Page 53 (part 2)

In short, combinations of various animals and men, of fishes, reptiles and other monstrous animals assuming each other's shapes and countenances. The feminine element they resided in, is personified by Thalatth -- the Sea, or "Water" -- which was finally conquered by Belus, the male principle. And Polyhistor says: "Belus came and cut the woman asunder, and of one half of her he formed the Earth, and of the other half the heavens, and at the same time he destroyed the animals within her." As pertinently remarked by I. Myer, "with the Akkadians each object and power of Nature had its Zi, Spirit. The Akkadians formed their deities into triads, usually males (sexless, rather?); the Semites also had triadic deities, but introduced sex" (p. 246) -- or phallicism. With the Aryans and the earliest Akkadians all things are emanations through, not by, a creator or logos. With the Semites everything is begotten. ------- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Whence the identity of the ideas? The Chinese have the same traditions. According to the commentator Kwoh P'oh, in the work called Shan-Hai-King, "Wonders by Sea and Land," a work which was written by the historiographer Chung Ku from engravings on nine urns made by the Emperor Yu, (B.C. 2255), an interview is mentioned with men having two distinct faces on their heads, before and behind, monsters with bodies of goats and human faces, etc. Gould, in his " Mythical Monsters, " p. 27, giving the names of some authors on Natural History, mentions Shan-Hai-King. Ac cording to Kwoh P'oh (A.D. 276-324) this work was compiled three thousand years before his time, or at seven dynasties distance. Yang Sun of the Ming Dynasty (commencing A.D. 1368) states that it was compiled by Kung Chia and Chung Ku (as stated above). Chung Ku at the time of the last emperor of the Hia dynasty, B.C. 1818, fearing that the emperor might destroy the books treating of the ancient time, carried them in his flight to Yin. (See " Mythical Monsters, " by C. Gould, p. 27.) [[Vol. 2, Page]] 55 UNAIDED PHYSICAL NATURE FAILS. 6. T HE W ATER-MEN TERRIBLE AND BAD SHE HERSELF CREATED. F ROM THE REMAINS OF OTHERS ( from the mineral, vegetable and animal remains ) FROM THE FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD ( Rounds ) SHE FORMED THEM. T HE D HYANI CAME AND LOOKED. . . . . T HE D HYANI FROM THE BRIGHT F ATHER- M OTHER, FROM THE WHITE ( Solar-lunar ) REGIONS THEY CAME,* FROM THE ABODES OF THE I MMORTAL- M ORTALS ( a ). ( a ) The explanations given in our Stanzas are far more clear than that which the legend of creation from the Cutha tablet would give, even were it complete. What is preserved on it, however, corroborates them. For, in the tablet, "the Lord of Angels" destroys the men in the abyss, when "there were not left the carcases and waste" after they were slaughtered. After which they, the Great Gods, create men with the bodies of birds of the desert, human beings, "seven kings, brothers of the same family," etc., which is a reference to the locomotive qualities of the primary ethereal bodies of men, which could fly as well as they could walk,** but who "were destroyed" because they were not " perfect, " i.e. , they "were sexless, like the Kings of Edom." Weeded of metaphors and allegories, what will science say to this idea of a primordial creation of species? It will object to the "Angels" and "Spirits" having anything to do therewith: but if it is nature and the physical law of evolution that are the creators of all there is now on Earth, why could there be "no such abyss" when the globe was covered with waters, in which numbers of monstrous beings were generated? Is it the "human beings" and animals with human heads and double faces, which are a point of the objection? But if man is only a higher animal and has evolved from the brute species by an infinite series of transformations, why could not the "missing links" have had human heads attached to the bodies of animals, or, being two-headed, have heads of beasts and vice versa, in Nature's early efforts? Are we not shown during the geological periods, in the ages of the reptiles and the mammalia, lizards with birds' wings, and serpents' heads on animal bodies.*** And, arguing from the standpoint of science, does not even our modern human race occasionally furnish us with monster-specimens: two-headed children, animal bodies with human heads, dog-headed babies, etc., etc.? And this proves that, if nature will still play such [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Gods and planetary Spirits, especially the Ribhus. "The three Ribhus" who yet become "thrice seven in number" of their gifts. ** Remember the "winged Races" of Plato; and the Popol-Vuh accounts of the first human race, which could walk, fly and see objects, however distant. *** See " Mythical Monsters, " by Charles Gould. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 56 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. freaks now that she has settled for ages into the order of her evolutionary work, monsters, like those described by Berosus, were a possibility in her opening programme; which possibility may even have existed once upon a time as a law, before she sorted out her species and began regular work upon them; which indeed now admits of definite proof by the bare fact of " R EVERSION," as science puts it. This is what the doctrine teaches and demonstrates by numerous proofs. But we shall not wait for the approval of either dogmatic theology or materialistic science, but proceed with the Stanzas. Let these speak for themselves, with the help of the light thrown by the Commentaries and their explanations; the scientific aspect of these questions will be considered later on. Thus physical nature, when left to herself in the creation of animal and man, is shown to have failed. She can produce the first two and the lower animal kingdoms, but when it comes to the turn of man, spiritual, independent and intelligent powers are required for his creation, besides the "coats of skin" and the "Breath of animal Life." The human Monads of preceding Rounds need something higher than purely physical materials to build their personalities with, under the penalty of remaining even below any "Frankenstein" animal.* ------- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * In the first volume of the lately published " Introduction a l ' atude des Races Humaines, " by M.