Chapter III: Part I: Anthropogenesis (1)

Twelve Stanzas From the “Book Of Dzyan,”(27)

With Commentaries.

In primeval times, a maiden, Beauteous Daughter of the Ether, Passed for ages her existence In the great expanse of Heaven.

Seven hundred years she wandered,

Seven hundred years she laboured, Ere her first‐born was delivered.

Ere a beauteous duck descending, Hastens toward the water‐mother,

Lightly on the knee she settles, Finds a nesting‐place befitting, Where to lay her eggs in safety.

Lays her eggs within, at pleasure, Six, the golden eggs she lays there, Then a Seventh, an egg of iron.

_Kalevala_ (CRAWFORD).

Text.

Stanza I.

1. The Lha which turns the Fourth is Servant to the Lha(s) of the Seven, they who revolve, driving their Chariots around their Lord, the One Eye of our World. His Breath gave Life to the Seven. It gave Life to the First.

2. Said the Earth: “Lord of the Shining Face, my House is empty.... Send thy Sons to people this Wheel. Thou hast sent thy Seven Sons to the Lord of Wisdom. Seven times doth he see thee nearer to himself, seven times more doth he feel thee. Thou hast forbidden thy Servants, the small Rings, to catch thy Light and Heat, thy great Bounty to intercept on its passage. Send now to thy Servant the same.”

3. Said the Lord of the Shining Face: “I shall send thee a Fire when thy work is commenced. Raise thy voice to other Lokas; apply to thy Father, the Lord of the Lotus, for his Sons.... Thy People shall be under the rule of the Fathers. Thy Men shall be mortals. The Men of the Lord of Wisdom, not the Sons of Soma, are immortal. Cease thy complaints. Thy Seven Skins are yet on thee.... Thou art not ready. Thy Men are not ready.”

4. After great throes she cast off her old Three and put on her new Seven Skins, and stood in her first one.

Stanza II.

5. The Wheel whirled for thirty crores more. It constructed Rûpas; soft Stones that hardened, hard Plants that softened. Visible from invisible, Insects and small Lives. She shook them off her back whenever they overran the Mother.... After thirty crores, she turned round. She lay on her back: on her side.... She would call no Sons of Heaven, she would ask no Sons of Wisdom. She created from her own Bosom. She evolved Water‐Men, terrible and bad.

6. The Water‐Men, terrible and bad, she herself created from the remains of others. From the dross and slime of her First, Second, and Third, she formed them. The Dhyâni came and looked ... the Dhyâni from the bright Father‐Mother, from the White Regions they came, from the Abodes of the immortal Mortals.

7. Displeased they were. “Our Flesh is not there. No fit Rûpas for our Brothers of the Fifth. No Dwellings for the Lives. Pure Waters, not turbid, they must drink. Let us dry them.”

8. The Flames came. The Fires with the Sparks; the Night‐Fires and the Day‐Fires. They dried out the turbid dark Waters. With their heat they quenched them. The Lhas of the High, the Lhamayin of Below, came. They slew the Forms which were two‐ and four‐faced. They fought the Goat‐Men, and the Dog‐Headed Men, and the Men with fishes’ bodies.

9. Mother‐Water, the Great Sea, wept. She arose, she disappeared in the Moon, which had lifted her, which had given her birth.

10. When they were destroyed, Mother Earth remained bare. She asked to be dried.

Stanza III.

11. The Lord of the Lords came. From her Body he separated the Waters, and that was Heaven above, the First Heaven.

12. The great Chohans called the Lords of the Moon, of the Airy Bodies: “Bring forth Men, Men of your nature. Give them their Forms within. She will build Coverings without. Males‐Females will they be. Lords of the Flame also....”

13. They went each on his allotted Land; Seven of them, each on his Lot. The Lords of the Flame remain behind. They would not go, they would not create.

Stanza IV.

14. The Seven Hosts, the Will‐Born Lords, propelled by the Spirit of Life‐ Giving, separate Men from themselves, each on his own Zone.

15. Seven times seven Shadows of Future Men were born, each of his own Colour and Kind. Each inferior to his Father. The Fathers, the Boneless, could give no Life to Beings with Bones. Their progeny were Bhûta, with neither Form nor Mind. Therefore they are called the Chhâyâ Race.

16. How are the Manushya born? The Manus with minds, how are they made? The Fathers called to their help their own Fire, which is the Fire that burns in Earth. The Spirit of the Earth called to his help the Solar Fire. These Three produced in their joint efforts a good Rûpa. It could stand, walk, run, recline, or fly. Yet it was still but a Chhâyâ, a Shadow with no Sense....

17. The Breath needed a Form; the Fathers gave it. The Breath needed a Gross Body; the Earth moulded it. The Breath needed the Spirit of Life; the Solar Lhas breathed it into its Form. The Breath needed a Mirror of its Body; “We gave it our own!”—said the Dhyânis. The Breath needed a Vehicle of Desires; “It has it!”—said the Drainer of Waters. But Breath needs a Mind to embrace the Universe; “We cannot give that!”—said the Fathers. “I never had it!”—said the Spirit of the Earth. “The Form would be consumed were I to give it mine!”—said the Great Fire.... Man remained an empty senseless Bhûta.... Thus have the Boneless given Life to those who became Men with Bones in the Third.

Stanza V.

18. The First were the Sons of Yoga. Their sons, the children of the Yellow Father and the White Mother.

19. The Second Race was the product by budding and expansion, the A‐sexual from the Sexless.(28) Thus was, O Lanoo, the Second Race produced.

20. Their Fathers were the Self‐born. The Self‐born, the Chhâyâ from the brilliant Bodies of the Lords, the Fathers, the Sons of Twilight.

21. When the Race became old, the old Waters mixed with the fresher Waters. When its Drops became turbid, they vanished and disappeared in the new Stream, in the hot Stream of Life. The Outer of the First became the Inner of the Second. The old Wing became the new Shadow, and the Shadow of the Wing.

Stanza VI.

22. Then the Second evolved the Egg‐born, the Third. The Sweat grew, its Drops grew, and the Drops became hard and round. The Sun warmed it; the Moon cooled and shaped it; the Wind fed it until its ripeness. The White Swan from the Starry Vault overshadowed the big Drop. The Egg of the Future Race, the Man‐swan of the later Third. First male‐female, then man and woman.

23. The Self‐born were the Chhâyâs, the Shadows from the Bodies of the Sons of Twilight. Neither water nor fire could destroy them. Their sons were.

Stanza VII.

24. The Sons of Wisdom, the Sons of Night, ready for rebirth, came down. They saw the vile forms of the First Third. “We can choose,” said the Lords, “we have wisdom.” Some entered the Chhâyâs. Some projected a Spark. Some deferred till the Fourth. From their own Rûpa they filled the Kâma. Those who entered became Arhats. Those who received but a Spark, remained destitute of knowledge; the Spark burned low. The Third remained mind‐ less. Their Jîvas were not ready. These were set apart among the Seven. They became narrow‐headed. The Third were ready. “In these shall we dwell,” said the Lords of the Flame and of the Dark Wisdom.

25. How did the Mânasa, the Sons of Wisdom, act? They rejected the Self‐ born. They are not ready. They spurned the Sweat‐born. They are not quite ready. They would not enter the first Egg‐born.

26. When the Sweat‐born produced the Egg‐born, the twofold, the mighty, the powerful with bones, the Lords of Wisdom said: “Now shall we create.”

27. The Third Race became the Vâhan of the Lords of Wisdom. It created Sons of Will and Yoga, by Kriyâshakti it created them, the Holy Fathers, Ancestors of the Arhats....

Stanza VIII.

28. From the drops of sweat, from the residue of the substance, matter from dead bodies of men and animals of the Wheel before, and from cast‐off dust, the first animals were produced.

29. Animals with bones, dragons of the deep, and flying Sarpas were added to the creeping things. They that creep on the ground got wings. They of the long necks in the water became the progenitors of the fowls of the air.

30. During the Third, the boneless animals grew and changed; they became animals with bones, their Chhâyâs became solid.

31. The animals separated the first. They began to breed. The two‐fold man separated also. He said: “Let us as they; let us unite and make creatures.” They did....

32. And those which had no Spark took huge she‐animals unto them. They begat upon them dumb races. Dumb they were themselves. But their tongues untied. The tongues of their progeny remained still. Monsters they bred. A race of crooked red‐hair‐covered monsters going on all fours. A dumb race to keep the shame untold.

Stanza IX.

33. Seeing which, the Lhas who had not built men, wept, saying:

34. “The Amânasa have defiled our future abodes. This is Karma. Let us dwell in the others. Let us teach them better, lest worse should happen.” They did....

35. Then all men became endowed with Manas. They saw the sin of the mindless.

36. The Fourth Race developed speech.

37. The one became two; also all the living and creeping things that were still one, giant fish, birds and serpents with shell‐heads.

Stanza X.

38. Thus, two by two, on the seven Zones, the Third Race gave birth to the Fourth; the Sura became A‐sura.

39. The First, on every Zone, was moon‐coloured; the Second yellow like gold; the Third red; the Fourth brown, which became black with sin. The first seven human shoots were all of one complexion. The next seven began mixing.

40. Then the Third and Fourth became tall with pride. “We are the kings; we are the gods.”

41. They took wives fair to look upon. Wives from the mindless, the narrow‐headed. They bred monsters, wicked demons, male and female, also Khado, with little minds.

42. They built temples for the human body. Male and female they worshipped. Then the Third Eye acted no longer.

Stanza XI.

43. They built huge cities. Of rare earths and metals they built. Out of the fires vomited, out of the white stone of the mountains and of the black stone, they cut their own images, in their size and likeness, and worshipped them.

44. They built great images nine yatis high, the size of their bodies. Inner fires had destroyed the land of their fathers. The water threatened the Fourth.

45. The first great waters came. They swallowed the seven great islands.

46. All holy saved, the unholy destroyed. With them most of the huge animals, produced from the sweat of the earth.

Stanza XII.

47. Few remained. Some yellow, some brown and black, and some red remained. The moon‐coloured were gone for ever.

48. The Fifth produced from the holy stock remained; it was ruled over by the first Divine Kings.

49. ... The Serpents who re‐descended, who made peace with the Fifth, who taught and instructed it....

Commentaries On the Twelve Stanzas and Their Terms, According To Their Numeration, In Stanzas And Shlokas.

Stanza I. Beginnings of Sentient Life.

1. The Lha, or Spirit of the Earth. 2. Invocation of the Earth to
the Sun. 3. What the Sun answers. 4. Transformation of the Earth.

1. THE LHA (_a_) WHICH TURNS THE FOURTH(29) IS SERVANT TO THE LHA(S) OF THE SEVEN(30) (_b_), THEY WHO REVOLVE, DRIVING THEIR CHARIOTS AROUND THEIR LORD, THE ONE EYE(31) OF OUR WORLD. HIS BREATH GAVE LIFE TO THE SEVEN.(32) IT GAVE LIFE TO THE FIRST (_c_).

“_They are all Dragons of Wisdom_,” adds the Commentary (_d_).

(_a_) “Lha” is the ancient term in Trans‐Himâlayan regions for “Spirit,” any celestial or _super‐human_ Being, and it covers the whole series of heavenly hierarchies, from an Archangel, or Dhyâni, down to an Angel of darkness, or terrestrial Spirit.

(_b_) This expression shows in plain language that the Spirit‐Guardian of our Globe, which is the fourth in the Chain, is subordinate to the chief Spirit (or God) of the Seven Planetary Genii or Spirits. As already explained, the Ancients had, in their Kyriel of Gods, seven chief Mystery‐ Gods, whose leader was, _exoterically_, the visible Sun, or the eighth, and, _Esoterically_, the Second Logos, the Demiurge. The Seven—who have now, in the Christian religion, become the “Seven Eyes of the Lord”—were the Regents of the seven _chief_ planets; but these were not reckoned according to the enumeration devised later by people who had forgotten, or who had an inadequate notion of, the real Mysteries, and included neither the Sun, the Moon, nor the Earth. The Sun was the chief, exoterically, of the twelve Great Gods, or zodiacal constellations; and, Esoterically, the Messiah, the Christos—the subject “anointed” by the Great Breath, or the One—surrounded by his twelve subordinate powers, also subordinate, in turn, to each of the seven Mystery‐Gods of the planets.

“_The Seven Higher make the Seven Lhas create the world_,” states a Commentary; which means that our Earth—to leave aside the rest—was “created” or fashioned by Terrestrial Spirits, the Regents being simply the supervisors. This is the first germ of that which grew later into the Tree of Astrology and Astrolatry. The Higher Ones were the Cosmocratores, the fabricators of our Solar System. This is borne out by all the ancient Cosmogonies, such as those of Hermes, of the Chaldæans, of the Aryans, of the Egyptians, and even of the Jews. The Signs of the Zodiac—the “_Sacred Animals_” or “Heaven’s Belt”—are as much the Bne’ Alhim—Sons of the Gods or the Elohim—as the Spirits of the Earth; but they are prior to them. Soma and Sin, Isis and Diana, are all lunar Gods or Goddesses, called the Fathers and Mothers of our Earth, which is subordinate to them. But these, in their turn, are subordinate to their “Fathers” and “Mothers”—the latter being interchangeable and varying with each nation—the Gods and their Planets, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Bel, Brihaspati, etc.

(_c_) “His Breath gave Life to the Seven,” refers as much to the Sun, who gives life to the Planets, as to the “High One,” the _Spiritual Sun_, who gives life to the whole Kosmos. The astronomical and astrological keys opening the gate leading to the mysteries of Theogony can be found only in the later glossaries, which accompany the Stanzas.

In the apocalyptic Shlokas of the Archaic Records, the language is as symbolical, if less mythical, than in the _Purânas_. Without the help of the later Commentaries, compiled by generations of Adepts, it would be impossible to understand the meaning correctly. In the ancient Cosmogonies, the visible and the invisible worlds are the double links of one and the same chain. As the Invisible Logos, with its Seven Hierarchies—each represented or personified by its chief Angel or Rector—form one POWER, the inner and the invisible; so, in the world of Forms, the Sun and the seven chief Planets constitute the visible and active potency; the latter Hierarchy being, so to speak, the visible and objective Logos of the Invisible and—except in the lowest grades—ever‐ subjective Angels.

Thus—to anticipate a little by way of illustration—every Race in its evolution is said to be born under the direct influence of one of the Planets; Race the First receiving its breath of life from the Sun, as will be seen later on; while the Third Humanity—those who fell into generation, or from androgynes became separate entities, one male and the other female—is said to be under the direct influence of Venus, “_the __‘__little sun__’__ in which the solar orb stores his light_.”

The summary of the Stanzas in Volume I showed the genesis(33) of Gods and men taking rise in, and from, one and the same Point, which is the One Universal, Immutable, Eternal, and Absolute UNITY. In its primary manifested aspect we have seen it become: (1) in the sphere of objectivity and Physics, PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE and FORCE—centripetal and centrifugal, positive and negative, male and female, etc.; (2) in the world of Metaphysics, the SPIRIT OF THE UNIVERSE, or Cosmic Ideation, called by some the LOGOS.

This Logos is the apex of the Pythagorean Triangle. When the Triangle is complete it becomes the Tetraktys, or the Triangle in the Square, and is the dual symbol of the four‐lettered Tetragrammaton in the manifested Kosmos, and of its radical triple Ray in the unmanifested—its Noumenon.

Put more metaphysically, the classification given here of Cosmic Ultimates, is more one of convenience than of absolute philosophical accuracy. At the commencement of a great Manvantara, Parabrahman manifests as Mûlaprakriti and then as the Logos. This Logos is equivalent to the “Unconscious Universal Mind,” etc., of Western Pantheists. It constitutes the Basis of the _subject_‐side of manifested Being, and is the source of all manifestations of individual consciousness. Mûlaprakriti or Primordial Cosmic Substance, is the foundation of the _object_‐side of things—the basis of all objective evolution and cosmo‐genesis. Force, then, does not emerge with Primordial Substance from Parabrahmanic latency. It is the _transformation into energy of the supra‐conscious thought of the Logos_, infused, so to speak, into the objectivation of the latter out of potential latency in the One Reality. Hence spring the wondrous laws of Matter; hence the “primal impress” so vainly discussed by Bishop Temple. Force thus is _not synchronous_ with the first objectivation of Mûlaprakriti. Nevertheless as, apart from it, the latter is absolutely and necessarily inert—_a mere abstraction_—it is unnecessary to weave too fine a cobweb of subtleties as to the order of succession of the Cosmic Ultimates. Force _succeeds_ Mûlaprakriti; but, _minus_ Force, Mûlaprakriti is for all practical intents and purposes non‐existent.(34)

The Heavenly Man or Tetragrammaton, who is the Protogonos, Tikkoun, the Firstborn from the passive Deity and the first manifestation of that Deity’s Shadow, is the Universal Form and Idea, which engenders the Manifested Logos, Adam Kadmon, or the four‐lettered symbol, in the Kabalah, of the Universe itself, also called the Second Logos. The Second springs from the First and develops the Third Triangle;(35) from the last of which (the lower host of Angels) _Men_ are generated. It is with this third aspect that we shall deal at present.

The reader must bear in mind that there is a great difference between the Logos and the Demiurgos, for one is _Spirit_ and the other is _Soul_; or as Dr. Wilder has it:

Dianoia and Logos are synonymous, Nous being superior and closely
in affinity with Τὸ Ἀγαθὸν, one being the superior apprehending,
the other the comprehending—one noëtic and the other phrenic.

Moreover, Man was regarded in several systems as the Third Logos. The Esoteric meaning of the word Logos—Speech or Word, Verbum—is the rendering in objective expression, as in a photograph, of the concealed thought. The Logos is the mirror reflecting DIVINE MIND, and the Universe is the mirror of the Logos, though the latter is the _esse_ of that Universe. As the Logos reflects _all_ in the Universe of Plerôma, so Man reflects in himself all that he sees and finds in _his_ Universe, the Earth. It is the Three Heads of the Kabalah—“_unum intra alterum, et alterum super alterum._”(36) “Every Universe (World or Planet) has its own Logos,” says the Doctrine. The Sun was always called by the Egyptians the “Eye of Osiris,” and was himself the Logos, the First‐begotten, or Light made manifest to the world, “which is the Mind and divine Intellect of the Concealed.” It is only by the seven‐fold Ray of this Light that we can become cognizant of the Logos through the Demiurge, regarding the latter as the “Creator” of our Planet and everything pertaining to it, and the former as the guiding Force of that “Creator”—good and bad at the same time, the origin of good and the origin of evil. This “Creator” is neither good nor bad _per se_, but its differentiated aspects in Nature make it assume one or the other character. With the invisible and the unknown Universes disseminated through Space, none of the Sun‐Gods had anything to do. The idea is expressed very clearly in the Books of Hermes, and in every ancient folk‐lore. It is symbolized generally by the Dragon and the Serpent—the Dragon of Good and the Serpent of Evil, represented on Earth by the right and the left‐hand Magic. In the epic poem of Finland, the _Kalevala_,(37) the origin of the Serpent of Evil is given: it is born from the spittle of Suoyatar, and endowed with a Living Soul by the Principle of Evil, Hisi. A strife is described between the two, the “thing of evil,” the Serpent or Sorcerer, and Ahti, the Dragon of the white magician, Lemminkainen. The latter is one of the seven sons of Ilmatar, the virgin “daughter of the air,” she “who fell from heaven into the sea,” before Creation, _i.e._, Spirit transformed into the matter of sensuous life. There is a world of meaning and Occult thought in the following few lines, admirably rendered by Dr. J. M. Crawford, of Cincinnati. The hero Lemminkainen,

Hews the wall with might of magic,
Breaks the palisade in pieces,
Hews to atoms _seven_ pickets,
Chops the _serpent‐wall_ to fragments.

When the monster little heeding,

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.

(_d_) In China the men of Fohi, or the “Heavenly Man,” are called the twelve Tien‐Hoang, the twelve Hierarchies of Dhyânis or Angels, with human faces, and dragon bodies; the Dragon standing for Divine Wisdom or Spirit;(38) and they create men by incarnating themselves in seven figures of clay—earth and water—made in the shape of these Tien‐Hoang, a third allegory.(39) The twelve Æsers of the Scandinavian Eddas do the same. In the Secret Catechism of the Druses of Syria—a legend which is repeated word for word by the oldest tribes about and around the Euphrates—men were created by the “Sons of God,” who descended on Earth, and after gathering seven Mandragoras, they animated the roots, which forthwith became men.(40)

All these allegories point to one and the same origin—to the dual and triple nature of man; dual, as male and female; triple, as being of spiritual and psychic essence _within_, and of a material fabric without.

2. SAID THE EARTH, “LORD OF THE SHINING FACE,(41) MY HOUSE IS EMPTY.... SEND THY SONS TO PEOPLE THIS WHEEL.(42) THOU HAST SENT THY SEVEN SONS TO THE LORD OF WISDOM (_A_). SEVEN TIMES DOTH HE SEE THEE NEARER TO HIMSELF; SEVEN TIMES MORE DOTH HE FEEL THEE (_B_). THOU HAST FORBIDDEN THY SERVANTS, THE SMALL RINGS, TO CATCH THY LIGHT AND HEAT, THY GREAT BOUNTY TO INTERCEPT ON ITS PASSAGE. SEND NOW TO THY SERVANT THE SAME!”

(_a_) The “Lord of Wisdom” is Mercury, or Budha.

(_b_) The modern Commentary explains the words as a reference to a well‐ known astronomical fact, that Mercury receives seven times more light and heat from the Sun than the Earth, or even the beautiful Venus, which receives but twice the amount falling on our insignificant Globe. Whether the fact was known in antiquity may be inferred from the prayer of the “Earth Spirit” to the Sun as given in the text.(43) The Sun, however, refuses to people the Globe, as it is not ready to receive life as yet.

Mercury, as an astrological Planet, is still more Occult and mysterious than Venus. It is identical with the Mazdean Mithra, the Genius, or God, “established between the Sun and the Moon, the perpetual companion of the ‘Sun’ of Wisdom.” Pausanias (Bk. v.) shows him as having an altar in common with Jupiter. He had wings to express his attendance upon the Sun in its course; and he was called the Nuntius and Sun‐wolf, “_solaris luminis particeps_.” He was the leader and evocator of Souls, the great Magician and the Hierophant. Virgil depicts him as taking his wand to evoke from Orcus the souls plunged therein—_tum virgam capit, hac animas ille evocat Orco_.(44) He is the Golden‐coloured Mercury, the Χρυσοφαὴς Ἑρμῆς whom the Hierophants forbade to name. He is symbolized in Grecian mythology by one of the “dogs” (vigilance), which watch over the celestial flock (Occult Wisdom), or Hermes Anubis, or again Agathodæmon. He is the Argus watching over the Earth, mistaken by the latter for the Sun itself. It is through the intercession of Mercury that the Emperor Julian prayed to the Occult Sun every night; for, as says Vossius:

All the theologians assert that _Mercury and the Sun are one_....
He was the most eloquent and the most wise of all the Gods, which
is not to be wondered at, since _Mercury is in such close
proximity to the Wisdom and the Word of God_ [the Sun] that he was
confused with both.(45)

Vossius here utters a greater Occult truth than he suspected. The Hermes of the Greeks is closely related to the Hindû Saramâ and Sârameya, the divine watchman, “who watches over the golden flock of stars and solar rays.”

In the clearer words of the Commentary:

_The Globe, propelled onward by the Spirit of the Earth and his six Assistants, gets all its vital forces, life, and powers through the medium of the seven planetary Dhyânis from the Spirit of the Sun. They are his messengers of Light and Life._

_Like each of the Seven Regions of the Earth, each of the seven_(_46_)_ First‐born [the primordial Human Groups] receives its light and life from its own especial Dhyâni—spiritually, and from the Palace [House, the Planet] of that Dhyâni—physically; so with the seven great Races to be born on it. The First is born under the Sun; the Second under Brihaspati [Jupiter]; the Third under Lohitânga [Mars, the __“__Fiery‐bodied,__”__ and also under Venus or Shukra]; the Fourth, under Soma [the Moon, our Globe also, the Fourth Sphere being born under and from the Moon] and Shani, Saturn,_(_47_)_ the Krûra‐lochana [Evil‐eyed], and the Asita [the Dark]; the Fifth, under Budha [Mercury]._

_So also with man and every __“__man__”__ [every principle] in man. Each gets its specific quality from its Primary [the Planetary Spirit], therefore every man is a septenate [or a combination of principles, each having its origin in a quality of that special Dhyâni]. Every active power or force __ of the Earth comes to her from one of the seven Lords. Light comes through Shukra [Venus], who receives a triple supply, and gives one‐ third of it to the Earth. Therefore the two are called __“__Twin‐ sisters,__”__ but the Spirit of the Earth is subservient to the __“__Lord__”__ of Shukra. Our wise men represent the two Globes, one over, the other under the double Sign [the primeval Svastika bereft of its four arms, or the cross, ☩]._(48)

The “double sign” is, as every student of Occultism knows, the symbol of the male and the female principles in Nature, of the positive and the negative, for the Svastika or 卐 is all that and much more. All antiquity, ever since the birth of Astronomy—imparted to the Fourth Race by one of the Kings of the Divine Dynasty—and also of Astrology, represented Venus in its astronomical tables as a _Globe poised over a Cross_, and the Earth, as a _Globe under a Cross_. The Esoteric meaning of this is the Earth fallen into generation, or into the production of its species through sexual union. But the later Western nations have not failed to give it quite a different interpretation. They explained the sign through their Mystics—guided by the light of the Latin Church—as meaning that our Earth and all on it were redeemed _by the Cross_, while Venus—otherwise Lucifer or Satan—was trampling upon it. Venus is the most Occult, powerful, and mysterious of all the Planets; the one whose influence upon, and relation to, the Earth is most prominent. In exoteric Brâhmanism, Venus or Shukra—a male deity(49)—is the son of Bhrigu, one of the Prajâpati and a Vedic sage, and is Daitya‐Guru, or the priest‐instructor of the primeval giants. The whole history of Shukra in the _Purânas_, refers to the Third and Fourth Races. As says the Commentary:

_It is through Shukra that the __“__double ones__”__ [the hermaphrodites] of the Third [__Root‐Race__] descended from the first __“__Sweat‐ born.__”__ Therefore it is represented under the symbol [Symbol: circle with horizontal line through it] [the circle and diameter], during the Third [Race], and [Symbol: circle with horizontal line through it, and another from center to bottom], during the Fourth._

This needs explanation. The diameter, when found isolated in a circle, stands for female Nature; for the first ideal World, _self‐generated_ and _self‐impregnated_ by the universally diffused Spirit of Life—thus also referring to the primitive Root‐Race. It becomes androgynous as the Races and all else on Earth develop into their physical forms, and the symbol is transformed into a circle with a diameter from which runs a vertical line, expressive of male and female, not separated as yet—the first and earliest Egyptian Tau; [Symbol: circle with horizontal line through it, and another from center to bottom] after which it becomes ☩, or male female separated(50) and fallen into generation. Venus (the Planet), is symbolized by the sign of a globe over a cross, which shows the former as presiding over the natural generation of man. The Egyptians symbolized Ankh, “life,” by the ansated cross, or ☥, which is only another form of Venus (Isis), ♀, and meant, Esoterically, that mankind and all animal life had stepped out of the divine spiritual circle and had fallen into physical male and female generation. This sign, from the end of the Third Race, has the same phallic significance as the “_Tree_ of Life” in Eden. Anouki, a form of Isis, is the Goddess of Life; and Ankh was taken by the Hebrews from the Egyptians. It was introduced into the language by Moses, one learned in the Wisdom of the priests of Egypt, with many other mystical words. The word Ankh in Hebrew, with the personal suffix, means “my life”—my being—which “is the personal pronoun Anochi,” from the name of the Egyptian Goddess Anouki.(51)

In one of the most ancient Catechisms of Southern India, Madras Presidency, the hermaphrodite Goddess Ardhanârî,(52) has the ansated cross, the Svastika, the “male and female sign,” right in the central part, to denote the pre‐sexual state of the Third Race. Vishnu, who is now represented with a lotus growing out of his navel—or the Universe of Brahmâ evolving out of the central point, Nara—is shown in one of the oldest carvings as double‐sexed (Vishnu and Lakshmî) standing on a lotus‐ leaf floating on the water, the water rising in a semicircle and pouring through the Svastika, “the source of generation,” or of the descent of man.

Pythagoras calls Shukra‐Venus the _Sol alter_, the “other Sun.” Of the “seven Palaces of the Sun,” that of Lucifer‐Venus is the third in Christian and Jewish Kabalah, the _Zohar_ making of it the abode of Samael. According to the Occult Doctrine, this Planet is our Earth’s _primary_, and its spiritual prototype. Hence, Shukra’s car (Venus‐ Lucifer’s) is said to be drawn by an _Ogdoad_ of “_earth‐born_ horses,” while the steeds of the chariots of the other Planets are different.

_Every sin committed on Earth is felt by Ushanas‐Shukra. The Guru of the Daityas is the Guardian Spirit of the Earth and Men. Every change on Shukra is felt on, and reflected by, the Earth._

Shukra, or Venus, is thus represented as the Preceptor of the Daityas, the giants of the Fourth Race, who, in the Hindû allegory, at one time obtained the sovereignty of all the Earth, and defeated the minor Gods. The Titans of the Western allegory also are as closely connected with Venus‐Lucifer, which was identified by later Christians with Satan. And, as Venus, equally with Isis, was represented with cow’s horns on her head, the symbol of mystic Nature—one convertible with, and significant of, the Moon, since all these were lunar Goddesses—the configuration of this Planet is now placed by theologians between the horns of the mystic Lucifer.(53) It is owing to the fanciful interpretation of the archaic tradition, which states that Venus changes simultaneously (geologically) with the Earth, that whatever takes place on the one takes place on the other, and that many and great were their common changes—it is for these reasons that St. Augustine repeats it, applying the several changes of configuration, colour, and even of the orbital paths, to that theologically‐woven character of Venus‐Lucifer. He even goes so far in his pious fancy as to connect the last changes of the Planet with the Noachian and mythical Deluge alleged to have taken place 1796 B.C.(54)

As Venus has no satellites, it is stated allegorically, that Âsphujit (this “Planet”) adopted the Earth, the progeny of the Moon, “_who overgrew its parent and gave much trouble_”—a reference to the Occult connection between the two. The Regent (of the Planet) Shukra(55) loved his adopted child so well that he incarnated as Ushanas and gave it perfect laws, which were disregarded and rejected in later ages. Another allegory, in the _Harivansha_, is that Shukra went to Shiva and asked him to protect his pupils, the Daityas and Asuras, from the fighting Gods; and that to further his object he performed a Yoga rite “imbibing the _smoke_ of chaff with his _head downwards_ for 1,000 years.” This refers to the great inclination of the axis of Venus—amounting to fifty degrees—and to its being enveloped in eternal clouds. But it relates only to the physical constitution of the Planet. It is with its Regent, the informing Dhyân Chohan, that Occult Mysticism has to deal. The allegory which states that Vishnu was cursed by Shukra to be _reborn seven times_ on the Earth as a punishment for killing his (Shukra’s) mother, is full of Occult philosophical meaning. It does not refer to Vishnu’s Avatâras, since these number nine—the tenth being still to come—but to the Races on Earth. Venus, or Lucifer—also Shukra and Ushanas—the Planet, is the light‐bearer of our Earth, in both the physical and mystic sense. The Christians knew it well in early times, since one of the earliest popes of Rome is known by his pontiff‐name as Lucifer.

_Every world has its parent Star and sister Planet. Thus Earth is the adopted, child and younger brother of Venus, but its inhabitants are of their own kind.... All sentient complete beings [full septenary men or higher beings] are furnished, in their beginnings, with forms and organisms in full harmony with the nature and state of the Sphere they inhabit._(56)

_The Spheres of Being, or Centres of Life, which are isolated nuclei breeding their men and their animals, are numberless; not one has any resemblance to its sister‐companion or to any other in its own special progeny._(57)

_All have a double physical and spiritual nature._

_The nucleoles are eternal and everlasting; the nuclei periodical and finite. The nucleoles form part of the Absolute. They are the embrasures of that black impenetrable fortress, which is for ever concealed from human or even Dhyânic sight. The nuclei are the light of eternity escaping therefrom._

_It is that __LIGHT__ which condenses into the Forms of the __“__Lords of Being__”__—the first and the highest of which are, collectively, __JÎVÂTMÂ__, or Pratyagâtmâ [which is said figuratively to issue from Paramâtmâ. It is the Logos of the Greek philosophers—appearing at the beginning of every new Manvantara]. From these downwards—formed from the ever‐consolidating waves of that Light, which becomes on the objective plane gross Matter—proceed the numerous Hierarchies of the Creative Forces; some formless, others having their own distinctive form, others, again, the lowest [Elementals], having no form of their own, but assuming every form according to the surrounding conditions._

_Thus there is but one Absolute Upâdhi [Basis] in the spiritual sense, from, on, and in which, are built for manvantaric purposes the countless basic centres on which proceed the universal, cyclic, and individual Evolutions during the active period._

_The informing Intelligences, which animate these various Centres of Being, are referred to indiscriminately by men beyond the Great Range_(_58_)_ as the Manus, the Rishis, the Pitris,_(_59_)_ the Prajâpati, and so on; and as Dhyâni‐Buddhas, the Chohans, Melhas [Fire‐Gods], Bodhisattvas,_(_60_)_ and others, on this side. The truly ignorant call them Gods; the learned profane, the One God; and the wise, the Initiates, honour in them only the manvantaric manifestations of __THAT__ which neither our Creators [the Dhyân Chohans] nor their creatures can ever discuss or know anything about. The __ABSOLUTE__ is not to be defined, and no mortal or immortal has ever seen or comprehended it during the periods of Existence. The mutable cannot know the Immutable, nor can that which lives perceive Absolute Life._

“Therefore, man cannot know higher Beings than his own Progenitors.” “_Nor shall he worship them_,” but he ought to learn _how_ he came into the world.

Number Seven, the fundamental figure among all other figures in every national religious system, from Cosmogony down to man, must have its _raison d’être_. It is found among the ancient Americans, as prominently as among the archaic Âryans and Egyptians. The question will be fully dealt with in the second Part of this Volume; meanwhile a few facts may be given here. Says the author of the _Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quiches, 11,500 years ago_:(61)

Seven seems to have been the sacred number _par excellence_ among
all civilized nations of antiquity. Why? This query has never been
satisfactorily answered. Each separate people has given a
different explanation, according to the peculiar tenets of their
[exoteric] religion. That it was the number of numbers for those
initiated to the sacred mysteries there can be no doubt.
Pythagoras ... calls it the “Vehicle of life,” containing body and
soul, since it is formed of a quaternary, that is: _Wisdom and
Intellect_; and a Trinity, or _action_ and _matter_. The Emperor
Julian, in _Matrem_ and in _Oratio_,(62) expresses himself thus:
“Were I to touch upon the initiation into our secret mysteries,
which the Chaldees bacchized respecting the _seven‐rayed_ god,
lighting up the soul through him, I should say things unknown to
the rabble, very unknown, but well known to the blessed
Theurgists.”(63)

And who that is acquainted with the _Purânas_, the _Book of the Dead_, the _Zendavesta_, the Assyrian Tiles, and finally the _Bible_, and has observed the constant occurrence of the number seven in these records of people from the remotest times upwards unconnected and so far apart, can regard as a coincidence the following fact, given by the same explorer of ancient Mysteries? Speaking of the prevalence of seven as a mystic number, among the inhabitants of the “Western Continent” of America, he adds that it is not less remarkable. For:

It frequently occurs in the _Popul‐Vuh_. We find it besides in the
_seven families_ said by Sahagun and Clavigero to have accompanied
the mystical personage named _Votan_, the reputed founder of the
great city of Nachan, identified by some with Palenque. In the
_seven caves_(64) from which the ancestors of the Nahualts are
reported to have emerged. In the _seven cities_ of Cibola,
described by Coronado and Niza.... In the _seven Antilles_; in the
_seven heroes_ who, we are told, escaped the Deluge.

Heroes, moreover, whose number is found the same in every Deluge story—from the seven Rishis who were saved with Vaivasvata Manu, down to Noah’s ark, into which beasts, fowls, and living creatures were taken by “sevens.” Thus we see the figures 1, 3, 5, 7, as perfect, because thoroughly mystic, numbers playing a prominent part in every Cosmogony and evolution of living Beings. In China, 1, 3, 5, 7, are called “celestial numbers” in the canonical “Book of Changes”—_Yi King_, or _transformation_, as in “evolution.”

The explanation of it becomes evident when one examines the ancient Symbols: all these are based upon and start from the figures given from the Archaic Manuscript in the Proem of Volume I. [Symbol: circle with horizontal line through it, and another from center to bottom], the symbol of evolution and fall into generation or Matter, is reflected in the old Mexican sculptures or paintings, as it is in the Kabalistic Sephiroth, and the Egyptian Tau. Examine the Mexican MS. (_Add. MSS._ Brit. Mus. 9789)(65); you will find it in a tree whose trunk is covered with _ten_ fruits ready to be plucked by a male and female, one on each side of it, while from the top of the trunk two branches shoot horizontally to the right and left, thus forming a perfect Τ (Tau), the ends of the two branches, moreover, each bearing a triple bunch, with a bird—the bird of immortality, Âtmâ or the Divine Spirit—sitting between the two, and thus making the _seventh_. This represents the same idea as the Sephirothal Tree, _ten_ in all, yet, when separated from its upper triad, leaving _seven_. These are the celestial fruits, the ten, or [Symbol: circle with “i” inside], 10, born out of the two invisible male and female seeds, making up the 12, or the Dodecahedron of the Universe. The mystic system contains the ·, the central point; the 3, or [symbol: triangle]; the 5, [symbol: 5‐point star]; and the 7, or [symbol: triangle in square]; or again [symbol: 6‐point star]; the triangle in the square and the synthesizing point in the interlaced double triangles. This for the world of the archetypes. The phenomenal world receives its culmination and the reflex of all in MAN. Therefore he is the mystic square—in his metaphysical aspect—the Tetraktys; and becomes the Cube on the creative plane. His symbol is the cube unfolded(66) and 6 becoming 7, or the [Symbol: cross], 3 crossways (the female) and 4 vertically; and this is man, the culmination of the deity on earth, whose body is the cross of flesh, _on_, _through_, and _in_ which he is ever crucifying and putting to death the divine Logos, or his HIGHER SELF. Says every Philosophy and Cosmogony:

The universe hath a Ruler [Rulers collectively] set over it, which
is called the WORD (Logos); the fabricating Spirit is its Queen:
which two are the First Power after the ONE.

These are the Spirit and Nature, which two form our Illusory Universe. The two inseparables remain in the _Universe of Ideas_ so long as it lasts, and then merge back into Parabrahman, the One ever changeless. “The Spirit, whose essence is eternal, one and self‐existent,” emanates a pure ethereal Light—a dual light not perceptible to the elementary senses—according to the _Purânas_, the _Bible_, the _Sepher Yetzirah_, the Greek and Latin Hymns, the _Book of Hermes_, the Chaldæan _Book of Numbers_, the Esotericism of Lao‐tse, and everywhere else. In the Kabalah, which explains the secret meaning of _Genesis_, this Light is the Dual‐ Man, or the Androgyne (rather Sexless) Angels, whose generic name is Adam Kadmon. It is they who complete man, whose ethereal form is emanated by other divine, but far lower Beings, who solidify the body with clay, or the “dust of the ground”—an allegory indeed, but as scientific as any Darwinian evolution and more _true_.

The author of the _Source of Measures_ says that the foundation of the Kabalah and of all its mystic books is made to rest upon the _ten_ Sephiroth; which is a fundamental truth. He shows these Ten Sephiroth or the 10 Numbers as follows:

The circle is the _naught_; its vertical diameter line is the first or primal _One_ [the Word or Logos], from which spring the 2, the 3, and so on to 9, the limit of the digits. The 10 is the first Divine Manifestation,(67) which contains every possible power of exact expression of proportion—the sacred _Jod_. By this Cabbalah we are taught that these Sephiroth were the _numbers_ or emanations of the heavenly Light (20612 to 6561), they were the 10 Words, DBRIM, 41224, the light of which they were the flux was the Heavenly man, the Adam‐KDM (the 144‐144); and the Light, by the New Testament or Covenant (41224) created God; just as by the Old Testament God (Alhim, 31415) creates Light (20612 to 6561).(68)

Now there are three kinds of Light in Occultism, as in the Kabalah. (1) The Abstract and Absolute Light, which is Darkness; (2) The Light of the Manifested‐Unmanifested, called by some the Logos: and (3) The latter Light reflected in the Dhyân Chohans, the minor Logoi—the Elohim, collectively—who, in their turn, shed it on the objective Universe. But in the Kabalah—reëdited and carefully adjusted to fit the Christian tenets by the Kabalists of the thirteenth century—the three Lights are described as: (1) The clear and penetrating, that of Jehovah; (2) reflected light; and (3) light _in the abstract_.

This Light, abstractly taken, (in a metaphysical or symbolical
sense) is Alhim (Elohim, God), while the clear penetrating Light
is Jehovah. The light of Alhim belongs to the world in general, in
its allness and general fulness, but the light of Jehovah is that
pertaining to the chiefest production, man, whom this light
penetrated to and made.(69)

The author of the _Source of Measures_ pertinently refers the reader to Inman’s _Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names_, ii. 648. There, an engraving of

The _vesica piscis_, Mary, and the female emblem, copied from a
Rosary of the blessed Virgin Mary, which was printed at Venice,
1542,

and therefore, as Inman remarks, “with a licence from the Inquisition, and consequently orthodox,” will show the reader what the Latin Church understood by this “penetrating power of light and its effects.” How sadly disfigured—applied as they were to the grossest anthropomorphic conceptions—have, under Christian interpretation, become the noblest and grandest, as the most exalted, ideas of Deity of the Eastern Philosophy!

The Occultists in the East call this Light Daiviprakriti, and in the West the Light of Christos. It is the Light of the Logos, the direct reflection of the ever Unknowable on the plane of Universal Manifestation. But here is the interpretation thereof given by the modern Christians from the Kabalah. As declared by the author just cited;

To the fulness of the world in general with its chiefest content,
man, the term Elohim‐Jehovah applies. In extracts from Sohar, the
Rev. Dr. Cassell [a Kabalist], to prove that the Cabbalah sets
forth the doctrine of the Trinity, among other things says:
“Jehovah is Elohim (Alhim)” ... By _three_ steps God, (Alhim) and
Jehovah become the same, and though separated, each and together
they are of the same One.(70)

Similarly, Vishnu becomes the Sun, the visible symbol of the Impersonal Deity. Vishnu is described as “striding through the seven regions of the Universe in _three steps_.” But with the Hindûs this is an _exoteric_ account, a surface tenet and an allegory, while the Kabalists give it out as the Esoteric and final meaning. But to proceed:

Now Light, as shown, is 20612 to 6561, as the proper enunciation
of the integral and numerical relation of diameter to
circumference of a circle. God (Alhim, that is, 31415 to One, a
modified form of the above) is the reduction of this, so as to
obtain a standard unit _One_, as the basis, in general, of all
calculation and all mensuration. But for the production of animal
life, and for especial _time measure_, or the lunar year, that
influence which causes conception and embryotic development, the
numbers of the Jehovah measure (the “_man even Jehovah_” measure),
viz., 113 to 355, have to be specialized.(71) But this last ratio
is but a modified form of Light, or 20612 to 6561, as a _pi
value_, being only a variation of the same (that is 20612 to 6561
is 31415 to one, and 355 to 113 is 31415 or Alhim or God), and in
such a manner that one can be made to flow into and be derived
from the other:—and these are the three steps by which the _Unity_
and sameness can be shown of the Divine names. That is, the two
are but variations of the same ratio, viz., that of _pi_. The
object of this comment is to show the same symbolic measuring use
for the Cabbalah, as taught, with that of the Three Covenants of
the _Bible_, and with that of Masonry as just noticed.

First, then, the Sephiroth are described as _Light_, that is, they
themselves are a function of, indeed, the same as, the
manifestation of the Ain Soph; and they are so from the fact that
“_Light_” represents the ratio 20612 to 6561, as part of the
“Words,” DBRIM, 41224, or, as to the Word, Dabar, 206 (= 10
cubits). “_Light_” is so much the burden of the Cabbalah as to
explaining the Sephiroth, that the most famous book on the
Cabbalah is called _Sohar_, or “_Light_.” In this we find
expressions of this kind: “The infinite was entirely unknown and
diffused no light before the luminous point violently broke
through into vision.” “When He first assumed the form (of the
crown, or the first Sephira), He caused 9 splendid lights to
emanate from it, which, shining through it, diffused a bright
light in all directions:”—that is, these 9 with his one (which was
the origin, as above, of the 9), together, made the 10, that is
[Symbol: circle with vertical line through it], or [Symbol: circle
with “x” inside], or the sacred Ten (numbers or Sephiroth), or
_Jod_—and these numbers were “_the Light_.” Just as in the Gospel
of St. John, God (Alhim, 31415 to one) was that Light (20612 to
6561) by which (Light) all things were made.(72)

In the _Sepher Yetzirah_, or “Number of Creation,” the whole process of evolution is given out in numbers. In its “thirty‐two Paths of Wisdom” the number 3 is repeated four times, and the number 4 five times. Therefore, the Wisdom of God is contained in numbers (Sephrim or Sephiroth), for Sepher (or S‐ph‐r when unvowelled) means “to cipher.” And therefore, also, we find Plato stating that the Deity “geometrizes” in fabricating the Universe.

The Kabalistic book, the _Sepher Yetzirah_, opens with a statement of the hidden wisdom of Alhim in Sephrim, _i.e._, the Elohim in the Sephiroth.

In thirty and two paths, hidden wisdom, established Jah, IHVH,
Tzabaoth, Elohi of Israel, Alhim of Life, El of Grace and
Mercy—exalted uplifted Dweller on high, and King of Everlasting,
and His name—Holy! in Three Sephrim, viz.:

B—S’ph‐r, V—S’ph‐r, V—Siph‐o‐r.

Mr. Ralston Skinner goes on to say:

This comment sets forth the “_hidden wisdom_” of the original text
by hidden wisdom, that is, by the use of words carrying a special
set of numbers and a special phraseology, which will set forth the
very explanatory system which we find to fit so accurately in the
Hebrew Bible.... In setting forth his scheme, to enforce it, and
to finish out his detailed exposition in a general
postulate,—viz., the one word “_Sephrim_” (_Sephiroth_), of the
Number Jezirah, the author explains the separation of this word in
the three subordinate ones, a play upon a common word, _s‐ph‐r_,
or number.

The prince Al‐Chazari(73) says to the Rabbi: “I wish now that thou
wouldest impart to me some of the chiefest or leading principles
of _Natural Philosophy_, which, as thou sayest, were in former
times worked out by them (the ancient wise ones);”—to which the
Rabbi makes answer: “To such principles appertains the Number of
Creation of our race‐father Abraham” that is Abram and Abraham, or
numbers 41224 and 41252. He then says that this book of number
treats of teaching the “_Alhim_‐ness and _One_‐ness through
(DBRIM)” viz., the numbers of the word “_Words_.” That is, it
teaches the use of the ratio 31415 to One, through 41224, which
last, in the description of the Ark of the Covenant, was divided
into two parts by the _two_ tables of stone, on which these DBRIM,
or 41224, were written or engraved—or 20612 × 2. He then comments
on these three subordinately used words, and takes care as to one
of them to make the comment, “and _Alhim_ (31415 to One) said let
there be Light (20612 to 6561).”

The words as given in the text are:

ספר ספר סיפור

and the Rabbi, in commenting upon them, says: “It teaches the
_Alhim_‐ness (31415) and _One_‐ness (the diameter to Alhim),
through Words (DBRIM = 41224), by which on the one side there is
infinite expression in heterogeneous creations, and on the other a
final harmonic tendency to _One_‐ness” (which, as everyone knows,
is the mathematical function of _pi_ of the schools, which
measures, weighs, and numbers the stars of heaven, and yet
resolves them back into the final oneness of the Uni‐verse)
“through Words. Their final accord perfects itself in that
_One_‐ness that ordains them, and which consists in

ספר ספר ספור ”

that is, the Rabbi, in his first comment, leaves the _jod_, or
_i_, out of one of the words, whereas afterwards he restores it
again. If we take the values of those subordinate words, we find
them to be 340, 340 and 346;—together these are 1026, and the
division of the general word into these has been to produce these
numbers—which by T’mura may be changed in various ways, for
various purposes.(74)