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SECRET DOCTRINE
H P Blavatsky
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THE MUNDANE EGG
WHENCE
this universal symbol? The Egg was incorporated as a sacred sign in the
cosmogony of every people on the Earth, and was revered both on account of its
form and its inner mystery. From the earliest mental conceptions of man, it was
known as that which represented most successfully the origin and secret of
being. The gradual development of the imperceptible germ within the closed
shell; the inward working, without any apparent outward interference of force,
which from a latent nothing produced an active something, needing nought save
heat; and which, having gradually evolved into a concrete, living creature,
broke its shell, appearing to the outward senses of all a self-generated, and
self-created being -- must have been a standing miracle from the beginning.
The
secret teaching explains the reason for this reverence by the Symbolism of the
prehistoric races. The "First Cause" had no name in the beginnings.
Later it was pictured in the fancy of the thinkers as an ever invisible,
mysterious Bird that dropped an Egg into Chaos, which Egg becomes the Universe.
Hence Brahm was called Kalahansa, "the swan in (Space and) Time." He
became the "Swan of Eternity," who lays at the beginning of each
Mahamanvantara a "Golden Egg." It typifies the great Circle, or O,
itself a symbol for the universe and its spherical bodies.
The
second reason for its having been chosen as the symbolical representation of
the Universe, and of our earth, was its form. It was a Circle and a Sphere; and
the ovi-form shape of our globe must have been known from the beginning of
symbology, since it was so universally adopted. The first manifestation of the
Kosmos in the form of an egg was the most widely diffused belief of antiquity.
As Bryant shows (iii., 165), it was a symbol adopted among the Greeks, the
Syrians, Persians, and Egyptians. In chap. liv. of the Egyptian Ritual, Seb,
the god of Time and of the Earth, is spoken of as having laid an egg, or the
Universe, "an egg conceived at the hour of the great one of the Dual
Force" (Sec. V., 2, 3, etc.).
Ra
is shown like Brahma gestating in the Egg of the Universe. The deceased is
"resplendent in the Egg of the land of mysteries" (xxii., 1). For,
this is "the Egg to which is given life among the gods" (xlii., 11).
"It is the Egg of the great clucking Hen, the Egg of Seb, who issues from
it like a hawk" (lxiv., 1, 2, 3; lxxvii., 1).
With
the Greeks the Orphic Egg is described by Aristophanes, and was part of the
Dionysiac and other mysteries, during which
360
the
Mundane Egg was consecrated and its significance explained; Porphyry showing it
a representation of the world, [[Ermenenei de to oon kosmon]]. Faber and Bryant
have tried to show that the egg typified the ark of Noah, which, unless the
latter is accepted as purely allegorical and symbolical, is a wild belief. It
can have typified the ark only as a synonym of the moon, the argha which
carries the universal seed of life; but had surely nothing to do with the ark of
the Bible. Anyhow, the belief that the universe existed in the beginning in the
shape of an egg was general. And as
In
view of this circular form, the "|" issuing from the
"[[diagram]]," or the egg, or the male from the female in the
androgyne, it is strange to find a scholar saying -- on the ground that the
most ancient Indian MSS. show no trace of it -- that the ancient Aryans were
ignorant of the decimal notation. The 10, being the sacred number of the
universe, was secret and esoteric, both as the unit and cipher, or zero, the circle.
Moreover, Professor Max Muller says that "the two words cipher and zero,
which are but one, are sufficient to prove that our figures are borrowed from
the Arabs.* Cipher is the Arabic "cifron," and means
NOTE
*
See Max Muller's "Our Figures."
361
WHENCE OUR FIGURES?
empty,
a translation of the Sanscrit name of nought "sunya," he says.* The
Arabs had their figures from Hindustan, and never claimed the discovery for
themselves.** As to the Pythagoreans, we need but turn to the ancient
manuscripts of Boethius's Geometry, composed in the sixth century, to find
among the Pythagorean numerals*** the 1 and the nought, as the first and final
ciphers. And Porphyry, who quotes from the Pythagorean Moderatus,**** says that
the numerals of Pythagoras were "hieroglyphical symbols, by means whereof
he explained ideas concerning the nature of things," or the origin of the
universe.
Now,
if, on the other hand, the most ancient Indian manuscripts show as yet no trace
of decimal notation in them, and Max Muller states very clearly that until now
he has found but nine letters (the initials of the Sanscrit numerals) in them;
on the other hand, we have records as ancient to supply the wanted proof. We
speak of the sculptures and the sacred imagery in the most ancient temples of
the far East. Pythagoras derived his knowledge from India; and we find
Professor Max Muller corroborating this statement, at least so far as to allow
the Neo-Pythagoreans to have been the first teachers of "ciphering,"
among the Greeks and Romans; that "they at Alexandria, or in Syria, became
acquainted with the Indian figures, and adapted them to the Pythagorean
abacus" (our figures). This cautious admission implies that Pythagoras
himself was acquainted with but nine figures. Thus we might reasonably answer
that, although we possess no certain proof (exoterically) that the decimal
notation was known by Pythagoras, who lived on the very close of the archaic
ages,***** we have yet sufficient evidence to show that the full numbers, as
given by Boethius, were known to the Pythagoreans, even before Alexandria was
built.****** This evidence we find in Aristotle, who says that "some
philosophers hold that ideas and numbers are of the same nature, and amount to
TEN in all."******* This, we believe, will be sufficient to show that the
decimal notation was known among them at least as early as four centuries B.C.,
for Aristotle does not seem to treat the question as an innovation of the
"Neo-Pythagoreans."
NOTE
* A Kabalist would be
rather inclined to believe that as the Arabic cifron was taken from the Indian
Synya, nought, so the Jewish Kabalistic Sephiroth (Sephrim) were taken from the
word cipher, not in the sense of emptiness but the reverse -- that of creation
by number and degrees in their evolution. And the Sephiroth are 10 or
[[diagram]].
** See Max Muller's
"Our Figures."
*** See King's
"Gnostics and their Remains," plate xiii.
**** "Vita
Pythag."
***** 608 B.C.
****** This city was
built 332 B.C.
*******
"Metaph." vii., F.
But
we know more than that: we know that the decimal system must have been known to
the mankind of the earliest archaic ages, since the whole astronomical and
geometrical portion of the secret sacerdotal language was built upon the number
10, or the combination of the male and female principles, and since the Pyramid
of "Cheops" is built upon the measures of this decimal notation, or
rather upon the digits and their combinations with the nought. Of this,
however, sufficient was said in Isis Unveiled, and it is useless to repeat and
return to the same subject.
The
symbolism of the Lunar and Solar Deities is so inextricably mixed up, that it
is next to impossible to separate such glyphs as the egg, the lotus, and the
"sacred" animals from each other. The ibis, for instance, sacred to
Isis, who is often represented with the head of that bird, sacred also to
Mercury or Thoth, because that god assumed its form while escaping from Typhon,
-- the ibis was held in the greatest veneration in Egypt. There were two kinds
of ibises, Herodotus tells us (Lib. II. c. 75 et seq.) in that country: one
quite black, the other black and white. The former is credited with fighting
and exterminating the winged serpents which came every spring from
Were
it otherwise, indeed, why should all the ancient peoples, who were no more
fools than we are, have had such a superstitious dread of killing certain
birds? In
EGG-BORN LOGOI
the
egg, under certain conditions, that which the bird born from it would have seen
around it during its short life. This occult art, which demanded 3,000 years
ago the greatest learning and the most abstruse mathematical calculations, has
now fallen into the depths of degradation: it is old cooks and fortune-tellers
who read their future to servant-girls in search of husbands, by means of the
white of an egg in a glass.
Nevertheless,
even Christians have to this day their sacred birds; for instance, the dove,
the symbol of the Holy Ghost. Nor have they neglected the sacred animals. The
Evangelical zoolatry -- the Bull, the Eagle, the Lion, and the Angel (in
reality the Cherub, or Seraph, the fiery-winged Serpent), is as much pagan as
that of the Egyptians or the Chaldeans. These four animals are, in reality, the
symbols of the four elements, and of the four lower principles in man.
Nevertheless, they correspond physically and materially to the four
constellations that form, so to speak, the suite or cortege of the Solar God,
and occupy during the winter solstice the four cardinal points of the zodiacal
circle. These four "animals" may be seen in many of the Roman
Catholic New Testaments where the portraits of the evangelists are given. They
are the animals of Ezekiel's Mercabah.
As
truly stated by Ragon, "the ancient Hierophants have combined so cleverly
the dogmas and symbols of their religious philosophies, that these symbols can
be fully explained only by the combination and knowledge of all the keys."
They can be only approximately interpreted, even if one finds out three out of
these seven systems: the anthropological, the psychic, and the astronomical.
The two chief interpretations, the highest and the lowest, the spiritual and
the physiological, they preserved in the greatest secrecy until the latter fell
into the dominion of the profane. Thus far, with regard only to the
pre-historic Hierophants, with whom that which has now become purely (or
impurely) phallic, was a science as profound and as mysterious as biology and
physiology are now. This was their exclusive property, the fruit of their
studies and discoveries. The other two were those which dealt with the creative
gods (theogony), and with creative man, i.e., the ideal and the practical mysteries.
These interpretations were so cleverly veiled and combined, that many were
those who, while arriving at the discovery of one meaning, were baffled in
understanding the significance of the others, and could never unriddle them
sufficiently to commit dangerous indiscretions. The highest, the first and the
fourth -- theogony in relation to anthropogony -- were almost impossible to
fathom. We find the proofs of this in the Jewish "Holy Writ."
It
is owing to the serpent being oviparous, that it became a symbol of wisdom and
an emblem of the Logoi, or the self-born. In the
In
the Book of the Dead, as just shown, reference is often made to the Egg. Ra,
the mighty one, remains in his Egg, during the struggle between the
"children of the rebellion" and Shoo (the Solar Energy and the Dragon
of Darkness) (ch. xvii.). The deceased is resplendent in his
NOTE
* And this only because
the brazen serpent was lifted on a pole! It had rather a reference to Mico the
Egyptian egg standing upright supported by the sacred Tau; since the Egg and
the Serpent are inseparable in the old worship and symbology of Egypt, and
since both the Brazen and "fiery" serpents were Saraphs, the
"burning fiery" messengers, or the serpent Gods, the nagas of India.
It was a purely phallic symbol without the egg, while when associated with it
-- it related to cosmic creation.
** "Brass was a
metal symbolizing the nether world . . . . that of the womb where life should
be given . . . The word for serpent was in Hebrew Nakash, but this is the same
term for brass." It is said in Numbers (xxi.) that the Jews complained of
the Wilderness where there was no water (v. 5); after which "the Lord sent
fiery serpents" to bite them, when, to oblige Moses, he gives him as a
remedy the brazen serpent on a pole to look at; after which "any man when
he beheld the serpent of brass . . . . lived" (?). After that the
"Lord," gathering the people together at the well of Beer, gives them
water, (14-16), and grateful Israel sang this song, "Spring up, O
Well," (v. 17). When, after studying symbology, the Christian reader comes
to understand the innermost meaning of these three symbols -- water, brazen,
the serpent, and a few more -- in the sense given to them in the Holy Bible, he
will hardly like to connect the sacred name of his Saviour with the
"Brazen Serpent" incident. The Seraphim [[hebrew]] (fiery winged
serpents) are no doubt connected with, and inseparable from, the idea "of
the serpent of eternity -- God," as explained in Kenealy's Apocalypse. But
the word cherub also meant serpent, in one sense, though its direct meaning is
different; because the Cherubim and the Persian winged [[gruphes]]
"griffins" -- the guardians of the golden mountain -- are the same,
and their compound name shows their character, as it is formed of [[hebrew]]
(kr) circle, and [[hebrew]] "aub," or ob -- serpent -- therefore, a "serpent
in a circle." And this settles the phallic character of the Brazen
Serpent, and justifies Hezekiah for breaking it. (See II. Kings, 18, 4). Verbum
sat. sapienti.
THE WINGED GLOBE.
Egg
when he crosses to the land of mystery (xxii. i.). He is the Egg of Seb (liv.
1-3). . . . The Egg was the symbol of life in immortality and eternity; as also
the glyph of the generative matrix; and the tau, associated with it, only of
life and birth in generation. The Mundane Egg was placed in Khnoom, the
"Water of Space," or the feminine abstract principle (Khnoom
becoming, with the fall of mankind into generation and phallicism, Ammon, the
creative God); and when Phtah, the "fiery god," carries the Mundane
egg in his hand, then the symbolism becomes quite terrestrial and concrete in
its significance. In conjunction with the hawk, the symbol of Osiris-Sun, the
symbol is dual: it relates to both lives -- the mortal and the immortal. In
Kircher's OEdipus Egyptiacus (vol. iii., p. 124) one can see, on the papyrus
engraved in it, an egg floating above the mummy. This is the symbol of hope and
the promise of a second birth for the Osirified dead; his Soul, after due
purification in the Amenti, will gestate in this egg of immortality, to be
reborn from it into a new life on earth. For this Egg, in the esoteric
Doctrine, is the Devachan, the abode of Bliss; the winged scarabeus being alike
a symbol of it. The "winged globe" is but another form of the egg, and
has the same significance as the scarabeus, the Khopiroo (from the root Khoproo
"to become," "to be reborn,") which relates to the rebirth
of man, as well as to his spiritual regeneration.
In
the Theogony of Mochus, we find AEther first, and then the air, from which
Ulom, the intelligible ([[noetos]]) deity (the visible Universe of Matter) is
born out of the Mundane Egg. (Mover's Phoinizer, p. 282.)
In
the Orphic Hymns, the Eros-Phanes evolves from the divine Egg, which the
AEthereal Winds impregnate, wind being "the Spirit of the unknown
Darkness" -- "the spirit of God" (as explains K. O. Muller,
236); the divine "Idea," says Plato, "who is said to move
AEther."
In
the Hindu Katakopanishad, Purusha, the divine spirit, already stands before the
original matter, "from whose union springs the great soul of the
world," Maha-Atma, Brahma, the Spirit of Life,* etc., etc.** Besides this
there are many charming allegories on this subject scattered through the sacred
books of the Brahmins. In one place it is the female creator who is first a
germ, then a drop of heavenly dew, a pearl, and then an egg. In such cases --
of which there are too many to enumerate them separately -- the Egg gives birth
to the four elements within the fifth, Ether, and is covered with seven
coverings, which become later on the seven upper and the seven lower worlds.
Breaking in two, the shell becomes the heaven, and the meat in the egg the
earth, the white forming the terres-
NOTE
* The latter
appellations are all identical with Anima Mundi, or the "Universal
Soul," the astral light of the Kabalist and the Occultist, or the
"Egg of Darkness."
** Weber, "Akad
Vorles," pp. 213, 214 et seq.
trial
waters. Then again, it is Vishnu who emerges from within the egg with a lotus
in his hand. Vinata, a daughter of Daksha and wife of Kasyapa ("the
Self-born sprung from Time," one of the seven "creators" of our
world), brought forth an egg from which was born Garuda, the vehicle of Vishnu,
the latter allegory having a relation to our Earth only, as Garuda is the Great
Cycle.
The
egg was sacred to
Diodorus
Siculus states that Osiris was born from an Egg, like Brahma. From Leda's Egg
Apollo and Latona were born, as also Castor and Pollux -- the bright Gemini.
And though the Buddhists do not attribute the same origin to their Founder,
yet, no more than the ancient Egyptians or the modern Brahmins, do they eat
eggs, lest they should destroy the germ of life latent in them, and commit
thereby Sin. The Chinese believe that their first man was born from an egg,
which Tien, a god, dropped down from heaven to earth into the waters.** This
symbol is still regarded by some as representing the idea of the origin of
life, which is a scientific truth, though the human ovum is invisible to the naked
eye. Therefore we see respect shown to it from the remotest past, by the
Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, the Japanese, and the Siamese, the North and South
American tribes, and even the savages of the remotest islands.
With
the Egyptians, the concealed god was Ammon (Mon). All their gods were dual: the
scientific reality for the Sanctuary; its double, the fabulous and mythical
Entity, for the masses. For instance, as observed in "Chaos, Theos,
Kosmos," the older Horus was the Idea of the world remaining in the
demiurgic mind "born in Darkness before the creation of the world;"
the second Horus*** was the same Idea going forth from the Logos, becoming
clothed with matter and assuming an actual existence. (Compare Mover's
"Phoinizer," p. 268.) The same with Khnoum and Ammon;**** both are
represented ram-headed, and both often confused, though their functions are
different. Khnoum is "the modeller of men," fashioning men and things
out of the Mundane Egg on a potter's wheel;
NOTE
*
** 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?
*** Horus -- the
"older," or Haroiri, is an ancient aspect of the solar god, contemporary
with Ra and Shoo; Haroiri is often mistaken for Hor (Horsusi), Son of Osiris
and Isis. The Egyptians very often represented the rising Sun under the form of
Hor the older, rising from a full-blown lotus, the Universe, when the solar
disc is always found on the hawk-head of that god. Haroiri is Khnoum.
**** Ammon or Mon, the
"hidden," the Supreme Spirit.
THE SCANDINAVIAN LOGOS.
Ammon-Ra,
the generator, is the secondary aspect of the concealed deity. Khnoum was
adored at Elephanta and Philoe,* Ammon at
According
to the Greeks, the phantom form of the Chemis (Chemi, ancient Egypt) which
floats on the ethereal waves of the Empyrean Sphere, was called into being by
Horus-Apollo, the Sun god, who caused it to evolve out of the Mundane egg.***
In
the Scandinavian Cosmogony -- placed by Professor Max Muller, in point of time,
as "far anterior to the Vedas" in the poem of Voluspa (the song of
the prophetess), the Mundane egg is again discovered in the phantom-germ of the
Universe, which is represented as lying in the Ginnungagap -- the cup of
illusion (Maya) the boundless and void abyss. In this world's matrix, formerly
a region of night and desolation, Nebelheim (the mist-place, the nebular as it
is called now, in the astral light) dropped a ray of cold light which
overflowed this cup and froze in it. Then the Invisible blew a scorching wind
which dissolved the frozen waters and cleared the mist. These waters (chaos),
called the streams of Elivagar, distilling in vivifying drops, fell down and
created the earth and the giant Ymir, who only had "the semblance of
man" (the Heavenly man), and the cow, Audhumla (the "mother" or
astral light, Cosmic Soul) from whose udder flowed four streams of milk (the
four cardinal points: the four heads of the four rivers of Eden, etc., etc.)
and which "four" allegorically are symbolized by the cube in all its
various and mystical meanings.
The
Christians -- especially the Greek and
NOTE
* His triadic goddesses
are Sati and Anouki.
** Phtah was originally
the god of death, of destruction, like Siva. He is a solar god only by virtue
of the sun's fire killing as well as vivifying. He was the national god of
*** The Brahmanda Purana
contains the mystery about Brahma's golden egg fully; and this is why, perhaps,
it is inaccessible to the Orientalists, who say that this Purana, like the
Skanda, is "no longer procurable in a collective body," but "is
represented by a variety of Khandas and Mahatmyas professing to be derived from
it." The "Brahmanda Purana" is described as "that which is
declared in 12,200 verses, the magnificence of the egg of Brahma, and in which
an account of the future Kalpas is contained as revealed by Brahma." Quite
so, and much more, perchance.
of
salvation and of resurrection. This is found in and corroborated by the
time-honoured custom of exchanging "Easter Eggs." From the anguinum,
the "Egg" of the "pagan" Druid, whose name alone made
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