Gautama’s unintentional mistake of promulgating the dead body of Esoteric Teaching without its vivifying soul, had disastrous effects. But Karma little heeds intentions, whether good or bad, if they remain fruitless. Today, though Gautama is in Nirvana, His subtle body is still present among the Initiates. He will not leave the realm of conscious being, so long as suffering mankind needs His divine help. The middle principles of Gautama Buddha, which did not go to Nirvana, formed the middle principles of Shankara, the earthly Entity. It is therefore nearer the truth to say that the “astral” Gautama, or Nirmanakaya, was the upadhi of Shankara’s spirit and not a reincarnation of Gautama. Shankara was born in 510 BC, 51 years and 2 months after the date of Buddha’s Nirvana. He had nothing to do with Buddhist persecution. Then the “astral” Gautama entered the outward Shankara, whose Atman was, nevertheless, His own divine prototype. Shankara was a Buddha, an enlightened one, but not a typical reincarnation of Gautama Buddha. He was direct incarnation of Logos, one of the Primordial Seven Rays, an Avatara in the full sense of the term. The Nazarene Sage was a Bodhisattva with the spirit of Buddha in Him. Jesus had promised His disciples the power of producing “miracles” far greater than He had ever produced, but died leaving but a few disciples, men only half-way to knowledge. The unequal favour of Karma between Gautama and Jesus can be explained by the necessity of a sacrificial Nirmanakaya, ready to suffer for the misdeeds or mistakes of the new body in its earth-pilgrimage, without any future reward on the plane of progression and rebirth. The Higher Self is not in such a case attached to the lower Ego; its connection is only temporary, and in most cases it acts through decrees of Karma. When the Shruti reached the ear of Gautama, He accepted the revelation while rejecting the later overgrowth of Brahmanical thought and fancy. As in the case of His Western Successor, Gautama was the first of the Eastern Hierarchy of Adepts, who was moved by that generous feeling which locks the whole of mankind within one embrace, with no petty differences of race, birth, or caste. He desired to atone for the sin of His enemies. Then only was He willing to become a full Dharmakaya, a Jivanmukta “without remains.” Shankara, the Great Dravidian Guru, the Adept of adepts, lives to this day in His spiritual entity as a mysterious, unseen, yet overpowering presence among the Brotherhood of Shambhala.

1. The Origin of the Mysteries. The last incarnation of one of seven “Lords of the Flame” was Baladeva, Krishna’s brother. Hercules is none other than Baladeva in Greek dress. In the Golden Age, Esoteric Knowledge was common property. Initiation arose later on from the necessity to limit the number of those who knew. The Initiate’s maxim was “All for the people and with the people.” The old Initiates were real philosophers, priests, and healers. They commemorated the secrets of their Mysteries in hieroglyphics. Only those, whose purity allowed them to look at the great Isis unveiled, were admitted to the secrets of Nature and Man. But what Gods and Angels had revealed, Moses reveiled and hid from the sight of the world. 2. The Trial of the Sun-Initiate. Vishvakarman (Hierophant or Logos Demiourgos) cut off seven locks of the neophyte’s long hair (Second Sun’s rays) and replaced them with a crown of brambles — thus making him Vikartana, “shorn of his rays.” The neophyte who can overcome the dreadful trials of Initiation (on the cross of his worldly passions) dies in the Chrestos condition (freed from the clutches of matter) before his second and triumphant birth in Spirit as Christos. The Masonic rite of Initiation is based upon the construction of the Temple of Solomon, a narrative modelled upon Egyptian and still earlier symbolisms. Yet, there never was an Occult Society, however open and sincere, that has not felt the hand of the Jesuit trying to pull it down by every secret means. The Jesuits infected mankind with passivity, ignorance, and superstition in order to impose their Universal Despotism unopposed. 3. The Mystery of the “Sun of Initiation.” In the days of Aristotle, few were the true Adepts left in Europe and even in Egypt. Solus-Sol-Sun is “The One” and the Greek name for Helios, the Most High. But there is a great difference between our Sun and its prototype, the Central Spiritual Sun. 4. The Objects of the Mysteries. Whether lesser or greater, Mysteries have always been graded. Theophany is the appearance of God to man; Theopathy, man’s assimilation of his divine nature; Theopneusty, inspiration or rather the power to hear the Voice of God. The last two are experienced when the neophyte passes through the crucifixion of flesh or matter. The Grecian Mysteries were identical with the Initiations of Buddhist and Hindu Adepts. In India, the candidate of the third degree of Initiation has two Gurus. But whether Eastern or Western, the Initiate dares all and keeps silent. Masonic Initiation was modelled on that of the Lesser Mysteries and remains an authority upon the three fundamental degrees. The triple duty of a Mason is to study whence he comes, what he is, and whither he goes. 5. Traces of the Mysteries. The Round Towers in Ireland and Asia were connected with the Vishvakarman and Vikartana rites. In later ages, the Initiates of the Left Path and the anthropomorphists turned them into phallic monuments. The key to the mystery of Initiation (and to the real Christ, not the blasphemous caricature of the Churches) lies on the difference between the terms Chrestos and Christos. There were two Messiahs, Chrest and Christ. Jesus was an Initiate of the Egyptian Mysteries, where the rite of the suffering Chrestos on his trial, and second birth as Christos (by regeneration), were enacted. It was on the seventh day, the third of his ultimate trial, that the Eastern neophyte arose as a regenerated man and returned to earth as triumphant conqueror of death, a Hierophant. Initiates are said to have “crushed the serpent’s head,” i.e., conquered their sensual nature. The Egyptian Initiates held the Rose as symbol of Nature, the mother and nourisher of man, represented as a virgin woman. The Brothers of the Rosy Cross, as a symbol of sexual procreation. The old Indian Mysteries of Initiation were brought to Greece by Orpheus, nine millennia before Homer and Hesiod. 6. The Last of the Mysteries in Europe. Alesia, Arles, and Bibractis, the last bastions of the Ancient Mysteries in Europe, are no more. Occult Wisdom is now replaced by absolute theocracy that displays its crowned priests to the ignorant masses. Whatever else Cheops might have done, he has not built the pyramid bearing his name. Neither Solomon his temple, nor Noah his arc, for that matter. The strict silence of the Initiates and the total loss of all written memorials of secret knowledge may explain why so little is known of the Ancient Mysteries. Yet, there is spiritual Alchemy and physical transmutation: their cradle is to be sought in the most distant times. 7. The Post-Christian Successors to the Mysteries. The Neo-Platonic School of Ammonius Saccas became the successor of the Eleusinian Mysteries and herald of the Eastern Secret Teachings — unveiling the long and laborious descent and re-ascent of the Divine Monad or Soul. Each of us have to pass through the “Valley of Thorns” before he emerges into the plains of divine light and rest. The Eclectic doctrines are strongly reflected in the Epistles of Paul and John the Evangelist. For it is not Judaism and Christianity that remodelled the ancient Pagan Wisdom, but rather the latter that put its heathen curb on the new “faith” and was further influenced by the Eclectic Theosophical system, the direct emanation of the Wisdom-Religion. Ammonius, Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, were prominent Theosophists though they never claimed the title. All that is grand and noble in Christian theology comes from Neo-Platonism. Ammonius was a true Philaletheian, one of us. His Eclectic Theosophical School, a precursor and prototype of the modern Theosophical Movement, was made of the crumbs permitted to be gathered from the antediluvian lore. Woe to those who mock Divine Knowledge and betray her secrets. But those who are pure in thought and deed, and have trust and confidence in their immortal spirit, have nothing to fear.

Empedocles was taught by Egypt’s great Hierophants. He believed that men and animals possess a dual soul. Pythagoras and Plato also make the same division. Empedocles’ dual soul followed the idea of a dual magnetic force, attraction–repulsion, throughout the universe, as confirmed by Kepler. He believed that the Monad, or “breath” of Darkness moving over “the slumbering Waters of life,” is primordial matter with the latent Spirit in it. Empedocles was an acclaimed Thaumaturgist. He recalled the dead to life. He even ruled the wind. But in the eyes of miracle-believing Christians he was an impostor.

Tattvas and Bhutas are the Principles and Aspects of Cosmos and Man. Lokas and Talas are Divine and Worldly planes of being. Colours and sounds are all spiritual numerals. Colour is Spirit (Atman), Sound is Voice (Buddhi), Proportion of Numbers is Word (Higher Manas). Woe to the selfish man who seeks to develop occult powers only to attain earthly benefits, or revenge, or to satisfy his ambition. And warnings to those who are anxious to develop powers by sitting for yoga. Tattvas are the substratum of the Forces in Nature and Man. Sound is no attribute at all, but the primal correlation of Akasha. Akasha is both the highest Tattva and the synthesis of all Tattvas. Esoteric and Tantric Tattvas, and their correspondences with states of matter, body parts, and colours, explained. In the realm of hidden Forces of Nature, an audible sound is but a subjective colour; and a perceptible colour, but an inaudible sound. The Seven Rays of Logos keep vibrating not only in the Tattvic centres of action but in every atom of the body. The lower you go in the Talas the more intellectual you become and the less spiritual. You may be a morally good man but not spiritual. Every human passion, every thought and quality, is indicated in one’s aura by corresponding colours and shades of colour; certain of these are sensed and felt, rather than perceived. The introspective Adept can see the golden aura of a man in his normal condition, pulsating in both the Pineal and the Pituitary Glands, a pulsation like that of the heart, never ceasing throughout life. Watch out! Tantric works tend to Black Magic and are most dangerous to take for guides in self-training.

The key to mystery of Jesus is hidden in the paronomasia of Chrēstos and Christos. Still the learned Egyptologist passes over in silence the real and profound meaning of the two appellations. The Talmud and the Masters of Wisdom affirm that Jesus ben Pandira was the historical Christ, who had lived a century earlier, in the fourth year of the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, King of Judea. An Initiate, who had succeeded in merging his spiritual being into the glorious state of Buddhi-Manas, may be regarded as a Christos after his last and supreme initiation, just as he was called Chrēstos before that. Carnalising the Christ-principle is an absurdity and a blasphemy. Theosophists will never accept a “Christ made Flesh,” or an anthropomorphic God, still less a “Shepherd” in the person of a Pope. However, a man of flesh assuming the Christ-condition temporarily is a matter-of-fact on the plane of matter, and a subjective reality in the spiritual realm, which is the proper habitat of he divine soul. We fully agree with our esteemed friend that the suppression and perversion of esoteric facts in the gospels is not so mischievously done as to prevent the Occultist from reading between the lines.

A chant sung over the entranced bodies of the mystai or neophytes who, after passing through the trial of their last initiation, were made Epoptai.

Humility is more of a chameleon than a peacock. The highest meaning of humility is purely astronomical and occult. Key 1. The humiliation of the Spirit of Light descending into the darkness of matter, a kosmic and karmic necessity. Key 2. The paronomasia of Chrestos in Scorpio (humiliation), and of Christos in Leo (triumph). Key 3. The astronomical fall and rise of the Sons of Light. Key 4. Three syzygies: 4a. The two Messiahs: one is the Sun, shorn of his golden rays, going down into the pit for the salvation of the world; the other Messiah is Spirit triumphant, rising to the summit heaven. 4b. The two Christs: Jesus-Chrest, the Neophyte, a virtuous man in his trial of life and candidate to initiation; and Christ, the Initiated Adept, Manas merged with Buddhi. 4c.The two Pauls: Saul of Tarsus operating under the law, and Paul the Apostle freed from the obligations of the law. The two Pauls are parallelisms of Jesus, the man under the law who died in Chrestos and arose, freed from its earthly obligations, as the triumphant Christos.

Samson and Samuel were Nazars, i.e., consecrated to the service of God. So were Zoroaster (son of Ishta), Azara-Ezra, and Zorobabel (son of Babylon). Nazars were a monastic class of celibates. Apart from Samson and Samuel, Paul and Joseph were also Nazars. Samson was a true Nazarite, i.e., vowed to the service of God. His hair was his strength. His father was Manu. The mother of his counterpart, Samuel, was Anna. An old palm leaf depicts a blind giant of Ceylonian antiquity and fame, with hair reaching to the ground and with outstretched arms embracing the four central pillars of a pagoda, pulling them down onto a crowd of armed enemies. That giant is an antitype of the biblical Samson. Samson was consecrated before his birth to become a Nazarite, i.e., an Adept. His sin with Delilah and the cropping of his long hair shows how well he kept his sacred vow. His allegory is further evidence of the Esotericism of the Bible, as also the character of the “Mystery Gods” of the Jews. Biblical Samson is the Hindu Ganesha; Samuel is the Hebrew Hercules and double of Samson; both are fictitious characters. King David is the Israelitish King Arthur. Samson and Hercules are personifications of neophytes to Initiation, near the end of their trials. They kneel before the hierophant, who cuts off seven locks of their hair representing the golden beams of the sun; and these are replaced by a wreath of sharp ligneous spines, symbolizing the loss. There are two crucifixions, astronomically connected: the crucifixion of the Serpent of Wisdom falling from on high to illumine the hearts and minds of men, and the “crucifixion” of Jesus-Chrēstos, the virtuous man, fabricated by Ecclesiastical Christianity. The neophyte who can overcome the dreadful trials of Initiation (on the cross of his worldly passions) dies in the Chrēstos condition (freed from the clutches of matter) before his second and triumphant birth in Spirit as Christos.