Worlds. 258. A period of 311,040,000,000,000 years, according to Brâhmanical calculations. 259. See the Scientific Arena, a monthly journal devoted to current philosophical teaching and its bearing upon the religious thought of the age. New York: A. Wilford Hall, Ph.D., LL.D., Editor, July, August, and September, 1886. 260. Such, we believe, is the name applied to what he also calls “Etheric Centres,” by J. W. Keely, of Philadelphia, the inventor of the famous “Motor”—destined, as his admirers have hoped, to revolutionize the motor power of the world. 261. The moon is dead only so far as regards her inner principles—i.e., psychically and spiritually, however absurd the statement may seem. Physically, she is only as a semi-paralysed body may be. She is aptly referred to in Occultism as the “Insane Mother,” the great sidereal lunatic. 262. Occultists, however, having the most perfect faith in their own exact records, astronomical and mathematical, calculate the age of humanity, and assert that men (as separate sexes) have existed in this Round just 18,618,727 years, as the Brâhmanical teachings and even some Hindû calendars declare. 263. The commentaries on the Stanzas are resumed on p. 213. 264. In Esoteric Buddhism and Man: Fragments of Forgotten History. 265. Many more planets are enumerated in the Secret Books than in modern astronomical works. 266. p. 48. 267. See, in Esoteric Buddhism, “The Constitution of Man,” and the “Planetary Chain.” 268. Winchell's World-Life. 269. P. 113 (5th edition). 270. pp. 185-6. 271. Kosha is “sheath” literally, the sheath of every principle. 272. Sthûla-upâdhi, or basis of the principle. 273. Life. 274. The Astral Body, or Linga Sharîra. 275. Buddhi. 276. See Diagram II, p. 195. 277. Extract from the Teacher's letters on various topics. 278. We are not concerned with the other Globes in this work except incidentally. 279. Esoteric Buddhism, p. 136. 280. Lucifer, May, 1888. 281. Esoteric Buddhism (5th ed.), p. 46. 282. Op. cit., p. 49. 283. Op. cit., p. 140. 284. p. 177 supra. 285. Occultism divides the periods of Rest (Pralaya) into several kinds: there is the Individual Pralaya of each Globe, as humanity and life pass on to the next—seven minor Pralayas in each Round; the Planetary Pralaya, when seven Rounds are completed; the Solar Pralaya, when the whole system is at an end; and finally the Universal Pralaya, Mahâ or Brahmâ Pralaya, at the close of the Age of Brahmâ. These are the chief Pralayas or “destruction periods.” There are many other minor ones, but with these we are not concerned at present. 286. Pp. 48, 49. 287. Ibid. 288. “Physical” here means differentiated for cosmical purposes and work; that “physical side,” nevertheless, if objective to the apperception of beings from other planes, is yet quite subjective to us on our plane. 289. Pp. 276 et seq. 290. Ibid. 291. See diagram, op. cit., p. 277. 292. Op. cit., pp. 273-4. 293. Op. cit., p. 274-5. 294. II. 278-9. 295. P. 48. 296. The Natures of the seven Hierarchies or Classes of Pitris and Dhyân Chohans which compose our nature and bodies are here meant. 297. Round, or revolution of Life and Being round the seven smaller Wheels. 298. Thirds. 299. Race. 300. P. 235. 301. Rev., xii. 7-9. 302. See Vol. II, Shloka 17. 303. Isis Unveiled, I. 299, 300. Compare also Dunlap, Sôd: the Son of the Man, pp. 51 et seq. 304. On the authority of Irenæus, of Justin Martyr and of the Codex itself, Dunlap shows that the Nazarenes regarded “Spirit” as a female and evil Power, in its connection with our Earth. 305. Fetahil is identical with the host of the Pitris, who “created man” as a “shell” only. He was, with the Nazarenes, the King of Light, and the Creator; but in this instance he is the unlucky Prometheus, who fails to get hold of the Living Fire necessary for the formation of the Divine Soul, as he is ignorant of the secret name, the ineffable or incommunicable name of the Kabalists. 306. The spirit of Matter and Concupiscence; Kâma Rûpa minus Manas, Mind. 307. Codex Nazaræus, ii. 233. 308. This Mano of the Nazarenes strangely resembles the Hindû Manu, the Heavenly Man of the Rig Veda. 309. “I am the true Vine, and my father is the husbandman.” (John, xv. 1.) 310. With the Gnostics, Christ, as well as Michael who is identical with him in some respects, was the “Chief of the Æons.” 311. Codex Nazaræus, i. 135. 312. See the Cosmogony of Pherecydes. 313. I. 301, note. 314. They are found, however, in the Chaldean Book of Numbers. 315. Op. cit., II. 183 et seq. 316. For the difference between nous, the higher divine Wisdom, and psyche, the lower and terrestrial, see St. James, iii. 15-17. 317. Jehovah's connection with the Moon in the Kabalah is well known to students. 318. For the Nazarenes, see Isis Unveiled, II. 131 and 132. The true followers of the true Christos were all Nazarenes and Christians, and were the opponents of the later Christians. 319. See the diagram of the Lunar Chain of seven worlds, p. 195, where, as in our own or any other Chain, the upper worlds are spiritual, while the lowest, whether Moon, Earth, or any other planet, is dark with matter. 320. The whole Kosmos. The reader is reminded that in the Stanzas Kosmos often means only our own Solar System, not the Infinite Universe. 321. This is purely astronomical. 322. For a clearer explanation of the above, see “Saptaparna” in the Index. 323. Op. cit., III. 346. 324. Book of Dzyan. 325. See Index, at the words “Evolution,” “Darwin,” “Kapila,” “Battle of Life,” etc. 326. Isis Unveiled, II. 260. 327. Vishnu Purâna. 328. Chain. 329. Earth. 330. Kenealy, Book of God, p. 118. 331. Acosta, vi. 14. 332. Kenealy, Ibid. 333. I, 587-93. 334. That which was natural in the sight of primitive man, has only now become miracle to us; and that which was to him a miracle, could never be expressed in our language. 335. There is no nation in the world in which the feeling of devotion, or of religious mysticism, is more developed and prominent than in the Hindû people. See what Max Müller says of this idiosyncrasy and national feature in his works. This is a direct inheritance from the primitive conscious men of the Third Race. 336. Lectures on Heroes. 337. Vehicle. 338. Âtman. 339. Âtmâ-Buddhi, Spirit-Soul. This relates to the cosmic principles. 340. Again. 341. Avalokiteshvara. 342. Builders. The seven creative Rishis, now connected with the constellation of the Great Bear. 343. Earth. 344. Rosenroth, Liber Mysterii IV. 1. 345. Genesis i. 346. Auszüge aus dem Zohar, pp. 13-15. 347. See Vishnu Purâna, Book I. 348. Ch. lxxxviii. 349. Ch. lxiv. 29, 30. 350. Ibid., 34, 35. 351. A World, when called a “higher World,” is not higher by reason of its location, but because it is superior in quality or essence. Yet such a World is generally understood by the profane as “Heaven,” and located above our heads. 352. Of Form, the Sthûla Sharîra, External Body. 353. Pearls. 354. Ἄνθρωπος, a work on Occult Embryology, Book I. 355. Namely, a congenital idiot. 356. John iii, 8. 357. Ch. cxlviii. 358. Ibid., cxlix. 51. 359. The Seven Souls of Man, p. 2; a Lecture by Gerald Massey. 360. De Iside et Osiride, xliii. 361. Ch. xli. 362. iv. 5. 363. Mariette's Abydos, plate 51. 364. P. Pierret, Études Égyptologiques. 365. Ritual, ch. ii. 366. Linked into. 367. Op. cit., xvii. 4. 368. Several inimical critics are anxious to prove that no Seven Principles of Man, or Septenary Constitution of our Chain, were taught in our earlier volumes, Isis Unveiled. Though in that work the doctrine could only be hinted at, there are many passages, nevertheless, in which the Septenary Constitution of both Man and the Chain is openly mentioned. Speaking of the Elohim (II. 420), it is said: “They remain over the seventh heaven (or spiritual world), for it is they who, according to the Kabalists, formed in succession the six material worlds, or rather, attempts at worlds, that preceded our own, which, they say, is the seventh.” Our Globe, in the diagram representing the Chain, is, of course, the seventh and lowest; though, as the evolution on these Globes is cyclic, it is the fourth, on the descending arc of matter. And again (II. 367) it is written: “In the Egyptian notions, as in those of all other faiths founded on philosophy, man was not merely ... a union of soul and body; he was a trinity, when spirit was added to it. Besides, that doctrine made him consist of ... body, ... astral form, or shadow, ... animal soul, ... the higher soul, and ... terrestrial intelligence ... [and] a sixth principle, etc., etc.”—the seventh—Spirit. So clearly are these principles mentioned, that even in the Index (II. 683), one finds “Six Principles of Man,” the seventh being, in strict truth, the synthesis of the six, and not a principle but a ray of the Absolute All. 369. See Diagram III, p. 221. 370. pp. 340-351, “Genesis of the Soul.” 371. De Mysteriis, ii. 3. 372. Asiatic Researches, xi. 99, 100. 373. Ch. xxxii. 9. 374. Their Upper Triad. 375. Bhûmi or Prithivî. 376. Book of the Dead, i. 7. Compare also Mysteries of Rostan. 377. Kingdom. 378. Kingdom. 379. The first Shadow of the Physical Man. 380. Man. 381. The Moon. 382. See Mantuan Codex. 383. The formation of the “Living Soul,” or Man, would render the idea more clearly. A “Living Soul” is a synonym of Man in the Bible. These are our seven “Principles.” 384. Ha Idra Zuta Kadisha, xxii. 746. 385. xviii. 12. 386. Hebrews, iv. 387. Cruden, sub voce. 388. Book of Numbers, 1. viii. 3. 389. p. 389. 390. Plate VII. p. 37. 391. Esotericism teaches the same. But Manas is not Nephesh; nor is the latter the Astral, but the Fourth Principle, and also the Second, Prâna, for Nephesh is the “Breath of Life” in man, as in beast or insect; of physical, material life, which has no spirituality in it. 392. Éliphas Lévi, whether purposely or otherwise, has confused the numbers: with us his No. 2 is No. 1 (Spirit); and by making of Nephesh both the Plastic Mediator and Life, he thus makes in reality only six principles, because he repeats the first two. 393. Zohar, “Idra Suta,” Book iii., p. 292b. 394. 1. 302. 395. Read, in Isis Unveiled (ii. 297-303), the doctrine of the Codex Nazaræus. Every tenet of our teaching is found there under a different form and allegory. 396. Manu, Bk. I. 397. The word “Sin” is curious, but has a particular Occult relation to the Moon, besides being its Chaldean equivalent. 398. Professor Zöllner's theory has been more than welcomed by several Scientists, who are also Spiritualists; Professors Butlerof and Wagner, of St. Petersburg, for instance. 399. “The giving reality to abstractions is the error of Realism. Space and Time are frequently viewed as separated from all the concrete experiences of the mind, instead of being generalizations of these in certain aspects.” (Bain, Logic, Part II. p. 389.) 400. The Mysteries of Magic, by A. E. Waite. 401. Wilson, I. 23, 24. 402. Five Years of Theosophy, p. 169. 403. In the Sânkhya philosophy, the seven Prakritis, or “productive productions,” are Mahat, Ahamkâra, and the five Tanmâtras. See Sânkhya Kârikâ, III., and the Commentary thereon. 404. See Linga Purâna, Prior Section, lxx. 12 et seq.; and Vâyu Purâna, ch. iv., but especially the former Purâna—Prior Section, viii. 67-74. 405. Vishnu Purâna, Book vi., ch. iv. No use to say so to the Hindûs, who know their Purânas by heart, but very useful to remind our Orientalists and those Westerns who regard Wilson's translations as authoritative, that, in his English translation of the Vishnu Purâna, he is guilty of the most ludicrous contradictions and errors. So on this identical subject of the seven Prakritis, or the seven zones of Brahmâ's Egg, the two accounts differ totally. In Vol. i. p. 40, the Egg is said to be externally invested by seven envelopes. Wilson comments: “by Water, Air, Fire, Ether, and Ahamkâra”—which last word does not exist in the Sanskrit texts. And in Vol. v. p. 198, of the same Purâna, it is written: “in this manner were the seven forms of nature (Prakriti) reckoned from Mahat to Earth” (?). Between Mahat, or Mahâ-Buddhi, and “Water, etc.”, the difference is very considerable. 406. According to the great metaphysician Hegel also. For him Nature was a perpetual becoming. A purely Esoteric conception. Creation or Origin, in the Christian sense of the term, is absolutely unthinkable. As the above-quoted thinker said: “God (the Universal Spirit) objectivizes himself as Nature, and again rises out of it.” 407. Book of Dzyan, Comm. III, par. 18. 408. P. 19. 409. Primitive, or First Man. 410. Reïncarnation. 411. Vehicle. 412. See, for example, Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quichés, by Augustus le Plongeon, who shows the identity between the Egyptian rites and beliefs and those of the people he describes. The ancient hieratic alphabets of the Mayas and the Egyptians are almost identical. 413. In The Theosophist, 1881. 414. T. Subba Row, Five Years of Theosophy, p. 154. 415. Also called the “Sons of Wisdom” and of the “Fire-Mist,” and the “Brothers of the Sun,” in the Chinese records. Si-dzang (Tibet) is mentioned, in the MSS. of the sacred library of the province of Fo-Kien, as the great seat of Occult learning from time immemorial, ages before Buddha. The Emperor Yu, the “Great” (2,207 b.c.), a pious Mystic and great Adept, is said to have obtained his Knowledge from the “Great Teachers of the Snowy Range” in Si-dzang. 416. Matt. vi. 5, 6. 417. The Virgin of the World, pp. 134-5. 418. Paracelsus, Franz Hartmann, M.D., p. 44. 419. This word is explained by Dr. Hartmann, from the original texts of Paracelsus before him, as follows. According to this great Rosicrucian; “Mysterium is everything out of which something may be developed, which is only germinally contained in it. A seed is the ‘Mysterium’ of a plant, an egg that of a living bird, etc.” 420. Op. cit., pp. 41, 42. 421. It is only the mediæval Kabalists who, following the Jewish and one or two Neo-Platonists, applied the term Microcosm to man. Ancient philosophy called the Earth the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, and man the outcome of the two. 422. “This doctrine, preached 300 years ago,” remarks the translator, “is identical with the one that has revolutionized modern thought, after having been put into new shape and elaborated by Darwin. It is still more elaborated by Kapila in the Sânkhya philosophy.” 423. The Eastern Occultist says that they are guided and informed by Spiritual Beings, the Workmen in the invisible Worlds, and behind the veil of Occult Nature, or Nature in abscondito. 424. Wilson, I. ii., (Vol. I. 35). 425. A frequent expression in the said “Fragments,” to which we take exception. The Universal Mind is not a Being or “God.” 426. The Virgin of the World, p. 47. “Asclepios,” Pt. I. 427. Divine Pymander, ix. 64. 428. The Virgin of the World, p. 153. 429. Op. cit., pp. 139, 140. Fragments from the “Physical Eclogues” and “Florilegium” of Stobæus. 430. Vishnu Purâna, I. ii, Wilson, I. 13-15. 431. Op. cit., pp. 135-138. 432. This teaching does not refer to Prakriti-Purusha beyond the boundaries of our small universe. 433. The ultimate quiescent state; the Nirvânic condition of the Seventh Principle. 434. The teaching is all given from our plane of consciousness. 435. Or the “dream of Science,” the primeval really homogeneous matter, which no mortal can make objective in this Race, or Round either. 436. “Vishnu, in the form of his active energy, neither ever rises nor sets, and is at once, the seven-fold sun and distinct from it,” says Vishnu Purâna, II. xi., (Wilson, II. 296). 437. “In the same manner as a man approaching a mirror placed upon a stand, beholds in it his own image, so the energy (or reflection) of Vishnu [the Sun] is never disjoined but remains ... in the Sun (as in a mirror), that is there stationed.” (Ibid., loc. cit.) 438. Compare the Hermetic “Nature” “going down cyclically into matter when she meets the ‘Heavenly Man’.” 439. The writers of the above knew perfectly well the physical cause of the tides, of the waves, etc. It is the informing Spirit of the whole cosmic solar body that is meant here, and which is referred to whenever such expressions are used from the mystic point of view. 440. Five Years of Theosophy, pp. 110, 111, art., “The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac.” 441. See Stanzas III and IV, and the Commentaries thereupon, and especially compare the comments on Stanza IV, concerning the Lipika and the four Mahârâjahs, the agents of Karma. 442. And “Gods” or Dhyânis, too, not only the Genii or “guided Forces.” 443. The meaning of this is that as man is composed of all the Great Elements—Fire, Air, Water, Earth and Ether—the Elementals which respectively belong to these Elements feel attracted to man by reason of their coëssence. That Element which predominates in a certain constitution will be the ruling Element throughout life. For instance, if man has a preponderance of the earthly, gnomic Element, the Gnomes will lead him towards assimilating metals—money and wealth, and so on. “Animal man is the son of the animal elements out of which his Soul [life] was born, and animals are the mirrors of man,” says Paracelsus. (De Fundamento Sapientiæ.) Paracelsus was cautious, and wanted the Bible to agree with what he said, and therefore did not say all. 444. Cyclic progress in development. 445. The God in man and often the incarnation of a God, a highly Spiritual Dhyân Chohan in him, besides the presence of his own Seventh Principle. 446. Now, what “God” is meant here? Not God the “Father,” the anthropomorphic fiction; for that God is the Elohim collectively, and has no being apart from the Host.
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«Тайная Доктрина: Синтез науки, религии и философии»
Besides, such a God is finite and imperfect. It is the high Initiates and Adepts who are meant here by the “few in number.” And it is precisely such men who believe in “Gods”, and know no “God” but one Universal unrelated and unconditioned Deity. 447. The Virgin of the World, pp. 104-5, “The Definitions of Asclepios.” 448. P. 120. 449. National Reformer, January 9th, 1887. Article “Phreno-Kosmo-Biology,” by Dr. Lewins. 450. This is Cyclic law; but this law itself is often defied by human stubbornness. 451. Vol. I. p. 256. 452. Sepher Jetzirah. 453. As far as “Divine Revelation” is concerned, we agree. Not so with regard to “human history.” For there is “history” in most of the allegories and “myths” of India; and events, real actual events, are concealed under them. 454. When the “false theologies” disappear, then true prehistoric realities will be found, contained especially in the mythology of the Âryans and ancient Hindûs, and even the pre-Homeric Hellenes. 455. See Section VII, “Deus Lunus.” 456. From an MS. 457. Guide au Musée de Boulaq, pp. 148, 149. 458. As we said in Isis Unveiled (II. 438-9): “To the present moment, in spite of all controversies and researches, History and Science remain as much as ever in the dark as to the origin of the Jews. They may as well be the exiled Chandâlas of old India, the ‘bricklayers’ mentioned by Veda-Vyâsa and Manu, as the Phœnicians of Herodotus, or the Hyksos of Josephus, or the descendants of Pali shepherds, or a mixture of all these. The Bible names the Tyrians as a kindred people and claims dominion over them.... Yet whatever they may have been, they became a hybrid people, not long after the time of Moses, for the Bible shows them freely intermarrying not alone with the Canaanites, but with every other nation or race they came in contact with.” 459. Knowledge, Vol. I; see also Petrie's letter to The Academy, Dec. 17, 1881. 460. The Origin and Significance of the Great Pyramid, p. 9. 461. Op. cit., I. 519. 462. The Origin and Significance of the Great Pyramid, p. 93. 463. vii. 13 et seq. 464. P. 224. 465. Vol. I. Part I. 46. 466. x. 10. 467. See Isis Unveiled, II. 442-3. 468. Exodus, 11. 21. 469. George Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 299, 300. 470. II. 3. 471. As a reminder how the esoteric religion of Moses was crushed several times, and the worship of Jehovah, as reëstablished by David, put in its place, by Hezekiah for instance, compare Isis Unveiled (II. 436-42). Surely there must have been some very good reasons why the Sadducees, who furnished almost all the High Priests of Judæa, held to the Laws of Moses and spurned the alleged “Books of Moses,” the Pentateuch of the Synagogue and the Talmud? 472. Once more, remember the Hindû Wittoba crucified in space; the significance of the “sacred sign,” the Svastika; Plato's Decussated Man in Space, etc. 473. See farther on the description given of the early Âryan Initiation: of Vishvakarman crucifying the Sun, Vikarttana, shorn of his beams—on a cruciform lathe. 474. Primeval Man Unveiled; or the Anthropology of the Bible, by the author (unknown) of The Stars and the Angels, 1870, p. 14. 475. Op. cit., p. 195. 476. Especially in the face of the evidence furnished by the authorized Bible itself in Genesis (iv. 16, 17), which shows Cain going to the land of Nod and there marrying a wife. 477. Ibid., p. 194. 478. Ibid., p. 55. 479. Ibid., pp. 206-7. 480. Acts, xvii. 23, 24. 481. Taittirîyaka Upanishad, Second Vallî, First Anuvâka. 482. Ephesians, vi, 12. 483. Oracles of Zoroaster, “Effatum,” xvi. 484. Georgica, Book II. 325. 485. Isis Unveiled. 486. Op. cit., I. 5-13, Burnell's translation. 487. The ideal apex of the Pythagorean Triangle. 488. See A. Coke Burnell's translation, edited by Ed. W. Hopkins, Ph. D. 489. Ahamkâra, as universal Self-Consciousness, has a triple aspect, as has also Manas. For this “conception of I,” or the Ego, is either sattva, “pure quietude,” or appears as rajas, “active,” or remains tamas, “stagnant,” in darkness. It belongs to Heaven and Earth, and assumes the properties of Ether. 490. See Sânkhya Kârikâ III, and Commentaries. 491. The word “eternity,” by which Christian theologians interpret the term “for ever and ever,” does not exist in the Hebrew tongue. “Oulam,” says Le Clerc, only imports a time when beginning or end is not known. It does not mean “infinite duration,” and the term “for ever,” in the Old Testament, only signifies a “long time.” Nor is the word “eternity” used in the Christian sense in the Purânas. For in Vishnu Purâna, it is clearly stated that by “eternity” and “immortality” only “existence to the end of the Kalpa” is meant. (Book II. chap. viii.) 492. Orphic Theogony is purely Oriental and Indian in its spirit. The successive transformations it has undergone, have now separated it widely from the spirit of ancient Cosmogony, as may be seen by comparing it even with Hesiod's Theogony. Yet the truly Âryan Hindû spirit breaks forth everywhere in both the Hesiodic and Orphic systems. (See the remarkable work of James Darmesteter, “Cosmogonies Âryennes,” in his Essais Orientaux.) Thus the original Greek conception of Chaos is that of the Secret Wisdom Religion. In Hesiod, therefore, Chaos is infinite, boundless, endless and beginningless in duration, an abstraction and a visible presence at the same time, Space filled with darkness, which is primordial matter in its pre-cosmic state. For in its etymological sense, Chaos is Space, according to Aristotle, and Space is the ever Unseen and Unknowable Deity, in our philosophy. 493. The manifested Spirit: Absolute, Divine Spirit is one with absolute Divine Substance; Parabrahman and Mûlaprakriti are one in essence. Therefore, Cosmic Ideation and Cosmic Substance, in their primal character, are one also. 494. Sepher Yetzirah, Chap. I. Mishna ix. 495. Ibid. It is from “Arba” that Abram is derived. 496. Zohar, I. 2a. 497. Sepher Yetzirah, Mishna ix. 10. 498. Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection. 499. Plato, Timæus. 500. Suidas, sub voc. “Tyrrhenia.” See Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 309, 2nd ed. 501. The reader will understand that by “years” is meant “ages,” not mere periods of 13 lunar months each. 502. See the Greek translation by Philon Byblius. 503. Cory, Op. cit., p. 3. 504. Isis Unveiled, I. 342. 505. Mithras was regarded among the Persians as the theos ek petras—the God from the rock. 506. Bordj is called a fire-mountain, a volcano: therefore it contains fire, rock, earth and water; the male, or active, and the female, or passive, elements. The myth is suggestive. 507. Op. cit., I. 156. 508. Henry Pratt, M.D., New Aspects of Life. 509. Siphrah Dtzenioutha, i. 16. 510. Damascius, in his Theogony, calls it Dis, “the disposer of all things.” Cory, Ancient Fragments, p. 314. 511. Isis Unveiled, I. 341. 512. “Migration of Abraham,” 32. 513. With the Greeks, the River-Gods, all of them the Sons of the Primeval Ocean—Chaos, in its masculine aspect—were the respective ancestors of the Hellenic races. For them the Ocean was the Father of the Gods; and thus in this connection they had anticipated the theories of Thales, as rightly observed by Aristotle. (Metaph. I. 3-5.) 514. xxvi. 5. 515. Isis Unveiled, I. 133-4. 516. The Spirit, or hidden voice of the Mantras; the active manifestation of the latent force, or Occult potency. 517. Orthography of the Archaic Dictionary. 518. We do not mean the current or accepted Bible, but the real Jewish Scripture, now kabatistically explained. 519. See Genesis, ii. 4. 520. It is “unutterable” for the simple reason that it is non-existent. It never was either a name, or any word at all, but an idea that could not be expressed. A substitute was created for it in the century preceding our era. 521. The Cosmic Tabernacle of Moses, erected by him in the Desert, was square, representing the four Cardinal Points and the four Elements, as Josephus tells his readers. (Antiq. I. viii. ch. xxii.) The idea was taken from the pyramids in Egypt, and also in Tyre, where the pyramids became pillars. The Genii, or Angels, have their abodes in these four points respectively. 522. Isaac Myer's Qabbalah, published 1888, p. 415. 523. As, for instance, in Vishnu Purâna, Bk. I. 524. Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, lvi. 525. Spirit History of Man, p. 88. 526. Movers, Phoinizer, 268. 527. Cory, Ancient Fragments, 240. 528. Vishnu Purâna, Bk. I. Ch. iv., Fitzedward Hall's rendering. 529. Just as Mûlaprakriti is known only to Îshvara, the Logos, as he is called by T. Subba Row. 530. Franck, Die Kabbala, 126. 531. Philo, Quæst. et Solut. 532. Franck, Op. cit., 153. 533. The “Seven Angels of the Face,” with the Christians. 534. Philosophumena, vi. 42. 535. The Kabbalah Unveiled, 47. 536. Qabbalah, 233. 537. p. 79. 538. Arnobius, VI. xii. 539. We employ the term as one accepted and sanctioned by use, and therefore more comprehensible to the reader. 540. See Dunlap, Sôd: the Mysteries of Adoni, 23. 541. With the ancient Jews, as shown by Le Clerc, the word Oulom meant simply a time whose beginning or end was not known. The term “Eternity,” properly speaking, did not exist in the Hebrew tongue with the meaning applied by Vedântins to Parabrahman, for instance. 542. Zohar, Part I. fol. 20a. 543. In the Indian Pantheon the double-sexed Logos is Brahmâ, the Creator, whose seven “Mind-born” Sons are the primeval Rishis—the Builders. 544. Says Rabbi Simeon: “Oh, companions, companions, man as an emanation was both man and woman, as well on the side of the ‘Father’ as on the side of the ‘Mother.’ And this is the sense of the words: ‘And Elohim spake, Let there be Light, and it was Light’; ... and this is the two-fold man.” (Auszüge ans dem Sohar, 13, 15.) Light, then, in Genesis, stood for the Androgyne Ray, or “Heavenly Man.” 545. Zohar, iii. 290. 546. Op. cit., ii. 261. 547. ix. 1. 548. Chaldean Account of Genesis, 62, 63. 549. The Seven Swans that are believed to descend from Heaven on Lake Mânsarovara, are in the popular fancy the Seven Rishis of the Great Bear, who assume that form to visit the locality where the Vedas were written. 550. See Petronius, Satyricon, cxxxvi. 551. Progress of Religious Ideas, I. 17 et seq. 552. iii. 165. 553. Ch. liv. 3. 554. Ch. xxii. 1. 555. Ch. xlii. 13. 556. Ch. liv. 1, 2; ch. lxxvii. i. 557. Vishnu Purâna, I. 39. 558. Op. cit., ibid. 559. Ch. xvii. 50, 51. 560. Ch. xlii. 13. 561. Ch. lxxx. 9. 562. See Max Müller's “Our Figures.” 563. A Kabalist would be rather inclined to believe that as the Arabic cifron was taken from the Indian sunyan, nought, so the Jewish Kabalistic Sephiroth (Sephrim) were taken from the word cipher, not in the sense of emptiness, but in that of creation by number and degrees of evolution. And the Sephiroth are 10 or [circle split by vertical line]. 564. See King's Gnostics and their Remains, 370 (2nd ed.). 565. De Vita Pithag. 566. The year of his birth is given as 608 b.c. 567. That is to say 332 b.c. 568. Metaphysics, vii., F. 569. Euterpe, 75, 76. 570. De Cultu Egypt. 571. xxi. 5 et seq. 572. II Kings, xviii. 4. 573. Supra, pp. 386, 387. 574. III. 124. 575. Movers, Phoinizer, 282. 576. See Isis Unveiled, I. 56. 577. Weber, Akad-Vorles, 213, et seq. 578. The Chinese seem to have thus anticipated Sir William Thomson's theory that the first living germ had dropped to the earth from some passing comet. Query: Why should this be called scientific and the Chinese idea a superstitious, foolish theory? 579. Compare Movers, Phoinizer, 268. 580. His triadic Goddesses are Sati and Anouki. 581. Ptah was originally the god of Death, of Destruction, like Shiva. He is a Solar God only by virtue of the Sun's fire killing as well as vivifying. He was the national God of Memphis, the radiant and “fair-faced” God. 582. Book of Numbers. 583. Wilson, Vishnu Purâna, I. Pref. lxxxiv-v. 584. There is a curious piece of information in the Buddhist esoteric traditions. The exoteric or allegorical biography of Gautama Buddha shows this great Sage dying of an indigestion of “pork and rice”; a very prosaic end, indeed, with little of the solemn element in it! This is explained as an allegorical reference to his having been born in the “Boar” or Varâha Kalpa, when Vishnu assumed the form of that animal to raise the Earth out of the “Waters of Space.” Now as the Brâhmans descend direct from Brahmâ and are, so to speak, identified with him; and as they are at the same time the mortal enemies of Buddha and Buddhism, we have this curious allegorical hint and combination. The Brâhmanism of the Boar or Varâha Kalpa has slaughtered the religion of Buddha in India, swept it from its face. Therefore Buddha, who is identified with his philosophy, is said to have died from the effects of eating of the flesh of a wild hog. The very idea of one who established the most rigorous vegetarianism and respect for animal life—even to refusing to eat eggs as being vehicles of latent life—dying of an indigestion of meat, is absurdly contradictory and has puzzled more than one Orientalist. But the present explanation, however, unveils the allegory, and makes clear all the rest. The Varâha, however, is no simple Boar, but seems to have meant at first some antediluvian lacustrine animal “delighting to sport in water.” (Vâyu Purâna.) 585. According to Colonel Wilford, the conclusion of the “Great War” took place in 1370 b.c., (Asiatic Researches, xi. 116.); according to Bentley, 575 b.c.!! We may yet hope, before the end of this century, to see the Mahâbhâratan epic proclaimed identical with the wars of the great Napoleon. 586. See Royal Asiat. Soc. ix. 364. 587. Bk. vi. ch. iii. 588. In the Vedânta and Nyâya, Nimitta, from which Naimittika, is rendered as the Efficient Cause, when antithesized with Upâdâna, the Physical or Material Cause. In the Sânkhya, Pradhâna is a cause inferior to Brahmâ, or rather Brahmâ being himself a cause, is superior to Pradhâna. Hence “Incidental” is a wrong translation, and ought to be rendered, as shown by some scholars, “Ideal” Cause: even Real Cause would have been better. 589. XII. iv, 35. 590. Vâyu Purâna. 591. Wilson, Vishnu Purâna, VI, iii. 592. The chief Kumâra, or Virgin-God, a Dhyân Chohan who refuses to create. A prototype of St. Michael, who also refuses to do so. 593. See concluding lines in Section, “Chaos: Theos: Kosmos.” 594. Ibid., iv. 595. This prospect would hardly suit Christian theology, which prefers an eternal, everlasting Hell for its followers. 596. The term “Elements” must be here understood to mean not only the visible and physical elements, but also that which St. Paul calls Elements—the Spiritual, Intelligent Potencies—Angels and Demons in their manvantaric forms. 597. When this description is correctly understood by Orientalists, in its esoteric significance, then it will be found that this cosmic correlation of World-Elements may explain the correlation of physical forces better than those now known. At any rate, Theosophists will perceive that Prakriti has seven forms, or principles, “reckoned from Mahat to Earth.” The “Waters” mean here the mystic “Mother”; the Womb of Abstract Nature, in which the Manifested Universe is conceived. The seven “zones” have reference to the Seven Divisions of that Universe, or the Noumena of the Forces that bring it into being. It is all allegorical. 598. Vishnu Purâna, Bk. VI. Ch. iv., Wilson's mistakes being corrected and the original terms put in brackets. 599. As it is the Mahâ, the Great, or so-called Final, Pralaya which is here described, every thing is reäbsorbed into its original One Element; the “Gods themselves, Brahmâ and the rest” being said to die and disappear during that long “Night.” 600. The “Builders” of the Stanzas. 601. From the Siphra Dtzenioutha, c. i. § 16 et seq.; as quoted in Myer's Qabbalah, 232-3. 602. Compare the Siphra Dtzenioutha. 603. Bk. I. Ch. iii. 604. pp. 219, 221. 605. See Jacolliot's Les Fils de Dieu, and L'Inde des Brahmes, p. 230. 606. If this is not prophetic, what is? 607. Wilson, Vishnu Purâna, Bk. IV. Ch. xxiv. 608. The Matsya Purâna gives Katâpa. 609. Vishnu Purâna, Ibid. 610. Max Müller translates the name as Morya, of the Morya dynasty, to which Chandragupta belonged. (See History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature). In Matsya Purâna, chapter cclxxii, the dynasty of ten Moryas, or Maureyas, is spoken of. In the same chapter, it is stated that the Moryas will one day reign over India, after restoring the Kshattriya race many thousand years hence. Only that reign will be purely spiritual and “not of this world.” It will be the kingdom of the next Avatâra. Colonel Tod believes the name Morya, or Maurya, a corruption of Mori, a Rajpût tribe, and the commentary on the Mahâvanso thinks that some princes have taken their name Maurya from their town called Mori, or as Professor Max Müller gives it, Morya-Nâgara, which is more correct, after the original Mahâvanso. The Sanskrit Encyclopedia, Vâchaspattya, we are informed by our Brother, Devan Bâdhâdur R. Ragoonath Rao, of Madras, places Katâpa (Kalâpa) on the northern side of the Himâlayas, hence in Tibet. The same is stated in the Bhâgavata Purâna, Skanda xii. 611. Ibid., ch. iv. The Vayu Purâna declares that Moru will reëstablish the Kshattriyas in the Nineteenth coming Yuga. (See Five Years of Theosophy, 483, art. “The Moryas and Koothoomi.”) 612. See Dissertations Relating to Asia. 613. Ch. lxxxi. 614. I. 11. 615. In the Indian Purânas, it is Vishnu, the First, and Brahmâ, the Second Logos, or the Ideal and Practical Creators, who are respectively represented, one as manifesting the Lotus, the other as issuing from it. 616.
Not the efforts, however, of the trained psychic faculties of an Initiate into Eastern Metaphysics, and the Mysteries of Creative Nature. It is the Profane of the past ages, who have degraded the pure ideal of cosmic creation into an emblem of mere human reproduction and sexual functions: it is the Esoteric Teachings, and the Initiates of the Future, whose mission it is, and will be, to redeem and ennoble once more the primitive conception, so sadly profaned by its crude and gross application to exoteric dogmas and personations, by theological and ecclesiastical religionists. The silent worship of abstract or noumenal Nature, the only divine manifestation, is the one ennobling religion of Humanity. 617. Surely the words of the old Initiate into the primitive Mysteries of Christianity, “Know ye not ye are the Temple of God” (1 Corinth, iii. 16), could not be applied in this sense to men; though the meaning was, undeniably, so stated, in the minds of the Hebrew compilers of the Old Testament. And here is the abyss that lies between the symbolism of the New Testament and the Jewish canon. This gulf would have remained, and have ever widened, had not Christianity, especially and most glaringly the Latin Church, thrown a bridge over it. Modern Popery has now spanned it entirely, by its dogma of the two immaculate conceptions, and the anthropomorphic and, at the same time idolatrous, character it has conferred upon the Mother of its God. 618. It was so carried only in the Hebrew Bible, and its servile copyist, Christian theology. 619. The same idea is carried out exoterically in the incidents of the exodus from Egypt. The Lord God tempts Pharaoh sorely, and “plagues him with great plagues,” lest the king should escape punishment, and thus afford no pretext for one more triumph to his “chosen people.” 620. Exodus, ii. 10. Even to the seven daughters of the Midianite priest, who came to draw water, and whom Moses helped to water their flock; for which service the Midian gives Moses his daughter Zipporah, or Sippara, the shining Wave, as wife. (Exod. ii. 16-21.) All this has the same secret meaning. 621. With the Egyptians it was the resurrection in rebirth, after 3,000 years of purification, either in Devachan or the “Fields of Bliss.” 622. Such “frog-Goddesses” may be seen at Boulak, in the Cairo Museum. For the statement about the Church-lamps and inscriptions, the learned ex-director of the Boulak Museum, M. Gaston Maspero, must be held responsible. (See his Guide au Musée de Boulaq, p. 146.) 623. The Goddess Τρίμορφος in the statuary of Alcamenes. 624. Ancient Mythology includes ancient Astronomy as well as Astrology. The planets were the hands pointing out, on the dial of our Solar System, the hours of certain periodical events. Thus, Mercury was the messenger, appointed to keep time during the daily solar and lunar phenomena, and was otherwise connected with the God and Goddess of Light. 625. A caricatured and dwarfed Vedântin notion of Parabrahman containing within itself the whole Universe, as being that boundless Universe itself, and nothing existing outside of itself. 626. Just as they are to this day in India; the bull of Shiva, and the cow representing several Shaktis or Goddesses. 627. Hence the worship of the Moon by the Hebrews. 628. “Male and female, created he them.” 629. Because it was too sacred. It is referred to as That in the Vedas. It is the “Eternal Cause,” and cannot, therefore, be spoken of as a “First Cause,” a term implying the absence of Cause, at one time. 630. Pneumatologie: Des Esprits, tom. III. p. 117; “Archéologie de la Vierge Mère.” 631. p. 23. 632. Myer's Qabbalah, 335-6. 633. Moreh Nebhuchim, III. xxx. 634. See De Diis Syriis, Teraph., II. Synt. p. 31. 635. I. i. 21. 636. See Pausanias, viii. 35-8. 637. Cornutus, De Natura Deorum, xxxiv. 1. 638. The Roman Catholics are indebted for the idea of consecrating the month of May to the Virgin to the pagan Plutarch, who shows that “May is sacred to Maia (Μαῖα) or Vesta” (Aulus Gellius, sub voc. Maia), our mother-earth, our nurse and nourisher, personified. 639. Thot-Lunus is the Budha-Soma of India, or Mercury and the Moon. 640. Ezekiel, viii. 16. 641. The Earth flees for her life, in the allegory, before Prithu, who pursues her. She assumes the shape of a cow, and, trembling with terror, runs away and hides even in the regions of Brahmâ. Therefore, it is not our Earth. Again, in every Purâna, the calf changes name. In one it is Manu Svâyambhuva, in another Indra, in a third the Himavat (Himâlayas) itself, while Meru was the milker. This is a deeper allegory than one may be inclined to think. 642. His clear realization is, that the Egyptians prophesied Jehovah (!) and his incarnated Redeemer (the good serpent), etc.; even to identifying Typhon with the wicked dragon of the garden of Eden. And this passes as serious and sober science! 643. Hathor is the infernal Isis, the Goddess preëminently of the West or the Nether World. 644. This is from De Mirville, who proudly confesses the similarity, and he ought to know. See “Archéologie de la Vierge Mère,” in his Des Esprits, pp. 111-113. 645. Magie, p. 153. 646. De Mirville, Ibid., pp. 116 and 119. 647. Hymns to Minerva, p. 19. 648. Sermon sur la Sainte Vierge. 649. Apoc., ch. xii. 650. Wägner and McDowall, Asgard and the Gods, p. 86. 651. See De Vitâ Apollionii, I. xiv. 652. Adv. Hæres. xxxvii. 653. Gerald Massey, The Natural Genesis, I. 340. 654. Ch. xv. 655. Ch. xi. 656. De Mundi Opif., Par., pp. 30 and 419. 657. For the same reason the division of the principles in man into seven is thus reckoned, as they describe the same circle in the higher and lower human nature. 658. Thus the septenary division is the oldest and preceded the four-fold division. It is the root of archaic classification. 659. In Chinese Buddhism and Esotericism, the Genii are represented by four Dragons—the Mahârâjahs of the Stanzas. 660. Op. cit., II. 312-13. 661. Ibid., I. 321. 662. Proclus, Tim., I. 663. Prep. Evang., I. iii. 3. 664. Op. cit., pp. 366-8. 665. Job, ii. 666. Genesis, vi. 667. James, i. 13. 668. James, i. 2, 12; Matth., vi. 13. See Cruden, sub voc. 669. Padma Purâna. 670. Vishnu Purâna, I. i. 671. Vol. II. ch. x. 672. See Chwolsohn, Nabathean Agriculture, II. 217. 673. One Day of Brahmâ lasts 4,320,000,000 years—multiply this by 360! The A-suras (No-gods, or Demons) are here still Suras, Gods higher in hierarchy than such secondary Gods as are not even mentioned in the Vedas. The duration of the War shows its significance, and also shows that the combatants are only the personified Cosmic Powers. It is evidently for sectarian purposes and out of odium theologicum that the illusive form Mâyâmoha, assumed by Vishnu, was attributed in later reärrangements of old texts to Buddha and the Daityas, as in the Vishnu Purâna, unless it was a fancy of Wilson himself. He also fancied he found an allusion to Buddhism in the Bhagavadgîtâ, whereas, as proved by K. T. Telang, he had only confused the Buddhists and the older Chârvâka materialists. The version exists nowhere in other Purânas if the inference does, as Professor Wilson claims, in the Vishnu Purâna; the translation of which, especially of Book III. ch. xviii, where the reverend Orientalist arbitrarily introduces Buddha, and shows him teaching Buddhism to Daityas, led to another “great war” between himself and Col. Vans Kennedy. The latter charged him publicly with wilfully distorting Purânic texts. “I affirm,” wrote the Colonel at Bombay, in 1840, “that the Purânas do not contain what Professor Wilson has stated is contained in them; ... until such passages are produced I may be allowed to repeat my former conclusions that Professor Wilson's opinion, that the Purânas as now extant are compilations made between the eighth and seventeenth centuries [a.d.!], rests solely on gratuitous assumptions and unfounded assertions, and that his reasoning in support of it is either futile, fallacious, contradictory, or improbable.” (See Vishnu Purâna, trans. by Wilson, edit, by Fitzedward Hall, Vol. V, Appendix.) 674. This statement belongs to the third War, since the terrestrial continents, seas and rivers are mentioned in connection with it. 675. Vishnu Purâna, III. xvii (Wilson, Vol. III. 204-5). 676. Book I. chap. xvii (Wilson, Vol. II. 36), in the story of Prahlâda—the Son of Hiranyakashipu, the Purânic Satan, the great enemy of Vishnu, and the King of the Three Worlds—into whose heart Vishnu entered. 677. Ibid., I. iv (Wilson, Vol. I. 64). 678. II Chronicles, ii. 5. 679. “There was a day when the Sons of God came before the Lord, and Satan came with his brothers, also before the Lord.” (Job ii., Abyss., Ethiopic text.) 680. Ibid., Vol. III. 205-7. 681. Journal of the Royal Asiat. Society, xix. 302. 682. Wilson's opinion that the Vishnu Purâna is a production of our era, and that in its present form it is not earlier than between the VIIIth and the XVIIth (!!) century, is absurd beyond noticing. 683. P. 3. 684. Ibid., p. 2. 685. Ibid., p. 21. 686. See The Monthly Magazine, for April, 1797. 687. Ἤτοι μὲν πρώτιστα Χάος γ'eνετ᾽ (l. 166); γένετο being considered in antiquity as meaning: “was generated” and not simply “was.” (See Taylor's “Introd. to the Parmenides of Plato,” p. 260.) 688. It is the confusion between the “Bound,” and the “Infinite,” that Kapila overwhelms with sarcasms in his disputations with the Brâhman Yogis, who claim in their mystical visions to see the “Highest One.” 689. Ibid. 690. See T. Taylor's article in his Monthly Magazine, quoted in the Platonist of Feb., 1887, edited by T. M. Johnson, F.T.S., Osceola, Missouri. 691. Vit. Pythag., p. 47. 692. Asgard and the Gods, 22. 693. Vâch—the “melodious cow, who milks sustenance and Water,” and yields us “nourishment and sustenance,” as described in the Rig Veda. 694. The Theosophist, Feb., 1887, pp. 302-3. 695. Ibid., p. 304. 696. The Masonic Review, June, 1886. 697. Objective—in the world of Mâyâ, of course; still as real as we are. 698. “In the course of cosmic manifestation, this Daiviprakriti, instead of being the Mother of the Logos, should, strictly speaking, be called his Daughter.” (“Notes on the Bhagavad Gîtâ,” op. cit., p. 305.) 699. The wise men who, like Stanley Jevons amongst the moderns, invented a method to make the incomprehensible assume a tangible form, could only do so by resorting to numbers and geometrical figures. 700. The Pranava, Om, is a mystic term pronounced by the Yogis during meditation; of the terms called, according to exoteric commentators, Vyâkritis, or Aum, Bhûh, Bhuvah, Svah, (Om, Earth, Sky, Heaven), Pranava is, perhaps, the most sacred. They are pronounced with breath suppressed. See Manu II. 76-81, and Mitakshara commenting on the Yâjnavâkhya-Smriti, I. 23. But the esoteric explanation goes a great deal further. 701. “Lectures on the Bhagavad Gîtâ,” ibid., p. 307. 702. It is this Trinity that is allegorized by the “Three Steps of Vishnu,” which mean—Vishnu being considered as the Infinite in exotericism—that from Parabrahman issued Mûlaprakriti, Purusha (the Logos) and Prakriti; the four forms—with itself, the synthesis—of Vâch. And in the Kabalah, Ain Suph, Shekinah, Adam Kadmon and Sephira, the four, or the three, emanations being distinct—yet One. 703. Chaldean Book of Numbers. In the current Kabalah the name Jehovah replaces that of Adam Kadmon. 704. Justin Martyr tells us that, owing to his ignorance of these four sciences, he was rejected by the Pythagoreans as a candidate for admission into their school. 705. Diogenes Laërtius, in Vit. Pythag. 706. 31415, or π, the synthesis, or the Host unified in the Logos and the Point, called in Roman Catholicism the “Angel of the Face,” and in Hebrew, Michael, מיכאל, “who [is like unto, or the same] as God,” the manifested representation. 707. Appearing at the beginning of Cycles, as also of every Sidereal Year, of 25,868 years. Therefore, the Kabeira or Kabarim received their name in Chaldæa, for it means the Measures of Heaven, from Kob, “measure of,” and Urim, “Heavens.” 708. The Natural Genesis, II. 316. 709. See Kircher's Œdipus Ægypt., II. 423. 710. This Egyptian word Naja reminds one a good deal of the Indian Nâga, the Serpent-God. Brahmâ and Shiva and Vishnu are all crowned and connected with Nâgas—a sign of their cyclic and cosmic character. 711. Comment. on the Yashna, 174. 712. First Treatise, p. 59. 713. Says the translator of Avicebron's Qabbalah of this “Sum Total”: “The letter of Kether is י (Yod), of Binah ה (Heh), together YaH, the feminine Name; the third letter, that of 'Hokhmah, is ו (Vav), making together יהו YHV of יהוה YHVH, the Tetragrammaton, and really the complete symbols of its efficaciousness. The last ה (Heh) of this Ineffable Name being always applied to the Six Lower and the last, together the Seven remaining Sephiroth.” (Myer's Qabbalah, p. 263). Thus the Tetragrammaton is holy only in its abstract synthesis. As a Quaternary containing the lower Seven Sephiroth, it is phallic. 714. The statement will, of course, be found preposterous and absurd, and simply laughed at. But if one believes in the final submersion of Atlantis, 850,000 years ago, as taught in Esoteric Buddhism—the gradual first sinking having begun during the Eocene Age—one has also to accept the statement for the so-called Lemuria, the continent of the Third Root-Race, which was first nearly destroyed by combustion, and then submerged. As the Commentary teaches: “The First Earth having been purified by the Forty-nine Fires, her people, born of Fire and Water, could not die ...; the Second Earth [with its Race] disappeared as vapour vanishes in the air ...; the Third Earth had everything consumed on it after the Separation, and went down into the lower Deep [the Ocean]. This was twice eighty-two Cyclic Years ago.” Now a Cyclic Year is what we call a Sidereal Year, and is founded on the Precession of the Equinoxes. The length of this Sidereal Year is 25,868 years, and the period mentioned in the Commentary is, therefore, in all equal to 4,242,352 years. More details will be found in Volume II. Meanwhile, this doctrine is embodied in the “Kings of Edom.” 715. The same reserve is found in the Talmud and in every national system of religion whether monotheistic or exoterically polytheistic. From the superb religious poem by the Kabalist Rabbi Solomon ben Yehudah Ibn Gabirol, the “Kether Malchuth,” we select a few definitions given in the prayers of Kippûr: “Thou art One, the beginning of all numbers, and the foundation of all edifices; Thou art One, and in the secret of Thy unity the wisest of men are lost, because they know it not. Thou art One, and Thy Unity is never diminished, never extended, and cannot be changed. Thou art One, but not as an element of numeration; for Thy Unity admits not of multiplication, change or form. Thou art Existent; but the understanding and vision of mortals cannot attain to thy existence, nor determine for thee the Where, the How, and the Why. Thou art Existent, but in thyself alone, there being none other that can exist with thee. Thou art Existent, before all time and without place. Thou art Existent, and thy existence is so profound and secret that none can penetrate and discover thy secrecy. Thou art living, but within no time that can be fixed or known; Thou art living, but not by a spirit or a soul, for Thou art Thyself, the Soul of all Souls.” There is a distance between this Kabalistical Deity and the Biblical Jehovah, the spiteful and revengeful God of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, who tempted the first and wrestled with the last. No Vedântin but would repudiate such a Parabrahman! 716. Edkins, Chinese Buddhism, ch. xx. And very wisely have they acted. 717. If he rejected it, it was on the ground of what he calls the “changes,” in other words, rebirths of man, and constant transformations. He denied immortality to the Personality of man, as we do, not to Man. 718. He may be laughed at by the Protestants; but the Roman Catholics have no right to mock him, without becoming guilty of blasphemy and sacrilege. For it is over 200 years since Confucius was canonized as a Saint in China by the Roman Catholics, who have thereby obtained many converts among the ignorant Confucianists. 719. The animals regarded as sacred in the Bible are by no means few in number; as, for instance, the Goat, the Azaz-el, or God of Victory. As Aben Ezra says: “If thou art capable of comprehending the mystery of Azazel, thou wilt learn the mystery of His [God's] name, for it has similar associates in Scriptures. I will tell thee by allusion one portion of the mystery; when thou shalt have thirty three years of age thou wilt comprehend me.” So with the mystery of the Tortoise. Rejoicing over the poetry of biblical metaphors, associating “incandescent stones,” “sacred animals,” etc., with the name of Jehovah, and quoting from the Bible de Vence (XIX. 318) a pious French writer says: “Indeed all of them are Elohim, like their God”; for, these Angels, “ ‘assume,’ through a holy usurpation, ‘the very divine name of Jehovah each time they represent him’.” (De Mirville, Des Esprits.) No one ever doubted that the Name must have been assumed, when under the guise of the Infinite, One Incognizable, the Malachim, or Messengers, descended to eat and drink with men. But if the Elohim and even lower Beings, assuming the God-name, were and are still worshipped, why should the same Elohim be called Devils, when appearing under the names of other Gods? 720. Matth., xxiv. 28. 721.