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4l6
THK SECRET DOCTRINE.
with the Egyptians, she was Hekat (Hecate) in
Hell, the Goddess of
Death, who ruled over magic and enchantments. More than this; as
the personified Moon, whose phenomena are triadic, Diana-HecatelyUna
is the three hi one. For she is Diva trifonms, tergemina, triceps,
three heads on one neck,* like Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva. Hence she is
the prototype of our Trinity, which has not always been entirely male.
The number seven, so prominent in the Bible, so sacred in the seventh
da}^ or Sabbath, came to the Jews from antiquity, deriving its
origin
from the four-fold number 7 contained in the 28 days of the lunar
month, each septenary portion thereof being typified
the Moon.
It is worth the trouble of presenting, in this
by one quarter of
work, a bird's-eye view
of the origin and development of the lunar myth and worship, in
historical antiquity, on our side of the globe. Its earlier origin is
untraceable by exact Science, which rejects all tradition; while for
Theology, which, under the guidance of the crafty Popes, has put a
brand on every fragment of literature that does not bear the imprimatur
of the Church of Rome, its archaic history is a sealed book. Whether
the Egyptian or the Aryan Hindu religious philosophy is the more
ancient—the Secret Doctrine says it is the latter—does not much matter,
in this instance, as the Lunar and Solar "worship" are the most
ancient in the world. Both have survived, and prevail to this day
throughout the whole world; with some openly, with others—as, for
instance, in Christian symbology—secretly. The cat, a lunar symbol,
was sacred to Isis, who was the Moon in one sense, just as Osiris was
the Sun, and is often seen on the top of the Sistrum in the hand of the
Goddess. This animal was held in great veneration in the city of
Bubastis, which went into deep mourning on the death of the sacred
cats, because Isis, as the Moon, was particularly worshipped in that
city of mysteries. The astronomical symbolism connected with it has
already been given in Section I, and no one has better described it
than Mr. Gerald Massey, in his Lectures and in The Natural GeJiesis.
The eye of the cat, it is said, seems to follow the lunar phases in their
growth and decline, and its orbs shine like two stars in the darkness of
night. Hence the mythological allegory which shows Diana hiding in
the Moon, under the shape of a cat, when she was seeking, in company
with other Deities, to escaj^e the pursuit of Typhon, as related in the
* The Goddess TpLU,opcf>os in the statuary of Alcamenes.