the Tibetan Zampun, are one with the Kabalistic Sephirothic Tree, and even with the Holy Tree made by Ahura Mazda, and the Tree of Eden—who among the Western scholars can tell?(221) Nevertheless, the fruits of all those “Trees,” whether Pippala, or Haoma, or even the more prosaic Apple, are the “plants of life,” in fact and verity. The prototypes of our races were all enclosed in the Microcosmic Tree, which grew and developed _within and under_ the great mundane Macrocosmic Tree;(222) and the mystery is half revealed in the _Dîrghotamas_, where it is said: Pippala, the sweet fruit of that tree upon which come _spirits who love the science_, and where the gods produce all marvels. As in the Gogard, among the luxuriant branches of all these Mundane Trees, the “Serpent” dwells. But while the Macrocosmic Tree is the Serpent of Eternity and of absolute Wisdom itself, those who dwell in the Microcosmic Tree are the Serpents of the Manifested Wisdom. One is the One and All; the others are its _reflected_ parts. The “Tree” is man himself, of course, and the Serpent dwelling in each, the conscious Manas, the connecting link between Spirit and Matter, Heaven and Earth. Everywhere, it is the same. The “Creating” Powers produce Man, but fail in their final object. All these Logoi strive to endow man with _conscious_ immortal Spirit, reflected in the Mind (Manas) alone; they fail, and they are all represented as being punished for the failure, if not for the attempt. What is the nature of the punishment? A sentence of imprisonment in the lower or nether region, which is _our Earth, the lowest_ in its Chain; an “Eternity”—meaning the duration of the Life‐cycle—in the _darkness_ of Matter, or _within animal Man_. It pleased the half ignorant and half designing Church Fathers to disfigure the graphic symbol. They took advantage of the metaphor and allegory in every old religion to turn them to the benefit of the new one. Thus man was transformed into the darkness of a material Hell; his divine consciousness, obtained from his indwelling Principle, the Mânasa, or the incarnated Deva, became the glaring flames of the Infernal Region, and our Globe that Hell itself. Pippala, Haoma, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, were denounced as the _forbidden_ fruit, and the “Serpent of Wisdom,” the voice of reason and consciousness, remained identified for ages with the Fallen Angel, which is the old Dragon, the Devil!