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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

From the estate of
Mrs. Carrie A. Middleton
In Memory of
JAMES MIDDLETON
Class of '79

RAMA AND MOSES

RAMA AND MOSES
THE ARYAN CYCLE
AND
THE MISSION OF ISRAEL

BY
EDOUARD SCHURE

TRANSLATED BY
F. ROTHWELL, B.A.

NEW YORK
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING CO,
244 LENOX AVENUE
1910

Printed by
BAILANTYNB, HANSON S:" CO.
Edinburgh

CONTENTS

RAMA
(the ARYAN cycle)
- CHAI". PAGE
I. The Human Races and the Origins of
Religion  i
II. The Mission of Rama  25
III. The Exodus and the Conquest ... 36
IV. The Testament of the Great Ancestor . 45
V. The Vedic Religion  51

MOSES .
(the mission of Israel)
I. The Monotheistic Tradition and the
Patriarchs of the Wilderness . . 65
11. Initiation of Moses in Egypt — His Flight
to Jethro . . . . . .79
III. The Sepher Bereshit  94
IV. The Vision of Sinai  118
V. The Exodus — The Wilderness — Magic and
Theurgy  123
VI. The Death of Moses  142

RAMA
(THE ARYAN CYCLE)

Zoroaster asked of Ormuzd, the mighty Creator : Who was the iirst
man with whom thou hast held converse ?
Ormuzd replied : It was the noble, beautiful Yima at the head of
the Courageous.
I told him to watch over the worlds that belong to me, and gave
him a golden sword, a weapon of victory.
And Yima went forward along the path of the sun, and gathered
together men of courage in the famous A'iryana- Vaeia, pure-created.
Zend-Avesta ( Vmdidad-Sade, 2nd Fargard).

O Agni ! Sacred fire ! Purifying fire ! Thou who sleepest in
wood and mountest in shining flames on the altar, thou art the heart
of sacrifice, the fearless aspiration of prayer, the divine spark con
cealed in all things, and the glorious soul of the sun. Vedic Hymn.

RAMA

CHAPTER I
THE HUMAN RACES AND THE ORIGINS OF
RELIGION
" Heaven is my Father, he it was who begat me.
My family consists of all this heavenly company.
The great Earth is my Mother. The highest part
of its surface is her womb ; there the Father
fecundates her who is at once his bride and his
daughter," Thus sang the Vedic poet, from four to five
thousand years ago, before an altar of earth on
which was burning a fire of dry herbs. These
strange words breathe forth a spirit of profound
divination, a lofty consciousness. They contain
the secret of the double origin of mankind. Pre
vious to and higher than the earth ;s the divine
type of man ; celestial is the origin of his soul.
His body, however, is the product of the elements
of earth, fecundated by a cosmic essence. The
A

2 RAMA
embraces of Ouranos and the mighty Mother, in
the language of the Mysteries, signify the out
pourings of souls or spiritual monads which
fecundate the germs of earth ; the organising
principles without which matter would be nothing
more than an inert, scattered mass. The highest
part of the earth's surface, which the Vedic poet
calls her womb, signifies the continents and
mountains, the cradles of human races. Heaven :
Varuna, the Ouranos of the Greeks, represents
the invisible, hyperphysical order, eternal and
intellectual ; it embraces the whole Infinitude of
Time and Space.
In this chapter we shall consider only the ter
restrial origins of mankind, according to esoteric
tradition, confirmed by contemporary anthropo
logical and ethnological science.
The four races which cover the globe at the
present time are the offspring of different earths
and zones. Successive creations, slow elabora
tions of the earth in travail, the continents
emerged from the seas at considerable intervals-
of time, which the ancient priests of India called
interdiluvian cycles. Stretching over thousands
of years, each continent gave birth to its own
flora and fauna, crowned by a human race of
different colour.

HUMAN RACES AND RELIGION 3
The southern continent, swallowed up by the
last great deluge, was the cradle of the primitive
red race, of which the American Indians are
merely the remnant, the offspring of Troglodytes,
who climbed to the summits of the mountains
when their continent crumbled to pieces. Africa
is the mother of the black race,- which the Greeks
called Ethiopian. Asia brought forth the yellow
race, represented by the Chinese. The latest
arrival, the white race, came from the forests of
Europe, between the storms of the Atlantic and
the smiling calm of the Mediterranean. All
human varieties result from the blending, com
bination, degeneracy, or selection of these four
great races. In former cycles, red and black
reigned successively in powerful civilisations
which have left traces both in Cyclopean con
structions and in the architecture of Mexico. The
temples of India and Egypt contained abridged
traditions regarding these vanished civilisations.
In the present cycle the white is the pre
dominating race, and, if the probable antiquity of
Egypt and India be calculated, its preponderating
influence will be found to date back seven or
eight thousand years.-*^
'¦ "This division of humanity into four original, successive races
was admitted by the most ancient priests of Egypt. They are repre-

4 RAMA
According to Brahmanic traditions, civilisation
on our earth began fifty thousand years ago, with
the red race, over the southern continent, when
the whole of Europe and a portion of Asia were
still beneath the waves of ocean. These mytho
logies also spoke of a previous race of giants.
In certain caverns of Thibet there have been
found gigantic human bones, the structure of
which rather resembles that of the ape than of
man. They point to a primitive, intermediate
human race, one still bordering on an animal
condition, which possessed neither articulate lan
guage, social organisation, nor religion. For
these three things always spring into being at
once ; that is the meaning of the remarkable
bardic triad which says, " Three things come into
being together : God, light, and freedom." With
the first feeble stammerings of speech, society
and the vague notion of divine order come forth.
This is the breath of Jehovah in the mouth of
Adam, the Word of Hermes, the law of the first
Manu, the fire of Prometheus. A divine thrill

sented by four figures, of different types and colours, in the pictures
of the tomb of Seti I. at Thebes. The red race bears the name of
Hot; the Asiatic race, yellow in colour, that oi Amou ; the black
African race that of Halasiou ; the white, light -haired Lybico-
European that of Tamahou." — Lenormant, ffistoire des Peupks
a Orient, I.

HUMAN RACES AND RELIGION 5
passes through the human fauna. The red race,
we stated, occupied the southern continent — now
sunk beneath the waves — called Atlantis by Plato,
according to Egyptian traditions. A great cata
clysm destroyed a portion of it and scattered the
remnants. Several Polynesian races, as also the
North American Indians, and the Aztecs whom
Francisco Pizarro came across in Mexico, are
survivors of the ancient red race, the civilisation
of which — now lost for ever — was one of material
splendour and glory. The souls of these poor
laggards are weighed down with the incurable
melancholy of a dying race devoid of all hope.
After the red the black race ruled the globe.
The superior type must not be sought for in the
degenerate negro, but rather in the Nubian and
the Abyssinian, in whom is preserved the mould
of the race, on reaching its highest point in
civilisation. In prehistoric times the blacks in
vaded the south of Europe ; they were repulsed
by the whites, and the memory of them has been
completely obliterated from our popular tradi
tions. All the same, they have left therein two
ineffaceable traces : a horror of the dragon, the
emblem of their kingsy and the idea that the
devil is black. The blacks returned the insult
by making their devil white. During their sove-

6 RAMA
reignty, the blacks had religious centres in Upper
Egypt and in India. Their Cyclopean towns rose
tier upon tier on the mountains of Africa, the
Caucasus and Central Asia. Their social organisa
tion consisted of an absolute theocracy. Above,
were the priests, dreaded as though they were
gods; below, were crawling tribes without any
recognised family ; whilst the women were slaves.
These priests had a fund of profound knowledge ;
they were acquainted with the principle of the
divine unity of the universe and the cult of the
stars, which, under the name of Sabianism, gradu
ally spread amongst the white peoples. Still,
between the science of the, black priests and the
rude fetichism of the masses, there was no inter
mediary, no idealistic art or suggestive mytho
logy. Industry, however, had already reached an
advanced stage, especially the art of dealing with
huge masses of stone by means of the ballista,
and that of casting metal in immense furnaces,
at which task prisoners of war were forced to
labour. Consequently, to this race, so physically
powerful, possessed of passionate energy and a
strong capacity for application, religion was
indeed the reign of might by terror. Nature
and God scarcely appeared to the consciousness
of these young races in any other form than that

HUMAN RACES AND RELIGION 7
of the dragon, that terrible antediluvian animal
which the kings caused to be painted on their
banners and the priests carved on the doors of
the temples.
If the African sun brought forth the black race,
the ice of the Arctic pole may be said to have
witnessed the birth of the white race. These
were the Hyperboreans, spoken of in Greek
mythology. Tawny-haired, blue-eyed men came
from the North, across forests illumined by the
lights of the aurora borealis, and accompanied
by dogs and reindeer. They were commanded
by bold chieftains and urged forward by female
seers. Golden locks and azure eyes ; such were
the predestined colours. This race is to invent
the worship of the sun and of sacred fire, and
bring into the world a longing for the heaven life.
At times it will revolt against heaven and desire
to scale its heights ; then again it will bow down
before its glory in utter adoration.
Like the others, the white race had to shake
itself free from its savage condition before attain
ing to self-consciousness. Its distinctive signs
are fondness for individual liberty, that reflective
sensitiveness which creates the power of sympathy ;
and the predominance of the intellect, giving an
idealistic and symbolical turn to the imagination.

8 RAMA
Animal sensibility brought about attachment, the
preference of one man for one woman ; hence
the tendency of this race towards monogamy, the
conjugal principle, and family life. The craving
for liberty, allied to that for sociability, created
the clan, with its elective principle. The im- .,
agination of the ideal began the worship of
ancestors, which forms the root and centre of
religion in all white nations.
The social and political principle shows itself
when a certain number of men, still half savage,
pressed by a hostile tribe, meet together in
stinctively and choose the strongest and most
intelligent to defend , and rule them. When this
happens, society comes into existence. The chief
is a future king ; his companions, the nobles at
his court; the old men, thoughtful and reflect
ing, incapable of marching to battle, form a
kind of senate or assembly of elders. But how
is religion born ? This is said to have originated
in the fear of primitive man before the powers of
nature. Fear, however, has nothing in common
with respect and love. It does not connect the
fact with the idea, the visible with the invisible,
man with God. So long as man did nothing but
tremble before nature, he was not yet really a
man. This he became when he seized the bond

HUMAN RACES AND RELIGION 9
uniting him to past and future, to something
superior and beneficent, when he worshipped
that mysterious unknown being. But how did
he worship for the first time ?
Fabre d'Olivet gives us an inspired and
suggestive hypothesis as to the way in which
ancestral worship must have been established
in the white race.^ Two rival warriors of a
bellicose clan are quarrelling. In mad fury they
spring upon each other. At that moment a
woman, sister of the one and wife of the other,
with dishevelled locks, springs forward and
separates them. With flashing eyes and com
manding accents she exclaims, in panting utter
ance, that she has seen the Ancestor of the race,
the conquering warrior of bygone days, appear
to her in the forest. He will not have it that
. two warrior brothers should fight, but rather
that they should unite against the common foe.
" It was -the ghost of the great Ancestor who spoke
to me," exclaims the inspired woman ; " I saw
him ! " What she says, she believes. Convinced
herself, she convinces others. In utter astonish
ment, and as though overwhelmed by some invin
cible force, the two opponents become reconciled
and look upon the woman as a kind of divinity.
1 ffistoire phihsophiqtie du genre humain, vol. i.

lo RAMA
Such inspirations, followed by sudden revul
sions of feeling, must have taken place frequently
and in divers forms, in the prehistoric life of the
white race. In barbarian races it is the woman
who, by reason of her nervous sensibility, is the
first to have a presentiment of the occult, to
affirm the invisible. Now let us consider for a
moment the unexpected, the prodigious conse
quences of an event such as the one just men
tioned. In the clan and throughout the tribe
every one speaks of the marvellous thing. The
oak beneath which the inspired woman has
seen the apparition becomes a sacred tree. She
is taken back to it, and there, beneath the
magnetic influence of the moon, which plunges
her into a visionary condition, she continues to
prophesy in the name of the great Ancestor.
Before long this woman, and others like her,
standing on the rocks, in the midst of the
glades, beneath the murmur of the breeze and
of the distant ocean, will evoke the phantom souls
of the ancestors to appear before the people,
all trembling with emotion ; and the latter will
see, or believe that they see them, attracted by
magic incantations in the floating haze, with its
lunar transparencies. The last of the great Celts,
Ossian, evokes Fingal and his companions in the

HUMAN RACES AND RELIGION ii
gathering clouds. Thus at the very outset of
social life ancestral worship is established in the
white race. The great Ancestor becomes the god
of the tribe. This is the beginning of religion.
But it is not all. Round the prophetess groups
of old men form themselves ; they keep watch
over her in her lucid slumbering and prophetic
ecstasy. They study her different states of mind,
verify her revelations, and interpret her oracles.
They notice that when she prophesies, in visionary
state, her face becomes transfigured, her words
are rhythmic, and the high-toned voice utters her
oracles as she chants to a solemn melopaeia ^ all
pregnant with meaning. Hence arose verse and
strophe, poetry and music, whose origin is re-
' All who have seen a real somnambulist have been struck by the
singular intellectual' exaltation produced in lucid sleep. For the
benefit of such as have not witnessed such phenomena, and who might
doubt their existence, we will quote a passage firom the famous David
Stniuss, whom no one would suspect of being superstitious. When
staying with his friend. Dr. Justinus Kerner, he saw the celebrated
"seer of Pr^vorst," and describes her as follows: "Shortly after
wards, the visionary fell into a magnetic sleep. For the first time in
my life I then had a sight of that wonderful condition, and that, I
may say, in its finest and purest manifestation. The countenance
assumed an expression of suffering, though of lofty tenderness, inun
dated, as it were, with celestial radiance ; the language was clear
and measured, soiemn and musical, a kind of recitative ; there over
flowed an abundance of sentiments, which might \ be compared to
masses of clouds, sometimes light, sometimes dark, gliding above the
soul, or again tci melancholy, serene breezes swelling from the chords of
a marvellous ^olian harp'' — Translated by R. Lindau, Biographie
Ginirale, art. "Kerner."

12 RAMA
garded as divine by all nations of the Aryan
race. The idea of revelation could only be pro
duced from facts of this kind. We see, springing
into being, religion and worship, priests and
poetry, at one and the same time.
In Asia, especially in Persia and India, where
people of the white race founded the first Aryan
civilisations by intermarrying with nations of a
different colour, men rapidly gained the ascend
ency over women in the matter of religious
inspiration. There we no longer hear mention
of any except sages, rishis and prophets. The
woman, subjected and kept in the background,
is no longer priestess except at the hearth. In
Europe, however, traces of the preponderating
rdle of woman are found in peoples of the same
origin, who have remained barbarians for thou
sands of years. It breaks out in the Pythoness
of Scandinavia, in the Volva, or Sibyl, of the Edda,
in the Celtic druidesses, in the female sooth
sayers who accompanied the Germanic armies
and decided the day on which battle was to be
waged,^ and even in the Thracian Bacchantes.
The prehistoric seeress is found again in the
Pythoness of Delphi.
^ See the last battle between Ariovistus and Caesar, in the Commen
taries of the latter.

HUMAN RACES AND RELIGION 13
The primitive prophetesses of the white race
were organised into colleges of druidesses, under
the supervision of learned old men, or druids —
the men of the oak. At first they were of great
service and utility. By means of their intuition,
their enthusiasm and power of divination, they
gave a mighty impulse to the race which had
only come to the beginning of its struggle with
the blacks, a struggle destined to last several
centuries. The rapid corruption of this institu
tion, however, and the terrible abuses arising
out of it, were inevitable. Feeling themselves
mistresses of the destinies of the nations, the
druidesses were determined at all costs to dominate
them. Inspiration failing them, they endeavoured
to rule by terror, exacting human sacrifices,
which they made the essential element of their
cult. In this they were favoured by the heroic
instincts of the race. The whites were not lack
ing in courage, their warriors despised death, and
at the very first appeal came along of their own
accord and in a spirit of bravado to cast them
selves down beneath the knife of the bloodthirsty
priestesses. In human hecatombs the living were
despatched as messengers to the dead, and in this
way, it was believed, the favours of the ances
tors would be obtained. This perpetual menace

14 RAMA
hanging over the heads of the chiefs, through
the utterances of the prophetesses and druids,
became a formidable instrument of domination
in their hands.
Such is the perversion which the noblest
instincts of human nature must submit to, unless
they are mastered by a wise authority, directed
towards good by a higher consciousness. When
abandoned to the hazard of ambition and per
sonal passion, inspiration degenerates into super
stition ; courage into ferocity ; the sublime idea
of sacrifice into an instrument of tyranny, a
treacherous, cruel exploitation.
The white race, however, was only in its in
fancy, though a violent and foolish one ; it had
other and more sanguinary crises to pass through.
Now it was roused by the attacks of the black
race, which was beginning to invade it in the south
of Europe. Unequal was the struggle at the out
set, for the whites, half-savage, issuing from their.
forests and lake-side dwellings, had no other
resources than their spears, their bows, and stone-
pointed arrows. The blacks had iron weapons,
brass armour, the entire resources of an ingenious
civilisation and their Cyclopean cities. Defeated
from the very outset, the whites, carried away into
captivity, were at first made slaves to the blacks,

HUMAN RACES AND RELIGION 15
who forced them to break stones and carry
mineral ore to their ovens. All the same, escaped
captives brought back into their own land the
customs and arts, and fragments of the science,
of their conquerors. From the blacks they learned
two important things : the casting of metals and
sacred writing, i.e. the art of fixing certain
ideas by means of mysterious and hieroglyphic
signs on to the skins of beasts, stone, or the bark
of the ash. Thus were discovered the runes of
the Celts. Forged and molten metal was the in
strument of war ; sacred writing was the origin
of science and religious tradition. From the
Pyrenees to the Caucasus, from the Caucasus to
the Himalayas, the struggle raged for many
centuries between the white race and the black.
Their forests formed the salvation of the whites,
for in them they could hide like wild beasts,
ready to bound forth when the moment was pro
pitious. From century to century they became
more bold and inured to war, until finally they
took their revenge, overthrew the cities of the
blacks, drove them from the coasts of Europe,
and in their turn invaded the north of Africa and
Central Asia, then occupied by black tribes.
The mixture of the two races was brought
about in two different ways — by peaceful coloni-

1 6 RAMA
sation or by warlike conquest. Fabre d'Olivet,
that wonderful seer of the prehistoric past of
humanity, starts from this idea in an attempt
to throw light on the origin of the so-called
Semitic and Aryan nations. Wherever the white
colonists submitted to the black nations, accept
ing their rule and receiving religious initiation
from their priests, there, in all probability,
appeared the Semitic nations, such as the Egyp
tians before Menes, Arabs, Phoenicians, Chaldaeans
and Jews. The Aryan civilisations, on the other
hand, were formed where the whites must have
ruled over the blacks either by war or by con
quest, as, for instance, the Iranians, the Hindus,
Greeks and Etruscans. It must be added that,
in this naming of the Aryan peoples, we also
include all the white nations which remained in
a barbarian, nomadic condition in ancient times,
such as the Scythians, the Getae, the Sarmatae,
the Celts, and, later on, the Germanic tribes.
This would explain the fundamental diversity of
both religion and writing in these two great
categories of nations. Among the Semites where
the intellectuality of the black race originally
dominated, apart from the idolatry of the people,
there is to be noticed a tendency to monotheism
— the principle of the unity of the concealed,

HUMAN RACES AND RELIGION 17
absolute, and formless God having been one of
the essential dogmas of the priests of the black
race and of their secret initiation. Among the
conquering whites, or those who remained of pure
blood, there is noticed, on the contrary, a ten
dency to polytheism, to mythology, the personi
fication of divinity, springing from their love for
nature and their passionate worship of ancestors.
The main difference between the manner of
writing of the Semites and that of the Aryans
could be explained in like manner. Why do all
Semitic nations write from right to left, and all
Aryan nations from left to right ? The reason
given by Fabre d'Olivet is as curious as it is
original. It evokes before us a veritable vision
of this lost past.
It is well known that in prehistoric times
writing was unknown to the masses of the people.
This knowledge became spread among them only
"through phonetic writing, or the art of shaping by
means of letters the very sounds of the words.
Hieroglyphic writing, however, or the art of re
presenting things by any signs whatever, is as old
as human civilisation. In these primitive times
it was always the privilege of the priesthood ;
for it was regarded as something sacred, a reli
gious function, and originally as a divine inspira-

I 8 RAMA
tion. When, in the southern hemisphere, the
priests of the black or southern race traced their
mysterious signs on skins of beasts or tables of
stones, they were in the habit of turning towards
the South Pole ; the hand went in the direction
of the East, the source of light. Accordingly,
they wrote from right to left. The priests of the
white or north race learned writing from the
black priests, and began by writing like them.
But when there had developed in them the senti
ment of their origin, along with national con
sciousness and racial pride, they invented signs
of their own, and, instead of turning to the South,
the country of the blacks, they faced the North,
the country of their ancestors, continuing to write
in the direction of the East. Accordingly their
characters ran from left to right. Hence the
direction of the Celtic runes, of Zend, Sanscrit,
Greek, Latin, and all the writings of Aryan races.
They run in the direction of the sun, the source of
all earthly life ; but they look to the North, land
of their ancestors, mysterious source of celestial
dawns. The Semitic and the Aryan currents are the two
streams along which all our ideas, mythologies,
and religions, our arts, sciences, and philosophies
have come to us. Each of these currents bears

HUMAN RACES AND RELIGION 19
with it an opposite conception of life, the reconcili
ation and balance of which would be truth itself.
The Semitic current contains the absolute and
higher principles : the idea of unity and uni
versality in the name of one supreme principle,
which, in its application, leads to the unification
of the human family. The Aryan current con
tains the idea of ascending evolution in all
terrestrial and supra-terrestrial kingdoms, and
in its application leads to an infinite diversity
of development in the name of the wealth of
nature and of the multiple aspirations of the soul.
The Semitic genius descends from God to man ;
the Aryan reascends from man to God. The one
is imaged as the justice-loving archangel who
descends to earth, armed with the sword and the
lightning-bolt ; the other as Prometheus, holding in
his hand the fire he has stolen from heaven, and
encompassing Olympus with his far-reaching gaze.
Both the Semitic and the Aryan genius we bear
in ourselves. In turn we think and act under the
influence of the one or the other. In our intel
lectual life, however, they have become entangled,
not fused into one. They contradict and combat
each other in our inmost feelings and subtlest
thoughts as well as in our social life and institu
tions. Concealed beneath multiple forms which

20 RAMA
might be summed up under the generic names of
spiritualism and naturalism, they dominate our
struggles and our discussions. As both are in
vincible and irreconcilable, who is to unite them ?
All the same, the progress and salvation of man
kind depend on their synthesis and conciliation.
It is for this reason that, in this book, we should
like to go back to the very source and birth of the
two currents. Beyond the conflicts of history,
wars of cults and contradictions of sacred texts,
we shall enter into the very consciousness of the
founders and prophets who gave religions their
initial impulse. These prophets received from above
their profound intuition and inspiration, that living
light which produces fruitful action. Yes, it was
in them that the synthesis previously existed. In
their successors the divine ray grows pale and
dark, but it reappears and shines afresh every time
a prophet, hero, or seer at any period of history
returns to the source of his life. For the end
can be perceived from the starting point alone ;
from the radiant sun is witnessed the course of
the planets.
Such is revelation in history, as continuous,
graduated, and many-formed as is nature, but
identical in its origin, one like truth, unchange
able as God.

HUMAN RACES AND RELIGION 21
As we trace back the Semitic current, we come
to Moses in Egypt, whose temples, according to
Manethon, tradition traces back thirty thousand
years. Along the Aryan current we come to India,
where was developed the first great civilisation,
resulting from the conquest of the white race.
India and Egypt were two mighty mothers of
religions. They possessed the secret of the great
initiation. Into their sanctuaries we will enter.
Their traditions, however, bring us back to an
earlier date still, at which both the Aryan and the
Semitic genius appear united in pristine innocence
and marvellous harmony. This is the primitive
Aryan epoch. Thanks to the praiseworthy in
vestigations of modern science, to comparative
philology, mythology and ethnology, a glimpse
may be obtained into this period. It is traced
with patriarchal simplicity and a splendid purity
of outline in the Vedic hymns, which, however,
form only a reflection of it. A sober, virile age
is this, resembling anything rather than the child
like golden age dreamed of by the poets. Grief
and struggle are by no means absent from it, but
men in those days possessed a confidence, strength,
and sagacity they have never since regained.
In India, thought is to become more profound,
sentiment more refined. In Greece, passions and

2 2 RAMA
ideas are to be enveloped with the prestige of art
and the magic garment of beauty. But there is
no poetry which surpasses certain Vedic hymns
in moral elevation, in intellectual breadth and
height. In them is the feeling of the divine in
nature, of the invisible all around, and of the
great unity which penetrates the whole.
How did such a civilisation come to birth ?
How was so lofty an intellectuality developed in
the midst of racial wars and the struggle against
nature ? At this stage the investigations and con
jectures of contemporary science can proceed no
further. The religious traditions of nations, how
ever, esoterically interpreted, enable us to divine
that the first concentration of the Aryan nucleus
in Persia came about by a kind of selection,
effected in the very heart of the white race under .
the guidance of a law-making conqueror, who gave
his people a religion and law in conformity with
the genius of the white race.
Indeed, the sacred book of the Persians, the
Zend-Avesta, speaks of this legislator of old by the
name of Yima, and Zoroaster, when founding a
new religion, refers to this predecessor as the first
man to whom Ormuzd, the living God, spoke ;
just as Jesus Christ refers to Moses. The Persian
poet, Firdusi, names this same legislator Djem,

HUMAN RACES AND RELIGION 23
the conqueror of the blacks. In the Hindu epic
poem, the Ramayana, he appears under the name
of Rama, in the costume of an Indian king, sur
rounded with all the splendour of an advanced
civilisation ; he keeps, however, his two distinctive
characters as initiate and reforming conqueror.
In Egyptian traditions the period of Rama is
designated by the reign of Osiris, the lord of light,
preceding that of Isis, the queen of mysteries.
Finally in Greece the hero, the demi-god of old,
was honoured under the name of Dionysus, which
comes from the Sanscrit Deva Nahusha, the divine
renovator. Orpheus even gave this name to the
divine Intelligence, and, according to the traditions
of Eleusis, Nonnus, the poet, sang of the conquest
of India by Dionysus.
Like radii of the same circle, all these traditions
point to one common centre. By following the
direction they take this centre may be reached.
Then, over beyond the India of the Vedas, beyond
the Persia of Zoroaster, in the twilight dawn of
the white race, there may be seen, issuing from
the forests of ancient Scythia, the first creator of
the Aryan religion, girt with his double tiara as
conqueror and initiate, and bearing in his hand
the mystic sacred fire, which is to give light to all
the races of the world.

24 RAMA
To Fabre d'Olivet is due the honour of having
brought back this personage to light ^ ; he has
cleared the luminous path leading thereto, and, by
following the same road myself, I, in turn, will
endeavour to call him forth.
' ffistoire philosophique du genre humain, vol. i.

CHAPTER II
THE MISSION OF RAMA
Four or five thousand years before our era,
dense forests still covered ancient Scythia, which
stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the polar
seas. The blacks had called this continent,
which they had seen spring into existence, isle
after isle, the " wave-born land." What a con
trast it made with their white sunburnt soil, this
green-covered Europe, with its deep bays and
dreamy streams, its sombre lakes and its eternal
mists hovering above the mountain sides ! In
the unfilled, grassy plains, broad as the pampas,
could be heard scarcely anything but the cries
of deer, the roaring of buffaloes, and the un
tamed galloping of great herds of wild horses as
they sped by with flowing mane. The white man
who lived in these forests was no longer the cave
man. He could already call himself master of
his land, for he had invented knives and hatchets
of flint, bows and arrows, slings and nets. Finally
he had found two companions in his combats, two

26 RAMA
excellent and incomparable friends, devoted unto
death — the dog and the horse. The domestic
dog, in becoming the faithful guardian of his
wooden hut, had given him a feeling of security
for his home. By taming the horse he had
conquered the earth, subjected the rest of the
animal creation to his sway, and become lord of
space. Mounting their tawny horses, these red-
haired men wheeled round and round . like fiery
flashes of lightning. They struck to earth the
bear, the wolf, and the ure-ox, and filled with
terror the panther and the lion, which in those
early days prowled about our forests.
Civilisation had begun ; the rudimentary family,
the clan and tribe were in existence. Everywhere
the Scythians, sons of the Hyperboreans, raised
monstrous menhirs to their ancestors.
When a chieftain died, his armour and horse
were buried with him, so that the warrior, it was
said, might ride the clouds and hunt the fire-
dragon in the other world. Hence the custom
of sacrificing the horse, which plays so important
a role in the Vedas and among Scandinavian
races. Religion thus began by the worship of
ancestors. The Semites found the one God, the universal
Spirit, in the wilderness, on the tops of the ,

THE MISSION OF RAMA 27
mountains, in the immensity of stellar space. The
Scythians and Celts found the Gods, the multiple
spirits, in the depths of their woods. There they
heard voices and obtained the first faint glimpses
of the Invisible, visions of the Beyond. This is
the reason the forest depths, whether terrifying or
enchanting, have remained dear to the white race.
Attracted by the rustle of the leaves and the magic
of the moon, they always come back to them, as the
ages roll along, as to a spring of perennial youth,
the temple of the great mother — the goddess
Hertha. In them slumber their gods and loves,
their long-lost mysteries.
In the most distant ages women seers pro
phesied beneath the trees. Each tribe had its
great prophetess, like the Voluspa of the Scandi
navians, and its college of druidesses. These
women, however, at first filled with noble inspira
tion, had become ambitious and cruel. The
kindly -disposed prophetesses had changed into
maleficent magicians. They instituted human
sacrifices, and the blood of the herolls never
ceased flowing on the cromlechs, to the sinister
chants of the priests, and the shouts and acclama
tions of the cruel, ferocious Scythians.
Among these priests was a young man in the
prime of life, named Ram. Though destined to

28 RAMA
enter the ranks of the priesthood, his contempla
tive, thoughtful mind revolted against this blood
stained worship.
The young druid was grave and gentle in
disposition. He had at an early age shown a
singular leaning towards a knowledge of plants,
their wonderful virtues, and distilled, prepared
juices, and quite as marked a tendency towards
the study of the stars and their influences. He
seemed to divine and actually to see things at
a distance. Hence his precocious influence over
the oldest among the druids. From his words
— from his whole being — there emanated mingled
greatness and benevolence. His wisdom formed
a strange contrast with the folly of the druidesses,
who shrieked out curses and uttered their ill-
omened oracles in delirious convulsions. The
druids had called him *' the one who knows " ;
the people gave him the title of " the peace-
inspired one."
All the same. Ram, who was ardently seeking
after divine knowledge, had travelled throughout
the whole of Scythia and the countries of the
south. Won over by his personal knowledge and
his modesty, the priests of the blacks had com
municated to him a portion of their secret know
ledge. On his return to the countries of the north,

THE MISSION OF RAMA 29
Ram was amazed to find the worship of human
sacrifices raging more and more among his people.
He saw that this meant the ruin of his race. But
how was he to combat a custom kept alive by
the pride of the druidesses, the ambition of the
druids, and the superstition of the people ? Then
another plague fell upon the whites, in which Ram
believed he saw punishment from heaven falling
on the sacrilegious cult. From their incursions
into the countries of the south and their contact
with the blacks, the whites had brought back a
terrible disease, a kind of pestilence. It tainted
and poisoned the blood, the very fountain of
life. The whole body became covered with
black spots, and the breath foul and tainted ;
the limbs, swollen and eaten away with ulcers,
lost their wonted shape, and the sick man ex
pired in terrible agony. Both the breath of the
living and the odour of the dead helped to pro
pagate the plague. Horror-stricken the whites
died by thousands in their forests, which were
now forsaken, even by birds of prey. Ram, in
his sorrow and trouble, sought in vain for some
way of saving the people.
It was a habit of his to meditate within a quiet
glade at the foot of an oak-tree. One evening, after
reflecting for a long time on the evils befalling

30 RAMA
his race, he fell asleep at the foot of the tree.
In his slumber he seemed to hear a loud voice
calling him by name, and he imagined that he ,
awoke. Then he saw standing before him a man
of majestic build, clothed, like himself, with the
white robe of the druids. He was carrying a
wand round which a serpent was entwined.
Astonished, Ram was on the point of asking
the stranger what this meant, when the latter,
taking him by the hand, raised him to his feet
and showed him a beautiful branch of mistletoe
on the very tree at whose foot he had been
sleeping. "O Ram!" he said, "here is the
remedy thou seekest." Then he drew from his
bosom a small golden pruning-knife, cut off the
branch and gave it to him. After murmuring a
few words regarding the method of preparing the
mistletoe, he disappeared.
Then Ram awoke and felt greatly comforted.
A voice within told him that he had found
salvation for the people, and he failed not to
prepare the mistletoe according to the directions
of the divine friend who bore the golden sickle.
He gave a sick man the beverage to drink in
some fermented liquor, and he was healed. The
wonderful cures effected in this way made Ram
famous throughout the whole of Scythia. He

THE MISSION OF RAMA 31
was summoned everywhere to heal the sick. On
being consulted by the druids of his tribe, he
informed them of his discovery, adding that it
was to remain the secret of the priestly caste, in
order to insure its authority. The disciples of
Ram travelled throughout Scythia, carrying with
them branches of mistletoe. They were looked
upon as divine messengers and their master as
a demi-god..This event was the origin of a new cult.
From that time the mistletoe became a sacred
plant. Ram consecrated its memory by institut
ing Noel, Christmas, or the new salvation, which
he set at the beginning of the year, and called
the Night-Mother (of the new sun) or the great
renovation. As for the mysterious being Ram
had seen in the vision, and who had shown him
the mistletoe, he was called, according to the
esoteric tradition of the whites of Europe, Aesc-
heyl-hopa, which means " the hope of healing (or
salvation) is in the wood." The Greeks called
him Asclepios, the genius of medicine, and he
is represented as bearing in his hand the magic
wand under the form of a caduceus.
Nevertheless Ram, " the peace- inspired one,"
had wider aspirations. He wished to heal his
people of a moral scourge which was even worse

32 RAMA
than pestilence. Being appointed chief of the
priests of his tribe, he sent forth the order
to all the colleges of druids and druidesses to
put an end to human sacrifices. The command
went right to the ocean, being joyfuUy welcomed
by some and regarded as an outrageous sacrilege
by others. The druidesses, whose power was
threatened, began to utter curses against the bold
innovator, to thunder out death sentences on his
devoted head. Many of the druids, who saw
their only means of power in human sacrifices,
arrayed themselves on their side. Ram, extolled
by one mighty party, was execrated by the other.
Instead of bending before the storm, however, he
increased it by proclaiming a new symbol.
At that time each white tribe had its rallying
sign in the form of an animal, symbolising its
favourite qualities. Some of the chiefs nailed
cranes, eagles, and vultures, others the heads
of boars and buffaloes, on to the timber-work
of their wooden palaces ; the origin of the coat-
of-arms. Now, the favourite standard of the
Scythians was the bull, which they called Thor,
the sign of brute force and violence. Against the
bull, Ram set up the ram, the courageous and'
peace-loving head of the flock, making of it the
rallying sign of all his followers. This standard,

THE MISSION OF RAMA 33
erected in the centire of Scythia, became the signal
for a general upheaval, a veritable revolution in
the people's minds. The white nations were
divided into two camps. The very soul of the
race split in two, in order to free itself from
rampant animality and mount the first step of
the invisible sanctuary leading to divine humanity.
" Death to the ram ! " exclaimed the partisans of
Thor. " War on the bull ! " replied the friends of
Ram. A formidable conflict was imminent.
Before such a possibility Ram hesitated.
Would he not be increasing the evil and forcing
his race to destroy itself, were he to let loose the
hounds of war ? At this stage he had another
dream. The stormy sky was heavy with black clouds,
galloping over the mountains and sweeping the
wind-tossed tops of the trees in their flight.
Standing on a rock was a woman, her hair
streaming in disarray down her back, on the
point of striking to the ground a proud strong
warrior, lying^bound before her. " In the name
of the Ancestors, stop ! " exclaimed Ram, spring
ing forth. The druidess stood up against her
opponent, giving him a piercing glance, sharp
as the point of a dagger. The thunder rolled
along the heavy clouds, and there, in a flash

34 RAMA
of lightning, appeared a dazzling form. The
forest became pale, the druidess fell, struck to
the ground, and the chains of the captive being
now broken, he turned his eyes on the shining
giant with a gesture of defiance. Ram trembled
not, for in the features of the vision he recog
nised the divine being who had already spoken
to him beneath the oak. This time he seemed
to him more beautiful, for the whole of his body
shone with light. Ram saw that he was in an
open, wide-columned temple. On the spot where
the sacrificial stone had been, there now rose an
altar. Close by stood the warrior, whose eyes
still shot forth a challenge against death. The
woman lay there on the stone floor, apparently
dead. The celestial genius, bearing a torch in
his right hand and a goblet in his left, smiled
benevolently, and said : " I am well pleased with
thee, Ram. Dost thou see this torch ? It is the
sacred fire of the divine Spirit. And this goblet ?
It is the goblet of Life and Love. Give the torch
to the man and the goblet to the woman." Ram
did as his genius commanded. No sooner was
the torch in the hands of the man and the goblet
in those of the woman than the fire lit of itself on
the altar, and in its light they both shone forth
transfigured as the divine Bridegroom and Bride.

THE MISSION OF RAMA 35
At the same time the temple increased in grandeur
and size ; its columns ascended to heaven, and its
vault became the firmament. Then Ram, carried
away by his dream, saw himself transported to
the summit of a mountain beneath the starry sky.
Standing by his side, his genius explained the
meaning of the constellations and enabled him to
read the destiny of mankind in the flaming signs
of -the zodiac.
" Marvellous Spirit, who art thou ? " said Rama
to his genius. The genius replied : " I am called
Deva Nahusha, divine Intelligence. Thou shalt
shed the beam of my light over the earth, and
I will always come at thy call. Now, go thy
way ! " And the genius raised his hand, and
pointed in the direction of the East.

CHAPTER III
THE EXODUS AND THE CONQUEST
In this dream Ram saw, as though by a lightning
flash, his mission and the great destiny of his
race. He hesitated no longer. Instead of kind
ling war between the tribes of Europe, he deter
mined to lead away the elite of his race into the
very heart of Asia. He announced to his friends
that he would institute the worship of the sacred
fire, which would compass the happiness of man
kind ; that human sacrifices should be for ever
abolished ; that the Ancestors should no longer
be invoked by bloodthirsty priestesses on wild
rocks and crags dripping with human gore, but
on every hearth, by husband and wife joining in
one common prayer, one hymn of worship, close
by the purifying fire. Yes, the visible fire of the
altar — symbol and guide of the invisible fire of
heaven — should unite family, clan, tribe, and all
the nations ; for it would be on earth a centre
of the living God. To reap such a harvest, how
ever, the wheat must be separated from the tares,
36

THE EXODUS AND THE CONQUEST 37
and every one who had the courage must prepare
to leave Europe and conquer a new land, a virgin
soil. There he would establish his laws and found
the cult of the purifying fire.
This proposition was enthusiastically received
by a nation which was young and eager for
adventure. Fires, kept lit for several months on
the mountains, were the signal for the emigration
en masse of all who wished to follow the Ram.
The formidable emigration, directed by this great
shepherd of the people, was gradually set in
motion and made its way towards the centre of
Asia. Along the Caucasus it had to capture
several Cyclopean fortresses of the blacks. In
memory of these victories, the white colonies
later on carved gigantic rams' heads in the rocks
of the Caucasus. Ram proved himself worthy of
his lofty mission. He smoothed all difficulties,
read people's thoughts, and foresaw the future ;
he healed the sick, put down revolts, and raised
the courage of all. Thus the powers of heaven
we call Providence willed the domination of the
northern race throughout the world, and, by
means of the genius of Ram, cast beams of light
upon its path. This race had already had its
inspired ones to rescue it from a state of savagery.
But Ram, the first to conceive of social law as

38 RAMA
an expression of divine law, was a direct initiate
and one of the first rank.
He made friends with the Turanians, old
Scythian tribes with an admixture of yellow
blood who occupied Upper Asia, and carried
them off to the conquest of Persia, out of which
he completely drove the blacks, for he wished a
people of pure white race to inhabit the centre
of Asia and become an arena of light for all the
rest. There he founded Ver — "a splendid city,"
Zoroaster called it. He taught them to till the
ground and plant seeds ; he was the father of
corn and the vine. Castes he created according
to occupation, dividing the people into priests,
warriors, artisans, and tillers of the land. At first
there was no rivalry in the castes ; the hereditary
privilege, a source of hatred and jealousy, was
not introduced until a later date. He forbade
slavery as strongly as murder, affirming that the
subjection of man by man was the origin of all
evils. As for the clan, the primitive grouping of
the white race, he kept it as it was and allowed it
to choose its own chiefs and judges.
Ram's great work, the civilising instrument par
excellence which he created, was the new role he
gave to woman. Hitherto man had known
woman only in a double aspect, either as the

THE EXODUS AND THE CONQUEST 39
wretched slave of his hut, whom he brutally ill-
treated and kept in subjection, or as the disturb
ing priestess of the oak and the rock, whose
favours he sought. In spite of himself, she
dominated him, for she was a fascinating and
terrible magician, whose oracles he dreaded,
before whom his superstitious soul trembled with
terror. The human sacrifice was the woman's
revenge on man, when she plunged her knife
into the heart of her fierce tyrant. By proscrib
ing this frightful cult and raising woman in man's
eyes with reference to her divine functions as
mother and wife. Ram made her the priestess of
the hearth, guardian of the sacred fire, invoking
with her husband, as his equal, the soul of the
Ancestors. Like all great legislators then Ram developed
the superior instincts of his race by organising
them. To adorn and embellish life, he ap
pointed four great festivals during the course
of the year. The first was that of spring or
generation ; it was consecrated to the love of
bridegroom and bride. That of summer or of
the harvest belonged to the sons and daughters,
who offered to their parents the sheaves they
had garnered. The autumn festival was in
honour of the fathers and mothers, who then

40 RAMA
gave fruit to their children, in token of re
joicing. The most sacred and mysterious of all
was that of Yule-tide, or the great seed-sowing.
This Ram consecrated to new-born children, to
the offspring of love conceived in spring-time,
and to the souls of the dead — the Ancestors. A
union of the visible with the invisible, this religious '
solemnity formed at once the farewell to souls
that had departed, and mystic salvation to those
which return to be incarnated in mothers and
born again in children. On that holy night
the Aryans of old met in the sanctuaries of the
Airyana-Vaeia, as they had formerly done in their
forests. With torch and song they celebrated
the return of the terrestrial and solar year, the
germination of Nature in the depth of winter,
the thrill of life in the midst of death. They
chanted the universal kiss that heaven gives to
earth and the triumphant birth of the new Sun
from the mighty Night-Mother.
In this way Ram linked the life of mankind
with the cycle of the seasons, the revolutions of
the constellations. At the same time he brought
out its divine meaning. Because he founded such
fruitful institutions, Zoroaster called him " the
chief of the nations, the blessed monarch." This
is why Valmiki, the Hindu poet, who brings

THE EXODUS AND THE CONQUEST 41
down the hero of old to a much more recent
period, amid all the luxury of an advanced
civilisation, gives us so lofty an ideal of him.
"Rama, with his lotus-blue eyes," says Valmiki,
"was the lord of the world, the master of its
soul and the love of men, the father and mother
of his subjects. He bound all beings with the chain
of love''
Established in Persia, at the foot of the Hima
layas, the white race was not yet mistress of the
world. Its vanguard had still to penetrate into
India, the principal centre of the blacks, former
conquerors of the red and yellow races. The
Zend-Avesta speaks of this march into India ;
the Hindu epopee makes it one of its favourite
themes.^ Rama was the conqueror of the land
^ It is remarkable that the Zend-Avesta, the sacred book of the
Parsees, whilst considering Zoroaster to be inspired by Ormuzd and
the prophet of the law of God, at the same time states that he is the
successor of a prophet far more ancient. Beneath the symbolism of
the temples of old may be found the thread of that great revelation
to humanity which binds true initiates to one another. The follow
ing is an important passage : —
' "I. Zarathustra (Zoroaster) asked of Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd, the
God of light) : Ahura-Mazda, holy and sacred creator of all corporeal
beings, exceeding pure ;
"2. Who was the first man with whom thou didst hold converse,
thou who art Ahura-Mazda? ...
" 4. Then Ahura-Mazda replied : ' With beautiful Yima, who was
at the head of a company worthy of all praise, O pure Zarathustra.' . . .
"13. And I said to him : 'Watch over the worlds that are mine,
make them fertile in thy capacity as protector.' . . .

42 RAMA
enclosed by the Himavat, the abode of elephants,
tigers, and gazelles. He commanded the first
attack in this gigantic struggle, in which two
races were unconsciously disputing for the sceptre
of the world. The poetical tradition of India,
going beyond the occult traditions of the temples,
makes of it the struggle between black and white
magic. In the war against the peoples and kings
of the country of the Djambous, Ram, as he was
then called, or Rama, as the Orientals called him,
employed methods apparently miraculous, because
they are beyond the ordinary powers of humanity ;
methods which great initiates owe to the know
ledge and manipulation of the hidden forces of
Nature. Tradition at one time represents him as
causing a spring of water to gush forth in the
desert ; at another finding unexpected qualities in
a kind of manna, of which he taught his followers
the use ; then again, causing an epidemic to cease
by means of a plant called horn, the amomos of the
Greeks, the persea of the Egyptians, from which
" 17. And I brought him the arms of victory, I, who am Ahura-
Mazda :
" 18. A lance and a spear of gold. . . .
"31. Then Yima rose to the stars in the south on the path of the
sun. . . .
" 37. He proceeded over this earth which he had made fertile. It
was one-third larger than before. . . .
" 43. And the shining Yima assembled the most virtuous men in the
famous Airyana-Vaeia, pure-created." — Vendidad-Sade, 2nd Fargard^,

THE EXODUS AND THE CONQUEST 43
he extracted a health-giving juice. This plant
became sacred in the eyes of his followers, and
replaced the mistletoe of the oak, which has been
retained by the Celts of Europe.
Rama made use of all kinds of magic spells
against his enemies. The priests of the blacks
no longer reigned except by the most unworthy
of cults. In their temples they were in the habit
of feeding and tending enormous serpents and
pterodactyls, rare survivals of antediluvian animals,
which terrified the masses of the people, who were
made to worship them as gods. They gave these
serpents the flesh of prisoners to eat. Rama would
sometimes appear unexpectedly in these temples
with torches in his hands, driving away and filling
with terrified awe both priests and serpents. Then
again, he would appear in the enemy's camp, ex
posing himself unarmed in the presence of those
who sought after his death, and depart without
any one daring to touch him. When those who
had allowed him to escape were questioned, they
replied that, when they met his gaze, they had felt
petrified with fear ; or else, whilst he was speaking,
a mountain of brass had come between them and
they had ceased to see him. Finally, to crown
his work, the epic tradition of India attributes to
Rama the conquest of Ceylon, the final refuge of

44 RAMA
the black magician Ravana, on whom the white
magician rained down a hail of fire, after flinging
a bridge over an arm of the sea, aided by an army
of apes, resembling some primitive tribe of bimane
savages filled with zeal and enthusiasm by this
mighty charmer of the nations.

CHAPTER IV
THE TESTAMENT OF THE GREAT ANCESTOR
Bv his might, his genius, and his kindness, say
the sacred books of the East, Rama had become
master of India and spiritual king of the earth.
Priests, kings, and nations bowed down before
him as before a heavenly benefactor. Under the
sign of the ram his emissaries spread afar the
Aryan law which proclaimed equality between
victors and vanquished, the abolition of human
sacrifices and of slavery, the respect for woman
in the home, ancestral worship, and the institu
tion of the sacred fire, the visible symbol of the
nameless God.
Rama had grown old ; his beard was now white
as snow, but strength had not left his body, and
the majesty of the high priests of truth adorned
his brow. The kings and envoys of the nations
offered him supreme power. He asked permis
sion to reflect on the matter for a whole year, and
again he had a dream. The genius who inspired
him spoke to him in his sleep.

46 RAMA
He appeared to be once more in the forests of
his youthful days. He was again young, and
wore the linen robe of the Druids. The moon
was shining. It was the holy night, the Night-
Mother, when the nations await the rebirth of both
sun and year. Rama was walking beneath the
oaks, listening, as he was wont to do long ago,
to the voices of the forest calling to him. A
beautiful woman appeared before him wearing a
magnificent crown. Her fawn-coloured hair shone
like gold, her skin was white as snow, whilst the
glorious depths of her eyes were blue as the azure
vault of heaven after a storm. She said to him :
" I was the wild druidess, and now I have become
thy radiant spouse. My name is Sita. I am
woman glorified by thee. I am the white race,
thy bride. Oh, my master and king ! Was it not
for me that thou didst cross rivers, charm nations,
and depose kings ? Here is thy reward. Take
this crown from my hand, place it on thy head,
and reign with me over the world ! " In humble,
submissive attitude she had knelt down offering
Rama the empire of the earth. Her precious
gems flashed forth a thousand rays, and the mad
frenzy of love smiled in the woman's eyes. The
soul of the great Rama, the shepherd of the
nations, was stirred by the sight. Suddenly there

THE GREAT ANCESTOR 47
appeared before him Deva Nahusha, his genius,
above the forest trees saying : " If thou placest
this crown on thy head, divine Intelligence will
depart from thee ; thou wilt behold me no more.
If thou takest this woman to thy arms, she will
die of thy happiness. But if thou renouncest
possession of her, she will live on earth, happy
and free, and thy invisible spirit will reign over
her. Choose : either to listen to her or to follow
me." Sita, still kneeling before her master, her
eyes brimming over with love, awaited the reply
in suppliant attitude. For a moment Rama was
silent. His eyes, fastened on those of Sita, mea
sured the abyss separating complete possession
from an eternal adieu. Then, feeling supreme
love to be supreme renunciation, he placed his
liberating hand on the forehead of the white
woman, and said as he blessed her : " Adieu ! Be
free, and do not forget me ! " Immediately the
woman disappeared like a lunar phantom. New
born Dawn waved her magic wand over the
ancient forest. The king had become old once
again. Tears trickled down his white beard, and
from the depths of the wood a sad voice was
beard calling : " Rama ! Rama ! "
Then Deva Nahusha, the genius, resplendent
with light, called out : " Come to me ! " And

48 RAMA
the divine Spirit carried off Rama to the summit
of a mountain on the north of the Himalayas.
After this dream, informing him that his mis
sion was accomplished, Rama gathered together
the kings and envoys of the peoples and said to
them : " I have no desire for the supreme power
you offer me. Keep your crowns and observe my
laws. My task is now over, and I must withdraw
for ever with my brother initiates to the summit
of a mountain of the Airyana-Vaeia. There I
shall guard and protect you. Keep watch over the
divine fire ! Were it by any chance to die out,
I should come back to you as a terrible judge
and avenger 1 " Thereupon he withdrew with his
disciples to a retreat known to initiates alone,
on Mount Albori, between Balk and Bamyan,
Here he taught his followers what he knew of
the secrets of the earth and of the great Being.
They went into distant lands, to Egypt and even
to Occitania, bearing the sacred fire, symbol of
the divine unity of things, and the horns of the
ram, emblem of the Aryan religion. These horns
became the insignia of initiation and consequently
of sacerdotal and regal power.^ From afar Rama
' Ram's horns are found on the heads of many persons in Egyptian
monuments. This head-dress of kings and high priests is the sign of
sacerdotal and regal initiation. It is the origin of the two horns of the
papal tiara.

THE GREAT ANCESTOR 49
continued to watch over his people and the white
race so dear to him. The last few years of his
life were spent in establishing the calendar of
the Aryans. It is to him we are indebted for the
signs of the zodiac. This was the testament of the
patriarch of the initiates — a strange book, written
with stars, in celestial hieroglyphs, on the fathom
less, boundless firmament, by the Ancient of Days
of our race. In establishing the twelve signs of
the zodiac Rama attributed to them a threefold
meaning. The first related to the influence of
the sun during the twelve months of the year ;
the second related, in some way, his own history;
whilst the third indicated the occult methods he
made use of to attain his object. This is the
reason these signs, when read in the inverse
order, become later on the secret emblems of
progressive initiation.^ He ordered his disciples
' The following is the manner in which the signs of the zodiac
represent the history of Ram, according to Fabre d'Olivet, that great
thinker who was able to interpret the symbols of the past esoterically :
I. The Ram, fleeing with its head turned backwards, indicates the
situation of Rama, when leaving his fatherland, his eyes fixed on the
country he is quitting. 2. TT^^ ^«// violently opposes his progress, but
the half of his body, plunged in slime and mud, prevents him from
following out his plan ; he falls on his knees. This represents the
Celts — as is shown by their own symbol — who, in spite of their efforts,
finally submit. 3. The Heavenly Twins indicate the alliance made
between Rama and the Turanians. 4. The Crab, his meditations and
self-examinations. 5. The Lion, his battles against his enemies. 6.
The winged Virgin, victory. 7. The Scales, equality between victors
D

50 RAMA
to conceal his death and continue his work by
perpetuating their fraternity. For centuries the
nations believed that Rama, wearing the tiara with
its ram's horns, was still living in his holy moun
tain. In Vedic times the Great- Ancestor became
Yama, the judge of the dead, the Hermes psycho-
pompos of the Hindus.
and vanquished. 8. The Scorpion, revolt and treason. 9. The Archer,
the revenge he obtains therefrom. 10. The He-goat ; 11. The Water-
bearer; and 12. The Fish, refer to the moral part of his history. This
explanation of the zodiac may be regarded as audacious as it is strange.
Still, up to the present, no astronomer or mythologist has, after such a
lapse of time, explained to us either the origin or the meaning of these
mysterious signs on the chart of heaven, adopted and revered by many
peoples and nations since the beginning of our Aryan cycle. The
hypothesis of Fabre d'Olivet has at any rate the merit of opening out
before the mind's eye new and vast perspectives. I have already said
that these signs, when read in the inverse order later on in Greece and
the East, marked the different stages to be mounted in order to attain
to supreme initiation. I will refer merely to the best known of
these emblems : The winged Virgin signified the chastity which
gives victory ; the Lion, moral strength ; the Heavenly Twins, the
union of a man and a divine spirit, who together form two invincible
wrestlers ; the Bull, now tamed, mastery over Nature ; the Ram, the
asterism or constellation of Fire or of the universal Spirit, conferring
supreme initiation by the knowledge of Truth.

CHAPTER V
THE VEDIC RELIGION
By his organising genius the great initiator of the
Aryans had established in the centre of Asia, in
Iran, a people, a living society, which was destined
to spread in every direction. Colonies of the pri
mitive Aryans spread throughout Asia and Europe,
introducing everywhere their customs, cults and
gods. Of all these colonies, the branch of the
Aryans of India forms the nearest approach to the
primitive Aryans.
The Vedas, the sacred books of the Hindus,
have a threefold value for us. First, they bring
us to the very origin of the ancient undefiled
Aryan religion which has given us the Vedic
hymns ; then they offer us the key to India ;
finally, they show us the first crystallisation of
the root ideas of esoteric teaching and of all the
Aryan religions.^
^ The Brahmans looked upon the Vedas as their sacred books pat
excellence. In them they found the science of sciences. The very
word Veda means knowledge. A kind of fescination has rightly at
tracted the savants of Europe to these texts. At first they sa

52 RAMA
Let us limit ourselves to a brief outline both of
the shell and of the kernel of the Vedic religion.
Nothing could be simpler or grander than this
religion wherein profound naturalism is allied with
the most transcendent spiritualism. Before day
break a man, head of the family, is standing in
front of an altar of earth on which the fire, kindled
with two pieces of wood, is burning. By his very
function this chief is at the same time father,
priest, and king of the sacrifice. Whilst Aurora
is removing her veil, " like a woman leaving her
bath, after weaving her most beautiful robe," says
a Vedic poet, the chief utters a prayer, an invoca
tion to Usha (the Dawn), to Savitri (the Sun),
and to the Asuras (spirits of life). The mother
and sons pour out the fermented liquor of the
asclepia, soma, into Agni, the fire. The leaping
flame carries away to the invisible gods the purified
prayer as it rises from the lips of the patriarch
and the heart of the family.
The state of soul manifested by the Vedic poet
nothing in them except patriarchal poetry ; then they discovered not
only the origin of the great Indo-European myths and of our classic
gods, but also a cleverly organised cult, a profoundly religious and
metaphysical system (see Bergaigne, La Religion des V^das, and also
the fine, illuminative work of M. Auguste Barth, Les Religions de
r/nde). It may be that the future is reserving for us a final surprise,
that of discovering in the Vedas the definition of the occult forces of
Nature which modern science is on the point of rediscovering.

THE VEDIC RELIGION 53
is alike far distant from Hellenic sensualism (I
am speaking of the popular cults of Greece, not
of the doctrine of the Greek initiates), which re
presents the cosmic gods as possessed of handsome
human bodies, and from the Judaic monotheism
which worships the formless, omnipresent Eternal.
In the mind of the Vedic poet Nature resembles
a transparent veil behind which move imponder
able, divine forces. It is these forces he invokes,
worships, and personifies, without, however, being
the victim of his metaphors. To him Savitri is
not so much the sun as Vivasvat, the creative
power of life which animates it and brings into
being the Solar system. Indra, the divine war
rior, who crosses the heavens in his golden
chariot, hurls the thunder-bolt and rends the
clouds asunder, personifies the power of this same
sun in atmospheric life, in " the mighty trans
parency of the air." When they invoke Varuna
(the Ouranos of the Greeks), the god of the im
mense luminous heaven which embraces all things,
the Vedic poets rise still higher. " If Indra repre
sents the active militant life of the sky, Varuna
represents its unchanging majesty. There is
nothing to equal the magnificent description given
of him in the hymns. The sun is his eye, the
heaven his garment, the tempest his breath. He

54 RAMA
it is who established heaven and earth on founda
tions that cannot be shaken, and who keeps them
separate and distinct. He has made, and now
preserves, everything in its place. Nothing could
injure the works of Varuna. None can approach
him, but he knows and sees all that is and that
will be. From the heights of heaven, where he
dwells in a palace, approached by a thousand
gates, he distinguishes the flight of birds through
the air, the course of the vessels as they plough
through the waves. From his golden throne, with
its foundations of brass, he looks down and judges
the deeds of men. He maintains order through;-
out the universe and in human society ; he
punishes the guilty, but is full of compassion to
the repentant sinner. To him rises the despairing
cry of remorse ; before him the guilty man un
burdens himself of the weight of his sin. In
other directions the Vedic religion is ritualistic,
at times highly speculative. With Varuna it
descends into the depths of consciousness and
realises the notion of hoHness." ^ Let us add, that
it rises to the pure idea of the one God, who
enters into and rules the great All.
All the same, the magnificent images these
hymns roll out before us in broad, sounding
1 A. Barth, Les Religions de tlnde.

THE VEDIC RELIGION 55
waves show us nothing but the outer covering of
the Vedas. With the idea of Agni, the divine fire,
we touch the very heart of the doctrine, its tran
scendent esoteric foundation. In fact, Agni is the
cosmic agent, the universal principle par excellence,
" He is not only the terrestrial fire of sun and
lightning ; his real home is the mystic, invisible
heaven, sojourn of eternal light, and of the first
principles of all things. His births are infinite;
whether he leap forth from the piece of wood in
which he sleeps, like the embryo in the womb,
or as ' Son of the Waves,' with the sound of
thunder, he bursts from celestial rivers where the
Aswins (heavenly horsemen) engendered him. He
is the oldest of the gods, pontiff in heaven as
on earth, and he officiated in the dwelling of
Vivaswat (heaven or sun) long before Matariswan
(lightning) brought him to mortals, and Atharvan
and the Angiras, sacrificers of old, appointed
him protector, host, and friend of mankind.
Lord and generator of sacrifice, Agni becomes
the bearer of all mystic speculations of which
sacrifice is the object. He begets the gods, or
ganises the world, produces and preserves the ,
life of the universe ; in a word, he is cosmogonic
power. " Soma is the counterpart of Agni ; in reality,

56 RAMA
it is the potion from a fermented plant poured out
as an offering to the gods in sacrifice. Like Agni,
it has a mystical existence. Its supreme abode is
in the depths of the third heaven, where Surya,
the daughter of the sun, filtered it, and Pushan,
the foster-god, found it. From there the Falcon,
a symbol of the lightning, or Agni himself stole
it from the celestial Archer, the Gandharva, its
guardian, and brought it to men. The gods drank
it and became immortal, as men will become in
turn when they drink it with Yama in the -abode
of the blessed. Meanwhile it gives them in this
life strength and fulness, of days ; it is both am
brosia and the water of eternal youth. It feeds
and penetrates plants, vivifies the seed of animals,
and gives aspiration to prayer. The soul of heaven
and earth, of Indra and of Vishnu, it forms along with
Agni an inseparable couple, which gave light to the sun
and to the stars." ^
The notion of Agni and of Soma contains the
two essential principles of the universe, according
to both esoteric teaching and every Uving philo
sophy. Agni is the Eternal-Masculine, creative In
tellect, pure Spirit ; Soma, the Eternal-Feminine,
the soul of the world of ethereal substance,
womb of all worlds, visible and invisible to mortal
' A. Barth, Les Religions de Tlnde.

THE VEDIC RELIGION 57
sight — in a word. Nature, or subtile matter in
its endless transformations.-^ Now the perfect
union of these two beings constitutes the supreme
Being, the essence of God.
From these two principal ideas springs a third,
no less fruitful than the others. The Vedas look
upon the cosmogonic act as a perpetual sacrifice.
To produce all that exists the supreme Being
immolates himself, divides himself to depart
from his unity. This sacrifice is accordingly
regarded as the vital point of every function in
Nature. This idea, at first so surprising, though
extremely profound on reflection, contains the
germ of the whole theosophical teaching on the
evolution of God in the world, the esoteric
synthesis of both polytheism and monotheism.
It is to give birth to the Dionysiac doctrine of
the fall and the redemption of souls, which will
expand and grow in Hermes and Orpheus. From
that will spring into being the teaching of the
divine Word proclaimed by Krishna, the Logos
fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
Sacrifice by fire, with its ceremonies and
' What proves beyond the slightest doubt that Soma represented
the absolute feminine principle is the fact that the Brahmans later on
identified it with the moon. Now the moon symbolises the feminine
principle in all ancient religions, just as the sun symbolises the
masculine principle.

58 RAMA
prayers, the immutable centre of the Vedic cult,
thus becomes the image of this great cosmo
gonic act. The Vedas attach the utmost im
portance to the prayer, the formula of invocation
accompanying the sacrifice. For this reason
they make prayer unto a goddess, Brahmanas-
pati. Faith in the evoking and creative power
of the human word, accompanied by the mighty
urge of the soul or an intense projection of
the will, is the origin of all cults, the reason of
the Egyptian and Chaldean doctrine of magic.
The Vedic and Brahmanic priest believed that
the Asuras, the invisible lords, and the Pitris, or
souls of the ancestors, sat around on the turf
during the sacrifice, attracted by fire, song and
prayer. The science relating to this aspect of
the cult is that of the hierarchy of spirits of
every order.
The immortality of the soul is affirmed as
loftily and clearly as possible in the Vedas.
" There is an immortal part of man ; this it is,
O Agni, that thou must warm with thy rays,
enflame with thy fire. O Jatavedas, carry it
across to the world of the godly in the glorified
body thou hast formed. . . ." The Vedic poets
not only indicate the destiny of the soul ; they
also concern themselves with its origin. "Where

THE VEDIC RELIGION 59
is the soul born ? There are some which come
to us and return, which return and come back
again." Here we have in a single sentence the
whole doctrine of reincarnation, which is to play
so large a part in Brahmanism and Buddhism,
among the Egyptians and the followers of
Orpheus, in the philosophy of Pythagoras and
Plato, for it is the mystery of mysteries, the
secret of secrets.
After this how can one help recognising in
the Vedas the main lines of an organic religious
system, a philosophical conception of the uni
verse ? Here we have not only profound in
tuition into intellectual truths, anterior and
superior to observation, but, in addition, unity
and breadth of view in the understanding of
Nature and the co-ordination of her phenomena.
Like a beautiful rock crystal, the consciousness
of the Vedic poet reflects the sun of eternal
truth, and in this brilliant prism already shine
all the beams of a world-wide theosophy. The
principles of the permanent teaching are even
more visible here than in the other sacred books
of India and the other Semitic or Aryan religions,
by reason of the singular candour of the Vedic
poets and the lofty pure transparency of this
primitive religion. At this period no distinction

6o RAMA
existed between the mysteries and the popular
worship. On attentively reading the Vedas, how
ever, behind the father of the family or the poet
officiating over the hymns, there may already be
seen another and a more important personage, the
rishi, the initiate sage from whom he has received
the truth. It is also seen that this truth has been
transmitted by uninterrupted tradition which goes
back to the very origin of the Aryan race.
So now we have the Aryan people launched
forth on its conquering and civilising career all
along the Indus and the Ganges. Deva Nahusha,
the invisible genius of Rama, the intelligence of
divine things, reigns over it, and Agni, the sacred
fire, flows through its veins. A dewy dawn
encircles this age, so youthful, strong, and virile.
The family is now constituted, and woman an
object of respect. Priestess at the hearth, she
sometimes composes and sings the hymns her
self. " May the husband of this wife live a
hundred autumns ! " says a poet. They love the
present life, but also believe in the life beyond.
The king lives in a castle on the small eminence
which looks down upon the village. In war he
mounts a glowing chariot, clad in glittering
armour and wearing a tiara on his head ; he
shines like the god Indra.

THE VEDIC RELIGION 6i
Later on, when the Brahmans have firmly
established their authority, there will be seen,
rising near the glorious palace of the Maharaja,
or great king, the stone pagoda, from which
will issue divine art, poetry, and drama, imitated
and sung by sacred dancing girls. For the
time being, castes exist, though they have no
absolute, no hard and fast, rules. The warrior
is a priest and the priest a warrior, or, more
frequently, officiating servant of the chief or the
king. And now we are presented with a person,
poor in appearance though with a mighty future
before him. With unkempt hair and beard,
half-naked, covered with red rags, this solitary
muni lives near the sacred lakes, in wild fastnesses,
where he gives himself up to meditation and the
ascetic life. He shows himself from time to time,
coming to admonish king or chief. Often is he
sent away and disobeyed, though everywhere he
is respected and feared. Already the power he
wields is a formidable one.
Desperate and long will be the struggle between
this king on his golden chariot, surrounded by his
warriors on every hand, and the muni, almost
naked, whose only armour consists of his thoughts,
words, and looks. And the redoubtable con-

62 RAMA
queror will not be the king ; it will be the solitary
hermit, the thin, wasted mendicant, for with him
will be knowledge and the might of will.
The history of this struggle is the history of
Brahmanism itself, just as, later on, it is that of
Buddhism ; in it almost the whole of the history
of India is summed up.

MOSES
(THE MISSION OF ISRAEL)

There was nothing concealed from him, and he covered over with
a veil the essence of all he had seen.
( Words inscribed beneath the statue of Phtahmer, high priest of
Memphis — the Louvre Museum.)
The most difficult and obscure of sacred books. Genesis, contains as
many secrets as words, and every word conceals several. Saint Jerome.

Child of the past and big with the future, this book (the first ten
chapters of Genesis), heir of the whole science of the Egyptians, yet
contains the germs of future sciences. All that is most profound and
mysterious in Nature, all the wonders the spirit can conceive of, and
whatever in intelligence is most sublime, that it possesses.
Fabre d'Olivet, La langue hibrdique restitute
(Discours priliminaire).

MOSES

CHAPTER I
THE MONOTHEISTIC TRADITION AND THE
PATRIARCHS OF THE WILDERNESS
Revelation is as old as conscious humanity.
The offspring of inspiration, it dates back into
the night of time. One only needs to look care
fully into the sacred books of Iran, India, and
Egypt to see that the original ideas of esoteric
teaching constitute its hidden, though deep-rooted,
basis. In them may be found the invisible soul,
the generating principle of these great religions.
All powerful initiators have, at some time of
their life, caught a glimpse of the radiance of the
inner truth ; but the light from it has been broken
up and coloured according to their genius and
mission, time and place. With Rama we have
passed through the Aryan initiation, with Krishna
the Brahmanic, and that of Isis and Osiris with
the priests of Thebes. After this shall we deny
that the immaterial principle of the supreme God,
65 E

66 MOSES
which constitutes the essential dogma of mono
theism and the unity of Nature, was unknown
to the Brahmans and the priests of Amen-Ra ?
Doubtless they did not bring the world into exist
ence by an instantaneous act, at the caprice of
divinity, as do our elementary theologians ; but
wisely and gradually, along the pathway of emana
tion and evolution, they drew the visible out of
the invisible, the universe out of the unfathomable
depths of God. The male and female duality
came from the primitive unity, the living trinity of
man and the universe from the creative duality,
and so on. The sacred numbers constituted the
eternal word, the rhythm and instrument of
divinity. Contemplated with a greater or less
degree of lucidity and, power, they call up in the
mind of the initiate the internal structure of the
world, through his own ; just as a correct note
produced by a bow from a glass covered with
sand sketches out in miniature the harmonious
forms of the vibrations which fill with their sound
waves the vast kingdom of the air.
But the esoteric monotheism of Egypt never
left the sanctuaries. Its sacred science remained
the privilege of a small minority. The enemies
from without began to batter jn and breach this
ancient bulwark of civilisation. At the period

THE MONOTHEISTIC TRADITION 67
we have now reached, the twelfth century before
Christ, Asia was plunging more and more into
the cult of matter. India was already marching
fast to a condition of decadence. A powerful
empire had arisen on the banks o£ the Euphrates
and the Ganges. Babylon, that monstrous and
colossal city, filled with wonder and amaze the
nomadic nations all around. The kings of Assyria
proclaimed themselves monarchs of the four
regions of the world ; it was their ambition to
have the boundaries of the world as the only
limits of their empire. They trampled on nations,
carried them off in multitudes, enlisted them into
service, and let them loose upon one another.
Neither human respect, the right of nations, nor
religious principle, but an unbridled personal
ambition, such was the law of the successors of
Ninus and Semiramis. Profound was the science
of the Chaldsean priests, though far less pure, lofty,
and effective than that of the Egyptian priests.
In Egypt science held supreme sway. The priest
hood there always exercised sovereign power over
royalty. The Pharaohs remained its pupils, never
becoming hateful despots like the kings of Baby
lon. In Babylon, on the other hand, the priest
hood was trampled under foot, being nothing but
an instrument in the hands of the tyrants from

68 MOSES
the very beginning. In a bas-relief of Nineveh
may be seen Nimrod — a sturdy giant, strangling
in his powerful arms a young lion which he
holds clasped to his breast. A speaking symbol,
for thus did the monarchs of Assyria strangle
the Iranian lion, the heroic people of Zoroaster,
murdering his pontiffs and magi, and levying
heavy contributions on his kings. If the rishis
of India and the priests of Egypt in their wisdom
allowed Providence in some degree to reign over
the land, one might in the same way say that the
reign of Babylon was that of Destiny, i.e. of
blind, brute force. Babylon thus became the
tyrannical centre of universal anarchy ; the steady,
fixed eye of the social storm which was envelop
ing Asia in its vortex ; the redoubtable eye of
Destiny ever open, keeping watch over the nations
to destroy them.
What could Egypt do against the invading
torrent ? Even now had the Hyksos almost
been carried away by it. Valiantly did she resist,
but she could not hold out for ever. Another
six centuries and the Persian cyclone, following
on the Babylonian, was on the point of sweep
ing away her temples and her Pharaohs. Though
Egypt possessed the genius of initiation and pre
servation to the highest degree, she never had

THE MONOTHEISTIC TRADITION 69
that of expansion and propagandism. Were the
accumulated treasures of her science now to be
lost ? Certainly the greater part of them were
buried, and when the Alexandrians came they
could unearth nothing but fragments. Neverthe
less, two nations of opposite genius lit their
torches at her sanctuaries, torches with differing
beams. One of them illumines the furthermost
stretches of the heavens, whilst the other lights
up and transfigures the earth : Israel and Greece.
The importance of the people of Israel in the
history of mankind is immediately apparent, for
two reasons. The first is that this people repre
sented monotheism ; the second, that it gave birth
to Christi^ity. The providential object of the
mission of Israel, however, appears only to him
who, opening the symbols of the Old and the New
Testament, perceives that they contain the whole
esoteric tradition of the past, though in a form
often impaired — especially so far as the Old
Testament is concerned — by the numerous editors
and translators, most of whom were ignorant of
the original meaning. The part played by Israel
becomes evident, for this people forms the neces
sary link between the old and the new cycle —
between East and West. The consequence of the
monotheistic idea is the unification of mankind

70 MOSES
under one God and one law. So long, however,
as theologians form a childish idea of God and
men of science either ignore or purely and simply
deny Him, the moral, social, and religious unity
of our planet will be nothing more than a pious
desire or a postulate of religion and science,
which are incapable of realising this unity. On
the other hand, it appears possible when there is
esoterically and scientifically recognised in the
divine principle, the key to the world and to life,
to man and to society in their evolution. Finally
Christianity, i.e. the religion of Christ, itself only
appears in its true loftiness and universality when
it unveils its esoteric treasures. Then only does
it show itself as the resultant of all that has
preceded it, as containing in itself the origin and
end of, as well as the methods for effecting, the
total regeneration of mankind. Only by open
ing up to us its final mysteries will it become
what it is in reality : the religion of promise and
performance, i.e. of a world-wide initiation.
Moses, an Egyptian initiate and priest of Osiris,
was beyond all doubt the organiser of mono
theism. Through him this principle, hitherto
concealed beneath the triple veil of the mysteries,
issued from the recesses of the temple and entered
into the domain of history. Moses was bold

THE MONOTHEISTIC TRADITION 71
enough to turn the loftiest principle of initia
tion into the sole dogma of a national religion,
and yet so prudent that he revealed its conse
quences to none but a small number of initiates,
imposing it on the masses by fear. In this the
prophet of Sinai had evidently far-sighted views
which looked beyond the destinies of his own
people. The universal religion of mankind was
the true mission of Israel, a mission few Jews,
except their greatest Prophets, have understood.
The accomplishment of this missitfti took for
granted the absorption of the nation representing
it. The Jewish people is scattered and destroyed,
but the idea of Moses and of the Prophets has
survived and grown. Developed and transfigured
by Christianity, adopted by Islam, though on a
lower mode, it had to impose itself on the barbar
ous West and react on Asia itself. Henceforth,
however humanity may revolt and be harassed
by internal strife, it will revolve round this central
idea, like the nebula round the sun which orga
nises it. Such was the formidable task assumed
by Moses.
For this undertaking, the most colossal one
there had ever been since the prehistoric exodus of
the Aryans, Moses found an instrument ready at
hand in the tribes of the Hebrews, especially in

72 MOSES
those which were settled in Egypt in the valley
of Goshen, living there in slavery under the name
of Beni-Jacob. For the establishment of a mono
theistic religion he had also had forerunners in
those peaceful nomadic kings mentioned in the
Bible : Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Let us glance for a moment at these Hebrews
and patriarchs. Afterwards we will give an out
line of their great Prophet, with the desert mirages
and the gloomy nights of Sinai as a background;
the thunder of the legendary Jehovah making
itself heard on every side.
These Ibrim, indefatigable nomads and eternal
exiles, had been known for centuries, for thou
sands of years.^ Brothers of the Arabs, the
Hebrews, like all Semites, were the offspring of
an ancient mixture of the white and black
races. They had been seen passing to and fro in
the north of-. Africa under the name of Bodones
(Bedouins) ; without either shelter or bed, they
would pitch their movable tents in the mighty
deserts between the Red Sea and the Persian
Gulf, the Euphrates and Palestine. These
travellers, whether Ammonites, Elamites, or Edo-
mites, all resembled one another. The ass or
' Ibrim means "those of the other side, those firom beyond, who
have crossed the stream." — Renan, ffistoire du peuple ^Israel.

THE .MONOTHEISTIC TRADITION 73
camel served them as vehicles, their tent as a
house, whilst their sole property consisted of
cattle wandering to and fro like themselves, ever
browsing on the land of others. Like their
ancestors, the Ghiborim, like the early Celts,
these untamed tribes hated carved stones, forti
fied towns, stone temples, and drudgery. All the
same, the monster cities of Babylon and Nineveh,
with their gigantic palaces, their debauchery and
mystery, exercised an invincible fascination over
the semi - savages. Beguiled into these stone
prisons, captured by the soldiers of the kings of
Assyria and enlisted into their armies, they would
at times plunge into all the orgies of Babylon,
Then again the Israelites allowed themselves to
be led astray by the women of Moab, who boldly
seduced them with their ebony skins and flash
ing eyes. They led them away to worship idols
of stone and wood, and even to offer sacrifice
to cruel Moloch. Then suddenly they would
make their escape, the desire for the wilderness
again upon them.
On returning to the bleak lowlands, where
nothing is to be heard but the roaring of wild
beasts, to the wide-stretching desert sands, where
the stars were their only guides, cowering before
the cold light of those heavenly bodies which their

74 MOSES
ancestors had worshipped, feelings of shame came
upon them. If a patriarch, an inspired Prophet,
then spoke to them of the One God, of Elohim-,
of Sabaoth, the God of Hosts who sees every
thing and punishes the guilty, these grown-up
children, wild and bloodthirsty, bowed their heads,
knelt down in prayer, and allowed themselves to
be led away like sheep.
By degrees this idea of the great Elohim, the
one, all-powerful god, filled their soul, just as in
Padan-Aram in the twilight the unevenness of the
ground fades away beneath the endless fine of
the horizon, colours and distances are drowned
beneath the glorious expanse of heaven, and the
universe changed into one single mass of darkness,
surmounted by a scintillating sphere of stars.
Who were the patriarchs ? Abram, Abraham,
or father Orham was a king of Ur, a town of
Chaldaea, near Babylon. In Assyrian tradition
he is represented as seated in an armchair,
benevolent in aspect.^ This ancient personage,
who has passed into the mythological history
of all peoples, for Ovid quotes him,^ is the very
same the Bible represents to us as emigrating
1 Renan, Peuple cC Israel.
' Rexit Achaemenias pater Orchamus, isque
Septimus a prisco numeratur origine Belo,
— Metam. 4, 212.

THE MONOTHEISTIC TRADITION 75
from the land of Ur into the land of Canaan at
the voice of the Eternal: "The Eternal said
unto him : I am the Almighty God ; walk before
me and be thou perfect. ... I will establish my
covenant between me and thee and thy seed after
thee in their generations for an everlasting cove
nant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after
thee" (Gen. xvii. i, 7). This passage, translated
into the language of the present day, signifies
that a very ancient Semite chief, named Abraham,
who had probably received the Chaldsean initia
tion, felt impelled by the voice within to conduct
his tribe towards the West, and that he imposed
on it the worship of Elohim.
The name Isaac, in its prefix Is, seems to point
to an Egyptian initiation, whilst those of Jacob
and Joseph might indicate a Phoenician origin.
At all events the three patriarchs were probably
three chiefs of different tribes, who lived at distant
periods from one another. Long after Moses, the
Israelite legend grouped them into a single family.
Isaac became the son of Abraham, Jacob the son
of Isaac. This way of representing the intellectual
by the physical paternity was greatly in vogue in
ancient priesthoods. From this legendary genea
logy there arises one important fact ; the filiation
of the monotheistic cult through the patriarch

76 MOSES
initiates of the desert. That these men may have
had inner warnings, spiritual revelations under the'
form of dreams or even of visions in waking con
sciousness, is in no way opposed to esoteric
science or to the universal psychic law which
governs souls and worlds. These facts, in the
Bible narrative, have assumed the naive form of
the visits of angels, who have been entertained for
a time beneath the tents.
Had these patriarchs profound insight into the
spirituality of God and the religious ends of
humanity ? Doubtless they had. Though inferior
in positive science to the magi of Chaldaea and
the Egyptian priests, they probably surpassed
them in moral elevation and in that breadth of
soul induced by a wandering, free life. The
sublime order which Elohim causes to reign
throughout the universe, they express in social
life, in family worship, respect for their wives,
passionate love for their sons, protection for the
whole of the tribe, and hospitality towards
strangers. In a word, they are the natural
arbiters between families and tribes. Their
patriarchal staff is a sceptre of righteousness.
They exercise a civilising authority and breathe
the very spirit of gentleness and peace. Here
and there the esoteric thought may be seen to

THE MONOTHEISTIC TRADITION 77
pierce through the patriarchal legend. At Bethel,
for instance, Jacob in a dream sees a ladder with
Elohim at the top and angels ascending and
descending. Here may be recognised a popular
Judaic abridged form of the vision of Hermes and
of the doctrine of the ascending and descending
evolution of souls.
A historical fact of the utmost importance re
garding the epoch at which the patriarchs lived
finally appears in two illuminating verses. A
meeting took place between Abraham and a
brother initiate. After making war on the kings
of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham goes to pay
homage to Melchisedek. This king was living in
the stronghold which is to be Jerusalem at a later
date. " Melchisedek, king of Salem, brought
forth bread and wine ; for he was the priest of
Elohim, the most high God. And he blessed
Abram, saying : Blessed be Abram by Elohim,
the most high God, possessor of heaven and
earth" (Gen. xiv, 18, 19). Here, accordingly,
we have a king who is high priest of the same
God as Abraham's. The latter regards him as
a superior, a master, and receives the com
munion from him under the elements of bread
and wine, in the name of Elohim ; in ancient
Egypt a sign of communion amongst initiates.

78 MOSES
Accordingly, there existed a bond of fraternity,
signs of recognition, and a common aim amongst
all the worshippers of Elohim, from the centre of
Chaldaea right into Palestine and perhaps into
some of the sanctuaries of Egypt.
This monotheistic conspiracy was only wait
ing for an organiser. And so, between the winged
Bull of Assyria and the Sphinx of Egypt, which
from afar look over the wilderness ; between a
crushing tyranny and the impenetrable mystery of
initiation, the elect tribes of the Abramites, the
Jacobelites, and the Beni- Israel advance. They
flee from the shameless festivals of Babylon, they
turn aside as they pass before the orgies of Moab,
the horrors of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the
monstrous worship of Baal. Under the pro
tection of the patriarchs the caravan follows its
oasis-marked route, dotted with springs here and
there and slender palm-trees. Like a long
string it dies away in the immensity of the
desert beneath the burning rays of the sun and
the purple mantle of the twilight. Neither cattle
nor women nor old men know the object of this
eternal journey ; they advance at the doleful,
resigned pace of the camels. Where are they
going on this never-ending march ? The patri
archs will know ; for Moses is to tell them.

CHAPTER II
INITIATION OF MOSES IN EGYPT — HIS FLIGHT
TO JETHRO
Rameses II. was one of the great monarchs of
Egypt. His son was named Menephtah. Ac
cording to Egyptian custom, he received his
education from the priests in the temple of Amen-
Ra at Memphis, the royal art being at that time
considered a branch of the sacerdotal. Meneph
tah was a timid young man, inquisitive, and of
ordinary intelligence. He had a love — by no
means enlightened — for occult science, which
later on made him the victim of inferior magicians
and astrologers. His companion in study was
a young man of a retiring, strange, and harsh
nature. Osarsiph ^ was Menephtah's cousin, the son of
the princess royal, sister of Rameses II. Whether
he was an adopted or a natural son has never
been known. Osarsiph was, above all else, the
child of the temple between whose columns he
1 The first Egyptian name of Moses (Manethon, quoted by Philo).
79

8,0 MOSES
had grown up. Dedicated to Isis and Osiris by
his mother, from his early youth he had been a
Levite at the coronation of the Pharaoh, in the
priestly processions of the great festivals, and
carried the ephod, the chalice or the censers ;
afterwards he was seen inside the Temple, solemn
and attentive, listening to the sacred music, the
hymns, and the teachings of the priests.
Osarsiph was short of stature ; he had a quiet,
thoughtful air and a forehead like a ram's, with
piercing black eyes, fixed and keen as an eagle's.
He had been caUed " the silent," so concentrated
was he, scarcely ever uttering a word. Often did
he falter when he spoke, as though seeking for
words or afraid to utter his thoughts. Though
apparently timid, suddenly, like a thunder-clap,
a terrible idea would burst out in a single word,
leaving behind a flash of light. Then it was seen
that if ever "the silent one" began to act he
would be astonishingly bold. Already the fur
rowed brow betokened one predestined to some
heavy task ; about his eyes there seemed to hover
a threatening cloud.^
' The Biblical account (Exodus ii. i-io) makes of Moses a Jew
of the tribe of Levi, found by Pharaoh's daughter among the reeds
of the Nile, placed there by the mother's cunning to touch the
heart of the princess, and save the child from a persecution similar to
that of Herod. On the other hand, Manethon, the Egyptian priest,

INITIATION OF MOSES IN EGYPT 8i
Women feared the eye of this young Levite,
unfathomable as the tomb, -whilst his counte
nance was as impassive as the door of the temple
of Isis. One would have said they had a pre
sentiment that an enemy of the gentle sex was
present in this future representative of the male
principle in religion in its most absolute and
intractable elements.
His mother, however, the princess royal, ardently
hoped that her son might some day sit on the
throne of the Pharaohs. Osarsiph was more in
telligent than Menephtah ; with the help of the
priesthood, he might hope to usurp the kingdom.
True, the Pharaohs appointed their successors
from amongst their sons. Still the priests at times
in the interests of the State would refuse to ratify
to whom we are indebted for the most authentic information regarding
the dynasties of the Pharaohs, information now confirmed by the inscrip
tions on the monuments, affirms that Moses was a priest of Osiris.
Strabo, who obtained his information from the same source, i.e. from
the Egyptian priests, also bears witness to this fact. Here the Egyptian
origin has more value than the Jewish, for the priests of Egypt had not
the slightest interest in making Greeks or Romans believe that Moses
belonged to their race, whilst the national amour-propre of the Jews
compelled them to regard the founder of their nation as a man of the
same blood with themselves. The Biblical narrative also recognises
that Moses was brought up in Egypt and sent by his government as
inspector of the Jews of Goshen. This is the important fact establishing
the secret filiation between the Mosaic religion and Egyptian initiation.
Clement of Alexandria believed that Moses was a profound initiate of
the science of Egypt ; indeed, the work of the creator of Israel would
Qtherwise be incomprehensible. F

82 MOSES
the decree of the prince once he was dead.
Often had they removed unworthy or feeble suc
cessors from the throne to give the sceptre to a
royal initiate. Menephtah was already jealous of
his cousin ; Rameses kept an eye upon him, for he
distrusted the silent Levite.
One day Osarsiph's mother met her son in the
Serapeum of Memphis, an immense place filled with
obelisks, mausoleums, small and large temples, a
kind of open-air museum of national glories ap
proached along an avenue flanked by six hundred
sphinxes. In the presence of his royal mother
the Levite bowed to the ground, and, according to
custom, waited for her to speak to him.
"Thou art about to enter into the mysteries of
Isis and Osiris," she said to him. " For a long period
I shall not see thee, my son. Do not forget, how
ever, that thou art of the blood of the Pharaohs,
and that I am thy mother. Look all around thee.
. . . some day, if thou wilt ... all this shall
belong to thee ! "
With a wave of her hand she pointed to the
obelisks and temples, then to Memphis, and the
wide-stretching horizon.
A disdainful smile passed over the countenance
of Osarsiph, habitually as smooth and motionless
as a bronze figure,

INITIATION OF MOSES IN EGYPT 83
" Dost thou then wish me," he said, " to rule
over this people which worships gods with heads
of jackal, ibis and hyena ? What will remain of
all these idols after a few centuries ? "
Osarsiph bent down, picked up a handful of fine
sand, which he watched as it escaped through his
slender fingers, before the eyes of his astonished
mother : " No more than that," he added.
"Dost thou then despise the religion of our
fathers and the science of our priests ? "
" No, no ; on the contrary, that is what I
aspire to ! But the pyramid is motionless ; it
must be made to move. I shall not be a
Pharaoh ; my home is far from here . . . away
there ... in the wilderness ! "
" Osarsiph ! " said the princess in tones of re
proach, " wherefore dost thou blaspheme ? It
was a fiery wind which brought thee into my
womb, and now I see clearly it is the tempest
which is to carry thee away ! Though I gave
thee birth, I do not know thee ! In the name
of Osiris, who art thou, and what wilt thou do ? "
" Do I even know myself ? Osiris alone
knows, perhaps he will reveal it to me. Give
me thy blessing, my mother, that Isis may pro
tect me and the land of Egypt be favourable
to me."

84 MOSES
Osarsiph knelt before his mother, respectfully
crossed his hands over his breast, and bowed his
head. Removing from her brow the lotus flower
she wore there, as was the wont of the temple
women, she gave it him to breathe in its per
fume ; then, seeing that her son's thoughts would
remain an eternal mystery to her, she stole away,
murmuring a prayer.
Osarsiph passed triumphantly through the initia
tion of Isis. His unbending soul and iron will
made light of the tests. Of a mathematical and all-
comprehending mind, he showed a giant's intellect
and understood the sacred numbers, the fertile
symbolism and application of which were then
almost endless. His mind, disdainful alike of
things which exist only in appearance and of pass
ing individuals, delighted only in immutable prin
ciples. From these heights he quietly and surely
penetrated and dominated all, without manifesting
either desire, revolt, or inquisitiveness.
Osarsiph had remained an enigma to his
masters as well as to his mother. He was rigid
and inflexible as an eternal principle : this was
what terrified them most. They felt they could
neither bend nor turn him aside from the path.
He proceeded alon^ his unknown way like a
heavenly body in its invisible orbit. Membra,

INITIATION OP MOSES IN EGYPT 85
the pontiff, wondered to what heights this self-
concentrated ambition of his would rise. He
determined to find out. One day Osarsiph,
along with three other priests of Osiris, had been
bearing the golden ark, which went before the
pontiff on the occasion of important ceremonies.
This ark contained the ten most secret books of
the temple, dealing with magic and theurgy.
On returning to the sanctuary with Osarsiph,
Membra said to him : —
" Thou art of royal lineage ; thy might and
science are beyond thy years. What desirest
thou ? "
" Nothing but this." As he spoke, Osarsiph
laid his hand on the sacred ark, which the golden
hawks were protecting with their shining wings.
"Then thou desirest to become pontiff of
Amen-Ra and a prophet of Egypt ? "
" No, my desire is to know what there is in
— these books."
" How wilt thou obtain this knowledge, since
no one but the pontiff is permitted to acquire
it?" "Osiris speaks as he will, when he will, to whom
soever he will. What this ark contains is nothing
but the dead letter. If the living Spirit wishes
to speak to me, he will speak."

86 MOSES
" And what dost thou intend to do to obtain
this?" " Wait and obey."
When these replies were related to Rameses II.,
they increased his mistrust. He dreaded lest
Osarsiph should aspire to the rank of 'Pharaoh,
to the prejudice of his own son, Menephtah.
Consequently Pharaoh commanded that his sister's
son should be appointed sacred scribe of the
temple of Osiris. This important function in
cluded the language of symbols under all its
forms — cosmography and astronomy ; but then
it removed him from the throne. The son of
the royal princess gave himself up with the same
zeal and absolute submission to his duties as chief
scribe, to which was also attached the function
of inspector of different nomes, or provinces, of
Egypt. Was Osarsiph as proud as he was alleged to
be ? Yes, if it is pride that makes the captive
Hon raise its head and look out on the horizon
behind the bars of its cage, without even seeing
the passers-by, who stare at him, wondering.
Yes, if it is from pride that the eagle, tied down
by a chain, feels a thrill pass over the whole of
his plumage, and with outstretched neck and
extended wings looks fixedly at the sun. Like

INITIATION OF MOSES IN EGYPT 87
all strong men marked out for some great work,
Osarsiph could not regard himself as subjected
to some blind Destiny ; he felt that a mysterious
Providence was keeping watch over him, leading
him to a certain goal.
Whilst he was a sacred scribe, Osarsiph was
sent to inspect the Delta. The Hebrews, tribu
taries of Egypt, who at that time dwelt in the
valley of Goshen, were subjected to the roughest
of tasks. Rameses II. was joining Pelusium to
Heliopolis by a chain of fortresses. All the
nomes of Egypt were to add their contingent
of labourers to these gigantic works. The Beni-
Israel had the hardest tasks of all ; for the most
part they were hewers of stone and makers of
bricks. Proud and independent, they did not
bow so readily as did the natives beneath the
blows of the Egyptian police, but murmured in re
volt and sometimes returned blow for blow. The
priest of Osiris could not help feeling secret sym
pathy with these " stiff-necked," intractable human
beings, whose Elders, faithful to the tradition of
Abraham, simply worshipped the one God ; who
revered their chiefs, their hags and sakens, though
they rebelled against the yoke of slavery and
protested against injustice. One day he saw
an Egyptian warder showering down blows on

88 MOSES
a weaponless Hebrew. His heart leapt within
him, and, flinging himself upon the Egyptian,
he snatched from him his weapon and struck
him dead. This act, committed in a burst of
generous indignation, was the turning point of
his life. The priests of Osiris who committed
murder were severely judged by the sacerdotal
college. Pharaoh already suspected that his
sister's son was a usurper. The scribe's life
hung by a mere thread. He preferred exile,
wishing to impose on himself expiation for his
crime. Everything impelled him towards the
solitude of the wilderness, the immense un
known ; his own desire, the presentiment of his
mission, and, above all else, that inner, mysterious
though irresistible voice which whispered from
time to time : " Go ! It is thy destiny 1 "
Beyond the Red Sea and the peninsula of
Sinai, in the land of Midian, there was a temple
which was not dependent on the Egyptian priest
hood. This region extended like a green band
between the gulf of Elam and the wilderness of
Arabia. In the distance beyond an arm of the
sea could be seen the sombre pile of Sinai and
its bare summit. Locked in between the desert
and the Red Sea, and protected by a shrub-
covered volcano, this isolated country was

INITIATION OF MOSES IN EGYPT 89
sheltered from invasion. The temple was con
secrated to Osiris, but the sovereign God was
also worshipped there under the name of Elohim.
This sanctuary, Ethiopian in its origin, served as
a rehgious centre for such Arabs, Semites, and
men of the black race as sought after initiation.
For centuries past, Sinai and Horeb had thus
been the mystic centre of a monotheistic cult.
The bare, wild grandeur of the mountain, as it
rose in solitary isolation between Egypt and
Arabia, called up the idea of the one God. Many
pilgrims from amongst the Semites came there
to worship Elohim. They would stay several
days, fasting and praying, in the caves and pas
sages dug out of the sides of Mount Sinai. Pre
viously, they went for purification and instruc
tion to the temple of Midian. It was in this spot
that Osarsiph took refuge.
The high priest of Midian or the Raguel (God's
overseer) was then called Jethro.^ He was a
dark-skinned man, belonging to the purest type
of the ancient Ethiopian race, which had reigned
over Egypt four or five thousand years before
Rameses, and had not lost its tradition, which
^ Exod. lii. I. Later on (Num. xii. i.), after the Exodus, Aaron
and Miriam, brother and sister of Moses, according to the -Bible,
reproached him for having married an Ethiopian woman. Jethro,
Zipporah's- father, belonged accordingly to this race.

90 MOSES
dated back to the oldest races on the globe.
Jethro was neither inspired nor a man of action,
but he was a great sage. His memory and the
stone libraries of his temple were treasure-houses
of science. Besides, he was the protector of the
wandering tribes of the desert, the nomadic
Semites, Libyans, and Arabs. With their vague
aspirations after the one God, they represented
something immutable in the midst of ephemeral
cults and crumbling civilisations. In them could
be felt, as it were, the presence of the Eternal,
the memorial of long past ages, the mighty
peace of Elohim. Jethro was the spiritual
father of these free, untamed warriors ; he knew
their soul, their real nature, and had a pre
sentiment of their destiny. When Osarsiph
came to ask shelter from him in the name of
Osiris-Elohim, he welcomed him with open arms.
Perhaps in this fugitive he immediately saw the
man destined to become the prophet of the
banished people, the leader of the children of
God, At first Osarsiph wished to subject himself to
the expiation imposed on murderers by the law of
the initiates. When a priest of Osiris had com
mitted a murder, even an involuntary one, he
was regarded as having lost the benefits of his

INITIATION OF MOSES IN EGYPT 91
anticipated resurrection "in the light of Osiris,"
a privilege he had obtained through having suc
cessfully passed through the tests of initiation,
and which placed him far above the generality of
mankind. To expiate his crime and regain the
inner light he must submit to severer tests and
once more expose himself to death. After a
lengthened fast, by the aid of certain beverages,
the priest was plunged into a lethargic sleep and
then deposited in a temple vault. There he re
mained tor days, sometimes for weeks.^ During
this time he was supposed to journey into the
Beyond, into Erebus or the region of the Amenti,
in which move the souls of the dead which have
not yet become detached from the atmosphere of
earth. There he must seek out his victim, submit
to his anguish and pain, obtain his pardon, and
help him to find the path of light. Then only
was he regarded as having expiated his murder,
then only was his astral body purified from the
dark stains with which the poisoned breath and
the imprecations of the victim had polluted it.
From this real or imaginary journey, however,
' Travellers of our own times have noted that Indian fakirs have
had themselves buried after being plunged into a cataleptic' sleep,
stating the exact day on which they were to be unearthed. One of
them, after three weeks' burial, was discovered to be alive, healthy
and sound.

92 MOSES
the guilty man might well not return, and often
when the priests went to arouse the expiatist from
his lethargic slumber they found nothing but a
corpse. Osarsiph unhesitatingly submitted to this test
and to several others. The murder he had
committed had enabled him to understand the
immutable nature of certain moral laws and
the deep torture their infraction leaves in the
depths of conscience. With utmost abnegation
he offered his being as a holocaust to Osiris,
asking for strength if he returned to the light of
earth, to show forth the law of justice. When
Osarsiph came out of the awful sleep in the
subterranean vault of the temple of Midian, he
felt completely transformed. His past life had
become separated from him, as it were, Egypt
had ceased to be his home, and before him
stretched the immense wilderness with its wander
ing nomads : a new field of action. He looked
at the mountain of Elohim on the horizon and,
for the first time, like a storm vision in the clouds
of Sinai, the idea of his mission passed before his
eyes. He must form of these wandering tribes
a fighting people, to represent the law of the
supreme God in the midst of the idolatry of
cults and the anarchy of nations — a people which

INITIATION OF MOSES IN EGYPT 93
should carry to future ages the truth sealed in
the golden ark of initiation.
On that day, in order to mark the new era
beginning in his life, Osarsiph assumed the name
of Moses, signifying : " The saved." ^
' The seven daughters of Jethro mentioned in the Bible (Exodus
ii. 16-20) have evidently a symbolical meaning, as is the
case with the whole of this narrative, which has reached us in a
legendary and popular form. It is scarcely likely that the priest of
a great temple would set his daughters to feed his flocks, and reduce
an Egyptian priest to the rUe of a shepherd. Jethro's seven daughters
symbolise seven virtues, which the initiate was forced to master if
he would drink of the well of truth. In the story of Hagar and
Ishmael this well is called " the well of the Living One who sees nje."

CHAPTER III
THE SEPHER BERESHIT
Moses married Zipporah, Jethro's daughter, and
stayed for many years with the sage of Midian.
Thanks to the Ethiopian and Chaldaean traditions
he found in the temple, he was able to complete
and verify what he had learned in the Egyptian
sanctuaries, to extend a backward glance over
the most ancient cycles of mankind, and by
induction reach out into the distant horizons of
the future. It was during his stay with Jethro
that he found two books on cosmogony quoted
in Genesis : The Wars of fehovah and The Genera
tions of Adam. Into the study of these he plunged
with the utmost ardour.
His loins must be well girt for the work he
was meditating. Before him, Rama, Krishna,
Hermes, Zoroaster, and Fo-Hi had created re
ligions for peoples ; Moses determined to create
a people for the eternal religion. A powerful
foundation was needed for so bold, novel, and
colossal a project. Moses therefore wrote his
Sepher Bereshit, his Book of Origins, a concentrated
94

THE SEPHER BERESHIT 95
synthesis of the past and a framework of the
future science ; key to the mysteries, torch of the
initiates, rallying-point for the whole nation.
Let us try to see what Genesis meant in the
mind of Moses. Here, indeed, it shed another light,
embracing worlds far vaster than the childish
world and the insignificant earth set forth in the
Greek translation of the Bible, the Septuagint, or in
the Latin translation of Saint Jerome, the Vulgate.
Present-day Biblical exegesis has popularised
the idea that Genesis is not the work of Moses,
that it is quite possible this prophet never existed,
and is simply a legendary character, invented four
or five years later by the Jewish priesthood, to
give itself a divine origin. Modern criticism
founds this opinion on the fact that Genesis con
sists of different fragments (Elohistic and Jeho-
vistic) pieced together, and that its present form
is at least four hundred years more recent than
the time when Israel left the land of Egypt. The
facts established by modern criticism, with refer
ence to the time of publication of the facts we
possess, are exact ; the conclusions drawn there
from are arbitrary and illogical. Because the
Elohistic and the Jehovistic writers produced
their works four hundred years after the Exodus,
it by no means follows that they were the in-

96 MOSES
ventors of Genesis, and that they were not work
ing from a previous — perhaps imperfectly-under-^
stood — document. Because the Pentateuch gives
us a legendary account of the life of Moses, it does
not follow that it contains no truth at all. Moses
becomes a living force ; the whole of his wonder
ful career is explained when we begin by placing
him back again in his native surroundings — the
solar temple of Memphis. Finally, even the pro
found meanings of Genesis can only be unfolded
in the light of the torches snatched from the
initiation of Isis and Osiris.
No religion is ever constituted without an
initiator. The Judges, the Prophets, the whole
history of Israel are proofs of Moses ; even Jesus
cannot be conceived of without him. Genesis
contains the essence of the Mosaic tradition.
Whatever transformations it may have undergone,
the venerable mummy, beneath priestly wrappings
and the dust of centuries, must contain the root
idea, the living thought, the testament of the
Prophet of Israel.
Israel gravitates round Moses as certainly and
fatally as the earth turns round the sun. This
being granted, however, it is quite another thing
to discover the root ideas of Genesis — what it
was that Moses wished to bequeath to posterity

THE SEPHER BERESHIT 97
in this secret testament of the Sepher Bereshit.
The problem can only be solved from the esoteric
point of view, and may be stated as follows : —
In his capacity as Egyptian initiate, Moses must
be at the summit of Egyptian science, which
acknowledges, as does our own, the immutability
of the laws of the universe, the development of
the worlds by gradual evolution, and which had,
besides, wide, precise and well-reasoned ideas as
to the soul and invisible Nature. If such was the
science of Moses — and how could it be other
wise with the priest of Osiris ? — in what way is
it to be reconciled with the childish ideas in
Genesis regarding the creation of the world and
the origin of man ? Does not, perchance, this
story of creation, which, interpreted literally,
brings a smile to the face of a schoolboy in
these days, conceal a profound symbolical mean
ing, and is there no key to open it ? What is
this meaning ? Where is this key to be found ?
It may be found (o) in Egyptian symbology ;
(b) in that of all the religions of the ancient
cycle ; (c) in the synthesis of the doctrine of
the initiates, as resulting from comparison with
esoteric teaching, from Vedic India to the Christian
initiates of the early centuries.
The priests of. Egypt, so say the Greek
G

98 MOSES
authors, had three ways of expressing their
thought. "The first was clear and simple, the
second symbolical and figurative, the third sacred
and hieroglyphic. The same word assumed, at
their will, either the literal, the figurative, or the
transcendental meaning. Such was the genius of
their language, Heraclitus well expressed this
difference when he designated this language as
being speaking, signifying, and concealing." ^
In the theogonic and cosmogonic sciences the
Egyptian priests always employed the third
method of writing. Their hieroglyphs had three
corresponding and distinct meanings. The two
latter could not be understood without a key.
This enigmatical, concentrated method of writing
itself depended upon a fundamental dogma of the
teaching of Hermes, in accordance with which
one same law governs the natural, the human,
and the divine worlds. This language, wonder
fully concise, unintelligible to the masses, could
readily be understood by the adept; for, by means
of a single sign it summoned forth origins, causes
and effects which radiate out from divinity into
blind nature, human consciousness, and the world
of pure spirit. Thanks to this writing, the adept
comprehended all three worlds at a single glance.
* Fabre d'Olivet, Vers doris de Pythagore,

THE SEPHER BERESHIT 99
No one doubts, granted Moses' education, that
he wrote Genesis in Egyptian hieroglyphs of
three meanings. The keys and the oral explana
tion he confided to his successors. When, in
Solomon's time. Genesis was translated into
Phoenician characters ; when, after the Baby
lonian captivity, Esdras wrote it in the Aramaean
characters of the Chaldaeans, the Jewish priest
hood could no longer interpret these keys except
very imperfectly. Finally, when we come to the
Greek translators of the Bible, they had only a
very faint idea of the esoteric meaning of the texts.
Saint Jerome, notwithstanding his great intellect
and the seriousness of his purpose, when he made
his Latin translation from the Hebrew text, could
not fathom the original meaning ; and, had he
done so, it would have been his duty not to divulge
it. Accordingly, when we read Genesis in our
translations, we obtain only the elementary, the
inferior meaning. Whether they wish it or not,
even expounders and theologians, orthodox or
free-thinkers, understand the Hebrew text only
through the Vulgate. The comparative and
superlative meaning, the true one, escapes them.
None the less does it remain mysteriously buried
in the Hebrew text, whose roots go deep down,
right into the sacred language of the temples —

loo MOSES
a language remodelled by Moses, in which each
vowel and consonant had a universal significa
tion en rapport with the acoustic value of the
letter and the mental condition of the man who
uttered it. For such as are intuitive this pro
found meaning sometimes leaps forth, like a spark
of fire, from the text ; for such as are seers it
shines in the phonetic structure of the words
adopted or invented by Moses — magic syllables
in which the initiate of Osiris framed his thought
as bell-metal is shaped in a perfect mould. By
the study of this phonetic science which bears the
impress of the sacred language of ancient temples,
by the keys with which we are supplied in the
Kabbala, some of which date back to the times
of Moses, and finally, by comparative esoterism,
we are in a position at the present time to re
constitute and catch some glimpse of the real
Genesis. Then the thought of Moses leaps forth,
flashing like gold from the furnace of the cen
turies, the dross of an elementary theology and
the ashes of negative criticism.^
* The true restorer of the cosmogony of Moses is a man of genius
now almost forgotten, but one to whom France will do justice when
esoteric, that is, integral and religious science comes to be rebuilt on
its own indestructible foundations. Fabre d'Olivet could not be
understood by his contemporaries, for he was a century in advance of
his day. Universal in concept, he possessed in equal degree three
qualities, the union of which creates transcendental intelligence : intui-

THE SEPHER BERESHIT loi
Two examples will suffice to throw light on
what the sacred language of the ancient temples
was, and how the three meanings correspond with
one another in the symbols of Egypt and in those
of Genesis. On innumerable Egyptian monu-
tion, analysis and synthesis. Born at Ganges (Herault) in 1767, he
took up the study of the mystical doctrines of the East, after having
acquired a profound knowledge of the sciences, philosophies, and litera
tures of the West. Court de Gebelin, in his Monde primitif, opened
up for him the first faint glimmerings on the mystical meaning of the
myths of antiquity and on the sacred language of the temples. To
initiate himself into the doctrines of the East, he learnt Chinese, Sans
crit, Arabic and Hebrew. In 1815 he published his principal work.
La Langue hibrdique restitute. This book contains (a) an introduc
tory dissertation on the origin of speech ; (b) a Hebrew grammar
founded on new principles ; (c) Hebrew roots regarded in the light of
etymological science ; (d) a preliminary discourse ; (e) a French and
English translation of the first ten chapters of Genesis, containing the
cosmogony of Moses. This translation is accompanied by a commen
tary of the deepest interest. Here I can do nothing more than sum
up the principles and substance of this book, so full of revelation.
It is penetrated with the most profound esoteric spirit and built up
according to the most rigorous scientific method. The method Fabre
d'Olivet employs, in order to enter into the inner meaning of the
Hebrew text of Genesis, is a comparison of Hebrew with Arabic,
Syriac, Aramaean and Chaldsean, from the view-point of primitive and
universal roots, of which he supplies an admirable lexicon, grounded on
examples from all languages — a lexicon capable of serving as a key to
the sacred names in all nations. Of all esoteric books on the Old
Testament, the one by d'Olivet affords the most trustworthy interpre
tations. In addition, it gives a luminous exposition of the history of
the Bible and the apparent reasons for which its hidden meaning has
become lost, and has, up to the present, been utterly ignored by
official science and theology.
After speaking of this book, I will say a few words of another more
recent work, the fruit of the former, and which, in addition to its own
merit, possesses that of calling the attention of some independent
seekers to its original inspirer. This book is the Mission desjuifs, by

I02 MOSES
ments may be seen a woman with a crown on her
head, holding the crux ansata, the symbol of eternal
life, in one hand, and in the other a sceptre in the
form of a lotus flower, the symbol of initiation.
M. Saint-Yves d'Alveydre (1884, Calmann L^vy). M. Saint-Yves is
indebted for his philosophical initiation to the books of Fabre d'Olivet.
His interpretation of Genesis is essentially that of the Langue hibrdique
restitutie, his metaphysics are those of the Vers doris de Pythagore,
whilst his philosophy of history and the general framework of his
book are borrowed from the Histoire philosophique du genre humain.
Picking up these root-ideas, adding to them his own materials and
pruning them at his own pleasure, he has constructed a new edifice of
immense wealth and composite style, though of unequal worth. His
object is a double one : to prove that the science and religion of Moses
were the necessary resultant of the religious movements which preceded
it in Asia and Egypt, on which problems Fabre d'Olivet in his works
of genius had already thrown considerable light ; and then to prove that
ternary government by arbitration, consisting of the three powers,
economical, judicial, and religious or scientific, has at all times been a
corollary of the doctrines of the initiates and a constitutive part of the
religions of the ancient cycle before Greece. Such is M. Saint-Yves'
own idea — a fertile one and worthy of the profoundest attention. He
calls it synarchy ; in it he finds social, organic law, the sole hope of
salvation for the future. This is not the place to examine how far the
author has historically proved his thesis. M. Saint- Yves does not like
to quote from what origins he obtains his information ; he proceeds too
often by simple affirmation and is not afraid of hazardous hypotheses,
whenever they favour his preconceived idea. His book, however, of
rare spiritual worth and immense esoteric knowledge, contains many
pages of lofty inspiration and of novel, profound views. My ideas
differ from his in many respects, especially in the conception of Moses,
whom, in my opinion, M. Saint-Yves has set forth in too legendary
and gigantic proportions. With this reserve, I gladly acknowledge the
great value of this extraordinary book, to which I am largely indebted.
Whatever be the opinion held regarding the work of M. Saint- Yves, it
has one merit we must reverence, that of a whole life consecrated to
one idea. See his Mission des Souverains and his France vraie, in
which works M. Saint- Yves has rendered justice, though rather tardily
and somewhat grudgingly, to his master, Fabre d'Olivet.

THE SEPHER BERESHIT 103
This is the goddess ISIS. Now Isis has three
different meanings. In the positive mood it
typifies Woman ; consequently the whole female
sex. Comparatively it personifies the totality of
terrestrial nature with all its powers of conception.
Superlatively it symbolises celestial and invisible
Nature, the element proper to souls and spirits,
light, spiritual and intelligible in itself, which alone
confers initiation. The symbol corresponding to
Isis in the text of Genesis and in the Jewish-
Christian mind is EVE, Heva, the eternal woman.
This Eve is not only the wife of Adam, she is also
the spouse of God. She constitutes three-quarters
of his essence, for the name of the Eternal I EVE,
which we have incorrectly called Jehovah and
Javeh, is composed of the prefix Jod and the name
of Eve. Once every year the high priest of Jeru
salem uttered the divine name, spelling it out,
letter by letter, in the following way : fod, he, vau,
he. The first expressed the divine thought^ and
the theogonic sciences ; the three letters in the
name of Eve expressed the three orders of Nature,^
the three worWs in which this thought is realised,
and consequently the cosmogonic, psychical, and
physical sciences corresponding thereto. The
^ The natura naturans of Spinoza.
^ The natura naturata of the same.

104 MOSES
Ineffable contains in the depths of his being the
masculine Eternal and the feminine Eternal. The
indissoluble union of the two produces his power
and his mystery. Moses, the sworn enemy of
every image of divinity, did not tell this to the
people, though he recorded it figuratively in the
construction of the divine name, explaining it to
his adepts. Thus Nature, veiled in the Judaic cult,
lies concealed in the very name of God. Adam's
spouse, the guilty and charming, though inquisi
tive woman, reveals to us her deep affinities with
the terrestrial and divine Isis, the mother of the
gods.^ Another example. A character playing a large
part in the history of Adam and Eve is the serpent.
In Genesis it is called Nachash. Now, what did
the serpent signify in the ancient temples ? The

' The following is the manner in which Fabre d'Olivet explains the
name of lEVE: "This name offers the sign indicating life, repeated,
and forming the essentially living root EE (nn). This root is never
used as a substantive, and is the only one which has this privilege.
From its very foundation it is not only a verb, but the one verb, from
which the rest are but derivatives ; in a word, the verb nin (EVE) to
be, being. Here, as may be seen, and as I have taken care to explain
in my grammar, the intelligible sign 1 (Vau) is in the middle of the
root of life. Moses, taking this verb par excellence to form from it the
proper name or noun of the Being of beings, adds to it the sign of
potential manifestation and of eternity * (I), and thus obtains nin'
(lEVE) in which the optional being is placed between a beginning-
less past and an endless future. Accordingly, this admirable name
signifies exactly : the Being who is, who was, and who is to be.

THE SEPHER BERESHIT 105
mysteries of India, Egypt, and Greece reply in one
voice : The serpent curled in a circle signifies
universal life, whose magic agent is the astral light.
In an even deeper meaning Nachash signifies the
force which sets this life in motion, the attraction
of self for self, in which Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire saw
the reason for universal gravitation. The Greeks
called it Eros, Love or Desire. Now apply these
two meanings to the story of Adam and Eve and
the serpent, and you will see that the fall of the
first couple, the famous original sin, suddenly
becomes the mighty unrolling of the divine,
universal Nature with its kingdoms, classes and
species in the formidable and inevitable circle
of life.
These two examples now enable us to cast a
glance into the mysteries of the Mosaic Genesis.
We have already obtained some idea as to what
cosmogony was to an initiate of old, and what
distinguished it from cosmogony in the modern
sense of the word.
In modern science cosmogony is reduced to
a cosmography. Therein is found the descrip
tion of a portion of the visible universe, with an
investigation into the linking together of physical
causes and effects within a given sphere. It
is, for instance, Laplace's system of the world,

io6 MOSES
in which the formation of our solar system is
conjectured from its present working, and de
duced to be nothing but matter in movement;
hypothesis, pure and simple. Again it is the
history of the earth, of which the superposed
layers of soil are irrefutable witnesses. Ancient
science was not ignorant of this development of
the visible universe, and though it may have had
regarding it less precise notions than modern
science has, it had, all the same, intuitively for
mulated the general laws thereof.
This, however, to the sages of India and Egypt,
was nothing but the outer aspect of the world,
its reflex movement. They sought an explana
tion in its inner aspect, its direct, original move
ment, which they found in another order of laws
revealing itself to our intelligence. To ancient
science the boundless universe was not dead
matter governed by mechanical laws, but a living
whole, endowed with intelligence, soul and will.
This great sacred animal had innumerable organs
corresponding with its infinite faculties. As in
the human body, movements are the result of the
thinking soul, the acting will—so, in the eyes of
the scientists of old, the visible order of the universe
was nothing but the reflection oj an invisible order;
that is to say, of cosmogonic forces and spiritual

THE SEPHER BERESHIT 107
monads, kingdoms, genera, species which, through
their perpetual involution into matter, produce the
evolution of life. Instead of modern science con
sidering only the outside, the shell of the uni
verse, the object of science in the temples of
old was to reveal the interior, to lay bare its
concealed mechanism. Ancient science did not
extract intelligence from matter, but rather matter
from intelligence. It did not cause the universe
to spring into being from the blind dance of
atoms ; it generated atoms by vibrations of the
universal soul. In a word, it proceeded in con
centric circles from the universal to the particular,
from the Invisible to the Visible, from pure Spirit
to organised Substance, from God to man. This
descending order of Forces and Souls, in inverse
ratio to the ascending order of Life and Bodies,
was ontology or the science of intelligible prin
ciples, and formed the foundation of cosmogony.
All the great initiations of India and Egypt,
of Judaea and Greece ; those of Krishna and
Hermes, of Moses and Orpheus, have been ac
quainted, under different forms, with this order
of principles and powers, of souls and genera
tions, coming down from the one first cause,
the ineffable Father.
The descending order of incarnations is simul-

io8 MOSES
taneous with the ascending order of lives, and
alone makes it understood. Involution produces
evolution and explains it.
In Greece the male and Doric temples, those
of Jupiter and Apollo — that at Delphi especially —
were the only ones which were thoroughly ac
quainted with the descending order. The Ionic
or feminine temples knew it only in imperfect
fashion. As the entire Greek civilisation was
Ionic, Doric science and the Doric order were
more and more veiled by it. None the less is it
certain that its greatest initiators, heroes, and
philosophers, from Orpheus to Pythagoras, from
Pythagoras to Plato, and from the latter to the
Alexandrians, spring from this order. They all
recognised Hermes as their master.
Let us now return to Genesis. In tbe mind
of Moses, that other son of Hermes, the first
ten chapters of Genesis constituted a veritable
•ontology, according to the order and filiation of
principles. Everything that begins must have an
end. Genesis relates both evolution in time and
creation in eternity, the only one worthy of God.
I intend to offer in Pythagoras a living picture
of esoteric theogony and cosmogony in a form
less abstract than that of Moses and more in
harmony with modern mentality. Notwithstand-

THE SEPHER BERESHIT 109
ing the polytheistic form and the extreme diversity
of the symbols, the meaning of this Pythagorean
cosmogony, according to Orphic initiation and
the sanctuaries of Apollo, is, at bottom, identical
with that of the prophet of Israel. In Pythagoras
it is illumined, so to speak, by its natural com
plement : the doctrine of the soul and of its
evolution. In the Greek sanctuaries it was taught
under the symbols of the myth of Persephone.
It was called the terrestrial and celestial story of
Psyche. This story, corresponding to what Chris
tianity calls the Redemption, is altogether absent
from the Old Testament. Not that Moses and
the prophets were ignorant of it, but they re
garded it as being too lofty a doctrine to be
taught to the masses, so it was reserved for the
oral tradition of the initiates. The divine Psyche
is to remain so long concealed beneath the Her
metic symbols of Israel, only to be personified in
the ethereal and luminous coming of the Christ,
The cosmogony of Moses possesses the stern
conciseness of the Semitic and the mathematical
precision of the Egyptian genius. The style of
the narrative calls to mind the figures found
inside the tombs of the kings ; in their dry,
severe stiffness and rigid bareness they contain
an impenetrable mystery. The ensemble makes

no MOSES
one think of a Cyclopean building ; though here
and there, like a torrent of lava between the giant
rocks, the thought of Moses, as revealed in the
thrilling verses of the translators, pours forth
with all the impetuosity of fiery flame from a
volcanic eruption. In the first few chapters, in
comparable in their majesty, one feels the very
life-breath of Elohim, as He turns over, one by
one, the ponderous pages of the universe.
Before leaving them, let us cast one more
glance at some of those powerful hieroglyphs
composed by the prophet of Sinai. Like the
door of a subterranean temple, each of them
opens on to a gallery of occult truths, which, like
motionless lamps, light up the series of worlds
and times. Using the keys of initiation, we will
endeavour to penetrate into the temple and see
these strange symbols, these magic formulas in
their power of evocation, as the initiate of Osiris
saw them when they issued in fiery letters from
the furnace of his mind.
In a crypt of the temple of Jethro, Moses is
seated alone on a sarcophagus, plunged in medi
tation. Walls and pilasters are covered with
hieroglyphs and paintings representing the names
and figures of the gods of all the nations on
earth. These symbols sum up the history of

THE SEPHER BERESHIT in
vanished cycles and foretell future ones. A
naphtha lamp, set on the ground, casts a faint
glimmer on to these signs, each of which speaks
to him its own language. No longer does he see
anything of the outer world ; within himself he
seeks the Word of his book, the reflection of
his work. Speech which is to become Action.
The lamp has flickered out ; but before his inner
eye, in the darkness of the crypt, flashes forth
the name —
lEVE.
The first letter " I " is of the white colour of
light ; the other three shine like a changing fire,
glowing with all the colours of the rainbow.
How strange the life hidden in these characters !
In the first letter Moses perceives the masculine
principle, Osiris, the creative Spirit far excellence;
in Eve the faculty of conception, the celestial Isis
who forms part thereof. Thus the divine faculties,
which contain in potentiality all worlds, are un
folded and co-ordinated in the heart of God.
By their perfect union the ineffable Father and
Mother form the Son, the living Word who
creates the universe. This is the mystery of
mysteries, hidden from mortal sense, but speaking
by the sign of the Eternal, as Spirit speaks to

112 MOSES
Spirit. The sacred tetragram shines with ever
intenser light. Moses sees the three worlds, all
the kingdoms of Nature, and the sublime order of
the sciences issue from it in giant flashes. Then
his ardent gaze is fixed on the masculine sign of
the creative Spirit. It he invokes in order to
descend the order of creations and,, from the
sovereign will, to draw strength to accomplish
his own creation, after contemplating the works
of the Eternal.
And now, through the darkness of the crypt,
there shines the other divine name :
ELOHIM.
This signifies to the initiate : He — The Gods, the
God of Gods} This is no longer Being, retir
ing within himself and into the Absolute, but the
Lord of the worlds, whose thought expands in
millions of stars, movable spheres of floating
universes, " In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth," The heaven at first,
however, was only the thought of boundless time
and space, inhabited by silence and void, " And
1 Elohim is the plural of Elo, the name given to the Supreme
Being by the Hebrews and the Chaldseans, and itself derived from the
root El, denoting elevation, strength, and expansive power, and signi
fying, in a universal sense, God. Hoa, i.e. He, is one of the sacred
names for divinity in Hebrew, Chaldaic, Syriac, Ethiopian, and
Arabic. — Fabre d'Olivet, La langue hibrdique restitute.

THE SEPHER BERESHIT 113
the spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters."^ What is the first thing that will
come forth ? A sun ? An earth ? A nebula ?
Any substance whatever of the visible world ?
No. The first thing born therefrom was Aour,
Light. But this light is not physical ; it is in
telligible light, born of the thrill of celestial
Isis in the bosom of the Infinite ; universal soul
and astral light, substance which makes souls, from
which they come forth as though of an ethereal
fluid ; subtle element by which thought is trans
mitted to endless distances ; divine light, both
previous and subsequent to that of all suns. First,
it spreads out into the Infinite ; it is the power
ful respiration of God ; then it comes back upon
itself in an outburst of love, the deep aspiration of
the Eternal. In the billows of the divine ether,
the astral forms of worlds and beings quiver as
though beneath a translucent veil. The Mage-
Seer finds all this summed up in the words he

^ " Rouah Elohim, the breath of God, indicates figuratively a move
ment xn the direction of expansion or dilatation. In a hieroglyphic
sense, it is the force opposed to that of darkness. And if the word
darkness denotes a power of compression, the word rouah will denote
a power of expansion. In both there will be found that eternal system
of two opposing forces which sages and savants of every age, from
Parmenides and Pythagoras down to Descartes and Newton, have
seen in Nature and called by different names." — Fabre d'Olivet,
Langue h'ebrdique. H

114 MOSES
utters,' words which shine through the darkness
in dazzling characters :
ROUA ELOHIM AOUR.^
" Let there be light, and there was light." The
breath of Elohim is Light !
From the bosom of this primitive, immaterial
light issue the first six days of Creation, i.e. the
seeds, origins, forms, and living souls of all things.
It is the Universe in potentiality, before the letter
and according to the Spirit. And what is the
last word of Creation, the formula which sums
up Being in action, the living Word in which
appears the first and last thought of absolute
Being? It is
ADAM-EVE,
The Man-Woman. — This symbol by no means
represents the first human couple on our earth,
as the Churches teach and expositors believe, but
God in action throughout the universe, and the
^ Breath, Elohim, Light. — These three names are the hieroglyphic
resumi of the second and third verses of Genesis. The Hebrew text
of the third verse runs as follows in modern characters : Wa, iadmer
Aelohim iihi-ao&r, wa iihi ao&r. Here is the literal translation given
by Fabre d'Olivet : "And he said He the Being of beings shall be
made light ; and was made light." The word r-ou-a, meaning breath,
is found in the second verse. It will be noticed that the word a-ou-r,
meaning light, is r-ou-a reversed. The divine breath, returning upon
itself, creates intelligible light.

THE SEPHER BERESHIT 115
type of the human race ; universal humanity
throughout all the heavens. "God created man
in his own image ; male and female created he
him." This divine couple is the universal word
by which lEVE manifests his own nature in the
worlds. The sphere he first inhabits and which
the powerful mind of Moses understands is not the
garden of Eden, the legendary terrestrial paradise,
but the boundless temporal sphere of Zoroaster,
the upper earth of Plato, the universal celestial
kingdom, Heden, Hadama, substance of all the
earths. What is to be the evolution of humanity
in time and space ? This, in concentrated form,
Moses considers in the story of the fall. In
Genesis, Psyche, the human Soul, is called Aislia,
another name for Eve.^ Its home is Shamaim,
heaven. There it lives happy and blessed in the
divine ether, though devoid of knowledge of itself.
It enjoys heaven without understanding it. To
understand, it must first have forgotten and then
remembered ; to love, it must first have lost and
then won back. Only by pain and the fall will
it know and understand. And what a profound
' Gen. ii. 23. Ai'sha, the Soul, here assimilated to Woman, is the
spouse of Ai'sh, the Intellect, assimilated to Man. She is taken from
him, she constitutes his inseparable half, his volitional faculty. The
same relation exists between Dionysus and Persephone in the Orphic
mysteries.

II 6 MOSES
and tragic fall, so different from the literal one we
read of in our childish Bible 1 Attracted towards
the dark gloomy abyss by desire for knowledge,
Aisha lets herself fall. . . . She ceases to be the
pure soul, having only a sidereal body and living
on the divine ether. She clothes herself with a
material body and enters the circle of generations.
*\ Her incarnations are not one, but a hundred, a
thousand, in bodies of denser and denser matter
according to the constellations she inhabits. She
descends from world to world . . . descends and
forgets. ... A dark veil covers her inner eye ;
obliterated is the divine consciousness, dimmed
the memory of heaven in the dense tissue of
matter. Pale as a lost hope, a faint memory of her
lost happiness still shines within ! From this ray
of light she is to be reborn, to regenerate herself !
Yes, Aisha still lives in these two nude beings
lying defenceless in a wild, savage land, beneath
a hostile, thunder-threatening sky. Paradise lost ?
There is the immensity of the veiled heavens, both
behind and before her !
In such a light does Moses contemplate the
generations of Adam in the world.^ Then he
1 In the Samaritan version of the Bible, to the name of Adam there
s added the epithet, universal or infinite. Accordingly we are dealing
with the human race, the kingdom of man in heaven.

THE SEPHER BERESHIT 117
considers the destinies of man on earth. He sees
both the cycles that have passed and the present
one. In the terrestrial Aisha, the soul of hilmanity,
the consciousness of God had, in past times, shone
with the fire of Agni, in the land of Cush, on the
slopes of the Himalayas.
And now we find Aisha ready to fall away into
idolatry, subjected to hellish passions and Assyrian
tyranny, amongst troubled nations and jealous gods.
Moses vows that he will arouse her by establishing
the worship of Elohim.
Not only the individual man but also collective
humanity must be of the image of lEVE. But
where is to be found th-e nation which will incar
nate him, and be the living Word of humanity ?
Then Moses, having conceived his book and his
work, and sought out the profound darkness of
the human soul, declares war on terrestrial Eve,
on corrupt and feeble nature. To combat and
restore it, he invokes the Spirit, the primal, omni
potent Fire, lEVE, to whose source he has just
ascended. He feels that its outbreathings inflame
and temper him like steel. Will is its name.
And in the darkness and silence of the crypt,
Moses hears a voice coming from out the depths of
his consciousness. In light-like vibrations it says,
" Go to the mountain of God, even to Horeb."

CHAPTER IV
THE VISION OF SINAI
A SOMBRE mass of granite, looking so -bare and
ravine-cleft beneath the shining sun that one might
say it had been furrowed with lightning-flashes,
and carved out by the thunder : such is the
summit of Sinai, the throne of Elohim, say the
children of the desert. Over against Sinai rise the
peaks of Serbal, less lofty than the other, though
also rugged and wild-looking. In its sides are
deep caves and copper mines. Between the two
mountains lies a dark valley, a chaos of stones,
which the Arabs call Horeb, the Erebus of the
Semitic legend. This vale of desolation is gloomy
and dark, when night and the shadow of Sinai fall
on it, and even gloomier still when the mountain
is topped with a helmet of clouds darting forth
sinister gleams. Then a terrible wind howls
down the narrow gorge. There Elohim is said
to overthrow such as attempt to resist him,
and fling them into the abyss, into which fall
torrents of rain. There, too, say the Midianites,
ii8

THE VISION OF SINAI 119
roam the malevolent shades of the giants, the
Refaim, who hurl down rocks oA such as attempt
to scale the sacred mount. Popular tradition also
has it that the God of Sinai at times appears in
the lightning flash, like a Medusa head, adorned
with eagles' plumes. Woe to those who behold
his countenance ! Death is their portion.
Thus spoke the nomads to one another at night,
beneath the tents, when their camels and wives
' lay wrapt in slumber. The truth was that only
the boldest among Jethro's initiates ascended to
the cave of Serbal, often spending several days in
fasting and prayer. Sages from Idumea had
found inspiration there. It was a spot associated
from bygone ages with supernatural visions, with
Elohim or spirits of light. No priest or hunter
would ever have consented to conduct the pilgrim
to it.
Moses had fearlessly mounted by the ravine of
Horeb. With intrepid heart he had crossed the
valley of death and its chaos of rocks. Like every
human effort, initiation has its phases of humility
and of pride. After climbing the sides of the holy
mountain, he had reached the summit of pride, for
he had attained to the height of human power,
he already felt himself one with the supreme
Being. The purple sun was shedding his ardent

120 MOSES
rays over the volcanic pile of Sinai, and the violet
shadows were spread about the valleys, when
Moses found himself at the entrance to a cave,
whose mouth was protected by a scanty growth of
turpentine-trees. He was preparing to enter when
he was almost blinded by a sudden flash of light
enveloping him. It appeared to him that the
ground was burning beneath his feet, and that the
granite mountains had become changed into a sea
of flame. At the entrance to the grotto an appari
tion of dazzling light looked down on him, barring
the path with his sword. Moses sank with his
face on the ground, thunderstruck. His pride
was now wholly broken. The Angel's glance had
pierced him with its light. Then, with that pro
found intuition which is aroused in a visionary
state, he had understood that this being was about
to impose on him a terrible task. He would
have liked to escape his mission, and return under
ground like a vile worm.
But a voice was heard, saying, "Moses! Moses!"
And he replied, " Here am I ! "
" Draw not nigh hither ; put off thy shoes from
off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is
holy ground.''
Moses hid his face in his hands ; he was afraid
of meeting the Angel's gaze.

THE VISION OF SINAI 121
The Angel said to him : " Thou who seekest
Elohim, wherefore tremblest thou before me ? "
" Who art thou ? "
" A ray of Elohim, a solar Angel, a messenger
of Him who is now and will be hereafter."
" What dost thou command me to do ? "
"Thou shalt say to the children of Israel: The
Eternal, the God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob hath sent me to
you, to bring you out of the land of slavery."
" Who am I that I should bring out the children
of Israel from Egypt ? "
"Go," said the Angel, "for I will be with thee.
I will put the fire of Elohim into thine heart, and
His word on thy lips. For forty years hast thou
called upon Him, and thy voice has reached unto
Him. See, I lay hold of thee in His name. Son
of Elohim, thou art mine for ever."
Moses, emboldened, exclaimed : " Show me
Elohim ! Grant me to see His living fire ! "
He raised his head, but the flaming sea had
vanished ; swift as lightning, the Angel had disap
peared. The sun had gone down upon the extinct
volcanoes of Sinai ; a silence of death was over
the vale of Horeb, and a voice which seemed to
roll along the vaults of heaven, losing itself in the
infinitude of space, said, " I am That I am."

122 MOSES
Moses came out of this vision overwhelmed
with awe. For a moment, he believed that his
body had been burnt up in the fire of the ether.
But his spirit was stronger. On descending to the
temple of Jethro, he found himself ready for his
work. His living idea went in front of him, like
the Angel armed with the fiery sword.

CHAPTER V
THE EXODUS — THE WILDERNESS — MAGIC AND
THEURGY
The plan of Moses was one of the most extra
ordinary and audacious that have ever been con
ceived by mortal mind. To rescue a people from
the yoke of so powerful a nation as Egypt ; to lead
them to the conquest of a country occupied by
hostile and better-armed populations ; to drag them
on for ten, twenty, forty years in the wilderness,
devoured by thirst and wasted by hunger ; to see
them harassed, like high-spirited steeds, beneath
the arrows of the Hittites and the Amalekites,
ready to fall upon them and cut them to pieces ;
to isolate them along with the tabernacle of the
Lord in the midst of these idolatrous nations ;
to impose on them monotheism with a rod of
fire, and inspire such fear and veneration for this
one God that he should incarnate himself in the
flesh of the people, become its national symbol,
the end of all its aspirations and its raison d!etre:
such was the gigantic task that Moses undertook.

124 MOSES
The Exodus had long been arranged and
thought out by the prophet, the principal Israel-
itish chiefs, and Jethro. To put hfs plan into
execution, Moses took advantage of a time when
Menephtah, his former companion, who had now
become Pharaoh, was forced to resist the dreaded
invasion of Mermaiou, king of the Libyans. The
whole of the Egyptian army, being occupied in
the direction of the west, was unable to hold
back the Hebrews, so the emigration en masse
was effected in peace and quiet.
Now we have the Beni-Israel on the march.
This long stream of caravans, bearing tents on
camels' backs and followed by immense flocks
of cattle and sheep, is preparing to wind round
the Red Sea, So far they consist of only a
few thousand men, but later on there will be
Canaanites, Edomites, Arabs, and Semites of all
kinds, attracted and fascinated by the prophet
of the wilderness, who summons them from every
part to mould them at his will. The nucleus of
this people is formed by the Beni-Israel, upright
but stern men, obstinate and rebellious. Their
hags or chiefs have taught them the worship of
the One God. This worship constituted a lofty
patriarchal tradition. In these primitive and
violent natures, however, monotheism is still

THE EXODUS 125
nothing but a superior, an intermittent con
sciousness. No sooner do their evil passions
come to the top than the instinct of polytheism,
so natural to man, gains the upper hand. Then
they fall back into popular superstitions, into
sorcery and the idolatrous practices of the popu
lations bordering on Egypt and Phoenicia, which
Moses is to put down by stern, Draconian laws.
Around the prophet who rules this people is
a group of priests presided over by Aaron, his
brother initiate, and the prophetess Miriam,
already representing feminine initiation in Israel.
This group forms the priesthood. Along with
them are seventy elected chiefs or laic initiates,
grouping round the prophet of lEVE, who is to
confide to them his secret doctrine and oral tradi
tion, transmit a portion of his power, and at times
admit them to share his inspirations and visions.
Into the heart of this group is borne the Golden
Ark, the idea of which has been borrowed by
Moses from the temples of Egypt, where it served
as an arcanum for the books on theurgy. For
his own personal designs, he had it cast again,
after a new model. The ark of Israel is flanked
by four golden cherubim, sphinx-like figures re
sembling the four symbolical animals of Ezekiel's
vision. One has the head of a lion, another that

126 MOSES
of a bull, the third that of an eagle, and the
fourth that of a man. They personify the four
universal elements : earth, water, air, and fire ; as
well as the four worlds represented by the letters
of the divine tetragram. The cherubim protect
the mercy-seat with their wings.
This ark is to be the instrument of the electrical
and luminous phenomena produced by the magic
of the priest of Osiris, phenomena which, magni
fied in legend, are destined to give birth to the
biblical narratives. The golden ark also con
tains the Sepher Bereshit or Book of Cosmogony,
written by Moses in Egyptian hieroglyphs, and
the magic wand of the prophet, called in the
Bible Moses' rod. It will also contain the Book
of the Covenant, or the Law of Mount Sinai.
Moses will call the ark the throne of Elohim ;
for in it lies the sacred tradition, the mission
of Israel, the idea of- lEVE.
What kind of political constitution did Moses
give to his people ? In this connection we must
quote one of the most curious passages in Exodus.
This passage appears all the more ancient and
authentic inasmuch as it shows us the weak side
of Moses, his tendency to sacerdotal pride and
theocratic tyranny, kept in check by his Ethiopian
initiator : —

THE EXODUS 127
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to
judge the people : and the people stood by Moses from the
morning unto the evening.
And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the
people, he said : What is this thing that thou doest to the
people ? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people
stand by thee from morning unto even ?
And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the
people come unto me to enquire of God
When they have a matter, they come unto me ; and I
judge between one and another, and I do make them know
the statutes of God, and his laws.
And Moses' father-in-law said unto him, The thing that
thou doest is not good.
Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou and this people
that is with thee : for this thing is too heavy for thee ; thou
art not able to perform it thyself alone.
Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel,
and God shall be with thee : Be thou for the people to
God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God :
And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt
show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work
that they must do.
Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able
men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness ;
and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and
rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
And let them judge the people at all seasons : and it
shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee,
but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be
easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.
If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so,
then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall
also go to their place in peace.

128 MOSES
So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law,
and did all that he had said.^

This passage shows us that in the constitution
of Israel established by Moses, the executive power
was regarded as an emanation from the judicial
power, and placed under the control of the sacer
dotal authority. Such was the government be
queathed by Moses to his successors in accordance
with the wise advice of Jethro. It remained so
under the Judges, from Joshua to Samuel right on
to the usurpation of Saul. Under the kings, the
abased priesthood began to lose the genuine tradi
tion of Moses which survived only in the prophets.
As we have said, Moses was not a patriot, but
rather a tamer of nations, if we take into con
sideration the destinies of the whole of humanity.
For him, Israel was only a means,- universal
religion was his aim ; his thoughts passed -far
beyond the nomads of his days, to future ages.
From the time they left Egypt, to the death of
Moses, the history of Israel was nothing but one
long duel between the prophet and his people.
Moses first led the tribes of Israel to Sinai, into
^ Exod. xviii. 13-24. The importance of this passage from the
point of view of the social constitution of Israel has been justly
pointed out by M. Saint-Yves in his fine volume. La Mission des
Juifs.

THE WILDERNESS 129
the barren wilderness over against the mountain
consecrated to Elohim by all the Semites, where
he himself had received his revelation. On the
spot where his Genius had taken hold of the
prophet, Moses wished to take possession of his
people and stamp on their brow the seal of I EVE :
the ten commandments, a powerful resume of the
moral law and a complement of the transcendental
truth contained in the hermetic book of the Ark.
Nothing could be more tragic than this first
dialogue between the prophet and his people.
Here took place strange scenes, terrible and
sanguinary, leaving the impress of a red-hot iron
in the mortified flesh of Israel. Beneath the
amplifications and exaggerations of the Biblical
narrative may be divined the possible reality of
the facts.
The elite of the tribes is encamped on the plain
of Pharan, at the entrance to a wild gorge leading
to the rocks of Serbal. The threatening peak of
Sinai overlooks this stony, volcanic land. Before
the whole assembly, Moses solemnly announces
that he will go to the mountain to consult Elohim,
and bring back the written law on a table of stone.
He orders the people to watch and fast, to await
him in chastity and prayer. He leaves the port
able Ark, covered by the tent of the tabernacle,

I30 MOSES
in the care of the seventy elders. Then he dis
appears into the gorge, taking with him none but
his faithful disciple Joshua.
Days pass ; Moses does not return. At first
the people are uneasy, then they murmur :
" Wherefore bring us into this terrible wilder^
ness, exposing us to the attacks of the Amale
kites ? Moses has promised to lead us to the
land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey,
and here we are dying in the desert. Better
slavery in Egypt than this wretched life. Would
to God we had once again the flesh-pots we ate
in Egypt ! If the God of Moses is the true God,
let him prove it, dispersing all his enemies and
allowing us to enter at once into the land of
promise." These murmurings increase ; mutiny
is rife, even the chiefs are disaffected.
And now a group .of women appear, whisper
ing and murmuring to one another. These are
daughters of Moab, with dark-skinned, supple
bodies and opulent forms, concubines or servants
o£ some Edomite chiefs, who are friendly to
Israel. They remember that they have been
priestesses of Ashtaroth, and have celebrated the
orgies of the goddess in the sacred woods of their
own land. They feel that the time has come for
them to regain their sway, and so they appear on

THE WILDERNESS 131
the spot, decked in gold and gaudy robes, like a
troop of beautiful serpents issuing from the earth,
their undulating forms shining in the sunlight.
They mix with the rebels, regard them with
glowing eyes, throw around them their arms
ornamented with copper rings, and seduce them
with fair-sounding words : " After all, who is this
priest of Egypt and his God ? He will now be
lying dead on Sinai. The Refa'Im will have flung
him into the abyss. It is not he who will lead
the tribes into Canaan. Let the children of Israel
call upon the gods of Moab : Belphegor and
Ashtaroth ! These are gods who can be seen,
gods who work miracles ! They will lead them
into the land of Canaan ! " The rebels listen to
the Moabite women, they rouse up one another,
and the cry comes from the multitude : " Aaron,
make us gods to proceed before us ; as for Moses
who made us depart from the land of Egypt,
we know not what has become of him." Aaron
tries in vain to calm the crowd. The daughters
of Moab summon Phoenician priests who have
come by caravan. These bring a wooden
statue of Ashtaroth, which they raise aloft on a
stone altar. Under penalty of death, the rebels
force Aaron to make a golden calf, one of the
forms that Belphegor assumed. They sacrifice

132 MOSES
bulls and he-goats to strange gods, they eat
and drink, whilst lascivious dances, led by the
daughters of Moab, begin around the idols, to
the sound of nebels, kinnors, and tabors played
by women.
The seventy elders chosen by Moses to guard
the Ark have vainly tried by threats and entreaty
to stop this disordered state of things. Now they
sit down on the ground, their heads covered with
sackcloth and ashes. Crouching round the taber
nacle of the Ark, they hear with the utmost con
sternation all kinds of wild cries and voluptuous
songs, invocations to the accursed gods, demons
of cruelty and lust. They are horrified to see this
people in a debauch of joy and revolt against its
God. What will become of the Ark, the Book,
and Israel, if Moses does not return ?
Moses, however, does come back. After his
long, lonely meditation on the Mount of Elohim,
he brings down the Law on tablets of stone.^
Entering the camp, he sees the dances, the
bacchanalia of his people, before the idols of
Ashtaroth and Belphegor, At the sight of the
priest of Osiris, the prophet of Elohim, the
^ In ancient times only the most sacred things were written on
stone. The hierophant of Eleusis would read to the initiates from
tablets of stone, things they swore to reveal to no one, and which
were found written nowhere else.

THE WILDERNESS 133
dances stop, the strange priests take to flight
and the rebels begin to tremble. Moses' anger
bursts forth like a devouring fire. He breaks
the stone tablets, they feel that he would thus
crush the whole people, that God has taken
possession of him.
Israel trembles, though the rebels dart at the
prophet glances of hatred, mingled with fear. A
single hesitating word or gesture from the pro
phet-chief, and the hydra of idolatrous anarchy
will erect against him its thousand beads and
sweep away beneath a hail of stones the sacred
Ark, the prophet, and the idea he represents.
Behind Moses are the invisible powers protect
ing him. He sees that, above all else, he must
raise the courage of the seventy elect, to equal
his own, and through them influence the whole
people. He invokes ELOHIM-IEVE, the male
Spirit, the fire-principle, from the immensity of the
heavens and from the depths of his own nature.
" Let the Seventy follow me ! " he exclaimed ;
"let them take the Ark, and ascend with me the
Mountain of God, As for this people, let them
wait and tremble. I will bring back the judgment
of Elohim."
The Levites remove from beneath the tent the
golden Ark, all veiled, and the procession of the

134 MOSES
seventy headed by the prophet, disappears in the
defiles of Sinai. Impossible to say who tremble
the more : the Levites at what they are about to
see, or the people at the punishment Moses leaves
impending over their heads, like an invisible
sword. " Ah ! if only we could escape from the terrible
hands of this priest of Osiris, this prophet of mis- -
fortune ! " say the rebels. Hastily half the camp
fold up the tents, saddle the camels, and prepare
for flight. And now a strange twilight, a veil of
dust spreads over the sky ; a sharp north wind
blows from the Red Sea, the wilderness assumes
a dull, tawny colour, and great clouds pile up
upon one another behind Sinai. Finally, the sky
turns black. Gusts of wind carry along clouds
of sand, and flashes of lightning cause the wheel
ing clouds which surround Sinai to burst into
torrents of rain. Soon the thunderbolt crashes
down, and its- echoes fall on the camp in succes
sive detonations. No doubt is felt by the people
that this is the anger of Elohim, summoned forth
by Moses. The daughters of Moab have dis
appeared. The idols are overthrown, the chiefs
fling themselves on their faces to the ground,
whilst the women and children hide behind the
camels. This lasts for a whole day and night. '

THE WILDERNESS 135
The lightning has struck the tents, killing men
and beasts, and the thunder rolls incessantly.
Towards evening, the storm begins to pass
away, though the clouds still hover on Sinai's
summit and the sky remains black. At the
entrance to the camp appear the Seventy, with
Moses at their head. In the uncertain twilight,
the countenances of the prophet and of his elect
shine with supernatural light, as though they had
brought back the reflection of a sublime, dazzling
vision. Over the golden Ark and the fiery- winged
cherubim flickers an electric ray like a phos
phorescent column. Before this extraordinary
sight, elders and people, men and women, draw
back to a distance and fall to the ground.
" Let those who are for the Lord God, come
to me ! " said Moses.
Three-fourths of the Chiefs of Israel take up
their stand round Moses, the rebels remain in
their tents hiding. Then the prophet advances
and orders his faithful followers to put to the
sword the priestesses of Ashtaroth and the insti
gators of the revolt, that Israel may tremble for
ever before Elohim, and may remember the law
of Sinai, and its first commandment : " I am the
Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

136 MOSES
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or
the likeness of any thing that is in heaven, in the
waters, or under the earth."
It was by such a mixture of terror and mystery
that Moses imposed law and worship on his
people. The idea of I EVE had to be stamped in
letters of fire on their souls ; but for such implac
able measures, monotheism would never have
triumphed over the invading polytheism of Phoe
nicia and Babylon.
What did the Seventy see on Sinai ? Deute
ronomy (xxxiii. 2) speaks of a mighty vision, of
thousands of saints appearing in the midst of the
storm on Sinai, in the light of I EVE. Did the
sages of the former cycle, the ancient initiates of
the Aryans of India, Persia and Egypt, all the
noble sons of Asia, the land of God, come to aid
Moses in his work, and exercise a decisive in
fluence over the mind of his co-workers ? The
spiritual powers which keep guard over humanity
are always at hand, but the veil separating us
from them is torn asunder only on great occa
sions and for a few elect. However it be, Moses
breathed into the Seventy the divine fire and
energy of his own will. They were the first
temple, previous to Solomon's : the living temple.

THE WILDERNESS 137
the temple on the march, the heart of Israel, the
royal light of God.
By means of the visions of Sinai and the
execution en masse of the rebels, Moses obtained
authority over the nomad Semites whom he ruled
with a hand of iron. Similar scenes, however,
followed by fresh manifestations of strength, were
to be repeated during the marches and cross-
marches towards the land of Canaan. Like
Mohammed, Moses had to show at once the genius
of a prophet, a warrior, and a social organiser.
He had to struggle against weariness, calumny,
and conspiracy. After the revolt of the people,
he had to lower the pride of the Levite priests,
who wished to be set on an equal footing with
himself, and to be regarded as directly inspired
by I EVE ; and then to crush the more dangerous
conspiracies of ambitious chiefs like Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram, who fomented a popular
insurrection to overthrow the prophet and pro
claim a king, as did the IsraeHtes later
on with Saul, in spite of Samuel's opposition.
In this struggle, Moses is moved by alternatives
of pity and indignation — the love of a father and
the roaring of a lion against this people, which
writhes beneath his determined will, to which, in
spite of everything, it must submit. We find an

138 MOSES
echo of this in the dialogues related in the Bible
between the prophet and his God, dialogues which
seem to reveal what is taking place in the depths
of his soul.
In the Pentateuch, Moses triumphs over all
obstacles by miracles which are more than imr
probable. Jehovah, conceived of as a personal
God, is always at his disposal. He appears on
the tabernacle as a shining cloud, which is called
the glory of the Lord. Moses alone can enters
any profane person who approaches is struck down
dead. The tabernacle of the congregation contain
ing the ark plays in the Biblical narrative the role
of a gigantic electric battery, which, once charged
with the fire of Jehovah, scatters destruction
amongst the people. The sons of Aaron, the two
hundred and fifty followers of Korah and Dathan,
along with fourteen thousand people, are killed by
it at one and the same time. Besides this, Moses
produces at a given moment, an earthquake,
which engulfs the three revolting chiefs with their
tents and families. This is described in terrible,
awe-inspiring, poetical language. It is so ex
aggerated, however, of a nature so clearly legen
dary, that it would be puerile to discuss its reality.
What gives an exotic character to these narratives
above all else, is the role of an angry, fickle

MAGIC AND THEURGY 139
God, played by Jehovah. He is always ready to
destroy and thunder forth his wrath, whilst Moses
represents mercy and wisdom. So childish a con
ception, one so utterly contradictory to Divinity,
is no less alien to the consciousness of an
initiate of Osiris, than to that of a Jesus.
And yet these colossal exaggerations appear to
spring from certain phenomena due to the magical
powers of Moses, and which are not without
parallel in the traditions of the temples of old.
This is the place to say what amount of cred
ence may be given to the so-called miracles of
Moses from the view-point of a rational theosophy
and the elucidations of occult science. The pro
duction of electrical phenomena in divers forms
by the will of powerful initiates is not attributed
by antiquity to Moses alone. Chaldaean tradi
tion ascribed it to the magi, the Greek and Latin
traditions to certain priests of Jupiter and Apollo.*
In similar cases, the phenomena are indeed of an

* Twice was an attack on the Temple of Delphi repulsed under
similar circumstances. In 480 B.C., the troops of Xerxes attacked it,
and retreated in terror before a storm, accompanied by flames issuing
from the ground, and the fall of large blocks of tof^.— Herodotus. In
279 B.C., the temple was again attacked by invading Gauls and Cymri.
Delphi was defended by a small troop of Phocseans. The moment the
barbariajis were on the point of entering the temple, a storm burst
forth, and the Gauls were defeated (see the Histoire des Gaulois, by
Am^d^e Thierry, Book 2).

140 MOSES
electrical nature. But the electricity of the ter
restrial atmosphere must here have been set in
motion by a subtler and more universal force
which great adepts would be skilled in attracting,
concentrating, and projecting. This force is called
by the Brahmans, akasha, by the magi of Chaldaea
the fire principle; and by the Kabbalists of the
Middle Ages the great magic agent. From the view
point of modern science it might be called etheric
force. It can either be attracted directly or evoked
by means of invisible, conscious, or semi-conscious
agents filling the atmosphere of earth, and which
the will of the magi is able to control.
There is nothing in this theory opposed to a
rational conception of the universe ; it is even
indispensable to the explanation of a host of
phenomena, which otherwise would remain in
comprehensible. It need only be added that
these phenomena are governed by immutable laws,
always proportioned to the intellectual, moral, and
magnetic strength of the adept.
What would be opposed to both reason and
philosophy would be the setting in motion of the
primary cause, God, or the immediate operation
of this cause, by any being whatever, which
would come to the same thing as identification of
the individual with God. Only relatively does man

MAGIC AND THEURGY 141
rise to him by thought or prayer ; by action or
ecstasy. God exercises his action in the universe
only indirectly and in hierarchies, by the universal
and immutable laws which express his thought, as
also through the members of terrestrial and divine
humanity who represent him partially and pro
portionally in the infinitude of time and space.
This position once granted, we regard it as
perfectly possible for Moses, sustained by the
spiritual powers which protected him, and con
trolling etheric force with consummate science, to
have been able to make use of the Ark as a kind
of receptacle or concentrating agent of attraction,
for the production of electrical phenomena of a
most formidable nature. He insulated himself,
his priests, and trusted companions by means of
linen garments and odours which protected them
from the discharges of the etheric fire. These
phenomena, however, could only happen seldom
and be limited in number ; they have been ex
aggerated in the priestly legend. To strike dead
a few rebel chiefs or disobedient Levites by such
a projection of fluid must have sufficed Moses,
whose object was to strike terror into the hearts
of the whole people, and to check revolt.

CHAPTER VI
THE DEATH OF MOSES
When Moses had conducted his people to the
borders of Canaan, he felt that his work was
accomplished. What was lEVE-ELOHIM in the
mind of the Seer of Sinai ? Divine order seen
from above through all the spheres of the universe
and realised on the visible earth, under the image
of the celestial hierarchies, and of eternal truth*
Not in vain had he gazed on the face of the ever
lasting God, whose reflection is manifested every^
where. The Book was in the Ark, and the Ark
was guarded by a mighty people, the living temple
of the Lord. The worship of the One God was
established on earth ; the name of I EVE shone in
flaming characters in the consciousness of Israel ;
though the stream of time rolls over the changing .^ j.
soul of humanity, it will never more efface the
name of the One God.
These things Moses understood, so now he
summoned the angel of death. He laid his hands
on Joshua, his successor, before the temple, in

THE DEATH OF MOSES 143
order that the Spirit of God might pass into him ;
then he blessed all mankind through the twelve
tribes of Israel,and ascended Mount Nebo, followed
by none but Joshua and two Levites. Aaron had
already been "gathered unto his fathers," and
Miriam the prophetess had taken the same journey.
The turn of Moses had now come.
What must have been in the mind of the cente
narian prophet as he beheld the camp of Israel
disappear, and ascended into the sublime silence
of Elohim ? What were his feelings as he cast
his eyes over the Promised Land, from Gilead to
Jericho, the City of Palms ? A true poet, Alfred de
Vigny, depicting this mental condition with the
pen of a master, shows him to us uttering the
cry: — " O Seigneur, fai vdcu puissant et solitaire,
Laissez-moi tiiendortnir du sommeil de la terre." '
This beautiful couplet is a more eloquent tribute
to the soul of Moses than the commentaries of
a hundred theologians. This soul is like the
Great Pyramid of Gizeh, massive, bare, and dead
without, but containing great mysteries within, and
in its centre a sarcophagus, called by the initiates
the Sarcophagus of the Resurrection. From that
* " Mighty and lone have I lived, O my Lord,

Let me now sleep the deep slumber of earth

i!

144 MOSES
spot along a slanting passage may be seen the
North Star. So did this impenetrable mind
look from its centre to the final goal and object
of all things.
Yes, all great men well know the solitude
created by their very greatness ; but Moses was
more isolated than the rest, because his principle
was more absolute, more transcendental. His
God was the male principle par excellence, pure
Spirit. To inculcate this principle in mankind he
was obliged to declare war on the feminine prin
ciple, on the goddess Nature, Heve, the eternal
Woman, who enters the soul of Earth and
the heart of Man. He was to combat it without
truce or mercy, not to destroy, but to subject and
tame it. What wonder that Nature and Woman,
between whom reigns a mysterious pact, trembled
before him ! What wonder they rejoiced at his
departure ; waiting, before they could raise their
head once more, till the shadow of Moses had
ceased to cast over them the presentiment of
death ! Such were doubtless the thoughts of the
Seer as he ascended Nebo's barren sides. Men
could not love him, for he had loved none but
God. But would his work, at any rate, live ?
Would his people remain faithful to their mission ?
Alas ! Fatal is the clairvoyance of the dying,

THE DEATH OF MOSES 145
tragic the prophetic gift, tearing away every veil
when the final hour has come ! In proportion as
the spirit of Moses detached itself from earth, he
saw the terrible reality of the future — the treasons
of Israel, anarchy raising erect its head, royalty
succeeding the Judges, the crimes of the Kings
defiling the Temple of the Lord, his book mutilated
and misunderstood, his thoughts travestied and
disparaged by ignorant or hypocritical priests,
the apostasies of kings, the adultery of Judah with
idolatrous nations, the pure tradition and sacred
doctrine defiled, and the prophets, guardians of
the living word, persecuted and driven into the
depths of the wilderness.
Seated in a cave cut into Mount Nebo, Moses
saw all this within himself. The cold hand of
Death was already -laid at his heart, his dread wing
was hovering above the Seer's brow. Then once
again the lion-hearted prophet roared out in anger
- against his people, summoning the vengeance of
Elohim on the race of Judah. He raised his
heavy arm. Joshua and the Levites present were
struck with dismay as they heard these words leave
the lips of the dying man : " The children of
Israel have betrayed their God ; let them be scat
tered to the four winds of heaven !"
Joshua and the Levites looked in terror at their
K

146 MOSES
master, who no longer gave any sign of life. His
last sentence had been a curse. Had he given up
his last breath with it ? No. Moses opened his
eyes once again and said : —
" And the Lord said unto me ... I will raise them up
a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and
will put my words in his mouth ; and he shall speak unto
them all that I shall command him.
"And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall not
hearken unto my words, which he shall speak in my name,
I will require it of him " (Deuteronomy xviii. 17, 18, 19).
After these prophetic words Moses gave up the
ghost. The solar Angel, with the flaming sword,
who had first appeared to him on Sinai, was
awaiting him. He carried him off into the all-
embracing arms of celestial Isis, into the waves
of that light which is the Spouse of God. Far
away from the regions of earth, they passed
through circles of souls, of ever-increasing splen
dour and glory. Finally the Angel of the Lord
showed him a spirit of wonderful beauty and
celestial gentleness, but arrayed in so dazzling a
light that his own radiance was nothing more than
a shadow in comparison with it. He carried in
his hand not the sword of punishment, but the
palm of sacrifice and victory. Moses now saw
that this glorious spirit would fulfil his work, and

THE DEATH OF MOSES 147
bring men back to the Father, by the might of
the Eternal-Feminine, by Grace divine and perfect
Love. Then the Law-giver bowed down before the
Redeemer, and Moses worshipped Jesus Christ.

THE END

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