If the student of Esoteric philosophy thinks deeply over the subject he is sure to find out all the suggestiveness of the term Ambhamsi, in its manifold relations to the Virgin in Heaven, to the Celestial Virgin of the Alchemists, and even to the "Waters of Grace" of the modern Baptist.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 459 THE PATRON-GUIDE OF ISRAEL.
the howling and terrific destroyer of human passions and physical senses , which are ever in the way of the development of the higher spiritual perceptions and the growth of the inner eternal man -- mystically,* are the progeny of Siva, the Mahayogi , the great patron of all the Yogis and mystics of India.
They themselves, being the "Virgin-Ascetics," refuse to create the material being MAN.
Well may they be suspected of a direct connection with the Christian Archangel Michael, the "Virgin Combatant" of the Dragon Apophis , whose victim is every soul united too loosely to its immortal Spirit, the Angel who, as shown by the Gnostics, refused to create just as the Kumaras did.
( See Book II.
, " The Mystic Dragons and their Slayers.
") .
.
.
Does not that patron-Angel of the Jews preside over Saturn (Siva or Rudra), and the Sabbath, the day of Saturn?
Is he not shown of the same essence with his father (Saturn), and called the "Son of Time," Kronos , or Kala (time), a form of Brahma (Vishnu and Siva)?" And is not "Old Time" of the Greeks, with its scythe and sand-glass, identical with the "Ancient of Days" of the Kabalists, the latter "Ancient" being one with the Hindu "Ancient of Days," Brahma (in his triune form), whose name is also "Sanat," the Ancient?
Every Kumara bears the prefix of Sanat and Sana; and Sanaischara is Saturn, the planet (Sani and Sarra), the King Saturn whose Secretary in Egypt was Thot-Hermes the first.
They are thus identified both with the planet and the god (Siva), who are, in their turn, shown the prototypes of Saturn, who is the same as Bel, Baal, Siva, and Jehovah Sabbaoth, The angel of whose face is MIKAEL ( "who is as God").
He is the patron, and guardian Angel of the Jews, as Daniel tells us (v.
21); and, before the Kumaras were degraded, by those who were ignorant of their very name, into demons and fallen angels, the Greek Ophites, the occultly inclined predecessors and precursors of the Roman Catholic Church after its secession and separation from the primitive Greek Church, had identified Michael with their Ophiomorphos , the rebellious and opposing spirit.
This means nothing more than the reverse aspect (symbolically) of Ophis -- divine Wisdom or Christos.
In the Talmud , Mikael (Michael) is "Prince of Water " and the chief of the seven Spirits, for the same reason that his prototype (among many others) Sanat-Sujata, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Siva-Rudra is the Destroyer, as Vishnu is the preserver; and both are the regenerators of spiritual as well as of physical nature.
To live as a plant, the seed must die.
To live as a conscious entity in the Eternity, the passions and senses of man must first DIE before his body does.
"To live is to die and to die is to live," has been too little understood in the West.
Siva, the destroyer , is the creator and the Saviour of Spiritual man, as he is the good gardener of nature.
He weeds out the plants, human and cosmic, and kills the passions of the physical, to call to life the perceptions of the spiritual, man.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 460 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
-- the chief of the Kumaras -- is called Ambhamsi, "Waters," -- according to the commentary on Vishnu Purana.
Why?
Because the "Waters" is another name of the "Great Deep," the primordial Waters of space or Chaos , and also means "Mother," Amba , meaning Aditi and Akasa, the Celestial Virgin-Mother of the visible universe.
Furthermore, the "Waters of the flood" are also called "the G REAT D RAGON," or Ophis, Ophio-Morphos.
The Rudras will be noticed in their Septenary character of "Fire-Spirits" in the "Symbolism" attached to the Stanzas in Book II.
There we shall also consider the Cross (3 + 4) under its primeval and later forms, and shall use for purposes of comparison the Pythagorean numbers side by side with Hebrew Metrology.
The immense importance of the number seven will thus become evident, as the root number of nature.
We shall examine it from the standpoints of the Vedas and the Chaldean Scriptures, as it existed in Egypt thousands of years B.C ., and as treated in the Gnostic records; we shall show how its importance as a basic number has gained recognition in physical Science; and we shall endeavour to prove that the importance attached to the number seven throughout all antiquity was due to no fanciful imaginings of uneducated priests, but to a profound knowledge of natural law.
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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 entire passage is structured around cross-cultural identifications—Siva=Saturn=Kronos=Baal=Jehovah Sabbaoth, Michael=Sanat-Sujata, Brahma=the Ancient of Days, Ophis=Christos—making the 'as above so below' structural mapping its central operative method.
Naturally-existing, non-human intelligences native to a single element — earth, air, fire, or water — rather than the fourfold-composite human nature: Paracelsus's gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines; the Deva Kingdom or fairy kingdom of Western occultism, forming their own parallel kingdom capable of incarnating in or forming relationships with humans. Distinct from artificial_elemental (a manufactured thought-entity deliberately created by a single operator, not a naturally-occurring species) and animism (the general doctrine that nature-places host indwelling spirits, of which this is one specific taxonomic system organised around the four elements rather than locality).
The Rudras are described as having a 'Septenary character of Fire-Spirits,' placing them as naturally-existing non-human intelligences associated with a specific element (fire).
The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).
The passage repeatedly invokes the feminine principle operating at the cosmic level—the Virgin-Ascetics, the Celestial Virgin-Mother (Amba/Aditi/Akasa), the 'Waters' as 'Mother'—alongside masculine creative/destructive principles (Siva, Brahma), demonstrating the masculine-feminine generative duality as a structural feature of creation.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The opening instruction that 'the student of Esoteric philosophy thinks deeply over the subject he is sure to find out all the suggestiveness' frames salvific knowledge as arising from contemplative insight rather than external authority.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage presents itself as revealing 'the suggestiveness of the term Ambhamsi' and hidden connections between traditions that are 'sure to find out' only through deep contemplation, framing the teaching as esoteric knowledge with concealed inner meaning.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage explicitly argues for the number seven as 'the root number of nature,' citing its importance across the Vedas, Chaldean Scriptures, Egypt, Gnostic records, and physical science, and references the Cross (3+4) and Pythagorean numbers.
The doctrine that the one Godhead or first principle subsists as three co-equal aspects or persons rather than a bare unity — the Christian Father/Son/Holy Ghost invoked in the recurring liturgical formula 'In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' but structurally the same pattern as the Egyptian Amen/Ptah/Osiris, the Hindu Brahma/Vishnu/Siva, and the Kabbalistic Chochmah/Binah/Kether triads that esoteric writers explicitly map onto it as instances of one universal law. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about internal plurality) and divine_simplicity (God as having no parts or divisions at all) in asserting a definite three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
The passage explicitly identifies Brahma 'in his triune form' (Vishnu and Siva) and equates this with the 'Ancient of Days' of the Kabalists, mapping the Hindu triad onto a universal three-aspected divine structure.