Isis Study – April to June 2013 Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages 584 – 590

 India, the cradle of civilization

 Louis Jacolliot was severely critical of present day India’s degradation, which, he rightly attributed to the perversion of ancient caste system over the last few centuries. His rebuke of modern India is proportionate to his admiration for the intensity of her past grandeur. He points the source of ancient creeds, including the Book of Moses, to be ancient India, the cradle of humanity and the hotbed of the lost arts and sciences of antiquity. “To study India,” said he, “is to trace humanity to its source.”
 Says Jacolliot : In the same way as the modern society jostles antiquity at each step, as our poets have copied Homer and Virgil. Sophocles and Euripides, Plautus and Terrene; as our philosophers have drawn inspiration from Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle; as our historians take Titus Livicus, Sallust, or Tacitus, as models; as our orators, Demosthenes or Cicero; our physicians study Hippocrates, and our codes transcribe Justinian—so had antiquity’s self also an antiquity to study, to imitate, and to copy, and that was ancient India. It is quite logical. Peoples precede and succeed each other, knowledge acquired by one nation overflows into other nations. India of 6000 years ago, brilliant, civilized, overflowing with population, impressed upon Egypt, Persia, Judea, Greece, and Rome, as these last have impressed upon us.

The Age of the Code of Manu

 The evidence of the past glories of ancient India lies buried in her literature. Christian missionaries anxiously summon every argument in support of their contention that the Ordinances of Manu were compiled at various times and the oldest cannot be earlier than the Christian era. But impartial Orientalists are of a different view. Sir William Jones is of the opinion that the laws of Manu, such as we possess them, do not comprise  fully the older text under the name Vriddha Manava or the Ancient Code of Manu which has not yet been entirely reconstructed, although many passages of the book have been preserved by tradition. Jacolloiot says that in the preface to a treatise on legislation by Narada, written by one of his adepts, it is said that Manu wrote laws of Brahma in 100,000 verses (slokas) which formed 24 books and a thousand chapters, and gave it to Narada, the sage of sages, who abridged it for the use of mankind to 12000 verses; that this was passed on to a son of Brighu, named Soumati, who, for the greater convenience of man, reduced them to 4000.
 Sir William Jones affirmed that the fragments which are the subjects of study of the scholars could not be the  The Ancient Code of Manu. Jacolliot, after consulting authorities and after his own research, wrote :
  “The Hindu laws were codified by Manu more than 1000 years before the Christian era, copied by the whole of antiquity, and notably by Rome, which alone has left us a written law—the Code of Justinian; which has been adopted as the basis of all modern legislation.”

Many Indologists, including Jacolliot, suspected that many of the Vedic texts and Laws of Manu sent by the Asiatic Society of Calcutta to Europe were not genuine texts at all, mostly due to cunning efforts of Jesuit missionaries to mislead science with a view to throw a cloud of uncertainty on the history of India.  (Jacolliot’s Christna et el Christ).
 The code of Manu commented upon by Brighon does not even form part of the ancient Manu called Vriddha Manava. What has been discovered is only a small part of it. The whole of it nevertheless exist in certain temples of India. Jacolliot proves that the texts sent to Europe disagree entirely with the same texts found in the Pagodas of Southern India.

The Age of the Vedas and Manu

 According to the Hindu tradition we are now Kali Yuga, the last of the four Yugas, of which Satya  or Krita Yuga is the first, during which the laws of Manu were established. Sir William Jones accepted the authenticity of the chronology, which, of course, contradicts the chronology of the Jewish scriptures, according to which just about 45000 years have elapsed since the “creation” of the world. The Hindu chronology agrees better with the geological chronology of modern science. Kali Yuga began about 4500 years ago.
 The contention of some scholars that the laws of Manu do not date farther back than three centuries B.C. is based on evidence of some ancient documents which were abridgment of those laws, compiled and arranged by later Brahmans to serve as an authority for their ambitious projects of creating for themselves a rule of dominion. There are however strongest possible arguments in favour of the great antiquity of the Books of Manu. Some of the arguments Louis Jacolliot brings forward in support of the same are worth considering :
 Jaccolliot proves that the Code of Justinian was copied from Laws of Manu. Then we have to ascertain the age of the former. According to Varro, Rome was built in 3961 of the Julian period (754 B.C.). The Roman Law, as compiled by the order of Justinian, called Corpus Juris Civilis, was not a code but a digest of the customs of legislation of many centuries. The chief source from which the jus scriptum, or written law, was derived, was jus non scriptum, or the law of custom, which in turn was derivation from still earlier sources. This alone carries it back to more than 1000 years B.C.

1. Manava Dharma Sastra, embodying the  Hindu system of cosmogony is recognized to be next to the Vedas in antiquity. Colebrook assigns to the latter 15^th century B.C.  Therefore, Laws of Manu cannot be assigned an age as recent as third century B.C.
2. While the Vedas are held to be divinely Revealed (Sriti), the  Code of Manu is considered to be a collection of oral traditions (Smriti), which are among the oldest and most revered in the land. Brahmans have undeniably remodelled these traditions at some distant period, and made many of the laws as they now exist to answer their ambitious views. Therefore, they must have been made at a time when Suttee (widow mounting the funeral pyre of her dead husband) had not become a social custom, which it had been for nearly 2500 years. There is no sanction in the Vedas for practice of Suttee nor is it sanctioned on the Code of Manu. If Brahmans had been the authors of the Code of Manu in recent times as some scholars believe, they would not have omitted to include the Suttee as a part of the code. This alone is a proof of the great antiquity of the Code of Manu

 It is on such circumstantial evidence, and by the strength of reason and logic, that it is affirmed that ; ig Egypt furnished Greece with her civilization, and the latter bequeathed hers to Rome, Egypt herself in those remote age when Menes reigned received her laws, social institutions, her arts and sciences, from Pre-Vedic India (Bunsen assigns the reign of Menes to be 3645 B.C.) It is to ancient India is the Initiatrix of the priests—Adepts of all other countries—that we must look for the key to the great mysteries of humanity.  By “India” is not meant the present day India but India of archaic period. India of those remote period was known by other names. There was an Upper, Lower and a Western India, the latter included Persia-Iran. What are now known as Thibet,  Mangolia and the great Tartary were considered by ancient writers as India.

In the next blog legends about the pre-Vedic cradle of Humanity will be discussed.

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Isis Study – April to June 2013 : Summary and discussions

 Isis unveiled, vol. I

 Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

  Pages 580-586

The previous blog ended with the statement :

The subject of discussion in the next blog will be, if the Lost Word is to be found underlying these ancient works, why have not the great Orientalists, Egyptologists, Biblical scholars have not discerned it. It is because they see only the dead letter and miss the spirit that gives life.

 Max Muller, for instance, was entirely misled by the dead-letter of the ancient Sanskrit literature and missed the hidden spirit in them. After a long painstaking research he ended up criticizing them to be mere theological twaddle, and that no one could read ten pages of their Vedas and Puranas without being disgusted. H.P.B. remarks that without a clue to the hidden meaning of this “twaddle” of religious conceptions he passed his judgement, and that the Exoteric can never be the judge of the esoteric. The Esotericism of ancient knowledge was a closely guarded secret with the ancients, as much as it is to this day with the modern heirs to ancient wisdom. Max Muller himself, in one of his lectures, said that the Romans, the Jews, Brahmans never thought of converting people to their national form of worship, religion was looked upon by them as their private national property, and was guarded against strangers, and most sacred names of the goods, the prayers by which they could be invoked was kept a secret, and that no religion was more exclusive than that of the Brahmans.

Therefore, mere learning a few exoteric rites from a Brahman Srotriya, initiates of the sacrificial mysteries, an uninitiated scholar could never hope of correctly interpreting the symbols and thoroughly sift their knowledge system. There lies beyond or behind the exoteric “twaddle” far more than was ever dreamt of by our modern philosophers. In fact, it is the same in the ancient scriptures of all older nations. Professor John Williams Draper, in his work, Intellectual Development of Europe, classifies the time, from the days of Socrates, the precursor and teacher of Plato, to Karneades as “the age of faith,” and that from Philo Judeus to the destruction of Neo-platonic schools by Justinian, the “age of decrepitude.” This only shows that the learned Professor knew as little about the real tendency of Greek philosophy and the Attic schools as he understood the true charater of Giordono Bruno.

Mere scholarship in languages, grammar and philology will never reveal the hidden sense of the ancient myths. Muller was far better acuanted with old Sanskrit verbs than with Sanskrit thought. Says HPB : “He who is not intuitionally vivified by the religious spirit of old, will never see beyond the exoteric ‘twaddle.’ ”

To give an example of the apparent meaningless jargon of the ancient writings which misleads one not acquainted with the ancient symbolism, a Jewish philosophical idea expressed in mythical language, in the Jewish scripture, Codex Nazareus,  is narrated : The cavity of the cranium of the Macroprosopos—the Long Face—lies hidden the aerial WISDOM which nowhere is opened; and it is not discovered, and nor opened; and then another : the”‘nose”; of “ the ancient of days” is Life in every part.”  To the uninitiated scholar this sounds like the ravings of a lunatic. And when it is further said in the Codex : “She” the Spiritus invites her son Karabtanos,” who is frantic and without judgment,” to an unnatural union, one is likely to be filled with disgust and throw the book away. Yet the scripture cannot be judged by the outward forms of expression nor take in the literal sense the apparent obscene language. Hindu and Egyptian religions contain such expressions, and the modern scholars have ever been misled by the outer garb and have dubbed them all as mere gross sexual symbols. The Holy Bible itself is full such expressions and sexual symbols. When the hidden meaning is explained by those versed in the mystery of symbolical language, grand philosophical and scientific truths are discerned in them, like the bringing out a precious gem from the bowels of the earth.

The narrative from the Codex Nazareus cited above is the same truth psychological anthropology which is hidden in the Biblical narrative of Eve being tempted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. The explanation : The ever-insinuating, restless spirit, when once it falls into matter which is “frantic and without judgment.” Matter is Karabtanos, and is the son of Spirit, or Spiritus of Nazarenes, the Sophia Achamoth; the latter is the daughter of the pure intellectual spirit, the divine breath. Ancient Wisdom says, Matter is one of correlations of Spirit. When read in the higher light the hidden science in the apparently crude outer symbols of ancient books shines forth. Unable to do this, Orientalists have erred in dismissing the old religious doctrines as mere theological twaddle and sexual worship.

Scholars who did justice to India

 Not all scholars have been so blind. Some of the great ones, such as Colebrooke, Sir William Jones, Barthelemy, St. Hillare, Jacolliot etc have done have done justice to ancient India thus disabusing the wicked propaganda of Christian missionaries in portraying Indian religion to be devilish. Of them Jacolliot, the great French Sanskritist, stands out among the scholars who did justice to India. He brought forward in his extensive researches, all recorded in 24 volumes, La Bible dans P Inde, he brings forward testimony to the great achievements of India in legislation, ethics, philosophy, and religion.

India, the storehouse of knowledge

No people in the world have ever attained to such a grandeur of thought in ideal conceptions of the Deity and its offspring MAN, as the Sanskrit metaphysicians and theologians. Says Jacolliot : My complaint against many translators and Orientalists, while admiring their profound knowledge is, that not having lived in India, they fall in exactness of expression and the comprehension  of the symbolical sense of the poetical chants, prayers, and ceremonies, and thus too often fall into material errors, whether of translation or appreciation.” He lived long years in India, gained confidence of Brahman Initiates and learnt from them, to some extent, the hidden sense of their ancient religious literature. Says he, “the life of several generations would scarce suffice merely to read the works that  ancient India has left us on history, ethics, poetry, philosophy, religion, different sciences, and medicine.” And yet, says H.P.B., what Jacolliot was given to understand by the Brahmans was only a fragment of their system. Yet Jaccoliot was the most impartial.

India is the cradle of civilization

Says Jacolliot : In the same way as the modern society jostles antiquity at each step, as our poets have copied Homer and Virgil. Sophocles and Euripides, Plautus and Terrene; as our philosophers have drawn inspiration from Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle; as our historians take Titus Livicus, Sallust, or Tacitus, as models; as our orators, Demosthenes or Cicero; our physicians study Hippocrates, and our codes transcribe Justinian—so had antiquity’s self also an antiquity to study, to imitate, and to copy, and that was ancient India. It is quite logical. Peoples precede and succeed each other, knowledge acquired by one nation overflows into other nations. India of 6000 years ago, brilliant, civilized, overflowing with population, impressed upon Egypt, Persia, Judea, Greece, and Rome, as these last have impressed upon us.

In the next blog some of the pioneering achievements of ancient Indian civilization which inspired other civilizations to bloom, as shown by the great Orientalist, Jacolliot, will be discussed. 584

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Isis Study – April to June 2013, Summary and discussions : Isis unveiled, Vol. I.

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 Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages 577 – 580

Hindu origin of Biblical myths

In Isis Unveiled H.P.B. brings up numerous evidences to demonstrate that one and the same esoteric truths were expressed in identical symbols and allegories in countries scattered widely over the face of the globe, between which there had been traced no historical affiliations. Jewish Kabala and the Bible repeat the “myths” of ancient Babylonia (‘Ancient Fragments’  by Cory documents some of them).The same ideas are found repeated in Oriental and Chaldean allegories, and in the oldest manuscripts and traditions of Siam and Ceylon.

H.P.B. speaks of an acquaintance, a Pali scholar, a native of Ceylon, who possessed a palm-leaf, which has been given  time-proof durability, by an unknown chemical process, and an enormous half-sized Conch (split in two), On the leaf was seen a giant of Ceylonian antiquity and fame, blind, and pulling down, with an outstretched arm, which are embracing the four central pillars of a pagoda, crushing armed enemies by the falling Pagoda. His hair is long, reaching out to the ground. The name of the blind giant was called “Somona, the Little,” in contradistinction to Somona-Kadmon, the Siamese saviour. The Pali legend corresponds with the biblical legend of Samson.

The shell bore on its pearly surface a very artistic pictorial engraving in two panels. In the first panel was the Hindu god Siva, with all his attributes, sacrificing his son. The victim was laid on the funeral pile, and the father (Siva) shown as hovering in air above the pile with an uplifted weapon ready to strike. Siva’s face turned is turned toward a jungle in which a rhinoceros has deeply buried its horn in a huge tree and is unable to extricate itself. In the adjoining panel was depicted the same rhinoceros on the pile, and the weapon plunged in its side, and intended victim, Siva’s son, is free, and helping the god to kindle the fire upon the sacrificial altar. This was reminiscent of the biblical story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac in obedience to the command of his god. (Gen.22 / 1-19)

In the Greek myth (Sanchoniathon) Saturn is depicted as sacrificing his only begotten son as a sacrifice to his father, Ouranos, circumcised himself and forced all his household to do the same. Abraham is held by Mohometan Arabs as Saturn in the Kaaba., and Abraham and Israel were names of Saturn. Thus the biblical legend of Abraham sacrificing his son is traced to older mythologies, and finally to India, the original of which is to be found in the Mahabharata. Jewish Pentateuch is certainly much later than Brahminical and Buddhist traditions, as the Pentateuch was complied by Ezra after the Babylonian captivity and revised by the Rabbi.

Spread of translated Sanscrit original myths from Nepal and India to far East and the West

 Researchers have discovered enough evidence that Sanscrit originals of Nepal were translated by Buddhist missionaries into nearly every Asiatic language. Pali manuscripts were translated into Siamese. Hence the phenomenon of the same religious legends and myths circulating in all these countries. This accounts for the presence of the oldest Ceylonic traditions in the Chaldean Kabbala and the Jewish Bible.

Akkadians are the Nomadic Aryan tribe who emigrated to the West

 Rawlison traces Akkadian origin to Armenia, but not beyond. H.P.B. says, based on her knowledge of the records of the Adept Fraternity, the tribe might well have come to Armenia from beyond the Indus in the direction of the Caspian sea—a part which was also India, once upon a time—from thence to Euxine. Or they might have come originally from Ceylon by the same way. The wandering of this nomadic tribe can be judged by comparative study of myths and traditions of countries of these geographical tracts. Abraham himself might have been one of these Pali shphards who emigrated to the West.

Biblical allegories, of the Book of Genesis, is entirely due to the Akkadian and the Pali shephards.

 If language is advanced as reason for discounting the claim of the identity of the two traditions—the Biblical and the Brahminical—there are other substantial evidences which make good the claim, that the Biblical allegories are entirely due to these nomadic tribes of India. The tribes are called by Ethnologists Akkadians. Ak-Ad is of the same class as As-Am, Ha-Va, or Ed-En. In Assyria, Ak is creator, and Ad-ad is AD the father. In Aramean Ad also means One, and Ad-Ad, the Only One. In the Kabala, Ad-am is the only begotten, the first emanation of the unseen Creator. Adon was the “Lord” god of Syria and the consort of Adar-gat or Aster-‘t,’ the Syrian goddess who was Venus, Isis, Istar, or Mylitta etc., and each of these was the “mother of all things.”—Magna Mater.

Genesis I, II and III are the mutilated copies of Cosmogonies of other nations, and Genesis IV and V are accounts of actual historical events, though not correctly interpreted by biblical scholars

 They are taken word for word from the secret Book of Numbers, of the great Oriental Kabala. H.P.B. informs us that in an old Brahminical manuscript called “Prophesies,” as well as in the Southern MSS, in the legend of Krishna, the latter gives nearly word for word the first two chapters of Genesis. Krishna recounts the “first man” whom he calls Adima, in Sanscrit meaning the First Man, and first woman is called Heva, that which completes life. The great Orientalist, Louis Jacolliot (“La Bible dans I’nde) Christna existed, and his legend was written over 3000 years B.C.

From the birth of Enoch begins the genealogy of the so-called Turanian, Aryan and Semetic families, if such they be correctly. Every woman is an euhemerized land or city, and every man and patriarch a race, a branch, or a sub-division of a race. The wives of Lamech gives the key to the riddle. Ad-ah bare Iabal was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. This is allusion to the nomadic Aryan tribes. His brother was Jubal, the father of all such as handle the harp and the organ. Zillah bare Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron, etc. Every word has significance. But it is not a ‘Revelation.’ It is just a compilation of the most historical facts, though history is perplexed on this point.

 From Euxine to Kashmir and beyond is to be found the cradle of mankind. Biblical Garden of Eden was a college of Magi and Astrologers, the Aleim

 Adah in Hebrew is woman’s name and Eden the designation of a country. They are closely related to each other but hardly to Adam and Akkad. Swedenborg, the Seer, advised seekers to search for the LOST WORD among the Hierophants of Tartary, China, and Thibet. It is there and only there, though we may find it inscribed on the monuments of the oldest Egyptian dynasties. The Lost Word is the Universal Esoteric Wisdom which forms the common ground-work from which have sprung all the great religious scriptures of the world : the four Vedas, the Books of Hermes, the Chaldean Book of Numbers, the Nazarene Codex, the Book of the Tenaim, the Sepher Jezira, the Book of Wisdom of Schlomah (Solomon), the secret treatise on Mukta and Baddha attributed by Buddhist Kabalists to Sage Kapila, the founder of the Sankhya system; the Brahamanas, the Stan-gyor of the Thibetans. All these volumes have the same ground-work, teach the same secret doctrine, which when thoroughly eliminated will prove to be the Ultima Thule of true philosophy, and disclose what is this LOST WORD.

The subject of discussion in the next blog will be, if the Lost Word is to be found underlying these ancient works, why have not the great Orientalists, Egyptologists, Biblical scholars have not discerned it. It is because they see only the dead letter and miss the spirit that gives life.

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Isis Study – April to June 2013 Summary and discussions

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Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages 574 – 577

Chapter XV of the first volume of Isis Unveiled ends the first volume.

The main purpose of the author of Isis Unveiled is to dispute the general notion of the times that mankind has progressed to the present civilization from savagery, and that the early history of mankind was primitive and uncultured. Falsity of this modern assumption, she shows, arises from the materialistic spirit of the civilization characterized by mere intellectual advancement and almost total spiritual blindness. Contrary to the prevalent notion, humanity is shown to have spiritual origin, and the universe—of which humanity is the highest expression—to be embodied consciousness, both being emanations of One Absolute Being, involved in threefold evolutionary development—spiritual, intellectual and physical—whose final end and consummation is the realization of the true nature of Self and Being to be the Universe itself, both manifest and unmanifest—Divinity.

The XIV chapter was devoted to showing many strings of evidence—historical, scriptural, writings of classical authors of ancient literature, modern scientific researches, architectural features of ancient ruins, etc.—in support of the claim that a divine degree of highest knowledge and wisdom, its custodians and teachers,  always existed on earth from the highest antiquity, that it was universally diffused, is existent today, that man is essentially a spiritual being and has divine potentialities of knowledge and powers hidden within him, and his destiny is to fully manifest and express the same unhindered and unimpeded by the imperfections of his material covering—his lower self. In the XIV chapter the wondrous ancient monuments—the Pyramids of Egypt, Nagkon Wat of Siam, Mexican temples were shown to exhibit in their architectural symbolism and hieroglyphic inscriptions  evidences of the universally diffused Esoteric Science and Knowledge. Extensive discourse on extraordinary heights of achievements of Egyptian civilization, with supporting evidence, was given.

In the XV chapter prevalence of similar high ancient civilization of India is discoursed upon.

Tenacious vitality of the WORLD-TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

It was said in Chapter IV that there cannot be more than one universal religion, for there can be but one truth concerning God. It was likened to “ an immense chain whose upper end, the alpha, remains invisibly emanating from a Deity—in statu absconidito—with every primitive theology—it encircles our globe in every direction; it leaves not even the darkest corner unvisited, before the other end, the omega, turns back on its way to be again received where it first emanated. On the divine chain was strung the exoteric symbology of very people. Their variety of form is powerless to effect their substance, and under their diverse ideal types of the universe of matter, symbolizing its vivifying principles, the uncorrupted immaterial image of the spirit of being guiding them is the same.” (I, 560)

Chapter XV opens with a reference again to this World-Tree of Knowledge. Truth has always been there. But who wants Truth, who is prepared to make personal sacrifices to obtain it ? History of mankind is full of the accounts of the struggle between the two poles of being—Truth and Untruth, good and evil, spirit and matter. The Secret Doctrine has ever been ridiculed and prevented to take root and grow and spread its benevolent canopy. It has always been like the “man of sorrows” of the biblical prophet Isaiah. It is hated by established religions, scouted by materialistic science, because it shows the errors of both, and show how  they can reform themselves and grow complete. It has never been welcome. But it exhibits a tenacious vitality all over the globe and persists everywhere, though esoterically. No lightening of human ridicule can fell it to the ground, no thunderbolt ever forged by the Vulcans of science have the power to blast its trunk, or even scar the branches of this WORLD-TREE OF KNOWELDGE.

Esoteric science concealed in the exoteric, apparently contradictory, verbiage of sacred scriptures of the world.

Revealed word of sacred scriptures are the dead-letters, which when taken literally, misleads the seeker. One has to learn to discover the hidden wisdom within those otherwise meaningless jumble of words and mythical symbols. Thus in the Books of Hermes  can be found, if read esoterically, to find the evidence of a truth and philosophy which must be based on eternal Laws.   Then we will better understand the hidden sense of the gift lavished by the Elohim on Adam : “Behold, I have given you everything which is upon the face of all the earth...subdue it, ´and “have dominion” over all.

Genesis I and II seem contradictory when taken in the literal dead-letter sense; but when read esoterically they perfectly harmonize

The first chapters of the Book of Genesis is a narration of historical events. One need not consider in esoteric sense to recognize in them a part of the history of prehistoric humanity. Kabalists show how to interpret the verses cited in Genesis to read in them ancient geographical and historical facts. The narration given in the scripture are allegorical and parables.

(Allegorical mode of teaching in the Bible is clearly hinted at by Jesus and St. Paul : “Which things are an allegory.” – Galatians, 4 / 24; Jesus said to his disciples that he spoke to the multitudes in parables : Matthew, 13 / 10-15)

Gen I and II seem to contradict each other when read literally, but the fact is that there is no contradiction in reality. The two narratives of creation seem diametrically opposed to each other in nearly every particular of order, time, place, and methods employed in the work of creation; also seem to belittle the majesty of the Unknown Deity, dragging him down to the level of earthly man and endow him with personality of man, feeling jealous, using precaution against man lest he should eat of the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil and become like a god, etc. But that is the impression one gets from the outer dead-letter reading. Esoterically, it is different.

The Garden of Eden as a locality is no myth at all, and not all mere allegory. Eden is Hebrew Gan-Eden, which means a park. Garden of Eden is an archaic name of the country watered by Euphrates and its many branches, from Asia and Armenia to the Erythraian sea. Alexander Wilder says that ‘Gan-duniyas” is a name of Babylonia. In the Chaldean Book of Numbers its location is designated in numerals. In the cipher Rosicrucian MSS left by Count St. Germain it is fully described. The Elohim may be taken in one sense to be gods or powers, and in another one for the Aleim or the Priests—the Hierophants initiated into the mystery of the good and evil of the world. There was a college of priests called Aleim, the chief of whom was known as Java-Aleim. “Behold, the man is become as one of us”  meant exercise of precaution against those among men who sought to learn the secret wisdom without prior purification and fitness, lest they should desecrate the sacred science to the hurt of the world and of themselves. Instead of becoming a neophyte, and gradually obtaining his esoteric knowledge through regular initiation,  Adam, or man, uses his intuitional faculties, and prompted by the Serpent—Woman and Matter—tastes of the Tree of Knowledge, the esoteric or the secret doctrine, unlawfully. (“Matter”,  “woman,” refer to the passional nature of the lower self of man).

The origin of The Book of Genesis is to be traced to Babylonia, which, in turn, is traced to India, the cradle of civilization; Akkads do not belong to Turanian race but are, in truth, emigrants from India, who founded the Babylonian civilization

Hebrew scriptures bear on their face the marks of their double origin : Genesis is reminiscent of Babylonian captivity. The names, places, men, objects mentioned in the original Hebrew texts point to the Chaldeans and Akkadians, and the Aryan instructors of the former. Akkad tribes of Chaldea, Babylonia, and Assyria were cognate with Brahmans of India, in support of which there are proofs. They emigrated from India, tarried on their way to Asia Minor, to initiate and civilize barbarian people. It is a proven fact that Babylonian civilization was neither born nor developed in that country. It was imported from India, and importers were Brahmanical Hindus.

Alexander Wilder disputes the contention of Max Muller that Akkads were “Turanians.” The historical reality of the latter tribe itself is questionable, and is purely a hypothetical idea based of some philologists and ethnologists.

In the next blog, the Hindu origins of Biblical myths will be discussed.

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Isis Study – January to March 2013 Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XIV – EGYPTIAN WISDOM

Pages 554 - 560

 The last blog ended with the statement :

 Instead of resorting to a tortured theological prejudice to prove the connection between the Mexican and other peoples of Americas with the middle-eastern races mentioned in the Bible, more credible historical and scientific evidence can be adduced.

In the next blog a number of these facts will be listed which throw light on the origin of some of the native American races.

Evidence in support of the claim that Mexican natives and middle eastern races mentioned in the Bible bear close kinship.

 According to a Guatemalan document, Toltecs are migrants from the house of Israel

 Evidence 1:

Our attention is drawn to the Chronicles of Fuentes, of the kingdom of Guatemala, and the Manuscript of Don Juan Torres, the grandson of the last king of the Quiches. This document, said to have been in possession of lieutenant-general appointed by Pedro de Alvarado, says that Toltecas descended from the house of Israel, who were released by Moses, who, after crossing the Red Sea, fell into idolatry. They set out wandering, from continent to continent, and came to a place called Seven Caverns, in the kingdom of Mexico, where they met the famous town of Tula, etc. (Stephen’s Travels in Central America which is available for online reading or free down load)

 Evidence 2 :

The names of the famous Toltec kings bear the Chaldean appellation, the strange similarities between the languages of Aztecs and Hebrews is noteworthy. Toltecan king bore the biblical appellation of Balaam Acam, reminding one of Balaam and his human voiced ass. Lords Kingsborough found striking resemblance between the languages of Aztecs and the Hebrews. Many a figure on the bas-reliefs of Palenque and idols in terra cota, exhumed in Santa Cruz del Quiche, have on their heads bandlets with a square protuberance on them, in the front forehead, very similar to the phylacteries worn by the Hebrew Pharisees of old, while at prayers, and even by the devotees of the present day, particularly Jews of Poland and Russia.

Evidence 3

de Bourbourg, in his book, cites the narration of Votan, the Mexican demi-god, of his expedition in which is a description is given of the subterranean passage, which ran underground, and terminated at the root of the heavens, and that this passage was called snake’s hole, and that he was admitted to it because he himself was “a son of the snakes, or a serpent.” This is very suggestive. The testimony of ancient writers, corroborated by modern discoveries, there were numerous catacombs in Egypt and Chaldea, some of which were very vast in extent. It was in these underground passages were performed sacred mysteries of Kuklos anagkes, the ‘unavoidable cycle,’ or ‘Circle of necessity.’ There inexorable doom was imposed upon every soul after the bodily death, and when had been judged in the Amenthian region.

Hierophants of Egypt and of Babylonia styled themselves as “the sons of the serpent god” or Sons of the Dragon,” not because Christian Padres, such as de mousseaux would have us believe they were the progeny of the Devil, Satan-incubus, the old serpent of Eden but because, in the Mysteries, the serpent was the symbol of WISDOM and immortality. The Druids of the Celtic-Brittanic regions called themselves snakes : “I am a serpent, I am a Druid.” The Egyptian Karnac is twin-brother to the Carnac of Bretagne, the latter Carnac meaning the serpent mound.

The Dracontia (temples dedicated to dragons / serpents) once covered the surface of the whole globe, Dragon being the symbol of the Sun, the Sun being the symbol of the highest God—the Phoenician Elon, whom Abraham recognized as El Elion. Besides the surname serpents they were also called “Builders,” the “Architects,” as these mighty wise men directed the construction of the temples and monuments which even now in their pulverized remains stagger human imagination and astound calculations of modern engineers. (554)

Evidence 4

De Bourbourg with his usual Christian prejudice, puts on a farfetched interpretation on the biblical discourse to show that the chiefs of the name of Votan, the Quetzo-Cohuatl,  the serpent deity of Mexicans, to be descendents of Ham and accursed Canaanites. Mexican chiefs say, “I am Hivim, being a Hivim, I am the great race of the Dragon (snake); I am a snake myself, for I am a Hivim.” De Bourbourg rejoices over this and argues, on the authority of the Bible, that Chivim or Hivim or Hivites are descendents of Heth, son of Canaan, the son of Ham, the accursed.

Such fallacious interpretation of biblical verses cuts both ways. In fact, the tables can be turned on De Bourbourg by demonstrating that Seth, the third son of Adam, the ancestor of Noah, the forefather of all Israel, is but Hermes, the god of wisdom, called also Thoth, Tat, Set and Sat-an, the shadow of Seth, theTyphon, the Egyptian Satan, who was also Set.

Evidence 5

Some of the tribes of Central America will one day be traced back to the Phoenicians and Mosaic Israelites, and it is seen that the latter have persistently stuck to sun and serpent worship, as the Mexicans have. Christians may protest, but they cannot deny biblical passages pointing in that direction. Dying Jacob speaks of his sons, says of Simeon and Levi that instruments of cruelty to be in their habitation and wishes not come “into their secret; unto their assembly.” (Gen. xlix) H.P.B. shows that in the original the words, “their secret” is given as SOD. Sod was the name of the Mysteries of Baal, Adonis and Bacchus who were Sun-gods and had serpents for symbol. Kabalists explain that that was the name given to the tribe of Levi, to all Levites, and that Moses was the chief of the Sodales. Members of the Priest colleges were called Sodales who constituted Idaea of the Mysteries of the Mighty Mother (“Mysteries of Adonis” by Dunlap) Moses was an Egyptian priest as shown by historians, a hierophant of Hieropolis, a priest of the Sun-God Osiris, and that his name was Osarsiph. Wisdom was synonymous with Initiation into Sacred Mysteries of the Magi. No alien was allowed to enter the assembly of the Egyptian priest unless he was an Initiate himself. Gen. xliii-3 shows Joseph ate with Egyptian priests, which would be impossible were not Joseph an Initiate of the Egyptian Mysteries. That is, both Moses and Joseph were then Sodales.

The narrative of the Brazen serpent of Moses (Exodus), reminiscent of the Caduceus of Mercury or Asclepios, the son of the Sun-god Apollo-Python, becomes logical and natural. Moses is said to descend from the tribe of Levi. (HPB explains Kabalistic ideas as to the books of Moses, a great prophet, in the 2^nd vol. if Isis).

Evidence 6

Identity of the Mexicans and the Canaanites, though geographically separated by the waters of the Atlantic, is found in the fact that the Nargal, the Chaldean and Assyrian chief of the Magi (Rab-Mag) and Nagal, the chief sorcerer of the Mexican Indians, both derive their names from Nergal-Sarezer, the Assyrian god; and both have the same faculties and powers, to have an attendant daemon with who they identified themselves completely. The Chaldean and Assyrian Nargal kept his daemon in the shape of some animal considered sacred, inside the temple, and Indian Nargal keeps his in the neighbouring lake or wood or in the house, under the shape of a household animal.

Nagalism or sun and serpent worship persists to this day albeit in secrecy in Mexico, despite strenuous efforts on the part of Spanish Christian rulers and missionaries to suppress it. In 1812, Don Pedro Baptista Pino, reported to Cartes that all the pueblos have their artufas (subterranean room of natives with only a single door) where they assembled to perform their  feasts and hold meetings. These are impenetrable temples and the doors are always closed on the conquerors. Their ancient faith is thus kept up. Hence their adoration of sun and the moon and other heavenly bodies, and of the fire.

Evidence 6

In remote period South America was peopled by a colony which migrated across the Atlantic

 The prefect identity of the rites, ceremonies, traditions, and even the names of the deities, among the Mexicans and ancient Babylonians and Egyptians are a sufficient proof of South America being peopled by a colony which mysteriously found its way across the Atlantic. History is silent about when and at what period it happened. H.P.B. points to the fact that there is no tradition sanctified by the ages without a certain sediment of truth at the bottom of it.

Evidence 7

Magical wand of Quetze Cohuatl closely resembled the sapphire stick of Moses

 Quetze Cohuatl wrought wonders with his magical wand according to Mexican accounts. His wand closely resembled the sapphire stick of Moses with which he wrought like wonders. The stick of Moses bloomed in the garden of Raguel Jethro, his father-in-law, and on which was engraved the “Ineffable Name.”

Evidence 8

The mythical four ancestors of the Quiche race esoterically typify the four successive progenitors of men mentioned in Genesis i, ii and vi.

 The ‘four men’ described as the real four ancestors of the human race “were neither begotten by the gods, nor born of women,” but whose “creation was a wonder wrought by the Creator,” and who were made after three attempts at manufacturing men had failed, in Mexican legends, which bear close resemblance with the explanations of Hermetists. It recalls to mind the four sons of God of Egyptian theogony, and to the narrative related in Genesis. These “four ancestors” could reason and speak, their sight was unlimited, and they knew all things at once, according to Popul Vuh. When “they had rendered thanks to their Creator for their existence, the gods were frightened, and they breathed a cloud over the eyes of men that they might see a certain distance only, and not like the gods themselves.” This bears direct relation to the sentence in Genesis : “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he out forth his hand, and take also the tree of life..” etc., and “While they were asleep God gave them wives.” Etc.

The Four ancestors of the Quiches race typify in their esoteric sense the four successive progenitors of men mentioned in Gen, i, ii and vi. First man is bisexual : “Male and female created he them,” answering to the Hermaphrodite deities of the subsequent mythologies; the second Adam was made out of “the dust of the ground” and unisexual answering to the “sons of God” of chapter vi; the third, the giants or Nephilim who are only hinted in the Bible but fully explained elsewhere; the fourth, the parents of men “whose daughters were fair.”

Scientists and scholars should consult authorities on Magic to discover material for history and science

 Mexicans had their magicians from remote times. The same is the case with all the ancient religions of the world so that a strong resemblance prevails in their forms of their ceremonial worship as well as in the very names used to designate certain magical implements. The esoteric signification cannot be discovered by savants unless they seek the help of Hierophants and then they will find the key to true history and true science.

 In the next blog, the golden chain of Universal Wisdom Religion which encircles the whole globe, indestructibility of eternal truth and its unfathomable majesty, which is the last possible expression in human language, will be discussed.

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Isis Study – January to March 2013 Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XIV – EGYPTIAN WISDOM

Pages 548 - 554

The last blog ended with the statement :

In the next blog, the origin of the prehistoric Mexicans, similarities between their custom and those of the Hindus, common beliefs and customs among ancient peoples of the East and the West, pointing to their common parentage, will be discussed.

 Origin of pre-historic Mexicans and their connection with the Aryans of India

Max Muller and Alexander Humboldt consider it possible that there was a pre-histric intercourse between the ancient Mexicans and the Hindus of ancient India. Yet the former pronounces the similarity of the beliefs of the two peoples concerning the celestial phenomena of the lunar eclipses to be due to the devouring of the moon by a dragon to be merely a coincidence, and need not be the result of such a historical intercourse. The origin of aborigines of Mexico is a vexed question for ethnologists. After translating the ancient scripture of the Mayans, Popul vux, by Brasseur de Bourbourg, and weighing its contents, he remains as much in the dark on the question as before. Max Muller too, after making a thorough study of it, says he was not able to throw any light on it. H.P.B., on the contrary, says that the ancient text has enough evidence on the origin of ancient Mexicans and that it has only escaped the attention of the matter-of-fact, sceptical Western scholars. Truth lies hidden in the esoteric traditions of old peoples which modern scholars overlook. Says H.P.B. :

Science loses more than she gains by neglecting the ancient and even the mediaeval literature, or rather what remains of it. To the one who devotes himself to such study many a “coincidence” is transformed into a natural result of demonstrable antecedent causes.

Western scholars direct their attention to historical landmarks in ancient literature but become exasperated when they encounter mythical narratives and treat them as vague, contradictory and absurd, as they are unable to discern the hidden sense in them.

Mistake of scientists in neglecting ancient literature as fanciful, as proved by the discoveries confirming Homer’s long considered epic poems as poetical fancies

 Even such ancient literature as Arabian Nights, considered to be a fantasy, is not without a basis of groundwork of truth. So is every ancient literature. Homer’s Odyssey surpasses in apparent fantastic nonsense than the Arabian Night. Yet many of his myths are now proved to be facts. For instance, his mention of Laestrygonians, who devoured the companions of Ulysses, are traced to huge cannibal race said in primitive race to inhabit the caves of Norway. Says H.P.B. it might be not cannibalism but sacrifice of men in ancient worship. Perpetual days and nights said to have been enjoyed by the Laestrygonians indicate that they were inhabitants of the North Cape where during whole summer there is perpetual daylight. The Norwegian fiords are perfectly described by Homer in his Odyssey, x-110. The gigantic stature of Laestrygonians mentioned by Homer to be not imaginary but a historical fact, which is  demonstrated by the discovery of human bones of unusual size in caves in that region by archaeologists, which geologists suppose to have belonged to a race extinct before the Aryan immigration. Charybdis, of Homer, has been recognized in the maelstrom, and the Wandering Rocks to be the icebergs of the Arctic seas.

Common beliefs, customs, legends among ancient peoples of the East and the West point to their common parentage

 Some remarkable facts are adduced :

The book of Jasher, (can be read on line) once considered to be fabrication of 12^th century furnish more than one clew regarding the relationship between the population of Ur of the Kasdeans and those of Central and North America, when the former flourished before the days of Abraham. The divine beings brought down to the level of human nature perform feats of magic is no more incredible than those said to be performed by Moses and Pharoah’s magicians, while many are similar in nature.

1. There are many Kabalistic terms bearing strong resemblance common to both the Hemispheres. It cannot be a mere coincidence, but point to common parentage. Story of the two brothers of Central America plant each a cane in the grandmother’s house, before starting on a long journey so that she may know their condition by its flourishing or withering whether they are alive or dead, finds its analogy in the beliefs of many other countries. In the popular tales and traditions of Russia one can find similar narratives centuries before America was discovered. (550)


2. Dragon, Sun, Serpent myths and legends are identical in the Occident and the Orient. Gods of Stonehenge are identical with divinities of Delphos and Babylon. Bel and the Dragon, Apollo and Python, Osiris and Typhon are all one under different names. Both-al of Ireland points to its first parent the Batylos of Greeks and Beth-el of Chanaan.


3. Similarities between the beliefs of the Semite and the Aryan families is all too evident. In the Russian tales there is one in which Zarevna Militrissa, with moon on her forehead, is shown to be in constant danger of being devoured by Zmey Zgorenethch (the serpent or the dragon).  Similarity of this legend with the Mexican one of the moon being devoured by the dragon is evident. The traditions of dragon and the sun, sometime sun replaced by the moon, is found in every part of the globe, traced to remotest antiquity. It points to once universal heliolatrous religion.


4. There was a time when Asia, Europe, Africa, and America were covered with temples sacred to the Sun and the Dragon. The priests assumed the names of their deities. Thus the traditions spread like a network all over the globe.


5. The details are so strikingly similar that they cannot be due to mere chance, as Max Muller thought.


6. Kircher traces the origin of Sun and Dragon worship to the conical monuments and obelisks of Egypt, whose source is Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus


7.    Two things are necessary : i. to find the missing books of Hermes; and ii. To discover the key by which to understand them, as merely reading is not enough. Without this our scholars will find themselves abandoned to fruitless research.


8. Authenticity, reliability and usefulness of what remains of the Books of Hermes (36 works attributed to the Egyptian magician) are fully recognized by Champollion the junior and corroborated by Champollion Figeac.


9. Kabalistic works are all derived from universal store-house of esoteric knowledge. Hence we find fac simile of many so-called miracles wrought by magic art reproduced by the Quiches. Fragments of original Popul vuh we now have contain sufficient evidence that the religious customs of Mexicans, Peruvians, and other American races are nearly identical with those of the ancient Phoenicians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, despite the two continents being separated by the Atlantic ocean. Many of their religious terms have the etymologically the same origin. The conclusion is unavoidable that they are descendents of those whose forefathers “fled before the brigand, Joshua, son of  Nun.” (See “Cartas,” by Brasseur de Bourbourg).  Nunez de laVega says that Nin or Imoos, of the Tzendales, was the Ninus of Babylonians.

 Misrepresentation by Biblical prophets and Raman Catholic Priests that sun and serpent worship to be the work o the “Devil.”

They designated every deity of their neighbours to be the “Devil” and that in whatever form serpent appears it is the devil. Baal, or Bel of Babylonians, Nin of Mexicans are serpents and devils, according to Christians. The idea is Roman Catholic and amounts to nothing, as all their inventions do.

Instead of resorting to a tortured theological prejudice to prove the connection between the Mexican and other peoples of Americas with the middle-eastern races mentioned in the Bible, more credible historical and scientific evidence can be adduced.

In the next blog a number of these facts will be listed which throw light on the origin of some of the native American races. 

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Isis Study – January to March 2013 Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XIV – EGYPTIAN WISDOM

Pages 544 - 548

The last blog ended with the statement :

“Subject of the next blog will dwell on other great civilizations of pre-historic Americas, the earliest navigators of the globe, Mexican ruins and myths, question of who built the ancient monuments of the Mayas.’

Ancient advanced civilizations of the two Americas, of Crete and Troad, of Lacustrians, of submerged Atlantis

 Great progress and achievements of ancient Egypt some of the highlights of which were discussed in the foregoing, is not to say that Egypt alone shone like a bright star in the pre-historic period. Equally advanced were the great civilizations of the two Americas, of Crete and of the Troad, of the Lacustrians, of the submerged continent of Atlantis.  They are now classed under myths, as were the Phoenicians.

It is now pretty well established by historical and other evidences that Phoenicians were the earliest known navigators of the world, founded colonies of the Mediterranean, and voyaged to other uninhabited parts of the globe. They visited the Arctic region and brought home their accounts of eternal days without a night. Homer in his epic poem, Odessey, has preserved the fact for us. They imported tin from British Isles for their colonies in Africa and Spain. Their exploration extended in every direction, including the Indian Ocean and the Norwegian fiords. Different writers have accorded to them settlement of remote localities. Entire Mediterranean coast was dotted with their cities. A large portions of the African territory have been peopled by races expelled by Joshua and the children of Israel. Columns that stood in Mauritiana Tingitana bore the inscriptions, in Phoenician characters, “We are those who fled before the brigand Joshua, the son of Nun or Nave.”

Navigating serpent Votan

 Votan is the famous hero of Mexican mythology. He was the greatest among their magicians. Brasseur de Bourbourg gives us much information about the manners, customs, architecture and arts, of magic and magicians of Mexico. Votan is said to have visited Solomon at the time of the construction of the temple while returning from a long voyage. Votan appears to be identical with Quetze Cohutl of the Mexican legends. It is said that Votan furnished to Solomon valuable particulars as to men, animals and plants, gold and precious woods of the Occident, but refused to give him any clue to the route he sailed or of the manner of reaching the mysterious continent.  Solomon himself gives an account of his interview in his History of the Wonders of the Universe. The chief Votan figures in it under the allegory of Navigating Serpent.

Descendants of Caciques and Aztecs still survive and preserve their ancient lore

 Stephen, in his Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, believes that a key surer than that of Rosetta stone will be discovered by which American Hieroglyphics may be read, and that descendants of Caciques and Aztecs still survive in the fastnesses of Cordilleras  and gives an account of the mysterious city he saw from the topmost range of Cordilleras of the unconquered, unvisited and unsought aboriginal inhabitants. Mysterious city has been seen by travellers from great distance by daring travellers but, he says, there is no intrinsic improbability of its existence, as who can tell what became of the primitive people who fled before the rapacious brigands of Cortez and Pizzaro ?

In the mysterious fastnesses of Cordilleras the core of Maya civilization is still preserved

 Dr. Tschuddi, in his work on Peru speaks of an Indian legend that a train of 10,000 llamas, laden with gold to complete the unfortunate Inca’s ransom was arrested in the Andes by the tidings of his death, and the enormous treasure was so effectually concealed that not a trace of it has ever been found. He, and other writers inform us that the Indians to  this day preserve their ancient traditions and sacerdotal caste, and obey implicitly orders of the rulers chosen among themselves, while at the same time nominally Catholics and actually subject to the Peruvian authorities. Magic ceremonies practiced by their forefathers still prevail among them and magical phenomena occur. So persistent are they in their loyalty to the past that it is impossible that they should not be in relations with some central source of authority which constantly supports and strengthens  their faith, keeping it alive. May it not be that the source of this undying faith lie in the mysterious city, mentioned above, with which they are in secret communication ?

The story of the mysterious city of Yucatan

 It was told to Stephens by a Spanish Padre in 1838-9. The priest swore to him that he had seen it with his own eyes, and gave Stephens an account of his travels which he firmly believes to be true.  He swore to have seen from the summits of the topmost ridge of the sierra of the Cordillera an immense plain extending to Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, a large city with turrets of white glittering in the sun. Tradition says that no white man has ever reached this city, and the inhabitants speak Mayan language, know that strangers have conquered their land, and murder any white man who tries to enter their territory. They have no coin, no horses, cattle, mules, or other domestic animals except fowls which they keep underground to prevent their crowing being heard.

Story of subterranean passages leading to the mysterious city

 An old native priest whom, says the author, she met, in Peru, scarcely concealed his hatred for the conquerors, whom he called  brigands. He said he nominally kept Catholic religion for the sake of his people but that he was truly a sun-worshipper in his heart as ever he was. She said he solemnly affirmed that he had met his people by a subterranean passage leading to the mysterious city. His affirmation, made on his death bed, cannot be false or an idle story. It is corroborated in Stephens’Travels. H.P.B. says she also knows of two other cities unknown to Europeans, and that people from Buddhist countries come occasionally to visit them. Their town are not set down on European or Asiatic maps. Nature has provided strange nooks and hiding places for her favourites, far away from the so-called civilized countries so that man is free to worship the Deity in the way his fathers did.

 In the next blog, the origin of the prehistoric Mexicans, similarities between their custom and those of the Hindus, common beliefs and customs among ancient peoples of the East and the West, pointing to their common parentage, will be discussed.

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Isis Study – January to March 2013 Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XIV – EGYPTIAN WISDOM

Pages 539– 544

 Continuing more illustrations of the claim of Adept Fraternity that the ancient world was not ignorant as believed by learned men of our times but had made great progress in arts and sciences, some of which were far in advance of the present times.

Wonderful art of preservation of mummies and the art of bandaging, which are now among the lost arts.

 Mummies, if left in the dry climate of Egypt, seem to be practically imperishable; and even when removed after a repose of several thousand years, show no sign of change. None but those who have made special study of the subject, can estimate the amount of skill, patience, and knowledge exacted for the accomplishment of this indestructible work, which occupied several months. An expert who have made a study of it is cited as remarking : The body was filled with myrrh, cassia, and other gums, and after that, saturated with natron, then followed the marvellous swathing of the embalmed body, so artistically executed, that professional modern bandagists are lost in admiration at its excellency. Dr. Grandville remarks that there is not a single form of bandage known to modern surgery, of which far better and cleverer examples are not seen in the swathing of the Egyptian mummies; that the strips of linen are found without one single joint, extending to 1000 yards in length. There was not a fracture in the human body that could not be repaired successfully by the sacerdotal physician of those remote days.

Use of local anaesthesia in ancient Egypt

 Modern discovery of anaesthesia is rightly considered a blessing to the suffering portion of humanity. It is proclaimed as the greatest discovery ever made. But the modern chemical formulae used in anaesthetics are not fool-proof, and many an accidental death has occurred and are occurring even today, though fatal accidents are more rare now than before. But the question is, is it the first discovery in history of mankind ?

Classical authors, Dioscorides and Pliny give a description of effective local anaesthesia Egyptian used. It was made from the stone of Memphis—lapis memphiticus. It is described as a sparkling small pebble, which was ground into a powder, and applied as an ointment to the part of the body which was to be subjected to surgical treatment, and the patent was immune to pain in the part operated upon. It was perfectly harmless to the constitution of the patient, who retained his consciousness throughout the operation, and it acted as long it was kept on the affected part. Pliny gives full description of it. (Historie naturelle” lib. Xxxviii, cap.vii)

Magical anaesthesia of ancient Brahmins

 From immemorial times Brahmans possessed secrets which are invaluable. The widow who was bent on perfoming SATI—consigning herself to be consumed by the fire of cremation of her husband’s corpse. It was called sahamaranya. The widow did not dread of any suffering  the least pain. The holy plant culled at the midnight hour on the spot where the Ganga and the Yamuna mingles their waters, and the process of anointing the body of the self-appointed victim with ghee and sacred oils

after she was bathed in all her clothes and finery, are so many magical anaesthetics. After going round the fire she cast herself on her husband’s body to be consumed in fire together, without the least pang of pain.

A missionary who witnessed one such ceremony reported that the ghee which was poured in the fire drugged the widow who died of suffocation before being consumed by the fire. H.P.B. says that was a misrepresentation, as missionaries decry every custom and tradition of ancient non-Christian peoples as devilish heathenism. She says widows were never drugged in the sense we understand it but only precautionary measures were taken against useless physical martyrdom. Her mind was free and clear as ever, firmly believing in the bliss of after-life, she died with a smile of heavenly rapture on her countenance.

It is important to note that no such rite was ever prescribed in the Vedas nor practiced but the widow enjoyed the freedom of remarriage and participating in normal life in Vedic times. It was only later that the crafty Brahmins, who had lost the secrets of their high minded ancestors, who interpolated certain verses in the scriptures to customise the practice. Oriental scholars, both native and European—Max Muller and Professor Wilson among the latter-- have shown how certain Rig Vedic verses was interpolated by the ambitious ignorant, and  crafty priests and enforced it.

Egypt, the birth place of Chemistry

 Egypt is the cradle of Chemistry. Egypt was known as Chemi or Chem. Chemistry of colours seems to have been thoroughly known to Egyptians. This is illustrated in the imperishable colours of their paintings in the halls of Karnak and Luxor still standing and fresh even after thousands of years.  Embalming and mural painting were not a chance discovery by Egyptians but it was the result of research and development employing inductive sciences. Exquisite ancient Greek paintings were copies of the Egyptian art.

Titanic sculptures at Thebes.

   There are no modern architecture comparable to the rock-cut temples of Ipsambul in Lower Nubia (south of Egypt and north of Sudan). These can be viewed on the sebwsite. The rock sculpted sitting human figures measure 70 feet high, carved out of a single rock. The torso of the statue of Ramses II at Thebes measures 60 feet around the shoulders and elsewhere in proportion. Besides these our own look like pigmies

Iron was known and used; metallurgy and chemistry were developed and included under Alchemy

 Iron was known to Egyptians long before the construction of first pyramid which was not earlier that 20,000 years. Proof of it was hidden in the pyramid of cheops until Colonel Howrds Vyse found it in the shape of a piece of iron, in one of the joints, where it had evidently been placed at the time this pyramid was built. Ancients adduce many evidences that ancients were well acquainted with metallurgy in prehistoric times. The Col. Says that to this day we can find at Sinai heaps of scoriae produced by smelting. Metallurgy and chemistry in those days were known as Alchemy which was the foundation of  prehistoric magic. Moses, who was instructed by the Egyptians proved his alchemical knowledge by pulverising the golden calf and strewn the powder on the water.

Maritime achievements of Egyptians

 Necho II fitted out a fleet  on the Red Sea and dispatched for exploration. The fleet was absent for over two years and instead of returning through the straits of Babelmandel, as was wont, it sailed back through the strait of Gibraltar. Herodotus was sceptical of the maritime achievements of Egyptians. He said that they claimed while the navigators were returning homewards d the sunrise on their right hand side, which, to Herodotus appeared incredible. But Co. Vyse said that the incredible assertion is now proved incontestable as they may well be understood to have doubled the Cape of Good Hope. It is proved that the feat which was attributed to Columbus was after all had been achieved ages ago y Egyptians. It is said that they anchored twice on theor way, sowed corn, reaped it, sailed back home through the pillars of Hercules, and eastward along the Mediterranean. Egyptians were far more deserving of the term veteris (veteran) than either Romans or Greeks.

Ancient Greece a mere infant before mighty older Egyptian civilization– admonition of Greeks by Egyptian Hierophants

 Said the Egyptian Hierophants to Solon, the grand uncle, of Plato when he visited Egypt and confabulated with them, “O Solan, Solan, you Greeks are ever childish, having no ancient opinion, no discipline of any long standing !” Solon was surprised when he was told by them that the gods and goddesses of Grecian pantheon were but the disguised gods of Egypt. Ionnes (John) Zonara, historian and theologian of Constantinople, truly said : All these things came to us from Chaldea to Egypt, and from thence were derived to the Greeks.Gods of Greek pantheon are a disguised gods of Egypt.

Archytas, Plato’s teacher, was a mathematician and an inventor

 Archytas, a native of Tarentum in Italy, instructed Plato. He was a philosopher distinguished for his mathematical achievements and achievements in practical mechanics, constructed a wooden dove. It must have been an extraordinary ingenious mechanism, as it flew, fluttered its wings, and sustained itself for considerable time in the air. He lived 400 B.C.E invented, besides wooden dove, the screw crane,  and various hydraulic cranes.

Grape wine and glassware

 Egyptians made grape wine, brewed her own beer and in quantity. The Ebers MSS prove Egyptians used beer 2000 years B.C.E. Glass was manufactured with all its varieties. In many Egyptian sculptures can be seen scenes of glass-blowing and bottles. Archaeological researches have revealed very beautifully fashioned glasses and glassware. Sir Gardener Wilkinson says Egyptians cut, ground and engraved glass, and possessed the art of introducing gold between the two surfaces of the substance. They imitated with glass, pearls, emeralds, and all the precious stones to a great perfection.

Great progress in musical art

 They cultivated musical art, understood well the effect of musical harmony and influence on the human spirit. In their oldest sculptures and carvings can be seen scenes of musicians playing on various instruments. Music was used in the healing department of the temples for the cure of nervous disorders. On the monuments can be seen men playing in bands in concert, the leader beating time by clapping hands. They understood the laws of harmony, had their sacred music, domestic and military. The lyre, harp and flute were used for sacred music concerts; for festive occasions played the guitar, the single and the double pipes and castanets; for troops  and during military service they had trumpets, drums and cymbals. The superiority of Egyptian lyre over  the Grecian is an admitted fact. The material out of which were made such instruments  was often of very costly and rare wood, some imported from far off lands, and they were beautifully carved, painted, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ornamented with coloured leather. They used catgut for strings as in our days. Pythagoras learned music in Egypt and made a regular science of it in Italy. Egyptians are generally considered in antiquity the best music teachers in Greece.  They understood thoroughly well how to extract harmonious sounds out of an instrument by adding strings to it, as well as multiplication of notes by shortening the strings upon its neck, which shows a great progress made in the musical art. Geometry, drawing, mechanics, and music were at the greatest perfection in Egypt.

On the walls of the palace of Amenoph II at Thebes, the king is represented as playing chess with his queen. The monarch reigned long before the Trojan war. In India chess was known to have been played at least 5000 years ago.

Knowledge of Medicine

 One of the lost books of Hermes have been found and translated by Ebers, their knowledge of medicine is found in it to be in great advance. They understood the circulation of blood in the body, knew how to draw blood downward, stop its circulation for a while etc. A bas relief  represents a scenes of healing in the halls of various temples. They had their dentists and oculists, and no doctor was allowed to practice more than one speciality—an indication that they lost fewer patients in those days  that our own physicians do now. It is asserted by some authorities that the Egyptians were the first people in the world who introduced trisal by jury—though, H.P.B. says that this is doubted.

Subject of the next blog will dwell on other great civilizations of pre-historic Americas, the earliest navigators of the globe, Mexican ruins and myths, question of who built the ancient monuments of the Mayas.

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Isis Study – January to March 2013 Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XIV – EGYPTIAN WISDOM

Pages 530 – 539

The previous study closed with the remark :

“HPB shows that in the pride of some new discovery, we throw a look in to the past, we find, to our dismay, certain vestiges which indicate the possibility, if not certainty, that the alleged discovery was not totally unknown to ancients.”

H.P.B. illustrates this point with copious historical and other evidences. Some of them are here considered.

The proficiency of the ancient Egyptians in healing had been of the highest order. Orpheus, Plato, Pythagoras, Herodotus were all instructed by the Egyptians. These owe their philosophy and learning to the same temple in which the wise Solon was instructed by the priests. Pliny cites Antiklides that letters were invented in Egypt by an Egyptian by name Menon 15 centuries before the most ancient king of Greece, Phoroneus.

Jablonski proves that the heliocentric and earth’s sphericity were known for immemorial ages in Egypt. Wilkinson shows that the Egyptians knew the length of the year, the precession of the equinoxes, and the accurate astronomical cycles, and astrological influences emanating from the relative positions, groupings and conjunctions of heavenly bodies.

Several thousand years B.C. Chinese and Chaldean astronomers predicted eclipses. As far back as 1722 B.C. they delineated the zodiac with the exact positions of planets at the time of autumnal equinox.

Wendell Phillips delivered a series of most delightful lectures on Lost Arts in Boston in the last quarter of the 19^th century—which are available on line even today—in which he shows that modern science and progress is just a partial rediscovery of ancient learning and wisdom which surpassed ours. He spoke of ignorance of modern men of learning in their estimation of the marvellous achievements of ancients.

The glory of Chaldea, Persia, Babylone have no parallel in history

The pillared halls of Persopolis were filled with miracles of art—carvings, sculptures, enamels, alabaster libraries, obelisks, sphinxes, colossal bulls. Ecbatana, in Media, the cool summer retreat of the Persian kings, was defended by several encircling walls of hewn and polished blocks, the interior ones in succession of increasing height, and of different colours, in astrological accordance with the seven planets. The palace was roofed with silver tiles, the beams were plated with gold. At midnight, in the halls, the sun was rivalled by many a row of naphtha cressets. The Persian empire was truly the garden of the world.

John William Draper in his The history of the conflict between religion and science, in chapter 1,  in pages 10 and 11, says :  In Babylon there still remained its walls, once more than 60 miles in compass, and after ravages of three centuries and three conquerors, still more than 80 feet in height. There were still the ruins of the temple of the cloud-encompassed Bel. On its top was planted the observatory wherein the weird Chaldean astronomers had held nocturnal communion with the stars. Still there were vestiges of the two palaces with their hinging gardens in which were trees growing in mid-air, and of the wreck of the hydraulic machinery that has supplied them from the river. Into the artificial lake, with its vast apparatus of aqueducts and sluices, the melted snow of the Armenian mountains found their way and were confined in their course through the city by the embankments of Euphratus. The most wonderful of all was the tunnel under the river bed.

Modern commentators of ancient achievements are misled by the outward symbols and rituals (exotericism) of the ancient temples which they cannot penetrate  :

 They are either unwilling or unable to discern the inner significance (Esotericism) of the outer symbols. The Hierophants of the temples instructed their pupils in the hidden significance of the outer worship.  There was a vast difference between the true worship taught to those  who showed themselves worthy. Ignorant of their Esoteric knowledge, the modern researchers accuse the ancient magians of all kinds of superstitions.

They ascertained the true meridian, measured time, had standard measures and weights and were proficient in algebra.

 The meridian was correctly ascertained before the Pyramids were built, They had clocks and dials to measure time. Their cubit was the established unit of linear measure, being 1707 feet of the English measure. Herodotus has recorded that the unit of weight was known to Egyptians, they had the decimal and duodecimal modes of calculation from the earliest times, and were proficient in algebra. How could they otherwise bring into operation such immense mechanical powers, if they had not thoroughly understood the philosophy of what we term mechanical powers ?

Their art of making linen is one of the lost arts.

 (p. 536) The art of making linen and fine fabric is proved to have been one of the branches of their knowledge. The Bible speaks of it. Joseph was presented by Pharao with a vesture of fine linen, a golden chain and many more things. The linen of Egypt was famous throughout the world. The mummies wrapped in it is beautifully preserved. Herodotus speaks of the beauty and admirable softness of the linen worn by the priests in the performances of Mysteries in honour of Isis.

Jews adopted the rites and ceremonies of Egyptians

 The special dress of Levites was from Egypt.  Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen and other Fathers of the Church reluctantly acknowledge it, but they attribute it to coincidence and clever trick of Satan in anticipation of events. Proctor, the astronomer, says in one of his books that the remarkable breastplate worn by the Jewish high Priest was derived directly from the Egyptians. The word Thummim itself is evidently of Egyptian origin, borrowed by Moses, like the rest.

Ornamental arts of the Egyptians

 Their jewellery of gold, silver, and precious stones were beautifully wrought. So was the cutting, polishing and setting by their lapidaries in the finest style. The finger ring of an Egyptian mummy was pronounced the most artistic piece of jewellery in the London exhibition of 1851. The imitation of precious stone in glass is far above anything done at the present day, and emerald may be said to have been imitated to perfection.

Marvels of glass works

 Mr. Wendell Phillips discovered in Pompeii a room full of glass. There were ground glass, window-glass, cut-glass and coloured glass of every variety. Catholic priests who broke into China 200 years ago (ie. 200  before 1870) were shown glass , transparent and colourless, which was filled with a liquor which appeared to be colourless like water.  The liquor poured into the glass and then looking through, it seemed to be filled with fishes. The liquor was turned it out and repeated the experiment and again it was filled with fishes.

Great skill of the ancients in metals works

 Wendell Phillips speaking of the skill of the ancients in metal works narrates that when the English plundered the summer palace of the Emperor of China the European artists were surprised  at seeing the curiously wrought metal vessels of every kind, far exceeding the skill of the European workmen. African tribes in the interior of the country gave the travellers better razors than they had.  Phillips goes on to say that George Thompson relating to him of the incident in which he saw a man in Calcutta throwing up a handful of floss silk into the air and a Hindu severing it into pieces  with his sabre of native steel. He concludes with the significant remark : “Steel is the great triumph of metallurgy and metallurgy is the glory of chemistry.” So with the Egyptians and Semitic races. They dug gold and separated it with the utmost skill. Copper, iron, lead were found in abundance near the Red Sea.

Civilization in the East preceded that of the West by many centuries. Arts and sciences flowed from East to West. Remnants of iron furnaces are to be found on lonely mountain places.

 Professor Albercht Muller says that introduction of bronze manufacture in Europe may be ascribed to a great race immigrants from Asia some 6000 years ago, called Aryan or Aryas; that there are many proofs that a considerable degree of culture existed at its very beginning. Bronze and iron were in use. Pottery was not only shaped on lathe but burned a good red. Manufacture s in glass, gold and silver existed. In lonely mountain places where the dross and the remains of iron furnaces are to be found. The dross are not volcanic ash as volcanic action is absent in places where the remnants were found.

A few other evidences of wonderful arts of the ancient world, now lost, will be considered in the next blog.

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Isis Study – January to March 2013 Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XIV – EGYPTIAN WISDOM

Pager 520-526

 Continuing her extensive and authentic citations from various authorities on the evidence of unsurpassed knowledge, skills and wisdom of ancient Egyptians, H.P.B. gives us glimpses in to the pre-historic past. She thus illustrates that races of men progress in cycles , age of civilization, learning and enlightenment alternating with cycles of intellectual decline and almost entire oblivion of knowledge and progress of the past ages, to rise again. Progress this civilization of ours prides itself to have achieved is shown not only to have been anticipated thousands of years ago but far exceeded the present day progress in every field of human endeavour.

An evidence of the astronomical erudition of Egyptians

 Professor Draper admits it. He is supported by singular facts quoted by Mr. J.M. Peebles from a lecture delivered in Philadelphia, by Mr. O.M. Mitchell, the astronomer. On the coffin of a mummy, now lying in the British Museum, bore inscriptions of the Zodiac with exact positions of planets at the time of autumnal equinox in the year 1722 B.C. (“Around the World,” by Mr. J.M. Peebles)

Greece owes everything to Egypt

 Prof. Draper in his History  of the Intellectual Development of Europe gives historical evidence of this fact , and thus augments the theory of cyclic rise and fall of civilizations. He refers the best part of Greek culture to the Egyptian source. He was criticized by Prof. John Fiske for exalting non-European civilization. But then the latter criticism is nullified by the well-known historical confessions of great historians of ancient Greeks themselves. Herodotus, the father of History, confesses that Greece owes everything to Egypt.

Prof. Fiske’s criticism of the theory of cycles is again shown to be unwarranted by the plainly evident historical facts of many glorious nations which have passed away, ie., reached the end of their national cycle. Egypt of glorious past with its wondrous monuments, art, sciences, religion, its swarming population, bear no comparison with the present day Egypt, peopled with strangers. Says Gliddon that philologists, astronomers, chemists, painters, architects, physicians must return to Egypt to learn the origin of language and writing, of calendar and solar motion, the art of cutting granite with a copper chisel, giving elasticity to copper sword, making glass with variegated hues of the rainbow, of moving single blocks of polished syenite 900 tons in weight for any distance by land and water, building arches with Masonic precision antecedent by 2000 years to the ‘Gloaca Magna’ of Rome, of fresco painting in imperishable colours, practical knowledge of anatomy, of time defying pyramid etc., etc. Mr. Peebles says that temples and tombs of Ramses were as much a marvel to the Grecian Herodotus as they are to us.

But for the Books of Hermes and Herodotus the very memory of wondrous Egypt would have been swept away.

 Cramped by the bias in favour of biblical chronology of 6000 years since the ‘creation’ of the world, clergy and scientists alike dreaded to trespass the limit of that time period in their estimation of the age of prehistoric remains.

Herodotus gives a description of the awesome labyrinth which was already in ruins before his time. He regarded it as more marvellous than the pyramids themselves. He found 3000 chambers, half subterranean and half over-ground. He said he examined them in detail as much as he was permitted by the keepers of the building permitted him to explore as they contained sepulchres of the kings who built the labyrinth. He says they excelled all human productions. Isis vo. I. p. 522-523 gives the account left by Herodotus. Can be read on line.

The wondrous Karnak stood as much testimony to the glory of Thebe which was in ruins when Memphis was in flower.

Champollion gives a description of Karnak. In one of its halls the cathedral of Notre Dame might stand and appear as a small ornament. He says one is astounded and overcome by the grandeur of the sublime remnants, the prodigy and magnificence of workmanship to be seen everywhere. French and English travellers confess to indescribably glory of Egyptian art, skill and monuments. Modern history gets the first glimpse of ancient Egypt when the latter was already in the evening of its glory.

Prejudiced scholars were always ready to discredit the achievements of the ancients. Fiske was one such who concluded that Egyptian monuments betoken of a barbarous civilization. His argument cuts both ways. If mega structures  civilizations build are token of barbarity, then archaeologists of future millennia, finding remnants of skyscrapers of America might as well conclude that Americans were barbarians who built their mega structures through labours of slaves.

Illustration of law of cycles by which civilizations rise and fall

 Nearly 700 years B.C. in the school of Thales and Pythagoras was taught the doctrine of the true motion of the earth, its form, and the whole heliocentric system. In A.D. 317 we find Lantantius, the preceptor of Crispus Caeser, son Constantine the Great, teaching his pupil that the earth was plane surrounded by sky, which is composed of fire and water, and warning him against the heretical doctrine of earth’s globular form.

NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN

 HPB shows that in the pride of some new discovery, we throw a look in to the past, we find, to our dismay, certain vestiges which indicate the possibility, if not certainty, that the alleged discovery was not totally unknown to ancients.

In the next study class report some examples will be given to illustrate this point.

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Isis Study – January to March 2013 Summary

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XIV – EGYPTIAN WISDOM

Pager 515 -520

Antecedent remarks

H.P.B. interrupts her discourse at the end of the XIII chapter of Isis, and devotes the next two whole chapters, chapter XIV and chapter XV, to dwell in detail and in depth on Egyptian wisdom, in chapter XIV (p. 515 to 573), and on the priority, precedence and great achievements of ancient Indian (Hindu-Aryan) civilization, which  spread to other parts of the world,  (pages 574 to 628). With these two chapters closes the first volume of Isis, the subject matter of which is A Master Key to ancient and modern Science.

One of the great paradoxes of the modern world is that, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary—historical, archaeological, literary, architectural, religious, philosophical and scientific—academies of modern learning and educated public should be under a powerful spell of a belief  that civilization and culture began with the ancient Greeks, that true scientific advancement began with pioneers of European renaissance and attained for the first time, in the history of the world, the present high point of technological  and scientific civilization, and that the archaic ages before ours was primitive and crude. The assumption of 19^th century West was that it was under the benign influence of the world’s most perfect religion, Christianity, and advancement of modern science, that the civilization has reached its pinnacle of perfection, and that ignorance, superstition and primitiveness were the marks of archaic ages.

The whole of Isis is devoted to demolishing this most erroneous and conceited idea, and demonstrate with overwhelming evidence, authentic knowledge and erudition  that contrary is the actual truth.

In first volume she demonstrates that scientific achievements of the archaic civilizations is till today unsurpassed, compared to which ours appear as a pale shadow. Moreover, it is shown that every modern discovery and invention, in every field, was but a partial re-discovery of far superior older  science of ancient nations.

The reasons for the limitation and false assumptions of modern science is shown, and the universal basis and unfaltering methods of ancient science is juxtaposed with it, and the superiority of the latter is demonstrated with variety of proofs.

Summary of studies

Chapter XIV

Wisdom of Egypt

Pages 515 – 520

Great antiquity of Egyptian civilization of wondrous perfection in arts and sciences :

Egypt  is a great mystery, a riddle no modern Oedipus has been able to decipher. She did not learn from her Semitic or Greek neighbours. The latter, in fact, got all their knowledge from her. The more we learn of the Egyptians the more marvellous they seem. A marked feature of her civilization is that farther back one goes in history the more glorious her achievements seem such as to make one wonder at what remote period did it make a beginning, which is lost in the misty past, impenetrable by present day researchers and historians. Farthest past to which modern history can stretch is found by historians to be the evening of Egyptian civilization, already on the decline, which make them wonder when then—at what remote epoch—did it reach its zenith, and when it first appeared on the horizon.

As to how Egypt came by her wondrous knowledge we have to consider the  historical fact that India and Egypt were akin. The Eastern Ethiopians, the mighty builders, came from India, and colonized Egypt.

The Indian immigrants came to Eastern Ethiopia as a matured people, bringing civilization with them, colonized unoccupied Egyptian territory.

But this is the account of the annals of the sacred tradition of ancient India which H.P.B. sites from, and not unknown to Indologists. This is treated at some length in subsequent pages in the first volume, and in chapter 8 and 9 of the 2^nd volume of Isis. It is available on line for those interested.

Egypt had reached perfection in hydrostatics, mechanics and hydrological engineering as seen in the construction lake Moeris during the reign of Menes—the first historical known emperor of Egypt, about 4000 B.C. Eusebe Salverte says that modern water works cannot match it in engineering perfection. During his reign the gigantic work of turning the course of the three tributaries of the Nile to bring it to Memphis was undertaken. Mr Wilkinson writes that Menes took accurate measurement of the power which he had to oppose, and constructed a dyke whose lofty mounds and enormous embankments turned the water eastward, and that since that time the river was contained in its new bed.  Herodotus has left us a poetical but still an accurate description of the lake Moeris, so called after the name of the Phraoh who caused this artificial sheet of water to be formed.  Historians described the lake as measuring 450 miles in circumference and 300 feet in depth. It was fed through artificial channels by the Nile and made to store a portion of the annual over for the irrigation of the country for many miles round. Its numerous flood gates, dams, locks, and convenient engines were constructed with greatest skill.

Romans at a later period got their notions on hydraulic constructions from the Egyptians. Criticism of scientists is that Egyptians could have employed watertight joints and iron pipes, of which they seemed to be ignorant, thus cutting the cost. But they evidently employed a far superior method in their channels and artificial water works.

Lesseps who employed engineers for the construction of the Suez canal learned from ancient Romans all their art could teach them, and the Romans derived their knowledge from Egypt.

Professor Carpenter says that for a distance of 500 miles above Cairo there stretches a strip of land reclaimed  from the desert and made the most fertile land on the face of the earth. Says he, further, that for thousands of years these branch canals conveyed fresh water from the Nile to fertilize the land of this long narrow strip as well as the delta. He describes the network of canals over the Delta which dates from an early period of Egyptian monarchs.

Amazing architecture of Egyptian temples

H.P.B. quotes from the writing of one Carpenter who gives an account of the marvels of Egyptian architecture. [Perhaps the author whom HPB cites is Edward Carpenter. Some research needs to be done.] To quote a passage :

“These stupendous and beautiful erections...these gigantic pyramids and temples” have a “vastness and beauty” which are “still impressive after the lapse of thousands of years.” He is amazed at “the admirable character of the workmanship; the stone in most cases being fitted together with astonishing nicety, so that a knife could hardly be thrust between the joints.” He speaks of the Egyptian Book of the Dead  sculptured on the old monuments and the ancient belief in the immortality of the soul. The language in which it was expressed anticipated that of the Christian Revelation. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead are to be found the very phrases we find in the New Testament  in connection with the day of judgment, and these hierograms were engraved 2000 B.C.

Bunsen, the great Egyptologist, made exact calculations of the Pyramid of Cheops. The mass of masonry of the pyramid measured 82,111,000feet, and would weigh 6,316, 000 tons.  The immense number of squared stones show us unparalleled skill of Egyptian quarrymen. Joints are scarcely perceptible, not wider than the thickness of a silver paper, and cement so tenacious, that the fragments of the casing stones still remain in their original position despite lapse of centuries. Who of our modern architects and chemists will discover the indestructible cement of old Egyptian buildings, asks H.P.B.

Transportation of huge stones over great distances

Researchers demonstrated the monoliths were brought from prodigious distances but are at a loss to account for the means employed by Egyptians.  Old MSS show, however, that they were transported by means of portable rails resting upon inflated bags of hide rendered indestructible by the same process as that used for preserving the mummies.

Great antiquity of pyramids and what they signified     

Modern dating of the age of pyramids is conjectural. Herodotus informs us successive kings erected one to commemorate his reign, and serve as his sepulchre. But Herodotus did not tell all though he knew the real purpose, as he was an Initiate and was bound by the oath of secrecy.  H.P.B. says that they symbolized the creative principle of nature, and illustrated the principle of geometry, mathematics, astrology and astronomy, and that, internally, they were majestic fanes, in whose sombre recesses were performed Mysteries, and whose walls had often witnessed the initiation-scenes of the royal family. The Porphyry sarcophagus was the baptismal font (which the English Astronomer, Piazzi Smith mistook to be a corn bin) upon emerging from which the neophyte was “born again” and became an Adept.

Modern estimation of the age of pyramids and the purpose they served are all conjectures. Professor Piazzi Smith gives mathematical and astronomical bearing the pyramids. One of the Books of Hermes gives description of certain pyramids standing on the sea-shore, the waves of which dashed in powerless fury against its base. This account gives us an idea of antiquity of Egyptian pyramids to be far more than the modern scholars are prepared to admit. It implies that the geographical features of the country have changed, and indicate what researchers thought were granaries were really “Magico-Astrological Observatories” and royal sepulchres an origin ante-dating  the upheaval of the Sahara. French archaeologist, Dr. Rebold was of the view that there were thirty or forty colleges of priests who studied occult sciences and practical magic.

Egypt far older, and shone brighter, than Rome and was the main-spring of civilization, learning and intelligence of the race.

H.P.B. quotes from the National Quarterly Review (vol. Xxxii, No. Lxii, December 1875) that excavations at Carthage showed traces of a civilization, a refinement of art and luxury, which must even have outshone that of ancient Rome; that while one empire swayed the world by force of arms alone, the other was the last and the most perfect representative of a race who had, for centuries before Rome was dreamed of, directed the civilization, the learning and intelligence of mankind.

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