HPB-IU v.2 ch.4: Difference between revisions

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{{The Style S-Small capitals|Great First Cause}} as the {{Style S-Small capitals|One}}, the primordial germ, the unrevealed and grand {{Style S-Small capitals|All}}, existing through himself. In the
{{Style S-Small capitals|The Great First Cause}} as the {{Style S-Small capitals|One}}, the primordial germ, the unrevealed and grand {{Style S-Small capitals|All}}, existing through himself. In the


Whenever the Eternal awakes from its slumber and desires to manifest itself, it divides itself into male and female. It then becomes in every system
{| style="margin: 2em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0; width: 700px;"
|- valign=top
| width=33% | <center>{{Style S-Small capitals|Indian Pantheon.}}</center>
<center>Brahma-Zyaus.</center>
| width=33% | <center>{{Style S-Small capitals|The Chaldean.}}</center>
<center>Ilu, Kabalistic En-Soph.</center>
| width=34% | <center>{{Style S-Small capitals|In the Ophite.}}</center>
<center>The Nameless, or Secret Name.</center>
|}


The Double-Sexed Deity, The universal Father and Mother.
Whenever the Eternal awakes from its slumber and desires to manifest itself, it divides itself into male and female. It then becomes in every system {{Style S-Small capitals|The Double-Sexed Deity}}, The universal Father and Mother.
 
{| style="margin: 2em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0; width: 700px;"
|- valign=top
| width=33% | <center>{{Style S-Small capitals|In India.}}</center>
<center>Brahma.</center>
<center>Nara (male), Nari (female).</center>
| width=33% | <center>In Chaldea.</center>
<center>Eikon or En-Soph.</center>
<center>Anu (male), Anata (female).</center>
| width=34% | <center>In the Ophite System.</center>
<center>Nameless Spirit.</center>
<center>Abrasax (male), Bythos (female).</center>
|}


From the union of the two emanates a third, or creative Principle—the Son, or the manifested Logos, the product of the Divine Mind.
From the union of the two emanates a third, or creative Principle—the Son, or the manifested Logos, the product of the Divine Mind.
{| style="margin: 2em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0; width: 700px;"
|- valign=top
| width=33% | <center>{{Style S-Small capitals|In India.}}</center>
<center>Viradj, the Son.</center>
| width=33% | <center>{{Style S-Small capitals|In Chaldea.}}</center>
<center>Bel, the Son.</center>
| width=34% | <center>{{Style S-Small capitals|Ophite System.}}</center>
<center>Ophis (another name for Ennoia), the Son.</center>
|}


Moreover, each of these systems has a triple male trinity, each proceeding separately through itself from one female Deity. So, for instance:
Moreover, each of these systems has a triple male trinity, each proceeding separately through itself from one female Deity. So, for instance:


To place it still clearer, the Babylonian System recognizes first—the One (Ad, or Ad-ad), who is never named, but only acknowledged in thought as the Hindu Swayambhuva. From this he becomes manifest as Anu or Ana—the one above all—Monas. Next comes the Demiurge called Bel or Elu, who is the active power of the Godhead. The third is the principle of Wisdom, Hea or Hoa, who also rules the sea and the underworld. Each of these has his divine consort, giving us Anata, Belta,
{| style="margin: 2em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0; width: 700px;"
|- valign=top
| width=33% | <center>{{Style S-Small capitals|In India.}}</center>
<center>The Trinity—Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, are blended into {{Style S-Small capitals|One}}, who is ''Brahmā'' (neuter gender), creating and being created through the Virgin Nari (the mother of perpetual fecundity).</center>
| width=33% | <center>{{Style S-Small capitals|In Chaldea.}}</center>
<center>The trinity—Anu, Bel, Hoa (or Sin, Samas, Bin), blend into {{Style S-Small capitals|One}} who is Anu (double-sexed) through the Virgin Mylitta.</center>
| width=34% | <center>{{Style S-Small capitals|In the Ophite System.}}</center>
<center>The trinity consisted of the Mystery named Sigè, Bythos, Ennoia. These become {{Style S-Small capitals|One}} who is ''Abrasax'', from the Virgin ''Sophia'' (or ''Pneuma''), who herself is an emanation of Bythos and the Mystery-god and emanates through them, Christos.</center>
|}
 
To place it still clearer, the Babylonian System recognizes first—the {{Style S-Small capitals|One}} (Ad, or Ad-ad), who is never named, but only acknowledged in thought as the Hindu Swayambhuva. From this he becomes manifest as Anu or Ana—the one above all—Monas. Next comes the Demiurge called Bel or Elu, who is the active power of the Godhead. The third is the principle of Wisdom, Hea or Hoa, who also rules the sea and the underworld. Each of these has his divine consort, giving us Anata, Belta,
 
{{Page|171|VARIOUS “ONLY-BEGOTTEN” SONS.}}
 
{{Style P-No indent|and Davkina. These, however, are only like the {{Style S-Italic|Saktis,}} and not especially remarked by theologists. But the female principle is denoted by Mylitta, the Great Mother, called also Ishtar. So with the three male gods, we have the Triad or Trimurti, and with Mylitta added, the {{Style S-Italic|Arba}} or Four (Tetraktys of Pythagoras), which perfects and potentializes all. Hence, the above-given modes of expression. The following Chaldean diagram may serve as an illustration for all others :}}


171 VARIOUS “ONLY-BEGOTTEN” SONS.
{| style="margin: 2em auto;"
|-
| Triad
| <p style="transform: scale(1.2,5); transform-origin: center center; text-indent: 0px;}">{</p>
|Anu,
{{Style P-No indent|Bel,}}
{{Style P-No indent|Hoa,}}
| <p style="transform: scale(1.2,5); transform-origin: center center; text-indent: 0px;">}</p>
|Mylitta—Arba-il,
<center>or</center>
{{Style P-No indent|Four-fold God,}}
|}


and Davkina. These, however, are only like the {{Style S-Italic|Saktis,}} and not especially remarked by theologists. But the female principle is denoted by Mylitta, the Great Mother, called also Ishtar. So with the three male gods, we have the Triad or Trimurti, and with Mylitta added, the {{Style S-Italic|Arba}} or Four (Tetraktys of Pythagoras), which perfects and potentializes all. Hence, the above-given modes of expression. The following Chaldean diagram may serve as an illustration for all others:
{{Style P-No indent|become, with the Christians,}}


become, with the Christians,
{| style="margin: 2em auto;"
|-
| {{Style P-No indent|Trinity}}
| <p style="transform: scale(1.2,5); transform-origin: center center; text-indent: 0px;}">{</p>
|God the Father,
{{Style P-No indent|God the Son,}}
{{Style P-No indent|God the Holy Ghost,}}
| <p style="transform: scale(1.2,5); transform-origin: center center; text-indent: 0px;">}</p>
|Mary, or mother of these three Gods,
<center>since they are one,</center>
{{Style P-No indent|or, the Christian Heavenly Tetraktys.}}
|}


Hence, Hebron, the city of the Kabeiri was called Kirjath-Arba, city of the Four. The Kabeiri were Axieros—the noble Eros, Axiokersos, the worthy horned one, Axiokersa, Demeter and Kadmiel, Hoa, etc.
Hence, Hebron, the city of the Kabeiri was called Kirjath-Arba, city of the Four. The Kabeiri were Axieros—the noble Eros, Axiokersos, the worthy horned one, Axiokersa, Demeter and Kadmiel, Hoa, etc.
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The Pythagorean ten denoted the Arba-Il or Divine Four, emblematized by the Hindu Lingham: Anu, 1; Bel, 2; Hoa, 3, which makes 6. The triad and Mylitta as 4 make the ten.
The Pythagorean ten denoted the Arba-Il or Divine Four, emblematized by the Hindu Lingham: Anu, 1; Bel, 2; Hoa, 3, which makes 6. The triad and Mylitta as 4 make the ten.


Though he is termed the “Primitive Man,” Ennoia, who is like the Egyptian Pimander, the “Power of the Thought Divine,” the first intelligible manifestation of the Divine Spirit in material form, he is like the “Only-Begotten” Son of the “Unknown Father,” of all other nations. He is the emblem of the first appearance of the divine Presence in his own works of creation, tangible and visible, and therefore comprehensible. The mystery-God, or the ever-unrevealed Deity fecundates through His will Bythos, the unfathomable and infinite depth that exists in silence (Sigè) and darkness (for our intellect), and that represents the abstract idea of all nature, the ever-producing Cosmos. As neither the male nor female principle, blended into the idea of a double-sexed Deity in ancient conceptions, could be comprehended by an ordinary human intellect, the theology of every people had to create for its religion a Logos, or manifested word, in some shape or other. With the Ophites and other Gnostics who took their models direct from more ancient originals, the unrevealed Bythos and her male counterpart produce Ennoia, and the three in their turn produce Sophia,<sup>[#fn1210 1210]</sup> thus completing the Tetraktys, which will emanate Christos, the very essence of the Father
Though he is termed the “Primitive Man,” Ennoia, who is like the Egyptian Pimander, the “Power of the Thought Divine,” the first intelligible manifestation of the Divine Spirit in material form, he is like the “Only-Begotten” Son of the “Unknown Father,” of all other nations. He is the emblem of the first appearance of the divine Presence in his own works of creation, tangible and visible, and therefore comprehensible. The mystery-God, or the ever-unrevealed Deity fecundates through His will Bythos, the unfathomable and infinite depth that exists in silence (Sigè) and darkness (for our intellect), and that represents the abstract idea of all nature, the ever-producing Cosmos. As neither the male nor female principle, blended into the idea of a double-sexed Deity in ancient conceptions, could be comprehended by an ordinary human intellect, the theology of every people had to create for its religion a Logos, or manifested word, in some shape or other. With the Ophites and other Gnostics who took their models direct from more ancient originals, the unrevealed Bythos and her male counterpart produce Ennoia, and the three in their turn produce Sophia,{{Footnote mark|*|fn1210}} thus completing the Tetraktys, which will emanate Christos, the very essence of the Father


[#fn1210anc 1210].&nbsp;Sophia is the highest prototype of woman—the first {{Style S-Italic|spiritual}} Eve. In the Bible the system is reversed and the intervening emanation being omitted, Eve is degraded to simple humanity.
{{Footnotes start}}
{{Footnote return|*|fn1210}} Sophia is the highest prototype of woman—the first {{Style S-Italic|spiritual}} Eve. In the Bible the system is reversed and the intervening emanation being omitted, Eve is degraded to simple humanity.
{{Footnotes end}}


172 ISIS UNVEILED.
{{Page|172|ISIS UNVEILED.}}


Spirit. As the unrevealed One, or concealed Logos in its latent state, he has existed from all eternity in the Arba-Il, the metaphysical abstraction; therefore, he is ONE with all others as a unity, the latter (including all) being indifferently termed Ennoia, Sigè (silence), Bythos, etc. As the revealed one, he is Androgyne, Christos, and Sophia (Divine Wisdom), who descend into the man Jesus. Both Father and Son are shown by Irenæus to have loved the beauty ({{Style S-Italic|formam}}) of the primitive woman,<sup>[#fn1211 1211]</sup> who is Bythos—Depth—as well as Sophia, and as having produced conjointly Ophis and Sophia (double-sexed unity again), male and female wisdom, one being considered as the unrevealed Holy Spirit, or elder Sophia—the {{Style S-Italic|Pneuma—}}the intellectual “Mother of all things;” the other the revealed one, or {{Style S-Italic|Ophis,}} typifying divine wisdom fallen into matter, or God-man—Jesus, whom the Gnostic Ophites represented by the serpent (Ophis).
{{Style P-No indent|Spirit. As the unrevealed One, or concealed Logos in its latent state, he has existed from all eternity in the Arba-Il, the metaphysical abstraction; therefore, he is ONE with all others as a unity, the latter (including all) being indifferently termed Ennoia, Sigè (silence), Bythos, etc. As the revealed one, he is Androgyne, Christos, and Sophia (Divine Wisdom), who descend into the man Jesus. Both Father and Son are shown by Irenæus to have loved the beauty ({{Style S-Italic|formam}}) of the primitive woman,{{Footnote mark|*|fn1211}} who is Bythos—Depth—as well as Sophia, and as having produced conjointly Ophis and Sophia (double-sexed unity again), male and female wisdom, one being considered as the unrevealed Holy Spirit, or elder Sophia—the {{Style S-Italic|Pneuma—}}the intellectual “Mother of all things;” the other the revealed one, or {{Style S-Italic|Ophis,}} typifying divine wisdom fallen into matter, or God-man—Jesus, whom the Gnostic Ophites represented by the serpent (Ophis).}}


Fecundated by the Divine Light of the Father and Son, the highest spirit and Ennoia, Sophia produces in her turn two other emanations—one perfect Christos, the second imperfect Sophia-Achamoth,<sup>[#fn1212 1212]</sup> from twjbx hakhamoth (simple wisdom), who becomes the mediatrix between the intellectual and material worlds.
Fecundated by the Divine Light of the Father and Son, the highest spirit and Ennoia, Sophia produces in her turn two other emanations—one perfect Christos, the second imperfect Sophia-Achamoth,{{Footnote mark|†|fn1212}} from {{Style S-Hebrew|חכמוה}} hakhamoth (simple wisdom), who becomes the mediatrix between the intellectual and material worlds.


Christos was the mediator and guide between God (the Higher), and everything spiritual in man; Achamoth—the younger Sophia—held the same duty between the “Primitive man,” Ennoia and matter. What was mysteriously meant by the general term, {{Style S-Italic|Christos,}} we have just explained.
Christos was the mediator and guide between God (the Higher), and everything spiritual in man; Achamoth—the younger Sophia—held the same duty between the “Primitive man,” Ennoia and matter. What was mysteriously meant by the general term, ''Christos'', we have just explained.


Delivering a sermon on the “Month of Mary,” we find the Rev. Dr. Preston, of New York City, expressing the Christian idea of the female principle of the trinity better and more clearly than we could, and substantially in the spirit of an ancient “heathen” philosopher. He says that the “plan of the redemption made it necessary that a mother should be found, and Mary stands pre-eminently alone as the only instance when a creature was necessary to the consummation of God’s work.” We will beg the right to contradict the reverend gentleman. As shown above, thousands of years before our era it was found necessary by all the “heathen” theogonies to find a female principle, a “mother” for the triune male principle. Hence, Christianity does not present the “only instance” of such a consummation of God’s work—albeit, as this work shows, there was more philosophy and less materialism, or rather anthropomorphism, in it. But hear the reverend Doctor express “heathen” thought in
Delivering a sermon on the “Month of Mary,” we find the Rev. Dr. Preston, of New York City, expressing the Christian idea of the female principle of the trinity better and more clearly than we could, and substantially in the spirit of an ancient “heathen” philosopher. He says that the “plan of the redemption made it necessary that a mother should be found, and Mary stands pre-eminently alone as the only instance when a creature was necessary to the consummation of God’s work.” We will beg the right to contradict the reverend gentleman. As shown above, thousands of years before our era it was found necessary by all the “heathen” theogonies to find a female principle, a “mother” for the triune male principle. Hence, Christianity does not present the “only instance” of such a consummation of God’s work—albeit, as this work shows, there was more philosophy and less materialism, or rather anthropomorphism, in it. But hear the reverend Doctor express “heathen” thought in


[#fn1211anc 1211].&nbsp;See “Irenæus,” book i., chap. 31-33.
{{Footnotes start}}
{{Footnote return|*|fn1211}} See “Irenæus,” book i., chap. 31-33.


[#fn1212anc 1212].&nbsp;In King’s “Gnostics,” we find the system a little incorrect. The author tells us that he followed Bellermann’s “Drei Programmen uber die Abraxas Gemmen.”
{{Footnote return|†|fn1212}} In King’s “Gnostics,” we find the system a little incorrect. The author tells us that he followed Bellermann’s “Drei Programmen uber die Abraxas Gemmen.”
{{Footnotes end}}


173 THE “TRINITY LISTEN FOR MARY’S ANSWER.”
{{Page|173|THE “TRINITY LISTEN FOR MARY’S ANSWER.”}}


Christian ideas. “He” (God), he says, “prepared her (Mary’s) virginal and celestial purity, for a mother defiled could not become the mother of the Most High. The holy virgin, even in her childhood, was more pleasing than all the Cherubim and Seraphim, and from infancy to the maturing maidenhood and womanhood she grew more and more pure. By her very sanctity she reigned over the heart of God. {{Style S-Italic|When the hour came, the whole court of heaven was hushed, and the trinity listened for the answer of Mary, for without her consent the world could not have been redeemed.”}}
{{Style P-No indent|Christian ideas. “He” (God), he says, “prepared her (Mary’s) virginal and celestial purity, for a mother defiled could not become the mother of the Most High. The holy virgin, even in her childhood, was more pleasing than all the Cherubim and Seraphim, and from infancy to the maturing maidenhood and womanhood she grew more and more pure. By her very sanctity she reigned over the heart of God. {{Style S-Italic|When the hour came, the whole court of heaven was hushed, and the trinity listened for the answer of Mary, for without her consent the world could not have been redeemed.”}}}}


Does it not seem as if we were reading Irenæus explaining the Gnostic “{{Style S-Italic|Heresy}}, which taught that the Father and Son loved the beauty ({{Style S-Italic|formam}}) of the celestial Virgin”? or the Egyptian system, of Isis being both wife, sister, and mother of Osiris-Horus? With the Gnostic philosophy there were but {{Style S-Italic|two,}} but the Christians have improved and perfected the system by making it completely “heathen,” for it is the Chaldean Anu—Bel—Hoa, merging into Mylitta. “Then while this month (of Mary),” adds Dr. Preston, “begins in the paschal season—the month when nature decks herself with fruits and flowers, the harbingers of a bright harvest—let us, too, begin for a golden harvest. In this month the dead come up out of the earth, figuring the resurrection; so, when we are kneeling before the altar of the holy and immaculate Mary, let us remember that there should come forth from us the bud of promise, the flower of hope, and the imperishable fruit of sanctity.”
Does it not seem as if we were reading Irenæus explaining the Gnostic “{{Style S-Italic|Heresy}}, which taught that the Father and Son loved the beauty ({{Style S-Italic|formam}}) of the celestial Virgin”? or the Egyptian system, of Isis being both wife, sister, and mother of Osiris-Horus? With the Gnostic philosophy there were but {{Style S-Italic|two,}} but the Christians have improved and perfected the system by making it completely “heathen,” for it is the Chaldean Anu—Bel—Hoa, merging into Mylitta. “Then while this month (of Mary),” adds Dr. Preston, “begins in the paschal season—the month when nature decks herself with fruits and flowers, the harbingers of a bright harvest—let us, too, begin for a golden harvest. In this month the dead come up out of the earth, figuring the resurrection; so, when we are kneeling before the altar of the holy and immaculate Mary, let us remember that there should come forth from us the bud of promise, the flower of hope, and the imperishable fruit of sanctity.”
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This derivation, or rather {{Style S-Italic|heresy,}} as it is called in Christianity, is simply the Brahmanic doctrine in all its archaic purity. Vishnu, the second personage of the Hindu trinity, is also the Logos, for he is made subsequently to incarnate himself in Christna. And Lakmy (or Lakshmy) who, as in the case of Osiris and Isis, of En-Soph and Sephira, and of Bythos and Ennoia, is both his wife, sister, and daughter, through this endless correlation of male and female creative powers in the abstruse metaphysics of the ancient philosophies—is Sophia-Achamoth. Christna is the mediator promised by Brahma to mankind, and represents the same idea as the Gnostic Christos. And Lakmy, Vishnu’s spiritual half, is the emblem of physical nature, the universal mother of all the material and revealed forms; the mediatrix and protector of nature, like Sophia-Achamoth, who is made by the Gnostics the mediatrix between the Great
This derivation, or rather {{Style S-Italic|heresy,}} as it is called in Christianity, is simply the Brahmanic doctrine in all its archaic purity. Vishnu, the second personage of the Hindu trinity, is also the Logos, for he is made subsequently to incarnate himself in Christna. And Lakmy (or Lakshmy) who, as in the case of Osiris and Isis, of En-Soph and Sephira, and of Bythos and Ennoia, is both his wife, sister, and daughter, through this endless correlation of male and female creative powers in the abstruse metaphysics of the ancient philosophies—is Sophia-Achamoth. Christna is the mediator promised by Brahma to mankind, and represents the same idea as the Gnostic Christos. And Lakmy, Vishnu’s spiritual half, is the emblem of physical nature, the universal mother of all the material and revealed forms; the mediatrix and protector of nature, like Sophia-Achamoth, who is made by the Gnostics the mediatrix between the Great


174 ISIS UNVEILED.
{{Page|174|ISIS UNVEILED.}}


Cause and Matter, as Christos is the mediator between him and spiritual humanity.
{{Style P-No indent|Cause and Matter, as Christos is the mediator between him and spiritual humanity.}}


This Brahmano-Gnostic tenet is more logical, and more consistent with the allegory of {{Style S-Italic|Genesis}} and the fall of man. When God curses the first couple, He is made to curse also the earth and everything that is on it. The {{Style S-Italic|New Testament}} gives us a Redeemer for the first sin of mankind, which was punished for having sinned; but there is not a word said about a Saviour who would take off the unmerited curse from the earth and the animals, which had never sinned at all. Thus the Gnostic allegory shows a greater sense of both justice and logic than the Christian.
This Brahmano-Gnostic tenet is more logical, and more consistent with the allegory of {{Style S-Italic|Genesis}} and the fall of man. When God curses the first couple, He is made to curse also the earth and everything that is on it. The {{Style S-Italic|New Testament}} gives us a Redeemer for the first sin of mankind, which was punished for having sinned; but there is not a word said about a Saviour who would take off the unmerited curse from the earth and the animals, which had never sinned at all. Thus the Gnostic allegory shows a greater sense of both justice and logic than the Christian.
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In the Ophite system, Sophia, the Androgyne Wisdom, is also the female spirit, or the Hindu female Nari (Narayana), moving on the face of the waters—chaos, or future matter. She vivifies it from afar, but not touching the abyss of darkness. She is unable to do so, for Wisdom is purely intellectual, and cannot act directly on matter. Therefore, Sophia is obliged to address herself to her Supreme Parent; but although life proceeds primally from the Unseen Cause, and his Ennoia, neither of them can, any more than herself, have anything to do with the lower chaos in which matter assumes its definite shape. Thus, Sophia is obliged to employ on the task her {{Style S-Italic|imperfect}} emanation, Sophia-Achamoth, the latter being of a mixed nature, half spiritual and half material.
In the Ophite system, Sophia, the Androgyne Wisdom, is also the female spirit, or the Hindu female Nari (Narayana), moving on the face of the waters—chaos, or future matter. She vivifies it from afar, but not touching the abyss of darkness. She is unable to do so, for Wisdom is purely intellectual, and cannot act directly on matter. Therefore, Sophia is obliged to address herself to her Supreme Parent; but although life proceeds primally from the Unseen Cause, and his Ennoia, neither of them can, any more than herself, have anything to do with the lower chaos in which matter assumes its definite shape. Thus, Sophia is obliged to employ on the task her {{Style S-Italic|imperfect}} emanation, Sophia-Achamoth, the latter being of a mixed nature, half spiritual and half material.


The only difference between the Ophite cosmogony and that of the St. John Nazarenes is a change of names. We find equally an identical system in the {{Style S-Italic|Kabala, the Book of Mystery}} ({{Style S-Italic|Liber Mysterii).}}<sup>[#fn1213 1213]</sup> All the three systems, especially that of the kabalists and the Nazarenes, which were the {{Style S-Italic|models}} for the Ophite Cosmogony, belong to the pure Oriental Gnosticism. The {{Style S-Italic|Codex Nazaræus}} opens with: “The Supreme King of Light, Mano, the great first one,”<sup>[#fn1214 1214]</sup> etc., the latter being the emanation of Ferho—the unknown, formless Life. He is the chief of the Æons, from whom proceed (or shoot forth) five refulgent rays of Divine light. Mano is {{Style S-Italic|Rex Lucis,}} the Bythos-Ennoia of the Ophites. “{{Style S-Italic|Unus est Rex Lucis in suo regno, nec ullus qui eo altior, nullus qui ejus similitudinem retulerit, nullus qui sublatis oculis, viderit Coronam quæ in ejus capite est.”}} He is the Manifested Light around the highest of the three kabalistic heads, the concealed wisdom; from him emanate the three {{Style S-Italic|Lives.}} Æbel Zivo is the revealed Logos, Christos the “Apostle Gabriel,” and the first Legate or messenger of light. If Bythos and Ennoia are the Nazarene Mano, then the dual-natured, the semi-spiritual, semi-material Achamoth must be Fetahil when viewed from her spiritual aspect; and if regarded in her grosser nature, she is the Nazarene “Spiritus.”
The only difference between the Ophite cosmogony and that of the St. John Nazarenes is a change of names. We find equally an identical system in the {{Style S-Italic|Kabala, the Book of Mystery}} (''Liber Mysterii'').{{Footnote mark|*|fn1213}} All the three systems, especially that of the kabalists and the Nazarenes, which were the {{Style S-Italic|models}} for the Ophite Cosmogony, belong to the pure Oriental Gnosticism. The {{Style S-Italic|Codex Nazaræus}} opens with: “The Supreme King of Light, Mano, the great first one,”{{Footnote mark|†|fn1214}} etc., the latter being the emanation of Ferho—the unknown, formless Life. He is the chief of the Æons, from whom proceed (or shoot forth) five refulgent rays of Divine light. Mano is {{Style S-Italic|Rex Lucis,}} the Bythos-Ennoia of the Ophites. “{{Style S-Italic|Unus est Rex Lucis in suo regno, nec ullus qui eo altior, nullus qui ejus similitudinem retulerit, nullus qui sublatis oculis, viderit Coronam quæ in ejus capite est.”}} He is the Manifested Light around the highest of the three kabalistic heads, the concealed wisdom; from him emanate the three {{Style S-Italic|Lives.}} Æbel Zivo is the revealed Logos, Christos the “Apostle Gabriel,” and the first Legate or messenger of light. If Bythos and Ennoia are the Nazarene Mano, then the dual-natured, the semi-spiritual, semi-material Achamoth must be Fetahil when viewed from her spiritual aspect; and if regarded in her grosser nature, she is the Nazarene “Spiritus.”


[#fn1213anc 1213].&nbsp;See “Idra Magna.”
{{Footnotes start}}
{{Footnote return|*|fn1213}} See “Idra Magna.”


[#fn1214anc 1214].&nbsp;“Codex Nazaræus,” part i., p. 9.
{{Footnote return|†|fn1214}} “Codex Nazaræus,” part i., p. 9.
{{Footnotes end}}


175 THE FIRST GROUPS OF CHRISTIANS.
{{Page|175|THE FIRST GROUPS OF CHRISTIANS.}}


Fetahil,<sup>[#fn1215 1215]</sup> who is the reflection of his father, Lord Abatur, the {{Style S-Italic|third}} life—as the elder Sophia is also the third emanation—is the “newest-man.” Perceiving his fruitless attempts to create a perfect material world, the “Spiritus” calls to one of her progeny, the Karabtanos—Ilda-Baoth—who is without sense or judgment (“blind matter”), to unite himself with her to create something definite out of this confused ({{Style S-Italic|turbulentos}}) matter, which task she is enabled to achieve only after having produced from this union with Karabtanos the seven stellars. Like the six sons or genii of the Gnostic Ilda-Baoth, they then frame the material world. The same story is repeated over again in Sophia-Achamoth. Delegated by her purely spiritual parent, the elder Sophia, to create the world of {{Style S-Italic|visible forms,}} she descended into chaos, and, overpowered by the emanation of matter, lost her way. Still ambitious to create a world of matter of her own, she busied herself hovering to and fro about the dark abyss, and imparted life and motion to the inert elements, until she became so hopelessly entangled in matter that, like Fetahil, she is represented sitting immersed in mud, and unable to extricate herself from it; until, by the contact of matter itself, she produces the {{Style S-Italic|Creator}} of the material world. He is the Demiurgus, called by the Ophites Ilda-Baoth, and, as we will directly show, the parent of the Jewish God in the opinion of some sects, and held by others to be the “Lord God” Himself. It is at this point of the kabalistic-gnostic cosmogony that begins the Mosaic {{Style S-Italic|Bible.}} Having accepted the Jewish {{Style S-Italic|Old Testament}} as their standard, no wonder that the Christians were forced by the exceptional position in which they were placed through their own ignorance, to make the best of it.
Fetahil,{{Footnote mark|*|fn1215}} who is the reflection of his father, Lord Abatur, the {{Style S-Italic|third}} life—as the elder Sophia is also the third emanation—is the “newest-man.” Perceiving his fruitless attempts to create a perfect material world, the “Spiritus” calls to one of her progeny, the Karabtanos—Ilda-Baoth—who is without sense or judgment (“blind matter”), to unite himself with her to create something definite out of this confused ({{Style S-Italic|turbulentos}}) matter, which task she is enabled to achieve only after having produced from this union with Karabtanos the seven stellars. Like the six sons or genii of the Gnostic Ilda-Baoth, they then frame the material world. The same story is repeated over again in Sophia-Achamoth. Delegated by her purely spiritual parent, the elder Sophia, to create the world of {{Style S-Italic|visible forms,}} she descended into chaos, and, overpowered by the emanation of matter, lost her way. Still ambitious to create a world of matter of her own, she busied herself hovering to and fro about the dark abyss, and imparted life and motion to the inert elements, until she became so hopelessly entangled in matter that, like Fetahil, she is represented sitting immersed in mud, and unable to extricate herself from it; until, by the contact of matter itself, she produces the {{Style S-Italic|Creator}} of the material world. He is the Demiurgus, called by the Ophites Ilda-Baoth, and, as we will directly show, the parent of the Jewish God in the opinion of some sects, and held by others to be the “Lord God” Himself. It is at this point of the kabalistic-gnostic cosmogony that begins the Mosaic {{Style S-Italic|Bible.}} Having accepted the Jewish {{Style S-Italic|Old Testament}} as their standard, no wonder that the Christians were forced by the exceptional position in which they were placed through their own ignorance, to make the best of it.


The first groups of Christians, whom Renan shows numbering but from seven to twelve men in {{Style S-Italic|each church,}} belonged unquestionably to the poorest and most ignorant classes. They had and could have no idea of the highly philosophical doctrines of the Platonists and Gnostics, and evidently knew as little about their own newly-made-up religion. To these, who if Jews, had been crushed under the tyrannical dominion of the “law,” as enforced by the elders of the synagogues, and if Pagans had been always excluded, as the lower castes are until now in India, from the religious mysteries, the God of the Jews and the “Father” preached by Jesus were all one. The contentions which reigned from the first years following the death of Jesus, between the two parties, the Pauline and the Petrine—were deplorable. What one did, the other deemed
The first groups of Christians, whom Renan shows numbering but from seven to twelve men in {{Style S-Italic|each church,}} belonged unquestionably to the poorest and most ignorant classes. They had and could have no idea of the highly philosophical doctrines of the Platonists and Gnostics, and evidently knew as little about their own newly-made-up religion. To these, who if Jews, had been crushed under the tyrannical dominion of the “law,” as enforced by the elders of the synagogues, and if Pagans had been always excluded, as the lower castes are until now in India, from the religious mysteries, the God of the Jews and the “Father” preached by Jesus were all one. The contentions which reigned from the first years following the death of Jesus, between the two parties, the Pauline and the Petrine—were deplorable. What one did, the other deemed


[#fn1215anc 1215].&nbsp;See “Codex Nazaræus,” i., 181. Fetahil, sent to frame the world, finds himself immersed in the abyss of mud, and soliloquizes in dismay until the {{Style S-Italic|Spiritus}} (Sophia-Achamoth) unites herself completely with matter, and so creates the material world.
{{Footnotes start}}
{{Footnote return|*|fn1215}} See “Codex Nazaræus,” i., 181. Fetahil, sent to frame the world, finds himself immersed in the abyss of mud, and soliloquizes in dismay until the {{Style S-Italic|Spiritus}} (Sophia-Achamoth) unites herself completely with matter, and so creates the material world.
{{Footnotes end}}


176 ISIS UNVEILED.
{{Page|176|ISIS UNVEILED.}}


a sacred duty to undo. If the {{Style S-Italic|Homilies}} are considered apocryphal, and cannot very well be accepted as an infallible standard by which to measure the animosity which raged between the two apostles, we have the {{Style S-Italic|Bible,}} and the proofs afforded therein are plentiful.
{{Style P-No indent|a sacred duty to undo. If the {{Style S-Italic|Homilies}} are considered apocryphal, and cannot very well be accepted as an infallible standard by which to measure the animosity which raged between the two apostles, we have the {{Style S-Italic|Bible,}} and the proofs afforded therein are plentiful.}}


So hopelessly entangled seems Irenæus in his fruitless endeavors to describe, to all outward appearance at least, the true doctrines of the many Gnostic sects of which he treats and to present them at the same time as abominable “heresies,” that he either deliberately, or through ignorance, confounds all of them in such a way that few metaphysicians would be able to disentangle them, without the {{Style S-Italic|Kabala}} and the {{Style S-Italic|Codex}} as the true keys. Thus, for instance, he cannot even tell the difference between the Sethianites and the Ophites, and tells us that they called the “God of all,” “{{Style S-Italic|Hominem,”}} a man, and his mind the second man, or the “{{Style S-Italic|Son of man.”}} So does Theodoret, who lived more than two centuries after Irenæus, and who makes a sad mess of the chronological order in which the various sects succeeded each other.<sup>[#fn1216 1216]</sup> Neither the Sethianites, (a branch of the Jewish Nazarenes) nor the Ophites, a purely Greek sect, have ever held anything of the kind. Irenæus contradicts his own words by describing in another place the doctrines of Cerinthus, the direct disciple of Simon Magus. He says that Cerinthus taught that the world was not created by the first GOD, but by a virtue (virtus) or power, an Æon so distant from the First Cause that he was even ignorant of him who {{Style S-Italic|is above all things.}} This Æon subjected Jesus, he begot him physically through Joseph from one who was not a virgin, but simply the wife of that Joseph, and Jesus was born like all other men. Viewed from this physical aspect of his nature, Jesus was called the “son of man.” It is only after his {{Style S-Italic|baptism,}} that {{Style S-Italic|Christos,}} the anointed, descended from the Princeliness of above, in the figure of a dove, and then announced the unknown Father through Jesus.<sup>[#fn1217 1217]</sup>
So hopelessly entangled seems Irenæus in his fruitless endeavors to describe, to all outward appearance at least, the true doctrines of the many Gnostic sects of which he treats and to present them at the same time as abominable “heresies,” that he either deliberately, or through ignorance, confounds all of them in such a way that few metaphysicians would be able to disentangle them, without the {{Style S-Italic|Kabala}} and the {{Style S-Italic|Codex}} as the true keys. Thus, for instance, he cannot even tell the difference between the Sethianites and the Ophites, and tells us that they called the “God of all,” “{{Style S-Italic|Hominem,”}} a man, and his mind the second man, or the “{{Style S-Italic|Son of man.”}} So does Theodoret, who lived more than two centuries after Irenæus, and who makes a sad mess of the chronological order in which the various sects succeeded each other.{{Footnote mark|*|fn1216}} Neither the Sethianites, (a branch of the Jewish Nazarenes) nor the Ophites, a purely Greek sect, have ever held anything of the kind. Irenæus contradicts his own words by describing in another place the doctrines of Cerinthus, the direct disciple of Simon Magus. He says that Cerinthus taught that the world was not created by the first GOD, but by a virtue (virtus) or power, an Æon so distant from the First Cause that he was even ignorant of him who {{Style S-Italic|is above all things.}} This Æon subjected Jesus, he begot him physically through Joseph from one who was not a virgin, but simply the wife of that Joseph, and Jesus was born like all other men. Viewed from this physical aspect of his nature, Jesus was called the “son of man.” It is only after his {{Style S-Italic|baptism,}} that {{Style S-Italic|Christos,}} the anointed, descended from the Princeliness of above, in the figure of a dove, and then announced the unknown Father through Jesus.{{Footnote mark|†|fn1217}}


If, therefore, Jesus was physically considered as a son of man, and spiritually as the Christos, who overshadowed him, how then could the “god of all,” the “{{Style S-Italic|Unknown}} Father,” be called by the Gnostics {{Style S-Italic|Homo,}} a man, and his Mind, Ennoia, the second man, or {{Style S-Italic|Son of man?}} Neither in the Oriental {{Style S-Italic|Kabala,}} nor in Gnosticism, was the “God of all” ever anthropomorphized. It is but the first, or rather the second emanations, for Shekinah, Sephira, Depth, and other first-manifested female virtues are also emanations, that are termed “primitive men.” Thus Adam Kadmon, Ennoia (or Sigè), the {{Style S-Italic|logoi}} in short, are the “only-begotten” ones but not the {{Style S-Italic|Sons}} of man, which appellation properly be-
If, therefore, Jesus was physically considered as a son of man, and spiritually as the Christos, who overshadowed him, how then could the “god of all,” the “{{Style S-Italic|Unknown}} Father,” be called by the Gnostics {{Style S-Italic|Homo,}} a man, and his Mind, Ennoia, the second man, or {{Style S-Italic|Son of man?}} Neither in the Oriental {{Style S-Italic|Kabala,}} nor in Gnosticism, was the “God of all” ever anthropomorphized. It is but the first, or rather the second emanations, for Shekinah, Sephira, Depth, and other first-manifested female virtues are also emanations, that are termed “primitive men.” Thus Adam Kadmon, Ennoia (or Sigè), the {{Style S-Italic|logoi}} in short, are the “only-begotten” ones but not the {{Style S-Italic|Sons}} of man, which appellation properly be-


[#fn1216anc 1216].&nbsp;“Irenæus,” 37, and Theodoret, quoted in the same page.
{{Footnotes start}}
{{Footnote return|*|fn1216}} “Irenæus,” 37, and Theodoret, quoted in the same page.


[#fn1217anc 1217].&nbsp;Ibid., i, xxv.
{{Footnote return|†|fn1217}} Ibid., i, xxv.
{{Footnotes end}}


177 CHRIST’S “DESCENT INTO HELL.”
{{Page|177|CHRIST’S “DESCENT INTO HELL.”}}


longs to Christos the son of Sophia (the elder) and of the primitive man who produces him through his own vivifying light, which emanates from the source or {{Style S-Italic|cause}} of all, hence the {{Style S-Italic|cause}} of his light also, the “Unknown Father.” There is a great difference made in the Gnostic metaphysics between the first unrevealed Logos and the “anointed,” who is Christos. Ennoia may be termed, as Philo understands it, the {{Style S-Italic|Second}} God, but he alone is the “Primitive and First man,” and by no means the Second one, as Theodoret and Irenæus have it. It is but the inveterate desire of the latter to connect Jesus in every possible way, even in the {{Style S-Italic|Hæresies,}} with the {{Style S-Italic|Highest}} God, that led him into so many falsifications.
{{Style P-No indent|longs to Christos the son of Sophia (the elder) and of the primitive man who produces him through his own vivifying light, which emanates from the source or {{Style S-Italic|cause}} of all, hence the {{Style S-Italic|cause}} of his light also, the “Unknown Father.” There is a great difference made in the Gnostic metaphysics between the first unrevealed Logos and the “anointed,” who is Christos. Ennoia may be termed, as Philo understands it, the {{Style S-Italic|Second}} God, but he alone is the “Primitive and First man,” and by no means the Second one, as Theodoret and Irenæus have it. It is but the inveterate desire of the latter to connect Jesus in every possible way, even in the {{Style S-Italic|Hæresies,}} with the {{Style S-Italic|Highest}} God, that led him into so many falsifications.}}


Such an identification with the {{Style S-Italic|Unknown}} God, even of Christos, the anointed—the Æon who overshadowed him—let alone of the man Jesus, never entered the head of the Gnostics nor even of the direct apostles and of Paul, whatever later forgeries may have added.
Such an identification with the {{Style S-Italic|Unknown}} God, even of Christos, the anointed—the Æon who overshadowed him—let alone of the man Jesus, never entered the head of the Gnostics nor even of the direct apostles and of Paul, whatever later forgeries may have added.