Kingsland W. - The Septenary in Nature

After endeavouring to grasp the meaning and signification of the Absolute or Absoluteness, as given in the first three stanzas from the Book of Dzyan, and to attach some definite concept to the term Parabrahm; after searching in vain on the higher planes of consciousness for those definite and concrete forms in which we express our ideas in relation to the physical world; after soaring to the heights of “Absolute Consciousness” which is “Unconsciousness”, of “Absolute Being” which is “Non-Being”, and endeavouring to penetrate that “Darkness and Silence” which ever wraps in profoundest mystery the secret of the root and source of all things – the “rootless-root” and “causeless-cause”; and in general, after dealing with the highest transcendental metaphysics, by which alone it is possible to approach in any way the essential concept of the unity of the Universe, we turn with a sigh of relief to the first aspect of the cosmogony we are studying, which seems to offer a familiar and definite basis in the facts of our experience.

We are like travellers in an unknown region, who have been overtaken by the night, and who, after vainly groping their way, have been compelled at last to sit down and wait for the daybreak, lest the next step should be a fatal one, over the edge of the precipice, or into the quaking bog. How eagerly would such travellers welcome the first glimmer of approaching dawn, how gladly would they hail the light which would enable them once more to use their physical faculties, and bring them once again into contact with familiar objects.

And such I take it is the experience of some of us, after we have attacked again and yet again this problem of the Absolute. The first tangible, practical, concrete idea which we seem able to grasp is the septenary division of nature which we have now to consider. Here at least, in the seven globes, seven rounds, seven races, and other septenaries, we appear to find some firm ground to stand upon; here seems to be something which bears a relation to the familiar facts of our experience.

But I am afraid that we have not quite done with metaphysics yet, for we must not shirk the question as to the basis and signification of this septenary division; and if we can discover what it is that lies at the root of this division, and grasp the idea or type which it represents, so as to be able to follow it through all its permutations, we shall have in our hands one of the most valuable keys to unlock the treasures of the ancient Wisdom-Religion, both in its esoteric and exoteric forms.

To those who take up for the first time an elementary Theosophical 327 work, such as Esoteric Buddhism or the Key to Theosophy, it is very likely to appear that this septenary division is quite an arbitrary one; even if it does not seem that seven is decidedly an awkward number to hit upon. Ten would appear to be the perfect and complete number, and even six seems to have more claims than seven. Those who go deeper into the matter however, and make a careful study of the Secret Doctrine begin to see that there are relations and correspondences between the macrocosm and the microcosm, and also certain numerical and geometrical considerations which make this division of pre-eminent importance.

They will also be struck by the fact that the septenary division is made use of in all the ancient cosmogonies and sacred writings. This fact in itself, and apart from any of the specific teachings of Theosophy, is a very remarkable one, and has long been a puzzle to scholars. Wherever we dig in the records of the past, in the most ancient writings of the Aryans, in the records of the Persians, Egyptians, Chaldeans, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and finally in the Christian theology, we find this mysterious number seven in all kinds of permutations and allegorical and symbolical forms.

Now a careful study of the Secret Doctrine will, I think, serve to convince us that there is one, and only one, explanation of this fact. All these systems have been derived from one original source, and Theosophy gives us the key by disclosing the existence of the ancient Wisdom-Religion, and initiating us into some of the fundamental doctrines which have been preserved uncorrupted from the very commencement of the human race; and thereby enabling us to perceive the original and spiritual meaning of those exoteric religions which are but the materialized and corrupted forms of this one primeval knowledge, imparted to Humanity by its Divine Progenitors.

Before, therefore, we examine more in detail the nature of this septenary division, as we find it in all the ancient records, and also as we see it in the phenomenal world of nature, I must draw your attention to certain fundamental principles which underlie the use of numbers, and their geometrical equivalents, in the Secret Doctrine. The constant permutations of the triad and the quaternary, together making seven, and the apparently interminable division of septenary within septenary, are liable to produce chaos instead of cosmos within our minds, unless we can fully grasp some type or idea to which we can refer, so as to trace the correspondence in any particular division of the subject, or plane of consciousness, with which we may be dealing.

Since we are working from universals to particulars, we must endeavour to grasp first of all the metaphysical basis of the septenary, as it is shadowed forth from that highest concept of all, the concept of the Absolute, which we have already referred to. Proceeding downward in the series of emanations from this principle, we shall finally arrive at the 328 phenomenal world of life and consciousness, and find the reflection of the noumenal in certain facts of nature which come within the range of our physical faculties.

Seven, we are told in the Secret Doctrine, is “the perfect and sacred number of this Mahâ-Manvantara”, because it “proceeds directly from the Monad, which is the origin and crown of all things” (II. 602). Now the Monad stands here for the first or unmanifested Logos, the point in the circle; and if we could grasp the principle by which the one becomes seven, we should have the key to the whole problem of manifestation or emanation, and of the relation between subject and object up to the highest plane of consciousness. This, however, like the problem of the Absolute itself must remain a matter for the exercise of our highest intuition; it cannot be grasped by the mere intellect, but will grow and develop in proportion to the progress we make towards that life of spiritual self-consciousness which is the goal of our initiation. Let us, however, endeavour to bring it as nearly as possible within the reach of our present finite perceptions, and for that purpose we will make use of the time-honoured and universal symbology of geometrical figures.

The circle represents the darkness and silence of the Absolute; that which remains incognisable even to the highest Dhyâni Chohans; which is hidden even from the Logos by the veil of Mûlaprakriti. It is boundless, timeless, infinite; and in circumscribing it thus in order to represent it to our intellectual faculties, we have made the first concession to our finite intelligence, we have taken the first step in anthropomorphizing the Divine; that step which, once it has been lost sight of, as in all systems of exoteric religion, results in the worship of a personal God, with all the horrors of theological dogmatism and priestcraft. Let us be careful, therefore, to remember that in using the circle as the first geometrical figure, and the symbol of the final and highest abstraction, or Parabrahm, and in the subsequent use of other geometrical figures, we are only employing temporary aids to an intellectual process. Let us be careful not to materialize the spiritual, or to circumscribe the infinite within the limits of our own narrow sphere of consciousness.

Now, like the dawn in the East to the benighted traveller, so to us there appears out of the silence and darkness of boundless space, out of the great deep or chaos, the first ray of light, the first manifestation, the first outbreathing. We represent it as the point within the circle.

The circle itself is no number, for it is All. Its circumference is nowhere, and its centre everywhere. Thus the appearance of the point within the circle, as the first number proceeding from no-number, or as the first ray of light emanating from darkness, must be taken in the widest possible metaphysical and abstract sense. In the words of the Stanza from the Book of Dzyan:

“Darkness radiates light, and light drops

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one solitary ray into the mother-deep” (space).

Observe that there is a distinction made even between the first radiation of light and the first ray of light.

“The ray shoots through the virgin egg; the ray causes the eternal egg to thrill, and drop the non-eternal germ, which condenses into the world-egg.”

The Commentary adds:

“The solitary ray dropping into the mother-deep may be taken as meaning Divine Thought, or Intelligence, impregnating chaos.”

(I. 64.)

We have exactly the same idea in the first verses of Genesis, where we read that “darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God (Alhim) moved upon the face of the waters.” The waters, or the great deep, is the universal symbol for abstract space. This is followed by the creation of Light.

We have now to discover how this first number, or number one, becomes a trinity, or triad, represented geometrically as the triangle, the first geometrical figure after the circle, and significant of the process taking place at the commencement of the periodical outbreathing or Manvantara. The apex of the triangle corresponds to the point in the circle.

If we conceive of the “ray”, in the sense given us in the Commentary, as Divine Thought or Ideation, we are compelled at once to postulate a trinity; for we can neither conceive of a thought without a thinker, nor without an object, or the thing thought of. Again, in the words of the Stanza, we have the ray, the virgin or eternal egg, and the product of the two in the non-eternal or periodical germ. In exoteric religious symbology this idea is expressed in the trinity of Father-Mother-Son, which has become so terribly anthropomorphized in the Christian theology; the purely philosophical and metaphysical conception lying at the root of this principle of manifestation having been dwarfed and materialized into the dogma of the immaculate conception of a physical man.

This trinity in its first aspect constitutes the three Logoi; in its second aspect, viewed as a unity in relation to the first manifestation, or the point in the circle, it is the second Logos. We have the same idea of this trinity in unity set forth in the first verse of St. John’s Gospel, where we have the Logos, or Word, the Word that was with God, and the Word that was God. With the key thus supplied by the Secret Doctrine it is very easy for us to interpret this doctrine of the trinity wherever we meet with it; not merely in Christian theology, where it is such a mystery and a stumbling-block, but also in the cosmogonies and theogonies of other religious systems. Truly “he who knows one religion knows none.” It is only by studying universal symbolism that we can free ourselves from the fatal illusions of sectarianism and orthodoxy.

Our next step towards the septenary is to understand the nature of the quaternary, the four, or perfect square. This is not quite so easy as in the case of the trinity, for it introduces a new idea which has many aspects. 330 Let us try to get it in its simplest form. We are told in the words of the Stanza that “the ray causes the eternal egg to thrill, and drop the non-eternal germ, which condenses into the world-egg”; and in the next Shloka it is said:

“(Then) the three (triangle) fall into the four (quaternary). The radiant essence becomes seven inside, seven outside.”

How does the three become four, and then seven, or fourteen? It is noticeable that there is no clear explanation of this in the Commentary, but we are treated to a short disquisition on the occult and metaphysical properties of abstract numbers. We may gather from this that we cannot apply our ordinary conceptions of numerical or geometrical relations and processes to the transcendental metaphysics of numbers as applied to the process of emanating number or numbers from the no-number. We are not dealing with the gradual evolution of a series of numbers proceeding in regular sequence, otherwise we might have supposed that from three we should proceed to five, and then to seven. It is important to bear in mind that the septenary in all its applications is made up of the factor numbers three and four, or the triad and the quaternary.

In order to understand, then, why the quaternary follows the triad, we must not look at the matter arithmetically, but symbolically, although there is, I believe, a real and profound basis for this division in the higher realms of mathematics, a hint to which may perhaps be found in the so-called fourth dimension of space, and also in the use made of the triangle as an intermediate in the Parker method of the quadration of the circle. The quaternary or tetraktys was looked upon as the perfect quadration of the circle in the Pythagorean system, and the use made of the various values of the ratio of diameter to circumference in the Kabalistic or numerical key to the Book of Genesis is very significant. For further information on this point I must refer you to a book called The Source of Measures, by J. Ralston Skinner.

The quaternary then stands for the world of manifestation, the phenomenal world of Mâyâ. It introduces the element of duality, which is inseparable from our conceptions of the universe as we know it. It is just here, in this metaphysical conception of the triad as spirit, vitalizing or energizing the quaternary as matter, that we have the battle-field between the monists and the dualists, between those who conceive in some form or other of spirit and matter, or rather substance, as being one in their ultimate abstraction – as is the case in the philosophy we are considering; and those who look upon spirit and substance as two eternally existing but distinct principles. We are compelled to introduce the dual element at some point or other, and we have it here as the abstract synthesis of spirit in the triad, and of matter or substance in the quaternary; the two being considered apart as soon as we have manifestation, though they are united in the final abstraction of Parabrahm. Looked at in another aspect, the triangle 331

represents primordial spirit-matter, which in the Stanza is called the “virgin egg”, or the “eternal egg”; and which, fructified by the “ray”, the point in the circle, produces the mundane egg, the manifested world, or as it is called in the East, the egg of Brahmâ. Note that just as the apex of the triangle corresponds to the point in the circle, so the base line of the triangle corresponds with the top side of the square.

Viewed in this relation, the quaternary becomes the third person of the trinity, or the third Logos; the point in the circle being the first, and the triangle the second. It is the Son in the Trinity of Father-Mother-Son, and in exoteric religions it becomes the male creator of the universe and the personal God. Thus in Eastern literature it is the male Brahmâ, and in the Hebrew Bible it is Jehovah, or Jod, He, Vau, He: the four lettered Tetragrammaton, יהוה.

373 It will be well for the student to remember, that though the triangle represents the first abstraction of the trinity, that trinity, as it is usually met with in its application to various religious systems, consists of the point in the circle, the triad, and the quaternary, each considered as a unit. This is indeed the key to all the ancient cosmogonies, and theogonies, and the root idea from whence is derived the whole pantheon of male and female Gods and Goddesses, the so-called “heathen” deities. Little does the outside world understand of the profound significance of these symbols. Little does the orthodox world of to-day understand that the personal male God Jehovah, who was appropriated by the early Church theologians as the first person of their trinity, is only the Kabalistic form of the much earlier Hindu male creator Brahmâ. It matters not by what name it is called, it is always the quaternary, whether as the four-faced Brahmâ, or as the four-lettered Tetragrammaton or Jehovah. Again in the Pythagorean system it is the sacred four, or Tetraktys. Also in the Kabalah it is the first Adam, Adam-Kadmon, and as such is both male and female, and corresponds to the Third Race of humanity, previous to the separation of the sexes. To show still further the identity of the symbolism, we have the legend of Brahmâ dividing himself into two, male and female; while in Genesis we have the story of the rib, where woman is 374 produced out of the first Adam, or Adam-Kadmon. It will greatly help us to understand this universal symbolism, if we bear in mind that the terms male and female are purely relative. It is only on the lowest or physical plane that they become definitely separable.

Thus the quaternary which we are now considering is male in its first aspect, as the third Logos, or the Son. It is male-female in its second aspect, as the potentiality of the manifested universe, which differentiates subsequently into male and female, positive and negative, and every other pair of opposites. It is female in its third aspect, regarded as the type of the manifested universe itself, fructified or energised by spirit, or the upper triad. Remember that any principle is female in relation to the one above it, and male in relation to the one below it. Thus we find that Jehovah, who at first is the male creative God, becomes afterwards male-female as Adam-Kadmon, and finally female as Binah, a female Sephira, and as the deity of the Moon, a female principle, in relation to the Sun as male. We have an analogy to this relative aspect of the male-female, or positive and negative relationships, in the electro-chemical properties of the chemical elements, which may be arranged in a series in which any element is positive to the one below it and negative to the one above it.

I cannot enlarge upon this subject now, though it is a most important one as a key to all the exoteric religions of the world. A study of the use of numbers, or the numerical key as found in the Kabalah, will help to elucidate the subject to the student, in showing how profoundly philosophical is this ancient symbolism, and in helping him out of the terrible confusion which has been produced by the introduction of the Jewish Jehovah, or Tetragrammaton, into the Christian theology, as a personal and supreme deity. When once we have mastered the symbolism which lies at the root of every ancient cosmogony and theogony, we have no difficulty in finding our way out of that endless and weary controversy of creeds and systems, which is ever being waged by those who have nought to guide them, save the dead letter and the traditional interpretation. Those who accuse us of substituting a mere abstraction, an “Unknown God”, for the living personal deity of their own conceptions, little understand the exhilaration which we feel, after having passed through the dismal mists of accepted beliefs, with the lurid glare of Hell-fire, and the distracting and maddening cries of opposing sects and religions, of those who cry ceaselessly “lo! here, and lo! there”, into the serene region where there is naught above us but the boundless blue; where we stand like the climber on the summit of the mountain peak, and breathe the pure air of freedom; and where, amid the silence and peace which fall upon our souls, we can listen to the Voice of the Silence, and attune our faculties to still higher planes of consciousness.

The symbolism which we are now studying is the clue which must guide those who are now endeavouring to find their way out of the 375labyrinth of exoteric systems. It is not so difficult as it may appear at first sight, for when once the factors and relations of one septenary have been understood, all follows by simple analogy and correspondence.

Let us now pass on to the septenary itself. We have the first septenary in the combination of the three and the four, the triad and the quaternary; and as such we have the general type of the three higher principles, or spirit, and the four lower principles, or matter. The two considered apart stand for every pair of opposites: male and female, positive and negative, light and darkness, fire and water, good and evil, &c. Considered together, these opposites are united, for we should properly draw these geometrical figures within the circle, as the seven-fold aspect of the deity; they are the primordial seven. If however we carry out the idea of these as successive emanations, we next require a septenary following the quaternary; the quaternary itself in fact becomes a septenary. Perhaps we may understand this in view of what has already been said as to the quaternary being male-female in its second aspect. As male-female it must itself consist of a triad and a quaternary, or spirit and matter. Another way in which we may look at it is by considering that the quaternary, or perfect square on the plane of abstraction, becomes the cube on the plane of matter; and the cube unfolded, or displayed diagrammatically, becomes three and four, together seven, thus:

This is nothing more or less than the cross, another ancient archaic symbol, borrowed by Christian Theology, and applied to its own doctrinal purposes. It is found everywhere, in all kinds of variations, back to the remotest antiquity. It cannot be traced to any particular nation or race; it is universal. In its first form it is the cross within the circle. It is once more the expansion of the point within the circle, becoming a double diameter, or expanding in four directions, and thus becoming the quaternary. The two diameters now represent respectively spirit and matter, or male and female.

Many writers on ancient symbolism have considered the cross to be purely phallic, having indeed been able to trace nothing but phallic worship in the most sublime and philosophical conceptions of the ancients. We shall not fall into this mistake, however, if we remember that each symbol has seven interpretations, from the highest and purely spiritual down to the physical and material. It is scarcely to be wondered at, that with no key but the dead letter, these writers should have been unable to trace in this symbol anything more than its physiological meaning, but there is no excuse for this now, with the key which the Secret Doctrine supplies.

Those who read the Source of Measures will find much light thrown upon the various relations of the triad and the quaternary, as arising from the quadration of the circle, in connection with the numerical values for the ratio of diameter to circumference given in various forms in the Book of Genesis, and also as set forth in the various measurements used in the construction of the great Pyramid.

376 We must look upon the septenary then, in its application, as made up of three upper and four lower principles. In the seven principles of man, for example, we have the upper triad, Âtmâ-Buddhi-Manas, constituting the spiritual and immortal individuality, and the four lower principles constituting the evanescent personality. If you turn to page 200, Vol. I., of the Secret Doctrine, you will find there a diagram which illustrates much of what has now been said. You will see that the seven globes of the earth chain are represented on four planes, while at the top of the diagram is seen the upper triangle of spirit. These four lower planes are of course the quaternary, or if you like so to call it, Brahmâ; becoming, as you see, seven globes in the phenomenal world of manifestation. These seven globes can again be divided into four and three; four on the side of the descent of spirit into matter, and three on the reascending arc. You may also note that the septenary, together with the upper triangle, make up the number ten; and this will explain to you the reference that is sometimes made to this number as the perfect or complete number.

As above, so below. The four or Tetraktys is the divine Son on the highest plane of abstraction; the Adam-Kadmon of the Kabalists, and through Eve, or Mother-Earth, he is born again as his own Son, as Cain-Jehovah, or Humanity, a new quaternary. This is shown by the 1st verse of the ivth chapter of Genesis, where Eve is made to say “I have gotten a man from the Lord”, and which should read, “I have gotten a man, even Jehovah”. This is fully borne out by the last verse of the same chapter, when the translation, “then began men to call upon the name of the Lord,” is given as an alternative (even in our present unrevised translation) to “then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord”, viz. Jehovah. There is of course no clue to this in the mere dead letter narrative, but it becomes very plain with the key which the Secret Doctrine, or even the Kabalah, supplies.

We have the same mystery of the three becoming four (the Word becoming Flesh of St. John’s Gospel) in every incarnation of ourselves as individuals, and thus we claim our birthright as sons of God, truly; and throw a further light upon the mystery of the Christos, the divine incarnation, degraded by the Church into the doctrine of a personal Saviour.

As everything that is, the whole manifested universe, has thus been outbreathed in a perfect harmony of numbers and geometrical relations, so must it be inbreathed, and return to its source when the hour of Pralaya strikes. For us as individuals, when the moment of death arrives, the spirit, the triad, withdraws to its own subjective plane of consciousness; while the “body”, the four lower principles, dissolve into the elements from whence they were formed; nor will aught remain of the now vanished personality save that which has been retained as a spiritual aroma by the individuality. “No man cometh unto the Father save by the Son”, truly; and this mystery is repeated through every plane of consciousness. If you 377 have understood the mystery of the “Son” in its successive emanations during the outbreathing, or Manvantara, you will understand also how the reverse process goes on during the inbreathing, or Pralaya; and how we, as a quaternary, that is, our present personalities, can only reach the “Father” – or Âtmâ – through the “Son”, or the third person in the trinity of Âtmâ-Buddhi-Manas, for in the inbreathing process our consciousness must become one with Manas – the indwelling Christ principle – before it can reach Âtmâ.

Enough has been said now to show the profoundly philosophical, metaphysical, and universal basis of the septenary division. What can be more grand and sublime than the contemplation of the universe from this standpoint; where we see the absolute unity and harmony of the whole; where we see the same law, the same principle, operating in the great and in the small; and where our minds expand and our souls quicken, as we realize what is the glory of our divine birthright; and how, though human in our lowest temporal nature, we are divine in our inmost essence, and one with that Soul which lives and breathes in all.

For, bear in mind as the beginning and end of this matter, that man is septenary in his nature, because he is one with the universe.

W. Kingsland.

Footnotes