Whether Egyptian or Pelasgian, Aryan or Semitic, the genius loci , the local god, embraced in its unity all nature; but not especially the four elements any more than one of their creations, such as trees, rivers, mounts or stars.
The genius loci -- a very late after-thought of the last sub-races of the Fifth Root-race, when the primitive and grandiose meaning had become nearly lost -- was ever the representative in his accumulated titles of all his colleagues.
It was the god of fire , symbolised by thunder, as Jove or Agni; the god of water , symbolised by the fluvial bull or some sacred river or fountain, as Varuna, Neptune, etc.; the god of air , manifesting in the hurricane and tempest, as Vayu and Indra; and the god or spirit [[Vol.
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of the earth, who appeared in earthquakes, like Pluto, Yama, and so many others.
These were the Cosmic gods, ever synthesizing all in one, as found in every cosmogony or mythology.
Thus, the Greeks had their Dodonean Jupiter, who included in himself the four elements and the four cardinal points, and who was recognized, therefore, in old Rome under the pantheistic title of Jupiter Mundus ; and who now, in modern Rome, has become the Deus Mundus , the one mundane god, who is made to swallow all others in the latest theology -- by the arbitrary decision of his special ministers.
As gods of Fire, Air, Water, they were celestial gods; as gods of the lower region , they were infernal deities: the latter adjective applying simply to the Earth.
They were "Spirits of the Earth" under their respective names of Yama, Pluto, Osiris, the "Lord of the lower kingdom, etc., etc.," and their tellurial character proves it sufficiently.* The ancients knew of no worse abode after death than the Kamaloka , the limbus on this Earth.
If it is argued that the Dodonean Jupiter was identified with Aidoneus, the king of the subterranean world, and Dis , or the Roman Pluto and the Dionysius Chthonios, the subterranean, wherein, according to Creuzer (I, vi., ch.
1), oracles were rendered, then it will become the pleasure of the Occultists to prove that both Aidoneus and Dionysius are the bases of Adonai, or "Jurbo Adonai," as Jehovah is called in Codex Nazaraeus.
"Thou shalt not worship the Sun, who is named Adonai, whose name is also Kadush and El-El" ( Cod.
Naz.
, I, 47; see also Psalm lxxxix., 18), and also "Lord Bacchus." Baal-Adonis of the Sods or Mysteries of the pre-Babylonian Jews became the Adonai by the Massorah, the later-vowelled Jehovah.
Hence the Roman Catholics are right.
All these Jupiters are of the same family; but Jehovah has to be included therein to make it complete.
Jupiter- Aerios or Pan , the Jupiter Ammon, and the Jupiter-Bel-Moloch, are all correlations and one with Yurbo-Adonai, because they are all one cosmic nature.
It is that nature and power which create the specific terrestrial symbol, and the physical and material fabric of the latter, which proves the Energy manifesting through it as extrinsic.
For primitive religion was something better than simple pre-occupation about physical phenomena, as remarked by Schilling; and principles, more elevated than we modern Sadducees know of, "were hidden under the transparent veil of such merely natural divinities as thunder, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The Gehenna of the Bible was a valley near Jerusalem, where the monotheistic Jews immolated their children to Moloch, if the prophet Jeremiah is to be believed on his word.
The Scandinavian Hel or Hela was a frigid region -- again Kamaloka -- and the Egyptian Amenti a place of purification.
(See Isis Unveiled , Vol.
II., p.
11.) [[Vol.
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the winds, and rain." The ancients knew and could distinguish the corporeal from the spiritual elements, in the forces of nature.
The four-fold Jupiter, as the four-faced Brahma -- the aerial, the fulgurant, the terrestrial, and the marine god -- the lord and master of the four elements, may stand as a representative for the great Cosmic gods of every nation.
While passing power over the fire to Hephaistos-Vulcan, over the sea, to Poseidon-Neptune, and over the Earth, to Pluto-Aidoneus -- the AERIAL Jove was all these; for AE THER, from the first, had pre-eminence over, and was the synthesis of, all the elements.
Tradition points to a grotto, a vast cave in the deserts of Central Asia, whereinto light pours through its four seemingly natural apertures or clefts placed crossways at the four cardinal points of the place.
From noon till an hour before sunset that light streams in, of four different colours, as averred -- red, blue, orange-gold, and white -- owing to some either natural or artificially prepared conditions of vegetation and soil.
The light converges in the centre around a pillar of white marble with a globe upon it, which represents our earth.
It is named the "grotto of Zaratushta." When included under the arts and sciences of the fourth race, the Atlanteans, the phenomenal manifestation of the four elements, justly attributed by the believers in Cosmic gods to the intelligent interference of the latter, assumed a scientific character.
The magic of the ancient priests consisted, in those days, in addressing their gods in their own language.
"The speech of the men of the earth cannot reach the Lords.
Each must be addressed in the language of his respective element" -- is a sentence which will be shown pregnant with meaning.
" The Book of Rules " cited adds as an explanation of the nature of that Element -language: "It is composed of sounds , not words; of sounds, numbers and figures.
He who knows how to blend the three, will call forth the response of the superintending Power" (the regent-god of the specific element needed).
Thus this "language" is that of incantations or of M ANTRAS, as they are called in India, sound being the most potent and effectual magic agent , and the first of the keys which opens the door of communication between Mortals and the Immortals.
He who believes in the words and teachings of St.
Paul, has no right to pick out from the latter those sentences only that he chooses to accept, to the rejection of others; and St.
Paul teaches most undeniably the existence of cosmic gods and their presence among us.
The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.
The passage's central subject is the genius loci as local god embracing all nature in unity, with explicit examples of tree, river, mountain, and star spirits across Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, and Roman traditions, embodying the plurality, locality, and landscape-embedded character of the divine.
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 maps structural correspondences across traditions (Jupiter=Brahma=Adonai, the four elements mapped to four cardinal points, celestial/infernal as upper/lower regions) demonstrating that the cosmos reflects the same structure at every scale and in every culture.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
The genius loci 'embraced in its unity all nature' and the cosmic gods manifest through natural phenomena (thunder, rivers, earthquakes), presenting the divine as pervading and present within all of creation rather than remaining transcendent above it.
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 passage systematically organizes divine beings by the four elements—fire (Jove/Agni), water (Varuna/Neptune), air (Vayu/Indra), earth (Pluto/Yama)—presenting them as a taxonomic system of naturally-existing intelligences native to each element.
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 references a chain of transmission through the Atlanteans, the grotto of Zaratushta, and 'The Book of Rules,' suggesting a historical lineage of secret knowledge, though it does not detail a master-disciple chain.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly states that 'primitive religion was something better than simple pre-occupation about physical phenomena' and that elevated principles 'were hidden under the transparent veil of such merely natural divinities as thunder, the winds, and rain,' asserting an esoteric meaning beneath the exoteric surface.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The passage describes a non-physical dimension of cosmic gods and elemental spirits interpenetrating the physical world, with Kamaloka as a liminal plane on Earth, and celestial/infernal deities operating through natural phenomena like thunder, hurricanes, and earthquakes.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
The gods are described as dynamic, responsive beings who 'create the specific terrestrial symbol' and can be 'addressed' in their own language and will 'call forth the response of the superintending Power,' presenting them as active and present rather than abstract principles.
Sacred knowledge transmitted as living speech rather than fixed writing — scripture carried in memory, song, and telling, renewed in each generation; the unwritten canon of a tradition.
The elemental language is described as 'composed of sounds, not words' and the magic of ancient priests consisted in 'addressing their gods in their own language,' suggesting a spoken rather than written mode of sacred transmission.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage repeatedly asserts that all gods are 'of the same family,' 'one cosmic nature,' and 'ever synthesizing all in one,' with Aether as 'the synthesis of all the elements,' presenting a theological claim of ultimate oneness underlying all divine multiplicity.
The Hermetic doctrine that nothing rests — matter, energy, mind, and spirit are a single continuum differing only in rate of vibration, from the grossest matter to the least material spirit. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (affinity resonating BETWEEN separate things) in being a claim about what constitutes any one thing in the first place, and from magical_equilibrium (Lévi's operational balancing technique, which presupposes some vibration doctrine rather than stating this general principle).
The passage identifies 'sounds' as the fundamental medium of elemental communication and 'the most potent and effectual magic agent,' implying that reality is structured by vibrational principles that can be blended to produce effects.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The passage devotes its final section to the doctrine that the 'language' of elements is 'composed of sounds, not words; of sounds, numbers and figures' and that 'sound being the most potent and effectual magic agent' and 'the first of the keys which opens the door of communication between Mortals and the Immortals,' explicitly identifying this as the doctrine of mantras and incantations.