CHAPTER VI.

NOAH AND THE FLOOD.

"The Theosophist notes in the study of a religion three elements: one due to primitive and faulty conceptions of natural phenomena; second, an element of fundamental truth which was implanted in it by a great religious teacher; and, third, a theology raised on both long after the days of the founder of the religion. Noting these three elements in a religion, the Theosophist continually searches for the second group of ideas, and when he finds these he finds that they are not so radically different from the same element to be found in the other religions."—C. J. in Primer of Theosophy."

In the story of the Creation and the Flood the faulty conception of natural phenomena has led to many serious misunderstandings, and the foolish chronology foisted upon the unsuspecting world by well-meaning ignorance has seriously added to the confusion. Science has for years contended that the Biblical chronology was not to be relied upon, and the Higher Critics some years ago showed that most of the older allegories show their Aryan origin and do not properly belong to Palestine, or to Jewish history, properly speaking, but the information raised such a hue and cry in the churches that the learned gentlemen who had advanced it subsided, without recanting, however, calmly waiting for the public mind to readjust itself to the changed view they had presented. Slowly but surely the ignorant bigot has retreated and intelligent understanding has advanced, until now few, even of the narrowest orthodox, hold to the chronology. revision this ancient blunder was entirely discarded.

In the last

Fortunately for the cause of truth, the personal nouns and names of geographical locations have usually been left unchanged by the many translators during the ages, and in these words we find the key note of the most of the allegories when we can find

their real meaning. In some cases the word is so ancient that the original meaning has been lost, but one can usually locate it to some degree by some little indication that throws light upon the subject. A child may take the notion that the book he studies had been written and published in the town in which he was born, not knowing that it could have been done anywhere else, but that does not interfere with his getting the lesson that its pages hold for him. Had Washington not lived, "Father of His Country" would not have any significance to us. These are the stories of the development of the great race to which we belong, not of one nation, and they really deal with things that happened, but just when they happened or just where they happened is not material; it is the lesson they hold for us that is important.

Intuition is one of the greatest of God's gifts to man, and it is one of the last of the faculties to develop, coming to its full growth only just before he finishes his compulsory earthly pilgrimages. These allegories are written in symbol to cultivate this wondrous gift and lead us to a complete at-one-ment with the Father. Consequently it is not surprising that at our stage of development we are only just beginning to sense the great riches lying just out of our reach. At best, at present, we are but catching glimpses of the sparkling treasures.

Occultists tell us that the great Manu, the Noah of our Bible, also the Moses, in one incarnation, began to select the most evolved of the great fourth root race, to start the new fifth root race during the fifth sub-race of the old race. In the Bible we find him also incarnated in Enoch (Initiator), begetting sons and daughters (spirtual sons and daughters in this reading), three hundred and sixty-five, note the number, the number of the days of the year, indicating that he worked to the full end of that race. The character of the Great One is indicated by the words, "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not for God took him. He was perfected in his Godhood, evidently a manifestation of a great perfected Soul. None of our own humanity had at that time attained that exalted position.

At the beginning of the sixth sub-race he appears as Noah, 'And Noah walked with God." He was a righteous man and perfect in his generations, not generation, but generations; that is, perfect through many, many lives.

He begets, or gathers about him, three distinct classes of peoples symbolized by Shem (the name), those of a spiritual nature; Japheth (the more evolved of the race upon the Physical Plane); and Ham (the remnant of the other races who are just sufficiently interested, probably for personal gain, to follow the others).

In giving the allegorical reading, remember we in no way assail the fact of the occurrences having taken place; in fact, had they not taken place they would have been worthless for this symbolic use. Had Napoleon not fought, a man's meeting "his Waterloo' would mean nothing to us, and we would not use the expression; and so with these stories. When they were compiled probably they were illuminative because still comparatively fresh in the minds of the people either from legend, story, or experience, and to the Initiated explained the subjects satisfactorily.

Let us consider for a moment what information from the Orient tells us of the home of the great fourth root race. We are told that they lived upon a continent now under the sea that formerly occupied the place now taken by the Atlantic Ocean; that they lived and thrived for many ages; that the race being in its childhood was lead by numerous Great Ones from the planet Venus, where evolution is much more advanced than it is here, and that under this guidance they attained a great state of civilization. But the time came when the great teachers were withdrawn, all except the great Manu, the Regent of the Great Moon Chain, and man was left to his own devices to gain the experience of governing himself and his own affairs.

This was the time when the sons of God, or the descendants of Seth, went in unto the daughters of men, or the daughters of the third root race, those descended from Cain, probably the Lemurian race.

The Bible says "there were giants in those days, which were mighty men of old," and the Occultists tell us that the Lemurians were as tall as twenty-seven feet, and that the Atlanteans were also very large. The Lemurians were dark colored, but the Atlanteans were white. A Hindoo book says that man became black because of sin.

The fifth sub-race, from which Noah (Enoch) selected his people, was the one spoken of as Semitic, from the name Shem, to

whom the Jews always pointed as their ancestor, and so he was, but no less was he the ancestor of us all. Shem had the double significance of referring to both a man and to his followers, and without doubt meant the Christ of the race, from the significance of the name. "The name" could refer to no one else. Noah, the great Manu, or lawgiver, and Shem, the Christ, together are shown leading the race to higher ideals. Shem is pictured as the son of the Manu, he always follows the Manu. The Manu gives the race the law and teaches them to be moral, then the Christ influence begins to slowly awake in them the higher ideals.

Noah preached the way of righteousness, we are told, for five hundred years during the fifth sub-race as Enoch, but the people would not listen; then he takes his followers and leads them to the Ark.

All tribes upon the face of the globe have a tradition of the flood, a fine thing for an allegory, a historical fact that all understood and could be read literally, conveying a good moral lesson, but was suitable to convey a hidden spiritual meaning of much greater significance.

All of these names have a collective as well as an individual meaning. Noah means rest, peace harmony, harmony with God, a state of consciousness, as well as the name of an individual, even as Christ is a state of consciousness as well as the name of our Great Brother. Theosophy says Noah was the Seed Manu, or seed fifth root race Manu. He was Vaivasvata Manu. He was an understudy of Lord IHVH, He was the great over Lord of the race in one sense, looking after their physical development; in another sense He was the animating spirit of the race, the race itself; and in still another sense He was a perfect manifestation of the possibilities of the race. So much is hidden in this one word.

In one sense Noah, the Great Hierophant, preached righteousness to the people of Atlantis, and those who believed in him segregated in the course of the ages in the north country, under the Pole Star, the "Imperishable Sacred Land" it is called in Theosophic literature. This took place, we are told, about one million years ago. The Occultists agree with science in the tremendous length of time covered by the terse account given in the Biblical records. Not that they agree exactly as to the number

of years, but both see the necessity for the assumption of many ages to accomplish the results.

About eight hundred and fifty thousand years ago, Noah led them southward to Aryavarta, from whence they scattered in the course of ages. Science finds them in this neighborhood; that is, finds ancient remains that indicate the fact that they were there.

"Ark" seems to have many meanings. The womb is sometimes called an ark, in the sense of containing and protecting the life germ. Baby Moses is represented as being placed in an ark of bulrushes. The Ark of the Covenant was a box containing the law of God, and in this allegory a great ship is pictured. It would seem that the general meaning of a place for safe keeping of valuables might cover the ground perhaps better than any other.

Let us look at this symbol a moment, and see if it really is a ship that is meant. May it not refer to the Imperishable North Land? First, the account says that the Land was filled with violence; the Hindoo accounts say that the strife between the black art and the Great White Lodge grew very fierce, and that the White Brothers and their followers were driven to the North Land while the Black Brotherhood completely took possession of the southern portion of the country.

Noah is told to build the ark of gopher wood. The Smith and Peloubet "Bible Dictionary" says that gopher wood in the Bible means "any trees of the resinous kind, so let us say it meant to find a safe place among the pines and fir trees of the north, a high-lying land. The ark was to have three rooms on each floor, even as man has three manifestations of God upon each plane, and it was to have three stories, even as man has three planes of consciousness. It shall be three hundred cubits in length, or three sub-races shall be the length of their stay, during the sixth and seventh sub-race of the fourth root race, and during one sub-race of the great fifth that is being born. In breadth it shall be fifty cubits, symbolic of the cultivation of the fifth race type. So the dimensions indicate the length of their stay, the characteristics they are to develop, and the three planes of the consciousness of the race. A "light" shalt thou make; the margin says a "roof." Strange that these two meanings should have been deemed a window. No other windows are mentioned. Would