Page 72 (part 3)

***** The story told is, that Taraka (called also Kalabhana), owing to his extraordinary Yoga-powers, had obtained all the divine knowledge of yoga-vidya and occult powers of the gods, who conspired against him. Here we see the "obedient" Host of Archangels or minor gods conspiring against the (future) Fallen angels, whom Enoch accuses of the great crime of disclosing to the world all "the secret things done in heaven." It is Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Surgal and Uriel who denounced to the Lord God those of their Brethren who were said to have pried into the divine mysteries and taught them to men: by this means they themselves escaped a like punishment. Michael was commissioned to fight the Dragon, and so was Karttikeya, and under the same circumstances. Both are "leaders of the Celestial Host," both Virgins, both "leaders of Saints," "Spear-holders" ( Saktidhara ), etc., etc. Karttikeya is the original of Michael and St. George, as surely as Indra is the prototype of Karttikeya. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 383 THE GODS, THE FACETS OF ONE GEM. to Indra, Karttikeya, and even Kasyapa-Aditya, and at the same time to Michael (as the Angelic form of Jehovah) the "angel of the Sun," who is "like," and "one with, God." Later ingenious interpretations for monotheistic purposes, elevated though they be into not-to-be questioned Church dogmas, prove nothing, except the abuse of human authority and power, perhaps. Apollo is Helios (the Sun), Phoibus-Apollo ("the light of life and of the World"*) who arises out of the golden-winged cup (the sun); hence he is the sun-god par excellence. At the moment of his birth he asks for his bow to kill Python, the Demon Dragon, who attacked his mother before his birth,** and whom he is divinely commissioned to destroy -- like Karttikeya, who is born for the purpose of killing Taraka, the too holy and wise demon. Apollo is born on a sidereal island called Asteria -- "the golden star island," the "earth which floats in the air," which is the Hindu golden Hiranyapura ; "he is called the pure, [[ agnos ]] , Agnus Dei (the Indian Agni , as Dr. Kenealy thinks), and in the primal myth he is exempt "from all sensual love" (" Book of God, " p. 88). He is, therefore, a Kumara, like Karttikeya, and as Indra was in his earlier life and biographies. Python, moreover, the "red Dragon," connects Apollo with Michael, who fights the Apocalyptic Dragon, who wants to attack the woman in child-birth (See Revelation xii. ) , as Python attacks Apollo's mother. Can any one fail to see the identity? Had the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, who prides himself on his Greek scholarship and understanding of the spirit of Homer's allegories, ever had a real inkling of the esoteric meaning of the Iliad and Odyssey, he would have understood St. John's " Revelation, " and even the Pentateuch, better than he does. For the way to the Bible lies through Hermes, Bel, and Homer, as the way to these is through the Hindu and Chaldean religious symbols. The repetition of this archaic tradition is found in ch. xii. of St. John's Revelations, and comes from the Babylonian legends without the smallest doubt, though the Babylonian story had its origin in the allegories of the Aryans. The fragment read by the late George Smith (See "The Chaldean account of Genesis," p. 304) is sufficient to disclose the source of the xii. chapter of the Apocalypse. Here it is as given by the eminent Assyriologist: "Our . . . fragment refers to the creation of mankind, called Adam; as (the man) in the Bible, he is made perfect . . . but afterwards joins [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The "life and the light" of the material physical world, the delight of the senses -- not of the soul. Apollo is pre-eminently the human god, the god of emotional, pomp-loving and theatrical Church ritualism, with lights and music. ** See chap. xii. in Revelation where we find Apollo's mother persecuted by that Python, the Red Dragon, who is also Porphyrion, the scarlet or red Titan. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 384 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. with the dragon of the Deep, the animal of Tiamat, the Spirit of Chaos, and offends against his god, who curses him, and calls down on his head all the evils and troubles of Humanity."* "This is followed by a war between the dragon and the powers of evil, or chaos on one side and the gods on the other." "The gods have weapons forged for them,** and Merodach (the archangel Michael in Revelation ) undertakes to lead the heavenly host against the dragons. The war, which is described with spirit, ends, of course, in the triumph of the principles of Good. . . . ."*** This war of gods with the powers of the Deep, refers also, in its last and terrestrial application, to the struggle between the Aryan adepts of the nascent Fifth Race and the Sorcerers of Atlantis, the Demons of the Deep, the Islanders surrounded with water who disappeared in the Deluge. (See the last pages of Vol. I., " Isis Unveiled, " Atlantis.) The symbols of the dragons and "War in Heaven" have, as already stated, more than one significance; religious, astronomical and geological events being included in the one common allegory. But it had also a Cosmological meaning. In India the Dragon story is repeated in one of its forms in the battles of Indra with Vritra. In the Vedas this Ahi-Vritra is referred to as the Demon of Drought, the terrible hot Wind. Indra is shown to be constantly at war with him; and with the help of his thunder and lightning the god compels Ahi-Vritra to pour down in rain on Earth, and then slays him. Hence, Indra is called the Vritra-Han or "the slayer of Vritra," as Michael is called the Conqueror and "Slayer of the Dragon." Both these "Enemies" are then the "Old Dragon" precipitated into the depths of the Earth, in this one sense. The Zend-Avestic Amshaspends are a Host with a leader like St. Michael over them, and seem identical with the legions of Heaven, when one reads the Vendidad. Thus in Fargard XIX ., ii.