Page 67 (part 2)

1887, page 676.) *** It is stated in the Zohar that the "primordial worlds" (sparks) could not continue because man was not as yet. " The human form contains everything; and as it did not as yet exist, the worlds were destroyed." [[Vol. 2, Page]] 291 MAZDEAN SYMBOLISM. progenitor of specified animals, reptiles, and even monsters ( See Vishnu and other Puranas ) . Open the Mazdean Vendidad, at Fargard ii., at verse 27 (73) and read the command of Ormazd to Yima, a Spirit of the Earth, who symbolizes the three races, after telling him to build a vara ("an enclosure," an argua or vehicle) . . . . "Thither (into the vara ) thou shalt bring the seeds of men and women, of the greatest, best, and finest kinds on this earth; thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of cattle," etc., etc.; and v. 28 (74) . . . ."all those seeds shalt thou bring, two of every kind, to be kept inexhaustible there, so long as those men shall stay in the vara. " Those "men" in the "Vara" are the "Progenitors," the heavenly men or Dhyani, the future Egos who are commissioned to inform mankind. For "Vara," or the "Ark" (or again the Vehicle) simply means MAN.* Verse 30 says: . . . . "thou shalt seal up the vara (after filling it up with the seeds), and thou shalt make a door and a window self-shining within, " which is the Soul. And when Yima inquires of Ahura Mazda how he shall manage to make that vara , he is answered: "Crush the earth . . . and knead it with thy hands, as the potter does when kneading the potter's clay" (31). The Egyptian ram-headed god makes man of clay on a potter's wheel, and so in Genesis do the Elohim fashion him out of the same material. When the "Maker of the material world" (Ahura Mazda) is asked, furthermore, what is to give light "to the Vara which Yima made," he is told that "There are uncreated lights and created lights" and that "there" (in Airyana Vaego, where Vara is built), "the stars, the moon, and the Sun are only once (a year) seen to rise and set" and a year seems only as a day (and night) a clear reference to the "land of the Gods" or the (now) polar regions. Moreover another hint is contained in this verse: a distinct allusion to the "uncreated lights" which enlighten man within -- his principles. Otherwise, no sense or reason could be found in Ahura Mazda's answer ( V. 40), which is forthwith followed by Verse 41 saying that "Every fortieth year, to every couple (hermaphrodite) two are born, a male and female,"** the latter being a distinct echo of the Secret Doctrine, of a Stanza which says -- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * This is the meaning when the allegory and symbol are opened and read by means of the human key, or the key to terrestrial anthroposophy. This interpretation of the "ark" symbolism does not in the least interfere with its astronomical, or even theogonic keys; nor with any of the other six meanings. Nor does it seem less scientific than the modern theories about the origin of man. As said, it has seven keys to it, like the rest. ** Vendidad Sadah, See also Bund. XV .; and J. Darmesteter's translation of the Vendidad. "Sacred Books of the East." [[Vol. 2, Page]] 292 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. " At the expiration of every forty ( annual ) Suns, at the end of every fortieth Day, the double one becomes four ; male and female in one, in the first and second and the third . . . . . ." Which is clear, since "every sun" meant a whole year, the latter being composed of one day then, as in the arctic circle it is now composed of six months. According to the old teaching, the axis of the earth gradually changes its inclination to the ecliptic, and at the period referred to, this inclination was such that a polar day lasted during the whole period of the earth's revolution about the sun, when a kind of twilight of very short duration intervened; after which the polar land resumed its position directly under the solar rays. This may be contrary to astronomy as now taught and understood: but who can say that changes in the motion of the earth, which do not take place now, did not occur millions of years back? Returning once more to the statement that Vara meant the MAN of the Fourth Round, as much as the Earth of those days, the moon, and even Noah's ark, if one will so have it -- this is again shown in the dialogue between Ahura Mazda and Zarathustra. Thus when the latter asks -- V. 42. "O Maker of the Material World, thou Holy One! Who is he who brought the law of Mazda into the Vara which Yima made?" "Ahura Mazda answered: 'It was the bird Karshipta, O holy Zarathustra.' . . . ." "The bird Karshipta dwells in the heavens: were he living on the earth he would be king of birds. He brought into the var of Yima, and recites the Avesta in the language of birds. " ( Bund. xix and xxiv. ) This again is an allegory and a symbol misunderstood by the Orientalists only, who see in this bird "an incarnation of lightning," and say its song was "often thought to be the utterance of a god and a revelation," and what not. Karshipta is the human mind-soul, and the deity thereof, symbolized in ancient Magianism by a bird, as the Greeks symbolized it by a butterfly. No sooner had Karshipta entered the Vara or man, than he understood the law of Mazda, or Divine Wisdom. In the "Book of Concealed Mystery" it is said of the tree, which is the tree of knowledge of good and evil: "In its branches (of the tree) the birds lodge and build their nests," or the Souls and the Angels have their place!.* Therefore, with the Kabalists it was a like symbol. "Bird" was a Chaldean, and has become a Hebrew synonym and symbol for Angel, a Soul, a Spirit, or Deva; and the "Bird's Nest" was with both Heaven, and is God's bosom in the Zohar. The perfect Messiah enters Eden "into that place which is called the Bird's Nest" (Zohar, ii., 8 b ). [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See " Kabbalah Unveiled " by S.