Category: Isis Unveiled, Volume II: H. P. Blavatsky (1877)

“If the alleged founder of the Christian religion is now, after the lapse of nineteen centuries, preached – more or less unsuccessfully however – in every corner of the globe, we are at liberty to think that the doctrines attributed to him would astonish and dismay him more than anyone else. A system of deliberate [...]

“Alas, alas! How little has the divine seed, scattered broadcast by the hand of the meek Judean philosopher, thrived or brought forth fruit. He, who himself had shunned hypocrisy, warned against public prayer, showing such contempt for any useless exhibition of the same, could he but cast his sorrowful glance on the earth, from the [...]

“How little the philosophy of the old secret doctrine was understood, is illustrated in the atrocious persecutions of the Templars by the Church, and in the accusation of their worshipping the Devil under the shape of the goat – Baphomet! Without going into the old Masonic mysteries, there is not a Mason – of those [...]

“There is no other deity which affords such a variety of etymologies as Iaho, nor a name which can be so variously pronounced. It is only by associating it with the Masoretic points that the later Rabbins succeeded in making Jehovah read, “Adonai” – or Lord. Philo Byblus spells it in Greek letters ΙΕΥΟ - [...]

“It may perhaps be argued, by way of objection, that it is not ascertained as yet at what period of antiquity the nought occurs for the first time in Indian manuscripts or inscriptions. Be that is it may, the case represents circumstantial evidence of too strong a character not to carry a conviction of probability [...]

“To grasp the real and primitive sense of the term ΙΟΩ, and the reason of its becoming the designation for the most mysterious of all deities, we must search for its origin in the figuratively phraseology of all the primitive people. We must first of all go to the most ancient sources for our information. [...]

“In the Ophite gems of King, (Gnostics), we find the name Iao repeated, and often confounded with that of Ievo, while the latter simply represents one of the genii antagonistic to Abraxas. In order that these names may not be taken as identical with the name of the Jewish Jehovah we will at once explain [...]

“The Nazarene diagram, except in a change of names, is identical with that of the Gnostics, who evidently borrowed their ideas from it, adding a few appellations from the Basilidean and Valentinian systems. To avoid repetition, we will now simply present the two in parallel. Thus, we find that, in the Nazarene Cosmogony, the names [...]

“The first scheme – that of the Ophites – from the very start, as we have shown, varies from the description given by the Fathers, inasmuch as it makes Bythos or depth, a female emanation, and assigns her a place answering to that of Pleroma, only in a far superior region; whereas, the Fathers assure [...]

“This search after truth leads us, indeed, into devious ways. Many are the obstacles that ecclesiastical cunning has placed in the way of our finding the primal source of religious ideas. Christianity is on trial, and has been, ever since science felt strong enough to act as Public Prosecutor. A portion of the case we [...]