The Pythagorean Square is the sum of the first numbers, +++, i.e., number , the Tetractys of the Decas. Number is a numerical expression of the mysteries of the whole Kosmos, its microcosmic image or man, and the sum total of all human knowledge. A trinity of Perfect Squares make up the Dodecahedron, a Perfect Number concealed in a Perfect Cube. Thomas Taylor on the eleven faces of the Pythagorean Tetractys: The first tetractys is 1. 2. 3. 4. The second, is the monad, a side, a square, and a cube. The third, is a point, line, a superficies, and a solid. The fourth, is fire, air, water, and earth. The fifth, the pyramid, the octahedron, the icosahedron, and the cube. The sixth, seed, length, breadth, and depth. The seventh, man, a house, a street, and a city. The eighth, intellect, science, opinion, and sense. The ninth, the rational, the irascible, the epithymetic parts, and the body. The tenth, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Saturn is the dianoetic tetractys. The Pythagorean World is the Root of Illusion.

Apocalypsis is a Kabbalistic book, par excellence, far older than Christianity. The author of Apocalypsis is no other than Oannes, the Chaldean Dagon or Man-Fish, who rose every day from the Persian Gulf and taught wisdom to men. As the sun sunk below the horizon, he retired into the sea passing the night in the deep for he was amphibious, i.e., he lived on two planes: the spiritual and the physical. The Gnostic Oannes-John and the Hindu Vishnu are one and the same, personifications of Microcosm, the Inner Man. The numerical value of words, known as Isopsephia, is a branch of the ancient sacerdotal language. Words or phrases that share the same numerical value also share the same spiritual significance. Isopsephia was taught in the Lesser Mysteries but the language itself was reserved for high initiates alone. When good and evil come to an equilibrium in the scales of human actions, 666 million men will have “Supreme Wisdom” incarnated in them. The Christian application of the compound name Jesus-Christ is based on Gnostic and Eastern Mysticism. St. John’s Apocalypsis has been written in the mystery language of the ancient Tannaïm, a relic of Egyptian and Chaldean Wisdom. The Tannaïm were Initiates from whom the wisdom of the Kabbalah was obtained by the later Talmudists. Number 6 was the symbol of our globe, ready to be animated by divine spirit. Figure 6 stands for the Earth in autumn and winter; figure 7, the Central Informing Force, in spring and summer. The ancients divided our globe into 60 degrees, which, multiplied by 60, became 3,600, the Great Year. Hence also the hour, with its 60 minutes of 60 seconds each. Number 6 has now completed the Earth, a globe with a cross over it. Number 7 is the festival day of the Earth and birthday of our world. It represents the seven principles throughout Kosmos, Nature, and Man. The Monad has to pass through its mineral, vegetable and animal forms, before the Light of Logos is awakened in animal man. Till then, the animal form cannot be referred to as a thinking man but has to be regarded as a Monad imprisoned in ever-changing forms. 666 is the isopsephic value of the mind in animal man, devoid of any noetic element. 666 stands for the physical man of the late Third (Lemurian) to early Fourth (Atlantean) Root-Races. This is the very “beast” of the Revelation and Plutarch’s “Eight Race” man. The isopsephic value of Plato’s word for the Lower Mind (Η Φρην) is also 666, suggesting that the Higher Mind is dormant. A hint for Masons: learn to multiply 333, and you may strike 666 instead. Cosmogenesis and Anthropogenesis numerically and geometrically expressed. The One attracts within itself the Divine Unity of the One Circle and forms out of It the Perfect Square, thus “squaring the circle.” The Great Circle or Ring Pass-Not is the “Rope of the Angels” hedging off the phenomenal from the noumenal Kosmos. That Circle is the Universal Principle which, from any given point, expands to embrace all things, while embodying the potentiality of every action in Kosmos. How does the Triangle become the Square? How does the Square become the Six-faced Cube? How does the Triad becomes a Tetrad, the Pythagorean Perfect Square in heaven, and a Cube on earth? Mathematically expressed, Logos become Tetragrammaton, i.e., the Three become Four. When the Spiritual Ego, the holy number 7, germ and matrix of the 6, enters the animal body, the 6 faces of the cube unfold, thus forming the cross of passions upon which material man (Chrēstos) crucifies himself and disappoints his glorious Spirit (Christos). Kabbalistic interpretation of the “crucifixion nails” reveals their sexual meaning. The occult meaning of the Svastika, emblem of the activity of Fohat, symbolised by the figure 6 and the Sacred Four, explained.26 Number 7, being the compound of 6 + 1, is the Number of numbers. Metaphysically, number 7 is the ever invisible centre, the spirit of everything, as there exists no body with six lines constituting its form without a seventh being found as the central point in it — which is the source and origin of the six. Esoterically, number 7 symbolises the secondary “perfection” for it is related only to the manifested planes. Whereas the Greek Delta is the “vehicle of the unknown Deity.” Exoterically, number 3 became the ideograph of the three material elements — air, water, earth; plus number 4, the principle of all that which is neither embodied nor perceptible. But this has never been accepted by the real Pythagoreans. With the Egyptians, number 7 was the symbol of life eternal, and this is why the Greek letter Z, which is but a double 7, is the initial letter of the verb ZΩ (I live) and of Zeus, Father of all living. Interpreted by the Pythagorean Key, the 365 days of a solar year read “The Earth animated by the Spirit of Life.” Number 7 interpreted astronomically, geometrically, and sexually. Astronomically, number 7 is closely connected with the Atlantides who have become the Seven Pleiades. The two are connected with the destinies of nations, as shaped by past events according to Karmic law. Kartikeya-Mars, the occult symbol of the cycle of Naros, is composed of 600, 666, and 777 years. Esoterically, number 7 is symbolised by two interlaced triangles, forming a six-pointed star around a central point. For Seven is the germ of the six and their matrix. In the old Sanskrit works number 6 is mentioned more often than 7, the central position of which is implied by the point that had produced the first line. Geometrically, 7 is the number of the spiritual man, symbolised by the cube unfolding as “cross.” Deity in Man is symbolised by the Tau cross, a double glyph. Tau is formed from the figure 7 and the Greek letter Γ, symbols of divine and earthly life, respectively. In its terrestrial attachment, Tau is the Sun shorn of his beams. The days of the solar year correspond with the 7 principles of psychic man, and the 7 aspects of the physical man. The sexual meaning of the crucifixion nails, when numerically interpreted, explain how number 6 became 7. The position of the three nails into the crucified’s extremities and on the cross, form the corners of a triangle facing down. The three nails with the three wounds are in number 6, which denotes the 6 faces of the cube when unfolded. When the feet are separated, the three wounds become four, forming a square, and thus the number of the crucified (3 + 4) become 7, a most holy number. And when 3 and 4 kiss each other, they form the Procrustean bed of torture where Prometheus is crucified. While 7 is the feminine number of pristine purity, 9 is the number of the phallic or male energy. But the Jews made of number 7 a feminine number of generation, thus introducing the phallic element into religion. 777 is the isopsephic value of the Cross (Σταυρος) and symbol of the Kosmic Man. Radiating from a Pyramid of Heavenly Stars, 777 enlightens the inferior worlds. The mundane cross is the oldest phallic symbol of the dual generative power, not the instrument of the alleged crucifixion. Jesus was crucified by his own Church, not by Scripture. Christos is the Man-God of Plato, who crucifies himself for an eternity in the darkness of matter, in order to redeem the Spirit of Truth from the clutches of untruth and self-deceit. The Fathers have falsified Jesus’ last words and made him a victim of his own success. The paronomastic terms Chrēstos and Christos are linked astrologically — a double pun. Scorpio is Chrēstos in humiliation; Leo, Christos in triumph. Christos is the eternal, real Individuality, or universal Altruism; whereas Jesus-Chrēstos is the mortal man who, by crucifying the man of flesh and his passions on the Procrustean bed of torture, is reborn Immortal and leaves the animal-man behind him tied on the Cross of Initiation like an empty chrysalis. Then, his Higher Soul becomes as free as a butterfly. Christos is the God in Space and Man’s Saviour on Earth. What is the meaning of Moses beseeching the Lord to show him “his glory”? A grotesque verse from Exodus interpreted esoterically. Why Moses and Jehovah are in numerical harmony? Because the number of Moses is that of “I am, That I am,” i.e., 345. The number of Jehovah is 543, the reverse of 345. Number 8 symbolises the regular Kosmic breathing overseen by eight gods. Number 8 also symbolises the equality of units, order and symmetry in heaven, transformed into inequality and confusion on earth by man’s intense selfishness and rebellion against Nature’s decrees. If number 6 was the symbol of our globe ready to be animated by a divine spirit, number 9 is the symbol of our globe informed by an evil spirit. 888 is the Gnostic and Kabbalistic number of Jesus (Ιησους), and also the tripartite division of a solar day. When the “back parts” of Moses and his “face” are added up we have 888, which is the Gnostic-Kabbalistic name of Jesus. The main purpose of this system of number checks was to preserve in perpetuity the exact value of the Lunar Year in the natural measure of days. The Semites seem to have had no higher purpose in life than that of procreating their species. Jewish Deity is proved to be, at best, only the manifested duad, never the One Absolute ALL. The Jews had no aspirations towards the Ideal.

The real Saviours of Mankind all descend to the Nether World, the Kingdom of Darkness, of temptation, lust, and selfishness. And, after having overcome the Chrest condition or the tyranny of separateness, their astral or worldly ego is enlightened by Lucifer, the Glorified Divine Ego (Buddhi-Manas), who is the real Christ in every man. Pythagoras, Buddha, Apollonius, were Initiates of the same Secret School. The Sun is the external manifestation of the Seventh Principle of our Planetary System while the Moon is its Fourth Principle. Shining in the borrowed robes of her Master, she is saturated with and reflects every passionate impulse and evil desire of her grossly material body, our earth. Jesus as “Son of God” and “Saviour of Mankind,” was not unique in the world’s annals. The “infallible” Churches made up history as they went along, building up the Apostolic Church on a jumble of contradictions. See how the Fathers have falsified Jesus’ last words and made him a victim of his own success. “My God, my Sun, thou hast poured thy radiance upon me!” concluded the thanksgiving prayer of the Initiate, “the Son and the Glorified Elect of the Sun.” The Baptism in the Jordan is the Rite of Initiation and the final purification, when Christos and Sophia (Divine Intelligence–Wisdom) enter the Initiate by transference from Guru to Chela, leave the physical body upon death of the latter, and re-enter the Nirmanakaya, the Astral Ego of the new Adept. The “baptism” or Initiation of Jesus stands for the “descent” of the Higher Self or Soul (Atma-Buddhi) on Manas, the Higher Ego. And the union of Christos with Chrestos establishes a conscious communication of the Universal Individuality with the transcendent personality (Theophania) — the Adept. Jesus was crucified by his own Church, not by Scripture. The key to the hitherto unfathomable mystery of Jesus is hidden in the paronomasia of Chrestos and Christos. He who will not ponder over and master the great difference between the meaning of the two Greek words (Chrestos and Christos), must remain blind for ever to the true esoteric meaning of the Gospels; that is to say, to the living Spirit entombed in the sterile dead-letter of the texts, the very Dead Sea fruit of lip-Christianity. Jesus was Chrestos, a virtuous man in his trial of life and candidate to initiation. Not yet Christos, as he had not passed the third degree of initiation to become Epoptes. Chrestos, the neophyte, is admitted into the Christos condition at the end of his last incarnation when Manas is fully merged with Buddhi. His real temple is the awakened soul in the sanctuary of the heart. The real Christ is the Serpent or Dragon of Wisdom falling from on high into the hearts and minds of men. Christos is a Ray of Logos: Passive Wisdom in Heaven and Self-Active, Conscious Wisdom on Earth. Though the two are one, the permanent can never merge with the impermanent. It is only when the impermanent begins loving the permanent sufficiently to give up its ephemeral self and being, that a spiritual union of the “Heavenly man” with the “Virgin of the World” is accomplished and a new Saviour of Humanity is born here on earth but “without sin.” Alas, few are they who are fit to join that Holy Brotherhood where each, in order to gain admittance, must be at one with the Christ within him. Deity in Man is symbolised by Tau, a double glyph. Tau is formed from the figure Seven and the Greek letter Gamma, symbols of divine and earthly life, respectively. In its terrestrial attachment, Tau is the Sun shorn of his beams. In Greek Mythology, Tau is the iron lathe of Procrustes, the Attican Vishvakarman. Christos is Prometheus, a personification of the Great Logoic Sacrifice. On sending out its personal ray, Christos or Higher Manas becomes “crucified between two thieves”: the lower, impure tendencies that after death dissipate in Kama-Loka, and the higher aspirations that survive death and reascend the cyclic arc. Vishvakarman, the creator and “carpenter” of gods and men, crucifies Vikartana on a lathe and, cutting off the eighth part of his rays, deprives his head of its effulgence and creates round it a dark aureole. Christos is the “Man-God” of Plato, who crucifies himself for an eternity in the darkness of matter for the redemption of the Spirit of Light from the Kingdom of Darkness. As Deity and Man are One, so Christ is the God in Space and Man’s Saviour on Earth. Christos is the eternal, real Individuality or Universal Altruism, whereas Jesus-Chrestos is the ephemeral, false individuality or Egotism. Man is Deity on Earth, whose body is the cross of flesh, on, through, and in which he is ever crucifying and putting to death Christ, the Divine Logos, who is his benefactor and true friend. Chrest is a Ray made manifest from that Centre of Life which is hidden from the eyes of Humanity for and in Eternity. That Centre is the real Christ, crucified as a body of flesh and bones. The great mystery is at last unravelled: Christos, incarnating in Chrestos, becomes for certain purposes a willing candidate for a long series of tortures, mental and physical. Chrestos is the mortal man who, by crucifying the man of flesh and his passions on the Procrustean bed of torture, is reborn Immortal and leaves the animal-man behind him tied on the Cross of Initiation like an empty chrysalis. Then, his Higher Soul becomes as free as a butterfly.

The degree of genius exhibited in works of fiction by the most renowned novelists, largely depends upon and is proportionate to the intensity and interest felt by them in their days of childhood for nursery tales. Also, the older a man becomes, the stronger he clings to and the clearer he seems to see the events of his early childhood. The Greeks of the days of Pericles — they who euhemerized a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses, and from whom Phidias had immortalized the Olympian Jupiter and Athena Promachos, could have no other descendants but those they actually have — the Virgin and Saint worshipping Hellenes. Thus we may believe that the form of worship depends more on the respective idiosyncrasies of races than on their powers of reasoning; and that the natural sympathies or antipathies of the forefathers will always be reflected more or less in the future generations. For it is but names and forms that change, ideas remain the same; and the older a faith, the stronger it clings to the relics of its youth.

The world is asked to believe that, while the Planetary Angels of the Church are divine Beings, the genuine Seraphim, these very same angels under identical names and planets are the “false” Gods of the Ancients. The circle dance of the planets, prescribed by the Amazons for the Mysteries, is called “lascivious” when performed by the Pagans, but not King David’s reprehensible dance, during which he uncovered himself before his maid-servants in a public thoroughfare. It was David who introduced Jehovistic worship into Judæa, after sojourning so long among the Tyrians and Philistines, where these rites were common. Having borrowed Osiris from the Egyptians, the Church Fathers thought little of helping themselves to his brother Typhon. The seven-branched chandelier of the Israelites, as well as the “wanderers” of the Greeks, had a far more natural meaning, a purely astrological one to begin with. But, symbol for symbol, we prefer the sun to a candlestick. One can understand how the latter came to represent the sun and planets, but no one can admire the chosen symbol. There is poetry and grandeur in the sun when it is made to symbolise the Eye of Ormuzd, or of Osiris. One must forever fail to perceive that any particular glory is rendered to Christ by assigning to him the trunk of a candlestick in a Jewish synagogue. The chandelier represented the motion of the seven luminaries, describing their astral revolution. To the right and the left of that candelabrum projected six branches, each of which had its lamp, because the Sun placed as a candelabrum in the middle of other planets distributes light to them. There are two suns, a sun adored and a sun adoring. There are seven series of Cosmocratores, which are double: the higher ones are commissioned to support and guide the superior world; the lower ones, the inferior world. The Zoroastrians, Mazdeans, and Persians borrowed their conceptions from India; the Jews borrowed their theory of angels from Persia; the Christians borrowed theirs from the Jews. The Zoroastrian Aryans transformed the Devas, the bright Gods of India, into daevas or devils. It was their Karma that, in their turn, the Christians should vindicate on this point the Hindus. Then Ormuzd and Mithra became the daevas of Christ and Mikael, the dark lining and aspect of the Saviour and Angel. The day of the Karma of Christian theology will come in its turn. Hence, the latest interpretation by Churches that the seven-branched candlestick represents the seven Churches of Asia, and the seven planets which are the angels of those Churches. And yet, in the face of all this evidence, sun, moon, planets, are shown as being demoniacal before, and divine only after, the appearance of Christ. Then Jehovah then is made to be the Sun, and thence also the Christ of the Roman Church. The only point of difference between the exotericism of the Latin Church and that of the old Astrolators lies in the entirely arbitrary interpretation of emblems, symbols, allegories, and even names which have been shown to be identical in both.

Man is the Microcosm and miniature copy of the Macrocosm, the living witness of the Universal Law and its mode of action on Earth. It is the Neo-Platonists who applied the term Microcosm to man. Ancient philosophy called the Earth the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, and man the outcome of the two.

Warnings to those who plagiarized from our books, those who set up sham schools of magic, ambushed seekers after truth by deceiving them with holy names, misused and desecrated the sacred science by using it to get money by various means. Plus to all charlatans, fortune-tellers, and self-styled adepts. With the spread of the spiritualistic cult, the Messiah craze has vastly increased, and men and women alike have been involved in its whirlpools. Liberty to love according, to the impulse of the senses, is the most profound slavery. From the beginning nature has hedged that pathway with disease and death. And the false prophets shall become wind, for the word is not in them. To distinguish the white rays of truth from influx from the astral sphere, requires a training which ordinary sensitives, whether avowed spiritualists or not, do not possess. Ignorance emboldens, and the weak will always worship the bold. In the face of genuine spiritual growth and true illumination, the Theosophist grows in power to befriend and help his fellow-man, while he becomes the most humble, the most silent, the most guarded of men.

The book of Futurity, which has been wisely closed to every mortal eye, now opens its pages to many sons of the earth. Among the workings of the inner life within us, which we may experience but cannot explain, are there any more remarkable than those mysterious moral influences constantly exercised either for attraction or repulsion, by one human being over another? Modern astronomy profits by the works of ancient astrology, and kicks it out of sight. During the dissolution of the Etheric Double the darkness of our ignorance beginning to be dispelled, there are many things we can see. It is through the throbs of dissolution that horizons of vaster and profounder knowledge are drawn on, bursting upon our mental vision and becoming with every hour plainer to our inner eye. The nearer some people approach death, the brighter becomes their long lost memory, and the more correct the previsions because the unfoldment of inner faculties increases as life-blood becomes more stagnant. Modern science and spiritualism are two opposite poles. Life and death are as much of a mystery to the man of science, as they are to the spiritualist and the profane unbeliever. Materialistic scientists keep unweaving the rainbow. Unconscious necromancers reject every other philosophy save their own. Death, before whose majestic tranquillity so many shudder with fear, has no terrors. And yet people make too much fuss over death, and too little over the birth of every new candidate for it.

HPB's first major work, originally published in 1877. The most astounding compendium of occult facts and theories in Theosophical literature. It proclaims the existence of mystery schools under the guardianship of men who are servants for truth. It outlines a movement by the Guardians of the Ancient Wisdom to preserve and protect the ageless truths, until in later times they would again become known for the spiritual benefit of all.