Mithraism

Freemasonry and the ancient mysteries 

Introduction 

Mithraism is an ancient Roman cult. How many people today have heard of Mithraism? Unless your into roman, Persian history or into studying the Ancient mysteries you wouldn’t know what it is. Surprisingly Mithraism is closer to us than we think. It has influenced the great religions of the middle east and the west, They left their mark in roman history, Mithraism influenced Gnosticism of the 1^st century, the hermetic revival during the reinaisance, in the french revolution mithraic symbology was used for its propaganda ( the Phrygian Cap), some speculate that Mithraism is from where freemasonry originates. In modern times Mithraism was at the centre of a TV show Da vincis demons. Closer to home, if you go to the headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adyar, you can find a mural dedicated to Mithra.

I - HOW MITHRA CAME TO BE A FIRST-CLASS GOD 

Way back in the beginning of things, so we may learn from the Avesta, Mithra was the young god of the sky lights that appeared just before sunrise and lingered after the sun had set. To him was attributed patronship of the virtues of truth, life-giving, and youthful strength and joy. Such qualities attracted many worshippers in whose eyes Mithra grew from more to more until finally he became a great god in his own right and almost equal to the sun god himself. "Youth will be served," even a youthful god; and Zoroastrianism, which began by giving Mithra a very subordinate place, came at last to exalt him to the right hand of the awful Ormuzd, who had rolled up within himself all the attributes of all gods whatsoever. 

When the Persians conquered the Babylonians, who worshipped the stars in a most thoroughgoing manner, Mithra got himself placed at the very center of star worshipping cults, and won such strength for himself that when the Persian Empire went to pieces and everything fell into the melting pot with it, Mithra was able to hold his own identity, and emerged from the struggle at the head of a religion of his own. He was a young god full of vigour and overflowing with spirits, capable of teaching his followers the arts of victory, and such things appealed mightily to the bellicose Iranian tribesmen who never ceased to worship him in one form or another until they became so soundly converted to Mohammedanism centuries afterwards. Even then they did not abandon him altogether but after the inevitable manner of converts rebuilt him into Allah and into Mohammed, so that even today one will find pieces of Mithra scattered about here and there in what the Mohammedans call their theology. 

After the collapse of the Persian Empire, Phrygia, where so many religions were manufactured at one time or another, took Mithra up and built a cult about him. They gave him his Phrygian cap which one always sees on his statues, and they incorporated in his rites the use of the dreadful "taurobolium," which was a baptism in the blood of a healthy young bull. In the course of time this gory ceremony became the very center and climax of the Mithraic ritual, and made a profound impression on the hordes of poor slaves and ignorant men who flocked into the mithrea, as the Mithraic houses of worship were called. 

Mithra was never able to make his way into Greece (the same thing could be said of Egypt, where the competition among religions was very severe) but it happened that he borrowed something from Greek art. Some unknown Greek sculptor, one of the shining geniuses of his nation, made a statue of Mithra that served ever afterwards as the orthodox likeness of the god, who was depicted as a youth of overflowing vitality, his mantle thrown back, a Phrygian cap on his head, and slaying a bull. For hundreds of years this statue was to all devout Mithraists what the crucifix now is to Roman Catholics. This likeness did much to open Mithra's path toward the west, for until this his images had been hideous in the distorted and repellant manner so characteristic of Oriental religious sculpture. The Oriental people, among whom Mithra was born, were always capable of gloomy grandeur and of religious terror, but of beauty they had scarcely a touch; it remained for the Greeks to recommend Mithra to men of good taste. 

After the Macedonian conquests, so it is believed, the cult of Mithra became crystallized; it got its orthodox theology, its church system, its philosophy, its dramas and rites, its picture of the universe and of the grand cataclysmic end of all 

things in a terrific day of judgment. Many things had been built into it. There were exciting ceremonies for the multitudes; much mysticism for the devout; a great machinery of salvation for the timid; a program of militant activity for men of valour; and a lofty ethic for the superior classes. Mithraism had a history, traditions, sacred books, and a vast momentum from the worship of millions and millions among remote and scattered tribes. Thus accoutered and equipped, the young god and his religion were prepared to enter the more complex and sophisticated world known as the Roman Empire. 

II - HOW MITHRA FOUND HIS WAY TO ROME 

When Mithridates Eupator - he who hated the Romans with a virulency like that of Hannibal, and who waged war on them three or four times - was utterly destroyed in 66 B.C. and his kingdom of Pontus was given over to the dogs, the scattered fragments of his armies took refuge among the outlaws and pirates of Cilicia and carried with them everywhere the rites and doctrines of Mithraism. Afterwards the soldiers of the Republic of Tarsus, which these outlaws organized, went pillaging and fighting all round the Mediterranean, and carried the cult with them everywhere. It was in this unpromising manner that Mithra made his entrance into the Roman world. The most ancient of all inscriptions is one made by a freedman of the Flavians at about this time. 

In the course of time Mithra won to his service a very different and much more efficient army of missionaries. Syrian merchants went back and forth across the Roman world like shuttles in a loom, and carried the new cult with them wherever they went. Slaves and freedmen became addicts and loyal supporters. Government officials, especially those belonging to the lowlier ranks, set up altars at every opportunity. But the greatest of all the propagandists were the soldiers of the various Roman armies. Mithra, who was believed to love the sight of glittering swords and flying banners, appealed irresistibly to soldiers, and they in turn were as loyal to him as to any commander on the field. The time came when almost every Roman camp possessed its mithreum. 

Mithra began down next to the ground but the time came when he gathered behind him the great ones of the earth. Antoninus Pius, father-in-law of Marcus Aurelius, erected a Mithraic temple at Ostia, seaport of the city of Rome. With the exception of Marcus Aurelius and possibly one or two others all the pagan emperors after Antaninus were devotees of the god, especially Julian, who was more or less addle- pated and willing to take up with anything to stave off the growing power of Christianity. The early Church Fathers nicknamed Julian "The Apostate"; the slur was not altogether just because the young man had never been a Christian under his skin. 

Why did all these great fellows, along with the philosophers and literary men who obediently followed suit, take up the worship of a foreign god, imported from amidst the much hated Syrians, when there were so many other gods of home manufacture so close at hand? Why did they take to a religion that had been made fashionable by slaves and cutthroats? The answer is easy to discover. Mithra was peculiarly fond of rulers and of the mighty of the earth. His priests declared that the god himself stood at the right hand of emperors both on and off the throne. It was these priests who 

invented the good old doctrine of the divine right of kings. The more Mithra was worshipped by the masses, the more complete was the imperial control of those masses, therefore it was good business policy for the emperors to give Mithra all the assistance they could. There came a time when every Emperor was pictured by the artists with a halo about his head; that halo had origin ally belonged to Mithra. It represented the outstanding splendour of the young and vigorous sun. After the Roman emperors passed away the popes and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church took up the custom; they are still in the habit of showing their saints be-haloed. 

Mithraism spread up and down the world with amazing rapidity. All along the coast of northern Africa and even in the recesses of the Sahara; through the Pillars of Hercules to England and up into Scotland; across the channel into Germany and the north countries; and down into the great lands along the Danube, he everywhere made his way. London was at one time a great center of his worship. The greatest number of mithrea were built in Germany. Ernest Renan once said that if ever Christianity had become s mitten by a fatal malady Mithraism might very easily: have become the established and official religion of the whole Western World. Men might now be saying prayers to Mithra, and have their children baptised in bull's blood. 

There is not here space to describe in what manner the cult became modified, by its successful spread across the Roman Empire. It was modified, of course, and in many ways profoundly, and it in turn modified everything with which it came into contact. 

Here is a brief epitome of the evolution of this Mystery. It began at a remote time among primitive Iranian tribesmen. It picked up a body of doctrine from the Babylonian star worshippers, who created that strange thing known as astrology. It became a mystery, equipped with powerful rites, in the Asia Minor countries. It received a decent outward appearance at the hand of Greek artists and philosophers; and it finally became a world religion among the Romans. Mithraism reached its apogee in the second century; it went the way of all flesh in the fourth century; and flickered out entirely in the fifth century, except that bits of its wreckage were salvaged and used by a few new cults, such as those of the various forms of Manicheeism.

III - THE MITHRAIC THEORY OF THINGS 

After overthrowing its hated rival, the early Christian Church so completely destroyed everything having to do with Mithraism that there have remained behind but few fragments to bear witness to a once victorious religion. What little is accurately known will be found all duly set down and correctly interpreted in the works of the learned Dr. Franz Cumont, whose books on the subject so aroused the ire of the present Roman Catholic Hierarchy that they placed them on the Index, and warned the faithful away from his chapters of history. Today, as in Mithra's time, superstitions and empty doctrines have a sorry time when confronted with known facts. 

The pious Mithraist believed that back of the stupendous scheme of things was a great and unknowable deity, Ozmiuzd by name, and that Mithra was his son. A soul destined for its prison house of flesh left the presence of Ormuzd, descended by the 

gates of Cancer, passed through the spheres of the seven planets and in each of these picked up some function or faculty for use on the earth. After its term here the soul was prepared by sacraments and discipline for its re-ascent after death. Upon
its return journey it underwent a great ordeal of judgment before Mithra. Leaving something behind it in each of the planetary spheres it finally passed back through the gates of Capricorn to ecstatic union with the great Source of all. Also there was an eternal hell, and those who had proved unfaithful to Mithra were sent there. Countless deons, devils and other invisible monsters raged about everywhere over the earth tempting souls, and presided over the tortures in the pit. Through it all the planets continued to exercise good or evil influence over the human being, according as his fates might chance to fall out on high, a thing imbedded in the cult from its old Babylonian days. 

The life of a Mithraist was understood as a long battle in which, with Mithra's help, he did war against the principles and powers of evil. In the beginning of his life of faith he was purified by baptism, and through all his days received strength through sacraments and sacred meals. Sunday was set aside as a holy day, and the twenty- fifth of December began a season of jubilant celebration. Mithraic priests were organized in orders, and were deemed to have supernat ural power to some extent or other. 

It was believed that Mithra had once come to earth in order to organize the faithful into the army of Ormuzd. He did battle with the Spirit of all Evil in a cave, the Evil taking the form of a bull. Mithra overcame his adversary and then returned to his place on high as the leader of the forces of righteousness, and the judge of all the dead. All Mithraic ceremonies centered about the bull slaying episode. 

The ancient Church Fathers saw so many points of resemblance between this cult and Christianity that many of them accepted the theory that Mithraism was a counterfeit religion devised by Satan to lead souls astray. Time has proved them to be wrong in this because at bottom Mithraism was as different from Christianity as night from day. 

IV - IN WHAT WAY MITHRAISM WAS LIKE FREEMASONRY 

Masonic writers have often professed to see many points of resemblance between Mithraism and Freemasonry. Albert Pike once declared that Freemasonry is the modern heir of the Ancient Mysteries. There are similarities between Freemasonry and the old Mystery Cults, the resemblances are often startling. Men only were admitted to membership in the cult. "Among the hundreds of inscriptions that have come down to us, not one mentions either a priestess, a woman initiate, or even a donatress." In this the mithrea differed from the collegia, which latter, though they almost never admitted women as members, never hesitated to accept help or money from them. Membership in Mithraism was as democratic as it is with freemasonry, perhaps more so; slaves were freely admitted and often held positions of trust, as also did the freedmen of whom there were such multitudes in the latter centuries of the empire. 

Membership was usually divided into seven grades, each of which had its own appropriate symbolical ceremonies. Initiation was the crowning experience of every worshipper. He was attired symbolically, took vows, passed through many baptisms, and in the higher grades ate sacred meals with his fellows. The great event of the initiate's experiences was the taurobolium, already described. It was deemed very efficacious, and was supposed to unite the worshipper with Mithra himself. A dramatic representation of a dying and a rising again was at the head of all these ceremonies. A tablet showing in bas relief Mithra's killing of the bull stood at the end of every mithreum. 

This, mithreum, as the meeting place, or lodge, was called, was usually cavern shaped, to represent the cave in which the god had his struggle. There were benches or shelves along the side, and on these side lines the members sat. Each mithreum had its own officers, its president, trustees, standing committees, treasurer, and so forth, and there were higher degrees granting special privileges to the few. Charity and Relief were universally practised and one Mithraist hailed another as "brother." The Mithraic "lodge" was kept small, and new lodges were developed as a result of "swarming off" when membership grew too large. 

Manicheeism, sprang from the ashes of Mithraism, and St. Augustine, who did so much to give shape to the Roman Catholic church and theology was for many years an ardent Manichee, an through him many traces of the old Persian creed found their way into Christianity. Out of Manicheeism, or out of what was finally left of it, came Paulicianism, and out of Paulicianism came many strong medieval cults - the Patari, the Waldenses, the Hugenots, and countless other such developments. Through these various channels echoes of the old Mithraism persisted over Europe, and it may very well be, as has often been alleged, that there are faint traces of the ancient cult to be found here and there in our own ceremonies or symbolisms. 

the Ancient Mysteries were among the finest things developed in the Roman world. They stood for equality in a savagely aristocratic and class-riddled society; they offered centers of refuge to the poor and the despised among a people little given to charity and who didn't believe a man should love his neighbour; and in a large historical way they left behind them methods of human organization, ideals and principles and hopes which yet remain in the world for our use and profit. If a man wishes to do so, he may say that what Freemasonry is among us, the Ancient Mysteries were to the people of the Roman world.

 Native American Spirituality 

I would like to pay my respect and acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which this meeting takes place, and also pay respect to Elders both past and present 

Native American spirituality is not a topic that can easily be covered in one hour, saying native American spirituality is like saying eastern spirituality.  The Americas as it is known today, is so vast that the pre Columbian people differ in many ways from each other across the continent. 

It is hard to say exactly how natives lived before Columbus, what we know comes from recollections written by the Spanish conquerors, the Jesuits and more recently by archaeologists who describe everything from a Eurocentric viewpoint. 

There are many peoples that have survived western advance in the Americas but their cultures and traditions have almost disappeared, except in remote areas where people have managed to retains some practices and languages. 

That is not to say that the arrival of Europeans was totally bad, in some places human sacrifice and cannibalism was practiced, that was certainly eliminated with the arrival of the Europeans. Many other advances came with the west but the natives that first came into contact with the Spanish and the rest of the Europeans that came afterwards did not really enjoy their arrival. 

In 1492 when Christopher Columbus arrived in the Bahamas there were over 100 million people living across the Americas There may have been as many as 600 different languages in North America, 300 more in Central America, and 1400 in South America, of which more than two-thirds have become extinct. There were hundreds of tribes and nations across the continent, there were two advanced civilizations existing at the time, the Aztecs in Mexico and the incas in peru. By the time Columbus had arrived many other civilisations had already come and gone, in fact the arrival of the Europeans came at the time of the decline of  many of the American empires. Wars, droughts and time itself ensured that many civilisations like the anasasi in the north, the mayans and the olmecs in central America are only known to us by archaeological finds and local histories. 

By the 18^th century 90% of native americans had died from deceases brought from Europe, they also died subjected to slavery, rape, pillage, dispossession, torture under the inquisition, hunger and by many other cruel ways that are not worth mentioning. Those that survived became refugees in their own lands, in central and south America many survived by going deep into the forests. As you all know, the advance of civilisation today has destroyed many forests so there aren’t many tribes left that haven’t had any contact with the civilised world. Today there are a no more than 5 uncontacted tribes in south America, each tribe with no more than 20 people. 

The Indians that Columbus and the  Spanish thought they met were seen as backward in every sense, many lived in small communities with huts and in simple ways, but even later Spanish conquistadors that met the Aztecs, and incas saw them as their inferiors. Native americans had weapons but made of wood and stones, the Spanish had come with weapons that had evolved in the European continent through metallurgy and trade with the east. The Spanish with their ships, swords, armours and horses were seen more like gods than anything else.  all the technology Europeans carried did not exist at the time in the Americas. 

For the Europeans the new world symbolised new lands, gold, new exotic foods and the possibility of growing Christianity and the Spanish empire, all that was short lived as the rest of the European nations also began to conquer parts of the Americas. The race and war for control of the new continent lasted until the late 19^th century. 

The new lands, and its resources  increased European power to the point that it changed the world completely. 

What today we take for granted as normal in our day to day consumption like corn, avocados, chocolate, potatoes and tobacco all come from the Americas, they were part of the native America diet. The gold in the catholic churches in spain is all American gold.  

Thanks to occultists like Blavatsky, carl jung and merciae eliade and carlos Castaneda we know a little bit about native American spirituality, or at least what each of those authors had managed to discover. 

In modern culture native American spirituality has had its ups and downs, in the early days of television native americans were always portrayed as the bad guys, the cowboys and indian movies, some movies were more touching like dance with wolves or the emerald forest. Carlos Castaneda wrote several books about his encounters with Don Juan a shaman from new mexico. Thanks to carlos Native American spirituality as we know it today is part of the new age repertoire. In more modern times Ayahuasca a hallucinogenic drug from south America is becoming far more popular than carlos castanedas peyote. If you go to north America you can find sweat tents, and native American festivals, you can visit peru or Ecuador to live with a shaman and do a body and mental detox, many foreigners have opened retreat centers and over charge travellers over 3k for a retreat with a shaman. You can find native American decorations every where, the dream catchers, pottery sold for hundred if not thousands of dollars, jewlry and hundreds of books and groups practicing some native American ritual.

But, what is native American spirituality, is it a religion or religions… 

The common perception about native American spirituality is that its animistic and primordial. In many cases it is, there were many tribes that lived very simple lives and their religion was the connection with the land and the elements with a shaman as a mediator. However most people in these tribes also played a role to maintain harmony between nature and the tribe, any sign from the elements could come from anywhere to anyone. There were other more advanced civilisations like the Olmec, Mixtec, Toltec, Mayan, Aztec, and Inca civilizations that had deep myths and legends and entire pantheons of gods and goddesses. On the other spectrum there were cannibals and dark magicians which were looked down upon by other tribes and civilisations. 

Like in our modern society, native americans believed in totem animals, nature spirits, elementals, there was mediumship, claravoyance, magic, dark magic, in the more developed societies there were state religions, sun worship, mon worship, high temples were built to worship and initiate candidates. There were forced sacrafices, these were practiced mainly in times of famines or trouble, there were self sacrafices, in the Aztec culture self-sacrifice was seen as honourable and the only way to appease the gods. A.E. Powell in his book the solar system says that many of these practices survived from the Atlantean age. Many of the dark magicians that managed to escape the deluge went into hiding in the Americas and there they transmitted their dark teachings to people who still practice them today. These dark practices persevere despite having been banned by the Spanish inquisition. 

What does theosophy have to say about native americans?

Blavatsky visited the Americas several times, she went to mexico and peru. During one of her trips to the Andes, H.P.B. visited the borderline between Brazil and Bolivia. In a particular location, she collected a handful of sand from a river with a few specks of gold in it. Driven by the strength of the waters, the gold had come from the Brazilian side of the borderline. For her own reasons, H.P.B. took the small sample of sand, not only the gold, with her to Europe.

H.P.B. wrote rather extensively on Peru and the Andes in her text “A Land of Mystery”, and in the book “Isis Unveiled” [6].

In her masterpiece “The Secret Doctrine” she mentions the inner link connecting esoteric schools in South America (Andean region) and other parts of the world. H.P.B. writes:

“The members of several esoteric schools - the seat of which is beyond the Himalayas, and whose ramifications may be found in China, Japan, India, Tibet, and even in Syria, besides South America - claim to have in their possession the sum total of sacred and philosophical works in MSS. and type: all the works, in fact, that have ever been written, in whatever language or characters, since the art of writing began (...).” [7]

Blavatsky, A.E. Powell and Leadbeater mention that the native Americans belong to the fourth root race, or at least that their genetic ancestors were part of the fourth root race which inhabited the atlantean continent and the different parts of the Americas that the atlanteans ruled thousands of years ago. Annie besant mentions in her book the ancient wisdom that the turanian race which belonged to the fourth root race migrated from atlantis towards the west mainly the north American and south American continents, others migrated to asia, from them emerged what we know today as the Asiatic peoples and the native americans.  

What is interesting to note is that several nations in the Americas mention that their ancestors migrated from an island that had sank in the atlantic thousands of years ago. what is more intriguing is that they have a similar concept of the origins of the cosmos to that mentioned by the secret doctrines; the Hopi once lived with the maya and with whom they later traded, the Hopi conceptualize the cycles of time as world-ages. The Hopi believe that we have suffered three previous world cataclysms. The First World was destroyed by fire—a comet, asteroid strike, or a number of volcanic eruptions. The Second World was destroyed by ice—a great Ice Age. As recorded by many cultures around the globe, a tremendous deluge destroyed the Third World. These three global destructions were not the result of merely random earth changes or astrophysical phenomena but of humankind’s disregard both for Mother Earth and for the spiritual dictates of the Creator. In other words, cataclysmic events in the natural world are causally connected to collective transgressions, or negatives human actions. Many Hopi spiritual elders (singular, kikmongwi) claim that we are living in the final days of the Fourth World. For more than 60 years, different Hopis have predicted various Earth changes that signal the conclusion of the current age and the onset of the Fifth World.

Aztec mythology claimed that the world has undergone five “creations,” the first four being destroyed by jaguars (symbolic of earth), a hurricane (wind), volcanic eruptions (fire), and a flood (water), the four elements represented in the Aztec Stone. If one identifies these as analogous to the theosophical idea of the Root Races, the Aztec notion that we are in the fifth of those “creations” is essentially the same as one finds in The Secret Doctrine. It also suggests that the Aztecs, unlike the Mayans, thought of themselves as post-Atlantean. Flood myths, of course, are common to many cultures around the world and may be interpreted either allegorically as signifying being overwhelmed by psychic experiences during the Fourth Root Race, with the result that the intellect now prevails in the Fifth Root Race, or else as literally referring to an actual flood which occurred when the island of Poseidonis, the last remnant of the continent of Atlantis, sank about 12,000 years ago (SDII:765). The Aztecs believed the fifth “creation” will end with earthquakes. In order to forestall that catastrophe, they believed, human victims had to be sacrificed at certain important festivals and their hearts cut out and offered to the appropriate god.

The American Indian treatment of death, is one that is perhaps less well known, Death was born or appeared at a certain point or on a specific date in mankind's early evolutionary history. Before that, Death did not exist, and human beings did not die as they now do. For example, in the sacred scriptural history of the Quiche-Mayas of Central America, the Popol-Vuh, the word death does not appear until mankind's Third Age is described (humanity now being in its Fourth Age according to this tradition). Specifically, in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, a related Mayan scripture, Death is mentioned as an "invention" of the creative deities that was needed to destroy the crude humans of the Third Age because of their imperfections. "On Three Cimi, there occurred the invention of death. It happened that Deity Our Father invented the first death." Therefore some tribes look upon death with aversion, as an unfortunate interruption of our conscious existence and a threat to life, but one that because of past wrongs committed by man must now be undergone by him until his debt to the Creator is paid. (Moffet) 

In the secret doctrine volume 2 blavatsky speaks about how in Americas prehistory giants roamed the continent and are the builders of the giant monuments that exist across the Americas. In 439 she mentions how a red india tribe wrote  a petition in their language to the American government to regain back some of their land and scientists had dismissed their writing as primitive. Blavatsky goes on to say that their writing does not come from phonecian but from atlantis from where all writing comes from (Blavatsky).

Number Seven, the fundamental figure among all other figures in every national religious system, from Cosmogony down to man, must have its raison d’être. It is found among the ancient Americans, as prominently as among the archaic Aryans and Egyptians (Blavatsky). The Hopis of Arizona have their "seven universes, each with its successive worlds, comprising the total of forty-nine stages of man's development along his Road of Life." The Seneca of New York have a closely-held teaching of the Seven Worlds of being. If we turn to South America, it is the same. The Guarani peoples of Southern Brazil and Paraguay, for example, have their seven "paradises" or planes above the earth plane (Moffet).

Another similarity with theosophy among the natives is their contact with God-men that visited them to teach them laws, agriculture, and state craft in general. Bochica for example arrived in what today is know as Colombia to teach the muizcas how to operate a society better, According to Chibcha legends, Bochica was a bearded man who came from the east. He taught the primitive Chibcha people ethical and moral norms and gave them a model by which to organize their states, with one spiritual and one secular leader. Bochica also taught the people agriculture, metalworking and other crafts before leaving for the west to live as an ascetic. When the Muisca later forsook the teachings of Bochica and turned to a life of excess, a flood engulfed the Savannah of Bogotá, where they lived. Upon appealing for aid from their hero, Bochica returned on a rainbow and with a strike from his staff, created the Tequendama Falls, through which the floodwaters could drain away.^[1]

In Peru Viracocha rose from Lake Titicaca (or sometimes the cave of Paqariq Tampu) during the time of darkness to bring forth light.^[5] He made the sun, moon, and the stars. He made mankind by breathing into stones, but his first creation were brainless giants that displeased him. So he destroyed it with a flood and made a new, better one from smaller stones.^[6] Viracocha eventually disappeared across the Pacific Ocean (by walking on the water), and never returned. He wandered the earth disguised as a beggar, teaching his new creations the basics of civilization, as well as working numerous miracles. He wept when he saw the plight of the creatures he had created.^{[citation needed]} It was thought that Viracocha would re-appear in times of trouble. Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa wrote that Viracocha was described as "a man of medium height, white and dressed in a white robe like an alb secured round the waist, and that he carried a staff and a book in his hands."^[7]

In mexico There are several stories about the birth of Quetzalcoatl. In a version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl was born by a virgin named Chimalman, to whom the god Onteol appeared in a dream.^[20] In another story, the virgin Chimalman conceived Quetzalcoatl swallowing an emerald.^[21] A third story narrates that Chimalman was hit in the womb by an arrow shot by Mixcoatl and nine months later she gave birth to a child which was called Quetzalcoatl.^[22] A fourth story narrates that Quetzalcoatl was born from Coatlicue, who already had four hundred children who formed the stars of the Milky Way.^[23]

According to another version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl is one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the four Tezcatlipocas, each of whom presides over one of the four cardinal directions. Over the West presides the White Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, the god of light, justice, mercy and wind. Over the South presides the Blue Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. Over the East presides the Red Tezcatlipoca, Xipe Totec, the god of gold, farming and springtime. And over the North presides the Black Tezcatlipoca, known by no other name than Tezcatlipoca, the god of judgment, night, deceit, sorcery and the Earth.^[24] Quetzalcoatl was often considered the god of the morning star, and his twin brother Xolotl was the evening star (Venus). As the morning star, he was known by the title Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, meaning "lord of the star of the dawn." He was known as the inventor of books and the calendar, the giver of maize (corn) to mankind, and sometimes as a symbol of death and resurrection. Quetzalcoatl was also the patron of the priests and the title of the twin Aztec high priests. Some legends describe him as opposed to human sacrifice^[25] while others describe him practicing it.^[26][27]

Geoffrey hodson in sharing the light in his travels he recounts the story of an indian avatar in rio grande mexico, a messenger of the great white brotherhood. He possessed great powers, without ceremonies he could produce all sorts of phenomena.  He appeared to natives as a healer, teacher and prophet, he cast out sorcery from villages. He was a great orator and captivated his audience where ever he went he was very tall, with tall black hair. Hodson claimed that this teacher was part of the fourth rootrace branch of the government of the world also known as the Yucatan brotherhood. On his passing from the world he return to his brotherhood. 

Native American cultures are rich and diverse but their myths and origins if looked from a theosophical point of view, seem to come from an antiquity that is lost to modern day scientists. It would take many lectures to cover all the annecdotes, stories, myths, religions and histories of the pre-Columbian americans. It does not matter if the suffering the pre Columbian people went through was karmic, or just the end of a cycle for a civilization their suffering and dispossession is something that still hasn’t been solved karmically for the new people inhabiting the Americas. Thanks to the Secret doctrine and other occult writers we have a different perspective on the origins of the native peoples of America. The natives of the Americas are indeed custodians of a land that has given the world a nation that for good or for bad has changed the history or our current humanity. 

 Apollonius Tyana

When i first heard of Apollonius of Tyana, was when i went back for holidays to Colombia. I was chatting to the priest of the LCC  when he told me that one of his favourite initiates was apolonius of Tyana, his reason for liking him was that Apollonius travelled around the world creating sacred or magnetic centres through rituals or by burying talismans of great power in certain spots around the world. According to the priest one of the spots where apolonius had buried a talisman and consecrated a temple in the astral plane was in Bogota at the bottom of two great mountains, in the present catholic pilgrims climb this mountains as part of the Christian festival of easter. 2000 years ago bogota was also the capital of the indigenous people of Colombia, and they have a legend of a man called bochica who came from the east to teach them agriculture, morals, ethics and how to live a good life in general. 

When i returned to Australia i asked a friend about Apollonius tyana and i was told that he was an initiate and that 2000 years ago he had gone to what is Indonesia today to place a talisman in the same place where burubudur was build a few hundred years later. 

The following is what i found about Apollonius of Tyana:  

The Initiate of the first century B.C. was Jesus the Christ. The initiate of the first century A.D. was Apollonius of Tyana. The lives of these two men are marked by striking similarities and by equally striking differences. The similarities are found in their aim, purpose and teaching, and are explained by the fact that both were members of that great Fraternity of Perfected Men who stand behind the Theosophical Movement. The differences are found in their personal lives and in the way they presented their philosophy. 

Jesus is not an historical character. The great historians of the first two centuries do not mention him. As Moncure D. Conway says in Modern Thought:

"The world has been for a long time engaged in writing lives of Jesus. In the fourth gospel it is said: 'There are also many other things that Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.' The library of such books has grown since then. But when we come to examine them, one startling fact confronts us: all of these books relate to a personage concerning whom there does not exist a single scrap of contemporary information -- not one! By accepted tradition he was born in the reign of Augustus, the great literary age of the nation of which he was a subject. In the Augustan age historians flourished; poets, orators, critics and travelers abounded. Yet not one mentions the name of Jesus Christ, much less any incident in his life."

Apollonius of Tyana was, on the contrary, a well-known historical figure. The parents of Jesus -- whoever they were -- were obscure and humble people. Apollonius belonged to a prominent and well-known family, whose ancestors had founded the city of Tyana where he was born. 

The friends and disciples of Jesus were drawn from the poorer classes. Apollonius was the friend of Kings and Emperors. He was at one time the personal adviser of the Emperor Vespasian, and the great Emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius admitted that he owed his philosophy to Apollonius. 

"From Apollonius I have learned freedom of will and understanding, steadiness of purpose, and to look to nothing else, not even for a moment, except to reason." (Marcus Aurelius).

Jesus was not one of the travelling Adepts. There is no record of his having been in any country save his own native Judea and Egypt. Apollonius was the most famous traveller of his day. He visited every country in the then known world with the exception of Britain, Germany and China. He travelled extensively through Italy, Greece, Spain, Africa, Asia Minor, Persia and India, teaching wherever he went. 

In Athens, Apollonius taught from the same porch which had once echoed to the wisdom of Socrates. He lectured on the island of Samos, where Pythagoras had conducted his school. He spoke in the grounds where Plato's Academy had stood. He taught in the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, above the entrance of which were engraved those immortal words: Man, know thyself! He was teaching in Crete on the day of the great eruption of Vesuvius, when the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed. He taught in Italy, Spain and northern Africa, which was then called Mauretania. He lived for a long time in the city of Alexandria, holding his classes in the Temple of Serapis. He went up the Nile as far as Thebes and Karnak. He celebrated the festival of Neith in the ancient city of Saïs, where stands the ever-veiled statue of this goddess with its inscription: I am all that has been, and is, and shall be, and my veil no mortal has withdrawn. And all of these travels were carefully recorded and preserved. 

Jesus left nothing in writing. Apollonius was the author of a voluminous philosophical literature. All of his works were collected by the Emperor Hadrian, and preserved in his palace at Antium. The records of Apollonius' life in Greece are so important that, were it not for the works of Apollonius and the books of Pausanius, we would have had no history of Greece between the year 52 B.C. and the fifth century A.D. 

There is, unfortunately, no accurate record of Jesus' life. The one most commonly accepted is found in the four Gospels. But this record was not written by Jesus himself, nor by any of his immediate disciples. As Fauste, the great Manichean of the third century writes: 

"Every one knows that the Evangeliums were written neither by Jesus nor his apostles, but long after their time by some unknown persons, who, judging well that they would hardly be believed when telling of things they had not seen themselves, headed their narratives with the names of the apostles or of disciples contemporaneous with the latter."

The record of Apollonius' life is, on the contrary, quite complete. It was written by a personal friend and devoted disciple of Apollonius who was his constant companion for more than fifty years, and who made a daily report of all that Apollonius did or said during that time. This record was transcribed and put into book form by one of the most famous historians of the day, and was published in the year 210 A.D. -- over a hundred years before the Gospels appeared. 

The compiler of this book was Philostratus, who is called the Talleyrand of the second century. He was a famous scholar, the author of a large number of philosophical and historical books, and the close friend of the Emperor Severus and his wife, Julia Domna. Severus was a Neo-Platonist and Julia Domna was one of the most famous women in history. She was a philosopher of note, and surrounded herself with the greatest intellects of the day. She also founded one of the great libraries of that age, which was subsequently "cleared of its philosophical chaff" by the Christian Emperor Justinian, and completely destroyed in the sixth century by Pope Gregory. 

The Emperor Severus and his wife were great admirers of Apollonius, and it was at the Empress' request that Philostratus compiled his Life of Apollonius from the manuscripts which had been entrusted to her care. A copy of this work, written in Greek, may be found in the Library of Congress. No English translation appeared until the year 1809. In that year the Reverend Edward Berwick, Vicar of Leixlip, Ireland, published his own translation with profuse apologies to the Christian world for the similarities (which all would notice) between the life of Jesus and that of Apollonius. 

The world today may be unaware of those similarities. The world of the second and third centuries was only too well aware of them. The Church of that day was basing its claim of Jesus' divinity upon the miracles that he is said to have performed. But Apollonius was performing the same miracles before their very eyes, and at the same time refusing to call them miracles, claiming them to be but expressions of natural law. One day Apollonius met a funeral procession, bearing the body of a young girl who had just died. He stopped the procession with these words: "Set down the bier, and I will dry the tears being shed for this maid." In a few moments the maid arose and joined her friends. Apollonius was asked how such "miracles" were possible, and answered: 

"There is no death of anything save in appearance. That which passes over from essence to nature seems to be birth, and what passes over from nature to essence seems to be death. Nothing really is originated, and nothing ever perishes; but only now comes into sight and now vanishes. It appears by reason of the density of matter, and disappears by reason of the tenuity of essence. But it is always the same, differing only in motion and condition."

The "miracles" performed by Apollonius caused great consternation in the young Christian Church. Justin Martyr, the great Church Father of the second century, pertinently asked: 

"How is it that the talismans of Apollonius have power over certain members of creation, for they prevent, as we see, the fury of the waves, the violence of the winds, and the attacks of wild beasts. And whilst Our Lord's miracles are preserved by tradition alone, those of Apollonius are most numerous, and actually manifested in present facts, so as to lead astray all beholders?"

Ralston Skinner, author of the Source of Measures, believes that this similarity "serves to explain why the Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratus has been so carefully kept back from translation and popular reading." He says that those who have studied this work in the original are forced to the conclusion that either the Life of Apollonius has been taken from the New Testament, or the New Testament from Philostratus' work. 

As the New Testament did not appear until a hundred years after the publication of Philostratus' book, the reader is left to draw his own conclusions. 

Philostratus probably knew the commotion his book would cause in the Christian world. Possibly he wrote it for that very reason. For he was a devoted admirer of Pythagoras, and as such must have taken pleasure in bringing into public notice the noble character of one who was a strict and zealous follower of the Pythagorean School. In defending the position of Apollonius, Philostratus says:

"Some consider him as one of the Magi(1), because he conversed with the Magi of Babylon and the Brahmans of India and the Gymnosophists of Egypt. But even his wisdom is reviled as being acquired by the magic art, so erroneous are the opinions formed of him. Whereas Empedocles and Pythagoras and Democritus, though they conversed with the same Magi, and advanced many paradoxical sentiments, have not fallen under the like imputation. Even Plato, who travelled in Egypt, and blended with his doctrines many opinions collected there from the priests and prophets, incurred not such a suspicion, though envied above all men on account of his superior wisdom."

Philostratus, then, must be admired as one of those who called for a restitution of borrowed robes, and the vindication of calumniated, but glorious reputations. And in bringing certain parts of this old book, (now long out of print) to the notice of Theosophical students, the same object is kept in view. 

This book, like all others of a similar character, has both a literal and a symbolic meaning. If it is studied symbolically, it will be found to contain the whole of the Hermetic philosophy. Apollonius' journey to India represents the trials of a neophyte, and his conversations with the Sages of Kashmir would, if properly interpreted, give the esoteric catechism. Many of the secret dogmas of Hermes are explained in symbolical language by the great Adept Iarchas, and his words would disclose, if understood, some of the most important secrets of nature. 

Apollonius was born in the year 1 A.D. in the Greek town of Tyana in Cappadocia. He came of an ancient and aristocratic line, and was brought up in wealth and luxury. His birth, like that of most great Teachers, was out of the ordinary. 

"Whilst his mother was of child with him, Proteus the Egyptian God appeared to her. The woman asked him what she should bring forth. To which he replied: 'Thou shalt bring forth me!' This you may suppose excited her curiosity to ask again who he was, and he said he was the Egyptian God Proteus."

When his mother neared the time of her delivery, she was told to go to a certain meadow and gather flowers. When she approached the meadow, a flock of swans formed a circle around her, singing and clapping their wings. At the moment of Apollonius' birth, a thunderbolt came out of the sky, arose to heaven and disappeared in the blue. 

The child Apollonius possessed great intelligence. At the age of fourteen he was sent to the city of Tarsus, then a place of great learning and culture. But Apollonius would not rest until he had gained his father's permission to leave Tarsus and go to Aegea, where he hoped to find a more congenial atmosphere and a greater opportunity for philosophical study. In Aegea he soon contacted disciples of the Pythagorean School, and at the age of sixteen he adopted the Pythagorean discipline. From that time on he ate no meat, drank no wine, wore clothes made entirely of plant fibres, and allowed his hair to grow long. There he entered the Temple of Aesculapius, was initiated by the priests, and learned the art of healing as Jesus had learned it with the Therapeutae in Egypt. Later he turned the Temple of Aesculapius into a Lyceum similar in character to the Lyceums founded by Pericles, Cicero and Aristotle. Finally he took a vow of silence which lasted for five years, during which period he never uttered a word. 

At the end of his stay in Aegea he went to Antioch, where he taught for many years. The platform of his work is described by one of his biographers, Daniel M. Tredwell. 

"He maintained that the only good was moral excellence, the only true satisfaction, independence of external circumstances, and consequently held that wealth was an obstacle to the development of virtue. The whole of his life was spent, the whole of his teachings are founded, on the idea that all men are called to receive and practice truth. He speaks and acts as a reformer everywhere. He had no narrow notions of nationality, no local clique to serve. He came to no chosen people, but to all mankind."

All during those years his thoughts had been fixed on far-off India where he had been told that those Mahatmas lived who stood nearest to the source of wisdom. During his stay in Antioch he had acquired seven disciples. But when he spoke of a journey to India, their enthusiasm waned. 

And so he finally set off on his journey accompanied only by two scribes, one of whom could write rapidly, the other beautifully. When he reached the city of Ninus, a young man by the name of Damis attached himself to Apollonius and accompanied him throughout all his subsequent wanderings. It was Damis who wrote the account of Apollonius' travels which Philostratus compiled at the request of the Empress Julia Domna. 

After all their arrangements had been completed, the wanderers set out upon their long journey, which would carry them into new and strange places and finally lead them into the presence of the Masters. Their first resting place was the city of Babylon, where Apollonius met the Magi and was initiated by them into the Chaldean Mysteries. The King of Babylon became his friend and furnished him with camels and a guide for his trip. 

It was early spring when Apollonius and Damis began their long journey. We can see them, mounted upon their camels, crossing the desert wastes of Arabia, finally reaching the rose-scented land of Persia where Omar, a thousand years later, begged that he might be buried "so that roses might blow over his tomb." They were received everywhere with enthusiasm, for their caravan was headed by a camel wearing an ornament of gold, proclaiming to the world that friends of the King of Babylon were upon the road. 

And all through the sultry days, lulled by the sleepy tinkle of the camel bells, Apollonius talked with his friend Damis. Sometimes they laughed and spoke of trivial things. But Apollonius always tried to bring the mind of his friend to the consideration of spiritual matters, using the commonplace to illustrate the divine. One day, shortly after they had begun their ascent of the Hindu Kush, Apollonius said to Damis: 

"Pray tell me, Damis, where were we yesterday?" 

"On the plain," answered Damis. 

"And where are we today?" 

"On the Caucusus, if I am not mistaken." 

"Then," said Apollonius, "yesterday we were below; today we are above. In what respect do these conditions differ?" 

"In this," said Damis, "that yesterday's journey has been made by many travellers; but this day's journey has been made by the few."

And so, in this simple manner, Apollonius was able to call the attention of his friend to the Path and the Few that find it. 

On another day they were watching the great white eagles that soared majestically above their heads. And Apollonius used this occasion to tell his friend the story of Prometheus and how it symbolized the Egos who incarnated in men long, long ago. Then he explained the Indian origin of the Greek myths, and told Damis that 

"The Greeks and Indians have different opinions about Bacchus. The Indians affirm that Bacchus was the son of the River Indus, and that the Theban Bacchus was his disciple."

At last they reached the city of Taxila, which lies near the modern city of Rawalpindi, close to the border of Kashmir. In front of the city walls stood a large Temple made of porphyry and enriched with ornaments of gold. There they rested until the King was ready to receive them, and there Apollonius, speaking of the art of painting, told Damis how the mind itself paints indelible pictures on the astral light(2). 

Apollonius found the King of Taxila a philosopher and a disciple of the very Mahatmas he was seeking. The King gave him the necessary requirements for one who wished to study with the Masters. He said: 

"A young man must go beyond the Hyphasis and see the men to whom you are going. When he comes into their presence, he must make a public declaration of studying philosophy; and they have it in their power, if they think proper, to refuse admitting him to their society if he does not come pure. And when no stigma is discovered, the youth's character is then examined. Such information as relates to the candidates individually, is acquired by a minute investigation of their looks. Wise men, and such as are deep read in nature, see the tempers and dispositions of men just as they see objects in a mirror. In this country philosophy is deemed of such high price, and so honored by the Indians, that it is very necessary to have all examined who approach her."

When Apollonius and Damis took their departure, they carried with them a letter from the King of Taxila to the Sages of Kashmir: 

"King Phroates to Iarchas, his Master; and to the Wise Men with him -- health. 

Apollonius, a man famed for wisdom, thinks you have more knowledge than himself, and goes to be instructed in it. Send him away learned in all you know, and believe that nothing you teach him will be lost."

According to the description given by Philostratus, the travellers must have taken the same route across the mountains that goes from Rawalpindi at the present day. They must have followed the gorge of the Hyphasis (now the Jhelum river) and watched it foaming and swirling between its ochre banks. They travelled through the great deodar forests, and may have stopped for a moment at the spot where Vishnu is said to have rested after the Great Flood. They caught their first glimpse of the Valley of Kashmir in the late summer, when the roses and lotus are in full bloom. What they thought of this "emerald valley set in a rim of pearls," Damis does not say. His mind was occupied with the tales that Apollonius told him of the Dragons who lived in the hills. But the Theosophist knows that the Dragons that Apollonius was seeking were the Nagas, or Sages of Kashmir. 

At last they reached the hill where the Wise Men lived. It rose majestically from the plain, defended on all sides by an immense pile of rocks. There was a Castle on the top of the hill. Apollonius could see the entrance to the Castle, but Damis could see only the cloud that enveloped it. 

As soon as they had dismounted from their camels, a messenger from the Masters appeared, wearing a caduceus on his brow. He brought Apollonius a letter of welcome from the Wise Men on the Hill. When Apollonius was conducted into their presence, their Chief -- Iarchas -- addressed him in Greek, minutely describing the journey which had brought him to Kashmir. Apollonius, following the instructions given to him by the King of Taxila, asked Iarchas if he would instruct him in philosophy. Iarchas replied: 

"I will, with all my heart, for the communication of knowledge is much more becoming the character of philosophy than the concealment of what ought to be known."

Then Iarchas begged Apollonius to propose whatever questions he pleased, "for you know you speak with men who know all things." Remembering the inscription carved over the entrance of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, Apollonius asked: "Do you know yourselves?"Iarchas answered: 

"We know all things because we know ourselves. For there is not one among us who would have been admitted to the study of philosophy had he not had that previous knowledge."

Apollonius then asked: "As what, then, do you consider yourselves?" 

"As Gods," Iarchas replied. 

"And why Gods?" said Apollonius. 

"Because we are good men," was the answer.

This conversation led naturally to a discussion of the Soul, and Apollonius inquired what their teaching was in regard to the Soul. 

"The same," said Iarchas, "as was delivered to you by Pythagoras, and by us to the Egyptians."

This statement, so strange to modern ears, could not have been a surprise to Apollonius. For both Homer and Herodotus had spoken of that colony of dark-skinned Aryans, known as the Eastern Ethiopians, who had taken their civilization and their arts from India to Egypt in pre-Vedic days. Iarchas spoke at great length about these Eastern Ethiopians, saying: 

"There was a time when this country was inhabited by the Ethiopians, an Indian nation. Ethiopia did not then exist. Whilst the Ethiopians lived in this country now possessed by us, and were obedient to a sovereign named Ganges, they had all the productions of the earth in plenty."

Apollonius must have had many opportunities, during his stay in Kashmir, to observe the relics of this ancient connection between Kashmir, Ceylon and Egypt. For even today there is a little island in the very center of the Valley called Lanka, which is the ancient name of Ceylon. And the grand old mountain that stands like a sentinel overlooking the Valley is called Hari-mouk, the name under which the Egyptians once worshipped the Sphinx. 

Iarchas told Apollonius many things about the state of the country when it was inhabited by the Eastern Ethiopians, and informed him that he was speaking from personal knowledge, as he himself had been this same King Ganges in a former incarnation. He then 

"...asked Apollonius if he could tell the last body in which he appeared, and in what condition of life he was before the one he was in at present. To this Apollonius replied: 'As it was ignoble, I remember little of it.' 

'What?' said Iarchas, 'do you consider the being pilot of an Egyptian vessel as ignoble? For I know you were one!' 

'You are right,' said Apollonius, 'I was.'"

Apollonius spent thirteen years with the Sages of Kashmir, and at the end of his visit Iarchas gave him seven rings, which he was told to wear alternately during the seven days of the week, according to the particular planet that gave its name to the day. When he was ready to depart, Iarchas furnished him with camels, and at the end of ten days he had reached the sea. From there he sent back a letter to Iarches which read:

"Apollonius to Iarchas and other sages -- health. I came to you by land; you have given me the sea. In communicating to me your wisdom, you have opened the road to heaven. I will remember this among the Greeks; I will continue to enjoy your conversation as if still with you, if I have not drunk of the cup of Tantalus in vain. 

Farewell, excellent philosophers."

That Apollonius did not "drink of the cup of Tantalus in vain" is witnessed by his later work. He brought the Wisdom-Religion back to Europe and laid down lines of force which were continued by his successor, Ammonius Saccas. He established an esoteric school in Ephesus, and is said by some of his biographers to have died at the age of a hundred years. By others it is claimed that he lived to the age of a hundred and thirty, and by still others that he did not "die" at all, but "disappeared from view." 

In the very heart of the Valley of Kashmir there stands the little town of Srinagar, the home of Sri-Naga, the "Serpent-King". The present town was founded 300 B.C. by the great Buddhist King Asoka, and was therefore in existence when Apollonius was in Kashmir. There is a tradition among the inhabitants of this town that a great Adept came there from Europe in the first century, and that he died there. 

A few miles beyond the outskirts of Srinagar are found the magnificent ruins of an ancient Temple of the Sun. It stands upon a high plateau facing the East, its trefoil arches forming graceful frames for the mighty panorama of the Himalayas beyond. So old is this Temple that the five Pandu brothers of Mahabharata fame are said to have worshipped there. Everywhere appears the figure of the triangle super-imposed upon the square -- the ancient symbol of septenary man. Philostratus' description of the Temple of the Sun where Apollonius worshipped closely resembles this ancient Kashmiri Temple of Martand. 

A two-week's journey on mule-back will take the traveller up the mountains into the little city of Lhadak, in Western Thibet. There he may have the good fortune to discover an ancient Buddhist monastery perched like an eagle's nest on the overhanging crags. There the monks may tell him (as they have told other travellers) of certain manuscripts in their possession which were left to them by the great European Adept of the first century when he passed through Lhadak. And on the other side of the Himalayas, in the sacred city of Lhassa, there are said to be other men who possess records of the Adept who taught in Europe during the first century, and came back "home" when his work was done. 

Perhaps, after all, Apollonius did not die in Europe, but started out on a second journey to India, passing through all these places on his way "Home."