The the Age CONTAINED IN THE jctrine of all Religions. \\ ' i^M^^ Illllii ; : ■ THIRD EDITION. S» ^ tV*t ®¥alagim ^ '% PRINCETON, N. J. % BP 565 .C23 1887 Caithness, Marie d. 1895. The mystery of the ages contained in the secret •t"%\ ^M ■ / 1*1 Win ^lo-W. jilc^-oX^ & THE Mystery of the Ages CONTAINED IN THE j$£tret goctnuc uf all §c(t0tons. (THIRD EDITION.) BY MAEIE, COUNTESS OF CAITHNESS, DUCHESSE DE POMAR. AUTHOR OF "old truths in a new light," etc., etc. Published for the Authoress. LONDON : C. L. H. WALLACE, PHILANTHROPIC REFORM PUBLISHER, OXFORD MANSION, W. 1887. PREFACE. When Hiero, the tyrant of Syracuse, once proposed to the philosopher Simonides the question : What is God? the latter desired a day to consider it. Being asked the same question the next day, he desired two days for that purpose, and thus from time to time doubled the number. Hiero, being greatly surprised at this, inquired the reason of his conduct. "Because," said Simonides, "the longer I consider the subject, the more obscure it seems to be." " Should you now ask of me this same question," says Cicero, in his dissertation De Natura Deorum, ' On the Nature of the Grods,' " I will reply to you as Simonides did to the tyrant of Syracuse; and I am disposed to believe," he continues, " that Simonides, who was not only an excellent poet, but also was neither wanting in erudition nor in good sense, after his mind had followed opinion after opinion, one more subtle than the other, without being able to discern which were true, finally lost all hope of finding Truth." Thus far the learned of old. Uninspired reason, it would appear, cannot attain to a knowledge of the Divine ; and if this was the state of mind of the great Roman orator when he wrote his treatise On the Natura of the Gods, well might an average Roman of that period exclaim : What is Truth ? while Truth incarnate stood before him. IV PREFACE. To ask what is Truth is but to ask what is God ; for God is the essence of Truth, and Truth is the essence of God. The knowledge of truth is therefore the knowledge of God, even as the knowledge of God must be a knowledge of the Divine and omnipotent Truth that sustains the Universe. Truth-knowledge and God-knowledge must be identical, for it is impossible to conceive a truth opposed to the Divine All-Truth, even as it is inconceivable that God could be opposed to our knowledge of a Truth whereto our Soul urges us to seek. Truth and God being one, the knowledge of that Truth which is God and of God, who is the Truth, is the Divine Wisdom of the Ages, and the Eeligion connected therewith is the Eeligion of Wisdom. This Esoteric Wisdom, ever jealously guarded by Initiates, the writer, by a course of studies which became both a consolation and a recreation, has been able to trace in most Eeligions, and herewith presents the results of those investigations in a collected form. Although these studies cannot equal the researches of a man who can devote his life to the subject, yet being thus far in the favoured position of having had all kinds of views providentially presented, it is thought that at least a one-sided exposition has been avoided, and the reader will get a truly catholic — that is, a universal — idea of what the Secret Doctrine really is, which has been kept concealed from the beginning. In this age a universal inquiry into all religious systems is carried on around us by kindred spirits, clearly indicating that it is the age of revealment, PREFACE. V or of making known. The sacred books of every land and age are being translated, and their merits discussed ; imperfectly, no doubt, at present ; but let us not despair, for others shall follow the path to esoteric knowledge that we have but intuitionally indi- cated. What has been kept secret from the beginning is now made manifest; and although the less liberal ecclesiastics, inspired by fear for the safety of their sheltering church, still strive to obscure the divine light emanating from what they are pleased to call pagan sources, who is there that can now believe, for instance, that the teachings of Gotama Buddha were inspired by Satan simply because they anticipated those of Christ Jesus ? Virtue is divine by whoever it may be taught and practised, and no sect can claim a monopoly of good- ness, or to have originated a virtue that was not known and practised long anterior to the existence of that sect. God is Truth, and was known from the beginning. Man stood ever in the same relationship to his Divine Father. To say : " other religions may have been good, but mine is the best," is but to assert: "other men may have been good, but I am the best." For the religion is the man himself, and his highest ideal. If that ideal is imperfect, the whole man is imperfect ; if wrong and false, the whole man is wrong and false, and becomes the very reverse of his pretensions. Therefore, to assume: "all religions except mine are bad," is but to declare : " all men are devils, I only am an angel," and is the height of egotistical presumption. The Truth Vi PREFACE. of the Heathen is as true to him as the Truth of the Christian; for Truth is its own law, and its Divine Spirit knows no sectarian distinctions. Some of these are more liberal-minded than we are, when they say: " Though we may each look out of different windows, we all see the same great Sun— source of light and warmth." The occult Theo-philosophy set forth in these pages is not a new invention, nor the mystic craze of a few visionaries, as irresponsibly-minded Agnostics and the soi-disant Orthodox would fain describe it, but the continuance of the most ancient Divine Wisdom- Eelio-ion co-eternal with the existence of the Divine Soul. For wherever the Soul was, there was the Law and Way of re-birth and re-ascension. To whom shall we now turn for information on this mystic knowledge ? The ordinary religionists, depending for their know- ledge of the Divine upon the Sunday sermon, which but too often is given by one who is only a Theologian, and who consequently teaches but what he has been taught by those who knew as little as he himself knows of the inner truth, can afford us no reply. The words of the Word are only incidentally produced in as far as these can be twisted to agree with a mass of arbi- trary dogmas, that, like parasitical creepers, overgrow and conceal the tree of life from our views. Nor can the atheistic Materialists — or, as they prefer to be called, "Agnostics," — tell us that which they themselves do not know. These would rather enslave all mankind with the bonds of their own wilful ignorance, PREFACE. Vll to compel the debasing belief that not only God but even a life beyond the grave are subjects hopelessly unknowable. How gladly would the Materialists stamp out the ideas of God and Immortality and erase the words from the Dictionary ! For to admit a knowledge beyond their comprehension is to resign their preten- sions to positive science ; and rather than accept the reality of a spiritual knowledge, which they by their perversity are incapable of acquiring, they would will- ingly, to uphold their own prestige, condemn all man- kind to spiritual blindness. Therefore must Theosophists submit to be called visionaries, and Theosophy remain a tabooed subject ; and with characteristic forgetfulness they, whose pre- decessors but a century ago were crushed by the intolerance of ecclesiastic bigotry, would now set up a system of pseudo-scientific infallibility, from which, according to them, it is not only heresy, but insanity, to differ. Such is the modesty of the Agnostics, or know-nothings, that they do not hesitate to say that Spiritualists and joroh pudor Theosophists cannot possibly be right-minded ; for are not they, the Mate- rialists, the absolute authorities for all Science, and have not they the sole monoply of reason ? To hear them discourse one would be inclined to believe that all the knowledge in the world is already their own ; yet the Gospel of their Unfaith amounts only to this : there is no God, and the Agnostic is his prophet. This No-God, however, does not increase our knowledge of the unknown laws of nature, and, having not even an Viii PKEFACE. existence, his poor nothingness can afford us but small consolation. What justification have such men, vain of that little knowledge known to be a dangerous thing — what justification have they to consider those deluded who differ from them because they preacn the Unknown God? The greatest madman is the Atheist; for can he be otherwise than insane who denies the existence of that omnipotent All-Eeason whose manifestation is the Universe ? Wiser than the moderns with their ephemeral science were the ancients, who more concealed than revealed their spiritual knowledge. Seeking the Truth therefore, neither in unbelief nor in blind belief, neither lightly condemning nor lightly believing, by following the self-constituted authorities of credulity or incredulity, but accepting Truth wherever it is found, and giving credit to all for the knowledge that they really possess, we have arrived at the conclusion, which the impartial reader is at liberty to accept or reject, that in antiquity, as well as in more recent times, there were beings claiming to have a knowledge of the Divine, that they attained to this knowledge by practising virtue, and whether their claims are justifiable can be discerned from a perusal of this our Tnquiry, wherein we also indicate the works that will aid the reader desirous for further information. Truths that we already know become not more valuable because we find them accepted by a multitude of witnesses, or garbed in outlandish jargon ; but PREFACE. IX sometimes the very familiarity with a Truth that has been inculcated to us from early youth prevents us from appreciating its value and perceiving its importance upon which a new wording often throws new light and displays the jewel that has been all the while overlooked. Our investigations have been carried on in accordance with the rules Bishop Beveridge (1636—1707) laid down for himself, in his Private Thoughts on Religion, Part I., Article 2, and whose remarks are prefixed to the first volume of the Sacred Books of the East : — "The general inclinations which are naturally im- planted in my soul to some religion, it is impossible for me to shift off : but there being such a multiplicity of religions in the world, I desire now seriously to con- sider with myself which of them all to restrain these my general inclinations to. And the reason of this my inquiry is not that I am in the least dissatisfied with that religion I have already embraced, but because it is natural for all men to have an overbearing opinion and esteem for that particular religion they are born and bred up in. That, therefore, I may not seem biassed by the prejudice of education, I am resolved to prove and examine them all ; that I may see and hold fast to that which is best " Indeed there was never any religion so barbarous and diabolical but it was preferred before all other religions whatsoever by them that did profess it ; other- wise they would not have professed it " And why, say they, may not you be mistaken as X PREFACE. well as we ? Especially when there is, at least, six to one against your Christian religion ; all of which think they serve God aright, and expect happiness thereby as well as you. . . . And hence it is that my looking for the truest religion, being conscious to myself how great an ascendant Christianity holds over me beyond the rest, as being that religion whereinto I was born and baptized; that which the supreme authority has enjoined and my parents educated me in ; that which everyone I meet withal highly approves of, and which I myself have, by a long-continued profession, made almost natural to me : I am resolved to be more jealous and suspicious of this religion than of the rest, and be sure not to entertain it any longer without being convinced by solid and substantial arguments of the truth and certainty of it. That, therefore, I may make diligent and impartial inquiry into all religions, and so be sure to find out the best, I shall, for a time, look upon myself as one not at all interested in any particular religion whatsoever, much less in the Chris- tian religion ; but only as one who desires, in general, to serve and obey Him that made me in a right manner, and thereby to be made partaker of that happiness my nature is capable of." Having carried on our investigations in this very spirit, we now declare to have found in the Esoteric Doctrine, or Universal Wisdom-Religion, which forms the secret Doctrine of all religions, the solution to that mystery of the ages which satisfies both the aspira- tions of the Soul and Intellect. PREFACE. XI This Secret Doctrine, which we have found to be the Esoteric basis or foundation of all the religious, we have been able to study, and which we have therefore named Universal, is sometimes known as the Ancient Wisdom-Eeligion, which derives its name from the Divine Wisdom Itself, of which we read so much in the Proverbs of Solomon, and in the Book of Ecclesiastes, and which is so evidently shown forth as being the feminine principle in the Divinity. To quote from Swedenborg — in whose writings we find this theory so clearly set forth — " Love and "Wis- dom are the two Essential Principles in the Divinity " ; in speaking separately of either, it is customary to say, " The Divine Love," or " The Divine Wisdom." They represent the Masculine and Feminine sides of the Great First Cause, whom we call God, or the Divine BEING, for God alone IS. Eeason comprehends that where there is Being, or Esse, there is also Existere ; one is not possible with- out the other, for an Esse is not an Esse unless it exists, because it is not in a form ; and what is not in a form, either spiritual or natural, has no quality — is nothing. Whatever exists from an Esse makes one with the Esse. Now, this is the case with the Divine Love and Wisdom. These two are so much One that they may be distinguished in thought, but not in act ; they may therefore be said to be distinctly One — that is to say, Biune, or Two in One. The Divine Spirit of God-man is understood by the Divine Love (Esse), and His Divine Soul by Wisdom Xll PREFAOE. (Existere) ; they are distinctly One, since Divine Wis- dom exists from Love, and Divine Love makes itself seen and known by Wisdom. All that proceeds from Divine Wisdom is called Teuth. " The Truth," then, is no other than the form of the affection which is engendered by the Divine Love. For this reason the Lord Jesus Christ is called the Only Begotten Son of God, although the Churches may not be aware of this spiritual interpretation, or inclined to reason concerning it. But Jesus himself declared it before the Judgment Seat of Pilate. " Thou, say est that I am King. To this end was I born, and for this reason came I into the ivorld, that I should bear ivitness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the truth heareth my voice." Let us not then turn a deaf ear to this voice, in our search after Truth ; for by listening to it we may be directed to find the fundamental Truth underlying all the religions of the Ages ; and as Christ himself said : "Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day"; which the Jews could not at all understand when they looked upon a man who was " not more than thirty years old " ; for they were as limited then in their Spiritual views as we are now, to whom the same Christ is speaking nearly two thousand years later ; but we can still only see the historical man, who laid down his life to bear witness to the Truth at the age of 33, and not The Truth to which he came to bear witness, which he manifested to the world, and whr;h PKEFACE. xiil belongs to spiritual light, or insight ; " that light which shineth in darkness, and the darkness com- prehendeth it not"; the Only Begotten Son of God, Born of the Divine Wisdom, whom the Lord possessed in the beginning, before ever the earth was. (Kead the VIII. Chapter of Wisdom.) But to avoid repeating this formula, we prefer to adopt an expressive word derived from the Greek, or, rather, from two Greek words — Theo, God, and Sophia, Wisdom — which together, as " Theosophia," or, in English, " Theosophy," means the Science of "Divine Wisdom " ; and though we can never hope to know this in its fulness, yet we may certainly quench our thirst at the ever-flowing fountain ; for it is that source of which Christ said : " If any man drink, it shall be to him a well of water springing up into Eternal life." This divine science has been known in all ages, and by the followers of many different systems of religion, because it is the oldest science there is in the world ; though the outward name has been adopted by an extensive organization, inaugurated in India, with which it has perhaps become rather too exclusively identified of late, as Branches of this Society or Brother- hood are extended in all directions, not only over all India, but exist also in Europe and America; this Society, however, makes no claim to the exclusive use of the term, and its members are quite aware that there are many Theosophists in the world, belonging to all religions, although they do not outwardly bear that xiv PREFACE. name. We cannot suppose, therefore, that a narrow, prejudiced party-spirit will prevent any large-minded reader from following us through this earnest inquiry we have endeavoured to make concerning the Divine Wisdom, or Theosophy, underlying all the Keligions of the Ages. We are told that the disciples of Jesus were indig- nant because they saw someone casting out devils by the same power or Name, who followed not them : but Jesus replied : " Forbid them not, for he that is not against us is on our part." This is the first lesson to be learned by every true Theosophist ; for to be a Theosophist, you must rise to the height of view that finds the underlying truth in every system. The Study and Science of the Priests of all religions is Theology — and Theology, as well as Theosophy, may also be dignified as a Divine Science, because it is the study of God and the Scripture — or, so called, Sacred Writings ; but whilst Theology affirms the know- ledge of God to be inaccessible to Eeason, and only attainable through Faith, which is a gift of God, Theo- sophy affirms the intellectual and intuitional appre- hension of divine things, and declares that God is to be seen in all His works, and is still more particularly to be found and understood by the investigation and study of the Occult laws of nature, whilst keeping clear, however, of Theurgy, a study which might end by leading the student in an opposite direction. " Theosophy professes to exclude all dialectical proofs (which is the method employed by Theology PREFACE. XV and by Philosophy), and to derive its knowledge of God from direct and immediate intuition and con- templation, or from the immediate intuition — com- munication— of God Himself. So far, therefore, as regards the Science of God, Theosophy is but another name for Mysticism, although the latter name implies much more, and the direct and immediate knowledge or intuition of God to which the mystics lay claim, was in fact the foundation of that intimate union with God, and consequent abstraction from outer things, which they made the basis of their moral and ascetical s}Tstem " (Chambers' Encyclopaedia). If, then, it be true, as it is thus implied by a gene- rally received authority, that mysticism is the Soul's inner knowledge of God, may we not define Theosophy as the Science that cultivates the spiritual perceptions and faculties of the Soul, and thus helps it to unfold that intuitional knowledge which, as a divine seed, is already planted in that precious garden ? The mission of man is to learn to know God as far as He can be known ; but as long as we are worshippers of the external God only, we are idolators and creed- mongers, and are led mechanically, like sheep, through our own indifference in neglecting to cultivate the interior faculties of our souls. The Soul is the One little Garden given by our heavenly Father to each one of His children in par- ticular, and which, were we to cultivate, tend, and care for, as we do our outer earthly bodies, would richly reward us by the fragrance and beauty of the flowers XVI PREFACE. and rare fruits it would put forth, and which would bloom and flourish in its fruitful soil. If we realize what Soul is, we realize what Theo- sophy is. The infinitude of God cannot be made known to us in words, it must be acquired in the infinite region — the region of the Soul. The carnal mind cannot apprehend Spiritual Truth. Above the realm of the senses and passions, out of the noise into the silence must he go who would find the truth. " Be still, and know that I am God." The Soul of man is a mirror in nature, and the mind may read the lessons written there in the lurid fires of passion, or in the clear light of eternity. If the mirror of the Soul be turned habitually towards the spiritual world — if passion be subdued, and pride destroyed, the mists will roll away, and knowledge of everlasting verities will flow into the Soul. "Theosophy is the Divine Wisdom which is the science of divine bliss ; it is the science of contem- plating problems that lie deep in man's spiritual nature This great Science is the Science of Eternal Life; the contemplation of which causes the present life to assume its true proportions. " Theosophy is the essence of all doctrines, the inner truth of all religions. Creedless, nameless, un- taught by priests, because it is of the Spirit and not to be found in temple or synagogue. It is the still small voice heard in the whirlwind, and felt in the storm." Theosophy believes in the still small Voice of God within, or the Spirit within the Soul. God is Spirit, PKEFACE. XV11 and Spirit is One, Infinite and Eternal, whether it speak through the life of Buddha or Jesus, Zoroaster or Mohammed. The words Jesus spoke, and the works He performed, he spoke and wrought through the Spirit, or the God within his own Spiritual Soul. And whoever lives in the Spirit bears the same witness. The truths of the Spirit are only known by the Spirit. When we walk in the light of the Intellect alone, and without the Intui- tion, these things are foolishness unto us, because they are intuitionally discerned by the Soul, and it is only after they have been first discerned that they can become understood by the intellect. The ideal of the Theosophist is the At-one-ment of his own spirit with that of the Infinite, and to be able to say with Jesus, " The Father and I are one'' The Theosophist sees that this is the essential teaching of all religions, and to obtain and enjoy this union you must believe in and obey the voice of your own higher conscience ; for the true Christ is the Divine Spirit within you, and thus God manifest in humanity. All truly-inspired men, as well as Jesus himself, advance the claim of their unity with God. The sense in which Jesus meant this is revealed when he said : " It is written ye are Gods." The spirit of man is part of the breath of God. When man comes to a true knowledge of himself, he also comes to a true know- ledge of God, and from being the son of man, he feels he can say with Jesus, " I am the Son of God" " I and my Father are one" And though on earth he b XVlil PEEFACE. suffers and dies, yet angels minister to him, and death is but the entrance into a larger, fuller, and more perfect life. When we attain to this exalted state the Immanuel of the heart, or God with us, the Christ born within us, will work mighty works, and redeem us from the world and the flesh, and make us conscious of our own relation to God, and our heirdom of Eternal life. To be a true Theosophist, or lover of Divine Wisdom, we must have largeness of heart to embrace the whole ; therefore a heart attuned to divine melodies ; or, in other words, a spirit that feels and thrills to the glorious harmonies of all that comes to us so bountifully from the Divine Love and Wisdom of our Heavenly Father and Mother God, and keenly alive to all the beauties that surround us on every side, as well as to all the dangers to which we are continually exposed, and from which we are only saved by their ever-watchful and merciful providence for the safety of all. True Theosophy studies all religions, but teaches none, leaving to each the right of finding Truth for himself. Nevertheless, it is the summary of the Wis- dom of the Brahmin, of the Buddhist, of the Jew, and also of the Christian; for it is that branch of Chris- tianity which demonstrates and distinguishes the Spiritual Christ from the historical Christ, too exclu- sively taught by Theology. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Inteoductoey. PAGE Statement of the momentous Problem. Method of Investi- gation. The Supreme Eternal Being. Our Divine Mother. No " irresponsible " Deity. Theosophia, the Divine Knowledge. The "Martyrs" or "Witnesses" for the Divine Truth. Heaven and Hell within us. God- denying the cause of Satan's kingdom on Earth. Theo- sophy the Saviour of all ages Both Saviour and Salvation. Fallacies of Scepticism. The No-God-Idea demands more credulity than the God-Idea. The Mani- festation of the Absolute. The testimony of the World- Teachers. Selfishness the real Evil in Man. The Unity of all Esoteric Doctrine. Occult value of Mathematics. Mathematical Theosophy. Thought is also Prayer. The Absolute Self or Divine Soul. How to attain to Soul Knowledge. Occult Practice. The Rationale of Yoga. The one way to God. The Great Work. Quo- tation from an old Theosopher 1 CHAPTER II. The Theory and Practice op Theosophy. The Science above all Sciences. Belief an initiatory necessity for final salvation. List of accessible works on various XX CONTENTS. PAGE. systems of Theosophy. The study of Tlieosophy. The Ever-Beginning. Time cannot measure things of Eter- nity. Power and Love. The Laws of Spirit. The Stream of Existence. A physical and spiritual Death. Soul-Force. The Roscicrucian teaching. Possibility of the One becoming the All and the All becoming the One. Divine Magic. The Female Principle. Spiritual Exercise. " Dwellers on the threshold." The world as seen from above. The primary qualifications of an Adept, quoted from the Private Instructions on the Science and Art of Organic Magnetism, by Mrs. C. Leigh Hunt- Wallace. The Perfection of Christ (quotation from The Perfect Way). "How to attain to 'Power and the Resurrection,' Polarisation of the Divine." Without Knowledge no Salvation. Yoga Practice (selection from "The Arya"). Theosophy based on Anthropology. The Pantheon of Universal Theosophy 20 CHAPTER III. Hermetic Theosophy. Pabt I. The Seceet of Mythology. The origin of man. Ape or Angel ? Pre-historic Hermeti- cism. Theo-philosophy. Hermetic Language. Mystic Myths. The Great Arcanum. Only Initiates can under- stand Initiates. How to interpret Occult Soul-Allegories. The Eternal Now. Peculiarities of Kabbalists and Her- metists. The Secret of Mythology. The Knowledge which is Power. Two quotations defining what Adepts can do. The Secret of Mythology not astronomical but psvchological and occult. Soul the only thing eternal. Non-existence of Matter. The Soul-World. The Course of Re-birth symbolized by the course of the Sun. The Rule of the Gods. Difference between Myths and Allegories. The great simplicity of the Divine-human and human-Divine Theosophy 4.6 CONTENTS. XXI CHAPTER IV. Hermetic Theosophy. Part II. Egyptian and Christian Gnosticism. PAGE. God and the gods. Soul-worship and Demon-worship. Man ever the same. Polytheism. Misdirected Religion. The place of the " Gods " in ancient Theosophy. Necessity for Occult fables. Unity of Mystic Doctrine. Spiritual Democrats and Aristocrats. The struggle between know- ledge and ignorance. A war between the occult and the official Church. Continuance of Hierarchic Obscurant- ism. The most ancient book of Theosophic teachings. The "Book of the Dead." Division of the "Ritual." Gnosticism a revival of Egyptian Theosophy. The Books of Hermes. The " Imperishable " in Egyptian and Hindu Theosophy. Quotations from the ancient Papyri. Osiris, the Spirit of Brahma. The Pantheism of Initiates. The Egyptian Hierarchy. The Smaragdine Tablet. Selections from the Books of Hermes. The Influence of Hermetic Theosophy upon the Genesis of Christianity. Formulation of the Christian Doctrine at Alexandria. Christian and Pagan Gnostics. Gnosis the Sanctuary of Christianity. " Men are not saved by the historical but by the metaphysical." Christ and Horus. Hermes Trismegistus 63 CHAPTER V. Oriental Theosophy. Part I. The Theosophy of the Brahmins, Magi, and Druids. Whence are the Hindus ? Their ancient " Wisdom-Re- ligion." Indian Caste a reproduction after the Egyptian. A Hiero-aristocracy. Occult Temples and monumental poetry. The Trimurti. The Vedas. Hindu Philosophy. The Darsanas. Many names for the One Being. Selec- tions from the Bhagavata-Purana. " The Practice of Devotion." "Acquisition of Deliverance." " Distinction Xxii CONTENTS. PAGE. of Nature." " The Yoga of Devotion." " Time Infinite which ends all." Text-books of Hindu Theosophy . . 91 The Theosophy of the Magi. All equally pure and each one a priest. Soldiers of Light against powers of darkness. Selections from the " Desatir." An Epitome of Occult knowledge from the Book of the Prophet Jyafram. Theosophical aspect of the Magian System. Magi and Brahmins. The War between Ahura-Mazda and Angra Mainyu purely spiritual and esoteric. Zoroaster. The first translation of the Zend-Avesta by Anquetil du Perron. Zoroaster a contemporary of Abraham. Origin of the Kabbala. The mysterious "Brethren." The Gnostic doctrine according to the Codex Nazarmus. Did the Kabbalists borrow of the Gnostics? En-Soph "the Eternally Boundless One" of the Zend-Avesta. Platonism deduced out of the theosophic dogmas of Zoroaster. Radical Principles of the Kabbalistic doc- trine. The practical direction taken by the Magi on the Occult. A journey through Heaven and Hell. Arda Viraf. The Spirit of Zoroastrian Religion. The mys- tery of the Fire Element. The Logos, the Persian "Honover." The advent of the New Dispensation. Our Lady of Light 109 Theososphy of the Druids. Druidism identical with Oriental Theosophy. Druid Monuments. Adepts of Druidism still existing. " Les Homines de la Religion Blanche." The ante-Christian Theosophy of the West. The Bards. Druid Triads and Bardic Aphorisms. Druidic idea of the Spheres of Existence. Similarity to Esoteric Budd- hism. Books on Druid Theosophy 133 CHAPTER VI. Oriental Theosophy. Part II. Buddhist Theosophy. The pre-historic Wisdom-Religion a Buddhism. Hierocracy. A New Spiritual Influx. Contemporaries of the Buddha CONTENTS. XXHl PAGE. Cycle. Buddhism the first Catholic System historically known. Character of Buddha's teachings. Buddhist Missionaries. The Theosophy of Gotama Buddha. How- to become an Initiate. Karma the law of consequences. The annihilation of Selfhood. Buddhism summarised. Christ and Buddha manifestations of the same Divine Principle. Buddhism a Christ-like Philosophy. Brah- minism summarised and contrasted with Buddhism. Yoga and Samadhi. The Spiritual He-birth. The Soul- state an individual Divine gift to each Being. The Meaning of Nirvana defined in a dialogue between Milinda and Nagasena 140 Esotebic Buddhism. Esoteric Buddhism the ancient Wisdom-Religion. Com- parison of the Constitution of Man with the Constitution of the Universe. (Plate.) The figure of the Cross used as a sacred symbol long anterior to the Christian Era. The Mystery of Mysteries represented in the seal of Solomon. The Male brain or Solar Plexus. The Female brain or Cerebro-Spinal System. The seat of Life or fourth Principle. Manas, theffth Principle, or Human Soul. Kama Loca and Kama Rupa. The Seed of the Woman. The seven-fold Nature of the Divine Essence. Separation the cause of Evil. Man the arbiter of his own destiny. Kama Loca or Purgatory. Deva- chan. The Eternal "Two in One." The ceaseless Chain. New Birth or Regeneration. Jivatma and the Linga Shabiba. The seven degrees of the Masonic Jacob's Ladder. Seven Sephiroth and seven Senses. The Arcanum symbolized by the Great Pyramid. The Will the axis whereon the Seven Principles turn. The Seventh Principle, Atma, or the Divine Spirit. The Law of the lower nature. Spiritual Evolution and Involution. The Planetary Chain. (Diagram.) The Sleep of Worlds. The Rounds of Mankind's Evolution. NOW is the Turning-Point. Note on the Mahatmas. The present the fifth race of the fourth Round. The approaching New Dispensation. Esoteric Buddhism affording a scientific explanation of all the phases of XXIV CONTENTS. PAGE. existence. Comparison of the Sankkya Philosophy with Esoteric Buddhism. Kapila a Positivist. Purush and Prakriti defined 153 Chinese Theosophy. The System of the Tao-Sse. Directions from the Nan Sua on Occult Practice. Lao-Tse's attempt to systematize the Laws of Fate and Destiny. Selections from the Tao-Te- King. The Manifestation of Virtue. Arriving at the Source. The Abyss of the Absolute Being. Far-Seeing. Confucius and Lao-Tse. A Discussion on the True Way (Tao) 193 CHAPTER VII. Pagan Theosophy. The three great classes of Theosophy. " Heathen " Theosophy. The Divine Masters all one in Doctrine. Characteristic of the Heathen Initiate. Monotheistic Religions. Soul- Worship in the midst of Demon- Worship. The Mythos interpreted by Astronomers and Alchemists. Spiritual Science the Sanctuary of the Physical Sciences. Elec- tricity and Magnetism. The Pillars of Hercides. Theo- sophy the Key to Mythology. The exclusiveness of Pagan Theosophy demolished by two Jews. Initiation to the Mysteries. Autopsia. All ancient Philosophers were Initiates. Selections from the writings of Orpheus, Hesiod, Xenophanes (Note on ekagrata or one-pointed thought), Empedocles, Kleantkes the Stoic and Synesios. A hymn full of fearless love. The " Unknown God." Pallas the Divine Virgin Wisdom. The Phidian Jupiter. Causes producing the dissolution of Paganism. The old lights becoming extinct, new beacons were foimd. Hea- then Orthodoxy. Man's mind in a cosmic prison. The Letter which killeth. The Cynics, Grecian Yogis. The Pythagorean System (quotation from Cleobolus). The lost Key to Esoteric Knowledge. Paul declaring the "Unknown God" .. 201 CONTENTS. XXV PAGE. Theosophic Ideas of the Ancient Romans. The mission of the Romans. Their Temples having originally no Statues. Greek influence on Roman Religion. The Roman Cultus. Numa the last of the Adept Kings. Gives the people a settled form of religion and Divine Law. The Etruscans. The Culte of Virtue. The Sy- billine Oracles. God's great plan of educating the world. The Roman Cultus formulating Christian Ecclesiasticism 227 CHAPTER VIII. Semitic Theosophy. Pabt I. The Kabbala ob Hebbew Theosophy. Theosophy the Salvation of the Jews. Monotheism the only true Theosophy. The Jews a chosen people through their adherence to the God of Israel. The Kabbalists. The Sefer Jezira. Philo Judseus. The Tora, or Oral Law. Its transmission. Moses a Theosophist. The Tora full of occult ideas. God a holy God. Keepers of the Oral Law. Note on the Rationale of the Sacrificial Culte. The Nazarites. Christ a Nazarite. Elias, founder of the Carmelite Order. Priests opposed to Prophets. Solomon's architectural Occultism. The Tora a Kabba- listic book. Judaism permeated with Kabbalism. The mystic Tora. " The Brethren." Philo on the allegorical Books. " The Truth shall make you free." " The Spirit giveth Life." Christ the end of the Law. The Essenes. Hermetic Theosophists. Mystical Interpretation of Scripture. ' The allegory of Abraham and his two wives. The Law and the Spirit of the Law. The ever-present spirituality of the Holy One of Israel. The Eternal Word. The Bible both Sacred and universal His- tory. Macrocosm and Microcosm. The Spiritual Soid. Abraham and Zoroaster. An outline of the Kabbala. " In the Beginning." Bereschis and Mercaba. Easith or Wisdom. Divisions of the Kabbala. Principles of XXvi CONTENTS. PAGE. Kabbalistic Pliilosolipy. The Sephiroth. Esoteric Hebraism and Christianity. Selection from the Zohar. "The Initiation of Rabbi Khija." Selections from the " Tad Hachazakah" or Mishne Torah of Moses Maimonides. Sefer Hamada, the Book of Knowledge. Jehovah, One, described in human language. Involution through Evolution. Variety of Angels. Unity of the Creator. The work of the Chariot, the Mystery of the Universe. Different Orders of Intelligences. The Maasei Mercabah, description of the Chariot, to be ex- pounded in secret, and to Initiates only. Pardeis, the Garden of Knowledge. Nephesh, Soul. Olam Habba, the Land of the Living 234 CHAPTER IX. Semitic Theosophy. Pabt II. The Sufis and Mohammedan Theosophy. Mohammed, "The Praised." Medina, the city of the Prophet. "War with the Christians. Character of Mohammed. The return to Monotheism. God as Supreme Will. Islam, Resignation. Christianity a progressive Religion. The Mohammedan Heaven. No recognition of human brotherhood in the Koran. The permanency of Islam. The Crescent, emblem of Sophia (Wisdom). Tendency to Monotheism in the Semitic race. The children of Abraham. A pantheism of force. The two Covenants at work. "Our Father in Heaven." Quotation from "Domestic Life in Palestine." The Muezzin's call to prayer. The Koran embodying two religions. Number of verses, etc. Genghis Khan. Note on the Mage or Mogul. The cause of the Crusades. The end of the Second Cycle, A.D., 1881. Mo-hammed, or Om- Ahmed, the desire of all nations. The Tenth Avatar. The Sufis. Origin of their Theosophic Orders. The Thirty- two Orders of the Dervishes enumerated. Esoteric Mo- CONTENTS. XXV11 PAOE. hammedanism. Bayezid's explanation of Mystic terms quoted. Sancta Sophia, the Divine Wisdom. The three stages of Sufi Initiation. Sufeism in Gnosticism. Sir John Malcolm and Sir William Jones on the Sufis (quotations). Sufis, Sophists, or Theosophists. The Moollah of Room. The Rashees, or Rishis. The tonsure of the Priests. Selections of Sufi Poetry. Sufism, true Theosophy. Harnmer-Purgstall states that the Koran contains a secret Doctrine. Sopheistic character of the Ishmaelites. Signs of the Times 293 CHAPTER X. Christian Theosophy. Christ Himself the Spirit of Christian Theosophy. The doc- trine of Christ practical and not theoretical. A living Christ. The Apostles God-knovv-ers, or Theosophists. Theology separate from Theosophy. The Gospel of Life and a Gospel of Death. Rise of the Heretics. Harder to unlearn than to learn. The Church most necessary. A true Reformation. The " No-God " of the Materialists. The Messiah-Mysterion. Christ the Divine Incarnation. The Divine Spirit individualized. Christ must be in us. Jesus imparted true Gnosis. To understand the Apostles one must be a true Theosophist. Theosophy the only Ortho-Doxy or Right Doctrine. Christ the " Head Stone of the Corner." Note on the Great Pyramid. The Soul is feminine. The Theosophic histories of the Gospels. The Mystery of Christ. Are the Gospels histories or allegories ? The Naronic Cycles. Note on the historical Jesus. The Christ Spirit in David. Christ an Eternal Verity. Truth, One and Eternal. The Saviour of all Men. Sonship of the Christ Spirit. Hercules a per- sonification of the Spiritual Sun. The Heavens a book. The Son in Taurus. Melchizedec an Avatar. The Second Coming of Christ. Former Incarnations of the Christ Spirit. The Avatar Wittoba. Hercules, accord- ing to Orpheus, " bringing a cure for all our ills." The XSV111 CONTENTS. PAGE. New Birth. The Earthly Eve and the Heavenly Mary. The Logos of Plato, the Adonai. Father, Mother, and Son. Quotation from the " Anacalypsis " on the Sephi- roth. Significance of the Serpent-Symbol. The Holy Virgin, or the Divine Wisdom. The Destroyer of the Serpent. The Christ Circle. The Spirit of the New Testament (quoted). "A greater than Solomon." Christ a title indicative of a state. The Anointed. A lecture concerning "The Spirit of the New Testament" (quoted). The Kingdom of the Inner Life. The Star, or Christ Circle, a body of faithful souls. The Christian type. Fundamental Doctrine of the Logos. Continuance of Gnosticism in Christianity. The "A gnosis" of Dionysius the Areopagite. The Theosophy of Christ. Conflict of Exoteric with Esoteric Christianity. The Reformation. The Jesuits as Theosophists. Adepts of Theosophy in the Reformed Church. Esoteric Texts. Two Epistles of Dionysius the Areopagite. Quotation from " St. John of the Cross." The Story of Master Eckhard and the Theosophist. The realm of the Soul far greater than any kingdom on earth 341 The Theosophy of Christ. How to understand Ancient Scripture. The "Name" of Christ. The Blood. Faith in Christ. The Truth. The Five New Commandments of Christ, or Beatitudes. Love is the Great Truth. Christ is God, or the Logos in Man. Extracts from a discourse by Professor Buchanan, " What is True Christianity ? " " Christ not a personal name although connected with Jesus. Immanuel, or God with us. Churchianity not true Christianity. Constantine. The recognized Christs of the Ages." Krishna and Arjun. Quetzalcoatl, the Mexican Christ. Note, quoting Lord Kingsborough's "Antiquities of Mexico." Suchiquetzl. Unity of the Divine Messengers and evolution of the One Great Truth. The Spiritual Significance of Astro-Masonry. Dupuis' "Origin of the Cultes" and Melville's "Veritas." The Sun-Gods types of the Christ or Saviour in Man. Christ the central or spiritual Sun 409 CONTENTS. XXIX CHAPTER XI. The Theosophic Interpretation of the Biele. PAGE. All that is true is Spiritual ; no chapter in the Bible bears a physical meaning. Concerning the Interpretation of Scripture, a fragment from " The Perfect "Way." Mystic books should have a mystic consideration. The Legend of Adam and Eve. Abel. Spiritual Sacrifices. Moses an Egyptian Hermetist. What Idolatory is. The bite of the Serpent 433 The Bible a collection of Theosophic writings. The doar to all Divine Symbolism. The Divine Marriage of Soul and Spirit. The subject matter whereon the Bible treats. Christ the Spirit (quoted). "The common people con- sidered unfit to receive the doctrine of the Spirit. The Gospel writers Essenes and belonged to a Masonic brotherhood. Hiram a predecessor of Christ. The " Brethren." The Gospels written by Therapeutse (physicians of the Soid), at Alexandria, symbolize the Life of the Divine Spirit. Accessions from " without " diluting the true doctrine. The Church-Fathers imbued with the Spirit of Truth. The Essene doctrine not lost. 438 Allegory both in the Old and New Testament. The inward sense in Scripture. Types of Genesis (quoted). Note on the different senses of Scripture. Theosophic inter- pretation of Sacred writings. Pbilo Judaeus. Summary interpretation of the books of the Old Testament, quoted from Types of Genesis. Theosophic interpretation does not exclude the verity of Bible history. Fathers of the Church, quoted on the Theosophic interpretation of the Bible. Origen. St. Hilary. St. Augustin. St. Jerome 442 Texts from the Christian Fathers in Latin, with English translations : St. Augustine on the Creation : The "beginning." Our Earth. The inward fulfilment of the work of the first three days. The fourth day, humus, development of humanity. The fifth day. The living Creatures are the emotions. The stronger effect begins XXX CONTENTS. PAGE to operate on the fifth day. The sixth day. Having outgrown the beast, man is made in the image of God. Concerning " Eden." The Fall. Distinction between the first or earthly man, and the latter or spiritual man. Cain and Abel. Origen's interpretation of the Creation : The separation of the waters. The lights which illumin- ate us. Thoughts, things that creep and fly. Gregory the Great on the Mystic Creation. What the sea is. Shutting the sea with gates. The Ordinary Gloss on the generation from Adam to Noah. St. Ambrose He Noe et Area. Noah's Sons. Note, quotation from Christ the Spirit, on Man as the Microcosm being the Ark. St. Augustine concerning the Tower of Babel, or self-eleva- tion. Note thereon, quoted from Types of Genesis. The Gloss in the Catena Aurea on the Genealogy of Christ. " Morgenrothe " by John Pulsford (quoted). St. Augus- tine on the meaning of Egypt. Types of Genesis (quoted). Abram the spirit of faith. The men in the Bible repre- senting minds, their wives the affections. Remarkable passage from Bossuet's " Discourse on the Universal History." St. Augustine's comments on the life of Abraham. His two Sons. The conflict to deliver Lot interpreted as the struggle of the spirit of faith to save the outward man. The five kings the five senses. Keturah. Mr. Juke's instructive comments 451 The Bible a Theosophic book to the Theosophist only. East- ern Symbology. Christian Mystics. Jacob Boehme. Hermetic Philosophy. Spiritual Alchemy. The Philo- sopher's Stone. Reasons for concealment. The Hermetic Society. The President's opening address (quoted). Swedenborg. His works. The Arcana Ccclestia. Doc- trine of Correspondences, illustrated in selections from the writings of Swedenborg. The Secret and Mystery of the Christ. Discussion on " Genesis " in the Nineteenth Century Magazine. Godfrey Higgins on Genesis. Maimon ides' Key to Bible and Talmud. The time for making known has come. Hermetic Science is Esoteric Truth 472 CONTENTS. XXXI CHAPTER XII. Conclusion. PAGE Revelations coming in Cycles. Intermingling of systems. Waves of Materialism and Mysticism. J. F. Clarke on the types of religions (quoted). Origin of all true religions. The seven ages of the World. Undefinahle waves. Collection of former Revelations. Value of past experience. Where to go for Soul-knowledge. A proud saying hy the humblest of men. Esoteric reality indifferent to distinctive designations. Soul-Life alone Perfection. Revelation of Revelations. Catholicity of Buddhism and Christianity. The Heresy of one age the Orthodoxy of another. Absolute Truth attainable. Ecstasy not absolute. The Divine Manifestation un- defmable. Supreme Good the one Law of God. The Soul's means of communication. Demon est Deus In- versus. Individual Spirit and Universal Soul. The early Mystics 499 Soul. How to know one's true state according to Swedenborg. The Spiritual Body. No middle state in Spirit. All- embracing or all-repelling. The growth of the Spirit. Spiritual Love alone absolute. Purity. The Spiritual Guide. Grades in good and evil. Intuition. Spiritual and Material Alchemy. Gnosis, the direct path. God, passive. Advice to Inquirers 516 Infinity. Infinity without and within us. Contemplation of the starry heavens. Translation of Camille Flammarion's Essay, " Stars and Atoms." "A star of the seventh magnitude, a colossal sun. Its distance and velocity. All stars animated with analagous motion. The immateriality of matter. An iron rafter solid through immaterial force. Molecular attraction. The human body a vital vortex. Materialism superannuated. The voice of the Infinite. Magnetism. Modern physics proclaiming the invisible XXX11 CONTENTS. PAGE. Universe. The real is the invisible force. "We are in infinity and eternity. Velocity making no advance." The illimitable Divine Spirit. God our all 523 The Path. Life and Thought. Evil and Error perversions of Good and Truth. The square of the Absolute. Intuition the voice of the Soul. Absolute Power is beyond man. Divine attributes. Love, the direct way to God. Reality of Salvation. Our aim. The seed of Infinity. To what we can attain. The Logic of Nature. Man-made religions forced upon woman. The religion of the future 532 Nibvana, The End. The Sabbath, or 7th State. There is but one I Am. The Eternal Memory. Internal Infinity. Those who rule by force shall perish by force. The invisible body. Michael the ruler of the New Dispensation. Conclusion. Omnipresence of the Divine Being. End . , . . 537 — 541 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. The word Theo-sophia, according to Plato, signifies "Divine Wisdom." It is therefore that "Wisdom which is from above, and •which will lead the Soul from earth to heaven ; from animalism to Divinity. Its study begets immortality by bridging the gulf between life and death ; whilst it alone enables man to feel that divine love which is the supreme good, and the manifestation of the Eternal in his own being. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. AT the outset of our enquiry into Theosophy and the Occult we are confronted with the most momentous questions. Is there a Supreme Principle commonly designated God ? Can God be known ? And how is the God- knowing faculty acquired ? The magnitude of these questions renders them un- approachable in their entirety by the human mind. Then to whom shall we turn for an answer ? In Physical Science information is not accepted by reason of belief, or of unbelief ; and in the Spiritual Science of Theosophy, both the credulous dogmatist and the incredulous agnostic should also be deemed equally incompetent, and the subject should be treated from B 2 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. a stand-point of neither belief nor unbelief, but simply as experimental Gnosticism, or Science illustrated by historical examples, and guided by individual research. Verily, we consider ourselves the least learned in Theosophy, but what little we know, we do know. Yet most humbly and diffidently do we take up so ponderous a subject, even the more so as each of those colossal systems which we can but point out and pass by, demands the study of a life-time to be rightly under- stood and valued. The following pages may therefore only be judged of as a mere attempt to induce others who are more qualified than ourselves to enlighten students of the Occult with their illumination. Theosophy we consider to be the knowledge of the Deific, the Supreme and Eternal Principle. But what do we mean by a Supreme Principle ? Is it that which John Henry Newman defines as the " Supreme Being " in the following language, and in reply to this very question ? " I mean, then, by the Supreme Being, one who is simply self- dependent, and the only Being who is such ; moreover, that He is without beginning, or eternal ; that in consequence He has lived a whole eternity by Himself, and hence that He is all-sufficient, sufficient for His own blessedness, and all-blessed, and ever-blessed. Further, I mean a Being who, having these prerogatives, has the supreme Good, or rather is the Supreme Good, or has all the attri- butes of Good in infinite intenseness; all wisdom, all truth, all justice, all love, all holiness, all beautifulness ; who is omni- potent, omniscient, omnipresent ; ineffably one, absolutely perfect ; and such that we do not know and cannot even imagine of Him, is far more wonderful than what we do and can. I mean, more- over, that He created all things out of nothing, and preserves them every moment, and could destroy them as easily as He made them ; OUR DIVINE MOTHER. 3 and that in consequence He is separated from them by an abyss ; and is incommunicable in all His attributes. And farther, He has stamped upon all things, in the hour of their creation, their respec- tive nature, and has given them their work and mission, and their length of days, greater or less, in their appointed place. I mean, too, that He is ever present with His works, one by one, and con- fronts everything He has made by His particular and most loving Providence, and manifests Himself to each according to its needs ; and has on rational beings imprinted the moral law and given them the duty of worship and service, searching and scanning them through and through with His omniscient eye, and putting before them a present trial and a judgment to come." Far more inclined do we feel to adopt the inspired definition of Mr. James MacDowell, of Glasgow, in his papers on " Spiritual Science and the Fourth Dimen- sion," who, when contemplating the glory of the starry heavens, exclaims : — " Here we feel the hand of the Lord is upon us, and like the prophet's servant of old, our eyes are opened to a still more glorious sight. Suddenly the whole universe of space bursts into a blaze of glory like ten thousand noondays, and with unutterable awe and reverence we perceive that the whole Stellar Universe of Suns, Planets and Satellites are whirling their joyous waltz of times and periods within a Sun whose diameter is measured by Infinity and its period by Eternity, " This is our Divine mother, the bride of God. Her being tremulous with love and joy— teeming from her prolific womb His myriad myriad sons and daughters — but where is God ? — Within every point of our Divine mot her — ' the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ' unmoved, through her, He moveth all." There is far more mystic thought in this conception of the Deity than in the former which, however ably defined, neither satisfies the head nor comforts the heart. We must uphold the Kabbalistic doctrine of ex oiihilo nihil fit, and deny the possibility of the Creator 4 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. destroying His own creation, for to destroy would mean to have failed with that particular object; while an absolute power, emanating from an absolute intelli- gence, can never fail to accomplish its object in every item. We must deny a totally " irresponsible " Deity, and affirm God to be the Supreme Kesponsibility ; and although the Infinite and the Absolute may be con- sidered to have no relation to the finite, and the conditioned, we can become more and more Divine only in so far as we recognise our responsibility. Mr. Newman's "abyss of separation " contradicts the Apostle Paul, who says that " in God we live and move, and have our being," God not merely confronts His works but lives in them. Nature is not God, but God is latent in the whole of nature, and lives in every atom of the ever-changing eternal cosmos. In every age, and among every nation, not totally lapsed in barbarism, we find there were those who affirmed with the utmost emphasis that God is, that man can knoiv God, that he can acquire this knowledge by a pure and holy life, and that this Divine experience is the Supreme Good— THEOSOPHIA— or the Divine Knowledge. These beings have borne witness, even unto death, and laid down their lives heroically. Every age, every nation has had its " Martyrs " or " Witnesses " for the Divine Truth ; every age, every nation has more neglected than respected these Witnesses, even as Truth herself was, and is, passed by unheeded by the multitude. HEAVEN AND HELL WITHIN US. 5 Shall it be for ever thus? Are we indeed in this century of boasted civilisation and enlightenment no farther advanced than in times of a semi-barbaric past, or have we even retrogaded ? How slowly does progress progress ! What a delusion is our vaunted Physical Science when the origin, the object, and destiny, of all things are unknown, and nothing remains for our consolation but a limited register of dry facts, a few fanciful theories of more or less ingenious fallacies, con- taining nothing positive, but displaying rank ignorance of the Absolute. Shall it be for ever thus ? Are we to be totally denied the possibility of any higher Sciences than those inculcated in our Schools and Universities ? True, they demand much trouble to learn, and more to imlearn, and are only worthy to be forgotten, as, beyond mathe- matics, they can teach us nothing absolute. You may deny the Soul her aspirations, nevertheless she will aspire ; if you bar the way to Heaven by denying its existence, the Soul will make her Heaven in Hell. If goodness is a delusion and conscience means merely education, the Soul will cry with Lucifer, " Evil, be thou my Good," and bursting the bonds of her rational self will let loose the very Hells of irrationality. For even as Heaven is within us, so is Hell; and where the Dominion of God is denied, Satan rules unasked. God-denying is the cause of Satan's kingdom, or Hell coming on Earth. Modern Science, like another Frank- enstein, has in Atheism created a monster which it is unable to master and whereby not only Modern Science 6 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. herself, but all civilisation will be crushed unless a higher power steps in. Is Theosophy that higher power? Theosophy has been the Saviour of all ages, why not of the present ? It is not Gotama, not Plato, not Jesus, not Lao, but Theosophy, the Divine Knowledge experienced and taught by these exalted individuals, that is the Buddha, the Logos, the Christ, the Tao. When Gotama found Nirvana, when Plato found the Logos, when Jesus found the Kingdom of Heaven, when Lao-Tse found Tao (all these being but different in name, for one identical thing — the manifestation of the Divine Spirit), they became Illuminati — God-inspired teachers, true Theoso- phists ; but had they not found that Supreme Good, and Eevelation of the Absolute in their own being, they would have been but ordinary men. As it was then, so it is now, darkness when most dense shall be dissipated, and the light of the Soul shineth, though the darkness of the mind comprehendeth it not. Theosophy, the Divine Knowledge or God-wisdom, is both Saviour and Salvation. A system combining boundless faith with mathematical exactitude. It is the Eternal Yea, and there can be no Eternal Nay, no positive negation can pose itself beside an absolute affirmation. One affirmation of Science outweighs the countless negations of nescience. If there is a Positive Science of God there can be no Positive Science of "No-God." Where there is an Absolute affirmation there can only remain a confession of ignorance of that Absolute fact ; but no no-fact can be opposed to it. FALLACIES OF SCEPTICISM. 7 Negation of a thing one does not know is merely a confession of ignorance of the possibility of the affirma- tion. Not to have seen a thiDg is no evidence of its non-existence, but only that he who has not seen it, has not seen it, yet the thing may nevertheless exist. Such a thing is the " God-idea," as some are pleased to call it. Those who deny the ubiquitous Presence go altogether beyond the domain of their experience, for they can only affirm that by a wilfully perverse exercise of their incomplete and undeveloped faculties, they believe to have succeeded in excluding the Deity from their minds, and to have consequently arrived at a state of mind that is adverse to the reception of Divine Truth ; but they cannot affirm that the Deific Principle has no existence, for they have not attained to a stand- point like the true Theosophist, where they would be competent to make an Absolute affirmation. Negation which may be called the shadow of affirma- tion, just as the demon is said to be the shadow of the Divine, having been shown to be not absolute ; Scepti- cism is even less absolute than negation, for it is weak- ness, not strength, merely a reaction of blind belief to blind unbelief, and all the doubt in the world cannot produce one absolute affirmation, for weakness com- bined is not strength, but combined weakness : a rope of cobwebs is as nothing to a steel blade. Whether the Sceptic doubts even his own Scepticism or not, his conceptions are so totally devoid of reality and positiveness that they cannot stand before an affirmation of The A bsolute. 8 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. If we suppose there is no Deity, then this " No-God " idea is even more wonderful than the existence assumed for the Absolute Being ; and far from doing away with the inexplicability of existence, this assumption increases it in many ways to an incalculable degree. If God is merely an abstract expression for a sum-total of ignor- ance among the uninitiated, the " No-God " is just as well a multiplication to infinitude of the same sum of ignorance, given a newly-invented expression to hide by sound the vacuity of thought among the pseudo- scientific. Whatever that ontological concept may be called, which is made to account for everything, and which keeps the worlds in their course, be it Force, Ether, Electricity, Matter, or Nothing, it is merely old ignorance newly labelled with a grand, empty name. If Atheists have no belief in the one Presence, which is an absolute fact to all true Theosophists, how can we be expected to believe in the "No-God" of whom they know nothing ? As long as people merely quibble about the words "God " or "No-God," they are only exchanging emblems of ignorance ; but when we come to Absolute Truth and Principles, God is all that is, and His existence is an absolute necessity. The cant of belief has generated a cant of unbelief, but true knowledge is alike opposed to both belief and unbelief. If the existence of a Supreme Principle of Absolute Thought, Power, Justice, and Love, does not satisfy the spoilt children of Modern Science, is the absence or the non-existence of God more satisfactory, and does it help THE MANIFESTATION OF THE ABSOLUTE. 9 them out of the maze of the problems of existence ? If they are satisfied that the parts are living and intelli- gent, and the whole is dead and devoid of thought, they thereby expose but their own deadness and unintelligence, and it will be useless to argue any further with such. He who finds not the Divinity in his own Soul may seek God in vain in the entire Universe, yet even the mechanical mathematics of the Solar systems may recall God to one who ignores the psychical mathematics of his own Soular system. If there is a God for and in us, the Deity is not buried in a hoary Past, nor concealed in a remote Future, but is the God of an eternal Present, and ubi- quitous Presence. The historical manifestations of the Deity are only examples for us to follow, but not idols for us to worship. God is not something strange to, and apart from, our Being, but is the very essence and core of it, not of the artificial Non-Being, that by sensualism and Self-Will we have agglomerated around us, but of the real Eternal Being in its purity. If we can but arrive at the source of our Being we find the God-head to be the fountain- head. The wisest, greatest, holiest, and most truthful of mankind affirm, and speak from individual experience, that God is, that the Deific Principle dwelleth in the Soul, that the Soul is eternal, that the manifestation of the Soul is the manifestation of the Absolute. An enumeration of names is not necessary. Initiates know we allude to the World-Teachers, who have served 10 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. as media between Deity and man. However their views of the Infinite may verbally differ when inter- preted in the spirit of true Theosophy, emanating from an individual Gnosis or spiritual initiation, these exalted ones are, by their knowledge, found to be in perfect harmony upon the Divine verities concerning the Soul, and the Path to be pursued to attain to Soul Science. Can we feel anything else but sincere pity for those who would make the negation, which is generated by ignorance, appear as an outcome of Science ? We do not intend to await nor to anticipate the verdict of posterity, but without heeding the raillery of materialism, we affirm that we can and will think for ourselves, and that we are not content with the empty sounds that in modern Science (and also in so-called Orthodox Keligion) pass as counters for thoughts ; and in the following pages we shall at- tempt to place the simple facts before the impartial reader of whom we demand a hearing on behalf of Theosophy, that neglected and rejected Saviour of Humanity. However various race or creed, however different ethnical conditions and social surroundings, however ill-advised the educational, mis-educational, or non- educational efforts, to which each individual is subjected, however unfavourable hereditary predispositions, never- theless the impulse, striving, and inclination of the human Being is on the whole for Good ; and evil is only done because man, in his ignorance, hopes to get some Good out of it. SELFISHNESS, THE REAL EVIL IN MAN. 11 Evil is not a thing that is, not a thing of Eternity. There is no Evil principle in man but selfishness, de- rived from ignorance, and this is merely a temporary and transitional stage of imperfection, a kind of insanity, an irrational state which has no permanence before the Eternal Eeason. These stages of imperfection man out- grows but slowly, but then, he is a Being of Eternity. Considering all the details of imperfection that are forced upon us by our surroundings, it is wonderful, not that there should be so much variety, but that there should be any unity of thought ; and when we find that the unity is on the side of any one particular idea, and that idea expressed as a positive fact, an absolute ex- perience, and given, moreover, by men of the very highest moral character, yea, by those to whom we owe the very Science of morals, and who were, and are, the living standards of morality, then, even as Law is the agreement of competent legislators and not the dis- agreement of the multitude, who are only bound by a common tie of ignorance, the evidence of the God- knowers should be considered as conclusive. The unity of Esoteric doctrine is a great proof of its truth. The Theosophy of all nations is identically the same. It is Soul Science, God Science. Where it is mixed with human inventions, be they originated by embodied or disembodied beings, it is in the same degree fallible and erroneous. For there is but one Truth, one Good, one Absolute, and that is God. And if we are to point to one book of positive and unadul- terated Truth, it cannot be the Bible, nor the Vedas, 12 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. nor the Tripitaka, nor the Avesta, nor any of the books held sacred by peoples and tribes, nor any of the writings of the Mystics, for these are all, even though in some it be but, in an infinitesimal degree, mixed with human non-absolute concepts. There is but one book that could prove the reality of an Absolute Truth, and that is, the Elements of Euclid. Not that we deny that Poets and Seers are inspired, but that their inspiration does not come always direct from the Absolute. The ancient Greek Initiates knew only too well that without exactitude there could be no true Science of God, and all neophytes had with them to pass through probationary classes, where a system of mathematics was taught, of which modern mathematicians ^have no conception ; for if modern and ancient mathematics were identical, how is it that not one of the modern mathematicians has yet been able to supply, out of his own mind, the lost books of Euclid ? (asserted by Isaac Barrow to be complete !) There was a Theosophical secret in ancient mathematics, of which no modern (except perhaps the late Thomas Taylor) has any idea. Mathematics were to the ancients simply a mode of Theosophy. The object of the system of psychic mathe- matics, inculcated by the Pythagoreans, the Platonists, and other Hellenic schools, was similar to that aimed at by Yogis, Ssufis, Kabbalists, and other Theosophists in their Occult practice. It was concentration of thought upon transcendental objects. Depraved man is decentralised, his centre is a gross body, the lower-self and all his feelings and passions are MATHEMATICAL THEOSOPHY. 13 pointed to that low and unreal state of being. To bring the neophyte away from his lower self, the thoughts had to be isolated ; and while in the East, Yoga was considered the chief Theosophic practice, the West, in the time of the Alexandrian School, had so perfected a system of mathematical Theosophy, or rather, had made so exact a system of Theosophic mathematics, that Ammonios Saccas, Plotinos, Proclos, Synesios and others, attained by its sole aid all the results claimed by Adepts. The " Commentaries of Proclos on the first book of Euclid's Elements," form a valuable fragment of that profound system of Occult Philosophy. Thought is also Prayer. He who thinks prays, and one who would disdain the Spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, may respect the transcendental exercises of the Platonists. Those who reject the Bible may res- pect Euclid, those who decline to pray may not object to think. We Theosophists or Students of Divine Wisdom, like that all-pervading Divine Principle, reject none, except those who reject themselves. But by whatever exercise it be, that of the Seraph or the Cherub, of intellect or love, the mind must be purified and drawn off from the material earth in order to become a citizen of Heaven. Man first exists in this world, as a self-volitional, semi-conscious Being. The greatest part of his life is unconsciously and involitionally manipulated for him by a Being which verily is within him, yet over which he has not the slightest control ! However man may strive against it, the Involitional, or the " unconscious " 14 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. (as Modern Philosophy phrases it), is his absolute master, and his imperfect Will cannot cope with it, although he can so persistently stifle it, as lastingly to injure his human and his Divine self. This Being, which is the centre of Being, is the latent " / am" the life and growth principle within, the Real, Eternal and Absolute Self, which, by its restless and sleepless activity, foreshadows the Divine activity, and the Omniscient and Omnipotent ubiquity. It is difficult to explain this " Being," which is indeed our very highest self, and not another, for it is the Eternal Essence individuating itself in us. It is the Eternal Being, the latent /, the Divine Principle within us. But before the Light can shine, the opposing shell must be destroyed, before the God can be born, the demon must die, and Hell must be passed through before Heaven can be entered ; for Hell is eternal, but man is not eternally in Hell. The Human Spirit is Divine Spirit, but with a de- monic shell about it derived from materiality. Cast off the opposing shell, and you become what you were before you entered upon the fallen state of a selfish and sensu- ally perverted phase of existence. The depraved sensual Self -Will is the ever delusive hindrance preventing the manifestation of the Divine and Absolute Will. Let this sensual Self- Will, which is the Demon, be annihilated, and the Divine Soul can be born within us ; and our Being is identical with the Infinite, the Abso- lute Good. There can be but One Divine Will, One Good, One THE DIVINE SOUL. 15 Absolute, One God, and as long as we are external to that One, we are not in our true eternal Being, not Divine, not good, not Absolute, not rational even, but deluded, erroneous, and irrational ; therefore necessarily demonic, evil, erring, and false, both to ourselves and to God. While in the human state, the Divine Being at times manifests Itself in us, as a warning voice ; it is the cause of prophetic dreaming, prescience, intuition, and the yearning for the Mystical and unknown, which is merely a sensing of the Divine. It really is a Being, or rather the Being — yea, pure Thought, Love, Life. A Law unto Itself, the Law of all Law, human and Divine, temporal and eternal. It is, and there is no being external to its existence. It is the core, the kernel, and the all of Life, for not Matter but Thought is Being. Thought is the Divine link that unites us with the Eternal. Thought scintillates through the human mind, the Microcosm, and manifests its golden rays through the glories of the Divine mind, the Macrocosm. The self-conscious human being is a mere reflection, a lesser Intelligence. The greater Intelligence of the Divine mind can only express itself fully when unre- sisted by the lesser Intelligence of the self-volitional Being. It does not dispute with the lesser, but with- draws itself; nor can we compel it to speak so long as we are not identical with it ; for as long as man follows the lesser Intelligence, he is guided by a depraved Self- Will, and forces the Divine Principle from his thoughts. 16 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. We perceive as we write, and it will surely be observed by those who read, that we have here given the true account of the origin of Evil on earth, which, as we have said before, is separation from, and opposition to the Divine Will — and also the true definition of Hell, which is no locality, but a state opposed to that state known as Heaven, or the abode of goodness and peace. Hence the reason, and the beauty of the prayer, " Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven," which, when obtained through the growth and developement of the Anima Divina, or Divine Soul in us, will so effectually annihilate our own Self- Will, or Anima Bruta, as to transform the very earth on which we dwell into Heaven ; or rather the state in which we are, into a heavenly state. This Anima Divina, or innermost Being of our Being, which Modern Philosophy has agreed to call the " Un- conscious," but which really is the Supremely Conscious Omniscient Being, must be experienced to be knoivn. And yet this so-called " Unconscious " involitional part of our Being, the living, growing, multiplying, eternal, Divine Principle, is in itself, the Supreme Absolute Divine Omniscient Intelligence, and from it comes all knowledge. Whoever consciously attends to its Divine manifestation arrives at the cause of causes, the Soul World. The Soul, in manifesto, has alone performed the miracles historically recorded of the highest Adepts, or Heroes of Theosophy, and whoever will live as they lived, can become what they were, and can know what they knew. How are we to attain to Soul-Knowledge ? OCCULT PRACTICE. 17 By practice of that internal quiescence known to all true Theosophists, whereby the volitional passes into the involitional, and the dissevered and semi-antagonistic duality of our Being resolves itself into the primitive Monad of Divine existence, the Soul state. Grotania Buddha did not speak vain words concerning the annihilation necessary for the possibility of the Nirvana, for it is literally by the dying of the Demon self, the Anima Bruta, that the God-self or Anima Divina, is re-born, and thus may Nirvana, " The King- dom of Heaven," be attained even on earth. The Occult practice of all true Theosophers is directed to attain a quiescence of Soul, intended to let the lower volition become entirely silent, and thus to allow the involitional, or human " Unconsciousness," which is the Divine Volition, and Consciousness, to express itself, and the Two, instead of being dissevered and antagonistic as they are in every unregenerate Being, become united, re-born, and harmonious. And as the human depraved Self-Will is the delusion and hindrance which prevents the Divine Absolute Will from expressing itself, the former, which is the Demon in man (because the opposer), must be totally annihilated. Thus the human Being, when united with the latent Principle of Infinity, the Divine Soul, within his own Being, can become identical, and One with the Infinite, the Absolute, or God. This is the rationale of the practice of Yoga, Tao, the Kabbala, &c. In brief the Great Work is, to identify oneself with that innermost Self, that invo- c 18 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. litional part of our Being which is the Divine Living Soul, the Christ in us. The more man has Self- Will, the less he has the Divine Will, and the less can he become united with the Divine Intelligence that permeates the Universe, and wherein man " unconsciously " lives, and moves, and has his Being, and the less can the Divine Illu- mination become manifested in him. Man is decen- tralised from his Divine Centre of Absolute Reason, in the same ratio as he is concentred upon his human centre of depraved irrationality. One way leads to God, one way, and only one way ; it is the path of earnest striving for truth and justice; it is the path of self-denial. As the Divine is in the human, so must the human be in the Divine — unselfed. As the Divine is in the human, so must the human be in the Divine — quiescent. As the Divine is in the human, so must the human be in the Divine — latent. As the human is in the Divine, so must the Divine be in the human — manifested. As the human is, so will the Divine be ; as the Divine becomes, so is the human, for the Two are inseparable. When dissevered, they are united in two-fold misery ; when truly united, and re-born, they are in the supreme happiness of Nirvana, which is the Kingdom of Heaven. " For," as an old Theosopher has said, " so it is ordained between God and man from all eternitie, that man should be God, and God man, neither, without the other : That is, as God Himself is, and will be the Paradise, Garden, Tabernacle, Mansion, House, THE GREAT WORK. 19 Temple, and Jerusalem of Man : So also was man created for the same end, that he should be the Paradise, Garden, Tabernacle, Mansion, House, Temple, and Jerusalem of God ; that by this mutual union and friendship of God with man, and of man with God, all the wisdome, power, vertue, and glory, eternally hidden in God, should be opened and multiplied. For God once made all things for man, but man for Himself." 20 CHAPTER II. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THEOSOPHY. '•PT^HERE is a Science which is above all sciences; -*- and is the unrecognised fountain of every science. There is an Art which is the source of all arts, yet cannot be taught, as it only teaches itself. There is a Philosophy that comprises the highest truths attainable by man. There is a Religion which has no belief, but an absolute knowledge, and is a direct communion between God and man. This Religion, Philosophy, Art or Science — call it what you will — ■ is " Our Art," " The Kabbala," " The Occult," or " The Science of the Absolute,"— THEOSOPHY. The whole course of Theosophy is given by Anselm, of Canterbury, in the following few but pithy words : " We must believe to know, we must know to under- stand." We can apply to Theosophy with equal truth the statement made by Eliphas Levi of Magic, that one cannot practise Theosophy who does not therein be- lieve; and as it cannot be known without practice, an unbeliever is necessarily incapable of understanding Theosophy, no matter how much he may assail it with ignorant disputations. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THEOSOPHY. 21 However displeasing the statement may be to un- disciplined minds, belief is an initiatory necessity for final salvation. We commence but do not end with belief. To inverse the given dictum: To understand, one must know; to know, one must have practised; and to practise, one must believe. There are two methods of study : the theoretical and the practical. The course we would suggest is a combination of the theoretical-historical investigation, with practical and experimental efforts. The theory of Theosophy can be gathered by an attentive perusal of the various Theosophic classics; the practice demands a life of uncompromising physical and spiritual purity, accompanied by continual aspira- tional psychic striving. To give an approximately complete list of books to be studied that contain theosophical information would be very difficult, as we find that in most, and even in the best books on the subject, excepting a few chosen ones specially indicated in this volume, the information is scattered and is not given in the concise and practical way we would desire it to be. For general and genuine information on the various systems of Theosophy we would however advise a perusal if not study of the following works : — For Egyptian Theosophy: Hermes Trismegistus.1 Also Jambli- chos on " The Mysteries of the Egyptians." '2 1 Hermes Trismegiste, traduit par Menard. Paris, Didier, or an English translation. S A new translation, by Professor Wilder, appears in the first volume of The Platonist. 22 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. Chinese Theosophy : The " Tao-te-king," by Lao-Tse ; the " Nan-Hua," by Chuang-Tse, and the other classics of the Tao-Sse (i.e. the followers of Tao).3 Hindu Theosophy : The " Upanishads," the " Bkagavat- Gita," &c.4 The " Vedantasara," the " Sankhyakarika,'' the " Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha," and Gough's " Philosophy of the Upanishads." 3 Buddhist Theosophy : The " Lotus of the True Law," the " Dhammapadda " and " Sutta-Nipata," " Vinaya Texts," "Suttas."4 Beal's "Catena of Buddhist Scriptures," " Udanavarga," &c.3 Magian Theosophy: "Zend Avesta," and " Pahlavi Texts."4 The " Book of Arda Viraf," the " Desatir," &c. Mohammedan Theosophy : The " Mesnevi." 3 Hellenic Theosophy: "Plutarch's Morals: or, Theosophical Essays," translated by C. W. King.5 Translations of Plato, Proclos, Plotinos, &c, by the late Thomas Taylor, also the Journal called The Platonist, which has among its objects the re-publication of the writings of Thomas Taylor. Hebrew Theosophy: The "Old Testament" and "Apocrypha," " Philo Judasus."5 " Etheridge's Introduction to Hebrew Literature," Ginsburg's treatise on "The Kabbala," Molitor's "Philosophic der Geschichte" (the third volume). Christian Theosophy: The New Testament "Canon," and "Apocrypha." Also the works of Origen, Augustin, Dionysius, Hugo St. Victor, and Richard St. Victor, as well as those of the Christian Fathers, Saints, Mystics and Kabbalists, amounting to too many to enumerate. Scientific Theosophy and Occult Philosophy may be studied in the works of the Gnostics, Alchemists, Rosicrucians, Mediaeval Occultists, Illuminati, Magnetists, Spiritualists and Spiritists, and the modern Theosophists, which should be read with discrimination. 3 Published by Triibner. 4 Sacred Books of the East. Published by The Clarendon Press. 5 Published in Bohn's Series. THE STUDY OF THEOSOPHY. 23 With the exception of the last three classes, namely the Hebrew, Christian, and the Scientific Theosophy, the books referred to are moderate in price, easily obtainable, and of comparatively facile comprehension for beginners. We have abstained mentioning more expen- sive and more abstruse works. As regards the other classes of Theosophy, they nearly all demand an acquaintance with ancient and modern languages: as for instance, a further study of Hebrew Theosophy would demand a knowledge of the Hebrew language, as also of the Soharitic idiom. Books of the Hebrew Kabbalists are neither so expensive nor difficult to obtain, but they are sealed to all, save to those who are Initiates and at the same time Hebrew scholars. The " Kabbala Denudata " and Pistor's " Scriptores Cabalistici " contain valuable texts in Latin. Christian Theosophy must be separated from the ecclesiastic bias that disfigures an otherwise valuable system, wherefore we abstain from giving many names of writers, and would prefer the student to form his ideas by individual investigation. As Scientific Theosophists, we consider all those who directed their efforts' to individual Gnosis even in oppo- sition to Dogma. Unlike the Christian Saints and Mystics who attempted to explain exoteric Christianity esoterically, and some Heretics who in outspoken terms differed with the teachings of the Church, the Alchemists, Eosicrucians and Occultists, and other mediaeval spiritual pioneers, preferred to invent a 24 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. Hermetic Language which is incomprehensible to all except the favoured few who are in possession of the esoteric key to their symbolical jargon for the elucida- tion of the system of Theo-Philosophy which they designated " Our Art." The works of the Alchemists, Eosicrucians, and Occultists, are generally not readily obtainable nor easily understood, while the phraseology of the Gnostics is so thoroughly Hermetic as to render their works useless for beginners. The Pistis Sophia, a work attri- buted to Valentinus the Gnostic, can only be appreciated by advanced Initiates. C. W. King's work on "The Gnostics " contains much valuable general information, but must be read with discrimination. Alchemy, in so far as it is a spiritual science, forms but a branch of Theosophy, or it can rather be said to be but Theosophy under another name. The Adepts in Alchemy are at times discovered to be spiritual Adepts, although a material Alchemy or Occult Chemis- try no doubt also existed. An acquaintance with modern Philosophy will be found a useful preparatory study for a course of Theo- sophy. Many ideas now current in Philosophy are mere reflections from earlier Theosophists. Jacob Bohme may be considered as the precursor of German Philosophy. Giordan Bruno, and Spinoza, are found to be self-taught Initiates, and not Atheists. Descartes, Leibnitz, Malebranche, Berkeley, are teachers of a high order. The study of Kant cannot be too highly recommended. Fichte, Herbart, and Hegel may be THE EVER-BEGINNING. 25 left to specialists in metaphysics, but the works of Schelling, Lessing, Baader, and Lotze, will be found to be invaluable adjuncts to show the variety, yet unity, of mystic Philosophy. Among the Illuminati, Jane Leade, Pordage, Gichtel, Swedenborg, St. Martin, and Divonne, give most important information. Mere reading will never make an Adept. The vital practice must not contradict the mental theory. It is only the striving aspirational Soul that can create a Divine World out of its own chaos. Books are only guides where they are not merely theoretically studied but practically followed. Those who, following the voice of the Soul, go to the source of all knowledge, will find a few of the many books sufficient to guide them to perfection. The Beginning is in the now and ever unbeginning, and the End is, and ever shall be, in the unending. In the Beginning, that is, in the Divine Being, the Soul was a conscious part of God, but Self- Will, becoming- manifest, the Divine Will became latent, and this was the Fall from the Divine to the Demonic, from the greater to the lesser, from the macrocosm to the microcosm, from love to fate. For the Beginning is an Eternal Present, and whoever arrives at the Divine Being, arrives at the Beginning and End of all things. In this Beginning, or Divine State, man lived con- sciously in God, and the Supreme Consciousness, God, was known to and manifested in man. Man was then an Absolute Being, having God-like 26 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. power over the elements. He was not subject to time nor change, but existed even as God in Eternity, as an immutable Being; and this was, and shall be, the rightful and ultimate state of every living Soul. By Self- Will, man fell from this Divine and Absolute state. He then became enslaved in evil desires and passions, and so much as man receded from the Divine Perfection, God, the Omnipresent, became more and more occult in him who had banished the Divine thought from his mind. God has not changed, but is ever immutable, and the Divine Light shineth now as ever ; it is man only who has become so unconscious that he now knows not the Divine Consciousness, but names it " the Unconscious." Time cannot measure things of Eternity. To fix a term when man's Soul first receded from the Divine Being, or when She shall return, is impossible. Man is the only being in existence we know of having Free-Will. He is free to use or abuse his faculties, free to advance or recede, free to return or to stay away from his Eternal home. The exercise of Man's Free-Will only leads him away from God. The Wise, knowing there is but one Good, and that is God, volitionally renounce this apparent Free-Will and attach themselves to the Divine Will, where they can alone experience their true and Eternal liberty. The Laws of Nature are rigid, and unbending. Nature jests not, she obeys. Everything in nature obeys God except that extra-natural thing, the Free- TOWER AND LOVE. 27 Will of man. This Free- Will God has given to man on probation, that is, to prove and prepare him for his career as a child of Eternity. If man had not this Free-Will, if the archangels (for they are but former human beings) had not the free power to become arch-demons, if the human being were in spirit to be surrounded by laws as rigid as those that rule his physical being, and he could therefore follow only one given direction at a given speed, he would be nought but an automaton or machine. Thus, evil is the ne- cessity of Free-Will ; and to know evil is necessary, in order that we may know how to avoid it. Ac- cording to Eliphas Levi's interpretation of the He- brew Kabbala, God rules by Power and Love — Gebura and Chessed. The laws of matter illustrate to us rigid laws of Power, the laws of spirit are expansive laws of Love. The distinction of Power is for the dissevered. Divine Love is for those who are United to the Divine Being. It is an occult law, that man reflects God, and God reflects man. One Principle pervades the Universe, and man beholds this Divine Being according to the grade of his development. In the highest state God is experienced as Absolute Love, in the lower, i.e., in the intellectual and spiritual state, as Absolute Thought, but in the lowest, merely as Absolute Force. Verily God's Love is ever active, while His Power has never yet been specially exerted, for against what should it be directed ? As God containeth All, is All, and is 28 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. in All, although the atoms may be unconscious of the whole, and the straying spirit has eclipsed the Divine memory of the Soul — the being that will but restore himself to the state of primitive purity, shall, in himself, behold the fountain and beginning of all existences, and will become aware that God rules alone by Absolute Love. In that state, known as the Beginning, man lived an Absolute Life, which in Spirit was the Paradise, or Garden of the Soul, and on earth, the Golden Age. Man fell in Spirit from God to Demon, and had to re-ascend before he could again become a living Soul, and when ascended to be a God-like creature, he may again fall to a lower state. The laws of Spirit, though expansive, are tenacious ; and while man has a Free- Will, his progress is incalculable by our finite concep- tions. Well might Newton say "That the orbit of a comet can be computed, but not the course of human folly." Yet even this human folly has Divine Wisdom in it, and even the most bitter evil is intended to teach us the sweetest good in the end. That there are such things as falls possible for the human being, much as it is to be deplored, is only natural to the Divine economy, and it is mans privilege to seek truth in error. For by folly we come to wisdom, from darkness we pass unto light, and by falling into evil we learn to value and adhere to good. Thus we acquire experience. Existence may be compared to an infinite stream wherein all beings, or conscious monads are embodied THE STREAM OF EXISTENCE. 29 as drops or particles. The current of the stream is the Divine Will, each monad having however a Self-Will can retard or hasten its individual progress, but those who identify themselves with the Divine Will pass most rapidly through the stream of existence and arrive at their ultimate end — the ocean of Absolute happiness. For there is but one Eternal Good, and that is God ; and all things external to that One are delusive, imperma- nent. Everything is only in as far as it is right, for only everything which is, is right ; we must therefore search out and identify ourselves with that which really is, and not be psychologized by things having no real existence. Human distinctions are only real so far • as they are true, and thus far are they also Divine ; fel- onry that which is true, is Divine, and only what is Divine, is true. Lost Atoms of Deity, erring monads of the Absolute, how long will you continue in the eccentricities of Self- Will ; when will you discern the real from the unreal, the true from the false, the good from the evil ? How weak are those who are strong in Self-Will, for there is only one Omnipotent Will possible, and all who are external to that Will are omni-impotent only ; " Who is not for me is against me." 0 return all you that issued from God, return to the Kingdom of Heaven ; the Soul latent within you awaits your return. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand for those who are pre- pared to receive it — but seek not for it external to your own Divine Soul, for therein only is the Kingdom of Heaven. 30 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. The whole system of mathematics commences with a point ; as with the unit commence centillions of num- bers, and with a seedcorn endless multiplications of life, so with the Soul commence infinite manifestations and deflections of noumenal and phenomenal' existence. The Soul is extra-and supernatural, and all creation is insufficient to illustrate her faculties and powers. Each thought may be capable of infinite combination, each work of interminable development, each being of endless progression, but the Soul attains her highest expresssion by becoming united with her Infinite Source, the source of Infinity. The Soul in us is doubly encased, in Self-Will, and sensual mind. These form the Anima Bruta and shell. When by the destruction of the depravity of the senses and the perversity of the Will, this shell becomes dissolved, the Anima Bruta dies (i.e., changes) while still incarnate. In the unregenerate state of life the Anima Divina is literally bound by the Anima Bruta, until released by the mystic death. Indeed, the physical death does not liberate the human Spirit so much as the mystic death of the perverse and depraved in us emancipates the Divine Spirit. To slay the Anima Bruta while yet in the physical body is then the work of the Adept. He dies while yet living and lives when supposed to be dying. There is a phy- sical and a spiritual death, and the latter is as inevitable as the former. The unenlightened die first physically through decay SOUL- FORCE. 31 or violence, then pass through probationary Spirit- Spheres that surround the scenes of their former actions, and remain earthbound for ages. When at the end they have acquired the simple knowledge that they should have no Will but the Divine, passing through the death of Self- Will, the Spirit-death, they attain the Beginning ; the Soul-World. The Initiate dies first in Spirit and thereby attains to the Eternal Life of the Divine Soul. The shells of perverse Self- Will and depraved sensuality having been dissolved, the errors of irrationality being discarded, the Soul diffuses the vital force of immortality into the good which remains. The Spirit becomes absorbed with the Soul, the senses and intellect are consolidated into a whole, and the Supreme Thought is manifested. The Rosicrucians taught, that by delivering the human Soul, and spirit, into the Divine Soul, it over- leaps the intermediary states, or earth-bound spheres, and the spark becomes the Flame-Soul. Thus the in- visible body dies and becomes spiritualised or rather Divinised. The spiritual death is the actual death of the depraved in us, and is as real as the physical death, but far more difficult to accomplish. The invisible body, the shell, must die before the Soul can live for ever. Whether one subsequently continues in the physi- cal body unto a patriarchal age, or prefers to shuffle off this mortal coil earlier, is of no importance ; being at one with the Absolute, the Soul abides in her own 32 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. Eternal undying state, happen what may to the physical body. The Soul-force is the supreme force in Nature. The cause of causes. The source of sources is the Soul- World. The Spirit- World is but a reflection, and the material- world but an effect. Spirit has only power over matter by virtue of the Soul that is latent in the Spirit. Soul cased in Self- Volition is already by a wall removed from the Absolute, encased in a sensual mind the Soul is still further removed from her primary archaic state. The manifest Soul alone stands in direct communion with the Cause of Causes. This possibility of the One becoming the All, and the All becoming the One, is not pleasing to earth-bound spirits, who would assume themselves to be " our Guides " while they again have " Guides," and their Guides are guided by other Guides, and so on. Theo- sophy and Spiritualism therefore are not yet reconciled on this subject, for Theosophy acknowledges only one supreme Guide — the Divine-Soul. Becoming one with his own Soul the true Theoso- phist acquires the Soul-Power of the Absolute without aid of any other Spirit but his own. To demand, or rely upon extraneous aid from the Spirit-World en- dangers the progress of the Soul. Magic and mediumship in so far as these pertain to the earth-bound spheres of the Spirit-World are to be carefully avoided by all who aspire to a higher life, and who would not retard the growth of the Divine seed within them. DIVINE MAGIC. S3 Mundane cares, perverse pleasures, and all irrational, unthinking evils, must be philosophically considered, wisely understood, and carefully eschewed. Not the human, but the Divine Will is the Agent in Divine Magic. The human Volition can only be directed to suppress irrational wants, to will away the impure, vain, and evil thoughts that cling to us from former habits. Living upon pure food, in charity and humility, the senses soon become pliant and subjugated. No tortures of the Hatta Yogis, nor evocations of spirits are necessary, for these practices would only lead astray. The manifestations of Soul-Power alone can perform miracles of healing, &c, although aspirational spirits may voluntarily aid and assist. Excessive ascetic practices, such as fasting, may give a temporary mystic experience, but the true practice is to refine the sensual, to become spiritual, and the spirit to become Divine by a life of abstinence from all im- purities, be they physical, spiritual, or moral, as wrong food, wrong actions, or wrong thoughts. Everything must be rationally understood, and whatever is irrational will also be found to be wrong. When once we are but truly rational, we are at one with the Supreme Keason, the Supreme Grood. It may require years of physical and psychical purity before any mystic knowledge is received or experienced, but in the ordinary unregenerate course, ages pass by and the Soul becomes choked with iniquity. " It comes best when of itself." Before striving to be filled one should be thoroughly void. The Divine D 34 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. knows best when we are ready to receive. Having within us a particle of the Omniscient, all we can do is to allow it to grow and not retard the growth. We must attain to a state of unison, to become aware of the Divine Harmony. Behold, Christ comes as a thief in the night, and "blessed are those that are born during sleep." In that night of sense that surrounds all humanity arises a midnight Sun, the Divine mani- festation. Therefore it is said that Eve who represents the Human Soul was created during the sleep of Adam, and the Christ Child was born at night, when all the world slept, except the few, faithful watchers. Even as Adam mystically fell through Eve, or the weakness of his human Soul, so can he only be saved through Mary, or the power of the Divine Soul. It is the seed of the Woman, or Female Principle which bruises the serpent's head. The Divine Soul is the Female Principle. Man's better half is Woman ; this is not only a fact, as exo- terically understood, but is also the great esoteric truth. The Mystic Woman within is Eve, the Organic Soul, the Mother of all living. Our Divine Nature, is Mary, the Divine Soul, that principle of life and growth wherein we live, and have our being, that enfolds and sustains us without living for itself; this great truth we must understand and learn to cultivate. The Woman " from above " must be manifested, and the masculine, i.e. the volitional, must be ruled by the involitional, which then becomes the Divine. It is " not my Will that is to be done but thine " ; even as in the unre- SPIRITUAL EXERCISE. 35 generate state, nature, the Woman within us, lives not for herself, but for us only ; and we have our life only by, and through her ; so in striving for re-birth we must become a passive instrument, but only to the working of our own Soul, not to a strange spirit. No more living for himself, but only for the Soul, thus becoming the medium of his own Divine Spirit, ruling himself by himself, the two principles in man become united and re-born in the Divine. This is the mystic marriage of the King's Son. There are several methods of spiritual exercise that predispose the Soul to re-birth. Most religious cere- monies were instituted by Initiates, and have an Occult or Theosophic reason. When the esoteric object is ignored, the exoteric observance is in itself with- out virtue. There is no salvation by proxy. The whole course of Divine initiation, or re-birth, must be individually undertaken, and passed through ; and no spiritual intoxication, no biological fetish, no supersti- tious name or belief will save one who has not worked out his, or her own, salvation. For here we are in the domain of Absolute Eeason and Omniscience, and no unreason or falsehood can hope to stand the ordeal that has to be passed through before the so much bandied, yet so little understood term — "Salvation" is attained. Many Mystic terms are so much in current use and have become so thoroughly hackneyed, that some readers may rather prefer to seek for Spiritual Science among the unfamiliar Oriental systems, than look for the spiritual meaning of their own religion, that con- 36 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. tains a sanctuary as esoteric as any which can possibly be found in the East. Theosophic Practice was completely summarized in the words of that Divine Teacher, who said, "Be perfect, even as your Father who is in Heaven is perfect." The danger of individual aberration and misguidance differs for each individual character. It is useful to read the accounts given of the temptations of Saints. Jacob Bohme, in his Treatise of the Four Complexions, at- tempted to systematise the temptations to which Theoso- phists are subjected according to their predispositions. The individual idiosyncracies, and acquired or educa- ted perversities, are the chief cause of most of the temptations experienced by those who strive for the higher life. The depravities with which the mind and Self-Willed spirit has tainted the Soul, or involitional part, has degraded the latter from a Divine to an animal, or even to the lower demonic state. The (rod within us having become a Demon, this demonic being is the primary cause of temptation. Long after we have thought ourselves freed from the depraved groove wherein the mind was used to run, outside spirits attached to this inclination will do their utmost to thwart our attempts at self-liberation, because with it they will be deprived of their participation of sensuous pleasures and associates. These are Bulwer's " dwellers on the threshold." All human beings are, more or less, influenced by out- ' side intelligences, be they embodied or disembodied. THE WORLD AS SEEN FROM ABOVE. 37 Mediumship is far more common than is generally recognized, and ■ it is the antithesis of Adeptship. To be open to all outside influences is the chief danger to be feared and avoided by those who attempt to be true Theosophists. The same defect that causes mediumship, if carried to its full extent, will, in some cases, produce insanity. When we consider that all human beings are mediums to a certain extent, the number of absolutely sane people becomes very small indeed. Many may be sane in the outer-world sense, but to the Omniscient, or All-seeing eye of the Soul, most individuals must appear as if insane. To be sane is to be perfectly balanced, physically and mentally, and to act only in accordance with the absolute dictates of Divine Eeason. It is but those who have arrived at the other shore in this life, and whom the world often calls fools and visionaries, that are comparatively in a state of sanity, beholding the world as it is. And how are these, in turn, to impart their views ? Some, like Democritos, have laughed at the world and denounced it mad ; others, as Heraclitos, have wept, as Jesus, who wept over Jeru- salem ; while others, like Jesus and Gotama Buddha, strove, by precept and example, to instruct all in Spiritual Science ; some again, like Pythagoras and the Hermetists, formed severe esoteric classes and schools; while such as Simon Ben Jochai, resolutely eschewed and hated worldly intercourse. Like can only become united with its like, and if one 38 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. would become united to the Absolute Eeason, he or she must act in strict conformity with the laws of Eeason, and not be impelled by irrationalities. Every act has a Divine and ultimate object and purpose, which we must recognize, and act in accordance with. The Practice to be adhered to by one who aspires to be a Theosophist, is well set forth in the following extracts from two eminent text-books in different branches of respectively occult (or mesmeric) practice and theosophic Doctrine : " The primary qualifications are, a great and good spirit, and great powers of mental concentration. A great and good spirit, of course, cannot be imparted. Its development means the de- velopment of the Holy seed within us, or, the outward expression of the Divine within. The greatest recognised example of such development in this and other Protestant and Catholic countries, has been in the miracles performed by Jesus Christ. An adept of this description is known to the true occultist, as the ' Red Magician.' To become a ' Red Magician ' you must strictly follow Christ's laws, and imitate his life, both in the letter and in the spirit, till it is your very nature to be good, and there is absolutely no evil in you. Your Physical life must be entirely subservient to the spiritual. Your observations of externals must be simply to make a right use of them. Food and drink must be taken merely as necessary supports to the body. Fish, flesh, fowl, alcohol, drugs, tobacco, mineral substances, and every such perversion of the natural appetite must be religiously abstained from, and your tastes therefore re-directed into their proper channels. Good cannot be good if it be joined to one particle of evil. It is then only a mixture of good and evil. To become a ' R'3d Magician,' therefore, you must become all perfect, even as God within you is perfect. I do not say all powerful. You are always perfect, as long as you absolutely act up to the light within you, and ever pray, and strive for more light. This light will grow infinitely, this light is Deity, this light cannot die, because it is life, and there is no death in life. Decay of the body is destruction THE PERFECTION OF CHRIST. 39 only of the machine, and not death to life. God, Life, Light, and Good, in this sense, are synonymous terms. Good is immortal. Evil is mortal, and there is no satisfaction in it. This light is fed only by constant prayer or desire for good. I am explaining facts to you, not mythical imaginings. If you wish to become a ' Red Magician,' mount the ladder, and you will find your Kingdom of Heaven which is ' within you,' and ' Our Father who is in Heaven,' and then you will be at one with god." — (Private Instructions in the Science and Art of Organic Magnetism by Mrs. Chandos Leigh Hunt Wallace.) The foregoing practically agrees with the cardinal doctrines of Theosophic Practice set forth in the Perfect Way, as the following shows : " To attain to the perfection of the Christ — to polarise, that is, the Divine Spirit without measure, and to become a ' Man of Power ' and a Medium for the Highest, — though open potentially to all, — is, actually and in the present, open, if to any, but to few. And these are, necessarily, they only who, having passed through many transmigrations and advanced far on their way towards maturity, have sedulously turned their lives to the best account by means of the steadfast development of all the higher faculties and qualities of man ; and who, while not declining the experiences of the body, have made the spirit, and not the body, their object and aim. Aspiring to the redemption in himself of each plane of man's fourfold nature, the candidate for Christhood submits himself to discipline and training the most severe, at once physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual, and rejects as valueless or per- nicious whatever would fail to minister to his one end, deeming no task too onerous, no sacrifice too painful, so that he be spiritually advanced thereby. And how varied soever the means, there is one rule to which he remains constant throughout, the rule namely of love. The Christ he seeks is the pathway to God ; and to fail, in the least degree in respect of love, would be to put himself back in his journey. The sacrifices, therefore, in the incense of which his soul ascends, are those of his own lower nature to his own higher, and of himself for others. And life itself, it seems to him, would be too dearly bought, if purchased at the expense of another, how- ever little or mean — unless, indeed, of a kind irremediably noxious, 40 UNIVERSAL THEOSOrHY. whose extinction would benefit the world. For — be it remem- bered— though always Saviour, the Christ is sometimes also Purifier, as were all his types, the Heroes — or Men Regenerate — of classic story. Enacting, thus, when necessary the executioner's part, he slays for no self-gratification, but ' in the name of the Lord.' " They who have trod this path of old have been many, and their deeds have formed the theme of mystical legends innumerable. Epitomising these, we find that the chief qualifications are as follows : — In order to attain to ' Power and the Resurrection,' a man must, first of all, be a Hierarch. This is to say, he must have attained the magical age of thirty-three years, having been, in the mystic sense of the terms, immaculately conceived, and born of a king's daughter ; baptised with water and with fire ; tempted in the wilderness, crucified and buried, having borne five wounds on the cross. He must, moreover, have answered the riddle of the Sphinx. To attain the requisite age, he must have accom- plished the Twelve Labours symbolised in those of Heracles and in the signs of the Zodiac ; passed within the Twelve Gates of the Holy City of his own regenerate nature ; overcome the Five Senses; and obtained dominion over the Four Elements. Achieving all that is implied in these terms, ' his warfare is accomplished,' he is free of Matter, and will never again have a phenomenal body. " He who shall attain to this perfection must be one who is without fear, and without desire, save towards God ; who has courage to be absolutely poor, and absolutely chaste ; to whom it is all one whether he have money or whether he have nonet whether he have house and lands or whether he be homeless, whether he have worldly reputation or whether he be an outcast. Thus is he voluntarily poor, and of the spirit of those of whom it is said that they inherit the kingdom of heaven. It is not necessary that he have nothing ; it is necessary only that he care for nothing. Against attacks and influences of whatever kind, and coming from whatever quarter without his own soul's kingdom, he must impregnably steel himself. If misfortune be his, he must make it his fortune ; if poverty, he must make it his riches ; if loss, his gain ; if sickness, his health ; if pain, his pleasure. Evil report must be to him good report ; and he must be able to rejoice when all men speak ill of him. Even death itself he must account POLARISATION OF THE DIVINE. 41 as life. Only when he has attained this equilibrium is he ' Free.' Meanwhile he makes Abstinence, Prayer, Meditation, Watchful- ness, and Self-Restraint to be the decades of his Rosary. And knowing that nothing is gained without toil, or won without suffering, he acts ever on the principle that to labour is to pray, to ask is to receive, to knock is to have the door open, and so strives accordingly. " To gain power over Death, there must be self-denial and govern- ance. Such is the ' Excellent Way,' though it be the Via Dolorosa. He only can follow it who accounts the Resurrection worth the Passion, the Kingdom worth the Obedience, the Power worth the Suffering. And he, and he only, does not hesitate, whose time has come. " The last of the ' Twelve Labours of Heracles ' is the conquest of the three-headed dog, Cerberus. For by this is denoted the final victory over the body with its three (true) senses. When this is accomplished, the process of ordeal is no longer necessary. The Initiate is under a vow. The Hierarch is free. He has undergone all his ordeals, and has freed his will. For the object of the Trial and the Vow is Polarisation. When the Fixed is Volati- lized, the Magian is Free. Before this, he is ' subject,' " The man who seeks to be a Hierarch must not dwell in cities- He may begin his initiation in a city, but he cannot complete it there. For he must not breathe dead and burnt air— air, that is, the vitality of which is quenched. He must be a wanderer, a dweller in the plain and the garden and the mountains. He must commune with the starry heavens, and maintain direct contact with the great electric currents of living air and with the unpaved grass and earth of the planet, going barefoot and oft bathing his feet. It is in unfrequented places, in lands such as are mystically called the 'East,' where the abominations of 'Babylon' are unknown, and where the magnetic chain between earth and heaven is strong, that the man who seeks Power, and who would achieve the ' Great Work,' must accomplish his initiation."— (The Perfect Way: or the Finding of Christ. Lect. viii., part ii., pars. 18—23.) Without Knowledge no Salvation, without Salvation no Knowledge. Theosophy has diversity yet unity, and not being based on belief but on individual Science, admits what all other systems fear— the right 42 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. of private judgment. Thus, although we are not Yogins, we can sympathize with the aim of the true Yogi, observing at the same time that Yoga, although considered by Hiudus as an indispensable Occult Practice, can only induce by Art in some, what becomes spontaneously manifested by Nature in others. When man attains to the apex of his Being, he sounds the Divine Octave, and another, the Divine Being, resounds in him. The Divine becomes spon- taneously manifested when man is in unison with the Divine. Yoga may be considered as a laborious tuning to bring the human in accord with the Divine Harmony. Man to become a Medium for the Highest must be the Highest. ° YOGA PRACTICE. " A perusal of the Upashnakand of the Veda Bashya Bhumika, of Swami Dayanund Saraswati, and several treatises on Yoga philosophy taught me," says a student in Yoga-Vidya, " that there are eight parts of Yog, viz. : — Yama, Nyama, Asana, Pranna- jama, Pratyahara, Dharanna, Dhyana, and Samadhi." The principles of Yama enjoin us : — 1. To observe perfect freedom from the desire of injuring others, and to realize, in practice, real love and heartfelt sym- pathy for all creatures. 2. To speak always the truth, making our words convey our exact meaning. 3. To be free from a desire to misappropriate others' property, however insignificant. 4. To practise self-denial, or in other words, never to allow gratification to carnal passions, even in thought. 5. To keep always and everywhere aloof from pride and vanity. The principles of Nyama enjoin us — 1. To observe cleanliness of body, and purity of mind. 2. To be content and cheerful under all the vicissitudes of life. YOGA PRACTICE. 43 3. To listen to, and practise, the doctrines calculated to exalt our mind, and refine our thoughts. 4. To read the sacred hooks, such as the Vedas, &c, and to have full faith in the existence of the Infinite Spirit, Om. 5. To hear always in mind that our actions and thoughts are watched and witnessed by the Omnipresent Spirit. "Asana treats of the posture to be adopted at the time of performing Yoga. The posture assumed should be quite easy and in no way painful or inconvenient. For Oriental people, squatting is the one generally preferred. " Pranayama relates to the suppression of the inspiration and expiration of breath. 1. When the breath is exhaled, the student should, before he takes it in again, allow as much time to pass as he conveniently ? can. 2. And when it is inhaled, he should suffer the same amount of time to elapse before it is exhaled again. 3. He should then suspend breathing altogether, of course, for a few seconds at the beginning, and never so long as would cause him inconvenience, or prove dangerous to his health. In short, his practice must be regulated by his strength. 4. He should then inhale and exhale his breath slowly, and with less force than usual. I advise no person to practise this part of Yoga unless he has a Yogi at his side, inasmuch as it endangers health and life if unskilfully attempted, and in the absence of an instructor. " Pratyahara requires to control our mind, so as to exercise full authority over one's feelings and emotions. " Dharanna is to withhold the mind from all external objects and internal thoughts, and to concentrate it upon a certain part of the body, either the navel, heart, forehead, nose, or tongue ; and then to meditate on Om and its attributes. " Dhyana is to intensify that meditation, and to keep the mind void of any other thought, feeling, or emotion. " Samadhi leads the Yogi to gain that perfection in the inten- sity of meditation which enables him to obtain absorption in the Infinite Spirit. "In Dhyana, the Yogi is conscious of his own self, of his mind and of the Infinite Spirit; but in Samadhi he loses the con- 44 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. sciousness of the first two, and the Infinite Spirit only remains before his mind's eye. " Dharanna, Dhyana, and Samadhi, are together called San- nyama. " No one should expect to enjoy the bliss of Sannyama, which is beyond all description, without first observing the principles of Yama and Niyama. "God, the Primeval cause that pervades the universe, and is Master of all things, either animate or inanimate, is a Being invisible to the physical eyes, imperceptible to the bodily senses, and incomprehensible to our finite intellect. Who dares define such a Being, and in what language ? "No other language than that of the Deity Himself (if He can be said to have any specific language at all) can boast of representing Him as He is. And in Sannyama the devotee is brought face to face with this Being." — The Arya, Vol. I., p. 251. Theology and Theosophy are, in a measure, based upon Anthropology. The deductions that Materialists would draw from this simple fact, however, are not admissible. Theology is not a branch of Anthropology, but with more truth can it be said, that as the human is but a part of the Divine, Anthropology is but a branch of Theosophy ! The very innateness and universality of a God-idea proves the reality and truth of that idea. Its modi- fications, according to the variety of human mentality, and national character, are subject to anthropological laws; but the Idea itself, and the Truth and Eeality of a Divine Knowledge, are above the laws of Anthro- pology, as a light above our finite Eeason. The ethnic character and the national genius are no doubt reflected in the God of each people. The limitation of all nations to one particular ethnic God- THE PANTHEON OF UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. 45 idea is not desirable, nor is it aimed at in universal Theosophy. Our Temple is a Pantheon, admitting- all Divine Ideas, and excluding only the Demonic; but before a God-Idea is admitted into our Pantheon it should be mathematically examined as to whether it is truly Divine. 46 CHAPTEE III. HERMETIC THEOSOPHY. Part I. THE SECRET OF MYTHOLOGY. WHEN man first appeared upon this planet, whether as an animal, or "as a God," whether a pre-historic Golden Age was terminated by a cataclysm to destroy a race of highly developed but evil beings who abused the Divine Power en- trusted to them, or whether man laboriously ascended to a consciousness of the Divine, through cycles of slow and steady progress, cannot be decided. Suffice it to say that there is as much evidence for an in- volution, as for an evolution ; for the fallen angel, as for the ascended ape. There may have been a physical evolution, and a spiritual involution, or a spiritual evolution, and a physical involution (matter degenerating as spirit left it), or a combined spiritual-physical evolution, or a combined spiritual-physical involution, — so-called facts could be adapted to any of these theories. The existence of pre-historical Hermetic Myths affords us important evidence of a pre-historical system of HERMETIC LANGUAGE. 47 Theo-philosopby, which all subsequent systems have not been able to equal. That such could not have belonged to tribes of savages, but were the outcome of an ad- vanced state of civilisation, is but a natural conclusion. We may hazard the theory that the legendary Golden Age was a period when man lived in his rightful Divine State, gifted with Divine attributes. But by desecrating his Divine Nature, and abusing his powers (wherein may have been comprised a command over the worlds of matter and spirit), he may have become obnoxious to the Divine Beings of the other worlds, and caused a retrogression. Nature's laws obey only those who are at One with the law giver. When the primitive people defiled their Divine Being, they lost their Divine Knowledge and Power, became subject to Laws of force, and were then unable to avert or foresee the catastrophe that probably destroyed the Continent they inhabited. This cataclysm did not destroy all the Initiates, but a great fear seems to have seized upon those remaining, — a fear of communicating the former manifest Divine Knowledge ; and instead of expressing their system of Theosophy in plain language, they preferred to invent Occult allegories, mystic myths, and an Hermetic language to which only the Hierophants retained the esoteric key; this however, in the course of trans- mission was totally lost. The mythologic age was succeeded by the mytho- graphic. As a spirit of allegorizing seems to have seized the Initiates of all nations at one time, it may 48 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. well be considered to be the period following the Golden Age. Whatever then remained of Theosophy was veiled under Hermetic expressions, and by force of habit the Hermetic language and the language of allegory seemed to be considered essential for the trans- mission of Theosophic teachings; and, as the Soul in her supreme delicacy delights in veiling aud concealing herself from prying curiosity, even Self-Initiated Occult Poets and Seers were involitionally drawn into an Occult mode of expression, and used Hermetic language by pre- ference. It is generally admitted that an esoteric doctrine existed in ancient times. This esoteric doctrine was Theosophy, the individual knowledge of God and of the Occult laws of Nature. As an Hermetic language or Occult method of com- munication had to be used to conceal the Divine Science from the profane, we can only deduce what symbols could have served as analogies. Spiritual sym- bols could not stand for Spiritual knowledge, for these would have betrayed themselves ; but material symbols afforded a ready analogy. Laws of matter are laws of Absolute Thought. They are the Potential mathe- matics of the Absolute. The Supreme Eeason, and the principal of individual Reason are identical. Man is the Microcosm, God the Macrocosm. Therefore matter, which is one of the reflections of Deity, would serve as a true symbolical illustration of the mysteries of the Divine Spirit, the direct ray of the Eternal All-illuminating Sun of the Divine Being. MYSTIC MYTHS. 49 The ancient Theosophists, Philosopher?, Prophets, Seers, Poets, and Initiates in general therefore availed themselves by preference of objects of the material and sensual world, as physical symbols for psychic secrets, and they may possibly have also used psychic illustra- tions for physical secrets of the Occult. The entire esoteric system of Antiquity may thus be contained in the exoteric writings that have been transmitted to us, and he who shall apply the KEY of Theosophy to the portals of Paganism may yet enter the Pagan Temple and find the Great Arcanum — the ONE, enthroned in the Sanctuary in solemn splendour. The great lost Secret that was reflected in the Ancient Mysteries, was the knowledge of God and His relation to Nature and Man; and the knowledge of Man and his relation to Nature and God. The ancient Hiero- phants had an Occult but Absolute Science, wherein Self-knowledge, God- knowledge, and Nature-knowledge, were combined in an exact and mathematical system, and of which the Hermetic and profane sciences that have survived were merely fragments, and these were in turn used as a vocabulary, more as a means to con- ceal than reveal. For whether the terms of Astrology, Alchemy, Magic, Mythology, Natural Science, Philo- sophy, Ethics, or Metaphysics, were used, they were only employed esoterically to transmit the one great Secret, which was, and is, the Great Arcanum of all ages — the Manifestation of the Occult, and the realisation of the Absolute. Nearly all Philosophers, Poets, and persons of culture E 50 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. among the people of antiquity were initiated in lesser mysteries, corresponding to our Spiritualism ; while the more advanced were acquainted with the greater and higher mysteries of the Eternal Soul Truths of Theosophy. The writings of ancient Initiates can only be understood by Initiates, and we find that many ancient, now accepted as classic writers, hint at the Great Arcanum in obscure and mysterious language. The works of the Mythographers and inspired poets are permeated with the Hermetic language of Ancient Mystic Theosophy. Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus, Virgil, Ovid, teach us mystic myths. Empedocles, Pythagoras, Democritos, Heraclitos, Plato, Xenophon, Aristotle, Proclos, Plotinos, and many more, teach a veiled Theosophy. But all use a special Occult mode of expression, and both Poets and Philosophers seem to have an agreed method of mystic and allegorical Hermeticism for those higher truths, which were ever beyond the grasp of the unphilo- sophic and untrained minds of the multitude. To give merely an outline of the principal terms used as Hermetic symbols by some philosophical Poets, and poetical Philosophers, would demand a volume, and, in any case, more space than the limits of this work permit, and probably would require more attention than the reader would care to devote to their study. We must, therefore, content ourselves with stating that the Theosophist beholds an inner meaning in Epics, Myths, and Systems of Thought, and those vast mental THE ETERNAL NOW. 51 monuments of antiquity are Occult works which he reads in a spirit totally different to the exoteric letter. To the Theosophist the Occult Truth doffs her veil, and he beholds her Holy beauty in that intensity of chasteness that guides his Spirit to her Divine Manifes- tation, wherein he must abide. To interpret Occult Soul-Allegories one must strive for the regenerate Soul-Spirit, which is the Divine Spirit. When in that Spirit these Epics are not tales of the hoary past, nor are the Apocalypses visions of a remote future. They ever treat of the eternal NOW, the ever-abiding and everlasting Presence, that has been called by a multitude of names, and yet Itself remains unnamed and Ineffable. The vast stores of mystic Allegories of the Mythc- loo-ists are creations and relations of the Soul. The Soul creates, the Soul relates, the Soul mirrors herself to herself. Saint Paul tells us in plain words that the history of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, is an Allegory; in like manner is the Kamayana a poem of Occult philo- sophy, and every Adept is the "great hero" of the Mahabarat. The " Iliad " and " Odyssey," as well as the Bible, mystically illustrate occurrences that every human Soul at one time passes through. Sacred History is merely a veil for Allegory, and Allegory another veil for true Theosophy — the Occult Knowledge of God. Whenever Allegory historizes, or history allegorizes, it is but to conceal the Great Arcanum of the Occult from the gaze of the profane, vulgar, vicious, and 52 UKIVEESAL THEOSOPHY. depraved. But when a man begins to think, he ceases to be profane, when he begins earnestly to study, he ceases to be vulgar, when he begins to discipline his mind, he ceases from being vicious, and when he begins to act rightfully, he ceases to be depraved. Thus these Divine Allegories had the fourfold inten- tion of refining the four Kabbalistic Elements of Man's Mind — the Senses, the Eeason, the Imagination, and the Understanding ; and to aid him by a concentration of thought to re-create, and re-generate his Spiritual Being. The Soul is at once the subject, actor, plot, aim, and object in these allegories, and to understand these Occult Teachers, the disciple should be on the same spiritual plane, and thus he will understand the hints, and seeing the meaning, will smile, and feel the friendly grasp of the Brother-Initiate who wrote for his guidance. For the Kabbalists and Hermetists have a most peculiar humour, which no one who is not in the same way of thinking can appreciate. They have solemn jokes, serious puns, cool contradictions, and grave mis- statements, which when strictly considered are no mis- statements, but only misapprehensions for those who are on the lower plane. Deliberate mystifications stand at times side by side with the most outspoken, honest, and Absolute Truths. It is, therefore, only natural that the superficially learned have given up all attempts to in- terpret Hermetic writings, all of which demand, if they are to be rightly understood, more or less of the spirit of illumination. However indispensable in the past, when it was neces- THE SECRET OF MYTHOLOGY. 53 sary to reserve sacred knowledge for the initiated, Alle- gory is a mode of teaching quite unsuitable to the present unspiritual age, and must be supplanted by an exact and plainly worded science. The Spiritual Science of the future will be no more " Occult," but manifest, the time having come for making known the unknown. Should it be objected that fables and myths are mere inventions of the imagination, we would point out that, even if we grant this, they do not therefore cease to be Divine. The imagination is the highest gift of God. It is the link connecting the human Soul with the Divine Being ; and with beings as perfect and pure as the ancient Illuminati, therefore the imagination would communicate a pure stream of Divine truth, inculcating eternal, psychic facts, demanding only to be rightly understood in order to be prized and valued. To conceal the Great Arcanum from the profane, the ancient Theosophists invented systems of Her- metic language which, indeed, proved effectual. This Kabbalistic vocabulary passed out of the Sanctuary, among those who knew nothing of the Occult meaning ; hence Principles and Ideas were ignored, and only names and dead things considered. It is thus that the Hermetic language has led the whole world astray. Mankind of the present age being endowed with the same faculties that the races of the mythologic age were gifted with, the illustrations from Myths and Allegories will be found as applicable to the psychic state of the present generations, as to those of the past. Myths were, by the Hierophants of Hermetic Theo- 54 "UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. sophy, intended to describe, under the guise of various Allegories and symbols, the faculties and powers of the Soul, her history, and course of Ee-birth into the Divine State. The Secret of Mythology is not astronomical or astro- logical, but psychic and Theosophic. Myths may borrow physical symbols as illustrations for psychic Arcana, but they do not ultimately refer merely to the course of planets and stars, to tell us that it is cold in winter and warm in summer; for why should the ancient Hierarchs have taken such a roundabout way to tell us simple facts, the knowledge of which would neither endanger them nor others ? But there is a Knowledge which is Power — this is Soul-Knowledge, Divine Knowledge, Theosophy — our Divine Magia. Possessed of the secrets of that Divine Spiritual Science and becoming even as God, acts of Power can be performed ; and were that knowledge to become common, incalculable evil might result, as wit- ness the knowledge of Dynamite on the material plane. The knowledge must, therefore, be only imparted to those who are worthy. The sword of Power should not be given to him who would use it as an assassin's dagger. The following is not a bad definition of what our Science can do when manifested in one who has passed through all the grades of initiation and who has become what is commonly called an Adept. " True Science, according- to Buddha as well as the best of Hindu sages, exercises dominion over the forces of nature and all ( created beings ; it is endowed with the powers of miracle and enchantment ; for it enables its possessor to assume any form, to THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH IS POWER. 55 see and hear at any distance, to fix the length of his life and to know the thoughts of others, to make himself visible and invisible at will, to fly through the air, to walk on water as others walk on dry laud, to tell how many drops and how many living creatures there are in the ocean, to dry up the sea, to grasp the sun and moon, to hide the earth with the tip of his finger, and to shake to their foundations earth and heaven ; nay more, it is Science alone which leads to true and imperishable happiness, since it is the last stage before the soul enters into the bliss and salvation of the Nirvana." — Kalisch, "Path and Goal." The following is another definition of the capacities of a Spiritual Adept : — " The Yogi may not see or hear what passes around, — he may be insensible to external impressions, but he has intuition of things which his neighbours cannot see or hear. He becomes so buoyant, or rather so sublimated by his Yoga, that gravitation, or as Bhaskaracaiy^a calls it, the attractive power of the earth, has no influence on him. He can walk and ascend in the sky, as if he were suspended under a balloon. He can by his intuitive process inform himself of the mysteries of astronomy and anatomy, of all things in fact that may be found in any of the different worlds. He may call to recollection the events of a previous life. He may understand the language of the brute creation. He may obtain an insight into the past and future. He may discern the thoughts of others. He may himself vanish at pleasure, and, if he choose to do so, enter into his neighbour's body and take posses- sion of his living skin." — Banerjea, " Dialogues." If the reader will attempt to imagine what the disastrous consequences would be should a vicious being become possessed of this power, he may well compre- hend with what anxious care the ancient Hierarchs kept this knowledge, — which, to some favoured individuals, is synonymous with Spiritual Power — the Great Arcanum of their Hermetic Theosophy. There was ample reason for concealment where there ivas something to conceal ; 56 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. but it would have been absurd to invent elaborate systems merely for astronomical observations, the know- ledge of which could, even in the most mischievous hands, injure no one. If there was, moreover, a tradi- tion of the destruction of former highly developed races, brought about principally by their abuses of magic power, it would all the more serve to foster the spirit of mystery which, under such circumstances, may have had a raison d'etre. We affirm, therefore, that the Secret of Mythology is to be found in Theosophy only, and that physical, astronomical symbols, were invented but to foreshadow and conceal psychic and magical mysteries. The Mythos does not refer merely to the course of the sun through the signs of the Zodiac ; for these material objects, however vast, are objects of time, not of eternity. The only Eternal thing is the Soul. Why should the ancients limit their thoughts to matter and its phenomena, when at Death the whole material universe disappears and becomes as invisible as the spirit-world appears to be to the incarnate ? The only thing visible to the spirit is spirit ; and matter would be all but invisible but for the spirit embodied in it. Those things which are most material to our physical senses are least material to those in spirit-existence who have freed themselves from the trammels of sense. What is matter to us is nothing to them ; while spirit, which is their matter, is as nothing to us ; and thus it is that we penetrate their spirit substances without being conscious of it, while they pass through our NON-EXISTENCE OF MATTER. 57 matter as unconscious of and unaffected by it as if it were non-existent. Man in his perfect, that is, in his Eternal state, being One with the Absolute, is a Being of Power. This Power is only in the Soul. The Soul-Power is the supreme Power in Nature. It extends over the worlds of Soul, Spirit, and Matter. These are the Three Eealms of Science of one who aspires to be a Trisme- gistus or Divine Adept, and to the embodied this Supreme Glory is attainable by a Knowledge of their own Soul, for that is the Knowledge which is Power. The Soul- World radiates and illuminates its Power through all things and beings. Things are only what the Soul makes of them ; and beings are what they have made of themselves, by virtue of that very Soul that is within them, which they can exalt to re-ascend to its Divine source, or degrade to demonic depravity. Mythology, esoterically interpreted, intends to cha- racterize the almost infinite variety of the mani- festations of Soul. Taking Hellenic Myths as an example, we find the most ancient God is Eros — Love. This Love is typified by a child, and Plato says, "A better guide than love cannot be found." Volumes could be written on the Spiritual mysteries embodied in this Mythos of Eros — the re-born Soul — the subject can never be exhausted, for it is Eternal and Infinite. Phoebus-Apollo, the Soul resplendent as understand- ing and science; Minerva, the Soul in its unerring wisdom ; Diana, the Soul as intuition and chaste imagination; Mars, the Soul as the striving principle; 5S UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. Mercury, or Hermes, the Soul as mind, intellect, thought; Jove and Juno, Spirit and Soul, united in their sovereign unity ; Venus, the Soul as Love and Beauty; and Saturn, that slow, lame, heavy judgment, the faculty acquired by many gradual steps of ex- perience. This is not intended to be a guide through the Pagan Pantheon, but merely an attempt to unlock the doors of the Sanctiiary, that very Sanctuary of which we feel assured that THEOSOPHIA, the Divine Science, was there enshrined, as a perusal of " Proclos's Theology of Plato " will convince. The course of the sun through the signs of the Zodiac only serves as a symbol to the Hermetic Theo- sophists, to illustrate the course of the Soul to Divine Re-birth. The manifestation of the Divine Spirit, opposed by the Demon, or Self- Willed depravity of individuated beings, causes the spiritual whirlpools or vortices we call passions. The unregenerate mind of man seems to be entirely ruled by a certain number of passions. Whether these are determined by his descent into this particular system of the universe, and correspond to the number of planets, we will not attempt to say. Astrological configurations of the natal hour hold apparently omnipotent sway over those who are enslaved in the merely sensual life. Up to spiritual Re-birth man is ruled by Fate, but thereafter by Grace alone. The vortices wherein the human mind manifests itself were fitly symbolised by the planets of the solar system. THE KULE OF THE GODS. 59 The orbs of Heaven and the mind of man are by more than one law united, and can become fit illustrative symbols for each other. Astrology and Psychology, like time and eternity, are connected in us. The many names invented to express the manifesta- tions of Soul- Power show the superiority of the Her- metists over other Theosophists in that respect. While the Hermetic system was a science of the Absolute, the systems of Theology officially promulgated were dog- matic assertions based on ignorance. The Eule of the Gods or Divine Adepts, the Grolden or Edenic age has left traces of reality sufficiently substantial to remove it from the range of fable to the record of history. The so-called C}rclopean remains were no more con- structed by uncultivated races than they were erected by the Djinns of Arabian fable. Mythological personages, having historical prototypes that were adorned for the purpose of serving as illustra- tions to Occult Allegories, may have borne totally different individual characters from the various alle- gorical attributes and national idiosyncrasies, whereby hierarchic Hermeticism concealed more than revealed the Occult ideal by an exoteric idol. Hercules may have been a mild, inoffensive indi- vidual, and his Twelve Labours may be interpreted as accomplished in the course of Ke-birth. His name, Hera-cleos, means Earth-cultivator, and his labours indicate that this cultivation was of a Mystic and invisible earth, the sensual world within, not without. 60 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. We know so little even of historical characters that it is not surprising if individuals who were systemati- cally veiled in Mystic clouds should gradually be lost to sight and only distorted forms appear in their places. In many instances Mystic Allegories are strongly marked by the locality where they were invented, show- ing how the inventors borrowed illustrative and familiar symbols. Many of these friendly hints and glances are lost to us, and although the style often serves to indi- cate the source of particular myths, it at times renders the myths themselves partly incomprehensible and causes them to lose their greatest beauty to those who are not intimate with the objects that were most familiar to the Mythologist of the past. The difference between a Myth and an Allegory is this : — The Mythologist allegorizes and gives certain names to his characters, the Allegorist mythologizes upon characters to whom he applies no special name. Jesus gave no names to the Characters of his sym- bolical Allegories, which being devoid of the obstrusive personality of enacting characters, were never con- sidered as anything else than anecdotic inventions, such Meshallim as are customary among the Jews. Different was it with the Myths invented by the more Ancient Hierophants, the Hermesians, Magi, Brahmins, Druids, or by originators of ancient reli- gious systems, as Moses, Maim, Zarathustra. Thus Moses and his followers, going upon the prin- ciples of the Hermetic system of Egypt, until the Prophets became acquainted with the teaching of the MYTHS AND ALLEGORIES. 61 Magi, invented a Mythos, that has been preserved in our Bible, which is a Mystic Drama representing the career of the Spirit and the development of the Soul through the different male characters successively pre- sented, the females representing the Soul, or that par- ticular affection or Will to which these are successively united. Each of the characters figures one stage or form of the inward life, for Soul and Spirit though ever the same, take fresh form at different stages, as the self-same individual is different in outward appearance at different stages of his growth. The purport of this Mystic Drama is to show what Adam is, and what can spring out of him of good, bad, and desperately wicked, through Eve or the human earthly Soul ; or in other words, Adam and his seed, the fruit of animal and human nature, until finally perfected in the Mystery of the Holy Incarnation through the Seed of the WOMAN (Mary, or the Divinely conceptive Soul), all which will be found most elaborately set forth by Mr. Andrew Jukes in his remarkable work, "TYPES OF GENESIS," which he has founded on the writings of the early Christian Fathers of the Church, who most unequivocally declare in their works that this is the true meaning of the sacred story, or his- tory, but it is the history of the Spiritual progress of man as an individual, and not the material history of the race. The difference between Myths and Allegories consists thus only in the methods of their invention. Both are one in purport, and were invented to teach Mystic Truths illustrating and inculcating the process through 62 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. which the Soul has to pass anterior to her Divine Re- generation or Re-birth. These truths could not be commonly and indiscriminately imparted, as pearls should not be thrown before swine, or that which is Holy given unto dogs. In the course of time the mythic names themselves became barriers in the way to the Mystic Truths they were intended to point out, and where a Hierophant gave no names in his Allegories, his own name and character became the object of erroneous adoration, in preference to God, as is notably illustrated by those Divine teachers Gotama Buddha, and Jesus Christ. Mankind is too little minded for the great simplicity of the Divine- human and human-Divine Theosophy. The grandeur of the I — Nought, I — All, I — God, can only be appre- hended by one who can be Nought, All, and God. 63 CHAPTER IV. HERMETIC THEOSOPHY. Part II. EGYPTIAN AND CHRISTIAN GNOSTICISM. THEOSOPHY in Antiquity was, as it is now among the Brahmins, considered the exclusive privilege of the Hierarchy, so that others who wished to attain to a knowledge of the Occult, had to go for initia- tion either to the priests, or to initiate themselves by a life of isolation and earnest spiritual striving. Meanwhile the masses of mankind gradually fell lower and lower. While the Soul was continually striving and urging them on in search of Her lost happiness, they consequently perpetrated the greatest evils. Evil being only ignorantly misdirected striving, and separation from the (rood ; when man has not God in his Soul, he developes, or rather becomes, a demon. As man is in the body, so he remains in the Spirit. When the fallen ones die in their irrational and insane condition, they find themselves bound to their depravi- ties. These spirits are thus earth-bound, and instead of seeking to ascend, combine together and influence sensitives, to proclaim them as Gods, and to offer to them a culte of depravity as conditions of manifestation. Thus God and the gods became as opposites in ancient Theology. Man, having once given credence to the false, became 64 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. still more deluded; and Demon- Worship was at one time a religious culte among nearly every nation on earth, either as Polytheism or Idolatry. Some writers, on what is called the Science of Keligions, whose views it is not our intention to con- trovert, have invented an hypothesis, intending to prove that Animism gradually developed into Spiritualism and Monotheism. This we cannot fully endorse. It is not always the lower that has developed the higher, but the higher that, in some instances, has be- come lowered. There is no proof that the entire human race was at one time in a state of savagery, while on the other hand there are many reasons to believe that savage races, as races, are but remnants of a degenerated and lost civilisation. With Idolatry ranks worship of spirits, correctly speaking Demonisrn, be it expressed in the cultus of Fetichism, Polytheism, Physiolatry, and the magi- cal phenomena that from such cultus sometimes results. All these are degenerated Spiritualism. Soul-Worship, Monotheism, the Pantheism of the Initiates, Theosophy, and true Mysticism, we would class with the Psychic, Esoteric, and Occult. False Mysticism is generally a degraded kind of Spiritualism. As the Divine decreases, the Demonic increases. Idolatry is a luxuriance of Theism, an irrational perversion of the religious feeling. In Hinduism for instance, where the religious feeling of the lower castes is left to itself by hierarchic contempt, and allowed to be freely misguided by earth-bound spirits, a Polytheistic MAN EVER THE SAME. 65 Spiritualism, as elaborate as degenerate, is the result. Physiolatry never existed among Initiates, with whom Material Symbols ever stood for Spiritual Truths. Fetichism we might class as Spiritualism, for the very reason that as some Savants of the future, who ignore the spiritual part of religions, as do modern Savants when attempting to interpret the religion of savages, may, for instance, learnedly relate how the sect of Modern Spiritualists were Table-Worshippers, Fetichists, whose Fetich was a table, around which they collected, regarding it as their God. Trees, rocks, and consecrated spots may be to savages what tables are to Spiritualists — mere means of spirit-intercourse. Those who assume to interpret the religions of the past, should be aware that man is ever the same, and the identical feelings and ideas of the past exist among us in the present, however disguised they may be under new names. An evolution, or gradual perfecting of religious ideas can no doubt be traced, but the theory of Evolu- tion cannot well apply to Free-Willed Beings. Whether the lower ever developes into the higher we will not stay to question ; a Free-Willed Being can progress or retrogress, evolute or involute, as he Wills, but the Laws of Nature ever go in one direction. All Creation obeys these Laws of Nature; man only as a Free-Willed Being has the too-often abused privi- lege of disobedience. Though every trangression, be it physical, spiritual, or moral, must inevitably meet its chastisement, man only too often, either knowingly or F 66 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. unknowingly, avails himself of his prerogative, and wars against Nature and God to his own retrogression. Had the path of evolution that naturalists claim to have traced in the organic world, been apparent in the moral world, man would now be a God-like Being, having, by his Divine Union, an Absolute knowlege of Nature ; whereas, when we attempt to trace the wisdom of the Ancients, we find that they were psychically more advanced, and developed, and nearer to the spiritual and Divine world than man is of the present day. We are therefore led to believe that as the human being is perfected, in so far as he reaches this higher state of development, he passes on to higher states, thus making way for succeeding generations who by comparison appear to be both mentally and morally degenerate. We cannot decide whether the ancient Hierarchs at first merely humoured the popular demand for gods that could be bribed through the intermediary of the priests, or whether the priests themselves created such demand, and compromised with the earth-bound spirits for their services. The more scrupulous among the priests may have stifled their conscience with the idea that as a Divine Principle underlies all natural phenomena, Polytheism and Idolatry could be no great evil, nor so very irrational as we now know it to be. " If the Vedic Polytheism represents God in Nature, worshipping the manifestation," says : J. F. Clarke in " A Comparison of All Religions," "the Egyptian Polytheism represents God behind Nature, and the Greek Polytheism gives us God wholly detached from Nature, and developed into human beings, with human. MISDIRECTED RELIGION. 67 passions, experiences, and enjoyments. The Greek gods are men, Jail of human life ; the Vedic gods are powers of nature ; the gods of Egypt are abstract symbols." * " But through all the Polytheisms of the earth there runs this one conviction, that the whole is filled with spiritual powers. Be- hind all matter is spirit ; above all that we see is the unseen ; the phenomena which pass before our eyes in Nature do not come from any iron fate or any blind chance, but from intelligence, purpose, a Will that chooses, a heart that desires, a mind that creates. In all Polytheisms there is unity and variety ; in some of them the unity is more pronounced, in some the variety." " Idolatry," continues the same writer, " is Polytheism pushed to its extreme limits. In this degenerate system, which has so widely prevailed, the unity in Nature-worship has been wholly overcome by the variety. The Divine powers have become de- tached from the All of Things, and become independent local deities, each worshipped in his own house, and at his own altar. Such were Baal, and Ashtaroth in Syria, Juggernauth and Rudra in India. Osiris and Typhon in Egypt, Artemis at Ephesus, Aphro- dite at Cyprus and Corinth. In this form of worship, passions, instead of being restrained are deified. Each man worships the God after his own heart, and so justifies his own limitations. He makes his gods not merely like himself, but like his lower self, his one-sided self." Idolatry had a spiritual part, and wherever there was a place for Idolatry, that place became a haunt for demons, who at times would manifest themselves and assume a specious appearance, and when they found believers their pretensions increased until they were considered as the sole Gods. Thus it will be perceived that even religious feelings, when not rightly directed, may lead to Hell instead of to Heaven. It is not quite known how far we are ruled by * May not all Gods invented by the ancient Hierarchs have been symbols ? 68 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. friendly or unfriendly demons, but their power over us can be no greater and no more lawful than the power assumed by man over man. A compromise to pacify unjust beings who domineer without reason or autho- rity, however beneficial it may have appeared at the time to all except the Eternal Being, would, in the end, only show itself to be an evil measure, equally destruc- tive to all connected with it. We have thus far undertaken an excursus into the lower regions of the Spirit-World, as the so-called "Grods" occupy such a formidable ground in Ancient Theosophy, we think it necessary to give some definition of the popular worship. The people did not invent the Grods, or we should have systems of planless absurdity, but the Priests, in compliance with popular clamour, interwove among the mass of fables, here and there, some Occult truths. It is possible that all these " Gods" were merely symbols of Divine or Demonic Passions. The Divine Light was not in all equally darkened. Even in the most depraved generations there still remained, or became spontaneously developed, Initiates and Adepts, who desired to impart to those who were worthy, that only Truth attainable by man ; and, in order to prevent the total loss of the Divine Mysteries, they perpetuated their system by tradition, and continued the invention of those Occult fables and myths wherein they implanted the Secret of Theosophy. In those early ages this may have been a necessary precaution. The profane were unworthy because in- capable of receiving Divine Truth, which can only be UNITY OF MYSTIC DOCTRINE. 69 communicated to those who, by a pure life, have become Divinised or Re-born ; and the Logos, the Great Arca- num, communicates itself, and cannot be communicated volitionally. There is no forcing the Great Secret. All Theosophists have intuitionally the same Mystic Philosophy, which, when their various systems are com- pared, gives the most conclusive evidence of the truth of Theosophy, and of the reality of the Great Arcanum ; as so many exalted individuals arriving independently at the same view must prove to all rational minds that the things related, namely, Theosophy, and the Great Arcanum thereof, cannot be otherwise but real and absolute facts. In the course of time, as Hierarchies were over- thrown, Schools and Academies were dispersed, religious systems were abolished, the Key to the Hermetic terms and Mystic symbols of that venerable science became lost, and the Hermetic wording is now to the un- initiated but a source of hopeless confusion. As the Heathen Hierarchies had Theosophists among the priests, we encounter the strange paradox of Abso- lute Truths and untruths being blended together, Soul- worship in the Sanctuary for the Initiated, with Demon- worship in the outer courts for the uninitiated. But when even the Soul-worship degenerated, and the Her- metic system was found to be insufficient to manifest the Eternal Soul-Truths, then God the Soul gave a fresh impulse to the spiritual life of mankind, by becoming- manifested to individual ascetics and self-taught Initi- ates. Eevelations are only Revelations to those for 70 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. whom they were revealed ; but these spontaneous mani- festations, emanating through solitary individuals, and coming with new life and great power, were generally liberal, and attempted to be universal. The fossilized ethnic systems that veiled themselves under Hermetic symbols were, however, Theosopbic as well, but more inclined to be national, tribal, and conservative to the last degree. Thus the Church of Egypt was full a thousand years decaying. The Church of India resisted even a Buddha, and the Jewish Church remained nearly untouched by the efforts of Jesus. In the spiritual economy of the world, the national and the individual thus equiponderate ; and while the spiri- tual democrats made the esoteric exoteric, the spiritual aristocrats made even the exoteric esoteric. These two inclinations are endemic to humanity ; and while some would draw all up into Heaven, others would exclude all but the select few who guess their riddles, and to them only would they measure out air, and light, letting none have a fraction more than they believe he merits. It is equally as great an error to initiate the unprepared, as to leave the people totally without a guide. It is almost better to throw open the doors of The Temple to all, than to close them to all in such a manner that none can have access to the Sanctu- ary. The more the Soul is tyranically forced down, the more She will rebel, and the more a people are de- graded, the more the degradation will rebound on the degraders. In religion there is apparently a struggle between the THE OCCULT CHURCH. 71 esoteric knowledge of the few, and the exoteric ignor- ance of the many. As ignorance is ever the enemy of science, the teachers who know are often persecuted by those who pretend to know. The true Church had at times to remain Occult, while an official church was dominant, and illumination was eclipsed by dogma. The exoterists were not always at the same time the esoterists, although this was the case in some Hierarch- ies. The war between the Occult and the official Church became at times in the West bitter and uncompromis- ing, and neither would grant the other a right to exist. But while the exoterists, when in power, had their opponents destroyed, the esoterists have shown them- selves more merciful, as they have desired but the enlightenment of their enemies. It will be seen that supposed dead and long-for- gotten tendencies and ideals in the human mind, con- tinue to exist, and are, although unrecognised, still among us. The spirit of Hierarchic Obscurantism, far from being annihilated by the Christ, availed itself of that symbol and acquired a new career of life and power. Hermeticism, which many may have supposed to have died and perished in Egypt, continues in Christian Exoterism. If we are not told to believe the fable of Osiris, we are commanded to revere equally fabulous Biblical narratives as historical and incontrovertible facts, which we have just seen are historical only as regards the inner and spiritual life of man. The science of 72 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. Biblical exegesis not only denies the truth of the Bible as History, but prepares the way for the refor- mation of the Hierarchy, who by a combination and renewal of the heterogenous religious elements of India, Persia, Judea, Hellas, Eome, and Egypt, pro- duced what has for nearly twenty centuries been known as the Christian Religion. The most ancient book of Theosophic teachings, " The Book of the Dead," which, even by its title, is indicative of its Mystic contents, forms a complete course of initiation for Spiritual Adeptship. " The Book of the Dead " is not of those who died physically, but who have passed through the mystery of the Spiritual Death, the crossing of the Mystic River, without which there is no arrival at the other shore. This miraculously preserved Mystic volume was consigned as a last gift by the ancient Hermetic Hier- archy to every initiated Egyptian, to guide him, after the death by decay, through the realms of spirit-dark- ness, wherein the uninitiated are lost. It was given with the loving intention that if the physically de- ceased had not completed his initiation in this world, he might, by aid of that book, which was for many ages considered as the ne plus ultra of Spiritual Science, complete his initiation and arrive at Perfec- tion, the Supreme Good, by the Path of the Just. The to us unfamiliar Egyptian symbolism of those pre-historic Gnostics — or men who knew the Absolute — may be difficult to interpret at present after that Hermetic system has been dead for nigh two millen- THE BOOK OF THE DEAD. 73 niums, and has been re-discovered in its stupendous ruins only by a series of providential miracles. The phraseology may be as incomprehensible to us as that of the Christian Theosophists may appear strange to the Theosophists of the remote future, but those of the coming millenniums, as those of the past and the present ages, however dissimilar their language may be, they can but radiate the one Eternal Truth, the Truth of the Absolute, the Absolute Truth. "The Book of the Dead" is a volume embodying and indicating the whole course of the Spiritual Re- birth, but hermetically sealed in every conceivable manner from the gaze of the profane, by mystic writings, teachings, allegories, and myths. All its physical symbols must be psychically interpreted. Divided according to Birch's translation into sixteen books, and in the version of Pierret into one hundred and sixty five chapters, each of those headings, be they of Book or chapter, are so strikingly esoteric that we are surprised to find ourself the first Theosophic interpreter of a volume which, however dumb it may be to the uninitiated, seems to cry aloud to be rightly understood, by those who know. Taking the " Ritual " according to Dr. Birch's divi- sion, the sixteen books are arranged in the following mystically and suggestive manner. The first book, entitled "The Manifestation to Light," commencing with "Sayings of Thot"— the Soul speaking in the name of the Father — Osiris ennunciates the prelimi- nary initiation, which, on account of its Hermetic 74 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. language, would be nearly incomprehensible verbiage without the spiritual key. The " deceased " is hence- forth called the " Osiris," and thus identified with the Divinity. Succeeding books then treat of the " Egyp- tian Creed," the " Ee-formation of the Mystic Dead," the " Keeping of the Body," and " Protection in Hell," "Celestial Food," "The Changes," "The Keeping of the Soul," "The going in and out of Hell," "The Hall of Dual Truth," "The Gods of the Orbit," " The Passage to the Soul-Kingdom, or the Birth- day of Osiris," the "Names of the Gods," and con- cluding with a description of the Mystic " House of Osiris " ; considered as the most important part of the Occult volume — " none but a King or a Priest may see it." Investigating the remnants of Egyptian Theosophy, it can be understood that the task of the Christian Gnostics, when they appeared as Eeformers, was to simplify and make plain what the Pagans by too great care had complicated. It would appear that the Chris- tian character had subsequently deteriorated and become impregnated with the spirit of awe, accompanying the obscurantive efforts of spiritual conservatism. In remote antiquity a pre-historic system of Theo- sophy can be traced, entwined in mystic myths; and to preserve that one great Absolute Truth, the Great Arcanum, that ever esoterically underlies all true reli- gious and philosophic systems, monuments of an Occult symbolical character were erected, as the Cave Temples and the Pyramids. Symbolism was interwoven in THE BOOKS OF HERMES. 75 language and philosophy, and every art and science was made a vehicle for mystic ideas. The Occult is to be everywhere encountered. Egyptian Theosophy is so profoundly Hermetic that it is hardly advisable for a tyro to commence his study with that system in any other manner than by a pre- vious perusal of the Book of Hermes. The Occult phraseology used in Egyptian Hermetic books (that is, in books relating to the Soul, and given by the Divine understanding,) however easy and familiar it may have been to the ancient Egyptians, is nearly incompre- hensible to the modern student ; and all that was living spirit to them, is nearly a dead letter to us, unless interpreted with the Spiritual Key. The "Kitual," or "Book of the Dead," is not the Divine Text book to us that it was to the Ancient Egyptian Initiates. It is a veritably dead book to us, full of unfamiliar names and words, and the student will derive more instruction from a perusal of the writings of Jamblichos and Hermes Trismegistus. The " Sai an Sinsin" is an Occult treatise on the spiritual resurrection and Re-birth that has not yet been fully appreciated. Many so-called Magical texts, given in the "Kecords of the Past," may also have a more profound Theosophical meaning than modern scholars can discern. There are no doubt many Occult truths hidden in the papyri, but the difficulty to discern and divest them from the unfamiliar names and words in which they are encrusted, discourages many readers from making a thorough and esoteric study. 76 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. If the Theosophist is under obligations to the scholar for rendering ancient texts available, he must nevertheless regret that the latter is, in most cases, not acquainted with that key to ancient litera- ture— Theosophy. To testify that Theosophy was known among the Egyptians, we will give a short extract from Pleytes' translation of the Turin Papyrus, which contaius several so-called Magical texts : — " THE IMPERISHABLE. " The Self-born, maker of heaven, earth, waters, life, fire, gods, mankind, animals, cattle, reptiles, fishes, kings, all gods, the seasons ; whose way I know not, for I know not the path of the gods. Behold Isis, in female form ! she embraces myriad gods, she judges myriad spirits. She is not unknown neither in Heaven nor on earth, even as the sun. She makes the Divine on earth, and names herself in her heart, according to her own will, the venerable goddess." This will bear comparison with an often quoted hymn of Eig Veda, as rendered by Monier Williams : — "The embodied spirit has a thousand heads. A thousand eyes, a thousand feet, around On every side enveloping the earth, Yet filling space no larger than a span. He is himself this very universe ; He is whatever is, has been, and shall be : He is the lord of immortality." The only difference is, that the Egyptians here worshipped Grod as Woman (Divine Soul), under the name of Isis, while the Hindus held that the Divine Spirit is the Male Principle. The " Tao-Te-King," how- ever, also teaches that the Female, or Occult, is the Divine Principle. THE PANTHEISM OF INITIATES. 77 The Male Principle was, in its spiritual sense, not ignored in Egyptian Theosophy. In a most ancient hymn to Osiris, translated by M. Chabas, Osiris is addressed as the Supreme Being : — "Lord of Eternity, King of gods, many are thjr names, thy holy transformations, thy mysterious forms in the temples ... he abides in the human mouth, the creator of the world. Atoum, who among the gods fills the beings with happiness ; the benevo- lent spirit among spirits. " From him the celestial abyss draws its waters ; from him comes the wind and air to breathe and enter the nostrils, for his satisfaction and for the pleasure of his heart. " He causes the soil to bring forth delicious produce. Heaven and the stars obey him. He opens the great portals ; he is the master of invocations in the southern heavens, and of adorations in the northern heavens. . . He is good in will and word, he is the praise of the great gods and the love of the little gods." The uniformity of the Divine teachings of true Theosophists can be gathered from a comparison of the above with v. 2 & 3, of the sixth Kathaka Upanishad : — " The entire Universe moves in the Spirit of Brahma ; it is the issue of that Spirit. He is the great fear, the thunderbolt. Those who know this become immortal. " Through fear of Him the fire burns ; through fear of Him the sun shines ; through fear of Him the heavens revolve ; through fear of Him Death flies ; — He the Supreme ! " Yes, this is Pantheism ; but Pantheism as the Theo- sophist understands it, and not as it is misrepresented by the unenlightened Theologian, is the Truth, The Only Truth ; while all the stupendous edifice of dogma, erected in ages of spiritual darkness is a monument of superstition and ignorance that at the first ray of 78 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. spiritual illumination must crumble into the dust. The Truth itself, the Knowledge of The One and All of the Divine Soul and Spirit within us shall abide for ever and aye ! There are several hymns and litanies and other Occult Texts that we could quote to prove conclusively the existence of a far more scientific and exact Theo- sophy among the Egyptian Initiates than their suc- cessors possessed, if it were not for the fact that these Texts would require as explanatory comment an eluci- dation of the whole system of Egyptian Hermeticism ; so we are content to refer the student to the second volume of the " Bibliotheque Orientale," published by Maisonneuve ; also the volumes of the " Eecords of the Past," and the " Book of the Dead," translated by Paul Pierret.* The Egyptian Hierarchy, the most powerful of its time, had male and female priests, and even kings and queens among them. The priests had a very com- plicated ritual and were divided into numerous degrees. They wore a distinctive habit, and were obliged to lead a life of strict moderation and purity. They had a speculative religio-philosophic system with an esoteric doctrine that was reserved for Adepts and Initiates only. The " Book of the Dead," which we have already cited as one of their principal Hermetic text-books, is said to describe in the most Mystic * The " Litany of Ra," " Records of the Past," Vol. viii., p. 105, may be consulted as a specimen of Eg} ptian phraseology. THE SMAEAGDINE TABLET. 79 and Occult terms they could invent, the Divinization of the individual Soul.* The theory generally accepted by superficial exoter- ists, that the books of Hermes were " probably " written by a Neo-Platonic Christian, has been repeated often and emphatically enough. The modern Hermetic Theosophists however, inverting the statement, consider the New Testament as an Hermetic book, and assert that these records were with more probability compiled by a conclave of Neo-Hermetists. Who can tell whether this hypothesis may not yet serve to explain the true origin of Christian Theosophy ? The celebrated Smaragdine Tablet of Hermes is a compendium of the Highest Art, and can be interpreted equally in Alchemy, Magic, and Theosophy as an abso- lute guide ; it reads as follows : — " It is true without falsehood, certain and absolute. That which is below is as that which is above, and that which is above is as that which is below to accomplish the miracles of one thing. " And as all things were from one, by the meditation of one, so all born things were from that one thing's adaptation. " The father thereof is the sun, the mother thereof the moon, * An obscure Arabian writer, Ahmed Ben Abubekr Ben Wah- shih, in his book "Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters," gives what purports to be an account of the Egyptian Priests, their Classes, Initiation, and Sacrifices ; but like most Oriental writers, he seems not to discern the truthful from the marvellous. We refer the curious reader to the English translation by Joseph Hammer for further information. The account given in " Crata Kepoa " of the Initiation among the Egyptian Priests, refers to a period when these orders were already in decadence, and endeavoured to replace a spiritual experience by theatrical performance. The Treatise of Jamblichos on the Mysteries is not exclusively Egyptian, but is a most valuable Treatise on Spiritual Science in general. 80 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. the wind carried it in its belly, its nurse is the earth. It is the father of all, and of every perfection in the whole world and its power is perfect if it is changed into earth. " Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross very carefully and with ingenuity. It ascends from the earth into heaven, then again descends into the earth, and receives the force of above and below. " Thus shalt thou have the glory of the entire world. Then every darkness shall fly before thee. " This is the force of all forces. It overcomes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing. " Thus is the world created. " Thence were mirific adaptations, the method of which is here. For this reason am I called Hermes Trismegistus, as I have the knowledge of The Three Principles of the Universe. " Thus is complete my doctrine of the Solar Work." This compendium of the Hermetic Art has also been called the Hermetic Creed, and as such, being compared with the Church Creed, affords striking points of simili- tude, which can be gathered from a perusal of those " Creeds " in our " Occult Texts:' As a further example of the Theosophic and Occult Wisdom of the ancient Egyptians we refer the reader to the Table of Isis, or Bembine Table, given in " Occult Texts" and the following short selection from the first book of Hermes. "HERMES TO INTELLIGENCE: " The opinions upon the universe and upon God are numerous and different, and I know not the truth. Enlighten me, 0 Master, for I can but believe thy revelation." " INTELLIGENCE TO HERMES : " Learn, my son, what God and the Universe is. God, Eter- nity, the World, Time, Generation. God causes Eternity; Eternity causes the World, the World causes Time, Time causes Generation. Good, Beauty, Happiness, Wisdom, are the essence SELECTIONS FROM HERMES. 81 of God. The essence of eternity is identity, that of the world is order, that of time is change, that of generation is life and death. The energies of God are the intelligence and the soul, those of eternity are permanence and immortality, those of the world com- position and decomposition, those of time are increase and de- crease, those of generation quality." " Eternity is in God, the world is in eternity, Time is in the world, generation is in Time. Eternity remains fixed in God, the world moves in eternity, time is accomplished in the world, generation is produced in time. The power of God is eternity, the work of eternity is the world, which has not been created at one time, but which is ever being created by eternity. Also will it never perish, for eternity is imperishable, and nothing is lost in the world because the world is enveloped by eternity. " HEltMES : " And what is the wisdom of God ? " " INTELLIGENCE : " Good, Beauty, Happpiness, all Virtue and Eternity. In pene- trating matter, eternity gives it immortality and permanence, for its generation depends upon eternity as eternity depends upon God. Generation and Time are the two different Natures in heaven. Immovable and incorruptible in heaven, movable and perishable on earth. The soul of eternity is God, the soul of the world is eternity, the soul of the earth is heaven. God is in intelligence, intelligence is in the soul, the soul is in matter and all throughout eternity. The soul fills the universal body that contains all bodies ; intelligence and God fill the soul. Fill the internal and envelope the externals. The soul animates the universe ; from without, that great and perfect animal, the world ; from within all living beings. There on high in heaven she dwells in identity ; here below on earth she transforms generation. Eternity sustains the world by necessity, by providence, by nature ; the explanation that can be given matters little. God acts in all the universe. His energy is a sovereign power to which nothing human or Divine can be compared. Believe not, Hermes, that nothing below or above is like God ; thou wouldst be far from the truth. Nothing resembles to the dissimilar, the sole, the One ; and believe not that another shares his power. To which other will you attribute life, immor- tality, changes ? What would it do else ? For God is not idle, G 82 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. otherwise all would be repose, for God fills all. Inertia exists not in the world, nor anywhere, neither in the Creator, nor in the creation ; it is an empty word. It is necessary that all things should become, for ever, and everywhere. For the Creator is in all, has no particular abode ; He creates not one thing or another, but all things ; His creative power dwells not in the beings He has created, they remain dependent on Him. " Were God to separate Himself from His work, life would be withdrawn, and all would be at an end; for He is at once the Creator and the Creation. All is living, life is One, and God is Life. Life is the union of Spirit and Soul; death is the rapture of what was united. Man calls transformation Death, because the material body is decomposed and life ceases to be visible or apparent ; but, my dear Hermes, you may understand that the world itself is transformed continually ; each day some part of it disappears without its ever decomposing. These revo- lutions and these disappearances are the passions (or phases) of the world. Revolution is a return, disappearance is a renewal. The world contains every form, they are not outside of it, it transforms itself in them. But if every form is in the world, what must be the form of the Creator ? He cannot be without form, and if He had but One form, He would be inferior to the world. What then shall we say of Him that we may not say anything imperfect? For one cannot think of God as incom- plete. He has a form which is His own, which does not appear to the eyes of the body, but which is in all bodies. Be not astonished that He has an incorporeal form, so it is with the form of a discourse, or the margin of a manuscript which borders the lines, and is even and equal. " Reflect upon a word which is bold and true ; just as man cannot five without Life, so God cannot live without doing good. The life and the movement of God is to move and make live. Some words have a particular sense ; reflect then upon what I tell you. All is in God, not as something placed in a place, for the place is corporeal and immovable, and things which are in a place have no movement. God is in the incorporeal otherwise than in appearance. Understand that He contains all ; under- stand that nothing is so rapid, so vast, so strong as the incorporeal ; it surpasses everything in capacity, in celerity, in power. Perceive this in yourself — order your Soul to go to India, and it is there GOD OUR ALL. 83 quicker than your order ; order it to go to the Ocean and it is there at once, not by moving from one place to another, but on the instant. Order it to mount to Heaven, and to do so it requires no wings ; nothing will stop it, neither fire nor sun, nor ether, nor whirlwinds, nor the bodies of the stars— it will traverse all, and will fly beyond all bodies. Do you desire to pass this limit and to contemplate what is outside the world, if there is anything, you can do so. See what power, what quickness you possess, and think you that what you can do, God cannot ? " Conceive of God as having in Himself all thoughts, the whole world. If you cannot equal and compare yourself to God, you cannot comprehend Him. Like comprehends like. Enlarge your- self to an immense size, outpass all bodies, traverse all times, become eternity, and you will conceive and understand God. Nothing can prevent you from supposing yourself immortal and all-knowing— Arts, Sciences, the habits of all animals. Lift your- self above all heights, descend below all depths, collect in yourself every sensation of all created things, of water, of fire, of the dry and the wet. Suppose that you are everywhere at the same time, on Earth, in the Sea, in Heaven ; that you have never been born, that you are still in embryo, that you are young, old, dead, beyond death ; comprehend all things at once, time, place, things, quantities, qualities, and you will comprehend God. But if you shut up your Soul in the body, and if you humble yourself and say, ' I understand nothing, I can do nothing ; I neither know what I am nor what I shall be,' what are you in common with God? If ycu are bad and attached to a body, what can you understand of great and good things ? Not to recognise the Divine is the perfection of evil ; but to be able to perceive, to desire it, and to hope for it, is the means of reaching it by a direct and easy road. By following it you will see it everywhere : in the place and the hour where you least expect it, in wakeful- ness and in sleep, at sea, in travelling, by night and by day, in speaking and in keeping silence. For there is not anything but what is the image of God. "God is not invisible; there is nothing more apparent than God. If He has created all things, it is that we may see Him in and through all things: this is the good of God, this is His virtue, to appear in all, nothing is invisible even amongst the incorporeal— Intelligence is seen in thought, God in creation. This 84 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. is what I had to reveal to you, Oh, Trismegistus. Look for it in yourself, and you will not lose your way." The influence Hermetic Theosophy had upon the Genesis of Christianity, and the fact that Christian Theosophy may be considered as a renewal of Ancient Hernieticism, deserves to be attentively studied. In the first centuries of Christianity the majority of enlightened Christians were called Gnostics, and the probabilities are very great that the system now known as the Christian Eeligion may have originated in Alexandria instead of Jerusalem. Nearly every one of the sentences attributed to the historical Jesus Christ could be traced to some anterior source. The Gospels (God-spells), considered as com- pilations of Esoteric Allegory and Theosophic teachings, are really books of Christian Hermeticism; and their authors as well as their hero are, by some, thought to be mythical and allegorical and not historical personages. The truths set forth in the Gospels as teachings of the Christ are gnostic verities, and no matter by whom they were personally uttered, they are communications of the Word, the Eternal Christ Principle. It is not improbable that the system of Christian Theosophy may be a compilation of esoteric truths from various sources, carefully concocted for several centuries by an Hermetic Hierarchy. Their propaganda gradually replaced by a more simple Myth and a com- prehensive moral and religious system the effete Pagan Institution which, with all its recondite mysteries, no longer answered the wants of the age. CHRISTIANITY A RENEWAL OF EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM. 85 The mob who were following the culte of Osiris or Christ, never knew the esoteric reasons for the religious revolution. The Gnostic Christian Theosophy of the period anterior to the establishment of the Christian State Keligion, was totally different to the system of dogma subsequently engrafted upon it. As already observed, there is no doubt that Gnosticism was early Christianity. The Gospel of John is pure Gnosticism. The Christian Mythos constructed out of Egyptian and Hellenic Hermeticism, Indian, Magian, and Hebrew Theosophy, far from being the teaching of a few uneducated Hebrews, was in all probability the carefully planned system of a Neo-Hermetic secret conclave. Should the hypothesis of the formulation of the Christian Doctrine at Alexandria be right, the very burning of the Alexandrian Library would go to prove that those certain Hierarchs in the time of Theodosius, who knew the real origin of the Christian system, being anxious to destroy the self-evident sources of the com- pilation called the New Testament, caused a tumult, during which they burned their own Library and threw the blame upon the mob. The establishment of the Christian Religion, accom- panied by mental and social transitions, not unlike those occurring in the the present age, may at times have been a matter of extreme difficulty, on account of the resistance offered by the more conservative Pagan leaders who were opposed to the new myth, 86 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. and would persist in upholding Pagan ideas in opposi- tion to the proposed Christian Theosophy, thus giving occasion to violent intestine feuds. Then, as now, Initiates, striving to guide the unthink- ing masses from the mazes of error into the path of Truth, were opposed by popular leaders and misleaders. Paganism, with its sensualistic exoterism, was not content to die and allow the Christian system to live. The Christian Gnostics who claimed Soul-Science, were opposed by Pagan Gnostics. The Pagan definitions of Gnosis so increased, that at last the Christian Gnostics, with St. Dionysius at their head, taught a positive Agnosticism in Theosophy, similar to that inculcated by Gotama Buddha, and other ancient Theosophists. In the last chapter of "The Mystic Theology" St. Dionysius probably denies all the definitions of the Pagan Gnostics. (See " Occult Texts") Christianity, the outcome of a Neo-Hermetic Gnos- ticism, and opposed to the sensualistic culte that for ages disfigured the ancient religions systems, had in the first centuries of its establishment a hard struggle for existence. " Gnosis," Individual experience, Knowledge of God, was the Centre, the Great Arcanum, and the Mystic Christ. The sanctuary of Christianity is Theosophy. Christianity would have perished as the ephemeral teachings of the so-called false Messiahs of the Jew?, had it not been that it was established by those ignorantly deplored and abused Gnostic Heresies' Gnosis, the sanctuary of Christianity, being attained GNOSIS THE SANCTUARY OF CHRISTIANITY. 87 to by some earnest striving souls, life and reality was given to the new system by their enthusiasm. " The meaning of the term Gnosis or Knowledge, as applied to a system of philosophy, may he illustrated hy the language of Plato towards the end of the fifth book of the Republic, in which he distinguishes between knowledge {gnosis) and opinion (doxa) as being concerned respectively with the real (to on) and the appa- rent (to pkainomenon)." "... This knowledge differs in name only from that 'wisdom' (sophia) which Aristotle tells us is by common consent admitted to consist in a knowledge of First Causes or Principles." "... Already in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, and still more clearly in the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom, the term gnosis had been employed to denote a knowledge of the true God, or a knowledge especially given by Him (Ps. cxviii. cxix. 66; Prov. viii. 12, xxx., 3 (xxiv. 26 in Vat.) ; Eccl. ii. 26 ; Isa. xi. 2; Wisd. ii. 13; vii. 17; x. 10; xiv. 22); and the same term was employed by the writers of the New Testament for that knowledge of God through Christ which is given by the Gospel. The mission of John the Baptist is prophetically declared by his father as to give knowledge of salvation to the Lord's people (Luke i. 77). Reference to Gnosis is made in the following texts : I. Cor. i. 5 ; I. Cor. xii. 8 ; II. Cor. iv. 6 ; II. Cor. x. 5; Phil. iii. 8; II Peter, i. 5-6: II. Peter iii. 18 i I. Cor. viii. 1.; I. Tim. vi. 20. " It is probable therefore that the adoption of the terms Gnosis and Gnostic, as special designations of a philosophy and its profes- sors, arose from the language of Christianity, and was intended to distinguish the Gnostic teaching as the rival and assumed superior of the Christian Church." (Summarised from the Introduction to "The Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries," by M ANSEL.) The Neo-Hermetic Christ-ideal formed a base of unity for Theosophic ideas, but the truth was not by all accepted. There were those who knew, and those who pretended to know, and it is difficult to discern the real from the counterfeit. There were so many schools 88 UNIVERSAL TBEOSOPHY. who knew, and each one knew best, that the classification of the Gnostics is a subject of some difficulty to modern scholars. " Different classifications of Gnostics have been made on various principles. Mosheim treats Gnosticism as produced exclusively by the combination of Oriental philosophy with Christianity. Neander classifies them according to their affinity with or oppo- sition to Judaeism ; Gieseler, according to countries and the preponderance of dualism or emanation, as Syrian and Egyptian ; Matter, as Syrian, Roman, Egyptian, and of Asia Minor ; Hase, as Hellenistic, Syrian, and Christian. Baur's classification is :— (1.) The Valentinian, which admits the claims of Paganism, together with Judaeism and Christianity. (2.) The Mareionite, which refers especially to Christianity ; and (3) the Pseudo Clementine, which espouses the cause of Judaeism in particular." (Globe Cyclopcedia.) The symbols used by the Gnostics which are in general literally considered, must be spiritually and Theosophi- cally understood as meaning purely stages of the indi- vidual Re-birth. Then, when we divide the leading Gnostics into Theosophists and Spirit-Mediums, the Absolute from the Non- Absolute truths can be more easily discerned. We must always remember that Hermetic Theosophy could only gradually open the doors of the Sanctuary, and these attempts were resisted by the Pagan Hier- archy. The Christianity that is taught by the Church, were it not embued with esoteric ideas, would be as decayed as ancient Paganism. As enunciated by Fichte in his " Anweisung zum seeligen Leben," " Men are saved not by the historical, but by the metaphysical." The similarity between the ancient Egyptian and subsequent Christian Theosophic symbolism, is unde- ODE TO HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. 89 niable. Isis may be called Mary ; Horns, Christ ; but the idea underlying these names is the same. "The Christ was the Good Shepherd. So was Horus. Christ is the Lamb of God. So was Horus. Christ is the Bread of Life. So was Horus. Christ is the Truth and the Life. So was Horus. Christ is the Fan-bearer. So was Horus. Christ is the Door of Life. Horus was the Path by which the dead travel out of the sepulchre ; he is the god whose name is written as the Eoad," etc., etc. — Gerald Massey, "Natural Genesis," Vol. ii., p, 404. The Alexandrian conclave, to whom we probably owe the Christian Mythos, had materials enough for even a far more scientific system than the Theosophy embodied in what is accepted as the New Testament. Jesus and the Apostles no doubt are historical person- ages ; and Jesus, in as far as he was the Christ, is the Manifestation of God on Earth, the Divine Being, very God and very man, not only to be adored but to be followed. The Death of Jesus is the Mystic Spiritual Death by which all are saved ; but only those who live the Christ-Life can have part in that Death. The Church dogma is indeed based on Mystic Truth, but it is only that Mystic Truth which is the Truth of the Church Dogma. Esoterically understood, these are eternal realities ; but their exoteric acceptation is a thing of the past and has no virtue. Esoteric Christianity was but a continuation of the esoteric Egyptian Theosophy under another name. It was as if the spirit of Hermes Trismegistus inspired the votaries of the new religion to keep to the 90 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. ancient symbols for the perpetuation of the Eternal Soul Truths. Still through Egypt's desert places Flows the lordly Nile ; From its banks the great stone faces Gaze with patient smile ; Still the pyramids imperious Pierce the cloudless skies, And the Sphinx stares with myste- Solemn, stony eyes. [rious, But where are the old Egyptian Demi-gods and kings ? Nothing left but an inscription Graven on stones and rings. Where are Helius and Hephoestus, Gods of eldest eld ? Where is Hermes Trismegistus, Who their secrets held ? Where are now the many hundred Thousand books he wrote 1 By the Thaumaturgists plundered, Lost in lands remote. In oblivion sunk for ever, As when o'er the land Blows a storm-wind, in the river Sinks the scattered sand. Something unsubstantial, ghostly Seems this Theurgist, In deep meditation mostly Wrapped, as in a mist. Vague, phantasmal, and unreal To our thought he seems, Walking in a world ideal, In a land of dreams. Was he one or man}', merging Name and fame in one, Like a stream, to which, converging, Many streamlets run ? Till, with gathered power proceed- Ampler sweep it takes, [ing, i By the Nile I see him wandering, Pausing now and then, On the mystic union pondering Between gods and men ; Half-believing, wholly feeling, "With supreme delight, [ing, How the Gods, themselves conceal - Lift men to their height. Or in Thebes, the hundred-gated, In the thoroughfare Breathing, as if consecrated, A diviner air ; And amid discordant noises In the jostling throng, Hearing far, celestial voices Of Olympian's song. Who shall call his dreams fallacious ? Who has searched or sought All the unexplored and spacious Universe of thought ? Who, in his own skill confiding, Shall with rule and line .Mark the border-land dividing Human and divine ? Trismegistus ! three time greatest ! How thy name sublime Has descended to this latest Progeny of time ! Happy they whose written pages Perish with their lives, If amid the crumbling ages Still their name survives ! Thine, 0 priest of Egypt, lately Found I in the vast Weed-encumbered, sombre, statcly Grave-yard of the Past ; And a presence moved before me On that gloomy shore, Downward the sweet waters leading I As a waft of wind, that o'er me From unnumbered lakes. | Breathed, and was no more. Longfellow. 91 CHAPTER V. ORIENTAL THEOSOPHY. Paet I. THE THEOSOPHY OF THE BRAHMINS, MAGI, AND DRUIDS. EASTWARD from Egypt, now we take our way to a country equal to Egypt in monumental as in Theosophic grandeur. In India we encounter some of those mazes of Theosophy which we will not attempt to enter, but content ourselves with merely acknowledging their existence. The very people are a mystery. Whence are the Hindus ? Are they a race descended from the heights of Tibet, are they a colony from Egypt, or are they a branch of that mysterious pre-historical Atlantian world, which left its colossal vestiges in various cyclopean architectures ? Affirmative arguments could be brought in favour of each of these queries. For the first theory could be adduced the existence of Buddhist Temples in Tibet, which by competent archaeologists are pronounced to be anterior to the present Avater, now exoterically worshipped as Buddha ; that is to say, there are colossal Buddhistic Monuments, said to have been built centuries if not millenniums before Gotama Buddha was born into this world. It could also be shown, that prior to Gotama Buddha there was an ancient "Wisdom Religion," and that this pre-historic Buddhism, which only left architectural 92 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. vestiges, antedates the Vedas, and was the Theosophy of the primitive race that descended into India. For the Egyptian theory it could be urged that so many striking traits of similarity in the religious and social institutions of Egypt and India, could not be accidental. The Egyptian priests, or Hermesians, were esoterically Theosophists, and exoterically they had a complex system of Polytheism and Idolatry, as also have the Brahmins. The Egyptian priests were in their higher degrees strict Vegetarians, as the high Caste Brahmins now are. The Egyptian order of archi- tecture we also find reproduced at Dawlatabad, Tanjore, and elsewhere, in Temples showing the pyramidal form ; while the institution of Caste may, in India, be the reproduction after the Egyptian original.* It has also been philologically shown, that not a few Sanscrit words have their apparent primitive root in the ancient Egyptian language. The Egyptian hypothesis does not invalidate the * Brahminism is a representative remnant of the most ancient social institution, which if we might coin a new word could be called the Hiero- Aristocracy. Has Brahminism a future ? We will not attempt a reply to this query, which would have to take into consideration the most weighty social and psychic problems that have agitated man's mind ever since the human race existed. Brahminism is not yet dead ; there is still life in the ancient tree, though a Buddha failed in the attempt to cut it down more than two millenniums ago. It is but by new, and more powerful attacks, caused by a universal spiritual influx, that the barriers of Caste shall fall to rise no more. All shall be of one Caste when all are equally pure. But when will this Utopian universal Aristocracy of God appear on earth ? THE030PHY OF THE BRAHMINS. 93 Atlantian theory, but renders it all the more probable, as the traits of similarity existing between the systems of Egypt, India, Persia, Mexico, and Peru, justify the suggestion that they may all be derived from one primeval system which flourished on the lost Continent of Atlan. India can be said to be as rich in pre-historical monu- ments as Egypt. In Ellora, Elephanta, Salsette, and Carli, we encounter those famed Cave-Temples whose date of construction has been as little ascertained as their gigantic symbolism. A disquisition on the Hindu Cave-Temples and interpretation of their symbolism would, in itself, demand several volumes. Not only in India, but in Cabul, Tibet, Ceylon, and Borneo are the remains of temples and pagodas to be seen, bearing- all the mystic traits and emblematical figures of that pre-historic system of Hermetic Theosophy which once united all Initiates into one esoteric Brotherhood, while the people of the outer world were divided into clans and tribes. The Vedas and the Theosophic poems Eamayana and Mahabarat may be considered among the volumes of the Occult as colossal as are the Ancient Hindu Temples among architectural monuments. They astound and humiliate us by their very enormousness, and the inscru- table profundity of thought. Without the esoteric key they are sealed to the Neophite, and however he may admire the outer structure, the Sanctuary is closed to him, and he may pass it by unconscious of its very existence. 94 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. The following is an example of a profound Hindu allegory : — " The theory of the Hindu theologians is, according to Colebrook, that — " There is one Supreme Uurevealed Being — Para-Brahm. By self-contemplation he produced the universe. Then, as Siva, or Maha-Deva, he destroyed it ; then, as Vishnu, he restored and henceforth sustained it. This is the Hindu Trinity — the Trimurti. Its holy, inexpressible name is the sacred tri-literal word A U M." " This doctrine," say the Hindus, " is so mysterious, that neither man nor angel can understand it." To understand it, one must be at One with God, for this is the Great Arcanum of Theosophy in all its simplicity. It is a purely Theosophic Doctrine, and esoterically relates to the Eegenerative process within us. The Supreme Unrevealed Being is the God within us. By self-contemplation, man, or rather this Divinity in man, produces the Universe of Mind, the mental, sensual world, the aggregate of visualized and sensual- ized impressions that he has acquired from childhood upwards. Then this God within us, manifested as Siva or Maha-Deva, destroys the Universe of the Sensual Mind. He destroys it in order that as the Divine Spirit he may restore and sustain it as a pure, har- monious Divine World. Thus this Trimurti is really within us, even as the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. There is but One Mystery, one Secret, and that is the Divine Being, and how it can from being Occult become Manifest. This One Great Arcanum of all Theosophies is the centre from which all Divine Revelations and Manifestations emanate, and they are but Eevelations THE VEDAS. 95 and Manifestations of the Divine within us. All Revealed Words are but Words of the Word — the Divine Logos. Thus are the " Vedas " not the " Word " but Words of and about the " Word," and only as such are they with all other " Sacred Words " Divine. " The Veda, ' Divine Knowledge,' is divided into Mantras, i.e., texts, and Brahmanas, or comments. To the latter are added mystical treatises, in prose and verse, called Aranyakas and Upani- shads, 'which speculate upon the nature of spirit and of God, and exhihit a freedom of thought and speculation which is (assumed as) the beginning of Hindu philosophy.' ' All the Vedic writings are classified in two great divisions, exoteric and esoteric : the Karma-kanda, ' department of works,' the ceremonial ; and the Jnana-kanda, ' department of knowledge.' The hymns and prayers of the Mantra come under the first ; the philosophical speculations of the Brahmanas, and especially of the Upanishads, under the second division. All are considered alike Sruti or revelation."* " The literature of India," says Professor Max Miiller, " is saturated with the idea of a book-revelation ; and in no country has the theory of revelation been so minutely elaborated as in India. . . . According to the orthodox view of Indian theo- logians, not a single line of the Veda was the work of human authors. The whole Veda is, in some way or other, the work of the Deity ; and even those who received the revelation, or, as they express it, those who saw it, were not supposed to be ordinary mor- tals, but beings above the level of common humanity, and less liable; therefore, to error in the reception of revealed truth. The views entertained of revelation by the orthodox theologians of India, are far more minute and elaborate than those of the extreme advocates of verbal inspiration in Europe. The human element, called paurusheyatva in Sanscrit, is driven out of every corner or hiding- place ; and as the Veda is held to have existed in the mind of the Deity before the beginning of things,f every allusion to historical * Cf. Dowson, Classical Dicionary of Hindu Mythology, etc. Article Veda. t A similar view prevails in rabbinical orthodoxy with regard to the Thora. 96 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. events, of which there are not a few, is explained away with a zeal worthy of a better cause." The same able scholar also remarks : — " The only sphere in which the Indian mind finds itself at liberty to act, to create, and to worship, is the sphere of Eeligion and Philosophy ; and nowhere have religious and metaphysical ideas struck root so deep in the minds of a nation as in India. The shape which these ideas took amongst the different periods of civilisation, naturally varies from coarse superstition to sublime spiritualism. But, taken as a whole, history supplies no second instance where the inward life of the soul has so completely absorbed all the other faculties of a people." Thus Hindu Philosophy is, to a certain extent, merely the reflection of Hindu Theosophy; and many of the philosophic systems of India can be said to have an esoteric root, and to be branches of Theosophy. " The Hindu schools of philosophy are usually cast in the follow- ing order : — 1. The Nyaya, founded by Gautama. 2. The Vaiseshika, by Kanada. 3. The Sankhya, by Kapila. 4. The Yoga, by Patanjali. 5. The Mimansa, by Jaimini. G. The Vedanta, by Badarayana ; sometimes called Vyasa, or Veda Vyasa. " They are called the six Sastras, or writings of authority, and sometimes the six Darsanas, views, or exposition of doctrine." (Davies' " Hindu Philosophy") Of the Darsanas, as the Indian Philosophic Schools are called, the Nyaya excels in analytical enquiry into all the objects and subjects of human knowledge, including, amougst others, the process of reasoning and laws of thought : a kind of Hindu Aristotelianism. The Vaiseshika is a supplement to the Nyaya, carrying THE DARSANAS. 97 its method to Physical enquiries. The Sankhya, Yoga, and Vedanta are nearly altogether Theosophical systems, as a perusal of the Aphorisms of Kapila, the Yoga- Sutras of Patanjali, and the Atma-Bodha of Sankara, will convince. If the Student will also undertake the task of reading the Upanishacls, and the Brahma-Sutras of Badarayana,* he will be able thereby to initiate himself into Hindu Theosophy, and acquire a knowledge of important psychic facts, that everyone who desires the welfare of his Soul should be aware of. While the Yoga appears as the most practical, the Vedanta is the most scientific of the Hindu Theosophic systems. " Vedanta " means " end of the Veda"; and as it is based upon the Upanishads, which the reader knows to be a part of the Vedas, it forms the Sanctuary of Brahmanism. This Sanctuary, to which we Europeans have access, is, however, closed to the masses of the Hindus them- selves; who, being misled to take symbols for things, are lost in the mazes of Exoterism, Polytheism, and Idolatry. Only few know that the names of the many Gods are merely names of the attributes of the One Divine Being. The masses erroneously think there are many Lords. Although one particular God or name may be highly exalted in a Mantra, " nothing is said to disparage the Divine character of the other Gods " ; for it is simply the representation of the Divine Spirit under a particular form. * Translated by Banerjea in the " Bibliotheca Indica." H 98 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. Thus Agni, Indra, Surya, Varuna, &c, have their occult meaning, and are symbols for positive Theoso- phic Elements. Although the Initiates who invented these names made some of them synonymous with physical forces, these exclusively spiritual teachers could not inculcate the materialistic ideas attributed to them by modern, so-called, "competent" scholars; as such ideas are but the outcome of the present materialistic age, but were neither known nor respected in the pre-historic ages we refer to, when all science was comprised in the one word — Spirituality. Hindu Theosophy is one of the most important Theosophies known. In order that the Student may have an opportunity of becoming acquainted with some of the text books of its leading systems, a selection from the Bhagavata-Purana, translated from the French version of Burnouf, follows, elucidating the principles of the Sankhya Theosophy. The Vedanta and Yoga will be found represented in our " Occult Texts."* The following ample quotations from the rare and expensive French version of the Bhagavata-Purana are given in full, as being the gist of Theosophic teachings contained in that valuable work known only to Oriental scholars, by whom these treasures are as yet hardly appreciated : — * For a more thorough comprehension of the latter we would recommend a study of " The Yoga Philosophy ; being the text of Patanjali, with Bhojarah's commentary, with Introduction by Colonel Olcott," published by the Bombay Branch of the Theoso- phical Society. THE BHAGAVATA-FURANA. 99 SELECTIONS FROM THE BHAGAVATA-PURANA. THE PRACTICE OF DEVOTION. Bhagavata (the Divine Being) says : The Yoga that has the Supreme Spirit for its object is established by Me, as the means that men have to obtain Absolute Beatitude ; and it is thereby that good and bad fortune are terminated. Behold! the Doctrine I am about to expound to you, is the same that I have already communicated to the Rishis desirous of knowing the Yoga in the perfection of all its parts. The heart is known to be as equally qualified to enchain as to liberate the Individual Soul. Attached to qualities it is a chain ; devoted to Purusha (the Divine Spirit) it is a means of deliverance. When freed from the defilements of desire, from cupidity, and other passions that are engendered by selfishness, the heart is pure ; insensible to pain and pleasure, and in perfect quiessence. Then man beholds the Absolute Spirit as superior to Nature, uniform, self-luminous, subtle, and continuous ; With a devoted heart he beholds it by his science, as detached from all things ; he beholds it completely impassable, and he under- stands then that Nature is without energy. No, for Yogis there is no path that can so happily conduct them to the possession of Brahma, as the devotion that applies itself to Bhagavat, the Soul of all things. Wise men know that attachment to things is the chain of the Soul which is indestructible ; but this very attachment, when; applied to virtue, is an infallible medium of Salvation. The patient, the compassionate for all beings, who are not at enmity with any, and are calm, good, and adorned by virtue who with exclusive affection, have for Me a profound devotion; who for Me renounce their works, renounce if necessary their parents and families; who are freed from the various kinds of suffering because their heart is directed towards Me ; who, having purified themselves, listen to, and recount as examples the lives of those who had Me for their object. These are the virtuous men, 0 my mother ;* the men free from all attachment ; thou shouldst seek them, for intercourse with them frees from sinful attachment to the world. * This is supposed to be a dialogue between the Divinely in- spired Adept and his mother. 100 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. The man who has arrived at entire detachment, by a Devotion exclusively contemplating the works of My power, and the happi- ness that the senses give in this and the other world, when practising Yoga should employ all his energy to seize his Spirit by the direct ways of this Doctrine. With indifference for the qualities of Nature ; with a knowledge, developed by the detachment from all things ; with the practice of Yoga, and a Devotion directed towards Me, man, even while in the mortal body, arrives to possess Me ; I, that am the Essence of the Individual Soul. Devahuti said : What is that Devotion which is due to Thee, and tell me how must I apply to it that I may quickly possess Thy state, that of the Supreme Deliverance ? That Yoga whereof Thou hast spoken, O Thou who art that self -same Deliverance; that Yoga which has Bhagavat for its object, and wherefrom results the Knowledge of the Principles, what is it and what are its parts ? Explain me all this, in distinct manner, 0 Hari ! that I, who am but a woman of slow intelligence, may easily comprehend, by Thy favour, that which is otherwise difficult to comprehend. Knowing thus the desire of his mother, Kapila, full of affection for her, taught her the Doctiine wherein are enumerated the prin- ciples called Sankyha, which contain the Devotion and Yoga. Bhagavat said : When the senses, those luminous organs, whose office it is to seize the qualities, acting in conformity with the Divine Law, direct themselves in the man whose heart is fixed towards the Being whose manifestation is the Good ; when their action is natural, is disinterested, it is then that the Devotion for Bhagavat exists ; a virtue more important than perfection, and which consumes the envelope of the Spirit as quickly as the breath of life causes food to digest Finally, summarises Bhagavat, only a heart that gives itself to Me, and attaches itself to Me fixedly, by the practice of an ardent devotion, can give man true happiness. ACQUISITION OP DELIVERANCE. Bhagavat said : I will explain to you, daughter of the king, the definition of Yoga, that has Vishnu (Re-birth ) for its object, and will tell you by what means a pure heart can enter the path of virtue. It is to fulfil your duties according to your power ; to abstain THE PRACTICE OF DEVOTION. 101 from all strange duties; to content yourself with what Destiny- brings ; to honour those who know the Spirit. It is to renounce vulgar duties, and love only those which con- duct to Salvation. Partake of little but pure food, and seek the healthy and retired spots. Be good and truthful; abstain from theft, and receive no presents but for necessities ; be chaste and pure ; give yourself up to a life of penitence ; read the Vedas and adore Purusha. Observe an absolute silence ; . . gradually master the breath • detach the senses from visible objects, and draw them within by aid of the heart. With the heart maintain the vital breath immovably in one of the divers places of the body where it resides; . . . place yourself in possession of yourself. These, together with others, are the paths whereby the wise master of his breath, must, by Yoga, with his intelligence, gradu- ally overcome all sinful and evil inclinations of the heart. Indifferent to the manner of sitting, let him sit in a pure spot ; there place himself erect, keeping a decent posture, and exercise the retention of his breath. Let him purify the way of the vital breath, by inhaling the exterior air, retaining it, then allowing it to issue ; and repeating this practice inversly, he then fixes his heart in solid manner to make its mobility cease. The heart of the Yogi, who has mastered his vital breath, soon becomes pure from all passion, as a metal is freed from dross when submitted to a current of air and fire. Let him consume his corporeal vices, by retaining his respira- tion; his sins, by becoming master of his heart; his inclinations for sensual objects, by collecting his senses to himself ; and the qualities that deflect the Supreme Being, by meditation. When the heart, purified from all passion, has been completely arrested by the practice of Yoga ; let the ascetic, fixing his eyes upon the end of his nose, meditate upon the form of Bhagavat. When thus abstracted from all objects, the heart knows no more what to hold ; and detached from all, it is also consumed similar to the flame that expires. In this state man, thence protected from the influence of qualities, beholds his own Spirit, with which he is at one and no more distinct from it. Thus absorbed by this final annihilation of the heart in the 102 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHT. bosom of Supreme Majesty, man, placed out of the reach of pleasure and pain, infers the origin of that double imperfection to personality, to this cause of action which does not really exist, as he has seized in his own bosom the substance of the Supreme Spirit. Having- thus arrived to an understanding of that which consti- tutes his own being, the Perfect pays no more attention to his own body ; and although by the rule of fate the body may lift itself up, while he has quitted or again entered it, yet he no more distinguishes it than a man blinded by intoxication perceives the state of his garments about him. The body, nevertheless, acting under the rule of fate, continues to live with the senses as long as the action lasts which it has com- menced ; but the man who has attained to the end of his con- templation has understood the Real, and has no more contact with the body, which, as all that thereon depends, is to him but as a vain dream. Even as man is distinct from his children and his wealth, although he regards these as another self, thus is the Spirit dis- tinct from the body and other things. Even as the fire is distinct from the burning: log, or the spark from the smoke it produces, although these things are regarded as forming part of its nature ; thus the Spirit, that internal spectator, is distinct from elements, senses, and personality, as Brahma is from the individual Soul and Bhagavat from Nature. With a heart estranged from all other things, man sees that Spirit in all beings, and all beings in that Spirit, which is for all beings the Soul. As the fire which is one, appears many through the diversity of substances that feed it, so the spirit residing in the bosom of Nature appears as many, through the unequal distribution of qualities that compose the bodies wherein it is enclosed. Also it is only after having triumphed over Nature, so difficult to overcome, by that Divine Energy to which it is united, and which is that which exists as well as that which exists not, that the Spirit reposes on the bosom of its veritable form. DISTINCTION OF NATURE. Liberated from the conditions which bind intelligence ; having rejected from his sight everything else but the Soul, having seized hold of his Spirit, . . . and seeing himself face to face — DISTINCTION FROM NATURE. 103 The wise man perceives in the midst of his personality, that really does not exist, a reflection of The Being, that he beholds free from attributes, allied to the Cause, enlightening the effect, contained in all things and One. Even as by seeing in a closed house the disc of the sun repro- duced on the wall, it is inferred that the reflection was caused by water ; and so, the sun is in the heavens ; in this same way triune Personality is inferred from the existence of the elements by the heart and senses acting as reflectors, and from Personality in its turn is concluded the Self-Existing Being reflecting itself in the spirit that sees the truth. When, in this world, the elementary particles, the senses, the Intelligence, and other faculties have been annihilated by pro- found sleep on the bosom of the Cause that exists not for our organs ; the man who then escapes sleep and personality, and who erroneously thinks because his personality disappears, that his soul, that does not perish, is annihilated, is even as one who believes himself to be dead because he has lost his riches. This man, if he collects within himself his reflection, and seizes it in his own bosom, he attains to his own real Essence, which is the dwelling-place of the being endowed with personality. THE YOGA OF DEVOTION. The Yoga of Devotion divides itself into as many species as the means employed in practising it, for the inclinations of men are as varied as the individual natures with their divers qualities. The rash man believing in distinction, who in thoughts of violence, of hypocrisy, or envy, shows affection for Me, is a being delivered up to darkness. The man who is attached to distinction, who dreaming of externals, of glory, or power, honours Me with a culte or other homage, is a being delivered up to passion. The man equally attached to distinction, who with the view of annihilating his works, or of directing them towards the Supreme Being, celebrates the Sacrifice, saying to himself, "Sacrifice is a duty," is a being that participates of the quality of goodness. The motion of a heart that, as the Ganges going to the sea, is incessantly drawn towards Me, Me the refuge of all Souls, by the one desire of hearing the reciting of my qualities, thus this is the sign of the pure Yoga of Devotion to the best of Spirits, and 104 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. is disinterested devotion that no longer distinguishes itself from Me. Those who are animated with this Spirit would not accept the happiness to live in the same world as I, to have the same great- ness, to be in My presence, to have the same form, and yet not to be other than at one with Me, should it be offered to them with- out adoring Me. Therein is that which is called the Yoga of Devotion, a Yoga which is definite, and which assists man to surmount the three qualities, and unites them infallibly to My nature. By absolute and disinterested accomplishment of that which forms the individual duty of each, by irreproachable observance of the ceremonies, by constant absence of all disposition to injure, by sight and touch of the forms wherein I abide, by culte, praise, homage addressed to them, by the faith in My presence in the bosoms of beings, by virtue and detachment, by profound respect shown to Sages, by compassion felt for the unfortunate, by the friendship shown for those in whom one discovers the same qualities as in one's self, and by the practice of virtue and religious duties, by attention lent to discourses relating to the Supreme Spirit, by reciting My name, by rectitude, by intercourse with good men, by absence of selfishness, by all these virtues the spirit of man that follows My law, ascending to the state of perfect purity, has but to hear of the recitation of My qualities to unite himself at once to My essence. As a scent lifted by the wind from the place of its origin takes possession of the sense of smell, so the spirit that attaches itself to Yoga arrives at seizing himself in his own immovable Essence. I reside perpetually in the bosom of all beings of which I am the Soul ; the man who knows Me not as such has but the false image of piety. He who neglects Me — the sovereign Lord, the Soul of all beings in whose bosom I reside — to fulfil in his folly religious duties, sacrifices but to ashes. The heart of the man who is selfish and attached to distinction, who hates Me in the body of another, and who has an aversion for his fellow-creatures, attains not to Quiescence. No, I am not satisfied with a sacrifice celebrated with the most varied substances, when he who offers it to Me despises living beings. THE YOGA OF DEVOTION. 105 Let man, in accomplishing the works imposed upon him, render Me a religious culte and other homages, as long as he has not arrived at seeing Me in his heart ; Me, the Supreme Lord, who resides in the bosom of all beings. He who, attached to distinction, and perceives the least difference between his Sold and the Supreme Being, must fear the most terrible danger from Mrityu, who is no other than I. Also, man should honour Me, who reside in the bosom of all beings of which I am the Soul, by offerings, by respect and love, without making any distinction. The beings that have life are superior to those who have it not ; those who have the vital breath are superior to those who have life; those who have intelligence, to those who have the vital breath ; those who possess organs of sense, to those who have in- telligence. Among those who possess organs of sense, those who have the sense of taste are superior to those who have only that of feeling ; then come those who have the sense of smell, and above these are those who perceive sound. Above these latter come those who perceive diverse forms, then those who have a double row of teeth ; among which those that have many feet are superior to others ; then come those that have four feet ; and finally man, who has but two. Above man are four classes. Among them, the first is that of the Brahmans ; among the Brahmans themselves, the first are those that know the Vedas, and among these latter those that possess the meaning. Above these who possess the meaning of the Vedas comes he for whom this meaning has nothing dubious ; above this latter, he who accomplishes the works that are imposed on him ; then he who, detached of all, does not disquiet himself about the result of his works. Above this latter is he who, after having directed towards Me all his actions, the consequences of his actions and his very person, does not distinguish himself from Me ; for I see no being superior to a man who, having directed his soul towards Me, and deposited in Me his works, acts no more and sees no more than Me in himself. Let the sage venerate in his heart all those things with great respect, saying : " It is Bhagavat, the Supreme Being, that here is entered with the individual soul, part of its substance." 106 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. I have explained to thee, O virtuous woman, the Yoga of Devotion and the Yoga of Meditation, these two doctrines by which man arrives equally unto Purusha. This form of Bhagavat, which is Brahma and Paramatman, forms that which is at the same time the Supreme Being, Nature, and Destiny ; whereof result the diverse consequences of works. That which is the divine receptacle of diverse forms ; this is Time, which is the terror of beings emanated from Intelligence, when they attach themselves to distinction. He, who after having penetrated into the bosom of creatures, destroys them by other creatures ; that Being of whom the Universe is the abode, and which is named Vishnu, this supreme chief of the sacrifice is Time, the most potent of those that rule. For him there is neither friend, nor enemy, nor ally. Always watchful, he seizes man, who thinketh not of him, to terminate his existence. It is by fear of Time that the wind blows ; by fear of Time that the sun radiates ; by fear of Time that Indra gives rain ; by fear of Time that the hosts of stars shine. It is by fear of Time that the kings of the forests, with the sheltering trees and annual plants, each cover themselves in their season with flower and fruit. It is by fear of Time that the rivers flow, that the ocean passes not its boundaries, that the fire burns, that the earth with her mountains fall not into the abyss.- It is by His order that the atmosphere gives a habitable abode to breathing beings ; that intelligence developes the world that is its body and which it surrounds with seven enfoldments. And the Devas, to whose empire belong the movable and im- movable worlds, give themselves up to their qualities for the creation, conservation, and destruction of the universe, through the rule by Time. This is Time Infinite, and which ends all. That is without beginning and makes all beginning, which is imperishable, which produceth creature by creature, and which destroys by death the God of destruction. Among the Text-books of Hindu Theosophy and Occult Science the following are considered the most notable, viz : The " Yedas," namely : The " Eig-Yeda," TEXT-BOOKS OF HINDU THEOSOPHY. 107 " Yayur-Veda," " Sam a- Veda," and " Atharva-Veda." The celebrated epics called the "Kamayana," the " Mahabharata," the "Harivanso" (said to be a part of the Mahabharat). The "Puranas," namely: The "Vishnu," "Naradiya," "Bhagavata," " Garuda," " Padma," and "Varaha." These latter are Vaishnava Puranas, in which the Divine as Vishnu "the unconquerable preserver " and all-pervading essence holds the pre-eminence. The Puranas, in which the qualities of gloom or ignorance are described, are — the "Matsya," "Kurma," " Linga," " Siva," " Skanda," and " Agni." These are devuted to the Divine as Siva, the destroyer of Evil. Those in which the psychic forces, known to the unregenerate only as passions, are delineated, are— The "Brahma," " Brahmanda," " Brahmavaivarta," " Markandeya, " " Bhavishya," and "Vamana" Puranas, which describe the manifestations of Brahma, the Divine Spirit. The " Upa," or Secondary Puranas, eighteen in number, viz: " Sanat-Kumara," " Nara-Sinha," "Nara- diya," "Siva," "Durvasasa," "Kapila," "Manava," "Ausanasa," "Varuna," "Kalika," "Samba," "Nandi," "Saura," "Parasara," "Aditya," "Mahesvara," "Bha- gavata," and "Vasishta." We are also assured that the "Tantras" are mis- understood occult texts, although they are in current use only for magical evocations and other practices of Goetia. The " Brahmana," which has been aptly called a kind of Hindu Talmud, embodies works com- posed by and for Brahmins, but is, equally with the 108 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. Mantra, held to be " Sruti " or revealed word. Each of the Sanhitas or collections of the Vedas has its Brah- mana, which generally maintains the essential character of the Veda to which it belongs. The Brahmana is especially connected with the Eitual and Liturgy, and contains the details of Vedic ceremonies, with long- explanations of their origin and meaning, and abounds with curious legends, Divine and human, in illustration.* The "Satapatha Brahmana," translated in the "Sacred Books of the East," may be consulted as a specimen of the " Brahmana " literature. The "Upanishads" esoteric doctrine, about 150 works, probably even more ; of these the most authoritative ones, ten in number, form, with their Commentaries by Sankara Acharya, the corner-stone of Brahmanical Theosophy. The object of these treatises is to ascertain the Mystic sense of the text of the Veda, and so they enter into such abstruse questions as The Origin of the Universe, The Nature of the Deity, The Nature of Soul, and The Connection of Mind and Matter. Of the Darsanas or philosophic schools, Madhava- Acharya in the " Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha " enumerates eighteen systems, viz : the Charvaka, Bauddha, Arhata or Jaina, Eamanuja, Purna-prajna, Nakulisa-Pasupata, Saiva, Pratyabhijna, Easesvara, Paniniya, Vaiseshika or Aulukya, Akshapada or Nyaya, Jaiminiya, Sankhya, Patanjala, and Vedanta. The last six systems are gene- rally accepted, and have an esoteric base. Theosophic * Cf. " Dowson's Dictionary." THE THEOSOPHY OF THE MAGT. 109 directions can also be gleaned from the " Sacred Law- books " as the " Manu-Sanhita " commonly called the " Code of Manu," and also from the " Institutes of Vishnu," and the " Sacred Laws " of Apastamba, Gautama, Vasishtha, and Baudhayana, Even the "Sacred Books" of Hindu Sectarians, as the "Adhi- Granth " of the Sikhs, are found to be replete with Theosophy. If Materialism is the leading character- istic of Western Modern Science and Philosophy, the chief trait of Oriental Wisdom is its Spirituality. THE THEOSOPHY OF THE MAGI. A symbolism of a different character from that of Egypt and India, a kind of ante-Buddhistic Buddhism, meets us in ancient Persia. " Persia has no caste. All are equal from a religious point of view. All are equally called the Pure. Each one is a priest, officiating for his own household. "Persia has no temples, no other religious ceremonies than prayer and word. No mythology; no imaginative poetry. All is true, positive, serious, and strong. Force in Holiness : Note there a precocious vigour of wisdom and good sense. Fire is no more a god hut a symbol, the benevolent genius of the hearth. " The animal is not glorified, but loved, well and magnanimously treated, according to its rank in the house; its place in the scale of souls. "The simple, and in all things humane, law Persia left— that nothing has surpassed the ever living law, and which ever remains the path of the future— that is heroic agriculture, the courageous effort of good against evil, the life of pure light in work and justice. " Thence the morals of the man and the worker— not the idler, the Brahmin, or the monk— a morality not of abstention and 110 UNIVERSAL THEOSOPHY. dreaming, but of active, fruitful energy. It is all comprised in : Be pure to be strong. Be strong to be pure." (Michelet, La Bible. de FHumanite.) Persian Theosophy is aspirational and intellectual striving — as can be gleaned from the Avesta and most of the Pahlavi Scriptures. Each and every Initiate is a soldier of Light, fighting for Good against Dark- ness and Evil. But that the Supreme Good, the Supreme Knowledge, is attained by the individual becoming united with the Supreme Omnipresent Being, this is taught in the " Desatir," where the Unity of Man and God is beautifully expressed. This book is not recognised by modern Savants, but let it speak for itself: " The Deity said : " Me thou seest, Me thou hearest, Me thou smallest, Me thou tasteth, Me thou touchest. " What thou sayest that I say ; and thy acts are My acts, and I speak by thy tongue, and thou speakest to Me. . . . " Thou wilt be asked, By what dost thou know God ? " Say, By what descendeth on the heart. " For could that be proved false, Souls would be utterly helpless.