part in the majestic drama of human life, each new people evolved from

ancestral traditions its own religion, giving it a local color, and stamping it with its individual characteristics. While each of these religions had its distinguishing traits, by which, were there no other archaic vestiges, the physical and psychological status of its creators could be estimated, all preserved a common likeness to one prototype. This parent cult was none other than the primitive ** wisdom-religion." The Israelitish Scrip- tures are no exception. Their national history — if they can claim any autonomy before the return from Babylon, and were anything more than migratory septs of Hindu pariahs, cannot be carried back a day beyond Moses ; and if this ex- Egyptian priest must, from theological necessity, be transformed into a Hebrew patriarch, we must insist that the Jewish nation was lifted with that smihng infant out. of the bulnishes of Lake Moeris. Abraham, their alleged father, belongs to the universal mythology. Most likely he is but one of the numerous aliases of Zeruan (Saturn), the king of the golden age, who is also called the old man (emblem of tune). ||
It is now demonstrated by Assyriologists that in the old Chaldean books Abraham is called Zeru-an, or Zerb-an — meaning one very rich in gold and silver, and a mighty prince. If He is also called Zarouan and Zarman — a decrepit old man. **
♦Justin : ** Cum. Trypho," p. 284. f A division indicative of time.
J Sanchoniathon calls time the oldest vEon, Protogonos, the *^ first^borny § Philo JudoEUs: ** Cain and his Birth," p. xviL
I Azrael, angel of death, is also Israel. Ad-ram meanfi father of elevation, high* placed father, ^or Saturn is the highest or outmost planet. T See Genesis xiii. 2. ** Saturn is generally represented as a very old man, with a sickle in his hand.
THE BABYLONIAN LEGEND OF XISUTHRUS. 21/
The ancient Babylonian legend is that Xisuthrus (Hasisadra of the Tablets, or Xisuthrus) sailed with his ark to Armenia, and his son Sim became supreme king. Pliny says that Sim was called Zeruan ; and Sim is Shem. In Hebrew, his name writes «». Shem — a sign. Assyria is held by the ethnologists to be the land of Shem, and Egypt called that of Ham. Shem, in the tenth chapter of Genesis is made the father of all the children of Eber, of Elam (Oulam or Eilam), and Ashur (Assur or Assyria). The " nephelim" or fallen men, GeberSy mighty men spoken of in Genesis (vi. 4), come from Oulam^ ** men of Shem,** Even Ophir, which is evidently to be sought for in the India of the days of Hiram, is made a descendant of Shem. The records are purposely mixed up to make them fit into the frame of the Mosaic Bible, But Genesis, from its first verse down to the last, has naught to do with the " chosen people ; " it belongs to the world's history. Its appropriation by the Jewish authors in the days of the so-called restoration of the destroyed books of the Is- raelites, by Ezra, proves nothing, and, until now, has been self-propped on an alleged divine revelation. It is simply a compilation of the uni- versal legends of the universal humanity. Bunsen says that in the " Chaldean tribe immediately connected with Abraham, we find remin- iscences of dates disfigured and misunderstood, as genealogies of single men, or indications of epochs. The Abrahamic recollections go back at least three millenia beyond the grandfather of Jacob." *
Alexander Polyhistor says that Abraham was born at Kamarina or Uria, a city of soothsayers, and invented astronomy, Josephus claims the same for Terah, Abraham's father. The tower of Babel was built as much by the direct descendants of Shem as by those of the " accursed " Ham and Canaan, for the people in those days were " one," and the " whole earth was of one language ; " and Babel was simply an astrologi- cal tower, and its builders were astrologers and adepts of the primitive Wisdom-Religion, or, again, what we term Secret Doctrine.
The Berosian Sybil says : Before the Tower, Zeru-an, Titan, and Yapetosthe governed the earth, Zeru-an wished to be supreme, but his two brothers resisted, when their sister, Astlik, intervened and appeased them. It was agreed that Zeru-an should rule, but his male children should be put to death ; and strong Titans were appointed to carry this into effect.
Sar (circle, saros) is the Babylonian god of the sky. He is also Assaros or Asshur (the son'of Shem), and Zero — Zero-ana, the chakkra, or wheel, boundless time. Hence, as the first step taken by Zoroaster, while founding his new religion, was to change the most sacred deities
♦ Bunsen : ** Egjrpt's Place in Universal History," vol. v., p. 8$.
21 8 ISIS UNVEILED.
of the Sanscrit Veda into names of evil spirits, in his Zend Scriptures^ and even to reject a number of them, we find no traces in the Avesta of Chakkra — the symbolic circle of the sky.
Elam, another of the sons of Shem, is Oulam tt^iy and refers to an order or cycle of events. In Ecdesiastes iii. ii, it is termed "world." In Ezekiel xxvi. 20, "of old time." In Genesis iii. 22, the word stands as " forever ;" and in chapter ix. 16, "eternal." Finally, the term is completely defined in Genesis vL 4, in the following words : " There were nephelim (giants, fallen men, or Titans) on the earth.** The word is synonymous with .^on, ouuv. In Proverbs viiL 23, it reads : " I was effused from Oulam^ from Ras^' (wisdom). By this sentence, the wise king-kabalist refers to one of the mysteries of the human spirit — the immortal crown of the man-trinity. While it ought to read as above, and be interpreted kabalistically to mean that the / (or my eternal, immortal Ego\ the spiritual entity, was effused from the boundless and nameless eternity, through the creative 'wisdom of the unknown God, it reads in the canonical translation : " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of bis way, before his works of old I " which is unintelligible nonsense, without the kabalistic interpretation. When Solomon is made to say that / was " from the beginning . . . while, as yet, he (the Supreme Deity) had not made the earth nor the highest part of the dust of the world ... I was there," and " when he appointed the foundations of the earth . . . then I was by him, as one brought up with him^' what can the kabalist mean by the " /," but his own divine spirit, a drop effused from that eternal fountain of light and wisdom — the imiversal spirit of the Deity ?
The thread of glory emitted by En-Soph from the highest of the three kabalistic heads, through which " all things shine with light," the thread which makes its exit through Adam Primus, is the individual spirit of every man. " I was daily his (En-Soph's) delight, rejoicing always be- fore him . . . and my delights were 7uith the sons of men,' adds Solo- mon, in the same chapter of the Prot'erbs, The immortal spirit delights in the sons of men, who, without this spirit, are but dualities (physical body and astral soul, or that life-principle which animates even the low- est of the animal kingdom). But, we have seen that the doctrine teaches that this spirit cannot unite itself with that man in whom matter and the grossest propensities of his animal soul will be ever crowding it out. Therefore, Solomon, who is made to speak under the inspiration of his own spirit, that possesses him for the time" being, utters the following words of wisdom : " Hearken unto me, my son " (the dual man), ••blessed are they who keep my ways. . . . Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates. . . . For whoso findcth me^ findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. . . . But he that
MEANING OF THE GNOSTIC iEON. 219
sinneth against me wrongeth his aum soul . . . and loves death *' (Prth verbs vii. 1-36).
This chapter, as interpreted, is made by some theologians, like every- thing else, to apply to Christ, the " Son of God," who states repeatedly, that he who follows him obtains eternal life, and conquers death. But even in its distorted translation it can be demonstrated that it referred to anything but to the alleged Saviour. Were we to accept it in this sense, then, the Christian theology would have to return, nolens volenSy to Averroism and Buddhism ; to the doctrine of emanation, in short ; for Solomon says : " I was effused " from Oulam and Rasit, both of which are a part of the Deity ; and thus Christ would not be as their doctrine claims, God himself, but only an emanation of Him, like the Christos of the Gnostics. Hence, the meaning of the personified Gnostic ^on, the word signifying cycles or determined periods in the eternity and at the same time, representing a hierarchy of celestial beings — spirits. Thus Christ is sometimes termed the " Eternal ^on." But the word " eternal " is erroneous in relation to the ^ons. Eternal is that which has neither beginning nor end ; but the '' Emanations " or .^£ons, although having lived as absorbed in the divine essence from the eternity, when once individually emanated, must be said to have a beginning. They may be therefore endless in this spiritual life, never eternal.
These endless emanations of the one First Cause, all of which were gradually transformed by the popular fancy into distinct gods, spirits, angels, and demons, were so little considered immortal, that all were assigned a limited existence. And this belief, common to all the peoples of antiquity, to the Chaldean Magi as well as to the Egyptians, and even in our day held by the Brahmanists and Buddhists, most triumphantly evidences the monotheism of the ancient religious systems. This doc- trine calls the life-period of all the inferior divinities, "one day of Para- brahma." After a cycle of fourteen milliards, three hundred and twenty^ miUions of human years — the tradition says — the trinity itself, with all the lesser divinities, will be annihilated, together with the universe, and cease to exist. Then another universe will gradually emerge from the pra- laya (dissolution), and men on earth will be enabled to comprehend SwAVAMBHUVA as he is. Alone, this primal cause will exist forever, in all his glory, filling the infinite space. What better proof could be adduced of the deep reverential feeling with which the " heathen '* regard the one Supreme eternal cause of all things visible and invisible.
This is again the source from which the ancient kabalists derived identical doctrines. If the Christians understood Genesis in their own way, and, if accepting the texts literally, they enforced upon the unedu- cated ma.sses the belief in a creation of our world out of nothing ; and
220 ISIS UNVEILED.
moreover assigned to it a beginning, it is surely not the Tanaim, the sole expounders of the hidden meaning contained in the Bible, who are to be blamed. No more than any other philosophers had they ever believed either in spontaneous, limited, or ex nihilo creations. The Kabala has survived to show that their philosophy was precisely that of the modern Nepal Buddhists, the Sv&bhdvikas. They believed in the eternity and the indestructibility of matter, and hence in many prior creations and destructions of worlds, before our own. "There were old worlds which perished." * " From this we see that the Holy One, blessed be His name, had successively created and destroyed sundry worlds, before he created the present world ; and when he created this world he said :
* This pleases me ; the previous ones did not please me.' "f Moreover, they believed, again like the SvAbhAvikas, now termed Atheists, that every thing proceeds (is created) from its own nature and that once that the first impulse is given by that Creative Force inherent in the " Self- created substance,'* or Sephira, everything evolves out of itself, following its pattern, the more spiritual prototype which precedes it in the scale of infinite creation. " The indivisible point which has no limit, and cannot be comprehended (for it is absolute), expanded from within, and formed a brightness which served as a garment (a veil) to the indivisible points.
• , . It, too, expanded from within. . . . Thus, everything originated through a constant upheaving agitation, and thus finally the world originated." J
In the later Zoroastrian books, after that Darius had restored both the worship of Ormazd and added to it the purer magianisra of the primi- tive Secret Wisdom — mnoa— nnt:5n, of which, as the inscription tells us, he was himself a hierophant, we see again reappearing the Zeru-ana, or boundless time, represented by the Brahmans in the chakkra, or a circle ; that we see figuring on the uplifted finger of the principal deities. Further on, we will show the relation in which it stands to the Pythago- rean, mystical numbers — the first and the last — which is a zero (O), and to the greatest of the Mystery-Gods lAO. The identity of this symbol alone, in all the old religions, is sufficient to show their common descent from one primitive Faith. § This term of "boundless time," which can be applied but to the one who has neither beginning nor end, is
♦ Idra Suta : '* Sohar," iii., p. 292 b. f Bereshith Rabba : ** Parsha," w,
{ "Sohar," i., p. 20 a.
§ ** The Sanscrit j," says Max Muller, **is represented by the z and h. Thus the geographical name * hapta hcndu/ which occurs in the * Avesta/ becomes intelligible, if we retranslate the z and h into the Sanscrit s. For * Sapta Sindhu/ or the seven rivers, is the old Vaidic name for India itself" ("Chips," vol. i., p. 81). The ** Avesta " is the spirit of the ** Vedas " — the esoteric meaning made partially known.
ZOROASTRIAN COSMOGONY AND ITS DERIVATIVES. 221
called by the Zoroastrians Zeruana-Akarene, because he has always existed. " His glory" they say, is too exalted, his light too resplendent for either human intellect or mortal eyes to grasp and see. His primal emana- tion is eternal light which, from having been previously concealed in darkness, was called out to manifest itself, and thus was formed Ormazd, "the King of Life." He is the first-born of boundless time, but like his own antitype, or preexisting spiritual idea, has lived within primitive darkness from all eternity. His Logos created the pure intellectual world. After the lapse of three grand cycles * he created the material world in six periods. The six Amshaspands, or primitive spiritual men, whom Ormazd created in his own image, are the mediators between this world and himself. Mithras is an emanation of the Logos and the chief of the twenty eight izeds, who are the tutelary angels over the spiritual portion of mankind — the souls of men. The Ferouers are infinite in number. They are the ideas or rather the ideal conceptions of things which formed themselves in the mind of Ormazd or Ahuramazda before he willed them to assume a concrete form. They are what Aristotle terms " privations " of forms and substances. The religion of Zarathus- tra, as he is always called in the Avesta^ is one from which the ancient Jews have the most borrowed. In one of the Yashts, Ahuramazda, the Supreme, gives to the seer as one of his sacred names, Ahmi^ " I am ; " and in another place, ahmi yat ahmi^ " I am that I am," as Jehovah is alleged to have given it to Moses.
This Cosmogony, adopted with a change of names in the Rabbinical Kabala^ found its way, later, with some additional speculations of Manes, the half- Magus, half-Platonist, into the great body of Gnosticism. The real doctrines of the Basilideans, Valentinians, and the Marcionites can- not be correctly ascertained in the prejudiced and calumnious writings of the Fathers of the Church ; but rather in what remains of the works of the Bardesanesians, known as the Nazarenes. It is next to impossible, now that all their manuscripts and books are destroyed, to assign to any of these sects its due part in dissenting views. But there are a few men still living who have preserved books and direct traditions about the Ophites, although they care little to impart them to the world. Among the unknown sects of Mount Lebanon and Palestine the truth has been concealed for more than a thousand years. And their diagram of the Ophite scheme differs with the description of it given by Origen and hence with the diagram of Matter, f
♦ What is generally understood in the ** A vesta '* S3rstem as a thousand years, meana^ in the esoteric doctrine, a cycle of a duration known but to the initiates and which hat an allegorical sense.
\ Matter : ^ ' Histoire Critique du Gnosticisme," pL x.
222 ISIS UNVEILED.
ITie kabalistic trinity is one of the models of the Christian one. " The ANCIENT whose name be sanctified, is with three heads, but which make only one." ♦ Tria capita exsculpa sunt^ unum intra alterum^ et alternm supra alterum. Three heads are inserted in one another, and one over the other. The first head is the Concealed Wisdom (Sapientia Abscon- dita). Under this head is the ancient (Pythagorean Monad), the most hidden of mysteries ; a head which is no head (caput quod non est caput) ; no one can know what that is in this head. No intellect is able to com- prehend this wisdom, f This Senior Sanctissimus is surrounded by tlie three heads. He is the eternal light of the wisdom ; and the wisdom is the source from which all the manifestations have begun. These three heads, included in one head (which is no head) ; and these three are bent down (overshadow) short-face (the son) and through them all things shine with light." J " En-Soph emits a thread from El or Ai (the highest God of the Trinity), and the light follows the thread and enters, and passing through makes its exit through Adam Primus (Kadmon), who is concealed until the plan for arranging (statum dispositionis) is ready ; it threads through him from his head to his feet ; and in him (iu the concealed Adam) is the figure of A man." §
" Whoso wishes to have an insight into the sacred unity, let him con- sider a flame rising from a burning coal or a burning lamp. He will see first a two-fold light — a bright white, and a black or blue light ; the white light is above, and ascends in a direct light, while the blue, or dark light, is below, and seems as the chair of the former, yet both are so intimately connected together that they constitute only one flame. The seat, how- ever, formed by the blue or dark light, is again connected with the burning matter which is under it again. The while light never changes its color, it always remains white ; but various shades are observed in the lowei light, whilst the lowest light, moreover, takes two directions ; above^ it is connected with the white light, and below with the burning matter. Now, this is constantly consuming itself, and perpetually ascends to the upper light, and thus everything merges into a single unity." ||
Such were the ancient ideas of the trinity in the unity, as an ab- straction. Man, who is the microcosmos of the macrocosmos, or of the
♦ Idra Suta: "Sohar,'* lit, p. 288.
t Ibid., sect. ii. t Ibid.,vii.
§ Jam vero quoniam hoc in loco recondita est ilia plane non utuntur, et tantum de parte lacis ejus particepant qtue demittitur et ingreditur intra filum Ain Soph pro- tensum e Persona ^^ (^^Z-God) deorsum : intratque et p>errumpit et tnuudt per Adam primum occultum uftque in statum dispositionis trantdtque per earn a capite usque ad pedes ejus : ^/ in eo estfigura hominis ( 246).
I **Sohar," i., p. 51 a.
THE KABALISTIC SHEKINAH. 223
archetypal heavenly man, Adam Kadmon, is likewise a trinity ; for he is body^ soul, and spirit
" All that is created by the * Ancient of the Ancients ' can live and exist only by a male and a female," says the Sohar. * He alone, to whom no one can say, " Thou," for he is the spirit of the White-Head in whom the " Three Heads " are united, is uncreated. Out of the sub- tile fire, on one side of the White Head, and of the "subtile air," on the other, emanates Shekinah, his veil (the femininized Holy Ghost). " This air,*' says Idra Rabba, " is the most occult (occultissimus) attribute of the Ancient of the Days, f The Ancienter of the Ancienter is the Concealed of the Concealed. X All things are Himself, and Himself is concealed on every way. § The cranium of the White-Head has no beginning, but its end has a shining reflection and a roundness which is our universe."
" They regard," says Klenker, " the first-bom as man and wife, in so far as his light includes in itself all other lights, and in so far as his spirit of life or breath of life includes all other life spirits in itself." | The kabalistic Shekinah answers to the Ophite Sophia. Properly speaking, Adam Kadmon is the Bythos, but in this emanation-system, where everything is calculated to peri>lex and place an obstacle to inquiry, he is the Source of Light, the first " primitive man," and at the same time Ennoia, the Thought of Bythos, the Depth, for he is Pimander.
The Gnostics, as well as the Nazarenes, allegorizing on the personifi- cation, said that the First and Second man loved the beauty of Sophia, (Sephira) the first woman, and thus the Father and the Son fecundated the heavenly " Woman " and, from primal darkness procreated the visi- ble light (Sephira is the Invisible, or Spiritual Light), " whom they called the Anointed Christum, or King Messiah." T" This Christus is the Adam of Dust before his fall, with the spirit of the Adonai, his Father, and Shekinah Adonai, his mother, \x\ion him ; for Adam Primus is Adon, Adonai, or Adonis. The primal existence manifests itself by its wisdom, and produces the Intelligible Logos (all visible creation). This wisdom was venerated by the Ophites under the form of a serpent. So far we see that the first and second life are the two Adams, or the first and the second man. In the former lies Eva, or the yet unborn spiritual Eve, and she is within Adam Primus^ for she is a part of him- self, who is androgyne. The Eva of dust, she who will be called in
♦ Book iii., p. 290. t *' Id™ Rabba,'' §§ 541, 543.
X Ibid., iii., p. 36. § Ibid., p. 171.
j *'Nat. und Urspr. d. Emanationslehre b.d. Kabbalisten,'' p. ii.
^ ** Irenaeus,'* p. 637.
224 ISIS UNVEILED.
Genesis " the mother of all that live," is within Adam the Second* And now, from the moment of its first manifestation, the Lord Mano, the Unintelligible Wisdom, disappears from the scene of action. It will manifest itself only as Shekinah, the grace ; for the Corona is " the innermost Light of all Lights," and hence it is darkness' s own sub- stance. *
In the Kabala, Shekinah is the ninth emanation of Sephira, which contains the whole of the ten Sephiroth within herself. She belongs to the third triad and is produced together with Malchuth or " Kingdom," of which she is the female counterpart. Otherwise she is held to be higher than any of these ; for she is the ** Divine Glory," the " veil," or " garment," of En-Soph. The Jews, whenever she is mentioned in the Targum^ say that she is the glory of Jehovah, which dwelt in the tab- ernacle, manifesting herself like a visible cloud ; the " Glory" rested over the Mercy-Seat in the Sanctum Sanctorum,
In the Nazarene or Bardesanian System, which may be termed the Kabala within the Kabala, the Ancient of Days — Antiquus AltuSy who is the Father of the Demiurgus of the universe, is called the Third Life, or Abatur ; and he is the Father of Fetahil, who is the architect of the visible universe, which he calls into existence by the powers of his genii, at the order of the " Greatest ; ** the Abatur answering to the " Father " of Jesus in the later Christian theology. These two superior Lives then, are the crown within which dwells the greatest Ferho, " Be- fore any creature came into existence the Lord Ferho existed." f This one is the First Life, formless and invisible ; in whom the living Spirit of Life exists, the Highest Grace. The two are one from eternity, for they are the Light and the cause of the Light. Therefore, they answer to the kabalistic concealed wisdom^ and to the concealed She- kinah— the Holy Ghost. " This light, which is manifested, is the gar- ment of the Heavenly Concealed," says Idra Suta. And the " heavenly man " is the superior Adam. "No one knows his paths except Macro- prosopus " (Long-face) — the Superior will I be read ; in this world my name will be written Jehovah and read Adonai," § say the Rabbins, very correctly. Adonai is the Adam Kad- mon ; he is Father and Mother both. By this double mediatorship the Spirit of the ** Ancient of the Ancient " descends upon the Micropro- sopus (Short-face) or the Adam of Eden. And the " Lord God breathes into his nostrils the breath of life."
When the woman separates herself from her androgyne, and becomes
♦ '* Idra Suta," ix. ; •* Kabbala Denudata ;" see Pythagoras : " Monad."
f ** Codex Nazarseus/' i., p. 145.
% ** Idra Rabba,*' viii., pp. 107-109. § ^' Ausziige aus dem Sohar,** p. Ii»
GNOSTIC, OPHITE, AND NAZARENE IDEAS. 22$
a distinct individuality, the first story is repeated over again. Both the Father and Son, the two Adams, love her beauty ; and then follows the allegory of the temptation and fall. It is in the Kabaia, as in the Ophite system, in which both the Ophis and the Ophiomorphos are emanations emblematized as serpents, the former representing Eternity, Wisdom, and Spirit (as in the Chaldean Magism of Aspic-worship and Wisdom- Doctrine in the olden times), and the latter Cunning, Envy, and Matter. Both spirit and matter are serpents ; and Adam Kadmon becomes the Ophis who tempts himself — man and woman — to taste of the " Tree of Good and Evil," in order to teach them the mysteries of spiritual wis- dom. Light tempts Darkness, and Darkness attracts Light, for Dark- ness is mattery and " the Highest Light shines not in its Tenebra,^* With knowledge comes the temptation of the Ophiomorphos, and he prevails. The dualism of every existing religion is shown forth by the fall. ** I have gotten a man from the Lord^* exclaims Eve, when the Dualism, Cain and Abel — evil and good — is bom. " And th^ Adam knew Hua, his woman {astu), and she became pregnant and bore Kin^ and she said: nin^— r« »•♦« ••na-pi Kiniti aisYsLVSL, — I have gained or obtained a husband, even Vava — Is, Ais — man." " Cum arbore peccati JDeus creavit seculum"
And now we will compare this system with that of the Jewish Gnos- tics— the Nazarenes, as well as with other philosophies.
The IsH Amon, the pleroma, or the boundless circle within which lie ** all forms," is the thought of the power divine ; it works in silence, and suddenly light is begotten by darkness ; it is called the second life ; and this one produces, or generates the third. This third light is " the FATHER of all things that live," as EuA is the " mother of all tliat live." He is the Creator who calls inert matter into life, through his vivifying spirit, and, therefore, is called the ancient of the world. Abatur is the Father who creates the first Adam, who creates in his turn the second. Abatur opens a gate and walks to the dark water (chaos), and looking down into it, the darkness reflects the image of Himself . . , and lo ! a Son is formed — the Logos or Demiurge ; Fetahil, who is the builder of the material world, is called into existence. According to the Gnostic dogma, this was the Metatron^ the Archangel Gabriel, or mes- senger of life ; or, as the biblical allegory has it, the androgynous Adam- Kadmon again, the Son, who, with his Father's spirit, produces the anointed, or Adam before his fall.
When Swayambhuva, the " Lord who exists through himself," feels impelled to manifest himself, he is thus described in the Hindu sacred books.
Having been impelled to produce various beings from his own divine
IS
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substance, he first manifested the waters which developed within them- selves a productive seed.
The seed became a germ bright as gold, blazing like the luminary with a thousand beams ; and in that egg he was born himself, in the form of Brahma, the great principle of all the beings (ManUy book i., slokas
8, 9).
The Egyptian Kneph, or Chnuphis, Divine Wisdom, represented by
a serpent, produces an egg from his mouth, from which issues Phtha. In this case Phtha represents the universal germ, as well as ^Brahma, who is of the neuter gender, when the final a has a diaresis on it ; * otherwise it becomes simply one of the names of the Deity. The former was the model of the Three Lives of the Nazarenes, as that of the kabalistic " Faces," Pharazupha, which, in its turn, furnished the model for the Christian Trinity of Irenaeus and his followers. The egg was the primi- tive matter which served as a material for the building of the visible uni- verse ;it contained, as well as the Gnostic Pleroma, the kabalistic She- kinah, the man and wife, the spirit and life, *' whose light includes ail other lights " or life-spirits. This first manifestation was symbolized by a serpent, which is at first divine wisdom, but, falling into generation^ becomes polluted. Phtha is the heavenly man, the Egyptian Adam- Kadmon, or Christ, who, in conjunction with the female Holy Ghost, the ZoE, produces the five elements, air, water, fire, earth, and ether ; the latter being a servile copy from the Buddhist A'd, and his five Dhyana Buddhas, as we have shown in the preceding chapter. The Hindu Swayambhuva-Nara, develops fi-om himself the mother-principle^ enclosed within his own divine essence — Nari, the immortal Virgin, who, when impregnated by his spirit, becomes TaumAtra, the mother of the five elements — air, water, fire, earth, and ether. Thus may be shown how from the Hindu cosmogony all others proceed.
Knorr von Rosenroth, busying himself with the interpretation of the Kabala^ argues that, " In tliis first state (of secret wisdom), the infinite God Himself can be understood as * Father * (of the new covenant). But the Light being let down by the Infinite through a canal into the * primal Adam,' or Messiah^ and joined with him, can be applied to the name Son. And the influx emitted down from him (the Son) to the lower parts (of the universe), can be applied to the character of the Holy Ghost.** f Sophia- Achamoth, the half-spiritual, half-material Life, which vivifies the inert matter in the depths of chaos, is the Holy Ghost of the Gnostics, and the Spiritus (female) of the Nazarenes. She is — be it re-
* He is the universal and spiritual germ of cUl things, t "Ad. Kabb. Chr.," p. 6.
COMPARISON WITH HINDU MYTHS. 22/
membered — the sister of Christos, the perfect emanation, and both are children or emanations of Sophia, the purely spiritual and intellectual daughter of IJythos, the Depth. For the elder Sophia is Shekinah, the Face of God, " God's Shekinah, which is his image." *
"The Son Zeus-Belus, or Sol-Mithra is an image of the Father, an emanation from the Supreme Light*' says Movers. " He passed for Creator." \
" Philosophers say the first air is anitna mundi. But the garment (Shekinah) is higher than the first air, since it is joined closer to the En- Soph, the Boundless." J Thus Sophia is Shekinah, and Sophia- Achamoth the anima mtmdiy the astral light of the kabalists, which contains the spiritual and material germs of all that is. For the Sophia- Achamoth, like jEve, of whom she is the prototype, is " the mother of all that live."
There are three trinities in the Nazarene system as well as in the Hindu philosophy of the ante and early Vedic period. While we see the few translators of the Kabala^ the Nazarene Codex, and other abstruse works, hopelessly floundering amid the interminable pantheon of names, unable to agree as to a system in which to classify them, for the one hypothesis contradicts and overturns the other, we can but wonder at ail this trouble, which could be so easily overcome. But even now, when the translation, and even the perusal of the ancient Sanscrit has become so easy as a point of comparison, they would never think it possible that every philosophy — whether Semitic, Hamitic, or Turanian, as they call rt, has its key in the Hindu sacred works. Still facts are there, and facts are not easily destroyed. Thus, while we find the Hindu trimurti triply manifested as
Nara (or Para-Pouroucha), Agni, Brahma, the Father,
Nari (Mariama), Vaya, Vishnu, the Mother,
Viradj (Brahma), Surya, Siva, the Son,
and the Egyptian trinity as follows :
Kneph (or Amon), Osiris, Ra (Horns), the Father,
Maut (or Mut), Isis, Isis, the Mother,
Khons, Horns, Malouli, the Son ; §
the Nazarene System runs,
Kerho (Ish-Amon), Mano, Abatur, the Father,
Chaos (dark water), Spiritus (female), Netubto, the Mother,
Fetahil, Ledhaio, Lord Jordan, the Son.
The first is the concealed or non-manifested trinity — a pure abstrac- tion. The other the active or the one revealed in the results of creation,
• " Sohar,** p. 93. t " Movers," p. 265.
X "Kabbala Denudata," vol. ii., p. 236. § Champollion, Junior: " Lettres."
228 ISIS UNVEILED.
proceeding out of the former — its spiritual prototype. The third is the mutilated image of both the others, crystallized in the form of human dogmas, which vary according to the exuberance of the national mate- rialistic fancy.
The Supreme Lord of splendor and of light, luminous and refulgent, before which no other existed, is called Corona (the crown) ; Lord Ferho, the unrevealed life which existed in the former from eternity ; and Lord Jordan — the spirit, the living water of grace. ♦ He is the one through whom alone we can be saved ; and thus he £^nswers to the Shekinah, the spiritual garment of En-Soph, or the Holy Ghost. These three constitute the trinity in abscondito. The second trinity is composed of the three lives. The first is the similitude of Lord Ferho, through whom he has proceeded forth ; and the second Ferho is the King of Light — Mano {Rex Lucis). He is the heavenly life and light, and older than the Architect of heaven and earth.t The second life is Ish Anton (Pleroma), the vase of election, containing the visible thought of the lordanus Max- imus — the type (or its intelligible reflection), the prototype of the living water, who is the " spiritual Jordan.*' J Third Hfe, which is produced by the other two, is Abatur {Ab, the Parent or Father). This is the mysterious and decrepit " Aged of the Aged," the " Ancient Senem sui obtegentem et grandizvum mundir This latter third I^ife is the Father of the Demiurge Fetahil, the Creator of the world, whom the Ophites call Ilda-Baoth, § though Fetahil is the only-begotten one, the reflection of the Father, Abatur, who begets him by looking into the " dark water ; " | but the Lord Mano, " the Lord of loftiness, the Lord of all genii," is higher than the Father, in this kabaHstic Codex — one is purely spiritual, the other material. So, or instance, while Abatur's "only begotten" one is the genius Fetahil, the Creator of the physical world, Lord Mano, the ** I^ord of Celsitude," who is the son of Him, who is "the Father of all who preach the Gospel," produces also an " only-begotten " one, the Lord Lehdaio, "a just Lord." He is the Christos, the anointed, who pours out the " grace " of the Invisible Jordan, the Spirit of the Highest Crown.
In the Arcanum, " in the assembly of splendor, lighted by Mano, to whom the scintillas of splendor owe their origin," the genii who live in light " rose, they went to the visible Jordan, and flowing water . . . they assembled for a counsel . . . and called forth the Only-Begotten Son
♦ "Codex Nazaraeus," vol. ii., pp. 47-57. \ Ibid., vol. i., p. 145. X Ibid., vol. ii., p. 211. § Ibid., vol. I, p. 308.
Il Sophia- Achamoth also begets her son Ilda-Baoth, the Demiurge , by looking into chaos or matter, and by coming in contact with it.
AN APOCALYPTIC ALLEGORY EXPLAINED. 229
I of an imperishable image, and who cannot be conceived by reflection,
Lehdaio, the just Lord, and sprung from Lehdaio, the just lord, whom
the life had produced by his word." *
Mano is the chief of the seven -^ons, who are Mano {/^ex Lucis) Aiar Zivo, Ignis Vivus, Lux, Vita, Aqua Viva (the living water of baptism, the genius of the Jordan), and Ipsa Vita, the chief of the six genii, which form with him the mystic seven. The Nazarene Mano is simply the copy of the Hindu first Manu — the emanation of Manu Swayambhuva — from whom evolve in succession the six other Manus, types of the subsequent races of men. We find them all represented by the apostle-kabalist John in the " seven lamps of fire " burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God," \ and in the seven angels bearing the seven vials. Again in Fetahil we recognize the original of the Christian doctrine.
In the Revelation of Joannes Theologos it is said : " I turned and saw in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man ... his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow ; and his eyes were as a flame of fire . . . and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace" (i. 13, 14, 15). John here repeats, as is well known, the words of Daniel and Ezekiel. " The Ancient of Days . . . whose hair was white as pure wool . . . etc." And " the appear- ance of a man . . . above the throne . . . and the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about." J The fire being " the glory of the Lord." Fetahil is son of the man, the Third Life, and his upper part is represented as white as snow, while standing near the throne of the living fire he has the appearance of a flame.
All these " apocalyptic " visions are based on the description of the " white head " of the Sohar, in whom the kabalistic trinity is united. The white head, *' which conceals in its cranium the spirit," and which is environed by subtile fire. The " appearance of a man " is that of Adam Kadmon, through which passes the thread of light represented by the fire. Fetahil is the Vir Novissimis (the newest man), the son of Abatur,§ the latter being the " man," or the third life, | now the third personage of the trinity. John sees '^ one like unto the son of man," holding in his right hand seven stars, and standing between " seven golden candle- sticks" {Revelation L). Fetahil takes his " stand on high," according to the will of his father, " the highest JEon who has seven sceptres," and
♦ ** Codex Nazaraeus," vol ii., p. 109. See '* Sod, the Son of the Man," for trans* lation.
f Revelation iv. 5. % Ezekiel. § ** Codex Nazarseos/* voL iu, p. 127.
I The first androgyne duad being considered a unit in ail the secret compatationa^ is, therefore, the Holy Ghost.
230 ISIS UNVEILED.
seven genii, who astronomically represent the seven planets or stars. He stands ** shining in the garment of the Lord's, resplendent by the agency of the genii," ♦ He is the Son of his Father, Life, and his mother, Spirit, or Light, f The Logos is represented in the Gospel according to John as one in whom was *'^ LifCy and the life was the light of men" (i. 4). Fetahil is the Demiurge, and his father created the visible universe of matter through him. J In the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians (iii. 9), God is said to have ** created cUl things by Jesus." In the Codex the Parent-LiFE says : " Arise, go, our son first-begotten, ordained for all creatures." § "As the living father hath sent me," says Christ, "God sent his only-begotten son that we might live." \ Finally, having per- formed his work on earth, Fetahil reascends to his father Abatur. " Et qui^ relicto quern procreavit mundo, ad Abatur suum pair em contendity \ " My father sent me ... I go to the Father," repeats Jesus.
Laying aside the theological disputes of Christianity which try to blend together the Jewish Creator of the first chapter of Genesis with the "Father" of the New Testament^ Jesus states repeatedly of his Father that " He is in secret,^* Surely he would not have so termed the ever-present " Lord God" of the Mosaic books, who showed Himself to Moses and the Patriarchs, and finally allowed all the elders of Israel to look on Himself. ^* When Jesus is made to speak of the temple at Jerusalem as of his "Father's house," he does not mean the physical building, which he maintains he can destroy and then again rebuild in diree days, but of the temple of Solomon ; the wise kabalist, who indi- cates in his Proverbs that every man is the temple of God, or of his own divine spirit. This term of the " Father who is in secret," we find used as much in the Kabala as in the Codex NazarceuSy and elsewhere. No one has ever seen the wisdom concealed in the "Cranium," and no one has beheld the " Depth " (Bythos). Simon, the Magician^ preached " one Father unknown to all." ff
We can trace this appellation of a " secret " God still farther back. In the Kabala the " Son " of the concealed Father who dwells in light and glory, is the "Anointed," the Seir-Anpin, who unites in himself all the Sephiroth, he is Christos, or the Heavenly man. It is through Christ that the Pneuma, or the Holy Ghost, creates "all things"
* *
\ Ibid., vol. i., p. 309.
§ Ibid, vol L, p. 287. See " Sod, the Son of the Man," p. 101. \ John iv. 9. T ** Codex Nazaracus," vol. ii., p. 123.
** " Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the dders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel^'* Exodus xxiv. 9, 10. ff Irenseus: " Clementine Homilies," I., xxii., p. 118.
WHAT ARE THE CHERUBIM AND SERAPHIM? 23 1
{Ephesians iiL 9), and produces the four elements, air, water, fire, and earth. This assertion is unquestionable, for we find Irenaeus basing on this fact his best argument for the necessity of there being four gospels. There can be neither more nor fewer than four — ^he argues. " For as there are four quarters of the world, and four general winds (fca^oXiica nrcvfiara) . . . it is right that she (the Church) should have four pillars. From which it is manifest that the Word, the maker of all, he who sitteth upon the Cherubim ... as David says, supplicating his advent, 'Thou that sittest between the Cherubim, shine forth ! ' For the Cherubim also are four-faced and their faces are symbols of the working of the Son of God." *
We will not stop to discuss at length the special holiness of the four- faced Cherubim, although we might, perhaps, show their origin in all the ancient pagodas of India, in the vehans (or vehicles) of their chief gods ; as likewise we might easily attribute the respect paid to them to the kabalistic wisdom, which, nevertheless, the Church rejects with great horror. But, we cannot resist the temptation to remind the reader that he may easily ascertain the several significances attributed to these Cherubs by reading the Kabala. *' When the souls are to leave their abode," says the Sohar^ holding to the doctrine of the pre-exist- ence of souls in the world of emanations, *' each soul separately appears before the Holy King, dressed in a sublime form, with the fea^ tures in which it is to appear in this world. It is from this sublime form that the image proceeds " (Sohar^ iii., p. 104 ab). Then it goes on to say that the types or forms of these faces are four in number — those of the angel or man, of the lion, the bull, and the eagle." Furthermore, we may well express our wonder that Irenaeus should not have re-en- forced his argument for the four gospels — by citing the whole Pantheon of the four-armed Hindu gods ?
Ezekiel in representing his four animals, now called Cherubim, as t3^es of the four symbolical beings, which, in his visions support the throne of Jehovah, had not far to go for his models. The Chaldeo- Babylonian protecting genii were familiar to him; the Sed, Alap or Kirub (Cherubim), the bull, with the human face ; the Nirgal, human- headed lion ; Oustour the Sphinx-man ; and the Nathga, with its eagle's head. The religion of the masters — the idolatrous Babylonians and Assyrians — was transferred almost bodily into the revealed Scripture of the Captives, and from thence came into Christianity.
Already, we find Ezekiel addressed by the likeness of the glory of the Lord, " as Son of man." This peculiar title is used repeatedly
«
Adv. Has.," III., il, 18.
232 ISIS UNVEILED.
throughout the whole book of this prophet, which is as kabalistic as the ** roll of a book ** which the " Glory " causes hira to eat. It is writ- ten within and without ; and its real meaning is identical with that of the Apocalypse, It appears strange that so much stress should be laid on this peculiar appellation, said to have been applied by Jesus to him- self, when, in the symbolical or kabalistic language, a prophet is so addressed. It is as extraordinary to see Irenaeus indulging in such graphic descriptions of Jesus as to show him, '^ the maker of all, sitting upon a Cherubim," unless he identifies him with Shekinah, whose usual place was among the Charoubs of the Mercy Seat. We also know that the Cherubim and Seraphim are titles of the " Old Serpent " (the ortho- dox Devil) the Seraphs being the burning or fiery seri>ents, in kabalistic symbolism. The ten emanations of Adam Kadmon, called the Sephiroth, have all emblems and titles corresponding to each. So, for instance, the last two are Victory, or Jehovah-Sabaoth, whose symbol is the right column of Solomon, the Pillar Jachin ; while glory is the left Pillar, or Boaz, and its name is " the Old Serpent," and also ** Sera- phim and Cherubim." *
The " Son of man "is an appellation which could not be assumed by any one but a kabalist. Except, as shown above,, in the Oid Testa- ment, it is used but by one prophet — Ezekiel, the kabalist. In their mysterious and mutual relations, the ^ons or Sephiroth are represented in the Kahala by a great number of circles, and sometimes by the figure of a MAN, which is symbolically fonned out of such circles. This man is Seir-Anpin, and the 243 numbers of which his figure consists relate to the different orders of the celestial hierarchy. The original idea of this figure, or rather the model, may have been taken from the Hindu Brahma, and the various castes typified by the several parts of his body, as King suggests in his Gnostics, In one of the grandest and most beautiful cave-temples at EUora, Nasak, dedicated to Vishvakarma, son of Brahma, is a representation of this God and his attributes. To one acquainted with Ezekiel's description of the ** likeness of four living creatures," every one of which had four faces and the hands of a man under its wings, etc., f this figure at EUora must certainly appear absolutely biblical. Brahma is called the father of ^' man," as well as Jupiter and other highest gods.
It is in the Buddhistic representations of Mount Mem, called by the Burmese My^-nmo, and by the Siamese Sineru, that we find one of the originals of the Adam Kadmon, Seir-Anpin, the " heavenly man," and of all the ^ons, Sephiroth, Powers, Dominions, Thrones, Virtues, and
♦ See King^s ** Gnostics," f Ezekiel L-il
THE INDIAN MERU-GODS, SEPHIROTH. 233
Dignities of the Kabala, Between two pillars, which are connected by an arch, the key-stone of the latter is represented by a crescent. This is the domain in which dwells the Supreme Wisdom of A'di Buddha, the Su[)reme and invisible Deity. Beneath this highest central point comes the circle of the direct emanation of the Unknown — the circle of Brahma with some Hindus, of the first avatar of Buddha, according to others. This answers to Adam Kadmon and the ten Sephiroth. Nine of the emanations are encircled by the tenth, and occasionally represented by pagodas, each of which bears a name which expresses one of the chief attributes of the manifested Deity. Then below come the seven stages, or heavenly spheres, each sphere being encircled by a sea. These are the celestial mansions of the devatas^ or gods, each losing somewhat in hohness and purity as it approaches the earth. Then comes Meru itself, formed of numberless circles within three large ones, typifying the trinity of man ; and for one acquainted with the numerical value of the letters in biblical names, like that of the '* Great Beast," or that of Mithra fieiOpa^ appaia^Sf and others, it is an easy matter to establish the identity of the Meru-gods with the emanations or Sephiroth of the kabalists. Also the genii of the Nazarenes, with their special missions, are all found on this most ancient mythos, a most perfect representation of the symbolism of the "secret doctrine," as taught in archaic ages.
King gives a few hints — though doubtless too insufficient to teacli anything important, for they are based upon the calculations of Bishop Newton ♦ — as to this mode of finding out mysteries in the value of letters. However, we find this great archaeologist, who has devoted so much time and labor to the study of Gnostic gems, corroborating our assertion. He shows that the entire theory is Hindu, and points out that the durga, or female counterpart of each Asiatic god, is what the kabalists term active Virtue \ in the celestial hierarchy, a term which the Christian Fathers adopted and repeated, without fully appreciating, and the meaning of which the later theology has utterly disfigured. But to return to Mem.
♦ " Gnostics and their Remains.*'
f ** Although this science is commonly supposed to be peculiar to the Jewish Tal- mudists, there is no doubt that they borrowed the idea from a foreign source, and that from the Chaldeans, the founders of magic art^^ says King, in the ** Gnostics." The titles lao and Abraxas, etc., instead of being recent Gnostic figments, were indeed holy names, borrowed from the most ancient formulae of the East. Pliny must allude to them when he mentions the virtues ascribed by the Magi to amethysts engraved with the names of the sun and moon, names not expressed in either the Gieek or Latin tongues In the *' Eternal Sun ^'*'* the ''^ Abraxas ^^'^ the ** Adonai^'* of these gems, we recognize the very amulets ridiculed by the philosophic Pliny ('* Gnostics,'* pp. 79, 80) ; Virtutes (miracles) as employed by Irenseus.
234 ISIS UNVEILED.
The whole is surrounded by the Maha Samut, or the great sea — the astral light and ether of the kabalists and scientists; and within the cen- tral circles appears ** the likeness of a man." He is the Achadoth of the Nazarenes, the twofold unity, or the androgyne man ; the heavenly incarnation, and a perfect representation of Seir-Anpin (short-face), the son of A rich Atipin (long-face). * This likeness is now represented in many lamaseries by Gautama-Buddha, the last of the incarnated avatars. Still lower, under the Meru, is the dwelling of the great Naga, who is called Rajah Naga, the king-serpent — the serpent of Genesis, the Gnostic Ophis — and the goddess of the earth, Bhumay Nari, or Yama, who waits upon the great dragon, for she is Eve, " the mother of all that live.'* Still lower is the eighth sphere, the infernal regions. The uppermost regions of Brahma are surrounded by the sun, moon, and planets, the seven stel- lars of the Nazarenes, and just as they are described in the Codex.
" The seven impostor-Daemons who deceive the sons of Adam. The name of one is Sol ; of another Spiritus Vcncreus, Astro ; of the third Nehu, Mercurius a false Messiah; . . . the name of a fourth is Sin Luna; the fifth is Kiun, Saturnus; the sixth, Bel-Zeus; the seventh, Nerig-J/^rj." f Then there are " Seven Lives procreated," seven good Stellars, ^' which are from Cabar Zio, and are those bright ones who shine in their own form and splendor that pours from on high. ... At the gate of the House of Lifk the throne is fitly placed for the Lord of Splendor, and there are three habitations." J The habitations of the Trimurtiy the Hindu trinity, are placed beneath the key-stone — the golden crescent, in the representation of Meru. ** And there was under his feet (of the God of Israel) as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone " (Exodus xxiv. id). Under the crescent is the heaven of Brahma, all paved with sapphires. The paradise of Indra is resplendent with a thou- sand suns ; that of Siva (Saturn), is in the northeast ; his throne is formed of lapis-lazuli and the floor of heaven is of fervid gold. " When he sits on the throne he blazes with fire up to the loins.'* At Hurdwar, during the fair, in which he is more than ever Mahadeva, the highest god, the attributes and emblems sacred to the Jewish " Lord God," may be recog- nized one by one in those of Siva. The Binlang stone, § sacred to this Hindu deity, is an unhewn stone like the Beth -el, consecrated by the Patriarch Jacob, and set up by him ** for a pillar," and like the latter
* So called to distinguish the short-face, who is exterior^ '* from the venerable sacred ancient " (the ** Idra Rabba,^* iil, 36 ; v 54), Seir-Anpin is the ** image of the Father." ** He that hath seen me hath seen my Father " (John xiv. 9).
I ** Codex Nazaraeus," vol. iii., p. 57. J Ibid., vol. ill, p. 61.
g This stone, of a sponge-like surface, is found in Narmada and seldom to be seen in other places.
THE EVANGELIST JOHN DESCRIBES SIVA. 235
Binlang is anointed. We need hardly remind the student that the linga^ the emblem sacred to Siva and whose temples are modelled after this form, is identical in shape, meaning, and purpose with the " pillars " set up by the several patriarchs to mark their adoration of the Lord God. In fact, one of these patrfarchal lithoi might even now be carried in the Sivaitic processions of Calcutta, without its Hebrew derivation being sus- pected. The four arms of Siva are often represented with appendages like wings ; he has three eyes and a fourth in the crescent, obtained by him at the churning of the ocean, as Pancha Mukhti Siva has four heads.
In this god we recognize the description given by Ezekiel, in the first chapter of his book, of his vision, in which he beholds the '* likeness of a^ man" in the four living creatures, who had **four faces, four wings,** who had one pair of " straight feet . . . which sparkled like the color of burnished brass . . . and their rings were full of eyes round about them four." It is the throne and heaven of Siva that the prophet describes in saying ^ . . . and there was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone . . . and I saw as the color of amber (gold) as the ap- pearance of fire around about . . . from his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appear- ance of fire*' (Ezekiel I, 27). "And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace'* {Revelation i. 15). "As for their faces . . . one had the face of a cherub, and the face of a lion . . . they also had the face of an ox and the face of an eagle " {Ezekiel i. 10, x. 14). This fourfold appearance which we find in the two cherubims of gold on the two ends of the ark; these symbolic (our faces being adopted, moreover, later, one by each evangelist, as may be easily ascertained from the pictures of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,* prefixed to their respective gospels in the Roman Vulgate and Greek Bibles.
** Taaut, the great god of the Phoenicians," says Sanchoniathon, " to express the character of Saturn or Kronos, made his image having four eyes . . . two before, two behind, open and closed, and four wings, two expanjrfed, two folded. The eyes denote that the god sees in sleep, and sleeps in waking ; the position of the wings that he fiies in rest, and rests in flying."
The identity of Saturn with Siva is corroborated still more when we consider the emblem of the latter, the damara, which is an hour-glass, to show the progress of time, represented by this god in his capacity of a destroyer. The bull Nardi, the vehan of Siva and the most sacred em-
* John has an eagle near him ; Luke, a bull ; Mark, a lion ; and Matthew, an angel — the kabalistic quaternary of the Egyptian Tarot.
236 ISIS UNVEILED.
blem of this god, is reproduced in the Egyptian Apis ; and in the bull created by Ormazd and killed by Ahriman. The religion of Zoroaster, all based upon the ** secret doctrine," is found held by the people of Eritene ; it was the religion of the Persians when they conquered the Assyrians. From thence it is easy to trace the introduction of this em- blem of Life represented by the Bull, in every religious system. The college of the Magians had accepted it with the change of dynasty ; ♦ Daniel is described as a Rabbi, the chief of the Babylonian astrologers and Magi ; f therefore we see the Assyrian little bulls and the attributes of Siva reappearing under a hardly modified form in the cherubs of the Talmudistic Jews, as we have traced the bull Apis in the sphinxes or cherubs of the Mosaic Ark ; and as we find it several thousand years later in the company of one of tlie Christian evangelists, Luke.
Whoever has lived in India long enough to acquaint himself even superficially with the native deities, must detect the similarity between Jehovah and other gods besides Siva. As Satuni, the latter was always held in great respect by the Talmudists. He was held in reverence by the Alexandrian kabalists as the direct inspirer of the law and the prophets ; one of the names of Saturn was Israel, and we will show, in time, his identity in a certain way with Abram, which Movers and others hinted at long since. Thus it cannot be wondered at if Valen- tinus, Basil ides, and the Ophite Gnostics placed the dwelling of theii* Ilda-Baoth, also a destroyer as well as a creator, in the planet Saturn ; for it was he who gave the law in the wilderness and spoke through the prophets. If more proof should be required we will show it in the testi- mony of the canonical Bible itself. In Amos the " Lord " pours vials of wrath upon the people of Israel. He rejects their burnt-offerings and will not listen to their prayers, but inquires of Amos, " have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel ? '* '** But ye have borne the tabernacles of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god^^ (v. 25, 26). Who are Moloch and Chiun but Baal — Saturn — Siva, and Chiun^ Kivan, the same Saturn whose star the Israelites had made to themselves ? There seems no escape in this case ; all these deities are identical.
The same in the case of the numerous Logoi. While the Zoroastrian Sosiosh is framed on that of the tenth Brahmanical Avatar, and the fifth Buddha of the followers of Gautama ; and we find the former, after having passed part and parcel into the kabalistic system of king Messiah, re- flected in the Apostle Gabriel of the Nazarenes, and ^bel-Zivo, the I^egatus, sent on earth by the Lord of Celsitude and Light ; all of these —
♦ See Matter, upon the subject. \ Consult Book of Daniel, iv., ▼.
THE PERSIAN SOSIOSH IN THE APOCALYPSE. 23/
Hindu and Persian, Buddhist and Jewish, the Christos of the Gnostics and the Philonean Logos — are found combined in '*the Word made flesh'* of the fourth Gospel, Christianity includes all these systems, patched and arranged to meet the occasion. Do we take up the Avesta — we find there the dual system so prevalent in the Christian scheme. The struggle between Ahriman, * Darkness, and Ormazd, Light, has been going on in the world continually since the beginning of time. When the worst anives and Ahriman will seem to have conquered the world and corrupted all mankind, then will appear the Saviour oi mankind, Sosiosh. He will come seated upon a white horse and followed by an army of good genii equally mounted on milk-white steeds, f And this we find faith- fully copied in the Revelation : ** I saw heaven opened, and beheld a white horse ; and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true. . . . And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses " {Ra^elation xix. ii, 14). Sosiosh himself is but a later V^rsxtin permu- tation of the Hindu Vishnu. The figure of this god may be found unto this day representing him as the Saviour, the " Preserver " (the preserv- ing spirit of God), in the temple of Rama. The picture shows him in his tenth incarnation — the Kalki avatar^ which is yet to come — as an armed warrior mounted upon a white horse. Waving over his head the sword destruction, he holds in his other hand a discus, made up of rings en- circled in one another, an emblem of the revolving cycles or great ages,^ for Vishnu will thus appear but at the end of the Kaliyug^ answering to the end of the world expected by our Adventists. ** And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword ... on his head were many crowns" {Revelation xix. 12). Vishnu is often represented with several crowns superposed on his head. " And I saw an angel standing on the Sun '* (17). The white horse is the horse of the *S//«.§ Sosiosh, the Persian Saviour, is also born of a virgin, \ and at the end of days he will come as a Redeemer to regenerate the world, but he will be preceded by two prophets, who will come to announce him. ^ Hence the Jews who had Moses and Ellas, are now waiting for the Messiah. ** Then comes the
* Ahriman, the production of Zoroaster, is so called in hatred of the Arias or Aryas, the Brahmans against whose dominion the Zoroastrians had revolted. Although an Arya (a noble, a sage) himself, Zoroaster, as in the case of the Devas whom he dis- graced from gods to the position of devils, hesitated not to designate this type of the spirit of evil under the name of his enemies, the Brahman-Aryas. The whole struggle of Ahura-mazd and Ahriman is but the allegory of the great religious and political war between Brahman ism and Zoroastrianism.
f '* Nork," ii., 146. % Rev. Mr. Maurice takes it also to mean the cycles.
§ ** Duncker,*^ ii., 363 ; Spiegel's " Avesta," L, 32, 34.
I Bee the " Book of Dehesh," 47.
IT See King's translation of the ** Zend Avesta," in his ** Gnostics," p. 9.
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general resurrection^ when the good will immediately enter into this happy abode — the regenerated earth ; and Ahriman and his angels (the devils),* and the wicked, be purified by immersion in a lake of molten metal. . . . Henceforward, all will enjoy unchangeable happi- ness, and, headed by Sosiosh, ever sing the praises of the Eternal One."f The above is a perfect repetition of Vishnu in his tenth avatar, for he will then throw the wicked into the infernal abodes in which, after purify- ing themselves, they will be pardoned — even those devils which rebelled against Brahma, and were hurled into the bottomless pit by Siva, J as also the ** blessed ones " will go to dwell with the gods, over the Mount Meru.
Having thus traced the similarity of views respecting the Logos, Met- atron, and Mediator, as found in the Kabala and the Codex of the Chris- tian Nazarenes and Gnostics, the reader is prepared to appreciate the audacity of the Patristic scheme to reduce a purely metaphysical figure into concrete form, and make it appear as if the finger of prophecy had from time immemorial been pointing down the vista of ages to Jesus as the coming Messiah. A theomythos intended to symbolize the coming day, near the close of the great cycle, when the ** glad tidings ** from heaven should proclaim the universal brotherhood and common faith of humanity, the day of regeneration — was violently distorted into an ac- complished fact.
"Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one^ that is Gody^ says Jesus. Is this the language of a God ? of the second person in the Trinity, who is identical with the First ? And if this Messiah, or Holy Ghost of the Gnostic and Pagan Trinities, had come in his person, what did he mean by distinguishing between himself the " Son of man," and the Holy Ghost ? " And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven," he says.§ And how account for the marvellous identity of this very language, with the pre- cepts enunciated, centuries before, by the Kabalists and the "Pagan" initiates ? The following are a few instances out of many.
" No one of the gods, no man or Lord, can be good, but only God aloney^ says Hermes. [|
* The daevas or devils of the Iranians contrast with the devas or deities of India.
t *'Nork,"iL, 146.
JThe Bishop of Ephesus, 218 A.D. ; Eusebins : '* H. E." iiL, 31. Origen stoutly maintained the doctrine of eternal punishment to be erroneous. He held that at the second advent of Christ even the devils among the damned would be forgiven. The eternal damnation is a later Christian thought.
g Luke xil la | " Hermes Trismegistus^** vi. $$,
JESUS ONLY CLAIMS TO BE MAN. 239
" To be a good man is impossible, God alone possesses this privil- ege," repeats Plato, with a slight variation. *
Six centuries before Christ, the Chinese philosopher Confucius said that his doctrine was simple and easy to comprehend (Lun-yu^ chap. 5, § 15). To which one of his disciples added: "The doctrine of our Master consists in having an invariable correctness of heart, and in doing toward others as we would that they should do to us." f
" Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles,** | exclaims Peter, long after the scene of Calvary. " There was a man sent from God, whose name was John," § says the fourth Gospel, thus placing the Baptist on an equality with Jesus. John the Baptist, in one of the most solemn acts of his life, that of baptizing Christ, thinks not that he is going to baptize a God, but uses the word man. ** This is he of whom 1 said, after me cometh a man." | Speaking of himself, Jesus says, ** You seek to kill me^ a man that hath told you the truth, which / have heard of God.*' ^ Even the blind man of Jerusalem, healed by the great thau- maturgist, full of gratitude and admiration for his benefactor, in narrat- ing the miracle does not call Jesus God, but simply says, "... a man that is called Jesus, made clay." *♦
We do not close the list for lack of other instances and proofs, but simply because what we now say has been repeated and demonstrated by others, many times before us. But there is no more incurable evil than blind and unreasoning fanaticism. Few are the men who. like Dr. Priestley, have the courage to write, " We find nothing like divinity ascribed to Christ before Justin Martyr (a.d. 141), who, from being a philosopher, became a Christian.*' ff
Mahomet appeared nearly six hundred years JJ after the presumed deicide. The Grasco Roman world was still convulsed with religious dis- sensions, withstanding all the past imperial edicts and forcible Christian- ization. While the Council of Trent was disputing about the Vulgate, the unity of God quietly superseded the trinity, and soon the Mahometans outnumbered the Christians. Why? Because their prophet never sought to identify himself with Allah. Otherwise, it is safe to say, he would not have lived to see his religion flourish. Till the present day Mahometanism has made and is now making more proselytes than Chris- rianity. Buddha Siddh&rtha came as a simple mortal, centuries before Christ. The religious ethics of this faith are now found to far exceed
• Plato Protogoras; "Cory," p. 274.
t Panthier : " La Chine," ii., 375 ; ** Sod, the Son of the Man," p. 97.
\ Acts il 22. § John i. 6. | IbiA, 30. T John viiu 40. ♦♦ Ibid., ix. ii.
If Priestley : ** History of Early Christianity," p. 2, sect. 2.
JJ Mahomet was bom in 571 A.D.
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in moral beauty anything ever dreamed of by the TertuUians and Aii- gustines.
The true spirit of Christianity can alone be fully found in Buddhism ; partially, it shows itself in other ** heathen" religions. Buddha never made of himself a god, nor was he deified by his followers* The Budd- hists are now known to far outnumber Christians ; they are enumerated at nearly 500,000,000. While cases of conversion among Buddhists, Brahmanists, Mahometans, and Jews become so rare as to show how sterile are the attempts of our missionaries, atheism and materialism spread their gangrenous ulcers and gnaw every day deeper 'at the very heart of Christianity. There are no atheists among heathen populations, and those few among the Buddhists and Brahmans who have become infected with materialism may always be found to belong to large cities densely thronged with Europeans, and or ly among educated classes. Truly says Bishop Kidder : " Were a wise man to choose his religion from those who profess it, perhaps Christianity would be the last religion he would choose ! "
In an able little pamphlet from the pen of the popular lecturer, J.