Now what says the learned President of the Chemical Society of Great Britain, in that same lecture, which has any reference to, or bearing upon, our above-mentioned doctrine. Very little; only this — and nothing more: —

“In the Birmingham address already referred to I asked my audience to picture the action of two forces on the original protyle — one being time, accompanied by a lowering of temperature; the other, swinging to and fro like a mighty pendulum, having periodic cycles of ebb and swell, rest and activity, being intimately connected with the imponderable matter, essence, or source of energy we call electricity. Now, a simile like this effects its object if it fixes in the mind the particular fact it is intended to emphasize, but it must not be expected necessarily to run parallel with all the facts. Besides the lowering of temperature with the periodic ebb and flow of electricity, positive or negative, requisite to confer on the newly-born elements their particular atomicity, it is evident that a third factor must be taken into account. Nature does not act on a flat plane; she demands space for her cosmogenic operations, and if we introduce space as the third factor, all appears clear. Instead of a pendulum, which, though to a certain extent a good illustration, is impossible as a fact, let us seek some more satisfactory way of representing what I conceive may have taken place. Let us suppose the zigzag diagram not drawn upon a plane, but projected in space of three dimensions. What figure can we best select to meet all the conditions involved? Many of the facts can be well explained by supposing the projection in space of Professor Emerson Reynolds’ zigzag curve to be a spiral. This figure is, however, inadmissible, inasmuch as the curve has to pass through a point neutral as to electricity and chemical energy twice in each cycle. We must, therefore, adopt some other figure. A figure of eight (8), or lemniscate, will foreshorten into a zigzag just as well as a spiral, and it fulfils every condition of the problem.”

A lemniscate for the evolution downward, from Spirit into matter;

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 551 THE CADUCEUS OF LIFE.

another form of a spiral, perhaps, in its reinvolutionary path onward, from matter into Spirit, and the necessary gradual and final reabsorption into the laya state, that which Science calls in her own way “the point neutral as to electricity” etc., or the zero point. Such are the Occult facts and statement. They may be left with the greatest security and confidence to Science, to be justified some day. Let us hear some more, however, about this primordial genetic type of the symbolical caduceus.

“Such a figure will result from three very simple simultaneous motions. First, a simple oscillation backwards and forwards (suppose east and west); secondly, a simple oscillation at right angles to the former (suppose north and south) of half the periodic time — i.e., twice as fast; and thirdly, a motion at right angles to these two (suppose downwards), which, in its simplest form, would be with unvarying velocity. If we project this figure in space we find on examination that the points of the curves, where chlorine, bromine, and iodine are formed, come close under each other; so also will sulphur, selenium, and tellurium; again, phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony; and in like manner other series of analogous bodies. It may be asked whether this scheme explains how and why the elements appear in this order? Let us imagine a cyclical translation in space, each evolution witnessing the genesis of the group of elements which I previously represented as produced during one complete vibration of the pendulum. Let us suppose that one cycle has thus been completed, the centre of the unknown creative force in its mighty journey through space having scattered along its track the primitive atoms — the seeds, if I may use the expression — which presently are to coalesce and develop into the groupings now known as lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, sodium, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, phosphorus, sulphur, and chlorine. What is most probably the form of track now pursued? Were it strictly confined to the same plane of temperature and time, the next elementary groupings to appear would again have been those of lithium, and the original cycle would have been eternally repeated, producing again and again the same 14 elements. The conditions, however, are not quite the same. Space and electricity are as at first, but temperature has altered, and thus, instead of the atoms of lithium being supplemented with atoms in all respects analogous with themselves, the atomic groupings which come into being when the second cycle commences form, not lithium, but its lineal descendant, potassium. Suppose, therefore, the vis generatrix travelling to and fro in cycles along a lemniscate path, as above suggested, while simultaneously temperature is declining and time is flowing on — variations which I have endeavoured to represent by the downward sink — each coil of the lemniscate track crosses the same vertical line at lower and lower points. Projected in space, the curve shows a central line neutral as far as electricity is concerned, and neutral in chemical properties — positive electricity on the north, negative on the south. Dominant atomicities are governed by the distance east and west from the neutral centre line, monatomic elements being one remove from it, diatomic two removes, and so on. In every successive coil the same law holds good.”

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 208 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Every scholar knows that both the heathen wand and the Jewish “serpent” are one and the same, namely, the Caduceus of Mercury, son of APOLLO-PYTHON. It is easy to comprehend why the Jews adopted the ophidian shape for their “seducer.” With them it was purely physiological and phallic; and no amount of casuistical reasoning on the part of the Roman Catholic Church can give it another meaning, once that the mystery language is well studied, and that the Hebrew scrolls are read numerically. The Occultists know that the serpent, the Naga, and the dragon have each a septenary meaning; that the Sun, for instance, was the astronomical and cosmic emblem of the two contrasted lights, and the two serpents of the Gnostics, the good and the evil one; they also know that, when generalised, the conclusions of both science and theology present two most ridiculous extremes. For, when the former tells us that it is sufficient to trace the legends of the serpents to their primal source, the astrological legend, and to meditate seriously on the Sun, conqueror of Python, and the celestial virgin in the Zodiac forcing back the devouring dragon, if we would have the key of all the subsequent religious dogmas; it is easy to perceive that, instead of

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 209 COBRAS AS SYMBOLS.

generalising, the author simply has his eye on Christian religion and Revelation. We call this one extreme. The other we see in this: when, repeating the famous decision of the Council of Trent, theology seeks to convince the masses that “from the fall of man until the hour of his baptism the devil has full power over him, and possesses him by right (diabolum dominationem et potestatem super homines habere et jure cos possidere).” To this Occult philosophy answers: Prove first the existence of the devil as an entity, and then we may believe in such congenital possession. A very small amount of observation and knowledge of human nature may be sufficient to prove the fallacy of this theological dogma. Had SATAN any reality, in the objective or even subjective world (in the ecclesiastical sense), it is the poor devil who would find himself chronically obsessed and even possessed by the wicked — hence by the bulk of mankind. It is humanity itself, and especially the clergy, headed by the haughty, unscrupulous and intolerant Roman Church, which have begotten, given birth to, and reared in love the evil one; but this is a digression.

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 328 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

That the Serpents were ever the emblems of wisdom and prudence is again shown by the caduceus of Mercury, one with Thot, the god of wisdom, with Hermes, and so on. The two serpents, entwined around the rod, are phallic symbols of Jupiter and other gods who transformed themselves into snakes for purposes of seducing goddesses — but only in the unclean fancies of profane symbologists. The serpent has ever been the symbol of the adept, and of his powers of immortality and divine knowledge. Mercury in his psychopompic character, conducting and guiding with the caduceus the souls of the dead to Hades and even raising the dead to life with it, is simply a very transparent allegory. It shows the dual power of the Secret Wisdom: the black and the white magic. It shows this personified Wisdom guiding the Soul after death, and its power to call to life that which is dead — a very deep metaphor if one thinks over its meaning. Every people of antiquity reverenced this symbol, with the exception of Christians, who chose to forget the brazen Serpent of Moses, and even the implied acknowledgment of the great wisdom and prudence of the Serpent by Jesus himself, “Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” The Chinese, one of the oldest nations of our Fifth Race, made of it the emblem of their Emperors, who are thus the degenerate successors of the “Serpents” or Initiates, who ruled the early races of the Fifth Humanity. The Emperor’s throne is the “Dragon’s Seat,” and his dresses of State are embroidered with the likeness of the

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 365 THE VARIOUS NOAHS.

Dragon. The aphorisms in the oldest books of China, moreover, say plainly that the “Dragon” is a human, albeit divine, Being. Speaking of the “Yellow Dragon,” the chief of the others, the Twan-ying-t‘u, says: “His wisdom and virtue are unfathomable . . . he does not go in company and does not live in herds (he is an ascetic). He wanders in the wilds beyond the heavens. He goes and comes, fulfilling the decree (Karma); at the proper seasons if there is perfection he comes forth, if not he remains (invisible).”. . . And Kon-fu-tyu is made to say by Lu-lan, “The Dragon feeds in the pure water of Wisdom and sports in the clear waters of Life.”

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 580 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

The Ogdoad or 8 symbolizes the eternal and spiral motion of cycles, the 8, , and is symbolized in its turn by the Caduceus. It shows the regular breathing of the Kosmos presided over by the eight great gods — the seven from the primeval Mother, the One and the Triad.

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ISIS UNVEILED – H. P. Blavatsky 1877.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 138 THE VEIL OF ISIS.

of a bull, a ram, or a dog. It is the double serpent of the caduceus, it is the Old Serpent of the Genesis, but it is also the brazen serpent of Moses entwined around the tau, that is to say, the generative lingha. It is also the goat of the witch-sabbath, and the Baphomet of the Templars; it is the Hyle of the Gnostics; it is the double-tail of serpent which forms the legs of the solar cock of the Abraxas; finally, it is the Devil of M. Eudes de Mirville. But in very fact it is the blind force which souls have to conquer to liberate themselves from the bonds of the earth; for if their will does not free “them from this fatal attraction, they will be absorbed in the current by the force which has produced them, and will return to the central and eternal fire.“

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 556 THE VEIL OF ISIS.

As an induction, the narrative of the “brazen serpent” (the Caduceus of Mercury or Asclepios, the son of the sun-god Apollo-Python) becomes logical and natural.

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The Theosophical Glossary – H. P. Blavatsky 1918

Caduceus (Gg.). The Greek poets and mythologists took the idea of

the Caduceus of Mercury from the Egyptians. The Caduceus is found

as two serpents twisted round a rod, on Egyptian monuments built before

Osiris. The Greeks altered this. We find it again in the hands of

./Esculapius assuming a different form to the wand of ]\Iercurius or

Hermes. It is a cosmic, sidereal or astronomical, as well as a spiritual

and even physiological symbol, its significance changing with its application.

^Metaphysically, the Caduceus represents the fall of primeval

and primordial matter into gross terrestrial matter, the one Reality becoming

Illusion. (See Sect. Doct. I. 550.) Astronomically, the head

and tail represent the points of the ecliptic where the planets and even

the sun and moon meet in close embrace. Physiologically, it is the symbol

of the restoration of the equilibrium lost between Life, as a unit,

and the currents of life performing various functions in the human body.

Ether. Students are but too apt to confuse this with Akasa and

with Astral Light. It is neither, in the sense in which ether is described

by physical Science. Etiier is a material agent, though hitherto undetected

by any physical apparatus ; whereas Akasa is a distinctly spiritual

agent, identical, in one sense, with the Anima Mundi, while the Astral

Light is only the seventh and highest principle of the terrestrial atmosphere,

as undctectalile as Akasa and real Ether, because it is something

quite on anotlier i)lane. The seventh principle of the earth’s atmosphere,

as said, the Astral Light, is only the second on the Cosmic scale. The

scale of Cosmic Forces, Principles and Planes, of Emanations—on the

metaphysical—and Evolutions—on the physical plane—is the Cosmic

Serpent biting its own tail, the Serpent reflecting the Higher, and reflected

in its turn by the lower Serpent. The Caduceus explains the

mystery, and the four-fold Dodecahedron on the model of which the

universe is said by Plato to have been built by the manifested Logos

—synthesized by the unmanifested First-Born—yields geometrically the

key to Cosmogony and its microcosmic reflection—our Earth.

Thoth (Eg.). The most mysterious and the least understood of ^rods.

whose personal character is entirely distinct from all other ancient

deities. While the permutations of Osiris, Isis, Horus, and the rest, are

so numberless that their individuality is all but lost, Thoth remains

chano:eless from the first to the last Dynasty. He is the ^rod of wisdom

and of authority over all other jrods. He is the recorder and the .iudge.

His ibis-head, the pen and tablet of the celestial scribe, who records the

thoughts, words and deeds of men and weighs them in the balance, liken

him to the type of the esoteric Lipikas. His name is one of the first that

appears on the oldest monuments. He is the lunar god of the first

dynasties, the master of Cynoeephalus—the dog-headed ape who stood

in Egypt as a living symbol and remembrance of the Third Root-Race.

(Secret Doetrine, II. pp. 184 and ISo). He is the “Lord of Hermopolis”

 —Jaiuis, Ilermes and Mercury combined. He is crowned with an a^/

and the lunar disk, and bears the “P]ye of Horus”, the tliirel eye, in his

hand. He is the Greek Hermes, the god of learning, and Hermes

Trismegistus, the “Thrice-great Hermes”, the patron of physical sciences

and the patron and very soul of the occult esoteric knowledge.

As Mr. J. Bonwick, F.R.G.S., beautifully expresses it: “Thoth . . .

has a powerful effect on the imagination … in this intricate yet

beautiful phantasmagoria of thought and moral sentiment of that

shadowy past. It is in vain we ask ourselves however man, in the infancy

of this world of humanity, in the rudeness of supposed incipient civilization,

could have dreamed of such a heavenly being as Thoth. The lines

are so delicately drawn, so intimately and tastefully interwoven, that

we seem to regard a picture designed by the genius of a ^lilton, and

executed with the skill of a Raphael.” Verily, there was some truth in

the old saying, “The wisdom of the Egyptians”. . . . “When it is

shown that the wife of Cephren, builder of the second Pyramid, was a

priestess of Thoth, one sees that the ideas comprehended in him were Hxt’tl

 ti.OOO \tnvs a^’u””. Acfonliii^’ 1<> ri;ito. •’rimtli Il.rnns was tlu*

iliscovnvi- ami invfiit(»r of mimlH’i-s, jri-oint’try. astnuiuniy and letters”.

l*i*oclus, tilt- disciple (tf IMotimis. spcakintr of this inysterions deity, says:

“lie presides over evi-ry spicics of coiiditioii, leadirifr us to an intellitriltl”‘

“ssence from this mortal abode, jjovernin^r the difTerent lierds of .souls”.

In other words Thoth. as the Kefji.strar and Reeorder of Osiris in Anu’nti,

the JiKljrnuMif Hall of the Dead was a psychoponipic deity; while

lamhliehns hints that “thr cross with a handle (the thau or tan) which

Tot holds in his hand, was none other tlian the monoj^ram of his name”.

Besiiles the Tau. as the ])rototype of Mercury. Thoth carries the serpent

rod. emblem of Wisdom, the rod that becomes the Caduceus. Says .Mr.

Monwick, ”Hermes was the serpent it.self in a mystical .sense. He j^lidcs

lik«’ that creature, noiselessly, without ai)pan’nt exertion, along the

course of apres. He is … a rei)rcsentative of the sjjanfrled lieavens.

Hut he is the foe of the bad serpent, for the ibis devoured the snakes of

Egypt “.

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Rivers of Life, Vol 1 – by James George Roche Forlong 1883

Wandering Arabs or

Edumean outcasts from Egypt were, however, but an insignificant part of the

mighty crowds which followed Python, or Ops, and called him incarnate power and

wisdom ; he was the power of the Lawgiver s Rod, Banner, or Caduceus, for this is a

true Phallic emblem, and one which in the case of Israel &quot;the Jhavh&quot; became

incarnate in, by turning it into that &quot;

holy thing,&quot; which Moses was desired in his

troubles to hold up in his hand, and to rear up on a pole for the salvation of the

1 Trans. You also Serpents which creep gleaming in golden splendour, harmless deities in all lands.

tribes. Then and there also was said of this deity what we still hear said of him

in India that &quot; if he stings, or even kills, he is also the healer of all evils.&quot;

The Caduceus idea of Fig. 1, Plate V., is again given as usually

worn by men of authority in Fig. 9, Plate IV., or else it is here to denote that this

Serpent on the right is the male, a fact often thus emphasized in Phallic lore.

Mr Marcus Keane tells us that although the Kelts of Ireland

rejected the phallic worship of their predecessors the Tuath-de-

Danaans, they yet retained their names and customs. May day

continued to be called La-Baal-Thinna, and was always con

nected with the worship of Baal as &quot; the green god

&quot; a very

ancient term for Mercury, whose hue was green ; and being so,

we &quot;here see him in dress of suitable shape and colour, and with

his Caduceus in hand. &quot;

Gad-el-glas or the Green-god-Snake,&quot; was an important Irish

deity, and the name seems to correspond with &quot; the green god,&quot; or &quot;Primeval Boodh,&quot;

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WG Pingala, a particular current in the body: the right of three currents running from the os coccyx to the head, which, according to the anatomy of the Yoga system, are the chief passages of breath. (Literally, “yellowish.”)

WGa Pingala, in addition to what is given it should be understood that the breath and its channels referred to are not the lungs and air passages but the inner psychic breath.

WG Ida, a magnetic current on the right side of the human body, between the heart and the Brahma-randhra.

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ENCYCLOPEDIC THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY , Gottfried de Purucker (1347 pages) Jan 2002

Caduceus (Latin) A herald’s staff; specially, the wand of Mercury or Hermes, god of wisdom, corresponding to Thoth. It consists of a rod or tree with two serpents wound in opposite directions round it, their tails meeting below, and their heads approaching each other above.