Page 79 (part 3)

They maintain, furthermore, along with the Roman Catholic Church, that in the Biblical and Christian theology there does not exist a "higher celestial personality, after the Trinity, than that of the Archangel or the Seraphim, Michael ." According to them, the conqueror of the Dragon is "the archisatrap of the sacred militia, the guardian of the planets, the King of the Stars, the slayer of Satan and the most powerful Rector." In the mystic astronomy of these gentlemen, he is "the conqueror of Ahriman, who having upset the sidereal throne of the usurper, bathes in his stead in the solar fires"; and, defender of the Christ-Sun, he approaches so near his Master, "that he seems to become one with him . . . . Owing to this fusion with the W ORD ( Verbum ) the Protestants, and among them Calvin, ended by losing sight entirely of the duality, and saw no Michael but only his Master," writes the Abbe Caron. The Roman Catholics, and especially their Kabalists, know better; and it is they who explain to the world this duality, which affords to them the means of glorifying the chosen ones of the Church, and of rejecting and anathematizing all those Gods who may be in the way of their dogmas. Thus the same titles and the same names are given in turn to God and the Archangel. Both are called Metatron, "both have the name of Jehovah applied to them when they speak one in the other" (sic) as, according to the Zohar, the term signifies equally "the Master and the Ambassador." Both are the Angel of the Face, because, as we are informed, if, on the one hand, the "Word" is called "the face (or the Presence) and the image of the substance of God," on the other, "when [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] O living image of Divinity! O great thaumaturgist of the old Testament! O invisible Vicar of Christ within his Church! . . ." etc., etc. The work is in great honour in the Latin Church. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 480 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. speaking of the Saviour to the Israelites, Isaiah (?) tells them that "the angel of his presence saved them in their affliction" -- "so he was their Saviour."* Elsewhere he (Michael) is called very plainly "the Prince of the Faces of the Lord, the glory of the Lord." Both (Jehovah and Michael) are "the guides of Israel** . . . chiefs of the armies of the Lord, Supreme Judges of the souls and even Seraphs."*** The whole of the above is given on the authority of various works by Roman Catholics, and must, therefore, be orthodox. Some expressions are translated to show what subtle theologians and casuists mean by the term Ferouer,**** a word borrowed by some French writers from the Zend Avesta, as said, and utilized in Roman Catholicism for a purpose Zoroaster was very far from anticipating. In Fargard XIX . of the Vendidad it is said (verse 14), "Invoke, O Zarathustra! my Farvarshi, who am Ahura Mazda, the greatest, the best, the fairest of all beings, the most solid, the most intelligent, . . . . and whose soul is the Holy Word" (Mathra Spenta). The French Orientalists translate Farvarshi by "Ferouer." Now what is a Ferouer, or Farvarshi? In some Mazdean works ( e.g ., Ormazd Ahriman, §§ 112, 113), it is plainly implied that Farvarshi is the inner , immortal man (or that Ego which reincarnates); that it existed before its physical body and survives all such it happens to be clothed in. "Not only man was endowed with the Farvarshi, but gods too, and the sky, fire, waters, and plants." (Introduction to the Vendidad, by J. Darmesteter). This shows as plainly as can be shown that the ferouer is the "spiritual counterpart" of whether god, animal, plant, or even element, i.e ., the refined and the purer part of the grosser creation, the soul of the body, whatever the body may happen to be. Therefore does Ahura Mazda recommend Zarathustra to invoke his Farvarshi and not himself (Ahura-Mazda); that is to say, the impersonal and true Essence of Deity, one with Zoroaster's own Atman (or Christos), not the false and personal appearance. This is quite clear. Now it is on this divine and ethereal prototype that the Roman Catholics seized so as to build up the supposed difference between their god and angels, and the deity and its aspects, or the gods of the old religions. Thus, while calling Mercury, Venus, Jupiter (whether as gods or planets) D EVILS, they yet make of the same Mercury the ferouer of their Christ. This fact is undeniable. Vossius ( De Idol., II ., 373) [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Isaiah, lxiii. 8-9. ** Metator and [[ hegemon ]] . *** "La Face et le Representant du Verbe," p. 18, de Mirville. **** That which is called in the Vendidad "Farvarshi," the immortal part of an individual, that which outlives man -- the Higher Ego, say the Occultists, or the divine Double. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 481 FRAUDULENT TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. proves that Michael is the Mercury of the pagans, and Maury and other French writers corroborate him, and add that "according to great theologians Mercury and the Sun are one," (?) and no wonder, they think, since "Mercury being so near the Wisdom of the Verbum (the Sun), must be absorbed by and confounded with him." This "pagan" view was accepted from the first century of our era, as shown in the ORIGINAL Acts of the Apostles (the English translation being worthless). So much is Michael the Mercury of the Greeks and other nations, that when the inhabitants of Lystra mistook Paul and Barnabas for Mercury and Jupiter -- "the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men," -- verse 12 (xiv.) adds: "And they called Barnabas Zeus, and Paul, Hermes (or Mercury), because he was the leader of the WORD (Verbum), " and not "the chief speaker," as erroneously translated in the authorised, and repeated even in the revised, English Bible.