vol 2 pt 1, stanza 12 b - The Secret Doctrine The Secret Doctrine — by H. P. Blavatsky Vol. 2, Page 378 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. [[This page continued from previous section]] The Origin of the Satanic Myth. Let us then fathom this creation of the Patristic fancy still deeper, and find its prototype with the Pagans. The origin of the new Satanic myth is easy to trace. The tradition of the Dragon and the Sun is echoed in every part of the world, both in its civilized and semi-savage regions. It took rise in the whisperings about secret initiations among the profane, and was established universally through the once universal heliolatrous religion. There was a time when the four parts of the world were covered with the temples sacred to the Sun and the Dragon; Vol. 2, Page 379 THE SECRET OF THE DRAGON. but the cult is now preserved mostly in China and the Buddhist countries, “Bel and the Dragon being uniformly coupled together, and the priest of the Ophite religion as uniformly assuming the name of his God” (“Archaeology,” Vol. xxv., p. 220, London). In the religions of the past, it is in Egypt we have to seek for its Western origin. The Ophites adopted their rites from Hermes Trismegistus, and heliolatrous worship crossed over with its Sun-gods into the land of the Pharaohs from India. In the gods of Stonehenge we recognise the divinities of Delphi and Babylon, and in those of the latter the devas of the Vedic nations. Bel and the Dragon, Apollo and Python, Krishna and Kaliya, Osiris and Typhon are all one under many names — the latest of which are Michael and the Red Dragon, and St. George and his Dragon. As Michael is “one as God,” or his “Double,” for terrestrial purposes, and is one of the Elohim, the fighting angel, he is thus simply a permutation of Jehovah. Whatever the Cosmic or astronomical event that first gave rise to the allegory of the “War of Heaven,” its earthly origin has to be sought in the temples of Initiation and archaic crypts. The following are the proofs: — We find (a) the priests assuming the name of the gods they served; (b) the “Dragons” held throughout all antiquity as the symbols of Immortality and Wisdom, of secret Knowledge and of Eternity; and (c) the hierophants of Egypt, of Babylon, and India, styling themselves generally the “Sons of the Dragon” and “Serpents”; thus the teachings of the Secret Doctrine are thereby corroborated. There were numerous catacombs in Egypt and Chaldea, some of them of a very vast extent. The most renowned of them were the subterranean crypts of Thebes and Memphis. The former, beginning on the western side of the Nile, extended towards the Lybian desert, and were known as the Serpent’s catacombs, or passages. It was there that were performed the sacred mysteries of the kuklos anagkes, the “Unavoidable Cycle,” more generally known as “the circle of necessity”; the inexorable doom imposed upon every soul after the bodily death, and when it has been judged in the Amenthian region. In de Bourbourg’s book, Votan, the Mexican demi-god, in narrating his expedition, describes a subterranean passage which ran underground, and terminated at the root of the heavens, adding that this passage was a snake’s hole, “un agujero de colubra”; and that he was admitted to it because he was himself “a son of the snakes,” or a serpent. (“Die Phoinizier,” 70.) This is, indeed, very suggestive; for his description of the snake’s hole is that of the ancient Egyptian crypt, as above mentioned. The hierophants, moreover, of Egypt, as of Babylon, generally styled them- Vol. 2, Page 380 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. selves the “Sons of the Serpent-god,” or “Sons of the Dragon,” during the mysteries. “The Assyrian priest bore always the name of his god,” says Movers. The Druids of the Celto-Britannic regions also called themselves snakes. “I am a Serpent, I am a Druid,” they exclaimed. The Egyptian Karnak is twin brother to the Carnac of Bretagne, the latter Carnac meaning the serpent’s mount. The Dracontia once covered the surface of the globe, and these temples were sacred to the Dragon, only because it was the symbol of the sun, which, in its turn, was the symbol of the highest god — the Phoenician Elon or Elion, whom Abraham recognised as El Elion.* Besides the surname of serpents, they were called the “builders,” the “architects”; for the immense grandeur of their temples and monuments was such that even now the pulverised remains of them “frighten the mathematical calculations of our modern engineers,” says Taliesin.† De Bourbourg hints that the chiefs of the name of Votan, the Quetzo-Cohuatl, or Serpent deity of the Mexicans, are the descendants of Ham and Canaan. “I am Hivim,” they say. “Being a Hivim, I am of the great race of the Dragon (snake). I am a snake myself, for I am a Hivim.” (“Cartas,” 51; “Isis Unveiled,” Vol. I., 553, et seq.) Furthermore, the “War in Heaven” is shown, in one of its significations, to have meant and referred to those terrible struggles in store for the candidate for adeptship, between himself and his (by magic) personified human passions, when the inner enlightened man had to either slay them or fail. In the former case he became the “Dragon-Slayer,” as having happily overcome all the temptations; and a “Son of the Serpent” and a Serpent himself, having cast off his old skin and being born in a new body, becoming a Son of Wisdom and Immortality in Eternity. (See Part II. on the Satanic Myth.) Seth, the reputed forefather of Israel, is only a Jewish travesty of Hermes, the God of Wisdom, called also Thoth, Tat, Seth, Set, and Satan. He is also Typhon — the same as Apophis, the Dragon slain by Horus; for Typhon was also called Set. He is simply the dark side of Osiris, his brother, as Angra Mainyu is the black shadow of Ahura-mazda. Terrestrially, all these allegories were connected with the trials of adeptship and initiation. Astronomically, they referred to the Solar and Lunar eclipses, the mythical explanations of which we find to this day in India and Ceylon, where any one can study the allegorical narratives and traditions which have remained unchanged for many thousands of years. Footnote(s) ——————————————— * See Sanchoniathon in “Eusebius,” Pr. Ev. 36; Genesis xiv. † “Society of Antiquaries of London,” vol. xxv. p. 220. Vol. 2, Page 381 THE THEFT OF RAHU. Rahu, mythologically is a Daitya — a giant, a Demi-god, the lower part of whose body ended in a Dragon or Serpent’s tail. During the churning of the Ocean, when the gods produced amrita — the water of Immortality — he stole some of it, and drinking, became immortal. The Sun and Moon, who had detected him in his theft, denounced him to Vishnu, who placed him in the stellar spheres, the upper portion of his body representing the Dragon’s head and the lower (Ketu) the Dragon’s tail; the two being the ascending and descending nodes. Since then, Rahu wreaks his vengeance on the Sun and Moon by occasionally swallowing them. But this fable had another mystic meaning, since Rahu, the Dragon’s head, played a prominent part in the mysteries of the Sun’s (Vikarttana’s) initiation, when the candidate and the Dragon had a supreme fight. The caves of the Rishis, the abodes of Tiresias and the Greek seers, were modelled on those of the Nagas — the Hindu King-Snakes, who dwelled in cavities of the rocks under the ground. From Sesha, the thousand-headed Serpent, on which Vishnu rests, down to Python, the dragon serpent oracle, all point to the secret meaning of the myth. In India we find the fact mentioned in the earliest Puranas. The children of Surasa are the “mighty Dragons.” The Vayu Purana replacing “Surasa” (of Vishnu Purana) by Danayas or Danavas — the descendants of Danu by the sage Kasyapa — and those Danavas being the giants (or Titans) who warred against the gods, they are thus shown identical with the “Dragons” and “Serpents” of Wisdom. By simply comparing the Sun-gods of every country, one may find their allegories agreeing perfectly with one another; and the more the allegorical symbol is occult the more its corresponding symbol in other systems agrees with it. Thus, if from three systems widely differing from each other in appearance — the old Aryan, the ancient Greek, and the modern Christian schemes — we select several Sun-gods and dragons at random, these will be found copied from each other. Let us take Agni the fire-god, Indra the firmament, and Karttikeya from the Hindus; the Greek Apollo; and Mikael, the “Angel of the Sun,” the first of the AEons, called by the Gnostics “the saviour” — and proceed in order. (1) Agni — the fire-god — is called in the Rig-Veda Vaiswanara. Now Vaisvanara is a Danava — a giant-demon,* whose daughters Puloma and Kalaka are the mothers of numberless Danavas (30 millions), by Footnote(s) ——————————————— * He is thus named and included in the list of the Danavas in Vayu Purana; the Commentator of Bhagavata Purana calls him a son of Danu, but the name means also “Spirit of Humanity.” Vol. 2, Page 382 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. Kasyapa,* and live in Hiranyapura, “the golden city,” floating in the air. Therefore, Indra is, in a fashion, the step-son of these two as a son of Kasyapa; and Kasyapa is, in this sense, identical with Agni, the fire-god, or Sun (Kasyapa-Aditya). To this same group belongs Skanda or Karttikeya (god of War, the six-faced planet Mars astronomically), a Kumara, or virgin-youth, born of Agni,† for the purpose of destroying Taraka, the Danava Demon, the grandson of Kasyapa by Hiranyaksha, his son,‡ whose (Taraka’s) yogi austerities were so extraordinary that they became formidable to the gods, who feared such a rival in power.§ While Indra, the bright god of the Firmament, kills Vritra (or Ahi), the Serpent-Demon — for which feat he is called Vritra-han, “the destroyer of Vritra”; he also leads the hosts of Devas (Angels or gods) against other gods who rebel against Brahma, for which he is entitled Jishnu, “leader of the celestial Host.” Karttikeya is found bearing the same titles. For killing Taraka, the Danava, he is Taraka-Jit, “Vanquisher of Taraka,”|| “Kumara Guha,” “the mysterious Virgin-youth” “Siddha-Sena” — “the leader of the Siddhas”; and Saktidhara — “Spear-holder.” (2.) Now take Apollo, the Grecian sun-god, and by comparing the mythical accounts given of him, see whether he does not answer both Footnote(s) ——————————————— * Kasyapa is called the Son of Brahma, and is the “Self-Born” to whom a great part of the work of creation is attributed. He is one of the seven Rishis; exoterically, the son of Marichi, the son of Brahma; while Atharva-veda says, “The Self-born Kasyapa sprang from Time”; and esoterically — Time and Space are forms of the One incognizable Deity. As an Aditya, Indra is son of Kasyapa, as also Vaivasvata Manu, our progenitor. In the instance given in the text, he is Kasyapa-Aditya, the Sun, and the Sun-god, from whom all the “Cosmic” Demons, Dragons (nagas), Serpent, or Snake-gods, and Danavas, the giants, are born. The meaning of the allegories given above is purely astronomical and cosmical, but will serve to prove the identity of all. † All such stories differ in the exoteric texts. In the Mahabharata, Karttikeya, “the six-faced Mars,” is the son of Rudra or Siva, Self-born without a mother from the seed of Siva cast into the fire. But Karttikeya is generally called Agnibhu, “fire born.” ‡ Hiranyaksha is the ruler or king of the fifth region of Patala, a Snake-god. § The Elohim also feared the knowledge of Good and Evil for Adam, and therefore are shown as expelling him from Eden or killing him spiritually. || The story told is, that Taraka (called also Kalabhana), owing to his extraordinary Yoga-powers, had obtained all the divine knowledge of yoga-vidya and occult powers of the gods, who conspired against him. Here we see the “obedient” Host of Archangels or minor gods conspiring against the (future) Fallen angels, whom Enoch accuses of the great crime of disclosing to the world all “the secret things done in heaven.” It is Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Surgal and Uriel who denounced to the Lord God those of their Brethren who were said to have pryed into the divine mysteries and taught them to men: by this means they themselves escaped a like punishment. Michael was commissioned to fight the Dragon, and so was Karttikeya, and under the same circumstances. Both are “leaders of the Celestial Host,” both Virgins, both “leaders of Saints,” “Spear-holders” (Saktidhara), etc., etc. Karttikeya is the original of Michael and St. George, as surely as Indra is the prototype of Karttikeya. Vol. 2, Page 383 THE GODS, THE FACETS OF ONE GEM. to Indra, Karttikeya, and even Kasyapa-Aditya, and at the same time to Michael (as the Angelic form of Jehovah) the “angel of the Sun,” who is “like,” and “one with, God.” Later ingenious interpretations for monotheistic purposes, elevated though they be into not-to-be-questioned Church dogmas, prove nothing, except the abuse of human authority and power, perhaps. Apollo is Helios (the Sun), Phoibus-Apollo (“the light of life and of the World”*) who arises out of the golden-winged cup (the sun); hence he is the sun-god par excellence. At the moment of his birth he asks for his bow to kill Python, the Demon Dragon, who attacked his mother before his birth,† and whom he is divinely commissioned to destroy — like Karttikeya, who is born for the purpose of killing Taraka, the too holy and wise demon. Apollo is born on a sidereal island called Asteria — “the golden star island,” the “earth which floats in the air,” which is the Hindu golden Hiranyapura; “he is called the pure, [[agnos]], Agnus Dei (the Indian Agni, as Dr. Kenealy thinks), and in the primal myth he is exempt “from all sensual love” (“Book of God,” p. 88). He is, therefore, a Kumara, like Karttikeya, and as Indra was in his earlier life and biographies. Python, moreover, the “red Dragon,” connects Apollo with Michael, who fights the Apocalyptic Dragon, who wants to attack the woman in child-birth (See Revelation xii.), as Python attacks Apollo’s mother. Can any one fail to see the identity? Had the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, who prides himself on his Greek scholarship and understanding of the spirit of Homer’s allegories, ever had a real inkling of the esoteric meaning of the Iliad and Odyssey, he would have understood St. John’s “Revelation,” and even the Pentateuch, better than he does. For the way to the Bible lies through Hermes, Bel, and Homer, as the way to these is through the Hindu and Chaldean religious symbols. The repetition of this archaic tradition is found in ch. xii. of St. John’s Revelations, and comes from the Babylonian legends without the smallest doubt, though the Babylonian story had its origin in the allegories of the Aryans. The fragment read by the late George Smith (See “The Chaldean account of Genesis,” p. 304) is sufficient to disclose the source of the xii. chapter of the Apocalypse. Here it is as given by the eminent Assyriologist: “Our . . . fragment refers to the creation of mankind, called Adam; as (the man) in the Bible, he is made perfect . . . but afterwards joins Footnote(s) ——————————————— * The “life and the light” of the material physical world, the delight of the senses — not of the soul. Apollo is pre-eminently the human god, the god of emotional, pomp-loving and theatrical Church ritualism, with lights and music. † See chap. xii. in Revelation where we find Apollo’s mother persecuted by that Python, the Red Dragon, who is also Porphyrion, the scarlet or red Titan. Vol. 2, Page 384 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. with the dragon of the Deep, the animal of Tiamat, the Spirit of Chaos, and offends against his god, who curses him, and calls down on his head all the evils and troubles of Humanity.”* “This is followed by a war between the dragon and the powers of evil, or chaos on one side and the gods on the other.” “The gods have weapons forged for them,† and Merodach (the archangel Michael in Revelation) undertakes to lead the heavenly host against the dragons. The war, which is described with spirit, ends, of course, in the triumph of the principles of Good. . . . .”‡ This war of gods with the powers of the Deep, refers also, in its last and terrestrial application, to the struggle between the Aryan adepts of the nascent Fifth Race and the Sorcerers of Atlantis, the Demons of the Deep, the Islanders surrounded with water who disappeared in the Deluge. (See the last pages of Vol. I., “Isis Unveiled,” Atlantis.) The symbols of the dragons and “War in Heaven” have, as already stated, more than one significance; religious, astronomical and geological events being included in the one common allegory. But it had also a Cosmological meaning. In India the Dragon story is repeated in one of its forms in the battles of Indra with Vritra. In the Vedas this Ahi-Vritra is referred to as the Demon of Drought, the terrible hot Wind. Indra is shown to be constantly at war with him; and with the help of his thunder and lightning the god compels Ahi-Vritra to pour down in rain on Earth, and then slays him. Hence, Indra is called the Vritra-Han or “the slayer of Vritra,” as Michael is called the Conqueror and “Slayer of the Dragon.” Both these “Enemies” are then the “Old Dragon” precipitated into the depths of the Earth, in this one sense. The Zend-Avestic Amshaspends are a Host with a leader like St. Michael over them, and seem identical with the legions of Heaven, when one reads the Vendidad. Thus in Fargard XIX., ii. 13 (42), Zarathustra is told by Ahura Mazda to “invoke the Amesha Spenta who rule over the seven Karshvares§ of the Earth”; which Karshvares in their seven Footnote(s) ——————————————— * No “god” who curses his (supposed) own work, because he has made it imperfect, can be the one infinite absolute wisdom, whether called Bel or Jehovah. † In the Indian allegory of Tarakamaya, the war between the gods and the Asuras headed by Soma (the moon, the King of Plants), it is Viswa-Karma, the artificer of the gods, who forges, like Vulcan (Tubal-Kain), their weapons for them. ‡ We have said elsewhere that the “woman with child” of Revelation (xii.) was Aime, the great mother, or Binah, the third Sephiroth, “whose name is Jehovah”; and the “Dragon,” who seeks to devour her coming child (the Universe), is the Dragon of absolute Wisdom — that Wisdom which, recognising the non-separateness of the Universe and everything in it from the Absolute All, sees in it no better than the great Illusion, Mahamaya, hence the cause of misery and suffering. § The “Seven Karshvares of the Earth” — the seven spheres of our planetary chain, [[Footnote continued on next page]] Vol. 2, Page 385 THE BUILDERS OF THE MATERIAL WORLD. applications refer equally to the seven spheres of our planetary chain, to the seven planets, the seven heavens, etc., according to whether the sense is applied to a physical, supra-mundane, or simply a sidereal world. In the same Fargard (ii. and iii.), in his invocation against Angra Mainyu and his Host, Zarathustra appeals to them in these words: “I invoke the seven bright Sravah with their sons and their flocks” (42 Vendid. Sadah). The “Sravah” — a word which the Orientalists have given up as one “of unknown meaning” — means the same Amshaspends, but in their highest occult meaning. The “Sravah” are the noumenoi of the phenomenal Amshaspends, the souls or spirits of those manifested Powers; and “their sons and their flock” refers to the planetary angels and their sidereal flock of stars and constellations. “Amshaspend” is the exoteric term used in terrestrial combinations and affairs only. Zarathustra addresses Ahura Mazda constantly as “thou, the maker of the material world.” Ormazd is the father of our earth (Spenta Armaiti), and she is referred to, when personified, as “the fair daughter of Ahura Mazda” (Fargard, XIX. … truncated (51,949 more characters in archive)