part is that of a dolphin, and is thus identical with Makara, whose

head is also that of an antelope and the body and tail those of a fish. This is why the sign of the Makara was borne on the banner of Kima- deva, the Hindu God of Love, identified, in the Aiharva Vedat with Agni, the Fire-god, the son of Lakshmi, as correctly given by the Harivamsha. For Lakshmi and Venus are one, and Amphitrite is the early form of Venus. Now Kama, the Makara-ketu, is Aja, the "un-
I * See Philotophumtna, v. 14.
t So ifi Bmbml's fi/ih head, taid to be lost, burnt to utiM by Shiva's "central eye " ; ShivR beinr «Iao Puichinaiu "fin-fkced." Thiu the niunticr is pnfetervetl and secrecy maiaUined 00 Uie true [ £80teric meaning.
6l2 THE SECRET DOCTRINE^ ^
born," and AtmS-bhu, the ** self-existent/* and Aja is the Logos in the Rig Veda, as he is shown therein to be the first manifestation of the One; for "Desire first arose in It, which was the primal germ of miud." that "which connects entity with non-entity'* — or Manas, the /i/th, with Atml, the scvenih^ Esoterically — say the Sages. This is the firsi stage. The second, on the following plane of manifestation, show^ BrahmS— whom we select as a representative for all the other First Gods of the nations — causing to issue from his body his Mind-born Sons. ''Sanaa- dana and others," who. in the y^M '* creation," and again in the ninth (for purposes of a "blind**) become the Kumara. Let us close by reminding the reader that goats were sacrificed to Amphitrite and the Nereids on the sea-shore — as goats are sacrificed to this day to Durgi Kali, who is only the black side of Lakshmi (Venus), the rvhite side of Shakti — and by suggesting what connection these animals may have with Capricomus, in which appear twenty-eight stars in the form of a goat, which goat was transformed by the Greeks into Amalthsea, Jupiter's foster-mother. Pan, the God of Nature, had goat's feet, and changed himself into a goat at the approach of Typhon. But this is a mystery which the writer dares not dwell upon at length, not being sure of being understood. Thus the mystical side of the interpreta- tion must be left to the intuition of the student. lyct us note one naore thing in relation to the mysterious number Five. It symbolizes at one and the same time the Spirit of Life Eternal and the spirit of life and love terrestrial — in the human compound; and, it includes divine and infernal magic, and the universal and the individual quintessence of being. Thus, the five mystic words or vowels uttered by Brahma at "creation," which forthwith became the Panchadasha (certain Vedic Hymns, attributed to that God), are in their creative and magical potentiality, the white side of the black Tantric fii^ Ma-karas. or the five m'j. Makara, the constellation, is a seemingly meaningless and absurd name; yet. even besides its anagrammatical significance in conjunction with the term Kumara, the numerical value of its first syllable and its Esoteric resolution KnXofive has a very great and Occult meaning in the mysteries of Nature.
Sufl&ce it to say that, as the sign of Makara is connected with the birth of the spiritual Microcosm, and the death or dissolution of the physical Universe — its passage into the realm of the Spiritual,* so the
* " When the Son passes away behind the 30th degree of Makara and will t«ach no morv Uic tigB. of Uie Mlnam ^Pisces) then the Night of Brahmi hus come."
THE PUZZLES OF SYMBOUSM.
613
DhySn Chohans, called in India Kumaras, are connected with both. Moreover, in the exoteric religions, they have become the synonyms of the Angels of Darkness. Mara is the God of Darkness, the Fallen One, and Death;* and yet it is one of the names of Kama, the First God in the Vedas, the IrOgos, from whom have sprung the KumSras, and this connects them still more with our "fabulous" Indian Makara, and the crocodile-headed God in Egypt.f The Crocodiles in the Celes- tial Nile are five, and the God Toom, the Primordial Deity, creating the heavenly bodies and living beings, calls forth these Crocodiles in his fifth ''creation." When Osiris, the *' Defunct Sun," is buried and enters into Amenti, the sacred Crocodiles plunge into the abyss of primordial Waters — the "Great Green One.** When the Sun of Life rises, they reemerge out of the sacred river. All this is highly sym- bolical, and shows how primeval Esoteric truths found their expression in identical symbols. But, as Mr. T. Subba Row truly declares:
The veil that was dexterously thrown over certain portions of the mystery con- nected with these [Xodiacal] signs by the ancient philosophers, will never be lifUd up for the amnsciftent or edification of the uninitiated publicX
Nor was number Five less sacred with the Greeks. The "Five Words" of Brahmd have become with the Gnostics the "Five Words" written upon the AkSshic (Shining) Garment of Jesus at his glorifica- tion— the words "Zama Zama Ozza Rachama Ozai" (ZAMA ZAMA OZZA PAXAMA nZAI), translated by the Orientalists "the robe, the glorious robe of my strength." These words were, in their turn, the anagram- matic "blind" of the five mystic Powers represented on the robe of the "resurrected" Initiate after his last trial of three days* trance; the five becoming seven only after his "death," when the Adept became the full Christos, the full Krishna-Vishnu, i.e., merged in Nirvana. The E Delphicum, a sacred symbol, was the numeral fii^e^ again; and how sacred it was is shown by the fact that the Corinthians, according to Plutarch, replaced the wooden numeral in the Delphic Temple by a bronze one, and this one was transmuted by Li-vna Augusta into a facsimile in gold.§ It is easy to recognize in the two "Spiritus** — ^the Greek signs (')
* Demth of every phyaieal thing- tnily ; tnt Him is also the uncooBdotu qnickener of the birtb of the Spiritual.
* 0«iris is called in the Book of the Dead (cxHi. B. 17) " Osiris, the ilouhle crocoflile." " He is the good and the bad Principle ; the Day and the Night Sun, the God aod the mortal man." Thus far the Macrocosra and the Microcosm.
t op. ctt., p. 117,
I King:*B Gnoitici and their Remains, p. 197.
6i4
THE SKCRKT DOCTRINR.
*poken of by Ragon — Atjni and Buddhi. or Divine Spirit and its Vehicle, the Spiritual Soul.
The Six or the Senary is dealt with later in this Section, while the Septenary will be fully treated in the course of this Volume in the Section on "The Mysteries of the Hebdomad."
The Ogdoad or Eight symlwlizes the eternal and spiral motion of cycles, the 8, oo, and is symbolized in its turn by the Caduceus. It ibowi the regular breathing of the Kosmos presided over by the Eight Grot God4 — the Seven frotn the primeval Mother, the One and the Triad.
Tlicn comcA the number Nine, or the triple Ternary. It is the number which reproduces itself incessantly under all shapes and figurcit in every multiplication. It is the sign of ever>' circumference^ Hincc it* value in degrees is equal to 9, j>., to 3 + 6 + o. It is a M numticr under certain conditions, and very unlucky. If number 6 was the ftymbol of our Globe ready to be animated by a divine Spirit, HymlM>li/ed our Earth informed by a bad or evil Spirit.
Ten, or the Decad, brings all these digits back to unity, and ends' tho Pythagorean table. Hence this figure, Q— unify within 2en>— wu the Hymbol of Deity, of the Universe, and of Man. Such is the Hccrct meaning of **the strong grip of the lion's paw, of the tribe of Judah** (the "master mason's grip") between two hands, the joint number of whoHe fingers is icft.
If we now give our attention to the Egyptian cross, or the Tan, wc may discover this letter, which was so exalted by Eg3T>tians, Greeks, and Jewa. to l>c mysteriously connected with the Decad. The Tau is the Alpha and the Omega of Secret Divine Wisdom, which is sym- t>olized by the initial and the final letters of Thot (Hermes). Thot was the inventor of the Egyptian alphabet, and the letter Tau closed the alphabets of the Jews and the Samaritans, who called this character the *'cnd" or "perfection," "culmination** and "security." Hence. Ragon tella u«i, the words Termiuus. "end," and Tectum, "roof," arc symboLs of Hhcltcr and security — which is rather a prosaic definition. But auch in the usual destiny of ideas and things in this world of spiritual decadence, though at the same time of physical progress. Pan waa at one time Absolute Nature, the One and Great All; but when history catches a first glimpse of him, Pan has already tumbled down into ^ godlin^ of the fields, a rural God; history will not recog- nize him, while theolog>' makes of him the Devil! Yet his seven-
THE "GOLDEN CANDtESTICK." ^15
piped flute, the emblem of the seven forces of Nature, of the seven planets, the seven musical notes, of all the septenary harmony in short, shows well his primordial character. So with the cross. Far earlier than the Jews had devised their golden candlestick of the Temple with three sockets on one side and/ of number stvm a feminine number of generation*— thus introducing the phallic element into religion— the more spiritually-minded nations had made of the cross (as 3, 4 = 7) their most sacred divine symbol. In fact, circle, cross, and seven — the latter being made a base of cir- cular measurement— are the first primordial symbols. Pythagoras, who brought his wisdom from India, left to posterity a glimpse into this truth. His School regarded number 7 as a compound of numbers
3 and 4, which they explained in a dual manner. On the plane of the nouraenal world, the Triangle was, as the first conception of the mani- fested Deity, its image, "Father- Mother-Son": and the Quaternary, the perfect number, was the noumenal, ideal root of all numbers and things on the physical plane. Some students, in view of the sacred- ness of the Tetraktys and the Tetragramtuaton. mistake the mystic meaning of the Quaternar>\ The latter waa with the Ancients only a secondary "perfection,** so to speak, because it related ouly to the mani- fested planes. Whereas it is the Triangle, the Greek Delta (A), which was the **vehicle of the unknown Deity." A good proof of it lies in the name of the Deity beginning with Delta. Zeus was written Acvs (Deus) by the Boeotians, thence the Deus of the Latins. This, in rela- tion to the metaphysical conception, with regard to the meaning of the septenary in the phaiomenal world; but for purposes of profane or exo- teric interpretation, the symbolism changed. Three became the ideo- graph of the three material Elements — Air, Water, Earth; and four became the principle of all that which is neither corporeal nor per- ceptible. But this has never been accepted by the real Pythagoreans, Viewed as a compound of 6 and i, the Senary and the Unity, number 7 was the invisible centre, the Spirit of ever>'thing, as there exists no
* Rcflectiiif on Uic croM, the auUior of Tht Source of Measurex shows Uut Uiis candlestick in tbe Temple "waft to compotied ttiat.couoting-on cither side, there were /bur candle apex, therr being one in common to both sides, there were in fact 3 to be counted on the one tide and
4 on the other, malting in all the number 7, upon the Beir-same idea of one in common with the ctoak display. Take a Une of one unit in breadth by 3 unit of 4 units long, and lean it upon this one, from an opposite incline, making the top unit of the 4 in lenjEth the corner or apex of a triangle. This is the dinplay of the candlestick. Now, take iiway the line of 3 units in length, and crou it ou the one of 4 unit* in length, and the croM form results. Tbe khmc idea in conveyed in the six daya of the week in Genesis, crowned by the seventh, which wsji used by Itself as a base of circular measure "
6i6
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
bctfl
hexagonal body without a sevmik property being found as the point in it, as, for instance* crystals and snow-flakes in sooTkrf "inanimate" nature. Moreover, number seven, they said, has aD tfe perfection of 'the unit — the number of numbers. For as absohct unify is uncreated, and irapartite, hence number-less, and no nanbe can produce it, so is the s€uen; no digit contained within the Decad can beget or produce it. And it is four which affords an arithmebail di\n»ion between uni/y and seveti, for it surpasses the former br lie aamc number {three), as it is itself surpassed by the sevm, since y&va by as many numbers above one, as seveii is above y^ttr.*
"With the Egyptians number 7 was the symbol of iz/e eternal.* lUgon, and adds that this is why the Greek letter 2, which is bcl double 7, is the initial letter of Zao, "I live," and of Zeus, the of all living.'*
Moreover, figure 6 was the symbol of the Earth during the and winter "sleeping" months, and figure 7 during spring and sniaoer. M the Spirit of Life animated her at that time — the seventh or ceatra! informing Force. We find the same in the Jig^'ptian niythos aad iymbol of Osiris and Isis, personi^Tng Fire and Water metaphysically, and the Sun and the Nile physically. The number of the solar year. 365 in days, is the numerical value of the word Neilos (Nile). Thii together with the Bull, with the crescent and the ansated cross between its horns, and the Earth under its astronomical symbol (^), are tke most phallic symbols of later antiquity.
T(»c Nile wtt» the river of time with the number of a year, or year aadadif {364 + I « 365), It represented the parturient water of Isis. or Mother Barth* tfce moofl, the woman, and the cow, also the workshop of Osiris, representing the Tsod OUum of the Hebrews. The ancient name of this river was Eridanuj, or Cbc Hebrew lardan, with the Coptic or old Greek suflSx. This was the door of tiic Hebrew word Jarcd, or source^ or descent ... of the river Jordan, which had the Name mythical use with tlie Hebrews that the Nile had with the Egyptiaa^t it won tlie fiourcc of descent, and held Ihe waters of life.J
It was, to put it plainly, the symbol of the personified Earth, or rcK»rdcd as the womb of that Earth, This is shown clearly enough and Jordan — the river so sacred now to Christians — held no more sublime or poetical meaning in it than the parturient waters of the Moon — Isis, or Jehovah in his female aspect. Now, as shown by the
* Prom a BtS. auppoMrd to \\c hy "St. Gemuin," embodied by Ra^a, op. at, p. 434. V It had DO Buch ineanlnic in the beginoings, nor during the earlier dynasties. i Prom an unpublUhcd MS.
THE ROOT OF WISDOM.
6x7
same scholar, Osiris was the Sun, and the river Nile, and the year of 365 days; while Isis was the Moon, the bed of that river, or Mother Earth "for the parturient energies of which water was a necessity." as also the lunar year of 354 days, "the time-maker of the periods of gestation." All this then is sexual and phallic, our modem scholars seeming to find in these symbols nothing beyond a physiological or phallic meaning. Nevertheless, the three figures 365, or the number of days in a solar year, have but to be read with the Pythagorean key to find in them a highly philosophical and moral meaning. One instance will be suf&cient. It can read:
The Earth (3)— animated by (6)— the Spirit of Life (5).
Simply because 3 is equivalent to the Greek Gamma (r) which is the symbol of Gaia, the Earth, while the figure 6 is the symbol of the animating or informing principle, and the 5 is the universal quint- essence which spreads in every direction and forms all matter.*
The few instances and examples brought forward reveal only one small portion of the methods used to read the symbolical ideographs and numerals of antiquity. The system being of an extreme and complex difficulty, very few, even among the Initiates, could master all the seven keys. Is it to be wondered, then, that the metaphysical gradually dwindled down into the physical Nature; that the Sun, once upon a time the symbol of Deity, became, as aeons glided b)', that of its creative ardour only; and that thence it fell into a gU'ph of phallic significance? But surely, it is not those whose method, like Plato's, was to proceed from universals down to particulars, who could ever have begun by symbolizing their religions by sexual emblems! It is quite true, though uttered by that incarnated paradox Eliphas Levi, that "man is God on Earth, and God is man in Heaven." But this could not, aud never did apply to the One Deity, only to the Hosts of Its incarnated beams, called by us Dhyan Chohans, by the Ancients Gods, and now transformed by the Church into Devils on the kfi, and into the Saviour on the right side!
But all such dogmas grew out of the one root, the root of Wisdom, which grows and thrives on the Indian soil. There is not an Arch- angel that could not be traced back to its prototype in the sacred laud of Aryavarta. These prototypes are all connected with the Kumaras who appear on the scene of action by *' refusing" — as Sanatkumara and Sunanda — to ''create progeny." Yet they are called the •* creators"
6iS
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
of (thinking) man. More than once they are brought into conaectioc with NSrada — another bundle of apparent incongruities, yet a wealth of philosophical tenets. Nirada is the leader of the Gaudharvas. the celestial singers and musicians; Esoterically, the reason for this is explained by the fact that the Gandharvas are "the instructors of men in the Secret Sciences.'* It is tbev, who "loving the women of the Earth" disclosed to them the mysteries of creation; or. as in the Veim^ the ''heavenly" Gandharva is a deity who knew and revealed the secrets of heaven and di\ine truths, in general. If we remember what is said of this class of Angels in Enoch and in the BibU^ then the allegory is plain; their leader, NSrada, while refusing to procreate, leads men to become Gods. Moreover, all of these, as stated in the Vedas, are Chhandajas. "will-born," or incarnated, in difiFerent Man- vantaras, of their own will. They are shown in exoteric literature ss existing age after age: some being "cursed to be reborn," others incar- nating as a duty. Finally, as the Sanakadikas. the seven Kumdraswho went to visit Vishnu on the "White Island" (Shveta-dvipa), the Island inhabited by the MahS Yogins — they are connected with Shaka-dvipt and the Lemurians and Atlanteans of the Third and Fourth Races.
In the Esoteric Philosophy, the Rudras (Kumaras, Adityas, Gand- harvas, Asuras, etc.) are the highest Dhyin Chohans or Devas tf regards intellectuality. They are those who, owing to their having acquired by self-development \^^ five-fold nature — hence the sacredness of number ySt'tf— became independent of the pure Arupa Devas. This is a mystery very difficult to realize and understand correctly. For we see that those who were "obedient to law" are. equally with the "rebels," doovied to be reborn in every age. NSrada. the Rishi, is cur^ by Brahma to incessant peripateticism on Earth, />., to be constantly reborn. He is a rebel against Brahma, and yet has no worse fate than the Jayas — the twelve great Creative Gods produced by Brahmd as his assistants in the functions of creation. For the latter, lost in meditation. on\y forgot to create; and for this, they were equally cursed by Brahmi to be born in every Manvantara. And still they are termed — together with the rebels — Chhandajas, or those born of their own will in human form.
All this is ver>' puzzling to one who is unable to read and under- stand the Puranas except in their dead-letter sense.* Hence we find
* Y(t this wiMe. ir once nnulnrti, win turn out to be the »ectir« cuket irhich holdc Uie keys fotfte Secret Wisdom. True, a caAket no profusely ornamented Ihat its fancy-work hides undcoace«to entire any apriiig for opeaiug it. and tbus makes the ualutuittoual believe it. has not, and cannot bavt. MMf opening at all. Still the keys are Utetv. deeply buried, jrci ever present to him who searches for '
THE HOSTS OF THE BLESSED ONES.
619
I
the Orientalists refusing to be puzzled, and cutting the Gordian knot of perplexity by declaring the whole scheme "figments ... of Brahmanical fancy and love of exaggeration." But to the student of Occultism, the whole is pregnant with deep philosophical meaning. We willingly leave the rind to the Western Sanskritist, but claim the essence of the fruit for ourselves. We do more: we concede that in one sense much in these so-called "fables" refers to astronomical alle- gories about constellations, asterisms, stars, and planets. Yet. while the Gandharva of the Rig Veda may there be made to personify the fire of the Sun, the Gandharva Devas are entities both of a physical and psychic character, while the Apsarasas (with other Rudras) are both qualities and quantities. In short, if ever unravelled, the Theogony of the Vedic Gods will reveal fathomless mysteries of Creation and Being. Truly says Par^hara :
These classes of thirty-three divinities . . . exist age after age, and their ap- pearance and disappearance is in the same manner as the srni sets and rises again.*
There was a time, when the Eastern symbol of the cross and circle, the Svastika, was universally adopted. With the Esoteric, and for the matter of that exoteric, Buddhist, the Chinaman and the Mongolian, It means the "ten thousand truths." These truths, they say, belong to the mysteries of the Unseen Universe and Primordial Cosmogony and Theogony.
Since Fohat crossed the Circle like two lines of flame \hori30ntally and vertical ly\ the Hosts of the Blessed On^ have 7iever failed to send their representatives upon the Planets they are made to watch over from the beginning.
This is why the Svastika is always placed — as the ansated cross was 3n Egypt — on the breast of the defunct Mystics. It is found on the heart of the images and statues of Buddha, in Tibet and Mongolia. It is the seal placed also on the hearts of the living Initiates, burnt into the flesh for ever with some. This, because they have to keep these truths inviolate and intact, in eternal silence and secrecy to the day they are perceived and read by their chosen successors — new Initiates — "worthy of being entrusted with the ten thousand perfections." So degraded, however, has it now become, that it is often placed on the headgear of the "Gods," the hideous idols of the sacrilegious Bhons— the Dugpas or Sorcerers, of the Tibetan borderlands — until found out by a Galukpa, and torn off together with the head of the "God/*
* VishHu PurAna, I. xv; Wilson's Traoi., U. w^
THE ""WORM THAT KEVER DIES." 62r
During centuries the cross stood for the Christ, and was addressed as if it were a living being. It was divinized at first and humanized at last*
Few world-symbols are more pregnant with real Occult meaning than the Sx'astika. It is symbolized by the figure 6. Like that figure, it points, in its concrete imagery, as does the ideograph of the number, to the Zenith and the Nadir, to North, South, West, and East; one finds the unit everywhere, and that unit reflected in all and every unit. It is the emblem of the activity of Fohat, of the continual revolution of the "Wheels/' and of the Four Elements, the "Sacred Four," in their mystical, and not alone in their cosmical meaning; further, its four arms, bent at right angles, are intimately related, as shown else- where, to the Pythagorean and Hermetic scales. One initiated into the mysteries of the meaning of the Svastika, say the Commentaries, "can trace on it, with mathematical nrecision, the evolution of Kosmos and the whole period of Sandhya," Also *' the relation of the Seen to the Unseen," and "the first procreation of man and species."
To the Eastern Occultist the Tree of Knowledge, in the Paradise of man's own heart, becomes the Tree of Life Eternal, and has nought to do with man's animal senses. It is an absolute myster>- that reveals itself only through the efforts of the imprisoned Manas, the Ego, to liberate itself from the thraldom of sensuous perception, and see in the light of the one eternal present Reality. To the Western Kabalist, and far more now to the superficial Symbologist, nursed in the lethal atmosphere of Materialistic Science, the chief explanation of the mysteries of the cross is — its sexual element. Even the otherwise spiri- tualistic modem commentator discerns this feature in the cross and Svastika before all others.
The cross was used in Egypt ad a protecting talisman and a symbol of saving power. Typhon, or Satan, is actually found chained to and bound by the cross. In the Ritual, the Osirian cries, " The Apophis is overthrown, their cords Itind tkg South, Norths East^ and West, their cords are on hiin, Har-ru-bah has knotted him."f These were the Cords of the four qnartera, or the cross. Thor is said to smite the head of the serpent with his hammer, ... a form of Swastika or four-footed cross. ... In the primitive sepulchres of Egj-pt the model of the Chamber
• Op. n't., ibid., p. 433.
♦ Book of the Dead, xnix. Apojihls or Apap is Ihe Scrpmt of Evil, the symbol of tinman pasiions- The Sun ;03ih»-Horus^ destroys him, and Apap is thrown down, bound and chained. The God Aker. the "Chief of the Gate of the Abyss" of Akcr. the Realm of the Sun {xv. 5 Afmphift ia the enemy of Ra ( Light i. hut the "great Apap has fallen! " exclaims the Defunct. "The Scorpion has hurt thy mouth," he says to the conquered enemy (xxxlx. ?)• The Scorpion is the '■ worm that ncvrr dies " of the Chriiitiana. Apophis Is traund ou the Tau or Tat, ibc " emblem of stability." (See the crectiou of Tat in Tatoo, xviii.)
633
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
had the form of a cross.' The pagoda of Mathura Knslina. was built in the form of a cross.t
the birth-place of
This is perfect, and no one can discern in it that "sexual worship," with which the Orientalists love to break the head of Paganism. But how about the Jews, and the exoteric Religions of some Hindii sects, especially the rites of the Vallabachar>'as? For, as said, Shiva- worship, with its Lingam and Yoni, stands too high philosophically, its modem degeneration notwithstanding, to be called a simple phallic worship. But the Tree- or Cross- worship* of the Jews, as denounced by their own Prophets, can hardly escape the charge. The "sons of the sorcerers, the seed of the adultercr,"§ as Isaiah calls them, never lost an opportunity of "enflaming themselves with idols under every green tree"|| — which denotes no metaphysical recreation. It is from these monotheistic Jews that the Christian nations have derived their religion, their "God of Gods, the One living God," while despising and deriding the worship of the Deity of the ancient Philosophers. Let such believe in and worship the physical form of the cross, by all means.
But to the follower of the true Eastern Archaic Wisdom, to him who worships in spirit nought outside the Absolute Unity, that ever- pulsating great Heart that beats throughout, as in, every atom of Nature, each such atom contains the genu from which he may raise the Tree of Knowledge, whose fruits give Life Eternal and not physical life alone. For him, the cross and circle, the Tree or the Tau — even after every symbol relating thereto has been referred to and read, one after another — still remain a profound mystery in their Past, and it is to that Past alone that he directs his eager gaze. He cares little whether it be the Seed from which grows the genealogical Tree of Being, called the Universe. Nor is it the Three in One, the triple aspect of the Seed — its form, colour, and substance — that interest him, but rather the Force which directs its growth, the ever mysterious, as the ever unknown. For this vital Force, that makes the Seed germi- nate, burst open and throw out shoots, then form the trunk and branches, which, in their turn, bend down like the boughs of the Ashvattha, the holy Tree of Bodhi, throw their seed out, take root and
* So have the cryptft in Cu^HimUayan regions where Initiatn live, and whcf« their aabea atv placed for sercn lunar years.
♦ The Natunxl Gtniii$,\. \ii^.
% The Crou and the Tree art ideaUcal and synonymous in qymbolimi. I Wi. 3.
MAN. THE REVILKR OF GOD.
623
procreate other trees — this is the only Force that has reality for him. as it is the never-dying Breath of Life. The Pagan philosopher sought for the cause, the modem is content with only the effects and seeks the former in the latter. What is beyond, he does not know, nor does the modern A-gnostic care; thus rejecting the only knowledge upon which he can with full security base his Science. Yet this manifested Force has an answer for him who seeks to fathom it. He who sees in the cross, the decussated circle of Plato, the Pagan, not the antitype of circumcision, as Christian (St.) Augustine did,* is forthwith regarded by the Church as a heathen ; by Science, as a lunatic. This, because, while refusing to worship the God of physical generation, he confesses that he can know nothing of the Cause which underlies the so-called First Cause, the Causeless Cause of this Vital Cause. Tacitly admitting the All-Presence of the Boundless Circle and making of it the Uni- versal Postulate upon which the whole of the Manifested Universe is based, the Sage keeps a reverential silence concerning that upon which no mortal man should dare to speculate. ''The Logos of God is the revealer of man, and the Logos (the Verb) of man is the revealer of God," says Eliphas Levi in one of his paradoxes. To this, the Eastern Occultist would reply: On this condition, however, that man should be dumb on the Cause that produced both God and its Logos. Otherwise, he becomes invariably the reviler, not the revealer^ of the Incognizable Deity.
We have now to approach a mystery — the Hebdomad in Nature. Perchance, all that we may say, will be attributed to coincidence. We may be told that this number in Nature is quite natural — as indeed we say it is — and has no more significance than tjie illusion of motion which forms the so-called "strobic circles." No great importance was given to these ''singular illusions" when Profe.ssor Sylvanus Thomp- son exhibited them at the meeting of the British Association in 1877. Nevertheless we should like to learn the scientific explanation why seven should ever form itself as a preeminent number — six concentric circles around a seventh, and seven rings within one another round a central point, etc.— in this illusion, produced by a swaying saucer, or any other vessel. We gr^ve the solution refused by Science in the Section which follows.