The _Zohar_, an unfathomable store of hidden wisdom and mystery, is very
often appealed to by Roman Catholic writers. A very learned Rabbi, now the
Chevalier Drach, having been converted to Roman Catholicism, and being a
great Hebraist, thought fit to step into the shoes of Picus de Mirandola
and John Reuchlin, and to assure his new co‐religionists that the _Zohar_
contained in it pretty nearly all the dogmas of Catholicism. It is not our
province to show here how far he has succeeded or failed; only to bring
one instance of his explanations and preface it with the following:
The _Zohar_, as already shown, is not a genuine production of the Hebrew
mind. It is the repository and compendium of the oldest doctrines of the
East, transmitted orally at first, and then written down in independent
treatises during the Captivity at Babylon, and finally brought together by
Rabbi Simeon Ben Iochai, toward the beginning of the Christian era. As
Mosaic cosmogony was born under a new form in Mesopotamian countries, so
the _Zohar_ was a vehicle in which were focussed rays from the light of
Universal Wisdom. Whatever likenesses are found between it and the
Christian teachings, the compilers of the _Zohar_ never had Christ in
their minds. Were it otherwise there would not be one single Jew of the
Mosaic law left in the world by this time. Again, if one is to accept
literally what the _Zohar_ says, then any religion under the sun may find
corroboration in its symbols and allegorical sayings; and this, simply
because this work is the echo of the primitive truths, and every creed is
founded on some of these; the _Zohar_ being but a veil of the Secret
Doctrine. This is so evident that we have only to point to the said ex‐
Rabbi, the Chevalier Drach, to prove the fact.
In Part III, fol. 87 (col. 346th) the _Zohar_ treats of the Spirit guiding
the Sun, its Rector, explaining that it is not the Sun itself that is
meant thereby, but the Spirit “on, or _under_” the Sun. Drach is anxious
to show that it was Christ who was meant by that “Sun,” or the Solar
Spirit therein. In his comment upon that passage which refers to the Solar
Spirit as “that stone which the builders rejected,” he asserts most
positively that this
Sun‐stone (_pierre soleil_) is identical with Christ, who was that
stone,
and that therefore
The sun is undeniably (_sans contredit_) the second hypostasis of
the Deity,(397) or Christ.
If this be true, then the Vaidic or pre‐Vaidic Âryans, Chaldæans and
Egyptians, like all Occultists past, present, and future, Jews included,
have been Christians from all eternity. If this be not so, then modern
Church Christianity is Paganism pure and simple exoterically, and
transcendental and practical Magic, or Occultism, Esoterically.
For this “stone” has a manifold significance, a dual existence, with
gradations, a regular progression and retrogression. It is a “mystery”
indeed.
The Occultists are quite ready to agree with St. Chrysostom, that the
infidels—the _profane_, rather—
Being blinded by sun‐light, thus lose sight of the true Sun in the
contemplation of the false one.
But if that Saint, and along with him now the Hebraist Drach, chose to see
in the _Zohar_ and the Kabalistic Sun “the _second_ hypostasis,” this is
no reason why all others should be blinded by them. The mystery of the Sun
is the grandest perhaps, of all the innumerable mysteries of Occultism. A
Gordian knot, truly, but one that cannot be severed with the double‐edged
sword of scholastic casuistry. It is a true _deo dignus vindice nodus_,
and can be untied only by the _Gods_. The meaning of this is plain, and
every Kabalist will understand it.
_Contra solem ne loquaris_ was not said by Pythagoras with regard to the
visible Sun. It was the “Sun of Initiation” that was meant, in its triple
form—two of which are the “Day‐Sun” and the “Night‐Sun.”
If behind the physical luminary there were no mystery that people sensed
instinctively, why should every nation, from the primitive peoples down to
the Parsîs of to‐day, have turned towards the Sun during prayers? The
Solar Trinity is not Mazdean, but is universal, and is as old as man. All
the temples in Antiquity were invariably made to face the Sun, their
portals to open to the East. See the old temples of Memphis and Baalbec,
the Pyramids of the Old and of the New (?) Worlds, the Round Towers of
Ireland, and the Serapeum of Egypt. The Initiates alone could give a
philosophical explanation of this, and a reason for it—its mysticism
notwithstanding—were only the world ready to receive it, which alas! it is
not. The last of the Solar Priests in Europe was the Imperial Initiate,
Julian, now called the Apostate.(398) He tried to benefit the world by
revealing at least a portion of the great mystery of the τρεπλασιος
and—_he died_. “There are three in one,” he said of the Sun—the central
Sun(399) being a precaution of Nature: the first is the universal cause of
all, Sovereign Good and perfection; the Second Power is paramount
Intelligence, having dominion over all reasonable beings, νοεροῖς; the
third is the visible Sun. The pure energy of solar intelligence proceeds
from the luminous seat occupied by our Sun in the centre of heaven, that
pure energy being the Logos of our system; the “Mysterious Word Spirit
produces all through the Sun, and never operates through any other
medium,” says Hermes Trismegistus. For it is _in_ the Sun, more than in
any other heavenly body that the [unknown] Power placed the seat of its
habitation. Only neither Hermes Trismegistus nor Julian (an initiated
Occultist), nor any other, meant by this Unknown Cause Jehovah, or
Jupiter. They referred to the cause that produced all the manifested
“great Gods” or Demiurgi (the Hebrew God included) of our system. Nor was
our visible, _material_ Sun meant, for the latter was only the manifested
symbol. Philolaus the Pythagorean, explains and completes Trismegistus by
saying:
The Sun is a mirror of fire, the splendour of whose flames by
their reflection in that mirror [the Sun] is poured upon us, and
that splendour we call image.
It is evident that Philolaus referred to the central spiritual Sun, whose
beams and effulgence are only mirrored by our central Star, the Sun. This
is as clear to the Occultists as it was to the Pythagoreans. As for the
profane of pagan antiquity, it was, of course, the physical Sun that was
the “highest God” for them, as it seems—if Chevalier Drach’s view be
accepted—to have now virtually become for the modern Roman Catholics. If
words mean anything, the statement made by the Chevalier Drach that “this
sun is, undeniably, the second hypostasis of the Deity,” imply what we
say; as “this Sun” refers to the Kabalistic Sun, and “hypostasis” means
substance or subsistence of the Godhead or Trinity—distinctly personal. As
the author, being an ex‐Rabbi, thoroughly versed in Hebrew, and in the
mysteries of the _Zohar_, ought to know the value of words; and as,
moreover, in writing this, he was bent upon reconciling “the seeming
contradictions,” as he puts it, between Judaism and Christianity—the fact
becomes quite evident.
But all this pertains to questions and problems which will be solved
naturally and in the course of the development of the doctrine. The Roman
Catholic Church stands accused, not of worshipping under other names the
Divine Beings worshipped by all nations in antiquity, but of declaring
idolatrous, not only the Pagans ancient and modern, but every Christian
nation that has freed itself from the Roman yoke. The accusation brought
against herself by more than one man of Science, of worshipping the stars
like true Sabæans of old, stands to this day uncontradicted, yet no star‐
worshipper has ever addressed his adoration to the material stars and
planets, as will be shown before the last page of this work is written;
none the less is it true that those Philosophers alone who studied
Astrology and Magic knew that the last word of those sciences was to be
sought in, and expected from, the Occult forces emanating from those
constellations.