243.
No criterion at all. The Hindu Sâddhus and Adepts acquire the gift by the holiness of their lives. The Yoga-Vidyâ teaches it, and no “spirits” are required.
244.
As to the Pontiffs, the matter is rather doubtful.
245.
But this alone is no reason why people should believe in this class of spirits. There are better authorities for such belief.
246.
De Mirville's aim is to show that all such apparitions of the Manes or disembodied Spirits are the work of the Devil, “Satan's simulacra.”
247.
He might have added: like the great Shankarâchârya, Tsong-Kha-Pa, and so many other real Adepts—even his own Master, Jesus; for this is indeed a criterion of true Adeptship, though “to disappear” one need not fly up in the clouds.
248.
See Dion Cassius, XXVII. xviii. 2.
249.
Lampridius, Adrian, xxix. 2.
250.
The passage runs as follows: “Aurelian had determined to destroy Tyana, and the town owed its salvation only to a miracle of Apollonius; this man so famous and so wise, this great friend of the Gods, appeared suddenly before the Emperor, as he was returning to his tent, in his own figure and form, and said to him in the Pannonian language: ‘Aurelian, if thou wouldst conquer, abandon these evil designs against my fellow-citizens: if thou wouldst command, abstain from shedding innocent blood; and if thou wouldst live, abstain from injustice.’ Aurelian, familiar with the face of Apollonius, whose portraits he had seen in many temples, struck with wonder, immediately vowed to him (Apollonius) statue, portrait and temple, and returned completely to ideas of mercy.” And then Vopiscus adds: “If I have believed more and more in the virtues of the majestic Apollonius, it is because, after gathering my information from the most serious men, I have found all these facts corroborated in the Books of the Ulpian Library.” (See Flavius Vopiscus, Aurelianus). Vopiscus wrote in 250 and consequently preceded Philostratus by a century.
251.
Ep. ad Paulinum.
252.
The above is mostly summarised from De Mirville, loc. cit., pp. 66-69.
253.
A “true prophet” because an Initiate, one perfectly versed in Occult astronomy.
254.
Key to Hebrew-Egyptian Mystery, p. 259 et seq. Astronomy and physiology are the bodies, astrology and psychology their informing souls; the former being studied by the eye of sensual perception, the latter by the inner or “soul-eye”; and both are exact sciences.
255.
New Platonism and Alchemy, p. 12
256.
Heracles, 807.
257.
Æneid, viii., 274 ff.
258.
App., vii., p. 301.
259.
Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, ii. 88.
260.
(Hieronymus, De Viris Illust., iii.) “It is remarkable that, while all Church Fathers say that Matthew wrote in Hebrew, the whole of them use the Greek text as the genuine apostolic writing, without mentioning what relation the Hebrew Matthew has to our Greek one! It had many peculiar additions which are wanting in our (Greek) Evangel” (Olshausen, Nachweis der Echtheit der Sämmtlichen Schriften des Neuen Test., p. 32; Dunlap, Sôd, the Son of the Man, p. 44.)
261.
Commen. to Matthew (xii. 13) Book II. Jerome adds that it was written in the Chaldaic language, but with Hebrew letters.
262.
“St. Jerome,” v. 445; Dunlap, Sôd, the Son of Man, p. 46.
263.
This accounts also for the rejection of the works of Justin Martyr, who used only this “Gospel according to the Hebrews,” as also did most probably Tatian, his disciple. At what a late period the divinity of Christ was fully established we can judge by the mere fact that even in the fourth century Eusebius did not denounce this book as spurious, but only classed it with such as the Apocalypse of John; and Credner (Zur Gesch. des Kan, p. 120) shows Nicephorus inserting it, together with the Revelation, in his Stichometry, among the Antilegomena. The Ebionites, the genuine primitive Christians, rejecting the rest of the Apostolic writings, make use only of this Gospel (Adv. Hær., i. 26) and the Ebionites, as Epiphanius declares, firmly believed, with the Nazarenes, that Jesus was but a man, “of the seed of a man.”
264.
Isis Unveiled, ii. 182-3.
265.
Op. cit., ii. 5.
266.
See also Isis Unveiled, ii. 180, to end of chapter.
267.
Source of Measures, p. 299. This “stream of life” being emblematised in the Philloc basso-relievo just mentioned, by the water poured in the shape of a Cross on the initiated candidate by Osiris—Life and the Sun—and Mercury—Death. It was the finale of the rite of Initiation after the seven and the twelve tortures in the Crypts of Egypt were passed through successfully.
268.
Another untrustworthy, untruthful and ignorant writer, an ecclesiastical historian of the fifth century. His alleged history of the strife between the Pagans, Neoplatonists, and the Christians of Alexandria and Constantinople, which extends from the year 324 to 439, dedicated by him to Theodosius, the younger, is full of deliberate falsifications.
269.
Gems of the Orthodox Christians, vol. I., p. 135.
270.
Revelation, xiv. 1.
271.
A Dagoba is a small temple of globular form, in which are preserved the relics of Gautama.
272.
Prachidas are buildings of all sizes and forms, like our mausoleums, and are sacred to votive offerings to the dead.
273.
The Talmudistic records claim that, after having been hanged, he was lapidated and buried under the water at the junction of two streams. Mishna Sanhedrin, Vol. VI., p. 4; Talmud, of Babylon, same article, 43 a, 67 a.
274.
Coptic Legends of the Crucifixion, MSS. XI.
275.
We are at a loss to understand why King, in his Gnostic Gems, represents Solomon's Seal as a five-pointed star, whereas it is six-pointed, and is the signet of Vishnu in India.
276.
King (Gnostics) gives the figure of a Christian symbol, very common during the middle ages, of three fishes interlaced into a triangle, and having the FIVE letters (a most sacred Pythagorean number) ΙΧΘΥΣ engraved on it. The number five relates to the same kabalistic computation.
277.
Op. cit., ii., 253-256.
278.
Op. cit., 301. All this connects Jesus with great Initiates and solar heroes; all this is purely Pagan, under a newly-evolved variation, the Christian scheme.
279.
Op. cit., 296.
280.
Pp. 294, 295.
281.
P. 295
282.
Pp. 295, 296.
283.
Had we known the learned author before his book was printed, he might have been perchance prevailed upon to add a seventh link from which all others, far preceding those enumerated in point of time, and surpassing them in universally philosophical meaning, have been derived, aye, even to the great pyramid, whose foundation square was, in its turn, the great Âryan Mysteries.
284.
We would say cosmic Matter, Spirit, Chaos, and Divine Light, for the Egyptian idea was identical in this with the Âryan. However, the author is right with regard to the Occult Symbology of the Jews. They were a remarkably matter of fact, unspiritual people at all times; yet even with them “Ruach” was Divine Spirit, not “air.”
285.
Mr. Ralston Skinner shows that the symbol ☧, the crossed bones and skull, has the letter ק Koph, the half of the head behind the ears.
286.
Pp. 296-302. By these numbers, explains the author, “Eli is 113 (by placing the word in a circle); amah being 345, is by change of letters to suit the same value משת (in a circle) or Moses, while Sabachth is John or the dove, or Holy Spirit, because (in a circle) it is 710 (or 355 × 2). The termination ni, as meni or 5651, becomes Jehovah.”
287.
The Western personification of that power, which the Hindus call the Vija, the “one seed,” or Mahâ Vishnu—a power, not the God—or that mysterious Principle that contains in Itself the Seed of Avatârism.
288.
“Arise into Nervi from this decrepit body into which thou hast been sent. Ascend into thy former abode, O blessed Avatâr!”
289.
The Gnostics and their Remains, King, pp. 100, 101.
290.
Loc cit.
291.
Op. cit. 258.
292.
Homilies XIX., xx. 1.
293.
The Pleroma constituted the synthesis or entirety of all the spiritual entities. St. Paul still used the name in his Epistles.
294.
The “Comforter,” second Messiah, intercessor. “A term applied to the Holy Ghost.” Manes was the disciple of Terebinthus, an Egyptian Philosopher, who, according to the Christian Socrates (I. i., cited by Tillemont, iv. 584), “while invoking one day the demons of the air, fell from the roof of his house and was killed.”
295.
Cf. op. cit., vi. 169-183.
296.
“The great serpent placed to watch the temple,” comments De Mirville. “How often have we repeated that it was no symbol, no personification but really a serpent occupied by a god!”—he exclaims; and we answer that at Cairo in a Mussulman, not a heathen temple, we have seen, as thousands of other visitors have also seen, a huge serpent that lived there for centuries, we were told, and was held in great respect. Was it also “occupied by a God,” or possessed, in other words?
297.
The Mysteries of Demeter, or the “afflicted mother.”
298.
By the satyrs.
299.
This looks rather suspicious and seems interpolated. De Mirville tries to have what he says of Satan and his Court sending their imps on earth to tempt humanity and masquerade at séances, corroborated by the ex-sorcerer.
300.
This does not look like sinful food. It is the diet of Chelâs to this day.
301.
“Grafted” is the correct expression. “The seven Builders graft the divine and the beneficent forces on to the gross material nature of the vegetable and mineral kingdoms every Second Round”—says the Catechism of Lanoos.
302.
Only the Prince of the World is not Satan, as the translator would make us believe, but the collective Host of the Planetary. This is a little theological back-biting.
303.
Here the Elemental and Elementary Spirits are evidently meant.
304.
The reader has already learned the truth about them in the course of the present work.
305.
Pity the penitent Saint had not imparted his knowledge of the rotation of the earth and helio-centric system earlier to his Church. That might have saved more than one human life—that of Bruno for one.
306.
Chelâs in their trials of initiation, also see in trances artificially generated for them, the vision of the Earth supported by an elephant on the top of a tortoise standing on nothing—and this, to teach them to discern the true from the false.
307.
Relating to the days of the year, also to 7 × 7 divisions of the earth's sublunary sphere, divided into seven upper and seven lower spheres with their respective Planetary Hosts or “armies.”
308.
Daimon is not “demon,” as translated by De Mirville, but Spirit.
309.
All this is to corroborate his dogmatic assertions that Pater Æther or Jupiter is Satan! and that pestilential diseases, cataclysms, and even thunderstorms that prove disastrous, come from the Satanic Host dwelling in Ether—a good warning to the men of Science!
310.
The translator replaces the word Mediators by mediums, excusing himself in a foot-note by saying that Cyprian must have meant modern mediums!
311.
Cyprianus simply meant to hint at the rites and mysteries of Initiation, and the pledge of secresy and oaths that bound the Initiates together. His translator, however, has made a Witches' Sabbath of it instead.
312.
“Twelve centuries later, in full renaissance and reform, the world saw Luther do the same [embrace the Devil he means?]—according to his own confession and in the same conditions,” explains De Mirville in a foot-note, showing thereby the brotherly love that binds Christians. Now Cyprianus meant by the Devil (if the word is really in the original text) his Initiator and Hierophant. No Saint—even a penitent Sorcerer—would be so silly as to speak of his (the Devil's) rising from his seat to see him to the door, were it otherwise.
313.
Every Adept has “a principality after his death.”
314.
Which shows that it was the Hierophant and his disciples. Cyprianus shows himself as grateful as most of the other converts (the modern included) to his Teachers and Instructors.
315.
This is proved if we take but a single recorded instance. J. Picus de Mirandola, finding that there was more Christianity than Judaism in the Kabalah, and discovering in it the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Divinity of Jesus, etc., wound up his proofs of this with a challenge to the world at large from Rome. As Ginsburg shows: “In 1486, when only twenty-four years old, he [Picus] published nine hundred [Kabalistic] theses, which were placarded in Rome, and undertook to defend them in the presence of all European scholars whom he invited to the Eternal City, promising to defray their travelling expenses.”
316.
This account is summarised from Isaac Myer's Qabbalah, p. 10, et seq.
317.
There is not in the decalogue one idea that is not the counterpart, or the paraphrase, of the dogmas and ethics current among the Egyptians long before the time of Moses and Aaron. (The Mosaic Law a transcript from Egyptian Sources; vide Geometry in Religion, 1890.)
318.
Book of God. Kenealy, p. 383. The reference to Klaproth is also from this page.
319.
See Asiat. Jour., N.S. vii., p. 275, quoted by Kenealy.
320.
Book of God, loc. cit.
321.
Op. cit., v. 15.
322.
Prolegomena, iii. 13, quoted by Kenealy, p. 385.
323.
See Book of God, p. 385. “Care should be taken,” says Butler (quoted by Kenealy, p. 489), “to distinguish between the Pentateuch in the Hebrew language but in the letters of the Samaritan alphabet, and the version of the Pentateuch in the Samaritan language. One of the most important differences between the Samaritan and the Hebrew text respects the duration of the period between the deluge and the birth of Abraham. The Samaritan text makes it longer by some centuries than the Hebrew text; and the Septuagint makes it longer by some centuries than the Samaritan.” It is observable that in the authentic translation of the Latin Vulgate, the Roman Church follows the computation expressed in the Hebrew text; and in her Martyrology follows that of the Seventy, both texts being inspired, as she claims.
324.
See Rev. Joseph Wolff's Journal, p. 200.
325.
A tree is symbolically a book—as “pillar” is another synonym of the same.
326.
The wife of Moses, one of the seven daughters of a Midian priest, is called Zipora. It was Jethro, the priest of Midian, who initiated Moses, Zipora, one of the seven daughters, being simply one of the seven Occult powers that the Hierophant was and is supposed to pass to the initiated novice.
327.
See for these details the Book of God, pp. 244, 250.
328.
Op. cit. v. 85.
329.
As is fully shown in the Source of Measures and other works.
330.
Surely even Masons would never claim the actual existence of Solomon? As Kenealy shows, he is not noticed by Herodotus, nor by Plato, nor by any writer of standing. It is most extraordinary, he says, “that the Jewish nation, over whom but a few years before the mighty Solomon had reigned in all his glory, with a magnificence scarcely equalled by the greatest monarchs, spending nearly eight thousand millions of gold on a temple, was overlooked by the historian Herodotus, writing of Egypt on the one hand, and of Babylon on the other—visiting both places, and of course passing almost necessarily within a few miles of the splendid capital of the national Jerusalem? How can this be accounted for?” he asks (p. 457). Nay, not only are there no proofs of the twelve tribes of Israel having ever existed, but Herodotus, the most accurate of historians, who was in Assyria when Ezra flourished, never mentions the Israelites at all; and Herodotus was born in 484 b.c. How is this?
331.
Clement, Stromateis, xxii.
332.
Book of God, p. 408.
333.
Book of God, p. 453.
334.
Asiatic Journal, vii., p. 275, quoted by Kenealy.
335.
Book of God, p. 385.
336.
Speaking of the hidden meaning of the Sanskrit words, Mr. T. Subba Row, in his able article on “The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac,” gives some advice as to the way in which one should proceed to find out “the deep significance of ancient Sanskrit nomenclature in the old Âryan myths. 1. Find out the synonyms of the word used which have other meanings. 2. Find out the numerical value of the letters composing the word according to the methods of the ancient Tântrik works [Tântrika Shâstra—works on Incantation and Magic]. 3. Examine the ancient myths or allegories, if there are any, which have any special connection with the word in question. 4. Permute the different syllables composing the word and examine the new combinations that will thus be formed and their meanings,” etc. But he does not give the principal rule. And no doubt he is quite right. The Tântrika Shâstras are as old as Magic itself. Have they also borrowed their Esotericism from the Hebrews?
337.
Their founder, Sadoc, was the pupil, through Antigonus Saccho, of Simon the Just. They had their own secret Book of the Law ever since the foundation of their sect (about 400 b.c.) and this volume was unknown to the masses. At the time of the Separation the Samaritans recognised only the Book of the Law of Moses and the Book of Joshua, and their Pentateuch is far older, and is different from the Septuagint. In 168 b.c. Jerusalem had its temple plundered, and its Sacred Books—namely, the Bible made up by Ezra and finished by Judas Maccabeus—were lost (see Burder's Josephus, vol. ii. pp. 331-335); after which the Massorah completed the work of destruction (even of Ezra's once-more adjusted Bible) begun by the change into square from horned letters. Therefore the later Pentateuch accepted by the Pharisees was rejected and laughed at by the Sadducees. They are generally called atheists; yet, since those learned men, who made no secret of their freethought, furnished from among their number the most eminent of the Jewish high-priests, this seems impossible. How could the Pharisees and the other two believing and pious sects allow notorious atheists to be selected for such posts? The answer is difficult to find for bigotry and for believers in a personal, anthropomorphic God, but very easy for those who accept facts. The Sadducees were called atheists because they believed as the initiated Moses believed, thus differing very widely from the latter made-up Jewish legislator and hero of Mount Sinai.
338.
The measurements of the Great Pyramid being those of the temple of Solomon, of the Ark of the Covenant, etc., according to Piazzi Smythe and the author of the Source of Measures, and the Pyramid of Gizeh being shown on astronomical calculations to have been built 4950 b.c., and Moses having written his books—for the sake of argument—not even half that time before our era, how can this be? Surely if any one borrowed from the other, it is not the Pharaohs from Moses. Even philology shows not only the Egyptian, but even the Mongolian, older than the Hebrew.