Shall we still doubt the fact of Arjuna going over to Patala (the Antipodes, America) and there marrying Ulupi, the daughter of the Naga (or rather Nargal ) King?
But to the Zuni priests.
These receive an annual tribute, to this day, of corn of seven colours.
Undistinguished from other Indians during the whole year, on a certain day, they come out (the six priests and one priestess) arrayed in their [[Vol.
2, Page]] 629 THE SEVEN PRIESTS OF THE ZUNIS.
priestly robes, each of a colour sacred to the particular God whom the priest serves and personifies; each of them representing one of the seven regions, and each receiving corn of the colour corresponding to that region.
Thus, the white represents the East, because from the East comes the first Sun-light; the yellow, corresponds to the North, from the colour of the flames produced by the aurora borealis; the red, the South, as from that quarter comes the heat; the blue stands for the West, the colour of the Pacific Ocean, which lies to the West; black is the colour of the nether underground region -- darkness; corn with grains of all colours on one ear represents the colours of the upper region -- of the firmament, with its rosy and yellow clouds, shining stars, etc.
The "speckled" corn -- each grain containing all the colours -- is that of the "Priestess-Mother": woman containing in herself the seeds of all races past, present and future; Eve being the mother of all living.
Apart from these was the Sun -- the Great Deity -- whose priest was the spiritual head of the nation.
These facts were ascertained by Mr.
F.
Hamilton Cushing, who, as many are aware, became an Indian Zuni, lived with them, was initiated into their religious mysteries, and has learned more about them than any other man now living.
Seven is also the great magic number.
In the occult records the weapon mentioned in the Puranas and the Mahabharata -- the Agneyastra or "fiery weapon" bestowed by Aurva upon his chela Sagara -- is said to be built of seven elements.
This weapon -- supposed by some ingenious Orientalists to have been a "rocket" (!) -- is one of the many thorns in the side of our modern Sanskritists.
Wilson exercises his penetration over it, on several pages in his Specimens of the Hindu Theatre, and finally fails to explain it.
He can make nothing out of the Agneyastra.
"These weapons," he argues, "are of a very unintelligible character.
Some of them are wielded as missiles; but, in general, they appear to be mystical powers exercised by the individual -- such as those of paralysing an enemy, or locking his senses fast in sleep, or bringing down storm, and rain, and fire, from heaven.
( Vide supra, pp.
427 and 428.) .
.
.
.
They assume celestial shapes, endowed with human faculties.
.
.
.
.
The Ramayana calls them the Sons of Krisaswa" (p.
297).
The Sastra-devatas, "gods of the divine weapons," are no more Agneyastra, the weapon, than the gunners of modern artillery are the cannon they direct.
But this simple solution did not seem to strike the eminent Sanskritist.
Nevertheless, as he himself says of the armiform progeny of Krisaswa, "the allegorical origin of the (Agneyastra) weapons is, undoubtedly, the more ancient."* It is the fiery javelin of Brahma.
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * It is.
But Agneyastra are fiery "missile weapons," not "edged" weapons, as there is some difference between Sastra and Astra in Sanskrit.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 630 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
The seven-fold Agneyastra, like the seven senses and the "seven principles," symbolized by the seven priests, are of untold antiquity.
How old is the doctrine believed in by Theosophists, the following section will tell.
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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 entire passage is structured around cross-cultural correspondences of the number seven — seven Zuni priests mapping to seven directions/colors/regions, seven elements of the Agneyastra, seven senses, seven principles — demonstrating 'as above, so below' at every scale.
The doctrine that human volition, cultivated by discipline and emancipated from passion and servitude, is the primary instrument of magical operation — will confirmed by persistent acts acquires causal power over self, others, and nature; distinct from faith and from mere desire.
The weapons are described as 'mystical powers exercised by the individual' — paralysing enemies, locking senses in sleep, bringing storms — indicating volitional causal power over nature.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
Each priest embodies a specific cosmic region, and the Priestess-Mother (speckled corn containing all colors) contains 'the seeds of all races past, present and future' — the human as a small-scale image of the whole cosmos.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
Seven is explicitly called 'the great magic number' and the passage systematically maps it onto priests, colors, regions, elements of a weapon, senses, and principles, treating number as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The doctrine and practice of one person deliberately inflicting harm on another through trained will, mind-power, or occult technique alone, without physical contact — producing exhaustion, illness, breakdown, or death in the victim; recognised cross-culturally as witchcraft, hexing, or the evil eye, and treated in Western esotericism as a genuine occult hazard requiring diagnosis and defence rather than dismissed as superstition. Distinct from magical_will (the general doctrine that trained volition has causal power, of which this is one malevolent application) and from spirit_conjuration (which subordinates an already-existing summoned spirit, rather than directing the operator's own power at a person).
The Agneyastra weapons are described as capable of paralysing an enemy, locking his senses in sleep, and bringing down storm, rain, and fire — deliberate infliction of harm through occult technique.
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 Zuni priests form an organized, persisting group that is 'undistinguished from other Indians during the whole year' but reveals its esoteric identity on a specific day in priestly robes, maintaining sacred knowledge as an institution.
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
Each Zuni priest 'personifies' the particular God he serves, acting as a living vessel through which divine power is expressed in the physical world.
A vertical structure connecting cosmic levels — a tree, pillar, mountain, or ladder linking heaven, earth, and underworld around which the cosmos is organised. Yggdrasil binding the Nine Worlds in Norse cosmology, the Kalevala's Sampo as world-pillar, the Mayan ceiba, the Vedic Aśvattha, the shamanic central tree of Eliade's analyses. Cosmic-structural in character: distinct from sefirot_tree (a kabbalistic emanation diagram) and emanation_hierarchy (an ontological cascade); world_tree_axis is the cosmos's spine rather than the divine's outflow.
The seven regions include 'the nether underground region' (darkness) and 'the upper region' (the firmament with stars and clouds), establishing a vertical cosmic structure connecting underworld, earth, and heaven.