Page 71 (part 8)

At the same time there is not an old fragment but shows belief in a multiform and even multigeneric evolution -- spiritual, psychic, intellectual and physical -- of human beings, just as given in the present work. A few of these claims have now to be considered. Our races -- they all show -- have sprung from divine races, by whatever name they are called. Whether we deal with the Indian Rishis or Pitris; with the Chinese Chim-nang and Tchan-gy -- their "divine man" and demi-gods; with the Akkadian Dingir and Mul-lil -- the creative god and the "Gods of the ghost-world"; with the Egyptian Isis-Osiris and Thot; with the Hebrew Elohim, or again with Manco Capac and his Peruvian progeny -- the story varies nowhere. Every nation has Amshaspends* (six exoterically), ten and seven Chaldean Anedots, [[Footnote continued]]--------------------------------- * The Amshaspends are six -- if Ormazd, their chief and Logos, is excluded. But in the secret doctrine he is the seventh and highest, just as Phtah is the seventh Kabir among the Kabiri. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 366 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. ten and seven Sephiroth, etc., etc. One and all have been derived from the primitive Dhyan-Chohans of the Esoteric doctrine, or the "Builders" of the Stanzas (Book I.). From Manu, Thot-Hermes, Oannes-Dagon, and Edris-Enoch, down to Plato and Panadores, all tell us of seven divine Dynasties, of seven Lemurian, and seven Atlantean divisions of the Earth; of the seven primitive and dual gods who descend from their celestial abode* and reign on Earth, teaching mankind Astronomy, Architecture, and all the other sciences that have come down to us. These Beings appear first as "gods" and Creators; then they merge in nascent man, to finally emerge as "divine-Kings and Rulers." But this fact has been gradually forgotten. As Bosuage shows, the Egyptians themselves confessed that science flourished in their country only since Isis-Osiris, whom they continue to adore as gods, "though they had become Princes in human form." And he adds of Osiris-Isis (the divine androgyne: -- "It is said that this Prince (Isis-Osiris) built cities in Egypt, stopped the overflowing of the Nile; invented agriculture, the use of the vine, music, astronomy, and geometry." When Abul-Feda says in his " Historia Anteislamitica " ( Fleisher, p. 16) that the Sabean language was established by Seth and Edris (Enoch) -- he means by "Sabean language" astronomy. In the "Melelwa Nohil" ( MS. 47 in Nic. Cat. ) Hermes is called the disciple of Agathodaemon. And in another account ( See Col. Vyse ' s 2nd Vol. of the " Pyramids of Ghizeh, " p. 364 , MS. 785 , Uri ' s Cat .) Agathodaemon is mentioned as a " King of Egypt. " Celepas Geraldinus gives curious traditions about Henoch. He calls him the "divine giant." In the " Book of the various names of the Nile, " the same author (the historian Ahmed-Ben-Yusouf Eltiphas) tells us of the belief among the Semitic Arabs that Seth (become later the Egyptian Typhon, Set), had been one of the seven angels (or Patriarchs in the Bible): then he became a mortal and Adam's son, after which he communicated the gift of prophecy and astronomical science to Jared, who passed it to his son Henoch. But Henoch (Idris) "the author of thirty books, was Sabaean by origin" ( i.e ., belonging to the Saba, "a Host"); "having established the rites and ceremonies of primitive worship, he went to the East, where he constructed 140 cities, of which Edessa was the least important, then returned to Egypt where he became its King." Thus, he is identified with Hermes. But there were five Hermes -- or rather one, who appeared -- as some Manus and Rishis did -- in several different characters. In the Burham-i-Kati he is mentioned as "Hormig," a name of the planet Mercury or Budha; and Wednes- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * In the Purana it is identified with Vishnu's or Brahma's Sveta Dwipa of Mount Meru. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 367 HERMES IN ASTRONOMY AND ELSEWHERE. day was sacred both to Hermes and Thot. The Hermes of Oriental tradition, worshipped at Phineata and said to have fled after the death of Argus into Egypt, civilized it under the name of Thoth. But under whichever of these characters, he is always credited with having transferred all the sciences from latent to active potency, i.e. , with having been the first to teach magic to Egypt and to Greece, before the days of Magna Graecia, and when the Greeks were not even Hellenes. Not only Herodotus -- the "father of History" -- tells us of the marvellous dynasties of gods that preceded the reign of mortals, followed by the dynasties of demi-gods, Heroes, and finally men, but the whole series of classics support him; Diodorus, Eratosthenes, Plato, Manetho, etc., etc., repeat the same, and never vary the order given. "It is, indeed," as Creuzer shows: -- "From the spheres of the stars wherein dwell the gods of light that wisdom descends to the inferior spheres." "In the system of the ancient priests (Hierophants and Adepts) all things without exception, gods, the genii, manes (souls), the whole world, are conjointly developed in Space and duration. The pyramid may be considered as the symbol of this magnificent hierarchy of Spirits. . . . "* There were more efforts made by the modern historians (French Academicians, like Renan, chiefly) to suppress truth by ignoring the ancient annals of divine Kings, than is strictly consistent with honesty. But M. Renan could never be more unwilling than was Eratosthenes 260 years B.C. to accept the unpalatable fact; and yet the latter found himself obliged to recognise its truth. For this, the great astronomer is treated with great contempt by his colleagues 2,000 years later. Manetho became with them "a superstitious priest born and bred in the atmosphere of other lying priests of Heliopolis" ( Freret ) . "All those historians and priests," justly remarks the demonologist, de Mirville, "so veracious when repeating stories of human kings and men, suddenly become extremely suspicious no sooner do they go back to their gods. " . . .