Who’s Who

Posted Oct 26, 2010
I’ve been out of town for a couple days but gad to see that the group continues to talk about interesting subjects.

Sterling writes;
“Stan and his rebellious host will thus prove to have become the direct Saviors and Creators of divine man. Thus Satan, once he ceases to be viewed in the superstitious spirit of the church, grows into the grandiose image. It is Satan who is the God of our planet, and the only God.” — H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine

Is she being facetious, quoting another paradigm, or is she speaking her truth?

JJ
First, let me point out that this quote is a compilation of phrases pieced together to create a negative effect.

Dan did a great job of research on this and I am placing this at the end of my post for reference.

Secondly, as Dan pointed out, a lot of that which is included in the writings of HPB are quotes from others. In her writings she will give a large variety of quotes that take the reader all over the place and oftentimes one quote is not in agreement with another but she throws them in as possibilities stimulating thinking out of the box.

She will often throw out this idea for consideration: What if that which we thought was good is really evil and the evil is really good?

She presents provocative thinking by making us think on:

What if the serpent was really a good guy in attempting to bring the knowledge of good and evil to Adam and Eve?

What if Jehovah was really Satan by ordering the death penalty for the smallest of infractions?

Then he ordered Israelites to take the land of Canaan by force even though it did not belong to them.

He ordered men, woman and children of their enemies to be put to death.

He approved of slavery.

HPB legitimately posits that this seems to be more like the work of what we now see as a devil rather than God.

She doesn’t have any problem with Jesus being on the side of light and love but presents the idea that the Jehovah of the Jews was really Satan and Jesus rebelled against him and ascended in consciousness to his Father in Heaven, which was not Jehovah but a more benevolent force or entity.

It is interesting that the writings of Alice A. Bailey often do not support or ignores many of HPB’s more controversial teachings. Here Jehovah is not called Satan but neither are orthodox teachings supported. DK says that Jehovah is not the highest God but created from the soul of the Jewish people and thus his laws are geared toward the Jewish mindset at that time in history.

DK doesn’t talk about the being who made the initial encounter with Moses which could have been a different entity.

Overall, I do not get nearly as much light from HPB as I do from the Bailey writings. A lot of her writings are obscure quotes that she has dug up and thrown at us without much explanation on her part. I have come across a lot of things in her writings with which I either disagree or think the presentation is slanted or incomplete.

I personally am unconcerned about who is good and who is evil in the far past. Instead I am much more concerned about “What” is good and what is evil.

If there is a choice between more freedom for the whole or less then I always go with the more freedom and anyone who stands in the way of this is the true adversary in my opinion. It matters not what name or title that is applied to them.

Here is Dan’s research on some of HPB’s controversial statements:

Dan: I came across this “quote” several years ago and did a little research. Quite simply put, HPB did not write it at all.

If you really want to know what she thought about Satan (I guarantee it is just as eye-popping to most as the quote is 🙂 see:

http://www.blavatsky.net/magazine/theosophy/ww/additional/christianity/SatanTheEvilSpirit.html

http://www.blavatsky.net/magazine/theosophy/ww/additional/christianity/SatanCosmicReflectGod.html

http://www.blavatsky.net/magazine/theosophy/ww/additional/christianity/Satan-Jehovah.html

http://www.blavatsky.net/magazine/theosophy/ww/additional/christianity/Satan-Lucifer.html

This HPB “quote” you refer to above is a false one that has been scattered far and wide across the ‘net. The most HONEST form in which I have found this “quote is this:

“[O]ne of the most hidden secrets…involves the so called fall of Angels. Satan and his rebellious host…will thus prove to have…become the direct Saviors and Creators of divine man …. Thus Satan, once he ceases to be viewed in the superstitious spirit of the church, grows into the grandiose image…It is Satan who is the God of our planet and the only God. [The last line sits on a page headed ‘Holy Satan.’] Satan [or Lucifer] represents…the Centrifugal Energy of the Universe…this ever-living symbol of self-sacrifice for the intellectual independence of humanity.” -H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, pg. 215, 216, 220, 245, 225, 533

The author of this quote (yes AUTHOR) at LEAST put ellipses (…) where s/he left out LARGE sections of text (some pieces appear in different books altogether :-). If you will look at the page attributions, you will also see that some chunks are out of sequence, and in 2 chunks HPB was actually quoting some other author 🙂

Below I have copied the sections from which the quote was excerpted and then pasted back together to look as though one continuous quote.

Inside each quote I have capitalized the phrases that were STOLEN in order to MANUFACTURE the “quote” Sterling refers to above.

[beginquote] (c) “There were many wars” refers to several struggles of adjustment, spiritual, cosmical, and astronomical, but chiefly to the mystery of the evolution of man as he is now. Powers—pure Essences—”that were told to create” is a sentence that relates to a mystery explained, as already said, elsewhere. It is not only ONE OF THE MOST HIDDEN SECRETS of Nature—that of generation, over whose solution the Embryologists have vainly put their heads together—but likewise a divine function that INVOLVES that other religious, or rather dogmatic, mystery, the “FALL” OF THE ANGELS, as it is called. SATAN AND HIS REBELLIOUS HOST WOULD THUS PROVE, when the meaning of the allegory is explained, TO HAVE refused to create physical man, only to BECOME THE DIRECT SAVIOURS AND THE CREATORS OF “DIVINE MAN.” The symbolical teaching is more than mystical and religious, it is purely scientific, as will be seen later on. For, instead of remaining a mere blind, functioning medium, impelled and guided by fathomless LAW, the “rebellious” Angel claimed and enforced his right of independent judgment and will, his right of free-agency and responsibility, since man and angel are alike under Karmic Law.* [endquote] The Secret Doctrine, Vol I, pg 194-195

[beginquote] In Volume II. of Isis (p. 183 et seq.) the philosophical systems of the Gnostics and the primitive Jewish Christians, the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, are fully considered. They show the views held in those days—outside the circle of Mosaic Jews—about Jehovah. He was identified by all the Gnostics with the evil, rather than with the good principle. For them, he was Ilda-Baoth, “the son of Darkness,” whose mother, Sophia Achamoth, was the daughter of Sophia, the Divine Wisdom (the female Holy Ghost of the early Christians)—Akâsa; † while Sophia Achamoth personified the lower Astral Light or Ether. Ilda-Baoth, ‡ or Jehovah, is simply one of the Elohim, the seven creative Spirits, and one of the lower Sephiroth. He produces from himself seven other Gods, “Stellar Spirits” (or the lunar ancestors *), for they are all the same. † They are all in his own image (the “Spirits of the Face”), and the reflections one of the other, and have become darker and more material as they successively receded from their originator. They also inhabit seven regions disposed like a ladder, as its rungs slope up and down the scale of spirit and matter. ‡ With Pagans and Christians, with Hindus and Chaldeans, with the Greek as with the Roman Catholics—with a slight variation of the texts in their interpretations—they all were the Genii of the seven planets, as of the seven planetary spheres of our septenary chain, of which Earth is the lowest. (See Isis, Vol. II. p. 186.) This connects the “Stellar” and “Lunar” Spirits with the higher planetary Angels and the Saptarishis (the seven Rishis of the Stars) of the Hindus—as subordinate Angels (Messengers) to these “Rishis,” the emanations, on the descending scale, of the former. Such, in the opinion of the philosophical Gnostics, were the God and the Archangels now worshipped by the Christians! The “Fallen Angels” and the legend of the “War in Heaven” is thus purely pagan in its origin and comes from India via Persia and Chaldea. The only reference to it in the Christian canon is found in Revelations xii., as quoted a few pages back. THUS “SATAN,” ONCE HE CEASES TO BE VIEWED IN THE SUPERSTITIOUS, dogmatic, unphilosophical SPIRIT OF THE CHURCHes, GROWS INTO THE GRANDIOSE IMAGE of one who made of terrestrial a divine MAN; who gave him, throughout the long cycle of Maha-kalpa the law of the Spirit of Life, and made him free from the Sin of Ignorance, hence of death. (See the Section On Satan in Part II. Vol. II.) [endquote] The Secret Doctrine, Vol I, pg 198

[beginquote] The true esoteric view about “Satan,” the opinion held on this subject by the whole philosophic antiquity, is admirably brought out in an appendix, entitled “The Secret of Satan,” to the second edition of Dr. A. Kingsford’s “Perfect Way.” No better and clearer indication of the truth could be offered to the intelligent reader, and it is therefore quoted here at some length: — […] Therefore, as continued in the APPENDIX: […] IT IS “SATAN WHO IS THE GOD OF OUR PLANET AND THE ONLY GOD,” and this without any allusive metaphor to its wickedness and depravity. For he is one with the Logos, “the first son, eldest of the gods,” in the order of microcosmic (divine) evolution; Saturn (Satan), astronomically, “is the seventh and last in the order of macrocosmic emanation, being the circumference of the kingdom of which Phœbus (the light of wisdom, also the Sun) is the centre.” The Gnostics were right, then, in calling the Jewish god “an angel of matter,” or he who breathed (conscious) life into Adam, and he whose planet was Saturn. [endquote] The Secret Doctrine, Vol II, pg 233-235

[beginquote] For, to quote from an able article by one who, confusing the planes of existence and consciousness, fell a victim to it: — “SATAN, OR LUCIFER, REPRESENTS the active, or, as M. Jules Baissac calls it, THE ‘CENTRIFUGAL ENERGY OF THE UNIVERSE’ in a cosmic sense. He is Fire, Light, Life, Struggle, Effort, Thought, Consciousness, Progress, Civilization, Liberty, Independence. At the same time he is pain, which is the Re-action of the pleasure of action, and death — which is the revolution of life — Satan, burning in his own hell, produced by the fury of his own momentum …” [endquote] The Secret Doctrine, Vol II, pg 244-245

[beginquote] The “Old Dragon” and Satan, now become singly and collectively the symbol of, and the theological term for, the “Fallen Angel,” is not so described either in the original Kabala (the Chaldean “Book of Numbers”) or in the modern. For the most learned, if not the greatest of modern Kabalists, namely Eliphas Levi, describes Satan in the following glowing terms: — “It is that Angel who was proud enough to believe himself God; brave enough to buy his independence at the price of eternal suffering and torture; beautiful enough to have adored himself in full divine light; strong enough to reign in darkness amidst agony, and to have built himself a throne on his inextinguishable pyre. It is the Satan of the Republican and heretical Milton. . . . . the prince of anarchy, served by a hierarchy of pure Spirits (! ! ) . . . . “(Histoire de la Magie, 16-17) This description — one which reconciles so cunningly theological dogma and the Kabalistic allegory, and even contrives to include a political compliment in its phraseology — is, when read in the right spirit, quite correct.

Yes, indeed; it is this grandest of ideals, THIS EVER-LIVING SYMBOL — nay apotheosis — OF SELF-SACRIFICE FOR THE INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE OF HUMANITY; this ever active Energy protesting against Static Inertia — the principle to which Self-assertion is a crime, and Thought and the Light of Knowledge odious. It is — as Eliphas says with unparalleled justice and irony — “this pretended hero of tenebrous eternities, who, slanderously charged with ugliness, is decorated with horns and claws, which would fit far better his implacable tormentor — it is he who has been finally transformed into a serpent — the red Dragon.” But Eliphas Levi was yet too subservient to his Roman Catholic authorities; one may add, too jesuitical, to confess that this devil was mankind, and never had any existence on earth outside of that mankind.*

In this, Christian theology, although following slavishly in the steps of Paganism, was only true to its own time-honoured policy. It had to isolate itself, and to assert its authority. Hence it could not do better than turn every pagan deity into a devil. Every bright sun-god of antiquity — a glorious deity by day, and its own opponent and adversary by night, named the Dragon of Wisdom, because it was supposed to contain the germs of night and day — has now been turned into the antithetical shadow of God, and has become Satan on the sole and unsupported authority of despotic human dogma. After which all these producers of light and shadow, all the Sun and the Moon Gods, were cursed, and thus the one God chosen out of the many, and Satan, were both anthropomorphised. But theology seems to have lost sight of the human capacity for discriminating and finally analysing all that is artificially forced upon its reverence. History shows in every race and even tribe, especially in the Semitic nations, the natural impulse to exalt its own tribal deity above all others to the hegemony of the gods; and proves that the God of the Israelites was such a tribal God, and no more, even though the Christian Church, following the lead of the “chosen” people, is pleased to enforce the worship of that one particular deity, and to anathematize all the others. Whether originally a conscious or an unconscious blunder, nevertheless, it was one. Jehovah has ever been in antiquity only “a god among other Gods,” (lxxxii. Psalm). The Lord appears to Abraham, and while saying, “I am the Almighty God,” yet adds, “I will establish my covenant to be a God unto thee” (Abraham), and unto his seed after him (Gen. xvii. 7) — not unto Aryan Europeans.

* What devil could be possessed of more cunning, craft and cruelty than the “Whitechapel murderer” “Jack the Ripper” of 1888, whose unparalleled blood-thirsty and cool wickedness led him to slaughter and mutilate in cold blood seven unfortunate and otherwise innocent women! One has but to read the daily papers to find in those wife and child-beating, drunken brutes (husbands and fathers!), a small percentage of whom is daily brought before the courts, the complete personifications of the devils of Christian Hell! of the gods; and proves that the God of the Israelites was such a tribal God, and no more, even though the Christian Church, following the lead of the “chosen” people, is pleased to enforce the worship of that one particular deity, and to anathematize all the others. Whether originally a conscious or an unconscious blunder, nevertheless, it was one. Jehovah has ever been in antiquity only “a god among other Gods,” (lxxxii. Psalm). The Lord appears to Abraham, and while saying, “I am the Almighty God,” yet adds, “I will establish my covenant to be a God unto thee” (Abraham), and unto his seed after him (Gen. xvii. 7) — not unto Aryan Europeans. [endquote] The Secret Doctrine, Vol II, pg 506-508

Here is another quote I found: (JJ)

There is at present no need to touch upon the mystic and manifold meaning of the name Jehovah in its abstract sense, one independent of the Deity falsely called by that name. It was a blind created purposely by the Rabbins, a secret preserved by them with ten-fold care after the Christians had despoiled them of this God-name which was their own property.(3) But the following statement is made. The personage who is named in the first four chapters of Genesis variously as “God,” the “Lord God,” and “Lord” simply, is not one and the same person; certainly it is not Jehovah. There are three distinct classes or groups of the Elohim called Sephiroth in the Kabala, Jehovah appearing only in chapter iv., in the first verse of which he is named Cain, and in the last transformed into mankind — male and female, Jah-veh.(4) The “Serpent,” moreover, is not Satan, but the bright Angel, one of the Elohim clothed in radiance and glory, who, promising the woman that if they ate of the forbidden fruit “ye shall not surely die,” kept his promise, and made man immortal in his incorruptible nature. He is the Iao of the mysteries, the chief of the Androgyne creators of men. Chapter 3 contains (esoterically) the withdrawal of the veil of ignorance that closed the perceptions of the Angelic Man, made in the image of the “Boneless” gods, and the opening of his consciousness to his real nature: thus showing the bright Angel (Lucifer) in the light of a giver of Immortality, and as the “Enlightener”; while the real Fall into generation and matter is to be sought in chapter 4. There, Jehovah-Cain, the male part of Adam the dual man, having separated himself from Eve, creates in her “Abel,” the first natural woman, and sheds the Virgin blood. Now Cain, being shown identical with Jehovah, on the authority of the correct reading of verse 1 (chapter 4, Genesis), in the original Hebrew text; and the Rabbins teaching that “Kin (Cain), the Evil, was the Son of Eve by Samael, the devil who took Adam’s place”; and the Talmud adding that “the evil Spirit, and Samael, the angel of Death, are the same,” it becomes easy to see that Jehovah (mankind, or “Jah-hovah”) and Satan (therefore the tempting Serpent) are one and the same in every particular. There is no Devil, no Evil, outside of mankind to produce a Devil. Evil is a necessity in, and one of the supporters of the manifested universe. It is a necessity for progress and evolution, as night is necessary for the production of Day, and Death for that of Life — that man may live for ever.
The Secret Doctrine, Vol 2, Page 388