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

"According to the claims of the Babylonian priests, corroborated by Eupolemus, the city of Babylon, owes its foundation to those who were saved from the catastrophe of the deluge; they were the giants and they built the tower which is noticed in history.   These giants who were great astrologers and had received moreover from [...]

"In order to demonstrate that the notions which the ancients entertained about dividing human history into cycles were not utterly devoid of a philosophical basis, we will close this chapter by introducing to the reader one of the oldest traditions of antiquity as to the evolution of our planet.   At the close of each [...]

"How many of our inveterate skeptics belong, notwithstanding their materialism, to Masonic Lodges? The brothers of the Rosie-Cross, mysterious practitioners of the mediaeval ages, still live - but in name only. They may "shed tears at the grave of their respectable Master, Hiram Abiff"; but vainly will they search for the true locality, "where the [...]

"Speaking of ancient geographers, Plutarch remarks in Theseus, that they  "crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts and unapproachable bogs."   Do not our theologians [...]

"Superstitious and blind as it is, a faith conducted on such principles certainly deserves some respect, and can never be offensive, either to man or the true God.   Not so with that of the Roman Catholics; and hence, it is they, and secondarily, the Protestant clergy - with the exception of some foremost thinkers [...]

"For centuries have the Klikouchy, the Yourodevoy, and other miserable creatures been afflicted with strange disorders, which the Russian clergy and the populace attribute to possession by the devil. They throng the entrances of the cathedrals, without daring to trust themselves inside, lest their self-willed controlling demons might fling them on the ground.   Voroneg, [...]

"In 1864, the culmination of absurdity was attained when Pius IX excommunicated and fulminated publicly his anathemas against the Russian Emperor, as a "schismatic cast out from the bosom of the Holy Mother Church. Neither he nor his ancestors, nor Russia since it was Christianized, a thousand years ago, have ever consented to join the [...]

"The clergy of the three most prominent Christian bodies, the Greek, Roman Catholic, and Protestant, discountenance every spiritual phenomenon manifesting itself through the so-called "mediums".   A very brief period, indeed, has elapsed since both the two latter ecclesiastical corporations burned, hanged, and otherwise murdered every helpless victim through whose organism spirits - and sometimes [...]

"St. Jerome names the Jews of Tiberias and Lydda as the only teachers of the mystical manner of interpretation. Finally, Ennemoser expresses a strong opinion that the "writings of Dionysius Areopagita have palpably been grounded on the Jewish Kabala."   When we take in consideration that the Gnostics, or early Christians, were but the followers [...]

"The ancients knew more concerning certain sciences than our modern savants have yet discovered. Reluctant as many are to confess as much, it has been acknowledged by more than one scientist.   "The degree of scientific knowledge existing in an early period of society was much greater than the moderns are willing to admit"; says [...]