Thus, in the seventeenth chapter mentioned by Maspero, one finds (1) Osiris saying he is Toum (the creative force in nature, giving form to all Beings, spirits and men), self-generated and self-existent, issued from Noun , the celestial river, called Father-mother of the gods, the primordial deity, which is chaos or the Deep , impregnated by the unseen spirit.
(2) He has found Shoo (solar force) on the staircase in the City of the Eight (the two cubes of good and Evil), and he has annihilated the evil principles in Noun (chaos) the children of Rebellion.
(3) He is the Fire and Water, i.e.
, Noun the primordial parent, and he created the gods out of his limbs -- 14 gods (twice seven) seven dark and seven light gods (the seven Spirits of the Presence of the Christians and the Seven dark Evil Spirits).
(4) He is the Law of existence and Being (v.
10), the Bennoo (or phoenix, the bird of resurrection in Eternity), in whom night follows the day, and day the night -- an allusion to the periodical cycles of cosmic resurrection and human re-incarnation; for what can this mean?
"The wayfarer who crosses millions of years, in the name of One, and the great green (primordial water or Chaos) the name of the other" (v.
17), one begetting millions of years in succession, the other engulfing them, to restore them back.
(5) He speaks of the Seven Luminous ones who follow their Lord, who confers justice (Osiris in Amenti ) .
All this is now shown to have been the source and origin of Christian dogmas.
That which the Jews had from Egypt, through Moses and other initiates, was confused and distorted enough in later days; and that which the Church got from both, is still more misinterpreted.
Yet their system is now proven identical in this special department of symbology -- the key, namely, to the mysteries of astronomy as connected with those of generation and conception -- with those ideas of ancient religions, the theology of which has developed the phallic element.
The Jewish system of sacred measures applied to religious symbols is the same, [[Vol.
1, Page]] 313 THE JEWS, AND THEIR SYSTEM.
so far as geometrical and numerical combinations go, as those of Chaldea, Greece, and Egypt, having been adopted by the Jews during the centuries of their slavery and captivity with those nations.* What was that system?
It is the intimate conviction of the author of "The Source of Measures" that "the Mosaic Books were intended, by a mode of art speech, to set forth a geometrical and numerical system of exact science, which should serve as an origin of measures." Piazzi Smyth believes likewise.
This system and these measures are found by some scholars to be identical with those used in the construction of the great pyramid -- but this is only partially so.
"The foundation of these measures was the Parker ratio," says Mr.
R.
Skinner, in "The Source of Measures." The author of this very extraordinary work has found it out, he says, in the use of the integral ratio in numbers of diameter to circumference of a circle, discovered by John Parker, of New York.
This ratio is 6,561 for diameter, and 20,612 for circumference.
Furthermore, that this geometrical ratio was the very ancient (and probably) the divine origin of what have now become through exoteric handling and practical application the British linear measures, "the underlying unit of which, viz., the inch , was likewise the base of one of the royal Egyptian cubits and of the Roman foot.
He also found out that there was a modified form of the ratio, viz., 113-355 (explained in his work); and that while this last ratio pointed through its origin to the exact integral pi, or to 6,561 to 20,612, it also served as a base for astronomical calculations.
The author discovered that a system of exact science , geometrical , numerical , and astronomical , founded on these ratios and to be found in use in the construction of the Great Egyptian Pyramid, was in part the burden of this language as contained in, and concealed under, the verbiage of the Hebrew text of the Bible.
The inch and the two-foot rule of 24 inches interpreted for use through the elements of the circle ( see first pages of Book I.
) and the ratios mentioned, were found to be at the basis or foundation of this natural and Egyptian and Hebrew system of science, while, moreover, it seems evident enough that the system itself was looked upon as of divine origin and of divine revela- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * As we said in Isis ( Vol.
II.
p .
438-9), "To the present moment, in spite of all controversies and researches, History and Science remain as much as ever in the dark as to the origin of the Jews.
They may be as well the exiled Tchandalas of old India, the 'bricklayers' mentioned by Vina-Svata, Veda-Vyasa and Manu, as the Phoenicians of Herodotus, or the Hyk-Sos of Josephus, or descendants of Pali shepherds, or a mixture of all these.
The Bible names the Tyrians as a kindred people, and claims dominion over them.
.
.
.
Yet whatever they may have been, they became a hybrid people, not long after Moses, as the Bible shows them freely intermarrying not alone with the Canaanites, but with every other nation or race they came in contact with." [[Vol.
1, Page]] 314 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
tion.
.
.
." But let us see what is said by the opponents of Prof.
Piazzi Smyth's measurements of the Pyramid.
Mr.
Petrie seems to deny them, and to have made short work altogether of Piazzi Smyth's calculations in their Biblical connection.
So does Mr.
Proctor, the champion "Coincidentalist" for many years past in every question of ancient arts and sciences.
Speaking of "the multitude of relations independent of the Pyramid, which have turned up while the Pyramidalists have been endeavouring to connect the pyramid with the solar system .
.
.
.
these coincidences," he says, "are altogether more curious than any coincidence between the Pyramid and astronomical numbers: the former are as close and remarkable as they are real" ( i.e.
, those "coincidences" that would remain if even the pyramid had no existence); "the latter which are only imaginary (?) have only been established by the process which schoolboys call 'fudging,' and now new measures have left the work to be done all over again" ( Petrie ' s letter to the Academy , Dec.
17, 1881.) To this Mr.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The 'great green' (primordial water/Chaos) 'engulfing' millions of years 'to restore them back' is a clear expression of periodic cosmic restoration after vast cycles.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage argues that the same geometrical-numerical system is found identically across Egypt, Chaldea, Greece, and the Hebrew Bible, implying a structural reflection across cultures and scales.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage narrates the origin of the gods: Noun (chaos/Deep) impregnated by unseen spirit produces Osiris, who creates 14 gods from his limbs — a temporally-narrative account of cosmic origin.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage describes a clear cascade: Noun (primordial chaos) gives rise to Osiris/Toum (self-generated creative force), who in turn creates 14 gods from his limbs.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The passage traces a chain of transmission from Egypt through Moses and other initiates to the Jews, then to the Church, arguing the systems are 'identical in this special department of symbology.'
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage argues the Mosaic Books 'were intended, by a mode of art speech, to set forth a geometrical and numerical system of exact science' concealed under the verbiage of the Hebrew text — outer meaning concealing inner truth.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage traces a directional process from Noun (undifferentiated chaos) through Osiris to the 14 gods, a staged unfolding from the unconditioned to multiplicity.
The Egyptian principle of truth, balance, and right order underlying both the cosmos and human conduct; the parallel to Zoroastrian asha and Greek dike.
Osiris in Amenti 'confers justice,' and he is identified as 'the Law of existence and Being,' directly invoking the Egyptian principle of cosmic right order.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The entire second half of the passage is devoted to the Parker ratio (6561:20612), the 113:355 approximation, the inch as foundational unit, and the claim that geometrical and numerical ratios constitute the divine origin of measures and the hidden science of the Bible.
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
The passage explicitly describes 'night follows the day, and day the night' as 'periodical cycles of cosmic resurrection and human re-incarnation,' a measured pendulum motion at the cosmic scale.
Organized, persisting groups — fraternities, orders, lodges — that maintain esoteric knowledge or practices as an institution distinct from public religion or mainstream society, holding 'the keys' collectively rather than through any one master-disciple pair. Distinct from esoteric_lineage (a genealogical chain of individual transmission, not an institution) and hidden_sayings (the concealment of a teaching's meaning, independent of whether any organized body holds it).
The passage references 'Moses and other initiates' as recipients of the Egyptian system, implying organized esoteric transmission groups.