Says the crucified Titan: -- "And, portent past belief, the speaking oaks By which full clearly, in no riddling phrase Wast hailed as the illustrious spouse of Zeus .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
(v .
853).
.
.
.
.
stroking thee With touch alone of unalarming hand; Then thou dark Epaphos shalt bear, whose name Records his sacred gendering .
.
.
.
" (870) This was construed by several fanatics -- des Mousseaux and de Mir- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] Matarisvan, a divine .
.
.
.
personage, closely associated with the fire god of the Veda, Agni.
.
.
." Mati, in Sanskrit, is "understanding," and a synonym of MAHAT and manas, and must be of some account in the origin of the name: Promati is the son of Fohat, and has his story also.
* Kronos is "time," and thus the allegory becomes very suggestive.
( See closing pages of this Sub-section.
) [[Vol.
2, Page]] 415 CHRIST CONNECTED WITH EPAPHOS.
ville amongst others -- into a clear prophecy.
Io -- "is the mother of God," we are told, and "dark Epaphos" -- Christ.
But, the latter has not dethroned his father, except metaphorically, if one has to regard Jehovah as that "Father"; nor has the Christian Saviour hurled his Father down into Hades.
Prometheus says, in verse 930, that Zeus will be humbled yet; as for himself: -- " .
.
.
.
such marriage he prepares Which from his throne of power to nothingness Shall hurl him down; so shall be all fulfilled His father Kronos' curse .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Then let him sit Confiding in his lofty thunder-peals, And wielding with both hands the fiery bolt; For these shall not avail, but fail he shall, A fall disgraceful, not to be endured .
.
.
.
" (v.
980).
"Dark Epaphos" was the Dionysos-Sabazius, the son of Zeus and of Demeter in the Sabasian Mysteries, during which the "father of the gods," assuming the shape of a Serpent, begot on Demeter, Dionysos, or the solar Bacchus.
Io is the moon, and at the same time the E VE of a new race, and so is Demeter -- in the present case.
The Promethean myth is a prophecy indeed; but it does not relate to any of the cyclic Saviours who have appeared periodically in various countries and among various nations, in their transitionary conditions of evolution.
It points to the last of the mysteries of cyclic transformations, in the series of which mankind, having passed from the ethereal to the solid physical state, from spiritual to physiological procreation, is now carried onward on the opposite arc of the cycle, toward that second phase of its primitive state, when woman knew no man, and human progeny was created, not begotten.
That state will return to it and to the world at large, when the latter shall discover and really appreciate the truths which underlie this vast problem of sex.
It will be like "the light that never shone on sea or land," and has to come to men through the Theosophical Society.
That light will lead on and up to the true spiritual intuition.
Then (as expressed once in a letter to a theosophist), "the world will have a race of Buddhas and Christs, for the world will have discovered that individuals have it in their own powers to procreate Buddha-like children -- or demons.
" "When that knowledge comes, all dogmatic religions, and with these the demons, will die out." If we reflect upon the serial development of the allegory, and the character of the heroes, the mystery may be unriddled.
K RONOS is of course "time" in its cyclic course.
He swallows his children -- the [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See, for explanation of this curse, the last page of the present sub-section.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 416 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
personal gods of exoteric dogmas included.
He has swallowed instead of Zeus, his stone idol; but the symbol has grown, and has only developed in human fancy as mankind was cycling down toward only its physical and intellectual -- not spiritual -- perfection.
When it is as far advanced in its spiritual evolution Kronos will be no longer deceived.
Instead of the stone image he will have swallowed the anthropomorphic fiction itself.
Because, the serpent of wisdom, represented in the Sabasian mysteries by the anthropomorphised Logos, the unity of spiritual and physical Powers, will have begotten in Time (Kronos) a progeny -- Dionysos-Bacchus or the "dark Epaphos," the "mighty one" -- the race that will overthrow him.
Where will he be born?
Prometheus traces him to his origin and birth-place in his prophecy to Io.
Io is the moon-goddess of generation -- for she is Isis and she is Eve, the great mother.* He traces the path of the (racial) wanderings as plainly as words can express it.
She has to quit Europe and go to Asia's continent, reaching there the highest of the mountains of Caucasus (737), the Titan telling her: -- "When thou hast crossed the flood, limit betwixt Two continents, fronting the burning East." (810) that she must travel eastward, after passing the "Kimmerian Bosphorus," and cross what is evidently the Volga and now Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea.
After this she will encounter "fierce northern blasts" and cross thither to the land of the "Arimaspian host" (east of Herodotus' Scythia) to -- "Pluto's gold-abounding flood.
.
.
."(825) Which is rightly conjectured by Professor Newman to have meant the [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * It is complained by the author of the version on, and translator of, "Prometheus Bound" that in this tracing of Io's wanderings, "no consistency with our known geography is attainable" ( p.
191, Vol.
II ).
There may be good reason for it.
First of all it is the journey and wandering from place to place of the race from which the "tenth," or Kalki Avatar, so called, is to issue.
This he calls the "Kingly race born in Argos " (888).
But Argos has no reference here to Argos in Greece.
It comes from Arg or arca -- the female generative power symbolised in the moon -- the navi-formed Argha of the mysteries, meaning the Queen of Heaven.
Eustathius shows that, in the dialect of the Arg-ians, Io signified the moon; while esotericism explains it as the divine Androgyne, or the mystic 10; in Hebrew 10 is the perfect number, or Jehovah.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The passage describes the return to 'that second phase of its primitive state' after the cyclic descent, stating 'That state will return to it and to the world at large.'
In Western Hermetic Qabalah, the specific harmonizing cosmic force symbolised by Tiphareth, the central Sephira of the Tree of Life — the equilibriating, compensating, healing, redeeming, and purifying factor of the universe, recognised by the occultist as one power among the hierarchy of supreme cosmic forces rather than assigned the exclusive position it holds for the Christian mystic. Distinct from logos (the ordering principle through which the universe was created, not this specific mediating/healing Sephirotic force) and trinity (a claim about the Godhead's internal three-personed structure, not a single emanation's function within a tenfold system).
Christ is discussed as one of the 'cyclic Saviours who have appeared periodically' and is connected to Epaphos, positioning him as one instance of a recurring cosmic force rather than a unique historical figure.
The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).
The passage discusses the male-female generative principle operating at all levels: 'woman knew no man, and human progeny was created, not begotten,' the 'female generative power symbolised in the moon,' and the 'divine Androgyne.'
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage explicitly describes the directional process of descent ('mankind, having passed from the ethereal to the solid physical state, from spiritual to physiological procreation') and its complementary return ('carried onward on the opposite arc of the cycle'), which is the core doctrine of involution paired with evolution.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The passage describes mankind being 'carried onward on the opposite arc of the cycle, toward that second phase of its primitive state,' a return to the original condition before the descent into physicality.
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
The passage is structured around 'cyclic course,' 'cyclic transformations,' and 'the opposite arc of the cycle,' describing a pendulum motion between ethereal and physical states.
Organized, persisting groups — fraternities, orders, lodges — that maintain esoteric knowledge or practices as an institution distinct from public religion or mainstream society, holding 'the keys' collectively rather than through any one master-disciple pair. Distinct from esoteric_lineage (a genealogical chain of individual transmission, not an institution) and hidden_sayings (the concealment of a teaching's meaning, independent of whether any organized body holds it).
The Theosophical Society is explicitly named as the institution through which 'the light that never shone on sea or land' must come to humanity.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The passage envisions 'a race of Buddhas and Christs' in which 'individuals have it in their own powers to procreate Buddha-like children,' implying the progressive transformation of humans into divine beings.