––––––
Volume Second
THE “INFALLIBILITY” OF RELIGION
–––––––
CHAPTER I
The church: where is it?
Church statistics
... 1
Catholic “miracles” and spiritualistic “phenomena”
... 4
Christian and Pagan belief compared
... 10
Magic and sorcery practiced by Christian clergy
... 20
Comparative theology a new science
... 25
Eastern traditions as to Alexandrian Library
... 27
Roman pontiffs imitators of the Hindu Brahmâtma
... 30
Christian dogmas derived from heathen philosophy
... 33
Doctrine of the Trinity of Pagan origin
... 45
Disputes between Gnostics and Church Fathers
... 51
Bloody records of Christianity
... 53
CHAPTER II
Christian crimes and heathen virtues
Sorceries of Catherine of Medici
... 55
Occult arts practiced by the clergy
... 59
Witch-burning and auto-da-fé of little children
... 62
Lying Catholic saints
... 74
Pretensions of missionaries in India and China
... 79
Sacrilegious tricks of Catholic clergy
... 82
Paul a kabalist
... 91
Peter not the founder of Roman church
... 91
Strict lives of Pagan hierophants
... 98
High character of ancient “mysteries”
... 101
Jacolliot’s account of Hindu fakirs
... 103
Christian symbolism derived from Phallic worship
... 109
Hindu doctrine of the Pitṛis
... 114
Brahmanic spirit-communion
... 115
Dangers of untrained mediumship
... 117
CHAPTER III
Divisions amongst the early Christians
Resemblance between early Christianity and Buddhism
... 123
Peter never in Rome
... 124
Meaning of “Nazar” and “Nazarene”
... 129
Baptism a derived right
... 134
Is Zoroaster a generic name?
... 141
Pythagorean teachings of Jesus
... 147
The Apocalypse kabalistic
... 147
Jesus considered an adept by some Pagan philosophers and early Christians
... 150
Doctrine of permutation
... 152
The meaning of God-Incarnate
... 153
Dogmas of the Gnostics
... 155
Ideas of Marcion, the “heresiarch”
... 159
Precepts of Manu
... 163
Jehovah identical with Bacchus
... 165
CHAPTER IV
Oriental cosmogonies and Bible records
Discrepancies in the Pentateuch
... 167
Indian, Chaldean and Ophite systems compared
... 170
Who were the first Christians?
... 178
Christos and Sophia-Akhamôth
... 183
Secret doctrine taught by Jesus
... 191
Jesus never claimed to be God
... 193
New Testament narratives and Hindu legends
... 199
Antiquity of the “Logos” and “Christ”
... 205
Comparative Virgin-worship
... 209
CHAPTER V
Mysteries of the Kabala
Ain-Soph and the Sephîrôth
... 212
The primitive wisdom-religion
... 216
The book of Genesis a compilation of Old World legends
... 217
The Trinity of the Kabala
... 222
Gnostic and Nazarene systems contrasted with Hindu myths
... 225
Kabalism in the book of Ezekiel
... 232
Story of the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter found in the history of Kṛishṇa
... 241
Untrustworthy teachings of the early Fathers
... 248
Their persecuting spirit
... 249
CHAPTER VI
Esoteric doctrines of Buddhism parodied in Christianity
Decisions of Nicæan Council, how arrived at
... 251
Murder of Hypatia
... 252
Origin of the fish-symbol of Vishṇu
... 256
Kabalistic doctrine of the Cosmogony
... 264
Diagrams of Hindu and Chaldeo-Jewish systems
... 265
Ten mythical Avatâras of Vishṇu
... 274
Trinity of man taught by Paul
... 281
Socrates and Plato on soul and spirit
... 283
True Buddhism, what it is
... 288
CHAPTER VII
Earlier Christian heresies and secret societies
Nazareans, Ophites, and modern Druzes
... 291
Etymology of IAŌ
... 298
“Hermetic Brothers” of Egypt
... 307
True meaning of Nirvâṇa
... 319
The Jaina sect
... 321
Christians and Chrêstians
... 323
The Gnostics and their detractors
... 325
Buddha, Jesus, and Apollonius of Tyana
... 341
CHAPTER VIII
Jesuitry and Masonry
The Zohar and Rabbi Shimon
... 348
The Order of Jesuits and its relation to some of the Masonic orders
... 352
Crimes permitted to its members
... 355
Principles of Jesuitry compared with those of Pagan moralists
... 364
Trinity of man in Egyptian Book of the Dead
... 367
Freemasonry no longer esoteric
... 372
Persecution of Templars by the Church
... 381
Secret Masonic ciphers
... 395
Jehovah not the “Ineffable Name”
... 398
CHAPTER IX
The Vedas and the Bible
Nearly every myth based on some great truth
... 405
Whence the Christian Sabbath
... 406
Antiquity of the Vedas
... 410
Pythagorean doctrine of the potentialities of numbers
... 417
“Days” of Genesis and “Days” of Brahmâ
... 422
Fall of man and the Deluge in the Hindu books
... 425
Antiquity of the Mahâbhârata
... 429
Were the ancient Egyptians of the Âryan race?
... 434
Samuel, David, and Solomon mythical personages
... 439
Symbolism of Noah’s Ark
... 447
The Patriarchs identical with zodiacal signs
... 459
All Bible legends belong to universal history
... 469
CHAPTER X
The Devil-myth
The devil officially recognized by the Church
... 477
Satan the mainstay of sacerdotalism
... 480
Identity of Satan with the Egyptian Typhon
... 483
His relation to serpent-worship
... 489
The Book of Job and the Book of the Dead
... 493
The Hindu devil a metaphysical abstraction
... 501
Satan and the Prince of Hell in the Gospel of Nicodemus
... 515
CHAPTER XI
Comparative results of buddhism and christianity
The age of philosophy produced no atheists
... 530
The legends of three Saviors
... 537
Christian doctrine of the Atonement illogical
... 542
Cause of the failure of missionaries to convert Buddhists and Brahmanists
... 553
Neither Buddha nor Jesus left written records
... 559
The grandest mysteries of religion in the Bhagavad-Gîtâ
... 562
The meaning of regeneration explained in the Śatapatha-Brâhmaṇa
... 565
The sacrifice of blood interpreted
... 566
Demoralization of British India by Christian missionaries
... 573
The Bible less authenticated than any other sacred book
... 577
Knowledge of chemistry and physics displayed by Indian jugglers
... 583
CHAPTER XII
Conclusions and illustrations
Recapitulation of fundamental propositions
... 587
Seership of the soul and of the spirit
... 590
The phenomenon of the so-called spirit-hand
... 594
Difference between mediums and adepts
... 595
Interview of an English ambassador with a reincarnated Buddha
... 598
Flight of a lama’s astral body related by Abbé Huc
... 604
Schools of magic in Buddhist lamaseries
... 609
The unknown race of Hindu Tôḍas
... 613
Will-power of fakirs and yogis
... 617
Taming of wild beasts by fakirs
... 622
Evocation of a living spirit by a Shaman, witnessed by the writer
... 626
Sorcery by the breath of a Jesuit Father
... 633
Why the study of magic is almost impracticable in Europe {{IU-p-toc|2|}635}
Conclusion
... 635