53, and carefully examine his " Grand Symbole Kabalistique " of the Zohar.
He will find, on the engraving given, a white man standing erect and a black woman upside down, i.e ., standing on her head, her legs passing under the extended arms of the male figure, and protruding behind his shoulders, while their hands join at an angle on each side.
Eliphas Levi makes of it, God and Nature; or God, "light," mirrored inversely in "Nature and Matter," darkness.
Kabalistically and symbolically he is right; but only so far as emblematical cosmogony goes.
Nor has he invented the symbol any more [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * These elements are: -- The cosmic, the terrene, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, the aqueous, and finally the human -- in their physical, spiritual, and psychic aspects.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 360 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
than the Kabalists have: the two figures in white and black stone have existed in the temples of Egypt from time immemorial -- agreeably to tradition; and historically -- ever since the day of King Cambyses, who personally saw them.
Therefore the symbol must have been in existence since nearly 2,500 years ago.
This, at the very least, for that Persian sovereign, who was a son of Cyrus the Great, succeeded his father in the year 529 B.C.
These figures were the two Kabiri personifying the opposite poles.
Herodotus ( Thalia, No.
77) tells posterity that when Cambyses entered the temple of the Kabirim, he went into an inextinguishable fit of laughter, on perceiving what he thought a man erect and a woman standing on the top of her head before him.
These were the poles, however, whose symbol was intended to commemorate "the passing of the original North Pole of the Earth to the South Pole of the Heaven," as perceived by Mackey.* But they represented also the poles inverted, in consequence of the great inclination of the axis, bringing each time as a result the displacement of the Oceans, the submersion of the polar lands, and the consequent upheaval of new continents in the equatorial regions, and vice versa.
These Kabirim were the "Deluge" gods.
This may help us to get at the key of the seemingly hopeless confusion among the numbers of names and titles given to one and the same gods, and classes of gods.
Faber showed already, at the beginning of this century, the identity of the Corybantes, Curetes, Dioscuri, Anactes, Dii Magni, Idei Dactyli, Lares, Penates, Manes,** Titans, and Aletae with the K ABIRI.
And we have shown that the latter were the same as the Manus, the Rishis and our Dhyan Chohans, who incarnated in the Elect of the Third and Fourth Races.
Thus, while in Theogony the Kabiri-Titans were seven great gods: cosmically and astronomically the Titans were called Atlantes, because, perhaps, as Faber says, they were connected [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Who adds that the Egyptians had various ways of representing the angles of the Poles.
Also in Perry's View of the Levant there is "a figure representing the South Pole of the Earth in the constellation of the Harp," in which the poles appear like two straight rods, surmounted with hawks' wings, but they were also often represented as serpents with heads of hawks, one at each end.
** Faber and Bishop Cumberland would make them all the later pagan personifications, as the former writer has it, of "the Noetic Ark, and no other than the Patriarch (Noah) and his family" (!) See his " Kabiri, " Vol.
I ., 136; because, we are told, "after the Deluge in commemoration of the event, the pious Noachidae had established a religious festival, which was, later on, corrupted by their impious descendants; demons or hero-gods; and at length unblushing obscenity usurped the name and garb of religion" ( Vol.
I., p.
10.).
Now this is indeed putting an extinguisher upon the human reasoning powers, not only of antiquity, but even of our present generations.
Reverse the statement, and explain after the words "Noah and his family" that what is meant by that patriarch and family is simply the Jewish version of a Samothracian mystery, of Saturn, or Kronos-Sadic and his Sons, and then we may say Amen.
[[Vol.
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( a ) with At-al-as "the divine Sun," and ( b ) with tit "the deluge." But this, if true, is only the exoteric version.
Esoterically, the meaning of their symbols depends on the appellation, or title, used.
The seven mysterious, awe-inspiring great gods -- the Dioscuri ,* the deities surrounded with the darkness of occult nature -- become the Idei (or Idaeic finger) with the adept-healer by metals.
The true etymology of the name lares (now signifying "ghosts") must be sought in the Etruscan word " lars ," "conductor," "leader." Sanchoniathon translates the word Aletae as fire worshippers, and Tabor believes it derived from Al-Orit, "the god of fire." Both are right, as in both cases it is a reference to the Sun (the highest God), toward whom the planetary gods "gravitate" (astronomically and allegorically) and whom they worship.
As Lares, they are truly the Solar Deities, though Faber's etymology, who says that " lar " is a contraction of " El-Ar, " the solar deity, is not very correct.
They are the "lares," the conductors and leaders of men.
As Aletae, they were the seven planets -- astronomically; and as Lares, the regents of the same, our protectors and rulers -- mystically.
For purposes of exoteric or phallic worship, as also cosmically, they were the Kabiri, their attributes being recognised in these two capacities by the name of the temples to which they respectively belonged, and those of their priests.
They all belonged, however, to the Septenary creative and informing groups of Dhyan Chohans.
The Sabeans, who worshipped the "regents of the Seven planets" as the Hindus do their Rishis, held Seth and his son Hermes (Enoch or Enos ) as the highest among the planetary gods.
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 entire passage is organized around the doctrine of polarity: the two figures in white and black, the opposite poles of the Earth, the passing of the North Pole to the South Pole, the inverted poles, and the complementary male-female principle as the fundamental structural law of the cosmos.