7

THE DINOSAURS

None are They whose number is Six:⁵ else were they six indeed.

Seven⁶ are these Six that live not in the City of Pyramids, under the Night of Pan.

There was Lao-tzû.

There was Siddartha.

There was Krishna.

There was Tahuti.

There was Mosheh.

There was Dionysus.⁷

There was Mahmud.

But the Seventh men called PERDURABO; for enduring unto The End, at The End was Naught to endure.⁸

Amen.

COMMENTARY (Ζ)

This chapter gives a list of those special messengers of the Infinite who initiate periods. They are called Dinosaurs because of their seeming to be terrible devouring creatures. They are Masters of the Temple, for their number is 6 (1 plus 2 plus 3), the mystic number of Binah; but they are called "None", because they have attained. If it were not so, they would be called "six" in its bad sense of mere intellect.

They are called Seven, although they are Eight, because Lao-tzû counts as nought, owing to the nature of his doctrine. The reference to their "living not" is to be found in Liber 418.

The word "Perdurabo" means "I will endure unto the end". The allusion is explained in the note.

Siddartha, or Gotama, was the name of the last Buddha.

Krishna was the principal incarnation of the Indian Vishnu, the preserver, the principal expounder of Vedantism.

Tahuti, or Thoth, the Egyptian God of Wisdom.

Mosheh, Moses, the founder of the Hebrew system.

Dionysus, probably an ecstatic from the East.

Mahmud, Mohammed.

All these were men; their Godhead is the result of mythopoeia.

NOTES

(5) Masters of the Temple, whose grade has the mystic number 6 (=1+2+3).

(6) These are not eight, as apparent; for Lao-tzû counts as 0.

(7) The legend of "Christ" is only a corruption and perversion of other legends. Especially of Dionysus: Compare the account of Christ before Herod/Pilate in the gospels, and of Dionysus before Pentheus in "The Bacchae".

(8) O, the last letter of Perdrurabo, is Naught.