The early Gnostics claimed that their Science, the Gnosis, rested on a
square, the angles of which represented respectively Sigê (Silence),
Bythos (Depth), Nous (Spiritual Soul or Mind), and Aletheia (Truth).
It is they who were the first to reveal to the world that which had
remained concealed for ages; namely, the Tau, in the shape of a
Procrustean bed, and Christos as incarnating in Chrestos, he who became
for certain purposes a willing candidate for a series of tortures, mental
and physical.
For them the whole of the Universe, metaphysical and material, was
contained within, and could be expressed and described by the digits
contained in the number 10, the Pythagorean Decad.
This Decad, representing the Universe and its evolution out of Silence and
the Unknown Depths of the Spiritual Soul, or Anima Mundi, presented two
sides or aspects to the student. It could be, and was at first, applied to
the Macrocosm, after which it descended to the Microcosm, or man. There
was, then, the purely intellectual and metaphysical, or the “Inner
Science,” and the as purely materialistic or “surface science,” both of
which could be expounded by and contained in the Decad. It could be
studied, in short, both by the deductive method of Plato, and the
inductive method of Aristotle. The former started from a divine
comprehension, when the plurality proceeded from unity, or the digits of
the Decad appeared, only to be finally reäbsorbed, lost in the infinite
Circle. The latter depended on sensuous perception alone, when the Decad
could be regarded either as the unity that multiplies, or matter which
differentiates; its study being limited to the plane surface, to the
cross, or the _seven_ which proceeds from the _ten_, or the perfect
number, on Earth as in Heaven.
This dual system was brought, together with the Decad, by Pythagoras from
India. That it was that of the Brachmans and Iranians, as they are called
by the ancient Greek Philosophers, is warranted to us by the whole range
of Sanskrit literature, such as the _Purânas_ and the _Laws of Manu_. In
these Laws or Ordinances of Manu, it is said that Brahmâ first creates the
“_ten_ Lords of Being,” the ten Prajâpati or Creative Forces; which ten
produce _seven_ other Manus, or, rather, as some MSS. have it, Munîn
(instead of Manûn) “devotees,” or holy beings, which are the seven Angels
of the Presence in the Western religion. This mysterious number seven,
born from the upper Triangle △, the latter itself born from the apex
thereof, or the Silent Depths of the Unknown Universal Soul (Sigê and
Bythos), is the sevenfold Saptaparna plant, born and manifested on the
surface of the soil of mystery, from the threefold root buried deep under
that impenetrable soil. This idea is fully elaborated in one of the
Sections of Volume I, Part II, Section III, “Primordial Substance and
Divine Thought,” which the reader should notice carefully, if he would
grasp the metaphysical idea involved in the above symbol. In man as in
nature, according to the Cis‐Himâlayan Esoteric Philosophy, which is that
of the Cosmogony of the _original_ Manu, it is the septenary division that
is intended by Nature herself. The seventh principle (Purusha) alone is
the Divine Self, strictly speaking; for, as said in Manu, “he [Brahmâ]
having pervaded the subtile parts of those six, of unmeasured
brightness,”(1361) created or called them forth to “Self”‐consciousness or
the consciousness of that One Self. Of these six, five elements (or
principles, or Tattvas, as Medhâtithi, the commentator thinks) “are called
the atomic destructible elements”;(1362) these are described in the above‐
named Section.(1363)
We have now to speak of the mystery language, that of the prehistoric
races. It is not a phonetic, but a purely pictorial and symbolical tongue.
It is known at present in its fulness to the very few, having become with
the masses for more than 5,000 years an absolutely dead language. Yet most
of the learned Gnostics, Greeks and Jews, knew it, and used it, though
very differently. A few instances may be given.
On the plane above, the number is no number but a _nought_—a _circle_. On
the plane below, it becomes _one_—which is an odd number. Each letter of
the ancient alphabets had its philosophical meaning and _raison d’être_.
The number _one_ (1) signified with the Alexandrian Initiates a _body
erect_, a living standing man, he being the only animal that has this
privilege. And, by adding to the “I” a head, it was transformed into a
“P,” a symbol of _paternity_, of the creative potency; while “R” signified
a “moving man,” one on his way. Hence Pater Zeus had nothing sexual or
phallic either in its sound or the form of its letters; nor had Πατὴρ Δεὺς
(according to Ragon).(1364) If we turn now to the Hebrew alphabet, we
shall find that while _one_ or Aleph (א) has a bull or an ox for its
symbol, _ten_, the perfect number, or _one_ of the _Kabalah_, is a Yod (י,
_y_, _i_, or _j_), and means, as the first letter of Jehovah, the
procreative organ, and the rest.
The _odd_ numbers are divine, the _even_ numbers are terrestrial,
devilish, and unlucky. The Pythagoreans hated the Binary. With them it was
the origin of differentiation, hence of contrasts, discord, or matter, the
beginning of evil. In the Valentinian Theogony, Bythos and Sigê (Depth,
Chaos, Matter born in Silence) are the primordial Binary. With the early
Pythagoreans, however, the Duad was that imperfect state into which the
first manifested being fell when it got detached from the Monad. It was
the point from which the two roads—the good and the evil—bifurcated. All
that which was double‐faced or false was called by them “binary.” One was
alone good and harmony, because no disharmony can proceed from One alone.
Hence the Latin word Solus in relation to the One and Only God, the
Unknown of Paul. Solus, however, very soon became Sol—the Sun.
The Ternary is the first of the odd numbers, as the triangle is the first
of the geometrical figures.(1365) This number is truly the number of
mystery _par excellence_. To study it on the exoteric lines one has to
read Ragon’s _Cours Philosophique et Interprétatif des Initiations_, on
the Esoteric—the Hindû symbolism of numerals; for the combinations which
were applied to it are numberless. It is on the Occult properties of the
three equal sides of the triangle that Ragon based his studies and founded
the famous Masonic Society of the Trinosophists—those who study _three_
sciences; an improvement upon the ordinary three Masonic degrees, given to
those who study nothing except eating and drinking at the meetings of
their Lodges. As the founder writes:
The first line of the triangle offered to the apprentice for study
is the _mineral kingdom_, symbolized by Tubalc [Symbol: Three dots
in a triangle] [Tubal‐Cain].
The second side on which the companion has to meditate, is the
_vegetable kingdom_, symbolized by Schibb [Symbol: Three dots in a
triangle] [Schibboleth]. In this kingdom begins the _generation of
the bodies_. This is why the letter G is presented radiant before
the eyes of the adept [?!].
The third side is left to the master mason, who has to complete
his education by the study of the _animal kingdom_. It is
symbolized by Maoben [Symbol: Three dots in a triangle] (son of
putrefaction).(1366)
The first solid figure is the Quaternary, the symbol of immortality. It is
the Pyramid, for the Pyramid stands on a triangular base, and terminates
with a point at the top, thus yielding the Triad and the Quaternary or the
3 and 4.
The Pythagoreans taught the connection and relation between the Gods and
the numbers, in a science called Arithmomancy. The Soul is a number, they
said, which moves of itself and contains the number 4; and spiritual and
physical man is number 3, as the Ternary represented for them not only the
surface but also the principle of the formation of the physical body. Thus
animals were Ternaries only, man alone being a Septenary, _when virtuous_;
a Quinary when bad, for:
Number Five was composed of a Binary and a Ternary, and of these the
Binary threw everything in the perfect form into disorder and confusion.
The _perfect man_, they said, was a Quaternary and a Ternary, or _four_
material and _three_ immaterial elements; and these three Spirits or
Elements we likewise find in Five when it represents the microcosm. The
latter is a compound of a Binary directly relating to gross Matter and of
three Spirits. Since, as Ragon says:
This ingenious figure is the union of two Greek breathings placed
over vowels which have or have not to be aspirated. The first sign
(῾) is called the “strong” or superior “spiritus,” the Spirit of
God aspired (_spiratus_) and breathed by man. The second sign (᾿)
the lower, is the soft “spiritus” representing the secondary
spirit; ... the whole embraces the whole man. It is the _universal
quintessence_, the vital fluid or life.(1367)
The more mystic meaning of the number Five is given in an excellent
article by Mr. T. Subba Row, in _Five Years of Theosophy_, in an article
entitled “The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac,” in which he gives some rules
that may help the enquirer to ferret out “the deep significance of ancient
Sanskrit nomenclature in the old Âryan myths and allegories.” Meanwhile,
let us see what has been hitherto stated about the constellation
Capricornus in Theosophical publications, and what is known of it
generally. Every one knows that ♑ is the tenth sign of the Zodiac, into
which the Sun enters at the winter solstice, about December 21st. But very
few are those who know—even in India, unless they are initiated—the real
mystic connection which seems to exist, as we are told, between the names
Makara and Kumâra. The first means some amphibious animal, flippantly
called the “crocodile,” as some Orientalists think, and the second is the
title of the great patrons of Yogins, according to the Shaiva _Purânas_,
the sons of, and even one with, Rudra (Shiva), who is a Kumâra himself. It
is through their connection with Man that the Kumâras are likewise
connected with the Zodiac. Let us try to find out what the word Makara
means.
Says the author of “The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac”:
Makara ... contains within itself the clue to its correct
interpretation. The letter _ma_ is equivalent to number 5, and
_kara_ means hand. Now in Sanskrit Tribhujam means a triangle,
_bhujam_ or _karam_ (both synonymous) being understood to mean a
side. So, Makaram or Panchakaram means a Pentagon.(1368)
Now the five‐pointed star or pentagon represents the five limbs of
man.(1369) Under the old system, we are told, Makara was the _eighth_
instead of the tenth sign.(1370)
The sign in question is intended to represent the faces of the
universe, and indicates that the figure of the universe is bounded
by Pentagons.(1371)
The Sanskrit writers “speak also of Ashtadisha or eight faces bounding
Space,” referring thus to the Loka‐pâlas, the eight points of the compass,
the four cardinal and the four intermediate points.
From an objective point of view the “microcosm” is represented by
the human body. Makaram may be taken to represent simultaneously
both the microcosm and the macrocosm, as external objects of
perception.(1372)
But the true Esoteric sense of the word Makara is not, in truth,
“crocodile” at all, even when it is compared with the animal depicted on
the Hindû Zodiac. For it has the head and the fore‐legs of an antelope and
the body and tail of a fish. Hence the tenth sign of the Zodiac has been
taken variously to mean a shark, a dolphin, etc.; as it is the Vâhana of
Varuna, the Ocean God, and is often called, for this reason, Jala‐rûpa or
“water‐form.” The dolphin was the vehicle of Poseidon‐Neptune with the
Greeks, and one with him, Esoterically; and this “dolphin” is the “sea‐
dragon” as much as the crocodile of the Sacred Nile is the Vehicle of
Horus, and Horus himself. Says the mummy‐form God with the crocodile’s
head:
I am the fish [and seat] of the great Horus of Kem‐oor.(1373)
With the Peratæ Gnostics it is Chozzar (Neptune) who converts the
dodecagonal pyramid into a sphere, “and paints its gate with many
colours.”(1374) He has _five androgyne_ ministers—he is Makara, the
Leviathan.
As the rising Sun was considered the Soul of the Gods sent to manifest
itself to men every day, and as the crocodile rose out of the water at the
first sunbeam, that animal came finally to personify a solar‐fire devotee
in India, as it personified that Fire, or the highest Soul with the
Egyptians.
In the _Purânas_, the number of the Kumâras changes according to the
exigencies of the allegory. For Occult purposes their number is given in
one place as seven, then as four, then as five. In the _Kûrma Purâna_ it
is said of them:
These _five_ [Kumâras], O Brâhman, were Yogins who acquired entire
exemption from passion.
Their very name shows their connection with the said constellation Makara,
and with some other Paurânic characters connected with the zodiacal signs.
This is done in order to veil what was one of the most suggestive glyphs
of the primitive Temples. The Kumâras are mixed up, astronomically,
physiologically, and mystically in general, with a number of Paurânic
personages and events. Hardly hinted at in the _Vishnu_, they figure in
various dramas and events throughout all the other _Purânas_ and sacred
literature; so that the Orientalists, having to pick up the threads of
connection hither and thither, have ended by proclaiming the Kumâras “due
chiefly to the fancy of the Purânic writers.” But—
_Ma_—we are told by the author of the “Twelve Signs of the Zodiac”—is
“five”; _kara_, a “hand” with its five fingers, as also a five‐sided sign
or a Pentagon. The Kumâra (in this case an anagram for Occult purposes),
as Yogîs, are _five_ in Esotericism, because the last two names have ever
been kept secret; they are the fifth order of Brahma‐devas, and the five‐
fold Chohans, having the Soul of the five Elements in them, Water and
Ether predominating, and therefore their symbols were both _aquatic_ and
_fiery_.
Wisdom lies concealed under the couch of him who rests on the
Golden Lotus (Padma) floating on the Water.
In India this is Vishnu, one of whose Avatâras was Buddha, as claimed in
days of old. The Prachetasas, the worshippers of Nârâyana—who, like
Poseidon, moved or dwelt _over_ not under the Waters—plunged into the
depths of the Ocean for their devotions and remained therein 10,000 years;
and the Prachetasas are _ten_ exoterically, but _five_, Esoterically.
Prachetâs is, in Sanskrit, the name of Varuna, the Water God, Nereus, an
aspect of Neptune, the Prachetasas being thus identical with the “five
ministers” of the male‐female Chozzar (Χωζζάρ or Χορζάρ), or Poseidon, of
the Peratæ Gnostics. These are respectively called Ou, Aoai, Ouô, Ouôab
and ... (Οὔ, Ἀοαὶ, Οὐώ, Οὐωάβ ...),(1375) the _fifth_, a _triple_ name
(making seven in all) being lost(1376)—_i.e._, kept secret. Thus much for
the “aquatic” symbol; the “fiery” connecting them with the fiery
symbol—spiritually. For purposes of identity, let us remember that as the
mother of the Prachetasas was Savarnâ, the daughter of the Ocean, so was
Amphitrite the mother of Neptune’s mystic “ministers.”
Now the reader is reminded that these “five ministers” are symbolized both
in the Dolphin, who had overcome the chaste Amphitrite’s unwillingness to
wed Poseidon, and in Triton their son. The latter, whose body above the
waist is that of a man and below a dolphin, a fish, is, again, most
mysteriously connected with Oannes, the Babylonian Dag, and further also
with the Matsya (Fish) Avatâra of Vishnu, both teaching mortals Wisdom.
The Dolphin, as every Mythologist knows, was placed, for his service, by
Poseidon, among the constellations, and became with the Greeks,
Capricornus, the Goat, whose hind part is that of a dolphin, and is thus
identical with Makara, whose head is also that of an antelope and the body
and tail those of a fish. This is why the sign of the Makara was borne on
the banner of Kâmadeva, the Hindû God of Love, identified, in the _Atharva
Veda_, with Agni, the Fire‐god, the son of Lakshmî, as correctly given by
the _Harivamsha_. For Lakshmî and Venus are one, and Amphitrite is the
early form of Venus. Now Kâma, the Makara‐ketu, is Aja, the “unborn,” and
Âtmâ‐bhû, the “self‐existent,” and Aja is the Logos in the _Rig Veda_, as
he is shown therein to be the first manifestation of the One; for “Desire
first arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind,” that “which
connects entity with non‐entity”—or Manas, the _fifth_, with Âtmâ, the
_seventh_, Esoterically—say the Sages. This is the _first_ stage. The
second, on the following plane of manifestation, shows Brahmâ—whom we
select as a representative for all the other First Gods of the
nations—causing to issue from his body his Mind‐born Sons, “Sanandana and
others,” who, in the _fifth_ “creation,” and again in the ninth (for
purposes of a “blind”) become the Kumâra. Let us close by reminding the
reader that goats were sacrificed to Amphitrite and the Nereids on the
sea‐shore—as goats are sacrificed to this day to Durgâ Kâlî, who is only
the _black_ side of Lakshmî (Venus), the _white_ side of Shakti—and by
suggesting what connection these animals may have with Capricornus, in
which appear twenty‐eight stars in the form of a goat, which goat was
transformed by the Greeks into Amalthæa, Jupiter’s foster‐mother. Pan, the
God of Nature, had goat’s feet, and changed himself into a goat at the
approach of Typhon. But this is a mystery which the writer dares not dwell
upon at length, not being sure of being understood. Thus the mystical side
of the interpretation must be left to the intuition of the student. Let us
note one more thing in relation to the mysterious number Five. It
symbolizes at one and the same time the Spirit of Life Eternal and the
spirit of life and love terrestrial—in the human compound; and, it
includes divine and infernal magic, and the universal and the individual
quintessence of being. Thus, the five mystic words or vowels uttered by
Brahmâ at “creation,” which forthwith became the Panchadasha (certain
Vedic Hymns, attributed to that God), are in their creative and magical
potentiality, the _white_ side of the _black_ Tântric _five_ Ma‐kâras, or
the five _m’s_. Makara, the constellation, is a seemingly meaningless and
absurd name; yet, even besides its anagrammatical significance in
conjunction with the term Kumâra, the numerical value of its first
syllable and its Esoteric resolution into _five_ has a very great and
Occult meaning in the mysteries of Nature.
Suffice it to say that, as the sign of Makara is connected with the birth
of the spiritual Microcosm, and the death or dissolution of the physical
Universe—its passage into the realm of the Spiritual,(1377) so the Dhyân
Chohans, called in India Kumâras, are connected with both. Moreover, in
the exoteric religions, they have become the synonyms of the Angels of
Darkness. Mâra is the God of Darkness, the Fallen One, and Death;(1378)
and yet it is one of the names of Kâma, the First God in the Vedas, the
Logos, from whom have sprung the Kumâras, and this connects them still
more with our “fabulous” Indian Makara, and the crocodile‐headed God in
Egypt.(1379) The Crocodiles in the Celestial Nile are _five_, and the God
Toom, the Primordial Deity, creating the heavenly bodies and living
beings, calls forth these Crocodiles in his _fifth_ “creation.” When
Osiris, the “Defunct Sun,” is buried and enters into Amenti, the sacred
Crocodiles plunge into the abyss of primordial Waters—the “Great Green
One.” When the Sun of Life rises, they reëmerge out of the sacred river.
All this is highly symbolical, and shows how primeval Esoteric truths
found their expression in identical symbols. But, as Mr. T. Subba Row
truly declares:
The veil that was dexterously thrown over certain portions of the
mystery connected with these [Zodiacal] signs by the ancient
philosophers, _will never be lifted up for the amusement or
edification of the uninitiated public_.(1380)
Nor was number Five less sacred with the Greeks. The “Five Words” of
Brahmâ have become with the Gnostics the “Five Words” written upon the
Âkâshic (Shining) Garment of Jesus at his glorification—the words “Zama
Zama Ôzza Rachama Ôzai” (ΖΑΜΑ ΖΑΜΑ ΩΖΖΑ ΡΑΧΑΜΑ ΩΖΑΙ), translated by the
Orientalists “the robe, the glorious robe of my strength.” These words
were, in their turn, the anagrammatic “blind” of the five mystic Powers
represented on the robe of the “resurrected” Initiate after his last trial
of three days’ trance; the five becoming _seven_ only after his “death,”
when the Adept became the full Christos, the full Krishna‐Vishnu, _i.e._,
merged in Nirvâna. The E Delphicum, a sacred symbol, was the numeral
_five_, again; and how sacred it was is shown by the fact that the
Corinthians, according to Plutarch, replaced the wooden numeral in the
Delphic Temple by a bronze one, and this one was transmuted by Livia
Augusta into a facsimile in gold.(1381)
It is easy to recognize in the two “Spiritus”—the Greek signs (!) spoken
of by Ragon—Âtmâ and Buddhi, or Divine Spirit and its Vehicle, the
Spiritual Soul.
The Six or the Senary is dealt with later in this Section, while the
Septenary will be fully treated in the course of this Volume in the
Section on “The Mysteries of the Hebdomad.”
The Ogdoad or Eight symbolizes the eternal and spiral motion of cycles,
the 8, ∞, and is symbolized in its turn by the Caduceus. It shows the
regular breathing of the Kosmos presided over by the Eight Great Gods—the
Seven from the primeval Mother, the One and the Triad.
Then comes the number Nine, or the triple Ternary. It is the number which
reproduces itself incessantly under all shapes and figures in every
multiplication. It is the sign of every circumference, since its value in
degrees is equal to 9, _i.e._, to 3 + 6 + 0. It is a _bad_ number under
certain conditions, and very unlucky. If number 6 was the symbol of our
Globe ready to be animated by a _divine_ Spirit, 9 symbolized our Earth
informed by a _bad_ or evil Spirit.
Ten, or the Decad, brings all these digits back to unity, and ends the
Pythagorean table. Hence this figure, [Symbol: Circle with line through
the middle]—_unity_ within _zero_—was the symbol of Deity, of the
Universe, and of Man. Such is the secret meaning of “the strong grip of
the lion’s paw, of the tribe of Judah” (the “master mason’s grip”) between
two hands, the joint number of whose fingers is _ten_.
If we now give our attention to the Egyptian cross, or the Tau, we may
discover this letter, which was so exalted by Egyptians, Greeks, and Jews,
to be mysteriously connected with the Decad. The Tau is the Alpha and the
Omega of Secret Divine Wisdom, which is symbolized by the initial and the
final letters of Thot (Hermes). Thot was the inventor of the Egyptian
alphabet, and the letter Tau closed the alphabets of the Jews and the
Samaritans, who called this character the “end” or “perfection,”
“culmination” and “security.” Hence, Ragon tells us, the words Terminus,
“end,” and Tectum, “roof,” are symbols of shelter and security—which is
rather a prosaic definition. But such is the usual destiny of ideas and
things in this world of spiritual decadence, though at the same time of
physical progress. Pan was at one time Absolute Nature, the One and Great
All; but when history catches a first glimpse of him, Pan has already
tumbled down into a _godling_ of the fields, a rural God; history will not
recognize him, while theology makes of him the Devil! Yet his seven‐piped
flute, the emblem of the seven forces of Nature, of the seven planets, the
seven musical notes, of all the septenary harmony in short, shows well his
primordial character. So with the cross. Far earlier than the Jews had
devised their golden candlestick of the Temple with _three_ sockets on one
side and _four_ on the other, and made of number _seven_ a feminine number
of generation(1382)—thus introducing the phallic element into religion—the
more spiritually‐minded nations had made of the cross (as 3 + 4 = 7) their
most sacred divine symbol. In fact, circle, cross, and seven—the latter
being made a base of _circular_ measurement—are the first primordial
symbols. Pythagoras, who brought his wisdom from India, left to posterity
a glimpse into this truth. His School regarded number 7 as a compound of
numbers 3 and 4, which they explained in a dual manner. On the plane of
the noumenal world, the Triangle was, as the first conception of the
manifested Deity, its image, “Father‐Mother‐Son”; and the Quaternary, the
perfect number, was the noumenal, ideal root of all numbers and things on
the physical plane. Some students, in view of the sacredness of the
Tetraktys and the Tetragrammaton, mistake the mystic meaning of the
Quaternary. The latter was with the Ancients only a _secondary_
“perfection,” so to speak, because it related only to the manifested
planes. Whereas it is the Triangle, the Greek Delta (Δ), which was the
“vehicle of the unknown Deity.” A good proof of it lies in the name of the
Deity beginning with Delta. Zeus was written Δεύς (Deus) by the Bœotians,
thence the Deus of the Latins. This, in relation to the metaphysical
conception, with regard to the meaning of the septenary _in the phenomenal
world_; but for purposes of profane or exoteric interpretation, the
symbolism changed. _Three_ became the ideograph of the three _material_
Elements—Air, Water, Earth; and _four_ became the principle of all that
which is neither corporeal nor perceptible. But this has never been
accepted by the real Pythagoreans. Viewed as a compound of 6 and 1, the
Senary and the Unity, number 7 was the invisible centre, the Spirit of
everything, as there exists no hexagonal body without a _seventh_ property
being found as the central point in it, as, for instance, crystals and
snow‐flakes in so‐called “inanimate” nature. Moreover, number _seven_,
they said, has all the perfection of the _unit_—the number of numbers. For
as absolute _unity_ is uncreated, and impartite, hence number‐less, and no
number can produce it, so is the _seven_; no digit contained within the
Decad can beget or produce it. And it is _four_ which affords an
arithmetical division between _unity_ and _seven_, for it surpasses the
former by the same number (_three_), as it is itself surpassed by the
_seven_, since _four_ is by as many numbers above _one_, as _seven_ is
above _four_.(1383)
“With the Egyptians number 7 was the symbol of _life_ eternal,” says
Ragon, and adds that this is why the Greek letter Z, which is but a double
7, is the initial letter of Zaô, “I live,” and of Zeus, the “father of all
living.”
Moreover, figure 6 was the symbol of the Earth during the autumn and
winter “sleeping” months, and figure 7 during spring and summer, as the
Spirit of Life animated her at that time—the seventh or central informing
Force. We find the same in the Egyptian mythos and symbol of Osiris and
Isis, personifying Fire and Water metaphysically, and the Sun and the Nile
physically. The number of the solar year, 365 in days, is the numerical
value of the word Neilos (Nile). This, together with the Bull, with the
crescent and the ansated cross between its horns, and the Earth under its
astronomical symbol (♁), are the most phallic symbols of later antiquity.
The Nile was the river of time with the number of a year, or year
and a day (364 + 1 = 365). It represented the parturient water of
Isis, or Mother Earth, the moon, the woman, and the cow, also the
_workshop_ of Osiris, representing the T’sod Olaum of the Hebrews.
The ancient name of this river was Eridanus, or the Hebrew Iardan,
with the Coptic or old Greek suffix. This was the door of the
Hebrew word Jared, or _source_, or _descent_ ... of the river
Jordan, which had the same mythical use with the Hebrews that the
Nile had with the Egyptians,(1384) it was the source of descent,
and held the waters of life.(1385)
It was, to put it plainly, the symbol of the personified Earth, or Isis
regarded as the womb of that Earth. This is shown clearly enough; and
Jordan—the river so sacred now to Christians—held no more sublime or
poetical meaning in it than the parturient waters of the Moon—Isis, or
Jehovah in his female aspect. Now, as shown by the same scholar, Osiris
was the Sun, and the river Nile, and the year of 365 days; while Isis was
the Moon, the bed of that river, or Mother Earth “for the parturient
energies of which water was a necessity,” as also the lunar year of 354
days, “the time‐maker of the periods of gestation.” All this then is
sexual and phallic, our modern scholars seeming to find in these symbols
nothing beyond a physiological or phallic meaning. Nevertheless, the three
figures 365, or the number of days in a solar year, have but to be read
with the Pythagorean key to find in them a highly philosophical and moral
meaning. One instance will be sufficient. It can read:
The Earth (3)—animated by (6)—the Spirit of Life (5).
Simply because 3 is equivalent to the Greek Gamma (Γ) which is the symbol
of Gaia, the Earth, while the figure 6 is the symbol of the animating or
informing principle, and the 5 is the universal quintessence which spreads
in every direction and forms all matter.(1386)
The few instances and examples brought forward reveal only one small
portion of the methods used to read the symbolical ideographs and numerals
of antiquity. The system being of an extreme and complex difficulty, very
few, even among the Initiates, could master _all_ the seven keys. Is it to
be wondered, then, that the metaphysical gradually dwindled down into the
physical Nature; that the Sun, once upon a time the symbol of Deity,
became, as æons glided by, that of its creative ardour only; and that
thence it fell into a glyph of phallic significance? But surely, it is not
those whose method, like Plato’s, was to proceed from universals down to
particulars, who could ever have begun by symbolizing their religions by
sexual emblems! It is quite true, though uttered by that incarnated
paradox Éliphas Lévi, that “man is God on Earth, and God is man in
Heaven.” But this could not, and never did apply to the One Deity, only to
the Hosts of Its incarnated beams, called by us Dhyân Chohans, by the
Ancients Gods, and now transformed by the Church into Devils on the
_left_, and into the Saviour on the _right_ side!
But all such dogmas grew out of the one root, the root of Wisdom, which
grows and thrives on the Indian soil. There is not an Archangel that could
not be traced back to its prototype in the sacred land of Âryâvarta. These
prototypes are all connected with the Kumâras who appear on the scene of
action by “refusing”—as Sanatkumâra and Sananda—to “create progeny.” Yet
they are called the “creators” of (thinking) man. More than once they are
brought into connection with Nârada—another bundle of _apparent_
incongruities, yet a wealth of philosophical tenets. Nârada is the leader
of the Gandharvas, the celestial singers and musicians; Esoterically, the
reason for this is explained by the fact that the Gandharvas are “the
instructors of men in the Secret Sciences.” It is they, who “loving the
women of the Earth” disclosed to them the mysteries of creation; or, as in
the _Veda_, the “heavenly” Gandharva is a deity who knew and revealed the
secrets of heaven and divine truths, in general. If we remember what is
said of this class of Angels in _Enoch_ and in the _Bible_, then the
allegory is plain; their leader, Nârada, while refusing to procreate,
leads men to become Gods. Moreover, all of these, as stated in the
_Vedas_, are Chhandajas, “will‐born,” or incarnated, in different
Manvantaras, _of their own will_. They are shown in exoteric literature as
existing age after age; some being “cursed to be reborn,” others
incarnating as a duty. Finally, as the Sanakadikas, the seven Kumâras who
went to visit Vishnu on the “White Island” (Shveta‐dvîpa), the Island
inhabited by the Mahâ Yogins—they are connected with Shâka‐dvîpa and the
Lemurians and Atlanteans of the Third and Fourth Races.
In the Esoteric Philosophy, the Rudras (Kumâras, Âdityas, Gandharvas,
Asuras, etc.) are the highest Dhyân Chohans or Devas as regards
intellectuality. They are those who, owing to their having acquired by
self‐development the _five‐fold_ nature—hence the sacredness of number
_five_—became independent of the pure Arûpa Devas. This is a mystery very
difficult to realize and understand correctly. For we see that those who
were “obedient to law” are, equally with the “rebels,” _doomed to be
reborn in every age_. Nârada, the Rishi, is cursed by Brahmâ to incessant
peripateticism on Earth, _i.e._, to be constantly reborn. He is a rebel
against Brahmâ, and yet has no worse fate than the Jayas—the twelve great
Creative Gods produced by Brahmâ as his assistants in the functions of
creation. For the latter, lost in meditation, only _forgot to create_; and
for this, they were equally cursed by Brahmâ to be born in every
Manvantara. And still they are termed—together with the rebels—Chhandajas,
or those born of their own will in human form.
All this is very puzzling to one who is unable to read and understand the
_Purânas_ except in their dead‐letter sense.(1387) Hence we find the
Orientalists refusing to be puzzled, and cutting the Gordian knot of
perplexity by declaring the whole scheme “figments ... of Brâhmanical
fancy and love of exaggeration.” But to the student of Occultism, the
whole is pregnant with deep philosophical meaning. We willingly leave the
rind to the Western Sanskritist, but claim the essence of the fruit for
ourselves. We do more: we concede that in one sense much in these so‐
called “fables” refers to astronomical allegories about constellations,
asterisms, stars, and planets. Yet, while the Gandharva of the _Rig Veda_
may there be made to personify the fire of the Sun, the Gandharva Devas
are entities both of a physical and psychic character, while the Apsarasas
(with other Rudras) are both _qualities_ and _quantities_. In short, if
ever unravelled, the Theogony of the Vedic Gods will reveal fathomless
mysteries of Creation and Being. Truly says Parâshara:
These classes of thirty‐three divinities ... exist age after age,
and their appearance and disappearance is in the same manner as
the sun sets and rises again.(1388)
There was a time, when the Eastern symbol of the cross and circle, the
Svastika, was universally adopted. With the Esoteric, and for the matter
of that exoteric, Buddhist, the Chinaman and the Mongolian, it means the
“ten thousand truths.” These truths, they say, belong to the mysteries of
the Unseen Universe and Primordial Cosmogony and Theogony.
_Since Fohat crossed the Circle like two lines of flame
[horizontally and vertically], the Hosts of the Blessed Ones have
never failed to send their representatives upon the Planets they
are made to watch over from the beginning._
This is why the Svastika is always placed—as the ansated cross was in
Egypt—on the breast of the defunct Mystics. It is found on the heart of
the images and statues of Buddha, in Tibet and Mongolia. It is the _seal_
placed also on the hearts of the living Initiates, burnt into the flesh
for ever with some. This, because they have to keep these truths inviolate
and intact, in eternal silence and secrecy to the day they are perceived
and read by their chosen successors—new Initiates—“worthy of being
entrusted with the ten thousand perfections.” So degraded, however, has it
now become, that it is often placed on the headgear of the “Gods,” the
hideous idols of the sacrilegious Bhons—the Dugpas or Sorcerers, of the
Tibetan borderlands—until found out by a Galukpa, and torn off together
with the head of the “God,” though it would be better were it that of the
worshipper which was severed from his sinful body. Still, it can never
lose its mysterious properties. Throw a retrospective glance, and see it
used alike by the Initiates and Seers, as by the Priests of Troy, for many
specimens of it have been found by Schliemann on the site of that old
city. One finds it with the old Peruvians, the Assyrians, Chaldæans, as
well as on the walls of the old‐world Cyclopean buildings; in the
catacombs of the _New_ World, and in those of the _Old_ (?), at Rome,
where—because the first Christians are supposed to have concealed
themselves and their religion—it is called Crux Dissimulata.
According to De Rossi the Swastika from an early period was a
favourite form of the cross _employed with an occult
signification_ which shows the secret was not that of the
Christian cross. One Swastika cross in the catacombs is the sign
of an inscription which reads “ΖΩΤΙΚΩ ΖΟΤΙΚΗ [? ΖΩΤΙΚΗ], _Vitalis
Vitalia_,” or life of life.(1389)
But the best evidence to the antiquity of the cross is that which is
brought forward by the author of _The Natural Genesis_ himself:
The value of the cross as a Christian symbol is supposed to date
from the time when Jesus Christ was crucified. And yet in the
“Christian” _iconography of the catacombs no figure of a man
appears upon the Cross during the first six or seven centuries_.
There are all forms of the cross except that—the alleged starting‐
point of the new religion. That was not the initial but the final
form of the Crucifix.(1390) During some six centuries after the
Christian era the foundation of the Christian religion in a
crucified Redeemer is entirely absent from Christian art! The
earliest known form of the human figure on the cross is the
crucifix presented by Pope Gregory the Great to Queen Theodolinde
of Lombardy, now in the Church of St. John at Monza, whilst no
image of the Crucified is found in the catacombs at Rome earlier
than that of San Giulio, belonging to the seventh or eighth
century.... There is no Christ and no Crucified; the Cross is the
Christ even as the Stauros (Cross) was a type and a name of Horus
the Gnostic Christ. The Cross, not the Crucified, is the primary
symbol of the Christian Church. The Cross, not the Crucified, is
the essential object of representation in its art, and of
adoration in its religion. The germ of the whole growth and
development can be traced to the cross. And that cross is pre‐
Christian, is pagan and heathen, in half a dozen different shapes.
The Cult began with the cross, and Julian was right in saying he
waged a “Warfare with the X”; which he obviously considered had
been adopted by the A‐Gnostics and Mytholators to convey an
impossible significance.(1391) During centuries the cross stood
for the Christ, and was addressed as if it were a living being. It
was divinized at first and humanized at last.(1392)
Few world‐symbols are more pregnant with real Occult meaning than the
Svastika. It is symbolized by the figure 6. Like that figure, it points,
in its concrete imagery, as does the ideograph of the number, to the
Zenith and the Nadir, to North, South, West, and East; one finds the unit
everywhere, and that unit reflected in all and every unit. It is the
emblem of the activity of Fohat, of the continual revolution of the
“Wheels,” and of the Four Elements, the “Sacred Four,” in their mystical,
and not alone in their cosmical meaning; further, its four arms, bent at
right angles, are intimately related, as shown elsewhere, to the
Pythagorean and Hermetic scales. One initiated into the mysteries of the
meaning of the Svastika, say the Commentaries, “can trace on it, with
mathematical precision, the evolution of Kosmos and the whole period of
Sandhyâ.” Also “the relation of the Seen to the Unseen,” and “the first
procreation of man and species.”
To the Eastern Occultist the Tree of Knowledge, in the Paradise of man’s
own heart, becomes the Tree of Life Eternal, and has nought to do with
man’s animal senses. It is an absolute mystery that reveals itself only
through the efforts of the imprisoned Manas, the Ego, to liberate itself
from the thraldom of sensuous perception, and see in the light of the one
eternal present Reality. To the Western Kabalist, and far more now to the
superficial Symbologist, nursed in the lethal atmosphere of Materialistic
Science, the chief explanation of the mysteries of the cross is—its sexual
element. Even the otherwise spiritualistic modern commentator discerns
this feature in the cross and Svastika before all others.
The cross was used in Egypt as a protecting talisman and a symbol
of saving power. Typhon, or Satan, is actually found chained to
and bound by the cross. In the _Ritual_, the Osirian cries, “_The
Apophis is overthrown, their cords bind the South, North, East,
and West, their cords are on him. Har‐ru‐bah has knotted
him._”(1393) These were the Cords of the four quarters, or the
cross. Thor is said to smite the head of the serpent with his
hammer, ... a form of Swastika or four‐footed cross.... In the
primitive sepulchres of Egypt the model of the Chamber had the
form of a cross.(1394) The pagoda of Mathura ... the birth‐place
of Krishna, was built in the form of a cross.(1395)
This is perfect, and no one can discern in it that “sexual worship,” with
which the Orientalists love to break the head of Paganism. But how about
the Jews, and the exoteric religions of some Hindû sects, especially the
rites of the Vallabâchâryas? For, as said, Shiva‐worship, with its Lingam
and Yoni, stands too high philosophically, its modern degeneration
notwithstanding, to be called a simple phallic worship. But the Tree‐ or
Cross‐worship(1396) of the Jews, as denounced by their own Prophets, can
hardly escape the charge. The “sons of the sorcerers, the seed of the
adulterer,”(1397) as Isaiah calls them, never lost an opportunity of
“enflaming themselves with idols under every green tree”(1398)—which
denotes no metaphysical recreation. It is from these _monotheistic_ Jews
that the Christian nations have derived their religion, their “God of
Gods, the One living God,” while despising and deriding the worship of the
Deity of the ancient Philosophers. Let such believe in and worship the
physical form of the cross, by all means.
But to the follower of the true Eastern Archaic Wisdom, to him who
worships in spirit nought outside the Absolute Unity, that ever‐pulsating
great Heart that beats throughout, as in, every atom of Nature, each such
atom contains the germ from which he may raise the Tree of Knowledge,
whose fruits give Life Eternal and not physical life alone. For him, the
cross and circle, the Tree or the Tau—even after every symbol relating
thereto has been referred to and read, one after another—still remain a
profound mystery in their Past, and it is to that Past alone that he
directs his eager gaze. He cares little whether it be the Seed from which
grows the genealogical Tree of Being, called the Universe. Nor is it the
Three in One, the triple aspect of the Seed—its form, colour, and
substance—that interest him, but rather the Force which directs its
growth, the ever mysterious, as the ever unknown. For this vital Force,
that makes the Seed germinate, burst open and throw out shoots, then form
the trunk and branches, which, in their turn, bend down like the boughs of
the Ashvattha, the holy Tree of Bodhi, throw their seed out, take root and
procreate other trees—this is the only Force that has reality for him, as
it is the never‐dying Breath of Life. The Pagan philosopher sought for the
cause, the modern is content with only the effects and seeks the former in
the latter. What is beyond, he does not know, nor does the modern A‐
gnostic care; thus rejecting the only knowledge upon which he can with
full security base his Science. Yet this manifested Force has an answer
for him who seeks to fathom it. He who sees in the cross, the decussated
circle of Plato, the Pagan, not the antitype of circumcision, as Christian
(St.) Augustine did,(1399) is forthwith regarded by the Church as a
heathen; by Science, as a lunatic. This, because, while refusing to
worship the God of physical generation, he confesses that he can know
nothing of the Cause which underlies the so‐called _First_ Cause, the
Causeless Cause of this Vital Cause. Tacitly admitting the All‐Presence of
the Boundless Circle and making of it the Universal Postulate upon which
the whole of the Manifested Universe is based, the Sage keeps a
reverential silence concerning that upon which no mortal man should dare
to speculate. “The Logos of God is the revealer of man, and the Logos (the
Verb) of man is the revealer of God,” says Éliphas Lévi in one of his
paradoxes. To this, the Eastern Occultist would reply: On this condition,
however, that man should be dumb on the Cause that produced both God and
its Logos. Otherwise, he becomes invariably the _reviler_, not the
_revealer_, of the Incognizable Deity.
We have now to approach a mystery—the Hebdomad in Nature. Perchance, all
that we may say, will be attributed to coincidence. We may be told that
this number in Nature is quite _natural_—as indeed we say it is—and has no
more significance than the illusion of motion which forms the so‐called
“strobic circles.” No great importance was given to these “singular
illusions” when Professor Sylvanus Thompson exhibited them at the meeting
of the British Association in 1877. Nevertheless we should like to learn
the scientific explanation why seven should ever form itself as a
preeminent number—six concentric circles around a seventh, and seven rings
within one another round a central point, etc.—in this _illusion_,
produced by a swaying saucer, or any other vessel. We give the solution
refused by Science in the Section which follows.