Page 72 (part 4)

13 (42), Zarathustra is told by Ahura Mazda to "invoke the Amesha Spenta who rule over the seven Karshvares **** of the Earth"; which Karshvares in their seven [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * No "god" who curses his (supposed) own work, because he has made it imperfect, can be the one infinite absolute wisdom, whether called Bel or Jehovah. ** In the Indian allegory of Tarakamaya, the war between the gods and the Asuras headed by Soma (the moon, the King of Plants), it is Viswa-Karma, the artificer of the gods, who forges, like Vulcan (Tubal-Kain), their weapons for them. *** We have said elsewhere that the "woman with child" of Revelation (xii.) was Aime, the great mother, or Binah, the third Sephiroth, "whose name is Jehovah"; and the "Dragon," who seeks to devour her coming child (the Universe), is the Dragon of absolute Wisdom -- that Wisdom which, recognising the non-separateness of the Universe and everything in it from the Absolute A LL, sees in it no better than the great Illusion, Mahamaya, hence the cause of misery and suffering. **** The "Seven Karshvares of the Earth" -- the seven spheres of our planetary chain, [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol. 2, Page]] 385 THE BUILDERS OF THE MATERIAL WORLD. applications refer equally to the seven spheres of our planetary chain, to the seven planets, the seven heavens, etc., according to whether the sense is applied to a physical, supra-mundane, or simply a sidereal world. In the same Fargard (ii. and iii.), in his invocation against Angra Mainyu and his Host, Zarathustra appeals to them in these words: "I invoke the seven bright Sravah with their sons and their flocks" (42 Vendid. Saddh ) . The "Sravah" -- a word which the Orientalists have given up as one "of unknown meaning" -- means the same Amshaspends, but in their highest occult meaning. The " Sravah " are the noumenoi of the phenomenal Amshaspends, the souls or spirits of those manifested Powers; and "their sons and their flock" refers to the planetary angels and their sidereal flock of stars and constellations. "Amshaspend" is the exoteric term used in terrestrial combinations and affairs only. Zarathustra addresses Ahura Mazda constantly as "thou, the maker of the material world." Ormazd is the father of our earth (Spenta Armaiti), and she is referred to, when personified, as "the fair daughter of Ahura Mazda" ( Fargard, XIX . ii.), who is also the creator of the Tree (of occult and spiritual knowledge and wisdom) from which the mystic and mysterious Caresma is taken. But the occult name of the bright God was never pronounced outside the temple. Samael or Satan, the seducing Serpent of Genesis, and one of the primeval angels who rebelled, is the name of the "Red Dragon." He is the Angel of Death, the Talmud saying that "the Angel of Death and Satan are the same," and, killed by Michael, he is once more killed by St. George, who also is a Dragon Slayer; but see the transformations of this. Samael is identical with the Simoom, the hot wind of the desert, or again with the Vedic demon of drought, as Vritra; " Simoom is called Atabutos " or -- Diabolos, the devil. Typhon, or the Dragon Aphophis -- the Accuser in the "Book of the Dead" -- is worsted by Horus, who pierces his opponent's head with a spear; and Typhon is the all-destroying wind of the desert, the rebellious element that throws everything into confusion. As Set -- he is the darkness of night, the murderer of Osiris, who is the light of day and the sun. Archaeology demonstrates that Horus is identical with Anubis,* whose effigy was discovered upon an Egyptian monument, with a cuirass and a spear, like Michael and St. George. Anubis is also represented [[Footnote(s) continued from previous page]] ------------------------------------------------- § the seven worlds -- also mentioned in the Rig-Veda -- are fully referred to elsewhere. There are six rajamsi (worlds) above prithivi -- the earth, or "this" (idam), as opposed to that which is yonder (the six globes on the three other planes). (See Rig-Veda, I., 34; III., 56; VII., 10411 , and V., 60, 6 . See § on Chronology.) * Verse 62, chap. xvii., "Book of the Dead": Anubis is Horus who melts in him who is eyeless. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 386 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. as slaying a dragon, that has the head and tail of a serpent. (See Lenoir's "Du Dragon de Metz.") Cosmologically, then, all the Dragons and Serpents conquered by their "Slayers" are, in their origin, the turbulent confused principles in Chaos, brought to order by the Sun-gods or creative powers. In the "Book of the Dead" those principles are called "the Sons of Rebellion." (See also " Egyptian Pantheon, " pp. 20, 23. ) "In that night, the oppressor, the murderer of Osiris, otherwise called the deceiving Serpent (Verse 54) . . . . calls the Sons of Rebellion in Air, and when they arrive to the East of Heavens, then there is War in Heaven and in the entire World" (v. 49, " Book of the Dead, " xvii.). In the Scandinavian Eddas the "War" of the Ases with the Hrim-thurses (frost-giants), and of Asathor with the Jotuns, the Serpents and Dragons and the "wolf" who comes out of "Darkness" --- is the repetition of the same myth. The "evil Spirits,"* having begun by being simply the emblems of Chaos, became euhemerized by the superstition of the rabble, until they have finally won the right of citizenship in the most civilized and learned races of this globe - - since its creation as alleged -- and became a dogma with Christians. As George Smith has it: "The evil principles (Spirits) emblems of Chaos" (in Chaldea and Assyria as in Egypt, we see) . . "resist this change and make war on the Moon, the eldest son of Bel, drawing over to their side the Sun, Venus and the atmospheric god Vul." ("Assyrian Discoveries," p.