In the original allegory it is matter -- hence the more material angels -- which was regarded as the conqueror of Spirit, or the Archangels who "fell" on this plane.
"They of the flaming sword (or animal passions) had put to flight the Spirits of Darkness." Yet it is the latter who fought for the supremacy of the conscious and divine spirituality on Earth and failed, succumbing to the power of matter.
But in theological dogma we see the reverse.
It is Michael, "who is like unto God," the representative of Jehovah, who is the leader of the celestial hosts -- as Lucifer, in Milton's fancy, is of the infernal hosts -- who has the best of Satan.
It is true that the nature of [[Vol.
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Michael depends upon that of his Creator and Master.
Who the latter is, one may find out by carefully studying the allegory of the "War in Heaven" with the astronomical key.
As shown by Bentley, the "War of the Titans against the gods" in Hesiod, and also the war of the Asuras (or the Tarakamaya) against the devas in Puranic legend, are identical in all save the names.
The aspects of the stars show (Bentley taking the year 945 B.C .
as the nearest date for such conjunction) that "all the planets, except Saturn, were on the same side of the heavens as the Sun and Moon," and hence were his opponents.
And yet it is Saturn, or the Jewish "Moon-god," who is shown as prevailing, both by Hesiod and Moses, neither of whom was understood.
Thus it was that the real meaning became distorted.
------- STANZA II.
-- Continued.
8.
T HE FLAMES CAME.
T HE FIRES WITH THE SPARKS; THE NIGHT FIRES AND THE DAY FIRES ( a ).
T HEY DRIED OUT THE TURBID DARK WATERS.
W ITH THEIR HEAT THEY QUENCHED THEM.
T HE L HAS ( Spirits ) OF THE HIGH; T HE LHAMAYIN ( those ) OF BELOW, CAME ( b ) .
T HEY SLEW THE FORMS, WHICH WERE TWO- AND FOUR-FACED.
T HEY FOUGHT THE GOAT-MEN, AND THE DOG-HEADED MEN, AND THE MEN WITH FISHES' BODIES.
( a ) The "Flames" are a Hierarchy of Spirits parallel to, if not identical with, the "burning" fiery Saraph (Seraphim) mentioned by Isaiah (vi.
2-6), those who attend, according to Hebrew Theogony, "the Throne of the Almighty." Melha is the Lord of the "Flames." When he appears on Earth, he assumes the personality of a Buddha, says a popular legend.
He is one of the most ancient and revered Lhas, a Buddhist St.
Michael.
( b ) The word "Below" must not be taken to mean infernal regions, but simply a spiritual, or rather ethereal, Being of a lower grade, because nearer to the Earth, or one step higher than our terrestrial sphere; while the Lhas are Spirits of the highest Spheres -- whence the name of the capital of Tibet, Lha-ssa.
Besides a statement of a purely physical nature and belonging to the [[Vol.
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evolution of life on Earth, there may be another allegorical meaning attached to this Sloka, or indeed, as is taught, several.
The FLAMES, or "Fires," represent Spirit, or the male element, and "Water," matter, or the opposite element.
And here again we find, in the action of the Spirit slaying the purely material form, a reference to the eternal struggle, on the physical and psychic planes, between Spirit and Matter, besides a scientific cosmic fact.
For, as said in the next verse: -- ------- 9.
M OTHER-WATER, THE GREAT SEA WEPT.
S HE AROSE, SHE DISAPPEARED IN THE M OON, WHICH HAD LIFTED HER, WHICH HAD GIVEN HER BIRTH ( a ).
( a ) Now what can this mean?
Is it not an evident reference to tidal action in the early stage of the history of our planet in its fourth Round?
Modern research has been busy of late in its speculations on the Palaeozoic high-tides.
Mr.
Darwin's theory was that not less than 52,000,000 years ago -- and probably much more -- the Moon originated from the Earth's plastic mass.
Starting from the point where research was left by Helmholtz, Ferrel, Sir William Thomson and others, he retraced the course of tidal retardation of the earth's rotary motions far back into the very night of time, and placed the Moon during the infancy of our planet at only "a fraction of its present distance." In short, his theory was that it is the Moon which separated from the Earth.
The tidal elevation concurring with the swing of the globular mass -- centrifugal tendency being then nearly equal to gravity -- the latter was overcome, and the tidally elevated mass could thus separate completely from the Earth.* The Occult teaching is the reverse of this.
The Moon is far older than the Earth; and, as explained in Book I., it is the latter which owes its being to the former, however astronomy and geology may explain the fact.
Hence, the tides and the attraction to the Moon, as shown by the liquid portion of the Globe ever striving to raise itself towards its parent.
This is the meaning of the sentence that "the Mother-Water arose and disappeared in the Moon, which had lifted her, which had given her birth." ------- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * But see the difficulties suggested later, in the works of various geologists, against this theory.
Compare Sir R.
S.
Bull's article in " Nature " (Dec.
1, 1881), and also what the American geologists say.
[[Vol.
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10.
W HEN THEY ( the Rupas ) WERE DESTROYED, M OTHER-EARTH REMAINED BARE,* SHE ASKED TO BE DRIED ( a ).** ( a ) The time for its incrustation had arrived.
The waters had separated and the process was started.
It was the beginning of a new life.
This is what one key divulges to us.
Another key teaches the origin of Water, its admixture with Fire (liquid fire it calls it),*** and enters upon an alchemical description of the progeny of the two -- solid matter such as minerals and earths.
From the "Waters of Space," the progeny of the male Spirit-Fire and the female (gaseous) Water has become the Oceanic expanse on Earth.
Varuna is dragged down from the infinite Space, to reign as Neptune over the finite Seas.
As always, the popular fancy is found to be based on a strictly scientific foundation.
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 uses an 'astronomical key' to decode mythological allegories, showing that celestial configurations map onto the 'War in Heaven' narrative, and draws parallels between Hesiodic, Puranic, and biblical versions as identical in all save names.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage is centrally a cosmogonic narrative: the Earth's origin from the Moon, the 'Waters of Space' as progeny of Spirit-Fire and Water, the formation of the Oceanic expanse, the destruction of Rupas, and the incrustation of Mother-Earth.
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 hierarchy of spiritual beings: 'Lhas of the High' and 'Lhamayin of Below,' the Flames as a hierarchy parallel to the Seraphim, and Melha as Lord of the Flames, forming a structured cascade of spiritual grades.
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 explicitly assigns masculine and feminine principles to cosmic elements: 'the male Spirit-Fire and the female (gaseous) Water' whose progeny becomes the Oceanic expanse, making gender a structural feature of creation itself.
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 explicitly identifies Spirit/Fire/male and Water/Matter/female as 'opposite elements' and 'two contrary forces' whose interaction constitutes the fundamental structure of cosmic evolution.