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We may now examine other ancient Scriptures and see whether they contain the septenary classification, and, if so, to what degree.
As much, if not much more, even than in the Jewish Bible, scattered about in the thousands of Sanskrit texts, some still unopened, others yet unknown, as well as in all the Purânas, the numbers seven and forty-nine (7 × 7) play a most prominent part. They are found from the Seven creations in Chapter I., down to the seven rays of the Sun at the final Pralaya, which expand into Seven Suns and absorb the material of the whole Universe. Thus the Matsya Purâna has : “ For the sake of promulgating the Vedas, Vishnu, in the beginning of a Kalpa, related to Manu the story of Narasimha and the events of seven Kalpas.” Then again the same Purâna shows that “ in all the Manvantaras, classes of Rishis * appear by seven and seven, and having established a code of law and morality depart to felicity ” — the Rishis representing many other things besides living Sages.
In Hymn xix., 53, of Atharva Veda (Dr. Muir’s translation) one reads : —
* “ These are the seven persons by whom in the several Manvantaras ” — says Parasâra — “ created beings have been protected. Because the whole world has been pervaded by the energy of the deity, he is entitled Vishnu, from the root Vis ‘ to enter ’ or ‘ pervade,’ for all the gods, the Manus, the Seven Rishis, the Sons of the Manu, the Indras, all are but the impersonated potencies ( Vibhutayah ) of Vishnu ” (Vish. Purâna). Vishnu is the Universe ; and the Universe itself is divided in the Rig Veda into seven regions — which ought to be sufficient authority, for the Brahmins, at all events.
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“ 1. Time carries (us) forward, a steed, with seven rays, a thousand eyes, undecaying, full of fecundity. On him intelligent sages mount ; his wheels are all the worlds.”
“ 2. Thus Time moves on seven wheels ; he has seven naves ; immortality is his axle. He is at present all these worlds. Time hastens onward the first God.”
“ 3. A full jar is contained in Time. We behold him existing in many forms. He is all these worlds in the future. They call him ‘ Time in the highest Heaven ’ ” . . . .
Now add to this the following verse from the Esoteric volumes : —
“ Space and Time are one. Space and Time are nameless, for they are the incognizable That, which can be sensed only through its seven rays — which are the Seven Creations, the Seven Worlds, the Seven Laws,” etc., etc., etc. . . .
Remembering that the Purânas insist on the identity of Vishnu with Time and Space ; * and that even the Rabbinical symbol for God is Maqom, “ Space,” it becomes clear why, for purposes of a manifesting Deity — Space, Matter, and Spirit — the one central point became the Triangle and Quaternary (the perfect Cube), hence Seven. Even the Pravaha wind (the mystic and occult Force that gives the impulse to, and regulates the course of the stars and planets) is septenary. The Kurma and Linga Purânas enumerate seven principal winds of that name, which winds are the principles of Cosmic Space. They are intimately connected with Dhruva † (now Alpha), the Pole-Star, which is connected in its turn with the production of various phenomena through cosmic forces.
Thus, from the Seven Creations, seven Rishis, Zones, Continents, Principles, etc., etc. in the Aryan Scriptures, the number has passed through Indian, Egyptian, Chaldaic, Greek, Jewish, Roman, and finally Christian mystic thought, until it landed in and remained impressed indelibly on every exoteric theology. The seven old books stolen out of Noah’s ark by Ham, and given to Cush, his son, and the seven Brazen columns of Ham and Cheiron, are a reflection and a remem-
* Vishnu is all — the worlds, the stars, the seas, etc., etc. “ Vishnu is all that is, all that is not but is not Vastubhûta,” “ a substance ” (Vishnu Purâna, Book II. ch. xii). “ That which people call the highest God is not a substance but the cause of it ; not one that is here, there, or elsewhere, not what we see, but that in which all is — space.”
† Therefore it is said in the Purânas that the view of Dhruva (the polar star) at night, and of the celestial porpoise (Sisumâra, a constellation) “ expiates whatever sin has been committed during the day.” The fact is that the rays of the four stars in the circle of perpetual apparition — the Agni, Mahendra, Kasyapa, and Dhruva, placed in the tail of Ursa Minor (Sisumâra) — focussed in a certain way and on a certain object produce extraordinary results. The astro-magians of India will understand what is meant.
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brance of the Seven primordial mysteries instituted according to the “ Seven secret emanations,” the “ Seven Sounds,” and seven rays — the spiritual and sidereal models of the seven thousand times seven copies of them in later æons.
The mysterious number is once more prominent in the no less mysterious Maruts. The Vayu Purâna shows, and Harivansa corroborates, that the Maruts — the oldest as the most incomprehensible of all the secondary or lower gods in the Rig Veda — “ are born in every manvantara (Round) seven times seven (or 49) ; that in each Manvantara, four times seven (or twenty-eight) they obtain emancipation, but their places are filled up by persons reborn in that character.” What are the Maruts in their esoteric meaning, and who those persons “ reborn in that character ” ? In the Rig and other Vedas, the Maruts are represented as the storm gods and the friends and allies of Indra ; they are the “ Sons of heaven and of earth.” This led to an allegory that makes them the children of Siva, the great patron of the Yogis, “ the Maha-Yogi, the great ascetic, in whom is centred the highest perfection of austere penance and abstract meditation, by which the most unlimited powers are obtained, marvels and miracles are worked, the highest spiritual knowledge is acquired, and union with the great spirit of the universe is eventually gained.” In the Rig Veda the name Siva is unknown, but the god is called Rudra, which is a word used for Agni, the fire god, the Maruts being called therein his sons. In the Ramayana and the Purânas, their mother, Diti — the sister, or complement of, and a form of Aditi — anxious to obtain a son who would destroy Indra, is told by Kasyapa the Sage, that “ if, with thoughts wholly pious and person entirely pure, she carrys the babe in her womb for a hundred years ” she will get such a son. But Indra foils her in the design. With his thunderbolt he divides the embryo in her womb into seven portions, and then divides every such portion into seven pieces again, which become the swift-moving deities, the Maruts. * These deities are only another aspect, or a development of the Kumâras, who are Rudras in their patronymic, like many others. †
Diti, being Aditi, unless the contrary is proven to us, Aditi, we say, or Akâsa in her highest form, is the Egyptian seven-fold heaven. Every true Occultist will understand what this means. Diti, we repeat, is the sixth
* In the Ramayana it is Bala-Rama, Krishna’s elder brother, who does it.
† With regard to the origin of Rudra, it is stated in several Purânas that his (spiritual) progeny, created in him by Brahmâ, was not confined to either the seven Kumâras or the eleven Rudras, etc., but “ comprehends infinite numbers of beings in person and equipments like their (virgin) father. Alarmed at their fierceness, numbers, and immortality, Brahmâ desires his son Rudra to form creatures of a different and mortal nature.” Rudra refusing to create, desists, etc., hence Rudra is the first rebel. (Linga, Vayu, Matsya, and other Purânas.)
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principle of metaphysical nature, the Buddhi of Akâsa. Diti, the mother of the Maruts, is one of her terrestrial forms, made to represent, at one and the same time, the divine Soul in the ascetic, and the divine aspirations of mystic Humanity toward deliverance from the webs of Maya, and final bliss in consequence. Indra, now degraded, because of the Kali Yuga, when such aspirations are no more general but have become abnormal through a general spread of Ahamkara (the feeling of Egotism, Self, or I-am-ness) and ignorance — was, in the beginning, one of the greatest gods of the Hindu Pantheon, as the Rig Veda shows. Sura-dhipa, “ the chief of the gods,” has fallen down from Jishnu, “ the leader of the celestial host,” — the Hindu St. Michael — to an opponent of asceticism, the enemy of every holy aspiration. He is shown married to Aindrî (Indrani), the personification of Aindri-yaka, the evolution of the element of senses, whom he married “ because of her voluptuous attractions ” ; after which he began sending celestial female demons to excite the passions of holy men, Yogis, and “ to beguile them from the potent penances which he dreaded.” Therefore, Indra, now characterized as “ the god of the firmament, the personified atmosphere ” — is in reality the cosmic principle Mahat, and the fifth human — Manas in its dual aspect : as connected with Buddhi ; and as allowing himself to be dragged down by his Kama-principle (the body of passions and desires). This is demonstrated by Brahmâ telling the conquered god that his frequent defeats were due to Karma, and were a punishment for his licentiousness, and the seduction of various nymphs. It is in this latter character that he seeks, to save himself from destruction, to destroy the coming “ babe ” destined to conquer him : — the babe, of course, allegorizing the divine and steady will of the Yogi — determined to resist all such temptations, and thus destroy the passions within his earthly personality. Indra succeeds again, because flesh conquers spirit — (Diti is shown frustrated in the Dvâpara Yug, during that period when the Fourth Race was flourishing). He divides the “ Embryo ” (of new divine adeptship, begotten once more by the Ascetics of the Aryan Fifth Race), into seven portions — a reference not alone to the seven sub-races of the new Root-Race, in each of which there will be a “ Manu,” * but also to the seven degrees of adeptship — and then each
* Notwithstanding the terrible, and evidently purposed, confusion of Manus, Rishis, and their progeny in the Purânas, one thing is made clear : there have been and there will be seven Rishis in every Root-Race (called also Manvantara in the sacred books) as there are fourteen Manus in every Round, the “ presiding gods, the Rishis and Sons of the Manus ” being identical. (See Book III. ch. 1 of Vishnu Purâna.) “ Six ” Manvantaras are given, the Seventh being our own in the Vishnu Purâna. The Vayu Purâna furnishes the nomenclature of the Sons of the fourteen Manus in every Manvantara, and the Sons of the seven Sages or Rishis. The latter are the progeny
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portion into seven pieces — alluding to the Manu-Rishis of each Root-Race, and even sub-race.
It does not seem difficult to perceive what is meant by the Maruts obtaining “ four times seven ” emancipations in every “ manvantara,” and by those persons who, being reborn in that character (of the Maruts in their esoteric meaning), “ fill up their places.” The Maruts represent (a) the passions that storm and rage within every candidate’s breast, when preparing for an ascetic life — this mystically ; (b) the occult potencies concealed in the manifold aspects of Akâsa’s lower principles — her body, or sthula sarira, representing the terrestrial, lower, atmosphere of every inhabited globe — this mystically and sidereally ; (c) actual conscious Existences, Beings of a cosmic and psychic nature.
At the same time “ Maruts ” is, in occult parlance, one of the names given to those egos of great Adepts who have passed away, and who are known also as Nirmanakayas ; of those Egos for whom — since they are beyond illusion — there is no Devachan, and who, having either voluntarily renounced it for the good of mankind, or not yet reached Nirvana, remain invisible on earth. Therefore are the Maruts * shown firstly — as the sons of Siva-Rudra — the “ Patron Yogi,” whose “ third eye,” mystically, must be acquired by the ascetic before he becomes an adept ; then, in their cosmic character, as the subordinates of Indra and his opponents — variously. The “ four times seven ” emancipations have a reference to the four Rounds, and the four Races that preceded ours, in each of which Marut-Jivas (monads) have been re-born, and have obtained final liberation, if they have only availed themselves of it. Instead of which, preferring the good of mankind, which would struggle still more hopelessly in the meshes of ignorance and misery, were it not for this extraneous help — they are re-born over and over again “ in that character,” and thus “ fill up their own places.” Who they are, “ on earth ” — every student of Occult science knows. And he also knows that the Maruts are Rudras, among whom also the family of Twashtri, a synonym of Visvakarman — the great patron of the Initiates — is included. This gives us an ample knowledge of their true nature.
of the Progenitors of mankind. All the Purânas speak of the seven Prajâpatis of this period (Round).
* “ Chakshuba was the Manu of the sixth period (Third Round and Third Race), in which Indra was Manojava ” (Mantradruma in the Bhagavata Purâna). As there is a perfect analogy between the “ great Round ” (Mahakalpa), each of the seven Rounds, and each of the seven great Races in every one of the Rounds — therefore, Indra of the sixth period, or Third Round, corresponds to the close of the Third Race (at the time of the Fall or the separation of sexes). Rudra, as the father of the Maruts, has many points of contact with Indra, the Marutwân, or “ lord of the Maruts.” To receive a name Rudra is said to have wept for it. Brahmâ called him Rudra ; but he wept seven times more and so obtained seven other names — of which he uses one during each “ period.”
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The same for the Septenary Division of Kosmos and human principles. The Purânas, along with other sacred texts, teem with allusions to this. First of all, the mundane Egg which contained Brahmâ, or the Universe, “ was externally invested with seven natural elements, at first loosely enumerated as Water, Air, Fire, Ether, and three secret elements ” (Book I.) ; then the “ World ” is said to be “ encompassed on every side ” by seven elements, also within the egg — as explained, “ the universe is encompassed on every side, above and below by the Andakat’áha — the shell of the egg of Brahmâ.” . . . Around the shell flows water, which is surrounded with fire ; fire by air ; air by ether ; ether by the origin of the elements (Ahamkara) ; the latter by Universal Mind (“ Intellect ” in the Texts) (Book II., ch. VII. Vishnu Purâna). It relates to spheres of being as much as to principles. Prithivi is not our Earth, but the World, the Solar system, and means the broad, the Wide. In the Vedas — the greatest of all authorities, though needing the key to read it correctly — three terrestrial and three celestial earths are mentioned as having been called into existence simultaneously with Bhûmi — our earth. We have often been told that six, not seven, appears to be the number of spheres, principles, etc. We answer that there are, in fact, only six principles in man ; since his body is no principle, but the covering, the shell thereof. So with the planetary chain ; speaking of which, esoterically, the Earth (as well as the seventh, or rather fourth plane, one that stands as the seventh if we count from the first triple kingdom of the Elementals that begin the formation) may be left out of consideration, being (to us) the only distinct body of the seven. The language of occultism is varied. But supposing that three earths only, instead of seven, are meant in the Vedas, what are those three, since we still know of but one ? Evidently there must be an occult meaning in the statement under consideration. Let us see. The “ Earth that floats ” on the Universal Ocean (of Space), which Brahmâ divides in the Purânas into seven zones, is Prithivi, the world divided into seven principles ; a cosmic division looking metaphysical enough, but, in reality, physical in its occult effects. Many Kalpas later, our Earth is mentioned, and, in its turn, is divided into seven zones * on that same law of analogy that guided ancient philosophers. After which one finds on it seven continents, seven isles, seven oceans, seven seas and rivers, seven mountains, and seven climates, etc., etc., etc. †
* See the Purânas.
† In Vishnu Purâna, Book II., chap. iv., it is stated that the Earth, “ with its continents, mountains, oceans, and exterior shell, is fifty crores (500 millions) of yojanas in extent,” to which the commentator remarks that “ this comprises the planetary spheres ; for the diameter of the seven zones and oceans — each ocean being of the same diameter as the continent it encloses, and each successive continent being twice the
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Furthermore, it is not only in the Hindu Scriptures and philosophy that one finds references to the Seven Earths, but in the Persian, Phœnician, Chaldean, and Egyptian Cosmogonies, and even in Rabbinical literature. The Phœnix * — called by the Hebrews Onech ענֶק (from Phenoch, Enoch, symbol of a secret cycle and initiation), and by the Turks, Kerkes — lives a thousand years, after which, kindling a flame, it is self-consumed ; and then, reborn from itself — it lives another thousand years, up to seven times seven : (See “ Book of Ali ” — Russian transl.), when comes the day of Judgment. The “ seven times seven,” 49, are a transparent allegory, and an allusion to the forty-nine “ Manus,” the Seven Rounds, and the seven times seven human cycles in each Round on each globe. The Kerkes and the Onech stand for a race cycle, and the mystical tree Ababel — the “ Father Tree ” in the Kûran — shoots out new branches and vegetation at every resurrection of the Kerkes or Phœnix ; the “ Day of Judgment ” meaning a “ minor Pralaya ” (See “ Esoteric Buddhism ”). The author of the “ Book of God ” and the “ Apocalypse ” believes that “ the Phœnix is very plainly the same as the Simorgh, the Persian roc, and the account which is given us of this last bird, yet more decisively establishes the opinion that the death and revival of the Phœnix exhibit the successive destruction and reproduction of the world, which many believed to be effected by the agency of a fiery deluge ” — (p. 175) ; and a watery one in turn. “ When the Simorgh was asked her age, she informed Caherman that this world is very ancient, for it has been already seven times replenished with beings different from men, and seven times depopulated ; † that the age of the human race, in which we now are, is to endure seven thousand numbers, and that she herself had seen twelve of these revolutions, and knew not how many more she had to see.” (Oriental Collections, ii., 119.)
The above, however, is no new statement. From Bailly, in the last century, down to Dr. Kenealy, in this one, these facts have been noticed by several writers, but now a connection can be established between
diameter of that which precedes it — amounts to but two crores or fifty-four lakhs etc. . . . Whenever any contradictions in different Purânas occur, they have to be ascribed . . . to differences of Kalpas and the like.” “ The like ” ought to read “ Occult meaning,” which explanation is withheld by the commentator, who wrote for exoteric, sectarian purposes, and was misunderstood by the translator for various other reasons, the least of which is — ignorance of the esoteric philosophy.
* The Phœnix, connected with the Solar Cycle of 600 years (with ciphers taken out or with more added according to which cycle is meant), the Western cycle of the Greeks and other nations — is a generic symbol for several kinds of cycles. Fuller details will be given in the section on “ Kalpas and Cycles.”
† The tense is the “ past ” because the book is allegorical, and has to veil the truths contained.
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the Persian oracle and the Nazarene prophet. Says the author of the “ Book of God ” : —
“ The Simorgh is in reality the same as the winged Singh of the Hindus, and the Sphinx of the Egyptians. It is said that the former will appear at the end of the world . . . . as a monstrous lion-bird. From these the Rabbins have borrowed their mythos of an enormous Bird, sometimes standing on the Earth, sometimes walking in the ocean . . . while its head props the sky ; and with the symbol, they have also adopted the doctrine to which it relates. They teach that there are to be seven successive renewals of the globe, that each reproduced system will last seven thousand years ; (?) and that the total duration of the universe will be 49,000 years. This opinion, which involves the doctrine of the pre-existence of each renewed creature, they may either have learned during their Babylonian captivity, or it may have been part of the primeval religion which their priests had preserved from remote times ” (p. 176). It shows rather that the initiated Jews borrowed, and their non-initiated successors, the Talmudists, lost the sense, and applied the Seven Rounds, and the forty-nine races, etc., to the wrong end.
Not only “ their priests,” but those of every other country. The Gnostics, whose various teachings are the many echoes of the one primitive and universal doctrine, put the same numbers, under another form, in the mouth of Jesus in the very occult Pistis Sophia. We say more : even the Christian editor or author of Revelation has preserved this tradition and speaks of the Seven Races, four of which, with part of the fifth, are gone, and two have to come. It is stated as plainly as could be stated in chapter xvii., verses 9 and 10. Thus saith the angel : “ And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven Kings, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come . . . .” Who, acquainted in the least with the symbolical language of old, will fail to discern in the five Kings that have fallen, the four Root-Races that were, and part of the fifth, the one that is ; and in the other, that “ is not yet come,” the sixth and seventh coming root races, as also the sub-races of this, our present race ? Another still more forcible allusion to the Seven Rounds and the forty-nine root-races in Leviticus, will be found elsewhere in the Addenda, Part III.