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- 3. From the effulgency of light — the ray of the ever-darkness — sprung in space the re-awakened energies (Dhyan Chohans) : the one from the egg, the six and the five (a) ; then the three, the one,
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- the four, the one, the five — the twice seven, the sum total (b). And these are : the essences, the flames, the elements, the builders, the numbers, the arupa (formless), the rupa (with bodies), and the force or divine man — the sum total. And from the divine man emanated the forms, the sparks, the sacred animals, and the messengers of the sacred fathers (the Pitris) within the holy four. *
(a) This relates to the sacred Science of the Numerals : so sacred, indeed, and so important in the study of Occultism that the subject can hardly be skimmed, even in such a large work as the present. It is on the Hierarchies and correct numbers of these Beings invisible (to us) except upon very rare occasions, that the mystery of the whole Universe is built. The Kumaras, for instance, are called the “ Four ” though in reality seven in number, because Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatana and SanatKumara are the chief Vaidhâtra (their patronymic name), as they spring from the “ four-fold mystery.” To make the whole clearer we have to turn for our illustrations to tenets more familiar to some of our readers, namely, the Brahminical.
According to Manu, Hiranyagarbha is Brahmâ the first male formed by the undiscernible Causeless cause in a “ Golden Egg resplendent as the Sun,” as states the Hindu Classical Dictionary. “ Hiranyagarbha ” — means the golden, or rather the “ Effulgent Womb ” or Egg. The meaning tallies awkwardly with the epithet of “ male.” Surely the esoteric meaning of the sentence is clear enough. In the Rig Veda it is said : — “ That, the one Lord of all beings . . . . the one animating principle of gods and man,” arose, in the beginning, in the Golden Womb, Hiranyagarbha — which is the Mundane Egg or sphere of our Universe. That Being is surely androgynous, and the allegory of Brahmâ separating into two and recreating in one of his halves (the female Vâch) himself as Virâj, is a proof of it.
“ The One from the Egg, the Six and the Five,” give the number 1065, the value of the first-born (later on the male and female Brahmâ-Prajâpati), who answers to the numbers 7, and 14, and 21 respectively. The Prajâpati are, like the Sephiroth, only seven, including the
* The 4, represented in the Occult numerals by the Tetraktis, the Sacred or Perfect Square, is a Sacred Number with the mystics of every nation and race. It has one and the same significance in Brahmanism, Buddhism, the Kabala and in the Egyptian, Chaldean and other numerical systems.
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synthetic Sephira of the triad from which they spring. Thus from Hiranyagarbha or Prajâpati, the triune (primeval Vedic Trimurti, Agni, Vayu, and Surya), emanate the other seven, or again ten, if we separate the first three which exist in one, and one in three, all, moreover, being comprehended within that one “ supreme ” Parama, called Guhya or “ secret,” and Sarvâtma, the “ Super-Soul.” “ The seven Lords of Being lie concealed in Sarvâtma like thoughts in one brain.” So are the Sephiroth. It is either seven when counting from the upper Triad headed by Kether, or ten — exoterically. In the Mahabhârata the Prajâpati are 21 in number, or ten, six, and five (1065), thrice seven. *
(b) “ The Three, the One, the Four, the One, the Five ” (in their totality — twice seven) represent 31415 — the numerical hierarchy of the DhyanChohans of various orders, and of the inner or circumscribed world. † When placed on the boundary of the great circle of “ Pass not ” (see Stanza V.), called also the Dhyanipasa, the “ rope of the Angels,” the “ rope ” that hedges off the phenomenal from the noumenal Kosmos, (not falling within the range of our present objective consciousness) ; this number, when not enlarged by permutation and expansion, is ever 31415 anagrammatically and Kabalistically, being both the number of the circle and the mystic Svastica, the twice seven once more ; for whatever way the two sets of figures are counted, when added separately, one figure after another, whether crossways, from right or from left, they will always yield fourteen. Mathematically they represent the well-known calculation, namely, that the ratio of the diameter to the circumference of a circle is as 1 to 3.1415, or the value of the π (pi), as this ratio is called — the symbol π being always used in
* In the Kabala the same numbers are a value of Jehovah, viz., 1065, since the numerical values of the three letters which compose his name — Jod, Vau and twice He — are respectively 10 (Template:Style S-SHebrew), 6 (ו) and 5 (ה) ; or again thrice seven, 21. “ Ten is the Mother of the Soul, for Life and Light are therein united,” says Hermes. “ For number one is born of the Spirit and the number ten from matter (chaos, feminine) ; the unity has made the ten, the ten the unity ” (Book of the Keys). By the means of the Temura, the anagrammatical method of the Kabala, and the knowledge of 1065 (21), a universal science may be obtained regarding Kosmos and its mysteries ” (Rabbi Yogel). The Rabbis regard the numbers 10, 6, and 5 as the most sacred of all.
† The reader may be told that an American Kabalist has now discovered the same number for the Elohim. It came to the Jews from Chaldæa. See “ Hebrew Metrology ” in the Masonic Review, July, 1885, McMillan Lodge, No. 141.
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mathematical formulæ to express it. This set of figures must have the same meaning, since the 1 : 314,159, and then again 1 : 3 : 1,415,927 are worked out in the secret calculations to express the various cycles and ages of the “ first born,” or 311,040,000,000,000 with fractions, and yield the same 13,415 by a process we are not concerned with at present. And it may be shown that Mr. Ralston Skinner, author of The Source of Measures, reads the Hebrew word Alhim in the same number values, by omitting, as said, the ciphers and by permutation — 13,514 : since א (a) is 1 : ל (l) is 3 (or 30) ; ה (h) is 5 ; י (i) 1 for 10 ; and ם (m) is 4 (40), and anagrammatically — 31,415 as explained by him.
Thus, while in the metaphysical world, the circle with the one central Point in it has no number, and is called Anupadaka (parentless and numberless) — viz., it can fall under no calculation, — in the manifested world the mundane Egg or Circle is circumscribed within the groups called the Line, the Triangle, the Pentacle, the second Line and the Cube (or 13514) ; and when the Point having generated a Line, thus becomes a diameter which stands for the androgynous Logos, then the figures become 31415, or a triangle, a line, a cube, the second line, and a pentacle. “ When the Son separates from the Mother he becomes the Father,” the diameter standing for Nature, or the feminine principle. Therefore it is said : “ In the world of being, the one Point fructifies the Line — the Virgin Matrix of Kosmos (the egg-shaped zero) — and the immaculate Mother gives birth to the form that combines all forms.” Prajâpati is called the first procreating male, and “ his Mother’s husband.” * This gives the key-note to all the later divine sons from immaculate mothers. It is greatly corroborated by the significant fact that Anna (the name of the Mother of the Virgin Mary) now represented by the Roman Catholic church as having given birth to her daughter in an immaculate way (“ Mary conceived without sin ”), is derived from the Chaldean Ana, heaven, or Astral Light, Anima Mundi ; whence Anaitia, Devi-durga, the wife of Siva, is also called Annapurna,
* We find the same expression in Egypt. Mout signifies, for one thing, “ Mother,” and shows the character assigned to her in the triad of that country. “ She was no less the mother than the wife of Ammon, one of the principle titles of the god being “ the husband of his mother.” The goddess Mout, or Mût, is addressed as “ our lady,” the “ queen of Heaven ” and of “ the Earth,” thus “ sharing these titles with the other mother goddesses, Isis, Hathor, etc.” (Maspero).
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and Kanya, the Virgin ; “ Uma-Kanya ” being her esoteric name, and meaning the “ Virgin of light,” Astral Light in one of its multitudinous aspects.
(c) The Devas, Pitris, Rishis ; the Suras and the Asuras ; the Daityas and Adityas ; the Danavas and Gandharvas, etc., etc., have all their synonyms in our Secret Doctrine, as well as in the Kabala and the Hebrew Angelology ; but it is useless to give their ancient names, as it would only create confusion. Many of these may be also found now, even in the Christian hierarchy of divine and celestial powers. All those Thrones and Dominions, Virtues and Principalities, Cherubs, Seraphs and demons, the various denizens of the Sidereal World, are the modern copies of archaic prototypes. The very symbolism in their names, when transliterated and arranged in Greek and Latin, are sufficient to show it, as will be proved in several cases further on.
The “ Sacred Animals ” are found in the Bible as well as in the Kabala, and they have their meaning (a very profound one, too) on the page of the origins of Life. In the Sepher Jezirah it is stated that “ God engraved in the Holy Four the throne of his glory, the Ophanim (Wheels or the World-Spheres), the Seraphim, * the Sacred Animals, and the ministering angels, and from these three (the Air, Water, and Fire or Ether) he formed his habitation.” Thus was the world made “ through three Seraphim — Sepher, Saphar, and Sipur,” or “ through Number, Numbers, and Numbered.” With the astronomical key these “ Sacred Animals ” become the signs of the Zodiac.
* This is the literal translation from the IXth and Xth Sections : “ Ten numbers without what ? One : the spirit of the living God . . . . who liveth in eternities ! Voice and Spirit and Word, and this is the Holy Spirit. Two : Spirit out of Spirit. He designed and hewed therewith twenty-two letters of foundation, three Mothers and seven double and Twelve single, and one spirit out of them. Three : Water out of spirit ; he designed and hewed with them the barren and the void, mud and earth. He designed them as a flowerbed, hewed them as a wall, covered them as a paving. Four : Fire out of water. He designed and hewed therewith the throne of glory and the wheels, and the seraphim and the holy animals and the ministering angels, and of the three He founded his dwelling, as it is said, He makes his angels spirits and his servants fiery flames !” Which words “ founded his dwelling ” show clearly that in the Kabala, as in India, the Deity was considered as the Universe, and was not, in his origin, the extra-cosmic God he is now.