HPB-SD(ed.1) v.1 p.1 st.3 sl.7: Difference between revisions

(''b'') “ The “ Dragon of Wisdom” is the One, the “ Eka ” (Sanskrit) or Saka. It is curious that Jehovah’s name in Hebrew should also be One, Echod. “ His name is Echod ” : say the Rabbins. The philologists ought to decide which of the two is derived from the other — linguistically and symbolically : surely, not the Sanskrit ? The “ One ” and the Dragon are expressions used by the ancients in connection with their respective Logoi. Jehovah — esoterically (as Elohim) — is also the Serpent or Dragon that tempted Eve, and the “ Dragon ” is an old glyph for “ Astral Light ” (Primordial Principle), “ which is the Wisdom of Chaos.” Archaic philosophy, recognizing neither Good nor Evil as a fundamental or independent power, but starting from the Absolute all (Universal Perfection eternally), traced both through the course of natural evolution to pure Light condensing gradually into form, hence becoming Matter or Evil. It was left with the early and ignorant Christian fathers to degrade the philosophical and highly scientific idea of this emblem (the Dragon) into the absurd superstition called the “ Devil.” They took it from the later Zoroastrians, who saw devils or the Evil in the Hindu Devas, and the word Evil thus became by a double transmutation D’Evil in every tongue (Diabolos, Diable, Diavolo, Teufel). But the Pagans have always shown a philosophical discrimination in their symbols. The primitive symbol of the serpent symbolised divine Wisdom and Perfection, and had always stood for psychical Regeneration and Immortality. Hence — Hermes, calling the serpent the most spiritual of all beings ; Moses, initiated in the wisdom of Hermes, following suit in Genesis ; the Gnostic’s Serpent with the seven vowels over its head, being the emblem of the seven hierarchies of the Septenary or Planetary Creators. Hence, also, the Hindu serpent Sesha or Ananta, “ the Infinite,” a name of Vishnu, whose first Vahan or vehicle on the primordial waters is this serpent. * Yet they all made a difference between the good and the bad Serpent (the Astral Light of

{{Style P-No indent|The celestial Ocean, the Æther . . . . is the ''Breath ''of the Father, the life-giving principle, the ''Mother'', the Holy Spirit, . . . . for these are not separated, and their union is life.”}}

Here we find the unmistakeable echo of the Archaic Secret Doctrine, as now expounded. Only the latter does not place at the head and Evolution of Life “ the Father,” who comes third and is the “ Son of the Mother,” but the “ Eternal and Ceaseless Breath of the All.” The ''Mahat ''(Understanding, Universal Mind, Thought, etc.), before it manifests itself as Brahmâ or Siva, appears as Vishnu, says ''Sânkhya Sâra ''(p. 16) ; hence ''Mahat ''has several aspects, just as the ''logos ''has. ''Mahat ''is called the Lord, in the ''Primary ''Creation, and is, in this sense, Universal Cognition or ''Thought Divine ;'' but, “ That Mahat which was first produced is (afterwards) called ''Ego-ism'', when it is born as “ I,” that is said to be the ''second ''Creation ” (''Anugîtâ'', ch. xxvi.). And the translator (an able and learned Brahmin, not a European Orientalist) explains in a foot-note (6), “ ''i.e.'', when Mahat develops into the feeling of SelfConsciousness — I — then it assumes the name of Egoism,” which, translated into our esoteric phraseology, means when ''Mahat ''is transformed into the human ''Manas ''(or even that of the finite gods), and becomes ''Aham''-ship. Why it is called the ''Mahat ''of the ''Second ''creation (or the ''ninth'', that of the ''Kumâra ''in ''Vishnu Purâna'') will be explained in Book II. The “ Sea of Fire ” is then the Super-Astral (''i.e.'', noumenal) Light, the first radiation from the ''Root'', the Mulaprakriti, the undifferentiated Cosmic Substance, which becomes ''Astral ''Matter. It is also called the “ Fiery Serpent,” as above described. If the student bears in mind that there is but One Universal Element, which is infinite, unborn, and undying, and that all the rest — as in the world of phenomena — are but so many various differentiated aspects and transformations (correlations, they are now called) of that One, from Cosmical down to microcosmical effects, from super-human down to human and sub-human beings, the totality, in short, of objective existence — then the first and chief difficulty will disappear and Occult Cosmology may be mastered. * All the Kabalists and Occultists, Eastern and Western, recognise (''a'')