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Ancient Landmarks

Article Series from Theosophy Magazine

Introduction
INTRODUCTION Theosophy 14-1
THE FRATERNITY OF PERFECTED SOULS Theosophy 14-2
Zoroastrianism
ZOROASTRIAN METAPHYSICS Theosophy 14-3
ZOROASTRIAN COSMOGENESIS Theosophy 14-4
ZOROASTRIAN PSYCHOLOGY Theosophy 14-5
ZOROASTRIAN ETHICS Theosophy 14-6
Chinese
THE KINGS OF CHINA Theosophy 14-7
CONFUCIUS THE CODIFIER Theosophy 14-8
CONFUCIANISM Theosophy 14-9
LAO TZU AND THE TAOISTS Theosophy 15-1
ON TAO Theosophy 15-2
MENCIUS Theosophy 15-3
LIEH TZU Theosophy 15-4
CHWANG TZU Theosophy 15-5
OLD CHINA AND NEW Theosophy 15-6
Egyptian
CIVILIZATION AND RELIGION OF EGYPT Theosophy 15-7
THE GODS OF EGYPT Theosophy 15-8
EGYPTIAN SYMBOLISM AND ANIMAL WORSHIP Theosophy 15-9
OSIRIS, ISIS, HORUS, AND SET Theosophy 15-10
EGYPTIAN "IMMORTALITY"Theosophy 15-11
Mesoamerican
SOURCES OF EARLY AMERICAN CIVILIZATION Theosophy 15-12
THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN Theosophy 16-1
THE FEATHERED-SERPENT Theosophy 16-2
THE POPOL VUH Theosophy 16-3
THE MYSTERY OF MATTO GROSSO Theosophy 42-4
Finnish and Nordic
THE THEOSOPHY OF THE FAR NORTH Theosophy 16-4
Mesopotamian
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA Theosophy 16-5
THE GARDEN OF EDEN Theosophy 16-6
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF GILGAMESH Theosophy 16-7
MORE LIGHT ON SUMERIA Theosophy 21-9
Indian
THE LEGEND OF THE BLUE LOTUS Theosophy 16-8
FRATERNITY OF EAST AND WEST Theosophy 19-2
TRUTH BEYOND EAST OR WEST Theosophy 19-3
EX ORIENTE LUX Theosophy 19-4
THE HERITAGE OF ANCIENT INDIA Theosophy 19-5
TRUTH IN ALL FAITHS Theosophy 19-6
INDIA: THE ETERNAL RELIGION Theosophy 19-7
INDIA: THE TEMPLE OF KNOWLEDGE Theosophy 19-8
INDIA: HISTORY AND MYTHS Theosophy 19-9
INDIA: CODES OF DUTY Theosophy 19-11
INDIA: ON REVELATION Theosophy 19-12
INDIA: THE SIX DEMONSTRATIONS Theosophy 20-1
Greco-Roman
THE PREHISTORIC GREEKS Theosophy 27-3
THE GREEK MYSTERIES Theosophy 27-4
THE FIRST GREEK PHILOSOPHERS Theosophy 27-5
PYTHAGORAS Theosophy 27-6
THE PYTHAGOREAN SCIENCE OF NUMBERS Theosophy 27-7
THE GREEK ATOMISTS AND SOPHISTS Theosophy 27-8
SOCRATES Theosophy 27-9
PLATO Theosophy 27-10
PLATO AND ARISTOTLE Theosophy 27-11
THE GREEK DRAMA Theosophy 27-12
FROM PLATO TO THE NEOPLATONISTS Theosophy 28-1
FROM THE NEOPLATONISTS TO H.P.B.Theosophy 28-2

INTRODUCTION

The Secret Doctrine is the common property of the countless millions of men born under various climates, in times with which History refuses to deal, and to which esoteric teachings assign dates incompatible with the theories of Geology and Anthropology. The birth and evolution of the Sacred Science of the Past are lost in the very night of Time.... It is only by bringing before the reader an abundance of proofs all tending to show that in every age, under every condition of civilization and knowledge, the educated classes of every nation made themselves the more or less faithful echoes of one identical system and its fundamental traditions — that he can be made to see that so many streams of the same water must have had a common source from which they started. What was this source? If coming events are said to cast their shadows before, past events cannot fail to leave their impress behind them. It is, then, by those shadows of the hoary Past and their fantastic silhouettes on the external screen of every religion and philosophy, that we can, by checking them as we go along, and comparing them, trace out finally the body that produced them. There must be truth and fact in that which every people of antiquity accepted and made the foundation of its religions and its faith. (Secret Doctrine, Vol. II, p. 794.)

The study of the hidden meaning in every religious and profane legend, of whatsoever nation, large or small — pre-eminently the traditions of the East — has occupied the greater portion of the present writer's life. She is one of those who feel convinced that no mythological story, no traditional event in the folk-lore of a people has ever been, at any time, pure fiction, but that every one of such narratives has an actual, historical lining to it. (Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 303.)

IN GIVING her Message to the world H. P. Blavatsky reiterated the fact of the existence of a body of knowledge universal and ever-present. She did not stop with this assertion but proceeded to demonstrate its veracity. There is no better proof of her spiritual profundity and wisdom than the manifestation of her power to discern the true from the false; of her capacity to put together the beautiful gems in a perfect piece of jewelry, rejecting the ugly with which the world of human thought is adorned; of her faculty to show what evil is and how good can supplant it in the moral universe. Of all her phenomena this one was the most marvellous — the presentation of a practical philosophy of life, not new but old, to be found in the literature, sacred and secular, esoteric and exoteric, of every land and every era.

H.P.B. performed her varied phenomena for the edification of those who surrounded her. Most of them entertained themselves with these "psychological tricks;" very few indeed gained the instruction they conveyed. Unfortunately this is true also of the most marvellous phenomenon she ever produced. Only a limited number have concerned themselves with the presentation of Theosophy, in different climes and ages. This is one reason why Theosophy is still called a new creed, one of the many neo-isms with which our civilization is running amuck. As students, practitioners and promulgators of the Teachings of the Great Lodge to our century many among us have over-looked our solemn duty to those Predecessors who laboured in Their days and generations as H.P.B. laboured in hers. The mission of those Mighty Theosophists often failed because Their Message got transformed into a creed, religious, philosophic or magical. The well-meaning enthusiasts among the followers of great spiritual teachers are among those responsible for the degeneration which takes shape as a church or a mosque, a creed or a religion. Such a degeneration often starts because the "faithful" followers of the Teacher narrow their examination of Truth to only one channel. Unlike their Teacher who went wide afield, with courage and vigour, seeking Truth wherever and whenever He found it, the followers, out of a sense of false loyalty to Him, refuse to do what He did. Such do not use his teachings as pick and shovel to unearth the gems of other mines and learn by comparison their relative values. The main feature of any creed is the false value it sets and the false meaning it imparts to certain truths. This arises because the power of discretion through adequate comparison, and thus of perception of real values, is not utilised. This obstacle has to be removed if H.P.B.'s Message is not to dwindle into a creed.

Generally speaking, it is among the poorer students of their Teacher's philosophy that the perpetrators of creeds are to be found. The doubters, the shallow critics, the ambitious are failures in the practice of Theosophy; this because of insufficient study. Their lower nature does not gain sufficient purity of perception; but it adopts its own limited understanding and faulty vision as truth. The capacity to weigh and judge their own conclusions and deductions in the light of their own Teacher's philosophy is absent. Thus the luke-warmness of many so-called Theosophists towards the mission and message of H.P.B. would have disappeared if they had compared her pearls with those of others. The message of H.P.B. does not suffer by comparison with that of any Teacher or Prophet; her teachings gain in value and worth when placed side by side with others; the Secret Doctrine proves of better content than the Vedas, the Upanishads and their commentaries; the Voice of the Silence can more than stand comparison with the Sermon on the Mount; Isis Unveiled has a profounder philosophy than the Book of the Dead; the Key to Theosophy has better practical wisdom than the Quran and the Bible put together. For a proper appreciation of the Message of H.P.B., both as to technique-form and life-inspiration, an examination of theosophies of various cycles and cultures is essential.

There is still another thought which should be reflected upon, especially by those who are endeavouring to propagate Theosophy. In our work and life we meet people seeking for an explanation of problems; many of them are honest and earnest and suffer from hastily built mental structures, from preconceptions, from false notions, and the like. Through mental laziness or intellectual narrowness such people often fail to accept Theosophy which is spoken in a language not their own. Of course it is their fault that they will not study Theosophy; but is there not something to be shared by us in that fault? Can we familiarize ourselves with their language and speak it as far as possible to arouse interest, to awaken understanding, to deepen perception? Can we who have come out from among them and become separate help others to do likewise by speaking their tongue — be it of science, of religion, of art, of letters?

If we are following in the footsteps of our Predecessors, then the forms in which They cast Their Teachings ought to be subjects of study for us; if we are to know and not only believe that Theosophy and Its Light-Bearers are ever in the world and that identity of doctrines subsists, a proper examination of the languages of Theosophy becomes necessary; if we are to help the masses and the classes to recognize Theosophy we have to go with our gospel of H.P.B.'s Message in their midst and help them to destroy their false gods and to worship at the inner shrine of the God within each.

In the coming cycle the task awaits us to continue that work of H.P.B., which figures so prominently in Isis Unveiled and the Secret Doctrine; and that of Mr. Judge who laboured energetically and wisely to bring to the notice of the West the Theosophy of the ancient East and to that of the East the Hidden Wisdom of the West. In the plan and the programme of the Great Masters the Second Object of the Theosophical Movement demands our thought and reflection.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 14, No. 1, November, 1925 pp. 10-12

INDIVIDUALISM

The civilization of today, and especially of the United States, is an attempt to accentuate and glorify the individual. The oft-repeated declaration that any born citizen may aspire to occupy the highest office in the gift of the nation is proof of this, and the Mahatmas who guard the truth through the ages while nations are decaying, assert that the reaction is sure to come in a relapse into the worst forms of anarchy. The only way to prevent such a relapse is for men to really practice the Universal Brotherhood they are willing to accept with the tongue. — W.Q.J.

THE FRATERNITY OF PERFECTED SOULS

THEOSOPHY teaches the existence of a Fraternity of Perfected Souls. From its ranks have come to mankind its Savior-Teachers; some with a more exalted mission than others, but each fulfilling the requirements of the cycle for which He undertakes that mission. Some as Divine Kings, others as Holy Mendicants, all come to impress on the whole or a portion of humanity the same sublime truths which form the ancient Wisdom-Religion. Hence we find that underlying every ancient popular religion is the same Wisdom-Doctrine, one and identical, professed and practiced by the Initiates of every country. One body of Universal Teaching in the custody of one Fraternity of Cosmopolitan Philanthrophists — such is the sublime fact which our modern world has forgotten.

Among the followers of every religion there exists a genuine and sincere faith in the divine nature of their own particular prophet-savior. On what does this faith rest? On the fact that Divine Men have incarnated to energize and inspire mankind in every age and clime. But that pristine faith degenerates in its outer expression; the adherents of each religion claim a unique position for their own lawgiver, refusing divinity to other instructors of humanity. Priestly cunning has foisted on the credulous the One and Only Son of God, or the One and Only Prophet, or its equivalent. Claims which Krishna or Buddha, Jesus or Muhammed never made for Themselves or Their Teachings, the respective followers made and now make, under priestly guidance, to the debasement of Truth and the detriment of humanity.

Theosophists have the duty to deliver mankind from the clutches of organized priesthoods. The first step towards this emancipation is the restoration of the knowledge of old that there exist no special privileges for any soul, nor are there any chosen peoples, but that Divine Instructors are Living Brothers with one aim, one purpose, one teaching, who reached Their stature of perfection by self-redeeming work and who teach all humanity without making distinctions of any kind soever. Passion blinds the fanatic to this truth; he fails to see that the life-incidents and actions of all Teachers are identical, that the story of every Savior from Vishvakarma to Christ is the same. He is taught to believe in special privileges for himself through a belief in the uniqueness of his own prophet.

There is hardly a religious institution in the modern world from the Vedic to the Buddhistic, from the Catholic to the Swedenborgian, which does not claim some kind of a unique place for its own particular savior. This erroneous notion is to be traced to the fact that in myths and legends characters like Krishna, Hercules, Pythagoras, Buddha, Jesus, Apollonius, are represented as divinely begotten Saviors. Every one of them, whether at birth or afterwards, is searched for and threatened with death (yet never killed) by an opposing power whether it be called Kansa or Herod, Maya or Mara. They are all tempted, persecuted and finally said to have been murdered at the end of the Rite of Initiation, i.e., in their physical personalities, of which they are supposed to have been rid forever after spiritual birth or resurrection. Then after this allegorical violent death they all descend to the Nether World or Naraka, Hell or Hades to save the souls of the damned; on their triumphant return they have become transformed into Gods. Thus they are given the epithet of Soter (savior).

Let us note a few parallels out of the many in the lives of saviors and prophets of widely separated lands and eras. The early missionaries who went to China were appalled¹ at finding that Fo-hi was born of a virgin whose story was but a counterpart of the narrative of the virgin Mary. In India, Krishna was born of the virgin Devaki who "bore in her womb the lotus-eyed deity," and Buddha "shot through the void as a six-rayed star and entered Maya's womb upon the right." Note that "from the time of conception the Divine Lady was free from passion and full of purity" — what else is this but the doctrine of immaculate conception 600 years B.C.? In Siam, Codom was virgin-born; his mother was the Praying Lady and was impregnated by the Sun-beams. The Egyptian Horus, the Babylonian Adonis, and Bacchus or Dionysus were all born of virgins, and so were the Mexican Quetzalcoatl and the Aztec Huitzilopochtli and Bacab in Yucatan. These South American gods were born at the Winter Solstice as their types in Asia and Europe, e.g., the Scandinavian Baldur, the Persian Mythra, and numerous others. Thus is seen the significance of the following from the famous "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Gibbon (II, p. 383):

The Roman Christmas, ignorant of the real date of the Christ's birth, fixed the solemn festival to the 25th December, the Brumalia, or Winter Solstice, when the Pagans annually celebrated the birth of Sol.

St. Chrysostom, who lived about 390 A.D., is thus quoted:

On this day, also, the birth of Christ was lately fixed at Rome, in order that whilst the heathen were busy with their profane ceremonies, the Christians might perform their holy rites undisturbed.

And how many Sons of God have been tempted, murdered, even crucified and who resurrected themselves? How many rose from the sepulchre at the Vernal Equinox, celebrated to this day in Persia as Jamshedi-Navroz. Tammuz, Horus, Atys, Memnon, they all were put to death and rose from the dead, and descended to hell to save the sin-imprisoned souls of men.

Whence this close similarity so clearly indicative of a universal tradition in connection with the birth, work, and death of all saviors? One of the ways in which the Great Lodge taught infant humanity was to cast in myth or legend form the lives of these Sons of Light. The ancient biographies of the external personalities bearing the names of Great Souls are the mystic records of their public, and parallel therewith of their inner lives, in their characters as Neophytes and Initiates. Hence, the manifest sameness of the means of construction of their respective biographies. However much masked and hidden from profane gaze, the chief features of such lives are common.

Narratives of these Mystic Lives are well preserved, as they contain correct keys to several cosmic and human phenomena. The non-understanding of certain incidents of these ancient mystic biographies has been the cause of the assigning of a unique position to such teachers as Krishna in India or Jesus in Christendom. For a right reading of these Lives we have further to bear in mind that every such god has three biographies in the narrative, so to say, running parallel with each other and each connected with one of the aspects of the God-Savior — historical, astronomical and perfectly mythical, the last serving to connect the other two and smooth away the asperities and discordancies in the narrative, while gathering into one or more symbols the verities of the first two. Localities are made to correspond with astronomical and even with psychic events. Thus arose in the ancient world myths truer than history, for the latter dealt with events on the planes of action, and the former narrated the happenings in the world of Soul.

Among such myths was one about the Great Sacrifice of the Master-Soul who renounced his freedom to accept the woes of bodily birth, the self-chosen incarnation of the Lord of Compassion for the sake of Orphan Humanity. The central fact of the mystic life, that every human Soul sacrifices himself and is crucified on the fourfold cross of matter, is but a variant of that same profound truth. This fact the Lodge impressed on the minds of many peoples by spreading in their midst allegorical stories of heroes who are supposed to have gone through experiences similar to that Master-Soul and which every human Ego should emulate. Such experiences were often purposely woven into the lives of local rulers, saints and sages. Hence the birth at winter solstice, the resurrection at spring equinox — astronomical and cosmic factors; and crucifixion on the four-fold cross, descent into hell — psychological and human aspects.

The soul of all such history-myths stands unveiled in the writings of H. P. Blavatsky. In studying the teachings of Theosophy in different eras and climes a proper comprehension of this fact provides a key which unlocks many statements which otherwise sound enigmatic — some of them, even absurd.

The language of the Soul and therefore the Soul of all languages is — symbols. That language is universal. Like the incarnating Ego in Man it embodies itself in many forms. Religions, philosophies, sciences, all branches of knowledge spring from the Wisdom-Religion, which has for its vehicle this ancient universal language.

The Wisdom-Religion or Theosophy is the drama of the unfoldment of the One Life. The springing forth of the many lives from the One Life and the orderly procession of the many as the kingdoms of Nature, till they re-become the One, form the contents of the Record of the Masters, and that is Theosophy. Every stage of that long pilgrimage is described in symbols, and among them, that of the Adept-Teacher whose compassion manifests in practical sacrifice and makes him incarnate in a body of flesh and blood. There is a long line of Divine Incarnations. All religions bear witness to the fact. The occult nature of this mighty phenomenon is so holy and sacred, and withal so difficult of comprehension by the ordinary human intellect, that the truth has ever been cast in symbolic and allegorical forms. Use is made of the law of correspondence and analogy and these Teachers named "Suns of Righteousness." In our objective universe of matter and false appearances the Sun is the most fitting emblem of the life-giving beneficent Power of the Master of Compassion, who, as a self-luminous Being enlightens humanity by the great sacrifice of incarnation.

Divine Incarnations are historical facts. In Their own personalities these Beings embody Pure Truths, They are Wisdom Incarnate, the Word made flesh. Purna-Avataras, Full Incarnations of Wisdom, i.e., Beings who embody the totality of knowledge gained and retained in the Mahatmic Hierarchy, are a recognized occult phenomenon in Theosophy. They are the pure channels of Cyclic Will which finds expression in and through Their corporeal existence. Hence in Them sidereal and cosmic forces manifest on the one hand, as psychological and human on the other. All Solar myths are but different versions of the same natural Primeval Mystery on which the Wisdom-Religion was based and the development of its Adepts subsequently framed.

Evolutionary impulse manifests in a sevenfold manner in Nature and in Man: seven cosmic forces unfold seven planets; seven hierarchies of beings beget seven types of humans. On man-bearing globes of our system, Beings who have been men, out of deep compassion and the spirit of sacrifice for their fellows, incarnate to impress the imperishable centre in each man's heart with the supreme and sublime fact that he, too, can, through purity and knowledge, reach the Divine status. This happened on earth when animal-man became the human being some eighteen million years ago. In collectivity but One Being, such compassionate Beings constituted the Lodge of Mahatmas, to form the nursery for future human adepts on this, our earth, and from this Tree of Wisdom, the Ever-Living-Human-Banyan, sprang in due season the branches known as Kapila, Hermes, Enoch, Orpheus, etc., etc. In its constitution the Lodge is sevenfold.

In one of the obscure Sanskrit documents we come across the original of the common Theosophical expression the Great Lodge — Maha-Shala, the Great House, translated in central and western India as the Great School. It is not a place but a collectivity of Beings, whose self-conscious intelligence transcends human comprehension. In that House are lodged seven types of Men, Pure Rays of Light, each but an issue of the Seven Sacred Planets called the Seven Lords — Rishis by the Brahmanas, Ameshaspentas by the Zoroastrians, Arch-Angels by the Christians. Of these Translucent Men it is said that they can no longer err. They appear on earth but at the origin of every new human race and at the junction or close of the two ends of the small and great cycle, and are known as Avatars or Incarnations. Their stay among mortals is exactly the time required, and no more, to impress upon the plastic minds of child-humanity the eternal verities which they embody in their own being, such impress remaining vivid though latent in mankind as "innate ideas." Here is the true source of the very common belief in revelation, which is not of books read or hymns heard, but of Truths impressed in the Heart of Men. This is done so as to ensure the eternal truths from being utterly lost or forgotten by the forthcoming generations.

As a result of this Spiritual Mission, some souls, however few in number, make the supreme effort to follow the noble example set by the Great Sacrifice. In every cycle and race souls have striven to express in thought, word and deed, that Impress made within their Hearts. The successes among such strivers become the Adepts and Initiates; they continue the example set, incarnate among men to instruct and inspire, and do for their younger brethren what was done for themselves.

In the course of the spiritual and intellectual evolution of humanity, these Master-Souls taught in parables and in symbols the Primeval Truths. Thus arose myths and sacred dramas, which in course of time degenerated into dogmas and religions. At the very dawn of intellectual humanity were laid the foundation-stones of all the faiths and creeds, of every fane and church built from first to last; and those allegorical foundations still survive. Universal myths, personifications of Powers divine and cosmic, primary and secondary, and historical personages of all the now-existing as well as of extinct religions, are to be found in the Seven Chief Deities and Their correlations. These Seven in Their spiritual collectivity constitute a Supreme Unity, to which can never be offered profane worship. That Supreme Unity casts its radiance on earth and is the Lodge of Mahatmas.

There is a principle in our complex being dormant in most men; it is the Impress referred to above. It is the real awakener of the human mind and soul. First by the study of Theosophy and then by enacting in our own lives the actions of the Great Ones, we emancipate ourselves and learn the lesson of Renunciation.

Each one of us is a "Child of God"; each one of us can develop into a "Sun of Righteousness" whose life-giving effulgence kills the terrestrial passions, which are the impediments to Self-Realization. By the help of that hidden Principle we emerge triumphant from the region of lust and iniquity, become Karma-Sakshin, Witness of the karma of men, and in all the glory of regeneration we arise as the Graha-Raja, King of the Constellations, and are addressed as Gabnashman, "re-possessed of his rays."

That which is written can be read; that which is spoken can be heard, but there is that in the expression of These Mighty Masters which can neither be seen nor heard but which can be known in the hollow of the head and fully realized in the chamber of the heart. Let us all be born again this month as the Sun starts on His journey Northward on the 21st of December. He is hidden enshrined in the heart of each one of us:

Thou residest in the agglomeration of thy divine personages. Thou begettest us, Oh, Thou Unknown, and we greet Thee in worshipping each God Soul which descendeth from Thee and liveth in us.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 14, No. 2, December, 1925 pp. 49-54

¹ Milman: History of Christianity, I, 397.

ZOROASTRIAN METAPHYSICS

THE modern world has elevated the cult of the personal to an art; so much is this the prevailing ideal that in dealing with old world documents up-to-date savants forget that spiritual teachers of yore labored for the impersonal; they not only advocated for their pupils, and themselves practised, the destruction of the sense of separateness, which is the soul of that cult, but also applied the principle in and to their own public and exoteric work.

In every case we find the personality of the teacher almost lost in the mass of teachings and traditions which have gathered round his name. The name itself becomes the mask that hides more than one personality. It was an universal custom in the ancient world for the Teacher to assume a Name-Title occultly indicative of his mission and those who continued His work adopted it; thus the teacher's name invariably became a generic appellation of the School he founded, e.g., the name-title of the Iranian Reformer Zorathushtra — the Star who contemplates and sacrifices to the Living Sun. Of course, in the progress of time with the rise of ambitious and unscrupulous persons within the fold, came the faithlessness to the cause for which the School itself was founded. For example, the name-title of one of the greatest of Adepts, Shankar-Acharya, has been used in India these many centuries, by the Schools (Mathams) which came into being under His influence. The official manager-expounder in each of such schools called himself Shankar-Acharya, in conformity with the practice of the old occult traditions; their duty was to preserve intact and prevent any violation of the teachings of the Adept in their respective schools. To this day, in India several Shankar-acharyas have spiritual sway over large masses of Hindus, but they are more rivals than co-operators, and hardly any impart the pure and genuine doctrines of the original Reformer. The form has survived, but the Soul is absent.

Like all other tradition-institutions this is rooted in truth. The teaching about the Guruparampara Chain which has deteriorated into the grotesque and immoral doctrine of Apostolic Succession has an occult aspect, viz., that the office of the Teacher is never vacant and that orphan humanity is never without its Guides and Gurus. The highest title of the Buddha — and there are as many Buddhas as there are Sankaras — is Tathagata, he who is like his predecessors and successors. And what is true of Buddha, the Enlightened One, is equally true of Christ, the Anointed One.

In studying ancient Theosophies this is a factor the student has to keep well in mind. Thus in the consideration of Zoroastrian Theosophy we have to remember that the School represented by Zoroaster is very ancient. Writes H.P.B.:

If we had to describe broadly the origin of this religion from the standpoint, and upon the authority of the Occult teachings, we would call it by its original, primitive name, that of Magianism. Locating its first development in those vast regions which would have to be described as the whole area between the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Okhotsk in its length, and that which stretches through the unexplored deserts between the Altai and the Himalayan mountains in its breadth, we would place it back at an epoch, undreamt of by modern science and, therefore, rejected by all but the most speculative and daring anthropologists. We have no right to give out in this journal the correct number of years or rather of ages upon ages, since — according to the doctrines of the Secret Science — the first seeds of Magianism were sown by the hand of the Being to whose duty it falls to rear, nurse and guide the tottering steps of the renascent human races, that awake anew to life on every planet in its turn, after its periodical "obscuration." It goes as far back as the days of our local Manvantara, so that the seeds sown among the first "root-race" began sprouting in its infant brain, grew up, and commencing to bear fruit toward the latter part of the second race, developed fully during the third, into what is known among Occultists as the "Tree of Knowledge," and the "Tree of Life" — the real meaning of both having been, later on, so sadly disfigured and misinterpreted by both Zoroastrians and Christians.

Now, Occult Records claim to have the correct dates of each of the 13 Zoroasters. According to the said Records, Zoroastrianism as a distinct religio-philosophic school is of early Atlantean origin, i.e., before spiritual sinfulness overtook that race. The founding of this School coincides with the beginning of the cycle of the Iranian branch of the Aryan stock; this event is marked by the physical incarnation of the first Zoroaster from whose psycho-spiritual seed sprang the builders of Iranian Mysteries and culture. In the narratives of his life-labors, mythical and astronomical events were incorporated, as said in the previous article of this series. Parts of this narrative are to be found in the Vendidad.

Originally the Vendidad was preeminently an Occult treatise; it has passed through innumerable vicissitudes and distortions during these thousands of years, as through scores of editions in the course of the evolution of languages; in its present form it is but a fragment, and a patched-up one at that — put together mostly from memory and surviving documents, some of doubtful authenticity from the occult point of view, after the exploits of the vandal Iskander, whom the West knows as Alexander and calls "Great"!

Since the days of the first Zoroaster this School (like the Sister Schools in other lands) has bent to the blows of cyclic law; it became greatly corrupted in its exoteric ranks at times and became only a surviving esoteric centre; flourished through its beneficent and influential works at others. During this ebb and flow Adept-Teachers of different ranks restored the teachings and resuscitated the work; all of Them were reformers and protestants against anti-Theosophic doctrines and practices; one of them protested and led a revolt against the Vaidic corruptions when cultured intercourse between India and Persia was close and intimate; another reformed the magic-practices of Egyptians and Chaldeans in their sub-cycles of degradation. In doing all this they always employed the name-title of the Original Founder and with good reason; for they were, one and all, but Incarnations, however limited, of the Original Influence.¹ The last one to do this was the builder of the Temple of Azareksh, many ages before the historical era; he was the Mage who taught the doctrines of Divine Magic which spread from Bactris to Medes and thence under the name of Magism were used by the Adept-astronomers in Chaldea which influenced considerably the Mosaic doctrines; he was the author of the Zend-Avesta which, as Darmesteter explains, is "a commentary or explanation of the Law", i.e., he was the transcriber and annotator of the works on the primeval sacred Magian religion. The original Zend is a secret code of certain words and expressions agreed upon by the original compilers, and the key to which is but with the Initiates. Neither was The Avesta of Ardeshir identical with that which was brought out and given to Gushtasp, by Zara-Ishter the 13th prophet of the Desatir; nor that of the latter quite the same as the original Zend, although even this one was the exoteric version of the Zen-Zara.

While certain Persian books repeating the Occult teaching speak of 13 Zoroasters, we must not forget that there were other individuals connected with the exoteric side of the School who also claimed from time to time the name-title of Zoroaster for themselves. Such claimants distorted and disfigured the pure teachings and have left their mark and impress on the outer story of the School. Naturally, these spurious claimants do not form part of the Occult Records about the true Zoroasters.

The original treatises — codes of law like the Vendidad, or hymns like the five Gathas, or litanies like the Yasna are almost all extinct. The sparse fragments we now possess are worse than fragmentary, for interpolations have taken place. All the same they are full of high philosophy, noble ethics, and not altogether devoid of occult lore and esoteric teachings, though they are rightly called "the ruins of a religion".

The extant Zoroastrian texts and documents will not be appreciated till all this is kept in mind. What we now possess is the residue of centuries of trials and tribulations through which Iranian culture came to birth, culminated, declined and from all appearances is becoming extinct — this last is one phase of the communal karma which the modern Parsis, only some 95,000 strong, are facing today.

Highly mixed as this residue is, there is enough of Theosophy not only to interest but also instruct our readers. We will here examine some of its metaphysical propositions, then turn to its cosmo- and anthropo-genesis, and finally to its psychology, and gain inspiration from its noble ethics.

As in all true Theosophical expositions the conception of a personal God is absent. Writes H.P.B.:

Magianism, in the days of its full maturity and practice, and long ages before the first of the 12 great religions, its direct offshoots — mentioned and feebly described by Mohsan Fani in the Dabistan, — ever saw light; and even much anterior to the appearance of the first devotees of the religion of Hush-ang, which, according to Sir W. Jones, "was long anterior to that of Zeratusht, the prophet of the modern Parsis," that religion, as we can undeniably prove was, "Atheism". At any rate, it would be so regarded now, by those who call Kapila and Spinoza, Buddha and our Mahatmas, Brihaspati of the Charvack and the modern Adwaitees, all alike, nastikas or atheists. Assuredly no doctrine about a personal God, a gigantic man and no more — was ever taught by the true Magi. Hence Zoroaster — the seventh prophet (according to the Desatir, whose compilers mixed up and confused the 14 "Zaro-Ishtars," the high priests and initiates of the Chaldean worship or Magian Hierophants — the 13th) — would be regarded as an atheist in the modern sense of the word.

Omnipresent Deity, a Living Nature are the central truths of Zoroastrianism. The physical and visible Nature is energised by the psychical and both are ensouled and enveloped by the spiritual. Ahuramazda, the Sovereign Spirit, is the Universal Power, one with his manifestation. Of course he is personified and the latter has become an object of prayer and worship with the ignorant. The Ahuramazda Yasht is highly reminiscent of the 9th, 10th, and 11th discourses of the Bhagavad Gita. Like Shri Krishna, Ahuramazda in answer to his favorite disciple, Zoroaster, describes his own nature. He gives his own many names, characteristic of that Nature and starts with — "Ahmi — "I am." The original construction (no doubt purposely employed just as Krishna plays on the word Atma in the 6th Gita) also leads to the translation: "I am That about which every one enquires and questions." The second name which has puzzled Orientalists and even Parsi philologists is rendered "Herd-giver" by Darmesteter among the former, and as "protector and nourishers of the Herd" by Ervad Kanga among the latter. It really refers to the character of Ahuramazda as constituting the hierarchy of beings which is immanent in the manifested universe; in his transcendent nature he is the energising ensouling Power who, like Krishna, having established this whole Universe with a fragment of himself, remains separate.² The very third name, "I am the one strength in everybody," and those which follow, are clearly indicative of the all-pervasive nature of Ahuramazda — Wisdom Incarnate.

Zoroastrianism is not a monotheistic religion, however much some of its Anglicized adherents of today make that claim, imitating the unphilosophical churches of Christendom; nor is it polytheistic, though among the superstitious of the community there prevails ceremonial and other worship of the elemental, psychic and spiritual forces, personified in the Zend Avesta; nor is it even pantheistic as pantheism is conceived by the modern West. It is a philosophic hylo-zoism in which matter and life are inseparate and inseparable, the Unit made up of numberless units, each a manifestation of Wisdom Divine — Mazda Ahura — which is the container and common link of its two aspects.

On the subjective side Zoroastrianism teaches the doctrine of emanations, on the objective that of evolution. These Emanations (like the Syzigies of Simon Magus) are always in pairs, one of the pair itself an emanation of the other. Thus Ahura-Existence-Beness, and Mazda — Absolute Wisdom — are a pair; Mazda the coeval and coeternal emanation or inherent radiation of Ahura. Then Ahuramazda emanates Vohu Mano — the Good Mind, and these two labor for the spiritual unfoldment of the manifested universe. For this purpose is begotten Asha Vahishta — Divine Harmony the third of the Amesha Spentas; thus the 1st and the 2nd, the 2nd and the 3rd, the 3rd and the 4th, the 4th and the 5th, the 5th and the 6th, the 6th and the 7th, and the last Ameretat — Immortality — and the first Ahura Mazda, work for the preservation and regeneration of all. The last pair represents the end of toil — Immortal Repose, Equipoise, Nirvana. Thus the Seven Primal Builders emanate one from the other and form the Great Circle — the Circle of Everlasting Divinity knowing Its own immortal nature. The Great Dragon of Wisdom, Ahuramazda, biting his own tail, Immortality-Ameretat, remains forever and ever in limitless Duration — Zrvan Akarana, and periodically casts its shadow, Zrvan Daregho-Khaodata — the Circle of Time, the Chakra-Wheel of Periodicity.³ Zrvan Daregho-Khaodata is the eternity of the universe in toto as a boundless plane periodically the playground of numberless universes; Zrvan Akarana is the Vibrant Sphere of Duration, boundless and limitless, of which sphere the Zrvan Daregho-Khaodata is the plane-circle. The Cycle in motion is the emanation of the Sphere which is Motionlessness — such is the Zoroastrian mode of expression about the Absolute and the Great Breath.

Thus we have the root of cycles of differing periods in the concept of Zrvan Daregho-Khaodata — Circles of Manifested Time, each of which has a beginning and therefore an end; this latter is the second of the pair, the first being Zrvan Akarana, "Limitless Time", which is Duration beginningless and endless. Every orthodox Parsi in reciting his matin prayers repeats: Zrvan Akarana yazmaidae, Zrvan Daregho-Khaodata yazmaidae — "Sacrifice of praise unto the Boundless Duration, sacrifice of praise unto the sovereign Time of the Great Period."

Unfortunately, however, this primal metaphysical duality in time concept is not given (by modern students of Zoroastrianism) the consideration it deserves. There is another pair which meets with a similar fate — Ahuramazda — Absolute Wisdom which manifests itself as Ahuna Vairya — the Veracious Word.⁴ The abstraction Mazda Ahura — the Wisdom which is — becomes incarnate, expresses itself as the Word, as Brahman becomes Pranava.

This Word, Ahuna Vairya or Honover, is composed of three couplets and twenty-one words. From Pahlavi and Persian books we learn that these twenty-one words are the names of the twenty-one Sacred Books of the Holy Law which are mostly destroyed; fragments of fragments only are available at present. This Veracious Word is like the sacred formula of the Buddhists — Om Mani Padme Hum — or like the Brahmanical Gayatri. It is at once a mantra with tone effects, a colorful ideograph, an occult cipher to be deciphered according to the true science of Numbers. Metaphysically speaking, it unveils the nature of Deity and Cosmos, and from the psychological viewpoint is the Soul-Power which all true men and good use to destroy the mighty magic of Ahriman, following the example of Zoroaster himself.⁵ It is called the "axe of victory" by which man hews down the Tree of Evil.

This Word was the primary manifestation and came into being before the Universe, hence, as Darmesteter points out (Sacred Books of the East, — Vol. 4, pp. 206-07) "in the boundless Time"; i.e., the Word and the Cycle or Period of Time are coeval and coeternal — two aspects of the one. This manifestation of the Word is described in some detail in Yasna XIX. The chanting of this Word has several meanings, cosmical and human; it contains the three stages, like the Three Steps of Vishnu and Jehovah Elohim by which Ahuramazda completed his task of creation;⁶ it is the Note struck for his people by the first Zoroaster, a cyclic avatara; it is the knowledge about 3 X 7 = 21 natures of man; 7 Spiritual-monadic, 7 Intellectual-individual, and 7 Formal-personal, so that every one can employ the Word in pursuance of the injunction "Man know thyself." Of it the record stands:

"Ahunem Vaiream Tanum Payatae
The Word sustains the Body."

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 14, No. 3, January, 1926 pp. 97-103

TRANSMISSION, NOT REVELATION

More than one great scholar has stated that there never was a religious founder, whether Aryan, Semitic or Turanian, who had invented a new religion, or revealed a new truth. These founders were all transmitters, not original teachers. They were the authors of new forms and interpretations, while the truths upon which the latter were based were as old as mankind. Selecting one or more of those grand verities — actualities visible only to the eye of the real Sage and Seer — out of the many orally revealed to man in the beginning, preserved and perpetuated in the adyta of the temples through initiation, during the Mysteries and by personal transmission — they revealed these truths to the masses. Thus every nation received in its turn some of the said truths, under the veil of its own local and special symbolism; which, as time went on, developed into a more or less philosophical cultus, a Pantheon in mythical disguise.

—Secret Doctrine

¹ Cf. Secret Doctrine, I, 359.

² Cf. Bhagavad-Gita, x, 42.

³ Zad-Sparam., I, 24. The reference is not to Zrvan Akarana but to Zrvan Daregho-Khaodata.

⁴ Cf. Yasna viii, 1.

⁵ Cf. Vendidad xix.

⁶ Cf. Secret Doctrine, I, 113.

ZOROASTRIAN COSMOGENESIS

IF the Orientalists, through their peculiar method of reading Zend, Pahalvi and Pazand, have disfigured the import of Zoroastrian texts, they have at least done the service of drawing to them the attention of the Western world. There are two occidental volumes which have misled western readers these many years — Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra, and Samuel Laing's A Modern Zoroastrian. The former has deceived only the bourgeois mind into believing that Nietzsche's Zoroaster was anything else but an imaginary figure of the German writer. The latter has done more serious damage; the author, a materialistic rationalist of repute, but a poor philosopher and a worse metaphysician, harnessed his badly digested reading on the religion of the Parsis (reading presumably done in his capacity as a globe-trotter) to adorn his thesis on the dualism of matter-polarity. His volume is excellent reading from the standpoint of science and his remarks on Zoroastrian dualism are very interesting, but the title is a misnomer. The book has misled even Parsis, especially those unfamiliar with the real metaphysics and philosophy of their own religion. Orientalists began speaking of the religion of Zoroaster as dualism, and Laing, the scientist, confirmed the theory — so, it became canonical!

In every civilization metaphysical ideas and cosmic ultimates have undergone strange metamorphoses through their misinterpretation by minds not pure and noble enough to comprehend them. A greater confusion than ignorant identification of Brahman with Brahmà exists in reference to the Zoroastrian pair. Not centuries but aeons of evolution are traceable since the two primeval spirits became transformed as Ormazd and Ahriman. If Zoroastrian cosmogenesis is to be understood, we should once again bear in mind the fact of lengthy eras of materializing thought which has made Zoroastrianism what it is, fragmentary and anthropomorphic.

Let the following be first grasped: the functions of the good and evil forces in Zoroastrian cosmology represent definite philosophic concepts; the activities of the same powers in anthropology and mythos are also distinct ideas; their psychological and human aspects make up a story by themselves, different again from the other two. Not only the different eras in which evolution of the duality-idea took place, have to be noted, but also the fact that different teachers used the same words and names to designate distinct ideas — universal or personal, cosmic or psychological, mythical or allegorical.

In Zend tradition Ahuramazda and Angramainyu are not two opposing beings. They become so in their later Pahlavi transformations. Those two primeval Spirits — Minos — are called Spento and Angro, and they are the powers (shaktis, as the Parsi Ervad Kanga points out, p. 23 of his Gathas) of Ahuramazda. Dr. Mills says in his Zarathustrian Gathas (p. 84), "The Spenta-mainyu here is not identical with Ahura, but it is, as so often, His Spirit, whatever precisely this expression may mean." This word Spenta is the same as in Amesha Spenta, the seven Immortals and really means the Mainyu-Spirit which unfolds its sevenfold nature or emanates seven hierarchies of beings. Thus Spenta-mainyu is the source from which emanate Ahuramazda himself with his six satellites. The supplementing power is Angra-Mainyu, the source of evil which is the root of matter and in its personified aspect is the father-brother of seven evil demons. Great discussion has taken place as to the real origin of this conception of Angra-Mainyu which later became Ahriman, Satan. The concept which ensouls the word is derived from the same source from which Ahimanyu of the Rig Veda comes. The Zoroastrian concept was not borrowed from the Vedas but like so many others is rooted in the original parent of both the Vedic and Avestic systems; the Ah-hi of the Esoteric Doctrine is the common parent of the Avesta Angra and the Vedic Ahi. Ahi the serpent of evil, or the Cycle of Matter is really the manifested Universe, the flesh made by the Word.

The two primeval spirits, Spento and Angro, are impersonal, universal and omnipotent forces — centripetal and centrifugal. Out of them emanate the seven hierarchies of spiritual intelligence and the seven material kingdoms of nature. Spento and Angro are like the Purusha and Prakriti of Indian philosophy. Just as "Light and darkness are the world's eternal ways" (Gita, VIII) so do Spento and Angro-Mainyus commence, sustain, and renovate the cycle of necessity, Ahuramazda Himself being the primal expression thereof. The Gathas sing thus:

The spirits primeval are a pair and they together communed. These two differ in thought, in word, in deed, one the enhancer of betterment, the other the fashioner of evil ... The two spirits came together at the dawn — one the maker of life, the other to mar it, and thus they shall be unto the last. Yasna XXX-3, 4.

I announce to you life's first two spirits of whom the Good accosted the Evil: Never our thoughts, nor creeds, nor understandings, nor beliefs, nor words, nor deeds, nor consciences, nor souls can be the same. Yasna XLV-2.

These two, the centripetal and centrifugal forces, are the basis of the universe. They cause manifestation and dissolution. The two are objects of worship by the Holy Sraosha, "the God Obedient to Ahura" (Yasna LVII-2). Spirit-Matter, Ideation-Substance, the One Life with its dual aspect, manifests as the Universe, the Zrvan Daregho-Khaodata — sovereign time. This Zoroastrian expression stands for "the Great Day 'Be With Us'" which the Egyptians called "Day of Come to Us." It is the "Ring Pass Not" of the Manifested Cosmos in the Secret Doctrine.

This circle of Zrvan Daregho-Khaodata is guarded by four Star Chieftains — Tistrya in the East, Satavaesa in the West, Vanant in the South and Haptoiringa in the North. Students of H. P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine will recognize in them the four Maharajas connected with the Lipikas and Karma.

The Zodiac with its twelve constellations as also the seven planets are mentioned in the Bundahis. Says H.P.B.:

The Sun, the moon and the stars in the Avesta are all emblematical representations — the Sun, especially — the latter being the concrete and most appropriate emblem of the one universal life-giving principle, while the stars are part and parcel of the Occult sciences. Yima never "prayed" but went to "meet the sun" in the vast space of heavens, and bringing down with him "the science of the stars, pressed the earth with his golden ring and forced (thereby) the 'Spenta Armaiti' — (the genius of the earth) to stretch asunder and to bear flocks and herds and men." (Farg. II, 10.)

The Sun is regarded as a focal point for the universal light. The relation between Khorshed "the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun" and Mihir or Mithra "the Lord of wide pastures, who has a thousand ears well shapen and ten thousand eyes, high, with full knowledge, strong, sleepless, and ever awake" has been a puzzle to the students of the Avesta. Says Darmesteter: "Mithra is closely connected with the Sun, but not yet identical with it." But esoteric cosmogony and the occult teaching on the nature of the physical sun once accepted, the puzzle remains no more a puzzle. Just as in the famous verse of the Isavasyaopanishad (15), the Spiritual Sun behind the physical sun is invoked, so is there behind the Avesta Khorshed — Sun its Spiritual-Soul, Mihir or Mithra. Mihir in its cosmic aspect is the universal invisible light, and by the power inherent in it, produces physical stars which are its eyes and in the intervening spaces super-physical ones which cannot be seen but whose music can be heard. The dwelling place of Mihir extends over the manifested universe and he has eight friends who from watch-towers guard the faithful, and also listen to those who lie unto that Soul of Light and Lustre. This also is imagery of a teaching dealt with in the Esoteric Commentary — "Eight houses were built by Mother." (c.f. S.D. I, 100.) Mihir's Chariot is inlaid with stars and made of spirit-substance (Mainyu-tashtem) drawn by four immortal horses, who, like Poseidon's steeds, live on ambrosia. In that chariot Mihir drives throughout Space, and the thousand well-made maces of iron on one side of that chariot fall upon the skulls of demons. Here is to be found poetic and allegorical descriptions of the formation of the heavenly bodies — from suns to star dust.

In the prayer of praise recited every day by the orthodox Parsi, Mihir is described as present in seven directions (Mihir Nyayis, 11), in reference to every globe, the third of which is called "this country." The order is peculiar but the Key to it lies in the Chaldean Kabala diagram given in the Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 200. In one of His aspects, like the bright Nyima-Sun, Mihir falls under Karmic law and becomes the fiery aura of the "Hand" of Lhagpa-Mercury; in that particular aspect he became the central figure of the Mithraic Mysteries. Surrounding and within, above and below, in front and behind the land of Mihir, Mercury (Globe "F" of the Eastern Gupta Vidya and Tephreth of the Chaldean Kabala) is the Life-Power of the Central Sun — Mihir in his solar aspect.

Several hints about the Moon being the preceding planetary chain are to be found: how the Moon was produced from Vohumano — the Good Mind, as in the Vedas it is produced from the Manas of Purusha; how the Moon is the Keeper of the Seed of Bull (Taurus) (c.f. Isis Unveiled II, 465), how the Ameshaspentas pour Moon's glory (Khoreno — Theosophic Aura-Augoeides) on the earth, and other cognate ideas, are to be found in the Mah Yast and other fragments.

That brings us to the doctrine of the seven Karshvares — globes — of our earth planetary chain, about which H.P.B. writes:

On Page six of his Introduction IV, to Part I of the Zend-Avesta — the Vendidad, Mr. J. Darmesteter has the following remark: "The Ancestors of the Indo Iranians had been led to speak of seven worlds, the Supreme God was often made sevenfold, as well as the worlds over which he ruled.... The seven worlds became in Persia the seven Karshvare of the earth: the earth is divided into seven Karshvare, only one of which is known and accessible to man, the one on which we live, namely, 'hvaniratha': which amounts to saying that there are seven earths." The latter belief is attributed, of course, to ignorance and superstition. Nor do we feel quite certain that this opinion will not be shared by those of our readers who neither are Chelas nor have read the "Fragments of Occult Truth." But we leave it with the "lay chelas" and others to judge whether this sevenfold division (see Farg. XIX) is not the ABC of the Occult Doctrines.

The Secret Doctrine (Vol. II, pp. 757-759) treats fully of this subject and explains the mystery. Space forbids our quoting in full the important passage, with the explanatory diagram, but the subject will remain incomplete if the reader omits to peruse it at this point.

That brings us to earth and anthropogenesis.

"Bundahis is an old eastern work in which among other things anthropology is treated in an allegorical form," says H.P.B., and we will make use of that valuable treatise, thus:

The field of evolution, the earth planetary chain, has an age limit — 9,000 years divided into three periods. During the first 3,000 years everything proceeds by the will of Ahuramazda, followed by the second 3,000 years when an intermingling of the wills of Ahuramazda and Ahriman prevails, and then the last when the evil spirit is disabled and completely defeated. These three periods are worked by the magic of the Veracious Word of 21 words — Honovar — recited by Ahuramazda (see Bundahis I, 20-22). This is the poetic rendition of the stately progression of the 7 classes of Monads in the 7 Kingdoms through the 7 Rounds; the 9,000 years being a symbol — 9 (made up of 4+3+2) worked with the aid of three ciphers, one each for the three periods of forthgoing, balance, and return.

We will take next the description — puzzling to the ordinary reader but graphic to the student of the Secret Doctrine — of that important event in evolution, the descent of the Manasa-putras, or the phenomenon of the lighting up of Manas. It is said (Bundahis II, 9) that Ahuramazda performed the Yazeshnai — Sacrifice Ceremony — with the help of the Ameshaspentas in the Rapitavan Gah and through that rite supplied every means necessary for overcoming adversity caused by the adversary — Ahriman. Now, Rapithavan is one of the five periods of the day — the exact middle of the day being its starting moment — which is observed during the seven summer months, but not during the remaining five winter months. Chapter XXV of this Pahalvi volume deals with cycles; days, months, and seasons are utilized to serve the purpose of defining and describing a variety of cycles. Thus Ahuramazda performing this ceremony in the middle of the day is a very pointed reference to the event in the middle of the fourth round on this earth. What does he do? He deliberates with previously made Fravashis who had "remained 3,000 years in a spiritual state, so that they were unthinking, unmoving with intangible bodies" (Bundahis I, 8). Fravashis are the spirit-prototypes, the inner guardian angels of all souls — sub-human, human, as well as super-human — Ahuramazda himself having a Fravashi. H.P.B. speaks of it as "the spiritual counterpart of the still more spiritual original." Each Fravashi has attached to it Bod (Theosophic Buddhi) and Ahuramazda confers with these Fravashi-Bod.

Which seems to you the more advantageous, when I shall present you to the world? that you shall contend in a bodily form with the fiend (drug), and the fiend shall perish, and in the end I shall have you prepared again perfect and immortal, and in the end give you back to the world, and you will be wholly immortal, undecaying, and undisturbed; or that it be always necessary to provide you protection from the destroyer? (Ibid, II, 10.)

Then these spirit-entities "became of the same opinion" as Ahuramazda and descended to the world to fight the fiend of the lower nature and gain the knowledge of their immortality and become perfect.

In the Vendidad (Fargard II) we see the Theosophical teachings about the early races of humanity on earth. Just as Krishna (Gita IV) speaks of his having previously communicated the wisdom to Vivasvat, etc., so here Ahuramazda speaks to Zoroaster about the first mortal to whom the Deity taught the sacred lore. This was "the fair Yima, son of Vivanghat" whose story is narrated. H.P.B. informs us that Yima — Persian Jamshed — is "representative of the first unborn human race of our fourth round." Yima is "the good shepherd" who on being asked to be the bearer of the Good Law replies, "I was not born to be the preacher, nor was taught to be the bearer of the Law." This answer is indicative of the pure spiritual nature of that first race which was not "yet in need of the truths of the Sacred Science, — hence Ahriman is powerless over the innocence of infancy," writes H.P.B. Yima keeps disease and death away from his people. This race grows seventy times seven, and thrice Yima enlarges the earth by the aid of the two implements — gifts of Ahuramazda — a golden ring and a poniard inlaid with gold. All this takes 1,000 winters, which says Isis Unveiled (II, 221) is a cycle known to the initiates and which has an allegorical sense. "By the power of his innate untaught light and knowledge, due to the absence of Angra Mainyu, he forces the earth to grow larger at his will and wish," says H.P.B. Thus Yima becomes the symbol of the three races.

Then Ahuramazda and his Ameshaspentas meet Yima with his flock in Airyana Vaego and the Deity informs Yima that fatal winters are going to befall, and that "all the three sorts of beasts shall perish"; "therefore make thee a vara, an enclosure," and thither bring the seeds of all species — "two of every kind, to be kept inexhaustible there, so long as those men stay there." The Secret Doctrine (Vol. II, 291 et seq.) throws great light on subsequent events of the narrative, to which the reader's attention is called. Our attempt has been to indicate that a rich field of research awaits those who desire to know. In the words of H.P.B.:

Every thinking Parsee, has to help himself if he would learn more. His religion is not dead yet; and under the lifeless mask of modern Zoroastrianism the pulse of the Magi of old still beats. We have endeavoured as briefly as possible to give a correct, though a very superficial, view of the purport and spirit of true Magianism. There is not a sentence in this for which authority cannot be shown.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 14, No. 4, February, 1926 pp. 149-154

ZOROASTRIAN PSYCHOLOGY

WESTERN scholars may say "the Key to the Avesta is not the Pahlavi but the Vedas"; the Occultist's answer is "aye, but the Key to the Vedas is the Secret Doctrine." The former assert correctly enough that "the Vedas come from the same source as the Avesta"; the students of Occultism ask, "do you know even the a.b.c. of that source?" — thus wrote H.P.B.

Praiseworthy efforts have been made by some Orientalists to study comparatively Sanscrit-Pali and Zend-Pahlavi lore. Serious and important as that philological study is, the student of the esoteric philosophy looks on it as but the forerunner to the more important study of the real import and the true meaning of the fables, legends, myths, symbols of the teachings of Buddhas and Zoroasters alike. Students of Theosophy have to endeavor to arouse genuine and sincere interest in the message of the Ancients, so that the world will demand more than mere word translations of hoary texts and Mss. Presently the cyclic return will show its effects and the western world will have to be satisfied with the tenets of the Soul unfolding philosophy-ethics of the Aryans. Many hundreds of words and expressions, Sanskrit, Zend, Pahlavi, Pali, Pazand, are not understood because philology is divorced from philosophy, words from ideas. The true Theosophist must be ready with the correct comprehension of universal ideas which are the basis of all particular creeds and popular philosophies. If there are dangers lurking in this cycle along the line of the third object of the Theosophical Movement there also exist certain dangers in connection with the second object.

Lack of philosophical knowledge on the part of western philologists and even their eastern pupils and companions have led most of them to confound and confuse teachings which with even a little knowledge of Theosophy and the esoteric doctrines become clear and explicit. While in matters of metaphysics and cosmology one may not see the danger and the pity of this neglect, in matters of psychology and practical ethics the case is otherwise. What a difference it would make, for instance, to the modern educated Parsi, if he could understand and apply the tenets about man's constitution to be found in his Yasna 26 and 55 (54 of Spiegel, which translation is a better rendering than that of Dr. L. H. Mills in the Sacred Books of the East), in Farvardin Yasht and in other texts.

We will outline here two schemes of human constitution to be found in the Avesta:

An eight-fold being composed of (1) Fravarshi — the triple Atma, the Individual Ray of the Impersonal Deity; (2) Urvan the Soul, the Buddhi and Manas, the Discriminator and Thinker, the dual Powers-Shaktis of Atma-Ishvara or Fravarshi; (3) Bodhas, the faculty of the Urvan whereby he chooses, selects and devises ways and means of his own growth; (4) Tevishes, the Desire-Kama which inclines towards Bodhas or gravitates towards (5) Keherpas, which is Persian Kaleb Aerial form or mould, Linga Sharira; (6) Ushtanas is the Vital-heat or prana; (7) and (8) are Bony structure and the Body, symbolic representatives of the immortal and mortal constituents of the body whose true import the esotericist is familiar with.
A five-fold being composed of (1) Ahu — the Self, the Personality in incarnation, the lower-self with its quarternary principles; (2) Daena, Its ever-present and watchful holy insight, its pure and wise spouse who stores away all that is worthy in the myriad experiences of the first, and who alone can enable it to understand the tenets of the True Faith (Din); she forms the link between the first and the higher triad and after the death of the personality appears to it — objectivized form of its own experiences as we see below; (3) Bodhas (4) Urvan (5) Fravarshi are the same as in the first classification.

In another place two different names are used: instead of the third Bodhas, in the above, the word Manah, which is the same as in Sanskrit is given, and for the first Ahu — the Personal Self — the word Asna is inserted. Asna is the aspiring-desiring nature, the primal constituent and the very basis of the Personal Self; by that power it moves upward or downward.

A beautiful as well as instructive picture of after death states is to be found in the following condensed rendition of a Yast fragment:

Zarathushtra asked Ahura Mazda: Thou Pure Spirit, the unfolder of all that is beneficent, when one of the pure dies where does his soul abide?

Ahura Mazda answered: Zarathushtra, that Soul, engaged in his ideation sings the Ustavaiti Gatha: "Prosperity to him through whom prosperity comes to all" on the first night, and on the second, and on the third; he enjoys the peace which comes to all mortals through his chanting.

At the end of the third night as the dawn rises that Soul wends its way southward, inhaling the fragrance of orchards and the scent of flowering shrubs and he contemplates — "Whence that fragrance, the sweetest ever breathed?"

And he sees, approaching him, a Virgin pure, of fifteen summers, as fair as the fairest thing of earth, handsome, radiant, heroic, stately, of appearance that attracts, of divine lineage, of the ancient seed of the Spirit; and the good soul questions her: "Who art thou, the fairest maid I have ever seen?"

"I am thine own Daena (thine Inner Spirit-Self)," answers the Maid, "thou youth of good thoughts, good words, good deeds, good faith, I am thyself. Clad in those virtues bright thou appeared to others on earth, as now and here I appear to thee. When some derided the teachings about the Inner Self and prayed to idols, and some shut their door against the poverty-stricken, and some were engaged in destroying growing plants and trees, thou sat singing the Gathas praising the waters of life and the Fire which is the Soul, the Son of Ahura Mazda and made happy the righteous from near and afar. Oh, radiant youth, I was lovely and thou madest me lovelier; I was fair and now I am fairer; I was desirable and thou madest me still more desirable; I used to sit in a forward place and now thou madest me sit in the foremost place; henceforth mortals will worship me for thee having sacrificed long in converse with Ahura Mazda."

Then first through the paradise of good Thought, and then of good Word, and then of good Deed, the Soul found himself, in the Heaven of Light.

And one of the faithful who had arrived there previously asked him, "How didst thou depart the life, O, holy man, from the material world into the spiritual, from the decaying unto this the undecaying one?"

Ahura Mazda interposed, "Ask him not, who has just finished the dreary way, the life of the body." Then the Good Soul and his spirit spouse (Daena) feasted of the food of experience like unto the butter skimmed from the fresh milk of spring.

Then Zarathushtra asked Ahura Mazda: Thou Pure Spirit, the unfolder of all that is beneficent, when one of the impure dies where does his soul abide? Ahura Mazda answered: Zarathushtra, that Soul desiring his desires, wailing dirge of despondency cries — "To what land shall I turn? To whom shall I go?" and this on the first night, and the second and the third and through it all, suffering in his, the suffering he caused to all.

At the end of the third night as the dawn rises that Soul wends its way northward, inhaling the stench of impure corpses and contemplates — "Whence that stench, the worst I ever inhaled?" And he sees a hag approaching, foul, loathsome, gaping, of demoniacal lineage, of the seed of passion; and the unfortunate soul questions her, "Who art thou, O ugly witch?"

"I am thou, thy lower Self," answered the hag, "thou man of evil thoughts, evil words, evil deeds, and evil faith, I am thyself. Clad in hideous vice thou showed thyself to mortals down on earth as I now show myself to thee. Thou derided the teaching about the Inner Self and prayed to idols of greed and passion and pelf, strewing poverty all around, destroyer of beings on their upward way, causing consternation to the good and despair to the righteous. I was not beautiful and thou madest me ugly; I was not fair and thou madest me hideous; I had not a forward seat and now I am fallen backwards. Henceforth mortals will remember me with fear and dishonour."

Then first through the hell of bad thought, and then of bad word, and then of bad deed, the soul plunged himself in the gloom of darkness.

And one of the wicked who had arrived there previously asked him, "How didst thou depart the life, O, wicked man, from the material world into the spiritual, from the decaying unto this the undecaying one?"

Angra Mainyu interposed, "Ask him not, who has just finished the dreary way, the life of the body." Then the bad soul and his passion spouse feasted on experience like unto the poison and of poisonous stench.

Zoroastrianism is widely known as the religion of fire-worship. Fire, however, is a symbol, certain phases of which only are commonly accepted. It is not grasped that in Zoroastrianism Fire as a symbol-emblem is intended to show the identity of nature between the macrocosm and the microcosm. The variety of fires mentioned; the mode of building up fire (1) in home, (2) in small temples, and (3) in big temples; the custom of never allowing these fires to be extinguished or polluted; and other matters have to be understood as parable-tenets of the science of esoteric psychology.

In numerous places Fire is named the "Son of Ahuramazda," whose Sanskrit equivalent is manasa-putra — the mind-born son of Brahma. The Fire is the reincarnating ego and has two aspects, one stationary, immovable, the other changing and growing. The non-moving is the Divine Ego whose ray is the other. The former sits, the watching spectator, saying "What does he who comes and goes bring to him who is motionless?" But this motionless Fire is "the purifier," "the maker of prosperity," is "strong and immortal" and is named "the warrior." He is also designated "the cook who cooks the day and night meals of mortals," i.e., he is the supplier of experiences in waking and sleeping conditions, as also in life and death. It is further narrated that when a passerby brings him the essence of purity in the shape of Asem, Barsem and Hadhanaepita tree (these are symbolic representations) then the Warrior-Son of Ahuramazda becomes well pleased with that person, and fed as required, that Fire blesses him thus: "May there be increase of cows for thee (i.e., the organisms which yield the milk of sweet and health-giving experiences); may there be increase of heroes for thee (same as above, but note that the former is of the animal kingdom, the latter of the human); may thy mind be master of its vow; may thy soul be master of its vow; may thou live on in the joy of the Soul all the nights of thy life (i.e., in sleep and after-death states)." Such is the blessing given by the Fire-Soul to anyone who brings to him "dry wood" (i.e., deeds free from the moisture of passion), well cleansed with godly intent, well examined by the light of day (i.e., performed from pure motive during day and life, sleep and death being subjective conditions). It is further said that this Fire assists him who feeds him as above described, but fails not to handle those who are inimical to him — which is the doctrine of Karma working from within without.

Though Reincarnation as a doctrine is not clearly and explicitly taught in the fragments now extant, there are numerous passages, such as the above, which clearly indicate that it was well-known.

The doctrine of Fravarshi is of special interest to the student of Theosophy. Every creature, whatever the body may happen to be, has its spiritual counterpart which is Fravarshi. To begin with, Ahuramazda himself has his Fravarshi and he recommends Zoroaster to invoke his Fravarshi and not himself, i.e. the impersonal and true essence of Deity, one with Zoroaster's own atman (or Christos), not the false and personal appearance. The seven Amesha-spentas, all the religious teachers like Zoroaster, all warrior-souls, all evil-doers, animals, plants, minerals, everything has a Fravarshi. The coming into manifestation of these Fravarshis, their evolution and ultimate destiny are all described in Zend, Pahalvi and Persian books. As H.P.B. points out, this doctrine influenced Church-Christianity, and Ferouer is but a corrupted concept-word of the Zend Fravarshi.

The Chinvant Bridge over which the soul passes after death to the state of light or darkness, is significant as the teaching about Antaskarana; the noose around the neck of the man when he dies, which falls away be he righteous, and drags him into hell if wicked, is the teaching about the Kama-rupic shell of the after-death condition. Numerous powers and faculties of the human consciousness, and the nature of super-physical and spiritual hierarchies, of which man is a compound, are described in metaphorical language. As a clue to the chief symbol of Zoroastrianism H.P.B. gave the following in Isis Unveiled.

Fire, in the ancient philosophy of all times and countries, including our own, has been regarded as a triple principle. As water comprises a visible fluid with invisible gases lurking within, and behind all the spiritual principle of nature, which gives them their dynamic energy, so, in fire, they recognized: 1st. Visible flame; 2nd. Invisible, or astral fire — invisible when inert, but when active producing heat, light, chemical force, and electricity, the molecular powers; 3rd. Spirit. They applied the same rule to each of the elements; and everything evolved from their combinations and correlations, man included, was held by them to be triune.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 14, No. 5, March, 1926 pp. 212-216

ZOROASTRIAN ETHICS

IF the spirit of Vedanta singing through the Gita endeavors to bring the world to Dharma-Duty, the theme which Zoroastrianism recites for humanity is Ashoi-Purity. The very words with which Ahuramazda rejoiced Zoroaster as given in the Vendidad (V-21) are: "For man purity is the greatest good even from his birth." This code of purity contains an exhortation profound in its simplicity (IX-19).

Make thyself pure, O righteous man! Anyone in the world here below can win purity for himself, namely when he cleanses himself with good thoughts, words and deeds.

The first, the shortest, but regarded as the most efficacious of prayers is Ashem-Vohu which translated is:

Purity is the noblest blessing. Happiness it is — happiness to him who is pure for the sake of noblest purity itself.

The metaphysical and cosmical aspects of the twin-spirits, good and evil, Ormazd and Ahriman, have already been considered. Just as the great war of Kurukshetra was used by occult teachers in India to instruct humanity in the metaphysical source of all wars (the dual principle of spirit-matter) and its precipitation in man of the greatest of all wars, so also "the whole struggle of Ahura-mazda and Ahriman is but the allegory of the great religious and political war between Brahmanism and Zoroastrianism." (Isis Unveiled, II, p. 237.) Elsewhere H. P. Blavatsky writes:

Ahriman is matter, the begetter of all Evil, and the Destroyer, since matter — eternal per se and indestructible — having to ever change form destroys its units, while Ormazd or Spirit remains immutable in its abstract Unity and as a whole.

It was neither the metaphysical nor the historical aspect which perpetuated the teaching about Ormazd-Ahriman in old Iran; it was the personal — the strife of mind and heart in man, the struggle between his own members. They were a practical people, the Iranians, and what appealed to them was the truth that Mazda's Law of Purity was the weapon to destroy the impure being of their own passion-nature. Their veneration for the great elements, in fact the whole of Nature, sprang from the idea that it was the religious duty of man not only to refrain from polluting but to raise and elevate all the kingdoms of the manifested universe. The aspect of the dual powers which persist with such tenacity in Zoroastrianism is the psychologic-human one, and while Ahriman has been personified and has become, like Satan, a living entity for the superstitious, for the cultured he is but a force within man, his own lower nature.

Zoroastrian ethics is based on Ashoi-Purity. It has two aspects — (1) Purity of the Inner Man, and (2) Purity for the great without. The former is triple — of thoughts, of words, of deeds; the latter is four-fold — of Fire, of Air, of Water, of Earth. The Law of Purity is the Law of Wisdom. Dadistani-Dinik says:

As through Wisdom is created the world of righteousness, through wisdom is subjugated every evil, and through wisdom is perfected every good.

The Law of Mazda, the Wise, is the Law of Purity — (1) of matter — force — consciousness, (2) of elements — energies — beings, (3) of body — mind — soul, (4) of deed — word — thought.

Every Zoroastrian wears next to his skin the Sudarah, the shirt of white material, symbol of purity, of a prescribed cut with symbolic mark thereon, and ties the sacred thread, Kusti, made up of seventy-two interwoven filaments, round his waist over that shirt. Each of the seventy-two filaments represents one of the seventy-two parts of the Izashne — the Yagna-Sacrifice ritual. The thread circumvents the waist three times; in tying it a particular knot is made in the front and another with loose ends at the back. It is thus done: the middle of the thread is applied to the waist in front, and the loose ends go round behind where they change hands, what was in the left hand being taken up by the right and the end in the right hand is picked up by the left; then these are brought back to the front so that the thread has gone round twice; then are made two knots — a right hand and a left hand, and the loose ends for the last time passed behind and tied there with a similar knot. This way in which it is tied, the chanting which accompanies it, in fact its whole symbology centers round the fundamental idea — Humata, Hukhata, Huaresta, good thought, good word, good deed. Several times a day the pious or orthodox Parsi in untying and retying the thread repeats short prayers to affirm the joyous victory of Ahuramazda, and the contempt he feels for Ahriman, and to repent the error of his ways, thus:

I repent for all the evil thoughts, the evil words, the evil deeds, deliberate or unintentional, which I started on their nefarious journey, related to my body or soul, connected with the material or the spiritual world — I repent with the power of the Triple Word.

He reminds himself of the fact that the Law of Ahuramazda is the only true protector and its benediction comes from the Soul-Fire, the Son of Ahura whose intelligence is divine and good.

This Law of Ahuramazda is clear to the wise and the discriminating who by its aid acquire the power of righteous thought and deed and obtain control over the tongue (yasna xxxi — 19 and 22). Manasni — Gavasni — Kunasni — Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds, according to the righteous law of Ahura is reiterated in numerous places in the Avesta. It is insisted that man should consult the righteous Law of Wisdom. His own good inclinations or noble aspirations are not all sufficient, his mental and verbal expressions and especially his deeds should be in conformity with the Code of Wisdom. The Renunciation of Sin (a definite magic-rite now forgotten) has to be performed for the preservation of the soul, in a deliberate manner. Says Dina-i-Maninog-i-Khirad (LII):

Every disaster which springs up he is to trace to the violence of Ahriman and his host, and he is not to seek his own welfare and advantages through the injury of any one else; thus he becomes compassionate as regards all the creatures of Ahuramazda. In duty and good works he is diligent and persistent..... For the performance of Renunciation of Sin the special thing is this, that one commits no sin voluntarily; and if through folly, or weakness and ignorance, a sin occurs, he should then renounce that sin by approaching the high-priest who is his good soul; and after that when he refrains from that sin, having learnt its lesson, that sin is swept away from him, just as the wind, fast and strong sweeping over the plain carries away every single blade of grass and anything that is not rooted in the soil.

Vendidad (XVIII-17) advocates that one should never be slack in good thoughts, words, and deeds, but let a man ever be slack in the three opposing abominations. When a man thinks, speaks, and acts righteously according to the Good Law he obtains from Spenta-Mainyu, the good spirit of Mazda, blissful immortality which is universal harmony of Wisdom (yasna — XLVII — 1-2). There is no trace of any vicarious method of gaining happiness and spiritual insight — the man himself has to fight the evil and refrain from it, to befriend the good and practise it. The struggle which rages within man is long and protracted but through the Soul-Fire the faithful purified of his sins comes to immortality.

The Avesta enjoins the faithful to maintain and increase the purity of the four great elements. It is indicated that these elements are contacted by the man through his own constitution and that an intimate kinship between man and the elemental worlds exists. Thus the tilling of the earth is not only a physical but a psychological process; the water is not only a material element but a psycho-spiritual force; the radiant fire is but a substantial manifestation of divine intelligence; air is not only gaseous matter but a magnetic healer and a purifier of druj-sin, whose nature is psychic.

Thus in the Vendidad the earth rejoices when the faithful digs out corpses of man and beast (i.e. throws out of his being the dead things of lust and passion); the earth feels happy and rejoices when the faithful steps on it on his way to the performance of religious rites (i.e. resolves to begin the spiritual life); when the faithful clears the ground to erect his house (i.e. creates by the power of thought and deed the temple as the soul's habitat); when the faithful cultivates corn, grass and fruit (i.e. reaps his good Karma); and when the faithful brings increase of flocks and herds (i.e. increases his spiritual faculties for the feeding of his fellow-men). Therefore it is said in the Vendidad (III-24):

Unhappy is the land that has long lain unsown with the seed of the sower and wants a good husbandman. He who would till the earth, O Spitama Zarathustra! with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, the earth will bring forth plenty of fruit. Unto the tiller says the Earth: "O thou man! who dost till me with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, hither shall people ever come and beg for bread, here shall I ever go on bearing, bringing forth all manner of food, bringing forth profusion of corn." But to the non-tiller says the Earth: "O thou man! who dost not till me with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, ever shalt thou stand at the door of the stranger, among those who beg for bread; ever shalt thou wait there for the refuse that is brought unto thee, brought by those who have profusion of wealth."

This is not only a reference to the farming process, but the metaphor is used as in the 13th Gita for the immortal Farmer-Soul who sows and reaps thoughts and words and deeds. Therefore it is said:

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! What is the food that fills the law of Mazda, what is the stomach of the Law? Ahura Mazda answered: "It is sowing corn again and again, O Spitama Zarathustra! He who sows corn, sows holiness; he makes the law of Mazda grow higher and higher; he makes the law of Mazda as fat as he can with a hundred acts of adoration, a thousand oblations, ten thousand sacrifices.

And so it is sung:

'When barley occurs, then the demons hiss;
When thrashing occurs, then the demons whine;
When grinding occurs, then the demons roar;
When flour occurs, then the demons flee.'

Then let the people learn this holy saying: 'No one who does not eat, has strength to do works of holiness, strength to do works of husbandry, strength to beget children. By eating every material creature lives; by not eating it dies away.'"

All this is reference to the doing of good action and the living of the life of holiness. The growth of courageous resolve to live is sowing and its first fruit is barley; the working with that fruit with discrimination is thrashing; when the knowledge is applied the corn is being ground and the evil in man roars, and when the spiritual insight as the result of good living comes to fruition (flour) the evil dies.

Next let us see the element of water. The following is from Aban-Yast (10-13):

Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathustra! unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sura Anahita, the wide-expanding and health-giving, who hates the Demons and obeys the laws of Ahura, who is worthy of sacrifice in the material world, worthy of prayer in the material world; the life-increasing and holy, the herd-increasing and holy, the fold-increasing and holy, the wealth-increasing and holy, the country-increasing and holy;

Who drives forwards on her chariot, holding the reins of the chariot. She goes, driving, on this chariot, longing for the worship of men and thinking thus in her heart: "Who will praise me? Who will offer me a sacrifice, with libations cleanly prepared and well-strained, together with the Haoma and meat? To whom shall I cleave, who cleaves unto me, and thinks with me, and bestows gifts upon me, and is of good will unto me?"

Whom four horses carry, all white, of one and the same colour, of the same blood, tall, crushing down the hates of all haters, the hates of Demons and men, of evil spirits and goblins, of the oppressors, of the blind and of the deaf.

This goddess of water is, as H.P.B. points out, the Zoroastrian-Minerva: "Begging the pardon of our European Sanskritists and Zend scholars, we would ask them to tell, if they know, who was the Mazdean goddess Ardvi-Sura Anahita? We maintain and can prove what we say, that the said personage implored by Ahura, and Saraswati (the Brahminical goddess of Secret or Occult wisdom) are identical."

In the previous article we have already dealt with the fire intelligence, the Soul in man, the Son of Ahura-Mazda. In the above passage from Dina-i-Maninog-i-Khirad and in other places the righteous and purifying power of air, its might to destroy and sweep away evil, etc., are mentioned.

Rich in metaphor, profusely symbolic, but to the student of Theosophy and esotericism very clear, are all the Avesta fragments. There is enough of the ancient Wisdom extant in them to make them more than interesting; they provide important proofs of the existence of the Universal Wisdom Religion from which all religions and philosophies sprang. Says H.P.B.:

The origin of the Brahmans and Magi in the night of time is one, the secret doctrine teaches us. First, there were a hierarchy of adepts, of men profoundly versed in physical and spiritual sciences and occult knowledge, of various nationalities, all celibates, and enlarging their numbers by the transmission of their knowledge to voluntary neophytes. Then when their numbers became too large to be contained in the "Airyanam Vaejo," the adepts scattered far and wide, and we can trace them establishing other hierarchies on the model of the first in every part of the globe.

Such Adept-Messengers to the four corners of the Globe were the incarnated Ameshaspentas — "who were all of One Thought, who were all of One Speech, who were all of One Deed, whose thought is the same, whose word is the same, whose deed is the same, who see from afar one another's soul thinking of good thoughts, thinking of good words, thinking of good deeds, thinking of the World of Light. Radiant are their Paths, shining Their ways as They go down to the Libations."

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 14, No. 6, April, 1926 pp. 264-268

THE KINGS OF CHINA

IN his Ocean of Theosophy William Q. Judge speaks of "ancient and honorable China" — ancient it is, for as the Secret Doctrine tells us, the Chinese reached their highest civilization when the fifth Aryan race had hardly appeared in Asia. The original Chinese belong to the seventh sub-race of the Atlantean Race, and from them branched off not only the Malayans, Mongolians and Tibetans, but also Hungarians, Finns and even the Esquimaux. These true Chinamen are of the inland, the aborigines who, in their purity, form the highest and last branch of the fourth Race, whose headquarters are in the province of Fo-kien where H.P.B. reports the existence of a "sacred library" which contains some most ancient Mss. in the Lolo language. The other Chinese are one of the oldest nations of our fifth race, whose latter-day Emperors are the degenerate successors of the Dragons or Initiates who ruled the early races of that fifth humanity. As to China being honorable, who has not heard of the integrity of the Chinese? In such spheres as commerce and politics they have a reputation for honesty and honor worthy of emulation by the modern world. Ancient and honorable China is dying, but her spiritual resources will be inherited by those who evolve out of that branch race.

The wisdom of China comes to us in certain great books, withstanding the ravages of time. In spite of changes and more omissions than interpolations, these texts are not so fragmentary and disconnected as those of Zoroastrianism, examined in previous articles. We are indebted to Confucius for this.

The Chinese divide their eras into three antiquities — the most recent commences with the period of Confucius, who was contemporary with the great Buddha; the second, called the middle antiquity, goes back from Confucius to about 1200 B.C.; while the highest covers a period of 2200 years, commencing with Fu-hsi 5000 years ago. It will not be far wrong to regard Fu-hsi, as the Krishna of China, the opener of its Kali Yuga, first in the line of earthly rulers who "broke up the Primal Unity," of the preceding age.

Beyond the three antiquities is the "fabulous" and "mythological" era. It covers millions of years. Beginning with the epoch of Pan-ku in whose time "heaven and earth were first separated," we come to the 12 Tien-hoang, Kings of Heaven, 12 To-hoang, Kings of Earth, and 9 Gin-hoang or Kings' men, who ruled for some 500,000 years. These 12 Tien-hoang are "the twelve hierarchies of Dhyanis or Angels, with human Faces and Dragon bodies; the dragon standing for Divine Wisdom or Spirit; and they create men by incarnating themselves in seven figures of clay — earth and water — made in the shape of those Tien-hoang, a third allegory." (S.D. II, 26-7.) Among these mythical beings is one Sui-zan, "The Man of the Burning Speculum," the Fire-Producer, the Prometheus of China. Superb culture, heavenly knowledge and high civilization are reported in these prehistoric eras. Very scanty is the information about them available to the non-Chinese. These mythical figures, truer than their historical counterparts, remain unknown and unappreciated by the modern world, whose culture is too gross and narrow to grasp the meaning of the cosmic and evolutionary events which they embody.

Fu-hsi, also called Po-hsi, the first Human Ruler of the Chinese people, is even today regarded as a superhuman being. To his credit stands the task of recording the Eight Kwa or Trigrams. In the Yi King, an ancient work "written by generations of Sages" says H.P.B., which the Theosophical Glossary describes as the Kabbalah of China, it is said:

Anciently, when Pao-hsi had come to the rule of all under heaven, looking up, he contemplated the brilliant forms exhibited in the sky, and looking down he surveyed the patterns shown on the earth. He contemplated the ornamental appearances of birds and beasts and the (different) suitabilities of the soil. Near at hand, in his own person, he found things for consideration, and the same at a distance, in things in general. On this he devised the eight trigrams, to show fully the attributes of the spirit-like and intelligent (operations working secretly), and to classify the qualities of the myriads of things.

These eight trigrams are lineal figures of great interest to the student of universal metaphysics and occultism, both of which form such an important part of H.P.B.'s Secret Doctrine. These figures are made up of three lines: the first is made up of three unbroken lines, and is followed by one broken and the remaining unbroken lines, till the eighth is evolved, which is composed of three broken ones. These represent (1) Heaven (2) Still Waters (3) fire (4) Thunder (5) Air (6) Running Waters (7) High land or mountains, and (8) Low land or earth — the eight-fold universe described by the Bhagavad-Gita. Each of these is representative of a material plane and a hierarchy of conscious beings who all play their shadow-game on the illusory eighth, the earth, this man-bearing globe. Therefore, each also has its corresponding virtue. These eight form a circle, the first at the South and the last at the North.

These eight result from Four Hsiang or Emblematic Symbols, which in their turn come from the Two Elementary Forms, and the two from the One, the Great Extreme. James Legge, the well-known Chinese authority asked in 1882: "Who will undertake to say what is meant by 'the Great Extreme' which produced the two elementary forms?" The Secret Doctrine did undertake to answer him, and the student will find an explanation in Vol. I, 440-41, and Vol. II, 554.

Further, to the credit of Fu-hsi stands the construction of musical instruments and the spread of the Science of Sociology; he was par excellence the advocate of a pure family life and the dignity of the home. His successor invented agricultural implements, and thus gained for himself the title of "the Divine Labourer." Yi-King attributes the discovery of Agriculture to "the instruction given to men by celestial genii." (S.D. II, 374.) Hwang-Ti, the third of the prehistoric, semi-divine emperors was the builder of sacred shrines and libraries. Under his influence arose a regular board of historians, the chief of whom was the reviser and amender of the hieroglyphic writing. Hwang-Ti also regulated the calendar, to which he added the intercalary month. His wife is credited with the invention of the several manipulations in the rearing of silkworms and the making of silk.

All this in the night of time. For thousands of years China has been famous for her discoveries — artesian-wells, compass, glass, gunpowder, paper, printing, porcelain, etc. Much of this knowledge has come down from these mythical periods. Most probably it is to the board of sage historians of the reign of Hwang-Ti that the Chinese owe their habit of preserving records and their custom of maintaining archives. Our knowledge of ancient China comes from certain great books which have been transmitted with faithful care down the generations.

The first of these ancient volumes is the Shu King, which is history with proper chronology, which chronology is based on a very accurate astronomical knowledge; their astronomical sphere is assigned an antiquity of 18,000 years (S.D. I, 658; also II, 620). The book acquired this title in 202 B.C., before which period it was known only as Shu — "the Pencil speaking." A fourteenth century General Examination of Records and Scholars by Ma Twan-lin says that "the Pencil of the Recorders was busy from the time of Hwang-Ti" which is 2697 B.C. But the Secret Doctrine tells us that it was derived from the "very old Book" referred to in Isis Unveiled. Therefore it contains pointed references to events in the third and the fourth races. (S.D. Vol. II, 280-81; also Vol. II, 372.)

The first two books of the Shu King are regarded as legendary. They deal with the rules of Yaou and of Shun who had to contend against the floods and the deluge. Of Yaou, the ancient book narrates that when he found a handful of his subjects a little discontented, he said. "The fault is mine. I must study to increase my virtue and see wherein I have departed from the Way of Heaven." And again on hearing some sage advice, thus:

"We come by many branching roads and devious ways to the understanding of wisdom ... I perceive that the forest trees are of many sorts and sizes and that those which bear fruit do not put it all forth upon a single branch. I will think upon it." And this was what he had heard from the Keeper of the Hwa Mountain: "If you have many sons and they be well occupied, what need is there to fear? If you are rich, you can distribute your wealth to others, and then what need is there for care? And if you live a long while and follow the true way, should the empire prosper you will flourish with the rest. But if you live a long while, and the world is filled with wickedness, you have only to retire into obscurity and cultivate your virtue, then when life is done and human ties are severed, you will go to join the gods. And thus transcending the clouds, you will attain the regions of the Supreme; so what occasion is there for decline?"

Of Shun it is written:

Wherever he ploughed the people forgot their landmarks, wherever he fished, the people took in their lines. He made pottery on the banks of the Hwang-Ho that was perfectly smooth and non-porous. He made implements at Show-shan. Wherever he lived for a year, the people formed a community; wherever he lived for two years they built a city; and wherever he resided for three years they erected a capital.

Then came Yu when the chronological accounts begin. Of this ruler H.P.B. writes:

The Emperor Yu the "Great" (2207 B.C.), a pious mystic, is credited with having obtained his occult wisdom and the system of theocracy established by him — for he was the first one to unite in China ecclesiastical power with temporal authority — from Si-dzang. That system was the same as with the old Egyptians and the Chaldees; that which we know to have existed in the Brahmanical period in lndia, and to exist now in Tibet — namely, all the learning, power, the temporal as well as the secret wisdom were concentrated within the hierarchy of the priests and limited to their caste.

Yu was also the inspirer of nine urns with engravings on them which in a later age became the basis of Shan-Hai-King, i.e., Wonders by sea and land by Chung-Ku, B.C. 1818. H.P.B. adds that in the last quarter of the third century of our era Kwoh P'oh wrote a commentary on the same. Besides these historical records of Shu-King there are the Odes (Shi-King) and the Books of Rituals (Li-Chi).

To the Theosophical student of today what is of paramount interest in Chinese literature is the ethical philosophy of this ancient race. Our task is somewhat difficult but we will not lose our way in the labyrinthine maze of records if we keep these landmarks in mind. Three great rivers of religious, philosophic, and mystic tradition empty themselves in the ocean which today is China. Confucianism resulted from the activity of the sage who has played the most important role in Chinese history. He was the resuscitator of the Wisdom of his ancient people. He stitched the loose pages of old records in a coherent volume; he explained the metaphysics of Fu-hsi, of Yaou, of Yu; above all he taught noble ethics equal in rank to those of Jesus and even Gautama. The second is the Tao, the Path that Lao Tze and his school walked and advocated others to tread. The third influence is that of Buddhism, which took root in the Chinese soil in the first century of our era. Like three sacred rivers in a confluence, these meet reaching a profounder depth and become more inspiring. The three rivers lose their different courses and become one in the life of the people. The current gathering force becomes clear of dross and in it the whole past of this great people is mirrored. These rapid and engulfing waters contain for the daring soul an experience not to be met elsewhere in the ocean of worldly knowledge.

The influence of the "Brothers of the Sun", as the Masters are called in the Chinese literature, has exerted an immemorial influence on the race and its achievements. Says H.P.B.:

The aphorisms in the oldest books of China, moreover, say plainly that the "Dragon" is a human, albeit divine Being. Speaking of the "yellow Dragon," the chief of the others, the Twan-ying-T'u says: "His wisdom and virtue are unfathomable ... he does not go in company and does not live in herds (he is an ascetic). He wanders in the wilds beyond the heavens. He goes and comes, fulfilling the decree (Karma); at the proper seasons if there is perfection he comes forth, if not he remains (invisible)." .... And Kon-fu-tyu is made to say by Lu-lan, "The Dragon feeds in the pure water of Wisdom and sports in the clear waters of life."

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 14, No. 7, May, 1926 pp. 308-312

CONFUCIUS THE CODIFIER

THOUGH Confucius (Kung-Fu-Tzu) lived five centuries before the Christian era, his teachings are of the ancients. Most of his life was spent in learning and teaching what the ancients taught, most of his labor was bestowed on gathering together and codifying the metaphysics and philosophy, history and folk-lore of his predecessors. In his life and labor we see the wisdom and the discipline practised in China for thousands of years. Confucius did not teach a new philosophy, much less establish a new religion. Even today Confucianism is more a practice of ethics and observance of manners than a religious ritual. Confucius is not unique in reiterating that he is only a transmitter; but hardly any other transmitter was so scrupulous as to introduce in his codes only such teachings for which authentic records were available. He arranged the scattered Shu King records with meticulous care. One of his descendants of the second century B.C. says that "he examined and arranged the old literary monuments and records, deciding to commence with Yao and Shun, and to come down to the times of Chau." His own grandson says that Confucius "handed down Yao and Shun as if they had been his ancestors, and elegantly displayed Wan and Wu, whom he took for his model." He conscientiously followed the Chinese tradition to which he himself makes pointed reference — "a recorder would leave a blank in his text, rather than enter anything of which he had not a sufficient evidence." He said on one occasion that he could describe the ceremonies of the dynasties of Hsia and Yin (2205-1123 B.C.) but would not do so because the records before him "could not sufficiently attest his words." In the Confucian Analects (Lun Yu) we find the following (Translation by Lionel Giles, p. 84): "The Master said, 'My function is to indicate rather than to originate. Regarding antiquity as I do with trust and affection, I would venture to compare myself with our ancient patriarch P'eng Tsu'." This Legendary Figure is said to have been 800 years old when he disappeared into the West (i.e., Tibet) in the eleventh century B.C. Mr. Giles adds that the last words in the text are taken by some to mean "our patriarchs Lao Tzu and P'eng Tsu"; Lao Tzu also is reported to have disappeared at an advanced age into the West.

On one occasion when he was very ill a disciple proposed the offering of prayer. "Is there a precedent for this?" asked Confucius. "There is. It is written, 'We pray unto you, O Spirits of Heaven and Earth'." "Oh! that," he replied, "my prayers began long ago." Confucius was antagonistic to prayer as the Christian world knows it. On another occasion in his own state of Lu the authorities were proposing to reconstruct the Long Treasury. A disciple of Confucius remarked, "Why not restore it, rather, in the ancient style? Why is it necessary to renovate it altogether?" Whereupon Confucius thus — "This man is no talker, but when he does speak, he speaks to the purpose." Such was Confucius, desirous on every occasion "to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors."

Confucius is like the sun — a focal point at which Primordial Light which is Darkness becomes visible. China had reduced itself to a condition of chaos, and he arose as if in answer to the agony of his ancient land, to restore order. As Mencius writes, "Again the world fell into decay, and principles faded away. Perverse speakings and oppressive deeds waxed rife again." Confucius was both teacher and ruler, and as such modelled his precepts and his practices on the idea — "let us now praise famous men, and our Fathers that beget us." He did not contribute new ideas and practices to the inherited religio-philosophy of his land; but without him the old ideas would not have survived. The Confucian Texts, with but one solitary exception, are all faithful compilations from and of old records: that one, Chun Chin or the Spring and Autumn is a very brief chronicle of the history of his own native state of Lu for 242 years; he is the original author of this.

The mergence of Confucius in the Wisdom of his elders is so deep that a student perforce has to content himself with Confucianism; and this particular "ism" is thoroughly devoid of any personality, including that of the sage whose name it bears. All the ancient lore of his ancient people is what we know as Confucius — the former is embodied in the latter, who has given it name and form. But also like the Sun, Confucius passes on the light. Since 500 B.C. China has reflected Confucian thought in her social polity and racial institutions.

In compiling and recording, Confucius has preserved due silence on esoteric matters; but to the intelligent Theosophist it is fully evident that he was a Chun Tzu — an Adept of Wisdom and Compassion. Chun Tzu is variously rendered as "the superior man," "the higher type of man," "the princely man," because our modern sinologists are not familiar with the Theosophical concept of Masters and Mahatmas, of Adepts and Chelas. Because he was one such, he refused to explain what he means by the Great Extreme or to give the key to the divination of his Straws. Therefore, too, did he not believe in or teach a personal god, and discouraged prayer and worship. He did not found a religion. He advocated more an ethical system of life based on real tradition, copying the great examples of the old world and the precepts of the ever-new Nature. Family and state ceremonies, however formal they may have become now, were for him and his pupils but a means of expression of the innate virtues of individuals. Thus:

Ceremonies, forsooth! Can ceremonies be reduced to a mere matter of silken robes and jade ornaments? Music, forsooth! Can music be reduced to a mere matter of bells and drums? Men who are grave and stern in appearance, but inwardly weak and unprincipled — are they not comparable to the lowest class of humanity — sneaking thieves that break into houses by night? Your goody-goody people are the thieves of virtue.

When out of doors, behave as though you were entertaining a distinguished guest; in ruling the people, behave as though you were officiating at a solemn sacrifice.

From the age of 21 to 51 Confucius taught in a school started by himself. It had some 3,000 pupils. He taught the art of government, history, natural science, music, poetry, proprieties, — this outwardly; but who can tell what sacred and secret teachings he imparted to the select few? H.P.B. mentions the existence of such schools in different countries of the old world, among them China, and instances "Confucius, the Atheist."

For four years he held high offices of state, and labored for his people on the principle, "the prime requisite in government should be not revenue but proper performance of function by all persons." And again — "To govern a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and faithfulness, economy in expenditure, and love for the people." He fell prey to political intrigue and became a wanderer — preaching his wisdom, which according to Mencius struck terror into the hearts of rebellious ministers and villainous sons.

Confucianism is founded on the five King and the four Shu-books: (1) Shu (2) Shi (3) Yi (4) Hsiao (5) Li Chi; and (6) Lun Yu — Analects (7) Ta Hsio — the Great Learning (also to be found as Book 39 of Li Chi): (8) Chung Yung — Doctrine of the Mean (written by the grandson of Confucius) and (9) the Works of Mencius, a famous expounder of Confucian lore. Voluminous commentaries exist, but are not available to the western world. (See S.D. I, XXV.)

Not only did Confucius labor with the ancient records, but himself set the example of paying them due homage. Thus, in reference to the Shi King: Confucius, on hearing that his son had not read the Odes, said "if you do not learn the Odes, you will not be fit to converse with."

Of Yi he said in the closing years of his life: "If some years were added to my life, I would give fifty to the study of the Yi, and might then escape falling into great errors."

Of Hsiao thus: "If you wish to see my aim in dispensing praise or blame to the feudal lords, it is to be found in the Spring and Autumn; the course by which I would exalt the Social relations are in the Hsiao King.

Of Li Chi he said: "Without the Rules of Propriety, respectfulness becomes laborious bustle; carefulness, timidity; boldness, insubordination; and straightforwardness, rudeness."

The influence of Confucius has permeated China, but has not gone beyond. H. P. Blavatsky writes:

Whereas the principles and doctrines of Christ and Buddha were calculated to embrace the whole of humanity, Confucius confined his attention solely to his own country, trying to apply his profound wisdom and philosophy to the wants of his countrymen, and little troubling his head about the rest of mankind.

From the work he did and the philosophy he taught it is evident that this Fifth-Round Man was purposely sent to the Chinese. In more than one place he has referred to his "heaven-sent mission," but very guardedly andhumbly; and after his departure his followers, due to his own example, were less unwise than those of Jesus, for instance, in making extravagant claims, though such statements as the following appear:

The wisdom of other men is like hills and mountain-peaks, which however high can still be scaled. But Confucius is like the sun or the moon, which can never be reached by the foot of man. A man may want to cut himself off from their light, but what harm will that do to the sun or the moon? It only shows very plainly that he has no notion of the measurement of capacity.

Of himself Confucius said:

At fifteen, my mind was bent on learning. At thirty, I stood firm. At forty, I was free from delusions. At fifty, I understood the laws of Providence. At sixty, my ears were attentive to the truth. At seventy, I could follow the promptings of my heart without overstepping the mean.

We get an indication of the knowledge and power of the inner man in Confucius if we remember some of his pregnant statements. He said that he did not practice "the first order of Wisdom" — he was not great enough for that. "In me knowledge is not innate." And again, "I used to spend whole days without food and whole nights without sleep, in order to meditate. But I made no progress. Study, I found, was better." His self-discipline and method of acquiring knowledge, his mode of disciplining and teaching others are also indicative:

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

My disciples, do you think that I have any secrets? I have no secrets from you. It is my way to do nothing without communicating it to you, my disciples.

There is no one, from the man who brings me dried meat as payment, upwards, to whom I have refused my instruction. But I do not expound my teaching to any who are not eager to learn; I do not help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself; if, after being shown one corner of a subject, a man cannot go on to discover the other three, I do not repeat the lesson.

Pursue the study of virtue as though you could never reach your goal, and were afraid of losing the ground already gained. A good man must have trained the people for seven years before they are fit to go to war. To take an untrained multitude into battle is equivalent to throwing them away. Alas! there are sprouting crops which never come into ear. There are others which, having come to ear, never ripen into grain. But all the same we ought to have a wholesome respect for our juniors.

Words of just admonition cannot fail to command a ready assent. But practical reformation is the thing that really matters. Words of kindly advice cannot fail to please the listener. But subsequent meditation on them is the thing that really matters. I can make nothing of the man who is pleased with advice but will not meditate on it, who assents to admonition but does not reform.

There were four words of which the Master barred the use: he would have no "shall's," no "must's," no "certainly's," no "I's."

In what is given above and in all his other teachings, we find Confucius was influenced, however indirectly, by Lao Tzu and the doctrine of the Tao. It was in 517 B.C., when Confucius was 34 and Lao Tzu was already famous as "the Old Philosopher," "the Old Gentleman," or what is regarded as a truer translation, "the Old Boy," that the two met. Confucius was then keeping school, his great labors were still to be undertaken, but he was already gaining fame as a resuscitator of the glory of ancient China, and as the coming historian. This interview had a lasting effect on Confucius. It must have made the hoary records more living, the ancient rituals more purposeful, and the old proprieties more practical for him. The Soul of Confucian thought so akin to Taoism was born out of this famous meeting of the two mighty souls. Like Plato, better known than his inspirer Pythagoras, Confucius has more followers than Lao Tzu; but the few words of the venerable sage fecundated the mind of Confucius, who, says H.P.B., "has not the depth of feeling and spiritual striving of his contemporary Lao Tzu."

Confucius sought this interview so that he might question the Sage on the subject of his own work. Here is the report given by a Chinese authority of the first century B.C.:

Lao Tzu to Confucius — "The men about whom you talk are dead, and their bones are mouldered to dust; only their words are left. Moreover, when the superior man gets his opportunity, he mounts aloft; but when the time is against him, he is carried along by the force of circumstances. I have heard that a good merchant, though he have rich treasures safely stored, appears as if he were poor; and that the superior man, though his virtue be complete, is yet to outward seeming stupid. Put away your proud air and many desires, your insinuating habit and wild will. They are of no advantage to you; — this is all I have to tell you. Why do you not obtain the Tao? This is the reason — because you do not give it an asylum in your heart."

On his return to his disciples, Confucius said of Lao Tzu:

I know how birds can fly, fishes swim, and animals run. But the runner may be snared, the swimmer hooked, and the flyer shot by the arrow. But there is the dragon — I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds, and rises to heaven. Today I have seen Lao Tzu, and can only compare him to the dragon.

That which is the Soul of Confucianism; that which he himself calls "the one connecting thread on which all my knowledge is strung," and again, "a single principle runs through all my teaching"; that which is the Chung-Yung, the Doctrine of the Mean; that which is the basis and the modus operandi for the discharge of Filial Duty; — that all is akin to the spontaneity, which is the Soul of Taoism. The two systems of thought are not antagonistic; each enlivens the other and taken together enable us to understand better the Chinese heart. Seeming rivalry disappears like a phantom with the advent of knowledge; to the Theosophist these two are but distinguished parts of a living whole.

The tomb of Confucius can be visited today in the K'iuh-fow district. Surrounded by many, many descendants, there lies the body of the sage; a great stone tablet bears the inscription, "Grave of the Most High." Unadorned simplicity is its garb; lonely in its own grandeur it stands, though during these centuries an immense cemetery has grown up. Adjoining it can be seen the Mourning House wherein his disciples assembled at and after the passing of their Master. There also exists the original temple of the four gates belonging to Confucius; and there is his statue of more than life-size; adorned with Imperial emblems he sits, below curtains of heavy, many-colored silk. But a holy man of China tells us that Confucius survives in a still more living temple and in a still more Animated Statue: the 73rd descendant in the direct line lives; born in 1919, he is a boy of seven this year, and during his minority his mother and his uncle act on his behalf.

The Tomb, the Temple, the Statue are symbols; the living descendant of Confucius also is a symbol; Confucius himself is a Symbol — the Energy of Wisdom is transmitted through the ages.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 14, No. 8, June, 1926 pp. 351-356

CONFUCIANISM

CONFUCIANISM is an inner attitude, a method, copied from great nature, whereby man should contact and control his outer environment. There is a moral order of the universe — "how active it is everywhere! Invisible to the eyes and impalpable to the senses, it is inherent in all things, and nothing can escape its operation." Therefore it abides in man also. He cannot escape it for one instant; "a law from which we may escape is not the moral law."

The moral order of the macrocosm has to be enquired into; with veneration it should be studied; man must find out how he is the exact copy of that macrocosm and how the same moral order governs both. Ethics more than metaphysics, moral worth more than intellectual acquisition, are the means recommended.

The life of the moral man is an exemplification of the universal moral order.... The life of the vulgar person is a contradiction of that order.... To find the central clue to our moral being which unites us to the universal order, that indeed is the highest human attainment.... The wise mistake moral law for something higher than what it really is; and the foolish do not know enough what moral law really is.... The noble natures want to live too high, high above their moral ordinary self; and the ignoble do not live up to their moral ordinary self. There is no one who does not eat and drink. But few there are who really know the taste of what they eat and drink. — Chung Yung.

Individuals make the family, individuals make the ruling class, individuals form the class of the ruled, individuals make trade guilds. The rich are the individuals; so are the poor. Bad and good are the individuals and Confucianism starts with the individual. In a hundred ways we are made to recognize the unique importance of the human individual.

There are three classes of men — inferior, superior, Divine. Confucius defines the first thus:

A man who is foolish, and yet is fond of using his own judgment; who is in humble circumstances, and yet is fond of assuming authority; who, while living in the present age, reverts to the ways of antiquity: such a man is one who will bring calamity upon himself.

The inferior man must become the moral man. He must practise morality, i.e., filial piety, in his hourly relationships with other men, and especially in the home. Filial Duty is the central idea of the system, but it is all-comprehensive. Just as the concept of Dharma among the Hindus widens from the family and caste to state and humanity, so also Filial Duty among the Chinese. The Hsiao Ching treats of the Filial Duty of emperors, officials, literati, sages, etc., and Confucius says:

Filial Duty is the constant doctrine of Heaven, the natural righteousness of Earth, and the practical duty of man.... When a ruler wishes to teach his people to love their parents he does not go to their family every day; he teaches them by showing reverence to all old people.... A true gentleman is always filial to his parents;... as he can maintain order in his family affairs, so he can do the same in the government. He bases the principle of the government of a State upon that of ruling a family.

But blind obedience is not what Confucius recommends. The maxim is — Resist when wrongly commanded: "How can he be called filial who obeys his father when he is commanded to do wrong?" Right education by the elders of the young is based on grave responsibility. "Crime is not inherent in human nature, and therefore the father in the family, and the government in the state are responsible for the crimes committed against filial piety and the public laws." By Filial Piety the inferior man becomes superior.

From the virtues and characteristics assigned to these three classes of humans, it is not difficult to perceive that the inferior men are the vast masses who live without an objective, and without a philosophy. The superior men are the practitioners of the doctrine of the mean, listeners to the voice of the moral order within themselves, the disciples and the chelas who struggle through many failures to attain the divinity of the third class.

The central idea to be kept in mind in studying Confucianism is that the individual is regarded as the builder of the state and the empire through the family; he builds by discarding privileges and assuming responsibilities; he achieves this by practising filial piety and thus moves from the condition of inferiority to that of morality; and then practising Jen ultimately reaches divinity. Every man is born with congenital duties and the first of them is his obligation to his parents. Beginning with those who gave him his body he extends his courtesy to Nature who made him what he is.

The moral life of man may be likened to travelling to a distant place: one must start from the nearest stage. It may also be likened to ascending a height: one must begin from the lowest step.

At home, a young man should show the qualities of a son; abroad, those of a younger brother. He should be circumspect but truthful. He should have charity in his heart for all men, but associate only with the virtuous. After thus regulating his conduct, his surplus energy should be devoted to literary culture.

Confucianism advocates constant and continuous action by the individual within himself. He must practise Jen, which is translated virtue, but Mr. Giles points out that its primary meaning is "natural goodness of heart as shown in intercourse with one's fellow-men." Confucius said that "Jen rarely goes with artful speech and insinuating looks." His Jen, the moral order within him, enables him to conform himself to his life circumstances, whatever they be. The moral man does not desire anything outside of his position; in no situation in life is he not master of himself.

In a high position he does not domineer over his subordinates. In a subordinate position he does not court the favors of his superiors. He puts in order his own personal conduct and seeks nothing from others; hence he has no complaint to make. He complains not against Heaven nor rails against men.

Thus the moral man lives out the even tenor of his life. When he blunders or fails he looks within.

When a man carries out the principles of conscientiousness and reciprocity he is not far from the moral law. What you do not wish others should do unto you, do not do unto them.

The Confucian Doctrine of the Mean is to be practised for the cultivation of the Moral Order.

When the solid outweighs the ornamental, we have boorishness; when the ornamental outweighs the solid, we have superficial smartness. Only from a proper blending of the two will the higher type of man emerge.

True goodness springs from a man's heart, i.e., his inner moral law or Jen. He ought to be free from grief and fear. "If on searching his heart he finds no guilt, why should he grieve? and of what should he be afraid?" This is the practical rule in the words of Confucius:

Do not use your eyes, your ears, your power of speech or your mental movement without obeying the inner law of self-control.

But all this moral power is not only for self-improvement; he must "pass on to the cultivation of duty to your neighbour." Never abandon the practice of Jen "even when among savages." The moral man "seeks all he wants in himself; the inferior man seeks all that he wants from others." He who practises Jen pays special attention to nine points:

He is anxious to see clearly, to hear distinctly, to be kindly in his looks, respectful in his demeanour, conscientious in his speech, earnest in his affairs; when in doubt, he is careful to inquire; when in anger, he thinks of the consequences; when offered an opportunity for gain, he thinks only of his duty.

The practice of the moral law within evolves intuition which is different from intelligence which is the result of education. Intuition leads to absolute knowledge and truth.

Truth is not only the realization of our own being: it is that by which things outside of us have an existence. The realization of our being is moral sense. The realization of things outside of us is intellect. These, moral sense and intellect, are the powers or faculties of our being. They combine the inner or subjective and outer or objective use of the power of the mind.

Thus absolute truth is indestructible. Being indestructible, it is eternal. Being eternal, it is self-existent. Being self-existent it is infinite. Being infinite, it is vast and deep. Being vast and deep, it is transcendental and intelligent. It is because it is vast and deep that it contains all existence. It is because it is transcendental and intelligent that it embraces all existence. It is because it is infinite and eternal that it fills all existence. In vastness and depth it is like the Earth. In transcendental intelligence it is like Heaven. Infinite and eternal, it is Infinitude itself.

Such being the nature of absolute truth, it manifests itself without being evident; it produces effects without action; it accomplishes its ends without being conscious.

The principle in the course and operation of nature may be summed up in one word: it exists for its own sake without any double or ulterior motive. Hence the way in which it produces things is unfathomable.

Nature is vast, deep, high, intelligent, infinite, and eternal. The heaven appearing before us is only this bright, shining spot; but when taken in its immeasurable extent, the sun, moon, stars, and constellations are suspended in it, and all things are embraced under it. The earth, appearing before us, is but a handful of soil; but taken in all its breadth and depth, it sustains mighty Himalayas without feeling their weight; rivers and seas dash against it without causing it to leak. The mountain appearing before us is only a mass of rock; but taken in all the vastness of its size, grass and vegetation grow upon it, birds and beasts dwell on it, and treasures of precious stones are found in it. The water appearing before us is but a ladleful of liquid; but taken in all its unfathomable depths, the largest crustaceans, fishes, and reptiles are produced in them, and all useful products abound in them.

The ultimate goal can be reached by a triple path which is named "the three universally recognized moral qualities of man." They are (1) Intelligence, (2) Moral character and (3) Courage. "It matters not in what way men come to the exercise of these qualities, the result is one and the same." Theosophical students will recognize in these three the Margas of the Bhagavad-Gita — Gnyanam, Bhakti and Karma. The first step is to hear of the way: "Having heard the True Way in the morning what matters it if one should come to die at night." The second is the changed attitude: "The scholar who is bent on studying the principles of virtue, yet is ashamed of bad clothes and coarse food, is not fit to receive instruction." The third is preparation: "Instead of being concerned that you are not known, seek to be worthy of being known."

He who intuitively apprehends truth, is one who, without effort, hits what is right, and without thinking understands what he wants to know; whose life is easily and naturally in harmony with the moral law. Such an one is what we call a man of divine nature. He who acquires truth is one who finds out what is good and holds fast to it.

In order to acquire truth, it is necessary to obtain a wide and extensive knowledge of what has been said and done in the world; critically to inquire into it; carefully to ponder over it; clearly to sift it; and earnestly to carry it out.

The ideal for all men is the Chun Tzu, the Superior Man. Having gathered wide objective knowledge from the branches of polite learning, such an one will regulate the whole by an inner attitude. Two classes of these superior men are referred to — those of moral virtue and those of divine virtue, and the latter "confer benefits far and wide, and are able to be the salvation of all." They are the Masters. The inferior man is constantly agitated and worried; the moral man is calm and serene, wishing to stand firm himself, he lends firmness unto others, and wishing to be illuminated, he illuminates others. The divine man is thus described:

It is only the man with the most perfect divine moral nature who is able to combine in himself quickness of apprehension, intelligence, insight, and understanding: qualities necessary for the exercise of command; magnanimity, generosity, benignity and gentleness: qualities necessary for the exercise of patience; originality, energy, strength of character and determination: qualities necessary for the exercise of endurance; dignity, noble seriousness, order and regularity: qualities necessary for the exercise of self-respect; grace, method, delicacy and lucidity: qualities necessary for the exercise of critical judgment.

Thus all-embracing and vast is the nature of such a man. Profound it is and inexhaustible, like a living spring of water, ever running out with life and vitality. All-embracing and vast, it is like Heaven. Profound and inexhaustible, it is like the Abyss.

It is only he in this world who is possessed of absolute truth that can order and adjust the great relations of human society, fix the fundamental principles of morality, and understand the laws of creation of the Universe.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 14, No. 9, July, 1926 pp. 395-399

LAO TZU AND THE TAOISTS

H. P. BLAVATSKY described Lao Tzu as a God-like being and classed him with Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus, who "united themselves with their Spirits permanently" and "became Gods on earth." Such Personages are rare and superior to Moses, Pythagoras and Confucius, who "have taken rank in history as demi-gods and leaders of mankind." Lao Tzu was the resuscitator of Taoism, the practical philosophy and religion of The Way.

Lao Tzu did not invent the Tao; he discovered it — obscured by the weeds of passion and the upas trees of superstition. The ancient and narrow Way of the Heart was lost in the wilderness of China, where a hundred rules of ceremony were observed and, for those who disregarded them — a thousand rules of punishment; but ceremonies failed to control the natures of men and punishments put no stop to treacherous villainies.

Born some fifty years before Confucius, Lao Tzu had to perform pioneering work of an iconoclastic nature — discarding and rejecting books and documents, rituals and sacraments, temporal and religious, non-understandingly believed in by the Chinese to their detriment. The task of Confucius, of codifying the old records for use, became easy and more defined because of the moral courage and spiritual strength which Lao Tzu dispensed by his own strict treading of the Path and his virile exposure of blind beliefs, superstitious practices and hypocritical observance of ritual and ceremony. He, too, preached of the Ancients; in fact, he set the example for Confucius himself; but Lao Tzu's transmission was of Teh — the Virtue of the Heart. Confucius was able to justify the ancient words as Lao Tzu lived them. Among the masses of China, of the eras subsequent to the one in which these two lived and labored, their respective followers brought divisions, and pitted one teacher against another; Orientalists also fail to see the cooperative force at work in the service rendered by these two Sages. Just as in India the bond subsisting between Gautama-Buddha and Sankar-Acharya is not perceived and their later day followers are inimical, so also in the case of Lao Tzu and Confucius. They did not teach opposing doctrines, but complementing ones, though two differing creeds sprang into existence and persist to this day.

The philosophy of Tao was in existence before Lao Tzu. However degenerated and corrupted, it was there. Hwang Ti (2697 B.C.) is instanced as a seeker of the Tao and was instructed in its mysteries by Kwang Chang-Tze, who practiced Tao (i.e., walked the Path) for 1200 years. The earliest extant treatise of Taoism is Yin Fu Ching — the book about the inner Harmony between the Visible and the Invisible and belongs to this ancient period of Hwang-Ti. This treatise is the Instructions of Kwang-Chang-Tze prepared for his royal pupil. It is a short but profound treatise from which we will extract three verses:

The nature of man is here clever and there stupid; and the one of these qualities may lie hidden in the other. The abuse of the nine apertures is chiefly in the three most important, which may be now in movement and now at rest. When fire arises in wood, the evil, having once begun, is sure to go on to the destruction of the wood. When calamity arises in a State, if thereafter movement ensue, it is sure to go to ruin. When one conducts the work of culture and refining wisely we call him a Sage.

The blind hear well, and the deaf see well. To derive all that is advantageous from the one source is ten times better than the employment of a host; to do this thrice in a day and night is a myriad times better. The mind is quickened to activity by external things, and dies through excessive pursuit of them. The spring of the mind's activity is in the eyes.

The method of spontaneity proceeds in stillness, and so it was that heaven, earth, and all things were produced. The method of heaven and earth proceeds gently and gradually, and thus it is that the Yin and Yang overcome each other by turns. The one takes the place of the other, and so change and transformation proceed accordingly. Therefore, the sages, knowing that the method of spontaneity can not be resisted, take action accordingly and regulate it for the purpose of culture.

Not only in the writings of his most celebrated disciple, Chwang Tzu (e.g. Book 33), but in the records of Lao Tzu himself, we come across the fact of the existence of Tao in antiquity. From the Tao Teh Ching itself we learn of the ancient treaders of the Paradoxical Way. It speaks of the age of perfect virtue and of the time "when the Great Tao ceased to be observed." And yet — it makes a pointed reference to the "skilful masters," not only of the old time, but of all times. Sometimes They become known because people arrive at knowledge; most of the time they remain unknown because people are ignorant. Says Tao Teh Ching:

The skilful masters of the Tao in old times, with a subtle and exquisite penetration, comprehended its mysteries, and were deep so as to elude men's knowledge. As they were thus beyond men's knowledge, I will make an effort to describe of what sort they appeared to be.

Shrinking looked they like those who wade through a stream in winter; irresolute, like those who are afraid of all around them; grave, like a guest in awe of his host; evanescent, like ice that is melting away; unpretentious, like wood that has not been fashioned into anything; vacant, like a valley, and dull, like muddy water.

Who can make the muddy water clear? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear. Who can secure the condition of rest? Let movement go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise.

They who preserve this method of the Tao do not wish to be full of themselves. It is through their not being full of themselves that they can afford to seem worn and not appear new and complete

The Virtue-Age is one in which the Path of Virtue is perceived — the sage gains recognition. The rest is the Vulgar-Age. These alternate. Here we gain a deeper perception and a fresh viewpoint of the adage, "when the pupil is ready the Master appears." The embodied Tao is always in the world; those who recognize the sages usher in the era of knowledge and begin for themselves and the world the cycle of wisdom. The age of Lao Tzu was the age of Buddha, of Pythagoras, of Zoroaster, of Mahavira, of Ezekiel, of Isaiah. To explain the phenomenon of that strikingly remarkable era of great Teachers all over the world in the Way of Lao Tzu would be to say that the vulgar, walking in the Way of Virtue, came to the sages and learnt more of the wisdom; they passed on, off the track of Virtue, forgot the Sages, and fell in the way of vulgarity. In the Vulgar-Age words of wisdom are spoken; in the Virtue-Age, they are lived. As people live Wisdom they meet companions and elders; when they only speak of it they contact passive listeners and child-souls.

The teachings of the Way and Tao existed as words when Lao Tzu incarnated to practice it in life. Here as in the narratives of other Great Lives, psychological and mythical facts have become interwoven; the student of Theosophy will be able to evaluate. In the Taoist traditions there are indications that Lao Tzu practiced Tao in previous incarnations; e.g., as Kwang Chang Tze and as Po-Chang in the eras of Hwang-Ti and of Yao respectively. In the stone tablets of Hsieh Tao-Hang it is said that "from the time of Fu-Hsi down to that of the Chou dynasty, in uninterrupted succession, his person appeared, but with changed names." Like so many other spiritual sages, he, too, was born of a virgin mother who conceived him at the sight of a meteor — "as beneath the Bear the star shone down." He was born with a white beard expressive of his hoary wisdom — "all dragon gifts his person graced and like stork's plumage was his hair." Around him was "purple air which shone bright." His surname was Li, and his name R, which means "Ear," and he was called long-eared, symbolic (as in the case of Buddha) of his capacity to listen to the voice of the silence, or the InnerTao. Details of his life activities are not available, and all that is known is that he spent most of his years in the state of Chou and taught by life more than by lips. He had some connection with the Royal Library of that province. He cultivated the Tao and endeavored to remain concealed and unknown. Very few really came to him, but he accomplished that for which he incarnated. In a touching fragment, affording us an insight, he says:

Alas! the barrenness of the age has not yet reached its limit.

All men are radiant with happiness, as if enjoying a great feast, as if mounted on a tower in spring. I, alone, am still, and give as yet no sign of joy. I am like an infant which has not yet smiled, forlorn as one who has nowhere to lay his head. Other men have plenty, while I, alone, seem to have lost all. I am a man foolish in heart, dull and confused. Other men are full of light; I, alone, seem to be in darkness. Other men are alert; I, alone, am listless. I am unsettled as the ocean, drifting as though I had no stopping-place. All men have their usefulness; I, alone, am stupid and clownish. Lonely though I am, and unlike other men, yet I revere the Foster-Mother, Tao.

My words are very easy to understand, very easy to put into practice; yet the world can neither understand nor practice them.

My words have a clue, my actions have an underlying principle. It is because men do not know the clue that they understand me not.

Those who know me are but few, and on that account my honour is the greater.

Thus the sage wears coarse garments, but carries a jewel in his bosom.

He did not die — he disappeared. He was last heard of at the northwest gate of his land, where the warden Yin Hsi recognized him. "You are about to withdraw from the world. Record for me your instructions." Then Lao Tzu wrote that which is famous as the Tao Teh Ching, the Classic of the Path of Virtue. In the books of his most celebrated disciple, Chwang Tzu (Book III), there is a reference to the passing of Lao Tzu:

When the Master came, it was at the proper time; when he went away, it was the simple sequence of his coming. Quiet acquiescence in what happens at its proper time, and quietly submitting to its ceasing afford no occasion for grief or for joy. The ancients described death as the loosening of the cord on which the Tao is suspended. What we can point to are the faggots that have been consumed; but the fire is transmitted, and we know not that it is over and ended.

After the departure of Lao Tzu enormous activity under the general name of Tao took place. As in our own era of H.P.B., half-informed students, failures on the Path of Virtue, moneymakers, soothsayers and frauds, deluded large numbers; on the other hand, his seeds of thought fructified the mind-soil of ardent individuals, though most among them were mere speculators. While Chwang Tzu and Leih Tzu and Went Zu endeavored to keep the original impulse unsullied, many well-meaning persons began interpreting and improving the original teachings, till within a century and a half corruption had set in, and a little later Lao Tzu's noble doctrine perished — in 213 B.C., the year when books and Mss. were burnt. That fire, perhaps, was the great reaction from the regions of the astral light to the imprints made thereon by the falsifiers of the doctrine who were indiscriminately accepted by the public at large — in theory, and alas! in practice also. There is a striking resemblance between the era of Lao Tzu and our own, if we note two distinct features: (1) H.P.B.'s teachings affect an international world; Lao Tzu touched China only; (2) the events which covered a period of nearly 500 years are being precipitated within a single century.

Taoism is the ancient Wisdom-Religion of Theosophy. The Great Ones of yore, the Original Teachers, are thus described and They, as all Theosophists know, exist today and ever will:

The True men of old could not be fully described by the wisest, nor be led into excess by the most beautiful, nor be forced by the most violent robber. Neither Fu-Hsi nor Hwang-Ti could compel them to be their friends. Death and life are indeed great considerations, but they could make no change in their (true) self; and how much less could rank and emolument do so? Being such, their spirits might pass over the Thai mountain and find it no obstacle to them; they might enter the greatest gulphs, and not be wet by them; they might occupy the lowest and smallest positions without being distressed by them. Theirs was the fullness of heaven and earth; the more that they gave to others, the more they had.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 1, November, 1926 pp. 18-22

ON TAO

LIKE the Sanscrit Word Aum, Tao stands for that which is the source, the power, and the form of the manifested universe. It is the Absolute Principle and Deity in Nature; therefore it is Boundless, Immutable, Omnipresent and Eternal on the one hand, and on the other expresses Itself as Life and Day and dissolves Itself into Death and Night. It is Macrocosmical and Microcosmical. Tao is translated differently — the Path, Nature, Reason, Doctrine, etc., but in truth it is untranslatable. Profound tomeshave been produced to explain Aum, and so with Tao. Without an application of the three fundamental propositions of the Secret Doctrine, Tao as expounded in Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tzu or by his follower, Chawng Tzu, and others, cannot be understood.

What follows will give an outline of the metaphysics and then of the occultism of Tao Teh Ching, the Classic of Tao and Teh or The Way of Virtue. Some Western Orientalists and missionaries have tried to substitute a personal god in translating and expounding Tao. Needless to say that Lao Tzu never taught a personal god; even in the worst days of corruption of his teachings the notion of an extra-cosmic god was never accepted; the Chinese were and are too philosophic for that!

Tao is a metaphysical grandeur; it also is the still small voice in the heart of the sage. Its ethics, its science, its philosophy, is comprehensive exactly as is the case with the imperishable Pravana. Tao Teh Ching and other Taoist volumes have confounded even sympathetic translators and their contents have appeared contradictory. Once again we are able to see how very valuable H.P.B.'s Secret Doctrine proves itself to be in throwing light on these Chinese puzzles; without its aid, to grasp the doctrines of the Tao philosophy would hardly be possible. The latter also reveals the universality of Theosophy, for Theosophical metaphysics, ethics, and rules of conduct are to be found therein.

TAO IS THE ABSOLUTE:

Tao in its unchanging aspect has no name (32:1). The name which can be uttered is not its eternal name. Without a name it is the Origin of Heaven and Earth. With a name it is the Mother of all things (1:1-2). Tao in the form of existence sprang from Tao in the form of non-existence (40:2). How deep and unfathomable is Tao — the Honoured Ancestor of all things. I know not of whom it is the offspring (4:1-3).

TAO — THE MANIFESTING ONE LIFE:

It may be called the Mysterious Feminine. The issuing point of the Mysterious Feminine must be regarded as the Root of the Universe. Subsisting to all eternity, it uses its force without effort (6:1). It must be regarded as the Mother of the Universe. Its name I know not. To designate it I call it Tao. Endeavoring to describe it I call it Great (25:1-2).

INVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION:

Being great it flows forth; thus it becomes remote; having become remote it returns (25:3).

MANIFESTATION AND PRALAYA:

Ceaseless in action, it cannot be named, but returns again to Nothingness (14:2). All things alike go through their processes of activity, and then we see them subside. When they have reached their bloom, each returns to its origin. This returning is what we call Stillness — it may be called a reporting that they have fulfilled their appointed end. This Reversion is an eternal law (16:1).

SPIRIT-MATTER IS ONE:

These two things, the spiritual and the material, though we call them by different names, in their origin are one and the same. This sameness is a mystery — the mystery of mysteries. It is the gate of spirituality (1:4).

THE PRIMEVAL TRIUNE DIFFERENTIATION:

Tao produced Unity; Unity produced Duality; Duality produced Trinity; and Trinity produced all existing objects. These myriad objects leave Darkness behind and harmonized by the Breath of Abstraction embrace Light (42:1). Tao eludes the sense of sight and is therefore called colourless, of hearing and is therefore called soundless, of touch and is therefore called bodyless. These three qualities can not be apprehended, and hence they must be blended into Unity (14:1). Tao lies hid and cannot be named, yet it has the power of transmitting and perfecting all things (41:3). How impalpable, how vague is the Tao — yet within it there is Form, there is Substance, there is Force or Vital Principle (21:1).

ABSOLUTE WISDOM:

This Vital Principle is the quintessence of Reality and out of it comes Truth (21:1).

THE TETRAKTYS:

Tao is the Great Square with no angles (41:2).

EVOLUTION:

The mightiest manifestations of active force flow solely from Tao (21:1). As soon as Tao proceeds to Action, it becomes namable (32:4). All things are produced by Tao and nourished by its outflowing operation. They receive their forms according to the nature of each and are completed according to the circumstances of their condition. Therefore all things without exception honour the Tao and exalt its outflowing Virtue. Thus Tao produces all things, nourishes them, develops them, perfects them. Production without possession, action without self-assertion, development without domination — this is its mysterious operation (51:4). Tao is eternally inactive, and yet it leaves nothing undone (37:1).

These few culled teachings from Tao Teh Ching, the only extant fragment, show how very complete must have been the record made by Lao Tzu; on this the Secret Doctrine says:

He is said to have written 930 books on Ethics and religions, and seventy on magic, one thousand in all. His great work, however, the heart of his doctrine, the "Tao-te King," or the sacred scriptures of the Taosse, has in it, as Stanislas Julien shows, only "about 5,000 words" (Tao-te-King, p. xxvii.), hardly a dozen of pages, yet Professor Max Müller finds that "the text is unintelligible without commentaries, so that Mr. Julien had to consult more than sixty commentators for the purpose of his translation," the earliest going back as far as the year 163 B.C., not earlier, as we see. During the four centuries and a half that preceded this earliest of the commentators there was ample time to veil the true Laotse doctrine from all but his initiated priests. (Vol. I., p. xxv.).

Tao Teh Ching, however, is more an ethical than a metaphysical treatise. In it Lao Tzu preaches the Path of Spiritual Purity, of Soul Virtue. Its esoteric side lies securely hidden in its paradoxes. It is one of those rare books which possesses the real touch of inner life. There is a hidden force in the statements which creates something in the reflector's heart, creates silence which speaks its mystery. But the student must not try to hear it with the ears of mind. Hence we might say, using an esoteric expression, that Lao Tzu teaches the Path of the Inner Ray which builds the Lotus of the Heart, the illuminator of the mortal mind, the renovator of the mortal man. Tao Teh Ching deals with that Mystic inner principle, ever-young, ever-silent, ever-natural, ever-invisible though ever in the world. It ever sings for all and yet few seek it. "The great Way is very smooth, but the people love the by-paths" (53:2).

Man is triune — within the earthly man is the heavenly man, within the latter is the face of Tao. Within every man slumbers Tao; in going forth from Tao he came to Heaven, in going forth from Heaven he fell on earth; therefore "man takes his law from earth; the earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from Tao; but the law of Tao is its own Spontaneity" (25:4). This Spontaneity or Naturalness is dual and manifests as the Law of Inversion and the Law of Reversion, Involution and Evolution. When a man is under the dominance of the former he recedes from Tao, he finds himself in an inverted position; when he works with the latter Tao flows unto him and he is one with Tao.

To know the Law of Reversion is to be enlightened. Not to know it is misery and calamity. He who knows that eternal law is liberal-minded. Being that, there is a community of feeling with all things. From this community of feeling comes a Kingliness of character and to be Kingly is to be akin to Heaven. Thus he possesses Tao; and possessed of Tao he endures forever. Though his body perish, yet he suffers no harm (16:2).

The spontaneous manifestation of Tao demands silence and repose: the evils of the man of earth, the virtues of the man of heaven must cease to exist. On the positive side the man has regained the child-state he has lost: "he who has Tao in him is like an infant. The infant's bones are weak, its sinews are soft, yet its grasp is firm. All day long it will cry without its voice becoming hoarse. This is because the harmony of its bodily system is perfect" (55:1-2). "Temper your sharpness, disentangle your ideas, moderate your brilliancy, live in harmony with your age. This is being in conformity with the principle of Tao. Such a man is impervious alike to favor and disgrace, to benefits and injuries, to honour and contempt. Therefore he is esteemed above all mankind" (56:2-3). It is by moderation that man returns to the normal state of Tao. But this moderation is not between the extremes of earthly evil and heavenly good, but is superior to both. Lao Tzu warns against the spiritual inertia of a good life; he advocates rising above the satvic life of harmony. To be dominated by good is still to be a slave; to dominate both evil and good is to be a Master and therefore the servant of both.

Desire not to desire, and you will not value things difficult to obtain. Learn not to learn and you will revert to a condition which mankind in general has lost (64:4).

All difficult things in the world arise from a previous state in which they were easy, and all great things from one in which they were small. He who is continually thinking things easy is sure to find them difficult. Therefore the Sage sees difficulty of things for others even in what seems easy to himself and so never has any difficulties. To act without acting; to conduct affairs without trouble of them; to taste without discerning any flavour; to consider what is small as great and a few as many; to recompense injury with kindness; — this is the Way of Tao (63:1-3).

Christendom attributes its golden rule to Jesus; but Lao Tzu taught it centuries before Jesus. The spirit of the Sermon on the Mount is fully expressed in Tao Teh Ching.

To those who are good I am good and to those who are not good I am also good — and thus all get to be good. With the sincere I am sincere, and with the insincere I am also sincere — and thus all get to be sincere (49:2).

In no other literature, and certainly in no other single volume is the doctrine of Inaction in Action, including that phase which is known in the West as "resist not evil", so amply and tellingly expounded as in Taoism and in Tao Teh Ching. To act with detachment, rising above the pairs of opposites, is the Paradoxical Way. The doctrine of Wu-Wei instructs why one must not wish to be rare like jade or common like stone, and how the soft overcomes the hard, the weak the strong.

The heavy is the foundation of the light; repose is the ruler of unrest (26:1-2). He who raises himself on tiptoe cannot stand firm; he who stretches his legs wide apart cannot walk (24:1).

He who devotes himself to the Tao seeks to diminish his doings from day to day. He diminishes and again diminishes, till he arrives at the point of non-action; there is nothing which he does not do (48:1-2).

The best soldiers are not warlike; the best fighters do not lose their temper. The greatest conquerors are those who overcome their enemies without strife. The greatest leaders of men are those who yield place to others. This is called the Virtue of Inaction, the capacity of directing mankind; this is being the compeer of Heaven. It was the highest goal of the Ancients (68:1).

To possess Tao a man must first possess the Three Precious Things: "I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize — (1) gentleness; (2) frugality; (3) humility. Be gentle and you can be bold. Be frugal and you can be liberal. Avoid pushing yourself to the front and you can become a leader among men" (67:2-3).

The control of our lower nature through a contemplation on our higher is taught:

Colour's five hues from eyes their sight will take; Music's five notes the ears as deaf can make; the flavours five deprive the mouth of taste.

Racing and hunting make the mind mad; craving for rare and strange objects corrupts the moral nature. Therefore the Sage seeks to satisfy the belly and not the eye (12:1-2).

The five colours are reported to be Black, Red, Green, White and Yellow; the five notes of the Chinese musical scale; the five tastes are Salt, Bitter, Sour, Acrid and Sweet. "In satisfying the belly one nourishes himself; in gratifying the eyes he makes a slave of himself," says the well-known commentator Wang Pi of the third century, A.D. This is regarded as ingenious by Legge, but there is more than ingeniousness: what Wang Pi tried to convey is that those experiences which build the spiritual body are preferable to sense activities which sharpen the corpus. At least thus we heard from a holy man of China.

Much is written on the conduct of Government, on the waging of war, but Lao Tzu, like Jesus, spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven and like Krishna advocated the destruction of evil in ourselves. Yet there are some remarkable utterances on the art of government:

As restrictions and prohibitions are multiplied the people grow poorer. When the people are skilled in many cunning arts, strange are the objects of luxury that appear. The greater the number of laws and enactments the more thieves and robbers there will be (57:2-3). He who respects the state as his own person is fit to govern it. He who loves the state as his own body is fit to be entrusted with it (13:3).

The above will suffice to show how the Ancient Landmarks of Tao Teh Ching inspire the modern Theosophist, although a great corruption overtook the movement of Lao Tzu, and today this cult is saturated with superstition and fraud. The true teachings of Tao and Teh, though in fragments, survive; and so do the real Taoists, unknown to the world but to whom the world is not unknown. To them the world owes a debt of gratitude for the great service they silently render.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 2, December, 1926 pp. 70-74

MENCIUS

THE period immediately following the era of Lao Tzu and Confucius is of special interest to the student of Theosophy. An hundred schools and a thousand sects sprang into existence — a few antagonistic to both, a few true to their teachings, and many playing and profiting with their names and sayings. We do not propose to deal with the first and the third. Our task is to point at the landmarks of the Wisdom-Religion and so we must now turn to the labours of those who carried on the work of the two great men.

Schisms arose as between the early apostles after the passing of Jesus. Mencius on the one hand, Lieh Tzu and Chwang Tzu on the other. If they and their immediate admirers had remained loyal to the Original Impulse which manifested in the works of Lao Tzu and Confucius they would have prepared the mind of their race to be fecundated by the philosophy of the Great Buddha himself which was presently to energize and build a spiritual structure in China. But the schisms produced sects, as they always do; and when in the first century of the Christian era Buddhism reached China, the mind of the people was not ready; and those who received it themselves became a sect.

Three important names emerge — Mencius, Lieh Tzu, and Chwang Tzu. After them came degradation and corruption. In the sayings of these three the Theosophic influence of the two Sages is felt, but with 275 B.C. the force spent itself; there was hardly any in the public world to keep it focalized in his own life or school. Ambition for personal power and gain made the channels impure and unfit. Then arose temples and priests with ceremonies according to Confucius, in letter but contrary to the spirit; also the lower forms of magic and mediumism and psychical practices which were called the manifestations of Tao, but were as far away from the Tao of the great Classic as the Christian Churches are from the Sermon on the Mount or the psychism of Neo-Theosophy is from the Wisdom of the pure Theosophy of H.P.B.

These three, Mencius, Lieh Tzu and Chwang Tzu, may be correctly described as influences prevailing at a descending cycle of ancient China.

Mencius was a contemporary of Plato and utilized Confucian teachings to build an ideal state as Plato attempted in his Republic. Mencius moved from court to court in search of opportunities for the practical application of his political ideas and theories. But even in political doctrines the paradox was maintained, for Mencius preached in the same breath divine right of kings and democracy. He was more emphatic than Confucius himself in reference to the heaven-appointed sovereign, but he made it amply clear that people got as ruler what they deserved. He quotes as the Great Declaration — "Heaven sees according as the people see; Heaven hears according as the people hear." (p. 357). Therefore "the people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and the grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest." (p. 483). Mencius went so far as to advocate revolt against an unworthy sovereign — raise a standard not of rebellion but of righteousness. He advises looking for the minister of Heaven when the sovereign has become worthless and useless; for, "it is not enough to remonstrate with a sovereign on account of the mal-employment of his ministers. Once rectify the prince and the kingdom will be firmly settled." (p. 310). Material well-being of the people was his one aim, and therefore he preaches that the state should supply the twofold nourishment, for body and mind, hence he recommends agriculture and education as of first rate importance.

The way of the people is this: if they have a certain livelihood, they will have a fixed heart; if not they will not have a fixed heart, and then there is nothing which they will not do in the way of self-abandonment, of moral deflection, of depravity, and of wild license. When they have thus been involved in crime, to follow them up and punish them — this is to entrap the people. How can such an entrapping be done under the rule of a benevolent man? (pp. 239-240.)

Establish hsiang, hsu, hsio, hsiao — all those educational institutions — for the instruction of the people. The object of them all is to illustrate the human relations. When those are illustrated by superiors, kindly feeling will prevail among the inferior people below. (p. 242.)

The minister of agriculture taught the people to sow and reap, cultivating the five kinds of grain. Thus the people obtained a subsistence. But men possess a moral nature; and if they are well fed, warmly clad, and comfortably lodged, without being taught at the same time, they become almost like the beasts. This was a subject of anxious solicitude to the Sage Shun and he appointed Hsieh to be the Minister of Instruction, to teach the relations of humanity:— how between father and son there should be affection; between sovereign and minister righteousness; between husband and wife attention to their separate functions; between old and young a proper order; and between friends fidelity. "Encourage them; lead them on; rectify them; straighten them; help them; give them wings; — thus causing them to become possessors of themselves. Then follow this up by stimulating them, and conferring benefits on them." (pp. 251-2). Good government does not lay hold of the people so much as good instructions. Good government is feared by the people, while good instructions are loved by them. Good government gets the people's wealth, while good instructions get their hearts. (pp. 455-56.)

It is not our object in this paper to deal elaborately with the political doctrines of Mencius. We are more interested in his special contribution to the psychologic and mystic lore as expounder of Confucian teachings. Sound as are many of his political and economic principles, more valuable are his psychological ideas. The most important contribution of Mencius is his doctrine of the innate goodness, in human nature, as treated in Book II, Part I, and Book VI, Part I. According to him there is the inner energizing Nature, whose chief constituent is the Will, and the outer acting nature in which appetites arise and develop. "The will is the leader of the passion nature. The latter pervades and animates the body. The will is the first and chief, and the passion nature is subordinate to it. Therefore I say — Maintain firm the will, and do no violence to the passion-nature." (p. 188). He explained that the acting-nature was not to be destroyed but made to act by the energy of the higher. This higher nature in operation expresses four principles or essences:

Compassion is natural to man, e.g., "if men suddenly see a child about to fall into a well, they will without exception experience a feeling of alarm and distress. They will feel so not as a ground on which they may gain the favour of the child's parents, nor as a ground on which they may seek the praise of their neighbours and friends, nor from a dislike to the reputation of having been unmoved by such a thing." (p. 202). Because compassion is of the very essence of man's inner nature, he will be moved by it. Out of Compassion arises in the acting or lower nature — Benevolence.
Shame — Dislike is natural to man. The former arises from one's own want of goodness; the latter because of the lack of it in others. Out of this second essence arises in the acting or lower nature — Righteousness.
Modesty — Kindness is natural to man. But the first one unloosens and separates from one's egotism; by the second one comes into unison with others. Out of this third arises in the acting or lower nature — Propriety (the basis for the ceremony of Right Conduct).
Approval — Disapproval is natural to man. The one assents to the knowledge of goodness; the other dissents to the knowledge of evil. Out of this fourth arises in the acting or lower nature — Right Knowledge.

Men have these four principles, just as they have their four limbs. When men say of themselves that they cannot develop them, they play the thief with themselves. (p. 203). These four are not infused into us from without. We are certainly furnished with them. Hence it is said, "seek and you will find them. Neglect and you will lose them." (p. 402.)

For the mouth to desire sweet tastes, the eye to desire beautiful colours, the ear to desire pleasant sounds, the nose to desire fragrant odours, and the four limbs to desire ease and rest; — these things are natural. But there is the appointment of Heaven in connexion with them, and the superior man does not say of his pursuit of them, "It is my nature."

The exercise of love between father and son, the observance of righteousness between sovereign and minister, the rules of ceremony between guest and host, the display of knowledge in recognising the talented, and the fulfilling the heavenly course by the sage; — these are the appointment of Heaven. But there is an adaptation of our nature for them. The superior man does not say, in reference to them, "It is the appointment of Heaven." (pp. 489-90.)

With those who do violence to themselves, it is impossible to speak. With those who throw themselves away, it is impossible to do anything. To disown in his conversation propriety and righteousness, is what we mean by doing violence to one's self. To say — "I am not able to dwell in benevolence or pursue the path of righteousness," is what we mean by throwing one's self away. Benevolence is the tranquil habitation of man, and righteousness is his straight path. Alas for them, who leave the tranquil dwelling empty and do not reside in it, and who abandon the right path and do not pursue it. (pp. 301-302.)

There now is barley. Let it be sown and covered up; the ground being the same, and the time of sowing likewise the same, it grows rapidly up, and when the full time is come, it is all found to be ripe. Although there may be inequalities of produce, that is owing to the difference of the soil, as rich or poor, to the unequal nourishment afforded by the rains and dews, and to the different ways in which man has performed his business in reference to it. (p. 404). The great end of learning is nothing else but to seek for the lost mind. (p. 414). All men have in themselves that which is truly honourable. Only they do not think of it. (p. 419.)

Mencius discoursed on how the nature of man is good, and when speaking, always made laudatory references to Yao and Shun, and added — The path is one, and only one. It was said of old, "They were men. I am a man. Why should I stand in awe of them?" and again — "What kind of man was Shun? What kind of man am I? He who exerts himself will also become such as he was." (pp. 234-5).

This higher nature is a matter of culture, of continuous attention. Benevolence and the rest of the higher nature subdues each its own opposite "just as water subdues fire. Those, however, who now-a-days practice benevolence do it as if with one cup of water they could save a whole wagon-load of fuel which was on fire, and when the flames were not extinguished they would say that water cannot subdue fire. This conduct, moreover, greatly encourages those who are not benevolent. The final issue will simply be this — the loss of that small amount of benevolence." (p. 420).

To illustrate the philosophy and discipline of Mencius we give below extracts arranged so as to give a connected view of the noble whole. The page number throughout is of The Chinese Classics, Vol. II, of James Legge.

DISCIPLINE FOR THE WORLDLY-MAN:

To nourish the mind there is nothing better than to make the desires few. Here is a man whose desires are few; — in some things he may not be able to keep his heart, but they will be few. Here is a man whose desires are many; — in some things he may be able to keep his heart, but they will be few. (p. 497)

The hungry think any food sweet, and the thirsty think the same of any drink, and thus they do not get the right taste of what they eat and drink. The hunger and thirst, in fact, injure their palate. Is it only the mouth and belly which are injured by hunger and thirst? Men's minds are also injured by them. (p. 465)

He who rises at cock-crowing, and addresses himself earnestly to the practice of virtue, is a disciple of Shun. He who rises at cock-crowing, and addresses himself earnestly to the pursuit of gain, is a disciple of Chih. If you want to know what separates Shun from Chih, it is simply this, — the interval between the thought of gain and the thought of virtue. (p. 464)

Let a man not do what his own sense of righteousness tells him not to do, and let him not desire what his sense of righteousness tells him not to desire — to act thus is all he has to do. (p. 457)

If you know that the thing is unrighteous, then use all despatch in putting an end to it; — why wait till next year? (p. 278)

Men who are possessed of intelligent virtue and prudence in affairs will generally be found to have been in sickness and troubles. (p. 457)

The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote. The work of duty lies in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is difficult. (p. 302)

DISCIPLINE FOR A WOULD-BE DISCIPLE:

Mencius said to a disciple, "There are the footpaths along the hills; if suddenly they be used, they become roads; and if, as suddenly they are not used, the wild grass fills them up. Now, the wild grass fills up your mind." (p. 487)

A disciple said, "I shall be having an interview with the prince of Tsau, and can ask him to let me have a house to lodge in. I wish to remain here, and receive instruction at your gate." Mencius replied, "The way of truth is like a great road. It is not difficult to know it. The evil is only that men will not seek it. Do you go home and search for it, and you will have abundance of teachers." (p. 426)

He who has exhausted all his mental constitution knows his nature. Knowing his nature, he knows Heaven. When neither a premature death nor long life causes a man any double-mindedness, but he waits in the cultivation of his personal character for whatever issue; this is the way in which he establishes his Heaven-ordained being. (pp. 448-49)

There is an art in the contemplation of water. — It is necessary to look at it as foaming in waves. The sun and moon being possessed of brilliancy, their light admitted even through an orifice illuminates. Flowing water is a thing which does not proceed till it has filled the hollows in its course. The student who has set his mind on the doctrines of the sage, does not advance to them but by completing one lesson after another. (pp. 463-64)

The ability possessed by men without having been acquired by learning is intuitive ability, and the knowledge possessed by them without the exercise of thought is their intuitive knowledge. (p. 456)

ON THE NATURE OF ADEPTS:

Wide territory and a numerous people are desired by the superior man, but what he delights in is not here. To stand in the centre of the kingdom, and tranquilize the people within the four seas; — the superior man delights in this, but the highest enjoyment of his nature is not here. What belongs by his nature to the superior man cannot be increased by the largeness of his sphere of action, nor diminished by his dwelling in poverty and retirement; — for this reason that it is determinately apportioned to him by Heaven. What belongs by his nature to the superior man are benevolence, righteousness, propriety and knowledge. These are rooted in his will; their growth and manifestation are a mild harmony appearing in the countenance, a rich fullness in the back, and the character imparted to the four limbs. Those limbs understand to arrange themselves, without being told. (pp. 459-60)

Wherever the superior man passes through, transformation follows; wherever he abides, his influence is of a spiritual nature. It flows abroad, above and beneath, like that of Heaven and Earth. How can it be said that he mends society but in a small way! (p. 455)

When one by force subdues men, they do not submit to him in heart. They submit, because their strength is not adequate to resist. When one subdues men by virtue, in their hearts' core they are pleased, and sincerely submit, as was the case with the seventy disciples in their submission to Confucius. (pp. 196-7)

We cannot close this article on Mencius without paying a tribute to the lady Chang-Shih, the moulder of her son's mind and life. It was she who encouraged Mencius in his resolve to leave his native place. Struck by his sorrowful aspect as he stood leaning against a pillar she asked him the cause of it. "I have heard" he said "that the Superior man occupies the place for which he is adapted, accepting no reward to which he does not feel entitled, and not covetous of honour and emolument. Now, my doctrines are not practised here in Chi. I wish to leave it, but I think of your old age and am anxious." Came the quick reply — "It does not belong to a woman to determine such things for herself; she is subject to the rule of the three obediences. When young — she obeys the parents; when married the husband; when a widow, her son. You are a man in your full maturity, and I am old. Do you act as your righteousness tells you, and I will act according to the righteousness which belongs to me. Why should you be anxious about me?"

And so Mencius went out to preach the doctrines of Benevolent Government and the Good Nature of Man.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 3, January, 1927 pp. 113-118

LIEH TZU

WHAT Mencius was to Confucius, that Lieh Tzu and Chwang Tzu were to Lao Tzu. Lieh Tzu endeavored to draw together the conflicting elements which were becoming active among the respective followers of the two sages. Therefore he spoke respectfully of Confucius though he employed the phraseology of Lao Tzu; while he advocated the practice of the Tao, he venerated Confucius as a sage and evinced a reverential esteem for the Confucian method of looking up to the Ancients. To Lieh Tzu's credit stands a very deep metaphysical system; but he is better known as a narrator of parables. "Nearly all the Taoist writers are fond of parables and allegorical tales, but in none of them is this branch of literature brought to such perfection as in Lieh Tzu," writes Lionel Giles to whom we owe a debt; for, unlike his father, Herbert Giles, to him Lieh Tzu is a living authority and not a myth created by Chwang Tzu. There has been a dispute as to the very existence of Lieh Tzu; but sinologists of today are more inclined to regard Lieh Tzu as an actual eminent teacher than those of a former generation; to the Chinese mind his existence was never a matter of grave doubt. This, however, must be added — great interpolations have occurred and many minor and even trifling students, mostly posers as Taoists, have tried to father their own personal lore on Lieh Tzu.

Very little is known of Lieh Yu-Kou, which was the full name of Lieh Tzu; he lived in the fourth century B.C. Of him Chwang Tzu speaks with respect and awe, thus:

He could ride upon the wind, and travel whithersoever he wished, staying away as long as fifteen days. Among mortals who attain happiness, such a man is rare. Yet although Lieh Tzu was able to dispense with walking, he was still dependent upon something. But had he been charioted upon the eternal fitness of Heaven and Earth, driving before him the elements as his team while roaming through the realms of For-Ever, — upon what, then, would he have had to depend?

Thus it has been said, "The perfect man ignores self; the divine man ignores action; the true Sage ignores reputation.

He was a student-practitioner of Lao Tzu's philosophy; the name of his actual physical teacher is not known but in stories two individuals stand out as Lieh Tzu's instructors — Hu Tzu and Po Hun. The ways they helped and taught Lieh Tzu are so significantly Theosophical that we will summarize the incidents.

Lieh Tzu was infatuated with the wonder-tricks of Chi Han who knew all about birth and death, gain and loss, and even prophesying. The people feared him. Returning after a visit Lieh Tzu spake to his instructor, Hu Tzu: "I used to look upon your Tao as perfect but now I have found something better —" — "So far you have learnt from me the ornamentals without the essentials and you think you know all about it. Without cocks in your poultry-yard, what sort of eggs do the hens lay? Try to force Tao down people's throats and you will expose yourself. Let me show myself to your magician."

So Lieh Tzu brought Chi Han and the magician prophesied: "I see but wet ashes; he can not live more than ten days." Lieh Tzu later heard from his teacher, "I showed myself just as the earth shows us its outward form, motionless and still; I merely prevented him from seeing my pent-up energy of Tao. Now go and bring him again."

And Chi Han came to visit Hu Tzu again. "It is lucky for your teacher," he reported to Lieh Tzu, "that he met me. He will recover; anyway his recuperative powers aided him." His preceptor told Lieh Tzu; "I showed myself as Heaven shows itself in all its dispassionate grandeur, letting a little energy run out of my heels. Well, try him again."

Next day a third interview took place — "Your teacher is never the same and his physiognomy speaks nought. Get him to be regular and I will examine him again." Hu Tzu on hearing this smilingly said, "I showed myself to him just now in a state of harmony and equipoise. Where the Man-Fish disports itself — is the Abyss. Where Water is at Rest — is the Abyss. Where Water is in Motion — is the Abyss. The Abyss is nine-fold and I have shown but three."

Once again Chi Han accompanied Lieh Tzu to the presence of Hu Tzu. But the magician looked confused, terrified and fled. "Pursue him!" ordered Hu Tzu, and Lieh Tzu ran after him, failed to overtake him and returned. "I showed myself to him just now as Tao was before It became. I was to him as a great blank existing of itself."

Upon this Lieh Tzu stood convinced that he had not yet learnt the real doctrine and so set to work in earnest, and for three years did not leave his home. He did cooking for his wife; he fed the pigs just as if he were feeding men. He discarded the artificial and reverted to the Natural.

Here is the tale about Lieh Tzu's second instructor:

Lieh Tzu played the master and tried to teach archery to Po Hun. He gave the exhibition of how he could let the arrows fly with a cup of water placed on his elbow, and standing like a statue. "Bravo! but —" said Po Hun, "that is the shooting of an archer, but not of one who is above passion. Mount with me to the edge of a precipice." They went and Po Hun approached it backward until his feet one-fifth of their length overhung the chasm. He beckoned Lieh Tzu, but he was prostrate on the ground with fear-sweat all over him. Then he was taught — "The perfect man soars to the blue sky above, or dives down to the yellow springs below, or traverses the eight ends of the great compass, without a change in countenance or unevenness in breathing. You are terrified. Your internal economy is defective. You have no Tao." And so Lieh Tzu began his practices again.

These two anecdotes show the psychic tendency of Lieh Tzu in his early days. Of this second instructor Po Hun another story is narrated, to draw the moral that a disciple must appear as nothing in the eyes of men.

Lieh Tzu went to Po Hun and said: "I am afraid. Out of ten restaurants at which I ate five would take no payment. It means that the truth within not being duly assimilated a certain brightness is visible externally and to conquer man's hearts by force of the external is not wise. If a poor restaurant-keeper is tempted to do thus, who knows but a prince would be tempted to reward me with a post. That is what I was afraid of." "Your Inner Lights are good, but if you don't look out the world will gather round you." Shortly afterwards Po Hun went to visit Lieh Tzu and lo! he had a large number of visitors. He stood there awhile, resting on his staff. Then without a word he departed. Hearing of this Lieh Tzu ran after Po Hun and cried: "Master, now that you have come will you not give me medicine?" "It is all over! I told you that the world would gather around you. It is not that you can make people gather around you; you cannot prevent them from doing so. What use of further instruction? Exerting influence thus unduly, you are influenced in turn. You distrust your natural constitution. Those who associate with you do not admonish you. Their small words are poison. You perceive it not; you understand it not. Alas! The clever toil on, and the wise are sad. Those without ability seek for nothing-ness; with full bellies idly they wander about; they are drifting boats, not knowing whither they are bound."

Perchance it was to cure this early psychic tendency that Lieh Tzu studied metaphysical propositions and universal fundamentals, and later in life taught them. We will give a few culled flowers from the garden of Lieh Tzu, but in doing so would like the reader to remember that there are giant trees and bushes besides, and these flowers are only on some amongst them:

ORIGINS:

The inspired men of old regarded the Yin and the Yang as the cause of the sum total of Heaven and Earth. But that which has substance is engendered from that which is devoid of substance. Hence we say, there is a great Principle of Change, a great Origin, a great Beginning, a great Primordial Simplicity. In the great Change substance is not yet manifest. In the great Origin lies the beginning of substance. In the great Beginning lies the beginning of material form. In the great Simplicity lies the beginning of essential qualities. When substance, form and essential qualities are still indistinguishably blended together it is called Chaos. Chaos meansthat all things are chaotically intermixed and not yet separated from one another. The purer and lighter elements, tending upwards, made the Heavens; the grosser and heavier elements, tending downwards, made the Earth. Substance, harmoniously proportioned, become Man; and, Heaven and Earth containing thus a spiritual element, all things were evolved and produced.

To the beginning and end of things there is no precise limit. Beginning may be end, and end may be beginning. But beyond infinity there must again exist non-infinity, and within the unlimited again that which is not unlimited. It is this consideration — that infinity must be succeeded by non-infinity, and the unlimited by the not-unlimited — that enables me to apprehend the infinity and unlimited extent of space, but does not allow me to conceive of its being finite and limited.

The lesser is always enclosed by a greater, without ever reaching an end. Heaven and earth, which enclose the myriad objects of creation, are themselves enclosed in some outer shell or sphere. Enclosing heaven and earth and the myriad objects within them, this outer shell is infinite and immeasurable.

EVOLUTION:

On one hand, there is life, and on the other, there is that which produces life; there is form, and there is that which imparts form; there is sound, and there is that which causes sound; there is colour, and there is that which causes colour; there is taste, and there is that which causes taste.

Evolution is never-ending. But who can perceive the secret processes of Heaven and Earth? Thus, things that are diminished here are augmented there; things that are made whole in one place suffer loss in another. Diminution and augmentation, fullness and decay are the constant accompaniments of life and death. They alternate in continuous succession, and we are not conscious of any interval. The whole body of spiritual substance progresses without a pause; the whole body of material substance suffers decay without intermission. But we do not perceive the process of completion, nor do we perceive the process of decay. Man, likewise, from birth to old age becomes something different every day in face and form, in wisdom and in conduct ... Though imperceptible while it is going on, it may be verified afterwards if we wait.

ON MAN, ANIMAL AND SPIRITUAL:

The spiritual element in man is allotted to him by Heaven, his corporeal frame by Earth. The part that belongs to Heaven is ethereal and dispersive, the part that belongs to Earth is dense and tending to conglomeration.When the spirit parts from the body, each of these elements returns to its proper place. That is why disembodied spirits are called kuei, which means "returning," that is, returning to their true dwelling place.

There may be similarity in understanding without similarity in outward form. There may also be similarity in form without similarity in understanding. The Sage embraces similarity of understanding and pays no regard to similarity of form. The world in general is attracted by similarity of form, but remains indifferent to similarity of understanding. Those creatures that resemble them in shape they love and consort with; those that differ from them in shape they fear and keep at a distance. The creature that has a long skeleton, hands differently shaped from the feet, hair on its head, and an even set of teeth in its jaws, and walks erect, is called a man. But it does not follow that a man may not have the mind of a brute. Even though this be the case, other men will still recognize him as one of their own species in virtue of his outward form.

Between his birth and his latter end, man passes through four chief stages of development:— infancy, adolescence, old age and death. In infancy, the vital force is concentrated, the will is simple, and the general harmony of the system is perfect. External objects produce no injurious impression, and to the moral nature nothing can be added. In adolescence, the animal passions are wildly exuberant, the heart is filled with rising desires and preoccupations. The man is open to attack by the objects of sense, and thus his moral nature becomes enfeebled. In old age, his desires and preoccupations have lost their keenness, and the bodily frame seeks for repose. External objects no longer hold the first place in his regard. In this state, though not attaining to the perfection of infancy, he is already different from what he was in adolescence.

ON DREAMS:

A dream is the meeting of minds; an event in our waking consciousness is the coming together of sensible substances. Hence our feelings by day and our dreams by night are the meetings of mind with mind and of substance with substance. It follows that if we can concentrate the mind in abstraction, our feelings and our dreams will vanish of themselves. With those who rely on their waking perceptions you cannot argue. Those who put faith in dreams do not understand the alternating processes of evolution. "The pure men of old passed their waking existence in self-oblivion, and slept without dreams." How can this be dismissed as an empty phrase?

ON ANIMALS:

The intelligence of animals is innate, even as that of man. Their common desire is for propagation of life, but their instincts are not derived from any human source. There is pairing between the male and the female, and mutual attachment between the mother and her young. They shun the open plain and keep to the mountainous parts; they flee the cold and make for warmth; when they settle, they gather in flocks; when they travel, they preserve a fixed order. The young ones are stationed in the middle, the stronger ones place themselves on the outside. They show one another the way to the drinking-places, and call to their fellows when there is food. In the earliest ages, they dwelt and moved about in company with man. It was not until the age of emperors and kings that they began to be afraid and broke away into scattered bands.

ON KARMA:

Li (spirit of exertion) and Ming (spirit of destiny) work conjointly. The husbandman takes his measures according to the season, the trader occupies himself with gain, the craftsman strives to master his art, the official pursues power. Here we have the operation of human forces.

But the husbandman has seasons of rain and seasons of drought, the trader meets with gains and losses, the craftsman experiences both failure and success, the official finds opportunities or the reverse. Here we see theworking of Destiny.

When the body is bent its shadow is crooked; when upright the shadow is straight. Likewise, contraction and extension are not inherent in the Subject, but take place in obedience to causes. Holding this theory of consequents is to be at home in the antecedent. Therefore if speech is sweet, the echo will be sweet. Hence the saying, "Heed your words, and they will meet with harmonious response; heed your actions, and they will find agreeable accord." Therefore the Sage observes the issue in order to know the origin, scrutinizes the past to know the future. The standard of conduct lies with one's own self. You will find no instance of preservation or destruction, fullness or decay, which has not obeyed the supreme Law of Causality. Those who excel in beauty become vain, those who excel in strength become violent; for Causality ceases where Balance is.

ON SPIRITUAL EXERCISE:

The source of life is death; but that which produces life never comes to an end. The origin of form is matter; but that which imparts form has no material existence. The genesis of sound lies in the sense of hearing; but that which causes sound is never audible to the ear. The source of colour is vision; but that which produces colour never manifests itself to the eye. The origin of taste lies in the palate; but that which causes taste is never perceived by that sense. All these phenomena are functions of the principle of Inaction (Wu Wei). To be at will either bright or obscure, soft or hard, short or long, round or square, alive or dead, hot or cold, buoyant or sinking, treble or bass, present or absent, black or white, sweet or bitter, fetid or fragrant:— this it is to be devoid of knowledge, yet all-knowing, destitute of power, yet all-powerful.

The man who did more to popularize Lao Tzu's doctrine of Tao was Chwang Tzu, who followed Lieh Tzu and in whose writings references to our author are to be found. The study of Taoism can not be complete without some knowledge of Chwang Tzu's teachings. After him came the corruption and the downfall of pure Taoism, and so to a summary and examination of Chwang Tzu's books we must turn to bring our study of Tao-Theosophy to a close.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 4, February, 1927 pp. 161-166

THE ROOT OF RELIGION

... the Esoteric philosophy is alone calculated to withstand, in this age of crass and illogical materialism, the repeated attacks on all and everything man holds most dear and sacred, in his inner spiritual life. The true philosopher, the student of the Esoteric Wisdom, entirely loses sight of personalities, dogmatic beliefs and special religions. Moreover, Esoteric philosophy reconciles all religions, strips every one of its outward, human garments, and shows the root of each to be identical with that of every other great religion. It proves the necessity of an absolute Divine Principle in nature. It denies Deity no more than it does the Sun. Esoteric philosophy has never rejected God in Nature, nor Deity as the absolute and abstract Ens. It only refuses to accept any of the gods of the so-called monotheistic religions, gods created by man in his own image and likeness, a blasphemous and sorry caricature of the Ever Unknowable.— S.D. I, xx. Int.

CHWANG TZU

LAO TZU is austere and serene; Confucius is the ritualist in life; but now we approach Chwang Tzu — the breaker of idols, the advocate not only of serene but of joyous living. Regarding Lao Tzu as his Master, he practised the austerities of the straight and narrow path of Tao; but unlike his great predecessor he was an active propagandist and labored incessantly to teach so that many may live the higher life.

His title "The True Man of Nan-Hua" shows the deep reverence in which he is held by the Chinese. His writings are known as "The Divine Classic of Nan Hua." Nan Hua was his birth place, and living in the fourth century B.C. he was a contemporary of Mencius. His poet soul gives his writing the graceful touch so pleasing to his students, the touch that produces a sparkling quality of pure joy, non-sensuous, and on contacting it, argument and even reason subside into silence. The wealth of illustrations in innumerable anecdotes and episodes does not make the reiteration of his principles boring but on the contrary it continuously enlightens the varied aspects of those fundamentals. A celebrated commentator of the Second Century, B.C., says, "His teachings were like an overwhelming flood, which spreads at its own sweet will." His thirty-three books are generally classified thus: I to VII the esoteric, VIII to XXII the exoteric, and XXIII to XXXIII miscellaneous. Thus Chwang Tzu is a voluminous writer and where Lao Tzu would speak a terse but telling aphorism, he narrates an anecdote and adorns it with imagery.

A great change came over the world of thought after the passing of Lao Tzu. The influence of the great Buddha was steadily permeating all Asia and Chwang Tzu distinctly shows the impress of this influence on his consciousness. In the period between the death of Lao Tzu and the birth of Chwang Tzu both the Buddha and Sankar Acharya had resuscitated Theosophy, and the echoes of Their teachings unmistakably resound in those of Chwang Tzu; this accounts for the more detailed development of Lao Tzu's teachings and the becoming exoteric of that which was esoteric previously. Because of this, his Tao appears different from the Tao of Lao Tzu; but in reality the introduction of the expression Tien Tao, the Divine Way or the Heavenly Way, was formulated by Chwang Tzu as a protest against the degradation in which the Lao Tzu's doctrine of Spontaneity was falling. Some pseudo-Taoists were preaching, and indulging in the belief that lust can be killed out if gratified, and spontaneity consisted in free indulgence. To emphasize the ethical aspect without discarding the metaphysical, Chwang Tzu spoke of Tien Tao and Tao; but these two like the Macro- and the Micro-Cosmos are related in identity. With this short introduction, we will let Chwang Tzu speak his own words on the different topics of interest to the student of Theosophy.

DEITY AND NATURE:

The ultimate end is the Heavenly Tao. It is manifested in the laws of nature. It is the hidden spring. At the beginning, It was. This, however, is inexplicable. It is unknowable. But from the unknowable we reach the known.

We are embraced in the obliterating unity of the Heavenly Tao. There is perfect adaptation to whatever may eventuate; and so we complete our allotted span. But what is it to be embraced in the obliterating unity of the Heavenly Tao? Take no heed of time, nor right and wrong. But passing into the realm of the Infinite, take your final rest therein.

Knowledge of the great One, of the great Negative, of the great Nomenclature, of the great Uniformity, of the great Space, of the great Truth, of the great Law — this is perfection. The great One is omnipresent. The great Negative is omnipotent. The great Nomenclature is all-inclusive. The great Uniformity is all-assimilative. The great Space is all receptive. The great Truth is all-exacting. The great Law is all-binding.

Speech is not mere breath. It is differentiated by meaning. Take away that, and you cannot say whether it is speech or not. Can you even distinguish it from the chirping of young birds? But how can Tao be so obscured that we speak of it as true and false? And how can speech be so obscured that it admits the idea of contraries? How can Tao go away and yet not remain? How can speech exist and yet be impossible?

Tao is obscured by our want of grasp. Speech is obscured by the gloss of this world. Hence the affirmatives and negatives of the Confucian and Mihist Schools, each denying what the other affirmed, and affirming what the other denied. But he who would reconcile affirmative with negative, and negative with affirmative, must do so by the light of nature.

There is nothing which is not objective: there is nothing which is not subjective. But it is impossible to start from the objective. Only from subjective knowledge is it possible to proceed to objective knowledge. Hence it has been said, "The objective emanates from the subjective; the subjective is consequent upon the objective. This is the Alternation Theory." Nevertheless, when one is born, the other dies. When one is possible, the other is impossible. When one is affirmative, the other is negative. Which being the case, the true sage rejects all distinctions of this and that. He takes his refuge in the Heavenly Tao, and places himself in subjective relation with all things.

When subjective and objective are both without their correlates, that is the very axis of Tao. And when that axis passes through the centre at which all Infinities converge, positive and negative alike blend into an infinite One. Hence it has been said that there is nothing like the light of nature. Tao operates, and given results follow. Things receive names and are what they are. They achieve this by their natural affinity for what they are and their natural antagonism to what they are not. For all things have their own particular constitutions and potentialities. Nothing can exist without these.

To place oneself in subjective relation with externals, without consciousness of their objectivity — this is Tao. But to wear out one's intellect in an obstinate adherence to the individuality of things, not recognizing the fact that all things are One, this is called Three in the Morning. What is Three in the Morning? A keeper of monkeys said with regard to their rations of chestnuts that each monkey was to have three in the morning and four at night. But at this the monkeys were very angry, so the keeper said that they might havefour in the morning and three at night, with which arrangement they were all well pleased. The actual number of the chestnuts remained the same, but there was an adaptation to the likes and dislikes of those concerned. Such is the principle of putting oneself into subjective relation with externals. Wherefore the true Sage, while regarding contraries as identical, adapts himself to the laws of Heaven. This is called following two courses at once.

Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting-point. Existence without limitation is Space. Continuity without starting-point is Time. There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in. That through which one passes in and out without seeing its form, that is the Portal of the Heavenly Tao.

This Portal is Non-Existence. All things sprang from Non-Existence. Existence could not make existence existence. It must have proceeded from Non-Existence, and Non-Existence and Nothing are One. Herein is the abiding place of the Sage.

Nature is no other than a man's parents. (The term "Nature" stands here as a rendering of Yin and Yang, the Positive and Negative Principles of Chinese cosmogony, from whose interaction the visible universe results.) If she bid me die quickly, and I demur, then I am an unfilial son. She can do me no wrong. Tao gives me this form, this toil in manhood, this repose in old age, this rest in death. And surely that which is such a kind arbiter of my life is the best arbiter of my death.

Your body is not your own. It is the delegated image of Tao. Your life is not your own. It is the delegated harmony of Tao. Your individuality is not your own. It is the delegated adaptability of Tao. Your posterity is not your own. You move, but know not how. You are at rest, but you know not why. You taste, but know not the cause. These are the operations of Tao's laws. How then should you get Tao so as to have it for your own?

MAN'S KNOWLEDGE:

A man's knowledge is limited; but it is upon what he does not know that he depends to extend his knowledge to the apprehension of the Heavenly Tao.

A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker. How much less in the case of greatness? And if doing great things is not enough to secure greatness, how much less shall it secure virtue? In point of greatness, there is nothing to be compared with the universe. Yet what does the universe seek in order to be great? He who understands greatness in this sense, seeks nothing, loses nothing, rejects nothing, never suffers injury from without. He takes refuge in his own inexhaustibility. He finds safety in accordance with his nature. This is the essence of true greatness.

Great knowledge embraces the whole: small knowledge, a part only. Great speech is universal: small speech is particular.

The best language is that which is not spoken, the best form of action is that which is without deeds. Spread out your knowledge and it will be found to be shallow.

Now the transmission of messages of good- or ill-will is the hardest thing possible. Messages of good-will are sure to be overdone with fine phrases; messages of ill-will with harsh ones. In each case the result is exaggeration, and a consequent failure to carry conviction, for which the envoy suffers. Therefore it was said, "Confine yourself to simple statements of fact, shorn of all superfluous expression of feeling, and your risk will be small."

Small knowledge has not the compass of great knowledge any more than a short year has the length of a long year. How can we tell that this is so? The mushroom of a morning knows not the alternation of day and night. The chrysalis knows not the alternation of spring and autumn. Theirs are short years.

You don't ask a blind man's opinion of a picture, nor do you invite a deaf man to a concert. And blindness and deafness are not physical only. There is blindness and deafness of the mind.

You cannot speak of ocean to a well-frog, the creature of a narrower sphere. You cannot speak of ice to a summer insect, the creature of a season. You cannot speak of Tao to a pedagogue: his scope is too restricted. But now that you have emerged from your narrow sphere and have seen the great ocean, you know your own insignificance, and I can speak to you of great principles.

ADEPTS:

The man of complete virtue remains blankly passive as regards what goes on around him. He is as originally by nature, and his knowledge extends to the supernatural. Thus, his virtue expands his heart, which goes forth to all who come to take refuge therein. Without tao, form cannot be endued with life. Without virtue, life cannot be endued with intelligence. To preserve one's form, live out one's life, establish one's virtue, and realize tao — is not this complete virtue? Issuing forth spontaneously, moving without premeditation, all things following in his wake — such is the man of complete virtue! He can see where all is dark. He can hear where all is still. In the darkness he alone can see light. In the stillness he alone can detect harmony. He can sink to the lowest depths of materialism. To the highest heights of spirituality he can soar. This because he stands in due relation to all things. Though a mere abstraction, he can minister to their wants, and ever and anon receive them into rest — the great, the small, the long, the short, for ever without end.

The man of perfect virtue, in repose has no thoughts, in action no anxiety. He recognizes no right, nor wrong, nor good, nor bad. Within the Four Seas, when all profit — that is his pleasure; when all share — that is his repose. Men cling to him as children who have lost their mothers; they rally round him as wayfarers who have missed their road. He has wealth and to spare, but he knows not whence it comes. He has food and drink more than sufficient, but knows not who provides it. Such is a man of virtue.

The birth of the Sage is the will of the Heavenly Tao; his death is but a modification of existence. In repose, he shares the passivity of the Yin; in action, the energy of the Yang. He will have nothing to do with happiness, and so has nothing to do with misfortune. He must be urged ere he will move. He must be compelled ere he will arise. Ignoring the future and the past, he resigns himself to the laws of Tao. Therefore no calamity comes upon him, nothing injures him, no man is against him, no spirit punishes him. He floats through life to rest in death. He has no anxieties; he makes no plans. His honor does not make him illustrious. His good faith reflects no credit upon himself. His sleep is dreamless, his awaking without pain. His spirituality is pure, and his soul vigorous. Thus unconditioned and in repose he is a partaker of the virtue of Tao. Sorrow and happiness are the heresies of virtue; joy and anger lead astray from Tao; love and hate cause the loss of virtue. The heart unconscious of sorrow and happiness, that is perfect virtue. One, without change, that is perfect repose. Without any obstruction, that is the perfection of the unconditioned. Holding no relations with the external world, that is perfection of the negative state. Without blemish of any kind, that is the perfection of purity.

The sea does not reject the streams which flow eastward into it. Therefore it is immeasurably great. The true Sage folds the universe in his bosom.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 5, March, 1927 pp. 213-216

OLD CHINA AND NEW

AFTER the passing of Chwang Tzu, Theosophy began to disappear from China. Its passage through corruption, superstition, to wrong practices and sense life brought the degradation whose nature was such that the advent of Buddhist missionaries and their preachings failed to make a wide-spread impress. Even today Buddhism is not the popular religion of the Chinese. If the pure doctrines of Lao Tzu and Confucius had been in vogue in the first century of the Christian era when the Buddhist Mission reached China, we would have had a magnificent expression of Theosophy the equal of which the world of Asia had not witnessed for a long time indeed. Corrupted Taoism and Confucianism corrupted the Buddhistic teachings; but in China as elsewhere the Kali-Yuga was running its course, and the darkness has been deepening.

One of the effects of the Mission of H.P.B. was the revival of interest in the Soul-satisfying philosophy of the Aryans. She did for the whole race what Lao Tzu and Confucius attempted for the Chinese. It was their effort to bring to their people Aryan culture which surrounded them. China had to be influenced Theosophically and Aryanization of that Atlantean remnant was undertaken by the Great Lodge of Masters through the instrumentality of Lao Tzu and Confucius. Their Theosophy has not been practised in China yet, just as the teachings of Jesus remain to be practised in Christendom, though we are past the first quarter of its twentieth century. Political and historical events are shadows of spiritual and manasic ones of the world of Souls. Also it is true that the life incidents of a Messenger's Incarnation are but miniature pictures of the future story of the people for whom He came. Our humanity can not understand the import of H.P.B.'s incarnation, just as Christendom has not even begun to decipher the meaning of the life and mission of Jesus. So also China will grasp the significance of the triple effort through Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism in decades yet unborn. Intuitive students of the Wisdom-Religion perceive, albeit dimly, the lines along which China's redemption would come. Out of the present turmoil and conflict a new era is bound to open — the Aryan era for China; but, whether it will be the misunderstood, materialistic and commercial Aryanism which is so much to the fore among us or whether the era will be that which William Q. Judge designated as that of Western Occultism remains to be seen. Those who have at heart the welfare and triumph of the Theosophical Movement would naturally desire to see the manifestation of the second.

In this closing article on Chinese Theosophical Landmarks we will ponder over three stories embodying teachings which will help us wherever our lives are spent, for they contain the Message of that which is designated Western Occultism. Also, they contain the basic principles of guidance in the individual and corporate life of the China of tomorrow. If the Chinese shape their political and social life according to these teachings, which are practical, a great China will arise as honourable as of yore; the alternative they face is that of Egypt — the old is dead and the new is foreign to its soil, culture and tradition, presaging years of conflict followed by national purgation through suffering and humiliation.

A WISE ONE FROM THE BEYOND:

In the Shu King, the Book of History (Book VIII.), is recorded the story of the humble king Wu-Ting (1324-1264 B.C.) who sought and found a real guide for the affairs of his state. Likewise should modern China seek out from the silences untouched by our civilization a philosopher-friend who will spiritualize politics following the great Pao-hsi who, looking up, contemplated the brilliant forms of the firmament and, looking down, traced them on earth. Here is the narrative:

Wu-Ting mourned for his father in twilight obscurity for the space of three years. At the end of that time he still refused to speak, so that his ministers and officers were dismayed and perplexed, and came to him, saying: "Knowledge and intelligence are necessary to the administration of the law. Refusing to speak, your ministers and subjects are left in ignorance of your will."

The King then made use of a writing to announce his will: "Since I was called to the rule of the empire my mind has been distressed lest my virtue and capacity should be unequal to the task. On this account I did not speak. But I would have it known that while I was meditating on the Tao I dreamed that Heaven conferred on me an excellent minister, one who might speak for me."

The King then described his appearance as he had perceived it in his vision, and commanded that a portrait should be made of him and a thorough search conducted throughout the country. And this being done, it was found that one named Yueh, who was employed in making the dam in the wilderness at Fuh-yen, alone answered to the description. Him they brought to court and presented to the Emperor, who addressed him, saying: "Come now, Yueh! But do you instruct my mind, as if in making of wine you were the ferment of sugar, or in the making of good soup you might be the salt and prunes! Endeavour to embellish my mind, and then I shall be capable of fulfilling your instructions."

Yueh bowed low, and said: "O King! men seek to extend their information that they may establish their affairs. But do you apply yourself to the understanding of the Ancient Traditions, and you will meet with success. For a man of affairs not to understand the ancient methods and yet to be capable of perpetuating his generation is a thing of which Yueh never yet heard !"

Then Wu-Ting appointed him to act as Prime Minister, and placing him before the host of of officers, commanded him, saying: "Do you continually impart your instructions to me, so that I may continue in virtue. If I am blunt as metal, I will use you for my grindstone. If I desire to navigate waters, you shall be the oar of my boat. If the year be one of great drought, I will use you as a copious rain. Unfold your mind, therefore, and refresh my heart. If physic be not strong enough, the disease will not be cured. Thus will myriads of people find rest!"

Yueh answered and said: "As wood following the carpenter's line is rendered straight, so a prince by following good advice becomes a sage. Heaven alone is omniscient, but a wise ruler may attempt its portrayal.

"Speech can involve one in disgrace, and the use of weapons may lead to war. One should be careful in the use of these things. The robes of office are kept in a chest until required, and even so, the sword of justice should only be unsheathed after a careful examination of the offender. The adjustment of irregularities rests with those in office. It is not the knowledge of a thing but the doing of it that is difficult. Be studious, of humble intentions, and try to maintain timely effort. Consider the end and aim of your study while you are continually engaged in it, and the means will present itself without effort. Take your example from the perfection of former kings. Do not esteem yourself highly and so commit a folly. Only that in which one abides contentedly is his proper vocation, and that only will succeed."

ROBBERS ALL:

The materialistic attitude makes men vandals; our civilization robs Nature in the most heedless fashion — polluting limpid rivers, disfiguring lakes, destroying trees, spoiling the velvety slopes of hills and dales. Verily we are thieves who enjoy what has been given unto us by Nature and offer nought in return, and so sin mightily. This teaching of the Bhagavad Gita is strikingly imparted by Lieh Tzu, and if China is to free herself from the ills of a thieving and despoiling civilization she will have to practise the lesson of the following story:

Mr. Kuo of the Ch'i State was very rich, while Mr. Hsiang of the Sung State was very poor. The latter travelled from Sung to Ch'i and asked the other for the secret of his prosperity. Mr. Kuo said: "It is because I am a good thief; the first year I began to be a thief I had just enough. The second year I had ample. The third year I reaped a great harvest. And, in course of time, I found myself the owner of whole villages and districts."

Mr. Hsiang was overjoyed. He began the robber life, he climbed over walls and broke into houses, grabbing everything he could lay hands upon. But before long his thefts brought him into trouble, and he was stripped even of what he had previously possessed.

Thinking that Mr. Kuo had basely deceived him, Hsiang went to him with a bitter complaint. "Tell me," said Mr. Kuo, "how did you set about being a thief?" On learning from Mr. Hsiang what had happened he cried out: "Alas and alack! You have been brought to this pass because you went the wrong way to work. Now let me put you on the right track. We all know that Heaven has its seasons, and that earth has its riches. Well, the things that I steal are the riches of Heaven and earth, each in their season — the fertilizing rain-water from the clouds, and the natural products of mountain and meadow-land. Thus I grow my grain and ripen my crops, build my walls and construct my tenements. From the dry land I steal winged and four-footed game, from the rivers I steal fish and turtles. There is nothing that I do not steal. For corn and grain, clay and wood, birds and beasts, fishes and turtles are all products of Nature. How can I claim them as mine? Yet, stealing in this way I bring on myself no retribution. Gold, jade, and precious stone, corn, silk stuffs, and all manner of riches are simply appropriated by men. How can Providence be said to give them away? Yet if we commit a crime in stealing them, who is there to resent it?"

Mr. Hsiang, in a state of great perplexity, and fearing to be led astray a second time by Mr. Kuo, went off to consult Tung Kuo, a man of learning. Tung Kuo said to him: "Are you not already a thief in respect to your own body? You are stealing the harmony of the Yin and the Yang in order to keep alive and to maintain your bodily form. How much more, then, are you a thief with regard to external possessions! Assuredly, Heavenand earth cannot be dissociated from the myriad objects of Nature. To claim any one of these as your own betokens confusion of thought. Mr. Kuo's theftsare carried out in a spirit of justice, and therefore bring no retribution. But your thefts were carried out in a spirit of self-seeking and therefore landed you in trouble. Those who take possession of property, whether public or private, are thieves. Those who abstain from taking property, public or private, are also thieves. The great principle of Heaven and earth is to treat public property as such and private property as such. Knowing this principle, which of us is a thief, and at the same time which of us is not a thief?"

THE WORDS OF A COOK:

We live in the Dark Age whose soul-energy is competition. Men are learning spiritual facts through suffering which they survive and out-grow. But we have fallen into the delusion of pinning ourselves to our labors and works in such manner that the inner lessons they are capable of teaching are missed. Thus we go through innumerable experiences without garnering Wisdom from them. Chwang Tzu taught that it is not what we do but how we do it which makes for real growth. Not to desist from actions but perform them in a way so that every deed yields its full quota of knowledge and experience is the method of the Tao. To practice Tao is to labor in one's own field by a particular mode and no profession is so mean that its votary is unable to practise it. In his third book Chwang Tzu instances the butcher who devoted himself to Tao:

Prince Hui's cook was cutting up a bullock. Every blow of his hand, every heave of his shoulders, every tread of his foot, every thrust of his knee, every whshh of rent flesh, every chhk of the chopper, was in perfect harmony — rhythmical like the dance of the Mulberry Grove, simultaneous like the chords of the Ching Shou.

"Well done!" cried the Prince; "yours is skill indeed."

"Sire," replied the cook, "I have always devoted myself to Tao. It is better than skill. When I first began to cut up bullocks, I saw before me simply whole bullocks. After three years' practice I saw no more whole animals. And now I work with my mind and not with my eye. When my senses bid me stop, but my mind urges me on, I fall back upon eternal principles. I follow such openings or cavities as there may be, according to the natural constitution of the animal. I do not attempt to cut through joints: still less through large bones.

"A good cook changes his chopper once a year — because he cuts. An ordinary cook, once a month — because he hacks. But I have had this chopper nineteen years, and although I have cut up many thousand bullocks, its edge is as if fresh from the whetstone. For at the joints there are always interstices, and the edge of a chopper being without thickness, it remains only to insert that which is without thickness into such an interstice. By these means the interstice will be enlarged, and the blade will find plenty of room. It is thus that I have kept my chopper for nineteen years as though fresh from the whetstone.

"Nevertheless, when I come upon a hard part where the blade meets with a difficulty, I am all caution. I fix my eye on it. I stay my hand, and gently apply my blade, until with a hwah the part yields like earth crumbling to the ground. Then I take out my chopper, and stand up, and look around, and pause, until with an air of triumph I wipe my chopper and put it carefully away."

"Bravo!" cried the Prince. "From the words of this cook I have learnt about the nourishment of life."

These three characters lived in and breathed forth Tao — though one was a statesman, another a farmer, and the third a cook. To go back to Ancient Principles, to recognize the Unity of Nature, and to practise Skill in Action, these are the three ways of the Inner Life — the Path of Knowledge, Gnyan Marga; of Devotion, Bhakti Marga, and of Action, Karma Marga. But above all the triple way is unmanifest, and though difficult is not impossible for corporeal beings to tread. The Path-Tao proceeds from within outward and never is seen without. To turn inwards so that man may know the without, and loving it sacrifice for it, was Lao-Tzu's practical message — true for China and the world today as in 600 B.C. Chwang Tzu attributes the following to his Master:

If the Tao could be presented to another, men would all present it to their rulers; if it could be served up to others, men would serve it up to their parents; if it could be told to others, men would all tell it to their brothers; if it could be given to others, men would give it to their sons and grandsons. The reason why it cannot be transmitted is no other but this — that if, within, there be not the presiding principle, it will not remain there, and if, outwardly, there be not the correct obedience, it will not be carried out. When that which is given out from the mind in possession of it is not received by the mind without, the sage will not give it out; and when, entering in from without, there is no power in the receiving mind to entertain it, the sage will not permit it to lie hid there.

To seek for that Hidden Way enshrined in the heart of man is to be a Taoist, a Theosophist. There in the Hall of Self abides the Ancient of Days, to whom Chwang Tzu sang his exhortation, thus:

O My Exemplar!
Thou who destroyest all things and dost
not account it cruelty;
Thou who benefittest all time, and dost
not account it charity;
Thou who art older than antiquity and
dost not account it age;
Thou who supportest the universe, shaping
the many forms therein, and dost
not account it skill;
This is the Bliss of Tao.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 6, April, 1927 pp. 258-262

CIVILIZATION AND RELIGION OF EGYPT

WHEN broke the dawn of that civilization in Egypt whose wondrous perfection is suggested by the fragments supplied to us by the archaeologists? Alas! the lips of Memnon are silent, and no longer utter oracles; the Sphinx has become a greater riddle in her speechlessness than was the enigma propounded to the king of Thebes; the Pyramids still keep their secrets unbroken through the lapse of centuries. It is these vast and timeless monuments which make Egypt to us "the land of mystery." How came Egypt by her knowledge? From whom did she learn her wondrous arts, the secrets of which died with her? She sent no agents throughout the world to learn what others knew; but to her the wise men of neighboring nations resorted for knowledge. We have to seek in the religion of Egypt the key to all her mysteries; also have we to seek in the kinship of Egypt and India, the source and inspiration of her wisdom.

Just as in the case of Persia and China, modern historians are blinded by their Christian biblical chronology to her immense antiquity. We have to go back to another race than the Aryan — to the Atlantean race of giants, and even to the Lemurians, to find the origin of those records in Egypt of a civilization passed and gone before the great builders of the pyramids came on the scene. For Egypt is far older than Europe as now traced on the map, and Atlanto-Aryan tribes began to settle on it when France and the British Isles had not risen from the ocean bed. The Delta was far later in formation than Southern Egypt, but even it has been inhabited as firm and fertile land for more than 100,000 years. The Great Labyrinth was in ruins at the beginning of history; Thebes was in ruins when Memphis, founded by Menes, was the capital city; an ancient book of Hermes describes some pyramids as standing on the seashore, the waves dashing against their base — now they stand amid the arid vastness of desert sands. The Great Pyramid, even now untouched by time is, according to the Denderah zodiac, more than 78,000 years old. This planisphere on the ceiling of one of the oldest Egyptian temples, with its mysterious three Virgins between Leo and Libra, has found its dipus, who understood the riddle of its signs and justified the truthfulness of the Egyptian priests who affirmed that even since their first zodiacal records were commenced, the Poles had been three times within the plane of the ecliptic. This means that three sidereal cycles of 25,868 years each have passed.¹ The civilization of Egypt is untold ages old. Never was there a time when it appears to have been in its infancy, but all her arts and sciences were ever in full flower.

Herodotus, the Greek born about 500 B.C., called "The Father of History," is scoffed at by modern historians as being "unreliable," but we shall do well to note what he says the priests told him when they showed him colossal wooden statues of their kings — 345 in all, inscribed with their names and annals, including the super-human kings who reigned before their first human sovereign; that no one could understand or write an account of these super-human kings unless he had studied and learned the history of the three dynasties that preceded the human. And they traced the origin of these dynasties to a period of the earth's formation which geologists say was millions of years ago! The priests referred to these pre-human reigns as the dynasties of the Gods, Demi-gods, and Heroes or Giants. It was these Great Beings who left "everlasting monuments to commemorate their stay."

Since we have found similar Divine Instructors — Dragons of Wisdom — in Persia and China, all teaching the same doctrines, there must have been a common source of Wisdom. That was India — though not the India of today. Great India once included Persia (Iran), Tibet, Mongolia, and Great Tartary. There was an upper and a lower India, and Hindustan was once called Æthiopia. So these various peoples must have come originally from one center and were of one root, though various in the color of their skin — white, yellow, red and dark. It was from India that the eastern Æthiopians came into Egypt, bringing their civilization with them — all the knowledge of the Atlanteans, though they had no Atlantean blood in their veins — under their first great human king, Menes. In a Hindu work it is stated that "Under the reign of Visvamitra ... in consequence of a battle which lasted five days, Manu-Vina ... being abandoned by the Brahmins, emigrated with all his companions ... to the shore of Masra." Unquestionably this Manu-Vina and Menes were identical. Masra was the name of Cairo, which to this day is called Masr and Masra. If this occurred 4,100 B.C. as historians claim, it was long after many of the pyramids had been built. However, the ancient knowledge of a by-gone race now again flowered in the land under Menes.

It may be wholesome, because humbling, for us to realize that some of the discoveries, inventions and achievements on which we most pride ourselves as a civilization are but revived again, because recollected, by those among us who once lived in Ancient Egypt. Is our Panama Canal and its lock system a great achievement? One of the Pharaohs made an artificial lake 450 miles around and 300 feet deep, fed by artificial channels from the Nile, with floodgates, dams and locks. Do we think our engineering feats so remarkable when we learn that Menes turned the course of the three principal branches of the Nile so that they could come to Memphis? Do we think our reclamation of desert lands a miracle? 500 miles of desert land were reclaimed above Cairo by these ancient peoples. Do we think our telephones and wireless systems inventions new to the world? The Egyptians had them, as they had railroads and telescopes, and understood the use of electricity.

Egypt is called the birthplace of Chemistry. The science had, in fact, its perfection in Chem — Chem being one of the names of the country. The Egyptians knew and used poisonous gases centuries before they were used in the great World War; they knew the science of anaesthetics and of fumigations. They had their dentists, their books on anatomy, and such accurate knowledge of medicine that there were specialists — some for the right and some for the left eye. They apparently had what is termed "osteopathy" in our day: that is, they had a science of healing manipulations, and were able to inhibit and to restore the circulation of the blood. It is well to remember this when we read in our text-books that Harvey first discovered the circulation of the blood in the seventeenth century. They knew the healing power in color and music. Music, in fact, was in a state of perfection among them while their musical instruments of all kinds have not been surpassed by those of our day. They manufactured the finest of linens, and they have never yet been equalled in the art of bandaging. They wove more beautiful tapestries than have since been known; they made paper that is practically indestructible; they knew how to make malleable glass and their art of dyeing is one of the "lost arts." Some of their paintings are bright in their colors as they were 4,000 years ago and as they will be 4,000 years hence. Mathematics, geometry, astronomy, and astrology were at their summit with them. When Galileo was sentenced to imprisonment by the Inquisition in the seventeenth century in Europe for declaring that the earth moved around the sun — as every schoolboy knows now — he was simply repeating what the Egyptians knew and demonstrated thousands of years before. Some idea of the size of their temples may be had from the fact that the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, if set inside the temple of Karnak, would look like a small ornament in the center of the hall. The blocks in all these great buildings are cemented so closely together that it is impossible to insert the point of a sharp knife between them. There must have been some strange device, or magic unknown to us, which moved the huge blocks weighing from two to fifty tons each to their desired position.

Some Magic, it may be, still lingers within these vast piles, for Madame Blavatsky says that "travelers have brushed against ..... adepts in the silent ruins of Thebes, and in the mysterious chambers of Luxor ... They have been encountered again on the arid and desolate plains of the Great Sahara, as in the caves of Elephanta." And it is also said that within the sombre recesses of these wonderful pyramids were performed the mysteries, and that their walls often witnessed the initiation of members of the royal family. The pyramids are symbols of the Tree of Life. The apex is the root, the link between heaven and earth; the base represents the spreading branches extending to the four cardinal points of the universe of matter. They also illustrated the principles of geometry, astrology and astronomy. The porphyry sarcophagus, which Prof. Piazzi Smyth, of Great Britain, degrades into a corn-bin, was the baptismal font, upon emerging from which the neophyte was "born again" and became an adept. During the solemn ceremony the neophyte was "crucified" — that is tied, not nailed — on a couch in the form of the Egyptian cross (the Tau), and plunged into a deep sleep for three days and three nights, during which time the Spiritual Ego was said to descend into Hades (the Amenti of the Egyptians); his body meantime lying in the Sarcophagus in the Kings Chamber of the Pyramids of Cheops. During the night of the approaching third day, it was removed to the entrance of the gallery where the beams of the rising sun, striking him full in the face, awoke the candidate. Then the Hierophant entered and pronounced the sacramental words, addressed ostensibly to Osiris — the Sun — but in reality to the Spiritual Ego-Sun within.

So, too, the Sphinx was Harmachus — Horus (the Sun) in the Horizon, or Christ. As a couchant lion with human head it represents the union of spiritual man with animal matter, from which crucifixion in matter it challenges him to rise and become conscious of himself as Osiris or Horus. Might we not well ponder the ancient formulary in the Book of the Dead, which very possibly in Egyptian bodies, we repeated time and again: "I am Horus, I am Osiris." "I am Yesterday, and Seer of millions of years is my name."

The Wisdom-Religion, veiled from the masses and often distorted by allegory and myth, had nevertheless its own mystery language. This language had its seven "dialects," so to say, each referring to one of seven mysteries of Nature. Each had its own symbolism, so that Nature could be read either in all its fulness or viewed from one of its aspects. The only country in the world whose adept-sons have the knowledge of all the seven sub-systems is India. In Egypt these keys were lost one by one after the fall of Memphis, due in part to the death of the Great Hierophants before they had time to reveal all to their successors, but mostly to the absence of worthy heirs to the knowledge. The many cycles of Egyptian history — its periods of flower and decay — may be attributed to the people's devotion to, or disregard of, their country's two great Principles: Truth and Right. Yet, in their rituals and dogmas, for those who can interpret them, have been preserved the main teachings of the Secret Doctrine.

In spite of the arduous labors of many Egyptologists, were it not for the work of Madame Blavatsky, who lifted a corner of the veil of Isis for us, we should look at the bewildering prodigality of animal, human-animal, and divine-animal forms, at the multiplicity of strange hieroglyphics and their stranger form of expression, and gain little or no wisdom. When one seeks to discover what the religion of Egypt was, as Prof. Maspero has pointed out, he is confronted by a perplexing number of contradictory statements and theological systems. Just as from the teaching of Christ have sprung some four hundred or more sects in nineteen centuries, so in the five thousand years intervening from the time of Menes to the Ptolemaic period many divergent streams of thought arose. Then, as now, the ideas and worship of the masses were totally different from the concepts held by the educated classes and the sacerdotal caste. True, the esoteric doctrine never altered, but we have only to regard the present day situation in religious thought to infer that the Wisdom-Religion, even in part, was known to or adopted by only a small minority.

When we attempt to study the sacred book of the Egyptians, the Pert-Em-Hru, familiarly known as the Book of the Dead — in fact a collection of Chapters on the Coming Forth by Day, we meet the same difficulties as confront us in an approach to the Christian Bible. While it is impossible to assign a date to this ritual, it is certain, says the Egyptologist Budge, that it was known before the first dynasty. It was preserved for a long time orally and perhaps not committed to writing before the people began to forget it, or the meanings began to be doubtful. Then, as always, copyists made many errors in transcribing, often misreading the original, also adding comments of their own and other interpolations totally at variance with the original teaching. Thus many versions arose, so that now no two papyri are identical as to number of chapters — which increased as time went on; no two preserve the same arrangement, and none are complete in themselves. Budge gives three recensions of the Book: the Heliopolitan, used in the Vth and VIth dynasties, found inscribed in hieroglyphs upon the walls of the Pyramids of Sakkara (hence our Pyramid Texts), also written upon coffins of the XIth and XIIth dynasties; the Theban, painted upon coffins and papyri in hieroglyphics, from the XVIIth to the XVIIIth dynasties; and the Saïte, used during the following dynasties, which may be regarded as its last form. In later times it was customary to place a copy in the tomb or coffin of the deceased. While no name is attached to any chapter as its author or reviser, as a whole it was considered to be the work of the god Thot, and thus believed to be of divine origin.

Until the unearthing of the Rosetta stone in 1799, upon which was an inscription both in Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphics, scholars possessed no key to the latter form of writing. Since then the work of deciphering has gone rapidly forward, but in the process there has naturally been much uncertainty, much speculation and difference of opinion as to the correct reading. To add to the confusion of the lay reader, no two English translations are alike; there has been a continual change both in the transliteration and spelling of names, so that the student who compares the extracts given in the Secret Doctrine, for instance, with the latest edition of the Pert-Em-Hru by Wallis Budge, or with other Egyptologists, has to orient himself anew again and again.

In view of these difficulties the average reader can get little sense, let alone a system of philosophy, from a perusal of this ancient work. Never does the need of a new type of Orientalist become more apparent than in such an attempt on the part of the reader. One familiar both with Theosophical teachings and the hieroglyphics, would be enabled to give a translation, in general accordance at least, with the original esoteric intent. And again, in the case of translating the words to designate the various principles or "souls" — the Egyptians recognizing seven — much indefiniteness exists because the Christian scholar knows but one word for soul, and is thrown back on the New Testament classification of body, soul, and spirit, to which the words "double" and "shadow" are added, but without a true understanding of what they are or a precise application.

Therefore, out of an enormous mass of material, only a few extracts from the Chapters of the Coming Forth By Day can be given, nor can these be sequentially arranged nor dogmatized upon. Nor will any attempt be made to untangle the many combinations of triads and enneads. What follows is for the purpose of arousing the student to make use of the law of correspondence and analogy and fill out for himself what aims to be merely a suggestive outline.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 7, May, 1927 pp. 316-321

THE GODS OF EGYPT

EVERY cosmogony purports to deal with the origin of the universe, its manifestation marking the beginning of time. Before the beginning, however, time was — it pre-existed as timelessness or duration. So the "beginning" is the first moment of a definite period of time, or a cycle. And what produces the cycle? The action of beings, whose field is limitless Space. The cycles of the Egyptians extended over millions of years. "Millions of years" was the epithet applied to the Sun-god Amen-Ra, "who maketh decrees for millions of double millions of years." Vastness, profundity, boundlessness, "all-existence," immortality and infinite possibility meet us at the very outset of Egyptian thought.

Never was time when the germs of things were not, but there were cycles when they had slept for ages upon ages in the bosom of Nu — "Nu, of the dark waters." Nu was the incomprehensible source of all things — Chaos or Space. In a Hymn to Hapi, the Nile-god, whose origin was traced back to Nu, the latter is set forth as being that "which cannot be sculptured in stone ... It cannot be seen. Service cannot be rendered to It. Gifts cannot be presented to It. It is not to be approached in the sanctuaries. Where it is, is not known. No habitation can contain It." Within Nu was the One ever-concealed, Mon (Monad?) or Amen — the origin undoubtedly of our word "Amen," which is not "Verily" as the translators would have it, but rather an affirmation of the omnipresent One Life or Deity. In the Book of the Dead, "Chaos ceases, through the effulgence of the Ray of Primordial light dissipating total darkness by the help of the great magic power of the Word of the (Central) Sun." Chaos becomes Father-Mother, the "dark waters" incubated through Light, in other words Spirit acting in matter. (Secret Doctrine, I, 231).

All action, even of the highest Deity, is necessarily a limitation, a circumscribing or drawing around of some portion of the eternal spirit-substance for the purpose of manifestation. What is this "drawing around" but a circle or egg, the primal form of all things from atoms to universes? Mathematically expressed this egg is the nought (zero) which contains the potentiality of all forms. In this "egg" the One becomes the Dual Force, the secondary aspect of the One, or Amen-Ra the generator. All the Egyptians' gods become dual — positive and negative "forces" necessary both for the maintenance of equilibrium and the production of life. Hence Amen-Ra was Neith (or Nuit, the feminine of Nu considered in its positive aspect) in his other half. He was the Spiritual Sun, the "Sun of Righteousness," whose son is the Sun. For "When the One becomes two, the three-fold appears."

Nu in late times, says Budge, was regarded as "Father of the Gods." "A something in the water, which formed an essential part of it, felt the desire to create." Let us connote here that "Desire first arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind." "Having imagined in itself the forms of the beings and things that it intended to create, it became operative, and the first creature produced was the god Tem or Khepera, who was the personification of the creative power in the primeval water. .... Tem fashioned the form of everything in his mind and made known his desire to create to his heart, which was personified as Thoth. This god received the creative impulse and invented in his mind a name for the object that was to be created, and when he uttered the name, the object came into being."¹

Now Tem (Tum or Toum) is the Fohat of the Secret Doctrine. Fohat is said to be "....that potential creative power in virtue of whose action the Noumenon of all future phenomena divides, so to speak, but to reunite in a mystic supersensuous act, and emit the creative ray. When the 'Divine Son' breaks forth, then Fohat becomes the propelling force, the active Power which causes the One to become Two and Three — on the Cosmic plane of manifestation." (S.D., I, 109). So we find that Tem emanates from his own body Shu and Tefnut, the two Lion-gods, the three forming the first triad, Tem saying: "From [being] god one, I became three."

So fundamental was this trinitarian concept in the Egyptian teaching that there is an almost endless number of triads, each district and city having its special triad. While not all consist of Father-Mother-Son, this combination was the most common and the origin of the Christian Holy Family. In fact, three aspects are essential in every act of creation or thought. For example, let us try to recollect something we have forgotten — arouse the sleeping "germs" of thought, which is analogous to the "desire" present before the evolution of a world. The former ideas, memories, or forms are "asleep" in the empty egg of the mind, but by brooding over them, by trying to bring them back to mind, we move upon the "dark waters" within, until finally in a flash the latent forms wake up, and then we see what before was not in manifestation. Yet, even in this simple illustration is much of mystery. If we could observe the entire process with our physical eyes, if it could be demonstrated to us as creative processes were demonstrated in the Mysteries, we would comprehend far better than if we were told. However, these mysteries never were told. Hence all these personifications were for the easier comprehension of people, who knowing the relations between persons, could by analogy apply similar relations and correlations to "powers" and elements. It is for us to revitalize these ancient dramatis personae and recognize in them not merely personifications employed ages ago in Egypt, but as living forces in ourselves.

The triad which the French Egyptologist Champollion said was the starting-point of Egyptian mythology included Kneph, Neith and Ptah. Herodotus said that Menes erected a temple to Ptah in Memphis. Kneph, called "the Eternal Unrevealed," was nevertheless represented by a snake, emblem of eternity, encircling a water-urn, his head containing the "Concealed Breath" hovering over the water. This again is the "water" of Nu, the prototype of that element which is essential to the germination and growth of all living things.

Neith was the Virgin-Mother, "anterior to all the gods, without form or sex, who gave birth to itself and without fecundation." An ancient stele declares her to be Neut, "the luminous, who has engendered the gods." For the primordial substance is luminous — the garment of light covering the darkness. So Neith of Sais was a weaver and made the universe of warp and woof as a mother weaves her children's garments. In the Stanzas of Dzyan, "Father-Mother spin a web whose upper end is fastened to Spirit, the light of the one Darkness, and the lower one to Matter ...; and this web is the Universe spun out of the two substances made in one, which is Swabhavat." (S.D., I, 83). And we, too, having the same power to think and act, weave the web of our own world which often becomes an inscrutable net of fate instead of a vesture of light. Being connected with water, Neith was found on the prow of Egyptian vessels. Another form of her name is Naus (Latin navis, boat), hence the boat became a symbol of the container or vehicle of the sun. Neith is found in the oldest period at Abydos, to which Mariette Bey assigns the date of 7000 B.C. Neith and Isis are interchangeable and we may find a hint as to the mission of Madame Blavatsky in the title of her first great work, "Isis Un-veiled," by referring to the famous inscription in the temple of Neith at Sais: "I am all that has been, and is, and shall be, and my peplum no mortal has withdrawn." Although a rent in the veil that conceals the arcane truths of the ancient Wisdom-Religion was made, mortal eyes are so blinded by false ideas, prejudice and selfishness, that they cannot see through it nor accept the ideas presented.

Ptah, the product of spirit and matter, was called the Wisdom of the First Intellect, the manifested Mahat or Universal Mind. In another aspect he, too, is Swabhavat, as indicated by a passage in the Book of the Dead where homage is paid to him in these words: "Thou art without father, being engendered by thy Will, Thou art without mother, being born by the renewal of thine own substance from whom proceeds substance." He is usually represented as making men on a potter's wheel, for he was the "generator of all men produced from his substance." He was also called "the Blacksmith God of Thebes," identified by the Greeks with Vulcan. He, together with Khnoum or Khnemu (who is sometimes substituted for Kneph), carried out the commands of Thot concerning the creation of the universe, Ptah's special task being the creation of the eggs of the sun and the moon. Ptah, or Osiris-Ptah, is Ra, the manifested sun, or more properly its Regent.

From earliest times the great cosmopolitan center of Anu (or Annu) the On of the Bible and the Heliopolis of the Greeks — the City of the Sun — was the seat of the worship of Tem. Another form of the solar-god, according to Budge, was worshipped in Lower Egypt, known as Ra, whose name does not seem to be Egyptian and whose origin is unknown — it may be Asiatic. (!!) In Anu was the famous Well of the Sun, from which tradition declares that the Virgin Mary drew water when the Holy Family halted in the city. Fortunately for the story this well had its source in the inexhaustible waters of Nu, otherwise it might have dried up during the thirty odd centuries before the Christian era and we might have considered it a well of wisdom of which the youthful Jesus partook. This well was the property of the priests of Ra, who became so rich and powerful from the tribute received from grateful travellers for the watering of their beasts, that they were able by the VIth dynasty to elevate Ra to the position of over-lord of all the other gods and from that time Tem, Khepera, Horus became Ra-Tem, Ra-Khepera, Ra-Herakhuti (Horus of the two horizons) and so on. Maspero claims that the complex beings (?) resulting from these combinations never attained to any pronounced individuality, the distinctions referring merely to details of their functions and attributes.

During the many centuries of Egyptian history many teachers must have come from time to time, their presentations of the Wisdom-Religion differing according to the period, the need and the nature of the Egos whom they taught. That the Heliopolitan system was distinct from that of Amen at Thebes, that the priests of Hermopolis held to their particular form of doctrine, and those of Osiris to theirs, and that all as cults differed from one another and from Atenism is evident; nevertheless Ptah of Memphis, Ra of Heliopolis, Amen of Thebes, and Osiris of Abydos, in certain of their aspects — and in all when considered as septenary, and esoterically understood — are one and the same. Consequently wherever their fusion occurs it apparently was an attempt at unity of systems tending toward unity of thought and understanding among a cosmopolitan people rather than an effort to establish monotheism, as many Christian scholars would fain prove.

Maspero says that the sun appearing before the world was called Tumu (Tem) or Atum, while our earthly sun was Khepera. The similarity between the word "Atum" and "Atma," the Spirit, is too striking to require comment. Atum, according to this author, was also the prototype of man, (Coptic Tme, man) becoming a perfect "Tum" after his resurrection; that is, Perfected Man. There were several traditions as to how Atum became Ra, but according to the most generally accepted, Atum had suddenly cried across the water, "Come unto me"! and immediately the mysterious lotus had unfolded its petals, and Ra appeared at the edge of its open cup as a disk, a new-born child, or a disk-crowned sparrow-hawk. The Egyptians called the first day of the year, Come-unto-me.

In Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead, the opening passage reads: "I am Tem in rising. I am the only One. I came into being in Nu. I am Ra who rose in the beginning... The pillars of Shu were not as yet created. It is Ra, the creator of the names of his limbs, which came into being in the form of the gods, who are in the train of Ra" (i.e., the gods who personify his phases) — fourteen Spirits, seven dark and seven light... "I am the Bennu bird (the Phoenix, type of resurrection) which is in Anu, and I am the keeper of the volume of the book of things which are and of things which shall be." In the eternity of his being occur vast cycles of activity followed by equal periods of rest: "Millions of years" is the name of the one, "Great Green Lake" is the name of the other, the "Lake" representing the cycle in which are swallowed up all things produced by "The Begetter of millions of years." In Chapter XLII he "who dwelleth in his eye" is beaming in "the solar egg, the egg to which is given life among the gods." In Chapter XV he is "Yesterday," "Today," and "Tomorrow," the one "who reposeth upon law which changeth not nor can it be altered." In Chapter LXXV he is the self-created god: "I gave birth unto myself together with Nu in my name of Khepera, in whom I come into being day by day. I am the creator of the darkness who maketh his habitation in the uttermost parts of the sky ... and I arrive at the confines thereof. I sail over the sky which formeth the division betwixt heaven and earth... None sees my nest, none can break my egg."

In these extracts are all the fundamental teachings of Theosophy: Space, the One Life, the Self-existing Deity, Law, Cycles, Reincarnation, Being, and a hint of the septenary nature of cosmos.

In a Hymn to the Setting Sun, the deceased says: "Praise be unto thee, O Ra, praise be unto thee, O Tem." Chapter LXXIX reads: "I am the god Tem, the maker of heaven, the creator of things which are, who cometh forth from the earth, who maketh to come into being the seed which shall be, who gave birth to the gods; [I am] the great god who made himself, the lord of life, who maketh to flourish the company of the gods." Tem, as already said, is Fohat, whose influence on the Cosmic plane "is present in the constructive power that carries out, in the formation of things — from the planetary system down to the glowworm and simple daisy — the plan in the mind of nature, or in the Divine Thought, with regard to the development and growth of that special thing." (S.D., I, 111). He is "the north wind and the spirit of the west;" as "the setting sun of life" he is the vital electric force that leaves the body at death, wherefore the defunct begs that Toum should give him the breath from his right nostril (positive electricity) that he might live in his second form. Both the hieroglyphic² and the text of Chapter LXII show the identity of Toum with Fohat. The former represents a man standing erect with the hieroglyph of the breaths in his hands. The latter says: "I open to the chief of An... I am Toum. I cross the water spilt by Thot-Hapi, the lord of the horizon, and am the divider of the earth." (Fohat divides Space and, with his Sons, the earth into seven zones) ... "I cross the heavens, and am the two Lions. I am Ra, I am Aam, I ate my heir.... I am Toum, to whom eternity is accorded...." (S.D., I, 674).

The above metaphor expresses the succession of divine functions, the substitution from one form into another, or the correlation of forces. Aam is the electro-positive force, devouring all others as Saturn devoured his progeny. The Egyptians used the forcible expression to eat where we would use the word absorb, or assimilate. The Rev. James Baikie, writing for the National Geographic, Sept., 1913, quotes one of the Pyramid Texts which to him reveals an "almost savage set of religious conceptions," contrasting strangely with their high civilization. The deceased is ascending to heaven as a fierce huntsman who lassoes the stars and devours the gods. "The great ones among them are his morning meal, the middle ones are his evening meal, and the small ones his night meal.... Their magic is in his body; he swallows the understanding of every god." The last sentence contains the explanation of the Text. It is difficult to understand why a Christian who eats the body of Christ and drinks his blood, should consider the ancient Egyptians as more "cannibalistic" than himself!

Amen, whose name means "concealed," was regarded as an ancient nature-god in the Vth dynasty, says Budge; esoterically he is All-Nature, therefore the universe, and the "Lord of Eternity." Later his worship was established at Thebes, where his sanctuary seems to have absorbed the shrine of the ancient goddess Apit, from whom T-Ape (Coptic) the city derived its name. It was far later that Thebes was known as the City of Amen — Nut Amen, the No Amon of the Bible (Nahum iii, 8). The worship of Amen was carried into Nubia and the Soudan by the Pharaohs of the XIIth dynasty; in the name of Amen the Hyksos had been expelled from the country, so that in the course of time Amen became known as the god of successful warriors. The booty obtained from many campaigns was shared with the priests of Amen who became exceedingly rich and powerful and, little by little, Amen absorbed the titles and attributes of the other gods. While the priests of Amen worshipped Amen, or Amen-Ra, as the Spiritual Sun, the masses of people adored Ra, the visible luminary of the heavens.

An interesting passage from the Papyrus of Nesi-Khonsu, a Priestess of Amen-Ra, written about 1000 B.C., proves that this order considered the visible sun, the Disk, merely as a focus or "substitute" for the Central Sun, as Theosophy teaches. The apostrophe to Amen-Ra reads: "This holy god, the lord of all the gods, Amen-Ra.... the holy soul who came into being in the beginning; the great god who liveth by Maat (order and regularity); the first divine matter which gave birth unto subsequent matter! the being through whom every other god hath existence; the One One ...; the being whose births are hidden, whose evolutions are manifold, and whose growths are unknown;... the divine form who dwelleth in the forms of all the gods, the Lion-god with awesome eye;... the god Nu, the prince who advanceth at his hour to vivify that which cometh forth upon his potter's wheel;... the traverser of eternity ... with myriads of pairs of eyes and numberless pairs of ears, whose light is the guide of the god of millions of years;... whose substitute is the divine Disk."

Connected with this very distinction is an important epoch in Egyptian history. Amenhotep IV, according to Pro. Breasted, believing in only one god, whom he called Aten, the Disk, attempted to destroy the old gods of Egypt, and introduce monotheism. He particularly hated Amen, closed the temples, cast out the priests, had the names of the gods cut out of the inscriptions, and changed his own name containing Amen to Akhen-aten, meaning "Aten is satisfied." He abandoned Thebes and built a new capital at Amarna where he devoted himself to art and religion. He is represented as receiving the light and heat of Aten through the Heavenly Father's Hands — the sun's rays terminating in hands. A few years ago hundreds of clay tablets in the Babylonian cuneiform were dug up at Amarna, which reveal that the dependencies of Egypt were gradually throwing off her yoke, dissatisfaction among both priests and soldiers was fomenting trouble, all of which led to Egypt's loss of prestige and power. So the "monotheism" which Akhen-aten tried to introduce died with him. That his reform was aimed in part at a corrupt priesthood is undoubtedly true, but to suppose that, "In all the progress of men which we have followed through thousands of years, no one had ever before caught such a vision of the Great Father of all" is a gross misconception. Budge states that the old Heliopolitan system made Tem or Tem-Ra the creator of Aten, the Disk; but this view Amenhotep IV rejected, asserting that the Disk was self-created and self-existent. Since from the esoteric and philosophical point of view, this was the substitution of a material and personal god for the ever-concealed Deity, or Amen, Akhenaten could not have received the backing of the Hierophants, and being himself a pacifist, Egypt suffered greatly as a result of his reign. In the conflict waged around this Pharaoh some Egyptologists have attempted to prove that his monotheism was not new; but no amount of mere scholarship can adequately deal with the situation; nor until authors rid themselves of the idea of the superiority of monotheism, with its Christian implication of a personal God, over all other forms of belief, will they ever judge aright.

Tutankhamen, whose tomb was discovered in 1922 by the late Lord Carnarvon, married Akhenaten's daughter. When he came to the throne he professed the same religion as his father-in-law; but soon realizing the failure of Atenism, substituted the name of Amen in his wife's and in his own name, which had originally been Tutankhaten. The honor accorded to this now famous Pharaoh by the Egyptians rests upon the fact that he restored the national worship of Amen, rehabilitated the decaying temples and reestablished the priesthood of Amen-Ra. The priests of Amen gradually lost this temporarily restored power, as they had already lost their spiritual power, and the people brought their rule to an end about 700 B.C.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 8, June, 1927 pp. 353-360

LIGHT AND DARKNESS

According to the tenets of Eastern Occultism, Darkness is the one true actuality, the basis and the root of light, without which the latter could never manifest itself, nor even exist. Light is matter, and Darkness pure Spirit. Darkness, in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and absolute light; while the latter in all its seeming effulgence and glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can never be eternal, and is simply an illusion, or Maya.— S.D. I, p. 70.

¹ Tutankhamen, Amenism, Atenism, and Egyptian Monotheism, p. 142.

² In Budge's edition these hieroglyphs are attached to Chaps. liv and lvii.

EGYPTIAN SYMBOLISM AND ANIMAL WORSHIP

THE sincere and unprejudiced student of comparative religions comes at last to see that without the help of symbology no ancient Scripture can ever be correctly understood. No Egyptian papyrus, no Indian olla, no Assyrian tile, or Hebrew scroll, should be read and accepted literally. Besides, the symbology must be studied from every one of its aspects, for each nation had its own peculiar methods of expression. The point to which even the most truth-loving and truth-searching Orientalist seems to remain blind, is the fact that every symbol is a many-faced diamond, each face of which not merely bears several interpretations, but relates likewise to several sciences. Many myths which, on the surface, have only an astronomical bearing, conceal facts in regard to the evolution of rounds and races which are of the utmost significance.

One of the best known, at least the most frequently represented, is that of the sun. Ra made his passage across the heavens in a boat from which streamed a blue light — the "Sun's son." A first bark, the Saktit (Sakti?) boat, received him at birth and carried him from the Eastern to the Southern extremity of the world. Mazit, the second bark, received him at noon and bore him into the land of Manu, which is at the entrance of Hades; other barks ... conveyed him by night, from his setting until his arising at morn. In the formulae of the "Book of Knowing that which is in Hades," the dead sun remains in the bark Saktit during part of the night, and it is only to traverse the fourth and fifth hours that he changesinto another. Sometimes he entered the barks alone, and then they were magic and self-directed. Such is the bark of the sun in the other world, for although carrying a full crew, yet for the most part it progresses at its own will, and without their help. Sometimes they were equipped with a full crew, having a pilot at the prow to take soundings in the channel and forecast the wind, a pilot astern to steer, a quartermaster in the midst to transmit the orders of the pilot at the prow to the pilot at the stern, and half a dozen sailors to handle the oars. (Maspero, "Dawn of Civilization," p. 90).

If we may be permitted to identify the boats with the Saktis, considered as the "principles" — whose powers they are, the above symbolism is most suggestive. According to Theosophical teaching, at each round or period of evolution, man enters a body or "boat" composed of the substance of that particular round. At "noon," or the mid-point of evolution, man was borne into "the land of Manu, which is at the entrance into Hades;" Hades is the earth of physical existence, into which the "Manu," or man, enters and becomes a seven-fold being having his "full crew" on board. The barks referred to in the "Book of Knowing that which is in Hades" at the fourth and fifth hours of the night, correspond at least to the fourth and fifth rounds, when man has donned his "coats of skin," which after the fifth "hour" or round, will give place to more ethereal "barks" or vestures. After death the "crew" is of no use to the magic boat, for the lower principles which these useless sailors represent, die out and disappear.

The first-born of Ra by the goddess Hathor was Shu. He is solar energy. "The blossoms of Shu" are the sun's rays. In Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead, Shu places the sky on top of the staircase in the City of the Eight. According to tradition earth and sky, or Seb and Neith, were two lovers lost in Nu, fast locked in each other's embrace. On the day of creation Shu, coming forth from the primeval waters, stepped between them and seizing Neith with both hands lifted her above his head. Although the starry body of the goddess extended in space, her head to the West, her feet and hands touched the earth, forming the four pillars of the firmament. Usually these supports are referred to as the pillars of Shu. It was Shu who was depicted holding up the sky and possibly from him the Greeks derived their representations of Atlas.

Seb is the Egyptian Saturn, ushering in a new cycle of evolution. Esoterically he is nearer to Parabrahman than Brahma. He is called the "Great Cackler," who laid the world upon his head, and is represented with a black swan or goose. Darkness, always associated with "beginnings," is symbolized in all religions by black birds. Two black doves flew from Egypt and settling on the oaks of Dodona, gave their names to the Grecian gods. In Chapter LIV of the Book of the Dead Seb's egg is referred to as the "egg conceived at the hour of the great one of the Dual Force."

According to tradition the golden age of Ra had gone, for even the gods die. All of them were represented as mummies and in Chapter VIII, are the words, "I am that Osiris in the West, and Osiris knoweth the day in which he shall be no more." The children of earth had become rebellious, bringing down upon themselves the wrath of Ra and their almost complete destruction by Hathor, whose hand was stayed by the repentant god, and a new race produced from mandragora plants. Afterwards mounting upon the back of a cow, Ra disappeared into the heavens. Shu and Tefnut (the double Lion-god) reigned in his stead. They represent the first differentiation of substance: as applied to Rounds and Races, the second in descending order. In this aspect, Seb ushers in the third and more material world, while his four children rule over the fourth.

This line of descent formed the basis of the Egyptian Enneads, or four pairs proceeding from the One. This gives us the ogdoad, or eight (the double cube of good and evil) of which Ra, or Tem, was the ninth, counting from below up. In the City of the Eight (Hermopolis) where Hermes was adored, Hermes was the One who contained in himself the double cube. Eight was the number of the caduceus or wand of Mercury, the figure being made by the intertwining of the two serpents of good and evil, or the joining of two cubes. There were as many Enneads as there were cities, but all are merely personifications covering the one general scheme or idea. Considering, then, a typical one, we have Tem (or Ra) who is said to have emanated Shu from himself; Shu and Tefnut; Seb and Neith; Osiris and Isis; Set and Nepthys — lower aspects of Osiris and Isis. Thus the exoteric system of the Egyptians, as H. P. Blavatsky has pointed out, dealt with but five planes out of the seven, the pairs having to do with the four lower ones.

Hathor was always represented as a cow, sacred also to Isis, the Universal Mother — Nature. Both goddesses were allied to the sun and the moon, as the disk and the cow's horns (which form a crescent) prove. In the Vedas the dawn of creation is represented by a cow. This dawn is Hathor, and the day which follows — or Nature already formed — is Isis, for both are one except in point of time. Isis is cow-horned, the cow of plenty, and as the mother of Horus (the physical world) she is the "mother of all that lives." The right eye of Horus, or the Sun, was called the cow of Hathor. In Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead, the cow Meh-urt, is called "the Eye of Ra;" while in Chapter CIX the sun is represented as a spotted calf when Sibu (Seb) its father was a bull and Hathor a heifer. The vignette to Chapter CLXX shows a cow wearing the solar disk upon her head and around her neck the symbol of life.

The symbol of life is the ankh or ansated cross of the Egyptians — the Tau with a handle. In illustrations of the Sunrise the sun's disk is upheld by two arms emerging from the ankh, the ankh itself supported by the Tet or Didu or Osiris. This emblem is a short pillar or disbranched tree-trunk surmounted by four cross bars, reminiscent of the tree fabled to have held the dead body of Osiris. Might it not be the sacred Ashwatta tree which the Egyptian Avatar had cut down with the strong axe of dispassion? It was also thought to be the backbone of Osiris after he had been "reconstructed" and "set up" by Isis. In Chapter LXXVIII of the Ritual the deceased says: "He (Osiris) hath stablished my heart through his own backbone; he hath stablished my heart through his own great and exceeding strength." This is evidence that the tree-like formation of the nerves radiating from the spine had not escaped the attention of the Egyptians, nor were they without their Trees of Life.

The sycamores planted on the edge of the desert were supposed to be inhabited by Hathor, Neith and other goddesses, and numerous vignettes represent the deceased as stopping before these trees to receive water and bread — the Water and Bread of Life — from the goddess whose body emerges from the sheltering foliage. The persea tree was the symbol of the "Sacred Heart" of Horus. The pear-like shape of its fruit, especially of its kernel, resembles the heart. It is sometimes seen on the head of Isis, the mother of Horus, the fruit being cut open and the heart-like kernel exposed to view. Here again we trace a form of worship, that of the "Sacred Heart" of Jesus and of the Virgin Mary by the Catholics, back to Egypt.

The use of these symbols seems fitting and justifiable, but why did the Egyptians worship animals? Why was the sun represented as a beetle? Why was the cat sacred to Bast, the jackal to Anubis, the hawk to Horus, the ibis to Thot? And how came Set to be incarnated in the fennec and Osiris and Ptah in the bull? The wise Egyptians never did worship animals, although as the true ideas were lost, the ignorant masses did. In "A Weird Tale"¹ a hint in regard to this symbolism is given. It is stated therein that there was an occult reason back of it and that the ancient Egyptians never did anything unscientifically; that there are undoubtedly types (of forms and intelligences) and that forms having been once assumed and seen by the seers always repeated the same forms to those persons. Therefore having taken a certain view of invisible nature, every symbol was made to conform or be consistent with that view. This partial explanation might also be applied to the fairies seen sometimes by children and psychic persons. The form of the fairy, or of an idea for the matter of that, once seen or held by an individual repeats itself and may even be photographed, which picture is then taken to be the real form or the fact; but this form is very often merely in the imagination that fashioned it and may neither be true to the type of elemental seen or to the fact. It is true, nevertheless, that Nature has evolved certain patterns which she copies wherever feasible; and just as the tree pattern may be traced in the formation of certain crystals on up through the vegetable, animal and human kingdoms, so there are likewise types of sentiency and function found in the vegetable and animal kingdoms which are reproduced in man, for Nature is One. "All beings are the same in kind and differ only in degree." If we realized the unity of all the kingdoms, if we saw, as the Egyptians did, the divine form of Amen-Ra in all forms, we would treat our younger brothers better — we would neither wantonly kill animals nor torture them in the perverted belief that thereby man is better served or benefited.

A passage from the Book of the Dead, (quoted in the Secret Doctrine, II, p. 635) reads: "I am the mouse." "I am the hawk." "I am the ape." ... "I am the crocodile whose soul comes from men." This corroborates the teaching that "while the human monad has passed on globe A and others, in the First Round, through all the three kingdoms — the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal — in this our Fourth Round, every mammal has sprung from Man ... not the form of flesh, blood, and bones, now referred to as Man,... but the inner divine monad with its manifold principles or aspects." Furthermore, all animals are the cast-off clothing of man; for man impresses all the lives in his body by his thought and feeling, and these lives entering into the bodies of animals, give them their peculiar characteristics. Thus, in a sense, they become the mirror in which man may see his own features and have frequent occasion to scorn his own image. The types in the early periods of evolution, therefore, must have been brought over from a prior mankind. As might be expected, then, in Egyptian symbolism there is a correspondence between the characteristics and functions of the animals and of the gods.

The cat, associated with the moon, was sacred to the cat-goddess Bast or Pasht, and to kill one was to court death. The Egyptian word for cat is mau, meaning to see, and both the moon and the cat were seers by night. As the moon reflects the light of the sun, so the cat was supposed to reflect the moon on account of its phosphorescent eyes. In the form of the goddess Bast the cat keeps watch for the sun, with her paw holding down and bruising the head of the serpent of darkness, the sun's eternal enemy. In Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead, "The male cat is Ra himself, and he is called 'Mau'" (Seer), while the illustrations represent him in action similar to Bast. The chief-priest of Amen-Ra was called "Oiru mau," Master of Visions, he who beheld God "face to face."

The sun is represented as a beetle in the solar boat — the "Boat of millions of years" — and is referred to as giving birth to beings in his name of Khepera. Khepera is the beetle or scarabaeus, the symbol of rebirth. The word is derived from the verb kheper, to become, to build again. Like the beetle the sun appeared to come up out of the earth and to ascend aloft as with wings. The winged globe is but another form of the scarabaeus and the egg, relating both to the rebirth of man and to his spiritual regeneration. No mummy is found without several of these green or blue beetles.

The jackal-headed god was Anubis, the "Opener of the Ways." The jackal's omniscience as to where any dead body is hidden, his absolute certainty of direction in the trackless desert, made him a fitting symbol of Anubis, who not only guided the dead along the trackless path of the underworld, but also led the reincarnating entity into the underworld of physical existence. Anubis is often identified with Horus and with Hermes, the Higher Mind; he is the knowledge on any plane which leads one whithersoever he has need to go. Anubis is also connected with the dog-star, the Sothis of the Egyptians.

The ibis, sacred to Thot, was held in the greatest veneration. It kills the land serpents and makes havoc among the crocodile eggs, thus saving Egypt from being overrun by these saurians. The black and white ibis was sacred to the moon, because this planet has a dark as well as a light side. Under the form of an ibis Thot watched over the Egyptians and taught them the occult arts and sciences. Maspero affirms that the word "Thot" means ibis. The ibis religiosa is said to have magical properties, in common with many other birds. At all events, he who killed either an ibis or the golden sparrow-hawk risked death. The hawk, the keen-sighted, was the symbol of the sun, of Horus and of the human soul.

The fennec is the Egyptian fox, appropriate symbol of Set whose craftiness conceived the coffin into which Osiris was enticed and confined, thus causing his death. Apis the white bull, sacred to Osiris and into which he was supposed to incarnate, was typical of the universal generative or evolving power in nature. Mariette Bey discovered near Memphis the Serapaeum, an imposing subterranean crypt containing the mummies of thirty sacred bulls. The mummification of various sacred animals would show that the Egyptians took the utmost care to conserve the "lives" in any highly evolved type or species. The bull is also the Taurus of the zodiac, connected with all the "First-born" solar gods. Christians associated this constellation with Christ. Here again, the Egyptians no more worshipped the bull than Christians worship the lamb. The ram is always a symbol of physical generation, the ram or the goat of Mendes being another symbol of Osiris.

Maspero suggests that the habit of certain monkeys assembling, as it were in full court, and chattering noisily a little before sunrise and just before sunset, may have justified the Egyptians in entrusting the apes with the duty of hailing Ra morning and evening. In the illustrations of the Sunrise previously mentioned, six apes hail the sun; the Papyrus of Hu-nefer gives seven. In Chapter C of the Book of the Dead, the deceased says, "I have united myself unto the divine apes who sing at the dawn and I am a divine Being among them." The dog-headed ape was a Hermetic symbol, filling the same office in Egypt that Hanuman did in India. In Chapter XLII the defunct says, "I am the dog-headed ape of gold, three palms and two fingers high."

The crocodiles in the Celestial Nile are five, and the god Toum calls them forth 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. When the Sun of life rises, they re-emerge from the sacred river. In the Secret Doctrine the Fifth Group is said to be a very mysterious one, as it is connected with the Microcosmic Pentagon, the five-pointed star representing man. In India and in Egypt those Dhyanis were connected with the crocodile, and their abode is in the zodiacal sign of Capricorn. In Egypt the defunct was transformed into a crocodile — Sebakh or Sevekh, the "Seventh" — showing it to be a type of intelligence, a dragon in reality, not a crocodile. (S.D. I, 219; II, 580). The mummy donned the head of a crocodile to indicate that it was a soul arriving from earth. The instructions appended to Chapter CLXIII are that it should be read before a serpent with two legs, meaning thereby a Dragon of Wisdom, or Hierophant. The evil serpent, "the enemy of Ra" was Apep (Apophis) whose power was greatest at the full of the moon, his overthrow being the subject of Chapter XXXIX.

Chapter LXXIII is devoted to the transformation into the Bennu bird, the Egyptian phoenix, symbol of the cycle of rebirth. The deceased says: "I came (literally 'I flew') into being from unformed matter. I came into existence like the god Khepera. I have germinated like the things (i.e., the plants) which germinate, and I have dressed myself like the tortoise. I am [of] the germs of every god."

In this incomplete list of animal symbols must be included a curious little insect called the praying mantis, the "diviner" who led the deceased unerringly to the underworld. It was greatly honored in Egypt, the Greeks attributed to it supernatural powers, and the Arabs declare that it always prays with its head toward Mecca. We might connote with it the state called manticism, during which the gift of prophecy is developed. (See chapter in Isis Unveiled, "Before the Veil.")

The lotus was pre-eminently the flower of Egypt. The lotus seeds, even before they germinate, contain perfectly formed leaves — the miniature of the perfect plants they will some day become, thus showing how idea comes to be made visible, which is true of the birth of a world as of a man. Its roots growing in the mud, and its blossoms in the air typify the human nature — its body grown out of the lower kingdoms, and the soul belonging to the higher spiritual regions. In Chapter LXXI of the Ritual — making the transformation into a lotus, a human head springs from the flower, and the god exclaims: "I am the pure Lotus, emerging from the Luminous One... I carry the messages of Horus. I am the pure lotus which comes from the Solar Fields." So the god Khnoom, the moist principle of life, sits on a throne within a lotus. Thot is often seated on a lotus. Finally, it is the goddess Hiquet, under the shape of a frog, who rests on the lotus. This undeniably most ancient of goddesses, on account of her amphibious nature, was one of the chief cosmic deities connected with creation. Because the frog comes to life after being buried for years under rocks or in old walls, it was typical of resurrection. A frog or toad enshrined in a lotus, or simply without the flower, was the form chosen by the early Christians for their church lamps, on which were engraved the words, "I am the resurrection."

Was the general character of Egyptian religion monotheistic, polytheistic or pantheistic, is a question that has caused endless discussion. The epithet "the only god," which on the surface might imply monotheism, was applied to several gods. In the Papyrus of Nesi-Khonsu, Amen-Ra is addressed as "the One One," "the divine form who dwelleth in the forms of all the gods;" but this concept was held only by the educated and the priesthood. Then, as now, the true teaching existed: that behind all forms is a nameless, invisible Power, the source of all manifested life, expressed in such passages as this: "You look and you see it not — it is colorless; you listen and you hear it not — it is voiceless; you desire to handle it — you touch it not — it is formless."

Budge says in the Collection of Moral Aphorisms composed by ancient sages are several allusions to a divine power to which no personal name is given. The word used to indicate this is Neter, translated "God" by him in the following examples taken from the Precepts of Kagema and the Precepts of Ptah-hotep, whose many instructions remind one of the Proverbs of Solomon:

"The things which God doeth cannot be known."

"Terrify not men. God is opposed thereto."

"When thou ploughest, labour in the field God (Karma) hath given thee."

The Teaching of Amenemapht clearly shows, says this author, that the writer distinguished between Deity and the gods Ra, Thot, etc.

"Leave the angry man in the hands of God. God (Karma) knows how to requite him."

"Take good heed to the Lord of the Universe." (The Self).

"Truth is the great bearer of Deity."

In the Teaching of Khensu-hetep, Budge finds a more intimate, personal Heavenly Being:

"It is God who gives thee existence."

"The Deity is the judge of the truth."

"The house of God abominates overmuch speaking. Pray with a loving heart, the words of which are hidden. He will do what is needful for thee, he will hear thy petitions and will accept thy oblations." (The God within each being).

In Chapter CXXV of the Book of the Dead, the defunct says, "I have not cursed God" and "I have not contemned the god of my city," showing the Egyptian admitted the existence of another Neter besides the god of his native place.

Whatever the Egyptian thought as to Deity or to the gods, he knew he was himself "of the germs of every god." He never considered himself a poor worm of the dust, as do Christians, but ever declared,

"Thou, Ra, art in me and I am in thee; and thy
attributes are my attributes."
AMEN-RA

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 9, July, 1927 pp. 404-412

ONE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

No one can study ancient philosophies seriously without perceiving that the striking similitude of conception between all — in their exoteric form very often, in their hidden spirit invariably — is the result of no mere coincidence, but of a concurrent design: and that there was, during the youth of mankind, one language, one knowledge, one universal religion, where there were no churches, no creeds or sects, but when every man was a priest unto himself. And, if it is shown that already in those ages which are shut out from our sight by the exuberant growth of tradition, human religious thought developed in uniform sympathy in every portion of the globe; then, it becomes evident that, born under whatever latitude, in the cold North or the burning South, in the East or West, that thought was inspired by the same revelations, and man was nurtured under the protecting shadow of the same Tree of Knowledge. — S.D. I, p. 341.

¹ Reprinted in Theosophy, Vol. IV, pp. 314 and 343.

OSIRIS, ISIS, HORUS, AND SET

"Salutations to thee, O Osiris, thou the greatest of the six gods issued from the Goddess Noo; thou the great favorite of thy father Ra; Father of Fathers; King of Duration; Master in the Eternity; multiform God, whose name is unknown and who hast many names in towns and provinces."

OSIRIS Un-nefer, "the Good Being," in a Hymn from the Papyrus of Ani is "eldest son of Nut, (primordial matter and infinite space) engendered by Seb (celestial fire) ... lord of the lofty white crown; as prince of gods and of men he hath received the crook and the whip and the dignity of his divine fathers." His "body is of bright and shining metal," his "head is of azure blue, and the brilliance of the turquoise encircleth him." As Ahura-Mazda is one with, or the synthesis of the Amshaspends, so Osiris, the collective unit, when differentiated and personified becomes Osiris, Isis, and Horus — the upper triad — and their reflection, Anubis, Nephtys (sister of Isis and mother of Anubis by Osiris) and Set — the latter when alone standing for the lower quaternary. These two triads together with the body make up the seven principles of man. All these gods and goddesses were worshipped independently of Osiris, but when the Osirian cult became dominant were fused into his nature.¹ So, also, Osiris-Ptah (Light) represented his spiritual aspect; Osiris-Horus, the intellectual, manasic aspect; Osiris-Lunus, the psychic; Osiris-Typhon (Set), the physical, therefore passional, turbulent aspect. In these four phases he symbolized the dual Ego, the divine and human, the cosmico-spiritual and the terrestrial. Although his name is the "Ineffable," his forty-two attributes bore each one of his names, which added to his seven dual aspects complete the forty-nine "fires." Thus the god is blended in man and the man is deified into a god.

Osiris was born at Mount Sinai, the Nyssi of the Old Testament, (Exodus XVII, 15) the birthplace of nearly all the solar gods of antiquity, although Osiris actually lived in human form some 75,000 years ago. One of the Great Teachers, civilizers and benefactors of humanity, in the course of his mission he encountered evil, was murdered by his brother Set at the age of twenty-eight, and buried at Abydos. According to Bonwick (Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought) he did not remain in the grave, but at the end of three, or forty,² days rose again and ascended to Heaven and thenceforth became the judge of the dead and the hope of a future life for the Egyptians. All of which proves that the story of Christ was found ready in most of its details thousands of years before the Christian era, and the Christian fathers had no greater task than to apply it to a new personage. This detracts no whit from Christ; it only goes to show that the biographies of all these Divine Instructors are practically identical because all are similar in nature and mission, and in a mystical sense their legendary life-record is true.

The name Osiris (Asar in Egyptian) is connected with fire, as is Asari in Babylonia; Aesar in old Etruscan means a god, derived possibly from the Asura of the Vedas, a modified form of which is Is'war or Iswara of the Bhagavad-Gita. In his universal aspect of destroying fire necessary to regeneration, Osiris is the "Lord of Terror," and in Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead he is "the devourer of all slaughtered things," just as Krishna in the eleventh Gita is "Time matured, come hither for the destruction of these creatures."

Among the many titles ascribed to Osiris, one frequently used is "the god of the staircase." In Chapter XXII of the Ritual the deceased prays that he may "have a portion with him who is on the top of the staircase," and there are any number of illustrations of a stairway of seven steps. What can this be but "the stairway of the seven worlds, the stairs of which each step becomes denser and darker. It is of this seven-times-seven scale thou art the faithful climber and mirror, O little man! Thou art this, but thou knowest it not." But great beings like Osiris know it, because by their own efforts they have become Perfected Men, at the top of this septenary stairway of evolution, which they descend and ascend knowingly, without ever losing their consciousness of Self. Whether in a body or out of it, they preserve an unbroken memory of all the states (or stairs) through which they pass. This uninterrupted memory is the realization of immortality. Although we are immortal we do not realize it, our memory being broken every night during sleep and also at death. So we find in many chapters of the Book of the Dead the deceased implores that he may retain his memory; that he may not forget the names of the guardians of the doors as his disembodied soul passes from one Aat (or state) to another; and, as a prerequisite — to which the utmost importance was attached, that his mouth may be opened and that he may regain his speech (Chapter XXIII); for speech is "manasic," indicative of and associated only with self-consciousness.

The real meaning of immortality, including life before birth as well as life after death, seems to have been as much misunderstood by many of the Egyptians as by Christians today, whose heritage of ideas, true and false, comes in unbroken continuity from that far past. Judging from the Book of the Dead, resurrection was insured by the recitation of magical formulae, or conferred upon the dead by Osiris. As Christians believe their resurrection possible because Christ rose from the dead and appeared in one of his finer "sheaths" on Easter morn, so the Egyptians thought that the body of Osiris had been dismembered³ and afterwards reconstructed into a living being, therefore their members would also be reunited into a living whole. In Chapter XLIII the deceased says: "I am Fire, the son of Fire, to whom was given his head after it had been cut off. The head of Osiris was not taken away from him, let not the head of Osiris Ani (the deceased) be taken away from him. I have knit myself together,... I have renewed my youth; I am Osiris, the lord of eternity." In the Papyrus of Hu-nefer, Osiris is thus addressed by Thot: "Homage to thee, O Governor of Amentet, who dost make men and women to be born again."

Budge thinks the offerings placed in the tomb indicate that pre-dynastic man thought he would live again in the identical body he had upon earth, an opinion apparently contradicted in a statement immediately following: "In later times although the funeral offerings were made as before, the belief in a material resurrection was given up by the educated Egyptians and in texts, both of the earliest and the latest periods,... it is distinctly stated that the material part of man rests in earth, whilst the immortal part has its abode in heaven." Now the belief was common that the Ka, or double, for which food and drink were placed in the tomb, was liable to annoy the living. The offerings and the many personal effects, such as were found in great and exquisite variety in the tomb of Tutankhamen and other notables, permeated with their owners' magnetism, would have a tendency to attract and hold the Ka. So might they not prevent it from being evoked or attracted elsewhere? — a danger against which the wise Egyptians would wish to take the utmost precaution. Mummification was practised in order to keep all the atoms of the body intact, so that they might again be used — not the same body, but the same aggregation of lives.

Abydos was the object of pilgrimage for thousands of years. From all parts of Egypt kings and princes were brought to this sacred spot that their remains might rest near those of their beloved lord. Here was the celebrated Osireion with its inclined passage leading to some underground chamber where were enacted "the Mysteries of Osiris," by which it was said that the beholders were so affected that death lost its sting and the grave its terror. Here was preserved the relic of Osiris, "the living One," carried in all the great religious processions, and here was performed one of the earliest Miracle Plays, which presented in dramatic form the story of the life and death and resurrection of this "Golden One of Millions of Years."

Isis is the Virgin-Mother, sister and wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. She is "the woman clothed with the sun" of the land of Chem. In the litany apostrophizing her, she is the "Immaculate Lady," "Queen of Heaven," "Illustrious Isis, most powerful, merciful and just," titles transferred entire or with slight change to the Virgin-Mary. (See Isis Unveiled, II, 209, for comparison of litanies). And not only was the adoration of Isis restored under a new name, but even her image standing on the crescent moon was adopted by the Christians, while her well-known effigy with Horus in arms has descended to our time in the many pictures of the Madonna and child. The "Black Virgins," so highly reverenced in certain French cathedrals were found, upon critical examination, to be basalt figures of Isis! But behind the symbolism of Isis were sublime spiritual and cosmical truths never conveyed to her worshippers by the mother of Christ.

Isis-Osiris is the equivalent of Kwan-Shai-Yin and Kwan-Yin in China. Coming later than Thot-Hermes, the companion and instructor of this pair was Hermes II, an incarnation of the celestial Hermes. In connection with her beneficent mission, Isis taught the women to spin the most wonderful linen, the priests devoted to her service being called the Linigera on account of the exquisite linen robes they wore. Isis was the great healer, hence the name Isis was given to a universal panacea. Her power to make men immortal is told in several legends, none with more tender charm than an episode connected with her search for Osiris, which has come down to us from Plutarch. Having traced the body of her lord to a tamarisk pillar built into the presence hall of King Malkander, she gained audience with his Queen, Athenais, and was engaged by the latter to nurse her sickly child Diktys. Isis agreed to restore him on condition that her ministrations be not observed. The child soon waxing strong and beautiful aroused the curiosity of Queen Athenais, who secreted herself in the chamber where nightly some mysterious work went on. From her hiding place she saw Isis build a great fire and place the child therein as in a cradle, changing herself thereupon into a twittering swallow. Horrified at the proceedings, Queen Athenais sprang forward and snatched her son from the flames, only to be confronted by the majestic but angry goddess, who upbraided her for her folly and told her that in the space of only a few days more her son would have been completely purified and immortal, but now he must live and die like other men. It was through the word and touch of Isis that Osiris, whose fourteen members (his seven dual aspects) having been found and put together, became once more a living being. So, in the Book of the Dead she is called the Lady of Life.

Horus was the last in the line of divine sovereigns in Egypt. A tablet describes him as the "substance of his father," of whom he is an incarnation and identical with him. There is an elder Horus (Haroeris) to be distinguished from the son of Isis, although in the legends they appear to be inextricably fused.⁴ In one aspect, the elder Horus is the Idea of the world in the demiurgic mind; the younger is the same Idea going forth from the Logos, clothed with matter and assuming actual existence. The elder was from remotest times fused with Ra at Heliopolis, and worshipped as Ra-Haremkhuti (Horus of the two mountains), or the rising and the setting sun. In a beautiful illustration of sunrise from the Papyrus of Hu-nefer, Horus-Ra as a golden sparrow-hawk, wearing a disk encircled by a serpent, is adored by seven apes. Astronomically Horus the younger is the winter-sun, and at the time of the winter-solstice (our Christmas) his image in the form of a new-born babe was brought out of the sanctuary and adored by the worshipping crowd. Several references are made in the Book of the Dead to "the followers of Horus" — Aryans who settled in Egypt when it had hardly risen from the waters. Yet they possessed the hieroglyphic form of writing peculiar to the Egyptians, founded the principal cities of Egypt and built some of the most important sanctuaries. They were said to be smiths (mesnitiu) armed with weapons of iron, and the mesnit or "Forge" was the name given to the passage opening into the shrine of the temple at Edfu, where Horus was worshipped under the form of the winged solar disk. An inscription on the temple wall, which Prof. Sayce thinks a late invention of the priests, declares that in the 363rd year of Ra-Harmachis on earth, he fled from the rebels who had risen against him in Nubia and found refuge in Edfu. Thereafter, his followers smote the enemies of their leader from the southern to the northern boundary of Egypt.

While Osiris subdued the world by gentleness and persuasion, by song and flute (which he invented) his son Horus from first to last was a warrior. Born to be the avenger of his father, he is said to have assumed the shape of a human-headed lion to gain advantage over Set. In this form he is the Sphinx — Har-em-chu — which is verily his image. He is also represented standing on a boat of serpentine form, with spear in hand, killing the serpent. His constant warfare with Set covers many facts, cosmical, spiritual and historical. In one aspect it is the struggle with the lower, personal nature and symbolizes the trials of adeptship; the fact that his triumphs are but temporary shows that his adeptship has to be regained in each new birth. The magnet was called the "bone of Horus" and iron, "the bone of Typhon," the latter being the rough Titanic power which opposes its force to the divine magnetic spirit trying to harmonize everything in nature. The dual nature of Horus is referred to in Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead in these words: "It is Horus when he riseth up with a double head, whereof one beareth right and truth and the other wickedness" (Set). In Chapter CLXXVII he is "the blue-eyed" and "the red-eyed Horus," — Set was always depicted red. In Chapter XXIX B, Horus is the Universal Ego; the deceased says: "My heart is with me, and it shall never come to pass that it shall be carried away.... I am Horus, the dweller in hearts, who is within the dweller in the body." In Chapter LXXVIII, The Chapter of Making the Transformation into the Divine Hawk, the deceased says: "And behold, when as yet Isis had not given birth to Horus, I had germinated, and had flourished, and I had become aged. (pre-existence) ... And I had risen up like the divine hawk, and Horus made for me a spiritual body (sahu) containing his own soul.... I, even I, am Horus, who dwelleth in the divine Khu (luminous form). I have gained power over his crown, I have gained power over his radiance, and I have travelled over the remote, illimitable parts of heaven... Horus is both the divine food and the sacrifice.... The gods labor for him, and they toil for him for millions of years." In later times the Pharaohs, by way of asserting (rightfully or otherwise) their divine nature, assumed the title "The Golden Horus," for according to Chapter LXXXIII of the Book of the Dead, Horus was one of those Illuminated Beings "who emitted light from his divine body," and "who never lie down in death."

Set, as we have just seen, is an integral part of both Osiris and Horus, just as Ahriman is an inseparable part of Ahura-Mazda. Typhon is a later name for Set, but still very ancient, his turbulent nature finding expression in the word "typhoon." In Chapter XXXIX, Apep, the serpent of evil is slain by Set's serpent; therefore Set could not have been originally evil. In Chapter XLII, Typhon is described as "Set, formerly Thot," who was also Seth — a puzzle indeed to the Orientalist, but in which we may recognize a Serpent of Wisdom. Cosmologically, all these serpents conquered by their slayers stand for the turbulent, confused principles in chaos, brought to order by the Sun-gods, or creative forces in their evolutionary processes. Elsewhere these principles are called "the sons of Rebellion." "In that night, the oppressor, the murderer of Osiris, otherwise called the deceiving Serpent... calls the Sons of Rebellion in Air, and when they arrive to the East of Heaven, then there is War in Heaven and in the entire World."

Set was once a great god universally adored throughout Egypt. Manetho, an Egyptian priest, says that he treacherously murdered Osiris and allied himself with the Shemites (the Israelites). This may possibly have originated the fable told by Plutarch that after the fight between Typhon and Horus, Typhon overcome with fright at the mischief he had caused, "fled seven days on an ass, and escaping begat the boys Jerusalem and Judaea." He is evidently connected with the Hyksos, the ancestors of the Jews according to Josephus, and both Typhon and the Jews were "an abomination" to the Egyptians.

The goat was sacred to Typhon, and it was over the goat that the Egyptians confessed their sins, after which the animal was turned into the desert. This was ages before the time of Moses, and the origin of the Jewish scape-goat. Turning to Leviticus XVI, 21, we read; "And Aaron shall ... lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel... and shall send him away.... into the wilderness." It is also easy to trace the evolution of Sat (Set)-an to the Egyptian devil.

Although the seven principles of man are symbolized under the various aspects of Osiris, the Egyptians had special names for the sheaths of the soul. While the Egyptologists differ as to their classification, as to spelling of names and in many other details, we quote from Budge's Book of the Dead. His list does not exactly agree with the theosophical division of principles, nevertheless it practically covers them, as we shall see, and proves conclusively that the Egyptians were familiar with our seven "souls" in spite of the fact that the translations do not fully bring out the distinctions.

Khat, the physical body. Ka, the double, which could become a vampire (Kama-rupa). Ba, the heart-soul, connected with the Ka, and depicted as a human-headed hawk; it could die a second time (Animal soul or Kama-Manas). Khaibit, the shadow, the hieroglyph of which was an umbrella. Budge regards it as a kind of third soul (Astral body). Khu, meaning "luminous," the spiritual soul which under no circumstances could die; it dwelt in the Sahu (Higher Manas). Sahu, the spiritual body, which formed the habitation of the soul (Atma-Buddhi individualized). It was supposed to spring from the body on account of the prayers that were said, but this could have been merely popular belief, for the author describes it as a "body which had attained to a degree of knowledge and power and glory whereby it becomes henceforth lasting and incorruptible." Sa was the mysterious fluid of the gods, and Hu was one of the celestial foods. In the Judgment Scene Hu and Sa, as gods, head the deities who preside over the weighing of the heart. Sekhem, or power, Budge says is the incorporeal personification of the vital force of a man, which dwelt in heaven with the Khus. Se-Khem is the residence or loka of the god Khem, the devachan of Atma-Buddhi, hence we might think of Sekhem as the devachanic body. To this list our author adds Ren, the name, to preserve which the Egyptians took the most extraordinary care, for the belief was widespread that unless the name of a man was preserved he ceased to exist; and Ab, the heart, an organ rather than a principle, although Budge says it was considered the center of the spiritual and thinking life, in short, the conscience. In Chapter XXVI the deceased says: "I understand with my heart." In Chapter CLXIX two hearts are mentioned, "thy heart (ab), thy mother, and thy heart (hat) that is in thy body."

In Chapter XCII, souls and spirits and shadows are mentioned together. The deceased says: "... let a way be opened for my soul and for my shade, and let them see the Great God in the shrine on the day of the judgment of souls, and let them recite the utterances of Osiris.... to those who guard the members of Osiris, and who keep ward over the Spirits, and who hold captive the shadows of the dead who would work evil against me. May a way for my double (Ka) ... be prepared by those who keep ward over the members of Osiris, and who hold captive the shades of the dead." In Chapter LXXXIX the deceased addresses "the gods who make souls to enter into their sahu" and at the close of the chapter it begs that it may "look upon its material body, may it rest upon its spiritual body (sahu); and may it neither perish nor suffer corruption for ever."

The soul of every defunct, from the Hierophant down to the sacred bull Apis, became an Osiris after death — was Osirified; Ani, for instance, became Osiris Ani. In Chapter CXIX the deceased says: "I am the spiritual body of the God;" and not only this, but all his members were identified with Osiris or some other of the gods. In Chapter XLII, entitled The Deification of Members, the disembodied soul says: "My hair is the hair of Nu. My face is the face of the Disk. My eyes are the eyes of Hathor... My neck is the neck of the divine goddess Isis.... My forearms are the forearms of Neith. My feet are the feet of Ptah.... There is no member of my body which is not the member of some god." What is this but the teaching that man is verily the microcosm of the macrocosm? And the chapter continues: "I am Ra... I am Horus and traverse millions of years. In very truth, my forms are inverted. I am Un-nefer from one season unto another, and what I have is within me.... I am he whose being has been moulded in his eye and I shall not die again." The real Osirification is the final assimilation with the One Life — the Egyptian Day of Come-Unto-Us (or Me) which refers to the long pralaya after the Mahamanvantara. "The 'Monad' ... has to perform its septenary gyration throughout the Cycle of Being and forms, from the highest to the lowest; and then from man to God." (S.D., I, 135). Those who cross the "iron-bound world" "will rest in the bosom of Parabrahm or the "Unknown Darkness," which shall then become for all of them Light — during the whole period of Mahapralaya, namely, 311,040,000,000,000 years. (S.D., I, 134).

"Hail, O Egg! Hail, O Egg! I am Horus, he who liveth
for millions of years, whose flame shineth upon
you and bringeth your hearts to me."

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 10, August, 1927 pp. 447-455

THE "BEING OF TATHAGATA"⁵

Question — What in Theosophy is regarded as having been the original cause of the "obscuration of the effulgence of the mysterious Being of Tathagata?"

Answer — The Being of Tathagata is the Being of Buddha. It is a mystical statement made by orientals of the doctrine that the Divine Man, the Higher-Self of the Universe, has been obscured by its "descent into matter." For they hold that all Buddhas throughout eternity are the same, and that the Highest nature of Man is the same as the Buddha. Hence this sentence is only a statement that the original effulgence or glory radiated by the Highest Self becomes temporarily obscured by dwelling in matter during evolution; but that effulgence will be restored and shine again at the end of the seventh Round because then matter will have been altered and refined by the indwelling effulgent Buddha. But such quotations as that in the question should never be given without the context in which they occur. — W.Q.J.

¹ Prof. Sayce in The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians reminds us that "The religion of the Egyptians which is best known to us was highly composite, the product of different races and different streams of culture and thought; and the task of uniting them all into a homogeneous whole was never fully completed. To the last, Egyptian religion remained a combination of ill-assorted survivals rather than a system, a confederation of separate cults rather than a definite theology": (i.e., exoterically). The name of Osiris was very rare before the 6th Dynasty, says Mariette Bey.

² The festival of Osiris lasted forty days, the number of days of Jesus' temptation.

³ There was a time when some of the inhabitants of Egypt dismembered the body previous to burial, for mummification was not always practised, nor was it ever universal in that country as is commonly supposed.

⁴ "The celestial Horuses one by one were identified with Horus, the son of Isis, and their attributes were given to him, as his in the same way became theirs." (Maspero).

⁵ The Theosophical Forum, April, 1893.

EGYPTIAN "IMMORTALITY"

HAD nothing remained to us of the Book of the Dead but the Judgment Scene, it alone furnishes abundant evidence of the Egyptian teaching of Karma — the universal Law of Balance; clear indication, too, of the origin of the handwriting on the wall of Balshazzar's palace: "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." In the Papyrus of Ani, the scene is made up of five "acts," so to say, the first three constituting the portion assigned to the judgment proper, the last two completing the drama of the soul by depicting its resurrection and introduction by Horus into the presence of Osiris. In the upper left register sit twelve great gods. Underneath, Ani (the deceased) leading his wife, enters the Hall of the double Maati — Truth and Right. In the second act, Ani, separated into his component parts, stands before the scales. These parts are represented by a human-headed bird — the soul; a tri-colored cubit bearing a human head, which Budge calls Ani's embryo (the cubit symbolizes the "principles"); a human figure representing his destiny; the two goddesses of birth; and the heart enclosed in a vase balanced against the feather of Truth and Right in the opposite scale-pan. Here are plainly typified the ideas that death involves a separation of the principles; that out of these is to come another body; and that the future birth or destiny, whether into post-mortem states or into a new human form, will be the result of the life just passed. On the standard of the scales sits the dog-headed ape, sacred to Thot, marking the middle point in the evolutionary round when the Sons of Wisdom incarnated in the human-animal forms in the equilibrizing sign of Libra; for Libra and Thot-Hermes are one. (See Isis Unveiled, II, 463). At the right of the scales, testing the tongue of the balance, kneels the jackal-headed god, Anubis, he who guides the justified soul to the Fields of Aanroo.

The soul seeking admission to the Judgment Hall is at once confronted by its doors and even the various parts of its gates — all forbidding his entrance unless he tells them their mystery names. What can this indicate, but a recognition of the potentiality of the "Word"? After death the good or purified soul in conjunction with its higher or uncreated spirit, is more or less the victim of the dark influence of the dragon Apophis. If it has attained the final knowledge of the heavenly and infernal mysteries — the gnosis, or complete reunion with the spirit, it will triumph over its enemies; if not, the soul cannot escape its second death, "the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone" (elements), a purely Egyptian idea. But this awful fate can be avoided by the knowledge of the "Mysterious Name." The defunct, having complied with this initial requirement, begins a recital of his good deeds, enumerating first those which relate to his conduct towards his family, his servants and his fellowmen; and not until he has given evidence that he has acted with justice and mercy towards his fellows, is he allowed to pass on to prove he has faithfully performed his duties towards the gods. He is then brought before the forty-two assessors who assist Osiris nightly in the examination of souls, and pleads his innocence of the particular sins which they are appointed to judge. After this "negative confession" he recounts numerous services he has rendered, such as: "I have performed the commandments of men as well as the things whereat are gratified the gods. I have given bread to the hungry man, and water to the thirsty man, and apparel to the naked man and a boat to the shipwrecked mariner.... I am clean of mouth and clean of heart: therefore let it be said unto me...'Come in peace'." (Chap. CXXV). While this protestation of righteousness has been going on, Thot, with reed and palette in hand, records the weighing of the heart; for in spite of the attempt of the deceased to justify himself, it is the heart that determines the balance up or down.

The Egyptians well knew that although one may think the good deeds done or the evils not committed are the measure of character, the feeling in the heart that accompanied the actions is the true estimate of one's righteousness and its ultimate determinant. The man of unrighteous heart will be found wanting. He whose heart was evil, and works utterly wanting, was devoured by Ammet, the "Eater of the Dead," a composite creature with crocodile head, lion body and hinder parts of the hippopotamus, sitting by the side of Anubis. Hence the fear voiced by the deceased in Chap. XXX: "My heart, my mother! My heart, my mother! My heart of transformation! (i.e., necessary for my reincarnation)... May there be no parting of thee from me in the presence of him that keepeth the Balance!" The hieroglyph of the heart was a vase, and when we remember Ammonius Saccas taught that Hermes got his wisdom from India, there would seem to be no mere coincidence that in the Gayatri the True Sun is said to be "hidden by a vase of golden light," — by the kamic principle coursing through the blood of the heart. In the New Testament (Matthew XXV, 34-36) occurs an almost exact reproduction of the setting of the Judgment Scene: the Son of Man sits upon his throne judging the nations and says to the justified: "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you ... For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink... Naked, and ye clothed me."

The progress of the soul after death consists in a series of transformations by means of which the defunct divests himself, one by one, of his principles, materialized for the sake of clearness into ethereal entities or bodies. The shadow, the astral form, is annihilated, "devoured by the Uræus,"¹ the Manes(kama-rupa) will be annihilated; but the Soul-bird, "the divine Swallow — and the Uræus of the Flame" (Manas and Atma-Buddhi) will live in the eternity, for they are their mother's husbands. (S.D. I, 227). Those who think the Egyptians did not teach reincarnation should remember that the Soul (the Ego) of the defunct is said to be living in Eternity: it is immortal, "coeval with and disappearing with the Solar boat" — symbol of the cycle of Necessity. The Soul emerges from the Tiaou, or Tuat, (the realm of the cause of life) and joins the living on Earth by day, to return to the Tuat every night.

What is the Tuat? The frequent allusions to it in the Book of the Dead contain a mystery. The Tuat is the path of the Night Sun, the inferior hemisphere or the infernal regions of the Egyptians, placed by them on the concealed side of the moon. In their esotericism, the human being came out of the moon (a triple mystery — astronomical, physiological and psychological at once); he crossed the whole cycle of existence and then returned to his birth-place (the moon) before issuing from it again into a new birth. Thus the defunct is shown arriving at the West where he receives his judgment, passes through Amenti, resurrects as Horus, and then circles around the sidereal heavens, which is an allegorical assimilation to Ra, when he becomes once more the free and self-conscious God. In Chap. CXXX we read: "The Osiris Nu (the defunct) embarketh in thy boat, O Ra, he is furnished with thy throne and he receiveth thy spiritual form." Then begins the descent into matter. He crosses the celestial abyss (Nu), and returns once more to the Tuat, where he is assimilated to Osiris-Lunus, who in his aspect of god of reproduction, inhabits the moon. Plutarch says the Egyptians celebrated a festival called "The Ingress of Osiris into the Moon."

Chapter LXIV of the Book of the Dead, entitled the "Chapter of the Coming Forth By Day in a Single Chapter," was looked upon as an abridgement of the entire Book. Birth in the Tuat, Amenti, or heaven, hence means death on another plane, and vice versa. Birth and death, endless transformation, universal reincarnation, proclaim themselves on every page of the Book of the Dead. "I am Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow; and I have the power to be born a second time. I am the hidden Soul who createth the gods and who giveth celestial meals unto the denizens of the Tuat, Amentet, and heaven. I am the Lord of those who are raised up from the dead... Make thou thy roads glad for me, and make broad for me my paths, when I set forth from earth for life in the celestial region... Send forth thy light upon me, O Soul unknown, for I am one of those who are about to enter, and the divine speech is in my ears in the Tuat, and let no defects of my mother be imputed unto me... The god (Anubis) transporteth me to the chamber and my nurse is the double Lion-god himself... Let me journey on in peace; let me pass over the sky;... Let me soar like a bird to see the hosts of the spirits in the presence of Ra day by day.... I shall come into being in the form of the Lion-god and like the blossoms of Shu. I am he who is never overwhelmed in the waters... I have come to see him that dwelleth in his divine Uræus, face to face and eye to eye. Thou art in me and I am in thee; and thy attributes are my attributes... My forms are the forms of the god Khepera... I have entered in as a man of no understanding, and I shall come forth in the form of a strong spirit, and I shall look upon my form which shall be that of men and women for ever and for ever."

Amenti, literally the dwelling of Amen, the hidden God, was the kingdom of Osiris, in which were fourteen halls or "mansions," (Chap. CXLIX, Book of the Dead), each one set aside for some special purpose connected with the after-death state of the soul. Besides the Hall of Judgment there were the Elysian Fields, or Fields of Aanroo, and many other mystical halls — one of torment in which the waters were of fire, and though the spirits wished to enter and quench their thirst, they dare not. The worst of all was the Hall of eternal Sleep and Darkness. As Lepsius portrays it, the defunct "sleep therein in incorruptible forms, they wake not to see their brethren, they recognize no longer father and mother, their hearts feel naught toward their wife and children. This is the dwelling of the All-Dead.... Each trembles to pray to him, for he hears not." This god is Karmic Decree; the abode of those who die absolute disbelievers, those killed by accident before their allotted time, and finally the dead on the threshold of Avitchi, which save in one case, is not in Amenti but on this earth of forced re-birth. These tarried not long in their state of oblivion, but were carried speedily toward the gate of exit (Amh). The two chief gates of the abode of Osiris were the gate of entrance, Re-stau, and the gate of exit, or reincarnation.

The second Aat of Amenti was Aarru (Chap. CIX), "the walls of which are of iron. The height of the wheat thereof is five cubits...; the barley thereof is seven cubits in height.... And the Khus (Spirits) therein, who are nine cubits in height reap the wheat and the barley side by side with the divine Souls of the East." In this instance the ninefold division is used and refers to those spirits who have just been translated — before the separation of the principles. The reaping of the grain is a very graphic representation of the Law of Retribution or Karma. Those who reaped the two highest numbers entered into the state of Devachan; the disembodied souls whose harvest was less went into the lower regions (Kamaloka). However, in Chap. CX is a region called the place of the Khus who are seven cubits high, the wheat is three cubits high and it is the Spirits who have become perfect who reap it. These perfected souls are the Atma-Buddhi-Manasic entities, symbolized by the wheat of three cubits, already separated from their lower principles and ready for the Devachanic state. (S.D. II, 374).

THOT-HERMES

Thot is the great Dragon of Wisdom in Egypt. He is the lunar god of the first dynasties, the master of cynocephalus (the dog-headed ape who stood as the living symbol and remembrance of the Third Root Race), therefore a divine being who took on the human-animal form. For here, too, is to be found the Theosophical teaching of evolution. The moon-god Taht-Esmun represented the first human "ancestor," expressing the seven powers of nature prior to himself as his seven souls, he being the manifestor of them as the eighth. Thus Thot is the god who looks both ways — Janus, Hermes and Mercury combined. With reed and palette, as we have seen him, he is the scribe of the gods and the recorder of Karma. He is "the Lord of Hermopolis," wearing the atef crown and lunar disk, and bearing "the Eye of Horus" (the third eye) in his hand. Protector of Egypt under the form of the ibis, the foe of the bad serpent, he was the good serpent whose mysteries are concealed in the caduceus or wand of Mercury. Thot is connected with our word thought, and since to think is to create, Thot was said to have created the world by his Word, the articulate word being considered the most potent of creative forces. The deceased in the Book of the Dead time and again implores Thot to give him the "correct voice," name or pronunciation of those beings who bar his passage that they may open the way to him. To Thot are ascribed all the arts and sciences and the invention of the Egyptian alphabet. It is as difficult to place his era as to assign to their pyramids their exact date, but his name is found on the oldest monuments. The 4th of January is held sacred to him as Christians hold December 25th sacred to Jesus of Nazareth.

Thot-Hermes is both god and human Teacher, and as Teacher there are at least five personages in the line. Hermes Trismegistus, the "thrice-great" is Hermes great in Secret Wisdom, great as king or divine ruler, and great as law-giver and instructor in the arts of civilization. Hermes was called "the trainer of Christs," since he taught men the eternal verities and showed how to live them that they, too, might be Christs in their turn and know their own nature as he did his. Hermes is not the proper name of any individual, but a generic title applied to Adepts in the Secret Wisdom, the great name having crept into our every-day language in the word "hermetic" — sealed. The teachings of the Hermes are recorded in the Book of the Dead, on monuments and tombs and tablets, and in the Books of Thot. The Greek writer Iamblichus says there were 1200 books of Hermes, and another writer, Seleucus, says there were 20,000 before the time of Menes. Eusebius, an early Church Father, speaks of seeing forty-two. Some of these books were works on anatomy, medicine and other arts. The name Hermes came to be used by mystics of every shade for generations, consequently great discrimination has to be used in accepting so-called Hermetic writings. Almost all the Fragments bearing the name have been greatly distorted and exhibit a tendency to the personal God idea, while the original teachings were purely pantheistic. The Deity referred to in them is the one defined by Paul as that in which "we live, and move and have our being," the "in Him" of the translators notwithstanding.

In the Book of Hermes, Pymander appears to Hermes in the shape of a Fiery Dragon of "Light, Fire, and Flame." Pymander, the "Thought Divine" personified, says:

"The Light is me, I am the Nous (the mind or Manu), I am thy God, and I am far older than the human principle which escapes from the shadow ("Darkness," or the concealed Deity). I am the germ of thought, the resplendent Word, the Son of God. All that thus sees and hears in thee is the Verbum of the Master, it is the Thought (Mahat) which is God, the Father." (The seventh principle in Man and Kosmos are here meant.) (S.D., I, 74).

"That Universal Being, that contains all, and which is all, put into motion the Soul and the World, all that nature comprises, says Hermes. In the manifold unity of universal life, the innumerable individualities distinguished by their variations, are, nevertheless, united in such a manner that the whole is one, and that everything proceeds from Unity."

"My judgment is that void space does not exist, that it never has existed, and that it never will exist, for all the various parts of the universe are filled, as the earth also is complete and full of bodies, differing in quality and in form."

"God is not a mind, but the cause that the mind is; not a spirit, but the cause that the Spirit is; not light, but the cause that the Light is."

"To speak of God is impossible. For corporeal cannot express the incorporeal.... That which has not any body nor appearance, nor form, nor matter, cannot be comprehended by sense ... that which it is impossible to define — that is God."

Trismegistos: Reality is not upon earth, my son, and it cannot be thereon.... Nothing on earth is real, there are only appearances.... He (man) is not real, my son, as man. The real consists solely in itself and remains what it is... Man is transient, therefore he is not real, he is but appearance, and appearance is the supreme illusion.

Tatios: Then the celestial bodies themselves are not real, my father, since they also vary?

Trismegistos: That which is subject to birth and to change is not real ... There is in them a certain falsity, seeing that they too are variable.

Tatios: And what then is the primordial Reality?

Trismegistos: That which is one and alone, O Tatios; That which is not made of matter, nor in any body. Which has neither colour nor form, which changes not nor is transmitted but which always is. (S.D., I, 285-287).

"...matter becomes; formerly it was; for matter is the vehicle of becoming. Becoming is the mode of activity of the uncreate deity. Having been endowed with the germs of becoming, matter (objective) is brought into birth, for the creative force fashions it according to the ideal forms. Matter not yet engendered had no form; it becomes when it is put into operation."

"Everything is the product of one universal creative effort.... There is nothing dead in Nature. Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism." (S.D., I, 281).

"From one Soul, that of All, spring all the Souls, which spread themselves as if purposely distributed through the world. These souls undergo many transformations; those which are already creeping creatures turn into aquatic animals; from these aquatic animals are derived land animals; and from the latter the birds. From the beings who live aloft in the air (heaven) men are born. On reaching that status of men, the Souls receive the principle of (conscious) immortality, become Spirits, then pass into the choir of the gods."

"The creation of Life by the Sun is as continuous as his light; nothing arrests or limits it. Around him, like an army of Satellites, are innumerable choirs of genii ... All these Genii preside over mundane affairs....they imprint their likeness on our Souls ... But the reasonable part of the Soul is not subject to the genii; it is designed for the reception of (the) God, who enlightens it with a sunny ray. Those who are thus illumined are few in number..." (high Initiates and Adepts are here meant). Students should read the entire passage: (S.D., I, 294-295).

"Thou art from old, O Soul of Man; yea, thou art from everlasting.

"The Soul passeth from form to form; and the mansions of her pilgrimage are manifold. Thou puttest off thy bodies as raiment; and as vesture dost thou fold them up."

The Egyptians are accused of teaching the doctrine of transmigration — that men reincarnate in the bodies of animals. The following extract might be thought to corroborate this opinion:

"But the Soul entering into the Body of a Man, if it continue evil, shall neither taste of Immortality nor be partaker of the Good; but being drawn back the same Way, it returneth into Creeping Things. And this is the condemnation of an evil Soul."

We need only to refer to the symbol of the Sphinx to see that Soul never came from the lower kingdom — it enters into the body. Only the lower soul returns to the lower kingdoms; the Spirit-Soul likewise returns the Way it came to higher regions of Spirit. The teaching is: "Once a man, always a man." But, to be immortal one must have body and spirit conjoined in harmony on earth. Consequently, by living selfishly and evilly, a man condemns every atom of his lower sheaths to be drawn into the bodies of lower animals, and he will meet those effects when again he comes into incarnation.

The teaching of Hermes, As Above So Below — "the whole of magic" — is found in the Smaragdine Tablet which is alleged to have been found by Sarai, Abraham's wife, on the dead body of Hermes. This is pure allegory. May it not be, suggests Madame Blavatsky, that Saraiswati, the goddess of secret wisdom and learning, finding still much of the ancient wisdom latent in the dead body of Humanity, revivified that wisdom? This led to the rebirth of the Occult Sciences, so long forgotten and neglected, the world over.

"What is below is like that which is above, and what is above is similar to that which is below, to accomplish the wonders of one only thing," — which is Man.

"The Father of That One Only Thing is the Sun; its Mother the Moon; the Wind carries it in his bosom; and its nurse is the Spirituous Earth." In the occult rendering of the same it is added: "and Spiritual Fire is its instructor (Guru)."

Rudimentary man, having been nursed by the "air" or the "wind," becomes the perfect man later on; when, with the development of "Spiritual Fire" ... he acquires from his inner Self, or Instructor, the Wisdom of Self-Consciousness, which he does not possess in the beginning. This fire is the higher Self, which, on this plane, is in bondage to the lower. Unless the Ego takes refuge in the Atman, the all-spirit, and merges entirely into the essence thereof, the personal Ego may goad it to the bitter end. (S.D., II, 109, 113).

"Separate the earth from the fire, the subtile from the gross."

"Ascend from the earth to heaven and then descend again to earth, and unite together the power of things inferior and superior; thus you will possess the light of the whole world, and all obscurity will fly from you."

In these words is contained the riddle of the cross, and its double mystery is solved — to the Occultist. "The philosophical cross ... symbolizes our human existence, for the circle of life circumscribes the four points of the cross, which represents in succession birth, life, death, and Immortality."

From a study of the foregoing fragments some comprehension may be gained of how one man may impress himself upon his own epoch so forcibly that the influence may be carried — through the ever-interchanging currents of energy between the two worlds, the visible and the invisible — from one succeeding age to another, until it affects the whole of mankind. Hermes has been an universal source of knowledge.

The glories of now-subject Egypt are of the past — of a past so remote that we can find no later writings recorded to show that there were witnesses left upon the scene. The knowledge once in Egypt went on to Greece and shone there under Pythagoras and Plato, who studied in Egypt, and other Hermetic philosophers who taught the Truth and Right of Thot-Hermes and Hermes Trismegistus. We have seen, too, how much of Egyptian doctrine and practice found its way, although greatly distorted, into the Old Testament and the Apocalypse. Moses was an Egyptian priest before he became leader of the Israelites, Jesus spent part of his youth in Egypt, and all the most learned Jews drank at her fount of wisdom.

Madame Blavatsky told, we suspect, what was personally known to her, in saying that there are still some solitary students of the ancient lore — sole remnants of the true Egyptian race, Copts, who are aware of the existence of many a secret treasure of the sanctuary, and keep silent. These Copts wear monkish attire of Arab-Christians, and live in poor desolate convents on the borders of the Libyan desert. Some believe the attire is but a disguise. These Copts are held in great esteem by the Greek monks of Palestine, and "there is a rumor current among the Christian pilgrims of Jerusalem, who throng the Holy Sepulcher at every Easter, that the holy fire from heaven will never descend so miraculously as when these monks of the desert are present to draw it down with their prayers. Thousands of pilgrims are there waiting with their tapers to light them at this sacred fire, which at the precise hour and when needed descends from the chapel-vault and hovers about the sepulcher in tongues of fire until every one of the thousand pilgrims has lighted his wax taper at it." Thus we see the holders of the flame, now in one country and now in another, form an unbroken sacrificial chain down the ages.

If it were possible to summarize in a sentence Egypt's contribution to the human race, it might be expressed in the Hermetic teaching "Death does not exist, and man never steps outside of universal life; nevertheless, conscious immortality must be gained by each individual for himself." "Oh, men, live soberly. Win your immortality. Instructor and guide of humanity, I will lead you on to salvation" — the clarion cry of Hermes Trismegistus rings vital still, because vitalized by the message of H.P.B. The term "scribe of the gods" — Thot-Hermes — can be no more fitly applied than to this recorder of the most complete teaching yet written down. She, as in the allegory of Saraiswati, found the body of Humanity dying, and tried to arouse its Soul by restating the ancient eternal Truth, the Right application of which alone will save the world.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 11, September, 1927 pp. 499-507

¹ Uræus, the serpent, son of the earth — in another sense the primordial vital principle in the sun.

SOURCES OF EARLY AMERICAN CIVILIZATION

WHAT is the origin of the American Indian? The civilizations of Persia, China and Egypt had their roots in the remote past of the Fourth, Atlantean Race. But who ever associates American civilization with so ancient a source? Do we not assume that, for all practical purposes, American history began with Columbus' discovery of the New World? Yet, this New World, geologically considered, is older than Europe, the continent having risen from the ocean bed during the palmy days of Atlantis, which began to sink millions of years ago. Does it seem probable that any land would remain uninhabited for millions of years?

In consideration of these questions, we should apply first of all the principle of continuity: Nature's processes are never broken, although a constant change of land masses as well as races is always in progress. This transforming process culminates at certain periods in the breakingasunder of land surfaces, on which reincarnate and develop races gradually adapted to and modified by the new conditions, thus producing new cycles of history. Hence wherever separated land areas or divergent races appear, we must look for the hidden connections and intervening types which once bound them together in one continuous line of evolution, the whole process preparing for higher races and at last for Perfected Man.

Although one anthropologist assigned an age of 50,000 years to the remains of a human skeleton found at New Orleans, most so-called "authorities" believe there is no evidence of early man in America. On the other hand a great number of scientists accept the existence of the former continents of Lemuria and Atlantis and agree that there was a connection between the latter and America in former times. If such connections ever existed, why would there not have been migrations from those older continents to America? In fact the Mayas of Central America, the Toltecs and many other tribes maintained that their ancestors came from the East. For generations, according to Lewis Spence, the Antilles or West India Islands were recognized as being the remains of an Island continent called Antilia, shown on a globe by Behaim in 1492. This writer also says that in a letter to Columbus in 1474, Toscanelli refers to Antilia; also that long after the South American coast had been explored and demonstrated as a continental area, it was identified with Antilia, as two maps in the Egerton manuscript (now in the British Museum) distinctly prove. But Antilia was very evidently only the disconnected portion of a larger region, as indicated by deep sea soundings in the Atlantic basin. These have revealed the presence of an elevated ridge 9,000 feet higher than the ocean floor, beginning near the coast of Ireland, extending through the Azores southwesterly to the vicinity of the Amazon river; then shifting almost at right angles it proceeds southeast toward the African coast and on down to Tristan d'Acunha. Other indications of a former connection between the New World and the Old are the similar geological structure of the opposing coast lines of South America and Africa; and either an identity or close resemblance between the fauna and flora of the United States and Europe. In the forests of Virginia and Florida are many varieties of trees corresponding with European flora of the tertiary age term for term. How did they reach the New World? That the transition was not by way of the isthmus that once filled up Behring Strait is proved by the fact that a great number of these are not found west of the Rocky Mountains. Stones in the Canary Islands — a remnant of Atlantis — bear sculptured symbols similar to those found on the shore of Lake Superior. The form of skull belonging to the Guanches of the Canary Islands is the same as that of the Caribs of the West Indies, the Mayas and other tribes, which leads us to postulate the unity of race of the early men of these islands and America. (See Secret Doctrine, II, 789 for further proofs).

Basing their ideas on such facts as these and also on Plato's story of Atlantis — the name given by him to the last island only, which was engulfed some 11,000 years ago — many reconstructions of the lost continent have been mapped out in recent years; but these give only an approximate idea of its size and shape, confined as they are to a small area of the Atlantic. Although the origin and development of the Fourth Race was at about the mid-point of the present ocean, the continent extended from the coast of Venezuela, across to North Africa and from Newfoundland nearly to the coast of France. And who can tell but what Lindbergh's air flight parallelled a well-known route on old land now buried beneath the water? Going still further back — how long, who can say? — when a tropical climate prevailed in the Arctic region, one could cross almost by dry land from Norway, via Iceland and Greenland, to the lands that now surround Hudson's Bay. This may account for the similarity between the artificial mounds in the United States and the tumuli in Norway, which have led some archaeologists to suggest that they were the work of Norwegian mariners who discovered America a thousand years ago under the leadership of Leif Ericson: a re-discovery rather, for no one knows the age either of the mounds or the tumuli.

But why did a Greek philosopher, 400 B.C. give the name Atlantis to the lost continent? It is not a Greek word, nor can it be referred to any known language of the Old World. The root of the word is found, however, in the Nahuatl (Mexican) tongue: atl signifies, among other things, water. From this comes a series of words, one of which is Atlan, the name of a town in Darien in existence when Columbus discovered America. Is it not very extraordinary to have found in aboriginal America a town called by a name which contains a purely local element, foreign to every other country, in the alleged fiction of Plato? — for until quite recently his story was considered a mere myth. The same may be said of the name America, says H. P. Blavatsky, which may one day be found more closely related to Meru, the sacred mount in the center of the seven continents, than to the name Amerigo Vespucci. Prof. Wilder thinks Vespucci would have been more likely to have used his surname if he had designed to give a title to the country. When first discovered America was found to bear among some native tribes the name Atlanta.

But how, on the basis of an Atlantis connection alone, are we to account for apparent similarities to the Chinese language among some American tribes, or between the cyclopean structures of Tiahuanaco and Easter Island? A Chinese writer referred to America, says H.P.B., when speaking of that "far distant land into which pious men and heavy storms had transferred the sacred doctrine." And she adds that this sacred doctrine of the land which was the cradle of physical man and of the Fifth Race had found its way into the so-called New World ages and ages before the "sacred doctrine" of Buddhism. But no doctrine is taken to a land without inhabitants. Who were these men, whose fossil remains even have never been exhumed; or if so, are believed to be comparatively recent? De la Vega, a native historian of Inca blood, states that "Masses of enormous human bones were found in America near Misorte precisely on the spot which local tradition points out as the landing of those giants who overran America when it had hardly risen from the waters." The natives believe that the massive buildings at Tiahuanaco were erected by giants. But there was, according to the Secret Doctrine, a western connection with India. The India of pre-historic times stretched into the Gobi desert and included Mongolia, where the yellow race was developed. Hence it was that a pedestrian going north might then have reached — hardly wetting his feet — the Alaskan peninsula through Manchuria, across the Gulf of Tartary, the Kurile and Aleutian Islands; while another traveller with a canoe and starting from the south, could have walked over from Siam, crossed the Polynesian Islands and trudged into any part of South America. Might not this account for the traditions of the Peruvians that their ancestors came from the south? In fact, De la Vega calls himself an Antarctic Indian. We know, too, that old Lemuria lay in the Antarctic region and remaining portions of it might easily have been adjacent to the southernmost part of South America.

A connection between India and America was always assumed. When Columbus set out on his voyage of discovery, he had in view a western route to India. Until the appearance of a map published at Basle in 1522, wherein the name of America appears for the first time, the latter was supposed to be a part of India. Why were the islands reached by Columbus called the West Indies, or how did the aborigines of America come by the name "Indians?" Did it just happen, or was there some natural cause for the application of an old name, just as pioneers today bring with them the names of localities from which they came, or speak of themselves as French or Germans although on American soil? At any rate, an identity is found in the names of certain "medicine men" and priests who exist to this day in Mexico, and East Indians. In Hindu works America is referred to as Patala, meaning the antipodes, and Arjuna, Krishna's disciple, is said to have descended to Patala and married a daughter of one of the Nagas, or Serpents of Wisdom. That must have been 5,000 years ago at least. There is a very curious statement in the Secret Doctrine (Vol. II, 132) about a race of Nagas, one thousand in number only, born or rather sprung from Kasyapa's wife, for the purpose of peopling this country. Was there a time, then, when Wise Men dwelt in America? And were these men Red Indians?

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna speaks of four castes distinguished by the color of their skin: Brahmas, white; Kshatriyas or warriors, red; Vaisyas or merchants, yellow; Sudras or servants, black. Some consideration of the colors of the different races might be suggestive in this connection. The Occultist does not accept the Biblical division of races as descendants of Shem, Ham and Japhet, yet recognizes but three entirely distinct primeval races whose evolution, formation and development followed parallel lines with the evolution, formation and development of three geological strata, namely black, red-yellow and the brown-white. Man was universally considered in antiquity as born of the earth, and such was the profane explanation of the term autochthones. For human complexion was as much derived from the earth as it was determined by climate. The light yellow was the color of the first solid race (the later Third). The Third gave birth to the Fourth, which became "black with sin;" this portion of humanity being gradually transformed into red-yellow (of whomthe Red Indians and the Mongolians are descendants), and finally into brown-white, the color of the Fifth Aryan Race. (S.D., II, 250, 424-425). So Arjuna and the race of Nagas must have been an Aryan infusion among a people which in course of time became a distinct type — Fourth Race Americans, known by the general name now of Red Indians. The Master, in a letter to Mr. Sinnett, states that the majority of people on the globe today belong to the seventh sub-race of the Fourth Race. There are now practically no pure races, unadulterated by admixtures of many different branches. There were brown, red, yellow, white and black Atlanteans, giants and dwarfs, for the term "Atlantean" covers an almost countless number of races and nations. And again, "In nearly every vulgarized popular fable from the Sanskrit Arya ... down to Adam, fashioned of 'red earth,' the genetical story has a deep occult meaning, and an indirect connection with the origin of man and of the subsequent races." Donnelly is responsible for saying that in later ages so desirous were the Egyptians of preserving the aristocratic distinction of the color of their skin that they represented themselves on the monuments as of a crimson hue — an exaggeration of their original race complexion. In this nation, however, as in others was a variety of peoples and colors. So it is but natural that in the dispersion of races from Atlantis, both before and as the continent was visited by cataclysmic disturbances and showed signs of sinking, some went east, locating on the shores of the Mediterranean and penetrating into the more remote regions of Asia, and some came west; and thus the same varieties of color obtained and still persist.

We can now understand how it was that the Spaniards in the Cibola expeditions met with white savage chiefs. The name "White Indians" was given to the Menominees once around Lake Michigan; many of the Zunis are almost white, with blue eyes and auburn hair; the Mandans are almost white, while their neighbors, the Crows, are very dark; the Dakotas are a shade lighter than olive. William Penn in a letter to a friend describes the tribes in Pennsylvania as being of "so lively a resemblance" to the Jews that "a man would think himself in Duke's Place or Berry Street in London where he seeth them." The Toltecs in Mexico resembled the Jews and, according to a native writer, are their descendants. The ancient Peruvians appear, from hair found in their tombs, to have been an auburn-haired race. Ferdinand Columbus, in the account of his father's voyage, compares the inhabitants of Guanaani to the Canary Islanders and describes the people of San Domingo as still more beautiful and fair. Donnelly concluded that there was no doubt but that red, white, black and yellow men had united to form the original population of America and said, "When science is able to disabuse itself of the theory that the aborigines of America are all red men, and all belong to one race, we may hope that the confluence upon the continent of widely different races from different countries may come to be recognized and intelligently studied." Many recent "authorities" still contend that there is but one general type of American Indian. We will remember Mr. Judge's statement in The Ocean of Theosophy (pp. 127-128) that by the method of mixture, precipitation and separation, Nature brings about the greatest perfection. The remotest ancestors of some of the inhabitants of the now miserable pueblo of Aclo — the former Atlan — were allied at one time as closely with the old Greeks and Romans as they were with the true inland Chinamen. Many Greek designs and forms of architecture are found in Central America. The Greeks as well as the Egyptians and the Phoenicians trace back to the last sub-race of Atlantis. Many tribes emigrated to lands which in course of time, owing to new geological convulsions, became islands. Being thus forcibly separated from larger centers of civilization, they gradually degenerated and fell into an abject and savage condition. (The student may supplement this sketch by turning to S.D., II, 743-745).

The passing of the Red Indians is not without sadness to them nor without a tremendous weight of Karma on the white races. Upon first meeting, the Indians were friendly and unsuspicious, and it was chiefly on account of the white man's treachery, plunder and cruelty, that their original attitude was changed to distrust and hatred. Preserving in their legends and holding many beliefs closer to fact than those current among their conquerors; observing many customs and ceremonies truer to Nature than those of the people to whom they became subject; forced to adopt ideas which in their hearts they rejected, they have watched the gradual encroachment upon their territory and abolition of their rights with resentment. Not so very many years ago, some Indians in the United States appealed to the great "White Father" in Washington for the possession of four small lakes, the petition being written on the tiny surface of a piece of fabric, covered with barely a dozen representations of animals and birds. This ideographic writing is the earliest mode of recording events and ideas. And how old this is may be inferred from some signs found on hatchets of the Palaeolithic period, which began hundreds of thousands of years ago. The American savages have a number of such kinds of writing. "As the chief element in the languages of the Fifth Race is the Aryan Sanskrit of the 'Brown-White' geological stock, so the predominating element in Atlantis was a language which has now survived but in the dialects of some American Red Indian tribes, and in the Chinese speech of the inland Chinamen ... a language which was an admixture of the agglutinative and the monosyllabic." (Five Years of Theosophy). All of those who have regarded the ideographs of the Red Indians and even the Chinese characters as "attempts of the early races to express their untutored thoughts," will be loath to accept the statement that writing was invented by the Atlanteans and not by the Phoenicians.

As the Fourth Race overlapped the Third, so the presence side by side of the Indians and the white man is witness of the overlapping of the Fifth and Fourth. Already there are indications that many red men have reincarnated among the white races, there to receive and work out their karmic relations. Nor are all these ties of hate, for many bonds of love and friendship have been cemented between the two peoples.

Pure Anglo-Saxons hardly three hundred years ago, the Americans of the United States have already become a nation apart and, owing to a strong admixture of various nationalities and inter-marriage, almost a race sui generis, mentally and physically. They are the germs of the sixth sub-race which is now forming here and which in some few hundred years more will become most decidedly the pioneers of that race which must succeed to the present European or Fifth sub-race. In about 25,000 years they will launch into preparations for the seventh sub-race, after which the Sixth Root Race will have appeared on the stage of our Round. When this will be who knows save the Masters of Wisdom? And they are as silent upon the subject as the snow-capped peaks that tower above them. All we know is that it will slowly and silently come into existence. But, do we think the future race will come about of itself, as tomorrow will succeed today, without any effort on our part? H.P.B. says, "It is the mankind of the New World whose mission and Karma it is to sow the seeds for a forthcoming, grander, and far more glorious Race than any we know of at present." If this prophecy is fulfilled, it will be due to the fact that the great object of the original Theosophical Society has been achieved by having established a real Universal Brotherhood, without distinction of race, creed, caste or color, because it will embrace all. And who will compose this race? Who, indeed, but ourselves and reincarnated Red, Yellow, Black, Brown, and White Men of all climes and ages.

"The Present is the Child of the Past; the Future, the begotten of the Present. And yet, O present moment! Knowest thou not that thou hast no parent, nor canst thou have a child; that thou art ever begetting but thyself? Thus, are the Past, the Present, and the Future, the ever-living trinity in one — the Mahamaya of the Absolute Is."

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 12, October, 1927 pp. 543-549

THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN

THE ancient glory of America is to be sought in Mexico, Central America and Peru. In impassable valleys or on inaccessible heights lie buried hundreds of once mighty cities without a name and lost even to the memory of man. Up to the time of the Spanish conquest the people of America were unknown, and thereafter the jealousy and suspicion of the conquerors created an effectual barrier between them and the outside world and precluded any scientific investigation. Even the enthusiastic accounts of Cortes and Pizarro and their armies of robbers and monks in regard to the wonderful cities they had found, were long discredited. Not until the beginning of the last century did the corroborative reports of travelers bring belated attention to the marvellous antiquities of these lands which, judging by the massiveness and durability of the architecture, equalled or surpassed the splendor of ancient Egypt.

In the basin of Lake Titicaca, nearly 13,000 feet above sea-level, are cyclopean ruins that have no counterpart on the American continent and no rival in kind on the face of the globe. Tradition ascribes them to giants who reared them in a night — five exiled brothers from "beyond the mounts," whom an angry deity turned to stone for refusing hospitality to his messenger. They worshipped the moon as their progenitor and lived before the "Sons and Virgins of the Sun." Likewise, the topes of India are attributed to the five Pandus of the Lunar race; hence the similarity between the Aryan and American tradition is obvious, and the Solar and Lunar races of the old world reappear in the new. The great doorway of the temple at Tiahuanacu is hewn out of a single block of rock 7 feet high, 13½ wide, and 1½ thick. The upper part of the massive portal is covered with symbolic figures. In the center is a head surrounded by solar rays, and in each hand a scepter suggestive of the body of a serpent, the ends of which terminate in heads of condors and tigers. Statues similar to those on Easter Island are still standing and another head indicates that the original figure must have been 18 feet high. Peru is covered with temples, mounds, pyramids, round towers, sun circles and monoliths inscribed with hieroglyphs which were as much of a mystery to the Incas as to us, proving that they were the work of a people who lived far anterior to our historical period. Madame Blavatsky says that however modern or ancient some of the American temples may seem, their mathematical proportions will be found to correspond with those of the Egyptian religious edifices and belong to the age of Hermes Trismegistus. In the Peruvian temples are the remains of artificial lakes, such as were found in the precincts of Karnak, of Nagon-Wat, and within the grounds of the temple at Copan and Santa Cruz del Quiche in Central America. In all is a similar disposition of court-yards, adyta, passages and steps, the whole being laid out with reference to cyclical calculations. If each of these was built by a different nation, none of whom had had intercourse with the other for ages, it is also certain that they were all planned and constructed under the supervision of priests who had been initiated into the same mysteries which were taught all over the world.

Many believe that the primitive Andean stock arrived from Atlantis on the shores of Brazil and, working its way by degrees up the Amazon, arrived at last in Peru; certainly migrations from both east and west were possible. When Dr. Schliemann was excavating the site of Troy, he found in the treasure house of Priam a beautifully wrought bronze of a design and shape hitherto unknown in Mediterranean countries, and this wonderful vase bore the inscription "From King Chronos of Atlantis." Ten years later in the Louvre he discovered its mate, but the latter came from the ruined temple of Tiahuanacu. Some idea of the antiquity of the pre-Inca civilization may be had from the fact that remains of pottery, ornaments and idols have been found at a depth of sixty-two feet under the guano. This Peruvian fertilizer has accumulated only a few lines within the past three hundred years; therefore, if we allow so much as an inch of this deposit in a century, we shall be carried back about 75,000 years, corresponding to the era of Osiris and Hermes in Egypt. From fossils of animals and plants that cannot exist above an elevation of 11,000 feet, it is inferred that in former times the Andes were much lower than at present, and some geologists claim that since their upheaval they have sunk three times beneath the ocean.

How many nations have had their rise and fall during all these millenniums we do not know, but at least five distinct types of architecture are found in Peru, the latest alone belonging to the Incas. H.P.B. observes that if the origin, development and final grouping of races are ever to be unravelled, we must begin by massing together the concrete imagery of the early thought, more eloquent in its stationary form than the verbal expression of the same which is but too liable to be distorted in inaccurate and inadequate renditions. The student of early American art, especially of that in Mexico and Central America, must learn to read symbols, for it is largely representative — not so much a portrayal of human, animal, or supposedly divine forms, but of ideas. On the famous Chavin stone (in Markham's Incas of Peru), the author remarks that everything seems to have an intention or meaning.¹

In the absence of historical data we are obliged to fall back upontradition. According to the latter there was a time when the inhabitants of the New World were broken up into warring tribes. At last the Highest Deity, the Sun, taking pity upon them, sent his two children, Manco Ccapac and his wife and sister, Mama Ocllo,² to instruct them in the arts of civilization and peace. This divine couple made their appearance on the sacred island in Lake Titicaca and from there proceeded on their mission as far as Cuzco, the site of the later Inca capital. Manco is the South American Manu, and from him the Incas claimed descent. The Aymaras also claimed him as their instructor and founder of their civilization, but neither could prove the fact and neither knew anything about the ancient megalithic people. The sacred island was the Mecca of the Peruvians; but no one could enter the consecrated shrine until he had undergone a period of fasting and purification and passed the Three Portals (places of trial) that led thereto.

Montecinos gives a long list of kings that extends back to 900 B.C. In the reign of the sixty-second Inca, who ruled about the time of Christ, he says that there was a great invasion from the south, that the king was defeated and fled with a handful of followers to a place called Tampu-Tocco, the place or Temple of Three Windows. Here something of the former culture was preserved and also the ancient religion, which elsewhere was degraded, and the people fell into a more or less barbarous state. The Indians, evidently to mislead the Spaniards, said that Tampu-Tocco was south of Cuzco; but in 1911 Prof. Hiram Bingham discovered a very remarkable and almost inaccessible megalithic city near Machu Picchu, northwest of Cuzco, which alone answers to the description of the Incas' refuge, and where were exhumed all the indicia of the Mysteries.³ After some five or six centuries, under the leadership of the Ayar Manco and his three brothers, some of the tribes set forth to seek new territory. Manco is said to have carried a golden wand or wedge, and where the soil should be found so fertile that the wand would sink its entire length into the soft earth, there was to be the new city. This marvel occurred at Cuzco, in 565 A.D. according to Montecinos, but nearer 1100 A.D. in the opinion of modern historians. On the way Manco is said to have disposed of his three brothers, which Garcilasso interprets as symbolical of his laying aside those ideas and habits that belong to a purely "rational life." The Ayar Manco claimed to be a "Child of the Sun," and his golden wand, sometimes connected with the first Manco Ccapac, was undoubtedly another symbolical mark of his rank. It is a curious fact that the word Manco has no meaning in the Inca language, nor has the word Ayar, which Señor Lopez thinks may be the Sanscrit word, Ajar, meaning "primitive chief." Ccapac means "rich," but as a title signifies rich in the possession of those qualifications requisite for rulers, eleven of whom took it. However mythical and indefinite this information, it is obvious that there was a line of great instructors and leaders in Peru, who appeared from time to time as necessity or opportunity arose.

Inca is the Quichua word for emperor and the name of the aristocratic caste among the Peruvians. To the reigning Inca the blindest obedience was given; his person was sacred and he was the object of divine honors. The highest officers of the land could not appear shod in his presence, a custom pointing to oriental origin. All the statesmen of the land were of the Inca class, the high priest generally being a brother or near relative of the king. As children of the Sun, they wore on their breasts plates of gold about five inches in diameter representing the deity. The practice of boring the ears of the youth of royal blood and inserting in them golden rings, increasing in size as the men advanced in rank, bears a strong resemblance to the images of Buddha, and won for the nobles the title of Orejones, or great-eared people. Beginning probably with Pachacuti, the custom was established of marrying their sisters, as with the Copts in Egypt, so that a peculiar race might be and was produced, far superior to the average Peruvian.

As direct descendants of the sun, the list of Inca sovereigns begins with the Deity, called Illa Tici Uira-cocha, often shortened to Viracocha. Illa means "light;" Tici, "foundation" or the beginning of things; Uira, possibly a corruption of Pirua, which means "storehouse;" Cocha, "lake," but in this connection "abyss" — that is, the primeval waters of space. To this combination was occasionally added the word Yachachic, meaning "teacher." These names were not invented by the Incas who had them from earlier times. In four words are expressed the ideas connected with the beginning of a period of manifestation, based on the "storehouse" of a prior cycle of evolution. And who is the "teacher" but Ishwara? — "the preceptor of all, even of the earliest of created beings," says Patanjali. The first recorded king whose deity is thus described was Pirua Paccari Manco. One writer translates Pirua as "Revealer of Light." Although etymological deductions are often erroneous, we cannot fail to note in this name the root Pir. The Greek equivalent is pyr, as found in our words pyre and pyramid, which Plato construed as fire-mountain. Paccari is the word for the dawn. So it seems warrantable to believe that Pirua Paccari Manco was the seed (storehouse) Manu, the spiritual ancestor and Elder Brother of the Incas. The name Viracocha was assumed by two of the Incas. One of them when a prince was banished by his father and sent to tend the flocks on the desolate Andean heights. Here Viracocha, the deity, appeared to him as an old man and warned him of impending danger to the realm. The prince told his father about the vision, but the latter paid no attention to the prophecy, which soon came true; and had it not been for the courage and leadership of the son, the Peruvians would have been defeated. Afterwards the people proclaimed the youth Inca, who in gratitude to Viracocha, built a temple to the deity and took his name.

It is very difficult to obtain a correct idea of the beliefs of the Peruvians. We need to remember that they had no written language. Historical events and ideas were painted on boards and there was a class of wise men, Amautas, who instructed the pupils in the schools, taught them the use of the quipus, passed on their knowledge and the memory of by-gone events and interpreted these pictorial representations. Some of the latter were translated into Spanish, with the help of natives; but when we consider the difficulties involved, their transcription by ignorant scribes, and the prejudice and fanaticism of the Spanish historians of the time, it is not strange that so much confusion and contradiction arise. Nevertheless Theosophy is the key that fits into the fragments that have been preserved and opens for us a glimpse into the Wisdom-Religion of these American Children of the Sun.

Behind the Deity already named was the Supreme Spirit, to which a temple was erected at Cuzco apart from the temple of the sun, and which was represented in the latter by an oval of gold above that of the sun deity. Nine prayers have come down to us in which there is a plaintive cry for a knowledge of the Unknowable, exceedingly touching in its simplicity. This recognition of the "Unknowable" was without doubt confined to the highest class. There has been a common, but perhaps erroneous idea that Pachacamac was the Supreme Deity. Pacha means "earth," and camac, "maker" or "moulder," so evidently he was one of the "Creators." He is said to have provided all things, plants and animals, with souls by the mere exercise of his will. In his famous temple there was an idol which gave out oracles and was consulted by people from far and near. It seems likely that the coast people had degraded the primitive religion of megalithic times into a system of soothsaying and sorcery, and that here prevailed one of the downward "moon cycles," or spiritualism. A legend connected with Pachacamac is, however, not without significance. After the deluge, of which many versions occur in South America, the prehistoric town of Tiahuanacu was regarded as the seat of a new creation. Here the creator made man out of clay, painted the dresses of each nation with a particular color, endowed them with language, furnished them with food and seeds, and then commanded them to enter the bowels of the earth (physical birth?), whence they came upward in the places he ordered them to go. Seven classes of Incas thus repeopled the earth, as in the Puranic allegories.

As the father of the Inca was the sun, all the populace worshipped the visible luminary. There was also a secondary worship of the moon, thunder and lightning (Jupiter?), and the dawn, represented by the morning star, Chasca (Venus). Each family had its household god, like the Romans, while all the families of a tribus had their common ancestor or ancestral god, which by uniting great numbers in blood relationship, fostered the community spirit and kept the village system on a very firm basis. Markham speaks of the curious belief in a spiritual essence of all things, that is, the astral counterpart or mother. Every household had its Sara Mama or maize mother, to which prayers and sacrifices were made. In like manner there was a Llama Mama for the flocks. The spirit of the earth, Pacha Mama, was a special object of adoration. Figures of llamas were made with a cavity in their backs into which the sacrificial offerings were placed and then buried in the fields, a custom which persists to this day. The offerings were chica, spirits, and coca, those things which the poor husbandmen loved best. In the special sacrifices which came to be generally observed, the sacrificer said to his god, "What I love best to Thee I give." The custom prevailed among all the North American Indians of giving up that which was truly most prized. Human sacrifice, so revoltingly common in Mexico and Central America, was exceedingly rare in Peru. Valera declares there was a law against it which was strictly observed. He admits that Huahua, or children, and Yuyucs, or adults, were sacrificed, but explains that by the former were meant lambs, and by the latter, full-grown llamas. At the greatest of the Raymi festivals, beginning on the 22nd of December (the summer solstice in Peru), Prescott says the new fire was kindled by means of a concave mirror of polished metal, which concentrated the rays of the sun upon a quantity of cotton and set it on fire.⁴ If the sun was obscured, the fire was produced by friction. This sacred flame was entrusted to the Virgins of the Sun, and if through any neglect they allowed it to go out during the year, the event was regarded as a great calamity.

At Cuzco was the famous temple of the sun, approached by a series of enchanting terraces, filled with marvellous designs wrought in silver and gold. The very drain pipes and garden utensils were of solid silver, and the inner and outer walls of the temple were covered with sheets of gold. So splendid were the surroundings that the entire quarter was called the Coricancha, or City of Gold. Within the temple was a huge plaque of gold upon which was depicted the face of the deity, so placed that the beams of the morning sun fell upon it and bathed it in a flood of almost unbearable radiance. The atmosphere of mysterious splendor was enhanced by the presence of the magnificently attired mummies of thirteen royal Incas grouped around the altar-piece. This object fell as booty to a Spanish gambler who lost it on a single throw of the dice. In the adjoining temple of the moon, the mummies of the queens were similarly disposed. Mummification was general throughout Peru, the methods employed being practically the same as those in Egypt. The similarities between the customs of these two countries have been too often commented upon to need repetition, and have led to much speculation as to possible intercourse between them. The common center in Atlantis from which colonists to both the old world and the new migrated, and the diffusion of a common knowledge among the Adepts of every country sufficiently account for the likeness.

Works of public utility such as cyclopean walls, fortifications, irrigation systems extending for hundreds of miles, reservoirs, bridges and exquisitely paved roads covering the land as with a net, attest to the greatness of the civilization. As in Egypt, enormous blocks of the hardest stone weighing many tons were moved miles from the place where quarried and fitted together with such nicety that the point of a needle cannot be inserted between them. Garcilasso speaks of the "Tired Stone," weighing a thousand tons, half way up the slope, never having been moved to its intended position. In Cuzco is the famous stone of twelve corners, fitted perfectly into the wall of which it forms a part. Did these ancient masons know that the universe is built on the plan of a twelve-sided figure? Agriculture was an art among the Peruvians. Their stair-case farms must have been much more spectacular than the hanging gardens of Babylon, for some of the banks consisted of as many as fifty terraces, each ten feet high. The annual recurrenceof agricultural events, such as the preparation of the soil, sowing and harvest, all dependent upon the calendar, were the occasion of festivals, partly of a religious nature, in which the Inca and nobles took part. For calculating the solstices and equinoxes stone columns were devised, called Intihuatana — literally, "the place where the sun is tied up." Inti was originally the name of the familiar spirit of Manco Ccapac in the form of a falcon,⁵ and finally came to be applied to the sun as a deity. As the giver of daylight, the sun was called Punchau or Lupi. The moon, as a deity, was Pasca Mama, but as planet, its name was Quilla. Here we see the Peruvians distinguishing between physical bodies and their ensouling intelligence, or deity.

The government of the Incas was an inexorable, yet withal beneficent despotism. Their necessarily complicated system worked without friction and almost automatically, as instanced by a soldier of the conquest. One of its features was that when any calamity overtook a particular district, another was assigned to bring aid. When the Spanish massacred the inhabitants, burnt the dwellings, and destroyed the crops in one district, the soldier saw the right people come from the right district to aid the sufferers, help rebuild the dwellings and resow the crops. The condition of the people, though one of tutelage and dependence, secured for them a large amount of material comfort and happiness and want was unknown. Convincing testimony of the merits of the Incal government is given by another soldier. At the close of his life, troubled with regrets and full of remorse, he left a "legacy of truth" to the King of Spain, in which he says:

"The Incas governed in such a way that in all the land neither a thief, nor a vicious man, nor a bad, dishonest woman was known. The men all had honest and profitable employment. The woods and mines and all kinds of property were so divided that each man knew what belonged to him, and there were no lawsuits. Crimes were so little known among them that an Indian with 100,000 pieces of gold in his house left it open, placing only a little stick across the door as the sign that the master was out, and nobody went in! But when they saw that we placed locks and keys on our doors, they understood that it was from fear of thieves, and when they saw that we had thieves amongst us, they despised us. Your Majesty must understand that my reason for making this statement is to relieve my conscience, for we have destroyed this people by our bad example."

The whole territory was divided into three parts: one for the Sun, one for the Inca, and the last for the people, which was equally shared among them and reassigned annually. The land was cultivated wholly by the people, that of the Sun being first attended to. That of the old, the sick, and those in any way disabled came next. Then, each man was allowed to till his own ground, but always under the general obligation to assist his neighbor if the latter was unable to help himself. Lastly, they cultivated the land of the Inca. Thus the ordinary Peruvian was born and brought up to devote himself first of all to the interests of others. The right performance of duty was the paramount consideration in life. Idleness was unknown and punishable by law. There seems to have been little stimulus to ambition or to rise above one's fellows, for a man could not step outside his caste. Markham says "the Inca government finds a close affinity in the theories of modern socialists ... being the single instance of such realization in the world's history." The system points to oriental origin and to a primary ideal aiming to harmonize the life of man with the life and laws of great nature. The "Highest Deity," the Sun, is the chief exemplar of regularity, law, and hence of the performance of duty, and is the regulator and setter of man's duties. The Masters, the highest exemplars on earth, live a life of unswerving duty to mankind. Krishna says if he were not indefatigable in the performance of right action, all creatures would perish. Had the Children of the Sun been faithful in the carrying out of their duties as wards of the people, they would never have been conquered, and what new and glorious possibilities might have been developed from the general scheme of their system, who can say? But however fallen from their former greatness the later Incas, their rule was infinitely superior to that of their conquerors. The Spaniards, by imposing dogmatic Christianity upon the survivors, brought about a condition of degradation that bears no comparison to the "pagan" state they destroyed.

The wealth of the Incas was enormous and much of it is still in existence though concealed. At the time Atahualpa was captured, enough gold was demanded for his release to fill to the roof the house in which he was held prisoner. A train of 10,000 llamas loaded with the amount necessary was arrested in the Andes upon the report of the unfortunate man's murder and the treasure so effectually concealed that not a trace of it has ever been found. "The Weird Tale," by Mr. Judge,⁶ informs us that such hiding places are known to the Adepts, who are obliged at certain seasons of the year to guard the subterranean passages leading thereto. In Isis Unveiled (Vol. I, pp. 595-598) Madame Blavatsky speaks of having in her possession a plan of the tunnel extending from Cuzco to Lima and thence into Bolivia, which is filled with the accumulations of many generations of Incas, the aggregate value of which is incalculable.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 16, No. 1, November, 1927 pp. 23-31

¹ The reader is referred to reproductions found in numerous books of travel in Peru; also to "The Land of Mystery," Vol. III, p. 561, and Vol. IV, pp. 13, 84, 129, Theosophy.

² The counterparts of Osiris and Isis in Egypt.

³ See The National Geographic, April, 1913.

⁴ There was a similar use of mirrors by Numa, in early Roman days.

⁵ Connote the hawk of Horus, symbol of the sun.

⁶ Theosophy, Vol. IV, 314.

THE FEATHERED-SERPENT

UNDER the distinctively American name and symbol of the Feathered-Serpent are to be found the Great Teachers of Mexico and Central America. Who has not heard of the "Fair God," whose promise to come again led the Mexicans to believe Cortes was the returning Quetzalcoatl? There may be patriot souls in that country who still look for his coming and long for the time when the feathered-serpent will replace the Christian cross. Quetzal is the name of the paradise bird and coatl, the word for serpent. Its Maya equivalent is Kukul-Can, and Gucumatz in the Quiche dialect of the Popol Vuh. When appeared American civilization under the protection of the Feathered-Serpent is a much debated question. Augustus Le Plongeon endeavored to prove that Egyptian civilization had its inception among the Mayas and Quiches 11,500 years ago. Although the first part of his thesis is incorrect, Madame Blavatsky says the Mayas were coeval with Plato's Atlantis. Did they come from Atlantis? Although not allowing so long a residence here — a fact which might reverse their conclusions — Spence and many others believe Maya civilization did not develop on American soil, but that the people came with a full-blown culture, a mature art, architecture and religion, and a system of writing passing from the hieroglyphic into the phonetic stage. The cradle of the race seems to have been along the head waters of the Usumacinta river and the Rio Grande in Guatemala and in that part of Chiapas which slopes down from the steep Cordilleras. One tradition refers both to an eastern and a western immigration; the eastern under Itzamna, whose people founded, among other cities, the famous Chi-chen Itza which preserves the memory of their rule. A curious reminder of Atlantis is found in the statue of the "Choc-Mool," the sandals upon whose feet are exact representations of those found on the feet of the Guanches of the Canary Islands. The western immigration was under the leadership of Quetzalcoatl, considered as both god and man, the first ruler of the Toltecs, and ruler in Maya centers as well.

The origin of the Toltecs is variously given. Some identify them with the populations in Guatemala and also in Yucatan, whither the Mayas later removed, from which it has been inferred that the Mayas and the Toltecs were one people. Ixtlilchochitl, a native chronicler, represents them as coasting down Lower California and Mexico, arriving at a place called Tlapallan in 378 A.D. Turning inland they finally settled on the site of the modern Tula and built Tollan, the city from which they took their name. Here they erected temples and palaces, the walls of which were incrusted with rare red and black stones. Some think this is reminiscent of Atlantean architecture in which white, red and black stones were decoratively combined, and that Tlapallan — the traditional home of Quetzalcoatl, the "land of black and red stones," generally translated "the land of writing" because the Mayas used both red and black inks — was in Atlantis. According to the son of the last king of the Quiches, the Toltecs are descendants of the Israelites who, after crossing the Red Sea and separating from their companions, under the guidance of a chief named Tanub, set out wandering from one continent to another until they came at last to a place named Seven Caverns, in Mexico, and founded Tula. A famous Toltecan king bore the biblical appellation of Balam Acan; the first name being preeminently Chaldean. Besides the striking similarity between the language of the Aztecs and Hebrew, many of the figures on the bas-reliefs of Palenque and the idols in terra cotta exhumed in Santa Cruz del Quiche have head-gear similar to the phylacteries worn by the Pharisees of old and even by the Jews of Poland and Russia today. H.P.B. says the time will undoubtedly come when some of the people in these countries will be traced back to the Phoenicians and the Jews. That various migrating tribes met to form a heterogeneous population prior to and after the first millennium before Christ — a reasonably assumed historical date — is without a shadow of doubt.

A book in the language of the Quiches of Guatemala, said to have been written by Votan, a local name for Quetzalcoatl, was at one time in the possession of the Bishop of Chiapas, who introduced portions of it into his own work. In this book Votan declares that at the express command of the Lord he came to the New World to apportion the land among seven families which he brought with him. Leaving the land of Valum Chivim, he passed the dwelling of Thirteen Snakes and arrived in Valum Votan, where he founded the great city of Nachan (City of Snakes) thought to be none other than Palenque. From a date found on a stela at Palenque, it appears to have been founded in 15 B.C.; however, it may have been built on the site of an older city. Votan made four trips to the East and on one occasion is said to have visited King Solomon, to whom he gave valuable particulars about the mysterious continent, but no clue as to how it might be reached. In narrating his expedition, Votan describes a subterranean passage which terminated at the "root of heaven," adding that it was a "snake's hole," and that he was admitted to it because he was a "son of the snakes," that is, an Initiate. (See Isis Unveiled, Vol. I, 545-554). Upon his return he built a temple by the Huehuetan river, known from its underground chambers as "The House of Darkness." The Bishop says that "to this day there is always a clan in the city of Teopesa which call themselves Votans. It is related that he tarried in Huehueta and that there he placed a tapir and a great treasure in a subterranean house, which he built by the breath of his nostrils, and he appointed a woman as chieftain, with tapianes to guard her. This treasure consisted of jars which were closed with covers of the same clay, and of a room in which the pictures of the ancient heathens who are in the calendar were engraved in stone, together with the chalchiuites (small green stones) and other superstitious images; and the chieftainess and the tapianes, her guardians, surrendered all these things which were publicly burned in the market place at Huehueta when we inspected the aforesaid province in 1691." Quetzalcoatl is always represented with the nose of the tapir, the title (tapianes) also of the guardians of the treasure. It is perfectly clear that a line of Votans, priests of Quetzalcoatl who took his name, existed for hundreds, perhaps for thousands of years. Many and various are the legends of the Feathered-Serpent. He is the son of a virgin, sent into the world to save mankind; connected also with earthquake, deluge and wind. The Lord of the Wind, Tonacatecutli, when it seemed good to him, breathed and created Quetzalcoatl. He is also the son of "the Very Old One," Citinatonali, creator of heaven and earth and mankind — the "dragon" from which the earth was made when it rose out of the sea.

Although there is hardly a single cultural or social custom whose origin was not referred to Quetzalcoatl, he is to be especially remembered in connection with the planet Venus, the Maya calendar and Maya writing. According to one legend, his mission completed, he departed eastward, and on reaching the sea put off his feather dress and turquoise snake-mask and immolated himself upon a funeral pyre, his heart becoming the planet Venus. As god of the morning star, he bore the calendrical name of Ce Acatl, one of the dates marking the periodical return of Venus. Dr. Spinden, of Harvard, states that the first definite date in the history of the New World is Aug. 6, 613 B.C., when the Mayas began to give each day its consecutive number, and that the Venus calendar was put in final working order between two risings of Venus as morning star in conjunction with the summer solstices of 538 B.C. and 530 B.C., and he believes Quetzalcoatl was made god of the morning star for solving a problem in astronomy. At all events, the Maya adepts were astronomers and the round towers were probably their observatories. In the Dresden Codex are computations involving about 34,000 years, and 405 revolutions of the moon are set down. Writing was supposed to be the joint production of Quetzalcoatl and two very old gods — might we not suppose of Atlantean origin? Bishop Landa, after having destroyed nearly all the manuscripts, was struck with a late compunction of conscience and endeavored to get all possible knowledge regarding Maya writing from the scribes, who in the main misinformed him. About one-third of the hieroglyphs have been deciphered by the help of the Books of Chilan Balam, transcripts of more ancient works in the Maya tongue but in Spanish characters, made by some of the educated natives after the Conquest. Dr. Morley has contributed to the National Geographic, of February, 1922, a most valuable article on Maya writing, with illustrations which include a reproduction of the tablet from the Temple of the Cross at Palenque and an initiation ceremony in which the tongue of the neophyte is being pierced with a spiked rope — indicative, we may think, of the silence and secrecy imposed upon the Adept. An interest in the art forms of these "Greeks of America," as they have aptly been called, might well be stimulated, and signs are not wanting that in the future development of American art, these native and unique designs will be reproduced and expanded.

Quetzalcoatl carried a wand resembling the rod of Moses, by which the latter lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and representations of the lifting up of serpents frequently occur in Mexican paintings. To his care also was confided the Holy Envelope, concealing the divinity from human gaze, from which he alone received the instructions for the guidance of his people. The reign of Quetzalcoatl was the golden age of the Toltecs. Maize was plentiful and cotton grew in all colors, needing not to be dyed. But this blissful state could not forever endure. He is said to have excited the envy of Tezcatlipoca, who presented himself in the guise of physician to the Fair God, supposed to be ailing, and gave him a beverage which it was claimed would restore him to health and prepare him for the long journey decreed by fate. The departure of Quetzalcoatl marks the downfall of the Toltecs before the rising tide of the warlike Aztecs, hastened, too, by the increasing practice of human sacrifice, which Quetzalcoatl endeavored in vain to suppress, urging the substitution of fruit or flowers or treasured possession, and the sacrifice of themselves, not others.

Sir James Fraser has shown that upon the physical vigor of ancient kings was thought to depend the success of the community in agriculture, and that failure of crops implied the sacrifice of the impotent monarch or his rejuvenation by a magic elixir. Tezcatlipoca is recorded as saying to Quetzalcoatl that in Tillan Tlapallan "another old man awaits thee; you shall speak together and return as a youth, yea, even as a boy." It is evident that the Adepts of Quetzalcoatl made periodical journeys to the East, and were in touch with the Great Lodge whose members possess the secret of the real Elixir of Life, the exoteric interpretation of which led so many adventurers, like Ponce de Leon, to seek for an earthly Fountain of Youth. In later times Cholula was the great center of the worship of Quetzalcoatl, and his great pyramid there, covering over forty-five acres, was regarded with particular veneration, even by the Aztec conquerors. The Aztecs were late comers to Mexico, arriving there about the 8th century of our era, though not settling in the plateau of Mexico until the 13th, when they founded Tenochtitlan, the site of the present Mexican capital. They had many traditions of having dwelt "on a great water," in a region called Aztlan, and of coming here in four tribes.

Of the Mexican pantheon of thirteen gods, the chief was Tezcatlipoca, corresponding to Jupiter, worshipped by all the Nahua (Mexican) tribes. His special symbol was a fiery mirror, in which he saw all that occurred on earth, for one of his functions was to distribute rewards and punishments. He is often shown with bandaged eyes. Uitzilopochtli was the god of war, whom his mother conceived from a ball of down which fell from heaven upon her bosom. She was the great earth goddess, whose skirt was woven of serpents, indicated by her name, Coatlicue. Tlaloc was the god of rain, to whom in periods of drought were sacrificed the most beautiful maidens in the City of the Sacred Well, discovered by Edward Thompson. This gentleman's haunting memories finally impelling him to buy a large tract of land including the well and returning to Chi-chen Itza to live, is an interesting evidence in favor of reincarnation. Xiuhtecuhtli, the Lord of Fire, of exceedingly ancient origin, was the fire existing even before the sun or moon. He dwelt in the navel of the earth where volcanic fires have their origin and also above in a kind of cloud castle. He is called "He who entereth the blue stone pyramid." "The ancient God, the Father and Mother of all Gods," runs an Aztec prayer, "is the God of Fire, which is in the center of the court with four walls, and which is covered with gleaming feathers like unto wings." In the great temple of Mexico City the inextinguishable fire was kept burning at the time of the Conquest. It is said that when all was dark, Tezcatlipoca transformed himself into the sun to give light to men. After the destruction of this sun, Quetzalcoatl became the second sun; Tlaloc, the third; and Quetzalcoatl's wife, the fourth. The present sun, Tonatiuh, is destined to conclude with an earthquake. Once created, the sun had to have nourishment and various gods sacrificed themselves that he might obtain sustenance from their hearts and blood. Prof. Joyce maintains that war in Mexico was mainly of a ceremonial nature, undertaken for the purpose of obtaining prisoners for sacrifice to sustain the sun, and not primarily with the intention of inflicting mortal injury upon the foe. He says that rites which in appearance were crude and savage bore for them a symbolical meaning which transformed, if it did not excuse, their barbarity. When we consider the thousands daily sacrificed in the temples at the time of the Conquest, it is clear that the idea of sacrifice had been horribly perverted and was the great karmic cause of their overthrow. Death by sacrifice was considered the normal ending of the warrior and ensured for him entrance into the paradise of the sun; neither was death greatly feared, for it was but little more than an incident in the continuity between this life and the next. The recurring periods of Venus were connected with the return of the reincarnating Egos. This planet, like the Egyptian Osiris, is represented as a mummy, and the Mexicans held a kind of Feast of All Souls, at which the people danced around a mummy hoisted on the top of a pole.

Mictlan (Kama-loka) the underworld and home of Mictlanteculi, consisted of nine spheres, above which were the thirteen heavens. Tlalocan was the Mexican Devachan (apparently one of the thirteen divisions) where the dead enjoyed a temporary period of bliss. Those dying of old age had a difficult four-year journey before reaching the river of Hades, to swim across which the aid of a red dog was needed. Children were admitted to a special paradise where they flitted from flower to flower in the form of humming birds. The Codex Vaticanus A bears so close a resemblance to the Egyptian Pert-Em-Hru that it has been called "The Mexican Book of the Dead." In its pages the corpse is depicted as dressed for burial, the soul, like the Egyptian Ba, escaping from the mouth. The deceased is ushered into the presence of Tezcatlipoca by a priest in an ocelot skin, just as the Egyptian was brought before Osiris, and stands naked with a wooden yoke about his neck to receive judgment. He then has to undergo the tests which precede entrance to the abode of the dead.

The Mexicans had a perfect calendar system, but instead of adding one day in four years, as we do, they added thirteen days every fifty-two years. At midnight of the closing cycle, determined by observation of the Pleiades, the high priest kindled the new fire, at which representatives from the surrounding cities lighted their torches; these were rapidly carried to the chief temple in each city, and from the temples the new fire was taken into the homes. Old garments were discarded, old household utensils broken, and there was general rejoicing because of the deliverance of the world from destruction. The memory of a great cataclysm seemed ever present and fear lest at the close of one of the fifty-two year cycles the earth might once more come to an end. In their flood legend, Tezcatlipoca had warned Nata and his wife Nana of the approaching deluge and commanded them to hollow out a cypress tree and enter it. "And this year was that of Cecalli, and on the first day all was lost."

The American pyramids are terraced mounds of earth, cased on the outside with stone or cement, the whole serving as a substructure for the temple on top, reached by a stairway on one or more of its sides. In the chief cities were pyramids both to the sun and the moon, and some recognition of other planets and of the Pleiades, frequent reference to which points to a memory of the destruction of Atlantis, with which this group of stars is particularly associated. The pyramid of the sun at Teotihuacan is very similar in interior arrangement to the great pyramid of Cheops. The seven-terraced pyramid at Papantlan has three stairways leading to the top, the steps of which are decorated with hieroglyphical sculptures and 318 small niches. 318 is the Gnostic number of Christ and the famous number of the servants of Abraham. The beautiful temple at Mitla had extensive subterranean chambers, as most temples undoubtedly had. Many of these are still in use as proved by Gregory Mason's account of a recent expedition to Yucatan. He and Dr. Spinden were very anxious to visit two cities where they had heard of temples but were firmly refused permission to go because they were being used. The Mexican general told them that their visit to the Subterranean chambers at Muyil was particularly disliked but, casting a covetous eye on his double-barrelled shotgun said, "Perhaps if you come back next year, I can let you see the cities you ask for." Mason plans to return with an automatic shotgun. He might do well to read what H.P.B. has to say of the "Phantom City." A native priest told her that when he was a young man he climbed up some ten or twelve thousand feet where he overlooked a plain extending toward Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico and saw a great city with turrets white and glittering in the sun. It is said that the people there speak the Maya language and will murder any white man who attempts to enter their territory. It is barely possible that messengers go to and from this mysterious city and help to keep alive something of the ancient faith among a subject people, who still have their secret meeting places and perform simple rites by which the power of the sun and of Montezuma is recognized, as well as the power of the Feathered-Serpent, to whom, by order of Montezuma, they are to look for life.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 16, No. 2, December, 1927 pp. 70-76

THE POPOL VUH

THE Popol Vuh was composed by a native of Guatemala in the 17th century from traditions handed down by the priests of the Feathered-Serpent, and translated from the Quiche (a dialect of Maya) into Spanish by Francisco Ximenez. This work attracted the attention of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, who in turn translated it into French, and it is his rendition that writers of English have used as the basis of their studies.¹ Popolis the word for the assembly of the nobles and hence has sometimes been called The Book of the Holy Assembly, identical in title with one of the books of the Kabbalah. In the introduction to the original manuscript, however, the unknown author states that since the "Word of God" has been promulgated, hereafter during the cycle of Christianity, the Book of the Azure-green Veil is no longer to be seen, in which it could be clearly perceived that it had come from the further shore of the sea; which Book has been called "The Record of Human Existence in the Overshadowing World, and How Man Saw Light and Life." It is divided into four parts, treating respectively of Creation, the Mysteries, Civilization, and the Priesthood. It introduces us at once to four creative gods, "sung and celebrated" under nine names, collectively called the Feathered-Serpent, making ten in all; and these are divided into two hosts, the solar and lunar, called twice great father of the sun and twice great mother of the moon.

Chapter one begins: "This is the First Book written of old, but the perception of it is hidden from him who looks with his eyes and who thinks with his brain. Marvellous is both its appearance, and its recital of the times in which was completed the formation of all that is in the heavens and on the earth, the making symmetrical and the quadrangulation of its signs, the measure of its angles, their alignment, and the establishment of parallels on the heavens and on the earth, at the four cardinal points." It then proceeds to narrate how everything was in latency, and void was the immensity of space. All was immobility and silence, in the darkness, in the night; only the Creator, the Former, the Dominator, the Feathered-Serpent, they-who-engender, they-who-give-being, hovered over the water as a dawning light. They are enveloped in green and azure: that is why their name is Gucumatz (Feathered-Serpent). Of the greatest sages is their being. Then came his Word with the Dominator and the Feathered-Serpent; and they consulted together and meditated, and while they consulted, it became day. And at the moment of the dawn, Man manifested himself,² while they, in the darkness and in the night, were holding counsel upon the production and growth of trees and creeping vines, of sentient beings and humanity, by him who is the Heart of the Heavens, whose name is Hurakan.³ Lightning is the first sign of Hurakan; the second, the path-of-the-lightning; the third is the thunderbolt. And these three are the Heart of the Heavens.

Thus, of a truth, the Creation took place, and the Earth was spoken into being. "Earth!" cried they, and instantly it took form. Like a mist or cloud was its beginning. Then the mountains rose up out of the water. Only by a magical power could that be performed which had been meditated upon as to the shadowing forth of the mountains and valleys, and at the same time the cypress and the pine appeared. Then was the Gucumatz filled with joy, crying out: "Blessed be thy coming, O Hurakan! Our work and our labor has accomplished its end." The earth then was covered with various forms of animal life. And the Creator and Former said to the animals: "Speak now our name!" But the animals could not speak as a man. Then said their Makers: "Our glory is not yet perfect, since ye cannot invoke us. Dens and food shall ye have, but as to your flesh, it shall be eaten. This is your destiny."

Again there is counsel in heaven. "Let us try again; let us make them who are to be our vehicles and nourishers." So the Creators determined to make man. Of red earth they moulded his flesh; but when they had made him, they saw it was not good. He was without coherence, strengthless, inept, watery; he had been endowed with speech, but he had no intelligence; and straightway he was consumed in the water without being able to stand upright.⁴ Again the gods took counsel. It was decided to make man of the wood of the tzite cork-tree, and woman of the marrow of the zibac (willow);⁵ but the result was in no wise satisfactory — they were merely wooden mannikin. And these are the people who inhabit the surface of the earth. They existed and multiplied, but had neither heart nor intelligence, nor memory of their Creators. They led a useless life and lived like the animals. They were but an attempt at men. Because they had not directed their thoughts to the Heart of the Heavens, the face of the earth grew dark, and a dismal rain began to fall. Then came the nature sprites, big and little, and the animals that had formerly served them, to torment them; even their utensils took shape and voice to add to their misery. Then the men ran hither and thither in despair. They sought refuge upon the house-tops, but the houses crumbled beneath them; they tried to climb the trees, but the trees shook them down; they attempted to enter the caverns, but the caverns closed before them.⁶ Thus was accomplished the destruction of these creatures, save a few of their descendants who now exist in the woods as little apes.⁷

Now there existed upon the earth a race of Titans, the first of whom was Vukub-cakix (Seven-macaws) by name.⁸ He was surpassingly vain and boasted that he was the sun and the moon, although as yet were not revealed the sun, the moon nor the stars. He was finally overcome by extracting his emerald teeth and substituting therefor grains of maize, during which operation his eyeball was injured.⁹ His two sons, who created mountains and caused earthquakes, were also disposed of, thus bringing to an end this insolent brood.

The second part of the Popol Vuh deals with the trials of initiation. The Father and Mother of Life had two children, each of whom were named Ahpu (air-gun):¹⁰ Hunhun-Ahpu (Two-fold master of air-gun) and Vukub-hunahpu (Seven-fold master of air-gun), who was a celibate. Now these two practised ball-playing¹¹ every day, and on a time approaching the vicinity of Xibalba (the Underworld)¹², so disturbed the rulers of that abode that they inquired who it was that was making such a commotion over their heads. Thereupon they all took counsel together and challenged the young devotees to a game of ball in their realm, with the intention of vanquishing them. The youths having crossed a stream of boiling water, a river of blood and a third stream in safety, came to a place where four roads met. Here they took the wrong road and soon found themselves in the hall of Xibalba. Here they saw two seated figures which they saluted, only to find they were dummy kings. They were next invited to sit on the seat of honor, which turned out to be an incandescent stone that burned them. They were then conducted to the House of Shadows. Now the trials of Xibalba were of divers kinds. Besides the House of Shadows, was the House of Cold, the House of Tigers, the House of Bats, and the House of Spears. These the youths did not enter, and, having failed in their earlier tests, they were promptly sacrificed, the head of Hunhun-Ahpu being suspended in the midst of a calabash tree, which immediately covered itself with fruit. The Xibalbians forbade any one to come near the tree, but a young princess, Xquiq, hearing the tale of the tree, desired to taste its fruit and, approaching it, was impregnated by the dead head's saliva.¹³ The twin heroes born to her were Hunahpu and Xbalanque, whose magical powers were evidenced from childhood. In due course of time they were also challenged to meet the trials of Xibalba. Before setting out, each one planted a cane in the interior of their grandmother's house: if it dried out, it was to be the sign of their death, but if it blossomed, they were alive. With divine assistance the brothers passed all the tests successfully, even going so far as to voluntarily immolate themselves on a funeral pyre. After three days, however, their ashes assumed the shape of men-fishes which later became two beautiful youths, in which their former traits manifested themselves again. As magicians they entertained the lords of Xibalba with phenomena which the latter insisted be tried on them and by which they met their death — the brothers taking care not to resurrect them and thereafter reigning in their stead.

The third part of the Popol Vuh continues the story of creation: Once more the gods commune together and the Creator and Former made four perfect men¹⁴ — wholly of yellow and white maize was their flesh composed.¹⁵ The name of the first was Balam-Quitze; of the second, Balam-Agab; of the third, Mahucutah; of the fourth, Iqi-Balam.¹⁶ They had neither father nor mother, neither were they made by the ordinary agents in the work of creation, but their coming into existence was a miracle extraordinary, wrought by the special intervention of the Creator. Verily, at last, did the gods look on beings who were worthy of their origin. Grand of countenance and broad of limb, the four sires of our race stood up and looked. And their great clear eyes swept rapidly over all, for they saw all things, both great and small, in heaven and on earth.¹⁷ But this was not pleasing to the gods — heaven had overshot the mark. "What shall we do with man now?" said they. "These are as gods; they would make themselves equal with us; lo, they know all things.¹⁸ Let us now contract their sight." Thereupon the Heart of the Heavens breathed a cloud over the pupil of the eyes of the men, and a veil came over it as when one breathes on the face of a mirror; thus was the globe of the eye darkened; neither was that which was far off clear to it any more, but only that which was near.¹⁹

Then the four men slept and four women were made,²⁰ and these became the ancestors of the various branches of the Quiche race. At first the tribes lived happily under the bright and morning star, precursor of the yet unseen sun. They had as yet no worship, save the breathing of the instinct of their souls, as yet no altars to the gods; only they gazed up into heaven, not knowing what they had come so far to do!²¹ They were filled with love and obedience,²² and lifting their eyes toward heaven, they thus invoked the Deity: "Give us to walk always in an open road, in a path without snares; to lead happy, quiet, and peaceable lives, free of all reproach." So they lived in joy, the black men and the white together, and they had but one language. There they lived awaiting the rising of the sun; but no sun came, and the four men and their descendants grew uneasy. "We have no person to watch over us," they said, "nothing to guard our symbols." So the four men and their people set out for Tulan-Zuiva, otherwise called the Seven Caves,²³ and there they received gods, each man as head of a family, a god.²⁴ Balam-Quitze received the god Tohil; Balam-Agab, the god Avilix; and Mahucutah, the god Hacavitz — all very powerful gods, but Tohil, the creator of fire, was the god of the whole Quiche nation. The tribes of Tamub and Ilocab likewise received gods at the same time. Here also the language of all the families was confused, so that no one of the first four men could any longer understand the speech of another.²⁵ Therefore they decided to leave Tulan; some went eastwards and some came this way. And their hearts grieved, for long was the way and many of them were left on the road. Nevertheless they passed to this side as if there had been no sea; for they passed on scattered stones, and they called the place "Arranged stones and torn sands," a name which was given them in their passage in the inside of the sea.²⁶

Afterwards, on account of the rain and hail, there was no more of the fire that made itself for the four men. Then Tohil created fire for them by stamping with his sandal. Also had the fire of the tribes gone out and they were perishing of the cold, but when they came to the patriarchs and asked for fire, they were not well received. Then appeared before them a messenger from Xibalba, who spoke to them in this wise: "Give no more fire to the tribes until they have given to Tohil. Wherefore ask Tohil what he shall require for the fire." And straightway he disappeared without, however, ceasing to exist. Then word went forth from Tohil that the tribes should learn to renew the fire by sacrifice.²⁷ Nevertheless, one band stole the fire in the smoke, and straightway their majesty and wisdom, hitherto in them in obscurity, came to them at Tulan.²⁸

Now about this time the three gods spoke to the four men: "Lo, dawn already approaches, now we must rise up; let us not stay here; carry us into some secret place." Thereupon the gods were hidden;²⁹ Tohil and Avilix in deep ravines of the forest, but Hacavitz was established on a great pyramid, and Hacavitz is the name of the mountain to this day. At last the sun commenced to advance and there was great rejoicing. The dawn enlightened all the nations at the same time. Yet was not the sun then in the beginning the same as now; his heat wanted force, and he was but as a reflection in a mirror — verily, not at all the same sun as that of today. Nevertheless he dried up and warmed the surface of the earth, and answered many good ends. Another wonder when the sun arose! The three tribal gods, Tohil, Avilix and Hacavitz, were turned into stone, as were also the gods connected with the lion, the tiger, the viper, and other fierce and dangerous animals. Perhaps we should not be alive at this moment — because of the voracity of these fierce animals — had not the sun caused this petrifaction.³⁰ And the people multiplied on Mount Hacavitz, and here they built their city. It is here also that they began to sing their song, called Kamucu (we see). And this is what they said in singing: "Alas! we ruined ourselves in Tulan, there lost many of our kith and kin, they still remain there, left behind! We indeed have seen the sun, but they — now that his golden light begins to appear, where are they?"

The early portion of the fourth part of the Popol Vuh tells how the four patriarchs withdrew from association with their fellows, but were occasionally seen, together with the gods, in the mountains and forests; human sacrifice began to be secretly practised and strife with the other tribes began. First the tribes tried to entrap the three gods, failing in which they organized an armed effort, which was repulsed by the letting loose of numberless bees and arrows, so that they were finally reduced to submission. Now it came to pass that the life of the four men was drawing to a close. No bodily sickness nor suffering came upon them, but they were informed that their death was near. Then they called their wives and their sons around them to receive their last commands and in the anguish of their hearts they sang the sad song, Kamucu, the same they had sung when first the sun rose. Then instantly the four old men were not, but in their place was a great bundle; and it was never unfolded, neither could any man find seam therein upon rolling it over and over. Therefore was it called "The Majesty Enveloped;"³¹ and it became a memorial of these fathers, and was held very dear and precious in the sight of the Quiches and incense was burned before it. Thus disappeared on Mount Hacavitz the first men, who came from the East, from the other side of the sea. Long time had they been here when they died; and they were very old, and surnamed The Venerated and The Sacrificers.

After the death of the old men, their sons, in conformity to the recommendation of their fathers, passed over the sea. And when they arrived in the East before the lord Nacxit,³² the name of the great lord, whose power was boundless, he conceded them the sign of royalty and all that it represents. The remainder of the book is concerned with the history of the various tribes and an account of the great Adept-King Gucumatz, who ascended every seven days into heaven, every seven days into Xibalba and every seven days put on the nature of the serpent and verily became serpent. The narrative ends with an account of the building of the great White Temple in which was preserved a square black divining stone,³³ and the organization of the priesthood.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 16, No. 3, January, 1928 pp. 113-120

UNIVERSAL ANALOGY

Everything in the Universe follows analogy. "As above, so below;" Man is the microcosm of the Universe. That which takes place on the spiritual plane repeats itself on the Cosmic plane. Concretion follows the lines of abstraction; corresponding to the highest must be the lowest; the material to the spiritual. — S.D. I, p. 177.

The refusal to admit in the whole Solar system of any other reasonable and intellectual beings on the human plane, than ourselves, is the greatest conceit of our age. All that science has a right to affirm, is that there are no invisible Intelligences living under the same conditions as we do. It cannot deny point-blank the possibility of there being worlds within worlds, under totally different conditions of those that constitute the nature of our world; nor can it deny that there may be a certain limited communication between some of those worlds and our own. — S.D. I, p. 133.

¹ The best generally available condensed translation in English is found in Bancroft's Native Races, Vol. III, p. 44.

² From the beginning Man works behind the scenes, laying the plans for those gradually evolving vehicles of the soul into which he may fully incarnate when they are perfected.

³ Huraken (or Hurler), whence our word hurricane, is Jupiter. The Word calls into activity his three-fold electric fire.

⁴ See Secret Doctrine, I, p. 345.

⁵ In the Norse mythology the first human pair are made from two kinds of wood, the ash and the alder, one strong, the other pliant. Zibac (sibac) means "egg" in the mystery language of the initiation caves, hence the reference is to the egg-born, produced by the power (Kriyasakti) of the holy sages of the early Third Race.

⁶ Evidently the description of an earthquake.

⁷ The apes are here shown to be descendants of "the Mindless."

⁸ The macaw is the small parrot-eagle found sculptured on many monoliths and temples in Central and South America. It was the symbol of the sun and is still our national emblem. Note the number 7 in this and following names.

⁹ The substitution of the maize suggests the institution of agriculture in place of lawless Titanic rule or brute force. Connote the Greek Titan, Polyphemus, whose single eye was put out by Odysseus.

¹⁰ The air-gun of sarbacan was a hollow cane or reed in which was placed the weapon, a stone, knife or arrow, expelled by the force of the breath.

¹¹ Ball-playing, a kind of tennis, was a religious exercise taught by the priests and practised only by the nobles in halls consecrated by prayer. In the Popol Vuh the game is evidently a symbol or veil for psycho-spiritual action taking place in the human organism during occult training.

¹² Xibalba, the Land of Shadows, is thought by some to stand for Atlantis. Although the names of its ten princes and dummy kings correspond in a general way to the ten princes and King-pair of Plato's Atlantis, it also symbolizes the lower astral nature, which has to be overcome. So like the Egyptian mystic initiations are those of the Popol Vuh that Brasseur de Bourbourg thought it must have plagiarized them. The various houses mentioned are similar to those in the visions of Enoch, described in the apocryphal book of that name.

¹³ Compare Eve's eating of the forbidden fruit. By analogy also, the dead head may stand for a pralaya in which are stored the life-energies for a new manifestation and a new race of men.

¹⁴ The four men typify four races.

¹⁵ Yellow was the color of the first solid race. It was the golden yellow of the Fourth also which became black with sin. See Ocean of Theosophy, p. 68, for food in connection with reincarnation.

¹⁶ Balam-Quitze means Tiger-with-the-sweet-smile; Balam-Agab, Tiger-of-the-night; Mahucutah, the distinguished name; Iqi-Balam, Tiger-of-the-moon.

¹⁷ See Secret Doctrine, II, 96; 221.

¹⁸ The gods who evolve man's form are lower than ourselves, called in the Secret Doctrine the lunar ancestors, or pitris. Hence when they see man endowed with mind, they are displeased, just as the Lord God of the Old Testament is. (Genesis III, 22.)

¹⁹ The Atlanteans lost their spiritual vision and the "third eye" became atrophied.

²⁰ Compare the creation of Eve in Genesis.

²¹ See Ocean of Theosophy, p. 60 for the purpose of man in evolution.

²² Secret Doctrine, I, 210 — the origin of devotion.

²³ The Seven Caves stand for seven centers or zones on which the seven primitive groups of the first root race were born. Here they would seem also to refer to man's seven principles. Tulan is spoken of as "the common cradle of our race;" there is one in the East, one in the West, one in Xibalba, and one "where God is."

²⁴ The receiving of gods suggests the incarnation of the three higher principles in man. The four ancestors are said to have watched the star of the morning, precursor of the yet unseen sun. In a general way the sun implies a condition of the human race — when it shall be illumined by Manas. The Sons of Mind are said to have come from Venus (the star of the morning); but not all the human animal forms received the full light of mind. Some received only a spark, some were merely overshadowed by it; so, with the majority of the Quiches — it was in the beginning "verily, not at all the same sun as that of today," that is, when Manas had become more fully incarnated in the race. The god of the fourth man is not taken into account, since he had no family; there were only three divisions of the Quiches.

²⁵ Compare the story of the confusion of tongues at the building of the Tower of Babel, in the Old Testament.

²⁶ This suggests a migration from Atlantis. Compare the Old Testament story of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

²⁷ There is a resemblance between Tohil's demand and that of the third chapter of the Gita: "With this nourish the gods, that the Gods may nourish you," etc. Most translators think the demand was for human sacrifice, an interpretation possibly supported by subsequent events; but when human sacrifice was practised, the gods were hidden.

²⁸ The band who stole the fire recalls the story of Prometheus.

²⁹ The hiding of the gods may have several meanings. At least we see that the time comes when the Divine Beings withdraw from the world. Furthermore, in the course of civilization, which becomes ever more material, men forget the god within (Atma-Buddhi-Manas) and look for an external god to worship; and as their hearts become more stony, so do they worship idols of stone. Later on in the book the hidden gods, invoked by means of various practices, make known their presence by animating the stones.

³⁰ This refers undoubtedly to the gradual condensation of all forms of life, from the astral or semi-physical — symbolized by the rain and the cold — to the solid state, during which process the animal forms dwindled in size and so ceased to be a menace to man.

³¹ The passing of the four old men suggests the disappearance of Enoch (Genesis, V, 24). Enoch is the term used for a "seer," and his sudden taking away symbolizes the disappearance among men of the sacred and secret knowledge, called in the Popol Vuh "the Majesty Enveloped."

³² Nacxit was a name for Quetzalcoatl. Some commentators think "the East" refers to Atlantis, others, to the eastern part of Central America.

³³ The name of the stone and the temple in which it was preserved was Caabaha, meaning House of Sacrifice. The striking similarity between this name and the Mohammedan sacred stone, Kaaba, meaning square or cube, is what first revealed to Brasseur de Bourbourg the astonishing parallelisms to other religious systems found in the Popol Vuh.

THE THEOSOPHY OF THE FAR NORTH

LURED on by what mysterious attractions or, perchance, by what memories of ancient wisdom, have recent Arctic explorers risked all in their daring flights to discover the North Pole?¹ "The Sacred Imperishable Land" which capped over the whole North Pole — said to have existed from the beginning of this Manvantara and destined to endure to its end — once had a tropical climate, and one could cross from Norway by way of Iceland and Greenland to the Hudson Bay country almost on dry land.²

To later dwellers in the Far North, one of the thirty-five Buddhas of Compassion taught the "sayings" of the eternal Wisdom. In the Sagas³ and Eddas his name has come down to us as Odin, or Woden, a memorial of whom is our Wednesday (Woden's day). He is said to have given to the earliest Norsemen their method of writing runes, which modern scholars describe as "merely fanciful signs supposed to possess magic power." The word itself means hidden lore or mystery and is suggestive of a language like the Sanscrit, in which each letter has a numerical value and special meaning. In the epic poem of Finland, the Kalewala, the hero battles with the Serpent of Evil, who

"Pounces with his mouth of venom
At the head of Lemminkainen.
But the hero, quick recalling,
Speaks the Master words of Knowledge,
Words that came from distant ages,
Words his ancestors had taught him."

According to the earliest Norse legends, in the beginning was neither day nor night, naught but a boundless, yawning abyss called Ginnungagap⁴ — the cup of illusion (Space). In its midst lay as in sleep the Home of the Mist, Nifleheim or Nebelheim⁵, in which was dropped a ray of cold light that overflowed the cup and froze therein. Then from the far-off Home of Brightness, Muspelheim, the Invisible, blew the breath of a scorching wind, which dissolved the frozen waters and cleared the mist. These waters, the streams of Elivagar, distilled in vivifying drops, bringing forth the giant Ymir⁶ — who had "only the semblance of a man" — and the cow Audhumla, from whom issued four streams of milk that diffused themselves throughout space. By licking the mineral salt from the blocks of ice that still remained, Audhumla produced a superior being named Buri. This was when Darkness still reigned throughout Space, when the Ases were not yet evolved, when the Yggdrasil, the Tree of Time and Life, had not yet grown, and there was no Valhalla, or Hall of Heroes.

Now Ymir fell asleep and sweat profusely; the drops of perspiration, as large as full-grown men, hardened over like gigantic eggs, from which were hatched the Hrimthursar,⁷ or Frost-Giants. Although inferior to the being produced by Audhumla, a daughter of one of the Frost-Giants was taken in marriage by Buri, and their son Bor became the father of Odin and his two brothers, Vili and Ve, or "Spirit," "Will," and "Holiness." In the course of time the Ases, or Æsir⁸ — the sons of Odin — slew Ymir. The streams of blood flowing from his wounds were so copious that they drowned the whole race of Frost-Giants,⁹ one alone escaping with his wife in a bark and later transmitting a new race of giants from the old stock. They then proceeded to create our world. From Ymir's blood they made the oceans and rivers; from his bones, the mountains; from his teeth, the rocks and cliffs; from his head, the heavenly vault, supported by four pillars — representing the four cardinal points; while from his eyebrows they formed the future home of men, Midgard. This abode, says the Edda, to be correctly understood, must be conceived as round as a ring or disk, floating in the midst of the Celestial Ocean; and to protect it from the incursions of the giants, it was encircled by Jormungand, the gigantic serpent, holding its tail in its mouth (The astral light). After the creation of the earth, as the Æsir walked along the ocean beach, perceiving their work incomplete, for as yet there were no men, they espied two sticks floating on the waves, "powerless and without destiny." Into these Odin breathed the breath of Life; Vili (Hönir in some versions) endowed them with soul and motion (Manas); Ve (or Lodur) gave them beauty, speech, sight and hearing. Ask (the ash tree) was the name they gave to the man, Embla (the alder), the name of the woman, and they put the pair in Midgard (mid-garden) or Eden.

This "creation" of man clearly indicates his triune nature: the first, which sprang from the remains of the giant Ymir — matter; the second is that which is given him by the Æsir, the "minor gods" or pitris; the third, the higher triad, is received from the representatives of mind, soul and spirit. We also see that the Hesiodic ash tree, whence issued the men of the generation of bronze (the Third Root Race), the Tzite tree of the Popol Vuh, out of which the Mexican third race men were created, the Gogard of the Avesta, the Tibetan Zampun, the tree in the garden of Eden, and the mighty ash, Yggdrasil, are all one. For, according to another version of the Eddas, the universe sprang from beneath the luxuriant branches of Yggdrasil, the tree with three roots, extending the one into Midgard — the dwelling of mortals; one into Jötunheim — the abode of the giants; the third, into the region of death. The first root, under which is the Urdar fountain, is carefully tended by the three Norns who every morning, while fixing the term of human life, draw from the fountain and sprinkle the mundane tree that it may not wither nor die. Under the second root is the well of Mimir, the thrice-wise Jötun, who passed his life by this primeval fountain, the crystalline waters of which daily increased his wisdom; because, it was said, the world was born of water, hence wisdom is found in that element. Odin asks for a draught of this water and in exchange has to pledge an eye, leaving it at the bottom of the well.¹⁰ The third, extending into the infernal regions (of our earth), is perpetually gnawed by Nidhogg, the dark dragon of despair. The mundane tree remained verdant till the last days of the Golden Age, and under its protecting shadow humanity lived without desire as without fear. The lust of wealth was unknown, the gods played with golden disks and nothing disturbed the rapture of mere existence. But no sooner does Goltweig (Gold Ore) the bewitching enchantress, come, who thrice cast into the fire,¹¹ arises each time more beautiful than before, than the souls of gods and men are filled with unappeasable longing. The Norns, who gazed respectively into the Past, the Present, and the Future, and made known the decree of Orlog (Karma), then enter into being, the blessed peace of childhood's dreams passes away and sin comes into the world with all its evil consequences — Karma.

As the Ashwattha tree grew with its roots above, so Yggdrasil extended into Asgard, the abode of the gods. Here are golden and silver palaces and the beautiful Valhalla, Odin's hall, whither warriors who die valiantly in battle are borne by the Valkyries. Upon a gorgeous throne sits Odin, the All-Father. Upon his shoulders are the ravens, Thought and Memory, who fly every day over the whole world and on their return report what they have seen and heard. They flutter around the goddess Saga and whisper to her of past and future. What is the meaning of these black birds? They are all connected with the primeval wisdom which flows out of the pre-cosmic Source of all, symbolized by the head, the circle and the egg.

Beside Odin are his wife Frigga and his sister Freya, the most propitious of all the goddesses, from whom is our Friday. Tyr, or Tiu, is the god of battles, preserved in our Tuesday. Thor, the Thunderer, is commemorated in our Thursday. Balder is the god of sunlight; his opposite is Höder, god of winter's cold. Bragi, the god of New Life (of the reincarnation of nature and man) is the "divine singer," without spot or blemish. He is represented as gliding in the ship of the Dwarfs of Death during the death of nature (pralaya), lying asleep on the deck with his golden-stringed harp near him, dreaming the dream of life. When the vessel crosses the threshold of Nain (the Dwarf of Death), Bragi awakes and, sweeping the strings of his harp, sings a song that echoes over all the world, — a song describing the raptures of existence, and awakening dumb, sleeping nature out of her long rest. His wife, Iduna, keeps in a box the apples of eternal youth and health which she feeds every morning to the gods. Heimdall is the watchman of the gods, placed on the borders of heaven to prevent the evil giants from forcing their way over Bifrost, the bridge between heaven and earth — the Scandinavian Cherubim with the flaming sword "which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life" in the garden of Eden. Loki, in the beginning a beneficent god, becomes the evil brother of Odin, as Ahriman became the evil brother of Ormazd, and Typhon, of Osiris, after he had mixed too long with humanity. Like all fire-gods, since fire burns and destroys as well as warms and creates, he ends by representing the evil passions of man. He is the father of the Fenris wolf, the Midgard snake, and of Hela, the dark queen of the Kingdom of Shades (whence our "hell"). The name Loki comes from the word liechen, to enlighten; it has, therefore, the same meaning as the Latin lux. Hence Loki is identical with Lucifer, the Light-bringer. But he is still more closely related to Prometheus, as he is chained to a sharp rock, while Lucifer (identified by Christians with Satan), was chained down in hell — a circumstance which prevented neither of them from acting in all freedom on earth, if we are to accept the theological explanation.

Thor, the Scandinavian Zeus, possesses three precious things; the hammer, Miölnir, forged by the dwarfs against the giants¹²; a magic belt which, whenever girded about his person, doubles his celestial power; and a pair of iron gauntlets. Whenever Thor would grasp the handle of his terrible weapon (the thunderbolt) he is obliged to put on his iron gloves. He rides in a car drawn by two rams with silver bridles, and his awful brow is encircled by a wreath of stars. His chariot has a pointed iron pole and the spark-scattering wheels continually roll over rumbling clouds. When he repairs to the Urdar fountain, where the gods meet in conclave to decide the destinies of men, he alone goes on foot, the rest of the deities being mounted. He also walks in crossing Bifrost, the many-hued Æsir bridge (the rainbow), for fear he might set it on fire with his thunder car and at the same time cause the Urdar waters to boil. This myth shows the Norse legend makers were thoroughly acquainted with electricity, for Thor handles this peculiar element only when protected by gloves of iron, which is its natural conductor. His belt of strength is a closed circuit, around which the isolated current is compelled to run instead of diffusing itself through space. When he is rushing through the clouds with his car he is electricity in its active condition. The pointed pole of his chariot suggests the lightning rod. The two rams who serve as his coursers and the silver bridles (silver being the metal of Diana) typify the active and passive principles in nature. He goes afoot over the rainbow bridge because in order to mingle with other gods less powerful than himself, he has to be in a latent state, which he could not be in his car; otherwise he would set on fire and annihilate all. The Urdar fountain, which he is afraid to make boil, is needed for the daily irrigation of the mundane tree, and if its cool waters had been disturbed by him (as active electricity), they would have been converted into mineral springs unfit for the purpose. The ancient philosophers believed that not only volcanoes, but boiling springs were caused by concentrations of underground electric currents, and that the same cause produced deposits of various natures, which form curative springs. Thor's hammer — the "Worker's Hammer" in the Chaldean Book of Numbers, "which striketh sparks from the flint," (space) those sparks becoming worlds, — is the Swastika. This "Hammer of Creation" with its four arms bent at right angles refers to the rotation of the earth's axes and their equatorial belts, the two lines forming the Swastika meaning spirit and matter, the four hooks suggesting the motion of the revolving cycles. Applied to man, it shows him to be a link between heaven and earth: the right hand being raised at the end of the horizontal arm, the left pointing to earth. The symbolism of this universal and most suggestive of signs contains the key to the seven great mysteries of the Kosmos. Bifrost may be regarded as the Ether, the bridge or medium between the various states and planes of substance, in virtue of which all things in the universe are welded into one. The ether is not only a medium, but "a medium plus the invisible order of things, so that when the motions of the visible universe are transferred into ether, part of them are conveyed as by a bridge into the invisible universe, where they are made use of and stored up."

How prophetic are the songs of the three Norse goddesses to whom the ravens of Odin whisper of the past and the future, as they flutter around in their crystal abode beneath the flowing river! The songs are all written down in the "Scrolls of Wisdom," of which many are lost, but some still remain. They repeat in poetical allegory the teachings of archaic ages. They foretell the "renewal of the world," a prophecy of the seventh race of our round, told in the past tense. It had been said that when the Ases had been purified by the fire of suffering in their life-incarnations, and had become fit to dwell in Ida in eternal peace, then Miölnir would become useless. "Then came the sons of Thor. They brought Miölnir with them, no longer as a weapon of war, but as the hammer with which to consecrate the new heaven and the new earth." "...on the plain of Ida, the field of resurrection (for the Fifth Round), the sons of the highest gods assembled, and in them their fathers rose again.¹³ They talked of the Past and the Present, and remembered the wisdom and prophecies of their ancestors, which had all been fulfilled. Near them, but unseen of them, was the strong, mighty One, who rules all things...and ordains the eternal laws that govern the world. They all knew he was there, they felt his presence and his power, but were ignorant of his name. To the south above the field of Ida, he made another heaven called Audlang, and farther off, a third, Widblain.¹⁴ Over Gimil's Cave, a wondrous palace was created, covered with gold and shining bright in the sun. There the Gods are enthroned, as they used to be. From Gimil's heights¹⁵ they looked down upon the happy descendants of Lif and Lifthrasir,¹⁶ and signed them to climb up higher, to rise in knowledge and wisdom, step by step, from one heaven to another, until they were at last fit to be united to the Gods in the house of the All-Father.

The same prophecy is uttered by Balder. Balder, the bright god, so fair and dazzling in form and features that rays of light seem to issue from him, is killed by the crafty Loki, because Frigga, while entreating all creatures and all lifeless things to swear that they will not injure the well-beloved, forgets to mention the mistletoe, just as the mother of Achilles forgot her son's heel. A dart is made of it by Loki and he places it in the hands of the blind Hödur, who kills the sunny-hearted god of light. (The Christmas mistletoe is probably a reminiscence of the mistletoe that killed the Northern God of Goodness.)

That night in a vision Balder appears to his wife Nanna and tries to comfort her:¹⁷

"'Yes, and I fain would altogether ward
Death from thy head, and with the gods in heaven
Prolong thy life, though not by thee desired —
But right bars this, not only thy desire.
Yet dreary, Nanna, is the life they lead
In that dim world, in Hela's mouldering realm;
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
For of the race of gods is no one there
Save me alone, and Hela, solemn Queen;
For all the nobler souls of mortal men
On battle field have met their death, and now
Feast in Valhalla, in my father's hall:
Only the inglorious sort are there below' —
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"He spake, and straight his lineaments began
To fade; and Nanna in her sleep stretch'd out
Her arms towards him with a cry.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .then
Frea, the mother of the gods, with stroke
Painless and swift, set free her airy soul,
Which took, on Balder's track, the way below;
And instantly the sacred morn appear'd."

The new earth is described in a dialogue between Balder and Hermod, who twice has ridden to Hela's realm to rescue the ill-fated god:

"'But not to me so grievous as, I know,
To other gods it were, is my enforced
Absence from fields where I could nothing aid;
For I am long since weary of your storm
Of carnage, and find, Hermod, in your life
Something too much of war and broils, which make
Life one perpetual fight, a bath of blood.
Inactive, therefore, let me lie in gloom,
Unarm'd, inglorious; I attend the course
Of ages, and my late return to light,
In times less alien to a spirit mild,
In new-recover'd seats, the happier day.'

"He spake; and the fleet Hermod thus replied:—
'Brother, what seats are these, what happier day?
Tell me, that I may ponder it when gone.'

"And the ray-crowned Balder answered him:—
'Far to the south, beyond the blue, there spreads
Another heaven, the boundless — no one yet
Hath reach'd it; there hereafter shall arise
The second Asgard, with another name;
Thither, when o'er this present earth and heavens
The tempest of the latter days hath swept,
And they from sight have disappear'd and sunk,
Shall a small remnant of the gods repair;
Höder and I shall join them from the grave.
There reassembling we shall see emerge
From the bright ocean at our feet an earth
More fresh, more verdant than the last, with fruits
Self-springing, and a seed of man preserved,
Who then shall live in peace, as now in war.
But we in heaven shall find again with joy
The ruin'd palaces of Odin, seats
Familiar, halls where we have supp'd of old,
Reënter them with wonder, never fill
Our eyes with gazing, and rebuild with tears.
And we shall tread once more the well-known plain
Of Ida, and among the grass shall find
The golden dice wherewith we played of yore;
And that shall bring to mind the former life
And pastime of the gods —
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
O Hermod, pray that thou may'st join us then!
Such for the future is my hope.'"

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 16, No. 4, February, 1928 pp. 163-170

THE IN-DWELLING EGO

How precise and true is Plato's expression, how profound and philosophical his remark on the (human) soul or Ego, when he defined it as "a compound of the same and the other." And yet how little this hint has been understood, since the world took it to mean that the soul was the breath of God, of Jehovah. It is "the same and the other," as the great Initiate-Philosopher said; for the Ego (the "Higher Self" when merged with and in the Divine Monad) is Man, and yet the same as the "Other", the Angel in him incarnated, as the same with the universal Mahat. The great classics and philosophers felt this truth, when saying that "there must be something within us which produces our thoughts. Something very subtle; it is a breath; it is fire; it is ether; it is quintessence; it is a slender likeness; it is an intellection; it is a number; it is harmony..." (Voltaire). — S.D., II, p. 88-89.

¹ See Theosophy, Vol. XIII, p. 453; also Vol. XIV, p. 251.

² When Commander Byrd flew over the North Pole in the late Arctic winter, the coldest weather of the trip was 10° warmer than the coldest temperature recorded for New York City. It should be remembered that he made no landing.

³ Compare the German word sagen, meaning to say or to speak.

⁴ Ginnungagap, the world's matrix, is called the cup of illusion because all matter is an illusion, a maya, in one sense.

⁵ Nebelheim, the cold place, represents a state of non-consciousness and inactivity. Under the influence of heat we see the expansive disintegration of the nebula which is to concentrate into new worlds. It is the phantom-germ of the future universe.

⁶ Ymir, unruly, turbulent matter, or matter in ebullition, and the cow, the "Nourisher," represent the pairs of opposites, the pre-cosmic union of spirit and matter (cooled and still seething). We might connote with this Kamaduk, the cow of plenty, in the Bhagavad-Gita; also Vach, "the melodious cow." The four streams from Audhumla bear a curious resemblance to the river of Eden, which "parted and became into four heads."

⁷ The Grecian myth of Leda is duplicated in the hatching out of the Hrimthursar.

⁸ Æsir was an old Irish god, the name meaning "to light a fire." The same word is found in old Etruscan. Asar was Egyptian for Osiris.

⁹ Just as Cronus was dethroned by Zeus, so the early race of Frost-Giants is supplanted by the sons of Buri, who initiate a new cycle of evolution.

¹⁰ The deity reflected in its creation. The meanings of this symbol are many. The well and its waters typify hidden wisdom, the Secret Doctrine, beheld by the "Third Eye" — now lost to all but the "Arhans of the boundless vision."

¹¹ The thrice-purified gold is Manas.

¹² The Titanic forces of nature which rebel and, while alive in the region of matter, will not be subdued by the gods (the Agents of universal harmony), but have first to be destroyed.

¹³ The Egos of all their past incarnations.

¹⁴ These are the three gradually ascending globes of our chain.

¹⁵ The seventh globe.

¹⁶ The coming Adam and Eve of purified humanity.

¹⁷ Matthew Arnold's "Balder Dead."

BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

TO whom does not "the Garden of Eden" bring instant thought of an actual paradise on earth? The Old Testament depicts it as the abode of Adam and Eve, who were driven out because they ate of "the forbidden fruit." The word Eden in the Sumerian dialect means simply a plain, and we find that the sandy plain north of the Persian Gulf was the birthplace of a people who were to found the great civilizations of Babylonia and Assyria. The Greeks called the region above the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers Mesopotamia — meso meaning in the midst of or between, and potami, rivers. More than 6,000 years ago a colony settled at Eridu and built the "Holy City of Ea," then on the water's edge, but now over one hundred miles inland, owing to the silting down of the soil into the Gulf. This part of the country was called Sumer, a name pointing to Indian origin (Su-Meru) and corroborated by the Secret Doctrine which states that adepts on their way to Asia Minor tarried to teach and civilize a barbarian people. The oldest texts are in Sumerian, but about 2,000 B.C. the hymns and liturgies began to be supplied with interlinear translations in the Semitic tongue — one of many indications that the Wisdom-Religion of the Sumerians was the source of the Babylonian and, through it, of the still later Israelitish worship and belief. From its beginning — it seems probable that it was an offshoot of Eridu — Babylon was the seat of Sanscrit and Brahman learning.¹

Until recent years our knowledge of these people was gained mostly from the Bible, which led us to suppose they were all idolaters and savages; but the unearthing and deciphering of monuments and clay tablets, particularly those composing the great library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, reveal a very different and startling story.² Before Abraham³ who, we used to think, lived at the very dawn of history, so great was the learning and culture of Babylonia that its influence extended throughout Western Asia, while before the time of Moses the language of this country was used for international correspondence, even the Egyptian Pharaoh (Amenophis IV) using it instead of his own tongue. The great antiquity claimed for this people both by Berosus⁴ and Herodotus has not been credited, but a Sumerian tablet gives a period of 32,234 years between the deluge and the last king of Isin, who lived 2,000 B.C. This carries us back more than 36,000 years!

Ziggurats, or terraced temples, consisting of one to seven stories, built upon an elevated mound of earth, were common throughout Babylonia, the ziggurat of Babylon being the famous Tower of Babel. The fortunes of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated followed the fortunes of the city, the rise of a city to supremacy involving the supremacy of that particular deity. Thus, when Eridu was the chief city, Ea was the principal god, but with the rise of Babylon, Marduk (the Merodach of the Bible) became the Bel or lord of the whole pantheon, the attributes and deeds of the former being ascribed to the latter. This custom accounts for the different names of gods and heroes found in the various versions of the same story.

Around the entire country was a great moat filled with water, serving the double purpose of keeping out the enemy and also filling the vast network of irrigating canals. The larger canals were used as highways of commerce, one extending from Assyria to the Gulf, so old in the time of Nebuchadnezzar that he pointed with pride to having cleaned it out and restored it. There was also a tunnel under the river-bed, showing that modern engineering feats are but a reëmergence of the past.

The province of Akkad, north of Sumer,⁵ came into prominence under the leadership of Sargon, who styled himself King of Sumer and Akkad. He is the Babylonian Moses, as indicated by the following inscription:

"Sargon, the powerful king, King of Akkad am I.
My mother was a princess, my father I did not know...
.................
She placed me in an ark of rushes, with bitumen my
exit she sealed up.
She launched me in the river, which did not drown me.
The river carried me, to Akki, the water-carrier,⁶ it
brought me."

Of Moses' mother it is said (Exodus ii, 3): "And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink." Agade was near Sippar⁷ and Zipporah is the name of the wife of Moses — another strange coincidence. Since Sargon lived long before Moses, it is but logical to infer that the story of the former was known to the author of Exodus, who applied it to the Israelitish leader. Babylonia had its great law-giver in Hammurapi (2123-2086 B.C.) whose famous Code, it is now definitely known, was based upon an earlier Sumerian code, again pointing to India and the laws of Manu as source.

As time went on the Assyrians in the north, who took their name from their chief god Ashur,⁸ rose to power. Their military ensign was the great red dragon, always carried on the field of battle, which became a terror to all the surrounding nations. At the fall of Assyria "the cedars of Lebanon" (Initiates) are said to have leaped for joy. The prophet Isaiah calls the nation "the rod of God's anger" — his axe and saw. Sennacherib, "the wolf who came down on the fold" (II Kings, xix), conquered Babylon and utterly destroyed it by turning the waters of a canal across its site. He then made Nineveh his capital, and so identified it with the fortunes of the nation that we never think of Assyria without thinking of "that great city."⁹ Babylon, however, was destined to have a renaissance under the famous Nebuchadnezzar, who built the hanging gardens and made the city much more magnificent than it had ever been before. He it was who captured Jerusalem (II Kings, xxv) and led the king, whom he first blinded, and a large part of the inhabitants to Babylon. The 137th Psalm is the Israelites' lamentation over their captivity. Like all other calamities, the sojourn of the Jews among the Babylonians was not an unmixed evil; for there they became acquainted with the wisdom of the Chaldees,¹⁰ the Chaldean Book of Numbers, with the Sumerian literature, its account of creation and the deluge, the Babylonian psalms and poems, all of which served as models for many of the books which later formed part of the Old Testament.

The Chaldean Book of Numbers is taken from the same "old book" which was used as the basis of the Secret Doctrine. The original of it served as the basis of the Kabbalah of the Jews. In it is stated that "The one Universal Light, which to man is Darkness, is ever existent." Again, "The Blessed Ones have nought to do with the purgations of matter." "In the beginning of time the great invisible one had his holy hands full of celestial matter which he scattered throughout infinity; and lo, behold! it became balls of fire, and balls of clay; and they scattered like the moving metal (quicksilver) into many smaller balls, and began their ceaseless turning; and some of them which were balls of fire became balls of clay; and the balls of clay became balls of fire; and the balls of fire were waiting their turn to become balls of clay; and the others envied them and bided their time to become balls of pure divine fire." An epitome of the arts and sciences, not only of the Chaldeans, but also of the Assyrians and Canaanites of pre-historic ages, by a Babylonian Adept, Qu-tamy (who said he was instructed by the idol of the moon)¹¹ has been published under the title Nabathean Agriculture. The Nabatheans were descendants of Ham, who settled in Babylonia under the leadership of Nimrod (the mighty hunter of Genesis x, 9-10) and the sect is similar to the Nazarenes, whose city Nazareth was the birthplace of Jesus.

The Seven Tablets of Creation, greatly mutilated and incomplete, found at Nineveh by the Assyriologist George Smith in 1872, read as follows:

When above were not raised the heavens:
And below the earth was not called by name,
The primeval deep (Apsu) was the source of both,
The chaos of the sea (Tiamat) was the mother of them all.
Their waters were embosomed in one place,
The corn-stalk was ungathered, the marsh-plant was ungrown.
Time was when gods had not been made,
No name was named, no destiny determined:
Then were created the gods in the midst [of heaven]
Lakmu and Lakhamu burst forth.
Ages increased.
Anshar and Kishar were created,
Days grew long...
Anu, [Bel and Ea were created.]¹²

In time a brood of monsters arose, all sorts of combinations of animals and men, with Tiamat at their head. At last Marduk says he will undertake to dispose of them. Follows the forging of weapons and then, after a long encounter,

Bel¹³ trampled on the underpart of Tiamat,¹⁴
With his blows unceasing he smote the skull.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And he brake her like a dried fish in two pieces;
He took one-half of her and made it the covering of the sky;
He stretched out the skin, and caused a watch to be kept,
Enjoining that her waters should not issue forth.

After this victory

He established the stations for the great gods;
The stars, their likenesses, he set up as constellations;
He fixed the year, and marked the divisions.
The twelve months he divided among three stars,¹⁵
From the beginning of the year till the close.
He established the station of Jupiter¹⁶ to indicate their boundary,
So that there might be no deviation nor wandering from the course.
He established with him the stations of Bel and Ea.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
He made the moon appear illuminating the night.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [saying:]
["On the 28th day] thou shalt approach the sun-god."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
At that time the gods in their assembly created [the beasts],
They made perfect the mighty monsters.
They caused the living creatures [of the field] to come forth,
The cattle of the field, [the wild beasts] of the field, and
the creeping things.

But the gods complain to Marduk that they are lonely and unhappy because there is no one to worship them.

Upon Marduk's hearing the utterance of the gods he was
prompted to carry out [a clever plan].
He opened his mouth and unto Ea [he spake],
"My blood I will gather and bone [I will take],
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I will create man to inhabit the earth,
That the worship of the gods may be established."

Turning now to the Old Testament, we find in Genesis I:

1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4. .....and God divided the light from the darkness.

7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.

9. And God said ...... let the dry land appear;

11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself.

14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days, and years:

16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: and he made the stars also.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20. And God said: Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth...

21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth....

25. And God made the beast of the earth ... and cattle ... and everything that creepeth upon the earth after their kind: and God saw that it was good.

26. And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female (i.e., androgynous) created he them.

The similarities between Genesis and the far older Chaldean records are so striking that one cannot escape the conclusion that Babylonia was the source of the Old Testament writing. In both accounts darkness precedes light, all is chaos, "without form, and void," and water fills the great deep of Space. "The Spirit of God" that "moved upon the face of the deep" in Genesis is the same as the Chaldean Ea, the god of wisdom. The "waters" are the divine Akasa, or Æther, which in course of time became the visible waters of earth, at first pure, but later on befouled — the abode of Tiamat (sinful, gross matter). The struggle with this monster is not given in Genesis, but is the original of the war in heaven (Revelations xii) where "Michael and his angels fought against the dragon." Berosus gives a curious legend of a Man-Fish, Oannes.¹⁷ His body was that of a fish, but under the fish's head was a human head and under the tail were feet, human also was his voice and his speech. During the day he lived among men and instructed them in arts and sciences, in everything that would tend to soften their manners and humanize their lives; but at night he would retire into the deep, for he could live both on land and in the water. He it was who wrote about these hideous beings, the progeny of Tiamat. Oannes also said that Bel cut off his own head and from a mixture of his blood with that of earth, human beings were formed. On this account they are rational and partly divine. We see that this story was applied to Marduk, and that it is only another way of showing the union of the higher with the lower nature.

The account of the establishment of the moon and stars is fuller in the Tablets than in Genesis, predominance being given to the moon. The Chaldeans were renowned astronomers and held the moon in deep reverence, as it was the basis of their calendar and the chief planet of measurement. The Chaldean name for the moon-god was Sin, also called Nannar.¹⁸ Genesis speaks of the "lights in the firmament" being for "signs and for seasons," that is, for astronomical calculations and the measurement of cycles. The word translated "God" in the first chapter of Genesis is the Logos, the Elohim — a plural word, and refers to the host of builders — the Dhyan Chohans or angels, of whom there were many orders, some high and some low. The lower angels, among whom was Jehovah, made the animal form of man, the man of dust, mentioned in the second chapter. The higher angels, represented by "Light" in Gen. i, 3, made the ethereal man, sometimes spoken of as the "archetypal man," or Adam. This is the immortal first race of Theosophy. The first animals (belonging to what is called the Primal Creation) are the sacred animals of the zodiac, the "great whale" of verse 21 referring to the zodiacal sign of Capricorn — the leviathan of the Hebrews.

It is possible to trace in Genesis the orderly development of the elements — not the elements of science, but their originals. Since there are seven planes there must be seven elements, of which ether is the fifth, the "waters" of space. The element of fire is represented by light (verse 3). The word "firmament" (verse 7) should be translated "expanse," the word used to express the idea of "air" which passes everywhere unobstructed. After this appears the water and lastly the earth. The elements having been evolved for the building up of forms, we may now trace the various kingdoms. The earth undoubtedly answers to the mineral kingdom, the basis for all the rest. In verse II, we have the three divisions of the vegetable kingdom, corresponding to the three geological periods known as the age of cryptogams, the phænogams, and the fruit trees. "The moving creature that hath life" (verse 20), should be "swimming and creeping creatures," agreeing with the zoological order of fishes (mollusks) and reptiles. Then come the birds, the beasts and cattle of the field. We must remember that Genesis has been incorrectly translated and tampered with, just as happened to the Chaldean tablets, and without the key which Theosophy furnishes, it cannot be understood or properly interpreted.

While in the first chapter of Genesis what is there called man is created after the animals, in the second chapter man, that is, the human form, is created first: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul." Now there were two versions of creation among the Babylonians; and Prof. Jastrow points out that the resemblance of the second Babylonian version to the second chapter of Genesis extends even to certain phrases which they have in common. "And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up" (verse 5) might serve almost as a translation of the second line of the Babylonian counterpart. Read in its true esoteric sense, chapter one of Genesis contains the history of the first Three Rounds, as well as the first Three Races of the Fourth, up to the moment when Man is called to self-consciousness by the Sons of Wisdom. In chapter two, Adam comes first, so at the beginning of the Fourth Round on Globe D, Man is the first to appear. Even the state of mental torpor and unconsciousness of the first two races, and of the first half of the Third Race, is symbolized in Genesis ii, by the deep sleep of Adam.

THE PRICE OF KNOWLEDGE

Power belongs to him who knows; this is a very old axiom: knowledge, or the first step to power, especially that of comprehending the truth, of discerning the real from the false — belongs only to those who place truth above their own petty personalities. Those only who having freed themselves from every prejudice, and conquered their human conceit and selfishness, are ready to accept every and any truth — once the latter is undeniable and has been demonstrated to them — those alone, I say, may hope to get at the ultimate knowledge of things. — H.P.B.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 16, No. 5, March, 1928 pp. 194-201

¹ Gradually a mixed Sumerian (Aryan) and Semitic population came into existence, producing the Babylonian of history.

² All the records, books, business documents and letters were written on clay, the most important were baked; but the unbaked tablets, water-soaked for ages, when taken out and dried, often look as if just written.

³ About 2,300 B.C. The names of 100 rulers of Babylon before Abraham are now known.

⁴ Berosus wrote a history of Chaldea for Alexander the Great, compiled from records preserved in the temple of Belus, covering a period of 200,000 years. See Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, 649-650; 654-655 for the Chaldean divine dynasties.

⁵ See Genesis xi, 1-9. Shinar is a corruption of Sumer.

⁶ This probably refers to the zodiacal sign of Aquarius, the whole story being symbolical.

⁷ Sippar was the chief seat of the sun-god Shamash, and shared with Agade the prestige of being the capital of Sargon's kingdom.

⁸ When the city of Ashur extended its bounds and became co-equal with the domain of Assyria, its god, Ashur, was transferred to the entire northern district of Mesopotamia. The religion of Assyria is not distinguishable from that of Babylonia until it becomes a distinct empire. Compare Ashur with the Asuras of the Secret Doctrine.

⁹ Nineveh is written with the same ideogram as the goddess Nina, which means "house of the fish."

¹⁰ H.P.B. says the Chaldees were a caste rather than a race. The name Chaldean is applied to that empire established by Nebuchadnezzar's father.

¹¹ See S.D., I, 394-5; II, 452-457. Nabu or Nebo, is god of Wisdom, identical with Mercury. Moses, dying on Mt. Nebo, shows him to have been an Initiate and priest of that god under another name. The Hebrew word for prophet is Nabi.

¹² Three pairs of creative gods appear before the triad, Anu, Bel and Ea: Anu, the passive deity, or En-Soph; Bel, the Creator, the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters; Ea, Universal Soul, or wisdom of the three combined. Anu means atom in Sanscrit, "the smallest of the small," the name of Parabrahm. See also Isis Unveiled, Vol. II, 170.

¹³ Name of the ancient Bel finally applied to Marduk. In this version, which is a glorification of the great "political deity" of Babylon, the powers of all the older gods are transferred to Marduk.

¹⁴ See S.D., II, 52-56, "The water-men terrible and bad." It would seem that the Hebrews called Tiamat, Rahab. Isaiah (li:9) says, "Is it not thou that didst cut Rahab in pieces, that didst pierce the monster?" In Psalm lxxiv:13-14, "Thou breakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters. Thou breakest the heads of the leviathan in pieces." It symbolizes the eternal feud between spirit and matter; the struggles between the Aryan adepts of the nascent Fifth Race and the sorcerers of Atlantis — the demons of the deep; also it relates to the gradual drying up of immense territories by the fierce sun at a certain prehistoric period, which ended by a gradual transformation of once fertile lands into sandy deserts. During the age of reptiles and mammals there were lizards with the wings of birds, and serpents' heads on animal bodies, so it is not impossible that nature ages ago produced many forms now extinct. Even now-a-days we have occasional freaks of nature, which are merely reversions to these primeval types.

¹⁵ The spheres of the three gods correspond to thirds of the ecliptic.

¹⁶ "Jupiter, whose course keeps closer to the ecliptic than that of any other planet, served as an important guide in calendrical calculations. As additional guides, Bel is identified with the north pole of the equator, and Ea with a star in the extreme southern heavens, perhaps in the constellation Argo." (Jastrow.)

¹⁷ The same as Ea. See S.D., II, 578, also S.D., I, 653-654. Pisces, the constellation of the Fish is the constellation of the Messiah. The Brahmans also connect their Messiah, the eternal Avatar Vishnu, with a fish and the deluge. When the Pharisees sought a sign from heaven, Jesus said "there shall no sign be given but the sign of Jonas." (Matt. xvi, 4). The sign of Jonas is that of the Oan, or fisherman of Nineveh. The fish's head was also the mitre worn by priests and gods, made in the form of a fish's head; the tail, the train of a long, stiff mantle, as depicted on some Assyrian tablets. His amphibious nature shows he was both a physical and a spiritual being.

(18) Ur was the oldest seat of the worship of Nannar. We will remember that Abraham went out of Ur of the Chaldees. The Babylonian day began with sunset, showing the preference given to the moon which illumines the night. Later this order was changed. That Sinai is derived from the name of the moon-god, Sin, is evidenced by the finding of statues at Tel-loh in Lower Babylonia, made out of green diorite, which can only be had in the Peninsula of Sinai.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN

THE biblical Garden of Eden is inseparably associated with the theological dogmas of original sin, a personal Devil, the "fall" of man, and the attendant curse which rests upon all mankind, for "in Adam all sinned:" the whole episode the prelude to the necessary birth of a Savior, whose vicarious atonement for man's wickedness is the only hope of his salvation, or eternal life. Since these erroneous and subversive ideas constitute the basis upon which popular Christianity rests, every one should acquaint himself with this allegory which in ancient times was universal, and symbolical of esoteric truths now revealed in the teachings of Theosophy. The story in Genesis is, condensed, as follows:

"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison,...the name of the second river is Gihon,...the name of the third river is Hiddikel; that is it which goeth east of Assyria, and the fourth is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone; I will make an helpmeet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs,...and the rib...made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. [Then the Lord cursed Adam and Eve, saying] cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou returnest to the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

Up to the present time no complete form of this story has been found among the clay tablets of Mesopotamia, but portions have been discovered which indicate its origin and show that the Babylonians were as familiar with this as with other allegories transplanted on Hebrew soil. Its location between the Euphrates and the Tigris, a name for which was Idikla, to which the word hid, meaning river, was prefixed, giving us the Hiddikel of Genesis, carries us back to Sumer. Now there is a Sumerian hymn in which reference is made to a holy place in the plain of Eden, but instead of a tree we find —

"In Eridu a vine¹ grew overshadowing; in a holy place
was it brought forth;
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Into the heart of its holy house, which spreads its
shade like a forest, hath ho man entered.
In its midst is Tammuz,²
Between the mouths of the rivers on both sides."

We will recall that rivers are mentioned in the Mahabharata, and there represent the spiritual and physical streams of life. Although the Garden of Eden has been considered by Christians only the geographical location of the birthplace of all mankind, it also corresponds to the Kuru-Kshetra,³ or body acquired by karma, which should indeed be a holy place, "the temple of the Holy Ghost." There were many Edens; China, which can hardly be suspected of having known anything of the Jews 2,000 B.C., had such a primitive garden in Central Asia, inhabited by the "Dragons of Wisdom." In days of old, the Tree and the Serpent were divine imagery; but the tree was reversed, its roots growing above as we have already seen in the sacred Ashwattha of India and the mighty ash, Yggdrasil, of the Norse. It is only when its pure boughs had touched terrestrial matter, our Adamic race, that this tree became soiled by contact and lost its pristine purity; and that the Serpent of Eternity — the heaven-born Logos — was finally degraded. In Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis (p. 88) there is a most striking picture of an early Babylonian cylinder which represents the garden of Eden as plainly as may be done in art. In the center is the tree of life, with four branches on the side of the woman, and three on the side of the man. The base of the tree is formed out of a serpent, while behind the woman is a standing serpent, evidently beguiling her with words of wisdom. The four and the three branches symbolize the seven races and the seven principles of man, the four on the woman's side typifying the lower, material nature, the three on the man's side symbolical of the higher triad. For the tree is verily man himself, and the serpent, the conscious Manas, the connecting link between matter and spirit, heaven and earth. The antiquity of the serpent symbol also points to the fact that the original sin and the so-called "fall," when the sexes separated in the Third Round, occurred during the earliest portion of what science calls the Mesozoic times, or the age of reptiles. Thus we see that between the Serpent of Eden and the Devil of Christianity is an abyss. Alone the sledge hammer of the ancient Wisdom-Religion can kill this pernicious theological dogma.

In the Babylonian "curse" after the "fall," (given in Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis) the "Lord of the earth his name called out, the Father Elu" (Elohim), and pronounced his curse, which "the God Hea (Ea) heard, and his liver was angry, because his man (angelic man) had corrupted his purity," for which Hea expresses the desire that "'Wisdom and knowledge' hostilely may they injure him" (man). Hea tries to bring to nought the knowledge gained by man through his newly-acquired intellectual and conscious capacity of creating in his turn — thus taking the monopoly out of the hands of God (the Gods) — just as the Elohim do in the third chapter of Genesis. Following their example, it has always been the policy of the priesthood to keep man in ignorance, and hence mankind generally, in spite of its vaunted knowledge, is unacquainted with its own nature. Nevertheless the spirit of wisdom being upon and in man — by the union of the Manasic with the Kamic nature — that Manasic spirit which made him learn the secrets of creation on the Kriyashaktic and of procreation on the earthly planes, led some as naturally to discover their way to immortality, without the intercession of a Savior, notwithstanding the jealousy of all the gods. Therefore, in anticipation of this possibility, which no Christian believes in, the Elohim say: "And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and live forever," as he has already taken of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they "placed at the east of Eden Cherubim and a flaming sword (the evil passions) which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

This final mystery finds its counterpart in the legend of Adapa,⁴ "the seed of mankind." Adapa, a fisherman, is the son of Ea, and a zealous provider for the temple at Eridu. One day while fishing he broke the wings of the south wind so that for seven days it could not blow. Anu, noticing this, sent for Adapa to appear in heaven. Before his departure Ea instructs, or rather purposely deceives him, in much the same fashion as the Lord God deceived Adam in regard to the eating of the tree: "When thou comest before Anu, they will offer thee food of death. Do not eat. They will offer thee waters of death. Do not drink. They will offer thee a garment. Put it on. They will offer thee oil. Anoint thyself. The order that I give thee do not neglect." Adapa arrives in heaven and the gods are angry that an impure mortal has been allowed to see their abode and learn their secrets. Since, however, nothing now remains but to admit him into their circle, they bring him food and water of life. He refuses this, but puts on the dress which they bring him and anoints himself with the oil. At this procedure Anu is amazed and inquires: "Now, Adapa, why didst thou not eat? Why didst thou not drink? Now thou wilt not remain alive." Adapa answers that he followed the instructions of Ea; so he was sent back to earth to live and die as an ordinary mortal. This action is parallelled in the action of those Mahatmas who forego Nirvana and take on body after body of flesh so that they may remain with and help mankind. The dress Adapa dons may be likened to "the coats of skins" which the Lord God gave Adam and Eve, that is, the physical body, before which time — when their eyes were still unopened — they were "naked," an expression for the astral condition of the human form. So we see that the "original sin" and the "fall" were only steps in the evolutionary law of life, a necessary change from the methods of creation in the preceding cycles. We are now better able, perhaps, to understand that passage in the Gita: "He who, sinfully delighting in the gratification of his passions, doth not cause this wheel [or reincarnation] thus already set in motion to continue revolving, liveth in vain." And H. P. Blavatsky states that with the Brahmans it was a religious duty to have a son.

Another Chaldean tablet bearing upon this subject gives an account of the seven wicked Gods or Spirits:

"1. In the first days the evil Gods
2. the angels, who were in rebellion, who in the lower part of heaven
3. had been created,
4. they caused their evil work
5. devising with wicked heads ...
7. There were seven of them."

Then follows the description of them, the fourth being a "serpent," the phallic symbol of the Fourth Race in human evolution.

"15. The seven of them, messengers of Anu, their king."

Anu is identical with Sin, the moon, in one aspect, the seed of all material life, and corresponds to Jehovah, who is double-sexed as Anu is. That they are those who create man's form is evidenced by their being "in the lower part of heaven." The messengers of Anu are shown, in lines 28-41, as being finally overpowered by the same Sin with the help of Bel (the Sun) and Ishtar (Venus). There are two "falls," the rebellion of the Archangels and their "fall," and the "fall" of Adam and Eve. Both are karmic effects, intellectual and spiritual on the one hand, physical and psychic on the other. The Archangels, some of whom were Nirmanakayas from other Manvantaras, were those who, compelled by Karmic law to drink the cup of gall to its last bitter drop, had to incarnate anew, and thus make responsible thinking entities of the astral statues projected by their inferior brethren — "the wicked gods."

The Secret Doctrine is not alone in speaking of primeval Men born simultaneously on the seven divisions of our Globe. In the first column of the Cutha tablet, seven human beings with the faces of ravens (black, swarthy complexions), whom "the (seven) great gods created," are mentioned. "In the midst of the earth they grew up and became great ... Seven kings, brothers of the same family." These are the Seven Kings of Edom to whom reference is made in the Kabala; the first race, which was imperfect, i.e., was born before the "balance" (sexes) existed, was therefore destroyed. They were "destroyed," as a race, by being merged in their own progeny (by exudation); that is to say, the sexless race became the bisexual (potentially); the latter the androgynes; these again the sexual, the later third (our Adam and Eve). Were the Chaldean tablets less mutilated, says H.P.B., they would be found to contain word for word the same accounts as given in the archaic records. They corroborate the Theosophical teachings:

(1) That the race which was the first to fall into generation was a dark race (Zalmat Gaguadi), which they call the Adami or dark Race, and that Sarka, or the light race, remained pure for a long while subsequently.
(2) That the Babylonians recognized two principal Races at the time of the Fall, the Race of the Gods (the Ethereal doubles of the Pitris), having preceded these two. These "Races" are our second and third Root-races.
(3) That these seven Gods, each of whom created a man, or group of men, were "the gods imprisoned or incarnated." In one of the Magical Texts are the following lines:

"O Sin,⁵ thou who alone givest light,
Extending light to mankind,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Showing favor to the black-headed ones,
Thy light is glorious as the Sun."

The state after death is depicted in the legend of Ishtar, the Babylonian Venus. She is represented as having destroyed her youthful consort, Tammuz, a solar-deity — the sun approaching the summer solstice, which occurs in the sixth month, designated by the title, the month of "the mission of Ishtar." The goddess, repentant and weeping goes to the lower world in search of her spouse and is obliged to pass through seven gates. At the first her great crown is removed; at the second, her earrings; at the third, her necklace; at each gate some portion of her dress is taken away until at the seventh, she stands naked before Allatu, who presides over this realm. During her absence all fertility on the earth has ceased. Shamash is informed of the disaster, and goes to Sin and Ea for aid. The latter creates "a divine servant," whose name means "the Renewal of Light," who proceeds to "the land whence there is no return" to fetch the goddess. As Ishtar repasses the gates, the articles stripped from her on her descent are returned; first, her loin cloth, her bracelets, ankle-rings and so on until she reappears upon earth fully clothed. While the myth is a symbol of the passage of the sun through the fall and winter months, it is a clear indication of the post-morten states, when the soul is divested one by one of its astral envelopes, which it again picks up on its return to another incarnation. The story ends with a warning to all who mourn for their dead to remember Tammuz. The festival of Tammuz was selected as an "All-Souls" day and became an occasion of calling to mind those who had entered Aralu. There are many references to women weeping for Tammuz. Excessive grief over the dead was manifested in Babylonia — a custom which still prevails in the Orient — and was the occasion for the production of a great number of dirges. The Book of Lamentations is based upon this very custom of wailing for the dead. Arulu, as the nether world was called, is dark and gloomy:

"...the house whose inhabitants are deprived of light.
The place where dust is their nourishment, their food clay.
They have no light, dwelling in dense darkness.
And they are clothed like birds, in a garment of feathers."

Prof. Jastrow says,⁶ "It is almost startling to note to what a degree the views embodied in the Old Testament writings regarding the fate of the dead, coincide with Babylonian conceptions. The descriptions of Sheol found in Job, in the Psalms, in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and elsewhere are hardly to be distinguished from those that we have encountered in Babylonian literature. While the dead are weak and generally inactive, although capable of suffering, they were also regarded by the Hebrews as possessing powers superior to those of the living. As among the Babylonians, the dead stand so close to the higher powers as to be themselves possessed of divine qualities. Schwally aptly characterizes this apparent contradiction by saying, 'that the dead are Refa'im (weak), but, at the same time, Elohim, i.e., divine beings." Corroborating what has already been brought out, this author says: "Further discoveries beneath the mounds of Mesopotamia and further researches in Babylonian literature, will add more evidence to the indebtedness of the Hebrews to Babylonia. It will be found that in the sacrificial ordinances of the Pentateuch, in the legal regulations, in methods of justice and punishment, Babylonian models were largely followed, or, what is an equal testimony to Babylonian influence, an opposition to Babylonian methods was dominant. It is not strange that when by a curious fate, the Hebrews were once more carried back to the 'great river of Babylon' (Psalm cxxxvii, i) the people felt so thoroughly at home there. It was only the poets and some ardent patriots who hung their harps on the willows and sighed for a return to Zion. The Jewish population steadily increased in Babylonia, and soon also the intellectual activity of Babylonian Jews outstripped that of Palestine.⁷ The finishing touches to the structure of Judaism were given in Babylonia — on the soil where the foundations were laid."

FIRE OF PROMETHEUS

The allegory of the fire of Prometheus is another version of the rebellion of the proud Lucifer, who was hurled down to the bottomless pit, or simply unto our Earth, to live as man. The Hindu Lucifer, the Mahasura, is also said to have become envious of the Creator's resplendent light, and, at the head of inferior Asuras (not gods, but spirits), to have rebelled against Brahmâ; for which Siva hurled him down to Pâtâla. But, as philosophy goes hand in hand with allegorical fiction in Hindu myths, the devil is made to repent, and is afforded the opportunity to progress: he is a sinful man esoterically, and can by yoga devotion, and adeptship, reach his status of one with the deity, once more. Hercules, the Sun-god, descends to Hades (the cave of Initiation) to deliver the victims from their tortures, etc., etc. The Christian Church alone creates eternal torment for the devil and the damned, that she has invented. — S.D., II, p. 237.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 16, No. 6, April, 1928 pp. 259-265

¹ Jesus spoke of himself as the vine.

² Tammuz is the consort of Ishtar, the Babylonian Venus.

³ Bhagavad-Gita.

⁴ Sayce thinks this may be translated Adama (Adam).

⁵ The Moon.

⁶ "Religions of Babylonia and Assyria."

⁷ The Talmud of Babylonia, and not the Talmud of Palestine, became the authoritative work in the Jewish Church. (Jastrow.)

THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF GILGAMESH

LIKE India, Greece and other countries, Babylonia had its great national epic centering around a hero named Gilgamesh. His feats remind us of the labors of Hercules and, like the latter, he was supposed to be a purely mythical character until, among some clay tablets found at Nippur a few years ago, was a list of historical dynasties in which Gilgamesh is mentioned as a king of Uruk (or Erech). Follows now the startling revelation by Col L. A. Waddell, in a book on The Indo-Sumerian Seals (1926) that "the Haryas'wa of the Vedas and Indian Epics and the Ur-Nina of the Assyriologists, generally regarded as the first great dynast of the early Sumerians,...is the son of the great Hercules of the Phoenicians and Greeks, here conclusively identified with Gilgamesh of Erech, and now disclosed for the first time as a historical Aryan-Sumerian-Phoenician king and great sun priest of Bel of relatively fixed date, about 3150 B.C."¹ As the Gilgamesh Epic has been reconstructed from thousands of broken pieces, it is exceedingly fragmentary; interesting to few besides the historian and archaeologist. To the theosophical student its chief appeal lies in its many indications that against a background of legend and history is depicted the drama of one "striving for perfection." The poem is divided into twelve books,² which probably correspond to the twelve signs of the zodiac, with which the twelve great "labors" of Hercules have usually been associated.

The narrative opens with a complaint of the people of Erech that Gilgamesh has taken away their sons and daughters and they appeal to the goddess Aruru to create a man who may be "equal to taking up the fight against him." Accordingly Aruru forms "a man of Anu in her heart," then breaks off clay and throws it upon the ground. Thus is created Enkidu,³ the hero, "a lofty offspring of the host of Ninib."⁴ But his body is covered with hair like an animal, he eats and drinks with the animals, and upsets the traps of the hunter who, in order to catch him, sends to him an Ukhat.⁵ The woman bids him "Come, arise from the accursed ground!" Enkidu obeys her entreaty, learns to eat human food, drinks seven jars of wine, so that "his heart became glad and his face shone," is clothed by her, anointed with oil, and finally becomes a shepherd, protecting the fold from attacks of lions and other wild beasts.

Now Gilgamesh has two dreams. In the first, something heavy falls upon him from heaven, almost crushing him with its weight. He manages to take the burden to his mother, who says it forebodes the coming of one like himself, born in the mountain, and to whom all will pay homage and to whom he himself will become deeply attached. In the second dream he sees one like himself, brandishing an axe; this, his mother explains, is none other than Enkidu. Conducted by the woman to Erech, Enkidu meets Gilgamesh and immediately ensues a fierce combat in which Gilgamesh is worsted; nevertheless thereafter the two become inseparable. Gilgamesh is referred to as the "younger brother," slightly taller than Enkidu, who is otherwise his exact counterpart, except that on some cylinders he is represented with animal hoofs and horns.

The first task undertaken by the two is an attack upon Huwawa, the mighty guardian of the cedar forest, whose mouth emitted fire and whose breath was death. The elders try to dissuade Gilgamesh from so perilous an undertaking, Enkidu declares that even his strength is not sufficient, but Gilgamesh upbraids his companion for such cowardice, affirms his reliance upon Shamash (the sun-god) and says, "If I fall, I will establish my name." At last having received favorable oracles from the gods and being advised by the elders to wash his feet in the stream of Huwawa, the two set out, Enkidu leading, because he is acquainted with the way. After this exploit in which Huwawa is conquered, the goddess Ishtar offers herself in marriage to Gilgamesh, and enraged at his rejection of her suit, appeals to her father Anu to avenge the insult. Accordingly, Anu sends a winged bull which Enkidu seizes by the tail, adding insult to injury by flinging a piece of the carcass into the angry goddess' face. As punishment, he is smitten with a fatal illness to which he succumbs after twelve days. Then begins a long course of wanderings by Gilgamesh who, also afflicted with disease, seeks both healing and immortal life. The quest brings him to the portal guarded by the scorpion-men of terrifying aspect, who allow him to pass unmolested but warn him of the increasing difficulties of the way. Undaunted, our hero gropes along until he comes to a tree covered with precious stones and bearing beautiful fruit. Passing beyond this he reaches the sea where he meets a maiden who tells him that his search for immortality is vain, he might better eat, drink and be merry. When, despite her attempts to discourage him, he expresses his determination to go on, she unbars the portal and he continues his course until he comes to another sea and even to the waters of death, over which no one but Shamash has crossed. Following the directions of the ferryman, although the current is very strong, twelve strokes bring him to his desired haven and he stands face to face with Utnaphistim, the survivor of the flood, who has in addition become immortal. Utnaphistim relates the story of the deluge and then, in pity for the hero, puts him to sleep for six days and seven nights. During this time Utnaphistim's wife concocts a magic food which Gilgamesh eats upon waking and "of a sudden the man was transformed," although his body is covered with sores; these he finally washes away so that he becomes as white as snow. Still Gilgamesh has not found the secret of immortal life. At last the woman tells him where to find the plant called "the restoration of old age to youth," which he plucks, but alas! no sooner is it in his grasp than a devil, in the form of a serpent, snatches it from him. Gilgamesh is grief-stricken at the loss and is obliged to return to Erech without having obtained the object of his quest.

Many explanations of this poem have been offered. Prof. Jastrow believes the name Gilgamesh is not Babylonian — which lends support to Col. Waddell's conclusions — and that the first episode, the complaint of the people of Erech, is a reminiscence of the extension of Gilgamesh's domain by the conquest of the city. The creation of Enkidu by the goddess follows the universal tradition: he is the "man of dust," or more precisely, of the Babylonian clay, while the description of his person answers to that of similar half-animal tribes found in various parts of the world even at the present time. Curiously enough, Enkidu's environment differs but little from that of Adam who, in Genesis ii:19-20, is surrounded by the animals and in Chapter iii:17, "cursed is the ground" which he has to till; while Eve finds a partial counterpart in the Ukhat who entices the man from the companionship of the animals and leads him to Erech, the whole episode symbolizing the evolution of man from a savage or "mindless" state to a self-conscious, civilized life. The meeting of Gilgamesh with Enkidu, or his kind, who serves the former in his subsequent undertakings may have an historical basis. A similar tribe was used by Rama in his war with the king of Lanka and by their sacrificial service must have merited the right to enter upon a higher evolutionary round. On the other hand, the fact that Enkidu is the exact counterpart of Gilgamesh⁶ with only the addition of hoofs and horns, is an indication that we may read the poem metaphysically. Enkidu may well stand for the human body. He is "a man of Anu," in biblical phraseology "a man of God," for Anu was one of the Babylonian trinity. But the word anu in Sanscrit, which was well known in Babylonia, means an atom, hence the atomic man is a primary or astral form. In the dreams of Gilgamesh that follow, the heavy weight which falls upon him may typify the heavy responsibility assumed by the beings who incarnated in the "mindless" physical forms in the third Round, also the heavy burden which he and every man assumes whenever they enter a new physical body; for it is said that upon the threshold of devachan lie in wait the skandhas (the tendencies, in large part evil) which were engendered in the preceding life or lives, and which go to make up the new astral body of the reincarnating Ego. Therefore, Gilgamesh takes the burden to his mother. The second dream in which he sees some one just like himself is, as his mother explains, Enkidu, the forthcoming personality or body. So Gilgamesh represents the Higher Triad in man. He had built the seven walls that surround Erech, he is described as "the seven-fold hero," two-thirds god and one-third human, while the signs composing his name are said to be a picture of fire under a bowl, or issuing from a torch. What is this but the light of Manas? He is also called the "younger brother," just as the Pandus in the Gita are the younger tribe, because they have appeared last on this plane of matter. As soon as Gilgamesh meets Enkidu there is the inevitable conflict between the higher and the lower self in which the latter is for the time conqueror, but afterwards Enkidu becomes the best of servants, doing with his hands the deeds which Gilgamesh, with the light of mind, points out to be done. Although Enkidu is aware that his strength is not sufficient, as is the leader of the Kurus, by his alliance with Gilgamesh he is able to overcome the foe.

And what is the cedar forest in which dwells the beast Huwawa, but the forest of our own nature?⁷ Then there is the curious advice of the elders that Gilgamesh wash his feet in the stream of Huwawa! May we not find an interpretation of this passage in Light on the Path? "Before the soul can stand in the presence of the Masters its feet must be washed in the blood of the heart." For the beast of evil "lives fruitfully in the heart of the devoted disciple as well as in the heart of the man of desire." The episode of Ishtar occurs in the sixth book or sign, and Enkidu's killing of the bull which follows may typify the killing out of the purely animal nature, after which the next portal guarded by the scorpion-men may with safety be passed, although the darkness deepens as our hero proceeds. It will be instructive at this point to turn to another guide-book on this "small old path," The Voice of the Silence, and note how Gilgamesh's experiences tally with it. "The more thou dost advance, the more thy feet pitfalls will meet. The Path that leadeth on is lighted by one fire — the light of daring burning in the heart. The more one dares, the more he shall obtain. The more he fears, the more that light shall pale — and that alone can guide." The scorpion-men are at the mountain of Mashu, and Prof. Jastrow says that Mashu was a name applied to the Arabian desert, and that even the bold Assyrian armies hesitated before passing through this region. Hence he thinks this episode may refer to some expedition to Southern Arabia. This may be true; for can we not see that the Path of the disciple is two-fold, manifesting as objective achievement — the facts of history and biography — and as subjective metempsychoses, or the desires, motives, choices which constitute the real journey of the soul — the Path "without moving" as distinguished from the moving path of effects? Because of this parallelism, history and story may be employed as a symbol of soul experiences, following the Hermetic axiom, "As above, so below." As within, so without. Since many meanings may be implied by the successive steps taken by Gilgamesh, we leave the student to think them out for himself.

And now the "Pilgrim" pushes on even to the "waters of death," which no one but the Sun-god had ever crossed, and he crosses over them — daring antetype of Columbus and Lindbergh! For did not these men pass over tracts of sea and air never traversed before by any but the sun-god in the heavens? Some commentators have suggested that the journey over the waters of death referred to a voyage to Atlantis, not an impossible adventure considering the maritime skill of the Phoenicians. Where these waters were, insofar as we may interpret them as navigable seas, does not really matter. It would appear, however, that Gilgamesh journeyed to some great Sage at a distance, possibly to India. We will recall that the American "witnesses on the scene" made long journeys to some central Lodge and Great Chohan for the ostensible purpose of getting the rejuvenating Elixir of Life. At all events, when Gilgamesh found this "Immortal One," he recognized him as his Master. Arjuna, with Krishna at his side, did not know that he was a Master, but asked him what such a being looked like. When Gilgamesh saw Utnaphistim he was astonished to find that in outward appearance he was no different from himself. So it is said that one may live in the same house with a Master and never recognize him as such. So, too, the Ego, who thinks himself only man, may waken himself to knowledge of his own Divinity.

And now Utnaphistim proceeds to tell Gilgamesh about the flood. That this episode existed independently of its setting in the epic is certain, for it was a universal tradition, and followed an older version in which the survivor's name is Atrakhasis, meaning "The Very Wise One." We also see that the story is the model for the account in Genesis. Utnaphistim says Ea warned him in a dream of the approaching cataclysm and instructed him to build a vessel and to catch fish and birds. After completing the "ark," he loaded it with silver and gold and "all living beings of all kinds" and then brought his family and household and workmen on board. At last —

"The fixed time approached,
When the rulers of darkness at even-time were to
cause a terrible rain-storm.
I recognized the symptoms of [such] a day,
A day, for the appearance of which I was in terror."

The hurricane raged so furiously that even the gods were terrified and crouched like dogs in enclosure. For six days it continued to sweep over the land

"When the seventh day approached, the hurricane
and cyclone ceased the combat,
The sea grew quiet, the evil storm abated, the
cyclone was restrained.
I looked at the day and the roar had quieted down,
And all mankind had turned to clay.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I looked in all directions of the sea.
At a distance of twelve [miles] an island appeared.
At Mount Nizir the ship stood still.
Mount Nizir took hold of the ship so that it could not move.
When the seventh day arrived,
I sent forth a dove, letting it free.
Not finding a resting-place, it came back.
I sent forth a swallow, letting it free.
The swallow went hither and thither.
Not finding a resting-place, it came back.
I sent forth a raven, letting it free.
The raven went and saw the decrease of the water,
It ate, croaked, but did not come back."⁸

Then Utnaphistim made a sacrifice to the gods, who "smelled the sweet odor" and "like flies gathered around the sacrifice." Ea took this occasion to upbraid the leader and warrior of the gods for bringing on this terrible deluge and confesses that he warned Utnaphistim so that the latter might be saved and mankind not completely destroyed. Enlil then blesses the survivors, saying:

"Hitherto Utnaphistim was a man:
Now Utnaphistim and his wife shall be on a level
with the gods.
Utnaphistim shall dwell in the distance, at the
confluence of the streams."

Utnaphistim's tale ended, Gilgamesh is put into a trance-sleep, is "transformed," healed of his sores, and told where to find the elixir of life, a plant, which he plucks. Just as he is about to achieve immortality, the narrative continues, he waits to bathe in a cool cistern. A serpent snatches the precious plant from him. After this, Gilgamesh returns to Erech, where he evokes the shade of Enkidu and asks for information about the life after death, but the ghost says he can give no knowledge to Gilgamesh.

Such is the apparently inglorious ending to this ancient Epic — tragedy of failure where one would anticipate a glorious climax. What may be its meaning? Considering the view of Col. Waddell that Gilgamesh may be identified with the Grecian Hercules one would conclude that, like that hero, Gilgamesh should have been admitted to the circle of the gods. Other scholars reach a more abstract opinion and think that the fate of Gilgamesh is intended to teach that the search for immortality is useless, that death does, indeed, "end all," even for the most heroic man.

But Theosophists who have studied "The Secret Doctrine" and "The Voice of the Silence" and gained some insight into the symbolisms in which are recorded the various Paths pursued in the course of Evolution, Spiritual and Psychic as well as physical, may read other meanings into or out of this old Epic. It is true that "great ones fall back, even from the threshold, unable to sustain the weight of their responsibility, unable to pass on;" and so, "when the victory is all but won, it is lost" — as recited in Light on the Path. But the whole course of Gilgamesh, as narrated in the Poem, is against this supposition, let alone the false psychology of leading the hero of a great religious Epic, which we must assume to have excited the reverence of a whole people for long ages, to final failure after having triumphed over every obstacle. Nor does the narrative lend itself to the supposition that Gilgamesh personifies or typifies a practitioner of or devotee to Atlantean Black magic.

Rather, one would think, Gilgamesh, having reached to the mystic plant, the "Shangna robe," or plant of the Voice of the Silence, pauses indeed, to bathe in the "cool cistern" in which, if he will, he can gain "oblivion of the World and men for ever" by choosing the Path of "Liberation" rather than that of "Renunciation." But — who knows? — the Serpent in the Epic may have said to Gilgamesh:

"The choice is thine....But stay, Disciple....
Yet one word. Canst thou destroy divine Compassion?"

And Gilgamesh may have replied, as in the "Voice:" "OM! I believe that the Nirvana-Dharma is entered not by all the Buddhas," and so have chosen the "Secret Path" of the Nirmanakaya, to live and work in the Ethereal world where, as in the physical, he would find his shadow, "Enkidu."

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 16, No. 7, May, 1928 pp. 307-313

¹ From a review in the New York Times.

² The number 12 recurs throughout the poem.

³ Also read Eabani.

⁴ Ninib is the Babylonian Saturn. "The host" may represent the hierarchy of "lives."

⁵ An Ukhat is a temple-woman, or devotee of Ishtar.

⁶ Some have thought that the two "heroes" were originally the subjects of two separate tales which were finally welded into one.

⁷ Initiates were sometimes called "cedars."

⁸ Compare Genesis vi, 5-20; vii, 11, 12, 23, and viii, 4-22.

THE LEGEND OF THE BLUE LOTUS¹⁴

THE title of every magazine or book should have some meaning, and especially should this be the case with a Theosophical Publication. A title is supposed to express the object in view, symbolising, as it were, the content of the paper. Since allegory is the soul of Eastern philosophy, it may be objected that nothing can be seen in the name "Le Lotus Bleu," save that of a water plant — the Nymphea Cerulea or Nelumbo. Furthermore a reader of this calibre would see but the blue colour of the list of contents of our journal.

To avoid a like misunderstanding, we shall attempt to initiate our readers into the general symbolism of the lotus and the particular symbolism of the Blue Lotus. This mysterious and sacred plant has been considered through the ages, both in Egypt and in India, as a symbol of the Universe. Not a monument in the valley of the Nile, not a papyrus, without this plant in an honoured place. On the capitals of the Egyptian pillars, on the thrones and even the head-dresses of the Divine Kings, the lotus is everywhere found as a symbol of the Universe. It inevitably became an indispensable attribute of every creative god, as of every creative goddess, the latter being, philosophically considered, only the feminine aspect of the god, at first androgynous, afterwards male.

It is from Padma-Yoni, "the bosom of the Lotus," from Absolute Space, or from the Universe outside time and space, that emanates the Cosmos, conditioned and limited by time and space. The Hiranya Garbha, "the egg" (or the womb) of gold, from which Brahma emerges, is often called the Heavenly Lotus. The God, Vishnu, — the synthesis of the Trimurti or Hindu Trinity — during the "nights of Brahma" floats asleep on the primordial waters, stretched on the blossom of a lotus. His Goddess, the lovely Lakshmi, rising from the bosom of the waters, like Venus-Aphrodite, has a white lotus beneath her feet. It was at the churning of the Ocean of Milk — symbol of space and of the Milky way — by the Gods assembled together, that Lakshmi, Goddess of Beauty and Mother of Love (Kama) formed of the froth of the foaming waves, appeared before the astonished Gods, borne on a lotus, and holding another lotus in her hand.

Thus have arisen the two chief titles of Lakshmi; Padma the Lotus, and Kshirabdi-tanaya daughter of the Ocean of Milk. Gautama the Buddha has never been degraded to the level of a god, notwithstanding the fact that he was the first mortal within historical times fearless enough to interrogate that dumb Sphinx, which we call the Universe, and to wrest completely therefrom the secrets of Life and Death. Though he has never been deified, we repeat, yet he has nevertheless been recognised by generations in Asia as Lord of the Universe. This is why the conqueror and master of the world of thought and philosophy is represented as seated on a lotus in full bloom, emblem of the Universe thought out by him. In India and Ceylon the lotus is generally of a golden hue; amongst the Buddhists of the North, it is blue.

But there exists in one part of the world a third kind of lotus — the Zizyphus. He who eats of it forgets of his fatherland and those who are dear to him, so say the ancients. Let us not follow this example. Let us not forget our spiritual home, the cradle of the human race, and the birthplace of the Blue Lotus.

Let us then raise the veil of oblivion which covers one of the most ancient allegories — a Vedic legend which, however, the Brahman chroniclers have preserved. Only as the chroniclers have recounted the legend each after his own manner, aided by variations¹ of his own, we have given the story here — not according to the incomplete renderings and translations of these Eastern gentlemen but according to the popular version. Thus is it that the old bards of Rajasthan sing it, when they come and seat themselves in the verandah of the traveller's bungalow in the wet evenings of the rainy season. Let us leave then the Orientalists to their fantastic speculations. How does it concern us whether the father of the selfish and cowardly prince, who was the cause of the transformation of the white lotus into the blue lotus, be called Harischandra or Ambarisha? Names have nothing to do with the naive poetry of the legend, nor with its moral — for there is a moral to be found if looked for well. We shall soon see that the chief episode in the story is curiously reminiscent of another legend — that of the story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac in the Bible. Is not this one more proof that the Secret Doctrine of the East may have good reason to maintain that the name of the Patriarch was neither a Chaldean or a Hebrew name, but rather an epithet and a Sanskrit surname, signifying a-bram, i.e., one who is non-Brahman,² a debrahmanised Brahman, one who is degraded or who has lost his caste? After this how can we avoid suspecting that we may find, among the modern Jews, the Chaldeans of the time of the Rishi Agastya — these makers of bricks whose persecution began from eight hundred to a thousand years ago, but who emigrated to Chaldea four thousand years before the Christian era — when so many of the popular legends of Southern India resemble the Bible stories. Louis Jacolliot speaks in several of his twenty-one volumes on Brahmanical India of this matter, and for once he is right.

We will speak of it another time. Meanwhile here is the Legend of

THE BLUE LOTUS

Century after century has passed away since Ambarisha, King of Ayodhya, reigned in the city founded by the holy Manu, Vaivasvata, the offspring of the Sun. The King was a Suryavansi (a descendant of the Solar Race), and he avowed himself a most faithful servant of the God, Varuna, the greatest and most powerful deity in the Rig-Veda.³ But the god had denied male heirs to his worshipper, and this made the king very unhappy.

"Alas!" he wailed, every morning while performing his puja to the lesser gods, "alas! What avails it to be the greatest king on earth when God denies me an heir of my blood. When I am dead and placed on the funeral pyre, who will fulfil the pious duties of a son, and shatter my lifeless skull to liberate my soul from its earthly trammels? What strange hand will at the full moon-tide place the rice of the Shraddha ceremony to do reverence to my shade? Will not the very birds of death⁴ themselves turn from the funeral feast? For, surely, my shade earthbound in its great despair will not permit them to partake of it."⁵

The King was thus bewailing, when his family priest inspired him with the idea of making a vow. If God should send him two or more sons, he would promise God to sacrifice to Him at a public ceremony the eldest born when he should have attained the age of puberty.

Attracted by this promise of a burnt-offering of flesh — a savoury odour very agreeable to the Great Gods — Varuna accepted the promise of the King, and the happy Ambarisha had a son, followed by several others. The eldest son, the heir to the throne for the time being, was called Rohita (the red) and was surnamed Devarata — which, literally translated, means God-given. Devarata grew up and soon became a veritable Prince Charming, but if we are to believe the legends he was as selfish and deceitful as he was beautiful.

When the Prince had attained the appointed age, the God speaking through the mouth of the same Court Priest, charged the King to keep his promise; but when each time Ambarisha invented some excuse to postpone the hour of sacrifice, the God at last grew annoyed. Being a jealous and angry God, He threatened the King with all His Divine wrath.

For a long time, neither commands nor threats produced the desired effect. As long as there were sacred cows to be transferred from the royal cow-sheds to those of the Brahmans, as long as there was money in the Treasury to fill the Temple crypts, the Brahmans succeeded in keeping Varuna quiet. But when there were no more cows, when there was no more money, the God threatened to overthrow the King, his palace and his heirs, and if they escaped, to burn them alive. The poor King, finding himself at the end of his resources, summoned his first-born and informed him of the fate which awaited him. But Devarata lent a deaf ear to these tidings. He refused to submit to the double weight of the paternal and divine will.

So, when the sacrificial fires had been lighted and all the good towns-folk of Ayodhya had gathered together, full of emotion, the heir-apparent was absent from the festival.

He had concealed himself in the forests of the Yogis.

Now, these forests had been inhabited by holy hermits, and Devarata knew that there he would be unassailable and impregnable. He might be seen there, but no one could do him violence — not even the God Varuna Himself. It was a simple solution. The religious austerities of the Aranyakas (the holy men of the forests) several of whom were Daityas (Titans, a race of giants and demons), gave them such dominance that all the Gods trembled before their sway and their supernatural powers — even Varuna himself.

These antediluvian Yogis, it seems, had the power to destroy even the God Himself, at will — possibly because they had invented Him themselves.

Devarata spent several years in the forests; at last he grew tired of the life. Allowing it to be understood that he could satisfy Varuna by finding a substitute, who would sacrifice himself in his place, provided that the sacrificial victim was the son of a Rishi, he started on his journey and finally discovered that he sought.

In the country which lies around the flower-covered shores of the renowned Pushkara, there was once a famine, and a very holy man, named Ajigarta⁶, was at the point of death from starvation, likewise all his family. He had several sons of whom the second, Sunahsepha, a virtuous young man, was himself also preparing to become a Rishi. Taking advantage of his poverty and thinking with good reason that a hungry stomach would be a more ready listener than a satisfied one, the crafty Devarata made the father acquainted with his history. After this he offered him a hundred cows in exchange for Sunahsepha, a substitute burnt-offering on the altar of the Gods.

The virtuous father refused at first point-blank, but the gentle Sunahsepha offered himself of his own accord, and thus addressed his father: "Of what importance is the life of one man, when it can save that of many others. This God is a great god and His pity is infinite; but He is also a very jealous god and His wrath is swift and vengeful. Varuna is the Lord of Terror, and Death is obedient to His command. His spirit will not for ever strive with one who is disobedient to Him. He will repent Him that He has created man, and then will burn alive a hundred thousand lakhs⁷ of innocent people, because of one man who is guilty. If His victim should escape Him, He will surely dry up our rivers, set fire to our lands and destroy our women who are with child — in His infinite kindness. Let me then sacrifice myself, oh! my father, in place of this stranger who offers us a hundred cows. That sum would prevent thee and my brothers from dying of hunger and will save thousands of others from a terrible death. At this price the giving up of life is a pleasant thing."

The aged Rishi shed some tears, but he ended by giving his consent and began to prepare the sacrificial pyre.⁸

The Pushkara lake⁹ was one of the spots of this earth favoured by the Goddess, Lakshmi-Padma (White Lotus); she often plunged into the fresh waters that she might visit her eldest sister, Varuni, the consort of the God Varuna.¹⁰ Lakshmi-Padma heard the proposal of Devarata, witnessed the despair of the father, and admired the filial devotion of Sunahsepha. Filled with pity, the Mother of Love and Compassion sent for the Rishi Visvamitra, one of the seven primordial Manus and a son of Brahma, and succeeded in interesting him in the lot of her protégé. The great Rishi promised her his aid. Appearing to Sunahsepha, but unseen by all others, he taught him two sacred verses (mantras) of the Rig-Veda, making him promise to recite these on the pyre. Now, he who utters these two mantras (invocations) forces the whole assembly of the Gods, with Indra at their head, to come to his rescue, and because of this becomes a Rishi himself in this life or in his next incarnation.

The altar was set up on the shore of the lake, the pyre was prepared and the crowd had assembled. After he had laid his son on the perfumed sandal wood and bound him, Ajigarta equipped himself with the knife of sacrifice. He was just raising his trembling arm above the heart of his well-beloved son, when the boy began to chant the sacred verses. There was again a moment of hesitation and supreme grief, and as the boy finished his mantram, the aged Rishi plunged his knife into the breast of Sunahsepha.

But, oh! the miracle of it! At that very moment Indra, the God of the Blue Vault (the Universe) issued from the heavens and descended right into the midst of the ceremony. Enveloping the pyre and the victim in a thick blue mist, he loosed the ropes which held the youth captive. It seemed as if a corner of the azure heavens had lowered itself over the spot, illuminating the whole country and colouring with a golden blue the whole scene. Filled with terror, the crowd, and even the Rishi himself, fell on their faces, half dead with fear.

When they came to themselves, the mist had disappeared and a complete change of scene had been wrought.

The fires of the funeral pyre had rekindled of themselves, and stretched thereon was seen a hind (Rohit)¹¹ which was none else than the Prince Rohita, Devarata, who, pierced to the heart with the knife he had directed against another, was burning as a sacrifice for his sin.

Some little way apart from the altar, also lying stretched out, but on a bed of Lotuses, peacefully slept Sunahsepha; and in the place on his breast where the knife had descended was seen to bloom a beautiful blue lotus. The Pushkara lake, itself, covered a moment before with white lotuses, whose petals shone in the sun like silver cups full of Amrita's waters¹², now reflected the azure of the heavens — the white lotuses had become blue.

Then like to the sound of the Vina¹³ rising to the air from the depths of the waters, was heard a melodious voice which uttered these words and this curse:

"A prince who does not know how to die for his subjects is not worthy to reign over the children of the Sun. He will be reborn in a race of red haired peoples, a barbarous and selfish race, and the nations which descend from him will have a heritage ever on the decline. It is the younger son of a mendicant ascetic who will become the king and reign in his stead."

A murmur of approbation set in movement the flowery carpet that o'erspread the lake. Opening to the golden sunlight their hearts of blue, the lotuses smiled with joy and wafted a hymn of perfume to Surya, their Sun and Master. All nature rejoiced, save Devarata, who was but a handful of ashes.

Then Visvamitra, the great Rishi, although he was already the father of a hundred sons, adopted Sunahsepha as his eldest son and as a precautionary measure cursed in advance anyone who should refuse to recognise, in the last born of the Rishi, the eldest of his children and the legitimate heir of the throne of Ambarisha.

Because of this decree, Sunahsepha was born in his next incarnation in the royal family of Ayodhya, and reigned over the Solar race for 84,000 years.

With regard to Rohita — Devarata or God-given as he was — he fulfilled the lot which Lakshmi Padma had vowed. He reincarnated in the family of a foreigner without caste (Mlecckha-Yavana) and became the ancestor of the barbarous and red-haired races which dwell in the West.

. . . . . . . . . .

It is for the conversion of these races that the Lotus Bleu has been established.

If any of our readers should allow themselves to doubt the historical truth of this adventure of our ancestor, Rohita, and of the transformation of the white lotus into the blue lotus, they are invited to make a journey to Ajmeer.

Once there, they need only to go to the shores of the lake thrice blessed, named Pushkara, where every pilgrim who bathes during the full moon time of the month of Krhktika (October-November) attains to the highest sanctity, without other effort. There the sceptics would see with their own eyes the site where was built the pyre of Rohita, and also the waters visited by Lakshmi in days of yore.

They might even have seen the blue lotuses, if most of these had not since been changed, thanks to a new transformation decreed by the Gods, into sacred crocodiles which no one has the right to disturb. It is this transformation which gives to nine out of every ten pilgrims who plunge into the waters of the lake, the opportunity of entering into Nirvana almost immediately, and also causes the holy crocodiles to be the most bulky of their kind.

"I INCARNATE FROM AGE TO AGE"

When mortals shall have become sufficiently spiritualised, there will be no more need of forcing them into a correct comprehension of ancient Wisdom. Men will know then, that there never yet was a great World-reformer, whose name has passed into our generation, who (a) was not a direct emanation of the Logos (under whatever name known to us), i.e., an essential incarnation of one of "the seven," of the "divine Spirit who is sevenfold"; and (b) who had not appeared before, during the past Cycles. They will recognise, then, the cause which produces in history and chronology certain riddles of the ages; the reason why, for instance, it is impossible for them to assign any reliable date to Zoroaster, who is found multiplied by twelve and fourteen in the Dabistan; why the Rishis and Manus are so mixed up in their numbers and individualities; why Krishna and Buddha speak of themselves as re-incarnations, i.e., Krishna is identified with the Rishi Narâyana, and Gautama gives a series of his previous births; and why the former, especially, being "the very supreme Brahmâ," is yet called Amsámsávatára — "a part of a part" only of the Supreme on Earth. Finally, why Osiris is a great God, and at the same time a "prince on Earth," who reappears in Thoth-Hermes, and why Jesus (in Hebrew, Joshua) of Nazareth is recognised, cabalistically, in Joshua, the Son of Nun, as well as in other personages. The esoteric doctrine explains it by saying that each of these (as many others) had first appeared on earth as one of the seven powers of the Logos, individualized as a God or "Angel" (messenger); then, mixed with matter, they had re-appeared in turn as great sages and instructors who "taught the Fifth Race," after having instructed the two preceding races, had ruled during the Divine Dynasties, and had finally sacrificed themselves, to be reborn under various circumstances for the good of mankind, and for its salvation at certain critical periods; until in their last incarnations they had become truly only "the parts of a part" on earth, though de facto the One Supreme in Nature. — S.D., II, pp. 358-9.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 16, No. 8, June, 1928 pp. 341-348

¹⁴ This article by H. P. Blavatsky was first printed in Le Lotus Bleu, of April 7, 1890.

¹ cf. the history of Sunahsepha in the Bhagavata, IX. XVI, 35 and of the Ramayana, Bk. I. Cap. 60; Manu, X, 105; Koulouka Bhatta (the Historian); Bahwruba and the Aitareya Brahmanas; Vishnu Purana etc., etc. Each book gives its own version.

² The particle a in the Sanskrit word shews this clearly. Placed before a substantive this particle always means the negation or the opposite of the meaning of the expression that follows. Thus Sura (god), written a-Sura, becomes non-God, or the devil. Vidya is knowledge, and a-Vidya, ignorance, or the opposite of knowledge, etc., etc.

³ It is only much later in the orthodox Pantheon and the symbolical polytheism of the Brahmans that Varuna became Posseidon or Neptune — which he is now. In the Vedas he is the most ancient of the Gods, identical with Ouranos of the Greeks, that is to say a personification of the celestial space and the infinite gods, the creator and ruler of heaven and earth, the King, the Father and the Master of the world, of gods and of men. Hesiod's Uranus and the Greek Zeus are one.

⁴ Rooks and ravens.

⁵ The Shradda is a ceremony observed by the nearest relatives of the deceased for the nine days following the death. Once upon a time it was a magical ceremony. Now, however, in addition to other practices, it mainly consists of scattering balls of cooked rice before the door of the dead man's house. If the crows promptly eat the rice it is a sign that the soul is liberated and at rest. If these birds which are so greedy did not touch the food, it was a proof that the pisacha or bhut (shade) is present and is preventing them. Undoubtedly the Shradda is a superstition, but certainly not more so than Novenas or masses for the Dead.

⁶ Others call him Rishika and call King Ambarisha, Harischandra, the famous sovereign who was a paragon of all the virtues.

⁷ A lakh is a measure of 100,000, whether men or pieces of money be in question.

⁸ Manu (Book X, 105) alluding to this story remarks that Ajigarta, the holy Rishi, committed no sin in selling the life of his son, since the sacrifice preserved his life and that of all the family. This reminds us of another legend, more modern, that might serve as a parallel to the older one. Did not the Count Ugolino, condemned to die of starvation in his dungeon, eat his own children "to preserve for them a father"? The popular legend of Sunahsepha is more beautiful than the commentary of Manu — evidently an interpolation of some Brahmans in falsified manuscripts.

⁹ This lake is sometimes called in our day Pokher. It is a place famous for a yearly pilgrimage, and is charmingly situated five English miles from Ajmeer in Rajisthan. Pushkara means "the Blue Lotus," the surface of the lake being covered as with a carpet with these beautiful plants. But the legend avers that they were at first white. Pushkara is also the proper name of a man, and the name of one of the "seven sacred islands" in the Geography of the Hindus, the sapta dwipa.

¹⁰ Varuni, Goddess of Heat (later Goddess of Wine) was also born of the Ocean of Milk. Of the "fourteen precious objects" produced by the churning, she appeared the second and Lakshmi the last, preceded by the Chalice of Amrita, the nectar which gives Immortality.

¹¹ A play upon words. Rohit in Sanskrit is the name of the female of the deer, the hind, and Rohita means "red." It was because of his cowardice and fear of death that he was changed, according to the legend, into a hind by the Gods.

¹² The Elixir which confers Immortality.

¹³ A species of the Lute. An instrument, the invention of which is attributed to Shiva.

FRATERNITY OF EAST AND WEST¹

THERE is a growing interest in the Orient which shows itself everywhere — in political circles and art soirees; among literary critics and philosophic students. The archeological finds of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in India, as also of the city of Ur of the Chaldees, have already changed historical values, and are beginning to give to the Orient a new and different place in the scheme of things. Theosophists are naturally interested in this revival, for they have not only affection but reverence for the great world of Asia.

In every part of that ancient continent significant events are taking place. Human emotion and human thought are moulding afresh the destiny of races with an amazingly accelerated speed, but these races of the old world are vastly different from those of the new. Some in the occident are apt to look upon the East as effete, or in a state of degradation — a false view, of course, and what is more, fraught with danger in many directions. There are aspects of the East, which not only look, but are, objectionable. An universal basis for observation and judgment is called for: The East needs to look at the West not from its peculiar angle of vision, but to learn to value it as a part of the universal whole. And men of the West should do likewise. So, while highly objectionable features exist in the modern East, we need not forget that a similar degradation exists also in the Western world. To help in any way the cause of human brotherhood requires not only sympathy but understanding. And so, while from Tokyo to Angora, nationalities are seething, politically speaking, the principles, so admirably enunciated by H. P. Blavatsky should be borne in mind:

"To seek to achieve political reforms before we have effected a reform in human nature, is like putting new wine into old bottles. Make men feel and recognize in their inmost hearts what is their real, true duty to all men, and every old abuse of power, every iniquitous law in the national policy based on human, social or political, selfishness, will disappear of itself. Foolish is the gardener who seeks to weed his flower-bed of poisonous plants by cutting them off from the surface of the soil, instead of tearing them out by the roots. No lasting political reform can be ever achieved with the same selfish men at the head of affairs as of old."

The forces which unite peoples are spiritual; those which cause conflict spring from selfishness. True culture is a uniting power. Culture creates family and civic and national bonds. The different strata of society form themselves naturally, culture being the cause of such formations. The mark of culture is seen in that strength with which man has overcome his own animal instincts, his own savagery. The culture of any nation flowers on the tree of purity and peace; the roots are in the hard soil of the past. The past is important. And the European past is intimately connected with the Orient. Jesus, whose religion Christendom is supposed to follow, was himself an Asiatic. Greeks who are regarded as the fathers of Western culture were but children of Asiatic thought. Pythagoras went to India; so did Apollonius; they influenced Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and all those who came after. The Moors were our teachers, but their forbears were the pupils of still mightier and more Eastern Asiatics. As children of the modern West trace their pedigree to the ancient East, they will learn to evaluate their cultures in the light of their age-old inheritance.

Study of the ancient Orient does not mean study of the political changes and manoeuvres in modern China or Persia; but the culture of China which focussed and flowered in Lao-Tzu and Confucius, Chavang Tzu and Mencius; the culture of old Iran where Zarathushtra spake words of fire and the Sufis sang their mystic verse; above all, the culture of India where Krishna taught Arjuna how to fight the greatest of all wars, and where the wise Buddha preached for nearly half a century. Unlike Egypt and Chaldea and Greece, India still lives; unlike even Persia and China and Japan, India remains in large part unchanged, unaltered, in its fundamental spirituality. In her atmosphere today can be heard what at the dawn of Aryan civilization the Vedic Bards heard. Sankara's philosophy still attracts to life and ardour keen Hindu minds, although coloured by Western ideas.

India is many-sided; Asia is myriad-minded. Work towards the understanding of our brothers of that continent will give opportunity for them to understand us. Mutually understanding one another, though living lives widely dissimilar in external modes, both peoples — East and West — will grow in unison and harmony.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 19, No. 2, December, 1930 pp. 65-66

¹ Prior to resuming the "Ancient Landmarks" series (the last number of which appeared in Vol. XVII, November, 1928) with a study of the teachings of Ancient India, we publish a series of short articles dealing in large part with the India of to-day. — EDITORS

TRUTH BEYOND EAST OR WEST

A SPIRITUAL awakening is taking place in America and in other Western countries. This leads to a revival of interest in the occult and the phenomenal side of nature and life. As the West knows but little of that science and the Soul, instinctively it turns to the Orient, for it feels, and rightly, that the Wise Men of the East have imparted Their knowledge to Their peoples for long generations. In taking this legitimate course, the West often forgets that human nature in the Orient is not fundamentally different from that in Europe or America. There, as here, misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and corruption of knowledge take place, because there, as here, human selfishness and its bondmaiden ignorance exist.

Everything that comes in the guise of knowledge from India or the East is not true knowledge. Trickery and fraud, malpractices and false philosophy are rampant there, and the West should learn to protect itself against all this false knowledge. Why should this be?

Light and darkness are the world's eternal ways, and in regions invisible, as in regions visible, both good and evil work their miracles — always and everywhere, known or unperceived. We mistake the invisible for the spiritual. We do not call invisible germs of diseases spiritual phenomena; but table-tapping by some invisible agency, movement of hand in automatic writing by some invisible force, etc., are attributed to the divine world of spirit. There are microbes of health and microbes of disease, both, invisible to the naked eye. Our invisible thoughts and feelings are good as well as evil, producing beautiful or ugly expressions. There are forces active in our own being, the nature of which is unknown to us. We are more or less familiar with the nature of the known forces, through their activities; but any sudden manifestation of some unknown force, for which we cannot account, is often attributed to the divine in us. Such is human ignorance.

The sense of the marvelous is natural to man. From it much human superstition arises, and credulity is twin sister of superstition. Interested parties take advantage of the situation; and in the East also crafty men exist. There is a tendency among Westerners to "run down" the visible East — insanitary, starving, unscientific, backward; there is also the opposite tendency — to accept as the mysterious, invisible East, wholly spiritual, the India of fakirs, of yoga, of mental passivity, of soothing religiosity. Because the East, and especially India, is at its heart highly spiritual, and therefore psychically dynamic, there is excessive manifestation of the invisible aspect of the evil side. A great and roaring fire on the hearth emits volumes of smoke in the air.

We need to distinguish between the spiritual soul and animal-soul in men and nations. The Greeks, following their Eastern masters, did not mistake psyche for Nous. Speculation is not philosophy; ritualism is not religion; and psychism is not spirituality. However, there is a legitimate aspect of speculation in philosophy; real religion does teach the ritual of life; and a truly spiritual person possesses psychic powers. We must guard against the influence of false notions of the East, and remember that true views are difficult to grasp. We should not be moved by feelings alone; they are apt to take us into the region of dangerous psychic forces. To advance from our present position, we should not throw away our logical analytical minds. Our scepticism has to be controlled and purified, not abhorred as something devilish. Mind acquires spirituality only when it is not glamoured by psychic emotionalism. Mental clear vision arises from the knowledge of universal metaphysical ideas presented to the mind. Such ideas are practical inasmuch as they bear on the ethics of human conduct and of human labor. Such ideas free our minds to universality, or impersonality. The aim of true philosophy is to weaken egotism and to awaken the vision of the universal — that is, the power to evaluate all things and creatures correctly from the standpoint of the Real.

We are hampered in this task by a lack of knowledge of the psychic sciences, i.e., of the strange and glamouring forces which deal with the lower aspect of Nature, including our human nature. The true explanation of all psychic phenomena is to be found in Theosophy, and the two volumes of Isis Unveiled are a safe guide, as they are the best exposition on the subject.

If on the one hand we should saturate our minds with metaphysical ideas, on the other we should guard ourselves against psychic practices, confining our efforts to acquire a theoretical knowledge of those psychic sciences. Even here a new, and in the West, unsuspected danger threatens: false and distorted explanations of psychic forces and practices are to be found in certain Asiatic books and philosophies, as, for example, in the tantric codes of India. The true and great Rishis of that ancient land warn against falling prey to tantric forces, obtaining explanations from tantric books, etc., and exhort us to prudence. What are the true lines? The Vedas, the great Upanishads, the Mahabharata, which contains the Bhagavad-Gita, the Ramayana, and the Sayings and Sermons of the great Buddha — these are the real spiritual gems, which will act as amulets to spiritual health. We will not be healed by incantations (mantras), breathing exercises (pranayama), bodily postures (asana).

There are intoxicating psychic as well as physical drinks and drugs that madden the human nature, drive the Soul from the corpus, and wreck it beyond repair. It is nourishment we should seek, not intoxicants. We need to look for the light of the real East. Let us avoid the company of those trafficking in human souls in the attractive vale of ritualism, which stifles the soul and destroys it while it is soothed. Let us go to the spiritual East, its Himalayan heights where Shiva, the Patron Saint of spiritual warriors sits, speaking through silence and teaching through contemplation. These heights are bare, snow-covered, unfeeling to emotion-touch, but there alone is Divine Compassion which warms and protects all who approach It with the sacrifice of life — to find Life.

In the modern Theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky, as in the still preserved Vedas and other sacred literatures of the Ancient East, the present-day student, East or West, may find the true waters of Immortality.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 19, No. 3, January, 1931 pp. 111-113

THE TEMPLE WITHIN

Many men have arisen who had glimpses of the truth, and fancied they had it all. Such have failed to achieve the good they might have done and sought to do, because vanity has made them thrust their personality into such undue prominence as to interpose it between their believers and the whole truth that lay behind. The world needs no sectarian church, whether of Buddha, Jesus, Mahomet, Swedenborg, Calvin, or any other. There being but one Truth, man requires but one church — the Temple of God within us, walled in by matter but penetrable by any one who can find the way; the pure in heart see God. — H.P.B.

EX ORIENTE LUX

THE interest of the West in the Orient is widespread, but, too often such interest is along the line of self-pride which enquires in what manner and to what extent is this or that country becoming Europeanized. All agree that this is an economic civilization, and yet repeat that man cannot live by bread alone. How many try to learn by what nourishment other than that of earning their daily bread by the sweat of the brow do millions of our fellow-men live in old Asia? Now and then one hears, "Light comes from the East," and having heard, forgets what is that light by which souls have lived in the Orient for many hundred centuries.

Ex Oriente Lux — has many meanings, ranging from the most obvious to be observed in the rising Sun, to the most occult, which, like other ideas of the Mysteries, cannot be put in words. Great and wonderful cultures have reared magnificent Empires and civilizations all over the East. Some of them are now dead, like that of ancient Babylonia, and yet who can say that that age-long influence is not at work today? Some have undergone a complete metamorphosis; for example, Japan — now thoroughly westernized, in other words, materialized and militarized. Some, like China, are undergoing a similar change. In India, where a very ancient culture continues to vivify the life of the peoples, a somewhat different phenomenon is taking place: more directly old cultural ideas and ideals are shaping the structure which is rising. Shintoism and Buddhism are only indirectly influencing Japan; the power of Lao Tzu and Confucius, as also that of the Buddhist patriarchs, is also indirectly manifesting itself in the new China; still less direct is the influence of old Iran visible in the affairs of modern Persia. But in India it is different. The pre-Aryan civilization of the Dravidians is still contributing its quota in making the India of tomorrow; the Vedic hymns and rituals, the Upanishadic metaphysics and philosophy, the Puranic Anthropology are likewise active; the Islamic cultural current, as the Avestaic through the Parsis, plays each its part. Thoughtful leaders and large numbers of Indians directly wish for a deliberate assimilation of the old cultures of Arya Varta, of Bharata Varsha, and other ancient lands.

Westerners — if sincere — are confronted with a double task in the wish to help the East, or be helped in return: (1) they should learn the real basis and nature of the old philosophies and ethics which are indirectly or directly influencing the Asia of our days; (2) as an international cosmopolitanism is the vision of so many thoughtful philanthropists in Europe and America, they should endeavour to learn what can be assimilated from these old cultures and thereby draw closer to their Asiatic brethren.

Avoiding the danger of carnalizing and materializing the ancient truths on the one hand, and avoiding the pitfall of superstition created by the hordes of modern Asiatics on the other, there is still much in the East, and especially in India, that is noble and beautiful, and which the West does not possess. The soul-satisfying philosophy of the Aryans is needed in Europe and America.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 19, No. 4, February, 1931 pp. 176-177

THE HERITAGE OF ANCIENT INDIA

Pax non est privatio belli, sed virtus, quae de fortitudine animi oritur.
La paix n'est pas l'absence de la guerre; c'est une virtu qui nait de la force de l'âme. — Spinoza.

COMMERCE and conquest — in them lies buried the history of the Western nations who went to India.

The East generally, and India especially, was enamoured of philosophy, mysticism and altruism. Soul-culture, emancipation of the senses from the thraldom of fleshly appetites that soul and sense might join hands in the service of the good, the true and the beautiful — such was the central idea of the ancient Hindus. The masses and their leaders were so immersed in creation and expression of the pure principles in art and architecture, in trade and commerce, in life and daily drudgery; they were so intent on building political and social institutions which would enable the many to live and labour like the cultured few — that their splendid gold was spent in the cause of peace rather than to bring forth the weapons of war. Offensive wars were never thought of, and even preparations for defense against attacks from without were not seriously considered. Thus India became an open target for the ambitious arms of foreign foes.

In the long and eventful story of India, foreign invasions occupy perhaps the most prominent place in Indian history today. The fierce battles, bringing in their wake marked political changes and effects, catch the mind's eye to such an extent that hardly any attention is paid to the slow uprising of stately edifices of peace, of progress, of culture. So much is said about the doings of the conquering heroes that the tale of the splendid performance of the conquered are forgotten. When we read of the exploits of Alexander, or Nadirshah, of the achievements of Baber or Akbar, we generally neglect to enquire what kind of people were exploited or conquered. What is true of these other conquests is equally true of British penetration into India and the rearing of the Empire, the foundations of which were laid by Clive and Hastings.

The Western world, even today, seems to prefer the gory conquests of war to the slow achievements of peace. The French are more proud of Napoleon the soldier than of Napoleon the maker of the Code Napoléon. The British, in their turn, honour Warren Hastings for his work as soldier-statesman (part of which at any rate is regarded by some historians as of doubtful morality), but few know that he was a patron of Sanskrit and Persian knowledge and culture and that we owe the Bhagavad-Gita to the support and encouragement he gave to Charles Wilkins. War has been regarded by the western masses as the greater achievement. Perhaps — who can tell? — this is the strange and unrecognized nemesis of the act of the Roman Governor and the Jewish priest which sent Jesus to the Cross.

A growing demand exists on the part of the American public to know more about Eastern, and especially Indian culture, but readers should be on their guard while selecting books, as a basis for their information and acquaintance. Some books are written by biased and interested parties who see nothing but evil, degradation, and the superstition in India: these outpourings may be discarded. On the other hand there are idealists and visionaries who express their dreams of old India. Their statements may be taken with caution. Let the enquirer seek for the facts.

But in studying the long story of India, let us look for the achievements of the people in times of peace. What they did, how they lived, what were the ideals and ideas uppermost in their thoughts, why they acted and behaved in ways that seem peculiar to us, what were their religious and philosophic beliefs — these and such like themes will reveal the greatness and grandeur of a people who grappled with knowledge, and thus an understanding of spirituality, thousands of years ago. We know something about the conquests of India; but do we know how the soul of India conquered Alexander, captured Baber, and even today, in spite of the clamour of millions upon millions, keeps the British, in a sense, prisoners in that old land? They loathe leaving India and yet are unable to make it their home. Their lot will not improve till at least a number of them assimilate the gifts which the Soul of the ever-young Mother India is offering them. The Indians of all castes and classes can help them, but a danger awaits these. If Indians do not remain true to the teachings of their own almost forgotten Rishis they will become like unto their conquerors — take pride in and glorify the passion of war and forget their old, old Dharma — to give their teaching by and through the sacrifice of Soul. It would indeed be a day of tragedy for the world, were the India of the Indians to become anglicized. In this tragedy the spiritual welfare of the entire West would be participant. The true lesson of ancient Aryavarta remains still to be learned by both East and West.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 19, No. 5, March, 1931 pp. 220-221

TRUTH IN ALL FAITHS

IN Christendom the idea prevails that the Christian religion is superior to all other faiths. The apotheosis of this false idea is the doctrine that Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of God, and God incarnate. Educated people, who have never taken the trouble to study the facts of history and philosophy, hold to these beliefs more for the sake of form than as life-principles. There are thousands, however, who having looked into the evolution of these dogmas have relegated them to the limbo of absurdities. Priests of many churches continue to influence the mobs, who ignorantly, albeit honestly, hold that a personal God exists outside of themselves and the universe, who sent his Son to save the world, and who could only be appeased from his wrath by having that son crucified before his eyes.

As religion is a most potent factor in the lives of all, these absurd and egotistical beliefs have engendered, among many other evils, the dangerous and war-provoking view of the superiority of Christians, over pagan and heathen. The war exposed us. We have been found out. "Christians" of one nation indulged in barbarity towards "Christians" in another nation, and it was a gratifying sight for the devil himself! The non-christian Turk set us an example of superior morality. Also we know how Frenchmen noted the fine gentleness and finer chivalry of the Indian troops who came from their far-away motherland to help the allies of their King-Emperor.

It is high time that masses of Christians learn the truths of and about their own religion. It will not hurt any one to know the facts. In what is the Christian religion superior to other creeds? The life of Jesus, as depicted in the four Gospels themselves, does not teach any more exalted ethics than the life of Gautama, the Light of Asia. The metaphysics of the Upanishads is certainly superior to the theological speculations of Christian church luminaries. Penitentiaries and crime are rare in "heathen" Buddhist lands. "Pagan" art, both literary and pictorial; inventions; and government are yet to be recognized as worthy of emulation by Christian peoples. Jesus was one of the noblest and grandest figures in human history, but his teachings remain yet to be practiced by western peoples. Many historical characters have done great things under the influence of their respective churches, as have other men of like character in connection with other creeds. What about the Moors inspired by the message of Islam, for example?

That tolerance which begets brotherhood is itself born of understanding and appreciation. The noble ethics of "heathen" and "pagan" prophets are but repeated in the Sermon on the Mount. The life achievements of Jesus and Paul take on a deeper significance if compared with the equally grand achievements of Krishna and Buddha, Lao Tzu and Zarathushtra. The Church Fathers like Origen will be better understood by reading the works of Sankara and others. The significance of the failure and deterioration of the real church of Jesus is a repetition of the degradation of that Taoism which Lao Tzu proclaimed so gloriously. Noble ideas were beautifully expressed by saints and sages who went before and came after Jesus.

How many times has it not been claimed that the golden rule and the doctrine "resist not evil" were first proclaimed by Jesus? Have not many millions believed that fiction? The following passages should serve to kill out the unchristian feeling of egotistical superiority, toward the so-called "pagans":

"To those who are good, I am good and to those who are not good, I am also good — and thus all get to be good. With the sincere I am sincere and with the insincere I am sincere — and thus all get to be sincere" — Lao Tsu's Tao-Teh-King.

"Let him not do to another what is not good for himself." — Yajnavalkya Smriti.

"Cross the passes so difficult to cross; cross wrath with peace; cross untruth with truth." — Sama Veda.

"Let him not be angry with the angry man; being harshly addressed, let him speak softly." — Manu Smriti.

"Let not any man do unto another any act that he wisheth not done to himself by others, knowing it to be painful to himself. And let him also fashion for another all that he wisheth for himself." — Mahabharata, Shanti Parva.

"Strength might be vanquished by forgiveness, weakness might be vanquished by forgiveness; there is nothing which forgiveness cannot accomplish; therefore forgiveness is truly the strongest." — Mahabharata, Vana Parva.

"He, who is not angry with the angry, is a physician unto both. He saveth himself as well as the others from great danger." — Mahabharata, Vana Parva.

"If man attempts to do me wrong I will return to him the protection of my ungrudging love; the more evil comes from him the more good shall go from me." — Buddhist Sutras.

"Hatred ceaseth not by hatred at any time; hatred ceaseth by love; this is an old rule." — Buddhist Dhamma-pada.

"Let a man overcome anger by love, evil by good; let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth." — Buddhist Dhamma-pada.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 19, No. 6, April, 1931 pp. 249-250

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹

I. THE ETERNAL RELIGION

FORTY years ago, expounding Theosophical tenets, W. Q. Judge called them "Echoes from the Orient." His words convey a deeper truth than is generally understood: Modern Theosophy verily is but the echo of the Occult Voice of the Orient.

Time was when the ancient continent of Asia, from Fo-Kien to Baku, lived by the same religious truths which united tribes and races and nations into a harmonious whole. The universal Wisdom-Religion was the root of that mighty Tree on which in later times grew the branches of the Zoroastrian, the Chaldean, the Egyptian religions; this takes us back ages before Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad tried to teach the eternal truths. Before the Vedas existed, that Wisdom-Religion, the Bodhi-Dharma, the Source of Brahmanical lore, was.

Not without good reasons the Hindus call theirs the Eternal Religion, Sanatana Dharma. Properly speaking, that title by right can belong only to the Mother Source of all religions, viz., Theosophia or the Wisdom-Religion; but of all exoteric faiths the Brahmanical is the one which approximates most nearly to the original; the first-born of the Aryan family of religions, it bears a very close resemblance to the Mother.

First, of all Asiatic cultures only that of old India survives² as a living reality. Says Mr. Judge, "Of all the old races the Aryan Indian alone yet remains as the preserver of the old doctrine. It will one day rise again to its old heights of glory" (Ocean of Theosophy, p. 85). This is a striking fact, and its meaning becomes clearer when the student of H.P.B.'s Secret Doctrine notes that India became and still is the home of the parent-stock of the Aryan Root-Race which started on its eventful journey a million years ago. Four sub-races of the Fifth Root-Race, the Aryan, have run their course, and at present the fifth sub-race is in the ascendant. During these million years the root-stock has been the Foster Mother of the sub-races, nourishing with her hoary culture the daughter-races in many Western lands. It began with Egypt: "Egypt and India", says H.P.B. (Isis Unveiled, I, p. 515), "were the oldest in the group of nations; and ... the Eastern Ethiopians — the mighty builders — had come from India as a matured people." The following is from the same book (II, p. 435):

...we are prepared to maintain that Egypt owes her civilization, commonwealth and arts — especially the art of building, to pre-Vedic India, and that it was a colony of the dark-skinned Aryans, or those whom Homer and Herodotus term the eastern Æthiopians, i.e., the inhabitants of Southern India, who brought to it their ready-made civilization in the ante-chronological ages, of what Bunsen calls pre-Menite, but nevertheless epochal history.

We must remember in this connection, that the peoples of Southwestern and Western Asia, including the Medes, were all Aryans. It is yet far from being proved who were the original and primitive masters of India. That this period is now beyond the reach of documentary history, does not preclude the probability of our theory that it was the mighty race of builders, whether we call them Eastern Æthiopians, or dark-skinned Aryans (the word meaning simply "noble warrior," a "brave"). They ruled supreme at one time over the whole of ancient India, enumerated later by Manu as the possession of those whom our scientists term the Sanskrit-speaking people.

Similarly "Babylonian civilization was neither born nor developed in that country. It was imported from India, and the importers were Brahmanical Hindus" (Isis Unveiled, I, p. 576). And again, "The Babylonians ... got their wisdom and learning from India" (Secret Doctrine, II, p. 566). And so the deduction (Isis Unveiled, I, p. 584):

Can there be any absurdity in the suggestion that the India of 6,000 years ago, brilliant, civilized, overflowing with population, impressed upon Egypt, Persia, Judea, Greece, and Rome, a stamp as ineffaceable, impressions as profound, as these last have impressed upon us?

And again (Isis Unveiled, II, p. 361):

...all the knowledge possessed by these different schools, whether Magian, Egyptian, or Jewish, was derived from India, or rather from both sides of the Himalayas.

The process continues: in some few hundred years more the sixth sub-race will become the pioneer; it will flower in America from the seeds which have been, and are being, sown. Another 25,000 years and the seventh sub-race will come into being, when alone the Aryan Fifth Root-Race will have completed the great drama of its evolution (Secret Doctrine, II, p. 445). It is obvious that the cyclic rise of India is contemporaneous with the rise of each of its daughter sub-races. Every time India rises to the crest of the wave in grand creative activity, she radiates the energy of wisdom, which fructifies a new civilization; then follows the period of preservation, during which India guards her hoard of knowledge, waiting and watching for another hour of cyclic rising, while within her borders the struggle of existence goes on. Thus there are dynamic and static periods in Indian history, and of the latter Mr. Judge says this (Ocean, p. 9):

Turning to India, so long forgotten and ignored by the lusty and egotistical, the fighting and the trading West, we find her full of the lore relating to these wonderful men of whom Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Solomon are only examples. There the people are fitted by temperament and climate to be the preservers of the philosophical, ethical, and psychical jewels that would have been forever lost to us had they been left to the ravages of such Goths and Vandals as western nations were in the early days of their struggle for education and civilization.

Thus India will live fulfilling her mission till the whole of the Aryan Race has discharged its Dharma to the God of Time. In the fascinating story of India's hoary past, which, says H.P.B., is part of the Great Record, her cyclic rise to eminence, her influence at the birth of new sub-races, etc., are all described. Allegorical reflections of that Record are to be found in what is called Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Religion — which title is not altogether correctly understood by Hindus themselves. This is one real reason why that title belongs to the religious lore of old India: in the Occult History of Aryavarta is to be found the history of the entire Aryan Root-Race with its seven sub-races.

Secondly, it is a well-known fact that even in extant Hinduism, every soul finds its own especial nourishment. From fetishism, through polytheism and pantheism to the highest and the noblest concept of Deity and Man — in Hinduism the whole gamut of human thought and belief is to be found. For every class of worshiper and thinker Hinduism makes a provision; herein lies also its great power of assimilation and absorption of schools of philosophy and communities of people. And another aspect of this phase consists in the power old India wields in impressing the mind of distant countries, and moulding the heart of foreign cultures. To the real India there are no aliens, for whatever others believe and think is to be found in some phase of Hindu religious philosophy. Of her spiritual commonwealth it can truly be said that it encompasses the whole world. There is not a philosophy, a science or a magical art of Chaldea, Persia, or Greece whose original counterpart cannot be traced to some Sanskrit source. Says H.P.B. in Isis Unveiled, I, p. 620:

Name to us any modern discovery, and we venture to say, that Indian history need not long be searched before the prototype will be found of record.

Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Religion, has narrowed down to a creed, because during the last many centuries this reality of its touching the wide spaces of earth and encompassing many cycles of time has not been rightly perceived. As genuine Theosophy gains ground in the world, this old and forgotten view of Sanatana Dharma will be more and more recognized. When in America the time arrives for the sixth sub-race to function as a race apart, her sustenance will come from India as in ages gone by it came thence to Egypt and Ethiopia and Babylonia and Greece and Rome. H.P.B. calls India "that old initiatrix" and bearing in mind the kinship between old Egypt and modern America, to which Mr. Judge makes more than one pointed reference, the student is called upon to ponder over this statement from Isis Unveiled, I, p. 589:

...we affirm that, if Egypt furnished Greece with her civilization, and the latter bequeathed hers to Rome, Egypt herself had, in those unknown ages when Menes reigned, received her laws, her social institutions, her arts and her sciences, from pre-Vedic India; and that therefore, it is in that old initiatrix of the priests — adepts of all the other countries — we must seek for the key to the great mysteries of humanity.

With all this in view Mr. Judge wrote in The Path for February, 1891:

If I were convinced by any reasonable proof or argument that Palestine was ever the cradle of our civilization or philosophy, or other than the seat of a people who are the true exponents of a fine social materialism, I would advocate great attention to her records. But it is not a single small nation we should look to. The fountain head is better than a secondary receptacle, a mere cistern that takes the overflow from the source. The fountain is old India, and to that the members of the Theosophical Society who are not only desirous of saving time but also of aiding the sages of the past in the evolution of doctrines which, applied to our great new civilization, can alone save it from failure, will bend themselves to the task of carrying out our second object — the investigation of Aryan literature, religion, and science.

We must prepare. There are men in India to-day who are qualified and willing to aid in translating works hitherto untranslated, in collecting that which shall enable us to disseminate and popularise true doctrines of man's life and destiny. Time is very short and cannot be spent by all of us in learning Sanskrit... Let us then get ready to use the material in the ancient storehouse of India, treasures that no man can be called a thief for taking, since the truths acquired by the mind respecting man's life, conduct, constitution, and destiny are the common property of the human race, a treasure that is lost by monopoly and expanded by dissemination.

How very close the mind of Judge was to the great mind of H.P.B. in all matters is once again to be seen by comparing the above with that which follows:

...it is to India, the country less explored, and less known than any other, that all the other great nations of the world are indebted for their languages, arts, legislature, and civilization (Isis, I, p. 585).

No wonder then why H.P.B. called India "The Alma-Mater, not only of the civilization, arts, and sciences, but also of all great religions of antiquity" (Isis, II, p. 30.)

Bearing this in mind let us see what we can learn from Aryavarta of old.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 19, No. 7, May, 1931 pp. 294-298

"UNIVERSAL" HISTORY

The landmarks of the archaic history of the past are few and scarce, and those that men of science come across are mistaken for finger-posts of our little era. Even so-called "universal" (?) history embraces but a tiny field in the almost boundless space of the unexplored regions of our latest, fifth Root-Race. Hence, every fresh sign-post, every new glyph of the hoary Past that is discovered, is added to the old stock of information, to be interpreted on the same lines of pre-existing conceptions, and without any reference to the special cycle of thought which that particular glyph may belong to. How can Truth ever come to light if this method is never changed! — S.D., I, 406.

¹ Isis Unveiled, II, p. 30.

² Readers must bear in mind that archaic India was a far flung country; modern India has shrunk to its present proportions — wide and large as they are — from the geographical marvel that it was! Says H.P.B. in Isis Unveiled, I, p. 589:— "There was an Upper, a Lower, and a Western India, the latter of which is now Persia-Iran. The countries now named Thibet, Mongolia, and Great Tartary, were also considered by the ancient writers as India."

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹

II. THE TEMPLE OF KNOWLEDGE

WHAT has India been preserving through the ages?

That science which is called in some places, the "seven-storied," in others the "nine-storied" Temple. Every story answers allegorically to a degree of knowledge acquired. Says Isis Unveiled II, p. 392:

Throughout the countries of the Orient, wherever magic and the wisdom-religion are studied, its practitioners and students are known among their craft as Builders — for they build the temple of knowledge, of secret science.

India's surviving rock-cut caves, her ancient shrines, her gopurams and mandapams are but concrete records of the Invisible Temple above referred to. The Temple Lore is therefore dual — exoteric and esoteric, the former but the shadow and reflection of the latter. The visible and tangible record of the Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Religion, is but the garment of the true Wisdom-Religion which antedates the Vedas themselves.

The extant writings from Vedas to Puranas are like the numerous shrines of India; they are symbols of the Invisible Temple of Secret Knowledge. It is an awe-inspiring vision to behold the concrete record in its incomplete completeness. The plan of knowledge imparted by Living Divine Men is still available though but in silhouette form. What wealth of detailed information must have been the valued possession of generations of Aryans? What depth of pure and reverent perception must have been theirs to be worthy of such mines of Wisdom?

While the striking fact about other ancient religious philosophies is their fragmentary nature (for example the Zoroastrian), the most remarkable feature of the Brahmanical Shastras is their breadth as well as their depth. Almost every conceivable subject of enquiry meets with some treatment, and compared to our modern knowledge the ancient Indian views are certainly more profound, even though puzzling, than those of any other philosophy.

The first point to note is that while with the approach of Kali-Yuga, the cycle of shadows which darkens everything and blinds man's moral perceptions, important information and practical instruction were withdrawn, we have still remaining with us most of the map of complete knowledge, which gives us some idea of how this complete knowledge was divided into schools of science and of philosophy, into myths and history, and into codes of laws. Thus, for example, the Upanishads give us an idea of the lofty concepts of Deity, Nature, the Human Soul, and their inter-relationship, which concepts still remain unrivalled; but they also show certain signs of careful withdrawal of important doctrines, which to the ordinary reader, however, appear but as gaps, as illogical sequences and uncalled for deductions. In every department of Aryan Knowledge these gaps are visible, and their true explanation is to be found in the introductory to the first volume of The Secret Doctrine.

Such gaps, due to withdrawal and other causes, notwithstanding, the Brahmanical religious-philosophy contains almost the whole doctrine which will never become public on this globe in this round. Says Isis Unveiled, II, p. 535:

This creed has not decayed, and its hidden philosophy, as understood now by the initiated Hindus, is just as it was 10,000 years ago. But can our scholars seriously hope to have it delivered unto them upon their first demand? Or do they still expect to fathom the mysteries of the World-Religion in its popular exoteric rites?

One of the most important factors, often overlooked by Western students of Hinduism and more often by Hindus themselves, is that there are interpolations as well as gaps in the doctrine. Corruption of Hinduism is not so much due to what has been withdrawn as to what has been inserted and added. To buttress their own beliefs and attain ulterior purposes, men with vested interests have unscrupulously tampered with texts, while honest interpreters were writing commentaries on them, some of which are illuminating, yet most of which befog the vision. With this note of caution sounded let us draw pertinent attention to the following from Isis Unveiled, I, p. 583:

No people in the world have ever attained to such a grandeur of thought in ideal conceptions of the Deity and its offspring, man, as the Sanskrit metaphysicians and theologians.

All knowledge was divided into two divisions — Para-Vidya, the esoteric knowledge and Apara-Vidya, the exoteric. It must not be supposed that the former is distinct and separate from the latter; like the Soul and mind in man, the esoteric and exoteric are closely interknit. Within the exoteric lies hidden the esoteric, though it is true that the esoteric extends beyond the exoteric, just as soul vision transcends mind perception. The exoteric record is objective — in architecture, in amulets, in coins, in jewels, in Mss., in ritual, etc., it can be read. The esoteric record is subjective — it is made and retained in the volume of the brain, hidden in certain of its organs, whose functions and powers are unknown to modern anatomy and physiology; words of silence communicate it from Hierophant to neophyte, from Guru to chela. This Para-Vidya is also named Guhya-Vidya: the secret Art only to be learnt and practiced in the cave (guha) of the heart. This Gupta-Vidya, says H.P.B. (Secret Doctrine II, p. 565), is "the primeval and original Occultism of Aryavarta, brought into India by the primeval Brahmins, who had been initiated in Central Asia. And this is the Occultism we study and try to explain, as much as is possible in these pages." And again (Ibid, p. 584), she speaks of "the one root, the root of wisdom, which grows and thrives on the Indian soil ... the sacred land of Aryavarta."

We must now survey Apara-Vidya, the exoteric knowledge — not as a field but as a veritable continent.

Before we name the contents of the exoteric knowledge let us dispose of the classification of Karma-Kanda and Gnyan-Kanda so often referred to. There is some confusion of thought and only the true Theosophic light dispels the surrounding fog.

Karma-Kanda is that part of Apara-Vidya or exoteric knowledge, which enables a man to act righteously, to practice Dharma-Religion. Every tome of the exoteric knowledge has this Karma-Kanda which tells the reader how to act, what to do, the way to avoid the sins of omission as well as those of commission. Much of ritualism, most of the laws and rules laid down, are accepted and believed in and practiced. The strong point and the virtuous aspect of this arrangement lies in the training which men and women get through methodic and regular religious exercises; repetitive acts of worship and sacrifice whereby people are made to remember (1) their own inner Divinity; (2) the grandeur of visible and invisible Nature which surrounds them; (3) the inter-relationship between them; and (4) the debt which men owe to the beings of the invisible worlds on whom they are dependent, as also their own dignity as beings on whom these invisible beings, in turn, rely for help and guidance of a particular kind. The weak point and vicious aspect of the arrangement is that people, not understanding the real meaning of these rituals, have come to perform them quite mechanically, and the energy of faith has evaporated leaving behind the scum of blind-belief. So to-day the religious actions and exercises are in greatest measure a farce, nay more, a blasphemy. This is one of the chief curses under which India of to-day is groaning. But for all that, the value of Karma-Kanda is very great and has served the people worthily for long centuries.

Gnyan-Kanda is supplementary to Karma-Kanda; it gives knowledge about why and how actions according to the Karma-Kanda should be performed. Study and practice went hand in hand and both, duly observed, led the students to the esoteric side of things. The glory of old Sanatana Dharma lay in the Gnyan-Kanda which explained Nature and Nature's Laws and made the living of the life a noble process.

Another way to look at these two is to regard Gnyan-Kanda as the hidden esoteric soul of Karma-Kanda, the exoteric ritual or form side of religion.

Next, we will consider still another classification of knowledge which is recognized by Hinduism. These various classifications are instructive inasmuch as each of them reveals a fundamental and true aspect of the subject under review.

All knowledge was divided into four classes — (1) Science; (2) Philosophy; (3) Religion; (4) Esotericism. Science is the body, philosophy the mind, religion the soul, and esotericism the spirit of knowledge. Four great paths take the student to the end of the journey.

The Path of Practice, Abhayasa, is the path of the Scientist. By repeated experimentation, by observation checked and rechecked, by analysis and reiterated verification the scientist grows — learning and teaching. Treading this path, he develops patience, accuracy, and detachment for the results of his labours. The Path of Science must be valued in the light of the virtues it brings out in the practitioner; many Theosophical students are wrong in evincing a sneering or superior attitude to Modern Science. It is not what is said by the scientist that should be made the means of measuring his achievements; no doubt his theories change; but in evolving theories, qualities are unfolded, which are assets for the future collected in the present.

The Path of Knowledge, Gnyan, is the path of the philosopher. By the method of synthesizing the many theories and even speculations, he builds the power of abstract meditation. Removing his thinking from the field of objects he enters that of subjects, from the world of forms he goes inwards to formless worlds. Unlike his brother scientist, he is unconcerned about details and confines his reflections to underlying principles. He finds out the trinity of Gnyata, Gnyan and Gneyam — knower, knowledge and object known.

The Path of Devotion, Bhakti, is the path of the religious. Having seen with the mind's eye the source of all which is freedom absolute — Sat, Chit, Ananda, the existence of bliss-full ideation; and also that the separated "I" or Ahamkara is the cause of bondage to Gnyan, Knowledge, and therefore to ignorance, Avidya; to Ichcha, the will to live, which implies the will to die; to kriya, action, which means also to fate, Prarabdha Karma — the religious unfolds true fiery devotion as a means to a grand end, a sublime attainment. What is his objective? To reach that state of Compassion Absolute, Paramartha Satya, which enables him to love all creatures, the little selves, bound by the power of the One Great Self. As pure and powerful manifestations of the Great Self, in the world of men, he uses the life-work of the Incarnations, Avataras. To understand the mystery, the hidden reality, the Occultism of Life Incarnate, he perforce seeks Teachers, Gurus of the great knowledge, Maha-Vidya, which is secret-knowledge, Guhya-Vidya.

The Path of Yagna, Sacrificial Action or real magic is the path of the esotericist. The esotericist labours in full knowledge; performance of certain actions is undertaken, in definite manner, by deliberately planned method, according to what is learnt from the lips of Divine Men perfected. He alone knows what the devotee feels, what the philosopher thinks, what the scientist sees, without their limitations.

Thus the four categories of knowledge are practically utilized and the thread of evolution of the human being runs through them.

We must leave here, for the time being, Para-Vidya, the esoteric soul of knowledge and confine our attention to exoteric or Apara-Vidya. And at the very start we will request the reader to keep in mind that in ancient India exoteric knowledge was not what learning is to-day — materialistic, speculative, hesitant, changing, giving a dozen theories for one fact. Then, even exoteric knowledge was classified on principles; what was taught were provable facts, and theories were working hypotheses which the pupil was called upon to accept, not to abandon after a while for new ones, but to transform them one by one into proven facts.

All knowledge was divided into three main compartments: (1) Sruti — revelation; (2) Smriti — Laws and Tradition; (3) Itihasa-Purana — History and Mythology. They are numbered in the order of their value and importance and to their examination we must now turn.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 19, No. 8, June, 1931 pp. 347-351

¹ Isis Unveiled, II, p. 30.

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹

III. HISTORY AND MYTHS

WE must start with the primary division of all knowledge into three compartments: (1) Sruti — Revelation; (2) Smriti — Laws and Tradition; (3) Itihasa and Purana — History and Mythology. Sruti contains the Vedic lore; Smriti is composed of codes of laws; the third consists of the Epics and the Puranas. However, it will facilitate our work to survey them in the reverse order, beginning with the third compartment.

The main divisions of this third class are two: (a) Itihasa — History; (b) Puranas — Myths; both contain stories innumerable. These are mostly allegories of cosmical and psychological facts especially meant for the less educated portion of the community unable to read the Sruti (Vedas, etc.), or the Smriti (Law-Codes). In every Indian village, even to-day, stories are told under the shady tree. Many are the favourite tales of the peerless Sita, of the devoted Savitri, of the sin of Kaikeyi, heard by the girls, while their brothers enjoy tales of the playfulness of Krishna, the Divine Cowherd, the prowess of Arjuna, the degrading destruction of the evil-minded Duryodhana.

The art of story-telling (actually telling by word of mouth) is almost perfect among the illiterate, but by no means uncultured, villagers, and especially among the women-folk. This has given rise to a very rich folk-lore, and there are stories short and long which give not only mundane but also spiritual knowledge — every one of them is aptly adorned with a moral. In these folk-lore tales Indian proverb-stories should be included. All of these are full of wit, humor and charm and have proven a veritable grace which purifies and uplifts the heart of the simple men and women. A special department of this should also be referred to in passing. Wandering Sadhus and others, especially those gifted with a voice for song and a quick wit perform kalakshepams and Hari-Kathas — speak of Hari the Great Lord in story and song. This is the only form of drama and concert which Indian villagers in their millions ever hear or know about. Their educative value is greater than is ordinarily suspected, for among such workers are sometimes servant-chelas of Great Masters.

(a) Itihasa or History consists of epics in which are narrated actual historical events and happenings and in which also, the psychological, the mythical, and the philosophical moral of each is well and carefully drawn. The epics are the well-known Ramayana and Mahabharata, most likely the originals of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Myths represent the living soul of history; the former help men to image forth the future, as history enables them to visualize the past. Myths deal with the whole man, history only with the visible part of him. Therefore has Myth the power to prognosticate. Myths may be rightly regarded as records of souls, and in India their practical application is constantly sought and made.

The Ramayana deals with the historical period of the first King of the Divine Dynasty. Says the Secret Doctrine (II, p. 495):

The whole History of that period is allegorized in the Ramayana, which is the mystic narrative in epic form of the struggle between Rama — the first King of the divine dynasty of the early Aryans — and Ravana, the symbolical personation of the Atlantean (Lanka) race. The former were the incarnations of the Solar Gods; the latter, of the lunar Devas. This was the great battle between Good and Evil, between white and black magic, for the supremacy of the divine forces, or of the lower terrestrial, or cosmic powers.

But both history and myth are intermingled and the latter aspect also is dealt with in the Secret Doctrine (II, p. 163):

In the Ramâyana, when Hanuman is reconnoitering the enemy in Lanka, he finds there Rakshasas, some hideous, "while some were beautiful to look upon," and, in Vishnu Purâna, there is a direct reference to their becoming the Saviours of "Humanity," or of Brahmâ.

The allegory is very ingenious. Great intellect and too much knowledge are a two-edged weapon in life, and instruments for evil as well as for good. When combined with Selfishness, they will make of the whole of Humanity a footstool for the elevation of him who possesses them, and a means for the attainment of his objects; while, applied to altruistic humanitarian purposes, they may become the means of the salvation of many. At all events, the absence of self-consciousness and intellect will make of man an idiot, a brute in human form. Brahmâ is Mahat — the universal Mind — hence the too-selfish among the Rakshasas showing the desire to become possessed of it all — to "devour" Mahat. The allegory is transparent.

Similarly, the Mahabharata deals with the historical event of the Great War on the battle-field of Kurukshetra, which event is allegorized as the Psychological War on Dharmakshetra, the field of Duty. This Mahabharata War marked the closing epoch which the Ramayana War opened, for "the Aryan races had never ceased to fight with the descendants of the first giant races." This last war coincided with Kaliyuga which began 5,000 years ago.

Both these Epics are wonderful spiritual treatises — "every line of which has to be read esoterically" says the Secret Doctrine. They disclose "in magnificent symbolism and allegory the tribulations of both man and soul." (Secret Doctrine, II, p. 496.) But let them not be regarded as unscientific; says the Secret Doctrine (II, p. 680):

The Evolutionists stand firm as a rock on the evidence of similarity of structure between the ape and the man. The anatomical evidence, it is urged, is quite overpowering in this case; it is bone for bone, and muscle for muscle, even the brain conformation being very much the same.

Well, what of it? All this was known before King Herod; and the writers of the Ramayana, the poets who sang the prowess and valour of Hanuman, the monkey-God, "whose feats were great and Wisdom never rivalled," must have known as much about his anatomy and brain as does any Haeckel or Huxley in our modern day. Volumes upon volumes were written upon this similarity, in antiquity as in more modern times.

Whence all this knowledge of physiology, psychology and anthropology, not to mention astronomy, mechanics and mathematics? The Secret Doctrine tells us (II, p. 426):

It is from the Fourth Race that the early Aryans got their knowledge of "the bundle of wonderful things," the Sabha and Mayasabha, mentioned in the Mahabhârata, the gift of Mayâsur to the Pándavas. It is from them that they learnt aëronautics, Viwán Vidya (the "knowledge of flying in air-vehicles"), and, therefore, their great arts of meteorography and meteorology. It is from them, again, that the Aryans inherited their most valuable science of the hidden virtues of precious and other stones, of chemistry, or rather alchemy, of mineralogy, geology, physics and astronomy.

(b) The Puranas are eighteen in number. The attention of the student of Occultism may once more be drawn to this oft-recurring number — 18 Chapters of the Gita, 18 days of the Great War, both of which form part of the 18 books of the Mahabharata, etc., and now the 18 Puranas. The name Purana means "Ancient"² signifying that it is the ancient lore which is re-told in a new form. The birth and dissolution of the Cosmos with its many systems; the numerous marvels of anthropogenesis; the appearance and actions of Great Incarnations, Avataras; the intimate relation between the Invisible worlds of Devas and Dhyan-Chohans and their creatures the Devatas or Elementals on the one hand, and the visible earth on which men live and labour affecting and affected by crystals and metals, by giant trees and flowering shrubs, by the bird, the beast, the reptile, on the other; the sage advice of Deva-Rishis, the example of sacrifice of the Raja-Rishis — all this and more is to be found in the Puranas. These Chronicles are certainly more valuable than they are given credit for, generally speaking.

H. P. Blavatsky reiterates the value of the Puranas to the student of esoteric science, pointing out that they are but attempts at the repetition of the tenets of the esoteric doctrine under exoteric form of national symbols, for the purpose of cloaking these tenets. (S.D. II, p. 455.) We cannot do better than give her own words, selecting only a few from the many passages on the subject:

By the scholar who studies the Hindu religion from the Purânas, one thing is to be especially noted. He must not take literally, and in one sense only, the statements therein found; since those which especially concern the Manvantaras or Kalpas have to be understood in their several references. (I. p. 369).

It is evident that, taken in their dead letter, the Purânas read as an absurd tissue of fairy tales and no better. But if one reads chapters I., II. and III. from Book II. (Vol. II.) of Vishnu Purâna and accepts verbatim its geography, geodesy, and ethnology, in the matter of Priyavrata's seven sons, among whom the father divides the seven Dwipas (Continental Islands); and then proceeds to study how the eldest son, the King of Jambu-dwipa, Agnidhra, apportioned Jambu-dwipa among his nine sons; and then how Nabhi his son, who had a hundred sons and apportioned all these in his turn — then the reader is likely to throw the book away and pronounce it a farrago of nonsense. But the esoteric student will understand that, in the days when the Purânas were written, the true meaning was clear only to the Initiated Brahmins, who wrote those works allegorically and would not give the whole truth to the masses. (II, p. 320).

...in the Purânas one may find the most scientific and philosophical "dawn of creation," which, if impartially analyzed and rendered into plain language from its fairy tale-like allegories, would show that modern zoology, geology, astronomy, and nearly all the branches of modern knowledge, have been anticipated in the ancient Science, and were known to the philosophers in their general features, if not in such detail as at present!

Purânic astronomy, with all its deliberate concealment and confusion for the purpose of leading the profane off the real track, was shown even by Bentley to be a real science; and those who are versed in the mysteries of Hindu astronomical treatises, will prove that the modern theories of the progressive condensation of nebulae, nebulous stars and suns, with the most minute details about the cyclic progress of asterisms — far more correct than Europeans have even now — for chronological and other purposes, were known in India to perfection.

If we turn to geology and zoology we find the same. What are all the myths and endless genealogies of the seven Prajâpati, and their sons, the seven Rishis or Manus, and of their wives, sons and progeny, but a vast detailed account of the progressive development and evolution of animal creation, one species after the other? Were the highly philosophical and metaphysical Aryans — the authors of the most perfect philosophical systems of transcendental psychology, of Codes of Ethics, and such a grammar as Pânini's, of the Sankhya and Vedanta systems, and a moral code (Buddhism), proclaimed by Max Müller the most perfect on earth — such fools, or children, as to lose their time in writing fairy tales; such tales as the Purânas now seem to be in the eyes of those who have not the remotest idea of their secret meaning? What is the fable, the genealogy and origin of Kasyapa, with his twelve wives, by whom he had a numerous and diversified progeny of nagas (serpents), reptiles, birds, and all kinds of living things, and who was thus the father of all kinds of animals, but a veiled record of the order of evolution in this round? So far, we do not see that any Orientalist ever had the remotest conception of the truths concealed under the allegories and personifications. (II, p. 253.)

Just as in old alchemical works the real meaning of the substances and elements meant are concealed under the most ridiculous metaphors, so are the physical, psychic, and spiritual natures of the Elements (say of fire) concealed in the Vedas, and especially in the Purânas, under allegories comprehensible only to the Initiates. Had they no meaning, then indeed all those long legends and allegories about the sacredness of the three types of fire, and the forty-nine original fires — personified by the Sons of Daksha's daughters and the Rishis, their husbands, "who with the first son of Brahmâ and his three descendants constitute the forty-nine fires" — would be idiotic verbiage and no more. But it is not so.... Science has no speculations to offer on fire per se; Occultism and ancient religious science have. This is shown even in the meagre and purposely veiled phraseology of the Purânas, where (as in the Vâyu Purâna) many of the qualities of the personified fires are explained....the writers of the Purânas were perfectly conversant with the "Forces" of Science and their correlations; moreover, with the various qualities of the latter in their bearing upon those psychic and physical phenomena which receive no credit and are unknown to physical science now. Very naturally, when an Orientalist, — especially one with materialistic tendencies — reads that these are only appellations of fire employed in the invocations and rituals, he calls this "Tantrika superstition and mystification"; and he becomes more careful to avoid errors in spelling, than to give attention to the secret meaning attached to the personifications, or to seek their explanation in the physical correlations of forces, so far as known. So little credit, indeed, is given to the ancient Aryans for knowledge, that even such glaring passages as in Book I, chap. ii, Vishnu Purâna, are left without any notice. (I, p. 520-21.)

...the Hindu Purânas give a description of wars on continents and islands situated beyond Western Africa in the Atlantic Ocean; if their writers speak of Barbaras and other people such as Arabs — they who were never known to navigate, or cross the Kala pani (the black waters of the Ocean) in the days of Phoenician navigation — then their Purânas must be older than those Phoenicians.... (II, p. 406.)

The Puranic lore has remained unexplored. However late the era in which they were transcribed to writing, the Puranas are ancient historical records which deal with the "story of creation" of stars and souls, of gods and demons, and finally of humans, separating into men and women. We cannot close this instalment more fitly than by repeating the advice H. P. Blavatsky gave to young Indians, which has not yet been accepted. She wrote (I, p. 522-3):

Truly the young Brahmin who graduates in the universities and colleges of India with the highest honours; who starts in life as an M.A. and an LL.B., with a tail initialed from Alpha to Omega after his name, and a contempt for his national gods proportioned to the honours received in his education in physical sciences; truly he has but to read in the light of the latter, and with an eye to the correlation of physical Forces, certain passages in his Purânas, if he would learn how much more his ancestors knew than he will ever know — unless he becomes an occultist.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 19, No. 9, July, 1931 pp. 392-397

¹ Isis Unveiled, II, p. 30.

² Midrashim of the Hebrews, who in so many respects, especially in mystical and ritualistic, have copied ancient Brahmanas, but invariably corrupting and animalizing them.

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹

IV. CODES OF DUTY

SMRITIS are traditions imparted orally; the word Smriti means Memory. The occult origin is obvious: facts which could not be transcribed were passed on orally; also the cultural value of memory was so fully recognized that the ear was regarded as more important than the eye and the spoken word came into greater educational use than the written word. Their other name is Dharma-Shastra — Codes of Law, or the Lore of the Laws of Duty. There are four great Codes recognized, even by the British Government Courts, and these are constantly used to seek for precedents, etc. Just as the Itihasa-Puranas are living realities in Indian homes, so are the Smritis vital and essential in statecraft and civic administration. They are: (1) Manu Smriti, about which one of the great Theosophical Mahatmas wrote to H.P.B. to advise students of esotericism "to study Manu;" (2) Yagnavalkaya Smriti; (3) Shankha Likhita Smriti; (4) Parashara Smriti. There are also others, some of which contain rules and laws for special occasions and precedents for untoward and not ordinary cases.

Of all the Smritis the Manu Smriti is the most important. It is also known as the Manava Dharma Shastra. Like other authentic texts it begins with universals from which it proceeds to particulars. Why ethics and rites of a particular description should be practised is demonstrated by the fact that these rest on, and have their origin in, philosophical and metaphysical truth. Therefore the Code of Manu begins with the story of Svayambhu, the Self-Existent which shines forth of Its own Will and which can be perceived by subtle sight only. Then follows the manifestation of all else — human principles, spirit, mind, body and their cosmic correspondences and sources. In short compass but without lacunae the Code lays the foundation, cosmic and universal, for human conduct. It advises all men to learn the Sacred Law which is fully known by the Enlightened Ones; but to which an intuitive assent is given by virtuous mortals who then follow it; it imparts to those who practise it the power of powers — to become exempt from hatred and inordinate affection (II, 1). If the learner, because of the intuitive urge, is intent on the performance of his own Duty according to the teachings of this great Code, he finds that in him opens the eye of discernment (II, 8). And as not a single act performed by mortals on earth is free from desire (II, 4) the Code essays the task of teaching how to perform congenital duties.

Now the whole struggle of human existence lies in the struggle of duty. Man discards his proper duty because it is unpleasant and through attachment he assumes duties which are not his, and thus forges links of future bondage. He rushes to perform actions which are not his duties and runs away from their legitimate reactions when these have to be faced. What then is congenital duty? As an ordinary mortal is not capable of determining by his own unaided effort, the Master-Codifiers give indications, signs and tokens. How shall a man know what his duty is? By following the instruction imparted in the Codes, where different stages of human evolution, each with its appropriate qualities and attributes, are described. Just as in a new city with the help of a map the traveller finds out in what particular street of the city he is, and where that street leads to, so also with the aid of the Codes a soul born in a new environment can learn his place and position in the scheme of things. For this reason are rites and sacraments laid down, and castes and states detailed. From birth to death, life is one long ritual and the life-thread, sutra-atma, is Duty.

It would be impossible to give in full what the Code of Manu offers. Moreover, we must guard against interpolations by priests and others with vested interests. Once again, the key of Theosophy, the religion of common sense par excellence, must be applied. According to the Bhagavata Purana, far back in the mists of a forgotten past, time was when there was among the Hindus only "One Veda, One Deity, One Caste." Then came the cycle of natural divisions into four castes, which later were degraded into the tyrannical institution which the system now is. We will here examine the two principal teachings about Caste (Varna) and State (Ashrama) especially as they have a practical bearing on, and can be of service to, our modern civilization.

The origin of Caste is said to be Brahma Himself; to make the earth prosper He caused the Brahmana to be born of his mouth, the Kshatriya of his arms, the Vaishya of his thighs and the Shudra of his feet. The significant point to note is that they are all born of Brahma, and that really in their original forms no distinction of superiority or inferiority is made. These castes are universal and the Code of Manu applies to the entire human kingdom. "In order to protect the universe, He the most resplendent one assigned separate occupations to those who sprang from his mouth, arms, thighs, and feet" (I, 87), and it is said that "there is no fifth caste" (X, 4). Those that are not born from Brahma are named Dasyus. Much misrepresentation and misunderstanding exists in this matter, because in reality the four castes have an esoteric significance and represent the work of four classes of super-physical, but all the same corporeal beings (S.D. II, 89) who are devoid of intellect (S.D. II, 91). The Secret Doctrine contains the real key to the solution of this problem. First, it must be clearly grasped that, however important a part birth may play in it, the institution of caste is determined by the inner birth marks. In earlier Yugas when the swing of evolution was rhythmic, physically and super-physically, materially and spiritually, caste laws worked infallibly, i.e., only an appropriate soul incarnated in the caste body. But in this Kali-Yuga, the caste-confusion feared by Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita has taken place. Nowadays in exceedingly rare cases do soul virtues find virtuous vehicles in which to incarnate. All over the world caste-confusion prevails, causing innumerable problems — among them, the problem of Varna, colour. The colour problem in America, in India and elsewhere will find its true meaning and solution when Manu's Code is really understood, and for that the key of the Esoteric Philosophy has to be applied.

The Code of Manu says: "Behaviour unworthy of an Aryan, hardness, cruelty and habitual neglect of prescribed duties, betray in this world a man of impure origin" (X, 58). By this criterion there are but few caste-men in existence! Again there is much in this paradoxical statement: "Having considered the case of a non-Aryan who acts like an Aryan, and that of an Aryan who acts like a non-Aryan, the creator declared — 'Those two are neither equal nor unequal.'"

The Gita defines the virtues and attributes of each caste. His own Karma determines the caste into which a soul is born, as by his past Karma he attracts to himself his instruments which possess Gunas or attributes. Karma and Guna — actions and qualities — determine the caste of a man. We must note the dual element of forces, spiritual and material. Caste is not of the Soul, nor of the body, but arises out of the conjoint action of the two. Krishna is the "author" of these (Gita IV, 13). The natural duties of the four castes are defined (Gita XVIII, 41-44).

Each and every human being belongs to one of the four castes: He whose natural bent is to study and to teach, to sacrifice his self to Self and his self for other selves, to be generous in giving and to humbly accept gifts, he is a Brahmana, whatever his walk in life. He whose natural bent is to offer protection to all, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifice, to study and to fight against sensuous life, he is a Kshattriya, whatever his status in life. He whose natural bent is to amass wealth by agriculture or trade, to borrow and lend money, is a Vaishya, whatever his place in life. He whose natural inclination is to be dependent on others and to labour for them is a Shudra, whatever position he occupies in life. These natural bents expressing qualities show what vices one should avoid and what virtues one should cultivate.

Still more practical is the division of a single life into four compartments called Ashramas or states to which also the Smritis make pointed and repeated reference. Let us glance at them.

The Caste institution depicts the larger circle of the steady and rhythmic unfoldment of the man through many lives. The colours of his qualities from that of dark Inertia, through the green of Mobility, to the golden lustre of Truth and the radiance of the white Purity of the One Self, mark the steady and long progress achieved. Esoteric science teaches that this change of colours of the inner astral man verily does take place. Shades of colour in the Astral Man are as real as pigmentation of the skin, colour of the eye, lustre of the hair, etc., in his physical body. These developments represent a long line of evolution through the round of many births and deaths, and belong to the entire human kingdom.

Similarly, the Codes of Duty lay down the rhythm of progress in the smaller circle of a single incarnation. If there is caste-confusion, and its sequence, non-recognition of the fact that man's evolution can be made to proceed along harmonious lines, so also is there confusion in this Kali-Yuga, when youths who ought to be learning are wage-slaves, when men and women who ought to be building homes are utilizing demoniac devices to shatter the dignity of parenthood, and when old men are clinging to worldly possessions or have to cling to worldly avocations, and die in harness with their minds fixed on earth instead of in the quietude of spiritual contemplation. It may take a longer time for the modern man to see the wisdom of the ancient teaching about caste, than to understand the four stages through which each one passes in a single life. Once the latter scheme of rhythmic progress is perceived, however, it will not be very difficult to see the truth underlying the former.

What is the teaching about the four ashramas or orders?

Each human being should pass through (1) studentship, (2) family life, (3) non-worldly contemplation, (4) service of his fellow men.

I. Studentship is named Brahmacharya — service of Brahman, i.e., the student is acquiring knowledge now for the service of omnipresent Deity or Nature, to last for the rest of his life. The term is translated as continence, celibacy, because sex-purity is the centre-virtue, the foundation of the life of the learner — "let him never waste his manhood" (II, 180). Also, learning, which is regarded as an accumulating process, has as its bodily counterpart the preservation of the creative forces, the gathering in of the forces which, in the next stage only, should be used. The relation between these two is to be seen in this verse: "Those organs which are strongly attached to sensual pleasures, cannot so effectually be restrained by abstinence as by a constant pursuit of knowledge" (II, 96). Therefore has the term Brahmacharya this dual meaning — celibacy and service: creating bodily and intellectual progeny follows the gathering in of seminal powers of both types.

Wisdom is the goal of the learner and whatever branch of knowledge he may be engaged in acquiring he is called upon to observe the following general rules:

A wise man should strive to restrain his organs which run wild among alluring sensual objects, like a charioteer his horses. Those eleven organs which former sages have named, I will properly (and) precisely enumerate in due order, (Viz.) the ear, the skin, the eyes, the tongue, and the nose as the fifth, the anus, the organ of generation, hands and feet, and the (organ of) speech, named as the tenth. Five of them, the ear and the rest according to their order, they call organs of sense, and five of them, the anus and the rest, organs of action. Know that the internal organ (manas) is the eleventh, which by its quality belongs to both (sets); when that has been subdued, both those sets of five have been conquered. Through the attachment of his organs (to sensual pleasure) a man doubtlessly will incur guilt; but if he keep them under complete control, he will obtain success (in gaining all his aims). (II, 88-93).

Rules of life are stressed much more than the subjects of study. What would an undergraduate of to-day say to this:

Let him abstain from meat, perfumes, flavouring substances, and doing injury to living creatures. Let him abstain from anointing his body, applying collyrium to his eyes, as from desire, dancing, singing, gambling, looking at or touching women; also from idle disputes, backbiting and seducing or being seduced.

II. The Householder stage unfolds out of the student stage. The student lived in his teacher's home, which was like unto a boarding school. Grihastha ashram is the stage of home-building which follows marriage. This stage is considered to be the highest of the four, for from it the other three spring. (VI, 87).

As all living creatures subsist by receiving support from air, even so all orders subsist by receiving support from the householder. (III, 77).

Elaborate and detailed rules and regulations for this stage are given — beginning with marriage. Our modern students of Eugenics who are groping in the dark will gain much by a careful and discriminative study of these sections of the Code of Manu. To those who believe that the Laws of Manu hold woman's estate to be low the following may be cited:

Women must be honoured and adorned by their fathers, brothers, husbands, and brothers-in-law if they desire their own welfare. Where women are honoured, there the gods are pleased; but where they are not honoured, no sacred rite yields reward. (III, 55-56).

It would be impossible to go into details and so we will permit ourselves one more quotation which sums up the vocation of a Grihastha, a gentleman:

Let him not, out of desire attach himself to sensual pleasures, and let him carefully obviate an excessive attachment to them, by reflecting on their worthlessness in his heart. Let him avoid all means of acquiring wealth which impede the study of the Veda; let him maintain himself somehow but let him maintain study because through study he secures the realization of his aims. Let him walk the way of life bringing his dress, speech and thoughts to a conformity with his age, his occupation, his wealth, his sacred learning and his race. (IV, 16-19).

III. Vanaprastha, the Forest-dwelling stage follows. When a man is beginning to become wrinkled, when grey hairs are turning white, when he sees his grandchildren around him, then is his time for the contemplative life, to practise which he must seek retirement, either committing his wife to the care of his sons, or accompanied by her, if she be willing. The industry of the forest-dweller is reciting the sacred texts; his independence is not receiving gifts; his ritual is with the three sacred fires. The Code describes what he should eat and how he should live and in order to attain union with the Supreme Soul he must study the Upanishads.

IV. Just as the student stage is the preparatory stage for that of the householder, so also the forest-dwelling stage precedes the fourth, that of Sannyasa, complete Renunciation. In this, a man comes in contact with his fellow-men and lives for them:

Let him not desire to die, let him not desire to live; let him wait his hour, as a servant for his wages. Against an angry man let him not be angry; let him bless when he is cursed; let him not utter speech, devoid of truth, scattered at the seven gates. Neither by explaining prodigies and omens, nor by skill in astrology and palmistry, nor by giving advice, let him ever seek to obtain alms. By deep meditation let him recognize the subtile nature of the Supreme Soul, and its presence in all organisms, both the highest and the lowest. Let him recognize by the practice of meditation the progress of the individual soul through beings of various kinds, a process hard to understand for unregenerate man.

The student of Theosophy will recognize in all this much of his own instructions and in his sincere effort to change the mind of the race will find these ancient ideals of profound significance and great value. Both simplicity and beauty have gone out of life. Ugly complexities have imprisoned the Soul and have produced wickedness. Unrighteousness prevails because Dharma, the Law of Duty, is not practised. Its knowledge will help us to bring the world to Duty and with Duty simplicity of life as well as its beauty will come to abide.

THE VARIOUS "FIRES"

The doctrine teaches that the only difference between animate and inanimate objects on earth, between an animal and a human frame, is that in some the various "fires" are latent, and in others they are active. The vital fires are in all things and not an atom is devoid of them. But no animal has the three higher principles awakened in him; they are simply potential, latent, and thus non-existing. And so would the animal frames of men be to this day, had they been left as they came out from the bodies of their Progenitors, whose shadows they were, to grow, unfolded only by the powers and forces immanent in matter. — S.D., II, p.267.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 19, No. 11, September, 1931 pp. 495-501

¹ Isis Unveiled, II, p. 30.

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹

V. ON REVELATION

SRUTI means Revelation. Smriti results from remembrance of "what is heard," i.e., Sruti. In the Western religions, both in modern Christianity and in its parent Judaism, Revelation connotes that which is revealed by God to his chosen Prophets. In Hinduism it does not mean that at all. By purity of life, study, and meditation the human soul becomes capable of hearing the Song of Life which Mother Nature chants in the Voice of the Silence; such highly evolved souls repeat in the language of words what is heard; that repetition is Sruti or Revelation. On the banks of the sacred rivers, in the heart of the living forests, wise ones heard by the soul what the Mahatmas and Nirmanakayas and Devas said and sang; they saw by the Soul what the "upholders of the universe" who are "the knowers of the essence of things" were doing by way of duty and of sacrifice; what they heard and saw they described and that faithful description is the Sruti. This is not the work of one or several isolated individuals, but is the great record of Truth made by checking, testing and verifying the work of each with that of all others and by centuries of experience.

The Sruti is composed of the Four Vedas. Occultism teaches that these were delivered by Primeval Sages on Lake Manasa-Sarovar beyond the Himalayas, tens of thousands of years ago.

It is, comparatively speaking, not important to argue out the exact era in which the Vedas were first transcribed, or subsequently arranged. The stages seem to be, first, the age when they were heard and remembered; second, the age when they were fully transcribed; and third, the age when they were rearranged till their present form was reached. H.P.B. says, "They are the most ancient as well as the most sacred of the Sanskrit works."

There exist to-day four Vedas: Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva. Whether or not the Vedas known to-day retain their Original Impulse and their Original Vision is doubtful; this, however, may be taken as certain, that the efficacy of even what exists does not consist in their surface-meaning, but in their correct chanting. Originally there were three classes of priests, learned and holy, Hotri, Adhvaryu, and Udgatri; the first used the Rig, the second the Yajur, and the third the Sama. The use of the fourth or Atharva Veda was confined to a few versed in the esotericism of the three.

The Hymns of the Rig Veda are highly philosophical and describe the processes of visible and invisible Nature and name the Presiding Genius over every such process. Even to-day by right repetition pure minds can understand the plan of action in Nature which is a Living Whole.

The Chants of the Sama Veda are songs of peace and praise which unveil the Powers and Potencies of that Living Nature; even to-day rightly sung they produce results.

The Rites of the Yajur Veda detail the performance of all sacrifices; why, where, when and how these rituals should be performed is taught. The real knowledge is mostly lost, for it rests on that Faith or Will which is so rare, and so even the intellectual understanding of what is meant and implied has become difficult. With the rise of Spiritual Knowledge, which strengthens Spiritual Will, the effective art of pure ritual will again become known — first in India, and then in the world.

The sacred incantations, formulas and aphorisms which cure all diseases, bodily, mental and moral, and also by which magical phenomena can be performed, are given in the fourth or Atharva Veda.

These four make the foundation of Sruti or Revelation, on which a majestic edifice stands.

Each Veda is divided into three parts: Mantras or Samhitas, Brahmanas and Aranyakas. Mantras are verses used as charms and made up of sounds of power. Samhita means collection. In each Veda there are verses of sound power, and all these as a collection are known as the Mantra Samhita of the Veda. They make majestic poetry addressed to the Devas and sing their glory. In days of old these Mantras were practically efficacious in their use. At present all recognize them to be mystical and powerful but the knowledge and their practical use are confined to the charmed circle of Mahatmas and Their disciples; but their mere repetition is very general and while people do not know how to use them they are aware because of tradition that a certain Mantra is meant to produce certain definite results. Their occult power, however, does not reside in the words but in the inflexion or accent given, and the necessary sound originated thereby. Among very orthodox Brahmanas even to-day, there are a few who have acquired by heredity-osmosis the correct intonation and their automatic repetition is not altogether fruitless.

There is, however, an extended meaning which should be given to the institution of Mantra to understand fully all that this section of the four Vedas stands for. Every letter of the alphabet represents a Number, has a form and colour, besides a sound. In the Sanskrit alphabet there are forty-nine letters, each a number with a colour, sound and form, and each is representative of a hidden Power in Nature, of a Force of the invisible universe, called a Deva, a Shining One, a Resplendent God. Deva-Nagari is the name of the characters of the Sanskrit alphabet.

There are therefore Words of Power like Aum, Sat, Tat; or phrases and sentences like the Gayatri. Thus to give an example of these words lit by and born of fire: Manu records that Prajapati milked from the Vedas three fiery words — Bhur from the Rig, Bhuvah from the Yajur, and Swar from the Sama. All three are creative potencies. The Satapatha Brahmana explains that they are "the three luminous essences" extracted from the Vedas through heat by Praja-patis, Progenitors. Brahmá uttered Bhur, and lo! the earth; Bhuvah, and thereupon materialized the firmament of Astral Light; Swar, and there was the Heaven of Ideation. It is said, and truly indeed, that Atharva-Veda yielded the fourth luminous essence and the word Mahar, but it is so purely magical that its very intonation cannot be even taught, but results from the purification of the lower triad in man.

Brahmanas are distinct from Mantras. They are authentic commentaries on those portions of the Vedas which were intended for the ritualistic use and guidance of the caste of Brahmanas, and include prayers. The real Brahmana caste (not the one of Census reports) is composed of men and women who are all twice-born, Dwijas, born in the Occult World, of the Race of the Deathless Ones, in the Home or Lodge of the Parentless — Anupadaka. Real Brahmanas are the Sons of the Fire Mist. The numbers of that Deathless Race were and are recruited from the races of men, which live and die. Time was when the institution of caste (Varna or colour) was real and was known and recognized; to-day it is real in process and operation, because it is a fact in Nature, but is unknown and unrecognized. In modern India, however, caste has become a corrupt and degrading superstition and Brahmanas, lawyers, clerks or cooks, are no more twice-born than the most despised chandâla. These latter are known sometimes as those who eat the flesh of dogs, behind which also there is a mystic meaning. Now alas! most Hindus, though strict vegetarians on the physical plane, eat, metaphorically and metaphysically speaking, dog's flesh. The untouchable caste, the Pariah or Panchama, is really not only the one-sixth of the Indian people who are submerged and depressed from the socio-economic point of view; but from the inner and occult point of view most Hindus are black in colour (Varna) having polluted themselves with that which in our phrase is represented by "dog's flesh." Another graphic expression which is a metaphor is that the true Brahmana is the protector of the kine. Chapter after Chapter in the Mahabharata is devoted to the subject, but the modern Hindu, who is meticulous on the physical plane not to be cruel and who builds pinjra-pols where old animals are fed till they die, is not the protector of the kine in the real sense.

Now the Brahmana portion of the Vedas contains ceremonies and prayers which are efficacious only when performed or said by the real Brahmana — the dwija or twice-born. In the hands and on the lips of the ordinary temple-priest they are a farce, and worse than a farce. Millions superstitiously indulge in the second-hand performance of these ceremonies, and hope against hope that the purohit's lips are still capable in some kind of a way of charming the inflexible gods of justice who are also merciful! Thus we have in India the ludicrous superstition, immoral and weakening, which is a variant of the laying on of hands by ordained priests of Roman and other Christian churches. The Brahmana priests' "apostolic succession" is more clever, nearer to the base of truth, from which all priest-caste have strayed, and so more dangerous, more glamorous.

Aranyakas are books for forest dwellers — "meditation in the forest." They were studied by holy hermits and sages endowed with great mystic powers. These were the Gymnosophists spoken of by Hellenic writers — "the air-clad" mendicants. Retiring into the forest they reach, through great austerities, superhuman knowledge and experience. The world famous Upanishads form part of the Aranyakas of the Vedas.

In addition to these three there are treatises on science and philosophy.

Shad Angani or Vedangas — Six Limbs, or Limbs of the Veda — may be said to be the complement of the Brahmana portion of the Vedas. They consist of very condensed aphorisms called Sutras and commentaries on them. They deal with some seventy sciences classified under six main heads:

(A) Shiksha (Phonetics), (B) Kalpa (Rituals), (C) Vyakarana (Grammar), (D) Niruktam (Etymology), (E) Chhandah (Prosody), and (F) Jyotisham (Astrology).

It is not possible in this series to deal with the science lore of ancient India. Interested readers should turn to the Positive Background of Hindu Sociology, by Prof. Benoy Kumar Sarkar, which deals with geography, ethnology, mineralogy, botany, zoology, physiology, biology and mechanics; also to The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus, by Sir Brajendranath Seal; then to Hindu Chemistry, by Sir P. C. Roy.

In the closing article we will examine in outline the six schools of Indian philosophy known as Shad Darshanani.

ANCIENT VS. MODERN THOUGHT

The ancient Initiates, who were followed more or less closely by all profane antiquity, meant by the term "atom," a Soul, a Genius or Angel, the first-born of the ever-concealed cause of all causes; and in this sense their teachings become comprehensible. They claimed, as do their successors, the existence of Gods and Genii, angels or "demons," not outside, or independent of, the Universal Plenum, but within it. Only this Plenum, during the life-cycles, is infinite. They admitted and taught a good deal of that which modern Science teaches now — namely, the existence of a primordial "World-stuff or Cosmic Substance," from which worlds are formed, ever and eternally homogeneous, except during its periodic existence, when it differentiates its universal diffusion throughout infinite space; and the gradual formation of sidereal bodies from it. They taught the revolution of the Heavens, the Earth's rotation, the Heliocentric System, and the Atomic Vortices — Atoms — in reality Souls and intelligences. But those "Atomists" were spiritual, most trancendental, and philosophical Pantheists. It is not they who would have ever conceived, or dreamt that monstrous contrasted progeny, the nightmare of our modern civilized Race; namely — inanimate material, self-guiding atoms, on the one hand, and an extra-Cosmic God on the other. — S.D. I, p. 569.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 19, No. 12, October, 1931 pp. 535-539

¹ Isis Unveiled, II, p. 30.

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹

VI. THE SIX DEMONSTRATIONS

AS this is an age of logic and induction when analysis of beliefs and ideas is the natural method of approach to any subject, those Hindu systems of thought which utilize it are most popular among western scholars. More than any other, the six schools of Indian philosophy, as they are popularly called, are specially favoured by western investigators because they come closest to western ways of reasoning. The Vedas are mystical, the Puranas are folk-lore, even the six limbs of the Vedas offer but unproven statements — such is the general opinion. On the other hand, the six philosophical schools argue and explain propositions and something can be made of them — so say the philologist-philosophers. Hence their popularity.

It must, however, be pointed out that in spite of all the treatises written and lectures delivered on the six schools their soul has eluded the grasp of most of the western savants as of most of their Indian compeers. This is to be expected in the absence of the Theosophical Key which the Esoteric Philosophy provides.

H. P. Blavatsky calls these six schools six Demonstrations. They are like the six cardinal points; each of them presents but one view of truth; not one of them in itself is complete; even the six taken together are not complete; for there is still a seventh darshana known to genuine Chelas of the Masters or Rishis (see H.P.B.'s Glossary — "Occult Sciences") which in Hindu terminology is Guhya or Gupta Vidya, i.e., the Esoteric Demonstration.

Each of these six schools demonstrates completely the whole of the world-process from one particular angle of vision. The same universe, the same world-process, the same panorama is looked at from one side and then another. Just as a building can be examined from the north and the east and the south and the west, then from above and then from the foundations below, and yet its real worth cannot be perceived unless one enters the building and looks at it from within, so also a philosophical proposition cannot fully and truly be demonstrated unless the seventh step of examination is taken.

Now, why is it that the seventh point of view is not presented, the seventh Demonstration is not made? Neither perverse reticence, nor even spiritual consideration of any kind whatever is responsible. The simple fact is that the seventh viewpoint may be likened to a kind of fourth-dimensional vision. No microscope, no telescope can uncover the fourth dimension; where observation fails, there mathematics steps in and can demonstrate the concept of the fourth dimension. It would be as absurd to refuse to listen to a mathematician because he can not by means of a microscope demonstrate to a man the fourth dimension of space as to say that because the esoteric is invisible to our mental perception therefore it does not exist. The scientist must turn mathematician; so also the ordinary intellectual enquirer must put away his familiar instruments of analysis, logic and inference and adopt a new mode of approach. Just as there are connecting links which bind, say the physicist to the mathematician, so also there are natural bridges which join the six schools of philosophy to their common but hidden spiritual soul, the Esoteric Science.

H.P.B. says that these six demonstrations "have all a starting point in common, and maintain that ex nihilo nihil fit" (Glossary under "Mimansa").

All exoteric philosophies are concerned with the universe of Spirit-Matter, Purusha-Prakriti. Of the six viewpoints three are from the side of matter and the other three from the side of spirit. They are therefore interlaced. The seventh deals with that which links spirit to matter, and which also transcends both of them. Fohat, says The Secret Doctrine, is "at present unknown to Western speculation" (Secret Doctrine, I, 16). It is called Daivi-prakriti, the Light in and through which Krishna, the Unborn, takes name and form. The highest mystery of human consciousness, as also the grand and sacred mystery of Avataras or Incarnations, is hidden in this Light, which the Gita describes as Krishna's superior nature (viii-5); again Krishna refers to it when He says, "I am born through my own maya, the mystic power of self-ideation, the eternal thought in the eternal mind." The viewpoint or demonstration presented by this Light can only be acquired by first gathering the knowledge offered by the six schools; then, leaving the methods employed for that gathering, the seeker turns within and employs the only method recommended, that of self-energization, self-purification, and self-discipline. To speak of this seventh Demonstration falls outside of the scope of our article.

Turning then to the six exoteric Demonstrations, the first thing to note is that no single one of them will be found sufficient and that the thread binding them must be seen, especially because it is this thread which helps us to approach the shadowy traces of the seventh to be found in them.

The six Demonstrations are:

1. Vaisheshika, demonstrated by Rishi Kanada.
2. Nyaya, demonstrated by Rishi Gautama.
3. Purva Mimansa, demonstrated by Rishi Jaimini.
4. Sankhya, demonstrated by Rishi Kapila.
5. Yoga, demonstrated by Rishi Patanjali.
6. Vedanta, demonstrated by Rishi Badarayana.

The first three seem to present materialistic outlooks; really they examine the universe from the point of view of matter. The remaining three, however, deal primarily with the consciousness aspect. But each of them is regarded as an explanation of the world-process and as showing part of the way to the Emancipation from that world-process. If the student misses the synthetic viewpoint he will err, as so many others have done, and see one school as antagonistic to one or all of the others. Thus to take but an example — Vedanta-Sutras show the fallacies of the Vaisheshika system, not to overthrow but to supplement that system. In that connection we must also bear in mind that these six Demonstrations are age-old; they have passed through a long evolution; what is extant now is not the unaltered and unadulterated facts originally presented. Interpolation and withdrawal in no small measure have left their marks in each system. It is one of the tasks of the votary of the Second Object of our Theosophical Movement to remove the grain from the chaff and to show the unity underlying them, to show that they are but parts and phases of one whole.

Let us now turn to a brief examination of these six Demonstrations:

I. Vaisheshika. The object of knowledge is Padarthas — Predicates of existing things. They are seven in number: (1) Dravya — Substance (metaphysically) which "is not destroyed either by its effect or by its cause," — uncaused and eternal. Of these there are nine — five are atomic substances and four are pervasive; the former are earth, water, fire, air and manas, and the latter are time, space, akasha, and atma. Of these nine eternal and ultimate substances Atma is the most important, for by it all others are cognized. Thus arises an endless number of souls. (2) The second predicate is Guna or Gunatvam — Qualitativeness; there are 24 qualities enumerated of which five belong to all substances, viz., number, dimension, individuality, conjunction and disjunction. (3) Karma or better Karmatvam — Activity is five-fold and is described in terms of Motion: throwing up, throwing down, contracting, expanding and going. Cause-effect is examined under this category in a most interesting way. (4) The fourth predicate is Samanya, i.e., the unifying common basis, the relation of a thing to its genus, sometimes translated as Generality or Generalness. (5) Visesha is the opposite of the fourth and is called Particularity or what constitutes an entity or individuality; from this category the school derives its name and title. (6) Samvaya or Inherence, through which it is said of cause and effect that the one abides in the other and Karma and Karta, deed and doer in each other. (7) Lastly, Abhava — Non-existence, referring to the condition of a thing before its creation or manifestation and after its destruction and dissolution. The knowledge of these Predicates results ultimately in emancipation, for the universe comes into existence mechanically because of them, runs mechanically because of them, and dissolves mechanically because of them. Learn the mechanics of the universe and you are freeing yourself from the tyranny of that great machine.

II. Nyaya. To learn of the mechanics of the universe one must seek knowledge. The essence of knowledge lies in the proofs of cosmic ultimates, to obtain which one must learn about sixteen categories — (1) Pramana — Proofs, (2) Prameya — Objects of proof, (3) Samsaya — Doubt, (4) Prayojana — Purpose, (5) Drishtanta — Example, (6) Siddhanta — Proven knowledge, (7) Avayava — Premises, (8) Tarka — Logical reasoning, (9) Nirnaya — Conclusion, (10) Vada — Discussion, (11) Jalpa — Wrangling, (12) Vitanda — Caviling, (13) Hetvabhasa — Fallacies, (14) Chhala — Quibbles, (15) Jati — Futile analogies, and (16) Nigrahasthana — Unfitness for arguing, which is always to be regarded as an occasion for rebuke. An enquirer to turn student must first acquaint himself with these, to save his own time and that of those from whom he is learning.

Of these the first two are the most important and we shall have space to examine only these.

The ways of gaining proofs are four and they bring right knowledge about twelve things. We have to prove to ourselves the correct value of (1) Atma — the Self, (2) Sharira — Body, (3) Indriya — Senses, (4) Artha — Objects of sense, (5) Buddhi — Intuition, (6) Manas — Mind, (7) Pravriti — Going forth, (8) Dosha — Fault, (9) Pretya-bhava — Change of existing nature or Transmigration, (10) Phala — Fruit thereof, i.e., Karma, (11) Dukha — Suffering, (12) Apavarga — Emancipation therefrom.

By what means can these proofs be obtained? By (1) Pratyaksha — Perception, (2) Anumana — Inference, (3) Upamana — Comparison, and (4) Shabda — Word, i.e., Recorded Knowledge.

Perception implies use of the senses which is to be aided by Inference, a mental process, in which the law of analogy or correspondence or comparison should be used, and in seeking this comparison the Record of Seers and Sages should be utilized. Shabda — Word, is described as the instructive assertion of a reliable person, i.e., One who Knows.

III. Purva Mimamsa is also called Karma-Mimamsa. It is the record of interpretation which must be examined and studied prior to turning to the spirit-defining schools which flower in Uttara Mimamsa, generally called Vedanta, end of knowledge. It is called Karma-Mimamsa because this record explains the method of rituals and the meaning of material events, etc. The Sutras of Jaimini enquire into and expound Dharma — Law and Duty of ordinary life. As Dharma cannot be fathomed by mere perception and inference, the use advocated by the previous school of applying the law of correspondence and of the study of the Record should be adopted. Therefore these Jaimini-Sutras deal with Adhikaranas or Topics of which there are nearly a thousand. For each topic a Vedic text is offered about which there is doubt. Then follows the setting down of the prima facie view and its refutation. The whole process yields the final proven view or Siddhanta. These are the five limbs of every topic. For living the ordinary life intelligently, not by fanciful thinking or isolated personal reasoning, this school provided a substantial basis. This brings us to the highest view of material life — world life according to religious injunctions, which must be followed intelligently and must not be merely believed in.

IV. Sankhya. The Philosophy of Numbers or the Numerical Demonstration. Much of the original philosophy is reported to be lost to the public world and what is extant is a system of analytical metaphysics. It discourses on twenty-five Tatvas — Forces of Nature in various degrees. Like the very first, the Vaisheshika School, this also is called the "atomistic school" and not without good reason; for in this Demonstration the point of view is of the Spirit, while in the first it was of Matter. It explains Nature by the interaction of twenty-four elements with Purusha (Spirit) modified by three Gunas; it teaches the eternity of Pradhana, primordial homogeneous matter, or the self-transformation of nature and the eternity of the human egos.

This school teaches the permanent prevention of the three-fold pain as the supreme purpose of life. The Purusha or Spirit is free from all association, is not bound by Karma, or by time, or by space; it seems so bound, but this is only verbal, not real, and it resides in human ideation; and the notion of bondage arises in Buddhi through A-viveka — Non-discrimination. The Purusha is felt by us to be bound because of His seeming indifference as a spectator of all the changes taking place in Prakriti, i.e., Buddhi, etc.; the bondage is but the reflection on Him or It of the impurities seen in matter. These three kinds of pain, spiritual, mental and bodily, produce three kinds of bondage, and therefore there are three ways of release, from Karma, from existence in form, and from repose in one's own Self. The whole process of the Sankhya is to seek for the Number One — the One Purusha, who is at the core of every individual. The original treatise to be studied is Tattva-Samasa, a work of greater value even than Sankhya-Pravachana-Sutra.

V. Yoga of Patanjali is very well known to students of Theosophy. It carries on the thread of the Sankhya. Having found the Purusha behind the 24 tattvas the human spiritual Being must seek and find the union (Yoga) with the universal aspect. Much confusion exists and discussion takes place as to whether there are many Purushas or one Purusha. The Sankhya stops at the human spiritual individuality face to face with dangers and possibilities and Patanjali's Yoga-Sutras continue the line of further advance, showing how man can become Super-Man, i.e., a Universal Potency. Such a Jivan-Mukta or Master is called Dharma-Megha, Cloud of Dharma. Just as rain comes from clouds so do Law, Virtue, Instruction descend from the Mahatma. Also, just as the cloud makes the vision of the sun possible for ordinary sight by standing between the sun and the eye, so also does the Jivan-Mukta, the great Guru, enable his disciple to catch a glimpse of the Universal Self — the Spiritual Universe, boundless and timeless.

VI. Vedanta — Summation of Knowledge. Just as the first two Demonstrations lead to their practice in Purva Mimamsa, so the Sankhya and the Yoga Demonstrations produce the practical code which earnest souls desiring to know the Truth may study so that practice and realization may result. That is why it is called Uttara Mimamsa. The reputed author of Vedanta-Sutras, Badarayana, is known as Vyasa. H.P.B. says that "there were many Vyasas in Aryavarata" and adds that "the Puranas mention only twenty-eight Vyasas, who at various ages descended to the earth to promulgate Vedic truths — but there were many more."

In more recent centuries three principal schools of Vedanta have arisen. They are the well-known Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita and Advaita. Their equally well-known exponents are, respectively, Madhva, Ramanaja and Shankara.

The Dvaita School emphasizes the distinction between the Human-Spirit-Being and the Universal Self and shows the distinction between the spiritual and the carnal natures in man.

The Vishishtadvaita emphasizes the union between the Human-Spirit-Being and the Universal Self provided the former purifying himself of his carnal nature becomes a vehicle of that Supreme Self. It hints at the continuity of the Human-Spirit-Being in some state in unison with the Supreme Self.

The Advaita emphasizes the absolute identity of the Human-Spirit-Being and the Universal Self. Man in his innate Nature is the Indivisible Whole — all else being part and parcel of Himself in His ultimate aspect.

. . . . . . . . . .

Not articles but volumes will have to be written to reveal in their pristine grandeur the Landmarks of Ancient India. Here are indicated but a very few sign-posts, each of which takes the active seeker on a different road of the Great Journey. For immemorial ages, yuga after yuga, on the mountain ridges and in the forests on the plains, India's sons have struggled with the fogs of ignorance and the upas trees of superstition, gaining the vision splendid of which one here has sung, another there has spoken for the guidance of the weary-footed pilgrim of this Age of Darkness. If we humbly bow in devotion to the Ancient Seers and Sages we too may succeed in fully understanding the Mission of the Mighty Ones who have never ceased speaking the Word, the latest from whose ranks was our own teacher — H. P. Blavatsky.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 20, No. 1, November, 1931 pp. 19-25

¹ Isis Unveiled, II, p. 30.

MORE LIGHT ON SUMERIA

SLOWLY but inevitably are being found the evidences which force reluctant belief in the scribes of antiquity. In 1923-24, the joint expedition of the British Museum and the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, headed by C. Leonard Woolley, was excavating at al 'Ubaid, a mound of ruins some four miles from the site of Ur, ancient city of the Sumerians, which lies 100 miles north of the Persian Gulf of Mesapotamia. In his book, Ur of the Chaldees, Mr. Woolley describes the finding of a small tablet of limestone bearing the names of the kings of the First Dynasty of Ur. Speaking of Sumerian king-lists known prior to this discovery he writes:

The later dynasties were known to be historical, because independent monuments of their kings had been found, but the earlier dynasties had been rejected by modern students as mythical, partly because nothing was known about them, mainly because the scribes who composed the lists attributed to the earlier rulers a longevity which outdoes Methuselah.

Through this tablet it was found that in the former list the reigns of a father and his son had been lumped together and listed under one name, giving an unnaturally long period. This difficulty overcome, there was "a contemporary written document which proved the existence of the founder of the First Dynasty of Ur and established the authenticity of the ancient king lists." While the First Dynasty of Ur, this dynasty was third on the list drawn up by the Sumerian scribes, and only the first after "the flood." In the words of these annalists, "then came the Flood and after the Flood kingship again descended from heaven." Digging at Ur in a pit between thirty and forty feet deep, the excavators had removed several layers of rubbish when suddenly a stratum of clean clay eight feet thick was found. Below it were relics of a crude, pre-Sumerian civilization mixed with bits of Sumerian-made ware, pottery and implements of the higher culture above the clay. This Mr. Woolley judges as the blending of two civilizations, that of the Sumerians with the earlier one of the first inhabitants of Mesapotamia. Above the clay, which he says was water-deposited and of such dimensions as could only have been caused by a minor flood, were found pure Sumerian remains, indicating that the higher had effaced the lower culture.

H. P. Blavatsky tells us that the Chaldean culture was brought by Eastern Adepts who tarried on their journey westward to civilize a barbarian people. Berosus, who compiled a history of the Chaldeans for Alexander the Great, wrote that nothing new was invented after the advent of Oannes, the half-man, half-fish, who "taught the people all the things that make up civilization." Oannes rose out of the sea in the Persian Gulf. Sayce suggests that he symbolized the coming of a people who brought their culture with them. At Ur were found teakwood and mention of Dacca muslin on some tablets, both of which were special products of India (S.D. II, p. 226). Perhaps Mr. Woolley has come upon evidence of the assimilation of the culture of ancient India by the pre-Sumerian barbarians of the shores of the Persian Gulf, a culture which finally spread over the whole of Mesapotamia.

The founder of the Third Dynasty of the Sumerian Empire was Ur-Nammu, a great builder who surrounded Ur, his capitol, with a wall 26 feet high and 77 feet thick at the base. He erected a Ziggurat, a pyramid-like structure found throughout Mesapotamia, consisting of a series of terraces in set back stages. Most famous of all is the Ziggurat of Babylon, which became in Hebrew tradition the Tower of Babel. Describing the one built by Ur-Nammu, Mr. Woolley writes:

The tower measures a little more than 200 feet in length by 150 feet in width, and its original height was about 70 feet; the whole thing being one solid mass of brick work.... When we first started the work of drawing out the plan and elevations of the Ziggurat we were puzzled to find that the different measurements never seemed to agree; then it was discovered that in the whole building there is not a single straight line, and that what we had assumed to be such were in fact carefully calculated curves. The walls not only slope inwards, but the line from top to bottom has a distinct outward bend, so that sighting along it one can see only as far as the centre; the architect has aimed at an optical illusion which the Greek builders of the Parthenon at Athens were destined to achieve many centuries afterwards, the curves being so slight as not to be apparent, yet enough to give the eye an appearance of strength where a straight line might by contrast with the mass behind it have seemed incurved and weak.

Perhaps Ur-Nammua was a descendant of those "mighty builders," the Indus Valley peoples who erected the great city of Mohenjo-Daro (S.D. II, 417; Isis I, 569-70). A number of similarities between the cultures of Sumer and the Indus Valley were disclosed through the work of Sir John Marshall, director of the archaeological research at Mohenjo-Daro, the remains of which were first unearthed in 1923 (Asia, March 1932). Still another clue is found in a New York Times dispatch of Sept. 17, 1932, revealing that hieroglyphic script discovered at Mohenjo-Daro "corresponds exactly to inscriptions on tablets found on Easter Island off the Chilean coast."

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 21, No. 9, July, 1933 pp. 414-416

THE PREHISTORIC GREEKS

ON a blustery February afternoon in 1874 the German-American archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann climbed the hard steep road leading to the Cyclopean citadel of Mycenae, in the northeastern corner of the Peloponnesian peninsula. As he gazed upward at the grim outlines of the ancient fortress, sharply etched against the dull grey sky, his heart beat high with anticipation, for he knew that he was approaching the scene of one of the greatest tragedies of the heroic age of Greece. For in that citadel Agamemnon, after his return from the Trojan War, was slain by his wife Clytemnestra, who in turn was murdered by her children, Orestes and Electra.

Professor Schliemann had already begun to suspect that the stories of the Trojan War were limned upon an Atlantean background. While excavating in Troy he had found, in the treasure house of Priam, an exquisitely wrought bronze vase bearing the inscription: From King Chronos of Atlantis. Ten years later, while wandering through the Louvre in Paris, he came across its mate, which had come to light in Tiahuanaca, on the South American continent. If, before he died in 1890, this intuitive man had been fortunate enough to read Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, he might have learned that the Trojan War coincided with the cycle of events described in the Mahabharata, and that Homer's Iliad was but a copy of the Ramayana.

Homer declared that Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had lived in Mycenae, and, according to Pausanius, they were buried there. Armed with this information, Schliemann began his excavations. In the hillside tombs he found a number of skeletons wearing golden crowns, masks and girdles, and a vast treasure house filled with golden ornaments which, he believed, had once adorned fair Helen of Troy.

Scholars who had previously regarded the Iliad as a fairy tale now began to wonder if it could possibly be a record of some prehistoric race. When the Cyclopean fortress of Tiryns was excavated by Schliemann, Professor Sayce of Oxford suggested that the word Tiryns came from some pre-Aryan language spoken in the peninsula before the Greeks arrived.

The Greeks themselves called these prehistoric settlers Pelasgians. But who were the Pelasgians? Were they primitive Neolithic men, or did they belong to some mighty civilization of which the very name has been forgotten? What sort of people built the magnificent Lion Gate of Mycenae, with an enormous slab, weighing a hundred tons, poised a full twenty feet above the level of the ground? Who laid out the great hillside tombs of Mycenae, with their 45-foot domes built without a keystone? Professor Schliemann was convinced that "the architects who planned Mycenae and Tiryns certainly possessed an engineering and calculating skill which was not surpassed by the builders of the Pyramids."

The excavations of Sir Arthur Evans in Crete proved that these early settlers belonged to a highly cultured race. They had built a road across the island upon which they travelled in wheeled chariots. Their palaces were equipped with bath-rooms, running water, drainage systems, heating devices, and even elevators! Their artificers in ivory and bronze "wrought masterpieces which remain today among the world's greatest works of art." (Breasted, The Conquest of Civilization.)

Who were these mighty builders? Pausanius said that "the walls of Tiryns were built by the Cyclopes," and Euripides called the plain of Argos the "Cyclopean land." The identity of the Cyclopes is shrouded in mystery. One might expect the Greeks would themselves have left a record of their forefathers. They did, but in a form unacceptable to modern scholars. The Greeks preserved the record of the races which preceded them in their myths.

The word myth in Greek means an oral tradition, one which was passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. Plato considered the myths as "vehicles of great truths well worth the seeking." Even Ruskin declared that "to the mean person the myth always meant little; to the noble person, much."

We of the present day are content to accept a monkey as our ancestor, but the proud Greeks traced their lineage to the Gods. These gods were divided into three distinct classes: the Immortals, who dwelt on Mount Olympus; the inferior gods, who animated Nature; and the demi-gods, half mortal and half immortal. Here we have the three lines of evolution — Monadic, physical, and intellectual.

The Gods of Olympus may be regarded in seven different ways. The meaning of the myths depends on the personification of the gods, which may be any of the following: of the noumena of the intelligent Powers of nature; of Cosmic Forces; of celestial bodies; of self-conscious gods; of psychic and spiritual powers; of Divine Kings on earth; and finally, as actual historical characters. If the Greek myths are interpreted from this last point of view, we will have a picture of the four races which preceded our own.

The Greeks allegorized the four Races as four Ages, using the four metals — gold, silver, bronze and iron — to symbolize the steps of descent into materiality.

The Golden Age was the period when the First Race lived in the "Sacred Imperishable Land" which capped the North Pole. The forms of this Race were ethereal. They could walk, run, fly, and see objects at a distance. They were sexless and the principle of Kama had not yet been developed. Thus it was said that in the Golden Age war was unknown and no one coveted the possessions of another.

The Second Race lived in the Age of Silver and occupied the Hyperborean Continent. The Greeks called it the "land of the gods," for it was the favorite abode of Apollo, the god of light, and its inhabitants were his beloved priests. The story of this Race is contained in the myth of Uranos, the King of the Second Continent. He personified the creative forces of nature, while his wife Gaea represented matter, the basis of all forms. According to the legend, Uranos produced giants and nymphs from drops of his own blood, suggesting the method of reproduction in this Race. He is said to have devoured his own children and to have been devoured by his son, indicating the fruitless efforts of unaided nature to create real men of mind.

The Third Race, of the Age of Bronze, inhabited Lemuria. This Race was itself divided into three periods. The early Lemurians were sexless, producing their young by exuding drops of vital fluid, which formed an egg-shaped ball. The myth of Leda, whose twin sons were gestated in an egg, refers to this early method of procreation. Then came a cycle of bisexuality. Plato gives us a description of the Third Race at this point of its evolution. "Our nature of old," he wrote, "was not the same as it now is. It was then androgynous. Our bodies were round, and the manner of their running was circular. Hence Zeus divided them into two." Finally mankind became male and female, and since that time the reincarnating Ego has depended upon the union of the sexes for the production of its physical vehicle.

At the beginning of the Fourth Round on this globe, every class of being was one-eyed. The "one-eyed Cyclops" of Greek mythology, those giants fabled as sons of Coelus and Terra, three in number, represented the last three sub-races of the Lemurians, for the two front eyes, as physical organs, did not appear until the beginning of the Fourth Race. The myth of Ulysses, who visited the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus and destroyed his vision by means of a fire-brand, symbolizes the atrophy of the "third eye." The adventure of Ulysses with the pastoral Cyclops, a giant race, is an allegorical record of the gradual passing of the Cyclopean civilization of stone and gigantic buildings to the more physical and sensuous culture of the Atlanteans, which finally caused the "eye of wisdom" to disappear.

In the middle of the Third Race, the "lighting up of Manas" occurred. At the beginning of our evolution the Monad (the "vivifying agent" present in every atom in the universe) had been plunged first into the lowest form of matter, the mineral. Gradually, by the passage of the Life Wave through the vegetable and animal kingdoms, a superior form was evolved — ready at last for the Host of Manasaputra whose destiny it was to incarnate upon this globe. Some of these mindless human forms were neither ready nor suitable for occupancy and remained destitute of higher knowledge until the Fourth Race. Into those forms which were half ready, a spark of intelligence was infused. Into those forms which were ready, the "Lords of the Flame" entered, kindling the germ of mind in the "mindless men" and adding to them the flame of their own Manas.

The story of the "lighting up of Manas" is found in the myth of the Titan Prometheus, creator of men. He first moulded a form which could stand upright, so that, while the animals looked down to the earth, man could fix his gaze upon the stars. When the form was completed, Prometheus lighted a torch at the chariot of the sun and gave the fire of mind to men. Enraged because this made of man a God, Jupiter chained Prometheus to a rock and sent an eagle to tear at the vitals of the suffering Titan. His destined deliverer, Hercules, told him how he could free himself from his bondage —

The soul of man can never be enslaved
Save by its own infirmities; nor freed
Save by its own strength and own resolve
And constant vision and supreme endeavor.

The myth of Castor and Pollux, twin sons of Leda by a mortal and an immortal father, also shows the difference between the "mindless men" and the incarnating Egos who ensouled them. Castor was the son of a mortal while Pollux had Jupiter for his father. In a battle in which both engaged Pollux came out victorious, but Castor was stricken. In sorrow Pollux asked Jupiter to be allowed to die with his brother. Jupiter told him he could not die because he came of an immortal race, but that he might share his immortality with Castor by passing half his existence underground, the other half in the heavenly abodes. This semi-immortality was accepted by Pollux. The occult meaning of the allegory is given by H.P.B.:

Here we have an allusion to the "Egg-born," Third Race; the first half of which is mortal, i.e., unconscious in its personality, and having nothing within itself to survive; and the latter half of which becomes immortal in its individuality, by reason of its fifth principle being called to life by the informing gods, and thus connecting the Monad with this earth. This is Pollux; while Castor represents the personal, mortal man, an animal of not even a superior kind, when unlinked from the divine individuality. "Twins" truly; yet divorced by death forever, unless Pollux, moved by the voice of twinship, bestows on his less favoured mortal brother a share of his own divine nature, thus associating him with his own immortality. (The Secret Doctrine II, 123.)

Practically all of the gods of Greece are of a northern origin, originating in Lemuria toward the end of the Third Race after its physical evolution was completed. The Fourth Race is, with Hesiod, that of the heroes who fell before Thebes, or under the walls of Troy. The Trojan War, therefore, although an historical event of some 6,000 years ago, was also a symbol of other events which took place upon the continent of Atlantis. The Atlanteans developed from a nucleus of northern Lemurian men, centered, roughly speaking, toward a point of land which is now in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The early Atlanteans were three-eyed, having two in front and a third eye at the back of the head. The Greeks preserved the record of this race in a statue of the three-eyed Zeus, discovered in the Acropolis of Argos and believed to be the oldest statue ever found in Greece.

At the height of their civilization the Atlanteans were giants both in body and in intellect, and were greater scientists than those of the present day. For one thing, they had aeroplanes which were operated by solar force. Homer's vessels "going without sails or oars" refers to them, as does the myth of Icarus, who was warned by his father Daedalus to fly

...nor low, nor high,
If low, thy plumes may flag the ocean's spray,
If high, the sun may dart his fiery ray.

Unfortunately for their own future, the Atlanteans turned their knowledge to evil uses. Many modern practices such as vivisection, blood transfusion, the transplanting of animal glands to human bodies — even the craze for personal wealth and power — are the Karmic product of the sins of the Atlanteans, a defiance of nature which caused their destruction as a race and the catastrophic submergence of their continent.

The Greeks preserved the tradition of the sinking of Atlantis in the myth of Deucalion. The legend says that after the fourth race had passed its apex of development, a change occurred in men. Modesty, truth and honor fled, and in their place came crime, fraud, cunning and the wicked love of gain. Seeing the condition into which the earth had fallen, Jupiter determined to destroy it and form a new land where men would have fresh opportunities to live a virtuous life. So the waters came and covered the land, leaving only Mount Olympus above the waves. There Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha found shelter, and from them sprang the new, fifth race.

Thousands of years after, Solon, the great Athenian law-giver and one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, visited Egypt and recounted the myth of Deucalion to one of the priests of Saïs. The priest assured Solon that it was the record of an actual historical event which had occurred some 9,000 years before. He told the Greek sage of the last of the Atlantean Islands, which he called Atlantis, but which was really the Island of Poseidonis, picturing in detail its high mountains, canals, bridges, and harbors filled with vessels from foreign ports. He gave a full account of the inhabitants of the island and their customs, describing in particular the laws of the country and the method of their enforcement. On his return to Athens Solon wrote down the tale in epic form. Plato inherited his manuscript and repeated the story in the Timaeus and Critias. For more than 2,000 years the world regarded Plato's story as a fable. But in the last quarter of last century Ignatius Donnelly and H. P. Blavatsky provided indisputable proofs of the existence of Atlantis.

Long before the island of Poseidonis sank beneath the waves, one of the early sub-races of the Aryan stock descended from the high plateaux of Asia and emigrated to islands in the West. There they resided for some thousands of years, intermarrying with members of the last, or seventh sub-race of the Atlanteans. Ages later these people, called Atlantean Aeolians because of their long stay on the remnants of the lost continent, were to become the ancestors of the Greeks, for when some of the islands around Poseidonis showed signs of sinking, they had again to leave their homes. They built a flotilla of arks and sailed through the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar) into the Mediterranean Sea. Some of them colonized the coasts of Italy and Spain. Others went on into the Aegean Sea and settled on the Greek Isles and in Thessaly, to which they gave the name of Aeolia. The Atlantean Aeolians were, therefore, the "autochthones" of Greece, the forefathers of the Hellenes, the builders of the Cyclopean citadels and fortresses which still puzzle the archaeologist.

Before Professor Schliemann died, he expressed his firm conviction that Atlantis had been the cradle of the human race. His son, devoting fifteen years to submarine exploration around the African coast, found many relics of Atlantis: wall-fragments, representing a ceremonial dance; a cave-temple of highly artistic construction; two great high-roads, and several unexplained lighthouses on the African coast which he believed were built by Atlantean navigators.

The objections to Professor Schliemann's theory that the modern races of mankind came from Atlantis are based on the same blind negation which refuses a hearing to Theosophic philosophy: both contradict prevailing speculations, and must therefore be denied with little or no investigation. While interest in the subject of Atlantis grows yearly, not until the biological and anthropological significance of that continent are grasped by science can we say that its real existence has been admitted. For then, and only then, will modern civilization come into its heritage of the true, the secret knowledge of the ancient Greeks.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 27, No. 3, January, 1939 pp. 99-105

THE GREEK MYSTERIES

AT the time of the early Third Race, high Intelligences from previous periods of evolution incarnated upon this globe in order to form a nursery for future Adepts. These "Sons of Will and Yoga" taught infant humanity the arts and sciences and laid the first foundations for those ancient civilizations which still puzzle our modern scholars. Some of the men instructed by these Divine Teachers preserved their knowledge in all its purity. Others materialized and degraded it. By the time the first Atlanteans appeared, mankind had already separated into two distinct divisions — the righteous and the unrighteous. The former worshipped the invisible spirit of Nature, a ray of which they felt within themselves. The latter separated themselves from the Great Mother, anthropomorphized her natural forces, and established the dark beginnings of all those subsequent religions which, as a Teacher says, "are the chief cause of nearly two-thirds of the evils that pursue humanity." This simple fact affords a clue to the origin of evil by showing that man himself separated the One from its two contrasting aspects, and must continue to reap the consequences until he himself repairs his work.

After the submersion of the last remnant of Atlantis some 12,000 years ago, an impenetrable veil of secrecy was thrown over the sacred teachings lest again they be desecrated. It was this secrecy which led to the re-establishment of the Mysteries, to preserve the ancient teachings for the coming generations under the veil of symbol and allegory.

Contrary to popular opinion, the Mysteries did not originate either in Egypt or in Greece, but can be traced at least to pre-Vedic India. The Greek Mysteries were the last surviving relics of the archaic wisdom enacted under the guidance of high Initiates. With their loss, the Dark Ages of Europe began.

Within the sacred crypts of the Mystery Schools the hidden secrets of nature and man were unfolded. Clement of Alexandria says that the evolution of the entire universe was divulged in the Greater Mysteries, "for in them was shown to the initiated Nature and all things as they are." Their moral value was stressed by Epictetus, while Plato asserted that their real object was to restore the soul to its primordial purity, that state of perfection from which it had fallen.

Herodotus informs us that the Mysteries were introduced into Greece by Orpheus, the son of Apollo, from whom he received his seven-stringed lyre, or the sevenfold mystery of initiation. Although Orpheus is commonly described as a "mythological" character,

This alone may be depended upon, from general assent, that there formerly lived a person named Orpheus, who was the founder of theology among the Greeks; the first of prophets and the prince of poets; who taught the Greeks their sacred rites and mysteries, and from whose wisdom the divine muse of Homer and the sublime theology of Pythagoras and Plato flowed. (Thomas Taylor: Mystical Hymns of Orpheus.)

Orpheus was a generic title, the name of one of those early instructors of the Third Race, which passed from teacher to pupil for untold generations. The Greek Orpheus is identified with Arjuna, the disciple of Krishna, who went around the world establishing the Mysteries. The word Orpheus, which means the "dark skinned," points to the Indo-Aryan ancestry of that Teacher, while the purely Eastern character of his philosophy indicates the real source of the wisdom of Greece.

According to Orpheus, all things may be traced back to a great Principle to which men have tried to give a name, although it is really indescribable and ineffable. Following the Egyptian symbolism, Orpheus speaks of this Principle as "thrice-unknown darkness, in the contemplation of which all knowledge is refunded into ignorance." Proclus, one of the most scholarly commentators on the philosophy of Orpheus, says he taught that a progeny of principles issued from the original Principle, each one of which was stamped with the occult characters of Divinity.

The Orphic system describes the Day and Night of Brahmâ as the Great Year of the Universe, at the end of which "Kronos squares the account of the gods, and re-assumes dominion of the most primeval Darkness." Orpheus declares that man's evolution is accomplished by means of innumerable reincarnations. Plutarch expresses the opinion that the myth of Bacchus, which was enacted in the Orphic Mysteries, "is a sacred narrative concerning reincarnation." In the sixth book of the Aeneid, which is an allegorical record of some of the Mystery rites, Virgil speaks of the time elapsing between earth lives:

All these souls, after they have passed away a thousand years, are summoned by the divine ones in great array, to the Lethean river. In this way they become forgetful of the former earth-life, and re-visit the vaulted realms of the world, willing to return again into living bodies.

The oldest Mystery School of Greece was situated on the island of Samothrace, which was first colonized by the Pelasgians, those Atlanto-Aryan immigrants who were the first settlers of Greece. The most famous of the Mystery Schools, and the last to be destroyed, was the Eleusinian, located in the hamlet of Eleusis, not far from Athens.

The Eleusinian Mysteries were divided into the Lesser and the Greater. The former were held at Agrae where, after a period of probation, the neophytes were known as the Mystae, or the "veiled." The latter were held at Eleusis, and those who were initiated therein were known as the Epoptae, or those who saw "face to face."

The Eleusinian Mysteries, from one point of view, were schools of Eastern psychology, in which the students learned the true nature of the soul, its relation to the body, and the method by which it could be purified and redeemed. The Lesser Mysteries illustrated, through dramatic performances, the condition of the unpurified soul, still entangled in the meshes of its own Karmic actions. The Greater Mysteries demonstrated the bliss of the soul which had been purified through spiritual vision and Self-realization.

In the Lesser Mysteries the neophytes were shown that the soul, when invested with a body, undergoes a form of death. "It is death to the soul," Plotinus wrote, "to be wholly immersed in a body and wholly subjected to it." This was demonstrated in the Eleusinian Mysteries by a dramatization of the myth of Ceres and Proserpine.

Ceres was one of the Immortals who dwelt on Mount Olympus. As a cosmic symbol she represented the fructifying principle in the all-pervading Spirit which quickens every germ in the material universe. As an individual symbol she typified the immortal Spirit which sheds its radiance upon every human being and which, being rooted in the Unknowable Causeless Cause, is both omnipotent and omniscient. Her daughter Proserpine symbolized the reincarnating Ego which, under Karmic law, descends into matter and slowly works its way back to the Source of All, taking with it the results of all experiences gained on the way. This myth is a magnificent description of the method by which the soul which has not yet incarnated upon this globe descends for the first time into a body of flesh.

Fearing that her daughter would be polluted by contact with matter, Ceres confined her in a house built by the Cyclopes, after which she returned to her own dwelling place among the gods. Jupiter, knowing that Proserpine's time for incarnation had arrived, sent Venus to tempt her out of the house. Venus found her weaving the net of destiny in which the embodied soul becomes entangled. Led on by the goddess, Proserpine went out into the fields where Pluto, the god of the nether world, saw her and desired her. Picking her up, he carried her down to his own world and shut her up in a dark cavern. There, with Night as a witness, he married her, and the soul and body were united.

One night Ceres dreamed of Proserpine, who begged her mother to come to her aid. Girding herself with a Serpent, and carrying two lighted torches in her hands, Ceres started out to find her daughter. After travelling throughout the world, she finally returned to Greece. Weary and sad, she sat down on a stone, where she remained in meditation for nine days and nights. The place where she sat became the site of the Eleusinian School, in which the final initiations occupied nine days and nights. Homer says that this period refers to the nine spheres through which the soul descends into the body. It also has reference to the nine months of pre-natal life which the soul needs to form its body.

After these nine days of meditation Ceres returned to Jupiter and begged him to release her daughter. Jupiter consented, provided that Proserpine had not eaten any food during her life with Pluto. But when Mercury, the messenger of Jupiter, reached the underworld, he found that Proserpine had sucked the sweet juice from a pomegranate which Pluto had given her, showing that she had tasted the fruits of earthly life and found them sweet. That was enough to prevent her complete release. A compromise, however, was effected, allowing Proserpine to spend one half of her time with Ceres, the other half with her husband, Pluto. So, from its first incarnation, the soul communes with its Higher Self during deep sleep and after death, while its waking hours and the years of its earthly life are spent wedded to the body and its interests.

The condition of the unpurified soul after death, which also formed part of the instructions in the Lesser Mysteries, is described by Virgil. After crossing the Stygian lake, Aeneas meets the three-headed monster Cerberus, who symbolizes Kama Loka and the beings detained there. Thomas Taylor classifies them as infants who have met an untimely end, executed criminals and suicides. Aeneas is then taken to the Elysian Fields, or Devachan, where he finds the souls occupied "in employments proper to the spiritual nature, in giving free scope to the splendid and winged powers of the soul, in nourishing the higher intellect with substantial banquets of spiritual food."

As the ultimate purpose of the Mysteries was to free the soul from the dominion of the flesh, the neophytes were shown the difficulties of the Path which lay before them. "Easy is the path that leads down to Hell," Virgil says, "grim Pluto's gate stands open night and day. But to retrace one's steps and escape to the upper regions, this is a work, this is a task." But however great the difficulties, Virgil assures us that they are not insurmountable, since "some few, whom illustrious virtue advanced to heaven, have effected it."

The first task undertaken by the probationary disciples at Agrae was that of purification: "For the Mysteries are not imparted to all who are willing to be initiated. It is necessary that those who are not excluded from initiation should first undergo certain Purifications." (Theon of Smyrna: Mathematica.) In this degree of the Mysteries the student learned to control his appetites, to restrain his emotions, to discipline his mind through the study of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Only when the lower nature is under control, Plotinus says, "will the inner eye begin to exercise its clear and solemn vision."

The student who had passed through this period of probationary discipline successfully was then admitted to the Greater Mysteries of Eleusinia. Where at Agrae he had been permitted to see things "through a glass, darkly," he was now ready to see "face to face." Where before he had observed life through the eyes of Proserpine, the unpurified soul, he was now ready to look through the eyes of Ceres, the Higher Self. He was now prepared to have the myth of Ceres and Proserpine explained to him, and its different aspects unveiled in philosophical doctrines.

The instructions in the Greater Mysteries were given out by a high Initiate who was known as the Hierophant, or Interpreter. He was a sage, bound to celibacy, who devoted his entire time to this holy task. None of the students contacted him personally, and no one was allowed to mention him by name. The instructions were read from a book made of two stone tablets, known as the Petroma. They were imparted to the candidate orally, "at low breath," and were received under the pledge of secrecy, the breaking of which meant death.

The initiations took place in dark underground crypts, and were described as the "descent into Hades." After remaining in "Hades" for three days and nights, the candidate was then transported into the "Elysian Fields," after which he was considered as "one newly born," an Epoptes. This compound word means both a spectator and a Master Builder. The latter title, as found in Freemasonry, came directly from the Mysteries. When St. Paul spoke of himself as a Master Builder, he declared himself an Initiate of the Mysteries, having the right to initiate others.

The first initiation of the Mysteries was that of purification. The second was called the "tradition of the mystery." The third was known as "inspection." The fourth was called the "binding of the head and the fixing of the crowns," which Plato says is equivalent to having the ability to lead others to knowledge. The fifth and most awe-inspiring of the Mystery rites is described as "friendship and interior communion with God." Plato says that in that initiation he found himself liberated from the body and united with his Higher Self. At that time, he says, he became the spectator of "blessed visions, resident in pure light." Proclus hints as to what these visions really were by declaring that the gods "exhibit themselves in many forms and appear in a variety of shapes." The eleventh chapter of The Bhagavad Gita gives much light on this last and highest initiation of the Mysteries.

The Mysteries were not designed merely to initiate a chosen few into the secrets of nature, setting them apart from the rest of mankind. Their true purpose was rather to enable students to acquire an understanding of the ancient wisdom in order to be the better able to help and teach others. Every one initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries, therefore, bound himself by the age old pledge: "I swear to give up my life for the salvation of my brothers, who constitute the whole of mankind, and, if called upon, to die in the defense of truth."

For many centuries the Mysteries of Eleusinia shed their bright rays over the land of Greece. But the day finally came when dark clouds of ignorance and selfishness began to obscure the light. In 510 B.C., on the advice of Aristogeiton, the State decided to use the Eleusinian School as a source of income. From that time on, every one who entered the School paid an admission fee. By breaking the occult law that spiritual truths cannot be bought or sold, the Mysteries began to degenerate, and by the end of the second century A.D. any one who had the price could become an "initiate." During those six hundred years, the epoptae disappeared one by one, leaving only the mystae behind. These half-knowing ones, who had never fathomed the depths of the secret teachings nor experienced union with the Higher Self, laid the foundation stones of modern Masonry. And from the uninitiated Freemasons Christian ritualism was born.

Although the less important Mystery Schools completely disappeared under the cruel and revengeful hand of the Christian Emperor Theodosius, the Mysteries of Eleusinia were not so easily abolished. But in the year 396 the vast Temple of Eleusis, one of the most famous buildings of the ancient world, was reduced to a pile of ashes. So perished the Mysteries of Greece.

But, although the Greek epoptai are no more, we have now, in our own age, a people far more ancient than the oldest Hellenes, who practice the so-called "preterhuman" gifts to the same extent as did their ancestors far earlier than the days of Troy. (Isis Unveiled II, 102.)

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 27, No. 4, February, 1939 pp. 147-153

KEYS TO THE MYSTERIES

The keys to the biblical miracles of old, and to the phenomena of modern days; the problems of psychology, physiology, and the many "missing links" which have so perplexed scientists of late, are all in the hands of secret fraternities. This mystery must be unveiled some day. But till then dark skepticism will constantly interpose its threatening, ugly shadow between God's truths and the spiritual vision of mankind; and many are those who, infected by the mortal epidemic of our century — hopeless materialism — will remain in doubt and mortal agony as to whether, when man dies, he will live again, although the question has been solved by long bygone generations of sages. The answers are there. They may be found on the time-worn granite pages of cave-temples, on sphinxes, propylons, and obelisks. They have stood there for untold ages, and neither the rude assault of time, nor the still ruder assault of Christian hands, have succeeded in obliterating their records. All covered with the problems which were solved — who can tell? perhaps by the archaic forefathers of their builders — the solution follows each question; and this the Christian could not appropriate, for, except the initiates, no one has understood the mystic writing. The Key was in the keeping of those who knew how to commune with the invisible Presence, and who had perceived, from the lips of mother Nature herself, her grand truths. And so stand these monuments like mute forgotten sentinels on the threshold of that unseen world, whose gates are thrown open but to a few elect. — Isis Unveiled.

THE FIRST GREEK PHILOSOPHERS

THE millennium which extended from the time of Buddha and Pythagoras in the sixth century B.C., until the final suppression of the Neoplatonists in the sixth century A.D., is the only focus left in history wherein the bright rays of truth streaming from the sun of archaic wisdom converged for the last time, unobscured by the dark clouds of bigotry and fanaticism.

The first part of this period marked the rise of Greek democracy. The Kings had already given way to the Nobles who, in their turn, were being replaced by the Tyrants, some of whom championed the rights of the people while others became dictators. With the rise of the middle class, education became more general. The laws of Greece, which before that time had been oral, were now reduced to a written code. The arts of music, poetry, the drama and architecture began to flourish. At no other time in history were so many temples built as in Greece during the sixth century B.C. It was at the beginning of this rising cycle of democracy that the Milesian school of Greek philosophy was born. This School was an outcome of the Mysteries, and the three men who sponsored it were Initiates.

In the Mysteries, philosophy, science, religion and ethics were taught as one, with no special names to distinguish them as separate branches of learning. As a matter of fact, the word philosophy was not known until the days of Pythagoras. Before his time the wise men of Greece were known as Sages, "those who know." Pythagoras coined the word philosopher to indicate one who loved truth and sought to discover what wise men already knew. The "Seven Wise Men" of Greece, while commonly called "philosophers," were practical men who applied their extraordinary knowledge in various ways. Solon, one of the most famous of the Seven, used his knowledge of universal principles to establish good government. Born a wealthy noble, Solon was a friend of the common people. After his election as archon in 594 B.C., he limited the wealth of the nobles, released all the peasants who had been put into prison for debt, established a jury system and wrote out a Constitution in which every citizen of Greece had a voice in the government. Another of these "Seven Wise Men," Thales, founded the first school of Greek philosophy in Miletus, a powerful Greek city on the coast of Asia Minor.

Thales, who took his name from Thallath, the Chaldean goddess personifying the sea, was a prominent statesman who was associated with King Croesus in the capacity of engineer. Of Phoenician parents, Thales had travelled widely in quest of knowledge, visiting Crete, Phoenicia, and Egypt. He studied astronomy in Babylonia, and after his return to Miletus gained great fame by predicting an eclipse of the sun. His initiation into the Egyptian Mysteries, it is said, made it possible for him to write a book on mathematics. To Thales we owe several propositions later included by Euclid in his Elements. He is also credited with having "discovered" the electrical properties of amber. But as the science of electro-magnetism was taught in the Mysteries, Thales cannot be regarded as the discoverer of any phase of this science, but only as one who gave out publicly what he had learned in secret.

It appears that at about 600 B.C. the time had arrived, under the cyclic law, for public instruction in some of the teachings which had hitherto been confined to the Mysteries. A recurrence of that cycle occurred 2,500 years later, when The Secret Doctrine appeared. It is interesting to notice the similarity of the method used by these early Greek philosophers to that of H.P.B. In the early pages of The Secret Doctrine three fundamental propositions appear in a summarized form, to be illustrated and elaborated throughout the work. The early Greek philosophers followed the same plan, proceeding by gradual stages from the first proposition to the second, and from the second to the third. In The Secret Doctrine these principles are applied first to the Cosmos and then to man. The Greek philosophers employed the same order. The Secret Doctrine presents philosophy, science, religion and ethics as they were taught in the Mysteries — inseparable from each other. The earliest Greek thinkers, however, concentrated on what may be called the "philosophy of science." Only Pythagoras — whose School was patterned after the Mysteries — used the synthetic method.

Although the majority of modern philosophers are willing to admit that every known type of philosophy finds its prototype in the early Greek schools, the old philosophers are often accused of generalization, of a lack of system, and of scientific ignorance. This accusation itself springs from what the Platonists would describe as "complex ignorance" on the part of modern critics. It is the error which permits a man to remain oblivious of his ignorance regarding certain things. For example, how many of our scholars are aware of the fact that every science was originally imparted to men by Divine Teachers, thereby becoming sacred, and impossible of communication save during the rites of initiation? How many realize that no initiated philosopher had the right to reveal his knowledge clearly, but was obliged by the law of the sanctuary to conceal the truth under the veil of allegory and symbol? Once this is understood the seeming "ignorance" of the early philosophers will be recognized as but the result of obligatory caution.

The first school of Greek philosophy was founded by Initiates who taught under these restrictions. They started as do all true philosophers, by postulating the existence of a homogeneous Substance-Principle, the radical Cause of all. Thales symbolized this principle as Water, Anaximenes as Air, Heracleitus as Fire.

When Thales chose Water to stand for Primordial Substance, he employed a symbol already familiar to the Greeks. Homer had described the Source of all as "River Ocean, a deep and mighty flood, encircling land and sea like a Serpent with its tail in its mouth." Hesiod had declared that "Chaos was of all things the first produced," indicating that the producer of Chaos must be passed over in reverential silence. But long before the days of Homer and Hesiod the Greeks had learned of Primordial Substance from Orpheus, who brought from India the archaic doctrine which is itself as old as the world. This idea opens the cycle of cosmogony in the Chaldean Book of Numbers, in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, in the Indian Puranas, in the first book of Genesis. Even Wordsworth in his Ode to Immortality describes the beginning of things as —

A dark, immutable Ocean without bounds,
Without dimension, where length and breadth and height
And Time and place are lost; where oldest night
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold
Eternal anarchy.

Anaximenes of Miletus, friend and associate of Thales, is known to the world for his description of the universally pervasive Principle in which the earth floats and which permeates every atom. He symbolized it as Air. In the single surviving sentence of his writings Anaximenes says:

Just as our soul, being air, holds us together,
so do breath and air encompass the whole world.

The "air" of which he speaks is Jiva, an aspect of the "Great Breath," the Life which, without doubt, does "encompass the whole world." As Jiva is the highest principle in man, the statement that our soul is "air" may be taken in this meaning. The "breath" associated with "air" may be understood as Prana, which, strictly speaking, is breath, a necessary element for the continuance of life in the human frame.

While the world of philosophy is indebted to Anaximenes for spreading these purely Theosophical concepts among the Greeks, modern science owes to him a statement of the nebular hypothesis. Anaximenes declared that the sidereal bodies were formed through the progressive condensation of a primordial, pregenetic matter, which had an almost negative weight, and was spread out through space in an extremely sublimated condition.

While Thales chose Water to symbolize Primordial Substance, and Anaximenes chose Air to describe the One Life which animates it, Heracleitus of Ephesus maintained that the one Principle underlying all physical phenomena is Fire. This is also an old occult symbol, for the esoteric teachings say that "Fire is the most perfect and unadulterated reflection, in Heaven as on Earth, of the One Flame. It is Life and Death, the origin and the end of every material thing. It is divine 'Substance'." (The Secret Doctrine, I, 121.)

However partial their explanations may appear in the greater light of The Secret Doctrine, the world owes these ancient Greeks a debt of gratitude for their impersonal concept of Deity. From the early period of the Fourth Race down to the last palmy days of Grecian art, the Hellenes were the only people who raised a public altar to the Unknown God. Although the lesser gods were worshipped in anthropomorphic forms, the unknown Source of all was described as it. Parmenides, of the Eleatic School, declared: "it is. It is complete, immovable, indivisible, without beginning and without end." Anaximander, of the Milesian school, called It the Source of all, within which all things arise and into which they will eventually return. Many of the Greek thinkers symbolized the abstract, ever-incognizable Presence as a Circle, or a Sphere, Parmenides saying, "It is complete on every side like the mass of a rounded Sphere, equally poised from the center in every direction." From the point arising within that Sphere the Greek philosophers constructed the mathematics of the Universe.

The tendency of the Greeks to anthropomorphize the lesser "gods" received a stinging rebuke from Xenophanes, reputed founder of the Eleatic school. "Vain mortals," he said, "imagine that gods like themselves are begotten with human sensations and voice, and corporeal members." In his humorous fashion he assured his countrymen that if oxen and horses had hands and could form images of their gods, the oxen would shape their gods in the form of oxen, the horses in the shape of horses, "each kind the divine with its own shape and form endowing." The early Greek philosophers, therefore, must be credited with an understanding of the impersonality of the Deity as taught in Theosophy.

The second fundamental proposition was clearly stated by Anaximander, who said that "There are innumerable worlds which come into being and pass away, some always coming into being, while others are passing away." This universal Law of Periodicity, prevailing in every department of Nature, found another advocate in Heracleitus. He affirmed that the Universe is pervaded by duality, and that the various pairs of opposites — day and night, heat and cold, life and death, sleeping and waking — are synthesized in an underlying Unity. This Unity, he said, is the Unity of Law. "The process by which one thing changes into another does not take place in an unregulated and lawless manner. It is rhythmical, kept within the bounds of definite proportions."

The orderly procession of events under the Law of Cycles was treated at length by Empedocles. He declared that "all things prevail in turn as the cycle comes around, and pass again into one another, and grow great in their appointed turn." This, he said, brings about the regular recurrence of the seasons, the rise and fall of civilizations, the successive incarnations of man. Empedocles regarded death as an illusion, a mere interval between two lives on earth. One statement made by him might well have been drawn from The Bhagavad-Gita:

There is no death for any of the things which perish,
nor any cessation for them through baneful death.

Empedocles apparently was able to remember some of his past incarnations. He informed his students that in some of his lives he had been a man, in others a woman. In a fragment of his writings he described his sensations when he again found himself assuming a body of flesh. "I wept and wailed," he confessed, "when I saw the unfamiliar land. I am now a wanderer and an exile from the gods, because I put my trust in insensate strife."

Empedocles thus described the working of the Law of Karma which compels the soul to incarnate again and again until it rises above the attachment to the pairs of opposites — the cause of "insensate strife." Empedocles spoke of this Law as the Oracle of "Necessity" which follows a man's footsteps until he learns to work with the Law. In another fragment, Empedocles wrote of one who has wilfully polluted his hands with blood and thus foresworn the Law of Brotherhood. Such a man, he said, "must wander thrice ten thousand seasons from the abode of the blessed, being born throughout the times in all manners of mortal forms, changing one form for another."

Are these the words of "ignorant" men? Are they not rather the carefully and cautiously phrased statements of those who knew the fundamental teachings of the archaic wisdom, but who were prevented by their pledge of secrecy from giving them out to the world in full detail? In the thought of the early Greek philosophers, many hints of the ancient secret doctrine are evident to those who have eyes to see. These hints, however, will not be understood, even by the greatest scholars of the day, until they are viewed against the background of the ancient wisdom, the modern expression of which is found in The Secret Doctrine. With this standard of comparison, all systems of philosophy, ancient or modern, show their relation to the unchanging truth, of which they are more or less partial representations.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 27, No. 5, March, 1939 pp. 196-201

"THE MIGHTY ART WAS LOST"

There were nations as cultured in days of old and certainly more spiritually "advanced" than we are. But there are several reasons for this willing ignorance. One of them was given by St. Paul to the cultured Athenians — a loss, for long centuries, of real spiritual insight, and even interest, owing to their too great devotion to things of sense and their long slavery to the dead letter of dogma and ritualism. But the strongest reason for it lies in the fact that real Theosophy has ever been kept secret.

The causes for it were: Firstly, the perversity of average human nature and its selfishness, always tending to the gratification of personal desires to the detriment of neighbors and next of kin. Such people could never be entrusted with divine secrets. Secondly, their unreliability to keep the sacred and divine knowledge from desecration. It is the latter that led to the perversion of the most sublime truths and symbols, and to the gradual transformation of things spiritual into anthropomorphic, concrete, and gross imagery — in other words, to the dwarfing of the god-idea and to idolatry.

— The Key to Theosophy.

PYTHAGORAS

TWENTY-FIVE centuries ago the island of Samos was one of the garden spots of Ionia. Colonized hundreds of years before by a group of Arcadians under the leadership of the "great soul" Ancæus, it had now become the "voluptuous isle" where the Tyrant Polycrates spent his days and nights listening to the languishing odes of the poet Anacreon.

Down in the city beneath the Tyrant's palace there lived a wealthy merchant named Mnesarchus. In the first quarter of the sixth century B.C. he and his wife Parthenis went to Delphi to consult the Oracle, who told Parthenis that she would bear a son who would surpass all men in wisdom and virtue. When Mnesarchus and Parthenis reached Sidon in Phoenicia on their way back to Samos, their son Pythagoras was born.

From Iamblichus we learn that even in childhood Pythagoras astonished all who knew him by the profundity of his wisdom. By the time he had reached the age of eighteen, he had already exhausted the cultural possibilities of his island home. Having heard of Thales and Anaximander, he set sail for the mainland on the first lap of a journey which lasted for almost forty years and took him into every country in the then known world. As soon as Thales conversed with Pythagoras he recognized the superior quality of his mind and advised him to go to Egypt to study with the wise men who had been his own instructors. Leaving Miletus, Pythagoras went first to Sidon, where he was initiated into the Mysteries of Tyre and Byblos. Then he proceeded to Egypt, making the journey with some Egyptian sailors who believed that a god had taken passage on their ship. On his arrival in Egypt Pythagoras at once put himself under the instruction of the teachers of Thales. He spent the next twenty-two years perfecting himself in mathematics, astronomy and music, and was finally initiated into the Egyptian Mysteries.

When Cambyses invaded Egypt, he made Pythagoras his prisoner and sent him to Babylon. Pythagoras utilized this seeming misfortune as an opportunity for growth, and for the next twelve years he studied with the Magi and was initiated into the Chaldean Mysteries. Leaving Babylon, he made his way through Persia into India, where he continued his education under the Brachmanes and imbibed the wisdom of the East at its original source.

At that time India was still feeling the effects of the great spiritual revival brought about by Gautama the Buddha. Although Pythagoras arrived in India too late to come into personal contact with the Buddha, he was greatly influenced by his teachings. Indeed, there is such a close and intimate relationship between the Buddhistic and the Pythagorean systems that the one cannot be fully understood without an acquaintance with the other. Although Pythagoras went to India as a student, he left it as a Teacher. Even to this day he is known in that country as Yavanâchârya, the "Ionian Teacher."

Pythagoras was fifty-six years old when he finally returned to his native land. Thirty-eight of those years he had spent in foreign lands, fitting himself by study and discipline for his future work. When he arrived in Samos he found the island crushed and ruined, its temples and schools closed, its wise men fleeing from the tyranny and persecution of the great Persian conqueror.

Instead of being welcomed by his countrymen, Pythagoras found them indifferent to the wisdom he was so eager to impart. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to procure a single pupil. One day he saw a poorly dressed young man playing ball in the Gymnasium. Entering into conversation with him, Pythagoras offered to support him if he would consent to receive instruction in geometry. The youth accepted the offer, began his study, and received three oboli from Pythagoras for every problem solved. At last the young man became so interested in mathematics that he offered to study without financial remuneration. Taking the name of Pythagoras for his own, this student became his teacher's most devoted disciple.

By this time Pythagoras had realized that the island of Samos offered him no opportunity for the development of his educational scheme. Accompanied by his one disciple, he went to southern Italy, settling in Crotona, a town situated on the Gulf of Tarentum. He chose this town because of the freedom of its constitution and the liberal-mindedness of its inhabitants, and also because Pythagoras hoped that his residence in Italy would enable him to spread his teachings throughout the whole of Greece.

Shortly after his arrival in Crotona, Pythagoras visited the Gymnasium, where he was soon surrounded by a group of young men. He reminded them of the solidarity which should exist between students, warned them of the self-control which must be cultivated during the years of adolescence, and urged them to acquire the philosophical knowledge necessary to good citizenship.

The young men listened respectfully to Pythagoras' words, and when they returned home that evening they repeated his conversation to their parents. A few days later Pythagoras was invited to speak before the Senate of Crotona. On this occasion he advised the Senators to build a Temple to the Muses, whose harmony and interdependence should be a constant reminder of the primary virtues necessary to good government. He also spoke to them of the sanctity of marriage and of those simple family duties which, if faithfully performed, would give them experience for the larger duties of state. He reminded them also of the solidarity which must exist among those who are at the head of the government, stressed the necessity of being able to both give and receive advice and instruction, and gave them a standard of action which, if applied, would bring happiness into their personal lives and success to the country they served.

The Senators of Crotona were so impressed with the wisdom of Pythagoras that they decided to build him an Institute which would serve the several purposes of a school of philosophy and moral training, an academy of science, and a small model city. The School was situated on the top of a high hill overlooking the town, with a glimpse of the Gulf beyond. Although it was understood that it would be patterned after the Mystery Schools, there was nothing about the place suggesting secrecy save a statue of Hermes at the door of the inner school with the words on the pedestal: Let no profane enter here.

Students entered the Pythagorean School first as probationers, and for three years they were closely watched by Pythagoras without being aware of the fact. While they exercised in the Gymnasium Pythagoras would walk among them, carefully observing their natural movements, their facial expressions, and especially their laughter. For, as Pythagoras said, "Laughter is an infallible index to character, and no amount of dissimulation can render agreeable the laugh of an ill-disposed man." (There are no known writings of Pythagoras. All statements attributed to him are from later accounts of his ideas.) The students exercised with quoits, javelins, and by racing. Pythagoras was opposed to wrestling, saying that men who intended to practice the virtues of friendship should not begin by throwing one another on the sand and rolling about like wild beasts. Such actions, he said, tend to develop hatred, which makes a man inferior to any opponent.

The moral nature of the student was then tested. Sometimes he would be highly praised, to see if pride arose. At other times he would be humiliated before his fellow-students, and his reactions carefully noted. During those early years every thread of the disciple's moral fibre was tested and strengthened, for Pythagoras taught that true knowledge cannot be acquired until the lower nature is under control. He spoke disparagingly of those teachers who "infuse theorems and divine doctrines into confused and turbid natures, just as if some one should pour pure and clear water into a deep well filled with mud." The probationary period in Pythagoras' School, therefore, was closely patterned after the discipline of purification in the Lesser Mysteries.

The student next was tested along intellectual lines. Every mental capacity was carefully noted — the rapidity of his thought, the accuracy of his memory, his power of concentration, and particularly his intuition.

After three years of this probationary discipline, the students who had passed these preliminary tests were admitted into the first degree of the School, becoming known as "listeners." The purpose of this degree, according to Iamblichus, was that they "should exercise themselves in hearing, in order that they might be able to speak." For five years, therefore, the students observed silence. Pythagoras knew the power of sound. He taught that the Universe evolves from Sound, and that man creates a universe of his own through the mighty power of his own words. In this degree the students learned to subjugate their tongues, "that being the most difficult of all victories, as those have unfolded to us who instituted the Mysteries."

The students in this degree were not permitted to ask questions. Questions were propounded by the teachers, but were not answered, every student being obliged to seek the answer within himself. These questions were usually on some abstract subject, such as: What is Harmony? What is the most powerful thing in the world? What is the most difficult thing in the world? Happy the student whose intuition told him that the most difficult thing in the world is for a man to know himself.

These five years of silence accomplished two things. First, they trained the student's powers of self-reliance and intuition. Second, they gave him training in the secrecy obligatory for the higher degrees, wherein some of the secrets of the Mysteries were disclosed. Upon initiation every student was warned that "it is not lawful to extend to the casual person things which were obtained with such great labors and such diligent assiduity, nor to divulge the Mysteries of Eleusinia to the profane."

Although the "listeners" were not allowed to discuss their instructions with their teachers or their fellow-students, they were encouraged to associate with one another, especially with older students. In this degree the Unity of all things was stressed: the fundamental Unity lying behind all the diversity of nature; the underlying unity of all religions; the unity and friendship which should exist among all men.

He unfolded the friendship of all things toward all. Indeed he delivered such an admirable friendship to his associates that even now [300 A.D.] those who are benevolent in the extreme towards each other are said to belong to the Pythagoreans. (Iamblichus.)

The story is told of a certain member of the School who fell ill at a wayside inn, and died without being able to pay his bill. Before his death, he asked the inn-keeper to place a certain symbol on the road outside the inn. Months later another Pythagorean passed that way, saw the symbol and discharged the debt of his unknown friend. So did the Pythagoreans understand friendship, not as a matter of personal affection, but as that invisible bond which unites all who study the occult sciences and practice the disciplines of the ancient school.

The daily life of a student at Crotona followed a definite schedule. Rising with the sun, his first thoughts were given to meditation. After pronouncing a mantram on a certain tone, he carefully reviewed all his actions of the previous day and planned the coming day in full detail. After breakfast he took a solitary walk, as Pythagoras did not think it proper to converse with others until one had "rendered his soul sedate, and harmonized his reasoning powers." The student then repaired to the Gymnasium for his daily exercise, for he had learned that the body is the temple of the soul, and should always be kept in a condition worthy of its divine occupant. The rest of the morning was spent in study. At noon the students dined together in small groups, their meal consisting mainly of bread and honey. Pythagoras himself was a strict vegetarian and the members of his esoteric school were not allowed to eat meat. He was not so strict, however, with the probationers who had not yet commenced their study of practical Occultism. These were permitted to eat the flesh of certain animals, excluding, however, the brain and heart.

The moral discipline of the Pythagorean student steadily increased in intensity, and the line of discrimination between right and wrong became finer with every passing year. Disciples were warned not to be surprised by anything that might happen and trained to meet the greatest shocks with an equal mind. Anger was considered as one of the deadly sins and every student was cautioned not to make a decision or rebuke a servant while under the influence of this passion. The Pythagorean idea of duty might well have been taken from The Bhagavad Gita. Iamblichus gives it thus:

We should never do anything with a view to pleasure as an end.
We should perform what is right, because it is right to do so.

After a frugal lunch, the students received their relatives and friends in the gardens of the School. This was followed by another walk, this time in the company of others. At the close of the day they supped together and read aloud. Before retiring each student again engaged in meditation, following the instructions of Pythagoras found in the Golden Verses:

Never suffer sleep to close thy eyelids, after thy going to bed, till thou hast examined by thy reason all thy actions for the day. Wherein have I done amiss? What have I omitted that I ought to have done? If in this examination thou findest that thou hast done amiss, reprimand thyself severely for it. And if thou hast done any good, rejoice.

After this review, the student chanted his evening mantram, and in the peace and quiet of the soft Italian night he fell asleep.

During the first eight years of probationary discipline the student received no instruction from Pythagoras himself, nor was he permitted to mention the Teacher by name. Those who were unable to stand the discipline left the school and went out again into the world. Even in the higher degrees some occasionally failed by breaking their pledge of secrecy or some other rule which bound them. These were expelled from the School, and a tomb bearing their name was erected in the garden. If a loyal Pythagorean met one of these failures on the street, he did not greet him nor in any way indicate that he had once known him, for Pythagoras taught that such a man is dead. "His body appears among men," he said, "but his soul is dead. Let us weep for it!"

The great and compassionate heart of Pythagoras ached with helpless pity for those weak souls who had strayed from the Path. But he rejoiced for those who were strengthened by the discipline, who trod the thorny path of discipleship without faltering. These were admitted to the higher section of the School, which corresponded to the Greater Mysteries. During the first eight years of probation, the students were known as Exoterics. Those who entered the higher sections were known as Esoterics.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 27, No. 6, April, 1939 pp. 244-249

THE PYTHAGOREAN SCIENCE OF NUMBERS

IT was an auspicious day for the student at Crotona when Pythagoras received him into his own dwelling and welcomed him as a disciple. The candidate could now look back upon his eight years of probationary discipline with gratitude, for he knew that they had prepared him for the study of Nature's hidden secrets and placed him on the Path leading to Adeptship.

Pythagoras began his instructions by establishing certain universal principles, proceeding from them into particulars. The key to the whole Pythagorean system, irrespective of the particular science to which it is applied, is the general formula of unity in multiplicity, the idea of the One evolving and pervading the many. This is commonly known as the Doctrine of Emanations. Pythagoras called it the Science of Numbers.

Pythagoras taught that this science — the chief of all in occultism — was revealed to men by "celestial deities," those godlike men who were the Divine Instructors of the Third Race. It was first taught to the Greeks by Orpheus, and for centuries made known only to the "chosen few" in the Mysteries. Just before the Mysteries began to degenerate, Pythagoras instituted this teaching in his School, thus preserving under the name of "philosophy" the ancient science which, as Plato truly says, is "the greatest good that was ever imparted to men." In his Life of Pythagoras, Iamblichus repeats the statement of Plato that the study of the science of Numbers tends to awaken that organ in the brain which the ancients described as the "eye of wisdom" — the organ now known to physiology as the pineal gland. Speaking of the mathematical disciplines, Plato says in the Republic (Book VII), "the soul through these disciplines has an organ purified and enlightened, an organ better worth saving than ten thousand corporeal eyes, since truth becomes visible through this alone."

The present mode of teaching mathematics does little to arouse the higher mind. Even geometry, although based on the Elements of Euclid, is studied only for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the other parts of mathematics dependent upon it,

...without having even a dreaming perception of its first and most essential use, that of enabling its votary, like a bridge, to pass over the obscurity of a material nature, as over some dark sea, to the luminous regions of perfect reality. (Thomas Taylor: Theoretic Arithmetic of the Pythagoreans.)

In the seventh book of the Republic Plato indicates the possibilities lying behind the knowledge of numbers. He would make it compulsory for those who manage the affairs of state to study mathematics, "not in a common way, but till by intelligence itself they arrive at the survey of the nature of numbers." This science, he assures us, should not be used merely for buying and selling, but "for facility in the energies of the soul itself."

The Pythagorean student approached the science of mathematics from the universal point of view. By applying mathematics to both the Macrocosm and the Microcosm he was able to grasp the secrets of evolution in their minutest details. Quoting from the Neo-Pythagorean Moderatus, Porphyry says that the numerals of Pythagoras were "hieroglyphic symbols, by means whereof he explained ideas concerning the nature of things," or the origin of the universe.

Plato, summarizing the Pythagorean formula, says that "Deity geometrizes." The universe evolves from within outward. From the "point" a radiation equal in all directions begins, establishing a circumference, or sphere, within which all activities of the "point" are confined. The point, extending horizontally, becomes a diameter dividing the sphere into positive and negative hemispheres — the basis for action and reaction. The vertical extension of the point into a line crossing the horizontal makes the cross within the circle, and so on ad infinitum. The eleventh Chapter of The Bhagavad-Gita is a dissertation on the Pythagorean Science of Numbers, couched in Eastern terminology. There Krishna shows Arjuna the "vital geometry" of his Divine Form, with all the living lines of force therein and the countless lesser forms produced by them, representing the powers and elements that go to make up the universe.

Pythagoras described the indivisible Unity lying behind all manifestation as "No Number," in this way repeating the statement in the Stanzas of Dzyan that "there is neither first nor last, for all is one: number issued from no number." The plane above, therefore, can be indicated only by the nought or Circle, which Pythagoras said is the most appropriate symbol of Divinity.

On the plane below, the Monad or first number appears, and from this number the geometry of the universe emerges. Pythagoras called the Monad, or One, the first odd and therefore divine number. It is through the misinterpretation of the Pythagorean Monad that the various "personal Gods" of the different religions arose, most of whom are represented as a Trinity. In the phenomenal world the Monad becomes the apex of the manifested equilateral triangle, or the "Father." The left line of the triangle becomes the Duad or "Mother." This represents the origin of all the contrasts in nature, the point at which the roads of good and evil bifurcate. This being the case, the Pythagoreans are said to have "hated" the Binary. Considering the number Two as a representation of the law of polarity, they stressed its positive aspect by entering a temple on the right side and by putting on the right shoe first. The right line of the triangle represents the "Son," described in every ancient cosmogony as one with the apex or "Father." The line at the base of the triangle stands for the universal plane of productive nature, in which "Father-Mother-Son" are unified on the phenomenal plane as they were united in the supersensuous world by the apex.

The triangle is the most profound of all geometrical symbols. As a cosmic symbol representing the Higher Trinity of the universe it became the root of the word Deity. The ancient Greeks called the letter D (the triangular delta) "the vehicle of the Unknown Deity." The Boeotians wrote the word Zeus with a delta, from which came the Latin Deus. The triangle is also a basic form in Nature. When the molecules of salt deposit themselves as a solid, the first shape they assume is that of a triangle. A flame is triangular in shape; hence, the word pyramid from the Greek pyr, or fire. The triangle is also the form assumed by the pine, the most primitive tree after the fern period.

The Pythagoreans called the number Four the "Key-bearer of Nature." As a cosmic symbol it represents the universe as chaotic matter before being informed by Spirit. The cross made by the intersection of the vertical line of Spirit and the horizontal line of matter represents spiritual man crucified in the flesh, while the four-pointed star is a symbol of the animal kingdom.

The five-pointed star, the pentacle, is the symbol of man, not only of the physical man with his four limbs and head, but also of conscious, thinking man, whose fifth principle is Manas. The Pythagoreans associated the number Five with the fifth element, Ether. They called Five the "beam of the balance," which suggests the power of choice and perhaps the final "moment of choice" for our humanity in the middle of the Fifth Round.

The number six illustrates the six directions of extension of all solid bodies. The interlaced triangles picture the union of spirit and matter, male and female. The Pythagoreans considered this number as sacred to Venus, since "the union of the two sexes, and the spagyrisation of matter by triads are necessary to develop the generative force ... which is inherent in all bodies." (Rayon: Potency of the Pythagorean Triangles.)

Pythagoras called seven a perfect number, making it the basis for "Music of the Spheres." Regarding seven as a compound of three and four, he gave a twofold account of its meaning: On the noumenal plane the triangle is Father-Mother-Son, or Spirit, while the quaternary represents the ideal root of all material things; applied to man, the triangle represents his three higher principles, immortal and changeless, while the quaternary refers to the four lower principles which are in unstable flux. Seven not only governs the periodicity of the phenomena of life on the physical plane, but also dominates the series of chemical elements, as well as the world of sound and color, as shown by the spectroscope.

The Pythagoreans called the number eight "Justice." In that symbol we find an expression of the eternal spiral motion of cycles, the regular inbreathing and outbreathing of the Great Breath. They called the number nine the "Ocean" and the "Horizon," as all numbers are comprehended by and revolve within it. If we consult the Table of the Yugas on page 125 of The Ocean of Theosophy, we shall observe that all the figures may be resolved into the number nine.

Ten, or the Decade, brings all these digits back to unity, ending the Pythagorean table. In both the Microcosm and the Macrocosm the three higher numbers of the Decade stand for the invisible and metaphysical world, while the lower seven refer to the realm of physical phenomena.

The Tetraktys of Pythagoras — composed of ten dots arranged in four rows to form a triangle — was the sacred symbol upon which the Pythagoreans took their most binding oath:

"I swear by him who the Tetraktys found,
Whence all our wisdom springs and which contains
Perennial Nature's fountain, cause and root."

Theon of Smyrna says that this symbol was honored by the Pythagoreans "because it appears to contain the nature of all things." H.P.B. indicates the extraordinary philosophical value of the Tetraktys in The Secret Doctrine (I, 612). According to Iamblichus, the Pythagorean Tetraktys had eleven forms, each one applying to some one particular phase of cosmic or terrestrial life.

Pythagoras applied the Science of Numbers to music, giving the Western world the mathematical basis of its present musical system. The abstract Circle of music is Sound. The mathematical point within that circle, from which the music of our earth emerges, is the "Tone of Nature," called Kung by the ancient Chinese. The "line" of music, derived from the ratio 2:3, is what is now called the "perfect fifth." The rotation of this line forms the "Circle of Fifths," which gives the basis of all key relationships.

The music of this planet, according to Pythagoras, is but a small copy of the "Music of the Spheres." The seven tones of the musical scale correspond to the seven sacred planets, each of which is characterized by a certain tone. As Shakespeare makes Lorenzo say in The Merchant of Venice, "There's not the slightest orb which thou beholdest but in its motion like an angel sings." The study of music was obligatory in the Pythagorean School, not only as a science but also as a healing agent. Iamblichus informs us that "Pythagoras believed that music greatly contributed to health, if it was used in the proper manner." Pythagoras taught that the purest type of sound comes from stringed instruments and that wind instruments tend to excite the lower nature rather than to quiet it, an observation later corroborated by Plato.

The study of astronomy was a duty of the School. Pythagoras taught the heliocentric system and the sphericity of the earth; he declared that the moon is a dead planet which receives its light from the sun and described the composition of the Milky Way. More than a thousand years later both Bruno and Galileo derived their theories of astronomy from Pythagorean fragments.

The esoteric students of Pythagoras were given the Mystery teachings in regard to the nature of the soul, its relation to the body and its ultimate destiny. Pythagoras taught that the soul of man is derived from the World-Soul; hence is immortal and cannot be destroyed by death. The soul of man, he said, accomplishes its evolution by means of numberless incarnations on earth. He frequently spoke to his pupils about their own former lives, and when asked about himself said that he had come into the region of mortality to benefit mankind. He also taught the doctrine of Karma, saying that all the seeming injustices on earth are explained by the fact that every life on earth is but a reward or punishment for deeds performed in previous lives. No outside circumstances are to blame for our unhappy lives, he said, since "men draw upon themselves their own misfortunes, voluntarily and of their own free choice."

Applying the Science of Numbers to the problem of good government, Pythagoras first made himself a "point" in which great spiritual forces were focused, and from that "point" the radii of their influence extended. The Pythagorean School eventually became a small model city, its form of government being adopted by Crotona. From Crotona the sphere of Pythagorean influence expanded to include the neighboring towns, where legislative systems based upon Pythagorean principles lasted for generations.

When Pythagoras was almost a hundred years old he went to Delos to attend the funeral ceremonies of an old friend. One evening, when the Teacher and forty of his pupils were talking together, some of his former pupils who had been expelled from his School set fire to the building where they were assembled, and Pythagoras, with thirty-eight of his pupils, were consumed in the flames.

After the death of the Teacher the School at Crotona was closed and the students departed from Italy. Fearing that the very word philosophy — a word which Pythagoras had coined — would disappear from the Greek language, some of these loyal disciples collected the writings of the older Pythagoreans and wrote down many things which Pythagoras himself had said. These writings were passed down from teacher to pupil, or from father to son, for many generations.

The direct successor to Pythagoras — if such a man could be said to have a successor — was his pupil Aristæus. After him came Pythagoras' son Mnesarchus, who was named after his grandfather. The Pythagorean fragments were preserved by two hundred and thirty-five of his loyal disciples, two hundred and eighteen of whom were men, the other seventeen women. At the present day all that remains of his ethical precepts is found in the Golden Verses.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 27, No. 7, May, 1939 pp. 301-306

THE FATAL SEPARATION

The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge gives death without the fruit of the Tree of Life. Man must know himself before he can hope to know the ultimate genesis of beings and powers less developed in their inner nature than himself. So with religion and science; united two in one they were infallible, for the spiritual intuition was there to supply the limitations of physical senses. Separated, exact science rejects the help of the inner voice, while religion becomes merely dogmatic theology — each is but a corpse without a soul.

— Isis Unveiled.

THE GREEK ATOMISTS AND SOPHISTS

THE last decade of the nineteenth century witnessed the birth-throes of a new scientific era. Prior to that time, matter and electricity were viewed as separate entities, and the atom was considered to be an indivisible particle of matter. The scientists of last century so feared the consequences which might flow from any theoretical subdivision of this ultimate particle that men like Butlerof and Büchner declared that the admission of the divisibility of the atom would lead to a doubt of the very existence of matter itself. In 1888 H. P. Blavatsky boldly asserted that "it is on the illusive nature of matter and the infinite divisibility of the atom that the science of Occultism is built." Furthermore, she warned the scientists that the ultimate division of the atom would resolve matter into simple centers of force, thus precluding the possibility of conceiving matter as an objective substance. At the same time she predicted that materialistic science would receive a death blow between 1888 and 1897. That prophecy was fulfilled to the letter, for between 1895 and 1897 the discoveries made by Roentgen, Zeeman, the Curies, Lorenz and Thomson gave the world an entirely new conception of both matter and the atom.

Since the dawn of the twentieth century, matter has entirely lost its individuality, becoming "merely an electrical phenomenon," as Paul R. Heyl states in the Smithsonian Institution Report for 1935. The atom has been divided and subdivided, each new discovery making it necessary to revise the conception of its structure. The atom of Rutherford, in which electrons revolved like planets around a central nucleus, gave way to the Bohr atom, in which the electrons jumped from orbit to orbit. Finally the atom was turned over to the mathematician. Now that the scientists themselves admit that the atom is an abstraction, it has entered the realm of metaphysics, where, fifty years ago, H.P.B. said that it belongs.

Once again science and philosophy are overlapping, as they did in Greece 2,500 years ago. As Waldemar Kaempffert observes, "the mathematical physicist, who once had nothing but contempt for the philosopher because he was not an experimenter, has of necessity become a philosopher himself." As inductive Science corroborates the hypotheses of these early philosophers more and more, may we not hope that it will begin to show a better appreciation of the wisdom of the ancients than it has done in the past?

Modern science has ended with the confession that science and philosophy cannot be separated. The Greek scientists of the fifth and sixth centuries B.C. started with that assumption. Modern science started with a speck of matter and has traced it back to an immaterial source. The early Greek scientists started with the Source Itself.

The Greek concept of that Primal Source coincides perfectly with the ancient teachings regarding primordial matter, its properties, functions and laws. Hesiod described it as "Chaos" — infinite, boundless, beginningless and endless, an abstraction and at the same time a visible "presence." The Greek Chaos was space filled with darkness, or primordial matter in its pre-genetic state. In that condition it was homogeneous, differentiating at the dawn of manifestation and becoming the root of all the forms of matter which would be developed during that period of evolution. This homogeneous matter, however, was not considered as inert and motionless. No mind capable of penetrating into the realm of metaphysics can conceive of absolute, abstract space apart from absolute, abstract motion. The two are as indissolubly united in the realm of the abstract as they are on the phenomenal plane.

Thales of Miletus, the first Greek philosopher of historical times, postulated the existence of primordial matter. His friend and associate Anaximander completed the picture by declaring this primordial matter to be animated by eternal, ceaseless motion. Anaximenes identified this motion with Life itself, asserting that the universe is a living organism, every particle of which is endowed with life. As these three men had been initiated into the Mysteries, they naturally considered the atom from the occult point of view — as the first-born of the ever-concealed Cause of all Causes; hence as a center of potential vitality. Being Initiates, they knew the occult teaching concerning the relationship between Space, motion and atoms. Space, in Occultism, is the all-container. Atoms fill the immensity of Space, and in their aggregate are that Motion which keeps the wheels of life revolving.

The early Ionian philosophers concerned themselves primarily with the Source of the atom. Their successors, the later Ionians, indicated the atomic changes which have been taking place ever since the universe came into being. As Heraclitus said, "Nothing is; all is becoming." According to the archaic secret doctrine taught in the Mysteries, the purpose of evolution is for the collective progress of the countless "lives" which are but the out-breathings of the One Life. Hence, during this period of "Ever-Becoming," every atom in the manifested universe passes by gradual stages from the formless and intangible down into matter in full generation, and then back again, every stage of transformation bringing it nearer and nearer to the final goal, when it is again absorbed into its original Source, the unconditioned All.

This process was described by Anaxagoras, the pupil of Anaximenes and the teacher of Socrates. He taught that rotatory motion was generated by purer atoms forcing the others downwards, the lighter ones at the same time being forced upward. He believed that this circular motion caused the cyclic curve of differentiated elements, in which each element strives to return to the place of its origin. Going still further, he declared that these atoms were not specks of brute matter, but on the contrary were animated by intelligence, to which he gave the name of Nous. The theory of elemental vortices, therefore, was not first formulated by Galileo and Descartes, but was propounded by Anaxagoras 2,000 years before.

Although the philosophers of the Ionian School paved the way for the later Atomists, the cosmological scheme based upon the atomic theory is usually attributed to Leucippus. Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Leucippus affirmed that everything can be traced back to Space and the atoms which fill it. He said that although atoms are alike in essence, changes arise in their mutual relations. Being the very essence of Motion itself, they are constantly moving, driven by an energy inherent in themselves. This gives rise to a never-ending series of groupings, separations and re-groupings. Rotatory motion, he declared, is produced through the aggregation of these atoms, lateral movement through their collisions, and from these constant permutations and combinations the complex and kaleidoscopic universe came into being.

The gyratory motion of atoms, therefore, appears as one of the oldest concepts of Greek philosophy. When Newton, in 1675, said that "Nature is a circulatory worker, generating fluids out of solids, fixed things out of volatile, subtile out of gross, and gross out of subtile," he was merely repeating what these Greek scientists had taught 2,000 years before he was born.

As there were no mechanical instruments for studying atomic movement in antiquity, how were these Greek scientists able to perceive the circular motion which they so accurately described? As it was beyond the range of physical perception, it is reasonable to suppose that they depended upon the testimony of senses higher than the physical. This explanation becomes still more plausible when we remember that the training of these higher senses formed part of the discipline of the Mysteries.

Every one who has studied the science of Occultism knows that there are seven planes of substance. Six of these planes exist outside of our normal consciousness, beyond the range of our physical senses, in realms other than our three-dimensional space and our divisions of time. If we follow the atoms of the physical plane upward in their transformations, they will reach a point where they pass altogether beyond the range of the physical senses. In The Secret Doctrine (I, 633) H.P.B. describes how these atoms appear to the eye of the Seer, whose super-physical senses permit him to penetrate into the inter-stellar shoals. These atoms appear to him as dazzling specks of virgin snow seen in radiant sunlight. Their velocity is swifter than thought, more rapid than any eye of sense could follow, and furthermore, their motion is circular.

No physical eye will ever see the ultimate atom. Only when the sixth sense is developed — the sense able to perceive the property of matter known as Permeability — will the atom be recognized for what it is: a potential center of force, a living point of energy, a tiny universe endowed with consciousness, intelligence and memory. Every atom has seven planes of existence, each plane being governed by its own specific laws of evolution and absorption, visible to one of man's seven senses and cognizable in one of his seven states of consciousness.

Those Greek philosophers who had been initiated into the Mysteries knew the limitations of the physical senses and the impossibility of obtaining real knowledge through any of them. The uninitiated believed that the only knowledge possible to man must be acquired through the senses. Thus the thinkers of Greece were divided on the question: Is knowledge one, or are there two forms of knowledge, the one relative and changing, the other absolute and changeless? Democritus of Abdera, who had been instructed by the Magi, declared that "there are two forms of knowledge, the trueborn and the bastard." To the latter he assigned all forms of knowledge which are acquired through the physical senses. "The trueborn," he said, "is quite apart from these." Against this position were ranged a group of men known as the Sophists, who declared that the knowledge which Democritus had described as "bastard" was the only possible truth. Protagoras, their leader, denied that real, changeless knowledge exists, maintaining that "man is the measure of all things." Knowledge differs with every individual, he said, hence "this is true to me and that to thee."

To any one who had been initiated into the Mysteries, such relativism had application only to the phenomenal world. The whole system of Pythagoras was founded upon the idea of an eternal, changeless Unity underlying all diversities. This Unity, being a universal concept, was applied to all particulars, even to knowledge itself. When Plato, who was also an Initiate, came upon the scene, he openly attacked the fallacies of the Sophists. For Plato there was only one object worthy of attainment and that was real knowledge. He considered the only genuine philosophers to be those who possessed the knowledge of the really-existing in opposition to mere objects of perception; of the always-existing in opposition to the transitory; of the permanently-existing in opposition to that which waxes and wanes and is alternately generated and destroyed.

Plato was perfectly willing to admit that a certain form of knowledge is obtainable through the senses. He called this knowledge Perception. But he declared that another form of knowledge exists which is not derived from the senses. That he called Real Knowledge. He agreed with the Sophists that perceptive knowledge does differ with the individual. He emphatically disagreed with their assertion that real knowledge does not exist. He discusses the matter in full detail in his Protagoras, Sophist and Theaetetus, where he accuses the Sophists of trying to replace the permanent with the transitory, the changeless with the ever changing, and declaring their doctrine to be a perversion, an attempt to supplant true knowledge with mere verisimilitude.

Plato did not originate this idea. Long before his day the Egyptian Hermes had described these two forms of knowledge, and in still earlier times they had been described in the ancient Stanzas of Dzyan as Dzyu and Dzyu-mi.

Dzyu is the one real (magical) knowledge, or Occult Wisdom; which, dealing with eternal truths and primal causes, becomes almost omniscience when applied in the right direction. Its antithesis is Dzyu-mi, that which deals with illusions and false appearances only, as in our exoteric modern sciences (The Secret Doctrine I, 108.)

It is upon the basis of this latter form of knowledge — which Democritus describes as "bastard," Plato as "Perception," and H.P.B. as the knowledge of illusions and false appearances — that modern science has conducted its experiments and made its deductions. Shall our scientists be blamed for pursuing the only course open to them, since it is no longer possible for them to be initiated into the Mysteries? As H.P.B. pointed out, "outside of such initiation for every thinker there will be a 'thus far and no farther,' mapped out by his intellectual capacity."

Although the Mysteries of Greece have disappeared, the real knowledge upon which they were founded has come down the centuries unchanged. Since the publication of The Secret Doctrine in 1888, there has been no longer any need to depend upon "bastard" knowledge, since that book contains all of the real knowledge that is possible to be given to the world in this century. If that book is carefully studied, the noumenal world of Pythagoras, the World of Ideas of Plato, and Kant's World of Things-in-themselves, will be recognized as substantial, practical realities — as scientific facts.

Our present methods of scientific investigation, however far they may lead us, will never reveal the secrets of the universe as they were disclosed in the Mysteries. The daring explorer, who would probe the inmost secrets of Nature, must transcend the narrow limitations of sense, and learn how to transfer his consciousness into the region of noumena and the sphere of primal cause. To accomplish this, he must develop faculties which are still dormant in the majority of the race. The development of those faculties, however, must be accompanied by strict moral discipline and a spirit of altruism which encompasses the whole of Nature.

The science of Occultism is based upon the fact that in every man there is latent a power which can lead him to true knowledge and enable him to deal with universal principles and primal causes. If our scientists would start with universal principles they would discover that the real atom does not exist on the physical plane. If they would study the sevenfold constitution of nature and man, they would soon see that the real atom is the seventh, or highest principle of a molecular form, just as Atma is the seventh, or highest principle of man. The Secret Doctrine is filled with valuable hints to scientists. One is found on page 580 of the first volume, where H.P.B. says that "there is but one science that can henceforth direct modern research into the one path which will lead to the discovery of the whole, hitherto occult truth, and it is chemistry." The chemistry of which she speaks, however, is not the chemistry of yesterday and today, but the chemistry of the future, which she calls the New Alchemy, or Metachemistry.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 27, No. 8, June, 1939 pp. 350-355

SOCRATES

THE Age of the Tyrants, which produced the "Seven Wise Men," the early Ionian School and the Pythagorean School, ended about 500 B.C. Shortly afterward Greece was invaded by the Persians under Darius and Xerxes, who left Athens in ruins and the Greeks more closely united than ever before. In 460 B.C. Pericles assumed the leadership of the progressive party, gathering around him a glittering galaxy of statesmen, philosophers, dramatists and artists. Aided by the immortal Phidias, he undertook to restore the smoke-blackened Acropolis. Slowly arose the Parthenon, with the magnificent frieze by Phidias inside the colonnades. Ten centuries later the Emperor Theodosius, dictator of the Western world, turned it into a Christian Church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In 1687, while the Turks were using it as a powder magazine, a German lieutenant fired the fatal shot which reduced this crowning glory of Grecian art to a mere skeleton.

In 469 B.C. Phaenarete, the wife of an Athenian sculptor, gave birth to her son Socrates, whose fame was immortalized by his pupils, Xenophon and Plato. Despite his poverty, Socrates participated freely in all the cultural advantages of the city, from which not even the humblest citizen was debarred. After spending several years in his father's workshop, he decided that his mission in life was not to be a sculptor of figures, but a moulder of souls. This conviction came to him after hearing that the Delphic Oracle had described him as the wisest man in Greece. Failing to understand the Oracle's statement, yet not daring to contradict it, Socrates went among his learned friends, contrasting their knowledge with his own. He soon realized that they were all as ignorant as he, the only difference being that they were unaware of their ignorance, while he, at least, knew that he knew nothing. He therefore concluded that the Oracle had chosen him as an instrument to prick the bubble of self-deception and conceit which permitted ignorance to parade itself in the borrowed garments of wisdom.

Socrates carried out his mission with no background of wealth, social position or personal charm to aid him. In appearance he was the exact opposite of the Greek ideal of beauty, his thick lips, protruding eyes, snub nose and shambling gait making him the laughing stock of Athens. Poverty was his bosom friend, frugality his boon companion. He walked through the streets of Athens barefoot, clad in a single threadbare garment which served for summer and winter alike. Between his life at home with Xantippe and the wars of the Greeks abroad in which he participated, Socrates found little opportunity for quiet study. Despite these obstacles, he has come down in history as a model of the virtues. Xenophon wrote:

No one ever heard or saw anything wrong in Socrates. So just was he that he never injured anyone in the least; so master of himself that he never preferred pleasure to goodness; so sensible that he never erred in his choice between what was better and what was worse. In a word, he was of men the best and wisest.

The Phaedo, in which Plato describes the last hours of Socrates on earth, closes with these words: "Such, Echecrates, was the end of our associate, a man, as we should say, the best and also the wisest and most righteous of his time."

Our knowledge of Socrates is almost altogether based on the dialogues of Plato. The best of modern scholars now regard the picture of the sage presented by Xenophon as drawn from Platonic sources. The only other source of any importance is the caricature of Socrates made by Aristophanes in the Clouds — material hardly suitable for accurate biography. John Burnet, in the first volume of his Greek Philosophy: Thales to Plato, observes:

Like Shakespeare, Plato had a marvellous gift of suppressing his own personality when engaged in dramatic composition. That is why his personality is so elusive, and why that of Socrates has so often been substituted for it (p. 149).

It would be natural for an initiate — which Plato was — to "suppress his own personality," allowing the figure of his teacher to appear as the author of the sublime philosophy which Plato recorded. Plato was only following the ancient practice of prefacing all teaching with the Buddhist formula, "Thus have I heard," and observing the occult injunction: "That power which the disciple shall covet is that which shall make him appear as nothing in the eyes of men."

Mr. Burnet shows how difficult it is to separate the "real" Socrates from the Platonic account. Xenophon, he points out, is far from trustworthy, and quite inadequate. Following is the view of this authority, after a quarter of a century devoted to the study of this and similar problems:

...in practice every writer fills in the outline with as much of the Platonic Socrates as happens to suit his preconceived ideas of the man. Such a procedure is hopelessly arbitrary, and can only land us in unverifiable speculations. It would be far better to say at once that we cannot know anything about Socrates, and that for us he must remain a mere x. Even so, however, the Platonic Socrates is actual enough, and he is the only Socrates we can hope to know well. If he is a fictitious character, he is nevertheless more important than most men of flesh and blood (pp. 127-8).

The outline of the life and thought of Socrates here presented is therefore of Platonic origin. This is the Socrates who has had such enormous influence on all subsequent philosophy, which was what Plato intended, and it would be fruitless to attempt to "improve" on Plato.

Socrates is frequently described as a "mystic," the meaning of this term varying with the biographer. It is well known that he was subject to ecstatic trances, that for hours he would stand still in some subjective state, his friends knowing better than to disturb him. During the military operations of the Athenians at Potidæa, when Socrates was not quite forty years old, he remained standing motionless in one place from early morning of one day until sunrise on the next, unaffected by a hard frost during the night. He had an inner "voice," or daemon, whose injunctions he followed. According to Plato, the daemon gave only negative admonitions, which may account for the theory of some writers that the "voice" was merely that of conscience. H. P. Blavatsky wrote that "the Daimonion of Socrates is the god or Divine Entity which inspired him all his life." Nevertheless, because of the passive nature of this relationship, Socrates is chosen by her to illustrate the danger of untrained mediumship. "The old Grecian philosopher," she says, "was a 'medium'; hence he had never been initiated into the Mysteries; for such was the rigorous law." (Isis Unveiled I, xx; II, 117.) This pure and unselfish psychic, then, was idealized by Plato, who thus showed reverence and love for the teacher of his early years by making him appear as the channel through which the ancient wisdom was revealed to the western world.

Socrates started his life-work by carefully investigating the various scientific and philosophical systems of the day, finding in Anaxagoras the nearest approach to his own concepts. As he was reaching maturity, the Sophists came into power. Their leader, Protagoras, denied the existence of the human soul, declaring that "the soul is nothing more than the sum of the different moments of thinking." Gorgias derided morality and tried to prove by metaphysical deduction that nothing really exists. Socrates, opposing these materialistic thinkers, became the leader of a new movement in which the existence of real knowledge and the inherent dignity of the human soul were the leading ideas.

True wisdom, Socrates said, consists in the knowledge of the essence of things. This form of knowledge cannot be acquired from without, but must be sought within the soul itself. His first aim, therefore, was to train men to think, and by thinking to reach the source of knowledge within themselves.

Socrates taught the existence of a real world above the world of sense — a world subject neither to generation nor to decay. This real world he considered as the underlying Unity behind all diversity. But he also believed that, in order to know the Truth about all things, man must start by knowing himself. He taught that self-knowledge is based upon the conviction that man is an immortal entity, a soul which is a spark of the Universal World-Soul. This soul, he said, is entombed in a body, and evolves through the process of reincarnation. Taking his clue from Anaxagoras, he taught that the nous in man is able to penetrate into the region of noumena, the true source of wisdom.

It must not be concluded, however, that Socrates, and not Plato, was the author of the "Theory of Ideas." Strictly speaking, of course, Plato was the author of none of his doctrines, which are identical with the wisdom revealed by the ancient Hindu sages. The Platonic forms or archetypes were representations of the world as it existed in Universal Mind, as pointed out in The Secret Doctrine I, 200. Mr. Burnet's fidelity to the Platonic account of Socrates makes him suppose that the Theory of Forms or Ideas was an invention of Plato's teacher, because the doctrine is enunciated by Socrates in the dialogues. It seems probable, however, that this highly metaphysical explanation of the nature of things originated with Plato and merely was represented by him as being taught by Socrates. Aristotle, who had no reason to conceal the truth of this matter, says in his Metaphysics that Socrates occupied himself only with questions of moral philosophy, and that Plato introduced both the name and the conception of the "Ideas." We repeat, the Socrates here pictured, insofar as philosophical teaching is concerned, is Socrates as he appears in Plato's writings, and not Socrates the historical character.

Socrates considered the moral and intellectual worlds as inseparable. He could not conceive of true knowledge existing apart from virtue, or of virtue without knowledge. He who knows himself, Socrates said, will of necessity perform right actions. Conversely, he who is unacquainted with his own spiritual nature will, without fail, perform wrong actions. With Socrates, as with Kant, the development of morality was the aim and end of philosophy.

Virtue, said Socrates, is based upon knowledge. He considered all knowledge to be contained in the soul, it needing only to be remembered. As Mr. Judge puts it, "Getting back the memory of other lives is really the whole of the process." How can that knowledge be recovered save by entering into the storehouse of Manas, where the thoughts of all lives are carefully preserved?

This idea brought Socrates into immediate conflict with the Sophists. They imparted information, while Socrates tried to stimulate thought. They demanded money for their instruction; Socrates taught without remuneration. They imposed their own views upon their pupils; Socrates tried to draw out the inner convictions of his pupils and, by the process of reasoning, to replace false ideas with true. Every day he could be seen wandering through the market places and public walks of Athens, always ready for a word with friend or stranger, always eager to turn a trivial conversation into intellectual or moral channels. Often those who talked with him once came back the following day. After a while a group of young men began to speak of themselves as his pupils. This loosely connected group was the Socratic School.

His mode of instruction, known as the Socratic method, was conversational. Socrates would approach a person and ask a question. In the answer given he found material for another question, this one being a little more profound. Boring deeper and deeper below the surface of popular ideas, like a miner he exposed not only the rocks and debris of false ideas, but also the golden nuggets of true wisdom. The false ideas, which he called notions or opinions, were then discarded; the true ideas, which he called concepts, retained. Thus sorting and eliminating, he led his pupil by gradual stages to the universal truth lying within every proposition. This fundamental truth he called the essence.

Although Socrates refused to enter into politics, he entertained a high opinion of statesmanship. He performed his own civic duties with unswerving fidelity, enduring even death in order not to violate the laws of his country. Believing that the well-being of the state depends upon the integrity of its leaders, he used every opportunity to enlist the able into the service of the state, to deter the incompetent from assuming office, to awaken officials to a sense of their responsibility and to give them whatever help he could in the administration of their offices. He insisted that every man who aspired to the position of statesman should prepare himself for his calling by a thorough course of self-examination and study. He demanded an aristocracy based not upon wealth or birth but upon knowledge and virtue. Instead of the ordinary citizen-rulers, he insisted upon statesmen who were morally without reproach and who had developed the power to think for themselves. The politicians of his day believed in doing good to friends and harm to enemies. Socrates insisted upon universal brotherhood, teaching that it is wrong to injure any person, even a bitter enemy.

Plato gives the Socratic conception of political ideals in Rebublic. There Socrates says:

Unless it happen either that philosophers acquire the kingly power in states, or that those who are now called kings and potentates be imbued with a sufficient measure of genuine philosophy, that is to say, unless political power and philosophy be united in the same person ... there will be no deliverance ... for cities, nor yet, I believe, for the human race.

This idea is as important today as it was 2,500 years ago. Both good and evil — whether they find their expression in city, state or nation — have their roots in human character. The progress of any nation depends entirely upon the development of the nobler qualities in the citizens themselves.

The blunt criticisms of existing conditions made by Socrates brought out a horde of enemies in both the educational and political fields. Few people are able to bear an exposure of their shortcomings with equanimity. Few statesmen are able to smile when their mental and moral weaknesses are held up for public inspection. The unswerving devotion of the sage to what he considered as his mission sometimes made him careless of the resentment he might arouse. His uncompromising analysis of the government made the Athenians suspicious of his motives. His denunciation of the gods aroused the enmity of those who followed in the old ways. His new system of education fanned the anger of the Sophists to fever heat.

When Socrates was seventy years old, he was publicly accused of atheism and of exerting a harmful influence upon the youth of the land. Although realizing the seriousness of the accusation, Socrates refused to defend himself. The Apology, as we have it in Plato, is rather an unequivocal affirmation of the Socratic philosophy, than a "defense." At his trial Socrates made no plea for pardon and offered no excuse for his actions. The result was what might have been expected. His proud and dignified bearing offended the popular tribunal, and those who might have been clement to a cringing and apologetic man were merely irritated by the poise and self-assurance of Socrates. After a short deliberation, a verdict of guilty was returned.

Asked if he were willing to give up his former mode of life if he were pardoned, he refused, although he offered to pay a small fine. The judges regarded this as incorrigible obstinacy as well as contempt of court, and sentenced him to die. He was then sent to prison for thirty days. During this period he held his customary conversations daily with his friends and pupils and maintained his usual cheerfulness and unclouded brightness of disposition. His last day on earth was spent in quiet philosophical conversation. When the evening came and the cup of hemlock was presented to him, he drank it with a strength of mind so unshaken and a resignation so complete that the grief of his friends was turned into wonder and admiration.

It is very plain that the recorded charges of irreligion and of corrupting the youth of Athens were not the real reason for the condemnation of Socrates. The accusation of disrespect for the gods, or disbelieving in the mythological accounts of their activities, could not have been so seriously regarded. The comedies of the time treat these matters very lightly, and no one was ever prosecuted for religious opinions. "Socrates," writes H.P.B., "invariably refused to argue upon the mystery of universal being, yet no one would ever have thought of charging him with atheism, except those who were bent upon his destruction." (Isis Unveiled II, 264.) John Burnet concludes his discussion of the problem by showing how vague were the Athenians themselves as to the offense of Socrates:

In fact, everyone speculates about the meaning of the charge, and the one fact that stands out clearly is that no one — not even the prosecutor — seems to know it. It surely follows that the charge of introducing new divinities, though stated in the indictment, was neither explained nor justified at the trial.

Mr. Burnet supposes that because the Socrates of the dialogues tried to revive the Orphic theory of the soul and the Pythagorean teachings, he had been initiated in the Orphic mysteries at an early age, before the degeneration of the secret schools. But this was rather an effort of Plato, who had been initiated, to establish in philosophy the truths of Orphicism. As H.P.B. observes, the downfall of the principal sanctuaries had already begun in Plato's time. (Isis Unveiled II, 305.) The Athenians probably refrained from speaking clearly of the charge against Socrates because this would involve mentioning the mystery teachings. The real offense of Socrates was in teaching to his disciples the arcane doctrines of the Mysteries, betraying secrets which were "never to be revealed under the penalty of death." But Socrates had never been initiated and is hardly to be regarded as guilty of intentional profanation. For, as H.P.B. explains, "The old sage, in unguarded moments of 'spiritual inspiration,' revealed that which he had never learned; and was therefore put to death as an atheist." (Isis Unveiled II, 118.)

It seems just to observe that various other causes contributed to his condemnation. He had many enemies — among them the Athenian politicians whose faults he had exposed, and among the Sophists, whose ignorance and insincerity he had attacked. Everyone knew that Socrates thought the existing Athenian constitution was a complete failure. He had openly declared that the power of state should not be awarded by lot or election, but should be decided by the moral and intellectual qualifications of the candidates for office. But none of these reasons or all of them together, were sufficient cause for demanding his death. The charge of profanation alone provided a suitable pretext for his enemies. Even the initiate Aeschylus was accused of sacrilege and narrowly escaped being stoned to death because the Athenians believed he had exposed a portion of the Eleusinian teaching in his trilogies performed before the public.

The tragedy of Socrates teaches a mighty lesson as to the dangers of passivity, showing also the wisdom of the rule which does not permit the initiation of mediums. The medium delivers himself into the control of his "familiar spirit," and one who thus surrenders the sovereignty of self-control to an outside force can not be trusted to keep the rules of initiation — in particular, the rule of secrecy. Socrates was the victim of both himself and his times. His death was not, from the appearance of things, just; but in the larger view — the view which comprehends the working of Karma and the necessity of the Soul to learn from experience, it may have been precisely what was needed to awaken that noble ego from its passive tendencies.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 27, No. 9, July, 1939 pp. 387-394

PLATO

ONE night in the year 407 B.C., Socrates had a dream. He saw a graceful white swan flying toward him with a melodious song trilling from its throat. The next morning Plato came to him and asked to become his pupil. Socrates saw before him a handsome youth of twenty years, with the broad shoulders of an athlete, the noble brow of a philosopher and the limpid eyes of a poet. He knew that Plato belonged to one of the most illustrious families of Greece, being descended, on his mother's side, from the house of Solon, and with the blood of the ancient Kings of Attica flowing through his veins. This was the beginning of a tender and intimate relationship which lasted until the day of Socrates' death. While other pupils formulated one-sided systems which but partially represented the ideas of Socrates, Plato used those ideas as seeds which he planted, nourished and developed in the rich soil of his own superior mind, making the full-blown blossoms a memorial offering to the simple nobility of his teacher.

After the death of Socrates, Plato went to Megara and joined the Socratic School of Euclid (not the famous geometer, who lived in Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy I, but a disciple of Socrates who excelled in logical disputation). From there he went to Cyrene, where Theodorus instructed him in mathematics. Thence to southern Italy, where he studied the science of numbers under the three most famous Pythagoreans of the day. Then into Egypt, to receive the instructions of the learned doctors and priests of that ancient land. Some say that he visited Persia and Babylonia, where he was initiated into the Chaldean Mysteries. Others say that he went as far as India.

Plato claimed no originality for his ideas. He was, in every sense, the world's interpreter. He, like H.P.B., gave a new unity to ancient and scattered truths — his work was the string which tied together the nosegay of precious blossoms which had been culled from the gardens of the world's best thinkers. Without Plato, the Socratic method of education would be unknown. Without Plato, the abstruse numerical system of Pythagoras would have remained unintelligible to the average mind. Without Plato, the philosophical and psychological systems of Patanjali, Kapila and Vyasa, the laws of Manu and the Buddhistic doctrine of emanation, would have remained hidden from the Western world. Plato was the link between the East and the West. As Emerson says, "The excellence of Europe and Asia is in his brain. Metaphysics and natural philosophy expressed the genius of Europe; he substructs the religion of Asia as the base."

As an Initiate of the Mysteries, Plato was obliged to veil many of his more abstruse teachings in symbolical language. His great veneration for the Mysteries and the responsibility he felt toward them made him guard their inmost secrets with jealous care. Once, when he was accused of making a vague communication, he answered, "I purposely spoke enigmatically, that in case the tablet should have happened with any accident, a person without some previous knowledge of the subject might not be able to understand its contents." He communicated his most profound teachings orally and only to his initiated disciples, who in turn passed them down from generation to generation of similarly pledged disciples.

After travelling for ten or twelve years, Plato returned to Athens and founded a School in the gardens of his own private estate. This School attracted students from every part of the Hellenic world and eventually became the educational center of Greece. His mode of teaching combined the conversational method of Socrates, the system of discourse used by the ordinary university professor, and the mental and moral discipline of the Mystery Schools. His instruction, needless to say, was given without remuneration.

Music was the first subject presented to his pupils, as Plato believed that the study of this art offers the best preparation for philosophy. "Musical training," he said, "is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten." To this he added gymnastics, insisting, however, that even physical exercise should be performed for the benefit of the soul, since the soul demands a temple worthy of its occupancy. The combination of music and gymnastics, he said, produces a harmonious balance between soul and body. Physical training develops courage and fortitude; music develops a love of the beautiful, and affords the mental and moral discipline necessary to the acquirement of philosophical knowledge. He considered music, however, as the more important of the two, describing it as the fortress of the State. He warned all intelligent rulers to pay careful attention to the development of music in their state, never allowing bad qualities to creep into it, as these would affect the mental and moral stamina of the citizens who listened to it. Finally he insisted that all art be subordinated to ethics and used as a means of moral education.

Plato presented his philosophy in the form of dramatic dialogue. He spreads the charm of an exhaustless fancy over the subtle controversies of his characters, filling them with humor, exuberant imagery, delicate sarcasm and friendly banter. Throughout his lines, however, runs the unbroken thread of a deep and penetrating philosophy based upon Dialectics, which he considered as the science of all sciences. Starting with universal principles and descending therefrom into particulars, he developed a system of thought which embraced the evolution of worlds and species, the correlation and conservation of forces, the development and transmutation of physical forms, the indestructibility of both spirit and matter.

Plato knew that the Higher Self in man is concerned with causes rather than effects. It is the presence of this Higher Self which makes a man ask the immediate cause of a certain effect, then for the cause of that, until he finally arrives at that Cause which lies behind all others. Although postulating the existence of this Causeless Cause, Plato wisely refrained from any description of its nature. The Theosophical student, however, will recognize in Plato's "Unchangeable Existence" the "Be-ness" of The Secret Doctrine, the Sat of Eastern philosophy which at stated intervals becomes the cause of the Becoming.

Barely mentioning this Absolute Negation, Plato started by considering its two aspects, which constitute the basis of conditioned existence. He described the universal substratum of primordial substance as the "Unlimited," considering it as that indefinable "Something" from which all forms of matter emanate and into which they will eventually return. "That in which all things appear, grow up and disappear is Space," he said, at the same time making it clear that Space is animated by eternal, ceaseless Motion. He did not conceive this Motion, however, as a blind, unreasoning force, but identified it with Deity, tracing the word theos back to a verb meaning "to move."

Plato taught that the visible universe is but the concrete image of an ideal abstraction, built on the model of the first Divine Idea. We find him distinctly stating that everything was evolved out of the eternal and invisible Will, which contains within itself the Idea of the world to be created, the Idea being produced out of itself. He declared that behind all existences and secondary causes, behind all laws, ideas and principles, there is Intelligence. This is the Universal Mind in its Cosmic aspect, reflecting itself as the Higher Ego in man.

The immortality of the soul forms the central theme of Plato's philosophy. In his Phaedo he unfolds all the arguments in favor of this premise, and refutes all objections. He shows that the soul is neither dependent upon the body for its existence nor affected by its dissolution. With irrefutable logic he demonstrates the necessity for reincarnation, and shows that knowledge itself is nothing more than reminiscence. The doctrine of Karma runs like a golden thread throughout his writings. Although admitting that man is seemingly the victim of circumstances, he proves that in reality man is their master.

The Theosophical student of Plato is sometimes confused by the different terms used in describing the various aspects of the soul. What Theosophy calls Buddhi, Plato describes as the rational spiritual soul, defining it as the "motion that is able to move itself." When he says that "soul is the most ancient of all things," he is referring to Atma-Buddhi. When he speaks of the nous in man, he is describing Manas, the reincarnating Ego. Sometimes Plato divides the soul into two parts, at other times into three. His twofold division of soul refers to the dual Manas, the higher part being divine and immortal, the lower material and perishable. The Theosophical student understands this statement, for he knows that the lower, personal "astral soul" perishes after the death of the body as the Kama-Rupa, while the incorruptible "Spiritual Soul," or Buddhi-Manas, becomes more purified with each incarnation.

Following the method used in the Mysteries, Plato's pupils began their discipline by trying to purify the external soul, or astral body. If that is purified, it strengthens the lower mind, or the "mortal soul." Thus strengthened, the lower mind naturally gravitates toward its "Father," of which it is a ray. Plato promised his pupils that this form of discipline would eventually free them from the bonds of sense. But he also warned them that if this discipline were neglected and the soul allowed to sink deeper and deeper into matter, the time would come when the soul itself would be lost.

Although Plato is not renowned as a scientist, a careful analysis of his writings will reveal the germs of many "modern" discoveries. For instance, he taught that gravitation is not merely the law of the attraction of lesser bodies to greater, but a magnetic repulsion of similars and attraction of dissimilars. Although Aristotle taught that the world is the center of the universe, Plato, the Pythagorean, was well versed in the heliocentric system. Antedating Paracelsus by 2,000 years, Plato traced all diseases back to their psychological causes. He hinted at the secret teachings concerning the earlier races upon this globe, describing the "winged" and androgynous races which "preceded the earthly human race, in which the primitive history was gradually forgotten and men sank deeper and deeper." He likewise mentioned the various deluges which have destroyed former continents, and in Timaeus and Critias gives a detailed description of the last island-remnant of Atlantis, which sank some 9,000 years before he was born.

Plato's philosophy is ethical above all else, based upon the idea of man's free will and power of choice. He claims that it is this power of choice which determines a man's parentage, his hereditary tendencies, his physical constitution and his early education, since all of these things are merely the effects of choices made in former lives. These choices also determine the man's stage of evolution, show the position he should occupy in the well-ordered state, and indicate the particular virtue necessary for his immediate development. The whole problem of evolution, according to Plato, is one of ethics. As the ultimate aim of every man is to free himself from the tyranny of his lower nature, and as this can be accomplished only through the efforts of the individual, each man must start where he is, and develop that virtue which is most necessary for him.

The natural inequalities among men, due to their past choices, divides them, in Plato's view, into three classes. The first class lives in its sensations. The particular virtue to be developed by this class of people is temperance, or moderation. The second class is entangled in its passional nature. These people are the slaves of their pains and pleasures, their hopes and fears. They must develop courage and fortitude, virtues which will enable them to meet all the vicissitudes of life with an equal mind. The third and highest class is made up of those men who have gained control over their lower nature and who live naturally in the higher mind. These men should aspire to wisdom, or spiritual knowledge.

After analyzing the three divisions of the soul and the three classes of individuals who correspond to them, Plato then turns his attention to the State, which is merely a collection of individuals. The ideal state, he says, should be divided up into three classes of citizens, each class having its own particular duty to be performed and its special virtue to be developed. When each class concentrates upon its own duty and virtue, there will result a well-balanced and harmonious state in which all the citizens will work, not for the interests of itself, but for the common good of the whole.

The lowest class in Plato's ideal state is composed of those men whose interests are centered in their sensations. These are the laborers and artisans, whose immediate task is to acquire skill in action upon the physical plane. The second class is composed of those men who, having dominant passional natures, are constantly at war in themselves. Plato would make these men the warriors of the nation, thus giving them the opportunity to develop the courage and fortitude necessary at their stage of evolution. The ruling class is made up of those men who have learned how to govern themselves, and are therefore fitted to govern others. As he says in the Republic, "unless philosophers become rulers or rulers become true and thorough students of philosophy, there will be no end to the troubles of states and of humanity."

Plato's ideal state was modelled after the form of government which prevailed in the Golden Age, when the young and growing nations were governed by wise King-Initiates. But nations, like children, grow up and must learn to do their own thinking; they must assume their own responsibilities. From this necessity democracy grew. The fact that Adepts stood behind the founding of the American Republic shows that the ideal form of government at the present day must be the government of a people by the people and for the people. It is obvious, however, that the men who are elected to stand at the head of affairs should be drawn from among those citizens who have proven that they are able to govern themselves, and are therefore fitted to govern others. The men who stand at the head of democratic governments should be the first to bravely and fearlessly uphold the principles of true democracy. Their lives should also be examples of the highest morality, a living pattern which others may safely follow. Thus might Plato's ideal be fulfilled in our time.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 27, No. 10, August, 1939 pp. 435-440

PLATO'S GOD-IDEA

Between Pantheism and Fetichism, we have been repeatedly told, there is but an insignificant step. Plato was a Monotheist, it is asserted. In one sense, he was that, most assuredly; but his Monotheism never led him to the worship of one personal God, but to that of a Universal Principle and to the fundamental idea that the absolutely immutable or unchangeable Existence alone, really is, all the finite existences and change being only appearance, i.e., Mâyâ.

— H. P. Blavatsky.

PLATO AND ARISTOTLE

WHEN Socrates was sixty years old, Plato, then a youth of twenty, came to him as a pupil. When Plato was sixty years old, the seventeen-year-old Aristotle presented himself, joining the Teacher's group of "Friends," as the members of the Academy called themselves. Aristotle was a youth of gentle birth and breeding, his father occupying the position of physician to King Philip of Macedon. Possessed of a strong character, a penetrating intellect, apparent sincerity, but great personal ambition. Aristotle was a student in the Academy during the twenty years he remained in Athens. His remarkable intellectual powers led Plato to call him the "Mind of the School."

After the death of his teacher, Aristotle, accompanied by Xenocrates, went to the court of Hermias, lord of Atarneus, whose sister he afterward married. When Aristotle was forty years old, Philip of Macedon engaged him as tutor for his son Alexander, then thirteen, whose later exploits gained for him the title of Alexander the Great. Philip became so interested in Aristotle that he rebuilt his native city and planned a school where the latter might teach. When Alexander started out to conquer the world, learned men accompanied him to gather scientific facts. After his Persian conquest Alexander presented his former tutor with a sum equivalent to a million dollars, which enabled Aristotle to purchase a large library and continue his work under the most ideal circumstances.

When Aristotle was forty-nine years old he returned to Athens and founded his own school of philosophy. It was known as the Peripatetic School because of Aristotle's habit of strolling up and down the shaded walks around the Lyceum while talking with his pupils. In the morning he gave discourses on philosophy to his more advanced pupils, who were known as his "esoteric" students. In the afternoon a larger circle gathered around him, to whom he imparted simpler teachings. This was known as his exoteric group.

In passing from Plato to Aristotle, we at once become conscious of a distinct change in philosophical concepts and methods. This is all the more noticeable because of our ignorance of Aristotle's complete system. The writings which have come down to us comprise only about a quarter of his works. These are all incomplete, some of them seeming to be notes intended for elaboration in his lectures. They are often sketchy and obscure, highly technical and full of repetitions. Sometimes they are so abstruse that we are obliged to call upon the imagination to supply the missing links of his deductions. Before reaching our Western scholars his works passed through too many hands to remain immaculate. From Theophrastus they passed to Neleus, whose heirs kept them mouldering in subterranean caves for a century and a half. After that his manuscripts were copied and augmented by Apellicon of Theos, who supplied many missing paragraphs, probably from his own conjectures. Although the Arabians were acquainted with Aristotle's works from the eighth century onward, the Christian world paid little attention to them until three centuries later. In the eleventh century, however, the Aristotelian doctrine of Forms became the bone of contention which divided philosophers into two classes which, from that day to this, have remained separate. On the one side were the Nominalists, who maintained that Universals are mere names for the common attributes of things and beings. On the other side were the Realists, whose thought crudely resembled the Platonic doctrine of Ideas as independent realities.

It seems a great historic tragedy that Aristotle, who remained under the influence of Plato for nearly twenty years, failed to continue the line of teaching begun by Pythagoras and clarified by Plato. But Aristotle was not content to be a "transmitter." Plato claimed no originality for his ideas, giving the credit to Socrates and Pythagoras. Aristotle's failure in this direction may be due to the fact that, while both Pythagoras and Plato were Initiates of the Mysteries, Aristotle was never initiated and depended on logical speculation for the development of his theories. This accounts for his many divergences from the teachings of Plato, whose philosophy was based upon the wisdom of the ancient East. According to Diogenes Laertius, Aristotle fell away from his teacher while Plato was still alive, whereat Plato remarked, "Aristotle has kicked me, as foals do their mothers when they are born." While there is evidence that Aristotle never lost his high personal regard for Plato, the fact remains that in his later writings he never mentions Plato except to refute his doctrines, maintaining that the Platonic method is fatal to science.

At every period of the world's history some philosopher has asked the eternal question: Is there, in the universe or outside of it, an underlying Reality which is eternal, immovable, unchanging? The ancient Egyptians believed, as Hermes taught: "Reality is not upon the earth, my son. Nothing on earth is real. There are only appearances. Appearance is the supreme illusion." In the still more ancient East, only the eternal and changeless was called Reality. All that is subject to change through differentiation and decay was called Maya, or illusion.

It is the task of Philosophy to investigate this all-important question: What is real? At first glance, Aristotle's definition of philosophy seems to agree with Plato's. Plato described philosophy as the science of the Idea, the science which deals with noumena rather than phenomena. Aristotle defined it as the science of the universal essence of that which is real or actual. Plato, the Initiate, taught that there is one Reality lying behind the numberless differentiations of the phenomenal world. Aristotle maintained that there is a graded series of realities, each step in the series revealing more and more those universal relationships which make it an object of true knowledge. At the end of the series, he said, lies that which is no longer relative, but absolute.

Plato taught that "beyond all finite existences and secondary causes, all laws, ideas and principles, there is an Intelligence, or Mind, the first principle of all principles, the Supreme Idea upon which all other ideas are grounded, ... the ultimate substance from which all things derive their being and essence, the first and efficient Cause of all the order and harmony and beauty which pervades the Universe." This he called the "World of Ideas."

What, actually, is this Intelligence, this Cosmic Mind of which Plato spoke with such assurance? Theosophy explains that Universal Mind is not something outside the universe, but includes all those various intelligences which were evolved in a previous period of evolution. Evolution, therefore, is the further development of those intelligences. This unfolding is the result of conscious experience, beginning in the highest state of manifested matter and descending more and more into concrete forms until the physical is reached. Then begins the ascent, plus the experience gained.

Plato held that the Ideas, the Forms of things, are self-existent, and not dependent upon the ever-changing objects of the senses. The noumenon, according to Plato, is the real, the phenomenon only appearance. Aristotle wrote extensively in criticism of Plato's doctrine of Ideas, affirming that "no universals exist over and above the individual objects and separate from them." He refused any substantial reality to "the unity which is predicated of many individual things." Universal principles, he held, are real, and are the objects of our reason, as distinguished from the physical objects of sense-perception. Yet universals are real only as they exist in individuals. "It is," he said, "apparently impossible that any of the so-called universals should exist as substance." This conflict between Plato and Aristotle on the subject of reality led to almost infinite controversy and confusion among later philosophers. To the extent that Aristotle endows universals with reality, he is Platonic in thought. His commentators have endeavored to interpret Aristotle according to their predilection. One writer maintains that "according to Aristotle, the formal aspect of universality is conferred by the mind, and therefore, the universal, as such, does not exist in individual things, but in the mind alone." (William Turner, History of Philosophy, p. 132.) Another points out that while both the Categories and the Metaphysics are based on the assumption of the reality of individual substances, "the Categories (cap. 5) admits that universal species and genera can be called substances, whereas the Metaphysics (Z 13) denies that a universal can be a substance at all." Yet Aristotle is constrained to regard as "substance" the universal essence of a species of substance, "because the individual essence of an individual substance really is that substance, and the universal essence of the whole species is supposed to be indivisible and therefore identical with the individual essence of any individual of the species." (Encyc. Brit., "Aristotle," 11th ed.)

In maintaining this Aristotle seems to invalidate all his arguments against the existence of universals independent of particulars. It was doubtless such difficulties in the comprehension of Aristotle's real meaning that led H.P.B. to remark upon the abstruse character of his writings, asking, "What do we know so certain about Aristotle?" (Isis Unveiled I, 320.) It seems that in spite of his demand for research into particulars, Aristotle was forced to return to the Platonic view of origins. This is indicated by H.P.B.'s explanation of his theory of Privation, Form and Matter. As Lange points out in his History of Materialism, Aristotle's admission of the reality of the universal, in things, "leads, in its logical consequences, little as Aristotle cared to trouble himself with these, to the same exaltation of the universal over the particular which we find in Plato. For if it is once conceded that the essence of the individual lies in the species, the most essential part of the species must again lie on a still higher plane, or, in other words, the ground of the species must lie in the genus, and so on." (I, 88.) Thus, as one of Aristotle's translators has observed, "he is ultimately driven back to the very standpoint he derides in Platonism." This writer, Hugh Tredennick, makes clear the internal contradictions in Aristotle's thought:

He is emphatic that form cannot exist in separation from matter; and yet the supreme reality turns out to be a pure form. He blames the Platonists for using metaphorical language, and yet when he comes to explain the ultimate method of causation he has to describe it in terms of love or desire. The truth is that Aristotle's thought is always struggling against Platonic influences, which nevertheless generally emerge triumphant in his ultimate conclusions. His great contribution to philosophy was on the side of method; but it was Plato, acknowledged or unacknowledged, who inspired all that was best in the thought of his great disciple. (Metaphysics, Introduction, I, xxx.)

The structural stresses and strains in the philosophy of Aristotle are due to his attempt to subject to critical analysis according to his own theory of knowledge the principles and ideas he had learned from Plato. Aristotle, however, refused to recognize supersensible cognition as the source of knowledge, while the clairvoyant vision of the soul was the only channel to truth, according to Plato. But Aristotle had not this vision; hence his dependence on sense-perception and his elevation of the physical world to the status of reality. While admitting that knowledge must be in terms of concepts, of universals — thus escaping the chaos of mere empiricism — he held that we become aware of universals only by abstracting them from the phenomena of the senses. Thus principles or universals are in things, whether they be regarded as essences or as concepts. It seems almost as though Aristotle devoted his life to the task of showing that he, Aristotle, could point the way to final truth, without being initiated into the Mysteries, and that in order to do this he constructed a theory of knowledge which did not involve initiation as a prerequisite to real knowing. For the eye of wisdom he substituted the eye of sense. Hence he is truly spoken of as the Father of Modern Science.

Plato's science of all sciences was Dialectic, the doctrine of the Idea in Itself, just as physics is the science of the Ideas manifesting in nature, and Ethics is the science of Ideas applied to human action. Aristotle's science of sciences was Logic, the science of analysis, the weaknesses of which form the theme of Boris Bogoslovsky's book, The Technique of Controversy.

Plato divided knowledge into two classes, the one dealing with the noumenal, the other with the phenomenal world. The first he called real knowledge, the second, opinion. In this statement we find a clear reiteration of the forty-ninth Aphorism of Patanjali. Speaking of Wisdom — that form of knowledge which is absolutely free from error — Patanjali says: "This kind of knowledge differs from the knowledge due to testimony and inference; because, in the pursuit of knowledge based upon these, the mind has to consider many particulars and is not engaged with the general field of knowledge itself." (Bk. I.)

Considering real knowledge as the only object worthy of the attention of the true philosopher, Plato began by postulating certain universal principles as the basis for understanding all particular phenomena. Aristotle, on the other hand, began with particulars and proceeded by gradual stages to the consideration of universal principles, declaring that "our knowledge of the individual precedes our knowledge of the universal."

The inductive method, which Aristotle established in the Western world — still slavishly followed by scientific thinkers — is defended on the supposition that it deals with things as they are. Knowledge gained through sense-perception, on which all learning is dependent, according to Aristotle, is therefore more reliable than any a priori concept of an ideal reality.

No student of Theosophy would deny the value of reasoning on the basis of many observed particulars. But he would add that this value is lost when the observer is ignorant of the fact that the phenomenal universe is in a constant state of change. How can changing phenomena be properly evaluated unless there is something changeless with which they may be compared? Philosophy, like Physics, must have its "whereon to stand." As Dr. A. Gordon Melvin observes in his latest book, The New Culture,

The Aristotelian tends to be cocksure. He knows what he is talking about, but he does not talk about anything of importance. For the characteristic limitation of this type of search is that it apprehends bit by bit. It knows a corner of the world as long as that corner remains stationary. But it does not know wholes or fundamentals. The veil of matter is a particularization of truth, not its full realization.

Once we admit that real knowledge does exist, our next question will be: How can it be acquired? Aristotle answered the question by declaring that real knowledge can be gained only through, although not from, the senses. The intellectual faculty discerns the principles of things in the objects of the senses, and knowledge is the product of this abstraction. There are both external and internal senses, according to Aristotle. Memory and imagination are defined as internal senses, as is also the "sense" of self-consciousness. This latter sense, he said, resides in the heart. There is no room in Aristotle's philosophy for the doctrine of innate ideas. Considering that there is nothing in the mind which is not first an image acquired through the senses, he taught that mind itself is only the potential power to think. All objects of thought are sensuous.

Plato answered the question in another manner. He taught that the nous of man, being "generated by the divine Father," possesses a nature akin to and homogeneous with the Divine Mind, and is therefore capable of beholding Reality. The faculty by which Reality is perceived is not a sense faculty, but one which belongs to the Soul. Theosophy describes this faculty as Intuition, by which a man may gaze directly upon ideas. Intuition is thus beyond and above the reasoning faculty, and is not dependent upon it. The use of that faculty is gained through the form of concentration described by Patanjali in his Yoga Aphorisms. When this form of concentration is perfected one is able to cognize all the inherent qualities of any object whatsoever, becoming completely identified with the thing considered and experiencing in himself all the qualities exhibited by the object. Plato knew that the best way to awaken that faculty is by turning the mind toward universal ideas; only such sublime objects of thought can produce the steadiness necessary for true contemplation.

In many cases, the teaching of Aristotle may be regarded as the exoteric version of Platonic truth. From the same ontological principles as his teacher, Aristotle reasoned to certain conclusions which to him seemed to follow necessarily, although resulting in a contradiction with one or another of Plato's doctrines. An instance of this kind is explained by H.P.B.:

Aristotle argued that the world was eternal, and that it will always be the same; that one generation of men has always produced another, without ever having had a beginning that could be determined by our intellect. In this, his teaching, in its exoteric sense, clashed with that of Plato, who taught that "there was a time when mankind did not perpetuate itself"; but in spirit both doctrines agreed, as Plato adds immediately: "This was followed by the earthly human race, in which the primitive history was gradually forgotten and man sank deeper and deeper"; and Aristotle says: "If there has been a first man he must have been born without father or mother — which is repugnant to nature. For there could not have been a first egg to give a beginning to birds, or there should have been a first bird which gave a beginning to eggs; for a bird comes from an egg." The same he held good for all species, believing, with Plato, that everything before it appeared on earth had first its being in spirit. (Isis Unveiled I, 428.)

Every natural body, according to Aristotle, is brought into existence by three principles: Privation, Form, and Matter. Privation, says H.P.B., "meant in the mind of the great philosopher that which the Occultists call the prototypes impressed in the Astral Light — the lowest plane and world of Anima Mundi." (S.D. I, 59.) Privation is not, however, "considered in Aristotelic philosophy as a principle in the composition of bodies, but as an external property in their production; for the production is a change by which the matter passes from the shape it has not to that which it assumes." (Isis Unveiled I, 310.) As to Form, "His philosophy teaches that besides the original matter, another principle is necessary to complete the triune nature of every particle, and this is form; an invisible, but still, in an ontological sense of the word, a substantial being, really distinct from matter proper." (Ibid. I, 312.) This substantial form Aristotle called the soul.

Plato, starting with universal principles, declared that the soul of man is derived from the Universal World-Soul, and is therefore identical in essence with that which is a radiation of the ever-unknown Absolute. Aristotle, starting from below, approached the subject of the soul by eliminating one by one those things which the soul is not. The conclusion he finally reached was that the soul is the form of the body. This soul, however, is plainly the astral or psychic principle, for Aristotle says in De Anima, "It cannot be that the body is the full realization or expression of the soul; rather on the contrary it is the soul which is the full realization of some body." (It may be noted that the term Entelechy, which is here translated "full realization," has been borrowed by members of the modern vitalist school of Biology to represent the formative principle of organic life.) Besides the psyche or mortal soul, Aristotle taught that there is in man a rational soul, the "creative reason," and with Plato held this Nous to be pre-existing and eternal, although he denied that the mind-principle carries with it the knowledge gained by individual experiences in the past, speaking of metempsychosis as "absurd." Thus, with Aristotle, the immortal element in man seems to lose its individual character on the death of the body.

Aristotle's cosmological speculations were in many cases opposed to the teachings of Plato. Plato, for one thing, was well versed in the heliocentric system. Aristotle adopted the astronomy of Eudoxus, which taught that the world is the center of the universe, and that it is round and stationary. He described the earth as being surrounded by a sphere of air and a sphere of fire, saying that the heavenly bodies are fixed in these spheres.

In formulating his ethical system Aristotle started with Plato's query: What is the end of life, the highest good toward which a man can aspire? Reasoning inductively, Aristotle showed that a man's highest aim is not merely to live, for that aim he shares with the whole of nature. Nor is it to feel, for that is shared with the animals. As man is the only being in the universe who possesses a rational soul, Aristotle concluded that man's highest aim is the activity of the soul in conformity with reason. Although Plato taught that every man should concentrate upon the particular virtue which was most necessary for him at his own stage of evolution, he declared that Justice is the highest of all virtues, being inherent in the soul itself. That idea is clarified by Mr. Judge's statement that "all is soul and spirit ever evolving under the rule of law (or Justice) which is inherent in the whole." Aristotle, on the other hand, taught that the highest virtue is intellectual contemplation.

True happiness, according to Plato, is found only in the performance of one's own duty, which is determined individually by the degree of evolution achieved, and politically by the position one occupies in the State. Aristotle disagrees with Plato's view that individual happiness should be sacrificed for the good of the community. He believes that individual happiness depends not only upon virtue, but also upon wealth, pleasure and the opportunity for leisure. He does not advocate spending those leisure hours in the cultivation of any art, as he considers that artistic craftsmanship belongs to the field of manual labor, and that professional skill in any of the arts is a disgrace to a free citizen. The ideal life, from Aristotle's point of view, seems to be one which is given over entirely to intellectual research and contemplation — the life of a cultivated and reflective country gentlemen, remote from the workaday world.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 27, No. 11, September, 1939 pp. 483-491

THE GREEK DRAMA

THE Golden Age of Greece lasted from the seventh to the fourth century B.C. During those three hundred years the Greeks laid the foundation stone of Western civilization, planted the seeds from which European science, philosophy and art sprang, and furnished models of education and government which have never been equalled, much less surpassed. These ideas did not originate in the minds of the men who presented them to the world. They were taken from the Mysteries, which in their turn were derived from the archaic Wisdom-Religion. The Mysteries were universities in the true sense of the word, teaching universal principles, demonstrating the fundamental unity of all life, showing the common source of all sciences, religions, philosophies and arts, proving the universal brotherhood of man.

The greatest philosophers of the Golden Age of Greece were Initiates of the Mysteries, and their doctrines were all echoes of the Mystery teachings. First came the three Initiates, Thales, Anaximander and Heracleitus, whose philosophical systems embodied some of the Mystery teachings concerning cosmogony. Then came Pythagoras and Plato, also Initiates, who demonstrated the practical value of universal principles when applied to the problems of education and good government.

In the Mysteries, universal principles were taught by means of dramatic representations. The Greek drama, therefore, is also the child of the Mysteries, and the first great dramatist, Aeschylus, was an Initiate.

One of the principal dramas enacted in the Eleusinian Mysteries was the story of Bacchus, or Dionysus. The legend relates that Bacchus, gazing into a mirror, became captivated by the reflection of his image. While thus engrossed he was seized by the Titans, who tore his body into fourteen pieces. Apollo, seeing this tragedy, collected the fragments and joined them together, restoring Bacchus to life.

The myth of Bacchus did not originate in Greece. It is as old as the world, having counterparts in the myths of the Egyptian Osiris, of the Phrygian Atys, the Syrian Tammuz and the Christian Christ. All of these "sun-gods" were murdered, descended into Hades and rose from the dead at the time of the vernal equinox, or "Easter." The story of Bacchus shows how the reincarnating Ego beholds his image reflected in the waves of space, whispers, "this is I," and thereby becomes entangled in the web of delusion. The incarnating soul becomes the "scape-goat" of atonement for all the sins committed by its many personalities.

The Greek tragedy sprang from the myth of Bacchus. The word "tragedy" is derived from the Greek tragos, or "goat," which refers to the "scape-goat" that every Ego becomes as soon as it assumes a body. The first Greek tragedies were always presented during the spring festival in honor of Bacchus, or Dionysus. At first they were merely recitations given by one man, in which the virtues of Dionysus, the spiritual Ego, were extolled. Later a second actor was added, who was called the "hypocrite." Between the dialogues a chorus entered, chanting a lamentation for the condition into which the soul had fallen, or a eulogy on the divine Ego itself.

At that period of Greek history, when there were no public buildings save a few temples and law courts (these frequently being identical) no one would have dreamed of erecting a special building for the production of plays. The setting of the first Greek theater was laid before a convenient hillside, where the people gathered. At the foot of the hill was a flat circle, known as the "orchestra," where the acting and singing took place. Behind the orchestra was a booth, or skene, where the actors changed their masks. In the course of time wooden seats were installed on the hillside, then stone and marble seats which, in the theater in Athens, accommodated some seventeen thousand people. The crowd assembled at sunrise for the first play. The mornings were given over to tragedies, the afternoons to comedies, in which dignitaries of the day were caricatured.

In 525 B.C., just fifteen years before the Eleusinian Mysteries began to degenerate, Aeschylus, the first great dramatist, was born in the city of Eleusis. He was of royal birth, tracing his ancestry back to the last King of Athens, and his father was connected in some capacity with the Mystery School. After his own initiation Aeschylus had a symbolical dream in which Bacchus appeared, inspiring him to write tragedies. Recognizing the voice of "Bacchus" as the voice of his own inner self, he took up his work and composed seventy dramas before he died.

Aeschylus' best known work is Prometheus Bound. The myth immortalized in this poem is, as Bunsen says, "older than the Hellenes themselves." It is the most ancient of all allegories, the grandest of all myths, being concerned with what is probably the most important event which has ever taken place upon this planet — that which Theosophy describes as the "lighting up of Manas."

In order to understand the real meaning of this poem, we must first go back to the beginning of this globe, when there was no earth as we know it now, but only the image of the earth reflected in the æther of space, and the images of such man-forms as had been developed upon the Moon chain. Seven times this misty, fiery earth turned and whirled, growing more dense with each gyration. Again seven times it rotated, its matter becoming gaseous, the man-forms denser shadows. Another sevenfold gyration produced astral matter and the astral forms of men. These forms were huge, without mind, sex, or speech. Trying to describe them, Aeschylus says,

Seeing, they saw in vain;
Hearing, they heard not; but like shapes in dreams
Through the long time all things at random mixed.

For long ages the building of these forms went on, until at last they were as perfect as they had been on the former chain of globes. Then, in the second race, some of the wiser gods who had watched their building settled within the forms in order to guide and help them. Other gods, less wise, spurned the forms, declaring them unfit for habitation. But finally the Law forced these lesser gods to enter the forms and continue their journey of evolution. Thus, by incarnation, the Egos lighted up the latent spark of mind, and so man became a thinking being.

The story of Prometheus, who gave the fire of mind to man, is the tale of humanity itself. The Greeks declared that Prometheus came of a divine race. Compared with the body he occupies, Prometheus, the reincarnating Ego, is a God. By arousing the thinking faculty in those hitherto mindless forms, Prometheus also aroused the memory of the knowledge they had possessed on the moon-chain, thus giving them the "boon" of which the Chorus sings.

While saving him from mental darkness, Prometheus brought to man all the tortures which accompany self-consciousness: the knowledge of his responsibility to the whole of nature; the painful results of all wrong choices made in the past, since free-will and the power of choice go hand in hand with self-consciousness; all of the sorrows and sufferings — physical, mental and moral — to which thinking man is heir. Prometheus accepted these tortures as inevitable under the Law, knowing that the soul can develop only through its own experience, willing to pay the price for every experience gained.

When Zeus (who in this case represents the lower hosts that built the forms) saw that Prometheus had made man a god through his gift of mind, he chained the Titan to a rock on Mount Caucasus, helpless victim of the vulture of unsatisfied desire, of regret, and despair, coupled with the "dream-like feebleness which fetters the blind race of mortals." In the midst of his suffering Heracles came to him and told him that "the soul of man can never be enslaved save by its own infirmities, nor freed save by its own strength and own resolve and constant vision and supreme endeavor." But Prometheus, "he who sees before the event," knew that men would never arrive at that condition before the end of the Dark Age. He prophesied that a mighty race would arise, "the kingly race born in Argos," in which a great Avatar would appear. But this Argos is not the Argos of Greece. The Argos of Aeschylus is the mystery name of that region which extends from Kailas mountain nearly to the Schamo desert. It was there that physical humanity was born. It is there that the Kalki Avatar will appear some 427,000 years hence.

In tracing the wanderings of Io, the "cow-horned maid," Aeschylus shows how Egypt owes its civilization to India. Io was told to go to a land near the river Ethiops, where she would find a dark and swarthy race. She was instructed to take some of these people to the "three-cornered land" and found a colony. The river Ethiops of which Aeschylus speaks is the Indus, sometimes called the Nila because of its dark blue color. The dark and swarthy people were the Eastern Ethiopians, who went from India to settle in Egypt. The three-cornered land is the Egyptian delta. The river Nile in Egypt received its name from the "blue river" in India, near which the Eastern Ethiopians dwelt.

How did Aeschylus know the history of these early races? He must have learned it in the Mysteries, where the true history of these early races formed part of the instructions. Both Cicero and Clement of Alexandria declare that this history was taught in the Sabasian Mysteries. These writers are also the only ones who attribute the condemnation of Aeschylus by the Athenians to its real cause. Aeschylus was a pledged Initiate, and in his Prometheus he refers to those dark crypts of initiation where a man became "as one newly born." Aeschylus spoke cautiously of these things. Aristophanes spoke more boldly in his immortal satire on Heracles' descent into Hades. (The Frogs.) Aeschylus was charged with sacrilege and condemned to be stoned to death, because the Athenians believed that he had profaned the Mysteries by exposing some of their teachings on the public stage. He is said to have been saved from an angry mob by the appeal of his brother, a hero of Salamis.

Sophocles, the second great dramatist of ancient Greece, was about thirty years younger than Aeschylus. Being exceptionally talented in music, he was chosen to lead the chorus in the victory of Salamis when he was only sixteen years old. At the age of twenty-eight, he competed with Aeschylus in a dramatic contest, winning the prize which, for a full generation, had gone to the older poet. Aeschylus belonged to the stern generation of Marathon, Sophocles to the sunny age of Pericles. Both reflect the underlying spirit of their generation in their writings. Aeschylus stresses the unrelenting justice of Karma; Sophocles, its mercy. Aeschylus depicts the struggles of the soul in harsh and rugged lines. Sophocles paints them in softer and more delicate colors. Although Sophocles is not known as an Initiate, in Electra he calls the Eleusinian School the "edifice of the gods." In his Oedipus, he attempts to solve the riddle of the Sphynx. He tells how the Sphynx, half animal and half human, sat on a rock accosting every traveller with a riddle, which only Oedipus was able to answer. Oedipus, therefore, must be the symbol of the perfected man who has solved all the riddles of life, and is therefore freed from the necessity of reincarnation.

Euripides, the last of the great trio of tragic poets, appeared a generation later than Sophocles. He also wrote of Bacchus, of Jason, of Hercules and his labors, of the Trojan War and its heroes. Once again the age-old theme of the Ramayana and Mahabharata appeared in the Attic tongue, reminding the Greeks of the trials of life which must be met and conquered before man may, in truth, be called Man.

During the life-time of these three tragic poets the theater of Greece advanced steadily. Sophocles brought a background into the play, and was the first to introduce scenery, in the modern sense of the word. Euripides moved the chorus from the stage to the background, making the actors the chief center of interest. He was a great friend of Socrates, who never missed a performance of any of his plays. He was also one of the most versatile of the Greeks, being a famous athlete, a painter, a rhetorician, and a pupil of both Anaxagoras and Protagoras.

The popularity of the Greek drama was due to the fact that all educated Greeks of that period were thoroughly familiar with their classical writers. When the Pan-Athenean festivals were celebrated every fourth year, the people listened to the passages from the Odyssey and Iliad with full understanding, for most of them had studied these works when they were children and could repeat long passages by heart. Where in our day could we find an audience of 17,000 people who would eagerly listen to, say, a twelve-hour performance of Shakespeare, and who would know the lines by heart? We are greatly impressed when we listen to an orchestra of a hundred men, regarding the symphonies they play as one of the fruits of our modern civilization. Yet, a musical festival took place in Athens in 250 B.C., in which five hundred musicians played a magnificent symphony in five movements!

The "musical" education of the Greeks is stressed by all writers. It must be remembered, however, that the word "music" had a much wider application at that time than it now has. The Greek word mousike at first referred to the arts of the nine Muses. Gradually its meaning was extended to include everything connected with the training of the mind, just as the word gymnastike included everything pertaining to the training of the body. To speak of a Greek as having a good "musical education" is equivalent to saying that he was trained in all the liberal arts, including mathematics.

The Greek ideal of education was based upon the idea of universality, of the integration of all branches of learning. That is an ideal which our modern educators could well emulate. Hendrik van Loon, in his recent volume The Arts, makes an observation which finds an echo in the heart of every Theosophist who is interested in the subject of education. "There is one thing we can do," he says, "and there the Greeks can be our masters and teachers, as they have been our masters and our teachers in so many other things. They can show us the way back to a consciousness of that universality that underlies all human achievements. They can make us once more realize that nothing in this world exists quite in and by and for itself, but that everything pertaining to the human spirit is correlated and interrelated with everything else. And by so doing they can once more give us a feeling for something that is in truth the beginning and end of all wisdom."

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 27, No. 12, October, 1939 pp. 531-536

OLDEST PHILOSOPHICAL NOTION

The matter-moving Nous, the animating Soul, immanent in every atom, manifested in man, latent in the stone, has different degrees of power; and this pantheistic idea of a general Spirit-Soul pervading all Nature is the oldest of all the philosophical notions.

— The Secret Doctrine.

FROM PLATO TO THE NEOPLATONISTS

DURING the lifetime of Plato there was little if any dissension among his pupils. But after his death in 347 B.C. a decided breach occurred. Aristotle set up his own school in opposition to the Platonic Academy, his pupils recognizing him as Plato's successor. Meanwhile the loyal pupils of Plato endeavored to carry on his teachings along the lines laid down. But in the course of time even in that school, which was known successively as the Old Academy, the Middle Academy and the New Academy, the spiritual ideals of the Teacher grew dim, until they were revived by the Neoplatonists.

The Laws of Plato, a work not made public until after his death, shows how Plato gravitated more and more toward the Pythagorean doctrines in his later years. The Old Academy, therefore, is distinguished by its interpretation of Plato's theory of Ideas in accordance with the number theory of Pythagoras.

The guidance of the Platonic School passed from Plato to his nephew Speusippus, who, according to Diogenes Laertius, received his appointment directly from the Teacher. Speusippus developed the Pythagorean aspect of the Platonic teachings, and the world is indebted to him for defining and expounding many things which Plato had left obscure in his doctrine of the Sensible and the Ideal.

Speusippus was followed by Xenocrates, who continued the Pythagorean and Platonic line without a shadow of turning. The teachings of Xenocrates also show a strong Oriental influence, and many of his ideas may be traced directly to their Eastern origin. He taught that there are three degrees of knowledge — thought, perception and envisagement (knowledge by intuition). The source of these divisions is found in that part of the Mânava Dharma Shâstra which describes the creation of man. Brahmâ, or Mahat, the Universal Soul, draws from its own essence the Spirit, the imperishable immortal breath in every human being. To the lower soul Brahmâ gives Ahânkara, the consciousness of the Ego. To this is added "the intellect formed of the three qualities" — Intelligence, Conscience, and Will, answering to the Thought, Perception and Envisagement of Xenocrates.

The relation of numbers to Ideas was developed by Xenocrates still further than by Speusippus, and according to H.P.B. he surpassed even Plato in his definition of the doctrine of Invisible Magnitudes. Xenocrates regarded the soul as a "self-moving number" and maintained the doctrine of intuition and innate ideas. He revived the ancient Buddhistic and Hermetic teachings by declaring that, as the World-Soul permeates the entire Cosmos, even the beasts have something of divinity in them. Building his whole theory of cosmogony on the theory of the World-Soul, he taught that Space is filled with a successive and progressive series of animated and thinking beings. This is a faithful reflection of the doctrine of Manu, who endows even the tiniest blade of grass with a living soul.

Xenocrates forbade the eating of animal food, not solely because of the cruelty inflicted upon the animals, but also "lest the irrationality of animal souls might thereby obtain a certain influence over us." This theory was elaborated 1800 years later by Paracelsus. It is a clear indication that Xenocrates, like Pythagoras, had the Hindu Sages for his Masters and Models. Cicero speaks of his stainless character and Zeller records his statement that "Purity, even in the secret longings of our heart, is the greatest duty, and only Philosophy and Initiation into the Mysteries help toward the attainment of this object."

Herakleides, friend of Plato and member of the Academy, continued the Pythagorean and Platonic doctrines in all their purity. The unknown author of the Epinomis, a Platonic treatise, says that only knowledge of numbers can prove immortality, and that the soul must be understood before the Spirit can be comprehended. Iamblichus said the same thing five hundred years later, adding, however, that the mystery of immortality is a secret belonging to the highest initiation. The Epinomis considers the universe as a living organism, every star having a soul of its own. This, again, is merely a repetition of the ancient Hermetic doctrine that every atom in the universe, being impregnated with the divine influx of the World-Soul, is a living entity which feels, suffers and enjoys life in its own way.

With the passing of Athenian independence, a change took place in the attitude and emphasis of Greek philosophy. The social philosophy represented in Plato's Republic gave way to the individualism which seems always to emerge in times of political disintegration. Whenever possible, the true philosopher strives to make his principles the basis of common constructive activity, but during a period of rapid social decline, often his only course is to demonstrate that there is no need for the individual to suffer moral and cultural death along with the community. He can be an exemplar as a single man when the temper of the day makes the application of social ideals impossible. Such an objective naturally produces an especial emphasis on conduct, as distinguished from the metaphysical doctrines which provide the rational basis for right action. Thus, we find the "practical" philosophies of the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics becoming the leading patterns of thought after Greece had succumbed to the Macedonian and Roman conquests.

Zeno, the founder of the Stoics, was at one time a pupil of Xenocrates. About 310 B.C. he founded a school in Athens. Because of his habit of teaching in the Painted Porch, or Stoa, it became known as the Stoic School. Basing his teachings on the Socratic axiom that knowledge is virtue, Zeno made the pursuit of knowledge synonymous with the cultivation of virtue. Combining that axiom with the Aristotelian idea that all knowledge comes from sense-perception, the Stoics have come down in history as the greatest materialists of ancient days.

Although the Stoics maintained that the material alone is real, distinguishing corporeal and incorporeal being as coarser and finer degrees of matter, an examination of Zeno's doctrines reveals the fact that the Stoics were acquainted with the three fundamental propositions of Theosophy. They acknowledged the presence of an invisible Principle, or Divine Energy, which permeates nature, and spoke of matter as but the passive agent through which that Principle expresses itself. They taught the emanation of the visible world from the invisible, and the final absorption of the universe into its original source. Seneca, one of the later Stoics, asked: "What is God? The Mind of the Universe. Where is He? In everything you see and everything you do not see." They likewise taught that all is governed by the Law of Cause and Effect and that nothing happens by chance. They considered the soul of man as a spark of Deity which at death is returned to its original essence. They therefore trained themselves to be indifferent to death, to pleasure and pain, and to exercise their philosophy in the form of altruism and compassion. "Nature bids me to be good to mankind," Seneca wrote. "Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for benefit." The Stoics also practiced the "nightly review" which formed part of the discipline of the Mysteries. Epictetus has left us the ethical standard adopted by the Stoic: "...that he censures no one, praises no one, blames no one, says nothing about himself as being anybody or knowing anything." Seneca added that "the Stoic view of life is to be useful and helpful, and not to look after ourselves, but after the individual and common interests of mankind."

The Epicureans differed sharply from the Stoics in their answer to the problems of life. The personality of Epicurus was almost worshipped by his pupils. His words were memorized down to the smallest detail and accepted without question. Pleasure, said Epicurus, is the highest virtue, and virtue is impossible without pleasure. Although he admitted that intellectual pleasures are the most satisfying, he did not direct the intellect toward any soul-disturbing search for fundamental truths. His message was, like that of Rousseau, a summons to return from the complexities of civilization to the natural pleasures of life. His philosophy appealed to the average man. It was, as Cicero says, at best a bourgeois philosophy, demanding neither heroism nor sacrifice, appealing primarily to a world-weary society whose ideals had already been dulled by indolence and corruption.

But despite these general tendencies, there were, as H.P.B. says, no Atheists in those days of old; no disbelievers or materialists, in the modern sense of the word, as there were no bigoted detractors. Writing in Isis Unveiled, she makes clear that even Pyrrho, the great skeptic, was not the extreme denier that he seems to modern scholars.

He who judges the ancient philosophies by their external phraseology, and quotes from ancient writings sentences seemingly atheistical, is unfit to be trusted as a critic, for he is unable to penetrate into the inner sense of their metaphysics. The views of Pyrrho, whose rationalism has become proverbial, can be interpreted only by the light of the oldest Hindu philosophy.... Notwithstanding that he and his followers are termed, from their state of constant suspense, "skeptics," "doubters," inquirers, and ephectics, only because they postponed their final judgment on dilemmas, with which our modern philosophers prefer dealing, Alexander-like, by cutting the Gordian knot, and then declaring the dilemma a superstition, such men as Pyrrho cannot be pronounced atheists. No more can Kapila, or Giordano Bruno, or again Spinoza, who were also treated as atheists; nor yet, the great Hindu poet, philosopher, and dialectician, Veda-Vyasa, whose principle that all is illusion — save the Great Unknown and His direct essence — Pyrrho has adopted in full. (II, 530-31.)

Side by side with the decline of Athens, a new center of culture was arising on the southern shore of the Mediterranean. Two years before the death of Plato, Philip, the young King of Macedonia, had married a young novice in the Mystery School of Samothrace, and from their union sprang Alexander the Great. In 331 B.C. the walls of Alexandria were marked out, and within a comparatively short time the spirit of Athens reincarnated in the Egyptian city. The first Ptolemy, like Alexander, had been a pupil of Aristotle, and started out with the aim of making Alexandria a second Athens. The Museum, founded by Ptolemy Soter, became the world's most famous University, and the library contained all that was best in Grecian, Roman, Jewish, Persian, Babylonian, Phoenician and Hindu literature. There were found the works of Hesiod and Homer, of Pythagoras and Plato, of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, as well as the large library which had once belonged to Aristotle. Ptolemy maintained a vast army of scholars in the Museum, who spent their time studying and translating the ancient texts. In addition, the Museum supported numerous lecturers who drew students from every part of the world. This brought about a new phase of philosophical thought, in which an attempt was made to unite the philosophies of the East and the West by showing their similarities and thus proving their common origin.

The larger Mystery Schools were by this time gradually declining, being replaced by smaller gnostic groups, each of which concentrated upon some special phase of the gnosis, or ancient wisdom. In Ephesus there was a great gnostic College, where Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and the Chaldean system were taught side by side with the Platonic philosophy. In Aegea another gnostic school devoted itself to the doctrines of Pythagoras. Egypt was full of these gnostic schools, many of which were affiliated with Judaism. The Egyptian Mysteries were being perpetuated by the Essenes in their "greater" and "lesser" Mysteries. There was also a Pythagorean branch of the Essenes, known as the Koinobi, as well as the Gymnosophists. In Alexandria a Pythagorean group called the Therapeutae spent their lives in contemplation upon the higher problems of philosophy. In addition to these various Jewish-Pythagorean groups, there were also many individual Jews who tried to show the close relationship between the Hebrew and Greek teachings. Aristobulus pointed to the similarity between the ethics of Aristotle and the Laws of Moses. Philo Judaeus sought to reconcile the Pentateuch with the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy. The translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint brought the Hebrew Scriptures within the reach of Greek scholars.

It was in some of these gnostic schools — all of which were remnants of the Mysteries — that Jesus received his knowledge. By establishing connection with the Koinobi, the Pythagorean branch of the Essenes, he was initiated into the secrets of the Egyptian Mysteries. All of the sayings attributed to Jesus are in the Pythagorean spirit, when not verbatim repetitions. An interesting corroboration of this statement will be found in Isis Unveiled II, 338. After his years of study in Egypt, Jesus returned to Judea, where he was initiated into the Chaldean Mysteries by the Nazars, or Magi, who built the ancient city of Nazara (afterward Nazareth) where they held their secret rites of initiation. The stories of Jesus' birth, baptism, crucifixion and resurrection are all allegories belonging to the Mysteries. Even his title of Chrestos, or Christos, comes from the same source. In the days of Homer the city of Chrisa was mentioned as celebrated for its Mysteries, and the word chrestos was used to describe a disciple on probation. The same word is frequently found in the works of Plato, Demosthenes, Euripides, Aeschylus and Herodotus, clearly showing that it is not of Christian origin. In the Mysteries, when a chrestos had successfully passed through his probationary period, he was anointed with oil and given the title of Christos, the "anointed" or "purified." Two Initiates followed after Jesus, each in his own way trying to perpetuate the Mystery Teachings. The first was Paul, who was partially, if not completely initiated. This is shown by his language, his peculiar phraseology, and the use of certain expressions known only in the Mysteries. His hair, shorn because he had taken a vow, shows that he was initiated into the Chaldean Mysteries, where the neophyte was obliged to sacrifice his locks on the altar. His calling himself a "Master Builder" indicates that he was also initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, where the epoptae were known by that title. If the first five verses of the twelfth Chapter of Second Corinthians are read carefully, they will be found to contain a cautious description of Paul's initiation into the Mysteries.

The other great Initiate of the first century A.D. was Apollonius of Tyana, who studied first with the Pythagorean group at Aegea, then with the Persian Magi, and finally with the great Sages of Kashmir. Upon his return to Europe, he revitalized the great occult centers by lecturing on the Island of Samos, where Pythagoras was born, by speaking in the garden where Plato had taught, and by giving instruction in the Temple of Apollo in Delphi and in the Temple of Serapis of Alexandria. By thus keeping alive the Wisdom-Religion in the western world Apollonius prepared the way for Ammonius Saccas and the Neoplatonic Movement.

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 28, No. 1, November, 1939 pp. 3-8

FROM THE NEOPLATONISTS TO H.P.B.

THE Neoplatonic School of Alexandria was founded in 193 A.D. by Ammonius Saccas. Its object was to reconcile the religious and philosophical systems of East and West by tracing them back to their original source, thus uniting all nations on a common ethical basis. The School was divided into an exoteric and an esoteric section, with rules copied from the Orphic Mysteries. The Neoplatonic philosophy was based upon three fundamental propositions: (1) that the whole of Nature is rooted in one Supreme Essence; (2) that the soul of man, being a radiation of the Universal Soul, is immortal; and (3) that man, by self-purification, can become a god in human form. After the death of Ammonius, his work was continued by Plotinus, who founded a school in Rome; by Porphyry, who expressed the Neoplatonic principles in terms of practical life; and by Iamblichus, the Pythagorean, who re-awakened an interest in the Egyptian Mysteries.

The Christian Church was opposed to the Neoplatonic Movement from its beginning. The Christians taught a personal God, the Neoplatonists an impersonal Principle. The Christians regarded the universe as a creation of God, the Neoplatonists declared it to be an emanation of the Supreme Essence. Christianity claimed to be a unique religion; the Neoplatonists pointed to the source of all religions. Several prominent Church Fathers — Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Athenagoras and Augustine — were drawn into the Neoplatonic Movement, but their efforts to reconcile Neoplatonism with Christianity met with little success.

Julian, Initiate-Emperor of Rome, strove in his short reign of three years to revive Neoplatonism, but within a generation after his untimely death (363), another Emperor, Theodosius, had killed or exiled all the pagan philosophers, made churches of the temples and destroyed the last of the Mystery Schools. Hypatia, the girl-philosopher of Alexandria, was murdered by Cyril's horde of fanatical monks in 414. A little later Proclus brought new life to the Platonic Academy in Athens, but not for long. In 529 Justinian closed the School and drove the last of the Neoplatonists from Europe. It was the end of the cycle.

The destruction of the Mysteries and the Neoplatonic Movement left the Christian Church in full control. The German hordes who descended upon the Romans in the fifth and sixth centuries offered splendid material for Christian propaganda. Uncouth and uneducated barbarians, they were greatly awed by the spectacular pageantry of the Church and readily accepted its narrow dogmas. During the three centuries that followed, Greek literature entirely disappeared from the continent, although some of the writings of Plato and the Neoplatonists found their way into Ireland. In the ninth century the Irish scholar John Scotus Erigena resuscitated some of these works and inaugurated the Scholastic movement, which was a reaction against the intellectual stupor of the times. For the next three centuries the thinkers of Europe turned toward Plato for inspiration. Toward the end of the twelfth century the writings of Aristotle were introduced to the schoolmen. From then on the scholars of Europe were divided into two classes: the Realists, who followed the Platonic line, and the Nominalists, who were Aristotelians.

In the fifteenth century another reincarnation of Platonism occurred. This movement was started in Italy by a number of Greek scholars who had fled from Constantinople in fear of the Turks. In 1438 one of these scholars, Gemisthus Pletho, an ardent Greek Platonist, inspired Cosmo de Medici with the idea of founding a Platonic Academy in Florence. In preparation for this event, Cosmo gave Marsilio Ficino, the son of his physician, an education in Greek philosophy. Ficino undertook his task with enthusiasm, making excellent translations of Plato and the Neoplatonists. The Florentine Academy reached its peak under Lorenzo the Magnificent, Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, the latter being a student of Kabala as well as a Greek scholar. This period of the Renaissance witnessed the rebirth of practically all of the old Greek schools — the Platonic and Aristotelian, the Stoic and Epicurean, the Skeptic and the Neoplatonic.

Germany also participated in this revival of Greek thought, students there repeating some of the teachings of the Mysteries. Trithemius, the teacher of Paracelsus, presented the sevenfold order of evolution. Cornelius Agrippa described the marvelous powers of the soul which has united itself with its divine source. John Reuchlin translated the inner meaning of the Pythagorean Tetraktys. Paracelsus showed his affinity with Plato by declaring that "the true philosopher sees the Reality, not merely the outward appearance," and by defining philosophy as the "true perception and understanding of Cause and Effect." Giordano Bruno openly confessed that he had derived his knowledge from Plato, Pythagoras and the Neoplatonists. He reiterated the fundamental propositions of these philosophers by declaring that nature is a living unity of living units whose evolution proceeds under the law of cause and effect, and by stating that man's progress through earth life is accomplished by means of numberless reincarnations. Against these spiritual philosophers who followed the Platonic method were ranged the followers of Aristotle, culminating in Francis Bacon, the father of modern materialism. Reversing the true order of evolution, Bacon declared that "the first Creation of God was the light of the sense; the last was the light of the reason; and His Sabbath work ever since is the illumination of the Spirit."

Jacob Boehme, the mystic-philosopher of the early seventeenth century, faithfully reflected the archaic wisdom in his writings. Boehme was a fountain of inspiration to later German schools of philosophy. Modern science and philosophy are said to have been born in this century. Any one, however, who is acquainted with the scientific and philosophical concepts of the ancient Greeks will discover that these "modern" ideas are but warmed-over dishes covered, in most cases, with a thick sauce of crass materialism. The scientific theories of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are merely repetitions and enlargements of theories presented twenty centuries before by Anaxagoras, Leucippus and Empedocles. When Galileo argued for the heliocentric system in 1632, he built upon what Pythagoras, Heracleides and Ecphantus had taught two thousand years before.

Modern philosophy is said to have started with René Descartes, whose system is based upon the concept of Self-existence. Cogito, ergo sum. In attempting to define the Self, Descartes said: "I am not this collection of members which is called the human body. I am the being who perceives." He believed that the seat of the soul is located in the pineal gland which, although linked to the brain, has an independent action, as it can be put into a swinging motion "by the animal spirits" (the currents of nerve-auric compound circulation) "which cross the cavities of the skull in every sense." Descartes also revived the theory of elemental vortices which had been taught in Greece by Anaxagoras and Leucippus, and before that by the Egyptians, the Chaldeans and the Brahmins of the esoteric school.

If the philosophical systems of Spinoza and Leibniz were reconciled and each corrected by the other, the true essence and spirit of the esoteric philosophy would appear. Spinoza recognized but one universal indivisible substance and absolute All, like Parabrahm. Leibniz recognized an infinitude of Beings, from and in the One. Leibniz endowed "the whole creation with mental life" as every Occultist does. In his Monadologie he came very close to some of the hidden secrets of esoteric Theogony, although these speculations did not lead beyond the lower principles of the great Cosmic Body. The "Monads" of Leibniz are the "Jivas" of Eastern philosophy, his "reduced universes," of which "there are as many as there are Monads," are the chaotic representation of the septenary system with its divisions and sub-divisions.

It is difficult to find a single speculation in Western metaphysics which has not been anticipated by archaic Eastern philosophy. From Kant to Spencer, it is all a more or less distorted echo of the Vedantic doctrines. Kant's primordial substance which "cannot be the matter which fills today the heavenly spaces" is nothing more than the Akasa. His idea of the Self and its importance in the scheme of things is an echo of Eastern psychology. His belief that there is a form of knowledge which transcends human experience is a reflection of the doctrine of the Mysteries. His statement that the truths gained by the intellect are inferior to those gained through moral insight may be found at the same source.

The German Transcendentalists, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, while borrowing profusely from Vedantism, Neoplatonism and the writings of Jacob Boehme, diverged widely from the primitive archaic concept of an Absolute Principle, and mirrored only an aspect of the basic idea of the Vedanta. Fichte distinguished Being as One, which is known only through the Manifold. According to Hegel, the "Unconscious" would never have undertaken the laborious task of evolving the Universe except in the hope of attaining Self-consciousness. A Vedantin would not accept that idea, although he would agree with Hegel that "nature is a perpetual becoming." Although Schelling and Hegel drew copiously upon Jacob Boehme's Mysterium Magnum for their inspiration, the truly occult theories of this great mystic are most faithfully mirrored in the works of the "unknown" philosopher of the eighteenth century, Louis Claude de St. Martin.

Herbert Spencer, who was a contemporary of H. P. Blavatsky, brings us still closer to ancient truths. Certain passages in his First Principles, portraying the alternate periods of universal evolution and dissolution, indicate that he was either acquainted with Hindu philosophy or that he had clear intuition. He repeats the ancient doctrine of emanation when he describes the gradual appearance of the known and heterogeneous from the unknown and homogeneous, and expresses an ancient Vedantic tenet when he asserts that the nature of the First Cause may be essentially the same as that of the consciousness which wells up within man himself.

As the tide of the Theosophical Movement moved westward, a restatement of the ancient doctrines appeared in the writings of the American philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson. He led the world straight back to Plato, and to the philosophical concepts of the ancient East. He openly declared that the Vedas contain the ethics which have influenced every great thinker since the time that they were written. He described the Bhagavad-Gita as the "first of books," calling it the "voice of an old intelligence which in another age and another climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us." He declared the Indian and Persian Scriptures to be "majestic" and pictured Buddhism as the "necessary or structural action of the human mind." Recognizing Plato as the link between the East and the West, he said that out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated among men. With the humility of the true disciple, he suggests the fraternity of the Masters in speaking of the "high priesthood of pure reason, the Trismegisti, the expounders of the principles of thought from age to age." Emerson was a true forerunner of H. P. Blavatsky, as his philosophy was based upon the age-old truths of the Wisdom-Religion. His prime doctrine was that of Unity in diversity. He considered the Law of Polarity as the fundamental law of the universe. He pointed to the presence of the God within every man and urged self-induced and self-devised efforts as the only means of man's salvation. Further, he considered himself merely as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and openly proclaimed the coming of a new Teacher who would bring back the ancient doctrines in all their fulness.

The new Teacher was "H.P.B." She claimed no originality for her ideas. In the first chapter of her first book she led her readers back to Plato and Pythagoras, to the Neoplatonists and to the "Brahmans and Lamaists of the Orient." In the Introductory to The Secret Doctrine she showed that all true philosophies, of whatever age, are but "fragments of a primeval revelation granted to the ancestors of the whole race of mankind." She also prophesied that in the twentieth century some other disciple may be sent by the Masters to give final and irrefutable proofs of the existence of the Gupta-Vidya, from which all philosophical systems have sprung. "Thus," she says, "the Past shall help to realize the Present, and the latter to better appreciate the Past."

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 28, No. 2, December, 1939 pp. 53-57

THE MYSTERY OF MATTO GROSSO

STUDENTS of H. P. Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine are familiar with the theosophical teaching about the racial and national evolution of the human family on this globe, and her prediction that in the twentieth century discoveries will be made that will upset the notions of many a man of science. Of particular interest, therefore, is an article that appeared in the January 1933 issue of Blackwood's Magazine, "The Lost City of My Quest," by Colonel P. H. Fawcett, with the following editorial note by the publisher:

When Colonel Fawcett set out in 1925 on the expedition into the unexplored interior of Brazil from which he has failed to return, he hoped to find a large ruined city of the remote past. In this article, written not long before his departure, he describes the original discovery of that city.

While twenty years later, in 1953, Colonel Fawcett is still missing, his letters, manuscripts, and other records have been collected and published by his son, Brian Fawcett, in a volume replete with stories of adventure, of ghosts, magic and voodooism, and of the customs and practices generally of the aboriginal tribes of South America. (Lost Trails, Lost Cities, by Col. P. H. Fawcett. Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1953. 332 pages, $5.00.)

The story related in both article and book concerns the history and fate of primeval races that peopled the high plateau regions of Matto Grosso, in Brazil. In the latter part of the sixteenth century, goes the legend, one Moribeca, half-Portuguese, half-Indian, who lived most of his life with the natives, displayed before the world such a wealth of gold, silver and precious stones, as to fill with envy the greedy Europeans. As the Portuguese authorities failed to obtain by trickery the secret of this wealth from either Moribeca or his son, numerous expeditions, some numbering as many as 1400 men, set out, only to disappear forever, as though they had been swallowed up by the wilderness.

In the year 1743, however, a native of Minas Geraes was fired to make a search for the lost mines of Moribeca. His party consisted of a few Portuguese, Indians, and Negro slaves. After ten years of hardship and wandering, while seeking a way out of the wilderness, the party discovered, quite by accident, what seemed to be the long-sought object of their labors. While scouting for food, they were led by a deer through a deep crevice in a precipice. Gaining the summit, they stood dumb at the view that spread before them. (We now extract from the Blackwood's Magazine article, drawn up by Colonel Fawcett from material contained in a document left by the Portuguese explorer of over two centuries ago. {Manuscript No. 512, Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janiero.})

* * *

In the immediate foreground lay extensive plains brilliantly green, with patches here and there of silver water, changing to yellowish brown and dull greens as they drew near the foothills. On this was a sight that made the adventurers gasp and hastily draw back behind the crest-line. For, at a distance of some three or four miles, and so clear that buildings could be distinctly made out, was a huge city ... Nothing could have been more unexpected than this extraordinary sight ... The sun was well up, for it was scarcely past mid-day, and it was decided that two Portuguese and two Negroes, all well armed, should reconnoiter as near the city as possible and discover what sort of people dwelt in this mysterious place ... The scouts returned. They had not ventured too near the city, but from a distant point of vantage had observed neither inhabitant nor smoke.

To the Indians it was just as mysterious as to their more civilized companions. They had vague traditions and very definite superstitions regarding this part of the country which had kept it 'tabu,' and they were fearful of they knew not what. One man was found, however, who volunteered to go alone and discover what there was. He started early next morning and returned about noon, obviously frightened, but asserting that there existed not a trace of living man.

On the following morning the whole party set off cautiously along the trail, an advance guard of four scouts preceding them by about half a mile. Drawing near the city the scouts rejoined the main body, corroborating the Indian's account that there was no sign of human life. The whole party thereupon came into the open, and, disposed in strategic order, approached the walls.

The trail led directly to an entrance through three lofty arches built of gigantic stones, the middle arch towering above the others. The stupendous masonry was black with age, and the grandeur of the architecture tied every man's tongue ... The overwhelming dignity of the design, the awesome silence and mystery of an old abandoned city possessed them, rough men as they were. High above the crown of the central arch, and deeply engraved into the weathered stone, were characters of some sort. They knew enough to realize that this was no familiar script. The arches were in a good state of preservation, but a few huge blocks had fallen from the summit, and portions had slipped somewhat out of plumb. Passing through the archway they found themselves in a wide street, littered with fallen masonry and broken pillars. They gazed in amazement. There was not a sign of human occupation. It was all incredibly old, and yet in its age amazingly perfect. Here were two-storied houses on either side, all built up of carefully squared blocks carved in elaborate time-worn designs. In many cases roofs had fallen in, in others great stone slabs still covered the dark interiors, and he who had the temerity to enter the windowless chambers through the narrow doorways and to raise his voice, fled at the echoes hurled at him by the vaulted ceilings and solid walls. Fallen stones and an accumulation of bat droppings covered any vestiges of human occupation, had there been such.

Dumb with amazement, the party, huddled together like a flock of scared sheep, passed down the street into a vast square or plaza. Here they must have "looked at each other with a wild surmise," for in the center of the plaza, dominating its surroundings in sublime majesty, was a gigantic black stone column set upon a plinth of the same rock, and upon it the statue of a man, one hand on his hip, the other arm extended with the index finger pointing towards the north — magnificent in design, perfect in preservation. In each corner of the plaza had been great obelisks of black stone covered with carvings. Three of them had been broken off short, the upper parts lying on the ground prominent amidst the litter of stone. The whole of the right hand side of the plaza was occupied by a building so magnificent in its design as to have been obviously a palace, its square columns intact, but walls and roof partly demolished. A vast entrance hall was approached by a broad flight of steps, much of which was displaced. The interior of this hall was rich in exquisite carving, and still showed signs of a brilliance of colouring comparable with some of the finest relics of Egypt. The interior exit from this hall was blocked by fallen masonry ... At the junction of the street with the plaza, above what appeared to be the principal entrance, was carved in semi-relief the figure of a youth in excellent preservation. The figure was naked from the waist up, had shield in hand and a band across the shoulder. The face was clean-shaven and the head crowned with a wreath of laurel ...

In the plaza opposite the palace was the ruin of another huge edifice, evidently a temple by its magnificent façade and general appearance. It was entirely unroofed, but on the weather-worn walls were still to be traced figures and designs of animals and birds ... Beyond the street and plaza the city seemed to be entirely in ruin, and much of it was buried. Gaping chasms in the ground, into whose fathomless depths a stone dropped without sound, left no doubt as to the agency of destruction. Around these dreadful gulfs great blocks of stone elaborately carved, slabs of rock, portions of stone and broken columns were piled in awful confusion. The explorers could imagine something of the ghastly tragedy of this unknown cataclysm, whose resistless force had displaced and thrown down monolithic stones of fifty tons and upwards and destroyed in less perhaps than one fearful minute the civilization of a thousand years.

On the far side of the plaza the city was open to a river some thirty yards or so in width ... Evidently there had been a highly decorative terrace to this river, but most of it had been swallowed up or lay beneath the waters ... About a quarter of a mile outside the city and standing by itself was a palatial building with a front of 250 paces, approached by a broad flight of steps of many-coloured stones. It was heavily columned all round, and the noble portico opened upon a vast hall, whose mural decorations and gorgeous colouring still remained more or less intact. From this hall opened fifteen smaller chambers, in each of which was the carved head of a serpent from whose opened jaws poured a small stream of water ...

It was long before they could tear themselves away from these awesome ruins, for whose existence they could imagine no explanation. The grandeur and opulence of the place astounded them, but this feeling soon gave place to an intense lust for treasure, inevitable amongst ignorant men. If they could have filled their pockets with gold, they would willingly have destroyed every stone of this priceless relic of a lost civilisation. Their report reeks of this impulse. It is the buried wealth which attracts them, not the mystery ... The leader of the expedition was anxious to return better equipped for this purpose.

Having no notion where he was, but with every confidence that those Indians who remained with him would remember the country, the leader decided to follow the river down on a chance of striking some civilised settlement ... Soon after the departure of this party he found to the east of the fall unmistakable signs of mining. Shafts whose depths he had no means of plumbing excited his curiosity. On the surface of the ground were specimens of silver ore of great richness, presumably brought up from these shafts, encouraging him to believe that he had really discovered the lost mines of Moribeca. Further investigation revealed other features of interest. There were caverns hewn out of the solid rock, one of them sealed with a grey slab of stone ... No effort, however, could move the slab. Others were similarly closed ... Possibly they were the tombs of the priests and kings of the city. The party pictured themselves as rich men. They agreed that, excepting to the Viceroy, to whom their leader owed a debt of gratitude, they would say nothing, but return reconstituted, unearth the treasures and work the mines ...

In the meantime the scouting section, after following the lower river for nine days without result, caught sight in a backwater of a canoe paddled by two white people with long black hair and dressed in clothing of some sort. But on firing a shot to attract attention, the canoe spurted ahead and disappeared. People of this appearance were reported again and again by Portuguese explorers up to about half a century ago, but no explanation has ever been vouchsafed ... The leader then decided to march eastward through the forest and leave it to chance what part of the Atlantic coast settlements he eventually struck. Where he ultimately came out he does not say ...

Whether the Indians deserted him from fear of the tabu and he lost himself, as so many did in these vast solitudes, or whether the insatiable greed of these early explorers ended in quarrels and tragedy, is unknown. Neither he nor a single member of his party were heard of again ...

Meanwhile the Viceroy pigeon-holed the report, which never saw light again for upwards of half a century. The Government made some half-hearted attempts to find the place about the middle of the nineteenth century, but they failed to discover anything, and, truth to tell, the search was not conducted very intelligently ...

Is the investigation worth while from a scientific point of view? Assuredly, yes. It must be doubtful if there is any archaeological and ethnological research more important today than the study of these ruins and the relics contained therein ... What is the significance of the hundreds of inscriptions scattered throughout the forests in characters resembling some of those contained amongst the oldest scripts known to us elsewhere, themselves as yet a mystery? May there not be somewhere another Rosetta stone? Who can estimate the value of such a discovery of ruins compared with which those in Egypt are modern?

* * *

Were the legend of Matto Grosso the only one of its kind, the whole affair might be brushed aside as a fancy, but similar traditions prevail in other parts of the world. Readers of Theosophy will recall, for example, the North American Indian tradition of the "mountain of mystery" in Arizona, as related in an article titled "The Spirits of Superstition Mountain (Theosophy 24: 504-8). Also, the story of a mysterious city in the Cordilleras was told to Stephens by a Spanish Padre in 1838-9,¹ which the priest swore that he had seen with his own eyes, and which the traveller firmly believed to be true:

The Padre of the little village near the ruins of Santa Cruz del Quiche, had heard of the unknown city at the village of Chajul ... He was then young, and climbed with much labor to the naked summit of the topmost ridge of the sierra of the Cordillera. When arrived at a height of ten or twelve thousand feet, he looked over an immense plain extending to Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and saw, at a great distance, a large city spread over a great space, and with turrets white and glittering in the sun. Tradition says that no white man has ever reached this city; that the inhabitants speak the Maya language, know that strangers have conquered their whole land, and murder any white man who attempts to enter their territory....

A story almost identical with the above was told to H. P. Blavatsky by an old native priest of Peru, whom she met there. Ostensibly a converted native missionary, the priest assured her that he was at heart as much a sun-worshipper as ever, and kept up his friendly relations with the conquerors and the Catholic religion for the sake of his people. He solemnly affirmed that he had been at Santa Cruz, and had visited the mysterious city, which he entered by a "subterranean passage" unknown to the world at large.

Relics of ancient civilizations have been unearthed in every part of the globe, and more, doubtless, await the day when some open-minded and intuitive archaeologist will come upon their meaning. Meantime, words written by H. P. Blavatsky, in 1880, may provide food for thought for students:

...all along the coast of Peru, all over the Isthmus of North America, in the canyons of the Cordilleras, in the impassable gorges of the Andes, and, especially beyond the valley of Mexico, lie, ruined and desolate, hundreds of once mighty cities, lost to the memory of men, and having themselves lost even a name. Buried in dense forests, entombed in inaccessible valleys, sometimes sixty feet underground, from the day of their discovery until now they have ever remained a riddle to science, baffling all inquiry, and they have been muter than the Egyptian Sphinx herself ... Of the long generations of people who built them, history knows nothing, and even tradition is silent. As a matter of course, most of these lithic remains are covered with a dense vegetation. Whole forests have grown out of the broken hearts of the cities, and, with few exceptions, every thing is in ruin. But one may judge of what once was by that which yet remains.

Having well defined ideas as to the periodicity of cycles, for the world as well as for nations, empires, and tribes, we are convinced that our present modern civilization is but the latest dawn of that which already has been seen an innumerable number of times upon this planet.

"Who knows, then," wrote Dr. Heath, of Kansas City, in his Peruvian Antiquities, "but that Jules Verne's fanciful idea regarding the lost continent Atlanta² may be near the truth? Who can say that, where now is the Atlantic Ocean, formerly did not exist a continent, with its dense population, advanced in the arts and sciences, who, as they found their land sinking beneath the waters, retired part east and part west, populating thus the two hemispheres?"

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 42, No. 4, February, 1954 pp. 158-164

¹ Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan.

² This "idea" is plainly expressed and asserted as a fact by Plato in his Banquet; and was taken up by Lord Bacon in his New Atlantis.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

INDIVIDUALISM

THE FRATERNITY OF PERFECTED SOULS

ZOROASTRIAN METAPHYSICS

TRANSMISSION, NOT REVELATION

ZOROASTRIAN COSMOGENESIS

ZOROASTRIAN PSYCHOLOGY

ZOROASTRIAN ETHICS

THE KINGS OF CHINA

CONFUCIUS THE CODIFIER

CONFUCIANISM

LAO TZU AND THE TAOISTS

ON TAO

MENCIUS

LIEH TZU

THE ROOT OF RELIGION

CHWANG TZU

OLD CHINA AND NEW

CIVILIZATION AND RELIGION OF EGYPT

THE GODS OF EGYPT

LIGHT AND DARKNESS

EGYPTIAN SYMBOLISM AND ANIMAL WORSHIP

ONE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

OSIRIS, ISIS, HORUS, AND SET

THE "BEING OF TATHAGATA"5

EGYPTIAN "IMMORTALITY"

SOURCES OF EARLY AMERICAN CIVILIZATION

THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN

THE FEATHERED-SERPENT

THE POPOL VUH

UNIVERSAL ANALOGY

THE THEOSOPHY OF THE FAR NORTH

THE IN-DWELLING EGO

BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

THE PRICE OF KNOWLEDGE

THE GARDEN OF EDEN

FIRE OF PROMETHEUS

THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF GILGAMESH

THE LEGEND OF THE BLUE LOTUS14

THE BLUE LOTUS

"I INCARNATE FROM AGE TO AGE"

FRATERNITY OF EAST AND WEST1

TRUTH BEYOND EAST OR WEST

THE TEMPLE WITHIN

EX ORIENTE LUX

THE HERITAGE OF ANCIENT INDIA

TRUTH IN ALL FAITHS

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"1

"UNIVERSAL" HISTORY

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"1

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"1

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"1

THE VARIOUS "FIRES"

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"1

ANCIENT VS. MODERN THOUGHT

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"1

MORE LIGHT ON SUMERIA

THE PREHISTORIC GREEKS

THE GREEK MYSTERIES

KEYS TO THE MYSTERIES

THE FIRST GREEK PHILOSOPHERS

"THE MIGHTY ART WAS LOST"

PYTHAGORAS

THE PYTHAGOREAN SCIENCE OF NUMBERS

THE FATAL SEPARATION

THE GREEK ATOMISTS AND SOPHISTS

SOCRATES

PLATO

PLATO'S GOD-IDEA

PLATO AND ARISTOTLE

THE GREEK DRAMA

OLDEST PHILOSOPHICAL NOTION

FROM PLATO TO THE NEOPLATONISTS

FROM THE NEOPLATONISTS TO H.P.B.

THE MYSTERY OF MATTO GROSSO

THE "BEING OF TATHAGATA"⁵

THE LEGEND OF THE BLUE LOTUS¹⁴

FRATERNITY OF EAST AND WEST¹

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹

INDIA — "THE ALMA-MATER"¹