The Secret Doctrine Volume 3.pdf

Vol. V1., p.4: Talmud, of Babylon, same article, 43a, 67a. ] The crucifix was
an instrument of torture, and utterly common among Romans as it was
unknown among Semitic nations. It was called the “Tree of Infamy.” It is but
later that it was adopted as a Christian symbol; but during the first two
decades the apostles looked upon it with horror.[ Coptic Legends of the
Crucifixion. MSS. XI ]. It is certainly not the Christian Cross that John had in
mind when speaking of the “signet of the living God,” but the mystic Tau - the
Tetragrammaton, or mighty name, which, on the most ancient Kabalistic
talismans, was represented by the four Hebrew letters composing the Holy
Word.
The famous Lady Ellenborough, known among the Arabs of Damascus, and in
the desert, after her last marriage, as Hanoum Medjouye, had a talisman in
her possession, presented to her by a Druse from Mount Lebanon. It was
recognised by a certain sign on its left corner as belonging to that class of
gems which is known in Palestine as a “Messianic” amulet, of the second or
third century B.C. It is a green stone of a pentagonal form; at the bottom is
engraved a fish, higher, Solomon’s Seal; [ We are at a loss to understand why
King, in his Gnostic Gems, represents Solomon’s Seal as a five-pointed star,
whereas it is six-pointed, and is the signet of Vishnu in India.] and still higher,
the four Chaldaic letters - Jod, He, Vau, He, IAHO, which form the name of the
Deity. These are arranged in quite an unusual way, running from below
upward, in reversed order, and forming the Egyptian Tau. Around these there
is a legend which, as the gem is not our property, we are not at liberty to give.
The Tau, in its mystical sense, as well as the Crux ansata, is the Tree of Life.
It is well known that the earliest Christian emblems - before it was ever
attempted to represent the bodily appearance of Jesus - were the Lamb, the
Good Shepherd, and The Fish. The origin of the latter emblem, which has so
puzzled the archaeologists, thus becomes comprehensible. The whole secret
lies in the easily ascertained fact that, while in the Kabalah the King Messiah
is called “Interpreter,” or Revealer of the Mystery, and shown to be the fifth
emanation, in the Talmud - for reasons we will now explain - the Messiah is
very often designated as “DAG,” or the Fish. This is an inheritance from the
Chaldees, and relates - as the very name indicates - to the Babylonian Dagon,
the man-fish, who was the instructor and interpreter of the people, to whom he
appeared. Abarbanel explains the name, by stating that the sign of his
(Messiah’s) coming is the conjuction of Saturn and Jupiter in the sign Pisces. [
King (Gnostics) gives the figure of a Christian symbol, very common during
the middle ages of three fishes, interlaced into a triangle, and having the FIVE
letters (a most sacred Pythagorean number) ΙΧΘΥΧ engraved on it. The
number five relates to the same kabalistic computation.] Therefore, as the
Christians were intent upon identifying their Christos with the Messiah of the
Old Testament, they adopted it so readily as to forget that its true origin might
be traced still further back than the Babylonian Dagon. How eagerly and
closely the ideal of Jesus was united, by the early Christians, with every
imaginable kabalistic and pagan tenet, may be inferred from the language of
Clemens, of Alexandria, addressed to his co-religionists.
The Story of Jesus
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