PART II.

GENESIS,
'* We use great boldness of speech, and are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face .... for until this very day at the reading of the Old Testament the same veil remaineth unlifted. " St. Paul.
IN the previous Part we have endeavoured to show how, in their broad outline, the sacred books of the Christian religion may be harmonised with the teachings of Theosophy concerning the origin of man, his natural evolution, and his final destiny — expressed as a fall and redemption — and more particularly what is the relation of his own inherent divine spiritual nature to the mystic Christ of the New Testament. We have endeav- oured to show how, by unlocking the esotericism of the Old and New Testaments, Theosophy offers an easy way out of the difficulties which so many have to encounter, in the defence of their cherished faith against the onslaughts of modern criticism. We have shown that this is to be done — not by destroying— but by reconstructing on a firmer basis, on a spiritual basis, which cannot be touched by the destructive criticism which deals merely with the outward form.
In this connection we would once more incul-
5 4 THE ESO TERIC BA S/S OF CHRIS TIA NITY
cate the general principle which seems to us to lie at the root of the whole matter as between truth and error. We have already shown that all so-called truth is necessarily relative, but that the test of its value is its universality, (Part. I, page 7.) Now universality may be taken in this sense as a synonym for spirituality ; or in other words, in stating spiritual truths we must deal with under- lying and universal principles — universal that is so far as the experience and concepts of humanity can reach — and not with the limitations of some particular form or of some particular section of humanity. The reason for this is, that all that enters into the world of form (and formulas) follows the inevitable law oi change ^nd ultimate death. Therefore, if the principle be not perceived apart from the form, if the individual, or the sect, or the Church, cling to the outward form, afraid to let go of that, because the spirit of which the form is only a temporary expression, is not recog- nised : then for such there can be naught else in store but the throes of death and rebirth ; they must follow the history and fate of the form to which they are wedded.
Is it not even this which we see in the Christian Church to-day ? The old forms of doctrine are dead or dying ; a *' new Theology " is springing up ; and between those who cling to the old dead forms, and those who would advocate the new, are innumerable sects, each of which lays claim
GENESIS
55
to the largest measure of truth ; each of which claims the title of Clin'sliau, to the exclusion of the others.
And as it is with the various sects of one reli- gion, so is it with one religion as against another ; each one claims a superiority over all the others, and will compass sea and land to make converts and proselytes. And meanwhile, in every form of religion we see the same elements of change, decay, and death, as is perceived in the world of physical forms. To-day one religion may appear to predominate, may appear to have in it the elements of strength and permanency ; but let a thousand, ten thousand, a million years pass over the race^as millions have already done, burying continents, races, civilisations, religions — and the religions of to-day will not merely become the superstitions of a more enlightened age, but will in their turn sink into utter oblivion.
And now, if we want TRUTH, we must get at the underlying principle of this great cyclic change; if we want RELIGION, and not a religion, we must apprehend the spiritual principle which is independent of all religious forms, which is the same yesterday, to-day and for ever, but which reinairnates from time to time, in forms which correspond to the race or cycle in which it is necessary that it should reappear.
Theosophy is such a reincarnation. It is the restatement of underlying spiritual principles.
S6 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
which have been lost sight of in the accretions of religious forms and dogmas. But such a restate- ment implies a primal source, where these prin- ciples have been preserved pure and uncorrupted. That is so, otherwise would mankind be utterly lost in ignorance and darkness. Again and again must those who preserve the TRUTH give to the world that measure of enlightenment which it is fitted to receive. Now in one form, now in another, the central truth of man's spiritual nature, and the way in which he must fulfil his destiny, are given out by various teachers, by the great INITIATES, and founders of the world's Religions ; one and all deriving their authority from that unifying system known as the Ancient Wisdom Reli- gion, or Secret Doctrine.
For in the light of that Ancient Wisdom, now given to the world once more as TllEOSOPHY, the underlying principle of all religions is discovered ; that test of truth, its universality, which we are seeking, is found ; and we possess, not a religion, but RELIGION itself, that upon which we can take our stand, and watch the conflict of sects and creeds without concern ; for were the whole fabric of any individual religion to crumble to dust to-morrow, as it inevitably will in course of time, the TRUTH would still remain with us.
The whole is greater than a part, and Theo- sophy in disclosing the underlying principle of all religions, proves thereby its superiority to any
GENESIS 57
one. This of course will be strenuously denied by all sectarians. But we do not appeal to sectarians. The orthodox are always the furthest from the truth, because they are the most wedded to form. In so far, however, as it is now our object to deal with the fundamental principles which Theo- sophy discloses, in their relation to Christianity, it will be necessary in the first place to present these principles in a concise form, and then com- pare them with the records on which the Christian religion is based. We shall have to give an outline of the Esoteric Philosophy in one of its symbolical forms, to trace briefly its cosmogenesis and anthro- pogenesis, and then compare them with the Chris- tian Book of Genesis.
With regard to this same Book of Genesis, there was a time, in the days of our childhood, when we regarded it with a feeling akin to reverence and awe ; when we endeavoured to realise the idea of the personal Creator producing the heavens and the earth — out of nothing — by the word of his mouth; when we endeavoured to picture to ourselves the six days' work, the creation of the plants, animals, and finally man, and the seventh day of rest ; this latter day being most real to us by reason of the restrictions to which we were subjected every Sunday. We have endeavoured to realise to our- selves the garden of Eden, the forbidden fruit, the naked man and woman, the tempting serpent, the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
58 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
the day, the sentence on the trembling, guilty couple, the expulsion from the garden — and the rest. Perhaps the greatest cause of wonderment with us at the present time, is not that we our- selves once believed, or endeavoured to believe, in all this as literal history ; but. that there are to-day people who call themselves adults who still believe it. We were taught this in our childhood, and knew no better ; we had to grow out of it. And so must those who still hold to the literal form of the narrative, those who are still children in their spir- itual perceptions, though adults in their present physical form.
But when these records have been rejected as history, when it has become for ever impossible to accept them in their orthodox interpretation, what shall we say of them ? Are they altogether fables, or are they allegories concealing the deep- est truths ? Where shall we look for enlisrhten- ment ? The Church fails us utterly at this point. Ail that it can give to us is some tardy and reluctant concession to the facts which science has forced it to accept after centuries of conflict. We ask for bread, and it offers us a stone ; and had we not happily lighted upon the solution of the problem elsewhere, we had been fain, as so many have, to turn to materialism or agnosticism. For it is not science that draws men from the Church ; tio knowledge of any kind can be incompatible with TRUTH. It is the nescience of the Church
CEMESIS 59
I that has brought about the avowed materialism of the age, and tht: still more deadly lethargy of conventional religious observance ; and unless the priesthood can become once more initialed, unless it can not merely accept, but forestall, the advance ofknowledgc, unless it can discount beforehand those wider and deeper generalisations which are resulting from the discoveries of investigators in every department of research : it will sink deeper and deeper into disrepute, as the present cycle of enlightenment rises to its culmination.
Theosophy comes from those who know ; its teachers are the/«i/(a(erfof al! ages. Every advance in knowledge, every fact which science brings to light, is so much clear gain in confirmation of its teachings ; for it does not rest on special doc- trines, but on universal principles.
Let us endeavour now, as far as is possible within the limits of this work, to elucidate some of those principles, as bearing upon the question of ' crea- tion ', and the Christian doctrine in general.
If we endeavour to realise broadly what it is in the growth of our experience and conceptions which forced us out of the old forms of faith, we find it to lie principally in connection with ideas of time and space. For it is just exactly in regard to such concepts that exoteric Christian doctrine, based upon so-called history, is found to be utterly wanting in its premises and conclusions. Until it is clearly perceived that the now and the hereafter,
6o THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
the past, present, and future, the natural and the spiritual, the real and the ideal, the objective and the subjective, are merely relative to our concep- tions or state of consciousness ; that they are imaginary lines of latitude and longitude, that they are not realities, but conditioned aspects of the One Reality : until this is understood and brought to bear upon Christian doctrine there can be no revelation in the latter of eternal truth, of that TRUTH which is beyond the illusions of time and space.
To perceive the relativity of the relative, the finality of the finite, this is the first step into the arcane. Until this is perceived, no advance is pos- sible into that region where lie the realities ^ the eternal verities. This is the root of all true mysti- cism ; it is the key-note of the esotericism of all religions. It is the difference between the " world " and the *' Kingdom of Heaven " in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the difference between the Maya of the phenomenal world, and the Nirvana of the noumenal, in the teachings of Buddha.
All that pertains to our external life is transitory and illusive ; it is not here, in the world of forms and phenomena that we can find the secret of our being. Nor can that secret be expressed in terms of the finite ; therefore are all those religious conceptions found to be utterly wanting, which deal with a personal God and a personal Devil as
GENESIS 6 1
the origin of good and evil ; with creation and final judgment, with heaven and hell as localities, with time and eternity as successive periods, with a material here and a spiritual hereafter.
When once the awakened soul has looked into the depths of its own nature, even though the vision be but momentary, and the mists of the physical close again over the spiritual insight, it has become for ever impossible to satisfy it with the forms and formulas of exoteric religions.
** The kingdom of God is within you ", there lies the secret of the whole universe. Look not for it beyond the furthest stars, nor think to enter it at death, or at the judgment day. ** It is not in heaven . . . neither is it beyond the sea but the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart. "
And learning this, we place our feet with firm and certain tread upon the PATH ; for we are our- selves that Path. ** Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself. "
*' Within yourselves deliverance must be sought; Each man his prison makes. "
For it is the Christ within, our own HIGHER Self, that is '* the way, the truth, and the life. '.
Let us now examine briefly some of the ideas that lie at the root of Christian doctrine, in order that we may understand clearly where the point of departure lies between the exoteric and esoteric.
We may commence with the idea of * creation*.
62 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
There are doubtless many who still believe that by the power of God something may be created out of nothing. This class, however, we must leave entire- ly out of the question. There are others, how- ever, who, though not willing to admit such a concept, cannot get beyond the idea that God, as a personal creator, exists apart from the universe he has created. Now it will be seen later on that Theosophy does in a certain sense recognise such a creator, or rather such creators, but rejects the idea that anything that is personal can claim to be abso- lute deity ; for personality implies relativity and finiteness. To those who hold to the idea of a personal creator, who is separate and distinct from the universe he has created, the next step appears to involve a pantheistic idea which they are by no means willing to admit. It is not necessary for our purpose that we should follow this out here ; we may simply point out that the conception of God and the universe, as an eternal duality, implies the existence of a something — call it matter, or substance, or what you will — out of which the universe is made, which is not God, and which God did not make, since something cannot be made out of nothing.
** God is a spirit, '' we are taught ; but what is spirit, and what is matter ? If they are-eternal dualities, and if the God-spirit did not make matter out of its own self, whence came the matter or substance out of which the universe is fashioned?
I
GENESIS 63
This is a mystery, we are told, into which it is useless for us to enquire. Yea, truly it is a mystery ; for the finite can form no conception of the infinite. But although the secret of the first cause must remain for us an ever concealed mystery, there is no reason why we should introduce into our con- ceptions two mysteries instead of one; it is not beyond the limits of our capacities to view the uni- verse as a unity, instead of a duality. Such a conception is a fundamental one in the Esoteric Philosophy, which cuts the knot of the contro- versy by postulating spirit and matter as the two poles of the one eternal Realitv. Spirit and matter they appear to us ; subject and object in the universe of our perceptions ; but there is a state of consciousness in which subject and object merge in one, where Man becomes once more that which he was — and is.
Unity in diversity, and diversity in unity, is the k^-note of our teachings. The Universe as a unity eternally JS. There is no such thing as ' crea- tion ' in reality. ' Creation * implies existence in time and space — but time and space are not realities, they are but aspects of the One Reality. That which is ' created ' comes into existence (ex-sisio) on the plane of our perceptions by the operation of the " great breath ", that eternal law of cyclic motion by which things issue from the subjective into the objective, and return again to the subjective.
64 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIASITY
Viewed from another standpoint, it is rather our perceptions, or states of consciousness, which change, anrf not things in themselves. The pheno- menal world appears to pass before us as an exter- nal change, but this, like all else on this plane of illusions, is appearance only. Time, space, the phenomenal world, these are creations of our own consciousness. Within ourselves lies the creative power, it is there resides the * God ' who creates the heavens and the earth ; who * ' in the begin- ning " — that is, when the first conception of time arose in our consciousness, when the finite issued from the infinite — separated the firma- ment from the waters — that is, separated the space of our perceptions from that infinite * void ' or abstract space, which is spoken of in many- exoteric works as the ** great waters *' or the '' deep ".
Thus is Man — not the temporary personality which is now called man, but the Heavenly Man, the divine Prototype — the creator of the temporary world in which he lives. That world is, so to speak, the particular cross-section of the whole, which alone can be viewed by the conditioned and finite ; and which being thus viewed is called the present and the real. For man has fallen into the illusions of matter ; he has lost his divine birth- right ; he perceives no longer the eternal verities; he exercises no longer the conscious function of creator, but lives wholly in the phenomenal world
CENES/S 65
which he has created — the creator has become merged in the created.
Yet even man as we know him on this earth is in his own sphere a ' creator ', the creator of his future sphere of Ufe; for out of the infinite All, the choice still lies witli him to bring what he will into objective existence, and for a brief space to call it the present reality. This he does by Karma work- ing through reincarnation. He reaps that which he sows.
The present is but the objectivisation of past thoughts and desires ; the present thoughts and desires will in due time become a temporary objec- tive reality. Thus " there is nothing hid that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light ",
And as it is with ' man ', so is it with those other orders of intelligences which rise in " ascend- ing scale until we reach something practically indistinguishable from omnipotence, omnipre sence, and omniscience. "* Each is the creator of its own universe, its own objective sphere. All is law and order here ; there is no caprice, no supernaturalism in ' creation ', viewed in this light. It is a profoundest philosophy, giving the
I fullest scope for the exercise of our highest intelli- gence and intuition ; giving promise of" an infinite by
I
I
Vide " Essays upon some Cooiroveried Questions, " by Professor J. H. Husley, page 36.
66 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
growth and extension of our own life and con- sciousness. For these higher powers and intel- ligences are not separated and isolated from each other and from man. The whole is united and blended into one harmonious unity. It is no more possible to separate Man from the Universe, than it is to separate * God \ Each lower power ' creates ' within the limits of law determined by higher powers. Free will is limited by law. And if we enquire in this light what are the * laws of nature ', we find them to be the very nature and essence of these higher creative Intelligences ; the
* forces of nature * are their very bodies and sub- stance. ** Every force is an emanation from an entity ", says the Secret Doctrine. This must be qualified, however, as meaning the noumenon of these forces, and not their lowest phenomenal aspect on our plane of matter. And though now to the man of flesh these entities appear as
* forces ', * laws of nature \ * spirits ', * gods *, and what not, above and beyond him; yet we touch the deepest truth of all, the profoundest mystery of our own nature, when we state that Man in his totality, in the fulness of his seven principles, is himself these entities.
To quote again from the Secret Doctrine : ** There is naught higher than man in the Uni- verse : everything has been, is, or tends to become man ".
And again, the Archaic Stanzas from the Book
GENESIS 67
of Dzyan , in describing the consummation of the drama of human existence on this globe, says : — '' Then the Builders, having donned their first clothing, descend on radiant earth and reign over Men — who are Themselves. "
** Who are Themselves " truly. *' It is they who are thou, I, he, oh Lanoo. They who watch over thee, and thy mother earth. ** And though now the divine appears to be the not-ourselves, yet is there naught higher in the Universe than perfect- ed Man ; he who has risen triumphant over the illusions of this world ; who was ** dead and is alive again. *'
** Him the Gods envy from their lower seats ; Him the Three worlds in ruin should not shake ; All life is lived for him, all deaths are dead. **
(Light of Asia)
and again : —
** Yea, He is mighty. The living power made free in him, that power which is HIMSELF, can raise the tabernacle of illusion high above the gods, above great Brahm and Indra. "
** He standeth now like a white pillar to the west, upon whose face the rising Sun of thought eternal poureth forth its first most glorious waves. His mind, like a becalmed and boundless ocean, spreadeth out in shoreless space. He holdeth life and death in his strong hand. *' (Voice of the Silence.)
And this is the Christ whom Paul preached,
68 THE esoteric: basis of CHRISTIASITY
the Heavenly Man, the divine Prototype ; ** Who is the image of the invisible God, the first bom of all creation; for in him were all things created, in the heavens, and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers ; all things have been created through him, and unto him ; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. " (Col. i. 15 — 18).
Thus does the ancient Archaic Wisdom, the teachings of Theosophy, unite with the doctrine of Buddha, and of Paul. Herein lies the true key which opens the door of Rhligion to him who is spiritual enough to use it. Here is the link between Esoteric Christianity and Theosophy ; the one central doctrine of the great INITIATES of all ages. In this we strike the key-note of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, when the " cloak of the narrative " is laid aside. Not God and the uni- verse ; not divinity and humanity ; not Christ the divine Son, and man the lost creature ; not an eternal duality of good and evil ; but all these as the finite aspects of the One Reality. God becoming the Universe, and the Universe becoming God ; the divine becoming human, and the human becoming divine; Christ becoming man, and man bcr- coming Christ ; good becoming evil, and evil becoming good. For the Universe, when once it is viewed in one or any of its finite aspects, is the ever becoming.
GENESIS 69
Sects, creeds, religions — what are these to him who has grasped this deeper truth, save in so far as he can thereby influence for good his fellow- men. It gives to him the glorious liberty of the Gospel of Chrift which Paul preached ; he is *' quit of the priests and books. " The whole uni- verse is his temple ; within himself he finds the ' Holy of Holies. "
If these principles have been fully grasped they will be found to modify profoundly the ordinary conceptions of life and immortality; it is only through them that true life and immortality are brought to light. For true life and immortality is not of the temporary, but of the eternal ; is not of the human but of the divine. And if our real nature be divine, then it is eternal ; and the tem- porary personality is but a passing phase of the real divine Ego.
' Neverthe Spirit was born, the Spir
shall CI
obe
Never was time it was not, end and beginning are
dreams; Birlhless and deathless and changeless remaineth the
Spirit for ever, Death hath not touched it at all. dead though the house
of it seems. "
And so our real Self, our immortal spirit, is
divine and eternal. To give it eternal life hereafter
but no heretofore, is a philosophical and logical
I absurdity. That which begins in time and space
must end in time and space j and that is our tem-
70 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
porary personality only. Hence the necessity for incarnation and reincarnation. The universe as the ever becomings is the eternal reincarnation of the divine spirit, the Logos ; not merely in the physical man as we know him, but in all forms of life, in infinite varieties of manifestation. Thus reincar- nation being a universal principle, the doctrine of rebirth as applied to man is once more not an arbitrary teaching, but the application of a truth, which is true because of its universality.
The idea of that immortality implies pre-exis- tence, is one which has been touched in many ways by intuitional writers of the present age, although it now receives no acknowledgment in the teach- ings of the Church. Yet it was well understood in the early days of Christianity, and even explicitly taught as late as the ninth century. And if our individual spiritual Ego has incarnated this once, in our present physical body, why may it not have done so before, and why may it not do so again ? There are many who will admit our future life to be the natural sequence and outcome of the pre- sent ; after death, they say, we shall begin just where we leave off here ; we shall reap that which we have sown. And if this be so of the future, it must also be so of the present, v/hich is but the reap- ing of that which we have sown in the past. This is Karma, and only by this law can we Reconcile the unequal lots which fall to men in this world. For although the true Ego is immortal and divine, yet
GKNESfS 71
I once that it has ' fallen into matter ' it has to
follow the Karma, the sequence of cause and I effect, which is generated by the man of flesh, the I lower personality. For on all the planes of the uni- ' verse the same law holds good — like generates I like. The physical generates the physical^hence ' heredity. The astral generates the astral. The
thoughts and desires of the present personality
iild up the character of the personality that will
' be in a future incarnation. And it is only when
I that character becomes freed from all desire on this
I plane, when it has exhausted all Karma which can
only have its legitimate outcome in this world, I because it is connected with the thoughts, desires,
and illusions of sense life, that reincarnation I ceases. It ceases because there is no longer any
cause to produce the effect. It ceases because the
human has once more become the divine : because I the lower personalitj' has become one with the I higher individuality ; because the Christ within us, I which is our own SELF, has accomplished his lission ; has wrought out our salvation. In order that we may understand better how I these principles are embodied in the Bible narra- I live, it will now be necessary to give an out- ^ line of the Esoteric Philosophy in its symbolical
form, and then compare it with the Biblical ) account of the creation.
We shall choose the geometrical and numerical I form of symbology, because it is in some respects
72 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
perhaps the easiest to understand, and because these symbols are of the greatest antiquity, and prove the identity of these teachings in all ages, and among all races.
The Esoteric Philosophy is deductive in its methods, proceeding from universal to particulars. Taking first of all the highest intellectual concept that can possibly be formed in respect to the prin- ciple of the unity of the universe — the idea which is set forth in various philosophies under the terms, the * Absolute ', the * Unknowable *, the ' Uncon- scious *, etc., — we have this symbolised by a plain
white disc.
It represents the ALL, the INFINITE, the ever concealed Causeless-Cause, or Rootless-Root of the Universe in its TOTALITY. No name can be given to it, no qualities postulated of it. It is simply IT, or THAT. It can only be expressed by a paradox ; it is absolute light which is dark- ness ; absolute consciousness which is unconscious- ness. In it all opposites are united. It is OM TAT SAT. It is OM AMITAYA. It is ALAYA ; a shoreless sea of absolute motion, which is infinite rest. It ever is, yet is not ; for it is all and in all, yet has no relation to aught that is relative. It is absolute Being, which is Non-Being. Before this mystery the highest celestial beings, Arch- angels, Dhyan-Chohans, or Gods, bow their heads in silence.
CENES/S
73
I
" Who Itnows ihe secret f who proclaimed it here ? Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang ? The Gods ihemselves came later into being — Who knows from whence ihis great creation sprang? THAT, whence all this great creation came, Whether its will created or was mute ; The Most High Seer that is in highest Heaven, He knows it — or perchance even He knows not. " {Rig Veda.)
Time and space have no relation to it ; it is infinite space, and endless duration. Its centre is everywhere, and its circumference nowhere. It is in its totality in tlie smallest atom of ' matter ' ; yet the infinite depths of the starry heavens cannot contain it. We walk through its temple, and live and move and have our being in it, yet is it ever at an infinite distance from us.
In symbolising it by a
o
we make the
The
first of all conceived of as exist-
I first concession to our limited and conditioned con- ' sciousness. Everything lower than this is relative and subject to our ideas of time and space ; and since we must introduce such ideas in any attempt to form an intellectual concept, it is done in the
I following maimer. ; ing of I the
O'^
ing alone, in unbroken slumber. It is the " Night
of Brahm "; it is the " darkness upon the face of
' the deep " (space). " Alone the one form of cxis-
74 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
tence stretched boundless, infinite, causeless, in dreamless sleep ; and life pulsated unconscious in universal space *' (Book of Dzyan), Or to quote from the Rig Veda : —
** The only One breathed breathless by itself, Other than IT there nothing since has been. Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled In gloom profound. *'
We have now to introduce the idea of the first beginning of manifestation ; the first dawn of differ- entiation; the first ideal * breath* of the Manifested Universe that is to be.
**The last vibration of the seventh eternity thrills through infinitude. The vibration sweeps along, touching with its swift wing the .whole universe and the germ that dwelleth in darkness ; the darkness that breathes over the slumbering waters of life. Darkness radiates light, and light drops one solitary ray into the mother-deep *' (space). — Book of Dzyan.
It is the '* spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters*'. It is the commencement of the * * day of Brahm^" (or Jehovah). * 'And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.' This was not our little day and night, for the sun, moon, and stars had not yet been created. It is the universal day and night. It is the first manifestation of the 'Word ', the ' first Logos', the ' point within
the circle \
GENESIS 75
i is the nucleus within the ' egg of Brahma ' ; the nucUoU within the nucleus rather. It is the point at which that differentiation commences, which — spreading through the homogeneous subs- tance of the Universe — becomes by successive stages the world of matter and form. Behind that point lies the ever concealed cause of it/e.
Profoundly significant is that ancient symbology which made the Universe in all its diversity issue from the ' Egg of Brahmft '; for in this is the mystery of life and generation seen to repeat itself below as above. Truly "the microcosm is but a reflection of the macrocosm ".
When differentiation cammences from this ' pri- mordial germ', we get the second stage, the second Logos. The point within the circle becomes a
diameter, f j
At the third stage this diameter is crossed by another at right angles, and we have cross within
the circle ( ) , which is the symbol of the third Logos.* ^-^
The term Logos or Word must not be taken as indicating any spoken word on the part of a crea- tive power. It is simply the idea of speech or words
" Those who have studied embryology will be struck with the sirailarily between these symbols, and the appearance under the microscope of the nucleus of an egg, during the first stages of germination.
76 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
as the manifestation of thought ; a very imperfect simile, but the only way in which we are familiar now with the expressions of thought ; whereas the ancients held — and those who know hold it to this day — that thought, properly direct- ed, will at once produce its corresponding objective result. The idea therefore that is associated with the Logos as the first process of manifestation, is simply that of the divine thought, or ideation, expressing itself immediately as an objective effect. We have now obtained three distinct symbols, expressive of the Divine Trinity, which is found at the root of all the ancient theogonies. Thus the
three Logoi ( • j {■ j (- j may now be
expressed in the one symbol of the triangle,
Sometimes the / \ is used as the symbol for
the second Logos, while the third Logos is repre-
sented by a square.
be represented in an extended form as :
Thus the symbols may
where the point in the circle is the apex of the triangle, and the base line of the triangle is extend-
V
GEr^ESlS 77
ed, or projected downwards to form a square.
We have already pointed out in Part I. that the cross + is a symbDl for the quaternary or square ; and this, being the third Logos, is the manifested Universe ; and is also Jehovah and Brahra4. For this reason the manifested Universe is said to exist on the four lower planes of Cosmos, (see diagram Secret Doctrine, vol I, pag-e 321), also the mani- fested ' Man ' — the personality — consists of the four lower principles {see diagram, page 30).
It is on the constant repetition and permutation of these symbols that the later symbology, as found in various religions, is based. It is very difficult sometimes to follow these permuta- tions, especially when, as in the Bible, in the FurSnas, and other exoteric writings, they are purposely confused.
All that we can do now, however. Is to give a general idea of this symbology, in so far as it will afford a clue to show that the Bible can only be interpreted esoterically on the lines of the ancient Wisdom Religion.
It must be remembered that this geometrical and numerical symbology is not a concrete thing, but an abstract formula ; it is not like a two-foot rule to be placed against the Universe, but it is a metaphysical key, capable of infinite extension or contraction. For wherever the germ of life lies latent, wherever manifestation begins in time and space, there is the point in the circle ; and as every
78 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
manifestation is but the reflection and repetition of the universal process, the same numerical order is found, whether we deal with the universal or the particular.
There is nevertheless a profound signifiance even in the numbers themselves ; for what is the manifested Universe, whose symbol is the square, but the perfect quadrature of the infinite circle.
It has already been pointed out in Part I.
that the / \ and the
taken together
constitute the number seven, or the seven * principles ' as taught in Theosophy ; the upper triad belonging to the * divine ' world, and consti- tuting the immortal spiritual principles, and the lower quaternary belonging to the world of tem- porary manifestation and form. (See diagram, page 30).
We must now turn our attention to the con- nection between this symbolism and the Biblical records, together with the Christian doctrines founded thereon.
It will be necessary, in the first place, to throw more light upon the doctrine of the trinity, which has become so much obscured by theological spec- ulations based upon the literalisation of the Gospel narratives. In this, as in other matters, the key can only be obtained by comparing and inter- preting the Bible with those older systems from
CESEsrs 79
' which all its allegories are borrowed — without any acknowledgment — and made to appear as history.
In the older philosophies, however, in the Egypt- I ian ritual, and in the still older Hindu system, I the nature and symbolism of the trinity is perfectly I clear. It is at best but an anthropomorphic conception, to introduce the terms of human rela- ■ tionship into the divine mysteries of creation ; and the danger of it is fully exemplified in the history of the Christian Church, where for centuries the original philosophical conception has been altogeth- er forgotten, and the degradation of the sym- bolism fully completed, by making the divine Son the physiological offspring of a human virgin ! The- . anachronism of this will be made clearer as we I proceed.
Christian theology the trinity consists oF
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; but in the Esoteric
Philosophy it is Father- Mother- Son — the natural
1 order and relationship. In the Christian trinity
I there is no female principle, and to suit the
I exigencies of the case the Son is made the second
i person, instead of the third, while the Holy Ghost
—which is really a permutation of the Father —
I is put in the third place.
Now in the Esoteric Philosophy, Father- Mother
I is the dual aspect of that which is really one, viz, ,
\ Spirit and Matter. It is the infinite co-operation
of these two which produces the third aspect, the
8o THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
divine ' Son '; or more simply the manifested univ«^e.
To quote again from the Book of Dzyan : ** Father-Mother spin a web whose upper end is fastened to spirit — the light of the one darkness — and the lower one to its shadowy end, matter ; and this web is the universe spun out of the two substances made in one, which is Svabhavat. "
* Father-Mother ' are the first and second Logos {more strictly the second Logos only is so regard- ed) ; and the ' web \ which is ** the universe spun out of the two substances made in one", is the third Logos, the divine * Son *, symbolised by the
i
or cross.
Many are the aspects in which this trinity can be presented, both in its collectivity and its com- ponent parts. The whole pantheon of the ancient gods and goddesses are only permutations of these three fundamental principles. For *' every mystery in heaven is repeated on earth "; and whether we take it in its universal aspect, or whether we take the birth of a solar system, or of a single planet, of a human being, or a speck of protoplasm, or a single atom of matter, the process, the problem, the mystery, the symbology is the same.*' There is no great and no small, to the soul that maketh alt". The Infinite repeats itself in endless mani- festations ; it is ** the beams and sparks of one moon reflected in the running waves of all the
rivers of earth ". {Book of Dzyan.) There is not one law for the gods, and another for mortals ; one life for the atom, and another for the globe." Each is a part of the web. Reflecting the Self-Existent Lord like a mirror, each becomes in turn a world". {Book of Dzyaii.)
It is this which places the deductive Philosophy so infinitely beyond the methods of inductive science, with its endless speculations and contra- dictory theories. It is this which places it so infinitely beyond those little systems of so-called religion, which can mete out a 'plan of salvation', by which perchance a few favoured mortals may enter into an eternity of bliss,
' Spirit ' or ' Father ' is often symbolised by fire or fight ; and ' matter ' or ' Mother ' is symbolised by water or the ' deep ', This, as we have already , is also a term for abstract space. " Darkness radiates Light, and Light drops one solitary ray into the Mother-Deep " (Space).
Now this is exactly the same symbolism as found in the first chapter of Genesis ; ' Darkness was upon the face of the deep ; and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said. Let there be Light. " Here the ' deep ' and 'waters' are synonymous, and are the female principle, the ' Mother-Deep ' ; while the ' Spirit ' is the ' Father '.
It is not difficult to trace this also in the New Testament, where the birth of Jesus is only a
82 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
repetition of this symbology. Mary is Mare, the sea ; representing again the ' waters ', or the * deep '. She is *' found with child of the Holy Ghost" (Mat.i. i8). Now, one symbol for the Holy Ghost is fire (Acts ii. 3), and we have thus again the dual symbols, fire and water, as representing ^irit and matter, or Father-Mother ; the " spirit of God " and the ''waters " of Genesis. It is clearly seen here that the Holy Ghost is the Father, the first person of the trinity and not the third. The Church has left out altogether the female principle in the divine trinity, has put in two ' Fathers ', and taken the ' Mother ' only in the lowest phys- iological sense. The immaculate conception was a divine allegory ages before the Church appro- priated and materialised it.
Moreover, it is not difficult to connect the Virgin Mary with the personified female principle of the older religions. She is also identified with the Hindu Maya, with the Chaldean Mar-Ri, and with many other '' divine mothers ", all conveying the same signification, and even bearing a singular phonetic resemblance. Her direct prototype is the Egyptian Isis, whose son Horus corresponds to the Christ of the later symbology. She also corresponds to the moon, which is another type of the feminine ; the sun (Osiris) being mas- culine. Hence her title of ' Queen of Heaven ' and her pictorial representations in connection with the crescent moon.
GENESIS 83
It must be remembered, if these variations seem to be somewhat confusing, that this symbology has assumed many forms, and been dressed up in all kinds of guises, exoteric and esoteric, for thou- sands of years, and by different races, nations, and teachers. We have but broken fragments of the original, whether in the Bible, or any other similar book. In many cases — in the Bible notably — they are worse than broken ; they are deliberately perverted to fit a special system of anthropomor- phic theology, and ecclesiastical authority. But enough remains to show that they have a common origin, and that they have been handed down and repeated from cycle to cycle of human history ; from the earliest beginnings of the Aryan race, through Hindu, Babylonian, Chaldean, Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, and other nations, who have had their golden age, and then been swallowed up by the great devourer. Enough remains to prove the antiquity and the preservation of the Secret Doc- trine, which alone can give the key which is the synthesis of the philosophy, religion, and science of all ages. For while all these change with the changing races and cycles, while the allegories are passed from one to the other, mutatis mutandis : the facts of the Universe, the laws of nature, remain ever the same. That which has been, is, and will be. All forms perish ; and the altars and temples of to-day shall in their own turn become as those whose fragments now strew the sands of the desert.
84 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
The wheel of birth and death turns round, and those who once shook the sistrum before the Egypt- ian Isis, now burn candles before the Virgin Mary ; who shall say to what form they will be wedded, when once more the wheel turns round.
Let us now see how far the broken fragments given to us in the Book of Genesis, may be pieced together, so as to bear some resemblance to the original teachings.
*' In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void. "
" In the beginning ", is the commencement of the time cycle of this present manifested Universe. There is no beginning nor end in eternity ; but since in this also we must make concessions to our finite ideas, it is necessary to introduce the idea of periodicity. We have already referred to the * ' days and nights of Brahm^ '', or the outbreath- ing and the inbreathing, the periods of Manvant- ara and Pralaya. The conception is a fundamental one in the Esoteric Philosophy, that everything that makes its appearance in time and space is a manifestation of something already existing ; and that it has to pass through alternate periods of subjective and objective existence. This is what we, on this plane of consciousness, call birth and death ; and it holds good — as do all other universal principles — equally for the small as for the great. Thus the whole manifested Universe has its period
or cycle of existence ; and within the great cycle, or "Age of Brahma " (or Jehovah) are smaller cycles without number ; cycle within cycle in infinite scries, yet each one a faithful reflection and mirror of the universal.
Now the cycle with which we are at present concerned, is simply that of our earth or globe. The cycle of evolution which this globe has to accom- plish, is but a minor cycle comprised within the greater cycle of the solar system. But the cycle of this globe is itself composed of many minor cycles. The earth itself has to pass through several periods of subjectivity and objectivity, of birth and death, or successive reincarnations. For convenience of classification, and following the septenary law which governs the present order of manifestation, the major periods of the earth's evolution are divi- ded into seven, and these are called Rounds. Thus the present period of activity, or of the evolution of life on this globe, is the fourth in the series ; hence our earth is said to be in its fourth Round. Each cycle or Round is allotted, by laws of cor- respondence and analogy, to a definite purpose or , order of evolution. Thus, once this order is known, I the history of the world, past, present, and future, I open book. For by correspondence and ana- logy, since the infinitely small reflects the infinitely [ great, the life history of the smallest thing is the life history of the whole, and any portion of that life history is the history of any similar portion of
86 THE ESOTERIC BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY
the whole. Take as an illustration the development of the human foetus. Its physiological development is the epitomised history of physiological man of the earlier rounds or cycles ; and could the astral and spiritual forms and forces which lie behind the physical, and which mould the latter into form, be discerned, the whole line of descent of ' Man ' from ' God ' would be unveiled. It is this descent or ' fall ', and the re-ascent or ' redemp- tion \ which constitutes the divine allegory of the Old and New Testaments.
Following out the principle of correspondence and analogy, we find that this earth being now in its fourth Round, humanity is most strongly char- acterised by its fourth principle. (See diagram, page 30.) Each Round, however, is subdivided into seven minor periods or cycles, and these constitute the various Races of humanity. These Races, however, are not the races known to profane history, the latter being minor subdivisions of the Root Races. Each Race is concerned among other things with the development of one of the senses. We are now in the fifth Root Race, hence our five senses ; while the coming of the sixth Root Race is already foreshadowed in the development of a sixth sense, which is a psychic faculty : hence the psychic phenomena which are at present attracting so much attention. Coming events cast their shadows — verbimi sap.
We shall now be better prepared to trace the
GENESIS 87
outline and the correspondences as given in Gene- sis. The first chapter deals with the evolution of the earth during the first three Rounds; the second, third, fourth and fifth, deal with this present Round only ; or with the evolution of the first four Races of our present humanity. Broadly speaking, the first four chapters correspond also to the first four Races, but the narrative is not consecutive. We have already seen what the words " in the beginning '* imply, and we must now take note of the singular phrase, " the earth was without form and void '*. Thi is the only clue given to us of the nature of the creation described in the first chapter, and which is so essentially different from that of the second chapter ; yet with the key which the Secret Doctrine supplies, the difference between the creation by the Elohim in the first chapter, and the creation by Jehovah in the second