Page 18 (part 7)

Baron Humboldt says that we are to look for the country of Aztalan, the original country of the Aztecs, as high up at least as the 42nd parallel north; whence, journeying, they at last arrived in the vale of Mexico. In that vale the earthen mounds of the far north become the elegant stone pyramidal and other structures whose remains are now found. The correspondences between the Aztec remains and those of the Egyptians are well known. . . . Attwater, from examination of hundreds of them, is convinced that they had a knowledge of astronomy. As to one of the most perfect of the pyramidal structures among the Aztecs, Humboldt gives a description to the following effect: "The form of this pyramid (of Papantla) which has seven stories, is more tapering than any other monument of this kind yet discovered, but its height is not remarkable, being but 57 feet, its base but 25 feet on each side. However, it is remarkable on one account: it is built entirely of hewn stones, of an extraordinary size, and very beautifully shaped. Three staircases lead to the top, the steps of which are decorated with hieroglyphical sculptures and small niches arranged with great symmetry. The number of these niches seems to allude to the 318 simple and compound signs of the days of their civil calendar." "318 is the Gnostic value of Christ," remarks the author, "and the famous number of the trained or circumcised servants of Abraham. When it is consi- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See farther on the description given of the early Aryan initiation: of Visvakarma crucifying the Sun, "Vikkartana," shorn of his beams -- on a cruciform lath. [[Vol. 1, Page]] 323 IDENTITY OF THE ANCIENT SYMBOLS. dered that 318 is an abstract value , and universal , as expressive of a diameter value to a circumference of unity , its use in the composition of the civil calendar becomes manifest." Identical glyphs, numbers and esoteric symbols are found in Egypt, Peru, Mexico, Easter Island, India, Chaldea, and Central Asia. Crucified men, and symbols of the evolution of races from gods; and yet behold Science repudiating the idea of a human race other than one made in our image; theology clinging to its 6,000 years of Creation; anthropology teaching our descent from the ape; and the Clergy tracing it from Adam 4,004 years B.C.!! Shall one, for fear of incurring the penalty of being called a superstitious fool, and even a liar , abstain from furnishing proofs -- as good as any -- only because that day, when all the SEVEN KEYS shall be delivered unto Science, or rather the men of learning and research in the symbological department, has not yet dawned? In the face of the crushing discoveries of Geology and Anthropology with regard to the antiquity of man, shall we -- in order to avoid the usual penalty that awaits every one who strays outside the beaten paths of either Theology or Materialism -- hold to the 6,000 years and "special creation," or accept in submissive admiration our genealogy and descent from the ape? Not so, as long as it is known that the secret records hold the said SEVEN keys to the mystery of the genesis of man. Faulty, materialistic, and biassed as the scientific theories may be, they are a thousand times nearer the truth than the vagaries of theology. The latter are in their death agony for every one but the most uncompromising bigot and fanatic.* Hence we have no choice but either to blindly accept the deductions of Science, or to cut adrift from it, and withstand it fearlessly to its face, stating what the Secret Doctrine teaches us, being fully prepared to bear the consequences. But let us see whether Science in its materialistic speculations, and even theology in its death-rattle and supreme struggle to reconcile the 6,000 years since Adam with Sir Charles Lyell's "Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man," do not themselves give us unconsciously a helping hand. Ethnology, on the confession of some of its very learned votaries, finds it already impossible to account for the varieties in the human race, unless the hypothesis of the creation of several Adams be accepted. They speak of "a white Adam and a black Adam, a red [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Some of its defenders must have lost their reason, one would rather say. For what can one think when, in the face of the dead-letter absurdities of the Bible, these are still supported, publicly and as fiercely as ever, and one finds its theologians maintaining that though "the Scriptures carefully refrain (?) from making any direct contribution to scientific knowledge, they have never stumbled upon any statement which will not abide the light of A DVANCING S CIENCE"!!! -- (" Primeval Man ," p. 14). [[Vol. 1, Page]] 324 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. Adam and a yellow Adam."* Were they Hindus enumerating the rebirths of Vamadeva from the Linga Purana , they could say little more. For, enumerating the repeated births of Siva, the latter show him in one Kalpa of a white complexion, in another of a black colour, in still another of a red colour, after which the Kumara becomes "four youths of a yellow colour." This strange coincidence , as Mr. Proctor would say, speak only in favour of scientific intuition, as Siva-Kumara represents only allegorically the human races during the genesis of man. But it led to another intuitional phenomenon -- in the theological ranks this time. The unknown author of "Primeval Man" in a desperate effort to screen the divine Revelation from the merciless and eloquent discoveries of geology and anthropology, remarking that "it would be unfortunate if the defenders of the Bible should be driven into the position of either surrendering the inspiration of Scripture, or denying the conclusions of geologists" -- finds a compromise. Nay, he devotes a thick volume to proving this fact: "Adam was not the first man ** created upon this earth." . . . The exhumed relics of pre-Adamic man, "instead of shaking our confidence in Scripture, supply additional proof of its veracity" ( p. 194). How so? In the simplest way imaginable; for the author argues that, henceforth "we" (the clergy) "are enabled to leave scientific men to pursue their studies without attempting to coerce them by the fear of heresy" . . . (this must be a relief indeed to Messrs. Huxley, Tyndall, and Sir C. Lyell). . . . "The Bible narrative does not commence with creation , as is commonly supposed, but with the formation of Adam and Eve, millions of years after our planet had been created. Its previous history, so far as Scripture is concerned, is yet unwritten." . . . . .