(See also the 21st Fargard of the Vendidad on the celestial militia.) He is the golden-coloured Mercury, the [[ chrusophaes Hermes ]] whom the Hierophants forbade to name.
He is symbolised in Grecian mythology by one of the dogs (vigilance), which watch over the celestial flock (occult wisdom), or Hermes Anubis, or again Agathodaemon.
He is the Argus watching over the Earth, and which the latter mistakes for the Sun itself.
It is through the intercession of Mercury that the Emperor Julian prayed to the Occult Sun every night; for, as says Vossius: "All the theologians agree to say that Mercury and the Sun are one .
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He was the most eloquent and the most wise of all the gods, which is not to be wondered at, since Mercury is in such close proximity to the Wisdom and the Word of God (the Sun) that he was confused with both." ( Idolatry, Vol.
II., p.
373.) Vossius utters here a greater occult truth than he suspected.
The Hermes-Sarameyas of the Greeks is closely related to the Hindu Saram and Sarameya, the divine watchman, "who watches over the golden flock of stars and solar rays." In the clearer words of the Commentary: " The Globe, propelled onward by the Spirit of the Earth and his six assistants, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Copernicus wrote his theories on the "Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies" in the XVI th century, and the Zohar, even if compiled by Moses de Leon in the XIII th century, states that: "In the book of Hammannunah, the Old, we learn .
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that the earth turns upon itself in the form of a circle; that some are on top, the others below, .
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that there are some countries which are lightened, whilst others are in darkness; these have the day, when for the former it is night; and there are countries in which it is constantly day, or in which at least the night continues only some instants." ( Zohar iii., fol.
10 a "Qabbalah," p.
139.) [[Vol.
2, Page]] 29 THE CELESTIAL GOVERNORS OF HUMANITY.
gets all its vital forces, life, and powers through the medium of the seven planetary Dhyanis from the Spirit of the Sun.
They are his messengers of Light and Life.
" " Like each of the seven regions of the Earth, each of the seven* Firstborn (the primordial human groups) receives its light and life from its own especial Dhyani -- spiritually, and from the palace (house, the planet) of that Dhyani physically; so with the seven great Races to be born on it.
The first is born under the Sun; the second under Brihaspati (Jupiter); the third under Lohitanga (the "fiery-bodied," Venus, or Sukra); the fourth, under Soma (the Moon, our Globe also, the Fourth Sphere being born under and from the Moon) and Sani, Saturn** the Krura-lochana (evil-eyed) and the Asita (the dark); the fifth, under Budha (Mercury)." " So also with man and every ' man ' in man (every principle).
Each gets its specific quality from its primary (the planetary spirit), therefore every man is a septenate (or a combination of principles, each having its origin in a quality of that special Dhyani).
Every active power or force of the earth comes to her from one of the seven Lords.
Light comes through Sukra (Venus) , who receives a triple supply, and gives one-third of it to the Earth.
Therefore the two are called ' Twin-sisters, ' but the Spirit of the Earth is subservient to the ' Lord ' of Sukra.
Our wise men represent the two Globes, one over, the other under the double Sign (the primeval Svastica bereft of its four arms, or the cross )."*** The "double sign" is, as every student of Occultism knows, the symbol of the male and the female principles in Nature, of the positive and the negative, for the Svastica or is all that and much more.
All antiquity, ever since the birth of Astronomy -- imparted to the Fourth Race by one of its divine kings of the Divine Dynasty -- and [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Science teaches that Venus receives from the sun twice as much light and heat as the earth.
Thus the planet, precursor of the dawn and the twilight, the most radiant of all the planets, said to give the earth one-third of the supply she receives, has two parts left for herself.
This has an occult as well as an astronomical meaning.
** "As it is above so it is below" is the fundamental axiom of occult philosophy.
As the logos is seven-fold, i.e ., throughout Kosmos it appears as seven logoi under seven different forms, or, as taught by learned Brahmins, "each of these is the central figure of one of the seven main branches of the ancient wisdom religion;" and, as the seven principles which correspond to the seven distinct states of Pragna , or consciousness, are allied to seven states of matter and the seven forms of force, the division must be the same in all that concerns the earth.
*** Venus is thus the Earth .
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 30 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
also of Astrology, represented Venus in its astronomical tables as a Globe poised over a Cross, and the Earth, as a Globe under a Cross .
The esoteric meaning of this is: "Earth fallen into generation, or into the production of its species through sexual union." But the later Western nations did not fail to give quite a different interpretation.
They explained this sign through their mystics -- guided by the light of the Latin Church -- as meaning that our Earth and all on it were redeemed by the Cross, while Venus (otherwise Lucifer or Satan) was trampling upon it.
Venus is the most occult, powerful, and mysterious of all the planets; the one whose influence upon, and relation to the Earth is most prominent.
In exoteric Brahmanism, Venus or Sukra -- a male deity* -- is the son of Bhrigu, one of the Prajapati and a Vedic sage, and is Daitya-Guru, or the priest-instructor of the primeval giants.
The whole history of "Sukra" in the Puranas, refers to the Third and to the Fourth Races.
" It is through Sukra that the ' double ones ' ( the Hermaphrodites ) of the Third (Root-Race) descended from the first ' Sweat-born, '" says the Commentary.
Therefore it is represented under the symbol of (the circle and diameter) during the Third ( Race ) and of during the Fourth.
This needs explanation.
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 explicitly cites 'As it is above so it is below' as the fundamental axiom and extensively demonstrates the mapping of planetary principles to human principles, Races, and earthly phenomena at every scale.
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 hierarchical flow from the Spirit of the Sun through seven planetary Dhyanis to the Earth and human principles, each level receiving from the one above.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The passage explicitly states 'the Wisdom and the Word of God (the Sun)' and that 'the logos is seven-fold, i.e. throughout Kosmos it appears as seven logoi under seven different forms.'
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The passage explicitly states 'So also with man and every man in man (every principle). Each gets its specific quality from its primary (the planetary spirit), therefore every man is a septenate,' making the human the privileged mirror of cosmic structure.
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 'double sign' is explicitly identified as 'the symbol of the male and the female principles in Nature, of the positive and the negative,' presenting opposites as two poles of the same structural reality.
The rule of the stars and planetary powers over mortal destiny — the astrological governors whose spheres bind souls to birth, error, and death; in Sethian gnosis the 'error of the stars' that the savior exposes, and from which the incorruptible generation alone is free. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of universal affinity) in being a bondage-to-powers claim, and from archons (the rulers as personal beings) in concerning the astral machinery itself.
Each Race is born under a specific planet and each human principle receives its quality from a planetary spirit, establishing the rule of planetary powers over mortal destiny.