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{{Style P-No indent|of light that was accorded to each ; and they maintained that the serpent had to be constantly called upon and to be thanked for the signal service it had rendered humanity. For it taught Adam that if he ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would raise his being immensely by the learning and wisdom he would thus acquire. Such was the exoteric reason given.}} | {{Style P-No indent|of light that was accorded to each ; and they maintained that the serpent had to be constantly called upon and to be thanked for the signal service it had rendered humanity. For it taught Adam that if he ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would raise his being immensely by the learning and wisdom he would thus acquire. Such was the exoteric reason given.}} | ||
It is easy to see whence the primal idea of this dual, Janus-like character of the Serpent : the good and the bad. This symbol is one of the most ancient, because the reptile preceded the bird, and the bird the mammal. Thence the belief, or rather the superstition, of the savage tribes who think that the souls of their ancestors live under this form, and the general association of the Serpent with the tree. The legends about the various things it represents are numberless ; but, as most of them are allegorical, they have now passed into the class of fables based on ignorance and dark superstition. For instance, when Philostratus narrates that the natives of India and Arabia fed on the heart and liver of serpents in order to learn the language of all the animals, the serpent being credited with that faculty, he certainly never meant his words to be accepted literally. (See ''De Vitâ Apollonii'', lib. 1, c. xiv.) As will be found more than once as we proceed, the “ Serpent ” and “ Dragon ” were the names given to the “ Wise Ones,” the initiated adepts of olden times. It was their wisdom and their learning that were devoured or assimilated by their followers, whence the allegory. When the Scandinavian Sigurd is fabled to have roasted the heart of Fafnir, the Dragon, whom he had slain, becoming thereby the wisest of men, it meant the same thing. Sigurd had become learned in the runes and magical charms ; he had received the “ word ” from an initiate of that name, or from a sorcerer, after which the latter died, as many do, after “ passing the word.” Epiphanius lets out a secret of the Gnostics while trying to expose their ''heresies. ''The Gnostic Ophites, he says, had a reason for honouring the Serpent : ''it was because he taught the primeval men the Mysteries ''(''Adv. Hæres. ''37). Verily so ; but they did not have Adam and Eve in the garden in their minds when teaching this dogma, but simply that which is stated above. The ''Nâgas ''of the Hindu and Tibetan adepts were human ''Nâgas ''(Serpents), not reptiles. Moreover, the Serpent has ever been the type of consecutive or serial rejuvenation, of Immortality and Time. | It is easy to see whence the primal idea of this dual, Janus-like character of the Serpent : the good and the bad. This symbol is one of the most ancient, because the reptile preceded the bird, and the bird the mammal. Thence the belief, or rather the superstition, of the savage tribes who think that the souls of their ancestors live under this form, and the general association of the Serpent with the tree. The legends about the various things it represents are numberless ; but, as most of them are allegorical, they have now passed into the class of fables based on ignorance and dark superstition. For instance, when Philostratus narrates that the natives of India and Arabia fed on the heart and liver of serpents in order to learn the language of all the animals, the serpent being credited with that faculty, he certainly never meant his words to be accepted literally. (See ''De Vitâ Apollonii'', lib. 1, c. xiv.) As will be found more than once as we proceed, the “ Serpent ” and “ Dragon ” were the names given to the “ Wise Ones,” the initiated adepts of olden times. It was their wisdom and their learning that were devoured or assimilated by their followers, whence the allegory. When the Scandinavian Sigurd is fabled to have roasted the heart of Fafnir, the Dragon, whom he had slain, becoming thereby the wisest of men, it meant the same thing. Sigurd had become learned in the runes and magical charms ; he had received the “ word ” from an initiate of that name, or from a sorcerer, after which the latter died, as many do, after “ passing the word.” Epiphanius lets out a secret of the Gnostics while trying to expose their ''heresies. ''The Gnostic Ophites, he says, had a reason for honouring the Serpent : ''it was because he taught the primeval men the Mysteries ''(''Adv. Hæres. ''37). Verily so ; but they did not have Adam and Eve in the garden in their minds when teaching this dogma, but simply that which is stated above. The ''Nâgas ''of the Hindu and Tibetan adepts were human ''Nâgas ''(Serpents), not reptiles. Moreover, the Serpent has ever been the type of consecutive or serial rejuvenation, of {{Style S-Small capitals|Immortality}} and {{Style S-Small capitals|Time}}. | ||
The numerous and extremely interesting readings, the interpretations and facts about Serpent worship, given in “ The Natural Genesis,” are very ingenious and scientifically correct. But they are far from covering the ''whole ''of the meanings implied. They divulge only the astronomical and physiological mysteries, with the addition of some cosmic phenomena. On the lowest plane of materiality the Serpent was, no doubt, | The numerous and extremely interesting readings, the interpretations and facts about Serpent worship, given in “ The Natural Genesis,” are very ingenious and scientifically correct. But they are far from covering the ''whole ''of the meanings implied. They divulge only the astronomical and physiological mysteries, with the addition of some cosmic phenomena. On the lowest plane of materiality the Serpent was, no doubt, | ||
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{{Page|407|the seven-headed dragons.}} | {{Page|407|the seven-headed dragons.}} | ||
{{Style P-No indent|Eternity — the heaven-born Logos — was finally degraded. In days of old — of the ''divine Dynasties ''on Earth — the now dreaded Reptile was regarded as the first beam of light that radiated from the abyss of divine Mystery. Various were the forms which it was made to assume, and numerous the natural symbols adapted to it, as it crossed æons of Time : as from Infinite Time itself — ''Kala'' — it fell into the space and time evolved out of human speculation. These forms were Cosmic and astronomical, theistic and pantheistic, abstract and concrete. They became in turn the Polar Dragon and the Southern Cross, the ''Alpha Draconis ''of the Pyramid, and the Hindu-Buddhist Dragon, which ever threatens, yet never swallows the Sun during its eclipses. Till then, the Tree remained ever green, for it was sprinkled by the waters of life ; the great Dragon, ever divine, so long as it was kept within the precincts of the sidereal fields. But the tree grew and its lower boughs touched at last the infernal regions — our Earth. Then the great serpent Nidhögg — he who devours the corpses of the evil-doers in the “ Hall of Misery ” (human life), so soon as they are plunged into “ Hwergelmir,” the roaring cauldron (of human passions) — gnawed the World-tree. The worms of materiality covered the once healthy and mighty roots, and are now ascending higher and higher along the trunk ; while the Midgard-snake coiled at the bottom of the Seas, encircles the Earth, and, through its venomous breath, makes her powerless to defend herself.}} | {{Style P-No indent|Eternity — the heaven-born {{Style S-Small capitals|Logos}} — was finally degraded. In days of old — of the ''divine Dynasties ''on Earth — the now dreaded Reptile was regarded as the first beam of light that radiated from the abyss of divine Mystery. Various were the forms which it was made to assume, and numerous the natural symbols adapted to it, as it crossed æons of Time : as from Infinite Time itself — ''Kala'' — it fell into the space and time evolved out of human speculation. These forms were Cosmic and astronomical, theistic and pantheistic, abstract and concrete. They became in turn the Polar Dragon and the Southern Cross, the ''Alpha Draconis ''of the Pyramid, and the Hindu-Buddhist Dragon, which ever threatens, yet never swallows the Sun during its eclipses. Till then, the Tree remained ever green, for it was sprinkled by the waters of life ; the great Dragon, ever divine, so long as it was kept within the precincts of the sidereal fields. But the tree grew and its lower boughs touched at last the infernal regions — our Earth. Then the great serpent Nidhögg — he who devours the corpses of the evil-doers in the “ Hall of Misery ” (human life), so soon as they are plunged into “ Hwergelmir,” the roaring cauldron (of human passions) — gnawed the World-tree. The worms of materiality covered the once healthy and mighty roots, and are now ascending higher and higher along the trunk ; while the Midgard-snake coiled at the bottom of the Seas, encircles the Earth, and, through its venomous breath, makes her powerless to defend herself.}} | ||
They are all seven-headed, the dragons and serpents of antiquity — “ one head for each race, and every head with seven hairs on it,” as the allegory has it. Aye, from Ananta, the Serpent of Eternity which carries Vishnu through the Manvantara, from the original primordial Sesha, whose seven heads become “ one thousand heads ” in the Purânic fancy, down to the seven-headed Akkadian Serpent. This typifies the Seven principles throughout nature and man ; the highest or ''middle ''head being the seventh. It is not of the Mosaic, Jewish Sabbath that Philo speaks in his ''Creation of the World'', when saying that the world was completed “ according to the perfect nature of number 6.” For, “ ''when that reason ( nous ) which is holy in accordance with the number seven'', ''has entered the soul ''(rather the living body), the number six is thus arrested, and all the mortal things which that number makes.” And again : “ Number 7 is the festival day of all the earth, the ''birthday of the world. ''I know not whether any one would be able to celebrate the number 7 in adequate terms.” . . . (Par. pp. 30 and 419). The author of ''The Natural Genesis ''thinks that “ the Septenary of Stars seen in the great bear (the ''Septarshis'') and seven-headed Dragon furnished a visible origin for the symbolic seven of time above. The goddess of the seven stars,” he adds — | They are all seven-headed, the dragons and serpents of antiquity — “ one head for each race, and every head with seven hairs on it,” as the allegory has it. Aye, from Ananta, the Serpent of Eternity which carries Vishnu through the Manvantara, from the original primordial Sesha, whose seven heads become “ one thousand heads ” in the Purânic fancy, down to the seven-headed Akkadian Serpent. This typifies the Seven principles throughout nature and man ; the highest or ''middle ''head being the seventh. It is not of the Mosaic, Jewish Sabbath that Philo speaks in his ''Creation of the World'', when saying that the world was completed “ according to the perfect nature of number 6.” For, “ ''when that reason ( nous ) which is holy in accordance with the number seven'', ''has entered the soul ''(rather the living body), the number six is thus arrested, and all the mortal things which that number makes.” And again : “ Number 7 is the festival day of all the earth, the ''birthday of the world. ''I know not whether any one would be able to celebrate the number 7 in adequate terms.” . . . (Par. pp. 30 and 419). The author of ''The Natural Genesis ''thinks that “ the Septenary of Stars seen in the great bear (the ''Septarshis'') and seven-headed Dragon furnished a visible origin for the symbolic seven of time above. The goddess of the seven stars,” he adds — | ||
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{{Page|411|the mystery of the seven thunders.}} | {{Page|411|the mystery of the seven thunders.}} | ||
{{Style P-No indent|these seven vowels,” but “ Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not,” says Revelation. “ Do ye seek after these mysteries ? ” inquiries Jesus in ''Pistis Sophia. ''“ No mystery is more excellent than they (the seven vowels) : for they shall bring your souls unto the Light of Lights ” — ''i.e.'', true Wisdom. “ Nothing, therefore, is more excellent than the mysteries which ye seek after, saving only ''the mystery of the Seven Vowels and their ''Forty and nine ''Powers'', and the numbers thereof.”}} | {{Style P-No indent|these seven vowels,” but “ Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not,” says Revelation. “ Do ye seek after these mysteries ? ” inquiries Jesus in ''Pistis Sophia. ''“ No mystery is more excellent than they (the seven vowels) : for they shall bring your souls unto the Light of Lights ” — ''i.e.'', true Wisdom. “ Nothing, therefore, is more excellent than the mysteries which ye seek after, saving only ''the mystery of the Seven Vowels and their'' {{Style S-Small capitals|Forty and nine}} ''Powers'', and the numbers thereof.”}} | ||
In India, it was ''the mystery of the Seven ''Fires and their forty-nine fires or aspects, or “ the members thereof,” just the same. | In India, it was ''the mystery of the Seven'' {{Style S-Small capitals|Fires}} and their forty-nine fires or aspects, or “ the members thereof,” just the same. | ||
These seven vowels are represented by the Swastika signs on the crowns of the seven heads of the Serpent of Eternity, in India, among esoteric Buddhists, in Egypt, in Chaldea, etc. etc., and among the Initiates of every other country. It is on the Seven zones of ''post mortem ''ascent, in the Hermetic writings, that the “ mortal ” leaves, on each, one of his “ Souls ” (or Principles) ; until arrived on the plane above all zones he remains as the great Formless Serpent of absolute wisdom — or the Deity itself. The seven-headed serpent has more than one signification in the Arcane teachings. It is the seven-headed ''Draco'', each of whose heads is a star of the Lesser Bear ; but it was also, and pre-eminently, the Serpent of Darkness (''i.e.'', inconceivable and incomprehensible) whose seven heads were the seven ''Logoi'', the reflections of the one and first manifested Light — the universal {{Style S-Small capitals|Logos}}. | These seven vowels are represented by the Swastika signs on the crowns of the seven heads of the Serpent of Eternity, in India, among esoteric Buddhists, in Egypt, in Chaldea, etc. etc., and among the Initiates of every other country. It is on the Seven zones of ''post mortem ''ascent, in the Hermetic writings, that the “ mortal ” leaves, on each, one of his “ Souls ” (or Principles) ; until arrived on the plane above all zones he remains as the great Formless Serpent of absolute wisdom — or the Deity itself. The seven-headed serpent has more than one signification in the Arcane teachings. It is the seven-headed ''Draco'', each of whose heads is a star of the Lesser Bear ; but it was also, and pre-eminently, the Serpent of Darkness (''i.e.'', inconceivable and incomprehensible) whose seven heads were the seven ''Logoi'', the reflections of the one and first manifested Light — the universal {{Style S-Small capitals|Logos}}. | ||