"They have seized upon the three worlds, and appropriated the offerings which are our portion, taking care not to transgress the Precepts of the Veda.
Although we , as well as they , are parts of thee.* .
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engaged as they are in the paths prescribed by the holy writ .
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it is impossible for us to destroy them.
Do thou, whose wisdom is immeasurable ( Ameyatman ) instruct us in some device by which we may be able to exterminate the enemies of the gods!" "When the mighty Vishnu heard their request, he emitted from his body an illusory form ( Mayamoha , "the deluder by illusion") which he gave to the Gods and thus spake: "This Mayamoha shall wholly beguile the Daityas , so that being led astray from the path of the Vedas, they may be put to death.
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Go then and fear not.
Let this delusive vision precede you.
It shall this day be of great service unto you, O Gods!" "After this, the great Delusion, Mayamoha , descending to earth, beheld the Daityas engaged in ascetic penances, and approaching them, in the semblance of a Digambara (naked mendicant) with his head shaven .
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he thus addressed them, in gentle accents: "Ho, lords of the Daitya race, wherefore is it that you practise these acts of penances?" etc., etc.
(Book II., xviii.).
Finally the Daityas were seduced by the wily talk of Mahamoha , as Eve was seduced by the advice of the Serpent.
They became apostates to the Vedas.
As Dr.
Muir translates the passage: -- "The great Deceiver, practising illusion, next beguiled other Daityas, by means of many other sorts of heresy.
In a very short time, these Asuras (-Daityas) deluded by the Deceiver (who was Vishnu) abandoned the entire system founded on the ordinances of the triple Veda.
Some reviled the Vedas, others the Gods, others the ceremonial of sacrifice, and others the Brahmans.
This, they exclaimed, is a doctrine which will not bear discussion.
The slaughter of animals in sacrifice is not conducive to religious merit.
To say that oblations of butter consumed in the fire produce any future reward, is the assertion of a child.
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If it be a fact that a beast slain in sacrifice is exalted to heaven, why does not the worshipper slaughter his own father?
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Infallible utterances do not, great Asuras, fall from the skies; it is only assertions founded on reasoning that are accepted by me and by other intelligent persons like yourselves!
Thus by numerous methods the Daityas were unsettled by the great Deceiver ( Reason ).
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When [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * "There was a day when the Sons of God came before the Lord, and Satan came with his brothers , also before the Lord" ( Job ii., Abyss., Ethiopic text).
[[Vol.
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they had entered on the path of error, the gods mustered all their energies and approached to battle.
Then followed a combat between the gods and the Asuras; and the latter, who had abandoned the right road, were smitten by the former.
In previous times they had been defended by the armour of righteousness which they bore, but when that had been destroyed they, also, perished." ( Journal of the Royal Asiat.
Society , Vol.
XIX ., p.
302.) Whatever may be thought of Hindus, no enemy of theirs can regard them as fools.
A people whose holy men and sages have left to the world the greatest and most sublime philosophies that ever emanated from the minds of men, must have known the difference between right and wrong.
Even a savage can discern white from black, good from bad, and deceit from sincerity and truthfulness.
Those who had narrated this event in the biography of their god, must have seen that in this case it was that God who was the arch-Deceiver, and the Daityas, who "never transgressed the precepts of the Vedas," who had the sunny side in the transaction, and who were the true "Gods." Thence there must have been, and there is a secret meaning hidden under this allegory.
In no class of Society, in no nation, are deceit and craft considered as Divine virtues -- except perhaps in the clerical classes of theologians and modern Jesuitism.
The Vishnu Purana,* like all other works of this kind, has passed at a later period into the hands of the temple-Brahmins, and the old MSS .
have, no doubt, been once more tampered with by sectarians.
But there was a time when the Puranas were esoteric works, and so they are still for the Initiates who can read them with the key that is in their possession.
Whether the Brahmin Initiates will ever give out the full meaning of these allegories, is a question with which the writer is not concerned.
The present object is to show that, while honouring the creative Powers in their multiple forms, no philosopher could, or ever has, accepted the allegory for the true Spirit, except, perhaps, some philosophers belonging to the present "superior and civilized" Christian races.
For, as shown, Jehovah is not one whit the superior of Vishnu on the plane of ethics.
This is why the Occultists and even some Kabalists, whether they regard or not those creative Forces as living and conscious Entities -- and one does not see why they should not be so accepted -- will never confuse the C AUSE with the effect, and accept the Spirit of the Earth for Parabrahm or Ain-Soph.
At all events they know well the true nature of what was called Father-AEther by the Greeks, Jupiter-Titan, etc., etc.
They know that the soul of the A STRAL L IGHT is divine, and [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Wilson's opinion that the "Vishnu Purana" is a production of our era , and that in its present form it is not earlier than between the VIIIth and the XVIIth (!!) century, is absurd beyond noticing.
[[Vol.
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its body (the light-waves on the lower planes) infernal.
This Light is symbolized by the "Magic Head" in the Zohar , the double Face on the double Pyramid: the black pyramid rising against a pure white ground, with a white head and face within its black triangle; the white pyramid, inverted -- the reflection of the first in the dark waters, showing the black reflection of the white face .
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This is the "Astral Light," or D EMON EST D EUS I NVERSUS.
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The universal fluid or medium of occult philosophy — Lévi's Great Magical Agent — that transmits will, thought, and magical influence between minds and matter, and preserves the impress of all forms and actions as a book of consciences; cognate with akasha and the anima mundi. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of hidden affinity) in being a substantival medium that can be charged, directed, and abused.
The passage explicitly and centrally discusses the Astral Light, stating 'the soul of the Astral Light is divine, and its body (the light-waves on the lower planes) infernal,' and identifies the Zohar's 'Magic Head' and the double pyramid as its symbol.
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 double pyramid description (white pyramid reflected in dark waters as black pyramid) explicitly maps upper-plane reality onto lower-plane reflection, embodying the 'as above, so below' principle.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
The passage distinguishes between the supreme transcendent principle (Parabrahm/Ain-Soph) and the 'Spirit of the Earth' (Vishnu as arch-Deceiver), explicitly warning against 'confusing the CAUSE with the effect' — a classic demiurge distinction.
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 establishes a clear hierarchy from Parabrahm/Ain-Soph (the supreme) down through 'creative Powers in their multiple forms' to the 'Spirit of the Earth' and the 'light-waves on the lower planes,' each level less perfect than the one above.
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 mention of a 'key' held by Initiates for reading the Puranas esoterically implies a chain of transmission of interpretive wisdom across generations.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The passage implies that true understanding of the allegory requires direct experiential or initiatic knowledge ('the key') rather than surface-level textual reading or faith in the exoteric narrative.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage's central argument is that the Vishnu Purana allegory contains 'a secret meaning hidden under this allegory' accessible only to 'Initiates who can read them with the key that is in their possession.'
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
The passage presents the Astral Light as having a divine soul and an infernal body, and the double pyramid as white/black reflections of each other — two poles of the same reality differing in degree and plane.
The 'shells' or 'husks' of Kabbalistic doctrine — the obverse, unbalanced counterpart that each Sephira throws off during its own emanation, going off by itself to form its own shadow-sphere in Chaos, the Habitations of Hell, personified as Qlippothic demons (the 'Obscene Ones,' the 'Disputers') mirroring the Archangels of the corresponding Sephira. Distinct from kenoma (the Gnostic void outside the pleroma generally, one undifferentiated realm of deficiency, not this specific one-shadow-per-Sephira structure) and archons (Gnostic planetary rulers governing matter directly, not an unbalanced-emanation byproduct).
The passage describes the Astral Light's inverted reflection — 'the black pyramid rising against a pure white ground' and 'the white pyramid, inverted — the reflection of the first in the dark waters, showing the black reflection of the white face' — and names it 'DEMON EST DEUS INVERSUS,' which is structurally the Qliphoth concept of shadow-counterparts thrown off by each emanation.
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 reference to 'Initiates who can read them with the key that is in their possession' implies an organized body collectively holding esoteric interpretive knowledge.
The trickster archetype: a boundary-breaking figure — Loki, Unktomee the Spider, the Cherokee Rabbit, Hermes — whose deception, cunning, and rule-violation drive mythic change, often doubling as culture hero; sacred disorder as an engine of the cosmos.
The Mayamoha narrative is presented as a divine trickster who uses deception, disguise (as a naked mendicant), and cunning to seduce the Daityas from their path, explicitly compared to the Serpent seducing Eve.