As in the Chaldean Cosmogony of Berosus and the Stanzas just given, some treatises on the Kabala speak of creatures with two faces, some with four, and some with one face: for "the highest Adam did not come down in all the countries, or produce progeny and have many wives," but is a Mystery.
So is the Dragon a mystery.
Truly, says Rabbi Simeon Ben-Iochai, that to understand the meaning of the Dragon is not given to the "Companions" (students, or chelas ) , but only to "the little ones," i.e ., the perfect Initiates.* "The work of the beginning the companions understand; but it is only the little ones who understand the parable on the work in the Principium by the mystery of the serpent of the Great Sea.
" ** And those Christians, who may happen to read this, will also understand by the light of the above sentence who their "Christ" was.
For Jesus states repeatedly that he who "shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein"; and if some of his sayings have been meant to apply to children without any metaphor, most of what relates to the "little ones" in the Gospels, related to the Initiates, of whom Jesus was one.
Paul (Saul) is referred to in the Talmud as "the little one." That "Mystery of the Serpent" was this: Our Earth, or rather terrestrial life, is often referred to in the Secret Teachings as the great Sea, "the sea of life" having remained to this day a favourite metaphor.
The Siphrah Dzeniouta speaks of primeval chaos and the evolution of the Universe after a destruction ( pralaya ), comparing it to an uncoiling serpent: -- "Extending hither and thither, its tail in its mouth, the head twisting on its neck, it is enraged and angry.
.
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It watches and conceals itself.
Every thousand Days it is manifested." (I., § 16).
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Such was the name given in ancient Judea to the Initiates, called also the "Innocents" and the "Infants," i.e ., once more reborn.
This key opens a vista into one of the New Testament mysteries; the slaughter by Herod of the 40,000 "Innocents." There is a legend to this effect, and the event which took place almost a century B.C.
, shows the origin of the tradition blended at the same time with that of Krishna and his uncle Kansa.
In the case of the N.
T., Herod stands for Alexander Janneus (of Lyda), whose persecution and murder of hundreds and thousands of Initiates led to the adoption of the Bible story.
** Zohar ii., 34.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 505 THE SACREDNESS OF THE SERPENT.
A commentary on the Puranas says: "Ananta-Sesha is a form of Vishnu, the Holy Spirit of Preservation, and a symbol of the Universe, on which it is supposed to sleep during the intervals of the Days of Brahma.
The seven heads of Sesha support the Universe.
.
.
.
" So the Spirit of God "sleeps," is "breathing" (meracha' pheth') over the Chaos of undifferentiated matter, before each new "Creation." ( Siphrah Dzeniouta ) .
Now one "Day" of Brahma is composed, as already explained, of one thousand Mahayugas; and as each "Night" or period of rest is equal in duration to this "day," it is easy to see to what this sentence in Siphrah Dzeniouta refers, viz.: -- that the serpent manifests "once in a thousand days." Nor is it more difficult to see whither the initiated writer of the Siphrah is leading us, when he says: "Its head is broken in the waters of the great sea, as it is written: 'Thou dividest the sea by thy strength, thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters' " (lxxiv.
13).
It refers to the trials of the Initiates in this physical life, the "sea of sorrow," if read with one key; it hints at the successive destruction of the seven spheres of a chain of worlds in the great sea of space, when read with another key: for every sidereal globe or sphere, every world, star, or group of stars, is called in symbolism "the Dragon's head." But however it may read, the Dragon was never regarded as Evil, nor was the Serpent either -- in antiquity.
In the metaphors, whether astronomical, cosmical, theogonical or simply physiological, i.e.
, phallic -- the Serpent was always regarded as a divine symbol.
When it is said "The (Cosmic) Serpent which runs with 370 leaps" ( Siphrah Dzeniouta , § 33) it means the cyclic periods of the great Tropical year (25,868 years), divided in the esoteric calculation into 370 periods or cycles, as one solar year is divided into 365 days.
And if Michael was regarded by the Christians as the Conqueror of Satan, the Dragon, it is because in the Talmud this fighting personage is represented as the Prince of Waters, who had seven subordinate Spirits under him -- a good reason why the Latin Church made him the patron Saint of every promontory in Europe.
In the Kabala ( Siph.
Dzen .) the creative Force "makes sketches and spiral lines of his creation in the shape of a Serpent.
" It "holds its tail in its mouth," because it is the symbol of endless eternity and of cyclic periods.
Its meanings, however, would require a volume, and we must end.
Thus the reader may now see for himself what are the several meanings of the "War in Heaven," and of the "great dragon." The most solemn and dreaded of church dogmas, the alpha and omega of Christian faith, and the pillar of its F ALL and A TONEMENT, dwindles down to a pagan symbol, in the many allegories about those prehistoric struggles.
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The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage demonstrates the Hermetic principle of correspondence by showing how the single serpent symbol maps onto multiple levels simultaneously: astronomical (tropical year), cosmical (chain of worlds), theogonical (Vishnu/Sesha), and physiological (phallic), each a legible reflection of the others.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The entire passage is structured around the idea that the true meaning of the Dragon/Serpent is concealed from ordinary readers ('Companions') and only revealed to 'the little ones' (perfect Initiates), with multiple layers of allegorical meaning (astronomical, cosmical, theogonical, physiological).
The ritual admission of an individual into esoteric knowledge or a sacred order through a formal rite of passage — testing, ordeal, or ceremony — marking a definite before/after threshold in the initiate's status and access. Distinct from hidden_sayings (the doctrine being concealed, not the rite of admission to it) and esoteric_lineage (the historical chain of transmission across generations, not a single individual's admission).
The passage centers on the distinction between 'Companions' (students) and 'the little ones' (perfect Initiates), describing a graded system of access to esoteric knowledge where only the fully initiated can comprehend the Dragon's mystery.
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 extensively describes cyclic periods: the serpent manifesting 'every thousand Days,' the tropical year of 25,868 years divided into 370 cycles, and the Day/Night of Brahma as alternating periods of activity and rest.
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 passage references organized groups of Initiates ('the little ones,' 'the Innocents,' 'the Infants') who were persecuted and murdered by Alexander Janneus, implying a persistent institutional body holding esoteric knowledge.