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Gerald Massey -- an Initiate truly in the mysteries of the British Museum, still only a Self -initiate -- from declaring and insisting that the Atlantean submersion and Deluge were only the anthropomorphized fancies of ignorant people; and that Atlantis was no better than an astronomical allegory. Nevertheless, the great Zodiacal allegory is based upon historical events, and one can hardly interfere with the other; and it stands also to reason that every student of Occultism knows what that astronomical and zodiacal allegory means. Smith shows in the Nimrod Epic of the Assyrian tablets the real meaning of it. Its " twelve cantos " refer to the "annual course of the Sun through the twelve months of the year. Each tablet answers to a special month, and contains a distinct reference to the animal forms in the signs of the Zodiac"; the eleventh canto being "consecrated to Rimmon, the God of storms and of rain, and harmonizes with the eleventh sign of the Zodiac -- Aquarius, or the Waterman" ( Nineteenth Century, 1882, p . 236). But even this is preceded in the old records by the pre- astronomical Cosmic FLOOD, which became allegorized and symbolized in the above Zodiacal or Noah's Flood. But this has nothing to do with Atlantis. The Pyramids are closely connected with the ideas of both the Great Dragon (the constellation), the "Dragons of Wisdom," or the great Initiates of the Third and Fourth Races, and the Floods of the Nile, regarded as a divine reminder of the great Atlantic Flood. The astronomical records of Universal History, however, are said to have had their beginnings with the Third Sub-race of the Fourth Root-race or the Atlanteans. When was it? Occult data show that even since the time of the regular establishment of the Zodiacal calculations in Egypt, the poles have been thrice inverted. We will presently return once more to this statement. Such symbols as are represented by the Signs of the Zodiac -- a fact which offers a handle to materialists upon which to hang their one-sided theories and opinions -- have too profound a signification, and their bearing upon our Humanity is too important to suffer dismissal in a few words. Meanwhile, we have to consider the meaning of that other statement which mentions (verse 48) the first divine Kings, who are said to have "redescended," guided and instructed our Fifth Race after the last deluge! [[Vol. 2, Page]] 354 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. We shall consider this last claim historically in the sections that follow, but must end with a few more details on the subject of "Serpents." The rough commentaries on the Archaic Stanzas have to end here. Further elucidation requires proofs obtained from ancient, mediaeval, and modern works that have treated of these subjects. All such evidence has now to be gathered in, collated and brought together in better order, so as to compel the attention of the reader to this wealth of historical proofs. And as the manifold meaning of the weird symbol -- so often referred to and suggestive of the "tempter of man" in the orthodox light of the church -- can never be too strongly insisted upon, it seems more advisable to exhaust the subject by every available proof at this juncture, even at the risk of repetition. The Titans and Kabirs have been invariably made out by our theologians and some pious symbologists as indissolubly connected with the grotesque personage called devil, and every proof to the contrary has been hitherto as invariably rejected and ignored; therefore, the occultist must neglect nothing which may tend to defeat this conspiracy of slander. It is proposed to divide the subjects involved in these three last verses into several groups, and examine them in this final chapter as carefully and as fully as space permits. A few more details may thus be added to the general evidences of antiquity, on the most disputed tenets of Occultism and the Esoteric Doctrine -- the bulk of which will be found in Part II . on Symbology. ------- S ERPENTS AND D RAGONS UNDER DIFFERENT S YMBOLISMS. The name of the Dragon in Chaldea was not written phonetically, but was represented by two monograms, probably meaning, according to the Orientalists, "the scaly one." "This description," very pertinently remarks G. Smith, "of course might apply either to a fabulous dragon, a serpent, or a fish," and we may add: "It applies in one case to Makara, the tenth Zodiacal sign, meaning in Sanskrit a non-descript amphibious animal, generally called Crocodile, and really signifying something else. ( Vide Part II ., " The Mysteries of the Hebdomad. ") This, then, is a virtual admission that the Assyriologists, at all events, know nothing certain as to the status of the "Dragon" in ancient Chaldea, whence the Hebrews got their symbolism, only to be afterwards robbed of it by the Christians, who made of the "Scaly one" a living entity and a maleficent power. A specimen of Dragons, "winged and scaled," may be seen in the British Museum. Representing the events of the Fall according to the same authority, there are also two figures sitting on each side of a tree, and holding out their hands to the "apple," while at the back of the "Tree" [[Vol. 2, Page]] 355 THE NAASENIAN GNOSTICS. is the Dragon-Serpent. Esoterically, the two figures are two "Chaldees" ready for initiation, the Serpent symbolising the "Initiator"; while the jealous gods, who curse the three, are the exoteric profane clergy. Not much of the literal "Biblical event" there, as any occultist can see. "The Great Dragon has respect but for the Serpents of Wisdom," says the Stanza; thus proving the correctness of our explanation of the two figures and the "Serpent." " The Serpents who redescended . . . . who taught and instructed " the Fifth Race. What sane man is capable of believing in our day that real serpents are hereby meant? Hence the rough guess, now become almost an axiom with the men of science, that those who wrote in antiquity upon various sacred Dragons and Serpents either were superstitious and credulous people, or were bent upon deceiving those more ignorant than themselves. Yet, from Homer downwards, the term implied something hidden from the profane. "Terrible are the gods when they manifest themselves" -- those gods whom men call Dragons. And AElianus, treating in his " De Natura Animalium " of these Ophidean symbols, makes certain remarks which show that he understood well the nature of this most ancient of symbols. Thus he most pertinently explains with regard to the above Homeric verse -- "For the Dragon, while sacred and to be worshipped, has within himself something still more of the divine nature of which it is better (for others?) to remain in ignorance" (Book xi., ch. 17).