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Now Atlantis and the Phlegyan isle are not the only record that is left of the deluge. China has also her tradition and the story of an island or continent, which it calls Ma-li-ga-si-ma, and which Kæmpfer and Faber spell “ Maurigosima,” for some mysterious phonetic reasons of their own. Kæmpfer, in his “ Japan ” (Appendix, p. 13), gives the tradition : The island, owing to the iniquity of its giants, sinks to the bottom of the ocean, and Peiru-un, the king, the Chinese Noah, escapes alone with his family owing to a warning of the gods through two idols. It is that pious prince and his descendants who have peopled China. The Chinese traditions speak of the divine dynasties of Kings as much as those of any other nations.
At the same time there is not an old fragment but shows belief in a multiform and even multigeneric evolution — spiritual, psychic, intellectual and physical — of human beings, just as given in the present work. A few of these claims have now to be considered.
Our races — they all show — have sprung from divine races, by whatever name they are called. Whether we deal with the Indian Rishis or Pitris ; with the Chinese Chim-nang and Tchan-gy — their “ divine man ” and demi-gods ; with the Akkadian Dingir and Mul-lil — the creative god and the “ Gods of the ghost-world ” ; with the Egyptian Isis-Osiris and Thot ; with the Hebrew Elohim, or again with Manco Capac and his Peruvian progeny — the story varies nowhere. Every nation has either the seven and ten Rishis-Manus and Prajâpatis ; the seven and ten Ki-y ; or ten and seven Amshaspends * (six exoterically), ten and seven Chaldean Anedots,
* The Amshaspends are six — if Ormazd, their chief and Logos, is excluded. But in the secret doctrine he is the seventh and highest, just as Phtah is the seventh Kabir among the Kabiri.
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ten and seven Sephiroth, etc., etc. One and all have been derived from the primitive Dhyan-Chohans of the Esoteric doctrine, or the “ Builders ” of the Stanzas (Book I.). From Manu, Thot-Hermes, Oannes-Dagon, and Edris-Enoch, down to Plato and Panadores, all tell us of seven divine Dynasties, of seven Lemurian, and seven Atlantean divisions of the Earth ; of the seven primitive and dual gods who descend from their celestial abode * and reign on Earth, teaching mankind Astronomy, Architecture, and all the other sciences that have come down to us. These Beings appear first as “ gods ” and Creators ; then they merge in nascent man, to finally emerge as “ divine-Kings and Rulers.” But this fact has been gradually forgotten. As Bosuage shows, the Egyptians themselves confessed that science flourished in their country only since Isis-Osiris, whom they continue to adore as gods, “ though they had become Princes in human form.” And he adds of Osiris-Isis (the divine androgyne) : — “ It is said that this Prince (Isis-Osiris) built cities in Egypt, stopped the overflowing of the Nile ; invented agriculture, the use of the vine, music, astronomy, and geometry.”
When Abul-Feda says in his “ Historia Anteislamitica ” (Fleisher, p. 16) that the Sabean language was established by Seth and Edris (Enoch) — he means by “ Sabean language ” astronomy. In the “ Melelwa Nohil ” (MS. 47 in Nic. Cat.) Hermes is called the disciple of Agathodæmon. And in another account (See Col. Vyse’s 2nd Vol. of the “ Pyramids of Ghizeh,” p. 364, MS. 785, Uri’s Cat.) Agathodæmon is mentioned as a “ King of Egypt.” Celepas Geraldinus gives curious traditions about Henoch. He calls him the “ divine giant.” In the “ Book of the various names of the Nile,” the same author (the historian Ahmed-Ben-Yusouf Eltiphas) tells us of the belief among the Semitic Arabs that Seth (become later the Egyptian Typhon, Set), had been one of the seven angels (or Patriarchs in the Bible) : then he became a mortal and Adam’s son, after which he communicated the gift of prophecy and astronomical science to Jared, who passed it to his son Henoch. But Henoch (Idris) “ the author of thirty books, was Sabæan by origin ” (i.e., belonging to the Saba, “ a Host ”) ; “ having established the rites and ceremonies of primitive worship, he went to the East, where he constructed 140 cities, of which Edessa was the least important, then returned to Egypt where he became its King.” Thus, he is identified with Hermes. But there were five Hermes — or rather one, who appeared — as some Manus and Rishis did — in several different characters. In the Burham-i-Kati he is mentioned as “ Hormig,” a name of the planet Mercury or Budha ; and Wednes-
* In the Purâna it is identified with Vishnu’s or Brahmâ’s Sveta Dwipa of Mount Meru.
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day was sacred both to Hermes and Thot. The Hermes of Oriental tradition, worshipped at Phineata and said to have fled after the death of Argus into Egypt, civilized it under the name of Thoth. But under whichever of these characters, he is always credited with having transferred all the sciences from latent to active potency, i.e., with having been the first to teach magic to Egypt and to Greece, before the days of Magna Græcia, and when the Greeks were not even Hellenes.
Not only Herodotus — the “ father of History ” — tells us of the marvellous dynasties of gods that preceded the reign of mortals, followed by the dynasties of demi-gods, Heroes, and finally men, but the whole series of classics support him ; Diodorus, Eratosthenes, Plato, Manetho, etc., etc., repeat the same, and never vary the order given.
“ It is, indeed,” as Creuzer shows : —
“ From the spheres of the stars wherein dwell the gods of light that wisdom descends to the inferior spheres.” “ In the system of the ancient priests (Hierophants and Adepts) all things without exception, gods, the genii, manes (souls), the whole world, are conjointly developed in Space and duration. The pyramid may be considered as the symbol of this magnificent hierarchy of Spirits. ” *
There were more efforts made by the modern historians (French Academicians, like Renan, chiefly) to suppress truth by ignoring the ancient annals of divine Kings, than is strictly consistent with honesty. But M. Renan could never be more unwilling than was Eratosthenes 260 years b.c. to accept the unpalatable fact ; and yet the latter found himself obliged to recognise its truth. For this, the great astronomer is treated with great contempt by his colleagues 2,000 years later. Manetho became with them “ a superstitious priest born and bred in the atmosphere of other lying priests of Heliopolis ” (Freret). “ All those historians and priests,” justly remarks the demonologist, de Mirville, “ so veracious when repeating stories of human kings and men, suddenly become extremely suspicious no sooner do they go back to their gods.” . . . But there is the synchronistic table of Abydos, which, thanks to the genius of Champollion, has now vindicated the good faith of the priests of Egypt (Manetho’s above all), and that of Ptolemy. In the Turin papyrus, the most remarkable of all, in the words of the Egyptologist, de Rougé : —
“ . . . Champollion, struck with amazement, found that he had under his own eyes the whole truth. . . . It was the remains of a list of dynasties embracing the furthest mythoic times, or the reign of the gods and heroes. . . . At the very outset of this curious
* Ch. iv. of “ Egypt,” p. 441.
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papyrus we have to arrive at the conviction that so far back already as the period of Ramses, those mythic and heroical traditions were just as Manetho had transmitted them to us ; we see figuring in them, as Kings of Egypt, the gods Seb, Osiris, Horus, Thoth-Hermes, and the goddess Ma, a long period of centuries being assigned to the reign of each of these.” (Ann. de Philologie Chrétienne, Vol. XXXII., p. 442).
The synchronistic tables of Manetho, besides the fact that they were disfigured by Eusebius for dishonest purposes, had never gone beyond Manetho. The chronology of the divine Kings and Dynasties, like that of the age of humanity, has ever been in the hands of the priests, and was kept secret from the profane multitudes.
Africa, as a continent, it is said, appeared before Europe did ; nevertheless it appeared later than Lemuria and even the earliest Atlantis. That the whole region of what is now Egypt and the deserts was once upon a time covered with the sea, was known firstly through Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny, and all the Greeks ; and, secondly, through geology. Abyssinia was once upon a time an island ; and the Delta was the first country occupied by the pioneer emigrants who came with their gods from the North-east.
When was it ? History is silent upon the subject. Fortunately we have the Dendera Zodiac, the planisphere on the ceiling of one of the oldest Egyptian temples, which records the fact. This Zodiac, with its mysterious three Virgos between the Lion and Libra, has found its Œdipus, who understood the riddle of these signs, and justified the truthfulness of those priests who told Herodotus that : — (a) The poles of the Earth and the Ecliptic had formerly coincided ; and (b) That even since their first Zodiacal records were commenced, the Poles have been three times within the plane of the Ecliptic, as the Initiates taught.
Bailly had not sufficient words at his command to express his surprise at the sameness of all such traditions about the divine races. “ What are finally,” he exclaims, “ all those reigns of Indian Devas and Persian Peris ? . . . . Or, those reigns and dynasties of the Chinese legends ; those Tien-hoang or the Kings of Heaven, quite distinct from the Ti-hoang, the Kings on Earth, and the Gin-hoang the King’s men, a distinction which is in perfect accord with that other one made by the Greeks and the Egyptians, in enumerating their dynasties of Gods, of demi-gods, and of mortals.” *
“ Now,” says Panadoras, “ it is before that time (Menes), that the reign of the seven gods who rule the world took place. It was during that period that those benefactors of humanity descended on Earth and taught
* Histoire de l’Astronomie Ancienne.
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men to calculate the course of the sun and moon by the twelve signs of the Ecliptic.”
Nearly five hundred years before the actual era, Herodotus was shown by the priests of Egypt the statues of their human Kings and Pontiffs-piromis (the archi-prophets or Maha-Chohans of the temples), born one from the other (without the intervention of woman) who had reigned before Menes, their first human King. These statues, he says, were enormous colossi in wood, three hundred and forty-five in number, each of which had his name, his history and his annals. And they assured Herodotus * (unless the most truthful of historians, the “ Father of History,” is now accused of fibbing, just in this instance) that no historian could ever understand or write an account of these superhuman Kings, unless he had studied and learned the history of the three dynasties that preceded the human — namely, the dynasties of the gods, that of demi-gods, and of the Heroes, or giants. These “ three dynasties ” are the three Races.
Translated into the language of the Esoteric doctrine, these three dynasties would also be those of the Devas, of Kimpurushas, and of Danavas and Daityas — otherwise gods, celestial spirits, and giants or Titans. “ Happy are those who are born, even from the condition of gods, as men, in Bharata-Varsha ! ” exclaim the incarnated gods themselves, during the Third Root-Race. Bharata is India, but in this case it symbolized the chosen land in those days, and was considered the best of the divisions of Jambu-dwipa, as it was the land of active (spiritual) works par excellence ; the land of initiation and of divine knowledge.
Can one fail to recognise in Creuzer great powers of intuition, when, being almost unacquainted with the Aryan Hindu philosophies, little known in his day, he wrote : —
“ We modern Europeans feel surprised when hearing talk of the Spirits of the Sun, Moon, etc. But we repeat again, the natural good sense and the upright
* See also Mémoires à l’Académie, etc., of de Mirville, Vol. III., for a mass of evidence.
† In Vishnu-Purâna, Book II., chap. 3, 4, et seq., may be found many corroborations of the same, if one reads carefully. The reigns of gods, lower gods, and men are all enumerated in the descriptions of the seven Islands, seven seas, seven mountains, etc., etc., ruled by Kings. Each king is said invariably to have seven sons, an allusion to the seven sub-races. One instance will do. The King of Kusa dwipa had seven sons (follow names) . . . “ after whom the seven portions (Varsha) of the island were called. There reside mankind along with Daityas and Danavas, as well as with spirits of Heaven (Gandharvas, Yakshas, Kimpurushas, etc.) and gods.” (Chapter iv.) There is but one exception in the case of King Priyavrata, the son of the first Manu, Swayambhûva — who had ten sons. But of these, three — Medha, Agnibâhu, and Putra — became ascetics, and refused their portions. Thus Priyavrata divided the earth again into seven continents.
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judgment of the ancient peoples, quite foreign to our entirely material ideas upon celestial mechanics and physical sciences . . . could not see in the stars and planets only that which we see : namely, simple masses of light, or opaque bodies moving in circuits in sidereal space, merely according to the laws of attraction or repulsion ; but they saw in them living bodies, animated by spirits as they saw the same in every kingdom of nature. . . . This doctrine of spirits, so consistent and conformable to nature, from which it was derived, formed a grand and unique conception, wherein the physical, the moral, and the political aspects were all blended together . . .” (“ Egypte,” pp. 450 to 455.)
It is such a conception only that can lead man to form a correct conclusion about his origin and the genesis of everything in the universe — of Heaven and Earth, between which he is a living link. Without such a psychological link, and the feeling of its presence, no science can ever progress, and the realm of knowledge must be limited to the analysis of physical matter only.
Occultists believe in “ spirits,” because they feel (and some see) themselves surrounded on every side by them. * Materialists do not. They live on this earth, just as, in the world of insects and even of fishes, some creatures live surrounded by myriads of their own genus, without seeing, or so much as sensing them. †
Plato is the first sage among the classics who speaks at length of the
* As a general rule, now that the very nature of the inner man has become as blind as his physical nature, man is situated on this globe as the Amphioxus is in the Ocean. Surrounded by shoals and millions of various other fishes and creatures that see it, the Amphioxus species — having neither brain nor any of the senses possessed by the other classes — sees them not. Who knows whether, on the Darwinian theory, these “ Branchiostoma ” are not the direct ancestors of our Materialists.
† The Occultists have been accused of worshipping gods or devils. We deny this. Among the numberless hosts of spirits — men that were, and those who will be men — there are those immeasurably superior to the human race, higher and holier than the highest Saint on Earth, and wiser than any mortal without exception. And there are those again who are no better than we are, as some are far worse and inferior to the lowest savage. It is the latter classes that command the readiest communication with our earth, who perceive and sense us, as the clairvoyants perceive and sense them. The close proximity of our respective abodes and planes of perception are in favour of such inter-communication unfortunately, as they are ever ready to interfere with our affairs for weal or woe. If we are asked how it is that none but sensitive hysterical natures, neuro- and psycho-pathic persons see and occasionally talk with “ Spirits,” we answer the question by several other queries. We ask : “ Do you know the nature of hallucination, and can you define its psychic process ? How can you tell that all such visions are due merely to physical hallucinations ? What makes you feel so sure that mental and nervous diseases, while drawing a veil over our normal senses (so-called) do not reveal at the same time vistas unknown to the healthy man, by throwing open doors usually closed against your scientific perceptions ( ?) : or that a psycho-spiritual faculty does not forthwith replace the loss, or the temporary atrophy, of a purely physical sense ? It is disease, or the exuberance of nervous fluid which produces mediumship and visions — hallucinations, as you call them. But what does Science know even of mediumship ? ” Truly were the
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divine Dynasties, and locates them on a vast continent which he calls Atlantis. Bailly was not the first nor last to believe the same, and he had been preceded and anticipated in this theory by Father Kircher. This learned Jesuit writes in “ Œdipus Ægyptiacus ” (Vol. I., p. 70) : —
“ I confess, for a long time I had regarded all this (dynasties and the Atlantis) as pure fables (meras nugas) to the day when, better instructed in Oriental languages, I judged that all those legends must be, after all, only the development of a great truth. ”
As de Rougemont shows, Theopompus, in his Meropis, made the priests of Phrygia and Asia Minor speak exactly as the priests of Sais did when they revealed to Solon the history and fate of Atlantis. According to Theopompus, it was a unique continent of an indefinite size, and containing two countries inhabited by two races — a fighting, warrior race, and a pious, meditative race, * which Theopompus symbolizes by two cities. † The pious “ city ” was continually visited by the the gods ; the belligerent “ city ” was inhabited by various beings invulnerable to iron, liable to be mortally wounded only by stone and wood.” ‡ De Rougemont treats this as a pure fiction of Theopompus (“ Peuple Primitif,” vol. iii. 157) and even sees a fraud (superchérie) in the assertion of the Saitic priests. This was denounced by the “ Demonologists ” as illogical. In the words of De Mirville : — “ A superchérie which was based on a belief, the product of faith of the whole antiquity ; a supposition which yet gave its name to a whole mountain chain (the Atlas) ; which specified with the greatest precision a topographical region (by placing some of its lands at a small distance from Cadiz and the strait of Calpetus), which prophesied, 2,000 years before Columbus, the great trans-oceanic land situated beyond that Atlantis and which “ is reached ” it said — “ by the islands not of the blessed, but of the good spirits ἐυδαιμόνια (our ‘ Iles Fortunées ’) — such a supposition can never be an universal chimera.” (A word on “ Atlantis,” p. 29.)
It is certain that, whether “ chimera ” or reality, the priests of the whole world had it from one and the same source : the universal tradition
modern Charcots to pay attention to the delirium of their patients from a more psychic standpoint, Science, and physiology especially, might be more benefited than they are now, and truth have a wider field of fact in its knowledge.
* These were the early Aryans and the bulk of the Fourth Root Races — the former pious and meditative (yoga-contemplation), the latter — a fighting race of sorcerers, who were rapidly degenerating owing to their uncontrolled passions.
† The Northern and Southern Divisions of Lemuria-Atlantis. The Hyperborean and the Equatorial lands of the two continents. (See Sections about Lemuria and Atlantis in History.)
‡ This is Occult and refers to the property of iron which, attracted by magnetic elements, is repelled by others, which are made, by an occult process, as impervious to it as water to a blow.
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about the third great continent which perished some 850,000 years ago, * A continent inhabited by two distinct races ; distinct physically and especially morally ; both deeply versed in primeval wisdom and the secrets of nature ; mutually antagonistic in their struggle, during the course and progress of their double evolution. Whence even the Chinese teachings upon the subject, if it is but a fiction ? Have they not recorded the existence once upon a time of a holy island beyond the sun (Tcheou), and beyond which were situated the lands of the immortal men ? (See de Rougemont, ibid.) Do they not still believe that the remnants of those immortal men — who survived when the holy island had become black with sin and perished — have found refuge in the great desert of Gobi, where they still reside invisible to all, and defended from approach by hosts of Spirits ?
“ If one has to lend ear to traditions,” writes the very unbelieving Boulanger, (“ Regne des Dieux,” Introduction) . . . “ the latter place before the reign of Kings, that of the Heroes and demi-gods ; and still earlier and beyond they place the marvellous reign of the gods and all the fables of the golden age. . . . One feels surprised that annals so interesting should have been rejected by almost all our historians. And yet the ideas communicated by them were once universally admitted and revered by all the peoples ; not a few revere them still, making them the basis of their daily life. Such considerations seem to necessitate a less hurried judgment. . . . The ancients, from whom we hold these traditions, which we accept no longer because we do not understand them now, must have had motives for believing in them furnished by their greater proximity to the first ages, and which the distance that separates us from them refuses to us . . . . Plato in his fourth book of Laws, says that, long before the construction of the first cities, Saturn had established on earth a certain form of government under which man was very happy. As it is the golden age he refers to, or to that reign of gods so celebrated in ancient fables . . . . let us see the ideas he had of that happy age, and what was the occasion he had to introduce this fable into a treatise on politics. According to Plato, in order to obtain clear and precise ideas on royalty, its origin and power, one has to turn back to the first principles of history and tradition. Great changes, he says, have occurred in days of old, in heaven and on earth, and the present state of things is one of the results (Karma). Our traditions tell us of many marvels, of changes that have taken place in the course of the Sun, of Saturn’s reign, and of a thousand other matters that remained scattered about in human memory ; but one never hears anything of the EVIL which has
* The first continent, or island, if so preferred, “ the cap of the North Pole,” has never perished ; nor will it to the end of the Seven Races.
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produced those revolutions, nor of the evil which directly followed them. Yet . . . . that Evil is the principle one has to talk about, to be able to treat of royalty and the origin of power. ”
That evil, Plato seems to see in the sameness or consubstantiality of the natures of the rulers and the ruled, for he says that long before man built his cities, in the golden age, there was naught but happiness on earth, for there were no needs. Why ? Because Saturn, knowing that man could not rule man, without injustice filling forthwith the universe through his whims and vanity, would not allow any mortal to obtain power over his fellow creatures. To do this the god used the same means we use ourselves with regard to our flocks. We do not place a bullock or a ram over our bullocks and rams, but give them a leader, a shepherd, i.e., a being of a species quite different from their own and of a superior nature. It is just what Saturn did. He loved mankind and placed to rule over it no mortal King or prince but — “ Spirits and genii (δαίμονες) of a divine nature more excellent than that of man.”
It was god, the Logos (the synthesis of the Host) who thus presiding over the genii, became the first shepherd and leader of men. * When the world had ceased to be so governed and the gods retired, “ ferocious beasts devoured a portion of mankind.” “ Left to their own resources and industry, inventors then appeared among them successively and discovered fire, wheat, wine ; and public gratitude deified them . . . .” (“ De Legibus ” 1, iv. ; in Crit. and in Politic).
And mankind was right, as fire by friction was the first mystery of nature, the first and chief property of matter that was revealed to man.
“ Fruits and grain, unknown to Earth to that day, were brought by the ‘ Lords of Wisdom ’ for the benefit of those they ruled — from other lokas (spheres). . .” say the Commentaries. Now : “ The earliest inventions (?) of mankind are the most wonderful that the race has ever made. . . The first use of fire, and the discovery of the methods by which it can be kindled ; the domestication of animals ; and, above all, the processes by which the various cereals were first developed out of some wild grasses (?) — these are all discoveries with which, in ingenuity and in importance, no subsequent discoveries may compare. They are all unknown to history — all lost in the light of an effulgent dawn.” (“ Unity of Nature,” Argyll.)
This will be doubted and denied in our proud generation. But if it is asserted that there are no grains and fruits unknown to earth, then we may remind the reader that wheat has never been found in the wild state : it is not a product of the earth. All the other cereals have been traced to their primogenital forms in various species of wild grasses, but wheat has
* The Secret Doctrine explains and expounds that which Plato says, for it teaches that those “ inventors ” were gods and demi-gods (Devas and Rishis) who had become — some deliberately, some forced to by Karma — incarnated in man.
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hitherto defied the efforts of botanists to trace it to its origin. And let us bear in mind, in this connection, how sacred was that cereal with the Egyptian priests ; wheat being placed even with their mummies, and found thousands of years later in their coffins. Remember : — “ The servants of Horus glean the wheat in the field of Aanroo, . . . wheat seven cubits high.” (“ Book of the Dead,” chap. xcix.,33 ; and clvi., 4.) * The reader is referred to Stanza VII., Verse 3, Book I., wherein this verse is explained in another of its meanings, and also to the “ Book of the Dead,” chap. cix., v. 4 and 5.
“ I am the Queen of these regions,” says the Egyptian Isis ; “ I was the first to reveal to mortals the mysteries of wheat and corn. . . . I am she who rises in the constellation of the dog (Dog-star) . . . . Rejoice, O Egypt ! thou who wert my nurse.” (Book I., chap. XIV. †
Sirius was called the dog-star. It was the star of Mercury or Budha, called the great instructor of mankind, before other Buddhas.
The book of the Chinese Y-King, attributes the discovery of agriculture to “ the instruction given to men by celestial genii.”
“ Woe, woe to the men who know nought, observe nought, nor will they see. . . . They are all blind ‡ since they remain ignorant how much the world is full of various and invisible creatures which crowd even in the most sacred places ” (Zohar, Part I., col. 177.)
The “ Sons of God ” have existed and do exist. From the Hindu Brahmâputras and Manasaputras (Sons of Brahmâ and Mind-born sons) down to the B’ne-aleim of the Jewish Bible, the faith of the centuries and
* This is a direct reference to the esoteric division of man’s principles symbolised by the divine wheat. The legend which inscribes the third Registrar of the papyrus (Chap. cx. of the “ Book of the Dead ”) states : “ This is the region of the Manes (disembodied men) seven cubits high ” — to wit : those just translated and supposed to be still sevenfold with all their principles, even the body represented astrally in the Kama-loka or Hades, before their separation . . . . . “ and, there is wheat three cubits high for mummies in a state of perfection ” (i.e., those already separated, whose three higher principles are in Devachan “ who are permitted to glean it.” This region (Devachan) is called “ the land of the re-birth of gods,” and shown to be inhabited by Scheo, Tefnant, and Seb. The “ region for the manes seven cubits high,” (for the yet imperfect mummies), and the region for those “ in a state of perfection ” who “ glean wheat three cubits high,” is as clear as possible. The Egyptians had the same esoteric philosophy which is now taught by the cis-Himalayan adepts, who, when buried, have corn and wheat placed over them.
† There are Egyptologists who have tried to identify Osiris with Menes, which is quite erroneous. Bunsen assigns to Menes an antiquity of 5867 years B.C., and is denounced for it by Christians. But “ Isis-Osiris ” reigned in Egypt before the Dendera Zodiac was painted on the ceiling of that temple, and that is over 75,000 years ago !
‡ In the text, “ corked up ” or “ screwed up.”
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universal tradition force reason to yield to such evidence. Of what value is independent criticism so called, or “ internal evidence ” (based usually on the respective hobbies of the critics), in the face of the universal testimony, which never varied throughout the historical cycles ? Read esoterically the sixth chapter of Genesis, which repeats the statements of the Secret Doctrine, only changing slightly its form, and drawing a different conclusion which clashes even with the Zohar. “ There were giants in the earth in those days ; and also after that when ‘ the Sons of God ’ (b’ne-aleim) “ came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown ” (or giants). *
What does this sentence “ and also after that ” signify unless it means when explained : “ There were giants in the earth before, i.e., before the sinless sons of the Third Race ; and also after that when other sons of God, lower in nature, inaugurated sexual connection on earth (as Daksha did, when he saw that his Manasaputras would not people the earth) ” ? And then comes a long break in this chapter vi. of Genesis, between verses 4 and 5. For surely, it was not in or through the wickedness of the “ mighty men ” . . . . men of renown, among whom is placed Nimrod the “ mighty hunter before the Lord,” that “ god saw that the wickedness of man was great,” nor in the builders of Babel, for this was after the Deluge ; but in the progeny of the giants who produced monstra quædam de genere giganteo, monsters from whence sprang the lower races of men, now represented on earth by a few miserable dying-out tribes and the huge anthropoid apes.
And if we are taken to task by theologians, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, we have only to refer them to their own literal texts. The above quoted verse was ever a dilemma, not alone for the men of science and Biblical scholars, but also for priests. For, as the Rev. Father Peronne puts it : — “ Either they (the B’ne-aleim) were good angels, and in such case how could they fall ? Or they were bad (angels) and in this case could not be called b’ne-aleim, the “ sons of God.” (Prælectiones theol. ch. ii.) This Biblical riddle — “ the real sense of which no author has ever understood,” as candidly confessed by Fourmont † — can only be explained by the Occult doctrine, through the Zohar to the Western, and the Book of Dzyan to the Eastern. What the former says we have seen ; what the Zohar tells us is this : B’ne-aleim was a name common to the Malachim (the good Messengers) and to the Ischin (“ the lower angels ”) (Rabbi Parcha).
We may add for the benefit of the demonologists that their Satan,
* Genesis vi., v. 4.
† Reflections critiques sur l’origine des anciens peuples.
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“ the adversary,” is included in Job among the sons of God or b’ne-aleim who visit their father.” (Chapter i.) But of this later on.
Now the Zohar says that the Ischin, the beautiful B’ne-aleim, were not guilty, but mixed themselves with mortal men because they were sent on earth to do so. (Book of Ruth and Schadash ; fol. 63, col. 3 ; Amsterdam edition). Elsewhere the same volume shows these b’ne-aleim belonging to the tenth sub-division of the “ Thrones ” (Zohar, part iii., col. 113. But see also 1st vol. 184). It also explains that the Ischin, “ men-spirits,” viri spirituales, now that men can see them no longer, help magicians to produce, through their science, homunculi which are not small men but “ men smaller (in the sense of inferiority) than men.” Both show themselves under the form that the Ischin had then, i.e., gaseous and ethereal. Their chief is Azazel.
But Azazel, whom the Church dogma will associate with Satan, is nothing of the kind. Azazel is a mystery, as explained elsewhere, and it is so expressed in Maimonides, “ In More Nevochim ” (chapter xxvi., p. 8). “ There is an impenetrable mystery in the narrative concerning Azazel.” And so there is, as Lanci, a librarian to the Vatican and one who ought to know, says — we have quoted him before — that “ this venerable divine name (nome divino e venerabile) has become through the pen of Biblical scholars, a devil, a wilderness, a mountain, and a he-goat ” (Sagra Scrittura). Therefore it seems foolish to derive the name as Spencer does, from Ajál (separated) and El (god), hence “ one separated from God,” the Devil. In the Zohar, Azazel is rather the Sacrificial victim than the “ formal adversary of Jehovah,” as Spencer would have it (II., pp. 14, 29). The amount of malicious fancy and fiction bestowed on that “ Host ” by various fanatical writers is quite extraordinary. Azazel and his “ host ” are simply the Hebrew “ Prometheus,” and ought to be viewed from the same standpoint. The Zohar shows the Ischin chained on the mountain in the desert, allegorically ; thus simply alluding to those “ spirits ” as being chained to the earth during the cycle of incarnation. Azazel (or Azaziel) is one of the chiefs of the “ transgressing ” angels in Enoch, who descending upon Ardis, the top of Mount Armon, bound themselves by swearing loyalty to each other. It is said that Azaziel taught men to make swords, knives, shields, to fabricate mirrors (?) to make one see what is behind him (viz., “ magic mirrors ”). Amazarak taught all the sorcerers and dividers of roots ; Amers taught the solution of magic ; Barkayal, astrology ; Akibeel, the meaning of portents and signs ; Tamial, astronomy ; and Asaradel taught the motion of the moon. “ These seven were the first instructors of the Fourth man ” (i.e., of the Fourth Race). But why should allegory be always understood as meaning all that its dead-letter expresses ?
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It is the symbolical representation of the great struggle between divine wisdom, nous, and its earthly reflection, Psuche, or between Spirit and Soul, in Heaven and on Earth. In Heaven — because the divine Monad had voluntarily exiled itself therefrom, to descend, for incarnating purposes, to a lower plane and thus transform the animal of clay into an immortal god. For, as Eliphas Lévi tells us, “ the angels aspire to become men ; for the perfect man, the man-god, is above even angels.” On Earth — because no sooner had Spirit descended than it was strangled in the coils of matter.
Strange to say, the Occult teaching reverses the characters ; it is the anthropomorphous archangel with the Christians, and the man-like God with the Hindus, which represent matter in this case ; and the Dragon, or Serpent, Spirit. Occult symbolism furnishes the key to the mystery ; theological symbolics conceal it still more. For the former explains many a saying in the Bible and even in the New Testament which have hitherto remained incomprehensible ; while the latter, owing to its dogma of Satan and his rebellion, has belittled the character and nature of its would-be infinite, absolutely perfect god, and created the greatest evil and curse on earth — belief in a personal Devil. This mystery is opened with the key to its metaphysical symbolism now restored ; while that of theological interpretation shows the gods and the archangels standing as symbols for the dead letter or dogmatic religions, and as arrayed against the pure truths of Spirit, naked and unadorned with fancy.
Many were the hints thrown out in this direction in “ Isis Unveiled,” and a still greater number of references to this mystery may be found scattered throughout these volumes. To make the point clear once for all : that which the clergy of every dogmatic religion — pre-eminently the Christian — points out as Satan, the enemy of God, is in reality, the highest divine Spirit — (occult Wisdom on Earth) — in its naturally antagonistic character to every worldly, evanescent illusion, dogmatic or ecclesiastical religions included. Thus, the Latin Church, intolerant, bigoted and cruel to all who do not choose to be its slaves ; the Church which calls itself the bride of Christ, and the trustee at the same time of Peter, to whom the rebuke of the Master “ get thee behind me Satan ” was justly addressed ; and again the Protestant Church which, while calling itself Christian, paradoxically replaces the New Dispensation by the old “ Law of Moses ” which Christ openly repudiated : both these Churches are fighting against divine Truth, when repudiating and slandering the Dragon of esoteric (because divine) Wisdom. Whenever anathematizing the Gnostic Solar Chnouphis — the Agathodæmon — Christos, or the theosophical Serpent of Eternity, or even the Serpent of Genesis — they
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are moved by the same Spirit of dark fanaticism that moved the Pharisees to curse Jesus by saying to him “ Say we not well thou hast a devil ? ”
Read the account about Indra (Vayu) in the Rig-Veda, the occult volume par excellence of Aryanism, and then compare it with the same in the Purânas — the exoteric version thereof, and the purposely garbled account of the true Wisdom religion. In the Rig Veda Indra is the highest and greatest of the Gods, and his Soma-drinking is allegorical of his highly spiritual nature. In the Purânas Indra becomes a profligate, and a regular drunkard on the Soma juice, in the terrestrial way. He is the conqueror of all the “ enemies of the gods ” — the Daityas, Nâgas (Serpents), Asuras, all the Serpent-gods, and of Vritri, the Cosmic Serpent. Indra is the St. Michael of the Hindu Pantheon — the chief of the militant Host. Turning to the Bible, we find Satan, one of the “ Sons of God ” ( Job. i. 6), becoming in exoteric interpretation the Devil, and the Dragon in its infernal, evil sense. But in the Kabala (“ Book of Numbers ”) Samael, who is Satan, is shown to be identical with St. Michael, the slayer of the Dragon. How is this ? For it is said that Tselem (the image) reflects alike Michael and Samael who are one. Both proceed, it is taught, from Ruach (Spirit), Neschamah (Soul) and Nephesch (life). In the “ Chaldean Book of Numbers ” Samael is the concealed (occult) Wisdom, and Michael the higher terrestrial Wisdom, both emanating from the same source but diverging after their issue from the mundane soul, which on Earth is Mahat (intellectual understanding, or Manas (the seat of Intellect). They diverge, because one (Michael) is influenced by Neschamah, while the other (Samael) remains uninfluenced. This tenet was perverted by the dogmatic spirit of the Church ; which, loathing independent Spirit, uninfluenced by the external form (hence by dogma), forthwith made of Samael-Satan (the most wise and spiritual spirit of all) — the adversary of its anthropomorphic God and sensual physical man, the devil !