Page 63 (part 3)

This in the human, terrestrial form of the Initiates, and also because the logos is Christos, that principle of our inner nature which develops in us into the Spiritual Ego -- the Higher-Self -- being formed of the indissoluble union of Buddhi (the sixth) and the spiritual efflorescence of Manas, the [[Vol. 2, Page]] 231 SATANIC MYTHS. fifth principle.* "The Logos is passive Wisdom in Heaven and Conscious, Self-Active Wisdom on Earth," we are taught. It is the Marriage of "Heavenly man" with the "Virgin of the World" --Nature, as described in Pymander ; the result of which is their progeny -- immortal man. It is this which is called in St. John's Revelation the marriage of the lamb with his bride. (xix. 7.) That "wife" is now identified with the Church of Rome owing to the arbitrary interpretations of her votaries. But they seem to forget that her linen may be fine and white outwardly (like the "whitened sepulchre"), but that the rottenness she is inwardly filled with, is not "the righteousness of Saints" ( v . 8. ibid ) , but rather the blood of the Saints she has "slain upon the earth" ( chap . xviii. 24.) Thus the remark made by the great Initiate ( in Luke x. 18) -- one that referred allegorically to the ray of Enlightenment and reason, falling like lightning from on high into the hearts and minds of the converts to that old wisdom-religion then presented in a new form by the wise Galilean Adeptt** -- was distorted out of recognition (as was his own personality), and made to fit in with one of the most cruel as the most pernicious of all theological dogmas. ( Vide at the end of Stanza XI. " S ATANIC M YTHS.") But if Western theology alone holds the patent for, and copyright of S ATAN -- in all the dogmatic horror of that fiction -- other nationalities [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * It is not correct to refer to Christ -- as some theosophists do -- as the sixth principle in man -- Buddhi. The latter per se is a passive and latent principle, the spiritual vehicle of Atman, inseparable from the manifested Universal Soul. It is only in union and in conjunction with Self-consciousness that Buddhi becomes the Higher Self and the divine, discriminating Soul. Christos is the seventh principle, if anything. ** To make it plainer, any one who reads that passage in Luke, will see that the remark follows the report of the seventy, who rejoice that "even the devils (the spirit of controversy and reasoning, or the opposing power, since Satan means simply " adversary " or opponent ) are subject unto us through thy name." ( Luke x. 17.) Now, "thy name" means the name of Christos, or Logos, or the spirit of true divine wisdom, as distinct from the spirit of intellectual or mere materialistic reasoning -- the HIGHER SELF in short. And when Jesus remarks to this that he has "beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven," it is a mere statement of his clairvoyant powers, notifying them that he already knew it, and a reference to the incarnation of the divine ray (the gods or angels) which falls into generation. For not all men, by any means, benefit by that incarnation, and with some the power remains latent and dead during the whole life. Truly "No man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son" as added by Jesus then and there ( Ibid v. 22) -- the Church "of Christ" less than any one else. The Initiates alone understood the secret meaning of the term "Father and the Son," and knew that it referred to Spirit and Soul on the Earth. For the teachings of Christ were occult teachings, which could only be explained at the initiation. They were never intended for the masses, for Jesus forbade the twelve to go to the Gentiles and the Samaritans ( Matt . x. 8), and repeated to his disciples that the "mysteries of Heaven" were for them alone, not for the multitudes ( Mark iv. 11). [[Vol. 2, Page]] 232 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. and religions have committed equal errors in their misinterpretation of this tenet, which is one of the most profoundly philosophical and ideal conceptions of ancient thought. For they have both disfigured and hinted at the correct meaning of it in their numerous allegories touching the subject. Nor have the semi-esoteric dogmas of Puranic Hinduism failed to evolve very suggestive symbols and allegories concerning the rebellious and fallen gods. The Puranas teem with them; and we find a direct hint at the truth in the frequent allusions of Parasara ( Vishnu Purana ), to all those Rudras, Rishis, Asuras, Kumaras and Munis, having to be born in every age, to re-incarnate in every Manvantara. This (esoterically) is equivalent to saying that the FLAMES born of the Universal Mind (Mahat), owing to the mysterious workings of Karmic Will and an impulse of Evolutionary Law, had, as in Pymander -- without any gradual transition -- landed on this Earth, having broken through the seven Circles of fire, or the seven intermediate Worlds, in short. There is an eternal cyclic law of re-births, and the series is headed at every new Manvantaric dawn by those who had enjoyed their rest from re-incarnations in previous Kalpas for incalculable AEons -- by the highest and the earliest Nirvanees. It was the turn of those "Gods" to incarnate in the present Manvantara; hence their presence on Earth, and the ensuing allegories; hence, also, the perversion of the original meaning.* The Gods who had fallen into generation, whose mission it was to complete divine man, are found represented later on as Demons, evil Spirits, and fiends, at feud and war with Gods, or the irresponsible agents of the one Eternal law. But no conception of such creatures as the devils and Satan of the Christian, Jewish, and Mahomedan religions was ever intended under those thousand and one Aryan allegories.** ( See " The Fallen Angels " and " The Mystic Dragons " in Part II. ) [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * So, for instance, in the Puranas, "Pulastya," a Prajapati, or son of Brahma -- the progenitor of the Rakshasas, and the grandfather of Ravana, the Great King of Lanka ( see Ramayana ) -- had, in a former birth, a son named Dattoli, "who is now known as the sage Agastya" -- says Vishnu Purana. This name of Dattoli alone, has six more variants to it, or seven meanings.