Category: Isis Unveiled: H. P. Blavatsky (1877)

"The Teraphim of Abram's father, Terah, the "maker of images", were the Kabeiri gods, and we see them worshipped by Micah, by the Danites, and others. Teraphim were identical with the seraphim, and these were serpent-images, the origin of which is in the Sanscrit sarpa (the serpent), a symbol sacred to all the deities as [...]

"The name Kabeiri may be a derivation from Abir, great; Ebir, an astrologer, or Chabir, an associate; and they were worshipped at Hebron, the city of the Anakes - the giants. The name Abraham, according to Dr. Wilder, has "a very Kabeirian look." The word Heber, or Gheber may be the etymological root of the [...]

"If the language of Palestine became in time Semitic, it is because of Assyrian influence; for Phoenicia had become a dependency as early as the days of Hiram, and the Phoenicians evidently changed their language from Hamitic to Semitic. Assyria was "the land of Nimrod" (from Nimr, spotted), and Nimrod was Bacchus, with his spotted [...]

"Now it is easy to see that the excavators of Ellora, the builders of the old Pagodas, the architects of Copan and of the ruins of Central America, those of Nagkon-Wat, and those of the Egyptian remains were, if not of the same race, at least of the same religion - the one taught in [...]

"The first thing to settle, is to find out who were the Israelites themselves; and that is the most vital question. Many historians seem to claim, with good reason, that the Jews were similar or identical with the ancient Phoenicians, but the Phoenicians were beyond any doubt an Ethiopian race; moreover, the present race of [...]

"If Nagkon-Wat is essentially a Buddhist temple, how comes it to have on its walls basso-relievos of completely an Assyrian character; and Kabeirian gods which, though universally worshipped as the most ancient of the Asiatic mystery-gods, had already been abandoned 200 years B.C., and the Samothracian mysteries themselves completely altered? Whence the popular tradition concerning [...]

"When they have found that no clew is attainable unless it can be found in popular legends, they turn away discouraged, and a final verdict is withheld. At the same time Vincent quotes a writer who remarks that these ruins "are as imposing as the ruins of Thebes, or Memphis, but more mysterious." Mouhot thinks [...]

"When Stephens asked the native Indians "Who built Copan? What nation traced the hieroglyphic designs, sculptured these elegant figures and carvings, these emblematical designs?" The dull answer he received was "Quien sabe?" - who knows! "All is mystery; dark, impenetrable mystery", writes Stephens. "In Egypt, the colossal skeletons of gigantic temples stand in all the [...]

""Passing, we ascend a platform...and enter the temple itself through a columned portico, the facade of which is beautifully carved in basso-relievo with ancient mythological subjects. From this doorway, on either side, runs a corridor with a double row of columns, cut - base and capital - from single blocks, with a double, oval-shaped roof, [...]

"There is not, perhaps, on the face of the whole globe, a more imposing mass of ruins than Nagkon-Wat, the wonder and puzzle of European archeologists who venture into Siam. And when we say ruins, the expression is hardly correct; for nowhere are there buildings of such tremendous antiquity to be found in a better [...]