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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2 [[Vol. 2, Page 447]] BOOK II., PART II. THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS. --------- "The narratives of the Doctrine are its cloak. The simple look only at the garment -- that is, upon the narrative of the Doctrine; more they know not. The instructed, however, see not merely the cloak, but what the cloak covers. (The Z OHAR , iii., 152; Franck, 119.) " T HE M YSTERIES OF THE F AITH (are) NOT TO BE DIVULGED TO ALL. . . . . It is requisite to hide in a mystery the wisdom spoken." ( Clem. Alex., "Strom." 12.) [[Vol. 2, Page 448]] CONTENTS. -------- § E SOTERIC T ENETS C ORROBORATED IN EVERY S CRIPTURE ... 449 ------ XVI. A DAM- A DAMI ... 452 ------ XVII. T HE " H OLY OF H OLIES" -- I TS D EGRADATION ... 459 ------ XVIII. O N THE M YTH OF THE " F ALLEN A NGEL," IN ITS V ARIOUS P HASES ... 475 The Evil Spirit: Who and What? ... 475 The Gods of Light proceed from the Gods of Darkness ... 483 The Many Meanings of the "War in Heaven" ... 492 ------- XIX. I S P LEROMA S ATAN'S L AIR? ... 506 ------- XX. P ROMETHEUS, THE T ITAN ... 519 His Origin in Ancient India ... 519 ------- XXI. ENOICHION ... 529 ------ XXII. T HE S YMBOLISM OF THE M YSTERY- N AMES I AO AND J EHOVAH, WITH THEIR R ELATION TO THE C ROSS AND C IRCLE ... 536 Cross and Circle ... 545 The Fall of the Cross into Matter ... 553 ------ XXIII. T HE U PANISHADS IN G NOSTIC L ITERATURE ... 563 ------ XXIV. T HE C ROSS AND THE P YTHAGOREAN D ECADE ... 573 ------- XXV. T HE M YSTERIES OF THE H EBDOMAD ... 590 Saptaparna ... 590 The Tetraktis in relation to the Heptagon ... 598 The Septenary Element in the Vedas. It corroborates the Occult Teaching concerning the Seven Globes and the Seven Races ... 605 The Septenary in the Exoteric Works ... 611 Seven in Astronomy, Science and Magic ... 618 The Seven Souls of the Egyptologists ... 630 [[Vol. 2, Page 449]] BOOK II. -- PART II. -------- ESOTERIC TENETS CORROBORATED IN EVERY SCRIPTURE. I N view of the strangeness of the teachings, and of many a doctrine which from the modern scientific stand-point must seem absurd, some necessary and additional explanations have to be made. The theories contained in the Second Part of the Stanzas are even more difficult to assimilate than those which are embodied in Vol. 1, on Cosmogony. Theology, therefore, has to be questioned here, as Science will be in the Addenda (Part III .). Since our doctrines differ so widely from the current ideas of both Materialism and Theology, the Occultists must be ever prepared to repel the attacks of either or of both. The reader can never be too often reminded that, as the abundant quotations from various old Scriptures prove, these teachings are as old as the world; and that the present work is a simple attempt to render, in modern language and in a phraseology with which the scientific and educated student is familiar, archaic Genesis and History as taught in certain Asiatic centres of esoteric learning. They must be accepted or rejected on their own merits, fully or partially; but not before they have been carefully compared with the corresponding theological dogmas and the modern scientific theories and speculations. One feels a serious doubt whether, with all its intellectual acuteness, our age is destined to discover in each western nation even one solitary uninitiated scholar or philosopher capable of fully comprehending the spirit of archaic philosophy. Nor can one be expected to do so, before the real meaning of these terms, the Alpha and the Omega of Eastern esotericism, the words Sat and Asat, -- so freely used in the Rig-Veda, and elsewhere -- is thoroughly assimilated. Without this key to the Aryan Wisdom, the Cosmogony of the Rishis and the Arhats is in danger of remaining a dead letter to the average Orientalist. Asat is not merely the negation of Sat, nor is it the "not yet existing"; for Sat is in itself neither the "existent," nor "being." S AT is the immutable, the ever present, changeless and eternal root, from and through which all proceeds. But it is far more than the potential force in the seed, which propels onward the process of development, or what is now called evolution. It is the ever becoming, though the never manifesting.* Sat [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The Hegelian doctrine, which identifies Absolute Being or "Be-ness" with "non-Being," and represents the Universe as an eternal becoming, is identical with the Vedanta philosophy. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 450 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. is born from Asat , and A SAT is begotten by Sat: the perpetual motion in a circle, truly; yet a circle that can be squared only at the supreme Initiation, at the threshold of Paranirvana. Barth started a reflection on the Rig-Veda which was meant for a stern criticism, an unusual, therefore, as was thought, an original view of this archaic volume. It so happened, however, that, while criticising, that scholar revealed a truth, without being himself aware of its full importance. He premises by saying that "neither in the language nor in the thought of the Rig-Veda" has he "been able to discover that quality of primitive natural simplicity, which so many are fain to see in it." Barth had Max Muller in his mind's eye when writing this. For the famous Oxford professor has throughout characterised the hymns of the Rig Veda, as the unsophisticated expression of the religious feeling of a pastoral innocent people. "In the Vedic hymns the ideas and myths appear in their simplest and freshest form;" -- the Sanskrit scholar thinks. Barth is of a different opinion, however. So divided and personal are the opinions of Sanskritists as to the importance and intrinsic value of the Rig Veda, that those opinions become entirely biassed whichever way they incline. Thus Mr. Max Muller declares that: "Nowhere is the wide distance which separates the ancient poems of India from the most ancient literature of Greece more clearly felt, than when we compare the growing myths of the Veda with the full grown and decayed myths on which the poetry of Homer is founded.