Theosophical Society,
THE
SECRET DOCTRINE
H P Blavatsky
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ON THE HIDDEN DEITY,
ITS SYMBOLS AND GLYPHS
THE
Logos or Creative deity, the "Word made Flesh," of every religion,
has to be traced to its ultimate source and Essence. In
In
the Zohar, En-Soph is also the ONE, and the infinite Unity. This was known to
the very few learned Fathers of the Church, who were aware that Jehovah was but
a third rate potency and no "highest" God. But while complaining
bitterly of the Gnostics and saying . . . "our Heretics hold . . . that
PROPATOR is known but to the Only begotten Son* (who is Brahma among the rest)
that is to the mind" (nous), Irenaeus never mentioned that the Jews did
the same in their real secret books. Valentinus, "the profoundest doctor
of the Gnosis," held that "there was a perfect AION who existed
before Bythos, or Buthon (the first father of unfathomable nature, which is the
second Logos) called Propator." It is thus AION, who springs as a Ray from
Ain-Soph (who does not create), and AION, who creates, or through whom, rather,
everything is created, or evolves.
NOTE
* As Mulaprakriti is
known only to Iswar, the LOGOS, as he is called now by Mr. T. Subba Row, of
For,
as the Basilidians taught, "there was a supreme god, Abraxas, by whom was
created mind" (Mahat, in Sanskrit, Nous in Greek). "From Mind
proceeded the word, Logos, from the word,
Nor
are most of the gnostic systems, which come down to us mutilated by the Church
Fathers, anything better than the distorted shells of the original
speculations. Nor were they open to the public or reader, at any time; i.e.,
had their hidden meaning or esotericism been revealed, it would have been no
more an esoteric teaching, and this could never be. Alone Marcus (the chief of
the Marcosians, 2nd century), who taught
THE GNOSTIC IDEA.
that
deity had to be viewed under the symbol of four syllables, gave out more of the
esoteric truths than any other Gnostic. But even he was never well understood.
For it is only on the surface or dead letter of his Revelation that it appears
that God is a quaternary, to wit: "the Ineffable, the Silence, the Father,
and Truth," -- in reality it is quite erroneous, and divulges only one
more esoteric riddle. This teaching of Marcus was that of the early Kabalists
and ours. For he makes of Deity, the number 30 in 4 syllables, which,
translated esoterically, means a Triad or Triangle, and a Quaternary or a
square, in all seven, which, on the lower plane made the seven divine or secret
letters of which the God-name is composed. This requires demonstration. In his
"Revelation," speaking of divine mysteries expressed by means of
letters and numbers, Marcus narrates how the "Supreme Tetrad came down
unto me (him) from the region which cannot be seen nor named, in a female form,
because the world would have been unable to bear her appearing under a male
figure," and revealed to him "the generation of the universe, untold
before to either gods or men."
This
first sentence already contains a double meaning. Why should a female figure be
more easily borne or listened to by the world than a male figure? On the very
face of it this appears nonsensical. Withal it is quite simple and clear to one
who is acquainted with the mystery-language. Esoteric Philosophy, or the Secret
Wisdom, was symbolized by a female form, while a male figure stood for the
Unveiled mystery. Hence, the world not being ready to receive, could not bear
it, and the Revelation of Marcus had to be given allegorically. Then he writes:
"When
first the Inconceivable, the Beingless and Sexless (the Kabalistic Ain-Soph)
began to be in labour (i.e., when the hour of manifesting Itself had struck)
and desired that Its Ineffable should be born (the first LOGOS, or AEon, or
Aion), and its invisible should be clothed with form, its mouth opened and
uttered the word like unto itself. This word (logos) manifested itself in the
form of the Invisible One. The uttering of the (ineffable) name (through the
word) came to pass in this manner. He (the Supreme Logos) uttered the first
word of his name, which is a syllable of four letters. Then the second syllable
was added, also of four letters. Then the third, composed of ten letters; and
after this the fourth, which contains twelve letters. The whole name consists
thus of thirty letters and of four syllables. Each letter has its own accent
and way of writing, but neither understands nor ever beholds that form of the
whole Name, -- no; not even the power of the letter that stands next to Itself
(to the Beingless and the Inconceivable.)* All these sounds when united are the
collective Beingless,
NOTE
* Iswara, or the Logos,
cannot see Parabrahmam, but only Mulaprakriti, says the lecturer, in the Four
Lectures on Bhagavatgita. (See Theosophist, Feb., 1887.)
unbegotten
AEon, and these are the Angels that are ever beholding the face of the Father*
(the Logos, the "second God," who stands next God, "the
Inconceivable," according to Philo).
This
is as plain as ancient esoteric secrecy would make it. It is as Kabalistic, but
less veiled than the Zohar in which the mystic names or attributes are also
four syllabled, twelve, forty-two, and even seventy-two syllabled words! The
Tetrad shows to Marcus the TRUTH in the shape of a naked woman, and letters
every limb of that figure, calling her head [[omega]], her neck [[psi]],
shoulders and hands [[gamma]], and [[chi]], etc., etc. In this Sephira is
easily recognised, the Crown (Kether) or head being numbered one; the brain or
Chochmah, 2; the heart, or Intelligence (Binah), 3; and the other seven
Sephiroth representing the limbs of the body. The Sephirothal Tree is the
Universe, and Adam Kadmon represents it in the West as Brahma represents it in
Throughout,
the 10 Sephiroth are represented as divided into the three higher, or the
spiritual Triad, and the lower Septenary. The true Esoteric meaning of the
sacred number seven is cleverly veiled in the Zohar; yet was betrayed by the
double way of writing "in the beginning" or Be-resheeth, and
Be-raishath, the latter the "Higher, or Upper Wisdom." As shown by
Mr. Macgregor Mathers in his Kabbalah (p. 47), and in the Qabbalah of Mr. T.
Myer (p. 233), both of these Kabalists being supported by the best ancient
authorities, these words have a dual and secret meaning. Braisheeth bara Elohim
means that the six, over which stands the seventh Sephiroth, belong to the
lower material class, or, as the author says: "Seven . . . . are applied
to the Lower Creation, and three to the spiritual man, the Heavenly Prototypic
or first Adam."
When
the Theosophists and Occultists say that God is no BEING, for IT is nothing,
No-Thing, they are more reverential and religiously respectful to the Deity
than those who call God a HE, and thus make of Him a gigantic MALE.
He
who studies the Kabala will soon find the same idea in the ultimate thought of
its authors, the earlier and great Hebrew Initiates, who got this secret Wisdom
at
NOTE
* The "Seven Angels
of the Face," with the Christians.
THE EGYPTIAN VERSION.
was
called the "Mother," Sophia with the Gnostics (or the female Wisdom),
the Sephira with the Jews, Saraswati or Vach, with the Hindus, the Holy Ghost
being a female Principle.
Hence,
born from it, the Kurios or Logos was, with the Greeks, the "God,
mind" (nous). "Now Koros (Kurios) signifies the pure and unmixed
nature of intellect -- wisdom," says Plato in "Cratylus"; and
Kurios is Mercury, the Divine Wisdom, and "mercury is the Sol" (Sun)
("Arnobius" vi., xii.), from whom Thot-Hermes received this divine
Wisdom. While, then, the Logoi of all countries and religions are correlative
(in their sexual aspects) with the female Soul of the World or the "Great
Deep;" the deity, from which these two in one have their being, is ever
concealed and called the "Hidden One," connected only indirectly with
Creation,* as it can act only through the Dual Force emanating from the Eternal
Essence. Even AEsculapius, called the "Saviour of all," is identical,
according to ancient classics, with Phta, the Egyptian Creative Intellect (or
Divine Wisdom), and with Apollo, Baal, Adonis and Hercules (see Dunlap's
"Mystery of Adonis," pp. 23 and 95); and Phta is, in one of its
aspects, the "Anima Mundi," the Universal Soul of Plato, the
"Divine Spirit" of the Egyptians, the "Holy Ghost" of the
early Christians and Gnostics, and the Akasa of the Hindus, and even, in its
lower aspect, the Astral Light. For Phta was originally the "God of the
Dead," he in whose bosom they were received, hence the Limbus of the Greek
Christians, or the Astral Light. It is far later that Phta was classed with the
Sun-gods, his name signifying "he who opens," as he is shown to be
the first to unveil the face of the dead mummy, to call the soul to life in his
bosom. (See Maspero's "
Returning
to the Kabalistic deity, this Concealed Unity is then [[hebrew]] = [[to pan]] =
[[apeiros]], Endless, Boundless, non-Existent, [[hebrew]] so
NOTE
* We use the term as one
accepted and sanctioned by use, and therefore more comprehensible to the
reader.
long
as the Absolute is within Oulom,* the boundless and termless time, as such,
En-Soph cannot be the Creator or even the modeller of the Universe, nor can he
be Aur (light). Therefore En-Soph is also Darkness. The immutably Infinite and
the absolutely Boundless can neither will, think, nor act. To do this it has to
become finite, and it does so, by its ray penetrating into the mundane egg --
infinite space -- and emanating from it as a finite god. All this is left to
the ray latent in the one. When the period arrives, the absolute will expands
naturally the force within it, according to the Law of which it is the inner
and ultimate Essence. The Hebrews did not adopt the egg as a symbol, but they
substituted for it the "Duplex heavens," for, translated correctly,
the sentence "God made the heavens and the earth" would read:--
"In and out of his own essence as a womb (the mundane egg), God created
the two heavens." But the Christians have chosen as the symbol of their
Holy Ghost, the dove.
"Whosoever
acquaints himself with [[hebrew]] the Mercaba and the lahgash (secret speech or
incantation), will learn the secret of secrets." Lahgash is nearly
identical in meaning with Vach, the hidden power of the Mantras.
When
the active period has arrived, from within the eternal essence of Ain-Soph,
comes forth Sephira, the active Power, called the Primordial Point, and the
Crown, Kether. It is only through her that the "Un-bounded Wisdom"
could give a concrete form to the abstract Thought. Two sides of the upper
triangle by which the ineffable Essence and the universe -- its manifested body
-- are symbolized, the right side and the base are composed of unbroken lines;
the third, the left side, is dotted. It is through the latter that emerges
Sephira. Spreading in every direction, she finally encompasses the whole
triangle. In this emanation the triple triad is formed. From the invisible Dew
falling from the higher Uni-triad (thus leaving 7 sephiroths only), the
"Head" Sephira creates primeval waters, i.e., Chaos takes shape. It
is the first stage towards the solidification of spirit which through various
modifications will produce earth. "It requires earth and water to make a
living soul," says Moses. It requires the image of an aquatic bird to
connect it with water, the female element of procreation with the egg and the
bird that fecundates it.
When
Sephira emerges like an active power from within the latent Deity, she is
female; when she assumes the office of a creator, she becomes a male; hence,
she is androgyne. She is the "Father and
NOTE
* With the ancient Jews,
as shown by Le Clerc, the word Oulom meant only a time whose beginning or end
is not known. The term "eternity," properly speaking, did not exist
in the Hebrew tongue with the meaning, for instance, applied by the Vedantins
to Parabrahm.
INTERNATIONAL
CORRELATION OF GODS.
Mother
Aditi," of the Hindu Cosmogony and of the Secret Doctrine. If the oldest
Hebrew scrolls had been preserved, the modern Jehovah-worshipper would have
found that many and uncomely were the symbols of the creative god. The frog in
the moon, typical of his generative character, was the most frequent. All the
birds and animals now held "unclean" in the Bible had been the
symbols of the Deity in days of old. It was because they were too sacred that a
mask of uncleanness was placed over them, in order to preserve them from
destruction. The brazen serpent was not a bit more poetical than the goose or
swan, if symbols are to be accepted a la lettre.
In
the words of the Zohar: "The Indivisible Point, which has no limit and
cannot be comprehended because of its purity and brightness, expanded from
without, forming a brightness that served the indivisible Point as a
veil;" yet the latter also "could not be viewed in consequence of its
immeasurable light. It too expanded from without, and this expansion was its
garment. Thus through a constant upheaving (motion) finally the world
originated" (Zohar I. 20a). The Spiritual substance sent forth by the
Infinite Light is the first Sephira or Shekinah: Sephira exoterically contains
all the other nine Sephiroths in her. Esoterically she contains but two,*
Chochmah or Wisdom, "a masculine, active potency whose divine name is Jah
([[diagram]])," and BINAH, a feminine passive potency, Intelligence,
represented by the divine name Jehovah ([[diagram]]); which two potencies form,
with Sephira the third, the Jewish trinity or the Crown, KETHER. These two
Sephiroths called Father, Abba, and Mother Amona, are the duad or the
double-sexed logos from which issued the other seven Sephiroths. (See Zohar.)
This first Jewish triad (Sephira, Chochmah, and Binah) is the Hindu Trimurti.*
However veiled, even in the Zohar, and more still in the exoteric Pantheon of
India, every particular connected with one is reproduced in the other. The
Prajapati are the Sephiroths. Ten with Brahma they dwindle to seven, when the
Trimurti, and the Kabalistic triad, are separated from the rest. The seven
Builders (Creators) become the seven Prajapati, or the seven Rishis, in the
same order as the Sephiroths become the Creators; then the Patriarchs, etc. In
both Secret Systems, the One Universal Essence is incomprehensible and inactive
in its absoluteness, and can be connected with the building of the Universe
only in an indirect way. In both, the primeval Malefemale or androgynous
Principle, and their ten and seven Emanations (Brahma-Viraj and Aditi-Vach on
the one part and the Elohim-Jehovah, or Adam-Adami (Adam Kadmon) and Sephira
Eve on the
NOTE
* In the Indian Pantheon
the double-sexed Logos is Brahma, the Creator, whose seven "mind
born" sons are the primeval Rishis -- the "Builders."
other),
with their Prajapati and Sephiroths, represent in their totality, first of all
the Archetypal man, the Proto-logos; and only in their secondary aspect do they
become Cosmic powers, and astronomical or sidereal bodies. If Aditi is the
mother of the gods, Deva-Matri, Eve is the mother of all living; they are the
Sakti or generative power in their female aspect of the "Heavenly
man," and they are all compound Creators. Says a "Gupta Vidya"
Sutra: "In the beginning, a ray issuing from Paramarthika (the one and
only true existence), it became manifested in Vyavaharika (conventional
existence) which was used as a Vahan to descend into the Universal Mother, and
to cause her to expand (swell, brih)." And in the Zohar it is stated:
"The Infinite Unity, formless and without similitude, after the form of
the heavenly man was created, used it. The Unknown Light* (Darkness) used the
[[hebrew]](heavenly form) as a chariot [[hebrew]] through which to descend, and
wished to be called by this form, which is the sacred name Jehovah."
As
the Zohar says: "In the beginning was the Will of the King, prior to any
other existence. . . . It (the Will) sketched the forms of all things that had
been concealed but now came into view. And there went forth as a sealed secret
from the head of Ain Soph, a nebulous spark of matter, without shape or form. .
. . Life is drawn from below, and from above the source renews itself, the sea
is always full and spreads its waters everywhere." Thus the deity is
compared to a shoreless sea, to water which is "the fountain of life"
(Zohar iii., 290). "The seventh palace, the fountain of life, is the first
in the order from above" (ii. 261). Hence the Kabalistic tenet on the lips
of the very Kabalistic Solomon, who says in Proverbs ix., 1: "Wisdom hath
builded her house; it hath hewn out its seven pillars."
Whence
then, all this identity of ideas, if there was no primeval UNIVERSAL
Revelation? The few points shown are like a few straws in a hayrick, in
comparison to that which will be shown as the work proceeds. If we turn to that
most hazy of all Cosmogonies -- the Chinese, even there the same idea is found.
Tsi-tsai (the Self-Existent) is the unknown Darkness, the root of the
Wuliang-sheu (Boundless Age), Amitabhe, and Tien (heaven) come later on. The
"great Extreme" of Confucius gives the same idea, his
"straws" notwithstanding. The latter are a source of great amusement
to the missionaries. These laugh at every "heathen" religion, despise
and hate that of their
NOTE
* Says Rabbi Simeon:
"Ah, 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 spoke; Let there be Light, and it was
Light' . . . and this is the two-fold man." ("Auszuge aus dem
Sohar," p. 13, 15.) Light, then, in Genesis stood for the Androgyne Ray or
"
ORNITHOLOGICAL SYMBOLS.
brother
Christians of other denominations, and yet one and all accept a la lettre their
own Genesis. If we turn to
The
first eight verses read thus:
1.
When above, were not raised the heavens;
2.
And below on the earth a plant had not grown up.
3.
The abyss had not broken its boundaries.
4.
The chaos (or water) Tiamat (the sea) was the producing mother of the whole of
them. (This is the Cosmical Aditi and Sephira.)
5.
Those waters at the beginning were ordained but --
6.
A tree had not grown, a flower had not unfolded.
7.
When the gods had not sprung up, any one of them.
8.
A plant had not grown, and order did not exist.
This
was the chaotic or ante-genetic period -- the double Swan and the Dark Swan,
which becomes white, when Light is created.*
The
symbol chosen for the majestic ideal of the Universal Principle will seem
little calculated to answer its sacred character. A goose, or even a swan, may
appear unfit, no doubt, to represent the grandeur of the Spirit. Nevertheless,
it must have had some deep occult meaning, since it figures not only in every
cosmogony and world religion, but even was chosen by the mediaeval Christians,
the Crusaders, as the vehicle of the Holy Ghost supposed to lead the army to
NOTE
* The Seven Swans that
are believed to land from Heaven into Lake Mansarovara, 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.
One
has to learn the reason of a symbol before one depreciates it. The dual element
of Air and Water is that of the ibis, swan, goose and pelican, of crocodiles
and frogs, lotus flowers and water lilies, &c.; and the result is the
choice of the most unseemly symbols among the modern as much as the ancient mystics.
Pan, the great god of nature, was generally figured in connection with aquatic
birds, geese especially, and so were other gods. If, later on, with the gradual
degeneration of religion, the gods to whom geese were sacred, became Priapic
deities, it does not stand to reason that water fowls were made sacred to Pan
and other Phallic deities as some scoffers even of antiquity would have it (see
Petronii Satyrica, cxxxvi.); but that the abstract and divine power of
procreative nature had become grossly anthropomorphized. Nor does the Swan of
Leda show "Priapic doings and her enjoyment thereof," as Mr. Hargrave
Jennings chastely expresses it -- for the myth is but another version of the
same philosophical idea of cosmogony. Swans are frequently found associated
with Apollo, as they are the emblems of water and fire (sun-light also), before
the separation of the Elements.
Our
modern symbologists might profit by some remarks made by a well-known writer,
Mrs. Lydia Maria Child. "From time immemorial an emblem has been
worshipped in Hindostan as the type of creation, or the origin of life. . . .
Siva or the Mahadeva being not only the reproducer of human forms, but also the
fructifying principle, the generative power that pervades the Universe. The
maternal emblem is likewise a religious type. This reverence for the production
of life, introduced into the worship of Osiris the sexual emblems. Is it
strange that they regarded with reverence the great mystery of human birth?
Were they impure thus to regard it? Or are we impure that do not so regard it?
But no clean and thoughtful mind could so regard them. . . . We have travelled
far, and unclean have been the paths, since those old Anchorites first spoke of
God and the soul in the solemn depths of their first sanctuaries. Let us not
smile at their mode of tracing the infinite and the incomprehensible Cause
throughout all the mysteries of nature, lest by so doing we cast the shadow of
our own grossness on their patriarchal simplicity." ("Progress of Religious
Ideas," Vol. 1, p. 17, et seq.)
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