The Secret Doctrine Volume 3.pdf

in it the Visvakarmâ, the “Father” Principle, “beyond the comprehension of mortals;” in the
second stage Sûrya, the “Son,” who offers Himself as a sacrifice to Himself; in the third, the
Initiate, who sacrifices His physical to His Spiritual Self.
Similarity of Legends- (Page 143) It is in Visvakarmâ, the “omnificent” who becomes
(mystically) Vikkartana, the “sun shorn of his beams,” who suffers for his too ardent nature,
and then becomes glorified (by purification), that the keynote of the Initiation into the greatest
Mystery of Nature was struck. Hence the secret of the wonderful “similarity.”
All this is allegorical and mystical, and yet perfectly comprehensible and plain to any student
of Eastern Occultism, even superficially acquainted with the Mysteries of Initiation. In our
objective Universe of Matter and false appearances the Sun is the most fitting emblem of the
life-giving, beneficent Deity. In the subjective, boundless World of Spirit and Reality the bright
luminary has another and a mystical significance, which cannot be fully given to the public.
The so-called “idolatrous” Parsis and Hindus are certainly nearer the truth in their religious
reverence for the Sun, than the cold, ever-analysing, and as ever-mistaken, public is
prepared to believe, at present. The Theosophists, who will be alone able to take in the
meaning, may be told that 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, saturated with and reflecting every passionate impulse and evil desire of her
grossly material body, Earth. The whole cycle of Adeptship and Initiation and all its mysteries
are connected with, and subservient to, these two and the Seven Planets. Spiritual
clairvoyance is derived from the Sun; all psychic states, diseases, and even lunacy, proceed
from the Moon.
According even to the data of History - her conclusions being remarkably erroneous while
her premises are mostly correct - there is an extraordinary agreement between the “legends”
of every Founder of a Religion (and also between the rites and dogmas of all) and the names
and course of constellations headed by the Sun. It does not follow, however, because of this,
that both Founders and their Religions should be, the one myths, and the other superstitions.
They are, one and all, the different versions of the same natural primeval Mystery, on which
the Wisdom-Religion was based, and the development of its Adepts subsequently framed
And now once more we have to beg the reader not to lend an ear to the charge - against
Theosophy in general and the writer in particular - of disrespect toward one of the greatest
and noblest characters in the History of Adeptship - Jesus of Nazareth - nor even of hatred to
the Church. The expression of truth and fact can hardly be regarded, (Page 144) with any
approximation to justice, as blasphemy or hatred. The whole question hangs upon the
solution of that one point: Was Jesus as “Son of God” and “Saviour” of Mankind, unique in
the World’s annals Was His case - among so many similar claims - the only exceptional and
unprecedented one; His birth the sole supernaturally immaculate; and were others as
maintained by the Church, but blasphemous Satanic copies and plagiarisms by anticipation
Or was He only the “son of his deeds,” a pre-eminently holy man, and a reformer, one of
many, who paid with His life for the presumption of endeavouring, in the face of ignorance
and despotic power, to enlighten mankind and make its burden lighter by His Ethics and
Philosophy The first necessitates a blind, all-resisting faith; the latter is suggested to every
one by reason and logic. Moreover, had the Church always believed as she does now - or
113