Theos-Talk Archives (February 1995 Message tl00067)

Taken from *The Secret Doctrine.*

The section quoted below has been copied from the third 1895
edition of Blavatsky's monumental work.  Original gootnotes are
replaced by numbers within square brackets [].  Original italics
are indicated by an asterisk * before and after the word or words
originally italicized.  In the case of Indian or Sanskrit words,
I have followed a practice which I have observed used by Indians
on the Internet of placing the caret ^ which appears above
certain letters to the right of the English equivalent.  In this
way it is hoped to present as accurate a representation of HPB's
original writing(s) as is possible via a medium which uses so
many different computer platforms.

I hope this posting will be the first of a number to follow.  All
HPB's original writings have long been in the public domain, and
there is no reason not to upload her work for the benefit of
students.  Maybe others will find the time to upload other
examples of her work.  At this time I am concentrating on the
Kabalist reference in vol.  iii of the 1895 edition.

Alan Bain, February, 1995.

SECTION XVI

PETER A JEWISH KABALIST, NOT AN INITIATE.

As to Peter, biblical criticism has shown that in all probability
he had no more to do with the foundation of the Latin Church at
Rome than to furnish the pretext, so readily seized upon by the
cunning Irenaeus, of endowing the Church with a new name for the
Apostle - Petra or Kiffa - a name which, by an easy play upon
words, could be readily connected with Petroma.  The Petroma was
a pair of stone tablets used by the Hierophants at the
Initiations, during the final Mystery.  In this lies concealed
the secret of the Vatican claim to the seat of Peter.  As already
quoted in *Isis Unveiled,* ii.  92:

"In the Oriental countries the designation Peter (in Phoenician
and Chaldaic an interpreter), appears to have been the title of
this personage." [1]

So far, and as the "interpreters" of *Neo*-Christianism, the
Popes have most undeniably the right to call themselves
successors to the title of Peter, but hardly the successors to,
least of all the interpreters of, the doctrines of Jesus, the
Christ; for there is the Oriental Church, older and far purer
than the Roman hierarchy, which, having ever faithfully held to
the primitive teachings of the Apostles, is known historically to
have refused to follow the Latin seceders from the original
Apostolic Church, though, curiously enough, she is still referred
to by her Roman sister as the "Schismatic" Church.  It is useless
to repeat the reasons for the statements above made, as they may
all be found in *Isis Unveiled,* [2] (where the words, Peter,
Patar, and Pitar, are ex- plained, and the origin of the "Seat of
Pitah" is shown.  The reader will find upon referring to the
above pages that an inscription was found on the coffin of Queen
Mentuhept of the Eleventh Dynasty (2250 B.C.  according to
Bunsen), which in its turn was shown to have been transcribed
from the Seventeenth Chapter of the Book of the Dead, dating
certainly not later than 4500 B.C.  or 496 years before the
World's Creation, in the Genesiacal chronology.  Nevertheless,
Baron Bunsen shows the group of the hieroglyphics given
(*Peter-ref-su,* the " Mystery Word") and the sacred formulary
mixed up with a whole series of glosses and various
interpretations on a monument 4,000 years old.

"This is identical with saying that the record (the true
interpre- tation) was at that time no longer intelligible.  .  .
.  We beg our readers to understand that a sacred text, a hymn,
containing the words of a departed spirit, existed in such a
state, about 4,000 years ago, as to be all but unintelligible to
royal scribes." [3]

"Unintelligible" to the non-initiated - this is certain; and it
is so proved by the confused and contradictory glosses.  Yet
there can be no doubt that it was - for it *still is* - a mystery
word.  The Baron further explains:

"It appears to me that our PTR is literally the old Aramaic and
Hebrew " Patar," which occurs in the history of Joseph as the
specific word for *interpreting,* whence also Pitrum is the term
for interpretation of a text, a dream.  [4]

This word, PTR, was partially interpreted owing to another word
similarly written in another group of hieroglyphics, on a stele,
the glyph used for it being an opened eye, interpreted by De
Rouge' [5] as "to appear," and by Bunsen as "illuminator," which
is more correct.  However it may be, the word Patar, or Peter,
would locate both master and disciple in the circle of
initiation, and connect them with the Secret Doctrine; while in
the "Seat of Peter" we can hardly help seeing a connection with
Petroma, the double set of stone tablets used by the Hierophant
at the Supreme Initiation during the final Mystery, as already
stated, also with the Pi^tha- stha^na (seat, or the place of a
seat), a term used in the Mysteries of the Ta^ntriks in India, in
which the limbs of Sati^ are scattered and then united again, as
those of Osiris by Isis.  [6] Pi^than is a Sanskrit word, and is
also used to designate the seat of the initiating Lama.

Whether all the above terms are due simply to "coincidences" or
otherwise is left to the decision of our learned Symbologists and
Philologists.  We state facts - and nothing more.  Many other
writers, far more learned and entitled to be heard than the
author has ever claimed to be, have sufficiently demonstrated
that Peter never had anything to do with the foundation of the
Latin Church; that his supposed name Petra or Kiffa, also the
whole story of his Apostleship at Rome, are simply a play on the
term, which meant in every country, in one or another form, the
Hierophant or Interpret- er of the Mysteries; and that finally,
far from dying a martyr at Rome, where he had probably never
been, he died at a good old age at Babylon.  In *Sepher Toldoth
Jeshu,* a Hebrew manuscript of great antiquity - evidently an
original and very precious document, if one may judge from the
care the Jews took to hide it from the Christians - Simon (Peter)
is referred to as "a faithful servant of God," who passed his
life in austerities and meditation, a Kabalist and a Nazarene who
lived at Babylon "at the top of a tower, composed hymns, preached
charity," and died there.

Footnotes:

[1] Taylor's *Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries,* Wilder's ed., p.
x.
[2] ii.  91-94
[3] Bunsen *Egypt's Place in History,* v.  90.
[4] *Ibid.*
[5] *Stele,* p.  44.
[6] See Dowson's *Hindu Classical Dict, sub voc.,
"Pi^tha-stha^nam."