Country Capital Soul Ruler
Personality Ruler Italy Rome Taurus
2nd Leo 5th
Ray 6. - Devotion and Idealism, via Mars. I would remind
you that the soul ray of Italy is also the sixth ray. You have, therefore, the influence of Mars dominating Italian and Roman
history, and it is this martian tendency which lay at the base of the German Italian axis. It, however, is not today the controlling
factor. DN. DK.
Again, in Italy, you find Leo appearing, thus relating
Italy to France, to Great Britain and to Berlin - all of which have Leo as a ruling sign, either of the nations themselves
or of their chief city. There is, consequently, no possibility of any of these four powers being able to evade relationships.
Italy is more closely related to Great Britain than she is to France, because Rome is ruled by Taurus and by Leo which ties
her to Great Britain through identity of vibration. DN. DK.
A close study of that for which each nation stands
will be most revealing and their pattern will emerge - a pattern of personality selfishness or a pattern of soul goals.Italy
has a sixth ray soul and hence her devotion to her past and to the ancient "glory which was Rome" (for this is closely tied
up with the memory aspect of the soul) and to the concept of the restoration of the Roman Empire. But as it is the soul ray
which is upon this stream of ray influence, it is interesting to note that Italy carries forward her plans with very little
hate and with the minimum of persecution and of resentment; she stands steadily for peace, no matter what the people may believe
under the influence of national propaganda and the theories of the newspapers. Her motto, esoterically stated, is, as you
know: "I carve the Paths." This will be true eventually in the spiritual as well as in the literal sense. Rome was the great
road builder and road maker of Europe in the far distant past; today the British race (who are largely reincarnated Romans
and hence the friendly feeling which basically exists between the two countries in spite of outer appearance) are the original
railroad makers. This is all upon the material side. Upon the spiritual side, as I told you in an earlier book, the whole
field of religion will be reinspired and reoriented from Rome because the Master Jesus will again take hold of the Christian
Church in an effort to respiritualize it and to reorganize it. From the chair of the Pope of Rome, the Master Jesus will attempt
to swing that great branch of the religious beliefs of the world again into a position of spiritual power and away from its
present authoritative and temporary political potency. DN. DK.
Heights of luxury were reached in Atlantis of which
we, with all our boasted civilization, know nothing and have never achieved. Some faint traces of it have come to us from
legends and from ancient Egypt, from archeological discovery and old fairy tales. There was a recurrence of pure Atlantean
mischief and wickedness in the decadent days of the Roman Empire. Life became tainted by the miasma of unadulterated selfishness
and the very springs of life itself became polluted. Men only lived and breathed in order to be in possession of the utmost
luxury and of a very plethora of things and of material goods. They were smothered by desire and plagued by the dream of never
dying but of living on and on, acquiring more and more of all that they desired. EH. DK.
The Roman Empire of the first century. But the reader
may retort: Things social and religious in those days must have been in a very parlous state, for, as this essay shows, Apollonius
himself spent the major part of his life in trying to reform the institutions and cults of the Empire. To this we answer:
No doubt there was much to reform, and when is there not? But it would not only be not generous, but distinctly mischievous
for us to judge our fellows of those days solely by the lofty standard of an ideal morality, or even to scale them against
the weight of our own supposed virtues and knowledge. Our point is not that there was nothing to reform, far from that, but
that the wholesale accusations of depravity brought against the times will not bear impartial investigation. On the contrary,
there was much good material ready to be worked up in many ways, and if there has not been, how could there among other things
have been any Christianity?
The Roman Empire was at the zenith of its power, and
had there not been many admirable administrators and men of worth in the governing caste, such a political consummation could
never have been reached and maintained. Moreover, as ever previously in the ancient world, religious liberty was guaranteed,
and where we find persecution, as in the reigns of Nero and Domitian, it must be set down to political and not to theological
reasons. Setting aside the disputed question of the persecution of the Christians under Domitian, the Neronian persecution
was directed against those whom the Imperial power regarded as Jewish political revolutionaries. So, too, when we find the
philosophers imprisoned or banished from Rome during those two reigns, it was not because they were philosophers, but because
the ideal of some of them was the restoration of the Republic, and this rendered them obnoxious to the charge not only of
being political malcontents, but also of actively plotting against the Emperors majestas. Apollonius, however, was throughout
a warm supporter of monarchical rule. When, then, we hear of the philosophers being banished from Rome or being cast into
prison, we must remember that this was not a wholesale persecution of philosophy throughout the Empire; and when we say that
some of them desired to restore the Republic, we should remember that the vast majority of them refrained from politics, and
especially was this the case with the disciples of the religio-philosophical schools. Appolinus Of Tyana. G.R.S.
Mead.
Yes, one must expect that the fundamental quality about
which We are speaking will not be understood. There are so many small but nonetheless terrible tormentors all over the world!
The deliberate torment of one's neighbor is no different from that carried out during the most barbarous eras. You may recall
the crowds of the Roman circuses; can today's crowds boast of worthier conduct? Did the change in their attire change their
consciousness? One must remember such conditions in order to know what Our Abode must fight. Smd1. MM
At the time the events narrated in the Gospels are
alleged to have happened, there was a similar intellectual fermentation taking place in the whole civilized world, only with
opposite results in the East and the West. The old gods were dying out. While the civilized classes drifted in the train of
the unbelieving Sadducees into materialistic negations and mere dead-letter Mosaic form in Palestine, and into moral dissolution
in Rome, the lowest and poorer classes ran after sorcery and strange gods, or became hypocrites and Pharisees. Once more the
time for a spiritual reform had arrived. Key. HPB.
The entrance for what might be regarded as cosmic evil
was first opened in the decadent days of the Roman Empire (which was one reason why the Christ chose to manifest in those
days), was opened wider under the corrupt regime of the Kings of France and, in our own day, has been opened still wider by
evil men in every land. RI. DK.
In A.D. 66 Nero issued a decree forbidding any philosopher
to remain in Rome, and Apollonius set out for Spain, and landed at Gades, the modern Cadiz. Appolinus Of Tyana.
G.R.S. Mead.
And just as Apollonius opposed the follies of Nero,
so did he criticise the acts of Domitian. He accordingly became an object of suspicion to the emperor; but instead of keeping
away from Rome, he determined to brave the tyrant to his face. Crossing from Egypt to Greece and taking ship at Corinth, he
sailed by way of Sicily to Puteoli, and thence to the Tiber mouth, and so to Rome (vii 10-16). Here Apollonius was tried and
acquitted. Appolinus Of Tyana. G.R.S. Mead.
Now Domitian was killed 96 A.D., and one of the last
recorded acts of Apollonius is his vision of this event at the time of its occurrence. Therefore the trial of Apollonius at
Rome took place somewhere about 93AD. Appolinus Of Tyana. G.R.S. Mead.
In Rome Apollonius continued his work of reforming
the temples, and this with the full sanction of the Pontifex Maximus Telesinus, one of the consuls for the year 66 A.D., who
was also a philosopher and a deep student of religion (iv 40). But his stay in the imperial city was speedily cut short, for
in October Nero crowned his persecution of the philosophers by publishing a decree of banishment against them from Rome, and
both Telesinus (vii II) and Apollonius had to leave Italy. Appolinus Of Tyana. G.R.S. Mead.
During Apollonius short stay in Rome, in 66 A.D., although
he never let the slightest word escape him that could be construed by the numerous informers into a treasonable utterance,
he was nevertheless brought before Tigellinus, the infamous favourite of Nero, and subjected to a severe cross-examination.
Apparently up to this time Apollonius working for the future, had confined his attention entirely to the reformation of religion
and the restoration of the ancient institutions of the nations, but the tyrannical conduct of Nero, which gave peace not even
to the most blameless philosophers, at length opened his eyes to a more immediate evil, which seemed no less than the abrogation
of the liberty of conscience by an irresponsible tyranny. From this time onwards, therefore, we find him keenly interested
in the persons of the successive emperors. Indeed Damis, although he confesses his entire ignorance of the purpose of
Apollonius journey to Spain after his expulsion from Rome, would have it that it was to aid the forthcoming revolt against
Nero. Appolinus Of Tyana. G.R.S. Mead.
It must be remembered that the main objective of the
Christ will not be to demonstrate power but to make public the already existent Kingdom of God. Again, when He came before
He was unrecognized, and is there any guarantee that this time it would be different? You may ask why would He not be recognized?
Because men's eyes are blinded with the tears of self-pity and not of contrition; because the hearts of men are still corroded
with a selfishness which the agony of war has not cured; because the standards of value are the same as in the corrupt Roman
Empire which saw His first appearance, only in those days these standards were localized and not universal; because those
who could recognize Him and who hope and long for His coming are not willing to make the needed sacrifices, and thus ensure
the success of His advent. EXT. DK.
Through the recurrence of "soothsaying" and the reappearance
of those ancient "informers of the race" who, in Roman times, were called "sibyls." These mediums (for such they were) will
be trained by the workers upon the seventh ray to speak under inspiration from the Hierarchy Whose foreknowledge extends far
ahead into the future, but does not extend beyond two thousand years. DN. DK.
At the time when the English were converted to Christianity
in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries the festival of the Nativity on December 25th had been already long established in Rome
as a solemn celebration; but in England its identification with the joyous old pagan Yule - a word apparently meaning a 'jollification'
- gave it a merry character which it did not possess in the south. This character has survived, and is in marked contrast
to its nature amongst the Latin races, with whom the northern custom of feasting and giving Christmas presents was unknown
until recent years." - The Paganism in Our Christianity, by Arthur Weigall, pp. 236, 237. Beth. AAB.
When we speak of the Celts, and the gift they conferred
on the nations of the West, let us pause a moment to note their origin and career. They are known in history by three namesthe
Celtoe, the Galatoe, and the Galli. Their irruption from their primeval home in Central Asia was the terror of the age in
which it took place. In the fourth century before Christ, after some considerable halt, they resumed their migration westwards
in overwhelming numbers and resistless force. They scaled the barrier of the Alps, rushed down on Italy, gave the towns of
Etruria to sack, defeated the Roman armies in battle, and pursued their victorious march to the gates of Rome, where they
butchered the senators in the Capitol, and had well nigh strangled the Great Republic in its infancy. Another division of
these slaughtering and marauding hordes took the direction of Greece, and threatened to overcloud with their barbarism that
renowned seat of Philosophy and Art. It was with the utmost difficulty that they were repulsed, and Athens saved. The legions
of the first Caesar, after nine bloody campaigns, broke the strength of the Galli; but it was not till the days of the second
Caesar that all danger from them was past, and that Rome could breathe freely. History Of The Scotish Nation.
Rev. J. A. Wylie.
It is England rather than Scotland which the invasion
of Caesar brings into view. No foot of Roman soldiers, so far as is known, had yet been set down on Scottish soil. Slowly
the Roman eagle made its way northward into Caledonia, as if it feared to approach those great mountains, dark with tempests,
which nature had placed there as if to form the last impregnable defence of a liberty which Rome was devouring. It was in
the year 55 B.C. that Julius Caesar invaded Britain; but it was not till about one hundred and thirty-five years after this,
that is, in the year 80 of our era, that Agricola, leading his legions across the Tweed, brought Scotland for the first time
into contact with Rome. All England by this time was comprehended within the limits of the empire, and had become a Roman
province. It was dotted with Roman camps, and studded with Roman cities, in which both foreigners and natives were living
the life of Italy under a northern sky. England, in a word, was already very thoroughly permeated by those refining but emasculating
influences of which Rome was the centre, and which she studied to diffuse in all her provinces as a means of reconciling to
her yoke, and of retaining under her sceptre, those countries which her sword had subjugated. But as yet Scotland was untouched
by these insidious and enfeebling influences. Roman luxury had not relaxed its barbaric vigour, nor had Roman power tamed
its spirit, or curtailed its wild independence. But now its subjugation was begun. History Of The Scotish Nation.
Rev. J. A. Wylie.
Rome, whose name filled the earth, and whose sword
had subjugated it, was reeling under the number of her victories, and was fated to sink under the more enormous burden of
her ambition and her crimes, and to pull down with her into the ruin of corruption a wisdom not of this world, so far as it
had been committed to her keeping. It was as this hour of impending terrible revolution that a new country was summoned out
of the darkness to be in Christian times what Judea had been in early daysa lamp of light to the world. Agricola had gone
forth on the errand of Caesar, as he believed. He sought only to illustrate the greatness of Rome by adding yet another country
to her already too vast dominions. History Of The Scotish Nation. Rev. J. A. Wylie.
Julius Caesar had frequent occasion to be in Gaul.
When residing in Paris, he had heard tell, doubtless, of a wild country in the North Sea that lay only some two hours sail
from the coast of France. It was visited by few, save the adventurous merchants of Gaul, and traders from the Levant, who
exchanged with the natives the products of the East for the tin of the Cornish mines. It is even possible, when war or negotiation
called him to the coast, that Julius may have seen, in a favourable state of the atmosphere, the chalk cliffs of that island
gleaming white across the narrow channel that parted it from the Continent. For Roman to see a spot of earth of which Rome
was not mistress, was to have the tormenting thirst of conquest and occupation straightway awakened in him. This island, which
rose before him in the blue sea, Caesar resolved to add to the list of countries which had already received the yoke of Rome.
Fitting out a fleet of eighty vessels, he crossed the Channel, and arrived before Dover. This was in the year 55 B.C. Rumours
of impending invasion had preceded the fleet across the strait. And now the rumours had become a reality. There were the dreaded
galleys of invincible Rome lining their coast. Straightway a forest of barbarian spears bristled along the cliffs that overhung
the shore, and thousands of dark faces scowled defiance down upon the invaders. Did they know that the Power to which they
offered battle was the same which had conquered the earth? We can fancy a little disdain kindling in the eye of Caesar when
he saw the poor barbarians rushing headlong upon the bosses of Romes buckler. Be this as it may, the great warrior showed
unusual hesitation in launching his legions upon the barbarous shore to which he had led them. Though little accustomed to
pause in the face of danger, Caesar judged it prudent, in sight of the cliffs and the spears that topped them, to seek a more
approachable part of the coast as a point of disembarkation. He gave orders to his fleet to move up channel. But the fleet
limbs of the Britons carried them along the shore faster than the ships could sail eastward. When the galley halted off the
flats at Deal, Caesar saw, to his dismay, that the cloud which had lowered over the cliffs of Dover had shifted, and now hung
ominously over that part of the coast where his fleet was moored. A vast and variously armed host, consisting of war chariots,
cavalry and foot soldiers, stood prepared to resist the landing of the invaders. To seize this barbarous shore, Caesar saw,
would prove a harder task than he had reckoned upon. His soldiers, clad in heavy armour, would have to struggle with the fierce
and fearless natives in the sea, and would fight at great disadvantage. While he delayed to give the word to land, the standard-bearer
of the tenth legion, by a bold action, decided the fortune of the day. Leaping into the water, he called on the men to follow
their eagle. Instantly a torrent of warriors twelve thousand in number, poured down the sides of their vessels, their armour
gleaming in the westering sun of an early September day. The Britons, burning with fury, rushed into the tide to oppose their
advance. A desperate grapple ensued betwixt the two. The waves were dyed with blood. Many a Briton and Roman went down together
in the sea, locked in deadly embrace. But the heavy mass and stubborn valour of the Roman legionaries bore back the undisciplined
hordes of the British, and before the sun had gone down, the invaders had made good their footing on shore. Britain was now
linked to Rome. Slowly the Roman eagle made its way into the interior of the country. That power which had trodden down the
nations like the mire in the streets, encountered a fiercer resistance in our island than it had experienced in some countries,
the inhabitants of which, more perfectly trained to arms, might have been expected to have met the aggressor with a stouter
opposition. Caesar had invaded Britain, but it could not be said that he had conquered it, much less that he occupied it.
It mattered little to win victories in a country where the conqueror was master of the ground only on which the battle had
been fought, and which he might, the next day, have to recover by force of arms. Only to the Thames were the Romans able to
hew their way into the land. The corn which was not ripe in the fields, and the bullocks that fed in the meadows, supplied
the legions with food. They cut broad pathways through the forests to facilitate their advance. To guard against surprise,
they cleared out the wood-built villages and towns that nestled in the forest glades or on the open plain. The palisades of
timber that enclosed them went down at the stroke of the Roman axe. The brand and the sword did the rest. It was a horrible
business. An hour or so, and a smoking heap of ashes, soaked with blood, alone remained to show where the Briton had dwelt,
and where his young barbarians had played. In the words of Tacitus, "they made a solitude and called it peace." After a year
of this inglorious warfare, Caesar grew tired of it, and turned his face towards his own land. Great changes were impending
at Rome. The republic was about to pass into the empire; the arms of the legions were needed at home, and the Romans were
to taste something of the slavery which they had inflicted on others. On a day in September, before the equinoctial storms
had set in, Caesar embarked his soldiers, and set sail across the Channel. It was ten oclock at night, and the darkness soon
hid from his eye that shore to which he had made his first approach just a year before, and which he was now leaving never
more to return. "The deified Julius," says Tacitus, "though he scared the natives by a successful engagement, and took possession
of the shore, can be considered merely to have discovered, but not appropriated, the island for posterity." History
Of The Scotish Nation. Rev. J. A. Wylie.
In the first place, Berosus tells us that the god who
gave warning of the coming of the Deluge was Chronos. Chronos, it is well known, was the same as Saturn. Saturn was an ancient
king of Italy, who, far anterior to the founding of Rome, introduced civilization from some other country to the Italians.
He established industry and social order, filled the land with plenty, and created the golden age of Italy. He was suddenly
removed to the abodes of the gods. His name is connected, in the mythological legends, with "a great Saturnian continent"
in the Atlantic Ocean, and a great kingdom which, in the remote ages, embraced Northern Africa and the European coast of the
Mediterranean as far as the peninsula of Italy, and "certain islands in the sea;" agreeing, in this respect, with the story
of Plato as to the dominions of Atlantis. The Romans called the Atlantic Ocean "Chronium Mare," the Sea of Chronos, thus identifying
Chronos with that ocean. The pillars of Hercules were also called by the ancients "the pillars of Chronos." Here, then, we
have convincing testimony that the country referred to in the Chaldean legends was the land of Chronos, or Saturn--the ocean
world, the dominion of Atlantis. Atlantis. Donnelly.
All this accords with Plato's story. He tells us that
the rule of the Atlanteans extended to Italy; that they were a civilized, agricultural, and commercial people. The civilization
of Rome was therefore an outgrowth directly from the civilization of Atlantis. The Roman Saturnalia was a remembrance of the
Atlantean colonization. It was a period of joy and festivity; master and slave met as equals; the distinctions of poverty
and wealth were forgotten; no punishments for crime were inflicted; servants and slaves went about dressed in the clothes
of their masters; and children received presents from their parents or relatives. It was a time of jollity and mirth, a recollection
of the Golden Age. We find a reminiscence of it in the Roman "Carnival." Atlantis. Donnelly.
Mahomet appeared nearly six hundred years after the
presumed deicide. The Graeco-Roman world was still convulsed with religious dissensions, withstanding all the past imperial
edicts and forcible Christianization. While the Council of Trent was disputing about the Vulgate, the unity of God quietly
superseded the trinity, and soon the Mahometans outnumbered the Christians. Why? Because their prophet never sought to identify
himself with Allah. Otherwise, it is safe to say, he would not have lived to see his religion flourish. Till the present day
Mahometanism has made and is now making more proselytes than Christianity.Mahomet was born in 571 A. D. ISIS II. 239.
HPB.
There has never been a religion in the annals of the
world with such a bloody record as Christianity. All the rest, including the traditional fierce fights of the "chosen people"
with their next of kin, the idolatrous tribes of Israel, pale before the murderous fanaticism of the alleged followers of
Christ! Even the rapid spread of Mahometanism before the conquering sword of the Islam prophet, is a direct consequence
of the bloody riots and fights among Christians. It was the intestine war between the Nestorians and Cyrilians that engendered
Islamism; and it is in the convent of Bozrah that the prolific seed was first sown by Bahira, the Nestorian monk. Freely watered
by rivers of blood, the tree of Mecca has grown till we find it in the present century overshadowing nearly two hundred millions
of people. ISIS UNVEILED. HPB.
Mohammedanism, which numbers so large a following,
is also under sixth ray influence, but it is not a great root religion, being a hybrid offshoot of Christianity with the tinge
of Judaism. DK. EPI
We beg the reader to remember that we do not mean by
Christianity the teachings of Christ, but those of his alleged servants - the clergy. HPB. ISIS
For the teachings of Christ were occult teachings,
which could only be explained at the initiation. They were never intended for the masses, for Jesus forbade the twelve to
go to the Gentiles and the Samaritans (Matt. x. 8), and repeated to his disciples that the "mysteries of Heaven" were for
them alone, not for the multitudes (Mark iv. 11). SD II. HPB.
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