in the crudity of unphilosophic language, the symbol of eternity.

But the serpent, when coiled round a tree or pole, represents a different form. It is then a simple spiral, while the more complicated spiral technically known as the lemniscate is identical with the figure represented by the interlaced serpents on the caduceus of Hermes. The meaning of this symbol is not so apparent, indeed it offers a characteristic example, in miniature, of the general evolution of mythology.

Students of chemistry are aware that one of the greatest of living chemists, Sir Wm. Crookes, has, in his "Genesis of the Elements," expressed the latest theory of physical science, with reference to the mode of motion of that ultimate atomic energy, present in every molecule and atom of this physical world. "We have," he writes, "adduced reasons for believing that primitive matter was formed by the act of a generative force, throwing off at intervals of time, atoms endowed with varying quantities of primitive forms of energy. If we may hazard any conjectures as to the source of energy embodied in a chemical atom, we may, I think, premise that the heat radiations propagated outwards through the ether, from the ponderable matter of the

universe, by some process of nature not yet known to us, are transformed at the confines of the universe, into the primary-the essential— motions of chemical atoms, which, the instant they are formed, gravitate inwards, and thus restore to the universe the energy which otherwise would be lost to it through radiant heat."

This essential motion appears to be the result of "three very simple simultaneous motions. First, a simple oscillation backwards and forwards (suppose east and west); secondly, a simple oscillation at right angles to the former (suppose north and south), of half the periodic time-i.e. twice as fast; and, thirdly, a motion at right angles to these two (suppose downwards), which in its simplest form would be with unvarying velocity."

The resultant figure of these three simultaneous motions, would then appear to us as the figure 8 (of course in space of three dimensions), or as it is technically called the "lemniscate," and as the learned author remarks, “it fulfils every condition of the problem, inasmuch as the curve has to pass through a point neutral as to electricity and chemical energy twice in each cycle." An interesting occult investiga

1 Sir Wm. Crooke's Address to the Chemical Society on 28th March 1888.

tion recently took place, in which atoms of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen were again and again disintegrated in clairvoyant vision, until from the gaseous condition, they were raised to the fourth (or ultimate) etheric sub-state. In all the three cases, the ultimate atom was found to be identical, and to be composed entirely of spirals of this lemniscate or figure 8 description, "the spiral in its turn being composed of spirillæ, and these again of minuter spirillæ."

Now, the figure of the entwined serpents on the caduceus of Hermes, presents itself to us in exactly the form which the lemniscate or figure 8 (in three-dimensional space) describes. It would thus appear that this symbol is but a reminiscence of the archaic knowledge, as to the mode of motion of the energy which created, and which upholds in manifestation, this physical universe.2

But while the above interpretation belongs to the region of physics, the metaphysical interpretation may also be stated, for both doubtless helped to give the symbol its persistent chaThe metaphysical interpretation then,

racter.

1 A. Besant's article on "Occult Chemistry " in Lucifer of November 1895.

2 In the great work on Creation, viz., “The Book of Dzyan," it will be remembered that Fohat is described as "tracing spiral lines."

is that the interlaced serpents represent "the pairs of opposites," or, as they are sometimes called, the light and the dark sides of Nature. Duality, as we have seen above, is a fundamental characteristic of evolution. The First Manifested Logos is recognised in His dual aspect as Purusha and Prakriti — spirit and matter—while the two poles between which the universe is builded, may be stated as the positive and the negative, as male and female, or as life and death. Our very thought implies duality, for there must be both the thinker, and the thing thought of.

Whatever further deep-seated meanings may have led to the establishment of the serpent symbol, imagination need have no difficulty in picturing the process of its degradation, and in thus spanning the gulf that lies between the above subtle ideas, and the blood-stained practices of the nations who offered human victims on the altars of their serpent-gods.

CHAPTER XIV

one.

THE SECOND BIRTH

THE "second birth" is a mystic term, but it must be recognised as a remarkably appropriate It has been used in the inner teaching of many religions with reference to rites of initiation. This was notably the case in the teachings of Jesus, though Christendom gradually lost or misunderstood the true meaning of the term.

Until quite recent times, very little has been known to the world at large, about initiations, except the vague tradition that such rites existed; but the fact that these initiations are a reality, has been once more brought to light.

Now the term second birth, has been, and may be, appropriately used for either the first or the last in this series; in fact, each and all of these ceremonies may be called a new birth, for each signalises the entrance to a new life. Just as the new-born infant is ushered into the world of physical life, where fresh experiences