Chapter 233

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“The father of the sacred fire,” writes Prof. Jolly, “bore the name of Tvashtri ... His mother was Mâyâ. He himself was styled Akta (anointed χριστὸς) after the priest had poured upon his head the spirituous (?) Soma, and on his body butter purified by sacrifice.” (Man before Metals, p. 190.) The source of his information is not given by the French Darwinist. But the lines are quoted to show that light begins to dawn even upon the Materialists. Adalbert Kühn, in his Die Herabkunft des Feuers, identifies the two signs [Symbol: swastika] and [Symbol: swastika with dots around the center] with Arani, and designates them under this name. He adds: “This process of kindling fire naturally led men to the idea of sexual reproduction,” etc. Why could not a more dignified idea, and one more Occult, have led man to invent this symbol, in so far as it is connected, in one of its aspects, with human reproduction? But its chief symbolism refers to Cosmogony.

“Agni, in the condition of Akta, or anointed, is suggestive of Christ,” remarks Prof. Jolly. “Mâyâ, Mary, His mother; Tvashtri, St. Joseph, the carpenter of the Bible.” In the Rig Veda, Vishvakarman is the highest and oldest of the Gods and their “Father.” He is the “carpenter or builder,” because God is called even by the Monotheists, the “Architect of the Universe.” Still, the original idea is purely metaphysical, and had no connection with the later Phallicism.