Page 61 (part 6)

"* Now in the original, the words "their secret" really are "their S OD."** And Sod was the name for the great mysteries of Baal, Adonis and Bacchus, who were all sun-gods and had serpents for symbols. The Kabalists explain the allegory of the fiery serpents by saying that this was the name given to the tribe of Levi, to all the Levites, in short, and that Moses was the chief of the Sodales. *** It is to the mysteries that the original meaning of the "Dragon-Slayers" has to be traced, and the question is fully treated of hereafter. Meanwhile it follows that, if Moses was the chief of the Mysteries, he was the Hierophant thereof, and further, if, at the same time, we find the prophets thundering against the "abominations" of the people of Israel, that there were two schools. "Fiery serpents" was, then, simply the epithet given to the Levites of the priestly caste, after they had departed from the good law, the traditional teachings of Moses: and to all those who followed Black Magic. Isaiah, when referring to the "rebellious children" who will have to carry their riches into the land whence come "the viper and fiery flying serpent " ( xxx. 6), or Chaldea and Egypt, whose Initiates had already greatly degenerated in his day (700 B.C .), meant the sorcerers of those lands.**** But these must be carefully distinguished from the "Fiery Dragons of Wisdom" and the "Sons of the Fire Mist." In the " Great Book of the Mysteries " we are told that: "Seven Lords created Seven men; three Lords (Dhyan Chohans or Pitris) were holy and good, four less heavenly and full of passion. . . . The chhayas (phantoms) of the Fathers were as they." This accounts for the differences in human nature, which is divided into seven gradations of good and evil. There were seven tabernacles ready to be inhabited by Monads under seven different Karmic conditions. The Commentaries explain on this basis the easy spread of evil, as soon as the human Forms had become real men. Some ancient [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * " Genesis, " ch. xlix. ** Dunlap, in his introduction to " Sod, the Mysteries of Adonis, " explains the word "Sod" as arcanum , religious mystery, on the authority of Schindler's " Penteglott. " "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him," says Psalm xxv., 14. This is a mistranslation of the Christians, for it ought to read " Sod Ihoh (the mysteries of Ihoh) are for those who fear him " ( Dunlap, " Mysteries of Adonis, " xi). "Al (El) is terrible in the great Sod of the Kadeshim (the priests, the holy, the Initiated ) , Psalm lxxxix, 7" ( ibid .) . The Kadeshim were very far from holy. ( Vide Part II ., " The Holy of Holies. ") *** "The members of the priest-Colleges were called Sodales, " says Freund's "Latin Lexicon" (iv. 448). "Sodalities were constituted in the Idaean Mysteries of the M IGHTY M OTHER," writes Cicero in de Senectute. (" Mysteries of Adonis. ") **** The priests of Baal who jumped over the fires. But this was a Hebrew term and a local one. "Saraph" -- "fiery or flaming venom." [[Vol. 2, Page]] 213 THE SEVENTH SON OF THE SEVENTH SON. philosophers ignored the seven in their genetical accounts and gave only four. Thus the Mexican local Genesis has "four good men" described as the four real ancestors of the human race, "who were neither begotten by the gods nor born of woman"; but whose creation was a wonder wrought by the creative Powers, and who were made only after "three attempts at manufacturing men had failed. " The Egyptians had in their theology only "four sons of God," whereas in Pymander seven are given -- thus avoiding any mention of the evil nature of man; though when Seth from a god sank into Set-Typhon, he began to be called "the seventh son." Whence probably arose the belief that "the seventh son of the seventh son" is always a natural-born magician, though, at first, only a sorcerer was meant. A PAP, the serpent symbolizing evil, is slain by Aker, Set's serpent;* therefore Set-Typhon could not be that evil. In the " Book of the Dead " it is commanded ( v . 13) that chapter clxiii. should be read "in the presence of a serpent on two legs," which means a high Initiate, a Hierophant, for the discus and ram's horns** that adorn his "serpent's" head in the hieroglyphics of the title of the said chapter denote this. Over the "serpent" are represented the two mystic eyes of Ammon,*** the hidden "mystery god." This passage corroborates our assertion, and shows what the word "serpent" meant in antiquity. But as to the Nagals and Nargals, whence came the similarity of names between the Indian Nagas and the American Nagals? "The Nargal was the Chaldean and Assyrian chief of the Magi (Rab-Mag), and the Nagal was the chief sorcerer of the Mexican Indians. Both derive their names from Nergal-Serezer, the Assyrian god, and the Hindu Nagas. Both have the same faculties and the power to have an attendant daemon , with whom they identify themselves completely. The Chaldean and Assyrian Nargal kept his daemon, in the shape of some animal considered sacred, inside the temple; the Indian Nagal keeps his wherever he can -- in the neighbouring lake, or wood, or in the house in the shape of some household animal."**** Such similarity cannot be attributed to coincidence. A new world is discovered, and we find that, for our forefathers of the Fourth Race, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * " Book of the Dead " xxxix. ** The same ram's horns are found on the heads of Moses which were on some old medals seen by the writer in Palestine, one of which is in her possession. The horns, made to form part of the shining aureole on the statue of Moses in Rome (Michael Angelo), are vertical instead of being bent down to the ears, but the emblem is the same; hence the Brazen Serpent. *** But see Harris's " Magic Papyrus " No. v.; and the ram-headed Ammon manufacturing men on a potter's wheel. **** Brasseur de Bourbourg: " Mexique, " pp. 135 and 574. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 214 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.