The Mystery Language

An investigation of the universal language of Occult Science and the keys to it

Introduction

The aim of this investigation is threefold. Firstly, to show that every theology, from the earliest and oldest down to the latest, has sprung not only from a common source of philosophical beliefs or the revelation of a particular messenger or teacher, but from one, once universal, esoteric science. Secondly, that this science was embodied in, and communicated by means of the 'Mystery' Language. Thirdly, to consider the keys to this language—which is essentially mythological, symbolical, and allegorical—not literal, that opens the door to the Ancient Wisdom. If you know little or nothing about the Ancient Wisdom, and even if you do, the short explanation given on our homepage will provide an excellent introduction to this investigation.

Before we go any further it is important that we first clarify what we mean by 'language'. We are used to thinking of ordinary human languages as consisting of either speech or writing; the former being language proper and the latter a visual representation of it. Now, speech can be either literal, by which we say exactly what we mean, such as "the sky is blue", or figurative and symbolic, by which we mean something other than the literal, such as "I'm feeling blue." The figurative use of the word 'blue' in this context is an allegory for sadness which has nothing whatever to do with the literal meaning of the word blue as a colour. The parables of the gospels, ancient myths and many fairy-tales all employ similar allegories, as we have discussed in our many articles on this subject.

The next thing we need to consider is that writing consists of either characters that represent the sounds of a language, called phonograms, or characters that represent the words of a language, called ideographs. Each phonogram may stand for an individual sound, as the letters of our own English alphabet do, or it may stand for a whole syllable, as the characters in some Japanese forms of writing do. An ideograph, on the other hand, stands for a whole word and represents its meaning rather than its sound. Egyptian hieroglyphics consist entirely of ideographs, which may stand for a single letter or a word, and convey a whole body of meaning in one sign. An example of the former is the hieroglyph for the Egyptian letter 'a' which consists of an upright reed, whereas the hieroglyph for the Sun (a circle with a dot in the centre) may stand for the Sun-God, Ra or the word 'hru'—meaning day, as well as light, brightness, etc. We even use a few ideographs in English, such as '&' meaning 'and'; '$' meaning 'dollar'; and '@' meaning 'at'.

We have now seen that even ordinary language employs allegory and symbols to convey particular meanings. It also employs pictographs or pictures, such as our familiar traffic lights and road signs. Finally, we also have the 'language of flowers' in which individual plants such as roses, pansies and forget-me-nots, each convey a specific, symbolical meaning. To which we must add the language of mathematics and music too. It is these languages in particular that bring us closer to the Mystery Language, for all three employ symbolism and allegory to communicate ideas and facts, but—and this is important—only to those who have been instructed in their use! No one but an accomplished, fully trained mathematician can make head or tale of complex mathematical equations and the same is true of someone who knows nothing of the language of flowers and attempts to 'interpret' what it means to be given roses, lilies, geraniums and aconite in a floral bouquet! We shall come back to this important point later when we discuss the keys to the Mystery Language.

The elements of the Mystery Language

The Mystery language consists of many different elements, of which signs of all kinds are one of the most important. As we said above, all of us are familiar with traffic signs and those used in airports and public buildings to convey information. Such signs are universal. They do not depend on words or any particular language to understand them. We instantly translate them into whatever language we speak, whether we are English, French, Indian, Chinese or any other nationality under the Sun. This brings us even closer to the Mystery Language, which also consists of symbols. These can take many different forms, from simple signs, such as a cross or circle, to complex emblems comprising several, interconnected geometrical shapes such as we find used by many occult orders and among the Freemasons. Though it is only fair to point out that neither the cross nor circle are really simple, as we discuss in our afterword in which we consider some of their many hidden meanings. The astronomical constellations we see in the night-sky are examples of more complex symbols, such as Leo, the Lion, the Plough or 'Big Dipper', Taurus the Bull, and so on and so forth.

Another element of the Mystery language is allegory, and we have given you several examples of this in our articles and short stories (see further reading list at the bottom of the sidebar). Mythology is yet another mode of communicating certain facts, laws or truths in a symbolic manner, of which Erika Hahn's analysis and interpretation of the story of Ishtar is an example. Most of you will know at least some of the better-known Greek myths, such as that of Icarus, who flew too close to the Sun, whereupon his wings melted and he fell to earth and was drowned. Superficially, this myth is a moral tale warning of the dangers of pride and complacency. But if we dig a little deeper it is really about balancing the needs and desires of the lower and higher selves, the one which seeks to free itself from matter, and the other to wallow in the mud of earthly 'pleasures'. The myth of Phaethon—which word means 'shining one'—deals with a similar theme. Given the task of driving the chariot of the Sun, Phaethon was unable to control his horses. Seeing the grave danger this posed to the Earth Zeus destroyed the chariot with a thunderbolt and killed Phaethon in the process.

We each possess such a 'chariot' in the form of our own body, of which our five senses are the 'horses'. Few are able to control them, which lead to disasters of all kinds, both for ourselves and others, as some of our readers will know only too well! But there is more in this myth than a moral injunction to self-control. In Plato's Timaeus, Critias tells the story of Atlantis as recounted to Solon by an Egyptian priest, who prefaced the story by saying: "There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story that even you (Greeks) have preserved, that once upon a time, Phaethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals." Here we have an example of astronomical truths being concealed in the form of a myth.

We have now learnt three important things. Firstly, that the Mystery Language is one of symbols, not the literal meaning of words. Secondly, that it is universal and can be understood by anyone who possesses the keys to it. Thirdly, that these keys unlock the hidden meaning of myths, allegories and sacred writings of all kinds and times. We shall examine some of these keys and their uses later on, but before we do so it is important to say a little more about symbols, for without a firm grasp of what they are and mean it is impossible to understand the Mystery Language.

One of the best definitions of Symbols from an occult perspective can be found in Thomas Carlyle's 20th century novel of ideas—Sartor Resartus—in which he says: "A symbol is ever, to him who has eyes for it, some dimmer or clearer revelation of the God-like. Through all there glimmers something of a divine idea." Carlyle goes on to say: "In the Symbol proper, what we can call a Symbol, there is ever, more or less distinctly and directly, some embodiment and revelation of the Infinite; the Infinite is made to blend itself with the Finite, to stand visible, and as it were, attainable there." The circle is perhaps the best and clearest embodiment of this idea, the circumference being everywhere and the centre nowhere. As such it has always been and remains a fitting Symbol for the Deity, who is everywhere and nowhere, as we discuss in our afterword.

As Carlyle also tells us in Sartor Resartus, our very Life and Being is composed of nothing but symbols, so what more profitable study can there be than to learn what they mean under all conditions and from all aspects? "By Symbols, accordingly, is man guided and commanded, made happy, made wretched: He everywhere finds himself encompassed with Symbols, recognized as such or not recognized: the Universe is but one vast Symbol of God; nay if thou wilt have it, what is man himself but a Symbol of God; is not all that he does symbolical; a revelation to Sense of the mystic god-given force that is in him; a 'Gospel of Freedom,' which he, the 'Messias of Nature,' preaches, as he can, by act and word? Not a Hut he builds but is the visible embodiment of a Thought; but bears visible record of invisible things; but is, in the transcendental sense, symbolical as well as real." Thus speaks Carlyle, who, though not an occultist, nevertheless faithfully echoes the occult doctrine of the science of symbolism which is a major element within the Mystery Language.

Nicolas Poussin—'Danse de la Musique du Temps'—1640, oil on canvas

Mythology

Nowadays a statement is sometimes said to be mythical in proportion to its being untrue, such as we find in Merriam-Webster's definition of something "lacking factual basis or historical validity." But the ancient mythology was not a system or mode of falsifying in that sense. Its fables were the means of conveying facts; they were neither forgeries nor fictions. We gave you an example of this in the afterword to our article on the occult symbolism in The Magic Flute, when we discussed the reasons why the ancient Egyptians chose to portray the Moon as a cat. That example is well worth repeating. The Egyptian sages were not so ignorant as to suppose that the moon was a cat; nor did their wandering fancies see any likeness in the moon to a cat; nor was a cat-myth any mere expansion of verbal metaphor; nor had they any intention of making puzzles or riddles to baffle future generations. They had observed the simple FACT that the cat saw in the dark, and that her eyes became full-orbed, and grew most luminous by night. As the moon was the seer by night, and the cat was its equivalent on the earth, they adopted it as a representative, natural sign or symbol of the Moon. The word for cat in Egyptian is mau, which denotes the seer, from mau, to see. The moon as cat was the eye of the sun, because it reflected the solar light. This example shows that far from being untrue, the cat myth is a thoroughly scientific and very correct exposition of an astronomical fact and the occult truths it conceals.

The study of the hidden meaning in every religious and profane legend, of whatsoever nation, large or small, formed a large part of the curriculum of the Mystery Schools of ancient Egypt, Greece, India and other places. As we said in our previous articles about symbolism, there is no mythological story, no traditional event in the folk-lore of any nation, at any time, that is pure fiction. On the contrary, every one of such narratives has an actual, historical lining to it. In this we disagree with those scholars, past and present, who, however great their reputation, find in every myth nothing but additional proofs of the superstitious fancies of the ancients. Such superficial thinkers were admirably disposed of during the 19th century by Gerald Massey, whose researches into the mythology and religion of ancient Egypt have never been equalled.

The prevailing view among such scholars is that mythology is a disease which springs up at a peculiar stage of human culture. They conceive early man in their own likeness, and look upon him as perversely prone to self-mystification and delusion, or, as one contemporary 'cultural' anthropologist recently put it: "subject to seeing things that are not there." The origin and meaning of mythology have been missed altogether by these self-appointed experts. Mythology was founded on natural facts, and is still verifiable in phenomena. There is nothing foolish, fanciful or irrational in it, when considered in the light of the occult scientific Laws of evolution, and when its mode of expression by sign-language is thoroughly understood. The folly lies in mistaking it for human history or an outdated counterpart to the so-called 'exact' sciences. Occult science states that mythology is the repository of man's most ancient science, and when correctly interpreted once more, it is destined to sound the death knell of all the false theologies it has unwittingly given birth to.

We have now seen that no ancient myth can ever be correctly understood without the help of the Mystery Language (with its seven keys, of which the modern scholars know nothing). Moreover, symbology has to be studied from every one of its aspects, for each nation had its own peculiar methods of expression. In short, no Egyptian papyrus, no Indian sacred text, no Assyrian tile, or Hebrew scroll, should be read and accepted literally. John Temple's excellent articles alone are sufficient to convince any fair-minded Christian that to accept the dead-letter of the Bible is equivalent to falling into a grosser error and superstition than any so-called 'savage' who ever worshipped a fetish. It is for this reason that even the most truth-loving and open-minded of scholars remains blind to the fact that every symbol in a papyrus or sacred text is a many-faceted diamond, each of whose faces not only bears several interpretations, but also relates likewise to several sciences. This is shown in the above quoted interpretation of the moon symbolised by the cat—an example of sidero-terrestrial mythology; the moon bearing many other meanings besides this with the various nations of antiquity.

Symbols and emblems

Now, there is a great difference between an emblem and a symbol. The former comprises a larger series of thoughts than a symbol, which may be said rather to illustrate some single special idea. Hence, such symbols as the Cat, the Serpent or Dragon, Trees and certain flowers, each illustrating a specific idea, or series of ideas, form collectively an esoteric emblem. The Rose blooming upon the Cross, which is venerated by Rosicrucians, is an example of a symbol extended into an emblem. To put it still plainer, an emblem is usually a series of graphic pictures viewed and explained allegorically, and unfolding an idea in panoramic views, one after the other. Thus the Puranas of India are written emblems. So are the Mosaic and Christian books of the Bible, and all other exoteric Scriptures.

All esoteric societies and occult orders have made use of emblems and symbols, such as the Pythagoreans, the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Hermetic Brethren of Egypt, the Rosicrucians, and the Freemasons. Many of these emblems it was thought improper to divulge to the uninitiated. The magical seals found in certain grimoires, often founded on the hidden properties of numbers, partake of this character, and although devilish or ridiculous in the eyes of the uninstructed, convey a whole body of doctrine to those who have been trained to recognise them.

You may be asking why it should be thought improper to divulge certain emblems and symbols. Surely there can be no harm in this? There you would be wrong. Let us take just two emblems that have entered the public consciousness—the so-called "Eye of Providence" which appears on dollar bills, and forms the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States of America and the Swastika. The former has given rise to the most preposterous fantasies and conspiracy theories, which have done, and do real harm, whilst the latter was adopted and degraded by Adolf Hitler and his cronies to bolster their insane ideology of racial supremacy. Both emblems are completely misunderstood and misinterpreted by all and sundry, because, as we have seen, the keys to their true, occult meaning are not in the possession of those who spout reams of nonsense about them. Moreover, even very minute differences may make any emblem or symbol differ widely in its meaning, thus giving rise to further confusion on the one hand and misuse on the other. Thus, in turning the Swastika to the left, the Nazis quite deliberately altered the meaning of this most ancient and sacred emblem and degraded it into a synonym for all that is evil and base in mankind. It is for these reasons that the psychological or rather psychic and cosmological significance of some symbols and emblems have always been closely guarded, lest, as in the examples cited above, they should be employed for evil purposes.

Allegory and Parable

The scriptures and sacred texts of all the ancient civilizations abound in allegories and parables. The ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Indian Puranas, the Persian Zend Avesta, the enigmatic Quiché Maya Popol Vuh and the old classics are full of them. But it was not until H. P. Blavatsky began collecting and collating these allegories and parables, which she presented to the world in Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine that the mysteries they concealed came to light. Until then the best scholars and scientists were blind to their secret meaning. Yet a parable is simply a spoken symbol. A fiction or a colourful fable to some; an allegorical representation, says Occult Science, of spiritual truths, historical events, and scientific facts.

And, as a moral was ever drawn from a parable, that moral being an actual truth and fact in human life, so an historical, real event was deduced—by those versed in the occult sciences—from certain emblems and symbols recorded in the ancient writings. The religious and esoteric history of every nation was embedded in symbols; it was never expressed in so many words. All the thoughts and emotions, all the learning and knowledge, revealed and acquired, of the early races, found their pictorial expression in allegory and parable. Why? Because the spoken word has a potency unknown to, unsuspected and disbelieved in, by modern science. Sound and rhythm are closely related to the four occult Elements; and because such or another vibration in the air is sure to awaken corresponding powers, union with which produces good or bad results, as the case may be.

No occult student was ever allowed to recite historical, religious, or any real events in so many unmistakable words, lest the powers connected with the event should be once more attracted. Such events were narrated only during Initiation, and every student had to record them in corresponding symbols, drawn out of his own mind and examined later by his master, before they were finally accepted. In this way was created in time the Chinese Alphabet, as, before that, the hieroglyphic symbols were fixed upon in Egypt. In the Chinese language, the alphabet of which may be read in any language, and which is only a little less ancient than the Egyptian alphabet, every word has its corresponding symbol conveying the word needed in a pictorial form. The Chinese language possesses many thousands of such symbol letters, or logograms, each meaning a whole word; for letters proper, or an alphabet, do not exist in the Chinese language any more than they did in Egypt until a much later period. Even today, a Japanese who does not understand one word of Chinese, meeting with a Chinaman who has never heard the language of the former, will communicate in writing with him, and they will understand each other perfectly, because the writing is symbolical.

Gustave Doré (1832-1883)—'The Tower of Babel'—1865, engraving on copper

The origins of the Mystery Language

Having considered what the Mystery Language consists of, it is appropriate to ask how and where it was first formulated. H. P. Blavatsky tells us that: "there was, during the youth of mankind, one language, one knowledge, one universal religion." In saying this she is echoing the Bible, in which we may read: "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech" (Genesis 11:1). Whether this refers to the times of Atlantis, or even earlier, is a moot point, but we incline to the view that the building of the Tower of Babel related later in the same chapter of Genesis, is most definitely an allegory for the demise of the universal Mystery Language brought about by the sins of the Atlantean race, which eventually led to the destruction of their continent as we discussed in our article about Atlantis.

"Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth" (Genesis 11:7-9). From that time onwards, what was once the universal language of all mankind and the repository of the occult sciences became the exclusive property of the Initiates who were 'scattered...upon the face of all the earth'. This must have coincided with the destruction of Atlantis. Those few initiates who escaped the disaster went on to found the Mystery Schools of India, Egypt and other places wherein the Mystery Language was preserved and taught in secret.

The earliest means of communicating ideas was through pictures, and we still use this today in cartoons. Primordial Writing had at first no characters, but a symbol generally stood for a whole phrase or sentence. A symbol is thus a recorded parable, and a parable a spoken symbol. As we saw earlier, the Chinese written language is nothing more or less than symbolical writing, each of its several thousand ideographs being a symbol. When, however, a pictorial symbol stands for a whole group of ideas or thoughts that might be variously expressed by a sentence or whole group of sentences, it ceases to be writing in the accepted sense and becomes rather a form of communication out of which primordial writing later developed. An example of this is the primitive Ogham script used by the Druids in England and Ireland which evolved from the use of the leaves of trees as a way of representing both sounds and letters, or phonograms and ideographs. In this system, the Elm stood for the letter 'A', Birch for 'B', Spindle for 'C', Oak for 'D' and so on through the alphabet. But at the same time, each leaf also embodied the metaphysical ideas associated with these trees according to the philosophy of the Druids.

From the use of leaves to the drawing of hieroglyphics is but a short step, and thus the drawing of the different leaves would form the first letters. Even the names of the leaves of trees or letters are very similar at times in Hebrew, Greek and ancient Irish. Take Aleph, Alpha and Ailm, which latter word is the Irish name for Elm. All these languages begin with A. The Beith, or Beth of the Irish, is similar to the Beth of the Hebrews, and the letter B. And B stands for Birch, or vice versa as we said above. Although archaeologists and palaeontologists are acquainted with such ideographic productions, they remain largely unaware of the fact that from time immemorial our ancestors were in the habit of rendering their knowledge and thoughts symbolically.

Just how old this method of communicating knowledge is may be inferred from some signs, evidently ideographic, found on stone axes and other implements of the Paleolithic period. Only a few years ago comparatively speaking, a red Indian tribe in America, petitioned the President of the United States to grant them possession of four small lakes, the petition being written on the tiny surface of a piece of a fabric, which is covered with barely a dozen representations of animals and birds. The Native American tribes have a number of such different kinds of writing, and this alone should have alerted philologists to the fact that writing was known to mankind many millions of years ago. Yet these 'experts' continue to assert that the true writing of language first arose in Mesopotamia and in Egypt around 5,000 years ago, despite the fact that there exist countless inscriptions carved into the rock and cave temples of India that date back at least 12,000 years before our own era.

We have now learnt that universal Mystery Language is the language of symbolism and allegory which uses ideographs, hieroglyphs, and pictorial representations to communicate ideas, facts and esoteric truths, and that it was once the common language of the whole Atlantean race, who through colonisation, spread it all over the then known world. It is also clear from the foregoing that the Mystery Language is no ordinary spoken or written language, but rather a symbolic representation that can be interpreted in any language. We can then summarise what we have learnt about the Mystery Language so far as follows:

It is not a language in the sense that we understand today.
It was used by initiates all over the world from the earliest days of humanity and is still so used today.
It was originally the common property of all mankind, but since the downfall of the Atlantean race has since become esoteric, and is now understood only by initiates—that is to say, those instructed in its use.
It is essentially symbolical, allegorical and pictorial.
The symbols, allegories and pictures of the Mystery Language can be interpreted in various ways and by means of various keys, such as numerology, astronomy and astrology, independently of any spoken or written language.
It unlocks the meaning of the archetypal symbols in myths and fairy tales, allegories and parables, alchemical books and sacred texts such as the Bible by revealing the hidden meaning underneath the literal and obvious narrative.
That it is the basis of Sanskrit, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Chinese and Mayan ideographs, and a host of other ideographical languages, which later developed into the languages we know and use today.

The Keys to the Mystery Language

The first and foremost key to the Mystery Language is that it can be contained in another, ordinary language, such as the written English of the King James Bible, as John Temple has explained in his articles on the Search for Truth. In this way hidden meanings are concealed, though not perceived, save through the help of special instruction. Letters and syllabic signs possess at the same time the hidden powers or meaning of numbers which we discussed in our article about Numerology, which includes geometrical shapes of all kinds. To which we must add pictures, or ideographs and symbols too, and all this is helped out by parables and allegories in the form of narratives or parts of narratives. And all these elements, employed either independently or in combination, whether expressed in writing, or stonework, or by any other means, comprise the keys to the Mystery Language.

The facility with which this language could be contained in ordinary languages led to its interpolation into many of the dogmas of the early Christian Church. Such doctrines as the seven Sacraments, the Trinity, the Resurrection; the seven Cardinal Sins and the seven Virtues were all distorted allegories filched from the Greek and Egyptian mysteries and introduced into the teachings of the Church to bolster its claims to theological supremacy over the hated 'pagan' religions which threatened to undermine its authority. But as the seven keys to the Mystery Language remained in the keeping of the highest among the initiated Hierophants of antiquity, it is only the partial use of a few out of the seven which passed, through the treason of some early Church Fathers—ex-initiates of the Greek Mystery Schools—into the hands of the new sect of the Nazarenes. As we have mentioned in previous articles, some of the early Fathers of the Church—such as Origen—were Initiates, but the last fragments of their knowledge have long since been lost to the modern Christian Church and its many sects.

In The Secret Doctrine, H. P. Blavatsky maintains that India is the only country in the world today which still produces adepts in the occult sciences who possess the knowledge of all seven keys and their manifold sub-systems. She goes on to say: "Since the fall of Memphis, Egypt began to lose those keys one by one, and Chaldea had preserved only three in the days of Berosus. As for the Hebrews, in all their writings they show no more than a thorough knowledge of the astronomical, geometrical and numerical systems of symbolizing all the human, and especially the physiological functions. They never had the higher keys."

Here we part company with the eminent Russian occultist, for although it is true that the doctrines contained in the Jewish Qabbalah and the commentaries upon them, display little or no knowledge of the higher keys Blavatsky hints at, this is manifestly untrue of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. This predates any system of Jewish theosophy by many millennia and it is clear to anyone who knows the Mystery Language and has thoroughly studied the book that its compilers were fully conversant with all seven keys. The same applies to the teachings of Pythagoras, who, as we discussed in our article on Initiates and Initiation, spent 22 years studying the occult sciences with his teachers in the temples of Egypt. If the seven keys were known to his instructors, and we are in no doubt of this, there is every reason to suppose that they were known to the fullest extent by their predecessors—the great Hierophants of the Mystery Schools of the 18th Dynasty—who flourished some 1,000 years before Pythagoras visited Egypt.

We incline to the view that Blavatsky, like many occultists today, who being overly wedded to the notion that India was (and some think still remains) the pre-eminent repository of the occult sciences, wrongly stated in her public writings that the ancient Egyptians priests were inferior in learning to their Indian counterparts. Whether Blavatsky held different views in private is open to question, for what she says in The Secret Doctrine, seems to suggest that she had a higher regard for the wisdom of the Egyptian Hierophants than is apparent from a casual reading of her books. We quote: "The Egyptian priests have forgotten much, they altered nothing. The loss of a good deal of the primitive teaching was due to the sudden deaths of the great Hierophants, who passed away before they had time to reveal all to their successors; mostly, to the absence of worthy heirs to the knowledge. Yet they have preserved in their rituals and dogmas the principal teachings of the secret doctrine" (our emphasis).

It is through the use of the seven keys to the Mystery Language and their sub-systems that this 'secret doctrine' can be unlocked, interpreted and finally understood, whether that doctrine is in the form of a book, a symbol, an allegory, myth, a tree, a flower, or man himself. Blavatsky mentions three of these keys in the passage we quoted above, namely the astronomical, geometrical and numerical keys. We discussed the last two of these three keys in our article on Numerology, though we doubt whether more than a handful of our readers realised just what we had placed in their hands. We have also mentioned a fourth key—the logogrammatical—in our article on Symbolism, when we told you that many words in the Bible, and even entire sentences are composed of logograms, or 'word symbols' which mean something quite different to the generally accepted interpretation.

What of the other keys? These you must discover for yourself, for all seven keys have never been revealed in so many words, though there are plenty of hints to be found in The Secret Doctrine and other books written by the genuine occultists. What we can say is what we told you in the afterword to the aforementioned article, that every sacred text may be read in one of three ways:

The literal and intellectual—corresponding to the physical plane and lower self.
The symbolical and intuitional—corresponding to the astral planes and Higher Self, and;
The purely Divine and Spiritual—corresponding to the spiritual realms and the Soul.

This then, is the sacred Mystery Language which unlocks the hidden laws and principles of man and the universe and reveals the mysteries of the past, present and future. It is not a language that can be learnt in a week, a month, a year, or even an entire lifetime. But in the degree that we, as seekers after Truth, are prepared to learn the elements of it, and employ this knowledge in our studies of the material and spiritual, so shall we approach nearer to the fountain of All-Knowledge and All-Wisdom, which is the greatest Mystery of all.

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Cross and Circle

In this afterword we explore the meanings of two of the most ancient and universal symbols: the Cross and the Circle.

Both the Eastern and Western Initiates show the cross as coeval with the circle of Deific infinitude, signifying the first differentiation of the Universal Essence, the union of spirit (the vertical bar) and matter (the horizontal bar). It is for this reason that the cross is often found inscribed inside the circle. When it is placed below the circle in the form of the Tau (our capital letter 'T'), as we see in the astrological symbol for the planet Venus, it shows manifestation proceeding from the Cosmic Egg.

Something of the divine and the mysterious has ever been ascribed, in the minds of the ancient philosophers, to the shape of the circle. They recognised that the visible circumference which was everywhere at once and the invisible centre which was nowhere, was a perfect representation of the Deity uniting the visible and the invisible Infinitudes into one. This merging of the two into a unity, and the name Theos applied to both, was explained by Plato in his Cratylus, who derived it from the verb 'theein', meaning to move, as suggested by the motion of the heavenly bodies which he connects with Deity.

The various spirals we see throughout the world at all times among all Nations and Peoples are an extension of this grand Symbol, whose esoteric meaning has never been more clearly stated than by H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine:

"An Archaic Manuscript—a collection of palm leaves made impermeable to water, fire, and air, by some specific unknown process—is before the writer's eye. On the first page is an immaculate white disk within a dull black ground. On the following page, the same disk, but with a central point." This represents the Kosmos (our solar system) in Eternity, before the re-awakening of still slumbering Energy. The central point in the circle denotes the dawn of differentiation. It is the Point in the 'World Egg' of the ancient cosmogonies, the germ which will become the ALL, the boundless, periodical Kosmos. The circle thus symbolises the Divine Unity, from which all proceeds, whither all returns. Blavatsky goes on to tell us that the circumference of the circle represents the abstract, ever incognisable PRESENCE, and its plane, the Universal Soul, although the two are one. The face of the Disk being white and the background black, further shows that all that which is outside the circle is forever beyond our finite, human understanding.

This same concept has been beautifully expressed in the NT gospel of John: "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not (John 1:5). This has a double meaning. Firstly, that our transient material light, however bright, can never know the true Light which is darkness to our material senses and finite understanding. Secondly, that the True Light does not recognise the phenomenal world (comprehended it not) contained or bounded by the circle of manifestation, for it is an illusion no matter how real it may seem to be to us.

The same Manuscript Blavatsky refers to contains a number of further illustrations, each one of which traces out in precise detail the dawn of manifestation and the process of the formation of a Kosmos. First we see the plain circle on a black background mentioned above. Next a circle with a point in it—the first differentiation in Space of the ever-eternal and Infinite Presence. We might even call that point or dot 'Life' for it is the germ from which all manifestation proceeds. We observe the same in cells of all kinds, which in their first stage of differentiation all contain such a 'dot' or germ, proving that the Universal Hermetic Law: 'as above, so below' applies equally to the macrocosm (manifestation of the Kosmos) as it does to the microcosm of human, animal and vegetable life on earth.

In the third illustration the point is transformed into a diameter which divides the circle in two horizontally, symbolising a divine immaculate Mother-principle within the all-embracing absolute Infinitude. Here again, we see a correspondence with the process of cell-division in the microcosm. When the diameter line is crossed by a vertical line, the circle becomes the mundane cross. When the circumference disappears altogether and leaves only the cross behind, the arms of which enclose four quarters, we have arrived at the phenomenal world—the visible, material plane in which we dwell.

So we may also say that the third illustration—the circle divided in two by a horizontal line—symbolises the first manifestation of creative (though still passive, because feminine) Nature. The first shadowy perception of man connected with procreation is feminine, because man knows his mother more than his father. Hence female deities were more sacred than the male in all the ancient theogonies. Even today we call Nature 'she' in recognition of her feminine, nurturing quality in contradistinction to the male Principle which fructifies it. By adding to the circle with the horizontal line in it, a perpendicular line, the tau was formed—the oldest form of the letter 'T' and the origin of the Christian cross, the emblem of the descent of spirit into matter—the so-called 'Fall of Man.'

As we discussed in our article on the occult evolutionary cycles to which our earth and Kosmos are subject, manifestation proceeds in "nights" and "days", or cycles of rest or activity. This eternal perpetual motion which is ever-becoming, as well as ever universally present, is perfectly symbolised by the circle. It at once removes all anthropomorphic conceptions of God from the human mind, for it disconnects this Deity from any shape or form the mind can conceive of it. It is a perpetual, never-ceasing evolution, circling back in its incessant progress through aeons of duration into its original status, which is absolute unity. It was only the minor gods, who were responsible for the actual work of creation that were ever personified by the ancients in human forms, such as the Egyptian god Ra, who represented the Solar Force we discussed in our article on the Occult Sun.

The most sacred form of the cross and the circle was the Ankh sign of Life, generally carried in the right hands of the Pharaohs, and the deceased who had arrived in the otherworld of Amenta, or the higher astral realms. The circle on top of the Ankh-cross further signified the hieroglyphic sign 'Ru', which means door, gate, mouth, or place of outlet. Here it denotes the birthplace in the northern quarter of the heavens, from which the Sun is reborn at the Winter Solstice. Therefore, the Ru of the Ankh-cross is the feminine symbol for the re-birth of the deceased in the real life of the spirit.

Madame Blavatsky has shown in The Secret Doctrine that The Ru of the Ankh-cross was continued in the Cypriote and the Coptic Ro and the R of the Slavonian and Russian alphabets, which was carried over to the Latin 'P' and the Greek cross, which is the same letter with a crossed vertical stem.

But the Ankh-cross does not belong to Egypt alone. It exists in Hinduism too under the name of pasa, a cord which Shiva holds in the hand of his right back arm (Shiva having four arms). The god is represented in the posture of an ascetic, as the Maha-Yogi, with his third eye, which is the aforementioned Ru, set upright on the Tau-Cross in another form. The pasa is held in the hand in such a way that it is the first finger and hand near the thumb which make the cross, or loop and crossing.

The pasa has here a double significance, just as the Ankh-Cross did in Egypt. This significance lies in the fact that Shiva is called Rudra—the "howler"—in the Rig Veda, in which he appears as a beneficent and the maleficent Deity at the same time; both the Healer and the Destroyer. In the Vishnu Purana, he is the god who springs from the forehead of Brahma, who separates into male and female, and he is the parent of the Rudras or Maruts, half of whom are brilliant and gentle, others, black and ferocious. In the Vedas, he is the divine Ego aspiring to return to its pure, deific state, and at the same time that divine ego imprisoned in earthly form, whose fierce passions make of him the "roarer" and the "terrible."

Here we have a depiction in allegorical form of the Higher and lower higher selves of man as discussed in so many of our articles, notably in part one of our occult studies course. The loop or circle symbolising the Higher self and the cross of matter, the lower self. Hence the cruciform noose (pasa) in the hand of the Indian ascetic or Yogi signifies the "strait gate" that leads to the kingdom of heaven, by overcoming the lower self represented by the cross which depends from it. Thus, the Ankh-cross and pasa carried the same hidden meaning in both Egypt and India. Each is truly a cross on which all the human passions have to be crucified before the Initiate passes through the "strait gate," the narrow circle that widens into an infinite one, as soon as the inner man has passed the threshold.

The significance of the four arms of the cross—pointing to the four cardinal points; above and below; left and right—were well understood by the ancient Initiates, thousands of years before it was heard of in Europe; and that symbol was and is found all over the world. The riddle of the cross is contained in the seventh and eighth verses of the famous Emerald Tablet of Hermes, as little understood now, as it was when the text first came to light between the sixth and eighth centuries.

"Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, acting prudently and with judgment. Ascend with the greatest sagacity from the earth to heaven, and then descend again to the earth, uniting together the powers of things superior of the whole world, and all obscurity will fly far away from you."

As we said earlier, the perpendicular bar of the cross symbolises spirit whilst the horizontal bar represents matter. Thus it is also an emblem for the evolution of the Higher and lower selves, which may rise or fall (perpendicular bar) by taking the left-hand path or the right (horizontal bar), either separately or together. It is for this reason, as well as many others, that the symbolism of the cross is regarded by occultists as the master-key which opens the door of every science, material as well as spiritual.

It symbolises our human existence, for the circle of life circumscribes the four points of the cross, which represent in succession birth, life, death, and IMMORTALITY. Regarded philosophically, the two lines running in opposite directions, the horizontal and the perpendicular, the height and breadth, which the geometrizing Deity divides at the intersecting point, is replete with sufficient hidden meaning to fill many books.

Some people believe that the cross is purely a Christian symbol, but as John Temple explained in his article on the esoteric meaning of Easter, the cross was not adopted by the Church until many centuries after the death of Jesus. The fact of the matter is that the cross can be traced back into the very depths of the unfathomable past. Its Mystery deepens rather than clears, as we find it on the statues of Easter Island, in ancient Egypt, in Central Asia, and engraved on rocks as the Tau and Swastika in pre-Christian Scandinavia and Meso-America. In short we find it everywhere and in all places.

As John Temple also explained in the aforementioned article, the enigma of the cross can be unriddled only by searching for its key in the Mysteries of Initiation.

The initiated adept, who had successfully passed through all the trials, was attached, not nailed, but simply tied on a couch in the form of a cross or Tau. He was allowed to remain in this state for three days and three nights, during which time his soul (Higher self) was said to commune with the "gods," descend into Hades, Amenta, or Patala, (depending on whether the rite took place in Greece, Egypt or India), and do works of charity to the invisible beings there, whether the souls of men or elemental spirits; his body remaining all the time in a temple crypt or subterranean cave. In Egypt it was placed in the Sarcophagus in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid, and carried during the night of the approaching third day to the entrance of a gallery, where at a certain hour the beams of the rising Sun struck full on the face of the entranced candidate, who awoke to be initiated by the Hierophant as a representative of Osiris, and Thoth, the God of Wisdom.

Those who doubt the truth of the above statement are referred to the many representations of the sacred rite of Initiation portrayed on the temple walls and within the underground tombs of ancient Egypt. To take just one example, the Temple of Isis, which was moved to the island of Philae in Upper Egypt when the Aswan dam was constructed, contains a scene of initiation. Two Gods-Hierophants, one with the head of a hawk (representing the Sun-God Ra), the other ibis-headed (representing Thoth, the God of Wisdom and secret learning) are standing over the body of a candidate just initiated. They are in the act of pouring on his head a double stream of water (the water of life and new birth), interlaced in the shape of a cross and depicted in the form of small ansated crosses.

This is allegorical of the awakening of the candidate (now an Initiate), when the beams of the morning sun strike the crown of his head (his entranced body being placed on its wooden Tau so as to receive the rays). The Hierophants-Initiators then appeared, and the sacramental words were pronounced, ostensibly, to the Sun-Osiris, but addressed in reality to the Spirit Sun within, enlightening the newly-born man. Those who choose to examine the tombs of the Pharaohs of Egypt, as well as those of its many High Priests, Priestesses and other notables, will find crosses in every shape and position.

When some of the more fanatical and gullible early Christians encountered these crosses, they used them freely, believing they had been brought and concealed there by some new converts! Only Origen, and after him Clemens Alexandrinus and other ex-initiates of the Greek Mysteries, knew better, but wisely preferred to remain silent.

Long before the cross or its sign were adopted as symbols of Christianity, it was used as a sign of recognition among adepts and neophytes, the latter being called Chrests (from Chrestos, man of tribulation and sorrow). In his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, the 19th century French occultist, Eliphas Levi relates the way in which the cross was used by the Hebrew Kabbalists.

He writes: "The sign of the cross adopted by the Christians does not belong exclusively to them. It is Kabalistic, and represents the opposition and quaternary equilibrium of the elements. We see by the Occult verse of the Paternoster that there were originally two ways of making it, or, at least two very different formulas to express its meaning—one reserved for priests-initiates, the other given to neophytes and the profane. Thus, for example, the initiate, carrying his hand to his forehead, said: 'to thee'; then he added, 'belong'; and continued, while carrying his hand to the breast—'the kingdom'; then, to the left shoulder—'justice'; to the right shoulder—'and mercy'. Then he joined his two hands, adding: 'throughout the generating cycles...'

In The Golden Star by J Michaud PhD, it is said that great power flows through the sign of the cross. This is true—if it is made correctly with real concentration, sincerity and devotion. We cannot think of a more appropriate conclusion to this afterword than to quote what Dr Michaud says about the cross and how it may be used to benefit ourselves and others. He writes: "As we touch in succession the forehead, the solar plexus, the left shoulder and finally the right shoulder, we remember that all the Holy Messengers came down from the Father to the earth-plane; that they descended from earth to the lower Astral World (the left-hand path), and proceeded from there to the right-hand of the Father in Heaven; there to dwell in glory for ever.

"It is well to use this sign often, for a man is sometimes forgetful of the protection he derives from dwelling upon the ideal worlds of God, which aids him to drive away all unwholesome thoughts and influences, especially when he is tempted to give way to irritation, or selfish and other undesirable thoughts. The man whose mind dwells always on the higher levels may not need these reminders; but there are very few such men, and the average person will receive much help from this small ceremonial action, which will drive away all unpleasant influences and retain all that is good."

Such, then, are a few of the esoteric meanings of the Cross and the Circle. If these two Grand Symbols can yield so much, it will give you some idea why we have repeatedly said in our many articles that the study of the science of symbolism is the work of a lifetime.

occult mysteries