The Secret Doctrine Volume 3.pdf

St. Cyprian of Antioch
(Page 160) THE Aeons (Stellar Spirits) - emanated from the Unknown of the Gnostics, and
identical with the Dhyan Chohans of the Esoteric Doctrine - and their Pleroma, having been
transformed into Archangels and the “Spirits of the Presence” by the Greek and Latin
Churches, the prototypes have lost caste. The Pleroma[ The Pleroma constituted the
synthesis or entirety of all the spiritual entities. St. Paul still used the name in his Epistles.]
was now called the “Heavenly Host,” and therefore the old name had to become identified
with Satan and his “Host.” Might is right in every age, and History is full of contrasts. Manes
has been called the “Paraclete” [ The “Comforter,” second Messiah, intercessor. “A term
applied to the Holy Ghost.” Manes was the disciple of Terebinthus, an Egyptian Philosopher,
who, according to the Christian Socrates (1.i., cited by Tillemont, iv. 584). “while invoking one
day the demons of the air, fell from the roof of his house and was killed.”] by his followers. He
was an Occultist, but passed to posterity, owing to the kind exertions of the Church, as a
Sorcerer, so a match had to be found for him by way of contrast. We recognise this match in
St. Cyprianus of Antioch, a self-confessed if not a real “Black Magician,” it seems, whom the
Church - as a reward for his contrition and humility - subsequently raised to the high rank of
Saint and Bishop.
What history knows of him is not much, and it is mostly based on his own confession, the
truthfulness of which is warranted, we are told, by St. Gregory, the Empress Eudoxia, Photius
and the Holy Church. This curious document was ferreted out by the Marquis de Mirville,
[Cy.Op. cit.,vi, 169-183.] in the Vatican, and by him translated into French for the first time,
as he assures the reader. We beg his permission to retranslate a few pages, not for the sake
of the penitent Sorcerer, but for that of some students of Occultism, who will thus have an
opportunity of comparing the methods of ancient Magic (or as the Church calls it, Demonism)
with those of modern Theurgy and Occultism.
Magic in Antioch- (Page 161) The scenes described took place at Antioch about the
middle of the third century, 252 A.D., says the translator. This Confession was written by the
penitent Sorcerer after his conversion; therefore, we are not surprised to find how much room
he gives in his lamentations to reviling his Initiator “Satan,” or the “Serpent Dragon,” as he
calls him. There are other and more modern instances of the same trait in human nature.
Converted Hindus, Parsis and other “heathen” of India are apt to denounce their forefathers’
religions at every opportunity. Thus runs the Confession:
O all of you who reject the real mysteries of Christ, see my tears! . . .You who
wallow in your demoniacal practices, learn by my sad example all the vanity of
their [the demons’] baits . . . I am that Cyprianus, who, vowed to Apollo from
his infancy, was early initiated into all the arts of the dragon. [“The great
serpent placed to watch the temple,” comments de Mirville. “How often have
we repeated that it was no symbol, no personification but really a serpent
occupied by a god!” - he exclaims; and we answer that at Cairo in a
Mussulman, not a heathen temple, we have seen, as thousands of other
visitors have also seen, a huge serpent that lived there for centuries, we were
told, and was held in great respect. Was it also “occupied by a God,” or
possessed, in other words] Even before the age of seven I had already been
introduced into the temple of Mithra: three years later, my parents taking me to
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