M. Jacolliot weakens his assertion immediately afterward with the fol-

lowing contradiction :
" We were one day inquiring of a Brahman of the pagoda of Ch^lam- bnim, who belonged to the skeptical school of the naturalists of Vyasa, whether he believed in the existence of God. He answered us, smiling : ^ Aham eva par am Brahma^ — I am myself a god.
" * What do you mean by that ? '
" * I mean that every being on earth, however humble, is an immortal portion of the immortal matter.' " \
The answer is one which would suggest itself to every ancient phil- osopher, Kabalist and Gnostic, of the early days. It contains the very spirit of the delphic and kabalistic commandment, for esoteric philosophy solved, ages ago, the problem of what man was, is, and will be. If persons
• " Traditions Indo-Europ^ennes et Africaines," pp. 294, 295.
\ " Lcs Fils de Dieu," p. 32. J *• Le Spiritisme dans Ic Monde," p. 78 and others.
§ ** Les Fils de Dieu/* p. 272. While not at all astonished that Brahmans should have refused to satisfy M. JacoUiot^s curiosity, we must add that the meaning of this sign is known to the sup)enors of every Buddhist lamasery, not alone to the Brahmans.
I *'La Gen^se de THumanitfe,** p. 339.
VEDIC VIEWS UPON SOUL. 263
believing the Bible verse which teaches that the " Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," reject at the same time the idea that every atom of this dust, as every particle of this " living soul," contains " God" within itself, then we pity the logic of that Christian. He forgets the verses which precede the one in question. God blesses equally every beast of the field and every living creature, in the water as in the air, and He endows them all with life^ which is a breath of His own Spirit, and the soul of the animal. Humanity is the Adam Kadmon of the ''Unknown," His microcosm, and His only representative on earth, and every man is a god on earth.
We would ask this French scholar, who seems so familiar with every sloka of the books of Manu, and other Vedic writers, the meaning of this sentence so well known to him :
" Plants and vegetation reveal a multitude of forms because of their precedent actions ; they are surrounded by darkness, but are nevertheless endowed with an interior soul, and feel equally pleasure and pain" {Manu, book i.).
If the Hindu philosophy teach the presence of a degree of soul in the lowest forms of vegetable life, and even in every atom in space, how is it possible that it should deny the same immortal principle to man ? And if it once admit the immortal spirit in man, how can it logically deny the existence of the parent source — I will not say the first, but the eternal Cause? Neither rationalists nor sensualists, who do not compre- hend Indian metaphysics, should estimate the ignorance of Hindu meta- physicians by their own.
The grand cycle, as we have heretofore remarked, includes the pro- gress of mankind from its germ in the primordial man of spiritual form to the deepest depth of degradation he can reach — each successive step in the descent being accompanied by a greater strength and grossness of the physical form than its precursor — and ends with the Flood. But while the grand cycle, or age, is running its course, seven minor cycles are passed, each marking the evolution of a new race out of the preceding one, on a new world. And each of these races, or grand types of humanity, breaks up into subdivisions of families, and they again into nations and tribes, as we see the earth's inhabitants subdivided to-day into Mongols, Caucasians. Indians, etc.
Before proceeding to show by diagrams the close resemblance between the esoteric philosophies of all the ancient peoples, however geographic- ally remote from each other, it will be useful to briefly explain the real ideas which underlie all those symbols and allegorical representations and have hitherto so puzzled the uninitiated commentators. Better than any- thing, it may show that religion and science were closer knit than twins
264 ISIS UNVEILED.
in days of old ; that they were one in two and two in one from the very moment of their conception. With mutually convertible attributes, science was spiritual and religion was scientific. Like the androgyne man of the first chapter of Genesis — " male and female," passive and active ; created in the image of the Elohim. Omniscience developed omnipotency, the latter called for the exercise of the former, and thus the giant had dominion given him over all the four kingdoms of the world. But, like the second Adam, these androgynes were doomed to " fall and lose their powers" as soon as the two halves of the duality separated. The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge gives death without the fruit of the Tree of Life. Man must know himself before he can hope to know the ultimate genesis even of beings and powers less developed in their inner nature than him- self. So with religion and science ; united two in one they were infallible, for the spiritual intuition was there to supply the limitations of physical senses. Separated, exact science rejects the help of the inner voice, while religion becomes merely dogmatic theology— each is but a corpse without a soul.
The esoteric doctrine, then, teaches, like Buddhism and Brahmanism, and even the persecuted Kabala^ that the one infinite and unknown Essence exists from all eternity^ and in regular and harmonious successions is either passive or active. In the poetical phraseology of Manu these con- ditions are called the " day " and the " night " of Brahma. The latter is either "awake" or "asleep." The Svdbhavikas, or philosophers of the oldest school of Buddhism (which still exists in Nepaul), speculate but upon the active condition of this "Essence," which they call Svabhavat, and deem it foolish to theorize upon the abstract and "unknowable" power in its passive condition. Hence they are called atheists by both Christian theology and modern scientists ; for neither of the two are able to understand the profound logic of their philosophy. The former will allow of no other God than the personified secondary powers which have blindly worked out the visible universe, and which became with them the anthropomorphic God of the Christians — the Jehovah, roaring amid thunder and lightning. In its turn, rationalistic science greets the Bud- dhists and the SvdbhAvikas as the " positivists " of the archaic ages. If we take a one-sided view of the philosophy of the latter, our materialists may be right in their own way. The Buddhists maintain that there is no Creator but an infinitude of creative powers^ which collectively form the one eternal substance, the essence of which is inscrutable — hence not a subject for speculation for any true philosopher. Socrates invariably refused to argue upon the mystery of universal being, yet no one would ever have thought of charging him with atheism, except those who were bent upon his destruction. Upon inaugiu-ating an active period, says the
^7 J-S-- i ° J
^
jgOBlQ
••^a
OUR UNIVERSE ONE OF A SERIES. 265
Secret Doctrine^ an expansion of this Divine essence, from within out" wardly, occurs in obedience to eternal and immutable law, and the phe- nomenal or visible universe is the ultimate result of the long chain of cosmical forces thus progressively set in motion. In like manner, when the passive condition is resumed, a contraction of the Divine essence takes place, and the previous work of creation is gradually and progres- sively undone. The visible universe becomes disintegrated, its material dispersed ; and " darkness," solitary and alone, broods once more over the face of the " deep." To use a metaphor which will convey the idea still more clearly, an outbreathing of the " unknown essence " produces the world ; and an inhalation causes it to disappear. T7iis process has been going on from all eternity, and our present universe is but one of an infinite series which had no beginning and will have no end.
Thus we are enabled to build our theories solely on the visible mani- festations of the Deity, «" n i' bjective natural phenomena. To apply to these creative principles u rm God is puerile and absurd. One might as well call by the name Benvenuto Cellini the fire which fuses the metal, or the air that cools it when it is run in the mould. If the inner and ever-concealed spiritual, and to our minds abstract. Essence within these forces can ever be connected with the creation of the physical uni- verse, it is but in the sense given to it by Plato. It may be termed, at best, the framer of the abstract universe which developed gradually in the Divine Thought within which it had lain dormant.
In Chapter Vlll. we will attempt to show the esoteric meaning of Genesis, and its complete agreement with the ideas of other nations. The six days of creation will be found to have a meaning little suspected by the multitude of commentators, who have exercised their abilities to the full extent in attempting to reconcile them by turns with Christian theology and un-Christian geology. Disfigured as the Old Testament is, yet in its symbolism are preserved enough of the original in its principal features to show the family likeness to the cosmogonies of older nations than the Jews.
We here give the diagrams of the Hindu and the Chaldeo-Jewish cos- mogonies. The antiquity of the diagram of the former may be inferred from the fact that many of the Brahmanical pagodas are designed and built on this figure, called the ** Sri-Iantara." * And yet we find the high- est honors paid to it by the Jewish and mediaeval kabalists, who call it " Solomon's seal." It will be quite an easy matter to trace it to its origin, once we are reminded of the history of the king-kabalist and his trans- actions with King Hiram and Ophir — the country of peacocks, gold, and ivory — for which land we have to search in old India.
* See '^ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society," voL xiil, p. 79.
266
ISIS UNVEILED.
EXPLANATION OF THE TWO DIAGRAMS
REPRESENTING THE
CHAOTIC AND THE FORMATIVE PERIODS, BEFORE AND AFTER OUR UNIVERSE BEGAN TO BE EVOLVED.
FROM THE ESOTERIC BRAHMANICAL, BUDDHISTIC, AND CHALDEAN
STANDPOINTS, WHICH AGREE IN LUTIONARY THEORY
The Hindu Doctrine. The Upper Triangle Contains the Ineffable Name. It is the AUM — to be pronounced only mentally, imdcr penalty of death. The Unrevealed Para-Brahma, the Passive- Principle ; the absolute and unconditioned '^mukta," which cannot enter into the condition of a Creator, as the latter, in order to think, wili^ and plan, must be bound and condi- tioned (baddha) ; hence, in one sense, be a finite being. ** This (Para- Brahma) was absorbed in the non-being, imperceptible, without any distinct attribute, non-exist- ent for our senses. He was absorbed in his (to us) eternal (to himself) periodi- cal, sleep," for it was one of the " Nights of Bralmia. * ' Therefore he is not the First but the Eternal Cause. He is the Soul of S6uls, whom no being can comprehend in this state. But " he who studies the secret Mantras and comprehends the Vdch^'^ (the Spirit or hidden voice of the Mantras, the active manifestation of the latent Force) will learn to understand him in his "revealed" aspect.
EVERY RESPECT WITH THE EVO- OF MODERN SCIENCE.
The Chaldean Doctrine.
The Upper Triangle
Contains the Ineffable Name. It is En- Soph, the Boundless, the Infinite, whose name is known to no one but the initiated, and could not be pronounced aloud under the penalty of death.
No more than Para-Brahma can En- Soph create, for he b in the same condi- tion of non-being as the former ; he is -p^ non-existent so long as he lies in his latent or passive state within Oulom (the bound- less and termless time) ; as such he is not the Creator of the visil)le universe, neither is he the Aur (Light). He will become the latter when the period of creation shall have compelled hira to expand the Force within himself, according to the Law of which he is the embodiment and essence.
** Whosoever acquaints himself with n "n the Mercaba and the lahgash (secret speech or incantation),* will learn the secret of secrets. "
* Lahgash is neariy identical in meaning with VAch^ the hidden power of the Mantras.
Both "This" and En-Soph, in th^ir first manifestation of Light, emerg- ing from within Darkness, may be summarized in the SvabhavAt, the Eter- nal and the uncreated Self-existing Substance which produces all ; while everything which is of its essence produces itself out of its own nature.
The Space Around the Upper Triangle,
When the "Night of Brahma" was ended, and the time came for the Self- Existent to manifest Itself by revelation, it made its glory visible by sending forth from its Essence an active Power, which, female at first, subsequently becomes
The Space Around the Upper Triangle. When the active period had arrived, En-Soph sent forth from within his own eternal essence, Sephira, the active Power, called the Primonlial Point, and the Crown, Keter, It is only through her that the ** Un-bounded Wisdom" could
DIAGRAMS OF HINDU AND CHALDEAN SYSTEMS.
267
androgyne. It is Aditi, the ** Infinite,** * the Boundless, or rather the ^' Un- bounded.** Aditi is the ** mother ** of all the gods, and Aditi is the Father and the Son. f " Who will give us back to the great Aditi, that I may see father and mother ? " ^ It is in conjunction with the latter female, Force, that the Divine but latent Thought produces the great "Deep** — water. •* Water is Iwrn from a transformation of light . . . and from a modification of the water is born the earth,** says Manu (l>ook i.).
** Ye are l>orn of Aditi from the water, you who ar^ born of the earth, hear ye all my call.** §
In this water (or primc\'al chaos) the ** Infinite ** androgyne, which, with the Eternal Cause, forms the first abstract Triad, rendered by AuM, deposited the germ of universal life. It is the Mundane Egg, in which took place the gestation of Purusha, or the manifested Brahma. The germ which fecunilated the Mother Princi- ple (the water) ib called Nara, the Divine Spirit or Holy Ghost, | and the waters themselves, are an emanation of the former, Nari, while the Spirit which brooded over it is called Narayana.^
** In that egg, the great Power sat inac- tive a whole year of the Creator^ at the close of which, by his thought alone, he caused the egg to divide itself.** ** The up()er half l>ecame heaven, the lower, the
* In "Rig- Veda Sanhita" the meaning is given by Max Mtiller a* the Absolute, **for it is derived from "diti^^ bond, and the negative particle A.**
t " Hymns to the Marucs*' I., 89, 10.
X Ibid., I., a4, i.
I Ibid., X., 63, a.
I Thus is it that we find in all the philosophical theogonies, the Huly Ghost female. The numerous sects of the Gn lists and Talmudists, Shekiiiah (the garment of the Highest), which descended between the two cheru- bim upon the Mercy Seat ; and we find even Jesus made to say. in an old text, ** My Mather^ the Holy Ghost, took me.**
"The waters are called nara^ because they w (*' Itt'ttitutes of Manu." L 10).
5 Narayana, or that which moves oa the waters.
••'«MaDu,''slokaia.
give a concrete form to hb abstract Thought. Two sides of the upper trian- gle, the right side and the base, are com- posed of unbroken lines ; the third, the left side, is dotted. It is through the lat- ter that emerges Sephira. Sprea^iijig in every direction, she finally encompasses t!ie whole triangle. In this emanation of the female active principle from the left side of the mystic triangle, is foreshadowed the creation of Eve from AUanrs left rib. Adam is the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, and is created in the image of the Eloliim. In the Tree of Life ^stti^* ^he triple triad b disposed in such a manner that the three male Sephiroth are on the right, the three female on the left, and the fuur uniting principles in the centre. From the Invisible Dew falling from the Higher ^ Head ** Sephira creates primeval water, or chaos taking shape. It is the first step toward the solidification of Spirit, which through various modifications will produce earlii. • ** // requires earth and water to make a living soui" says Moses.
When Sephira emerges like an active p>ower from within the latent Deity, slie is female ; when she assumes the olTice of a creator, she becomes a male ; hence, she is androg>'ne. She is the ** Father and Mother Aditi,** of the Hindu Cosmogony.
* Cvcorge Smith gives the fir&t verses of the Akkadian GtHtsis as found in tlie Cuneiform Texts on the '*I«iteres Coctile^." 'llicrc, also, we find Ahu, the pasMve deity or Kn-Sopti, Jiel. the Creator, the Spirit of God (5>ephira) moving on the face of the waters, hence water itself, and Ifta the Univer- sal Soul or wisdom of the tliree combined.
The first eight verses read thus :