Theosophical Siftings The Myth of Prometheus Vol 7, No 8 The Myth of Prometheus or The Coming of Creative Power to Man by C. Reprinted from "Theosophical Siftings" Volume 7 The Theosophical Publishing Society, England [Page 3] IN The Secret Doctrine, Mme. Blavatsky tells us that she has spent a considerable part of her life in studying the hidden meaning of all ancient myths both sacred and profane. For these myths are allegories in which are embodied certain universal truths with regard to the life and history of man. She tells us that "without the help of symbology — with its seven departments, of which the moderns know nothing — no ancient Scripture can ever be correctly understood". For the different offshoots of the Aryan race embodied in various forms the truths which had been carried down by legend from the time when they were revealed to the Sons of Light by their Divine Instructors. The Grecian myth of Prometheus is one of the most interesting and important of the ancient legends, because it relates to the turning point of the great cycle of evolution, the coming of self-consciousness to man. It symbolizes the emergence of the race from the state of childhood, when good and evil were alike unknown, when the harmony of nature was as yet unbroken, because the individual man had not as yet realised himself as a separate entity. For the race as well as the individual has passed through the stage graphically described by Tennyson: — "The baby new to earth and sky What time his tender palm is prest Against the circle of the breast, Has never thought that "this is I:" But as he grows he gathers much, And learns the use of "I "and "me". And finds "I am not what I see, And other than the things I touch." With regard to this individualizing process, The Secret Doctrine says:— "The Ocean of Matter does not divide into its potential and constituent drops until the sweep of the life-impulse reaches the evolutionary stage of man-birth. The tendency towards segregation into individual Monads is gradual, and in the higher animals comes almost to the point." This realising of one's self as a separate entity is the sin of separateness, but it is also a Page 1 Theosophical Siftings The Myth of Prometheus Vol 7, No 8 necessary step before the path of renunciation can be entered. One cannot give up that which one is not conscious of [Page 4] possessing. The force of individuality is said in Vasudevamanana to be that "which prevents all except Ishwara and Atmajnahis (those having wisdom of Atma or 'Self') from realizing the differences between Atma and the five sheaths by enveloping such personages with intense mist". And again: — "Of the tree of mundane existence it is the effects of Avarana Shakti (individuality) that form the root. And it is this Avarana Shakti alone that is also the cause of final emancipation." The idea of man as an individual is then the first key to the legend of Prometheus. But it has many meanings, only a few of which can be suggested in the present paper. Prometheus is Lucifer, the light-bringer, but also the cause of sin; he is the Lord of Light, but also the Spirit of Darkness. He represents the Manasaputra or Sons of Mind, who brought down the key of knowledge from heaven to animal man (see the cover of Lucifer), and became in consequence chained for many ages to the rock of earthly existence. He is the god who descends into matter to redeem it, but becomes thereby tainted by its evil tendencies, and is perpetually tortured by the vulture of remorse. He deliberately chooses to live many lives of suffering with self-consciousness rather than to remain a passive partaker in the joys of heaven. Prometheus is chained to the rock by the order of Zeus. The latter represents the Lunar Pitris, the creators of animal man, his Primeval Progenitors who are "spiritually lower but physically stronger than the Prometheans; therefore the latter are shown conquered. The lower Host whose work the Titan spoiled, and thus defeated the plans of Zeus, was on this earth in its own sphere and plane of action; whereas the superior Host was an exile from Heaven, who had got entangled in the meshes of Matter. The inferior Host were masters of all the cosmic and lower Titanic Forces; the higher Titan possessed only the Intellectual and Spiritual Fire". Thus is explained "the War in Heaven" which ever rages in the inner nature of all human beings, and which rages the more fiercely the more clearly the presence of "Prometheus" is felt. "The good which I would I do not", said Paul ruefully, " but the evil which I would not that I do". Thus is discord brought down upon the earth by the coming of Prometheus, for it is only by suffering that any further progression can be made. "The Occultists", says Mme. Blavatsky, "recognise in pain and suffering but the necessary pangs of incessant procreation; a series of stages toward an ever growing perfectibility". It is the ever present contest [Page 5] between free-will and necessity, the lower nature is bound, but the higher is free. "Our Life", says Carlyle, "is compassed round with Necessity, yet is the meaning of Life itself no other than Freedom, than Voluntary Force. Thus have we a warfare". Having passed into the human stage of evolution, it is not possible for mankind, did they even wish it, to return to the irresponsible condition of the animal man. The human soul may refuse to listen to the voice of conscience, and may become utterly degraded, lower in one sense than the beasts; the lower mind Page 2 Theosophical Siftings The Myth of Prometheus Vol 7, No 8 may break asunder from its inner God, but even then it still remains the distorted image of that which it disregards, the responsibility for its actions remains, the karma of all its deeds must be fully worked out. Its capacity for evil is the inverted aspect of its capacity for good. The gift of Prometheus has become a curse. Yet there are all stages of knowledge and therefore all stages of responsibility. It is said in The Secret Doctrine, that when "the Sons of Wisdom, the Sons of Night, ready for rebirth came down . some entered the Chhâyâs, some projected a spark". The "Chhâyâs" were the animal ethereal forms of primeval man created by the Lunar Pitris who are symbolised as "Zeus" in the Promethean myth. The Sons of Wisdom (Promethean entities) "entered" those who were ready, and these became the Arhats or Sages. "Those who received but a spark constitute the average humanity which have to acquire their intellectuality during the present Manvantaric evolution, after which they will be ready in the next for the full reception of the Sons of Wisdom". There was also a third class, the "latest arrivals" among the human Monads "which had hardly evolved from their last transitional and lower animal forms at the close of the Third Round". These "became narrow-headed", not being ready even to "receive a spark". Now the fuller the inner enlightenment, the greater is the power of the individual man for good or for evil, and the greater therefore the karmic result of each action and thought. Prometheus, as stated above, has his dual aspect, and it is not possible to be conscious of the one without at the same time being conscious of the other. Mankind was born as Carlyle says, "when the Sun was in Libra". The active force of nature reveals itself to him in both its aspects at once. Lucifer does not ask .“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil ", he says on the contrary "Lead us into temptation in order that we may be delivered from evil". As Mme. Blavatsky says: — "Perfection, to be fully such, must be born out of imperfection, the incorruptible must grow out of the corruptible, having [Page 6] the latter as its vehicle, and basis and contrast". It is by means of the union of opposing forces in man's nature, that the attainment of the Godlike state becomes possible. Had Prometheus remained "in heaven", the connecting link between the animal and the divine in man could not have been supplied. "It is owing to this rebellion of intellectual life against the morbid inactivity of pure spirit, that we are what we are — self- conscious thinking men, with the capabilities and attributes of Gods in us for good as much as for evil. Hence the Rebels are our Saviours." They "preferred the curse of incarnation, and the long cycles of terrestrial existence and rebirth, to seeing the misery, even if unconscious, of the beings who were evolved as shadows out of their brethren, through the semi-passive energy of their too spiritual Creators". "Tradition shows the celestial Yogis offering themselves as voluntary victims in order to redeem Humanity, which, was created god-like and perfect at first, and endow him with human affections and aspirations. To do this, they had to give up their natural state, descend on our globe, and take up their abode on it for the whole cycle of the Mahâyuga, thus exchanging their impersonal Individualities for individual Personalities — the bliss of sidereal existence for the curse of terrestrial life". The condition of the early races of mankind, not yet enlightened by the coming of Prometheus, is one which it is very difficult to picture out in words.