Bureaucrats, Interface administrators, Administrators (Semantic MediaWiki), Curators (Semantic MediaWiki), Editors (Semantic MediaWiki), Suppressors, Administrators, trusted
11,147
edits
m
no edit summary
mNo edit summary |
mNo edit summary |
||
| Line 63: | Line 63: | ||
{{Page|255|LADY ELLENBOROUGH’S TALISMAN.}} | {{Page|255|LADY ELLENBOROUGH’S TALISMAN.}} | ||
like; and, in some Buddhist pagodas of Tartary and Mongolia, the entrance of a chamber within the temple, generally containing the staircase which leads to the inner daghôba, | {{Style P-No indent|like; and, in some Buddhist pagodas of Tartary and Mongolia, the entrance of a chamber within the temple, generally containing the staircase which leads to the inner daghôba,{{Footnote mark|*|fn1448}} and the porticos of some ''Prachida''{{Footnote mark|†|fn1449}} are ornamented with a cross formed of two fishes, and as found on some of the zodiacs of the Buddhists. We should not wonder at all at learning that the sacred device in the tombs in the Catacombs, at Rome, the “Vesica piscis,” was derived from the said Buddhist zodiacal sign. How general must have been that geometrical figure in the world-symbols, may be inferred from the fact that there is a Masonic tradition that Solomon’s temple was built on three foundations, forming the “triple Tau,” or three crosses.}} | ||
In its mystical sense, the Egyptian cross owes its origin, as an emblem, to the realization by the earliest philosophy of an androgynous dualism of every manifestation in nature, which proceeds from the abstract ideal of a likewise androgynous deity, while the Christian emblem is simply due to chance. Had the Mosaic law prevailed, Jesus should have been lapidated. | In its mystical sense, the Egyptian cross owes its origin, as an emblem, to the realization by the earliest philosophy of an androgynous dualism of every manifestation in nature, which proceeds from the abstract ideal of a likewise androgynous deity, while the Christian emblem is simply due to chance. Had the Mosaic law prevailed, Jesus should have been lapidated.{{Footnote mark|‡|fn1450}} The crucifix was an instrument of torture, and utterly common among Romans as it was unknown among Semitic nations. It was called the “Tree of Infamy.” It is but later that it was adopted as a Christian symbol; but, during the first two decades, the apostles looked upon it with horror.{{Footnote mark|§|fn1451}} It is certainly not the Christian Cross that John had in mind when speaking of the “signet of the living God,” but {{Style S-Italic|the mystic}} Tau—the Tetragrammaton, or mighty name, which, on the most ancient kabalistic talismans, was represented by the four Hebrew letters composing the Holy Word. | ||
The famous Lady Ellenborough, known among the Arabs of Damascus, and in the desert, after her last marriage, as {{Style S-Italic|Hanoum Medjouyé}} had a talisman in her possession, presented to her by a Druze from Mount Lebanon. It was recognized by a certain sign on its left corner, to belong to that class of gems which is known in Palestine as a “{{Style S-Italic|Messianic”}} amulet, of the second or third century, b.c. It is a green stone of a pentagonal form; at the bottom is engraved a fish; higher, Solomon’s seal; | The famous Lady Ellenborough, known among the Arabs of Damascus, and in the desert, after her last marriage, as {{Style S-Italic|Hanoum Medjouyé}} had a talisman in her possession, presented to her by a Druze from Mount Lebanon. It was recognized by a certain sign on its left corner, to belong to that class of gems which is known in Palestine as a “{{Style S-Italic|Messianic”}} amulet, of the second or third century, b.c. It is a green stone of a pentagonal form; at the bottom is engraved a fish; higher, Solomon’s seal;{{Footnote mark|║|fn1452}} | ||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1448}} Daghôba is a small temple of globular form, in which are preserved the relics of Gautama. | |||
{{Footnote return|†|fn1449}} Prachidas are buildings of all sizes and forms, like our mausoleums, and are sacred to votive offerings to the dead. | |||
{{Footnote return|‡|fn1450}} The Talmudistic records claim that, after having been hung, he was lapidated and buried under the water at the junction of two streams. “Mishna Sanhedrin,” vol. vi., p. 4; “Talmud,” of Babylon, same article, 43 a, 67 a. | |||
{{Footnote return|§|fn1451}} “Coptic Legends of the Crucifixion,” MSS. xi. | |||
{{Footnote return|║|fn1452}} The engraving represents the talisman as of twice the natural size. We are at a loss to understand why King, in his “Gnostic Gems,” represents Solomon’s seal as a five-pointed star, whereas it is six-pointed, and is the signet of Vishnu, in India. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
256 ISIS UNVEILED. | {{Page|256|ISIS UNVEILED.}} | ||
and still higher, the four Chaldaic letters—Jod, He, Vau, He, IAHO, which form the name of the Deity. These are arranged in quite an unusual way, running from below upward, in reversed order, and forming the Egyptian Tau. Around these there is a legend which, as the gem is not our property, we are not at liberty to give. The Tau, in its mystical sense, as well as the {{Style S-Italic|crux ansata,}} is the {{Style S-Italic|Tree of Life.}} | {{Style P-No indent|and still higher, the four Chaldaic letters—Jod, He, Vau, He, IAHO, which form the name of the Deity. These are arranged in quite an unusual way, running from below upward, in reversed order, and forming the Egyptian Tau. Around these there is a legend which, as the gem is not our property, we are not at liberty to give. The Tau, in its mystical sense, as well as the {{Style S-Italic|crux ansata,}} is the {{Style S-Italic|Tree of Life.}}}} | ||
[[File:Epb ri2 messia amulet.png|200px|right]] | |||
It is well known, that the earliest Christian emblems—before it was ever attempted to represent the bodily appearance of Jesus—were the Lamb, the Good Shepherd, and {{Style S-Italic|the Fish.}} The origin of the latter emblem, which has so puzzled the archæologists, thus becomes comprehensible. The whole secret lies in the easily-ascertained fact that, while in the {{Style S-Italic|Kabala,}} the King Messiah is called “Interpreter,” or Revealer of the mystery, and shown to be the {{Style S-Italic|fifth}} emanation, in the {{Style S-Italic|Talmud—}}for reasons we will now explain—the Messiah is very often designated as “Dag,” or the Fish. This is an inheritance from the Chaldees, and relates—as the very name indicates—to the Babylonian Dagon, the man-fish, who was the instructor and interpreter of the people, to whom he appeared. Abarbanel explains the name, by stating that the sign of his (Messiah’s) coming “is the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the sign ''Pisces''.”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1453}} Therefore, as the Christians were intent upon identifying their Christos with the Messiah of the {{Style S-Italic|Old Testament,}} they adopted it so readily as to forget that its true origin might be traced still farther back than the Babylonian Dagon. How eagerly and closely the ideal of Jesus was united, by the early Christians, with every imaginable kabalistic and Pagan tenet, may be inferred from the language of Clemens, of Alexandria, addressed to his brother co-religionists. | |||
When they were debating upon the choice of the most appropriate symbol to remind them of Jesus, Clemens advised them in the following words: “Let the engraving upon the gem of your ring be either {{Style S-Italic|a dove,}} or {{Style S-Italic|a ship running before the wind}} (the Argha), or {{Style S-Italic|a fish.”}} Was the good father, when writing this sentence, laboring under the recollection of Joshua, son of Nun (called {{Style S-Italic|Jesus}} in the Greek and Slavonian versions); or had he forgotten the real interpretation of these Pagan symbols? | When they were debating upon the choice of the most appropriate symbol to remind them of Jesus, Clemens advised them in the following words: “Let the engraving upon the gem of your ring be either {{Style S-Italic|a dove,}} or {{Style S-Italic|a ship running before the wind}} (the Argha), or {{Style S-Italic|a fish.”}} Was the good father, when writing this sentence, laboring under the recollection of Joshua, son of Nun (called {{Style S-Italic|Jesus}} in the Greek and Slavonian versions); or had he forgotten the real interpretation of these Pagan symbols? | ||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1453}} King (“Gnostics”) gives the figure of a Christian symbol, very common during the middle ages, of three fishes interlaced into a triangle, and having the five letters (a most sacred Pythagorean number) Ι. Χ. ΘΥΣ engraved on it. The number five relates to the same kabalistic computation. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
257 THE HINDU NOACHIAN LEGEND. | {{Page|257|THE HINDU NOACHIAN LEGEND.}} | ||
Joshua, son of Nun, or Nave ( | {{Style P-No indent|Joshua, son of Nun, or Nave (''Navis''), could have with perfect propriety adopted the image of a ''ship'', or even of a fish, for Joshua means Jesus, son of the fish-god; but it was really too hazardous to connect the emblems of Venus, Astarte, and all the Hindu goddesses—the {{Style S-Italic|argha, dove,}} and {{Style S-Italic|fish—}}with the “immaculate” birth of their god! This looks very much as if in the early days of Christianity but little difference was made between Christ, Bacchus, Apollo, and the Hindu Christna, the incarnation of Vishnu, with whose first avatar this symbol of the fish originated.}} | ||
In the {{Style S-Italic|Hari-purana,}} in the {{Style S-Italic|Bagaved-gitta,}} as well as in several other books, the god Vishnu is shown as having assumed the form of a fish with a human head, in order to reclaim the {{Style S-Italic|Vedas}} lost during the deluge. Having enabled Visvamitra to escape with all his tribe in the ark, Vishnu, pitying weak and ignorant humanity, remained with them for some time. It was this god who taught them to build houses, cultivate the land, and to thank the unknown Deity whom he represented, by building temples and instituting a regular worship; and, as he remained half-fish, half-man, all the time, at every sunset he used to return to the ocean, wherein he passed the night. | In the {{Style S-Italic|Hari-purana,}} in the {{Style S-Italic|Bagaved-gitta,}} as well as in several other books, the god Vishnu is shown as having assumed the form of a fish with a human head, in order to reclaim the {{Style S-Italic|Vedas}} lost during the deluge. Having enabled Visvamitra to escape with all his tribe in the ark, Vishnu, pitying weak and ignorant humanity, remained with them for some time. It was this god who taught them to build houses, cultivate the land, and to thank the unknown Deity whom he represented, by building temples and instituting a regular worship; and, as he remained half-fish, half-man, all the time, at every sunset he used to return to the ocean, wherein he passed the night. | ||
| Line 99: | Line 104: | ||
“One day he plunged into the water and returned no more, for the earth had covered itself again with vegetation, fruit, and cattle. | “One day he plunged into the water and returned no more, for the earth had covered itself again with vegetation, fruit, and cattle. | ||
“But he had taught the Brahmas the secret of all things” ({{Style S-Italic|Hari-purana}}) | “But he had taught the Brahmas the secret of all things” ({{Style S-Italic|Hari-purana}}). | ||
So far, we see in this narrative the {{Style S-Italic|double}} of the story given by the Babylonian Berosus about Oannes, the fish-man, who is no other than Vishnu—unless, indeed, we have to believe that it was Chaldea which civilized India! | So far, we see in this narrative the {{Style S-Italic|double}} of the story given by the Babylonian Berosus about Oannes, the fish-man, who is no other than Vishnu—unless, indeed, we have to believe that it was Chaldea which civilized India! | ||
| Line 107: | Line 112: | ||
“What an extraordinary antiquity,” he remarks, “this fable of Vishnu, disguised as a fish, gives to the sacred books of the Hindus; especially in presence of the fact that the {{Style S-Italic|Vedas}} and {{Style S-Italic|Manu}} reckon more {{Style S-Italic|than twenty-five thousand years of existence,}} as proved by the most serious as the most | “What an extraordinary antiquity,” he remarks, “this fable of Vishnu, disguised as a fish, gives to the sacred books of the Hindus; especially in presence of the fact that the {{Style S-Italic|Vedas}} and {{Style S-Italic|Manu}} reckon more {{Style S-Italic|than twenty-five thousand years of existence,}} as proved by the most serious as the most | ||
258 ISIS UNVEILED. | {{Page|258|ISIS UNVEILED.}} | ||
authentic documents. Few peoples, says the learned Halled, have their annals more authentic or serious than the Hindus.” | {{Style P-No indent|authentic documents. Few peoples, says the learned Halled, have their annals more authentic or serious than the Hindus.”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1454}}}} | ||
We may, perhaps, throw additional light upon the puzzling question of the fish-symbol by reminding the reader that according to {{Style S-Italic|Genesis}} the first created of living beings, the first type of animal life, was the fish. “And the Elohim said: ‘Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that {{Style S-Italic|hath life’}} . . . and God created great whales . . . and the morning and the evening were the {{Style S-Italic|fifth day.”}} Jonah is swallowed by a big fish, and is cast out again three days later. This the Christians regard as a premonition of the three days’ sepulture of Jesus which preceded his resurrection—though the statement of the three days is as fanciful as much of the rest, and adopted to fit the well-known threat to destroy the temple and rebuild it again in {{Style S-Italic|three}} days. Between his burial and alleged resurrection there intervened but {{Style S-Italic|one day—}}the Jewish Sabbath—as he was buried on Friday evening and rose to life at dawn on Sunday. However, whatever other circumstance may be regarded as a prophecy, the story of Jonah cannot be made to answer the purpose. | We may, perhaps, throw additional light upon the puzzling question of the fish-symbol by reminding the reader that according to {{Style S-Italic|Genesis}} the first created of living beings, the first type of animal life, was the fish. “And the Elohim said: ‘Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that {{Style S-Italic|hath life’}} . . . and God created great whales . . . and the morning and the evening were the {{Style S-Italic|fifth day.”}} Jonah is swallowed by a big fish, and is cast out again three days later. This the Christians regard as a premonition of the three days’ sepulture of Jesus which preceded his resurrection—though the statement of the three days is as fanciful as much of the rest, and adopted to fit the well-known threat to destroy the temple and rebuild it again in {{Style S-Italic|three}} days. Between his burial and alleged resurrection there intervened but {{Style S-Italic|one day—}}the Jewish Sabbath—as he was buried on Friday evening and rose to life at dawn on Sunday. However, whatever other circumstance may be regarded as a prophecy, the story of Jonah cannot be made to answer the purpose. | ||
| Line 115: | Line 120: | ||
“Big Fish” is Cetus, the latinized form of Keto—κητω and keto is Dagon, Poseidon, the female gender of it being Keton Atar-gatis—the Syrian goddess, and Venus, of Askalon. The figure or bust of Der-Keto or Astarte was generally represented on the prow of the ships. Jonah (the Greek Iona, or {{Style S-Italic|dove}} sacred to Venus) fled to Jaffa, where the god Dagon, the man-fish, was worshipped, and dared not go to Nineveh, {{Style S-Italic|where the dove was revered.}} Hence, some commentators believe that when Jonah was thrown overboard and was swallowed by a fish, we must understand that he was picked up by one of these vessels, on the prow of which was the figure of {{Style S-Italic|Keto.}} But the kabalists have another legend, to this effect: They say that Jonah was a run-away priest from the temple of the goddess where the dove was worshipped, and desired to abolish idolatry and institute monotheistic worship. That, caught near Jaffa, he was held prisoner by the devotees of Dagon in one of the prison-cells of the temple, and that it is the strange form of the cell which gave rise to the allegory. In the collection of Mose de Garcia, a Portuguese kabalist, there is a drawing representing the interior of the temple of Dagon. In the middle stands an immense idol, the upper portion of whose body is human, and the lower fish-like. Between the belly and the tail is an aperture which can be closed like the door of a closet. In it the transgressors against the local deity were shut up until further disposal. The drawing in question was made from an old tablet covered with curious drawings and inscriptions in old Phœnician characters, describing this Venetian | “Big Fish” is Cetus, the latinized form of Keto—κητω and keto is Dagon, Poseidon, the female gender of it being Keton Atar-gatis—the Syrian goddess, and Venus, of Askalon. The figure or bust of Der-Keto or Astarte was generally represented on the prow of the ships. Jonah (the Greek Iona, or {{Style S-Italic|dove}} sacred to Venus) fled to Jaffa, where the god Dagon, the man-fish, was worshipped, and dared not go to Nineveh, {{Style S-Italic|where the dove was revered.}} Hence, some commentators believe that when Jonah was thrown overboard and was swallowed by a fish, we must understand that he was picked up by one of these vessels, on the prow of which was the figure of {{Style S-Italic|Keto.}} But the kabalists have another legend, to this effect: They say that Jonah was a run-away priest from the temple of the goddess where the dove was worshipped, and desired to abolish idolatry and institute monotheistic worship. That, caught near Jaffa, he was held prisoner by the devotees of Dagon in one of the prison-cells of the temple, and that it is the strange form of the cell which gave rise to the allegory. In the collection of Mose de Garcia, a Portuguese kabalist, there is a drawing representing the interior of the temple of Dagon. In the middle stands an immense idol, the upper portion of whose body is human, and the lower fish-like. Between the belly and the tail is an aperture which can be closed like the door of a closet. In it the transgressors against the local deity were shut up until further disposal. The drawing in question was made from an old tablet covered with curious drawings and inscriptions in old Phœnician characters, describing this Venetian | ||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1454}} “La Genèse de l’Humanité,” p. 9. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
259 THE FISH-AVATAR OF VISHNU. | {{Page|259|THE FISH-AVATAR OF VISHNU.}} | ||
{{Style | {{Style P-No indent|''oubliette'' of biblical days. The tablet itself was found in an excavation a few miles from Jaffa. Considering the extraordinary tendency of Oriental nations for puns and allegories, is it not barely possible that the “big fish” by which Jonah was swallowed was simply the cell within the belly of Dagon?}} | ||
It is significant that this double appellation of “Messiah” and “Dag” (fish), of the Talmudists, should so well apply to the Hindu Vishnu, the “Preserving” Spirit, and the second personage of the Brahmanic trinity. This deity, having already manifested itself, is still regarded as the future Saviour of humanity, and is the selected Redeemer, who will appear at its tenth incarnation or {{Style S-Italic|avatar,}} like the Messiah of the Jews, to lead the blessed onward, and restore to them the primitive {{Style S-Italic|Vedas.}} At his first avatar, Vishnu is alleged to have appeared to humanity, in form like a fish. In the temple of Rama, there is a representation of this god which answers perfectly to that of Dagon, as given by Berosus. He has the body of a man issuing from the mouth of a fish, and holds in his hands the lost {{Style S-Italic|Veda}}. Vishnu, moreover, is the water-god, in one sense, the Logos of the Parabrahm, for as the three persons of the manifested god-head constantly interchange their attributes, we see him in the same temple represented as reclining on the seven-headed serpent, Ananta (eternity), and moving, like the {{Style S-Italic|Spirit}} of God, on the face of the primeval waters. | It is significant that this double appellation of “Messiah” and “Dag” (fish), of the Talmudists, should so well apply to the Hindu Vishnu, the “Preserving” Spirit, and the second personage of the Brahmanic trinity. This deity, having already manifested itself, is still regarded as the future Saviour of humanity, and is the selected Redeemer, who will appear at its tenth incarnation or {{Style S-Italic|avatar,}} like the Messiah of the Jews, to lead the blessed onward, and restore to them the primitive {{Style S-Italic|Vedas.}} At his first avatar, Vishnu is alleged to have appeared to humanity, in form like a fish. In the temple of Rama, there is a representation of this god which answers perfectly to that of Dagon, as given by Berosus. He has the body of a man issuing from the mouth of a fish, and holds in his hands the lost {{Style S-Italic|Veda}}. Vishnu, moreover, is the water-god, in one sense, the Logos of the Parabrahm, for as the three persons of the manifested god-head constantly interchange their attributes, we see him in the same temple represented as reclining on the seven-headed serpent, Ananta (eternity), and moving, like the {{Style S-Italic|Spirit}} of God, on the face of the primeval waters. | ||
| Line 131: | Line 138: | ||
We have said above, that, according to the secret computation peculiar to the students of the hidden science, Messiah is the fifth emanation, or potency. In the Jewish {{Style S-Italic|Kabala,}} where the ten Sephiroth emanate from Adam Kadmon (placed below the crown), he comes fifth. So in | We have said above, that, according to the secret computation peculiar to the students of the hidden science, Messiah is the fifth emanation, or potency. In the Jewish {{Style S-Italic|Kabala,}} where the ten Sephiroth emanate from Adam Kadmon (placed below the crown), he comes fifth. So in | ||
260 ISIS UNVEILED. | {{Page|260|ISIS UNVEILED.}} | ||
the Gnostic system; so in the Buddhistic, in which the fifth Buddha—Maitree, will appear at his last advent to save mankind before the final destruction of the world. If Vishnu is represented in his forthcoming and last appearance as the {{Style S-Italic|tenth}} avatar or incarnation, it is only because every unit held as an androgyne manifests itself doubly. The Buddhists who reject this dual-sexed incarnation reckon but five. Thus, while Vishnu is to make his last appearance in his tenth, Buddha is said to do the same in his fifth incarnation. | {{Style P-No indent|the Gnostic system; so in the Buddhistic, in which the fifth Buddha—Maitree, will appear at his last advent to save mankind before the final destruction of the world. If Vishnu is represented in his forthcoming and last appearance as the {{Style S-Italic|tenth}} avatar or incarnation, it is only because every unit held as an androgyne manifests itself doubly. The Buddhists who reject this dual-sexed incarnation reckon but five. Thus, while Vishnu is to make his last appearance in his tenth, Buddha is said to do the same in his fifth incarnation.{{Footnote mark|*|fn1455}}}} | ||
The better to illustrate the idea, and show how completely the real meaning of the avatars, known only to the students of the secret doctrine was misunderstood by the ignorant masses, we elsewhere give the diagrams of the Hindu and Chaldeo-Kabalistic avatars and emanations. | The better to illustrate the idea, and show how completely the real meaning of the avatars, known only to the students of the secret doctrine was misunderstood by the ignorant masses, we elsewhere give the diagrams of the Hindu and Chaldeo-Kabalistic avatars and emanations.{{Footnote mark|†|fn1456}} This basic and true fundamental stone of the secret cycles, shows on its very face, that far from taking their revealed {{Style S-Italic|Vedas}} and {{Style S-Italic|Bible}} literally, the Brahman-pundits, and the Tanaim—the scientists and philosophers of the pre-Christian epochs—speculated on the creation and development of the world quite in a Darwinian way, both anticipating him and his school in the natural selection of species, gradual development, and transformation. | ||
We advise every one tempted to enter an indignant protest against this affirmation to read more carefully the books of Manu, even in the incomplete translation of Sir William Jones, and the more or less careless one of Jacolliot. If we compare the Sanchoniathon Phœnician Cosmogony, and the record of Berosus with the {{Style S-Italic|Bhagavatta}} and {{Style S-Italic|Manu,}} we will find enunciated exactly the same principles as those now offered as the latest developments of modern science. We have quoted from the Chaldean and Phœnician records in our first volume; we will now glance at the Hindu books. | We advise every one tempted to enter an indignant protest against this affirmation to read more carefully the books of Manu, even in the incomplete translation of Sir William Jones, and the more or less careless one of Jacolliot. If we compare the Sanchoniathon Phœnician Cosmogony, and the record of Berosus with the {{Style S-Italic|Bhagavatta}} and {{Style S-Italic|Manu,}} we will find enunciated exactly the same principles as those now offered as the latest developments of modern science. We have quoted from the Chaldean and Phœnician records in our first volume; we will now glance at the Hindu books. | ||
“When this world had issued out of darkness, the subtile elementary principles produced the vegetal seed which animated first the plants; from the plants, life passed into fantastical bodies which were born {{Style S-Italic|in the ilus of the waters;}} then, through a series of forms and various animals, it reached MAN.” | “When this world had issued out of darkness, the subtile elementary principles produced the vegetal seed which animated first the plants; from the plants, life passed into fantastical bodies which were born {{Style S-Italic|in the ilus of the waters;}} then, through a series of forms and various animals, it reached MAN.”{{Footnote mark|‡|fn1457}} | ||
“He (man, before becoming such) will pass successively through plants, worms, insects, fish, serpents, tortoises, cattle, and wild animals; such is the inferior degree.” | “He (man, before becoming such) will pass successively through plants, worms, insects, fish, serpents, tortoises, cattle, and wild animals; such is the inferior degree.” | ||
“Such, from Brahma down to the vegetables, are declared the transmigrations which take place in this world.” | “Such, from Brahma down to the vegetables, are declared the transmigrations which take place in this world.”{{Footnote mark|§|fn1458}} | ||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1455}} The kabalistic Sephiroth are also ten in number, or five pairs. | |||
{{Footnote return|†|fn1456}} An avatar is a descent from on high upon earth of the Deity in some manifest shape. | |||
{{Footnote return|‡|fn1457}} “Bhagavatta.” | |||
{{Footnote return|§|fn1458}} “Manu,” books i. and xii. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
261 DARWIN COMPARED WITH VYASA. | {{Page|261|DARWIN COMPARED WITH VYASA.}} | ||
In the Sanchoniathonian Cosmogony, men are also evolved out of the ilus of the chaos, | In the Sanchoniathonian Cosmogony, men are also evolved out of the ilus of the chaos,{{Footnote mark|*|fn1459}} and the same evolution and transformation of species are shown. | ||
And now we will leave the rostrum to Mr. Darwin: “I believe that animals have descended from at most only four or five progenitors.” | And now we will leave the rostrum to Mr. Darwin: “I believe that animals have descended from at most only four or five progenitors.”{{Footnote mark|†|fn1460}} | ||
Again: “I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth, have descended from some one primordial form. | Again: “I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth, have descended from some one primordial form.{{Footnote mark|‡|fn1461}} . . . I view all beings, not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long {{Style S-Italic|before the first bed of the Silurian system was deposited.”{{Footnote mark|§|fn1462}}}} | ||
In short, they lived in the Sanchoniathonian chaos, and in the {{Style S-Italic|ilus}} of Manu. Vyasa and Kapila go still farther than Darwin and Manu. “They see in Brahma but the name of the universal germ; {{Style S-Italic|they deny the existence of a First Cause;}} and pretend that everything in nature found itself developed only in consequence of material and fatal forces,” says Jacolliot. | In short, they lived in the Sanchoniathonian chaos, and in the {{Style S-Italic|ilus}} of Manu. Vyasa and Kapila go still farther than Darwin and Manu. “They see in Brahma but the name of the universal germ; {{Style S-Italic|they deny the existence of a First Cause;}} and pretend that everything in nature found itself developed only in consequence of material and fatal forces,” says Jacolliot.{{Footnote mark|║|fn1463}} | ||
Correct as may be this latter quotation from Kapila, it demands a few words of explanation. Jacolliot repeatedly compares Kapila and Veda Vyasa with Pyrrho and Littré. We have nothing against such a comparison with the Greek philosopher, but we must decidedly object to any with the French Comtist; we find it an unmerited fling at the memory of the great Aryan sage. Nowhere does this prolific writer state the repudiation by either ancient or modern Brahmans of God—the “unknown,” universal Spirit; nor does any other Orientalist accuse the Hindus of the same, however perverted the general deductions of our savants about Buddhistic atheism. On the contrary, Jacolliot states more than once that the learned Pundits and educated Brahmans have never shared the popular superstitions; and affirms their unshaken belief in the unity of God and the soul’s immortality, although most assuredly neither Kapila, nor the initiated Brahmans, nor the followers of the Vedanta school would ever admit the existence of an anthropomorphic creator, a “First Cause” in the Christian sense. Jacolliot, in his {{Style S-Italic|Indo-European and African Traditions,}} is the first to make an onslaught on Professor Müller, for remarking that the Hindu gods were “masks without actors . . . names without being, and not beings without names.” | Correct as may be this latter quotation from Kapila, it demands a few words of explanation. Jacolliot repeatedly compares Kapila and Veda Vyasa with Pyrrho and Littré. We have nothing against such a comparison with the Greek philosopher, but we must decidedly object to any with the French Comtist; we find it an unmerited fling at the memory of the great Aryan sage. Nowhere does this prolific writer state the repudiation by either ancient or modern Brahmans of God—the “unknown,” universal Spirit; nor does any other Orientalist accuse the Hindus of the same, however perverted the general deductions of our savants about Buddhistic atheism. On the contrary, Jacolliot states more than once that the learned Pundits and educated Brahmans have never shared the popular superstitions; and affirms their unshaken belief in the unity of God and the soul’s immortality, although most assuredly neither Kapila, nor the initiated Brahmans, nor the followers of the Vedanta school would ever admit the existence of an anthropomorphic creator, a “First Cause” in the Christian sense. Jacolliot, in his {{Style S-Italic|Indo-European and African Traditions,}} is the first to make an onslaught on Professor Müller, for remarking that the Hindu gods were “masks without actors . . . names without being, and not beings without names.”{{Footnote mark|¶|fn1464}} Quoting, in support of his argument, numerous verses from the sacred Hindu books, he adds: “Is it possible to refuse to the author of these stanzas a definite and clear conception of the divine | ||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1459}} See Cory’s “Ancient Fragments.” | |||
{{Footnote return|†|fn1460}} “Origin of Species,” first edition, p. 484. | |||
{{Footnote return|‡|fn1461}} Ibid., p. 484. | |||
{{Footnote return|§|fn1462}} Ibid., pp. 488, 489. | |||
{{Footnote return|║|fn1463}} “La Genese de l’Humanite,” p. 339. | |||
{{Footnote return|¶|fn1464}} “Traditions Indo-Europeennes et Africaines,” p. 291. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
262 ISIS UNVEILED. | {{Page|262|ISIS UNVEILED.}} | ||
the Unique Being, master and Sovereign of the Universe? . . . Were the altars then built to a metaphor?” | {{Style P-No indent|force, of the Unique Being, master and Sovereign of the Universe? . . . Were the altars then built to a metaphor?”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1465}}}} | ||
The latter argument is perfectly just, so far as Max Müller’s negation is concerned. But we doubt whether the French rationalist understands Kapila’s and Vyasa’s philosophy better than the German philologist does the “theological twaddle,” as the latter terms the {{Style S-Italic|Atharva-Veda.}} Professor Müller and Jacolliot may have ever so great claims to erudition, and be ever so familiar with Sanscrit and other ancient Oriental languages, but both lack the key to the thousand and one mysteries of the old secret doctrine and its philosophy. Only, while the German philologist does not even take the trouble to look into this magical and “theological twaddle,” we find the French Indianist never losing an opportunity to investigate. Moreover, he honestly admits his incompetency to ever fathom this ocean of mystical learning. In its existence he not only firmly believes, but throughout his works he incessantly calls the attention of science to its unmistakable traces at every step in India. Still, though the learned Pundits and Brahmans—his “revered masters” of the pagodas of Villenoor and Chelambrum in the Carnatic, | The latter argument is perfectly just, so far as Max Müller’s negation is concerned. But we doubt whether the French rationalist understands Kapila’s and Vyasa’s philosophy better than the German philologist does the “theological twaddle,” as the latter terms the {{Style S-Italic|Atharva-Veda.}} Professor Müller and Jacolliot may have ever so great claims to erudition, and be ever so familiar with Sanscrit and other ancient Oriental languages, but both lack the key to the thousand and one mysteries of the old secret doctrine and its philosophy. Only, while the German philologist does not even take the trouble to look into this magical and “theological twaddle,” we find the French Indianist never losing an opportunity to investigate. Moreover, he honestly admits his incompetency to ever fathom this ocean of mystical learning. In its existence he not only firmly believes, but throughout his works he incessantly calls the attention of science to its unmistakable traces at every step in India. Still, though the learned Pundits and Brahmans—his “revered masters” of the pagodas of Villenoor and Chelambrum in the Carnatic,{{Footnote mark|†|fn1466}} as it seems, positively refused to reveal to him the mysteries of the magical part of the ''Agrouchada-Parikshai'',{{Footnote mark|‡|fn1467}} and of Brahmatma’s triangle,{{Footnote mark|§|fn1468}} he persists in the honest declaration that everything is possible in Hindu metaphysics, even to the Kapila and Vyasa systems having been hitherto misunderstood. | ||
M. Jacolliot weakens his assertion immediately afterward with the following contradiction: | M. Jacolliot weakens his assertion immediately afterward with the following contradiction: | ||
| Line 189: | Line 200: | ||
“‘What do you mean by that?’ | “‘What do you mean by that?’ | ||
“‘I mean that every being on earth, however humble, is an immortal portion of the immortal matter.’” | “‘I mean that every being on earth, however humble, is an immortal portion of the immortal matter.’”{{Footnote mark|║|fn1469}} | ||
The answer is one which would suggest itself to every ancient philosopher, Kabalist and Gnostic, of the early days. It contains the very spirit of the delphic and kabalistic commandment, for esoteric philosophy solved, ages ago, the problem of what man was, is, and will be. If persons | The answer is one which would suggest itself to every ancient philosopher, Kabalist and Gnostic, of the early days. It contains the very spirit of the delphic and kabalistic commandment, for esoteric philosophy solved, ages ago, the problem of what man was, is, and will be. If persons | ||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1465}} “Traditions Indo-Europeennes et Africaines,” pp. 294, 295. | |||
{{Footnote return|†|fn1466}} “Les Fils de Dieu,” p. 32. | |||
{{Footnote return|‡|fn1467}} “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde,” p. 78 and others. | |||
{{Footnote return|§|fn1468}} “Les Fils de Dieu,” p. 272. While not at all astonished that Brahmans should have refused to satisfy M. Jacolliot’s curiosity, we must add that the meaning of this sign is known to the superiors of every Buddhist lamasery, not alone to the Brahmans. | |||
{{Footnote return|║|fn1469}} “La Genese de l’Humanite,” p. 339. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
263 VEDIC VIEWS UPON SOUL. | {{Page|263|VEDIC VIEWS UPON SOUL.}} | ||
believing the {{Style S-Italic|Bible}} verse which teaches that the “Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” reject at the same time the idea that every atom of this dust, as every particle of this “living soul,” contains “God” within itself, then we pity the logic of that Christian. He forgets the verses which precede the one in question. God blesses equally every beast of the field and every living creature, in the water as in the air, and He endows them all with {{Style S-Italic|life,}} which is a breath of His own Spirit, and the {{Style S-Italic|soul}} of the animal. Humanity is the Adam Kadmon of the “Unknown,” His microcosm, and His only representative on earth, and every man is a god on earth. | {{Style P-No indent|believing the {{Style S-Italic|Bible}} verse which teaches that the “Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” reject at the same time the idea that every atom of this dust, as every particle of this “living soul,” contains “God” within itself, then we pity the logic of that Christian. He forgets the verses which precede the one in question. God blesses equally every beast of the field and every living creature, in the water as in the air, and He endows them all with {{Style S-Italic|life,}} which is a breath of His own Spirit, and the {{Style S-Italic|soul}} of the animal. Humanity is the Adam Kadmon of the “Unknown,” His microcosm, and His only representative on earth, and every man is a god on earth.}} | ||
We would ask this French scholar, who seems so familiar with every sloka of the books of Manu, and other Vedic writers, the meaning of this sentence so well known to him: | We would ask this French scholar, who seems so familiar with every sloka of the books of Manu, and other Vedic writers, the meaning of this sentence so well known to him: | ||
| Line 217: | Line 230: | ||
Before proceeding to show by diagrams the close resemblance between the esoteric philosophies of all the ancient peoples, however geographically remote from each other, it will be useful to briefly explain the real ideas which underlie all those symbols and allegorical representations and have hitherto so puzzled the uninitiated commentators. Better than anything, it may show that religion and science were closer knit than twins | Before proceeding to show by diagrams the close resemblance between the esoteric philosophies of all the ancient peoples, however geographically remote from each other, it will be useful to briefly explain the real ideas which underlie all those symbols and allegorical representations and have hitherto so puzzled the uninitiated commentators. Better than anything, it may show that religion and science were closer knit than twins | ||
264 ISIS UNVEILED. | {{Page|264|ISIS UNVEILED.}} | ||
in days of old; that they were one in two and two in one from the very moment of their conception. With mutually convertible attributes, science was spiritual and religion was scientific. Like the androgyne man of the first chapter of {{Style S-Italic|Genesis}}—“male and female,” passive and active; created in the image of the Elohim. Omniscience developed omnipotency, the latter called for the exercise of the former, and thus the giant had dominion given him over all the four kingdoms of the world. But, like the second Adam, these androgynes were doomed to “fall and lose their powers” as soon as the two halves of the duality separated. The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge gives death without the fruit of the Tree of Life. Man must know {{Style S-Italic|himself}} before he can hope to know the ultimate genesis even of beings and powers less developed in their inner nature than himself. So with religion and science; united two in one they were infallible, for the spiritual intuition was there to supply the limitations of physical senses. Separated, exact science rejects the help of the inner voice, while religion becomes merely dogmatic theology—each is but a corpse without a soul. | {{Style P-No indent|in days of old; that they were one in two and two in one from the very moment of their conception. With mutually convertible attributes, science was spiritual and religion was scientific. Like the androgyne man of the first chapter of {{Style S-Italic|Genesis}}—“male and female,” passive and active; created in the image of the Elohim. Omniscience developed omnipotency, the latter called for the exercise of the former, and thus the giant had dominion given him over all the four kingdoms of the world. But, like the second Adam, these androgynes were doomed to “fall and lose their powers” as soon as the two halves of the duality separated. The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge gives death without the fruit of the Tree of Life. Man must know {{Style S-Italic|himself}} before he can hope to know the ultimate genesis even of beings and powers less developed in their inner nature than himself. So with religion and science; united two in one they were infallible, for the spiritual intuition was there to supply the limitations of physical senses. Separated, exact science rejects the help of the inner voice, while religion becomes merely dogmatic theology—each is but a corpse without a soul.}} | ||
The esoteric doctrine, then, teaches, like Buddhism and Brahmanism, and even the persecuted {{Style S-Italic|Kabala}}, that the one infinite and unknown Essence exist from all eternity, and in regular and harmonious successions is either passive or active. In the poetical phraseology of Manu these conditions are called the “day” and the “night” of Brahma. The latter is either “awake” or “asleep.” The Svâbhâvikas, or philosophers of the oldest school of Buddhism (which still exists in Nepaul), speculate but upon the active condition of this “essence,” which they call Svabhâvât, and deem it foolish to theorize upon the abstract and “unknowable” power in its passive condition. Hence they are called atheists by both Christian theology and modern scientists; for neither of the two are able to understand the profound logic of their philosophy. The former will allow of no other God than the personified {{Style S-Italic|secondary}} powers which have blindly worked out the visible universe, and which became with them the anthropomorphic God of the Christians—the Jehovah, roaring amid thunder and lightning. In its turn, rationalistic science greets the Buddhists and the Svâbhâvikas as the “positivists” of the archaic ages. If we take a one-sided view of the philosophy of the latter, our materialists may be right in their own way. The Buddhists maintain that there is {{Style S-Italic|no}} Creator but an infinitude of {{Style S-Italic|creative powers}}, which collectively form the one eternal substance, the {{Style S-Italic|essence}} of which is inscrutable—hence not a subject for speculation for any true philosopher. Socrates invariably refused to argue upon the mystery of universal being, yet no one would ever have thought of charging him with atheism, except those who were bent upon his destruction. Upon inaugurating an active period, says the | The esoteric doctrine, then, teaches, like Buddhism and Brahmanism, and even the persecuted {{Style S-Italic|Kabala}}, that the one infinite and unknown Essence exist from all eternity, and in regular and harmonious successions is either passive or active. In the poetical phraseology of Manu these conditions are called the “day” and the “night” of Brahma. The latter is either “awake” or “asleep.” The Svâbhâvikas, or philosophers of the oldest school of Buddhism (which still exists in Nepaul), speculate but upon the active condition of this “essence,” which they call Svabhâvât, and deem it foolish to theorize upon the abstract and “unknowable” power in its passive condition. Hence they are called atheists by both Christian theology and modern scientists; for neither of the two are able to understand the profound logic of their philosophy. The former will allow of no other God than the personified {{Style S-Italic|secondary}} powers which have blindly worked out the visible universe, and which became with them the anthropomorphic God of the Christians—the Jehovah, roaring amid thunder and lightning. In its turn, rationalistic science greets the Buddhists and the Svâbhâvikas as the “positivists” of the archaic ages. If we take a one-sided view of the philosophy of the latter, our materialists may be right in their own way. The Buddhists maintain that there is {{Style S-Italic|no}} Creator but an infinitude of {{Style S-Italic|creative powers}}, which collectively form the one eternal substance, the {{Style S-Italic|essence}} of which is inscrutable—hence not a subject for speculation for any true philosopher. Socrates invariably refused to argue upon the mystery of universal being, yet no one would ever have thought of charging him with atheism, except those who were bent upon his destruction. Upon inaugurating an active period, says the | ||
[[File:Isis-2-264a.png|600px|center]] | |||
[[File:Isis-2-264b.png|600px|center]] | |||
265 OUR UNIVERSE ONE OF A SERIES. | {{Page|265|OUR UNIVERSE ONE OF A SERIES.}} | ||
{{Style | {{Style P-No indent|''Secret Doctrine'', an expansion of this Divine essence, {{Style S-Italic|from within outwardly,}} occurs in obedience to eternal and immutable law, and the phenomenal or visible universe is the ultimate result of the long chain of cosmical forces thus progressively set in motion. In like manner, when the passive condition is resumed, a contraction of the Divine essence takes place, and the previous work of creation is gradually and progressively undone. The visible universe becomes disintegrated, its material dispersed; and “darkness,” solitary and alone, broods once more over the face of the “deep.” To use a metaphor which will convey the idea still more clearly, an outbreathing of the “unknown essence” produces the world; and an inhalation causes it to disappear. {{Style S-Italic|This process has been going on from all eternity, and our present universe is but one of an infinite series which had no beginning and will have no end.}}}} | ||
Thus we are enabled to build our theories solely on the visible manifestations of the Deity, on its objective natural phenomena. To apply to these creative principles the term God is puerile and absurd. One might as well call by the name of Benvenuto Cellini the fire which fuses the metal, or the air that cools it when it is run in the mould. If the inner and ever-concealed spiritual, and to our minds abstract, Essence within these forces can ever be connected with the creation of the physical universe, it is but in the sense given to it by Plato. It may be termed, at best, the framer of the abstract universe which developed gradually in the Divine Thought within which it had lain dormant. | Thus we are enabled to build our theories solely on the visible manifestations of the Deity, on its objective natural phenomena. To apply to these creative principles the term God is puerile and absurd. One might as well call by the name of Benvenuto Cellini the fire which fuses the metal, or the air that cools it when it is run in the mould. If the inner and ever-concealed spiritual, and to our minds abstract, Essence within these forces can ever be connected with the creation of the physical universe, it is but in the sense given to it by Plato. It may be termed, at best, the framer of the abstract universe which developed gradually in the Divine Thought within which it had lain dormant. | ||
| Line 235: | Line 248: | ||
In Chapter VIII. we will attempt to show the esoteric meaning of {{Style S-Italic|Genesis,}} and its complete agreement with the ideas of other nations. The six days of creation will be found to have a meaning little suspected by the multitude of commentators, who have exercised their abilities to the full extent in attempting to reconcile them by turns with Christian theology and un-Christian geology. Disfigured as the {{Style S-Italic|Old Testament}} is {{Style S-Italic|,}} yet in its symbolism is preserved enough of the original in its principal features to show the family likeness to the cosmogonies of older nations than the Jews. | In Chapter VIII. we will attempt to show the esoteric meaning of {{Style S-Italic|Genesis,}} and its complete agreement with the ideas of other nations. The six days of creation will be found to have a meaning little suspected by the multitude of commentators, who have exercised their abilities to the full extent in attempting to reconcile them by turns with Christian theology and un-Christian geology. Disfigured as the {{Style S-Italic|Old Testament}} is {{Style S-Italic|,}} yet in its symbolism is preserved enough of the original in its principal features to show the family likeness to the cosmogonies of older nations than the Jews. | ||
We here give the diagrams of the Hindu and the Chaldeo-Jewish cosmogonies. The antiquity of the diagram of the former may be inferred from the fact that many of the Brahmanical pagodas are designed and built on this figure, called the “Sri-Iantara.” | We here give the diagrams of the Hindu and the Chaldeo-Jewish cosmogonies. The antiquity of the diagram of the former may be inferred from the fact that many of the Brahmanical pagodas are designed and built on this figure, called the “Sri-Iantara.”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1470}} And yet we find the highest honors paid to it by the Jewish and mediæval kabalists, who call it “Solomon’s seal.” It will be quite an easy matter to trace it to its origin, once we are reminded of the history of the king-kabalist and his transaction with King Hiram and Ophir—the country of peacocks, gold, and ivory—for which land we have to search in old India. | ||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1470}} See “Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,” vol. xiii., p. 79. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
266 ISIS UNVEILED. | {{Page|266|ISIS UNVEILED.}} | ||
EXPLANATION OF THE TWO DIAGRAMS | <center><big>EXPLANATION OF THE TWO DIAGRAMS</big></center> | ||
<center><small>{{Style S-Small capitals|representing the}}</small></center> | |||
<center>CHAOTIC AND THE FORMATIVE PERIODS, BEFORE AND AFTER OUR UNIVERSE BEGAN TO BE EVOLVED.</center> | |||
<center><small>{{Style S-Small capitals|from the esoteric brahmanical, buddhistic, and chaldean standpoints, which agree in every respect with the evolutionary theory of modern science.}}</small></center> | |||
{| style="margin: 2em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0;" | |||
|- | |||
| width=50% | <center>THE HINDU DOCTRINE.</center> | |||
<center>''The Upper Triangle''</center> | |||
| <center>THE CHALDEAN DOCTRINE.</center> | |||
<center>''The Upper Triangle''</center> | |||
|- valign=top | |||
| Contains the Ineffable Name. It is the AUM—to be pronounced only mentally, under penalty of death. The Unrevealed Para-Brahma, the Passive-Principle; the absolute and unconditioned “mukta,” which cannot enter into the condition of a Creator, as the latter, in order to ''think'', ''will'', and ''plan'', must be bound and conditioned (baddha); hence, in one sense, be a finite being. “This (Para-Brahma) was absorbed in the non-being, imperceptible, without any distinct attribute, non-existent for our senses. He was absorbed in his (to us) eternal (to himself) periodical, sleep,” for it was one of the “Nights of Brahma.” Therefore he is not the ''First'' but the Eternal Cause. He is the Soul of Souls, whom no being can comprehend in this state. But “he who studies the secret Mantras and comprehends the ''Vâch''” (the Spirit or hidden voice of the Mantras, the active manifestation of the latent Force) will learn to understand him in his “revealed” aspect. | |||
| Contains the Ineffable Name. It is En-Soph, the Boundless, the Infinite, whose name is known to no one but the initiated, and could not be pronounced aloud under the penalty of death. | |||
No more than Para-Brahma can En-Soph create, for he is in the same condition of non-being as the former; he is {{Style S-Hebrew|איר}} non-existent so long as he lies in his latent or passive state within ''Oulom'' (the boundless and termless time); as such he is not the Creator of the visible universe, neither is he the ''Aur'' (Light). He will become the latter when the period of creation shall have compelled him to expand the Force within himself, according to the Law of which he is the embodiment and essence. | |||
“Whosoever acquaints himself with {{Style S-Hebrew|ה''ד}} the Mercaba and the ''lahgash'' (secret speech or incantation),* will learn the secret of secrets.” | |||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
<nowiki>*</nowiki> ''Lahgash'' is nearly identical in meaning with ''Vâch'', the hidden power of the Mantras. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
|} | |||
Both “This” and En-Soph, in their first manifestation of Light, emerging from within Darkness, may be summarized in the Svabhâvât, the Eternal and the uncreated Self-existing Substance which produces all; while everything which is of its essence produces itself out of its own nature. | Both “This” and En-Soph, in their first manifestation of Light, emerging from within Darkness, may be summarized in the Svabhâvât, the Eternal and the uncreated Self-existing Substance which produces all; while everything which is of its essence produces itself out of its own nature. | ||
{| style="margin: 2em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0;" | |||
|- valign=top | |||
| width=50% | <center>''The Space Around the Upper Triangle.''</center> | |||
| <center>''The Space Around the Upper Triangle.''</center> | |||
|- valign=top | |||
| When the “Night of Brahma” was ended, and the time came for the Self-Existent to manifest ''Itself'' by revelation, it made its glory visible by sending forth from its Essence an active Power, which, female at first, subsequently becomes | |||
| When the active period had arrived, En-Soph sent forth from within his own eternal essence, Sephira, the active Power, called the Primordial Point, and the Crown, ''Keter''. It is only through her that the “Un-bounded Wisdom” could | |||
|} | |||
{{Page|267| DIAGRAMS OF HINDU AND CHALDEAN SYSTEMS.}} | |||
{| style="margin: 2em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0;" | |||
|- valign=top | |||
| width=50% | {{Style P-No indent|androgyne. It is Aditi, the “Infinite,”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1472}} the Boundless, or rather the “Unbounded.” Aditi is the “mother” of all the gods, and Aditi is the Father and the Son.{{Footnote mark|†|fn1473}} “Who will give us back to the great Aditi, that I may see father and mother?”{{Footnote mark|‡|fn1474}} It is in conjunction with the latter female, Force, that the Divine but latent Thought produces the great “Deep”—water. “Water is born from a transformation of light . . . and from a ''modification'' of the water is born the earth,” says Manu (book i.).}} | |||
“Ye are born of Aditi from the water, you who are born of the earth, hear ye all my call.”{{Footnote mark|§|fn1475}} | |||
In this water (or primeval chaos) the “Infinite” androgyne, which, with the Eternal Cause, forms the first abstract Triad, rendered by Aum, deposited the germ of universal life. It is the Mundane Egg, in which took place the gestation of Purusha, or the manifested Brahma. The germ which fecundated the ''Mother'' Principle (the water) is called Nara, the Divine Spirit or Holy Ghost,{{Footnote mark|║|fn1476}} and the waters themselves, are an emanation of the former, Nari, while the Spirit which brooded over it is called Narayana.{{Footnote mark|¶|fn1477}} | |||
“In that egg, the great Power sat inactive a whole ''year of the Creator'', at the close of which, by his thought alone, he caused the egg to divide itself.”{{Footnote mark|**|fn1478}} The upper half became heaven, the lower, the | |||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1472}} In “Rig-Veda Sanhita” the meaning is given by Max Muller as the Absolute, “for it is derived from ‘''diti'',’ bond, and the negative particle ''A''.” | |||
{{Footnote return|†|fn1473}} “Hymns to the Maruts,” I., 89, 10. | |||
{{Footnote return|‡|fn1474}} Ibid., I., 24, 1. | |||
{{Footnote return|§|fn1475}} Ibid., X., 63, 2. | |||
{{Footnote return|║|fn1476}} Thus is it that we find in all the philosophical theogonies, the Holy Ghost female. The numerous sects of the Gnostics had Sophia; the Jewish kabalists and Talmudists, Shekinah (the garment of the Highest), which descended between the two cherubim upon the Mercy Seat; and we find even Jesus made to say, in an old text, “My ''Mother'', the Holy Ghost, took me.” | |||
“The waters are called ''nara'', because they were the production of Nara, the Spirit of God” (“Institutes of Manu,” i. 10). | |||
{{Footnote return|¶|fn1477}} Narayana, or that which moves on the waters. | |||
{{Footnote return|**|fn1478}} “Manu,” sloka 12. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
| {{Style P-No indent|give a concrete form to his abstract Thought. Two sides of the upper triangle, the right side and the base, are composed of unbroken lines; the third, the left side, is dotted. It is through the latter that emerges Sephira. Spreading in every direction, she finally encompasses the whole triangle. In this emanation of the female active principle from the left side of the mystic triangle, is foreshadowed the creation of Eve from Adam’s left rib. Adam is the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, and is created in the image of the Elohim. In the Tree of Life {{Style S-Hebrew|עץ חיים}} the triple triad is disposed in such a manner that the three male Sephiroth are on the right, the three female on the left, and the four uniting principles in the centre. From the Invisible Dew falling from the Higher “Head” Sephira creates primeval water, or chaos taking shape. It is the first step toward the solidification of Spirit, which through various modifications will produce earth.{{Footnote mark|*|fn1479}} “''It requires earth and water to make a living soul'',” says Moses.}} | |||
When Sephira emerges like an active power from within the latent Deity, she is female; when she assumes the office of a creator, she becomes a male; hence, she is androgyne. She is the “Father and Mother Aditi,” of the Hindu Cosmogony. | |||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1479}} George Smith gives the first verses of the Akkadian ''Genesis'' as found in the Cuneiform Texts on the “Lateres Coctiles.” There, also, we find Anu, the passive deity or En-Soph, ''Bel'', the Creator, the Spirit of God (Sephira) moving on the face of the waters, hence water itself, and ''Hea'' the Universal Soul or wisdom of the three combined. | |||
The first eight verses read thus: | |||
1. When above, were not raised the heavens; | |||
2. and below on the earth a plant had not grown up. | |||
3. The abyss had not broken its boundaries. | |||
4. The chaos (or water) Tiamat (the sea) was the producing mother of the whole of them. (This is the Cosmical Aditi and Sephira.) | |||
5. Those waters at the beginning were ordained but | |||
6. a tree had not grown, a flower had not unfolded. | |||
7. When the gods had not sprung up, any one of them; | |||
8. a plant had not grown, and order did not exist. | |||
This was the chaotic or ante-genesis period. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
|} | |||
{{Page|268|ISIS UNVEILED.}} | |||
{| style="margin: 2em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0;" | |||
|- valign=top | |||
| width=50% | {{Style P-No indent|earth (both yet in their ideal, not their manifested form).}} | |||
Thus, this second triad, only another name for the first one (never pronounced aloud), and which is the real pre-Vedic and primordial ''secret'' Trimurti, consisted of | |||
{| style="margin: 1em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0;" | |||
|- valign=top | |||
| Nara, || Father-Heaven, | |||
|- valign=top | |||
| Nari, || Mother-Earth, | |||
|- valign=top | |||
| Viradj, || the Son—or Universe. | |||
|} | |||
The Trimurti, comprising Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver, and Siva, the Destroyer and Regenerator, belongs to a later period. It is an anthropomorphic afterthought, invented for the more popular comprehension of the uninitiated masses. The ''Dikshita'', the initiate, knew better. Thus, also, the profound allegory under the colors of a ridiculous fable, given in the ''Aytareya Brahmana'',{{Footnote mark|*|fn1480}} which resulted in the representations in some temples of Brahm-Nara, assuming the form of a bull, and his daughter, Aditi-Nari, that of a heifer, contains the same metaphysical idea as the “fall of man,” or that of the Spirit into generation—matter. The All-pervading Divine Spirit embodied under the symbols of Heaven, the Sun, and Heat (fire)—the correlation of cosmic forces—fecundates Matter or Nature, the daughter of Spirit. And Para-Brahma himself has to submit to and bear the penance of the curses of the other gods (Elohim) for such an incest. (See corresponding column.) According to the immutable, and, therefore, fatal law, both Nara and Nari are mutually Father and Mother, as well as Father and Daughter.{{Footnote mark|†|fn1481}} Matter, through infinite transformation, is the gradual product of Spirit. The unification of one Eternal Supreme Cause required such a correlation; and if nature be | |||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1480}} See Haug’s “Aytareya Brahmanam,” of the Rig-Veda. | |||
{{Footnote return|†|fn1481}} The same transformations are found in the cosmogony of every important nation. Thus, we see in the Egyptian mythology, Isis and Osiris, sister and brother, man and wife; and Horus, the Son of both, becoming the husband of his mother, Isis, and producing a son, ''Malouli''. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
| After brooding over the “Deep,” the “Spirit of God” produces its own image in the water, the Universal Womb, symbolized in ''Manu'' by the Golden Egg. In the kabalistic Cosmogony, Heaven and Earth are personified by Adam Kadmon and the second Adam. The first Ineffable Triad, contained in the abstract idea of the “Three Heads,” was a “mystery name.” It was composed of En-Soph, Sephira, and Adam Kadmon, the Protogonos, the latter being identical with the former, when bisexual.{{Footnote mark|*|fn1482}} In every triad there is a male, a female, and an androgyne. Adam-Sephira is the Crown (Keter). It sets itself to the work of creation, by first producing Chochmah, Male Wisdom, a masculine active potency, represented by {{Style S-Hebrew|יה}}, jah, or the Wheels of Creation, {{Style S-Hebrew|אופנים}}, from which proceeds Binah, Intelligence, female and passive potency, which is ''Jehovah'', {{Style S-Hebrew|יהוה}}, whom we find in the ''Bible'' figuring as the Supreme. But this Jehovah is not the kabalistic Jodcheva. The ''binary'' is the fundamental corner-stone of ''Gnosis''. As the binary is the Unity multiplying itself and self-creating, the kabalists show the “Unknown” passive En-Soph, as emanating from himself, Sephira, which, becoming visible light, is said to produce Adam Kadmon. But, in the hidden sense, Sephira and Adam are one and the same light, only latent and active, invisible and visible. The second Adam, as the human tetragram, produces in his turn Eve, out of his side. It is this second triad, with which the kabalists have hitherto dealt, hardly hinting at the Supreme and Ineffable One, and never committing anything to writing. All knowledge concerning the latter was imparted orally. It is the ''second'' Adam, then, who is the unity represented by ''Jod'', emblem of the kabalistic male principle, and, at the same time, he is Chochmah, ''Wisdom'', while ''Binah'' or Jehovah is Eve; the first | |||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1482}} When a female power, she is Sephira; when male, he is Adam Kadmon; for, as the former contains in herself the other nine Sephiroth, so, in their totality, the latter, including Sephira, is embodied in the Archetypal Kadmon, the πρωτογονος. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
|} | |||
{{Page|269|DIAGRAMS CONTINUED.}} | |||
{| style="margin: 2em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0;" | |||
|- valign=top | |||
| width=50% | {{Style P-No indent|the product or effect of that Cause, in its turn it has to be fecundated by the same divine Ray which produced nature itself. The most absurd cosmogonical allegories, if analyzed without prejudice, will be found built on strict and logical necessarianism.}} | |||
“Being was born from not-being,” says a verse in the ''Rig-Veda''.{{Footnote mark|*|fn1483}} The first being had to become androgyne and finite, by the very fact of its creation as a being. And thus even the sacred Trimurti, containing Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva will have an end when the “night” of Para-Brahma succeeds the present “day,” or period of universal activity. | |||
The second, or rather the first, triad—as the highest one is a pure abstraction—is the intellectual world. The Vâch which surrounds it is a more definite transformation of Aditi. Besides its occult significance in the secret Mantrâm, Vâch is personified as the active power of Brahma proceeding from him. In the ''Vedas'' she is made to speak of herself as the supreme and universal soul. “I bore the Father on the head of the universal mind, and ''my origin is in the midst of the ocean''; and therefore do I pervade all beings. . . . Originating all beings, I pass like the breeze (Holy Ghost). I am above this heaven, beyond this earth; and ''what is the Great One that am I''.”{{Footnote mark|†|fn1484}} Literally, Vâch is speech, the power of awakening, through the metrical arrangement contained in the number and syllables of the Mantras,{{Footnote mark|‡|fn1485}} corresponding powers in the invisible world. In the sacrificial Mysteries Vâch stirs up the Brahma (Brahma jinvati), or the power lying latent at the bottom of every magical operation. It existed from eternity as the Yajna (its latent form), lying dormant in Brahma from “no-beginning,” and proceeded forth from him as Vâch (the active power). It is the key to the “Traiv- | |||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1483}} Mandala I., Sukta 166, Max Muller. | |||
{{Footnote return|†|fn1484}} “Asiatic Researches,” vol. viii., pp. 402, 403; Colebrooke’s translation. | |||
{{Footnote return|‡|fn1485}} As in the Pythagorean numerical system every number on earth, or the world of the effects, corresponds to its invisible prototype in the world of causes. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
| {{Style P-No indent|Chochmah issuing from Keter, or the androgyne, Adam Kadmon, and the second, Binah, from Chochmah. If we combine with Jod the three letters which form the name of Eve, we will have the divine tetragram pronounced Ievo-hevah, Adam and Eve, {{Style S-Hebrew|יהוה}}, Jehovah, male and female, or the idealization of humanity embodied in the first man. Thus is it that we can prove that, while the Jewish kabalists, in common with their initiated masters, the Chaldeans and the Hindus, adored the Supreme and Unknown God, in the sacred silence of their sanctuaries, the ignorant masses of every nation were left to adore something which was certainly less than the Eternal Substance of the Buddhists, the so-called Atheists. As Brahma, the deity manifested in the mythical ''Manu'', or the first man (born of Swayambhuva, or the Self-existent), is finite, so Jehovah, embodied in Adam and Eve, is but a ''human'' god. He is the symbol of humanity, a mixture of good with a portion of unavoidable evil; of spirit fallen into matter. In worshipping Jehovah, we simply worship nature, as embodied in man, half-spiritual and half-material, at best: we are Pantheists, when not fetich worshippers, like the idolatrous Jews, who sacrificed on high places, in groves, to the personified male and female principle, ignorant of {{Style S-Small capitals|Iao}}, the Supreme “Secret Name” of the Mysteries.}} | |||
Shekinah is the Hindu Vach, and praised in the same terms as the latter. Though shown in the kabalistic Tree of Life as proceeding from the ninth Sephiroth, yet Shekinah is the “veil” of En-Soph, and the “garment” of Jehovah. The “veil,” for it succeeded for long ages in concealing the real supreme God, the universal Spirit, and masking Jehovah, the exoteric deity, made the Christians accept him as the "father” of the initiated Jesus. Yet the kabalists, as well as the Hindu ''Dikshita'', know the power of the Shekinah or Vâch, and call it the “secret wisdom,” {{Style S-Hebrew|חכמה-נסתרת}}. | |||
The triangle played a prominent part in | |||
|} | |||
{{Page|270|ISIS UNVEILED.}} | |||
{| style="margin: 2em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0;" | |||
|- valign=top | |||
| width=50% | {{Style P-No indent|idyâ,” the thrice sacred science which teaches the Yajus (the sacrificial Mysteries).{{Footnote mark|*|fn1486}}}} | |||
Having done with the unrevealed triad, and the first triad of the Sephiroth, called the “intellectual world,” little remains to be said. In the great geometrical figure which has the double triangle in it, the central circle represents the world within the universe. The double triangle belongs to one of the most important, if it is not in itself the most important, of the mystic figures in India. It is the emblem of the Trimurti three in one. The triangle with its apex upward indicates the male principle, downward the female; the two typifying, at the same time, spirit and matter. This world within the infinite universe is the microcosm within the macrocosm, as in the Jewish ''Kabala''. It is the symbol of the womb of the universe, the terrestrial egg, whose archetype is the golden mundane egg. It is from within this spiritual bosom of mother nature that proceed all the great saviours of the universe—the avatars of the invisible Deity. | |||
“Of him who is and yet is not, from the not-being, Eternal Cause, is born the being Pouroucha,” says Manu, the legislator. Pouroucha is the “divine male,” the ''second'' god, and the avatar, or the Logos of Para-Brahma and his divine son, who in his turn produced Viradj, the son, or the ideal type of the universe. “Viradj begins the work of creation by producing the ten Pradjapati, ‘the lords of all beings.’” | |||
According to the doctrine of Manu, the universe is subjected to a periodical and never-ending succession of creations and dissolutions, which periods of creation are named Manvantara. | |||
“It is the germ (which the Divine Spirit produced from its own substance) which never perishes in the being, for it becomes the soul of Being, and at the period of ''pralaya'' (dissolution) it returns to absorb itself again ''into the Divine'' Spirit, ''which itself'' rests from all eternity | |||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1486}} See initial chap., vol. i., word Yajna. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
| {{Style P-No indent|the religious symbolism of every great nation; for everywhere it represented the three great principles — spirit, force, and matter; or the active (male), passive (female), and the dual or correlative principle which partakes of both and binds the two together. It was the ''Arba'' or mystic “four,”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1487}} the mystery-gods, the Kabeiri, summarized in the unity of one supreme Deity. It is found in the Egyptian pyramids, whose equal sides tower up until lost in one crowning point. In the kabalistic diagram the central circle of the Brahmanical figure is replaced by the cross; the celestial perpendicular and the terrestrial horizontal base line.{{Footnote mark|†|fn1488}} But the idea is the same: Adam Kadmon is the type of humanity as a collective totality within the unity of the creative God and the universal spirit.}} | |||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1487}} Eve is the trinity of nature, and Adam the unity of spirit; the former the created material principle, the latter the ideal organ of the creative principle, or, in other words, this androgyne is both the principle and the Logos, for א is the male, and {{Style S-Hebrew|ב}} the female; and, as Levi expresses it, this first letter of the holy language, Aleph, represents a man pointing with one hand toward the sky, and with the other toward the ground. It is the macrocosm and the microcosm at the same time, and explains the double triangle of the Masons and the five-pointed star. While the male is active the female principle is passive, for it is {{Style S-Small capitals|spirit}} and {{Style S-Small capitals|matter}}, the latter word meaning ''mother'' in nearly every language. The columns of Soloman’s temple, Jachin and Boaz, are the emblems of the androgyne; they are also respectively male and female, white and black, square and round; the male a unity, the female a binary. In the later kabalistic treatises, the active principle is pictured by the sword {{Style S-Hebrew|זכר}}, the passive by the sheath {{Style S-Hebrew|נקבה}}. See “Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie,” vol. i. | |||
{{Footnote return|†|fn1488}} The vertical line being the male principle, and the horizontal the female, out of the union of the two at the intersection point is formed the cross; the oldest symbol in the Egyptian history of gods. It is the key of Heaven in the rosy fingers of Neith, the celestial virgin, who opens the gate at dawn for the exit of her first-begotten, the radiant sun. It is the Stauros of the Gnostics, and the philosophical cross of the high-grade Masons. We find this symbol ornamenting the ''tee'' of the umbrella-shaped oldest pagodas in Thibet, China, and India, as we find it in the hand of Isis, in the shape of the “handled cross.” In one of the Chaitya caves, at Ajunta, it surmounts the three umbrellas in stone, and forms the centre of the vault. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
|} | |||
{{Page|271|DIAGRAMS CONTINUED.}} | |||
{| style="margin: 2em auto; border-spacing: 1em 0;" | |||
|- valign=top | |||
| width=50% | {{Style P-No indent|within Swayambhuva, the ‘Self-Existent’” (''Institute of Manu'', book i.).}} | |||
As we have shown, neither the Svabhavikas, Buddhist philosophers—nor the Brahmans believe in a creation of the universe ''ex nihilo'', but both believe in the ''Prakriti'', the indestructibility of matter. | |||
The evolution of species, and the successive appearance of various new types is very distinctly shown in ''Manu''. | |||
“From earth, heat, and water, are born all creatures, whether animate or inanimate, produced by the germ which the Divine Spirit drew from its own substance. Thus has Brahma established the series of transformations from the plant up to man, and from man up to the primordial essence. . . . Among them each succeeding being (or element) acquires the quality of the preceding; and in as many degrees as each of them is advanced, with so many properties is it said to be endowed” (''Manu'', book i., sloka 20).{{Footnote mark|*|fn1489}} | |||
This, we believe, is the veritable theory of the modern evolutionists. | |||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1489}} “When this world had emerged from obscurity, the subtile elementary principles produced the vegetable germ which at first animated the plants; from the plants, life passed through the fantastic organisms which were born in the ilus (''boue'') of the waters; then through a series of forms and different animals, it at length reached man” (“Manu,” book i.; and “Bhagavatta”). | |||
Manu is a convertible type, which can by no means be explained as a personage. Manu means sometimes humanity, sometimes man. The Manu who emanated from the uncreated Swayambhuva is, without doubt, the type of Adam Kadmon. The Manu who is progenitor of the other six Manus is evidently identical with the Rishis, or seven primeval sages who are the forefathers of the post-diluvian races. He is—as we shall show in Chapter VIII.—Noah, and his six sons, or subsequent generations are the originals of the post-diluvian and mythical patriarchs of the Bible. | Manu is a convertible type, which can by no means be explained as a personage. Manu means sometimes humanity, sometimes man. The Manu who emanated from the uncreated Swayambhuva is, without doubt, the type of Adam Kadmon. The Manu who is progenitor of the other six Manus is evidently identical with the Rishis, or seven primeval sages who are the forefathers of the post-diluvian races. He is—as we shall show in Chapter VIII.—Noah, and his six sons, or subsequent generations are the originals of the post-diluvian and mythical patriarchs of the Bible. | ||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
| “Of him who is formless, the non-existent (also the eternal, but ''not'' First Cause), is born the heavenly man.” But after he created the form of the heavenly man {{Style S-Hebrew|אדםעילאה}}, he “used it as a vehicle wherein to descend,” says the ''Kabala''. Thus Adam Kadmon is the avatar of the concealed power. After that the heavenly Adam creates or engenders by the combined power of the Sephiroth, the earthly Adam. The work of creation is also begun by Sephira in the creation of the ten Sephiroth (who are the Pradjapatis of the ''Kabala'', for they are likewise the Lords of all beings). | |||
The ''Sohar'' asserts the same. According to the kabalistic doctrine there were old worlds (see Idra Suta: ''Sohar'', iii., p. 292b). Everything will return some day to that from which it first proceeded. “All things of which this world consists, spirit as well as body, will return to their principal, and the roots from which they proceeded” (''Sohar'', ii., 218b). The kabalists also maintain the indestructibility of matter, albeit their doctrine is shrouded still more carefully than that of the Hindus. The creation is eternal, and the universe is the “garment,” or “the veil of God”—Shekinah; and the latter is immortal and eternal as Him within whom it has ever existed. Every world is made after the pattern of its predecessor, and each more gross and material than the preceding one. In the ''Kabala'' all were called sparks. Finally, our present grossly materialistic world was formed. | |||
In the Chaldean account of the period which preceded the Genesis of our world, Berosus speaks of a time when there existed nothing but darkness, and an abyss of waters, filled with hideous monsters, “produced of a two-fold principle. . . . These were creatures in which were combined the limbs of every species of animals. In addition to these fishes, reptiles, serpents, with other monstrous animals, which assumed each other’s shape and countenance.”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1490}} | |||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1490}} Cory’s “Ancient Fragments.” | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
|} | |||
272 ISIS UNVEILED. | {{Page|272|ISIS UNVEILED.}} | ||
In the first book of Manu, we read: “Know that the sum of 1,000 divine ages, composes the totality of one day of Brahma; and that one night is equal to that day.” One thousand divine ages is equal to 4,320,000,000 of human years, in the Brahmanical calculations. | In the first book of Manu, we read: “Know that the sum of 1,000 divine ages, composes the totality of one day of Brahma; and that one night is equal to that day.” One thousand divine ages is equal to 4,320,000,000 of human years, in the Brahmanical calculations. | ||
| Line 269: | Line 479: | ||
“From air and light, which begets heat, water is formed, and the water is the womb of all the living germs.” | “From air and light, which begets heat, water is formed, and the water is the womb of all the living germs.” | ||
Throughout the whole immense period of progressive creation, covering 4,320,000,000 years, ether, air, water and fire (heat), are constantly forming matter under the never-ceasing impulse of the Spirit, or the {{Style S-Italic|unrevealed}} God who fills up the whole creation, for he is in all, and all is in him. This computation, which was secret and which is hardly hinted at even now, led Higgins into the error of dividing every ten ages into 6,000 years. Had he added a few more ciphers to his sums he might have come nearer to a correct explanation of the neroses, or secret cycles. | Throughout the whole immense period of progressive creation, covering 4,320,000,000 years, ether, air, water and fire (heat), are constantly forming matter under the never-ceasing impulse of the Spirit, or the {{Style S-Italic|unrevealed}} God who fills up the whole creation, for he is in all, and all is in him. This computation, which was secret and which is hardly hinted at even now, led Higgins into the error of dividing every ten ages into 6,000 years. Had he added a few more ciphers to his sums he might have come nearer to a correct explanation of the neroses, or secret cycles.{{Footnote mark|*|fn1491}} | ||
In the {{Style S-Italic|Sepher Jezireh,}} the kabalistic Book of Creation, the author has evidently repeated the words of Manu. In it, the Divine Substance is represented as having alone existed from the eternity, boundless and absolute; and emitted from itself the Spirit. “One is the Spirit of the living God, blessed be His Name, who liveth for ever! Voice, Spirit, and Word, this is the Holy Spirit;” | In the {{Style S-Italic|Sepher Jezireh,}} the kabalistic Book of Creation, the author has evidently repeated the words of Manu. In it, the Divine Substance is represented as having alone existed from the eternity, boundless and absolute; and emitted from itself the Spirit. “One is the Spirit of the living God, blessed be His Name, who liveth for ever! Voice, Spirit, and Word, this is the Holy Spirit;”{{Footnote mark|†|fn1492}} and this is the kabalistic abstract Trinity, so unceremoniously anthropomorphized by the Fathers. From this triple one emanated the whole Cosmos. First from one emanated number two, or Air, the creative element; and then number three, {{Style S-Italic|Water,}} proceeded from the air; {{Style S-Italic|Ether}} or {{Style S-Italic|Fire}} complete the mystic four, the Arba-il.{{Footnote mark|‡|fn1493}} “When the Concealed of the Concealed wanted to reveal Himself, he first made a point (primordial point, or the first Sephira, air or Holy Ghost), shaped it into a sacred form (the ten Sephiroth, or the Heavenly man), and covered it with a rich and splendid garment, {{Style S-Italic|that is the world.”{{Footnote mark|§|fn1494}}}} “He maketh the wind His messengers, flaming Fire his | ||
{{Footnotes start}} | |||
{{Footnote return|*|fn1491}} See Vol. I., chap. i., pp. 33, 34, of this work. | |||
{{Footnote return|†|fn1492}} “Sepher Jezireh,” chap. i., Mishna ixth. | |||
{{Footnote return|‡|fn1493}} Ibid. | |||
{{Footnote return|§|fn1494}} “Sohar,” i., 2 a. | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | |||
273 THE NIGHT OF BRAHMA. | {{Page|273|THE NIGHT OF BRAHMA.}} | ||
servants,” says the {{Style S-Italic|Jezireh,}} showing the cosmical character of the later euhemerized angels,<sup>[#fn1495 1495]</sup> and that the Spirit permeates every minutest atom of the Cosmos.<sup>[#fn1496 1496]</sup> | servants,” says the {{Style S-Italic|Jezireh,}} showing the cosmical character of the later euhemerized angels,<sup>[#fn1495 1495]</sup> and that the Spirit permeates every minutest atom of the Cosmos.<sup>[#fn1496 1496]</sup> | ||