Isis Unveiled [2/2]

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Unveiled:

Isis

A MASTER-KEY TO THE

Mysteries of Ancient and Modern

SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY.

H. P.

BLAVATSKY,

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE THEOSOPHICAE SOCIETY.

“Cecy

un

est

VoL.

livre

de bonne Foy.”

Montaigne.

W.— THEOLOGY.

fourth edition.

NEW YORK: J.

W.

BOUTON,

706

BROADWAY.

LONDON: BERNARD QUARITCH. 1878.

'I

COPYniaHT, BY

J. 4

W.

BOUTON. 1877.

-

lBL/\

Trow’s Printing and Bookbinding Co., PRINTERS AND BOOKBINDERS, 205-213 Rnsi 11th St.y NEW YORK.

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE iv

Preface Mrs. Elizabeth

Thompson

and Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

THE ^INFALLIBILITY" OF RELIGION. CHAPTER THE CHURCH Church

:

I.

WHERE

IS

IT

? I

statistics

Catholic “ miracles” and spiritualistic

“phenomena”

4

Pagan beliefs compared Magic and sorcery practised by Christian clergy

20

Comparative theology a new Eastern traditions as to Alexandrian Library

27

Christian and

25

science

Roman

pontiffs imitators of the

Hindu Brahm-atma

3°

dogmas derived from heathen pliilosophy Doctrine of the Trinity of Pagan origin Disputes between Gnostics and Church Fathers

45

Bloody records of Christianity

S3

Christian

CHAPTER

33 5^

II.

CHRISTIAN CRIMES AND HEATHEN VIRTUES. Sorceries of Catherine of Medicis

55

Occult arts practised by the clergy

Witch-burnings and auto-da-fe of

Lying Catholic

little

children

59 62

74

saints

Pretensions of missionaries in India and China Sacrilegious tricks of Catholic clergy

Paul a kabalist

79 82 9^

Roman

church

91

Pligh character of ancient “mysteries”

lOl

Pet'ir

not the founder of

Strict lives of

Pagan hierophants

9^

CONTENTS. PAGE Jacolliot’s account of

Hindu

103

fakirs

109

Christian symbolism derived from Phallic worship

Hindu doctrine

114

of the Pitfis

115

Brahminic spirit-communion Dangers of untrained mediumship

117

CHAPTER DIVISIONS

HI.

AMONGST THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 123

Resemblance between early Christianity and Buddhism Peter never in

124

Rome

Meanings of “ Nazar ” and Baptism a derived

‘

‘

129

Nazarene ”

134

right.

Is Zoroaster a generic

141

name

Pythagorean teachings of Jesus The Apocalypse kabalistic philosophers and early Christians Jesus considered an adept by some Pagan

147

Doctrine of permutation The meaning of God-Incarnate

152

Dogmas

•

153

159

Ideas of Marcion, the “heresiarch”

Jehovah

•

ISO

15s

of the Gnostics

Precepts of

•

147

163

Manu

identical with

165

Bacchus

CHAPTER

IV.

ORIENTAL COSMOGONIES AND BIBLE RECORDS. 167

Discrepancies in the Pentateuch Indian, Chaldean and Ophite systems compared

Who

were the

first

170 178

Christians?

183

Christos and Sophia- Achamoth Secret doctrine taught by Jesus Jesus never claimed to be God New Testament narratives and

191

193

Hindu

199 205

legends

Antiquity of the “ Logos” and “Christ” Comparative Virgin-worship

CHAPTER

209

V.

MYSTERIES OF THE KABALA.

En-Soph and the Sephiroth The primitive wisdom-religion Wo: Id legends The book of Genesis a compilation of Old The Trinity of the Kabala

212 216 217 222

.

'

.

CONTENTS. PAGB

with Hindu myths Gnostic and Nazarene systems contrasted Kabalism in the book of Ezekiel

22 $ \ -

daughter found in the history of Christna. Story of the resurrection of Jairus’s Untrustworthy teachings of the early Fathers

Their persecuting

spirit

CHAPTER

232

'

.

241

24S 249

VI.

IN CHRISTIANITY. ESOTERIC DOCTRINES OF BUDDHISM PARODIED Decisions of Nicean Council,

how

251

arrived at

252

Murder of Hypatia Origin of the fish-symbol of Vishnu Kabalistic doctrine of the Cosmogony Diagrams of Hindu and Chaldeo- Jewish systems

256

Ten mythical Avatars of Vishnu Trinity of man taught by Paul

274 281

Socrates and Plato on soul and spirit

253 288

True Buddhism, what

264 265

it is

CHAPTER

VII.

EARLY CHRISTIAN HERESIES AND SECRET SOCIETIES. Nazareans, Ophites, and modern Druzes.

291

Etymology of lAO “ Hermetic Brothers” of Egypt True meaning of Nirvana

298

The

307

319 321

Jai'na sect

323

Christians and Christians

The

325

Gnostics and their detractors

Buddha, Jesus, and Apollonius of

341

Tyana

CHAPTER

VIII.

JESUITRY AND MASONRY.

The Sohar and Rabbi Simeon The Order of Jesuits and its relation Crimes permitted to its members

to

compared with those of Pagan moralists Egyptian Book of the Dead

Principles of Jesuitry

Trinity of

man

in

some of the Masonic orders

34 ^ 352 3 SS

3^4 3^7

Freemasonry no longer esoteric Persecution of Templars by the Church

372

Secret Masonic ciphers

395

Jehovah not the “Ineffable

Name”

3^t

39 '-

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

IX.

THE VEDAS AND THE

BIBLE. PAGE

Nearly every myth based on some great truth Whence the Christian Sabbath

405 40b

Antiquity of the Vedas

4i°

Pythagorean doctrine of the potentialities of numbers “ Days” of Genesis and “ Days” of Brahma

417

Fall of

man and

the Deluge in the

422

Hindu books

425

Aryan race?

434

Antiquity of the Mahdbharata

Were

429

the ancient Egyptians of the

Samuel, David, and Solomon mythical personages

439

Symbolism of Noah’s Ark

447

The

459 4^9

Patriarchs identical with zodiacal signs

All Bible legends belong to universal history

CHAPTER

X.

THE DEYIL-MYTH. The

devil officially recognized

by th« Church

477 4S0

Satan the mainstay of sacerdotalism Identity of Satan with the Egyptian Typhon

483 489

His relation to serpent-worship The Book of Job and the Book of the Dead

The Hindu

493

devil a metaphysical abstraction

Satan and the Prince of Hell in the Gospel of Nicodemus

CHAPTER

515

XI.

COMPARATIVE RESULTS OF BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY.

The age of philosophy produced no The legends of three Saviours Christian doctrine of the

Cause of the

Atonement

537 542

illogical

failure of missionaries to convert Buddhists

Neither Buddha nor Jesus

The The The

53°

atheists

left

and Brahmanists

written records

grandest mysteries of religion in the Bagaved-gita meaning of regeneration explained in the Satapa-BrShmana,

sacrifice of blood interpreted Demoralization of British India by Christian missionaries

The Bible less authenticated than any other sacred book jugglers Knowledge of chemistry and physics displayed by Indian

CHAPTER

553 559 5^2 5^5

5^6 573 577

583

XII.

CONCLUSIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Recapitulation of fundamental propositions Seership of the soul and of the spirit

S87 59°

CONTENTS. PAGE

The phenomenon of the so-called spirit-hand Difference between mediums and adepts reincarnated Buddha. Interview of an English ambassador with a Flight of a lama’s astral body related by Schools of magic in Buddhist lamaseries

The unknown

race of

Abbe Hue

Hindu Todas

Will-power of fakirs and yogis

Taming of wild beasts by

fakirs

Evocation of a living spirit by a Shaman, witnessed by the writer Sorcery by the breath of a Jesuit Father

Why

the study of magic

Conclusion

is

almost impracticable in Europe

594 595 598 604

609 613 617 622

626 633 635 635

PREFACE TO PART

W

ERE

it

many

whom it was not tive

churches

glorious

is

possible,

we would keep

Christians

whom

written.

We

work out

of the hands of

perusal would not benefit, and for

its

allude to those

whose

faith in their respec-

pure and sincere, and those whose sinless lives reflect the

example of that Prophet of Nazareth, by whose mouth the

History preserves the names of thropists, martyrs,

and

died,

spirit

at all times.

Such there have been

of truth spake loudly to humanity.

lived

this

II.

as heroes, philosophers, philan-

many

and holy men and women

j

but

how man.y more have

to their intimate acquaintance, unblessed

unknown but

but by their humble beneficiaries

These have ennobled

!

Christianity,

but would have shed the same lustre upon any other faith they might have professed

—

for they

were higher than

their creed.

The benevolence

Peter Cooper and Elizabeth Thompson, of America,

dox

Christians,

is

no

less Christ-like

Burdett-Coutts, of England, the millions

and pew,

worldliness ber.

is

in

They

And

one.

fast

;

comparison with

Christians, such

have always

but the increasing materialism,

diminishing their proportionate

Their charity, and simple, child-like

Bible, their

yet, in

are to be found at this day, in pul-

palace and cottage

and hypocrisy are

are not ortho-

than that of the Baroness Angela

who have been accounted

formed a small minority. pit

who

who

of

num-

faith in the infallibility of their

dogmas, and their clergy, bring into

full activity all

the virtues

PREFACE TO PART

IV

that are implanted in our

common

nature.

II.

We

such God-fearing priests and clergymen, and debate with them, lest feelings

alone

;

we have always avoided

guilty of the cruelty of hurting their

nor would we rob a single layman of his blind confidence,

made

An

we might be

have personally known

possible for

him holy

living

and serene dying.

analysis of religious beliefs in general, this

volume

lar directed against theological Christianity, the chief

thought.

It contains not

if it

is

in particu-

opponent of

free

one word against the pure teachings of Jesus,

but unsparingly denounces their debasement into pernicious ecclesiastical

systems that are ruinous to man’s

God, and subversive of

We

all

moral

faith in his

restraint.

cast our gauntlet at the dogmatic theologians

both history and science pretensions have

Christendom.

j

become

The

and especially

who would

at the Vatican,

enslave

whose despotic

hateful to the greater portion of enlightened

clergy apart,

the dauntless explorer should ers after truth

immortality and his

none but the

logician, the investigator,

meddle with books

have the courage of

their opinions.

like this.

Such delv-

UNVEILED

ISIS

PART TWO.—RELIGION. CHAPTER

I.

1

he doeth Yea, the time cometh, that whomsoever killeth you, will think that according to John, xvi. a.

“ Let him be Anathema of freedom that one

spirit

doctrines .”

I

.

.

who

!

shall

allowed

— (Ecumenical Council

“ Glouc.—The Church

N

.

may be

of

Where

is

to

say that human Sciences ought hold as true their assertions even

to

God

Gospel

service,”

be pursued

when opposed

in to

such a

revealed

1870.

itV'—King Henry

VI.,

Act

i.,

Sc.

i.

the United States of America, sixty thousand (60,428) men are paid salaries to teach the Science of God and His relations to His crea-

tures.

These men contract to impart to us the knowledge which treats of His laws and the existence, character, and attributes of our Creator we are to the duties government the doctrines we are to believe and Five thousand (5,141) of them,* with the prospect of 1273 practice. theological students to help them in time, teach this science according to a formula prescribed by the Bishop of Rome, to five million people. Fifty-five thousand (55,287) local and travelling ministers, representing ;

;

fifteen different

denominations,

f

each contradicting the other upon more

or less vital theological questions, instruct, in their respective doctrines, thirty-three million (33,500,000) other persons.

Many

of these teach ac-

cording to the canons of the cis-Atlantic branch of an establishment which acknowledges a daughter of the late Duke of Kent as its spiritual * These figures are copied from the

“ Religious

Statistics of the

United States for

tht.

year 1871.” I These are The Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Northern MethoifSouthern Methodists, Methodists various. Northern Presbyterians, Southern Pres:

ists.

United Presbyterians, United Brethren, Brethren in Christ, Refortned Dutch, Reformed German, Reformed Presbyterians, Cumberland Presbyterians.

byterians,

2

UNVEILED.

ISIS

some thousands of There are many hundred thousand Jews and a very few who belong to the Greek Church. Orientals of all kinds A man at Salt Lake City, with nineteen wives and more than one hundred children and grandchildren, is the supreme spiritual ruler over ninety thousand people, who believe that he is in frequent intercourse head.

;

;

with the gods

and

—

their chief

The God

for the

god

is

Mormons

are Polytheists as well as Polygamists,

represented as living in a planet they call Colob.

of the Unitarians

is

a bachelor; the Deity of the Presby-

terians, Methodists, Congregationalists, and the other orthodox Protestant sects a spouseless Father with one Son, who is identical with Himself.

In the attempt to outvie each other in the erection of their sixty-two thousand and odd churches, prayer-houses, and meeting-halls, in which to teach these conflicting theological doctrines, $354, 485, 581 have been The value of the Protestant parsonages alone, in which are spent.

the

sheltered

disputants

and

their

families,

is

roughly calculated to

approximate $54,115,297. Sixteen million (16,179,387) dollars, are, morever, contributed every year for current expenses of the Protestant denominations only. One Presbyterian church in New York cost a round million

We

a Catholic altar alone, one-fourth as much will not mention the multitude of smaller sects, communities, and !

;

heresies in this country which spring up one year to die out the next, like so many spores of fungi after a rainy day. will not even stop to consider the alleged millions of Spiritualists

extravagantly original

little

We

courage to break away from their respective These are the back-door Nicodemuses.

for the majority lack the

ligious denominations.

re-

with Pilate, let us inquire. What is truth ? Where is it to be searched for amid this multitude of warring sects ? Each claims to be based upon divine revelation, and each to have the keys of the celestial

And now,

Or, must we exclaim possession of this rare truth ? earth, and it with the Buddhist philosopher, “ There is but one truth on and this is that there is tio truth on it IS unchangeable Though we have no disposition whatever to trench upon the ground Is either in

gates.

—

:

that has

shown

!

been so exhaustively gleaned by those learned scholars who have

that every Christian

dogma has

its

origin in a

heathen

rite, still

the

enfranchisement of science, will facts which they have exhumed, since the Besides, we propose to examine these facts lose nothing by repetition. view that of the old different and perhaps rather novel point of :

from a

These we have barely glanced philosophies as esoterically understood. We will use them as the standard by which to at in our first volume. and phenoChristian dogmas and miracles with the doctrines

compare

mena ualism

of ancient magic, and the is

called by

its

votaries.

modern “ New Dispensation,”

as Spirit-

Since the materialists deny the

phenom-

^

“THE church! where

IS

IT?

m

3

admitting them

since the theologians ena without investigation, and raabsurdities-the Devil and 7er us the poor choice of two palpable actuthey may to the theurgists, and cles" we can lose little by applying subject light upon a very dark ally help us to throw a great Petersbu g, Imperial University of St

m

Professor A. Butlerof, of the remarks in a recent pamphlet, entitled follows

“

:

Medmmistic Mamfestations, belong if you will to the Let the facts (of modern spiritualism) known by the ancients ; let those which were more or less

number

of

and,

they are real facts,

to the dark ages gave importance them be identical with those which in Roman augur ; let them even furnish the the office of Egyptian priest or let them be all these, Shaman ; basis of the sorcery of our Siberian if

nature belong

to

it

and

science,

All the facts in enevery addition to the store of science is

no business of

ours.

If humanity has once admitted a her. riches instead of impoverishing its of self-conceit^ denied it, to return to truth, and then in the blindness backward.” realization is a step forward and not what may be considered the Since the day that modern science gave

ground that religion

the death-blow to dogmatic theology, by assuming the mental state of unscientific, is was full of mystery, and mystery Society seems from aspect. curious the educated class has presented a itself upon one leg, on an unseen that time to have been ever balancing ununiverse into the invisible one tif^ht-rope stretched from our visible suddenly not might latter the certain whether the end hooked on faith in ;

break, and hurl

The

it

into final annihilation.

great body of nominal

Christians

may be divided into three and Christians proper. The

unequal portions materialists, spiritualists, against the hierarchical materialists and spiritualists make common cause wlx), in retaliation, denounce both with equal of the clergy :

pretensions acerbity.

The

;

materialists are as

little

in

harmony

as the Christian sects

positivists, themselves— the Comtists, or, as they call themselves, the of thinkers, being despised and hated to the last degree by the schools Positivism, be one of which Maudsley honorably represents in England. founder even ” whose “ religion of the future about it remembered, is that Physical Huxley has made himself wrathful in his famous lecture. The science, Basis of Life; and Maudsley felt obliged, in behalf of modern should be men scientific that It is no wonder to express himself thus ^

and to protest against such Not conscious of any personal a king being set up to reign over them. in some respects, he has much, how conscious obligation to his writings misrepresented the spirit and pretensions of science— they repudiate the allegiance which his enthusiastic disciples would force upon them, and which popular opinion is fast coming to think a natural one. They do anxious to disclaim

Comte

—

as their law-giver,

4

I 5 IS

UNVEILED.

assertion of independence ; for if it be not late to be done well.” * When a matetoo be soon it strongly two such materialists so as repudiated by rialistic doctrine is Huxley and Maudsley, then we must think indeed that it is absurdity

well in thus

making a timely

done soon,

will

itself.

Among

Christians there

is

nothing but dissension.

Their various

churches represent every degree of religious belief, from the omnivorous credulity of blind faith to a condescending and high-toned deference to the Deity which thinly masks an evident conviction of their own deific wisdom. All these sects believe more or less in the immortality of the

Some admit

soul.

some

the intercourse between the two worlds as a fact

entertain the opinion as a sentiment

;

only a few maintain an attitude of attention

Impatient of

restraint, longing for

some positively deny and expectancy.

it

;

and

the return of the dark ages, the

and indicates of old. the power she but had champions what she would do science herself placed by is Were it not for the self-evident fact that she on trial, and that she is handcuffed, she would be ready at a moment’s

Romish Church frowns

at

the diabolical manifestations,

to their

notice to repeat in the nineteenth century the revolting scenes of former As to the Protestant clergy, so furious is their common hatred days. “ They that as a secular paper very truly remarks

toward spiritualism, seem willing to undermine the public faith in all the spiritual phenomena of the past, as recorded in the Bible, if they can only see the pes:

modern heresy stabbed to the heart.” f Summoning back the long-forgotten memories of the Mosaic the Romish Church claims the monopoly of miracles, and of the

tilent

laws, right

them, as being the sole heir thereto by di-

judgment over The Old lestatnetit, exiled by Colenso, his piederect inheritance. The prophcessors and contemporaries, is recalled from its banishment. if not on place, last to ets, whom his Holiness the Pope condescends at to

sit

in

same level with himself, at least at a less respectful distance, are The memory of all the diabolical abracadabxa is dusted and cleaned. evoked anew. The blasphemous horrors perpetrated by Paganism, its the

if

*

H. Maudsley

:

“ Body and Mind.”

+ “ Boston Sunday Herald,” November 5, 1876. “ Speeches of present Pope in the work entitled, ± See the self-glorification of the and the famous pamphlet of that name Pope Pius IX.” by Don Pascale de Franciscis ; latter quotes from the work named the folby the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone. The “ My wish is that all governments should lowing sentence pronounced by the Pope ; And I have the right to speak, even . . . know*’that I am speaking in this strain. and a great deal more than St. king, the David prophet to more than Nathan the

Atnbrosc had

to

Fheodosius

/

”

PAGAN PHALLISM

IN CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS.

5

wonders wrought by Satan, reca led and n.agic, and sorcery are and recognition for mutual confronted with spiritualism few a conveniently overlook

phallic worship, thaumaturgical incantadons, witchcraft,

Ls

demonism

is

Our modern demonologists

identification.

among which U

the

symbols. phallism in the Christian

A

MgnLan. detail,

“VT

th his s strong spiritual element of Immaculate in the dogma of the Lrship maybe easily demonstrated of God; and a physical element Conception'^of the Virgin Mother of the holy limbs of Sts. Cosmo and equally proved in the fetish-worship which ex-voto a successful traffic

Damiano, at Isernia, near Naples clergy, annually, in wax was carried on by the

m

;

^^°We

find

rather unwise

it

until barely a half century

writers to

on the part of Catholic

pour out

“ In a multitude o wrath in such sentences as these always assuming, like the