HPB-SD(ed.1) v.1 p.1 st.7 sl.5: Difference between revisions

{{Style P-No indent|''earth ''as a state of matter to their stock as well as the three other elements in their present transformation. In short, none of the so-called elements were, in the three preceding Rounds, as they are now. For all we know, fire may have been ''pure ''{{Style S-Small capitals|akasa}}, the first Matter of the ''Magnum Opus ''of the Creators and “ Builders,” that Astral Light which the paradoxical Eliphas Lévi calls in one breath “ the body of the Holy Ghost,” and in the next “ Baphomet,” the “ Androgyne Goat of Mendes” * ; {{Style S-Small capitals|air}}, simply}}

{{Style P-No indent|Nitrogen, “ the breath of the Supporters of the Heavenly Dome,” as the Mahometan mystics call it ; water, that primordial fluid which was required, according to Moses, to make ''a living soul ''with. And this may account for the flagrant discrepancies and unscientific statements found in Genesis. Separate the first from the second chapter ; read the former as a scripture of the Elohists, and the latter as that of the far younger Jehovists ; still one finds, if one reads between the lines, the same order in which things created appear — namely, Fire (light), Air, Water, and man (or the Earth). For the sentence : “ In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth ” is a mistranslation ; it is not “ Heaven and Earth,” but the ''duplex ''or dual Heaven, the ''upper ''and the ''lower ''Heavens, or the separation of primordial substance that was light in its upper and dark in its lower portions — or the manifested Universe — in its duality of the ''invisible ''(to the senses) and the ''visible ''to our perceptions. God divided the light from the Darkness (v. 4) ; and then made the firmament, air (5), “ a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters,” (6), ''i.e.'', “ the waters which were under the firmament (our manifested visible Universe) from the waters ''above ''the firmament,” or the (to us) invisible planes of being. In the second chapter (the Jehovistic), plants and herbs are created before water, just as in the first, ''light is produced before the Sun. ''“ God made the Earth and the Heavens and every plant of the field ''before it was in the Earth ''and every herb of the field ''before it grew ; ''for the Elohim (‘ gods ’) had not caused it to rain upon the earth, etc.” (v. 5) —  an absurdity unless the esoteric explanation is accepted. The plants ''were ''created before they were in the earth — ''for there was no earth then such as it is now ; ''and the herb of the field was in existence before it grew as it does now in the fourth Round.}}

Let us return to the life-cycle now. Without entering at length upon the description given of the ''higher ''lives, we must direct our attention at present simply to the earthly beings and the earth itself. The latter, we are told, is built up for the first Round by the “ Devourers ” which disintegrate and differentiate the germs of other lives in the Elements ; pretty much, it must be supposed, as in the present stage of the world, the ''ærobes ''do, when, undermining and loosening the chemical structure in an organism, they transform animal matter and generate substances that vary in their constitutions. Thus Occultism disposes of the so-called Azoic age of Science, for it shows that there never was a time when the Earth was without life upon it. Wherever there is an atom of matter, a particle or a molecule, even in its most gaseous condition, there is life in it, however latent and unconscious. “ ''Whatsoever quits the Laya State'', ''becomes active life ; it is drawn into the vortex of MOTION (the alchemical solvent of Life'') ;'' Spirit and Matter are the two States of the ONE'', ''which is neither Spirit nor Matter'', ''both being the absolute life'', ''latent.''” (''Book of Dzyan'', ''Comm. III.'', ''par. ''18). . . . “ ''Spirit is the first differentiation of ''(''and in'') ''SPACE ; and Matter the first differentiation of Spirit. That'', ''which is neither Spirit nor matter'' — ''that is IT — the Causeless CAUSE of Spirit and Matter'', ''which are the Cause of Kosmos. And THAT we call the ONE LIFE or the Intra-Cosmic Breath.''”

† Speaking of it in his Preface to the “ History of Magic ” Eliphas Lévi says : “ It is through this Force that all the nervous centres secretly communicate with each other ; from it — that sympathy and antipathy are born ; from it — that we have our dreams ; and that the phenomena of second sight and extra-natural visions take place. . . . . Astral Light, acting under the impulsion of powerful wills, destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers in all things. God created it on that day when he said : ''Fiat Lux'', and it is directed by the ''Egregores'', ''i.e.'', the chiefs of the souls who are the spirits of energy and action.” Eliphas Lévi ought to have added that the astral light, or primordial substance, if matter at all, is that which, called ''Light'', Lux, esoterically explained, ''is the body of those Spirits themselves'', ''and their very essence. Our physical light is the manifestation on our plane ''and the reflected radiance of the ''Divine ''Light emanating from the collective body of those who are called the “ Lights ” and the “ Flames.” But no other Kabalist has ever had the talent of heaping up one contradiction on the other, of making one paradox chase another in the same sentence and in such flowing language, as Eliphas Lévi. He leads his reader through the most lovely, gorgeously blooming valleys, to strand him after all on a desert and barren rocky island.

The Second Round brings into manifestation the second element —  air, that element, the purity of which would ensure continuous life to him who would use it. There have been two occultists only in Europe who have discovered and even partially applied it in practice, though its composition has always been known among the highest Eastern Initiates. The ozone of the modern chemists is poison compared with the real universal solvent which could never be thought of unless it existed in nature. “ ''From the second Round'', ''Earth'' — ''hitherto a fœtus in the matrix of Space'' — ''began its real existence : it had developed individual sentient life'', ''its second principle. The second corresponds to the sixth ( principle ) ; the second is life continuous'', ''the other'', ''temporary.''”