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Plato's Atlantis perished between water below and fire above; the great mountain vomiting flames all the while. "The 'fire-vomiting Monster' survived alone out of the ruins of the unfortunate island." Do the Greeks, accused of borrowing a Hindu fiction (Atala), and inventing from it another (Atlantis), stand also accused of getting their geographical notions and the number seven from them? ( Vide in Part II . the several sections on the S EPTENATE in nature.) "The famous Atlantis exists no longer, but we can hardly doubt that it did once," says Proclus, "for Marcellus, who wrote a history of Ethiopian affairs, says that such, and so great an island once existed, and this is evidenced by those who composed histories relative to the external sea. For they relate that in this time there were seven islands in the Atlantic sea sacred to Proserpine; and besides these, three of immense magnitude, sacred to Pluto . . . Jupiter . . . and Neptune. And, besides this, the inhabitants of the last island (Poseidonis) preserved the memory of the prodigious magnitude of the Atlantic island as related by their ancestors, and of its governing for many periods all the islands in the Atlantic sea. From this isle one may pass to other large [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Neither Atlantis, nor yet Sancha dwipa, was ever called "White Island." When tradition says that "the White Island became black on account of the sins of people" it only means the denizens of the "White Island," or Siddhapura, or Sveta dwipa, who descended to the Atlantis of the Third and Fourth races, to "inform the latter; and who, having incarnated, became black with sin" -- a figure of speech. All the Avatars of Vishnu are said to come originally from the White Island. According to Tibetan tradition the White Island is the only locality which escapes the general fate of other dwipas and can be destroyed by neither fire nor water, for -- it is the "eternal land." [[Vol. 2, Page]] 409 WHAT MARCELLUS SAYS. islands beyond, which are not far from the firm land, near which is the true sea." "These seven dwipas (inaccurately rendered islands) constitute, according to Marcellus, the body of the famous Atlantis," writes Wilford himself. . . . . This evidently shows that Atlantis is the old continent . . . . The Atlantis was destroyed after a violent storm (?): this is well known to the Puranics, some of whom assert that in consequence of this dreadful convulsion of nature, six of the dwipas disappeared" . . . ( xi., 27). Enough proofs have now been given to satisfy the greatest sceptic. Nevertheless, direct proofs based on exact science are also added. Volumes might be written, however, to no purpose for those who will neither see nor hear, except through the eyes and ears of their respective authorities. Hence the teaching of the Roman Catholic scholiasts, namely, that Hermon, the mount in the land of Mizpeth -- meaning "anathema," "destruction" -- is the same as Mount Armon. As a proof of this, Josephus is often quoted, as affirming that still in his own day enormous bones of giants were daily discovered on it. But it was the land of Balaam the prophet, whom the "Lord loved well"; and so mixed up are facts and personages in the said scholiasts' brains, that, when the Zohar explains the "birds" which inspired Balaam to mean "Serpents," to wit, the wise men and adepts at whose school he had learnt the mysteries of prophecy -- the opportunity is again taken of showing Mount Hermon inhabited by the "winged dragons of Evil, whose chief is Samael" (the Jewish Satan). "It is to those unclean spirits chained on Mount Hermon of the Desert, that the scapegoat of Israel, who assumed the name of one of them (Azaz(y)el), was sent" ( Spencer ). We say it is not so. The Zohar has the following explanation on the practice of magic which is called in Hebrew Nehhaschim, or the "Serpents' Works." It says ( Part III. col. 302 ) : - - "It is called nehhaschim, because the magicians (practical Kabalists) work surrounded by the light of the primordial serpent, which they perceive in heaven as a luminous zone composed of myriads of small stars" . . . which means simply the astral light, so called by the Martinists, by Eliphas Levi, and now by all the modern Occultists. (Vide Sections about.) ------- T HE " C URSE" FROM A P HILOSOPHICAL POINT OF VIEW. The foregoing teachings of the S ECRET D OCTRINE, supplemented by universal traditions, must now have demonstrated that the Brahmanas and Puranas, the Yathas and other Mazdean Scriptures, [[Vol. 2, Page]] 410 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. down to the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman, and finally to the Jewish Sacred records, all have the same origin. None are meaningless and baseless stories, invented to entrap the unwary profane: all are allegories intended to convey, under a more or less fantastic veil, the great truths gathered in the same field of pre-historic tradition. Space forbids us from entering, in these two volumes, into further and more minute details with respect to the four Races which preceded our own. But before offering to the student the history of the psychic and spiritual evolution of the direct antediluvian fathers of our Fifth (Aryan) humanity, and before demonstrating its bearing upon all the other side branches grown from the same trunk, we have to elucidate a few more facts. It has been shown, on the evidence of the whole ancient literary world, and the intuitional speculations of more than one philosopher and scientist of the later ages, that the tenets of our Esoteric Doctrine are corroborated by inferential as well as by direct proof in almost every case. That neither the "legendary" giants, nor the lost continents, nor yet the evolution of the preceding races, are quite baseless tales. In the Addenda which close this volume, science will find itself more than once unable to reply; they will, it is hoped, finally dispose of every sceptical remark with regard to the sacred number in nature, and our figures in general. (Vide §§ on the Septenaries. ) Meanwhile, one task is left incomplete: that of disposing of that most pernicious of all the theological dogmas -- the CURSE under which mankind is alleged to have suffered ever since the supposed disobedience of Adam and Eve in the bower of Eden. Creative powers in man were the gift of divine wisdom, not the result of sin.