The Path, Vol. I.—1886-'7.: A Magazine Devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, Theosophy in America, and the Study of Occult Science, Philosophy, and Aryan Literature.Various
Religion
The Path, Vol. I.—1886-'7.: A Magazine Devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, Theosophy in America, and the Study of Occult Science, Philosophy, and Aryan Literature.
Various
Theosophy -- Periodicals
There is one very curious hieroglyph of the Egyptians which deserves
some study by those of curious mind. Here we will merely point it out,
remarking that there is a mine of great value in the Egyptian method of
picturing their ideas of the macrocosm. In one of the numerous papyri
now in the British Museum, there is a picture of a globe being held
up by a beetle by means of his head and two fore legs, while he is
standing upon a sort of pedestal which has certain divisions, looking
on the whole, like a section of an hour glass crossed by horizontal
lines that project from each side. This pedestal represents stability;
but what does the whole mean or shadow forth? Those who can follow up
suggestions should direct their thoughts to the relation which the Sun
bears to the earth in its orbital revolution.
To proceed with our analysis: The second symbol is the serpent biting
his tail. This is wisdom, and eternity. It is eternity, because that
has neither beginning nor end and therefore the ring is formed by
serpent swallowing his tail. There is an old hermetic symbol similar to
this, in which the circle is formed by two serpents interlaced and each
swallowing the tail of the other one. No doubt the symbolism in that
is, in respect to the duality of the manifested All, and hence, two
serpents inextricably entwined.
Furthermore, the scales of the reptiles form the figures of facettes
or diamonds, which shadow forth the illimitable diversity of the
aspects of wisdom or truth. This is not due to any want of coherence or
congruity in truth itself, but solely to the diverse views which each
individual takes of the one Truth. These reflecting facettes are the
beings composing the macrocosm: each one has developed himself only to
a certain degree, and therefore can only appreciate and reflect that
amount of wisdom which has fallen to his lot. As he passes again and
again through the form of man, he slowly develops other various powers
of appreciating more truth, and so at the last may become one with the
whole—the perfect man, able to know and to feel completely his union
with all. This is when he has acquired the highest Yoga. So in our
experience and in history and ethnology we find individuals, nations
and races, whose want of responsiveness to certain ideas, and others
whose power to grasp them, can only be explained by the doctrines of
Reincarnation and Karma. If those doctrines are not accepted, there is
no escape from a blank negation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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